This article was written just before the official announcement of the PCS strike ballot result on February 25, which confirmed massive support for action on 8-9th March. We are publishing it together with links to a series of short reports and interviews from the picket lines these past two days. Up to a quarter of a million jobs, possibly more, could be destroyed if government plans are allowed to go ahead. That explains the militant mood that has developed.

The comrades of Socialist Appeal in Britain produced the following pamphlet. It is a compilation of different articles written by comrades on tuition fees, cuts in university funding and the students' union, and tries to elaborate some demands for the student movement. We encourage our readers to acquaint themselves with our basic positions on the state of the education system in order to intervene in the movements against cuts and fees which have already begun in a lot of colleges and universities in Britain, but also all around the world.

As the 2010 General Election looms ever closer, we have started to see the first round of political posters appearing on hoardings around the country. The Tories have kicked their campaign off with a poster of an airbrushed photo of David Cameron looking very serious next to the slogan: “We can’t go on like this. I’ll cut the deficit not the NHS.”

It is often said that nothing is certain in politics. However one thing is certain for 2010 – there will be a general election. Election results are difficult to predict but, based on the opinion polls and election results over the past year, all the indicators point to the return of a Conservative government by the summer.

New Year is meant to represent a new beginning, a clean slate. Old Father Time gives way to a new bouncing baby. But what can we expect in 2010? Will it be a new shiny outlook for world capitalism, or will 2009 just seem to be dragging on under a new name?

This year, Britain experienced its coldest winter in over 30 years, and as temperatures dropped below -20ºC in some parts of the UK, thousands of people suffered the effects of one of society’s gravest ills: fuel poverty.

A demonstration in Leeds in November organised by the English Defence League (EDL) revealed quite clearly that the police were prepared to let the EDL get through their lines, while at the same time they poured huge resources into keeping the anti-fascist protestors bottled in, proving once again that it would be naīve to believe we can rely on the police to keep us safe against the fascist hooligans. The experience in Leeds, however, does highlight the need to review what kind of tactics should be adopted to fight these fascist thugs.

In the recent period racist attacks have been on the increase across Europe, organised by small but violent groups of fascist thugs. One such formation is the so-called "Scottish Defence League", copying the name from the "English Defence League". These organisations cannot be allowed to carry out their intimidating activities unchallenged. The challenge however cannot be based on appealing to the police to prevent the far right from gathering. We can only rely on the mobilisation of working class people. Here we provide an example of such kind of working class response in Glasgow in November.

As the year draws to an end, Terry McPartlan looks back at a turbulent 2009. The world capitalist crisis began to dramatically affect hundreds of millions of workers throughout the entire world, who in turn started to fight back with strikes and factory occupations.

For many working class families, this Christmas looks like being a grim one as the effects of the recession continue to bite. However, for bosses, bankers and City traders it looks like quite a different story.

Supporters of Socialist Appeal in Glasgow joined Greek students in a picket of the Greek Consulate to mark the one year anniversary of the police murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Athens. The murder set off a revolt of working class youth throughout Greece that was met with huge police repression. The picket was held also to show solidarity with the massive demonstrations that took place throughout Greek cities last Sunday to mark the anniversary.

At a recent meeting of a local Labour Party Branch in Worcester, Britain, a slick high tech presentation was given by a group called Transition Worcester, who said they had the answer to the environmental crisis. It is to turn the clock back 200 years to a mythical age where all trade was local and people enjoyed the benefit of locally grown meat, fruit & veg. Within this presentation were ideas such as we should no longer trade with developing countries and we should therefore export our unemployment to the third world.

The TUC has worked out that the richest folk in the land get subsidised massively in their old age by the rest of us. No change there, then. So it’s nice to see the rich are all right (as usual). What about the rest of us? Nearly two thirds of over 50s are worrying that pension and savings are just not enough to see them through retirement.

Stock exchanges and commodity prices are on their way up. The world economy is showing faltering signs of recovery. There’s no doubt that it’ll be a long haul. Millions of people all over the world have had their lives devastated by the economic tsunami. It will take years to clean up all the mess. But one major national economy after another has announced that the recession is officially over – France, Germany, Japan and even the USA. All except Britain. Why is British capitalism still stubbornly stuck in the mire?

Striking refuse workers in Leeds have voted to return to work after nearly three months on the picket line. The all-out industrial action, which ran from September 7^th to November 25^th, was in response to savage pay-cuts that would have slashed individual wages by thousands of pounds per year. Workers attending a mass meeting at the suitably flamboyant Jongleurs Comedy Club voted by nearly four to one to return to work, endorsing a deal which benefitted many workers but raised concerns for some.