Solidarity 028, 17 April 2003

By Adie Kemp UNISON's National Executive Committee comes up for re-election over the next two months. The whole committee is facing re-election, and the left inside the union has fielded the largest united slate of candidates since the union's foundation. Thirty four candidates across regional and national seats are standing on a UNISON United Left ticket, and all expectations are that the left will increase its representation on the new committee. A particularly hard-fought contest looks set to occur in the Health Group seats. The left is standing Margaret Bean from North Glasgow, Adrian O...

Sussex District of the T&GWU is establishing a new branch for lorry drivers, using the Web as a prime recruitment tool. Many drivers now use laptop computers to keep in touch from the cab whilst away from home, both in the UK and abroad. The website also carries Russian-language material. Firms from Eastern Europe, paying very low wages, threaten to undercut UK-based firms in international haulage, and the branch is working to recruit drivers whose first language is not English. At present the branch membership is mostly Sussex-based drivers who do both domestic and international haulage. But...

By Patrick Murphy, Leeds NUT The National Union of Teacher (NUT) is alone among teacher unions in refusing to sign up to a national "agreement" between Government and unions which claims to offer workload reductions in return for acceptance of unqualified people teaching classes. The union's attitude is absolutely right: the workload reductions are a mirage. Behind the "agreement" is the idea that the chronic teacher shortage can be resolved by employing unqualified staff on the cheap. Refusing to sign, however, is not the same as fighting the proposals. At this year's NUT Annual Conference in...

By a Central Trains driver The RMT strikes to restore the guards'' safety role are set to continue this week. The action is mainly being taken by senior conductors and guards but has led to most services being cancelled in the those companies that have been balloted. The impact of the strikes should start to increase now as ballot results for action have now been returned from Midland Mainline (St Pancras, Notts, Derby, Sheffield, Leeds), Wales and Borders and Wessex Trains. The RMT now has to step up the action. Midland Mainline makes the profits for the National Express Group's clutch of...

By Jill Mountford At a recall conference in Brighton on 15 April, Fire Brigades Union delegates overwhelmingly rejected a pay deal that had initially been recommended by their union leadership. Brigades from all over Britain sent a clear message to FBU leader Andy Gilchrist that they will not accept a pay deal that has 'modernisation' strings attached. If it comes to it, the left in the union feels it would be better to have deputy Prime Minister John Prescott carry through his threat of imposing a deal. That would create a chance to broaden out the dispute to the wider trade union movement...

On Thursday 1 May, 160 Socialist Alliance candidates will be standing in council wards around England, and a Scottish Socialist Party slate in the Scottish Parliament elections. They - and a few rebel-Labour, Socialist Party, and independent working-class candidates - will give voters a chance to speak out against privatisations, sell-offs, contracting-out, cuts, and the Iraq war. The Scottish Socialist Party stands to win six seats in the Scottish Parliament - up from its present one seat - if its opinion-poll scores hold up. Alison Brown is one of the Socialist Alliance candidates, standing...

In Solidarity 26 we printed an appeal for discussion and collaboration on the left so that we can united the maximum forces for effective action in the new political ferment around us. Over the coming weeks we will carry comments and responses, starting this week with a contribution from Alan Johnson, author of a forthcoming biography of Hal Draper. (Full text of the appeal here ). The call for unity on the revolutionary left issued by the AWL is very much to be welcomed. The opportunity for the growth of a rational, democratic, revolutionary, green, "from below" socialism is palpable. The...

By Martyn Hudson The toppling of Saddam's regime by coalition troops has led to some interesting political debates on the left. One of the most intriguing was Ian Donovan's response to AWL criticism of the CPGB/Weekly Worker "victory to Saddam Hussein for the gutless" take on the war. For arguing that Weekly Worker's "Victory to the people of Iraq; defeat for US/UK imperialism" headline basically amounted to the same line as that of the perennially foolish "anti-imperialists" Workers' Power, the AWL is lambasted as racists: "For the AWL, the Arab people of Iraq only have the right to resist...

A few months ago I got lost in the backstreets of Leeds looking for a certain church. I came upon a man locking up his shop and I asked him where the All Hallows Church was. He answered, "I'm going that way. I'll show you". We walked along - it was quite a distance - chatting. A man not far off fifty, he told me he was from Pakistan. He asked me what was happening at the church, and I told him there was to be a debate for and against religion. Interested, he asked me questions about the debate, finally: "And you, what side are you on?" I said: "Oh, I'm on the devil's side", putting it like...

By Dan Katz The fascist British National Party is contesting 221 council wards in May 2003 and has announced its intention to stand in 400 in 2004. The BNP is aiming to emerge as a major political force by 2004. They are concentrating on building bases in the North West, North East and Yorkshire. BNP leader, Nick Griffin, will stand in Oldham, where he took 16% of the vote in the general election. The BNP will also contest 13 of the 15 seats in Burnley where they won three council places last year. The BNP is all things to all people. In the North East the party has claimed to be Britain's...