Archive for April 2003

4 April 2003

Reject Agenda For Change

Government Plans Wage Cuts For NHS Staff: ALL NHS workers know that they are underpaid, undervalued. and overworked. But New Labour's latest Agenda For Change (AFC) proposals do nothing to improve our situation, writes Brian Loader, NHS Logistics UNISON steward, personal capacity.

4 April 2003

UNISON elections

Elections for UNISON's national executive council (NEC) are under way. Five Socialist Party members are standing as part of the UNISON United Left group: Raph Parkinson, national additional male seat,...

4 April 2003

School Students Put Blair On Trial

Guilty...: ON SATURDAY 29 March school students from International Socialist Resistance/Youth Against the War in Waltham Forest, London put Tony Blair on trial for war crimes, writes Frank Thomas, Kelmscott school.

4 April 2003

Opposing Imperialist War...

WHEN THE military chiefs and politicians feel the need to come onto the TV and insist that everything is going to plan in the war against Iraq, and that everyone is united, you know that the exact opposite is true...

4 April 2003

International reports

A Late Arrival To The Warmongers' Ball: ON THE night of 28 March, the Socialist Party (SP - CWI, Australia) led a 500-strong demonstration to a Liberal Party function where Prime Minister, John Howard, was guest speaker, writes Socialist Party, Melbourne.

4 April 2003

Building The Anti-War Movement

THE FIRST national steering committee of the Stop The War Coalition (STWC) since the conflict started, and since the 22 March demonstration, took place on 28 March, writes Ken Smith, Socialist Party rep on STWC steering committee.

4 April 2003

Iraq Invasion - Igniting Arab Opinion

"PEOPLE SEE this as an occupation. If the government gives us weapons we will fight the Americans and the British."...

4 April 2003

Kurds - A History Of Western Betrayals

THE US is using armed Kurdish groups in the north of Iraq as a proxy army against Saddam Hussain's forces...

4 April 2003

After the horror and destruction: Rebuilding Iraq In Uncle Sam's Image?

Learning the lessons of Bosnia: ALREADY, WHILE a bitter and bloody war is still taking its grim toll in Iraq, the world's big powers are discussing what will happen when the war is over...

4 April 2003

Powell's speech deepens capitalist splits

"We didn't take on this huge burden with our coalition partners not to be able to have a significant dominating control over how it unfolds in the future."...

4 April 2003

Local election campaign: Anti-War? Anti-Privatisation? Vote Socialist Alternative!

The first of May, or May Day, is international workers' day. This year it will be a day of mass anti-war protests worldwide. Here in England and Wales, it is also the date of the local council and Welsh...

4 April 2003

The Bloody Price Of War

We won't pay: A SENIOR US Army official has said that the US is ready to pay a "very high price" to win the war in Iraq...

12 April 2003

Privatising The NHS

NEW LABOUR'S latest scheme for health service privatisation - Foundation Hospitals - is being pushed ahead in spite of significant opposition from the parliamentary Labour Party's own ranks, writes Alison Hill.

12 April 2003

Call Centre Workers Fight Job Cuts

BRITISH TELECOMM (BT) has been involved for over a year now in reducing the number of call centres in the UK. This has been managed through reskilling and relocating people, writes Judy Griffiths, national assistant secretary (clerical) Communication Workers Union (CWU), personal capacity.

12 April 2003

Nursery Nurses On Strike

NURSERY NURSES were out on picket lines in front of schools all over Kirklees on 4 April. The pickets were reassured by the tremendous support they got from parents and passers by, writes Jackie Grunsell.

12 April 2003

Money for services, Not for War!

BUSH AND BLAIR are war criminals for using cluster bombs against the innocent people of Iraq. But they are also guilty of attacks upon the people of their own countries, writes Ken Smith, Socialist Party representative on the Stop The War Coalition.

12 April 2003

War In Iraq - The Endgame

THE WAR on Iraq has entered its end stage. Overwhelming US military might has broken the back of Iraqi military resistance on the ground...

12 April 2003

US Plans To Recolonise Iraq

TONY BLAIR has promised to establish a democratic Iraq in three stages. This is the same person who said 'no war on Iraq without United Nations (UN) approval', writes Dave Carr.

12 April 2003

Brown's Budget

Low growth and high deficits end Chancellor's surplus: JUST AFTER we go to press, on 9 April, chancellor Gordon Brown presents his budget. The financial media's 'experts' think it will be a 'dull' budget - but then it's not the experts who'll be paying...

12 April 2003

Iraq - Imperialism's Grim Legacy

EVEN BEFORE this bloody US and British imperialist invasion, Iraq's history has been one of occupation by foreign powers followed by revolution and reaction, right through to the Ba'ath Party dictatorship, writes Kevin Simpson.

12 April 2003

Repression And War Is Fuelling Palestinian Anger

The US war on Iraq, the Israeli government's continuing oppression of Palestinians in the occupied territories, poverty and unemployment, are all creating an explosive mix of anger amongst Palestinians and Israeli Arabs alike, writes Judy Beishon.

12 April 2003

It's Occupation Not Liberation

LAST WEEK, hospitals in Baghdad were swamped by casualties. At the Al Yarmouk hospital they were arriving at a rate of 100 an hour. Yet, even before the terrible death and destruction has ended in Iraq,...

12 April 2003

USA: Problems in the world's engine room

THE USA has serious problems. It spends more on its armed forces than the rest of the planet put together and the military are the biggest employer - even in peacetime...

