Archive for November 2003

1 November 2003

Tameside council backs down over day centre closure

Victory For Gorse Hall Campaigners: TAMESIDE COUNCIL'S decision to discontinue the service for high dependency elderly people at Gorse Hall day centre, Stalybridge, was taken over 12 months ago without consulting with service users or the consultation groups which the council had set up, writes Elaine Healey.

1 November 2003

Support The Postal Workers

Defend The Right To An Effective Trade Union: POSTAL WORKERS across London have been forced to walk out over the last few days. These strikes follow the recent London weighting strikes and management's heavy-handed response. Bosses in a few offices...

1 November 2003

London Underground: Strike Back Against Privatisation

EVERY WARNING has been ignored and the result is exactly as the rail unions said all along. Two derailments on London Underground within 36 hours show that tube safety has been sacrificed on the altar...

1 November 2003

Network Rail: Not renationalisation as we know it

THE DECISION by Network Rail, a not-for-profit company, to take back 'in-house' all maintenance on the main line railways is a welcome step in reversing the catastrophic privatisation experiment...

1 November 2003

Iraq Occupation: Grim Reality Hits US Leaders

US DEPUTY defence secretary and right-wing political hawk Paul Wolfowitz got a taste of Iraqi realities when rockets slammed into the supposedly secure al-Rashid hotel where he stayed in Baghdad last week, writes Dave Carr.

1 November 2003

Fighting low pay

New Labour and their big business friends try to claim there isn't enough money to pay workers a living wage. Yet the fat cats' wages keep going up, writes Clare James.

1 November 2003

Wealth gap widens The Low Pay Scandal Exposed

Special Feature: NEW LABOUR came to power in 1997 promising to introduce a minimum wage. They claimed it would eradicate child poverty within 20 years. But low pay is still the major issue for thousands of workers. Ken...

1 November 2003

Lessons of the Firefighters' dispute

The FBU Dispute - Then, Now and Why: THE LATE summer of 2002 saw the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) getting up a full head of steam to pursue a four-point pay claim with their local government employers, writes By Paul Child, FBU group chair for the Waltham Forest and Enfield stations..

1 November 2003

Firefighters Take Action

FIREFIGHTERS AT stations in Yorkshire, the Midlands, Wiltshire, East Anglia and Scotland are taking unofficial industrial action...

1 November 2003

Where Now After Galloway's Expulsion?

GEORGE GALLOWAY, MP for Glasgow Kelvin, has been expelled from the Labour Party for sticking to his principles and opposing Bush and Blair's war against Iraq...

1 November 2003

Tories - The Infighting Goes On

EVERYONE OVER 30 in Britain can remember the Tories as a seemingly invincible party of government. Most can also remember when their leader, the Iron Lady, was forced out of office by a mass movement against...

1 November 2003

Italy: Battle Is Joined Over Pensions 'Reform'

AROUND 10 million salaried workers in Italy took part in a strike called by the CGIL, CISL and UIL trade union federations unions last week, with demonstrations in 100 cities...

1 November 2003

Bolivia: Uprising By Workers And Poor Forces Out President

A POWERFUL movement of workers, peasants and indigenous peoples - the poorest people in the poorest country of Latin America - has checked the neo-liberal plans of the Bolivian government and, on 17 October, forced President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada to resign and flee to Miami...

1 November 2003

Join The Protests

End the occupation of Iraq: WHILE BUSH prepares to fly over and take tea with Tony in the next couple of weeks, the agony of Iraq's occupation continues unabated, writes Cartoon by Alan Hardman - Click for larger image.

8 November 2003

Galloway Takes Road Of 'Popular Unity'

Editorial: What We think: ON WEDNESDAY 29 October around 1,400 people came to a meeting in London entitled 'British politics at the crossroads'...

8 November 2003

Firefighters Take Action

FIREFIGHTERS AT stations in Yorkshire, the Midlands, Wiltshire, East Anglia and Scotland are taking unofficial industrial action...

8 November 2003

Postal Workers Win Important Victory

THE COURAGEOUS unofficial action by tens of thousands of postal workers in the last two weeks has shown that bullying bosses can be stood up to and forced to retreat...

8 November 2003

Civil servants launch pay battle: End Low Pay

IN REAL terms, civil service pay has fallen behind that of other public sector workers. Between 1992-2002 real earnings of the lowest-paid staff rose by only 3.5%-3.7% compared to 21% for nurses and 14%...

8 November 2003

Lewisham: Socialist Party Standing In Council By-Election

LEWISHAM COUNCIL recently 'discovered' asbestos on some of their properties on the Honor Oak Estate...

8 November 2003

Police Racism - Caught Red-Handed

Special Feature: "IT WAS just revolting. These were young thugs. We have to say to ourselves, what is the difference between them and the people who murdered Stephen Lawrence? I never saw anything like this even 25 years...

