Midlands

Midlands: health boss to get pay increase while workers face pay cut

Hospital workers in Leicestershire were shocked and outraged by the news that interim Chief Executive for the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Derek Smith, will be paid £100,000 for three months work. Meanwhile, Wolverhampton healthworkers face a pay cut.

- but they weren’t surprised.

UNISON, who represent 5,500 healthworkers in Leicestershire, described the decision to pay Mr Smith such a huge amount of money as “an insult to the commitment and dedication of ordinary healthworkers”.

Coventry council strike intensifies

Workers at Coventry Council, including school admissions officers and street cleaners began a two week strike today.

Since our previous coverage the action has escalated, with a spokesmen from Unison stating that workers at the council could be on strike non-stop for as much as six weeks.

The "single salary review" imposed by the council affects thousands of staff, with many suffering pay reductions of up to £9,000.

UK: Bus drivers to come out over pay

With pay stagnating and conditions under constant review by management bus workers in the Midlands have voted three to one in favour of industrial action.

Three days of action planned for 22nd April, 28th April and the 8th May many services across the midlands will grind to a halt causing massive disruption. The workers have taken their demands time and time again to the management but after the last talks broke down the workers have decided to take action.

news

Cape Town: two anti-eviction campaigners arrested
On Wednesday, July 2nd at the Bellville Magistrates Court courtroom E, two members of the Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign, Jerome Daniels and Ridwaan Isaacs, were each sentenced twelve months in prison - simply for being community leaders at Delft-Symphony Way settlement.

articles

Dan Chatterton and his 'Atheistic Communistic Scorcher' (by Andrew Whitehead)
Communist atheist pamphleteer, bill poster, slum dweller, early birth control advocate, fierce public ranter; Dan Chatterton is one of the most fascinating and undeservably obscure characters of the London radical scene in the second half of the 19th century.

1968

Review: Whatever happened to the Situationists?
A steady trickle of publications about the situationists testifies to the market value of their ideas, but it also reminds us of the continued requirement for revolutionaries to engage with them. In this review we look at two recent books. Ken Knabb's Public Secrets illustrates the self-obsessed nature of the situationist milieu after the heady days of 1968. What is Situationism? A Reader includes Barrot's important critique of the Situationist International for their one-sided emphasis on circulation rather then production.