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Some 377 CWU union members who work in the D&DS section of BT are being balloted to take strike action against plans to transfer them to a contractor, ComputaCentre. At a meeting of around 40 union members in London last week there was a heated exchange between the audience and a national executive member.

Over 100 people attended an excellent weekend of meetings in London organised by the Colombia Solidarity Campaign last Saturday and Sunday. The highlight of the conference was a rally addressed by visiting trade unionists from Colombia.

The streets of central London reverberated to the sound of 10,000 loud and angry students on Wednesday of last week. They were demanding the reinstatement of the grant and the scrapping of tuition fees.

Teachers in London are voting for strikes as increasing workloads and the rising cost of living force record numbers to quit the job. Over 40,000 members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) are balloting for action to win increases in the allowances paid for working in London.

At a packed meeting last week 300 council workers in Tower Hamlets, east London, voted unanimously to go ahead with strike action, starting with a one-day strike across the borough on Thursday of this week.

Baby biys in Bethnal Green today are more likely to die before their first birthday than in 1950. From the housing estates of the east London area you can see the towers of the City of London, the biggest concentration of wealth in the country.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani enjoyed a warm welcome in Britain last week when he arrived to pick up his honorary knighthood. The Queen, Tony Blair and Ken Livingstone all praised him. "London Needs A Giuliani," proclaimed the Daily Telegraph. Home secretary David Blunkett praised his "fine example" for encouraging "strong police leadership".

At a Marxist forum in Tower Hamlets, east London, last week, Sarah Danchie, an economics student from Queen Mary and Westfield College, joined 30 others to debate imperialism, globalisation, the state and war. Sarah was among 18 others who had come for their first time to a Marxist forum:

"This is the first strike in this office's history. It tells you something. This office isn't militant-people have just had enough." That's what one of the 40 civil service strikers in London told Socialist Worker outside London's Millbank Tower, home to New Labour, on Wednesday of last week.

Protesters in Hounslow, west London, followed up their recent 3,000-strong demonstration against education cuts with a lobby of 400 people last week. The protest has clearly rattled the Labour group in the council. Councillors are attacking Labour MP Ann Keen for doing nothing to stop the reduction in government funding which is behind the cuts.

BT workers lobbied private firm ComputaCentre in London last week, and staged another protest at BT Centre, also in London. They were protesting at plans to transfer hundreds of workers in the D&DS section of the company out of BT. If the move goes ahead as planned in March it will give the green light for BT to extend this subcontracting, and with it attacks on workers' conditions across the company.

It is less than ten weeks before local council elections across England on 2 May. In London every council seat will be up for grabs. The elections will be a chance to challenge New Labour and the other main parties.