8 January 2005

Fatah leaders 'unite' behind Abbas

Palestinian elections: FOLLOWING PALESTINIAN leader Yasser Arafat's death, a new Palestinian Authority (PA) president is to be elected on 9 January...

8 January 2005

Elections in Iraq - but no peace or democracy

JUST BEFORE Christmas, 100 people were killed and injured in an attack on a US Army base dining hall in Mosul, northern Iraq...

8 January 2005

How to resist New Labour's attacks

UNISON general secretary election: AS 2005 opens up, the 1.3 million members of UNISON, Britain's biggest union, face a barrage of ballot papers coming through their letter boxes...

8 January 2005

Reports expose inequality scandal

Blair's Britain: "Super-rich have doubled their money under Labour" was the headline in The Guardian on 8 December, as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released a report graphically illustrating the widening gaps in we...

8 January 2005

Fighting a failing system

"CAPITALISM IS the only system that works," pronounced Polly Toynbee, a columnist in The Guardian, as 2004 drew to a close...

8 January 2005

Strike against low pay

Support the Brighton and Hove teaching assistants: ON 6 January, teaching assistants in Brighton and Hove were set to stage a fourth one-day strike over pay and conditions...

8 January 2005

Aceh: Indonesian military hampers aid operation

The Indonesian 'province' of Aceh on the island of Sumatra was only 155 km from the epicentre of the earthquake...

8 January 2005

It was no 'Act of God'

DESPITE THE biblical scale of floods and destruction, the death along the Indian Ocean coastline was no 'Act of God'...

8 January 2005

Sri Lanka appeal

SRI LANKA is, after Indonesia, the area hit hardest by the tsunami. Officials in Sri Lanka have estimated so far that more than 30,000 people have...

8 January 2005

India: A disaster made worse by poverty

INDIA SAW more than 15,000 killed as the tidal wave pounded southern fishing villages with Tamil Nadu and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands the worst hit...

8 January 2005

Scale of tragedy was avoidable

MILLIONS IN the world are shocked by what happened on the shores of the Indian Ocean on the morning of 26 December when over 150,000 of some of the world's most poverty-stricken people were battered and swept to gruesom...

8 January 2005

They didn't have to die

Capitalist system fails millions

People's generosity shames world leaders

WE WILL never forget the harrowing scenes of death, destruction and suffering which have affected millions following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.

15 January 2005

Vera Drake

AFTER SEEING a Mike Leigh production you generally feel like putting your head in the oven. But this film makes you feel angry as well...

15 January 2005

Dirty profits hit hospitals

THE GOVERNMENT has launched another 'initiative' aimed at improving standards of hospital cleanliness...

15 January 2005

Coventry single status 'deal' - but same rip-off

AFTER THE massive rejection of Coventry council's single status proposals last year by the workforce, council managers have come up with a new 'deal'....

15 January 2005

Blunkett: a study in opportunism

TONY MULHEARN, member of the group of Liverpool 47 councillors who fought the Thatcher government between 1983 and 1987, reviews David Blunkett by Stephen Pollard...

15 January 2005

An eventful year for a Socialist councillor

15 January 2005

A workers' leader on a worker's wage

SOCIALIST PARTY member Roger Bannister will be challenging public sector union UNISON's link with the Labour Party in the forthcoming general secretary election...

15 January 2005

Racist police beat up Palestinian student

MUHAMMAD MANSUR is an Israeli Palestinian medical student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem...

15 January 2005

Protest against the occupation of Iraq

29-30 January -: Elections are scheduled to take place in Iraq on 30 January. Bush and Blair are desperate for these elections to take place to try to convince the world they are giving Iraqi people some control over their lives.

15 January 2005

End the occupation of Iraq

THE LOOMING 'elections' in Iraq are being daily exposed as a sham - designed to get the right result for the US paymasters and the Iraqi interim government...

15 January 2005

Sri Lanka after the tsunami - opportunities and tensions

FOLLOWING THE tsunami in Sri Lanka, more than 40,000 people have lost their lives and there are about 800,000 refugees...

15 January 2005

Action needed on global warming

THE TSUNAMI disaster highlighted the dangers of coastal communities being inundated due to cyclones, floods and extreme weather events...

15 January 2005

Tsunami disaster: Will the West's aid ever arrive?

THE GENEROUS response of people worldwide to the plight of the tsunami victims is a graphic example of human solidarity and internationalism...

15 January 2005

Tsunami disaster: It's business as usual for the politicians

IN SPITE of tens of thousands of people losing their lives in one of the biggest disasters the modern world has ever seen, it's business as usual for the politicians...

15 January 2005

Tsunami disaster: cancel the debt

THE TERRIBLE effects of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean have forced the world's richest nations, the G8, to agree to suspend debt repayments from the worst hit countries...

22 January 2005

Russia 1905: When workers gained a glimpse of power

THE MOMENTOUS events of 100 years ago, 1905, provided the working class in Russia with the understanding that it was a force capable of bringing industry to its knees, a force capable of turning railways, power, gas etc. on and off like a light-switch. Most importantly, it gave the working class a glimpse of itself as a force capable of the socialist transformation of society.

