Monthly Archives: June 2019
TEACHERS and pupils at The John Roan School in Greenwich took their 16th day of strike action to stop its privatisation. The school is being forcibly ‘academised’ in spite of huge opposition and an inspiring struggle against the ‘outrageous move’, which is due to be completed in September. Teacher Gareth said:...
4.7 MILLION workers are now employed in the gig economy, twice as many as in 2016 with nearly one in 10 working age adults working via gig economy platforms at least once a week in jobs with no employment protection and where they can be ‘sacked’ at will by...
LABOUR MP Chris Williamson was allowed back into the party yesterday morning after an investigation into comments he made about the party’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations. Williamson, MP for Derby North, was suspended in February after saying Labour had been ‘too apologetic’ in the face of criticism on the issue. A...
YET ANOTHER attempt to assassinate Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and seize power in the country has been thwarted. According to the Venezuelan government minister, Jorge Rodriguez, former soldiers and police were involved in the planned assassination and coup attempt which was scheduled to take place last Sunday or Monday. Rodriguez added...
IN THE French port of Marseille, dockers have been refusing to load French weapons which are thought to be heading to Saudi Arabia. Following revelations on cargo headed for Saudi Arabia, the port’s CGT trade union branch confirmed that its members would not handle ‘any weapons or arms whatsoever, for...
THE PALESTINE Liberation Organisation (PLO) issued a statement slamming the US-sponsored conference in Bahrain on its second and final day yesterday: ‘The PLO Executive Committee reaffirms that the lack of political and legal dimensions in the presentation of the so-called plan presented by the Trump administration in the Manama diversionary...
PARENTS taking the government to court over SEND funding were cheered by a crowd of over 40 as they entered the High Court yesterday morning. Mary Riddell and Lorraine Heugh were taking the case against Education Secretary Damian Hinds and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, to demand an...
THOUSANDS of airline food workers have voted to authorise a strike across the US. The strike will be enormous as more than 11,000 workers who prepare food for American, United and Delta airlines in 28 cities across the US took part in the vote. The union representing the workers says that...
THE US-sponsored three-day conference held this week in the Gulf state of Bahrain to unveil the first stage of Donald Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ has been met with anger and demonstrations in Palestine and throughout the Arab world. Every Palestinian faction boycotted this conference which had the support only...
THE FUTURE of Palestine cannot be drawn up by the White House, Jared Kushner or anyone else, Palestinian presidential spokesman Abu Rudeineh insisted in a statement yesterday, to coincide with the start of the United States-sponsored conference in Bahrain where the so-called ‘deal of the century’ was unveiled. All Palestinian...
A GENERAL election is to be held in Greece on Sunday 7th July with the right-wing New Democracy party seemingly heading for a comfortable victory following four years of EU-ordered barbaric austerity implemented by the ‘left’ government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. In last month’s European Elections, New Democracy came...
IN THE TORY leadership campaign, of the six candidates left after the first round of voting five went to Oxford University and every one of those had attended a private school. Boris Johnson went to Eton and Jeremy Hunt went to the public King’s School in Chester, with both going...
NHS and local council cuts are hitting lifeline care for seriously ill children, a survey of 27 children’s hospices in England carried out by charity Together for Short Lives has shown. The news comes as NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens’ commitment to protect and increase children’s hospice funding is...
A STORM has erupted over the revelations that a taskforce set up in 2017, with the object of protecting the future of the Ford engine plant at Bridgend in South Wales, didn’t meet for eight months before Ford announced its closure plans on June 6th. This taskforce was composed of...
DR BAWA-GARBA’s victory, in reversing the General Medical Council’s decision to strike her off the medical register over the death of a patient was a ‘defining moment’, BMA leader Dr Chaand Nagpaul, will say in his speech to the BMA annual conference this morning. He will demand that doctors must...
ON FRIDAY the global stock markets reached a record increase with shares values shooting up by over £5 billion in what is being hailed as the best results for shareholders in decades. The MSCI Index, which measures stock market performance, increased by 16% in 2019, the biggest increase since 1998. However,...
TO DATE the UK is the only major diplomatic power to support the American accusations against Iran. As the British opposition Labour Party, in addition to independent British political observers, have noted, this begs the question as to why Britain is staking out such an extreme position at the risk...
THE WARRINGTON and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been forced by an enormous outburst of mass anger to cancel a scheme allowing patients to pay for treatment. Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had been accused of ‘disgraceful’ privatisation for trying to charge £18,000 for hip replacements. This rationing...
THE TITLE of the new GP contract is ‘Investment and evolution: A five-year framework for GP contract reform to implement the NHS Long Term Plan 31.1.19 (Framework)’. The main aim of NHSEngland’s ‘NHS Long Term Plan’ (LTPlan) is to establish Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) throughout England by 2021 and for...
US PRESIDENT Trump took America to the brink of war with Iran ... and then pulled back at the very last minute on Thursday evening. Trump had approved military strikes, the US army was given the green light and was prepping its weapons, getting ready to launch. War planes were in...
‘LIVES will be at risk’ if Manchester is targeted again by terrorists because a specialist fire service unit has shut, a watchdog warned yesterday. Concerns about Manchester Fire and Rescue Service’s (GMFRS) ability to respond to attacks were raised by government inspectors. The chief fire officer said it only applied to...
