Left challenge in Camden!

By Theo Russell

Tariq Ali speaks

A lively meeting of local activists was held at the Indian YMCA in Central London last Wednesday to mobilise grass roots support in Keir Starmer’s constituency for the Camden People’s Alliance (CPA), which is standing in the May local elections in coordination with Your Party and the Greens.
The CPA is led by Andrew Feinstein, a former South African ANC MP, anti- arms trade and Gaza campaigner, who has played an active part in the creation of Your Party. In July he submitted the motion inviting Zarah Sultana to leave Labour and join Your Party as an "interim co-leader" with Jeremy Corbyn.
The meeting was held to launch the CPA’s local elections campaign, which will be run “in consultation with” the Greens and Your Party, with the Gaza war and affordable housing as key concerns.
Andrew Feinstein stood against Keir Starmer in Holborn & St Pancras as an independent in the July 2024 general election, taking second place with 7,312 votes against Starmer's 18,884. His manifesto included opposing austerity and corruption, increased public spending and an end to NHS privatisation, and opposing the British government’s involvement in the Gaza genocide.
Feinstein told the meeting that the CPA’s creation was due to Britain’s support for Israel, and said “it’s a myth that Israel represents all Jews”. He said Keir Starmer was “actively complicit in the genocide”.
“Starmer does not regard ordinary people – teachers, care and health workers as important, for him only donors to the Labour Party are important. We have the best democracy money can buy.
“We don’t just want Starmer out of power, we want him out of Camden too. And we want whoever replaces him to take him to The Hague to face justice for complicity in genocide”.
He added that "Zhoran Mamdani (the new Democrat New York mayor) would have no chance of being selected as a Labour Party candidate".
Sarah Friday, Camden Trades Council Secretary commented that “it’s a scandal that the British government refused to agree an end to the appalling slaughter in Ukraine”.
And the meeting was also addressed by the veteran left activist, journalist and author Tariq Ali, who said “I think this time we’re going to win – unless Starmer goes first”. Ali has joined Your Party, the first time he has joined a party since 1981, when he was expelled by Haringey Labour Party. He commented that “Reform which has four MPs, is getting far more media coverage than Your Party, which has six MPs”.
Around 40 people joined the meeting including many extremely enthusiastic activists, including a Your Party member from Tottenham who said they would be standing against David Lammy in the next general election and said "we can bring him down". He said that three councillors had been physically removed from a Haringey Council meeting, after they called for withdrawing investments in Israeli companies.

Viva Venezuela!

by Theo Russell

Last weekend members of International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) campaign joined a major solidarity meeting in central London with Venezuela and the peoples of Latin America who are fighting against fascism, imperialism and war, organised by a broad group of organisations working for our peoples.
The event, “Viva Venezuela – Stand against fascism, imperialism and war” was addressed by a broad platform of speakers including Venezuelan ambassador Felix Plasencia Gonzalez, Francisco Dominguez, the Secretary of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, Blanca Eekhout, a Venezuelan National Assembly member and president of the Simon Bolivar Institute for Peace and Solidarity between the Peoples, and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
A display of Ukraine anti-fascist placards was held outside the venue before the  meeting, and new leaflet from IUAFS linking the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine with the growing threat of an American attack on Venezuela was distributed to those arriving.
The changing attitudes to the Ukraine war – as more and more in Britain link the war with their growing economic insecurity – was shown as many passers by on a small side street expressed support for our demands for Britain to stop sending weapons to Ukrainian Nazis.

Ukrainian Nazi at Chatham House

Karas and his pals

by New Worker correspondent

The notorious Ukrainian Nazi Yevhen Karas was recently a star speaker on the topic War in Ukraine: The battleground for the future of Europe at Chatham House, a leading British think tank.

