Tue 11 May 2010
Author: John FosterMarc Livingstone’s 179 vote, though relatively small, was better than any Communist vote in Scotland for many years. Marc’s performance was particularly strong given he was a new candidate contesting a seat not fought by the Communist Party since the 1970s. The Communist vote in the Central Glasgow constituency in the 2005 parliamentary election was 80 (0.3 per cent). In the 2001 election there were 174 Communist votes in Govan. This seat had been contested over many years.
The Communist vote was not significantly lower than that of other Left parties with less demanding ideological platforms. The leader of the SSP Colin Fox got 319 votes (0.7 per cent of the poll against Marc’s 0.5 per cent) in Edinburgh SW. The TUSC votes in Glasgow North and North East were 287 and 187 respectively. Tommy Sheridan gained 931 votes in Glasgow SW where the SSP in 2005 had secured 1,666.
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Wed 14 Apr 2010
Author: Marc Livingstone, the Communist Party’s candidate for the Glasgow North West constituency, has launched the Communist Party’s Manifesto for Scotland. 13 April marks the start of the official election campaign.
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Mon 12 Apr 2010
Author: Morning Star
The Communist Party of Britain election manifesto has urged working people to rise up and fight against attempts to make them pay for the capitalist crisis.
It warned that the three main parties are sharpening their knives for the biggest attack on public services and living standards since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
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Tue 23 Feb 2010
Author: "Trade union and community activists set up a stall outside Clydebank Coop on Saturday with a petition against cuts and charges to Council services and were almost overwhelmed by the public response as shoppers queued to sign up.
In forthright language the people of Clydebank were saying that they are not prepared to accept cuts or increased charges for their local services to pay off the 'greedy bankers'.
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Sun 21 Feb 2010
Author: Richard ShillcockThe so-called Scottish Defence League was prevented from assembling or marching in Edinburgh on Saturday.
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Sat 30 Jan 2010
Author: John Foster1931 saw what was called the Bankers Ramp destroying the Ramsay MacDonald government. We see it in full cry today across whole of EU. In Ireland, Spain and Greece the EU Commission is intervening directly in domestic policy. Greek government officials described EU intervention in early January, which required ‘reforms’ in labour contracts and pensions, as a gross infringement of sovereignty. Everywhere the EU Commission has laid down targets by which deficits must be cut. Their motivation is the traditional monopoly capital response to crisis: solve it by reducing working class incomes and the social wage. For Britain the target is a cumulative 10 per cent cut in public spending over four years. The people of Iceland are subject to similar blackmail without even being members of the EU and we should offer them all support to their rejection of these demands in their referendum next month.
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Sat 30 Jan 2010
Author: John FosterCopenhagen also brings us to the issue of US strategy and the US ruling class. The presence of Obama at Copenhagen represented an advance. Bush would not have attended. But Obama had to operate on terms set by a big business dominated Congress: a minimal cut of emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020 – not a 30/40 per cent cut from 1990 Kyoto agreement levels. It was this minimal US offer that constituted the failed accord.
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Sat 30 Jan 2010
Author: John FosterThe Copenhagen Summit saw a complex clash of positions. As a summit, it failed and therefore represents a serious crisis for efforts to halt climate change. But the summit also marked a turning point and one which represents challenge for Communists and the Left in Britain.
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Thu 28 Jan 2010
Author: Marc LivingstoneAn Glasgow Anti-Cuts Meeting organised by Glasgow Unison branch was attended by 80 activists on Saturday.
Mike Kirby Unison Scottish Convener began by placing the meeting within the context of the Glasgow City Council budget meeting this coming Thursday, after which we will find out the extent of the planned cuts, expected to be around £30 million.
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Mon 18 Jan 2010
Author: Communist Party international secretary John Foster has warned the party's executive of the importance of developing a mass movement around the People's Charter.
That movement must fight to halt the cuts, resist closures and demand that the government intervenes to rebuild the productive economy, he insisted.
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Mon 04 Jan 2010
Author: Robert GriffithsThe British labour movement is heading for the rocks in 2010. The biggest rock on the horizon is the general election.
If as still seems likely the Tories win in May or early June, then the ruling-class offensive against public services, trade union and employment rights and civil liberties will intensify.
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Thu 17 Dec 2009
Author: The eleventh annual meeting of the world's communist and workers' parties last month represented another step forward in the renewal of the international communist movement.
Financial and travel difficulties reduced the attendance in New Delhi from last year in Sao Paulo, Brazil, when more parties from Latin America were able to attend.
Moreover, on this occasion, delegates due to arrive from Russia, Peru and Palestine were refused exit visas.
Nonetheless, this year's three-day event drew together representatives from 57 parties in 48 countries from every continent.
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Sun 13 Dec 2009
Author: The eleventh annual meeting of the world's communist and workers' parties last month represented another step forward in the renewal of the international communist movement.
Financial and travel difficulties reduced the attendance in New Delhi from last year in Sao Paulo, Brazil, when more parties from Latin America were able to attend.
Moreover, on this occasion, delegates due to arrive from Russia, Peru and Palestine were refused exit visas.
Nonetheless, this year's three-day event drew together representatives from 57 parties in 48 countries from every continent.
They included comrades from mass parties in Greece, Portugal, India, Russia and the Czech Republic, from those in power in Cuba, China, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam and from those in government in Brazil, Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Guyana, Nepal, Syria and South Africa.
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Sun 15 Nov 2009
Author: Scottish anti-fascists congratulated Glaswegians on Sunday after thousands turned out to run the far-right Scottish Defence League (SDL) off their city's streets on Saturday.
A tiny group of 80 thugs chanting slogans such as "No surrender to the IRA" were escorted out of Glasgow by police for their own safety after roughly 3,000 people turned out to protest against their anti-Muslim rally.
Organisers said they were overjoyed by the response of Glaswegians to their call for a counterdemo on Glasgow Green.
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Sun 25 Oct 2009
Author: Last week's launch of the People's Charter in Scotland saw a remarkable degree of consensus across political boundaries.
MSPs from both the Labour Party and the SNP, leading trade unionists and members of parties to the left of the Labour Party were all united on the need to promote the Charter on a mass scale through workplaces and local communities.
Scottish National Party MSP Jamie Hepburn struck the keynote with the phrase "Let's keep it united."
