POSTAL WORKERS in the CWU union will take to the streets in London on Saturday to say no to privatisation. Postcomm, the postal regulator appointed by government, has proposed that private firms should be allowed to grab almost half the mail in Britain from April.
Over 40,000 London teachers in the NUT union were set to strike for one day on Thursday of this week. This is the first strike by London teachers since 1972. More than 1,000 teachers have joined the NUT over the last few days in order to take part in the strike. They are joining the 41,000 NUT members who have already voted to strike by nine to one.
Children ripped apart by tank shells as they play. Women shot dead by army snipers in their own homes. Houses smashed to rubble by F-16 fighter jets. A doctor deliberately shot dead in his own ambulance as he rushes to help the injured. This is the reality of Ariel Sharon's massacre of Palestinian civilians. It is the reality that the British media try to ignore. They concentrate on reporting only the Israeli casualties.
New Labour ministers, MPs, judges and civil service chiefs are stuffing their already bulging pockets while low paid workers are told they can't have a decent pay rise. MPs are grabbing their second pay rise in less than a year next month. They will now be on £55,118 basic-well over double the average national wage. The new rise will mean MPs have awarded themselves an extra £4,000 a year in the last eight months.
New Labour immigration minister Lord Rooker congratulated the government last week for driving away refugees fleeing poverty and persecution. Vicious measures have stopped people finding safety in Britain. A glance at those who do make it shows that it is the most desperate people who try to get here.
Teachers in London have voted overwhelmingly to strike on Thursday of next week over pay. Over 40,000 members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in London and neighbouring areas of the Home Counties voted by nine to one to strike in a ballot declared on Tuesday of this week.
Birmingham council tenants are being asked to hand control of their homes to the Royal Bank of Scotland. The Labour-run city council was meeting on Tuesday of this week to give the final go-ahead to a ballot starting on 18 March over the plan to privatise over 80,000 council homes.
Thousands of people are dying unnecessarily because waiting times for NHS cancer treatment are getting longer. A key reason is the shortage of radiologists in the NHS. A third of people who train never enter the profession because the pay is so bad.
The Liberal Democrats are turning to the right. A policy review pushed by leader Charles Kennedy is set to recommend more use of PFI schemes and private firms to run schools and hospitals. It says PFI is helpful for bringing "more private sector management know-how into public service provision".
A government hotline set up to try and stop people giving to beggars is to be closed after it flopped. New Labour's "Homelessness Tsar", Louise Casey, insisted last year that people should not give money to the homeless on the streets.
Saturday's protest to stop the war was big, loud, young and militant. A brilliant 20,000 marched through London streets. Banners and placards called for peace, and branded George Bush a war criminal.
Towering success for union Thousands of council workers in Tower Hamlets, east London, struck on Thursday of last week against attacks on their employment conditions. Housing offices, parking, administration, libraries, and rent, benefits and repair services were all shut.
