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Pete Radcliff, an AWL member, stood in Nottingham East under the banner of Socialist Unity. He got 373 votes, or 1.2% of the poll, about a third of his score in 2001. He writes about the lessons of the campaign
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By Bruce Robinson
In Manchester Withington, the Liberal Democrats overturned an 11,524 Labour majority with a 20% swing to win the seat by 667 votes.
Early in the campaign, I was called by a Lib Dem phone canvasser. When asked why I wasn’t going to vote for them, I said “It’s because you’re a bunch of cynical opportunists.” (Not the whole reason, but a good enough starting point!) The Lib Dem campaign bore this out.
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ARGENTINA
Last month a judged ordered that a public notice of ownership be posted at the ceramics Zanon factory in Argentina.
The notice would have allowed a venture capitalist or the previous owner to buy Zanon Ceramics for pennies.
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Trade unionists in Pakistan face a daily struggle to organise. The unions have often been hijacked by reactionary political parties. Farooq Sulehria of the Labour Party Pakistan tells the story.
In Pakistan people often take on two jobs or have some small business after work to survive. All our governments, whether khaki or civilian, have had the same IMF-World Bank dictated neo-liberal agendas: privatisation, downsizing, and an end to subsidies. It may have been different had there been a workers’ party built by trade unions. But
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The basic statement of the Make Poverty History campaign, and a response by No Sweat
TRADE INJUSTICE, DEBT AND LACK OF AID
Today, the gap between the world’s rich and poor is wider than ever. Global injustices such as poverty, AIDS, malnutrition, conflict and illiteracy remain rife.
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In the election to the Westminster Parliament, the “moderate” Ulster Unionist Party led by David Trimble — who lost his seat plus four others — was almost wiped out by the Paisleyite Democratic Unionist Party.
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Read part 1 here.
REFORM THE SIX COUNTIES?
The entity designed for majority-Protestant self-rule was to have a new political mechanism transplanted into it.
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TESCOPOLY
The announcement by Tesco boss Terry Leahy that his company made £65 million profit per second last year was greeted with joy by the capitalist community. Declan Curry of the London Stock Exchange was only surprised at how muted the announcement was. “We should not be ashamed of profit,” he said. Tesco says it will “create” 25,000 jobs next year.
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While George Bush hypocritically rails against nuclear proliferation in Iran, the US and Europe are colluding in extending nuclear energy in the countries affected by the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. This survey — we have edited it slightly for reasons of space — was published recently on the Schnews website.
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Duncan Morrison reviews “Skint”, BBC1, Mondays, 10.35pm
The documentary series Skint has reminded me how valuable good documentaries can be. Using a not quite fly on the wall style, the makers ask questions to their subjects as they go through their lives. They follow a number of people and families in the Birmingham area as they struggle to make ends meet. These are Britain’s poor.
