National News
Raising children’s expectations
LOW EXPECTATIONS, not just poverty, can hold back many working class schoolchildren according to a new report published last week by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The relationship between education and poverty is complex. Children from poor backgrounds do, on average, get significantly worse results than those from richer ones but those averages hide huge variations across ethnic, gender and geographical lines.
At the extreme, 28 per cent of White British boys on free school meals achieve five good GCSEs with English and maths, compared to 66 per cent of Indian girls on free school meals.
And these variations are not static — scores for poorer Bangladeshi students, for example, have increased twice as fast as those from White British backgrounds over the past 10 years.
Perhaps the most notable change has been a geographical one: 15 years ago pupils in London did much worse than the national average. Now they do much better. In some London boroughs, young people on free school meals get better GCSE scores than the national average for all children and are significantly more likely to go to university than wealthier peers in other parts of the country.
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Boycott Workfare week of action: 4th to 12th October 2014
CAMPAIGNERS against workfare — where unemployed people are forced to work for nothing or face having their benefits sanctioned — have organised a Boycott Workfare Week of Action next week.
They are calling on supporters to tell the companies and charities who are profiting from this exploitative regime what you think of their involvement!
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Tens of thousands join London climate change march
by New Worker correspondent
THERE were massive climate change marches in cities all around the world last Sunday and the one in London was so big it took around an-hour and- a-half, marching 10 to 15 abreast, to pass under Blackfriars Bridge as it passed from the embankment at Temple towards Westminster.
It was a very colourful march, with hundreds wearing elaborate animal costumes and many children involved, along with many bands and drummers all to deliver the vital message that our society has to make urgent drastic changes to the way we use energy to avoid catastrophic climate change that could devastate life on the planet.
And that message was aimed at a United Nations summit on climate change scheduled to begin on Tuesday. More than 120 world leaders including David Cameron and US president Barack Obama are expected to attend.
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Don’t bomb Syria
THE STOP the War campaign this Thursday organised an emergency demonstration opposite Downing Street to protest at the American bombing of parts of Syria.
The United States claims it is targeting ISIS Islamic extremists — who they not long ago trained and armed to try to bring down President Assad of Syria. But there have been considerable civilian casualties including children.
David Cameron is planning to recall parliament on Friday to push through a vote for the UK to join the US in bombing Isis in Iraq and possibly Syria.
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TfL chief predicts a riot
LONDON’S transport commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy, says there could be social unrest if low-paid workers now living on city outskirts cannot easily commute as public transport in the capital continues to become more expensive and more overcrowded.
He warned that London could see riots again unless more trains and buses are provided at affordable fares for the poorest communities as the population soars.
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Liverpool bans driver only trains
THE TRANSPORT union RMT has welcomed a move by Liverpool City Council to do what it can to ensure conductors remain on trains serving the city.
The Government says bidders for the Northern Rail and Trans-Pennine Express contracts must introduce driver-only trains — a move opposed by the RMT, and now by the city council, whose chief executive is to write to the LEP, all Merseyside MPs and the Chief Executive and Chair of Merseytravel to express its position on maintaining guards on trains for safety purposes.
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Newcastle councillor beaten by Israeli troops in West Bank
A NEWCASTLE-upon- Tyne Labour councillor on a peace trip to Palestine was arrested by Israel Defence Forces and says he was handcuffed, blindfolded, hit with guns and denied food and water as he languished in custody in the baking heat.
Dipu Ahad also claimed soldiers kicked him on an injured ankle and took “selfies” of themselves with him despite his distress.
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Reinstate Charlotte Monro
by New Worker correspondent
HEALTH service campaigners turned out en masse at an Employment Tribunal (ET) in support of Charlotte Monro, the victimised Unison activist who was sacked on a trumped up charge last year.
Charlotte Monro, a Unison rep at a Leytonstone hospital, was dismissed in 2013 after 26 years of service. The occupational therapist was dismissed after Barts Health Trust claimed it discovered an undisclosed convictions relating to protests in 1960s and 70s.
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Ukraine anti-fascist solidarity in Bristol
Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine picketed the BBC in Bristol last Monday evening to protest at and to counter the miss-information being broadcast by the British media regarding the situation in Ukraine.
Paul Williams a leading activist in Bristol Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (BUAFS) told the New Worker:
“With the western media in full cry against both the anti-fascist resistance in Ukraine and the Russian Federation been picketing the BBC every week since the beginning of July to protest against the BBC’s biased coverage, to denounce the illegal junta which has seized power in Kiev and to support the resistance mounted by the communities in the south and east of Ukraine.”
