Archive for July 2000

7 July 2000

DETR staff fight performance pay: Dump Divide and Rule

PCS UNION members in Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) are having a day of action on 12 July against performance-related pay (PRP), writes Mark Baker, PCS DETR (personal capacity).

7 July 2000

Successful launch for Cuba book

SOCIALIST PARTY general secretary Peter Taaffe launched his new book about Cuba at a 40-strong public meeting in Hammersmith, west London on 29 June...

7 July 2000

Tackling Deaf People's Oppression

THE YEAR 2001 will be the European Union's European Year of Language, but how will it be marked by the British government in respect of the UK's fourth indigenous language, the language of the Deaf community, British Sign Language (BSL), writes Anne Darby, Nottingham.

7 July 2000

Copeland - questions that need answers

A HUGE sigh of relief went up when the jury's verdict was announced against David Copeland. The man who planted nail bombs in Brixton, Brick Lane and Soho last year had not got away with pleading diminished...

7 July 2000

"Folleted"

A FEW years ago to be "Folletted" meant to be groomed for success in the modernised New Labour Party. Central to this was the role of Labour's Golden Couple Ken and Barbara Follett...

7 July 2000

Your Genes in capitalism's hands

BILL CLINTON and Tony Blair hailed the rough draft of the entire human genetic code as "the most wondrous map ever produced by human kind", writes Bill North.

7 July 2000

Isreal: Yedioth newspaper lockout

Workers betrayed but not defeated: YEDIOTH WORKERS returned to work after a bitter three weeks of struggle. Management failed in their plans to destroy the workers' organisation. Unfortunately, an agreement signed by the Histadruth [trade...

7 July 2000

Labour's Poverty Scandal

... As Rich Parasites Prosper EVEN LABOUR'S tame backbench MPs were upset when their party's spin doctors tried to hide from them the cuts they were making in the Health Action Zones (HAZs) budgets...

14 July 2000

Defend Council housing

IN THE first three years of being in government New Labour has privatised more council homes than the Tories managed in ten years, writes Paul Wilcox, Carlisle Socialist Party.

14 July 2000

Ryton Car workers set to strike

WORKERS AT Peugeot, Coventry have voted overwhelmingly for strike action after the company imposed new working conditions, writes A Ryton worker.

14 July 2000

Northern Ireland: Parades crisis needs working-class solution to wider sectarian conflict

WHATEVER THE immediate outcome over Garvaghy Road and other disputed parade routes the conflict over parades will not be resolved this summer...

14 July 2000

Northern Ireland: The Alternative to the annual battleground

ON MONDAY afternoon Northern Ireland ground to a halt as the Orange Order blocked roads in protest over Drumcree, writes Peter Hadden.

14 July 2000

Is Democracy Dying Out?

The establishment claims Britain has had a strong democracy for over 100 years. But as JANE JAMES explains, things are not as democratic as they seem. Many democratic rights are being eroded by Blair...

14 July 2000

Nigerian workers' leader kidnapped

THE BEGINNING of July saw dramatic developments in the struggle for a higher minimum wage in Nigeria.(see below)...

14 July 2000

We're Sick of the Greedy Bosses

* Fight for a minimum wage of £5 an hour as a first step to £7 an hour - the European decency threshold.
* End the power and privilege of the wealthy, for a socialist society and economy run to meet the needs of all.

21 July 2000

Peugeot workers ballot: Strike Action Now!

WORKERS AT Peugeot's Coventry plant have voted for strike action, in reaction to new shift patterns, despite the opposition of the union leaders, writes By a Peugeot worker.

21 July 2000

M25 Three Free at Last

THE M25 Three, Raphael Rowe, Michael Davis and Randolph Johnson, wrongly jailed for life in 1990 for murder and armed robberies, have had their convictions quashed at the Court of Appeal...

21 July 2000

Building a left-wing opposition in Russia

BORN IN 1970, a history teacher by profession, Oleg has participated in the workers' movement in Russia Shein throughout the 1990s with an internationalist perspective...

21 July 2000

Workers' movement adopts CWI programme

THE NET result of the state of emergency called by the Mayor of Alma Ata to defeat organised crime was that by the end of the week over 120 policeman had sold their machine guns to the crooks!, writes Rob Jones, CWI representative at the conference.

21 July 2000

Brown's Spending Mirage

GORDON BROWN'S Comprehensive Spending Review for the years 2001-2004 made heftier spending promises than this 'prudent' New Labour chancellor has done before...

28 July 2000

Pride Not Bigotry

UNITY AGAINST Prejudice (UAP) was organised after neo-Nazis caused the cancellation of Leicester's 'Mardi Gras' festival on 29 July. The Nazis also threatened UAP organisers...

28 July 2000

Corus: Strike back at steel bosses' threat

STEEL PRODUCER Corus has confirmed redundancy fears in Wales. This will have a massive impact on several communities who rely heavily on the well-paid jobs of the steel industry, writes Alec Thraves, Socialist Party Wales.

28 July 2000

Debt Repayment kills millions

G8 Summit: LEADERS OF the world's seven richest nations feast on caviar, lobster and duck at a gala banquet while 13 children in the world's poorest 40 countries die every minute, as money is diverted from social services to debt repayment, according to Jubilee 2000, the debt relief protest group, writes Manny Thain.

28 July 2000

G8: A cynical summit

THE G8 summit's vague declarations about halving the numbers living in poverty, speeding-up debt write-offs and tackling Aids were merely empty gestures to try and dissipate the anger and protests that are continuing to build up against the exploitation and greed of the capitalist system...

28 July 2000

Livingstone's humourless attack

LONDON MAYOR Ken Livingstone made the scandalous assertion last week, carried in some national papers and TV programmes that Tony Blair's inner circle was "like a mirror image of the old Militant Tendency"...

28 July 2000

Council Housing: Stop the sell -off

TORY AND New Labour housing policy has been catastrophic for social housing and for millions of working-class households living in sub-standard or overcrowded accommodation...

28 July 2000

Israeli-Palestinian peace process: Lasting Peace remains elusive

AFTER SEVEN years of on/off negotiations, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process remains bogged down. Whatever spin the various participants put on the outcome, US imperialism appears unable to resolve...

28 July 2000

Stop the Health Rip-Off

o Bring the NHS back into the public sector, under democratic control: THE GOVERNMENT unveiled their plans to 'improve' the NHS this week. Central to their changes, they say, is the plan to bring 'patient power' into the health service...