Friends and family of Harry Stanley confronted the Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir John Stevens at a meeting in Hackney, east London, on Thursday of last week.
Security staff in the TGWU union at Manchester airport continued their industrial action with a 36-hour strike beginning at 4am on Friday of last week. Strikers lobbied five of the ten councils that sit on the control board of the airport on Friday morning. They gave out thousands of leaflets, and were encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response from the public. Later that day stewards addressed a support meeting of trade unionists and campaigners from across the city.
All out and determined to win. That was the message from medical secretaries on the picket line in Sunderland in the north east of England on Monday of this week.
Journalists at the Express and Star newspapers accepted an increased pay offer last week as management caved in just before a series of stoppages were due to begin. The new offer is £1,100 a year extra for every worker. This went up from £900 in the space of a week because of the threat of action. People recognised how far we have come since Richard Desmond bought the papers a year ago.
Why have Post Office managers felt confident enough to move towards 40,000 job losses and the destruction of Parcelforce? One big reason has to be the behaviour of the CWU leaders last week. They met to discuss the possibility of holding a one-day strike over pay on Wednesday this week.
The management of the government's new Jobcentre Plus scheme have made a new offer to civil servants in the PCS union working in job centres and benefits offices. Ballot papers were sent out this week. Union leaders are recommending that members accept the offer, but it falls far short of what members need. The dispute was centred on New Labour's plans to scrap safety screens in the newly amalgamated offices.
Tony Blair is pushing for a new war on Iraq. His government does not care about what the public or other countries think. Defence secretary Geoff Hoon said about Iraq earlier this week, "We would be perfectly entitled to use force" without a United Nations mandate. But there is deep resistance to these plans even among Labour MPs.
Tony Blair is pushing for a new war on Iraq. His government does not care about what the public or other countries think. Defence secretary Geoff Hoon said about Iraq earlier this week, "We would be perfectly entitled to use force" without a United Nations mandate. But there is deep resistance to these plans even among Labour MPs.
Barcelona, Saturday 16 March, 6pm. Half a million people pour onto the streets to protest "against a Europe of capital and war". This is even bigger than the anti-capitalist protest in Genoa last year. An endless stream of hundreds of thousands of people, young and old, students and trade unionists, pack into the Placa de Catalunya and the surrounding streets.
Over 100,000 trade unionists marched in Barcelona against the European Union (EU) summit two days before the anti-capitalist demo. The march was organised by the European Federation of Trade Unions. Hundreds of coaches, plus a train and a plane, came from other areas of Spain. And some 20,000 trade unionists came from France and Italy, with smaller delegations from other countries.
Tony Blair has allied with the most right wing leaders in Europe to attack workers' rights. The European Union summit in Spain last week saw him set up an axis with the right wing prime ministers of Italy and Spain, Silvio Berlusconi and JosŽ Maria Aznar.
