Monthly Archives: September 2020
NHS PERFORMANCE stats reveal the ‘devastating extent of patient suffering’ amid a ‘daunting’ backlog, says the BMA. In his response to the latest NHS performance figures, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, council chair of doctors’ union the BMA, stressed: ‘Today’s figures reveal the devastating extent of patient suffering across the country as...
NURSES, midwives and NHS workers around the country take to the streets again today to demand a 15% pay rise and they are extremely angry. They have been treated with utter contempt by the Tory government who cynically lauded them during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic and then proceeded...
NHS workers should receive an early pay rise of 15 per cent or £3,000, whichever is greater, the Unite union, said yesterday. Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, also demanded that pay discussions between the government, the NHS and health trade unions start without delay. Unite is writing...
ON WEDNESDAY South African president Cyril Ramaphosa announced the death at the age of 91 of George Bizos, the renowned human rights lawyer who came to prominence for his role in defending Nelson Mandela on treason charges in 1964. Mandela was widely expected to receive the death penalty but thanks...
PALESTINIAN Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Riyad Malki, called on the Arab League to reject the United Arab Emirates-Israel normalisation agreement. ‘Otherwise, our meeting will be considered a blessing to the move, or a cover for it, which the state of Palestine will not accept,’ Malki, who chairs the...
ON DAY four yesterday of the Old Bailey hearing deciding the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange the proceedings were adjourned until Monday while a lawyer is tested for Covid-19. Assange was taken back to Belmarsh High Security Prison after Thursday’s session was adjourned. Outside the court Assange’s supporters blockaded the...
YESTERDAY, Boris Johnson announced new emergency laws making social gatherings of more than six people illegal in England from next Monday. This law applies to any meeting or gatherings anywhere either indoors or outdoors; it does not apply to schools or workplaces. These draconian measures will be enforced by the police...
AUSTRALIA’S Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) is demanding that PM Scott Morrison explains what he knew about Qantas management’s long-term decision to axe and outsource 2,500 workers, as local media revealed this week that documents show the airline planned the move 10 years ago. TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said that Qantas...
ON DAY three of the case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, at the Old Bailey in central London, yesterday morning the court went straight in to the evidence of Clive Stafford Smith, a dual national British/American lawyer licensed to practice in the UK. Assange has had a further 18 new...
‘THE TRADE unions should organise mass demonstrations and call a general strike,’ Julian Assange Defence Committee member Joe Brack told News Line yesterday. He was speaking outside the Old Bailey on the second day of the WikiLeaks journalist’s extradition hearing. Brack said: ‘For the next three to four weeks we are...
THE UK’s negotiator with the EU, Lord Frost, has said that there is still time for the UK and the EU to agree a ‘post-Brexit’ trade deal. His words follow a pledge from PM Johnson to walk away from the talks if a deal isn’t done by 15 October. Johnson...
THOUSANDS of people formed a human chain in the streets of the Hungarian capital Budapest on Sunday, in protest at what they say is a takeover of a top arts university by the country’s right-wing nationalist government. Demonstrators fear a new board at the University of Theatre and Film Arts,...
THE UNCOMPROMISING attack on corruption in the governing party by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has the potential to shake up politics in South Africa. The federation recently served notice on President Cyril Ramaphosa that it will withdraw its support for his ANC government if he...
A CROWD of over 200 supporters of jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange demonstrated outside the Old Bailey in central London yesterday prior to the hearing into his extradition to the US beginning. Assange is charged by the US administration for publications exposing war crimes and human rights abuses, for which...
JULIAN Assange’s extradition hearing resumed in London yesterday with the US government once again throwing in new charges at the last moment. According to reports, immediately before the hearing commenced the US government withdrew its original warrant for Assange’s extradition and issued a new arrest statement at the start of...
DESPITE warnings from unions the Tories re-opened schools last week, and now coronavirus has begun spreading through the school system across England. Five teachers at the Samuel Ward academy in Haverhill in Suffolk have tested positive for coronavirus, prompting the school to shut. Two other members of staff at Samuel Ward...
NHS England (NHSE) is pressing ahead with setting up a new emergency care system, under the guise of reducing crowding in A&E departments. Patients will be required to phone ahead, or to book on line, in order to get an appointment in A&E, rather than simply attend in person. In the...
