National News
Outsourcing victories and setbacks
by New Worker correspondent
ABOUT a decade ago this correspondent stood on a picket line outside the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) alongside the college’s Unison branch chair, an Ecuadorian former cleaner who rejoiced in the name of JosÉ Stalin Bermúdez. The cause was a campaign for the London Living Wage, to secure unpaid wages and union recognition from an outsourced company.
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Down the Tube
by New Worker correspondent
TWO RAIL unions have rejected a pay offer for London Underground staff. first the Transport Salaried Staff Association (older readers will remember it as the Railway Clerks’ Association) described a one-year pay offer of 2.5 per cent as “derisory and well short of members aspirations”. The offer was conditional on the unions dropping claims relating to leave, meal breaks, maternity and paternity, working hours and annual leave entitlement.
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Spooks Corner
by New Worker correspondent
THE SECRET Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has for 66 years operated right in the heart of Westminster.
“For the first time, we are able to reveal the role our Palmer Street office has played in keeping the capital and the country safe,” said GCHQ in a statement, speaking about a drab, anonymous office block opposite St James’s Park Tube station in central London.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political correspondent
NOT MUCH real political activity is taking place in Scotland. The Shortbread Senate is on its Easter break, much to the annoyance of the first Minister who thinks it ought to remain open to give her a platform to repeat, once again, her standard statements about Brexit.
As a result of this political holiday the Scottish spring party conference season has started up. first off the starting block were the Greens, who have no less than six undemocratically unelected MSPs. In a normal election they would all have lost their deposits and nothing more would be heard of them, but instead they got a consolation prize for coming nearly, but not quite, last.
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Arms and the Man
by our Scottish political correspondent
Ian Blackford, the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber who leads the SNP’s Westminster contingent, has frequently denounced sternly Britain’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia. In March 2018, just before the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, he called on the Prime Minister to raise the violation of human rights and international law in Saudi Arabia’s conduct in the war in Yemen. He also deplored the British government for selling £6.4 billion worth of arms to the Saudis since war started.
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Honouring Cypriot martyrs in London
by New Worker correspondent
THE LEADER of AKEL, the Cypriot communist party, paid tribute to two martyred comrades at an event in north London this week.
Andros Kyprianou joined others in recalling the sacrifice of the two communists at a meeting at the Cypriot Community Centre in Wood Green on Monday, called in honour of Dervis Ali Kavazoglou and Costas Misaoulis who were campaigning to end the sectarian violence that was undermining the island that had only recently broken the shackles of British imperialism. The communists, who came from both sides of the Cypriot community, were killed by reactionary Turkish-Cypriot TMT movement gunmen on 11th April 1965.
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London’s Day of the Sun
by New Worker correspondent
KIM IL SUNG was born on 15th April 1912 and his birthday has long been celebrated as the Day of the Sun by everyone who stands by the Democratic people’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The Day of the Sun is the biggest public holiday of the year in Democratic Korea and last weekend solidarity activists gathered at a hall in central London to join the Korean masses in honouring the memory of the outstanding communist leader who lead the Korean people to victory to build the modern socialist republic we have today.
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MotherFatherSon
TV review by Ben Soton
BBC2’s Wednesday night drama is a multi-layered story centred on the relationship between a newspaper magnate, his ex-wife and their son. The story is intertwined with a forthcoming general election and investigative journalists unearthing evidence of high-level corruption.
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Days of Belarusian Art
by New Worker correspondent
BELARUSIAN culture was showcased in London this week at a series of presentations and exhibitions at the Russian Culture House in the heart of the capital’s fashionable West End. The modern art, photo displays and fashion shows, devoted to the Day of Unity of the Peoples of Belarus and Russia, enabled Londoners to see, and in some cases actually meet, artists from the former Soviet republic that refused to embrace the capitalist road after the downfall of the USSR in 1991.
International News
Maduro leads anti-imperialist march in Caracas
by Ed Newman
TENS of thousands took to the streets over the weekend in Venezuela to carry out the sixth consecutive anti-imperialist march, an event aimed at backing President Nicolas Maduro’s administration and rejecting the interventionist policies of the USA and its regional allies.
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Mercenary boss wants Afghan contracts
by Jorge Ruiz Miyares
ERIK PRINCE, the founder of the notorious Blackwater firm, wants to end the 18-year Afghan stalemate with another war that could see 6,000 mercenaries replace US troops on the ground once they leave the country.
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A new battle for Tripoli
LIBYA HAS been in a state of constant chaos since the NATO intervention in 2011. After the fall of the government of Muammar Gaddafi, the country fell into the hands of warring armed factions, many of which were linked to radical Islamist groups. Al-Qaeda and then ISIS strengthened and expanded their presence in the country. The humanitarian crisis that erupted has never been fully overcome. A high level of violence, crime and unsolved humanitarian issues turned Libya in one of the key hubs of arms, drugs and even human trafficking. A large number of the refugees moving to Europe use Libya as a transfer point.
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The days of the Limerick Soviet
by Mícheál Mac Donncha
IN APRIL 1919, the city of Limerick was the stage for a dramatic confrontation between British rule in Ireland and the organised working class. It was the first such major clash since the establishment of Dáil Éireann [the revolutionary Irish Assembly] the previous January.
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Features
Lies, lies and more lies
by Bob Treasure
ON FRIDAY 13th April 2018, the Trump-led triumvirate of USA, France and Britain launched 100 missiles against targets in the sovereign state of Syria. It was probably the most provocative piece of foreign aggression upon the Syrian government in the whole civil war, and if Syria or Russia had responded in kind (as, according to international law, they had every right to do), we all would have been engulfed in World War III and faced annihilation.
The justification for this incredible piece of brinkmanship was simple: in colour and available for all to see with their own eyes...
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Macron’s new round of oppression
by RÉmy Herrera
IT WAS a good day for everyone, both the Yellow Vests and the President of the Republic. Saturday 16th March was sunny. Yellow Vests could demonstrate without rain; Macron could decompress and tan. So in the afternoon, whilst clashes between rioters and police were raging in many cities of the country for the 18th consecutive Saturday over four months during the latest mobilisation of Yellow Vests, Monsieur Emmanuel Macron, competitive skis on his feet and trendy sunglasses on his nose, was hurtling down the slopes of La Mongie, a chic winter sports resort in the High PyrÉnÉes.
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Scots Against the Bomb
Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found that the storage of obsolete nuclear submarines has cost the UK taxpayer £500m because of “dismal” failings in the government’s nuclear-decommissioning program. Sputnik spoke about it to Arthur West, the Chair of Scotland’s CND. Arthur West has been a member of CND for over 30 years at both national and local levels including as secretary of Ayrshire CND, and participating in many protests and blockades at Faslane and elsewhere.
Sputnik: Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found that the storage of obsolete nuclear submarines has cost the UK taxpayer £500 million because of “dismal” failings in the government’s nuclear-decommissioning programme. How significant are these findings?
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