| Type | Title | User | Replies |
Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article | Contro il sistema di oppressione e sfruttamento | webmaster | Thu, 2013-05-16 21:50 | |
| News | UK - unemployment up, pay down | stevein7 (editor) | Thu, 2013-05-16 12:13 | |
| News | Profit Before People – First Bangladesh, Now Cambodia Factory Collapse | stevein7 (editor) | Thu, 2013-05-16 12:05 | |
| Advert | Sunderland Anarchist and Working Class Bookfair | Cleishbotham (editor) | Wed, 2013-05-15 14:07 | |
| Article | Bordiga: Beyond the Myth: Five Letters and An Outline of Disagreement | Cleishbotham (editor) | Wed, 2013-05-15 13:42 | |
| News | Capitalism's climate catastrophe - CO2 higher than ever... | Cleishbotham (editor) | 2 | Wed, 2013-05-15 13:31 |
| News | Dure proteste in Bangladesh | webmaster | Tue, 2013-05-14 22:38 | |
| Article | Sindacati e valore della lotta rivendicativa - Note di Mauro Stefanini | webmaster | Tue, 2013-05-14 20:55 | |
| Publication | L'Internationale #2013-05-01 | webmaster | Tue, 2013-05-14 20:36 | |
| Publication | L'Internationale #2013-04-01 | webmaster | Tue, 2013-05-14 20:17 |
The Communist Workers’ Organisation (North East Section) holds regular meetings in Durham open to all who are interested in defending the independence of working class action. These usually take place on the first Wednesday in the month.
The next open meeting will be on Wednesday 5 June 2013 at 7.00 p.m.
Room 12, Alington House, 4 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 4 ET
Meet us at our stall at the Sunderland Anarchist and Working Class Bookfair on 8 June 11 till 5pm in the Museum Vaults, Sunderland. 33 Silksworth Row Sunderland Tyne And Wear SR1 3QJ.
Topic: "Deepening economic crisis, increasingly savage capitalist attacks on the working class, what is the path to a successful fightback?"
Saturday 15 June 2.00 p.m.
Lucas Arms
245A Grays Inn Rd
London, WC1X 8QY
[Nearest underground Kings Cross (5 minutes walk down Grays Inn Road on right hand side)]
All welcome
UK unemployment has risen to 2.52 million, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.
ONS figures showed 15,000 more people were unemployed in the three months to the end of March, with the unemployment rate now at 7.8%.
Jobseeker's Allowance claimants fell by 7,300 last month to 1.52 million.
But despite this an ONS spokesman told the BBC the figures suggested the recent period of falling unemployment "seems to have come to an end".
The total number of people in employment fell by 43,000 to 29.7 million, although the number of vacancies was at its highest level since 2008.
The figures also reveal the degree of the slowdown in pay growth.
Average earnings increased by 0.4% in the year to March, compared with a rate of 0.8% in the year to February.
That is the lowest rate of growth since 2009, and means wages are continuing to fall in real terms, with inflation still well above the target rate of 2%.
When bonuses are stripped out, the picture appears even worse. Earnings grew by 0.8% over the year - the lowest rate of increase since the ONS began reporting the figure in its current format 12 years ago.
Six people have died and many others have been injured in an incident where a shoe factory collapsed in Cambodia on Thursday in Kampong Speu Province, west of the capital, Phnom Penh.
“There were about a hundred people inside the factory when it collapsed at about 7 a.m.,” said trade union member, Sum Sokny.
She added that five women and one man died in the incident.
According to a report, about 50 people were trapped inside the single-storey building.
During the recent years, Cambodia’s shoe and garment sector.
Over half a million people are employed in the garment industry, and is Cambodia’s biggest employer and export earner. The monthly minimum wage is an outrageous $75 so it has witnessed a rush of investment with its low-cost labour attracting Western and Asian firms.
The collapse of Thursday comes less than a month after a disastrous factory building collapse claimed more than 1,100 lives in Bangladesh.
Scientists are calling on world leaders to take action on climate change after carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere broke through a symbolic threshold.
