Monthly Archives: November 2019
‘I SUPPORT Jonty Leff,’ Gideon Woldeslassie said yesterday morning, referring to the campaign to elect the Workers Revolutionary Party candidate as MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch. Woldeslassie, a Marketing and Coms admin worker at Queen Mary’s University in east London, was speaking on the picket line during the UCU...
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa might soon find himself embroiled in a Labour Court battle as Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) is set to take him to task for making employees redundant at his private farm in Mpumalanga Province. The Sowetan newspaper had reported on Wednesday that last month Ramaphosa drove...
IT TOOK just minutes yesterday for three High Court judges to hear and dismiss an appeal by the postal workers union (CWU) against an earlier injunction banning the right of their members to take strike action despite a 97% vote in favour. According to the judges, this massive vote was...
THE BMA doctors trade union has responded to data on NHS vacancies, GP workforce and GP appointments. Responding to the latest quarterly NHS vacancy data, published today, BMA council chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: ‘Despite promises to fix the workforce crisis in the NHS, there are still almost 10,000 medical vacancies...
WRP PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE for Kensington, Scott Dore campaigning outside the busy Ladbroke Grove tube station yesterday gained the support of local residents. Kathleen Jones who lives in Ladbroke Grove, read Scott’s election poster and said: ‘I agree with all of your demands. I will vote for you. ‘I have had a...
US president Donald Trump yesterday seized the opportunity for US imperialism to make a provocative intervention in the internal affairs of China by backing the Hong Kong demonstrators against the Chinese government. Trump signed a law calling for sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials who it accuses of being...
ISRAELI Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier pledged to ensure the extension of Israeli sovereignty to the Jewish settlements of the Jordan Valley after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that these settlements were not illegal. The Palestinian authorities will turn to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and completely break off...
LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn, yesterday displayed ‘unredacted documents’ about secret US-UK government trade talks putting the NHS on the table in any future post Brexit trade negotiations. Speaking at the press conference, he said: ‘If you watched the first TV debate between me and Boris Johnson, you’ll have seen me...
‘PEOPLE are really supporting our cause to reopen all the closed services at Ealing Hospital,’ Ealing Southall WRP general election candidate Hassan Zulkifal said yesterday. Local people queued up to sign the petition at the campaign table on Southall Broadway to reopen maternity and paediatrics at the hospital. Hassan declared: ‘It’s...
ON Saturday 2 November, more than 200 trade unionists and activists attended CSC’s Unions for Cuba conference at the NEU headquarters in London. The largest trade union conference of solidarity with Cuba to take place in the UK for 15 years demonstrated the strength of solidarity between British and Cuban...
IN A huge development in the fight of the Palestinian people to establish their own independent state, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Tuesday that the Palestinian authorities are preparing to break off completely all relations with the US and Israel. Abbas, speaking on Tuesday while Palestinians in Gaza...
HEEDING the calls by political factions, mainly President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, thousands of Palestinians rallied in several West Bank city centres to protest at the latest American declaration on settlements that considered them not inconsistent with international law. Rallies were held in Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkarm, Bethlehem and Hebron during...
A STRONG contingent of over forty lecturers and staff picketed both gates of Queen Mary’s (QM) University in east London on the second day of their nationwide UCU lecturers union strike, fully supported by the National Union of Students (NUS). Darryn Mitussis, branch chair at QM’s UCU, told News Line:...
PALESTINIAN factions rallied and protested throughout the occupied Palestinian territories on Tuesday against the latest US position that claims Israeli settlements are not inconsistent with international law. President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement spearheaded the demos, and was joined by other factions and city councils urging people throughout the occupied territories...
WITH just over two weeks to go before the general election, the campaign by the Tories and their right-wing supporters in the Labour Party to dump Jeremy Corbyn has been ratcheted up. This week has seen the old slander that Corbyn ‘is an anti-Semite’ being dredged up by Ephraim Mirvis,...
STUDENTS across the UK were on picket lines yesterday supporting their lecturers and support staff on the first day of their eight-day strike action across 60 universities. Members of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) are taking action in two separate disputes, one on pensions and one on pay and...
‘THIS ISN’T a general election, it’s a general strike building up,’ News Line editor Jonty Leff told Sunday’s powerful over 100-strong News Line Anniversary Rally at the Indian YMCA centre in Fitzroy Square, central London on Sunday afternoon. ‘People are saying shut Parliament down. Well, let’s build the WRP up,...
WHILE the tragic death of 72 people in the Grenfell inferno threw an immediate spotlight on the criminal disregard of capitalism for human life, a report this week highlights an even more insidious but no less deadly threat to the lives of workers and their children by a capitalist...
THE indictment of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on corruption charges, a move that threatens his 10-year grip on power, dominated the front page headlines in Friday’s issue of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies. Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported that Netanyahu is officially indicted with fraud, breach of trust and...
THE CLADDING (HPL) that encased the Bolton students’ accommodation block that was engulfed in flames last week was found, after examination by scientists, to be worse than the cladding used at Grenfell. According to research from Imperial College London and Warsaw’s Building Research Unit, HPL cladding failed fire safety checks...
‘EALING Hospital workers and patients are fully backing us over our confrontation with Tory Health Secretary Hancock here on Monday when he refused to sign our petition to reopen maternity and paediatrics,’ Ealing Southall Workers Revolutionary Party parliamentary candidate Hassan Zulkifal said yesterday. Speaking on the West London Council of...
THE Middle East Eye (MEE) reported on November 21 that the US and British military ran at least two secret prisons in Iraq during the months following the 2003 invasion, effectively concealing prisoners from Red Cross inspectors. MEE claims that the British army’s most senior legal advisor in the country...
