National News

Privatisation threatens victims of injustice

by Daphne Liddle

RICHARD Foster, who chairs the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), last week warned that the privatisation and fragmentation of the police forensic services will make it very difficult for victims of injustice to obtain justice.

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Civil servants vote for action

WORKERS employed in the Department of Work and Pensions and in the Home Office voted in favour of industrial action last week over cuts and working conditions in ballots organised by the union PCS.

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MoD apologises for child murder

THE MINISTRY of Defence last week sent a very belated written apology to the family of Majella O’Hare, who was shot dead, aged 12, in 1976 by a British army private in the occupied north of Ireland.

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Lecturers call for talks after strikes

THE UNIVERSITY and College Union last week called employers to resume talks after planned strike action drew to a close last week.

UCU said that the university employers had to get back round the table and negotiate with UCU in an escalating row over pensions.

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Protests against the London Libya Conference

by New Worker correspondent

ABOUT 100 demonstrators, many of them Libyan students, took part in a peace protest against the London Conference on Libya at Lancaster House on Tuesday.

The protesters, hoisting green flags, chanted “Stop bombing Libya”, “Hands off Libya”, “No war for oil”, “Down down Cameron”, and “Down, down Obama”.

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BA crews vote for strike again

BRITISH Airways cabin crew, who are members of Unite the union, have voted to back strike action at the airline.

Of the just under 10,000 crew polled, some 83 per cent of the 6,981 who returned valid voting papers voted yes to strike action.

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EMA replacement ‘not enough’

THE UNIVERSITY and College Union last week criticised the system of financial support for low-income A-level students that the Con-Dem Coalition proposes to take the place of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) that they have abolished.

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Thoughts on the Commune

by New Worker correspondent

COMRADES and friends recalled the heady days the Paris Commune at the Fitzrovia community centre in central London last week. The Communards established the first workers’ government in 1871 following France’s defeat in the war with Prussia.

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International News

Resistance vows revenge for Israeli air-raids

by Emad Drimly and Saud Abu Ramadan in Gaza

TENSION is high in the Gaza Strip following an Israeli air-strike against the Islamic Jihad militia last weekend. Two Islamic Jihad fighters were killed and three others injured early Sunday morning in an Israeli air strike on the northern Gaza Strip.

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Condemn the Armed Intervention in Libya!

Joint Statement of the New Communist Party of Britain and the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)

OUR TWO parties call on the working class and people to condemn the British government as well as the governments of the US, France, Canada and other countries for the military attacks on Libya.

The New Communist Party of Britain and the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) condemn the Armed Intervention in Libya.

Christian Democrats routed in German state poll

Radio Havana Cuba

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc has suffered an election defeat in south-western state of Baden-Württemberg amid public outcry over her nuclear policy.

The Greens and the Social Democrats (SPD) staked out a solid lead in the state elections in Baden-Württemberg with 47.3 per cent of the vote, compared to Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Free Democrats (FDP), who gained 44.3 per cent combined.

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Features

Egypt’s new labour federation demands rights

by Elaine Peron

HUNDREDS of members of four unions who have organised (illegally) over the past three years, as well as workers’ rights activists, attended a planning meeting of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Labour Unions this month.

The new labour federation is demanding a minimum monthly wage of E£1,200 (around £125) — in contrast to the rarely enforced current minimum of E£400 — and new legislation guaranteeing the right to strike. Some activists appearing on Egyptian television talk shows have also raised the idea of instituting a maximum wage.

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US: Bosses’ war on unions frees markets, not workers

by Caleb T Maupin

IT IS EASY to understand why the wealthy American ruling class, whose profits grow the less they pay workers, would oppose unions. Unions are the forces that counter their endless drive for profits and seek to fight on behalf of their victims.

However, it is outrageous when anti-union forces like Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Governor John Kasich in Ohio do so in the name of “freedom” and “fighting against big government”.

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In Memoriam: Leonard Weinglass 1933-2011

Granma

US ATTORNEY Leonard Weinglass, the legal representative for Antonio Guerrero and untiring fighter for the cause of the Cuban Five, died on 23rd March in New York.

From the Chicago Eight to Jane Fonda, from Angela Davis to the kidnappers of Patty Hearst, from Daniel Ellsberg to Amy Carter, Weinglass represented defendants in many of the most spectacular court proceedings in the United States.

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