Has Iraq finally turned the corner? George Bush certainly wants us to think so. And at first sight, his arguments look convincing. Large sections of the country – including the capital city Baghdad and the restive Anbar province in the west – are being handed over to the Iraqi army.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) government in Scotland recently announced its proposed legislative programme for the coming year.
Many people were shocked last week to hear that prison reform group Nacro, along with other well known charities, has teamed up with private security and construction firms to bid to build and run two new prisons.
Rachel works in a voluntary sector organisation supporting vulnerable tenants in East London. She has also worked for a national charity working with people with learning difficulties. She spoke to Socialist Worker.
Over the past few years New Labour has targeted the employment service for privatisation and outsourcing as part of its drive to get people off benefits.
Rising economic chaos is leading to the sudden return to prominence of an economist once thought largely consigned to history.
For the past two or more years – and especially since the September 2006 coup – Thai society has been hypnotised into forgetting about its real social and political issues. Instead, the whole of society – and, most tragically, the social movements – have been entranced by a fight between two factions of the Thai ruling class.
The British establishment doesn’t often, even inadvertently, remind us of our revolutionary past.
Farming bosses have recently been bemoaning the lack of workers to bring in the harvest this year. While this is a refreshing change from scare stories about "floods" of migrants it still ignores the fact that conditions for migrant workers in Britain are appalling.
In agriculture, as in other low paid sectors, many workers are supplied by gangmasters or "mediators". They sometimes flout minimum wage legislation by deducting inflated sums for housing and transport directly from workers’ pay.
Every year around 17,000 visas are granted to people from countries outside the European Union to come to Britain as domestic workers. The majority are women, carrying out jobs such as caring for children or other family members, cooking and cleaning.
