National News
Partygate storm continues
in Westminster
by Oleg Burunov
THE Liberal Democrats have accused Downing Street of piling pressure on senior civil servant Sue Gray to change her ‘Partygate’ report as Labour plans to push for a vote on the government’s decision to change the ministerial code of conduct following the report’s publication.
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Not so regal pay
by New Worker correspondent
RECENTLY an important London-based employer with an extensive property portfolio was accused by Unite’s Hospitality Branch of advertising a job as a live-in housekeeper at poverty rates. The advert originally offered an hourly wage £1.00 below the £8.70 per hour legal minimum for jobs with accommodation and meals.
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Never knowingly overpaid
by New Worker
correspondent
ANOTHER posh business that declines to pay decent wages is the John Lewis Partnership, which is refusing to pay all “Partners” (ie employees) at least the voluntary Real Living Wage. Whilst at present they are paying it as an emergency measure they have no plans to continue and have no plans to become a Living Wage Foundation-accredited employer.
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Cheers for some
by New Worker correspondent
SOME people, however, are doing well. The overall pay for the CEOs of the top-listed British companies has returned to pre-pandemic levels to an average of £3.6 million.ussell ‘Texas’ Bentley, a US-born Donbas volunteer and war correspondent.
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Rail News
by New Worker correspondent
THE NATIONWIDE strike ballot held by transport union RMT amongst its 40,000 members in 15 train operating companies brought forth a massive majority in favour of strike action, with 89 per cent voting in favour on a 71 per cent turnout.
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In the Departure Lounge
by New Worker correspondent
AT BRITISH Airways pay disputes are underway.
The first one concerns check-in staff at Heathrow Airport, where 500 staff belonging to Unite (and others in GMB) are balloting for industrial action over their pay. If they vote for action, it will hit the July holiday traffic
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
IT IS JUST possible that some New Worker readers will be aware that Her Majesty the Queen will be marking the fact that she has reigned over the British Commonwealth for 70 years and four months. At roughly the same time a couple of shorter anniversaries went largely unnoticed.
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Pittance pay in the heart of Cambridge
by Carole Barclay
DANIEL ZEICHNER, the local Labour MP, joined Cambridge students and supervisors demanding “fair pay”, a contract and paid training for supervisors at a rally in the heart of the university city last week.
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International News
Steady advance in the Donbas
by our European Affairs correspondent
RUSSIAN and Donbas forces are continuing their advance to drive the Ukrainians out of the Don basin. A Ukrainian counter-attack in the Kharkov region has been beaten back but the Russians, who are holding a border buffer-zone in north east Ukraine, say they have no plans to advance on Kharkov itself.
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Davos without snow
by Roberto Morejón
THIS YEAR’S session of the Davos Forum abandoned its facade as a gathering of the opulent, in a clash with the mass of the globally dispossessed.
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Gun Control: Can they do it – do they want it?
by Guillermo Alvarado
THE DEATHS of 19 children and two teachers at a school in Texas, the 212th mass shooting so far this year and the 28th perpetrated in a school, once again brought up the issue of the proliferation of firearms in the hands of the American population.
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Features
Another romp in the jungle
Review by Ben Soton
The Lost City. Paramount Pictures, 2022; 12A, 112 mins. Director: Aaron Nee, Adam Nee. Stars: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe.
THE LOST CITY could best be described as Jumanji for the middle-aged with strong similarities to the Romancing the Stone franchise of the 1980s.
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The working class
and the global capitalist crisis
by Larry Holmes
MOST BOURGEOIS economists are now predicting a recession, which is a sharp downturn in the economy. A recession used to be considered cyclical, but this has changed, just as the nature of the capitalist crisis has changed. This is because capitalism has heard its death knell and is in a permanent crisis.
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Uncle Sam’s other voice: 71 years of ‘Radio Free Europe’
by Dan Kovalik
THE 1ST OF MAY marked the 71st anniversary of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (hereinafter RFE/RL, although this didn’t become the official name until 1976) – radio stations which broadcast into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, respectively.
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