Students prepared to fight Scottish Government on SQA results scandal
Yesterday (4 August 2020), Challenge covered how the Scottish Government and Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) had committed an clear class war against working class and deprived schoolchildren, awarding a significant number of children grades which were much lower than that which their teachers and preliminary grades had predicted.
Domestic abuse rates rise sharply during lockdown
Statistics released this week revealed a steep rise in domestic abuse during the coronavirus lockdown which has left existing services stretched. According to the charity Refuge in the first three months of the of the lockdown in Britain over 40,000 calls were made to the National Domestic Abuse Hotline.
Tory pay rise for public sector workers not all it’s cracked up to be
This morning (21 July 2020) Tory Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced that around 900,000 public sector workers are due to receive an “above-inflation pay rise”, for their “vital contribution during the Coronavirus pandemic”. From doctors to teachers to police and prison officers, all are being offered pay increases up to 3.1%.
Johnson promises we’ll be back in the trenches by Christmas despite warnings from NHS & chief scientific adviser
Plans announced by Boris Johnson for a “significant return to normality” by Christmas at yesterday’s (17 July 2020) coronavirus briefing have been roundly criticised by trade unions, the NHS, the government’s chief scientific adviser and the devolved administrations.
649,000 jobs lost during lockdown; youth among the hardest hit
With the worst very much still to come, Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures released today (16 July 2020) indicate that at least 649,000 jobs were lost between March and June as the country was in lockdown to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Communist Party launches new ‘Pandemonium’ series
To celebrate their centenary on 1 August 2020, the Communist Party is hosting a series of free, online lectures every evening from Friday 24 – Friday 31 July to provoke and inspire the imagination.
YCL: Summer Budget “less than a drop in the ocean compared to what is really needed”
The Executive Committee of the Young Communist League last night (8 July 2020) released a statement in response to the Government’s Summer Budget.
The US buy up of Remdesivir is emblematic of capitalism’s restrictive grip on human progress
The Trump administration’s bulk purchase of the COVID-19 drug illustrates the stranglehold of monopolies on capitalist governments and global development as a whole, writes Michael Quinn.
Online activism during COVID-19
Amy Field makes the case for better use of social media in organising based on her recent success fundraising for the people’s daily, the Morning Star.
CP Executive Committee: Tories face ‘heavy reckoning’
‘This Tory government will face a heavy reckoning for its disastrous response to the COVID-19 crisis’, Communist Party General Secretary Robert Griffiths told the party’s online Executive Committee meeting at the weekend.
