A HOT autumn of strikes could be shaping up. All the dates are subject to change depending on decisions and votes of workers in each industry and their trade union leaders.
PAUL FOOT, the Socialist Alliance candidate for mayor of Hackney, was one of the speakers at the borough's 200-strong anti-war meeting last week. The campaign continues to gather pace, and this week stepped up another gear with the start of the mass delivery of an eight-page newspaper to every Hackney household.
AROUND 350 people crowded into the friendship centre in Burnley on Thursday of last week to protest against an attack on Iraq and for freedom for Palestine. They heard George Galloway MP, Dr Siddiqui from the Muslim Parliament, John Rees from the Stop the War Coalition, Norma Wilson from CND, and Asad Rehman from the Newham Monitoring Project.
AROUND 160,000 low paid workers employed by private companies that run many local government services are set to start ballots for strikes over pay. The GMB union is campaigning to get contractors to implement the pay rates which have just been agreed for directly employed council workers.
TUBE DRIVERS and station staff struck for 24 hours from Tuesday into Wednesday of this week, and are to strike again next Tuesday. The action is over pay. But it has brought to the surface increasing arrogance and bullying by management as the government prepares to privatise the tube through its PPP scheme.
SOME 55,000 firefighters and control room staff were to receive ballot papers on Friday of this week for the first national strike in the fire brigade for 25 years. Union activists are organising to return the highest yes vote they can. Stations and appliances across Britain are festooned with flags, posters, stickers and other pay campaign material.
MANY WORKERS across Britain who are fed up with low pay are preparing to go on strike. They do vital jobs. These workers put out fires, help schools and hospitals to run, and teach students at further education colleges. But their pay has not increased alongside the soaring rents, mortgages, bills and travel costs.
"The US is hell bent on attacking Iraq to impose regime change. On 28 September I will be proud to demonstrate against war. The whole trade union movement should be there." Mick Rix, Aslef rail workers' union leader
GEORGE BUSH is still driving towards war, despite Iraq saying it would bow to demands to allow weapons inspectors into the country. His undersecretary of state for arms control says the US wants "a regime change in Baghdad, and that policy will not be altered whether inspectors go in or not".
THE US is using bullying and dirty deals to try and ensure that the United Nations does not oppose war. That underlines why opponents of the war must be clear and say no war, with or without United Nations backing. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council are the US, Britain, Russia, France and China. Any of these can veto a resolution backing war. Bush can rely on Britain. That leaves the three others.
THE TIMES splashed a front page story on Monday claiming it had definitive evidence that Iraq was within months of acquiring nuclear weapons. Its source was Khidir Hamza, a defector who it claimed was "at the heart of the Iraq regime".
A SECRET blueprint for US global domination reveals that Bush and his key advisers were planning war on Iraq to secure "regime change" even before he took office in January 2001. It talks of a war against Iraq as the "immediate justification" for wider US aims to dominate the Middle East.
