Monthly Archives: March 2018
THE NHS winter crisis was responsible for an extra 10,000 deaths in the first weeks of 2018, figures published in the British Medical Journal show. The article in the BMJ accuses the Health Chiefs of failing to investigate the cause, whether they are indeed a result of Tory cuts to...
AFTER defeating attempts by their own union leadership to call off the strikes by forcing their leaders to throw out an unacceptable deal, lecturers were more determined than ever to win their battle to save their pensions, with over 60 universities across the country out on strike. The pickets at...
YESTERDAY’S statement by Theresa May to parliament on the range of ‘reprisals’ against Russia for the alleged involvement of the Russian state in the attack on the double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter amounted to nothing more than an attempt to massively divert workers from the real enemy,...
‘MOSCOW had no motives for poisoning former GRU Colonel Sergey Skripal and his daughter, while those who are trying to push ahead with the Russophobic campaign might have them,’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said yesterday, responding to the Tory government’s expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and suspension...
OXFORD and Cambridge lecturers joined a three thousand-strong march in central London yesterday called by the London Region UCU on the 13th day of nationwide strike action in their struggle to defend their pensions. Placards read: ‘Strike until we win!’ summing up the defiant nature of the...
THE MAIN beef supplier for McDonald’s restaurants in Europe has ruthlessly slashed the pay of workers who could not get to work during the ‘big freeze’ of the week before last. Dawn Meats in the Republic of Ireland has told staff at its nine meat-processing facilities they were automatically...
TORY Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered not so much a Spring Statement to parliament yesterday as a half hour of self-congratulation and boasting about how the Tories have rescued British capitalism from collapse. Twice in his speech Hammond trotted out the line that there is now ‘light at the end of...
A DEAL between the University College Union (UCU) leadership and University UK (UUK) has been thrown out and the lecturers strikes are back on! This followed a major campaign by lecturers supported by their students at over 60 universities up and down the country demanding their union reject the proposed...
‘I AM pleased to report to the House on a UK economy that has grown in every year since 2010,’ Tory Chancellor Philip Hammond said to laughter and jeers in opening his Spring Statement on the state of the economy yesterday afternoon. He claimed: ‘An economy which under Conservative leadership...
THE Syrian Arab Army has regained control over Madyra town and a number of farms near Jisreen town as part of the ongoing military operations to eradicate Jabhat al-Nusra and its affiliated groups from the Eastern Ghouta in Damascus Countryside. SANA’s reporter in Ghouta said on Sunday that army units...
CHANCELLOR Hammond has rejected calls by Labour and some Conservatives to announce the end of austerity in his ‘Spring Statement’ on Tuesday. Despite unveiling the smallest budget deficit since 2002, he is expected to say ‘There is light at the end of the tunnel. . . but we are...
LABOUR’S right wing were furious on Friday after the leadership of the Scottish Labour Party conference blocked a vote on single market membership. Instead, the Labour leadership proposed a ‘unity motion’ that does not mention the single market. It is close your eyes and it may all go away...
NEWS about the killing of a Palestinian youth by Israeli forces during clashes in the village of Urif, to the south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, hit the front page headlines of the three Arabic Palestinian dailies on Sunday. Al-Hayat al-Jadida, al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that a...
UNITE national officer for health Sarah Carpenter said yesterday: ‘A story appeared in The Guardian today (Friday 9 March) about an impending pay deal for NHS staff. ‘Unite, along with fellow NHS unions, has been closely involved with these pay talks since December and we are very close to...
LECTURERS in over 60 universities have in the past fortnight taken nine days of strike action throughout Britain over cuts to their pensions. With lecturers, members of the UCU union, determined to carry out a further five days of strike action there have been numerous cases of unfair deductions...
NHS staff who have suffered a 15% pay cut since 2010 have been offered a ‘new deal’ from the government. A leaked document shows that the offer would mean NHS staff will get 6.5% spread over three years. This would be conditional on NHS staff giving up a day’s...
COLOMBO Port workers engaged in the clearance of containers and cleaners resorted to trade union action on Monday following repeated requests to allow inspections and weighing of goods to be carried out within the port premises itself. The port is faced with increased congestion as trucks carrying containers take...
TEACHING unions yesterday published a report detailing the effects of the Tory policy of slashing public spending on schools – increased class sizes across England as schools fight a losing battle to balance their budgets by cutting staff. 62% of state secondary schools had larger classes last year than...
ONE thousand striking lecturers, students and community supporters marched from Sheffield University to the City Hall yesterday to mark the end of four further days of the pay and pensions nationwide strike action by UCU lecturers. A huge rally assembled at midday at the university’s Art Tower, and as...
THE TORY party official fire safety advisor Ken Knight rubber-stamped the use of the flammable cladding, responsible for the rapid spread of the Grenfell Tower fire which claimed the lives of so many men, women and children, the Labour Party has alleged. On Wednesday, a Parliamentary debate on the fall-out...
INTENSIVE Care units (ICUs) are suffering such a chronic shortage of beds and staff that four out of five ICUs are having to send patients to other hospitals, meaning seriously sick people are being transferred to another hospital just as their life- threatening condition means that every second...
