Socialists and trade unionists should not underestimate the seriousness of New Labour’s assault on our pension rights.
Gordon Brown wants to get rid of my job. I would dearly love to take his job away after what he’s done to me and my colleagues. That’s why I’m standing against him as a Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) candidate in the general election.
Some 1.25 million union members could strike on 23 March. The civil service workers’ PCS union and Unison local government members are balloting for discontinuous action — which would allow a series of strikes — so they could join education unions for futher strikes in April without reballoting
The last few years have seen a very large number of diverse groups and organisations coming together in spite of their differences to confront neo-liberal globalisation. However, we are deeply concerned that there are still some groups in the world today that attempt to deal with political differences using physical attacks and death threats. A recent example of this is the situation which has emerged in the Philippines where a number of individual intellectuals, activists (Walden Bello and Lidy Nacpil) and organisations engaged in various forms of struggle against militarism and globalised capitalism have been listed by the international department of the Communist Party of the Philippin
THREE HUNDRED people packed out a public meeting in east London last week and turned the heat on New Labour over threatened cuts to the fire service.
RESPECT KICKED off a programme of activities in east London last weekend that will run all the way up to polling day. Over 100 supporters gathered to finish off a leaflet distribution in Tower Hamlets. Next weekend will see similar activity across parts of neighbouring Newham, where Respect is challenging for both seats.
Up to 200,000 people marched through the main streets of Porto Alegre, Brazil, to begin the fifth World Social Forum (WSF) on Wednesday of last week.
A meeting featuring the Brazilian president, Lula, brought out the tensions within the left and the trade union movement in Brazil over the record of his government. It took place in the Gigantinho indoor stadium, which can hold 17,000 people. There was a queue half a mile long in the scorching heat of those who wanted to go to it. But tight security by military police meant that many were turned away, and key positions inside were taken up by Workers’ Party activists in red T-shirts before others were allowed in.
You got a glimpse of an alternative approach to education at Filton High School, an 11 to 18 mixed comprehensive on the outskirts of Bristol, last week. Every day a different year group from years 7 to 11 focused on the question: "Is another world possible?"
ABOUT 400 Zimbabweans living in Britain gathered outside the home office in London last Saturday to protest against forced deportation back to president Mugabe’s vicious regime. New Labour’s policy of restarting deportations means political activists are sent back to the jails and torturer chambers of the Zimbabwean state.
