Birmingham Follow

"I APPEAL to everyone not to let the Muslim and Asian communities suffer the way the Irish suffered under the anti-terrorist laws," Paddy Hill of the Birmingham Six urged a public meeting in Moir Hall, Glasgow, last week. The meeting, held on the eve of the Scottish Labour Party conference, was called to oppose the latest government attack on civil liberties.

'A ABOUT 4AM we got a phone call from my brother in law in Birmingham. My husband told me that Mikey was dead. I refused to believe it. Later I called back myself. So we got up, with my two year old daughter Kiara, and me being seven and a half months pregnant, to drive from Hertfordshire to Birmingham.

OVER 150 representatives and activists from across Birmingham's Muslim community attended an emergency meeting on 4 January in Birmingham's central mosque.

AROUND 50 representatives of the Kashmiri solidarity organisation Tehreek-e-Kashmir UK met in Alum Rock, Birmingham, last week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the UN resolution calling for a plebiscite so that the people of Kashmir can determine their own future.

Workers from Peugeot in Coventry, Land Rover in Solihull and MG Rover in Birmingham spoke to Helen Shooter

NATIONAL UNION of Journalists members at the Birmingham Post and Mail are working to contract in protest at threatened redundancies.

Manchester OVER 300 people packed into a lecture hall at Manchester's UMIST university to hear George Galloway MP, Salma Yaqoob from Birmingham Stop the War Coalition and John Rees from the Socialist Alliance.

BANKING giant HSBC has become the latest multinational to announce plans to move jobs overseas. Some 4,000 jobs will be axed from its call centres in Swansea, Birmingham, Brentwood and Sheffield, and transferred to call centres in India, China and Malaysia.

BIRMINGHAM'S NEW multimillion pound Bullring shopping centre opened last month with massive publicity. But it's a 21st century building under 19th century management. A shop worker told me about working there:

THE recent announcement of the permanent closures of social security offices in the Birmingham area will create huge problems for the weakest in society. Local social security offices have served the community for many years and the hardship for the disabled and pensioners has not been included in the thinking behind the changes.

WORKERS AT Goodrich Engine Control Systems in Birmingham struck against redundancies on Friday last week and were set to strike again on Friday this week. Members of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) have been in dispute with the company since the summer when the company announced 115 jobs would go "due to bad trading conditions in aerospace".

CND THE CAMPAIGN for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) held its conference in Birmingham last weekend. The 350 participants debated alliances with other movements and how best to oppose war. Kate Hudson was narrowly elected as CND national chairperson. Kate stands for a close working relationship with groups such as the Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain. People with similar views won 12 of the 15 national executive positions.