‘Ministers must act now to fix broken Britain’

Morning Star | December 14, 2022

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham speaks to her members on a picket line at one of the entrances to the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk, Britain’s biggest and busiest container port, after backing industrial action by 9-1 in a dispute over pay. Picture date: Wednesday August 24, 2022.

MINISTERS must act now on pay, trade union leaders warned yesterday as latest official figures showed that wage increases are continuing to be outstripped by inflation rises.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that regular wages, excluding bonuses, rose by 6.1 per cent in the three months to October — a record level outside of the pandemic.

But the ONS found that wages continued to be outstripped by rising prices, falling by 3.9 per cent after consumer prices index (CPI) inflation is taken into account.

Having a Queen Was Stupid; Having A King Is TOO Stupid — Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Caitlin Johnstone

I can’t stop laughing at the fact that we have a King now. “Hello I am the actual, literal King. Please bow to me and put a crown on my head.”

It gets funnier and funnier the more you think about it. Having a queen was really stupid; having a king is too stupid. People aren’t going to buy it, I don’t care how good your PR is.

❖

Just stop having a royal family; it’s so dorky. This isn’t Lord of the Rings. They’re like fantasy LARPers running around with swords and scepters and crowns and junk, except fantasy LARP props aren’t normally encrusted with priceless jewels stolen from colonized territories.

Strike Shuts Down Rail Network Across Britain In Workers’ Battle To Protect Jobs, Pay And Safety

Countercurrents | June 22, 2022

The biggest rail strike in a generation in the UK went under way after last-ditch talks failed to reach agreement. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has rejected demands for a pay rise of at least seven per cent

Entire cities and towns were cut off from the train network as strike action closes half of Britain’s rail lines.

Huge swathes of Britain were without any rail services on Tuesday, with further strikes also taking place on Thursday and Saturday, as 40,000 RMT members walked out in a dispute over pay and jobs. Network Rail confirmed on Wednesday that about 80 per cent of services would have to be scrapped.

Britain: Tens of thousands demand action to combat cost-of-living crisis

Morning Star | June 19, 2022

Thousands of protesters gathered in Parliament Square

TENS of thousands of protesters gathered in central London on Saturday to demand action to combat the cost-of-living crisis.

Trade unionists and campaigners from across the country marched from Portland Place to Parliament Square for a TUC-organised rally.

Banners such as “Cut war not welfare,” “End fuel poverty” and “Insulate homes now” highlighted widespread concern over soaring bills and spiralling inflation.

Cruel Britannia

POEM

by Rip Bulkeley

(adapted from the song by James Thomson and Thomas Arne)

Culture Matters | August 26, 2020

Famine in Mysore, India, while the British Raj exported food

Now Britain fina-ally has learned ho-ow best
To li-i-i-i-ive with o-o-others on this earth,
To live, to live with others on this earth,
This epitaph, for wrongs we here confe-ess,
Shall remind us of our land’s rebirth:

Cruel Britannia,
This song shall be your grave.
No more victims seek, and no more slaves.
Cruel Britannia,
This song shall be your grave.
No more victims seek, and no more slaves!

Britain’s communists warn Labour against joining US’s ‘new cold war hysteria’ against China and Russia

Morning Star | July 24, 2020

BRITAIN’S communists have warned Labour not to join the “new cold war hysteria” led by the US against China and Russia.

“Labour should develop a genuinely independent foreign policy for Britain,” Communist Party international secretary John Foster told a two-day meeting of its political committee on Thursday night.

Colston’s toppled statue links the anti-racist and anti-imperialist causes

A Morning Star editorial| June 08, 2020

The empty plinth where the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol once stood after it was taken down during a Black Lives Matter protest on Sunday

KEIR STARMER’S description of the toppling of slave trader Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol as “completely wrong,” like Priti Patel’s claim that it was “utterly disgraceful,” show their distance from what has become an international movement against racism.

Despite Patel’s nod to “the cause people are actually protesting about” (which she says is undermined by “acts of public disorder”) the position of her government is clear. Internationally it is aligned with Donald Trump and domestically it seeks to intensify the “hostile environment” for immigrants built up by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition from 2010-15. It is opposed to anti-racist movements.

Behind Britain’s Brexit mess: A push to destroy workers’ rights

by John Wojcik

People’s World | September 11, 2019

Pro-Brexit and anti-Brexit protesters shout at each other opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, March 14, 2019. | Matt Dunham / AP

LISBON, Portugal—Britain’s version of Donald Trump, right-wing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was handed a major defeat Monday when his second try at calling an election to solve the Brexit mess was rebuffed.

Labor and left forces in Britain say his call for a “snap election” is nothing more than an attempt to crush the opposition Labour Party, whose leader Jeremy Corbyn has been pushing for a deal to exit the European Union with measures that will support job creation and labor rights in Britain. Johnson wants a “no-deal” exit from the EU so his ruling Tory Party can be free to undermine further the standard of living of British workers.

Anti-slavery campaigns in Britain and their impact on the formation of the United States

by Abayomi Azikiwe

Pambazuka News | February 24, 2019

The leaders of the 18th century separatist movement from England were not motivated by a genuine desire for freedom and equality.

If the so-called American Revolution of 1776 was truly committed to breaking with monarchical and autocratic rule from the United Kingdom then why did slavery grow at a rapid rate after the achievement of independence of the former 13 colonies in North America?

Britain is in ‘deep political crisis,’ communists warns

Morning Star | January 17, 2019

Rightwing Leave and liberal Remainers protest outside the Houses of Parliament last night

COMMUNISTS have warned Britain is in the grip of a “deep political crisis” as they demand an early general election and departure from the European Union on March 29.

Speaking to the Communist Party’s political committee last night, general secretary Robert Griffiths argued that “the root of the crisis” is the vote for Brexit by a working-class majority in June 2016 while “powerful sections of the ruling capitalist class want continued alignment with the pro-big business rules of the EU single market and customs union.”