National News
No cuts! Lambeth people lobby their town hall
PROTESTERS besieged a meeting of Lambeth Council in the town hall in Brixton last Monday evening to demand that councillors implement no Con-Dem cuts.
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BA crews forced to ballot again
BRITISH Airways cabin crews last month voted overwhelmingly to strike in their long running dispute but have been forced to ballot again as the company used anti-union laws to invalidate the ballot.
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Government by the bankers for the bankers
by Caroline Colebrook
CHANCELLOR George Osborne last Tuesday made the front pages by announcing that he would introduce the levy on banks this year to £2.5 billion this year, which would raise £800 million in revenue.
But this was a ruse to divert attention from tax cuts of far greater value that he is giving to the banks.
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Extremism fails in Luton
THE ENGLISH Defence League anti-Islamic extremist organisation, with roots in the neo-Nazi far right, last week planned a mass rally in Luton, which they described as “coming home” and invited fellow extreme right-wing thugs from all over Europe to join them.
They were hoping for some violent action with extremist youths from the local Muslim community but they completely failed to attract the numbers they sought and painstaking grassroots work among local communities by the Hope not Hate organisation in the run-up to the event meant the provocations came to nothing.
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Tories ban protest march
THE PUBLIC sector union Unison last week slammed a decision by Tory controlled Rushcliffe Borough Council to ban a protest march against cuts.
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Concerns on mental health care
THE DIRECTION of the Government’s mental health strategy has come in for criticism from the giant union Unite.
Unite, which embraces the Mental Health Nurses Association (MHNA), said plans by health secretary Andrew Lansley to scrap research into mental health would be “a very short sighted and ill-advised move”.
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Cuts hit equality body
THE EQUALITY and Human Rights Commission, set up in 2007 following the merger of three equalities agencies, provides legal services, guidance and grants to organisations to help fight all forms of discrimination and inequality.
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Supporting the Egyptian people
In Cardiff?
by Ray Davies
ON FRIDAY evening Cardiff held a vigil in solidarity with the popular uprising in Egypt. We joined the exiled Egyptian community at the Nye Bevan statue in Queen Street — young and old, Muslim students and peace activists.
The crowd chanted “Solidarity with Egypt! Mubarak has to go!” and were joined in singing the pan-Arab anthem, Biladi, by members of Côr Cochion (the Cardiff Reds Choir).
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Free Shaker Aamer!
by New Worker correspondent
HUMAN rights activists gathered outside Downing Street last Saturday to demand the release of Shaker Aamer, who has spent nine years in the US concentration camp in Guantánamo Bay without charge or trial for any offence. Aamer, a Saudi Arabian married to a British Muslim and living in Battersea, was working for an Islamic charity in Afghanistan when the Americans invaded in 2001.
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Protests everywhere:
Colchester
from New Worker correspondent
A PROTEST meeting against the cuts was held in Colchester last Thursday 3rd February organised by the local trades council.
Manchester
ANGRY protesters gathered outside Manchester Town Hall last Tuesday evening after the City Council issued details of its £110 million saving cuts plan.
Westminster
HUNDREDS of trade union members, community groups, service users and agricultural workers descended on Old Palace Yard, Westminster last Wednesday 9th February, prior to lobbying their MPs.
Wandsworth
PROTESTERS besieged Wandsworth Town Hall in south-west London last Wednesday 9th February to protest at cuts that include the closure of a very popular library, cuts of £600,000 to the Sure Start scheme, a 15 per cent cut in technical services, the withdrawal of age-related service concessions and increases for care for disabled children.
Woolwich
A MARCH by Greenwich Council workers and unionists against cuts to public services and jobs will be held in Woolwich on 12th February 12.
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International News
Venezuela: The revolution is here to stay
Radio Havana Cuba
LAST WEEK hundreds of countries commemorated the 12th anniversary of the deed that transformed the political and social reality on the continent: the beginning of the Venezuelan Bolivarian revolution under the leadership of Hugo Chávez Frías.
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Royal visit premature says Adams
IAIS
SINN FÉIN President Gerry Adams has spoken of the importance of Ireland’s relationship with Britain, moments after calling on Queen Elizabeth not to visit the country.
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Colombia: US returning to the Big Stick?
Radio Havana Cuba
THE ASSISTANT Secretary of the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), William R Brownfield, landed in Guatemala this week at the start of a regional tour with the stated objective of designing a multinational strategy to stem drug trafficking from Mexico to Colombia.
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Marking the birthday of Korea’s great leader
Millions of Koreans will be celebrating on 16th February to mark the birthday of Kim Jong Il — the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Korean communist movement that liberated the country from Japanese oppression during the Second World War and beat off the combined might of Anglo-American imperialism and their lackeys during the Korean War.
Features
Patrice Lumumba, Congo & African-American history
by Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
THIS YEAR marks the 50th anniversary of the political assassination of Congo’s first prime minister under independence, Patrice Lumumba.
February is celebrated in the United States and around the world as African-American History Month, where people of all backgrounds and nationalities pay tribute to the monumental contributions of the African-American people and people of African descent to the development of cultures and civilisations throughout the world.
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‘We must bring down this government: as soon as possible!’
by Daphne Liddle
“OUR AIM, in all the anti-cuts activity that is happening all around the country now, must be to bring down this government as fast as possible. We are all under attack and we will all suffer the longer it stays in place,” John McDonnell MP and leader of the Labour Representation Committee made this powerful call to action at a public meeting organised by Lambeth Trades Council on Friday 3rd February.
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