News

The real victims of 'precision' bombing

THERE IS no such thing as a "clean war" or "precision bombing". The same US and British generals who now say they are using "smart weapons" in Afghanistan were only two weeks ago telling the media they were "resigned to civilian casualties".

Marching in step with murderers

A KEY aim of the US attack on Afghanistan is to intensify the civil war that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The forces of the "Northern Alliance" were informed of the timing of the first air strikes and began shelling areas held by the Taliban. The Northern Alliance is composed of rival groups.

Stop bomber Blair

BOMBING THE weak and starving. That's George Bush and Tony Blair's plan for Afghanistan. And in a sickening hoax they claim to be helping the ordinary people there. On Monday the US and British governments made sure pictures were beamed around the world of bags of wheat emblazoned with "USA" going to Afghanistan. But that cynical display is much too little and much too late.

Anti-war demos

Demonstrators took to the streets in many countries on Saturday of last week.

Victim blamed

DISGRACEFULLY, no charges will be brought against the four police who shot three protesters during the Gothenburg anti-capitalist protests in Sweden last June. Bjšrn Ericson, the judge who conducted the inquiry, said that no crime had been committed.

Tube bosses' dirty tactics

BIG BUSINESS is already trying to use the drive to war to attack workers fighting to defend their conditions and public services. The London Evening Standard last week ran a page of smears against tube workers, who have voted by more than two to one for strikes to win a 4 percent pay claim.

A fiddle to sell homes

TWO OF New Labour's flagship council home privatisation schemes were suddenly rescued last week when extra money appeared to ensure the sell-offs went ahead. The plans to hand all council homes in Glasgow and Birmingham to private housing companies are the two biggest in the country.

No cash for care

NEW LABOUR has enraged charities by breaking its pledge over care for the elderly. The government's new system for nursing care for people in England came in this week.

Keep up pressure on Blair

OVER 6,000 people defied torrential rain to demonstrate outside the Labour Party conference in Brighton on Sunday. They marched behind a banner that read "People not profit-peace not war", carried by school and further education students.

The Taliban

GEORGE BUSH is making the people of Afghanistan suffer for actions he blames on their government, the Taliban. The Taliban head an awful regime. But they do not have the support of the mass of Afghans, who are already bearing the brunt of the US war threat.

Raise anti-war profile

SOCIALIST WORKER is continuing to get a great response from people eager for arguments against Bush and Blair's war drive. In Manchester some 66 people bought Socialist Worker on a 300-strong peace vigil.

Hundreds strike to defy judge's ruling

HUNDREDS OF council workers in Newcastle stayed away from work last Friday, despite their union leaders calling off a planned one-day strike in the face of an injunction.

Union activist under attack

ROYAL MAIL management have begun formal disciplinary procedures against CWU union rep Mark Dolan from north London. A worker made a complaint against Mark after he had overheard a discussion about the World Trade Centre suicide attacks. When Mark tried to settle the matter amicably, the same worker then made a further complaint, this time of harassment.

BT workers

UNION reps from London CWU branches in BT were due to meet this week to discuss backing a call for action against the company. BT has terminated the contracts of 79 engineers who were on two-year contracts early. There are fears there could be more job cuts.

Medical secretaries

Three hundred medical secretaries in Glasgow are striking for five days this week.

Civil servants in rising mood

THE STRIKE for safety by hundreds of civil servants in the PCS union in west London is set to turn into a national dispute. The strikers, in Brent and Lambeth in London, entered their fifth week of indefinite strike on Monday of this week.

Building to stop the war

OVER 400 people packed into an organising meeting in central London on Tuesday of last week to launch the Stop the War Coalition. The meeting followed the 2,000-strong rally in central London the week before.

Helicopter pilots

AROUND 200 helicopter pilots working in the North Sea oil and gas industry were due to start a ballot on industrial action over pay this week. The pilots, members of the BALPA union, work for CHC Scotia and fly to North Sea oil and gas platforms from Aberdeen, Norwich, Humberside and Blackpool.

Anti-Nazi message strikes a chord

ANTI-NAZI activists are stepping up their campaign against the Nazi BNP and National Front (NF) in Oldham in the run-up to the 20 October Respect anti-racist festival in the town. Campaigners prevented the NF from holding a demonstration in the town centre last Saturday.

Langside College

OVER 200 lecturers and students from Langside College in Scotland demonstrated last week against redundancies. They joined a rally in Clydebank town hall with Scottish Socialist Party MSP Tommy Sheridan.