Class Struggle n°43 · March 2002

Since the beginning of January, a number of rail strikes have been taking place across Britain's network. At the time of writing, ScotRail drivers have begun a series of 24-hour strikes over pay and conditions, after having forced the company to cut 25% of its services by an unofficial rest-day …

Over the past three years or so, two parallel trends have been visible in a number of unions - the growing discontent of activists and rank-and-file members at the government's policies and the increasing frustration of the union machineries at the uncomfortable position which Blair was forcing on them. The …

In the coming three months, the French ruling coalition of the "plural left", as it calls itself (the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Greens and a few minor centre-left groups), will be facing two major challenges. On April 21st, the Socialist Party prime minister, Lionel Jospin will be the …

In Britain, the French health system is usually hailed as the example of what the NHS is not. In many ways it is actually better, primarily due to the larger investment made by the French state over several decades. It must be said, however, that a lot of the praises …

In the present war against terrorism, the American unions offered Bush their full backing regardless of his terrorist aggression against Afghanistan. This is nothing new. Just as in Britain, the US union bureaucracy has a long tradition of lining up unconditionally behind US imperialism. The following text is the first …