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Tue 13 Oct 2009
Author: The Unite union warned on Friday that the people of Aberdeen could again take to the streets after the city council announced the start of a 90-day consultation process which could see it axe 600 jobs.
It is believed that the number of job losses over the last two years could reach around 1,300 - a 10 per cent reduction of the formerly 11,500-strong workforce.
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Thu 08 Oct 2009
Author: Postal workers voted overwhelmingly in favour of a national strike on Thursday in a bid to defend the future of the service.
The Communication Workers Union said its members had backed a nationwide walkout by 3-1 in protest at the "imposition" of changes to working practices as well as cuts in their pay and job losses.
Almost 81,000 CWU members took part in the ballot, a turnout of 67 per cent. A total of 61,623 backed strikes, with 19,207 against, a majority of 76.24 per cent.
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Thu 08 Oct 2009
Author: Tom Morrison While New Labour with their dismal record of war, privatisation, attacks on civil liberties and the welfare state etc deserve the distain of the British people the Tories will be even worse as can be seen by the anti-working class rants at their conference in Manchester. New Labour have paved the way for an even more vicious attack on working people and their families as the Tories move the political agenda even more to the right.
It is too simplistic to say there is no difference between the Tories and New Labour. Because of the affiliation of the trade union movement to Labour the potential is always there to compel Labour to move to the left. There is no such possibility with the Tories. However it must be acknowledged that there has been little sign of the trade unions reclaiming the Labour Party for the labour movement and the constitutional changes brought in by the right wing make that all the more difficult to achieve.
So what do we do?
Read more from the new secretary of the Party in Scotland....
Tue 22 Sep 2009
Author: There are rarely any fireworks on show at the last day of TUC Congress. It's a day for tying up loose ends and clearing up unfinished business, not heated debates and bold statements of intent.
Not this year. The 2009 conference went out not with a whimper but with an almighty bang. Two of them, in fact.
The first - Congress's decision to back the People's Charter - was a bold and important decision, if not controversial. No trade unionist should have to think twice about backing its six basic demands for decent jobs, homes, benefits and public services, a fair and democratic economy and a peaceful, sustainable future.
Israel's occupation of Palestine remains one of the most hotly debated issues within the labour movement, never mind the wider British public.
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Fri 11 Sep 2009
Author: Diageo workers have been left shell-shocked after the drinks giant rejected a Scottish government proposal to save 900 jobs.
Bosses at the drinks firm, whose brands include Guinness, Smirnoff and Baileys, met workers this morning to tell them they had been sacked as the firm pressed ahead with plans to close plants in Kilmarnock and Port Dundas.
The company, whose operating profit for the year was up 10 per cent by £217 million to £2.44 billion, had been considering an alternative business proposal prepared by the Scottish government, but workers were told it had been rejected.
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Fri 11 Sep 2009
Author: Britain's communists have condemned the BBC for inviting the far-right BNP onto Question Time, stating that the corporation has no duty to give fascists a platform.
Speaking at the Communist Party of Britain's (CPB) political committee meeting, Anita Halpin said the election of fascist MEPs had not turned the BNP and its criminal leadership into a democratic, legitimate political party.
The CPB said that it intends to launch a range of materials at the Communist University on November 6-8 celebrating the role of the Soviet Union in defeating fascism.
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Thu 10 Sep 2009
Author: John FosterThe waving of the saltire in Tripoli resulted in some strange political posturing in Scotland.
Forget the doubts over Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi's conviction, which has already been questioned by the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission two years ago.
Leave aside the issue of legal process - 23 other terminally ill Scottish prisoners have been released on the same basis over the past three years.
What is strange is that Labour leaders in Scotland should have taken up a cry started by the US-owned media, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats.
Read more....
Wed 09 Sep 2009
Author:
It's the poor who are paying for this rich man's recession. That was already evident from the growing dole queues, the huge sums thrown at bankers and the threats to cut public services.
And it was confirmed on Monday by TUC research proving that the lowest paid are the hardest hit.
For workers in shops and warehouses, office juniors and unskilled staff in a host of industries, talk of a recovery is so much hot air.
Read more....
Thu 03 Sep 2009
Author:
Scottish bus drivers have walked off the job again in their latest strike against Scrooge bosses' refusal to share a massive profit haul.
Thousands of school children in Aberdeen celebrated being sent home an hour early to avoid the strike by First Group bus workers, after the drivers, mechanics and bus garage cleaners all rejected a "mean" pay offer from the hugely profitable multinational company.
Read more....
Mon 24 Aug 2009
Author: Scottish Communists meeting at the weekend welcomed the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi from Greenock prison. However with withdrawal of his latest appeal there is now little chance of a public enquiry and the truth of the Lockerbie atrocity being exposed.
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Sat 18 Jul 2009
Author: These are challenging times. But they are socialist times. They are times which should give all of us on the left renewed confidence in our values. Free-market fundamentalism has failed and lies in ruins all around us.
Today, the only safe job is a debt collector and people are angry. People are waking up to the fact that life does not have to be like this.
Read more....
Fri 22 May 2009
Author: John FosterScotland's struggle for its own democratic institutions goes back well over a century. Ten years ago Scotland gained its parliament. Today most people want more powers and more democracy.
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Wed 31 Dec 2008
Author: S GallowayScots are being urged to provide donations and medicines to help with the urgent humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. The ongoing deadly air strikes have created a death toll in Gaza which has reached over 300 and continues to rise. The appeal, organised by Edinburgh Direct Aid and supported by the Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Palestine & Medical Aid for Palestinians aims to take funds, medicine and medical equipment direct to Gaza by boat in January or February.
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Wed 31 Dec 2008
Author: Scottish Communists call for the widest public support for this Saturday's protests in Glasgow and Edinburgh demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. These have been called by the newly formed Scottish Emergency Coordinating Committee on Gaza which includes Pauline McNeill MSP, convenor of the Scottish Parliament's cross party group on Palestine.
The text of a leaflet produced by the Scottish CPB is produced here.
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Mon 01 Dec 2008
Author: John FosterIf you want to understand the financial collapse, you've got to get stuck into Marx. JOHN FOSTER gives a crash course on the crisis.
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Fri 19 Sep 2008
Author: Tommy MorrisonThe Communist Party gives full support to local government workers striking on September the 24th and will work to build the rally in Edinburgh.
