National News
Millions of young women face dole
THE RATE of young women claiming unemployment benefit has rocketed and is due to rise further and thousands of public sector jobs are cut in areas where mostly women are employed.
The unemployment rate among 18 to 24-year-olds has nearly doubled since the start of the recession.
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The Tory party — the bankers’ party
by Caroline Colebrook
AS THE inflation rate hit four per cent last week and Barclay’s Bank declared annual profits of £6.07 billion, studies were published showing how the taxpayers are continuing to subsidise the banks. And in turn the banks are subsidising the Conservative Party.
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PCS backs multi-culturalism
MARK SERWOTKA, general secretary of the civil service union PCS, last week put his name to a petition defending and celebrating Britain’s diverse society.
He’s one of more than 3,000 who have signed up in response to a speech by Prime Minister David Cameron which said multi-culturalism had failed.
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Court rules school building cuts unlawful
LOCAL authorities last week won a victory in the High Court when it ruled that the way the Con-Dem government scrapped part of England’s school building and renovation programme shortly after the general election was unlawful.
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Poorer students to pay more
THE UNIVERSITY and College Union last week warned that under the Government’s new access plans poorer students will end up having to pay a lot more for a degree.
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Nursing unions call for systemic changes
NURSING unions Unison and the RCN last Tuesday responded to the publication of a report by the Health Service Ombudsman into failing standards of care for the elderly in NHS hospitals by calling for better staffing and systemic changes in the way such care is delivered.
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A special birthday celebration
by a New Worker correspondent
LONDON comrades joined other friends of the Korean people at a seminar and reception at the RCPB (ML) headquarters last week to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Kim Jong Il.
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Joining hands with Egypt’s millions
by a New Worker correspondent
IT WAS to have been a demonstration in support of the struggle to end the Mubarak dictatorship. It turned out to be a festival of solidarity with the Egyptian people rejoicing at the departure of Hosni Mubarak and the end of
his 30 years of tyranny.
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International News
Sinn Féin set for big gains in Ireland
by Theo Russell
SINN Féin MP Pat Docherty last week predicted major gains for the party in the Irish Republic general election next Thursday, at a briefing for supporters at the House of Commons last week.
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Bahrain’s day of rage: Popular revolution spreads to Gulf states
by Karen Dabrowska
AS THIS issue of the New Worker goes to press around 3,000 pro-reform demonstrators have laid out blankets in the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the Bahraini capital, where a massive pearl sits at the apex of a circle of inward-sweeping arches.
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Berlusconi under fire
by Eric J Lyman in Rome
HUNDREDS of thousands of people — mostly women — took to the streets of Rome and elsewhere in Italy on Sunday to demonstrate against Premier Silvio Berlusconi and his dalliances with young women.
Protests took place in more than 200 cities and towns in Italy and even at a few Italian embassies overseas.
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Long road ahead for Tunisia
Xinhua news agency
A MONTH after the collapse of the Ben Ali regime and the suspension of the former ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) party, Tunisians still have no time to celebrate their victory. After enjoying a brief whiff of freedom most Tunisians are aware that they still have a long way to go to fulfil their goals.
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Profits to die for
by Rob Gowland
ANOTHER young Australian was killed in Afghanistan the other day. The Australian news media don’t bother to report the deaths of young Afghanis killed in the fighting there. It might look like we were involved in something nasty.
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Features
Frantz Fanon and today’s struggles of The Wretched of the Earth
by Abayomi Azikiwe Editor, Pan-African News Wire
THIS YEAR marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Frantz Fanon, a revolutionary thinker and practitioner who has had a tremendous impact politically on the African liberation struggle both on the continent and in the diaspora. The recent outbreaks of strikes, mass protests and rebellions in Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt require a reassessment of the significance of the events that Fanon participated in during his lifetime, as well as the views expressed through a series of articles and books published in the 1950s and early 1960s.
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What lessons can we learn from Queer DIY activism?
by Anton Johnson
AS GREATER London Association of Trade Union Councils LGBT Officer I get to go to a wide range of LGBTQ events in London and I am constantly impressed with the innovation and energy of the Queer DIY events. These events have the origins in the DIY and party scene of the early 1990s and have evolved with each new generation of participants.
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