National News
Concern over Football Lads Alliance
THOUSANDS of men last week marched from Park Lane to Westminster in a protest organised by the Football Lads Alliance (FLA) at “all forms of extremism”, citing a number of terror attacks in Britain this year.
But anti-fascists expressed concern that this large crowd had attracted racists, Islamophobes and fascist thugs among its numbers, and Stand Up to Racism organised a counter protest in Whitehall.
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Government reneges on fire safety funding
LOCAL authorities throughout Britain are complaining that Government Ministers are refusing to fund essential fire safety measures in residential tower blocks that were promised in the wake if the Grenfell fire tragedy last June, which claimed more than 80 lives.
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Increased attacks on mental health staff
THE NUMBER of violent attacks on mental health staff is increasing alarmingly, according to the results of a new survey by the public-sector union UNISON.
Reduced funding to mental health services across Britain is leaving staff vulnerable to violence and aggression from pa
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No energy bill price cap this winter
THERESA May had promised to revive a plan to cap charges on energy bills for an extra 12 million consumers but, according to Ofgem, this cannot happen until legislation is in place before it can take action on standard variable tariffs and this is unlikely to happen before this winter.
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Detention of tortured asylum seekers ruled unlawful
THE HIGH COURT last week ruled that the Home Office practice of putting torture victims in detention whilst their cases are assessed, in spite of doctors submitting evidence of torture and mistreatment, is unlawful.
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Nats at Conference
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
THE party conference season ended with the Official Monster Raving Loony Party holding their conference in Blackpool whilst the Scottish National Party (SNP) had their event in Glasgow.
At Blackpool the Loony delegates, who made a number of interesting policy initiatives such as seeking to make Morris dancing an Olympic sport, were inspired when their leader told them to “Prepare for Government in the year 2525, if man is still alive.”
In her closing speech to the faithful in Glasgow on Tuesday afternoon, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the SNP faithful that they should aim for “10 more years.” Which party leader has the most realistic strategy is open to debate.
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EU Love-in
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
The SNP are still deeply in love with the European Union (EU). Purely to keep her supporters happy, Sturgeon made some mild criticisms of the Spanish police brutality in Catalonia and of the EU’s effective endorsement of it. But she took great care not to offer any actual support for the Catalonian government, simply urging talks, so as not to cause offence to the much more powerful entities of Spain and the European Union. She is happy to let her supporters wander about wearing Catalan flags just so long as they do not get too serious about it.
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When the Blackshirts were stopped in their tracks!
by New Worker correspondent
HUNDREDS of thousands of anti-fascists took to the streets of London’s East End on Sunday 4th October, 1936 to stop Sir Oswald Mosley’s fascist Blackshirts marching through a predominantly Jewish part of London.
Communists played a major part in the mobilisation along with members of the Independent Labour Party and the Jewish Ex-Servicemen’s Association, and their efforts were recalled by British, Italian and Greek communists at a ceremony in London’s historic East End last weekend. London communists joined comrades from Greece and Italy at the Cable Street mural on Saturday to remember the Cable Street fighters and all the anti-fascists who fought in the Second World War for a better world.
NCP leader Andy Brooks and Alfredo Maira from the Communist Party of Italy’s Pietro Secchia (UK) branch paid tribute to the East Enders’ heroic stand against fascism that stopped the Blackshirts in their tracks in 1936.
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Hong Kong films showcased
Xinhua
A Hong Kong film festival opened in Manchester this month to promote the achievements of Hong Kong’s film industry over the last 20 years.
The Creative Visions: Hong Kong Cinema 1997—2017 film festival in Manchester began on 7th October and runs until 26th of the month. The festival, which features Hong Kong films produced during the last 20 years, is organised by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society in partnership with the HOME cultural centre in Manchester and sponsored by Create Hong Kong agency. It forms part of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London’s (London ETO) programme of events to mark the 20th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
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Salute to Korean communists
by New Worker correspondent
COMRADES and friends met to celebrate the 72nd Anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea at a Friends of Korea meeting at the John Buckle Centre in south London on Monday.
Song Gi Kim from the Democratic Korean embassy in London, Michael Chant from the RCPB(ML) and Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association all spoke about the historic role of the Korean communist movement in the liberation struggle against Japanese colonial rule, and the subsequent battles to defeat American imperialism and build the modern socialist republic of today.
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International News
Britain preparing for new Korean war
Sputnik
ANONYMOUS UK naval sources quoted in the mainstream media have suggested military chiefs are preparing for war with north Korea, and have compiled a list of potential war plans should a conflict erupt.
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Morales leads homage to Che
by Pavel Jacomino
THOUSANDS gathered on Monday in the small Bolivian town of Vallegrande to pay tribute to revolutionary leader Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, murdered by CIA-backed forces 50 years ago.
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, who had camped in a tent at the village since the night before, addressed the crowd on Monday. During the ceremony — with the presence of Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdez and the Cuban delegation he headed to Bolivia — Evo Morales pointed to the importance of Che’s thinking in these current times. The Bolivian president called for the defence of internationalism and non-intervention, in the light of threats by powerful nations against the rest of the world.
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World leaders and IAEA reject US claims on Iran nuclear deal
by Pavel Jacomino
THE International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and many world leaders have unanimously thrown their weight behind the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, rejecting US President Donald Trump’s claims that Tehran has violated the “spirit” of the deal.
On Monday IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano once again confirmed that Iran was in compliance with its commitments under the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Amano spoke during the 20th Edoardo Amaldi Conference in Rome.
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Falsifying the memory of the Soviet role in defeating Nazi Germany
by Ekaterina Blinova
ATTEMPTS to rewrite Second World War history started at the very beginning of the war, says Canadian academic Michael Jabara Carley, a professor of history at the Université de Montréal and the author of Silent Conflict: A Hidden History of Early Soviet-Western Relations.
The USA and the European Union (EU) are manipulating facts to silence the role of the USSR in defeating Nazi Germany. Despite these actions, Moscow continues its efforts to build bridges with the West, as it did in the 1930s. The genuine history of the Second World War has fallen prey to numerous falsifications aimed at downplaying and erasing the predominate role of the Red Army in destroying Nazi Germany from people’s memories, says Carley.
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Features
US biological warfare during Korean War
by Erin Fiorini
“YOU MAY rest assured that I stand by every word of The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets of the Early Cold War and Korea” says retired Prof Stephen Endicott about his 1999 book, co-authored by the late Edward Hagerman. The book looks in-depth at the US military’s use and cover-up of banned biological weapons against the Korean and Chinese people during the Korean War of 1950—1953.
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Why anti-Trumpism doesn’t include anti-war
by Ajamu Baraka
LIBERTARIAN US Senator Rand Paul (Republican-Kentucky) declared from the Senate floor last month in anticipation of the vote on the National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2018: “I rise today to oppose unauthorised, undeclared and unconstitutional war...What we have today is basically unlimited war, anywhere, any time, any place upon the globe.”
With these words, Paul became one of the few voices to oppose the obscenity that is known as US war policy. But only two other senators joined him: Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) and Ron Wyden (Democrat-Oregon). But there is a wrinkle here: Paul is not concerned with the size of the military budget. He’s pointing his finger at the continuation of the Authorization to Use Military Force Act (AUMF) of 2001, which was the ‘legal’ basis for the US global “war on terror.” He wants Congress to re-assess this legislation that has prompted endless wars abroad.
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