KERRY’S THE guy who made a fiery anti-war speech the day he left Yale, then promptly signed up to fight in Vietnam. He’s the guy who wouldn’t throw away his own combat medals at an anti-war demonstration, but borrowed some from a friend to toss over the fence.

Defiant march against racism

ABOUT 1,000 marchers held a two-minute silence outside the Potters Wheel pub in Swansea’s Kingsway last Saturday.

Hamlets for decent housing

TOWER HAMLETS Respect activists have shown their support for direct investment in council housing, and their opposition to privatisation and stock transfer housing schemes.

Scottish independence

AROUND 1,000 people attended a rally in support of the declaration for an independent Scottish republic in Edinburgh last Saturday.

Stop the War Coalition

Merseyside AROUND 150 people came to a Stop the War Coalition meeting in Merseyside last Friday. This had been organised as a "Save Ken Bigley" meeting, although events overtook us with the sad news of Ken’s death.

Gatwick

SIX HUNDRED workers in the TGWU union at Servisair in Gatwick airport were set to strike for 12 hours on Wednesday, and again later this week.

Council workers

Swansea IT workers have suspended their strike action pending negotiations between the Unison union and management.

News in brief

Wall won’t stop us from twinning ALMOST 70 supporters of the Camden Palestine Campaign packed into Daphne Restaurant in central London last Wednesday to attend the launch of the Camden-Abu Dis Friendship Association.

Firefighters

THE EXECUTIVE of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has had to reinstate national officer Paul Woolstenholmes, who was elected on a wave of criticism of the way the union handled the long-running pay dispute.

A stronger organisation

HEALTH WORKERS in the Unison union met last week to decide whether to recommend Agenda for Change—the government’s sweeping reorganisation of NHS pay and conditions—in their ballot which starts this week. Karen Reissmann, a member of Manchester Community and Mental Health branch, was one of those calling for a "no" vote. She spoke to Socialist Worker about the conference.

Victory for McDonald

A CAMPAIGN in defence of leading PCS civil service workers’ union activist Charlie McDonald has forced bosses to back off.

Royal Mail

ROYAL MAIL has delivered another slap in the face to everyone suffering from its 30,000 job losses.

Soapworks

WORKERS at the Soapworks factory in Glasgow returned to work last week with their pay claim still unresolved.

Tube workers

NEXT TIME you see lurid tabloid headlines about "union bully boys" holding tube passengers to ransom, remember the name Joanne White.

Further education lecturers

LECTURERS AT Hackney Community College struck on Tuesday of this week against 71 job losses and cuts that will savage educational provision in the east London borough.

Tens of thousands flock to London for Social Forum

WELCOME TO the European Social Forum, and welcome to the new-look Socialist Worker. To readers old and new, we hope you like the new design and, more importantly, the new content!

Paul Bigley: I want to know why they let my brother die

PAUL BIGLEY’S extraordinary battle to save his brother Ken continued right up to his appalling execution last Thursday.

Babar faces court that could extradite him

BABAR AHMAD, the British Muslim IT worker imprisoned without charge in HMP Woodhill, appeared in court last week for an extradition hearing to the US.

Soldiers: pawns in their game

IT’S NOT just the US army that is seeing anti-war feeling. More British soldiers are becoming disillusioned by what they are being told to do in Iraq.

Who says?

"When this election’s over, you’ll see us move very vigorously. We’re not on hold right now. We’re just not as aggressive." Senior US administration official, outlining plans to "pacify" rebel cities in Iraq

Blow against right to protest

A LEGAL injunction has been served on three TGWU union organisers, the national union itself, and myself as a member of the Globalise Resistance steering committee, to prevent a demonstration by low paid workers.

‘I just felt it was time the truth was known’

When did you decide to act?

Wider fight builds on Wembley win

THE PUSH for the campaign, which could affect sites across Britain, comes in the wake of the victory by 240 steel erectors at the Wembley stadium site.

‘My friend died on a site. I won’t ignore safety issues’

Steel erector Garry Jackson is one of two workers who have been sacked for raising health and safety concerns at the incinerator construction site on Bernard Road in Sheffield.

International

Britain joins the new ‘scramble for Africa’

THE MAIN proposal to come out of Blair’s trip was not debt relief or money to combat famine and AIDS.

Who can end the agony of Africa?

TO HEAR British chancellor Gordon Brown and European leaders speak you would think that Africa’s debt crisis is almost over.

Comment

Springtime for Marxism?

ONE OF the most striking things about the movement against capitalist globalisation that began with the Seattle protests of November 1999 has been the relatively limited influence of Marxism within it.

Features

'We are not the enemy within'

ON 15 February 2003 I joined a million or more people on the historic demonstration against war. This was an extraordinary experience for all of us. If you want to know what solidarity feels like, think back to that day. If you doubt that "another world is possible", think back to that day.

Take the movement to a new level

It’s been five years since the Seattle demonstrations kickstarted the global justice movement. What do you feel we have achieved so far?

Red guide to the European Social Forum

Thursday 14 October International Socialist Tendency a red guide to the ESF

‘They stole our homes, then turned us away’

THE PEOPLE of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean were forcibly expelled when their island was stolen 35 years ago in order to create a giant air base for US bombers.

‘The law is turning our children into criminals’

INCREASING NUMBERS of chidren are being locked up in Britain’s prisons, not because they have committed a criminal offence but because they have fallen foul of draconian Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs).

What is needed are real opportunities and training

The situation is being made worse by the lack of facilities and opportunities for young people.

Claudia Jones: the black Communist who founded the carnival

It was just a few months after the Notting Hill "race riot" of 1958. The small Caribbean immigrant population living in the London borough of Kensington was still reeling after being attacked by violent racist and fascist mobs during the summer.

Marxism and the Multitude

THE TWO most celebrated books to have come out of the anti-capitalist movement are Naomi Klein’s No Logo and Empire, by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. The first brilliantly diagnosed some of the insidious ways in which market capitalism penetrated ever deeper into our lives in the 1990s.

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