Archive for August 2003

9 August 2003

Workers Win Against BA Bullies

A SENIOR shop steward at British Airways (BA) spoke to the socialist about the settlement reached with the company after the spontaneous strikes by check-in staff at Heathrow airport...

9 August 2003

End Fat Cat Rule

FORMER ICI boss and management guru John Harvey-Jones calls huge fat-cat executive pay "obscene and unnecessary." But the fat cats ignore this rebuke from a fellow boss - they're sneering all the way to the bank...

9 August 2003

Postal Workers Fight Back

THE STAKES in the Royal Mail pay dispute have risen higher in the wake of the determined mood shown by the postal members at the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) conference...

9 August 2003

Stop The Card Sharks In Sheffield!

LOXLEY'S IS a greetings card manufacturing company in Sheffield. They produce around 200 million cards a year for some of the biggest publishers like Medici, Carte Blanche and Paper Rose...

9 August 2003

Rich Pay Less, We Pay More

ACCORDING TO the Office of National Statistics, the value of the average pay cheque fell by 1.3% in the year up to April...

9 August 2003

Stagecoach Devon bus workers: Fighting To Win

"THIS IS a fight we can win", said RMT regional organiser Phil Bialyk to huge applause. He was speaking to a march and rally of over 250 striking Stagecoach Devon Bus workers in Exeter. As their strike...

9 August 2003

Labour party officer quits and joins Socialist Party

Michael Wainwright - youth officer for the constituency and Chiswick branch secretary - has resigned from Brentford and Isleworth Constituency Labour Party (CLP) after four years' membership - having joined at the age of 15...

9 August 2003

Blair's Web Of Deceit Continues To Unravel

Iraq, Kelly death, Hutton inquiry...: LIKE BANQUO'S ghost in the Macbeth play, the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly is set to haunt Tony Blair, writes Dave Carr.

9 August 2003

Towards A New Left Party In Wales?

JOHN MAREK was the RMT-sponsored Labour MP for Wrexham from 1983 to 2001 and has been its Assembly Member since 1999. He was in John Smith's Treasury team from 1987-92...

9 August 2003

Bosses' Attacks Meet Shopfloor Anger

THE WILDCAT strikes at British Airways, followed by days of tense negotiations sent shivers down the spines of Britain's bosses, writes Ken Smith.

9 August 2003

Socialist Party National trade Union meeting

Agenda: Open to all members of the Socialist Party...

9 August 2003

Israeli/Palestinian conflict: Coming Unstuck - George Bush's Peace Plan

AS PREDICTED in the socialist, the journey along George Bush's 'road map' to end the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is now decidedly 'off-road'...

9 August 2003

Blair: Not Wanted

TONY BLAIR is now the longest-serving Labour prime minister in history. Well, he's outstayed his welcome...

23 August 2003

Spin, or the art of lying

BUSH, BLAIR AND the Australian premier John Howard are all facing inquiries into their alarming claims that Saddam possessed so-called weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) - chemical, biological and nuclear weapons - which posed an imminent threat to Iraq's neighbours and even to the US and Britain...

23 August 2003

Guilty!

Of lying about weapons of mass destruction: WHILE BLAIR sunbathed in Barbados, one-third of people couldn't even afford to take a holiday. Those that do manage to get a break come back facing rising debts, worsening conditions at work, deteriorating...

23 August 2003

Occupying forces face hostility

THE BRITISH military in Basra, Iraq's second biggest city, is under attack. This is not from 'rogue elements' of the former Ba'athist regime but local residents incensed at the lack of mains electricity...

23 August 2003

Dr Strangebush builds Nukes

HOW DO you make the world a safer place to live in? You build more nuclear bombs! So say top US defence officials and military scientists meeting recently in Nebraska to discuss building a new generation...

23 August 2003

BNP cash in on disillusionment with Labour

THE VICTORY for the BNP in Heckmondwike, a small working class town on the outskirts of Dewsbury and Batley in West Yorkshire, has come as both a shock and a wake-up call for the labour and trade union movement in Kirklees, writes By Mike Forster, Huddersfield.

23 August 2003

Postal Workers say: Time for action

POSTAL WORKERS will shortly be balloted on taking industrial action over an 18-month pay deal of 4.5%, writes Gary Clark, Minority Grade secretary, Scotland No 2 Branch, Communication Workers' Union (CWU), personal capacity.

23 August 2003

Brazil: "Lula has betrayed us"

AS A union demonstration of 80,000 government workers marched to the Congress building in Brasilia on 6 August, "Lula has betrayed us" blared out of the truck mounted PA system, writes Dave Carr.

23 August 2003

General strike in Chile

THE FIRST general strike in Chile for 17 years took place on 13 August. Called by the Central Workers' Union (CUT), the main trade union federation, the strike was for better benefits and working conditions...

23 August 2003

Kick big business out of football

THE BEGINNING of the football season has been dominated by the news of the takeover of Chelsea football club by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich...

23 August 2003

Discussing a new Left party in Wales

About 80 trade unionists, community campaigners and socialists from all over Wales attended a "Summer gathering" in Wrexham on 9 August, to discuss the possible formation of a new party of the left...

23 August 2003

Hutton Inquiry: A can of worms for Blair

WHILST THE revelations flow thick and fast in the Hutton Inquiry, the central exercise for Blair and his cronies is how to deflect and avoid blame...