TONY BLAIR got a few conversations he hadn't bargained for when he arrived in Enfield, north London, last week for the latest of his "Big Conversation" meetings. MICHAEL, an anti-war protester, tells how he confronted Blair:
SUPPORT IS growing for the Unite Against Fascism coalition in its campaign against the British National Party in the run-up to the 10 June elections. The latest of the launch meetings in local areas saw over 130 people attend in Wakefield Town Hall, including representatives from trade unions and Muslim organisations.
AFTER 28 days on hunger strike, and at the urging of their friends and supporters, the "Glasgow Three", Faroq Haidari, Fariborz Gravindi and Mokhtar Haydary, have ended their hunger strike. The three, Kurdish refugees from Iran, have been heartened by the growing support for their fight against deportation from across Scotland and beyond. They were also strengthened by a protest in their support at the Scottish Parliament last week.
OVER 300 turned out to the annual David Jones/Joe Green Strike Memorial Day in Barnsley on Saturday. It was the largest turnout for this event for many years. David and Joe were miners killed on the picket line during the 1984-5 strike. Miners, ex-miners and families, along with other trade unionists, heard Dennis Skinner MP and Ian Lavery of the NUM recall events from the miners' heroic struggle.
UP TO 100 people joined an angry Mother's Day protest in Glasgow last Sunday against plans by the Greater Glasgow Health Board to close the Queen Mother's Maternity Unit at Yorkhill.
Ballot on action for decent pay LOW PAID health workers in North Manchester and Bury hospitals are planning strike action at the start of April. The porters and domestic staff are employed by private contractor ISS Mediclean. The workers, members of the Unison union, overwhelmingly voted for strike action in their ballot earlier this month. They earn just £4.61 an hour, and want to get £5 an hour. That is what similar workers directly employed by the NHS in the same hospital trust earn.
AROUND 150 people attended a showing of the film Injustice at the Prince Charles cinema in central London last week. The powerful film shows families in Britain who have been fighting for justice after their loved ones died in police custody.
ANTI-WAR protesters last week launched an appeal against a judgement which ruled that the police acted lawfully in turning them away from a demonstration at RAF Fairford last March. The coach passengers won a landmark victory in last month's High Court judgement, which ruled that the police had acted unlawfully by detaining them on their way to an anti-war demonstration.
MEMBERS OF the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) have voted narrowly against a proposal for their trade union to set up a political fund. The move was rejected by 53 percent to 47 percent, a majority of just 579 votes. The debate on having a political fund was clouded by opponents who claimed it was an attempt to get the union to support the Labour Party.
LECTURERS AND academic staff were on the verge of a stunning victory at the start of this week. Delegates to the Association of University Teachers (AUT) conference were meeting this week to assess a revised pay offer from university bosses which has conceded on every point of the union's claim.
THERE IS a mounting revolt in the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) at attempts to railroad through swingeing attacks on conditions demanded by the employers. "I've not come across a single branch that has voted in favour of surrendering the conditions the employers are attacking," says Dean Mills, secretary of the Southern Region of the FBU, which does not have a reputation for militancy.
