The Struggle of Women at the Forefront of the Workers’ and People’s Movements

Workers' Daily Internet Edition : Article Index :

March 8, International Women's Day:
The Struggle of Women at the Forefront of the Workers’ and People’s Movements

International Women’s Day Marked in Wales
2002 TUC Women's Conference
Older Women’s Health Ignored at Work

On the occasion of International Women’s Day – March 8, 2002:
WFTU Greets Women Of The World and Calls for Intensified Campaign for Women’s Rights as Workers, Mothers and Citizens
March 8: Peasant Women to Demonstrate in Pakistan
Women Raise their Voices against the War in Colombia
We celebrate 8 March, day of struggle for all toiling women of our country and the world!
Israel: International Women’s Day 2002
A Question of Conscience

Workers' and Politics:
Retirees to have diminished pensions on current investment: There Must Be Another Way!
Government Speaks of Huge Risks ahead for NHS
EU Clashes With US over Steel Imports – World Steel War Looms

IMF Cautions Britain against "Excessive" Spending
Over a Hundred Thousand March against Berlusconi

On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2002, WDIE salutes the struggle of women who stand in the forefront of the advance of the workers’ and people’s movements towards their goals.

Without women taking their place at the forefront of the struggle for the emancipation of the working class and all humanity, no lasting solution can be found to the progress of society. The line of march to a new society, overcoming all the blocks to progress, requires that women be in the front ranks of all the struggles being waged in society. In fact, it is the case that women world-wide have taken a stand in defence of their rights, and also in defence of the rights of all members of society. Women are taking a decisive stand against the neo-liberal anti-social offensive, the criminalisation of dissent and imperialist warmongering and aggression against the peoples of the world. They have refused to surrender the initiative after September 11 and succumb to the propaganda that only "Western" values can guarantee the rights of women. Instead they have boldly taken up the struggle world-wide in defence of the rights of all.

In reality, the offensive against women and to keep them marginalised has been intensified by the representatives of the rich, as the anti-social offensive against the vulnerable and the whole of society has been intensified. Women are being made to bear the brunt of the offensive also in being expected to shoulder the burden of the cut-backs in social programmes. That they are still treated as second-class citizens and being doubly oppressed is proof positive that a new society where the rights of all, including women, are given a guarantee is required and is in the making in the struggle to take the opposition against this oppression to its conclusion.

Women are continuing their struggle for the elimination of violence and poverty. They are fighting for change and demanding the renewal of the entire society so as to put an end to all forms of exploitation and oppression.

WDIE joins with women everywhere in celebrating March 8, International Women’s Day. We stand firmly with the women in defence of the rights of all, against aggression, state terrorism and war, and to build a society fit for all humanity.

Hail March 8, International Women’s Day!

In Defence of the Rights of All!

For a New Society Fit for All Humanity!

A lunch is being held in Cardiff on March 8 to celebrate International Women’s Day, attended by trade unionists.

Felicity Williams, Assistant General Secretary of the Wales TUC said on Tuesday, "Women throughout the world share a common history of discrimination and exploitation. Here in Wales, trade unionists have achieved much but as the equal pay campaign, launched yesterday, shows, we have much to do."

"On International Women’s Day, we also need to reflect on the misery and degradation that thousands of women are suffering throughout the world," she added.

Glenys Kinnock MEP is to be the guest speaker at the lunch.

This year’s TUC Women’s Conference to be held in the Wintergarden, Eastbourne, from March 13-15.

TUC General Secretary John Monks and TUC President Tony Young are to address the 300-strong conference on the Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning. The conference will also hear from Dr Ghada Karmi on the experience of Palestinian women and Nicola Harwin CBE Director of Women’s Aid. Minister for Women Barbara Roche MP is also to speak to the conference.

On the opening day of the conference (Wednesday), the TUC will issue a new report about women and poverty which with new data will show that women especially those with children are more likely to be caught in the poverty trap.

