National News
Thousands march for Palestine in London
by New Worker correspondent
TEN THOUSAND people marched through London on Saturday to show that the Palestinian people are not alone in their struggle for freedom, justice and equality. Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teenager jailed for eight months for slapping an Israeli soldier who was trespassing on her family’s property, led the march along with Labour MPs, trade union leaders and Palestine solidarity activists.
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Privatisation has failed
The ‘We Own It’ pressure group campaigns for the public ownership of water, energy and public transport. It recently responded to the Labour Party’s consultation on democratic public ownership in 21st Century Britain. Sputnik spoke on the matter with Cat Hobbs, the director and co-founder of the We Own It Group.
Sputnik: Can you tell us a little more about this report? what does this report contain and represent?
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BT under fire again
by New Worker correspondent
COMMUNICATIONS giant British Telecom has come under fire from trade union Prospect over BT’s misnamed “People Framework”, which is part of a strategy to cut costs, jobs and reduce UK operations to around 30 locations. This the company aims to implement this without any trade union agreement.
Prospect members voted overwhelmingly against the People Framework, with 96.3 per cent voting against on a 58 per cent turnout. After the ballot BT made only small concessions but not enough for Prospect to conclude an agreement that members would support.
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Cedric the Pig (Part II)
by New Worker correspondent
IN 1996 trade union GMB hit the headlines when it took Cedric the Pig to the AGM of recently privatised British Gas to protest about “snouts in the trough”, in particular the excessive pay rise of 75 per cent that gave the CEO Cedric Brown a salary of £475,000.
Last Monday things were very similar, only the names and the numbers were different. At the AGM of Centrica, which owns British Gas, similar protests were made, all to no good effect.
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Taken to the Cleaners
by New Worker correspondent
ANOTHER company raking it in is ISS Mediclean. Last year it made a £28 million profit on a turnover of £400 million and was able to pay out £30 million to shareholders.
None of this, however, has gone to their low-paid employees who provide cleaning, porter and catering services at Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospitals. Here GMB members have voted unanimously for industrial action because the outsourcing giant has refused to match the pay rise other members of staff across the hospitals have received.
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Bring back the buffet!
by New Worker correspondent
TRANSPORT union RMT held protests on Monday in Swansea, Plymouth and London in support of their campaign to “Bring Back the Buffet”. This followed a decision by the Great Western Railway (GWR) to remove the buffet car from all of its new Intercity Express Trains, the despite the fact that they serve long-distance routes.
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“Can’t even post a letter properly”
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
NATIONALISTS of all hues have recently been up in arms against each other. firstly there is trouble in the highest ranks of the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Their campaign for next week’s illegitimate elections to the so-called European parliament got off to a bad start when they sent off a mailshot to the 400,000 registered postal voters. At least tens of thousands, some say almost half, of the addresses that were ‘personalised’ by computer were wrong. Some were addressed to people who had moved ages ago, others had wrong door numbers and postcodes. All this came at a cost of £100—£150,000, a large chunk of the party’s £270,000 expenditure limit on election expenditure.
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Two Good Employers
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
Joanna Cherry QC, the nationalist MP and the party’s justice spokesperson for Edinburgh South West, is in a spot of bother. No less than four former staff members have complained about Cherry’s alleged bullying; one of the cases has been taken up by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). The Parliamentary authorities who will be investigating have not yet confirmed the extent of the allegations.
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Funny Numbers
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
Another, but overlapping, group of nationalists are indulging in squabbles over numbers and cash. All Under One Banner (AUOB) is a nationalist organisation devoted to holding rallies across Scotland. They claimed 100,000 at their recent march in Glasgow. The police estimated 30—35,000 and the unionist UKaForceForGood group gave a much more precise figure of 8,796 based, they claim, on a close analysis of photographic evidence.