While government can finance wars in Iraq and Afganastan, pay for Trident and its replacement, bail out the banks and fund ID cards, it continues to underfund local government and its workers.
The Communist Party calls for unity and the building of links between community groups and local government workers. There is a natural unity between the service users who depend on local government, and service providers, the workers, who are having to take strike action to win a decent pay rise.
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Sun 07 Sep 2008
Author: UNISON, Unite and GMB unions representing workers in West Dunbartonshire Council are calling on the whole community to support a lobby of the special council meeting Wednesday 10 September.
Party political control of West Dunbartonshire has been volatile, to say the least. The unions and community groups hope to persuade the warring factions to see some sense and reverse a decision which damages the council's own workers, their families and communities.
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Mon 18 Aug 2008
Author: We are witnessing the biggest onslaught on working-class living standards since the early days of the Thatcher regime nearly 30 years ago. Unemployment is rising faster than any time since the late 1970s.
The reality is that New Labour primarily represents the interests of big business. This government has orchestrated an Indian summer for the spivs, swindlers and speculators.
We need unions to lead a big wages offensive for increases which meet the real rate of inflation. But the union leaders are not leading that fight. Pressure from below, from shop stewards and trade union activists, must be piled on these leaders to force them to use the potential power of the organised working class to win these pay rises.
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Sat 02 Aug 2008
Author: Simon SteelNew Labour policies are absolute poison to working class people and their communities – that’s the lesson of the Glasgow East by-election defeat.
.... what is striking is the single minded determination with which Blair, and now Brown, have pursued their right-wing programme in the interests of big business. Following hot on the heels of the Wendy Alexander resignation, the Glasgow East result should (should!) be the catalyst for a fundamental re-appraisal of where Labour goes from here, and not just in Scotland either.
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Tue 15 Jul 2008
Author: 
The Iraqi Communist Party held a big celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 14th July 1958 Revolution that overthrew the reactionary monarchy and ushered in tremendous social and political transformations in Iraq, changing Iraq's class and social landscape. (See photos below)
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Sat 05 Jul 2008
Author: Simon SteelThe refusal of Labour governments under Blair and Brown to pursue pro-working class policies is paving the way for the return of the Tories. Let no one be in any doubt about that. The inability of the Scottish end of New Labour any longer to hold its own is further confirmation of the rejection of New Labour in the rest of Britain – so starkly revealed in last year’s elections to the Scottish Parliament.
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Tue 17 Jun 2008
Author: Malcolm BurnsA new economic report by the Communist Party of Britain Scottish Committee has been welcomed as an "important contribution to widening the debate around the current question of Scottish democracy" by a leading trade unionist.
Speaking at the launch of Scotland's Future on Friday (13 June), Dave Moxham, Deputy General Secretary of the STUC said: "The recommendations of this document chime accurately with the broad views of the Scottish unions."
Read more....
Sat 07 Jun 2008
Author: John FosterJOHN FOSTER explains how we must work to ensure that devolution advances the interests of the working classes.
There is a potentially progressive dynamic within devolution. But there is also a reactionary one.
Which is dominant will depend on the balance of class forces and the effectiveness of interventions by the labour movement.
At present, it is the pro-big business dynamic that is dominant.
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Tue 27 May 2008
Author: ANN DOUGLASCommunist Party congress: SUCCESSIVE Communist Party congresses have characterised the new Labour trend as "the open representatives of monopoly capital in the labour movement," general secretary Robert Griffiths declared in his opening address.
"New Labour represents something fundamentally different. It is the political expression, in the labour movement, of globalisation as a new phase of imperialism."
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Tue 27 May 2008
Author: ANN DOUGLASCommunist Party congress: "WHEN a government suppresses you and takes away your freedom, the only thing is to break bad laws," Prison Officers Association general secretary Brian Caton told the Communist Party of Britain national congress at the weekend.
"We will continue to challenge bad laws," he added.
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Tue 27 May 2008
Author: ANN DOUGLASCommunist Party congress: BRITAIN is living through a crucial period with the electoral meltdown of Labour, outgoing EC member Kevin Halpin said, in introducing the main domestic resolution For a Left-Wing Programme to Mobilise and Unite the Labour Movement.
"Previously, Labour governments nationalised key sections of the economy, but it is now hell-bent on reversing this," he said. "New Labour ministers talk about listening, but they didn't listen about the Iraq war."
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Tue 27 May 2008
Author: ANN DOUGLASCommunist Party congress: COMMUNIST Party delegates overwhelmingly backed an emergency statement placed by the outgoing leadership calling on the trade unions to take decisive action to force changes in government policy.
"The labour movement has not challenged new Labour policies sufficiently, offering a kind of timid appeasement," declared Rick Newnham (Cardiff), moving the document.
Read more....
Tue 27 May 2008
Author: Communist Party congress: CPB delegates paid tribute to the staff of the Morning Star for their hard work and sacrifices in re-establishing deliveries to Scotland and parts of northern England on the day of publication.
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Tue 27 May 2008
Author: CPB conference: COMMUNIST Party delegates vowed on Monday to build broad and non-sectarian resistance against imperialism in the face of a new wave of anti-communism brought on by the latest capitalist crisis.
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Tue 27 May 2008
Author: Communist Party congress: CUBAN and Czech communists told congress on Monday that communists around the world faced many global and local challenges which need a "constructive and united" front.
Read more on the struggles & victories of Communists....
Tue 27 May 2008
Author: Communist Party congress: COMMUNIST Party delegates vowed on Monday to mobilise against the recent US-led anti-China propaganda in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.
They said that the so-called Free Tibet campaign was dependent on "massive ignorance" about Tibetan and Chinese history and regretted that it had gained support from "misguided" sections in the left movement.
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Tue 13 May 2008
Author: John FosterIn the lead-up to its 50th congress, JOHN FOSTER runs through the Communist Party of Britain's international resolution.
CURRENT shifts in the world balance of forces will provide a central focus of discussion at the forthcoming 50th congress of the Communist Party.
The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) executive committee's international resolution has four main themes
Read more the Communist Party of Britain's international resolution.....
Mon 05 May 2008
Author: GLASGOW played host to a massive May Day march and rally on Sunday 4th March, with trade unionists and speakers paying tribute to the city's long tradition of workers' activism.
