Socialist Worker

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Paul Bigley: ‘Blair's done nothing to save my brother’

The family of British hostage Ken Bigley holds Tony Blair responsible for his suffering, says Ken’s brother Paul.

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International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

‘I’m opposed to any hatred of Muslims’

I WAS working on my computer when my brother phoned me from Liverpool and said, "Paul, they’ve got Ken. We’ve been on to the Foreign Office and they said they’ve taken control of the whole thing."

Guantanamo hostage’s father gives support

AZMAT BEGG, father of Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam, contacted the Bigley family through Socialist Worker.

The six year old held hostage by the US

THOSE WHO took Ken Bigley hostage demanded the release of all the women prisoners held by occupation forces in Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr jails.

The movement is mobilising

The dispossessed are mobilising With 300 people registering daily to come to the European Social Forum (ESF), one group making special efforts to organise support are asylum seekers.

Airport strikers flying high

WORKERS AT Aviation Fuel Services (AFS) at Heathrow airport are "elated" after winning all their demands through strike action last weekend.

Aslef

AN ATTEMPT to reopen the division in the Aslef train drivers’ union over the disciplining of two top officials failed on the first day of the union conference on Monday.

Car workers

THE CAMPAIGN to save 1,150 jobs at Jaguar’s Browns Lane plant in Coventry has begun. The unions are still discussing the date for a demonstration.

in brief: strike begins to bite Body Shop

WORKERS AT the Soapworks factory in Easterhouse, Glasgow, have stepped up their strike. They are striking every day until Wednesday of next week.

5 November—a yes vote to stop bonfire of vital jobs

BALLOT PAPERS for strike action were to be sent out to some 300,000 civil service workers on Friday of this week.

More than pay is at stake in this ballot

FURTHER education lecturers face a battle over pay this autumn that goes to the heart of what it means to have a national union.

Postal workers

POSTAL WORKERS in Rugby are to ballot on strikes over pay.

If you can do it here then you can anywhere

IMPERIAL COLLEGE is traditionally quite a right wing environment.

Leaders face echo of anger

THE Tenants’ fight to stop council housing privatisation was carried to the centre of the political agenda at Labour’s national conference.

Two more rail deaths as ministers spurn renationalisation vote

THE VOTE at the Labour conference for a "publicly-owned railway" was a welcome defeat for the government.

Movements pile on the pressure

BLAIR’S two defeats are a reflection of the movements outside Labour’s conference.

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International

Pressure on Bush’s other ‘deputy sheriff’

AUSTRALIA’S Tory prime minister, John Howard, is one of George W Bush’s staunchest backers.

US and UN troops stand by while the poor suffer

OVER 1,000 people have died in Haiti as a result of floods and landslides in the wake of Hurricane Jeanne. Tens of thousands more are now at risk as epidemics threaten the country.

The crisis nobody wants to talk about

FIGURES WERE released last week detailing coming mass slaughter and social destruction in South Africa.

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Comment

Who can bury this corpse

"IS BLAIR really finished now?" This was the question posed by Angharad Hughes in a letter to last week’s Socialist Worker. She writes, "I seem to remember that about six months ago Socialist Worker was describing Tony Blair as a ‘political corpse’—and I agreed with you.

Writing some wrongs on Iraq

THERE IS one person left in Britain who still believes Saddam had weapons of mass destruction when the US invaded.

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Features

Is Kennedy a radical alternative to Blair?

WE CAN agree with Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy on two assessments.

Free market economics is at the core of their domestic policy

"NICE PEOPLE, No Hope" was Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee’s take on the Lib Dems’ conference—wrong on both counts.

Cuts, privatisation and anti-union laws—the Liberal Democrat way

IN POWER the Lib Dems live up to their talk of "tough liberalism" and "the supremacy of the free market".

‘There’s nothing left for us around here’

The British National Party (BNP) won 1,072 votes (52 percent) in the Goresbrook ward of Barking and Dagenham two weeks ago.

‘Our anti-BNP campaign was decisive’

A BROAD campaign in Basildon, Essex, has shown how the BNP can be held back.

Marvin Gaye: trouble man

MARVIN GAYE’S seminal album What’s Going On is one of the most popular albums of all time. Recorded in 1971, its multi-track vocals, complex musical score, and fusion of soul and jazz create a wonderful soundscape. Over the top Marvin sings a series of gut-wrenching songs that are laments for the Vietnam War, pollution, drug addiction, corrupt governments and the miseries of ghetto life.

How was this kingdom united?

What lay behind the union of Scotland and England in 1707?

Hear the voices of Palestinians

SOME 34 people joined the delegation to Palestine, united around the common theme of action against war and for peace. We came together from mosques, trade unions, universities, schools and the voluntary sector to see the conditions in the Palestinian refugee camps for ourselves.

‘The situation is far worse than the media show’

‘Palestinian firefighters face extraordinary dangers every single day.

Robert Wedderburn: ‘Now I can tell slaves to murder their masters’

The year is 1819, and the working class of Britain is in revolt. The year is to end with the bloody Peterloo massacre of unarmed radical demonstrators in Manchester by sabre-wielding guardsmen.

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Reviews

Redefining what is possible

Was it a conscious decision to make your new book, Iron Council, very political?

One cruel death but many ruined lives

SILENT CRY is a play about the death in police custody of Arif Ahmed. The dialogue takes place in and around the home of the young man’s family, and focuses on how this avoidable tragedy threatens to pull them apart. It is based on documented evidence and interviews, and the story begins as Arif’s life ends.

Punk funk from the left

Radio 4, from New York, came to prominence with their second album Gotham in 2002.

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What We Think

Troops must leave to stop hostage taking

THE IRAQI resistance is a response to the bitter reality of US and British occupation.

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Other Categories

Ken Livingstone is on the wrong track

THE RACIST harassment of asylum seekers on the London Underground described by K Babasola (Socialist Worker, 18 September) is not the only form of harassment now happening on London’s transport.

Who says?

"I ask you to release the man you hold. I know that millions of British people did not and do not support the war on Iraq. A million marched against it last year. More than 6,000 British people have written to me to support me. They quarrel with the British government about injustice, and so do I. I do not quarrel with the British people. Our problem is with the government." MAHMOUD ABU RIDEH Palestinian activist imprisoned without trial under Britain’s anti-terrorism laws appealing last weekend to Ken Bigley’s captors

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