RESPECT: THE Unity Coalition has been arguing for political groups to the left of Labour in Wales to unite for the Euro elections. We firmly believed that we needed a single slate to maximise the left and progressive vote.
Network Rail THE RMT rail union has called a strike ballot for its 7,000 members in Network Rail in a dispute over pay and pensions. The vote will include signalling, maintenance and station staff. "The company has imposed a pension scheme for new entrants that is no better than a glorified savings plan subject to the whims of the market," says RMT general secretary Bob Crow. "In addition their pay offer of 3 percent is the lowest in the rail industry. This is a company whose directors have handed themselves bonuses of up to £450,000 on top of telephone-number salaries. Those same directors are looking at another fat bonus if they keep our members' pay down."
"THE STRIKE has been brilliant," said civil servant Kate Douglas from the picket line in Oxford on Tuesday. She went on: "We have had a lot of support from claimants who went in and gave the management hell. An Oxford postal worker who is taking part in their stoppage came to our picket line to bring greetings."
A BITTER battle has been taking place which raises issues relevant to every worker. Over two weeks ago postal workers at Oxford mail centre stopped work in protest at management's failure to take action against a gang of bullies in the office. Hundreds of workers remained out as Socialist Worker went to press. Other postal workers were discussing how best to support them, with some arguing for immediate walkouts.
UNION MEMBERS at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital have provided a superb example of the solidarity 4,600 nursery nurses need as they approach six weeks of all-out strike action. The Unison union branch at the hospital donated £3,000 to the strike fund and activists are taking collection sheets round the wards.
US TANKS and helicopter gunships have been blasting Iraq again this week. This is a year after we were told the US forces had "liberated" the very towns they are now pounding. The scenes from Iraq show how everything the anti-war movement said was absolutely correct.
\"THEY HAVE crossed the line,\" declared Paul Bremer, the US ruler of Iraq, on Sunday. He was raging against demonstrators in the town of Najaf who clashed with Spanish-led occupation troops. The occupation troops shot down around 20 Iraqis. At least two occupying soldiers, one from El Salvador and one from the US, were killed.
THE FOUR men killed in Fallujah last week were not \"civilian contractors\" helping Iraqis. They were mercenaries, former members of the US Navy Seal special forces, acting as hired guns in Iraq. They deserve no sympathy from anyone.
BRITISH TV and newspapers focused last week on the killing of what they called \"civilian contractors\" in the central Iraqi town of Fallujah. They raged against what they called a \"barbarous\" killing of civilians trying to help Iraqis. In fact the four men killed in Fallujah were US mercenaries. Most of the media did not report the scale of brutality that US forces had recently meted out to Iraqi civilians in Fallujah.
JUST 60 days to go now until the 10 June European and London Assembly elections. Respect supporters are to up the tempo of their election campaign after the Easter holiday. Leaflets, posters, cavalcades, walkabouts, banner drops, press stunts, workplace and community meetings and much, much more are under way across England. In some areas things are even more urgent.
ROYAL MAIL plans to scrap a longstanding service, the Newspaper Registration Service. This allows registered newspapers to send papers on a first class service for second class rates.
THE TENTH of April 2003, exactly a year ago, saw the pulling down of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad. The media flashed the image across the world. It was meant to carry the simple message: The US had won and Iraq was on the road to peace and freedom.
