Labour

The Labour Party has pulled out of power-sharing agreements with the Green Party in 11 local councils, after the national party adopted a policy defining Zionism as a form of racism.

Labour councillors will no longer be in coalition with the Greens in areas including Sheffield, Warwick and Lewes.

Labour Party chair Bridget Phillipson said: “Labour has been clear from the start that the “Zionism is Racism” policy crosses a line and we cannot work with any party that supports it – at any level of government.”

Green leader Zack Polanski said the move would “backfire” on Labour and accused the party of wanting to “interrupt your local services and impose genocide support from it’s local councils”.

In October, Green Party members backed a motion, entitled “Zionism is racism”, which said Zionism was an ideology that supported an “ethnonationalist Jewish State in historic Palestine”. Israel has denied committing genocide in Gaza.

The motion also backed a “single democratic Palestinian State”, including in modern-day Israel.

Having been backed by party members, the motion became Green Party policy, but it has left senior figures bitterly divided. Jewish groups and opposition political parties have condemned it.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham told MPs in October that Labour would not partner with the Greens over the “antisemitic” policy.

Labour then issued an ultimatum from Labour’s head office to Labour-Green councils, demanding that local Greens disown the motion passed by members at their national party conference.

Green groups were also asked to call on their party’s national leadership to reconsider the policy.

Labour said there were local agreements in place in 18 authorities. Of those, Labour said 11 had not met the criteria it demanded.

The areas are:

Labour said its conditions had been met in Broadland, Monmouthshire, North Somerset, Rother, West Oxfordshire and West Sussex. The party said that Coventry City Council does not have a formal arrangement in place and that no such deal will be made in the future.

It will continue co-operating with the Greens in the West of England mayoralty, where the deputy mayor is a Green member.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said the motion was “imperfect” but has defended its central premise, arguing that Israel’s actions towards the Palestinian people are “clearly underpinned by racist ideology”.

The collapse of co-operation at the local level could impact hundreds of thousands of residents through budgets and policy decisions taking longer to get voted through.

Green and Labour councillors in the impacted areas will now have to seek alternative coalition partners or try to govern as a minority administration.

In a joint statement, the Green Party and the Local Government Association Green Group said it was “hugely disappointed” that Labour had forced local leaders into “jeopardising successful progressive partnerships that are delivering benefits for residents”.

Merida, May 10^th 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela’s new Labour Law for Workers (Lottt) came into effect this week, guaranteeing shorter working hours, longer maternity leave and pensions for all Venezuelans.

Described by the Venezuelan government as the “most advanced labour law in the world”, the Lottt reduces the working week from 44 hours to 40, and requires that employers provide two consecutive days a week off.

When the law came into effect on Tuesday, labour minister Maria Iglesias stated that the new working hours are part of the process towards a “just distribution of wealth”.

The following day, Carabobo state labour affairs committee president Jose Joaquin Vargas hailed the law as an important part of the transition from “capitalism to socialism”, while last week vice president of the National Federation of Public Sector Workers Franklin Rondon described it as “historic”.

“We are in a historic moment, in 14 years the achievements we have obtained for workers are numerous; we have achieved much more than in the last forty years,” Rondon told VTV on 5 May.

Vargas also urged workers to ensure their employers and unions act in accordance with the Lottt.

For the next six weeks, the government will be inspecting workplaces to ensure employers adhere to the new requirements. Although employers were informed earlier in the year that they would need to make any necessary changes prior to 7 May, on Tuesday Iglesias stated that inspections over the next six weeks will be “corrective in nature”. The minister warned that penalties will be imposed on employers who fail to adhere to the Lottt after 15 June.

However, workers are already reporting breaches of the new laws. In Miranda state, employees of processed meat manufacturer Industrias Alimenticias de Corralito (Inacor) have denounced their employer. A worker spokesperson, Peggy Serrano, alleged that management made a series of surprise changes to the timetable that could result in employees being forced to work overtime.

A Decade in the Making

Along with establishing new working hours, the Lottt prohibits unfair dismissal, outsourcing, guarantees the right to work for both women and people with disabilities and increases maternity leave.

Under the Lottt, Venezuela now has the world’s third longest maternity leave. Mothers are entitled to six weeks pre-natal leave, and twenty post-natal. Fathers are also entitled to two weeks paternal leave. Under the law, the same conditions apply to parents who adopt a child under three years of age.

All workers are also now entitled to retirement pensions, including full time mothers and the self employed.

The Lottt is the result of nearly a decade of discussions in both the national assembly and the labour movement.

When he approved the law last April, former president Hugo Chavez stated that, “In more than 200 years of republican history I am absolutely positive that there has never been a work law….that has been debated so much as this one.”