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I would like to salute you. Your activities here are hidden from the Iraqi people. I have been amazed since arriving in Britain how many young people in particular are active in the anti-war movement.

NO DECENT civilisation should condemn the majority of its people to 30 years of starvation and misery, while around them the rest of the population enjoy the wealth they created. But this will be the situation faced by pensioners in Britain if the government drives through its pensions strategy.

Scabs break rules in airport strike AIRPORT FIREFIGHTERS in Glasgow are going into their third week of indefinite all-out strike. The bosses are breaking all the rules to keep the airport open, using senior fire officers from all the other British Airport Authority airports to scab on their subordinates.

The year 2005 is critical for anti-poverty activists in Britain. It is a unique opportunity to improve the lives of millions of poor people around the world. The G8 summit of the world’s most powerful leaders will be taking place in Scotland in July and Britain will hold the presidency of the European Union in the second half of the year.

In the first part a new series on National Liberation, Simon Basketter looks at Wolfe Tone and the United Irish rebellion

THE BIGGEST corporate profits in history were announced this week. Oil giant Shell made £9.3 billion last year — Britain’s biggest ever profit. The money rolled in at more than £1 million an hour. US oil giant ExxonMobil, which owns Esso, also announced its profits — £13 billion. It is the highest profit figure ever recorded.

ABOUT 400 Zimbabweans living in Britain gathered outside the home office in London last Saturday to protest against forced deportation back to president Mugabe’s vicious regime. New Labour’s policy of restarting deportations means political activists are sent back to the jails and torturer chambers of the Zimbabwean state.

"This is a huge move that could lead to a union of two million members. It lays the basis for British unions to be grouped around two centres — public sector workers in Unison, private in T&G-Amicus. It’s being done at great pace. The rumour before the T&G executive meeting was that the timetable is: executive decision now, conference decision in the summer and a ballot in the autumn.

IMAGINE MORE than one million workers on strike over pensions less than three months before a general election. Wednesday 23 March could be the biggest single strike day in Britain for over 20 years. The anger that people feel about having their old age stolen from them is growing stronger. Workers know that the longer you work, the earlier you die.

ON 3 March 1959, 85 internees at the Hola Detention Camp in Kenya refused to take part in forced labour and sat down in protest. Internees in the camp had been refusing to work for nine days and now these men were to be made an example. When the camp commander, G M Sullivan, blew his whistle over 100 guards attacked the prisoners with clubs and rifle butts, killing one of them.

A NEW book by Caroline Elkins underlines just how vicious British rule in Kenya was.

Tony Benn led the line-up of speakers at a meeting packed with over 400 students hosted by the Goldsmiths College Student Union Peace Campaign, and the Islamic Society last week. Also speaking at the south London university were Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition, Pat Arrowsmith from CND and Azzam Tamimi of the Muslim Association of Britain.