London posties rally over pay

by New Worker correspondent

Thousands of posties rallied outside Parliament last week after walking out in their latest round of strikes in the run-up to Christmas. Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said it was the biggest postal workers’ demonstration in living memory.
    Many wore pink CWU hi-vis vests, waving flags and holding placards that read “strike to win” and “save our Royal Mail”. The union says Royal Mail has imposed a 2 per cent increase on members without consultation and that it is refusing to treat its employees with respect.
    “They’re fighting for their jobs, their livelihood, and the service that they provide to the public,” says Dave Ward, the general secretary of the CWU.

    "Postal workers want to get on with serving the communities they belong to, delivering Christmas gifts and tackling the backlog from recent weeks,” Ward said. "But they know their value, and they will not meekly accept the casualisation of their jobs, the destruction of their conditions and the impoverishment of their families”.

    The CWU says more strikes will follow throughout December if Royal Mail management refuses to respond realistically to the union’s demands.

George Johannes: freedom fighter and communist

by Theo Russell

Comrade George Johannes, a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP), the African National Congress and for several years the New Communist Party, passed away in Rome last week. He was 78. He will be greatly missed by many comrades who knew him in the NCP.
    He was a member of the NCP for several years when he lived in exile the UK and later served at the South African High Commission in London from 1998 to 2005, first as Political Counsellor and then as the Deputy High Commissioner.

    After returning to South Africa, he worked at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (foreign ministry) in Pretoria as Director for the UK, Ireland and Benelux Countries.

    George was a frequent visitor to Scotland, before and after the end of apartheid, and Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) is home to the George Johannes Collection archive.

    George joined the African National Congress in 1970, and his varied roles included: journalist with Radio Freedom in Angola and Zambia: Administrative Secretary of the Department of Information and Publicity in Lusaka; Chairperson, ANC Youth Section, London; Member of Editorial Board of Sechaba, the ANC’s official journal; member of the Regional Political Committee of the ANC UK Region; Administrative Secretary of the ANC Office in London; and ANC representative at the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) in Budapest.
    In 2007 George became Deputy Head of Mission in the German capital and was posted to Berlin. In April 2009 he was posted to Bern, where he became South African Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation, the Principality of Liechtenstein, and the Holy See (the Vatican), and in February 2021 he met Pope Francis himself.
    After leaving the diplomatic service slightly more than a year ago, George continued teaching at a Pontifical University in Rome. He died on 30th November 2022 at the Generalate House of the Missionaries of Mariannhill in Rome, where he had been staying with the community of Mariannhill priests and brothers from November 2021. The congregation has its foundation in South Africa.
    George’s former wife, Jan, wrote that “he was living, and died, in a home for priests in Rome. Comrade George, my former husband - we were together for over 30 years - and father of my children Charlotte (grandchildren Jack and Zuri) and Daniel Johannes.
    “We lived through the crucial years of struggle, and life was often tough. Banu, his wife and son Liam, 12, live in Munich. Sad news and he will be missed".
    Many in the NCP have fond memories of George who they recall as a warm, humorous and charismatic comrade.

Let the world hear China's voice

By Liang Xiao

With nearly 50 years of diplomatic experience, Liu Xiaoming, who served as ambassador of China to the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2021, considers promoting the deepening of understanding between the Chinese and people of other countries a top priority for China's diplomats.
    But the wider public mostly knows him for a comparison he made eight years ago in an opinion piece for the Daily Telegraph. Liu likened Japanese militarism to Harry Potter's arch-villain Lord Voldemort following then Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine where Japan's war dead, including 14 Class-A World War II war criminals, are worshiped. Liu wrote at the time, "If militarism is like the haunting Voldemort of Japan, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is a kind of Horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation's soul."
    The article soon became the topic of worldwide discussion. Within 10 days, Liu was invited by almost every major British television and radio networks for live interviews. On 3rd January 2014, he appeared on ITV's News at Ten, explaining to correspondent John Ray that "Lord Voldemort will not be destroyed if you do not destroy all the seven Horcruxes. And I made the comparison because militarism has not been completely destroyed [in Japan]." Five days later, during an interview with Jeremy Paxman on BBC2's Newsnight, Liu quoted Winston Churchill—those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it—to elaborate on China's position and warn the international community to beware of the revival of militarism in Japan.
    In the years that followed, Liu gave many interviews, covering everything from China's stance on COVID-19 and Hong Kong to the country's relationship with the UK, pitting him against many of Britain's best known TV presenters and interviewers.
    With his 11 years of service in London, Liu became the longest-serving Chinese ambassador in the history of China-UK relations and the longest-serving ambassador-level diplomat since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. These feats aside, Liu deems three other records in China's diplomatic history to be his proudest achievements: During his time as ambassador to the UK, he made more than 700 speeches, wrote more than 170 articles for the mainstream press and gave more than 170 interviews, including 29 live ones, to major Western media outlets. On 9th October, Liu's new book, a bilingual compendium of his live interviews with British media published by Beijing Publishing Group under the title Sharp Dialogue, became the latest addition to that list.
    The compilation comes with the recommendation of several high-level dignitaries and scholars, including former Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and former Commercial Secretary to the UK Treasury Jim O'Neill.
    "The huge value of this book is it provides a unique case study of how Ambassador Liu Xiaoming made valuable pioneering efforts from the Chinese Embassy in the UK to make an optimal impact to 'let the world hear the voice of China'," Alistair Michie, Secretary General of the British East Asia Council, wrote.
    At the book launch, Liu shared his belief that as China is increasingly put under global spotlight, the world is eager to know more about the country. However, the majority of people in Western countries know very little about China.
    "We should improve our ability to engage in international communication to tell China's story well, make the voice of China heard, understood, and recognized. We should present a true, multi-dimensional and comprehensive China to the world. Let the world see a reliable, admirable and respectable image of China," he explained.
    During a recent interview Liu also touched on the high expectations he holds for the younger generations, especially for Chinese students studying overseas.
    "When I was in the UK, I reached out to many universities; this is a good way to make more young people know about China. Another reason is that the biggest percentage of overseas students in the UK hails from China," Liu said. He hopes these students can become good storytellers, telling their classmates, teachers, neighbors, and so on, about the great changes taking place in China, in their hometowns, as well as communicating their own experiences.
    "I've said this many times: Every Chinese student studying abroad is a Chinese ambassador".
Beijing Review

