>New Worker Online Digest > >Week commencing 14th July, 2000. > >1) Editorial - Blue cloud. & Unnatural disaster. > >2) Lead story - Peace talks or surrender. > >3) Feature article - Universities want £4000 tuition fees. > >4) International story - Greece to confiscate German property for nazi >victims. > >5) British news item - Union fights Sheffield college job cuts. > > >1) Editorial > >Blue cloud. > >LAST week the King's Fund reported that the shortage of nurses, especially >in the capital, has reached crisis proportions. London has 5,000 nursing >vacancies and the country as a whole has a shortfall of 17,000 nursing jobs. > > The crisis has deepened largely because nurses' pay has not kept pace with >the sharp rise in housing costs -- particularly in London. > > At the same time the British Medical Association (BMA) warned that the >continuing shortage of NHS beds has led to seriously ill patients being >cared for in low-dependency wards where they do not get round-the-clock >nursing. They said that other patients are being discharged from hospital >too soon. > > The BMA also pointed out that this is no longer just a "winter crisis" but >a problem all year round. > > None of this worries the Tories who announced last Tuesday that they would >cut spending on schools and hospitals in an effort to meet their promise to >keep taxes low. > > The Treasury says these proposals amount to a cut in spending of £4.3 >billion in the first year and a total of £16. 1 billion by the third. > > To some extent this scandalous proposal has been sidestepped by the >capitalist media who have focused on differences between Tory leader >William Hague and Shadow Chancellor Michael Portillo over the details. > > Labour minister Andrew Smith said of the Tory plans: "Now they have >admitted what Labour has always said -- that their tax guarantee is a >public spending cuts guarantee, so extreme that it will hit the health >service, education, law and order and transport." > > Not that the Labour government has any cause to be smug. The crisis in the >NHS and other public services makes it vital to put the government under >mounting pressure to increase direct taxes on the rich and to raise social >spending. At the same time no effort must be spared in the struggle to keep >the Tories out of office for good. > > ******************* >Unnatural disaster. > >THE scourge of HIV/AIDS in Africa and other third world countries is a >tragedy so huge that it is hard to take in. It is estimated that unless >medical care is made available as many as 30 million people will die. > And even this is not the whole story because the AIDS pandemic is not the >only health crisis these countries are battling against. > > Health education programmes and preventive measures are of course >essential. But this alone does not solve the problems facing the millions >who are already suffering and it does not address the desperate poverty >that denies people a healthy diet and medicines. > > The capitalist media seems quite good at pontificating about what African >governments should be doing and saying. More to the point is what the >imperialist powers should be doing now. After all it has been these >exploiters who have for so long been the parasites bleeding the third world >dry. > > We need to take up the call from Africa and add our voices to the calls >for drugs to be made accessible to all who need them. The profit-hungry >giant drugs companies are coming under fierce attack -- and rightly so. > > Of course, while the media spotlight is on the drugs companies they will >be painted as the "unacceptable face of capitalism". Yet they operate no >differently from any other capitalist outfit. The forces which drive them >are in the very nature of capitalism itself. > > Capitalism kills millions to enrich a few. Poverty will only be eradicated >when capitalism itself is in its grave. > > ********************* > >2) Lead story > >Peace talks or surrender. > >by our Middle East Affairs Correspondent > >ALL EYES in the Middle East are focusing on Camp David and a summit which >could decide the fate of millions of Palestinians for many years to come. > > Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is locked in talks with Israeli >premier Ehud Barak and US President Bill Clinton, who is posing as "honest >broker" and host in the mountains of Maryland. But no-one doubts that the >Palestinian leader is coming under intense pressure to cut a deal on >Israeli terms. > > The American and Israeli media have been cautious in their assessment of >the outcome ofthe summit at the ill-fated presidential retreat where >Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat agreed to a surrender peace with Israel back in >1978 and later paid for his treachery with his life. > > Clinton and Barak have a lot to gain from the talks. The US president, who >retires this year, wants to bow out in the glow of international glory and >the possibility of a Nobel Prize. He will also hope that it will boost the >chances of his Democrat Party successor, Al Gore, in the upcoming >elections. Barak, whose ramshackle coalition collapsed last week, wants a >deal to help him win the next Israeli election. > > Arafat too, wants something to restore his prestige inside