Workers at the Lindsey Oil refinery site have been demonstrating
over redundancies and sackings made by Total, the multinational company that
owns Lindsey, and contractor Shaws. Nearly 650 workers were given their cards
by a management determined to break the union. In a show of equal
determination, workers on other sites around the country have been coming out
in solidarity.
MONDAY UPDATE: Workers have been coming out today in support of the sacked Lindsey
workers – 900 of who received their cards last week after continuing to
stand up to the management.
Almost 3 months
after the mistaken decision of the Irish trade union leaders to call off the March 30th
strike action, the discussions around a recovery plan are still floundering.
The trade union leaders will have to show some progress at the ICTU conference
next month, so they need something concrete to report on. But, given the severe
economic crisis that the state is experiencing it seems unlikely that anything
substantial will emerge. However there is the possibility that some sort of
deal will be done. But, as we explained recently, it’s likely to have more
holes in it than a Swiss cheese.
SATURDAY 20th JUNE: As reports are coming in about clashes between protesters and police
in Tehran, it is clear that the movement against the fraud has reached
a critical point. Khamenei’s speech yesterday threw down the gauntlet
to the movement and threatened repercussions for continued protests but
the organised working class are now joining the struggle against the
regime.
Talks
between the GMB and Unite unions and the Engineering Construction Industry
Association have broken down as a rash of unofficial strikes have broken out
over major construction sites all over the country. There has been action at
South Hook liquefied natural gas terminal near Milford Haven, at Lindsey oil
refinery in Lincolnshire
and at Stanlow refinery on Merseyside.
These strikes are completely illegal under the anti-union laws.
For the past week contract workers have been on unofficial
strike at the Lindsey Total oil refinery in Lincolnshire. The workers are working on the
desulphurisation plant there. Solidarity action had been building up all over the
country with more than 2,000 workers staging stoppages at 10 other sites.
Now Total has escalated the confrontation by sacking 900
workers, resorting to the worst traditions of the boss class.
Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis suprised a few people at this year’s conference in Brighton with his remarks on the funding of the Labour Party. With a majority of public sector workers now saying (according to a union poll) that they will not vote Labour as things stand, Prentis has had to react to the pressure from below. What’s does this mean and where should Unison go from here?
What we are witnessing in Iran is a
full-blown popular revolution. However, in order to set its stamp on
the movement, the working class must participate in the front line. The
movement will stand or fall to the degree that the working class is
able to lead it.
The stormy street demonstrations in Iran
are continuing and gathering strength. Anti-government protesters held
another big rally in central Tehran today (Wednesday), which, to judge
from photographs we have just received, has dwarfed even the massive
demonstrations of the last few days. It defied renewed calls from
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, to keep off the streets.
Faced with vast protests, the ruling regime in Tehran is being pulled
in opposite directions.
Dramatic events are unfolding in Iran.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched in silence through central
Tehran on Monday to protest Iran’s disputed presidential election in an
extraordinary show of defiance that appeared to be the largest
anti-government demonstration in Iran since the 1979 revolution. Reuter
says one demonstrator was shot dead. But nothing can stem the tide. The
revolutionary situation is unfolding with lightening speed. This is the second of two articles on Iran.
Two candidates stood in the Iranian
“elections”, but the regime had decided who was going to win long
before any votes were cast. In spite of the mild, “loyal opposition” of
Mousavi, large sections of the Iranian electorate used their vote to
express opposition to the regime. Once the “result” was announced
violence broke out on the streets, revealing the seething anger and
discontent among the masses. This marks a new phase in the development
of the Iranian revolution. Socialist.net are publishing here the first of two articles on the unfolding crisis in Iran
The
unprecedented European and local government electoral advances for the BNP in
the north of England has seen many on the British Left thrown into disarray,
anger and disgust. Whilst all these responses may seem understandable, similar
emotional reactions can be seen present in the organised left’s response to the
BNP, which are characterised by an abject failure to understand the nature of
the BNP or to answer it politically in a meaningful way. As the initial
reaction dissipates it is time that those who are serious about stopping the
BNP recognise the failures of the recent campaign and the need for a response
based around the mobilisation of the working class; it is now clear that we can
rely on no one but ourselves to smash the forces of the far right.