£1 PROUDLY OWNED BY OUR READERS Morning Star Tuesday December 19 2017 For peace & socialism Incorporating the Daily Worker

Fire safety An immersive report calls Clichy staff bring masterpiece for culture that throws you change in fi ght to London deep into the construction Paris hotel strikers demand refugee crisis to be heard by British bosses THE JUNGLE NEWS: P3 JOE HAYNS: P8 THEATRE: P11 REVIEW: P11 100,000 NHS POSTS EMPTY THIS WINTER

by Steve Sweeney 12,000 nursing support staff along failed to ensure enough new recruits with 11,000 vacancies in scientifi c, coming through in key specialities, technical and therapeutic staff. while failed policy decisions like the THE extent of the NHS Mr Ashworth placed the blame NHS pay cap and ending the NHS staffi ng crisis was exposed of the recruitment crisis at the gov- bursary have contributed to a grow- yesterday after Labour discov- ernment’s feet, claiming cuts, the ing crisis. ered that 100,000 posts have gone public-sector pay cap and scrapping “What’s more, trusts are having unfi lled, warning that patient the NHS bursary have deterred to spend £3bn a year on temporary safety is under “urgent threat.” people from entering the service. staff to plug the gaps, meaning money Shadow health secretary Figures showed a 9 per cent rise that should be going to front-line serv- Jonathan Ashworth said Tory mis- in the total NHS vacancy rate from ices is going on agency fees instead. management of the NHS has been last year. “There is now an urgent need for a “disaster” for patients and staff The government published a draft a sustainable, fully funded plan to as new research shows one in 10 Workforce Strategy last week but get the right numbers of staff in posts in England’s health service won’t be releasing the full report place to keep patients safe. is vacant. until next summer. “Labour’s research today has He said the government must Labour argues that immediate shown that NHS workforce short- take urgent steps to ensure patient action must be taken to address the ages in key areas are continuing to safety as pressure mounts this win- shortages before more money is get worse year on year — ministers ter on a service struggling to cope wasted on agency staff. must take action before it’s too late.” with increasing demand. An astonishing £3 billion has been Fears are also growing of a “per- Labour research, based on free- spent on temps to plug the short- fect storm” brewing and an impend- dom of information requests from ages. ing winter crisis. 82 NHS trusts in England, found Mr Ashworth said: “Tory mis- Last month regulator NHS that there are 40,000 nursing vacan- management of the NHS workforce Improvement warned that wards cies in England, a rise of 12.2 per has been a disaster for staff and are still packed despite a £1bn pro- cent from last year. patients alike. gramme to free up 2,000-3,000 beds. And the NHS has a shortage of “For years the government has Turn to page 4 Morning Star 2 NEWS HOME Tuesday December 19 2017

BREXIT May to seek deals outside EU bloc during transition by Lamiat Sabin should pursue during exit Parliamentary Reporter negotiations. There was discussion of the THERESA MAY told MPs yes- potential for “gradual diver- terday that Britain will seek gence” — a step-by-step move to strike trade deals with non- away from EU laws after EU countries despite poten- Brexit and the end of the tially being bound by the bloc’s implementation period in rules during a two-year transi- 2021. tion period after Brexit takes The meeting coincided with effect. a senior adviser to EU chief The Prime Minister said negotiator Michel Barnier she wanted “access to one warning that Britain could not another’s markets” to continue “cherry-pick” the advantages “as now” during an implemen- of different trading models tation period before Britain with the EU. eventually drops out of the Ms May’s spokesman said single market and customs she was determined to seek a union. bespoke deal, rather than one EU guidelines say that this modelled on pre-existing GOLDEN OLDIES: A country will have to comply examples such as Norway’s 19th-century gasholder and with the bloc’s trade policy membership of the European prehistoric timber trackway during a transition period, and Economic Area or a Canada’s are among the historical that this would prevent the free trade deal on goods. sites protected this year. government from striking The spokesman also claimed In total, 1,041 historic deals with other non-EU that the Prime Minister was buildings, landscapes, nations. committed to “maintaining monuments and sites have But Ms May said she wanted and where possible enhancing” been given protected status to sign agreements before the workers’ rights following in the past year, Historic “strictly time-limited” period Brexit, after she has been England said. ends that would come into urged by the TUC not to scrap Gasholder No 13, Old Kent force afterwards. the EU Working Time Direc- Road, London, the world’s A Cabinet meeting earlier tive, which limits the working largest gasholder when built yesterday concluded without week to 48 hours and guaran- in 1879-1881, was built to a senior ministers agreeing a tees paid holiday for part-time radical new design. position on what trade relation- and casual workers. The 45 metres of neolithic ship with the EU Britain [email protected] trackway in Lindholme, South Yorkshire has been preserved in peat for 4,500 years. FORCE

US soldiers open fi re and CIVIL LIBERTIES arrest man at Mildenhall US SOLDIERS at RAF Milden- been identifi ed as a potential Drop use of ‘lethal’ rubber hall shot at and arrested a man terrorist target. yesterday after he drove a car In May 2016, Junead Khan into the base’s gates. was given a life sentence at Suffolk Police confi rmed the Kingston Crown Court for arrest at RAF Mildenhall, a US planning an attack on US sol- bullets, health experts say air force base despite the name. diers based in Britain. The man was said to have Mr Khan, of Luton, had used by Steve Sweeney from where they would bounce suffered cuts and bruises dur- his job as a delivery driver to up and hit people in the legs, ing the incident at around 1pm. scout US air force bases the causing injury. However, rub- The US base has previously previous year. HEALTH experts warned yes- ber bullets were often used at terday against the use of rub- close range. ber or plastic bullets for crowd Seventeen people were control, after a study con- killed by the bullets in North- fi rmed that they can cause ern Ireland, eight of them chil- severe injury or death. dren. Ten-year-old Stephen WE’RE HIRING Research by Physicians for Geddis became the fi rst person Human Rights and the Inter- to be killed by a plastic bullet national Network of Civil Lib- when he was hit in west Bel- erties Organisations found that fast in 1975. In a notorious SUBEDITOR 3 per cent of people hit by the DEADLY: A rubber bullet similar to the one that killed 11-year- case, 12-year-old Carol Ann projectiles died from the inju- old Francis Rowntree in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1972 Kelly was shot dead by a sol- We are seeking an subeditor to join the team at our busy ries they sustained, while dier from the Royal Fusiliers London newsroom. almost three out of four (71 per Asian countries from 1990 to plastic bullets were fi red in the in 1981. Regular Sunday working is required as part of a cent) suffered severe injuries. this year. six counties between 1972 and A coroner ruled last month fi ve-day 35-hour week in order to cover the paper’s six More than 15 per cent of The researchers concluded 1981. By 2005, a shocking that the 1972 killing of 11-year- publication days. survivors were left with a per- that the bullets “do not appear 125,000 baton rounds had been old Francis Rowntree, who was manent disability and several to be an appropriate means of fi red, most of which were plas- hit by a rubber bullet fi red by Wages start at circa £21,100 per annum subject to a studies showed that the bullets force in crowd-control set- tic bullets — they replaced a British solider in Belfast, probationary period. Holidays start at 28 days a year also injured peaceful demon- tings. Our fi ndings indicate rubber bullets in 1975. was not justifi ed. He was shot rising to 30 days, plus bank holidays. strators and bystanders that these weapons have the Despite the European Par- in the head, causing skull frac- If you have the skills and you’re ready to take on a new instead of the intended targets. potential to cause severe inju- liament calling on member tures and lacerations of the challenge at a national newspaper which isn’t afraid to The study, published in ries and death.” states to ban rubber and plas- brain, and died two days later. tell it like it is, email [email protected] for an medical journal BMJ Open, Rubber bullets were fi rst tic bullets, they continued to Police considered using application pack. looked at the use of rubber and used by British troops in North- be used by British forces in plastic bullets during the 2011 plastic bullets by Britain, the ern Ireland in 1970, targeting Northern Ireland. London riots but decided CLOSING DATE: United States, Israel, Switzer- civil rights demonstrations. They were initially intended against it. Friday December 29 land, Turkey and in south Nearly 43,000 rubber or to be fi red into the ground, [email protected] Morning Star Tuesday December 19 2017 HOME NEWS 3 grENfEll iNduStrial Workers take on £20m SNP it’s official: our fire rules austerity plan for Dundee are ‘not fit for purpose’ TRADE UNIONISTS in Dun- dee have held a meeting to plan a united campaign against the Hackitt review says change in culture needed to put safety before profits latest £20 million of spending cuts proposed by the SNP gov- by lamiat Sabin that ministers were told years ernment at Holyrood. Parliamentary Reporter ago by coroners investigating Sunday’s meeting was fatal tower block fires that attended by Dundee Against CURRENT building regula- building safety rules needed Cuts affiliates from GMB, tions are “not fit for purpose” to be revised. Unite, Unison, Unison Police, and leave too much room for He called on Tory ministers FBU and CWU. people to cut corners, a review to start acting on existing rec- Attendees also came from into fire safety in the wake of ommendations immediately Dundee Labour, Dundee Pen- Grenfell has said. and incorporate the pointers sioners Forum, the Socialist In the interim report Dame from Ms Hackitt rather than Party, Dundee People’s Assem- Judith Hackitt has called for wait for her full report. bly, Dundee Labour Trade a “change in culture” within “It is now four and a half Union Co-ordinating Group the construction industry to years since two coroners’ and Dundee Communist Party. put safety ahead of cutting reports into previous high-rise They discussed the likely costs. fires recommended an overhaul effects on jobs, services and “The mindset of doing of building regulations. Minis- terms and conditions of the things as cheaply as possible ters ignored the recommenda- SNP’s plan to impose £60 mil- and passing on responsibility tions then and their promise to lion in cuts over the next three for problems and shortcom- issue new regulations was years. ings of others must stop,” she never honoured,” he said. Dundee City Council chief wrote in the foreword of the uNSafE: Dangerous cladding is removed from a Sheffield tower block after the Grenfell fire “[Ministers] must now executive David Martin has Review of Building Regula- quickly give people confidence threatened compulsory redun- tions and Fire Safety report. is not what is being built, and combustible cladding material ing on an overhaul of the that our system of fire regula- dancies in meetings with union The independent review was quality assurance of materials being wrapped around its exte- regulatory system and the tion has the clarity, account- leaders, while entering into ordered after the Grenfell fire and people is seriously lack- rior. A fire-resistant alterna- improvement of safety stand- ability and proper standards collaborations with Coca Cola on June 14, which killed 71 ing,” she said. tive which would have cost £2 ards. needed so that no-one feels and the British Red Cross. people. The report also claims that more per square metre was Shadow housing secretary unsafe in their home.” Dundee Against Cuts affili- Former health and safety unclear and confusing indus- rejected. John Healey welcomed the [email protected] ates will be lobbying the city chief Ms Hackitt said she was try standards have allowed In the aftermath of the fire, interim report but flagged up Star comment: p8 council on January 8. “shocked” by some of the prac- dangerous cladding to be hundreds more buildings were tices she has uncovered – installed on tower blocks. identified as having similar including with original build- It’s suspected that pressure flammable cladding to that ing designs being ignored to keep the costs low when found on Grenfell. during construction. Grenfell Tower was refur- A full report is expected to “What is initially designed bished, resulted in a cheaper, follow in spring 2018, focus- DON’T FORGET! bijaN Ebrahimi WE ARE NOW TAKING Bristol Council and police ORDERS FOR OuR found institutionally racist NEW YEAR ADS! by Our News desk

