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Extinction Rebellion Enters UK Parliament, Supergluing Themselves

September 5, 2022 Steve Topple, The Canary. , , ,
Extinction Rebellion (XR) UK have burst into parliament in protest. Members have superglued themselves to the Speaker’s chair. It’s to challenge the lack of action by the government and corporations on the climate catastrophe. XR are saying that parliamentary democracy isn’t fit for purpose, and that people should instead form “citizen assemblies”. Of course, superglue companies must be delighted. And, XR is not the first group to do this kind of stunt. For example, in 2015 Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) entered parliament – subsequently being abused by police and security. The group repeated the action in 2016, when security told the BBC to stop filming because of it.

Africans Take UK To Court Over Abuses Committed During Colonial Era

August 31, 2022 Almayadeen. , , ,
Several Kenyan activists are suing the United Kingdom over abuses committed during the British empire's colonial era, raising a case against the country in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday. The plaintiffs, Africans forced off their land in the Kenyan Rift Valley, are saying London violated the European Convention of Human Rights through the abuses it committed in Africa during its colonial rule of the continent. The UK is a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights, and the plaintiffs' lawyers are saying it violated the accord by consistently ignoring complaints raised by the victims of the brutal British colonial rule.

Strikes Across The UK As Regulator Lifts Energy Price Cap By 80%

August 29, 2022 Joe Glenton, The Canary. , , , ,
A new wave of strikes are underway across the UK. From postal workers to barristers, organised labour is turning out on picket lines against the backdrop of looming energy cost hikes. Workers across the UK are fighting back by withdrawing labour, sharing their experiences and, on one occasion, surfing around ports at high speed! The strikes come as Don’t Pay, which is campaigning to encourage people to refuse to pay extortionate energy bills, reported an 80% hike had been nodded through by regulator Ofgem. Don’t Pay’s East London branch also announced a protest at Canary Wharf for Saturday 27 August. Postal workers are striking as part of the Communication Workers Union over pay. Royal Mail bosses have been paying themselves massive bonuses, even as the cost of living crisis has ramped up

Dockers At England’s Largest Cargo Port Strike Against Inflation

August 22, 2022 Joël Malo, Left Voice. , , , ,
Things are heating up in the United Kingdom’s “summer of discontent” — the name that’s been given to the wave of strikes against falling wages resulting from inflation. London’s public transit network is paralyzed, and across the country only one train in five is running. Massive strikes in the transportation sector are playing out as walkouts —sometimes wildcat ones — erupting at refineries and Amazon facilities. Meanwhile, a growing number of unions in other sectors are voting to authorize strikes. The English bourgeois press reports that inflation is 10.1 percent (the same figure the French press reports), but that’s just what the bosses say. It doesn’t account for rent increases; adding rents, one of the key costs for the working class, inflation has hit 12.4 percent in August. And as prices rise, so too does the general combativeness of workers and the will to strike.

New Report: The Attraction Of Agroecology

August 19, 2022 Land Workers' Alliance. , , ,
Based on findings from transdisciplinary research and drawing on interviews with eleven different new entrant case studies, this report encourages the governments of UK nations to recognise and act upon the urgent need to focus their support for new entrants into farming on breakingfood down the real barriers to entry for agroecological, short supply chain land-based enterprises. The report shows that agroecological farming and land work is an attractive sector, and investing in routes into agroecology for new entrants has the potential to both rejuvenate and diversify the farming and food production sector, while also helping governments to meet their food, climate and green recovery commitments.

Port Workers’ Strike Threatens To Bring UK Economy To A Standstill

August 18, 2022 Robert Stevens, WSWS. , , ,
Nearly 2,000 Unite union members voted to strike at the end of July by a 92 percent majority on an 81 percent turnout, rejecting a below-inflation pay offer of just 5 percent. At the time of the ballot result the RPI measure of inflation was at 11.8 percent. It is now 12.1 percent and predicted to rise to over 17 percent this year. Pay has been held down for years with dockers receiving another below-inflation deal, 1.4 percent, in 2021. Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company is owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holding Ltd, one of the largest foreign investors in Britain. It is one of the world’s foremost container terminal operators and a global leader in port services, holding interests in 52 ports in 26 countries. It’s operation at Felixstowe reported £61 million in pre-tax profits in 2020, lavishing millions in dividends payments on its shareholders.

Britain’s Strike Wave Escalates As Millions Push For Action

August 17, 2022 Thomas Scripps, WSWS. , ,
More than 40,000 rail workers represented by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) and Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) will continue national rail strikes on Thursday and Saturday. Around 10,000 RMT members on the London Underground and Overground will strike Friday, alongside 1,600 London United bus workers beginning two days of action. In an action that will massively impact on the UK economy, 1,900 workers at the UK’s Felixstowe port, responsible for half of all container freight, will begin eight days of strike action on Sunday. Over 500 workers have also voted to strike at the Port of Liverpool, Britain’s fourth largest. Close to 115,000 Royal Mail workers in the Communication Workers Union will strike on August 26 and 31 and September 8 and 9.

British Postal Workers Reject Below-Inflation Contract Offer

August 13, 2022 La Izquierda Diario Argentina, Left Voice. , , ,
On Tuesday, August 9, Communications Workers Union (CWU) in Britain, which represents Royal Mail postal workers, announced four days of strike action aimed at obtaining a wage increase in line with inflation. The strikes are scheduled for August 26 and 31 and September 8 and 9. The strike authorization came when 77 percent of the union’s 115,000 members turned out to vote on July 19 — following a procedure required under British law for union’s wishing to strike — and approved the measure with a 96.7-percent “yes” vote. The upcoming action is anticipated to be the most massive strike in Britain this summer. At the time of the vote, Royal Mail management had sought to impose a 2-percent wage increase, which the union characterized as a pay cut in real terms, that would lead to a “dramatic reduction in the standard of living for workers.

