National News
Tooth Rotters
by New Worker correspondent
North of the border, strike action at AG Barr, whose Irn-Bru outsells Coca Cola and Pepsi in Scotland and keeps the dentistry profession smiling, is stepping up.
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A Breath of Fresh Air
by New Worker correspondent
A nationwide 10-day strike by workers at BOC, formerly British Oxygen Company, now owned by the German company Line PLC, is currently taking place. The 80 workers involved are employed in sales and marketing roles and have suffered a nine per cent pay cut compared with other workers in the company since 2018. They rejected a below-inflation pay offer of 7.6 per cent for this year. Apart from Oxygen, BOC produces a variety of gases for medical, industrial and specialist use for customers such as GSK, Astra Zeneca, Ineos, Nissan, the Ministry of Defence, the bubbles in Coca Cola and the National Grid.
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Small Bucks for Big Bangs
by New Worker correspondent
One of the more obscure parts of the civil service is a military subsidiary called DE&S – the successor to the old Defence Electronics and Components Agency (DECA) – that is now the scene of a pay dispute at its bases at Sealand in Flintshire and Stafford.
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Cardboard Offer
by New Worker correspondent
A protracted struggle is going on at the Darlington-based packaging printer Cepac. Workers have been on strike since the middle of August and action will continue until 23rd October. The company produces corrugated packaging for clients such as Greggs, Costa, Subway and Pret A Manger and major supermarket chains and drinks companies. It is a highly profitable company making a gross profit of £38.6 million, a 12 per cent increase on the previous year.
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Ferry Serious Troubles
by New Worker correspondent
The Victorian sounding Isle of Man Steam Packet Company (IOMSPCo) is presently taking a very Victorian attitude to industrial relations in a dispute which shows some parallels with the mass sackings by P&O last year. The company is the only ferry service to the tax-dodging paradise in the Irish Sea. It also provides links with Belfast and Dublin on one side of the Irish Sea, and Liverpool and Heysham on the other.
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Holiday Frauds
by New Worker correspondent
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has come up with a remarkable scheme that allows workers to sell some of their annual leave back to the Department. This was tried out in January and has now been established on a permanent basis.
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Starmer ‘Glitter Bombed’ in Liverpool
Sputnik
Keir Starmer was confronted with a theatrical form of protest on Tuesday as a pro-democracy protester covered the Labour Party leader in glitter.
The act occurred as Starmer prepared to speak before party members at their annual conference in Liverpool. Shortly after Starmer arrived at the lectern a protester, now identified as 28-year-old Yaz Ashmawi, rushed the stage and tossed glitter on the party leader .
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
The Middle East crisis touched Scotland this week with our First Minister calling on the Westminster government to push for a humanitarian corridor to help the people of Gaza cut off by the Israeli siege while desperately trying to contact his wife’s parents who are trapped in the Palestinian enclave now under relentless Zionist attack. Humza Yousaf’s in-laws were in Gaza visiting relatives when Hamas launched its surprise attack into southern Israel. Yousaf said: “As many will know, my wife is Palestinian, her mum and dad, my in-laws, who live in Dundee, live in Scotland. They’ve been in Gaza and are currently trapped in Gaza, I’m afraid.”
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International News
Grinding my gears in Việtnam
by Seán Nolan , VNS
Over a recent long weekend, I did some- thing I hadn’t done in years – I went for a long bicycle ride.
You won’t need telling that cycling is one of the most popular recreational activities in Hànội. Every weekend, thousands flock to West Lake in the mornings and evenings to do a lap. Instead, I headed out of the city, seeking a bit of tranquillity. Some 40 km later my backside was paying the price, but that wasn’t the only problem I encountered. Pain in the backside aside, I couldn’t help but notice the other chal- lenges cyclists face in this country.
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USA may divert Ukraine aid to Israel
by Ekaterina Blinova , Sputnik
The White House is seeking to attach Ukraine funding to the urgent package for Israel, in a hope that it will help circumvent House Republicans’ opposition to further assistance to Kiev, according to the US mainstream press.
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German call to end Ukraine war
by Willi van Ooyen, Jungewelt
The ‘Lay Down Your Arms – No to War’ initiative joined the call of the Vienna Peace Conference for a global mobilisation last week to demand an immediate ceasefire and peace ne- gotiations to end this war in Ukraine.
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Features
The view from China: Pouring fuel on the fire
Global Times
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip. Over two million Palestinians live in the densely packed enclave. They already suffer under continuous blockades and restrictions on movement. The outbreak of the current conflict has only added to their dangers and hardships. Electricity and water supplies have been cut off, and a new humanitarian disaster is brewing.
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Israeli terror is behind the war
by John Wojcik , People’s World (USA)
Thousands of Palestinians and Israelis have been killed or wounded in violence now marked by constant barbaric air raids Israel has unleashed on the territory of Gaza, a small enclave near the southern tip of Israel that is literally an outdoor prison for its two million Palestinian inhabitants.
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A slap in the face for the Israeli security system
By Fouad Baker, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)
No-one expected that this would be the response of the Palestinian resistance to the plan of the fascist and racist Israeli occupation government based on Judaisation, displacement, expansion of settlements, annexation of lands, storming the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian camps in the West Bank, administrative arrests, and the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and the national rights of the Palestinian people.
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The “writing in the wall”: Israeli communist call
Ofer Cassif, a Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) MP in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, is also a leading Communist Party of Israel (CPI) member, - Communist Party of Israel
He has told Al Jazeera that his party warned about events like Saturday’s deadly Hamas attack on Israel if the country’s government continued its occupation of Palestinian territories. The attack launched on Saturday left at least 700 Israelis dead and 2,000 wounded, including dozens of soldiers. Meanwhile, at least 436 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,200 others wounded in Israeli bombardments of the besieged Gaza enclave.
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Israeli–Palestinian conflict fuels US Islamic hatred
by Ding Gang , Global Times
Hamas launched an “unprecedented” raid on Israel on 7th October and Israel quickly retaliated with harsh measures. The Middle East is again ablaze resulting in the tragic deaths of thousands of civilians.
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