Soviet centenary at the Centre!

Alex Kempshall, Andy Brooks and Michael Chant

by New Worker 
correspondent

Last week communists held events all around the world to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the Great October Russian Revolution – and last Saturday comrades and friends joined them at the NCP’s annual tribute to the 10 days that shook the world.

The main meeting room and print shop was, as usual, transformed into a bar and buffet for friends, old and new, who had come to honour the generations who fought and built the Soviet Union. Comrades from the RCPB(ML) provided a musical interlude on the theme of revolution that included the anthem of the Comintern, composed in 1928 by Hans Eisler with lyrics by Bertold Brecht and Franz Jahnke, as well as the more well-known Soviet anthem that replaced the Internationale in 1944.

During the formal part of the proceedings, opened by national chair Alex Kempshall, NCP leader Andy Brooks spoke of the achievements and sacrifices of the Soviet peoples during the life of the USSR and the achievements of the Bolsheviks led by Lenin and Stalin. Other guests including Dermot Hudson from the UK Korean Friendship Association, Marie Lynam of the British Posadist movement, John McLeod from the Socialist Labour Party and Michael Chant, the leader of the RCPB(ML). All talked about the meaning of 1917 and its relevance to working people today.

The communist movement needs a fighting press and the New Worker has played a crucial part in putting the communist answer to the crisis back on the working-class agenda for over 40 years. It will continue to do so but only through the continued support of its readers said Daphne Liddle, in an appeal that raised raised £451.65 for the November New Worker fighting fund.

The social closed in the traditional way with a lively rendering of the Internationale and a pledge to keep up the fight whatever the cost!