Liverpool Independents launch fundraiser to fight Eagle in next general election

Original article republished from the Skwawkbox.

The Liverpool Community Independents (LCI) group announced last week that it will stand a candidate to challenge Labour incumbent MP Maria Eagle in the Liverpool Garston constituency at the next general election, because – as a last straw – her decision to abstain on a Commons vote earlier this month calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s slaughter of civilians in Gaza.

Labour has cause to worry – in May, the working-class south Liverpool community threw out Labour, which heavily lost both its council seats heavily to LCI’s Lucy Williams and Sam Gorst, despite a disgusting Labour smear campaign in the election. But the group will need an even greater influx of resources and volunteers to win the parliamentary seat.

LCI leader Alan Gibbons – who trounced Labour in May in Orrell Park in the north of the city – has said that the decision to fight Eagle for the seat is a ‘historical necessity’ after the abstention.

As a first step, the group has launched a crowdfunder with a target of £15,000 to create a campaign fund for the seat. Readers who would like to contribute toward the effort can do so here.

Original article republished from the Skwawkbox.

Continue ReadingLiverpool Independents launch fundraiser to fight Eagle in next general election

Protests continue in defiant call for Gaza ceasefire

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/protests-continue-in-defiant-call-for-gaza-ceasefire

People take part in a Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign demonstration in Glasgow. Picture date: Saturday November 25, 2023.

HUNDREDS of thousands of protesters again took to the streets of London and major cities across Britain on Saturday as public anger over Israel’s slaughter in Gaza showed no signs of abating.

Demands for a ceasefire echoed in and other centres on the second day of the four-day “pause” in Israel’s attack for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

In London, police arrested 18 protesters and police were accused of using catch-all Section 12 regulations to make arrests in response to political pressure.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal said: “There has been a major political effort by pro-Israel voices, including in government, to defame the protests as hate marches.

“In response the police today imposed a ludicrous Section 12 that gave them power to arrest anyone arriving early or leaving late no matter what they were doing.”

Stop the War Coalition national officer John Rees said: “This is political policing and it’s pretty certain none of this will be applied to tomorrow’s march for Israel,” referring to today’s demonstration called by the Campaign Against Anti-semitism.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/protests-continue-in-defiant-call-for-gaza-ceasefire

Continue ReadingProtests continue in defiant call for Gaza ceasefire

Government doubles pay offer to hospital consultants, infuriating nurses

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/government-doubles-pay-offer-hospital-consultants-infuriating-nurses

Medical consultant members of the British Medical Association (BMA) on the picket line outside University College London (UCL) hospital as consultants took industrial action for the first time in more than a decade. Picture date: Thursday July 20, 2023.

NURSES were left infuriated today after the government made an improved pay offer for hospital consultants in England.

The Department of Health and Social Care said that it had reached an agreement with the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) after a month of talks and more than six months of strikes.

Union members will now vote on the deal which offers the majority of consultants an additional uplift of up to 12.8 per cent from next January — more than double the minimum of 6 per cent in 2023/24 as a result of the previously implemented pay award — although it won’t be paid until April.

BMA consultants committee chair Dr Vishal Sharma said: “It is a huge shame that it has needed consultants to take industrial action to get the government to this point when we called for talks many months ago.”

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/government-doubles-pay-offer-hospital-consultants-infuriating-nurses

Continue ReadingGovernment doubles pay offer to hospital consultants, infuriating nurses

Acorn target three arms companies supplying weapons to Israel

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/acorn-target-three-arms-companies-supplying-weapons-israel

Acorn activists outside the entrance of aerospace and defence manufacturer Meggitt in Birmingham

THREE British arms firms supplying Israel with weapons were blockaded today when activists, local community members and tenants’ union Acorn went into action in defence of Gaza.

Acorn is active in towns and cities across Britain fighting on issues such as tenants’ rights, public transport and the cost-of-profits crisis.

Activists targeted weapons manufacturers in Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds today.

In Birmingham, the entrances to aerospace and defence manufacturer Meggitt were blocked; in Bristol, protesters turned away workers at defence and security manufacturer Leonardo; and in Leeds, the offices of BAE System were blockaded.

All three firms manufacture or provide components and systems for military aircraft being used in the bombardment of Gaza.

Acorn chairwoman Chelsea Phillips said: “Acorn will not stand by while entire communities are obliterated while ordinary people just like us are murdered in their tens of thousands by the Israeli government with the support of our government and using horrific weapons of war built by British companies.

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/acorn-target-three-arms-companies-supplying-weapons-israel

Continue ReadingAcorn target three arms companies supplying weapons to Israel

At least eight Palestinians killed in West Bank by Israeli forces

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/at-least-eight-palestinians-killed-west-bank-israeli-forces

Palestinians walk by a damaged building following an Israeli army attack on Jenin refugee camp, West Bank, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023

AT LEAST eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank on Saturday, Palestine’s Health Ministry said yesterday.

Five people were killed in the Jenin refugee camp and three more in other parts of the occupied territory even as Israel and Hamas observed a truce in Gaza for ongoing prisoner-hostage swaps.

An Israeli Defence Forces statement said troops entered Jenin to make arrests connected to the killing of an Israeli father and son at a car wash earlier in the year, and that the slain were “militants.” It also claimed to be using engineering equipment to uncover buried explosive devices in response to Palestinian accusations that military bulldozers were destroying infrastructure.

Since Hamas’s attack from Gaza on October 7, Israel has launched a wave of repressive violence in the West Bank alongside its war on Gaza, which has killed over 14,000 people.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed by soldiers and scores by settler violence, with Israeli settlers leafleting Palestinian villages warning of a “second Nakba” (the Arab term for the forcible expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes when Israel was established in 1948). Thousands of Palestinians have also been arrested, doubling the number held in Israeli jails in a few weeks.

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/at-least-eight-palestinians-killed-west-bank-israeli-forces

Continue ReadingAt least eight Palestinians killed in West Bank by Israeli forces