National News
RMT anger at plans to close London Overground ticket offices
RAIL UNION RMT last week responded to London Overground ticket office and staffing proposals that included plans to cut ticket offices at London Overground station.
The union’s general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “RMT is deeply concerned about the proposals which in our view could see the elimination of ticket offices across London Overground.
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Two junior doctors left to care for 436 patients
AN ANONYMOUS doctor last week leaked information to the press that just two junior doctors had been left to care for more than 436 patients at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth during a night shift.
The whistle-blower told the press that the situation was a “very unsafe shift from the patient perspective”.
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High Court halts Birmingham redundancies
THE GIANT union Unite last week won a High Court ruling suspending 113 redundancy notifications sent to bin workers by Birmingham City Council last month.
Unite and Birmingham city council had reached an agreement at ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) that saw the retention of the grade three role (a group leader in charge of safety at the back of the bin lorry), with refuse workers moving from a four-day week to a five-day week in return. Instead of honouring the ACAS deal, the council without warning issued redundancy notices to the affected workers.
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Troops on the streets
HUNDREDS of soldiers were deployed across Britain last weekend to free-up 1,000 police officers to deal with the aftermath of the bomb planted on London Underground, which partially exploded on Friday morning at Parsons Green Station in South West London.
The bomb’s detonator went off, causing flash burns and panic on the very crowded commuter train, but the main explosive in the device did not explode.
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Tory voter ID plans could deny voting to 4,000,000
FORMER Tory Cabinet Minister Sir Eric Pickles has drawn up plans to force voters in future elections to show proof of their identity, using documents that around four million of the lowest income people in Britain will not have.
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Unite calls for continued support for Sports Direct workers
THE GIANT union Unite last week called for continuing support for the workers employed by the Sports Direct retail chain at its Shirebrook warehouse in Derbyshire.
The union says that the company has reneged on its promises to clean up its act and treat its workers fairly.
Thousands of warehouse workers are still on temporary agency contracts and only guaranteed 336 hours work per year. Denied the security and dignity of a permanent contract with Sports Direct, many work in fear of losing their job at a moment’s notice.
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On the road with Tommy Sheridan
by our Scottish political correspondent
ON Saturday over 1,500 people took part in a march and rally in Glasgow to demand a second Scottish Independence Referendum. The event was organised by Hope Over Fear, an ‘apolitical’ organisation set up by colourful character and former MSP Tommy Sheridan.
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Falling Down
by our Scottish political correspondent
Controversy has surrounded the cost and organisation of restoration works of the Palace of Westminster, which is showing its age after 160 years of service. Another parliament building showing signs of decay is the Scottish Parliament, which dates as far back as 2004.
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Perth Against Racism
by New Worker correspondent
THE CITY of Perth was once described by a labour historian as the “Sleepy Hollow of the Proletariat”. Whatever the validity of that past claim, it no longer holds. When the Scottish Defence League (SDL) organised a march in Perth on Sunday 10th September to protest against the building of a mosque, the citizens of Scotland’s smallest city resolved to stop the fascists in their tracks and to counter their messages of racial hatred.
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Growing ties with Vietnam
by New Worker correspondent
NCP LEADER Andy Brooks joined politicians, diplomats, journalists and members of the Vietnamese community in London in celebrating Vietnam’s National Day at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington on Tuesday.
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Democratic Korea now a super-power!
by New Worker correspondent
LONDON’S Chadswell Centre in central London once again became the venue for Korean solidarity activists last weekend, for a report-back meeting of a visit to Democratic Korea (DPRK) by a Korean Friendship Association (KFA) delegation and to hear DPRK diplomats talk about the defiant stand of their people’s government in the face of the increasing violent threats of US imperialism and its lackeys.
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International News
Kremlin warns against new escalation in Donbas
Sputnik
The Kremlin has criticised the idea of US arms deliveries to Ukraine, saying that they may lead to a new escalation of the conflict in the Donbas region. Providing Kiev with lethal weapons will not promote the resolution of the Donbas conflict and will escalate tensions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
“Firstly, we have expressed our clear and unambiguous position on this issue that such [a] decision would not promote resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Secondly, on the de-escalation of tensions... We do not know the US position on this issue yet,” Peskov told reporters.
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Cuba demands end of US blockade
by Lena Valverde Jordi
ALTHOUGH rejected by the international community, the US blockade against Cuba remains in force, causing untold damage, a statement by the island’s United Nations (UN) Mission in New York said last week.
The Cuban statement notes that whilst under President Barack Obama, measures were put in place to relax elements of the US economic blockade against Cuba, significant obstacles for their implementation persisted and key restrictions were maintained, as well as the entanglement of laws that keep the blockade in force.
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Jimmy Carter says Trump is failure on world stage
by Ed Newman
FORMER US President Jimmy Carter has warned that money in politics has made the United States more like an “oligarchy than a democracy” and described President Donald Trump’s foreign and domestic policies as a failure.
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Syrian Army beats back terrorist offensive
by R Milhem
SYRIAN Arab Army units, in cooperation with the supporting forces, thwarted infiltration attempts by terrorist groups affiliated to the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organisation on a number of axes in the northern countryside of Hama, a military source said on Tuesday.
The source said that army units had engaged in heavy clashes with the terrorists, inflicting heavy losses upon their ranks.
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Moldovan left leader seeks asylum
Red Star over Donbass
GRIGORY PETRENKO, a former deputy of the Moldovan parliament and leader of the Our Home is Moldova (Red Bloc) party, has left the country and asked for political asylum in Germany. In an article written specifically for NewsMaker.md, he explained the reasons for his decision: “I’m leaving the country I love very much, and never intended to leave.
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Lemonade: the ‘royal’ drink in Soviet days
Pravda.ru
THE HISTORY of the consumption of carbonated water in Russia covers more than 100 years. Soda water used to be a drink for aristocrats, a national drink and even a weapon of geopolitics — a response to Coca-Cola. But where did soda pop come to Russia from?
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Features
The real ‘rogue state’
by Rob Gowland
Continuing our saga as to which country is the real ‘rogue state’. In this instalment, which is by no means exhaustive, we will deal mainly with the 1960s.
NORTH KOREA, which is routinely given the ‘rogue state’ designation by the capitalist media, has never tried to assassinate the leader of another country. The USA, on the other hand, between 1959 and 2000 made over 600 (six hundred!) attempts to assassinate Cuba’s leader, Fidel Castro, using everything from exploding cigars to poison pills hidden in a cold-cream jar.
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Allende’s last stand against US-supported fascism
by John Wight
ON 11th September 1973 Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, perished along with thousands of his supporters after the Chilean military, led by General Augusto Pinochet with the support of Washington, mounted a coup that succeeded in overthrowing his government.
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Former Tibetan shepherd aims to fulfil his Olympic dream
Xinhua
HE USED to be a shepherd boy tending his yaks at the foot of a mountain in Lhasa, Tibet, and Duobujie might have ended up farming like his parents. But running has put his life on a different path.
The 23-year-old Duobujie cemented his place as one of the greatest Tibetan athletes after clocking 28 minutes and 26.86 seconds to win Tibet’s first ‘track and field’ gold from the 10k event at China’s National Games here in Tianjin.
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