The picket organised by BUAFS is supported by the Bristol Unite Community Branch, South Bristol Workers Forum, NCP, CPGB (ML), and supporters of the Morning Star.
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Swastikas at EDL Whitehall march
by New Worker correspondent
NEO-NAZI veterans were welcomed as they joined a march by the Islamophobic English Defence League in Westminster last Saturday. One notorious Nazi, Eddie Stampton, was brandishing a red flag carrying a version of the swastika surrounded by the words: “Englisc (sic) We fear no foe”.
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International News
South Korean Army: hotbed of human rights abuse
by Chae Hyang Ok
HUMAN rights violations in the south Korean army are now being regularly reported. The military has come under fire since after a conscript in a frontline unit was killed by his sergeant and other soldiers. It is trying in vain to appease public anger by punishing the four chief criminals and accomplices responsible for the murder. But there is a chain of human rights abuses running throughout the south Korean military and it is getting worse all the time.
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Cuban brigade stands with Africa against Ebola
Prensa Latina
CUBA is sending a brigade to Africa to fight Ebola, continuing the solidarity that the island has given to many countries around the world during 55 years of Revolution. Cuban Minister of Public Health, Roberto Morales said the humanitarian mission was in response to the request of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations for international help in dealing with haemorrhagic fever.
Cuba is sending 165 health workers to Africa. The team includes 62 doctors and 103 nurses with over 15 years of professional experience who have worked in countries affected by natural disasters and health crises. It includes specialists in epidemiology, intensive care, infectious disease and primary care, as well as graduates in nursing and health promotion.
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Time to Unite
by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
AS THE United Nations General Assembly begins its 69th session; as the world looks beyond the Millennium Development Goals of 2015 and sets about laying the foundations for lasting sustainable development; as we discover that we need one billion dollars to combat the spread of the Ebola virus, we have an unnecessary polarisation of East and West. Does it make sense?
Many were those, myself included, who at the turn of the century and the beginning of the Third Millennium, had high hopes for a fresh start, a reset, as the world came together to discuss serious issues around the theme of environmental measures and packages to implement sustainable development.
The Millennium Development Goals were drawn up at the Millennium Summit at the United Nations building in New York in September 2000.
The international community set eight goals with clear targets to be reached by the year 2015, aiming at:
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Features
Outsourcing lies and propaganda
by Rob Gowland
OUTSOURCING, which has plagued the Australian clothing industry (amongst others), is all the rage with capitalists everywhere. They detest state enterprises because they make no money from them. They assiduously push instead the idea that somehow it is better for a country’s economy if private enterprise (which seeks to make a profit) takes over the provision of services and facilities instead of the government (which doesn’t).
In the USA, observers have been startled by the revelation that the country’s Special Operations Command is outsourcing many of its most sensitive activities, including its clandestine counter-terrorism and other overseas operations.
Integrating for-profit corporations with the Pentagon’s global military and surveillance apparatus is producing billions of dollars in profitable rewards for those corporations lucky enough to score one of these Special Ops contracts.
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Banks cause Detroit water crisis
by Kris Hamel
THE CITY of Detroit, under a right-wing, state-appointed “emergency manager” who has plunged the city into the largest municipal bankruptcy in United States history, has been on a vicious campaign since March to turn off the water of residential customers who, the city claims, owe more than $150 on their water bills.
These mass shutoffs brought national and international notoriety to the city. It wasn’t until July, when an activist with the Moratorium NOW! Coalition testified in court, that the issue was brought into the city’s bankruptcy case.
It has recently been uncovered that the vast majority of the $42.1 million in unpaid residential bills are a result of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s (DWSD) negligence in allowing water to keep running in homes that have been abandoned due to foreclosure.
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The alliance between takfiri terrorists and Zionism
Syria Times
FROM THE very beginning of the crisis in Syria, the strong relations between the sectarian Muslim terrorist organisations operating in Syria and Israel were crystal clear, because Israel is the main beneficiary of this crisis.
These relations were manifested in the unlimited support offered by the Zionist entity to the armed terrorist groups, especially the sophisticated weapons confiscated by the Syrian Arab Army units when they targeted terrorist dens and gatherings. The Israeli regime has been among the major supporters of the takfiri terrorist groups operating against the Syrian people since March 2011.
Injured terrorists continue to find the doors of Israeli hospitals wide open for them to receive treatment. A new terrorist was admitted in Poria Hospital in Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, two weeks ago. About 95 injured terrorists have so far been treated at this hospital. The Israeli occupation authorities have hospitalised hundreds of terrorists wounded during fighting against the Syrian army.
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