OVER 400 PEOPLE have been confirmed dead and many more missing in the collapse of a building in Bangladesh which housed garment factories making clothes for Primark and other major brands. Over a thousand more have been injured in one of the worst industrial disasters of recent times. High street retailers have been making huge profits off the backs of workers in factories like these. Garment workers pay a high price to produce cheap clothes for the high street. They struggle to survive on extremely low pay, suffering poor working conditions, arduous hours and a complete lack of trade union representation in the factories.

The world's biggest private security corporationG4S, has been having a bad week. But the company has been enjoying a great decade. While the Olympics scandal is putting G4S in the spotlight, its extraordinary global reach and controversial track record are making for some uncomfortable reading. The transferring of policing, detention and deportation to profit-driven private companies needs to be properly scrutinised. The same goes for G4S complicity in Israel's occupation of Palestine through the supply of security equipment and services for use at checkpoints, illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, and Israeli prisons. Less well known is that G4S is an unaccountable and unregulated private military and security company. Four years ago G4S bought ArmorGroup, and in doing so joined the shadowy world of privatised war. The last decade has seen a boom in private military and security companies (PMSCs) that perform operations previously carried out by national military services. The industry has made a killing from contracts worth over $100 billion. These companies work for governments and corporations in war zones around the world, providing security, as [...]

Respect for workers' rights and people's basic dignity must be universal. So why should Team GB sponsor Adidas be allowed to get away with the sweatshop conditions of its supplier factories? By Ruth Tanner With only weeks left before the London Olympics, more than a million tickets have already been sold and over four billion people are expected to watch the Games on television. But, in the run-up to and during what its promoters call the greatest show on earth, Indonesian workers producing goods for Adidas will earn as little as 34p an hour – far less than a living wage. Some Indonesian factories supplying Adidas do not even pay the legal minimum wage. Employees are verbally abused, slapped in the face and told to lie about their conditions during Adidas factory audits.

Let us know what YOU would like to see in the next Labour manifesto. Kay Boycott, Shelter Make no mistake, this Labour manifesto is the most important party document since Tony Blair's 1996 New Life for Britain. It's Gordon Brown's first as leader, and gives him the opportunity to spell out his vision for the future, and how he will repair "broken Britain". It must be a manifesto for jobs, social justice and the economy, and his starting point must be housing. Shortly after taking power, Brown promised three million new homes. Yet, despite some financial injections in the Budget, housebuilding has almost hit rock bottom, while overcrowding and waiting lists for council housing have soared. The private rented sector is in flux and the mortgage market depressed. Demand is heavily outstripping supply, and is set to worsen.