Socialist Worker

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People power rocks Iran

There is a new popular power sweeping Iran. In one of the biggest mass demonstrations since the toppling of the US-backed Shah in 1979, some one million people descended onto the streets of the capital Tehran to protest at an election widely seen as rigged.

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International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

Open Letter to the left responses: How we can join together

The open letter to the left is a good move. We desperately need to make the things that unite us count more than the things that divide us.

Tube workers defiant as their action hits home

Thousands of RMT transport union members on London Underground and Transport for London responded magnificently to a series of attacks on them by taking part in a solid 48-hour strike last week.

Where next for crucial London Underground fight?

The RMT and London Underground management are to hold talks over the dispute in the coming days.

The three key issues in the London Underground dispute

Jobs London Underground is cutting 1,000 jobs while Transport for London could slash 3,000 jobs. Neither company has ruled out compulsory redundancies.

Tube drivers’ union leaders fail the test

Leaders of the Aslef train drivers’ union told their members to continue to work as normal during the strike.

CWU opposes BT deal

For the first time in many years delegates to the CWU union’s telecom conference threw out a proposal from our executive.

No to private doctors in Camden

It was standing room only as 120 tenants from the Regents Park Estate in Camden, north London, attended a meeting called by Keep our NHS Public last week about plans for a new so-called "GP-led health centre".

London Met Unison ballot for action

Members of the Unison union at London Metropolitan University are balloting for industrial action over planned job cuts.

Barrow academy faces protest

Activists in Barrow, Cumbria, opposed to turning comprehensive schools into academies have called a protest on Friday of this week.

Hackney Community College rally against cuts

An angry protest against the threat of job losses at Hackney Community College took place on Thursday of last week.

Leeds College of Art and Design picket for pay rise

Around 30 lecturers in the UCU union at Leeds College of Art and Design (LCAD) picketed their college on Wednesday of last week as part of their union’s "IOU" campaign to win the implementation of a nationally agreed pay rise.

Strike over Yale College redundancies

Teachers in the NASUWT union at Yale College in Wrexham have voted for strike action in protest at planned redundancies. Around 20 jobs are under threat.

Strike threat gets results at Northumberland College

The threat of strike action at Northumberland College has forced management to guarantee no compulsory redundancies. Workers in the UCU union have withdrawn their strike plans as a result.

Bristol College ballot on staffing review

Workers at the City of Bristol College are balloting for strike action over job losses.

City College Birmingham cuts spark strike

Lecturers at City College Birmingham took strike action on Tuesday of this week against job cuts.

GMB conference: Divided loyalties as government hits crisis

The crisis in the Labour Party dominated early debates at the annual GMB union conference in Blackpool.

Sacked militant Rob Williams reinstated

Rob Williams, the Unite union convenor at the Linamar (ex-Visteon) plant in Swansea, South Wales, has been reinstated after being sacked in April.

Construction workers walk out over union-busting

Workers at Total’s Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire went out on unofficial strike on Thursday of last week after some were threatened with redundancy.

Exposed: construction bosses’ secret plans to block national strike

Secret documents seen by Socialist Worker show how building bosses are planning to prevent a successful vote for action in the national engineering construction ballot.

Labour hypocrisy on planned cuts

Gordon Brown renewed his attack on the Tories’ plans to slash public spending if they win the next general election at the GMB union congress in Blackpool this week.

Walkouts over job cuts at Tower Hamlets college

Students and workers at Tower Hamlets College, east London, are involved in a rollercoaster campaign to stop education cuts and defend jobs.

Fight for the Right to Work conference calls for united battle for jobs

Over 300 trade unionists, students and unemployed workers came together in London last Saturday to build a united response to the crisis that threatens millions of people with unemployment, job insecurity, low pay and poverty.

Wave of strikes to hit Royal Mail

Business secretary Lord Mandelson’s plans to hand a chunk of the Royal Mail to a private equity firm are set to receive a blow on Friday, as 10,000 postal workers in London prepare to strike.

