A swathe of privatisation proposals across the West Midlands have united anti-privatisation campaigners in a determined battle. Dudley Group of Hospitals is at the centre of the plans. Health workers are now on strike to fight the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme that means axing staff, privatising jobs and slashing beds.
In Leeds 9 copies of Socialist Worker were sold at the General Infirmary, 6 were sold at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, 5 at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and 4 at Shrubhill bus garage. Manchester sales included 7 at both Schlumberger's and at the Royal Infirmary. Elsewhere 8 were sold at De La Rue Printers in High Wycombe, 5 at Aston post office in Birmingham and 4 at Copperas Hill post office in Liverpool.
Around 120 Socialist Alliance candidates, election agents and supporters met in Birmingham last Saturday to plan the general election challenge. "There is a real urgency. There are just 47 days to go if the election is on 5 April and 75 days if the election is on 3 May," said the chair of the National Network of Socialist Alliances in England, Dave Nellist, who introduced the day. The day was very productive, with sessions on campaigning, raising finance, the role of candidates and using the press.
"Is this the return of student radicalism?" was how BBC Look North described Leeds University student union's annual general meeting (AGM) on Thursday 8 February. Some 900 students turned up to debate the union's "no platform for Nazis" policy.
Plans to run down Rosyth naval dockyard and sack 1,200 workers over the next five years have been leaked to the TGWU union. Babcock Rosyth Defence plans to reduce the number of docks at its Fife yard from four to one by 2006, which would employ less than 1,000 people.
Dudley hospitals strikers confronted their UNISON union leader Dave Prentis when they lobbied Labour's spring conference in Glasgow last weekend. Prentis came out of the conference to speak to the strikers, to pledge his support for their battle, and to underline his hope that a settlement could be achieved soon. But strikers wanted more.
Fifty workers at the Museum of London struck on Friday of last week. The official half-day action was in protest at a below inflation pay deal. The strike was 95 percent solid. Despite threats of legal action by management the protests outside the museum swelled to 100, with archaeologists and specialists who applauded the strikers. The strike marked the beginning of a campaign by the IPMS union across the heritage sector against low pay.
Construction has the worst safety record of any industry. Workplace fatalities increased 20 percent in the last financial year to 86 deaths. Deputy prime minister John Prescott has called a "Construction Safety Summit" for Tuesday of next week. This was originally going to be a full-day event. Now he has downgraded it to a three-hour session.
All UNISON members at Kirklees council elderly people's homes went on strike on Monday of this week. The strikers are cooks, cleaners and care workers in 15 residential care homes for elderly people.
Post Office bosses are threatening to privatise 3,500 jobs unless unofficial strikes stop. This blackmailing ultimatum comes in a letter from Post Office managing director David Morphey. He says that unless the strikes stop the Cash Handling and Distribution function, with its 3,500 workers, could be handed over to Securicor.
Protesters disrupted a lecture by George Robertson, the general secretary of NATO, at Dundee University last Saturday. They were protesting against his warmongering in the Balkans two years ago and the bombing of Baghdad the night before. They succeeded in stopping his talk, and the protest was covered in the Scottish Post.
Over 100 people demonstrated at the "Save our Schools" event in Bristol last Saturday. The protest was a spontaneous response to the council's sham referendum over the council tax. The result means the Labour council will make millions of pounds of cuts to the education budget. The message from teachers, parents and the community was, "No way will we accept this ludicrous situation that could see 180 teachers sacked." Over 650 signatures were collected, and many pledged to come to an open planning meeting on 1 March.
