GEORGE BUSH and Tony Blair claim the elections in Iraq will usher in the rule of democracy. But we know who will run Iraq even before the results come through—the US is determined to keep control in Iraq.
SOME 67,000 lecturers in further and higher education in the Natfhe union are set to ballot for a one-day strike against New Labour’s plans to make us work five extra years. The Natfhe further and higher education sectors’ executives both voted unanimously on Friday of last week for action this term.
THOUSANDS MORE public sector workers could be balloting for strikes against the great pensions robbery.
EVERY CITY, town and village should be aiming for rallies and strike action on the TUC day of action on Friday 18 February. In Manchester, we have booked Albert Square—the city’s biggest central space—for a lunchtime rally called by Manchester Trades Council in liaison with the North West TUC. Many union branches have already said they want to take part.
MEMBERS OF the TGWU and Amicus unions lobbied parliament on Monday of this week in protest at their employer, US telecoms firm APW, robbing them of their pensions. Some 1,200 staff and pensioners have lost around 80 percent of their pensions after the company wound up its pension scheme.
ABOUT £4 billion of taxpayers’ money is to be doled out to the rich for their pensions in the same year that New Labour plans to rob every public sector worker of £20,000 from their pension. Under new pension rules coming into effect in 2006, the rich will be able to stash up to £215,000 tax free every year.
POLITICIANS OF all parties rushed last year to denounce the brutalities of Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe. Now they are united on forcibly deporting Zimbabwean refugees back to torture and possible death.
EARLIER THIS month $300 million was taken out of the Iraq Central Bank in cash, and secretly flown to Beirut, Lebanon, in a chartered jet. The defence minister in Iraq’s interim government, Hazim al-Shalaan, authorised this withdrawal.Talking from Beirut, an aide to al-Shalaan explained the money was needed to buy arms from Poland, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Ukraine and the US and that it was approved by prime minister Iyad Allawi.
A TERRITORIAL Army (TA) soldier has resigned from the force in protest at the war and occupation of Iraq.
AS AMERICA’S rich and powerful party in Washington, celebrating George W Bush’s presidential inauguration, the White House is preparing to extend its war to Iran. Award-winning journalist Seymour Hersh revealed in the New Yorker this week that US special forces have been operating in Iran since at least last summer, identifying possible targets. Rather than deny the report, the Pentagon tried to rubbish Hersh’s reporting.
GORDON BROWN will have been delighted to have his photo taken next to a smiling Nelson Mandela last weekend. It was an important battle won against Tony Blair in the contest over who will be seen as the "saviour of Africa".