the >"autonomous" zone administered by his Palestinian Authority. He says he >will declare Palesdnian independence in September come what may. But he has >few cards to play with. > > The Israelis have already spelt out what they want out ofa "final >settlement". Tel Aviv is talking about handing over 80 per cent of the >occupied territories -- some Israeli papers say up to 90 percent -- to a >future Palestinian state. > > Israel will retain part if not all of the Jordan Valley to divide the >Palestinian Arab state from Jordan and the huge swathe of land at the hub >of the West Bank which they call "Greater Jerusalem". Israel will retain >most of the Zionist settlements in the West Bank, possibly "leased" from >the Palestinians and at a push Palestinian civil administration in parts of >"Greater Jerusalem" would be recognised under Israeli control. As a >sweetener, Israel might cede some worthless parts of the Negev desert to >the Palestinian authority in compensation. > > The millions of refugees living in the rest of the Arab world and beyond >will get nothing -- though some Israeli papers say Barak might consider >some sort of token return to allow the reuniting of families. > > The "old man" ofthe Palestinian revolution really can only hope to >negotiate yet another "interim" package which will give the Palestinians >statehood and a bit more of their own land back while leaving the >substantial questions of Arab Jerusalem and the refugees for another day. >Then they could all get Nobel peace prizes. > > The augurs are not good for any of them. Clinton and Barak can hope all >they want but the deciding factor is the temper of the Palestinian people >in the occupied territories and more importantly in the refugee camps. > > George Habash, the veteran leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation >of Palestine (PFLP) and long-standing critic of Arafat's strategy, retired >on health grounds earlier this year. His successor, Abu Ali Mustafa, >demonstrated that there will be no wavering on his behalf this week when he >declared that his resistance movement will continue to struggle. > > This was "not a peace process but a surrender" he stated. "The Palestinian >people who fought for more than 50 years for self determination will not >surrender and they are ready to fight for another 50 years to liberate our >lands," he said. > > And it's business as usual in the occupied territories. Last Sunday a >Palestinian woman was shot dead and four members of her family were wounded >by Israeli soldiers who opened fire on their car. The Israeli army >expressed their "regret" at the incident but claimed they only opened fire >after they were attacked by a vehicle on the same road. > > ********************** > >3) Feature article > >Universities want £4000 tuition fees. > >by Caroline Colebrook > >TOP UNIVERSITIES are calling to be allowed to charge tuition fees of £4,000 >ayear -- four times the current level. > > The call comes in a report from a survey commissioned by the top 18 >universities -- the Russell Group -- published last week. > > It says that the money universities have to spend on each student has >halved since 1980 while class sizes have doubled. > > This has undermined the quality of teaching that can be given and the >whole quality of the higher education experience. > > The report claims that without more money, there is a serious danger of >further rapid deterioration. This would put the international >competitiveness of British universities at risk. > > The report says that since the Government has ruled out paying the extra >money from raising taxes, there is a strong case for a big increase in >tuition fees for those students whose parents are deemed to be able to >afford it. > > The report quotes the case of Laura Spence, which hit the headlines a few >weeks ago. This talented sixth former from a Tyneside comprehensive was >turned down for a place on a medical course at Oxford but was offered a >place at Harvard in the United States. > > The report says the case illustrates the "stark contrast" between the >British and American systems and claims that Harvard is "elite but socially >inclusive". > > "Those whose family circumstances allow them to do so pay full fees. Those >from less fortunate backgrounds receive scholarships. > > "Oxford does not have that kind of financial flexibility. No British >university does." > > The report points out that overseas students at the least expensive >British universities are currently paying £6,300 a year for classroom-based >courses; £7,000 for laboratory-based courses and £17,000 a year for >clinical courses. > > It says that fees like this would be no real problem for the 25 per cent >of pupils who come from independent schools. > > This report vindicates those who saw the introduction of fees as the thin >end of the wedge. And it is hardly encouraging for hard up working class >pupils that their only chance of getting the best in higher education will >be through charity-case scholarships. > > The majority of students will find themselves in the middle with fees set >by complex means testing and will leave college facing bigger and bigger >debts. > > This means that students take on onerous part-time jobs, pick the cheapest >universities rather than the most suitable for their needs, and remain >living with their parents to cut living costs. > > All of these measures undermine their total learning experience and their >final qualifications. > > We must return the education system that current members of the Government >enjoyed in their youth where colleges accepted students purely on grounds >of merit and students sent their applications to the universities that >provided what was most sui table for them. > > They should get maintenance grants that allow them to live decently >without the distraction of anxiety over bills and they should not have to >pay fees. > > When they are earning good salaries then they should pay back what the >nation has given them through income tax. The Government must grasp the >nettle of the need to raise taxes and invest in our young people. > > ************************* > >4) International story > >Greece to confiscate German property for nazi victims. > >by Xinhua > >GREECE, on Tuesday, began to confiscate the German Goethe Institute >property in Athens in order to compensate Distimo villagers whom Germany >refuses to pay. > > Police arrived at the building at the request of the Goethe Institute >director and the court officials started recording the institute's assets >in the presence of police officers. > > Greece's Supreme Court in mid-April upheld a previous decision by a >Livadia court awarding a sum of 9.5 billion drachmas (about 27 million >dollars) to the Distomo victims' families. > > According to the court's ruling, German state property could be >confiscated in order to pay reparations to the relatives of the 218 >villagers of Distomo, near Delphi, massacred by German occupation troops on >10 June 1944. > > The three German cultural institutions, the Goethe Institute, the German >Archaeological Institute and the German School, could be auctioned as early >as September to raise the 9.5 billion drachmas for the relatives of the >victims. > > Arguing that the Greek courts do not have jurisdiction on compensations, >Germany says that the matter of compensation has been settled in 1960, with >the signing of bilateral claims agreement. > > The Greek government has said in recent days that the confiscation of a >foreign state property could not be done without the permission of the >country's minister of justice, but the attorney representing the relatives >of the victims said that no previous approval by the minister of justice >was necessary. > > ********************* > >5) British news item > >Union fights Sheffield college job cuts. > > SHEFFIELD College's plans to slash lecturing staff jobs are at odds with >its future plans for expansion and widening participation, said Natfhe, the >lecturers' union, last week. > > Lecturers leaders have reacted angrily to the news that one of the >country's biggest colleges plans to shed 150 jobs as part of a review of >further education in Sheffield published last Friday. > > Natfhe says it welcomes the proposals in the review to expand further >education provision in Sheffield in the next few years and to make the >college more responsive to the community. > > But this cannot be achieved if the plans for a ten per cent staff cuts >goes ahead, says Natfhe. > > There are fears that the new college management also plans to reduce time >allocated to lecturers for course leadership and development and worsen >lecturers' contracts, increasing workloads to unmanageable levels. > > The union has rejected claims in the review that teaching performance at >Sheffield College is below the national average. > > It points out that recent inspection reports by the Further Education >Funding Council showed teaching at the college to beef good quality. > > The college has also achieved a good standard in terms of A level results. > > But the FEFC inspection report rated management and governance at >Sheffield College as poor and said there were major issues to address. > > Natfhe regional official Russ Escritt said: "Sheffield College's plan to >axe experienced teachers while talking about expansion flies in the face of >logic. > > "Areas such as Sheffield need more educational support in order to tackle >the issues of deprivation and social exclusion, not less." > > And Natfhe general secretary Paul Mackney said: "It would be an act of >educational vandalism to attempt to cut the staffing budget by three to >four million pounds in September. > > "It is particularly worrying that the new leadership of this college was >hand-picked by David Blunkett. We hope this is not a blue print for what we >can expect in other parts of the country -- an attempt to provide expansion >on the cheap. If so, we will continue to oppose it." > > ********************* > > >New Communist Party of Britain Homepage > >http://www.newcommunistparty.org.uk > >A news service for the Working Class! > >Workers of all countries Unite! > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >BTW: Did you buy that new car yet? >If not, check this site out. >They're called CarsDirect.com and it's a pretty sweet way to buy a car. >http://click.egroups.com/1/6847/10/_/_/_/963512804/ >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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