Workers' Liberty

By Martin Thomas

The Blair government has latched on to a big report about global warming published by Nicholas Stern, former chief economist at the World Bank and now an adviser to Gordon Brown.

Workers at the Daily Star forced their bosses to scrap a planned anti-Muslim tirade when the National Union of Journalists chapel passed a resolution that the page should be pulled and threatened strike action to back it up.

Louise Gold reviews Marie Antoinette

The true story of Marie Antoinette is one made up of malicious rumour, compelling plot and a tragic end — for her. The Sofia Coppola film version of her story, starring Kirsten Dunst, neglects historical context; it is less tragic and more fun. Dunst is Marie Antoinette as queen, as woman, as mother, as wife, as foreigner, as family member, as teenager, as symbol of monarchy...but not as the representative of an entire social system — as the French revolutionaries of 1789 identified her. The film is nostalgic, but not for the ancien regime: for youth and innocence and shagging boys in fields.

by Laura Schwartz

There were 220 people at Feminist Fightback on 21 October in London. This was an activist conference organised by the socialist feminist student group Education Not for Sale Women. ENS Women wanted Feminist Fightback to be a forum in which feminist voices of all perspectives could be heard, where everyone felt comfortable in joining in the debate.

By Mike Fenwick

A flurry of numbers and initials litter most articles about the crisis in the NHS. Knowing what PBR, PFI etc means, or being able to quote the latest waiting list statistics for your local hospital can be helpful to activists. But are these facts and figures enough to explain why thousands of people are coming out in defence of the health service on demonstrations every week up and down the country.

The five-month popular occupation of Oaxaca, Mexico, was crushed on the 27-29 October when thousands of federal riot police invaded the city, killing at least three protesters and an American journalist working for Indymedia. Hundreds were reported to be injured. The city had been under the control of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), a coalition of indigenous, trade union and student activists created in response to the state governor Ulises Ruiz’s failed attempt to evict striking teachers in June.

Georgia: echoes of 21?

IN recent weeks, tensions between Russia and Georgia have escalated enormously – a fact largely ignored by the British left. Most of us would be hard-pressed to remember the most basic details about this tiny independent republic now under possible threat of Russian aggression.

By Sofie Buckland

ON 29 October, the National Union of Students held a national demonstration in London, under the branding “Admission:Impossible”. The demo called for “fair access” and for the government not to raise tuition fees in 2010.

The anniversary of the 1956 revolution has been overshadowed by a political crisis in Hungary with violent clashes between anti-government protesters and the police. The government of the Hungarian Socialist Party is headed by Ferenc Gyurcsany a former Stalinist turned ‘successful businessman’. Tamás Krausz is an editor of Eszmélet, a left-wing journal opposed to the “pro-capitalist left and national conservative right”. He explains what’s happening.

By Stan Crooke

The EU principle of freedom of movement of labour (i.e. that the citizens of any state which is a member of the EU have an automatic right to work in another EU state) will not be extended in the UK, to cover Bulgarian and Romanian nationals, when their countries become members of the EU on 1 January 2007.

By Pat Murphy, Leeds NUT

The government is all over the place on the issue of faith schools. On the one hand, a set of prominent Blairite Ministers have been given license to stoke up a debate about the dangers of segregation and the need for “community cohesion”. On the other hand, the government seems to lack the will or the capacity to introduce even the most limited measures to ensure ethnic and religious integration.

By Sacha Ismail

In “Military coups and soldiers’ rights’ (Weekly Worker, 26 October), a response to our editorial “Keep the army out of politics” (Solidarity 3/100), the knives were out. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, they were not very sharp.

Packed meeting in Hackney

The Hackney Empire’s Marie Lloyd room was packed to capacity on Wednesday 18 October with over 100 people turning up to hear John McDonnell make his case to be leader of the Labour party.