COPPERS and a local author- ity were accused of institu- tional racism yesterday after “repeatedly siding with abus- ers” of a murdered Iranian Place your man wrongly accused of being a paedophile. new year There was a “collective fail- ure” by Avon and Somerset Police and Bristol City Council greetings in in the case of Bijan Ebrahimi, our special 2018 the Safer Bristol Partnership report found. The report also found “evi- Macpherson report accusing ism must be challenged wher- edition dence of both discriminatory the Metropolitan Police of ever it is found, including in ADVERTISE behaviour and institutional rac- institutional racism over the town halls and police stations. published ism” towards the 44-year-old. murder of Stephen Lawrence. “We will not rest until Mr Ebrahimi was beaten to Lawyers representing the improved systems are put in on January 2 death and set on fire by neigh- family said they believed it to place to protect other vulner- IN THE STAR bour Lee James outside his be the first finding of institu- able people.” (deadline home in Bristol in July 2013. tional racism against a force Avon and Somerset Chief Full Page: £1,600 Mr James, who was later since Macpherson in 1999 and Constable Andy Marsh jailed for life for the murder, the first ever against a council. acknowledged the force “failed Friday Half Page: £800 wrongly believed that Mr Ebra- Mr Ebrahimi’s family, includ- him in his hour of need” and 1/4 Page: £400 Direct line: himi was a paedophile who had ing sisters Mojgan Kahayatian is “unreservedly sorry” for the December 22) 1/8 Page: £200 ((020) 8510-0815 been filming his children. and Manisha Moores, said in a pain caused to his family. The report found there was statement: “No review can ever Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees 1/15 Page: £100 :ads@ no evidence of any individual bring back our beloved Bijan said: “We apologise for failing Box ads: £50 peoples-press.com being intentionally racist but it is important that his voice to adequately support Bijan as towards Mr Ebrahimi. has been heard. a victim.” It referred to the landmark “Bijan always said that rac- [email protected] Morning Star 4 NEWS HOME Tuesday December 19 2017

PRISONS CRISIS HEALTHCARE Rohingya Diagnosis refugee Shawkat Ara ‘Shockingly complacent’ describes for cancer how she fl ed taking too Lidington ignores staff Shawkat Ara, 38, said soldiers long – study attacked their village in the by Lamiat Sabin stressed that its other concerns middle of the night and she hid Parliamentary Reporter should be taken seriously. MOST cancer patients are in the jungle with her fellow The union wants funding to being diagnosed beyond a villagers as they watched their A SPEECH on prison reform allow every staff member and recommended 28-day houses burn. by Justice Secretary David visitor to be searched every target, a study revealed Lidington yesterday was time they enter a prison, and yesterday. “The military told the young branded “shockingly compla- for technology to block phone The time it took from a boys to stand in a line and cent” by Labour for failing to and drone signals to be imme- patient being referred to told them to run. When they address overcrowding and diately implemented. being told they had cancer were running they rushed staff shortages. National chair Mark Fair- exceeded 28 days in 54 per them from behind and they Mr Lidington focused on hurst also told the Star: “The cent of cases in 2014. were falling in ditches. smuggling gangs in prisons game-changer over the last And the average wait who take advantage of a “cap- fi ve years has little to do with that year was 40 days, “Some were cut into pieces tive market” by selling drugs the infl ux of psychoactive sub- according to the research and thrown into ditches. They and tiny mobile phones. government’s cost-cutting failed to guarantee that those stances but has everything to published in the British are were all between 10 and He said gangs are delivering measures, which have led to prisons would see any increase do with the cull in staffi ng lev- Journal of General 12 years old. and dispatching contraband on short-staffi ng. in offi cer numbers. Nor did he els in the name of austerity. Practice. a commercial scale, often He warned that, without set out a vision for tackling “Too many of our members Cancer Research UK “The military were actually using new technologies such more prison offi cers, jails will widespread prison overcrowd- face violence and threats due head of early diagnosis Dr playing with the boys. They as drones. “move beyond crisis to a full- ing. to inadequate staffi ng levels. Jodie Moffat said: “The were telling them to run and In his speech, given in cen- blown emergency.” “When understaffi ng and “Until we replace the 7,000 message couldn’t be clearer then cutting them.” tral London, Mr Lidington Mr Burgon added: “One in overcrowding mean prisoners operational staff and recog- — too many patients have “I broke my hand crawling called on online retailers to four prisons has seen a fall in spend 23 hours a day locked nise that prison offi cers are waited far too long for into the jungle. When the stop selling miniature mobile offi cer numbers over the last up in their cells, this makes a front-line public servants by diagnostic tests or getting phones, which are smaller than year, including those housing mockery of the government’s reinstating their retirement the results back. soldiers started fi ring people a cigarette lighter. the most dangerous prisoners claims that it’s turning prisons age of 60, there will be a con- She said there was no were running here and there, His Labour shadow Richard and those prisons that the gov- into places of reform.” stant wave of offi cers resign- “magic bullet” for earlier it was totally messed up. Burgon pointed out that Mr ernment itself labels as being Prison offi cers’ union POA ing to seek better paid and diagnosis, but more “Fathers were not staying Lidington had failed to men- of concern. welcomed the idea of outlawing safer employment.” diagnostic staff should with their sons and sons were tion any plans to rectify the “Yet the Secretary of State miniature mobile phones, but [email protected] “speed things up in the not looking for their fathers, future.” NHS England has set an just running for their lives. “ambition” for all people “The small children were the FRONT PAGE to be diagnosed with worst aff ected because they cancer within 28 days of can’t run.” 100,000 NHS them being referred by their GP by 2020. Ms Ara, who saw her parents and one son die from hunger POSTS VACANT as they made the arduous CRIME journey to safety in Bangla- THIS WINTER desh, said she also witnessed soldiers attacking the elderly. FROM P1: The government Teachers have been accused of “sleep- She said her neighbour, an walking into a winter crisis” urged to elderly imam, was shot and as the NHS “stands on the attacked with machetes brink.” watch out before being burned. Its controversial NHS Sus- tainability and Transformation Plan reform programme will for FGM see a staggering £25 billion axed from the NHS by 2020 TEACHERS are being with whole swathes of services urged to keep a watchful — including A&E and mater- eye on girls at risk of nity departments — set to being fl own abroad during close. the Christmas break to The British Red Cross undergo female genital declared a “humanitarian cri- mutilation (FGM). sis” in England’s hospitals dur- The National FGM ing the last NHS crisis with Centre, which is jointly Accident and Emergency run by children’s charity departments closing their doors Barnardo’s and the Local and patients left to die on trol- Government Association, leys in hospital corridors. SIGN OF THE TIMES: Visitors to the Tate Modern in London yesterday look at The Way Earthly said that youngsters could [email protected] Things Are Going 2017, an installation by Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh be at risk this season. Professionals including teachers, social workers and healthcare staff PLYMOUTH should be aware of warning signs and know how to help prevent the practice, the centre said. DWP staff strike to save local services Offi cial NHS Digital fi gures show that in by Steve Sweeney Old Tree Court, which is short-sighted, as it would open and avoid staff being England alone there were houses both a jobcentre and a produce a minimal saving for made redundant. 1,060 newly recorded cases working age, was earmarked the DWP but have a “cata- “DWP senior managers, of FGM between July and WORKERS in Plymouth are for closure as part of govern- strophic impact” on the staff backed up by ministers, are September 2017. The set to strike this week in a bid ment plans announced earlier made redundant as a result. pushing on with their offi ce practice is illegal in Britain. to save jobs and keep a much- this year to axe large numbers DWP bosses have rejected closure programme with scant “FGM is child abuse and needed benefi t centre open. of DWP offi ces by March 2018. PCS proposals that would have regard for the staff it employs. no girl should ever have to Members of the PCS union However, a PCS branch avoided redundancies, leaving “There is no need for the live with the harmful will stage a 48-hour stoppage campaign has saved the job- the union with no option but to DWP to force staff to transfer physical and emotional this Thursday and Friday as centre and members are now call a strike. across the other side of the city consequences of this more than 50 people face redun- fi ghting to keep the remainder PCS general secretary Mark and make other staff redun- terrible practice,” said dancy due to the proposed clo- of the site open. Serwotka said: “PCS members dant. We are determined to centre director Michelle sure of a Department for Work The union argues that the in Plymouth are making a keep the offi ce fully open.” Lee-Izu. and Pensions (DWP) centre. plan to close Old Tree Court brave stand to keep their offi ce [email protected] Morning Star Tuesday December 19 2017 HOME NEWS 5

rEfugEES Scottish help ‘crucial’ to aid the Rohingya by Steve Sweeney Nations of leading an orchestrated campaign of rape, murder and SCOTTISH donations the burning of villages are “crucial” to helping that seems a “textbook more than half a example of ethnic million Rohingya cleansing.” refugees fleeing Hundreds of violence in Myanmar, a thousands of Rohingya charity said yesterday. have fled the country More than £160,000 since the violence has been raised by the escalated in August, Scottish Catholic with the elderly and International Aid Fund children reportedly (Sciaf) to help the among those being refugees escape to targeted by the neighbouring Bangla- Myanmar military. desh. Around 60 per cent The money is being of refugees in the used to tackle over- camps are reported to crowding as 646,000 be children, 12,000 of refugees have crossed whom have been the border and are now orphaned. living in makeshift Sciaf director camps. Blankets, floor Alistair Dutton said mats and sleeping mats the Rohingya were are being distributed victims of “crimes to 14,600 families as against humanity.” they prepare for the He said the aid harsh winter condi- funding was delivering tions. “crucial” supplies to The Scottish the camps where donations are also conditions are being used to install “unsafe,” with “open drainage, create safe sewage … flowing pathways and build new between the huts.” homes at the camp. Mr Dutton praised the Rohingya Muslims people of Scotland for are denied citizenship their generosity but said in mainly Buddhist that much more money Myanmar, whose needed to be raised. leaders have been stevesweeney@ accused by the United peoples-press.com