And on the second day (Thursday), The TUC is focusing on domestic violence with a formal contribution from Nicola Harwin followed by informal workshops to look at how domestic violence impacts in the workplace and what unions and employers can do to tackle an issue which one in four women are likely to experience at some point in their lives.

The Mayor of Eastbourne David Stevens will open the conference at 2pm on March 13. It will close at lunchtime on the Friday.

The health and safety of twelve million women is being ignored according to a new report published today, March 8, by the Pennell Initiative for Women’s Health and the TUC. The Pennell Initiative for Women’s Health exists to champion the cause of women’s health by researching and addressing the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs of women over the age of 45.

The report, The Health and Work of Older Women: a neglected issue, says that older women work longer hours than younger women, have lower status jobs and have a higher chance of developing bad backs and broken bones.

It sets out an agenda for action by government, employers, unions and researchers, calling on them to listen to older women workers:

• employers should ask older women workers about the risks they face so that they can be controlled better;
• unions should encourage older women workers to become safety reps and speak out about the health problems they have;
• the government should promote to employers the economic contribution that older women workers make; and
• researchers should look at the differences between older women workers and other groups rather than pretend those differences don’t exist.

The author of the report, Professor Lesley Doyal, Professor of Health and Social Care at the University of Bristol, said: "Twelve million women in the UK are aged 45 and over. Many of these women will spend longer in paid employment, as they are likely to live longer than ever before. They will make a significant contribution to the economy and public services. Yet there is little interest in the implications of these trends for their health. This paper, written in conjunction with the TUC, is an attempt to fill this gap. It demonstrates the impact of work on the physical, emotional and mental health of this neglected group of workers and makes recommendations for ensuring that their well being is actively promoted."

TUC General Secretary John Monks said: "This report issues a challenge to all of us, to make sure that work is healthy and safe for a growing and vital part of the labour force. Older women deserve to have their concerns taken seriously, and I pledge the TUC to ensure that they aren't ignored and invisible any more. Work needs to be adapted to their needs – we can ill afford to squander women's health and employers can't afford to lose out on skilled, experienced and committed staff."

Other findings in the report are:

• There have been few attempts to examine the work of older women and health related problems. A recent TUC survey (1998) of health and safety representatives revealed the extent of this gender bias. 85% of those questioned said they had never before been asked for specific information about the health of women.
• The last two decades have seen a rapid increase in the number of women entering paid work. In the developed countries this increase has been accompanied by a "greying" of the work force. However, the significance of this for older women and health has received little attention.
• As women grow older, many women move from part time to full time work. In 1998 about 50% aged 45-64 worked full time, compared to only 40% of women aged 16-44. Older women also have less opportunity to benefit from the equal employment strategies of recent years. They are more likely to occupy jobs with low status and limited rewards.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day – 8 March 2002, the World Federation of Trade Unions warmly greets women in all countries, especially the women workers and reiterates its international solidarity with the struggle for women’s rights as workers, mothers and citizens.

Although the Millennium Summit and the UN Conference on Beijing + 5 have reaffirmed the international commitments to implement the Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), very little progress has been achieved in enforcing equality and non-discrimination.

Real progress in this respect is blocked by the cuts in social budgets and austerity programmes imposed by the neo-liberal policies dictated by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the global banking and finance cartels. As recession and lack of economic growth affect the global economy, women are losing jobs in hundreds of thousands. Cuts in social budgets adversely affect women both directly and indirectly.

The agreements made in Beijing and reiterated at the UN Conference on Beijing + 5 are not being implemented on the plea of lack of resources. On the other hand, the new century and new millennium are opening with a new round of the arms race and military expenditures are reaching a new record, on the pretext of waging a global war against "terrorism". The WFTU reiterates that none of the problems faced by humankind can be solved through war and violence and by military force alone. Women of the world do not want their kith and kin to be sacrificed at the altar of war and militarism. Only through peace and international co-operation can the people’s interests be defended and social progress achieved.

