Monthly Archives: July 2013
PORTUGAL’S borrowing costs have jumped to over 7%, meaning that it will shortly have to seek another IMF-EU bailout, by offering even more cuts at the same time as political tensions stoked up by the government’s existing austerity measures, are reaching explosion point. Yields on 10-year bonds have hit an...
HER local Yorkshire community is defending Roseline Akhalu, a Nigerian-born kidney-transplant patient, from deportation and death. The UK immigration authorities have hounded her, an ill woman for years. They claim she is a health tourist. Her doctors confirm that she is not. On Thursday Roseline Akhalu yet again faces her accusers...
THREE thousand workers staged a militant march through Athens on Thursday, despite temperatures of 40 degrees, demanding the overthrow of the government and an ‘indefinite strike’. At the front of the march were the Metal Workers’ Union banner proclaiming the fight against the closure of the four state-owned Ammunitions...
THE two largest teacher unions, the NASUWT and the NUT, representing nine out of ten teachers, yesterday confirmed the next phase of their jointly coordinated campaign to Protect Teachers and Defend Education. There is to be a one-day, all-out national strike before the end of the Autumn term. Following the...
RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that the documents submitted by Moscow to the UN on the use of chemical weapons in Syria will answer many questions, and that the use of chemical weapons is a serious issue that shouldn’t be used as an excuse for escalation,...
TENS OF thousands of workers and youth are taking part in today’s historic Durham Miners’ Gala at a time when the capitalist system is gripped by its greatest crisis ever. It has become glaringly obvious that in the interests of the working class, the majority of the middle class and...
THE CWU leadership is seeking to make a deal with the coalition over the terms and conditions of the privatisation of Royal Mail, when any such deal is out of the question, since the crisis of the capitalist system demands privatisation and profits and nothing else. On Tuesday, the day...
NHS England warned yesterday that by 2020-21 the gap between the NHS budget and rising costs could reach £30bn, meaning that when the current programme of £20bn cuts in the NHS by 2014-15 is taken into account, cuts of £50bn are required ‘to save the NHS’. The organisation’s chief executive,...
‘IT can’t be done’ Southwest London hospital consultant Dr Philip Howard told News Line yesterday in response to a call for more A&E closures by NHS England Chief Executive David Nicholson. Nicholson warned the NHS faces another £30bn cuts on top of the £20bn already taking place. Howard added: ‘We’re already...
BRADLEY Manning, the US soldier accused of espionage, was ‘upset’ about the plight of Iraqi civilians before he handed over a trove of secret files to WikiLeaks, a witness testified on Monday at the whistleblower’s trial. The Army private was dismayed over an incident in which 15 Iraqi civilians had...
NOTHING demonstrates the complete bankruptcy and downright treachery of the reformist trade union leadership more clearly than the gyrations being performed by the leadership of the postal workers union (CWU) over the fight against the privatisation of Royal Mail. CWU general secretary (Billy Hayes) spoke boldly on Monday saying: ‘We...
BUSINESS Secretary Cable announced the government sell-off of Royal Mail through a flotation on the London Stock Exchange yesterday. Cable told parliament the pre-Christmas sale is likely to raise £2bn-£3bn. He made clear any deal he reaches with the CWU to maintain a number of jobs and the terms...
SCORES of town halls in the metropolitan Athens-Piraeus area were being occupied by municipal workers on Wednesday morning following a decision by the POE-OTA federation of local government trades unions. The action comes after two days of mass demonstrations of local government workers along with municipal police in Athens against...
MIDWIVES have commented on the NHS Staff Survey and the impact of staff shortages and inadequate staffing levels on the health of midwives and the mothers and babies they look after. Analysis of midwives’ responses of the 2012 NHS staff survey released on Tuesday by The Royal College of Midwives...
STANDING with the ‘One Nation’ Tory slogan behind him, Labour leader Miliband yesterday outlined his intention to wrest the Labour Party completely away from the trade unions and the organised working class that founded it. He said: ‘I am here today to talk about how we can build a different...
DATES for the planned privatisation of Royal Mail before Christmas are expected to be announced in the House of Commons by Business Secretary Cable today. He is to announce that Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Investec, Nomura and Royal Bank of Canada are forming a banking syndicate...
LABOUR Party leader Miliband stepped up his attacks on the trade unions yesterday, announcing plans to end the automatic ‘affiliation’ fee paid by three million trade union members to the Labour Party. Standing in front of a Union Jack background with ‘One Nation Labour’ written on it, Miliband announced the...
US SECRETARY of State John Kerry is to return to the Middle East later this week to resume efforts to draw Israel and the PLO back into direct negotiations, reports said on Sunday. According to the top-selling Israeli newspapers Yediot Aharonot daily and the left-leaning Haaretz, Kerry is to...
THE decision by the South African Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) not to sign the Framework Agreement for a Sustainable Mining Industry last Wednesday was a huge blow to the increasingly desperate attempts by the ANC government, the bosses and the tame unions affiliated to COSATU (Congress...
