Archive for December 2003

6 December 2003

Socialist Party wins second council seat in Lewisham, London

Chris Flood, a Socialist Party member from Lewisham won a council by-election in his area yesterday winning a stunning 32% of the vote...

6 December 2003

London Underground: Why We Are Working To Rule

RMT MEMBERS on London Underground will start a 48-hour work to rule on Tuesday 9 December unless the latest negotiations are successful, writes A London Underground RMT member.

6 December 2003

Civil Contingencies Bill: Why Workers Should Oppose Blunkett's Law

IMAGINE A country where the government can declare a "state of emergency" using any definition it wants, including situations affecting "political, administrative or economic stability", writes Steve Score.

6 December 2003

Iraq Morass Gets Deeper And Bloodier

NEARLY FOUR out of five Iraqis have little or no confidence in the occupying US and British forces, says a new survey...

6 December 2003

Northern Ireland elections: Divided Vote Hides Workers' Disillusionment

NORTHERN IRELAND'S elections on 26 November were extremely polarised with the hard-line Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) on one side and Sinn Fein on the other, gaining support...

6 December 2003

University of Minnesota: First strike for 60 years

ON 21 October, the University of Minnesota (U of M) was shocked by its first strike in 60 years. For two weeks, members of the 1,800-strong American Federation of. State and County Municipal Employees...

6 December 2003

Longbridge: Phoenix Directors Feather Their Own Nests

The businessmen who bought the BMW car factory in Longbridge, Birmingham and supposedly saved thousands of jobs in the West Midlands, are to be investigated by the House of Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee for their governance of the company, writes Clive Walder, Birmingham Socialist Party.

6 December 2003

Left Discuss NUT Leadership Bid

A VITAL meeting for the Left of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) took place in Nottingham on Saturday to decide who will be the left candidate to challenge for general secretary when Doug McAvoy retires next year...

6 December 2003

Tuition fees: Blair Skates On Thin Ice

TONY BLAIR is getting desperate. Over 130 Labour MPs have put their names to a motion opposing his plans for top-up tuition fees. Rebellion seems to be becoming contagious. Earlier this year, 139 MPs voted...

6 December 2003

Scrap Fees Now!

"LISTEN AND scrap fees" was the plea from last month's National Union of Students demonstration. But the message still falls on deaf ears in Downing Street, writes Michael Comerford, Socialist Students, Brunel University.

13 December 2003

Tuition Fees Crisis Deepens

TONY BLAIR has had a bruising year. Millions have demonstrated against war in Iraq, public sector workers have taken strike action over pay and MPs have revolted over Iraq and foundation hospitals. He...

13 December 2003

Exposed: Labour's plans to bring the 'market' into higher education

Facts Behind The Fees: THE UNIVERSITY top-up fees Bill is causing a major headache for Tony Blair. He is desperately trying to sell it to an angry public and to rebellious Labour MPs. Zena Awad is the national coordinator of...

13 December 2003

Socialist Party Election Victory

Telegraph Hill by-election 4 December: CHRIS FLOOD has been elected as a second Socialist Party councillor in the Telegraph Hill area of Lewisham, south London. He defeated New Labour in a local by-election...

13 December 2003

"Don't Worry, We Always Vote Socialist!"

Lewisham election victory: AFTER CHRIS Flood's stunning council by-election victory, Lewisham's Telegraph Hill ward is now a Labour-free zone, writes Chris Moore. Socialist Party organiser, London.

13 December 2003

Learning from Lewisham

COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS are not history-making events. But the victory of the Socialist Party candidate, Chris Flood, in the Lewisham council Telegraph Hill ward by-election holds some important lessons for...

13 December 2003

"Going With The Grain Of History"

Building socialism worldwide: AT THE same time as the biggest weekday demonstration in British history flooded the streets of London, the democratically elected leadership of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) - the International Executive Committee - was holding its annual week-long meeting...

13 December 2003

EU 'growth and stability' fiasco: Squabbling States Continue With Bosses' Agenda

'REFRIGERATED, HOSPITALISED, dead', are the words used to describe the European Union stability and growth pact after it was trashed by Germany and France, writes Manny Thain.

13 December 2003

Putin Consolidates His Power

THE CONTEST for places in Russia's Duma, the Parliament, went almost as planned in President Vladimir Putin's "managed democracy", writes Rob Jones, Moscow.

13 December 2003

Sink Blair's 'Flagship' Fees

TONY BLAIR could rue the day that he called top-up fees his "flagship reform". That's what Thatcher said about the poll tax and look what happened to her! 18 million non payers (led by Militant, the...

20 December 2003

A living grant not tuition fees

Fight Fees: GOVERNMENT MINISTERS recently paid a company £180,000 to bombard potential undergraduates with text messages boosting their hated top-up fees policy...

20 December 2003

Socialist Party Wins Vote Opposing Fees on Coventry City Council

Coventry City Council now officially opposes top up fees thanks to a motion successfully moved by Socialist Party councillors Karen McKay, Rob Windsor and Dave Nellist on 16 December, writes Rob Windsor sent us this report:.

20 December 2003

Saddam's capture - Not The "Beginning Of The End" in Iraq

THERE WON'T be many tears shed in Iraq or elsewhere over the capture of Saddam Hussein - a vicious dictator who brutalised, tortured and murdered tens of thousands of Iraqis...

20 December 2003

Iraq Watch

OCCUPATION ARMED forces raided the Iraqi Federation of Workers' Trades Unions (IFTU) headquarters on 6 December, trashing the rooms and arresting eight members who were subsequently released without charge...

20 December 2003

When Big Business Rules Universities

BLAIR WANTS to charge students more for their education. He also wants to see more money going into universities from private business to make up the shortfall of years of public under-investment, writes Jon Dale.

20 December 2003

London weighting: Lessons Of The Strike Action

UNISON members in Waltham Forest, east London kept up the selective strike action this week by bringing out school keepers and site services officers, writes Mike Cleverley, UNISON.