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As the first wave of the national post strike action enters its second day,
those on the picket lines around the country  remain determined to win
their fight. Here is a first of a series of reports and interviews from various picket lines.

Postal workers are out on a national two-day strike over management
plans in effect to destroy the Royal Mail. Picket lines are being
staged at sites up and down the country. The bosses, backed by Lord
Mandelson, who is looking to hit back at the union over his failed
attempt to privatise the mail, have refused to negioate. The time has
come for workers to show their strength

A hearing is pending in the
Royal Courts of Justice, London, on Wed. 21st, October at 10.30am, at which
Scottish and Southern Energy is applying for an injunction against Steve
Acheson. The Injunction is being sought to prevent Steve from protesting at
Fiddlers Ferry power station about his dismissal from the project because of
the now notorious construction industry blacklist.

Further
to their mass demonstration in Barnsley on September 28^th   firefighters in South Yorkshire
will stage two 24-hour strikes next week after talks between unions, management
and members of the county’s fire authority broke down.

The
Green Party in Ireland has voted overwhelmingly to support the new proposals that
their leadership has negotiated with Fianna Fáil. As we explained
recently, the reality is that the new programme offers nothing
substantially different from what was on offer before, merely a few
tiny reforms to the programme that FF set earlier. Its a cold plate of
lame duck with wilted greens!

Postal workers across the UK have voted
3-1 in favour of national industrial action over Royal Mail’s failure to reach
a national agreement covering the protection of jobs, pay, terms and conditions
and the cessation of managerial executive action.

Leeds refuse workers strikers have been out for nearly a month now.
Rubbish is piling up and the dispute has started to hit the national
headlines with reports in the main daily papers and on BBC Breakfast
(which noted that the strike has strong local support). Socialist
Appeal supporters in the Yorkshire area have been involved in giving
support to the strikers and have been visiting the various picket lines.

Ireland: The Lisbon Treaty Referendum has resulted in a
victory for the Yes camp by 67.1% to 32.9%. The result was in part due to the
enormous resources of the Yes campaign which had the support of big business,
Robbie Keane, the Bishops, Seamus Heaney and of all the government and main
opposition parties. The outcome was a dramatic reversal of the last referendum
with swings of more or less 20% in many constituencies.

Strikes continue into their fourth week as refuse workers in Leeds fight to stop savage pay cuts that would leave them
up to six thousand pounds a year worse off. Workers for Street Scene, the council department responsible for refuse
collection, graffiti cleaning and disposal of needles, have been solidly
manning pickets at Cross Green depot, the main refuse depot for Leeds, and secondary pickets at various public rubbish
tips and smaller sites.

The October 2009 edition of Socialist Appeal is now out!

In the final part of his article, taken from a speech made last summer to a meeting of Marxists from around the world, Alan
Woods highlights the significance of the Iranian revolution and the
impact it will have on the whole of the Middle East and beyond. He
explains how all the conditions emerged for a successful revolution,
bar one, that of the revolutionary leadership, which must be built.

Fire fighters from all over the country
staged a mass demonstration in Barnsley on Tuesday 28^th September in
support of South Yorkshire fire-fighters, who are
protesting against an arbitrary change of shift patterns forced upon them by
ultimatum by their bosses, South Yorkshire Fire Authority.