Monthly Archives: May 2011
THE NATO war that was supposedly being waged to defend Libyan civilians must be stepped up and Libya’s infrastructure destroyed if Colonel Gadaffi is to be removed from power. In his interview with the Sunday Telegraph, British military chief General Richards has confirmed what everybody already knew – the real...
In the Americas many human rights have been recognised in law, if not always in practice, over the past 50 years, says the annual Amnesty International world report for 2010. While claiming ‘slow progress’ in the Americas, the report continues: ‘The year began, however, with a sharp reminder of how...
Prime minister Cameron’s adviser Mark Britnell has urged that the NHS be ‘shown no mercy’, adding that the government’s planned health ‘reform’ is a ‘big opportunity to make profits’. Britnell, a former director of commissioning for the NHS, is now head of health at the accountancy giant KPMG. Speaking to...
Nine people were killed and hundreds injured by Israeli forces during protests demanding the right of return for Palestinian refugees, as tens of thousands came out to commemorate the 1948 Nakba (catastophe) yesterday. On the occupied Golan Heights, the Israeli military fired at over 1,000 Palestinians who crossed the border...
UK Chief of General Staff, General Sir David Richards has called for an easing of restrictions on NATO targets to allow the bombing of Libya’s infrastructure. Current restrictions state that NATO forces can attack only targets that are deemed to pose a direct threat to Libyan civilians, such as tanks...
THERE can be only one response by BA cabin crew to the latest attempt by the national leadership of Unite to impose a ‘settlement’ and end their two-year fight against job losses and wage and pensions cutting, and that is to reject emphatically a deal that gives BA almost...
ACCORDING to the trades unions, the Greek one-day general strike was solid, with hundreds of thousands of workers taking part in demonstrations throughout the country. In the industrial areas of cities and especially in refineries, engineering, energy and telecommunications the strike was total. The strike was also huge on the railways....
Some 10,000 workers, students and youth marched through Athens city centre last Thursday evening against the Greek government’s violence in last Wednesday’s general strike demonstration. Then, the riot police action resulted in over 20 people being hospitalised while two demonstrators are still being treated in intensive care units. The front banner...
GREEK workers and youth demonstrated in their hundreds of thousands last Wednesday throughout the country as part of a 24-hour general strike against the barbaric austerity policies of the government. But the huge strike march in the capital Athens was attacked by the riot police with truncheons and with...
‘Cuts Kill – Kill the Cuts!’ shouted an over 5,000-strong march of disabled people, their carers and friends as they approached parliament on Wednesday. The march was part of the ‘Hardest Hit’ campaign to demand that the government stops its benefit cuts to the disabled. A statement from the campaign said:...
THE Tory Prime Minister Cameron and his LibDem Deputy Clegg visited the Olympic site in Stratford yesterday to spell out that the only future they have for youth is slave labour and savage cuts to save the bankers and bosses. The youth are being told by the coalition that the...
A LIVELY demonstration of over 5,000 disabled people, chanted: ‘Cuts Kill, Kill the Cuts!’ as they marched to Parliament yesterday. At a rally on the Victoria Embankment before the march, Gerry Hart (16) from Darlington said: ‘This fraudulent coalition is telling blatant lies, that we must accept cuts because of...
Liberal Democrat employment minister, Ed Davey, announced plans to change labour laws yesterday, to enable employers to sack large numbers of workers easily. The Tory-LibDem proposals centre on cutting compensation payments for discrimination in the workplace; reducing the current requirement of employers that consultations over collective redundancy are at least...
CPI inflation is expected to hit 5% later this year due to higher energy and other utility bills that will continue rising by up to 15% in the summer and the autumn, along with much higher food costs. This was the warning of the governor of the Bank of England,...
An aid flotilla will set sail for the Gaza Strip in June, organisers announced on Monday after a meeting in France. The Freedom Flotilla II will depart from ‘various European ports, including Marseilles,’ a statement from the organisers said. The organisers are meeting with European Parliament members in Strasbourg ‘to discuss...
THERE was massive anger yesterday after the Tory-led coalition announced its plan to enable the rich to purchase a university place for their offspring. James Haywood, Communications Officer of Goldsmiths student union, told News Line: ‘This exposes how all of these reforms are in the interests of...
THE Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has said that the Palestinians are determined to seek recognition of a Palestinian state from the United Nations this September. ‘The issue of going to the UN is decisive and it doesn’t endure any play or manoeuvring,’ Abbas said during a meeting...
Pakistani HUMAN rights lawyer Mirza Shahzad Akbar presented evidence from his pioneering lawsuits for victims of US drone attacks in Waziristan, Pakistan at a press conference in London on Monday. The conference was hosted by Clive Stafford Smith, director of legal charity Reprieve. Shahzad brought the first ever legal case against...
THE leaking of new guidelines to staff working with the unemployed exposes the barbarity of the coalition government’s onslaught on the sick, vulnerable and the unemployed. The document sets out what is called a ‘new policy for all DWP businesses to help them manage suicide and self-harm declarations from customers’. These...
Situation Facing US Federal Employees Today – by the AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees) trade union. ‘THE current political climate for all public employees, including federal employees, is harsh. Efforts are under way throughout the country to eliminate pensions, severely curtail health insurance benefits, cut or freeze pay levels,...
The Tory-LibDem Health and Social Care Bill risks ‘unravelling and dismantling’ the NHS, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) warned yesterday. The competition running through the bill ‘will lead to fragmentation of services’ which would be ‘a backward step for maternity services’, added the Royal College of Midwives (rcm). The...
