Bradford's hung council voted by 43 to 38 to privatise the city's 27,000 council homes last week. The Defend Council Housing campaign in Bradford has pledged to oppose the sell off. Tenants have the final say in the ballot to be held later this year. A preliminary survey by the council shows 82 percent of tenants want to stay under council control.
Rolls Royce workers at Ansty in the West Midlands stepped up their fight against up to 1,300 job cuts with a second round of strike action on Monday of this week. Cars tailed back for miles from both gates as workers in the MSF and GMB unions caused massive disruption to the site. "We're having a serious effect," one engineer told Socialist Worker. The strike by 500 workers, mainly skilled engineers and office workers, has been solid.
UEL Thousands of staff and students at the University of East London (UEL) have signed a statement of no confidence in the university's senior management. Over 200 staff have lost their jobs in the last four years. Now vice-chancellor Frank Gould has demanded another £3 million in cuts and redundancies. A meeting of 250 staff and students recently confronted UEL governors. Martin Hoyles, chair of the lecturers' NATFHE union branch, told the governors, "This management must go."
Some 75 people came to a "Renationalise the rail" public rally in Nottingham last week. Speakers included Alan Simpson MP, Jim Creamer, branch secretary of East Midlands RMT, and a Dudley hospitals striker. The meeting brought together Labour Party activists, Socialist Alliance members, environmental campaigners, and members of the World Development Movement. Some 13 people joined the Socialist Alliance, which will be standing a candidate against John Heppell in Nottingham East. Heppell is John Prescott's parliamentary private secretary and refuses to support the call to renationalise the railways.
Around 70 people came to a hustings meeting in central London for the candidates for general secretary of the postal workers' CWU union last week. John Keggie, the present union deputy general secretary, is standing against Billy Hayes, a union national officer.
Around 70 people attended a Palestine Solidarity Campaign meeting in Glasgow last week. Scottish National Party MSP Shona Robison and leading pro-Palestinian academic Dr Michael Prior were joined by Palestinian and Jewish speakers in calling for solidarity with the intifada.
Firefighters in Derbyshire are "withdrawing goodwill" with the Labour-controlled county council over a £1 million cut in the budget. A spokesperson for the firefighters' FBU union told Socialist Worker, "Last time we went into dispute with the council they hid behind a Tory government. They cannot do that now. Gordon Brown should spend some of his billions on essential services."
Over 100 people attended a public meeting in Tottenham, north London, last week to hear Delroy Lindo, Raphael Rowe, the Harry Stanley campaign and others talk of their fights for justice
"I call on everyone to attend this Saturday's march and rally in Birmingham. We can make a difference." That statement comes from Steve Godward, the divisional secretary of West Midlands Fire Brigades Union, urging support for the anti-privatisation demonstration in Birmingham.
The battle over New Labour's plan to privatise the tube in London was coming to a head this week. Tony Blair met Gordon Brown and John Prescott on Monday, and refused to abandon the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme which means breaking up the tube and handing it to private companies such as Balfour Beatty.
George W Bush Tony Blair These two men bombed Iraqi children just to keep control of oil
A Two-day carnival-like event took place in Montpellier, southern France, last week. It was a 15,000-strong protest against globalisation that saw people pack into meetings on everything from how to fight the multinationals to the threat to privatise public services under the planned GATS trade agreement. There was also an inspiring march, with students, peasants and trade unionists chanting what has become the slogan of the movement: "The world is not for sale!"
