Monthly Archives: October 2011
‘WE will defend Chase Farm Hospital with an occupation!’ was the message Bill Rogers, secretary of the North East London Council of Action, delivered on Saturday night to the St Paul’s occupation assembly. Rogers said on the steps of St Paul’s: ‘We have been fighting for four years to stop...
OVER 1,500 people on Saturday took part in the United Families and Friends Campaign 13th annual procession in central London against deaths in custody. The bereaved families and friends and their supporters walked silently from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street. They held a rally in Whitehall before attempting to hand in...
SYRIA’S Ba’athist leader Bashar al-Assad has warned that Western action against his country will cause an ‘earthquake’ that will ‘burn the whole region’, and create a number of Afghanistans. Assad told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘The plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region.’ However, imperialism is not...
FROM NICK AXARLIS IN ATHENS TRULY unprecedented spontaneous mass demonstrations of thousands of furious workers and students have forced the cancellation of the official military parade in Salonica, northern Greece, on the anniversary of fascist Italy’s attack on Greece in 1940. It is the first time that the military parade...
CANBERRA – Sri Lankan-born Australian Arunachalam Jegatheeswaran filed an indictment on war-crime charges against the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday, declaring he was seeking justice for thousands who perished in a series of aerial bombardments and ground attacks on shelters, schools, hospitals, orphanages and community centres. Rajapaksa is...
AS details emerge of the desperate measures hammered out in Europe on Wednesday night in an attempt to save the eurozone from collapse and the entire banking system from meltdown, it is clear that a massive plank in the deal entails European capitalism going cap and begging bowl in...
THE coalition government has published its plans to turn Britain into one big prison with its own version of the US’ two strikes and you face a life jail term. The government wants mandatory life sentences for crimes other than murder. Under the proposals, a conviction for a second serious sexual...
THE Howard League for Penal Reform and the Prison Reform Trust yesterday expressed concern over mandatory life sentences being extended to crimes other than murder. Justice Secretary Ken Clarke announced that anyone convicted of a second serious sexual or violent crime in England and Wales would get an automatic life...
‘We will be here indefinitely!’ was the defiant message on Tuesday night from the anti-capitalist occupiers who have built up a ‘tent city’ outside St Paul’s Cathedral. Young occupier Ev Emanon said: ‘When the church told us about the health and safety issues we moved all the tents apart. ‘The church...
MORE than a quarter of countries represented at the ongoing Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth this week have failed to allow basic industrial rights for workers, Australian TUC President Ged Kearney said yesterday. Workers’ rights are being ignored across the Commonwealth, with the worst abuses currently occurring...
LEADERS from more than 50 countries, representing more than one-quarter of the world’s nations and two billion people, are meeting in Perth, Western Australia this weekend at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). They will be discussing global and Commonwealth issues such as trade, international peace and security, health,...
THE Tory-LibDem Coalition plans to abolish the right of workers to claim unfair dismissal and bring in an employers right to sack workers without having to state a reason. This emerged yesterday, after the Beecroft report commissioned by prime minister Cameron was leaked. The report, dated October 12, 2011, was written...
BIG BUSINESS should be given the right to dismiss unproductive workers without explanation or warning, declares a leaked report to the coalition government by venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft. The report has the support of the Prime Minister Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne. It says that the UK’s ‘terrible’ unemployment...
A new report warns that plans to privatise London Fire Brigade training and the fire control centre would compromise safety whilst imposing new high financial risks on the capital’s fire service. The European Services Strategy Unit, jointly commissioned by the FBU, GMB and Unison trade unions, has released its report...
THE Tory-led coalition was rocked on Monday night when over 80 Tory backbench MPs, leftovers from the days of empire, voted for a referendum on the European Union! It is a well known fact that the vast majority of the British people are opposed to being ruled by...
THOUSANDS of angry teachers, lecturers and support staff are lobbying Parliament today against the Tory-LibDem Coalition Government’s onslaught on their pensions. The unprecedented joint action by seven leading education unions, ASCL, ATL, NAHT, NASUWT, NUT, UCU and UCAC, comes ahead of the multi-million-strong strike by public sector workers planned for...
Fifty-three Muammar Gadaffi loyalists were executed by members of the counter-revolutionary NTC at a Sirte hotel last week, Human Rights Watch reported yesterday. Human Rights Watch saw the badly decomposed remains of the 53 people on October 23, 2011, at the Hotel Mahari in District 2 of Sirte. The hotel...
As the Welfare Reform Bill progresses through the committee stage of the House of Lords so more evidence is emerging about the catastrophic effect it will have on the lives of workers and their families, especially those most vulnerable, the sick and disabled. A survey commissioned by the cancer charity, Macmillan...
Occupy London protesters against the banks voted on Saturday to continue their camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral and expanded their protest to another camp in Finsbury Square, Moorgate. This was their response to reports that St Paul’s had closed to visitors on the recommendation of ‘independent’ health and safety advisors. Several...
THE House of Commons Health Committee on October 18th discussed who was to fill the post of being chair of the NHS Commissioning Board that will handle tens of billions of NHS cash, using it to purchase private care. It delivered its verdict on the Coalition Government’s appointment...
THREE days after his death, a website has published the last will written by murdered Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi. In his will, the Libyan leader calls on Libyans to preserve their identity and history and calls on his supporters to fight against foreign aggression against Libya. It reads: ‘This is my...
