(With a tor word by KEN LOACHI packing. from Socialist Outlook, PO Box 1109, London N4 Alan Thornett's firsthand account of trade union strugeles in the car industry from the 1970s, with serious lessons for trade union activists today. 448 pages, illustrated. £11.95 plus £2 post and 2UU. Veronica Fagan THE FIGHT against the privatisation of London Underground continues apace.
On Tuesday 17 November over 100 reps met to discuss the next stage of the campaign. Industrial action around the New Year is under serious consideration.
Meanwhile RMT activists have been leafleting many tube stations at peak times, explaining what the effects of the government's proposals will be on service users. They point out that privatisation on British Rail has been a disaster - something that no comter to London needs persuading of. Privatisation of the tube will cost E1billion more than if the service remained in public hands. That is the breathtaking fact about which the labour government is keeping very quiet. And these extra costs will inevitably be borne by both workers and users. Safety standards will fall further, fares will rocket and services will be cut.
It is vital that activists across London should contact campaign. Invite speakers to any meetings you are involved in and find imaginative ways to defend your service.
Contact: Campaign against tube privatisation, Flat 2, 235 Queens Lane, London N10 Tel: 0181 883 7074 Fax: 0181 442 0276
AS WE GO TO PRESS (November 23) it seems that the immediate threat of major air strikes against the Iraqi people from US imperialism and its European allies, most notably our own Tony Blair are on the back burner.
However the situation could hot up again at any moment and the Americans have asserted that they need no further mandate for action which could murder thousands of people.
Of course whether they actually do act, without the backing of the Security Coun cil, will depend in the end not on formalisms but on whether they feel the balance of forces is sufficiently in their favour to permit this. more ambivalence on the question of unseating Saddam' - because imperialism was not sure it could find a replacement that was any more reliable. dam was initially their creature, and considered an ally until after the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Now it seems that there is optimism that a better replacement might CULCILC. many The basis of this change of heart lies not in changes in the Iragi opposition larger geo-political issues in the region.
Iran was not only useful for imperialism in order to try to bolster the After all, Sad- modernisers against the fundamentalists Tehran, fully establish stronger alliances in any future conflict with Iraq. At the same but in Turkey, another player in the region, has Inicicols al slakc. It would dearly love to see the coming together of Kurdish groups from Iragi and Iranian KurAndrew in but to hopetime, key NOT