Tribune – Comment, news and reviews from Britain's democratic left

THE GMB’s central executive council has given the go ahead for a strike ballot over job cuts at Thames Water and threats by the company to outsource work to India.

ONE HUNDRED protesters marched to the Italian embassy in London last Saturday in solidarity with a simultaneous 30,000-strong demonstration in Rome.

UNITED STATES government officials were “not satisfied” that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe did not have links to drugs barons in the recent past, a former American ambassador to Colombia has said.

UNIONS have this week raised further concerns that British workers on major construction sites are being undercut, even as a Government-commissioned report into the Lindsey Oil Refinery dispute found that no rules were broken.

WAITERS, waitresses and other members of Unite who work in hotels, bars and restaurants lobbied MPs last week to call on the Government to make sure they get 100 per cent of the tips customers leave them.

UNISON has reacted angrily to the news that Wirral council on Merseyside has approved plans to close 11 of its 24 libraries – despite widespread local protests.

“KOSOVO is a one-year-old baby and it needs love, attention and commitment”, declared the new country’s deputy foreign minister Vlora Çitaku as Pristina celebrated the first anniversary of independence from Serbia on February 17.

THE Party of European Socialists officially launched its campaign for the European Parliament elections in Brussels last week, unveiling the symbol that will act as its logo throughout the campaign: a red and white cube bearing the title of the PES manifesto, People First: A New Direction for Europe.