Tagged with Solidarity

Fifty leading trade unionists express solidarity with Venezuela

Venezuela solidarityFifty leading trade unionists have issued the following statement in support of Venezuela:

On March 9 US President Obama signed an executive order declaring  “a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela” and imposed a further round of sanctions on the country. This has been condemned by major regional bodies in Latin America and the Caribbean, governments all over the world and much of global civil society, including the ITUC and numerous other trade union bodies.

We the undersigned – representatives of trade unions and working people in Britain – stand in solidarity with Venezuela’s unions of Railway workers, Urban and transport workers, Oil and electric workers, Education, Public Sector and Health workers, and Construction Workers who have organised mobilisations over the last month saying ‘Venezuela is not a Threat – We are Hope‘ and ‘Obama – Repeal the Executive Order. Continue reading →

US slaps sanctions on Venezuela as some fear right-wing destabilisation

VenezuelaIn January, Venezuela’s progressive, elected President Nicolas Maduro warned that the right-wing opposition in the country is trying to create conditions which could lead to a coup, similar to the 2002 attempt to overthrow the late President Hugo Chavez. Destabilisation attempts have intensified following President Chávez’s death in 2013 – as the opposition believe that their time has come. His warning came days after right-wing opposition leader Henrique Capriles called for a change in government, with the President saying:

They are using the same script: economic warfare, campaigns to promote social unrest, rumors of a coup d’etat. They have the same objective that they had throughout 2001, 2002 and 2003.”

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The lesson of Hetton and the basis of a new vision for the British working class

hetton_lyons_Wheel2 copyI write this as the immensely proud Member of Parliament for Blaydon. I write it in the aftermath of what has been described as a political earthquake and I write it based on four decades of activity in the Labour movement alongside 36 years of working in coal mining and as a care worker in a local authority.

I believe that the worries and hopes that I express are based on the real experiences of day to day life of ordinary men and women across this nation. I hope that, if nothing else, it reaches those who can really change the direction in which this nation is being driven by right wing ideologues. Continue reading →

Learning from Stephen Sutton

v2-Stephen-Sutton-CroppedPractically everyone plugged in to some form of social media will have heard of Stephen Sutton, the 19 year old teenage cancer fundraiser who died earlier today. It’s very sad news for his family and friends, and for everyone who followed his story. His life was short, but he set an exemplary example of altruism. It must have been very gratifying for Stephen knowing that years of fundraising finally paid off and that others will benefit from the £3.2m he and his supporters were able to raise for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

People who write about the social uses of the new media technologies all too often dwell on the darker side of the internet. It’s easy to see why. The utopian yearning of escaping the meat, and cruising the information superhighway en route to your electronic homestead collapsed the very moment people started waxing lyrical about them. Besides, dystopia’s cache of cool is way more beguiling than the positives the internet allows for. Then again, melancholy never built anything – something Stephen certainly realised. Continue reading →