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Workers at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency are voting in a consultative ballot over attacks on pay and conditions.

As Christmas approaches you may be wondering how you're going to see your parents, grandparents, their friends and cope with all the guesting and hosting. If the thought of it all is getting you down, then spare a thought for George W Bush and his ambassador in London, William S Farish III.

Top of the list of novels has to be The Constant Gardener by John Le Carré (£6.99). It is a gripping novel, which exposes the murderous activities of profit-hungry giant pharmaceutical companies. Le Carré's novels have got more political in recent years. Particularly relevant today is The Tailor of Panama (£6.99), which shows the viciousness of US imperialism.

The Socialist Alliance in England held its biggest ever conference in London last Saturday. Nearly 700 people came together to discuss how to turn the Socialist Alliance into a more effective, outward looking organisation. The day kicked off with an anti-war rally. There was an enthusiastic reception for guest speaker Gennoro Highore from the left wing Communist Refoundation in Italy.

The day started at 6.30am for most of the 350 or so homecare workers, organisers and clerks who are employed by Rochdale council. Picket lines throughout the borough were manned before the full light of day on Tuesday of last week.

Workers who print many of Britain's national newspaper titles voted last week to ballot on strikes against job cuts and a pay freeze. It is the first such vote in the national newspaper printing industry since the great defeat of the print unions at Wapping in the 1980s.

Three council by-elections in Burnley during the last two weeks have seen the Nazi BNP build on its general election performance but not yet break through to win a seat. In the latest election in Rosehill ward on Thursday of last week the BNP grabbed 230 votes (19 percent).

Over 150 people packed out the debate on the war in Afghanistan organised by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Stop the War group last week. Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee and writer on the Independent David Aaronovitch presented their pro-war position.

Members of NATFHE, the university and college lecturers' union, were due to strike at Middlesex University in north London on Wednesday of this week over compulsory redundancies.

The scenes of hundreds of dead Taliban soldiers outside the fortress in Mazar-e-Sharif last week showed the brutality of US power. US warplanes bombed the fortress, killing around 400. Then the US allies in the Northern Alliance scavenged from the dead bodies.

Around 200 people marched in Northampton recently to demand justice for Abdi Dorre.

Protests are planned this weekend and on Monday in solidarity with the fight against Plan Colombia, the US-backed war in the South American country aimed at smashing resistance to neo-liberal economic policies.