Chatham House describes its goal as "to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous, and just world" and has been praised by the Institute of Directors for “providing a safe space for speakers and encouraging openness”.
Karas was billed as a “Major” in Ukraine’s 413th  Separate Battalion of Unmanned Systems – in other words a straightforward Ukrainian army officer.
But Chatham House omitted to mention that he  was the founder of the notorious S14 ultra-violent Nazi gang, created in 2010 as a youth wing of the far-right Svoboda party, which he viewed as “too moderate”. He was photographed in his youth smiling while giving a ‘Sieg Heil’ salute.
S14 derives from the Ukrainian word ‘Sich’, a historical name for Cossack political-military bodies, alongside the number 14, a common white supremacist and Nazi reference to David Lane’s 14 word call – “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children".
After the 2014 NATO Ukraine coup S14 developed close ties with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which used S14 to attack anti-fascists they couldn’t pursue legally. In a 2017 interview Karas boasted that the SBU had tipped off Nazi groups about “separatist meetings” saying “They inform not only us, but also Azov, Right Sector, and so on”. Well well well, how interesting!
Two S14 members were the main suspects in the brutal murder of journalist Oleh Buzyna in 2015, along with another who has never been identified, but is widely believed to be Karas. Ten years later no-one has been convicted for the murder.
In 2018 masked S14 members attacked three Roma settlements with guns and knives, killing one person. Doctors then had to call the police when the injured victims were attacked at the local hospital. Seven years later, as a result of pressure from Kiev’s Western backers, three S14 members were eventually jailed. Even the British MI6 front website Bellingcat has declared that it was “still ok” to call S14 neo-Nazis. So that’s good to know!
In 2020, the group quietly rebranded itself as the “Foundation for the Future,” apparently a more “respectable” umbrella for neo-Nazi organisations, including S14 and the international white supremacist Misanthropic Division – the Azov battalion’s international wing for recruitment and propaganda.
The British wing of the Misanthropic Division, according to Hope not Hate, has connections with the fascist National Action and Combat 18 groups.
Karas also believes that a nuclear war would be good for Ukraine, saying in an interview last December "after a nuclear strike, nothing worse will happen. Then we just fight. China and India will drop Russia and the West will need to help us. Also we will evolve as humans technologically, since we need to live with radiation". His wisdom must have been invaluable for the respected experts who gathered at Chatham House!
And the moral of this story? Karas’ London appearance has been a useful reminder of just how well Nazism is embedded throughout official Ukrainian structures, and is  still very much thriving, alive and well. Or alternatively, that the capitalist censored mass media’s across the board assertion - enthusiastically supported by many so-called 'leftists' and trade unionists in Britain - that fascism in Ukraine is an irrelevant minority is simply bullshit.

Red salute for Red October!

Andy Brooks stresses the role of the Bolsheviks

by New Worker correspondent

Millions upon millions of working people all over the world commemorated the  anniversary of the Great October Russian Revolution in 1917 last week. And last Saturday comrades and friends joined them at the NCP’s annual tribute to the 10 days that shook the world.
Representatives from other socialist and solidarity movements as well as members of the Chinese embassy gathered at the Party Centre in London to salute the Bolsheviks who established the first workers and peasants’ republic in November 1917.
Once again the New Worker print shop was transformed for a bar and buffet that paused only for the formal part of the social opened by the NCP’s national chair, Richard Bos.
NCP leader Andy Brooks paid tribute to the achievements of the Soviet Union during its existence and that of the people’s democracies and world communist movement that fights on for the liberation of humanity from oppression and exploitation.
Other speakers included Jiang Zhouteng from the Chinese embassy in London, Ian Donovan of the Consistent Democrats, British Posadist Marie Lynam, Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association and Theo Russell from the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement.
No NCP event can end without a collection for the New Worker and Richard Bos continued the tradition with a rousing call in support the £10,000 special appeal. A Chigwell supporter who could not be with us had already given £2,000.  On the night others joined in to push the collection up to a stomping £2,385! 

Now scrap bus fares in London!

