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By Mick Duncan
A No Sweat study trip set off on Saturday 20 September for a 10 day visit to independent union activists in Puebla, central Mexico.
No Sweat will discuss with maquila workers, and activists at the massive VW car plant - site of the oldest independent trade union in Mexico. We will meet representatives of the Zapatistas and join the CAT workers' organising centre on their educational theatre tour.
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'S' did not apply for asylum on arrival at Heathrow Airport. He did not know that asylum could be claimed at passport controls in an airport. Instead, he applied for asylum the day after his arrival.
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By Clive Bradley
It is still not known who planted the bomb which killed Ayatollah Muhammed Bakir al-Hakim in Najaf last Friday (August 29), along with 95 others, and wounding nearly 150 others. Rival Shi'a Muslim factions have been blamed, along with Saddam loyalists, the occupying forces themselves, Saudi agents, and representatives of al-Qaida. Whoever was responsible, it represents a major blow to American attempts to construct a stable regime in Iraq, and reveals the huge gulf between the rhetoric of securing peace in the country and the bitter reality.
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By Faz Velmi
Rainbow flags adorned every building in the vicinity of Canal Street, Manchester's famous gay village as tens of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people descended on the city. This year Manchester's Pride celebrations over the August Bank holiday would be even bigger than usual, as it hosted the "official" European Pride event. "Europride" was not just the usual hedonism because along with the partying there was the rare opportunity to discuss politics within the LGBT community.
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By Sam Ruby
Solidarity obtained some pages from Alistair Campbell's diaries (some he tore out and chucked in the bin).
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Tony Blair has agreed to a TUC proposal to set up a "public services forum"-regular meetings between the Government and the unions to discuss the New Labour "reform" agenda for the NHS and other public services. The unions have a right to "advise" the Government on things they oppose! Is this-as the Tories would have it-"a return to beer and sandwiches" politicking? To the days when union leaders and Labour Ministers had a close relationship? The days when Labour Ministers were nominally accountable to the labour movement?
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In June the Socialist Workers Party packed a meeting of the Birmingham Socialist Alliance with newly signed-up SWP members to remove the entire Executive of the local Alliance-and replace them with SWP members and fellow travellers. The SWP had been promoting the idea of a "Peace and Justice" candidate for next year's Euro-election-mounted jointly with the leaders of the local mosques-that is, an alliance with a religious hierarchy. Comrades in Birmingham, fearing rightly that such an alliance would be a betrayal of independent working-class politics, rejected the SWP policy. Those comrades had to go.
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Union rights: Haitian Free Trade Zone
The Haiti Support Group is campaigning for union rights for workers in Haiti's Free Trade areas. The Group has made the links between the fight at Tarrant, in Mexico, where Tarrant customers include Tommy Hilfiger and Levi's, and the conditions of workers who make for these same companies in Haiti.
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By Mick Duncan
In July workers at the Tarrant Ajalpan factory set up an independent union, SUITTAR (Sindicato Único Independiente de Trabajadores de la Empresa Tarrant México) following strike action in June.
Tarrant workers speak of regular forced overtime, unpaid work time, being locked in the factory, verbal and sexual abuse, anti-union reprisals such as placing the names of strikers on do-not-hire lists at other factories, and the aggressive denial of freedom of association.
