The New Worker
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 1st May 2009
Interested in reading more from the pages of the The New Worker? Listed below are are the lead paragraphs from the various news items and features that appear in the printed version. Unless linked externally, you will need to subscribe to the print version.
National News
Scottish TUC breaks with Israel
THE SCOTTISH Trades Union Congress (STUC) overwhelmingly endorsed a recommendation to boycott Israeli goods and review its links with the Israeli Histadrut union federation at its annual conference in Perth last week. The call was supported by a plea to all Scottish trade unions to support the boycott, divest in Israeli companies and call for sanctions. The boycott campaign has already been endorsed by the Irish and South African trade union federations.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Worker's Memorial Day
Members of the RMT transport union were amongst thousands of trade unionists throughout the country who on Tuesday marked workers Memorial Day.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
New powers to spy on emails
HOME Secretary Jacqui Smith last week announced that the Government is to drop plans for compiling its own database to monitor all email and other electronic communications and instead require the communication firms to store their own records of all internet communications. These private databases should then be available to police as and when required.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Bees threatened by pesticides
THE SOIL Association last week condemned Hilary Benn's decision not to ban chemicals known to kill honeybees.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
RMT walk-out next week
Some 1000 rail engineering members at one of Network Rail's key contractors, Jarvis, will be taking industrial action on 5th May in response to plans by the company to axe 450 jobs as union talks with Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon broke up with the government failing to give assurances on job cuts in the rail industry.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Post workers face pay freeze
THE ROYAL Mail is among the 58 per cent of employers in Britain who are planning to impose a pay freeze on their workers. The recession is the main excuse along with claims that inflation is now at zero or in deflation.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Unions welcome cleaner coal
The giant union unite and the GMB last week welcome a Government decision to commit funding to developing clean coal technology.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Parents occupy London school
PARENTS in Lewisham, south London, last week climbed on to a primary school roof and occupied it as a protest against the proposed closure and demolition of the school to make way for a part-private inner city academy for primary and secondary children.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
New Tolpuddle Martyrs event
by Robert Laurie
ONE HUNDRED and seventy five years ago in 1834, six farm labourers from the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset were transported to Australia for daring to form a trade union. Mass protests calling for their release took place.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Features and International News
Cuban influence strong at OAS summit
By Julie Fry - Workers World
The Obama administration has begun to roll out its strategy toward Cuba and its allies in Latin America.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
On anti-communist hysteria
by Leonid Kalashnikov international Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
ANTI-COMMUNIST campaigns have occurred more than once in the modern history of Europe, creating a sort of "professional" anti-communist political class within European politics. Most. commonly they are the representatives of former socialist countries where the restoration of capitalism has led to severe socio-economic problems. It is rather difficult to present any positive programme to society under such circumstances. Much easier is to fudge about the past, condemn the Soviet Union, be "brave" in struggle
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
'Daily red meat raises chance of dying early'
People's Tribune (US)
WITH THIS front-page headline, the Washington Post reported the results of a 10-year study conducted by the National Cancer Institute of the United States, National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study followed more than 500,000 middle-aged and elderly Americans and found that eating four ounces of red meat a day (a small hamburger) increased your chances of dying, especially from cancer and heart disease. The study was run in an exacting and well-organised manner and the data, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, demonstrate that there is a clear health risk associated with the daily consumption of red meat.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
May Day: workers day
Workers World (US)
THE FIRST OF MAY is May Day - International workers' Day. It began in America a long time ago during the struggle for the eight-hour work day, but that history is not well known here in the United States, and for good reason. The scions of capitalism who feed us their ideology don't want workers and oppressed people to know their own history of struggle.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Gazans gloomy over dialogue's success
by Saud Abu Ramadan in Gaza
AMAL IBRAHIM, a 44-year old mother of four who lives in southern Gaza city, got nervous when she was asked if she expects an imminent reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, the two Palestinian rival movements.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Iceland's new coalition faces tough challenges
by Wu Ping and He Miao - Xinhua news agency
ICELAND'S interim coalition government will face tough challenges despite its victory in last Saturday's general election. For the first time, the left has gained a majority in the parliament.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Cuba on swine flu alert
by Wu Ping and He Miao - Xinhua news agency
CUBA'S Health Ministry has announced a package of preventive measures following the presence of the influenza A virus subtype (H1Nl) in Mexico and in other countries.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Hungarian communists break with European Left
by Wu Ping and He Miao - Xinhua news agency
THE HUNGARIAN Communist Workers' Party has broken its ties with the European revisionist and left social-democratic parties. Though one of the founders of the "Party of the European Left" (ELP) the HCWP had some major reservations about its general line from the very beginning.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]