National News
Tory leadership contest exposes splits in party
from Sputnik
A HEATED Tory leadership debate on Sunday laid bare a rift between front-runners in the Conservative race for the premiership that threatens to damage the Tory party’s image, Francis Cole, a former European Commission civil servant and author, told Sputnik.
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On all fronts
by New Worker correspondent
SOMETIMES the task of filling these pages is a difficult one. On some weeks fruitless hours have to be spent trawling through trade union websites to find stories about something more exciting than a union organising an indicative ballot about a ballot at a small widget factory. This summer is very different.
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Carry on nurse
MONDAY also saw the Nursing Times report that the Government is planning a five per cent pay award for NHS nurses for 2022–23.
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Hi-Tech strikes
AT BRITISH Telecommunications (BT) 40,000 workers are planning to strike next Friday and Monday. The issue at stake is BT imposing a flat-rate £1,500 per annum, a figure which the Communication Workers Union (CWU) says is a “dramatic real-terms pay cut when compared to RPI inflation levels of over 11 per cent”.
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On the Railways
ON THE railways, transport union RMT has warned it will strike repeatedly until the end of the year until its demands are met. Apart from the cost-of-living question that has already seen them take industrial action last month, which got the right-wing press frothing in the mouth, with further action planned for next month, pay is a major issue, but not the only one.
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Snail mail
IN SOME cases, even the threat of industrial action is having a positive impact. On Monday Unite announced that a three-day strike by its manager members in Royal Mail was called off at the last minute due to bosses having to come up with an improved offer in a long-running dispute, which was accepted by the junior and middle managers in a two-to-one vote.
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Workers in glass houses
THE UPSURGE in industrial action is even making itself felt amongst makers of conservatories. At Portrush in County Antrim workers at Hampton Conservatories Ltd began an initial eight-day strike last Saturday.
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Working class hero or zero?
by New Worker correspondent
WHITE PUFFS of smoke arose recently from Congress House to announce the appointment of the Trade Union Congress’ new General Secretary. He is Paul Nowak, the present Deputy General Secretary, who becomes General Secretary Designate at Congress in Brighton this September, and finally becomes the post-holder next January.
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Not so Radical
by New Worker correspondent
THE NATIONAL Union of Journalists has just won a long-running recognition battle against a hostile employer who strongly resisted the unions efforts, despite formally agreeing recognition in February last year.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
Summer Break
Catch Up
ALTHOUGH Holyrood is on its long summer holidays, several news items that arose during our much briefer summer break demand attention.
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Westward Ho!
Review by Ben Soton
WHY IS West Country drama all the rage these days? The English West Country – the area starting in Dorset and heading west across Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Avon, and ending around Gloucestershire – is often seen as a rural backwater, but the area includes major cities such as Bristol, once the home of the slave trade, as well as the cathedral city of Bath.
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International News
People’s power prevails
in Sri Lanka
People’s Democracy
(India
PEOPLE’S power was displayed in a spectacular fashion in Sri Lanka on 9th July when tens of thousands of people stormed the Presidential Palace, the President’s Secretariat and the official residence of the prime minister and took them over, sweeping aside the police and soldiers guarding them.
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Biden’s imperial tour
by Guillermo Alvarado
US PRESIDENT Joseph Biden has returned home after a tour of the Middle East, where he tried to rebuild his country’s hegemonic role in that region, which he evidently considers as a fundamental part of his backyard.
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NATO stands for war
by Francisco Arias Fernández
THE WORLD calls for peace and food, NATO for more weapons and military bases.
Between January and May 2022 alone, the USA has committed more than $40 billion in support to Ukraine in the context of the war, and the European Union more than 27 billion euros. To address the current food crisis, however, the West has contributed just $5 billion to UN efforts.
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Features
On Marxism and Decolonisation
by Vijay Prashad
IN 1959, one of the revolutionary leaders in Cuba, Haydée Santamaria, 100 years old this year, arrived at a cultural centre in the heart of Havana, Cuba. This building, the revolutionaries decided, would be committed to the promotion of Latin American art and culture and it would become – eventually – a beacon for the progressive transformation of the hemisphere’s cultural world.
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Red Theory: Marxism against post-modernism
by J Sykes
IN THE ideological terrain today, Marxism must struggle against post-modernism. What is post-modernism? In The Postmodern Condition, the French philosopher Jean Francois Lyotard summed up the post-modern view as the rejection of “meta-narratives”. By “meta-narratives” Lyotard means any theory that claims to be able to explain the totality of social, historical and cultural phenomena. This includes the Enlightenment and Marxism.
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