AROUND 50 pensioners and trade unionists met in London last Saturday at a conference organised by the Greater London Pensioners Association. Pensioners were angry that restoring the link between pensions and earnings was not raised at Labour's conference.
OVER 1,000 college lecturers, teachers and other trade unionists marched through Glasgow last Saturday demanding the reinstatement of Jim O'Donovan. Jim is the president of the college lecturers' section of the EIS education union. He was sacked from Glasgow's Central College following a campaign of victimisation against union activists by the management.
OVER 50 people attended a very moving commemoration for Surjit Singh Chhokar, who was murdered by racists over four years ago in Wishaw. Scottish Socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan, SNP MSP Linda Fabiani and the family's lawyer, Aamer Anwar, addressed the commemoration.
TONY BLAIR restated his hard line against the firefighters on the very day leaders of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) suspended another strike in the hope of getting a pay offer in talks. He said on Monday of this week, "If people make excessive wage claims we will have to resist them."
PICKETING lecturers and support staff at over 300 further education colleges forced management to close colleges in a one-day strike on Tuesday. This is the second strike this year by members of the lecturers' union Natfhe, who also struck for two days in May.
ABOUT 200,000 people joined powerful anti-war demonstrations in San Francisco, Washington, and other cities in the US last weekend. The Washington Post reported that it was Washington's largest anti-war demo since the Vietnam War era. That challenge to George Bush came as protests were planned in most towns and cities in Britain for Thursday, a day of action called by the Stop the War Coalition.
ANGER OVER pay is driving more and more workers to take action. The Bank of England is demanding that public sector pay rises are limited to an average 4 percent. This "average" includes vast sums handed out to overpaid managers and fat cat executives.
MORE THAN 1,000 jobs are set to go at Doctor Marten's boot factories in Northampton, Leicestershire and Somerset. Bosses want to move production to exploit cheaper labour in China. This move adds to the 150,000 manufacturing jobs that have gone in Britain in the last 12 months.
SOME 500 cleaners, porters and telephonists in Swansea were to vote this week on an improved offer from their private bosses, ISS Mediclean. Some workers are angry at their Unison union officials for calling off a planned week-long strike. More could have been won, but the Swansea workers have shown that action is getting results in the health service.
ANTI-NAZI campaigners in the north west of England stepped up their fight against the Nazi BNP and National Front (NF) last week. The BNP won three council seats in Burnley in May this year. Local activists are determined to strike back.
WORKERS AT Resourcesaver in Bristol took strike action last Wednesday over management reneging on a deal to cut working hours. Resourcesaver is responsible for collecting black boxes for recycling. Doug Varney from the workers' of the Unison union branch explained, "Management had agreed to cut the working week to 40 hours - that's five eight-hour days. Now management have imposed a standard nine-hour day.
AROUND 50 council gardeners walked out on Monday of last week in Hackney, east London. They were protesting against the council's plans to push through job cuts while increasing the use of agency staff and the number of managers - who are also receiving pay increases.
