Solidarity 050, 20 April 2004

Bush and Blair back Sharon - Unions must condemn Blair!

By John O'Mahony The decision of the Sharon government, with the backing of the USA and Britain, to impose on the Palestinian people an Israeli "solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will, if it goes ahead, lead to further generations of conflict between Israel on the one side and the Palestinians and the Arab world on the other. Israel is to withdraw from Gaza, uprooting the Israeli settlements there but keeping military outposts. The major Israeli settlements in the West Bank, some of them deep in Palestinian territory, will stay. Israel will annex a sizeable part of the area on...

Network Rail ballot: vote "yes"!

By a an RMT member The RMT has called a ballot for industrial action of its 7,000 members at Network Rail. These workers include signalling, maintenance and station staff. The ballot over the closure of the final salary pension scheme, pay, and travel facilities, will run from 27 April to 17 May. It raises the prospect of the first national rail stoppage in a decade. Signal staff will be the cutting edge in this dispute, and it is important to get the right strategy for this action from the start. During the last signalworkers' dispute the RMT did not ballot supervisory staff and they were...

Majnoun

by Mehrdad Seyf, performed recently at the Riverside Studios The 'majnoun' of the title is mad with love, and refers to an Iranian story something like 'Romeo and Juliet'. The play is about an Iranian woman living in Britain who has to make up her mind who to marry, her English fiancé or an Iranian friend. The play would appeal most to British and Iranian people who are in a British-Iranian relationship: regrettably, of limited appeal then! The principal interest of the play is in references to a period in Iranian history, the regime of Reza Shah, father of the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was...

Thinking about abortion

'My Foetus', by Julia Black, Channel Four They show dying people on telly. They show starving people on telly. They show people killed by war and communal conflict on telly. No one objects. But when someone wants to show a three to four minute uncomplicated medical procedure there is great controversy. Of course the procedure was an abortion and it was shown, very late at night, in Julia Black's film, My Foetus, on 20 April on Channel Four. Predictably the pro-lifers were up in arms. Abortion is a taboo subject. One in three women will have an abortion, but very few will talk about it...

Inside Israel-Palestine

Opinions on Bush and Sharon's plan, refuseniks and Gaza, compiled by David Merhav Bush-Sharon plan stupid, but very scary By Reuven Kaminer * A cold chill goes down our spine when we are forced, in the absence of any other rational explanation, to realise that George Bush and most of his advisors actually and really believe their own anti-terrorist rhetoric. There can be no other explanation for Bush's blatant political stupidity in complying with Sharon's request for a major shift in United States official policy in exchange for the Gaza evacuation plan. Faced with a major crisis of U.S...

The miners' strike 1984-5

We continue our analysis of the miners' strike with a recap of the events of 25 April-12 May 1984 and a look at how Labour should have fought. The events 25 April: Labour Party national executive votes to support the strike and to ask every Party member to donate 50p a week. 26 April: High Court says "No" to NUM policy on investment of pension funds in Britain. 30 April: 150 strong women's picket at Thoresby colliery, Notts. They broke through the police lines twice. End of April: Support committees begin to be set up. 2 May: Central Electricity Generating Board figures show more oil being...

The writing on the wall

Going bust for an education We don't want your vote BNP's new Euro-bigots 'Left-wing' xenophobia Bridges to nowhere Going bust for an education A record number of people are expected to declare themselves bankrupt this summer. Many of them will be students trying to get rid of their credit card, student loan and other debts. According to the Department for Education and Skills, 899 students and graduates became insolvent last year, compared with 276 in 2002. Some students figure that the penalities of becoming bankrupt at the age of 21 are less than having a life-long debt. Especially while...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.