WEStmiNStEr Corbyn ‘horrified’ by sex scandals rocking politics Leader tells Grazia readers he’s determined to make Labour safe for women by Lamiat Sabin Labour and Tory MPs have appropriate. We support the zine — the Labour leader plus journalists and other Hol- Parliamentary Reporter been caught up in the West- people making them as well as declared that he was “ready lywood sources. minster sleaze allegations, the people being alleged to be prime minister tomor- The film, which has the work- JEREMY CORBYN has which emerged in the wake of against.” row” and said there could be ing title Weinstein, will explore said he is “horrified” by the Harvey Weinstein scandal Mr Corbyn said Labour was an election within the next how the Miramax co-founder the sexual harassment in Hollywood. “not dealing with huge num- year. was able to abuse his power and allegations that have Mr Corbyn was asked by bers” of allegations, but added: Meanwhile, the BBC cover his tracks. It will also rocked Westminster Grazia magazine whether he “We’re dealing with some announced plans yesterday to chart the rise of a culture of and described some had heard whispers about cases and they are of course make “the definitive documen- exploitation in Hollywood. of the cases as “dis- inappropriate conduct during disturbing when you get them. tary” about the Weinstein More than 80 women in the turbing.” his 35 years so far as an MP. “But we have a process, scandal. film industry have accused the The Labour “Not many whispers, no. I including a confidential hotline The feature-length BBC2 Hollywood producer of sexual leader added that he was very shocked,” he said. and an independent person to film will be directed by award- harassment, assault or rape. was “utterly deter- “I’m horrified and appalled investigate. I’m utterly deter- winning documentary maker He has “unequivocally mined” that his by it all. I think sexism is a mined all Labour Party events Ursula Macfarlane. denied” any allegations of non- party’s events real challenge in society that will be a safe place for women It is set to include inter- consensual sex, insisting that would be safe for needs to be dealt with. to go to.” views with “the many he believed all of his relation- women. “The allegations are all In the Grazia interview — actresses who have been brave ships were consensual. A number of investigated and dealt with as his first with a women’s maga- enough to tell their stories,” [email protected] Morning Star 6 NEWS WORLD Tuesday December 19 2017

IN BRIEF AUSTRIA Paris seeks fine against Amazon Thousands tell FRANCE: Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire hate-filled FPO launched a lawsuit against US e-commerce giant Amazon yesterday for imposing unfair commer- it’s not welcome cial relationships on French suppliers. The legal action follows by Our Foreign Desk Other agreed policies an investigation by French include ending illegal fraud control watchdog migration, cutting DGCCRF, which revealed THOUSANDS of people government bureaucracy, that the minister is seeking protested in Vienna reducing taxes and a fine of €10 million (£8.8m). yesterday against the creating a new national The DGCCRF says that swearing-in of the new climate and energy Paris wants “to better government, targeting strategy. regulate the activity of large their anger against the In the run-up to the digital platforms and ensure Islamophobic Freedom general election, both greater transparency, Party of Austria. parties campaigned for balance and loyalty in their Members of anti-fas- tighter immigration relations with companies.” cist, feminist and controls, swift deporta- left-wing student groups tions of rejected asylum- were among the demon- seekers and a crackdown strators gathered in the on what they call radical Opposition tries to Heldenplatz area, near Islam. the official residences of While Mr Kurz was storm parliament the president and sworn in as chancellor, ALBANIA: Police clashed chancellor. Freedom Party leader with 3,000 opposition They held banners Heinz-Christian Strache supporters yesterday reading: “Nazis out,” “We was appointed vice-chan- while they tried to force don’t want any nazi pigs” cellor. their way into parliament and “Don’t let nazis Political opponents in to disrupt a vote on the govern.” democratic parties have appointment of an interim Sebastian Kurz of the expressed particular prosecutor general. conservative People’s concern that the far-right The demonstrators, Party became the young- party has control of the waving EU and US flags est head of government in important interior, and shouting anti-govern- Europe at age 31 when defence and foreign ment slogans, condemned sworn in as chancellor by ministries. the selection of a tempo- President Alexander Van The Freedom Party has rary prosecutor general as der Bellen. publicly disassociated unconstitutional. The People’s Party and itself from decades of Riot police pushed back the Freedom Party have veiled anti-semitism, but it the protesters after they pledged to tighten asylum continues to attract a nazi broke through a first and immigration restric- fringe and has simply security cordon outside tions while retaining a chosen to scapegoat a parliament. firm commitment to the different minority. European Union. [email protected] Beijing’s bombers fly through strait CHINA: Beijing sent HONDURAS bombers, fighters and reconnaissance planes on a long-range drill to the Sea of Japan yesterday, prompting South Korea to scramble Protests continue after ‘impostor’ fighter jets in response. Air force spokesman Shen Jinke said that the warplanes had been Hernandez declared poll winner directed through the Tsushima Strait to “test by Our Foreign Desk opened ballot boxes and their ocean combat ability.” “extreme statistical improb- He added that it was the STILL ability regarding levels of first time the Chinese air STREET protests are continu- ANGRY: participation within the same force has flown through the ing in the Honduran capital Opposition department,” combined with strait that lies between Tegucigalpa and other cities supporters the narrow vote differential. South Korea and Japan and after the discredited Supreme protest “The only possible path for leads to the Sea of Japan. Electoral Tribunal (TES) outside the the winner to be the Honduran declared incumbent President US embassy people is a new call for general Juan Orlando Hernandez the in Honduran elections. winner of the November 26 capital “Respecting democratic Misrata mayor killed presidential election. Tegucigalpa values and citizens is the nec- Progressive challenger Sal- at the essary road to safeguard soci- after his abduction vador Nasralla, who had a sig- weekend ety from death and violence. LIBYA: The mayor of nificant lead over his right- “The Honduran people coastal city Misrata was wing opponent with 60 per cent deserve an electoral exercise killed on Sunday night of the vote counted before the to Organisation of American ing: “May God take us having in which 18 people have died that offers democratic quality after he was abducted by process ground to a halt, States (OAS) secretary-gen- made our confessions, because so far. and guarantees. The electoral unknown gunmen. denounced Mr Hernandez as eral Luis Almagro, said: “The today the people will defend OAS election observers cycle that the TES gave as Mohammed Eshtewi’s “an impostor.” declaration by the court is a in the streets the victory that issued a statement saying it concluded today has clearly car was chased after he He accused the government mockery because it tramples they obtained at the ballot was impossible to determine not been that,” it added. left the airport following a of committing a major fraud the will of the people.” box.” the outcome of the vote with TES president David Matam- trip to Turkey, a security and “whitewashing” a corrupt He insisted that he was con- He urged police and the enough certainty due to irreg- oros announced Mr Hernandez’s official said yesterday. electoral process. fident of victory because “the armed forces to “place them- ularities. victory on Sunday night, com- The mayor’s body was Mr Nasralla, who travelled people do not endorse fraud.” selves under the direction of These included “deliberate menting: “We have fulfilled our then found several hours to Washington on Sunday to Former president Manuel president-elect Salvador Nas- human intrusions into the com- obligation. We wish for there to later near a hospital. personally convey his protest Zelaya, a Nasralla ally, called ralla” and cease operations puter system, intentional be peace in our country.” at the apparent ballot-rigging for civil disobedience, declar- against the election protests, elimination of digital traces,” [email protected] Morning Star Tuesday December 19 2017 WORLD NEWS 7

SOUTH AFRICA Ramaphosa elected ANC leader by narrow margin Party’s top roles split evenly between President Zuma’s supporters and critics by John Haylett 2,269 for Police Minister Nathi supporters of President Jacob to maintain unity, but faction- The outgoing secretary-gen- Mthethwa. Zuma. alism had taken a bitter toll. eral warned that materialism, The key secretary-general Earlier, Mr Mantashe pre- “In some instances, decision- particularly the use of money, SINGING erupted last night position was taken by Free sented the national executive making is removed from struc- “is a cancer eating away at our at the Nasrec conference cen- State premier Ace Magashule, committee’s organisational tures, resulting in them being organisation, both its leadership tre in Soweto when the ANC edging it by 2,360 to 2,336 for report showing the scale of prob- used as a sounding board or a and membership.” electoral commission revealed former KwaZulu Natal pre- lems facing the new leadership. mere formality. Despite this, He accused many ANC Cyril Ramaphosa as the new mier Senzo Mchunu. “There are indications of a the structures are expected to members of being in denial president of South Africa’s rul- Another close result saw growing trust deficit between take collective responsibility that corporate state capture is ing party. deputy secretary-general Jes- society and the ANC. In the for and defend decisions they a reality in South Africa. Mr Ramaphosa defeated sie Duarte retain her post second half of this term, we cannot honestly own. Mr Ramaphosa’s victory was former foreign minister Nko- after defeating a challenge by saw a decline in our perform- “The culture of a vibrant welcomed by South African sazana Dlamini-Zuma by a trade union federation Cosatu ance in the 2016 local govern- internal democracy, wherein Municipal Workers Union gen- wafer-thin margin of 2,440 second deputy president Zing- ment elections, dropping by 8 all views are sought and con- eral secretary Simon Mathe, votes to 2,261. iswa Losi by 2,474 votes to per cent compared to the 2014 sensus reached based on the who said: “We trust and hope His previous position of 2,213. elections,” he said. best and appropriate action, is that president Cyril Ramaphosa deputy ANC president was The contest for treasurer- “Of particular concern are almost non-existent. will facilitate the immediate taken by Mpumalanga provin- general was won by former the massive losses incurred in “Resultantly, motivated only implementation of national cial premier David Mabuza, arts minister Paul Mashatile the metros, something that by the mentality to work any health insurance, which had who polled 2,538 to Human with 2,517 votes, ahead of threatened to relegate the ANC debate or election, results of been deliberately delayed by the Settlement Minister Lindiwe International Relations Minis- into a rural party, in a similar every conference are appealed previous incumbent. Sisulu’s 2,159. ter Maite Nkoana-Mashabane manner to other liberation immediately they are “Not only is this a win for Outgoing secretary-general with 2,178. movements that are in announced. Court challenges democracy, but it is also a win Gwede Mantashe was elected The results point to the top decline.” are a commonplace option for workers, who have long the party’s national chairper- six positions being split Mr Mantashe said that the where results do not favour been marginalised.” son with 2,418 votes against equally between critics and collective leadership had tried one or the other faction.” [email protected]

CHILE IRELAND Rough-sleepers ‘need Right-wing billionaire Pinera homes not prison cells’

