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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain


National News

Transport Priorities

by our Scottish political affairs correspondent

The SNP Cabinet Secretary for Transport is apparently one Michael Matheson. He has a lot on his plate at the moment. Ferry services to the Western Isles are breaking down. At present you need a three-week advance booking to take your car on some major routes because old ferries break down and nobody thought to buy replacements. Meanwhile, air traffic controllers are striking on Thursday in opposition to being replaced by machines.

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Scottish Political News

by our Scottish political affairs correspondent

IN THIS TIME of economic uncertainty, it is good to report that at least one section of the Scottish economy is booming. This growth area is the Scottish Government’s growing army of press officers.

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COVID Cover-Up

by our Scottish political affairs correspondent

In one field however, the SNP have uncharacteristically deferred to what it normally sees as an oppressive Tory Government despite saying in their election manifesto that they would set up a public inquiry “into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Scotland” as soon as possible after the election.

Now that the election is safely out of the way the First Minister has dramatically changed her tune and said that she would wait “until the remit of UK-wide inquiry is known”.

Some heartless cynics have implied that this might be connected with the possibility that Nicola Sturgeon might not actually want a public inquiry because it might reveal facts that she might not want revealed.

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New lamps for old Starmer style

Sputnik

AFTER MONTHS of waiting, Labour leader Keir Starmer finally comes up with a policy… but it’s nothing new. More than a year after becoming leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer has finally come up with a policy announcement.

Starmer – a former Director of Public Prosecutions – was elected leader of the Labour Party in April 2020. He has struggled to make an impression politically and in May this year suffered a humiliating defeat at the Hartlepool by-election.

Starmer said: “Today we’re launching a campaign to make Britain the best place to work. Family incomes have stagnated, millions are in insecure work and in-work poverty is at a record high. COVID has brutally exposed the injustices that have been growing for years.”

But his campaign to But his campaign to “fundamentally change our economy” lacks detail and seems to be a collection of liberal or left-wing aspirations that are likely to have been forgotten by voters by the end of the week, if not by the end of the day.

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Londoners rally in support of Socialist Cuba

Sputnik

CUBA solidarity activists rallied on Saturday in London to express their support for Socialist Cuba and against the US unilateral blockade of the small Caribbean island nation in the light of the recent anti-government protests in Havana and other cities that Cuban authorities say were orchestrated from the USA.

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International News

Tunisians celebrate fall of government

Telesur

THOUSANDS of Tunisians took to the streets on Sunday to celebrate President Kais Saied’s decision to dismiss Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and suspend Parliament. President Saied’s actions appear to be aligned with the political aspirations of those citizens who want a secular state. Tunisian Islamists however, denounced it as a constitutional coup d’état.

President Saied has taken executive power and he will govern during the transition period with the help of a new Prime Minister that he, himself will appoint. Saied said his actions were based on Article 80 of the country’s 2014 constitution. “We took these decisions so that social peace returns to Tunisia and that we save the country,” he said

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COVID: Time to investigate Fort Detrick

Xinhua

AMIDST a surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases in the USA, some American politicians have continued to wantonly preach the so-called second phase study into the origin of the coronavirus in China rather than focusing on fighting the coronavirus and saving lives in their own country.

When it comes to issues involving Fort Detrick, however, which are of great concern to the international community, these same politicians desperately avoid even talking about it. But the time has come for Fort Detrick to be investigated.

Evidence of infection in the USA can be traced back to November 2019 or even earlier, which is much earlier than the “first confirmed case” in the USA, according to multiple media reports. In June and July 2019, the US media started to report issues involving Fort Detrick. By the end of July, two retirement communities near the base witnessed outbreaks of pneumonia of unknown cause. In September, vaping-related lung illness cases doubled in Maryland, where Fort Detrick is located.

