I'm sure they like the freedom not so much the price though but if what sabreW4K3 has said were in action renting would still be possible the only difference is cost and who you rent from. renting would be far cheaper. landlords could be abolished and replaced with housing maintenance where they work for the tenants and local area in upkeep.
> The BBC has revealed that the biggest landlord in parliament, Labour MP Jas Athwal, has tenants in some of his 15 properties that are battling mould and ant infestation. He has since thrown his property manager under the bus, who tenants reported threatened them with eviction when they complained. And to top it off, the properties aren’t even on the landlord register – something he introduced as leader of Redbridge council! > > People up and down the country will have similar stories to the tenants in Athwal’s properties – but without the extra public scrutiny to shame their landlords into acting. > > Keir Starmer’s Labour cannot be relied on to fight for people struggling with sky-high rents, dodgy landlords and unsafe properties – over 40 of his MPs make over £10,000 renting properties they own. > > We need a new mass workers’ party – one that will fight for a mass council house building programme and end the housing nightmare.
Starmer’s Labour are trying to distance themselves from the genocide in Gaza, with a partial ban of arms exports to Israel. But the truth is that they, and the entire British establishment, have blood on their hands. Overthrow these war criminals!
> # Complicit in war crimes > > Liberal commentators have been quick to conclude that Britain is experiencing some kind of ‘Damascene conversion’. Starmer’s Labour, they believe, has finally realised that the UK might be complicit in Israeli war crimes! > > Seemingly, unlike the previous Tory administration, who made it their business to show total disregard for international law (over the Rwanda deportation scheme, for example), ‘Sir’ Keir’s Labour is willing to take a brave stand against Netanyahu’s slaughter. > > Not quite so. As Labour Party hacks have hastily made clear, this move does not amount to anything that could be considered an ‘arms embargo’. > > To eliminate any doubt, Lammy went further: the decision by the British government was “a forward-looking evaluation, not a determination of innocence or guilt”. > > Like the true snakeoil statesman that he is, Lammy is trying to have it both ways: admitting the likelihood of serious offences by Israel, but administering nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
The Grenfell inquiry shows the Tory government, council and cladding bosses ‘all contributed’ to the disaster
> The Tory government, Kensington and Chelsea council and cladding bosses ‘all contributed’ to the disaster > The Grenfell inquiry’s final report paints a detailed picture of the corruption, greed and lies that murdered the 72 residents of the west London tower block. > > The report into the 2017 fire, published on Wednesday, highlights who’s guilty. “The simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable and those who died in the fire were failed over a number of years and in a number of ways,” it says. > > The Tory government, Chelsea and Kensington Borough council, the Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) and building bosses all have blood on their hands. > > Inquiry chair Martin Moore-Bick said that all “contributed in one way or another”. He added that it was mostly through “incompetence”, but also through “dishonestly and greed”.
A word from Squid:
Apologies for mainly posting news from my affiliated party. As a member, it’s difficult to find stories from other groups like the SWP, RCP, and so on. I will make an extra effort to post from more sources, as I don’t believe focusing on a single party aligns with our ideals.
The 1917 revolution in Russia was not solely born from the Bolsheviks, but from many socialists, anarchists, libertarians, and non-political workers. In this way, I hope to help members of our federverse find a place for themselves—whether with the SP, SWP, RCP, or even unions and smaller groups.
It’s all well and good to be a socialist online and in our homes, but what difference can we make with all this knowledge if there’s no action?
I also hope this does not take away from the article above that has been written SWP.
All the best and solidarity. Squid
> CrossCountry train guards (train managers/senior conductors) in the RMT rail union are currently being balloted for strike action and action short of strike, due to managers working trains with hugely inflated payments for doing so. > > Over the last two years, CrossCountry recruited large numbers of ‘contingency guards’ to work trains when a guard is not available. A problem caused by not recruiting enough guards to cover the service needed in the first place! A few of these contingency guards have been guards before becoming managers. Others are office-based, with little experience of working trains. > > They are being offered payments of up to £650 to work a shift at weekends with lesser, but still inflated, amounts during the week. This is in addition to their normal pay. > > This is many times more than guards are offered to work overtime. Rather than negotiate reasonable enhancements for overtime work with experienced guards, the company wants to take this course of action. > > Guards currently only get paid normal time for any overtime and the company’s approach is therefore causing much anger and making guards feel completely undervalued. > > The ballot closes on 12 September and we need to push for a large ‘yes’ vote. The company cannot get away with treating its staff this way! > > The first possible date for any strike is 26 September.
wont happen, only way to get what we want is through a classless society. we lived through millionaires and things were okay but with their millions they could secure billions: money is power and while what you say is a better outcome for our current time its not a sustainable one for the future.
