by Anita Wright

Cameron and Osborne’s refusal tocap bankers' bonuses calls to mind thesaying that to make the rich workharder you have to pay them moreand to make the poor work harderyou pay them less.

As public sector workers, the majority

women, face another year of pay freeze; as

the unemployed struggle to find work; as

thousands of families are hit by changes to

the benefit system, and child poverty rises to

unprecedented levels, the decision not to

freeze bonuses adds insult to injury.

Having bailed out the banks with public

money, we are now expected to allow

senior bankers to inflate their incomes even

when their bank makes a loss or profits go

down.. The argument goes that if we cap

bonuses the bankers will go elsewhere, a

notion disputed even by bankers (just look

at Switzerland which has operated a form of

capping for years). The barons of big

business know other ways to put money in

their pockets through share options and

pension pots. Given the economic mess they

created, many of us would welcome their

exodus.

It also illustrates the serious problem that

the British economy is heavily dependent on

finance capital, the result of successive

governments’ deliberate destruction of

manufacturing industry.

When factories close and more and more

men and women are made unemployed the

whole community is affected. High street

shops close because no one has any money

to spend.

continued overleaf

Robbing the poor to feed the rich

No austerity for fat cats

Unity!Communists at the TUC Women’s Conference March 2013

Morning Starcirculation managerBernadette Keaveneywrites

Dear Sisters

To all of you reading the Morning Star during

the Women’s TUC I would like to thank you

for your support – long may it continue.

To those of you that haven’t, let me explain

why this paper is so important to the women’s

movement.

The Morning Star is the only national daily

paper that reports on the issues day in and

day out; issues that concern you as a trade

unionist and family member. We do not have

pages devoted to help you style your hair, lose

weight, choose the right clothes but we do

have a commie chef column on a Saturday. We

cover international news including how trade

unions are fighting austerity measures in

other countries. We have film and book

reviews, sports and all the other items that

you expect from a newspaper but never

images of people being demeaned. We have

never needed to campaign to stop Page 3

inside the Morning Star

As women we need to get the paper carrying

far more articles about us. It is difficult for the

paper when the Tory/Lib Dem cabinet is

comprised of mainly men and most of our

trade unionist leaders are male.

continued on page 3

by Anita Halpin

Diktats from EU bosses in Brusselserode ever more of our hard-wondemocratic rights; diktats that thisConDem government applies withgusto when it suits their ideologicalpurpose and political programme –for which they have absolutely noelectoral mandate.Take just two decisions made last year by

unelected EU bureaucrats.First, they

introduced a new, harsh limit on the public

sector 'structural' deficit of just 0.5 per cent of

GDP under the Treaty on Stability,

Coordination and Governance. Now, I’m not

very fluent in Eurobabble but there aren’t too

many stable governments in Europe (never

mind the rest of the world).

And then last December, they outlined

mandatory reforms that will weaken our

contractual rights.

Two measures that day in and day out

translate into all the evils of austerity:

massive job losses; poverty wages; near

Victorian workplaces; declining services in

transport, energy, communications, health,

education and local government. Savage cuts

are neither necessary nor inevitable.

It is clear why many trades unionists believe

that some social gains made through being in

the EU were significant. But many of the

progressive gains in terms of equality and

human rights, now targeted by Cameron,

came not through the EU but from the

European Court of Human Rights which

predates the EU and is based on the

European Convention on Human Rights

following the victory over fascism.

The social progress won and rights gained

since 1945 and which we are fighting to save

can only be maintained when we win stronger

independent trade unions and a government

with the independent powers (never mind the

will) to deliver a budget that will both protect

and advance the interests of working people.

Yet this cannot be achieved until we loosen

the shackles forged by the EU.

The alternative economic strategy of The

People’s Charter – to redistribute power and

wealth – is far from a red-blooded Communist

planned economy, yet not one of its modest

proposals can work while Brussels controls

the purse strings. Indeed, most of our own

unions’ policies are outlawed in the EU.

In the growing fightback against austerity

there will be victories but ultimately, you

cannot oppose austerity budgeting and

campaign to rebuild our economy while

remaining supportive of the EU and its

institutions.

Arguing to leave the European Union is

neither reactionary nationalism nor a betrayal

of fellow workers across Europe but a first

step in rejecting the xenophobic and right-

wing agenda espoused by the Tory big

business party, promoted by the mass media

and exploited by UKIP.

The left argued from the start that EU

membership would undermine our democracy.