The WFTU reiterates that it is utterly disgraceful and inhuman that as a new century opens, millions of women and their families continue to live in conditions of extreme poverty, exposing their children to severe malnutrition. The WFTU has particularly deplored the fact that millions of women and their families continue to live in extreme insecurity and poverty especially in countries affected by conditions of war and civil conflicts, the occupation of territories by foreign forces and as victims of economic blockades against their countries.

The WFTU pays homage to the women martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for women’s labour and social rights, and all those who were victimised, persecuted, subjected to brutal repression and assassination by occupation forces, military dictatorships and other oppressive regimes.

The WFTU reiterates its total solidarity with this struggle for a better life and for just demands. On this International Women’s Day, the WFTU appeals to trade unions in all countries to reinforce the campaigns and struggles:
* for the total elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, particularly in relation to recruitment, wages, promotion, social security, pensions and participation in management;
* for agrarian reforms and rural development, the protection of women engaged in agriculture, handicrafts and in the informal sector;
* to reinforce their efforts to support the women workers’ right of association, adequate representation for women in all elected trade union structures and adequate representation for women in all elected state institutions.
* to uphold their rights as workers, mothers and citizens, for the protection of motherhood, upholding family links and relations;
* for peace and security for their children and their families, for the reduction of military expenditures, dissolution of all military blocs and for implementing the UN charter and resolutions and particularly, the UN call to promote disarmament to generate resources for development.

Women Workers Help Line is organising a demonstration on March 8 in solidarity with the struggle of peasant women at Lahore. Scores of peasant women will also take part in this demonstration. The demonstration will start at 1pm from Shimla Pehari and lead to Charing Cross of Lahore. Peasant women alongside with men have launched a movement for the land ownership rights. They are cultivating the land for over 100 years and yet they do not own the land.

On March 3, over 10,000 peasants took part in a protest meeting at Peeruwala Renalkhurd. There is a hunger strike camp going on since February 11 at Okara. As a next step of the movement, a demonstration on March 8 at Lahore will put more pressure on the government who have not yet responded to the demands of the peasants.

The number of displaced persons in Colombia has reached 2 million. 74% of these are women and girls. Estimates are that 54% of those displaced to the borders with Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama, are also women and girls, said Ana Maria Diaz of Authors and Actors for Peace, Colombia.

For March 8, International Women's Day, Radio Internacional Feminista (RAIF) in Costa Rica is convening a day long event: "Women Raise their Voices against the War!"

Activists for Human Rights in Armed Conflicts and representatives from organisations that work for peace in Colombia, the Middle East, Palestine, and Israel, will participate for 12 hours in programming on RAIF.

The first four hours will be broadcast in English, and the eight hours after that in Spanish. To listen on the web, visit: www.fire.or.cr.

The Party of Labour, Turkey

The banner raised by the toiling women who have created 8 March is carried on today by the impoverished worker, unemployed, agriculture and domestic labourer women.

The usurpation of rights and impoverishment policies implemented in the name of "globalisation" has brought back the working and living conditions of 150 years ago for toiling women.

The greed for profit of the international monopolies is oppressing labourer women with exploitation of cheap labour. Such gained rights of working women as childcare, nurseries, waged maternity leave are either not carried out at all or are partially or entirely cancelled in the factories and workplaces it is put into practice.

Unemployment, poverty and the extent reached in terms of the income distribution inequity is condemning hundreds and thousands of toiling women into the insecurity of daily, domestic and agricultural labour. The transformation of education and health into fee-paying services is forcing labourer families to unhealthy lives without the chance to receive an education.

The wars continuing around many regions of the world is leaving behind hundreds and thousands of women who are raped, exposed to extreme violence and coerced into migration.

While merchandising women, capitalism and the market ‘culture’ is rendering women as the ‘indispensable’ material of sexual oppression and exploitation.