By New Worker correspondent

Zohran Mamdani's New York win takes the free public transport vision to the next level. That’s the take of  the Fare Free London campaign group  that says free transport – already available to children under 11 and Londoners over 60 via the 60+ Oyster or Freedom Pass - should be extended to all ages.
Mamdani's victory in the New York mayoral election shines a spotlight on the potential for free public transport in the world's biggest cities. Making the city's buses "fast and free" was one of Mamdani's key election pledges.
His manifesto aims to "lower the cost of living for working-class New Yorkers". It promises to scrap bus fares, freeze rents, provide free child care up to the age of five, and set up a chain of municipally-controlled grocery shops.
The zero-fares scheme would have to be agreed with New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which is run by the New York state government – most likely by New York City back-filling the $6-800 million/year hole it would leave in the MTA budget.
Pearl Ahrens of Fare Free London said "This win has international resonance. If New York City can consider making buses free, so can London and other big world cities.
"There are smaller cities successfully running free public transport – more than 130 of them in Brazil, and European capitals including Luxemburg, Belgrade and Tallinn in Estonia.
“Glasgow, with more than 600,000 people, is committed to running a pilot scheme next year. New York City, which, like London, has more than 8 million people, can take this to the next level".
New York transport researcher Charles Komaroff said in an interview with Fare Free London that Mamdani's election campaign – based on "affordability" via free buses, free child care and low-cost groceries – had powerful symbolism in the city.
Komaroff authored a detailed appraisal of the scheme, published in April this year by the Nurture Nature Foundation, that has been a potent weapon for supporters of free buses. It concludes that, in money terms, the scheme will produce benefits for New Yorkers worth at least twice as much as the $600 million plus it will cost.
The report estimates that the scheme will increase bus use by 23 per cent, and shows that it will simplify bus travel, as boarding will be quicker, and speed up journey times by at least 7 per cent.  
Komaroff said that funds for the scheme would most likely have to be transferred from the city's budget to the MTA. "Ethically and politically, this money should be raised by taxes on millionaires and billionaires".
Fare-free travel was trialled on five New York bus routes during the year to September 2024. The pilot "dramatically increased" passenger numbers, by 30 per cent on weekdays and 38 per cent at weekends, providing "clear economic relief to low-income riders", Mamdani and New York state senator Michael Gianaris wrote afterwards. Assaults on drivers fell by 38 per cent.

Stop arming Israel!

by New Worker correspondent

Protesters rallied in Whitehall near the Prime Minister’s residence in Downing Street last Thursday evening for an emergency demonstration condemning Israel’s latest bombing of the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 100 Palestinians including 46 children. They called for an end to the genocide and an immediate arms embargo on the Zionist entity. 

