DAVID BLUNKETT, the home secretary, lied through his teeth to get a refugee family deported at top speed from Britain. That scandal was revealed last week in a Home Office letter about the Ahmadi family, who fled from Afghanistan to Britain last year. The letter was a key piece of evidence used in a court hearing on Tuesday of last week.
HUNDREDS OF health workers packed into a social club in the East End of Glasgow last Friday evening. The celebration had been organised to mark a stunning victory. Over 300 health workers at the city's Glasgow Royal Infirmary took on the multinational firm Sodexho, which runs support services at the hospital, and won.
How Britain created Iraq Britain set up Iraq in 1922. The area had been three separate provinces-Basra, Baghdad and Mosul-which were part of the Ottoman Empire run from Turkey. Britain's rulers wanted the territory after oil reserves were discovered there in the late 19th century. The Anglo-Persian oil company had drilling rights across 500,000 square miles in the region.
ROBERT BROWN has spent 25 years in a British jail for a crime he insists he did not commit. The 45 year old Scot is Britain's longest serving prisoner who is now known to be a victim of a miscarriage of justice. His case was finally referred to the court of appeal this summer, but he was denied bail by Judge Roderick-Evans and it could be a year before his new hearing.
WHAT SHOULD socialists say about the European Union (EU) and the euro? It will be a hot issue if, as seems possible, New Labour calls a referendum before the next general election. Europe helped to tear apart the Tory party. It is causing growing tension inside the Labour Party. But there are many more important reasons to take up the debate.
DOW CHEMICALS is one of George Bush's favourite multinational companies. In June Bush awarded the company the National Medal of Technology. Dow Chemicals now owns a company called Union Carbide. Union Carbide was widely held to be responsible for the worst industrial massacre in history - the Bhopal disaster. The chemical industry is pushing to prevent the introduction of new health and safety laws at next week's Earth Summit.
THE LABOUR Party faces its worst ever cash crisis. It has debts of more than £8 million. At the end of last month Labour was having trouble paying its daily running costs and called a special meeting of the trade union liaison committee to beg for a £100,000 emergency handout.
Richard, A 20 year old Afro-Caribbean man, has become the latest victim of a series of serious racist attacks in the area where black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered nine years ago. There have been four attacks in the last three months in Eltham, south east London, where the British National Party had its headquarters.
FLOODS, FAMINES, hurricanes - such wild and unpredictable weather patterns seem to have got more common over the last few decades. And there is a growing body of evidence that points to the increasing impact of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution as the cause. The latest report of the way capitalist society threatens people and the planet we live on came this week from a team of scientists working for the United Nations.
A POLITICAL show trial of 87 people began in Johannesburg this week. The accused face serious charges arising from demonstrations against privatisation and for the right to basic services.
THE GOVERNMENT recently published a draft bill that proposes tough new laws for people with mental health problems. The measures include giving psychiatrists new powers to force people in the community to undergo compulsory treatment such as injections.
THE European Social Forum, which takes place in Florence, Italy, in November, promises to be one of the most exciting political events for years. Thousands of activists, from across Europe and from a range of political backgrounds, will be discussing how we can create a better world.
