National News
Rubbish pay
by New Worker correspondent
THE NATIONAL Union of Journalists (NUJ) is demanding an eight per cent pay rise for its members at Newsquest, the British newspaper company owned by American multinational Gannett. For lower paid journalists it is demanding an extra £2,000 on their salaries.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Slightly less rubbish pay
by New Worker correspondent
CLEANERS at Ford’s in Dagenham are balloting on what Unite the Union calls an inflation-busting pay deal. Regional officer Matt Smith said: “We welcome the company’s above inflation pay rise offer for some of the lowest paid workers in the automotive sector. We are recommending it to our members, following tough negotiations.”
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Too high pay
by New Worker correspondent
NORMALLY trade unions campaign for higher pay but the University and College Union (UCU) have been complaining about it. Their target is the huge salaries ‘earned’ by vice-chancellors, who also often get fancy houses on campus to save them travelling far after a hard night of downing cocktails with potential donors.
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On the rails
by New Worker correspondent
ON TUESDAY the RMT transport union held a protest meeting against the closure of the Springburn Railway Depot in Glasgow; 200 jobs are at risk at a site where railway trains and wagons have been built since 1856. (The works might have been in better shape today if they had not insisted in building steam engines long after diesel came into fashion.) A march was held in Edinburgh to coincide with a debate in Scottish Parliament lead by Labour MSP James Kelly.
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Another cleaners’ strike
by New Worker correspondent
HOSPITAL workers at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital will be striking next Monday after they voted 100 per cent in a ballot conducted by Unison. Their private employer, OCS Group, is refusing to pay more than 40 cleaners, catering staff, porters and security officers the NHS rate for the job.
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The Labour Split
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
AT THE TIME of typing, the departure from the Labour Party of seven right-wing Labour MPs to create the SDP Mark II on Monday has not made any more ripples in the Scottish Labour pond than might be expected.
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Playing at Soldiers
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
The SNP have come under fire from some of their most loyal allies. The Scottish branch of CND have deplored the SNP, particularly the Westminster MPs, for being spineless in not sufficiently opposing Defence Minister Gavin Williamson’s plans to renew Trident and for his advocating western intervention as and when necessary.
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The first Mammy
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
In October our first Minister drew ridicule on herself when she called herself the “first Mammy”. Last week, at an event hosted by the same body, ‘Who Cares? Scotland’, she compounded the folly by promoting herself to the “Chief Corporate Parent” to Scotland’s infants.
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Fascism and war in the Ukraine
by New Worker correspondent
COMRADES met in central London on Monday to reflect on the last five years of fascist terror in Ukraine and to discuss plans for future solidarity work in London.
Theo Russell from the New Communist Party (NCP), Gerry Downing of Socialist fight who was expelled by Labour on trumped-up charges of ‘anti-Semitism’, and Marie Lynam, a Posadist who is a Labour Party activist and supporter of the Labour Representation Committee, spoke at the me
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Hands off our TV Licences!
by New Worker correspondent
LAST Tuesday, 12th February, the Gloucestershire, Avon & Somerset Region of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) held a protest against the BBC’s plan to scrap the free over-75 TV licence.
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BBC’s fake Syrian ‘poison gas’ news exposed
Last week BBC Syria producer Riam Dalati tweeted that the video of people treated after an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Syrian city of Douma had been fabricated. Sputnik has discussed the development with Vanessa Beeley, an independent investigative journalist who specialises in the Middle East and Syria in particular.
Sputnik: This doesn’t really look good though, does it, for Mr Dalati. Why do you think he decided to speak up now? He is now contradicting himself basically.
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Seven splitters: Who are MPs who have quit Labour?
Sputnik
THE LABOUR Party has been accused of becoming “institutionally anti-Semitic” since Jeremy Corbyn — a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause — took over as leader in September 2015.
Seven Labour MPs quit the party on Monday, 18th February, saying they no longer had confidence in Mr Corbyn and claiming that the party had been “hijacked” by the far left.
One of them, Luciana Berger, said Labour had become institutionally anti-Semitic and she was “embarrassed and ashamed” to stay in the party.
So who are the seven?
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International News
US Congress rejects Trump’s warmongering in Venezuela
by Jorge Ruiz Miyares
THE US Congress will not support military intervention in Venezuela despite hints by President Donald Trump that such action had not been ruled out, the Democratic chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said last week.
“I do worry about the president’s sabre rattling, his hints that US military intervention remains an option. I want to make clear to our witnesses and to anyone else watching: US military intervention is not an option,” Representative Eliot Engel said at the opening of a hearing on Venezuela.
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Protests rock Albania
Telesur
THOUSANDS took to the streets of Albania’s capital, Tirana, as demonstrators opposed Prime Minister Edi Rama and his Socialist Party, alleged to be shrouded in a corruption controversy.
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Spanish far-right on the march
FOLLOWING his defeat in Parliament, which rejected his national budget proposal, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had no recourse other than convening general elections for 28th April — a high-risk contest because the extreme right wing VOX political party could become the deciding force in the electoral dispute.
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Libya: the effects of the hand of imperialism
by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
IN 2011, NATO launched an illegal, savage attack against the country with the Highest Human Development Index in Africa. Let us see where Libya stands today.
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Features
The Making of Venezuela’s Juan Guaidó
by Jorge Ruiz Miyares
IN NOVEMBER 2005, a group of Venezuelan young people travelled to Belgrade, Yugoslavia. They were sponsored by the Centre for Strategies and the Application of Non-Violent Actions (CANVAS), where they learned tactics and strategies to overthrow governments that the USA didn’t like.
One of those young people who received training at that so-called ‘factory of democracy’ —- Washington style, even if it was located in Eastern Europe — was none other than Juan Guaidó, who not long ago jumped on a stage in Caracas and proclaimed himself provisional President of the Republic of Venezuela, in violation of the Constitution of the country.
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US-sponsored conference in Poland targets Iran
by Jorge Ruiz Miyares
AN INTERNATIONAL conference was held in Poland, convened by the USA, with the alleged aim of bringing peace and stability to the Middle East, an area where most of the problems are the result of interventionist policies fostered by the Americans and, most importantly, by Washington’s main ally in that area: Israel.
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Capitalism and Sport
by Bob Treasure
‘CRISIS’ is a term too often used in media coverage but it is dawning on most Australians that our widely held sporting prowess, our claim to be an exemplary sporting nation, is in just such a crisis state, and at a whole range of levels. Not only do our swimming, athletics, golf, rugby and cricket champions struggle to cut the mustard at international level, our participation rates in all these sports is on a falling curve at local levels.
Participation in all the major competitive sports has been in decline over the last 15 years: Cricket down, 10 per cent; Netball down, 24 per cent; Golf down, 24 per cent; Lawn Bowls down, 25 per cent (most urban Bowling Clubs are struggling to survive and more than half the rinks have shut down); Rugby League down, 27 per cent. Alarmingly, tennis players have declined by 35 per cent, which amounts to some half a million fewer people involved than in 2001, and Rugby Union is truly ‘on the skids’ with a decline of 63 per cent, or a drop in players from 148,000 to 55,000.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
