Solidarity 116, 9 August 2007

Turkey’s general election: a victory for democracy

By Alan Thomas The recent general elections in Turkey saw a decisive victory for the ruling, mildly Islamist Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AK Party) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The election, called in light of the Turkish constitutional court’s intervention in the presidential selection process and also following sabre-rattling from the Army who have previously toppled Islamist-led governments, saw the AK Party increase its vote by almost 13% on the previous general election. In fact, Erdogan took more than 46% - a margin unheard of since the 1980s. This obviously gives him a mandate...

Civil Service: build for selective action!

Civil Service: build selective action By a PCS member THE civil service union PCS and the postal workers’ union CWU have separate national disputes over low pay, below inflation pay offers, massive job losses, and privatisation/outsourcing. Despite national action by both unions it is clear that the Brown Government has no intention of making any meaningful concessions to either union. Right now the Treasury is clearing the annual pay settlements for the myriad devolved civil service bargaining units. All are guaranteed to mean civil servants receiving less than the rate of inflation in 2007...

Floods and droughts — the solutions are in our hands

By Stuart Jordan Freak weather conditions have emerged with increasing frequency over the last few years. This summer has seen two million people on the Indian sub-continent have their villages submerged by flood water, an extended heat wave in continental Europe and the worst floods in centuries in the UK. So has the recent weather convinced everyone that global warming is happening and we better be prepared? Well some parts of big business have stopped denying the reality of climate change, but are now saying that it is not caused by human activity, that it is a natural phenomenon. That it...

Solidarity 3-116 now online!

Download the pages, as pdfs, here (click on "read more", or read it on this website by clicking here . Page 2: Floods and droughts: the solutions are in our hands, Obituary: Mick Cashman, Challenge the BNP everywhere Page 3: Editorial: One for all and all for one Pages 4 and 5: Industrial reports; Civil service: build for selective action; Reject health offer; Post Office Page 6: Worker run hotel under threat; Turkey’s general election: a victory for democracy; International workers’ news Page 7: Peace in Darfur? Plane stupid, Close down Campsfield Page 8-9: The birth of the new unions...

Plane stupid

By Louise Gold Between 14-21 August “The Camp for Climate Action” will make its bid for the world’s attention to the effects and causes of climate change, somewhere along the fringes of Heathrow airport. The organisers’ aims are to highlight aviation as “the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK”; and Heathrow as “the heart of the UK’s aviation industry”. The location and timing of the camp, whilst government plans are set to expand Heathrow through local villages and communities, is “an opportunity to highlight bias in the corrupt planning process in favour of big...

40 years after the Sexual Offences Act

By Tom Unterrainer “Frankly it's an extremely unpleasant Bill and I myself don't like it. It may well be twenty years ahead of public opinion; certainly working-class people in the north jeer at their Members at the weekend and ask them why they're looking after the buggers at Westminster instead of looking after the unemployed at home. It has gone down very badly that the Labour Party should be associated with such a Bill.” Richard Crossman, 3rd July 1967, The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, Volume 2 “You have given more preference to those who stand for gay rights than those who are concerned...

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