> Keir Starmer has said ‘there is a deep rot in the heart of British institutions’. I assumed he meant the Labour Party and the fact that its MPs have declared tens of thousands of pounds of donations from energy companies since the election, the government subsequently hiking households’ energy bills by £149 a year on average. > > As recently as 2023, Labour pledged an immediate freeze on prices. That’s changed now they are in office getting their MP’s salary of £91,000 plus travel, living, eating, heating and office costs covered, with cabinet ministers earning £158,000, also with cushy expenses. > > MPs should take the average wage of a skilled worker, like Militant MP, now Socialist Party National Committee member, Dave Nellist did in the 1980s. We need a workers’ MP on a workers’ wage, not fat cats in suits who laugh in our faces every time they go to the bank at our expense. > > To add insult to injury, last year the eye-watering bonuses of the ‘big six’ energy bosses totalled enough to power 23,000 homes for an entire year! By cutting CEO’s pay, companies like Shell and Paypoint could save money, they could also spend less paying for the breaking and entering of 4,000 homes to install prepayment meters. > > And when they’re found to have broken so-called market rules on competition set by ineffectual government regulator Ofgem, they are told to donate a few million quid to Ofgem’s ‘voluntary redress fund’.
> At 3am bank holiday Monday, a major fire consumed another London tower block covered in flammable cladding. > > Residents pounded on their neighbours’ doors to get them to flee, reporting that no fire alarms could be heard. > > 80 people fled into the street in Dagenham, east London, relying on each other for their safety. Firefighters risked their own lives to save 20 more survivors from the seven-storey building. Many have lost all their possessions, their children traumatised for life. > > The London Fire Brigade shed 27 fire appliances, closed ten fire stations and cut 552 firefighters when Boris Johnson was London Mayor. Labour’s Sadiq Khan has not reversed these cuts during his time in office, vital response times have increased to a record high.
> One month after Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party was ‘swept to power’ by a paltry 20% of the electorate – the lowest support base of any government since the introduction of universal male suffrage in 1918 – violent protests and riots, instigated by far-right groups, broke out across the country. For those trapped in asylum-seekers’ hostels or mosques under brutal attack from gangs of rioters, the experience was terrifying. More generally, many Black, Asian and Muslim people feel that their safety is increasingly under threat. Tell Mama, a monitoring group tracking Islamophobic hate crimes, reported a five-fold increase in threats to Muslims compared to the same time last year. > > The absolute numbers involved even peripherally in the riots were small, probably less than 15,000 nationwide. This is far fewer than those who came out on the streets in counter-protests or – for example – the many tens of thousands who peacefully marched for Gaza on the same Saturday as the right-wing riots started to spread, or the 50,000 who took part in Trans Pride the week before. Not one word, however, of the Gaza demo featured in the capitalist media; whereas the riots were at the top of the news bulletins every day for a week, adding to their momentum. > > Unusually, however, the large anti-racist counter-protests on 7 August did top news reports, with overwhelmingly positive coverage, even from the most rabidly right-wing capitalist newspapers. In a total volte-face the headline on the front page of the Daily Mail, for example, was the ‘Night Anti-Hate Marchers Faced Down Thugs’. (8 August) This, of course, from the rag which, alongside numerous Tory politicians, has routinely referred to the overwhelmingly peaceful mass protests against the slaughter in Gaza over the past ten months as ‘hate marches’.
Personally I very much enjoy Orwells books, Down and Out in Paris and London has to be one of my favorite book of his just for the issues the book tackles and tackles well. Orwell goes headlong in to class structures depicting his day to day of his life as a tramp, the simple yet devastating way he got into that situation and the all in-composing despair of financial ruin.
Also the communist that drinks all the milk to spite his boss had me hard.
Then Orwell later writes Animal Farm...
> The revolutionary mass movement in Bangladesh is at a critical juncture. A 17-member interim government has been established, including in it a few young leaders who emerged from the mass protests which toppled the government. > > Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country on 6 August, protesters stormed her residence. But her party, the Awami League, and its allies involved in corruption, remain largely intact. Meanwhile, the equally corrupt and undemocratic opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), a right-wing party that has a history of implementing policies against workers and youth, is also waiting to seize any opportunity that arises. > > The continuation of the current situation, without decisive action to transfer power to democratically controlled committees of protesters, workers, and the poor, could enable reactionary forces to gradually regain strength. The student protesters already had to intervene on 9 August when a full court was convened, which they saw as an attempted “judicial coup”, undermining the new interim government. The Chief Justice resigned only after protesters surrounded the court.
