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The US has unleashed on Iraq the greatest military machine the world has ever seen. It recalls the colonial wars of 100 years ago. Bush, Blair and their media cheerleaders began to hail victory as US tanks entered Baghdad on Monday. Occupation, not liberation, is the reality facing Iraq. The Ba'athist regime of Saddam Hussein has inflicted horror on the Iraqi people. For much of the time it was backed to the hilt by those now waging war against Iraq.

IN ENGLAND the Socialist Alliance is providing an alternative for all those who can no longer stomach voting for Blair's Labour Party. Over 160 Socialist Alliance Against the War candidates are standing in the local council elections. They are also campaigning against privatisation, student tuition fees and the witch-hunt of asylum seekers.

THIS WEEK'S budget isn't notable only for Gordon Brown's willingness to squander billions on the conquest of Iraq. It comes against the background of increased difficulties for both the US and British economies. The situation is worse in the US. Last week figures were released that showed that the number of jobs outside agriculture fell by 108,000 in March. This is the fifth fall in the past seven months, including a huge drop of 357,000 jobs in February.

"WE ARE going to keep up our campaigning against the Nazis and continue hounding them whenever they show their face," says Mary Black from Burnley in Lancashire. "The BNP managed to get three councillors in Burnley in last year's elections. But large numbers of people were always against the BNP. Now the anti-Nazis are growing in confidence. We will be harnessing that to oppose the Nazis standing in the elections."

PAUL DRAYSON, the donor to the Labour Party who has done so well out of government contracts, has been lucky again. He admitted to a Commons committee last week that he won the contract to supply millions of doses of smallpox jabs even though his vaccines are no better than those of a rival.

SOME 120 students at City and Islington College, north London, turned up to the Camden Road site to hear a dance, rap and song performance for peace last week. The programme ranged from rap to a recital of Harold Pinter's "New World Order" and a performance of a song by Bertolt Brecht.

BUSH AND Blair say their war will bring liberation to the Iraqi people. The death and destruction they have brought to Iraq shows what a hollow claim this is. But people who once questioned the war, like New Labour's Mo Mowlam, say they now support it, arguing the situation in Iraq can't get any worse. Both of these claims are wrong. And the US plans for a post war Iraq show precisely why.

CONNEX SOUTH East has imposed new rosters that threaten 90 guards' jobs. The move shows just what is behind the refusal of Connex and a dozen other train operating companies to agree to restore the safety role of guards. That safety dispute led to a strike by 3,000 guards in the RMT union last week. A further 24-hour strike is planned for next Thursday.

LAST WEEK it was revealed that nearly £5 billion in means tested benefits are not claimed every year. As a benefits worker, I see it first hand. People who desperately need extra cash don't claim the benefits they are entitled to because the system is so complicated and the rules are constantly changed.

UP TO 14,000 BT workers are set to strike for 24 hours on Monday. The action is the first in a series of stoppages called by the workers' CWU union in a fight to stop a divisive new pay and bonus scheme. Those involved in the action are engineers and control staff doing work for BT's residential customers.

IT IS with sadness that we record the death of John Chase after a long illness. John was a socialist and Labour Party member of the 1945 generation who fought all his life for peace and against imperialism. He would have been disgusted at the vermin in charge, so intent on recolonising the Middle East.

SOME 140 nursery nurses who are members of Unison in Kirklees schools struck last Friday. The action is in support of a pay regrading claim. The strikers got support from parents, colleagues and members of the public. A local radio station could find no parents willing to criticise the nursery nurses at one of the biggest schools affected.