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Leading Respect candidates George Galloway and Lindsey German urge supporters to keep up the campaign until the ballot closes

GLASGOW'S Labour-run council has used the worst rogue employer tactics to force 700 striking nursery nurses back to work. It threatened to sack every one of the low paid workers last week using Labour's notorious anti-union law that allows an employer to dismiss strikers after eight weeks of action.

A SERIES of hysterical articles attacking Respect appeared in the liberal press last week. These come from journalists who pose as left wing humanitarians. Yet they strongly support Bush's war on terror and hate the anti-war movement.

THE GOVERNMENT and the fire authority employers have seized on the firefighters FBU union leadership's latest climbdown over night working to demand more concessions. "This was entirely predictable," says Tam McFarlane, secretary of the FBU South West Region. "Every time we have made concessions the employers have come back for more. That's why members in my area were saying we should not compromise over the stand down time, but should resist. That's what delegates voted for when they agreed to suspend our conference last month. There really is no alternative now to drawing a line in the sand and saying we are going to fight back."

Hardly a week passes without racist scare stories in the press directed against refugees and asylum seekers. The racism is not just directed against asylum seekers. Two new reports give damning evidence of the rise in racism against Muslims since 11 September 2001.

TALKS ARE taking place between the RMT union and Network Rail in the pay and pensions dispute that has already led to a successful strike vote. Both sides have described the talks as constructive, "but it will take a big change from management to deliver anything worthwhile," says one Network Rail worker.

THE WORLD'S leaders have been effusive in their praise for Ronald Reagan, the former US president who died on Saturday. "He will be great missed by many friends and admirers on this side of the Atlantic," said Tony Blair.

THE BITTER dispute at Euro Packaging in Birmingham ended last week with mixed emotions among the strikers. There was a feeling of triumph and achievement at achieving union recognition in the teeth of ruthless opposition from a hardline boss.

THE LIBERAL Democrats are trying to grab the anti-war vote. But they dropped opposition to the war once the bombs starting raining down on Baghdad. Mark Oaten, the Liberals' home affairs spokesperson, said on Radio 4 last Thursday, "We took the view that when the military action happened, when the vote was taken in the Commons, that the worst thing we could do would be to undermine our troops. When the troops went into action we took the moral judgement to support them as best we can. On the fundamental issue of troops it would have been wrong to call for the troops to withdraw. It is still wrong."

WORKERS IN the Amicus union at the NCR factory in Dundee are demanding a ballot for industrial action over a new pay and conditions package. Union officials are attempting to avoid a ballot. Angry members have twice overwhelmingly rejected a deal recommended by union officials at meetings. The US company has offered the 760 workers a 3.1 percent pay rise and a one-off payment of £350.

Millions will never forgive Blair for the war. But even before the war, his policies turned people against New Labour. Helen Shooter looks at seven years of betrayal

The US president's attempts to use the D-Day anniversary to win support for his war went badly wrong as protesters took to the streets of Rome and Paris