LABOUR’S manifesto has caused consternation within the ranks of the Tory press, with yesterday’s Telegraph editorial claiming it ‘amounts to nothing short of dismantling the capitalist system’. In fact, Labour’s manifesto, far from ‘dismantling’ capitalism, actually relies on the capitalist system to finance its proposed reforms. Corbyn and McDonnell’s pledge to...
STUDENTS gave their full endorsement to WRP candidate for Hackney South and Shoreditch Jonty Leff yesterday as a campaign team worked hard fighting for revolutionary policies outside Hackney Community College in Shoreditch. Despite freezing weather lots of students stopped to talk and sign up. Construction student Tyrone Meally-Browley said: ‘Where I...
JEREMY Corbyn launched the Labour Party’s Manifesto for the upcoming general election yesterday claiming it is ‘a manifesto for hope that will bring real change’ and is ‘full of popular policies’. The Manifesto, ‘It’s Time for a Real Change’, is in fact long on hope and popular policies but woefully...
LABOUR’S Manifesto declares that it will ‘Immediately recognise the State of Palestine.’ It adds that Labour will ‘Introduce a War Powers Act to ensure that no prime minister can bypass Parliament to commit to conventional military action – unlike the Conservatives.’ Labour pledges to ‘Establish a judge-led inquiry into our country’s...
‘ISRAEL is attempting to erase Palestinian presence in Jerusalem by shutting more Palestinian institutions,’ Hanan Ashrawi, an Executive Committee member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has said – reacting to Israel’s closure of Palestine’s TV offices among others in the occupied city. ‘We strongly condemn Israel’s closure of several...
UNISON has served notice of the first week of industrial action on health and social services employers across Northern Ireland. Phase 1 of the Unison action will run from 25th November up to and including 18th December. Phase 2 will run to March 2020.
From 25th November onwards all Unison members...
THE VOTE Hassan Zulkifal Workers Revolutionary Party Ealing Southall campaign got great support at Greenford Bus Depot and Hanwell Royal Mail Delivery Office yesterday morning. At the bus depot, Unite member Mohamed Ali said: ‘I was brought up Labour, but having lost trust in all the politicians, I’m voting for...
PALESTINIAN Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has denounced US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s declaration that the US no longer considers the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as violating international law. In a statement Shtayyeh said: ‘We denounce and reject the statement of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo....
THE TORY and Labour Party leaders, Johnson and Corbyn, revealed their feet of clay during their first general election debate on Tuesday night, when audience participation revealed an electorate that has little confidence in its would-be PMs. Johnson came unstuck with a question that was asked by the debate host,...
THIRTY-FOUR sixth form colleges are on strike today to demand more funding for their students and their colleges. Nine colleges are joining the strike action for the first time, having recently been re-balloted. They are: Ashton-under-Lyne, Coulsdon, Havering, Nuneaton, Winchester, Darlington, Blackpool, Rotherham and Manchester. This means that members in 38%...
‘WE HAVE to do 12-hour split shifts here and it really affects our family life,’ Unite bus driver Andreas Almeida said yesterday while giving his full support to the WRP’s Hackney South and Shoreditch candidate Jonty Leff. ‘The last successful strike we had in the buses was during the Olympics....
WITH his declaration that the Trump Administration no longer recognises that the imposed Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in fact delivered a declaration of war by US imperialism on the Palestinian people, and the US’ complete support for the...
EALING SOUTHALL WRP candidate Hassan Zulkifal confronted Tory Health Secretary Matt Hancock outside Ealing Hospital yesterday morning. Hancock claimed: ‘We’ve saved the A&E and now we’re going to put more resources into the hospital.’ Zulkifal asked Hancock: ‘Will you reopen our maternity and paediatrics departments?’ Hancock's response was: ‘Any investment we put...
LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn began his speech to the CBI yesterday by declaring his loyalty and enthusiasm for business. He said: ‘And if a Labour government is elected on 12th December you’re going to see more investment than you ever dreamed of. ‘You’re going to have the best educated workforce you’ve...
‘FOR many years the extreme right in Bolivia, based in the oil and gas rich east of the country and very much controlled by the local large landowners, has been seeking to undermine the government of President Evo Morales and the Movement for Socialism (MAS). They see themselves as the...
US SECRETARY of State Mike Pompeo has claimed that Iran is behind the latest bout of violence triggered by Israel’s assassination of a top Palestinian commander in the besieged Gaza Strip. In tweets posed on Saturday, Pompeo alleged that Tehran is using the Islamic Jihad movement as a ‘proxy’ to...
THE Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh showed solidarity with photojournalist Moath Amarneh during the Palestinian cabinet meeting yesterday in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah by covering his left eye. Amarneh lost his left eye on Friday after being seriously injured by a metallic bullet fired by an Israeli...
DOZENS of Palestinian journalists have suffered excessive tear gas inhalation after Israeli military forces attacked a peaceful sit-in staged in the northern sector of the occupied West Bank in solidarity with injured journalist Muaadh Amarneh. Local people, said that yesterday Israeli soldiers fired a barrage of tear gas canisters and...
A TEAM campaigning for Workers Revolutionary Party candidate for Hackney South and Shoreditch, Jonty Leff, won big support on Saturday in Hoxton Market from local residents furious at the destruction of council housing. Local resident Jerry said: ‘I’ve lived in this area for 20 years. I don’t agree with the...
South African Airways (SAA) workers have vowed to continue their strike until the company meets their demands. Numsa members embarked on a strike on Friday following failed wage talks. They are demanding an 8% salary hike while SAA is offering 5,9% a pay rise. The industrial action has forced the...