National News
Bill threatens ‘irreparable harm to NHS’
FOUR HUNDRED senior public health officials last week put their names to a joint letter to members of the House of Lords, calling on them to throw out the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill because it will “do irreparable harm to the NHS”.
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Day of Action against Atos
DISABILITY campaigners around Britain last Friday staged a Day of Action against the private company employed by the Government to conduct tests on the disabled with a view to getting as many as possible off of long-term benefits and on to the much lower Job Seekers’ Allowance.
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Anti-cuts march on Tory conference
AROUND 35,000 anti-cuts protesters marched through Manchester last Sunday in a protest organised by the TUC to let the Conservative Party conference know that the working class of Britain is angry and getting angrier.
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Southampton workers ready for action
THE TWO biggest public sector unions, Unite and Unison, have demanded to know why one of the country’s biggest Tory councils, Southampton, is planning to raise nearly £100 million of unsecured borrowing for unnecessary capital projects, such as the Titanic Museum and Civic Centre refurbishments, yet remains determined to cut workers’ jobs and wages.
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Poverty wages
AT LEAST 150,000 social care workers are being paid below the minimum wage level according to research published last week by Kings College London.
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Housing crisis deepening
THE CONSTRUCTION union Ucatt has warned that Tory plans for increasing affordable housing lack cohesion and could worsen the housing crisis.
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Barred by Gove
EDUCATION Secretary Michael Gove last week barred London schoolchildren from attending a Palestinian literature festival held in Tottenham.
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Asylum seeker claims blocked
THE LAW Society last week lodged a complaint that the Asylum Screening Unit, based in Croydon, is preventing asylum seekers from lodging claims for permission to stay in Britain — unless their lawyers threaten legal action.
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Special Building Fund
PROGRESS in raising £10,000 for our Special Building Repairs fund has been a little slow lately. But last week we had a contribution of £50 from a Yorkshire supporter, our thanks to him. This brings our total so far to £5,767, leaving £4,233 to raise to meet our target.
Meanwhile the repairs are almost complete. The dangerous wall is rebuilt, pointing and rendering are almost complete and there is just replastering and decorating to do.
But there are still bills to pay so we ask you to send whatever you can to help us complete our payments to our builders.
Please send to: the New Worker Special Fund, PO Box 73, London SW11 2PQ.
Cable Street: they did not pass!
by Caroline Colebrook
AROUND 1,000 anti-fascists gathered last Sunday near Aldgate East Station in London’s East End for a march to a rally in the St George’s Gardens to commemorate the historic Battle of Cable Street exactly 75 years ago.
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Clarion Cyclists ride again
by New Worker correspondent
THE CLARION Cyclists rode into Cardiff last week on their epic 645-mile journey through Britain to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the International Brigades.
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International News
Abu Ghraib defence attorney now faces murder charge!
by Dolores Cox
ENRAGED anti-war activists are being asked to pack the courtroom on 11th October in support of Paul Bergrin, an attorney who has attempted to hold military and government officials accountable for the torture administered at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
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Putin vows to create new eastern bloc
Pravda.ru
HAVING openly declared his presidential ambitions, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is now talking up about the prospects for creating a Eurasian Union out of the post-Soviet arena. Putin’s ideas, expressed in an article published in Izvestia on Tuesday, have already been dubbed by the western media as an attempt to recreate the USSR. But Putin says that point of view is naïve.
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Ireland needs a new beginning
An Phoblacht
THE PRESIDENTIAL election is taking place at a time of major challenges for Ireland and its people.
The economic and fiscal crisis caused by disastrous Government policies has resulted in huge hardship for so many citizens. Many are in despair and are losing hope. Tens of thousands of our young people are leaving our shores.
Citizens are angry that sovereignty is being handed over to the International Monetary Fund and European Union.
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Free admission attracts more Chinese to museums
YANG SHUCHENG, 65, felt excited after seeing some of the country’s greatest cultural relics with his own eyes during a visit to the National Museum of China in Beijing.
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Features
Poverty soars in United States
by David Brooks
ONE IN SIX people in the United States now lives in poverty, with 2.6 million more joining the ranks of the poor in 2010, reaching the highest number in more than 50 years, according to official figures. At the same time, the middle class has been eroded to the extent that inequality in the country is comparable to that in Mexico.
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Support Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike!
PALESTINIANS held in Israeli occupation prisons issued a statement on Sunday, 25th September saying that they plan to begin an open-ended hunger strike on 27th September, demanding an end to the isolation of Ahmad Sa’adat, an end to isolation for all Palestinian political prisoners and an end to the policies of repression and humiliation against visitors to the prisoners — including the denial of family visits and visitors being stopped, searched and impeded at Israeli occupation checkpoints.
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Wangari Maathai 1940-2011
by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
PROFESSOR Wangari Maathai passed away on Sunday 25th September aged 71. Her stay with us leaves a tremendous legacy of 45 million trees, the Green Belt Movement, great strides towards women’s empowerment, the reduction of poverty and access to potable water, making her a true heroine of humanity, whose memory will remain with Africa and with the world for eternity.
Wangari Maathai 1940-2011