Tag Archives: austerity

By Mariam Kamish, Secretary Caerphilly Trades Council Caerphilly Council, forced onto the defensive in the High Court on Thursday, showedcontempt for our small Valleys communities, fighting to hold onto libraries you can walk to.‘If you choose to live 12 miles down a farm track’, their barrister told the court, ‘that’s yourchoice!’ Such is the council’s scorn for the working class ...

By Dave Warren, Delegate from Swansea Trades Council The biennial congress of TUC Cymru (Wales Trades Union Congress) took place in Llandudno 19-21 May against the background of the political earthquake of Labour losing control of the Senedd (Welsh parliament) for the first time ever. The conference provided a timely opportunity to reassess the political orientation of the trade union ...

By Dave Warren, Swansea As expected, Labour suffered a crushing defeat at the election for the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) on 7 May. Labour won just nine seats out of 96 in a newly extended Senedd, down from 30 seats out of 60 previously. The First Minister, Eluned Morgan lost her seat and has resigned as Labour leader in Wales. It ...

By Dave Bartlett (TUSC candidate in Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf) Socialist stand fights for new workers’ party Dave Bartlett, Cardiff Socialist Party The Welsh Senedd elections take place this May and while the final outcome is not yet known, one thing is certain: Welsh Labour is facing down the barrel of a gun. Socialist Party Wales will be presenting a socialist ...

This year, Green Party leader Zack Polanski was invited to address the conference of the National Education Union. In the press conference, Rob Williams, covering the conference for the Socialist newspaper, had the opportunity to ask him a question: Rob: I think you’ve had a great response today Zack, because you have come to a conference of teachers who have ...

By Mariam Kamish, Secretary Caerphilly Trades Council  In scenes of pandemonium, the chair of Caerphilly Council’s Joint Scrutiny Committee shouted me down, demanded I leave the podium, and threatened to have me thrown out of the council’s 2026 budget meeting. I had called on councillors to break ranks and table a motion to overturn last year’s decision to close ten ...

By James Scott, Cardiff University Socialist Students In December, I helped to get a motion passed into Cardiff University Students Union policy, mandating it to lobby the university to ‘open the books’ to its finances, stop academic cuts by using its hundreds of millions of pounds of reserves, and campaign against cuts. Cardiff University announced 400 job cuts in 2025 ...

By Alex Sampson HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) confirmed this week that, after thousands of families were unjustly stripped of their child benefit, its controversial benefit fraud detection system has been fixed. The system, which was supposed to stop child benefit to people who left the country and did not return within eight weeks, was found to be deeply flawed. ...

Editorial of the Socialist issue 1350 For anyone still wondering whether the capitalist system can provide a secure and stable world, the start of 2026 has been a brutal reality check. Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, and his to-the-point honesty in declaring his actions a defence of the economic and strategic interests of American imperialism – in this ...

By Mariam Kamish, Caerphilly Trades Union Council secretary ‘Rebel councillor’ Brenda Miles has joined campaigners marching to save the ten local libraries that Caerphilly Labour council wants to close or offload. Councillor Miles says this would put the council in breach of its statutory duty to provide library services. Our march set off led by local children dressed as story ...