The road that must be trodden by the toiling women against the anguish, poverty, destruction and exploitation of cheap labour created by imperialist capitalism is, the road of those brave women and men who have created 8 March, the road of becoming organised and that of struggle. Undoubtedly this struggle must target the IMF and its collaborators carrying out its programmes.

The liberation of toiling women can only be possible with socialism and a world without classes and exploitation.

Levent Tüzel, President

WDIE is posting the declaration that Bat Shalom will be presenting to foreign embassies and consulates in Israel. Bat Shalom is a feminist peace organisation working toward a just peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Bat Shalom has delegations scheduled to meet with diplomatic representatives of the following countries:

Germany; France; Australia; Côte d'Ivoire; United States Embassy and Consulate; Jordan; Vatican Embassy; Cyprus; Sweden; European Union; Norway; Guatemala; Canada; France; Honduras; Georgia; India; Portugal; El Salvador; Sri Lanka; Bosnia; Slovak Republic; Spain; Slovenia; Kazakhstan; Egypt; Ukraine; Great Britain; Argentina; Chile; Finland; Switzerland; Holland; Italy; Croatia; Belgium; China.

International Women’s Day commemorates the human rights of women world-wide. But as history testifies, those rights are never achieved in isolation. They are embedded in the complex of universal rights, and their realisation reflects and measures a society’s commitment to justice, equality and democracy.

Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian land and its continued rule over more than a million Palestinians severely violate the individual and national rights of another people, and turns Israelis into both perpetrators and victims of violence. Today we see that the most basic threat to the rights and well being of Israeli and Palestinian women is the perpetuation of the occupation.

We Israeli women, Jewish and Palestinian, working to build the conditions for peace and reconciliation, are dismayed and revolted by our government’s policies. We refuse to silently bear witness to the destruction of the hope and future of Israelis and Palestinians. And we need your help.

The Israeli government’s flagrant violation of international law and moral norms present a great challenge to the international community, and we are appealing to you and your government to meet that challenge.

In view of the current situation, an immediate international humanitarian response is needed. We therefore request your support for the dispatching of international monitors to the area, whose presence may provide some measure of protection for Palestinian civilians.

Ending the occupation is the prerequisite to securing peace. In view of the Israeli government’s obdurate refusal to commit itself to ending the occupation, we call upon you and your government to initiate urgent diplomatic efforts to convince Israel to make that commitment.

On this March 8, 2002, thousands of women around the world are presenting similar declarations to both their government representatives, as well as to Israeli foreign diplomats in their region. It is our greatest hope that you will elect to observe International Women’s Day by honouring women and addressing our concerns.

WDIE is posting the following article by Dr Hanan Ashrawi, dated January 11, 2002.

Although the oft lamented, near demise of the peace camp in Israel has become the subject of current debate-whether in disappointment, anger or in horror, some heroic stories still persist in defying the prevailing "wisdom".

Peres and Ben Eliezer and their ilk are no longer the objects of amazement and condemnation, since they have proven their turncoat, opportunistic bents beyond question, having been willingly co-opted by the Sharon extremist government for both the misleading spin and dirty tricks departments.

Nor are Yossi Beilin, other Labour party "rebels" and their ilk being singled out for heroism in their desperate attempts to engineer meetings, joint statements, and back-channel talks with Palestinian officials.

The real heroes are those who rarely get mentioned in the Israeli, let alone international, media as individuals of conscience who dare defy the overwhelming discourse of hate, racism and violence that seems to have taken hold within and beyond the Israeli public.

Rather than succumb to the ultra-nationalist, xenophobic version of popular politics that attempts to rationalise the worst of Israeli measures against the Palestinians while blaming the victims for the horrors being inflicted upon them, this distinctive minority has dared to challenge the lies and distortions and to take a stand despite the high price to be paid.

Among the journalists, Amira Haas and Gideon Levy stand out as examples of courage and honesty.

Among the activists, the Women's Peace Coalition (including its many organisations) has taken the forefront in defying the dangerous politics of Sharon and his gang, taking to the streets in growing numbers. Women like Neta Golan and Dafna Golan have maintained a steady commitment to those principles of justice, peace, and human rights that seem to have been swept away by the rising tide of hatred and destruction.

