News and Analysis

By Dave Reid Welsh politics is in a state of flux with a very uncertain situation developing. The disillusionment with the political establishment was reflected in the 53% vote to leave the EU in 2016 and the current rising support for independence. All the Westminster-based parties that have implemented austerity have lost support in Wales. The main pro-capitalist political parties ...

By Hannah Sell On Sunday 21 July over 200 delegates at a special conference of the Socialist Party in England and Wales voted overwhelmingly, 83.2% to 16.8%, (173 – 35 with 0 abstentions), to sponsor an international conference to reconstitute the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI – the international organisation of which the Socialist Party is part). The international ...

By Joe Fathallah A report from Heathcare Inspectorate Wales has exposed the terrible conditions faced by patients and staff at the Accident & Emergency of Wales’s biggest hospital, the University Hospital of Wales (UHW), following an inspection on 25th-27th March. Staff were reduced to tears due to the lack of time and resources available to properly care for patients. Some ...

By Alec Thraves Rob Williams, Chair of the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN), addressed a very successful NSSN public meeting in Bridgend, bringing solidarity and support to the Ford workers in their efforts to keep the plant open and to retain the 1,700 jobs threatened by the proposed closure. The almost 40 strong audience, including Ford workers, trade unionists and ...

By Alex Wedlake, Unite Young Members national committee (personal capacity) Following a series of mass meetings on 12 June, Unite members at the Ford plant in Bridgend decided overwhelmingly to fight the closure of the engine factory. With over 80% of workers voting in favour of action, there is a huge mandate for the union leadership to launch a campaign ...

By a Cardiff and Vale nurse Two Welsh health boards have announced plans to privatise their hospital pharmacies. Betsi Cadwaladr and Cardiff and Vale health boards say they cannot afford to employ sufficient dispensers to maintain an adequate service. They predict that outsourcing outpatient services to a private, community pharmacy will improve inpatient pharmacy services by reducing workload. This is ...

By Alec Thraves CWU members at Parcel force set up a picket line this morning outside their Swansea Depot in support of their local rep who is being threatened with disciplinary action and who has been forced away from his job for the past 21 weeks. CWU members frustration at the lack of progress to resolve this dispute blew up ...

By Rob Williams (former Unite convenor at ex-Swansea Ford plant) After months if not years of rumours and speculation, which have shredded the nerves of workers and their families, Ford have finally announced the closure of the Bridgend Engine Plant after nearly 40 years of production. This is a catastrophe for these 1,700 workers, their families and communities and the ...

By Ross Saunders Train fleet maintenance workers in the RMT union are celebrating in South Wales after scoring what looks like a complete victory without having to fire a shot. With a turnout of 80%, 98% of members voted in favour of strike action, sending an unignorable message to franchise-holder Transport for Wales Rail Services (TfW RS) that worker would ...

By Dave Reid The dissatisfaction with the British capitalist establishment, first manifested in the Scottish Indyref in 2014 and in the Brexit vote in 2016, was further developed in the Euro elections. The two main parties that between them got 80% of the vote in Wales in 2017 got just 22% on Thursday, representing the rejection of Westminster politicians by ...