National News
PCS strike ballot for action on cuts, pensions and pay
THE CIVIL service union PCS last week began to ballot its membership of more than a quarter of a million workers in a national strike ballot over cuts to pensions, jobs and pay. The ballot closes on 15th June, with the first action possible later that month.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Thousands excluded from care system
HUNDREDS of thousands of elderly people in need of social care and support in England are not getting any help from either the state or the private sector, according to the campaigning charity Age UK.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
UK Uncut targets banks to defend NHS
THE CAMPAIGN group UK Uncut, which targets big businesses that fail to pay their fare share of taxes to make the case that public spending cuts are not necessary, last weekend staged protest pickets outside banks throughout Britain.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Upsurge in fascist attacks after poll losses
NEO-NAZI thugs have begun a campaign of attacks on trade union meetings and anti-racist groups since the British National Party fared disastrously in the 5th May local elections.
Just last Thursday a 20-strong group hurled concrete pillars, glass and rocks at a meeting on multiculturalism organised by Labour councillors in Barking, east London.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
No chance for first-time home buyers
TWO-THIRDS of young people who do not own their home believe they have no prospect of getting on the property ladder, according to a survey by the Halifax.
Higher deposits and tougher lending criteria have deterred many potential buyers in the past few years.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Corporation tax cuts do not create jobs, says TUC
LOW CORPORATE tax rates reduce revenues but fail to create jobs, according to a new TUC report published last Saturday.
The TUC report Corporate tax reform and competitiveness, written by chartered accountant and tax specialist Richard Murphy, warns that recent tax reforms and ongoing reductions in the headline corporation tax rate will reduce vital tax revenues without any significant benefit to ordinary taxpayers.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
The revolutionary movement in India and Nepal
by New Worker correspondent
NEW WORKER supporters discussed the problems facing the revolutionary movement in India and Nepal last week at a New Communist Party London District meeting at the Fitzrovia Centre in central London.
The discussion was opened by Kumar Sarkar, from the Second Wave solidarity movement, who has recently returned from Nepal and West Bengal.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
International News
Another blow to Berlusconi
by Eric J Lyman
EMBATTLED Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi absorbed another blow Monday after his coalition suffered dramatic defeats in mayoral races in Milan, Naples and other cities, raising the possibility of early national elections and casting the 74-year-old leader’s future in doubt.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Draft Guidelines of Cuba’s Economic Policy
by Eduardo José González
THE IMPLEMENTATION of the Draft Guidelines of Cuba’s economic policy will pave the proper way toward efficiency.
The planned update of the Cuban economic model, consistent with current domestic requirements and the international situation, should reduce the country’s dependence on the fluctuations of the world market.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Non-Aligned Movement: for a Palestinian state
by Eduardo José González
THE SUPPORT of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) for the establishment of a Palestinian State according to the 1967 borders makes more tangible the possibility of recognising it as an independent state by the United Nations.
During its meeting in Bali, Indonesia, the NAM Committee on Palestine decided to develop and implement a plan of action for the recognition of Palestine as a Free State, and its admission to the United Nations as soon as possible.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Mladic arrest: what about the Nato war criminals?
by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
RATKO Mladic has been arrested and his extradition to the International Penal Court is underway. As the Nato leaders make their victory speeches, let us ask this question: When is Nato going to stand in the dock and when are its leaders going to answer for their crimes? The answer in a world without international law is very simple: Never.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
The Lenin Museum in Finland
THE LENIN Museum in Tampere, Finland, is the best internationally known Finnish museum. Within the first decade of the 21st century over 136,000 people found their way to the Lenin Museum.
The Lenin Museum in Tampere, founded in 1946, is the oldest remaining Lenin museum of the world (another can be found in Vyborg, Russia). The Museum is housed in the historic Tampere Workers’ Hall, where the Russian Bolsheviks under the guidance of VI Lenin held their conferences in 1905 and in 1906. Lenin and the former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin also met for the first time in this Workers’ Hall in 1905. The Lenin Museum is owned by the Finland-Russia Friendship Association.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Features
The defeat of the CPI(M) in West Bengal
THE RIGHT-wing swept the Left Front out of West Bengal in India’s legislative assembly elections in May. West Bengal, India’s fourth largest state in terms of population, with 90 million people, had been administered by the CPI(M)-led Left Front since 1977 without a break.
by Kumar Sarkar
THE DEFEAT of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was expected, but not quite to the same extent as it actually happened.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Mass youth revolt shakes Spain
by Ben Carroll
DRAWING inspiration from the fighting spirit and determination of Tahrir Square and the peoples of Egypt, Tunisia and the Middle East, the peoples of Spain took the struggle against capitalist austerity, mass unemployment and the conditions of the economic crisis to a new level this past week.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]