Solidarity 118, 27 September 2007

At TUC conference motions were passed calling for coordinated action, and use was even found for the old slogan that “unity is strength”. But behind the scenes union leaders were singing a different tune... Unison’s Health group ballot on pay got a 2 to 1 vote for accepting a staged 2.5% deal. This followed efforts by full time officers to close down any campaign for a no vote. A majority of NHS workers in England will now get a rise of 1.9% this year, half of even the most conservative inflation figure. The setback was used to try and pressure Unison’s Local Government Executive to back down...

Last month the Camden No 3 (London Underground) branch of the RMT rail workers’ union passed a motion advocating the union run a slate of candidates in the 2008 London mayoral and Greater London Assembly elections. More recently the same branch passed an amendment to its own motion which broadens out the proposal, and Neasden branch passed a longer version with a preamble (see below). All should be discussed at the RMT's London Transport Regional Council on 27 September. These motions will be opposed by people from the group around Bob Crow who want to create a purely-RMT slate focussing...

On 7 October, supporters of the Iranian regime are organising an “Al Quds Day” demonstration in London (assembling 12:30 at Marble Arch). This year, the march is backed not only by the Muslim Association of Britain, George Galloway, Yvonne Ridley, Hizb-ut Tahrir, etc., but also by Respect and the 1990 Trust (in which Ken Livingstone's adviser Lee Jasper is prominent). Below is an (abridged) text from the committee which has organised counter-demonstrations against similar marches in Berlin. In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini called for an annual event on the last Friday of the Islamic fast month of...

GOVERNMENT repression of the emerging labour movement continues in Iran, with more arrests, charges and harassment. In August five members of the Tehran bus drivers' union were accused of acting against Iranian national security, after they visited the home of Mansour Ossanlou, himself jailed in July on similar charges. Although three had since been released, they still face a serious charge. Ossanlou has apparently been sentenced to four years in prison for acting against national security, and to an additional year for disseminating propaganda against the country's Islamic system. Earlier...

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has hit the ground running, hoping to capitalise on the apparent mood for change that saw him elected in May. He will need momentum to push through the changes that will make France more like Thatcherite Britain; that is, to bulldoze the working-class opposition that thwarted his predecessors. He has already passed legislation to reduce public transport workers’ right to strike, by establishing a minimum service level in rail and road transport, and announced that he wants to worsen railworkers’ pension regime and drastically cut the number of civil servants...

Farooq Tariq is the General Secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan. He explains how he has been caught up in the government’s suppression of opposition parties. I avoided another arrest on 23 September. I had just returned home at 11pm from Toba Tek Singh, a five hour drive from Lahore. I am planning to contest the general election for national parliament from Toba Tek Singh, my home city. When the bell rang, I was sure it was the police again. My partner Shahnaz asked me who it could be at this time of the night. Our children had just gone to sleep, but our daughter Mashal (14) got up as well...