National News
Brum Muslims respond to EDL
THE ISLAMOPHOBIC English Defence League (EDL) last week tried to organise a march in Birmingham but found they were upstaged by Birmingham Central Mosque, which organised a “Best of British Tea Party” — with tea, coffee and cakes for all.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
FBU blames cuts for 15 per cent rise in fire deaths
THE FIRE Brigades Union (FBU) has laid responsibility for a 15 per cent increase in fire-related deaths on cuts to the service.
Official figures show that 303 people died in fires during 2015/16, an increase of 15 per cent on the previous year. Response times to all types of serious fires also rose, in some cases by as much as one minute and eight seconds.
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Southern Rail boss doubles salary
CHARLES Horton, the chief executive officer of Southern Rail, last week almost doubled his annual salary from £263,000 to £478,000 in spite of cuts to services and a long-running dispute with the unions RMT and ASLEF over the need to keep guards on trains.
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RMT backs Scots sailors
THE RMT is planning a protest in Aberdeen on 21st April in protest at poverty pay Streamline Shipping’s vessel MV Daroja.
Workers are paid as little as £2.56 per hour on freight routes between Aberdeen and Orkney and Shetland on the Cyprus-flagged ship.
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Refugees consigned to poorest areas
REFUGEES arriving in Britain are five times more likely to be housed in the poorest areas of the country than in better off areas, according to an analysis of official data. This means that the responsibility for housing and providing essential services for these desperate people falls on the most cash-strapped local authorities.
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50,000 disabled have had mobility vehicles taken away
EVERY WEEK 900 disabled people are having their specially adapted vehicles removed following assessments for Personal Independence Payments (PIPs), according to the charity Muscular Dystrophy UK.
So far around 51,000 people have lost their vehicles since PIP was launched in 2013. But 3,000 have had them restored after appealing against the decision.
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Housing associations’ shoddy building programmes
HOUSING associations, which have built more than 175,000 homes, have been accused of serial neglect of their residents and properties.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
ACCORDING to the BBC Scottish News on Tuesday, the most important political event in Scotland this week is the announcement that the first “Holyrood Dog of the Year” contest to select the best dog owned by members of the Sottish Parliament is to be launched by the Kennel Club and the Dogs Trust.
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Solidarity with the People of Odessa!
by New Worker correspondent
NCP LEADER Andy Brooks and Gerry Downing from Socialist Fight delivered a protest letter to the Ukrainian embassy in London on Monday. The letter, on behalf of the US-based Odessa Solidarity Campaign, called on the Ukrainian government immediately to free all political prisoners and end the repression of anti-fascists in Odessa.
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A Spring Seminar at the Centre
by New Worker correspondent
COMRADES spent last weekend looking at contemporary issues at the New Communist Party’s national weekend school at the Party Centre in London. Comrades from London, Southampton, Bristol, Llandudno and East Kilbride discussed the Juche idea, imperialism, and the role of bourgeois historians in three sessions chaired by Alex Kempshall and opened by Andy Brooks, Dermot Hudson and Ray Jones.
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London train to China departs
MA HUI from the Chinese embassy addressed the departure ceremony of the first freight train from London to Yiwu, China on Monday. Ms Liang Liming, Vice Governor of Zhejiang Province and her delegation, and Rupert Soames, Prime Minister’s Business Ambassador for Infrastructure and Transport, joined Members of Parliament and local government officials, as well as over 200 representatives from business and media circles, at the ceremony at DP World London Gateway.
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International News
North Korea warns of nuclear war
Telesur
THE DEMOCRATIC People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has given a stern warning to Washington amidst rising tension between the two states and aggressive posturing from the Trump administration.
On the back of the deployment of a navy strike group by the United States to the region and rising tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, north Korean state media on Tuesday warned of a nuclear attack on the USA if the government feels threatened.
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Has the deep state got to Trump?
by Nenad Zoric
SERBIAN historian and political scientist Sasa Adamovic says Senator John McCain is more than just a US senator: He’s the ‘secretary of state of the US deep state’. The question now on many people’s minds is: has he finally gotten to Trump?
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China upgrades anti-corruption fight
People’s Daily (Beijing)
CHINA’S top insurance regulator was put under investigation Sunday as the country steps up efforts to curb corruption in the financial sector.
Xiang Junbo, chair of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), was being investigated for suspected serious violation of the Party’s code of conduct, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
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Remembering Vilma Espín
by Eduardo Palomares Calderón
Vilma Lucila Espín Guillois was born on 7th April 1930. Vilma was a Cuban revolutionary, feminist and chemical engineer. She played a leading role in the Cuban revolution and married Raúl Castro, the current Cuban President, soon after the victory of the Cuban people. She died on 18th June 2007. Colonel Alberto Vázquez a combatant in the clandestine struggle, the Rebel Army, and a founder of the Frank País Second Front, speaks about his memories of the Cuban heroine on the 87th anniversary of her birth.
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Features
Trump: Murderer and Terrorist
by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
DONALD TRUMP has become a terrorist and a murderer. A cold-blooded, po-faced assassin of the worst kind. The US missile attack was an act of international terrorism placing Washington at the heart of the spider’s web of rogue nations. This barbaric act of sheer evil proves once and for all that the USA is a criminal state.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Stop US war against Syria!
Statement of the Workers World Party (US)
THE US administration reversed its position on Syria on 5th April, implying it would expand US intervention. On 6th April Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said there was “no role” for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, thus threatening a major war in the region.
[Read the full statement here Stop US war against Syria!]
Russian communists on the St Petersburg metro attack
Statement of the Russian Communist Workers’ Party (RKRP)
ON 3RD April in St Petersburg, there was an explosion at a Metro station. At least 10 people were killed and several dozen wounded. For several hours, the Metro was closed and traffic in the city was paralysed. Virtually no one doubts that this was a terrorist act, not only from the nature of the explosion but because at the time Putin was holding a meeting in St Petersburg with his social movement — the Russian Popular Front.
[Read the full statement here Russian communists on the St Petersburg metro attack ]
