National News
Labour members and unions rally round Corbyn
by New Worker correspondent
LABOUR supporters gathered in Parliament Square on Monday evening to denounce a plot by right-wing Labour MPs to try to unseat Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the party.
They stand little chance of succeeding because Corbyn is refusing to resign. This means that in any new leadership contest his name would be on the ballot paper and he would win again, probably with an increased majority.
This comes at a time when the Tory party is deeply split and in disarray, and the Labour Party should be seizing the day and calling for a general election now.
A new poll has put Labour ahead of the Conservatives for the first time since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader. Labour was on 34 per cent, with Tories one point behind on 33 per cent, according to the YouGov poll. UKIP was in third place on 16 per cent, with the LibDems on six per cent, The Daily Mirror reported.
Speakers at Monday’s rally included Paul Mason, Claudia Webb, Mo Azam, Roger McKenzie, Jenny Formby, Angela Rayner MP, Diane Abbott MP, Sam Fairbairn and Nick Dearden.
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UN slams Tory human rights abuses
THE UNITED Nations Human Rights Committee two weeks ago issued a damning report, based on a two-year investigation, on the state of human rights in Britain since David Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010.
In particular the UN used its strongest language to attack the use of benefit sanctions and the cumulative effects of cuts on the most disadvantaged — the disabled, children and asylum seekers.
The criticisms in the report are overarching, and in some cases staggering, covering nearly every area of Government policy. The committee has levels of criticism: “regret”, “concerned” and “seriously or deeply concerned”.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political correspondent
THE MALIGNANT influence of the Scottish National Party (SNP) was clearly seen in the European Referendum (EU) Referendum results. Although the Guardian froths at the mouth in disgust about the horrid, ignorant and bigoted working class from most parts of Britain, from the valleys of South Wales to Grimsby and Tony Blair’s old Sedgemoor constituency in the north of England, strongly voting to inflict a historic defeat on the British establishment and leave the imperialist EU, the situation was very different north of the border.
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Korea is One!
by New Worker correspondent
KOREAN solidarity activists picketed the London embassy of US imperialism last weekend to mark the 66th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. On 25th June 1950 the US imperialists and their south Korean puppets launched an attack on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) that devastated the entire peninsula.
The Americans and their lackeys, flying the false flag of the United Nations, were beaten to a standstill and were forced to sign an armistice in 1953 and to promise to hold free elections in south Korea to lead to the reunification of the country. Sixty six years later the Americans still occupy south Korea, propping up a puppet regime that rejects all DPRK proposals to ease tension on the divided peninsula.
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No Pride in War!
by New Worker correspondent
LAST SATURDAY some marked “Armed Forces Day” with parades and displays glorifying the armed wing of British imperialism. Others, like Veterans for Peace, celebrated the day in their own way in London last weekend. The veterans’ peace movement held a counter-recruitment presence outside Charing Cross station Saturday morning before heading off to join other groups under the banner “No Pride in War” to protest the presence of the Red Arrows and BAe Systems at this year’s Pride in London parade.
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Pride in London
by New Worker correspondent
OVER a million people gathered to watch this year’s London Pride parade last weekend. Stars of Absolutely Fabulous, Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, snipped the ribbon in character to start the 40,000 strong march across central London from Portland Place to Trafalgar Square on Saturday.
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International News
British Army chief visits Bahrain amidst crackdown
by Cem Ertür
THE HEAD of the British Armed Forces has visited Bahrain, in what has been denounced as London’s consent to the Arab kingdom’s recently intensified crackdown on the pro-democracy drive across the Persian Gulf island.
General Sir Nicholas Houghton, Chief of Britain’s Defence Staff (CDS), arrived in Bahrain on Tuesday 21st June, only one day after the Bahraini regime stripped Sheikh Isa Qassim, the country’s top Shia cleric, of his citizenship, accusing him of sowing “sectarianism and violence.”
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Maradona says Argentina on its knees thanks to Macri
by Pavel Jacomino
LEGENDARY soccer star Diego Maradona slammed Argentinian President Mauricio Macri in an interview on the local Canal 5 Noticias, saying the South American country is “on its knees” in the face of neo-liberal economic policies and censorship of the press just half a year into the new conservative government’s mandate.
Maradona told C5N’s Victor Hugo Morales — known for his legendary live commentary of the soccer star’s decisive goal against England in 1986 — that Argentina finds itself in a situation “where everyone wants to go shopping but they can’t.”
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Historic Chinese communist site to reopen
Xinhua
THE SHANGHAI building where the Communist Party of China (CPC) held its first national congress has undergone a major refurbishment and expansion for its reopening on 1st July, the 95th anniversary of the Party’s founding.
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Turks apologise for death of Russian pilot
Sputnik
TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Edogan has said that he “is sorry” for the death of the Russian pilot whose jet was shot down last year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has received a letter from his Turkish counterpart expressing readiness to resolve the bilateral crisis caused by the downing of a Russian combat plane by a Turkish fighter jet last year, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
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War over oil fuels Libya’s migrant crisis
by Abayomi Azikwe
FIGHTING for control of the western coastal city of Sirte, Libya, has increased the flight from the embattled North African state. Five years ago the country was targeted for regime change by the CIA, Pentagon and NATO.
Sirte is the home town of former leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who was assassinated whilst fleeing imperialist bombs in October 2011. Since 2015 the Islamic State group (IS) has controlled the city and other areas across the Mediterranean Sea’s western coast.
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Features
French state escalates attacks on unions
by G Dunkel
THE FRENCH government used tear gas and threatened leaders with “terrorism” charges to try to stop the protests that a coalition of unions and students, led by the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), has been waging vigorously and repeatedly since March to force the government to withdraw its new anti-labour law.
The French state has tried lying. The cops claimed that the last demonstration in Paris on June 14, which involved over 600 buses from all over France, where it took hours for demonstrators to leave the assembly site and march along a wide Parisian boulevard, drew only 75,000 to 80,000 people. A careful analysis of the data at Initiative Communiste indicates that 750,000 to 950,000 people — close to the million estimated by the unions — is the most probable figure.
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Myths about Stalin: Why do they lie about Great Patriotic War?
22ND JUNE marks 75 years since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Today, it is extremely important today to know the truth about how European powers were dividing the world. Pravda.Ru editor-in-chief Inna Novikova talked about the legacy of the Second World War (WWII) with author of The Great Patriotic War — Truth v Myths, rector of the Moscow Humanitarian University, sociologist and historian, Igor Ilyinsky.
“Where do myths about the war come from?”
“Myth-making is necessary for any state. Any myths — political and historical — should be treated with understanding that they are created by sitting governments with a goal to put certain dogmas into people’s minds, especially when it comes to military operations.
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Debunking the lie of Russia’s “Military Base” in Serbiarole in helping Belgrade
Sputnik
A RUSSIAN—Serbian humanitarian centre (RSHC) that has helped the Balkan nation to deal with emergencies, like floods and fires, plans to construct a new training base for volunteer firefighters and rescue teams, Bojan Glamoclija and Vyacheslav Vlasenko, the center’s co-directors, told Sputnik.
Despite the centre’s good track record, some claim that the base at the Ecka airport located in Serbia’s north-east will in fact be a Russian military installation. Glamoclija dismissed these accusations as nonsense.
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