Unity! Women's TUC 2013
-
Upload
communist-party -
Category
Documents
-
view
216 -
download
0
description
Transcript of Unity! Women's TUC 2013
by Anita Wright
Cameron and Osborne’s refusal tocap bankers' bonuses calls to mind thesaying that to make the rich workharder you have to pay them moreand to make the poor work harderyou pay them less.
As public sector workers, the majority
women, face another year of pay freeze; as
the unemployed struggle to find work; as
thousands of families are hit by changes to
the benefit system, and child poverty rises to
unprecedented levels, the decision not to
freeze bonuses adds insult to injury.
Having bailed out the banks with public
money, we are now expected to allow
senior bankers to inflate their incomes even
when their bank makes a loss or profits go
down.. The argument goes that if we cap
bonuses the bankers will go elsewhere, a
notion disputed even by bankers (just look
at Switzerland which has operated a form of
capping for years). The barons of big
business know other ways to put money in
their pockets through share options and
pension pots. Given the economic mess they
created, many of us would welcome their
exodus.
It also illustrates the serious problem that
the British economy is heavily dependent on
finance capital, the result of successive
governments’ deliberate destruction of
manufacturing industry.
When factories close and more and more
men and women are made unemployed the
whole community is affected. High street
shops close because no one has any money
to spend.
continued overleaf
Robbing the poor to feed the rich
No austerity for fat cats
Unity!Communists at the TUC Women’s Conference March 2013
Morning Starcirculation managerBernadette Keaveneywrites
Dear Sisters
To all of you reading the Morning Star during
the Women’s TUC I would like to thank you
for your support – long may it continue.
To those of you that haven’t, let me explain
why this paper is so important to the women’s
movement.
The Morning Star is the only national daily
paper that reports on the issues day in and
day out; issues that concern you as a trade
unionist and family member. We do not have
pages devoted to help you style your hair, lose
weight, choose the right clothes but we do
have a commie chef column on a Saturday. We
cover international news including how trade
unions are fighting austerity measures in
other countries. We have film and book
reviews, sports and all the other items that
you expect from a newspaper but never
images of people being demeaned. We have
never needed to campaign to stop Page 3
inside the Morning Star
As women we need to get the paper carrying
far more articles about us. It is difficult for the
paper when the Tory/Lib Dem cabinet is
comprised of mainly men and most of our
trade unionist leaders are male.
continued on page 3
by Anita Halpin
Diktats from EU bosses in Brusselserode ever more of our hard-wondemocratic rights; diktats that thisConDem government applies withgusto when it suits their ideologicalpurpose and political programme –for which they have absolutely noelectoral mandate.Take just two decisions made last year by
unelected EU bureaucrats.First, they
introduced a new, harsh limit on the public
sector 'structural' deficit of just 0.5 per cent of
GDP under the Treaty on Stability,
Coordination and Governance. Now, I’m not
very fluent in Eurobabble but there aren’t too
many stable governments in Europe (never
mind the rest of the world).
And then last December, they outlined
mandatory reforms that will weaken our
contractual rights.
Two measures that day in and day out
translate into all the evils of austerity:
massive job losses; poverty wages; near
Victorian workplaces; declining services in
transport, energy, communications, health,
education and local government. Savage cuts
are neither necessary nor inevitable.
It is clear why many trades unionists believe
that some social gains made through being in
the EU were significant. But many of the
progressive gains in terms of equality and
human rights, now targeted by Cameron,
came not through the EU but from the
European Court of Human Rights which
predates the EU and is based on the
European Convention on Human Rights
following the victory over fascism.
The social progress won and rights gained
since 1945 and which we are fighting to save
can only be maintained when we win stronger
independent trade unions and a government
with the independent powers (never mind the
will) to deliver a budget that will both protect
and advance the interests of working people.
Yet this cannot be achieved until we loosen
the shackles forged by the EU.
The alternative economic strategy of The
People’s Charter – to redistribute power and
wealth – is far from a red-blooded Communist
planned economy, yet not one of its modest
proposals can work while Brussels controls
the purse strings. Indeed, most of our own
unions’ policies are outlawed in the EU.
In the growing fightback against austerity
there will be victories but ultimately, you
cannot oppose austerity budgeting and
campaign to rebuild our economy while
remaining supportive of the EU and its
institutions.
Arguing to leave the European Union is
neither reactionary nationalism nor a betrayal
of fellow workers across Europe but a first
step in rejecting the xenophobic and right-
wing agenda espoused by the Tory big
business party, promoted by the mass media
and exploited by UKIP.
