Socialist Worker

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The Iraqi Resistance speaks out

"The people of Fallujah have risen in rebellion," says Sheikh Khalil Ibrahim from the Beni Tamim tribe of Fallujah. "The Americans cannot enter large parts of the city. We say to America and its allies—get out of our country."

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International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

Soapworks

WORKERS AT the Soapworks factory in Glasgow were escalating their action by striking on Tuesday and Thursday of this week.

A scaffold for future victories

A STUNNING victory by 240 steel erectors at the Wembley Stadium site could open the door to further advances across the construction industry.

‘Hello, could you help get a story for the paper?’

ONE MONDAY morning I got a call asking if I could get a story and picture for Socialist Worker about the Wembley construction workers who had just been sacked.

Staff hacked off at college cuts

Staff hacked off at college cuts STAFF AT Hackney Community College in east London are facing the threat of a devastating level of redundancies.

Unions join fight for housing

THE BATTLE to defend council housing is gathering ground following a successful fringe meeting at the TUC conference last week.

TUC conference

PLEAS AT last week’s TUC conference to rally behind Labour could not hide the gulf between the unions and the government.

Civil service workers

SOME 110 civil service workers in the PCS union at Stratford social security office in east London were set to begin a ballot for indefinite strike action on Wednesday of this week.

Taking on the Lib Dems

THE ALL-OUT strike by Swansea IT workers in the Unison union is now in its sixth week. They are protesting against the Liberal Democrat dominated council’s outsourcing plans.

Nalco

TGWU UNION members at the chemicals firm Nalco began a series of strikes on Friday of last week against the company’s attempts to derecognise their union.

Defiant roar at Jaguar's plan

"We are in a major fight with a multinational that has made a decision to pull out of Britain."

Now is a good time to fight

The New Labour government is lurching from crisis to crisis. The war on Iraq and the disastrous occupation have bred deep dissatisfaction among millions of people.

New civil service workers' walkouts

"WE WERE told at 9am our office was destined for closure. Everybody thought, ‘Let’s walk,’ and so we did. About eight offices in Fife walked out, involving around 200 people and shutting some of the offices down."

Make a noise against New Labour policies

THIS IS a public mobilisation to put pressure on the government at their party conference and tell them that people are concerned about international trade and trade justice.

Fury as BNP grabs council seat in London

ANTI-FASCIST campaigners are calling for the campaign against the British National Party (BNP) to be stepped up after it won a seat last week at a council by-election in Barking and Dagenham, east London.

‘We won’t go to Iraq’

AN ENTIRE battalion of 653 South Carolina National Guard soldiers has been placed under disciplinary lockdown after revolting against orders to go to Iraq.

‘It’s far graver than Vietnam’

‘This is far graver than Vietnam. There wasn’t as much at stake strategically there, though in both cases we mindlessly went ahead with a war that was not constructive for US aims.

Who says?

"In the autumn sunshine, Parliament Square blazed with passion. These were citizens who would normally never dream of breaking the law but felt driven to despair and even violence—which can’t possibly be condoned—by the bullying threat to their whole way of life."

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International

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Comment

More than a protest vote

MOST MEDIA commentary accepts that violent eruptions of discontent may happen in far away countries of which we know little.

Music was his weapon

THE GREAT African-American writer James Baldwin once wrote, "Artists are here to disturb."

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Features

Getting steeled in the struggle

SOCIALIST WORKER was warmly recieved by steel erectors during their fight for reinstatement at Wembley Stadium, reports Simon from north west London:

Four great days that you can’t afford to miss...

THERE’S ONLY three weeks to go before the European Social Forum (ESF) hits London. Tens of thousands will come to Alexandra Palace to discuss alternatives to capitalism and debate the way forward for the movement.

The activists out to sink New Labour ship

STEVE GREGG has been a firefighter for 26 years. He is north east regional secretary for the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and a Labour Party member.

Red letter day in Derbyshire as councillor joins Respect

LYNTON BENNETT, a county councillor for Buxton South in Derbyshire, has resigned from Labour to join Respect. Below is a message from Lynton to a Respect meeting held in Glossop on 8 September.

Popular uprising in Iraq

From Baghdad to Basra, secular to religious, Shia to Sunni, the resistance is growing, reports Simon Assaf

‘They tied my son to a tank and beat him’

"Life in Baghdad is unnatural—it is not routine," says Samira. "Students are supposed to go to school and workers to their offices, but the streets are always blocked by US tanks—even the main streets and the main bridges.

My story of hope

What is While There Is Light about? It’s a story about trying to come to terms with what happened to a whole generation of Asians of whom I was one.

Is Labour still the only game in town?

Tony Woodley, general secretary of the TGWU union A COUPLE of years ago I’d have said it would be difficult or unlikely that we could make the kind of gains we are beginning to see.

When workers rose against Stalin’s power

AT THE end of the Second World War the world was carved up between the US, Russia and Britain. Hungary fell under Russian control.

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Reviews

Red Square to Trafalgar Square

A COLD and wet Sunday night—but Trafalgar Square was packed more densely than a rush hour tube.

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What We Think

John Kerry is not the best worst option

JOHN KERRY is fighting to rescue his bid for the US presidency. Incredibly, he has fallen behind George Bush in the opinion polls. This fall in support for Kerry hasn’t stopped a group of leading figures from the US left issuing an endorsement of Kerry, and a demand that independent candidate Ralph Nader stands down from the presidential race.

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Other Categories

Daphne Burnett 1934 - 2004

DAPHNE BURNETT, who died on 28 August aged 69 after a long battle with cancer, covered a wide range of activities during her professional life.

Stoking the mood against the BNP

I WAS very disturbed to hear last week that the BNP had won a council seat in Barking and Dagenham.

Now stick an ASBO on Labour in Hartlepool

CRIME BECAME a key issue in the Hartlepool by-election in an unexpected way last week.

Iraq—bring the troops home public meetings

Birmingham: with Tony Benn, Salma Yaqoob (Birmingham Stop the War Coalition), George Monbiot (campaigner and writer) and John Rees (Stop the War Coalition), 7.30pm, Friday 24 September, Irish Centre, 14-20 High Street, Digbeth (near Digbeth coach station).

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