Workers across the public sector were set to strike on March 23rd to defend pension rights but the strike was called off when a deal was done with the government. The same attacks on pension schemes are due to be implemented in April 2006, and John Prescott is already under pressure to renege on the deal. Only effective strike action will defeat these attacks and workers have to be ready to take it.

Local government bosses still intend to raise the minimum retirement age from 50 to 55, as well as the age at which the full pension is payable from 60 to 65. If they get away with that then another set of cost-cutting measures such as average salary, as opposed to final salary, pensions and higher employee contributions will be brought in.

In spite of Labour's manifesto commitments the government plans to privatise the Post Office. Lobbying Labour MPs, who have shown in the past that they will settle for cosmetic changes to avoid defeating the government in Parliament, won't stop this. Post Office workers have the organised strength to mount the campaign of industrial action needed to defeat Labour's plans.

The election was hardly over before the government began to brief journalists that it was considering privatising the Post Office. This is a complete reversal of what appeared in the Labour manifesto that stated there were “no plans to privatise” and that Labour wanted a “publicly owned Royal Mail”. Not that we should be alarmed, because Labour leaks are making it clear that should it go ahead it will not be a nasty Thatcherite privatisation but rather a nice New Labour affair under which the workers themselves will take control of the Post Office.

The 22nd of April marked the end of the first month of an indefinite strike in Barcelona by workers at the Sant Sadorni d`Anoia logistics centre for the major Spanish Supermarket chain Mercadona.

The dispute began with the sacking of 3 members of the anarcho-syndicalist union CNT and the culmination of a campaign of threats by the company against workers unionising. Even before a strike was declared the company brought in scab workers, attempting to preempt the actions of their own employees. Immediately, the workforce went on strike, initially for 10 days, and has since developed into an indefinite strike.

The demands of the strikers are:

Health and safety campaigners have welcomed the jailing of a rail boss, found guilty of killing four maintenance workers who died when a runaway wagon ploughed into them. Mark Connell, 44, had deliberately dismantled the brakes on two of his wagons in order to save money.

He received a nine year sentence for each of the four counts of manslaughter, to run concurrently. However the jailing of Connell, though welcome, is perhaps not quite the victory it first seems. As the construction giant Carillion plc, who subcontracted Connell to carry out the work, and as such should take some of the blame, was never prosecuted.

Some 15 teachers a year are dying of asbestos related cancer. The Health and Safety Executive released figures stating that between 1991 and 2000 147 teachers died from the untreatable cancer mesothelioma. When it took into account education assistants, nursery nurses and university lecturers the figures doubled. These figures could even be higher if other support staff, such as caretakers, maintenance staff and cleaners, are taken into account.

The history of asbestos is one of cover up and lies in the name of profit. The dangers of asbestos have been known about for over a hundred years. But the profits to be made from asbestos production ensured that the truth about the deadly nature of asbestos was withheld.

This has resulted in millions of workers dying from asbestos-related diseases round the world. In Britain alone over 5,000 people a year die as a result of inhaling asbestos, this figure is predicted to rise to 10,000 a year by 2010.

Tuesday 28th March 2006 witnessed over a million workers take part in the largest one-day strike in Britain since the General Strike of 1926. The Government is hoping to do away with council workers current deal that allows them to retire at 60 providing they have had at least 25 years service with the council. This assault on council workers rights is part of a wider global assault on the working class. However these attacks have provoked waves of resistance around the globe and on Tuesday 28th March workers in both Britain and across the channel in France took to the streets and went on strike in order to defend their rights from the attacks of their respectivegovernments. The reaction from businessleaders and their friends in the tabloids wasone of unanimous incredulity and disdain. Sir Digby Jones, director of the CBI, appointed "Voice of Business" and hideously bloated by his wealth declared the strike "a disgrace".