National News
Gove at war with the world
EDUCATION Secretary has been hitting the headlines just about every day this week: proclaiming that state schools must become more like private schools, calling for the testing of four-year-olds, calling for more punishments for schoolchildren, longer school hours and no-notice inspections for schools.
And at the same time he is at war not only with the teaching unions but also the leadership of Ofsted — a row with the Inspector- in-Chief Sir Michael Wilshaw last week and this week sacking Baroness Sally Morgan, the chair of Ofsted, for which he has been accused of purging non-Tories and women from top jobs.
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Police attack anti-fascists in Slough
by New Worker correspondent
POLICE rode their horses straight into a peaceful crowd of anti-fascists in the centre of Slough last Saturday, removing the metal barriers to allow the mounted police into the crowd, in order to allow a march by the Islamophobic English Defence League to pass.
Hundreds of anti-fascists had gathered to support local anti-fascists in trying to prevent the racists marching through their town.
There were calls from Unite Against Fascism, Antifa (the Anti-fascist Network) and local trade unions — Unite, PCS, Usdaw and others — as well as Sikhs Against the EDL to assemble in the middle of the local shopping centre a couple of hours before the EDL were due to stage their march through the town centre.
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We need a pay rise!
MEMBERS of three local government unions — GMB, Unite and Unison — last Tuesday staged a Day of Protest at continuing low pay levels and demanded a £1-an-hour across the board pay rise for all local government workers.
They staged lunch-hour joint union protests outside town halls and civic centres in many towns and cities.
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Chinese workers unite on New Year!
by Adrian Chan-Wyles
LAST WEEKEND saw the annual Chinese New Year celebrations usher in the Year of Horse in and around Gerrard Street, that area of Soho known as London’s Chinatown. In the Chinese lunar calendar the New Year is counted as the 4712th since the rule of the legendary figure known as the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi). Whatever the actual historicity of Chinese civilisation, archaeology confirms that it is ancient.
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Celebrating the achievements of Democratic Korea
by New Worker correspondent
FRIENDS of the Korean revolution met to celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the birth of dear leader Kim Jong Il at London’s Marchmont Centre on Saturday to hear a first-hand report from top DPRK diplomats about the current situation on the Korean peninsula and contributions from Korean solidarity workers who included New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks.
Shaun Pickford welcomed Thae Yong Ho from the DPRK embassy in London who recalled Kim Jong Il’s life in the service of the working people of Democratic Korea. Comrade Thae also talked about the DPRK’s current peace proposals which were also raised in the interview given by Ambassador Hyon Hak Bong on Sky News last week. Comrade Thae said that the US war-games in south Korea were not defensive but aggressive. US imperialism has concentrated its nuclear submarine forces in the region and the Americans have repeatedly tried to blackmail and threaten the DPRK .
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International News
EU, US want to buy Ukraine cheap
by Andrey Fedyashin
AN “ASSAULT force” of European and US diplomats will land in Ukraine this week as part of renewed pressure on Kiev. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton who held talks in Kiev on 29th January came back on Tuesday. The following day US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland landed in the Ukrainian capital. Last December she was handing out buns and biscuits to “democracy fighters” in Maidan.
In the meantime the pro-Maidan faction in the EU is struggling to persuade the EU nations to add a “promised membership” clause to the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. But, as most member states oppose further expansion and the prospect of feeding and nursing poor Eastern relatives, the hope looks pretty bleak.
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Left wins first round in El Salvador poll
by Juan Leandro
IMPROVED health assistance, better education and a higher standard of living for all of the Salvadoran population are included among the main concerns of the ruling government’s Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation in the Central American Republic of El Salvador and this has been its concern of that government for the past four years.
This, without doubt, is the reason why the Salvadoran electorate endorsed the Farabundo Martì Front with just short of 50 per cent of all votes counted after this past Sunday’s general elections.
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Resistance retake areas in southern Libya
by Abayomi Azikiwe
FOR NEARLY seven months in 2011 Nato planes — particularly from the US, France, Britain and Canada — carried out a massive bombing campaign in Libya intended to overthrow the government of Muammar Gaddafi.
After getting the UN Security Council to pass a resolution imposing an arms embargo on Libya and then another authorizing a so-called “no-fly zone” in which only their planes could fly, the imperialists succeeded in having Gaddafi captured and brutally killed, opening the way for the establishment of a new regime that would further their interests in that oil-rich North African country.
Now, just two and a half years later, this puppet government is losing ground in southern and western Libya to pro-Gaddafi forces, who have taken back several towns and an airbase.
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Features
Why the rush to war, Tony Abbott?
by Rob Gowland
ANYONE who paid attention to the utterances or the actions of Tony Abbott’s ultra-conservative Australian government could be forgiven for thinking the country was in imminent danger of being attacked by foreign foes. True, much of the present government’s policies were begun under Labour, continued and extended under John Howard’s ugly conservative government, then after Howard’s ouster continued yet again by Labour. However all that shows is how far the Australian Labour Party has travelled to the right in the last half century or so.
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The communist struggle against the European Union
by Dimitrios Kivotidis
COMMUNIST and workers’ parties from all over Europe, including the New Communist Party of Britain, met in Brussels last October to set up a new liaison committee specifically aimed at co-ordinating workers’ opposition to the European Union.
On the 1st October 2013 in a meeting room of the EU Parliament in Brussels the founding meeting was held of the “Initiative” of communist and workers’ parties in order to study and elaborate European issues and to coordinate their activity.
The Communist position towards the European Union starts with the elementary Marxist thesis that there is one fundamental division within society. One can either be with the working class or with the capitalist class. And there is only one position in relation to this non-negotiable either/or which entails struggle towards an indivisible, classless society. It is the communist position that answers this dilemma without hesitation: with the working class.
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