The warmongers aim at new victims The US is preparing to attack more countries even as the chaos and horror in Afghanistan unfold daily. "There are 40 to 50 countries which harbour terrorists and which could be targeted for diplomatic, financial or military action," said US vice-president Dick Cheney last week.
Tony Blair, George W Bush and their media cheerleaders are hailing "liberation" in Afghanistan. But the record of the Northern Alliance forces which took control of much of the country last week is every bit as bad as the Taliban regime the West is out to crush.
Anti-war demo sweeps London Even the mainstream media was forced to acknowledge Sunday's marvellous anti-war demonstration in London. TV news and papers had to carry images of the tide of people from all over Britain who poured on to the streets. Yet alongside those images almost all the media repeated the absurd police claim that only 15,000 people had joined the march.
Where could ordinary people be arrested and locked up indefinitely without a trial and without being told the charges against them? Britain, under home secretary David Blunkett's new anti-terrorism laws. It exposes the "democracy" Britain and the US claim they stand for around the world.
Tony Blair was cheered when he spoke at the Labour conference of taking action over the "slums of Gaza" and stressed that "the Palestinians must have justice". Yet during the war on Afghanistan Blair and Bush have allowed the Israeli state to launch a new and bloody reign of terror against the Palestinians.
The official figures admitted last week that unemployment is rising. The count which the government prefers (the number of people claiming benefit) rose by 4,300 to 951,000.
"Coming just a day after the advances in Afghanistan, it signals the determination of the world's community to fight terror with trade, as well as arms." These are the worlds of Patricia Hewitt, New Labour's trade and industry secretary, celebrating the outcome of the World Trade Organisation meeting last week in Doha, Qatar.
"We experimented with the futures of thousands of children all for the sake of free market dogma. And the experiment failed." Education minister Stephen Timms did not admit that last week. But he should have as he announced that Education Action Zones are to be phased out.
The national ballot of 75,000 job centre and Benefits Agency workers in the PCS union was delayed last week due to technical difficulties. The new ballot will now start on Wednesday of this week, ending on Monday 3 December. The 75,000 workers are being balloted to join a strike by 2,500 civil servants across Britain.
OVer 1,000 striking council workers attended a rally in Bradford on Wednesday of last week. The workers struck for the day against Bradford's Tory/Liberal coalition council, which is pushing privatisation through.
The opposition to the Nazi British National Party (BNP) in Oldham, in Greater Manchester, stepped up last week with the launch of the Coalition Against Racism.
Backstage staff at the Royal Shakespeare Company, based in London, have voted to take strike action at Christmas. The workers, members of the BECTU union, voted by nine to one in favour of strikes.