Union victories in Museum-land

by New Worker correspondent

In  ‘Albertopolis’, the academic nickname for the London home of  colleges and museums that go back to the Victorian era, a small street union has at last won a recognition battle with the Science Museum.
On the advice of Albert, the Prince Consort, this slice of Kensington was purchased out of the profits from the Great Exhibition of 1851 to become a centre for the arts and science in the heart of the capital. This seat of learning soon became a magnet for students, scholars and visitors who still throng the hallowed halls of London’s great museums. But behind the scenes there’s been a protracted struggle between the poorly-paid workers who guard the galleries and a Management that, until now, had turned a blind eye to their just demands for more pay. 
Now the United Voices of the World (UVW) has, after a long battle, secured recognition at the Science Museum after a ruling by the Central Arbitration Committee, the court which decides such matters. 
 Earlier this year this independent union, that organises beyond the bureaucratic reach of the TUC, and was involved in a long campaign involving not just the Science Museum, but the neighbouring Natural History and Victoria & Albert museums, won pay rises ranging from 13 to 23 per cent after months of strike action. The union boasts that in seven months, security guards secured more than they had in the entire previous decade from their employer, contractor Wilson James.
 Prior to the strike many guards earned just £11.95 an hour, below the London Living Wage (LLW) of £13.15 at the time. Despite agreeing to pay the LLW, the highly profitable Wilson James delayed implementing it and initially refused to backdate payments. 
On securing victory, the union quoted a female security officer at the Science Museum who said “with UVW, we put up a massive fight and won more in seven months than in years. We protested in the streets, went to trustees’ offices, and stood up for ourselves across all three museums. It showed what’s possible when you’re united. We’re proud of what we achieved, but we know the fight isn’t over. The cost of living keeps going up, and pay needs to keep up too. We can’t let them drop the ball”.
 On Tuesday, UVW announced its recognition victory by stating that the security guards are now preparing to negotiate a strong first pay deal in 2026. UVW say that for years, Science Museum bosses have ignored the guards but now they have no choice but to sit down and negotiate with UVW workplace representatives over pay, hours and holidays and their working conditions. 
 Petros Elia, the UVW General Secretary, said “this is a major breakthrough for security guards at the Science Museum, their bosses have tried to ignore, but they can’t ignore them anymore. Now, UVW members will have a seat at the table and a collective voice in shaping their working lives. This victory is not only a testament to the unity, determination, and courage of the Science Museum’s security team – it’s a message to every worker across the UK; when workers stand together and refuse to back down, we win”.
 One wonders why it has taken so long, Non-Departmental Public Bodies are not the worst employers, and in theory at least, support trade union membership. Directly employed staff at these museums belong to the mandarins’ FDA (First Division Association), the high-castes’ Prospect and the biggest civil service union in the country, PCS. But as the arbitrators say in the ruling in favour of UVW “in December 2024, it [the Employer] approached PCS union in a bid to extend its recognition agreement to cover the Science Museum. To its credit, PCS rejected this offer, knowing it was a tactic to exclude UVW. PCS  proposed a joint recognition agreement with UVW, which the Employer was willing to accept despite knowing PCS had no mandate. This history confirms a pattern of behaviour: the Employer is not seeking the most representative union but the most convenient one. It is attempting to choose the union for its workers, a fundamental violation of the principle that this choice belongs to the workforce alone”.
Meanwhile at the British Library, in the slightly less loftier surroundings of King’s Cross, strike action by PCS seems to have taken the scalp of the Library’s CEO. 
 The union which represents the national library’s support staff and library assistants, called 300 staff out on strike in a pay dispute. The Library initially proposed a pay award of 2 per cent at most, with some receiving as little as 1.6 per cent, the threat of action increased the offer to 2.4 per cent (or £800 if higher) which is only slightly more than half the rate of inflation. The Library claims it cannot afford more because of rising energy costs and building materials.
The dispute has caused the closure of the reading rooms. Access to exhibitions has been hit. A number of speakers at planned events have pulled out in solidarity. 
 The local PCS Branch Chair said “we have quite a few colleagues here who are forced to take a second job in the evenings in order to make ends meet each month”. He added that if there is no immediate movement by management to resolve the dispute amicably, the mandate for industrial action which stretches well into next new year will be used. 
 He also pointed out that staff have no confidence in management’s abilities to run a national institution. Two years on from a cyber-attack in 2023 on-line access has only been partially restored with many research services remaining unavailable. Yet another restructuring plan is underway, which staff with experience of such matters fully expect to be a disaster. 
On Tuesday the Library’s recently appointed CEO Rebecca Lawrence, suddenly resigned, for as yet unknown reasons, but presumably  as a result of the dispute. Another side effect of the dispute is that plans to award directors with a £5,000 were abandoned when discovered by PCS.
The picket line has been visited by the grandees of the labour movement including PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote, RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey and UCU General Secretary Jo Grady, largely because their own HQs are nearby and thus handy for a photo-shoot. Neighbouring MP Jeremy Corbyn turned up as did TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak. Oddly enough local MP, Sir Keir Starmer, has not put in an appearance... 

...and at the Tate

 ...over 100 PCS members working at the Tate Gallery’s four sites may soon be joining them. They are being balloted for possible strike action over pay this week.
 The Tate initially offered a 2 per cent rise for workers in 2025/26. “This has now been increased to 3 per cent, but is still lower than the Civil Service Pay Remit and does not address the issues of low pay at the institution,” say PCS. 
 Again Tate bosses do well for themselves, with senior leaders at Tate taking home total remuneration packages ranging from £195,000 to £320,000. The Art Newspaper partly refuted this by saying that these figures cited include increases in the value of Tate pensions and that all salaries at Tate are below £195,000 – so that’s alright then. 
 The Tate Management said “Tate has made careful savings this year in order to invest in staff pay and still achieve a balanced budget. This includes a 3 per cent salary increase for most roles, including all employees on the lowest three pay bands, while directors are taking a zero per cent increase to help balance the overall costs.” An unimpressed Fran Heathcote declared that “food prices, rent, energy bills, and transport costs are all surging, but they expect our members to live off crumbs.”
As the Tate workers gear up for industrial action, the struggle at the National Coal Mining Museum in Wakefield, which began in August is continuing. As the 40 workers include mine guides who are veterans of the 1984 miners’ strike they are no pushovers. 
 Unison has demanded an increase of 5 per cent or £1 per hour for all staff, whichever is greater, which it says is simply what Management agreed to recommend to the trustees. Management deny making any such promises and are now offering an extra 80 pence hourly. 
 Labour-run Wakefield Council recently passed a motion to withhold future grants to the Museum in solidarity with the striking workers in an effort to get management back to round the table. This means a loss of a £15,000 grants programme to support local schools and young people that was awarded through a competitive application process.

