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In the light of Paul Foot’s last book, The Vote: How It Was Won and How It Was Undermined, Paul O’Brien discusses the link between the vote and the fight for democracy

Half a million demonstrated in Rome last Saturday. The slogans of the march were "Free Giuliana" and "Free the Iraqi people". The first slogan referred to Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist with Il Manifesto, the centre left daily paper. She is being held hostage in Iraq and was shown on video last week appealing to the Italian government to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

In his state of the nation address at the opening of parliament, South African president Thabo Mbeki once again revealed how out of touch with reality he is.

Ibrahim Sahari, a journalist arrested at the Cairo Book Fair for handing out anti-government leaflets, has been released by the Egyptian authorities following international protests.

In the third part of our series on National Liberation, Simon Basketter charts the downfall of Rhodesia’s white elite

By this time next year there will only be seven deep coal mining pits left in this country, and a further 520 miners will have lost their jobs at the whim of an increasingly avaricious free market system. As the pangs of a fuel shortage still rumble away in the distance, growing ever nearer, the government is sticking to its Thatcherite ideal of laissez faire economics.

The families of the six British army military policemen, including Tom Keys, killed in Iraq a year and half ago are demanding action against senior officers.

The assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri in Beirut on 14 February has provided the opportunity for US officials to turn the spotlight on Syria. The US was swift to accuse it of destablising Lebanon and sponsoring terrorism.

The funeral of assassinated former prime minister Hariri saw hundreds of thousands take to the streets in a parade of strength by the Lebanese opposition.

Civil service workers in the Prospect and PCS unions at the National Museum of Science and Industry struck on Wednesday of last week. The strike is over pay and underfunding. Their action closed the Science Museum in London and disrupted the National Railway Museum in York and the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford.

Anti-war actions took place across Britain on Tuesday of last week, the Stop the War Coalition’s day of action marking two years since 15 February 2003, the biggest anti-war march in British history. Keir McKechnie reports from Glasgow.

The threat from the fascist British National Party (BNP) has never been greater. They received over 800,000 votes in the European elections and over 90,000 votes in the London elections in 2004, representing the highest ever votes for a fascist party in Britain.