Socialist Worker

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Stop this endless war

They promised a new era "free from dictatorship". Instead the invasion of Iraq has delivered untold misery, violence and murder. Five years ago, as the US and British armies marched triumphantly into Iraq, George Bush and Tony Blair declared a victory "for democracy in the Middle East".

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International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

Medway Trades Union Council fights climate change

Members of Medway Trades Union Council in Kent have been inspired by a trade Union Conference to join the Campaign against Climate Change.

Reports round-up

Bus workers struggle over pay A group of bus workers in the Unite union working for Metroline in north and north west London met last week to discuss pay.

Anti academies conference

Over 200 people attended a conference against academies organised by South Eastern Region of the TUC and the Anti Academies Alliance, on Saturday of last week.

Further education lecturers ballot for action

Lecturers in further education in the UCU union will begin balloting this week over whether to take strike action against their below-inflation pay offer.

London teachers plan demonstration on strike day

London branches of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) have organised a demonstration and rally in London on 24 April.

Liverpool postal workers discuss future of Copperas Hill

Around 130 postal workers from Liverpool attended a meeting on Sunday of last week to discuss the future of the city’s Copperas Hill mail centre.

Strike at Shelter housing charity

Around 450 workers at housing charity Shelter struck on Wednesday of last week and Monday of this week – in the first strikes in the 41 years of the organisation’s existence.

Remploy sack thousands in Gordon Brown’s latest insult

After months of false promises from the Labour government, Remploy factories for disabled workers are closing around the country.

Unison activists appeal against ban on standing in elections

Leading Unison union activists Karen Reissmann and Yunus Bakhsh have appealed against the decision to bar them from re-standing for the union’s health executive.

Bosses' hard line in London Underground talks

London Underground management is taking a hard line in talks with the RMT and TSSA rail workers’ unions over a number of issues.

Celebrating International Women’s Day

Among the many events staged to mark International Women’s Day last week was the Capital Woman conference in London. The highlight of the event was a speech by the black revolutionary Angela Davis.

NHS round-up

Protest just what doctor ordered Respect’s Left List has helped launch a campaign to stop the takeover of three GP practices in north London by US multinational United Health.

Local government bosses forced into talks

Negotiations between unions and Birmingham council bosses over the imposition of a single status pay deal were continuing as Socialist Worker went to press.

Spinning neoliberalism

Neoliberalism and the embracing of the free market were not introduced in the US and Britain by accident or as a result only of the much vaunted hidden hand of the market. They had to be argued for, written about, and put into place by concrete actions.

Lindsey for London: ‘Vote against poverty, war and privatisation’

The battle over what kind of London we need is taking place across the capital in the run-up to the crucial 1 May elections.

Why Respect is standing as ‘Left List’ in London

Lindsey German was Respect’s mayoral candidate in the 2004 London elections. She was re-selected as Respect’s mayoral candidate last spring by over 300 Respect members at a properly convened all-London convention.

Acas fails to resolve dispute

PCS members in Acas, the government conciliation service, have voted for action over pay.

Historic strike by coastguards

Workers at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency took the first strike in their history on Thursday of last week over pay. The strike, by PCS and Prospect union members, severely affected services.

Civil service workers striking against neoliberal plans to attack pay and public services

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) pay strike next week is set to be the "strongest yet", say activists. The national strike by PCS union members is due for Monday 17 and Tuesday 18 March.

Former Guantanamo detainee to speak at World Against War march

Omar Deghayes, the British former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was released at the end of last year, will be speaking at the Stop the War demonstration in London this Saturday.

CND to rally at Aldermaston

Anti-war campaigners are meeting at Aldermaston in Berkshire on 24 March to encircle the nuclear research centre and call for it to be shut.

Posties’ crucial pensions battle

The fight by postal workers to defend their final salary pension scheme reaches an important stage this week.

Free Love Music Hate Racism carnival will rally anti-fascists

A host of bands, MCs and musicians are set to deliver a blow against the fascist British National Party (BNP) next month at the Love Music Hate Racism free carnival in Victoria Park, east London, on Saturday 27 April.

Scottish government should raise anti-war demands

Nicola Sturgeon, deputy first minister of Scotland and Scottish National Party (SNP) MSP, will address the World Against War demonstration in Glasgow this Saturday.

