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IF YOU believed the lifestyle supplements, TV ads and government talk of an "aspirational society" you would think most people in Britain had never had it so good.

AROUND 350 people crammed into a meeting at Leeds University on Thursday of last week to hear Labour MP George Galloway, Kate Hudson of CND and Anas Al-Tikriti of the Muslim Association of Great Britain.

THE TREAMENT of Muslim women who wear headscarves in France has erupted into a national debate, shot through with racism. The prime minister of France's right wing government, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, launched an attack on Muslim women last week declaring his opposition to the wearing of the head scarf in school.

SOME 50 teachers and parents attended an rally to oppose SATs tests in Bristol last week. Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset NUT teachers' union divisions organised the meeting. Jon Illingworth, prospective left candidate for general secretary of the NUT, spoke alongside primary school teacher Suzie Coggles, children's author Pat Thompson and school student Sophie North.

The Northern Star was the paper of the first ever mass working class movement-Chartism. Chartism got its name from the fight for a Charter that would expand the right to vote. But it also focused wider social issues into a movement that struck fear into the ruling class. The Northern Star was the lifeblood of the movement-as educator, organiser and agitator.

THURSDAY 16 October could be set to see major strikes across London. Tens of thousands of workers employed by local councils in town halls, offices, depots and schools are to strike for the day in the latest phase of a long-running battle over London weighting.

IN 1998 a relatively unknown train driver from Leeds, Mick Rix, won the general secretary election in Aslef. He was the first in a series of new left wing trade union leaders now known as the "awkward squad". Their election signalled a wider radicalisation taking place inside Britain's trade union movement.

TENS OF thousands of lecturers in further education colleges across England and Wales are set to vote in the next two weeks on whether to accept a proposed pay and conditions package.

MENTION CLASSICAL music to many people and it is an instant turn off. So probably not that many Socialist Worker readers would instinctively tune in to watch a BBC programme due to be broadcast this Saturday (9.15pm, BBC2) dedicated to the Third Symphony by the composer Beethoven. Yet that is precisely what I recommend you do, because Beethoven's music is above all about struggle and freedom.

BULLYING BOSSES and a low pay offer have prompted journalists at the Emap publishing group in North London to vote for industrial action. Journalists were offered just 3 percent to cover inflation. They had asked for 8 percent.

Micah Ian Wright

CLEANERS AT Derriford hospital in Plymouth are in dispute with their employers, ISS Mediclean, over pay and conditions. Only two out of some 200 union members voted no when they were balloted on whether they wanted to take action at Derriford hospital. They are demanding that they should get the same pay as staff employed directly by the NHS.