HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS and private landlords who take over council housing are discriminating against the homeless and the poor. That's the shocking conclusion of a survey by respected housing charity ...

Refugee myths shattered

MOST refugees who enter Britain illegally have not come to live off benefits, according to a government-funded project...

Lecturers

THE BATTLE to stop pay and jobs cuts at a Sheffield steelworks hotted up this week as strikes spread to workers in another section...

Dudley strikers join minimum wage demo

"THIS SHOULD be a march of tens of thousands. "Instead it is really disappointing, and all because our union, UNISON, did not want to embarrass New Labour so close to a general election."...

Tory Hague opens door to racists

TORY leader William Hague forced the racist Tory MP John Townend to apologise this week for his comment that the British were becoming a "mongrel race"....

The future of the Socialist Alliance

THE SOCIALIST Alliance is taking off in the run-up to the election. Candidates are standing in towns as diverse as Blackburn, Lowestoft and Northampton, as well as in the major cities...

Straw's record is put on trial

CIVIL RIGHTS lawyer and socialist Jim Nichol is to take on home secretary Jack Straw in his Blackburn constituency at the general election...

Councils round-up

USDAW conference

OVER 100 people from across the north west of England and Yorkshire attended a "trade teach-in" at Manchester University last Saturday. The event, organised by the World Development Movement...

The pioneers of socialist utopia

THE barbarity and injustice of capitalism have produced many different visions of an alternative kind of society over the last two centuries...

Core of Newark Labour joins Socialist Alliance

A CORE section of the Labour Party in Newark, Nottinghamshire, has joined the Socialist Alliance...

Diary - upcoming events

We showed there is an alternative

THE POLICE deliberately set out to cause violence and criminalise protesters on Tuesday's May day demonstrations. Some of the press focused on the smashing of shop windows. But nonetheless thousands ...

Oldham attack: how police lied

THE BATTERED face of Oldham pensioner Walter Chamberlain filled the pages of newspapers last week...

Why Bobby Sands starved to death

TWENTY YEARS ago, on 5 May 1981, Bobby Sands died after 66 days on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh prison in Northern Ireland. He was the first of ten Republican hunger strikers..

United against profit system

THOUSANDS of people succeeded in demonstrating against the injustices of global capitalism in central London on Tuesday. They did so in the face of the most incredible police operation and media hyste

Socialist Worker forums

Racism Where it comes from and what keeps it going

FOREIGN SECRETARY Robin Cook rightly denounced the Tories two weeks ago for playing the race card to grab votes...

In brief

"THIS SHOULD be a march of tens of thousands. "Instead it is really disappointing, and all because our union, UNISON, did not want to embarrass New Labour so close to a general election."...

OK to swear at coppers!

"PROTESTS CANNOT stop free traders." This was how the Guardian sought to dismiss the mass demonstrations at the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit in Quebec City a fortnight ago....

Step forward for Scottish left

THE SOCIALIST Workers Party (SWP) and the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) have voted to unite to form a single party. Separate meetings of members of both organisations agreed the move...

Sparks fly

MOST refugees who enter Britain illegally have not come to live off benefits, according to a government-funded project...

Marks & Spencer

THE UNIVERSITY of North London (UNL) likes to present itself as an inclusive and progressive institution. Vice-chancellor Brian Roper has even publicly criticised the introduction of tuition fees...

Palestine protest

THOUSANDS OF lecturers in further education (FE) colleges across England and Wales are balloting for strikes, and expect to be holding a first one-day strike on 22 May...

Trade teach-in

WORKERS FROM several European countries plan to demonstrate in London against job cuts planned by Marks & Spencer...

Movement is still going up

"PROTESTS CANNOT stop free traders." This was how the Guardian sought to dismiss the mass demonstrations at the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit in Quebec City a fortnight ago....

Steel workers

SHOP WORKERS in the USDAW union gathered in Blackpool last week for their annual conference...

Journalists

BALLOTS ON action by National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members working at Express Newspapers in London began this week. The new owner, porn baron Richard Desmond, wants to make 145 redundancies...

Students

THE UNIVERSITY of North London (UNL) likes to present itself as an inclusive and progressive institution. Vice-chancellor Brian Roper has even publicly criticised the introduction of tuition fees...

Restore our link

UP TO 1,000 pensioners marched through Blackpool on Monday demanding the restoration of the link between pensions and earnings...

General strike shakes Greece

"IT'S THE return of the working class! It was the biggest strike for many years in Greece, at least the biggest since the fall of the military junta in 1974." That's how Panos Garganas, editor of Soc...

Peugeot

THE HALF-DAY strike scheduled for Thursday of this week at Peugeot in Coventry has been suspended following a meeting of the TGWU side of the negotiating team...

Firefighters

Fire Brigades Union (FBU) members voted by four to one on a 76 percent turnout for strikes, which were due to begin this week. That threat was enough to force management to concede...