British Museum: commercial exploitation of priceless relics

by Chen Xi

In an act that Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni condemned as "provocative indifference" the British Museum hosted a lavish fundraiser at £2,000 per ticket last weekend. Dubbed the "Pink Ball" and held in the room housing the Parthenon’s “Elgin Marbles”, it ignited fierce criticism and revived long-standing debates over cultural ethics and colonial restitution. The high-profile fund-raising dinner in the Parthenon Marbles room, featuring 800 A-list guests, including rock legend Mick Jagger and supermodel Naomi Campbell The Times reported.
The uproar underscores a deeper crisis – the museum's mission to safeguard humanity's shared legacy is being systematically undermined by commercial greed and colonial-era double standards. Such commercial exploitation has surely betrayed the sanctity of civilisation.
As one of the world's oldest and most revered public institutions, the British Museum claims its mission is to preserve human history for future generations. Yet its decision to transform a space holding ancient Greek sculptures into a backdrop for champagne toasts and celebrity photos reveals a troubling departure from that very purpose.
Mendoni's statement highlighted the core issue: "The safety, integrity, and ethics of the monuments should be the main concern of the British Museum… such actions are offensive to cultural assets and endanger the exhibits themselves". 
Her criticism echoes a broader consensus among archaeologists and heritage experts: When artefacts are treated as party decor, their dignity is stripped, and their physical safety is at risk.
This is not the first time that the museum has blurred the line between culture and commerce. In 2024, the same room was used for a fashion show, drawing similar protests from Greece. Each such event reinforces the perception that the museum's leadership views its collections, particularly those acquired under colonial contexts, as assets to monetise rather than heritage to protect.
Greece's case is not unique. China, Egypt and Nigeria, among others, have long demanded the return of their stolen heritage. 
Egyptian archaeologist and Egypt's former minister of state for antiquities affairs, Zahi Hawass, who is leading a petition for the return of the country's priceless Rosetta Stone from the British Museum, has highlighted the psychological trauma of seeing national icons displayed in former colonisers' museums. These narratives expose a colonial-era hierarchy in which Western institutions dictate cultural ownership, perpetuating historical injustice.  
The British Museum has exhibited the Parthenon marbles since their acquisition from Lord Elgin in 1816.
Due to the 1963 British Museum Act, the law prevents the museum from returning any of its collection permanently except in very limited circumstances. However, legal hurdles are not insurmountable, especially when there is political and moral will. 
For example, in 2024, more than 200 ancient pre-Hispanic artefacts ranging from ceramics to important works of indigenous art were successfully reclaimed by Peru from collectors and institutions around the world.
What the Pink Ball reveals is that the real obstacle may not be the law, but an attitude. If the British Museum is serious about being a museum for the world, it should stop treating world heritage as its private party venue.
In fact, the tide is shifting. Recent years have seen growing momentum for relic repatriation. 
In 2022, Germany returned 22 artefacts looted in the 19th century to Nigeria. In 2025, Egypt successfully retrieved 25 smuggled artefacts from the USA, demonstrating that international cooperation works. 
China, as a leader in cultural heritage advocacy, has repatriated more than 2,000 artefacts since 2012, including the Zidanku Silk Manuscripts from the USA in 2025. 
Such cases inspire Greece, which proposed a cultural partnership to fill the British Museum's Greek galleries if the marbles are returned.  
Professor Huo Zhengxin from the China University of Political Science & Law says that there is no longer any substantial gap between China's ability to conduct cultural relic protection, restoration and research and that of Western countries. 
The British Museum, however, has been hit by a series of scandals involving stolen cultural relics in recent years and cannot even guarantee the safety of its collected cultural relics. 
Therefore, if countries with lost cultural relics, especially those in the Global South, can coordinate their positions and speak with a unified voice under international multilateral mechanisms, they can promote the further improvement and implementation of international rules.
Stamatios Boyatzis, a professor at the University of West Attica in Greece, also echoed that since Greece is now fully capable of safeguarding its own cultural relics, the British Museum should return them rather than using so-called conventions as an excuse.
He told the media during the 2025 Sanxingdui Forum that under the current international landscape, it is hoped that Greece, China and other more source countries of cultural relics can join hands to make their voices heard on the global stage.
In summary, the Parthenon Marbles controversy is a referendum on the ethics of cultural ownership. The British Museum's commercialisation of these artefacts is a moral abdication, symptomatic of a broader crisis in how Western institutions wield power over global heritage. 
As Greek Culture Minister Mendoni stated, the British Museum's actions "endanger the exhibits themselves," both physically and symbolically. It is time for the museum to listen, not just to the clinking of glasses, but to the voices of those whose history it holds.
Global Times

