The month of March is the season for student union elections in Britain. Thanks to the setting up of Marxist societies, and as a result of the tremendous student movements of recent years, Socialist Appeal are now present on many campuses across the country, and a solid base of young Marxists now exists in several universities. Socialist Appeal comrades stood in two student union elections recently: Ben Gliniecki and Arsalan Ghani stood for President of the Students Union and President of the Graduate Union in Cambridge University; Nico Baldion and Paul Bolton stood for the positions of President and Education Officer respectively at the University of Arts London.

According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), the British government has only implemented 6% of its planned cuts to date. This is an austerity programme that is £10 billion behind schedule and which is set to last well beyond the next parliament. Although 6% is but a small step on a long road of enforced privation, already we can see the devastating effects this is having on millions of people

The decision of the Cameron government to deploy HMS Dauntless off the coast of the Falklands Islands in the South Atlantic represents a gratuitous provocation to the people of Argentina.

British construction workers have won a marvellous victory. The attempt to cut to wages and conditions by a group of profit-hungry construction bosses has been beaten back by the heroic action of ordinary rank and file workers.

Forty years ago this month, the power of the organised working class was demonstrated outside a West Midlands fuel depot. The lesson was not lost on both unions and bosses. The example of Saltley Gate remains as relevant today as ever in the face of renewed attacks by the bosses and their government on the working class. Terry McPartlan looks back at the events of February 1972.

With all the hype surrounding the Hollywood version of Margaret Thatcher as the ‘Iron Lady’ who (supposedly) brought the miners and trade unions to their knees, there now comes the real story of the Miners Strike of 1984 from Betty Cook and Ann Scargill, two women who not only played their part during the strike but who now say that the events of that historic year changed their lives forever.

Workers have reacted with anger and bewilderment at the latest statements coming from Ed Miliband and Ed Balls endorsing continuation of the Coalition’s public sector wage freeze and in effect accepting Coalition cuts. This represents a sharp turn to the right by the Labour leadership, justified – we are told– by the remark that a “changed” Labour Party needed to deliver “fairness” in tough times.

Ed Miliband’s leadership of the Labour Party is turning into an elaborate parody of the emptiness of reformism. With capitalism unable to afford any reforms, he is like the school pupil who works extremely hard to avoid working whilst giving the impression of being studious. He is trying very very hard, tossing and turning, to give the impression that reformism can work without any actual reforms. Unfortunately for Ed, in this case the illusion does not work.

The Great Unrest is the term used by historians to describe the period  a 100 years ago when Britain saw many industrial conflicts such as the Cambrian Combine Strike, the Tonypandy Riots and many other struggles.  In Wales there was also a major dispute in the Cynon Valley and riots in Llanelli during the Railwaymen's strike. Strikes occurred in Clydeside, London, Liverpool, Hull and many other towns and cities throughout the land.   Important ideas were developed and discussed during this period which had a profound affect on the Labour and trade union movement. Darrall Cozens, a member of the UCU and Coventry NW Labour Party, considers what we need to learn from

Margaret Thatcher is a hate figure for millions in Britain who suffered under 13 years of her rule. We, who opposed Thatcherism to the bitter end, will never forget the mass unemployment, the cuts, wholesale privatisation and the attacks on the trade unions as well as our democratic rights. Those who fought back were regarded by Thatcher as “the enemy within,” a term she used against the National Union of Mineworkers, as they fought for their communities and their jobs. Thatcher represented capitalism ‘red in tooth and claw’ and we will not forget it.

There were unprecedented scenes in Birmingham on N30 after the Tory-Lib-Dem coalition that runs Birmingham City Council tried to ban the planned TUC protest march.

More than two million public sector workers took strike action yesterday. That amounted to a virtual general strike of the public sector. In terms of numbers, the action was bigger than the “Winter of Discontent” in 1979  - bigger even than the 1926 General Strike. Even The Financial Times, the organ of Big Business, surprisingly described Wednesday’s strike as “undoubtedly historic”.

Around Britain, supporters of Socialist Appeal have been on picket lines and demonstrations. Here are the reports we har received so far. [Updated 2 December with more reports]

On November 30^th 2011, three million public sector workers in Britain will strike over the government’s attacks on their pensions. This coordinated strike action represents the biggest strike movement since the general strike in 1926. To all intents and purposes it will be a 24-hour public sector general strike.  

Socialist Appeal supporter Adam Booth spoke against Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business in the UK coalition government, in the Cambridge Union on Thursday 27^th October, in a debate that highlighted the two starkly contrasting choices facing society as a result of the crisis of capitalism: austerity or socialism.