Birmingham Follow

Ballots are now under way in Birmingham and Glasgow. Britain's two biggest council landlords are asking their tenants to say yes to transfer to housing associations.

This month sees key battles in a largely unreported war over the future of one of the pillars of the welfare state. Tenants of Britain's two biggest landlords, Birmingham and Glasgow councils, will vote on New Labour plans to hand their homes to private housing companies. Thousands of tenants in Crewe are already voting in a similar ballot, and Bradford council tenants will also vote this month.

"IT'S FLEXIBLE working for the company, not for us. People are so fed up with it," said an MG Rover worker in Longbridge, Birmingham. Workers in the plant are voting this week in a ballot for action over pay and flexible working.

Birmingham council tenants are being asked to hand control of their homes to the Royal Bank of Scotland. The Labour-run city council was meeting on Tuesday of this week to give the final go-ahead to a ballot starting on 18 March over the plan to privatise over 80,000 council homes.

Thousands of workers at the Longbridge MG Rover car plant in Birmingham are balloting on strike action. Both the TGWU and Amicus unions have agreed to ballot their members in a fight over bosses' attempts to get workers to accept more "flexible" working arrangements.

Decisive battles are set to take place. They are part of a hidden war waged by the New Labour government. It is a war to destroy one of the pillars of the welfare state-council housing. New Labour is out to privatise three million council homes. In Birmingham tenants will begin to vote on 18 March on whether their homes are handed to private housing associations.

Socialist Worker went down a storm with striking Arriva rail workers. At the mass picket in York 27 copies were sold, while 6 were sold to pickets in Cleethorpes, 7 to pickets at Leeds Central station, and 4 in Bradford. Last Friday, in the build-up to the civil service strike, 11 were sold at Albert Bridge House in Manchester, 8 at the Employment Service head office in Sheffield, 4 at Ravenshurst benefits office in Birmingham, and 3 at each of Finsbury Park job centre, Tottenham job centre and Tottenham Benefits Agency.

National Union of Journalists members at Newsquest-owned titles in Bradford struck for half a day last week over low pay. NUJ president Rory McLeod joined the picket lines. There were also NUJ delegations from Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Coventry.

A thousand people marched in Birmingham last Saturday against the war. The march was organised by Birmingham Trades Council and supported by the Stop the War Coalition. A rally heard speakers from a range of organisations and campaigns. Later Artists Against the War held an inspiring social with African drummers and visual projections.

Some 1,700 people marching through Sheffield, 2,000 demonstrating in Glasgow, 500 on a Preston march, around 1,600 at a public meeting in Birmingham. Those are just a few of the anti-war protests that have taken place in the last week.

A WELL attended liaison meeting of delegates from local Socialist Alliance groups met last Saturday in Birmingham. The meeting agreed to affiliate to the Stop the War Coalition, and to encourage all Socialist Alliances to throw themselves into campaigning against the war.

TWO OF New Labour's flagship council home privatisation schemes were suddenly rescued last week when extra money appeared to ensure the sell-offs went ahead. The plans to hand all council homes in Glasgow and Birmingham to private housing companies are the two biggest in the country.