Monthly Archives: December 2020
IRAN’s Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the assassination in January of top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Iraq, stating that the United States made a grave mistake by making such a coward move. ‘By cowardly assassinating Gen. Soleimani, US committed a grave mistake,’ the...
New Year statement by the News Line Editorial Board THE News Line Editorial Board sends revolutionary greetings for 2021 to all our readers, and to the working class, youth and the poor who across the world are rising up against a bankrupt capitalist system which is gripped by the greatest...
IRAN will not let those behind the assassination of the country’s legendary anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani evade punishment. ‘We will not allow the martyr’s blood to go to waste and those who did it escape punishment,’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a virtual news conference in Tehran on...
MOROCCAN lawyers have severely censured the Rabat government over its recent agreement to normalise relations with Israel, and are demanding an immediate reversal of that decision. Massive demonstrations have already taken place in the country denouncing the ‘normalisation’ as an act of ‘betrayal’. The lawyers filed a lawsuit at the...
NUJ comment on an International Federation of Journalists report TWO MEDIA workers die every week, according to an International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) report.
The UK’s National Union of Journalists said: ‘When the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) published its first annual report of killed journalists in 1990, very few anticipated...
HOSPITALS in the south of England say they have seen a ‘real rise in pressure’ as the number of Covid patients needing treatment rapidly multiplies as the virus mutates. Saturday was described as one of London Ambulance Service’s busiest in history. The service has urged people to call 999 only...
Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of the NASUWT teachers union, has called on the government to take further action on school safety in light of the increased risk posed by the new variant of the virus. These include: Permit schools to move to remote learning for all pupils, except those deemed...
BRITAIN is leaving the EU, much to the consternation of Tory and Labour Party anti-Brexiteers who had been convinced that they would be able to force through a second EU referendum and remain in the EU despite the wishes of the working class. In fact the majority of the ruling...
IT HAS become clear that the ANC government is intending to slaughter thousands of workers’ jobs, said the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) in their end of the year statement. Already the government has collapsed the SAA and SA Express. Section 89 notices have been issued by SABC...
THE PCS (Public and Commercial Services) union has served notice on the Home Office of its intention to ballot members at Heathrow Airport for strike action after the employer announced it will impose shift changes with new team working fixed rosters from the 6th January 2021. For many years staff...
STRIKING Kenyan doctors and nurses have made it clear that no threat will force them back to hospitals. Nurses and clinical officers stood their ground after a meeting meant to resolve their strike flopped. They were joined on strike by doctors on Monday with both doctors and nurses demanding better working...
THE RULING coalition government of Israel this week collapsed in chaos after just seven months, forcing an unprecedented fourth general election in four years. The election, scheduled for March 23, was forced after the coalition led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was torn apart after the failure of the Israeli...
BRITISH Airways Cargo workers begin nine days of strike action on Christmas Day, however their union, Unite, has called off all pickets. Under BA’s fire and rehire plan, workers are losing up to 24 per cent of their pay, which amounts to between £5,000-£11,000 per annum. Strike action will begin at...
GOVERNMENT borrowing broke all records soaring to historic heights in November, figures released yesterday show. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said borrowing hit £31.6bn last month, the highest November figure on record. It was also the third-highest figure in any month since records began in 1993. Since the beginning of the...
PALESTINIANS in Israel on Monday launched a convoy of vehicles to protest against violence and crime in their towns and Israeli police inaction. The vehicles gathered at the entrance to Kafr Qara town in the north of Israel, and then headed from there at slow speed towards the city of...
A REPORT by the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has warned of a ‘rent debt crisis’ as up to 840,000 people in England and Wales are estimated to have built up massive rent arrears. According to the NRLA research, arrears for private tenants average between £251 and £500, but 18%...
N A VICTORY against the foreign backed terrorists, the Syrian government under President Assad have announced that they have managed to get 52 health centres, hospitals, and medical points back up and running in Aleppo. Some of the hospitals had to be completely rebuilt as the terrorist forces had shelled...
IN HIS INTERVIEW with the Spectator magazine Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak made it quite clear that in the New Year there will have to be a settlement of accounts with the working class, as bankrupt British capitalism can no longer afford to run up massive state debts. Government borrowing, Sunak...
THE NHS is in danger of being overwhelmed by a surge of both Covid-19 and non-Covid cases, a new British Medical Association (BMA) survey has found, revealing members’ deep fears of its ability to cope with increasing demand. Appearing on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme yesterday, BMA Council Chair...
A PALESTINIAN prisoner on Sunday started an open-ended hunger strike in protest against his ongoing detention despite the completion of his sentence in Israeli custody. Jibril Mohammad Zubaidi, a resident of Jenin refugee camp, announced going into an open-ended hunger strike in protest against being placed under extended detention although...
YESTERDAY, the BMA revealed in a statement that thousands of doctors feared that the NHS would not be able to cope with the ‘incredible demand’ amid the surge in Covid infections and the mutation of the virus into even more deadly forms. The BMA survey stated: ‘Whether it’s Covid or...
A NEW YORK Times investigation into the UK’s handling of the pandemic reveals misuse of government funds on a massive scale during its Covid-19 response, calling it ‘one of the greatest spending sprees in Britain’s postwar era.’ The report, titled ‘Waste, Negligence and Cronyism: Inside Britain’s Pandemic Spending’, was published...
