FOR PEACE AND SOCIALISM Proudly owned by our readers | Incorporating the Daily Worker | Est 1930 | morningstaronline.co.uk Friday March 9 2018 £1 3 PAGE TUC WOMEN’S CONFERENCE: LABOUR GIVES BOSSES EQUALITIES ULTIMATUM 8 PAGE WILLING FOOLS 13 PAGE FILM: MOM AND DAD IS BITING AND TOP SATIRE Delegates to the Scottish Labour Party conference are receiving this edition free with the compliments of Unite Scotland by Will Stone TWO men were arrested yester- day after an investigation was launched into “abhorrent” racist abuse chanted outside the room of a black female student at Not- tingham Trent university. Victim Rufaro Chisango posted a video clip in which at least two men could be heard chanting: “We hate the blacks” and shout- ing other racist slurs. Nottinghamshire Police said two suspects, both aged 18, had been held in connection with racially aggravated public order offences. The university, which has sus- pended the “suspected perpetra- tors,” has been heavily criticised for not reacting earlier to the shocking incident on Monday night. Ms Chisango said reception staff at her halls of residence had promised her that the incident would be “dealt with,” but she had heard nothing by Wednes- day night. “I’m fuming [at] the way people in the same uni halls as me are chanting: ‘We hate the blacks” out- side my bedroom door,” she said. “Words cannot describe how sad this makes me feel. In 2018, people think this is still accept- able. “The video wasn’t able to catch what else they were say- ing, which was: ‘Blacks should go back to picking cotton.’ “I’m the only black person on my floor and they were chanting this outside my door, so don’t be surprised to why I didn’t leave my room.” Other chants captured on the video include: “We are the black haters” and “Sign the Brexit papers,” before a woman could be heard telling the harassers to leave her alone. Mary Okpo, of the universi- ty’s African Caribbean Society, branded the incident “unjustifi- able and unacceptable. “Whether [those responsible] were inebriated or not, there’s nothing that can justify what they said,” she insisted. “This was a terrible, terrible incident. It’s something that I didn’t think I would see. For it to be so overt, open, in 2018, it’s something that really, really shocked me.” National Union of Students black students officer Ilyas Nag- dee said: “Racism has no place on our campuses and these hateful and disgraceful acts are abhor- rent. “The Black Students’ Cam- paign is committed to tackling inequalities, systematic problems and eliminating hate crime from our campuses. “I have been in touch with stu- dents at NTU [Nottingham Trent University] and will continue to support them, no matter what they need.” Labour MP David Lammy sent his “love and solidarity” to Ms Chisango on Twitter and urged her to contact police and her local MP. In a statement, the university said: “This kind of vile behaviour will not be tolerated. “Those suspected perpetrators have been suspended immedi- ately pending a full investigation. “We have contacted the stu- dent who made the complaint and are providing support to her and others affected. And we will be liaising with the police about this incident.” Nottingham Trent is investi- gating why its “accommodation partner” only alerted it to the incident on Wednesday evening. Nottinghamshire Police said: “We are aware of a video posted at Nottingham Trent University and which has been shared on social media. “It is wholly unacceptable and we’re proactively investigating the incident and liaising with the university.” [email protected]Britiain First chiefs jailed: p4 TWO HELD FOR RACIST UNI RANT Research by SOLOMON HUGHES uncovers a shocking lack of intelligence at the heart of Britain’s contribution to the 1986 bombing of Libya, with Margaret Thatcher allowing the use of British bases despite knowing little and lacking control of the situation. Arrests follow release of video showing vile abuse was chanted outside the door of a student at Nottingham Trent University
Transcript
F O R P E A C E A N D S O C I A L I S M
Proudly owned by our readers | Incorporating the Daily Worker | Est 1930 | morningstaronline.co.ukFriday March 9 2018£1
3PAGE TUC WOMEN’S CONFERENCE: LABOUR GIVES BOSSES EQUALITIES ULTIMATUM
8PAGE WILLING FOOLS
13PAGE
FILM: MOM AND DAD IS BITING AND TOP SATIRE
Delegates to the Scottish Labour Party conference are receiving this edition free with the compliments of Unite Scotland
by Will Stone
TWO men were arrested yester-day after an investigation was launched into “abhorrent” racist abuse chanted outside the room of a black female student at Not-tingham Trent university.
Victim Rufaro Chisango posted a video clip in which at least two men could be heard chanting: “We hate the blacks” and shout-ing other racist slurs.
Nottinghamshire Police said two suspects, both aged 18, had been held in connection with racially aggravated public order off ences.
The university, which has sus-pended the “suspected perpetra-tors,” has been heavily criticised for not reacting earlier to the shocking incident on Monday night.
Ms Chisango said reception staff at her halls of residence had promised her that the incident would be “dealt with,” but she
had heard nothing by Wednes-day night.
“I’m fuming [at] the way people in the same uni halls as me are chanting: ‘We hate the blacks” out-side my bedroom door,” she said.
“Words cannot describe how sad this makes me feel. In 2018, people think this is still accept-able.
“The video wasn’t able to catch what else they were say-ing, which was: ‘Blacks should go back to picking cotton.’
“I’m the only black person on my fl oor and they were chanting this outside my door, so don’t be surprised to why I didn’t leave my room.”
Other chants captured on the video include: “We are the black haters” and “Sign the Brexit papers,” before a woman could be heard telling the harassers to leave her alone.
Mary Okpo, of the universi-ty’s African Caribbean Society, branded the incident “unjustifi -able and unacceptable.
“Whether [those responsible] were inebriated or not, there’s nothing that can justify what they said,” she insisted.
“This was a terrible, terrible incident. It’s something that I didn’t think I would see. For it to be so overt, open, in 2018, it’s something that really, really shocked me.”
National Union of Students black students offi cer Ilyas Nag-dee said: “Racism has no place on our campuses and these hateful and disgraceful acts are abhor-rent.
“The Black Students’ Cam-paign is committed to tackling inequalities, systematic problems and eliminating hate crime from our campuses.
“I have been in touch with stu-dents at NTU [Nottingham Trent University] and will continue to support them, no matter what they need.”
Labour MP David Lammy sent his “love and solidarity” to Ms Chisango on Twitter and urged
her to contact police and her local MP.
In a statement, the university said: “This kind of vile behaviour will not be tolerated.
“Those suspected perpetrators have been suspended immedi-ately pending a full investigation.
“We have contacted the stu-dent who made the complaint and are providing support to her and others aff ected. And we will be liaising with the police about this incident.”
Nottingham Trent is investi-gating why its “accommodation partner” only alerted it to the incident on Wednesday evening.
Nottinghamshire Police said: “We are aware of a video posted at Nottingham Trent University and which has been shared on social media.
“It is wholly unacceptable and we’re proactively investigating the incident and liaising with the university.”
Research by SOLOMON HUGHES uncovers a shocking lack of intelligence at the heart of Britain’s contribution to the 1986 bombing of Libya, with Margaret Thatcher allowing the use of British bases despite knowing little and lacking control of the situation.
Arrests follow release of video showing vile abuse was chanted outside the door of a student at Nottingham Trent University
morningstaronline.co.uk morningstaronline
@m_star_online2Morning Star Friday March 9 2018 international women’s day
n GLASGOW
Hundreds gather for unveiling of Barbour memorialby Conrad LandinScotland Editor
HUNDREDS of Glaswegians gathered yesterday to unveil a new memorial to rent strike pioneer Mary Barbour.
The leftwinger led Glasgow’s campaign against unscrupulous private landlords who took advan-tage of high demand for housing during the first world war.
Rents skyrocketed as thou-sands of workers flocked to Glasgow’s shipyards and muni-tions factories, but Barbour fought back by leading a rent strike by 20,000 tenants in 1915.
At the International Women’s Day event, activists gathered at Govan Cross to hear speeches from politicians, activists and trade unionists, as well as live music. Three hundred school-children took part by pulling red cloths off the sculpture.
Former Glasgow MP Maria Fyfe, who led the campaign to commemorate Barbour, said
the activist had “led many thousands of women to victory against the greedy landlords.”
The rent strike led to a change in the law, which held rents down nationwide for the rest of the war.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard told the Star: “Mary Barbour is a shining example of a woman prepared to take on private landlordism and in so doing had more of an impact than many MPs do over many years.”
First Minister Nicola Stur-geon said she was “delighted that Mary Barbour will be hon-oured with a statue” and, while she was unable to attend the event because of parliamentary commitments, she “looked for-ward to seeing it very soon.”
Historian Louise Raw said: “What’s particular lovely is the statue rightly celebrates not just her but all the women, men and children who joined the fight against exploitative landlords.”
Artist quits the Tate over lack of action against harassmentby Peter Lazenby
AN artist in residence at Lon-don’s Tate gallery has quit in protest at an “appalling response to sexual harassment and violence.”
Liv Wynter resigned on the eve of International Women’s Day to highlight the problem.
She accused the Tate of fail-ing to meet obligations stipu-lated in its contract, which states: “Tate is committed to treating all our employees, visitors and contractors with dignity and respect.”
“I feel that these standards have not been met and that the whole time I am part of the Tate’s institutional mecha-nisms, I am not being treated with dignity or respect,” Ms Wynter said.
She complained of “invisible inequalities” at the gallery, add-ing that when she had raised the issue of harassment with Tate director Maria Balshaw, she had replied: “I personally have never suffered any such issues. Then, I wouldn’t. I was
raised to be a confident woman who, when I encountered har-assment, would say: ‘Please don’t’ … or something rather more direct.”
Ms Wynter said: “These comments come during a powerful reckoning on sexual assault and harassment, with the creative industries pledg-ing to make change through
campaigns such as #MeToo and #TimesUp.”
Ms Wynter told the Star: “The problem is very serious because of the way that the institution works.
“Everyone works in small departments in isolation from each other, there is no space to organise and discuss, and that contributes to the silencing. We do not feel safe to speak.
“I have experienced prob-lems in that I guess I am speak-ing on behalf of people who do not feel they can speak.”
The Tate said in a statement: “Maria Balshaw responded to the comments on social media at the time, saying: ‘I am sorry if this has been misunderstood. It is absolutely not my intention to say that women are in any way to blame. To be clear, it is the perpetrators who are responsible for their behaviour and not the women who are subjected to it.’”
She said she was committed to her vision of making the Tate “the most culturally inclusive museum organisation in the world.”
BARBOUR’S ARMY: Glasgow Lord Provost Eva Bolander at yesterday’s unveiling
Pic: Glasgow City Council
MEDIA: BBC staff gathered outside Broadcasting House on International Women’s Day to call for equal pay.
Journalists including the corporation's chief interna-
tional correspondent Lyse Doucet and Woman’s Hour pre-senter Jane Garvey stood hold-ing sheets of paper displaying equal signs as they chanted: “Equal pay for equal work.”
A huge cheer went up for Carrie Gracie, who resigned as BBC China editor earlier this year over pay inequali-ties, as she was brought to the front of the crowd.
LABOUR TELLS BOSSES: IMPROVE YOUR GENDER EQUALITY OR ELSEby Lamiat Sabinat Congress House
ALL large public and private-sector employers will have to prove their gender equal-ity practices or face further investigations and fi nes under a Labour government, Dawn Butler said yesterday.
