Archive for May 2004

1 May 2004

South Africa 10 Years On

TEN YEARS ago saw the first election in post-Apartheid South Africa where the entire adult population, black, white and coloured, was entitled to vote. ...

1 May 2004

Shell - Profiting From Misery

BRITISH-BASED multinationals Shell and BP were amongst the many oil companies queuing up to profit out of the death and destruction of last year's war in Iraq...

1 May 2004

Anger As Unison Leadership Backs Down

Nursery Nurses: : AFTER EIGHT weeks of strike action, nursery nurses were left feeling outraged and betrayed by the decision of the national UNISON leadership to abandon the fight for a national pay and conditions deal for nursery nurses and thereby attempt to end the strike...

1 May 2004

ID Cards - Working Class People Will Pay The Price

David Blunkett has declared that the population of Britain isn't 'allowed' to know how much his ID card scheme will cost, for reasons of 'commercial secrecy'! ...

1 May 2004

2004 May Day Greetings

Some of the greetings we have received:...

1 May 2004

Building A Socialist International

APRIL 2004 marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) - the socialist international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated.

1 May 2004

Socialism 2004

Socialism 2004 is a weekend of socialist discussion and debate hosted by the Socialist Party....

1 May 2004

Iraq: Bush's Bloody 'Ambassador'

GEORGE BUSH has appointed John Negroponte, his former man at the United Nations, as governor-in-chief in Iraq. Negroponte is an expert in bloody repression, stretching back four decades...

1 May 2004

Iraq: End The Bloodshed

Bring the troops home now: PRESIDENT BUSH and the US Pentagon want to sanitise their war and occupation of Iraq. ...

8 May 2004

European Union Constitution - What's It All About?

- Why has Tony Blair promised a referendum on the constitution?
'What part of "no" don't you understand?' was the answer that Blair's official spokesman, Tom Kelly, gave a month ago when asked whether there would be a national referendum on the European constitution.

8 May 2004

Strikes in Italy: Just The Tip Of The Iceberg

THIS YEAR'S May Day came at a time of heightened tension in Italian society and of some of the most dramatic strike struggles in Europe. CLARE DOYLE reports...

8 May 2004

The Winter of Discontent: When Workers Could Take No More

IT IS now a quarter of a century since Margaret Thatcher's Tory Party won the general election on 3 May 1979. ...

8 May 2004

FBU conference: Time To Break The Link With New Labour

THE FIRE Brigades Union (FBU) conference starts on 11 May. In the wake of last year's national strikes against low pay, the two keynote conference debates will be on pay and the union's link with New Labour...

8 May 2004

Fighting Victimisation

KOLA SHOKUNBI, a UNISON steward at Whipps Cross hospital in east London, has been sacked by Initial Hospital Services. Initial allege that Kola shouted at a manager, which he denies...

8 May 2004

Campaigning Against Low Pay In The Civil Service

Department for Work and Pensions: THE HIGH level of support for the second two-day strike at Easter by PCS civil service union members over the 2003 pay claim rocked Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) management...

8 May 2004

Fighting For Decent Homes

Lewisham: : ON 10 June, Londoners are voting in European elections, choosing a new London mayor and a new Greater London Assembly (GLA). ...

8 May 2004

Socialist Councillors: There Aren't Enough Of Them!

The Socialist Party is to stand up to 12 candidates in the local elections in Coventry on 10 June...

8 May 2004

New Labour's Education Crisis

Council elections 10 June: TONY BLAIR wants to rule Britain for a third term. He's been looking enviously at former Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who began her decade-long reign of destruction 25 years ago...

8 May 2004

And They Call This Liberation

FIRST BUSH and Blair said Iraq was in breach of UN resolutions for not dismantling its weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) - One year after Saddam Hussein was overthrown no WMDs have been found.
Next, Bush and Blair said Saddam's secularist regime was harbouring Islamic terrorist groups.
Now after one year of a US-led occupation the country, according to the Pentagon, is overrun with 'foreign Islamic terrorists'.

15 May 2004

Stop press: FBU conference

THE Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has voted to suspend its conference after the employers' refusal to pay the 3.5% increase still outstanding from last November...

