Lead story

May’s snoopers’ charter

by Daphne Liddle

HOME Secretary Theresa May launched the rehash of her Investigatory Powers Bill last Tuesday with a few tweaks and concessions to concerns about privacy but with added powers for the police to spy on our electronic communications.

When May published the draft Bill last year it caused such concern amongst MPs on both sides of the House of Commons, and amongst the giant technology companies, that she was told to go away and think again.

Now she has come back with a Bill that is basically legalising in retrospect the mass hacking into everyone’s computer communications which was disclosed by Edwin Snowden, the whistle- blower from the United States’ National Security Agency, who is now living in exile in Russia.

And she is in a hurry to get this through Parliament before the end of the year when the existing mandate for Government mass snooping will expire, and hoping the furore over the European Union referendum will mean it does not get much close scrutiny.

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May’s snoopers’ charter

The world cannot afford Trident

by New Worker correspondent

TENS of thousands of peace protesters packed London’s Trafalgar Square for what Kate Hudson, speaking for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), called “the biggest anti-Trident rally for a generation”.

And this time it was addressed by the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn. He is the first anti-nuclear Labour leader since Michael Foot in 1983.

He received a tumultuous welcome as he came up to the microphone to give the final speech of the rally.

He said: “I don’t want us to replace Trident, everyone knows that, many of the British public don’t want to replace Trident.

“I think we should just consider for a moment what a nuclear weapon actually is. It is a weapon of mass destruction. If ever used, it can only kill large numbers of civilians.

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The world cannot afford Trident

Editorial

EU no friend of the workers

FOR ALL socialist and progressive organisations and individuals the big question regarding the coming referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union has to be what is best for the working class?

All other issues are subsidiary. Whichever way we vote we will still be ruled by an imperialist state with an imperialist currency. Immigration and the refugee crisis, fighting racism, fighting for the NHS, solving the housing crisis, austerity — these battles will still be with us whatever the outcome of the vote.

Our question is what conditions will give the working class the best chance of winning these battles — and then going on to challenge capitalism itself?

Does being a member of the EU give workers mores protection? The evidence says no. Being in the EU did not stop Margaret Thatcher and John Major stripping union rights from workers in Britain. And it is not stopping Cameron from continuing that policy with anti-democratic measures that Franco would have envied.

The truth is that EU economic policy dictated that Britain must close down its coalfields. It gave Thatcher the excuse for her war of attrition against the National Union of Mineworkers which, after a titanic struggle, ended with the biggest set-back that the organised working class in this country ever suffered. Wages have declined ever since leading to soaring levels of working class debt and all the problems that created.

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EU no friend of the workers