Monthly Archives: June 2022
‘WE WILL defend our members against any and all attacks,’ Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham declared yesterday, in response to Tory Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s move to reverse a 40-year ban on agency workers being used to replace striking workers. The RMT and Aslef railworkers’ unions also hit back at...
Outsourcing NHS services to the private sector is associated with reduced quality of patient care and increased rates of deaths from treatable causes, according to an analysis published in The Lancet Public Health journal. Findings from the study suggest increased privatisation of health services in England between 2013 and 2020...
JORDAN’S King Abdullah II told CNBC television news network last week that he supports the formation of a NATO-style military alliance in the Middle East region. He said: ‘The kingdom works actively with NATO and sees itself as a partner of the alliance, having fought shoulder-to-shoulder with NATO troops for...
‘Butt Out!’ the GMB union told the Tory government yesterday, after it overturned a Welsh law on Monday night banning the use of agency strike-breakers during public sector strikes. The move followed last week’s announcement by the Tories that they are rushing through new anti-union laws allowing employers to use...
TALKS between Russia and Ukraine should be held on conditions advanced publicly by the Russian side and take into account the actual situation, speaker of Russia’s Federation Council, or upper parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, said on Sunday. ‘Talks on realistic conditions. They are well-known. We have publicly declared them. These conditions...
THE new Chief of the General staff, Sir Patrick Sanders, yesterday urged that Britain must be ready to fight Putin, comparing the present situation to the run-up to WWII – the so-called ‘1937 moment’ for Britain – when Neville Chamberlain worked for a deal with Hitler. The general wants...
STRIKING barristers were supported by the RMT at their rally outside the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey in central London yesterday, while rallies were also held in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Cardiff. Barristers are striking against the imposition of a 15% increase in the legal aid budget,...
THE Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has condemned US President Joe Biden’s forthcoming visit to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia, as being designed to ‘suffocate’ the Palestinian cause. ‘The main purpose of Biden’s Middle East trip next month is to obliterate the Palestinian cause, and expand the influence...
THE leader of the Unite trade union has hit back at comments by David Lammy MP, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, on Sunday, that he would not support Unite’s members at British Airways who are fighting to restore the 10 per cent cut from their pay made by the airline...
WHILST pledging a further half-a-billion pounds cash for the Ukrainian army yesterday, Tory PM Boris Johnson said that rising prices at home are ‘a price worth paying’, because the price of Russia succeeding is ‘far higher’. He called the massive inflation that has reduced millions in the UK to one...
THOUSANDS of Indigenous people continue to demonstrate in the Ecuadorian capital, as their calls for social and economic reforms grow louder despite a crackdown by authorities in the South American nation. An indefinite national strike which began on June 13th led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE)...
BORIS Johnson’s reaction to the Tory Party’s massive by-election defeats at Tiverton and Honiton and at Wakefield has been to reject the advice and the example of his Tory Party chairman Oliver Dowden who resigned his post. In a letter to Johnson, Dowden wrote: ‘We cannot carry on with business...
THE TORY wipe-out in the two by-elections has left the great leader skulking in Rwanda, while his Tory Party chairman Dowden has resigned, writing that ‘We cannot carry on with business as usual. Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that in these circumstances it would not be...
FRENCH trade union federation Force Ouvriere (FO) announced on Wednesday that it is preparing a national strike and rally of private health sector workers in Paris About twenty delegates from hospital establishments in the for-profit private sector met on June 16 in Paris, at the initiative of the national union...
THE Tory party has been hit for six by its two by-election defeats in Tiverton and Honiton and in Wakefield. Tiverton and Honiton Lib Dem; Richard Foord 52.9% Con; Helen Hurford 38.5% Labour; Liz Pole 3.7% Green; Gill Westcott 2.5% Reform UK; Andy Foan 1.1% At Wakefield Labour; Simon Lightwood 47.9% Con; Ahmed 30.00% Independent; Akbar 7.6% The swing...
BY YONATAN MOSQUERA ‘We won, we did it, yes we can,’ are perhaps the most repeated phrases these days by the masses of the Colombian people who, for the most part, punching the sky, joyfully celebrate the electoral victory of the Pacto Historico coalition in the Colombian presidential elections.
They celebrate...
THE RMT strike action went ahead yesterday after talks on Wednesday broke down without agreement. John Gutteridge, RMT Learning Rep spoke to News Line on the super-picket at London Bridge on the second day of the railway workers fight for decent pay and against massive redundancies and loss of pensions. He...
Hundreds of Numsa metalworkers’ union members at the Impala Platinum Mine in Freedom Park near Rustenburg are on indefinite strike against exploitation by three companies contracted to supply services to the mine. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) says that thousands of contract workers at the mine...
DEPUTY Prime Minister Dominic Raab says the UK government cannot allow unions to win a battle for higher pay as it would supposedly fuel a ‘vicious cycle’ of ‘inflation hurting the people’. In fact, with inflation nearing 11.9% on the RPI (Retail Price Index) millions of British workers are eating...
FOLLOWING the ONS (Office of National Statistics) announcement yesterday that inflation in the 12 months to May soared to 11.7%, the RCN (Royal College of Nursing) repeated its call for a pay rise this year of inflation plus 5%. RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Pat Cullen, said: ‘Inflation reaching a 40-year...
OVER 40,000 workers are supporting the action and manning the picket lines again today as the RMT railwayworkers union takes this week’s second day of strike action against Tory attacks on jobs, pay, conditions, safety and pensions, with the third strike day on Saturday. The country was shut down on...
