The Socialist issue 355

10 July 2004

ALL THE government’s ‘spin’ is telling us how education and health spending won’t be cut back in Gordon Brown’s spending review. So why are so many teachers angry at Tony Blair’s new ‘five-year plan’ for education?…

Fight Low Pay: PCS CIVIL service union members in the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) are set for two more days strike action on 29 and 30 July as part of the campaign for fair pay and to defeat the hated Performance Development System (PDS), a discriminatory appraisal system intended to institutionalise low pay…

SPECULATION AT the top of the Labour Party about how long Blair can last has focussed attention on the succession. Union leaders who have argued for staying in the Labour Party – grouped around the Labour Representation Committee (see article…

THE FOUNDING conference of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) took place at the TUC headquarters in London last Saturday. The aim of the LRC is to "reclaim" the Labour Party for the left and for socialism. The speakers included…

Leicester South by-election: TONY BLAIR’S advisers have told him to stay away from Leicester South in the by-election campaign because he’ll lose Labour the seat, particularly because of anti-war feeling!…

THE POLICE are harassing Asians, particularly young Muslim men, more and more. Recently released ‘stop and search’ figures show that New Labour is clearly conducting its so-called War On Terror only against certain sections of the working-class…

Thousands of people took to the streets last Saturday for London’s gay Pride. The Socialist Party Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Group and the youth group International Socialist Resistance (ISR) marched on the parade and distributed…

Fight For Your Rights At Work

"We’ve got our own ward": ARE YOU a young worker fed up with low pay, bullying bosses, long hours and unsafe working conditions?…

Solid Action Can Be Built On

THE RAIL, Maritime and Transport Workers Union (RMT) has responded to a derisory pay offer to tube workers with its best supported strike in years. Only two lines ran any sort of useable service and even then at reduced frequencies. Overall LU…

SINNOTT’S VICTORY was assisted by the sizeable backing that he could rely on from within the union hierarchy. He has had years in which to build support and amass considerable financial resources to publicise his campaign…

White House Tries Its Creature Saddam

SADDAM HUSSEIN appeared in court on 1 July, and was charged with a list of crimes. Formally, he is now in the hands of Iraqis. But in reality, the Americans are still in charge of the ex-dictator’s fate…

WHILE THE mainstream media has been largely focussed on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, some of the bloodiest conflicts in the world have been for the most part ignored…

The death of screen actor, Marlon Brando, has sparked off an examination of the forces that motivated him. Universally recognised as one of the greatest actors of all time, the puzzle remains: why did such a gifted actor end his days as a recluse…