Showing posts with label Morning Star. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morning Star. Show all posts
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Greetings!
Hi comrades
I'm Vincent and I'm the Youth and Young Communist League Liaison Officer for the South-West, elected at last year's district congress. I want to try and revive this page, so hopefully there'll be more posting on here from yours truly. You can email me at vincent@southwestcommunist.org.uk or message me on facebook. I've also recently set up a South-West Young Communist League facebook page, which all YCL comrades are free to join.
Just a reminder to all comrades that both the CPB & the YCL, have got quite a lot happening this summer and very soon, some of which is within our district. If you can, do try and get yourselves along to any of these events. Sadly due to other commitments, I won't be able to make most of these events myself, except for the summer camp. That I will definitely be there for and I look forward to seeing other young comrades there too.
Pilton Green Man Festival (19/07/14): Following it's revival in 1982, the Green Man Festival has become a regular event on the calendar in North Devon, celebrating this ancient symbol of nature and fertility. Our comrades in the North Devon branch are regular attendees of this festival, with a very impressive party stall. Volunteers are welcome, please contract the North Devon branch on their facebook page. More information about the Pilton Green Man festival can be found on the festival website page.
Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival (18/07/14 - 20/07/14): The annual festival in Dorset celebrating the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Comrades of the labour movement from all over Britain descend onto Tolpuddle for this celebration of an important and remarkable chapter in working-class history. You'll find many of our comrades busy handing out copies of the Morning Star. Any volunteers will be greatly appreciated. Contact your local party branch for transportation information. More information about Tolpuddle, including the Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum can be found on this website page.
21st Century Marxism 2014 (26/07/14 - 27/07/14): The Communist Party of Britain will be hosting yet again, 21st Century Marxism 2014. It's a weekend festival of discussion, debate, culture, music and food in London and all comrades of the labour movement are welcome. For more information on the event and how to registered for attendance click on this link and check out the leaflet in this link.
Young Communist League Summer Camp 2014 (29/07/14 - 31/07/14): Taking place in Edale, the Young Communist League will be gathering together for a weekend of discussion, education and fun. This is a great opportunity for comrades to meet other YCL members from across Britain. To register for this event click on this link. But hurry, there aren't many places left! Also, if any YCL members in the south-west need any help at all attending this event, then please don't hesitate to contact me.
Also, don't forget to check out the South-West Communist Party of Britain website page for more news and events of what's going on in the area.That's all for now comrades, hope to catch you at the summer camp and wishing you all the best for the summer.
In solidarity,
Vincent
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Here's to 60 inglorious years of the Queen
Events will take place across the country over the next four days in protest against the vainglorious jubilee celebrations with one of the largest demonstrations scheduled for Tower Bridge on Sunday.
Protesters will assemble near City Hall for what campaign group Republic has said will be a "loud, bold and provocative" demonstration in full view of the royal barge as the Queen and other royals disembark to watch the jubilee flotilla pass through Tower Bridge.
Earlier this month Republic published a new pamphlet 60 Inglorious Years which made the argument that the Queen's reign had been characterised by "personal enrichment, feeble leadership and an obstinate refusal to allow real scrutiny of her role."
Republic chief executive Graham Smith said: "The royals spend most of their lives shielded from criticism. This protest will give them a rare glimpse of the strength of republican sentiment in Britain today.
"The hereditary system is offensive to all the democratic values this country has fought for in the past. The jubilee represents a celebration of everything we, as republicans, oppose - it is our right and duty to challenge it and promote the alternative."
Read the full story in the Morning Star
Saturday, 19 May 2012
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.
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.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
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.
Contains footage from the recent Morning Star conference.
Monday, 30 April 2012
May Day
On May 1, 1890, demonstrations took place around the world at the behest of the Socialist International of left-wing parties.
The main demand was for limiting the working day to eight hours.
Frederick Engels noted that in all of continental Europe "it was Vienna that celebrated the holiday of the proletariat in the most brilliant and dignified manner."
But, he added, even this dramatic revival of the Austrian trade union and socialist movement was "thrown into the shade" by the "most important and magnificent" London May Day march and rally three days later.
What had, in Engels's words, roused the English workers from almost 40 years of slumber to join the great international army?
