THE GOVERNMENT'S decision to suspend the Northern Ireland Assembly is supposed to be a response to alleged spying by a Republican (see below) supporter. In fact, Tony Blair's decision says to Northern Ireland's Unionists that all is well and the Catholics have been dumped on again. When the Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998 the vast majority of Irish people, Catholic and Protestant, hoped for an end to violence and some sort of normality.
The appeal is more than halfway towards its target. A big thank you to all those who have contributed so far. The respect for SOCIALIST WORKER among trade unionists for its anti-war message and for standing up to Blair is demonstrated by the success of workplace collections.
THE MASSIVE demonstration against war on Iraq surpassed everyone's expectations in its size, unity and spirit.Lindsey German, the convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, spoke to us about what the anti-war movement plans next.
THE US and Britain want war on Iraq no matter what. That is the only possible meaning of the resolution which the US and Britain want to bribe and bully the rest of the United Nations (UN) Security Council into accepting.
THE WARMONGERS would have us believe that Saddam Hussein is a uniquely evil dictator who they have always opposed. In fact he is the product of four decades of intervention in Iraq and the Middle East, first by both superpowers during the Cold War, and then by the US and its allies. He could not have come to power without the West.
SIX MILLION people in Britain have had letters this year warning that they may not be able to pay off the mortgages on their homes. Millions more with similar "endowment" mortgages will get such letters in the coming months.
"HOW CAN you support the strikes for more pay by London tube workers when they are already on £30,000 a year?" That question was posed by someone at a Marxist forum in London last week. It reflects a wider debate, fanned by bitterly hostile coverage of the tube strikes in much of the media.
These newly designed T-shirts for the SOCIALIST WORKER AUTUMN APPEAL went down a storm on Saturday's anti-war demonstration. Fashion and politics really can mix! The T-shirts catch the anti-war spirit.
LABOUR conference delegates inflicted a serious defeat on Tony Blair's privatisation policies on Monday. By a vote of 67 percent to 33 percent they called for an independent review of the use of private finance in public services - the government's PFI and PPP schemes.
IT IS not only six Asian men who are on trial at Preston Crown Court following last year's disturbances in Burnley. At stake also is the principle of when people have the right to defend themselves.
ONE IN three of Britain's 12 million children live in poverty, a figure that has hardly changed since New Labour came to office. That stark figure brings home how little all the government's initiatives, and its babble about "social inclusion", have achieved. A wide-ranging survey, commissioned by Save the Children and carried out by researchers at the University of York, has just been released.
TONY BLAIR'S policy of supporting Bush over war with Iraq is causing the biggest turmoil inside the Labour Party for 20 years. In 1982 important sections of the right wing went from Labour to form the Social Democratic Party. This time it is the left who are outraged by the party's direction. The debate on the war at this week's conference gave one sign of the bitter mood. It involved leaders of some of the most important trade unions, still the bedrock of Labour, pitting themselves against the leadership. The revolt in parliament last week, when 56 Labour MPs voted against the government, was another important indication.
