National News
Cleanliness is next to Godliness
by New Worker correspondent
Firstly, over to the non-TUC-affiliated street union United Voices of the World (UVW), which has been organising its members, largely migrant workers, in taking industrial action at various locations across London.
About 45 low-paid cleaners, carers and concierge workers took action in mid-June, launched with a double decker bus tour around their battlegrounds in central London.
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Lighting the Way
by New Worker correspondent
Lighthouse keepers more frequently feature in fiction where they go mad from isolation rather than in the annals of working-class struggle. But on Monday and Tuesday workers employed by Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) took noon-to-noon 24-hour strike action.
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Down the Nave
by our Ecclesiastical Affairs correspondent
Another group of workers not noted for industrial militancy are Church of England (CoE) clergy, who for the first time in their history submitted a formal pay claim. The claim was lodged by the Church of England Clergy & Employee Advocates (CEECA), part of Unite the union’s Faith Workers Branch. The Church of England’s Remuneration and Conditions of Service Committee (RACSC) graciously invited CEECA to make their proposals.
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A night at the opera
by New Worker correspondent
Opera is rarely seen as a trade union issue. The actors’ union Equity and the Musicians’ Union recently won a partial victory in opposing plans by Arts Council England (ACE) to defund the English National Opera (ENO) unless it moves out of London. ENO workers from Equity and the Musicians’ Union successfully secured cross-party support for their campaign to keep the ENO in London, but this victory came at a cost because the ENO will now have to maintain two sites on a reduced income
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Hainan Airlines restores Edinburgh flights
by New Worker correspondent
C h i n a ’ s Hainan Airlines on Monday relaunched its regular flight operation between Edinburgh and Beijing. Hainan Airlines now flies twice per week from Edinburgh to Beijing, on Mondays and on Fridays
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
Caird Hall, in Dundee was the venue for the SNP’s “Independence Convention” last Saturday. This was open to any SNP member willing to pay a tenner to attend. Caird Hall has a capacity of 2,000 but just under a thousand of a claimed 74,489 membership did so. It replaced the regular Spring conference that was hastily cancelled after Nicola Sturgeon’s sudden resignation
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International News
Bitter battle for NATO job history
by Ilya Tsukanov , Sputnik
Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace, seen by the media as the top candidate to replace Jens Stoltenberg when he resigns as NATO chief, announced last week that he has no plans to put his hat in the ring for the job. “It’s not going to happen,” Wallace said, suggesting the alliance may “want a prime minister” for the NATO chief role instead of a career military man like himself.
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Prisoners of war – in Russia and Ukraine
by Evgeny Glebov, MART
Prisoners of war (POWs) are usually treated according to rank. Officers get better treatment. They can be used as camp supervisors. They can refuse to work at all. But other ranks often end up doing heavy, and sometimes meaningless jobs, poorly fed and treated quite cruelly. The Nazis and the Japanese militarists even carried out hideous experiments on them.
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USA out of Korea!
by New Worker correspondent
NCP leader Andy Brooks joined a Korean solidarity protest picket outside the US embassy in London last Saturday to mark 73rd anniversary of the Korean war and to call for the end of the American occupation of south Korea.
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Cuba strengthens ties with Europe
by María Josefina Arce , Radio Havana Cuba
The intense agenda that Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel developed last week on his tour of Europe began in Italy – to which we are united by 120 years of fluid relations. Cuban–Italian relations are characterised by important moments such as visits at the highest level and great solidarity in complex situations.
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The Arab Summit – Syria’s Summit
by Reem Haddad , Syria Times
Undoubtedly and irrevocably the spotlight was on Syria in the last Arab Summit that was held on the 19th May in Jeddah. And undoubtedly and irre- vocably Syria delivered as if 12 years of absence had never taken place. Syria, a founding member of the Arab League, sat in its rightful place welcomed by all.
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Features
Imperialist media can’t stop lying about mosques in China
by Arjae Red , Workers World (USA)
IT HAS been some time coming, but China’s first large home-made passenger jet finally entered commercial service last week, on 28th May 2023 on a China Eastern Airlines flight from Shanghai to Beijing. The C919 jetliner, with a 156-168 seat capacity and a nominal range of 4000–5500 km, is made by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China or COMAC. It is a single-aisle narrow-body passenger aircraft positioned to compete with the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320.
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Donbas communists speak out!
by Theo Russell
On 28th May 2023 I met with Boris Litvinov, secretary of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) District of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), in Moscow. His comments are reported below.
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Visiting Russia during sanctions and war
by Theo Russell
On a recent visit to Russia to attend an activist conference in Moscow I gained a fascinating impression of this great and civilised country during a time of war.
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