AROUND 500 protesters marched in Oxford last Saturday against war on Iraq and for justice for the Palestinians. People of all religions, political orientations and ages united in a display of resistance and solidarity, led by a brilliant band of student musicians. At the rally afterwards there was a determination to build for the European day of action on 15 February. Mike Cotgrave
STRIKING HEALTH workers at the Glasgow North Health Trust trust returned to work on Monday of this week after over three weeks of unofficial action. The low paid admin and clerical workers voted overwhelmingly to end their indefinite strike at a mass meeting.
THE ITALIAN state has arrested 20 activists after the successful European Social Forum in Florence. They have charged with "subversion against state authority". These included Antonino Campenni of the Cobas union national executive, and Francesco Caruso, one of the leaders of the "disobbediente" group. Antonino spoke at a Globalise Resistance meeting in London last year.
"A COLD and calculated manipulation of the work of human rights activists." That was the damning verdict of Amnesty International on home secretary Jack Straw's dossier on human rights abuses in Iraq published this week. Amnesty is absolutely right to question Straw's motives. New Labour has launched a propaganda war to back a US attack on Iraq. It wants us to believe it is so concerned about human rights there that it will join the US in blasting the country and its people. George Bush has been piling troops and weapons into the Gulf region ready for the mass destruction of the country. US and British planes have kept up their regular bombing raids on Iraq, which have been continuing
NEW LABOUR is highly selective about the countries it chooses to condemn over human rights abuses. The government's dossier graphically describes torture methods under Saddam Hussein. Yet it does not detail the torture and repression that is carried out by regimes that are allies of the US and Britain.
"This is no longer just a dispute between the Fire Brigades Union and the government. It is a fight between the government and the whole union movement" GMB union leader John Edmonds
ANGER AT low pay exists across the public services. That's why other groups of workers as well as the firefighters are taking action. On Tuesday tens of thousands of teachers and council workers in London struck for a rise in the allowance they get for living in London, with its spiralling housing and transport costs.
ON THE same day as the firefighters' eight-day strike started, over 300 health workers at the Glasgow North Health Trust voted to continue their unofficial strike action. The strikers' mood was determined and defiant. One striker said, "We struck for a decent pay rise for all, and we shouldn't return until we get it."
OUR RECENT strike action has had an effect. At the conference of the Association of Colleges last Tuesday the education secretary, Charles Clarke, announced new government funding of £1.2 billion over a three-year period.
WORKERS IN the Amicus-AEEU union working at the press and paintline section members at Raven Manufacturing near Burnley have now entered their ninth week of selective strike action for a 3 percent pay claim.
A STOP the war demonstration drew around 1,000 people on to the streets of Sheffield last Saturday. The march was led by a delegation from South Yorkshire FBU and addressed by CND, trade unionists, socialists and students. Later the same night a massive Stop the War Coalition benefit raised £1,800 as DJs from across Sheffield's club scene attracted hundreds of people. Greg Challis
