So why do revolutionary socialists say vote Labour?

Above: Starmer, Blair and Brown Why would revolutionary socialists (or, indeed serious reformist socialists) call for a vote for the Labour Party when it's led by a right-wing clique around a right-wing leader whose policies differ only marginally from those of the Tories? That's the question some on the left are asking, just as some …

Food couriers fight for living wage

By Ray Dartmoor and Satya Pine (first published in the present issue of Solidarity) Food couriers working for online delivery services are conducting a wave of wildcat strikes across England. The drivers seek a minimum pay of £5 per delivery, plus £2 per mile travelled, from large online platforms such as Deliveroo, Uber-Eats, JustEat, Stuart …

Could the miners have won?

This week marks the fortieth anniversary of the great miners’ strike of 1984-85. This article, by Sean Matgamna, written in 1992, at a time when the Tories were pushing through a further wave of pit closures, discusses the lessons of the heroic miners’ fight, and the effects of their defeat. It is a famous picture, …

To beat the populists reassert class – and stop Labour’s backsliding

Cartoon by Moreland (The Times) Guest post by Johnny Lewis In spite of the chaos Johnson and Truss left behind, they were still the heralds of right-wing libertarianism. Advocates of this ideology, present a set of ideas which links unfettered free market capitalism, (made possible by Brexit) with ‘traditional’ conservative values such as ‘authority' and …

Channel Four’s half-story of the miners’ strike

Above: the 'Battle of Orgreave' By John Cunningham Some aspects of the Channel 4 documentary on the 1984-85 miners’ strike, The Battle for Britain, are worth paying attention to. It includes interviews with former striking miners, who give straightforward, honest and hard-hitting accounts of what happened to them and, in particular, their appalling treatment at the …

Demystifying Lenin – 100 years on

Sunday (21/01/24) marked the centenary of the death of Vladimir Lenin, one of the most influential but also misunderstood, socialists of the twentieth century. In this weekend's Morning Star, for instance, the pro-China propagandist Carlos Martinez claims that: "To be Marxist-Leninists in the 31st century means to return to a strategy of a world-wide united …

Northern Ireland’s biggest strike ‘in a generation’

From the Irish Times: Northern Ireland comes to ‘unprecedented’ standstill as public sector workers strike Industrial action by nurses, teachers, bus and train drivers shuts schools and suspends public transport By Freya McClements and Seanín Graham (both of the Irish Times) Thu Jan 18 2024 Northern Ireland has come to an “unprecedented” standstill on Thursday 18 …

We need to get serious about what “non-compliance” means

This is a discussion article written by a Free Our Unions supporter. To respond, please email freeourunions@gmail.com. or write a comment below the line: The Trades Union Congress meets for a special congress today, Saturday 9 December, to discuss the new “minimum service levels” anti-strike laws and possible resistance to them. The congress is only scheduled to …

The SWP’s filthy insult to the memory of Hal Draper

The (UK) Socialist Workers Party denies Israel's right to exist, even behind its 1967 borders, and responded to the Hamas pogrom with a call to "Rejoice". These depraved "left" antisemites now have the effrontery to cite the US Marxist (from the heterodox Trotskyist tradition of the Workers Party) Hal Draper in support of their absolute …

A workers’ response to Brexit

Above: the 'Rejoin' march on Saturday, several thousand strong but ignored by the BBC and much of the media. Editorial in the present issue of Solidarity: Brexit has meant and will mean: • An end to the free movement which enabled millions of workers from other European countries to join the British workforce not, like …