Party Day in London

Alex Kempshall opens the social

By New Worker

correspondent

COMRADES and friends joined New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks and Party Chair Alex Kempshall in celebrating the 35^th anniversary of the foundation of the  NCP last Saturday at the Party Centre in London.

The New Communist Party of Britain was established in July 1977 and since then the Party has worked to build the communist movement and working class unity while upholding the tenets of Marxism-Leninism. Over the decades the Party and the New Worker have survived through thick and thin and this was because we have something to say that comrades are ready to support with effort and cash to keep us going. 

This was a point made by Andy Brooks and solidarity was a theme echoed by friends old and new during the formal part of the proceedings including the messages from the Workers Party of Korea , Dermot Hudson of the UK Korean Friendship Association and Anton Johnson of the London Left Front Art group.

No NCP social ends without an appeal for the New Worker but this time it was focused on the need to urgently upgrade our computers following the disastrous failure of our print system last week.  Alex Kempshall called on everyone to dip in to keep our communist press going and the comrades responded by raising £160 on the night.

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Workers Party of Korea

The Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea sends warm congratulations to the Central Committee of New Communist Party of Britain on the occasion of the 35th Anniversary of the Founding of the NCPB.
      We avail of this opportunity to wish greater success in the righteous activity of your Party for advocating the interests of the working masses and express conviction that the friendly and cooperative relationship between our two parties will develop in the future in good terms.  Central Committee

The Worker’s Party of Korea  
Pyongyang
DPRK 

 

Juche Idea Study Group of England

        Firstly, please accept my apologies for not attending . I regret not been able to attend but your social clashes with another important meeting and also my family's celebrations of my 51st birthday. I would have liked the opportunity to share stories with you all at the social.
         I wish to offer my congratulations to you on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the New Communist Party  . The NCP is distinguished by its defence of socialism and its proletarian internationalism.
        Despite not being able to attend let me say that I value the NCP's co-operation and support for the Korean Friendship Association UK and the Juche Idea Study Group,  It was good to work together at the World Juche Congress in Pyongyang this year. We are grateful to the NCP for standing shoulder to shoulder with us on pickets of the US and south Korean embassy unlike certain hypocrites who say they are friends of the DPRK but do nothing, 
         It is never easy being a communist or socialist in a capitalist country particularly an imperialist country but the NCP has maintained its existence for 35 years and has unceasingly put the case for socialism. 
         I wish your social every success and wish your party greater succeses. 

Dermot Hudson
KFA Official Delegate UK (in personal capacity)
Chairman JISGE

 Left Front Art 

 To our Comrades at the New Communist Party of Britain, thank you for inviting Left Front Art to attend the event to mark the 35th anniversary of the founding of your Party.

     We appreciate our working relationship with the NCP and recognise your consistent support for LGBTQ rights.

        We recognise the important role the NCP and The New Worker has in promoting the message that there is an alternative to capitalism in the communities and the Party’s commitment to working with grassroots activists and at the grassroots level. This is incredibly important as it is at the street level we need to engage with people to support their struggles and explain that there is an alternative and one that works well in countries such as Cuba today but even stronger examples of how an alternative was attempted in the USSR and the other Socialist countries from 1917 and post Second World War.

       The Creative Resources of Socialism was boundless and this was shown in the great achievements of the USSR for the people. A system that in the 1930s provided full employment; housing and free health care for all, whilst the rest of the world sank in poverty, despair, fascism and eventually war.

        Following the Great October Revolution of 1917 with the overthrow of the monarchy and the Church, Homosexuality was de-criminalised in Russia. The German Democratic Republic was ahead of West Germany in terms of rights for Homosexuals and other areas of sexual expression. Today Cuba leads the way in Latin America for LGBT rights.

        As in the 1930s people are suffering under capitalism and the LGBTQ communities are at risk from the Tories austerity policies.

        At a grassroots level the NCP and The New Worker can engage and show people there is an alternative.

       We applaud the Party’s commitment to Peace with its support for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at a National and local level.

       Left Front Art looks forward to working with the NCP as a fellow affiliate within the Labour Representation Committee.

       LGBTQ liberation cannot be achieved under capitalism and consumerism but can be under real Communism. The Left Front Art Collective is a network set up to promote progressive political debate on LGBTQ liberation and an alternative to the current system, which has a vested interest in control of sexuality and therefore denies true Queer liberation.

    In Solidarity of your 35th year

    Anton Johnson

    member of the Left Front Art Inner Collective

    Left Front Art       

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LGBTQ people decide future for Pride

 

By Anton Johnson

 Left Front Art 

THE TUC LGBT Committee, supported by the Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils hosted a successful public meeting (16th July) on where next, after the debacle of this year's World Pride, in a packed room of over 90 representatives of Labour Movement bodies and LGBTQ community organisations.

