Support the Weetabix strikers!

by New Worker correspondent

London trade unionists were out leafleting and collecting for the Weetabix strikers outside Sainsbury’s on Kilburn High Road last week.
    Some 80 engineers at the Weetabix plants in Kettering and Corby are taking industrial action against new ‘fire-and-rehire’ contracts, which would leave them up to £5,000 per year worse off.
    It began with two-day mid-week walk-outs in September following the break-down of talks in the summer between their union, Unite, and management. Now the strikers have stepped up their campaign, moving to a four-day stoppage each week.
    Weetabix is the largest cereal manufacturer in the UK, exporting to over 80 countries, and has production facilities in Europe, North America, and East Africa with a combined global workforce of 1,800 employees. It was taken over by an American company, Post Holdings Inc, in 2017.
    Weetabix Management claim the dispute has nothing to do with fire-and-rehire – but this was dismissed by Unite leader Sharon Graham this week. “These attacks are totally unjustified,” she said. “They are a serving of corporate greed. And what’s more, although Weetabix deny it, we have irrefutable evidence that they are using ‘fire-and-rehire’ strategies.”
    Last year Weetabix turnover grew by five per cent to £325 million and profits leapt by almost 20 per cent to £82 million.

Remember their sacrifice

Theo Russell laying flowers at the monument

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades and friends joined diplomats and local dignitaries in honouring the fallen at Sunday’s Remembrance Day at the Soviet War Memorial in the park that surrounds the Imperial War Museum – the first public ceremony at the monument since the beginning of the Covid   lockdowns last year.
    They were there to remember the 27 million Soviet citizens during the Second World War who, along with the millions of others who perished in the world wars of the last century, were honoured at the annual remembrance ceremony in the London borough of Southwark last weekend.
    NCP London organiser Theo Russell took part in the ceremony, along with Russian Minister-Counsellor Ivan Volodin and other diplomats from the former Soviet republics, representatives of other political parties including Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML), police and services associations, representatives from the Russian community in London and other community groups.
    The Act of Remembrance ended, as usual, with the Last Post, followed by the traditional exhortation, the two-minute silence and the Reveille.

Defending Cuba!

Outside the embassy

by New Worker correspondent

Cuba solidarity activists were on the streets of London last weekend to protest against the American blockade and confront provocations by Cuban émigrés and other agents of imperialism calling for increased sanctions and US action, including direct intervention.
    Rabid anti-communist US politicians and far-right Cuban-American émigré groups based in Florida had called for a global weekend of action against the socialist island. But in London they had little to show for it apart from a handful who turned up outside the Cuban embassy on Sunday only to find it surrounded by over a hundred supporters of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.
    Meanwhile, the new US embassy in Nine Elms was picketed by the Consistent Democrats, a left split from Socialist Fight, The demonstration was in defence of the Cuban revolution and a show of solidarity with the Cuban people against the “Gusano” or “worms”, as they’re known in Cuba, mobilisation.

For peace on the Korean peninsula

the seminar in the Sid French Library

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity campaigners met at the NCP’s Party Centre in London last weekend for a seminar to discuss the prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula and the way forward for the solidarity campaign in Britain.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the Friends of Korea event, welcomed everyone to the meeting which was the first public event at the Centre since the lockdowns began in 2020. Most of them had visited Democratic Korea and all were supporters of the Friends of Korea committee that has been campaigning for the peaceful re-unification of the Korean peninsula for over 20 years.
    This was stressed by Michael Chant, the secretary of the Committee, who emphasised the importance of taking a stand in support of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s right to exist and choose its own path of development, striving for peace and for the reunification of the Korean peninsula, and, as he said, “supporting the just stands of the DPRK internationally at this crucial time in the face of hostility from the United States and other big powers, including Britain”.
    Though the imperialists have toned down their hate campaign their hostility still remains. “At the moment the imperialist mainstream media have tended to take the DPRK out of the news “ Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association said “although the hostile propaganda against the DPRK continues. Recently , the DPRK tested missiles which would have once led to hysterical headlines in the imperialist media for days on end. But this time it did not do so . This is because the imperialists have experienced a policy failure on the Korean peninsula ; military pressure and threats have not worked, sanctions have not worked and engagement such as Trump’s ‘big deal ‘ have not worked. The imperialist media does not like to talk about failure only success”.
    Others shared their own views on the Korean issue including Keith Bennett, a veteran Korean solidarity campaigner, who helped draw up the Friends of Korea founding statement many years ago and everyone agreed on the need to redouble our efforts in the coming year.
    The Co-ordinating Committee of the Friends of Korea is an umbrella organisation which brings together all the major movements active in Korean friendship and solidarity work in Britain today. It includes the NCP and the RCPB (ML), the Socialist Labour Party and the Korean Friendship Association. The Committee is chaired by Andy Brooks and the secretary is Michael Chant. The committee organises meetings throughout the year, which are publicised by the supporting movements and on the Friends of Korea blog.

Which way for Labour?

by New Worker correspondent

Looking at Labour following Brighton conference that didn’t go entirely one-way for Starmer was the topic for a New Worker meeting in London last week. This was the first physical public meeting since the lockdown began in the capital – the last one was at the Cock Tavern in Euston in January 2020. Sadly that venue is no longer available, but London comrades felt themselves at home at the nearby Chadswell Centre that’s frequently used for Korean solidarity meetings.

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined the panel chaired by Theo Russell that looked at Labour back under the thumb of Blairites and Zionists determined to drive what’s left of the Corbynistas out of the party before the next election.

Other speakers, including Gerry Downing from Socialist Fight, Ian Donovan from the Consistent Democrats, Marie Lynam and Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML), shared their experience of the struggle between the left and right in the Labour Party, the recent Labour Party conference and the future outlook for Labour with comrades who have already given up on Labour or been expelled on trumped up charges of “anti-Semitism”, as well communists in the NCP and RCPB (ML) who were never in it in the first place.

“Debate is a luxury we can afford” is one of Andy Brooks’ catch-phrases and it’s certainly been the theme of New Worker London meetings for many a year. This meeting was no exception. Although the debate began with the usual arguments of the “stay and fight” and “build a new Labour party” brigades, it then went far beyond the day-to-day struggles within Labour to look at the grass-roots fightback in the unions and the role of communists in the 21st century.

A collection raised £110 to pay for the room and towards future planned events, which include a Ukraine solidarity picket in Whitehall and another London New Worker panel meeting in early January.