“WE NEED homes, not prison forced to sleep on Ireland’s beats centre-left challenge cells,” Irish communists streets as a result of decades declared yesterday after of failed housing policy to sug- by Our Foreign Desk campaign that he would create reports that rough-sleepers gest that incarceration, no a public pension fund to com- and homeless people will be matter how well-meaning, is pete with much-criticised pri- housed in a Dublin prison. the answer.” RIGHT-WING billionaire can- vate pension funds and expand Communist Party of Ireland The CPI urged Leo Varad- ROHINGYA didate Sebastian Pinera will free education. (CPI) general secretary kar’s government to recognise serve his second term as Mr Guillier, a popular Eugene McCartan pointed out the country’s housing emer- Chile’s president, having former radio and television that Mountjoy Prison’s train- gency and launch a public No end to defeated centre-left Senator Results from overseas bal- journalist of far more humble ing unit is already being house-building programme. Alejandro Guillier in Sunday’s lots showed a landslide prefer- means, had pledged to increase decommissioned after being “A new system of univer- destruction second-round run-off election. ence for former journalist Mr access to free higher education adjudged unfit for purpose. sally accessible public hous- With 82 per cent of ballots Guillier, with 71.13 per cent of and to write workers’ and “Even if it was, in principle, ing, with rents based on ability of villages counted, Mr Pinera enjoys an voters abroad, but Mr Pinera indigenous rights into a con- acceptable to house homeless to pay, is the only mechanism unassailable 54-46 per cent lead. triumphed in 13 of Chile’s 15 stitution to replace the current people in prisons, the facility by which this blight on our MYANMAR is still destroying “Today, the voice of all Chil- regions. dictatorship-era charter. lacks in-cell sanitation,” he said. society can be fought,” the Rohingya villages despite last eans has been heard. We wel- The election was portrayed Many Chileans have been “It is an insult to those communist leader stressed. month’s agreement with Bang- come this triumph with humil- as a contest between a pro- disillusioned, however, by lag- ladesh allowing refugees to ity and hope,” he told his sup- social welfare course promised ging economic growth under return home, New York-based porters. by Mr Guillier and a step back Ms Bachelet’s administration, Human Rights Watch charged Mr Guillier conceded Mr towards neoliberal orthodoxy a problem caused largely by yesterday. Piera’s victory while calling on favoured by Mr Pinera, who lower international prices for David Roberts More than 630,000 Rohingya his supporters to defend previously backed military copper, which remains the back- ld cl have fled into Bangladesh reforms carried out by outgoing dictator Augusto Pinochet. bone of the country’s economy. Died 18.12.2010 since the Myanmar army President Michelle Bachelet. The victor claimed in the [email protected] began “clearance operations” Fearless fighter in the old Ucatt union. after a group of Rohingya Served on the Ucatt Executive Committee insurgents attacked police and Regional Council Wales posts. PERU Refugees reported their Remembered always from homes being set ablaze by sol- brother Tom and wife Anne diers and Buddhist mobs, Kuczynski admits profit from scandal while some claimed to have EMBATTLED Peruvian Presi- led consortiums made banker is fighting for political been shot at. dent Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has $782,000 (£583,000) in pay- survival after an opposition- Myanmar and Bangladesh finally acknowledged that he did ments over a decade ago, led commission revealed Ode- signed an agreement in late “earn some money” as a result including at times when he was brecht documents showing ERIC CANNING November, covering the return of services his private consult- a government minister. payments to Westfield Capital Died peacefully December 14 2017 of Rohingya who crossed the ing firm provided to corruption- He accepted that, as a share- between 2004 and 2007. border to escape the violence riddled Brazilian construction holder, he would have benefited Congress has initiated A sad loss to his friends and comrades in Scot- in Rakhine. company Odebrecht. from profits resulting from the impeachment proceedings on land, England and Ireland. “Satellite imagery confirms He repeated assertions, in Odebrecht transactions. grounds that he displayed Condolences and good wishes to Audrey his wife that dozens of buildings were an hour-long media interview “I did earn some money,” he “moral incapacity” by failing and family. burned the same week” the on Sunday, that he had no admitted after repeated ques- to disclose the payments. It is Funeral details later. agreement was signed, HRW involvement in the Westfield tioning. set to vote on Thursday over said yesterday. Capital firm when Odebrecht- The former Wall Street his removal. Gloria Findlay Morning Star 8 FEATURES Tuesday December 19 2017 Star INDUSTRIAL Comment Clichy hotel workers ‘Culture shift’ is not enough pressure for in-house WORTHY as Dame Judith Hackitt’s interim conclusions on the Grenfell fire tragedy are, it will take more than a N Saturday morning, “culture shift” to stop such crimes happening again. eight weeks into their Hackitt argues that regulatory changes will “not be indefinite strike, work- sufficient unless we can change the culture away from ers from the Clichy one of doing the minimum required for compliance to Holiday Inn, Paris, dem- one of taking ownership and responsibility.” onstrated outside the There are echoes here of Nick Clegg’s plea to bankers investor-classO InterContinental Hotel to remember they didn’t live in a “social vacuum” but in London. were part of society, of David Cameron’s injunction to The Clichy hotel is operated by Starbucks to “wake up and smell the coffee” on tax avoid- InterContinental Hotels Group, by ance and of Ed Miliband’s dream of a “responsible capi- revenue the biggest hotelier in the talism.” world — the InterContinental is a The bankers who crashed the economy in 2008 and group flagship. continued to reward themselves with seven-figure bo- An overnight Paris-London coach nuses afterwards were not unaware that there were was co-organised by the CGT’s (Con- ordinary people out there who might need an NHS or an federation Generale du Travail) hotel affordable place to live or a state-funded school fortheir workers’ section and the CNT (Con- kids. They just didn’t care very much. federation Nationale du Travail). Starbucks bosses didn’t expect their tax avoidance to Clichy workers came to London to be popular with the public at large — only with their protest against the British-based firm’s shareholders. appalling employment practices. Their And Miliband was slapped down directly by Google major demand is to be brought in-house. chief Eric Schmidt when he told the IT giant it was “wrong” Saturday was their 59th consecutive to dodge its own responsibilities to the public purse. strike day. Management has hardly Schmidt pointed out dryly that Google simply maximised acknowledged them — hence the Lon- profits within a legal international framework. don demo, and their call for support. CNT worker-organiser Mirabelle HIH said they launched the Clichy cam- paign after a colleague was involuntar- The “mindset of doing things as cheaply as possible ily transferred: “That triggered it. and passing on responsibility for problems and short- Enough was enough.” comings” that Hackitt so ably identifies is no accident. The majority of chambermaids, It didn’t emerge because the people charged with reno- housekeepers and kitchen porters at vating Grenfell Tower happened to be lazy, cowardly or the Clichy hotel are employed by a irresponsible. subcontractor, Hemera. Now, the Cli- It is a logical consequence of a “chain of confusion” in chy workers are demanding direct which jobs and responsibilities are outsourced to a be- employment, that all hours worked are wildering variety of companies. paid for and that their contracts are This is done deliberately to minimise accountability respected. — both to residents and to workers — and maximise Outsourcing hurts workers in two profit. ways. Construction union Ucatt, now part of Unite, did a great Subcontractors will bid for contracts deal of research into how “umbrella companies” are used — to clean a hotel, say — and then to allow firms to avoid their responsibility to employ attempt to profit through lowering wages workers on proper terms and conditions. and worsening terms and conditions. Reputable high-street brands from Apple to Topshop Outsourced workers at the Clichy are implicated in global supply chains where their costs hotel don’t get meals like in-house are kept low by sweatshop conditions imposed on work- staff — maybe the hotel saves €2, with ers by companies further up the chain, companies whose names won’t ring bells with shoppers and whose behav- Hemera getting a cut. iour can be disowned whenever it hits the headlines. And, with subcontractor after sub- contractor across the workplace, organ- ising against conditions gets harder. HIH Workers suddenly have different overtime on strike days, with the The outsourcing in our public services likewise enables employers, with responsibility seem- police always there too, sometimes staff to be shunted onto worse pay and conditions, gen- ingly everywhere, and so nowhere. Workers at the together outnumbering striking work- erally with dire consequences for service users. Author- The argument is that outsourcing ers three to one. ities hunt for the cheapest bid, and how the bidder makes improves efficiency — it allows firms Clichy Holiday Inn UVW’s hand was helped, and man- that price work for its shareholders is its business alone. to further specialise. In fact, it’s a agement’s worsened, by strong picket- Grenfell was a preventable disaster. We know this, tactic for ensuring that value goes to side support from a minority of stu- because the residents had repeatedly complained about profit, not wages. in Paris came to dents. Some of the same students were the fire risk to the building. InterContinental Hotels Group, there on Saturday, too. We know that cuts to fire brigades have seen over a which contracts Hemera, paid out $400 But the majority of LSE students quarter of fire safety officers axed since 2010 and that million in dividends this year, from Britain to protest came to blame the cleaners for the safety inspections have fallen by a similar degree. an operating profit of $707m. disruption to campus life. with the Diane Abbott was right at the Labour Party conference “But our hours weren’t being paid, Student Union’s inactivity leaving the to blame “deregulation of fire standards and inspection, our contracts weren’t being respected, against the firm’s sentiment to spread and deepen. privatisation and outsourcing” for this corporate man- and neither were our basic rights,” And one national-level union’s LSE slaughter in North Kensington. says Mirabelle. branch disgraced themselves, not Jeremy Corbyn was right to say that “those who man- Earlier this year, after an indefinite owner’s appalling once, but twice — first by standing age public-sector housing must be made democrati- strike campaign, United Voices of the with management against UVW, phys- cally accountable.” World (UVW) cleaners at the London ically standing with them across from This means a publicly run social housing programme, School of Economics (LSE) were employment the picket, and, after, by claiming investment in our fire brigades, tougher building regula- brought in-house, with doubled sick credit for the win. tions and a drive to bring services back in-house across and holiday pay. It was UVW workers’ weekly strike the board. There’s a received idea that univer- practices. JOE days, their disruptiveness and their It means serious penalties, including prison sentenc- sities are relatively hospitable to trade credible threat of escalation that es, for managers whose reckless race for profit costs ives.l union activity — they’re public institu- forced management to the table. A change in culture, yes, but a legally and socially en- tions, and so relatively pro-worker, HAYNS reports Forget the branding — universities forceable change involving new legislation, the empow- with a “liberal” ethos, or at least are hostile to workers organising, and erment of communities through a revival of meaningful branding. How hospitable were they so the lessons of UVW’s win at LSE local democracy and the empowerment of workers to UVW cleaners’ organising? are more general than the campus through their trade unions so those who spot corner- University management spent a locale might suggest. cutting and unsafe practices can speak out. fortune on private security officers’ The University and College Union Morning Star Tuesday December 19 2017 FEATURES 9

