THE ANNUAL conference last weekend of the lecturers' union Natfhe clearly demonstrated widespread anger over Labour's policies. Natfhe has conspicuously supported the Stop the War Coalition. This was reflected in a series of motions which condemned the brutal treatment of Iraqi prisoners and civilians as well as the obscene levels of war funding.
IAN MURCH is standing for general secretary of the biggest teachers' union, the NUT, with the support of the left in the union. Ballot papers go out to a quarter of a million NUT members next week. The government is desperate to see elected the current NUT deputy general secretary, who is for partnership with New Labour. Ian Murch spoke to Socialist Worker about his alternative vision for the union.
WITH EACH day the brutality and violence of the occupation of Iraq gets worse. But so too does the utter disarray of the warmongers. Nothing symbolises this better than the raid on the villa of Ahmed Chalabi, the man once tipped to run Iraq.
New Labour spends £4.2 million a day on occupation
US ARMY officers have been desperately organising a grubby cover-up after their slaughter of guests at a wedding party in Iraq last week. Showing astonishing arrogance and total ignorance for the culture or geography of the country his men are occupying, Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, dismissed talk of a massacre, saying:
THE GOVERNMENT'S clampdown on public sector pay has reignited last year's fire dispute. It has led management in the Manchester brigade to slash fire cover by sending firefighters home. The danger firefighters face in their work was tragically seen over the weekend when Cardiff firefighter Richard Jenkins was killed in a fire during the early hours of the morning.
WORKERS AT Euro Packaging in Birmingham are continuing with their industrial action over low pay, long working hours, union recognition and threatened redundancies. Joint managing director Shabir Majid provoked further outrage in a meeting last week by announcing a total of 80 redundancies out of a workforce of 180. Workers were told that the remaining 100 would have greater job security by severing ties with their GPMU union.
