National News
Anti-fascists protest outside alt-right gallery
by New Worker correspondent
AROUND 200 anti-fascists braved seriously cold weather last Saturday to assemble outside an art gallery in Dalston, north London, after the LD50 gallery hosted and promoted racist meetings and other events.
The protest was organised by the Shut Down LD50 campaign, who said: “The gallery has recently curated one of the most extensive programmes of racist hate speech to take place in London in the last decade.
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Half a million NHS documents not delivered
AN NHS private company, NHS Shared Business Services, sent around half a million documents into long-term storage instead of delivering them to patients and GPs because of an administrative mix-up.
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Picturehouse workers strike over poverty pay
WORKERS at four Picturehouse cinemas staged a second 24-hour strike last Saturday in support of their campaign for the London Living Wage. Screenings at Brixton’s Ritzy and the Hackney, Central and Crouch End Picturehouses were all affected.
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Council cancels LGBT event because of EDL clash
ROTHERHAM council last week opted to boot out a town hall event organised for 25th February by the local Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) group to celebrate LGBT History month because the Islamophobic English Defence League (EDL) had announced a rally outside the town hall.
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Merseyside RMT vote to fight to keep guards on trains
MEMBERS of the RMT rail union employed by Merseyrail last week voted overwhelmingly for both strike action and action short of a strike after the train-operating company refused to give cast iron assurances around the future of the safety critical role of the guard.
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Keeping the Sabbath
by our Scottish political correspondent
In the Western Isles, councillors have sternly rejected an £11,400 offer to fund the opening of a leisure centre and swimming pool on the Isle of Lewis on Sundays.
Local campaign group Families into Sports for Health (FiSH), who raised the money for a trial opening of three hours on Sundays, said they would fight on, claiming: “Over 1,500 families in the Western Isles will be disappointed at this response.”
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A national Holocaust memorial for London
Xinhua
WORLD architects vying to build a national Holocaust memorial are displaying their designs in London this week.
A public exhibition of the designs for a national Holocaust memorial close to the Houses of Parliament are now on show in Westminster. From a huge misshaped rock resembling a meteorite, to contemplative gardens, ten short-listed design teams are bidding to win the go-ahead to build what will be one of the most important pieces of art work in the British capital for a generation.
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International News
Russia and China veto Syria sanctions at UN
Sputnik
RUSSIA and China used their veto powers to block a UN Security Council draft resolution to impose sanctions on Syria over the government’s alleged use of chemical weapons, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) and acting Security Council president Volodymyr Yelchenko announced on Tuesday.
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All for One and None for All: French Left unites in hostility to Moscow
Sputnik
THE TWO leading French political parties in favour of maintaining and toughening anti-Russian policy, the Socialists and the Greens, have announced a merger of their programmes and the nomination of a single candidate for April’s presidential elections.
French Socialist Party candidate Benoit Hamon and Green Party leader Yannick Jadot reached an agreement on a joint candidacy on 23rd February, with Jadot giving up his election bid and endorsing Hamon; three days later, Green Party voters confirmed their party’s support via e-voting. In his own party, Hamon is seen as a representative of the left-wing and green side of the Socialist Party.
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Healing our sick planet: a must
by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
THE HUMAN being is the only species totally out of sync with the planet we inhabit. Apart from wantonly destroying other species we cohabit with in our ecosystem, we pollute the air, the land and the sea. By 2050 it is possible that our oceans will contain more plastic than fish. Time for action — and that starts with awareness. The problem before us is vast.
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Can Romanians turn protests against corruption into a struggle against imperialism?
by Carl Lewis
BEGINNING on 1st February, almost half-a-million protesters gathered in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, to protest a decriminalisation decree that would basically “forgive and forget” any present or future punishment for stealing funds or otherwise punish corrupt civil servants. The government, headed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), stated the reason for the decree was that it “was needed to relieve overcrowding in Romanian prisons.” But the protests could be a double-edged sword for the Romanian working class.
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Vietnam’s first ever concert by a British orchestra
VNS
THE world-famous London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) will visit Hanoi and present an outdoor concert this weekend.
The first ever concert by a British orchestra in Vietnam is being held as part of the annual Vietnam Airlines Classic this Saturday. The event, held by the national carrier, aims to bring world-class cultural and artistic performances to local audiences, as well as promote cultural exchange between Vietnam and other parts of the world.
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Prudential to grant scholarships in Laos
by Phetsamone Phommuny
THE Prudential Life Assurance (Lao) Company has agreed to grant scholarships on assurance mathematics to students of the National University of Laos and the Banking Institute of Laos.
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Features
Libya: Everything Muammar predicted is coming to pass
Sputnik
Last week marked the sixth anniversary of the start of the civil unrest referred to in Western countries as the “Libyan Revolution”, which culminated in the murder of Muammar Gaddafi and the destruction of Libyan statehood. Speaking to RIA Novosti, Gaddafi’s cousin Ahmed Gaddaf al-Dam discussed the situation in Libya and who was responsible.
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Turkey at a crossroads in Syria
Sputnik
LAST WEEK, Turkish media reported that Turkish forces backed by Syrian opposition forces had fully liberated the city of al-Bab, the last ISIS stronghold in northern Syria. At the same time, the Turkish General Staff could not confirm the reports, with the country’s Defence Ministry saying that the military operation was still under way.
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Trump’s bad news for Palestinians
by Rob Gowland
RIGHT-WING Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Australia is an expression of support from our right-wing Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull and his entire cabinet. Netanyahu comes here fresh from visiting right-wing US President Donald Trump where (not surprisingly) their views were singularly in agreement. Israel’s colonisation of the remaining parts of Palestine would clearly be OK with the new US administration.
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