National News
Outrage at home care failings
THE PUBLIC sector union Unison last week expressed outrage at the failings in the current system of home care for the elderly and severely disabled.
A new report from Unison, based on a survey of homecare workers, has revealed widespread concern that short visit times and changing client lists are severely impeding their ability to provide quality and continuity of care.
Many workers have reported “topping up” care, by providing additional unpaid care in their own time, to the detriment of their own personal lives. The union described the treatment of those receiving care and workers — who are among the most poorly paid in the country — as an outrage.
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Tories attack teachers again
EDUCATION Secretary Michael Gove last week accused teaching unions of “holding back” children by taking industrial action.
He began his speech to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham by saying that teaching is the highest calling. Then he went on to attack members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (Nasuwt), who recently voted to take action short of going on strike over pay, pensions and conditions.
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Hunt seeks to curtail abortion
THE NEW Health Secretary and good friend of Rupert Murdoch, Jeremy Hunt, began his speech to Tory party conference this week by telling NHS staff to focus on care of the elderly, despite Government cuts and privatisations that make it virtually impossible to do so.
But he hit the headlines when he called for a reduction in the abortion limit — largely because it was not supported by the rest of Tory leadership. Hunt wants the limit on abortions to be changed from 24 to 12 weeks.
Around 90 per cent of all abortions happen before the 12-week state; eight per cent happened in weeks 13 to 20 and only two per cent are done later.
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Tube driver saves life
RAILWAY UNION RMT has praised the intervention of a London Bakerloo Line tube driver which prevented a potential tragedy involving a 12 year old boy.
The incident took place on Monday at 3.30 pm. The 12 year old boy was overcarried (on board the train after its final passenger stop) into the Queens Park sidings. Previously these trains used to be physically checked that they were empty prior to going into the sidings. RMT objected to the ending of detraining and said at the time that getting rid of detrainment staff was unsafe.
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Solidarity with Korea in London
by New Worker correspondent FRIENDS of Democratic Korea met at the Marchmont Centre in central London last Saturday to hear a reportback from a recent visit to the DPR Korea and to discuss the development of Kimilsungism and the Juché idea.
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International News
Chavez wins again!
by Xelcis Presno
VENEZUELANS re-elected President Hugo Chavez on Sunday with 54.42 per cent of the votes, giving him another six-year mandate until 2019.
Dressed in a red shirt, Chavez led thousands of cheering supporters in celebration from the balcony of the Miraflores Presidential Palace and pledged to press ahead with a socialist revolution. He also made a call for national unity and to work together for the welfare and peace of the country.
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China ready for protracted war with Japan
People’s Daily (Beijing)
CHINA and Japan established diplomatic relations 40 years ago and the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries could have been a new start. But current bilateral relations feature decreasing political and economic cooperation, tense diplomacy and blocked non governmental exchanges. The wrong moves of Japan have taken Sino-Japanese relations to the crossroads.
Japan has coveted the Diaoyu Islands for centuries. With China’s rapid development, Japan staged the farce of “islands buying” at the expense of 40 years’ Sino-Japanese friendship. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda posed as a “victim” and made a complaint in the United Nations in an attempt to project Japanese claims over the Diaoyu Islands to the international community.
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Mass protest against Merkel in Athens
KKE
THOUSANDS of protesters flooded the central streets of Athens on Tuesday defying the ban on demonstrations that the European Union and the Greek coalition government of conservatives, social democrats, and the “Democratic Left” tried to impose on working people during the visit of the German chancellor Angela Merkel to Greece.
The All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME) held a massive protest which completely overshadowed stage managed clashes between small groups of provocateurs and the riot police clearly organised by the state apparatus to divert attention away from the demonstration.
PAME leader Yiannis Tasoulas told the crowds that “No barricade and no water cannon can frighten us! The moment when the workers rise up makes them tremble.
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Mural to Bob Doyle unveiled in Dublin
by Mark Moloney
A MURAL dedicated to Irish anti-fascist and IRA Volunteer Bob Doyle was unveiled in Dublin at the weekend as part of events to mark the 21st anniversary of Anti- Fascist Action (AFA) in Ireland.
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Strengthening the class struggle in Europe
by New Worker correspondent
DELEGATIONS from European communist and workers’ parties met in Brussels at the beginning of October to discuss the building of common communist stance towards the bourgeois offensive during the current slump and to develop struggle for the overthrow of capitalism.
Representatives of 36 parties, including the New Communist Party of Britain, took part in the conference held in the European Parliament in the Belgian capital on 1st and 2nd of October.
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Bishops, blacklisting and business
by Rob Gowland
EVER SINCE Jesus chased the money lenders from the Temple, the rich have had an uneasy relationship with Christianity: often cosying up to church hierarchy for their mutual benefit even as their pursuit of profit was being reviled as sinful by theologians and preachers.
They had to wait until the Reformation to find church leaders who could successfully marry the ethics of capitalism to those of Christianity. Once they did that, the modern church was off and running. Even today, however, contradictions between practice and preaching still occur.
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Features
Will Russia be able to weather the tempests and storms?
by Gennady Zyuganov
Chair of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
FOR DECADES western propaganda has been trumpeting that the Soviet Union and its “satellites” were to blame for conflicts in the world and the appearance of trouble spots on the planet’s map. Western politicians and the media brazenly claimed that the USSR was harbouring expansionist plans. Twenty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Has the world become any safer?
What do we see today? The planet is sinking ever deeper into the quagmire of chaos and violence. Acute interstate, social and religious conflicts are flaring up more than ever before. Even in the once prosperous Europe mass protest actions are mounting against the attempts of the bourgeois authorities to make not only the proletariat but the so-called middle class bear the brunt of the deepening crisis caused by the greed of the world oligarchy.
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