Whose streets? Our streets!

by New Worker correspondent

Excellent turnout for the Whitechapel anti-fascist mobilisation last weekend. Thousands march through the East End of London following racist threats to launch a “crusade” in Tower Hamlets on the day as part of a series of events across the country promoted as a “mass deportations tour”. They wanted to parade through the streets bearing wooden crosses to 'reclaim Whitechapel from the Islamists”. But the march, called by UKIP, a racist sect that Nigel Farage abandoned in 2018, was banned by the police as there was a “realistic prospect of serious disorder". Although the fascists were correctly banned from spreading their poison in the area, it was still necessary to turn up and show solidarity with the local community. 
At the rally called by the Stand Up to Racism movement the main speakers were Jeremy Corbyn and the borough mayor, Lutfur Rahman, whose Aspire party leads Tower Hamlets’ council. And the whole community turned out including large numbers of local youths and members of the  Muslim community as well as the maverick Labour MP Apsana Begum and a large bloc of local youths.

New challenges for China

by New Worker correspondent

Zheng Zequang opens the seminar

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined social scientists, businessmen, solidarity workers and other communists for an economic seminar at the Chinese embassy in London last week. 
And the Chinese ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, opened on the new developments in China and the opportunities it gave to the world that was the theme of the symposium and the discussion that followed.
He said China is marching towards the second Centenary Goal – a call to action for the entire country to seize the momentum and advance Chinese modernisation.
With this meeting, the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core sets to unite and lead the Chinese people to write yet another chapter on the miracles of rapid economic growth and long-term social stability and to open up new horizons for Chinese modernisation.
China was ready to share opportunities and seek common development with the world. China cannot develop in isolation from the world, while the world cannot prosper without China. While pursuing modernisation, China will strive to safeguard world peace and development.
Zheng pointed out that since last year, under the strategic guidance of the leaders from both China and Britain, positive progress has been made in China-UK relations. But, from time to time, this relationship has also been undermined by anti-China forces. The improvement and development of China-UK relations is in the fundamental interest of people in both countries, and it requires the concerted efforts of both sides.
The UK side should have the right perspective. Those who attack China by touting "China threat" and fabricating lies are ignorant and arrogant. They do not represent the mainstream of the UK, and their attempts are doomed to failure. Both sides should uphold mutual respect and non-interference in each other's internal affairs. The UK must honour its commitment, and properly handle Taiwan-related issues in accordance with the one-China principle. The two sides should commit to mutually-beneficial cooperation, create new highlights of cooperation and bring more benefits to the two peoples.
In his contribution Andy Brooks said “stable growth, stable policies and stable expectations – this is what the people want. China's development follows a clear direction that is taken with confidence and determination...this is China’s answer to Western calls for tariff walls and trade wars. China's approach to development is not about fighting for your own corner but about serving the people for the benefit of the entire world...
“The imperialists think that their guns will ensure that they can ignore the will of the people for as long as they like. But they were proved wrong in the 20th  century and they will be proved wrong today. The days when people listened to the rich men who told us that the greatest virtue of humanity was the possession of the largest amount of money are over...
Everywhere we look in the capitalist world we see unemployment, homelessness, poverty, drug abuse and crime. The symptoms of industrial decline, inflationary pressures, stock market volatility and economic stagnation. This is capitalism. And working people are being made to carry the burden of its failure. But in People’s China working people aren’t simply reacting to global challenges – they are shaping the very future of our world”. 

