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Today is the 11th
day of the teachers’ strike at Tower Hamlets College. It is the
first continuous teachers’ strike, with picket lines every day,
that has been seen in the UK for 12 years and it seems to be picking
up a great momentum. The strike is taking place at all four sites of
the College, that is, at: Arbour Square, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel
and Poplar.

Last Saturday’s special meeting of the United Left – the
broad left grouping in the two-million strong UNITE union – ended in a split
after supporters of left-winger Jerry Hicks were excluded on spurious grounds.
The reason for the meeting was to choose the left’s candidate to run for
General Secretary in 2010.

We are republishing this appeal from
Syrian left-wing activists which has been widely circulated and first
appeared on www.marxist.com. The appeal calls for clarification of the
whereabouts of
several left-wing activists who have disappeared over the last months
and the release of all those imprisoned. We encourage our readers to
support their appeal and write letters of protest.

Refuse workers in Leeds are taking action in response to an
appalling attack on their wages and conditions – the sort of thing we
may well see more of as public sector workers are forced to pay for the
bank bail-outs. Socialist Appeal supporters in the region have produced
a leaflet in support of the workers, the text of which we are reproducing on this site.

The capitalist system is passing through its deepest crisis since
the 1930s and the Great Depression. The apologists of capitalism –
including those in the labour movement – had completely ruled out such
a scenario In the main article from this month’s issue of Socialist Appeal, Rob Sewell looks at the background to the crisis.

Postal
workers are
under attack. A national strike ballot of CWU members has been called
with the result due on the 23^rd
September. Socialist Appeal looks at the latest situation and explains why a YES vote is needed from postal workers.

With the new format tabloid style Socialist Appeal still in the post,
we are already getting some feedback from readers and sellers around
the country… and beyond.

The new full colour tabloid version of Socialist Appeal is now out. Click here to order a copy of the September (177) issue.

The
stresses and strains in Irish society are increasingly obvious. As we
have explained before the crisis is affecting all layers within
society. More than that it is clear that the consciousness of all
classes has been affected and that big events are being prepared. Séamus Loughlin from Fightback looks at the real meaning of an article published in the Sunday Business Post which reveals much about how the bosses see the current situation.

The view
that Northern Ireland had escaped the troubles and that there was a
future based on a booming economy has been fast turned into its
opposite over the last few months. Riots in nationalist areas following
the Real/Continuity IRA attacks on the police and British army as well
as increased violence surrounding this year’s orange marches have
displayed an increase in social and political tensions. These events
were not created in a vacuum and mirror the crisis in the economy.

Four members of Unison were recently banned from
holding office after two years of investigations and hearings. They had been
accused of giving “racist offence to members” after using a cartoon of the
Three Wise Monkeys in a leaflet distributed at 2007 Unison conference which
criticised the “ruling out of order” of resolutions relating to pay and
accountability of full-time union officials and financing the Labour Party.

On the 20^th July, around 25
workers at the Vestas wind-turbine blades plant in Newport,
Isle of Wight moved to occupy offices in
protest at the planned closure of the site and the possible loss of 625 jobs. 18
days later, on 7^th August, the Vestas workers ended the factory
occupation after a court order authorised bailiffs to remove the occupiers.