In a local branch meeting I attended last month, a young Socialist Party member suggested that we use alternative media instead of traditional books. They argued that newer, younger members may struggle to grasp or have the patience to read Marx, Engels, or even Lenin. The member suggested that we 'get with the times' and introduce new forms of media like audiobooks, films, and podcasts.
Personally, I was recommended State and Revolution as an introduction to socialism, but I am middle-aged and haven't had my brain zapped by TikTok and YouTube shorts. So, I ask for advice here: should we offer easier-to-digest media?
cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/15839927
> Hello comrades, Torquay will see a Stop The Boats protest tomorrow evening 7th of August. for those living there stay safe as right wingers will be bussed up and down from all over Britain. > > We: a coalition of trade unions and socialists as well as activists and other such leftist groups will counter protest Stop The Boats but we are only strong in numbers. I am asking if you disagree with these extremists and wish to struggle along side us please come and join. > > And with sufficient numbers are voice will be heard. > > for further information reach out through signal: squid_slime.37
Hello comrades, Torquay will see a Stop The Boats protest tomorrow evening 7th of August. for those living there stay safe as right wingers will be bussed up and down from all over Britain.
We: a coalition of trade unions and socialists as well as activists and other such leftist groups will counter protest Stop The Boats but we are only strong in numbers. I am asking if you disagree with these extremists and wish to struggle along side us please come and join.
And with sufficient numbers are voice will be heard.
It has also come to our attention that a protest is expected to take place on Thursday in Exeter.
I am currently organising to counter in my home city of Exeter.
for further information reach out through signal: squid_slime.37
Once again, I joined a counter-protest standing against the "stop the boats" demonstration. Similar to our efforts in Bristol, we significantly outnumbered them.
A diverse coalition of socialists from The Socialist Party (formerly Militant) and Socialist Workers Party, anarchists, anti-war groups, trade unions, and other activists gathered in the heart of Plymouth to express our disagreement with the protestors—a violent group who resorted to hurling stones, fireworks, unopened cans of beer that exploded on impact, empty glass bottles, and even an iPhone charger, which I will now use for its intended purpose (thanks for the freebie).
The right-wing protesters were aggressive, attempting to flank the police to engage in fights with us. Some even infiltrated our counter-protest, only to be forcefully removed by anarchists and police.
Organizing such a large demonstration was a Herculean effort, but it paid off. Unlike the counter-protest in Bristol, where vandalism and fighting were prominent, this time we showcased our strength through sheer numbers and organization. These right-winger are indeed a minority.
At its face what you say sounds correct but in actuality the division is inherent between worker and boss (repressor and repressed) whereas nationals vs's migrants is manufactured.
Mick Lynch: Trade unions need to do more to quell anti-immgrant protests
> Transport union leader Mick Lynch has said union bosses need to do more to combat flaring anti-immigration protests across the UK and Ireland. > > The RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) boss, who has risen to prominence in recent years during public transport strikes in England, gave the annual Connolly Lecture on the opening day of Feile an Phobail at St Mary’s University College on Thursday. > > The union leader’s comments come amid anti-immigrant disorder in the Southport area of England after three children were killed in a knife attack at a summer school. > > Disorder has also been seen in recent months in the Republic with attacks against premises hosting asylum seekers in Dublin and other areas. This Saturday anti-immigrant protests have been organised in Belfast in response to the killings of Bebe King (6), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7) and Alice Dasilva Aguiar (9).
> Violent outbreaks spread across the UK on Saturday with far-right thugs hurling bricks, bottles and chairs at the police as demonstrations broke out in more than half a dozen cities. > > Home secretary Yvette Cooper condemned the “thuggery” and “criminal disorder” that has followed in the wake of the tragic Southport stabbings, warning that anyone involved in the ongoing violence “will pay the price”. > > “Criminal violence and disorder has no place on Britain’s streets,” she said on Saturday afternoon following clashes in cities including Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Hull, Nottingham and Belfast.