The shadow minister for women and equalities said that the government’s new requirement for larger employ-ers to audit pay diff erences between the sexes did not go far enough.
Labour’s policy follows the Icelandic model in ensuring that gaps are not just being identifi ed but that necessary action is taken to close them, she said.
Employers meeting the cri-teria will obtain government certifi cation and be eligible for public-sector procurement contracts.
Iceland, which is consistently ranked top for gender equality, became the fi rst nation in the world last year to require fi rms
to prove what action is being taken to establish equal pay.
Closing the pay gap could bring benefi ts to the economy of £90 billion, a recent Price-waterhouseCoopers report estimates.
Ms Butler said: “In 1970,
Labour introduced the Equal Pay Act but, nearly 50 years later, women are still paid on average over 14 per cent less than men.
“It’s time to close the gender pay gap once and for all. But to address these deep-rooted
inequalities, we need action, not just audits.
“The next Labour govern-ment will require all large employers to prove how they plan to tackle their gender pay gaps and prove they are equal-pay employers.
“Labour will make it a pri-ority to close the gender pay gap and tackle the structural barriers facing women across our society, creating a country that truly works for the many, not the few.”
In the Commons, Ms Butler praised Speaker John Bercow for helping her raise the Inter-national Women’s Day fl ag over the Parliament building for the fi rst time in history.
She criticised Prime Minis-ter Theresa May for presiding over eight years of cuts to ben-efi ts and tax changes totalling around £80bn, of which 87 per cent “fall on the shoulders of women.”
“Now, Labour believes that we will make a real diff erence in closing the gender pay gap only with a combination of sticks and carrots,” Ms Butler continued.
She said that only allowing companies with certifi cation to bid for government contracts would create a “win-win situ-ation” and was “the right thing to do.”
DAWN BUTLER: Future Labour government will fi ne companies that fail to prove their practices are up to scratch
■ DEMOS
Protests show solidarity with Yarl’s Wood hunger strikePROTESTS took place across Britain yesterday in sup-port of women prisoners on hunger strike at Yarl’s Wood immigration deten-tion centre in Bedfordshire.
More than 100 women in the notorious centre went on hunger strike on Feb-ruary 21 to protest against their indefi nite detention and treatment at the hands of security fi rms Serco and G4S that run Yarl’s Wood for profi t.
Women demonstrated on the steps of Leeds Univer-sity’s Parkinson Building yesterday.
Protester Emily Jennings said: “Many people in deten-tion have been subjected to torture, rape and fl ed war in their countries of origin.
“Over half of the people in detention are later released but never recover from the experience.”
She said supporters handed out leafl ets in Leeds city centre.
“Everyone was genuinely shocked that the UK treats people like this,” she added.
A protest was also staged outside Manchester town hall yesterday evening.
LANDLORDS and small busi-ness owners are getting away with evading tax because of government cuts to HMRC, a fringe meeting heard yesterday during TUC women’s confer-ence.
Smaller businesses are being overlooked because investigat-ing them is more resource-intensive than using databases, said Lorna Merry, HMRC group
president for civil servants’ union PCS.
Only 2.9 million out of 5.7m small businesses are registered as employers and for purposes of paying taxes, she added.
The vanishing of tax offi c-ers on the ground also means that landlords are getting away with not declaring their rental incomes, according to Ms Merry.
“These landlords are getting out of paying more in tax than what is collected through the government’s bedroom tax,” she said.
It takes local tax offi cers with local knowledge to be able to tackle evasion by businesses and landlords, she continued.
Instead, HMRC has been restructured into 13 regional “hubs,” with none in Scotland
or south of Croydon.Scotland’s fi shing and oil
industries as well as ship-ping imports are at risk of being missed, Ms Merry also said.
Cuts to HMRC mean fewer funds for services that women and families rely on, meeting chair Zita Holbourne, national vice-pres-ident of PCS, said.
■ HMRC CUTS
Smaller businesses evading tax ‘because of austerity’
■ TRANSORT
Women should ‘think twice’ about driving freightby Lamiat Sabinat Congress House
WOMEN would “think twice” about becoming freight train drivers because of increas-ing workforce casualisation and the scant facilities on the privately owned network, the TUC women’s conference heard yesterday.
National Education Union delegate Corinne Lamoureux told the conference on Inter-
national Women’s Day that she visited many depots dur-ing her eight years working in the industry as a sales and customer service manager amd had not seen a single female freight driver.
There are only 27 women train drivers in the hugely male-populated freight sector employed in the whole UK.
Ms Lamoureux, now a teacher, said: “I can vouch that you would really want to think twice about becoming a
freight train driver because the facilities were so bad that the men were apologising for the conditions.”
She reported that pictures of topless women were stuck on kitchen walls and there was a lack of women’s toilets.
Ms Lamoureux urged del-egates to back train drivers’ union Aslef’s motion, which was passed.
Aslef is calling on the con-ference to lobby the govern-ment to support renation-
alisation of the rail freight industry.
Ms Lamoureux pointed out that British government sub-sidies were being paid out to freight operator DB Cargo, which is owned by the German government through Deutsche Bahn.
Aslef delegate Alison Miller said that only 6 per cent of train drivers in general are women and this results in a very small pool of candidates for women freight drivers.
Casualisation of the indus-try has also seen a rise in zero-hours contracts, as well as changes in terms and con-ditions resulting in no fi xed working locations, lack of hygienic facilities, overnight absences from home and longer driving turns.
She said: “Renationalisation of the rail freight industry would both promote jobs and improve conditions to encour-age greater diversity.”
@m_star_online4Morning Star FridayMarch 9 2018 news
CELEBRATION of the life of
ALEX McFADDEN17.7.1922 to 27.2.2018. 95 years
Head of the McFadden Family
Family man, RMT, socialist and trade unionist, Sunderland supporter
Funeral Monday March 26, 12 noon at Birtley Crematorium, Windsor Road, Birtley, Chester le Street, DH3 1PQ.
The family welcomes all friends, family and comrades, and also welcomes fl owers and wreaths. Black ties are not required as this is a celebration of Alex McFadden’s life
This will be a humanist service followed by three members of family speaking about the love and life of their dad, grandfather, and great grandfather. The Family will
produce a special programme and the music has been selected by Alex.
Sons: Alec, Colin and Ian,Grandchildren: Michelle, Martyn, Alexis and Sasha,
Great grandchildren: Jacob, Joe and Benjamin,
Will be missed by many and loved by all.
All are then invited to the Wake in Moulders Arms, Birtley Lane, Chester le Street DH3 2LW.
All enquiries to Alec McFadden 07831 627-531 email [email protected]
■ CRIME
ANTI-FASCISTS welcomed the guilty verdicts against Britain First leader Paul Golding and his deputy Jayda Fransen yesterday after they were jailed for shouting racist abuse.
The pair were convicted at Folkestone magistrates’ court on Wednesday of religiously aggravated harassment.
Judge Justin Barron jailied Ms Fransen for 36 weeks for three counts and Mr Golding for 18 weeks for one count.
The pair were arrested on May 10 last year as part of an investigation into the distribution of leafl ets and online videos during an ongoing trial at Canterbury Crown Court.
Ms Fransen was accused of going to the Kent home of one of the defendants and shouting racist abuse through the front door.
A Hope Not Hate spokes-person said: “We welcome this verdict. For Britain First, the birds are coming home to roost.
“Thuggery and deliberate intimidation and fl outing of the law in order to prosecute a fanatical hatred of Mus-lims should have no place in any civilised society.”
Britain First duo jailed for shouting racist abuse
■ LABOUR PARTY
Jewish group secretary branded an anti-semiteLABOUR Party offi cials have suspended a leading Jewish member for alleged anti-semitic remarks.
The allegations, from an unnamed source, have been levelled against Glyn Secker, sec-retary of Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL).
The JVL, which is sup-porting Mr Secker, said: “This is an absurd, politi-cally motivated attack on our secretary and our organisation. We call on our supporters to move motions of censure in their branches and CLPs.
“While anti-semitism is monstrous — and, like all forms of racism, should be vigorously dealt with — false accu-sations of anti-semitism are monstrous too. We call for the immediate lifting of these charges.”
Star comment: p8
■ ELECTIONS
Labour’s returned to Scotland and it’s ‘alive and kicking’by Conrad LandinScotland Editor
LABOUR is “alive and kicking” in Scotland despite predictions of its demise, Jeremy Corbyn will say today.
Addressing the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee on its opening day, Mr Corbyn will attack the Tories and the SNP alike for their “obsession” with “elite deals” to pave the way for Britain’s departure from the European Union.
The conference is expected to see key fi gures on the party’s right pressing for commitment to continued British member-ship of the EU single market.
Scottish Labour leader Rich-ard Leonard favours Mr Corbyn’s preferred option of tariff -free access to the single market and a new customs union between Britain and the EU.
“Make no mistake about it, reduced access to European markets means fewer economic opportunities for people in the UK,” Mr Corbyn is due to say.
“This is why we need a
Labour government to take the reins from the free mar-ket ideologues who want to use Brexit to sign a race-to-the-bottom trade deal with Trump’s America and turn the UK into a deregulated off shore tax haven.
“With the Tories obsessed with elite deals in Westmin-ster and Brussels and the SNP obsessed with elite deals in Edinburgh, Labour is the only party focusing on the issues that matter to people in their everyday lives.”
Mr Corbyn will praise the party north of the border for having refuted those claim-ing that it was destined for oblivion.
“The truth is that we very much are alive and kicking,” he will proclaim. “Labour in Scotland is back.
“We are making Labour’s voice heard for a radically fairer society.
“We won six seats for Scot-tish Labour at the last general election and we are on the cusp of winning around 20 more.”
PHARMA giant GlaxoSmithK-line (GSK) lost an appeal yester-day against a £37 million fi ne for paying off potential rivals to prevent them from compet-ing against its “blockbuster” antidepressant.
GSK paid three other pharmaceutical companies more than £50m between 2001 and 2004 to delay the launch of cheaper generic versions of paroxetine, which it sold under the brand name Seroxat.
The fi rm made more than £130m from Seroxat in 2001 and 2002 alone, at which point Seroxat was the biggest-selling drug across the entire GSK group.
Paroxetine prices fell by 69 per cent, from £12.95 to £3.97 a pack, within a year of generic entry to the market in Decem-ber 2003.
The Competition and Mar-kets Authority found the ille-gal “pay-for-delay” agreements made the companies “signifi -
cant fi nancial gains … at the expense of the NHS.”
GSK and the others appealed against the fi ne, but specialist body the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) found that the agreements were “inherently harmful to competition” and not covered by legal exemp-tions.
The CAT also referred sev-eral points of law to European Union courts for a preliminary ruling.
A CMA spokeswoman said: “We consider that the compa-nies broke the law by delaying the threat to GSK of competi-tion from generic companies, in return for substantial cash and non-cash payments.
“Such conduct can deprive the
NHS of signifi cant cost savings.”Seroxat has been the subject
of controversy since a 2002 BBC Panorama exposé found that GSK had withheld results from two clinical trials in 1998, both of which found that the drug was not eff ective against depression in children.