SIX unions have mounted a legal challenge on behalf of millions of public sector workers over what inflation index is used to increase their pensions. A judicial review hearing starts in the High Court on Tuesday (October 25) to challenge the switch to using the consumer price index (CPI) instead...
LAST Wednesday and Thursday saw the biggest general strike of all workers, public and private sector, shopkeepers, and transport workers, which brought the whole of Greece to a standstill. Anger erupted against the latest austerity bill by the Papandreou government which was being discussed and voted upon in the Vouli...
‘AVERAGE private rents are unaffordable for ordinary working families in over half (55%) of local authorities in England,’ Shelter the housing charity said yesterday. It added: ‘Recent research by Shelter showed that 38% of families with children who are renting privately have cut down on buying food to pay...
THE entire capitalist economy of Europe took a decisive step towards total meltdown with the admission last Thursday that agreement on a Europeanwide bail-out of the eurozone lay in tatters. Last weekend France and Germany hailed as a massive success a deal to stabilise the entire banking system and ward...
US SECRETARY of State Clinton was on a special mission to Afghanistan on Wednesday, the day after she expressed her hope in Tripoli, that Colonel Gadaffi, who has refused to accept a US-NATO recolonisation of Libya, would soon be either captured or killed. Her mission to Afghanistan, after ten years...
HALF a million Greek workers, students and youth marched through Athens on Wednesday. This was as part of a two-day general strike against a government Bill that imposes 30 per cent wage and pensions cuts, the abolition of collective labour agreements, high taxation on workers’ income and will lead to...
HUNDREDS of riot police stormed through the rear perimeter fence into the Dale Farm compound at 7am yesterday morning, injuring female residents that they pushed to the ground and causing children to scream in terror. Two people were Tasered in the police-led operation, seven were arrested and two were taken...
Save Kensal Green Library campaigners are maintaining their round-the-clock presence outside their local library. Outside the library yesterday morning campaigner Phil O’Shea explained: ‘This campaign started last April when the council announced that six libraries would be closed. ‘A sham consultation was held in which 82 per cent of local people...
EX-VISTEON workers who successfully occupied their factory after being sacked, joined the picket of Chase Farm hospital on Tuesday reinforcing the call for occupation to stop the closure. Doctors, nurses, local residents, patients and workers organised in their trade unions also joined the North East London Council of Action’s call...
THOUSANDS of people die each year from illnesses linked to fuel poverty. Last year was a very cold winter, and this year’s winter is already predicted to be just as cold. This means that tens of thousands of people, not just the extremely ill, or the very frail and elderly, will...
THE rate of Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation in the UK in September, rose to 5.2% from 4.5% the month before. A huge leap in food, gas and electricity prices was behind a large proportion of the rise. Bills for gas, electricity and other fuels were up 18.3% on the year,...
A STUDENT leader was attacked and seriously wounded in Jaffna on Sunday, reports TamilNet. Suspected Sri Lanka Army intelligence personnel armed with sharp iron rods followed the Jaffna University Student Union leader S. Thavapalasingham on more than eight motorbikes and attacked him at Kantharmadam in Jaffna seriously wounding the student...
SUPPORT for the occupation of Chase Farm Hospital is growing as more and more residents and staff support the picket against its closure. Passing motorists constantly honked their horns in support of yesterday’s latest picket outside the hospital in Enfield. And patients, hospital staff and local residents stopped to join in. Bill...
‘DAVID Cameron and George Osborne’s political cowardice means they are presiding over an economic catastrophe’ said Unite leader Len McCluskey yesterday, commenting on the latest inflation figures. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) has risen from 4.5% to 5.2%, which equals the record high reached in September 2008, and the Retail...
Fighters loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi mounted a fierce counter-attack in the city of Sirte on Saturday, forcing back the NATO-backed NTC counter-revolutionaries under a barrage of rockets and shelling. The NTC mercenaries fled two kilometres in disarray to the city’s captured police headquarters shouting ‘run, run, run!’ After absorbing...
NHS London has signed a £7 million contract with a group of multi-national privateers to provide business training for GPs – even before the Health and Social Care Bill, which privatises primary care, is passed by parliament. BMA General Council member Anna Athow told News Line: ‘This decision...
WITH interest rates at their lowest ever at 0.5%, the UK economy is at a dangerous junction, warns the Ernst and Young Item Club. Its solution to the deepening economic crisis is to demand a further cut in the already miniscule interest rate down to 0.25%, to try and give...
Over 600 people were yesterday massed at the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, holding a popular assembly after hundreds had camped out overnight following Saturday’s demonstration of up to 5,000. At yesterday’s event, organising committee member Firas Khawaja told News Line: ‘The plan is to stay until December 12th. ‘There were...
CABINET Office minister Francis Maude’s continuing claims that his attempt at mutualising (privatising) a government body enjoys staff support is completely undermined by figures that show almost no employees see the benefits. Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union at My Civil Service Pension – the agency that administers...
SATURDAY saw demonstrations and occupations taking place in many countries following the example of the Spanish and Greek square occupations that have featured as part of the struggle against savage European Union cuts and the way that the Wall Street occupation has spurred the US trade unions to...
The High Court of Justice on Thursday passed down judgment in favour of the government in a Judicial Review brought by Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG). The review concerned two specific cuts to housing benefit that came into force this April: • Restriction of maximum household size to four bedrooms. • Caps...
THE Greek Interior Minister, Christos Kastanidis, has issued a press release/edict stating that the wages of all local government workers would be withheld unless the occupations and strikes end. This was in response to the refusal of the local government workers’ union POE-OTA to call off the occupation of...