Menu
Hammer and sickle the communist featured image

Strike vote may save Turkeys

Meat hygiene inspectors have voted to strike, threatening meat and poultry supplies in the run-up to Xmas. UNISON, which represents the 1,000 workers in the Meat Hygiene Service, stated that the workers objected to planned cuts to overtime payments and the introduction of new work patterns. A strike would “seriously disrupt” meat supplies to supermarkets in the pre-Xmas period, the union warned. Turkeys have unanimously voted to back the inspectors. “No turkey is going to vote for Christmas”, said a spokeschicken.

rm1.jpg

How Blair felt ‘instant sympathy ’ for Murdoch

Buried on page 11 of the Guardian on 1st
November is an article, extremely enlightening in its simplicity, reporting the
‘news’ that during office Blair was only too happy to do Rupert Murdoch’s bidding.
According to Lance Price, former Downing Street
spin doctor, Murdoch was ‘one of the four most influential people in the
administration’. Never mind that he was totally unelected, not actually a part
of any ‘administration’, or that he is a US citizen whose company (News Corp.)
pays no net tax.

Hammer and sickle the communist featured image

Three trade union leaders killed in Venezuela

We
have received news of the assassination of three prominent trade union leaders
in Venezuela. Their comrades point the finger at the bosses in the Colombian
owned Alpina factory, where the workers are on struggle and where the three
killed comrades were coming from. They also point out the responsibility of
Didalco Boliviar, former governor of Aragua, defeated in the regional elections
last week. Didalco, was elected on a Bolivarian ticket but then joined the
opposition, and was known for his support for the bosses and the use of the
regional police against the workers.

kamangar1.jpg

Iran: Free Farzad Kamangar now!

Following an
appeal from LabourStart and Education International on the 26 November many trade unionists throughout the world sent protest
emails to the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran protesting against Farzad
Kamangar’s imminent execution. Those writing to Ayatollah Khamenei included
Brendan Barber, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (in
Britain).

According to
Education International, the international teachers’ federation, he was taken
from his cell in Tehran’s Evin prison on 26 November in preparation for
execution. The guards told him he was about to be executed and made fun of him,
calling him a martyr.

Hammer and sickle the communist featured image

What is really behind the food crisis?

We are told that there is not enough food for everyone, that
there are too many human beings on the planet and therefore we must all reduce
consumption – a handy idea in the hands of the bourgeois propagandists. The
real facts and figures reveal that the world produces enough food. So where
does the problem lie?

jgb.jpg

Brown: The Hero of the Hour

"ANDREA: Unhappy the land that has no heroes!"
"GALILEO: No, unhappy the land that needs heroes."
Bertolt Brecht (The Life of Galileo)

He is the
Hero of the Hour, the man who single-handedly has saved the world financial
system from meltdown. When all around were panicking and in despair, here was a
man who kept his head and, emanating a sense of absolute calm akin to the
Buddhist Nirvana, issued the command that re-established the Order of the
Universe. Nothing remotely similar has been seen since that far-off time just
before the Big Bang when the Almighty pronounced the immortal words: Let there
be Light. And there was Light. And God saw the Light, that it was good.

ad1.jpg

Pre-Budget Report: No Jam Tomorrow

The Report, and the accompanying package of
measures, has been greeted in the Financial Times as, “Say goodbye to New Labour.”
Philip Stevens goes on, “After a decade when it dared not offend the wealthy,
Gordon Brown’s government intends that the most affluent bear the brunt of
post-election tax increases. It is not quite socialism but neither is it New Labour.”
(25.11.08)

gh.jpg

Unite-Amicus elections: where we stand

At an emergency meeting of the National
Executive of the Unite union in October a decision was made to postpone the
implementation of the Unite Rulebook until May 2008 and to call an election for
a twelve month period of office for a Unite-Amicus section General Secretary.
The decision, supported by both current Joint General Secretaries of Unite,
Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, was made as a result of the legal challenge by
former Bristol Rolls Royce convenor Jerry Hicks over the extension of office of
Derek Simpson without election until December 2010. The Instrument of
amalgamation voted for last year by members of the Amicus & TGWU provided
for the new union rulebook to be in place by the 1st November this
year.

wtd.jpg

Working Time – Britain’s opt-out to end?

A vote at the Employment and Social Affairs
Committee of the European Parliament could signal an end to the British opt-out
from the Working Time Directive. Of particular significance was the unanimous
vote of British Labour MEPs to kill it. This is in sharp contrast to the
determination of New Labour in Whitehall to keep the opt-out – at the expense
of the British working class. The resoluteness of our MEPs, in behaving like
real Labour representatives, has rightly been described as an “embarrassment”
to the UK government.

ff.jpg

Solid Strike to Avert Redundancies at Fiddler’s Ferry Power Station

65 electricians, all Unite members, took
unofficial strike action on 17th November for two days at Fiddler’s Ferry
Power Station in Warrington. This was over false redundancies.

The
action eventually prevented any lay-offs on the site. The electricians were
working for Alstom through the agency BMS on the NAIECI Agreement. Last week
BMS had informed the workers that there would be 65 redundancies as they had
not been paid by Alstom.

«‹ 638 639 640 641›»