Monthly Archives: December 2008
GERMANY’S Finance Minister Steinbruck yesterday attacked the Gordon Brown policy for saving the bankers and capitalists from the crisis, as recklessness itself. He described Labour’s plans for trying to keep the British capitalist economy going as ‘breathtaking’ and ‘crass’, since it was going to double the national debt and would...
A huge Athens strike rally on Wednesday demanded the resignation of the ‘murderers’ government’ of Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis. Under glorious sunshine tens of thousands of Greek workers and youth marched through the Athens city centre to a magnificent rally of an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 outside the Vouli...
One hundred Community, GMB and Unite trade union representatives from Anglo-Dutch steelmaker, Corus, were meeting in London yesterday to discuss company demands for a ten per cent wage cut. The steelmaker’s Indian owner Tata, in the face of falling orders, plans to cut Corus’ European production by 30 per cent...
YESTERDAY in the House of Commons the Tories were glorying in the fact that their votes will make sure that Labour’s bill to force single parents and the disabled into work, or else remove their benefits, is passed. They claimed it was a Tory measure and their ‘yes’...
The Brown government and the Tories yesterday joined forces to cane the unemployed. After Work and Pensions Secretary Purnell announced his ‘workfare’ Welfare Reform White Paper to MPs in the House of Commons, his Tory counterpart Grayling said: ‘We know his backbenchers, his union backers, his own social security adviser,...
THE Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis delivered a 5-minute proclamation on all national TV channels and radio stations on Tuesday night condemning as ‘enemies of democracy’, the youths who were protesting against the police killing of a 16-years-old school student, Alexis Grigoropoulos, last Saturday night in Athens. Karamanlis said...
OVER 5,000 Greek school and university students along with teachers and university lecturers demonstrated through the Athens city centre yesterday afternoon for the third consecutive day against the right-wing ‘murderers government’ as they shouted during the march to the Vouli (Greek parliament). Mass demonstrations took place in Salonica and...
THE occupation of a relatively small factory in Chicago by its angry workforce, members of the UE trade union, to prevent its closure, has had a massive impact throughout the USA. The company was closed down by the Bank of America, the recipient of some $20 billion of aid plus...
Palestinian Ambassador and Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Dr Riyad Mansour, has addressed an emergency session of the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. He said: ‘Mr President, ‘I thank you for convening this urgent meeting to address the critical situation in the Occupied Palestinian...
IN all of the Greek cities there were clashes throughout yesterday between workers and youth and the riot police, and other Greek special forces. Everywhere police stations were under attack and being stoned or showered with petrol bombs. Workers are furious at the state murder of a young 15 year...
SOME 15,000 students, youths, workers and trade unionists marched on Sunday afternoon from Athens Polytechnic to the Greek police HQ in protest against the cold-blooded murder of a 15-years old school student by a Greek police Special Guard last Saturday night. The demonstration was organised by the Committee for...
THE College of Emergency Medicine yesterday urged the government to invest in more emergency medicine specialists rather than polyclinics. Dr John Heyworth, incoming President of the College stated ‘Emergency Departments (A&Es) are the only consistent, reliable and always available source of emergency care and they need to be staffed appropriately. ‘Junior...
The University and College Union (UCU) warned on Friday that universities risked unnecessarily provoking serious industrial unrest in 2009 if they took up the employers’ association invitation to opt out of national pay bargaining arrangements. UCU also offered immediate talks with the employers to resolve all outstanding issues in what...
General Motors-owned Vauxhall Ellesmere Port and GM Luton have admitted their future depends on the US government bailing out their parent company. During discussions with the US Congress, GM said it needs $4bn (£2.7bn) in emergency funding this month alone if it is to survive. Its UK subsidiaries which employ...
THE UK’s biggest car manufacturer, Vauxhall, with plants in Ellesmere Port and Luton, has admitted its more than 5,000 jobs are under massive threat from the financial crisis and the slump. The owner, General Motors, has already gone cap in hand to the Bush administration to tell it that it...
Throughout Saturday night thousands of youth attacked banks and department store buildings as well as police stations in Athens and in many other Greek major cities over the police killing of a 16-year old school boy. He was shot dead by a member of the Greek police Special Guards corps...
Northern Foods has won the British Airways contract to supply meals and sandwiches for short-haul flights from Heathrow airport, replacing Gate Gourmet. Northern, the food manufacturer, will combine with DHL, the logistics company owned by Deutsche Post, on the 10-year contract. Three years ago BA had to cancel flights when ground...
THE UAW leaders are prepared to ‘suspend’ all of the gains of US autoworkers to try and assist the big bosses of GM, Chrysler, and Ford in getting $10bn survival money till the end of January and then a further $24 billion bail out money. GM has already made it...