This isn't a "thuggery" issue, this is a social media and class issue. Standing with Bristol's counter-protestors, who had outnumbered the right-wing protestors, I heard chants that weren't about unity but instead division, polarizing both sides further. "Fuck off nazi fascist" might sound good, might be somewhat correct, but a large number of the protestors on the right are working-class people who have been told by GB News that migrants are the cause of our woes. We need a loud and informed slogan that will pull them back.
TUSC and unions are using "Fight the bosses, not migrants - fund our NHS and services," a non-divisive slogan laying the blame where it truly belongs. Meanwhile, BBC's reporting has captured and repeated the anarchist slogan of "Refugees are welcome." This slogan is made to offend and to stir aggression in our division. We can't allow the capitalist media to spin our program and fight by giving them easy wins with vapid slogans.
We need a slogan for the workers. I will be in Plymouth tomorrow as part of a counter-protest led by the trade unions, and I will be chanting "Fight the bosses, not migrants," pushing for a workers' party.
A legal precedent should be established to hold companies as large as CrowdStrike liable for their actions. This liability should be significant enough to ensure that future companies will think twice before releasing faulty code. We should not be asking for or supporting Microsoft's efforts to further lock down their product.
But unlike rail etc. Renationalising Royal Mail would be bloody expensive. And not raise much revenue.
I advocate for only paying the profiteers the true value of the company without speculation while also taking into account the money made. Thames water as an example has made billions while doing little to modernise and in this regard we won't pay much.
Of course the cost is something we need to pay. As much as the Internet etc has rep.aced much of the need. Cheap mail delivery to non profitable rural areas is still something we need as a society. And needs to be funded.
And if we look at private sector transport, no profitable routes get shut down essentially killing villages.
> Many Communication Workers Union (CWU) reps and members will now be thinking about what the union will do under the Starmer-led Labour government. Jeremy Corbyn’s popular manifesto promise had been to bring Royal Mail back into public ownership. This was agreed at Labour Party conference since, but was not in the manifesto. > > Meanwhile, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, whose business already owns 25% of Royal Mail, is bidding to take it over. > > The Labour manifesto stated: “Royal Mail remains a key part of the UK’s infrastructure. Labour will ensure that any proposed takeover is robustly scrutinised and that appropriate guarantees are forthcoming that protect the interests of the workforce, customers and the United Kingdom, including the need to maintain a comprehensive universal service obligation. Labour will also explore new business and governance models for Royal Mail so that workers and customers who rely on Royal Mail services can have a stronger voice in the governance and strategic direction of the company.”
Strikes do a few things. 1: they give workers what little dignity can be afforded to them in a capitalist system. 2: they show the flaw of our system.
When met with inflation that surpasses our wages what option is there other than to strike, and we can strike through many ways such as not paying our landlords on mass to impede plans to evict from or demolish our homes, we can strike paying utility's that raise our prices demonstrably, we can as civilian boycott all sorts of industry to demand change. All strikes in one sence do fail, they'll give limited dignity ready to be steadily chipped away at giving way to a new struggle as we live in a system that function on indignity.
But in a socialist sense even the failed strikes are successful in other ways, they can show the inequality between worker and owner, renter and landlord, consumer and shareholder. Each strike is another nail in the coffin of capital and this is why we stand in solidarity with the people at Amazon, the ones working for Stagecoach and the G4S security at jobcenters earning near to minimal wage.
If you see a strike taking place then show them your civic support, bring drinks or have a chat, maybe even pick up a placard.
Tolpuddle martyrs festival? Sadly missed this talk.
Hello comrades.
weekend just gone The Socialist Party set up a booth to speak with festival goers and union members, other political groups were present too such as the SWP, Communist Party and the RCP, Workers Party. this year we faced less mud but also less crowds although the weather was mostly wet we all had a pretty good time paying respects to the martyrs of Tolpuddle with banners and flags raised high. looking forward to Socialism 2024 Festival where again we can share in solidarity but hopefully in dryer weather and cheaper beer.
while at Tolpuddle Martyrs we pushed unions to consider forming a workers party with mass union backing, this could be the party to confront Labour and the greater capitalist structure of our politics, we campaigned with flyers as well as through petitions and dialogs in large talk-events held by notable union members.
Often I download just to seed but only when I know the uploaders
Who is striking and when? Listing all regional and national planned strikes, find out the action will affect you with the UK Strike Action Calendar
> Who is striking and when? Find out the strikes this week and how they will affect you with the UK Strike Action Calendar. Full date listings of all currently planned regional and country-wide strikes.
