National News
Festive Pay Rises!
by New Worker correspondent
TWO OF the major aspects of the festive season are eating vast quantities of poultry and, for the well-heeled, flying off to sunnier climes. Two groups of workers involved in these activities have just won healthy pay rises.
Workers at the West Midlands poultry producer Two Sisters have won a 9.3 per cent two-year pay deal that includes a 4.6 per cent increase back-dated to April 2018, with a further 4.7 per cent increase to come in to effect in April 2019.
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The SpyCop who infiltrated Palestinian solidarity group
Sputnik
The Undercover Policing Inquiry, established in 2015 by then-Home Secretary Theresa May after a series of revelations about abuses by undercover state spies, has now revealed the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was one of the groups in operatives’ cross-hairs.
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Posties’ Pensions
by New Worker correspondent
LAST Friday, about 200 Isle of Man postal workers walked out on strike for the second time. On a visit to join an island picket line Terry Pullinger, Communication Workers Union (CWU) deputy general secretary, said that his members were “rock-solid once again all across the island”. He attacked the Manx Treasury Minister and the Post Office Chair yesterday, whom he claimed had only “made matters worse” despite being invited to talks”.
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School Library Jobs
by New Worker correspondent
PLANS BY Scottish Borders Council local authority school libraries to remove professional librarians from school libraries have run into strong opposition from local government union Unison and the local communities. The area’s Public Service Branch Unison has visited every high school across the Borders to drum up support against the council plans to remove paid library staff.
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Tax(workers) Cuts
by New Worker correspondent
PUBLIC service union PCS has won a struggle to keep the Peterlee, County Durham HMRC open for another two years, despite threats of closure as a result of the government’s centralisation programme. Peterlee is now expected to be kept open until 2022—23 when it was expected to originally close 2020—21, but the nearby Stockton office will close next year.
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Asylum seekers forced to live in squalor
Xinhua
VULNERABLE asylum seekers in Britain, including pregnant women, torture survivors and individuals suffering from traumatic stress, are being housed in badly maintained, damp and vermin infested properties, a government report said on Monday.
A Parliamentary committee said the Home Office needs to show greater urgency about the degrading conditions in which vulnerable people, including small children, are being housed.
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Budget for Business
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
THE ANNUAL Scottish Budget was presented last week by finance Secretary Derek Mackay but nobody, including the MSPs listening to it, paid it the slightest bit of attention because it coincided with Theresa May fighting off the challenge from the revolting Tory MPs.
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Red Flag to Red Benches
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
Labour’s parliamentary representatives at Holyrood and the House of Commons have often featured on these pages. It is now time however, to remedy our neglect of another group of labour parliamentarians: that of Scottish Labour peers.
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No place to live
by New Worker correspondent
AS PROPERTY expert Zoopla has declared Bristol as the second most expensive area to buy a property in the UK, Bristol Trades Union Council (Bristol TUC) were out in the pouring rain last Saturday to raise awareness about the area’s housing crisis and to campaign for secure and affordable housing for everyone.
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Camden wardens walkout
by New Worker correspondent
STRIKING TRAFfiC wardens marched to Camden Town tube station over the weekend as part of a fortnight of industrial action for higher pay in the north London borough. The traffic wardens work for NSL, the company that runs Camden’s parking enforcement services. NSL pays its company directors over £250 per hour but is refusing to pay the traffic wardens the £11.15 per hour that their union, Unison, has been fighting for over the last few months. The wardens are currently on £10 per hour, which is 20p less than the ‘London Living Wage’.
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Playing the ‘Islamic’ card — imperialism’s dangerous game in the Middle East
Reviewed by Ben Soton
Secret Affairs Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam by Mark Curtis. Updated Profile Books edition, 2018. Published by Serpent’s Tail. Paperback 554pp. £10.99.
ISBN-10 1788160223; ISBN-13: 978-1788160223
IN Secret Affairs Mark Curtis gives an insight into the shadowy relationship between British imperialism and what he calls ‘Radical Islam’. Radical Islam is itself a point of contention; the term Radical is usually associated with socially progressive movements of the left. The movements described in this book are anything but progressive. Based on older interpretations of Islam, they uphold reactionary social systems and oppose social change.
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Travels in the land of Juche
Reviewed by John Marchant
Travels In The Land of Juche Korea, 1992—2017 by Dermot Hudson, 2018. Paperback, 93pp.
THE NAME of Dermot Hudson is familiar to both friends and foes of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), because Dermot is the foremost friend of the Korean people and the leading advocate of the Juche Idea in Britain.
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International News
Palestinian anger at West Bank demolition
by Pavel Jacomino
ISRAELI forces have demolished the home of a Palestinian who was killed by the Israeli military last week after he allegedly killed two Israelis in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank some two months ago.
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‘Yellow Vests’ torch toll booths
Sputnik
FRENCH protesters, commonly referred to as ‘yellow vests’, have occupied motorways in France, attacking radar speed monitors and setting fire to toll booths, sparking chaos in the country’s transport system just days before the Christmas holidays. The damage has cost the road operator tens of millions of euros already.
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China’s 40 years of progress
by Yang Yi
AS CHINA celebrated the 40th anniversary of its reform and opening-up policy on Tuesday, the achievements it has made over the last four decades were hailed as a miracle. Experts said that China’s reform and opening-up not only is a milestone in the country’s history but also holds global significance.
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Sean Garland 1934—2018
WPI
“IT IS with deep sadness and regret that the Workers Party announces the death of Sean Garland, a life-long comrade, a member of the Party’s Central Executive Committee and one of the people who most influenced and shaped the Workers Party over many decades.” Workers Party President Michael Donnelly paid tribute to Mr Garland, who died on 13th December, saying that he was “a unique and charismatic individual whose contribution to Irish political life cannot be overestimated”.
[Read the complete obituary Death of Comrade Sean Garland]
Lennon tribute in Hanoi
VNS
HE is regarded as one of the greatest singer/song writers of all time. And last week tributes were paid to John Lennon, former lead singer of the Beatles, in the capital of Vietnam. It is 50 years since the release of the White Album, a work many argue is the Beatles at their best. To mark this iconic occasion in music history, a concert was held in Hanoi’s Bar +84 last week.
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Features
The Bush family dynasty
by Stephen Lendman
WORLD headlines announced the passing of GHW Bush last month at the age of 94, eulogising him and ignoring the disturbing Bush family legacy.
It’s not pretty. It goes back over four generations — during and after the first World War, closely connected to Wall Street and America’s military, industrial, security complex.
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Cyprus: End the occupation end the division!
by Dorothy Costa
THE 1974 invasion and occupation by Turkey’s military of almost 40 per cent of Cyprus followed the failed military coup organised by far-right Cypriot nationalists supported by the (1967—1974) military junta of Greece. The idea of the super patriotic nationalist group — Eoka B — was to force a union of Cyprus with Greece by overthrowing the popular, non-aligned, President Makarios.
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Turkey: Erdoğan and GÜlen — bitter enemies were both CIA assets
In Defence of Communism
FETHULLAH GÜLEN, the Islamic preacher and businessman who resides in Pennsylvania, USA, is today regarded as the number one enemy of Tayyip Erdoğan’s AKP government, which has repeatedly asked for his extradition to Turkey.
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