8 November 2003

'Oligarchs' And 'Bonapartes' - Capitalism In Post-Soviet Russia

Khodorkovskii arrest: Mikhail Khodorkovskii, head of the oil giant Yukos and one of Russia's richest men, was taken by armed men from his private jet...

8 November 2003

Tory Party Victory For 'Something Of The Right'

TWO MONTHS ago the Conservative Christian Fellowship posted prayers for their party on their website, writes Alistair Tice.

8 November 2003

End The Occupation Of Iraq

Protest against George Bush visit: THE NIGHTMARE scenario for George Bush - a Vietnam-like guerrilla war - looms larger with each day the US-led occupation of Iraq continues...

15 November 2003

End the occupation of Iraq: Protest Against Bush

ON THE eve of his visit to Britain, George Bush has complained about the lack of democracy in the Middle East. What hypocrisy. This from a man who cheated the electoral system to become US President!...

15 November 2003

Occupation of Iraq: A Disaster Happening Now

A POLL in the Times newspaper shows that most people now think that the "strong personal relationship" between George W Bush and Tony Blair is bad for Britain...

15 November 2003

Vote For Real Change: Vote Socialist in Lewisham

Lewisham By-election 4 December: THE SOCIALIST Party is standing in the by-election in Telegraph Hill ward in Lewisham on 4 December. The Socialist Alternative candidate is health worker Chris Flood - we aim to get another socialist councillor...

15 November 2003

Lessons of the postal strike: The Bosses Can Be Beaten

THE POSTAL workers' decisive defensive victory against management intimidation will give confidence to all workers involved in struggle against the bosses...

15 November 2003

Teachers Ballot Against Sats

THE NATIONAL Union of Teachers (NUT) National Executive (NEC) has unanimously decided to ballot its members against the school SATs tests, writes Linda Taaffe, NUT.

15 November 2003

A Decade On The Wrong Tracks

FEW PEOPLE are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Tory Transport Act which ushered in rail privatisation. Shareholders in the private rail companies are an exception of course...

15 November 2003

London's Low-Paid Fight Back

COUNCIL WORKERS, UNISON members, in London have started another five-week round of selective strike action to win £4,000 a year London weighting, writes Mike Cleverley, proud member of Waltham Forest UNISON.

15 November 2003

Northern Ireland elections: Capitalist Politicians Bring Stalemate And Division

NORTHERN IRELAND will be going to the polls on 26 November. But no agreement has been reached on how a new Executive will be put in place after the election...

15 November 2003

Ireland: Fighting The Bin Tax

DUBLIN'S HIGH Court jailed six residents last week for three weeks and each were fined €1,500 for protesting against the bin tax, writes Kevin McLoughlin, Dublin.

15 November 2003

Global warming: How Capitalism Puts Our Planet At Risk

THIS YEAR'S hot summer in Britain, bringing with it the threat of a winter drought, has directed some new media attention onto the most serious environmental danger facing the planet, global warming...

15 November 2003

Strikes Rock Government in Greece

A FEW months before the general elections in spring 2004, the social-democrat PASOK government is in serious trouble, writes Elektra Kleitsa, Xekinima, Athens..

15 November 2003

Sri Lanka's Political Crisis Unresolved

PRESIDENT CHANDRIKA Kumaratunga's attempted semi-military coup against the United National Party (UNP) Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appears to have boomeranged back against her, writes Robert Bechert.

15 November 2003

John Marek Launches Forward Wales, Cymru Ymlaen

AS DISSATISFACTION with New Labour grows and people in Wales become more and more disillusioned with the main parties, the need for a new mass party for working people has never been more urgent, writes Dave Reid, Socialist Party Wales.

22 November 2003

Why Bush Wants An 'Exit Strategy'

GEORGE BUSH says he's going to stay put in Iraq until Saddam Hussein is found. But beneath this determined exterior Bush is clearly worried, not least over his 2004 election prospects, as the attacks...

22 November 2003

Vietnam War - the lessons for today

Empire Defeated, the new book by Socialist Party general secretary Peter Taaffe, has been published at a time when many are drawing parallels between the Vietnam War and the war and occupation of Iraq...

22 November 2003

Lewisham by-election 4 December

MANY PEOPLE in Telegraph Hill ward are really fed up with the penny-pinching way that New Labour runs Lewisham council...

22 November 2003

Ian Page speaks to the socialist

Why We Need More Socialist Councillors: IAN PAGE, Socialist Party councillor for Telegraph Hill ward in Lewisham explains why he is fighting to get Chris Flood elected to Lewisham council in the 4 December by-election...

22 November 2003

'No' To SATS: 'Yes' To A Boycott

TEACHERS IN the NUT, the biggest teaching union, are currently being balloted about boycotting SATs in primary schools at Key Stage 1 and 2, writes Jane Nellist, KS1 Teacher.

