By Dave Reid Stagecoach drivers in Cwmbran, Blackwood and Brynmawr are standing firm for a decent pay rise for all workers at the depots. Today on the 17th day of strike action the managing director came out of his office to discuss with pickets. The strikers made it absolutely clear that they will stand firm. The strike has been solid ...

By Dave Reid and Gareth Bromhall Thousands across have marched to protest at the inaction of the world’s capitalist politicians to prevent catastrophic climate change. Well over 1000 marched from Cardiff City Hall to the Senedd. Socialist Party Wales and Socialist Students had large and lively contingents shouting “Our planet is not for sale” and “Socialist change, not climate change”. ...

By Dave Reid Over 200 stagecoach drivers at Cwmbran, Blackwood and Brynmawr depots, members of Unite, have completed their sixth day of strike action, the first of six phases. The next strike day is due to be Friday 29th October unless the company gives into the union demands for a rise to £10.50 an hour from £9.50. The company has ...

By Dave Reid and Alec Thraves Welsh Labour has won the Welsh parliament election with an increased vote and seats. Mark Drakeford’s government benefited from the “incumbency factor” and actually increased its number of seats in the Senedd to 30, half of the 60 seats. This was despite polls at the beginning of the Covid crisis indicating that it would ...

By Dave Reid “Is this a picket line?” one spark going into the Cardiff NCMH Bouygues site asked. “Because if it is we won’t cross”. There was a great response from all workers going onto the site which also has an NG Baileys project on it. As well as sparks on the protest line there were ex-UCATT brickies, Unite regional ...

By Dave Reid Following on from last week’s protest in Swansea, construction electricians in Unite the union, supported by Cardiff Trades Union Council, protested outside the Cardiff offices of construction giant, NG Bailey. They chanted “No de-skilling, no ESO!” at the company which is trying to force down wages and skill levels at the huge Hinkley Point nuclear power station ...

Republication of an article from October 23 2020. Train operations were transferred to state-owned Transport For Wales earlier this month. By Dave Reid The Wales and Border rail franchise will effectively be nationalised in February as franchise holding company Keolis Amey (KA) walks away from its contract. The collapse of ticket sales in the Covid crisis has led to huge ...

By Dave Reid The rightward drift of Labour under Keir Starmer was confirmed by Welsh Labour’s scandalous voting down of a proposal in the Senedd/Welsh Parliament to introduce free school meals for all children in receipt of universal credit. Wales has the highest levels of child poverty in the UK but under Welsh Labour we also have the least provision ...

By Dave Reid An extended version of an article in The Socialist “Devolution is a disaster” was the reported words of Boris Johnson referring to the Scottish government and “Tony Blair’s biggest mistake”. In fact Blair was a reluctant devolutionist. He would rather not have held referenda to devolve power to the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament in 1997, but ...

By Dave Reid The Wales and Border rail franchise will effectively be nationalised in February as franchise holding company Keolis Amey (KA) walks away from its contract. The collapse of ticket sales in the Covid crisis has led to huge losses for the conglomerate and so the company will hand over the train operating services to publicly-owned Transport For Wales. ...