Monthly Archives: August 2017
THE Australian Transport Workers’ Union has accused Aldi of attacking free speech by pursuing a Federal Court case to stop truck drivers from protesting over its unsafe practices and to restrict the union from publishing information on the rates and conditions of any transport workers in its supply chain. Aldi...
THE FACT that the Tories are cutting closing and privatising the NHS is no secret. Neither is the fact that those who are engaged in planning this strategic task for the British capitalists are being paid handsomely to do the butchering. In fact, as the Pulse magazine has revealed, one...
ONE hundred and fifty consultants employed to draw up the Tories Sustainability and Transformation plans (STPs) were paid combined annual salaries of at least £8.5 million, a survey from medical magazine Pulse has found. Responding, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA Chair of Council, said: ‘With the NHS facing an unprecedented crisis...
THE Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Israel must stop its occupation of the Palestinian territories, which he says undermines any two-state solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Erdogan made the remarks during a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ankara on Monday. The Turkish president described...
GP PRACTICES across three towns in Scotland have been forced to close their lists to new patients amid ongoing GP shortages. Three towns in North Ayrshire have closed their lists for an entire year to help ‘relieve pressure caused by recruitment difficulties’. Savage cuts to the NHS, funding cuts to...
LAST Saturday thousands of refugees and their supporters marched through the streets of the Italian capital, Rome, venting their anger over the police attack last week on a group of refugees forced to camp out in a city square. Firing water cannons and wielding batons, police broke up the group...
PALESTINIAN, Israeli and international academics are urging colleagues to boycott the 2017 congress of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies in Jerusalem next month. ‘Some attendees will be unaware of Israel’s direct attacks on Palestinians’ right to education, including the bombing of schools and universities, and the obstruction of access...
FOR FIFTY years, ever since the start of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians have been banned from any kind of political expression, even peaceful ones, Amnesty International (AI) said on Saturday. rom any kind of political expression, even peaceful ones, Amnesty International...
THE Labour Party leadership has moved to sell out and stab the Brexit referendum result and the working class in the back. Keir Starmer, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, has turned the office into its opposite. It has become the Office for Remaining in the EU...
LABOUR’S shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer yesterday announced a major policy shift, supporting continued membership of the single market and customs union during an undefined ‘transition period’ following the Brexit date of 2019. In a column in the Observer paper, Starmer said: ‘We need a transitional Brexit deal that provides...
PRESIDENT Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday met with a US delegation representing President Trump, headed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner at his Ramallah headquarters, and reiterated his appreciation of Trump’s efforts to ‘revive peace’ between the Palestinians and Israel. ‘We highly appreciate President Trump’s efforts to strike a historical peace deal,...
HUNDREDS of Uber drivers have been on strike in Indonesia in a dispute over what they describe as ‘modern slavery’ practices by the firm. Around 200 drivers rallied in the Indonesian capital Jakarta last Sunday, 20 August. And there were solidarity actions in other cities, including Bogor and Surabaya, while drivers...
AN OUTSOURCING contractor, whose work for GPs was described by a minister as ‘entirely unacceptable’, and the UK arm of a private US healthcare insurer are to lead the development of a Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP). Doctors leaders have expressed concern over the driving forward of privatisation. The Nottingham...
PRESIDENT Trump, in his latest speech on restarting the Afghan war, made it clear he is not just interested in ‘killing terrorists’. He insisted: ‘We are going to participate in economic development to help defray the cost of this war to us,’ proposing that India joins the US in robbing...
LABOUR yesterday pledged to end the ‘unprecedented’ squeeze on wages with a Labour government introducing a ‘Real Living Wage’ of £10 per hour for all workers over 18 by 2020. The party said: ‘A Labour government would give almost a quarter of workers (23%) a pay rise, with more than...
MORE than 50 garment workers at Haesong Corporation Ltd in Bangladesh have been injured after being attacked by hired goons. The workers were taking part in a peaceful protest against the sweater manufacturer on 16 August, global union federation IndustriALL revealed on Wednesday. The sit-in and strike, which took place...
THE Unite trade union leaders have declared their second ‘Pause for Peace’ in less than a week, in two fiercely fought industrial disputes – just two of the many disputes that are erupting, from the Birmingham and Doncaster binmen to the workers of the Bank of England and PCS...
SECRETARY General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Saeb Erekat, has called on the United Kingdom to recognise the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders and to reconsider plans to celebrate the 100 years anniversary for the infamous Balfour Declaration. This came during a meeting with UK Minister of...
THE Tenant Management Organisation which manages Grenfell Tower is to be stripped of its responsibilities for the west London estate, Tory Prime Minister Theresa May said yesterday. May was invited to meet survivors and residents of the west London tower block privately on Tuesday night to discuss concerns over the...
IN A SPEECH to a military audience on Monday night, US President Donald Trump outlined his change of strategy on Afghanistan. He said: ‘A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists, including ISIS and al Qaeda, would instantly fill, just as happened before September 11th.’ He stressed: ‘We cannot...
PRESIDENT Trump has told the US people he has changed his mind about Afghanistan being a futile conflict, and that now the US, and its allies, are going to go for the kill against the Afghan people. Trump’s administration has now been completely militarised, with Afghan vets in the lead....