Those who today refuse to acknowledge its

undemocratic and anti-worker character are

directly playing into the hands of UKIP and

the BNP by blocking any progressive

alternative.

Anita Halpin is the Communist Party’s

trade union coordinator

EU: the enemy of progress

by Liz Payne

Anger at the gender impact ofausterity measures runs throughoutthe agenda at conference this week. For almost three years now, working class

women in Britain have had to bear the major

burden of the cuts regime of the unelected

ConDem Coalition.

Enough is enough, now it’s time for things to

change.

The June 2010 Emergency Budget made

savings of billions, grabbing 75 per cent of

them from women’s pockets. And that was just

the start! Every austerity measure since has

hit women hardest and, with less than a

quarter of the planned cuts implemented so

far, we have a serious job of challenge on our

hands!

More than 320,000 women’s jobs will be lost

Ouch, i

continued from page 1

So why are the European Union

commissioners recommending a cap on

bankers’ bonuses? It might seem a popularist

move to fend off further criticism but more

likely, as Paul Gardiner, formerly of

Goldman Sachs believes it’s because the EU

just wanted to give Cameron a kick in the

teeth. The financial crisis was precipitated

by the American banking moguls who are

deeply embedded in the British economy.

Their avaricious greed dragged Britain into

the mess forcing the bailout of our banks

and Britain in turn infected the European

economy. This also explains why the US is

so keen on Britain staying in the EU. It gives

the US access to the European economy

which would otherwise be denied to them.

Britain has become the US cuckoo in the

European Union nest.

The EU proposal on capping is mere

window dressing. It is vital that we challenge

not only this bonus culture but the

economic system that gives rise to this

parasitic practice. This is why the National

Assembly of Women is supporting the call

for a People’s Assembly Against Austerity in

The International Women’s Day issue of

21centurymanifesto magazine includes

Akexandra Kollantai on the origins of

International Women’s Day; Camila

Vallejo on the Pinochet dictatorship,

Greek communist leader Aleka Papariga

on the capitalist crisis and Die Linke

leader Sahra Wagenknecht on the euro

crisis plus Frances O’Grady on education

privatisation.

http://tinyurl.com/bm75jmh

from the public sector alone and tens of

thousands more from the private sector. Wage

freezes will hit women workers hardest,

concentrated as they are in low paid work.

Women, statistically twice as likely as men to

depend on benefits, will suffer most from

government raids on welfare budgets.

Many benefits under the axe relate to

women’s lives directly – support during

pregnancy, child care assistance via tax

credits, child benefit. Single women too are to

be the majority of those who lose housing

benefit.

Decimated public services and unaffordable

privatised ‘replacements’ are largely those on

which women rely. Caring services and public

transport being only two examples. The

cumulative effect will be the isolation,

impoverishment and disenfranchisement of

women on a scale not seen in decades,

denying access to education, jobs, healthcare

and amenities and increasing vulnerability to

exploitation, abuse and violence.

None of this needs to happen and women in

their trade unions must lead the fight-back

against public and private employers,

asserting women’s rights to jobs and a decent

life. But the fightback is not solely a matter of

short-term economic challenge. We must win

understanding that we need to change the very

basis on which women live and how this might

come about.

The Charter for Women, supported by trade

unions, trades councils and women’s

organisations across the country, sets out what

this might look like for women – in the wider

society, at work and in the labour movement.

It shows how campaigns built upon the

demands of women - for equality,

independence, justice, representation, work,

fair pay, education and health - can make

broad, deep and irreversible changes to the

lives of working women in Britain.

But we should be under no illusion;

capitalism depends on the exploitation of

working women and on women’s unpaid

labour. It also depends on ensuring that

working people can never unite to challenge

it. For capitalism, maintaining the division

between working women and men is a

prerequisite.

We have a long, hard battle to fight but, if we

fight it together, basing our struggle on the

clearly articulated demands of the Charter for

Women, we will be able to win vital public

support, defeat anti-women austerity

measures, get rid of the government of the

super-rich and begin to work towards a

genuinely fair, just, democratic and socialist

future.

Liz Payne is the Communist Party national

women’s organiser and Party vice chair

it hurts

London on Saturday 22 June.

Sisters (and brothers) will not stand by and

allow rampant privatisation to continue,

unemployment to become structurally

embedded in our economy, watch the

destruction of the NHS and welfare state

and do nothing. It is vital that, together, we

develop an alternative economic strategy

based on growth, social justice and equality

and then work together in our organisations,

unions and communities together to

transform this into a political fight for power

that can bring about real change for the

millions of working class people, their

families and future generations.

