Boycott Barclays Now!

by New Worker correspondent

Palestinian solidarity campaigners were outside Barclays Bank’s Annual General Meeting in London this week to call out their complicity with Israel's genocide in Gaza while others, inside the hall, disrupted the meeting to protest against the bankrolling of Israeli terror in Palestine.   
Barclays holds over two billion pounds-worth of shares and provides £6.1 billion in loans and underwriting to nine companies whose weapons, components and military technology are being used by Israel in its attacks on Palestinians.
This week, Israel has committed to intensifying its genocide in Gaza by sending yet more troops into the Palestinian enclave. An Israeli government minister has said Gaza is "to be entirely destroyed". We must respond by escalating our campaigning against corporations that enable Israel's atrocities. 
Barclays has an agreement with Israel to act as a 'primary dealer' for its government bonds. This means it directly helps Israel sell bonds to raise money to fund its genocide against the Palestinians. Barclays has underwritten at least £500 million of Israel government bonds since October 2023. 
In addition, Barclays provides investment and loans worth billions to arms companies supplying Israel with the weapons and military technology it uses in its crimes against Palestinians. There must be no business-as-usual for companies like Barclays while they enable Israel's genocide.  

Pensioners protest against winter fuel cuts

 Pensioners gathered outside Parliament in London and the Northern Irish legislature in Belfast on Monday to protest the government's plans to scrap winter fuel allowances with banners that read "Defend the winter fuel payment," "Tax the rich," "Don't let us freeze" and "Reinstall the winter fuel pay".
The demonstration, which was organised by Unite the union together with the National Pensioners Convention and the Scottish Pensioners' Forum, called on Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer to not "be cruel — give us back our winter fuel."
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said Unite’s retired members were "furious and making their voice heard" outside Westminster in London and Stormont in Belfast, the seat of the devolved northern Irish parliament.
"They have to reverse the decision, it's really clear. We're the sixth richest economy in the world and we are picking the pocket of pensioners. It's totally and utterly wrong," she said.
Sputnik

Eco-protesters in Westminster

by New Worker correspondent

Just Stop Oil campaigners were in Westminster last week making the case for an end to new oil, gas, and coal projects in the UK.  While one group of student supporters disrupted traffic in Waterloo others defied  draconian bail conditions to hold a protest sit-down picket outside the Houses of Parliament.
Three students defying their bail conditions banning them from ‘protesting without police permission’ for the next three months. The students then sat down on the pavement outside Parliament with placards and gave speeches through a megaphone. 
The repressive bail conditions had been imposed on the three after they were arrested for peacefully sitting outside Total Energies headquarters last week. 27 students were arrested that day, many of whom have had similar bail conditions imposed despite not being charged with any offence.
A Just Stop Oil Spokesperson said: “This criminal government is threatening young people’s lives by encouraging new oil and gas and changing the law at the behest of big oil corporations to ensure that no-one can stop them.” 
“The Met Police’s arbitrary imposition and enforcement of vague bail conditions is part of a campaign of intimidation to silence young people, who have every right to defend themselves against a government that is intent on annihilating their futures. The Police’s failure to arrest these three breaking bail is a tacit acknowledgement that they have overstepped their authority”.

London posties rally over pay

by New Worker correspondent

Thousands of posties rallied outside Parliament last week after walking out in their latest round of strikes in the run-up to Christmas. Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said it was the biggest postal workers’ demonstration in living memory.
    Many wore pink CWU hi-vis vests, waving flags and holding placards that read “strike to win” and “save our Royal Mail”. The union says Royal Mail has imposed a 2 per cent increase on members without consultation and that it is refusing to treat its employees with respect.
    “They’re fighting for their jobs, their livelihood, and the service that they provide to the public,” says Dave Ward, the general secretary of the CWU.

    "Postal workers want to get on with serving the communities they belong to, delivering Christmas gifts and tackling the backlog from recent weeks,” Ward said. "But they know their value, and they will not meekly accept the casualisation of their jobs, the destruction of their conditions and the impoverishment of their families”.

    The CWU says more strikes will follow throughout December if Royal Mail management refuses to respond realistically to the union’s demands.

Fighting for Assange!