THE MEETING of the General Secretaries of the Palestinian Factions held last Friday in Ramallah and Beirut via video conference confirmed that our people, unified under the leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas, absolutely reject all projects aimed at liquidating the Palestinian national cause and the inalienable rights of the...
EARLIER this week, Apple was priced on the US stock market at $2.3tn (£1.7tn), more than the combined ‘value’ of the entire FTSE 100. The UK itself is bankrupt, with the UK government debt rising above £2 trillion hitting £2.004 trillion for July. This debt is £227.6bn more than last...
‘CORONAVIRUS is no reason to fire us!’ shouted over 150 strikers rallying outside the Tate Modern Gallery on Bankside yesterday afternoon. The strikers were marking their 16th day of indefinite strike against 313 sackings by Tate Commerce. Those made redundant were informed by email which referred to a ‘score on your...
A SURVEY of UK social workers by the Child Poverty Action Group, Child Welfare Inequalities Project and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, found that 94% of those asked believed the severity and prevalence of child poverty had recently increased. ‘At least 80 per cent of the children open...
THE ALLEGED ‘poisoning’ of Russia’s unsuccessful opposition leader Alexei Navalny by a ‘Novichok-like nerve agent’ has been trumpeted by the capitalist press as if it were fact, accompanied with demands for massive new sanctions against Russia. In fact, on August 20, a plane carrying Navalny made an emergency landing in...
HEATHROW has threatened unions that unless they accept brutal pay cuts, they will start enforcing job cuts! The ultimatum delivered by the bosses proposes cutting the pay of thousands of workers. The airport plans to make pay cuts of 15% to 20%, affecting about half of the 4,700 staff in...
INDUSTRIALL Global union affiliates in South Africa are supporting the current probe by the country’s Special Investigating Unit into fraudulent activities in the awarding of tenders to supply the government with personal protective equipment (PPE) needed for the Covid-19 pandemic. The tenders being investigated are worth over five billion rand...
THE CRISIS gripping the German economy threatens not just to bring the country down but will complete the crash of the entire eurozone, a leading banker has warned. This week Christian Sewing, chief executive of the German Deutsche Bank, issued a dire warning about the massive increase of ‘zombie’ companies...
DESPITE the Scottish experiment of opening schools in August proving to be a total failure, the Tories proceeded with the re-opening of schools in England yesterday morning. While millions returned to school in England, new figures emerged to prove the re-opening in Scotland has been an utter disaster. 100,000 pupils in...
UNIVERSITIES must scrap plans to reopen campuses next month in order to prevent a major public health crisis, lecturers union UCU said. The union fears that the migration of over a million students across the UK risks doing untold damage to people's health and exacerbating the worst health crisis of...
WHILE firms and businesses are closing down as furlough ends and millions of workers are being thrown out of work, the Tories launched their £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, which they claim will create thousands of new jobs across the country for youth aged between 16 to 24. Young workers have...
PALESTINIAN political factions have reacted with fury to the first official visit by an Israeli delegation to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to finalise the recently-reached normalisation agreement. American and Israeli delegations are holding talks with Emirati officials in a bid to put the final touches to the August 13...
PALESTINIAN Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has slammed the direct flight of an Israeli plane to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Speaking at the weekly Palestinian cabinet meeting in Ramallah, Shtayyeh stressed that the landing of an Israeli plane in Abu Dhabi violates the Arab consensus to refuse to normalise relations...
THE FATHER of Jacob Blake, the black man shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, refused to ‘play politics’ with his son’s life’ when President Donald Trump visited the city yesterday. Jacob Blake Sr’s son was paralysed after being shot by a police officer, and his family says it will be...
SAFTU (The South African Federation of Trades Unions) has called on the South African Treasury and the Reserve Bank to ‘stop coddling economic criminals and finally put an end to Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs)’, their statement published last Friday (August 28th 2020) said: ‘The South African Federation of Trade Unions...
THE TORY Party split over how to pay off the massive debt run up bailing out the bosses during the coronavirus pandemic is now threatening to tear the Johnson government apart. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is warning that a record £322 billion will be borrowed this year, and...