The left argued from the start that EU
membership would undermine our democracy.
Those who today refuse to acknowledge its
undemocratic and anti-worker character are
directly playing into the hands of UKIP and
the BNP by blocking any progressive
alternative.
Anita Halpin is the Communist Party’s
trade union coordinator
EU: the enemy of progress
by Liz Payne
Anger at the gender impact ofausterity measures runs throughoutthe agenda at conference this week. For almost three years now, working class
women in Britain have had to bear the major
burden of the cuts regime of the unelected
ConDem Coalition.
Enough is enough, now it’s time for things to
change.
The June 2010 Emergency Budget made
savings of billions, grabbing 75 per cent of
them from women’s pockets. And that was just
the start! Every austerity measure since has
hit women hardest and, with less than a
quarter of the planned cuts implemented so
far, we have a serious job of challenge on our
hands!
More than 320,000 women’s jobs will be lost
Ouch, i
continued from page 1
So why are the European Union
commissioners recommending a cap on
bankers’ bonuses? It might seem a popularist
move to fend off further criticism but more
likely, as Paul Gardiner, formerly of
Goldman Sachs believes it’s because the EU
just wanted to give Cameron a kick in the
teeth. The financial crisis was precipitated
by the American banking moguls who are
deeply embedded in the British economy.
Their avaricious greed dragged Britain into
the mess forcing the bailout of our banks
and Britain in turn infected the European
economy. This also explains why the US is
so keen on Britain staying in the EU. It gives
the US access to the European economy
which would otherwise be denied to them.
Britain has become the US cuckoo in the
European Union nest.
The EU proposal on capping is mere
window dressing. It is vital that we challenge
not only this bonus culture but the
economic system that gives rise to this
parasitic practice. This is why the National
Assembly of Women is supporting the call
for a People’s Assembly Against Austerity in
The International Women’s Day issue of
21centurymanifesto magazine includes
Akexandra Kollantai on the origins of
International Women’s Day; Camila
Vallejo on the Pinochet dictatorship,
Greek communist leader Aleka Papariga
on the capitalist crisis and Die Linke
leader Sahra Wagenknecht on the euro
crisis plus Frances O’Grady on education
privatisation.
http://tinyurl.com/bm75jmh
from the public sector alone and tens of
thousands more from the private sector. Wage
freezes will hit women workers hardest,
concentrated as they are in low paid work.
Women, statistically twice as likely as men to
depend on benefits, will suffer most from
government raids on welfare budgets.
Many benefits under the axe relate to
women’s lives directly – support during
pregnancy, child care assistance via tax
credits, child benefit. Single women too are to
be the majority of those who lose housing
benefit.
Decimated public services and unaffordable
privatised ‘replacements’ are largely those on
which women rely. Caring services and public
transport being only two examples. The
cumulative effect will be the isolation,
impoverishment and disenfranchisement of
women on a scale not seen in decades,
denying access to education, jobs, healthcare
and amenities and increasing vulnerability to
exploitation, abuse and violence.
None of this needs to happen and women in
their trade unions must lead the fight-back
against public and private employers,
asserting women’s rights to jobs and a decent
life. But the fightback is not solely a matter of
short-term economic challenge. We must win
understanding that we need to change the very
basis on which women live and how this might
come about.
The Charter for Women, supported by trade
unions, trades councils and women’s
organisations across the country, sets out what
this might look like for women – in the wider
society, at work and in the labour movement.
It shows how campaigns built upon the
demands of women - for equality,
independence, justice, representation, work,
fair pay, education and health - can make
broad, deep and irreversible changes to the
lives of working women in Britain.
But we should be under no illusion;
capitalism depends on the exploitation of
working women and on women’s unpaid
labour. It also depends on ensuring that
working people can never unite to challenge
it. For capitalism, maintaining the division
between working women and men is a
prerequisite.
We have a long, hard battle to fight but, if we
fight it together, basing our struggle on the
clearly articulated demands of the Charter for
Women, we will be able to win vital public
support, defeat anti-women austerity
measures, get rid of the government of the
super-rich and begin to work towards a
genuinely fair, just, democratic and socialist
future.
Liz Payne is the Communist Party national
women’s organiser and Party vice chair
it hurts
London on Saturday 22 June.
