London Follow

OVER 1,000 people marched through Glasgow on Saturday on the Scottish TUC's march against racism. The demonstrators were headed by the Chhokar family campaign who are fighting for justice for their son Surjit who was stabbed to death. The rally was addressed by Scottish minister for communities Wendy Alexander and Sky Chefs workers from the London Heathrow dispute, amongst others.

ALL HELL broke loose in the computing section of British Airways at Heathrow Airport in west London last week. The company had announced it was to sell off three sections of the Information Management Department. Workers were gobsmacked. No one could believe it.

AROUND 150 people lobbied Hackney council in east London last Wednesday on a protest called by the Friends of Hackney Nurseries campaign group. The lively protest shook councillors, who are discussing possible cuts which will hit local parents and their children hard. The cuts plan was to be discussed at a council education committee meeting on Thursday, and at a full council meeting next Wednesday. More protests are planned.

DEPUTY PRIME minister John Prescott unveiled plans in parliament last week to impose "congestion charges" on cars driving into Britain's cities. Under one plan up for consideration, for example, car drivers would be charged £5 a time to drive into London and then have to pay £2,000 a year to park in the city.

"IT'S LIKE George Orwell's 1984 in there. You can't even go to the toilet without someone in Coventry or London knowing where you're going and for how long." Those were the words of a BT call centre worker in Bristol who was out on strike on Monday along with over 4,000 call centre staff. Their fight is against bullying managers, understaffing and impossible work targets.

THE MONEY collected for the Socialist Worker appeal has now reached £143,075.71. Workplace collections continue to come in. Workers at the London Fire Authority have now contributed £124. Other workplace collections include: Glasgow Council social work £47, TNT News Fast £15, Islington Green School £20, Wiltshire Mental Health £7, Holborn Housing £5, Greenwich council £4.50.

PRESSURE from trade unionists, Labour Party activists and Londoners has forced Blair to put Ken Livingstone's name onto the ballot paper for Labour's candidate for mayor of London. Blair knew that the London party would have split in two if he blocked Livingstone.

ON WEDNESDAY of last week 24 copies of Socialist Worker were sold on the picket line at Westbourne Park bus garage in west London. On Monday morning this week 9 papers were sold to striking BT call centre workers in Manchester, 8 in Cardiff, 6 in Glasgow and Sheffield, 5 in Liverpool and 3 in Brighton. 25 papers were sold at the PTA plant at Ford Dagenham with 9 more sold at the engine plant. And 62 were sold on workplace sales across Hackney in east London last week. They included 7 papers sold at Homerton Hospital, 4 at Upper Clapton post office, 3 at Shoreditch fire station, 3 at Paragon Road post office, 2 at Andrews Road council depot and 8 at Homerton School. Thanet's first industr

THOUSANDS OF postal workers across London are to vote on official strikes as management tries to cut costs over Christmas. The ballots will include almost all delivery workers and some drivers in the big distribution centres. The issues vary in different areas. They include:

OVER 400 people attended a one year anniversary rally for the Sky Chefs workers in west London last Saturday. Lufthansa Sky Chefs at Heathrow sacked the 270 workers last year for taking part in a legal one day strike. They have been fighting for reinstatement ever since.

WORKERS IN Hackney, east London, have scored a victory for equal pay. Two years ago 27 mainly young black workers were forced off the dole and into low paid jobs in the council under the government's New Deal scheme. They got jobs in refuse and street cleaning at £156 a week. This figure was well below that for other staff doing the same job.

NEARLY 2,000 bus workers across west London struck for the day over pay on Monday this week. The action hit services in Greenford, Acton, Uxbridge, Orpington, Alperton and Westbourne Park. It was the workers' second official one day strike. Members of the TGWU also struck for the day on Wednesday of last week. The drivers and conductors work for a company called Centre West which is owned by First Group, Britain's largest bus operator.