Over 3,000 people joined the event organised by the Glasgow Trades Union Council.
Read more....
Sun 11 May 2008
Author: Robert GriffithsROBERT GRIFFITHS exposes the myth of the free market.
THE myth of the "free market" is finally dead and not before time. Its pulse ceased - it didn't have a heart - on Monday April 21.This was the day that the Bank of England, at the behest of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling, announced its willingness to hand Britain's banks at least £50 billion in Treasury bills.
This bail-out to save the money and housing markets is the biggest in British history.
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Thu 17 Apr 2008
Author: Robert GriffithsROBERT GRIFFITHS highlights the main domestic issues that will
be up for debate at the Communist Party congress on May 24-26.
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Sat 22 Mar 2008
Author: John FosterJOHN FOSTER discovers the Palestinian People's Party take on Israel's occupation strategy of divide and rule.
The PPP, previously the Palestinian Communist Party, is a key left component within the Palestine Liberation Organisation and is represented on its executive by politburo member Hanna Amireh.
"Currently," says Amireh, "the Israeli state is operating at two levels.
- Formally, it is negotiating.
- Practically, it is pushing forward policies which are totally contradictory.
Read more....
Sun 16 Mar 2008
Author: Malcolm Burns: Scottish Morning Star Correspondent
THOUSANDS of peace protesters in Glasgow heard Scottish Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon call for troops to be withdrawn and the perpetrators of the Iraq war to be held to account at the weekend.
Organisers estimated that around 5,000 people joined the march through Glasgow city centre, which saw representatives from trade unions EIS and UNISON, Communist Party of Britain, Solidarity and the Scottish Socialist Party taking part.
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Tue 11 Mar 2008
Author: COMMUNISTS and progressives in Britain hailed the overwhelming victory of the Communist-led Left Front in the Indian state of Tripura on Monday.
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Thu 06 Mar 2008
Author: Morning Star featureDESPITE the fact that International Women's Day is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary, GRAHAME SMITH reflects on the uphill struggle that women still face.
Women in Scotland continue to face violence and abuse at home and in the workplace, including domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment and stalking. Tackling violence against women must continue to be high on our agenda.
Recent work carried out by the STUC on human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children has shocked those who have been involved.
Read more....
Wed 05 Mar 2008
Author: CND chairwoman Kate Hudson kicked off her Scottish speaking tour in Irvine on Monday night.
Addressing a packed meeting of Ayrshire CND supporters, she welcomed recent developments in Scotland.
Read more....
Mon 03 Mar 2008
Author: Malcolm BurnsLEFT campaigners told the Morning Star's Spring conference in Glasgow on Sunday that the Scottish left could link activists and campaigns across parties with a clear socialist narrative.
Read more on Scottish left 'must make broad links'....
Sat 01 Mar 2008
Author: Rob GriffithsROB GRIFFITHS looks at the possibility of an upturn in fortunes for the left.
Many millions of younger people today have no such memories. Moreover, they have had little or no opportunity to learn about socialism, about its ideas or the policies which embody them.
They know that something is deeply rotten about our society. But they neither see capitalism as the root of the problem nor socialism as the root of the solution.
Read more....
Wed 27 Feb 2008
Author: Sunday’s Morning Star conference at the STUC in Glasgow will bring together figures from across the Left of Scottish politics.
"Scotland has changed ten years after devolution and one year into a new political balance in the Scottish Parliament. This is a crucial context within which the Scottish Left must seek progress and advances. The conference this Sunday brings together a breadth of opinion and expertise on the Left that must be welcomed."
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Sat 23 Feb 2008
Author: PUBLIC-SECTOR union UNISON warned on Wednesday that front-line services for Edinburgh's most vulnerable people will face a crisis if the city council votes through massive cuts at its meeting on Thursday morning.
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Wed 20 Feb 2008
Author: Castro/ Morning Star
FIDEL Castro resigned as Cuba's president on Tuesday after nearly half a century in power, clearing the way for his brother Raul to succeed him on Sunday when the National Assembly names a new leader.
Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov praised Fidel Castro on Tuesday as a "brilliant politician.
"He held the banner of independence and socialism high over the island of freedom, Latin America and the whole Western Hemisphere," Mr Zyuganov said.
Read more....
Sun 17 Feb 2008
Author: Alan MacKinnonTRIDENT replacement or jobs and services. This is the stark choice facing the people of Scotland and other parts of Britain.
Cancelling Trident, on the other hand, would represent a huge opportunity for productive investment in the Scottish economy. This could create new jobs and services and develop Scotland's huge potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy conservation.
Read more....
Thu 14 Feb 2008
Author: John FosterJOHN FOSTER reveals what the EU Reform Treaty will mean for the future of Scotland.
PFI "diverted the funds needed for core clinical services to the private sector." It was also preventing doctors from introducing the new technologies needed for patient care ...
these schools provided no financial gains to taxpayers and that there was considerable future risk...
In fact, the EU is the ultimate enforcer of almost all we don't want in Scotland. If we want to be rid of PFI and privatised services, we have to challenge the EU.
Read more....
Wed 06 Feb 2008
Author: Robert GriffithsROBERT GRIFFITHS argues that trade unions must get wise to the economic arguments.
Unions should be educating their members about the economy, how it works, who profits and how.
The theories of exploitation and crisis should be taught to representatives and activists at every level, alongside their sanitised, non-political training programmes.
Read more....
Tue 05 Feb 2008
Author: Malcolm BurnsBRITISH REPORT: MALCOLM BURNS witnesses John McDonnell challenge the Scottish left to seize a golden chance for progress.
LABOUR MP John McDonnell told a packed meeting of socialists in Scotland that the growing crisis in global capitalism provided the left with its greatest chance of progress in decades.
"There is an amazing opportunity for renewal on the socialist left. In 10 years' time, if we haven't taken it, we'll be kicking ourselves."
Read more....
Tue 29 Jan 2008
Author: TRADE unionists and MSPs rejected government claims that over 11,000 jobs will be lost if Britain does not renew its nuclear arsenal at the weekend.
Scottish TUC assistant secretary Stephen Boyd told a joint STUC and Scottish CND conference in Glasgow on Saturday that such claims - perpetrated by the Ministry of Defence - were a gross exaggeration and that the vast sums involved should be invested in Scottish manufacturing instead.