ASPIRING “word artists” from around the world have joined with youth in Gaza, and now, Lebanon, to create "WE ARE NOT NUMBERS: We are individuals trying to change the world." These artists are working in collaboration with the ‘We all Live in gaza: Art Under Siege’ exhibition, currently running at...
THE US and South Korea have begun conducting annual military drills, ignoring North Korean appeals to halt the exercises. Last week North Korea appeared to retreat from a threat to launch missiles towards the US Pacific island of Guam, but said it would watch US actions. It has already condemned...
‘EVERYTHING related to the destiny and future of Syria is a 100% Syrian issue. The unity of Syrian territory is self-evident and not up for debate,’ says President Bashar al-Assad. President Assad said that throughout history, Syria has been a target, and those who control this target gain great control...
THE TORY government has been slammed over lack of preventative action, with PM Theresa May being warned that more people are set to die from fires started by faulty white goods if nothing is done. In a letter to May, signed by the London Fire Brigade (LFB) Commissioner Dany Cotton,...
AS CHINESE state-owned MTR takes over the South West Trains (SWT) contract, the RMT rail union has called on the new owner to honour previous commitments made to passengers to keep a guard on every train. An SWT poster campaign aimed at passengers says: ‘We employ absolute legends. We call...
PROFESSOR Stephen Hawking has attacked the government’s NHS policies, and health secretary Jeremy Hunt in person, and warned they are seeking to bring in a ‘US-style insurance system’. In a speech on Saturday at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, organised to air concerns about the future of the...
THE FAMOUS Cambridge University scientist Stephen Hawking has spoken up to defend the NHS and has publicly exposed the Tory plan to privatise it and replace it with a US style insurance scheme under which those who are not insured will have to crawl away and find a place...
THE SOUTH African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) is taking Sun International South Africa hotel chain to court over the treatment of workers during the lavish Gupta wedding. The case will be heard on today, Monday 21 August. Sixteen workers were dismissed in 2013 at the time of...
THE GRENFELL Tower disaster was a turning point for the working class where the callous and ruthless nature of the ruling class was exposed for everyone to see. The scrapping of regulations and inspections proved that the attitude of the ruling class towards the working class is, ‘Let them burn,...
More than 80 theatre artists and 12 Palestine-based theatre and performance groups are demanding that New York’s Lincoln Centre cancel upcoming Israeli government-sponsored performances by two Israeli theatre companies. The letter signed by renowned playwrights, actors, directors, writers and theatre scholars was organised by Palestine solidarity group Adalah-NY. The signatories...
SPANISH police shot dead five suspected terrorists in the town of Cambrils yesterday, during a second vehicle attack, hours after another in Barcelona killed 13 people and injured dozens. Emergency services in Catalonia said those killed and injured in the Barcelona and Cambils attacks are of ‘34 different nationalities’, based...
ON SUNDAY August 13th AFL–CIO leader Richard Trumka made his initial statement on the Charlottesville clashes between neo-Nazis supported by the Ku Klux Klan and workers and youth who opposed them. He said: ‘Yesterday in Charlottesville, Virginia the nation and the world witnessed the hateful views and violent actions of...
THE FIFTH anniversary of the Marikana massacre, where 37 striking miners were gunned down by the police, was a turning point in the revolutionary struggles of the South African working class. The strike at the platinum mine, owned by the British based Lonmin mining company, had been called by the...
THE UNITE union has warned that it will leave ‘no stone unturned’ if Doncaster refuse contractor Suez presses ahead with strike breaking during forthcoming strike action. Unite has received evidence that Suez is actively recruiting agency workers to try to break the strike. The recruitment of agency workers to...
‘LONMIN – Blood on your hands! Justice for Marikana now! Amandla!’ shouted a lively protest outside the London-listed mining company’s office in Mayfair yesterday lunchtime. The protest was called to mark the fifth anniversary of the Marikana Massacre, when 37 striking miners were shot dead by South African police. Leading...
THE Tory class war at home means permanent austerity for the working class, with anti-union laws brought in to further chain up trade unions, while wages have been frozen for up to ten years. The NHS is facing ever more savage cuts, while the pensionable age is being adjusted upwards....
THE ‘JOINT enterprise law’ is putting young people in prison for decades for simply being present when a crime is taking place despite them never committing a crime themselves. The doctrine of common purpose, common design, joint enterprise, or joint criminal enterprise is a law that puts criminal liability...
AMERICA’S nurses’ union, National Nurses United (NNU), has condemned the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville on Saturday which resulted in the death of a female anti-racism campaigner and many others suffering multiple injuries. Heather Heyer, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, was killed in the attack and...
REGULATED rail fares will increase by 3.6% from January 2018 it was announced yesterday, as the Retail Prices Index (RPI) figure for July was released. Unregulated fare hikes, which include super off-peak travel and advance tickets, will be set in December. At a protest by the RMT outside Kings Cross...
JUST a few weeks ago the Grenfell Tower inferno burnt men, women and children to death, because the fire was able to take hold of cladding that turned it into an uncontrollable wildfire. This tore up the side of the building, while exposed gas piping acted like fuel...
SAUDI security forces killed and injured unarmed civilians when they surrounded and sealed off the predominantly Shia town of Awamiya in July 2017 as they confronted an armed group hiding in a historic neighbourhood slated for demolition, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday. The violence in the Eastern province, which...