THE NATIONAL council of the Socialist Alliance met in London last Saturday, with delegates from local groups across England. Socialist Alliance trade union officer Mark Hoskisson stressed the importance of the crisis facing Labour and how the Socialist Alliance had a key role to play in the debate over the trade union political funds.
GUARDS AND station staff on Arriva Trains Northern were set to continue their heroic fight against low pay with four strikes over the holiday period. "We have called strikes for this Saturday 21, 23, 24 and 31 December," one RMT union member on Arriva told Socialist Worker.
BREAKING national conditions and fire cover standards. A "pay as you go" fire service. That's what the 160 pages of the Bain review into the fire service, published this week, amounts to. Talks between fire service employers and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) are scheduled for early January. But Prescott says he will impose Bain's assault anyway.
Luxury flat for his son... £1,000 a week on Cherie's 'lifestyle guru'... total faith in George Bush... and two fingers to the firefighters
THOUSANDS OF asylum seekers will find themselves on the streets and starving in bitterly cold weather over the coming months. That is the only present from New Labour this winter for people fleeing war, persecution and torture.
CLAIMS THAT British Asian communities "won't mix" have been rubbished by one of the biggest ever surveys into ethnic minority housing. Researchers in Leeds and Bradford studied Asian housing patterns. The findings showed that politicians' and media claims that Asian and Muslim people did not want to mix were "myth making".
THE GOVERNMENT effectively signalled the abandonment of its "integrated" transport policy this week when it announced a massive new road building plan. Transport secretary Alistair Darling announced a £2 billion roads programme, which will involve widening parts of the M1 and M6 as well as other major roads. There is no doubt that congestion on such roads is making travelling a nightmare.
WORRIED ABOUT paying the credit card bill off after Christmas? You are not alone. There are now record levels of debt in Britain. The government and so called economic "experts" may tell us we are enjoying a consumer boom.
TONY BLAIR says there's no money for workers who provide public services. But his government is ready to stump up a staggering £10 billion to take part in the US's mad "Son of Star Wars" plan. The plan is officially called National Missile Defence.
TWO IN three young people who decide against going to university cite fear of debt as the reason.
WORKERS AT Britain's major airports have voted to reject their bosses' pay offer for a second time. The low paid workers are employed by the British Airport Authority (BAA). They are fuming that while the airport operator's profits have soared in the last year it is still playing Scrooge with their pay.
THE ITALIAN state has attempted to clamp down on the anti-capitalist movement since the success of the European Social Forum (ESF) in Florence in November. It arrested 20 activists in the south of Italy the week after the ESF. Socialist Worker spoke to Antonino Campenni, one of those arrested, about the campaign against the crackdown:
