THE ANNUAL women's TUC conference last week showed that trade unionists have not forgotten the Iraq war or swallowed Labour's domestic agenda. Some 400 delegates gathered in Eastbourne. Flashes of anger against the war on Iraq and the treatment of asylum seekers brought the conference to life. One motion asked for coalition forces in Iraq to ensure women's rights were enforced.
ANTI-WAR campaigners across the world are preparing to demonstrate on 20 March against the carnage that Bush and Blair have brought to Iraq. The call for protests was raised at the 50,000-strong European Social Forum in Paris last November. The 100,000 who gathered at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India, in January backed that call.
THE LAUNCH of Unite Against Fascism in the north west of England made front page news in Manchester last week. The Manchester Evening News, the leading newspaper in Britain's third biggest city, gave headline coverage of Unite's press conference. It was held in Manchester Town Hall on Friday.
COUNCIL WORKERS rallied outside Newham Town Hall in east London on Monday lunchtime against a major threat to their trade union branch. At the heart of the fight is the right of trade unions to represent their members, and for members to democratically decide what the union branch does. Up to 100 members of the Unison union joined Monday's rally. They were supported by trade unionists from the local further education college and Unison branches in other London councils.
COMMUNITY leaders, trade unionists and faith groups joined forces at a Unite Against Fascism conference in Sheffield last Saturday to discuss how to counter the threat of the Nazi BNP in the city. They heard from an array of speakers, including world champion boxing coach Brendan Ingle, himself an immigrant from Ireland.
ACTION BY university lecturers over pay continues with growing pressure by the membership on the executive of the AUT union to step up the action. At Leeds, weekly strike committee meetings are attracting 20 or so departmental reps, and the feedback from departments is tremendous.
AROUND 100 people lobbied a Calderdale (Halifax) council meeting on Wednesday of last week in noisy protest at the threat of closure of a popular local school, Mixenden Community Primary. Councillors callously voted for closure-all Labour and Tory councillors. Just one Lib Dem and three Nazi BNP councillors voted against.
CAMPAIGNERS to defend council housing will be in Manchester this weekend to coincide with the Labour Party local government conference. The Defend Council Housing campaign organisation and the Council Housing group of MPs are holding sessions to collect evidence in favour of what has been dubbed "the fourth option-direct investment in council housing".
OVER 100 people attended the Globalise Resistance Scotland conference in Glasgow last Saturday. Participants heard George Galloway denounce as "drivel" Blair's recent speech that though the war in Iraq might have been illegal, it shouldn't have been. Mark Curtis, author and now director of the World Development Movement, spoke of the need for more direct action.
STRIKERS AT Metzeler's plant in Coalville, Leicestershire, held their sixth one-day strike on Monday over the company's pay offer. They were also planning to hold a vote over whether to continue the action. The 16 engineers have been fighting to wrestle a 73p an hour pay rise from the multinational company. They are in the Amicus union. Most of the 500 shop floor workers are in the TGWU union, who narrowly voted for the pay offer.