Anita Wright is secretary of the

National Assembly of Women

continued from front page

So I would urge you to make sure that the

voices of women are heard in the only paper

that wants to publicise our issues, campaigns

and, most importantly, our victories which will

help inspire other women to become involved

in the movement.

Visit me today on the Morning Star stall and

let me tell you more about becoming a daily

reader of this paper. How to buy it, how to

order it for meetings that you attend and how

you can use it in education classes.

The Morning Star is co-operatively owned

by its readers through the Peoples Press

Printing Society (PPPS). Eight national trade

unions have taken out full share holding in

the PPPS and are represented on our

management committee .

It is important that women become involved

in the ownership of the paper so that they can

help shape the paper for the future. If you

belong to Unite you should have seen the

recent shares drive that they are

endorsing. Again come along and see me at

the stall so that I can talk to you some more

about participating and contributing more by

becoming a shareholder.

Bernadette Keaveney is the paper’s

circulation manager and can be contacted at

berniemorstar@aol.com 0778 0220 391

*For share forms email

reception@peoples-press.com

by Maggie Ryan

With all the talk on how to win powerback from the Con Dem governmentgoing on at the moment you would beforgiven for thinking that Unite the Union was the enemy. Clearly, Len McCluskey’s recent article in the

New Statesman magazine rankled with some

senior figures in the Labour Party, prompting a

swipe at the Union for having the audacity to

put forward an alternative view that would

appeal to ordinary working people and

persuade them to come out and vote for Labour

at the next election. Labour has lost some 4000

members between 1997 and 2010, so, radical

ideas are needed if we are to win people back

to the party and achieve this aim.

Policies that working people can get behind

and support would be a good start, given the

relentless attacks on some of the poorest in our

society and the decimation of our public

services up and down the country with still

worse to come this year and beyond.

Unite members at our policy conference last

year were very clear about our relationship with

the Labour Party. They voted in favour for the

link to be maintained, but that all future

donations to the party should be scrutinised as

to how the money is being used, especially

monies to constituency Labour parties (CLPs).

What’s the point of funding CLPs if they

disregard unions’ policies and just want to

promote careerists to become MPs who, in the

main, have absolutely no idea of the real

pressures hard pressed families are trying to

cope with under this current government. To

achieve this, it was recognised that we need

more Unite members in the Labour Party to

have a chance of turning this situation around.

So, at least one union is developing a political

strategy that will enable its members to do just

that, from branch level, all members are being

encouraged to join the Labour Party and

participate in their local constituency parties

The message is the same for our Area activists

committees, Regional industrial sector

committees and for the equalities sector, our

Women members, BAEM members, Disabled

members, LGB&T members, Young members

and our Retired members section. The support

is there for activists at all levels of Unite to

participate and the resources are in place

throughout the 10 regions of the Union to assist

A winning strategy to defeat the

by Carolyn Jones

In the closing decades of the 20thcentury workers in Britain and theirtrade unions faced a recurringonslaught against their employmentrights and trade union freedoms.

The reasons were clear. Weaker unions

meant bigger profits. Barabara Castle and

Edward Heath (right) failed. Thatcher was

more successful. She wanted to reduce the

welfare state, privatise public services (rail,

post, gas, electricity, telecoms) and replace

Britain’s manufacturing base with an

unregulated financial sector. To achieve her

aims she needed to disarm the only force

able to resist such draconian measures - the

trade union movement.

In a systematic, step by step programme of

legislative changes Thatcher shackled the

unions with ballots, injunctions, internal

elections, restrictions on strike action,

banning of solidarity action and the

decentralisation of collective bargaining from

national to enterprise level.

The result was devastating and debilitating

and continues to impact on how unions

operate. The numbers of people covered by

a collective agreement negotiated by a trade

union has fallen from 82% in 1980 to around

32% today. A major consequence of that

drop has been an ever widening increase in

inequality. Hardly surprising. Even today,

workers who have their terms and conditions

negotiated via a trade union receive around

16% more than unrepresented workers.

Remove that influence and inequality grows.

Today we are suffering from Thatcher mark

two. Just like the 1980’s it’s hard to keep up

with the anti trade union policies, proposals

and pig-headed prejudices spouted on a daily

basis by the arrogant posh boys currently in

power. Limits on employment rights, attacks

on trade union freedoms, restrictions on

access to justice, fundamental weakening of

enforcement mechanisms and regressive

steps in equality legislation - all expose the

class nature of the Coalition’s programme.