Sharp Dialogue by Liu Xiaoming is published by the Bejing People’s Publishing House. The bilingual 448 pages paperback is available from the Guanghwa bookshop, 112 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 5EJ for £23.70. It can also be ordered online from Cypress Books at https://cypressbooks.com/ ( plus £3.20 postage and packing)

Charity Begins at Home…

by New Worker correspondent

But not for some working in the burgeoning charity sector like the staff at Shelter which was founded way back in December 1966. It emerged from the efforts of Bruce Kenrick, the Church of Scotland Minister who was doing missionary work in west London’s Notting Hill, then the stamping ground of notorious slum landlord Peter Rachman who had a violent way of dealing with those behind with the rent for one of his empire of grotty overcrowded properties. The Notting Hill Housing Trust, also founded by Kendrick in 1963, continues today as a major housing association owning thousands of properties.
    Shelter had the good fortune to be launched ten days after the BBC first broadcast Cathy Come Home by Jeremy Sandford and Ken Loach which exposed effects of homelessness in Britain.
    It soon became the leading body for advice with housing problems, and it campaigns for tenant rights spending much time lobbying local and central governments.
    It spends about 21 per cent of its revenue on fund raising, a figure which might raise a few eyebrows, but the charity world is a cut-throat business. Shelter faces brutal competition from children in need and fluffy polar bears seeking the nation’s conscience money. In comparison bedraggled homeless people and people sitting in mouldy rooms do not look very cute.
    Its latest Annual Report shows Shelter has an overall income of £59,699,000, of which £41 million came from donations and legacies, with £10 million from grants and contracts and £7 million from its shops. Its expenditure was £59,720,000 which suggests they are doing their job, spending rather than saving, It has assets worth £31 million which is not unreasonable giving that it needs a London base and a network of offices to do its job.
    The highest paid member of staff was the CEO, on £132,625. Shelter claim it is very ethical as its median salary was £28,104, a ratio against the highest salary of 4.72:1. However salaries for van drivers and assistants in their shops start at £19,000.
    Shelter had 1,335 employees, 118 on fund raising, with about 800 giving direct support, both in person and remotely. The CEO get £99.34 for each staff member, chicken-feed to bankers.
    Such is the institutional background of the current strike which starts on Monday until the Sunday before Christmas. The issue, unsurprisingly, is pay. In early November 85 per cent of the charity’s Unite branch voted to reject a three per cent pay offer, which Unite describes as a huge real terms pay cut.
    At the time of the vote, General Secretary Sharon Graham said that “Rather than sit on ever expanding reserves, Shelter should be paying its workers a fair pay rise”.
    She has a point, its last reported reserves were £14.5 million, comfortably above their target of £8.9 million.
    One of the strikers added that: “The work we undertake, particularly in frontline services, is so valuable and clients depend on our teams. But that shouldn’t mean they have to sacrifice a decent and dignified living because the work they are drawn to is in this sector. At the very base level, absolute bare minimum, those working for a housing charity shouldn't be experiencing housing insecurity as a result of being unable to pay rent.”
    Regional Officer Peter Storey warned that: “Strike action will inevitably cause substantial disruption to the services that Shelter provides. However, the organisation has created this dispute through the arrogant and high-handed manner in which it has treated its loyal workers.”
    This is not the first time Shelter workers have been involved in a pay battle in which strike action was at least threatened. In 2008 strike action took place while in both 2014 and 2018 industrial action was called off at the very last minute. In the latter case a four per cent deal composed of 2.25 per cent consolidated, plus 1.75 per cent unconsolidated paid at a flat rate, worth about £500 for each was secured after management offered a paltry one per cent. That dispute also saw 100 Shelter workers join Unite.
    This time round, in March, Shelter made a three per cent offer alongside a one-off £250 payment. Since then the one–off payment was increased to £1,500. This was still rejected, partly because it would actually make things worse for some workers. This came about because it would push the lowest paid over thresholds which would prevent them claiming working tax credits and Universal Credit to top up their low earnings.
    The wishy-washy left magazine Tribune recently interviewed three Shelter workers about the dispute. One Mark, who was formerly homeless himself, reported he relies on a foodbank twice a month, and his general quality of life has rapidly deteriorated in the past year.
    He also noted that when Shelter workers suggested flat rate consolidated increases to benefit the lowest paid, Management, responded that this would weaken the pay structure within Shelter, meaning the pay rise of those promoted wouldn’t be worth as much.
    Another staff member, Sarah, herself a twenty year veteran told Tribune that in the 2008 dispute: “They tried to impose contractual changes on us. Historically, there’s been disputes around Shelter actively going after our pay and pension contributions”, and “I’ve never had an inflation-based increase in pay in the twenty years I’ve been here.”
    The result of this pattern is a charity set up to tackle issues like housing insecurity now exacerbating housing insecurity among its own staff. “A lot of our staff are young private renters based in London,” says Sarah. “They’re caught up in the very housing emergency that they themselves are campaigning on.”
    She concluded by pointing out that Shelter workers urgently need a consolidated increase instead to get them through the coming winter months and beyond. Unless this is done condition will worsen after next April when it comes harder to claim means-tested benefits.
    Lucy, a London based Shelter worker told Tribune that: “It’s commonplace for staff to have no money left at the end of the month. I have colleagues who have fallen into arrears with bills, are eating less to cut down on the cost of food, and we hear constant accounts of staff suffering with stress and anxiety.”
    All three complained that Shelter spends too on external contracts and consultants and that in common with many charities management take advantage of dedicated workers “where committed and passionate workers are made to feel that they should put up with attacks on pay and conditions out of misguided notion of philanthropic instinct”.
    The anonymous Sarah added that management: “Know that most people that come to work for Shelter are very committed to Shelter’s cause. And I think they play on it. They expect charity workers just to put up low pay really and not complain.” Winning this dispute, conclude would “to send a message to charity sector workers that they can organise for union recognition and fair pay”.

