CAPITALISM IS BANKRUPT

Protesters staged a mock funeral of capitalism outside the headquarters of the failed Lehman Brothers bank in Canary Wharf on a bitterly cold Halloween night

Their system creates recession, hunger and climate chaos, but they want you to pay

As the economic crisis deepens, Socialist Worker answers a number of the key questions on the turmoil

The plummeting stock markets are having a devastating effect on the pensions of working people

People Before Profit Charter supporters in Southend held a successful “freeze-in” last Saturday highlighting the plight of pensioners and calling for a windfall tax on energy companies

Following the recent successful London-wide rally hosted by the People Before Profit Charter, supporters in Hackney, east London, along with Turkish and Kurdish activists, called an organising meeting for the charter

The London region of the UCU education union initiated a meeting last week to discuss organising a joint trade union response to the recession

Monday 10 November will see a national strike by around 270,000 civil service workers in the PCS union

The New Labour government has brought in changes to disability benefits this week that will make it even harder for sick and disabled people to claim benefits

There are just a few days of voting left in the NUT teachers’ union’s ballot for strike action over pay

One effect of the economic crisis is that many people are becoming interested in alternatives to capitalism—and are engaging with socialist ideas about how to transform the system

This Friday is Halloween—and student and trade union groups will be protesting in cities across the country against the horror that capitalism has brought upon the world

Socialist Worker reports on how anger at the economic turmoil has filled the streets

A US military attack on the Syrian border town of Abu Kamal has exposed growing divisions among the “coalition of the willing” behind the invasion of Iraq

Some 46 Castrol tanker drivers in the Unite union struck on Thursday of last week in defence of a dismissed worker

Workers at the Appledore Shipyard in north Devon have voted to take strike action over pay

One danger that trade unionists can face in a time of recession is the argument that migrant workers are to blame

There’s a right way and a wrong way for unions to confront job losses—and this was highlighted last week by the crisis in the manufacturing industry

Gordon Brown’s latest answer to the recession is to spend his way out of it

Women in Britain had a chance to win improved abortion rights for the first time in 18 years last week

Emily Robertson is a community activist in Swansea who works with asylum seekers

Sian Ruddick reports from Swansea on the harsh reality of existence for asylum seekers fleeing poverty and war in Gordon Brown’s Britain

Our rulers are using the global recession as an excuse to cut back on measures to tackle climate change

There is talk of a renewed “Brown bounce” ahead of next week’s Glenrothes by-election as polls show increasing support for Gordon Brown’s handling of the economic crisis

British justice last week delivered another blow against the Chagos Islanders when the law lords voted by three to two against their right to return home

Up to a million students, teachers, lecturers, school students and their supporters demonstrated through Rome on Thursday 30 October, as parliament approved laws introduced by Silvio Berlusconi’s government to slash education funding and to axe thousands of teaching posts

Alex Callinicos reports from a conference that discussed the relative merits of Marx and Keynes

The global working class has grown over the past decade, says a new report from the International Labour Organisation

Despite the rhetoric about free markets, capitalism has always relied on state intervention to survive, writes Jacob Middleton

As the US presidential election reaches its final stage, Martin Smith looks at trade unions, Barack Obama and workers’ struggle

In the first part of our new series on the history of economics, Anindya Bhattacharyya examines the theories of Adam Smith and David Ricardo

Energy policies to benefit workers? | No profit in caring | Market doesn’t make sense | Campaigning can drive back BNP | Babar Ahmad | Police intimidation in Brussels | Inspired by 1968 protest | Market fails the poorest | Sats are the new 11-plus | More schools handed to rich

A theatrical production of George Orwell’s fable leaves Christian Hogsbjerg feeling hopeful

At a time when some racist Southern US states went so far as to ban inter-racial chess games in public spaces, something subversive was happening down in Tennessee

A new photograph exhibition celebrates east London’s rich political history and the individuals who took a stand for their rights and to improve their quality of life

A stranger visits a barber

This documentary focuses on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther party organiser who has been on death row since 1981

The investigation into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes shines a spotlight on the police and anti-terror laws, writes Simon Basketter

As Royal Mail prepared to announce profits of over £177 million, around 500 postal workers and supporters marched in Crewe last Saturday to demand the local mail centre is kept open

Unite union activists representing bus workers across London met on Friday of last week for a crucial discussion on how to take their pay campaign forward

Around 480 bus workers in the Unite union at Stagecoach Bluebird in north east Scotland are set to strike over pay on Thursday of this week

People in Stoke-on-Trent have voted to scrap the city’s system of elected mayors

There is a major fight underway for the future leadership and direction of Britain’s biggest union, Unite

Over 1,000 pensioners and trade unionists lobbied parliament on Wednesday of last week demanding a decent state pension for all

Unison union members in the London Fire Brigade are to hold a consultative ballot on strike action against job cuts

Firefighters across the country are building for a lobby of parliament on Wednesday 12 November to campaign for significant improvements to training, safety and staffing for the fire service

Union leaders have urged 150,000 Scottish council workers to vote no in the pay ballot that began last week

Hammersmith & Fulham council in west London has effectively sacked its entire workforce and demanded that 4,283 employees reapply for their own jobs on worse conditions

Campaigners against academy schools in Sheffield are considering whether to challenge a “consultation ballot” that took place in the city over plans to turn Parkwood School into an academy

Leading Unison activist Yunus Bakhsh is appealing against his sacking by Northumbia Tyne & Wear Health Trust

Activists on the left in the Unison union have organised a national conference, What’s Gone Wrong in Unison

The manager who sacked Unison union activist and nurse Karen Reissmann last year is now taking action herself for unfair dismissal

The Stop the War Coalition World Against War national tour has been a big success

Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), instigated a meeting on Tuesday with Vernon Coaker, the minister of state for security, counter-terrorism and policing

Socialist Worker was sorry to hear of the death of socialist activist Abby Kerr

Demand justice for Jose Stalin | Bolton defends public services | Banking on the power of strikes | Students want a fighting union

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