Monthly Archives: October 2015
PRESIDENT Barack Obama has admitted defeat in Afghanistan and has decided to keep 5,500 US troops there when he leaves office in 2017, according to senior administration officials, dumping his promise to end the war on his watch, and handing on the war and much else to his successor. Military...
NOTHING is being allowed to halt or even get in the way of the all-powerful GCHQ spy machine that has been long established as the UK branch of the US National Security Agency that has been so brilliantly exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal has ruled that...
COMMENTING on Tory Health Secretary Hunt’s plans to cap charges for NHS agency staff, Janet Davies, Chief Executive & General Secretary of the RCN said: ‘While capping agency charges may look like firm action from the government, it will not resolve the huge financial deficits trusts are facing because...
WITH nine power stations closing, the GMB warned yesterday about government ‘complacency’ and potential ‘widespread power blackouts’. The government’s secret plans, called ‘Operation Black Start’, to cope in the event of widespread power blackouts, will not be much help, said the GMB. GMB said it is very concerned that the...
JUNIOR doctors have demanded ‘concrete assurances’ from Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt before ‘considering’ re-entering negotiations. Junior doctors are furious at the Tory government’s attempts to impose a 90-hour working week on them and cut their pay by 30 per cent. They have called a demonstration for Saturday October 17th...
ON Monday evening in the House of Commons Labour MP Jo Cox came to the rescue of Cameron and the Tories when she led an adjournment debate in which she proposed that Syria should be bombarded by British ships from the Mediterranean. She declared: ‘We have been tested by...
‘I AM not going to give up, I am going to fight the council until they give me and my family somewhere to live forever,’ Aminata Sellu declared to cheering supporters after successfully seeing off the bailiffs and police yesterday morning. ‘The council told me that the police and bailiffs...
THROUGHOUT Yatta town, south of Jerusalem, a general strike is being observed to mourn the killing of a 15-year-old boy, Hasan Manasra, who was shot for allegedly attempting to stab two settlers near Pisgat Zeev settlement in Jerusalem. Hasan was left to bleed to death. A video on social media...
MATERNITY services are overworked, understaffed and struggling to cope, a senior midwives survey shows. Maternity unit closures, budget and training cuts and reduced services are among the issues highlighted by a survey of UK senior midwives published by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM). The RCM believes that maternity units...
THE Turkish trade unions called a two-day general strike for yesterday and today to express their outrage at the bombing on Saturday of the ‘Labour, Peace and Democracy Rally’ in the capital, Ankara. In a joint statement, the Confederation of Progressive Labour Unions (DISK), Public Workers Labour Unions Confederation (KESK),...
‘DOCTORS working unsocial hours must not have their pay cut,’ was the demand in a letter to Tory health secretary Hunt signed by 1,618 junior doctors, 193 consultants and 198 medical students. The letter stated: ‘The government’s proposals will remove vital safeguards that penalise Trusts for overworking junior doctors....
THE government is responsible for maternity services being overworked, understaffed and struggling to cope, warned the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) yesterday. Maternity unit closures, budget and training cuts and reduced services are among the issues highlighted by a survey of UK senior midwives by the RCM. The RCM believes...
THE imperialist powers are now working overtime to explode the Mediterranean region, from Libya to Turkey, into one huge raging fire. The UN Security Council on Friday approved a European military operation to seize and destroy boats used by migrant smugglers in the Mediterranean, after thousands have died in dangerous...
HEZBOLLAH Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said on Friday that Saudi Arabia will be dealt a severe, historic blow in Yemen, stressing that victory was definite for the Yemeni people. Sayyed Nasrallah, in an interview with the Iranian TV, Al-Ahvaz, said Saudi Arabia destroyed Yemen and abolished its unity and...
THE official figures for NHS trusts in England for the first three months of the financial year (April to June) have just been released after being held back until after the Tory party conference and the reason for the delay is obvious – the NHS is being systematically bankrupted...
SIPTU has stated that it will resist a plan by the management of Irish Water to implement 1,200 redundancies at the state-owned company as it is a clear move towards its future privatisation and an unacceptable breach of agreements on the operation of the utility. SIPTU Sector Organiser, Brendan O’Brien,...
THE Chair of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Palestine Martina Anderson has called for East Jerusalem to be placed under immediate international protection after a series of violent clashes have left several dead and tensions heightened to an extreme level. Anderson said: ‘Every day we read with horror...
FIERCE clashes are continuing between Israeli forces and Palestinian youth organised in Popular Committees across all of the West Bank districts. The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) said 272 Palestinians were injured during Wednesday’s clashes across the West Bank districts, including nine with live ammunition, 84 with rubber-coated bullets, and 179...
HOME Secretary Theresa May has called for an overhaul in the EU asylum rules saying the bloc must speed up deportation of ‘economic migrants’ and ‘crack down’ on abuse of its asylum system. May made the suggestions while meeting with ministers to discuss Europe’s refugee crisis in Luxembourg on Thursday....
AFTER Theresa May’s vintage Tory beat-and-beat-again speech on Tuesday to the Tory Party conference, treating migrants as the enemy and rating their contribution to Britain as ‘near zero’, Cameron tried to present a ‘compassionate party' that welcomed immigrants into the Party Conference. The difference between the two Tories is...
BARNET Unison members were in determined mood yesterday as they began their 24-hour strike against privatisation of all Barnet Council services. The dispute involves social workers, coach escorts, drivers, occupational therapists, school catering staff, education welfare officers, library workers, children’s centre workers, street cleaning and refuse workers, all of whom...
