Underground staff face sack for self defence

THE RMT rail union is fighting the case of Lee Cornell, who was sacked by London Underground (LU) for defending himself from an abusive and aggressive fare-dodger at London Bridge Underground station. Two of his colleagues who came to his aid have also been disciplined.

The union says that LU disregarded the fact that Cornell and two other staff were physically and verbally assaulted by the customer whom Cornell is accused of accosting. Cornell was punched twice and had his glasses stolen by this person.

The Jubilee line branch will be requesting a ballot for industrial action to defend Cornell, Saed Souissi and Dave Sharp if necessary.

The three Customer Support Assistants (CSAs) have been sent to a Company Disciplinary Interview (CDI) following an incident with a fare evader in November 2016.

The fare evader assaulted three members of staff, one was pregnant. She was pushed in her stomach. This evader also stole a pair of glasses from a CSA who needs them to drive to visit his sick mother.

Cornell, who was punched twice and whose glasses were stolen, was sacked by LU for preventing himself being hit and for getting his property back.

Saeed Souissi was given a suspended dismissal for defusing the situation no less than three times when this evader wanted to punch and head butt other members of staff.

London Underground said he should have reported the incident on his iPad and watched his colleagues being assaulted.

Dave Sharp has been accused of "inciting or provoking an incident”. He asked a customer if they had touched in with an oyster/card or had a ticket.

Senior union reps have stated this is the worst case of punitive disciplinary they have ever seen. The fact the workplace violence forum agrees that staff are entitled to take reasonable steps to protect themselves and their property was disregarded.

RMT says workplace justice must be seen to be done. Failure to deliver justice to the London Bridge Three will result in Industrial action.

Pollution charge on London vehicles

LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan plans to introduce a £10 charge on the owners of the most polluting cars that enter the congestion charge zone from next October.

Confirming he would press ahead with the fee, known as the T-charge, Sadiq Khan said: “It’s staggering that we live in a city where the air is so toxic that many of our children are growing up with lung problems. If we don’t make drastic changes now we won’t be protecting the health of our families in the future.

“That is why today, on the 14^th anniversary of the start of the congestion charge, I’ve confirmed we are pressing ahead with the toughest emission standard of any major city, coming to our streets from 23^rd October.”

The announcement came after fresh warnings this week about the poor quality of London’s air. The mayor spoke as he launched an online vehicle checker on the Transport for London website so drivers can check whether their vehicle will be affected by the T-charge, whose introduction coincides with the start of the autumn half-term.

The levy is expected to affect up to 10,000 of the oldest, most polluting vehicles every weekday – it will apply to motorists who own vehicles that do not meet Euro Four standards, typically those diesel and petrol vehicles registered before 2006.

It will operate on top of, and during the same times as, the congestion charge, meaning it will cost £21.50 per day to drive a pre-Euro Four vehicle in central London between 7am–6pm Monday to Friday.

London joins a growing number of cities around the world taking action against rising air pollution. In Paris, older more polluting vehicles are now banned between 8am–8pm on weekdays.

Khan launched a consultation on the T-charge proposals last July at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, whose chief executive, Dr Peter Steer, said at the time: “The mayor’s drive to clean up the capital’s air is fantastic news for our patients and staff. Children living in highly polluted areas are four times more likely to have reduced lung function in adulthood, yet improving air quality has been shown to halt and reverse this effect.”

Air pollution is believed to cause almost 40,000 premature deaths every year in Britain and was in April labelled a “public health emergency” by a cross-party committee of MPs.

Anger as May reneges on promise to child refugees

by New Worker correspondent

PROTESTERS gathered in Whitehall on Friday night, 10^th February and the next day Lord Alf Dubs – accompanied by a group of children and other campaigners – presented a petition to Prime Minister Theresa May after she stunned the country by reneging on Britain’s promise made last May to take in 3,000 child refugees from the informal Calais camp.

There are estimated to be around 14 million refugees from the various wars in Africa and the Middle East – mostly the result of interventions, invasions and bombings by Britain, the United States and France.

Most of these desperate people are stuck in refugee camps in the countries close to their homes. But hundreds of thousands have been arriving in Europe seeking safety, peace and stability for themselves and their children.

And most European countries have accommodated thousands of them – none more than Greece and Italy, where the refugees first arrived in Europe.

But the British government has refused to take more than a relatively tiny handful – just 3,000 of the unaccompanied children. And even that pledge had to be wrung out of the Government by an amendment formulated by Lord Dubs to a parliamentary Bill on immigration. Dubs is a veteran campaigner who first came to Britain in the 1930s as a child refugee fleeing the Nazis.

