Britain Follow

BACK IN March 1998 the British tabloid press went wild over claims that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was planning to poison the public with deadly anthrax bacteria. The Sun's front page read, "Saddam's Anthrax in our Duty Frees". It told of plans to put the bacteria in perfume bottles - "one sniff and you're dead in four days".

THE FIGHT for the leadership of Britain's biggest union will be between a candidate wanting to cosy up to the government and a socialist standing against the attacks from New Labour. The election is a result of current UNISON leader Rodney Bickerstaffe's decision to stand down.

"I WAS staggered to learn of the expulsion of Roddy Slorach. Stop the witch hunt - justice must be done." So said UNISON national executive member, and candidate in the union's current general secretary election, Roger Bannister, over the expulsion of one of Glasgow's leading trade unionists from his union. Roger's message of support for Roddy will be read out by a delegation from his Knowsley UNISON branch who plan to join a lobby in Glasgow on Saturday. UNISON members and other trade unionists from across Britain are to protest outside UNISON's Scottish Regional Council.

STEEL WORKERS are demanding action to stop an £800 million "Maxwell style" pensions rip off. Thousands of steel workers are furious that British Steel bosses are taking £800 million from the £1,000 million pension fund surplus for themselves. Union leaders have accused British Steel of raiding the pension fund to finance the company's merger with Dutch firm Hoogovens.

ALL HELL broke loose in the computing section of British Airways at Heathrow Airport in west London last week. The company had announced it was to sell off three sections of the Information Management Department. Workers were gobsmacked. No one could believe it.

DEPUTY PRIME minister John Prescott unveiled plans in parliament last week to impose "congestion charges" on cars driving into Britain's cities. Under one plan up for consideration, for example, car drivers would be charged £5 a time to drive into London and then have to pay £2,000 a year to park in the city.

MANY OF Britain's major banks met in Harrogate on Tuesday to discuss plans to fleece people even more than they already do. Barclays was pushing for the banks in the Link network to charge people to withdraw cash from hole in the wall cash machines. People could have to pay a flat rate charge of between £1 and £2.50 simply for taking their own money out.

CHIEF EXECUTIVES of Britain's top companies have pay and bonus packages that on average are 94 times higher than their workforces', according to research by the Trades Union Congress. Another report found that some bosses think they are worth even more.

PENSIONERS WERE due to hold protests across Britain on Wednesday this week. Last week pensioner activists held a mock Queen's Speech outside parliament to show their anger at government policies.

GEORGE MONBIOT is one of Britain's best known environmental campaigners. He writes a regular column in the Guardian and is writing a book due out next year on "the corporate takeover of Britain". Socialist Worker spoke to him in the run up to next week's protests against the World Trade Organisation.

THIS WORKERS' banner (above) is from the period of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It is one of many fascinating items on show in the "Banners at Large" exhibition at The Pumphouse People's History Museum in Manchester until 30 January next year. The banner was sent from the textile workers of Moscow to the textile workers of Yorkshire in about 1920. It was brought to Britain by Maggie Jordan, a mill worker from Shipley.

THE FILM Fight Club has provoked much debate. It started even before it was released, when the British film censors decided two of the fight scenes had to be cut for being too graphic. The day I went along to see it an article appeared the Guardian praising the film as radical: "Thank god for Fight Club. It begins to challenge how we are manipulated, seduced, frightened and co-opted by politicians, advertisers and employers."