FOUR ISSUES GORDON BROWN WON’T SOLVE

The postal workers’ CWU union today announced the start times of the two 48-hour strikes

The real situation with public sector pay, the war, privatisation and housing

Gordon Brown got his four minute standing ovation at the Labour Party conference

Over 2,000 workers from across Britain joined the Unite union’s demonstration at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth last Sunday

Most union leaders cling to the idea, despite all evidence to the contrary, that their link to the Labour Party is the way to get a Labour government that meets the aspirations of workers

Desperate to avoid a row at their conference, the Labour leadership look set to offer a deal to save thousands of jobs for disabled people at government-owned Remploy factories

Iraq is the issue that Gordon Brown would like to avoid

The drums of war against Iran were beating stronger and faster this week

Striking mental health workers in Manchester were planning to take the fight for the reinstatement of union rep Karen Reissmann to the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth this week

Last week’s announcement by the postal workers’ CWU union that strikes against Royal Mail are to be resumed was greeted with enthusiasm by union activists across Britain

A group of postal workers from London went to lobby the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth on Monday of this week

In a clear case of “If you can’t beat ‘em, close ‘em”, Royal Mail announced the proposed closure of Oxford mail centre in 2009 - with the loss of up to 430 jobs - just hours after the CWU union announced further national strike action

Postal workers in Watford who are performing their duties exactly as per their contract are being disciplined - for breaking company rules!

On the same day that Royal Mail announced the impending closure of mail centres at Oxford and Reading, it said that the Gloucester mail centre would remain open – for the next two years

Angry demonstrators gathered at HMP Send in Surrey on Thursday of last week following the death of 25 year old Lisa Doe, who was found dead in her cell on 11 September

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Young people | Iraqi refugees | Attempt to silence Craig Murray

Comments from the Labour Party conference

A 2001 interview with author Christina Fink on her book on resistance in Burma

The subprime crisis threatens to wreck the lives of thousands of poor working class people across the US – and has brought to light the workings of a rogue industry of mortgage lenders

The US’s biggest industrial strike for seven years hit General Motors (GM) on Monday of this week when tens of thousands of UAW union members walked out

Burma’s military regime was being rocked by mass protests across its major towns and cities as Socialist Worker went to press

Alex Callinicos discusses the UCU college union debate on boycotting Israeli academic institutions

The brother and lawyer of Mohammed Atif Siddique, who was convicted for internet-related terrorist offences last week, spoke to Esther Sassaman

Yuri Prasad looks at the life of an Indian revolutionary born 100 years ago this week

Chris Harman looks at the dilemmas facing the country's rulers and the background to current events

Health union activist Yunus Bakhsh was suspended from work a year ago

John Riddell, the pre-eminent historian of the Communist Third International, continues his series, by looking at the origins of the International

In the last part of our series Jonny Jones looks at how imperialism operates today

Making links at grassroots level | No hope of reclaiming New Labour | Youth not to blame | Prison officers are working class | Scourge of supermarkets | The madness of the market | Explaining the credit crunch | Why Brown met Thatcher | Passion for Gramsci | Lewisham remembered

Senan Mortell takes a look at why rap has taken a sharp left turn of late

War Art by Gerald Laing is an exhibition inspired by the war in Iraq and the Abu Ghraib torture scandal

Square Dreams, a new exhibition by the French Algerian artist Kader Attia, opened at the Baltic gallery in Gateshead on Friday of last week

A Disappearing Number is the latest production from Complicité, one of Britain’s most innovative and original theatre companies

This new six-part ITV drama series is the latest to put the issues thrown up by the “war on terror” on to the small screen

The Edinburgh People’s Festival and Edinburgh May Day Committee are hosting this celebration concert to mark 90 years since the Russian Revolution

Julien Temple’s film combines archive footage of Joe Strummer and interviews with his friends and colleagues to create an intimate portrait of The Clash’s frontman, who died in 2002

The latest scare over food additives highlights the dangers of producing food in the free market, writes Malcolm Povey

Jazz musician Joe Zawinul recalled his experiences palying in Cannonball Adderley's band during the 1960s: “I often had to sit in the bottom of the car when driving through certain parts of the South… those things never fazed me, I wanted to play with the best and I could play on that level with the best”

Workers at the Fremantle residential and daycare company in Barnet, north London, took their campaign to the bosses’ headquarters during a strike on Thursday of last week

Hundreds of thousands of members of the Unison union in local government are set to be balloted to strike over pay

The looming confrontation between Birmingham council and 40,000 of its workers will move a step closer this week when two important trade union meetings take place

Hundreds of workers building one of Wales’s biggest engineering projects went on strike last week because one of them was taunted with Nazi salutes

The fight to reinstate Michael Gavan, chair of Newham Unison local government, was bolstered last week when a rally of 200 people was addressed by a range of speakers including film maker Ken Loach

Campaigners across the country highlighted threats to Esol (English for Speakers of Other Languages) provision on Wednesday of last week

Around 200 trade unionists attended an Organising For Fighting Unions meeting in central London on Wednesday of last week

Some 36 ICSL Accord refuse collection workers in Islington in north London went on strike last week

The victory of the RMT rail workers’ union over the failed Metronet consortium on London Underground is continuing to have effects

Fingers were poised last Saturday evening, ready to email out Respect’s political obituary

Health workers in Swansea have succeeded in winning a month’s suspension of planned ward closures and job losses after threatening to go on strike

Every trade unionist should join the Unison union’s march to defend the National Health Service, and keep it firmly in the public sector

Up to 300 people attended a public meeting in Woodford Green in north east London organised by the Save Whipps Cross Hospital campaign and Keep Our NHS Public last week

Labour lets down Unique women | St Neots stands up against Nazis | Cardiff protests for leisure centre | Pensions fight on the railways

Respect | Stop the War Coalition | SW appeal events | Material Girls: Women, Men and Work | The Russian Revolution 90 years on | SWP meetings | movement events | Bookmarks events | demonstrations and lobbies | concerts and benefits