THE ROYAL family are supposed to be role models for the rest of us. They are held up as examples of devotion to duty, and symbols of national unity and pride. We are expected to curtsey, bow and scrape before them. But the revelations after the collapse of the trial of butler Paul Burrell have exposed the reality.
THE US is preparing for slaughter in Iraq. The administration may be hoping that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein could be ousted by a military coup. But Bush is willing to unleash a bloody battle that will raze Iraq to the ground.
UP TO a million people marched against war through the Italian city of Florence last Saturday. All day they arrived to swell the city to two or three times its normal size. The march was a dense, colourful and energetic show of total opposition to any attack by Bush and Blair on Iraq.
"THE BEST army in the world." This is how the New Labour government and right wing papers like the Sun describe the British army. As Britain gears up to back George Bush's planned attack on Iraq they will be piling on the pro-war and pro-army propaganda. Through the media they promote the image of "our brave boys" putting their lives at risk to defend democracy.
"YOU CAN'T get elected if you're a Blairite." That comment about the swathe of left union leaders who have been elected recently came from John Edmonds, outgoing general secretary of the GMB union. It's a breath of fresh air to see left wing leaders replace the likes of Sir Ken Jackson in the AEEU-Amicus union. They have been dubbed the "awkward squad".
EVERY YEAR hundreds of workers are killed at work, and thousands more suffer injuries from unsafe working conditions. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the official body charged with ensuring safety standards at work.
It was 80 years ago that fascism first came to power, and it happened in Italy. There is a myth that Benito Mussolini seized power after his March on Rome and the occupation of the city by his fascist shock troops. Fascist columns did assemble at four points near the city – but they were lightly armed, ill fed and left standing in the rain.
"WILDCAT Chaos." That was the front page headline of the Daily Record, Scotland's biggest selling newspaper, on Friday of last week. It was responding to, and trying to vilify, the unofficial walkouts by hundreds of workers in Glasgow hospitals and the Glasgow underground. Clerical and administration workers in nine hospitals in North Glasgow NHS Trust, mainly women, walked out on Thursday and Friday. Around half the workers at Gartnavel Hospital had joined the strike by Monday of this week.
THE EUROPEAN Social Forum (ESF) in Florence, Italy, vastly exceeded even the most optimistic predictions. It did not just succeed-it was a political triumph. Around 60,000 people took part in the three days of meetings leading up to the anti-war demonstration. People came from every continent, and from 105 countries. There were students and trade unionists, unemployed people and pensioners, activists and campaigners.
OPPOSITION TO war on Iraq dominated many of the debates and discussions in Florence. Thousands of people crammed into meetings and forums determined to build a united, strong, mass anti-war movement. An overwhelming majority agreed with a call to turn 15 February into a united Europe-wide day of protest.
THOUSANDS OF trade unionists came to the European Social Forum. Their numbers reflected the rise in workers' struggle in much of Europe. There were members of many British unions present, including the CWU, RMT, Amicus, Unison, PCS, NUJ, Natfhe, Prospect, NUT and TGWU. There were more than 2,000 people at just one of the meetings on trade union struggles.
SIX THOUSAND people packed into a huge hangar-like room 150 yards long for a debate on relations between parties and the movement. Bernard Cassen from ATTAC, the movement against financial speculation, said it was "born out of the disillusion with the failure of political parties and unions to deliver the ecological and social policies people want.
