News and Analysis

From the Socialist Party Scotland website By Jim Halfpenny, EIS joint secretary West Dunbartonshire (personal capacity) The experiment has begun. With shameful political expediency the SNP government in Scotland has reopened schools and brought all pupils, teachers and support staff back together in the midst of this pandemic. While their position is that everyone 12 and over must physically distance ...

By Theo Sharieff , Young Socialists national organiser Protests and anger by school students have forced the Tories into a humiliating double U-turn over A-level and GCSE grade moderation. The retreat arrived like the slow collapse of a set of dominoes – starting in Scotland, then Northern Ireland, Wales, and ending with England. Coronavirus has exposed the class divide in ...

NHS workers across Wales and the UK were on the march today for a pay rise. There were protests in Cardiff, Swansea, Merthyr and Bridgend. Below Beth Webster a nurse at UHW hospital Cardiff explains the anger at the government’s refusal to increase pay. Cardiff On the march to the Senedd Over 500 angry nurses, NHS staff and supporters gathered ...

By Dave Reid Over 400 G E Aircraft Engine Services workers and supporters marched through Caerphilly in a socially-distanced but lively demonstration to save jobs at the Nantgarw plant. GE has announced the loss of 369 jobs out of a workforce of 1350 which threatens the long-term future of the aircraft engine plant. Jobs at GE are hi-tech, highly skilled ...

G E Aircraft Engine Services workers will be marching on Saturday to save jobs at Nantgarw near Caerphilly. The US multinational has announced the loss of 369 jobs out of a workforce of 1350 which threatens the long-term future of the aircraft engine plant. Jobs at GE are hi-tech, highly skilled and well-paid industrial jobs. For generations the plant has ...

By Alec Thraves Media reports over the week-end that Tata Steel in Port Talbot was considering shutting down its two blast furnaces and replacing them with ‘greener’ electric arc furnaces, which would require far less workers, have provoked anger and panic amongst the workforce, steel unions and local politicians. Electric arc furnaces would basically turn the works into a steel ...

Over 250 jobs are under threat at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff as a result of the Covid crisis. As performances have been cancelled there could be a jobs melt-down in the whole theatre and arts sector unless the government steps in. Under pressure, the UK government announced a £1.5 billion subsidy but that has not been used to ...

Statement by the International Secretariat of the Committee for a Workers’ International The words of W.B Yeats, from his poem ‘Easter 1916’, sum up the current world situation: “All changed, changed utterly.” 2020 is the opening of a new era, as we have explained in the previous CWI analysis. Fundamental changes are taking place in the world economy, geo-political relations, ...

Transport For Wales (TFW) has stepped back from industrial action planned by the RMT rail union and agreed to talks that would bring “in-house” all train cleaners currently working for outsourced company Axis. Cleaners had voted to strike on July 2nd but suspended their action when TFW agreed to convene a working group with the RMT to discuss bringing all ...

By Dani Smith On Wednesday, members of the St Mellons community and Socialist Party Wales members gathered outside the Church of the Resurrection St Mellons to protest the eviction and subsequent closure of Little Fishes Nursery School. The nursery has served the community from the church premises for 30 years and is widely recognised as one of the only affordable ...