News and Analysis

Mariam Kamish, Secretary Caerphilly Trades Council Caerphilly Council voted on 14 May to close ten libraries and one of three threatened leisure centres, two to stay open with reduced facilities and shorter hours. Caerphilly Trades Union Council and local campaigners are working to link up the local areas for a fight to save them all. For the second time in ...

By Dave Reid, Socialist Party Wales secretary Eluned Morgan, Labour First Minister of Wales, took the first steps to distance Welsh Labour from the historically unpopular Starmer-led Westminster government, declaring that she would “call out” UK Labour if they undermined Wales. She called for Starmer to halt part of the UK government’s plans to cut disability benefits, rethink cuts to ...

By Jacob Lloyd, Cardiff graduate tutor and UCU member (personal capacity) Cardiff University and College Union (UCU) has resisted 400 cruel job cuts. Now, in a massive U-turn, the uni executive board has ruled out all compulsory redundancies for 2025. This significant short-term victory is the result of hard-fought efforts and the threat of industrial action from union members. In ...

By John Williams, Cardiff Central Socialist Party Socialist Party Wales campaign stalls were swamped at the Welsh independence march in Barry on 26 April. This was the first Welsh independence march in a few years, full of angry people against the new Labour government’s cuts and austerity. Socialist Party members there were campaigning on the issue of Tata Steel in ...

By Mariam Kamish, Caerphilly Trades Council Secretary Public Debate! We had a hard time persuading a Plaid Cymru councillor to take part. Would Labour send someone to represent the council? In the end, they didn’t. But the room filled with people determined to save Abertridwr library. In the front row sat two young boys who’d come on their own. Posters shone ...

By John Williams, Cardiff Central Socialist Party Thousands demonstrated against the Supreme Court ruling that disgracefully attacks trans rights. We haven’t seen a demo this big since Donald Trump’s first state visit. The sense of solidarity was overwhelming. From start to finish, anger was clear. The first speaker said, if you stand with trans women, you also stand with disabled ...

Statement by the International Secretariat Committee For A Workers’ International It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Peter Taaffe, who after a long illness died on 23 April 2025. The loss of Peter is a big blow to the working-class movement and Trotskyism internationally. Since becoming active in the revolutionary movement in 1960, Peter made an ...

Fight for a united working-class struggle against all oppressions and for socialism Editorial of the Socialist issue 1318 The Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday 16 April 2025 proves yet again that minority rights are not secure in a society in which a capitalist elite relies on scapegoating to preserve their rule. This is especially the case now when that rule ...

B y Jacob Lloyd Cardiff University UCU Neoliberal policies make university life harder for all, be it unmanageable staff workloads or increased student fees. These have been issues at Cardiff University, with controversies surrounding vain and costly capital projects, unsustainable international recruitment, exorbitant upper management salaries, and, most recently, the shock-and-awe announcement of hundreds of staff redundancies. The departments of ...

By Mariam Kamish “They don’t understand our lives – the people who make these decisions. Without the library, my granddaughter would be trying to concentrate on her homework, sat in front of the telly.” Caerphilly Labour council is closing ten libraries and three leisure centres. People are fighting to save Abertridwr library. ‘Use the hub library in Caerphilly’, the Labour ...