MIDDLE EAST rs up the Witnessing a life of se contracts fear and exclusion AY 6: Ramallah. There Pic: CGT HPE are checkpoints within In part three of a four-part 5km of each other around Ramallah, home of the Palestinian series MARY ADOSSIDES Authority and the PLO. DAlong the encircling serpentine wall there are huge paintings of PLO leader documents her study tour Yasser Arafat and jailed intifada leader Marwan Barghouti. Palestinians do not have permission of Palestine with the to leave Ramallah without “valid” permits. At the Kalandia checkpoint, we see Palestinians having to get off Israeli Committee Against their bus to show their permits and ID cards, some carrying their heavy bags and suitcases rejoining the bus House Demolitions on the other side. No problems for us, though. Our groups within the Arab population and minibus is stopped and a very young in Israeli society. armed blond soldier gets on, looks at Day 8: East Jerusalem/Jaffa. “We the group, asks where we have come were taught God’s command: ‘Love from and lets us pass. thy neighbour’,” says Rabbi A from We pay our respects before Arafat’s the Rabbis for Human Rights organi- tomb, visit his mausoleum and then sation when we meet in East Jersu- meet lawyers from Military Court alem. “Every Jew knows this.” Watch (MCW) in Ramallah who cam- His organisation practices what it paign against child detentions. preaches. Every year, they assist Pal- Detentions often occur near settle- estinian farmers to ensure that they ments, an MCW lawyer tells us. Every can complete their olive harvest free authority has a designated intelligence from violence and intimidation by rac- officer who knows the political affili- ist Jewish extremists from the Hilltop ations of Palestinians and will have Youth, a small but influential religious- records of who has been detained nationalist organisation who establish before. illegal outposts in the West Bank. They obtain information from intel- “The ideology of the Hilltop Youth ligence-gathering and informers and is that the Palestinians are ‘raping the collaborators recruited from previous Holy Land’ and must be expelled,” the arrests. rabbi says. He believes that the idea “They are under pressure to inform of Jews and Palestinians reaching a — a way of controlling a society which decision on a two-state or single-state is thoroughly infiltrated,” the lawyer solution is not helpful at this stage. says. “The social fabric of close communi- “Human rights for Palestinians are “Palestinian communities know this ties is torn apart,” the lawyer tells us. the key issue,” he stresses. and there is a lot of mistrust.” Day 7: Negev. We visit H, a member We drive on to Jaffa, where we talk Intelligence officers have a list of of the Regional Council of Unrecog- to Y, an Israeli activist opposing house names passed on to military command- nised Villages in the Bedouin village demolition and a member of Balad — ers and arrests — after a stone-throwing where he lives with his large family. a political party whose stated purpose incident by young people, for example He offers us lunch and shows us the is the “struggle to transform the state — are made usually in the early hours reservation in the Nakab (Negev) of Israel into a democracy for all its of the morning which frightens villagers. where Bedouins live. citizens, irrespective of national or “The family is gathered in a room The Bedouin way of life was to roam ethnic identity.” and soldiers come and arrest several the desert freely with their animals It is part of the Joint List set up in people. Forms are filled. “but this way of life has destroyed our 2015 to increase representation for LSE branch’s pledge of support for of nationality, language and legal sta- “Commanders can be young but so traditional culture,” he tells us. Arabs and Palestinians in Israel’s par- UVW, six long months into the dispute, tus can do the same. are the soldiers. To avoid an uproar, “We have been denied access to liament, the Knesset, and it has formed was important; management found it The CGT and the CNT aren’t the the army arrests quickly, blindfolds sources of sustenance — including an alliance with Hadash, Ta’al and the couldn’t necessarily rely on recog- only ones organising against IHG, nor the prisoners and zip-ties their wrists grazing restrictions, access to water, United Arab List, the southern branch nised unions against the cleaners. UVW the only union organising in behind their backs, which is very pain- electricity, roads, education and health- of the Islamic Movement. The most exploited, most oppressed predominately migrant workplaces. ful. Soldiers are often disrespectful care in the unrecognised villages.” “The zionist state receives huge sup- sections of the working class were Unite’s Hospitality Branch organised to prisoners and there’s plenty of evi- Tens of thousands of Bedouins in port from Christian zionists who sup- organising where others weren’t — and a demonstration in early November dence showing that policing civilians Israel have resettled in the townships ported the colonialist project and the support of more enfranchised, against IGH’s Whitechapel Holiday Inn. is dehumanising.” and, while the Bedouin population has believe Jews have the right to live in longer-organised workers was crucial. Unite regional officer for food and Detainees are placed in containers grown by 220,000 since 1980, their Palestine,” she says. “Yes, support from other unions and drink Dave Turnbull explains that the and kept awake with slaps. Hours pass living space has been reduced. “They are influential and to achieve our colleagues is very important to “subcontracted housekeeping model from the time of the arrest. Prisoners More than half of the approximately their goal they get the state to sell sustain a 59-day strike,” said a Clichy is used by IHG at all of its London are in a psychologically weakened state 160,000 Negev Bedouins live in unrec- Palestinian properties to wealthy worker. hotels. In 2012 they committed to phas- when they go before interrogators and ognised villages and the government Israelis who move into the area. Prop- And what do you need now? “Most ing in the London Living Wage. threatened to obtain a confession. uses a variety of measures to put pres- erty is expensive in Jaffa and Tel Aviv importantly, we need support, financial “They have not delivered on this com- A few days later, the detainee is sure on Bedouins to relocate to gov- and the capital’s seaside promenade, support, but also that people listen to us.” mitment and many housekeeping staff taken to a military court where, very ernment-planned urban centres that with its huge developments, is built It was very cold, nearly freezing, remain trapped on minimum rates.” often, the judge is a settler. disregard their lifestyle and needs. on destroyed Palestinian villages.” during the Saturday demo. Workers’ power is at a historic low He passes sentence and the parents Whole communities have been Echoing the rabbi’s earlier words, Despite organising such a long — but that means that capital and its are fined. This system of collective issued with demolition orders and oth- she explains that “the government’s strike, Claude Levy, general secretary managers are getting complacent. punishment fuels mistrust within ers are forced to continue living in plan is to concentrate state efforts on of the CGT’s hotel workers’ section, UVW’s LSE campaign showed that families and Palestinian communities. unrecognised villages, where they the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian and said: “We need to be modest.” even limited organising across nation- “The impact of soldiers breaking have no documents. They are not on Arab Jews despite the Declaration of “We’re present in perhaps 0.5 per alities, payscales and unions can do into a home with children is traumatic the map. They have no address and Human Rights which states that ‘the cent of hotels. In France, in the private real damage. And, against cross- and can lead to depression,” the lawyer don’t belong to a municipality. They right to housing is a human right’.” sector, maybe 3 per cent of workers national firms, cross-border organis- explains. are described as a tribe and have no are organised in a union. That’s all the ing can do the same. “Detentions have a lifelong impact voting rights. n Information on Israeli Committee unions together. Yes, there’s struggle, “We’re preparing for May 1 2018, and cut children off from their par- Their citizenship has been with- Against House Demolitions study but it’s very, very small.” for a Europe-wide demonstration,” ents. Mothers pay the highest price. drawn and, according to H, the tours to Palestine is available at icah- Outsourcing divides the working Levy added, “against this modern form They suffer physically and become Bedouin minority of the Negev is one duk.org and on the BDS movement at class — that’s the point. Differences of slavery in the hotel sector.” desensitised. of the most discriminated-against bdsmovement.net. Morning Star 10 FEATURES Tuesday December 19 2017 UNITED STATES

N Christmas Eve 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, just a few miles from Echoes of the Klan the Alabama state line, six white supremacistsO founded the Klu Klux Klan (KKK). For the next century-and-a-half this organi- sation would cut a channel through US politics like a stink- ing open sewer. in Alabama ballot Amazingly the Klan, and its far from proud history, is still influencing US elections like the one just held in Alabama last week. PETER FROST celebrates an The winning candidate, Doug Jones, spent much of his early legal career ensuring that two election result for reason Klan murderers were eventu- ally brought to justice. and progress in Alabama Thomas Blanton Jnr and Bobby Cherry were two Klan members, part of a larger gang of murder- ous thugs who bombed the 16th POIGNANT: Street Baptist Church in Birming- Congress of ham, Alabama, in 1963. Racial Equality and Dr Martin Luther King members of the All Souls described the church bombing as Church march in memory of the 16th Street Baptist “one of the most vicious and Church bombing victims on tragic crimes ever perpetrated September 22 1963 against humanity.” The explosion at the church killed four young girls and injured 22 others. By 1965 the FBI and local police knew exactly who had committed the outrage. Four well-known Ku Klux Klansmen had planted sticks of dynamite in the church entrance. Neither local police nor the FBI did anything to bring Klansmen to justice until 1977 when when Robert Chambliss was tried and convicted of the first-degree murder of one of the victims — 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair. Herman Cash, who died in 1994, was never charged with his involvement in the bombing. Thomas Edwin Blanton Jnr and Bobby Cherry were finally each convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment but not until 2001 and 2002 respectively — nearly 40 years after the explosions. The only reason that Blanton and Cherry were finally brought to justice was the tenacious way FIREBRAND: Prosecutor Doug Jones points public prosecutor Doug Jones toward Bobby Cherry as he delivers his closing — the man who has just won the argument to the jury on May 21 2002 Alabama election — would not let the matter rest. Moore has often said the last He was was suspended in Kisor when she was a teenager or serve in government. Blanton was finally found time the US was great was dur- “ The only May 2016 for directing judges dancer. He finally married her While presiding over a guilty in 2001, and Cherry in ing the period of slavery — just to continue to enforce the state’s in 1985 when he was 38 and she divorce case, Moore ruled that 2002. Both were sentenced to before the Klan was born. Dur- reason that ban on same-sex marriage. was 24, divorced and a mother. a mother who had had a lesbian life in prison. Jones argued suc- ing his election campaign, He During the Senate race three The couple have four children. affair would lose custody of her cessfully against Blanton get- said that the nation “was great Blanton and women stated that he had sexu- children to their abusive father. ting parole release last year. at the time when families were Cherry were ally assaulted them when they n March 1995, the Ameri- Moore says that transgender Cherry died in prison in 2004. united — even though we had were teenagers. One was 14 at can Civil Liberties Union people “don’t have rights.” He Jones’s opponent in the elec- slavery.” finally the time of the incident. (ACLU) filed a lawsuit suggested that the September tion, Roy Moore, has a long his- Moore served in the Vietnam Moore is considered a leading against Judge Moore, stat- 11 attacks were a punishment tory of sympathy and support for war. After law school, he joined brought to advocate of the Christian Bible ing that his pre-session by God for US people’s lack of many of the white supremacist a district attorney’s office and Belt racist politics of the South. prayers and his Ten Com- religion. He has called for ban- organisations of the US South. in 1992 he was appointed as a justice was He voices strong homophobic, Imandments displays were both ning Muslims from serving in His supporter from the White circuit judge. In 2001 he became anti-semitic and Islamophobic unconstitutional. Congress, describing Islam as House, President Donald chief justice of the Supreme the tenacious views. He has long ties with Moore vowed to defy the rul- a false religion. Trump, also enjoyed support Court of Alabama. many white nationalist neocon- ing, continuing illegal pre-court Now Trump’s man Moore has from the Klan during his cam- He was sacked from his posi- way public federate far-right groups. prayers and displaying the Ten lost the Alabama election by 1.5 paign and after his election. tion in November 2003 for refus- prosecutor Moore was a leading voice in Commandments in court. per cent and is still refusing to Perhaps that is not surprising ing to remove a huge and heavy the movement which promoted He is strongly anti-abortion. concede defeat. His arrival to given his family history. marble monument of the Ten Doug Jones the nonsense that former pres- In 2014 he said that laws should vote on a horse clearly failed to Trump’s father Fred was Commandments which he had ident Barack Obama was not protect life “from the moment impress voters enough. arrested on a Memorial Day installed in the lobby of the Ala- would not born in the United States. of conception.” He also totally Jones has become the first march in Queens, New York, bama Courts. The US constitu- He is also the founder and rejects the theory of evolution, Democrat to represent Alabama when he joined a thousand tion makes the linking of law let the president of the Foundation for claiming that teaching evolution for 25 years. He has also Klansmen in white sheets and and religion illegal. Moral Law, from which he col- in schools led to an increase in reduced Trump’s Senate major- conical hoods. Seven Klansman Moore had had this memorial matter rest ” lected more than $1 million over drive-by shootings. ity to a tiny 51 of 100 seats, mak- were arrested that day and one made to replace a hand-painted five years. In 2005, Moore’s Moore holds virulently anti- ing President Trump’s chances was Fred Trump of 175-24 Dev- wooden plaque of the Ten Com- Foundation accepted a $1,000 gay beliefs. He supports laws to of introducing more racist and onshire Road in Jamaica. mandments that he had illegally contribution from neonazi and make homosexuality illegal and reactionary laws far less likely. This was Donald Trump’s hung in his court for many Holocaust denier Willis Carto. has argued that same-sex par- I think we can all say amen to father. years. Moore met his wife Kayla ents are unfit to raise children that. Morning Star Tuesday December 19 2017 CULTURE 11

