16 September 2009

Interview with POA leader Brian Caton

Brian Caton, Prison Officers Association (POA) general secretary recently decided to join the Socialist Party, after being a member of the Labour Party for many years. He spoke to Socialist Party industrial organiser Bill Mullins:

"I come from a family of nine. I was brought up in Barnsley, my Dad worked as a collier. I was always a rebel at school..."

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12 March 2008

Prison officers reject pay offer

John Hancock speaking at Socialist Party congress 2008, photo Paul Mattsson

ON 8 March, John Hancock, (right) branch secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA) in Wormwood Scrubs prison, west London, brought greetings to the Socialist Party's annual conference...

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27 February 2008

Miliband's extraordinary apology on rendition

"SORRY FOR letting kidnappers and torturers use our territory". This is what foreign secretary David Miliband should have said in his belated apology, writes Dave Carr

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20 February 2008

Prison officers fight Labour's strike ban

Prison Officers Association protest outside the Royal Court of Justice, joined by Brian Caton, POA general secretary, photo Keith Dickinson

THE PRISON Officers Association (POA) special delegate conference met on 19 February in emergency session. They were hammering out what the POA should do in response to the Labour government's reintroduction of the Tories' 1994 legislation which makes strikes illegal in the prison service.

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13 February 2008

Prison officers: Fighting for trade union rights

The Prison Officers Association (POA) shocked the government by going on a one-day strike on 29 August 2007...

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22 October 2006

Straw, the veil and racism

IN THE wake of the horrific 7/7 bombings last year, racist attacks increased by 600%, particularly against Muslims...

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9 November 2001

Rebuilding Afghanistan? Lessons Of The Balkans Conflict

AS BUSH and Blair rain bombs down on Afghanistan, they also make big promises to rebuild the shattered country...

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2 November 2001

Organise Now To Stop The War

SOME POLITICIANS and military leaders now think that Bush and Blair's war against Afghanistan could last for years...

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4 February 2000

Immigration - what's the problem?

Home Secretary Jack Straw's response to the rise in asylum seekers in Britain has been to clamp down on so-called 'fake immigrants.' He suggests that "access to social security cash benefits in Britain acts as an incentive for many seeking a better life."NAOMI BYRON unravels some immigration my...

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21 January 2000

Pinochet

SOCIALIST PARTY member JOHN REID - a regular attender on the 16-month long anti-Pinochet picket - reports on the anger, dismay and sense of betrayal as news was received that Home Secretary Jack Straw was letting the brutal dictator off the hook and allowing him to return to Chile...

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