National News
The Skripal Saga: another extraordinary coincidence
Sputnik
ABIGAIL, the teenager who rushed to help Sergei Skripal after he collapsed, turns out to be the daughter of a senior Army officer. The 16-year-old who came to the Salisbury shopping mall to celebrate her brother’s birthday together with her mother, Colonel Alison McCourt, said that she had seen a man, who was later identified as Sergei Skripal, collapse on a bench, and wasted no time in applying her first aid skills that she had learnt at school.
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Hillsborough police chief denies manslaughter charge
Sputnik
IN APRIL 1989 over-crowding at an FA Cup semi-final match in Sheffield led to the deaths of 95 Liverpool fans. In the 1980s FA Cup semi-finals were played at neutral venues and the home of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club was chosen because it was halfway between Liverpool and Nottingham.
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Union victories over pay
by New Worker
correspondent
OUTSOURCED facilities workers at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Hospital have won a pay rise, backdated to last April. They are employed by Sodexo, who have not implemented the NHS Pay Framework Agreement agreed nationally last summer
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More job losses on the horizon
by New Workercorrespondent
UNITE THE UNION is blaming the ‘Yellow Peril’ for the loss of 312 jobs at Cooper Tires in the town of Melksham in Wiltshire, where it is the largest employer. The American owned factory manufactures tyres for cars, motorbikes and racing cars, but will be stopping production of light vehicle tyre production.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political correspondent
NHS Failings
TWO people have died at the new £842 million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow as a result of Cryptococcus} fungal infection, which come from pigeon droppings.
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Equal Pay
Last week a final (sort-of) agreement was reached to resolve the equal pay dispute at Glasgow City council when the SNP-run council caved in after
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SNP at War
On the surface the ongoing war between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon war appears to be entering a ‘phony war’, but the warring parties are merely becoming more discreet because they are worried about the electoral effects of doing the laundry in public.
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People’s Assembly action in Bristol
by New Worker correspondent
TRADE UNIONISTS, Labour Party members, communists and supporters held a rally in central Bristol last Saturday organised by Bristol People’s Assembly.
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For peace and socialism in Essex
by New Worker
correspondent
THE ROTTEN capitalist system is based upon life-long exploitation of the majority by a wealthy elite who live a life of luxury and privilege. Following a decade of austerity that has seen cuts to wages, benefits and all public
services, many people are starting to suffer real hardship.
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Another Scottish play FILM REVIEW
by New Worker Cinema correspondent
Mary Queen of Scots (2018). Starring: Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan. Director: Josie Rourke. 124mins, Rating 15, General Release.
THERE ARE two occasions in this country’s past when I would have happily banged on the door of an army recruitment office. One is the Second World War against fascism; the other is 1588 when England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. The decision by Philip of Spain to launch the Armada was a result of the failure of English Catholics to replace Elizabeth I with her Catholic cousin, Mary Queen of Scots.
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REVIEW
Battling
Hillbillies
by Ray Jones
Hillbilly Elegy — a memoir of a family and culture in crisis by JD Vance (2016). William Collins, paperback, 264pp. ISBN: 879-0-00-822056-3, £9.99.
JD VANCE is still in his 30s, a Yale Law School graduate, a venture capitalist and a self-confessed conservative Republican in the USA. So why should his story be of interest to us? Because, as he says, he “grew up poor” in the Rust Belt in an Ohio steel town from a family that has its roots in the south eastern Kentucky coal country.
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International News
Swedish ‘Left Party’ paves the way for reaction
Communist Party of Sweden
THE Communist Party of Sweden (SKP) has denounced the role of the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) in the formation of the new Swedish government.
Left Party leader Jonas SjÖstedt says that his MPs will abstain in the vote for prime minister. By abstaining, the party guarantees the survival of the government of Stefan LÖfven and the Social Democrats. The Social Democrats have, together with the Liberals, the Centre Party and the Greens, agreed on an aggressive programme that will mean harsh attacks against the working people of Sweden. The abstention of the Left Party is crucial in allowing the programme to go through in parliament
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26 billionaires own as much as world’s 3.8 billion poorest people
by Pavel Jacomino Radio Havana Cuba
WITH Wall Street titans, tech moguls, and other members of the global financial and political elite set to gather in Davos, Switzerland this week for the annual World Economic Forum, a new report reveals that the planet’s richest people saw their fortunes soar by $2.5 billion per day last year as the world’s poorest lost wealth.
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Fuel price protests rock Zimbabwe
by Sofya Grebenkina Sputnik
ZIMBABWE, where fuel price hike protests continue, is going through the “necessary austerity” at the moment but it will achieve “beautiful” prosperity in the future, says Mthuli Ncube, the minister of finance and economic development of the country.
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New Trump—Kim summit next month
by Yamei Xinhua
WITH THE USA announcing a forthcoming summit between President Donald Trump and the top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un, experts called for enhanced diplomatic efforts by both sides to achieve de-nuclearisation and resolve other issues in their bilateral relations.
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Features
The US Economic War on China
FOR America’s Republicans and undemocratic Democrats, China poses an existential threat to US global economic dominance, including the advancement of its Indo-Pacific military footprint
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Rosa Luxemburg and the Russian Revolution
by John Catalinotto Workers World (US)
ON 9th November 1918, a movement of sailors, workers and soldiers forced the German Kaiser to abdicate his throne and release from prison the two top revolutionary leaders of the working class in Germany, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, as the mass revolt ended the first World War.
On 15th January 1919, a gang of reactionary German military officers, who were forerunners to the Nazi Storm Troopers of the 1930s, murdered these two heroes, making them martyrs of the world communist movement. The military had the go-ahead from the right-wing Social Democratic Party running the German government.
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Anatoly Lukyanov 1930—2019
In Defence of Communism
THE LAST Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and a former member of the Russian State Duma, Anatoly Lukyanov died on Wednesday 9th January at the age of 88
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