DPRK defending socialism

by New Worker correspondent

New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks welcomed comrades and friends to the Party Centre last week for the third in a series of seminars called by the NCP and the Juché Idea Study Group on Juché and Songun politics that are the basis of Korean-style socialism.

Kim Jong Il led the Workers Party of Korea for 17 years in overcoming natural disasters, imperialist blockade and the constant double-dealing and threats of war from the Americans. He worked tirelessly for the Party and the people of Democratic Korea till his last days in December 2011. Kim Jong Il told the world to “expect no change from me” after  great leader Kim Il Sung passed away and he went on to lead the strong and defiant socialist republic into the 21st century and the atomic age while developing the theoretical basis of Korean-style socialism.

Kim Jong Il made powerful contributions to the development of the Juché idea including Abuses of Socialism are Intolerable and Socialism is a Science, published in the early 1990s when whole sections of the international communist movement were wavering following the counter-revolutions in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe.

            And this was the theme of the joint mini-seminar held to discuss a key-note work by leader Kim Jong Un on Juché and Kim Jong Il’s immense contribution to the Korean communist movement.

It began with the screening of the DPRK documentary Admiration for Songun Politics that was followed openings from Dermot Hudson of the Juché Idea Study Group of England and John McLeod from the Socialist Labour Party on Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Il’s works and its relevance to communists all over the world.

Everyone at the seminar had visited the DPRK and everyone shared their experience during the discussion which included memories of the historic World Federation of Youth and Students that was held in Pyongyang in July 1989 and a report on the recent meeting of the Korean Friendship Association in Belgium.

Today First Secretary Kim Jong Un is following the footsteps of those who came before him in striving to peacefully re-unify the Korean peninsula so brutally partitioned by US imperialism, strengthen the armed forces that are the ultimate guarantee of the independence and freedom of the people of Democratic Korea and ensure the health, education and well-being of every citizen in the DPRK. Still under constant threat from US imperialism and its lackeys it is even more important than ever to support the DPR Korea.

Britain hosts exhibition to celebrate Yan Fu

by Zhang Jianhua

The Old Royal Naval College has opened Britain's first major exhibition on the life of Yan Fu, a renowned Chinese thinker, educator and translator who served as a cultural bridge between China and Britain more than 100 years ago.

Yan Fu, born in 1854, was one of the first ever Chinese students to study in Britain. In 1877, he was sent to the then Royal Naval College in Greenwich in London to study naval expertise and went on to become one of the most influential intellectuals in modern China.

The exhibition, named Yan Fu andChinese Imperial Students at the Royal Naval College, showcased a myriad of historical documents, books, artefacts and photographs, seeking to portray the life and times of this extraordinary thinker and his fellow Chinese schoolmates.

After finishing his studies in 1879, Yan Fu returned to China and became an accomplished "enlightenment" thinker, translating and introducing to China Evolution and Ethics, The Wealth of Nations and The Spirit of the Laws among many other works.

The two years he spent in London helped shape his ideas and deepen his understanding of Western culture and society that contributed to his future career.

Through his writings and translations, Yan Fu presented the people of China with insights into Europe's natural, social, and political sciences as well as theories of economics and philosophy, which were much needed in China at the dawn of its turbulent journey to modernity.

Yan Fu is still highly regarded in China today for his pioneering role in Chinese modern history.

At the opening ceremony for the exhibition, Chinese ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming said Yan laid the intellectual foundations for the changes that were in desperate need in Chinese society a century ago.

"Imperial China and British Empire are both no more. Down here in Greenwich much of the Royal Naval College has become the University of Greenwich. But, those larger-than-life figures and their life's work are as relevant and inspiring as ever," Liu said.

The Chinese envoy noted that Yan Fu will be remembered for his openness and inclusiveness, his courage to herald reform, and his commitment to promoting understanding between cultures and civilisations.

"Instead of one Yan Fu, we have thousands of them well versed in both cultures and working hard for the betterment of our relations in business, education, culture, science and technology and many other fields," he added.

The exhibition, curated by a group of experts on Yan Fu, was organized by the Old Royal Naval College in partnership with the Yan Fu Foundation. It runs until 1^st February next year.

Xinhua

Protests as Ukrainians honour SS dead at Cenotaph

 by New Worker

 correspondent

ANTI-FASCISTS from a broad political spectrum gathered in Whitehall opposite the Cenotaph to make a silent and dignified protest to show their outrage as Ukrainians living in Britain staged a memorial ceremony for Ukrainian soldiers “fallen in all wars”.

This includes members of the Galician SS division who, collaborated with the Nazis and who, as members of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), took part in murdering Jews, Poles and Communists before Nazi troops had even occupied Ukraine and who served as concentration camp guards at Auschwitz.

It was even more shocking as the event came just two hours after the Union of Jewish Ex-Servicemen had held their annual remembrance event at the Cenotaph and their wreath ended up overlapping the UJEX wreaths.

The Association of Ukrainian Former Combatants in Great Britain was amongst a number of organisations calling for the march on the Cenotaph in London.