A High End Strike

by New Worker correspondent

The present strike wave has reached as far as Knightsbridge in the west end of London where over 50 uniformed security guards and CCTV operators at Harrods’ will take part on a strike in protest against a seven per cent pay offer (half the present real rate of inflation of 14.2 per cent). The first strike  started on Friday and continued until Sunday 27th November. If there is no settlement further walk-outs will take place throughout the festive season. 
    Harrods is one of Britain’s finest state-owned shops, but the state in question is Qatar. Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said “Harrods and its owners, the Qatar Investment Authority, can absolutely afford to pay these workers a rise that reflects soaring living costs. Harrods, like many Qatari state enterprises, is known the world over for luxury and extravagance, an impression maintained off the backs of workers”.
    A beneficiary of the government’s Covid furlough scheme to the tune of £6 million, Harrod’s recently doubled the pay of its managing director to £2.3 million and raked in profits of £51 million.
    Regional officer Balvinder Bir added that: “I’m sure that Harrods’ high-end customers and store owners will not be pleased that security and CCTV operations during the Christmas period will be compromised. This is entirely the fault of Harrods, which is swimming in cash but offering a pay cut dressed up as a rise. The company needs to table an offer our members can accept.” They also have some high-end shop-lifters.
    The New Worker does not condone what the anarchists call “proletarian shopping”, but if anyone feels like trying it on one of the above strike days, they should try to get a pocket-sized box of crystalised fruits for New Worker staff...

Libraries Cut

by New Worker correspondent

Twenty years ago Hackney library staff were fighting for the reinstatement of overtime payments. Today another libraries battle, involving the same union in the same east London borough is underway to oppose job cuts.
    The Labour council’s plans include cutting 76 jobs which will in part be replaced with 57 new roles which existing staff will have to reapply for. In detail this means there will be just 34 full-time frontline posts, down from 54, to cover seven libraries open between 55 and 64 hours a week. In some cases there could be as little as two staff on duty, even before taking into account of holidays, sick leave, training or any emergency. The cuts will allegedly save £445,000.
    The council claim that the cuts are essential to fund a £4.4 million revamp of Stoke Newington Library which is in the poshest part of an otherwise deprived borough.
    The borough’s local government branch of Unison is in formal dispute, it claims that the council has ample reserves funds (to the tune of £300 million) to fund the renovation and the job cuts will “will have a devastating impact on the service”. It has collected 2,000 signatures on a petition against the proposed job cuts. A large protest meeting was held outside Hackney Town Hall on Wednesday night prior to a meeting of the Council last week. In a consultative ballot, 72 per cent of members said they were ready to strike to prevent the cuts going ahead.
    The union accuses the council of keeping it in the dark about the job cuts when the delayed renovation plans were first announced three years ago.
    Local Unison rep Matt Paul told the Hackney Citizen that: “It will be impossible to deliver and sustain Stoke Newington library without having sufficient staff on the ground … it’s completely pointless if staff cuts are funding this”, and queried: “what’s the point of having a lovely space if it ends up eventually closing by not having the staff to run it?”
    At the same time as these staff cuts the senior management team received an additional £50,000 in salaries. The union is wary of the Mayor’s commitment to keep all libraries open, saying the planned changes could make it unsustainable to run them and result in permanent closures. For instance less staff would make temporary closures more likely in the event of staff shortages.
    Branch chair Brian Debus warned that the cuts “will inevitably mean less ability to advise members of the public and the most vulnerable who most depend on the free services that we
provide.”
    Needless to say Hackney Libraries is not the only public library service. Gerald Vernon-Jackson of the Local Government Association (LGA), which is the trade union for local authorities said that “no council wants to reduce library services, but the dramatic increase in inflation alongside increases to the National Living Wage and higher energy costs has added at least £2.4 billion in extra costs onto the budgets councils set in March this year,”
    At the same time public libraries are seeing an unprecedented rise in the number of people using their services. This is partly due to them returning to one of their Victorian purposes of providing a place for people to keep warm in without going to the pub. Others have established food banks.
    Libraries Connected, which represents public libraries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland reports that many libraries have expanded their services to help people struggling with higher prices - running food banks, giving out clothing donations and extending their opening hours and providing hot drinks.
    The BBC reports that Gainsborough Community Library in Ipswich is selling cut-price bags of fruit and vegetables for £2 and has seen sales nearly double since the summer. Suffolk County Librarian Bruce Leeke, said the cost of running 45 sites has increased a lot, “from our energy costs to our cleaning. We will have to look next year at how we run the service. We are very concerned.”
    Isobel Hunter, the CEO of Libraries Connected, warned that with budgets uncertain many libraries are contemplating cutting staff, services and book-stock with some closures on the horizon. She warns that: “the scale of the savings that libraries need to make and also the impact of inflationary costs means that these aren’t savings that can be found down the back of the sofa or trimming little bits here and there”. Unpopular increases in council tax levels will only provide a temporary relief.
    Further north at Nantwich Library in Cheshire, they have boxes of canned vegetables, fruit and cereals because it serves as an emergency food bank pick-up point.
    Joanne Shannon, of Cheshire East Council said: “I’ve worked in libraries for 38 years and we’ve not seen the numbers of people, the broad cross-section of people who will tell us they are struggling.” She added that: “Some people think of some of the areas in Cheshire as very leafy and affluent, but we do have rural poverty. We’ve got a limited number of resources to give out and they are for extreme cases, but we see so many people who are telling us they are worried. How do we start to prioritise?”
    It is good to see the Tories have abandoned namby-pamby “One Nation Toryism” and gone back to bringing us real Dickensian poverty. While it has brought out the spirit of Victorian charity what is urgently needed is the more revolutionary spirit which produced the Chartist movement and the Communist Manifesto.

Salute the Red Army heroes

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks and NCP London organiser Theo Russell joined Italian comrades over the remembrance weekend to pay tribute to the Soviet people who fought and died to defeat the Nazis in the Second World War. Called by the supporters of the Communist Front of Italy in Britain, comrades laid flowers during the small ceremony at the Soviet War Memorial in the shadow of the Imperial War Museum in Southwark on Saturday.
    In the past Russian diplomats and those from other former Soviet republics would have joined local dignitaries, members of the Russian community in London and representatives of the Armed Forces and veterans’ associations in honouring the fallen at an annual Remembrance Day ceremony organised by the Soviet War Memorial Trust. This has now all ended because of the Ukraine war.
    Soon after the fighting began Sir Simon Hughes, the former constituency Liberal-Democrat MP who was once a frequent attender at these events, said that the Victory Day event at the Soviet War Memorial should not include Russia and Belarus unless Russian troops withdrew from Ukraine by 1st May. To avoid the memorial becoming a focus for protests and possible vandalism, the Trust has now sadly suspended all commemorations at the monument. But individuals and small groups continue to pay their respects at the Soviet war memorial.
    Fresh red carnations were already lying the foot of the sombre bronze statue when the London and Italian comrades arrived. They weren’t the first. They certainly won’t be the last…

Britain is Broken!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks and other London comrades joined thousands of demonstrators demanding an end to austerity in Trafalgar Square on Saturday. Called by the People’s Assembly, and supported by a number of trade unions, the protest began with a march through central London that ended in a rally addressed by speakers including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and RMT general secretary Mick Lynch. Corbyn said the government would be forced to listen to protesters calling for improved pay and workers’ rights. “The government is of course eventually forced to listen, as are the rail companies, therefore they have reopened negotiations with the RMT. The people out here are very determined. They’re not going to see people with disabilities discriminated against, they’re not going to see growing impoverishment in our society”.