An internal GSK document from October 1998 said it would be “commercially unaccept-able” to publicise the results as this would “undermine the profi le of paroxetine.” Some 32,000 children were pre-scribed Seroxat in 1999.
Seroxat is also the subject of a decade-long High Court damages claim by more than 100 patients who were pre-scribed the drug. They say its withdrawal symptoms are sig-nifi cantly worse than those of other antidepressants.
Despite settling similar claims in 2005 with more than 3,000 people in the US, where it is called Paxil, GSK has spent nearly £7m fi ghting the British litigation, which it is hoped will reach trial this year.
SEROXAT SCANDAL: Firm paid off other companies to delay drug release
■ COMMUNIST PARTY
Social democracy ‘destroyed’ by the EUEUROPEAN Union membership is destroying social democracy in countries across Europe, according to Britain’s Com-munists.
John Foster told the Commu-nist Party of Britain political committee on Wednesday night that Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Spain and the Neth-erlands have suff ered historic defeats in elections.
“All of them have identifi ed themselves closely with the EU and its disastrous neolib-eral orientation in favour of
austerity, privatisation and so-called “free market” poli-cies that are destroying public services, the welfare state, col-lective bargaining, job security and social well-being,” the CP international secretary con-tinued.
“It would be madness, there-fore, for the Labour Party to commit itself to any future arrangements binding Britain to EU single market rules that would prevent a left-led govern-ment from pursuing its popular manifesto programme.”
The committee warned that a customs union agreement with the EU would almost cer-tainly prevent British govern-ments from making mutually benefi cial trade and co-oper-ation agreements with grow-ing and developing economies around the world.
Communist Party trade union organiser Andy Bain urged solidarity with workers in Greece, Portugal and Italy resisting EU-imposed policies of privatisation and cuts in benefi ts and pensions.
A vivid account of how the power of local government has been reduced by central government and hollowed out by the private sector’
Prof. Jane Lethbridge
Don’t miss Peter
Latham’s probe
into the death of
council power
To get your copy call the Star shop on (020) 8510-0815
■ TRANSPORT
Grayling ‘rewards’ failed franchisee with more timeby Peter Lazenby
TRANSPORT Secretary Chris Grayling was accused of rewarding failure yester-day after a leaked memo revealed government plans to allow operators of the chaotic East Coast line to keep running the franchise.
Stagecoach/Virgin said they were giving up their Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) London to Edinburgh franchise because they could not make it profi table.
However, Mr Grayling thinks Stagecoach/Virgin should keep trying.
Transport union RMT has obtained an internal com-munique sent to staff by Virgin East Coast stating they can expect to continue running services while the mess is sorted out.
And RMT expects the government to hand Stagecoach/Virgin a new fran-chise, despite their failure.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “The scandal on the East Coast
continues to rumble on with Stagecoach and Virgin being set up for a massive reward for failure at public expense.
“This is Chris Grayling putting Tory privatisation ideology before the public interest and represents corporate welfare on an epic scale.
“We always knew this government would never allow East Coast to be taken back under public owner-ship and the sooner Grayling stops this charade the better.
“RMT will continue to fi ght to protect jobs, services, safety and for the long-term solution of public ownership.”
The partnership was the third privateer to prove
incapable of operating East Coast Main Line (ECML) effi ciently or profi tably.
Publicly owned Directly Operated Railways is the only operator to make a success of ECML, handing the Treas-ury more than £1 billion after run-ning it from 2015 to 2010.
peterlazenby@
peoples-press.com
■ INDUSTRIAL
CORBYN BACKS STRIKING
PICTUREHOUSE WORKERSJEREMY CORBYN lent his sup-port to striking Picturehouse cinema staff yesterday.
The Labour leader sent his “solidarity” to the members of the Bectu union at fi ve cinemas as they staged a further walk-out in their long-running row over pay.
Staff protested outside Picturehouse Central, near London’s Piccadilly Circus, between 6pm and 9pm and, since it was International Women’s Day, were joined by campaigners from the Interna-tional Women’s Strike.
The fi ght for the London liv-ing wage, sick pay, maternity and paternity pay and union recognition started at the Ritzy in Brixton in the summer of 2014 and has now spread to other Picturehouse-owned cinemas in the capital, includ-ing Crouch End, East Dulwich and Hackney.
Mr Corbyn said: “I fully sup-port your campaign to be paid the real living wage and to tackle the injustices that you face in your workplace.
“On International Women’s Day, it is right that we recog-nise that women are dispropor-tionately aff ected by poverty pay and strengthen our resolve to tackle it.”
Crouch End Picturehouse’s Holly Thickens said the strikers would be “linking up with fem-inists and equality campaign-
ers” to continue a long tradi-tion of workers taking action on International Women’s Day.
“If our demands were rolled out across the economy, it would be women who pre-dominantly benefi t, because it is women who suff er the worst pay and conditions, no matter which industry you look at,” she argued.
Ms Thickens also pointed out that sexist exploitation in the cinema world goes far
beyond the alleged crimes of fi lm mogul Harvey Weinstein.
“As cinema workers, we know that we need a move-ment that can fi ght the rich and powerful who maintain their status through exploiting the most vulnerable groups in our communities,” she said.
Mr Corbyn vowed that a Labour government would give all workers equal rights from day one of their employment, whether part-time, full-time, temporary or permanent.
“All workers should have the security of a union in their workplace, so Labour will make it easier for unions to gain access to workplaces and to gain recognition,” he promised.
The Labour leader called on Picturehouse to reinstate four sacked Bectu reps “with imme-diate eff ect” and to open talks with the union.
Cineworld, which owns Picturehouse, could not be reached for comment before the Star went to press.
Labour leader sends his solidarity to cinema staff as they continue fi ght for living wage
by Will Stone
BATTLE: Picturehouse workers rallying for better wages in October
INDUSTRIAL: University staff and students rally outside Holy-rood yesterday on the ninth day of strikes over pensions.
University and Col-lege Union members in 10 Scottish universities — and more than 50 other across Britain — are striking over changes to their pen-sion scheme that would see a typical lec-turer £10,000 a year worse off in retire-ment.
A UCU del-egation went to speak to Higher Educa-tion Minister Shirley-Anne Somerville.
morningstaronline.co.uk morningstaronline
@m_star_online6Morning Star Friday March 9 2018 world
n PHILIPPINES
MPs vote to turf out chief justiceby Our Foreign Desk
A COMMITTEE of MPs in the Philippines voted overwhelm-ingly yesterday to proceed with an impeachment case against the chief justice of the coun-try’s Supreme Court.
The justice committee voted 38-2 to rule there was “probable cause” to impeach Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno based on 27 alleged acts, which a lawyer claimed amounted to “culpable violations” of the constitution, corruption, breach of public trust and other serious crimes.
Six of her fellow justices tes-tified against her in the hear-ings that started in September, exposing rifts in the court.
Ms Sereno has vowed to fight the allegations.
The entire House of Repre-sentatives is to vote whether to impeach her in a few months. It is dominated by allies of Presi-dent Rodrigo Duterte, who has called for her removal.
“All kinds of lies, threats, har-assment and bullying have been
thrown my way, but I will not yield,” Ms Sereno said in a speech before local judges in Manila.
In another speech on Wednesday, she urged Filipinos to stand up to authoritarianism and threats to human rights, in an indirect criticism of Mr Duterte.
Meanwhile, the government has asked judges to declare 600 alleged Maoist guerillas as “ter-rorists,” which would allow it to monitor them closely, track their finances and deny them services.
The 600 include a UN special rapporteur, a former MP and four former Catholic priests.
Mr Duterte’s government said they were all members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army.
It includes CPP founder Jose Maria Sison and peace negotia-tor Luis Jalandoni, who have both lived in the Netherlands since the 1980s.
Mr Sison charged that “Duterte is engaged in a wild anti-communist witch-hunt.”
SAS ambush victim’s wife celebrates inquest victoryBRIGID HUGHES, whose hus-band Anthony was shot dead in an SAS ambush, celebrated yesterday after winning a court case over the inadequate fund-ing for inquests into historical killings in Northern Ireland.
Ms Hughes had challenged the failure of Northern Ire-land’s Executive Office, Depart-ment of Justice and Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley to stump up enough money to prevent delays to such inquests.
Her husband Anthony was killed in May 1987 in the cross-fire between British troops and the IRA at a Royal Ulster
Constabulary station in Co Armagh. Eight IRA members also died.
Judge Sir Paul Girvan said former first minister Arlene Foster’s decision not to con-sider bidding for funding for legacy inquests was flawed and unlawful.
Her solicitor Peter Corrigan said that Ms Foster “has acted unlawfully in not properly considering the legacy fund-ing and crucially the judge has provided that there is no demo-cratic accountability and there is a vacuum in this jurisdiction that needs to be filled.”
n SRI LANKA
Buddhist mobs tear through Muslim neighbourhoodsBUDDHIST mobs swept through Muslim neighbour-hoods in Sri Lanka’s central hills, destroying shops and restaurants and setting homes on fire despite a cur-few, a state of emergency and a heavy deployment of security forces, residents said yesterday.
In the small town of Palle-kele, mobs ignored the cur-few and used petrol bombs to burn four homes, said Mohamed Nazar.
An angry crowd gathered around Mr Nazar’s house around 8pm on Wednesday, throwing rocks and shout-ing. The family turned off the lights so no-one could see inside. “Then a large flame came and the house caught fire,” Nazar said.
As evening began to fall yesterday, many Muslims said they worried that darkness could bring more attacks and that the police would do little to stop them.
n
GLOBAL PROTESTS TAKE
AIM AT MALE VIOLENCESTRIKE: Women across the world took to the streets to mark International Women’s Day
n WOMEN
by Our Foreign Desk
WOMEN across the world marched, protested and went on strike yesterday to demand an end to male violence and sex discrimination.
Protesters in Spain held a 24-hour strike to mark Inter-national Women’s Day and crowds of demonstrators filled the streets of Manila, Seoul and New Delhi.
Spanish women staged doz-ens of demonstrations across the country against the gulf between men’s and women’s pay, and male sexual violence against women and girls.
Riot police pushed back women in Barcelona who blocked traffic in the city cen-tre, while hundreds rallied in central Madrid to demand change.
“What we see in our job in social services is that the women are doing all the hard work, dealing with the custom-ers, but in the positions of man-agement it is always men,” said
social worker Teresa Sonsur.French newspaper Liberation
put up its price for the day by 50 cents, but only for men, to make a point about the wage gap.
President Emmanuel Macron threatened to name and shame companies that don’t abide by sex equality laws, though he has pushed through laws to weaken workers’ rights and trade unions’ ability to fight for female employees.
At rallies in Pakistan’s capi-tal Islamabad, its largest city Karachi and the cultural capi-tal Lahore, women denounced men’s violence against them. Nearly 1,000 women in Paki-stan are killed by close rela-
tives each year in what the male attackers call “honour killings.”
Philippine President Rod-rigo Duterte was the target of a protest in central Manila by hundreds of activists in pink and purple shirts, who said he was among the worst violators of women’s rights in Asia.
Protest leaders sang and danced at a lively rally in Plaza Miranda, handing red and white roses to mothers, sisters and widows of people killed as part of Mr Duterte’s crackdown.
