Iraq Follow

THE LATEST British contribution to peace and stability in Iraq is to send one of Northern Ireland's top policemen to run policing in the city of Basra. Stephen White is an assistant chief constable in the Northern Ireland police force. His "achievements" include policing "flashpoints" like Drumcree.

A HOUSING estate in Wrexham, North Wales, hit the headlines two weeks ago when it erupted in two nights of rioting. One of the Iraqi Kurds living on Caia Park estate was in a relationship with a local woman. A dispute over this led to a gang of local white thugs attacking another Iraqi's house. They severely beat him when he stepped outside.

ALL THE blustering of Alastair Campbell and his chorus of tame ministers and Labour backbenchers can't conceal the fact that the Iraq war is turning very nasty for its perpetrators. The row over the fact that George W Bush and Tony Blair lied their way to war wouldn't be half so bad if the situation on the ground in Iraq weren't becoming so serious.

Hackney AROUND 200 people came to hear George Galloway speak against the occupation of Iraq in Hackney, east London, on Saturday of last week. The meeting was part of the Turkish and Kurdish Day Mer Festival for Peace. Mustafa Yalciner, from the Turkish Labour Party, joined Galloway on the platform.

There is a rich history of workers' struggles in Iraq.

A TOP US general is already comparing the occupation of Iraq to the "quagmire" the US sank into in Vietnam. The US had "failed to understand the mindset and attitudes of the Iraqi people and the depth of hostility towards the US in much of the country", admitted retired general William Nash last weekend.

OVER 600 people attended the Stop the War Coalition's activist conference held in London on Saturday. "The size of today's conference shows that the anti-war movement has not gone away," said coalition convenor Lindsey German. "That is also clear from public meetings up and down the country. They are drawing in hundreds of people. Some areas are having bigger meetings than they did in the run-up to the war. The war is also continuing in Iraq. It is continuing in that they are making threats against Iran. So our movement must continue. People feel that we were vindicated in opposing the war. Now we have to continue to build on that. They have a project for the new century. We should h

US FORCES have launched military operations in central Iraq over the last few days on a scale not seen since the height of the war. This is the same war that was supposed to have ended two months ago. Instead of liberation and justice, there are daily reports of civilian suffering. US troops are breaking into homes, rounding up young men and opening fire on bystanders.

THE POLITICAL level of this year's GMB congress was great, with really heated debates on issues like tackling racism and the war on Iraq. The congress voted to change the rulebook to expel racists from the union and to oppose the Nazi BNP.

Radiohead's new album has caused a stir in the music press. Radiohead are immensely popular. Hail To The Thief sold over 60,000 copies in Britain in the first two days of its release. They are also highly political. Lead singer Thom Yorke denounced the war on Iraq. The band support campaigns against Third World debt and in defence of asylum seekers.

OVER 170 people packed into St Alfege school hall in Whitstable in Kent to hear George Galloway speak on Wednesday of last week. He received warm applause after describing the witch-hunt against him by Blair and the Daily Telegraph. Other speakers included Lindsey German from the Stop the War Coalition and Aram, an Iraqi refugee.

THE US claimed that Iraq's restrictions on United Nations inspectors was the reason it had to go to war. Now it occupies Iraq it has placed more limits on UN-appointed nuclear experts than Saddam Hussein did. The US has only allowed seven members of the International Atomic Energy Agency into Iraq.