RAMALLAH, October 6 2015 – Dozens of Palestinians were injured with live ammunition on Monday night and Tuesday and suffocated by inhaling tear gas during recurrent clashes in multiple areas near Ramallah, according to medical sources. At midday on Tuesday, two Palestinians, including a journalist, were injured with live ammunition...
THERESA May, at the Tory Party conference yesterday, knocked any notion that there could be a caring Tory Britain on the head as she declared that migration has not advanced the British economy at all, and that the best thing for migrants is to send them back! She revealed a...
AUSTRALIANS will be hitting the streets in their thousands in cities and towns across the country on Sunday, 11th October in opposition to the government’s inhumane treatment of refugees in detention centres both on Australian soil and offshore on Manus Island and Nauru. There will be mass rallies at 11am...
‘WE MUST work to control immigration and put Britian first,’ Tory Home Secretary Theresa May said yesterday, stepping up her war on refugees. The economic benefits of high immigration to society ‘is close to zero,’ she claimed in her speech to the Tory Party conference. She continued: ‘So there is...
SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad says the coalition of Iran, Russia, Syria and Iraq will succeed, that it must or the entire region will be destroyed. ‘This coalition must succeed; otherwise we will see the destruction of the entire (Middle East) region,’ Assad said in an interview with the Islamic Republic...
NURSES are working in ‘intolerable situations’ and feel ‘unsupported and undervalued’, with many thinking about leaving the profession, according to new RCN research published yesterday. • 59% say that they are too busy to provide the level of care that they would like. • 43% have seen an increase in...
THE HATED anti-working class, pro-privatisation ‘Trans-Pacific Partnership’ deal was pushed through yesterday, in the teeth of opposition. Leaders from a dozen countries agreed the trade deal which now effects 40% of the world economy. It is a deal that has been fought every step of the way by trade unions...
THE medical charity, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has rightly denounced the targeted bombing by US planes of its medical centre in the Afghan city of Kunduz, as a war crime. The hospital was hit repeatedly in precision airstrikes for over an hour resulting in the death of 22...
UNITE leader McCluskey has made Tory PM Cameron an offer by letter to accept the thresholds necessary for legal strike action, as proposed in the new anti-union bill, in return for the Tories conceding electronic voting at work places. The Tory Bill when it becomes an Act will require 50%...
GERMAN ‘escape helpers’ are driving to Hungary with cars and vans to collect refugees and ferry them across European borders, and back into Germany to start a new life. Volunteers are with an activist group called ‘The Peng Collective’, they have helped organise and coordinate more than 100 volunteers. The...
PM CAMERON told the Andrew Marr Show yesterday that what was interesting about Unite leader McCluskey’s proposals on the new anti-trade union bill ‘is the trade unions accepting that these thresholds are right – that you shouldn’t have damaging strikes that close schools or shut hospitals or stop...
UNITE is prepared to accept the Tories’ plans for thresholds for industrial action ballots. The union said in a statement yesterday: ‘The prime minister has been challenged to accept a ‘measure of agreement’ over controversial proposals to introduce punishing thresholds for industrial action ballots. ‘The offer – secret, secure workplace...
TURKEY, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have called on Russia to stop its air strikes in Syria, a joint statement unveiled by Turkey’s Foreign Ministry says. The English-language statement posted on the ministry’s website on Thursday says, ‘We express our deep concern with...
RESEARCH conducted by the medical magazine Pulse has uncovered the fact that local GP practices are being offered bribes of thousands of pounds to cut the number of patients they refer to hospitals. According to the research, GPs are being paid anything up to £11,000 to cut back on hospital...
MEDICAL students’ leaders yesterday defended final year medical students against threats to their careers if they demonstrate against the government imposing a dangerous and wage-cutting contract onto junior doctors. The medical students accused medical schools of attempting to silence protest over the new junior...
WAL-MART Stores Inc is planning to sack hundreds of workers at its headquarters in Arkansas as part of the retail giant’s efforts to pare costs, it has emerged. 500 workers are being threatened with the sack, with Wal-Mart refusing to comment on the matter on Wednesday. More than 18,000 people...
‘THE raising of our flag epitomises the triumph of all our diplomatic efforts and heralds the future de jure recognition of Palestine which is long overdue,’ Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Manuel Hassassian said on Wednesday. Today is a historic day for Palestine and the Palestinian people. At 1700 GMT...
SIXTY seven years after the 1948 Naqba that saw hundreds of thousands of Palestinians turned into refugees with the establishment of the state of Israel on top of their homes, and 48 years after the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian masses are more...
JUNIOR Doctors are to hold a mass demonstration in central London on Saturday October 17th against the imposition of new contracts cutting their pay by over 30% and forcing them to work 90 hours a week. Junior doctors’ leaders stated yesterday: ‘Following on from the success of the first protest...
AN ISIS HQ, command point and an ammo depot in Syria were destroyed by Russian military night operations on Wednesday, it was revealed yesterday. Footage shot by drones shows Russian airstrikes on ISIS infrastructure near Idlib and al-Latamna. Reporting eight overnight sorties, a Defence Ministry spokesman said Russia’s Air Force fleet...
SECRETARY-General of the PLO’s Executive Committee Saeb Erekat Monday expressed his disappointment in US President Barack Obama for ignoring the Palestinian question during his speech before the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. The PLO official wondered if President Obama believes that he can beat ISIS and terrorism, and bring about...
LABOUR MPs should be given a free vote on military action in Syria, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said on Tuesday night, at a Guardian-sponsored fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference. This was said after Labour’s right wing made it clear that they would be voting with Cameron, while Tory...