Wildcat Walkouts Hit UK Oil Refineries And Power Stations

August 13, 2022 Thomas Scripps and Steve James, WSWS. , , ,
A wave of wildcat strikes by subcontracted workers broke out across refineries and power stations in the UK Wednesday, amid continuing walkouts by Amazon workers. Workers are protesting wages falling massively behind the spiraling cost of living. The sites affected are covered by the National Agreement for the Engineering and Construction Industry (NAECI), concluded by the Unite and GMB unions with the Engineering and Construction Industry Association (ECIA) in August 2021. The “Blue Book” agreement was cheered by Jock Simpson, the chairman of the National Joint Council for the Engineering and Construction Industry, as the “means of managing labor relationships to deliver project completions to time and budget” and as the “key to industrial relations stability”.

Palestine Action Occupy And Destroy Israeli Weapons Transport Company

August 9, 2022 Palestine Action. , , ,
Gaza has spent three days and nights mourning the dead. Circling the skies, raining fire down below, are the drones and fighter jets of Elbit Systems – Israel’s largest arms company. Knowing that petitions, rallies and appeals to power will do nothing here in Britain, we’ve responded with direct action. We are currently occupying Elbit client “The Good Packing Company”, who package, transport and export Israeli weapons battle tested on the Palestinian people. The four activists’ rooftop occupation is ongoing, with extensive damage enacted and the activists set on staying as long as possible. Activists have dismantled site CCTV, struck out at windows with sledgehammers, and coated the site in paint. At the Elbit transport hub, site operations are halted and the flag is being flown.

Strikes Spread Across Amazon UK Warehouses

August 7, 2022 Tanupriya Singh, People's Dispatch. , , ,
On August 3, over 700 workers at the Amazon facility in Tilbury, Essex downed tools and launched a protest in the warehouse cafeteria against a pay offer of a mere 0.35 ($0.42) increase per hour. The offer would amount to an increase of 3%, at a time when inflation in the UK is projected to rise to 13%, amounting to a real-terms pay cut for workers. The strike action soon spread to another Amazon warehouse in Rugeley, Staffordshire. Over a 100 workers walked out to protest a 0.50 pay increase offer, with one worker telling Birmingham Mail that it was an “embarrassment of [an] announcement that comes as a mockery towards current employees”. The action is being supported by the GMB Union, which has been organizing workers at Amazon facilities in the UK for years. Amazon does not recognize any unions at its warehouses in the country.

Caracas Protests ‘Astonishing’ Ruling In Favor Of US-Backed Guaidó

July 31, 2022 Ricardo Vaz, Venezuelanalysis. , , ,
Venezuelan authorities have blasted the latest court ruling in the struggle for control over 31 tonnes of gold stored in the Bank of England (BoE). On Friday, the High Court of England and Wales decided in favor of opposition politician Juan Guaidó and dismissed a new effort by the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) to regain control over the reserves worth an estimated US $1.7 billion. Caracas had brought to court the Venezuelan Supreme Court decrees stating that the parallel BCV board appointed by the US-backed opposition was illegal. However, judge Sara Cockerill decreed that the British Court could not recognize the rulings made by Venezuela’s highest judicial instance. Since late 2018, the Bank of England has refused BCV requests to repatriate the gold reserves.

Junior Doctors In The UK Protest Government Disregard

July 29, 2022 People's Dispatch. , , ,
On Monday, July 25, junior doctors in London organized a protest march in the city demanding a pay rise. Under the banner of the Doctors Vote campaign, they took out a march from the Department of Health and Social Care Office to Downing Street. The doctors warned of more actions, including strikes, unless their long pending demand for pay restoration is met. Doctors from the British Medical Association (BMA), Doctors’ Association UK, and trade unionists and activists from Unite the union, Unison, Socialist Party, and others also took part in the protest march in solidarity with the junior doctors. Working class sections across the UK, including medical staff, have been facing an acute cost of living crisis marked by skyrocketing fuel and food prices.

United Kingdom: New Rail Strike Disrupts Train Services

July 27, 2022 Telesur English. , , , ,
Over 40,000 railway workers across Britain are taking a 24-hour strike on Wednesday, bringing another day of widespread delays and cancellations. The action by workers from Network Rail, 14 train companies, and members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), has left only one out of five trains running on average and stopped train service altogether in some parts of the country. The strike is part of the ongoing dispute between unions and companies over pay, job security and working conditions. People across the United Kingdom are struggling against rising living costs and seeing their salaries eaten up by soaring inflation. The latest data showed Britain's Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 9.4 percent in the 12 months to June, hitting a fresh 40-year high.

Reviving Student Action And Strike Solidarity

July 27, 2022 Red Pepper. , , ,
The decade since the abolition of the university fee cap in 2012 has felt painfully long for staff and students. Universities are no longer fertile ground for public knowledge but an exercise in marketized competition, commodification and over-inflated managerialism. Accordingly, students are increasingly framed as consumers entrapped in swelling debt, while overworked academics are forced to dedicate more time to admin than to teaching or research. It’s not that the university sector is strapped for cash. With more than 2,500 managerial staff on six-figure salaries and the average vice chancellor raking in £250,000, students know exactly where their £9,000 a year is going. Moreover, with the decline in direct government funding and the near abolition of teaching and maintenance grants, universities are becoming bigger players in the finance sector.
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