Read more....
Thu 24 Jan 2008
Author: MALCOLM BURNSMALCOLM BURNS reports from Trade Union Week at the Scottish Parliament
WORKERS' concerns were taken to the heart of Scotland's democratic forum this week by the Scottish Trades Union Congress.
Warm words of support across the parties for the role of trade unions in ensuring the rights of young workers were expressed during a member's debate as part of the week.
Read more....
Mon 21 Jan 2008
Author: Morning Star
TONY BURKE explains why Unite is calling on members to play an active role in the Morning Star's future.
UNITE has taken a substantial share in the co-operative Peoples Press Printing Society Ltd, which runs the Morning Star newspaper. And I, as Unite assistant general secretary, have also joined the Morning Star's management committee.
..it is still the only daily paper of the left and the only real voice of the labour and trade union movement.
Read more....
Thu 17 Jan 2008
Author: THE Scottish TUC welcomed parliamentary support for young people in the workplace on Wednesday night as Holyrood prepared to debate a motion tabled by Labour MSP Cathy Peattie.
"... issues of low pay, development of skills and the safety of young workers have been very prominent issues for the Scottish trade union movement in recent years."
Read more....
Tue 08 Jan 2008
Author: Communist Party of Britain and CND Glasgow West branch member Barbara Dowling was convicted of "malicious mischief"
"She has just returned from India after doing three months voluntary work teaching English to poorchildren - and they lock somebody like that up."
Read more....
Tue 18 Dec 2007
Author: Robert GriffithsTumbling living standards, lower-value wages and mass unemployment for working people will be the inevitable result of British state monopoly capitalism's response to recession.
As the British economy teeters on the brink of a recession, ROBERT GRIFFITHS warns that working people are set to pay the price for a society run for the rich.
Read more....
Sat 15 Dec 2007
Author: ROBERT GRIFFITHS argues that the greed of financial fantasy threatens the real world.
THE Bank of England monetary policy committee cut interest rates by one-quarter of a point to 5.5 per cent last week amid fears that an economic slowdown later in the new year could tip into recession.
.... Now, public money is footing the bill for the reckless and greedy mismanagement of Northern Rock.
Read more....
Thu 13 Dec 2007
Author: JOHN FOSTER reports from Saturday's Morning Star meeting in Glasgow.
"NEW Labour will not survive. It has no ties with the labour movement and is now despised by ordinary Labour voters," Scottish Labour Campaign for Socialism secretary Gordon McKay told union activists at the Morning Star industrial meeting.
Read more....
Sat 08 Dec 2007
Author: John FosterJOHN FOSTER on why the Scottish Parliament needs a new set of teeth.
TWENTY years ago, when leftwingers were asked what kind of Scottish Parliament they wanted, they would reply: "A parliament with teeth."
It was a clumsy phrase, but they knew what they meant - a parliament with powers to intervene economically, particularly on jobs and industry. The teeth were for taking bites out of the corporate fat cats.
Read more....
Mon 26 Nov 2007
Author: MORE than a thousand demonstrators braved the wind and rain on Saturday for the annual anti-racist St Andrew's Day march in Glasgow.
"When we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the legislation that ended Britain's slave trade, we should remember that many of Glasgow's fine buildings were based on profits from that trade"
Read more....
Tue 20 Nov 2007
Author: John FosterJOHN FOSTER looks at two very different celebrations to mark the 90th anniversary of Russia's Communist revolution.
"It is for our children that we fight today."
Read more....
Wed 30 Nov -0001
Author: GYULA THURMER, John FosterHungarian communist GYULA THURMER warns JOHN FOSTER that the prosecution of his party's leaders could be the thin end of the wedge for progressives across the EU.
Read more....
Wed 07 Nov 2007
Author: JAMES TWEEDIEBRITISH REPORT: JAMES TWEEDIE reports from the weekend's socialist debates at the Communist University of Britain.
Read more....
Tue 16 Oct 2007
Author: ROB GRIFFITHSROB GRIFFITHS previews this year's Communist University of Britain.
MORE than a century ago, Frederick Engels pointed out that the class struggle is actually fought on three fronts.
Britain's labour movement therefore bears a heavy responsibility for changing this state of affairs. Never has it required ideological clarity more than it does today.
Read more....
Fri 12 Oct 2007
Author: John FosterJOHN FOSTER investigates whether the Scottish National Party appears to be changing its tune on the European Union.
Most seriously and critically, the EU is being used to close down our democracy.
This is the role of the EU reform treaty. It ends the national veto over 40 new policy areas, including energy and public health, establishes the EU as a state in its own right and gives EU law legal superiority to national law. It also establishes the "free market" as the binding economic principle for the new EU state.
However, now that it is in government, the SNP is acting with considerable caution. The party leadership appears to want to avoid debate on the revived constitution and to have reversed its 2004 position in favour of a referendum.
Read more....
Thu 04 Oct 2007
Author: Morning Star ADRIAN ROBERTSPEACE activists from around the world will join a Big Blockade of the Faslane naval base on Monday to mark the end of a year of protest against Trident nuclear weapons.
Faslane 365 was one of the longest ever demonstrations against Britain's nuclear arms policy.
Read more....
Wed 03 Oct 2007
Author: CONSTRUCTION union UCATT attacked Glasgow's housing stock transfers on Tuesday after the Scottish Parliament ordered the city's public housing body to give more power to its tenants.
The break-up of the Glasgow Housing Association will gather pace over the next few months, with the transfer of responsibilities to local housing organisations reaching double figures.
Read more....
Wed 26 Sep 2007
Author: Robert GriffithsROBERT GRIFFITHS highlights the stark reality behind new Labour's plans for conference.
We do not have a Labour government in any social democratic sense. Brown's latest proposals to abolish contemporary motions at the Labour Party annual conference will complete the anti-democratic, anti-trade union drive begun by Partnership in Power.
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Sun 23 Sep 2007
Author: BRITAIN'S communists warned at the weekend that "the British government is not withdrawing troops from Iraq in the cause of peace - but because it intends to stoke up the disastrous war in Afghanistan."
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Tue 11 Sep 2007
Author: Robert GriffithsThe TUC and the labour movement therefore has to face reality. Prime Minister Brown is no more a friend of trade unions and the low-paid than was Chancellor Brown.
