Monthly Archives: March 2015
COUNCIL-run schools in the poorest areas of the country are being starved of funds by the Tory-led coalition, which is pumping money into privately funded Free Schools and Academies. The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said: ‘Schools in the most poorly funded areas of England will each receive...
A DEMONSTRATION held last Thursday March 12 outside the A&E at the Worcester Royal Hospital, demanded an end to the bullying and witchhunting of staff. Five A&E consultants had previously resigned en masse at Worcester Acute Hospital because cuts had placed the entire future of the services they...
THE launch in parliament of the new book, ‘Blacklisted: the Secret War between Big Business and Union Activists’, saw Labour MP John McDonnell read a statement from a former professional undercover police spy, turned whistleblower, about the scope of capitalist state spying on the trade unions. Peter Francis could...
THE Italian state TV and radio reported on Friday that according to the Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek government was prepared to drop its anti-austerity election promises to appease its creditors at the European Union and the IMF. At an economists’ conference in northern Italy, Varoufakis said that...
THE UK’s failure to build affordable homes has led to a soaring housing-benefit bill – with half a million more people now relying on benefits to pay their rent than when the coalition came to power, warns John Healey MP, a former Labour Treasury minister. After analysing the figures on...
THE GMB union has called for a just-announced Home Office inquiry into undercover police to cover blacklisting. This came during a protest outside Parkside police station, Cambridge on Thursday. Managers and police shedding crocodile tears now for the blacklisting of 3,213 workers won’t wash, neither will the Nuremberg Defence of ‘just...
YET another authoritative report detailing the developing world banking crisis has surfaced – a report which if shorn of its dry academic language paints a nightmare picture of the effect of all the trillions of dollars artificially created through quantitative easing (QE) and sustained by near zero rates of...
THE north of Ireland was yesterday gripped by a 24-hour general strike by health, education, transport and civil service workers protesting against job cuts and Stormont House austerity. Tens of thousands took part in marches and rallies across the north in Belfast, Derry, Newry, Strabane, Omagh, Enniskillen, Coleraine, Magherafelt,...
AFTER the announcement of the resignation of the chief of police in Ferguson, St Louis, an evening and midnight demonstration and celebration outside the police station saw two policemen shot and seriously wounded, with the police station itself put under armed siege. The masses of Ferguson are doing in practice...
‘THERE is to be a zero pay rise for thousands of teachers in 2015-16.’ So said Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, commenting on the 25th School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) report on the teachers’ pay award for 2015-16 and the coalition government’s response. She added: ‘It is clear that...
DUE to the ever-widening gender pay gap, Australian women were effectively working for free on International Women’s Day on Sunday, 8 March. Speaking on International Women’s Day, ACTU President Ged Kearney called for the Abbott Government to ensure women are not left behind. ‘The ABS figures are clear, Australian women earn...
TENS of thousands of public service workers will strike across Northern Ireland tomorrow. Unison said yesterday that Health & social services, education boards, schools, bus and train services and the civil service will all be affected as workers take action in protest at unsustainable cuts which put the public and...
UK industrial output fell by 0.1% in January compared with a month earlier, official figures have shown. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also reported that manufacturing output fell by 0.5% in January from December. The biggest fall came from the computer, electronic and optical sector where output dived 9.5%, the...
THE Eurogroup’s President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Tuesday that unless the Greek government implements immediately the promised ‘reforms’ – that is austerity measures – agreed to with the Eurozone, Greece could not receive financial aid. At Monday’s Eurozone Financial Ministers’ meeting, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis presented a document of...
IT IS crystal clear with the Tories seeking to impose even bigger cuts if they are re-elected in May, that under their rule the NHS is becoming more and more completely unaffordable. Labour’s Ed Balls has been speaking about £70bn of Tory cuts that would inevitably mean major increases in...
CLASHES with Israeli forces left dozens of Palestinians injured in Kafr Aqab in northern Jerusalem on Tuesday, medics said. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that nine demonstrators suffered injuries from live fire to their lower extremities, and one was left in critical condition. Activists reported that dozens more sustained light-to-moderate injuries...
PRESIDENT Obama attacked the Republicans on Monday over an incendiary letter, sent by them to Iran’s leaders, seeking to sabotage his foreign policy in the interests of the Israeli government, by warning that any nuclear deal signed between the US P5+1 group and Iran will be scrapped by...
WOMEN activists and Tamil youth activists of the missing persons’ relatives campaign concluded a three-day fast and a four-day walk from Mu’l’livaaykkaal in Vanni to Nalloor on Monday. The action, which coincided with International Women’s Day over the weekend, was the latest step in intensifying their protest demanding international investigations...
A QUARTER of Clinical Commissioning Group board members, who are responsible for £65bn of NHS money are linked to private healthcare companies. Unite has called for the Health and Social Care Act, responsible for this scandal to be ‘dumped into the dustbin of history’. The comprehensive study carried out by Unite,...
ESSEX emergency 999 control operators began eight days of strike action yesterday morning against imposed changes to their shifts which makes family life impossible. The FBU said: ‘Not only will this be the longest strike to date but all the strikers are likely to be women. ‘The professional control...
TENANTS facing eviction from their homes in Sweets Way Estate in Barnet, north London, were joined by their recently evicted former neighbours on Sunday for a ‘Community Fun Day’, including music, a barbecue and games for the children. Scores of families have been forcibly evicted from the estate by Barnet...
SHADOW Labour Chancellor Ed Balls said yesterday that the Tories are not even half way through their cuts, and that if elected they would make a further £70bn worth of ‘deeply destructive’ cuts. ‘This,’ Balls said, ‘would all but end funding for local government’ and drive Britain back to spending...
