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Trams halted in tracks by strike Drivers on the tram service in Croydon, south London, halted the service for 24 hours on Tuesday of last week in a strike over pay. The workers, members of the TGWU union, refused to accept the bosses' pay of 6 percent, as it would only take their pay to £8.75 an hour.

Council workers in London are to ballot on a one-day strike on 14 May over pay. The workers are demanding a rise in the London weighting allowance, which covers the extra costs of working and living in the capital. They want £4,000 a year, a modest demand compared to the £6,000 allowance the police get.

This year's May Day looks set to offer anti-war and anti-privatisation activists across Britain a chance to take to the streets. The Greater London Trades Union Congress organises a march in London every year. Now trade unions have joined forces with Globalise Resistance to unite the labour movement and anti-capitalist activists.

Some 180 trade unionists attended a conference on Saturday called by the South East Region of the TUC (Sertuc) in London in defence of public services. There was not only unanimous condemnation of privatisation but also a strong feeling that unions should be coordinating action to stop it.

Friends and family of Harry Stanley confronted the Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir John Stevens at a meeting in Hackney, east London, on Thursday of last week.

BBC DIRECTOR general Greg Dyke recently joined 14 other staff on a management course in the US costing at least £250,000. The group came out of the "Make it happen" campaign that Dyke, a Blair appointee, launched last month. It is supposed to make the BBC "the most innovative and risk-taking place there is". These risk takers stayed at the exclusive Mansion on Turtle Creek hotel in Dallas where suites cost £1,750 a night. The six-day junket is marketed under the title "Top Dog" by a London-based training firm What If. A similar trip arranged last year for BBC director of drama and entertainment Alan Yentob and BBC2 controller Jane Root cost £15,950 excluding flights.

A strike and demonstration by over 40,000 teachers in and around London on Thursday of last week was the biggest for 30 years. It marked a turning point. "I feel we are laying to rest the ghosts of 20 years of demoralisation," said one experienced teacher as she sped by with a group of recent university graduates.

The biggest conference of rank and file trade unionists for two decades took place in London last Saturday. Over 1,000 trade unionists from across Britain came to the event organised by the Socialist Alliance, which will be standing hundreds of candidates at the May local elections. The Scottish Socialist Party also supported it. The conference signalled a further step in the deepening rift between the government and trade unionists.

Judith Mora, a Spanish journalist working in London, has been going along to Marxist forums in Brick Lane, east London. She tells us why:

UNISON union members in Tower Hamlets, east London, are celebrating a victory after the council withdrew proposed new sickness, disciplinary and organisational changes. This follows a highly successful strike at the end of February, and plans for further strike action.

Will a multinational construction firm be given prime land and allowed to shut down a hospital to make way for building luxury flats and houses? New Labour health secretary Alan Milburn gave the go-ahead last month to the biggest Private Finance Initiative scheme in the NHS at east London's Royal London Hospital.

Socialist Worker sellers were out last week campaigning against Sharon's onslaught on the Palestinians. In just three days over 500 copies of Socialist Worker were sold on the streets in central London. In Kensington on a new sale nine sellers (including five new members) received a brilliant reception-160 copies of Socialist Worker were sold and four people joined the SWP.