Among the most persevering are long-time activists Leah Tsemel, Judy Blanc and Shulamit Aloni who have not wavered in their commitments and courageous struggle not just for Palestinian rights but also for the soul of Israel.

Organisations like Rabbis for Human Rights, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Gush Shalom and many others have also steered a steady course despite the turbulent waves.

When, during the earlier intifada, movements like Yesh Gvul emerged to challenge the military establishment and militarisation of Israeli society, they were viewed as challenging the most "sacred" of Israeli tenets and power systems.

Thus, to see Yesh Gvul re-emerging now, along with other organisations and individuals challenging the same military supremacist mentality, is a sign of health within an Israeli society that many had deemed hopelessly captive to the power industry of unbridled and unquestioned violence.

Women like Rela Mazali and objectors of conscience such as 18-year-old Yair Khilou and his fellow army resisters are a resounding cry for sanity and morality in the face of warmongering Sharon, Mofaz and Ben Eliezer.

The question, however, remains unresolved within Israel's rarely questioned assumptions about blind obedience to military orders and the glorification of military force.

Recently, Shulamit Aloni raised two questions that are in pressing need of a daring response. Both have to do with culpability-individual responsibility and guilt.

The first is the responsibility of decision makers in Israel for the war crimes and crimes against humanity being exercised against the Palestinian people with full impunity and with official authorisation by such "killers" as Sharon and Mofaz. She called for the compilation of evidence and the preparation of files to be presented before appropriate tribunals at the right time.

Given the fact that Sharon, so far, has been "sanitised" by the press and world (mainly western) leaders and has been exempt from real accountability for his decades-long history of massacres and war crimes against innocent Palestinians has not gone unnoticed. Neither "rehabilitated" nor repentant, Sharon has been not only unleashed on a captive and defenceless Palestinian population, but also granted a "green light" and the blessings of the US to do more of the same. His indictment by a Belgian court rarely gets a cursory mention in the American press, while he gives himself license to murder and to label his enemies as "terrorists", despite the fact that he has transformed Israeli policy as a whole into officially sanctioned state terrorism.

Perhaps it is time for those who have been swept away by the Sharon military storm (or the bulldozer of death and destruction) to take pause, to stop awhile and consider the implications of their actions. Sooner or later, history will catch up with them, and the question of their individual responsibility and guilt will be raised.

The second issue is that of the "I was only following orders" infamy. Here, the "ordered" have to make the distinction between blind obedience and matters of individual conscience, between military discipline and moral mutiny.

An Israeli soldier who is given instructions to torture or to beat to death captive Palestinians is called upon not only to question the legal consequences of such crimes (however distant they may seem now), but he/she is also required to consider the internal distortions and ramifications of such brutality on his/her own sense of values and self definition.

A soldier who aims at Palestinian children's heads and etches a notch on his gun barrel with every "kill" will ultimately have to face more scars on his own psyche and moral character.

Even those who fly Apache gun ships or F 16's will have to face the horror of their own (however anonymous) innocent victims, for physical distance does not provide any moral distance or immunity.

On land, those who drive the heavy machinery designed to demolish homes, uproot trees, and destroy crops will also have to face a different type of "deprivation" from the total material deprivation of their Palestinian victims.

And at every check post, those young individual Israeli soldiers who indulge in the daily humiliation of every individual Palestinian should also question the price they are paying, now and in the future, for their desensitisation toward human dignity and human suffering.

Perhaps those who have already refused to obey immoral orders are a distinct minority; nevertheless they remain visible symbols of a spirit that rejects moral turpitude and inhumanity.

Perhaps those who dare to challenge their military "superiors" and moral "inferiors" are preparing the way for a future course of action that perceives a reality beyond the unquestioned military superiority and dominance of the Israeli occupation.

