Campaigners have launched a petition calling on online retail giant Amazon to pay its staff the Living Wage.

Numerous media exposés have found Amazon's warehouse staff are subject to hyper exploitation at work, which intensifies over the Christmas period. As we recently reported in Solidarity, one worker compared the conditions to "a slave camp".

Solidarity editor Cathy Nugent, along with other AWL members, recorded a video message of solidarity that was broadcast to the recent UID-DER conference.

A workplace bulletin by Lewisham Hospital workers, for Lewisham Hospital workers.

Click here to download the PDF.

On 21 October 1916, the "Minister-President" of Austria, Karl von Stürgkh, was shot and killed by Friedrich Adler, the secretary of Austra's large and not-very-radical Social-Democratic Party. Adler shot Stürgkh as a protest against World War One.

In 1956-7 the British Communist Party cut a figure as by far the weightiest activist left party in the country, with over 40,000 members and great influence in the trade unions and workplaces. It was thrown into crisis by world events.

The Militant, New York, April 29 1957

The following is the text of the speech which Peter Fryer would have delivered to the 25th National Congress of the Communist Party if he had been allowed to make his appeal against expulsion before the full Congress. Fryer distributed the text in mimeographed form to the delegates. - Ed.

Hammersmith Congress of the Communist Party: The Militant, New York, Apr 29 1957

Whenever the rebel side looked like scoring a goal, the government side had a device for moving the goalposts back a few hundred yards. And when this failed, hidden machine guns mowed down the rebel team.

The Hammersmith Congress of the Communist Party was for all the world like that nightmare football match in Rex Warner's The Wild Goose Chase.

In the few days since the SWP's annual conference (13-15 December) there has been a flurry of public resignations by members of the Rebuilding the Party faction, including SWP old-timer Ian Birchall (here), the authorised biographer of SWP founder Tony Cliff.

On Monday, December 9, for the third time in 18 months, a false allegation of unprofessional conduct was made against NUT activist Liam Conway. In the two previous cases Liam also faced false allegations of bullying. So far no witnesses have been found to substantiate the case against Liam, whilst over 30 NUT and other trade union activists have submitted witnesses statements categorically stating that Liam has never bullied anyone. Indeed the witnesses make clear that in his working and trade union life Liam has fought bullies wherever he has found them.

Peter Fryer reported for the Communist Party's Daily Worker from Budapest during the Hungarian workers' revolution of 1956. His reports were suppressed because they told the truth about what was happening. The CP's support for the Russian invasion which suppressed it, led Fryer to break politically with the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Stalinism it embodied. He became a Trotskyist and joined the organisation led by Gerry Healy. He wrote these reports for The Militant (USA), October-November 1957.

Below: Peter Fryer in 1957