But this time we have to be ready and

prepared to resist. We have to ensure we

join up the dots of the daily dose of anti

trade union, anti-working class agenda so that

workers can see the big picture and gain the

confidence to fight back. That is why the

Campaign for Trade Union Freedom is so

timely and so important. The Campaign is a

merger between the United Campaign for

the Repeal of Anti-Trade Union Laws and the

Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade

Unions - two organisations with proud and

progressive histories.

The merger creates "one voice" and offers a

forum where we can truly and proudly

declare we are all in this together. The role

of the Campaign will not simply be to expose

the class based nature of the problem. That’s

only part of the job. More importantly will be

its work in creating and popularising collective

resistance, offering those in struggle a voice

and support mechanisms and continually

highlighting the fact that another world is

possible.

We hope activists will join the Campaign

and work with us to win free unions, which

can play their role in battling for fair rights and

decent pay.

Carolyn Jones is director of the

Institute of Employment Rights

Fight for tradeunion freedom

A chanceto changeour futureby Bill Greenshields

The People’s Assembly AgainstAusterity is a response to calls from anumber of trade unions – including inthe first instance Unite – the Coalitionof Resistance, the People’s Charterand many others to mount a seriouschallenge to the bankers' agenda andsubject it to public scrutiny, when itwill be found wanting in every respect.Attacks on working people in the name of

austerity will not go unchallenged. We will

resist the theft and privatisation of our

national resources and public services; the

continuing undermining of trade unions rights

and freedom and the attacks on the most

vulnerable all of which rip the heart out of

local communities.

The government and its henchmen in the

mass media perpetuate the myth that

understanding the economy is far too

complicated for the ‘ordinary’ woman and

man so we should leave it the ‘experts’ – the

bankers, economists, media pundits and

politicians – whose system created this damn-

awful mess in the first place.

We need to be brainwashed to believe that,

even though we are suffering, cuts and

unemployment are inevitable and necessary

and anyway (because we can’t understand)

there’s nothing we can do about it.

The tiny class of super-rich bankers and

corporate monopolies running this country

also need our response to the austerity regime

to be fragmented and dislocated.

Thus the attacks on pay, pensions, rights at

work, employment, benefits and public

services are portrayed as separate industrial

battles which are fought individually and not

as what they are: various strands of an

integrated class attack on everything Britain’s

workers have won over the past 70 years.

So they sow artificial divisions. Public and

private-sector workers. Industrial and service

workers. Men and women, north and south,

black and white, British citizens and

migrants, those in work and the unemployed.

Most crucially they need trade union

struggles to be separate from community and

grass roots struggles, even when they so often

involve the same individuals.

Anyone who argues for a coherent

alternative is tagged as an unrealistic

extremist. Every day the ruling class puppets

in Parliament and the media pump out the

same old stuff, designed to confuse, obfuscate,

threaten, divide, ridicule and browbeat us into

submission.

Working people are under a full-frontal

assault in Britain as in the rest of Europe and

beyond. In this country particularly we are

deprived of a political voice. So it’s a ray of

hope that trade unions, anti-cuts groups,

radical campaigns, community organisations

and political parties are coming together for a

People’s Assembly on Saturday 22 June this

year.

The Assembly is a reassertion of the

strength of the working class and its need for

a political voice. It can help build a

movement that might just turn the tide.

Will those taking part agree on every dot

and comma of the way forward, in terms of

objectives, tactics and strategy?

No – and that’s a good thing because if they

did the assembly would not reflect the

complexity and variety of views within the

working class.

It’s vital that the assembly be representative

of all sections of the British people and does

not become the property of any political party

or group.

There will be, must be, real debate and

argument – but in a process designed to unite

and ignite the labour movement and deliver

an outcome.

It should lead to stronger and more united

trade unions determined to take on the battle

in a strategic, co-ordinated way and to put

themselves at the heart of communities

seeking to defend themselves against the cuts.

And it should help promote the radical

alternative that the People’s Charter for

Change demands – a people’s Britain, not a

bankers’ Britain.

Bill Greenshields chairs the Communist Party

and is the People’s Charter trade union officer

ConDemsus all and make this work.

The General Executive council with our

general secretary Len McCluskey is wholly

committed to ensuring that Labour can win for

working people, but they must not take our

support for granted and start to form policies

that are relevant for ordinary people that they

will then come out and vote for.

