Teachers in London are voting for strikes as increasing workloads and the rising cost of living force record numbers to quit the job. Over 40,000 members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) are balloting for action to win increases in the allowances paid for working in London.
"Management say they are digging in. But so are we, and the feeling is mounting." That's what Mark Russell, an RMT union guards' rep on Arriva trains, told Socialist Worker. Arriva bosses last week cancelled rest day working in a vindictive move designed to hit workers' pay packets between strikes.
At a packed meeting last week 300 council workers in Tower Hamlets, east London, voted unanimously to go ahead with strike action, starting with a one-day strike across the borough on Thursday of this week.
The mood for strikes is back. One group of workers after another are voting for action over pay, the impact of privatisation, aggressive managers and New Labour's insults. But they also face pressure from many of their own union leaders to hold back from battle. Rail workers on Arriva Northern were set to strike over pay for 48 hours on Friday and Saturday of this week.
Massaging the figures on child poverty has to be among the sickest wheezes dreamt up by government spin doctors. That is exactly what New Labour has done, according to a devastating report commissioned by the Child Poverty Action Group and published this week. Government ministers claim to have "lifted" 1.2 million children out of poverty. But this report by a leading charity shows that figure is a lie.
Trade Unions give money to New Labour and get kicked. Businessmen hand over cash and get favours. That's what has been revealed around the scandal of the £125,000 donation to the government by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. Mittal wanted to buy a privatised Romanian steel plant last year. He made a donation to New Labour's election campaign.
More than 2,500 people marched through Newport on the Isle of Wight last Saturday against 650 job cuts by the multinational GKN. "Don't let this go without a fight. Don't allow GKN to replace this place with leisure use," worker Manny Diaz told the rally.
The British government is promoting a new way to help the 500 million Indian people in poverty-sell them weapons. Defexpo 2002, an arms fair, opened in New Delhi on Monday.
Pollution from car exhausts causes asthma, new official research has shown. The finding shows for the first time a direct link between transport chaos and pollution, and the epidemic of childhood asthma.
Thousands of students showed their anger at the government this week. They are furious that promised reforms of the fees system have been blocked. The eventual outcome may be even worse than what went before. At present many students leave college with debts of over £15,000. Many working class school leavers are put off going to college.
Nineteen year old Gavin Hopley died last week from injuries he received the previous weekend. He was beaten in Oldham, north west England. Police have arrested two men and are looking for others in connection with the killing.
Bob Crow's election as general secretary of the rail workers' RMT union is the latest in a series of successes for left wing candidates in the unions. It is a further sign of a deep change in mood among the eight million workers who are members of trade unions in Britain. For the employers and the right wing press the election results summon up their nightmare of a return of union strength.
