National News
Blair Peach: unfinished business
Sputnik
ON 23rd April 1979 thousands of police officers clashed with huge crowds of demonstrators protesting at the National Front holding a meeting in London. Sputnik spoke to Suresh Grover and Amin Mawani, who were there that day, about why it still rankles 40 years later.
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Unsocial enterprise in London
by New Worker
correspondent
IN THE south London borough of Bromley library workers are balloting for strike action for higher pay. Instead of being employed by the local authorities they are contracted out to the misnamed ‘social enterprise’ Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), who have contracts for running 140 libraries and leisure centres with no less than 16 London boroughs, including Labour-controlled Camden and Tory-controlled Wandsworth, pioneer of municipal privatisation
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On the High Seas
by New Worker
correspondent
IN THE same area, workers who keep the Woolwich Ferry shuttling across the Thames have voted unanimously to take strike action later this month and in June. Ten one-day strikes are scheduled to take place between the 17th May and 17th June. In addition to seeking a pay rise, they have grave concerns about the safety standards and low staffing levels. The ferry carries about 2.6 million passengers and over a million vehicles per year, and is run by Briggs Marine Contractors Ltd on behalf of Transport for London (TfL).
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Going to Potteries
by New Worker correspondent
WORKERS AT the historic upmarket china manufacturer Wedgwood, which is marking its 250th anniversary, are up in arms about the fact that despite a £5.1 million Regional Growth Fund allocation that was supposed to safeguard 440 jobs and create 102 new ones in Stoke-on-Trent, the company is now planning to make 145 redundancies.
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Rail privatisation on steroids
by New Worker
correspondent
THAT WAS how rail union RMT described plans by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), the trade body for private rail companies who have made a call for a new era of wholesale deregulation on the tracks that would effectively allow private operators to bid route by route, slot by slot for the most lucrative chunks of the network.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
THE SCOTTISH National Party (SNP) has been dominating the headlines recently. Much of this related to their Spring Conference, which was held in Edinburgh last weekend, but other, more interesting events should not be overlooked.
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Robin Hood in Reverse
Just before the conference opened a former SNP MP plead guilty to embezzling more than £25,600 from the SNP and its front ‘men for Independence’ (Wfi), of which she was Treasurer. Elected in the 2015 landslide for Glasgow East, Natalie McGarry was a personal friend of the first Minister and ironically helped to vet SNP candidates for suitability. She finally admitted two charges of embezzlement after having previously denied the charges and sacking her lawyers before demanding more time to prepare her defence.
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Grand old
Duchess of York
Just as it is an ancient tradition for churches to hold watchnight services on Christmas Eve, there is a newer tradition for the SNP to demand another independence referendum on the eve of their conference. This year was no different, so it was more of a ‘dog bites man’ than ‘man bites dog’ story when the first Minister said that one should be held before the next Holyrood elections in May 2021.
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Labour Changes
One Monday afternoon it was announced that former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale is leaving politics for an academic post in the shape of the directorship of the John Smith Centre for Public Service, based at the University of Glasgow, which this correspondent had never heard of before despite being a frequent visitor to the university
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Korean posters in London
by New Worker
correspondent
KOREAN modern poster art returned to a gallery in London’s now fashionable East End last weekend, with a display of 20 original hand-painted posters from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). At the opening ceremony Democratic Korean ambassador Choe Il said the posters reflected the reality of Juche Korea, which is defying the imperialist sanctions to advance under the banner of self-reliance.
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REVIEW
Red Joan
by Ben Soton
Red Joan. Director: Trevor Nunn; Writer: Lindsay Shapero, based on the novel by Jennie Rooney; Stars: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes, Freddie Gaminara, Tereza Srbova, Ben Miles.
105 minutes; UK certificate: 12A
RED JOAN is a relatively short film (105 minutes) based on the life of Melita Norwood, a lifelong communist who worked for the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association. In a recognisable 1999 an elderly woman is arrested by Special Branch on charges of providing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The film takes us back to the 1930s and ‘40s; where the main character, Joan Stanley played by Sophie Cookson (Kingsman the Secret Service, Kingsman the Golden Circle), is initially a student and later a research scientist.
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Fascists not welcome in Leeds
by New Worker
correspondent
ITALIAN comrades joined hundreds of other anti-fascists last weekend to show the far-right that they were not welcome in Leeds. Members of the Communist Party of Italy’s Pietro Secchia (UK) branch joined the lunch-time march, called by the Leeds Anti-Fascist Network (Leeds AFN), against Yorkshire racists posing as British ‘Yellow Vests’ who had called for an anti-immigration protest in the city.
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FOREIGN NEWS
International News
China: A political force that unites the people
by Curtis Stone People’s Daily
(Beijing)
IT WOULD be a stretch to say that Western-style democracy is on the verge of collapse but there is a real breakdown unfolding on the world stage. In Brexit Britain, people do not know where the country is heading. In the deeply-divided USA, the Democratic and Republican political parties cannot agree on much of anything, trapping the country in endless political fights. Look around the Western world and the symptoms of the failure of their political systems are obvious.
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A friendly summit in Vladivostok
Pravda.ru
THE TALKS between the leaders of Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) were held on the campus of the Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island last week. At first, Putin and Kim talked in private for about two hours and the north Korean leader said that the exchange of opinions was very informative. Delegation officials joined Putin and Kim later. The summit lasted for about three-and-a-half hours
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Thousands march against Ecuador’s president
by Zoila Ramírez and Michael Otto Workers World (US)
MORE THAN 20,000 people from all over the country marched in Quito on 16th April to protest against President Lenín Moreno’s betrayal of his party, the national sovereignty of Ecuador, and his policies of privatisation and political repression.
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Iranians threaten to bar US ships from the Gulf
by Jorge Ruiz Miyares Radio Havana Cuba
IRANIAN Foreign Ministry official, Abbas Mousavi, has warned of “adverse consequences” if the USA ends their sanctions waiver on Iran’s oil exports. “Given the illegal nature of the US sanctions, Iran has not and will not consider any value for the waivers granted,” Mousavi said.
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Features
Koreans say no to Mike Pompeo
by Deirdre Griswold Workers World (US)
THE Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has told the US government there will be no more summit meetings this year if Mike Pompeo, Trump’s Secretary of State, is part of them.
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Indecency and hypocrisy reign in Macron’s France
by RÉmy Herrera Workers World (US)
A CATHEDRAL burned down. One of the most beautiful, on the Ile de la CitÉ, the ancestral heart of Paris; one of the most imposing, built in the Central Middle Ages over the course of nearly two centuries (probably started in 1163, under King Louis VII The Pious, and finished in 1345).
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