International

The marvellous Modern Minstrels sing Janine's lyrics to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, with a fabulous selection of appropriate images.

A place becomes a shithole
when someone digs a hole and shits in it
Someone like you, Donald Trump,
and all the rulers and raiders
and tin-pot dictators
the speculators and devastators
the extractors and the malefactors

In response to the news that the Pope wants to change the words of the Lord's Prayer ...

Keep politics out of sport
Black lives may matter
but all that matters here
is the score

Keep politics out of football
because standing up for the national anthem 
is not political
but kneeling for it is

Keep politics off the pitch
Offence and defence 
are matters for the field of play
not for the field of struggle

Today, this website joins with websites Steve Bloom Poetry, Old and New Project, Links (Australia), International Viewpoint, Ecosocialist Horizons, Lalit (Mauritius)

Guardia Civil
know the drill
Drafted in from other places 
beating unfamiliar faces

Keepers of the peace
Police

That's the theory:
There and here, we
expect protection 
get subjection

Saw that theory
cracked in practice
Dragged and kicked
grabbed and nicked

Keepers of the peace
Police

RMT's delegation to the European Transport workers' Federation Women's Conference comprised Mary Jane Herbison, Michelle Rodgers, Lorna Tooley and Janine Booth. The conference was, unfortunately, squeezed into a short time on a single day. It still managed to do its business and hear some interesting and relevant contributions.

Report on the ETF Women's Committee's work 2013-17

This is the report I gave to ETF Women's Conference about the previous four years campaigning against violence against women ...

The 2013 ETF Women's Conference decided that opposing violenece against women transport workers would be one of its priorities for the next four years.

Click the attached file to scroll through Janine's report on the work of the ETF Women's Committee. This report was presented to RMT Women's Conference on 4 March.

After my breast cancer surgery, the factors which indicate whether I would benefit from chemotherapy were inconclusive. There was one further test available. The Oncotype DX test examines the activity of 21 genes in the tumour tissue of patients with early-stage oestrogen-receptor-positive (ER+) invasive breast cancer and calculates whether chemo will be effective or not.

My score was low (14/100), and so, like many others since this test was developed a few years ago, I do not have to go through the puking, hair-losing agonies of fighting cancer by throwing poisons at it. So far, so good.

So, what’s the catch? My tumour had to be sent to the USA to be tested. This took a few weeks, which delayed the start of my radiotherapy, reducing its effectiveness of in preventing the cancer returning. Radiotherapy is supposed to start within six weeks of surgery; mine started twelve weeks after. Only time will reveal the impact of this delay – but it could mean that my cancer comes back when it would not have done so otherwise.