Monthly Archives: January 2019
HUNDREDS of Palestinians marched through Gaza City on Monday in a show of support for Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro. The solidarity march, which culminated outside the UN office in the Gazan capital, was organised by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) — a constituent group...
THE VOTES in Parliament on amendments to Theresa May’s Brexit deal saw the counter-revolutionary plots by MPs from all parties to smash the 2016 referendum result comprehensively defeated. All seven amendments accepted by the speaker, John Bercow, for debate were in one way or another designed to keep Britain tied...
YELLOW Vests and trade unionists are seeking to deliver a crushing blow to France’s president Emmanuel Macron. The CGT union federation has called a general strike for next Tuesday. Its demands are higher wages, a tax system that hits the rich rather than the poor, more money for public services...
ALMOST half of NHS workers on the front line of patient care say there are not enough staff on their shift to ensure patients are treated safely and with compassion, a new survey published by the union Unison reveals. The study illustrates the effect of chronic understaffing in the health...
MRS THATCHER notoriously revived her political fortunes in 1982 by going to war with Argentina. She flew to the US to insist that its then President, Ronald Reagan, drop US attempts at being neutral and give the British military adventurers vital arms and ammunition without which they could not...
‘WHAT do we want? Five per cent! When do we Want it? Now!’ rang out on the picket line outside Lambeth College yesterday morning, as the lecturers at the huge south London Further Education college began a 48-hour pay strike, which continues today. University and College Union (UCU) members at...
MEMBER of the PLO Executive Committee, Hanan Ashrawi, said on Saturday evening that the Israeli government and its allies are responsible for rise in settler terrorism, referring to the fatal shooting by Jewish settlers of a Palestinian man in the village of al-Mughayir, near Ramallah, earlier on the day. Ashrawi...
A STUDY produced yesterday by the Centre for Cities think tank highlights the reality of Tory austerity cuts that have fallen on the backs of the most deprived areas of the country. Since the Tories embarked on their austerity war against the working class in order to pay off the...
TESCO confirmed yesterday that 9,000 jobs are to be axed, as the supermarket giant looks to scrap the fresh food counters, including the in-store bakery, delicatessen, and fresh fish counters. Staff canteens are also to be replaced with vending machines. The cuts are part of a plan to slash £1.5bn...
‘INTERVENTION from the US states could precipitate a civil war and lead to a humanitarian catastrophe,’ Labour MP for Derby North, Chris Williamson said yesterday. He was speaking during an urgent question in Parliament put by the Tory Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Alan Duncan. Williamson continued: ...
AROUND 150 workers from Dis-Chem and Blue Ribbon Bakeries, as well as union officials, marched to Cape Town central police station last Wednesday to protest about recent police treatment of strikers. They also marched to the Department of Labour. The marchers, from the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU)...
DESPITE the Queen’s plea for ‘reasonableness’ the knives are out for tomorrow’s House of Commons debate on the EU with rival amendments tabled to delay the EU leaving date, and for May to tell Brussels that it must dump the backstop, or face the prospect of a...
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin laid flowers yesterday at a monument in the Leningrad Region commemorating warriors who died during the Nazi-led siege of Leningrad. The ceremony was also attended by Russian Presidential Envoy to the North-Western Federal District Alexander Gutsan and Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko. The monument ‘Boundary Stone’...
HEALTH Secretary Matt Hancock admitted yesterday morning that the Tory government is considering the imposition of martial law and curfews in the event of a no-deal Brexit on 29th March. Appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show Hancock was asked: ‘Can I ask you, is it the case the government...
‘SCHOOL performance tables are not an accurate or reliable indicator of school effectiveness. The Progress 8 measure that is used to compile these tables is inherently flawed.’ That was the opinion of the teachers’ union the NEU and its assistant general secretary Nansi Ellis, as she commented on the...
TORY Chancellor Philip Hammond, speaking about the Brexit crisis from the World Economic Forum in Davos, said yesterday: ‘It is absolutely clear that if we don’t get a deal … there will be very significant disruption in the short term and a very significant hit to our economy in...
PRESIDENT Nicolas Maduro has ordered the closure of Venezuela’s embassy and consulates in the US after Washington threw its weight behind opposition leader Juan Guaido who declared himself interim president. The call came only a day after Caracas severed diplomatic ties with Washington and ordered all US diplomats to...
SEVEN out of 10 medical students cannot afford basic necessities, finds a BMA survey. An annual BMA poll found over two-thirds (70%) of 639 surveyed students have no choice but to go without essentials, such as heating and food, to be able to cope financially. The BMA said the findings are...
PALESTINIAN activists along with Israeli and international supporters shut down on Wednesday the recently opened Eastern Ring Road near Jerusalem, which features separate lanes for Palestinians and Israeli settlers, divided by a wall, according to a press release by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committees (PSCC). A few dozen activists have...
