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IN TWO weeks time representatives of the world's governments will gather in Cancun, Mexico, for a crucial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The collapse of the WTO meeting in Seattle almost four years ago, amid protests outside and rows inside, marked the emergence of the worldwide movement against corporate globalisation.

BBC2 BROADCAST The Colour of Football on 19 August about racism in the game. It's an important issue. Yet they transmitted it late at night in the middle of a month when many are on holiday. There were positive aspects. It allowed ordinary fans to voice their disgust at racism. It featured black players explaining the effect that racist abuse and actions have on them.

Jennifer Government

NEW FIGURES from the government's Office for National Statistics show that an incredible 10,000 factory jobs are being lost every week. Some 130,000 workers have lost their jobs in the last three months alone. James Dyson, vacuum cleaner maker, was slammed last year for throwing 800 workers at his Wiltshire plant on the scrap heap. Last week, Dyson added insult to injury by shifting a further 65 jobs to Malaysia.

BEHIND THE scare stories in the press about asylum and immigration there is a real story to be told. It is the story of how, for centuries, people have been forced to move thousands of miles to escape persecution or find work.

"We're fed up with rubbish money and getting driven like slaves. Let's take the smile off those bloody managers' faces," says Mike, a Royal Mail delivery worker from Newcastle. The strike ballot among 160,000 postal workers has started, and there is a great determination to win the vote and hit Royal Mail hard.

FOR FIVE days last week the Sun ran a series of articles about "the biggest crisis facing Britain today". Was it about pensions? The impact of tuition fees? The threat of unemployment? No. The Sun targeted asylum seekers.

AN NHS hospital in Birmingham was handed over to private management last week. The NHS trust's board signed a £1.3 million agreement with health service consultants Secta. The management of Good Hope Hospital was put out to franchise after it dropped from a three-star rating to zero because of mistakes in waiting list figures. Secta has appointed a former senior official from the NHS, Anne Heast, to take over as chief executive. She will be seconded to the hospital on a salary of £122,500.

OVER TWO hundred bus drivers in York were set to strike on Wednesday of this week. Last week their first planned strike was called off while management negotiated a deal with the union.

A WORKER has been killed at a South Wales steel plant after becoming trapped in a piece of machinery. David Price, aged 54, from Newport, was carrying out maintenance work at the Alpha Steel plant on Saturday when he was killed.

CAMDEN COUNCIL is trying to set up an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) to take over its housing. ALMOs are a two-stage strategy to privatise council housing and Camden's Defend Council Housing is waging a campaign to stop the plan.