News and Analysis

A battle is raging inside and outside the Labour Party in Caerphilly county borough (mainly covering Islwyn and Caerphilly constituencies) against the cuts that the Labour-run council is inflicting on public services in the borough. In particular there has been outrage that the meals on wheels service is being effectively abolished while another quarter of a million pounds is being ...

By Rob Williams,  Socialist Party national industrial organiser and former Visteon (ex-Ford) Unite convenor, Swansea Fordworkers in Bridgend and their families are trying to come to terms with the announcement that over 1000 workers will lose their jobs over the next two years, with the first 370 to go as early as this spring. This comes at the same time that thousands of ...

Unison has appealed to councillors on Carmarthenshire Council to step back from implementing cuts but instead to campaign for a no-cuts budget. The letter opens with the heading “No Merry Christmas for members whose jobs are under threat – No Happy New Year for the public whose services will be devastated. Set a legal no cuts budget, defend jobs, services ...

Tories torn apart, French workers and youth in revolt, ‘populism’ on the rise … revolution in the air? By Peter Taaffe, General Secretary of the Socialist Party “I have never been more ashamed to be a Conservative. We continue to be led by a mule flogging a dead horse” (Allison Pearson, Daily Telegraph columnist). This blistering attack on Prime Minister Theresa May and the Tory government – before ...

Caerphilly borough council agreed at its meeting on Thursday to set aside even more money to settle the employment of its ex-chief executive including £108,000 in wages to the disgraced boss – even as it plans to cut its Meals On Wheels service to some of its most vulnerable residents saving £160,000. A lively protest by anti-cuts campaigners dressed in ...

By Alec Thraves, Swansea Socialist Party If you want to sneak through £24 million of council cuts next year, call a Cabinet meeting at 10.00 in the morning when most residents are at work, waffle through the ten minutes allowed for public questions and then vote unanimously for the council officers’ latest round of brutal cuts! Within twenty minutes Swansea ...

An investigation by Cardiff Against The Cuts has revealed the damage that austerity cuts is doing to schools in Cardiff. Real-terms cuts carried out by Cardiff Council over the last decade has resulted in fewer teachers in the city’s schools even though the number of children has risen steadily. Cardiff Against The Cuts calculates that the number of children per ...

By Ross Saunders Comrades in South Wales are mourning the loss of Beth Roper, who was suddenly taken from us in an accident on a train on Saturday 1st December at the age of just 28. Everyone who knew her will feel her loss. Beth was one of those rare people who always seemed kind and sincere. People remarked that she was ...

UCU members have recently won some important concessions from management and the WelshGovernment by balloting with a big majority for strike action. If accepted by members via e-ballot lecturers pay will rise by 2 – 3.5% and management has agreed to discuss workload. Clare Gibbs (UCU Coleg y Cymoedd) explains what has been won and the need to keep the ...

By Dave Reid Mark Drakeford, a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, has been elected as leader of Welsh Labour and will be elected as First Minister next week. Of the three candidates for First Minister Mark would be considered the most left wing – he supported Jeremy Corbyn in the first ballot for Labour leader. The other two candidates, Baroness Eluned ...