National News
Class struggle in the air
by New Worker correspondent
THE CLASS struggle has taken to the skies. Carefully taking advantage of the busy holiday season to press their cases, unions have secured a number of successes. The threat of strike action at the peak holiday period means the cost of compensation for delays is much higher so airlines and flight operators can more easily be brought to the negotiating table.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Uncharitable charities
by New Worker correspondent
CHARITIES are supposed to do good works, but many of them act like capitalist employers who award their bosses huge salaries and treat those who do the actual work like dirt.
One such is St Mungo’s, a London-based charity for the homeless where a union representative was described by a boss as someone who “will make a pretty poor martyr”.
That unflattering remark was discovered as a result of a subject access demand made by Unite the Union about one of their leading representatives in the charity, Aftaar Malik.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Johnson under fire on two fronts
Sputnik
THE LABOUR Party has called for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to launch an investigation into potential misconduct by Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid during his pre-politics career in finance.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said he had written to Johnson to reconsider Javid’s fitness for the post, asking him to probe three primary areas of concern relating to the minister’s 18-year-career in financial services, during which time he worked for Deutsche Bank. Whilst there, he was involved in the sale of collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), a complex financial product that played a pivotal role in the 2008 financial crash.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
How Not to Run the Health Service
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
DESPITE spending millions on fancy flagship hospitals (and closing down many smaller local ones), it seems beyond the capability of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Government to get the new constructions up and running properly.
The latest example of what seems to a curse following a succession of SNP health ministers is the new £150 million, 200-bed children’s hospital in Edinburgh.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Edinburgh Festival News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
This is the time of the year when the Edinburgh Festival takes place. The occasion is marked by thousands of Guardian readers migrate from north London to hear versions of Shakespeare performed in Old Icelandic in cellars off the Royal Mile. The less cerebral rich
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Racists resisted in central London
by New Worker correspondent
FASCISTS and racists were out on the streets of London last weekend demanding the release of the former leader of the English Defence League (EDL), who is currently in Belmarsh prison. Scuffles broke out with the police along the march as racist thugs attempted to break through police lines to attack the anti-racist demonstrators.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
QR code for Marx’ tomb
by Yan
A QR matrix bar-code to provide a Chinese introduction to the tomb of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery in north London has been recently released online.
The non-commercial code is both practical and informative by providing in Chinese with the basic information of map, visitor’s codes and rules, and the history of Marx’s tomb. It also provides with the Chinese translation of Engels’s well-known remarks at the funeral in 1883.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
What is Maoism?
Review
by Ben Soton
Maoism — A Global History by Julia Lovell, Bodley Head. 2019.
IN SEPTEMBER 1993 I caught an early coach to London to join a protest against the arrest of a Peruvian guerrilla leader. In 1970 a seven-year-old boy in a Scottish prep-school asked the Chinese embassy for literature to enable him to start a Cultural Revolution at his school.. What links these events is the movement known as Maoism. In her book Julia Lovell charts its history.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
International News
World will suffer if Kashmir conflict worsens
Sputnik
PAKISTANI Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is seeking a closer relationship with Donald Trump, has invited the US president to broker a peace deal with India — but the Indians insist that they want to deal with Pakistan without a mediator.
The Pakistani leader warned India against aggravating the Kashmir crisis, saying that the further escalation of tension in the contested region would leave no winners.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Hiroshima remembers the US atomic bomb terror attack
by Ed Newman
THE MAYOR of Hiroshima has renewed a call for the Japanese government to join the United Nations (UN) nuclear weapon ban treaty, as the city marks another anniversary of the USA’s atomic bombing more than 70 years ago.
Mayor Kazumi Matsui used the ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park on the 74th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing on Tuesday to call on Prime Minster Shinzo Abe to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The treaty has been approved by more than 120 nations, but is rejected by the USA and other nuclear-armed countries.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
War with Iran will be Mother of All Wars
Radio Havana Cuba
ANY WAR with Iran will be the “Mother of All Wars,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned on Tuesday in a speech broadcast live on state TV, warning once again that shipping might not be safe in the Strait of Hormuz oil waterway.
“Peace with Iran is the Mother of All Peace, war with Iran is the Mother of All Wars,” Rouhani said at the Foreign Ministry in a speech that also praised Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif after the USA imposed sanctions on him on 31st July.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
An English rugby camp in the heart of Laos
UK in Laos
LAST MONTH coaches at the Lao Rugby Federation completed an English and Rugby Camp, funded by the British Embassy in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
The camp provided coaches from the Champa Ban youth programme (powered by ChildFund Pass It Back programme) with an opportunity to improve their English skills and confidence in speaking English. Learning English provides coaches with the necessary tools to continue their capacity building and personal development in order eventually to become leaders within their communities.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Features
Corbyn needs to regain momentum to beat bouncing Boris
by Neil Clark
LOVE HIM or loathe him, you have to admit new Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hit the ground running. The latest opinion polls show the Tories, who fared so disastrously in the European elections just two months ago, are between one and ten points ahead of Labour.
While all new PMs enjoy a ’bounce’ in the ratings, there are reasons to believe that the upbeat and enthusiastic Boris Johnson will prove to be a formidable opponent for Labour, who urgently need to rethink their strategy on how to deal with a re-energised Tory Party. Certainly just labelling Johnson a “fascist/racist” and/or “a clown” presiding over “the most hard-right government the UK has ever had” isn’t going to be enough. In fact, such tactics from the left could well prove to be counter-productive.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
The Green Corn Rebellion of August 1917
by Chris Mahin
SOME would have us believe that the South, the West, and the rural areas of the United States have always been conservative. The month of August contains the anniversary of an event which disproves that claim.
On 2nd August 1917, the Green Corn Rebellion began in Oklahoma. This little-known chapter of US history was an armed rebellion led by impoverished tenant farmers and former railroad workers.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