He has previously ordered soldiers to shoot female Mao-ist rebels in the vagina, to make them “useless.”
Hundreds of South Kore-ans, many wearing black and holding black “#MeToo” signs, rallied in central Seoul. South Korea’s anti-sexual violence movement has gained signifi-cant traction since January, when a female prosecutor began speaking openly about workplace mistreatment and sexual misconduct.
Several high-profile South
Korean men have resigned from positions of power, including a governor who was a leading presidential contender before he was accused of repeatedly raping his female secretary.
In India, hundreds of women marched through the capital New Delhi to bring attention to domestic violence, sexual attacks and discrimination in jobs and wages.
“Unite against violence against women,” one plac-ard urged. “Man enough to say no to domestic abuse,” said another. “My body, My choice.”
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) sent women’s day greetings but posted online a picture of a woman commu-nist badly beaten in Tripura by men linked to the ruling BJP party, asking whether the crime was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to women.
Violence against commu-nists has swept Tripura since the BJP won legislative elec-tions in the state last weekend.
Yellow fever cases highest in decadesBRAZIL: The ongoing yellow fever outbreak is now the biggest in dec-ades, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
So far there have been 846 confirmed cases of the disease and 260 of those people have died. The previous outbreak saw 777 cases and 261 deaths.
The outbreak is get-ting closer to major cit-ies and the government has started a vaccination campaign.
Iran stops Canadian widow flight homeIRAN: Authorities have stopped a Canadian woman, whose husband died in a Tehran prison in suspicious circumstances, from leaving the country.
Canada confirmed yesterday that dual citizen Maryam Mombeini couldn’t leave and it wasn’t clear where she is.
Iran, which doesn’t recognise dual citizen-ship, had accused Ms Mombeini’s dead hus-band, sociology professor Kavous Seyed-Emami, of spying on missile bases.
Irish abortion Bill finally set for DailIRELAND: Ministers finished the wording yesterday for the country’s referendum on scrapping a constitu-tional amendment that largely bans abortion.
It follows a Supreme Court ruling on Wednes-day that narrowly defined the rights due to a foetus. A more expansive ruling could have put the referen-dum in jeopardy.
Health Minister Simon Harris said he was “looking forward” to bringing the Bill to the Dail today.
UNITED STATES: Left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders has demanded that Democratic Party leaders stop attack-ing candidates in its own primary elections.
The party’s congressional campaign wing had tar-geted activist Laura Moser before a selection vote in Texas this week.
Mr Sanders said it was “appalling” that party HQ had published a docu-ment calling Ms Moser “a Washington insider who begrudgingly moved to Texas.”
in brief
n UNITED STATES
Teachers inspired by West Virginia comrades’ pay winby Our Foreign Desk
TEACHERS in Oklahoma and Arizona are considering indus-trial action in disputes over pay, following their West Virginia colleagues’ victory in the fight for a decent rise.
The West Virginia legislature approved a 5 per cent salary increase for the teachers on Wednesday, following years of pay restraint.
The state has some of the lowest teacher salaries in the country and many said they were struggling to make ends meet.
“To be able to do that there? I think people in Arizona started looking at each other saying: ‘Wow!’” said Noah Karvelis,
an art teacher in Phoenix who helped launch a campaign urg-ing Arizona teachers to wear red on Wednesday as a mark of solidarity.
The demonstration was meant to gauge interest in stronger action by Arizona teachers, who received a 1 per cent pay increase this year, Mr Karvelis said.
“I do think this strike can be the start of something big nationally,” said Melinda Monks, a special education teacher a primary school in South Charleston, West Vir-ginia.
“Because the US … has fallen behind in education … and I think it’s time that teachers step forward and demand a more central role in educa-
tion and more respect for our profession.”
The daily demonstrations and legislative fight in West Virginia were closely watched in Oklahoma, where teaching union president Alicia Priest said many were leaving the pro-fession and the state because of funding cuts.
Teachers’ pay in Oklahoma is £3,500 to £14,000 lower than in neighbouring states and the union is pushing for a £7,000 rise over three years.
Nationally, the average teach-er’s salary was about £42,000 last year — though workers in the US often have to pay for services provided by gov-ernments elsewhere, such as healthcare.
Violence prevents Farc presidential bidLEFT-WING political party Farc announced yesterday that it would not contest the country’s presidential election.
It follows Farc presidential candidate Rodrigo Londono, also known as Timochenko, undergoing heart surgery on Wednesday.
The party cited the barri-ers placed in its path by the Colombian establishment and
violence against its candidates.The party noted that bank
restrictions had severely limited its ability to fund its campaigning and that the state had refused to provide security guarantees.
People linked to the Demo-cratic Centre party, founded by paramilitary-linked right-wing ex-president Alvaro Uribe, have made threats against Farc can-didates.
The party called for full implementation of the 2016 peace accord, on which the state has largely refused to budge, and urged Colombians to vote for its list in this week-end’s congressional elections.
Mr Londono posted a video from hospital, sending greet-ings on International Women’s Day and noting that “peace has a woman’s face.”
SANTIAGO: Chilean protest-ers hold a placard with an illustration of Bart Simpson spraying the words “No to TPP-11.”
There have been demon-strations across the country in opposition to the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership 11 (TPP-11), a trade pact between
Peru, Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei and Chile — the TPP minus the US.
SMASH THE PATRIARCHY: Women protest in (clockwise) Spain, Kosovo, Nepal and (inset) Bangladesh
morningstaronline.co.uk morningstaronline
@m_star_online8Morning Star Friday March 9 2018 features
ANTI-SEMITISM remains a problem in Britain, but it is ridiculous to believe that it is rampant in the Labour Party and that its main advocates are anti-zionist Jews.
Former chief rabbi Lord Sacks is the latest to trot out the slanderous allegation that Labour under Jeremy Cor-byn has failed “to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to anti-semitism.”
Asked by Jewish News what he would say to Corbyn if he sat down with him, Sacks replied: “I would want to see clearer signs of resolute action by a party and its leader before I would even sit down with them full stop.”
So, as far as this House of Lords cross-bencher is con-cerned, Corbyn — a consistent fighter against racism, anti-semitism and Islamophobia — is tainted with anti-semitism.
Sacks sets himself up to judge Corbyn’s credibility as an opponent of anti-semitism and to demand action acceptable to himself before he would grant the Labour leader an audience.
Corbyn would be ill-advised to enter into any scenario of seeking to ingratiate himself or have the party pro-nounced cleansed of anti-semitism by someone who has already declared that “anti-zionism is the new anti-semitism.”
The former chief rabbi was criticised last year in an opinion piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz by Jeru-salem-based British lawyer Anna Roiser for his extension of a “personal invitation to Diaspora Jews to join him on a trip to Israel which includes leading the March of the Flags on Jerusalem Day and dancing with our brave IDF [Israel Defence Forces] soldiers in the radical settler enclave inside the city of Hebron.”
Roiser and other British Jews in Jerusalem expressed the hope that “together we can work towards a more honest dialogue about Israel, one in which we directly engage with the occupation rather than airbrushing it out.”
Unfortunately for Corbyn, there are elements within Labour who share Sacks’s unquestioning zionism and are unscrupulous enough to call fellow Jews anti-semites when the real fallout is between zionists and anti-zionists.
Members of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), pre-viously called Poale Zion, have been prominent in this provocative name calling, leading anti-zionist Jews to set up Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) as an alternative to JLM, whose director Ella Rose was previously the Israeli embassy’s public affairs officer.
Yet JVL secretary Glyn Secker was notified at the weekend that his membership is suspended indefinitely because of unspecified comments allegedly made “on social media that may be anti-semitic and therefore in breach of Labour Party rules.”
He is banned from all party meetings, including Sep-tember’s annual conference, which suggests that there will be no speedy examination of his “case.”
This strengthens suspicions that the disputes commit-tee is more concerned with imposing lengthy suspensions on anti-zionists, seen as probable Corbyn supporters, than in combating anti-semitism.
The Labour leadership must take stock of the weap-onisation of fake anti-semitism by people inside and outside the party to perpetrate false images of reality.
Constant stoking of the fires of fake anti-semitism plays into the hands of Labour’s right wing, which has never reconciled itself to having a socialist as party leader, of the Tories able to parade themselves falsely as fighters against discrimination and of the Israeli embassy, embold-ened to smear Jewish critics of its illegal colonisation of Palestinian land as anti-semites.
Until Labour defends itself strongly against false charges and tackles those spreading them, it will be fighting the Tories with one hand tied behind its back.
Criticism of Israel and its policies should not be conflated with racism
Star comment
WE ARE cur-rently the US junior pa r t ne r in two b l o o d y,
foolish military engagements and the questions keep coming.
When did the Prime Minister volunteer us for war? Why? On what terms?
I don’t have the answer to those questions on Iraq or Afghanistan, but some papers I received under Freedom of Information address the same issues for an older British-backed US military adventure.
In 1986 former US president Ronald Reagan bombed Libya from British bases with Marga-ret Thatcher’s backing.
The documents show that the US didn’t really discuss the bombing, that the British gov-ernment worried about losing control, that it rushed to sup-port the US bombing anyway and that it was shocked how unpopular the bombing was.
Reagan launched his F111 jets from RAF bases in Suffolk and Oxfordshire to bomb Libya on April 15 1986.
The air strike, which killed 60 Libyans, was in retaliation for alleged Libyan involvement in a terrorist bombing on a Ber-lin nightclub which killed two US soldiers. In fairness to Rea-gan, it is likely Libyan secret services were involved in the nightclub bombing.
Thatcher, who was heavily criticised for the bombing raid, defensively told Parliament that no second wave of bombing was planned and no planes would be sent to Libya without Reagan making “a new approach to the UK under the joint consultation arrangements.”
But the papers I received show there was no consultation over the original bombing. US use of British airbases is gov-erned by the 1952 Churchill-Truman communique.
After World War II, the US wanted a free hand to launch planes from British bases. Win-ston Churchill pushed back and, with difficulty, negotiated an agreement that said: “The
use of these bases in an emer-gency would be a matter for joint decision by His Majesty’s government and the United States government in the light of the circumstances prevailing at the time.”
But the supposedly Churchil-lian Thatcher did not use Win-ston’s deal.
A “top secret” draft press release written by a senior official in the Defence Depart-ment on April 11 1986 makes clear that the raid was not a
“joint decision” in terms of the 1952 communique.
It reads: “The Prime Minister agreed that the US should, if necessary, use their forces in the United Kingdom, but there was no ‘joint decision’ on the action in Libya, which is a national action by the United States.”
In the accompanying letter, the official makes clear the Ministry of Defence worried that, by allowing the US to fly its planes without a joint deci-sion, Britain weakened control of its territory.
He writes: “The argumenta-tion about the decision on the use of US bases in this country raises two issues, which will require very careful consid-eration.”
These are “the need to avoid anything which could set a precedent affecting our abil-ity in the future to control US use of assets in this country” and “our possible concern on this occasion to avoid stating publicly that the US actions had been a matter of ‘joint deci-sion’ in the terms of the 1952 Churchill-Truman agreement.”