Sisters (and brothers) will not stand by and
allow rampant privatisation to continue,
unemployment to become structurally
embedded in our economy, watch the
destruction of the NHS and welfare state
and do nothing. It is vital that, together, we
develop an alternative economic strategy
based on growth, social justice and equality
and then work together in our organisations,
unions and communities together to
transform this into a political fight for power
that can bring about real change for the
millions of working class people, their
families and future generations.
Anita Wright is secretary of the
National Assembly of Women
continued from front page
So I would urge you to make sure that the
voices of women are heard in the only paper
that wants to publicise our issues, campaigns
and, most importantly, our victories which will
help inspire other women to become involved
in the movement.
Visit me today on the Morning Star stall and
let me tell you more about becoming a daily
reader of this paper. How to buy it, how to
order it for meetings that you attend and how
you can use it in education classes.
The Morning Star is co-operatively owned
by its readers through the Peoples Press
Printing Society (PPPS). Eight national trade
unions have taken out full share holding in
the PPPS and are represented on our
management committee .
It is important that women become involved
in the ownership of the paper so that they can
help shape the paper for the future. If you
belong to Unite you should have seen the
recent shares drive that they are
endorsing. Again come along and see me at
the stall so that I can talk to you some more
about participating and contributing more by
becoming a shareholder.
Bernadette Keaveney is the paper’s
circulation manager and can be contacted at
[email protected] 0778 0220 391
*For share forms email
by Maggie Ryan
With all the talk on how to win powerback from the Con Dem governmentgoing on at the moment you would beforgiven for thinking that Unite the Union was the enemy. Clearly, Len McCluskey’s recent article in the
New Statesman magazine rankled with some
senior figures in the Labour Party, prompting a
swipe at the Union for having the audacity to
put forward an alternative view that would
appeal to ordinary working people and
persuade them to come out and vote for Labour
at the next election. Labour has lost some 4000
members between 1997 and 2010, so, radical
ideas are needed if we are to win people back
to the party and achieve this aim.
Policies that working people can get behind
and support would be a good start, given the
relentless attacks on some of the poorest in our
society and the decimation of our public
services up and down the country with still
worse to come this year and beyond.
Unite members at our policy conference last
year were very clear about our relationship with
the Labour Party. They voted in favour for the
link to be maintained, but that all future
donations to the party should be scrutinised as
to how the money is being used, especially
monies to constituency Labour parties (CLPs).
What’s the point of funding CLPs if they
disregard unions’ policies and just want to
promote careerists to become MPs who, in the
main, have absolutely no idea of the real
pressures hard pressed families are trying to
cope with under this current government. To
achieve this, it was recognised that we need
more Unite members in the Labour Party to
have a chance of turning this situation around.
So, at least one union is developing a political
strategy that will enable its members to do just
that, from branch level, all members are being
encouraged to join the Labour Party and
participate in their local constituency parties
The message is the same for our Area activists
committees, Regional industrial sector
committees and for the equalities sector, our
Women members, BAEM members, Disabled
members, LGB&T members, Young members
and our Retired members section. The support
is there for activists at all levels of Unite to
participate and the resources are in place
throughout the 10 regions of the Union to assist
A winning strategy to defeat the
by Carolyn Jones
In the closing decades of the 20thcentury workers in Britain and theirtrade unions faced a recurringonslaught against their employmentrights and trade union freedoms.
The reasons were clear. Weaker unions
meant bigger profits. Barabara Castle and
Edward Heath (right) failed. Thatcher was
more successful. She wanted to reduce the
welfare state, privatise public services (rail,
post, gas, electricity, telecoms) and replace
Britain’s manufacturing base with an
unregulated financial sector. To achieve her
aims she needed to disarm the only force
able to resist such draconian measures - the
trade union movement.
In a systematic, step by step programme of
legislative changes Thatcher shackled the
unions with ballots, injunctions, internal
elections, restrictions on strike action,
banning of solidarity action and the
decentralisation of collective bargaining from
national to enterprise level.
The result was devastating and debilitating
and continues to impact on how unions
operate. The numbers of people covered by
a collective agreement negotiated by a trade
union has fallen from 82% in 1980 to around
32% today. A major consequence of that
drop has been an ever widening increase in
inequality. Hardly surprising. Even today,
workers who have their terms and conditions
negotiated via a trade union receive around
16% more than unrepresented workers.
Remove that influence and inequality grows.
Today we are suffering from Thatcher mark
two. Just like the 1980’s it’s hard to keep up
with the anti trade union policies, proposals
and pig-headed prejudices spouted on a daily
basis by the arrogant posh boys currently in
power. Limits on employment rights, attacks
on trade union freedoms, restrictions on
access to justice, fundamental weakening of
enforcement mechanisms and regressive
steps in equality legislation - all expose the
class nature of the Coalition’s programme.