H 2017 ROUND-UP James Elkington’s folky debut album Wintres Life from Vancouver duo Japandroids is one Gone is a musically muscular, deeply confes- ALBUMS IAN SINCLAIR Woma, the expansive desert country of Gun of the most exciting, and loud, guitar records sional and literate slice of hip hop. Outfit’s Out of Range and Jake Xeres Fussell’s released this year. Their live show is explosive. Though they have yet to release an album, US LABEL Paradise of Bachelors released a archival exploration of folk, blues and country Indie pop star Jens Lekman’s set at this South London’s pop-rap two piece The Rhythm bevy of astonishing records this year. on What In A Natural World. summer’s End Of The Road festival trans- Method are the latest in a long line of great Best of all is self-titled album The Weather Having topped the best-of lists with 2014’s formed the audience into one giant dance party British songwriters stretching back to The Station, the follow-up to 2015’s sublime Loy- Lost In The Dream, Philadelphia’s War On by playing his poptastic disco album Life Will Kinks, Squeeze and more recent artists like alty. Drugs continued their exploration of heartland See You Now. The Streets and the Sleaford Mods. Songs such as the tumultuous Thirty and rock on the widescreen A Deeper Understand- With the Swede’s trademark melancholy and “She likes our Commons touch but she’s unhurried closer The Most Dangerous Thing ing, with the yearning 11 minutes of Thinking deadpan humour running through the songs, destined for the Lords/Be my Cherie Blair, About You are further proof that Canadian Of A Place a strong contender for track of the you’ll be hard pressed to find a catchier set of I’ll be your Cherie Amour,” romances lead Tamara Lindeman is one of the most talented year. tunes released this year, in or out of the top singer Joey Bradbury on single Party Politics. songwriters working today. A little more accessible than their lo-fi punk 40. If there is any justice in the world, these Lovers of good music should also check out back catalogue, Near To The Wild Heart Of In Britain, Loyle Carner’s debut Yesterday’s guys will break through in 2018.

THEATRE REVIEW Rumbles in The Jungle BETHANY RIELLY sees a hard-hitting depiction of the camp in Calais which castigates governments that have turned a blind eye to the plight of refugees The Jungle for “Theresa fucking darling buds of (Michael Gould) claims that he’s Young Vic Theatre, London May,” the then Home Secretary. “running towards” a place where a HHHHH Thanks to her, hundreds of unaccom- sense of community still exists. panied children were denied their legal As former volunteers, it feels like right to come to Britain and disap- writers Joe Murphy and Joe Robert- CO-PRODUCED By Good Chance peared during the camp’s demolition. son are critiquing themselves by theatre company, the National Thea- Safi (Ammar Haj Ahmed), who ridiculing the volunteers. tre and the Young Vic, this immersive used to be a student in Aleppo, takes The immersive nature of the play, Pic: Marc Brenner play explores the events during the us to 2015 when the camp gained glo- where the audience are “customers” THEATRE REVIEW last year of the Calais refugee camp bal attention and volunteers began in the camp cafe, forces us to experi- from the height of the refugee crisis to trickle in. Despite their good inten- ence the energy, euphoria and conflict in 2015 to its demolition in October tions, the naive British volunteers are that erupts when people from all over 2016. way out of their depth and, as Boxer the world collide in one place. Unfinished business That period saw the camp’s popu- (Trevor Fox), a drunken Geordie It’s deliberately uncomfortable but lation grow to over 6,000, with declares: “Everyone here is running incredibly powerful, putting you in mosques, libraries, churches, schools away from something” and even he the middle of the refugee crisis at a and restaurants turning it into a is fleeing his “dragon” wife. time when Europe is trying desper- with George Blake thriving hub. It was perceived as a Meanwhile, the 18-year-old Beth ately to sweep it under the rug. threat by the French authorities. (Rachel Redford) is putting off being Runs until January 9, box office: Cell Mates ness and all the emotional twists Before a single line is uttered, the a debt-ridden student, while Derek youngvic.org Hampstead Theatre, London utterly convince. audience is plunged into the hectic HHIII But what we don’t get is any real makeshift world of the camp. sense of this odd couple’s relationship, With mud underfoot, a patchwork from their enforced prison life to the of colourful hangings overhead and HERE’S a jigsaw piece in the story puzzling “house arrest” endured by a faint odour of sawdust in the air, of 95-year-old former MI6 officer Bourke in Moscow. Their mutual the main space at the Young Vic is George Blake, now living in a dacha dependency is surely not all it seems. no longer a theatre, it’s Salar’s close to Moscow, who recently gave The agent’s first encounter with his Afghan Cafe. interviews saying that he held fast new friend has an undercurrent of “Right. Can I have everyone’s atten- to his communist beliefs and sexual favours, perhaps offered, per- tion please!” As those words ring out, remained optimistic. haps expected. But this remains the production suddenly explodes Double agent Blake, sentenced five obscure. around us as panicked refugees and years earlier to 42 years in prison, Writer Simon Gray certainly volunteers are hit with the news that was helped in his “comic-book” explores themes of loneliness, home- the camp will be demolished. escape from Wormwood Scrubs to the sickness and ambition — both men Heads in the audience constantly Soviet Union in 1966 by petty crimi- yearn to be authors, though with dif- turn to keep up with the chaos, anger nal Sean Bourke. ferent motives — but the great irony is and despair unfolding in the moments Blake and Bourke are the protago- that his version of events demonstrates before The Jungle is torn apart. nists of this revival of Cell Mates, that no-one owns the story of their life. But, just before it all becomes too which has been a long time coming. Bourke’s telling of Blake’s story much to bear, the Syrian Safi, a Simon Gray’s play opened in the West serves mainly to show himself as the “35-years-young man,” walks calmly End in 1995 but one of its stars, great rescuer, the hero who achieved onstage and the lights come up. Stephen Fry, got a bad review in the what the KGB did not. Blake’s writing That dramatic opening is charac- FT and fled after only three perform- vacillates between attempts to teristic of the rest of what follows in ances and disappeared for a while, explain his motives and a refusal to a play which constantly jumps from leaving co-star and Rik Mayall to do so.“Becoming a national disgrace distressing scenes of utter chaos to soldier on. The production closed is the reward of a lifetime’s endeav- complete calm in mere seconds, con- after five weeks. our,” he quips. veying the ups and downs of life for But, despite the expectation, disap- Of course, a two-hour drama can thousands of refugees abandoned by pointment reigns — there’s something only give a glimpse into complex lives the authorities in the Calais mud. substantial missing here. and it tells the story of Bourke rather Guided delicately by directors The performances are accom- better than that of Blake. But then, Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, plished. Emmet Byrne is a cocky and that story is still being written. The Jungle is a trenchant criticism DARK TIMES: John Pfumojena ambitious Bourke, while Geoffrey Runs until January 20, box office: of the French and British govern- as Okot in The Jungle Streatfeild captures Blake’s charm, hampsteadtheatre.com

ments but it reserves special scorn DavidPic: Sandison froideur, vulnerability and ruthless- LYNNE WALSH Morning Star 12 FEATURES Tuesday December 19 2017

Contact [email protected] to join future activity 12 days for the Star in your area FIGHTING left WITH FairlyIntermediate diffi cult IVAN Sudoku Tell us FUND BEAVIS what you’d like to see YOU’VE RAISED: WE NEED: more of in your £11,671 £6,329 paper and THE warming glow of your A special thank you to an- es. This Christmas, thousands of email great generosity is keeping me other Unite member for their people will wake up in tempo- editorial@ toasty on these arctic nights. generous donation of £60 and rary accomodation thanks to the A culmination of gold over the to a London reader for their £50. Tory’s cruel benefi t reforms. peoples- weekend has swelled the fund To my Welsh comrades in Pon- Their tough sanctions do not by a whopping £2,135.50! typridd I thank you for your CPG “push people into work” but press.com Wonderful trade unionists in collection, giving us a lovely £15. push them out of their homes, Southampton’s Unite branch are Donations from readers in as they are unable to pay for responsible for almost a quarter Troon, Lancashire, Bucking- their soaring rent. of our total, having donated hamshire, Colchester, the Isle As the only paper that sup- £500 to us for the new year. A of Lewis and Leeds are also ports Jeremy Corbyn’s vision of socialist greeting to you too. much appreciated as are our an aff ordable future where the A crafty couple from Sheffi eld standing orders of £1,146.20! poor don’t pay the price for the raised £200 from a sale of hand- It warms my heart to see so mistakes and greed of the rich, made ceramics. You are both as many dig deep at a time of crip- keep giving us your much need- wonderful as you are talented! pling austerity and falling wag- ed and appreciated support. Give by post… phone… or online Payable to PPFF to: From 10am-5pm on At morningstar Fighting Fund, 52 Beachy (020) 8510-0815 online.co.uk/support Solution tomorrow… Rd, London E3 2NS TODAY’S WEATHER TV & RADIO

