THE EASTERN region of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has voted to donate £1,000 to Respect’s general election campaign. FBU regional official Adrian Clarke told Socialist Worker, "We invited Respect to our meeting before Christmas and following that we had a request for a donation. That has now been voted through.
BALLOT PAPERS for the Unison general secretary election went out this week. National executive member Jon Rogers is standing as the candidate of the Unison United Left. He told Socialist Worker, "The campaign is going well—we’re demonstrating that we have an alternative network inside the union.
THE POSTAL workers’ CWU union has received information that Catford and Lewisham Crown post offices in south London are being considered for privatisation. The prospective buyers have visited the offices to measure them up and assess the viability of the proposed sale.
CAMPAIGNERS IN Glasgow last week secured the release of Pastor Mikielokele Daly and his family from Dungeval detention centre, and a judicial review of the whole case. The Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees and the Pentecostal Church of Redemption worked together calling four large demonstrations over the normally quiet Christmas and new year fortnight.
In a typically New Labour Blunketty, weaselly way, the chief inspector of schools, David Bell, managed to sound both tolerant and intolerant in the space of several minutes, when he attacked the separateness of "faith" schools. He said, "I worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and obligations to British society."
There is much talk in the media about the dangers of civil war in Iraq if US and Brtish troops are withdrawn. But we have to ask, who is talking about civil war, and why are they talking about civil war? There are political and class conflicts in Iraqi society. These conflicts impinge on the question of how to resist the occupation, and what form the resistance should take.
Polls carried out for the occupation authorities have consistently shown that Iraqis reject the occupation on principle and have little faith in US-appointed rulers.
Four British citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay were set to be released this week. Mamdouh Habib, an Australian citizen, is also due for release. A recent interview with his lawyers, by Socialist Worker’s sister paper in Australia, gave an insight into the conditions suffered by the detainees.
Activists from around the globe gathered in Brazil, for the World Social Forum. Full report next week. Picture: Jess Hurd www.reportdigital.co.uk
Police are preparing to use submachine guns and rubber bullets to defend George Bush and the G8 leaders who meet at Gleneagles, Scotland, in July. They are carrying out training in a mock-up village built on the site of a closed down hospital. Anti-capitalist and anti-war campaigners are already organising huge demonstrations and protests to greet Bush and the G8 leaders, starting with a Make Poverty History demo on 2 July, the Saturday before the summit.
Is the CIA too open and accountable? The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, thinks so. It was revealed last week that the Strategic Support Branch (SSB), which is under his direct control, has been running clandestine operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries for the past two years.
THE ELECTION in Iraq this weekend is nothing but a fraud. I have registered as eligible to vote, but will not be voting. What right have I, living in relative safety in Britain, got to decide what goes on in Iraq? Anyone whose father is Iraqi can vote, while many in Iraq cannot. Does this sound like a free and fair election?
