The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has slammed the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) decision to place £350m worth of design contracts for the next generation of nuclear-armed submarines – describing Britain's nuclear weapons as a 'bottomless pit' for spending.

The MoD's review of alternatives to like-for-like replacement of Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system is not due to report its findings until late 2012 or early 2013. But the MoD has now placed contracts for designing new submarines with BAE, Babcock and Rolls-Royce, totaling almost £350m, which prejudges the outcome of its own review.

"Rather than acting on the priorities of the British public, the government is determined to keep pouring money into the bottomless pit that is Britain's nuclear weapons system" said Kate Hudson, CND General Secretary.

"A majority of the public want to scrap Trident now. The last thing they want to do is replace it. And yet they are being forced to fund its replacement while they see local services cut.

"The sad truth is that as shocking as today's announcement is, £350m is just a drop in the ocean compared with the total cost of replacing Trident, which will amount to well over £100 billion over its lifecycle.

"A parliamentary decision on whether or not to build replacement submarines is not due to take place until 2016. We must act to stop this now before more taxpayers' money is sqaundered."

New Morning Star Editor Outlines Plans

Richard Bagley in the Morning Star  http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/119165

It was while doing some digging 25 years after the 1984-5 Miners' Strike that the full sweep of history of our great paper really hit home.

In the national newspaper archives at Hendon, north London, edition after edition was raised from the bowels of the building and the changing shape of the paper from its 1930 birth as the Daily Worker, through the '40s, '50s and '60s and beyond was clear.

As the fortunes and level of working-class organisation and political consciousness has waxed and waned so too have the fortunes of our paper.

In the 1980s came the disastrous divisions that allowed a deceitful cabal to smash up the Communist Party of Great Britain - and nearly snuff out the Morning Star too.

In the 1980s too came huge, epoch-changing setbacks for working people. The temporary victory of capital and free-market finance unleashed a whirlwind on us that still whips around us today.

The Morning Star survived the troubles of the 1980s and the '90s, and lives on thanks to generations of readers and staff who have made sacrifices, including going without pay in the bleakest years.

Our challenge now, though, is to turn the constant quest for survival into a plan for growth.

Statement from the KKE

The Greek Communist Party issued the following statement regarding forming a left coalition government

"In order to agree with such a government the KKE needs to make a U-turn, a summersault and not merely a small retreat, a small turn. It must make a root and branch change. And above all it would have to make unacceptable compromises that have nothing to do with the people's interests. Maybe the people are not interested in the ideological purity of the various parties, but in a party that all these years, from the very first moment of its foundation, has been in the frontline of the struggle does not want to abandon this position in order to gain some ministries. The people do not need this kind of KKE"

Read the statement in full http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2012/2012-05-07-ekloges

For a People's Europe

On international Workers' Day 15 communist parties across the European Union came together to agree a common position against the Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance in the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). All the parties call upon workers throughout the EU to mobilise and resist these treaties and the anti-people policies of the EU and its allies.
All signatories expressed their solidarity with Irish workers and supported the call for a No vote by the Irish people in the referendum due on May 31.
Eugene McCartan, general secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland


Read the full text on the SW CPB site http://www.southwestcommunists.org.uk/129-for-a-people-s-europe

Depression

First short film by Maya Llamazares. Based on the financial crisis. The film demonstrates the struggle among the working class who have been the most effected within this rough period which could become an economical depression.

Contains footage from the recent Morning Star conference.

Government Destroying NHS Direct Services

UNISON members in the South West are taking action to highlight the threat to the services provided by NHS Direct.  Nursing and Health advisors providing the NHS Direct helpline services to Cornwall and the South West based at Exeter are today, Tuesday 1 May, holding a ‘work-in’ in protest against the Government’s plans to replace NHS Direct.

From midnight last night until to midnight tonight NHS Direct staff in Exeter are having a ‘work-in’, with extra staff are voluntarily coming in, in their own time to help staff the NHS Direct phone lines in a protest to the forthcoming changes from NHS Direct to the new 111 services, which will result in clinical staff losing their jobs and a reduction in clinical service provision.