Archive for January 2003

10 January 2003

No to war with Iraq

The US is set to increase the number of its troops in the Middle East to 150,000, stepping up preparations for a war against Iraq while, as yet, the UN inspectors have uncovered no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, writes Ken Douglas.

10 January 2003

Venezuela: Why The Oil Bosses Are 'Striking'

THE CORRUPT reactionary nature of the leadership of the anti-Chavez protests in Venezuela is shown by information recently sent to us by the CWI's correspondent in Trinidad

10 January 2003

World Economy: The Crisis Deepens

TONY BLAIR'S gloomy New Year forecast of 'war, terrorism and a faltering world economy' is a ringing indictment of the capitalist system he supports. He concedes that resolving this "insecurity" depends on his government's policies.
But as HANNAH SELL, BILL MULLINS, JANE JAMES and DAVE CARR show in the following articles, Blair and the ruling classes of the major powers are instead driving the world to disaster.
Only a socialist alternative can avert Blair's doom laden scenario.

10 January 2003

USDAW executive elections

SOCIALIST PARTY member Robbie SegaL is standing for re-election to the shopworkers' union USDAW executive council

10 January 2003

New Labour Claims We Live Too Long

'WORK UNTIL you are 70 or older if you can't afford to retire.' That's New Labour's grim message in its recent Green (consultative) Paper on pensions, writes Jon Dale.

10 January 2003

Economic crisis, war, attacks on public services

IF TONY Blair has been studying the opinion polls, then he won't be expecting a happy New Year. Whether it's on the state of the economy, public services or war against Iraq - opposition to New Labour's

10 January 2003

Support the firefighters

MOST PEOPLE sympathise with the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) strike but it's ordinary taxpayers and service users who are paying for resisting their justified action

17 January 2003

No To Bush And Blair's War

There are only five weeks to go until the national demonstration on 15 February against war on Iraq, called by Stop the War Coalition, writes Clare James, ISR-Youth Against the War representative on Stop the War Coalition steering committee.

17 January 2003

War On Iraq: The Pressures Grow

THE ARK Royal sailed off to the Gulf last weekend as part of a build-up of troops, warships and armaments in readiness for a war with Iraq

17 January 2003

Domestic Violence: Don't Let New Labour Renege On Their Pledges

THE GOVERNMENT have announced a 'new campaign' to reduce the number of women and children made homeless through domestic violence, writes Eleanor Donne (national chair Campaign Against Domestic Violence).

17 January 2003

Firefighters Ready For Battle Again

THE FIREFIGHTERS are preparing to go into battle once again against the government's attacks on their wages and conditions, writes Bill Mullins, Socialist Party industrial organiser.

17 January 2003

The Great British Wage Theft

TONY BLAIR and Gordon Brown have warned the unions that wage increases could wreck the economy

17 January 2003

Wage War On Low Pay: Support the firefighters

BLAIR IS preparing to wage war in Iraq and at home. While resisting the firefighters' wholly justified pay claim he is preparing to spend up to £5 billion on sending troops to invade Iraq, writes Bill Mullins.

17 January 2003

Stop the War Coalition conference

AS THE US and Britain begin to mass their forces on the borders of Iraq, the Stop the War Coalition held its national conference on 11 January

17 January 2003

Gujarat: Communalists Profit From Hate

THE BHARATIYA Janata Party (BJP) - advocates of Hindu chauvinism - managed to secure a sweeping victory in the Gujarat elections of December, 2002, through their hate campaign against Muslims

17 January 2003

Suez 1956: When British Imperialism Hit The Rocks

SECTIONS OF the media have been raising the possibility that a war with Iraq could become Blair's 'Suez'. DAVE CARR looks at what happened when British imperialism invaded Egypt in 1956

17 January 2003

Hackney Trade Unionists Attacked

AT THE end of last year Hackney council made vicious attacks on union activists. They suspended the two job-share UNISON branch secretaries Brian Debus and Will Leng and the branch equalities officer John

24 January 2003

Defend the right to strike

THE FIREFIGHTERS' dispute is the most important industrial struggle since the great miners' strike of 1984-85, writes Jim McFarlane, Dundee.

24 January 2003

Global Resistance To War

THE ANTI-WAR movement is building momentum across the globe. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets last weekend to protest against war with Iraq

24 January 2003

Students: Fight New Labour's Top-Up Fees

EVEN EDUCATION secretary Charles Clarke admits that graduates face individual debts of up to £21,000 if the government brings in top-up fees, writes Dave Score, Sheffield University.

24 January 2003

Left Labour MSP Speaks on The War And The Labour Party

JOHN MCALLION, one of the few outspoken and principled socialist MSPs (members of Scottish Parliament) left in the Labour Party, has voted against the leadership on many issues from war preparations on Iraq to opposition to privatisation

24 January 2003

Solid Support For Fire Strike

AS THE Socialist went to press, reports of the solid support for the firefighters' action were coming in from Socialist Party members all over the country. These are some extracts

24 January 2003

A System In Crisis

THE WORLD Congress of the Committee for a Workers' International, the socialist international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated, met last November to discuss developments in the capitalist system and how these will impact on working-class struggle

24 January 2003

Cyprus: Mass Protest Rocks Ruling Class

ON 14 January an estimated 70,000 Turkish Cypriots - one-quarter of the northern Cypriot population - marched through divided Nicosia in support of a United Nations (UN) plan to re-unify the divided island, writes Dave Carr.

24 January 2003

German Workers Fight New Attacks

LAST YEAR saw a tremendous ferment amongst German public sector workers. About 250,000 participated in warning strikes in December in support of their pay claim and 40,000 civil servants demonstrated in

24 January 2003

ISR - Protest Against BP

"We have to let it be known that the thing we would like to make sure, if Iraq changes regime is that there is a level playing field for the selection of oil companies to go in there..."

24 January 2003

Worldwide Protests Say: 'No War'

HUNDREDS OF thousands of people around the world took to the streets on Saturday 18 January. From Washington to Tokyo, from Damascus to Bradford, the scale of the protests against Bush and Blair's 'War

31 January 2003

Preparing For War

"THE QUESTION isn't how much longer do you need for inspections to work. Inspections will not work."

31 January 2003

Fight Back Against Fees

THE LONG-awaited government review of higher education, released this week, contained proposals to raise the top level of tuition fees from £1,100 to £3,000 a year

31 January 2003

Iraq War: Blood For Oil

A US-led war against Iraq will have enormous, political, social and economic repercussions in the Middle East and throughout the world

31 January 2003

Build solidarity action with the firefighters

"WE HAVE to stick to our guns and stay firm, stay united and stick with the two 48-hour strikes that have been called." BILL HENDY, Avon Fire Brigades Union Secretary, spoke to MARK BAKER just before the current firefighters' strikes.

31 January 2003

After Victoria Climbie: What future for child protection?

TWO YEAR old Ainlee Walker died a most horrendous death with 64 injuries on her body. Her parents received long jail sentences for manslaughter and cruelty. The enquiry into Ainlee's death found that

31 January 2003

World Social Forum: For A Socialist Alternative

AS REPRESENTATIVES of global capitalism assembled for their annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, last week an alternative 100,000-strong World Social Forum (WSF) gathered in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

31 January 2003

No To War On Iraq

THE BUSH administration has started the countdown to war - without a shred of evidence from the UN inspectors to prove Iraq possesses 'weapons of mass destruction', writes Jane James.