★ INVERNESS Cloudy Boundary change threatens 11°C max, feels like 8°C Wind 11mph SW the town of Royston Vasey by Bethany Rielly STAY LOCAL: Tubbs and Edward from ★ ABERDEEN ROYSTON VASEY is under the League of Gentlemen Cloudy biggest threat it’s ever faced. 8°C max, feels like 6°C Boundary changes could ★ GLASGOW Wind 7mph SSW erase the town of proud Overcast local people from the map 10°C max, feels like 8°C altogether — how ghastly! Wind 9mph SW ★ The League of Gentle- EDINBURGH men (10pm BBC2) is back, Cloudy bringing the same black, ★ LIVERPOOL 10°C max, feels like 7°C bleak humour found in the Wind 11mph SW lives of people left behind Overcast 8°C max, feels like 6°C (though, of course, Wind 7mph SE grotesquely exaggerated). To catch Levi Roots’s ★ NEWCASTLE (10pm) last show of this year, Cloudy tune in now to Radio 2. Give ★ SHEFFIELD 7°C max, feels like 6°C me reggae over dull Cloudy Wind 4mph S Christmas tracks any day. 8°C max, feels like 7°C Up next is Radio 4’s new Wind 2mph SSW panel show Where’s the F in News (Radio 4 11pm), ★ NORWICH created by Have I Got News ★ BIRMINGHAM Cloudy for You producer Jo Bunting. Cloudy 4°C max, feels like 1°C Although panel shows are 7°C max, feels like 5°C Wind 7mph WSW no longer the exclusive Wind 4mph WSW domain of men, they’re hardly packed with women either. It was just three years ago when the BBC’s then director of TV Danny Cohen banned all-male panels from the Beeb. ★ LONDON But even with the new rules, women are still the minority. So it’s great to ★ CARDIFF Cloudy see a woman-dominated panel for once. Tonight’s show features panellists Cloudy 5°C max, feels like 3°C Rose Matafeo, Sindhu Vee and Katie Mulgrew — and the one male Jarlath 7°C max, feels like 6°C Wind 4mph WSW Ragan — who will be unpicking this week’s news and talking points. Wind 2mph SW

Preaching about world peace while ★ PLYMOUTH ★ SOUTHAMPTON NEXT FEW DAYS… avoiding tax through a Lithuanian Cloudy Cloudy Turning drier, brighter and cooler What supermarket chain is just the kind of 10°C max, feels like 9°C 6°C max, feels like 5°C in the north through tomorrow hypocrisy we all knew Bono was capable Wind 2mph SW Wind 2mph WSW into Thursday, cloudy and mild to miss of, even before the Paradise Papers scandal with patchy rain in the south. hit. To save yourself from Bono’s empty Cloud and patchy rain then empathy, and the monotonous warble of spreading north-east on Friday. U2, stay clear of the Beeb at 9pm. Morning Star Tuesday December 19 2017 FEATURES 13

REVIEW

Transparent Water Omar Sosa and Seckou Keita (World Village WWF4 79125)

WHY did I instinctively think All sounds cohere in this of the name Cuito Cuanavale when I fi rst heard this record? My memory went directly back to the brave victory of Cuban and Angolan forces over the apartheid army in 1987-88, one of the key moments of Afri- genre-defying beauty can and Caribbean history in our lifetimes. For here is a Cuban pianist, Pic: Tom Beetz / Creative Commons Pic: SeanMack / Creative Commons Omar Sosa, playing with the POWERFUL: Omar Senegalese Kora virtuoso Sosa and (right) Seckou Keita, in an inspiring Seckou Keita album of tunes all written by the duo and recorded in June 2013 in Osnabruck, Germany. Not that this is an explicitly political album, but Transpar- ent Water is a deeply refl ective and spiritual record, full of devotion to the sounds, melodies and rhythms of both Africa and Latin America — particularly as the third man playing drums, claves, maracas ad other per- cussion is the Venezuelan Gus- tavo Ovalles. It is very much a powerful bonding of continents and their people’s music. Sosa was born in Camaguey, Cuba in 1965, and began his musical life playing marimbas from eight years old. Turning to piano, he eventu- ally graduated from the Escuela Nacional Musica in Havana, and in 1993 moved to Quito, Ecua- dor, then to San Francisco in 1995, where he became deeply and the riffs sound like the involved in the Latin Jazz scene birth sounds of Peanut Vendor, with percussionist John Santos, Chris Searle as if Keita and Africa are gift- and recorded with Carlos ing the Americas a people’s “Patato” Valdes and David theme. Through Oni Yalorde, Garibaldi. Wu Tong blows a bawu and In 1999 he moved on to Bar- moves the harmonies eastwards celona, and by 2012 he was again. recording the album Alma with Sosa and Keita’s shared the Sardinian trumpeter Paolo on JAZZ melodism is at the heart of Fresu and playing in the Quar- Peace Keeping and Ovalles’s teto Afro-Cubana with cellist clipping bata drums add to the Leandro Saint-Hill and drum- nating strings, and as they restrained drama of Moro mer Ernesto Simpson (both fel- introduce the album’s opener “ It is as if two Yeye. low Camagueyanos) and the Dary before the melodism of The notes of Japan enter Mozambican bassist Childo Sousa’s keys peal through the continents Recaredo 1993 with Mieko Tomas. German studio, it is as if two Miyazaki’s Koto fl oating above Keita was born in Lindiane, continents have come to have come to the duo’s translucent rhythms. in the south of Senegal. His Europe, with Ovalles’s maracas Europe, with Then it is a journey southwards grandmother was the cele- giving keen witness to the South to explore the sonics of Zulu- brated historian and griot Jali American reality. Ovalles’s land, although the aery, fl ying Kemo Cissokho, and his entire The slow, pausing effects of sounds hardly seem to touch the family has inherited her dedica- In the Forest unify the tropical maracas giving earth. tion. mass of West Africa and Ama- Translucent Water is an He strives to create a musical zonas and one, unifi ed people keen witness astonishing album. Is it jazz, is amalgam of the four most com- emerge striving for their stolen it world music, is it folk, is it mon Kora tunings — from Sen- land. to the South Latin, is it Africa? egal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau As Keita strums his Kora at It doesn’t matter. It is all and Mali. the outset of Black Dream, American The magical joint improvisa- Wu Tong returns for Another these categories while having “Everything in music has to another continent is evoked in tion of Tama-Tama is an expres- Prayer and adds to the warm no category at all, such unanim- be honest,” he maintains, “and the concertina-like sounds of reality ” sion of empathy-in-harmony, but mysterious serenity of the ity does it provoke. the deeper meanings of the guest Wu Tong’s sheng. What and as Ovalles eventually joins musical conclave. What it tells us is that no songs and melodies must be unity resides in this dream, the duo it is as if his own mar- Keita’s beautiful blues-like music is on its own, all sounds preserved.” what ideal concord? For that is velling radiates from his cadences fall and dive like cor- cohere as they stretch for All Africa is in Keita’s reso- the sense of the sounds. drums, so vocal are they. morants all through Fatiliku beauty.

Test your The Quizmaster with William Sitwell CONTACT US general GENERAL William Rust House knowledge The rivers Loire, Tagus and ■ Yesterday’s answers ENQUIRIES: 52 Beachy Road, London E3 2NS 1 Potomac all empty into which with our daily 1. Which of these green, white and red [email protected] body of water? quiz – and fl ags has vertical stripes; Bulgaria’s, (020) 8510-0815 (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm) see if you can 2 In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, what Hungary’s or Italy’s? Italy’s (pictured) CAMPAIGNS: Calvin Tucker beat The was the occupation of Bernardo, 2. What chemical element gives the blood [email protected] Marcellus and Francisco? Quizmaster... of a lobster a bluish tint? Copper CIRCULATION: Bernadette Keaveney Wooden saw handles were 3. In the Disney movie Beauty and the [email protected] 3 traditionally made from which Beast, what is the name of Gaston’s ADVERTISING: Moshfi qur Noor tree’s wood? bumbling sidekick? LeFou [email protected] Morning Star 14 LETTERS Tuesday December 19 2017

EUROPEAN UNION EU is fl awed, but Brexit will leave us far worse off IT IS possible to agree with all of the other major players in becomes reality, it will be the left-wing criticisms of the the world economy — the partly because some on the left EU and still be in favour of United States and China. have let it happen, by believing remaining part of the bloc. If Britain leaves the single in the fantasy of lexit. What we This is because trade is market, it will immediately need now is a united front in thoroughly internationalised, need to sign trade agreements favour of EU membership, so the question is not “should with other major economies to because the consequences of we be in the single market,” stop its economy going into the Tory Brexiteers getting but “which trading bloc should freefall. These countries have their way will be so dire. we be part of?” much lower standards of reg- PATRICK MORRELLO I know that the EU is a neo- ulation in workers’ rights, Manchester liberal, big-business club, but union recognition, environ- it is one that broadly accepts ment, and heath and safety. the social democratic compro- This is precisely why the mise. There are human rights, hard right of the Tory Party, recognition of trade unions, backed by the press barons, laws limiting the exploitation has been campaigning of workers, strong standards against the EU for dec- for environmental regulation ades. Their vision is a low- and health and safety in con- tax, low-welfare, low-reg- sumer goods and at work. ulation, low-wage Britain Have your say – send a letter On most of these issues, the where they can make huge (of up to 300 words) to EU has been signifi cantly to profi ts by smashing unions [email protected] the left of any elected govern- and reducing environmental or by post to 52 Beachy ment in Britain, including and workers’ protection. Road, London Tony Blair’s. And far to the left If this hard-right vision E3 2NS FINANCIAL SERVICES Banks’ cuts can’t be justifi ed I RECENTLY spent half an queue commented on the sible? When the fi gures for use hour in a queue at my local bank’s closure of branches in of such technology began to RBS branch. People in the neighbouring towns the last rise, the banks then could use time RBS took the axe to its this as a reason for further REASONS TO CELEBRATE branch network. Further clo- culls of branches and their Yesterday’s sures have recently been staff. Sudoku solution announced, with the resulting Some of us will never be Raise a glass to Red October and loss of jobs and service to the reconciled to banking that public. does not involve face-to-face The bank justifi es this by contact and I believe that there the birth of the socialist Jesus saying that fewer people is a market here that could be visit branches because exploited by the credit union THE pagan festivals the resurrection and the Christmas and the 100th more customers are using movement as more and more celebrating the winter idea of Jesus as “the son of anniversary of the Russian telephone banking, smart- people see the banks for what solstice were hijacked by God.” Revolution, I have painted a phone apps, etc. Which they are — a self-serving the early Christians to However, it could be portrait of Lenin to wish came fi rst, though? Did bunch of fat cats who seek only become “Christmas,” with argued that Jesus was a you all a revolutionary people start to use other to exploit us rather than serve all its absurd confusion of true socialist with his merry Christmas! “remote” means of bank- their customers. religion, mythology and egalitarian philosophy. HAYDN GREENWAY ing because visiting their MARTIN ROGAN history — the virgin birth, So, to celebrate both Cannock local branch became impos- Ayr Morning Star Tuesday December 19 2017 SPORT 15

