Breathtaking negligence of employers SOME 7,000 workers a year are struck with asthma through work. Occupational asthma is widespread, and is forcing many workers to leave their jobs due to ill health, according to research for the TUC. Workers often suffer from debilitating asthma without employers recognising that work is to blame.
FURTHER evidence has come to light confirming that crime is actually falling. There had been a recorded rise in street crime that was almost wholly down to an increase in the number of reported mobile phone thefts. The media seized on the increase in street robbery figures two months ago to claim that violent crime is spiralling.
THE NAZI British National Party has conned its way into three council seats in Burnley. This is a terrible warning. It demands an urgent reaction from the anti-Nazi majority across Britain.
THE MYTH that workers are better off with the flexible labour market in Britain has been powerfully exposed in a new report. Workers are working harder for more hours and under greater stress than they were ten years ago, according to research in Britain's World of Work-Myths and Realities by Richard Taylor.
YOU WOULDN'T know it from newspapers and TV, but across England thousands voted for socialist candidates in last week's local elections. The Socialist Alliance stood 230 candidates on a platform of left wing opposition to the mainstream pro-business parties. Consistently between 5 and 10 percent of voters cast one of their votes for the alliance.
JOURNALISTS AT the Independent and Independent on Sunday were set to start a strike ballot this week. They had given management at the national newspapers until Wednesday to come up with a serious pay offer or a ballot for action would begin. Management at the papers, owned by Irish businessman and newspaper baron Tony O'Reilly, want a pay freeze for staff.
HUNDREDS OF people across Britain demonstrated in solidarity with the Palestinians over bank holiday weekend. The "Justice for Palestine-hands off Iraq" demonstration filled Sheffield city centre last Saturday. It was 2, 000-strong at its height, with lots of people joining in the march as it went along.
EDINBURGH: 1,000 people marched for international solidarity and socialism through the streets of Edinburgh to a rally in Princes Street Gardens on Saturday. Palestinian flags flew among trade union and socialist banners as the chants rang out against privatisation and for freedom for Palestine.
'Don't charge us' say firefighters in London FORTY FIREFIGHTERS attended a fantastic rank and file meeting in central London last week. The meeting was called by Clerkenwell Fire Brigades Union members who are taking unofficial action against the levying of a congestion charge which will cost £I,000 per year.
HEALTH WORKERS last week ripped a hole in the government's strategy to force Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes through in the NHS. The government's plans for the NHS, including those announced in last month's budget, are based on a massive increase in PFI privatisation projects across the health service.
AS THE news of the BNP's victory in Burnley circulated, anti-Nazi campaigners across Britain took to the streets in protest. Over 100 people turned up in Bristol on Friday and marched, to a great reception from passers-by. People marched to the BBC to demand no platform for Nazis.
