OUR STRIKE is showing people's determination and enthusiasm to win something over London weighting, the allowance for living and working in the capital. The selective action we began last week means that up to 1,500 Unison members across London councils are out, most for four weeks. That is a significant escalation on the selective action that has been running over recent months.
UP TO 8,000 trade unionists came together last weekend in Tolpuddle in Dorset in a lively celebration of union rights.
LEADERS OF the CWU union have postponed a decision on whether to call strike ballots over the national pay offer and London weighting. But the issue will not go away.
IN A great show of militancy, 500 British Airways (BA) customer service workers walked out on an unofficial 24-hour strike at Heathrow last weekend. The chaos this caused showed the enormous power workers have over the huge operation. They expressed a spirit of defiance that is growing in workplaces up and down the country. A Heathrow worker explains why these workers struck:
NEW FIGURES show there's a £10 billion hole in New Labour's spending plans. It's no secret where much of the money has gone. Around £3 billion has already been spent on the war against Iraq and the occupation. Every month at least another £150 million goes on the bill.
THE TRIAL of the men charged after last year's fire at the Yarls Wood refugee detention centre has already exposed the myth that refugees have an easy life in Britain. Yarls Wood was Labour's flagship centre, built to hold 900 men, women and children. But it was destroyed by a fire last year. In a document presented at the trial, a custody officer claimed he and his colleagues were ordered to lock the refugees in as the fire swept through the building.
ANTI-WAR activists are preparing a campaign over the summer to end the occupation of Iraq and to bring the government to account for its lies and war crimes. That was the message of a spirited meeting last week which brought together representatives of London Stop the War groups to discuss how to build effective action in the next two months.
THE KILLING of Saddam Hussein's sons should have meant the beginning of the end of opposition to the occupation of Iraq, according to Tony Blair and George Bush. But within hours of the killings last week US troops opened fire on Iraqi civilians, killing five people near a checkpoint in a poor suburb of Baghdad. Local residents told journalists that they shed no tears for Saddam's sons, but the deaths of the civilians made them prepared to resist the occupying forces.
POSTAL workers were on the brink of strike ballots or even unofficial walkouts as Socialist Worker went to press. Nationally, final talks with Royal Mail bosses were taking place to see if management would offer a decent pay deal that was not linked to crushing productivity demands.