STRIKING Heathrow Airport workers are being treated with complete and utter contempt by Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL). Thousands of lives have been put at risk! During the current strike against fire and rehire methods there are no adequate fire safety measures in place, the Unite union warned yesterday. Yesterday was the...
THE WEST London Council of Action got a huge response at their Xmas picket at Ealing Hospital, yesterday morning. Shaihin, a paediatric nurse at Ealing in the RCN union said: ‘I worked in the Charlie Chaplin Children’s ward for twenty years, until it closed, which was very, very sad for...
GP SURGERIES will start receiving referrals from A&E departments under a new set of measures proposed by NHS England which were announced yesterday. The plans, which are open for consultation until 12th February, said low acuity patients who turn up to A&E without calling 111 first could be ‘streamed’ to...
MI6 unilaterally assumed power to break the law on UK soil, a tribunal has found. At the Investigatory Powers Tribunal on Wednesday, it was revealed that MI6 may have unilaterally assumed the power to authorise agents to commit crimes in the UK – potentially without any legal basis or limits...
IN THE Spectator magazine this week, Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak broke ranks with the official Tory line that British capitalism could survive by indefinitely printing billions of pounds of paper money, by saying that the point has been reached when the massive state debt will have to be paid. Government...
SOUTH AFRICA’s union federation SAFTU is appalled by the judgement of the Labour Appeal Court against several public sector unions over the unilateral government withdrawal from a signed and legally binding agreement. The Labour Court dismissed the application to enforce the final year of a three-year collective wage agreement, concluded...
FOUR thousand Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) workers are taking the fourth of four days strike action today against the company’s imposition of twenty-five per cent pay cuts amounting to £8,000 per annum. There were three picket lines on the perimeter of the airport yesterday, restricted down to six pickets by...
SUPPORT has been pouring in for protesting farmers, who are camping on the Indian national capital’s borders demanding repeal of three new farm laws. On Monday, trade unions and civil society groups held a solidarity march in Delhi’s ITO area, pledging solidarity with the agitating farmers.
The march was attended by...
IN THE HUGE public outcry at the deaths of 72 people in the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017, the demand for safety checks on cladding in housing blocks and flats couldn’t be completely ignored. In fact the inspections that have so far been carried out across England and Wales...
TSSA rail union General Secretary, Manuel Cortes, has rounded on the Government over plans for an inflation-busting rail fares increase in England next year of RPI plus 1 per cent – describing the move as a ‘kick in the teeth for passengers’. Rail Minister Chris Heaton Harris confirmed that a...
SHORTAGES of PPE (personal protective equipment) during the early months of Covid-19 left doctors feeling ‘abandoned’ by the government, BMA council chair Chaand Nagpaul has warned MPs. The failure to supply PPE to frontline doctors in March and April came as a bitter shock to the medical profession, Dr Nagpaul told members...
THE Johnson government’s Covid-19 crisis intensified as it ordered London and most of Essex and Hertfordshire to join Tier 3 at 00:01 GMT yesterday. This means a further 10.8 million people will be in the top tier, with 61% of England’s population – or 34 million people – under the...
NEW OFFICE for National Statistics (ONS) figures released yesterday show a record rise in redundancies of 370,000 and a fall in the number of people on payrolls since February of 819,000. TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: ‘We are staring down the barrel of mass unemployment. There’s no time left to waste. ‘Ministers must step...
FOUR thousand Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) Unite members came out on strike yesterday, with many demanding that the action should be united with British Airways workers who are also striking later this month. Speaking at a rally at Bedfont Football Ground at the beginning of yesterday’s strike, Raj Aran, Unite...
‘WE MUST act now to shift the curve, when the virus develops exponentially there is not a moment to spare.’ This is what Matt Hancock, the Tory Health and Social Care Secretary told Parliament yesterday afternoon, about the Covid-19 crisis. He announced that London and other areas in the south east...
ANGRY demonstrators marched through the northwest city of Columbus in Ohio last Friday to demand justice and transparency in investigations into the police killing of an African-American youth last week outside his home. As they marched on the state capital towards the Ohio statehouse chanting, ‘No justice, no peace, no...
WHEN the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK in March, and the Tory government was forced to order the first national lockdown, Tory chancellor Rishi Sunak made a temporary £20 a week increase in Universal Credit for the thousands of new claimants thrown out of work. This increase is due to...
THE National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU), as the majority union at the Clinix Health Group, is on strike today over substantive issues. The strike is a result of failed wage negotiations between NEHAWU and the employer. Negotiations have been ongoing since the 4th September 2020 and collapsed...
INDIA’S farmers have launched a nationwide general strike against new capitalist laws creating agricultural markets, which they rightly say go against their interests and are in the interests of only India’s rapacious capitalist class. Farmers have blocked roads and rail lines in eastern and western Indian states to force the...
‘CALL the whole airport out to defend all jobs, pay and conditions,’ striking Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) worker, Jarnail Singh, said yesterday ahead of today’s second day of four days of HAL strike action this month. Unite has also just announced that 840-plus British Airways (BA) cargo workers will take...
EU LEADERS France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel – have been told the EU is unlikely to get a trade deal with the UK by Sunday’s deadline. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the bloc’s 27 leaders talks were ‘difficult’. The UK stops following EU trade rules on...