Archive for September 2005

15 September 2005

Farcical Egyptian election dents Bush's Middle East strategy

WITH 89% of the votes, Egypt's first contested presidential election on September 7th could have been a crushing victory for Hosni Mubarak...

15 September 2005

Campaign to stop European Nazi camp

IN MAY 2005, four neo-fascist European groups (NPD from Germany, Forza Nueva from Italy, Falanx from Spain and Chrisi Avgi from Greece) announced that they would organise their first European Youth Camp on 16-18 September in...

15 September 2005

South African workers gatecrash capitalists' party

South Africa: IN THE biggest strike wave since 1996, South African workers recently went onto the offensive demanding a share of the economic boom...

15 September 2005

Northern Ireland: Riots show failure of peace process

THE SCENES in Belfast and other Northern Ireland towns last weekend give a stark warning that the 'peace process' could at some point unravel and be quickly replaced by widespread sectarian conflict...

15 September 2005

Labour's 1945 landslide

MANY OLDER workers still remember the 1945-51 Labour government in Britain - memories of its reforms help maintain a degree of support for the Labour Party. My personal experience shows why.

15 September 2005

New Labour aims to privatise Job Centres

JANICE GODRICH, president of civil service union PCS and Mark Serwotka, the general secretary, called a special press conference at TUC conference to show how far New Labour will go to smash the welfare state...

15 September 2005

Education: Fight Blair's 'market forces' solution

COMPREHENSIVE STATE education, a historic gain for working-class families, has been under attack for decades...

15 September 2005

Aftermath of hurricane Katrina: a window on the future under capitalism

The article below is an abridged version of articles written for a special supplement of Justice, the newspaper of Socialist Alternative (CWI USA)

15 September 2005

Poverty Kills

ANOTHER DISASTER is looming. It's not a tsunami or a hurricane or a 'natural' disaster. This is a disaster that will kill 4.4 million of the world's...

15 September 2005

March against war, terror and racism

"THE WORLD seems to have gone crazy." How many people have said that over the last few weeks? ...

22 September 2005

Lebanon's civil war, 1975-1990: The tragedy of sectarian division

THIS YEAR marks the 30th anniversary of Lebanon's descent into 15 years of horrific civil war...

22 September 2005

Massive gains for new Left Party in German elections

A MASSIVE defeat for the Right and a big victory for the Left, that is the result of the general election...

22 September 2005

Rolls Royce action called off

THE NINETY six striking test bed engineers at Rolls Royce in Bristol have now returned to work...

22 September 2005

Morrisons: No job losses, no store closures!

"MORRISONS BOUGHT Safeway in January 2003 for £2.9 billion, gambling that this would lead to higher profits...

22 September 2005

TUC - fine speeches but workers need action

TUC CONGRESS was dominated by the trade union leaders' desire not to be seen to disagree in public...

22 September 2005

Hands off our pensions

JANICE GODRICH, president of the civil service union PCS, recently spoke to the socialist about the major issues facing her union...

22 September 2005

The case for socialism

Socialism 2005: The capitalist world is increasingly wracked with poverty, economic crisis, war and terrorism...

22 September 2005

US imperialism - a weakened giant

THE TWIN disasters of Iraq and Hurricane Katrina are huge body blows to the image, cultivated by the Bush neo-conservative gang from the very first day they occupied the White House, that the US is an unstoppable, impregnabl...

22 September 2005

Socialists fight for workers' unity

West Yorkshire: SINCE THE London bombings on 7 and 21 July, Socialist Party branches have been fighting for class unity, against the war and terrorism and against racism, sometimes in situations where a racist backlash could have developed...

22 September 2005

Terror laws threaten democratic rights

WITH OVER 200 'anti-terrorism' legal measures already in existence, Tony Blair was coming under widespread criticism from civil rights campaigners and others for planning more...

22 September 2005

Fighting Bush's war machine

AS SUPPORT for Bush's imperialist adventure in Iraq continues to fall, Socialist Alternative (the Socialist Party's US counterpart) is raising the call to rebuild a mass, combative anti-war movement...

22 September 2005

Unite against war, terror and racism

ANOTHER DAY, another death toll. Unemployed men are blown up while queuing in the hope of picking up a day's construction work, then shoppers...

29 September 2005

Morrison's join the 'race to the bottom'

SUPERMARKET CHAIN Morrison's was a company in crisis, even before they started antagonising their workforce. Head hunters are apparently looking for a replacement for Bob Stott, the 62 year-old Chief Executive, as the company's performance continues, writes Andy Ford.

29 September 2005

Fight for free education

EIGHTEEN UNIVERSITIES have been identified as being effectively too middle class and have been asked to investigate why; but we know why!, writes Zena Awad, Socialist Students national co-ordinator.

29 September 2005

Poland: Right-wing parties win election

A COALITION of two right-wing parties has won Poland's first general election since the country joined the European Union (EU) in May 2004...

29 September 2005

Witch-hunt in Amicus as merger nears

THREE AMICUS members of staff - Des Heemskerk, Jimmy Warne and Cathie Willis - have been suspended from their jobs in Amicus...

29 September 2005

Anger grows amongst industrial workers

THE GATE Gourmet struggle in Heathrow Airport has been a massive issue for thousands of trade unionists this summer...

29 September 2005

Don't sell off Peabody homes!

PROTESTERS REPRESENTING thousands of tenants from Peabody Trust estates demonstrated on 21 September outside Peabody's HQ in Southwark at Peabody management's plans to sell off its housing...

29 September 2005

Anger at occupation of Iraq

24 September anti-Iraq war demos: TENS OF thousands took to the streets of London on Saturday 24 September to protest against the occupation of Iraq...

29 September 2005

Where are the Lib Dems going?

THE LIBERAL Democrat identity crisis was exposed at their conference. Leader Charles Kennedy tried to deflect criticism that the party was...

29 September 2005

Waiting for Gordon

BLAIR IS going - and should go - but his replacement as prime minister by Gordon Brown, whether in the immediate or medium future, will bring no relief to working-class people in this country...

29 September 2005

Labour's great NHS sell-off

SPENDING ON the health service has doubled since Labour was elected in 1997...

29 September 2005

NHS in danger

Protest and strike back now: IN SPITE of New Labour's propaganda, the NHS is in danger. In their headlong rush to privatise and cut costs, the government are threatening...