FIVE-to-14-year-olds will be required to learn more ‘hard facts’ under the new National Curriculum announced by prime minister Cameron and Education Secretary Gove yesterday. The new curriculum, which the coalition is demanding that state schools must have in place by September next year, was condemned as ‘far too narrow’ and...
THE pound fell below $1.49 against the dollar on Friday, close to a three-year low. Sterling traded as low as $1.4858 at one point. The problem is that while the new Bank of England Governor, Carney, has warned that UK interest rates will not rise from 0.5% for up to...
FIREFIGHTERS’ leaders are meeting this week to discuss an industrial action ballot over the government’s attack on their members’ pensions. The FBU is being told that it must accept the latest offer or else, and that a decision to hold a ballot will be met with the original employers’...
‘THIS report has found that there was no lawful justification for my son’s killing by the police. ‘He was shot eight times in only two seconds and not one of these shots was lawfully discharged by the officer concerned.’ This was the statement by Azelle Rodney’s mother, Susan Alexander, yesterday at...
THE Unite union, which in recent years has prevented the Labour Party from going bust and has financed its election campaigns with donations of millions of pounds, is now under a major attack by the leadership of the same party. It is accused of the crime of campaigning to...
THE Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) on Tuesday condemned a decision by the United Kingdom to grant immunity to Israel’s army chief while visiting the country. Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, arrived in the UK on Tuesday, in the first visit of...
THE move by the Egyptian military leadership to overthrow the Muslim Brotherhood government of President Mursi represents a decisive development in the Egyptian revolution and the struggle against imperialism throughout the region. Mursi, elected just over a year ago by the narrowest possible margin over the only other candidate –...
A £14.4 billion funding black hole threatens to swallow public services, say the council leaders of the Local Government Association. A LGA statement said: ‘The Local Government Association has updated its Funding Outlook Report to incorporate the additional 10 per cent real-terms cut to council funding for 2015/16, which was...
EDWARD SNOWDEN the former National Security Agency worker who blew the whistle on the US’s spying activities has been denied asylum by a host of countries. He applied to 21 nations in hopes of winning protection from American justice. Poland immediately rejected the petitions while an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said,...
THERE is not the slightest doubt that Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange have done a huge service to the whole of struggling humanity by revealing the mass murder, duplicity and the sheer scope of the spying both at home and abroad that is taking place,...
THE Tory-LibDem Coalition government announced yesterday that it intends to charge all ‘non-EU nationals’ who come to Britain £200 a year for access to the NHS. ‘What price xenophobia? Stigmatising foreigners accessing the NHS creates a public health risk,’ shadow public health minister Diane Abbott responded. The charges will mainly target...
SPEAKING in Damascus on Monday, Information Minister, Omran al-Zoubi, reiterated that the political leadership in Syria is still committed to the political solution which it has called for since the beginning of the crisis in Syria. ‘The leadership also believes that the national dialogue is the essence of the political...
THE US-backed and financed Egyptian army has given a 48-hour ultimatum to the US-backed and financed Muslim Brotherhood government (which supports the imperialist powers in Syria and has maintained the peace treaty with Israel) to take political action to resolve the crisis in Egypt – or else it...
EDWARD SNOWDEN has sought asylum from 15 countries after Russia and Ecuador have denied his petitions. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Monday that Moscow ‘never hands over anybody anywhere and has no intention to do so,’ but refused asylum unless he ceases his ‘unAmerican activities’. Putin, sucking up to the...
ILWU longshore workers in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, are facing a union busting attack by Marubeni who owns Columbia Grain and United Grain which is owned by Mitsui The Gettier company has brought in armed scabs and they are running the operation nonunion. The ILWU faces a major attack in...
YESTERDAY the new head of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, officially took up the reins from the outgoing Sir Mervyn King. Carney, formerly head of the Bank of Canada, becomes the first governor of the BofE not to be a British citizen in all its 319 year history and...
‘THE bedroom tax is causing real chaos, doing real damage to people’s lives,’ David Orr, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation said yesterday ‘The impact is at least as bad as we had anticipated, in many respects even worse,’ said Orr, the leader of the umbrella group for housing...
IN October 2012 Enfield Council engaged the services of Hygeian Consulting, a specialist healthcare consultancy, to support its scrutiny of the implementation of the BEH (Barnet, Enfield and Haringey) Strategy. Central to it was the shutting down of major services currently provided at Chase Farm Hospital and their replacement with...
IN an act of downright treachery, the leadership of the postal workers union, CWU, announced last Friday that their ‘opposition’ to privatisation had collapsed at the first threat of legal action by Royal Mail. In a letter to postal branches, signed by Billy Hayes (general secretary) and Dave Ward (deputy...
A Which? survey has found that about one million households use high interest payday lenders every month to try to make ends meet and put food on the table. These companies offer short-term loans at very high interest rates and are accused of taking advantage of Tory-led coalition austerity and...