Capital refuses to relent as India struggles for funds
British energy company Cairn is set to become the latest in a long list of predatory institutions that drain the Indian people of their resources for profit. A long-running corporate tax case concluded that the Indian government must pay Cairn $1.2 billion in damages after it broke the 2014 UK-India bilateral investment treaty by claiming Cairn’s 10% stake in its Indian subsidiary.
Communist Party plans biggest electoral campaign since 1983
Last weekend’s Communist Party Executive Committee discussed plans to mount one of its biggest electoral campaigns since the early 1980s. It was reported to the EC that organising meetings have been held across Britain, campaign plans sketched out, artworkers are working on designs and finishing touches are being made to Manifestos for elections in Wales, Scotland and later, for England.
Communist Party calls for “unity against monopoly power”
“State support for the capitalist monopolies and their profits is at the root of society’s major problems, including the Tory government’s disastrous handling of the Covid-19 crisis”, Bill Greenshields told a meeting of the Communist Party’s Executive Committee over the weekend. “This approach characterises the whole range of government policies from austerity and privatisation to state subsidies and the woefully inadequate test-and-trace system”, he charged. Mr Greenshields said that Britain’s successful vaccination programme owed most to the role played by public sector investment, the NHS and other public health and education institutions.
Russians take to streets as Kremlin mishandles extremist Navalny
Navalny is not the ‘saviour fighting for democracy’ that the Western media has portrayed him as. He has consistently proven himself to be an ultranationalist and has mixed with far-right figures from across Russia.
HS2 protestors in fight to preserve ancient woodland
Protestors in London are reported to have dug a 100ft long tunnel near Euston Station in protest against the continuing work on the £106bn High Speed Rail 2 (HS2) Project that seeks to connect London with cities further north. Bailiffs are attempting to remove the protestors arguing there is a danger of the tunnel collapsing as work on the railway continues. The activists have locked themselves inside the tunnels but there has already been reported collapses and water ingress although no one has been harmed yet.
Germany: CDU appoints new leader in attempt to strike balance
Germany’s largest party, the CDU, has appointed a new leader after a year of deliberation in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Armin Laschet won 53% of the vote and will now hope to steer the party forward as it looks to progress past Merkel’s 18-year rule. With a leading role in the EU, Europe’s largest economy plays an important role as the relative ‘middle ground’ to increasingly polarised governments to its East and West.
Slow vaccine roll out intensifies Tory COVID-19 incompetence
The UK has now administered the first COVID-19 vaccinations to over 5.4 million members of the population according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s latest update on Friday 22 January. The rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and, more recently, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been lauded by Conservative MPs as large success of an otherwise shambolic and devastating response to the coronavirus crisis.
International Day of Education: WFDY calls for students to fight for their rights
The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) celebrated the International Day of Education by highlighting the analysis and demands for education made during WFDY’s 20th General Assembly held in Cyprus at the end of 2019. You can read the full resolution below.
Communists: “underinvestment and privatisation to blame for COVID-19 death rate”
“Decades of underinvestment and privatisation in our health, elderly care and emergency services have produced Britain’s disastrous COVID-19 death rate – the sixth worst in the world”, according to the Communist Party. Speaking to the party’s Political Committee on Wednesday evening (20 January 2021), general secretary Robert Griffiths said the Tory government’s late and inadequate response to the coronavirus had added a “deadly twist” to the figures.
CP: collective action can beat Tory government & bad bosses
The Communist Party has issued the January edition of its news sheet Unity! focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rolls Royce workers win, Brexit, student occupations, the upcoming CP trade union aggregate and plans for the YCL centenary.
