Monthly Archives: June 2009
Staff and students at London Metropolitan University will protest from 4.00pm on Monday in their ongoing fight to save over 550 jobs. Members of the University and College Union (UCU) will lobby London Met’s board of governors as they meet for crunch talks at the university’s Moorgate building. Following inaccurate reporting...
THERE are currently more than 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan under Nato command. The Obama administration plans to send in an additional 21,000 troops. 12,000 American troops are being sent to Helmand province to try to prevent a situation – where the 8,000 strong British forces in the area are...
Business Secretary Mandelson yesterday admitted that he was unable to get any commitment from GM Europe’s preferred bidder Magna on saving jobs at the GM plants in the UK. Mandelson has been having a series of meetings in the UK and Germany this week to discuss Vauxhall and its future...
THE European Central Bank is having nightmares about the state of the 25 banks that underpin the financial system of the Eurozone within the European Union. The ECB is literally banking on a rapid recovery of the crisis-hit world economy, which will have to perform this miracle without the bank...
Israel’s security cabinet warned on Wednesday that it will hold Hamas responsible for any attacks from Gaza, and it will also keep the crippling blockade of the Palestinian territory in place. In the face of US pressure, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened the cabinet to consider easing the stifling blockade...
THE voice of the NHS managers spoke up yesterday. The NHS Confederation reported ‘The health service in England won’t survive unchanged’. This is doublespeak, for the health service won’t survive. It is to be privatised using the economic crisis as a reason to push privatisation through. The NHS managers explain that...
TAMILNET reports that Sri Lanka’s parliament on Tuesday adopted a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of ninety five votes. 102 parliamentarians voted for the motion and seven against. This was the first extension of the State of Emergency after the military...
THE eviction of Heygate Estate tenant Evelyn Amahian and her two-year-old daughter was halted yesterday morning, when 40 tenants, trade unionists and youth arrived to stop them being made homeless. The South-East London Council of Action banner was draped over the balcony and tenants held up placards saying: ‘Don’t let...
THE civilian casualty list in Sri Lanka’s offensive against the Tamil Tigers ‘is long and growing’ TamilNet, reported on Monday. And the Japan Times, also noting ‘the disturbing evidence that has emerged from the war zone’, last Monday called for a ‘complete, unvarnished international’ investigation into war crimes. ‘No government...
JOBS are now going in a huge avalanche. The Lloyds Banking Group, where the government has the major stake, is set to begin a massive redundancy programme by cutting over 1,660 workers’ jobs after deciding to close all Cheltenham & Gloucester branches. Almost 3,000 jobs have already been axed...
WORKERS attending for the Monday night shift at the General Motors van plant in Luton were shocked to be informed that all production would be stopped from the second shift the following Tuesday afternoon. The night shift was told by management not to attend for work on Tuesday night and...
Birmingham-based vanmaker LDV was yesterday placed into administration by a court, threatening up to 850 jobs and thousands more in the supply chain. In addition to the 850-strong workforce at Washwood Heath, LDV employs 1,200 people in dealerships and is a major customer for local suppliers. Attempts to sell LDV as...
MORE tenants and residents of the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle yesterday expressed their anger at the news that Evelyn Amahian and her two-year-old daughter are facing eviction tomorrow morning. Evelyn says that Southwark Council has gone back on a pledge it made in court to find her alternative...
WITH even more right-wing forces seeking to bring down the Brown government from the right, trade unions now have an opportunity to show their power, by demanding that the Brown government cease its attacks on the working class and halt the privatisation drive. As the PCS trade union observed after...
BROWN has survived the resignations of Hutton, Purnell, Smith, Flint, Blears, Hoon and others, and remains Prime Minister for the moment. The next test comes after Labour’s disastrous performance in the EU elections is made public, and a new push will be made by all of the Tory media, and...
A THOUSAND youth and workers marched through Enfield town centre on Saturday, shouting: ‘Stop the Closure! Defend Chase Farm!’ They were led by the North-East London Council of Action and young people opposed to the closure of the Enfield hospital, waving ‘Save Chase Farm’ flags. Many local Enfield residents came along...
