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Sacked Visteon workers are currently in the fifth week of a struggle to obtain what is rightfully theirs having been shown the door by the company after many years of service for Fords.
Editorial.The events around the G20 demonstrations have underlined the fact that, when working people stand up against capitalism, sooner or later we come slap up against the capitalist state. The police were talking up the prospects of violence well before the G20 began. Ian Tomlinson was killed by riot police on his way home. He wasn’t even part of the demonstration against the G20, just a worker going about his business. Complaints and evidence about heavy-handed and brutish policing are pouring in. Des Heemskerk led a group of workers in Basildon, concerned only about protecting their jobs, to occupy their factory - Visteon. They came up against police in full riot gear with slavering dogs on hand.
Another day and yet another action from the tenacious primary school parents of the Glasgow Save our Schools Campaign. Parents from the Our Lady of Assumption and Victoria primary schools, located in Ruchil and Govanhill, have gone into occupation in protest at their schools’ proposed closure. The Council will vote on the decision on Thursday.
Poor old Gordon Brown, down in the polls as his part in destroying the lives of millions of working people through his mismanagement of the economy is exposed to all. With his attempts to smear the Tories blowing up in his own face, things aren’t going so well for him. He thought a cabinet meeting in Glasgow, away from the City and Fleet Street, might do some good for his popularity. He was wrong.
What can you say to your son when he asks, “Why is my life so sh*te?” All you can do is listen and sympathise.Now with the recession, and the collapse of the car industry, the overtime has stopped. After Easter the working week is to be reduced and there’ll be no more shift premiums, so the take home pay will now be less than £1,300. My son now feels he cannot provide for his daughter and he is trapped in a job waiting for the eventual redundancy.
Twenty years after the event it would be fair to say that almost all football fans who went to a game that day will remember exactly where they were at 3.06pm on Saturday 15th April 1989, the day of the Hillsborough disaster. They will have little or no memory of the game they watched and what happened in it. What they will remember is groups of people on the terraces standing around radios listening as the terrible news unfolded. What they will remember is the look on the faces of players as they came out onto the pitch to start the second half, having heard the news during the break. What they will remember is the terrible silence as people left the grounds just wishing to be home, many long before the final whistle.
In the run up to Glasgow City Council’s decision on whether to go ahead with the proposed closure of twenty primary schools, and after a campaign that has seen rallies of hundreds in George Square outside the city chambers. parents at two Glasgow schools in Maryhilll, Wyndford and St Gregory’s primary schools, have occupied the buildings. Visiting the St Gregory’s occupation over a week later it was clear that the parents were determined to maintain their struggle as long as necessary.
Video evidence now proves that the man killed at the G20 demonstration, Ian Tomlinson, was the victim of an unprovoked attack by the police. The labour movement must demand the suspension of the officers involved, the pressing of criminal charges, the organisation of effective workers’ committees to ensure safety on demonstrations, and the right to assemble freely without fear of violence.
A year before the next general election is due the Labour Government is proposing another increase in top up fees for UK students. Currently universities can charge up to £3,000 per year. It is being proposed that they can be raised to £7,000. The record of New Labour on higher education has gone from bad to worse. In 1998 student grants were abolished and loans introduced. Then fees were introduced at around £1,000. A proposal for top fees up to £3,000 was introduced in 2004, to be implemented after the general election in 2005. Top up fees were implemented in 2006.
The media has been trying - not too convincingly - to claim
that the brutal response of the police in London of the past few days was a
necessary response to violent anti-G20 demonstrators. All those who
participated in the events saw a different picture, a police force intent on
provoking violence. This is clearly part of a plan to portray the peaceful
protestors as "violent", in effect an attempt to criminalise ordinary people
protesting. Here is an eyewitness account.
Around 35 thousand people packed into central London on Saturday 28th of March in a militant protest at the upcoming G20 summit.Under the slogan of “Put people first” the demonstrators aimed to bring world leaders to heel over the economic crisis.
Workers across all industries are feeling the squeeze as the bosses try to pass on the costs of the recession to them. Some workers are getting below-inflation pay-rises. Others are getting no pay rise at all. However, most would take for-granted that, if they remain in work, they will be paid something for their labour. But at King's College London they are advertising a post which pays nothing at all.The post is voluntary! The college ‘generously’ offers to reimburse expenses!
Britain’s commercial television industry is in crisis. Channel 4 has announced plans to cut 150 jobs next year (from a total workforce of 1,000), and has reduced its programme budget by £25m, after already cutting £15m from last year’s budget. Britain’s newest Channel, Five, has announced 87 job cuts (nearly a third of its workforce). But one of the bleakest stories is that of Britain’s oldest commercial broadcaster, ITV. They have forecast the recent wave of job cuts to reach the 1,000 mark by the middle of this year, along with a £65m cut in their £1billion programming budget, putting an end to many popular programmes, including high-end costume dramas.
The life of Sylvia Pankhurst is rich in experience for all activists in
the labour movement. The names of the Pankhurst family are synonymous
with the struggle to win the vote for women, but what distinguished
Sylvia Pankhurst's approach from that of her mother Emmeline and her
sister Christabel were class issues.
March 23rd saw the BNP once again make another ugly appearance on the streets of Glasgow, the second time they have done so in three days. On this occasion they could only muster two supporters, seemingly their hardcore in the west of Scotland. As usual this pair carried out their Laurel and Hardy style act with the big intimidating one, complete with scary red bobble hat, remaining silent as the smaller overly confident character spewed out a range of contradictory positions and bigoted lies. 
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