If socialism is the "language of priorities," as Aneurin Bevan once put it, the priorities of Prime Minister Brown are privatisation, a police state and preparing for war.
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Fri 07 Sep 2007
Author: Morning StarRESEARCH carried out for the TUC revealed on Wednesday night that Britain's fat-cat directors have amassed cushy pensions worth almost £1 billion, creating a new group of "super-rich."
The TUC said that the average company executive can retire at the age of 60 on a final-salary pension worth over £3 million.
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Wed 05 Sep 2007
Author: Robert Griffiths
ROBERT GRIFFITHS joins the dots between British imperialist rule in India and the equally racist occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
AMONG the spate of articles marking the 50th anniversary of India's independence on August 15, several raised the question of whether Britain cleared out too soon.
They argued that a more protracted "transition" to independence might have reduced, if not eliminated, the chaos and slaughter which accompanied British withdrawal and Indian independence.
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Thu 23 Aug 2007
Author: John FosterJOHN FOSTER on why the SNP 'conversation' on independence conceals the issues facing Scotland
Today, the situation is almost reversed. Big business has got the Scottish Parliament figured. It knows exactly what it wants. It is the labour movement that seems adrift.
This is the backdrop, a potentially dangerous one, to the "conversation" that was launched last week by Scotland's SNP government in its discussion document entitled Choosing Scotland's Future. This sets out three options.
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Thu 16 Aug 2007
Author: Morning StarLEFT-WING Scottish Labour supporters will meet this weekend to consider challenging Brownite Wendy Alexander for the party leadership.
The Campaign for Socialism announced the emergency meeting on Thursday after potential candidates Andy Kerr and Margaret Curran ruled themselves out of the contest.
Communist Party of Britain Scottish secretary Susan Galloway warned: "Wendy Alexander is very close to Gordon Brown.
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Mon 13 Aug 2007
Author: John HaylettJohn Haylett reports from the SACP congress on behalf of the Communist Party of Britain, defying the right-wing media pundits' gloom.
General secretary Blade Nzimande announced that party membership had risen from 19,385 at the 11th congress in 2002 to 51,874 in May, with the proportion of women comrades increasing from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.
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Mon 30 Jul 2007
Author: Robert Griffiths
The ruling class are experts at planning attacks on workers, says ROBERT GRIFFITHS, and we need some strategic thinking of our own.
RECALLING the fall of post-war Labour governments in 1951, 1970 and 1979, Tom Durkin made this point in the TV documentary series The People's Flag:
"The labour movement lives largely from day to day. The British ruling class, on the other hand, plans its anti-working class offensives over a much longer period of time."
In an all-too-rare analysis of ruling-class strategic thinking .....
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Mon 02 Jul 2007
Author: John FosterJOHN FOSTER on the Scottish Parliament's historic vote against Trident.
THE overwhelming vote in the Scottish Parliament against Trident two weeks ago was given scant coverage by Scotland's broadsheets and virtually buried in the mainstream British media. But its significance cannot be overestimated.
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Tue 03 Jul 2007
Author: John FosterJOHN FOSTER warns that Tony Blair's last act as PM poses grave danger to our democracy.
IN September 2005, the Trades Union Congress voted overwhelmingly to reject the proposed EU constitution and to congratulate the peoples of France and the Netherlands for voting No in their referendums.
It did so because the constitution entrenched neoliberal principles and the privatisation of public services and undermined the democracy of member states.
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Sun 17 Jun 2007
Author: ANTI-NUCLEAR campaigners hailed the Scottish Parliament's resounding rejection of the Trident nuclear missile system on Thursday night.
The Scottish Greens' motion opposing Westminster plans to renew Britain's nuclear arsenal was agreed by 71 votes to 16.
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Tue 12 Jun 2007
Author: COMMUNIST Party general secretary Robert Griffiths,
speaking at the party's Northern district congress in Newcastle upon Tyne, warned that "state monopoly capitalism is a corrupt, moribund system which is poisoning human society and the whole planet" at the weekend.
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Thu 07 Jun 2007
Author: PEOPLE'S Press Printing Society shareholders agreed at the society's annual general meeting over the weekend to urge readers and supporters to set up Morning Star campaign committees in the nations and regions of Britain.
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Mon 04 Jun 2007
Author: Robert GriffithsTHE whole labour movement must urgently take stock of the outcome of the Labour Party leadership contest.
Most of [Brown's] support within Parliament came from those 180 or so nominally "Labour" MPs who have loyally trooped into the lobby in favour of every anti-working class, anti-democratic, pro-big business and warmongering measure proposed by the new Labour regime.
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Wed 30 May 2007
Author: SCOTTISH academics warned on Tuesday that "speculative buy-to-let investment, irresponsible lending and political indifference" have caused a housing crisis that is threatening the future of young people.
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Mon 21 May 2007
Author: BRITAIN'S communists warned Chancellor Gordon Brown on Friday that he "faces massive threats of industrial action, even before he puts the key in the door of No 10."
"There is a deputy leader election and unions should be asking who can best defend their interests against all Blair's policies which Brown has inherited"
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Fri 18 May 2007
Author: Robert Griffiths, general secretary of the CPBROBERT GRIFFITHS carries out his own survey to expose the level of bias operating in Britain's monopoly-owned mass media.
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Mon 14 May 2007
Author: Mary DavisBritish communists and their supporters were joined by a large crowd at the traditional annual celebration of the life and work of the founder of scientific socialism. The oration at the Highgate London graveside of Marx was given by Mary Davis
We are here today to commemorate Marx's birth in May 1818, but lest it be thought that the annual oration is a cranky form of stone worship, it is appropriate to remind ourselves of the enduring importance of Marx's ideas....
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Sat 12 May 2007
Author: VINCE MILLS, Morning Star ArticleVINCE MILLS argues that last week’s election results leave the Tories lurking.
If there are any lingering doubts in the minds of Labour Party and labour movement activists that this trickle of working-class votes will become a flood in the Westminster elections, they must surely now be dismissed. Working-class loyalty to the Labour Party is not inexhaustible.
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Thu 10 May 2007
Author: Robert GriffithsCommunist Party of Britain general secretary Robert Griffiths welcomed the party's work in the recent Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament and English and Scottish local elections as a 'substantial political success'.
