Archive for November 2000

3 November 2000

Defend Jobs and Services

Councillors drag Hackney into backruptcy while government owes £50 million: NEW LABOUR has gone further than the hated Tories in their pursuit of 'free-market' policies, forcing councils across Britain to privatise services and slash the pay and conditions of council workers...

3 November 2000

The Blaim Someone Else Report

FOURTEEN-YEAR-old Zoe Jeffries died last week. She was the youngest victim of vCJD, the human equivalent of BSE, writes Dave Carr and Andy Ford.

3 November 2000

Rail's belated rush for safety

EVEN BEFORE last weekend's grim weather Britain's rail system was running at a snail's pace. Railtrack had, belatedly, started checking lines after the Hatfield rail crash...

3 November 2000

Domestic Violence: Shock figures but no new resources

RESULTS OF a nationwide survey provide grim evidence of the extent of domestic violence in Britain today, writes Karen Mckay.

3 November 2000

Northern Ireland: Another Middle East in the Making?

DECISIONS TAKEN by delegates at last Saturday's Ulster Unionist Council could well spell the end of the Northern Ireland Assembly, writes Peter Hadden, Belfast.

3 November 2000

BSE crisis - the madness of the profit system

THE BSE epidemic represents a deadlier threat to human health than HIV/Aids. Yet the people who are responsible for the deaths of over 80 people so far and who have put millions at risk - former Tory ministers...

3 November 2000

Sri Lanka's violent election

THE RECENTLY concluded Sri Lankan parliamentary election has not given any strength to the capitalist class to solve their problems, writes Siritunga Jayasuriya, general secretary United Socialist Party, Sri Lanka.

3 November 2000

Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

JOHN MAJOR was Tory prime minister at the height of the crisis over BSE, "mad cow disease" and its human variant vCJD...

10 November 2000

Can't Pay Won't Pay

OVER 20,000 students are expected on the National Union of Students (NUS) "Grants not Fees" demonstration in Central London, writes Paul Hunt, Coventry (SFE) Save Free Education..

10 November 2000

Hackney: Time to strike back

TGWU UNION members and building workers in Hackney are to ballot for industrial action after the Labour-Tory council agreed cuts of £4 million on 6 November, writes Chris Newby.

10 November 2000

Victory for Glenn Kelly: Bromley's embarrassing climbdown

GLENN KELLY, secretary of Bromley UNISON, has won a resounding victory against Bromley council bosses, writes Bill Mullins.

10 November 2000

Socialist victory teachers' union

WHEN SOCIALIST Party member Linda Taaffe was defeated in elections for the national executive (NEC) of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) earlier this year, the NUT right wing declared that never again should a Trotskyist be elected to the NEC...

10 November 2000

End Student Poverty

THIS YEAR is the first in which all students will face paying tuition fees. More than ever students will be straining under the weight of debts and poverty, writes Kieran Roberts, Save Free Education (SFE).

10 November 2000

Build mass non-payment of fees

SAVE FREE Education (SFE) are building a mass movement of resistance against tuition fees, the abolition of the grant and oppose universities that try and enforce sanctions against students who do not pay their fees...

10 November 2000

Top-up fees: New Labour's next step

NEW LABOUR undoubtedly want to go even further in charging for education. There is plenty of evidence to suggest they will allow universities to introduce top-up fees after the next general election...

10 November 2000

Socialist Party councillors: not like the rest

By-election in Lewisham: SAM DIAS, Socialist party candidate in the Pepys ward by-election in Lewisham, south London, spoke to The Socialist...

10 November 2000

Labour's deflating balloons

THE LANCASHIRE Socialist Alliance (LSA) campaign for the Preston by-election is beginning to take off, writes Max Neill.

10 November 2000

Blair's Fuel Tax Lies

TONY BLAIR says that he can't cut high fuel taxes because the pensioners will suffer and he'll have less to spend on the NHS and education. What rubbish!...

