The Communist Party has issued the December edition of its news sheet Unity! focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic, the right-wing offensive inside the Labour Party, international developments and the plans for Communist Party and the YCL to hit the ground running in 2021.
The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) has issued a statement yesterday to mark International Human Rights Day 2020.
Today, on Human Rights Day, we must highlight that imperialism poses a threat to international peace, freedom, sovereignty and human rights. As we said in our 20th General Assembly, “these crimes committed by the world’s imperialist forces (such as NATO, USA, EU and their allies) on their way to advance their position in the international imperialist system, posed a serious threat to the international peace and at the same time to peoples’ own freedom, sovereignty and human rights.”
You can read the full thematic resolution on peace, freedom and human rights from WFDY’s 20th General Assembly.
The investigation, led by the Maj Gen Justice Paul Brereton, found that Australian special forces were involved in the murder of 39 Afghan civilians and subsequent planting of weapons and phones.
Through the GMB, union workers at a Covid-hit factory are demanding they get sick pay urgently, claiming it is “the most important” step they can take to eradicate the spread there – while staff at the site say they are scared to go to into work.
Beijing says it reserves the right to not recognise the BNO as a valid travel document – but our government estimates over 300,000 Hong Kong nationals will come to live in the UK over the next four years. This is an exodus.
The CDC (Center for Disease Control) has warned US citizens that this winter could very well become the hardest time in history for the country’s healthcare system. After months of harrowing news stories coming out of the United States, including 200,000 new COVID cases being recorded in just two weeks at the end of November and 778,000 first-time applications for unemployment benefits being filed in only 7 days that same week.
On the Thursday 26th November, India experienced one of the highest strike turnouts in the country’s history. The Mazdoor Kisan strike mobilised workers from all industries in response to the Modi government’s implementation of anti-labour laws.
Tony Conway, the Communist Party’s Anti-Racism Anti-Fascism Officer, launched a stinging all-round attack on the Tory government’s record at a meeting of the Party’s Political Committee yesterday evening (2 December 2020). After welcoming the swift development and approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, he said it should not divert attention from the government’s “deadly mismanagement” of the coronavirus crisis.
Since last weekend, protests have erupted in France’s urban centres against a newly proposed #SécuritéGlobale’ bill that aims to ban individuals from filming police officers. #Paris #France #Police 🔥🚔✊
In England, following on from the countrywide lockdown, people living in Tier 3 will have access to mass testing- even if they currently show no symptoms of the Virus. This amounts to over 23 million people across England and represents one of the largest mass testing programmes in Europe. Unlike other countries, such as Slovakia, which tested two-thirds of the entire population in two days, England’s scheme is voluntary.
Britain’s Communists slammed the Tory government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic as an “incompetent and corrupt disaster” at last weekend’s meeting of the Party’s Executive Committee.
YCL #Brighton have issued a statement on the University of Brighton’s rollout of redundancies, putting 49 IT staff at risk during a national lockdown. 🏫✊👩🎓#UniversityofBrighton #UCU
This evening, 24 November 2020, the Scottish Parliament unanimously voted to become the first country in the world to pass legislation making period products freely available to all. The Bill, which was proposed by Monica Lennon, Scottish Labour spokesperson for Health and Sport, is the result of years of campaigning from anti-poverty campaigners.
Hundreds of people broke into the Congress building in Guatemala City, Guatemala on Saturday and burned part of the building down as part of a 10,000 strong demonstration, the latest in a wave of intensifying protests in the Central American country. They were protesting the passing of a controversial new budget that increases the national debt, but cuts education, health, justice and human rights spending.
It has been announced this week that the UK military is to receive an extra £4bn a year over the next four years. This represents an increase of around 10% per annum and sits on top of existing plans to increase defence spending at above inflation rates.
The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) celebrated International Day Students’ Day by highlighting the analysis and demands for education made during WFDY’s 20th General Assembly held in Cyprus last year. You can read the full resolution here.
YCL Greater Manchester have issued the following statement on the recent negotiations between University of Manchester management and the Student Union:
On Tuesday 17th November, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) were met with physical violence from the police force during a demonstration in memory of the 1973 Athens Polytechnic Uprising.
Thousands of families queued up in Dallas on Saturday for the North Texas Food Bank for what the organization called it its largest ever handout.
The latest bloody flare-up in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict came to a tentative end last week, with a decisive victory for Azerbaijan. In 6 short weeks the aggressors have managed to claw back cities and territory had been under de-facto Armenian rule since the fall of the Soviet Union. Huge concessions have been made by the Armenian government, and the independent Artsakh republic has all but been handed over to the Azeris in a Russia-brokered peace deal which will have huge consequences for the balance of power in the region.
