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ANTI-RACISTS held a speak-out against racism, organised by the Anti Nazi League, on Eltham High Street, south east London, on Saturday. It followed two more serious racist attacks. Two weeks ago a 14 year old black boy was hospitalised with a broken jaw after he was attacked and racially abused by a white man in his twenties.

A CLASSIC Marxist account of religion, The Meek and the Militant by Paul N Siegel, has been reprinted in a special deal for London's socialist bookshop, Bookmarks. It takes as its starting point Marx's famous description of religion as "the sigh of the oppressed, the heart in the heartless world, the opium of the people".

THE SPATE of disputes involving journalists is accelerating, with strikes and ballots for action this week from London to Yorkshire and Scotland.

AROUND 120 people demonstrated outside the South African embassy in London last week in solidarity with 87 people who went on trial in Johannesburg. The accused included Trevor Ngwane who was interviewed in Socialist Worker last week.

A RALLY has been called in defence of Phil Billows. He is the Unison union branch secretary at Barts and the Royal London Hospital Trust in east London. Trust bosses suspended Phil from his job over one month ago. Phil has been at the forefront of the fight against the PFI scheme at the hospital trust.

Richard, A 20 year old Afro-Caribbean man, has become the latest victim of a series of serious racist attacks in the area where black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered nine years ago. There have been four attacks in the last three months in Eltham, south east London, where the British National Party had its headquarters.

TUBE WORKERS are to hold a swift ballot for strike action over pay after management broke off talks and imposed a settlement. The move comes as the government presses ahead with its PPP privatisation scheme and follows a highly effective one-day strike by RMT union members on the tube over safety last month.

TENANTS IN Merton, South London, have voted against the mass transfer of council housing to a housing association. Some 52 percent of tenants voted against on a 66 percent turnout. It was proposed that all Merton's 9,600 council homes should be transferred.

MORE WORKERS are joining the ongoing strike against privatisation at Westminster council in central London. Around 250 workers are now striking against the council's privatisation plans. The Tory-run council plans to privatise up to 80 percent of services. But the workforce is making a stand.

THE SOCIALIST Alliance in Hackney, east London, has unanimously selected Paul Foot to stand for mayor of Hackney in the election to be held on Thursday 17 October.

THERE WAS jubilation outside the High Court in London last week at news of the legal victory of civil servants' union leader Mark Serwotka. He had finally won his battle to take up the position of general secretary of the PCS union. A high court judge confirmed that his election in November 2000 was valid, and that the coup attempt by right wing former general secretary Barry Reamsbottom was illegal.

ANOTHER OPINION poll in Britain last week showed the shock and anger many people feel at George Bush's rush to start a war on Iraq. Some 91 percent of Daily Mirror readers said in a phone poll that they were against the war. The paper has run several articles critical of an attack on Iraq and the war on Afghanistan. "Mr Blair will next month face one of the biggest anti-war protests in Britain for years," said the Mirror last week. Protesters will mass in London on 28 September. A string of Stop the War Coalition events will be held over the next few weeks."