National News
When people come together they can win
by Theo Russell
NEARLY 150 people packed a room intended for 50 to attend a Kensington and Chelsea Against the Cuts meeting last Wednesday at the Lighthouse Centre in North Kensington, one of the most deprived areas of London despite being in the country’s richest borough.
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Even Tory councils oppose cuts
EVEN Conservative-led councils are struggling to cope with the swingeing cuts that the Con-Dem Coalition is imposing on them. Some have warned Communities Secretary Eric Pickles that “unfair” spending cuts will have “potentially devastating” consequences.
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‘Classic nasty party stuff’
by Caroline Colebrook
PRIME Minister David Cameron last week revealed his true agenda behind his public spending cuts policies when he called for an end to the state monopoly over public services.
As so many have predicted and warned, all he really wants is to privatise all our services so that his banking and business friends can make profits out providing cheapskate services at top prices and pocketing the difference.
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Protests everywhere
Southwark
MORE than 100 protesters gathered outside Southwark Town Hall in south London last Tuesday night to tell Southwark Labour council: “Stand with us; Don’t do Tories’ dirty work; make the rich pay!”
Bristol
AROUND 3,000 people took part in a march last Saturday called by the Bristol and District Anti Cuts Alliance before gathering on College Green for speeches.
AROUND 1000 people defied the rain last Saturday to take part in a Carnival of the Cuts. The protests began in the morning with groups with placards, megaphones and leaflets outside various libraries, unemployed centres, children’s centres and other places threatened by the cuts.
Nottingham
IN NOTTINGHAM over 1,000 joined a “Keep the Post Public” demonstration called by the Communication Workers Union (CWU).
Shrewsbury
ABOUT 1,000 people marched from the Shirehall in Shrewsbury to a rally in the Square. Earlier this week, Shropshire Council approved plans to cut almost £40million from the capital spending budget over the next four years.
There were also marches against the cuts in Bradford, Hackney, Wood Green and Tower Hamlets. More are planned next seek for Camden, Hackney and Kingston.
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Barclay’s targeted
CAMPAIGNERS belonging to the group UK Uncut, who oppose public spending cuts by drawing attention to the amount of tax avoided by banks and other big companies, last weekend targeted branches of Barclay’s bank throughout the country.
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Against the cuts in Wales
by Ray Davies
IT DID our morale a power of good to join the march organised by Unison last Saturday against the cuts in Pontypridd, the heart of South Wales. The Tories and Liberal Democrats are straining at the leash to implement the most draconian cuts since local government was formed at the end of the 19th century.
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Supporting the struggle in Bahrain
by New Worker correspondent
LONDON comrades, including NCP leader Andy Brooks, joined hundreds of other protesters outside the Bahrainian embassy in London’s Belgravia last Saturday in support of the pro-democracy demonstrations that have swept across the oil-rich Arab Gulf state.
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Defending the NHS
by New Worker#correspondent
DEMONSTRATORS protesting against proposed NHS cuts stood outside the headquarters of the British Medical Association (BMA) in central London last week while doctors debated and eventually voted overwhelmingly to oppose the Government’s plans.
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Rallying for Livingstone in London
by Theo Russell
LABOUR movement and trade union activists came together last Saturday at the TUC’s Congress House for the third Progressive London conference, at which two of the main topics were Ken Livingstone’s campaign to become mayor in 2012, and mobilising for the TUC demonstration on 26th March.
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International News
NATO’s plan is to occupy Libya
by Fidel Castro
Prensa Latina
OIL HAS become the principal wealth in the hands of the great Yankee transnationals; through this energy source they had an instrument that considerably expanded their political power in the world. It was their main weapon when they decided to easily liquidate the Cuban Revolution as soon as the first just and sovereign laws were passed in our Homeland, depriving it of oil.
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Bahrain: protestors demand regime change
by Karen Dabrowska
A CHAIR resembling the royal throne of Bahrain’s ruling Al Khalifa family stands in Pearl Square with a sign: “And does the throne of the oppressor stay?”
After a bloody crackdown last week which left eight people dead and hundreds injured, protestors reclaimed Pearl Square in Bahrain’s capital Manama.
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Features
Vietnam: Dien Bien Phu opens up a new front
by Ngoc Le
RENOWNED as one of Vietnam’s most famous battlefields, a historic district is using its cultural attractions to promote tourism.
In appearance Dien Bien Phu is no different from any town or city in the country’s north-west region, but the name evokes one of the most glorious chapters in the nation’s independence-fighting history.
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African Americans and the struggle for socialism 1901-1925
by Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
IN 1901 THE Socialist Party of America, after much ideological and political struggle, emerged as a coalition of various factions within the socialist movement. It had conservative, moderate and revolutionary tendencies within its ranks. Eugene V Debs, an organiser of workers in the railroad industry, emerged as a charismatic figure, the party’s political candidate and a public spokesperson for the socialist movement.
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