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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Lead story

Anger in the Arab world

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

THERE’S mounting anger on the Arab street against the Arab oil princes who’ve formally recognised Israel this month at the behest of their American masters. The chief American warlord, Donald Trump, calls it an “historic peace agreement” between Israel and two Gulf states, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). But the Palestinians call it treachery and Israeli communists dismiss it as a cover for US arms deals with their feudal Arab vassals. And the Palestinian government has quit its current chairmanship of Arab League meetings in protest at the League’s refusal to condemn members who’ve broken ranks and normalised relations with Israel.

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On the Rails

by New Worker correspondent

ON MONDAY the Government’s Department for Transport’s (DfT) boss Grant Shapps denounced the present rail franchising system, saying: “The model of privatisation adopted 25 years ago has seen significant rises in passenger numbers, but this pandemic has proven that it is no longer working.” Something that was clear 24 years ago and was made only even more blindingly obvious months ago.

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Editorial

Starmer’s virtual reality

LABOUR PARTY conferences can be boring even in the best of times. But we’re in the coronavirus era so a virtual conference is, perhaps, the best we could have hoped for.

Labour Conference has never been the sovereign body of the Party, and its decisions are regularly ignored or side-lined by Labour Governments and the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). But it does give a voice to the activists and the rank-and-file in the constituencies, and it provides a forum for the unions to make their demands on what was originally intended to be the political wing of the trade union movement.

The dead hand of right-wing bureaucracy during the Blair era ended the open debate and factional back-stabbing that were the highlights for the delegates at a week at the seaside in a normal year. There was a bit of a comeback under Corbyn. But Corbyn’s gone and these are decidedly not normal times.

Read the full story here >> Starmer’s virtual reality