The Irish Political Journalist JOHN COULTER assesses the impact of the Stormont results on political stability in the North of Ireland. Ulster Unionist boss Tom Elliott’s notorious ‘Sinn Fein scum’ jibe is either the start of a radical repositioning of the party, or an off-the-cuff comment which will spark a...
Opponents of a proposal to end child heart surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital, west London, expressed their concerns at a public meeting on Saturday. The meeting was part of a ‘consultation’ in response to an NHS review of children’s heart services which recommends stopping child heart operations at up...
SO the farce continues. The LibDems, having received a drubbing at the hands of the electorate for their treachery, are now pledging, through their leader Clegg, to jump right back into bed with the ‘ruthless’ Tories, but this time to fight them all the way. It is to be...
Trade unions yesterday condemned Tory threats to ban strikes after Downing Street dropped a bombshell, confirming that Tory leader Cameron is ‘considering’ just that. London Mayor Johnson had urged Cameron to ‘get a move on’ and ban Tube strikes and, along with the CBI, urged MPs to back a Tory...
THE coalition with the Tories is proving to be the kiss of death for the LibDems. They are hated, and paying the price for their treachery to students and workers for their policy about-face over £9,000 student fees, as well as for their coalition drive to privatise the NHS...
UK interest rates were kept on hold at 0.5% yesterday, the 26th month in a row that the Bank of England has left interest rates unchanged, out of fear that the UK economy is heading for a deep slump, and that a rate rise will accelerate the process. Last week,...
TRIPOLI – Colonel Gadaffi on Wednesday made a major address to the Libyan people. He began: ‘Dear great Libyan, resisting, steadfast and brave people. I am meeting you this historical evening, the evening of Al-Qurdabiyah, the battle of all the Libyans. I beseech God to shower the souls of the...
THE Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) yesterday held interest rates at a record low 0.5 per cent after ignoring calls to head off inflation with a rise in borrowing costs. Commenting on the rates decision, Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: ‘The Bank of England has made the...
UK children’s wellbeing lags behind many other European countries, including France, Germany, Slovenia and Estonia, Save the Children has found. The charity’s World’s Mothers Index, which rates countries based on the well-being of mothers and children, ranked the UK just 23rd. This ranking places it in the bottom half of the...
PALESTINIAN president, Mahmud Abbas, and Hamas leader, Khaled Mishaal, yesterday signed the Palestinian Unity Agreement in Cairo, putting an end to the split in the Palestinian movement that has only served Israel and the imperialist powers. The joint signing was cheered by Palestinians dancing in the streets of Ramallah and...
A GMB National Officer was arrested at the protest against the lockout of 430 workers at BP Saltend, in Hull yesterday morning. GMB national officer Phil Whitehurst was arrested while he was attending the lawful protest against the lock-out and is in police custody at Hull police station. Video footage...
Government plans to sell Royal Mail, ending the inter-business agreement with the Post Office, would lead to over 9,000 post office closures, a poll of sub-postmasters commissioned by the Communication Workers Union reveals. Sub-postmasters revealed by nine to one (92 per cent) that they could not survive without Royal...
THE CWU revealed yesterday that 9,360 post offices will close once Royal Mail is privatised and the inter-business agreement with the Post Office is ended. In a poll 92% of sub-postmasters believe that they could not survive without Royal Mail business, which the Postal Services privatisation Bill now going through...
Tens of thousands of workers, students and youth in Greece participated in the May Day rallies and marches held last Sunday in all Greek cities. Railway workers carried out a 24-hour strike and ferry crews a four-hour midday stoppage. In the capital Athens three May Day demonstrations took place. Over 4,000 workers...
It is young people who are leading the struggle. Young people demand a future and the only way is socialism. The Young Socialists stand with Palestinian youth and support their drive for unity. We stand alongside the Libyan youth and alongside the workers and youth of Greece, Portugal and...
When US President, Barack Obama, announced on Sunday night that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a dawn raid by US special forces it raised more questions than it provided answers. One thing that is indisputable is that this announcement represented the opening shots in Obama’s Presidential re-election campaign...
Pregnant women living in the borough of Wirral, northwest England, face being put under the care of a private healthcare company rather than the care of the NHS. The local Primary Care Trust (PCT) has approved an application from the One to One company to provide a ‘community midwifery...
ANGRY Libyans chanted Muammar Gadaffi’s name in Tripoli yesterday, as they gathered for the funeral of his son 29-year-old Saif al-Arab and three grandchildren, killed in the vicious NATO airstrike on Saturday night. Saif al-Arab had no children, but three of his young nieces and nephews were also killed in...
WRP general secretary Frank Sweeney yesterday condemned the ‘attempt of the NATO gangsters to murder the Libyan leadership headed by Colonel Gadaffi.’ He called them ‘child killers’, and pointed out that the ‘British ruling class is trying to steal Libya’s oil at the same time as they are trying to...
THE murderous attack on the home of Saif al Arab, the youngest son of Colonel Gadaffi, killed Saif and three grand children of the Libyan leader, but failed to kill the Libyan leader and his wife. Hours before that attack Colonel Gadaffi had made a TV broadcast offering a ceasefire....
TRADE UNION supporters had a rude awakening last Wednesday with news of the Massachusetts state House vote to slash collective bargaining rights for municipal workers. Democratic-controlled, and among the bluest of the blue, Massachusetts is not the place where most expected to see the next battle in the nationwide...