Solidarity 024, 20 February 2003

Labour movement news

Journalists strike at greedy Gannett In brief Peugeot Coventry strike Train guards’ safety ballot likely Journalists strike at greedy Gannett National Union of Journalists members at Newsquest Bradford, a division of the giant US media firm Gannett, are striking over pay. The journalists walked out on 30 and 31 January, and began a week’s strike on Monday 17 February. Picket lines have been set up outside the company’s offices in Bradford, Shipley, Otley, Keighley, Skipton and Ilkley. The chapel is asking for a pay rise of £1,500 each per year, which would still leave most of the journalists...

A paper for the working class

Every single part of Murdoch’s vast empire of papers and media supports Bush and Blair’s drive for war. On one man’s say so, irrespective of what “public opinion” really is, these papers pump out war propaganda. That is why it is so important that the labour movement and socialist groups have their own papers to get their message across. We need papers like Solidarity. Upholding the best traditions of journalism, we are on the ball in our reporting, rigorous in our analysis, and completely partisan in our affiliations: we serve the working class. We need a lot more funds to increase our...

FBU dispute: The fifth element: no victimisations!

Support Steve Godward! By Vicki Morris Firefighter Steve Godward was sacked in early February from the West Midlands Fire Service on trumped up charges relating to the FBU pay dispute. He has faced the additional pressure of a threat from WMFS management to put his young son Connor out of the West Midlands Fire Service nursery he attends. On Monday 17 February Steve and his supporters lobbied a public meeting of the Fire Authority asking that Connor be allowed to stay at the nursery: there is no waiting list for the nursery-Connor is not taking anyone else's place-and everyone involved in...

Debate: congestion charge

C-charge must be part of bigger plan Unlike Jane Sprigg (Solidarity, 6 February) I have never had a car. Having to live on Incapacity Benefit, like the poorest of Londoners I could not afford one. I have to rely on public transport or just not travel. With gridlock meaning a five mile journey taking two hours and having to stand on arthritic legs often my only option is, don't travel. When I could travel, a long journey by train and bus meant getting up at 5am to stand a chance of being on time for work. My partner and our son are both asthmatic. Pollution caused by cars is a factor in this...

World Social Forum: Arundhati Roy

“On a quiet day I can hear another world breathing” Prize-winning Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy spoke at the closing session of the World Social Forum on 27 January, held in Porto Alegre, Brazil. I’ve been asked to speak about “How to confront Empire?” It’s a huge question, and I have no easy answers. When we speak of confronting “Empire,” we need to identify what “Empire” means. Does it mean the US Government (and its European satellites), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, and multinational corporations? Or is it something more than that...

international women's day: join no sweat to protest

On International Women’s Day, 8 March, No Sweat will be organising a series of protests against women’s sweatshop labour. For London, No Sweat has produced a leaflet with a map of “Streets of Shame” on one side and a factsheet on the other. On the map are the locations of the Disney, Gap, Nike and Puma stores around the Oxford Circus area. We will be protesting outside all these shops from 12-3, ending with a rally at Puma on Carnaby St at 3pm. We are asking people to go into shops, take a garment to the customer services manager and ask him or her about the conditions under which the product...

High Court throws out destitution policy

Defend asylum seekers! By Lucy Clement People applying for asylum in Britain are facing attack from three sides as Tony Blair pledges to cut the number of asylum claimants by half by September. But refugees have found unlikely support in the form of a High Court judge, who has ruled that Government policy denying benefits to many asylum seekers is a breach of international human rights law. The Government had been trying to make destitution for refugees its official policy. Asylum seekers who failed to file their claim immediately on entry or to convince immigration officers they have a...

Debate and discussion: Iraq - don't trust Bush

Don’t be an optimist for Bush By Martin Thomas Some of Eric’s arguments are a valuable corrective to tendencies on the Left to say no wherever the USA says yes, or to assume that everything will be for the worst in the USA’s war drive. I think, however, that he ends up making himself a mirror-image of the nay-sayers, and making the assumption most favourable to US strategy wherever there is doubt. First, however: if the four “assumptions” which Eric mentions all prove false, what then? It makes no difference to our conclusions if the USA gets UN approval, or if public opinion becomes more pro...

Debate and discussion: Iraq

The left is wrong about Iraq By Eric Lee The left in Britain, and no doubt around the world, is completely caught up in the excitement of a rapidly-growing anti-war movement. I write these words a week before the 15 February international day of protest — a day which is certain to bring millions out in the streets in all the world’s major cities. I can certainly understand the enthusiasm of many on the left who after so many years out in the cold are delighted to once again be part of — and in some cases, leading — a huge popular movement. To my comrades on the left I can only say: enjoy it...

Debate: Ban all child porn!

Gerry Byrne’s ideas about child pornography (Solidarity 3/23) sit unhappily alongside each other. She says: 1. All child porn is abusive 2. Should people be prosecuted for simply looking at images? 3. Maybe there are images made in which real children are not really abused. 4. All commercial sexual use of children is abuse. 5. Oppose book burning; the way to combat bad ideas is counter-argument. 6. Maybe products in which real children are not abused should carry labels saying “no real children were involved in sexual acts”; this would stop people being punished for thoughts, rather than for...

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