Ealing

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What We Think

How secret state spied on activists

FORMER MI5 officer David Shayler was jailed for six months on Tuesday for revealing state secrets. He should have been congratulated for shining a tiny bit of light on the stinking covert forces whose existence subverts any notion that we live in a real democracy.
09 November 2002
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Ealing NUT Unity Conference

AROUND 60 people attended the Unity Conference called by Ealing National Union of Teachers (NUT) last Saturday and heard an inspiring set of speakers. The conference was introduced by Christine Blower, secretary of Hammersmith and Fulham NUT, and ex-president of the NUT.
19 October 2002
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What We Think

Rulers’ ten years of broken promises

THE EARTH Summit starts in Johannesburg, South Africa, next week. World leaders will talk about tackling poverty, dealing with the environmental crisis and embracing "sustainable development". US president George W Bush is hostile even to making such noises. This could lead some people to think that the summit must contain something good.
24 August 2002
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Steel workers

STEEL WORKERS at three plants owned by the Caparo Group are determined to fight to save their pension schemes. The Caparo Group aims to freeze its final salary pension scheme, effectively stealing the contributions workers have built up over the decades. The dispute is crucial to the tens of thousands of other workers facing similar attacks.
17 August 2002
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The scandal of children in jail

LOCK CHILDREN up and throw away the key. That's New Labour's attitude to dealing with the "causes of crime", and it has been criticised again this week. Even the government's own youth crime "tsar" says under-18s awaiting trial, who have not been found guilty of anything, should not be banged up in Britain's overcrowded prisons.
03 August 2002
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Reviews & Culture

Healing relations in stormy Deep South

THE MEDIA claimed racism was over in Hollywood when Halle Berry won the Oscar for best actress for her role in Monster's Ball. But, just as in the film, the story isn't that simple. Monster's Ball is set in America's Deep South. It is presented as a film about racism. It sets out to portray racism, violence and also how the spiral of violence can be broken.
15 June 2002
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Comment

Blair can’t bury all the bad news

THE FALL of Stephen Byers was quite revealing about the nature of politics in Britain today. In the first place, the Labour MPs who rallied round Byers because he effectively nationalised Railtrack bear witness to the capacity for wishful thinking of government backbenchers.
08 June 2002
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All out to stop British Nazis

THE NAZI British National Party is hoping to repeat the success of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Local council elections take place on Thursday of next week. Anti-Nazis in the areas targeted by the BNP are stepping up their campaign. They are appealing for support from across Britain. That support needs to flood in to isolate the Nazis.
27 April 2002
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Features

Pensions crisis

"Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid," was the Guardian's headline. "Britain is hurtling towards a pensions crisis," said the Sunday Telegraph. That was the alarm raised recently in the media over pensions. Big firms are stealing tens of thousands of pounds from workers' pay packets. They are robbing by stealth. They are taking from pensions, which are a form of pay set aside for the future.
09 March 2002
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Who’s next after Enron?

"Rolls-Royce is the latest victim of Enronitis, the fear that many firms, particularly those with large debts, could be concealing nasty secrets." That was the verdict of the Sunday Times this week as panic spread across the financial world in the wake of the scandal surrounding the collapse of Enron. Bankers and speculators are nervously watching firms with similarly huge debts to Enron.
16 February 2002
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Features

New Labour linked to world’s most corrupt firms

TWO corporations, whose dodgy dealing led to the biggest bankruptcy in history, have deep links to New Labour. US energy giant Enron was the world's seventh biggest company until it collapsed a month ago with billions of dollars of debt. The scandal surrounding its collapse threatens to engulf US politicians close to Enron, including George W Bush.
26 January 2002
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Council

PARENTS, STAFF and the local Socialist Alliance are set to fight against New Labour's plans to close nine council nurseries across the west London borough of Ealing. Four of the nurseries cater for under-fives with special needs. Ealing council is viciously hacking back services. The closures will hit voters in key Labour wards in Acton and Southall.
19 January 2002