The papers also suggest that the US did not give Thatcher a precise date for the bomb-ing and at most gave five days notice.
The British government was
prepared for the air attack to begin immediately after Thatcher spoke to US ambas-sador general Vernon Walters.
On April 11, Thatcher’s adviser Charles Powell called for briefings for the visit of US ambassador Walters on April 12. The actual briefings were kept secret, but some “briefing material on a contingency basis for use over the weekend” was released.
This contingency material is a justification for the bombing raid. Remarkably the justifica-tion for the bombing was sent out even though it had “not yet been seen by ministers.”
The document is marked “secret” and titled: “Libya: contingency press line.” It includes lines on a justi-
fication for the bombing, the legality of US action and back-ing the US action as a “legiti-mate exercise of the right of self defence.”
They got their lines on regret ready early too. Even though the bombing raid had not actually take place, the Foreign Office spinners were already feeling sad about the civilians the US was about to blow up.
The press officers were told to say they “regret civilian casual-
A freedom of information request into the 1986 bombing of Libya by the US reveals how much Britain was kept in the dark but pretended otherwise
The US and Britain’s special relationship has not been so special
Solomon Hughes investigating scoundrels
“Foreign Office
spinners were
already feeling
sad about the
civilians the US
was about to
blow up
ACT OF WAR: A US warplane takes off from RAF Lakenheath in April 1986 to participate in an air strike against Libya and
(right) Libyan planes among the targets during the bombing
ELIZABETH GARRETT ANDERSON was born in the summer of 1836 in Whitechapel, east London. A proud
and active suffragette, she would, sadly, die just one year before her sex achieved the vote here in Britain.
One of her greatest achieve-ments still exists in London. Her New Hospital for Women, renamed the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in 1918, still serves women as University Col-lege Hospital Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing.
Her original hospital is now part of the national headquar-ters of Unison. The HQ has a gallery that pays tribute to and tells the story of this remarkable woman.
The story starts with her ancestors who were ironwork-ers in the east Suffolk town of Leiston. Her father Newson and his wife Louisa Dunnell lived in a pawnbroker’s in Whitechapel. Elizabeth was one of four Lon-don children, but her brother died at the age of only six months.
In 1841, the family moved back to Suffolk. Father set up a barley and coal merchants business and built what is now Snape Maltings to house the business. Five more children were born in Suffolk.
Elizabeth’s was an affluent family, part of the economic suc-cess of the Industrial Revolution. The Garrett companies invented the production line as a method of efficient manufacturing. They built steam engines on a pro-duction line long before Henry Ford claimed to have invented the idea.
Her somewhat radical par-ents encouraged her to take an interest in local politics and to explore the town with its nearby salt marshes, beach, small port and boatbuilding.
There was no school in Aldeburgh, so a governess was employed to educate her and her sister. When Elizabeth was 13 and her sister 15, they were sent to a private school in London.
She set her heart on becom-ing a doctor — no easy task — and decided to spend six months as a surgery nurse. She proved so good she was allowed to attend an outpatients’ clinic and even view a surgical operation.
She tried to enrol in medical school but was only allowed to attend private tuition in Latin, Greek and also classes with the hospital’s apothecary, while con-tinuing her work as a nurse.
A private tutor taught her anatomy and physiology three evenings a week. Eventually she was allowed into the dissect-ing room and the chemistry lectures.
She hung on, becoming an unwelcome presence among the male students, who petitioned the school in 1861 against her
becoming a fellow stu-dent.
She was eventually forced out of Middlesex Hospital but not with-out an honours certifi-cate in chemistry and the study of substances used in medicine.
She then applied to several medical schools, including Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, Edinburgh, St Andrews and the Royal College of Surgeons. All these male bastions turned her down.
A loophole in admis-sions at the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries — their charter meant they could not legally exclude her on account of her sex — allowed her to obtain a certifi-cate in anatomy and physiology.
Her battle to qualify went on until, in 1865, she finally took her exam and obtained a licence from the society to prac-tise medicine, the first woman qualified in Britain to do so.
In the exam Garrett passed with the highest marks, but that didn’t stop the society chang-ing its rules to stop any other women obtaining a medical licence.
It was not until 1876 that the new Medical Act was passed, which allowed Brit-ish medical authorities to license all qualified appli-
cants whatever their sex.Garrett couldn’t find a medi-
cal post so, in late 1865, she opened her own practice. After six months she opened an out-patients dispensary to enable poor women to obtain treat-ment from a qualified female.
The 1865 cholera outbreak hit both rich and poor. Many people forgot any prejudices they had in relation to a female physician and 3,000 attended Garrett’s newly opened St Mary’s Dispen-sary for Women and Children in its first year.
She heard that the Sorbonne in Paris was admitting women as medical students and she hastily learnt French so that she could apply for a medical degree, which she obtained in 1870.
In 1873 the British Medical Association could do nothing
to stop her joining. However, it soon changed its rules to stop the admission of further women. She remained the only female member for the next 19 years.
On November 9 1908, she was elected mayor of Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast, the first female mayor in England.
She became active in the women’s suffrage movement. In 1866, Garrett and Emily Davies presented petitions signed by more than 1,500 people asking that female heads of household be given the vote.
In later life she shared a Sur-rey cottage with her two famous sisters, Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Agnes Garrett, and suffra-gette composer Dame Ethel Smyth.
By the time of her death in 1917, aged 85, Elizabeth Gar-rett Anderson would have an unequalled list of women’s firsts next to her name that would have done for a dozen outstanding women.
She was first woman to qualify in Britain as a doctor, the co-founder of the first hos-pital staffed by women, the first female dean of a British medical school, the first female doctor of medicine in France, the first woman in Britain to be elected to a school board, the first British female magistrate and the first female mayor in Brit-ain. Some proud record, some woman.
Frosty’s Ramblings
ties [and that] US made every effort to minimise these, [that they were] satisfied that US action was appropriate in the circumstances.”
The press briefings say that there was “permission to use US bases in this case” and “we were approached in advance by the US government about their wish to use USAF aircraft from bases in this county.”
However, as the documents show, the advance notice was less than a week and, while there was “permission” for the bombing, there was no “joint decision.”
The released papers also show the government was disturbed by the public response. There
was, according to a May 16 note from the “Libya Unit” a “flood of letters from the public follow-ing the Libyan bombing.” There were so many that the Foreign Office suggested letters were “an aspect which must be taken into account in future crises man-agement,” including a sugges-tion for setting aside office space to house all the angry letters.
“Of the estimated 15,000 let-ters, most came from the UK but some thousands were also received from overseas, mostly the US. The latter were 100 per cent supportive while the great majority of the British letters were hostile.”
Twelve thousand, five hun-dred letters got a “standard”
departmental reply, 100 were lucky enough to get a “non standard” reply and 1,500 got “no reply” because they were “abusive, illegible”
The government was taken aback enough to run its own private polling. Most of the results have been redacted — our own opinions are a state secret apparently — but they do admit that, “although 50 per cent still thought that the US raid on Libya was wrong, 40 per cent now thought it was right.”
Looking on the bright side, the Foreign Office thought this minority support was at least “a higher proportion in favour than the UK’s media coverage would suggest.”
PETER FROST celebrates
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson,
a proud suffragette and
pioneering medic who died
just one year before her sex
was granted the vote
morningstaronline.co.uk morningstaronline
@m_star_online10Morning Star Friday March 9 2018 features
THE PARIS Agree-ment focuses all countries on the quest to protect our planet from
global warming with all its threats. The funding support for developing countries recog-nises their challenges. Climate justice is a global issue.
Yet, in the US, Donald Trump gets votes from the Rust Belt as the world’s largest economy betrays its lead on climate change while satisfying some people’s demands for what is a bygone solution, jeopardising their and our children’s future. This is a cruel poison chalice dividing workers.
However the second-largest economy, China, has national and regional leaders steering the economy towards more sustainable growth. The shift to climate-friendly industries is actioned and under way.
As a member of the Labour movement, I know that climate justice is equally important here in Scotland and Britain.
The effects of climate change are already here and inescap-able for vulnerable people on a low income.
Flooding exposes this shock-ingly, with many people in homes on flood plains who can’t get insurance and can’t afford to move. They are truly stranded and need support from government.
Fuel poverty too highlights the inherent inequalities in climate change. The right to adequate housing is enshrined by the UN and here in Scotland this must mean a warm home.
So it is shameful that a third of Scots live in fuel pov-erty. We need more robust regulation of private rented
housing to ensure that homes meet energy performance cer-tificate band C at least.
And there must be struc-tural change in the ownership of energy. In Europe, district heating is underpinned by municipal action.
By tackling the issue of how we heat our homes we would reduce fuel poverty and lower our climate-change emissions at the same time.
We know that the heaviest greenhouse gas emitters are transport, energy, land use and agriculture. The new Climate Change Plan announced by the Scottish government this week sets the framework for change across all these sectors, but it is largely a disappointment.
It should have set Scotland well on the way to delivering a zero-carbon nation, but it has not. Pressure from Scot-tish Labour and stakeholders delivered some turnaround on transport ambition in the Programme for Government, but agriculture now seems to be forgotten, with only a 9 per cent decrease in emis-sions asked of it over the next 14 years.
How we use our land and who owns it is fundamental to reducing our emissions. Increasingly, communities are developing sustainable futures from Wanlockhead to Eigg. It is essential that future agricul-tural support that will replace the common agricultural pol-icy gives public money for the public good.
Our public transport system also needs to be reconfigured. A nationalised railway could set climate criteria while ensuring profits are for people and that
railway workers are properly respected. Bus reregulation
can force cleaner fleets, as with Lothian buses. Integration with safe cycling and walking will bring multiple benefits.
The SNP ambition to tackle climate change has dissolved. Its Climate Change Plan fails to meet all the recommendations of Scottish Parliament commit-tees, it fails to explain how it will interact with the Climate Change Bill and increasing future targets and it fails to mention the vital role of trade unions.
In the Labour leadership contest I strongly supported Richard Leonard, whom I have known and respected for two decades. As a union organiser he understands how people struggle for a good quality of life in parallel with wages and working conditions.
Alongside redistribution of wealth through a more robust tax regime is the issue of work and what people are paid for it. The living wage should be just a start.
Many people working in traditional industries say that they are uncomfortable with the slow pace of change. There is the opportunity for a manufacturing renaissance as we develop the supply chain for renewables and shift to remanufacturing as part of the circular economy, reduc-ing waste.
There will be a need for more transferable and initial skills training, whether for the North Sea as we shift towards marine renewables or for plumbers to learn how to install solar roofs.
However, everyone has to put bread on the table. In my view, the way to help effect change in heavy industries is through trade union involve-ment, ensuring future jobs are unionised and well paid.
The Just Transition Trade Union Partnership is address-ing these issues squarely, work-ing with environment groups. The forthcoming Climate Change Bill is the opportu-nity to set up a Just Transition Commission, independent of government, answerable to the Scottish Parliament and properly funded.
Business should be making a significant contribution. Con-version investment by ethical investors must be a meeting point with socialist strategies. In the future, stranded assets would do nobody any favours.
We can all influence the shift to the low-carbon future in our homes, schools, communities and workplaces while work-ing strategically with willing governments and authorities at all levels.
