National News
Stopping the racists in London
by New Worker correspondent
Over 20,000 activists turned out in London last Saturday to confront the “Unite the Kingdom” protest by supporters of Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the third major far-right gathering in London since just before the riots in June .
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On the Highland Buses
by New Worker correspondent
In the Scottish Highlands and Islands strike action is on the cards after 200 Stagecoach bus drivers overwhelmingly rejected a pay offer that would still leave the drivers among the poorest paid in Scotland.
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London Transport Battles
by New Worker correspondent
On one of London’s less essential transport routes workers on the Doppelmayr Cable Car (DCC) which crosses the Thames in Docklands have voted to accept an improved pay and conditions offer following the threat of strike action. This includes a 3.3 per cent rise, backdated to May 2024, with further inflation linked guarantees for the next two years. Hours have been reduced from 44 to 40.5 hours, with paid meal breaks included. The icing on the cake includes double-time for bank holidays, increased paternity leave; paternity leave with extra sick pay entitlement after two years of service and a reduced time required to qualify for late-shift transport has been secured.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
At a time when workers at the Grangemouth refinery are facing up to redundancy, 160 jobs at bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis jobs in Scotland are at risk and 440 people may lose their jobs at the Mitsubishi factory in West Lothian, it is good to report on one growth area in the Scottish economy. This is in the field of Scottish Government “communications staff” – which we called press or public relations officers in days gone by
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International News
Delusions of grandeur
by James Smith, Global Times
Last week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to increase the UK’s military deployment in the Pacific Ocean in the form of “joint fishing patrols” in order to improve “regional stability” arguing that the region, situated on the other side of the planet from London, was “important” to the country’s “security”. The pledge came as the prime minister effectively received the cold shoulder at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting where controversy over reparations for British slavery dominated the headlines. Although the new government has significantly moderated its position on China and sought to open re-engagement with Beijing, the media nonetheless framed the deployment as an “anti-China move” aimed at “countering Beijing’s influence in the Pacific”.
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Another victory for Cuba at the United Nations
by María Josefina Arce, Radio Havana Cuba
It was another historic day at the UN headquarters in New York. Once again, the world has overwhelmingly condemned the genocidal blockade that the USA has maintained against the Cuban people for more than six decades, in clear violation of international law.
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Gazan paramedic finds his own mother’s body
by Ed Newman, Radio Havana Cuba
A Palestinian paramedic has gone through a heart-wrenching experience after discovering that the body he was carrying on a stretcher following an Israeli airstrike on central Gaza was none other than his own mother.
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Features
USA and Israel:an axis of terror
by William Briggs, Guardian (Australian communist weekly)
An ‘axis of terror’ is operating in Gaza, in Lebanon, in the West Bank, in Syr- ia. It’s the Israeli military, backed by the USA.
Israel is seeking to break the Palestinian people’s will by bru- tality and terror. Ter- rorism, as a weapon is nothing new but its perpetrators rarely learn from the past. Israel, a terror state, is proving this on a daily basis
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New prospects for UK–China co-operation
by Ma Jingjing
Seventy years ago, a group of far-sighted British businessmen, represented by Jack Perry Senior, broke the ice and opened the door to developing China–UK trade, paving the way for enduring friendly exchanges. Over the decades, the “ice breaking” spirit carries on and contributes to fostering broad connections between the two countries. At the critical moment for China–UK relations, Global Times reporter Ma Jingjing interviewed Jack Perry Junior, the Chairman of the 48 Group Club and CEO of London Export Corp, to seek his insight on China’s economic development and improving China–UK relations.
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Unemployment and deprivation: what the West German takeover meant in the East
by Jenny Farrell and Karl Döring, People’s World (USA)
This article is based on an interview with Karl Döring, a former public servant in the government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Written by Jenny Farrell, the story here is told from Döring’s first-person point of view. Born in 1937, Döring studied and earned a PhD in metallurgy in Moscow, served as production director at the VEB Quality and Stainless Steel Plant in the GDR, was the country’s deputy minister for mining (1979-85), and from 1985 onwards, was the general director of Eisenhüttenkombinat Ost (EKO), one of the GDR’s biggest steelworks. From July to November 1990, he was the deputy chairman of the supervisory board of the Treuhandanstalt, the agency established by the West German government to oversee the privatisation of the public property belonging to the people of the GDR. The full interview was published in German in the Berliner Zeitung on 29th September 2024.
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From despair to revolution: the Bronx’s path to defeating addiction
Workers World (USA)
The Bronx Anti-War Coalition hosted a film screening on 11th October of the documentary Dope is Death as part of their guerrilla cinema series. The widely attended event featured a Q&A session with former Young Lord [street social movement] and acupuncturist Walter Bosque, where community members engaged in a lively discussion about continuing and expanding the revolutionary movement of healing.
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The other Russian revolutionaries
Book review by Ben Soton
Felix Volkhovskii – A Revolutionary Life by Michael Hughes; Open Book Publishers, 356pp, rrp: £22.95.
When it comes to the Russian Revolution this paper tends to give wholehearted backing to Lenin and his group, the Majority Faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), more commonly known as the Bolsheviks. This is not to say there were no other grouping and individuals working to bring about the end of Absolutism in Czarist Russia. One such individual was Felix Volkhovskii, the subject of Michael Hughes’ book.
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