Irish patriot remembered in Brixton

by Theo Russell

Around sixty activists gathered at Brixton Prison in South London last Sunday to remember Terence McSwiney, the elected Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, Ireland, who died there after 74 days on hunger strike on 25th October 1920.
McSwiney, who was also an author and playwright, had been arrested by the British Government for possession of "seditious articles and documents" during the 1919-21 Irish War of Independence (the “Tan War”). After joining the hunger Cork Prison strike he was transported to Brixton gaol.
Thomas Gould, the  Sinn Féin  MP for Cork North Central, told the crowd that McSweeney was born in Knocknaheeney, Cork’s toughest working class district, and said “it’s brilliant to be here today with so many working class people, 105 years after his death”.
Gould recalled that the sisters Dolores and Marian Price were also on hunger strike in Brixton Prison, which lasted for 208 days because they were force-fed for 165 days.
He added: “What the Israelis are doing to Palestinian civilians, to women and children, it’s hard to believe that anyone could do these things to another human being. I would say this to ye, come out with your flags and your banners, come out and protest. The question now is does the Palestinian people have a right to exist?” he said adding that the solution to the Israel Palestine conflict lay in a two state solution.
Gould also welcomed the election of Catherine Connolly, who was supported by Sinn Féin and other left parties in Ireland, saying it was “a great day for Ireland”.
Frank Glynn spoke for the Terence MacSwiney Commemoration Committee about many other Irish hunger strikers, including Thomas Ashe, who died in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison in 1917, and Michael Gaughan, who died in 1974 in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight, both of whom dying as a direct result of violent force feeding.
Joe Murphy and Michael Fitzgerald, who were Terence McSwiney’s comrades and also died on hunger strike in Cork Gaol in 1920; Frank Stagg, who died in 1976 in Wakefield Prison after 62 days on hunger strike; and of course the ten hunger strikers who died in the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland in 1981.
He also reminded those present that fifteen women in Armagh Women's Prison joined the 1981 hunger strike.
The singer Sean Brady and uillean piper Tom Lynch provided powerful songs and tunes.
The Terence MacSwiney Committee also organises for events at Parkhurst and Wakefield prisons to remember Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg. 

Remember Ukraine's political prisoners!

 

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) protested at the Ukrainian embassy in London last week against the ten year prison sentence for Anatoly Miruta for distributing humanitarian aid, along with thousands of Ukrainian citizens who have been prosecuted, or even some cases murdered, for allegedly co-operating with Russian forces in the past three and a half years.
Miruta and his mother had organised a makeshift shelter in Syniak, a village north of Kiev where locals collected water and charged their phones, when the town was occupied by Russian troops in March 2022. Miruta said at his trial that all the Ukrainian authorities, soldiers and police had fled from the village, “leaving the people to fend for themselves”.
This month he appealed against his sentence, claiming that the court had ignored statements supporting his case and allowed dubious testimonies from previously unknown witnesses.
The protestors also carried placards declaring “Gonzalo Lira – We haven’t forgotten you”, a reminder of the Chilean-American blogger living in Kharkov who was persecuted by the Kiev government and died in prison in January 2024. An envelope containing this sign was left at the embassy.

Free Palestine march rocks London!

by New Worker correspondent

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of London on Saturday in support of the Palestinian Arabs, marking two years of the war in Gaza. Protesters gathered at Victoria Embankment in central London and marched towards Westminster, before crossing the Westminster bridge and proceeding to Whitehall via Waterloo Bridge and the Strand. Marchers, some 700,000 strong, chanted slogans like "Stop starving Gaza" and "End the siege" while the police held Zionist provocateurs at bay to avoid trouble in what, once again, was an entirely peaceful demonstration.
The protest came as displaced Palestinians began returning from the southern part of the Gaza Strip to the north the day after after the ceasefire brokered by the Americans and the feudal Arab oil princes ended the fighting in the beleaguered Palestinian enclave.
Meanwhile Ellie Chowns, the Green MP for North Herefordshire, has called on the Israelis to free Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, who was jailed on trumped up charges of terrorism in 2002. “Marwan Barghouti is a powerful unifying voice for Palestinians who could potentially play a crucial role in securing meaningful and lasting peace in the region” she said amid renewed international attention on Barghouti, as new details emerge about his ill-treatment in Israeli custody.
Palestinian sources say that Barghouti was beaten up by Israeli guards on 14th September while being transferred between the Ganot and Megiddo prisons. The 66-year-old reportedly suffered four broken ribs during the attack.
His son, Arab Barghouti, said that eight Israeli prison guards assaulted Marwan while in transit. "What we know is that while they were transferring my father, they stopped along the way and eight security guards... started beating my father up, kicking him, throwing him on the ground and punching him – focusing on the head, chest and legs as well".