Fight BT’s National Pay Deal
BT has offered workers a 2% pay rise with two one-off payments of £250 – one of which will be at the managers discretion. This pathetic offer is nothing in comparison to BT’s profits which were up 11% in the third quarter of 2009. BT rejected the CWU’s claim of 5% despite the fact that this would only equate to just 1.1% of the companies £5.7 billion projected annual profit. Meanwhile, BT’s profits look set to go up. The recent volcanic ash cloud and its lingering problems for air travel will mean a surge in conference calling – a definite unexpected increase in BT’s profits.
EXCLUSIVE: Plans to close Woodstock library leaked
Tommy Black calls for immediate statement from Libraries NI over future of Woodstock Library
Concerned library staff have informed Socialist Party campaigner Tommy Black that management have announced plans to close Woodstock Library in East Belfast only weeks after Libraries NI chief executive Irene Knox announced it would “remain open”.
Socialist Party MEP condemns slaughter of peace activists by Israeli Defence Force
News reports have not yet provided a definitive account of the extent of the IDF attack on the flotilla of eight humanitarian aid ships on their way to Gaza. However it is clear that IDF forces have taken over some of the ships and at least 10 unarmed activists have been slaughtered and others injured. There are at least eleven Irish nationals on this flotilla and we do not yet know the condition they are in.
Save Mid-Ulster and Whiteabbey Hospitals
The Accident and Emergency services at the Mid-Ulster Hospital in Magherafelt and Whiteabbey Hospital in Newtownabbey closed in May. Now all patients in the Northern Trust area have to travel to the Antrim Area Hospital. The Antrim Hospital was widely accepted to be under immense pressure before these closures. The situation will deteriorate further now, with even longer waiting times for casualty treatment and even more patients spending hours or days on trolleys. Prior to this latest cutback the Northern Trust had halted more complex surgery at the Mid-Ulster Hospital and Whiteabbey Hospital and concentrated it at the Antrim and Causeway Hospitals. Both smaller hospitals are no longer acute hospitals, dealing with a full range of illness, and accessible to the surrounding population.
Water charges on the way
On a Daily Politics discussion on the economy in the run up to the election, Finance Minister Sammy Wilson of the DUP made it crystal clear that, in his opinion, the Assembly Executive will introduce water charges. He admitted that the charges have only been deferred, not scrapped, and went on to say that “when they are introduced” it must be on the basis of “fairness”.
Kazakhstan - Mass prison hunger strike against brutal regime
OSCE Chair presides over torture of prisoners – Protests needed urgently!
In the “strict regime” prison colony, AK159/6, in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, a collective hunger strike was declared by the prisoners in protest at alleged brutal beatings, the prison’s military regime and claims of ’frame ups’ of prisoners by the authorities. Starting with a few prisoners at the end of May, the hunger strike has now been joined by the mass of prisoners. Kazakhstan currently holds the Chair of the The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
A video, filmed on 28 May, shows the typical brutal treatment of one prisoner
Bin the Public Assemblies Bill
Defend the Right to Protest
Sinn Fein and the DUP have launched a major attack on democratic rights by drafting legislation which will make public protest a criminal offence. The Draft Public Assemblies Bill, proposed by the ‘Working group on parades’ will place major restrictions on the right to protest.
It will mean all protests of 50 or more people will be illegal, unless protest organisers have applied for permission from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) 37 days beforehand or 22 days if organising a counter-demonstration.
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