UK
Denial networks: on crisis and continuity in the 9/11 truth movement
This article addresses the prevalance of conspiratorial explanations for the events of 9/11. The author breaks down the appeal of the truth movement, and explains how the mode of production requires constant expansion, in an empty mimicry of capitalist production. There is also a section dealing with the vital participation of far-right activists in the genesis of the 'truth' movement and their lasting contributions which many leftists mouth today.
How is it possible that increasingly elaborate conspiracy explanations for the events of September 11th 2001 continue to find appeal amongst a growing population of otherwise rational people, despite the day's events being witnessed by millions and despite these theories being consistently debunked and embarrassed?
Britain heading for 'unemployment bloodbath'
Britain faces an unemployment "bloodbath" in the new year with many tens of thousands of jobs axed in the public and private sectors.
Senior government figures are braced for a dramatic lengthening in dole queues in the first quarter of 2009, as employers delay announcing redundancies until after Christmas.
Thousands of civil servants and town hall workers will share the pain as government efficiency savings bite, while struggling retailers and manufacturing industry are heading for heavy redundancies.
Work-to-rule on Leeds bins
Refuse collectors and street cleaners in Leeds will be taking industrial action over the Christmas period.
The GMB union said its members would be "working to rule" from 27 December, with Unison members doing the same from 29 December.
Creationism in the science classroom - 29% of science teachers say 'yes'
More than a quarter of science teachers polled by Ipsos MORI think creationism should be taught in the science classroom.
Ipsos MORI reports 'Teachers Dismiss Calls For Creationism To Be Taught In School Science Lessons'.
Resistance to job cuts at the University of Salford gathers steam
Around 150 job losses have been forecast by opponents as part of large cuts across the university, along with the slashing of courses and funding.
The job losses and cuts to courses and infrastructure stem from the ‘project headroom’ program currently being pushed through by university management, which aims to claw back £12.5 million for the university budget.
Freedom newspaper copy dates - 2009
Copy dates for the anarchist newspaper Freedom for next year - send submissions to freedomeds - puttheatsigninhere - yahoo.com
Issue no----Issue date (Saturday)-----Copy deadline
7001--------17th January---------------- 8th January
7002-------- 31st January--------------- 22nd January
7003-------- 14th February------------- 5th February
7004-------- 28th February------------- 19th February
7005-------- 14th March----------------- 5th March
7006-------- 28th March----------------- 19th March
Brighton anti-war protests, 2002-3
Images from the anti-war protests in Brighton leading up to and following the outbreak of the Iraq war. Many of these events are recollected and analysed here.
Christmas strikes could hit Royal Mail
Workers in Coventry, Crewe, Liverpool, Stockport, Bolton and Oxford are threatening 24-hour strike action on Friday over the proposed merger of some depots. The Communication Workers Union says 500 jobs could be lost and has challenged Royal Mail to negotiate.
The firm's plans include transferring work from the mail centre in Weston, Crewe, and the Copperas Hill sorting office in Liverpool to a new regional centre in Warrington. Royal Mail has said Copperas Hill is no longer viable in the face of falling mail volumes.
Regeneration, but not for miners
Funding for the coalfields has been lauded by the government as a stunning transformation of old mining communities through free-market activity allied with government nous. But buried in amongst the back-slapping are figures which show the ex-miners themselves have been left in the cold while the wealthy profit around them
Despite massive investment in mining communities damaged by Thatcher’s victory in 1984 and with winding down of coal mining in the 1990s, the money has gone not to local workers but to regeneration groups and businesses, according to a new report.
Liverpool dockers strike photo gallery, 1995
Photographs from the Mersey docks dispute of 1995-6.
Pay: what went wrong in 2007?
Libcom's analysis of what went wrong with the industrial disputes over the rising cost of living in 2007, and how to do things better in 2008.
A 'Summer of Discontent', Gordon Brown preaching pay restraint, union leaders talking about 'co-ordinated strike action', sound familiar? It should, because exactly the same things were being said last year.
More wildcats at Brighton bin depot
Bin workers in Brighton staged a wildcat walkout yesterday and have threatened strikes in the new year in protest of new rounds and redundancies.
Dozens of staff were sent home yesterday after a two-hour sit-in at Brighton and Hove City Council’s Hollingdean depot. Amid mounting tension, GMB union officials said it would be balloting its members on industrial action for the new year.
Benefits could be suspended for jobless
Jobless people should "spend nine to five" looking for work or doing community service, or face losing their benefits according to a new government-commissioned report.
This would add to recent proposals to end secure tenancies for the long-term unemployed unless they can prove they have been job-hunting.
New round of cuts hit news media
Union activity remains low in the media as more job losses are announced across the industry following a continuing advertising slump and falling profits - but more workforces are beginning to stand up to be counted.
Several newspaper and other media titles have announced more cuts are to be made in the industry as it goes through the largest mass cull of reporting staff of the last decade in the face of falling advertising revenues and readership.
The Stonewall/Bindel affair, and the politics of transsexuality
What would a revolutionary gender politics be? I don't have a clear answer, but certainly the area is one where there aren't many clear arguments of much use. The recent debacle involving Stonewall and Julie Bindel does allow us though to think about where to start.
Julie Bindel’s nomination for the Journalist of the Year prize (which she didn’t win) at the Stonewall awards this month ignited a storm of controversy, with many within the broad 'LGBTQ community’ outraged at the organisation’s recognition of a commentator with a long record of writing which they see as ridden with ‘transphobia’.
Dover port workers to resume strike action this Thursday
Workers at Dover port are to launch a three day strike from Thursday.
Hundreds of workers employed by the Dover Harbour Board (DHB) are to take strike action against plans to outsource their jobs. The ballot organised by Unite saw 83.5% of votes returned in support.
Unrest over academies expansion
As 70 failing schools join the 310 already on the list of schools which will be or already are now operating as academies, coalitions of parents in Brighton and Hove, Ipswich and Sheffield are challenging moves to switch them over.
In separate developments, privatisation moves in Goldsmiths College, London and Essex University are also being fought by staff and students, and sponsors of the Unity Academy – one of the early flagships of the initiative – have pulled out. The academy lost its primary backer, Amey, who deny financial pressures are behind their decision.
Redistributionist budget? Yeah right.
The angle of the mainstream media on the Budget is 'big borrowing, big risk, the death of low taxes for the rich'. Only the first two are true.
I'm not going to comment on the borrowing aspect of all this, because it's fairly obvious that yes, it's alot, and yes, it's a big risk (though not so much as the press is going on about, it's basically the same as France works with).
But I have found the talk of 'redistributionist taxation' somewhat confusing as a conclusion from the following figures:
Teachers' union calls off strikes
Despite a vote in favour of discontinuous strikes over below inflation pay, the National Union of Teachers has announced there will be no further action.
A quarter of a million teachers walked out on April 24, disrupting nearly 10,000 schools in action which inspired many other workers in their fight against the government's 2% pay cap. This at a time with inflation running at around 5% constitutes real terms pay cuts.
However, the NUT then declined to ballot for action coordinated with other school workers in UNISON who struck on July 16-17.
Long lost wildcat strikes in the UK, 1960s - 1990s
Interesting article with snippets of analysis and often personal anecdotes about a number of unofficial strikes in the UK since the 1960s.
An introduction…
