The Socialist issue 379

5 February 2005

‘THE FIRST free vote for fifty years.’ That’s how the media described the Iraqi elections. But how can a vote be ‘free’ when the whole country is under military occupation by foreign imperialist powers? This so-called free vote involved circumventing barbed wire, road blocks, tanks and armed soldiers, and risking death, in many cases to end up voting for anonymous candidates.

BUSH AND Blair have been quick to hail the elections in Iraq as a “victory for democracy” and a vindication of their brutal occupation of Iraq, but this was largely for public consumption…

THE LABOUR government is prepared to erode civil liberties using the excuse of “fighting terrorism”. Since 11 September 2001 the British government has used this to bring in measures that could potentially be used not just against terrorists but also to repress the rights of others who oppose the government’s policies.

Sacked for being sick: TEACHERS AT Newton High School in St. Helens have asked their union to ballot them for one day’s strike action in protest at the way in which one of their colleagues has been treated under new sickness policies imposed by the council.

On 29 January, on the day before the elections in occupied Iraq, ISR and Socialist Students in London organised a protest outside Aegis Defence Services Ltd…

THE PENSION rights of the majority of the British workforce are under attack.
Unless you’re a judge, an MP or a fat cat chief executive of a FTSE 100 company then the chances are that you’ve either had your pension rights cut or are facing an attack on those entitlements.

UNISON’s NATIONAL industrial action committee has decided to conduct a strike ballot of local government members…

AN EXPLOSION of anger has swept the public sector against New Labour’s plans to cut back on pension rights. Many of the major unions are making plans to ballot their members for strike action against the government attacks, particularly the raising of the retirement age.

Coventry ‘single status’ battle: "YOU’RE TAKING my mortgage off me" shouted one bin worker at a Tory councillor before the last Coventry council meeting…

OVER 200 people marched through the centre of Liverpool on 26 January in protest at the biggest attack on the voluntary sector the city has seen…

The sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz has produced a plethora of TV and radio documentaries, newspaper features and statements from leading politicians. All of these rightly express revulsion and condemnation of the most evil and barbaric regime in history.

AS WE arrived back in the eastern part of Sri Lanka, a graveyard silence greeted us – scores of eyes tired of crying for their kith and kin taken by the killer tsunami…

FOLLOWING THE ‘orange revolution’ in the Ukraine, Russia has been hit by what has been termed the ‘cotton revolution’ (‘cotton’ refers to the poor quality clothing worn by many pensioners)…

“LULA TRAITOR”, “Lula your place is in Davos”*. These were just some of the chants on the 3,000 strong protest which greeted Brazilian…