National News
Pandemic winners
SOME PEOPLE are doing
well out of the pandemic,
such as those supermarkets
which had existing delivery
services.
Those involved in the
Government’s unsuccessful
“Test and Trace” programme
have also been amongst the
winners. No less than 2,300
private sector consultants
were working on the project.
That is about the same as
the Treasury, which employs
2,260, and the Department
for International Trade with
2,290.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Mixed results for Unions
THE LATEST lockdown
has naturally dominated
the recent activities of
trade unions. The teaching
unions achieved their
desire for the closure of
all schools in the face of
opposition from the Government,
but many other
unions are dissatisfied.
The GMB has said that all
nurseries and pre-schools
should also close, citing
its success in persuading
Green-run Brighton &
Hove council to do just
that.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
‘Outrageous’ discrimination
LAST SATURDAY The
Times reported two cases
of grave inequalities
facing women.
A recent report found
that women QCs in
government departments
were “significantly more
likely to be instructed at
the lowest hourly rate”. To
be more precise, 80 per
cent of them were instructed
at the hourly rate of
£180 per hour compared
with only 68 per cent of
men. The higher rate of
£275 was far more likely
to go to male QCs.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Shock News: Useless Minister Actually Resigns
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
JUST AS the pre-Christmas
edition was whizzing
its way through the post
an extraordinarily rare
event took place. This was
the departure of a Scottish
Minister for the sin
of incompetence. Whilst
incompetence is the norm
for the SNP Government,
taking responsibility for it
is as rare as a blue moon.
Figures had recently been
published showing that
drug deaths in Scotland
had been risen to a record
height of 1,264, a figure
double that of 2014,
or 295 per million and
a rate 3.5 times higher
than that of the UK of
a whole. These comparative
figures do not usually
feature in SNP press
releases, which normally
like to stress microscopic
differences in the Scottish–
English coronavirus
death rates.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Brexit Grumbles
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
SNP positions on Brexit
are as varied as those
in the Kama Sutra. They
said that a No Deal Brexit
would be catastrophic. One
MP, Joanna Cherry, said
that she would go to court
to ensure that if the Prime
Minister took us out of
the European Union (EU)
without a deal he would go
to jail. In the final House
of Commons vote this was
exactly what they voted for
however, when they voted
for a No Deal Brexit in the
final vote on the instructions
of Nicola Sturgeon
(SNP Parliamentarians are
not allowed to think for
themselves).
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
The Year Ahead
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
It is no more newsworthy
than reporting a
“dog bites man” story to
record that the SNP are still
demanding another independence
referendum this
year. To some extent Boris
Johnson agrees, helpfully
suggesting 2055 because
there were 41 years between
the two referendums
on the EU.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Passing
of a Life-
Long
Anti-
Fascist
GEORGE BLAKE, who
died in Russia on Boxing
Day at the age of 98, spent
his life fighting fascism in
various guises. Born in
1922 in Rotterdam of a
Dutch mother and a naturalised
British Egyptian
Jewish father called Albert
Behar, he was named
after the reigning King.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Assange still jailed
THE LONG-RUNNING
Julian Assange affair
has not yet finally been
resolved. On Monday, a
judge in the Old Bailey
ruled that the founder of
Wikileaks could not be extradited
to the USA, where
he faces the prospect of being
locked up for the rest of
his life for revealing official
communications from US
diplomats abroad to their
bosses in Washington that
reveal, or rather confirm,
that US diplomats do much
more than ‘diplomacy’.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
International News
Alabama warehouse workers take on Amazon
by Minnie Bruce Pratt
AMAZON workers at a
Bessemer, Alabama, USA
warehouse took a big
step toward organising
the first union ever in
that behemoth company,
when the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB)
approved their request
for a unionisation vote.
Bessemer is a former
steel-producing city adjoining
Birmingham.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
America’s
retail
union
by New Worker
correspondent
THE RETAIL, Wholesale
and Department Store
Union (RWDSU) was
founded in 1937 as the
United Retail Employees
of America by the
Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO), as a
result of a split in the New
York branches of the Retail
Clerks International
union, and changed its
name the following year.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Similar
story at
Google
ANOTHER group of workers
in the USA are taking
steps to get organised. At
internet giant Google 227
workers, mostly in the
San Francisco area, have
formed a new “Alphabet
Union” (named after
Google’s parent company).
“This is historic, the
first union at a major tech
company by and for all tech
workers,” said software
engineer Dylan Baker, who
added: “We will elect representatives,
we will make
decisions democratically,
we will pay dues, and we
will hire skilled organisers
to ensure all workers at
Google know they can
work with us if they actually
want to see their company
reflect their values.”
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Israel blocks COVID vaccine for Palestinian prisoners
Communist Party of Israel
THE ISRAELI
Health Ministry reported on
Wednesday, 30th
December, that
the total number
of residents in the
country inoculated
against COVID-19
is currently more
than 500,000. Israeli
Public Security
Minister Amir
Ohana has issued a
directive however,
preventing Palestinians
detained by
Israel from receiving
vaccinations, in
violation of mandatory
Health Ministry
guidelines.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Israeli prisons
Prensa Latina
DURING 2020, Israel
detained 4,636
Palestinians during
raids according to
Wafa, the Palestinian
news agency.
According to complaints
from human
rights groups, the Israeli
military captured
at least 543 minors
in 2020, despite
exhortations from the
United Nations (UN)
to provide them with
protection and keep
them away from all
kinds of violence.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Features
The German photographer who
recorded Hà Noi in time 0f war
Việt Nam News
ANYONE who has seen
the photography book Hà
Nội 1967–1975 by German
photographer Thomas
Billhardt can see the
true emotions of Hà Nội.
Writer Đỗ Phấn noted:
“Traces of wartime were
featured peacefully, gently
and romantically through
the lenses of the German
photographer… Of course,
there are also painful moments.”
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Capitalism and Science:
Elsevier and Wiley’s War
on Science and Research
by Prabir Purkayastha
THREE journal publishers
have filed a case
in Delhi High Court for
blocking Sci-Hub and
Libgen in India. These
two websites provide
free downloads of research
publications
and books to research
scholars and students.
This is not an attack
on pirate sites as the
publishers claim but
a war against students
and researchers in India,
who do not have
access to these high
priced journals. The
case has been filed in
Delhi by knowledge
monopolies who have
locked the results of
science – both natural
and social sciences –
behind their paywalls,
and now insist that
everyone pay through
the nose for access.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Polish Communists
on farmers’ protests
Edited by the New
Worker from an automatic
translation of an
article by the Communist
Party of Poland
DECEMBER saw a
huge increase in the
protests of farmers
in Poland at the same
time as the great farmers’
strike was taking
place in India. This
involved 300,000 agricultural
workers on
a march to Delhi. Despite
differences between
the situation
of farmers in Poland
and in India, the reasons
for the protests
and the demands of
the protesters in both
countries are similar.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