But this time we have to be ready and
prepared to resist. We have to ensure we
join up the dots of the daily dose of anti
trade union, anti-working class agenda so that
workers can see the big picture and gain the
confidence to fight back. That is why the
Campaign for Trade Union Freedom is so
timely and so important. The Campaign is a
merger between the United Campaign for
the Repeal of Anti-Trade Union Laws and the
Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade
Unions - two organisations with proud and
progressive histories.
The merger creates "one voice" and offers a
forum where we can truly and proudly
declare we are all in this together. The role
of the Campaign will not simply be to expose
the class based nature of the problem. That’s
only part of the job. More importantly will be
its work in creating and popularising collective
resistance, offering those in struggle a voice
and support mechanisms and continually
highlighting the fact that another world is
possible.
We hope activists will join the Campaign
and work with us to win free unions, which
can play their role in battling for fair rights and
decent pay.
Carolyn Jones is director of the
Institute of Employment Rights
Fight for tradeunion freedom
A chanceto changeour futureby Bill Greenshields
The People’s Assembly AgainstAusterity is a response to calls from anumber of trade unions – including inthe first instance Unite – the Coalitionof Resistance, the People’s Charterand many others to mount a seriouschallenge to the bankers' agenda andsubject it to public scrutiny, when itwill be found wanting in every respect.Attacks on working people in the name of
austerity will not go unchallenged. We will
resist the theft and privatisation of our
national resources and public services; the
continuing undermining of trade unions rights
and freedom and the attacks on the most
vulnerable all of which rip the heart out of
local communities.
The government and its henchmen in the
mass media perpetuate the myth that
understanding the economy is far too
complicated for the ‘ordinary’ woman and
man so we should leave it the ‘experts’ – the
bankers, economists, media pundits and
politicians – whose system created this damn-
awful mess in the first place.
We need to be brainwashed to believe that,
even though we are suffering, cuts and
unemployment are inevitable and necessary
and anyway (because we can’t understand)
there’s nothing we can do about it.
The tiny class of super-rich bankers and
corporate monopolies running this country
also need our response to the austerity regime
to be fragmented and dislocated.
Thus the attacks on pay, pensions, rights at
work, employment, benefits and public
services are portrayed as separate industrial
battles which are fought individually and not
as what they are: various strands of an
integrated class attack on everything Britain’s
workers have won over the past 70 years.
So they sow artificial divisions. Public and
private-sector workers. Industrial and service
workers. Men and women, north and south,
black and white, British citizens and
migrants, those in work and the unemployed.
Most crucially they need trade union
struggles to be separate from community and
grass roots struggles, even when they so often
involve the same individuals.
Anyone who argues for a coherent
alternative is tagged as an unrealistic
extremist. Every day the ruling class puppets
in Parliament and the media pump out the
same old stuff, designed to confuse, obfuscate,
threaten, divide, ridicule and browbeat us into
submission.
Working people are under a full-frontal
assault in Britain as in the rest of Europe and
beyond. In this country particularly we are
deprived of a political voice. So it’s a ray of
hope that trade unions, anti-cuts groups,
radical campaigns, community organisations
and political parties are coming together for a
People’s Assembly on Saturday 22 June this
year.
The Assembly is a reassertion of the
strength of the working class and its need for
a political voice. It can help build a
movement that might just turn the tide.
Will those taking part agree on every dot
and comma of the way forward, in terms of
objectives, tactics and strategy?
No – and that’s a good thing because if they
did the assembly would not reflect the
complexity and variety of views within the
working class.
It’s vital that the assembly be representative
of all sections of the British people and does
not become the property of any political party
or group.
There will be, must be, real debate and
argument – but in a process designed to unite
and ignite the labour movement and deliver
an outcome.
It should lead to stronger and more united
trade unions determined to take on the battle
in a strategic, co-ordinated way and to put
themselves at the heart of communities
seeking to defend themselves against the cuts.
And it should help promote the radical
alternative that the People’s Charter for
Change demands – a people’s Britain, not a
bankers’ Britain.
Bill Greenshields chairs the Communist Party
and is the People’s Charter trade union officer
ConDemsus all and make this work.
The General Executive council with our
general secretary Len McCluskey is wholly
committed to ensuring that Labour can win for
working people, but they must not take our
support for granted and start to form policies
that are relevant for ordinary people that they
will then come out and vote for.
