Privatisation Follow

A CARNIVAL of resistance to privatisation and war is set to take place on Wednesday of next week. That is the 1 May march through the streets of central London. The campaign to "Make May Day our day" has been taken up by thousands of trade unionists, anti-capitalists and anti-war campaigners.

POSTAL WORKERS' union leaders were poised this week to call national strikes. The action will officially be over pay and conditions. But it will also focus the bitter anger against job losses, speed-up, harder working and privatisation. Delivery, sorting and driving workers voted overwhelmingly for national strikes over pay nearly three months ago.

BIRMINGHAM tenants delivered a body blow last weekend to the government's plans to destroy council housing. The two to one vote against privatisation shows New Labour's bullying can be beaten. Tenants were promised investment in their homes if they voted for transfer to a private housing association.

POSTAL workers should demand action after the latest privatisation move. Post Office bosses announced this week they are continuing with plans to outsource the Romec engineering arm in a £1 billion deal. Work will be transferred to a joint venture with construction giant Balfour Beatty. Romec employs 5,000 people.

IF YOU want to protest against privatisation and war, be on the streets of London on Wednesday 1 May. May Day protests will unite trade unionists and anti-capitalists with the anti-war movement that has mobilised thousands on huge demos.

A call has gone out to trade unionists to "Make May Day our day". The appeal is from former Labour MP Tony Benn, and Mark Serwotka, general secretary elect of the PCS civil servants' union. It slams New Labour's privatisation plans and anti trade union laws. It also points out how the government's war plans against Iraq are opposed by the majority of the population.

GOVERNMENT MINISTERS were "stunned" and their housing policy was "hurled off course" this week when Birmingham tenants voted by 67 percent to 33 percent against housing privatisation. This was a key test case for New Labour's policy of destroying council housing. The vote shows how the gut feeling that people have against privatisation can be mobilised and focused by a strong campaign.

Pressure for a united demonstration by public service workers against the government's privatisation drive is mounting. Delegates at the National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference voted last weekend to back a national anti-privatisation demonstration. That comes after the call for such a protest by Mark Serwotka, general secretary elect of the PCS civil servants' union. Other public sector workers now have a chance to press their unions to take up the call.

People across England will have a chance to say a resounding no to Tony Blair's pro-privatisation and pro-war policies at the local elections on 2 May. Hundreds of Socialist Alliance candidates are standing. They say, "Put people before profit," and want to take on the pro-business consensus accepted by the three major parties.

Every day that passes increases the urgency of a fightback against job cuts and privatisation in the Post Office.

"The Labour Party is more pro-business, pro wealth creation and pro-competition than ever before." That was chancellor Gordon Brown's shocking description last week of what he and Tony Blair have turned the Labour Party into. Brown was trying to reassure big business that the government would continue to look after their interests, despite widespread opposition to New Labour's embrace of privatisation.

Tony Blair has formed an unholy alliance with the two most right wing leaders in Europe to drive through an assault on workers' rights across Europe. Blair's friends-Spain's leader Jose Maria Aznar and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi – want to push through privatisation, deregulation, more flexibility and attacks on trade unions.