A ‘LEHMAN BROTHERS debt crisis’ in the heartland of Europe is how the news that a major Austrian bank collapsed last week was described by one economic journalist. The collapse of Austria’s Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank International – which was declared bankrupt with debts of 10.2 billion euros – was further...
TEACHERS unions yesterday opposed the ‘scandalous’ proposal to pour millions of pounds into hundreds of new privately run free schools. They were responding to PM Cameron’s announcement of the creation of yet another 49 new free schools now and a further 300 free schools if the Tories get elected. Cameron made...
TENANTS facing eviction and already evicted tenants at Sweets Way housing estate in Barnet, north london, came together for a community ‘Fun Day’ yesterday. They had music, a barbecue, games for the children, a football match and a singalong. Hundreds of tenants have been evicted from the estate in just the...
THE prospects for the 2015 May 7 general election – taking place after more than five years of savage austerity measures that have resulted in the rich getting richer and the poor getting very much poorer – are causing a major crisis in the ranks of the UK...
BARNET tenants are holding a ‘Fun Day’ tomorrow to highlight the community they are at risk of losing if Annington Homes continue to evict entire families. Annington Homes are replacing the housing estate with unaffordable private rental flats. As London’s most populous borough scatters its poor and working class residents in...
THE Bank of England this week was revealed to be under investigation by no less than the Serious Fraud Office. Founded in 1694, the Bank has never before been investigated for fraud, indeed it has always enjoyed the reputation of being above any grubby dealings as Britain’s central bank, made...
‘IT IS concerning that the Department of Health is not getting local authorities to their target funding allocations for public health quickly enough,’ says parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chair, Labour MP Margaret Hodge. ‘With nearly one third of 152 local authorities currently receiving funding that is more than 20%...
THE Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating allegations that the Bank of England rigged the way that money was ‘auctioned’ to banks during the financial crisis. The SFO has confirmed that it is ‘investigating material referred to it by the Bank of England concerning liquidity auctions during the financial crisis...
US ATTORNEY General Eric Holder says leaders in Ferguson, Missouri, must take ‘immediate, wholesale action’ after a report of widespread racial bias in its law enforcement. In what Holder himself called a ‘searing’ report, the Justice Department found a ‘disturbing and unconstitutional’ pattern of abuse. Holder also warned that while the...
IRAN’S role in an Iraqi military offensive to recapture Tikrit could be positive as long as it does not fuel sectarian divisions in the country, the US military’s top officer said Tuesday. chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators that Iran’s military assistance for Shiite militias was...
AN Athens court has declared ‘illegal’ the 48-hour national strike of the Wind telecom company workers but the strike went ahead on Wednesday and Thursday with pickets at the company’s HQs where most of the 1,100-strong workforce is employed. Bosses are using austerity accords legislation to ask courts to declare...
CONSTRUCTION union UCATT has exposed how the union was infiltrated by the Metropolitan Police’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). The revelation creates fresh questions about the police’s role in the blacklisting of trade unionists and their covert manipulation of working class organisations. UCATT’s membership records show that Mark Cassidy was a member...
THE President of the Greek Vodafone workers’ trade union Jaklin Gorou said that Tuesday’s national strike, demanding wage rises, the end of flexible working and the signing of a national agreement, was ‘a success’ with over 80 per cent of workers participating in it. An Athens court had declared as...
LESS than 1% of the £700m allocated by the government for emergency care in England this winter ended up directly in A&E departments, according to The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM). The results of its research showed that the cash was not spent to improve emergency services, with some...
UKRAINE’S central bank has sharply raised interest rates from 19.5% to 30% in an effort to curb inflation and prop up its beleaguered currency by further depressing the economy. The rate hike comes as the government in Kiev is seeking a $17.5bn (£11.4bn) ‘assistance programme’ from the International Monetary Fund...
THE indefinite detention of asylum seekers must stop, a Parliamentary report on immigration detention, released yesterday has concluded. Following the report there was an angry demonstration outside the Home Office demanding that the notorious Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre is immediately shut down. ‘The women of Yarl’s Wood, Free them now!...
AUSTRALIA’S biggest health union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), is celebrating the defeat of the Tory Abbott government, which has had to cancel its proposed GP tax after a tireless campaign by nurses and midwives who warned it would destroy Medicare. ANMF Federal Secretary, Lee Thomas, said...
AN Athens court declared ‘illegal’ the national strike called by Vodafone workers yesterday demanding a collective labour agreement. The Vodafone workers’ trade union refused to accept the court’s decision and pickets were out early on Tuesday morning in Athens and major Greek cities. Workers at another telecom company Wind are set...
THE leadership of seven Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) affiliates have congratulated their Gauteng branches for picketing outside Cosatu House last Friday against the expulsion of National Union of Metalworkers South Africa (Numsa). The unions are Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu), South African Commercial, Catering and Allied...
US trade unions have reacted angrily to Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker comparing trade union workers to IS terrorists. The likely Republican presidential contender sparked pointed criticism from union leaders across the country after remarks delivered on the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Washington. The annual...
UP TO one hundred trade unionists, disabled campaigners and their supporters demonstrated yesterday outside Maximus, the company who have taken over the work-capability assessment, previously carried out by ATOS. They shouted: ‘Maximus out! Maximus out!’ and blocked the traffic outside St James’s Park Station, in central London. In 2007, Maximus settled...
100,000 children were left to starve last year as a direct result of the Tory-led coalition’s drive to cut benefit payments to the unemployed through a vicious regime of ‘sanctions’. These were the findings of a report issued yesterday by the Church Action on Poverty organisation on the effect of...