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DAVID TOVEY was convicted last week for stockpiling an arsenal of explosives and guns. Police believe he wanted to launch a one-man race war against black people. All the evidence points to Tovey, from Swindon, seeking to copy the Nazi nailbomber David Copeland, who killed and maimed with three attacks in London three years ago.

"HOW CAN you support the strikes for more pay by London tube workers when they are already on £30,000 a year?" That question was posed by someone at a Marxist forum in London last week. It reflects a wider debate, fanned by bitterly hostile coverage of the tube strikes in much of the media.

ABOUT 450 people attended a Stop the War Coalition public meeting in Liverpool last week. It was held two days after the huge anti-war demonstration in London and included speakers such as Bob Wareing MP, Bruce Kent, Lindsey German and a local FBU union official.

OVER 1,000 members of the civil servants' PCS union are due to start balloting for strike action on 10 October. Workers in central and west London are considering action in defence of their PCS branch secretary, Chris Ford.

ALL THE universities in London face the possibility of joint strike action by a united front of academics and administrative, technical and support staff for the first time ever. University workers are pressing for an improvement in their London weighting allowance.

THE SUDDEN death of Mike Cohen last week at the age of 67 is a sad loss to the labour movement. Mike was a familiar figure whenever ordinary people were fighting back. Rare was the strike or demonstration in London where he was not there, taking photographs for socialist publications, mainly the Morning Star and also for others including Socialist Worker.

THE GLOVES are off in the battle on London Underground. Management was set to table a revised offer on Thursday of this week. This is partly designed to divide the tube unions. Last week's strike by members of the RMT and Aslef unions was at least as solid as the one the week before.

UNISON MEMBERS facing Britain's biggest PFI project have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action against an attempt to break their union. In a consultative ballot 78 percent voted to back an official strike ballot demanding the reinstatement of their union branch secretary, Phil Billows. Phil was suspended for spearheading a campaign against the huge PFI project at the Royal London and Barts NHS trust.

WORKERS ON the Channel Tunnel Rail Link threatened to walk off the job last week. Their wages have been cut in half. The 70 workers are building the tunnel from Stratford in east London to King's Cross.

VOTING STARTS this Saturday in the election for mayor of the east London borough of Hackney. The campaign for the Socialist Alliance candidate, journalist Paul Foot, is gathering pace. Last Sunday campaigners were out across all areas of Hackney delivering a special eight-page newspaper. Paul has recently addressed groups of campaigners fighting for disability rights and against nursery closures.

THE NATIONAL Union of Teachers (NUT) is to hold a second ballot for a one-day London-wide strike over allowances for working in the capital. Ballot papers will go out on Friday of next week to be returned by 29 October, for a strike on Thursday 14 November. The second largest teachers' union, the NASUWT, is consulting reps in London before moving to a ballot for a strike on the same day.

AS TONY Blair talks of the new "post-comprehensive" education system, the reality of what that means is hitting home in Hackney, east London. The new Learning Trust, which took over the running of education in August, is pressing ahead with plans to close Kingsland School in July 2003. Some 140 students hadn't found a place in a local secondary school this summer. Kingsland has a long history of campaigning in defence of comprehensive education in Hackney.