With the working class facing an onslaught of attacks on pay, conditions, and services, the garish carnival of the coronation is being met with apathy and revulsion. Socialist Appeal stands for the total abolition of the monarchy, and for a socialist republic of Britain!

This year’s May Day celebrations are taking place against a backdrop of bitter strikes and struggles, with teachers, nurses, and civil servants all walking out in the coming days. To win, the working class needs a revolutionary leadership. This article was originally published by Socialist Appeal on 27 April.

On 17 April, British police arrested Ernest Moret, a French publisher, as he exited a train from Paris to London on a work trip. The arrest was carried out using British anti-terrorism laws, on the grounds that Moret had taken part in the recent protests against the Macron government in France. This is not only an attack on the basic democratic right to protest, but a clear sign of collusion between the French and British authorities to victimise those who dare to speak out against them.

This week, Labour’s ruling body voted to prevent Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour MP. Subsequently, many on the left have raised the idea of a new workers’ party. The key unresolved question, however, is that of revolutionary leadership.

The British establishment is heralding the adoption of the Windsor Framework, the latest UK-EU trading arrangement. But this deal will do nothing to resolve the tensions in the North of Ireland. Only united class struggle can offer a way forward.

In Britain, members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) at Network Rail – the body which runs most of Britain's railway network – have voted to accept an improved pay deal, secured thanks to months of determined strike action. But the threat of attacks on jobs and conditions still looms. Workers must remain vigilant and fight for nationalisation.

Following backroom negotiations with Tory ministers, union leaders in Britain are recommending acceptance of a paltry pay offer for health workers. Grassroots members should mobilise to reject this deal – and demand fighting leadership and militant action.

The SNP has a new leader, following the sudden resignation of Nicola Sturgeon. Her departure has revealed all the cracks within the party, which is increasingly falling apart. Workers and youth must fight for a Scottish Workers’ Republic.

From 17-19 March, hundreds of comrades from Socialist Appeal (British section of the International Marxist Tendency) met for this year’s national conference. The mood was one of optimism, enthusiasm, and dedication, with a laser focus on the task ahead: to build the forces of Marxism in Britain and beyond.

In Britain, hundreds of thousands of workers have gone on strike in recent weeks – the latest wave in Britain’s strike tsunami. Not since the 1970s has the country seen such levels of industrial action. We must learn the lessons from this period of struggle.

Establishment golden boy Rishi Sunak has been receiving praise in the press recently, having negotiated a deal for the North of Ireland. But any hopes of lasting peace between Britain and the EU – or within the Tory Party – will quickly fade.

As the crisis of British capitalism deepens, drama at the top is playing out alongside a rising strike wave from below. North and south of the border, the political establishment is being shaken to its core. Revolutionary explosions impend.

Promoted by some activists as a means of combating oppression, identity politics is increasingly being used by the establishment to attack the left and the labour movement. Workers and youth must fight back with revolutionary class struggle.

In a bombshell speech, Nicola Sturgeon announced that she will be stepping down as SNP leader and Scottish First Minister. Sturgeon’s resignation comes at a time when her party and government are looking increasingly rudderless: battered by a litany of failures and false starts, and now facing a stormy period of strikes, austerity, and crisis.

Sector after sector of workers are joining the growing strike wave. Further coordinated walkouts are in store, following Wednesday’s day of action. To strengthen the movement, these struggles need to be united and organised from top to bottom.

1 February was the biggest day of coordinated strike action in over a decade, with half a million out on strike. We spoke to workers at picket lines and demos up and down the country about their fight against the bosses’ attacks and the Tories’ anti-union bill.

The Tories are once again whipping up another divisive culture war, blocking attempts to introduce gender recognition reforms in Scotland. But this cynical move will fail in its aims – to distract from the rising tide of class struggle.

The horrific case of serial sex offender and serving officer David Carrick is yet another reminder of how the institution of the police is rotten to the core. Workers and youth must fight to sweep the whole system into the dustbin of history.

With industrial militancy growing and spreading across Britain, the Tories and bosses are pushing for further restrictions on workers’ right to strike. The trade union leaders must organise a militant fightback to smash these laws to pieces.

The NHS is in the midst of a deep crisis. Chaos is unfolding in A&Es, with record-breaking wait times. This catastrophe has been a long time coming – the result of years of austerity and privatisation. But health workers are fighting back.