Most of the local elections in England and Wales on Thursday 1 May will be of the traditional "first past the post" variety. But the London elections will be more complex, involving three different voting systems to select the mayor, constituency candidates and the London assembly.
The combination of war, economic crisis and disillusionment with Labour is opening up a new debate among thousands of working class people about the sort of politics we need to ensure a better future for the majority of the world’s population.
Class politics returned to Britain this week as 450,000 workers prepared to take strike action against Gordon Brown’s 2 percent pay limit.
The growing Labour rebellion is adding to the government’s crisis.
The latest figures show the cost of food in Britain is rising at 15.5 percent a year.
Shelter workers to walk out again Around 450 workers at the Shelter housing charity are set to join the action on "Fightback Thursday". Shelter workers in the Unite union have called a 48-hour strike starting on 24 April – the same day that hundreds of thousands of other workers are set to strike.
Local government union activists in the Unison union are campaigning for a rejection of the employers’ 2.45 percent pay offer.
Delegates to the Unison union’s health conference last week rebuked their leaders for seeking acceptance of the government’s three-year below-inflation pay offer.
Schools across the country are buzzing with discussions about the teachers’ strike due to take place on Thursday of this week.
Over 100,000 members of the PCS civil service workers’ union were set to join other public sector workers on strike on Thursday of this week.
This Thursday will see tens of thousands of lecturers in further education colleges walk out, joining the 250,000 teachers and 100,000 civil service workers in the biggest show of opposition over pay for many years.
