KEY ISSUES

Occupation of Iraq

THE true cost of the US and Britain’s war in Iraq reveals itself everyday. Thousands of Iraqis continue to suffer as a result of occupation. There is a humanitarian disaster in the country with men, women and children dying because there is no food, water or medicines. This is the outcome we predicted. We always said the war was not about weapons of mass destruction (where are they?), or democracy but about oil and US military and economic interests. The war was wrong before it started. It was wrong while it was being waged. It is now wrong for US and British troops to be stationed in Iraq. The occupation should end and Britain and the US should get out the Middle East.

School SATS

IF your children are sitting their SATS tests you will know the pressure they are under. Children in Britain are now the most tested in Europe. There is increasing evidence to show that this is having a damaging effect on them and their mental well-being. SATS have nothing to do with educational standards but everything to do with competition. They were introduced by the Tories to restrict what education pupils would get and undermine the comprehensive ethic - replacing it with an ethos of competition. Pupils who fail to achieve the ‘norms’ are labelled as failures at an early age. SATS has also led to increased competition between schools. Pupil scores are the currency of league tables, which influence parent’s choice of schools. The numbers of kids at a school affects the school budget. The size of the budget decides how many staff, and other resources are provided. The inevitable result is an increasingly divided system, where the 'best' schools get the lion's share of resources, while schools in poor areas suffer. The teachers union, the NUT, are going to boycott SATS exams next year. We fully support the NUT decision. We want well-funded schools for all – not selection, inequality and the constant testing of pupils.

Housing

Affordable housing remains a burning issue in Oxford. High rents, extortionate house prices, cuts in services to Council properties, poor quality student accommodation.....

In line with New Labours national attack on Council housing Oxford tenants are now being asked to pay for their own repairs and the repair budget is being slashed. So rents are being put up, housing support services are being cut, things can only get better? What a cheek!

The Oxford Socialist Alliance is committed to defeating New Labours drive to privatise Council Housing and is strongly committed to the Defend Council Housing Campaign. Through this campaign it is hoped that privatisation and the 'daylight robbery' practice of using council rents for everything but investment in housing, can be defeated and a broader campaign for affordable housing established.