Solidarity 043, 9 January 2004

On 17-19 December, an international workshop was held in Amman, Jordan by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) to discuss the prospects for trade unionism in Iraq. The more than 20 delegations included, unfortunately, representatives of the General Federation of Trade Unions, the yellow trade unions of the Ba'th regime, but also of the Unemployed Union of Iraq (UUI) (see below) and the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) linked to the Iraqi Communist Party. Topics discussed included the likely disastrous effects on...

By Edward Ellis Christmas 1989 saw the arrest and summary execution of a brutal dictator, Nicolai Ceausescu of Romania. Just before Christmas 2003 we saw the final capture of another, even more monstrous, tyrant, Saddam Hussein. Pictures of Saddam Hussein, bemused and humiliated, will probably be yet more "iconic" than the image of Ceausescu and his wife with bullets through their heads; the old bearded man with his mouth open will be an image that makes history. Would anyone shed tears if Saddam got the same fate as the butcher of Bucharest? The Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies...

By Vicki Morris "Tous ensemble." "All together." French president Jacques Chirac appropriated the slogan of the trade union movement to end his speech about the Stasi commission on the separation of church and state. He has taken to using that slogan. The commission of 20 'wise men' headed by former minister Bernard Stasi was appointed in July 2003 and reported just before Christmas. They had heard testimony from 70 witnesses, ranging from education professionals through academics and religious leaders to the feminist writer of Iranian origin Chadhort Djavann, author of an influential book A...

Nick Holden reviews Dude, Where's my country? by Michael Moore Read this review here .

In Solidarity over the next few issues, and on this website, we will be publishing translations of views from the French left on the issue of the law and the headscarf. This first text is a leaflet produced by the Ligue Communist Révolutionnaire last month. Background: in Britain, many religious schools are part of the state system, and religion in schools is usual, indeed compulsory. France is different. Religion is not allowed in state schools. The country has a long history of sharp political battle between secularists and clerics, dating right back to the days of the French Revolution of...

By Terry Liddle Born in 1834 into a wealthy middle class family, William Morris was destined for the Anglican Church. His mother had visions of his becoming a bishop. However, after education at Marlborough and Oxford, Morris abandoned religion in favour of art. William Morris was a polymath who excelled at everything he turned to - from stained glass to textile design, from poetry to translations of the ancient Icelandic sagas and novels that prefigure the work of Tolkien. In 1861 he set up the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company, which offered paintings, decoration, metalwork...

By Annie O'Keeffe For years they have talked of it as the "nightmare scenario" which would signal the end of the Good Friday Agreement. Now, as a result of the December 2003 elections, Northern Ireland is right in the middle of the "nightmare". Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is the biggest political party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and, which is what matters, by far the biggest Unionist party in Northern Ireland. The DUP has 34 seats to David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party's 24. In fact, of course, the Northern Ireland Assembly does not meet and for practical purposes...

By Maria Exall , CWU National Executive, personal capacity The Communication Workers Broad Left meets for its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 10 January. Just before Xmas the union received a letter from BT asking us to not submit a pay claim this year. This really is an indication of how far along the "Company Union" route we have gone. BT plans to continue major job cuts, continue outsourcing to India, and press forward with the performance based pay agenda. The Engineering Executive, led by the Broad Left (BL), has failed to capitalise on the resistance to the productivity bonus scheme in...

The RMT rail union will hold a special conference in Glasgow on 6 February to discuss its response to a threat by the Labour Party to disaffiliate it. The Labour Party's move follows moves by seven RMT branches in Scotland, and the RMT's Scottish Regional Council, to affiliate to the Scottish Socialist Party. "Last year's [union conference] enshrined our affiliation to Labour in RMT's rules and agreed that branches should be free to support other organisations and campaigns in pursuance of the union's policy objectives, subject to executive approval," says RMT general secretary Bob Crow. "The...

By Patrick Yarker , Norwich and District NUT 2003 ended with a setback for teachers, parents and students campaigning to abolish the restrictive, unreliable and overly-stressful national testing system in English state schools. The ballot by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) of Key Stage 1 and 2 teachers (essentially teachers in primary schools) saw a substantial majority in favour of boycotting the tests. However, the turnout failed to meet the union's requirement of 50% of those eligible to vote. More than 30,000 teachers voted for action, with about 5,000 against, but only some 34% of...