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By Colin Foster
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline recently agreed an £18 million pay package for its chief executive.
The workers have been offered a 2% rise - in real terms, a pay cut.
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By Rhodri Evans
The threat from the far right in the 10 June Euro-elections may come as much from the UK Independence Party as from the British National Party.
The BNP hopes to win a Euro-seat in the north-west. But the UKIP has edged ahead of the Lib-Dems in one opinion poll. It is spending more on the Euro-elections than Labour and the Tories put together. It has the backing of multi-millionaire Paul Sykes, actress Joan Collins, freelance racist Robert Kilroy-Silk, and former Clinton campaign manager Dick Morris.
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By Harry Glass
What do the surprise results of the Indian elections mean for the Indian working class?
The first surprise was the defeat of the Hindu chauvinist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has ruled India for the past five years. Most commentators thought that a BJP victory was inevitable, yet the party lost 4% of its vote compared with 1999 and more than 40 of its 182 seats.
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By Martin Thomas
The left-wing monthly Red Pepper, and weekly Tribune, have joined forces to promote a "charter for the minority press".
What stung them to action was a decision by W H Smith, who control most of the wholesale trade in periodicals in Britain, to cut back still further on the number of magazines it will take. Royal Mail has also announced that from September 2004 it will scrap its Newspaper Registration Service, under which registered newspapers can go by first-class post for a second-class stamp.
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The leaders of the 'Big Four' unions, Amicus, GMB, TGWU, and Unison - the trade-union 'mountains' - have recently made noises to suggest that they are about to go into labour. But so far they have not given birth even to the proverbial mouse.
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Support Colombian oil workers' strike
The Colombian government is attempting to used military force to break the month-long strike at Ecopetrol, the national oil company.
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By Mick Duncan
The International Olympics Committee (IOC) is turning a blind eye to the super-exploitation of workers producing sportswear marketed around the Athens Olympic Games.
The IOC ducks responsibility by stating that control over standards in this area lies with the National Olympic Committees, while the National Committees refer back to the IOC. But the Olympics Charter states that "all rights to the Olympic Symbol, Flag, and Motto belong exclusively to the IOC', giving them authority over licensing of National Committees and companies producing Olympics branded goods.
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Come to Highbury Magistrates' Court on 9 July (Highbury Corner, London N7)! Activists Ewa Jasiewicz, recently returned from 8 months solidarity work in Iraq, and community film-maker Pennie Quinton have been charged with "Aggravated Trespass" whilst protesting inside and against the Iraq Procurement Conference in London on 27 April.
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Key dates for solidarity
The new Iraqi Workers' Solidarity Group made a number of plans at our meeting on 25 May:
We will be organising a fund-raising benefit comedy night for Iraq's new trade unions. We'll be selling a t-shirt with the same aim.
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By Clive Bradley
George W Bush says the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq will go ahead at the end of June, and is seeking a United Nations resolution to that effect. UN representative al-Akhdar al-Brahimi is already choosing a caretaker government which will hold power until elections are held - by the end of January 2005 at the latest.
