In this week's issue:

The Socialist 17 November 2000, issue Railtrack: The Great Train Robbers

Railtrack: The Great Train Robbers

WITH THE sensitivity of a pair of large hobnailed boots, Railtrack bosses awarded themselves and their fellow fat cat shareholders a 5% rise in dividend payouts amounting to £50 million - the fourth consecutive year's increase in dividends since privatisation...

Hot air in the Hague

ONCE AGAIN the world's great and good gathered in the Hague, Holland, to plan how to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, responsible for rapid global warming...

Labour rattled in Lewisham

SAM DIAS is causing a real stir as the Socialist Party/Socialist Alternative candidate in the Lewisham council by-election in Pepys ward on 23 November...

Election war in the USA

THE REAL loser in the US presidential election will be one who gets the presidency, says LYNN WALSH. Disputes over bungled counting and allegations of vote-rigging, will envelop the new administration...

Middle East Crisis: A race against time

AS US president Bill Clinton hosts yet another round of ceasefire talks with Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian chairman Yasser Arafat, the death toll continues to mount in the Palestinian areas...

Nice EU conference protest

THOUSANDS OF protesters are expected to converge on Nice on the French Riviera from 6-8 December. This will be a European-wide protest at the European Union (EU) inter-governmental conference to draw up...

Stop police racist backlash

THE METROPOLITAN Police is so keen to boost its numbers that it is now willing, for the first time, to consider recruiting people found guilty of "minor offences"...