15 May 2004

Hospital staff back sacked steward

KOLA SHOKUNBI's appeal against his dismissal from his job at Whipps Cross hospital in east London has been adjourned for the management to consider representations from UNISON...

15 May 2004

Defending Our Union

WOMEN UNISON members at Avenue primary school in Newham, east London, were an inspiration on the morning of their second strike day...

15 May 2004

Scotland: Nursery Nurses Fight On

AFTER TEN weeks of all-out action there are still 2,500 nursery nurses on strike in Scotland. Nursery nurses who are organised in UNISON have put up a magnificent fight to achieve their demands: a wage that recognises the increased responsibilities...

15 May 2004

Water Charges Rip-Off

WHAT WE need is a non-payment campaign," said one of the scores of people signing our petition against water charge rises in Coventry. "Why should we pay fifty quid more for what's falling out the sky now?" asked another...

15 May 2004

Joint meeting inspires election fighters

LEEDS SOCIALIST Party held a successful election launch meeting with Coventry Socialist councillor Rob Windsor speaking. This was a joint launch meeting with the Alliance for Green Socialism (AGS), for whom Garth Frankland, an ex-councillor,...

15 May 2004

Electoral agreement in Greenwich and Lewisham

Greater London Authority elections 10 June: THE SOCIALIST PARTY has reached an electoral agreement for the 10 June Greater London Assembly elections with the Respect - Unity Coalition, headed by the anti-war MP, George Galloway...

15 May 2004

Vote Socialist Alternative

Seven years ago, when New Labour was elected, there was widespread hope that working-class people's lives would improve...

15 May 2004

Torture Revelations: Shock Turns To Anger

NEW REVELATIONS hit the headlines daily about the brutal treatment of prisoners in Iraq by occupying forces. To listen to Bush, Rumsfeld and Labour ministers speaking, you'd think these barbaric acts were just some kind of blip on the part of...

15 May 2004

Sinking Deeper Into The Iraq Quagmire

"THE PHOTOS that lost Bush the war". That was how one US commentator referred to the images of torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops. Beamed across the globe, these appalling photos have provoked international outrage.

15 May 2004

Get The Troops Out

THAT'S WHAT the majority of people in Britain are saying - according to an NOP poll taken this week. ...

22 May 2004

A Working-Class Alternative Is Needed in Israel/Palestine

ON 15 May, after a week of bloodshed in the Gaza strip, around 200,000 demonstrators filled the main Tel Aviv square and the nearby streets. ...

22 May 2004

Founding Meeting Of The Socialist Movement in Pakistan

OVER 60 people attended the very successful founding meeting of the Socialist Movement on 17 April, 2004 in Lahore. The aim of this meeting was to set up a new independent, socialist and revolutionary organisation to fight against capitalism,...

22 May 2004

Ruling BJP is Swept Aside in India

A POLITICAL earthquake has rocked south Asia following India's general election. Millions of workers, the dispossessed and rural poor decisively rejected the 'neo-liberal' policies of the ruling Hindu nationalist coalition government led by...

22 May 2004

New shocks cast cloud over world economy recovery

THE RECOVERY in the world economy continues to assume an anaemic character. While most attention is currently fixed on the debacle in Iraq, serious commentators fret that accumulated economic imbalances could yet derail the fragile and contradictory...

22 May 2004

Buses: Put Privatisation Into Reverse!

A DISASTER - that's how most people see privatisation of public transport. This has not prevented Thatcher's "counter-revolution" spreading to most parts of the world. Indeed, Blair's government is still implementing the part-privatisation...

22 May 2004

A socialist weekend in Sheffield

IT STARTED on Friday morning with our paper sale outside Moorfoot civil services offices. Bobbie Cranney and me sold ten copies of the socialist. It was Bobbie's first Moorfoot sale and her enthusiasm for approaching workers certainly helped!

22 May 2004

Say no to the tyre burners!

Rugby: CAMPAIGNERS AGAINST plans for Rugby's cement works to be turned into a tyre-burning and hazardous waste incinerator have organised a protest march on 23 May...

