With IWCA councillors in Oxford standing for re-election in May, the following lyrics, penned by veteran singer-songwriter and political activist Christy Moore from his album ‘Smoke and Strong Whiskey’ and reproduced in his recent book ‘One Voice’, serve as a timely reminder of what can be achieved when communities stand up to drug dealers and other antisocial elements. (more…)

In the land of ‘equal opportunities’ some are clearly more equal than others, if the grants by the London Development Agency (LDA) described as the Mayor’s ‘business arm’ are anything to go by. Under the guiding hand of Lee Jasper, the principle race adviser to Mayor Ken Livingstone, the LDA, has been doling out grants to his friends and cronies, as if there is no tomorrow. (more…)

In a long forgotten interview published in a small left-wing journal over a decade ago, an IWCA representative predicted that in ten years or so, much of the welfare state including the NHS would be in the process of being done away with.

Almost certainly very few would have agreed with that prognosis then, though perhaps one or two more might see merit in the argument today, if the calamity currently being visited on working class dental patients is anything to go by. (more…)

‘It is our responsibility as socialists to untwist the working class’, a somewhat bemused Cllr Stuart Craft was informed at an Oxford Trades Council meeting just before Christmas. (more…)