Altogether 62 copies of Socialist Worker were sold on the Haringey council picket lines in north London on Tuesday last week while on Saturday 108 papers were sold in Wood Green campaigning in support of the strikers. Elsewhere on Saturday 196 papers were sold at the Monument in Newcastle, 140 in Birmingham High Street, 100 in Sheffield, 36 in Sunderland and 26 in Port Talbot. In Manchester 205 papers were sold in Market Street, 44 in Gorton and 31 in Cheetham Hill.
HARINGEY council again faced strike action this week by thousands of workers. This was despite the Labour council's attempt to head off action by a crude repackaging of its attack on workers. Workers in the UNISON and TGWU unions struck again on Tuesday, and planned a march on the town hall when the action continued on Wednesday.
ONE OF those arrested at the protest against the World Trade Organisation outside Euston station on Tuesday 30 November is asking for support for her defence campaign. Clare, a final year law student, was arrested at about 10.45pm after the police viciously attacked the 1,000 strong protest. She has been charged with assaulting a police officer. Any witnesses can contact her via Socialist Worker, PO Box 82, London E3 3LH, and we will forward the letters.
MEMBERS OF the Scottish lecturers' EIS-ULA union have beaten back an attempt by their employers to impose a new contract in all new university staff from 1 January. The contract involved a 20 day cut in annual leave, an unlimited working week including evenings and weekends, performance related pay and an end to automatic annual increments.
Manchester Activists campaigning to abolish the 11-plus exam in Trafford got a boost last week when Roy Hattersley, the former Labour Party shadow cabinet member, addressed a meeting of over 50 people. In Trafford, near Manchester, all primary school pupils still have to sit the 11-plus test. The few who "pass" go to grammar schools while most who "fail" go to separate high schools. Parents opposed to the divisive test can trigger a local referendum. But New Labour's legislation means they need to collect 8,000 signatures in support of a ballot.
WINSTON SILCOTT hit back at the weekend at the Metropolitan Police and the right wing press campaign against him. Winston spoke out in Observer and Guardian newspaper interviews. He has been in jail for 14 years after he was wrongly convicted of killing PC Blakelock during the 1985 Broadwater Farm riot in north London. He was cleared of the killing in 1991. In November he was awarded £50,000 compensation for malicious prosecution in the Blakelock case.
"PEOPLE ARE up for striking. Everyone is pissed off with everything. We're sick of being treated like skivvies and dumped on." So said an angry driver on North Western Trains in the run up to the first of a series of 24 hour strikes, due to take place on Christmas Eve. The second strike day is set for 4 January, with others set to follow.
ACTION GETS results. That's the conclusion after the first national strike action in BT for 13 years looks to have forced the company to retreat. Britain's most profitable company had been ignoring complaints from workers in its call centres over their conditions. So 4,000 call centre workers staged a one day strike last month. A second strike was called off by the CWU union after a deal was struck.
"SCROOGE" AND "despot" was how bus workers on strike at Yorkshire Traction buses described their boss, Frank Carter, last week. Around 700 bus drivers, engineers and clerical workers, members of the TGWU union, were holding their third one day strike in three weeks to demand a decent pay rise from Carter. The solid strike is already costing Carter £120,000 for each strike day as services across west and south Yorkshire are hit. Pickets were out at the Sheffield Road depot in a lively show of force last week.
COMPUTER workers at Heathrow Airport have succeeded in forcing British Airways management to back off from some of its attacks. BA is still looking to sell off sections of the Information Management department. But a campaign, including the threat of strike action, has forced the company to promise that it will not take any worker off their BA contract.
UP TO 4,000 steel erectors, electricians and welders are planning a number of one day unofficial strikes over pay. The strikes are due to take place in the run up to Christmas. They will hit five big engineering construction sites, including Grangemouth in Scotland, Sellafield in Cumbria, and Saltend near Hull.