He pointed his German readers to the previous year's dockers' strike and the founding of the Gas Workers' and General Labourers' Union, which had grown to embrace 100,000 members.
He proclaimed the unionisation of huge numbers of unskilled workers and the fact that they wanted their unions to be led by socialists.
This rise of militant, left-led "new unionism" could be contrasted with the aloofness and conservatism, both industrial and political, of the craft-based unions led by the aristocrats of labour.
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
News and Views - March
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Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Morning Star National Conference
This government is an unelected bankers’ dictatorship, alongside the other dictatorships already imposed by the EU in Greece and Italy. A broad mass movement can force it to retreat, thereby preparing the ground for its removal – and progress towards alternatives based on the People's Charter and the Alternative Economic Strategy. The labour movement - and the trade unions within it - have to meet and plan strategically if they are to win victories. How can we make the Labour Party leadership be part of the solution, not part of the problem? How can we forge a mass broad alliance?
Speakers include: Michael Meacher MP, Michelle Stanistreet (NUJ), Sally Hunt (UCU - tbc), Len McCluskey (Unite), Bob Crow (RMT); Kelvin Hopkins MP, Bill Greenshields (People’s Charter), Anita Halpin (Morning Star Management Committee); John Haylett (Morning Star political editor) Owen Jones (author of "Chavs: the demonisation of the working class"), Megan Dobney (SERTUC), Hugh Lanning (PCS), Paul Mackney (former UCU Gen Sec, Vice-Chair of the Coalition of Resistance)
Download the full flyer here
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
20p for Peace & Socialism
We start the new year as we ended the last, with the Conservatives cheerfully leading a fresh assault on working-class people, whether it be those with a disability or children whose household claims benefits.
The onslaught on pensions, public and private, continues.
The massive handover of the state and its workforces from democratic control to the private sector goes on relentlessly.
Wage cuts, long-term unemployment, particularly among our youth, who should be looking forward to their life ahead with excited anticipation but instead face destitution and despair, are the defining features of our age.
And all the while we know that worse is yet to come.
The onslaught on pensions, public and private, continues.
The massive handover of the state and its workforces from democratic control to the private sector goes on relentlessly.
Wage cuts, long-term unemployment, particularly among our youth, who should be looking forward to their life ahead with excited anticipation but instead face destitution and despair, are the defining features of our age.
And all the while we know that worse is yet to come.
Sunday, 15 January 2012
The Countdown to Gulf War III
As tensions heighten in Persia, the threat of a Western attack upon Iran inches ever closer. Jane Green considers the background to the situation
Taken from the Morning Star
With 10 days of Iranian naval exercises having just been completed, including the testing of long-range ballistic missiles, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi - naval commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) - has announced further activities next month.
Fadavi has said that the drill in February will be "different compared to previous exercises held by the IRGC."
The exercises - coupled with the warning that Iran could close the strait of Hormuz, the narrowest point in the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes - has now encouraged the US and Israel to announce that they are to carry out extensive joint manoeuvres in the region.
The US and Britain have said they will act to keep the shipping lanes open.
Friday, 6 January 2012
Bledhen Nowyth Da!
Taken from the Morning Star
This Happy New Year in Cornish - or Kernewek - heralds a revival of the campaign to make Cornwall a separate nation.
In what could be a major Celtic resurgence Welsh nationalists gave their backing yesterday to calls from the south-west peninsular for autonomy.
Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow is demanding an elected assembly and ultimately devolved powers from Westminster similar to those enjoyed by Scotland.
Its campaign comes a decade after 50,000 people - 10 per cent of the population of Cornwall - signed a petition supporting its aims.
And in a show of pan-Celtic unity Plaid Cymru has given the initiative its backing.
Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards has launched an early day motion calling "for the formation of a democratically elected Cornish Assembly to take decisions for the benefit of the people of Cornwall."
So far it has been signed by 10 MPs from his party, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, including Cornish Lib Dem MPs Andrew George (St Ives), Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) and Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall).
Dick Cole, Mebyon Kernow leader, said: "We are campaigning for devolution within the UK and for powers similar to those of the Scottish Parliament."
The nationalists argue that Cornwall has never politically officially been a county of England but is a separate country which after the Romans left Britain 1600 years ago, was independently ruled.
Cornwall's language has been undergoing a revival with dual-language road signs and, in January 2010, the opening of a creche teaching young children the language.
