Archive for October 2003

4 October 2003

Support The Postal Workers: £4,000 London Weighting

LONDON POSTAL workers will be on 24-hour strike on 1 October, as part of their campaign for a £4,000 London weighting allowance...

4 October 2003

Stop The Warmonger

George Bush suffering from the fallout over Iraq: BLAIR IS not the only one who is having problems with opinion polls. George Bush is also suffering from a combination of the fallout over Iraq and anger at his domestic policies...

4 October 2003

Tuition fees must go!

BLAIR SAYS that every New Labour policy will go through a fairness test. What hypocrisy! This from the man who is pushing top-up tuition fees even though 80% of the population and most of his own party...

4 October 2003

Free the bin tax two

TWO SOCIALIST Party members in Dublin - Joe Higgins TD (MP) and Dublin North Socialist Party councillor Clare Daly - are currently serving one-month prison sentences in Mountjoy prison, Dublin...

4 October 2003

Karl Debbaut: Trial put back to 24 October

SOCIALIST PARTY member Karl Debbaut has had the hearing for his charges of "assault on a police officer" (an allegation which anti-war protesters totally reject) put back until 24 October...

4 October 2003

27 September Demo: Anger At Blair But Where Next?

THE LARGE demonstration on 27 September against the occupation of Iraq was a strong expression of anger at New Labour and Tony Blair but frustration about what can be done next, writes Alison Hill and Judy Beishon.

4 October 2003

Amsterdam Demo Opposes Cuts

ON 20 September, 25,000 people took to the streets of Amsterdam to angrily protest against huge cuts of 17 billion euros in welfare provision, writes Ron Blom, Offensief, Amsterdam.

4 October 2003

Interviews with London postal workers

United Struggle For A Living Wage: CWU rep at the Fulham office and deputy convenor of the south-west London area...

4 October 2003

Labour Party conference: Why We Need A New Workers' Party

IN HIS best imitation of Margaret Thatcher so far, Blair showed in his conference speech that he's not for turning...

4 October 2003

Joe Higgins and Clare Daly - jailed over the bin tax

DUBLIN WEST Socialist Party TD (MP), Joe Higgins and Dublin North Socialist Party councillor, Clare Daly have been sentenced to a month in prison and are currently serving their sentence in Dublin's Mountjoy prison, writes By Peter Hadden.

4 October 2003

Blair On The Ropes

Iraq, foundation hospitals, top-up tuition fees...: TONY BLAIR says he's feeling "battered". And so he should...

11 October 2003

Bosses Get Rich - Workers Get 30p

THE MINIMUM wage for over 21s went up this month by 30p to a measly £4.50 an hour (only £3.80 an hour for 18-21 year olds)...

11 October 2003

Scotland: Nursery Nurses Forced To Strike Again

NURSERY NURSES in Scotland are angry and disappointed. After five months of industrial action by Scotland's nursery nurses the employers' body Cosla (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) have walked...

11 October 2003

Fighting For A Living Wage

ON 1 October, postal workers in London went on strike for an improved cost of living allowance. As our reports show, the strike was solid and many strikers enthusiastically agreed with the idea of linking...

11 October 2003

Postal strike solid

Uniting the London weighting battle: VERY FEW postal workers crossed the picket lines at my workplace. Most of those that did work had been bullied by management to go in because they were either on short-term contracts or were on Stage Two...

11 October 2003

Europe protests at anti-worker governments

EUROPEAN HEADS of government assembled for a summit in Rome on 4 October. Outside, two mass protest demonstrations (numbering up to 200,000) made their way through the Italian capital's streets, writes Clare Doyle.

11 October 2003

Fighting tuition fees in the USA

THERE IS massive opposition to New Labour's plans to introduce top-up tuition fees. Many see this as a step towards a tuition fees free-for-all as exists in the USA. Below we reprint two articles from...

11 October 2003

Syria Bombing Ratchets Up Middle East Tensions

ISRAELI AIRCRAFT bombed an abandoned Palestinian militia camp deep inside Syrian territory last weekend...

11 October 2003

"Tough With The Workers, Toadying With The Millionaires"

Former Liverpool councillor, one of the 47 who fought the Thatcher government and former President of the District Labour Party, Tony Mulhearn gives his impression of Tony Blair's speech at Labour Party conference...

11 October 2003

Model resolution

Model resolution for London public-sector trade union branches on the need for united action over London weighting:...

