Workers Solidarity Movement

West Lothian Council in Scotland has given a grant of £350.00 to enable the loyalist Broxburn Flute Band to travel to Ireland for the 12th. This band paraded through Portadown during last year's Drumcree stand-off on the very night that the three young Quinn children were burnt to death by a loyalist gang in Ballymoney.1*****

Peace and prosperity flow out of the barrel of a tommy gun. That is the message from "Moonie" leader the Reverend Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church. Moon has an arms company, Kahr Arms, that has just purchased the firm that makes tommy guns, favoured by 1920s mobsters. Does this not contradict the Unification Church belief that Rev Moon is the messiah placed on earth to restore the Garden of Eden.

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A new survey carried out by the Association of Secondary Teachers claims that a quarter of secondary schools in the 26 counties have been forced to reduce the number of subjects on offer because of a lack of teachers. It involved 600 schools including voluntary, secondary, community and comprehensive. Some 60% of schools reported overcrowding in their classrooms. Celtic tiger how are you! 2

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Maybe Ribena is good for you , maybe it isn't; but we do know that it's extremely good for Jan Leschly. He is the chief executive of SmithKline Beecham which makes the blackberry drink. He earns £93 million a year. That's more than £250,000 a day.3

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Dublin's Planet Hollywood, part of the restaurant chain owned by millionaire movie celebrities Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Arnold Schwarzenegger is recruiting staff for a job that pays no money. They expect their "bathroom hosts" to work for nothing. The only cash you get is whatever customers give you in tips when using the toilet facilities. Why not let management know what you think of their miserly behaviour - give Emily a call on 087-2392281.

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Privately run Doncaster prison has the highest suicide rate in Britain. So what was the response of the prison inspectors? Yes, they gave it an award - a "Charter Mark" for providing a "secure, safe and humane" environment.4

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If you thought it was only in Ireland that the rich pay next to no tax, think again. The Murdoch Corporation in Australia (yes the same Murdoch who owns Sky TV, the Sun, Sunday Times, etc.) only paid 6% tax on the $5.4 billion profits it made last year.5

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Chief Executives of American corporations wrangle stratospheric compensation -- 326 times more than an average U.S. factory worker in 1997. One example cited by the AFL-CIO (American ICTU) is Nike, whose CEO Phil Knight gets a salary 2,000 times the wage of a Nike factory worker in China.6

1 AP/RN, April 15th 1999,2 ASTI report, March 29th 1999;
3 Sunday Times, March 26th 1999;4 Resistance no.3;
5 Anarchist Age Weekly Review, March 29th 1999;6 Work in Progress, April 12th 1999

Unpaid Teachers Abduct Statues!

In Bogota, Columbia, a group of teachers angry at not having been paid for six months, kidnapped 50 figurines central to holy week celebrations in the Columbian town of Mompos.

Local people forced the kidnappers to hand back most of the statues, but the teachers made off with the figurine depicting 'Nuestro Senor de la Columbia'.

The teachers' spokesman said they would not return it until they were paid. "We don't want to ruin Easter Week," he said "but there is no justice in this country unless it is imposed by force".

What those job adverts really mean

COMPETITIVE SALARY

We remain competitive by paying less than our competitors

SOME OVERTIME REQUIRED

Overtime is compulsory most nights and every weekend

DUTIES WILL VARY

There will be lots of different people bossing you around

CAREER MINDED

Female applicants must be childless (and plan to stay that way!)

APPLY IN PERSON

If you are older, or we just don't like your looks, you will be told that the position has been filled.

This article is from Workers Solidarity No 57 published in March 1999