12 April 2003

Standing For The Millions, Not The Millionaires: Vote Socialist Alternative

End privatisation: THE SOCIALIST Party is standing candidates in the local elections in England and for the Welsh assembly on 1 May...

19 April 2003

Student Protesters Charged

"It's difficult to put into words how horrified I was by what I saw in Catford that Thursday. I've always felt safer on seeing a police officer but I doubt I'll ever feel like that again. Now seeing...

19 April 2003

National Union of Teachers' conference

Action gets results - Teachers Must Fight Cuts: SO MUCH for New Labour priorities. When it comes to war, the cheque book's always ready. When it comes to our schools and services, Gordon Brown's wallet slams shut again, writes Martin Powell-Davies, Lewisham NUT.

19 April 2003

Billions Wasted On Warfare

THE ANNUAL military budget of the USA is $400 billion. The increase in US defence department spending alone matches what the world spends on international aid every year, writes Ken Douglas.

19 April 2003

Brown's 'Optimistic' Budget Ignores Reality

IN HIS budget Chancellor Gordon Brown looked at the poor performance of the capitalist economy in Britain and the rest of the world and cut his forecast for growth for 2003-04 down to 2%-2.5%...

19 April 2003

Reconstruction after war: Who Gains And Who Loses?

Bosnia Herzegovina: FOLLOWING ITS bloody conquest of Iraq, the US administration is now trying to impose a 'reconstruction' plan on the country...

19 April 2003

Bush And Blair Put Profit Before People

"WHERE IS freedom in Iraq?" declared a doctor at a Baghdad hospital. Within 24 hours the 'liberation' of Baghdad had descended into total chaos. Scenes of Iraqis tearing down statues of Saddam Hussein...

19 April 2003

The Chaotic Aftermath Of War

LAST WEEK, Bush and Blair were celebrating their 'victory' over Iraq. But within a matter of hours it became clear that piecing Iraq back together again could prove much more difficult than the war itself.

19 April 2003

Gary Mills and Tony Poole: Fighting Police Corruption

Gary Mills and Tony Poole, two Gloucester men, were fighting their third appeal last week. Since 1989 they have been campaigning to force the justice system to admit that they were wrongly convicted of...

26 April 2003

Unite Against The Racists

Fight for a socialist alternative: THE RACIST, neo-Nazi British National Party (BNP) are standing around 200 candidates in the local elections on 1 May, writes A Manchester Socialist Party member.

26 April 2003

Save steel jobs - nationalise Corus

NEW LABOUR may be banking on a record low turnout to win the Welsh Assembly election on 1 May but if a referendum was called on their handling of the Welsh steel industry, they'd lose their deposit!, writes Rob Williams, Socialist Party Wales and candidate for the Welsh Assembly elections, Aberavon.

26 April 2003

May Day - Protest Against Capitalism

ON MAY DAY, there will be protests around the world against the US/British occupation of Iraq and the war that has been waged in the interests of big business, writes Clare James.

26 April 2003

Saddam's Buddies Get Contract To Rebuild Iraq

US CONSTRUCTION giant Bechtel has just landed the biggest contract - £433 million - to help 'rebuild' post-war Iraq...

26 April 2003

Anti-Fascist Feature

Stop the neo-Nazi BNP: THE NEO-NAZI British National Party (BNP) are standing over 200 candidates in May's council elections, as well as one candidate in elections to both the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly...

26 April 2003

Scottish elections: Socialist Challenge To Capitalist Parties

1 MAY will see the second elections to the Scottish parliament. After four years of devolution, extreme disappointment would sum up the mood of working-class people over the inability of the political...

26 April 2003

Nigerian presidential elections Obasanjo's Poisoned Victory

AMID GROWING charges of vote rigging Olusegun Obasanjo seems to be on course to be declared winner of Nigeria's bitterly contested 19 April Presidential election...

26 April 2003

Fire Brigades Union conference Reject Burchill's Plans

THE 250 delegates to the FBU's second recall special conference voted overwhelmingly to reject the employers' final offer on pay linked to modernisation, writes Bill Mullins, Socialist Party Industrial Organiser and Billy Carruthers, London FBU, personal capacity.

26 April 2003

May Day Greetings posted on our website

26 April 2003

Wage War On Poverty And Cuts

SIX YEARS of New Labour has done little to narrow the huge gap between wealth and poverty in Britain, writes Cllr Dave Nellist, leader, Socialist Group, Coventry City Council.

26 April 2003

Ten years after the murder of Stephen Lawrence: When Mass Action And Class Unity Beat Back The Fascists

TEN YEARS ago, the Black teenager Stephen Lawrence was brutally murdered in a racist attack in Eltham, South-east London...

26 April 2003

Northern Ireland: State Terrorism

THE NEW report by Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir John Stevens shows clear long-term collusion between Britain's security forces and loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland...

26 April 2003

NUT conference: "No More SATS!"

DELEGATES TO the National Union of Teachers (NUT) annual conference stood up and chanted: "No More SATS, No More SATS!" when the resolution to boycott SATS was passed unanimously, writes Jane James.

26 April 2003

USDAW conference: Fighting For Low-Paid Workers

THIS YEAR'S shopworkers' union USDAW conference takes place at the end of a horrendous war for oil and influence in the Middle East, writes Robbie Segal, USDAW executive council, personal capacity.