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Cuban embassy attacked in Paris

Radio Havana Cuba

THE FRENCH government has condemned the Molotov cocktail attack against the Cuban embassy in Paris and opened an investigation into the fire-bombing.

The French Foreign Ministry stressed that it opened a judicial investigation to determine those responsible for the attack on the night of 26th July, which caused some material damage but no casualties. Measures have been implemented to reinforce the security arrangements around the embassy.

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A black diamond in Havana

by Maite González Martínez

FOR THE Black Lives Matter movement (BLM), the ‘jewel in their crown’ is a black woman, the radical revolutionary Assata Shakur, also known by the name of Joanne Chesimard, who has lived in Havana since the 1970s after she was accused of killing a New Jersey police officer when she escaped from a patrol car that was driving her under arrest on charges of being one of the leaders of the Black Panther movement.

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Billionaires in space

by Betsey Piette

CENTIBILLIONAIRE Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and multibillionaire Virgin Group founder Richard Branson used the profits they extracted from their companies’ workforces to launch themselves on personal space rides in recent weeks. And centibillionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk is expected to follow.

One thing is clear: none of these billionaires did any of the work that got them into space. All the labour to build their capsules, rocket launchers, launch-pads and more was done by workers, whose labour these billionaires exploited.

These same billionaires’ earthly fortunes came from super-exploiting workers in their factories, sweatshops and warehouses. They managed to pay little to no taxes to support public services. Nothing of benefit to humankind will come from this.

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COVID protests at Olympic opening

by Al Neal

ALL THE pomp and pageantry were present at the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony in Tokyo, Japan. The Parade of Nations was a sight to see, the singing of all the national anthems was lovely, and the lighting of the Olympic torch – a burst of white-hot flames and golden embers – was breath-taking. But despite all that, the public reception was lukewarm at best.

No fans were allowed into the massive stadium due to a surge of COVID-19 in Japan – and the cardboard cut-outs filling in the seats gave off a sense of false reality.

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Features

Cyber Warfare - Made in the USA

by Finian Cunningham

WESTERN allegations that China is conducting massive cyber-attacks are a frame-up. Not only that but the real perpetrators of cybercrimes are the accusers in what is classic self-projection of guilt.

This dangerous game of cyber ‘smoke and mirrors’ is riling up international tensions in a way that is becoming uncontrollable and ultimately, deplorably, comes with the growing risk of war.

China and Russia are now being openly vilified for allegedly carrying out cyber-crimes against Western countries. Both nations vehemently reject what they call “slanderous” claims. Beijing and Moscow quite reasonably demand that evidence be presented. None is forthcoming, only more groundless allegations. This is a reckless spiral.

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A tale of two countries

by Greg Godels

TWO COUNTRIES have made the front pages and lead stories in our lemming-like capitalist media: Haiti and Cuba.

One country – Haiti – has earned the ire of the self-styled Western democracies by overthrowing its colonial slave masters and establishing a free state in 1803, the first country in history to liberate itself from European-imposed slavery. The Europeans and elites in the USA never forgave the rebellious followers of Toussaint L’Ouverture and their descendants. Through occupations, threats, ‘incentives’ and economic extortion, imperialism has ensured that Haiti remains amongst the poorest countries of the Americas, ranking 145 on the UN’s Human Development Index

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Capitalism breeds climate catastrophe

by Michel Collon

Hundreds die from heat exhaustion in the US Northwest and British Columbia. Unprecedented heat waves hit northern Norway and Siberia. Now, unheard of flooding in Western Europe has killed hundreds of people in Germany and Belgium. The following spot-on article by anti-imperialist publisher Michel Collon exposes the insidious role of 21st‑century capitalism in the climate crisis faced by humanity.

I WAS in Liege, Belgium, where I spent three days near my daughter. Fortunately, she lives in the hills, but many of her friends and colleagues live near the now-flooded Meuse River. Those three days were filled with intense emotions, as we anxiously followed messages and networks offering comfort and a helping hand.

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