Solidarity 020, 13 December 2002

By Oona Swann Venezuela is still in the grip of a general strike/lockout - a strike organised by the bosses. The oil industry is most affected, whose management are the promoters of the "strike", along with CTV (union federation). It was the President, Chavez' attempts to replace these managers which led to a first coup attempt against him in April this year. Then, the shooting at an anti-Chavez demonstration led to bosses' leader Carmona seizing power, at the head of a section of the armed forces. Within hours pro-Chavez supporters had taken to the streets and forced Carmona to step down. In...

By Martin Thomas the juggernaut is speeding towards war. There is no reason to doubt that the Bush administration is absolutely determined on war in the New Year. But we can still stop them. Public opinion in the US is turning against the war-mongers. According to the latest Gallup poll, done at the end of November, 37% of the population of the USA are against President George W Bush's planned war on Iraq, and 58% in favour. In a country where the mass media is almost unanimously pro-war, and at a time before any US war casualties, those figures represent a lot of opposition. On 10 December...

Crushed by Saddam Hussein while the West looked on Almost immediately with an agreement of a ceasefire at the end of the last Gulf War, early in March 1991, the Shi'a people of the south of Iraq rose up in rebellion. In the north the Kurds also launched a rebellion. These movements were not welcomed by the US and its allies. Clive Bradley looks at events which may be repeated in a war on Iraq in 2003. The Shi'a (sometimes called "marsh Arabs" because of the marshy terrain) - the smaller of the two main Islamic sects - are a majority of the Iraqi population; by some estimates, Sunnis, although...

Israel's general election will take place in January. It follows the collapse of Ariel Sharon's Likud-led government in October. Sharon will lead his party in the election and, on current polls, will gain the largest share of votes. The other main party, the Labour Party - traditionally the party of Israel's elite - has a new leader in Amran Mitzna. Mitzna has said he will not, - unlike his predecessor, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer - help Likud form another coalition government. He has also promised to try to get a ceasefire agreement with the Palestinians. The mainstream peace movement in Israel has...

Tough on suicide, tough on… Crime does pay for some Well done, that man "Taking our jobs" Get in there Tough on suicide, tough on… Another statistic for our caring Home Secretary to be proud of. The prison population has risen by 6,840 since the beginning of the year, to a record 72,500, and the number of inmates who have killed themselves has reached 89 since January, compared with 72 self-inflicted deaths in 2001. The suicide rate in prisons in England and Wales is rising more rapidly than the increase in the prison population and has reached 116 for every 100,000 inmates, compared with 89...

Andy Gilchrist's message to Tony Blair "Stay out of our dispute" By Andy Gilchrist, General Secretary FBU* The government and press have demonised firefighters in a way I never thought was possible. We've waited for a generation to get a Labour Government and now we've got one, what do we get? They say we should stay out of politics and that's fine. But when politicians say they're going to get rid of 10,000 firefighters jobs then we've every right to ge involved in politics. You can't dress "modernisation" up because you can't dress barmy ideas up and that is what "modernisation" is - barmy...