 These include: Unite, Sertuc, LGBT Network, Queer Resistance, Regard, London LGBT Consortium, Left Front Art Collective, LGBT Labour, OUTRAGE! and UK Black Pride to mention a few.

 The meeting was introduced and navigated by Peter Purton – TUC Disability and LGBT Policy Officer on what the points the meeting should be looking at.

 The two hours was swiftly taken up with contributions, some very passionate, from the floor ranging from wanting an inquest into what had happened to developing on what we want for the future and what the next step was to be.

 David Sharkey from the Sertuc LGBT Network and Left Front Art made an excellent contribution on the role of youth in the event and how to engage with young LGBTQ people and get them involved.

 What was striking about the meeting was that it was LGBTQ activists in trade unions and the community deciding on what should happen. The meeting, ably chaired by Maria Exall, was fully open and Maria allowed all those who wanted to speak.

 The decision on the next step was agreed by those in attendance. No single body was able to dictate to the meeting and the question of money did not arise to inhibit the discussion or ideas that people threw in. This was incredibly refreshing.

 The connection to the austerity policies was also made and reference to the TUC national demonstration on 20th October.

 The meeting agreed that Pride should be community-led and free. And to get there for next year it was agreed to hold a further meeting that has been set for 5th September where each LGBTQ group and Trade Union will be asked to send one representative to look further into the details of how we achieve what was agreed.

 The Pride Board agreed postpone their AGM till after the 5th September meeting.

 The swift action by the TUC LGBT Committee on this matter is to be applauded as it gave the community and trade unions the opportunity to set the agenda for the new Pride before the commercial interests, who so often dominate the LGBTQ scene and as a consequence exclude those, such as the poor and disabled who do not fit into the model the commercial interests seek promote in order to exploit us.

 Time and time again the commercial interests have dominated the LGBTQ community, giving out the message that in order to take part in the community you need to have money, wear the right clothes, have the perfect body and be young.

 So it should be noted that on this occasion the Labour Movement got ahead of the commercial and has been able to give an inclusive voice of all LGBTQ communities the opportunity to set the agenda for future Prides.

Greenpeace closes Shell petrol stations

ACTIVISTS from the environmental campaigning group Greenpeace last Monday closed 74 Shell petrol stations in London and Edinburgh in protest against the company's plans to drill for oil in the Arctic, leading to 24 arrests.

 They tried to close down the stations by using an emergency shut-off switch to stop petrol going to the pumps and then removing a fuse to delay it being switched on again.

 The organisation has since posted a picture of an activist posting one of the fuses to Shell's head of Arctic drilling, with the message: "We're being careful not to destroy property. Even the carefully removed components will go back to Shell."

 Protesters have scaled the roof of the Shell station on Queenstown Road near Battersea Park in London and on Dalry Road in Edinburgh, with police and fire crews attending the scene in Edinburgh.

 Activists arrived at the Battersea Park branch at 6.45am and used the station's barriers to close the forecourt. Then they covered the Shell sign with a Save the Arctic banner and positioned a life-sized polar bear model on the station's roof.

 The protest is part of Greenpeace's Save the Arctic campaign, which is aiming to prevent oil drilling and industrial fishing in the Arctic by having the region recognised as a world park. The organisation understands that Shell is going to begin drilling in the Alaskan Arctic in the coming weeks, with the Russian oil company Gazprom also due to work in the region.

 Sara Ayech, a campaigner at the Battersea Park station, said: "It's time to draw a line in the ice and tell Shell to stop. That's why today we're going to shut down all of Shell's petrol stations in the capital cities of London and Edinburgh. We've got dozens of people who will hit over 100 Shell garages throughout the day."

More obstructions to Irish reconciliation

By Theo Russell

ALL FIVE Sinn Féin MPs were in London on 28th June at a summer reception which also marked the resignation of Martin McGuinness as MP, after the party’s decision to end dual mandates for its elected representatives.

 McGuinness delivered a keynote address which touched on a number of current problems, which he placed at the door of the Lib-Dem coalition.

 “Unfortunately”, he said, “to date, the British state has refused to even acknowledge its role as a combatant in the conflict. That position is no longer tenable as we move forward. It is excluding the British state from assisting a genuine process of national reconciliation in Ireland, a process which, though embryonic, is nevertheless underway.

 “There are issues that have not been brought to a conclusion, specifically the issue of the legacy of the conflict. The British government has a big role to play in that.

