Class Follow

THERE WAS no outright winner in Argentina's presidential election on Sunday. That will depend on a run-off in three weeks time. But the country's political establishment - and ruling class - has won a certain sort of victory. Sixteen months ago a spontaneous uprising led to the resignation of the country's president, De La Rua.

WHAT SORT of school curriculum do our children deserve? New Labour plans to label 14 year olds as sheep who will follow an "academic pathway" - based on exams - or goats forced into second class "vocational" education.

THE GLOBAL movement against war on Iraq continues to go from strength to strength. In Britain it is tearing New Labour apart. But there are people who are asking, "What can it achieve? Bush is going to go to war anyway, whatever anyone else thinks." The argument is mistaken on a number of counts. First, despite Bush's bluster, key sections of the US ruling class are worried about going to war without some cover from other governments.

IF YOU believed the Daily Mail you would think there is a witch-hunt against middle class students being rejected by top universities simply because they are middle class. "Felicity had ten A grade GCSEs and three A grade A-levels. So why was she rejected by Bristol University?" screamed the front page of one edition.

LABOUR'S CHANGES in education will mean many students are expected to choose their future jobs aged just 13. They won't have to learn foreign languages, history or technology. Instead they will be taught a narrower work-based curriculum tailored to meet the demands of employers.

VIRGINIE is at Parswood Technical College in Manchester. "I want to study medicine so the idea of top-up fees really worries me. After three years you could have £20,000 of debt, but I might be at college for four, five or six years. I could be in debt for the rest of my life. I knew it would be hard just to live for three years at university-now it is worse, because it's not just living expenses but fees as well.

NEW LABOUR'S plans to introduce top-up fees for university courses will exclude more working class people from higher education. All universities will be able to charge up to £3,000 for courses. Students will be expected to pay back their fees after they have left university. Even the poorest students will have to pay the fees.

HOME-OWNERS are all middle class. If you've bought your house or got a mortgage you're a property owner, got a stake in the system, been bought off. Any activist must have come across such comments. It was an argument popularised in Britain during the years of Margaret Thatcher's Tory governments in the 1980s. She pushed the notion of a "property-owning democracy".

THE CARACAS city police shot dead Oscar Gomez and Jairo Moran on Friday of last week. Their "crime" was to demonstrate in support of the elected government against an upper middle class mob trying to besiege the Venezuelan capital's military barracks.

CARACAS, the capital of Venezuela, is a city divided along class lines. It is divided between the rich east central area and the western inner city area, which merges into the shanty towns around the city. Today the division is political as well as economic.

Secret cabinet documents from 1972 have just been released to the public. They reveal how working class action terrified the highest levels of government. And they show how solidarity action between workers humbled a powerful right wing cabinet. The Tory government began 1972 full of confidence and determination to hold down workers' pay.

ROLLING IN money, completely cut off from the vast majority of people, and stark staring bonkers. That's the picture of the Blairs and their circle that emerges from the scandal surrounding Cherie Blair's property dealings. Millions of working class people will be outraged that the Blairs casually buy up flats for over half a million pounds for their son when he goes off to college.