Manchester Follow

A DETERMINED campaign and the threat of industrial action has defeated an attempted partial privatisation of services at Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive. Unison branch chair Tony Wilson told Socialist Worker that the important campaign had lasted two and a half years.

Manchester OVER 300 people packed into a lecture hall at Manchester's UMIST university to hear George Galloway MP, Salma Yaqoob from Birmingham Stop the War Coalition and John Rees from the Socialist Alliance.

OVER 100 people joined a protest in Manchester last Saturday against the government's harsh treatment of asylum seekers.

HOME SECRETARY David Blunkett didn't wait to see the documentary, The Secret Policeman, before he attacked the BBC. The documentary exposed an incredible degree of police racism in Manchester and in other areas.

OVER 100 people, most of them students, attended the two day "Marxism for a New Movement" event in Manchester last weekend.

THE LONG-running dispute at Fujitsu Services' West Gorton site in Manchester took a new turn last week.

AMICUS UNION members at the giant Fujitsu Services (formerly ICL) site in West Gorton, Manchester, are continuing their fight against attacks on union recognition.

ELECTRICIANS AT the Piccadilly site in Manchester have now been locked out for 20 weeks by their employers, DAF Electrical. We were employed on the £30 million project on a self-employed basis. We noticed that management were employing unskilled workers to carry out electrical work on a lower wage.

ISRAFIL SHIRI poured petrol over himself and set himself alight in the offices of Refugee Action in Salford three weeks ago. After five days in agony, with 70 percent burns, he died in Manchester's Wythenshawe Hospital (see last week's Socialist Worker). What could possibly drive a man to such a terrible act?

WORKERS at IT services company Fujitsu Services, West Gorton, Manchester, took strike action on Monday following the unanimous rejection of management's latest offer at a members' meeting on Thursday. The mood of the strikers was very positive. Many had been angered by provocative e-mails from senior management in the days leading up to the strike. The scare tactics backfired badly.

'Anger translates into action' Arriving back in Manchester after the holidays, I was struck by the way the stop the war movement has developed. Anger at the Blair government's war lies is growing, and this has been translated into action.

MANUAL WORKERS in the GMB union working for Manchester city Council struck for a day on Monday against the imposition of the Single Status agreement. They voted three to one to strike in an official ballot. Many other council workers in other departments refused to cross their picket lines.