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Victory Day in London In the morning?
by New Worker correspondent
MILLIONS of Russians took to the streets last week to celebrate Victory Day and the surrender of the Third Reich on 9th May 1945. Every year, the Russian Federation celebrates the defeat of Nazi Germany with parades and processions across the country including Moscow, where a massive parade in the capital showcased modern Russia’s military might.
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?And the afternoon
by New Worker correspondent
Many then went on to Trafalgar Square to join the ‘Immortal Regiment’ parade, called by the Russian community in Britain to honour those that fell in the fight against fascism that is called the Great Patriotic War in most of the former republics of the USSR.
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Not wanted in Exeter!
by New Worker correspondent
UKIP campaigners got a warm welcome from local anti-fascists when they tried to peddle their racist filth in Exeter this week. Carl Benjamin, who is standing for the Kippers in the European elections, was in town canvassing in the European elections with another former Trump supporter, the equally obnoxious Milo Yiannopoulos.
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Tolkien
film review
by Ben Soton
Tolkien (2019). Director: Dome Karukoski; Writers: David Gleeson, Stephen Beresford; Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Lily Collins, Colm Meaney.
PG-13; 112mins.
A YOUNG BOY, due to a loss of income, is forced to move from the English countryside to industrial Birmingham. Later on, a group of teenage boys are ejected from a tea room for chatting up a waitress. These scenes are interlaced with images from the first World War. It seems like Christopher Robin meets Peaky Blinders mixed with Inbetweeners and Blackadder Goes Forth.
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Better Angels at the Chinese Embassy
by New Worker correspondent
PEOPLE’S China and the USA are locked into a trade war that effects the day-to-day lives of millions of Chinese and American workers. Nobody knows how it will all end but a mutually beneficial way forward is charted out in a documentary that was shown last week at the Chinese embassy in London.
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International News
Trump intent on erasing Palestine
by Elson Concepción PÉrez
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has come up with what he calls the “Deal of the Century”, the sole purpose of which is to finally remove Palestine from the world stage and put an end to the existence of the state.
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Top Venezuelan traitor CIA agent
by Jorge Ruiz Miyares
VENEZUELAN President Nicolas Maduro has revealed that a general who had been recruited by the CIA was one of the masterminds behind the coup attempt of 30th April.
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French left leader slams anti-Russian hysteria
Sputnik
THE LEADER of the left-wing La France Insoumise (Unbowed France) movement, Jean-Luc MÉlenchon, who challenged Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 presidential election, has taken aim at NATO whilst campaigning ahead of the upcoming European elections.
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A warning to the ANC
Sputnik
SOUTH AFRICA held a general election on 8th May, in which citizens elected members of the lower chamber of the country’s parliament and regional legislatures.
The African National Congress (ANC), which has ruled post-apartheid South Africa since 1994, won the latest general election with 57.51 per cent of votes, the country’s Electoral Commission announced on Saturday, after all the ballots were counted.
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Features
Without the Left, what will happen in India?
by Dipanjana Dasgupta
ASIA’S MOST expensive and biggest election is going on in seven phases in India from 11th April to 18th May. Across 29 states and seven union territories, around 900 million voting population will participate. There will be approximately 10 lakhs (one million) polling stations and of the total electorate, 15 million will be the age group of 18 to 19 years. People want a government that will bring peace in the country, and simultaneously generate jobs and boost the economy. Considering the scenario, the 2019 election is crucial for India.
Why crucial?
In the last five years, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was in power. Narendra Modi as the prime minister of India made numerous commitments and fulfilled nothing. His communal and corrupted government has taken the country to a disastrous point.
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Did the Americans really liberate Mauthausen Concentration Camp?
by ángeles Maestro
IN MANY European countries, people celebrate the victory of the allied troops over Nazi Germany in the Second World War. This is especially important now as we witness a widespread growth of fascist organisations and their great myths of that epoch are rehashed.
Once again the Normandy landing of the Allied troops will be described as a transcendental event whilst the liberation of most of Europe by the USSR, which paid for it with the very heavy price of 27 million dead, will be undervalued.
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