11 October 2003

New Labour and asylum: Blunkett's Callous Plans

"Tough With The Workers, Toadying With The Millionaires": THE PRINCIPLE of offering a safe haven to those in need is being subjected to "death by a thousand cuts", writes Paula Mitchell.

11 October 2003

Foundation Hospitals: An Attack on the Heart of the NHS

IN SPITE of their plans for foundation hospitals being rejected by the Labour Party conference, the government is still going ahead...

11 October 2003

Anti-bin tax campaign: A Decisive Stage In The Struggle

KEVIN MACLOUGHLIN of the Socialist Party in Ireland spoke to the socialist on the escalating anti-bin tax struggle and the campaign to free Socialist Party representatives Joe Higgins TD (MP) and councillor Clare Daly, jailed for their part in the movement...

11 October 2003

Ireland - Free the bin tax twelve

From the CWI online and Irish Socialist Party website: Thursday morning, October 9, saw 10 local residents jailed for two weeks (one woman with a small child for one week because she has to breastfeed her baby) for their part in the ongoing protests against the imposition of a new charge for collecting rubbish, the bin tax...

11 October 2003

Iran 1988: A bloody chapter in the workers' movement remembered

THE HISTORICAL development of capitalism - a system of exploitation for profit - has been accompanied with blood and slaughter, writes By Eleanor, an Iranian exile.

11 October 2003

Union Leaders On The Wrong Track

After Labour Party conference: ACCORDING TO The Guardian on 2 October: "Labour's major trade unions showed their muscle at Bournemouth" and duly "duffed up" the party leadership of Tony Blair, writes But did they?.

18 October 2003

United Action To End Low Pay

MANY PEOPLE in my workplace were surprised that there was such a big majority (80%) for strike action over London weighting, writes Nancy Taaffe.

18 October 2003

Iraq's 'Liberation' Nightmare

"SIX MONTHS after American tanks roared triumphantly into the centre of Baghdad... the United States has turned military victory into political defeat in Iraq". (Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, 10/10/03)

18 October 2003

Democracy And The Stop The War Coalition

At the Stop the War Coalition (STWC) steering committee on 7 October, I moved the following motion on behalf of the Socialist Party, writes Hannah Sell.

18 October 2003

ISR conference:

Saturday 22 November 2003, 10am-5pm. Upper Hall, University of London Union (ULU), Malet St, London, WC1. www.anticapitalism.org.uk.

18 October 2003

Apparently it's all my fault...

Comment: DAVE NELLIST, leader of the Socialist Group of councillors on Coventry City Council and former Labour MP for Coventry South East from 1983 to 1992 comments on this year's Labour Party conference and the Channel 4 programme The Deal about the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown...

18 October 2003

Save Our Health Service

Baglan Hospital: THIS SATURDAY, 18 October, Neath and Port Talbot will be marching to defend the maternity unit at the new hospital in Baglan, writes Rob Williams, 'Defend Baglan Maternity Campaign' and Socialist Party Wales.

18 October 2003

Stand Together To Scrap The SATS

FOR THE last month, teachers in Coventry have been campaigning against SATs. We have been leafleting schools and talking to parents on the school gates as well as organising stalls on Saturdays. Pupils...

18 October 2003

More Jailings But Deeper Anger

"WHEN I get out of prison, the first thing I'm going to do is stand in front of another bin truck," said Declan Mahon only hours before being imprisoned in Mountjoy jail, Dublin, writes Stephen Boyd, Dublin.

18 October 2003

Bolivia: A Movement Of Insurrectionary Scale

FOR THE second time this year Bolivia's ruling class is facing a workers' and peasants' movement of insurrectionary proportions, writes Dave Carr.

18 October 2003

Greater Dublin City Bin service shut down!

The campaign against the Bin Tax took a massive step forward today [14 October]. All of Greater Dublin's bin service was shut down during the day by pickets of bin depots organised by the four anti-bin...

18 October 2003

Anti Bin Tax Campaigns Thank Bin Workers; Call for End to Non-Collection and Jailings

THE BIN depot blockades of the last 48 hours have put the issues of the unjust jailings and the Councils' discriminatory non-collection policy firmly back onto the political agenda...

18 October 2003

California: Last Action Hero Will Let Down Voters

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER has terminated Gray Davies' rule as Governor of California but the ordinary workers of California won't benefit from this change, writes Chris Newby.

18 October 2003

Protest Against Warmonger Bush

The Hutton enquiry evidence has left Blair indelibly marked as a man prepared to lie and cheat in order to back Bush's war...