Cambridge campaign stops new Tesco store

Campaigners won a victory in Cambridge last week when councillors refused planning permission for an extension to Tesco’s proposed site. Some 350 people turned up to the meeting to urge councillors to vote against the proposals.

Gordon Brown’s policies mean most face spiralling debt

People in Britain are forced to work an average of 70 days a year just to pay the interest on their debts – and that’s before making any repayments on the amount borrowed.

Glasgow anti-war march draws over 5,000

Over 5,000 people marched through Glasgow on Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

40,000 march in London to mark fifth anniversary of Iraq war

Some 40,000 anti-war protesters took part in today's march in London to mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

Victories confirmed for Student Respect at Essex and Goldsmiths students' unions

Student Respect national committee members Dominic Kavakeb and Jennifer Jones have been elected to two of the most important student union sabbatical positions in the country.

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International

Iranian activists appeal for an end to US threats

Isa Saharkhiz

Full interview with Isa Saharkhiz

In the 1990s we witnessed the peak of the reform movement and the election of President Khatami. How would you compare the reform movement now, with that of the 1990s? What would you outline as the main factors that have held the movement back?

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Comment

Racism, sexism and the US elections

As president of the US, George Bush has brought us the "war on terror" and all the slaughter, racial profiling and occupation that entails.

The truth about the ‘white working class’

Being poor and white is oddly popular in certain circles at the moment.

Budget attacks the poor and benefits the rich

New Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling’s first budget has been generally described as dull. The reality for working people is more of the same. But while the repetition of all that has gone before – tax cuts for the rich and attacks on the poor – may be familiar, it is still deeply unpleasant.

The White Season's shabby attack on multiculturalism

White Season? Whitewash more like it. A backlash against multiculturalism has been gathering strength ever since the 7 July 2005 bombings in London. It has now become a tidal wave, sweeping through that supposed liberally temple, the BBC.

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Features

The struggles and retreats of the 1980s

By the late 1970s the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) was in decline on both sides of the Atlantic.

Iraq: a country pushed to the brink

For Iraqi refugees, 2007 was a year marked by new levels of misery. According to a survey of 1.5 million refugees in Syria, 78 percent had been forced to flee Baghdad during the "surge".

‘War on terror’ becomes a war without end

"We can’t agree it’s global, we can’t agree it’s terrorism, but we all generally agree it’s a war, and it’s going to be long," wrote James Carafano, a leading neocon "intellectual" of the Heritage Foundation.

‘Welfare to work’ and New Labour’s war on the vulnerable

New Labour has unveiled plans to attack some of the most vulnerable people in Britain.

Revolution and the party

The young Karl Marx wrote in 1845, "Philosophers have interpreted the world in various ways, the point however is to change it." The need to change the world has seldom been so obvious. $6 trillion has been spent on the Iraq war, while food prices soar and millions starve.

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Reviews

Naji al-Ali exhibition

This is a timely exhibition of work by Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali – gunned down in London in 1987 after lampooning Palestinian leaders.

Blame It On The Dogg - The Swamp Dogg anthology

In a lifelong career in black American music, the producer, singer, bandleader, talent scout and manager Swamp Dogg was consistently known as a maverick.

Human Rights Watch film festival

This festival brings 25 films from 19 countries to cinemas across London.

George Orwell and Year of the Rat

Welcome to the world of George Orwell in 1948. The novelist is desperately lonely, slowly dying and haunted by the nightmares of his past, yet determined to put the finishing touches to his anti-Stalinist classic Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Revolution 1968: politics and culture united

Forty years ago this week saw an iconic moment in the history of the anti-war movement.

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What We Think

More broken promises over Remploy

This week has seen a disgraceful betrayal of disabled workers at Remploy. Some 28 factories are closing and thousands are losing their jobs.

Jacqui Smith’s stealth tactics over identity cards

Home secretary Jacqui Smith has announced that ID cards are to become compulsory for "foreign nationals" – people in Britain from outside the European Union.

A single state is the only just solution for Palestine and Israel

People across the world are rightly horrified at the appalling violence and cruelty that has been meted out by Israel’s armed forces against the Palestinian population of Gaza.

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Other Categories

Leon Greenman 1910-2008

"Young and old alike must learn about the Holocaust as warning against the dangers of racism. There is no difference in colour or religion. If I had survived to betray the dead it would have been better not to survive. We must not forget. Please do not forget."Leon Greenman, Auschwitz survivor 98288

Tim: ‘I swear allegiance’

Letters

Letters

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