Over 300 from across London came to St. John’s Church in
Stratford, Newham, on Monday night to show their solidarity with Michael Gavan,
the UNISON chair sacked by Newham council last November as part of their
campaign to stop trade unions effectively organising against privatisation. Report includes audio.
In November trade unionists marched through Manchester in support of
Karen Reissman, but national UNISON speakers
and national publicity were conspicuous by their absence. Is Karen being hung
out to dry by the UNISON bureaucracy? This is becoming a common tale up and down the country. All UNISON members need to ask some hard
questions of the full-time apparatus. If management can get rid of militants
with the tacit support of the Union, where does that leave me? Whose side is
the union on?
In a speech on ‘liberty’ at the University of Westminster, Gordon Brown
outlined his vision for ‘Britishness’. Brown is, of course, a Scot.
Listing the achievements of so-called ‘British liberty’ from Magna
Carta to the Reform Act of 1832, he announced a debate on what it means
to be British. Brown’s vision, however, amounts to nothing more than
reactionary politics dressed in liberal-radical language.
New Labour
should hang their heads in shame in their ongoing programme of cuts, closures and job losses
in the public sector. Margaret Thatcher’s band of robbers would be proud of their accomplishments and
their policies sit so easily within a Tory ideology that it is no wonder the Tories don’t look
like an opposition. They don’t need to. They have been in power in the guise of New Labour for over 11
years.
The coming to power of the Nazi party in Germany 75 years ago marks the begining of one of the darkest periods of human history. What is Fascism and how did it emerge in a country with the strongest labour movement in the world? Mick Brooks of Socialist Appeal talks on the story of the rise of the Nazis.
This is a letter submitted to the US section of the International Marxist Tendency , the Workers International League. In this letter, Roberto Carlos depicts his experience working in a
movie theater and the problems young workers have to put up with on a
regular basis.
More than 13,000 tonnes of food have been seized in the last two weeks
in Venezuela as part of the Food Sovereignty Plan launched in order to
fight speculation, hoarding and sabotage in the food distribution
chain. The main lesson is that food soverignty is not compatible with
capitalism.
When I was a councillor in Merton back in the eighties, a young Tory member accused me of having been a leading light in the Winter of Discontent locally. Her name was Teresa May and she was totally wrong.Far from organising picket rotas, during the winter of 78/79 I was hanging around the gates of the girls school on my Fizzy, thrashing a punk rock electric guitar down the youth club and trying to convince my parents that I was actually working really hard on my O levels. It wasn’t until a year or two later that I took my […]
The big
corporations in North America, Western Europe and Japan are moving more
of their factories abroad in search of lower wages. But in the process
they are tying the interests of the international working class closer together. In North America Ford workers prepare to weather a new round
of closures and layoffs, while their bosses have unveiled
plans for new plants in China, a country with the world’s fastest
growing car market along with rock-bottom wages. Meanwhile, Russian
Ford workers have won an important victory not only against the company
but against the new, repressive Russian Labor Code.
The
Iranian regime has raised the level of repression against many sections
of society, especially against students. To show solidarity with the imprisoned students a
number of Iranian opposition groups are organising pickets outside the
Iranian regime’s diplomatic missions on Saturday 16 February 2008.
The construction industry consists of roughly 1.2 million workers at
present, a massive boost for the capitalists and the UK economy. Just
think how much can be made once all the new office blocks and
‘affordable’ housing, and not forgetting the Olympic Games, are built.
Any chance of the workers who build these new structures getting a
slice of the cake? You are more likely to be sacked or even killed on a
building site in Britain today.
Until recently
Kenya
was held up as a glowing example of the success of the free market
economy. It was supposed to be a shining example of democracy, a
beacon of hope for what Europeans used to call "the dark continent."
Now all these dreams lay in ashes. In recent weeks Kenya has been
torn asunder by a wave of ethnic and tribal violence that has claimed
nearly a
thousand lives.