"There is no chance for Bush’s war agenda to be clearly rejected on election day, because John Kerry is promising to continue, and even strengthen, the military occupation of Iraq.

Connections that can make history

I’VE SPENT the last nine months helping to organise the next European Social Forum (ESF) in London on 14-17 October. It’s six weeks away, and the signs are it will be big. At last year’s ESF in Paris, and the year before in Florence, we had 40,000. This year we’ve had twice as many proposals—for 900 meetings and 180 cultural events.

Vietnam veterans join march against Bush

VETERANS AND serving members of the US armed forces joined this week’s protests at the Republican convention in New York.

Bosses had to start at 4am

THE RMT rail union is escalating action on Eurostar following a successful one-day strike by customer service staff at the company.

New Labour is going to the dogs

RESPECT IS standing in a council by-election on the Isle of Dogs, east London, next week, and also in the forthcoming parliamentary election in Hartlepool.

Welded together by solidarity

SACKED STEEL erectors at the Wembley Stadium site returned to the picket lines after the bank holiday, boosted by the news that the Amicus union had announced its intention to declare the dispute official.

Strikers build momentum in Swansea and Liverpool

SWANSEA’S TWO week old indefinite strike by council IT workers gained fresh momentum last week.

TGWU

EIGHT TGWU union full time officials in Glasgow are facing disciplinary action by the union over vote rigging.

European Social Forum

NEW AND old hands in cinema united in support of October’s European Social Forum (ESF) at the premiere of Ken Loach’s Ae Fond Kiss.

British Airways

THE CHAOS at Heathrow airport last week showed the madness of the job losses imposed by the management of British Airways (BA).

College Lecturers

LECTURERS AT Coatbridge College were joined by delegations of union members from other colleges in Glasgow and Motherwell last week in a protest at the threat of up to 22 compulsory redundancies at the college.

Firefighters

FIRE AUTHORITY employers have finally agreed to pay firefighters and control staff pay rises under the deal that ended last year’s dispute.

International

The West has bled Sudan dry

Without understanding the role and impact of capitalism and superpower intervention in Africa, the responses evoked by horrors such as that unfolding in Darfur, western Sudan, will often be mistaken.

Venezuelan referendum: ‘The people want to deepen their revolution’

Venezuela’s recall referendum took place on Sunday 15 August. Some 58 percent of people voted no when asked if Chavez should go.

Comment

Venezuela: debate makes us all stronger

15 August, when Hugo Chavez overwhelmingly won the referendum designed to remove him as president of Venezuela, was a bad day for George W Bush and Tony Blair.

That sweet Seoul music

IMAGINE MY delight when a few months ago I was invited to speak at a four-day socialist conference organised by All Together in South Korea.

Features

Che motorcycles off the shelves

THERE IS a huge desire among people to read about political ideas and political figures. The success of the new Bookmarks book, Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution, is proof of this.

Babar Ahmad: ‘I dared to seek for the truth in a false world’

Dear Socialist Worker,

Grieving relatives are determined to keep up their fight against the war

Rose Gentle AS SOON as we came back up to Glasgow we started to get letters from ordinary people, from all over Britain and other countries, saying "Don’t give up".

Joe Strummer – Past, Present and Future

When Joe Strummer, lead singer with The Clash, died suddenly in December 2002 members of our local community got together to consider what we could do to mark the legacy of this hugely influential artist.

The fire The Clash started still burns today

The Clash first thundered onto the scene in the late summer of 1976. They were in the vanguard of the punk revolution, along with others such as The Sex Pistols and The Buzzcocks.

Moral panics, crime and punishment

HARDLY A week goes by without a media story about crime, violence, anti-social behaviour or lawlessness in our towns and cities. Even the last two issues of Socialist Worker have carried letters from readers debating whether Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) are necessary to protect working class communities from "delinquent youth".

Israel maps out a new land grab

ISRAEL IS planning a massive grab of Palestinian territories under the guise of the "Gaza strip disengagement plan", launched by Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Vladimir Lenin: how to organise for a successful revolution

THERE HAVE been many revolutions over the past 100 years. Every revolution has shown the potential power of ordinary people, but most have ended in defeat, compromise or simply a replacement of personnel at the top.