"MY MUM used to tell us about life under Thatcher in the 1980s, when hundreds of jobs went every day and half of industry went to the wall. I could only imagine what that was like-until now."
THE LEADERS of the world's richest countries are just over two weeks away from a meeting aimed at pumping more money out of the poorest people across the globe. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is due to meet in Qatar, a despotic regime in the Middle East, in the second week of November.
ANYONE WHO listened to the debate in parliament on 8 October about the war in Afghanistan would have been struck immediately by one fact-nobody spoke clearly for an immediate end to the attacks by the US and Britain. A handful of MPs raised serious questions about the war aims, details of the attacks and what should happen next. But nobody said the war was wrong in principle.
THE SOCIALIST Worker Appeal has shot up by over £14,000 in the last week. Our readers and supporters have raised a total of £75,332 so far. Every penny of this is being thrown into campaigning against the war, and the cuts and privatisation Blair is trying to sneak through.
"BLACK WEDNESDAY". That was the Mirror's banner headline last week as the scale of the job cuts sweeping Britain became clear. Behind the figures lie workers whose lives will be devastated as they are thrown on the dole. Thousands more workers will be terrified that they too could be caught in the jobs cull.
"WE WERE just herded out onto the streets." So said Jeanette Dearden, one of 700 workers at two Viasystems factories on Tyneside who have been thrown out of work.
The exchange between longstanding anti-war activist Tariq Ali and Peter Hain took place at a 200-strong fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference after Tony Blair delivered his speech.
Tony Blair summed up Labour's mission as, "Let us reorder this world," when he spoke at the Labour conference last week. He said the "international community" could sort out the world's problems. But when Blair talks of the "international community" he does not mean ordinary people showing solidarity with one another.
THE spectacular collapse of Railtrack ought to be the final nail in the coffin for privatisation. Shareholders were screaming for compensation this week. And Railtrack was threatening legal action to free up £350 million to hand to them.
TUBE DRIVERS in London were set to strike on Friday of this week in a dispute that should be a rallying point for everyone opposed to New Labour's privatisation plans for London Underground.
AS THE New McLabour conference pushed an agenda of war and privatisation, Socialist Worker responded by taking to the streets to support the Brighton protest against privatisation and for peace.
"THE WHOLE conference has been an exercise in avoiding debates. "It's incredible that we have avoided the issue over public services and have not taken a position on Star Wars."