Post bosses’ interference increases the anger

Royal Mail’s challenge to some of the London strike ballots means that three big offices – Nine Elms, Mount Pleasant and Rathbone Place – will not be on strike this week.

Unity needed to beat post privatisation

Solidarity from other workers is critical to the fight against post privatisation, says CWU rep Mark Dolan.

Port workers told not to strike

Boat workers at the Port of Liverpool who were on the verge of striking have been threatened with losing £5,000 and further redundancies if they take action.

Leeds rallies against Nazis

A 600-strong rally against the Nazi British National Party took place in Leeds on Saturday of last week. Trade unionists, community representatives, LGBT and disabled groups and Unite Against Fascism all addressed the rally.

Stead workers accept deal

Workers at the Stead McAlpin textile factory in Cummersdale, near Carlisle, have voted to accept cuts to their pay, and terms and conditions to keep the factory open.

Glasgow council battles continue

Last week’s planned indefinite strike action by 1,300 GMB, Unison and Unite union members in Glasgow council’s land and environmental services department was called off after concessions were made.

Unison conference: How to resist attacks on the public sector

Delegates to the Unison union’s national conference met in Brighton against a backdrop of political turmoil, economic crisis and a profound threat hanging over the future of public services.

Unison calls for end to PFI

The government should call time on the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which will cost £217 billion in repayments over the next 25 years, says a report from the Unison union.

Unison conference motions

At the beginning of conference a number of delegates challenged the standing orders committee over motions and amendments that had been ruled out of order.

Defend Yunus Bakhsh

The scandal surrounding the victimisation of Yunus Bakhsh, the widely-respected black trade unionist from Newcastle, has plumbed new depths.

No ‘green shoots’ of recovery for the young

With journalists sighting "green shoots of economic recovery" everywhere, Socialist Worker lists a few sobering facts about youth unemployment and poverty that present a different story

Iraq war inquiry to be kept secret

Anti-war campaigners protested on Monday as Gordon Brown announced that the government’s inquiry into the Iraq war will be held in secret.

Soas: Did bosses target their cleaners for deportation?

Were bosses of one of the most multicultural colleges in London complicit in an immigration raid that led to cleaners being deported to a country under a brutal regime?

The Soas raid and the mystery of the missing employer

The immigration raid at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) has raised many questions. But there is one you might have expected would have a clear answer – who employed the cleaners?

Immigration laws made for bosses

Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable, as fear of deportation often means they put up with worse pay and conditions.

Photo of Soas student occupation

March for Tamil rights

The British Tamils Forum has called a March to defend the Tamils in Sri Lanka, to remember the tens of thousands killed in the government offensive earlier this year and the hundreds of thousands now locked in government displacement camps.

Iran's rulers divided as anger bursts onto the streets

The elections in Iran, and the mass protests against fraud that followed, have revealed the deep divisions at the heart of Iran’s ruling class.

Lies, treachery and bribes at the heart of the Iranian system

Iran is a country ravaged by corruption. Ordinary people have to pay bribes for services to policemen and state officials.

State was born in revolution

The Islamic Republic of Iran was created by a mighty, popular revolution 30 years ago that overthrew the Shah.

Cleaners demand respect at City Hall demo

Around 25 cleaners and their supporters lobbied Tory mayor Boris Johnson at City Hall in London today to demand that he fulfils his promise to guarantee the London Living Wage of £7.60 an hour to all cleaners working on Greater London Authority (GLA) and Transport for London (TfL) contracts in the city.

Student occupation wins victory at Soas

Students occupying at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) have won an important victory in their campaign to win justice for deported and detained cleaners from the school.

Solidarity with Romanian families in Belfast

Email messages of support to the chair of the Anti-racism network in Belfast <a href="mailto:Bmuldoon2000@yahoo.co.uk">Bmuldoon2000@yahoo.co.uk</a>

Attacks on Romanians in Belfast reflect the sectarian state

The simmering sectarianism that still dominates Northern Ireland has boiled over this week with more than 100 Romanians forced out of their homes in a series of racist attacks in Belfast.