Maggie Ryan is the West Midlands Women’s
Representative on Unite’s General Executive
Council and writes here in a personal capacity
Communist PartyOpen Letter on thestrategy to solve the crisis of politicalrepresentation in the labourmovement, go tohttp://tinyurl.com/bwl3h8b
CAMPAIGN FORTRADE UNION
FREEDOMLaunch rally Saturday 23 March
1:30-4:30pm Friends Meeting House173 Euston Road London NW1 2BJ
by Robert Griffiths
In cities, towns and villages acrossBritain, the cuts are beginning to bite.For the past two years, the austerityprogramme devised by New Labourmainly affected capital projects. Theconstruction industry and itscontractors were hit, but most publicservices remained in place.Now people are seeing their local libraries,
day care centres, leisure facilities and other
council services slashed or closed altogether.
As well as rising council tax bills and
service charges, people are being mercilessly
ripped off by the greedy tax-dodgers who own
our gas, electricity and water utilities.
For example, British Gas have increased
prices by 6 per cent, even though annual profits
are up 11 per cent. Most of their 17m
customers see no real increase in their incomes
and many are struggling to pay their rocketing
bills.
It's a similar story in the water industry, where
prices and profits are soaring – except at Welsh
Water, a not-for-profit company.
The hardest hit are low-paid and public sector
workers, the unemployed, single parents, carers
and pensioners who rely on state benefits or the
state pension for their subsistence. The
majority in most of these categories are women.
The government's welfare state 'reforms' target
many of the same people, together with the
disabled.
The benefit cap on working-age households
will be rolled out from next month and most will
also suffer a cut in housing benefit. In fact,
most benefits will go down in real terms for at
least two years.
The 'bedroom tax' will hit tenants on housing
benefit in all social housing.
The rolling replacement of the Disability
Living Allowance by the Personal
Independence Payment is intended to slash
financial support by 20 per cent over the next
four years – for those not driven off it altogether.
The staged introduction of Universal Credit
this year, in place of most means-tested benefits
for the unemployed, low-paid and parents will
make it simpler for governments to reduce
public assistance at a stroke.
Yet we are only in the second year of what the
Tories now intend to be a 7-year austerity
regime.
Where the last New Labour government
planned to chop public spending by £123bn to
2015, the Con-Dem coalition has added
£446bn of cuts and extended the punishment to
2018.
Prime Minister Cameron has recently
repeated the bogus rationale for austerity,
namely, that Britain's public spending deficit
must be narrowed towards zero.
This has never been the government's real
agenda. At the behest of the City of London,
which pressed for the formation of the
unelected Con-Dem coalition in the first place,
it is to dismantle and privatise Britain's public
sector, including the welfare state.
Almost all the social gains made since 1945
are to be withdrawn.
Monopoly profits can then be made across the
health and education sectors, especially in
England. Taxes on the rich and corporate profits
can be reduced still further. Wage levels can be
WANTED: A PEOPLE’S
BUDGET
driven down and trade unionism weakened.
That is why the labour movement must fight
this austerity and privatisation drive through
mass action, including selective, rolling and
generalised strikes. Together with the left, it
has to wage the battle of ideas in our local
communities, to expose the real Tory agenda.
But we must also show that there is an
alternative.
For instance, a People's Budget would
stimulate economic growth and reduce the
growing inequality gap with measures to:
H Invest in health, education, housing, public
transport and the environment.
H Halt all PFI and privatisation schemes to
hand over public services to big business.
H Boost state pension and benefit levels in
real terms, restoring the link with the retail
price index.
H Increase the national minimum wage in real
terms and retain the Agricultural Wages Board.
H Extend statutory equal pay audits into the
private sector.
H Freeze gas, electricity and water prices and
prepare to take all the utilities back into public
ownership.
H Nationalise the banks and direct funds into
manufacturing, small businesses, cooperatives
and housing.
H Take the railways back into public
ownership and subsidise fares and investment
not shareholder dividends.
H Launch a massive public sector
housebuilding programme.
Where would the money come from? Britain is still the world's sixth biggest
economy. The wealthiest one-tenth of the
population own at £4,500bn in personal
wealth, 44 per cent of the total (whereas half
the population own just 10 per cent). That's
without taking into account at least £3,000bn
in hidden assets.
Since 2011, the Bank of England has
pumped an extra £175bn into the banks and
financial institutions in 'quantitative easing'
(QE). Most of this has been used to improve
corporate bank balances and speculate in the
financial markets.