THE RCN (Royal College of Nursing) has responded to the rocketing inflation rate. RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Pat Cullen, said: ‘Inflation reaching a 40-year high is yet another reason that nursing staff are in dire need of a pay rise. ‘Following over a decade of real-terms pay cuts,...
‘The TUC should have called a general strike already. They’re too slow to act,’ was the message from the Waterloo Station picket line yesterday as more than 50,000 RMT members took their first day of strike action. The railway workers held the first of three days of srike action this...
The All Ceylon Health Trade Union Federation (ACHTUF) held a series of protests opposite main hospitals across the country from 12 noon on Monday 20 June. Announcing the action last week, ACHTUF General Secretary Mahinda Guruge said that they were protesting against the reduction of health staff and allowances, the...
RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch joined the picket line at London’s Euston Station yesterday morning after pay talks with the Tories collapsed on Monday. Earlier, Network Rail CEO Andrew Haines said he would be happy to give members a pay rise above 3%, but only if he got an agreement...
‘STAND FIRM, support the action and mount the pickets,’ RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch urged his members defiantly yesterday afternoon as he confirmed that this week’s three day national rail strike goes ahead as planned. Over 50,000 RMT members are on strike today in defence of jobs, safety, pay, conditions...
PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble Alliance has been brought down to earth with a bang after losing its absolute majority in the French National Assembly, just two months after he was celebrating re-election as president. At the end of the Second Round of elections on Sunday, Macron’s candidates won 245 seats,...
FOR over a week now, farmers, students, workers, and transporters continue to join the national strike called by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) against President Guillermo Lasso. By yesterday, at least six sectors of the capital, Quito, remained closed because of the protests, and while the government...
THE RMT issued the following statement on the forthcoming rail and Tube strikes yesterday. ‘In the past few weeks, discussions have been taking place at senior level with Network Rail, Train Operators and London Underground.
‘Despite the best efforts of our negotiators no viable settlements to the disputes have been created.
‘It...
‘A GENERAL STRIKE to bring down the Tories and kick them out now!’ was the main demand on the 100,000-strong TUC march from the BBC in Portland Place to Parliament Square on Saturday afternoon. ‘We are clearly in a class struggle and the battle lines are drawn,’ RMT General Secretary...
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have both warned that the war in Ukraine could last years, as Russian forces refuse to give way to the NATO powers. The NATO chief said in an interview with Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper: ‘We must not let...
FOUR out of five NHS staff say pay is the main reason they would quit their jobs. An exclusive poll of NHS staff yesterday revealed that four out of five NHS health workers (80%) would quit the NHS over widespread concerns about their pay.
Of those considering leaving, 79% say an...
HOME SECRETARY Patel has not been humbled in the slightest by the decision of the European Human Rights Court to consider that her attempt to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is illegal. She has arrogantly proceeded to sign an order to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United...
TRANSPORT secretary Grant Shapps threatened rail workers’ jobs yesterday by saying: ‘Rail strikes will drive passengers away and threaten rather than protect rail workers’ jobs.’ The transport secretary, in a speech at a train depot in north London, demanded unions call off next week’s strikes, with thousands of workers set...
THE world’s nine nuclear-armed countries – led by the US – spent $82.4 billion upgrading their atomic arsenal in 2021, eight per cent more than the previous year, an anti-nuke campaign group has unveiled. The largest spender by far was the United States, which accounted for more than half the...
YESTERDAY, the Bank of England (BofE) hiked up the interest rate by 0.25% to 1.25%, its highest level in 13 years – the first time the rate has gone above 1% since January 2009. Following the world banking crash in 2008, the capitalist central banks cut interest rates to zero,...
‘Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) is utterly appalled that up to 1,000 newly qualified GPs face deportation despite having completed their GP training in the UK.’ The group of health professionals issued its powerful warning yesterday, describing the NHS under the Tory government as ‘our crumbling health service’. DAUK warned that Home...
THERE were more than 5,000 people on the Grenfell Tower Fire 5th Anniversary Silent Walk, organised by Grenfell United on Tuesday 14th June. The walk, an approximately two-mile circuit around the Tower, set off at 6.30pm led by bereaved families holding their banner, followed by multiple heart- and butterfly-shaped handmade...
THE TORY government’s racist drive to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda came unstuck on Tuesday when the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) granted an injunction to remove one of the asylum seekers from the flight that led to it being cancelled. Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said the...
HUNDREDS of firefighters from fire brigades across the UK marked the fifth anniversary of the Grenfell disaster yesterday by participating in the silent walk organised and led by the bereaved, survivors and residents of Grenfell. Pete Wolfenden, a firefighter who responded to the disaster, said: ‘It’s been five years since...
PEOPLE with care needs are having to turn down support packages because they cannot afford them. Backdated bills for care arrive without any explanation of how the figures were reached. Millions of older and disabled are denied care because local authorities cannot meet the demand.
These are some of the issues...
US stocks have made huge losses after a major sell-off last Friday on Wall Street. By Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 2.8%, 900 points, while the S&P 500 dropped 3.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite 4.7%. Markets continued to take a big hit after the US Labour...
‘THIS is yet more evidence that emergency services are in disarray,’ the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said yesterday ahead of today’s A&E report from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), called ‘Tip of the Iceberg’. The report reveals the steady increase in long waiting times in Emergency Departments...
