Lead story

Tory’s war on working class

by Daphne Liddle

THE TORY party annual conference last week in Birmingham was a sustained attack on working class people with promises of continuing caps on wages and on benefits, threats to pensioners’ benefits and to raise the retirement age to 70 and threats to gag “non-violent extremists” who may want to protest against it all.

Low wages are a major factor in Osborne’s failure to tackle the budget deficit as people on low wages pay little income tax, nor can they support the economy by spending.

Benefits paid to those of working age will be capped for three years. Allowing for inflation this means a steady reduction in income for people who are already relying on food banks to feed their children. Public sector wages will also be capped, again.

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MPs vote to bomb Iraq — again!

by New Worker correspondent

THE HOUSE of Commons voted overwhelmingly last Friday for Britain to join with the United Sates in bombing Iraq, ostensibly to combat the extreme and brutal “psychopathic terrorists” of the militant Islamic group ISIS.

Only 43 MPs opposed the motion; 24 of them were Labour.

David Cameron told the House he could not “walk on by” in the face of the ISIS threat — though ISIS is one of the opposition groups in Syria created, armed and trained by western powers to undermine the Assad government.

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Editorial

Vote Labour

TWO WEEKS ago Ed Miliband at the Labour Party conference made a weak presentation — promising to raise the minimum wage to £8-an-hour — by 2020, rise of just 25p every year. He forgot to mention the budget deficit in his speech because he was showing off that he did not need a written speech and the ageing John Prescott make a silly racist joke at the expense of Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna. It was not inspiring stuff that would bring Labour supporters flocking to the polls.

This week on the other hand the Tory party conference gave us many compelling reasons to come out in our millions and support Labour at the coming general election.

For a start Chancellor George Osborne declared his intention to freeze all benefits to people of working age for three years at least — that means child benefits, housing benefit, tax credits, job seekers allowance and benefits paid to the sick and disabled — while living costs continue to rise, especially housing, domestic fuel and transport. And there is no prospect of these benefits ever recovering their value of five years ago no matter how prosperous the ruling class makes itself.

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Red Salute to Eric Trevett

In Memoriam Eric Trevett 1931-2014

FRIENDS and comrades said farewell to Eric Trevett at his funeral in Crawley last week, which celebrated his long and active life dedicated to the struggle for peace and socialism.

New Communist Party general secretary Andy Brooks, Alex Kempshall, Daphne Liddle and many other leading members of the Party, along with comrades from the RCPB (ML) and the Workers Party of Korea paid tribute to the memory of one of the founders of the New Communist Party of Britain who led the Party during the turbulent times of the 1980s and 90s and continued, as the Party President, to fight for the cause until his last breath.

Andy Brooks spoke of Eric’s immense contribution to the communist movement in Britain and towards building the NCP. “Eric was a teacher, a guide, a friend and a comrade. He led by example. No task was too big or too small for Eric who was always ready to help comrades in their day-to-day struggles and encourage them in their efforts to advance the communist cause within the labour and peace movement.

[ Red Salute to Eric Trevett ]