22 January 2005

World Social Forum - the challenge for 2005

OVER 100,000 workers, youth and others exploited by capitalism are expected to attend the 2005 World Social Forum (WSF) in Porte Allegre, Brazil between 26-31 January...

22 January 2005

'Orange Revolution' in Ukraine - an eyewitness account

LAST NOVEMBER/December, huge opposition protests took place in Ukraine against the official results of the country's second round presidential elections, forcing new elections on 26 December...

22 January 2005

Tsunami early warning - the failure of capitalism

CAPITALIST GOVERNMENTS worldwide are now promising to set up an Indian Ocean tsunami early warning network by 2006, for as little as $20 million-$30 million...

22 January 2005

Aceh: Indonesian military sabotage relief work

THE CATASTROPHIC effects of the tsunami in Aceh on the northern edge of Sumatra, Indonesia, have been made worse by a lack of relief coordination, bureaucracy, corruption, and the continued Indonesian 'state of emergenc...

22 January 2005

Sri Lanka after the tsunami

USP campaigns for democratic relief and reconstruction programme: THE GROTESQUE picture of devastation is slowly emerging and haunting us. In the context of 40,000 reported deaths in Sri Lanka, the United Socialist...

22 January 2005

No waste plant here!

Fighting the polluters in Bolsover: THE BOLSOVER area of North Derbyshire was one of the most polluted in Britain...

22 January 2005

More council delaying tactics

Brighton teaching assistants: ON 10 January, UNISON and GMB, the unions representing teaching assistants in Brighton, once more entered into negotiations with Brighton and Hove council...

22 January 2005

Tories on the rocks

THE TORY Party is facing oblivion. A recent survey of marginal constituencies makes gloomy reading for Michael Howard, predicting that the Tories face their worst electoral showing since 1906.

22 January 2005

"Defend our pensions" UNISON members insist

THE PUBLIC sector union UNISON has extended the deadline for its consultative ballot about pensions to 21 January. The ballot, over action to defend the local government pension scheme, is already showing a majority for action in many areas.

22 January 2005

Vote Bannister

Break from the party that attacks our pensions: THE ELECTION for general secretary of public sector union UNISON is under way - giving UNISON members an opportunity to register their disgust at their treatment by the Labour government and the Labour Party...

22 January 2005

Iraq: end the war and occupation

AS THE Iraqi elections near, violence is escalating, even in previously 'safe' areas. These elections, designed to put a gloss of democracy on the reality of occupation, are only increasing the violence. General Casey, the most senior commander in Iraq, has been forced to admit that violence will be widespread on election day.

29 January 2005

Slovakian trade union confronts Austrian multinational

MORE THAN 50 workers attended the first conference of the new trade union "ZOO Papier" on Friday 21 January in Ruzomberok, central Slovakia...

29 January 2005

After Zhao's death, where is China heading?

FORMER CHINESE Communist Party (CCP) leader Zhao Ziyang died last week. He had been under house arrest since the crushing of the Tiananmen Square...

29 January 2005

Poverty adds to chaos in Aceh and Sri Lanka

ONE MONTH after the tsunami disaster struck the coasts of the Indian Ocean the costs are still being counted...

29 January 2005

French public-sector workers show their strength

LAST WEEK France saw huge mobilisations by workers against redundancies and for higher wages...

29 January 2005

Tube workers win 35-hour week through strike action

RMT rail union members working at London Underground stations have voted overwhelmingly to accept an offer from management to introduce a 35- hour week...

29 January 2005

Civil service pay victory

Major concessions won in Department for Work and Pensions battle: AFTER EIGHTEEN months of struggle, including six days of national action, unofficial action, non-cooperation with the Performance and Development System (PDS), suspensions, work to rule and an overtime ban, PCS activist...

29 January 2005

Vote Roger Bannister

UNISON MEMBERS deserve a better choice in this election than which Labour Party member becomes general secretary"...

29 January 2005

Pensions - turn anger into action!

MEMBERS OF public-sector union UNISON, who work for local councils throughout the country, are overwhelmingly voting for industrial action to defend their pensions...

29 January 2005

Kilroy's brief encounter (part four)

JUMPING BEFORE he was pushed, former Labour MP (and second-rate chat show host) Robert Kilroy-Silk has quit the UK Independence Party (UKIP) after months of bitter feuding...

29 January 2005

Immigration: Howard's desperate, hypocritical policy

TORY PARTY leader Michael Howard's full-page advert in last week's Sunday Telegraph was an attempt to make immigration the main issue in the general election...

29 January 2005

Bush's 'coronation': Stoking the fires of opposition

NEVER ONCE directly mentioning the invasion and occupation of Iraq, George Bush's inaugural speech at his 'coronation' last week talked a lot about ending tyranny and bringing his version of 'freedom' to every corner of...

29 January 2005

Iraq: 'Elections' can't hide the deepening crisis

US IMPERIALISM'S bloody war in Iraq worsens every day. The death toll is mounting and Iraq is plunged deeper into civil war and ethnic and religious clashes. Only days after Bush's 'coronation' for a second term, however, 'elections' take place on 30 January.

29 January 2005

Iraq: Elections won't end crisis

WITH THE sham Iraqi elections just days away American commanders are preparing "public opinion in Iraq and abroad for one of the bloodiest chapters in the war so far", according to John F Burns of the New York...