MEN’S FOOTBALL Naismith eyes return to playing for Scotland

STEVEN NAISMITH set his sights yesterday on returning to regular first-team football and winning his Scotland place back. The Norwich forward has been back training for three weeks after suffer- ing an ankle ligament injury, but admits he might have to look into leaving Carrow Road to get back playing. The former Kilmarnock, Rangers and Everton star only made one appearance during Scotland’s World Cup qualifying campaign but he wants to extend his international career beyond 45 caps after Gordon Strachan’s successor as manager is appointed. “Towards the end of that campaign I found it tough,” said Naismith. MEN’S FOOTBALL: SCOTLAND “The manager had a great chat with me and said there was no point in me travelling, ‘you’ve not been playing at your club.’ “I understand it was the Banned Spain FA boss: We may right thing not to take me but I found it slightly embarrassing. As a youngster you feel embarrassed when you are getting left out but when get booted out of World Cup you are an older player I found it quite hard to take. “I definitely want to get back playing so I can Villar attempts to cause panic after ‘government interference’ compete to be back in the Scotland squad. It’s one of by Our Sports Desk Spain’s participation in the mention of a possible suspen- he tried to stay on as the head ence in the federation’s man- the proudest things I have World Cup at risk,” the sion of the federation, which of Spanish federation, a post agement. done in my career, play for 67-year-old Villar said in his could keep Spain out of next he held for three decades. “It’s easy to see that the Scotland, and I want to THE suspended president of first news conference since year’s World Cup in Russia or His refusal to listen to pleas source of concern was my arbi- continue doing that as long the Spanish football federa- being arrested in July along even knock Real Madrid and for him to step down led the trary and unjustified removal as I can.” tion, who is under investiga- with his son, Gorka Villar, and Barcelona out of the Champi- Spanish government to sus- from the presidency of the fed- tion for corruption, yesterday two other officials. ons League. pend him from the post for one eration and for not respecting tried to stoke up fears that the “The risk is serious,” Villar Villar, who has spent time year pending the outcome of the presumption of innocence,” country could be kicked out of said. “The only party respon- behind bars to impede the pos- the investigation. Court docu- Villar said, adding that other the World Cup because of gov- sible for Spain not going to the sible destruction of evidence, ments allege that besides mis- teams are ready to take Spain’s ADVERTISE ernment interference. World Cup will be the Spanish and the other three officials appropriating funds, Villar is place at the World Cup. “Be Angel Maria Villar, who is government.” are being investigated for suspected of corrupting sev- careful. There are other power- IN THE STAR free on bail, spoke at a news Villar spoke three days alleged improper manage- eral regional federations by ful countries that didn’t qualify Full Page: £1,600 conference in Madrid and after Fifa said it was con- ment, misappropriation of offering favours in exchange like Italy that are waiting to (020) Half Page: £800 ( again denied any wrongdoing. cerned about the independence funds, corruption and falsify- for votes. pounce and take our place.” 8510-0815 1/4 Page: £400 He also blamed the government of the Spanish football federa- ing documents. Villar fired back at the gov- Spain, who won the World 1/8 Page: £200 ads@ for meddling in the federation’s tion and that it would soon Villar resigned his vice- ernment, saying his suspen- Cup in 2010, is considered to 1/15 Page: £100 : peoples- affairs by suspending him. send a delegation to analyse presidencies of both Fifa and sion had broken Fifa rules be among the favourites for Box add: £50 press.com “This government is putting the situation. Fifa made no Uefa following his arrest. But since it represented interfer- next year’s tournament.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL Panthers owner forced to sell team over racism allegations by Our Sports Desk five-paragraph letter by the Richardson’s letter did not The report states that the franchise’s only owner. directly address the investiga- settlements came with non- “I believe it is time to turn tion or allegations against disclosure requirements for- FACING a growing investiga- the franchise over to new own- him. bidding the parties from dis- tion that accuses him of sexual ership,” Richardson wrote, His announcement comes cussing the details. misconduct and using racist saying he wouldn’t begin dis- after a Sports Illustrated The NFL on Sunday said it language at work, Carolina cussions until after the sea- report on Sunday that cited has taken over the investiga- Panthers owner Jerry Rich- son. unnamed sources who said tion of allegations of work- ardson announced on Sunday “I hope everyone in the Richardson made sexually place misconduct. Panthers that he will sell the NFL team organisation, both on and off suggestive comments to spokesman Steven Drummond after the season. the field, will be firmly focused women and on at least one said on Sunday the team had The team announced on on one mission: to play and win occasion directed a racial slur requested the league take over Twitter that Richardson is the Super Bowl,” said Richard- at an African-American Pan- the investigation for “trans- AVAILABLE: NFL’s Carolina Panthers selling the team, linking to a son, 81. thers scout. parency reasons.” 16 Morning Star Tuesday December 19 2017 Sport MEN’S CRICKET: ASHES As Australia regained the Ashes without breaking a sweat, England captain RootWE’VE states the obvious GOT as inquest TO begins intoDO wher eBETTER things went wrong by Our Sports Desk Malan (54) and Craig Overton (12) to complete his first five- wicket haul in an Ashes Test INTERMITTENT rain show- and finish with figures of 5-48. ers and a pitch left soggy by Spinner Nathan Lyon (2-42) overnight rain couldn’t delay removed Moeen Ali for 11 before the inevitable yesterday: Aus- paceman Pat Cummins (2-53) tralia regained the Ashes from dismissed Stuart Broad (0) and England with victory in the Chris Woakes (22) to seal Aus- third Test. tralia’s lopsided win just before Steve Smith’s Australian the rescheduled tea break. side followed up its convincing “Very difficult to take, but victories in the first two tests fair play to Australia, they’ve in Brisbane (by 10 wickets) outplayed us in all three games and Adelaide (120 runs) by and we’ve got to be better,” winning the third by an even Root said. more emphatic margin of an Root emphasised the graft innings and 41 runs to take the put in by one and all, and even best-of-five series 3-0. wondered aloud whether he Needing to bat through the himself has perhaps been try- fifth and final day to salvage a ing too hard for his own good. draw and keep the series alive, “It’s bitterly disappointing,” England were all out for 218 he said. But “they tried abso- after Perth’s fickle weather lutely everything. It wasn’t for almost saved them. the lack of effort. The final day started two “We went through every hours later than scheduled due plan — different fields, bowl- to frequent showers, and some ing straight, hanging it wide, wet patches on the pitch every now and again a bit of because the ground wasn’t bumper warfare. covered properly overnight. “It felt like we didn’t leave And from there, it was all anything to chance.” about the state of the pitch. Root was left bemoaning the England’s Australian coach same factors here as in Bris- Trevor Bayliss questioned bane and Adelaide — that Eng- whether the wicket was fit for land matched Australia, even cricket, saying the leaky cov- out-performed them at times, ers had made the pitch danger- but simply not for long enough. ous. Ground staff used blower “I don’t think these three vacuums in a bid to dry several ROUTINE VICTORY: Australia celebrate the final wicket of Chris Woakes to regain the Ashes in convincing fashion games are a fair reflection of damp patches on the pitch, and how we’ve played and what play eventually got under way. some water was able to get cally dried out and it was “The pitch didn’t really, England’s middle and lower- we’re capable of,” he added. Smith joked that he had through the covers in the first hard.” from those spots, really mis- order batsmen to hasten the “I think we need to do our- looked at the rain forecast on place at an international Before play started, Eng- behave or become dangerous,” end for England once play got selves and the supporters back about 35 different websites the venue,” Smith said. “That was land captain Joe Root tried his Root said. “So I think credit under way. home justice. night before, but that he didn’t a shame to start the day. best to convince the umpires has to go to the umpires for Hazlewood clean bowled “Probably the biggest thing expect to see a rain-soaked “But I feel that the umpires that the pitch wasn’t up to Test making the right call when to England wicketkeeper Jonny that has been to my detriment pitch when the covers were made the right call at the time standards. But after the match, start the game.” Bairstow for 14 with his first is trying too hard. taken off yesterday. to get us back on and play the Root said the umpires followed Australian paceman Josh delivery of the day then added “I’ve been desperate to win “I think it was a shame that game. The whole thing basi- the correct procedures. Hazlewood ripped through the key wickets of Dawid this series.”

MEN’S FOOTBALL: SCOTLAND Farringdon’s doubles SEAVIEW Brown on Hearts defeat: Don’t blame fatigue Southwell 3:00 (nap) BANJO WELL by Our Sports Desk midst of a nine-game Decem- us, it was just about one game The Scotland international Fakenham 12:40 ber in a season which started and it is slightly disappointing. said: “Confidence is a little bit in July with Champions “We have a big enough dented with the way we lost CELTIC skipper Scott Brown League qualifiers. squad, we can deal with this. the goals and the way we per- Houseman’s yesterday dismissed fatigue However, after officially “We have so many games formed, but we will bounce choice as a factor in Celtic’s 69-game opening Celtic’s club shop in coming up before Christmas, back. unbeaten domestic run coming Livingston, the 32-year-old with the winter break coming “On the day Hearts PEARL ACCLAIM to a remarkable end against midfielder refused to use the after. So we need to make sure deserved their victory more Southwell 3:30 Hearts on Sunday. Parkhead club’s busy schedule we are focused, recharged and than we did.” A stunning 4-0 win for the as an excuse and instead ready to go for them.” home side was the first time claimed it had simply been a Brown described captaining Published by the People’s Press MSTAR 2017-12-19 TUE 1.0 last season’s treble winners bad day at the office. the side to their “exceptional” Printing Society Ltd, William Rust had lost to a Scottish team Brown said: “We have had British record unbeaten run House, 52 Beachy Road, Bow, 5 1 London E3 2NS. Telephone: (020) since a 2-1 defeat by St John- the same season as last year, as “one of the proudest 8510-0815. Fax: (020) 8986-5694. stone in May 11 2016. nine games in December, and achievements of my career.” Email: enquiries@peoples-press. It was also the first time we came through that and I With their game in hand com. Registered with Companies House as Morning Star (in- boss Brendan Rodgers had lost think we went unbeaten and against Partick Thistle in the corporating the Daily Worker) No a domestic game since taking that was in the Champions Premiership tomorrow night, N5559. Printed by trade union over from Ronny Deila that League as well. Celtic can go five points clear of labour at Trinity Mirror. DISAPPOINTED: Scott Brown summer and it came in the “It’s not about fatigue with Aberdeen at the top of the table. Tuesday December 19 2017 9 770307 175220