Daily CO2 readings at a US government agency lab on Hawaii have topped 400 parts per million for the first time…………Ministers in the UK have claimed global leadership in reducing CO2 emissions and urged other nations to follow suit…..But the official Climate Change Committee (CCC) last month said that Britain's total contribution towards heating the climate had increased, because the UK is importing goods that produce CO2 in other countries….The last time CO2 was regularly above 400ppm was three to five million years ago - before modern humans existed.
Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, said …………"Before we started influencing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, over the last million years it went between about 180 and 280 parts per million," he said……."Now, since the Industrial Revolution and more in the last 50 years, we've taken that level up by more than 40% to a level of 400 and that hasn't been seen on this planet for probably four million years.
Unemployment in the eurozone has surged to a fresh record high, while inflation has fallen to a three-year low, boosting expectations that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates.
Unemployment in the 17 countries using the euro hit 12.1% in March, up from February's 12%, according to official figures from Eurostat.
In total, 19.2m people are now out of work in the region.
Separate Eurostat data showed that inflation slowed to 1.2% in April.
Greece and Spain recorded the highest unemployment rates in the eurozone, at 27.2% and 26.7% respectively, while Austria, at 4.7%, and Germany, at 5.4%, had the lowest rates.
Youth employment, defined as those under 25, hit 3.6 million in the eurozone. In Greece, 59.1% of under-25s were unemployed as of the end of January, while in Spain, 55.9% were unemployed. bbc.co.uk
Spain's unemployment rate soared to a new record of 27.2% of the workforce in the first quarter of 2013, according to official figures.
The total number of unemployed people in Spain has now passed the six million figure, although the rate of the increase has slowed.
The figures underline Spain's struggle to emerge from an economic crisis which began five years ago.
A big demonstration in Madrid is being planned against the austerity measures.
On Friday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will unveil fiscal and policy measures aimed at halting recession in the eurozone's fourth-largest economy.
"These figures are worse than expected and highlight the serious situation of the Spanish economy as well as the shocking decoupling between the real and the financial economy," said Jose Luis Martinez, strategist at Citi.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund cut its 2013 forecast for Spain's growth to a 1.6% contraction from 1.5% and said the unemployment rate would peak at 27% this year.
Meanwhile, in France, the second biggest eurozone economy, official figures to be released later on Thursday are also expected to show a record number of jobless workers.
from the BBC …Spain's industrial output falls further;
The rate of decline in industrial output in Spain increased in February, according to official figures.
Output dropped by 6.5% compared with the same month a year earlier. It followed a 4.9% decline in January.
Industrial production in the country has been falling constantly since August 2011.
Spain, which is the fourth biggest eurozone economy, has been mired in recession since the second half of 2011.
The country has one of the highest unemployment rates in the eurozone - at about 26%. It is suffering from a troubled banking sector, excessive household and company debts, and tough government austerity measures.
10 April 2013 the WTO reduced world growth forecasts for 2013 to 3.3% compared to original 4.5 % estimate.
The organisation’s general director, Pascal Lamy warned 2013 could be worse than expected,
The WTO said that trade had grown by just 2% in 2012, the second-worst figure since records began in 1981. The worst performance had come in 2009 when trade shrank.
Average growth over the past two decades has been 5.3%, it said.
In dollar terms, the value of the goods traded last year remained stagnant at $18.3 trillion (£11.9 trillion). The value was unchanged because prices for coffee, cotton, coal and iron ore fell.
More bbc.co.uk
BBC NEWS
A judge has approved the California city of Stockton's bankruptcy filing, making it the most populous US city ever to enter bankruptcy protection.
The city of 290,000, 90 miles (144km) east of San Francisco, saw its tax base plummet in the US housing market crash.
Stockton's creditors - bond holders and insurers who had financed the city's debt - argued the city had not cut spending enough nor sought a tax increase to avoid bankruptcy. With the city now in bankruptcy, they may not be repaid their full principals.
