News and articles of interest

Here are some articles and news reports we think are worth looking at

The left's opportunity - Morning Star Comment
ONLY veteran readers of this paper will be able to recall more favourable conditions for challenging the fundamentals of capitalism than the opportunity presenting itself to the left today.
At no time since the 1930s has the phrase "capitalist crisis" featured so prominently in public discussion and in the mass media.
Despite all the efforts to blame a handful of "rogue" bankers and speculators, low-waged mortgage holders in the United States and now - heaven help them - the people of Iceland, most workers know where the blame really lies.
The whole ruling political and business establishment is responsible for this financial and economic crisis.
The politicians and the City slickers conspired to hold down wages, benefits and pensions, forcing people into debt in a desperate effort to maintain or improve their living standards ...

The Curse of These Demonic Call Centres by Mark Steel
If there is one aspect of modern society that sums up the relentless, tortuous contempt in which the mass of humanity is held by the thieving, sociopathic executives that rule our essential institutions, it's the call centre.
It now takes such an effort of will and determination to begin the four-hour task of contacting, for example, the gas board, that no matter how serious your problem, you try to put it off forever. So, even if your house explodes, you are likely to hover over the phone for a minute, then think, "Oh sod it, I'll just live in the rubble for a few days." ...

Councils trapped in £1bn black hole by Martin Hickman and Ben Russell
Council tax payers are facing increased bills or cuts in services to pay for a £1bn black hole in Britain's town hall finances caused by the sudden collapse of Iceland's banks.
One by one, 127 public bodies owned up yesterday to having multimillion-pound sums frozen with Icelandic financial institutions that have gone bust. Gordon Brown, threatened to retaliate against Iceland's "unacceptable behaviour" by taking legal action to seize its assets in the UK.
So far, public and voluntary bodies are estimated to have frozen deposits of £973m, and rising. The Local Government Association put the total loss for English and Welsh local authorities at £798m. Fifteen police authorities have a further £100m deposited in Iceland. Transport for London, which runs the capital's transport system, cannot access £40m ...

Academy sponsor to quit? - Anti Academies Alliance
Unity City Academy sponsor Amey has opened talks with the government about walking away from the school ...

Private 'child jails' to blame for almost half of restraint injuries
Three centres found responsible for nearly 4,000 incidences of 'state-sponsored child abuse'
Britain's secure training centres (STCs) - privately run "child prisons" - are using a disproportionate amount of physical force to control children in their care.
A government review into the use of restraint was ordered after the inquests last year into the 2004 deaths of two children at STCs.
Nearly a third of restraint incidents at British juvenile institutions happened in the four STCs, Oakhill, Medway, Hassockfield and Rainsbrook, even though they hold fewer than a tenth of the 3,000 children held in custody, according to government figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
A total of 31 per cent of all restraint incidents from October 2006 to June 2008 occurred in the four centres, with Oakhill (1,493 incidents), Medway (1,419) and Hassockfield (843) STCs topping the league table.
Oakhill STC is in Milton Keynes! Its time to close all STCs!

Army chief: 'Taliban war can't be won'
The most senior British commander in Afghanistan has said the British public should not expect a "decisive military victory" by coalition troops and has spoken about the possibility of holding security talks with the Taliban.
In an interview published today, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said "we're not going to win this war" and the aim was not total victory but reducing the insurgency to a low level, something which could involve talks with the Taliban.
Carleton-Smith, the commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, said the objective was to enlarge the Afghan army so it could take over the security of the country ... (more)

Calculated to outrage - Morning Star comment
IT is difficult to imagine a Cabinet appointment more calculated to dismay or outrage Labour supporters than that of Peter Mandelson.
The mere fact that serial embarrassment David Blunkett describes it as a "masterstroke" says all that's necessary of this third time unlucky triumph of hope over experience.
Mr Blunkett's bases his assessment of the rehabilitation of the architect of spin and rumour on the joyous reality that "it is embracing someone who, in the past, had been seen as being very close to Tony Blair, so it's an inclusive measure."
Well, three cheers for that. The tiny, unrepresentative and increasingly loathed group that is new Labour is papering over the cracks in its unity ... (more)

There IS an alternative - by John Nicholson, Convenor of the Organising Group - Convention of The Left
An unknown Labour Minister (they all look alike to us) responded to a leaflet given her about the Convention of The Left - "there's no such thing as left ideas".
And to listen to the radio or watch the TV you would have thought nothing more was happening in the world than whether Brown would still be here next week, next month or next year.
But the entire Cabinet could have lined up in Albert Square in central Manchester and none of them would have been recognised. What was desperately missing from both conference and sycophantic media entourage that ate their free pizza and drank their free wine on the outdoor patio behind the steel and wire protection alongside Lower Mosley Street, was any discussion of policy.

Migrants exploited for cheap labour by Corporate Watch
Detainees at the Campsfield House immigration prison in Oxfordshire are being "exploited for cheap labour" due to staff cuts, the Oxford and District Trades Union Council has revealed. The rejected asylum seekers, who are locked up for lengthy periods pending their deportation, are being paid £5 for six-hour shifts of cleaning and kitchen work.

Batting for bankers - Morning Star Comment
GORDON Brown's plan to "nationalise" Bradford & Bingley is simply a smaller-scale replica of the Bush administration's bail-out of a banking sector bleeding to death from self-inflicted wounds.
The Prime Minister is batting for the bankers, intervening, with our cash, to ensure a resurgence of banking activity and private profits.
As with Northern Rock, over which government dithered for six months, transfixed by fear over the N word, Mr Brown is not opting for nationalisation to extend democratic control of the economy.