Ultimately, these "righteous" Israelis will be the ones who will redeem Israel's soul in the future when the days of historical reckoning will dawn as separate from the impunity of the present.

A report by the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) shows that younger people in their twenties and thirties will only realise current pensions at the age of 72 instead of 65. Either workers retire at the present 65 and accept a dramatic cut in their income or they will have to find ways of working longer. The previous Conservative Government rounded up women workers to the retiring age of 65 to "equalise" retirement with men, instead of going down to 60.

Any society has to be judged on its attitude towards the elderly, and the present system reveals its anti-social character. Pensions are having to cope with and fight even harder against the increased poverty inflicted on them under New Labour. The insulting increases of meagre pennies were condemned during its last election. But now the search for maximum profit has led firms to discuss opting out of schemes related to final pensionable earnings. Either new employees are not allowed to join schemes or they are wound up altogether in proposals that some firms have already implemented. Reduced contributions to pension schemes by new members and companies thereby threaten existing payouts even for present claimants.

The projections by the PPI were commissioned by the BBC. Analysis of even existing schemes shows that the diminishing nature of the Stock Market, where most schemes invest, has led to decreased returns already. Also life expectancy has been blamed.

The State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) has also been sidelined as part of the government’s reduced investment in social programmes. The Conservatives all but phased out the state pension in favour of individual responsibility of workers to finance their retirement themselves, whereby people were encouraged to contribute into Private Pension Schemes organised mainly by banks and insurance companies. These schemes had no contributory input by the state or employers. New Labour has only continued with the same type of policy by encouraging Stakeholder Pensions.

The alternative, which puts the responsibility on society and its citizens, is a proper fully funded State Pension Scheme. This can only be achieved by increasing the investment in the appropriate social programme.

The PPI analysis was based on a 25-year-old worker saving the typical contribution of 11% into a group pension scheme. The BBC summed up the PPI analysis: "If the worker had started saving 40 years ago he or she would have seen their retirement fund grow rapidly thanks to high stock market returns. By now at 65, they would have saved enough to get a pension income worth 2/3 of their salary at retirement. Today their money is unlikely to grow as quickly. A 25 year old worker who began saving at the same 11% of earnings would need 47 years rather than 40 to generate a pension scheme worth 2/3 of their salary."

The PPI's analysis is confined to members of occupational schemes. There are those people, approximately a third of the country, who are in no scheme at all and rely on means-tested benefits.

Overall the immediate outlook is dismal. It has to be clearly stated that this situation cannot and must not be accepted. Pensioners deserve better. Society cannot move further into the 21st century with this prospect for its citizens. There can and must be a better way!

Health secretary Alan Milburn has admitted that the structural upheavals currently under way in the NHS present "huge risks" across the service. With a month to go before 28 strategic health authorities and a new wave of primary care trusts go live, he told an audience of more than 500 trust chairs in London: "There are huge risks over the coming months. We are basically taking a piece of the architecture away."

The most difficult moment for the health secretary came during a question from Sarah Dunnett, chair of zero-starred Dartford and Gravesham trust. She highlighted anger over the Department of Health announcement that four trusts had made "no significant improvements" and would have their management franchised, while being told by NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp that it had met the standards of a two-star trust. In an impassioned speech, which won a heartfelt round of applause from the floor, Sarah Dunnett said: "I cannot begin to describe the damage your press statement caused. If you had asked how to destroy the efforts of the workforce determined to improve the trust, you could not have done it more effectively."

Alan Milburn used his speech to reinforce prime minister Tony Blair’s indications that tax will rise to fund the NHS: "The [tax debate] is one that we need to take to the country and will take to the country," he said. "No-one should pretend for a moment that this is an easy thing for a New Labour government. It isn’t. But I believe the right priority for our country is to raise the resources to properly fund the NHS." Alan Milburn expressed scepticism over the idea of earmarking money, which many have been calling for to protect low-profile services.