DURING an anti-government demonstration in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, on Wednesday the head of the country’s National Assembly Juan Guaido launched a right-wing coup against the elected president Nicolas Maduro declaring that he was now the unelected ‘interim president’. His coup declaration may have been made on the streets of Caracas...
IRAN’S Press TV English service anchor Marzieh Hashemi, 59, was freed on Wednesday from a Washington prison where she had been held by federal law enforcement officials since January 13th. Her case intensified tensions between the US and Iran. People are set to take to the streets of several cities...
A DAMNING report, just released, exposes the misuse of public funds in privately run academy schools, the huge pay packets academy bosses receive while highlighting the government’s own failure to provide assurances on the management of asbestos in schools. The report of the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) entitled ‘Academy...
THE PRESIDENT of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, was forced to abandon his planned visit to the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos this week and return in a desperate attempt to hold back the revolutionary tide that is sweeping the country. Last week Zimbabwe’s largest trade union confederation (ZCTU) called a...
SYRIA has warned that it may use its right to self defence after recent Israeli air raids against a civilian airport near Damascus by striking Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport if the UN Security Council fails to shoulder its responsibilities and act against Israeli aggression. Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar...
THE PAST two weeks have seen mass walkouts and wildcat strikes by thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh. After five years the industry’s minimum wage structure has been adjusted but workers have rejected the proposed new wage levels. The protests began after the first announcement by the government Wage Board...
WITH PM May seeking a miracle rescue by the EU getting rid of the backstop, in the real world a coup is being launched against the 2016 Referendum result by the House of Commons pro-EU majority to get rid of Brexit. The May government should, by now, be history. The...
STRIKING PCS members at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) were joined on the picket line early yesterday morning by their general secretary, Mark Serwotka. The strikers work for contractors Engie and Aramark and are demanding the London Living Wage of £10.55p an hour. The BEIS is...
THE ANNUAL get-together of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the Swiss resort of Davos has been hit by a number of notable absences including Theresa May, Donald Trump and French president Emmanuel Macron. Every year the world political leaders meet with the leading bankers, industrialists and assorted billionaires to...
SYRIAN air defence systems have thwarted an Israeli aerial aggression in the Arab country’s south, state media say. ‘Our air defence systems thwarted ... an Israeli air aggression ... and prevented it from achieving any of its goals,’ Syria’s official news agency SANA quoted a leading military official as...
‘FOLLOWING last week’s vote, it is clear that the government’s approach had to change, and it has,’ Tory PM Theresa May insisted, coming back to House of Commons yesterday with her ‘Plan B’ after her historic 202-432 defeat last week – the biggest in Parliament’s history. May announced that the...
PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron says France will keep its forces in Syria and remain ‘militarily engaged’ in the Middle East despite US plans to withdraw from the Arab country. Addressing military officials at an army base near the city of Toulouse, Macron said ‘the fight in Syria is not...
THE UK is in the grip of a huge housing crisis with workers who have jobs and earn wages being evicted by greedy landlords who have got hold of the housing stock and are determined to make huge fortunes out of showing ‘no quarter’ to their tenants. A buy-to-let landlord,...
TORY International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has accused pro-Remain MPs of trying to ‘in effect steal Brexit’. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday morning: ‘You’ve got a Leave population and a Remain Parliament. ‘Parliament has not got the right to hijack the Brexit process because Parliament has said...
THE NUMBER of visits to hospital accident and emergency departments by homeless people has more than trebled under Tory governments since 2011, the BMA (British Medical Association) reports. Visits to A&E departments by patients classed as having no fixed abode have risen from 11,305 in 2011 to almost 32,000 last...
GRENFELL Tower was safe until the refurbishment took place, when it was wrapped in highly flammable insulation and cladding, described by fire safety experts at the inquiry into the fire as the equivalent of dousing the tower in petrol. Now we find out that no fire safety report was commissioned for the...
FORMER foreign secretary Boris Johnson said yesterday that changing the date of leaving the EU from 29 March would be ‘shameful’, and the public would view it as ‘an elite conspiracy to thwart Brexit’. In a speech at JCB Headquarters in Rocester, Staffordshire, he instead urged the government to use...
FEARS are being expressed about the threat of privatisation of NHS cervical screening services used by thousands of women throughout the country every year, the Unite trade union is warning this week. Unite, with some 100,000 members working in the health service, are ringing the alarm bells warning that this...
GREEK striking teachers along with students staged yet another magnificent march of over 6,000 last Thursday against the hated government Education Bill. Once again it was a jubilant demonstration through the Athens city centre to the Vouli (Greek parliament) with teachers constantly chanting anti-government rhymed slogans to the...
‘IT IS foolish to rely on foreign companies and foreign governments to keep Britain’s lights on and our economy powered when we could easily be fully energy self-sufficient,’ GMB union said yesterday. GMB warned of a looming UK energy crisis after plans for the £16 billion new nuclear reactor at...
AT LEAST two US servicemen and 14 other people have lost their lives when a massive bomb explosion struck near a patrol of the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in Syria’s flashpoint northern city of Manbij. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) identified...