Monthly Archives: February 2023
GREEK seafarers went on a 48-hour strike on Wednesday and Thursday, demanding the signing of a new national collective agreement with pay rises of 12%. This was the third such strike by the PNO (Greek Seafarers Federation) since last October. Once again not a single ferry or other kind of...
UKRAINIAN president Volodymyr Zelensky turned up in Britain on Wednesday to address Parliament in a speech demanding that the UK supply fighter planes for an all-out war with Russia. Zelensky finished his speech saying that he would be leaving London ‘thanking you all in advance for powerful English planes’, causing...
THE following is a statement by COSATU: ‘DESPITE three vacancies in the executive and a deputy president who wants out, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa did not want a Cabinet reshuffle to overshadow his State of the Nation Address yesterday.
Ramaphosa does not want his address, expected to focus on the...
MILLIONS of workers and youth took part in the first of two new mass strikes and demonstrations in France on Tuesday in opposition to President Emmanuel Macron’s government attack on pensions. Tuesday’s and Saturday’s strikes and marches were planned ahead of the parliamentary debate that began on Monday afternoon
Meanwhile, left-wing...
NOT EVERY bourgeois economic commentator has swallowed the upbeat line peddled by central bankers that capitalism has weathered the storm of its economic crisis and that the future is rosy. This is the line pushed by Andrew Bailey, boss of the Bank of England, who after pushing up interest rates...
On the second anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar, the Global Unions – which represents 200 million workers worldwide – has called for renewed global efforts to restore democracy. They are supporting the call by the Confederation of Trade Unions, Myanmar (CTUM) for a Global Day of Action to...
IN A speech yesterday at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Labour’s shadow defence secretary, John Healey, pledged that any future Labour government would keep arming the fascist-supported Ukrainian government at whatever cost to the working class. Healey told the audience at the defence and security think-tank that a Labour...
SCORES of striking nurses spoke out angrily on the picket lines yesterday to condemn the Tory public sector pay cuts programme. Hundreds of thousands of nurses were on strike again yesterday, having participated alongside tens of thousands of ambulance staff in the biggest ever strike in the National Health Service...
Nurses were in a determined mood on the picket lines outside King’s College Hospital (KCH), roundly condemning Prime Minister Sunak’s refusal to even speak to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) about their well deserved pay rise. Laura Duffel told News Line: ‘I’m a nurse and an RCN Rep and...
TENS of thousands of nurses and ambulance workers across England walked out yesterday at the start of two days of strike action. Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), joined with members of the GMB and Unite unions in what is the biggest strike action in the history of...
NURSES called for a general strike to defend the NHS on lively picket lines around the country yesterday. At University College Hospital near Euston in central London, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) member and neo-natal nurse David Rodriguez told News Line: ‘We’re striking for fair pay, for better staffing levels...
The BMA (British Medical Association) England GPs committee has rejected ‘insulting’ proposed changes to the GP contract in England which completely ignore the unsustainable and unsafe pressures practices are under right now. With no additional investment to counter the damaging impact of soaring inflation on practice expenses – and to...
Yesterday’s Observer newspaper revealed that manufacturers of the insulation installed on Grenfell Tower – cladding that led to the inferno that killed 72 people in June 2017 – have failed to pay into the multi-billion pound fund to fix dangerous cladding in residential blocks. On top of this, two building...
IN THE WEEK when the giant oil and gas company Shell announced record profits of £32.2 billion, on the back of the soaring cost of energy, the energy providers in the UK were exposed as making huge profits at the expense of the poorest sections of the working class. British...
NEWLY empowered Republicans in the US House of Representatives voted to oust Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee, because of her past comments critical of Israel. The measure was passed 218-211 on Thursday, removing the Somali-born legislator from the influential committee.
On Wednesday, the Republican majority in the...
OVER 20,000 railway worker members of Aslef and the RMT unions were on strike yesterday, with powerful picket lines outside scores of stations all round the country. Speaking on the picket line at Euston Station in central London, Aslef General Secretary Mick Whelan said: ‘They say they’re close to closing...
THE Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at its meeting ending on 1 February 2023, voted by a majority of 7-2 to increase the Bank Rate by 0.5 percentage points, to 4%. Two members preferred to maintain the Bank Rate at 3.5%. Its statement admitted: ‘UK domestic inflationary pressures...
WHILE workers face skyrocketing energy bills forcing millions to go without heat this winter the giant oil and gas company Shell has announced annual profits of nearly $40 billion (£32.2 billion), a record for the Anglo-Dutch group and the highest profit ever posted by a British company. Shell posted profits...
A BIG demonstration of more than 5,000 teachers, UCU university lecturers, PCS members members marched through Liverpool on the TUC Day of Action yesterday. They marched to the Adelphi where UCU Regional Officer Saira Wiener received rapturous when she said: ‘We have a further 18 days of strikes planned, but...
There will be a National Day of Action on Budget Day, Wednesday 15th March, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak announced yesterday, as hundreds of thousands of teachers, lecturers, civil servants, railway and bus workers took strike action across the country. There were demonstrations in towns and cities around the country,...
THE commander of Iran’s armed forces Brigadier General Alireza Sabahifard said on Tuesday that Iran has a strong military deterrent and will defeat any attack on the country. Sabahifard said: ‘The powerful Air Defence Force is ready to confront any threat in the safe skies of our beloved country using...
IRAN’S Foreign Ministry spokesman has strongly condemned Israeli forces’ brutal aggression against Palestinian women at Damon Prison in the Palestinian occupied territories. ‘Beating female Palestinian inmates in #ZionistRegime’s Damon Prison is abhorrent,’ Nasser Kan’ani tweeted late on Tuesday. Kan’ani continued: ‘Do self-proclaimed rights defenders in Europe & US believe #HumanRights and...
HUNDREDS of thousands of teachers, university workers, civil servants and transport workers are striking in the biggest strike day in more than a decade today. Next Monday and Tuesday hundreds of thousands of nurses, ambulance workers and other NHS workers are also striking again. NEU teachers union joint General Secretary Kevin...
THE NHS won’t survive without immediate steps to bolster our workforce, doctors union the British Medical Association (BMA) warned on Monday. Responding to the Tory government’s Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services, Professor Phil Banfield, chair of BMA council, said: ‘The NHS cannot afford to wait two...
Today will be the biggest day of strike action across the country in over a decade, with hundreds of thousands of workers from nearly every sector walking out demanding pay increases that match spiralling inflation. It is a massive demonstration of the determination of the working class not to be...