DO YOU think there's going to be a Winter of Discontent? I THINK there is a real possibility. Before the attacks in New York on 11 September we saw a rising mood of bitterness in the trade unions over privatisation, and discussions about breaking the link between the unions and New Labour. That was beheaded on 11 September. When the TUC conference was called off, so was the debate over privatisation. Blair got away scot free.
BLINDFOLDED, hooded and manacled-that's how Afghan prisoners have arrived at the US military base on Guantanamo Bay. The Taliban and Al Qaida suspects were dragged stumbling and terrified from a cargo plane. Some had been diagnosed with TB. Others were drugged. Some had their beards forcibly shaved off. They were not allowed to use toilets during the 27-hour flight from Kandahar.
TWO ISRAELI bulldozers rolled into the Palestinian refugee camp in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Thursday of last week. Guarded by Israeli soldiers, they crushed the homes of 112 families, leaving over 600 people homeless, around half of them children. The Israelis also tore up the runway of Gaza airport.
transport chaos bosses attack union action scares companies and labour
THE UPRISING in Argentina shows that revolution is still possible in the modern world. It has shown mass action from below can topple governments and inflict a defeat on big business policies.
THE PEOPLE who did not vote at the general election last year are not apathetic. They are angry about the present state of the parties and many of them are disillusioned about the entire political set up.
THE EARLY 1970s were years of working class militancy and resistance. The recently released cabinet papers from 1971 show how top government meetings were constantly concerned with what was happening on the industrial scene. They reveal that strikes played a key role in determining government policy. The Tory government and prime minister Ted Heath began with a clear strategy - to shift a greater economic burden onto the working class. They wanted to cut public spending.
THE SOCIALIST Alliance is to provide a focus for a debate which is raging inside the trade union movement. The issue is whether the unions' political fund should go solely to the Labour Party or whether, because of Labour's right wing policies, it should also be open for union members to give money to other parties.
"I HAVE sent you some of the photos I took at the European Union summit demonstrations in Brussels on 13 and 14 December. Please feel free to use them in your publications. Yours in solidarity, Tim Jones."
KASHMIR IS at the centre of the conflict between India and Pakistan. Its total population is 12 million. Roughly nine million are in Indian- administered Jammu and Kashmir, and three million are in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
ARGENTINA'S CAPITALIST class is split down the middle on how to deal with the economic impact of the crisis that has brought dire poverty to millions across Argentina. The capitalists know this crisis is behind the uprising that toppled two presidents.
WAR, RECESSION, resistance. The three notes which marked last year will ring through the coming 12 months too. In Britain, 2001 began with job cuts and resistance, as 10,000 people marched in defence of Vauxhall workers' jobs, threatened by multinational General Motors.