Picketing Broadcasting House!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other Korean solidarity activists protesting against the BBC bias at a picket outside Broadcasting House in central London on Saturday. The Korean Friendship Association (KFA) had called the protest to highlight the appalling bias of the BBC in its coverage of news from Korea that invariably reflects the lies of the American lie-machine and those of its south Korean puppets.
    Discussions were held with passers-by and the media during the 90-minute protest that also called on people to stop funding the state broadcasting network by cancelling their BBC licence fees.
    Dermot Hudson, KFA chair, said: “Recently there was an incident in the West Sea of Korea in which a south Korean puppet warship intruded into the territorial waters of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) basically invading the DPRK and violating its sovereignty but the BBC falsely reported that the DPRK had infiltrated south Korean waters and fired at south Korea…
    “The BBC not only pumps out false propaganda against the DPRK but it is also a regime change agency. We should never forget the role of the BBC World Service in the past in undermining and destroying socialism in the USSR and former socialist countries. Now the BBC is trying to do the same with the DPRK and beaming its lies into the country. We must defend People's Korea from regime change, from all attempts to force 'reform' or 'opening-up' on People's Korea.
    “We, the Korean Friendship Association of the UK, believe in defending People's Korea with No Ifs or Buts.
    “We believe the BBC should stop lying about the DPRK and instead produce fair, accurate and objective material about People's Korea.
    “We say don't pay your licence fee because if you do you are funding the BBC's lies about People's Korea."

The war goes on and on…

by Theo Russell

Around 60 people attended a meeting at Hamilton House in central London last week organised by the Stop the War Coalition (StW) that included contributions from a number of trade union and peace activists, as well as a video message from Yurii Sheliazhenko of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement.
    Sheliazhenko condemned NATO for sending “wave upon wave of weapons” whilst “the war goes on and on”.
    “While Zelensky makes no moves towards a resolution,” he said, “Ukraine and Russia urgently need peace talks, and western governments must create the conditions for talks.” The Ukrainian pacifist spoke of "an army of well-paid liars and smears against the peace movement." But he was upbeat about the peace plan proposed by billionaire businessman Elon Musk, which includes a fresh vote on the future of the regions that recently joined the Russian Federation, Crimea to remain in Russia, and guarantees of Ukrainian neutrality.
    Jamie Newell from the firefighters’ union, the FBU, commented that the British government "has a real cheek criticising Russia's response to recent street protests, when they do exactly the same thing here".
    Speaking for StW, Lindsay German condemned the demonisation of anyone in Britain calling for peace talks such as the suspension of Angelo Sanchez after attacking British policy at the recent Labour Party conference. She also referred to comments by BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen – who has been reporting from Ukraine – about the Western coalition's targeting of civilian infrastructure in Iraq and the Saudi-led coalition's bombing of Yemen (with armaments supplied by, amongst others, Britain).
    Lindsay said Labour Party members had been told not to support StW’s position on Ukraine, and former MP Emma Dent Coad, a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, had been blocked as a future parliamentary candidate for Kensington & Chelsea where she was Labour MP from 2017–19, amongst other reasons for speaking at StW protests.
    “It’s a real denial of democracy in Britain where if you raise any criticism of what our government is doing in Ukraine or call for peace you're regarded as an appeaser of Putin,” she said.
    “Meanwhile the British government has supported people going to fight in Ukraine, while none of the parties in parliament are speaking out against the war. This isn't just about Russia invading Ukraine, every time we send weapons to Ukraine it's at the expense of our schools, our hospitals and our housing. There's a clear connection between the expansion of militarism and austerity at home.
    “So far Britain has given £2.5 billion to Ukraine, and even neutral Ireland has sent non-military aid, so this is essentially a proxy war between Russia and NATO. This isn't going to stop with Ukraine, we know about the AUKUS Pact and the situation around China, and we are seeing much greater moves towards confrontation and war.”
    Speaking from the floor, a Unite member called for a new Labour Party that was "democratic, anti-war and pro-peace", and said: “The British government should stop sending weapons to Ukraine because they are fascist, absolutely fascist, and they are brutally oppressing their own people.”
    Members of International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity distributed leaflets, spoke to members of the panel and the audience, and one was lucky enough to speak from the floor. Unfortunately, many of the speakers said almost nothing about Ukraine, and over two-thirds of the panel contributions and the following discussion focused only on peace and trade union campaigns in Britain.

A New Journey for a New Era

Zheng Zeguang and Andy Brooks

by New Worker correspondent

NCP General Secretary Andy Brooks joined other communists, academics and friends of China at a seminar at the Chinese embassy in London on Monday. The symposium on the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was opened by the Chinese ambassador Zheng Zeguang who gave a 20 minute summary of the main points of the Congress that met in Beijing last month.
    This was followed by short interventions by all the guests including the NCP leader who said: “the 20th Congress was a congress of victors and we are certain that there’ll be plenty more victories to come as the Chinese people march forward to build a modern, socialist China. The New Communist Party of Britain stands with the Communist Party of China in the common cause of the communist movement and we will continue to strive to strengthen the efforts of everyone working in solidarity and friendship with the Communist Party of China and the people of China”.

Building a fairer society

 

Echoes from the Chinese Communist Congress

A week after the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party drew to a close, the CMG Europe media group assembled experts from different fields to discuss key messages about the direction the world’s most populous country is heading. On this special one-hour show, CMG Europe’s Juliet Mann was joined by China’s Ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, and a host of experts from across the world to consider exactly what that new journey will look like, and how it will impact on relations with the UK and Europe. 

