Some 20,000 council workers in Birmingham in the Unison, Unite, Ucatt and GMB unions are set to strike for two days on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 April in an ongoing dispute over single status pay cuts.
Tens of thousands of civil service workers in the PCS union are gearing up to join the day of action on 24 April.
Gordon Brown is pushing ahead with his attack on public sector workers' pay. He said on Monday of this week, "Three-year deals on public sector pay are an important element of what we can do to contribute to a low inflation economy."
The first strike at national newspapers for almost 20 years took place on Friday of last week as journalists at the Daily Express, the Sunday Express, the Daily Star and the Daily Star Sunday struck over pay.
Delegates to the NUJ journalists' union conference were thrilled to hear reports of solid picket lines at the Express and Star's two centres when they gathered in Belfast for their annual conference last week.
The National Union of Students (NUS) annual conference last week witnessed the defeat of a major attack on democracy.
Over 500 protesters turned out against Tony Blair when he spoke about "faith and globalisation" at London's Westminster Cathedral on the evening of Thursday of last week.
The RMT and TSSA unions on London Underground called off a three day strike planned from Sunday to Wednesday of this week after winning significant concessions on safety and staffing from management.
Bus drivers in the Unite union at Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company have voted by a large majority to take strike action in a consultative ballot over pay.
Members of Abortion Rights attended the group's extraordinary general meeting in central London on Saturday of last week to discuss the campaign's strategy.
Around 300 people protested against course closures and staff redundancies at Keele university on Thursday of last week.
The elections to the new Unite union's executive council produced good results for the left. The new executive council takes office from 1 May and consists of 80 seats divided equally between the Amicus and T&G sections.
