TOMMY SHERIDAN TO SPEAK AT FIRST MEETING IN ENGLAND SINCE COURT VICTORY

Email: socialism@socialistparty.org.uk

Web: www.socialism2006.net

●Tommy Sheridan, MSP and leader of the newly formed Solidarity – Scotland’s Socialist Movement will speak at a meeting in England for the first time since his court victory over the Murdoch press on Saturday 25^th November.

● He will speak alongside Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the civil service union PCS, Socialist Party General Secretary Peter Taaffe and international speakers including Germany’s Lucy Redler of the electoral alternative WASG as well as speakers from Greece and Sri Lanka.

● This wide line up of speakers will outline the international fight back against neo-liberalism and global capitalism. This includes the momentous class upheavals in Latin America, the strike action of immigrant labourers and transport workers in the USA and mass protest movements in Europe.

● But it also includes the fight to defend the NHS here in Britain, which will be represented at the rally by Len Hockey UNISON joint shop steward at Whipps Cross hospital, London who has recently led successful strike action against the privateers and Dr Jackie Grunsell, Huddersfield Save Our NHS councillor.

The Rally for Socialism is part of Socialism 2006, a weekend of political discussion and debate taking place on 25^th & 26^th November hosted by the Socialist Party. Last year, 1000 people descended on central London to discuss the fight back and this year’s event looks set to be even bigger and better!

For more information see: www.socialism2006.net

Other sessions taking place over the course of the weekend at the University of London Union building, Malet Street includes the following debates:

ENDS

For more information or press credentials to the Rally for Socialism contact:

Hannah Sell 07709249032 or Greg Maughan 07837453479

Press statement from the Socialist Party

Protest against the killings and kidnappings of Tamils in Sri Lanka

For immediate use: 19 October 2006

PO Box 24697, London E11 1YD Tel: 020 8988 8777

Contact: Paula Mitchell 020 8988 8777 or 07748 534891 paulamitchell@socialistparty.org.uk

Socialist Party councillors to hand in letter of protest to the Sri Lankan High Commission

Monday 23rd October. From 4.30 to 6pm. Sri Lankan High Commission, 13 Hyde Park Gardens, W2 2LU

Sri Lanka has experienced the bloodiest few months since the beginning of peace talks in 2002. On top of the horrendous killings and poverty all over the country, extra-judicial killing and the collection of ransoms, especially in the city of Colombo and its suburbs, has kept increasing with no attention being paid by the Government or by the police.

More than half a million poor people in the North-East are starving and struggling to live a normal life, while Sri Lankan Government continue to bomb civilian areas. The prices of food products in the north are unaffordable to all. People also have to queue for more than 12 hours to get a half a kilo of rice that will not feed the family for even a couple of days. The major route of the food supply is under the control of the army (more than 40,000 soldiers). They are charging extra and refusing to let food lorries pass to the North-East areas.

Meanwhile the government turns a blind eye to the kidnapping and killing of Tamils in the North. Legal and other workers have brought to light more and more horrific examples of Tamils being abducted, tortured and in many cases, murdered. In a list of 18 cases for which they have given details, there is one particularly gruesome report of five headless bodies being found dumped on an estate 25 miles outside Colombo.

The statement released at a press conference held on October 2nd of the Civil Monitoring Committee accused the government of trying to protect these abductors. The Statement also condemned the Government-appointed 'one-man commission', rejecting it as a total fake and as an attempt to fool the people.

The Civil Monitoring Committee is a concerned group of political parties and social activists who have been raising the issue of abductions, involuntary disappearances. It is headed by Siritunga Jayasuriya, the secretary of the United Socialist Party. The USP is the Sri Lankan section of the Committee for Workers International, who organise workers around the world in more than forty countries. The Socialist party in England and Wales is also an affiliate of the CWI.

The Socialist Party in England and Wales is organising a picket of the Sri Lankan High Commission on Monday and will hand in a letter of protest from our London councillors.