National News
Taking off the shine
by New Worker correspondent
IN DERBY, 160 workers at Reckitt Benckiser are balloting for strike action after their bosses demanded that they work the equivalent of an extra four weeks per year as a result of the ending of overtime payments
Unite the union said that its members, who makes such essential products as Dettol and Mr Sheen furniture polish, faced working either an extra 107 hours or 157 hours per year to maintain their income, depending on their contract.
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Unhealthy cuts
by New Worker correspondent
SUFFOLK County Council is planning to cut a quarter of its 120-strong health visitor workforce.
Unite the union, which includes the Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association (CPHVA), have strongly condemned the move, which will be finally decided on the 1st September.
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Down the Tube
by New Worker correspondent
DRIVERS ON the London Underground are demanding ear defenders when travelling through loud stretches of the London Underground system. Their main union ASLEF says it has made it “very clear” to management at Transport for London (TfL) that if they
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A Union recognition success
by New Worker correspondent
AN unsung but important group of Glasgow workers have secured the first ever union recognition agreement in their sector between GMB Scotland and their employer, which will have implication for many others in their industry across the country. The agreement will cover annual pay negotiations, disciplinary and grievance procedures, and health and safety at work.
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Twenty Glorious Years
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
THE SCOTTISH Parliament was opened with much pomp on the first of July 1999 by Her Majesty the Queen, at its temporary home of the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland. This Saturday Her Majesty makes a return journey Edinburgh to celebrate the event, a fact which will cause no end of distress to first Minister Nicola Sturgeon who will have to share the limelight.
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financial Times
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
Making complaints that Holyrood does not get enough funding from Westminster is a full-time occupation for SNP government ministers. Despite this particular whine, once again finance Secretary Derek Mackay has just announced a £449 million underspend, similar to last year and a substantial increase over that for 2016—17 of £64 million.He claimed that they had “lived within the budget caps that apply, while maximising spending on public services”. This is nonsense because he could have had an end of financial year bonanza, as was common in the pre-devolution Scottish Office and in some non-departmental public bodies today.
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Save Pensioners’ licences!
by New Worker correspondent
THE Gloucestershire, Avon & Somerset Region of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) held a protest in Bristol last week against the BBC’s plan to scrap the free over-75 TV licence.
The protesters were joined by members of Unite and Bristol trades council outside the BBC offices in Bristol’s Whiteladies Road. On the last protest back in February the BBC called the police in the hope of stopping the demonstration. This time the BBC offered the protestors free tea or coffee.
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Day of Action for Korea
by New Worker correspondent
LONDON communists took part in a Day of Action for Korea last weekend, which included a picket of the new American embassy in Nine Elms and a film show in the evening at the Marchmont Centre.
NCP London Organiser Theo Russell joined the afternoon protest outside the embassy that called for an end to US imperialism’s hostile policy towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and for the USA to finally end the Korean War and sign a peace treaty with the Democratic Korean government.
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Scrap Universal Credit!
by New Worker correspondent
Disabled People against the Cuts (DIPAC) and the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group were out in force outside the headquarters of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in London last week. They leafleted passers-by and handed in thousands of Metro newspapers in big boxes addressed to Amber Rudd to complain about the lying advertisement on Universal Credit it ran for nine weeks.
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Rebel Tory Remainers ready to bring down government
Sputnik
DUBBED the “nuclear option”, Tobias Ellwood, the Tory MP for Bournemouth, said that ministers and MPs would rather face a general election to avoid the UK risking a no-deal Brexit.
Around a dozen Conservative MPs could rebel against Tory PM hopeful Boris Johnson if he pushes for a hard Brexit, Defence Ministry parliamentary undersecretary of state Tobias Ellwood said on Monday.
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International News
Xi and Kim to build a bright future
Xinhua
THE TOP leaders of People’s China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) have agreed to work together to create a bright future of inter-party and inter-state relations at a new starting point in history.
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Thousands of French protesters heed Yellow Vest call
by Ed Newman
THE 32nd week of Yellow Vest protests on Saturday recovered some of what the media has recently reported as flagging numbers and waning interest, with leaders calling for a revival this weekend to “blockade France” with the intent of affecting the economy.
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US pushing Iran to brink of war
Radio Havana Cuba
RUSSIA says the USA is deliberately stoking dangerous tensions around Iran and pushing the situation to the brink of war.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has called on Washington to weigh the possible consequences of a conflict with Iran.
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The phony radicalism of Yanis Varoufakis
by Nikos Mottas
Yanis Varoufakis is a left social-democrat who regularly writes in the Guardian newspaper.
THE FORMER Greek finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is back and ready to participate in Greece’s general elections on 7th July. Once again, the flamboyant economist tries to present himself as a “radical”, “pro-European leftist” and an anti-establishment political force, aiming to attract voters who have been disappointed by the anti-people policy of the governing SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) party.
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Features
fire in Babylon: Cricket as rebellion in the Caribbean
Telesur
AS THE 2019 Cricket World Cup gets underway, we remember the iconic documentary fire In Babylon that provided cricket fans with an insight into how the sport has shaped Caribbean identity and began to mould what some would call an anti-colonial national project.
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1919: Racist Terror in the U S
by Terrea Mitchell
DURING the ‘Red Summer’ of 1919 a wave of white-supremacist terrorist attacks was unleashed on Black Americans. From February to November, white mobs and gangs carried out anti-Black riots and lynchings to uphold the status quo — as they saw it — and keep Black Americans in their place.
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The tragedy of Mohamed Morsi
by Giovanni Giacalone
EGYPT’S former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi died suddenly during a trial appearance in Cairo last week.
According to an al-Arabiya correspondent, Morsi was addressing the court and appeared extremely agitated; after approximately 25 minutes he suddenly fainted and collapsed on the ground. He was taken to a hospital immediately but died whilst being transferred. Egypt’s Public Prosecutor said a medical report shows no apparent recent injuries on the body of Mohamed Morsi.
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