Workers in Hackney's libraries have been on strike for over a year - in fact, every Saturday since 24th November 2001. They are calling for mass pickets of Hackney Central, Stoke Newington and Shoreditch Libraries to prevent scab labour recruited by the Labour-controlled Council from opening them. These pickets will take place on the first Saturday the scabs are called in, probably 7th December, and on each subsequent Saturday until they are withdrawn.

As Catalyst goes to press, the Bush-Blair war machine is cranking up. Such time can only bring more misery for millions of Iraqi's and others around the world. The Iraqi people have already suffered for years, from sanctions imposed by the west, adding to the terror they have endured under Saddam Hussain. It is worth remembering that the said dictator had the full support of the west, even when he was openly gassing Iraqi civilians in the 1980s. The truth is, it is all about oil, and the US throwing its weight around in the region.

In October, workers at Bristol's domestic recycling collection service owned by Avon Friends of the Earth started a campaign of industrial action. They are demanding an end to compulsory overtime, a standard 40-hour week and strong measures to deal with the hostile, duplicitous and uncooperative management at Resourcesaver. Talks between UNISON and Resourcesaver ground to a halt because of unacceptable preconditions demanded by Resourcesaver, namely dropping one of the key members of the UNISON negotiating team, who is an elected representative! As a response to this, Unison members voted unanimously to hold a further 2-day strike that began on the 6th November.

Workers' rights are indeed in a sorry state, but this only underlines the need to organise on the job, in our own workplaces. What rights we do have, mainly in the area of health and safety, aren't properly enforced, so it's clear that the state has little interest in our welfare over and above the level necessary to keep the economy's cogs turning. Many situations at work fall outside the law and so it is down to workers themselves to ‘negotiate'. Often, this is done only in staff meetings where the agenda is controlled by the bosses, or where workers can only voice concerns individually. Clearly this is far from ideal. The employer retains absolute control as no effective threat is posed. Only by organising can workers force their boss to sit up and pay attention.

But how can we organise? There isn't a union in my workplace.

While the fire-fighters seem to be leading a second “Winter of Discontent”, echoing 1978-79, July's media fad of a “Summer of Discontent” didn't happen. Although the Government's policy of not paying Local Government workers decent wages initially appeared to have finally provoked a coordinated response, Labour can still rely on some unions to control their members for the good of the Party.

The Labour leadership have been itching for an opportunity to outdo Thatcher in the union-bashing stakes. Finally, these opportunist chinless wonders have their chance; in the form of the fire-fighters dispute. Their public school background combined with New Labour grooming seems to bring out their innate hostility towards working class organisation.

London Weighting dispute rolls on UNISON members in Local Government have been undertaking a series of one-day strikes for increased London Weighting. This is currently £2,646 for Inner London Boroughs, and £1,407 for most workers in Outer London. The claim for £4,000 for all 32 Boroughs has been met with “there's no money, pay increases will mean redundancies” from the Bosses.

Over 5 years on, and life under Labour is in many ways been worse than it was under the Tories.

The Labour government since coming into office has embarked on a strategy of forcing people into ever-more casualised, low paid jobs. Sure, it is all dressed up in the language of empowerment. Young people, single parents and now the unemployed in general have all found themselves empowered into jobs paying just over £4 an hour.

Egged on by Labour, there has also been an assault by bosses on working conditions. Again, it is all dressed up in the smooth-talking New labour language of ‘flexibility'. In other words, part-time working, short-term contracts and the increasing use of agency staff. This is the means by which bosses can intimidate workers and hire and fire at will. Millions of us in modern Britain have been reduced to little more than day labours with little or no job security.

They talk about democracy in Iraq whilst doing their best to stifle it at home.

Politicians from both the main parties attacked the Fire Brigades Union when scheduled industrial action seemed likely to coincide with final preparations for war. The Labour Government revealed it is considering legislation that would make strikes by fire fighters illegal, whilst the Tories denounced the union as friends of Saddam Hussein. In reality, criticising the FBU was an attempt to damage the union.s widespread public support. Such language betrays the contempt in which organised workers are held by the ruling elite. The hate screamed by the state and the press at any group of workers daring to hold its own political views may seem vicious, but it is justified by the logic of war. In war you are either a patriot or a traitor.

Bullying at work is no joke; it can lead to stress, anxiety, depression, even suicide. In short, it makes people's lives hell. It is all the more disgusting then that within the GMB the bullying of union employees is apparently rife. Over the last 6 years, the GMB has spent £4m on 61 tribunal cases involving allegations of bullying and intimidation. Many of the cases have been brought against the union's powerful regional secretaries, including two candidates for top dog John Edmund's job. The mentality of the morons who run the union are summed up by the decision of Yorkshire leader J Nelson, who dropped the union logo because it was not ‘hard' enough, and replaced it with a badge with eagles wings on each side of it. In response, the union is proposing better management training. A better idea would be to get rid of these obnoxious bureaucrats and replace them with a workplacebased organisation.