Solidarity 072, 28 April 2005

Activists in the civil service union PCS and the public services union Unison are discussing a push to revive the unions' campaign on pensions at their conferences in June. The union leaders cancelled strikes due on 23 March and 26 April on the basis of a Government promise to negotiate after the election. But there is no reason to suppose that Blair and Brown have backed off from their plans to cut public sector pensions (or that the Tories or a Tory/Lib Dem coalition would go easy on the issue). A government letter, dated 1 April, to everyone involved in "consultation" on the Local...

By Mike Rowley The racist rhetoric of the 2005 election is already leading to violent attacks. Devon and Cornwall police have made a public statement about "election-related racism" inspired by far-right parties. The far right in Britain are concentrating their bile on people of Muslim background. The BNP's party political broadcast was shown by the BBC last week, despite its explicit incitement to racism against "Iraqis and Afghans". Meanwhile, the presence of a National Front candidate in Bicester has led to physical harassment of local black and Asian people by fascist canvassers bussed in...

Schools Minister David Milliband demonstrated the Government's adoration of business involvement in schools when he declared that every FTSE company ought to become a sponsor for state secondary schools. Labour wants to channel private money, sponsorship and "expertise" into every corner and crevice of the UK school system. We already have "action zones", "clusters of excellence", Education Business Links, partnerships, providers¦ In the first of two articles on the state of the UK school system, Rosalind Robson examines the record of the private sector in education. Labour's first...

The former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan is standing against Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in Blackburn. He was sacked after making complaints about the UK goverment using information obtained under torture by the Uzbekistan government. Stan Crooke reviews a new book by Shahram Akbarzadeh, Uzbekistan and the United States - Authoritarianism, Islamism and Washington's Security Agenda (Zed books). It won't he says, answer all your questions about this former Soviet republic. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union Uzbekistan has regressed from one-party rule to one-man rule - that of President Islam...

By Dan Nichols In Romford, where I live, it seems immigration has been the only issue in the election. The charge is led by the Tories, who have published adverts in local newspapers and distributed leaflets claiming that asylum seekers are responsible for increased council tax bills. But in their wake have come several fascist/far right parties, eager to join the racist feeding frenzy. The BNP, Third Way (an offshoot of the old National Front) and UKIP are all standing in my local area. Even the Residents' Association candidates are making a big play on the issue of immigration! The BNP are...

By Cathy Nugent All the major parties say they want to "control" immigration. The Tories want a "quota system". Once a monthly or yearly quota of asylum seekers and migrants into the UK has been reached, no more will be let in. Never mind the degree of torture or persecution they have endured or the danger they continue to face, or indeed the need for particular workers with specific skills. But it won't be Michael Howard who will have to look the rape or torture victim in the face and say, "Go somewhere else, there is ˜no room' here." When Newsnight interviewer Jeremy Paxman recently asked...

By Harry Glass The diplomatic spat between Japan and China shows no sign of abating, despite several attempts at conciliation. For the last three weekends, students have attacked Japanese buildings and symbols in the capital Beijing and the Japanese consulates in Shanghai and Beijing. Similar demonstrations took place in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The demonstrations were sparked off by the Japanese government's latest approved list of history textbooks, which it publishes every four years. All but one of the textbooks fail to account for Japanese war-crimes during World War Two. Chinese people...

By John Bloxam George Galloway, the loud cheerleader for the fundamentalists and others of the Iraqi "resistance", noticeably changed tack last week when some fundamentalists turned up on his own doorstep. On Tuesday, 19 April, a group took over a meeting he was addressing in a tenants' hall. He accused the "fundamentalists" of holding him hostage, issuing a fatwa against him and threatening to string him up. Visibly shaken, Galloway then made statements for the first time about the need to calm things down in his election contest with the New Labour sitting MP, Oona King. In fact, the...

Since 17 April more than 10,000 workers from the Japanese-invested Uniden Electronics factory in Fuyong Town, Shenzhen, have been striking to win the right to set up their own trade union in the factory. This demand was originally conceded in 2000 but has never been allowed. They also want sick pay and maternity leave, permanent contracts and quality meals. This is the first time Chinese workers have ever staged a strike specifically in order to form a trade union. The workers, mostly women, began their strike after managers at the Japanese cordless phone making firm, which supplies in large...

By Paul Hampton Has Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, embraced socialism? Is his "Bolivarian revolution" about to grow over into a socialist revolution? Wide sections of the international left seem to think so. In January Chavez told the World Social Forum (WSF): "Everyday I become more convinced, there is no doubt in my mind, and as many intellectuals have said, that it is necessary to transcend capitalism. But capitalism can't be transcended from within capitalism itself, but through socialism, true socialism, with equality and justice. But I'm also convinced that it is possible to do it...