Developing the Work of Discussion and Dissemination of the Newspaper

Workers' Daily Internet Edition : Article Index : Discuss

Developing the Work of Discussion and Dissemination of the Newspaper

Blair and Ahern in Contact to Hatch More Plots

RMT Meets over Strike Plan Decision

The Sentiment against Tony Blair as the Crisis in the NHS Worsens

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Developing the Work of Discussion and Dissemination of the Newspaper

With the regularity of the newspaper of RCPB(ML), both in the form of the daily internet edition, WDIE, and the weekly broadsheet, Workers’ Weekly, over the first two months of 2000, the work of developing discussion and study around the paper, and the work of disseminating, writing for and extending the readership of the paper, have been put on the agenda.

In both respects, this work is relatively weak, while the consolidation of the journalistic and production work has been strengthened, but all the same it has been taken up as conscious work, and this will ensure its further development, providing a plan is worked out to do so and the implementation of this plan is organised.

The Party has stressed that the newspaper is a collective organiser as well as a collective propagandist and collective agitator. It is very important that this task is viewed and taken up in an all-round way.

WDIE provides a means, appearing every weekday, of strengthening the Party around its study and distribution – whether this is done through downloading from the internet every morning or mailing out to the circles every day, and raising the level of political discussion around it. The Party organisations and groups of writers’ and disseminators can and should also use the WDIE as an instrument with which to take their stands on political issues and the questions of rights which concern them as they wage the class struggle.

With Workers’ Weekly, its mass distribution must be developed. At the same time, readers’ groups can be formed or further developed and strengthened around the newspaper. The aim must be both to develop its dissemination and to strengthen its content by writing for the paper. This can be done by reporting on the events which are of relevance and concern to their collectives or to their regions or local areas, by writing letters and submitting views to the newspaper, by asking questions or by analysing the political, social and cultural phenomena and events that affect their lives, their communities and the interests of the whole society. It is involves building networks of readership, with these aims, as well as ensuring that the newspaper reaches those from the various sections in struggle, the workers, youth, women and other sections of society, and finding out their views.

Strengthening the Party around WDIE and developing Workers’ Weekly as a mass Party newspaper can and must become the revolutionary thread running through the lives of the Party activists and sympathisers.

Blair and Ahern in Contact to Hatch More Plots

Yesterday Tony Blair talked with his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, by telephone to agree a timetable for the tattered peace process, according to Downing Street.

It appears that Peter Mandelson, the Northern Ireland Secretary, and the Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen are to spearhead talks over the next two weeks with the parties which made up the Northern Ireland Assembly. The focus, it is said, will then switch to New York at the time of the March 16 St Patrick’s Day celebrations, when President Clinton will have his say, before Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern consult again on March 20 and then raise the matter again when a few days later when they attend the European Union summit in Lisbon.

Both the British and Irish governments are intent on foisting an "imperialist peace" on the people of the north of Ireland. They wish to revive a mode of the Republicans and the Unionists working together after the British government itself unilaterally collapsed the Northern Ireland institutions, but do not wish those that are working for a united Ireland in which it is the Irish people who decide their own affairs to take the lead. Vigilance is needed because the plots that Blair, Ahern and Clinton are hatching are not in the interests of the Irish people as a whole.

The responsibility of the working class in Britain in this regard is to accelerate the elaboration and the fight for their independent programme. No amount of "sympathy" or "support" for the Irish people, or the mere mouthing of condemnation of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson for the crimes of British imperialism against the Irish people or the playing of the Orange card, will of itself change the situation. This is because the situation in question concerns the whole nature of the British state which is rooted in injustice, exploitation and the denial of the national rights of the Welsh and Scottish peoples, as well as those of Ireland and of England also. In other words, the task of the English workers to affirm their rights and to take hold of what belongs to them is of paramount importance, and the same is true of the Welsh and Scottish workers also.

RMT Meets over Strike Plan Decision

Last week, the RMT union delayed outlining strike dates after guards at most of Britain’s train companies voted to take strike action over the undermining of their role in ensuring the safety of trains. Train guards at 16 of Britain’s 23 passenger train companies had voted overwhelmingly to back strike action. Yesterday the rail union leaders were meeting to decide whether to go ahead with the plan to hold 24-hour national train strikes.

Members of the RMT executive committee were studying a proposed deal from Railtrack. Railtrack had said that its intention is to put drivers in charge of safety, but the train guards had pointed out that not only will the Railtrack guidelines downgrade guards’ jobs but they will also put safety further at risk.

The Sentiment against Tony Blair as the Crisis in the NHS Worsens

It was reported in the press yesterday that the woman who accused Tony Blair of being a liar as he opened a new A&E wing at St Thomas’ Hospital in London had experienced her boyfriend nearly dying from an infection picked up in the hospital.

She is quoted as saying: "Terry was taking antibiotics for an infection when he was discharged from St Thomas’ with his leg in plaster. Five weeks later, he was rushed back in with pneumonia, which doctors told me was linked to the infection. The standard of hygiene at the hospital is disgusting and the nurses are rushed off their feet. It was so furious when I heard Mr Blair’s speech. It was such a farce and full of false promises. My boyfriend had nearly died and Tony Blair stood there glorifying the health service. I did not think I would have the bottle to say anything, but what Tony Blair was coming out with was diabolical. He seemed to have no idea what people are going through. We are human beings living in the 21st century, but having to put up with Victorian standards. Mr Blair accused the media of being alarmist about the health service, but the media does not tell enough of the truth."

She praised the medical staff, saying they were severely understaffed and struggling with limited resources, and that conditions were like a "war zone".