> A recent BBC interview with the president of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, has racked up millions of views. In it, he calls out the hypocrisy of the interviewer questioning his government’s plans to extract billions of dollars worth of oil and gas from Guyana’s newly discovered reserves, on the basis that this will contribute to global climate change. > > Ali points out that, even after extracting those resources, Guyana will still be carbon neutral due to its huge untouched forest, covering 80% of the country, with the lowest deforestation rate in the world. > > He poses some questions to the interviewer: ‘If you value biodiversity and the climate, are you [the West] willing to pay for it?’ He argues that the global capitalist system leaves him no choice but to extract the oil and gas: “We have this natural resource. And we’re going to aggressively pursue this natural resource because we have to develop our country.” Around half of Guyana’s population live under the poverty line, but the country has seen economic growth averaging over 40% over the last three years due to the influx of oil money. Profit problem > > This highlights the major problem with attempting to solve the climate crisis under a capitalist system: the lack of profit to be made from protecting natural resources and the inability of capitalist nation states to cooperate in developing global productive potential. Capitalism is incapable of taking the united international action needed to reverse climate warming. > > The serious thinkers of capitalism are only too aware that climate change is an existential threat that needs urgent action. Their proposals, however, are always constrained by the limits of the system they defend. To implement the urgent and sweeping changes needed to avoid climate catastrophe requires a global socialist plan of production, based on nationalisation of major industries under the democratic control and management of the working class. > > In a recent address to investors, the former British Petroleum (BP) chief executive Lord John Browne urged them to consider Aesop’s fable of the rider who stops feeding his horse in peacetime, only to find it lame when war comes. The soldier in the analogy represented the companies who are pulling back on climate action, creating more long-term risk for all concerned as the ever-greater effects of the climate crisis loom.
> We need council homes. Over a million people languish on waiting lists for council housing. In the main, these are people who cannot get together huge deposits either for rent or a mortgage, who can’t afford gruelling private rents, and don’t have the ability to buy a home either. > > So-called affordable housing is out of reach for millions. 40% of council housing built in the last century is now in the hands of private landlords thanks to Thatcher’s ‘Right to Buy’ – kept in place by Labour and Tories since – and the fact sold homes haven’t been replaced. > > Add in to the mix the amount of housing, social and private, that is in horrendous condition with black mould, damp, lack of proper fire access, and everything else making tenants unwell and sometimes causing death. > > A tenant who puts their head above the parapet and complains about the condition of their home faces the threat of a Section 21 ‘no-fault’ eviction. The previous Tory government said they were going to end these but, considering they have so many landlords in their ranks (as with Labour), it’s no surprise that they weren’t willing to make it happen.
That's what gets my goat - you'll speak to people and all they do is parrot the right's culture war rhetoric like that. The recent Guardian article was headlined that this isn't a culture war but then they go "Starmer can't define what a woman is" (without, presumably, trying it themselves). I presume because they only get fed the ideas through social media, they don't realise this is being incubated by think tanks, spread by the right wing press and then amplified on social media.
Worst I've seen some what recently is Zoraya ter Beek with nearly every article titles: physically healthy. Some also say young girl. One of my friends had recently posted a hit piece that was very reactionary where I went as far to explain that she's and adult but even so my friend double backed his position.
Fuck farage, the guy had people pay at trago mills to hear him speak. Can't believe people think him to be working class.
And lack of critical thinking. You have to interrogate ever source and, just because everyone is saying something, it doesn't mean it's true.
100% when I hear something crazy from someone I will investigate rather than contune the conversation. Its aweful that this is something we must do.
nice to meet a fellow reader and i hope therapy helps, therapy has helped me in recent years. although i found doing advocacy work was what really put me in a better direction.
and well said.
We're always building towards better, as Labour while left of Tories are not a workers party nor a socialist one.
It's not a criticism grounded in reality; rather, it comes across as condescending and hyperbolic. In debates clarity is essential. I've chosen to exercise my democratic right to protest by spoiling my vote. Under the current political system, I see our society failing, and the available parties do not offer solutions. Spoiling my vote was my civic duty.
Both of your statements seem hyperbolic rather than coherent arguments. Choosing to vote is democratic, and your first statement about the minimum requirement makes no sense as, again, you’re speaking hyperbolically. I’ll leave this here, as you seem to lack political imagination and speak like a caricature.
no, my vote being a no vote effects all equally. fascism will come and i will stand with the trade unions and workers and this will count more than a vote in a geriatric system.
yes expected, the labour mp was a dry fart at the hustings, greens had a far better reaction. but neither are parties i support.