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Thu 03 May 2007
Author: Speaking on a BBC Scotland podcast the Communist parliamentary candidate for the Glasgow Region, Elinor McKenzie, attacked claims that voting on Thursday would somehow be about support for Scottish independence. "It will be a vote on the record of Tony Blair, New Labour and the Lib-Lab Executive in Scotland – a demand from the Scottish people that Labour must change course, end big business policies and address the needs of ordinary people."
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Wed 02 May 2007
Author: JOHN FOSTERIt's election time in Scotland and JOHN FOSTER argues that it's going to be a bumpy ride whoever ends up the winner
"An independent Scotland in the EU," says the CPB candidate Elinor McKenzie, "would in no way be independent.
This is why the central message of the CPB is about the struggle that must continue after the election. A twin strategy will be required. The trade union movement will need to intervene far more decisively in Labour's deepening crisis to defeat new labour and its big business ideas.
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Thu 26 Apr 2007
Author: Watch the Communist Election Broadcast for Wales online.
"We can promise viewers and listeners a series of hard-hitting broadcasts in which we pull no punches when it comes to big business super-profits, privatisation and imperialist war.
See the broadcast...
Fri 20 Apr 2007
Author: SCOTTISH TUC: RICHARD LEONARD takes a look at the agenda for the important economy debate.
ONE of the highlights of the annual Scottish Trades Union Congress is the debate on the Scottish economy.
Read more from the STUC....
Thu 19 Apr 2007
Author: SCOTTISH TUC delegates vowed on Monday to fight back the tide of privatisation in public services and urged May electioneers to campaign for publicly owned and run services.
The Scottish electorate want services "based on quality, not profit."
Read more from the STUC ....
Thu 19 Apr 2007
Author: THE battle to win the Trade Union Freedom Bill is "a real fight for social justice and jobs," general union T&G leader Tony Woodley told the Scottish TUC, as he moved a successful composite on workplace rights.
Read more from the STUC....
Wed 18 Apr 2007
Author: RMT general secretary Bob Crow launched a fierce attack on the EU on Tuesday at a well-attended Scottish Campaign Against Euro-Federalism fringe meeting.
"It is becoming clearer by the day that the EU is out to destroy the collective bargaining rights of workers," he said.
Read more from the STUC....
Wed 18 Apr 2007
Author: "IT is impossible for any socialist to look to the Scottish National Party as the basis for a progressive alternative," Vince Mills of the Campaign for Socialism told a Morning Star fringe meeting on Monday.
Read more from the STUC....
Tue 17 Apr 2007
Author: STUC president Katrina Purcell told Scottish parties bidding for power in this May's elections that people wanted a parliament that served them by delivering improvements in a public service that has integrity and accountablity.
Read more from the STUC....
Mon 16 Apr 2007
Author: A NEW workplace equality award recognising the role of Scottish union members in challenging discrimination in the workplace was presented on Monday at the STUC annual congress in Glasgow.
The first recipient of the STUC award is transport union TSSA equality rep Margaret Anslow, who is based at Network Rail in Edinburgh.
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Tue 10 Apr 2007
Author: THE Communist Party of Britain launched its manifesto for the forthcoming Scottish parliamentary elections on Wednesday, warning that the dominance of a big-business agenda has prevented Scotland's Parliament fulfilling the expectations of ordinary people.
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Mon 09 Apr 2007
Author: A BBC poll found on Sunday that two-thirds of Scots want troops pulled out of Iraq straight away.
The ICM survey also found that 46 per cent of Scottish people were against Britain retaining nuclear weapons.
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Tue 27 Mar 2007
Author: ANTI-NUCLEAR protesters blockaded the Clyde naval base in Faslane on Monday as part of a protest organised by groups from Oxfordshire, Berkshire and France.
Around 40 protesters descended on the base in the early hours of the morning to protest about the government's decision to replace the Trident nuclear arsenal and the continued transport of nuclear materials, including warheads, on Oxfordshire's roads.
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Thu 08 Mar 2007
Author: 
CND chairwoman Kate Hudson urged MPs on Wednesday to stand up against a "travesty of democracy" perpetrated by the government over renewal of the Trident nuclear missile system.
CND published a new briefing paper on Wednesday estimating that, while the initial cost of Trident replacement would be £25 billion, the running costs over 50 years could amount to a colossal £115 billion.
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Thu 15 Feb 2007
Author: JOHN FOSTERJOHN FOSTER on Scotland and the Establishment.
"It's an old adage on the left that you always ask "who benefits?" in class terms. This is particularly so with national ideology. Its appeal is precisely that it magics away differences of class and wealth and provides instead a comforting sense of shared identity and, almost always, shared antagonisms as well."
"However, real history is different. As someone once said, the history of all previous society is the history of class struggles - and that applies as much to nations as any other form of organisation."
"As part of their battle for state power, each new ruling class has to make itself "the" nation and its ideas the ruling ideas. Sometimes, it has to break a nation and remould it entirely."
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Thu 08 Feb 2007
Author: ANTI-FASCIST campaigners said that they were "outraged" on Thursday at the possibility that the far-right British National Party could be awarded over £670,000 for its Scottish parliamentary election campaign.
"Racist organisations like the BNP must be challenged at every level and should never be given a public platform."
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Wed 07 Feb 2007
Author: BEN STEVENSON
BEN STEVENSON reports on proceedings at the Communist Party's annual industrial cadre school.
COMMUNIST Party industrial organiser Kevin Halpin set the scene for the party's industrial cadre school at the weekend, drawing on his vast experience as a rank-and-file trade unionist who had organised "about 300" strikes, only one or two of which had started off with the official backing of the union nationally.
More from the Party's annual industrial cadre school
Thu 01 Feb 2007
Author: ROBERT GRIFFITHSROBERT GRIFFITHS on new Labour's privatisation agenda and what we can do about it.
THE labour movement and the people of Britain are sleep-walking towards the privatisation of the NHS.
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Mon 29 Jan 2007
Author: KEVIN HALPINCommunist Party industrial organiser KEVIN HALPIN looks forward to the annual industrial cadre school next weekend.
THE Communist Party's industrial cadre school is quickly establishing itself as a significant event in the annual trade union calendar.
