London Follow

IT IS with great sadness that we learnt of the death of Ros Gardner, who had been suffering from a long term illness. She will be remembered by many comrades in London, Bournemouth and Southampton. She was a very committed member of the SWP and was an inspiring speaker. She was particularly active during the miners' strike and helped collect large amounts of money to keep Shirebrook, Derbyshire miners going.

THE RMT London Region held its first political day school last Thursday. About 70 people took part in debates and discussions on issues from the war to our links with Labour. Tony Benn and Lindsey German from the Stop the War Coalition kicked the day off with a history of the labour movement.

RMT UNION activist Glenroy Watson has won his appeal and has been reinstated as a tube driver. This is a major climbdown for London Underground management. Glenroy suffered a clear case of victimisation when he was demoted to a station assistant. Management have backed down. But, as Glenroy rightly states, "We must continue to fight against this injustice." He still has a two-year warning, leaving him open to attack.

SOME 500 people marched against plans for a third runway at London's Heathrow airport last Saturday. A third runway at Heathrow would require the demolition of hundreds of homes, local schools and churches, destroying two village communities.

SCHOOL SUPPORT staff were on the picket line at John Scurr school in Tower Hamlets, east London, on Monday morning. They and hundreds more workers employed by local councils across London were on strike all this week as part of their continuing fight for an increase in the London weighting allowance they get for the extra costs of living and working in the capital.

AROUND 200 people came to hear George Galloway speak in Ealing in west London on the continuing occupation of Iraq last week. There was a great mix of people at the meeting, all united in their anger at Blair and his lies, while support for George Galloway was stronger than ever. This meeting proved wrong anyone who had thought the anti-war movement had disappeared. There was a real feeling that action against Bush and Blair must continue. George Buckerfield

STRONG unofficial action has beaten back a management attack on postal workers at Ilford in outer east London. Workers walked out on Wednesday of last week in protest at the suspension of three delivery staff.

ANNE HOWARTH, friend and comrade, died on 12 May 2003, aged 47. Anne joined the Socialist Workers Party when she was a student activist at Middlesex Poly. She was an active member throughout the 1980s-in Tottenham, Holloway Road and Hornsea branches when she was in London, and in the late 1980s in Stoke branch.

SOME 240 people packed into Willesden Library, north west London, on Thursday of last week to hear George Galloway and others slam the occupation of Iraq. The meeting, called by Brent Stop the War, drew people who had attended protests during the war and newer forces.

DEFIANT HEALTH workers took to the picket lines in north Lincolnshire and in east London last week in an inspiring rebellion against low pay. The cleaners, cooks, porters and other staff are taking on the private firms that New Labour is letting rip in the NHS. HAZEL CROFT spoke to some of the strikers.

A multinational corporation broke the law to try and undermine a strike against poverty pay last week. Cleanaway, part of the giant Brambles corporation, faced a week-long strike by 150 bin workers demanding an increased London weighting allowance. The workers get a basic pay of just £200 a week.

SOME OF the lowest paid workers in Britain are rebelling. Nursery nurses in Scotland and health workers in North Lincolnshire and east London were set to strike this week for a living wage. They are sick of doing important, caring jobs for pitiful wages that won't pay the bills. They want to be treated with respect, not taken for granted as low paid skivvies.