Corbyn joins the human chain

by New Worker correspondent

Jeremy Corbyn joined protesters in Westminster last weekend to demonstrate against the extradition of Julian Assange. The former Labour leader joined left-wing comedian Russell Brand, retired union leader Len McCluskey and thousands of other Assange supporters to form a human chain outside Parliament that stretched from its perimeter railings and across Westminster Bridge to the other side of the River Thames.
    Claudia Webbe, the independent MP for Leicester East who was expelled from the Labour Party following a conviction for harassment last year, also took part in the London protest that was part of a day of international demonstrations in solidarity with the WiKiLeaks campaigner.
    “I would say to MPs – actually of any party – you’re there to represent democracy and rights,” she said, “That’s what you sign up for… if Julian Assange is extradited, it will set forth fear among other journalists of doing anything to expose truth”.
    Assange, who is currently being held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison, will face espionage charges if he is sent to face trial in America. High Court has ruled that Assange can be extradited to the United States to face a life-time in jail for exposing American war-crimes in Iraq and other parts of the world The WikiLeaks founder is accused of publishing information detailing crimes committed by the US government in the Guantánamo Bay concentration camp, Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Assange’s wife Stella said the British government should speak to the US authorities to stop the extradition attempts. “It’s already gone on for three and a half years. It is a stain on the United Kingdom and is a stain on the Biden administration,” she said.
    She also voiced her fears for the jailed WikiLeaks founder’s health after he tested positive for Covid-19.
    "He tested positive for Covid on Saturday, the same day thousands of people came out onto the streets to support him," Stella said concerned that the prison authorities had only given her husband some paracetamol for his symptoms.
    "I am obviously worried about him and the next few days will be crucial for his general health. He is now locked in his cell for 24 hours a day," Stella stressed.
    In the US, supporters of the Australian-born activist gathered outside the Justice Department to call on the federal government to drop its extradition bid. The protesters said they hope Assange never steps foot on US soil as he would not be treated fairly by the judicial system.
    “Julian wasn’t trying to help dictatorships, he was trying to stop the United States from becoming one! And that’s why they want him in jail, and that’s why it’s crucial that we fight to set Julian free,” 2020 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate Spike Cohen said at the rally.
    Human trafficking survivor Eliza Bleu urged the “global elites, the ruling class” and employees of the CIA and FBI to “be a hero, quit your job and become a whistleblower.”
    “If it’s a choice between free speech and the United States government, trust and know, one’s gotta go! If one has to go, it ain’t gonna be free speech!” she said, adding that she is so passionate about freedom because she knows what it is like to lose it.

A Rare Victory for Public Sector Workers

By our Westminster correspondent

There is, at least, better news for one group of dedicated public sector workers who are getting a well-deserved pay rise which will hopefully compensate them for having to work long hours in cramped offices in an antiquated building situated beside a polluted river, which for most is distant from their homes. For that reason alone Members of Parliament surely deserve their £3,000 pay rise which brings their basic salary up to £81,932.
     Naturally this excludes expenses, but these have been tightened up with honourable members no longer able to claim for getting their moats cleaned without getting their names in the newspapers.
     Their pay is determined by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) which saves MPs from needing to go on picket lines. IPSA was set up after the 2009 expenses scandal which exposed the widespread misuse of allowances and expenses by MPs on both sides of the House. This included the exotic expenses claim mentioned and a Home Secretary claiming her main home was her sister’s front room so that she could claim her real house was a “second home” for the purpose of claiming expenses.
    The outrage on the street resulted in a large number of resignations, sackings, de-selections and retirement announcements in parliament. Some noble lords as well as former and sitting MPs were forced to repay substantial amounts. Others were even charged with false accounting or fraud and sent to prison.
    IPSA was designed be “independent” to end the spectacle of MPs voting on their own pay. Before the expenses scandal MPs voted to set their own pay scales. Some left-wingers noisily opposed the pay rises and some abstained, but the whips ensured that their numbers were not so great as to stop it being blocked.
     Nowadays MPs can put their hands on their hearts and (with crossed fingers) truthfully say “Nothing to do with us, it is independent”. Next year IPSA is set to authorise a 4.1 per cent increase – taking MPs’ salaries up by about £3,360 from the new figure of £81,932 to over £85,000.
     Even so, this is tough for people such as Boris Johnson. He made an immense sacrifice when he gave up his Daily Telegraph column which paid him £250,000 a year, a figure he described as chicken-feed. He now has to eke out a miserable living on his prime ministerial salary which is only about double that of a back-bench MP. It is extremely noble of Johnson to take huge pay cut so that he can devote himself to public service.

