Workers' Liberty

We are probably on the way to a Tory government. In the local elections on 1 May, not only did Labour do badly; the Tories did well. An opinion poll on the weekend of 7-8 May showed the Tories ahead of Labour by 49% to 23%.

In France, students and teachers are continuing a huge strike against the Sarkozy government’s planned attacks on education which threaten to demolish state education, and open the way for a Blair-style “choice agenda” and private-sector expansion into education.

Sheffield was to be the second city in England to host a Hooters franchise — the American restaurant chain where young “cheer leader/surfer girl-next-door” waitresses, wearing a uniform of “wh

May Day, the International Workers’ Day, is known as a commemoration of the Haymarket riots in Chicago on 4 May 1886. But the reason why May Day was first celebrated internationally — the struggle for the eight-hour working day — is often forgotten.

Today we are witness to an example of what is possible. Over 200,000 teachers will take national action to defend our pay. We will be joined by around 100,000 civil servants and 25,000 FE lecturers.

Two days after the polls closed in Zimbabwe's presidential election, 77 tonnes of mortars, rockets and ammunition were dispatched from China.

It is time for the trade union movement to face facts with New Labour.

As British teachers are mobilising for a historic strike, their French counterparts are engaged in a bitter struggle of their own, in the face of a ferocious government attack and a scandalously timid

NUT Strike Rallies

Central London: March from Lincoln’s Inn Fields 11am, rally at Central Hall 1pm
Newcastle: Grays Monument, Midday
Manchester: Friends’ Meeting House, 11am

The mayor of London receives the salary of a Cabinet Minister - that is, £137,579 per annum plus expenses. The latter are bound to be high.

On Thursday the 21st of February, we will find out if some 450 members of the TGWU/Unite have voted in favour of national strike action, an event which would be a first in Shelter's 41-year history.

Will other public sector unions pull forward their disputes over Gordon Brown’s two per cent pay limit so that they hit the Government together with the postal workers?

By Mark Osborn

The TUC-organised festival which celebrates a key struggle in the fight for trade union rights in Britain took place over the weekend of 14-15 July in the Dorset village of Tolpuddle.

Bakerloo strike over lone working

Following a 94.5% yes vote to take strike action, drivers and detrainment workers on the Bakerloo line will be out this Friday to force management to withdraw their plans for ‘lone-working’.

By Colin Waugh

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By: Jeb Sprague and Wadner Pierre

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jun 19 (IPS) - A two-day transport strike last week gripped Haiti's major cities and underscored a mounting crisis over fuel prices, which rose nearly 20 percent in just two weeks.

Port-au-Prince, le 12 juin 2007 &endash; (AHP)- La grève de 48 heures lancée par des syndicats de chauffeurs a paralysé ce mardi le transport en commun à Port-au-Prince et dans la plupart des villes de province.

Martin Thomas replies to Sheila Cohen

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Mansour Osanloo, president of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company in Iran was last week sentenced to five years in prison, according to the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI), based in Canada.

Sheila Cohen responds to two reviews, by Tom Unterrainer and Martin Thomas, of her book on trade unionism, Ramparts of Resistance: Why Workers Lost Their Power, and How to Get It Back (Pluto Press, 2006)

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The new Iranian Workers Bulletin has an interview with bus workers' union leader Mansour Ossanlou, as well as updates on other workers' struggles in Iran.

After the attack on Sanitarios Maracay workers recently in Aragua state in Venezuela, more evidence of anti-union activity by the Chavistas.

According to Greg Wilpert on the Venezuelanalysis website:

From Workers' Liberty Teachers NUT conference bulletin 2007
Those of you who have not been to NUT Annual Conference for a few years may find the experience a very odd one.

From Workers' Liberty Teachers NUT conference bulletin 2007
Support Staff at Central Foundation Girls’ School in East London won a dispute over redundancies just before the Easter holidays began.

Teachers’ vow more protests to come over the next few weeks!

April 8, 2007- According to the Teachers’ Trade Association of Iran’s website and other reliable sources about 45 teachers of the province of Hamadan were arrested on Sunday, April 8, 2007 and then transferred to an unknown location. About 30 of the arrested teachers were arrested in the office the teachers’ Trade Association of Hamadan and a number of other educators were arrested in their homes and other places; this included all members of the board of directors of the association in Hamadan.

Tom Unterrainer's review (Solidarity 3/108) of Sheila Cohen's book "Ramparts of Resistance" sees the main reason for the British labour movement's defeats since the 1970s in "bureaucratisation" at workplace rep level.