The time to act is now.
■ Claudia Beamish is MSP for South of Scotland.
CLAUDIA BEAMISH says we
need urgent collective action if
we are to avert catastrophic
climate change and we can
also do it to the benefit of our
communities
There’s no time to lose if we want to have a future
“The way to help
effect change in
heavy industries
is through trade
union
involvementTHE WATER’S RISING: Scientists reported this week that the Arctic has just had its warmest winter on record, with very low amounts of ice
THE 2018 Scottish Labour confer-ence opens in Dundee against a backdrop of austerity, local
government spending cuts and rising inequality.
In Scotland in 2017, the top 1 per cent of the popula-tion owned more wealth than the bottom 50 per cent put together. Over 1 million peo-ple in Scotland are living in poverty, often in households where at least one adult is in work. For many thousands of children, poverty will affect their life chances, health and opportunities.
This is quite simply unac-ceptable and not what was envisaged when the new Scot-tish Parliament came into being in 1999.
In his opening speech, then first minister Donald Dewar looked forward to the work of the Scottish Parliament “when men and women from all over Scotland will meet to work together for a future built on the first principles of social justice.”
Tackling the wealth gap and the unacceptable levels of pov-erty in our country must be at the heart of those social justice principles.
Devolution and the addi-tional powers that came with
the Scotland 2016 Act must be used to further our ambitions for working people. Scottish Labour conference this year has this theme at its heart.
In recent months, along with other sections of civic society in Scotland we have focused on the impact of child poverty.
But, while the Scottish gov-ernment has given 2018 the theme of the Year of Young People and there are specific campaigns and proposals for interventions that could really make a difference to young peo-ple’s lives, it refuses to move on the simple idea of increasing child benefit payments.
These, along with many other benefits, have not increased since 2015. The powerful Give Me Five cam-paign, initiated by Child Pov-erty Action Group (CPAG) and supported by trade unions, churches and charities, has shown that a £5 top-up to child benefit would immediately lift 30,000 Scottish children out of poverty.
The Cost of the School Day campaign by school teach-
ers’ union EIS and CPAG had already highlighted the ine-qualities perpetuated for chil-dren when household income is too low to ensure suitable warm school clothing, school meals or bus fares to get to and from school safely.
The £5-a-week top-up to child benefit, universally applied, would make a massive difference to many families, including those whose income
is erratic due to the casualisa-tion of the labour market and irregular employment.
The Scottish government now has the legislative powers to make this one change. It is a chance to take action on those unacceptable levels of poverty in a clear and simple way. The proposal is well supported in wider civic society and meets the social justice aspirations of the Scottish Parliament.
So far, however, the amend-ments lodged by Labour MSP Mark Griffin have been voted down at the committee stage of the Social Security Bill cur-rently making its way through the Scottish Parliament. Earlier attempts by Labour to raise this issue during the Child Poverty Bill scrutiny were also met with intransigence.
When the Scottish Parlia-ment discusses the Social Secu-rity Bill at its final stages we will again be arguing that the Give Me Five campaign has a very strong case. It speaks for many in Scotland and Scot-tish Labour will be voting for an amendment that would
deliver that extra £5 a week to so many families. There is still time for the SNP government to change its mind, and use the powers available to it to make a difference.
In Scottish Labour’s view, there are a number of other measures that could be taken within the powers of the Scot-tish Parliament.
We are campaigning along-side Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s shadow cabinet at Westminster, highlighting the injustice of the Tories’ cap on household benefit income. This benefit cap has already seen families forced to leave their homes and children going with-out suitable clothing and food.
The powers available to the Scottish Parliament allow us to do something about this right here, right now, and mitigate the effects of the benefit cap. Again, the SNP government has been resistant to bringing forward measures that would make a difference.
Labour conference this week-end will also consider measures to address housing shortages,
poor-quality housing and a private sector where rents are out of control, pushing more households into poverty.
Earlier this week, a statue was unveiled to Mary Barbour, a community activist and a Labour councillor in Glasgow. Along with thousands of other women, she forced the intro-duction of rent controls and stopped evictions as families faced growing hardship dur-ing the first world war.
The right to warm, secure and affordable housing must be understood as a basic human right and throughout history the labour movement and the Labour Party have been at the forefront of speaking up on this. Indeed, this was a key focus of Richard Leonard’s leadership campaign.
Scottish Labour’s ambition to tackle and eradicate poverty needs far bolder measures than the SNP is prepared to consider.
The levels of poverty and inequality in Scotland are not inevitable. Scottish Labour, under the leadership of Richard Leonard, has been very clear that, if we are the next govern-ment in Scotland, eradicating poverty, particularly child pov-erty, will be at the top of our agenda.
■ Elaine Smith is MSP for Central Scotland.
Scottish Labour will put an end to Tory poverty
The SNP might be reluctant to use its powers to
help children without food or warm clothes, but
Labour will not hesitate, says ELAINE SMITH
“The levels of
poverty and
inequality in
Scotland are not
inevitable
FIGHTING FOR HOMES: Housing activists protest in Edinburgh
morningstaronline.co.uk morningstaronline
@m_star_online12Morning Star FridayMarch 9 2018 info | entertainment
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THE cracking start of the fi rst of the month having subsided, we seem to be going through a bit of a dry patch today with £275 taking us just below the £13,000 mark.
We tend to have a bit of a lull in standing orders around this time of the month, with £45 coming in from that quarter and £22 via our loyal online brigade.
If you’re considering set-ting up a regular payment this makes the eighth of the month a perfect time to give us that lit-tle boost to keep things rolling.
Which brings us to today’s individual donations, starting with £88 from Southampton Readers and Supporters, collected at a meeting on Land Value Tax.
Both the donation and the discussion are very welcome,
coming hot on the heels of John McDonnell’s proposal for a tax on commercial land val-ues that would no doubt irritate our tax-dodging City overlords enormously.
A crisp £20 meanwhile has been sent in by a Borehamwood comrade, accompanied by a totally separate £50 from the same shire county of Hertfor-shire. Clearly the revolution-
ary spirit is doing particularly well in the land of the Magic Roundabout today.
Wales has also brought home the nitrite-free bacon, with £20 coming from Swansea and £30 from Carmarthen.
Finally a minor clarifi cation on a £110 donation from Tues-day, this actually came from a fantastic group of comrades in Sheffi eld — thanks again folks!
TODAY
Any showers will ease tonight, but there will be further wintry show-ers in the north, mostly over the Highlands. For many, clear spells will lead to patchy frost and fog.
NEXT FEW DAYS
It will stay unsettled over the next few days, with further rain and strong winds in the south in particular. Ad-ditional snow is also possible in northern Scotland.
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QUIZMASTER with William Sitwell
TODAY’S QUESTIONS
YESTERDAY’S ANSWERS
1. Which river in Northern Ireland has been crossed by the Peace Bridge since 2011? The Foyle, at Derry (pictured)
2. What does the R stand for in HMRC? Revenue
3. True or false: Der Spiegel, a German news
magazine, means “The Mirror.” True. Set up by the occupation in 1947, Der Spiegel pub-lished so many Western scandals it was made independent after just fi ve issues.
1 In which episode of Blackadder the Third does Blackadder say: “My cousin MacAdder — the most dangerous man ever to wear a skirt in Europe”?
2 The jazz musician John Chilton played which instrument?
3 What drink can be served in a coupe, fl ute or tulip glass?
Solution tomorrow…
DAILY SUDOKU (stormy)
THE RNLI is one of the most interesting charitable organisa-tions around having inspired, among others, the anarchist-communist political philoso-pher Peter Kropotkin.
Kropotkin’s main interest in the organisation was its self-organised and independent origins — lauding the human-ity of volunteers who asked no credentials before launching into the stormy brine.
Today they’re teaching a similar lesson — the need for aid to avoid a serious reliance on government contract.
With major homeless charities increasingly being exposed as compromised crea-tures tangled in government purse strings Saving Lives at Sea (7pm BBC2) is a straight-forwardly positive showcase
of decent intent and action.Tonight’s programme, set
in Bangor, Co Down, sees the local crew trying to fi nd two paddleboarders swept out into the shipping lanes.
Tonight’s award for most entertaining agit-prop is likely Putin: the New Tsar (9pm BBC2), which amusingly suggests it’s going to off er a “diff erent” take on his public image.
This is to be achieved by ask-ing noted anti-Establishment fi gures Jack Straw and William Hague for their views, before going to anti-Putin activist Gary Kasparov for a chat about our modern Mr Blofeld.
Don’t get me wrong, the preening little autocrat is a boil on the arse of Russian politics, but those three off er about as “diff erent” a take from
the normal course of Western reporting on Putin and Russia as a Times editorial.
We all know his background, we all know he’s a ruthless and intelligent manipulator of his political environment.
What I’d like to see is some more useful analysis of the poli-tics going on behind the strong-man than Straw can off er.
The Oscars of the dog world in more than one sense, Crufts (7.30pm Channel 4) has gone to great lengths over the years to shed a reputation for its unhealthy obsessions over image and genetic purity.
It certainly has its moments as a spectacle, but there’s still a lingering aroma of snobbery and creepiness about this 127-year-old showcase of canine selective breeding.
TV preview with Ann Douglas
Positive stories on charity are getting hard to fi nd, thank goodness for RNLI
NICOLAS CAGE is at his crazy best in this deliciously macabre horror-comedy satire
about the pressures of parent-hood, middle-aged anxiety and broken dreams in middle America as, with a mysterious epidemic sweeping the coun-try, parents turn violently on their kids.
Mom and Dad begins with a woman driving a car onto a railway line and, leaving a tod-dler on the back seat, walks away. A train crashes into the vehicle, killing the child, and this sets the dark and twisted tone of this bonkers horror film written and directed by Brian Taylor, who seems to be chan-nelling George A Romero.
Cage plays Brent Taylor, a dis-illusioned middle-aged father of two, who’s having a midlife cri-sis. He hates his humdrum job and daydreams of his younger self driving wildly fast with a half-naked woman riding him as he nestles his head between her breasts.
“I was going to grab the world by the balls and squeeze,” he screams to his wife Kendall (Selma Blair) as he complains about how his life isn’t what he had envisaged as a young man. She concurs, as she has seen her dreams dissipate while
bringing up their ungrateful kids and looking after a family which doesn’t appreciate her.
As the pair turn on their children Carly (Anne Winters) and Josh (Zackary Arthur), the action becomes confined to their home and the basement
where the youngsters take ref-uge. Cue claustrophobic, edge-of-your-seat tension.
Armed with an electric saw, Cage is in over-the-top crazy mode — think The Shining — and he’s a sight to behold, while Blair magnificently holds
her own opposite him as they use every mean possible to kill their kids.
It is a wonderfully perverse premise. Just when you think Taylor isn’t going to go to fur-ther extremes, he does. Violent, bloody and bonkers, there’s no
explanation given as to the why or how of the epidemic.
But it may also prove uncom-fortable viewing for parents and make them think twice before uttering the immortal words: “If you touch this, I’ll kill you”
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (12A)
Directed by Alexandra Dean
HHHHI
SCREEN siren Hedy Lamarr, “the most beautiful woman in the world,” was the inspiration for Disney’s Snow White and Cat Woman.
