Monthly Archives: July 2023
STRIKING Amazon delivery drivers and despatchers from Palmdale in California, who are members of the Teamsters trade union extended their strike and were joined by an Atlanta area warehouse (ATL6) on Friday, to demand the company stop its unfair working practices. The growing strike will continue until Amazon reinstates the...
THE BRITISH Medical Association (BMA) has warned that the Tory government is setting the NHS up for the its worst ‘winter crisis’ ever. Last Friday, NHS England announced that as winter approaches it intends to incentivise GPs to keep patients out of hospital and also to discharge hospital patients earlier...
THE RMT has revealed that the private rail companies war on the rail trade unions is being financed by the UK government, who are determined to break the rail unions as an example to other unions that they had better kowtow or else. 20,000 railway workers walked out on Saturday...
ANDY MALKINSON, 57, a man who was wrongfully convicted and jailed for rape, has shockingly revealed that he may be required to pay thousands of pounds for his ‘board and lodgings’ during his time in prison. Malkinson, found guilty of raping a woman in Salford in 2003, was sentenced to...
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has told a summit of African leaders that Russia will give them tens of thousands of tonnes of grain within months, despite sanctions by the United States and other Western states, who are beating the Ukrainian war drums for a war on the Russian workers. Speaking...
TRADE turnover between Russia and Africa reached $18bn in 2022, which is one of the results of the Russia-Africa summit in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a plenary session of the Russia-Africa forum. The second Russia-Africa Summit is taking place at St. Petersburg’s Expoforum on July 27-28, in...
THE University and College Union (UCU) yesterday slammed the University of Huddersfield for large-scale redundancy proposals that could see staff lose their jobs by the end of September. The university announced the cuts just before the summer leave period making meaningful consultation practically impossible. The 105 staff at risk of redundancy...
THE US central bank has raised interest rates to the highest level in 22 years, as it fights to stabilise prices in the world’s largest economy by creating the conditions for a major slump. The decision lifted the Federal Reserve’s influential benchmark rate to a range of 5.25% to 5.5%,...
ISRAELI forces have killed a young Palestinian man in the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus, only a day after they fatally shot three youths in the territory as part of their intensified deadly raids. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the shooting took place during a...
THERE were loud and lively picket lines of striking radiographers outside hospitals around the country yesterday as the NHS workers continued their 48-hour strike which began at 8am on Tuesday. In a Strike Statement, the Society of Radiographers (SoR) spelt out the seriousness of the issues involved, saying: ‘With one...
THREE Palestinians were killed on Tuesday after Israeli forces opened fire at their vehicle in al-Tur area in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to a statement by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. According to security sources, Israeli forces prevented medical staff from approaching the scene before proceeding to...
THE homelessness rate across England is at its highest since 2018, after Tory government policies have forced a record number of families to live in temporary accommodation, according to official government figures. The data for January to March, published on Tuesday, showed that a massive number, 79,840 households, were looking...
FRENCH trade unions are continuing their fight against the Macron government’s increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 which was forced through the National Assembly (parliament) without a vote. The trade union federation Force Ouvriere (FO) has issued the following Statement by the Executive Board of July 20,...
THE Secretary General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement stated yesterday that the Israeli far-right cabinet’s insistence on pushing ahead with its controversial judicial overhaul plan, to silence the Israeli judiciary, has put the regime on the path to collapse. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made the remarks in a speech on Monday...
THERE was a lively and determined picket of members of the Society of Radiographers (SoR) King’s College Hospital in Camberwell, south east London on the first day of their two-day strike over pay and conditions yesterday. The strike continues today and concludes at 8am tomorrow morning. Speaking on the picket line,...
AFTER 27 weeks of mass Israeli and Palestinian protests, Israel’s legislature has approved the first reading of a racist and divisive plan drawn up by the regime’s extremist cabinet, that contains fascists, to curtail the powers of the Supreme Court and the judiciary. The Second Reading was due last night. The...
As the demolition last week of the fire-ravaged Albion hotel in Brighton was underway, following an initial earlier blaze, a second fire broke out in the building. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has condemned cuts to the fire service which have left firefighters and the public at risk.
A fire at...
THE THREE-DAY Labour Policy Forum (LPF) held in Nottingham over the weekend was ‘chaotic’, Unite said yesterday, with the Starmer party leadership seeking to out-Tory the Tories. The LPF brought together representatives of the shadow cabinet, rank and file party members from Labour Party constituency branches and Labour-affiliated trade unions. It...
THE passage of the British government’s anti-immigration bill shows that the authorities are desperate to show they have a strategy for limiting illegal migration but it’s known to everyone that this strategy won’t work, says a former British diplomat. Peter Ford, a former UK diplomat who served as ambassador in...
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers on Friday stormed Ein el-Sultan camp to the northwest of Jericho city, leading to clashes. Witnesses said that settlers, backed by Israeli forces, stormed the camp and performed Talmudi rituals there, leading to confrontations with the provoked residents. No injuries were reported.
The storming...
RUSSIA has blamed the US after an attack conducted by the UK and US armed Ukrainian military forces using Washington-supplied cluster munitions killed Russian military correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev and injured several other journalists. ‘Rostislav died as a result of a Ukrainian armed forces strike with cluster munitions,’ the Russian Embassy...
‘NONE of us want to strike, but we’ve been forced to by the government,’ Dr Kevin O’Kane, Chair, BMA London Regional Council, told a packed rally of striking consultants at BMA House, Tavistock Square, London, Thursday afternoon. Opening and chairing the rally, O’Kane continued: ‘For the past 14 years 35%...
LAST THURSDAY the government made a ‘final offer’ to the NHS consultants, a petty offer that they rejected out of hand. BMA Consultants Committee Chair Vishal Sharma told a packed meeting at the BMA headquarters ‘No more talks. We are united, stronger together. We cannot and will not back...