THE NHS is wasting precious time and money introducing reforms that are failing to deliver better services to patients or value for money, says Unison, the UK’s largest public sector union. The union is calling on the Government to ‘think again’ about its NHS outsourcing and privatisation agenda, in the...
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) condemned yesterday’s announcement by Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to go ahead with the closure of 93 offices across the UK and the loss of over 3,400 jobs by 2011. A PCS statement said: ‘With the economic picture growing ever bleaker, the union...
Most trade union leaders welcomed the Brown government’s legislative programme announced in Wednesday’s Queen’s Speech. However, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) warned that the ‘welfare reform’ plans will penalise some of the most disadvantaged in society. The PCS said it and other trade unions, poverty campaigners and academics,...
THE fact that the Home Secretary maintained in the House of Commons yesterday that she had not known Tory MP Damian Green was to be arrested by nine anti-terrorist squad police officers, and that even if she had known it would have been ‘wholly inappropriate’ to intervene, spells out...
Members of the Jean Charles de Menezes family refused to listen to the coroner’s summing up at the young Brazilian’s inquest yesterday, in protest against Coroner Sir Michael Wright’s ruling on Tuesday that the inquest jury could not return an ‘unlawful killing’ verdict. As Wright began to start his summing...
THE Queen’s Speech yesterday was dominated by the unprecedented world financial crisis and deepening slump, and its impact on decrepit British imperialism. It opened: ‘My government’s overriding priority is to ensure the stability of the British economy during the global economic downturn.’ It added: ‘The strength of the financial sector is...
The Damascus International Declaration In Defence Of The Palestinian Right Of Return, proclaimed at the Conferences Palace, Damascus, was published in the UK yesterday. It states: ‘We the participants in the Arab International Congress for the Right of Return which was hosted by the Arab Syrian capital, Damascus, during the...
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) yesterday warned that the ‘welfare reform’ plans announced in the Queen’s Speech ‘are the wrong proposals at the wrong time which will penalise some of the most disadvantaged in society’. The plans have drawn opposition from across civil society with over 70 signatories...
union leaders in Australia have threatened to withdraw support for the country’s Labour government, if it does not give in to their demands to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC). Hundreds of building workers marched through central Sydney to the ABCC offices yesterday, blocking lunchtime traffic. Speakers at a...
THE civil service union PCS said yesterday it was opposed to ‘punitive’ benefit cuts facing the unemployed, single parents and even the disabled, who are now being forced onto the Jobseekers Allowance (JSA). The PCS is the union representing thousands of staff in Jobcentres up and down the country. The government...
Solicitors for the Jean Charles de Menezes family yesterday went to the High Court to seek a judicial review of the coroner’s ruling that the inquest into the young Brazilian’s death may not return an ‘unlawful killing’ verdict. Earlier, angry members of the de Menezes family and their supporters walked...
BARACK OBAMA, United States President-elect, announced the latest appointments to his White House cabinet on Monday. He made Hillary Clinton Secretary of State, confirmed that Robert Gates, President George Bush’s Defense Secretary, will remain in his post and appointed retired General Jim Jones as his National Security Adviser. Obama had already...
THE Labour leaders are terrified the whole capitalist system is going to go, News Line Editor Paddy O’Regan told an audience of 200 youth and workers at the News Line Anniversary Rally on Sunday. He said that, so far, five trillion pounds has been spent worldwide trying to prop...
THE EU Commission’s President Barroso has been told by the ‘people who matter’, ie by members of the Labour government, that they now favour Britain dumping the pound sterling and embracing the euro. In his words the UK is ‘closer than ever before’ because of the effects of...
UK Mortgage approvals fell sharply again in October, the Bank of England reported yesterday, confirming fears that house sales and prices have a lot further to fall. Bank of England figures show that just 32,000 mortgages were approved, 1,000 fewer than in the previous month. Howard Archer, chief UK economist...
THE Labour government, after handing tens of billions of pounds to the Northern Rock and the other major banks, in an attempt to save them from the crisis of their capitalist system, is poised to draw up a list of companies in various industries, that it is prepared to...
‘As ordinary trade union members are fighting for their jobs they must have a leadership with a policy of “not one job sold, not one factory closed, nationalise major industries, banks and building societies, no home repossessions”.’ So said All Trade Unions Alliance National Secretary Dave Wiltshire as he addressed...
With less than 250 days to go until all junior doctors in Scotland will be restricted to working a maximum of 48 hours a week, British Medical Association (BMA) Scotland has warned that Scotland’s Health Boards are not ready. The deadline for full compliance with the European Working Time Directive...