Solidarity 038, 9 October 2003

Nursery nurses in Scotland have just completed a fresh found of strike action. Between 6-10 October nurseries were closed in Edinburgh and the Lothians, Stirling, Inverclyde, the Highlands, Orkney and Moray. 5,000 local authority nursery nurses, members of UNISON, are pursuing a pay claim for £18,500. The first strike action began in May. Unison rep Joe Di Paola said: "Our members are being driven into more and more industrial action by an employer that neither knows nor cares about the service they provide." The local authority umbrella group COSLA has said its pay offer would guarantee a top...

By a London postalworker The joint day of strike action and demonstrations announced by Unison and the CWU on Thursday 16 October is a big step in the right direction. It's high time that unions started collaborating on campaigns that can engage different groups of workers in common struggles. The £4,000 London Weighting claim around which we are united represents the extra cost to the average worker of living in the capital. It is based on cost of living, rather than falling into the trap of a figure based on "recruitment and retention" - the employer's argument. The CWU has made a great...

By Colin Foster "Fairness. Progress. Community. Tolerance. Decency. Respect." Tony Blair's speech to Labour Party conference on 30 September was full of warm words which he hoped would calm Labour's discontent. He even used the word socialism once. And then the filthy cynicism of it all spilled out. After claiming blandly that "Britain should always be open to refugees", Blair continued by hailing it as a triumph that "we have cut asylum applications by a half". "But we must go further", he continued. Make Britain of the detention centres, the apply-immediately-or-have-no-hope rules, the...

George Bush recently requested an extra $87 billion from the US Congress to pay for the occupation of Iraq. Most of that money will go on reconstruction contracts in Iraq, and most of those will go to American firms. One of the most notable was the $500 million to support troops and extinguish oil field fires for Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which Vice President Dick Cheney led from 1995 until 2000. The extent of the cronyism involved in the awarding of contracts - the links between these businesses and the US administration - is quite staggering. Here's the latest...

Dictator by Ruthven Todd From a strange land among the hills, the tall man Came; who was a cobbler and a rebel at the start Till he saw power ahead and keenly fought To seize it; crushed out his comrades then. His brittle eyes could well outstare the eagle And the young followed him with cheers and praise Until, at last, all that they knew - his nights, his days, His deeds and face were parcel of a fable. Now in the neat white house that is his home He rules the flowers and birds just like a king, And, Napoleon by the sundial, sees his fame Spread though the garden to the heap of dung; "All...