Issues Follow Follow

The Brazilian Workers’ Party, known by its Portuguese initials of PT, of president Lula continues to reel from crisis to crisis.

Around 200 postal workers at the N1 delivery office in north London are beginning a strike ballot. At issue are management’s plans to cut the equivalent of 19 jobs.

Health secretary Patricia Hewitt has been forced to retreat over one aspect of New Labour’s plans to privatise key aspects of the NHS.

Hrant Dink, editor of Turkey’s Armenian language weekly newspaper Agos, has received a six month suspended sentence for "insulting Turks" after comments on the Armenian genocide.

Hundreds of activists attended a conference on Palestine, Israel and the Law in central London last Saturday. The conference was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

A coroner’s court jury at the inquest into the death in police custody of Kwame Wiredu returned a unanimous verdict of death by natural causes last week.

Last week New Labour and unions representing public sector workers announced a deal over pensions. Under the proposal, existing teachers, civil service workers and health workers will retain the right to retire at 60.

The escalating strike action at Sefton council on Merseyside in defence of victimised union activists was set to continue this week, with further groups of workers joining the 40 already out.

"My bet is that 20 year olds will be working beyond 60."Trade and industry secretary Alan Johnson, on the pensions deal agreed with the TUC

Mladen Maric, assistant branch secretary Brent local government Unison

The usual suspects seized on the tragic events in the Lozells area of Birmingham last weekend to proclaim, yet again, that "multiculturalism has failed".

Charles Darwin was one of the 19th century’s greatest thinkers, yet he was profoundly disturbed by the implications of his ideas. He delayed for some years before publishing in 1859 his greatest work, The Origin of Species, in which he outlined his theory of evolution.