The sacking of the Lindsey workers is a challenge for the whole working class

The sacking of 900 workers at the Lindsey Oil Refinery (LOR) is an attack on every trade unionist in the country.

Striking London postal workers defy bosses

Striking postal workers in London and Edinburgh have delivered a blow to bullying Royal Mail managers and their attempts to undermine the union by ramming through &#147;cost saving&#148; measures.

Post workers on the picket line

Protest at parliament against holding Iraq enquiry in private

The Stop the War Coalition has called a protest outside parliament at 2pm this Wednesday, demanding "No Whitewash, No Cover Up", in the Iraq enquiry.

Sign statement supporting Lindsey strikers online

Add your name online to the statement in support on the 900 sacked construction workers.

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International

Shell makes payment over oil campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa's death

In an out of court settlement oil multinational Shell has paid £9.5 million to the family of Nigerian author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. The family had taken the company to court in New York, accusing it of complicity in the execution of Saro-Wiwa in 1995.

Police move onto university campus in Brazil

Striking students, staff and professors have faced brutal police repression at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, the largest university in South America, with more than 75,000 students.

Peru: Hundreds dead in attacks

According to Peruvian president Alan García, the Amazonian peoples "are not first class citizens".

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Comment

Probation: Labour passes buck over crime

There are depressing similarities between the case of the two young French students Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, brutally murdered in south London last July, and the case of Baby Peter, who died a slow and painful death in 2007 at the hands of his carers.

Has the Labour left lost its Compass?

New Labour’s devastation in the European and county council elections has led some commentators to speculate whether the party is finished as a political force in Britain.

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Features

Economic crisis and the right

The media reacted with surprise and some satisfaction as it proclaimed the right were the big winners of the recent European elections.

Why the Nazis hate democracy

Thousands of anti-­fascists were cheered to see the British National Party’s (BNP) leader Nick Griffin driven from an attempted press conference by some well-aimed eggs last week.

Racist ideas fuel the BNP

The election of two fascist BNP MEPs has led to predictably craven reactions from some quarters.

Anti-fascist diary

Reporting the BNP Meeting for journalists at National Union of Journalists (NUJ) headquarters, 308 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8DPThursday 18 June, 6.30pm Events are also being organised outside London, for details email <a href="mailto:campaigns@nuj.org.uk">campaigns@nuj.org.uk</a>

Post workers reject BNP: ‘I’m damned if I’m going to deliver their racist filth’

Hundreds of thousands of leaflets for the fascist British National Party (BNP) went undelivered during the recent elections after many postal workers used a "conscience clause" agreement with Royal Mail and refused to handle them.

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Reviews

More4 Miners' Strike Night

Can’t afford to go out this Saturday night? Don’t worry.

Sparks of Hope: Polish Paths to Freedom

This special season of free film screenings provides a unique opportunity to follow the revolt that 20 years ago liberated Polish society from Stalinist dictatorship.

Hidden Conversations - Terry Callier

Imagine you are sitting on a sun-kissed beach and playing in the background is one of those "Chilled Ibiza" soundtracks.

Futurism: worshipping the modern and damning the past

"We want to glorify war – the only cure for the world – militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman."

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What We Think

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Other Categories

Leon Kuhn: Nick Griffin

Tim: Inquiry

Letters

Resistance against fascism is on the rise The media seized on the election of Sharon Wilkinson, a fascist British National Party (BNP) member, as a county councillor in Burnley, Lancashire, as evidence of the onward march of the BNP and its consolidation in the town.

Quotes from the week's news

‘I am looking for every single part of the company to take part in some way in this cash-effective way of helping the company’s survival plan. It really counts.’British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh asks staff to work for free for up to a month

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