A People's Budget would therefore:
H Introduce a 2 per cent Wealth Tax on the
super-rich, raising £90 billion a year – almost
twice this year's public spending cuts.
H Reverse the recent cuts in corporation tax
for the biggest companies.
H Restore the top rate of income tax (at 60 per
cent not 50).
H Slap a windfall tax on energy, retail and
banking monopoly profits.
H Impose a financial transaction tax on the
City bankers and speculators.
H Divert Bank of England funds from QE and
the impotent Funding for Lending Scheme into
infrastructure bonds issued by local, devolved
and other public authorities.
H End the tax haven status of all territories
under British jurisdiction.
Many of these policies arise from the
positions taken in the People's Charter,
endorsed by the TUC, the Scottish TUC, Wales
TUC and many individual unions.
The People's Assembly Against Austerity on
June 22 provides a great opportunity for the
labour and people's movement to go on the
offensive for policies to benefit the millions,
not the millionaires.
Robert Griffiths is the Communist Party
general secretary
I want to join the Communist Party o
Please send me more information o
Name
Address
e mail phone
Send to CPB Ruskin House 23 Coombe Road Croydon CR01BD (or hand to a communist, you know who they are)
Join Britain’s party of working class power and liberation
This book challenges the consensusthat has confined political economy tothe options that the banks and bigbusiness will accept. Based on the policy agenda that Britain’s
trade union and labour movement have begun
to shape it analyses what is wrong with the
British economy, arguing that the country’s
productive base is too small, that the economy
has become too financialised and that power
has become concentrated on a narrow
economic fraction based in the City.
It sets out policies to establish democratic
and social control of the City, arguing that
regulation is not enough.The book focuses on
how immediate growth and longer-term re-
industrialisation might be achieved, arguing
that a socially owned banking sector can foster
the creation of a new, sustainable, social
housing sector, a new communications
infrastructure and new green industries.
The book argues for an alternative economic
strategy that breaks political dependence on
the US, and diversifies economic
relationships, fostering those with emerging
BRICS economies and questioning anew our
dependence on the European Union, whose
‘social model’ now seems a distant memory.
Critically the book tackles the problems that
a progressive government would face and
argues that an alternative economic strategy
must be accompanied by measures to devolve
political power and encourage the active
participation of the people in exercising
control over the actions of big business and
finance in Britain.
It insists on the importance of a strategy that
can boost spending power among the British
people, begin to narrow the widening
inequalities in British society and raise the
standard of living and build a new,
democratised public realm that insulates
people from dependence on volatile financial
markets.
Edited by Jonathan White with contributors
from Mark Baimbridge, Brian Burkitt, Mary
Davis, John Foster Marjorie Mayo, Jonathan
Michie, Seumas Milne, Andrew Murray, Roger
Seifert, Prem Sikka, Jonathan White and
Philip Whyman.
Building an economy for the people
an alternative economic and political strategy
for 21st century Britain
£6.95 (+£1 p&p) ISBN 978-1-907464-08-9
www.manifestopress.org.uk
Manifesto Pressis a new venturethat aims topublish workingclass history,socialist theoryand the politicsof class struggle.
It is republican and anti-imperialist;secular and feminist; anti-fascist andanti-racist; committed to workingclass political power, popularsovereignty and progressive culture.
There is an alternative
Morning Stardaily paper of the left
£1 from your newsagentH
Women in Iran under the age of 40 must
have the written permission of their
guardian to travel abroad according to a bill
put before the Iranian parliament just days
ago. ‘If passed, this will in effect block the
exit of women campaigners for rights and
freedoms, trade unionists and others fleeing
political persecution, as well as those
suffering abuse and violence of all kinds,’
says Jane Green of CODIR, the Committee
for the Defence of Iranian People's
Rights. A surge of protest against the bill is
gaining further momentum by the day in
Iran.
To find out more, go to CODIR's website
at www.codir.net.
Hugo Chavez was a greatrevolutionary, whose BolivarianRevolution will live on in the heartsand minds of the peoples of Venezuelaand Latin America.
The struggle that he led for the poor and
oppressed has earned him the highest
honour, namely, the undying hatred of
exploiters everywhere. Even on the day of
his death, US President Obama and British
Foreign Secretary William Hague could find
nothing positive to say about Hugo Chavez,
to their eternal shame.
But for many millions of people around
the world, he lit a new beacon alongside
Cuba that a new era is dawning for popular
sovereignty and socialism in the 21st
century'.