It appears that the bottom line with the "investment with reform" programme of Tony Blair is that the investment may not be forthcoming while the reform presents huge risks and that taxes will rise.

Fears of an EU – US trade war are growing following the decision of the US government to impose tariffs of between 8% and 30% on steel imports. EU Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy, issued an immediate response condemning the US decision as an act of "short sighted protectionism" and vowing that the EU would "take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard our own market". He also declared the EU’s intention to seek compensation equal to the damage caused by the US move. Japan, Russia and other big powers affected by the tariffs also spoke out against President Bush’s decision.

The EU statement rejected the US argument that cheap steel imports were the cause of the crisis gripping the US steel industry, which has seen the bankruptcy of 31 steel companies and the loss of some 20,000 jobs since 1997. Instead it blamed what it termed the "enormous overhang of so-called legacy costs", namely the US steel producers’ health and pensions obligations to laid off and retired workers. The statement continued that the problems facing the world steel industry are due to "uneconomic capacity and government subsidies" and that the US measures are aimed at "asking the rest of the world to meet the cost of its own industry’s problems". It further complained that the US action could result in the loss of 4 million tonnes of EU exports to the US market and to the diversion of 16 million tonnes of steel imports into the EU. Finally the statement concluded that the EU may take action as a "matter of urgency" to protect its steel sector.

Commenting on the unfolding clash between the EU and the US, the head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Peter Sutherland, declared that this could have a "very dangerous effect" on the world economy.

The unfolding trade war between the EU and US monopolies are a sign of the growing inter-imperialist rivalry in the conditions of a crisis of capitalist anarchy and over-production. It carries with it the danger of a new inter-imperialist war and underlines the urgency of building the workers’ opposition to the prevailing situation so as to turn around the situation to the benefit of the working class and people.

The IMF yesterday, March 7, urged the Chancellor of the Exchequer not to raise taxes and warned that interest rates could be driven up if Gordon Brown embarks on so-called "excessive" public spending.

``It will be important not to raise the structural deficit beyond the path envisaged in the November pre-budget report,'' the IMF said in its annual assessment of the British economy. ``In recommending continued fiscal prudence, some directors also cautioned that the recent revenue shortfall experienced may not prove as temporary as expected, and that an excessive push on demand could require sharper increases in interest rates in the future.''

At least 120,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Rome last Saturday to protest against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, accusing him of running Italy to further his own interests.

Waving red and olive green party flags, protesters from across the country converged on the capital.

"We are here to protest peacefully against the man who thinks and acts like the owner of this country," said Piero Fassino, head of the Democrats of the Left. "Today, with this enormous protest, the real challenge for Berlusconi starts," he added.

Critics have attacked a number of policies adopted by the government, claiming they are aimed at protecting Berlusconi and his allies. But the final straw for the opposition was a conflict of interest bill passed by the lower house this week.

Berlusconi’s family holding company controls Mediaset, Italy's largest private television network, as well as several other financial, advertising and sports interests.

Unions, angered by government plans to make it easier to fire workers, are lending their voices to the protests.

Organisers said about half a million people had turned out by late afternoon. Police estimates put the turnout at just over 120,000.

Activists donning Pinocchio noses and shouting "Down with Berlusconi!" flocked to the march. Others carried large signs bearing images of a dollar bill with Berlusconi in the centre that read: "Italy isn't for sale; it's mine."

Italy's interior minister has also informed the media that he gave the order to officers inside the high-security "Red Zone" to shoot any protesters who breached police security lines during last year's Group of Eight summit in Genoa. Carlo Giuliani, one of the protesters, was killed by police during the protest. "Opposition groups and anti-globalisation organisations have called on the minister to resign and to reveal everything he knows about summit security," the news services add.

The head of Italy's national association of police employees, Giovanni Aliquo, said "he was surprised by Scajola's [the minister’s] remarks". Aliquo claimed he was "unaware of the order to fire in Genoa" and "that such an order would have been criminal and the police would have refused to follow it," the news reports said.