National News
Keeping trendy
by New Worker correspondent
ONE WOULD not have thought that acquiring a new outfit to stay at home in was a top priority at the moment, however online fast fashion giant ASOS thinks it ought to be. At their giant warehouse in the former mining village of Grimethorpe near Barnsley, bosses think that their 4,000 workers should be kept even busier than usual.
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Food wars
by New Worker correspondent
IN THESE troubled times we must salute those struggling to keep essential supplies going. Step forward the heroes of West Hampstead Farmers’ Market, who at the weekend ensured that north London was kept equipped with essential supplies despite incurring the wrath of a local councillor who denounced the fact that: “There appears to be absolutely no social distancing at West Hampstead farmers market whatsoever. This is mad.” Fortunately the boys in blue were on hand to sort things out and distancing was imposed, so this weekend organic and ethically sourced kumquat aromatherapy oil remains available in these times of need.
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On the Rails
by New Worker correspondent
TRANSPORT union RMT announced on Monday that it had won a more traditional trade union battle by securing a pay rise from Carlisle Support Services Ltd to pay the Living Wage Foundation-rate of pay of £9.30 per hour from 1st April to all staff on the Northern Trains Revenue and Gateline contract. This means a pay rise uplift to the living wage rate for 380 key rail staff over the whole of the North of England.
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The Virus
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
THE MAIN response to the coronavirus crisis made by the Scottish Parliament was to go on a one-day week, not that anyone would notice the difference from normal. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has naturally been very busy. This normally takes the form of giving a daily press conference at which she repeats the advice and information already given by the UK Government a few days earlier.
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Backstabbers’ gazette
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
Despite other distractions the SNP’s internal warfare is bubbling along. Acquitted former First Minister Alex Salmond remains the subject of comment. One person involved in his recent trial said of him that: “When your best defence is ‘I’m sleazy but not criminal’, it’s nothing to smile” about before adding that “a married, avowedly Christian man is revealed as a creep”. Such was the verdict of Alex Bell, who was a DEFENCE witness at the trial and formerly Salmond’s speech-writer.
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Chinese medical team lands in London
by New Worker correspondent
A GROUP of Chinese medical workers arrived at Heathrow Airport in London last weekend to help Britain fight the coronavirus plague. The 15-member delegation from Shandong province in eastern China includes six medical experts specialising in disease prevention and control, traditional Chinese medicine, Western medicine and psychological counselling, amongst others.
The team brought medical supplies that will be donated to local hospitals and Chinese communities. They will also provide health consultancy to the Chinese communities in Britain.
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TV REVIEW
Altered States?
by Ben Soton
Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman: BBC TV series. Stars: Masali Baduza, Jack Rowan, Jonathan Ajayi. All episodes currently available on BBC iPlayer.
WHEN I watched this programme I thought – What are the BBC playing at?
The premise behind Noughts and Crosses promotes reactionary identity politics advocated by the far-right and fake left alike. It’s an adaptation of the first book in a series of novels written by Malorie Blackman set in an alternative reality where an African Empire conquers most of Europe, as well as presumably the Muslim states of North Africa, in the 13th century.
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International News
Israel deliberately neglects Palestinian prisoners
Radio Havana Cuba
ISRAEL is intentionally neglecting Palestinian prisoners and denying them minimum health rights amidst the coronavirus pandemic, a Palestinian prisoner rights advocacy group says.
Tel Aviv has never cared about the health and lives of Palestinian prisoners before or after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, said a spokesman for the Asra Media Office, Ali al-Maghrabi, on Sunday. He warned that arbitrary policies used in Israeli jails “are jeopardising the lives of prisoners”.
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Rise of US white supremacy portends new cold war or worse
by Mu Lu
WITH THE novel coronavirus spreading around the globe, a political virus with deeper influence has also begun to show up. In recent years, white nationalism and white supremacy have been on the rise, a perfect reflection of a political virus that is spreading in the USA. If Washington cannot deal appropriately with this virus, it will not be able to make the USA great again but rather see an irreversible decline and fall of the US empire.
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The USA remains the main threat to peace
Radio Havana Cuba
CUBAN Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, condemned the trumped-up charges of narco-terrorism of the US Department of Justice against the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro Moros. The head of Cuban diplomacy said such accusations are based on shameless lies.
“At a time when the international community seeks unity to confront COVID-19, the White House persists with its threats and prohibitions against some countries,” he said.
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Palestine battles the pandemic
by Susan Abulhawa
THERE have been relatively few confirmed cases of the coronavirus COVID-19 amongst the Palestinian population compared with the Israelis infected. This is in part owing to an early lock-down by the Palestinian Authority, as well as the population’s general experience in supporting each other through the far greater virulence of Israeli apartheid and occupation.
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Greek left veteran Manolis Glezos dies at 98
MANOLIS GLEZOS, a resistance fighter during the Nazi occupation of Greece in the Second World War and a prominent figure of Greek left-wing politics, passed away in Athens on Monday at the age of 98.
Glezos was born in 1922 on the island of Naxos. He moved to Athens in 1935 to finish his education. Too young to join the Greek army when Fascist Italy invaded Greece in 1940, he worked as a volunteer in the Ministry of Economics. Although the Greek army successfully repelled the Italians it could not withstand the Germans, who sent in the Wehrmacht to bail out their Italian allies in 1941.
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Features
Pages of Our History: Labour Monthly
by Robin McGregor
FOR ALMOST exactly 60 years, from July 1921 until March 1981, publication of the Labour Monthly was regular feature of the British left.
Despite its carefully chosen name it was a staunchly Communist periodical, albeit aimed at a wider broad-left audience. For much of its life the magazine had only one Editor, Rajani Palme Dutt (RPD), whose 53 year editorship was only ended by his death in 1974 at the age of 78. For a while he was also editor of the party’s Weekly Worker and was author of a number books.
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