This organisation was created by former members of the Galician SS who settled in Britain after the Second World War. As the war ended they fled the oncoming Red Army and opted to surrender to American forces in Germany.

They were transferred to a prison camp in northern Italy and then taken to America, Sweden and Britain. Those who came to Britain were given work clearing mines from beaches and farm work.

Many were also employed in the construction and operation of nuclear power stations because they would never go on strike. As fascists they were totally opposed to the principles of trade unionism.

They maintained strong links with US intelligence, acting as an intermediary for money, weapons and propaganda being fed back to contacts within the Soviet Union to undermine it.

Through organisations like the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations and the World Anti-Communist League they used funding supplied by the US, Saudi Arabia and the Sultan of Brunei to attack the Soviet Union and to maintain their Nazi culture and ideology in exile.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990 some members of this community returned to Ukraine and their links with US intelligence continue to be very strong.

The Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (the main organiser of the memorial service) made no secret of the fact that they were commemorating both the SS Galicia Division as well as the anti-communist Ukrainian Insurgent Army (which also collaborated for a period with the Nazis and carried out atrocities).

In response to an enquiry from a Spanish journalist, Wolodymyr Pawluk, chair of the AUGB London branch said: “We remember the thousands who fought in the Waffen-SS Division Galicia” and then went on to try to downplay the Nazi character of the Division: “Many who joined the Galician Division did so not because they supported Hitler.

“They enlisted to get military training. Many remembered the atrocities committed by Stalin in other words Holodomor (famine), murders and repressions. Many would have been conscripted into the Red Army which would have meant certain death.

“There are many issues which have to be explored regarding this matter. In war the instinct is to survive. The war on the Eastern front was brutal and Ukraine was the battleground.”

This is typical of the type of historical revisionism which is common in Ukrainian far right nationalist circles. The members of the SS Galicia Division were volunteers who took the following very clear oath: “I swear before God this holy oath, that in the battle against Bolshevism, I will give absolute obedience to the commander in chief of the German Armed Forces Adolf Hitler, and as a brave soldier I will always be prepared to lay down my life for this oath.”

There are many myths about the famine in Ukraine in the 1930s but it did not affect Galicia, at that time was part of Poland.

Despite minor scuffles when Ukrainian nationalists attempted to wrest away one of the protesters banners’, the silent and dignified action went peacefully.

For Lenin and revolutionary change!

Michael Chant and Andy Brooks deep in discussion

by New Worker  correspondent

COMRADES and friends joined millions of workers all round the world to salute the anniversary of the 10 days that shook the world, at the New Communist Party’s reception at the Party Centre in London last weekend.

The print shop WAS transformed into a bar and buffet for comrades to meet friends old and new and greet the guests who joined us on Saturday to honour the generations who fought and built the Soviet Union. 

NCP chairperson Alex Kempshall kicked off the formal part of the evening by introducing the speakers which included Michael Chant from the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain, Fuzhe Yu from the embassy of the DPR Korea and NCP leader Andy Brooks.

Everyone paid tribute to the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin and Stalin, who overthrew the old order in 1917 to build the Soviet power that transformed the semi-feudal Czarist empire into a modern industrialised socialist federation, which smashed the Nazis in the Second World War and led the world until it was brought down by the revisionists and traitors who had wormed their way into the communist movement after Stalin’s death in 1953. 

But nothing can destroy the communist movement on the front-line in fighting Korea and defiant Cuba or in the people’s democracies of China, Vietnam and Laos. And nothing can destroy the world communist movement that is rallying in all five continents against the bourgeois offensive that is trying to put the burden of the capitalist slump entirely on the backs of working people.

As resistance grows the capitalists show their true face in brutal repression and open fascism which was stressed in Daphne Liddle’s appeal for the New Worker fighting fund to keep our communist press rolling. Comrades responded by putting £291.74 on the night while other donations brought in on Sunday pushed the collection up to a stomping £492!

UK: Ukraine splits London into two marches, fascism discussed

Solidarity with anti-fascist resistance in Ukraine

By New Worker correspondent

ANTI-FASCISTS packed the main meeting room of the Marx Memorial Library in London last Tuesday evening for a meeting of Solidarity with Anti-fascist Resistance in Ukraine, supporting those who are resisting the illegal fascist government in Kiev.

Speakers included Anatolii Sokolyuk, the international secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine and Alexey Albu, a member of Borotba and an elected district councillor from Odessa now in exile who both spoke by means of a Skype connection.

Albu gave a detailed and harrowing account of his experiences in the Odessa fire massacre that left him seriously injured and a political exile.

Other speakers included Steve Skelly of the RMT union, Andrew Murray from the Communist Party of Britain, Jorge Martin from Socialist Appeal and rapper Marcel Cartier. The meeting was chaired by Richard Brenner.

After a lively and productive debate comrades raised concerns over a memorial service due to be conducted at the Cenotaph this Sunday 16th November on behalf of all Ukrainians who have died in all wars. This will include the members of the Galician SS division.

Comrades expressed a desire to protest but under the circumstances to make it a dignified, silent protest.