 “Many people in the North who are big supporters of the Peace Process are hurt. Just last week, relatives of those killed in the Ballymurphy Massacre were told by British Secretary of State Owen Paterson that they would not have the type of inquiry that they were looking for, the kind of investigation that they wanted, into the deaths of their loved ones killed by the British army.

 “Likewise, the British commitment at Weston Park for an inquiry into the murder of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane has not been implemented. The Government in London needs to stop obstructing these matters.

 “Indeed, in recent times this British government has made a series of stupid and unhelpful decisions, including the revocation of the licence of Marian Price and the continuing imprisonment of Martin Corey on the same basis.

 “People may be shocked to discover that Peter Robinson and myself have met American President Barack Obama more times that we have met David Cameron in our role as First and deputy First Ministers. This lack of engagement by David Cameron is a serious mistake and may provide a rationale for some of the damaging decisions made by Owen Paterson during his tenure at the NIO.”

 Turning to the recent tensions sparked by the Orange marching season, McGuinness said: “I welcome the upcoming visit of the Orange Order to the Oireachtas (Irish parliament), but they need to end their position of refusing dialogue with Sinn Féin or nationalist residents.

 “I would ask them to look at the events of the past week and seriously debate how they are going to step forward and make their contribution to a lasting peace in the coming weeks.”

International Brigaders remembered

By New Worker correspondent

OVER 100 people gathered in Jubilee Gardens on London’s South Bank on Saturday 7th July at the memorial to the International Brigaders to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the start of the Spanish war against fascism.

 Among them was David Solomon, London’s last surviving member of the

International Brigades – the army of volunteers who went to Spain between 1936 and 39 to help the people of Spain defend their elected Republican government against the  fascist revolt led by General Francisco Franco and his army recruited in Morocco, which was backed by Hitler and Mussolini.

 Outwardly the governments of Britain and France preached a policy of non-intervention and Hitler and Mussolini supplied arms, troops and an air force to Franco. But behind the scenes British upper class right-wing mercenaries, spies and adventurers also played a big role in helping to launch Franco’s invasion.

 There were speeches from members of the International Brigades Association – and their Spanish equivalent, who presented David Solomon with a commemorative banner.

 Many organisations and individuals laid wreaths at the memorial, including three from trade unions. There was music from Spanish guitarist and singer Paco Marin, folk singer Ewan McLennan, and folk duo Na-Mara. Performance poet Francesca Beard also paid tribute to the Brigaders.  

 After the wreath-laying and the speeches David Solomon unveiled a new plaque at the foot of the memorial, dedicated to those who gave their lives in Spain in the fight against fascism.

Pride returns to its roots?

 By Anton Johnson

THE OCCASION of the 40^th anniversary of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) Pride in London was to host the jewel of World Pride; what should have been a large scale celebration was beset with financial woes and in the end at the 11^th  hour the event had to be greatly reduced with the planned Soho side being cancelled.

            Though out of this debacle there has been a positive. First of all the march through central London without the floats had a more political feel to it and the trade union section was the best it has been for many years.

It began in Baker Street, packed from end to end with marchers dressed in a staggering array of imaginative costumes ranging from beautiful Filipino wedding array, Sikhs in magnificent blue silks, gladiators, fluffy swan outfits that were little more than paint and spangles and even members of the armed forces marching towards Trafalgar Square.

            It was unlike political demonstrations in that everyone present was having fun though there were political messages being delivered: against the cuts, in defence of the NHS and for gay marriage rights.

  Second, the shambles has ignited a debate about the future of Pride, which has drawn criticism over the years with Regard, the National Disabled LGBT organisation, once again boycotting the event.

 At the successful TUC LGBT Conference held the two days prior to Pride there was an emergency motion from the TUC LGBT Committee that was passed calling on the committee to host a public meeting to look at the future of Pride following the TUC press statement earlier in the week.

 That meeting, at Congress House on Monday, generated large scale interest within the LGBTQ communities. The view is that Pride should return to being a community-led event and political as a vehicle for LGBTQ liberation.

 LGBTQ groups, trade unionists and community activists looked at how we can return Pride to its roots and away from what has been a commercial event where the politics are watered down and groups such as Regard felt excluded.

 The meeting was timely as the commercial LGBTQ venue owner and club promoter Jeremy Joseph has called a meeting for the 25^th  July to discuss Pride and this would be clearly dominated by the commercial interests.

            Thierry Schaffauser, from Left Front Art, addressed a public meeting in central London on the evening of Pride making the point that Pride needs to return to its roots at this time when austerity policies are harming LGBTQ people and that the meeting hosted by TUC LGBT Committee pushed for by grassroots LGBTQ activists in Left Front Art is an opportunity for this to happen.

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