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MILLIONS OF young people are living through the great exam nightmare this week. Around 1.2 million schoolchildren aged seven, 11 and 14 were sitting the SAT exams. Hundreds of thousands more students were sitting GCSE mock exams and GCSEs, and more still have taken AS and A-level exams.

THE NATIONAL council of the Socialist Alliance, with delegates from groups across England, met last Saturday in London. The meeting took place a week after the local council elections, where the Socialist Alliance achieved some very good results. Liz Davies, national chair of the alliance, said, "The results show that we are here and here to stay, and serious about campaigning on a grassroots level. We still have a long way to go, but the results put the Socialist Alliance on the map as a player in British politics."

SOCIALIST Worker has argued in the first two parts of this series that we cannot expect the Labour Party or elections to bring about socialism. Tens of thousands of people in every workplace and those involved in the new movements agree. But many also believe we cannot look to ordinary people to bring about fundamental change.

OVER 1,200 London bus workers marched through the capital last week protesting at pay and the impact of deregulation. The workers, members of the TGWU union, brought traffic to a halt as they marched towards parliament.

THE spiralling cost of finding somewhere to live in London was a key issue behind Tuesday's strike by council workers in the capital. Local councils are effectively blocked from building new homes by New Labour's determination to continue Tory attacks on council housing. So many workers are desperately trying to buy houses.

WORKERS in one of Britain's biggest unions, the TGWU, are set to vote for a deputy general secretary. The vote is between Peter Booth, a manufacturing industry official, and Tony Woodley, the union's main car industry negotiator.

EUROPE MINISTER Peter Hain is the latest politician to claim that the way to fight the racists is to accept some of their central arguments. Hain built his reputation as an opponent of apartheid. But in interviews on TV and in the Guardian at the beginning of the week he pandered to racist ideas. He claimed, "It's really, really important that we have an honest debate about immigration and asylum." But he then went on to repeat one of the biggest lies of the lot-that some countries are a "soft touch".

NEWSPAPERS headlines last week trumpeted "an inflation-busting 6.5 percent pay rise" for over 300,000 health workers. The reality is very different. The pay deal covers NHS ancillary, administration and clerical and ambulance staff-some of the lowest paid workers in the health service. The deal was for a minimum increase of 3.6 percent or £400 a year, whichever was greater.

THE LEVEL of crime is exaggerated by politicians and the media. But crime and fear of crime are real. Of course, the TV and papers generally ignore the crimes committed by big business. And we rarely hear about the daily routine of crime committed in the City by financiers and businessmen.

THE PCS civil servants' union conference began as Socialist Worker went to press. The union has been moving to the left since the election of socialist Mark Serwotka as general secretary in December 2000. This trend is now becoming even clearer.

IN THE wake of the general strike in Italy on 16 April the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (Communist Refoundation) organised a May Day rally which I was invited to address.

IF YOU are against globalisation and war, and for freedom and justice, you should be planning to come to the European Social Forum (ESF). The forum will be held in Florence from 7 to 10 November. The ESF looks set to be one of the biggest and most exciting anti-capitalist events of the year. It is going to be a huge assembly for everyone who is against neo-liberalism and war.