In any discussion about the policies that have steered China’s recent past, the topic of poverty alleviation is impossible to avoid. The numbers are well known - around 100 million rural residents lifted out of poverty in just eight years through 2020; 800 million in the past four decades; a middle class that has swollen to 400 million people. But the achievement goes far beyond incomes, into access to education, clean water, internet and transport connections.

    That is the development strategy of China, one that goes beyond economic growth and puts people first. China cannot develop in isolation from the world and the world needs China for its development. And the message from the country’s leaders in recent weeks has been a firm commitment to that path.

    The Chinese ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, shared his thoughts on how China and Europe can work together to tackle global problems. He told Juliet Mann: “China will respond to external uncertainties with its own certainty and inject positive energy into world development with its high-quality development and high standard opening up.”

    There are “several key messages that are essential for the future global order: that China vision of a fairer and more inclusive global order; a more cooperative global order; and more importantly about a global order that has a safety net for the left-behind so that everybody can benefit,” said Yin Zhiguang, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University.

    David Ferguson, senior translation editor at the China International Publishing Group, agreed: “A huge amount of emphasis has been placed on shared development, which means that everybody shares the fruits. That was one of the fundamental bases of the whole poverty alleviation programmje. Targeting poverty alleviation was designed to make sure that nobody was left behind. And I think that that fundamental concept of shared development, people-centered development, is something that President Xi places increasing emphasis on.”

Balanced growth

On a panel focusing on China’s economic development, guests discussed how China has ensured that its growth - powering the global economy for the past two decades - has also been sustainable. With a “trilateral, hybrid” structure built around a 60 per cent contribution from domestic private businesses, a 20 percent participation from the state and a further 20 per cent from multinational companies, China has been able to create a modern economy, says Wang Huiyao, founder and President of Centre for China and Globalisation.

    The challenge the country’s leadership is now taking on is about how to adapt governance structures designed for an economy of around $2 trillion for an economy that has now grown to closer to $20 trillion, noted Mark Ostwald, chief economist at AGM Investor Services.

    As it makes those changes, other economies will have the opportunity to learn from them, says Stephen Perry, the Chairman of the 48 Club. “We may find ourselves where we could have been several hundred years ago when we used many of the innovations from China to make our industrial revolution happen,” Perry noted. “It's important, I think, for every country around the world to participate in China in order to learn all these great innovations which are going to be, in many cases, led from China.”

    One advantage China has in the course of its development is the long-term perspectives that its political system affords. The stability offered by the Communist Party means that rather than changing tack every few years, policies can be targeted decades ahead.

    “It's astonishing to see a governance system, a governing party that's able to look forward 27 years and be able to make specific plans for what the country is going to be looking like then,” said China International Publishing’s Ferguson.

    That philosophy is exemplified in the commitments made to education at the Congress. China’s science and education strategy has been in place since 1995 and has evolved to focus on new areas of growth such as artificial intelligence and space technologies.

Environmental leadership

It is in actions, not words, that China’s impact on the global economy is being felt, said Christoph Nedopil, Director of the Green Finance and Development Center at Fanhai International School of Finance, and nowhere is that more obvious, or important, than the battle against climate change.

    “Over the past years, based on its huge size and strategic capabilities in manufacturing and research, China has seized the opportunity to innovate and to develop globally leading bases for green transport and energy, and [become the largest supplier of solar and wind power in the world. And I think this is just the beginning of a great opportunity for China to scale up infrastructure domestically and internationally,” he said.

    China’s message to the world is to take a holistic view - thinking about people first, the panellists agreed, summed up in a message to the corporate world from Fundan University’s Yin: “Business needs to include much more concerns of the society in general, the social responsibility not only in China, but also globally…engaging with stakeholders instead of shareholders.”

XR returns to London!

by New Worker corrrespondent

Ecology campaigners were on the streets of London again for a “Weekend of Resistance” led by the Extinction Rebellion (XR) campaign as part of a month of protests called by a number of movements to draw attention to the environmental crisis which they say could trigger mass extinction across the planet.
    On Friday two young Just Stop Oil protestors poured tomato soup over Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting in National Gallery and then glued themselves to the wall beneath the frame while another sprayed yellow paint on the walls of New Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police’s headquarters, to protest against police and state repression of activists.
    The Van Gogh masterpiece was fortunately shielded in glass and suffered no damage. Enraged art lovers called it vandalism but this suffragette-style protest was defended by one of the protesters who said "Is art worth more than life? More than food? More than justice? The cost-of-living crisis is driven by fossil fuels—everyday life has become unaffordable for millions of cold, hungry families—they can't even afford to heat a tin of soup.
    "Meanwhile, crops are failing and people are dying in supercharged monsoons, massive wildfires, and endless droughts caused by climate breakdown," the activist added. "We can't afford new oil and gas, it's going to take everything. We will look back and mourn all we have lost unless we act immediately".
    The next day the climate change warriors gathered in Trafalgar Square on Saturday for a march on Downing Street to show “this corrupt, unelected government that we refuse to be pushed around”. Some burned their energy bills outside the Prime Minister’s residence while others held sit-down protests in other parts of central London to draw attention to their demands and disrupt traffic throughout central London.

Chinese language learning broadens children's horizon

China Bridge prize-winners

by Shi Xi & Liang Jun

As China is a major country on the global stage, to study China and its language can broaden children's minds and improve their career prospects..
    "China is at the centre of many developments. It's going to be important for our next generation of young people to understand China's culture and to also be able to work in the Mandarin language," said Joan Deslandes, head teacher at Kingsford Community School in Canning Town in east London
    She made the remarks at the prize-giving ceremony at London's Chinatown for the winners of the Chinese proficiency competition -- "Chinese Bridge" -- for primary- and secondary-level students. Altogether, nearly 500 British students participated in the two competitions held earlier this year online.
    "But more important is that I recognise that China has a wonderful history and culture that is unknown to many of the young people in the UK and I felt it would be broadening their minds and broadening their understanding and supporting their development as global citizens if they were to learn the language," she said.
    In 2000, Kingsford became the first school in Britain to introduce compulsory lessons of Mandarin Chinese into the curriculum.
    Around 140 students and teachers from 17 schools were present at Friday's event. They interspersed the prize-giving ceremony with performances including Chinese songs, Chinese traditional dances and Chinese musical instruments.
    "And those were just only a small number of them who won the competition, but behind that there are very many schools teaching Chinese, and a lot of enthusiasm about having Chinese as a language option in this country," said Katharine Carruthers, director of the UCL Institute of Education Confucius Institute for Schools.
    "China is playing an important part in the whole world global vision. We need to equip the children with all the skills and that involves language and cultural understanding, to be able to stay connected as they grow up," said Suzanne Haigh, head teacher at Kensington Wade. The London-based school is the first prep school in Britain to offer a bilingual immersive English-Chinese education for boys and girls from ages 3 to 11.
    "In terms of prospect for employability, knowing the Chinese language, being able to communicate effectively with people from China can only benefit the young people of this country," said Deslandes.
    "In our diverse world where there are so many challenges that have to be faced, it's only through bringing our young people together, through learning each of those languages, learning about each other's culture that the important cooperation that we need between all our nations for the future success of every country on this globe can continue," she added.
Xinhua

Fighting for Assange!