The CPB industrial cadre school takes place at Ruskin House, Croydon, south London on February 3-4. Applications should be made to national secretary Ben Stevenson on (020) 8686 1659 or to office@communist-party.org.uk
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Sun 07 Jan 2007
Author: S GallowayFrom 23 January day of publication delivery of the Morning Star will be resumed in Scotland for a trial period of two weeks. Should the new distribution system - bringing the Star to Scotland by road, via Manchester - prove a success it is hoped the new system will become permanent from February/March onwards.
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Thu 04 Jan 2007
Author: THE Communist Party of Britain said in a statement on Wednesday that the lynching of Saddam Hussein will not solve the terrible problems which now afflict Iraq as the result of illegal invasion and occupation.
"Killing Saddam after a show trial orchestrated by the US occupation authorities was intended to ensure his silence and to send a warning to other US-backed puppets not to cut their strings.
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Wed 20 Dec 2006
Author: THE Czech Republic faced growing demands from MPs at Westminster on Tuesday for the lifting of its draconian ban on the country's Communist youth movement.
A total of 24 MPs have now signed a cross-party motion opposing the ban, which was imposed on the grounds that the Communist Youth Union KSM supports public ownership of the means of production.
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Tue 12 Dec 2006
Author: Gawain LittleGAWAIN LITTLE explains why British progressives are rallying to defend the rights of the Czech Communist Youth League.
This banning of a democratic youth organisation constitutes one of the most dangerous acts in the current wave of anti-communism sweeping Europe.
Read more on the Czech clampdown....
Mon 11 Dec 2006
Author: ANTI-NUCLEAR campaigners started two protests against Trident on Monday at Aldermaston and the Faslane submarine base.
Read more of civil resistance to Britain's nuclear weapons programme....
Fri 08 Dec 2006
Author: John FosterJOHN FOSTER examines how Brown's economic obsessions have led to the plunder of Britain.
"FISCAL autonomy" is a cry that has recently taken hold in Scotland. Leader-writers in the quality press, key figures in Scottish finance, economists friendly to the SNP and even some who should know better on the left seem smitten by it.
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Sat 02 Dec 2006
Author: SCOTTISH CND warned the government on Friday that it could play a political price in May if it announces on Monday that it intends to continue to base nuclear weapons in Scotland for the next 50 years.
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Thu 30 Nov 2006
Author: 
Report from the Political Committee of the Communist Party.
COMMUNIST Party of Britain general secretary Robert Griffiths condemned the government's treatment of desperate refugees on Wednesday night after violent protests at the Harmondsworth detention centre.
Read political committee report....
Wed 29 Nov 2006
Author: UNIONS demanded reassurance on Tuesday from Scottish Power that no jobs will be axed after the firm agreed an £11.6 billion takeover by Spanish energy company Iberdrola.
Iberdrola, which employs 17,000 people worldwide, is the latest Spanish company to target a British firm, after deals for O2, Abbey National and airports operator BAA.
"The announcement obviously creates a level of uncertainty for the workforce, the very people who made Scottish Power a successful company.
"Their concerns must be addressed quickly and sensibly during the period ahead," he said.
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Mon 27 Nov 2006
Author: OVER 1,000 people marched through the centre of Glasgow on Saturday to proclaim their love of Scotland and their hatred of racism.
The annual STUC St Andrew's Day march carried the message that there is no place in Scotland for racism.
See also media section for more.
Read about STUC St Andrew's Day march
Wed 22 Nov 2006
Author: John Foster, international secretary of the CPBRussian Communist SLAVA TETEKIN explains why Vladimir Putin's rule isn't benefiting the people.
OPINION polls in Russia just before the anniversary of the October Revolution showed that over 60 per cent of its people identified themselves positively with the achievements of the revolution. Only 20 per cent expressed opposition.
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Mon 20 Nov 2006
Author: John Foster, international secretary of the CPBJOHN FOSTER reports on the agenda of communists worldwide.
A NEW mood of optimism and confidence was plain to see among the representatives of the world's communist and workers parties as they met in Lisbon's warm sunshine last weekend. But it was a confidence directed towards action and engagement.
Read John Foster's report
Thu 09 Nov 2006
Author: COMMUNIST Party of Britain women's organiser Emily Mann told the party's political committee on Thursday: "The vote against President Bush and the Republicans marks a significant shift in public opinion against imperialist war and neoliberal economic policies and in favour of universal health-care.
"The US economy is slipping further into crisis, hitting the poor, many of whom are already disenfranchised by big-business-dominated 'liberal democracy'," she said.
Ms Mann also welcomed the victory of Daniel Ortega in the Nicaraguan presidential election
as "reinforcement of the turn to the left across Latin America."
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Mon 06 Nov 2006
Author: ANN DOUGLAS"NUCLEAR disarmament is not utopian," Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament chairwoman Kate Hudson, told the Communist University of Britain in Croydon at the weekend.
Ms Hudson said that South Africa, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan had all given up their weapons and progress was being made in designating central Asia a nuclear weapon-free zone.
Also reports from Keith Bennett of the Korea Friendship and Solidarity Campaign and Navid Shomali of the Tudeh Party of Iran who attended the University.
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Sat 04 Nov 2006
Author: Jarvis TynerLeading black US activist JARVIS TYNER (guest speaker at Scotland's Communist University - talks recorded here ) discusses hope and concern in his crisis-ridden country as it prepares for congressional elections next Tuesday.
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Sat 04 Nov 2006
Author: Alan Mackinnon, chairman of Scottish CND (from Morning Star article)The fight to halt new nukes can be won.
Nothing symbolises the dependent relationship of the British government to its US master better that the issue of Trident and its successor. Replacing Trident would bind us to US foreign policy for decades to come. Much of the hardware and technology would be US. It could not be targeted or used without the say-so of a US president.
we don't need this weapon and we certainly can't afford it. It will trigger a new arms race, it will encourage nuclear proliferation, it directly undermines the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and will probably require a resumption of full-scale nuclear testing, destroying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and leading to a nuclear free-for-all
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Sat 28 Oct 2006
Author: an excellent Morning Star article by Chris Ballance MSP, Scottish Green PartyWith the election for the Scottish Parliament looming next year in May, political parties are now in full campaigning mode.
Perhaps no issue is quite as hotly debated as energy and nuclear power, in particular, will be a key tug-of-war issue.
Read more....
