ANDREW MURRAY wonders what the great communist foe of Oswald Mosley would make of today’s far-right surge, warning that while the triumph of Farage and ‘Robinson’ is far from inevitable, placing any faith in Starmer in an anti-fascist front is a fool’s errand
On International Nurses Day, commit to a 15% pay rise for our pandemic heroes
HELEN O'CONNOR says low pay is not just a slap in the face for those on the front line of the Covid crisis – it is part of the NHS privatisation strategy
Taking it to the top: nurses demand a proper pay rise at Downing Street
LOTTE COLLETT welcomes the arrival of a new party for the left, a vehicle for councils to finally fight for progressive policies on housing, green spaces and public facilities, rather than administering cuts and misery from central government
KEVAN NELSON reports back from a delegation to the epic celebrations for the anniversary of Vietnam’s 1945 revolution, where British communists found a thriving, prosperous socialist country, brimming with ambition and well-earned national pride
Our economic system is broken – and unless we break with the government’s obsession with short-termist private profit, things are destined to get worse, warns Mercedes Villalba
Following the resignation of Nepali Prime Minister KP Oli amid mass youth-driven protests, different narratives have circulated which simplify and misrepresent the complexities and reality on the ground in Nepal at the roots of this crisis, argue VIJAY PRASHAD and ATUL CHANDRA
The US is desperate to stop Honduras’s process of social and democratic change, writes TIM YOUNG
ON INTERNATIONAL Nurses Day it is important to recognise the central role nurses play in running front-line NHS services and to acknowledge that their struggle for decent pay is central to the battle to stop the cuts and privatisation steamroller that threatens to destroy free healthcare for good.
Nurses of all grades contributed to the pandemic response and in London there was such a shortage of trained and experienced nurses that NHS trusts were forced to increase the bank pay rates in order to ensure that wards and units could deliver care. Nursing care was in such short supply that some doctors stepped in to fill the gap left by nursing shortages.
Student nurses who have had the terms and conditions of their training contracts eroded over several decades without so much as a whimper of opposition by the trade union movement, found themselves thrown in at the deep end delivering life-saving care for free in ICUs and other coronavirus areas. The student nurses were sold the familiar line that gaining “pandemic experience” is a more important consideration than pay. The student nurses were also told that their families were not eligible for a death in service pay scheme even though they were risking their lives. Many became unwell and some, like Ade Raymond, died.
More from this author
As more people on the left are now questioning the sex industry, HELEN O’CONNOR reports from a timely fringe at TUC Congress where women on the front line gave their perspective on why prostitution should never be considered ‘work’
With fascists and their supporters cynically and falsely posing as ‘defenders of women,’ the left must take violence against women seriously and gain a better understanding of women’s oppression, warns HELEN O’CONNOR
As some celebrate a pay rise, outsourced, privatised workers face continued exploitation — ending this injustice by bringing them in-house must become a top priority for the labour movement, writes HELEN O’CONNOR
HELEN O’CONNOR sees a worrying trend of women exiting the labour movement in their thousands, and warns that if this tide is not stemmed with proper and effective action, it will only be to the benefit of the capitalist class
