Issues

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Issue - 1904
Dated - 05 Jun 2004
NHS Workers Pay fight grows

OVER 200 health workers in the Unison and Amicus unions at Sunderland Royal Infirmary staged an unofficial walkout on Thursday of last week. They were protesting against changes to their pay under the government's Agenda for Change scheme-the biggest ever shake-up of pay and conditions in the NHS. Sunderland hospital is an "early implementer" site being used as a test-run for the government's plan. A week before the walkout, management started to send out letters to inform staff of their new pay bands.

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Features

NHS Workers Pay fight grows

OVER 200 health workers in the Unison and Amicus unions at Sunderland Royal Infirmary staged an unofficial walkout on Thursday of last week. They were protesting against changes to their pay under the government's Agenda for Change scheme-the biggest ever shake-up of pay and conditions in the NHS. Sunderland hospital is an "early implementer" site being used as a test-run for the government's plan. A week before the walkout, management started to send out letters to inform staff of their new pay bands.
05 June 2004
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News

NUJ

MEMBERS OF the NUJ journalists' union at the Blackpool Gazette and its associated weekly papers are to go on strike over pay on Friday next week. Workers on the Johnston Press-owned title have rejected an offer which would leave senior journalists on £17,600, or even lower.
05 June 2004
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News

Why I want to be the leader of the NUT union

IAN MURCH is standing for general secretary of the biggest teachers' union, the NUT, with the support of the left in the union. Ballot papers go out to a quarter of a million NUT members next week. The government is desperate to see elected the current NUT deputy general secretary, who is for partnership with New Labour. Ian Murch spoke to Socialist Worker about his alternative vision for the union.
05 June 2004
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News

Surprises for Blair at Natfhe conference

THE ANNUAL conference last weekend of the lecturers' union Natfhe clearly demonstrated widespread anger over Labour's policies. Natfhe has conspicuously supported the Stop the War Coalition. This was reflected in a series of motions which condemned the brutal treatment of Iraqi prisoners and civilians as well as the obscene levels of war funding.
05 June 2004
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International

Turmoil is another blow to US hawks

THE SEIZURE and killing of foreign employees in Saudi Arabia last weekend has underlined the depth of the crisis the US faces across the Middle East. Shockwaves spread through the world's oil markets in the wake of the attack. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter and the only country currently with the capacity to boost output to drive down prices.
05 June 2004
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International

Lebanon erupts at rising prices

Rising petrol prices sparked protests in Beirut in Lebanon last week, where six demonstrators were killed by the army in the suburb of Hayy El Seloum in the south of the city. The army tried to disperse a protest led by taxi drivers by shooting live ammunition in the air. Protesters retaliated by throwing stones. The army then opened fire, killing protesters.
05 June 2004
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Reviews & Culture

A moving story of love and abuse

Bad Education Directed by Pedro Almodovar
05 June 2004
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Reviews & Culture

Gilad Atzmon: ‘Zionism is my enemy’

Gilad Atzmon wanders on stage in Brighton tugging on a customary cigarette. "Smoking kills," he announces. "But Blair kills more." On clarinet or saxophone, Gilad is now among the top UK-resident jazz musicians, winning awards and plaudits from all corners. Last year his Exile album won both the Radio 3 and Time Out awards for jazz album of the year.
05 June 2004
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Comment

What justice from these institutions?

FELTHAM YOUNG offenders' institution is notorious for its racism, violence and general degradation of the human spirit. The appalling case of Zahid Mubarek was bad enough. He was killed by a psychopathic racist Robert Stewart, who he was forced to share a cell with.
05 June 2004
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Features

Behind the D-day story

FOR THE anniversary of D-Day, the landings in Normandy, President George Bush will visit Paris and Rome to mark their liberation. In reality he will spend little time in either city, fearing demonstrations against the American occupation of Iraq. Neither the Americans nor the British liberated Paris. An insurrection by French resistance forces freed the city.
05 June 2004
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International

Zambia: where capitalism cuts lives ten years short

"WE WILL not force countries onto our programmes."
05 June 2004
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Reviews & Culture

The Day After Tomorrow: what if this film is not fiction?

Abrupt climate change has been a growing topic of concern for climate scientists. They fear that global warming could shut down the "ocean conveyor" that warms the North Atlantic, plunging Europe and parts of North America into Siberia-like conditions within a few decades or even years.
05 June 2004