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Council workers in Newham, east London, struck today in defence of their sacked Unison branch chair Michael Gavan.

Some 400 people enjoyed the Cultures of Resistance concert on Friday of last week – with live drum and bass from from The Bays, a stunning performance of A Love Supreme by Denys Baptiste, reggae soul from Natty, and a superb DJ set from former Special Jerry Dammers. The event in central London raised £1,800 for the Socialist Worker Appeal.

"Things have started to change on the buses in the last year," says a driver at the East London Bus Company. "There seems to be a bit more courage for a fight."

Some 10,000 people protested in London on Saturday of last week as part of a global day of action against climate change.

New Labour’s Academies programme has come under fire again after it was discovered that academies in Southwark, south London, had introduced contracts halving paid maternity leave.

Unison union stewards in Newham, east London, are building for a strike set for Thursday of this week. They won a debate with regional officials over holding a second strike in protest at the victimisation of Michael Gavan, our branch chair.

More than 60 people attended a Respect public meeting on gun and knife crime in Wandsworth and Merton, south London, on Thursday of last week.

Local residents in the Somers Town area of Camden, London are campaigning against the selling off of public land.

Respect councillors in Tower Hamlets, east London, are fighting an attempt by a local housing association to snap up some of the few remaining council houses in Poplar.

The celebrated Cultures of Resistance gig returns to London this month courtesy of Socialist Worker. It features The Bays, Jerry Dammers, Denys Baptiste, and Natty.

By the 1790s, one quarter of Britain’s income came from the West Indies and much of it from the sugar trade. London established itself as a centre of global commerce in this period – but behind it lay slavery.

Planned strikes by bus workers at East London Bus Company and Stagecoach Manchester were suspended after management at both companies came back with new offers.