The Socialist issue 313

6 September 2003

AS SCHOOLS go back for the new term, many will find they are short of teachers. A headteacher survey says secondary schools in England and Wales have sacked 700 teachers and 300 support staff…

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL has finally quit as New Labour’s spinmaster general. His decision to go, in the middle of the Hutton inquiry, was big news – recognition of just how powerful this unelected politician had become.

I’VE BEEN a postman for twelve years. In that time we’ve seen the management buying up foreign businesses which have made losses and changing the name to Consignia and then back again at a cost of millions…

Ayatollah Moham-med Bakr-al-Hakim, and at least 100 Iraqis were killed in the devastating bomb blast in Najaf, in Iraq, on 29 August, writes Ken Douglas.

AS SCHOOLS start a new term, a whole battery of problems threaten to engulf an already beleaguered government. Thousands of jobs have been lost already due to the funding crisis, writes Linda Taaffe, NUT executive, personal capacity.

OVER 100 MPs have signed ‘early-day’ motions opposing top-up fees. The bill to introduce top-up fees, to be published later this year, will face difficulties passing through parliament, writes Zena Awad.

HOME SECRETARY David Blunkett has seized on a fall in the number of asylum applications to declare that New Labour’s ‘get tough’ asylum policies are working, writes Chris Thomas.

JOHN TYNDALL, ex-leader of the far right British National Party (BNP), has been expelled from the party, writes Naomi Byron.

THE SOCIALIST Party has produced a new publication – a guide and explanation of the essential ideas of Marxism, the basis of our political ideas and organisational methods…

COUPLES FACING problems having a baby will be delighted by proposals to offer free In-vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatment on the NHS, writes Jane Nellist, Coventry.

SIXTY YEARS ago London’s tubes – then publicly owned – kept going through the Blitz. But on 28 August a summer storm caused a power failure that brought the now part-privatised London Underground (LU)…

THIS YEAR’S TUC conference is the first for a number of years where the Left has a good chance of making its mark in a big way and the resolutions on the agenda reflect this, writes Bill Mullins, Socialist Party industrial organiser.

PCS MEMBERS are angry about attempts to change their pension entitlements. The new national executive (NEC) with its Left Unity majority have tabled a resolution to the TUC calling for a co-ordinated public-sector…

As the postal workers ballot for strike action…
THE 2003 Trades Union Congress (TUC) is taking place as postal workers ballot on industrial action. If the workers reject management’s derisory offer and strike action begins later this month it will be the second major test of the ‘New Left’ union leaders – dubbed the ‘awkward squad’ by the mainstream media.

WE’RE GETTING stuff from management around every day now. Some of it is to our home addresses from “Alboy” Leighton. He’s a spin doctor. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had got Alastair Campbell’s…

FIGURES FROM the Office of National Statistics reveal that the number of days lost to strikes since 1997 has grown steadily every year; rising from 235,000 days lost in 1997 to 1,323,000 lost in 2002…

THE CEASEFIRE announced by Palestinian militias at the end of June was called off following the first assassination of a Hamas political leader, Ismail Abu-Shanab, by Israeli forces on 21 August, writes Judy Beishon.

ITALIAN SOCIALIST Fabrizio Cucchi, (a member of Lotta per il socialismo – CWI, Italy) on a recent visit to London, spoke to the socialist…

Join the Stop the War Coalition demo, 27 September, 12 noon Hyde Park. On 15 February 30 million people took part in the biggest worldwide movement in history…

The biggest demonstrations in world history didn’t stop the warmongers occupying Iraq. Inevitably, many people wonder whether this means we are powerless to change things…