Issue: 2252
Dated: 21 May 2011
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Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers are preparing to go into battle against the Tory government.
Teachers at City secondary school in Sheffield, south Yorkshire, are to ballot for strikes against a compulsory redundancy.
A terrible deal is on the table at British Airways (BA)—and the Unite union is backing it.
Two Coventry schools struck against academies on Friday of last week. Some 70 teachers in the NUT and NASUWT unions were involved in the strike at Tile Hill Wood School – a huge majority – with a further 30 NUT members striking at Woodlands School.
Activists debated whether nuclear power has any place in the fight against climate change at a meeting organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change last week.
Thursday 30 June is set to be the next major day of resistance to the Tories’ plans to punish ordinary working people for the failures of their banker buddies.
Anne Lemon, NUT executive member for North Somerset, spoke to Socialist Worker about building the strike ballot:
More than 200 trade unionists attended a Socialist Workers Party (SWP) meeting in London last Sunday to discuss the importance of the planned strikes.
Strikes save jobs. That’s the message from teachers at Rawmarsh Community School in Rotherham, south Yorkshire.
The NUT plans to ballot members at Forest Hill school in Lewisham, south London, over a planned compulsory redundancy.
Teachers in four schools struck against academies last week.
Delegates were gathering for the annual conference of the FBU firefighters’ union as Socialist Worker went to press.
Refuse workers at Southampton council were set to walk out on indefinite strike from Monday of next week.
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt explicitly told a meeting of branch officers on Friday of last week that our union will join coordinated strikes in June to defend our pensions.
Management at London Metropolitan University wants to cut 70 percent of undergraduate courses and sack hundreds of staff.
Lecturers at the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London protested on Wednesday of last week against cuts. Management said last week that it wants to cut 64 jobs.
Conspiracy theories—the belief that secret networks of powerful individuals rule the world—have had a recent resurgence.
A wave of anger swept through London last week when 5,000 disabled people marched on parliament against the cuts.
Supporters of Yunus Bakhsh, the Newcastle nurse unlawfully sacked for his trade union activity, were jubilant this week after NHS bosses moved to re-employ him.
The continuing scandal of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the health service is revealed by the sorry tale of Barnet Hospital in north London.
Workers in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have voted to organise a campaign against the closures of benefit processing sites and call centres.
Hundreds of workers at the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) held a second one‑hour walkout against cuts on Wednesday of last week.
Messengers at the Home Office HQ in central London are battling privatisation.
The European Union, the European Central Bank and the IMF agreed a 110 billion euro bailout for Greece last year.
Royal Mail is out to slash thousands of jobs and shut scores of mail centres.
Our dispute is not just a London issue. Royal Mail cannot shut two mail centres and a giant delivery office without forcing through compulsory redundancies.
Six socialists in Zimbabwe still face a possible death penalty for treason.
Mirfat Badallah, who has been campaigning against deportation to Yemen, has won leave to remain in Britain.
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has agreed to review the case of three Kurdish Iranian asylum seekers who mounted a 37‑day hunger strike outside its headquarters in Croydon.
A report into the death of Jimmy Mubenga by the charity Inquest calls for a parliamentary committee inquiry into the use of restraint in deportation.
RMT transport union members on the Heathrow Express have voted overwhelmingly for strikes over pay. Some 231 out of 243 members voted for strikes and 226 for action short of a strike. The RMT called the deal "unsatisfactory".
The Office of Rail Regulation last week fined Network Rail £3 million for health and safety failings that caused the 2002 Potters Bar derailment, in which seven people died.
Unilever pensions betrayal protest
University of Nottingham lecturer Dr Rod Thornton has been suspended after writing a report criticising management.
Trade union activists met in London on Thursday of last week to build solidarity with the Egyptian revolution.
The gap between the highest and lowest paid in Britain is not only growing but is set to return to Victorian levels.
Tory plans to "reform" the NHS out of existence are taking a battering as public anger continues to grow.
Energy secretary Chris Huhne was set to unveil his new "green deal" in parliament as Socialist Worker went to press.
A group of anti-cuts activists surrounded business secretary Vince Cable when he arrived to open the Portsmouth ferry terminal on Friday of last week.
Not content with slashing services and jobs, Tory-run Wandsworth Council has decided to charge children to use a local playground.