Corbyn joins the human chain

by New Worker correspondent

Jeremy Corbyn joined protesters in Westminster last weekend to demonstrate against the extradition of Julian Assange. The former Labour leader joined left-wing comedian Russell Brand, retired union leader Len McCluskey and thousands of other Assange supporters to form a human chain outside Parliament that stretched from its perimeter railings and across Westminster Bridge to the other side of the River Thames.
    Claudia Webbe, the independent MP for Leicester East who was expelled from the Labour Party following a conviction for harassment last year, also took part in the London protest that was part of a day of international demonstrations in solidarity with the WiKiLeaks campaigner.
    “I would say to MPs – actually of any party – you’re there to represent democracy and rights,” she said, “That’s what you sign up for… if Julian Assange is extradited, it will set forth fear among other journalists of doing anything to expose truth”.
    Assange, who is currently being held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison, will face espionage charges if he is sent to face trial in America. High Court has ruled that Assange can be extradited to the United States to face a life-time in jail for exposing American war-crimes in Iraq and other parts of the world The WikiLeaks founder is accused of publishing information detailing crimes committed by the US government in the Guantánamo Bay concentration camp, Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Assange’s wife Stella said the British government should speak to the US authorities to stop the extradition attempts. “It’s already gone on for three and a half years. It is a stain on the United Kingdom and is a stain on the Biden administration,” she said.
    She also voiced her fears for the jailed WikiLeaks founder’s health after he tested positive for Covid-19.
    "He tested positive for Covid on Saturday, the same day thousands of people came out onto the streets to support him," Stella said concerned that the prison authorities had only given her husband some paracetamol for his symptoms.
    "I am obviously worried about him and the next few days will be crucial for his general health. He is now locked in his cell for 24 hours a day," Stella stressed.
    In the US, supporters of the Australian-born activist gathered outside the Justice Department to call on the federal government to drop its extradition bid. The protesters said they hope Assange never steps foot on US soil as he would not be treated fairly by the judicial system.
    “Julian wasn’t trying to help dictatorships, he was trying to stop the United States from becoming one! And that’s why they want him in jail, and that’s why it’s crucial that we fight to set Julian free,” 2020 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate Spike Cohen said at the rally.
    Human trafficking survivor Eliza Bleu urged the “global elites, the ruling class” and employees of the CIA and FBI to “be a hero, quit your job and become a whistleblower.”
    “If it’s a choice between free speech and the United States government, trust and know, one’s gotta go! If one has to go, it ain’t gonna be free speech!” she said, adding that she is so passionate about freedom because she knows what it is like to lose it.

Enough is Enough!

Corbyn at the Kings Cross rally

by Ed Newman

Thousands of people took to the streets across the country last weekend to protest against the rising cost of living and inflation. The "Enough is Enough" rallies, organised by trade unions and climate change activists, were held over the weekend in all the major cities, including Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and London.
    "People can't continue to live like this," said Tim, one of the protesters outside London's Kings Cross station, demanding a pay rise to match rising inflation, unprecedented in 40 years. "I have colleagues at work who have worked out their weekly money and they can't afford to actually live once they pay their fuel bills and once they pay all the other rising costs," he said.
    "One of my colleagues, his rent's gone up 17 per cent just last week, 17 per cent! We're not getting any kind of pay raise like that. Our pay raise at the moment was something about 8 per cent. That's a massive pay cut for us," he noted. "That's why we're here today. Supporting the RMT (Maritime and Transport Union) and the CWU (Communication Workers Union), the post office (who) are on strike today, as well, because it's time for working people to get together and to take action."
    Helen, another protester at King’s Cross, said she was there because she was against the current right-wing government. She said the country's latest prime minister is "on the far, far right ... people are going to really suffer in all sorts of ways." "And we don't know where it's going to end. We need to get rid of them. We need to get rid of this Tory government."
    Helen also said the mini-budget, which gave massive tax cuts for those earning more than £150,000, would be "disastrous for this country." "I mean, we need to sort of seize the initiative on the left and get rid of these people. I mean, it means real hardship for people. It means it affects pensions. It affects people's rents, people's mortgages, people's gas bills, everything. People don't afford it."
    More than half the public do not have confidence in Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss to perform at the highest levels as a world leader, according to a recent poll. Describing the mini-budget as a measure "for the rich" some protesters said: "We are determined to survive and we're demanding caring for all those who care for people and the planet, the land, the environment, their home, and the community."
    “ We think that's the only way we can survive and save the planet ... We're demanding back all the money that's been stolen, that belongs to us. We intend to get it back".
    The pound has plunged to an all-time low against the dollar with investors looking for exits after the new Tory government’s fiscal plan threatened to stretch the crisis-battered country's finances to breaking point.
    Many Brits blame the Tories for the financial crisis. Labour leader Keir Starmer has promised to revive the economy, improve public services and take the government out of an “endless cycle of crisis” if he is chosen to lead the country at its next general elections.
    At his party’s annual conference in Liverpool last week, Starmer attacked the Conservatives' decision to cut taxes for the wealthiest amid a major cost of living crisis, urging voters not to “forget” or “forgive” the moves ahead of an anticipated national vote in 2024.
    Starmer insisted Labour was once again “the party of the centre ground” and promised to fix the UK’s ailing economy, revitalise the country’s National Health Service and confront the climate crisis.
    “This is a Labour moment,” Starmer told the packed venue. “Britain will deal with the cost of living crisis. Britain will get its future back… That’s my commitment to you… the national mission of the next Labour government. And together with the British people we will do it,” Starmer concluded.
Radio Havana Cuba

