The Socialist 4 April 2007

Children suffer in low pay Britain

Iran - Sailors fall victim to imperialist policies

Brown's pension robbery

Blair: No solutions to crime or crowded prisons

Waltham Forest protest - more memorable than Prince Charles!

Commemorating the abolition of the slave trade

One Life: Ricky Tomlinson

In The Line of Fire

Days of Glory

Take national action to defend education

Labour's market policies damage education

Privilege and privation in our schools

NUS leadership abandon fees fight

London strikers close passport office

PCS members take industrial action

Anger on Newport picket line

Upbeat London rally

How to stop the BNP: Build a political alternative

Campaign for a New Workers' Party

Ammanford home care workers march

Frustration at demo delay

We shall not be moved!

Save Sadiq Abakar

Leicester protesters challenge Home Office

Trade union leaders heckled over inaction

Action needed as Ford bosses close Leamington plant

Celebs fail to save Burberry

Greenwich: "We've got to strike"

Burslem postal workers strike again

British government and local parties retreat on water charges

We Won't Pay Campaign

Previous issues, etc

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Leicester protesters challenge Home Office

A LIVELY and very tuneful demonstration of the Congolese community took place in Leicester on 28 March protesting at deportations of Congolese asylum seekers back to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Steve Score Leicester

The march, supported by Leicester Civil Rights Movement, Leicester Socialist Party and Leicester University Socialist Students, was one of seven taking place around the country.

In recent elections, Western-backed Joseph Kabila came to power in the DRC. It's claimed that this heralds a "new period of peace". But following a horrific war that saw the deaths of four million people since 1998, Congo is still not safe for the return of refugees. Last week clashes between government forces and opposition militias resulted in 600 dead.

Chairman of the Leicestershire Congo Community Association, Pastor Desire Mutumba said: "We have reports that people who have been sent back to Congo have been visited at night by the secret service, taken to prison, tortured and treated in the most inhuman way you can imagine. They say 'you are traitors who fled the country'."

A Home Office official report on the DRC says there is no risk to failed asylum seekers forcibly returned to Kinshasa, but there is to be a Country Guidance Tribunal to challenge this.

Congo's vast mineral wealth continues to be exploited for the profit of rich multinationals whilst its population live in poverty.

In this issue

Children suffer in low pay Britain