National News
Students may face rise in loan rates
UNIVERSITY students and former students in Britain are facing a steep rise in the interest rates on their loans as the Government contemplates privatising the entire stock of student loans according to a confidential report leaked last week to the False Economy website.
This would affect around 3.6 million people currently repaying loans taken out the last 15 years. They would face many more years of paying off their student debts at a time when all living costs are rising, wages are falling and jobs are increasingly insecure.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
HMP wing ‘forgotten and neglected’
NICK HARDWICK, the chief inspector of prisons, last week delivered a damning report on conditions at a wing of Lindholme prison in Yorkshire, which he described as “forgotten and neglected” as the prison was restricted in preparation for privatisation. He said it had the worst conditions he had seen for years.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Brighton bin strike
HUNDREDS of striking Refuse, Recycling and Street Cleaning workers last Saturday marched through the streets of Brighton, led by the GMB general secretary, Paul Kenny, to protest against the Green Council’s plans to cut their wages by up to £4000 a head.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Lawyers join striking court staff
LAWYERS in Manchester last week joined court staff in a protest walk-out to add their voice to the campaign against legal aid cuts, according to the civil service union PCS.
Following the recent legal aid protest outside the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) headquarters in London, the Manchester demo highlighted the damage being done to our justice system by Government cuts.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Liverpool Mayor calls on Miliband to fight bedroom tax
JOE ANDERSON, Mayor of the City of Liverpool, last week spoke of his “shame” that Labour Party leadership nationally has not committed to scrapping the hated bedroom tax.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
300,000 more children growing up in absolute poverty
THE OFFICE for National Statistics (ONS) last week issued figures showing that the number of children in Britain growing up in absolute poverty increased by 300,000 between 2011 and 2012.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady commented: “Today’s figures highlight how little progress is being made in tackling child poverty. More than one in four children are now growing up in households below the poverty line.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
British government spies on its allies
THE TURKISH foreign ministry is demanding answers over reports that British security agencies spied on foreign governments G20 meetings in London in 2009.
The reports reveal that Turkey’s delegates had computers monitored and phones tracked.
South Africa condemned the alleged “abuse of privacy” and a senior Russian politician said it was a “scandal”.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Korean Friendship Association charts the way
by New Worker correspondent
ACTIVISTS from the UK Korean Friendship Association gathered in central London last Saturday for its annual general meeting to chart the way forward in developing friendship and solidarity with the Korean people for the coming year.
KFA Official Delegate Dermot Hudson pointed out that the month of June will see a number of major anniversaries in the history of the Korean people, and announced that June is a month of solidarity with the DPRK.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
International News
Russia will not permit a no-fly zone over Syria
RUSSIA will not allow the creation of a no-fly zone over Syria, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich has said. It follows reports of the US making preparations for an air exclusion zone. Meanwhile, the International Red Cross said it had found no hard evidence of the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
“We will not allow this scenario. Such manoeuvres and arguments are a direct consequence of disrespect for international law,” Lukashevich said.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Hassan Rouhani wins presidential election in Iran
by Vladimir Sazhin
HASSAN ROUHANI emerged triumphant on Friday14th June, the day when he won Iran’s scheduled presidential election. Although he was a frontrunner, it was quite a surprise that he had crushingly defeated all of his rivals and snatched the victory in the first round.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Billions in aid to Greece for the rich
by Ed Newman
MORE THAN three-quarters of the billions of euros of aid to Greece went to banks and wealthy capital investors, according to estimates by the anti-globalisation organisation Attac published by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung this week.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Protests in France mark the murder of anti-fascist student
by G Dunkel
CLéMENT Méric, an 18-year-old student at an elite university in Paris and a militant in the Antifascist Action collective (AAPB), was killed on 5th June by a blow from brass knuckles wielded by members of a far right group.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Joint statement in solidarity with the Turkish people
As the protests against the dictatorship of the AKP government enter their third week, police brutality in Istanbul has escalated. The government rejected all just demands of the people and has opened an untitled war against the resistance.
In solidarity with the Turkish people
Fast track for final victory
by Pak Myong Nam
THE MARCH 2013 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea set out a new strategy on pushing the simultaneous build-up of the economy and the nuclear forces.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Features
Russia to create Mediterranean fleet to protect Syria
by Sergei Vasilenko
DURING the Cold War, the Mediterranean was the most important area of strategic struggle between the West and the USSR. Many years have passed, a lot has happened but the importance of the Mediterranean has remained the same. Russia, a successor of the USSR, has lost some of its influence in the region over the years. It appears, though, that the country is not going to sit on its hands watching others taking its place under the Mediterranean sun.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking in front of the military, announced plans to restore the permanent presence of the Russian Federation Fleet in the Mediterranean. Putin believes that such a move is not an act of “sabre rattling”.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Libyan rebels and imperialist court battle over Gaddafi’s son
by Abayomi Azikiwe
A DISAGREEMENT between the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the current Libyan government highlights the crises that have worsened during the post-Gaddafi era in the North African state of Libya. Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of the martyred leader of Libya, has been held nearly for two years by a militia group in Zintan in the western region of the country.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Australia Lies, damned lies, and propaganda
by Rob Gowland
YOU KNOW there’s a federal election in the offing when your local TV channels are full of ads featuring Clive Palmer pimping his United Australia Party (UAP). As if to confirm what a right wing reactionary Palmer is, the UAP was the name of the conservative party in Australia back in the 1930s, before Menzies took it over and changed the name to the equally misleading Liberal Party.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]