22 May 2004

Save our Special Schools

LEICESTER CITY Council plans to close six special schools, despite the overwhelming opposition of most parents and teachers in the city. A group called Save Our Special Schools is lobbying council meetings, petitioning councillors and rallying...

22 May 2004

FBU conference: Preparing For More Battles

THE ANNUAL conference of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) will reconvene in Southport on 15 June to discuss calling a national strike ballot. This is after its conference was adjourned on 11 May after the union voted to withdraw from implementation...

22 May 2004

Workers' Unity Can Win

20th anniversary of the miners' strike: THE NATIONAL Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is organising marches and rallies all over the country this summer to mark the 20th anniversary of the miners' strike. One of these will be on 22 May in Pontypridd...

22 May 2004

What Is The Alternative To Blair?

WILL TONY Blair become a casualty of the war in Iraq?...

22 May 2004

Iraq: what we say

THE SOCIALIST Party calls for the withdrawal of all the occupying forces and for the Iraqi people to democratically decide their own future. ...

22 May 2004

Iraq: Desperately Seeking An 'Exit Strategy'

THE DAILY images and reports of violence, death and destruction in Iraq are turning people in their millions against the occupation. ...

22 May 2004

Sanctioning Torture From The Top

"THE RULES were, 'Grab who you must. Do what you want'." That was a former US intelligence officer, explaining the official army attitude towards the torture and maltreatment of Iraqi prisoners. It shot an enormous hole in the official...

29 May 2004

Gaza: Sharon's Scorched Earth Policy

UNDER THE grotesque misnomer "Operation Rainbow", the Israeli regime sent its soldiers on an horrific killing spree in the refugee camp Rafah in the Gaza strip...

29 May 2004

Wanted: A Real Childcare Strategy

THIS MONTH is the sixth anniversary of the government's childcare strategy...

29 May 2004

Socialism 2004

Go to the Socialism2004 pages
Aside from the main rallies, Socialism 2004 comprises many other political sessions grouped into themed courses.
Among this year's courses is one with the broad theme of 'Marxism and Globalisation'.
MICHAEL CALDERBANK describes what the course will cover.

29 May 2004

Coventry: Labour Should Feel Worried

OVER 60 Socialist Party members and supporters have delivered 100,000 leaflets for the 14 candidates that we're standing in 12 wards in Coventry's council elections...

29 May 2004

LibDems: Just another big business party

THE LIBERAL Democrats launched their Euro 2004 election bid on an anti-war ticket. What a rip-off! Polls show around half of voters oppose the war on Iraq. Support for Labour amongst Britain's Muslims has halved from 75% at the last general election...

29 May 2004

PCS Left Unity Landslide

IN THE elections for the National Executive Committee (NEC) and senior full-time officers in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), the left won almost a clean sweep when the results were announced on 24 May...

29 May 2004

Tube Workers Ballot For Action

RAIL, MARITIME and Transport Workers' Union (RMT) members on London Underground are to be balloted for strike action over pay. Action could take place on 10 June, the day of the Greater London Assembly elections when Ken Livingstone will be seeking...

29 May 2004

United Action Can Defeat Bosses' Attacks

FIREFIGHTERS, RAIL and tube workers, civil servants, health workers and local government workers - all appear to be lining up to 'have a go' in the next few months over pay, pensions, working conditions and job cuts...

29 May 2004

Greater Manchester Firefighters Stand Firm

AS WE went to press, 120 firefighters had been suspended across Greater Manchester. Last week a Salford watch refused to operate new equipment without the agreed pay rise. In the following hours, management scuttled from station to station, suspending...

29 May 2004

Fight The Great Pensions Robbery

PENSIONS MINISTER Andrew Smith recently announced a £400 million pensions compensation package. But this reform was only squeezed out of the Treasury to save the government's Pension Bill...

29 May 2004

Iraq: Bush's Plans For Puppet Regime

AFTER STRUGGLING to pronounce "Abu Ghraib" - the now notorious jail where Iraqi prisoners were tortured by US forces - president George Bush announced he would tear it down and build a new maximum security prison...

29 May 2004

The Real Cost Of War

£125,000,000 a month. That's how much the government says it is spending on the Iraq conflict. Several defence experts argue that the real figure is £250 million...