Maggie Ryan is the West Midlands Women’s

Representative on Unite’s General Executive

Council and writes here in a personal capacity

Communist PartyOpen Letter on thestrategy to solve the crisis of politicalrepresentation in the labourmovement, go tohttp://tinyurl.com/bwl3h8b

CAMPAIGN FORTRADE UNION

FREEDOMLaunch rally Saturday 23 March

1:30-4:30pm Friends Meeting House173 Euston Road London NW1 2BJ

by Robert Griffiths

In cities, towns and villages acrossBritain, the cuts are beginning to bite.For the past two years, the austerityprogramme devised by New Labourmainly affected capital projects. Theconstruction industry and itscontractors were hit, but most publicservices remained in place.Now people are seeing their local libraries,

day care centres, leisure facilities and other

council services slashed or closed altogether.

As well as rising council tax bills and

service charges, people are being mercilessly

ripped off by the greedy tax-dodgers who own

our gas, electricity and water utilities.

For example, British Gas have increased

prices by 6 per cent, even though annual profits

are up 11 per cent. Most of their 17m

customers see no real increase in their incomes

and many are struggling to pay their rocketing

bills.

It's a similar story in the water industry, where

prices and profits are soaring – except at Welsh

Water, a not-for-profit company.

The hardest hit are low-paid and public sector

workers, the unemployed, single parents, carers

and pensioners who rely on state benefits or the

state pension for their subsistence. The

majority in most of these categories are women.

The government's welfare state 'reforms' target

many of the same people, together with the

disabled.

The benefit cap on working-age households

will be rolled out from next month and most will

also suffer a cut in housing benefit. In fact,

most benefits will go down in real terms for at

least two years.

The 'bedroom tax' will hit tenants on housing

benefit in all social housing.

The rolling replacement of the Disability

Living Allowance by the Personal

Independence Payment is intended to slash

financial support by 20 per cent over the next

four years – for those not driven off it altogether.

The staged introduction of Universal Credit

this year, in place of most means-tested benefits

for the unemployed, low-paid and parents will

make it simpler for governments to reduce

public assistance at a stroke.

Yet we are only in the second year of what the

Tories now intend to be a 7-year austerity

regime.

Where the last New Labour government

planned to chop public spending by £123bn to

2015, the Con-Dem coalition has added

£446bn of cuts and extended the punishment to

2018.

Prime Minister Cameron has recently

repeated the bogus rationale for austerity,

namely, that Britain's public spending deficit

must be narrowed towards zero.

This has never been the government's real

agenda. At the behest of the City of London,

which pressed for the formation of the

unelected Con-Dem coalition in the first place,

it is to dismantle and privatise Britain's public

sector, including the welfare state.

Almost all the social gains made since 1945

are to be withdrawn.

Monopoly profits can then be made across the

health and education sectors, especially in

England. Taxes on the rich and corporate profits

can be reduced still further. Wage levels can be

WANTED: A PEOPLE’S

BUDGET

driven down and trade unionism weakened.

That is why the labour movement must fight

this austerity and privatisation drive through

mass action, including selective, rolling and

generalised strikes. Together with the left, it

has to wage the battle of ideas in our local

communities, to expose the real Tory agenda.

But we must also show that there is an

alternative.

For instance, a People's Budget would

stimulate economic growth and reduce the

growing inequality gap with measures to:

H Invest in health, education, housing, public

transport and the environment.

H Halt all PFI and privatisation schemes to

hand over public services to big business.

H Boost state pension and benefit levels in

real terms, restoring the link with the retail

price index.

H Increase the national minimum wage in real

terms and retain the Agricultural Wages Board.

H Extend statutory equal pay audits into the

private sector.

H Freeze gas, electricity and water prices and

prepare to take all the utilities back into public

ownership.

H Nationalise the banks and direct funds into

manufacturing, small businesses, cooperatives

and housing.

H Take the railways back into public

ownership and subsidise fares and investment

not shareholder dividends.

H Launch a massive public sector

housebuilding programme.

Where would the money come from? Britain is still the world's sixth biggest

economy. The wealthiest one-tenth of the

population own at £4,500bn in personal

wealth, 44 per cent of the total (whereas half

the population own just 10 per cent). That's

without taking into account at least £3,000bn

in hidden assets.

Since 2011, the Bank of England has

pumped an extra £175bn into the banks and

financial institutions in 'quantitative easing'

(QE). Most of this has been used to improve

corporate bank balances and speculate in the

financial markets.

