National News

High Court ruling on workfare

MR JUSTICE Foskett in the High Court last week ruled that being making unemployed people work for no money does not amount to slave labour or breach human rights but at the same time the Government is breaking the law by cutting off the benefits of those who refuse to do it. He was ruling in two test cases involving Cait Reilly and Jamieson Reilly.

He rejected the claim made by an unemployed graduate, Cait Reilly, that a scheme forcing her to work without pay at a Poundland discount shop was contrary to human rights laws banning slavery.

Foskett said: “Characterising such a scheme as involving or being analogous to 'slavery' or 'forced labour' seems to me to be a long way from contemporary thinking.”

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Academies can hire unqualified teachers

TEACHING unions were appalled last week to learn that Education Secretary Michael Gove has told the semi-independent academy schools they can use unqualified teachers, bringing them into line with private schools.

The academies will be allowed to employ people with no formal teaching qualifications, a decision that will undermine not only teaching standards but also teaching unions and teacher training colleges.

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Serco to run ‘National Citizen Service’

THE PRIVATE contract company Serco is set to win a multi-million pound contract to run one of David Cameron’s “Big Society” initiatives — the National Citizen Service. This will be a non-military national service for young people over 16 years old.

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Unions defend midwives

THREE major nursing unions have joined forces to oppose a 60 per cent rise in the annual fees midwives must pay to remain members of their professional body and regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and Unison last week came together to urge swift and comprehensive improvements at NMC.

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Gove sells off 20 more school playing fields

DAVID Cameron on Wednesday boasted that Britain’s successes at the Olympics meant that spending on school sports facilities and sports facilities in general was a high priority for the Coalition Government.

But this comes just a day after it emerged that Education Secretary Michael Gove has approved the sale of another 20 school playing fields for private development, in spite of the Coalition's pledge to protect school playing fields in England.

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London remembers Hiroshima Day

by New Worker correspondent

AROUND 300 peace activists gathered last Monday to mark 6th August as Hiroshima Day in Tavistock Square Central London and lat in the evening in south-east London another 60 gathered in the Peace Garden at Charlton House to mark the event.

The event commemorates the detonation of atomic bombs at Hiroshima and a few days later at Nagasaki — the only two atom bombs ever used in warfare that caused such death and destruction that such weapons have never been used again.

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International News

Greek steelworkers fight on

KKE

ON MONDAY 31st July the steelworkers at the Aspropyrgos Steelworks returned to work following an heroic nine-month strike (272 days). They conducted a rally, lifted their fists and held carnations in their hands. They implemented the decision of their 20th general assembly, which took place on the previous Saturday. The assembly stated that they would suspend their strike and continue to fight using other forms of struggle.

On Friday 20th July the government attempted to break their strike by using its state forces whose brutal attack included the use of chemicals, beatings and arrests.

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America’s terrorist friends

Radio Havana Cuba

THE RHETORIC of US administrations and the major media of that country claim that they are zealous fighters against terrorism, although they are openly or covertly supporting terrorist groups.

The United States, whose government included Cuba among others, in a unilateral list of so-called sponsors of terrorism, maintains ties or supports the actions of notorious fanatics.

One of them, Luis Posada Carriles, freely walks the streets of Miami after getting off for lying on immigration forms, and not for organising terrorist actions and being a self-confessed murderer.

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Japan Marks 67th anniversary of Hiroshima atomic bombing

Radio Havana Cuba

JAPAN marked the 67th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima in an annual ceremony this week. Tens of thousands of people attended the event, amid growing anti-nuclear sentiment and protests in the country.

A bell marked the start of a one-minute silence at 8:15 the time when the American bomber Enola Gay dropped the bomb called "Little Boy" on the Japanese city, instantly killing 140,000 people.

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China and the Olympics

Workers World (US)

CHINA’S Olympic triumphs prove once again the transforming nature of revolutions. The People’s Republic of China sent its first delegation of athletes to the 1952 Olympic summer games in Helsinki, Finland. They arrived late and were able to participate in only one sporting event. People’s China boycotted the summer games for the next 32 years because the imperialists refused to recognise the Chinese communist government in Beijing, and instead declared Taiwan the representative of China in the Olympics.

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American hypocrisy and double standards

Radio Havana Cuba

THE HYPOCRISY of US foreign policy was highlighted earlier this week when the US State Department once again placed Cuba on its unilateral and arbitrary list of "State Sponsors of International Terrorism”.

Incredible, but sadly true: Cuba, a small Caribbean nation that has suffered terrorist actions for more than half a century carried out or financed by the US government, both under Republicans and Democrats, was classified once more as a terrorist state.

Yet it is the United States that has caused the deaths of more than 3,000 Cubans and injured nearly 3,000 others, while protecting terrorists such as Luis Posada Carriles, an agent of the US empire who freely walks the streets of Miami, the city where a biased trial took place more than 10 years ago, in which five Cubans were condemned to very long sentences in prison. But, what is the cause of this double standard of justice?

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Features

Ghassan Kanafani: the leader, the writer, the martyr

The Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani was murdered by Israeli intelligence on 8th July 1972. He was a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) which published the following tribute on the anniversary of his death last month.

ON THE FORTIETH anniversary of the martyrdom of Comrade Ghassan Kanafani, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine remembers this great man, the writer, the leader, the spokesperson, the novelist, the revolutionary, and commits itself once more to continue on his path of liberation. He is an inspiration to those who resist on all levels, and he is a Palestinian, Arab and international hero, literary lion, and icon of resistance, sacrifice and steadfastness.

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