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John McDonnell, supported by the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group,
presented his Private Members’ Bill to parliament on June 30th. If
adopted, the
Bill would significantly improve unions’ ability to defend their
members and would be the first step towards the full restoration of
trade union rights.

Some 38 years after the horrific events in Derry
on Sunday 30th January 1972 the publication of the Saville Report has
been welcomed by the bereaved families whose 14 relatives were killed by
British Paratroops at a Civil Rights March on what became known as
Bloody Sunday.

The long awaited UNISON General Secretary Ballot Result has
been announced, resulting in a victory for the incumbent, Dave Prentis,
with
Roger Bannister in second place and Paul Holmes, the candidate favoured
by the
Unison United Left and Unison Socialist Appeal Supporters, in third
place.

The new Higher Education minister David Willetts has come
out with a clear indication about the Con-Dem coalition’s attitude to young
people, anticipating their announcement to raise tuition fees for university
students

With the results of the Unison General Secretary election due on
Tuesday 22nd June, we reproduce here an article by Left candidate Paul
Holmes which was published on the front page of the United Left paper, issued during last week’s Unison conference:

Brian Cowen survived a confidence vote
in the Dail on Wednesday by 5 votes and the day after it was
announced that Enda Kenny had won a confidence vote sparked by
dissatisfaction on the FG front bench by a similar (supposedly secret)
margin. But why is it that the leaders of the two long established
bourgeois parties in the state have reached such an impasse at the same
time? The answer is clear the economy is in crisis and Labour has
overtaken FG in the polls.
 

Fred Weston, from the editorial board of
Marxist.com, spoke to a packed house at May Day Books in Minneapolis,
MN, USA on June 1st. Around 30 people came to hear Fred present a
Marxist analysis of the state of the Chinese economy and the future of
1/5th of humanity. We present here a video of Fred’s presentation and the
question and answer session, which covered topics as varied as the
difference between socialism and communism to an explanation of the
Asiatic mode of production.

Last year a powerful movement erupted in
Iran that shook the hated
Islamic fundamentalist regime to its very foundations. All the
conditions were present for a successful revolutionary overthrow of the
regime. What was lacking, however, was the active participation of the
working class as an organised force and, most importantly, a conscious,
revolutionary leadership of the movement.

IRELAND: The
outcome of the ballots  among the ICTU affiliated unions over the Croke
Park deal will be finally clear by next week when the SIPTU and IMPACT
ballot results are counted. A huge amount of pro deal propaganda has
been brought to bear on the membership of the public sector unions,
backed up by the trade union leadership who have been desperate to
present the deal as the saviour of the Irish working class.  

Alan Docherty, a long standing Unison activist has been banned from holding office for two years by union officials in what is a clear attack on democracy in the union.

Next week’s conference of the public sector union Unison will be the most important for decades given the severity of the cuts being promised by the new government. Many of Unison’s members are low paid or part time and will be hit hard by a government keen to cut costs to bail out the bosses crisis.

Unison Conference Meeting:

"Which way forward for Unison?"

Thurs 17th June 5.30pm start

Royal Exeter Hotel, Bournemouth.

Europe faces a protracted period of austerity, with major
contractions in output, consumption and employment. The crisis has
started with the smaller, more vulnerable economies like Greece,
Portugal and Ireland. But the others will follow, starting with
Britain.