Solidarity 247, 23 May 2012

Soaring cost of childcare

No wonder it is expensive to bring up children. In January 2012, childcare costs were a whopping £63,099 of a total cost of raising a child until their 21st birthday of £218,000. A recent report by Conservative MP Elizabeth Truss shone a spotlight on this; the report said UK has the second highest costs of childcare in Europe: 26.6% of average family incomes, or 40.9% of the average UK wage. Truss sees a solution in simplified regulation — freeing up workers to care for more children at the same time. Under current rules there has to be one carer for three children aged five or younger. Truss...

Who are the Greek left?

In the Greek left, the Syriza coalition and the KKE are the biggest groups, but there are many others. This briefing describes the background to Syriza and KKE, and to some of the groups in Greece which consider themselves Trotskyist. Syriza is an alliance of 13 left parties and groups. The dominant force in it is Synaspismos. It was formed in 2004 (with only five groups in the alliance then). It campaigns now, and campaigned in the run-up to 6 May, for a left-unity government. After 6 May it proposed six points to other parties after 6 May as conditions for Syriza’s participation in a...

Morocco - questions for the Movement of 20 February, one year on

For more coverage of the Moroccan Movement of 20 February, see here On the 19 and 20 of February, on the first anniversary of the movement in Morocco, rallies and demonstrations took place in dozens of towns. To those who talk of the movement running out of steam after the departure of Al Adl Wal Ihsan [a hard-right Islamist movement which left the movement of 20 February in December 2011] or because of the difficulty of becoming a comprehensive and credible alternative, the streets have made a retort. One year on, although the movement has not won its demands, the determination is still there...

John Carlos: "It's not about winning medals - it's about being a freedom fighter"

(In the 1968 picture, John Carlos is on the right.) There must have been at least seven or eight hundred people at the 21 May public meeting organised by the rail workers' union RMT and the firefighters' union FBU. The meeting was addressed by the legendary John Carlos , one of the black athletes who raised his fist at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics as part of a protest against racism and poverty (see here ) - and a number of equally inspiring speakers from anti-racist struggles in Britain, as well as trade unionists. Pretty much the whole room was on its feet again and again for standing...

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