TORY PM SUNAK has insisted the Conservatives can still win the next general election, despite suffering two damaging by-election defeats. Labour and the Lib Dems overturned big Tory majorities in Somerton and Frome, and Selby and Ainsty constituencies. But the Tories held the London seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, despite...
STRIKING BMA consultants, picketing outside UCLH hospital yesterday on day two of their action, were adamant that the strike was not just about pay. It was about defending the NHS which includes paying staff appropriately. Giving his support to the striking senior doctors, Professor Patel spoke to News Line: ‘I support the...
THE government made the final offer and said “no more talks”. We are united, stronger together. We cannot and will not back down,’ Consultants Committee Chair Vishal Sharma concluded to a standing ovation at a packed rally of striking consultants yesterday afternoon. He began his speech at BMA house, in...
CASHIERS, members of the CGT union, at the ‘Grand Frais, fresh food stores in France have won a partial victory. The CGT said: ‘After the winning struggle of the employees of Vertbaudet, a fashionable kids clothing outlet, a new struggle of women was waged: those of the cashiers of the...
YESTERDAY, NHS consultants went out on a two-day strike, the first in nearly 50 years, over their demand for an increase in pay to match the massive cuts in wages inflicted on their profession over the last 14 years. A press release issued by the British Medical Association (BMA) laid...
NHS consultants in England are on 48-hour strike today and tomorrow, with the BMA hosting a rally at its London headquarters in Tavistock Square, WC1H 9JP, from 2pm-4pm. BMA consultants committee chair Dr Vishal Sharma will address consultants, with other BMA representatives, as well as RMT general secretary Mick Lynch,...
MPs WERE urged to reject the UK government’s ‘cruel and contemptuous’ Northern Ireland legacy bill as it returned to the House of Commons for its final stages this week. The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill aims to end criminal investigations and civil cases linked to the troubles, instead...
THE International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to unveil an online electronic platform to allow the Palestinians to sue Israelis who commit war crimes. A senior official in the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday the platform will enable people to submit multimedia complaints to the ICC. Omar Awadallah, Assistant Foreign...
IRAQI government spokesman Basem al-Awadi has said that Iraq supports all procedures aimed at lifting the coercive economic measures and sanctions imposed on Syria, and stressed that Syria’s security is part and parcel of the security of Iraq and the region. In a statement on Sunday concerning the visit of...
LABOUR Party leader Sir Keir Starmer caused a public split in the Labour Party when, on Sunday, he committed any future Labour government to keeping the hated two-child benefit cap. This cap prevents parents from claiming Universal Credit or Child Tax Credit for a third or any additional child. All those...
AS JUNIOR doctors ended their latest five-day strike action yesterday morning, BMA Junior Doctors Committee spokesman Dr Tal Ellenbogen accused Tory PM Rishi Sunak of ‘trying to bully and intimidate doctors into taking another real pay cut’. NHS consultants commence a two-day strike tomorrow at 7.00am and both junior doctors...
YESTERDAY, Tory prime minister Rishi Sunak announced the latest attack on higher education with proposals to ‘limit the access’ to university degrees in England that the Tories deem ‘low value’. The definition of low value for Sunak and the Tories is based entirely on what students might earn in the...
RUSSIAN forces have repelled a ‘terrorist attack’ by Ukraine on the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol in Crimea, destroying several aerial and underwater drones, the country’s defence ministry declared, adding that its forces have also conducted air strikes against Ukrainian targets. In a statement posted on the Telegram messaging...
CONSULTANTS in England, who go on strike on Thursday and Friday, will do the same next month, said the British Medical Association (BMA) yesterday in response to the government imposing another real-terms pay cut on doctors. Last week, the government announced a derisory, sub-inflation pay award of less than 6%...
UNITE has declared its support for the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Israeli regime, condemning the new legislation barring institutions from boycotting products made in occupied territories. Unite, which represents 1.2 million British workers, passed three motions at its Policy Conference 2023 in Brighton last Friday,...
Israeli occupation forces attacked dozens of Palestinians taking part on Friday in an anti-colonisation protest in the village of Umm Safa, to the north of Ramallah. Israeli occupation soldiers fired tear gas canisters at the protesters as they rallied following the weekly Friday prayer in the village in protest of...
THE LABOUR Party leader Keir Starmer appeared on the Laura Keunssberg Show on the BBC yesterday where he refused to say whether a Labour government would spend more money on public services – placing himself in the same camp as the Sunak-led Tory Party, and insulting millions of workers...
THE British capitalist class and their government are now up to their necks in a massive crisis, that no attempts at fake bravado, or threats that the trade unions must do what they are told or else, can resolve. The Budget Watchdog has just informed the government that it must...
IN ITS annual report on the state of trade union rights in the world, the ITUC accuses the French State of ‘police brutality’ and ‘indiscriminate arrests’ in the demonstrations, French trade union federation the CGT notes. ‘In France, trade unions have organised large demonstrations to protest against the controversial and...
ENGLAND’S biggest-ever strike ballot is on the cards, confirmed the University and College Union (UCU) yesterday, after it entered into dispute with 88 English college employers over low pay and poor working conditions. The dispute comes as the Department for Education announced colleges will receive an additional £185m in 23/24...
RESPONDING to yesterday’s recommendation from the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) and the government’s acceptance of that recommendation, the BMA says that far from putting an end to ongoing strikes, this further real terms cut to doctors’ pay demonstrates exactly why doctors feel they have no...
MICK Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF, the train drivers’ union has spoken out after the Tory government suffered a major defeat in the High Court as judges ruled its strike-breaking agency worker regulations are unlawful. Whelan said: ‘We are proud to have stood with the other trade unions and the...