What a way to make a living | Working in care for 16 years
In the latest instalment of our What a Way to Make a Living series, rs21 member discusses their experience of working in care and how wider changes to the care sector have affected the pay, conditions and experience of care workers over time.
After Hancock, Tory corruption is here to stay
Beyond the headline-grabbing kiss of the Tories’ latest scandal is a series of personal relationships which the former Health Secretary turned into lucrative professional appointments and government partnerships. Gus Woody writes that this type of corruption is isn’t going anywhere while the Tory party remains in power.
The Great British fob off
The recent announcement of a new public sector body called ‘Great British Railways’ to co-ordinate all rail services has been hailed by many as a victory, but these plans in fact set the stage for increases in fares and job cuts for rail workers.
Are the Tories really reversing NHS privatisation?
The Tories’ new proposed health reforms grab more power for ministers – but that doesn’t mean an end to health privatisation.
Let them starve – food and class in Tory Britain
The Tories and their cronies will let working-class children starve. We don’t just need food for all – we need to take over the food system.
‘As cold as charity’: repression and the ‘speculator state’
The government’s right-wing reform of public services continues apace – and NGOs and charities are being used as cover.
‘We have a right to stop’: interview with a socialist nurse
Whereas the first wave of Covid-19 was an occasion for government-sponsored jingoism, the second wave is seeing health workers abandoned and left to manage the unmanageable.
‘I can’t fathom how bad it’s going to get’
The Covid-19 pandemic is combining with further government attacks on the health service to push the NHS, and its workforce, into unprecedented crisis.
Soggy trains
Workers have begun a month of strike action to #KeepTheGuardOnTheTrain on South Western Railway. Mike Haynes explains the absurdities of our privatised rail network.
Academies suck… money and life out of our schools
A key dispute in the battle against education privatisation has been unfolding at John Roan school in Greenwich. Support staff will be on strike again next week.
What chance of justice from an online court?
The government is developing plans to move many court hearings online. Dave Renton argues that that the proposals mean privatisation, job losses and exclusion from justice. While it is easy to think of Theresa May’s government as weak and incapable of changing people’s lives for the worse, major projects of privatisation are continuing, often with […]
Derailing neoliberalism
As Southern Rail workers once again go on strike, we republish this interview with Tom Haines-Doran, a researcher on rail privatisation at Manchester University.
Academisation and the Chicago teachers’ strikes
It is really important and positive that the National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference was so determined to strike against the Tories’ plans to force all schools to become academies and break up national pay and conditions for teachers. It is even better that the NUT aims to coordinate with other unions, including the junior […]
Why I’m cycling to Paris
John Walker explains why he’s setting off on his bike to the COP21 in Paris. Along with around 130 other people, I will be cycling to join the demonstrations around COP21, all the way from London to Paris. We will be taking five days, cycling from London to Brighton on Sunday 5 December, taking the ferry from […]
The right to water: an interview with Mike Gonzalez
Mike Gonzalez and Marienella Yanes are the authors of The Last Drop: The Politics of Water (Pluto: 2015). Mike talked to Nick Evans about the fight to put the world’s water back under democratic control, and the wider connections between climate change and class struggle. Water Protests in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2000 How does looking at […]
Dismantling the NHS is turbo-charged neoliberalism: Review of How to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps
NHS activist Gill George reviews Youssef El-Gingihy’s book How to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps The NHS is a milestone in history – the most civilised step any country has ever taken The quote above is what Aneurin Bevin told the first NHS patient ever to be treated, back in 1948; and that’s how Youssef […]
Will the NHS survive another winter?
Mark Boothroyd, co-ordinator of the Four-to-One campaign which is calling for the introduction of nurse-to-patient ratios in the NHS, discusses the crisis in the NHS and what might result without a campaign against cuts and demoralisation. This article was originally published on OpenDemocracy. Over fifteen thousands of doctors marched down Whitehall last weekend, in protest at the imposition […]
The crisis in homecare
By civilised standards people living longer should be something to celebrate. But in the twisted logic of neoliberalism it is regarded instead as a burden – a “demographic time-bomb”. Here, former Edinburgh care worker Marlyn Tweedie explains the reality of the growing crisis in social care. This article was originally published in the Leeds publication […]
Battles in Bromley
Four hundred people marched in Bromley this weekend over cuts to the council. Paul Summers reports: Four hundred people marched this Saturday (13 June) as part of the ongoing fight between Bromley council and Unite members. The council wants to reduce the staff from 3,000 to 300. The council has withdrawn facility time simply stating the […]
National Gallery strikers continue fighting privatisation and attack on their union rep
National Gallery staff have taken further strike action to stop privatisation and win the reinstatement of sacked union rep Candy Udwin, and are celebrating a legal victory. The National Gallery campaign gained a victory yesterday, Wednesday 10 June, when Candy won her “Interim Relief” hearing at Employment Tribunal. The campaign say, “The judge ruled it was likely […]
It IS racist to worry about “foreign” nurses – a reply to Dr Max Pemberton
The problem isn’t nurses from abroad – it’s understaffing, pay reductions and bureaucracy, writes Mark Boothroyd, himself a nurse. Max Pemberton’s Daily Mail comment piece “It’s NOT racist to worry about foreign nurses” is a truly shameful article of writing. Using the deranged actions of a single individual who happens to be Filipino as an […]
March and rally against privatisation at the National Gallery
Bettina Trabant joined gallery staff and supporters braving the wind and cold for a demonstration against privatisation at the National Gallery. A group of around 200 angry gallery staff, trade unionists and regular gallery visitors marched from Trafalgar Square to the Department for Culture Media and Sport in Whitehall to hand in a petition containing […]
Review: How can we save the NHS?
Sophie Williams, a health activist in London reviews Mark Broothroyd’s pamphlet How Can we Save the NHS? recently published by the International Socialist Network Recent weeks have seen a large vote for strike action by NHS England workers against real-term pay cuts. Although this is the first national NHS industrial action to be taken over […]
Secret diary of a NHS nurse
In the first of a new series that looks at what it’s like on the ground for NHS workers facing cuts and privatisation, our correspondent under the pseudonym “the secret nurse”, describes her experience applying for NHS funding and her shock at the entrance of Richard Branson into healthcare I have been a healthcare assistant and […]
Big business and the NHS: Awkward bedfellows
Gill George discusses how drug company greed means the government has wasted millions on stockpiling medicine that doesn’t work Private companies exist to make a profit for their shareholders. The NHS exists to keep people healthy and look after us when we’re sick. When the two get entangled, the NHS tends to lose out. The […]