But what is less known is that she was an ingenious inventor whose pioneering work — fre-quency hopping — is now used as the basis for secure Wifi, GPS and Bluetooth.
She has never received proper credit for that, which writer-director Alexandra Dean aims to correct in this riveting debut documentary, co-produced by Susan Sarandon.
Lamarr narrates her own story via a previously unheard audio interview with journal-ist Fleming Meeks in 1990 in which she went on the record for the first time about her life and work, with friends and fam-ily filling in the gaps.
“Any girl can be glamorous,” Lamarr says at the beginning of the film. “All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” This sets the tone for the rest of the documentary, the remark-able story of an extraordinary groundbreaking and intelligent woman who was always at odds with her beauty and how people could never get past her face.
But Bombshell means that Lamarr will finally get her wish of being recognised for her intellect and technological genius rather than her beauty.
MD
Walk Like a Panther (12A)
Directed by Dan Cadan
HHHII
PRACTICALLY every film today ends up feeding televi-sion’s increasingly insatiable appetite for material to fill the medium’s screens 24/7.
Walk Like a Panther reverses that trend in that writer and first-time direc-tor Dan Cadan first brought his wrestling-based comedy concept to life as a short-lived 2008 TV sitcom.
Here he establishes the narrative background with an opening flashback trib-ute to the popular 1980s ITV Saturday afternoon tel-
evision show World of Sport, whose larger-than-life wres-tling icons included brawlers such as Big Daddy, Giant Hay-stacks and Mick McManus.
Nostalgia infuses Cadan’s contemporary storyline, which finds a group of former wrestlers — the eponymous Panthers — living in a small Yorkshire town reuniting to fight in the ring again. They want to save their beloved pub The Half Nelson from destruction by the cruellest of contemporary villains — developers.
Cadan says his film is not about wrestling as a sport but about wrestling with life, “which we all do one day at a time.” The result is a pleas-ant, if forgettable, nostalgic blend of character-driven laughs and wrestling action, performed with patent enjoy-ment by hard-working actors not self-adoring stars.
Think Ealing Comedy
meets Carry On, 21st century-style. And relax.
ALAN FRANK
Gringo (15)
Directed by Nash Edgerton
HHHII
BEST KNOWN for his dra-matic roles, British actor David Oyelowo shows off his comedic prowess alongside a star-studded cast in this dark action-comedy.
Oyelowo plays the hard-working, fiercely loyal and mild-mannered Harold Soyinka who is shafted by his back-stab-bing bosses Richard Rusk (Joel Edgerton) and Elaine Markinson (Charlize Theron, in wonder-fully evil mode) during a work trip to Mexico.
There, the naive Harold is kidnapped and pursued by local drugs lords and a black-ops mercenary.
Directed by Nash Edgerton, this quirky and entertaining comedy tries a little too hard at times and the tone is some-what uneven, but those draw-backs are overcome by solid performances from an A-list cast having a blast.
That’s especially so with Oyelowo. He’s a true revelation and I can’t wait to see him in more comedies.
MD
Wonder Wheel (12A)
Directed by Woody Allen
HHIII
WOODY ALLEN generates galaxies of comment, pro and con, but one thing he’s certainly good at is finding finance for his films, deliv-ering one every year.
His 2017 offering is set in 1950s Coney Island, where acting aspirant Ginny (Kate Winslet) is working as a waitress. She lives with her thuggish carousel-opera-tor husband Humpty (Jim Belushi) and their young, unfortunately pyromaniac, son.
The surprisingly lacklus-tre story is briefly catalysed by Ginny’s affair with life-guard Mickey (Justin Tim-berlake) and then by the shock arrival of Humpty’s estranged daughter Caro-line (Juno Temple) who, pursued by murderous gangsters, also has an affair with Mickey.
I hope I haven’t made it sound too entertaining. It isn’t. Ultimately, it resem-bles a pastiche of routine vintage Hollywood melodra-mas, with Winslet’s searing performance — far better than the film deserves — its saving grace.
AF
You Were Never Really Here (15)
Directed by Lynne Ramsay
HHIII
YOU Were Never Really Here won director Lynne Ramsay the best screenplay award, its star Joaquin Phoenix was voted best actor at the Cannes film festival last year and the ecstatic critical reception for her version of Jonathan Ames’s hard-arsed New York-set thriller would imply that she’s achieved auteur status.
The gore-soaked central story has Phoenix, mesmeris-ing but over the top, playing an overweight, bearded hit-man with emotional problems landing in trouble when he’s hired to rescue a14-year-old girl from a child-prostitution ring.
I shouldn’t bother trying to follow the headache-creating plot. Ramsay doesn’t, settling instead for unpleasantly graphic blood and violence, decorated with deliberate directorial flourishes designed to further her auteur preten-sions rather than the narra-tive.
But excellent editing by Joe Bini helps drives the sto-ryline along and an unfamil-iar supporting cast adds badly needed credibility.
AF
Mom and Dad is a perversely enjoyable satire about domestic violence at its most extreme, says MARIA DUARTE
n ROUND-UP
morningstaronline.co.uk morningstaronline
@m_star_online14Morning Star FridayMarch 9 2018 letters
Demoting DisabilityRochford v WNS Global Services (UK) Ltd
THE COURT of Appeal has held in Rochford v WNS Global
Services (UK) Ltd and ors that it is misconduct for an employee
to refuse to work even if they have been demoted for a reason
related to their disability. Dismissing the employee in these
circumstances is therefore fair.
Basic factsMr Rochford had worked for WNS since July 2011 as a senior
vice president with a salary of £90,000 per year, plus car
allowance and bonus. After being off work for nearly a year
following back surgery in February 2012, he was told that
on his return to work, he would only have responsibility
for one business sector, as opposed to several, although he
would continue to be paid his full salary.
Although he formally returned to work in January 2013,
he refused to do any work. Instead, he lodged a grievance
arguing that the company’s refusal to allow him to return to
his full role constituted disability discrimination. However,
because he did not do any work at all on his return, the
company initiated disciplinary proceedings and dismissed
him for misconduct. Mr Rochford brought claims of unfair
dismissal and disability discrimination.
Decision of Lower CourtsThe tribunal held that the company had treated Mr Rochford
less favourably for a reason arising from his disability when
it demoted him and the treatment could not be justifi ed.
As for the claim for unfair dismissal, the tribunal held that
it was procedurally defective and therefore unfair. However,
as Mr Rochford’s refusal to do any work at all constituted gross
misconduct justifying dismissal (had a fair procedure been
adopted), he could expect his compensation to be reduced
accordingly.
Mr Rochford appealed against the fi nding that he had
been guilty of gross misconduct but the Employment Appeal
Tribunal (EAT) dismissed his appeal.
Court of Appeal decisionThe Court of Appeal agreed with the EAT that employers are
required to tell the employee that they have a right to make
a request not to retire pursuant to paragraph 5 of schedule
6 of the regulations.
The Court of Appeal also dismissed his appeal on the basis
that the work he was asked to do was within the scope of his
contractual duties and he was fi t to do it. It was thus, on the
face of it, a breach of contract – in other words misconduct
– for him to refuse to do that work.
In any event, he had other options in the sense that he
could have resigned and claimed constructive dismissal or
stayed at work and done what was being asked of him but
doing so under protest. If he still felt that his continuing
demotion and/or uncertainty as to its duration was unlaw-
fully discriminatory, there was nothing to stop him from
bringing tribunal proceedings on that basis.
The Court concluded that “it is not the law that an employee
who is the victim of a wrong can in all circumstances simply
refuse to do any further work unless and until that wrong is
remedied. He [sic] may in some circumstances have to seek
his remedy in the courts.”
CommentThe Court of Appeal’s decision in this case shows that where
the worker considers that they are being discriminated
against for a disability-related reason by not being allowed
to carry out their full duties, the proper response is to work
under protest rather than refuse to work at all.
Legal Notesweekly tribunal report
■ THE March 9 1938 Daily Worker books page featured a review
by J R Campbell of “Uncle Arthur”, a biography of Arthur Henderson (1863-1935), a long-term member of the Labour leadership, by Mary Hamilton.
Campbell thought it useful for those on the left to refl ect on the book’s contents, given Henderson’s intense advocacy of reformist politics and abhorrence of strikes and revolutions. Not that he was recom-mending “this brightly
written biography,” which conveyed little political wisdom and could be highly inaccurate.
But it did convey a clear idea of the development of the Labour Party
and of Henderson as a promi-nent representation of the
“skilled British workman of the last generation.”
It was he who had managed the purging of the Labour Party of com-munists and other left elements in the 1920s.
Campbell notes: “Whenever Henderson
was confronted with the necessity of making a deci-
sion, he was more likely to decide by reference to his Wesleyan faith, to the radical principles of his youth, or in accordance with political expedi-ency, than with reference to any deep Socialist understanding.”
So, it was “grotesque” of Ms Hamilton to contrast Henderson’s simplicity with the “complicated nature” of Ramsay MacDonald. Career-wise, “Uncle Arthur,” as he was aff ectionately called by many, always jumped at the right time.
By refusing to join with other Labour leaders in the national govern-ment, Henderson had perhaps not saved the soul of the Labour Party but he had “at any rate saved reformism.”
Not so simple after all, perhaps?
You can read editions of the Daily Worker (1930-45) and Morning Star (200 0-today), online at
Ten days’ access costs just £5.99 and a year is £72
mstar.link/DWMSarchive
80 YEARS AGO TODAY...
GRAHAM STEVENSON explores the Star’s online archives
Arthur Henderson: the man who knew when to jump
Look to early Christian roots for socialist ideals
■ FAITH
THE RECENT article by James Crossley (M Star March 2) was a long overdue materialist analy-sis of Christianity from a left perspective. It illustrated the approach of Culture Matters perfectly – that religion, just like art, sport and other cul-tural activities, can be a force for radical and revolutionary change as well as for reaction.
Ruling classes throughout history have always had to fi ght battles to repress, deny and co-opt the essential, primary mes-sage of Christianity.
This message is rooted, as Crossley points out, in the fi rst century struggles in Palestine for liberation from the Romans and from local business, reli-gious and aristocratic elites.
In current capitalist society, this message is a dangerously radical moral message of care and solidarity, the dignity of work, and insistence on the common good against dominant ruling-class interests. That’s why
even the Pope has made openly anti-capitalist statements, noting that nowadays “it is the commu-nists who think like Christians.” As Crossley says, Jeremy Cor-byn is following in the tra-dition of Christian socialist leaders like Keir Hardie, who said that “any system of pro-
duction or exchange which sanctions the exploitation of the weak by the strong or the unscrupulous is wrong and therefore sinful.”
It is surely time for peo-ple from all progressive elements of society to work together on social justice
issues – such as the Real Liv-ing Wage – and other grassroots cultural campaigns to democ-ratise art, music, sport, reli-gion and other cultural activi-ties. We need an intellectual, physical, artistic and spiritual commons – for the many, not the few.
Such campaigns would com-plement our political struggle to replace this heartless and oppressive Tory government with a socialist alternative.