They did not pass!

by New Worker correspondent

London communists returned to Cable Street last weekend, to remember the epic day in 1936 when the Sir Oswald Mosley’s fascist legions were stopped in their tracks in London on 4th October 1936.
    NCP members and Greek KKE comrades paid tribute to the heroic stand of the Londoners who stopped the Blackshirts, at a ceremony by the Cable Street mural in London’s East End.
    On that day, thousands of working people, led by the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Independent Labour Party (ILP) rose early from their beds to occupy four key places along the route of a planned march by Mosley and his British Union of Fascists, in order to block its path.
    Throughout the day they stood firm, despite mounted police baton charges and numerous arrests.
    By noon, Gardiner’s Corner was impassable due to the number of anti-fascist demonstrators. Police tried to clear a route through Leman Street – but this was blocked by a tram, deliberately abandoned by its driver.
    Police tried to reroute the march through Cable Street. Anti-fascist demonstrators, the vast majority local residents, blocked Cable Street with barricades in three different places. Police fought their way through one barricade, only to be confronted by the second.
    Eventually the police gave up and ordered Mosley to abandon his march. They escorted him to the Embankment where his followers dispersed.
    This was a humiliating defeat for Mosley and it eventually led to a cutting off of vital funds from his main financial sponsor, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. The Battle of Cable Street marked a significant turning point and the end of any prospects of fascism becoming a truly mass movement in Britain, as it had done in some other European countries.
    The massive mural in Cable Street, painted by a number of local artists, was started in 1979 and finally completed in 1983. The work has been vandalised by fascists several times, but it was substantially restored in 2011.
    The design was based on original photographs of the battle and the buildings of the day. Some of the people who took part in the battle are depicted in the mural, along with others who symbolise the people of the East End today.

When Britain and China fought as one

by New Worker correspondent

On 1st October 1942, an American submarine sank a Japanese troop ship off Shanghai. Some 700 Japanese soldiers scrambled to safety when the Lisbon Maru went down. The 1,800-odd British POWs on board the ship were not so lucky. Many died trapped in the holds that had been sealed by the Japanese soldiers. Others managed to break through the hatches to take their chances in the water. Some were picked up by Japanese craft. Others, 384 in all, were rescued by local Chinese fishermen.
    And on 26 August, Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang called on Denise Wynne, the daughter of one of the survivors, at her home in Chalford, Gloucestershire to deliver a letter from President Xi Jinping.
    Mrs Wynne had written to the leader of the People’s Republic of China to thank him for mentioning this part of history during his visit to Britain in 2015 and to express the firm support of the families of the survivors of Lisbon Maru for the friendship between the Chinese and British peoples from generation to generation.
    In his reply the Chinese President said the rescue of the POWs was an important testimony to China and the UK fighting shoulder to shoulder as allies against fascist aggression during the Second World War. It is also a historical episode epitomising the profound friendship forged between the people of our two countries. The President wrote that he knew the episode well and made a point of bringing up the story during his visit to the UK in 2015.
    President Xi stressed that this year marks the 50th anniversary of ambassadorial-level diplomatic relations between China and the UK. Over the past half a century, and owing to the hard work and dedication of numerous friendly personnel from both countries, China-UK bilateral relationship has kept moving forward. The President hopes that the families of the survivors of the Lisbon Maru will continue to work for the advancement of friendship between our two countries, and he looked forward to positive contributions from more British friends to the growth of China-UK relations.

Fascism will be defeated!

Alexei Albu

by New Worker correspondent

A very successful online meeting to mobilise international support for the Free the Kononovich Brothers campaign took place on Thursday 25th August, with 50 participants from Ukraine, the Russian Federation, the USA, England and Scotland. Organised by the London-based International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign (IUAFS), the seminar called for the release of the Kononovich brothers and all Ukrainian political prisoners, and for the restoration of all political and media freedoms.
    Chaired by Theo Russell, the key speakers were: Chris Williamson, former Labour MP; Alexey Albu from Borotba (Struggle), a survivor of the 2014 Odessa Trade Union House Fire massacre; Steve Sweeney, Moscow-based investigative journalist and former Morning Star international editor; John Parker from Solidarity with Donbass and Antifascists in Ukraine (joining from Los Angeles); Phil Wilayto, Odessa Solidarity Campaign (Virginia USA); and members of the Young Communist League of the Russian Federation and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Speakers from Ukraine and the Donbas were unable to take part due to interrupted internet connections.
    Chris Williamson said that: "The imprisonment of the Kononovich brothers should have caused an outcry from the British left, but it has been met with a stony silence. We know the Zelensky regime is corrupt regime that came to power in a US-backed coup.” Speaking about the energy payments crisis currently shaking Britain, he commented that "most people aren’t making the connection between the sanctions on Russia and the soaring price of energy".
    In a video message from Eastern Ukraine, Alexey Albu spoke of the large-scale persecution of dissidents in Ukraine and said "tens of thousands have been arrested by the SBU (Ukrainian secret service)”. He said that many were not as well-known as the Kononovich brothers, Alexander Matyushenko of the left Livitstya movement or the Vasily Volga of the Union of Left Forces, all of whom have been beaten and tortured by Nazis. He added that in newly liberated areas the graves of those murdered by Nazis since 2014 are being exhumed. He said: "I believe that we will win and that fascism will be defeated, but I would be very happy if you comrades could help us in this process. No Pasaran!"
    Speaking from Moscow, Steve Sweeney spoke about the brutal crackdown on the opposition in Ukraine and said: "The entire Ukrainian left are either in prison, they’re dead or they’re in hiding.” He added that people in Moscow were "still reeling from the murder of Darya Dugina, who was killed in a cowardly attack" and compared the gloating in the western media over her assassination with their reaction to what they termed the "terrorist attack" on Salman Rushdie.