WEDNESDAY’S meeting of the Labour Party’s shadow cabinet saw the deep split in the Labour leadership widen into a chasm as former loyal Corbyn supporters mounted a charge to force the party to adopt an openly anti-Brexit position. John McDonnell and Diane Abbott urged Corbyn to come out decisively in...
YET AGAIN, wars, violence and persecution have driven record numbers of people from their homes worldwide, according to the latest annual study released yesterday on World Refugee Day by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. The yearly Global Trends report found that 70.8 million men, women and children were forcibly displaced...
THE Doctors’ Association (DAUK) has refused to endorse the junior doctor contract deal agreed by the BMA and the government, warning that some members could be £18,000 worse off as a result. The grassroots group said whilst it has reviewed the framework agreement and is grateful for the efforts made...
‘WHAT WE’RE seeing is really a naked brutal form of capitalism where people’s lives are expendable,’ says University of Western Cape Professor Ruth Hall in relation to the fact that nearly a million South African farm dwellers have been forcibly evicted in a decade. Sophia Maqubela, 35, gathers wood every...
TUESDAY night’s live debate between the five remaining Tory hopefuls to replace Theresa May and become prime minister, was a stark demonstration of the complete and utter disintegration of the Tory party and its absolute inability and refusal to carry out the Brexit referendum result. There was general agreement that...
News Line is pleased to reproduce a heartbreaking and moving account of a single family’s call for justice and their support for the families of Grenfell which was delivered at the end of Justice4Grenfell’s second anniversary march to Downing Street on Saturday. Kye Gbangbola began speaking by thanking Justice4Grenfell for...
THE US military is sending an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East as it builds up war tensions to try to intimidate Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, and engineer regime change in Tehran! At the same time as Trump threatens Iran, he is stepping up his war against...
LABOUR members’ ‘hearts are Remain’ Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson claimed yesterday addressing the Centre for European Reform. He went on to insist that it was not too late to reverse the UK’s exit from the EU. Despite Watson’s right-wing position being at odds with Labour Party policy, the Party...
UP TO A thousand workers from both Yorkshire and across the country marched to the 35th Battle of Orgreave memorial rally on Saturday. They marched from Orgreave Lane in Sheffield across the bridge and past the farmland in which a state-orchestrated police attack was made on striking miners on June...
PALESTINIAN factions have called for demonstrations and a general strike in protest at an upcoming US-led conference in Bahrain, which centres on Washington’s ‘Deal of the Century’. Last Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party said factions within the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) umbrella group had called for the demonstrations...
THE GIANT US aircraft manufacturer Boeing is once again at the centre of a storm over the safety of its planes, this time concerning another of its flagship craft the B787 Dreamliner. Boeing has been forced to issue an alert to airlines that a vital switch which activates fire extinguishers...
BORIS Johnson came under fire yesterday for boycotting last night’s Channel 4 debate between the candidates for the Tory party leadership and the position of unelected prime minister. Appearing on the BBC Andrew Marr Show, leadership contender Rory Stewart said: ‘Who would you trust to be your prime minister? How...
UP TO A thousand workers from both Yorkshire and across the country marched to the 35th Battle of Orgreave memorial rally on Saturday. They marched from Orgreave Lane in Sheffield across the bridge and past the farmland in which a state-orchestrated police attack was made on striking miners on June...
MORE than 11,000 local residents and supporters joined last Friday evening’s 2nd Anniversary Silent Walk to commemorate the victims of the Grenfell Tower Fire of 14th June 2017. Community worker Kim Sparrow was carrying a placard saying ‘Justice 4 Grenfell – Prosecutions Now!’ She told News Line: ‘All the things they’ve...
THE TORY PARTY and its leadership are thrashing around in their death agony. The Tory crisis has reached the stage where Tory ministers have been threatening to ‘bring down’ a Boris Johnson-led government – should it prorogue parliament in order to carry out a completely legal ‘no deal’ Brexit on...
THE Fire Brigades Union (FBU) called today for urgent action on a range of fire and building safety issues to prevent another Grenfell. On the second anniversary of the tragedy, action to prevent a similar fire has been wholly insufficient, with little to nothing being done to tackle the structural...
THOUSANDS of trade unionists and their families will today mark the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike 35th Anniversary at the Annual Orgreave Rally in Sheffield. June 18 1984 saw the second battle of Orgreave, when 10,000 pickets, seeking to prevent lorries leaving the coking plant near Sheffield, were met by a 6,000-strong...
TWO oil tankers were attacked on Thursday morning in the Gulf of Oman. The Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous and Norway’s Front Altair were abandoned after two massive blasts set the ships on fire. The explosions were big enough to have been caused by torpedoes. It was the Iranians who rushed to evacuate...
‘WE RISK sleepwalking into another catastrophic loss of life. We demand urgent action from the government to ensure that the events of Grenfell Tower can never happen again,’ Matt Wrack, Fire Brigade’s Union (FBU) general secretary, said in a special statement released today to mark the second anniversary of...
US SECRETARY of State Mike Pompeo had a secret meeting last month with prominent American Jewish leaders in which he spilled the beans on the manoeuvrings of US imperialism to effect regime-change in Venezuela and he outlined the determination of the Trump administration to block any possibility of a...
THE British security and snoop service MI5 has been unlawfully retaining innocent people’s data for years,’ alleged rights organisation Liberty. ‘It has also failed,’ Liberty continued, ‘to give senior judges accurate information about repeated breaches of its duty to delete bulk surveillance data, and has been criticised for mishandling sensitive,...