Sinn Féin MP warns of voter restrictions

John Finucane speaking

By Theo Russell

Francie Molloy, Sinn Féin MP for Mid Ulster, told a meeting in London last week that the problems the party experienced with registering voters in the North of Ireland for the December 2019 election “were the most difficult Sinn Féin has ever experienced”.

He said: “There are increasing restrictions on who gets onto the electoral register and who can send postal votes.

“We need to prepare for a unified electoral system in the north and south that is completely out of the hands of the British government. Every Irish citizen should be on the register and have the right to vote.

“Demography is changing in the North but it’s not reflected on the electoral register, and that could mean the unionists maintain control even when they’ve lost the popular majority.”

The keynote speaker at the meeting, A decade of opportunity: towards a United Ireland at the Westminster Parliament, was John Finucane, new Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast.

Finucane reminded the meeting that the Good Friday Agreement “is an evolving process” that “requires constant nurturing and active oversight and involvement by the Irish and British Governments”.

But his main focus was on Brexit, which he said “has exposed the failure and undemocratic nature of partition – a political problem, which requires a political solution”.

He added that: “The majority of MLAs and MPs in the North of Ireland are anti-Brexit. Neither the people, nor their political representatives here have consented to the North leaving the EU today. There is a justifiable anger about this.”

In April 2017 the European Union announced that in the event of Irish reunification, the North “would automatically re-join the EU with the rest of Ireland,” Finucane said.

He predicted that recent changes “will inevitably lead to the final break-up of the constitutional structures of the United Kingdom” and said: “It is no longer a question of if, but when the referendum on Irish unity will be held, and many of those of a British or Unionist identity are now considering the merits of reunification.”

Finucane called on the new Irish government after next month’s elections to publish a Green Paper and appoint a minister on how to prepare “a successful transition to a united Ireland”.

He added that the debate on reunification was bringing in wide sections of society in the North of Ireland.

Last year Baroness Paisley, the widow of Ian Paisley and vice-president of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said: “I just wonder why (Ireland) had to be divided... and I think it was the wrong decision,” adding that she could live in a united Ireland as long as there was freedom of religion – in contrast to her own party leader, Arlene Foster.

Also Billy Hutchinson, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, which had one seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly until 2007, told the party conference the a reunification referendum was inevitable.

On a so-called border referendum – ie to end partition – he said: “For our part, Sinn Féin believes there should be one within the next five years.

“That means the Irish Government need to begin to plan for a referendum, promote the discussion, and build a vision of a new and united Ireland.”

He called on the Irish diaspora in Britain to lobby MPs and the British government “to live up to its responsibilities under the Good Friday Agreement to announce a unity referendum”.

John Finucane is the son of lawyer Patrick Finucane, who was murdered in 1989 by Ulster Defence Association (UDA) members who were colluding with MI5, which was confirmed in parliament by David Cameron in 2012.

Finucane pointed out that in Belfast: “The absolute unionist majority has been lost in the last four elections and it is not coming back. I say this not out of triumph but as a challenge.” His seat was exclusively held by unionists until December 2019.

Amongst his predecessors was Edward Carson, who led a revolt against Irish Home Rule, paved the way for partition and established the Ulster Volunteers, who received arms shipments from Germany. Lenin famously cited Carson as an example of the British government supporting treason against against their own state.

In the discussion a speaker from the floor spoke about the ‘Magnitsky amendments’ unanimously added to two new laws by parliament, allowing the freezing of assets of “international human rights violators”. (According to the USA and UK, the US lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was murdered by the Russian Government.)

The speaker asked: “If they were so concerned about human rights, why didn’t they pass a law after the murder of Pat Finucane?”