MIKE QUILLE and CHRIS GUITON
Culture Matters
BELIEVER: Christianity was central to Keir Hardie’s political beliefs
I HAVE followed comrade Chris Birch’s campaign to try to promote the profi le of the Morning Star in the BBC’s various “review of papers” programmes.
These reviews are a hang-over, and still quite insidi-ous practice, from the pre-internet age. Daily political discourse, the interplay between the three major political parties and their politicians, was shaped and directed by the multimil-
lionaire monopoly media.The monopoly capital-
ist media used the state broadcaster as a medium and forced the daily politi-cal spectacle to focus almost exclusively on infl uencing the headlines in the follow-ing day’s newspapers. Those headlines would then help shape and produce the polit-ical debate and interplay the following day.
The internet age has diluted the infl uence of the
capitalist media overall but conversely, the relentless 24/7 cycle reinforces the impact of that media via the major broadcasters.
It is actually extremely dif-fi cult to formally complain about the BBC. If you man-age to fi nd out how and do, you will inevitably receive a standardised and dismissive response saying your com-ments have been noted.
I recommend John Elder’s excellent article on the BBC
(M Star February 3 2016) which advocated that the BBC, as a supposed state broadcaster and funded by the licence fee payers, should be thoroughly democratised by having its board of direc-tors elected on a one-person, one-vote basis by all licence fee payers.
That would be immensely more powerful than squeaking the Star into one paper review.
Neville calls on England to learn from loss to the United Statesby Our Sports Desk
ENGLAND began International Women’s Day with a loss yes-terday and manager Phil Nev-ille admitted that they were “beaten by the better team” but challenged his players to learn from the experience.
Karen Bardsley’s own goal condemned England to a 1-0 defeat to the United States, in a match where a draw would have seen them win the She-Believes Cup for the first time.
“There is no doubt we were beaten by the better team. I think the positive we can take is from that last 20 to 25 min-utes,” Neville said.
“It seemed that, once they scored, we started to relax and play and show a little bit
of character and belief, but for 60 minutes it just felt as though we were waiting to be beat.
“I suppose this has been my most enjoyable game because I learnt a lot about my players. It was a top-end game against the best team in the world. They have good front players.
“I am proud of the way our players played, but what I’ve said to them in the dress-ing room after that game is: ‘Remember this feeling that you’ve got now,’ because in 12 months time when hopefully we’re in a World Cup, we can improve and be better than this team’.”
The goal came in the 58th minute when Millie Bright’s attempted clearance struck Bardsley and went into the net.
Neville’s side were close to
an equaliser late on as Ellen White’s header bounced off the inside post, but they fell to a defeat which left them as runners-up in the competition.
Lucy Bronze saw the defeat in similar fashion to her man-ager, but she praised Neville for his refreshing approach to the team.
“Phil has been really good at bringing in new tactics,” Bronze said.
“We’ve always believed we can outwork other teams, the players are in great shape. Now we have added a new side: being brave on the ball.
“We’re not scared to main-tain the ball. We won’t be dic-tated to.
“It’s really good timing for me because that is what I am learning since I joined Lyon last
summer. Lyon are the best team in the world at keeping posses-sion.”
The former Manchester City defender became the first Eng-land player to be chosen for the FIFPro Women’s World XI and fair reflection of her standing in the game following her move to Lyon last summer.
“It’s a very nice feeling to be in the World XI. The awards where players have voted for you are the best ones,” Bronze said.
“It’s voted for by the players who are playing against you — so they voted for me because they didn’t like playing against me.”
SHEBELIEVES CUP: Karen Bardsley own goal sees Lionesses fail to lift trophy but Bronze says team is making progress
n MEN’S FOOTBALL
Teammates bid farewell to Astoriby Our Sports Desk
Thousands of people gathered in one of Flor-ence’s main squares for the funeral of Fiorentina captain davide astori yesterday.
some arrived at 7 am, three hours before the start of the funeral at Basilica di santa Croce.
The hearse carrying astori’s body was greeted by loud applause and shouts of his name and “grande capitano” (great captain).
The square then fell silent for a few minutes, while many raised Fioren-tina scarves and banners in the air.
astori’s family arrived along with the hearse, including his partner, Francesca Fioretti, and their two-year-old daugh-ter Vittoria.
Earlier, the Fioren-tina players were met by applause when they arrived on foot, led by midfielder Milan Badelj.
Many other dignitaries and former teammates were also present, includ-ing Giuseppe Rossi, who plays for Genoa, and Borja
Valero and Matias Vecino, who play for Inter Milan.
Juventus defender Gior-gio Chiellini, who played with astori for Italy, was in tears as he arrived with Gianluigi Buffon and other teammates. Juven-tus coach Massimiliano allegri also attended.
Players and officials from most serie a teams were present, including former Roma captain Francesco Totti and former Italy coach Gian Piero Ventura.
The 31-year-old astori was found dead in his hotel room on sunday after a suspected cardiac arrest before Fiorentina was to play an Italian league match at udinese in north-east Italy.
The defender, who also played 14 times for Italy, was discovered by Fioren-tina staff when he failed to show up for breakfast at the hotel in udine.
he spent six years at the sardinian club before loan spells at Roma and Fiorentina, where he was signed on a permanent basis in 2016.
Fiorentina and Cagliari have retired astori’s no. 13 shirt.
n PARALYMPICS
hosTs south Korea and neighbours north Korea will march separately at today’s opening cere-mony of the Winter Paral-ympics, the International Paralympic Committee announced yesterday.
The nations marched together for the opening ceremony of the Winter olympics on February 9 and the respective national Paralympic Committees were given the option to do so again by the IPC, but declined.
IPC president andrew Parsons said: “although we are disappointed, we respect the decision of the two nPCs who decided that marching separately would be bet-ter for both parties.”
Koreas to march apart
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BATTLE: England’s Mel Lawley and Crystal Dunn of the United States
Friday March 9 2018
Published by the People’s Press Printing Society Ltd, William Rust House, 52 Beachy Road, Bow, London E3 2NS. Telephone: (020) 8510-0815. Fax: (020) 8986-5694. Email: [email protected]. Registered with Companies House as Morning Star (in corporating the Daily Worker) No N5559. Printed by trade union labour at Trinity Mirror.
SPORT Friday March 9 2018 INSIDE: Neville tastes defeat to the US
9 770307 175251
1 0
MSTAR 2018-03-09 FRI 1.0
n MEN’S RUGBY UNION
Farrell to lead England into battle against Franceby Our Sports Desk
Owen Farrell will lead eng-land into tomorrow’s clash with France after Dylan Hartley was ruled out of the Six nations showdown in Paris by a tight calf.
Farrell, the team’s inside centre and goalkicker, starts as captain for the first time after Hartley conceded defeat in his battle with the injury sustained in training at the start of the week.
Hartley has been an ever-present under eddie Jones, starting all but one of his 26 Tests in charge and always act-
ing as skipper, and his absence at the Stade de France is part of the most radical team selection of the australian’s reign.
Jamie George, the British and Irish lions starting hooker against new Zealand last sum-mer, is given the no 2 jersey while Mako Vunipola has been named vice-captain.
“Owen will be very proud to be captain but at the same time he’s disappointed for Dylan to miss out through injury. He knows the position of captain carries a lot of responsibility,” Jones said.
“we need to make sure we have one strong voice among the forward leaders and Mako
has been doing some great work behind the scenes. He will step up and take that on officially against France.”
In total there are five changes, two of them posi-tional, to the side defeated 25-13 by Scotland at Murrayfield on February 24.
Mike Brown has been dropped at full-back follow-ing his disappointing display in the Calcutta Cup, resulting in anthony watson moving from the wing and elliot Daly being immediately reinstated after his recovery from ankle and calf injuries.
a further development of significance sees the power of
Ben Te’o preferred to the quick feet of Jonathan Joseph at out-side centre.
“Mike Brown has been excellent for us, but he was a little bit off against Scotland and we’ve decided to start anthony watson there,” Jones said.
n MEN’S FOOTBALL
BELGIAN FA WANT VILE SEXIST RAPPER FOR WORLD CUP SONGMISOGYNY: Feminist groups furious with ‘unacceptable’ Damsoby Our Sports Desk
BelGIUM’S football federa-tion said yesterday, on Inter-national women’s Day, that it refused to be held “hostage” by women who objected to its selection of an artist who has used vile sexist lyrics to write the country’s official world Cup song.
The federation said it would stick with Damso, a man known for lacing his songs with misogynistic and obscene lyrics, saying that his tune would unify the country.
The team’s sponsors, how-ever, said they would consult on whether it is wise to keep the rapper.
In a statement, the federa-tion whinged that the women’s Council, an umbrella body for feminist groups, had not com-plained earlier.
The federation’s board con-sists entirely of men.
Damso insisted online that his songs were more compli-cated than their misogynist and abusive language implied. He attacked the media for criti-cising his misogyny, saying that they should instead pro-mote Belgian artists.
Sponsors of the team were less bullish than the federa-
tion and suggested they might intervene.
“Football is the sport for unity and to choose something like this which causes such a rift in society is a major worry for us,” said Florence Bribosia of the Belgian construction construction multinational Besix, the team’s official spon-sor.
“we stand for values,” said Peter Dercon of brewing giant aB Inbev. He did not say what action could be taken.
Belgian equal Opportunities Minister Zuhal Demir said it was an incomprehensible deci-sion by the federation to stick with an artist whose lyrics she considered vile, describing sex-ual scenes with men dominat-ing women.
Many said his vulgar lan-guage in previous songs made him worthy of all the criticism.
“as a federation, how can you defend this in front of your sponsors and especially fami-lies and women? even men,” Demir wrote, before posting some of Damso’s most criticised lyrics on her Facebook page.
They read: “I’m going back to get you better from behind, slut.
“I’m in the pit when I get out of your ass, she doesn’t suck so well, doesn’t have a deep
throat… I fuck you like a dog even if you wear a headscarf.”
In another one of his songs, Vagabond, he states: “Vaga-bond, I hang out, looking for pussy, I’ll never like how I love myself, I’m the most important of my life.
“You make me a kiss, I do not
even know who you sucked, the place of your mouth is in my boxer shorts.”
The women’s Council vowed to take further action.
In an open letter to 13 spon-sors, it said it was “unaccepta-ble” someone like Damso would become “the official standard
bearer of our country. what does this say about our society? That we don’t have any prob-lems with hate speech toward half of humanity?”
The group plans to lodge a complaint with Belgium’s equal rights office if the federation doesn’t ditch the misogynist.
IN CHARGE: Owen Farrell
CELTIC ARTISANNewcastle 7:15 (nap)
WINDFORPOWERNewcastle 8:45
Farringdon’s Doubles
TEAM SHOWMENewcastle 6:15
Houseman’s Choice
TODAY’S TIPS
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FORMER Bradford for-ward Tom Olbison signed a new contract with Widnes yesterday that will keep him at the club until the end of the 2020 season.
The 26-year-old second-rower joined the Vikings from the Bulls ahead of the 2017 season with an option for 2018 which he took up and he is delighted to extend his stay.
“I have really enjoyed my time here,” said Olbi-son, who has made 31 appearances so far.
“When you look at the young lads that are com-ing through, the senior lads we have, as well as the environment we’ve got, it’s a good place to be.”
