...in the NEW WORKER
Workers from every British Aerospace factory in Britain joined together in a 3,000 strong march to Parliament on Wednesday, to lobby for jobs and against plant closure.
Just days before, BAe announced it will axe 4,700 jobs at seven plants, in addition to the 5,000 jobs that will go with the closure of Preston and Kingston.
Immediate demands at the lobby focussed on BAe, but with unemployment accelerating in every sector, they reflect the feelings of workers throughout the country.
The BAe workers fight has opened the way for the Labour and trade union movement to act now and stop the slaughter of British industry as a whole.
Alex Ferry, general secretary of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions demanded the Tory government take a political decision and intervene to save industry.
In the last 25 years the number of defence industry jobs has been halved to 620,000 even while arms spending rocketed.
A new movement against unemployment and poverty is sweeping eastern Germany.
Mass demonstrations, which began in Leipzig, are now being held throughout what was once the German Democratic Republic, organised by trade union officials and with the support of the opposition Social Democrats.
Social Democrat leader Hans-Jochen Vogel joined calls for Chancellor Kohl’s resignation at an 80,000 strong rally in Leipzig.
Demonstrations are now being held there every Monday. Anti-government protests have also taken place in Berlin, Dresden and Zwickau.
Leipzig had been the centre of the anti-communist movement which led the opposition which brought down the socialist government of Erich Honecker.
Now the city is on its last legs. The birthrate has dropped by 40 per cent and the number of marriages has slumped by over 60 per cent. Divorces are rocketing as are crime and political violence from Nazi skin-head gangs.