THOUSANDS of NHS staff are being transferred by their own trusts into outsourcing firms, risking ‘dozens of Carillion-style meltdowns’ the union Unite has warned. The Health Service Journal estimates that as many as 3,000 NHS non-medical staff at eight different trusts have already been transferred to subsidiaries in a...
A SYRIAN army statement confirmed yesterday that Syrian government forces will lift the siege on the terrorist-held sections of the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta ‘very soon’. The statement continued that, ‘We have received instructions from the army command to lift the siege off our people in Eastern...
THE VICE Chancellor of Oxford University withdrew her support for Universities UK’s attack on lecturers’ pensions yesterday, joining dozens of others, including Cambridge, to have done so. With picket lines outside 64 universities, some of which are occupied by students in support of the striking lecturers, Oxford vice-chancellor Louise...
THE Italian general election results have shaken the European Union after the governing ‘Centre Left’ pro-EU coalition, led by Matteo Renzi, got just 22.8% of the vote. The Five Star Movement, led by Luigi Di Maio, has taken over southern Italy, which has 50% youth unemployment. It won 32.6%...
THE FIRST GP surgery in Maidstone Kent to charge patients for 15-minute face-to-face consultations is open for business! The GP surgery works through ‘Uber-style’ company ‘Doctaly’, with campaigners warning that this is the ‘slippery slope to privatisation’. Cobtree Medical Practice in Sutton Valence is the first in the area to...
WHILE helping identify homeless people at risk of freezing to death on the streets, homeless charity St Mungo’s has admitted to co-operating with immigration squads to identify homeless immigrants they suspect of being ‘illegal’. The Immigration Compliance and Enforcement teams, or ICE patrols as they are known, scour the...
THOUSANDS of public school teachers across West Virginia have been on strike for more than a week in protest over their pay and benefits. And despite striking a deal with West Virginia Governor Jim Justice last Wednesday that would put the more than 277,000 students affected back in...
TALKS began yesterday between the University and College Union (UCU) and Universities UK (UUK), the body representing all universities, at the conciliation service ACAS in an attempt to resolve the bitter dispute over pension cuts to lecturers and university staff. What makes these talks unique is that the UCU...
‘WE SIMPLY can’t fix the housing crisis without more council homes,’ Labour Shadow Housing Secretary John Healey told News Line yesterday, responding to Theresa May’s calls for more private house building. Healey added: ‘Labour will begin the biggest council house building programme for over 30 years, removing counterproductive...
FIREFIGHTERS face a greater risk of developing cancer because of an ‘alarmingly high’ level of dangerous chemicals carried on their clothing, researchers have found. In the first study of its kind, experts at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) discovered firefighters were more likely to absorb cancerous gases through...
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump launched a world-wide trade war last Friday with his declaration that he will impose a 25 per cent tariff on all steel imports, and a ten per cent tariff on all aluminium imports, to put teeth into his ‘America first’ policy. French economy minister, Bruno Le...
TERRORISTS based in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta have imposed a curfew during humanitarian pauses to prevent civilians from leaving the enclave, the Russian military said yesterday. The terrorists have also banned mass gatherings of civilians, Interfax quoted Russian Major-General Vladimir Zolotukhin as saying. Russia has designated four safe...
A HOMELESS man has been found dead in a tent after sleeping rough in the snow in freezing temperatures. The man, named locally as Ben, had been sleeping near St Swithun’s Church in Retford, Nottinghamshire. Nottinghamshire Police said they were made aware of a ‘sudden death’ at 8.40am on...
THE ‘Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse on report into the Child Migration Programmes’ criticises UK governments over their cruel policy that was continued beyond the 1950s. The report published on Thursday recommends that all child migrants are financially compensated by the UK government through a redress scheme. The report...
‘OUR STUDENTS’ union supports our strike and supports our right to strike,’ Sean Rowland UCU committee member at City University said, speaking on Wednesday’s 5,000 march of students and lecturers on the fifth day of their strike to defend their pensions. City University management had threatened the lecturers’ fundamental...
THE GP website Pulse revealed this week that in four areas in England local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have set up a ‘profit-sharing’ scheme between GPs and the CCGs with GPs being offered cash payments for not referring patients to hospitals for tests and treatment in a ‘cash for...
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) notes with outrage the Cabinet reshuffle announced by President Ramaphosa. It proves beyond doubt that the ANC is now terminally sick, divided and incapable of offering any solutions to the monumental problems facing the country and especially the working class and...
‘LECTURERS and students unite and fight!’ rang out through the streets of central London yesterday as up to 5,000 striking lecturers, supported by their students, marched from ULU (University of London Union) to Parliament. Yesterday was the lecturers’ fifth day of strike action, shutting 61 universities across the...
THE publication of the EU’s draft separation treaty with the UK has intensified the conflict between the UK and the EU ruling classes and exacerbated their divisions to the point of a revolutionary explosion. The EU Commission, representing the EU’s bosses and bankers, is not satisfied with a divorce settlement...