Six Westminster street cleaners arrested on terrorism charges during the visit of Pope Benedict to Britain last September have been cleared.
Bosses want to turn education into a big training camp for business.
Trade union general secretaries Mark Serwotka of the PCS and Len McCluskey of Unite will speak at the opening rally of Marxism 2011 on the 30 June.
A group of rich parasites organised a Rally Against the Debt in London last Saturday (picture top). It was a pro-cuts protest, which only 200 people attended. One of them, Toby Young, recently claimed in the Daily Telegraph, when giving his support to the protest, that "a majority of the British public actually supports the government on this the cuts issue".
Delegates to the PCS civil service workers' union today (Wednesday) sent a defiant message to the government by voting almost unanimously to launch a strike ballot.
Some 2,000 health workers, students and campaigners marched through central London yesterday (Tuesday) to save the NHS. The demonstration, called by Keep Our NHS Public and the Heath Workers Network was in response to government plans to tear apart the public health service and open the floodgates of privatisation.
The Education Activist Network is calling on its supporters, groups and affiliates to join a protest outside the Spanish embassy at Belgrave Square in London (Hyde Park Corner tube)from 7pm on Monday.
Israeli forces killed dozens of Palestinians as tens of thousands marched on Israel’s borders last weekend.
The bombing of Libya should expand to include the country’s infrastructure, the head of the British armed forces has argued.
Greece is still caught in the economic storm sweeping Europe following the arrest of International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was flattened in local elections last Monday which he had previously called a referendum on his leadership.
A draconian anti-gay bill has failed to pass through parliament in Uganda.
As mass anti-government demonstrations in Yemen entered their fourth month the Supreme Coordination Council of the Revolution—a coalition of nearly 300 pro-democracy groups—announced their plans to escalate the protests.
The mass public sector strike in Botswana, southern Africa, escalated on Tuesday when the government sacked health workers in "essential" services.
On the anniversary of the Nakba, the police and army fire live ammunition at Egyptians to protect the embassy of the Zionists.
Mass demonstrations and protest camps have mushroomed across Spain as the young and the unemployed say "enough". As many as 40 percent of Spain’s 4.5 million unemployed are under 25.
Protesters in Puerta del Sol Square, central Madrid on 20 May 2011
The camps have extended like a trail of gunpowder all over the country since Sunday 15 May. They have provided the spark that has ignited an atmosphere charged with frustration, indignation and anger after three and a half years of crisis and a growing spiral of cuts, the worsening of working conditions and unemployment.
In the topsy‑turvy world of celebrity obsession, it took a tweet by the famous daughter of an obscenely rich family to decisively lift the lid on super‑injunctions.
President Barack Obama’s decision to send a hit squad to assassinate Osama Bin Laden has nudged up his faltering opinion poll ratings at home.
Only two years ago, the fascist British National Party (BNP) made a major political breakthrough, winning two seats in the European elections. A euphoric Nick Griffin, the BNP’s leader, declared, "My election victory will bring about a huge change."
Our society promotes and constantly reinforces the idea that women are to blame if they are raped. A third of students think a woman is wholly or partially to blame for her rape if she was drunk, according to a 2009 survey in London Student newspaper.
‘The police were invited to give a talk on personal safety at the university’s Osgoode Hall Law School after several incidents. There was supposed to be a male and a female officer—but only two men appeared.
Under the Cranes is a film-poem exploring how we experience "place"—how where we end up living has an impact on us, and how we have an impact on it.
The "forgotten" Palestinians are those living within Israel’s borders.
French-Algerian film director Rachid Bouchareb challenges the myths of French colonialism in his new film Outside the Law.
More than 130 films from 44 countries will be shown over the 15 days of the London International Documentary Festival, which is on until 28 May.
T he media has been full of stories about how Ireland was being blessed by the visit of Elizabeth Windsor.
Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat environment minister, states clearly that he did not ask someone to fiddle his speeding penalty points. Perhaps.
Lindsey Roth, a socialist, trade unionist and health campaigner, died at the age of 57 in Devon last week after an illness lasting some months.
Profiting from misery Jobcentre staff have told me there have been lots of complaints about Maximus—a company contracted by the Department for Work and Pensions to get people off the unemployment lists.
‘A very talented individual who has a lot to offer public life’