22 November 2003

ISR conference: Fight For Your Future!

THIS YEAR tens of thousands of young people internationally have taken part in anti-war demonstrations and actions, with many school students striking to oppose the war on Iraq and Bush's visit to Britain...

22 November 2003

Israel/Palestine: Cracks Widen In Sharon's Camp

PUBLIC SPLITS have emerged amongst Israel's ruling class as Ariel Sharon's right-wing coalition government continues to repress Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza strip...

22 November 2003

CWI - Building Socialism Worldwide

THE SOCIALIST Party is a member of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) which has sister organisations in more than 36 countries across the globe, writes Tanja Niemeier.

22 November 2003

Northern Ireland: Socialists Stand For Workers' Unity

THE SOCIALIST Party in Northern Ireland is challenging the right-wing and sectarian parties who have dominated Northern Ireland politics for generations by putting up two candidates (in East and South Belfast) for the Assembly elections on 26 November...

22 November 2003

Domestic Violence Is A Trade Union Issue

International Day Against Violence Against Women is on 25 November. The Campaign Against Domestic Violence (CADV), which has the support of hundreds of trade union branches as well as the backing of national...

22 November 2003

Tube Workers Strike Against Management Spies

TUBE WORKERS on the Hammersmith and City Line and Circle line on London Underground took 24-hour strike action on Friday 14 November, writes Ken Smith.

22 November 2003

What is socialism?

THE FOLLOWING article is extracted from the chapter 'How would socialism work?' in 'Socialism in the 21st Century' by HANNAH SELL.

22 November 2003

How Can We Stop the Warmongers?

The Socialist - What We Think: TONY BLAIR said that this is "exactly the right time" for Bush to come to Britain. What planet is he living on?.

22 November 2003

George Bush You Are...

An imperialist: Bush (like Blair) fabricated evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to justify an imperialist war on Iraq...

29 November 2003

Baglan hospital: Stop The Health Cuts

"PEOPLE IN Neath and Port Talbot will just have to get used to a reconfiguration of the health service." That's how the big-wigs in the Local Health Board (LHB) and the Trust see the future for the NHS, writes Rob Williams.

29 November 2003

Losing The War On Terror

THE DREADFUL carnage of the Istanbul bomb attacks clearly revealed the futility of Bush and Blair's war on terror...

29 November 2003

'Yes to peace, no to war'

GEORGE BUSH and Tony Blair seized upon the news of the latest suicide bombings in Turkey to justify their occupation of Iraq, as part of the 'war on terror'...

29 November 2003

Nurturing the terrorists

GEORGE W Bush should reflect that it was his father, George Bush senior, (a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director), who as US Vice-President in the 1980s, helped arm, train and finance Osama bin Laden and his fellow Islamist groups to wage a guerrilla war against the Soviet army then occ...

29 November 2003

Blunkett's Sick Plans For Asylum Seekers

HOME SECRETARY David Blunkett is planning to begin forced repatriation of refugees to northern Iraq, which he says is 'generally overwhelmingly safe', writes Naomi Byron.

29 November 2003

Tuition Fees = Student Poverty

THIS WEEK the Queen's Speech will unveil Blair's government's plans to let 'top' universities charge controversial "top-up" tuition fees of up to £3,000 a year...

29 November 2003

Lewisham By-election 4 December: Why the Socialist Party is Different

IN FAR too many local elections, few people bother to vote. There's usually little to choose between two or more different candidates standing for Tory agendas of cuts and privatisation...

29 November 2003

Anti-Bush Protest: "We're Not Going To Stay Quiet"

OVER 200,000 people - twice the expected number - marched through central London last week to protest against George Bush's visit...

29 November 2003

International Socialist Resistance conference: Fight For Your Future

Following the massive demo against Bush's visit to Britain, International Socialist Resistance (ISR) held its second annual conference on 22 November at the University of London Union...

29 November 2003

Nepal's Crisis - No Way Out Under Capitalism

SINCE THE collapse of negotiations in late August, over 1,000 have died in clashes between Nepal's military and Maoist rebels...

29 November 2003

Amicus executive elections: Fighting For The Members

JOHN BARR is a Socialist Party member who is a candidate for the Amicus national executive. John is part of the Amicus Unity Gazette list slate for the NEC elections. He spoke to the socialist about the...

29 November 2003

Civil Servants Begin Pay Battle

BY A massive vote of 40,615 to 2,974 civil service union PCS members in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have rejected the government's recent miserly and discriminatory pay offer...

29 November 2003

War, Poverty, Inequality... Fight The Profiteers

LAST WEEK at least 200,000 people joined demonstrations against warmongering President Bush's visit to Britain...