HEYGATE Estate tenant Evelyn Amahian is facing eviction this Wednesday, putting her on the street with her young daughter! The Heygate Estate in south London is threatened with demolition as part of a Southwark Council ‘regeneration’ scheme with private developers at the Elephant and Castle. The scheme means getting rid of...
Prime Minister Brown held a press conference late afternoon yesterday to announce the cabinet changes in a hurried reshuffle following the resignations of five of his ministers. He said he was here to stay as prime minister but while he was speaking two more cabinet ministers announced they were quitting...
JOHN Hutton, the fourth Labour Cabinet minister to quit in the past week, has left his post and will also quit as an MP, in order to write history, instead of trying to make it. He is yet another demoralised Labour cabinet minister who has been overwhelmed by the task...
FRENCH trade unions and student unions have mounted huge general strikes and protest actions in recent months against the massive rise in unemployment. France’s unemployment rate has risen to a two-year high as the capitalist economy continues to be hit by the global slump. The jobless rate totalled 8.7% between...
The British Medical Association (BMA) Consultants Conference on Wednesday voted to oppose government targets, NHS privatisation and to promote district general hospitals. Delegates at the conference in central London first voted overwhelmingly for Motion 5, on government targets and waiting times, from the Conference Agenda Committee. This stated: ‘That this conference:...
TAMILNET reports that according to reports of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, last week over 13,000 internally displaced people have ‘disappeared’ from Sri Lanka’s internment camps for Tamil civilians. Moreover, UN sources in Colombo are telling the media that senior UN officials above them, Sri Lankan...
A MASSIVE anger is growing at GM Luton and throughout the town against the threatened closure of the car plant. Workers at GM Luton were summoned to meetings by management on Tuesday night and during yesterday’s shifts about the crisis in GM. Workers told News Line ‘We were given no assurances...
COMMUNITIES Secretary Hazel Blears has resigned from the cabinet, on the eve of the local government and EU elections, delivering a major blow to the Labour government. Her departure follows the resignation of Home Secretary Smith, and precedes the expected resignation of Chancellor Darling. The government is disintegrating before it can...
The British Medical Association (BMA) on Monday launched a public campaign against the privatisation of the NHS. The BMA press statement said it is stepping up its activity to publicise its concerns about government reforms that have created a market in healthcare and allowed commercially run firms to provide NHS...
US forces in Iraq suffered 24 deaths in Iraq in May, more than any month since September 2008. The total number of US casualties since the 2003 invasion is now over 4,300, along with tens of thousands of seriously wounded. US forces are due to be off the streets of ...
General Motors yesterday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York, in a plan that seeks to allow the US auto giant to re-emerge as a new, leaner company within 60 to 90 days. The company declared $172.81bn debt and $82.29bn assets. While closing 14 more plants and axing 21,000...
POSTAL workers in London have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in an attempt to protect jobs and services from arbitrary cuts. Martin Walsh, CWU London spokesman, said: ‘We’re fighting against unacceptable attacks on jobs and services in Royal Mail at a time when the company is performing well. ‘Strike...
THE United Nations is able to investigate the war crimes which occurred recently in Sri Lanka, British human rights lawyer and international war crimes judge, Geoffrey Robertson QC said Sunday. The avenues for the UN include the UN Human Rights Committee, which can investigate individuals’ complaints against states...
THE centre of Mingora as well as large parts of the provincial capital of Swat have been destroyed and are rubble after five weeks of fighting carried out by the Pakistani army on the orders of the US. Local people say that this is no ‘great victory’ for the Pakistan...
Senior executives at General Motors were meeting yesterday to finalise restructuring plans and proceed to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today. US President Barack Obama is scheduled to hold a press conference at 3pm UK time today to give full details of the restructuring. In the US, 14 more plants and...
LENIN’S definition of a revolutionary situation is one in which the ruling class is unable to rule in the old way – and has to try to advance to new untried forms of rule – while the working class is unable to live in the old way, and consequently...
TENANTS on the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle are furious at the way they are being treated ‘like cattle’ to be driven off the estate to make way for private developers. Hundreds of remaining tenants and their children on the south-east London estate are now threatened with eviction by...