LOW PAID education workers have begun the biggest indefinite strike in Britain for many years. The 5,000 nursery nurses walked out in three quarters of Scotland's local authorities on Monday. Liz McCulloch, a nursery nurse and Unison union steward in East Ayrshire, explains why:
"I COULD never understand why all those people were calling the BNP fascists. Well I do now," says Maureen Stowe. She has broken all links with the British National Party and is now backing the fight against the fascists.
Some 100 people in South Shields on Tyneside protested outside local Labour MP David Miliband's office on Sunday in support of a Colombian family threatened with deportation.
ACTIVISTS IN the civil servants' PCS union were set to meet in Leeds this Saturday to discuss their crucial battle with the government over poverty pay. Some 92,000 workers in benefits offices, job centres, pension centres and Child Support Agency centres shocked bosses when they struck magnificently for two days last month.
Liverpool strike solid "THIS IS about bullying." Those were the words of one social worker who joined around 145 colleagues on strike on Friday of last week. The social workers, who work in childcare in Liverpool, were out on the first day of a three-day strike over management bullying, excessive workloads and lack of staffing.
OVER 400 people gathered in London last weekend for a conference organised by War on Want on "Privatisation, Power and Poverty". At the opening session author Susan George said that in addition to the "three Ps" of the conference title, we needed to add another one-profits.
THREE ANTI Trident nuclear submarine protesters were found guilty at Plymouth Crown Court last week of crimes relating to attempts to put HMS Vanguard out of action. Sue Brackenbury, who has already served the equivalent of an eight-month sentence on remand, was released after she was sentenced to six months. Matt Bury and Shirley Law were each given a 12-month conditional discharge.
THERE WAS a huge turnout for the launch meeting of Pendle United Against Fascism on Wednesday of last week. Nearly 100 people crowded into Nelson Library to hear speakers from across the political and religious spectrum condemn the threat from the far-right BNP. The meeting was called by Pendle Trades Council.
A GROUP of victimised firefighters in Hampshire have won reinstatement after a landmark legal ruling last week. The Basingstoke Four were sacked five years ago. Senior management in the brigade and the fire authority were determined to break the firefighters' union organisation at the Basingstoke station.
"I APPEAL to everyone not to let the Muslim and Asian communities suffer the way the Irish suffered under the anti-terrorist laws," Paddy Hill of the Birmingham Six urged a public meeting in Moir Hall, Glasgow, last week. The meeting, held on the eve of the Scottish Labour Party conference, was called to oppose the latest government attack on civil liberties.
THE TWO days of strike action by university lecturers in the AUT union were hugely successful. The government and employers are trying to fundamentally change higher education. They want to create a two-tier education system for students. Lecturers could see an end to job security, loss of control over the work process and pay related to where you work, not what you do.
LECTURERS AT Leicester College have suspended their strike in defence of union rights, which has lasted for an amazing four weeks. The all-out strike by members of the Natfhe union was over the college management's attempt to bring in a non-negotiated contract that attacked working conditions. The strikes forced management back to the table.
