BUSH AND Blair would like to have United Nations (UN) backing for a war on Iraq. Opinion polls show that UN support would blunt opposition to a war from some people. Nobody should believe that UN support means that a war will be more just. Nor can the UN be relied on to block war.
James Thorne is a former commander in the Royal Tank Regiment. He was trained at Sandhurst, the elite school for army officers. James came from a military family and joined the army for a career. He served in Cyprus and Northern Ireland. He tells Socialist Worker why he is now opposed to war
TWO THINGS formed the background to last weekend's World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. One was the threat of a devastating war against Iraq within weeks. The other was the swing to the left in Latin America, expressed in the victory of left wing candidates in presidential elections in Brazil and Ecuador, and in the failure of the coup attempt against Hugo Chavez's government in Venezuela.
VIRGINIE is at Parswood Technical College in Manchester. "I want to study medicine so the idea of top-up fees really worries me. After three years you could have £20,000 of debt, but I might be at college for four, five or six years. I could be in debt for the rest of my life. I knew it would be hard just to live for three years at university-now it is worse, because it's not just living expenses but fees as well.
ANYONE WHO listened to Radio 4's Today news programme on Monday morning would have been shocked by the story of a south London family facing eviction. The mother spoke of how one of her children, now eight years old, had repeatedly tried to commit suicide, once tying a flex round his neck, on another occasion throwing himself in front of a car.
THE MEDIA have whipped up hysteria against refugees from Algeria after last week's killing of a police officer in Manchester. They paint a picture that those coming here from the North African country are all potential killers, linked to a dangerous network of Islamist terrorists. This is racist nonsense. And the real reasons people are fleeing Algeria are rarely even discussed.
HOW MANY dads get laughed at today if they take their child out to the shops, pushing a pram? I remember a TV documentary where one man described how he was ridiculed when he pushed his daughter in a pram to the shops. That was Britain in the 1950s. Today it is common to see men taking care of their children in public.
"IT'S A fight on two sides now, and everybody knows it. It's not just over pay. I've just seen Prescott on the TV and he's out to break our union and slash the UK fire service." That's what Mark Barter from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in Bedfordshire told Socialist Worker as firefighters and control staff launched their third strike on Tuesday.
BIRMINGHAM: Members of the FBU and other trade unionists lobbied the appeal by FBU activist Steve Godward in Birmingham last week against his sacking. The union sees what has happened to Steve, who also stood as a Socialist Alliance candidate at the general election, as a clear case of victimisation. The procedure at the appeal confirmed that. It found Steve guilty and jumped straight to upholding his sacking without even hearing the mitigation.
OPPOSITION TO war is growing in every part of Britain. From local areas in big towns to small towns and even villages people are getting organised to build for a monster-sized demonstration in London on 15 February.
The Stop the War Coalition conference in London last Saturday was a huge success. It was a historic gathering, reflecting the mushrooming anti-war movement right across Britain. "The anti-war majority is on the march and determined to win," said Labour MP George Galloway, giving one of the day's keynote speeches.
