Cuts to care homes and social services are leaving one million elderly people at risk. Help the Aged, one of 21 organisations contributing to a new report on the crisis, says that many elderly people "use social services as an emergency measure.
Transport secretary Stephen Byers has been caught out again for trying to pass off already allocated government spending as "new". Last week he claimed he had got an extra £2.2 billion for the railways. Within two days officials at the Treasury admitted the money had already been announced in April of last year.
"Wreckers." That is how Tony Blair insulted public sector workers at a Labour conference in Cardiff last weekend. Nurses, rail workers, postal workers, teachers and cleaners are not "wreckers". They are the people who keep our services going.
Socialist Worker will be available to a new-and its biggest ever-audience in newsagents across Britain from next week. Major newspaper distributors have recognised the growing mood for left wing ideas after two successful pilot projects, and will distribute Socialist Worker nationally.
British Airways is threatening to axe another 16,000 jobs. BA cut 7,000 jobs last year, but chief executive Rod Eddington admitted that more jobs would have to be sacrificed this year. Alpha Airways, which supplies in-flight meals and duty free shops, is also planning to sack some 1,000 workers.
Muhammad Abbas Shaffi went to a Marxist forum on Kashmir last Thursday in Bristol. He said, "It was the first time I'd been to any meeting like that, but I was really inspired. The speaker had an overwhelming knowledge, and being Kashmiri myself it was the first time I had ever discussed Kashmir from an independent perspective. What I also liked was that it was an open and honest debate by people who had nothing to gain by being there apart from the betterment of humanity. It was debate, not for the sake of it, but to try and overcome the problems in Kashmir and think how to resolve the issue."
The first strike by journalists over pay in over a decade has won a victory at the Bradford Telegraph and Argus titles. After just one half-day stoppage by NUJ union members, management at the Newsquest-owned titles were forced to offer a deal worth 3 percent. The Bradford NUJ chapel (workplace union branch) was the first to win back recognition at Newsquest, which owns papers across the country and is owned by US multinational Gannett.
Over 400 people joined a march and sit-down protests as the HMS Vanguard nuclear submarine entered Plymouth's Devonport dockyard for the first time last Sunday. Seven people were arrested during a mass blockade of the nuclear submarine dockyard.
The Scottish Executive announced last week that it is to give £300 million of public money to shore up the plan to privatise Glasgow's council homes. New Labour is prepared to throw still more public money in to push the privatisation through in a tenants' ballot due to get under way in March. Glasgow is just one of the major privatisation plans coming to a head.
BT has issued a major challenge to its workers' CWU union, and the challenge looks set to spark a strike ballot. BT plans to transfer core workers to a private company.
Tens of thousands more workers in London are to be balloted on possible action over pay. Council workers, health workers, higher education admin workers and more could be united in a vote across the capital which could pave the way for action. We reported in Socialist Worker last week that delegates from Unison union branches across London had backed an indicative vote among council workers.
The Welsh Socialist Alliance (WSA) continues an energetic campaign in Ogmore, where a by-election takes place on Thursday of next week.
