pSenior government figures are braced for a dramatic lengthening in dole queues in the first quarter of 2009, as employers delay announcing redundancies until after Christmas./p pThousands of civil servants and town hall workers will share the pain as government efficiency savings bite, while struggling retailers and manufacturing industry are heading for heavy redundancies./p

pThe GMB union said its members would be quot;working to rulequot; from 27 December, with Unison members doing the same from 29 December./p

pThe original article comes from an Icelandic anarchist website, Aftaka, and can be seen a href=http://aftaka.org/2008/12/22/actions-continue-in-iceland/here/a with photos. Before you read this article you might want to check out another article to read about what has been happening in Iceland before./p

pThe job losses and cuts to courses and infrastructure stem from the ‘project headroom’ program currently being pushed through by university management, which aims to claw back £12.5 million for the university budget./p

pIn one scene, Molotov cocktails rain down in the night on a police station, their explosive flashes lighting up an otherwise dark street; in another, the national Christmas tree is torched by angry protesters. The current unrest in Greece seems to have taken place under the sign of fire, one that was ignited by the police killing of a teenager in Athens two weeks ago./p

pTo our comrades and fellow workers around the world/p

pThe aggravating global crisis imposes a new social frame-work for incidents like this: the daily deaths and legal murders become explosive. /p p The cops shooting a fifteen year old became the trigger of social unrest in Greece, the fatal accident of a building worker sparked the simmering unrest./p

pThe action forms part of a strategy to counteract the designs of the union bureaucracy to distance its membership from the current revolt, and protest its management and mediation of workers#039; struggles in Greece./p

pa href=/gallery/ghazl-el-mahalla-riots-egypt-april-6-7th-2008 class=bb-urlThe riots in the Nile Delta textile town of Mahalla el-Kubra/a, the worst in the country for many years, began as protests against sudden steep rises in the price of food. Three people were killed and more than 100 people wounded in two days of clashes with riot police./p

pThe firm#039;s plans include transferring work from the mail centre in Weston, Crewe, and the Copperas Hill sorting office in Liverpool to a new regional centre in Warrington. Royal Mail has said Copperas Hill is no longer viable in the face of falling mail volumes./p

pRailway workers#039; union VDSZSZ extended a strike it launched in eastern Hungary to all lines after 1700 GMT on Sunday to demand higher wages and a one-off bonus from the sale of state railway firm MAV#039;s freight unit./p

p[i]Shooting by police on Saturday 6th of December has triggered off the fiercest riots in decades in cities all over Greece. What follows is a first – and incomplete – presentation of the recent riots in Athens, which are still going on, based on our own experiences and on what we have heard of./p

pThe Bomani report found that two companies in particular, Canadian group Barrick and the South African firm AngloGold Ashanti, which between them hold the vast majority of the mining rights and operating facilities in Africa, have been systematically cutting local communities out of the deicision-making process, manipulating state and national politics and mistreating workers as they haul in huge/p pa href=http://libcom.org/news/tanzania-miners-digging-their-own-graves-14122008 target=_blankread more/a/p

pThanhniennews.com reported that on Thursday last week, around 1,300 workers gathered in front of Doosan Vina Company office in the Dung Quat Economic Zone in the central Quang Ngai Province to demand proper treatment and payment of allowances./p pa href=http://libcom.org/news/week-long-strike-vietnam-factory-ends-13122008 target=_blankread more/a/p

pThe strike by the General Confederation of Italian workers (CGIL) shut down postal services nationwide, transport services and airports in several cities and many automobile manufacturers, in some of which strikers were joined by members of other unions./p pa href=http://libcom.org/news/general-strike-italy-against-government-handling-crisis-13122008 target=_blankread more/a/p

pUnder the terms of the quot;Les Clés de l’avenirquot; agreement signed earlier this year prisoners can have their sentences reduced if they pass a selection process and are found work with one of the partnership firms. The following four areas will be open to prisoners: catering, cleaning, building and logistics./p pa href=http://libcom.org/news/work-release-scheme-proposed-french-prisons-12122008 target=_blankread more/a/p

pDespite massive investment in mining communities damaged by Thatcher’s victory in 1984 and with winding down of coal mining in the 1990s, the money has gone not to local workers but to regeneration groups and businesses, according to a new report./p pa href=http://libcom.org/news/regeneration-not-miners-12122008 target=_blankread more/a/p

pStudents are angry about reforms to the French secondary examination course, the baccalaureate and also about the planned loss of 25000 teaching posts over the next two years. Today#039;s demonstration (11th Dec.) was called by the school students#039; union (UNL), the union has called for another day of action next Thursday although it looks as if many students will continue action tomorrow./p pa href=http://libcom.org/news/france-demonstrations-school-students-continue-grow-11122008 target=_blankread more/a/p

pStrike observance is high amongst medical staff who have organised the strike to protest against understaffing and unsafe working conditions. Those who have been requisitioned to work during the strike (and face legal action if they refuse) have attended work wearing armbands with #039;striker#039; written on them./p pa href=http://libcom.org/news/france-hospital-workers-strike-enters-third-day-11122008 target=_blankread more/a/p

pThe photographs, taken in Patras today and published on the greek a href=http://garizo.blogspot.com/2008/12/neo-fascists-side-by-side-with-police.html class=bb-urlNEA από όλο τον Κόσμο/a blog, show fascists armed with blunt weapons brazenly stalking the streets with the police./p pa href=http://libcom.org/news/photos-published-greek-policefascist-collaboration-10122008 target=_blankread more/a/p