Liverpool University has said it will sack 2,800 workers and rehire them on inferior contracts — or sack them if they refuse.

Unions representing Liverpool University workers have described this as a “gun to the head”. Jo MacNeill, president-elect of the UCU lecturers’ union at Liverpool University, spoke to Solidarity:

Everyone from gardeners to managers is in the firing line — it’s 52% of staff. We think that this attack is a move towards much more of a “business model” for the university, away from it being an academic institution.

Two hundred thousand people marched in Brazil’s biggest cities on Monday 17 June against rising public transport costs. Further demonstrations are planned on the day we go to press (Thursday 20th).

On 15 June many thousands of people were allowed on to the streets of Tehran and other cities to celebrate the “election” of Hassan Rohani as “president” of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Rohani’s “landslide victory” quickly brought about statements from Ali Khamenei, the Leader, and many notable clergy, state institutions and political groupings congratulating him. Even the pasdaran, the so-called “Revolutionary Guards”, were quick to pledge their loyalty.

Unison members in local government recently voted by 59%, on a low turnout, to accept a 1% pay deal.

Although the ballot was already over by the time Unison’s Local Government Sector conference met in Liverpool (16-17 June), many activists felt the union leadership had failed to lead. The Local Government Service Group Executive voted by 14-13 to describe the deal as “the best that can be achieved through negotiation”, a de facto endorsement.

Non-payment and partial payment of the extra rent social housing tenants have to pay because of the Bedroom Tax is beginning to put pressure on the policy.

Leeds City Council has said about 50% of its affected tenants are in arrears and this is expected to rise. Many other local authorities and housing associations have similar levels of arrears.

The civil war in Syria has degraded further into region-wide sectarian conflict.

This follows the Assad government in Syria retaking the town of Qusair, near the Lebanese border, in early June, with the help of the Lebanese Shia-Islamist militia Hezbollah.

500 teachers marched in London on 25 June to show support for the strike by teachers in the North West on 27 June.

The demonstration was a credit to the activists who had brought delegations and banners from their schools, but no credit to the supposedly left-wing leadership of the National Union of Teachers.

The 27 June regional strike is supposed to be a step in a long, slow - all too slow - campaign of industrial action by the National Union of Teachers, now in alliance with the NASUWT, on pay, workload, and even pensions.

(Alison Brown chairing the opening plenary on Saturday, with Theodora Polenta, Janine Booth, Ed Whitby and Elaine Jones speaking - for the full agenda see here)

Pretty much any “in house” report of a political conference will tell you that it was a success – and looking back on reports of recent “Ideas for Freedom” conferences organised by Workers' Liberty, some of the write ups have been a bit bland and general.

The opening plenary of Ideas for Freedom 2013 explored key "Marxist ideas to turn the tide". Unite activist Elaine Jones discussed the idea of a workers' government, Unison shop steward Ed Whitby explained the meaning of "transitional demands" such as the call for the expropriation of the banks, and Greek revolutionary Theodora Polenta shared recent experiences of struggle and workers' control in Greece.

Click here to hear the recording.

Camila Bassi spoke at the AWL weekend school, "Ideas for Freedom" (23 June 2013), about sexual violence across the world, and in particular the debates on the Indian left after the Delhi protests following a gang rape in the city in December 2012.