But lawyers for the city said it had slashed its budget to the bone after a 70% decline in the city's tax base.
Officials were forced to make dramatic spending cuts to patch a budget deficit - roughly $26m (£17m) this year. The city eliminated a quarter of its police officers, one third of the fire department staff and 40% of all other employees. It also cut wages and medical benefits.
Stockton's unemployment and violent crime rates now rank among the worst in the nation.
The city's case was being watched closely by other struggling US cities and towns that may also seek bankruptcy protection.
The majority of British children will soon be growing up in families which are struggling “below the breadline” because of welfare cuts, tax rises and wage freezes, the Government is warned today.
Within two years, almost 7.1m of the nation’s 13m youngsters will be in homes with incomes judged to be less than the minimum necessary for a decent standard of living, according to a new report.
The figures, which emerged a week ahead of George Osborne’s Budget, suggest that an unwanted legacy of the Coalition’s squeeze on spending will be to leave more children living close to poverty…
…the number of under-18s living in households below minimum income standards would increase by 690,000 between 2010 and 2015. The definitions of acceptable living standards are drawn up by the respected charity, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation...
“Austerity is OK if you are rich. It’s OK if you are one of the 13,000 millionaires in this country because austerity means you get richer. That’s because if you are rich, you’re in line for an extra £100,000 tax break, taken from the pockets of the poor.”
Workers in the UK are earning no more than they were 10 years ago, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
After adjusting for inflation, it said pay levels peaked in 2009.
Between then and 2012 the ONS said pay had fallen by 3% in real terms.
On average, it said workers were therefore earning roughly the same last year as they were ten years ago, in 2003. The TUC said the figures came as no surprise.
"Official figures now confirm what everyone knows. Living standards have been falling for the vast majority, and there is no sign of change," said Frances O'Grady, the TUC's general secretary.
According to the ONS, average pay in 2009 was £12.25 an hour. After adjusting for inflation, that fell to £11.92 in 2010 and £11.41 in 2011.
Meet us at our stall at the Sunderland Anarchist and Working Class Bookfair on 8 June 11 till 5pm in the Museum Vaults, Sunderland. 33 Silksworth Row Sunderland Tyne And Wear SR1 3QJ.
The Communist Workers’ Organisation (North East Section) holds regular meetings in Durham open to all who are interested in defending the independence of working class action. These usually take place on the first Wednesday in the month.
The next open meeting will be on Wednesday 5 June 2013 at 7.00 p.m.
Room 12, Alington House, 4 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 4 ET
Topic: "Deepening economic crisis, increasingly savage capitalist attacks on the working class, what is the path to a successful fightback?"
Saturday 15 June 2.00 p.m.
Lucas Arms
245A Grays Inn Rd
London, WC1X 8QY
[Nearest underground Kings Cross (5 minutes walk down Grays Inn Road on right hand side)]
All welcome
Sheffield Anarchist Bookfair, Joint meeting with the Commune on "Revolution and the State"
Marxists and anarchist have always shared the view that the antithesis to capitalism is a classless, stateless society. What they have not shared is a clear outline of how this might come about. After the statist cul de sacs of social democracy, Stalinism and Trotskyism many marxists now recognise that the issue is not about replacing the state but destroying it. After the failure of the anarchists in Spain many anarchists recognise that revolution from below cannot just be a nice idea but has to have a deeper material basis. With capitalism now in obvious crisis is this not the time for a more fruitful exchange on revolution and the state than has been possible in the past? The Communist Workers' Organisation and the Commune independently proposed this discussion to the Bookfair committee and have happily accepted their invitation to hold it together. All welcome.
Saturday May 11 2013 Showroom and Workstation
15 Paternoster Row Sheffield, South Yorkshire S1 2BX
May 2013
Aurora is the broadsheet of the ICT for the interventions amongst the working class. It is published and distributed in several countries and languages. So far it has been distributed in UK, France, Italy, Canada, USA, Colombia.
Imperialist Rivalry in the Pacific
Eurozone Crawls Towards Federation
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