National News
Bricks and Mortar Battle
by New Worker correspondent
Another group of blue-collar council workers taking strike action is that of the building workers in the Midlands borough of Sandwell, where about 100 workers are taking 14 days of strike action throughout this month and next over a broken pay promise.
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Our Learned Friends of the Workers
by New Worker correspondent
Seven years ago in 2017, general union Unison won a Supreme Court case against the Government on the issue of imposing fees on claimants at Employment Tribunals (ET). The fees had been introduced in July 2013 with the aim of preventing ETs doing their job, which is to function as a sort of small claims court for workers in dispute with their employers.
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Railway Times
by New Worker correspondent
Once again, the railways seem to be the main site of industrial action at the moment.
Rail union RMT has announced strike action on London Overground (part of the capital’s local train service) after more than 300 workers rejected a below-inflation offer from contractor Arriva London. The action involves security, station, revenue and control staff on Monday and Tuesday on the 19th and 20th of this month, and on the same days in the first week of March.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
As Nicola Sturgeon’s appearance at the UK COVID enquiry took place after the New Worker went to bed we will leave dissection of that matter until next week. Instead, we take a look at the recent achievements of the Scottish Parliament.
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International News
Wake up to the American blame game
by James Smith , Global Times
The USA recently asked China to “help” maintain the flow of Red Sea shipping. The USA is currently in a state of conflict with Houthi rebels in Yemen. The cause of the conflict is a failure of the USAQ to push for a ceasefire and peace negotiations in Israel, which has caused regional tensions and instability. The USA and UK, in turn, have responded with a bombing campaign in Yemen. According to US officials, however, it is China who should apparently be making the peace.
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The Chinese threat: a baseless slander
by Global Times
In response to the reports that British police are establishing a new unit to “counter threats posed by China, Russia and Iran”, Chinese experts point out that the UK intends to shift the blame for its domestic under-development issues onto foreign countries while blindly following the USA’s diplomatic policies.
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China’s economy on track
Global Times
The long-term trajectory of China’s development remains promising. Betting against China has never succeeded in the past and will not succeed in the future, China’s Ambassador to the UK Zheng Zeguang said recently in a keynote speech delivered at the Asia House Annual Outlook 2024 Launch in London.
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General strike rocks Argentina
by New Worker correspondent
Argentinian workers shut down the country last week in a oneday general strike called by the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) in protest at the Milei government’s offensive against the unions. Javier Milei, a tool of US imperialism, was elected president seven weeks ago vowing to “dollarise” the economy, deregulate businesses, privatise state-run industries, slash workers’ wages and crack down on civil liberties, including the right to hold protests.
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Fuelling the conflict to save his skin
by Oleg Burunov , Sputnik
Doubts about the West’s willingness to further prop up the Kiev regime may drive Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to stir up the Ukraine conflict even further by ordering riskier attacks against Russia, Time magazine reported. Zelensky is already taking “bigger risks” in order to turn the conflict around and bolster his political standing at home the US publication said.
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Features
To be a socialist one must be an anti-imperialist
by FightBack News (USA)
Since the writing of the Communist Manifesto and the founding of the First International, proletarian internationalism has been a cornerstone of scientific socialism and is a pillar of Marxism-Leninism. Today, in the era of imperialism, putting genuine proletarian internationalism into practice demands that we be consistent anti-imperialists.
Beyond any moral questions, there are two obvious, material reasons for this proletarian internationalist, anti-imperialist unity. On the one hand, every dollar that goes to imperialist war is a dollar that could have been spent on people’s needs at home. But even more importantly, every blow struck against imperialism weakens the monopoly capitalist class here. .
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Washington is the biggest threat to peace
by Sun Shifeng , The author is an official of the Turpan Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
In recent years, the USA has turned a blind eye to its own serious issues of forced labour and racism. Sticking to a Cold War mentality, zero-sum thinking and hypocritical double standards, it challenges justice with its hegemony to advance its selfish interests under the guise of ‘democracy’, ‘freedom’ and ‘human rights’
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