The Cornish language is closely related to Welsh and Breton and a little more distantly to Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic.
The Communist Party also recognises the special position of Cornwall in relation to the rest of England. Our party's programme, Britain's Road to Socialism, notes that:
“The distinctive cultural and social characteristics of Cornwall should be expressed through a directly elected Cornish Assembly, with powers that match local aspirations” and that:
“The national movements in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall also contain substantial progressive and left-wing elements that oppose reactionary policies of monopoly capital and the British state”.
This Happy New Year in Cornish - or Kernewek - heralds a revival of the campaign to make Cornwall a separate nation.
In what could be a major Celtic resurgence Welsh nationalists gave their backing yesterday to calls from the south-west peninsular for autonomy.
Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow is demanding an elected assembly and ultimately devolved powers from Westminster similar to those enjoyed by Scotland.
Its campaign comes a decade after 50,000 people - 10 per cent of the population of Cornwall - signed a petition supporting its aims.
And in a show of pan-Celtic unity Plaid Cymru has given the initiative its backing.
Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards has launched an early day motion calling "for the formation of a democratically elected Cornish Assembly to take decisions for the benefit of the people of Cornwall."
So far it has been signed by 10 MPs from his party, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, including Cornish Lib Dem MPs Andrew George (St Ives), Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) and Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall).
Dick Cole, Mebyon Kernow leader, said: "We are campaigning for devolution within the UK and for powers similar to those of the Scottish Parliament."
The nationalists argue that Cornwall has never politically officially been a county of England but is a separate country which after the Romans left Britain 1600 years ago, was independently ruled.
Cornwall's language has been undergoing a revival with dual-language road signs and, in January 2010, the opening of a creche teaching young children the language.
The Cornish language is closely related to Welsh and Breton and a little more distantly to Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic.
The Communist Party also recognises the special position of Cornwall in relation to the rest of England. Our party's programme, Britain's Road to Socialism, notes that:
“The distinctive cultural and social characteristics of Cornwall should be expressed through a directly elected Cornish Assembly, with powers that match local aspirations” and that:
“The national movements in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall also contain substantial progressive and left-wing elements that oppose reactionary policies of monopoly capital and the British state”.
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Is a Robin Hood tax all it seems?
Taken from the Morning Star
It seems a nice idea. Tax the financial speculators enriching themselves at our expense and use the proceeds to raise people out of poverty.
The Robin Hood tax campaign, which is sponsored by some 50 charities and other non-government organisations and supported by such luminaries as Comic Relief founder Richard Curtis and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, is pushing this course of action.
According to the campaign, a package of financial transaction taxes on the purchase and sale of foreign exchange, shares, bonds and various derivatives, could raise over $400 billion (£250bn) worldwide.
That is more than enough to achieve the Millenium Development Goals, which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/Aids and providing universal primary education by 2015, or even more ambitious goals.
But aren't these campaigners being a little starry-eyed? Assuming this amount could be raised by such means, can we trust governments to spend it for that purpose?
It seems a nice idea. Tax the financial speculators enriching themselves at our expense and use the proceeds to raise people out of poverty.
The Robin Hood tax campaign, which is sponsored by some 50 charities and other non-government organisations and supported by such luminaries as Comic Relief founder Richard Curtis and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, is pushing this course of action.
According to the campaign, a package of financial transaction taxes on the purchase and sale of foreign exchange, shares, bonds and various derivatives, could raise over $400 billion (£250bn) worldwide.
That is more than enough to achieve the Millenium Development Goals, which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/Aids and providing universal primary education by 2015, or even more ambitious goals.
But aren't these campaigners being a little starry-eyed? Assuming this amount could be raised by such means, can we trust governments to spend it for that purpose?
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Morning Star Appeal
Readers and supporters of the Star launched a massive internet campaign today in response to an urgent appeal for £75,000 by Christmas.
An overwhelming £15,541 was received in the first day, but there is still a long way to go. Assistant editor Richard Bagley said:
"The response has been absolutely staggering in such a short space of time. Everyone here has been buoyed by the tremendous support that has been shown for the only left daily in the country." But he warned, "We've got a long way to go yet."
He urged readers and supporters to keep up the momentum in every possible arena to raise funds.
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