National News
A dangerous escalation
by Chen Qingqing , Global Times
If the UK sends controversial shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine it will set a bad precedent for the conflict that could also mean an escalation in weapon supplies, Chinese experts said, warning of long-term harmful effects on the environment and people's health. This move shows that the West does not care about Ukrainians or Russians as they use "the blood of Ukrainians to weaken Russia by all means".
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Rousing the Workers or Not?
by New Worker correspondent
In its customary measured language, the official gov.uk website describes the Strikes (Minimum Services Levels) Bill 2023 as a measure that aims “to limit the impacts of strike action on the lives and livelihoods of the public and to strike a balance between the right of unions and their members to strike with the need for the wider public to be able to access key services during strikes”. It adds that: “The legislation will allow regulations to be made to establish the required minimum level of service and specific services it will apply to, following consultation and approval by parliament.”
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Freeports
by New Worker correspondent
Trade union bureaucrats rarely, if ever, put much energy into implementing the policies of the members they are paid so handsomely to serve.
Look at the matter of free ports, which have recently been in the news. In April 2021 then Chancellor Rishi Sunak made them a centrepiece of his Budget. This was a not-unexpected move as the Government had announced a public consultation about them the previous year.
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Chickenfeed Wages
by New Worker correspondent
Strike action is starting, which if prolonged could see the nation’s chickens and pigs going hungry.
Associated British Foods, which supplies Britain’s supermarkets, has a subsidiary, AB Agri, which makes animal feed.
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Two Scottish Victories
by New Worker correspondent
North of the border we have welcome news of two comparatively small victories, one in the face of a multinational company and another against the Scottish Government.
Workers at Drax Hydro Limited employed at three Scottish power stations have secured an eight per cent wage increase along with a £1,500 one-off cash payment and an extra day’s leave for this year, and it will be backdated to October 2022 and run until September 2023.
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Lighting the Way
by New Worker correspondent
Since it was founded in 1786, the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) has not featured much in the annals of working-class struggle. That could be about to change, particularly after the victory at HAIL, a similar organisation.
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Down with the Kiev fascist regime!
by New Worker correspondent
We had a good turn-out at the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign (IUAFS) picket in Whitehall on Saturday. NCP leader Andy Brooks joined comrades and friends at another picket organised by the IUAFS campaign to highlight the plight of political prisoners jailed by the Zelensky regime and to stand by all those bravely fighting the fascism in Ukraine.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
Humza Yousaf, the new leader of the Scottish National Party, was voted in as First Minister of Scotland in the Scottish parliament this week. The support of the SNP and their Green allies made his election a foregone conclusion. The same, however, cannot be said of his victory in the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon.
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International News
America's fake democracy
Xinhua
In 2021, with the debut of its so-called Summit for Democracy, the USA attempted to fool the world but desperately failed. Now, the second episode is set to start.
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UN refuses to investigate Nord Stream blast
Sputnik
The UN Security Council has refused to adopt Russia’s draft resolution on a probe into the Nord Stream blasts but Russia says it will not let the matter drop.
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Features
A World to Win!
by Sanjay Roy, People’s Democracy (India)
THE Communist Manifesto begins with the profound observation that the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles indicating history in the making through class contests. Capitalism has undergone different regimes of accumulation co-ordinated through institutions and regulations conducive for particular regimes. During the neoliberal regime of accumulation, capital assumes ascendancy, hegemonising almost all non-capitalist structures and subsuming them into the rule of global finance.
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USA: Another form of gig work: sex-work
by Janisse Miles, Workers World (USA)
Three years ago, people in the USA were notified that they had to celebrate Women’s History Month in their own homes, as thousands of organisations were shutting down for what was hoped would be two weeks but proved to be longer. The COVID-19 lockdown that started in mid-March would push on well into the summer months, and in that time 25-million workers would lose their jobs due to companies being unable or unwilling to adapt to such unique circumstances.
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France: Running out of steam
From Global Times
French capitalism has run out of its accumulated dividends. It’s reached a critical point.
The reform of the pension system is a key issue related to national competitiveness, especially for developed countries such as France, which have entered the era of welfarism.
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Re-birth of a Great Nation – The Rise of China
by John Maryon
Millions of workers were inspired during first half of the 20th Century by the unprecedented growth of the world's first workers’ state. Under the leaderships of Lenin and Stalin the Soviet Union made many historic achievements.
Revisionism ultimately destroyed the USSR, but the Red Banner is today carried forward by People's China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Vietnam, Laos and Cuba. I would like to examine the impact of the dramatic rise of China under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and its role in the world today.
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21st Century Communism
Review by Robin MacGregor
The International Communist Movements – Annual Report 2019–2020 by Academy of Marxism, Chinese Academy of Social Science; 2022. Marx 21 Edizioni, Bari. 328 pp; €18:00 from: www.marx21books.com
This volume is a welcome collaboration between the Academy of Marxism, which is part of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the Italian publisher Marx 21 Edizioni of Bari. CASS is not just another thinktank but plays an important role in shaping party and government policy in China.
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