17 November 2000

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...

17 November 2000

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...

17 November 2000

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...

17 November 2000

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...

17 November 2000

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...

17 November 2000

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"...

17 November 2000

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...

24 November 2000

Sack Mad Max not Council Workers

HACKNEY COUNCIL is out of control. Confidential documents to be put to the council's Finance and Policy committee on 4 December show that there is a projected overspend of £76 million by March 2001 and...

24 November 2000

Angry Hackney Workers Ready for Struggle

HACKNEY COUNCIL workers were so outraged by the speech of Mad Max Caller, chief executive of Hackney council, that some of them tried to pull him off the stage of the Hackney Empire at the 21 November mass meeting, writes Bill Mullins.

24 November 2000

25,000 say No to Tuition Fees

THEY CAME from all over Britain to London on Wednesday 15 November. In a colourful and angry protest, over 25,000 students voiced their disgust at tuition fees...

24 November 2000

Build mass non-payment

THE TURNOUT on the 15 November NUS demonstration showed very clearly that the anger over the government's introduction of tuition fees and abolition of the grant has not abated, writes Kieran Roberts.

24 November 2000

Wanted: a fighting NUS

LAST WEEK'S demonstration showed the potential the NUS have for mobilising hundreds of thousands of angry students across Britain...

24 November 2000

Students must get political

OVER 50 students came to a very successful meeting organised by Save Free Education (SFE) and Socialist Students after the rally, even though most people were tired by what turned out to be a route march across London...

24 November 2000

Vietnam 25 years on: Now it's Clinton's mercenaries

TWENTY-FIVE years after American capitalism's ignominious defeat in the Vietnamese war (which cost three million Vietnamese dead and 58,000 US troops killed), US President Bill Clinton has invaded the country - this time with an entourage of 2,000 representatives of big business including Nike, Coc...

24 November 2000

Car Industry Under Threat

FORD WORKERS at Dagenham, east London are balloting for industrial action in defence of jobs. After assurances from the Ford Motor Company in 1997, none of the promised $425 million investment has materialised...

24 November 2000

No Way to Run the NHS

THE BRITISH Medical Association described the NHS as "in trouble and under pressure." This is mainly because the New Labour government puts its faith in the private profit system...

1 December 2000

Political hot air at the Hague

THREE YEARS ago in Kyoto there was an agreement to reduce the release of greenhouse gases that effect the world's climates, writes Bill Hopwood.

1 December 2000

How to win Fees Battle

MANY COLLEGES are beginning to wind down for the Christmas break. But for many students the season will not bring glad tidings, writes Kieran Roberts, Save Free Education campaign.

1 December 2000

Socialist challenges break New Labour's grip

What we Think: THE EXCELLENT victory for the Socialist Party in the Pepys ward by-election in Lewisham is another example of the potential support there could be amongst working people and their families for a credible and viable socialist alternative to the Labour and Tory parties...

1 December 2000

How socialists saw off Labour

SAMANTHA DIAS is now the Socialist Party's second councillor in Lewisham. This great achievement showed that where a serious socialist alternative is offered, voters will support it, writes Martin Powell-Davies.

1 December 2000

Our Bodies - their profits

MISS WORLD will be held in the millenium dome and hosted by Jerry Springer. Ticket prices start from no less than £100 going up to £400 for the night, writes Clare James.

1 December 2000

The Difference between Life and Death

THE THEME of World Aids Day on 1 December is 'Men Make A Difference', which focuses on one aspect of the pandemic...

1 December 2000

Irish Teachers strike over pay

SIXTEEN THOUSAND secondary school teachers in Ireland took strike action on 14 November as part of their continuing campaign for a 30% pay rise, writes Stephen Boyd, Dublin.

1 December 2000

Stop the Corporate Polluters

THE ROMAN emperor, Nero played his violin while the city of Rome burned. This example of political irresponsibility is nothing compared to the world's leaders last week at the failed conference on climate...