News

Not a single copy of the Socialist went unsold in West London last week. We sold 66 papers — with many buyers telling us that the sight and sound of Keir Starmer at Labour’s conference had been a factor.

For many who have experienced police racism and sexism, the revelations in a BBC Panorama documentary won’t be surprising. But the secret footage of London Metropolitan Police officers’ blatant racism, sexism and bragging about assaults at Charing Cross police station is shocking.

RMT members on London Underground should reject the so-called ‘improved’ offer from management. This offer is just the same as the original one, but stretched over three years.

On 21 September, South East London Socialist Party organised a public event in Plumstead, to discuss our party’s involvement in the anti-poll tax movement, which eventually led to the resignation of prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Socialist Party sticks to and keeps fighting for the original basis of socialism – that a non-capitalist future can exist, that there is a real alternative to austerity and inequality, and that it isn’t enough to merely tweak the edges of the current system.

On 23 September, a meeting of transport union RMT activists was organised by London Underground Engineering Branch, the largest branch in the RMT with 3,200 members, under the title ‘Your Party – what is the role of RMT?’

Hundreds of school and college students walked out to protest Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK on 17 September. On the thousands-strong protest through central London, the Socialist Students contingent was by far the most lively, youthful and politically bold.

Transport union RMT has held demonstrations, joined by Socialist Party members, outside the Home Office against the Labour government’s changes to work visa rules, which threaten rail workers, including on London’s tube.

The fight against racist division cannot be separated from organising opposition to New Labour’s pro-capitalist government. Starmer is hated because Labour has continued with Tory austerity.

The Socialist Party has already stood as Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates, independent of the capitalist parties, over decades, on policies that Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana would agree with.