Solidarity 3/41, 20 November 2003

Bush, no! US workers, yes!

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By Gerry Bates

Vast numbers of Americans and millions of American workers feel the same way about Bush as we do.

They did not vote for him - his opponent in the Presidential election, the Democrat Al Gore, got more votes than Bush did. It was dirty-dealing and chicanery by his brother Jeb, Governor of Florida, that put George Bush in the White House, not a majority of those who voted in the 2000 election.

The majority who voted, voted against Bush. Millions did not vote at all!

Blair squeaks hospitals vote

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The government won the vote on foundation hospitals in the House of Commons on 19 November by 302 votes to 285, a majority of only 17 votes. There were 62 Labour rebels.

"Choice" is one of the watchwords of the Blair government. In politics, "choice" is one of the key defining words between left and right. Ministers endlessly harping on about "choice", in the NHS and elsewhere, define the Blair government as a government of the right, not the left.

Press Gang: Will the Sun shine for Howard?

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By Lucy Clement

Could the Sun win it again for the Tories? That's the tantalising prospect held out to new party leader Michael Howard by News International boss Rupert Murdoch this week.

It was a clever piece of news management on Murdoch's part. All week rival papers had been printing critical stories about the appointment of his son James as Chief Executive. What better way to deflect them than with a juicy alternative story to run?

US student anti-war campaign: Drop the charges against the Berkeley 3

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By Jim Bywater

On Monday 17 November the Dean of Students at UC Berkeley, Karen Kenney turned the clock back decades by approving sanctions against three Berkeley students for their part in a peaceful campus sit-in on 20 March. (For more details about the event and the "trial" go to www.antiwarnetwork.org)

Rally the left to combat anti-semitism: Don't demonise Israel!

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On Sunday 15 November two synagogues in Istanbul were car-bombed, killing 23 people and injuring about 300. The same day, buildings of a Jewish boys' school in Gagny, near Paris, were burned down.

The day before, Germany's main conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union, finally voted to expel one of its MPs for an anti-semitic speech he had made on 3 October. A German army general had already been sacked from his post for backing the MP.

I love Paris in the autumn

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By Mick Duncan

In between marching, trying out the cheapest wine on sale and getting lost, No Sweat participated in two sessions at the European Social Forum (12-15 November).

The first was organised by the Clean Clothes Campaign on codes of conduct and corporate responsibility. The seminar was in three parts, with academics, campaigners and trade unionists on the panel. No Sweat tried to appeal to the newly enlightened audience to get active in taking on sweatshop exploitation and to support the Tarrant workers, still sacked and blacklisted in Mexico.

Plan to send in Turkish troops abandoned

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Controversial plans for Turkish forces to occupy Iraq as peacekeepers have been abandoned.

The plans, which were voted through by Turkey's National Assembly in October, received widespread opposition from Iraq's US-installed interim Governing Council, Kurdish and Islamic leaders, and much of the Turkish public and media.