18 October 2003

Fighting Women's Oppression

Socialist women national meeting: The discussions and the ideas that came up at the Socialist Women's weekend were extremely useful and inspiring, writes Sarah Sachs-Eldridge.

18 October 2003

Stop Fees Now!

Despite mass opposition, New Labour are trying to introduce top-up fees...

18 October 2003

Socialist Alliance Trade Union Convention

The socialist - what we think: MANY TRADE union branches recently received letters from the Socialist Alliance (SA) calling for support for their February 2004 conference entitled: 'Convention of the trade union left'...

18 October 2003

London Workers Lead Fight For A Living Wage

The Socialist: What we think: LONDON POSTAL workers will be joining UNISON members working for London councils on strike on 16 October...

18 October 2003

Can The Nasty Party Win Again?

After the Tory conference: MICHAEL PORTILLO described this year's Tory Party conference as "horrible, dejected, miserable, talking about the leadership all the time - the worst conference anyone could remember", writes Hannah Sell.

18 October 2003

Nigeria: General Strike Suspended After Government Backs Down

IN LATE September, Nigerians were outraged when the government suddenly deregulated the price of fuel leading to an immediate 15% jump in prices...

18 October 2003

Poland: An Explosion Of Class Struggle

IN RECENT months Poland has been swept by a wave of strikes and protests. The most spectacular is the struggle of the Silesian miners. They are protesting against plans by the Social Democratic (SLD) government...

18 October 2003

World economy: Will There Be A Recovery?

CAN US capitalism pull the world economy out of its present stagnation? Japan has been stuck at near-zero growth for over ten years...

25 October 2003

London Underground: How Workers Made The Bosses Listen

ON FRIDAY night, 17 October the Piccadilly Line of London Underground had a cracked running rail that it was estimated had been broken for four or five months...

25 October 2003

CWU Leaders Welcome Joint Union Action

ON 16 October, London members of postal union CWU and of local government union UNISON both came out on strike and demonstrated for better London weighting...

25 October 2003

Postal workers determined to fight

AT THE same time as CWU strikers rallied in central London, 65 postal workers met in Dagenham, east London. Bob Gibson, a national CWU official, was there to address rank-and-file activists, writes Manny Thain.

25 October 2003

Fight Fees Education not occupation

NUS demonstration 26 October: NEW LABOUR'S plans to introduce top-up fees are facing huge opposition. 80% of people are against them. Because of this mass opposition, the government can't even be sure of getting their plans through...

25 October 2003

Fighting For Free Education

DESPITE MASS opposition by students, parents, many universities and some vice-chancellors, New Labour are now trying to introduce top-up fees...

25 October 2003

Defend school students' right to strike

Support Karl Debbaut: ON FRIDAY 24 October, Karl Debbaut, the international co-ordinator of International Socialist Resistance (ISR), began his trial for his part in protests on Day X, the day war started...

25 October 2003

Come To ISR Conference

Young people are facing continuing cuts and privatisation of the education system across the world and, in England and Wales, the prospect of top-up university fees, writes Clare James, ISR national co-ordinator.

25 October 2003

Michael Moore: 'Dude, Where's My Country?'

The Socialist review: MICHAEL MOORE said "barring success", Stupid White Men, (reviewed in The Socialist, issue 254), would be his last book, writes Alison Hill.

25 October 2003

Germany in Crisis: 'This Policy Deserves No Applause - But Resistance'

TRADITIONALLY, THE German chancellor and the leaders of the political parties would speak at the national congresses of the big trade unions and expect a warm response, writes Sascha Stanicic, Berlin.

25 October 2003

Time to Put Forward a Socialist Alternative

European Social Forum: The second European Social Forum (ESF) is taking place in Paris from 12 to 15 November. The first one in Florence was a success, particularly with the involvement of young people, workers and trade unionists...

25 October 2003

Postal Workers Victory: Defend the right to have an effective trade union

POSTAL WORKERS in London and across Britain had been forced to walk out over the last few days, in successful strike action to defeat an aggressive management, writes Bill Mullins and Ken Smith.

25 October 2003

"Proud, Unrepentant, Defiant And More Determined": Joe and Clare after their release from Mountjoy prison

Socialist Party TD (MP) Joe Higgins and Socialist Party councillor Clare Daly were released from Dublin's Mountjoy jail last Saturday after serving a one-month jail sentence for defying a high court injunction...

25 October 2003

Safety Not Profit: End Privatisation

Tube workers speak to The Socialist: IN YET another condemnation of the safety record of Britain's privatised railways, two tube trains were derailed on London's 'part-privatised' Underground rail system over last weekend...