A People's Budget would therefore:

H Introduce a 2 per cent Wealth Tax on the

super-rich, raising £90 billion a year – almost

twice this year's public spending cuts.

H Reverse the recent cuts in corporation tax

for the biggest companies.

H Restore the top rate of income tax (at 60 per

cent not 50).

H Slap a windfall tax on energy, retail and

banking monopoly profits.

H Impose a financial transaction tax on the

City bankers and speculators.

H Divert Bank of England funds from QE and

the impotent Funding for Lending Scheme into

infrastructure bonds issued by local, devolved

and other public authorities.

H End the tax haven status of all territories

under British jurisdiction.

Many of these policies arise from the

positions taken in the People's Charter,

endorsed by the TUC, the Scottish TUC, Wales

TUC and many individual unions.

The People's Assembly Against Austerity on

June 22 provides a great opportunity for the

labour and people's movement to go on the

offensive for policies to benefit the millions,

not the millionaires.

Robert Griffiths is the Communist Party

general secretary

I want to join the Communist Party o

Please send me more information o

Name

Address

e mail phone

Send to CPB Ruskin House 23 Coombe Road Croydon CR01BD (or hand to a communist, you know who they are)

Join Britain’s party of working class power and liberation

This book challenges the consensusthat has confined political economy tothe options that the banks and bigbusiness will accept. Based on the policy agenda that Britain’s

trade union and labour movement have begun

to shape it analyses what is wrong with the

British economy, arguing that the country’s

productive base is too small, that the economy

has become too financialised and that power

has become concentrated on a narrow

economic fraction based in the City.

It sets out policies to establish democratic

and social control of the City, arguing that

regulation is not enough.The book focuses on

how immediate growth and longer-term re-

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that a socially owned banking sector can foster

the creation of a new, sustainable, social

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The book argues for an alternative economic

strategy that breaks political dependence on

the US, and diversifies economic

relationships, fostering those with emerging

BRICS economies and questioning anew our

dependence on the European Union, whose

‘social model’ now seems a distant memory.

Critically the book tackles the problems that

a progressive government would face and

argues that an alternative economic strategy

must be accompanied by measures to devolve

political power and encourage the active

participation of the people in exercising

control over the actions of big business and

finance in Britain.

It insists on the importance of a strategy that

can boost spending power among the British

people, begin to narrow the widening

inequalities in British society and raise the

standard of living and build a new,

democratised public realm that insulates

people from dependence on volatile financial

markets.

Edited by Jonathan White with contributors

from Mark Baimbridge, Brian Burkitt, Mary

Davis, John Foster Marjorie Mayo, Jonathan

Michie, Seumas Milne, Andrew Murray, Roger

Seifert, Prem Sikka, Jonathan White and

Philip Whyman.

Building an economy for the people

an alternative economic and political strategy

for 21st century Britain

£6.95 (+£1 p&p) ISBN 978-1-907464-08-9

www.manifestopress.org.uk

Manifesto Pressis a new venturethat aims topublish workingclass history,socialist theoryand the politicsof class struggle.

It is republican and anti-imperialist;secular and feminist; anti-fascist andanti-racist; committed to workingclass political power, popularsovereignty and progressive culture.

There is an alternative

Morning Stardaily paper of the left

£1 from your newsagentH

Women in Iran under the age of 40 must

have the written permission of their

guardian to travel abroad according to a bill

put before the Iranian parliament just days

ago.  ‘If passed, this will in effect block the

exit of women campaigners for rights and

freedoms, trade unionists and others fleeing

political persecution, as well as those

suffering abuse and violence of all kinds,’

says Jane Green of CODIR, the Committee

for the Defence of Iranian People's

Rights.  A surge of protest against the bill is

gaining further momentum by the day in

Iran.  

To find out more, go to CODIR's website

at www.codir.net. 

Hugo Chavez was a greatrevolutionary, whose BolivarianRevolution will live on in the heartsand minds of the peoples of Venezuelaand Latin America.

The struggle that he led for the poor and

oppressed has earned him the highest

honour, namely, the undying hatred of

exploiters everywhere. Even on the day of

his death, US President Obama and British

Foreign Secretary William Hague could find

nothing positive to say about Hugo Chavez,

to their eternal shame.

But for many millions of people around

the world, he lit a new beacon alongside

Cuba that a new era is dawning for popular

sovereignty and socialism in the 21st

century'.