Last week Home Secretary Amber Rudd claimed that the agreement to take even this small number of child refugees would “encourage migration” – as though people fleeing wars were making an optional lifestyle choice – and that local authorities did not have the resources to accommodate them.

Hundreds of religious leaders and celebrities have joined the swelling protest at May’s cruel betrayal of very vulnerable children.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, warned that halting the initiative would see more children being trafficked, exploited and killed. He said he was "saddened and shocked" at the decision and has insisted it is "deeply unjust" to leave the burden of caring for them on Italy and Greece, where thousands of refugees and migrants arrive from the conflict-ridden Middle East and north Africa.

He said he understood Rudd's argument that British and French authorities feared the scheme was acting as a "pull factor" for children to head to the Britain, and that it provides opportunities for people-traffickers. But speaking to BBC Radio 4's World At One, he said: "Parents do not casually wake up one day and say, well the easiest thing to do is to send our children off by themselves. This is the symptom of a situation more extreme than anything that any of us can ever imagine.”

About 50,000 people signed the petition that Alf Dubs presented to Number 10 Downing Street on Saturday.

When addressing the crowd of campaigners who had gathered outside Downing Street, he repeated the words of Nicholas Winton, who organised the evacuation of hundreds of Jewish children including Dubs from Prague in 1939, saying: “If it’s not impossible, there must be a way.”

Dubs said. “It doesn’t need a whole new consultation. We are going to keep the pressure up about this. I believe that the Government decision to limit the number of children allowed in to 350 flies in the face of both parliamentary opinion and public opinion.

“I was shocked and in disbelief, I couldn’t believe the Government could back off in quite that way. We want the Government to change their minds. The Government have said they don’t want to take more than 350 in total under the amendment.

“I think that’s a very shabby cop-out. I believe that there are thousands of unaccompanied child refugees suffering greatly in Greece, Italy and some in France.

“The Government has said no more and I think that is an abdication of their responsibilities, it goes against public opinion and it goes against parliamentary opinion.”

A number of Tory MPs have also promised to fight the decision to close the Dubs scheme. On Saturday, a Conservative peer who was granted asylum in Britain after fleeing the Bosnian war urged the Prime Minister to live up to Britain’s history as a haven for refugees.

A High Court challenge to the decision to close the Dubs scheme has been pencilled in for 2–4 May. The challenge, which is being brought by the charity Help Refugees, claims that the consultation process with local authorities that led to the cap on the scheme was “fundamentally flawed”.

Day of the Shining Star

Dermot Hudson opening the KFA meeting on Saturday

 by New Worker  correspondent

Friends of the Korean revolution celebrated the 75^th anniversary of the birth of dear leader Kim Jong Il at meetings across London last week, including a joint Korean Friendship Association (KFA)/Juche Study Group meeting on Saturday 11^th February followed by a reception at the London embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) that same evening, and a Friends of Korea meeting at the John Buckle Centre on Monday 13^th February.

            Comrades joined the Korean people in celebrating  Kim Jong Il’s birthday, which has long been known as the Day of the Shining Star in the DPRK, and tributes to the Korean leader’s life and times were made at all three events.

New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks joined diplomats and many others actively involved in solidarity with Democratic Korea across the country for the reception to mark the Day of the Shining Star at the DPRK embassy in London. The new DPRK ambassador, Choe Il, paid tribute to Kim Jong Il’s the outstanding contribution to the Korean revolution and the world communist movement, and Dermot Hudson from the KFA spoke about the dear leader’s contribution to the Juche Idea.

Dermot Hudson and Choe Il at the reception

  Prof Dr Harish Gupta, the director general of the International Institute of the Juche Idea and head of the Asian Regional Institute for the Study of the Juche Idea, spoke at the KFA event and Michael Chant, the general secretary of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (ML) and John McLeod of the Socialist Labour Party both spoke highly of Kim Jong Il’s revolutionary role on Monday.

Choe Il and Michael Chant

Kim Jong Il steered the DPRK through the difficult times that followed the death of great leader Kim Il Sung in 1994. He devoted his entire life to serving the Korean people in the cause of building a human-centred society, a cause that is espoused by the democratic and anti-imperialist forces the world over. He followed the footsteps of great leader Kim Il Sung in leading the country into the 21^st century and died at his post on 17^th December 2011.
       Now the torch has passed to Kim Jong Un, and under his leadership the DPRK has made giant strides in science and technology over the past few weeks with the test of a thermo-nuclear bomb and the successful launch of a satellite into space.

Posted by london communists at 12:41