Across the country Socialist Workers Party members have been initiating protests against the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia. Over 200 people joined a speedily called protest in Manchester city centre which initiated a local campaign against the war, while in Edinburgh 65 people joined a protest at the Mound in the city centre which was reported in the Scottish press. Elsewhere over the weekend 100 people demonstrated in Sheffield, 70 in both Liverpool and Birmingham, and 50 in Leeds. 102 copies of Socialist Worker were sold at the Saturday protest at Downing Street and 57 on Thursday evening. These protests are just a start. Locally SWP members should be initiating anti-war committees with peace campaigners, Labour Party members, trade unionists and others.
On the streets on Saturday Socialist Worker sellers were campaigning against the war. In Manchester 291 copies were sold in Market Street, 38 in Stockport, 32 in Cheetham Hill and 30 in Ashton. In Edinburgh 119 papers were sold on Princes Street while a new sale in Gilmerton kicked off with 35 papers sold. In Birmingham 130 papers were sold, along with 125 papers in Sheffield, 112 in both Liverpool (with 40 sold on Thursday evening) and Glasgow (with 35 sold on Thursday evening and 21 on Friday), 60 in Sunderland and 35 in Hove.
On Clydeside 62 papers were sold at the demonstration in Paisley against redundancies at Reid Kerr College and 12 at Chivas Regal in Paisley, while in Glasgow 11 were sold at both Glacier Metals and the Royal Infirmary. Sunderland sales included 22 at the civic centre and 13 at the Royal Infirmary. Other workplace sales included 11 at Land Rover in Birmingham, 6 at Defoe Road council depot in Hackney and 54 at a Liverpool UNISON mass meeting.
In the last week 9 people joined the Socialist Workers Party in Manchester; 6 at University College Hospital; 5 in Birmingham; 4 in Preston; 2 in Wolverhampton, Glasgow, Newcastle, Middlesex University and on the Thursday evening protest at Downing Street; 1 in Loughborough, Eccles, Stockport, Longsight, Reading, Sheffield, Gilmerton, on Saturday's Downing Street protest and on the demonstration against redundancies at Reid Kerr College. Each Socialist Worker reader should be building opposition to New Labour's new war in the Balkans and for the 10 April low pay demonstration in Newcastle.