The IUAFS is a united front supported by the NCP, Socialist Fight, Consistent Democrats and the British Posadists as well as individual labour movement activists.Videos of the key speakers are now up on the new IUAFS YouTube Channel

Oliver Cromwell

OLIVER CROMWELL died on 3rd September 1658. Cromwell, the MP for Huntingdon, was the leading Parliamentary commander during the English Civil War which began in 1642 and ended in 1649 with the trial and execution of Charles Stuart and the abolition of the monarchy. The Republic of England, or Commonwealth as it was usually styled in English, was proclaimed soon after.
    In 1653 Cromwell became head of state, the Lord Protector. By then the republic Cromwell led included England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, as well as colonies in New England and the Caribbean.
    During its short life the Commonwealth became a force in Europe. Culturally it inspired the great poetry of John Milton and Andrew Marvell and other radical and pacifist religious movements such the Quakers who are still with us today. Oliver Cromwell was succeeded by his son Richard, who was neither a politician nor a soldier. Unable to reconcile republican generals with the demands of the rich merchants and landowners to curb the influence of the New Model Army, Richard Cromwell resigned the following year. The government collapsed. The monarchy was restored in 1660 and the New Model Army was dissolved.
    These days most bourgeois historians simply dismiss Cromwell as an upstart general who made himself dictator through his command of the army. But Marxists have always recognised the historic role of Cromwell and the English Revolution.
    It was, of course, a bourgeois revolution and one that by Cromwell’s terms failed. But the monarchy that came back wasn’t the autocracy Charles Stuart had imagined. The rich merchants and land-owners who wanted an oligarchy were the ultimate victors. They got their “mixed monarchy” when they dumped the last Stuart king in 1688 and put the House of Orange on the throne.
    The English revolution clearly influenced the thinking of the leaders of the later American and French revolutions and the ideas of the Victorian co-operator, Robert Owen. But the question of the monarchy and the House of Lords remains unresolved.

An enemy of the people

Mikhail Gorbachev is dead. He was 91. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says “the world has lost a great world leader, committed to multilateralism, and a tireless defender of peace”. Imperialist leaders such as Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and the rest of the Western pack mourn the passing of an old friend. Sir Keir Starmer calls him a “great figure” who will “forever be remembered”.
    In the West you’d think a saint had died – but on the Russian street Gorbachev is hated. He’s the traitor who restored capitalism and broke up the USSR for the benefit of the Western corporations and the black-marketeers who emerged from the shadows to become the oligarchs that plunder the country today. He achieved nothing apart from bringing unemployment and poverty back to what was once the Soviet Union.
    Gorbachev didn’t come from nowhere. He wormed his way to the top of the Soviet Communist Party posing as a “reformer” to become the idol of the Eurocommunists in Britain and the rest of Western Europe.
    In fact, the basis of post-war revisionism was laid down at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The vicious attack on Stalin by Nikita Khrushchev had two main effects within the world communist movement. In the West it opened the door to the fallacy of Trotskyism, which until then had been confined to small groups drawn from the middle strata and encouraged social-democratic illusions within the mass communist parties of Western Europe.
    In the East, the loss of confidence in the masses led to the rejection of the concept of the leading role of the working class. This, in turn, created a climate of compromise and defeat and led to the conditions that counter-revolutionary traitors successfully exploited in the end.
    Throughout the international communist movement it reinforced the drift towards social-democratic strategies and the abandonment of Marxist-Leninist thinking.
    Some communists were confused by Gorbachev’s false promises and his watch-words of glasnost and perestroika that presented essentially social democratic, anti-communist ideas and policies as "new thinking" and a creative development of Marxism. In turn, that helped to create the conditions that allowed the revisionists, liquidators and outright agents of imperialism to strengthen their position organisationally at every level of the Soviet party.
    The lack of a consistent and sustained attack on Eurocommunism by the CPSU leadership in the 1970s should have alerted the sound elements in the international communist movement to the pending danger emanating from the revisionist factions in the CPSU.
    Instead, the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev and his clique was the beginning of the counter-revolutionary offensive. It was a co-ordinated offensive masterminded by imperialists. It ended with the collapse of the USSR.
    The bitter lesson of that defeat for communists, the working class and progressive humanity has to be taken to heart. Revisionism, if it is not defeated and rooted out, will inevitably give rise to the eventual liquidation of the party.
    They say it’s wrong to speak ill of the dead. But, as Russian communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said this week, that doesn’t apply to major politicians. “I believe that Gorbachev was one of those rulers in the thousand-year history of Russia, who brought not only the peoples of our country, but also all allies and friends, absolute misfortune, grief and misfortune,” he said. “I consider it a great tragedy that he came to the crucible of political power…”

Enough is Enough!

Mick Lynch at the Grand

by New Worker correspondent

Mick Lynch got a rousing welcome at the ‘Enough Is Enough’ rally at the Clapham Grand in Battersea, south London last week. The venerable Grand, a historic venue outside Clapham Junction station that opened as a music hall in 1900, was once able to take a 3,000 strong audience. Later conversions to a cinema and a bingo hall as well as modern health and safety regulations has cut that capacity by almost two-thirds. But the now restored theatre was packed to the gills for the London launch of the campaign that seeks to lead the fight-back against cost of living hikes not seen for a generation.
    Well over a thousand people had come to hear the RMT transport union leader speak about the wave of strikes sweeping the country and the growing resistance to the austerity regime. Hundreds more were left outside the doors as the hall had reached its current 1,250 capacity.
    Lynch said the Enough Is Enough campaign “never started off as a political movement“ but the mood of the country has now made it one. The Tories had “assumed that our members and all workers wouldn’t fight for our rights, but they were wrong”.
    “Unions must lead, we can’t wait for the politicians. We need to get out into the communities and the former red wall to assist them to campaign. We need to show them how to organise. Our job as activists and trade unionists is to lift them, give them hope and get them out on the streets.
    “Join a union and join a campaign. Move the workers into campaigning and convert it into a wave of solidarity and industrial action across Britain.”
    Lynch urged “every union, community organisation, every grass-roots organisations — whatever it is — to fight back against this austerity”, adding that since this current administration “act in their class interests, it’s time to act in our class interests”.
    His words were echoed by Eddie Dempsey, another senior RMT full-timer, Zarah Sultana the campaigning Labour MP for Coventry South, and Michael Rosen, the poet and writer who is an outspoken supporter of Jeremy Corbyn.
    Enough is Enough was founded by trade unions and community organisations determined to push back against the misery forced on millions by rising bills, low wages, food poverty, shoddy housing – and a society run only for a wealthy elite.
    The campaign is calling for a rise in the national minimum wage, a path to £15 an hour, a real public sector pay rise and an increase in pensions and benefits. It wants a return to the pre-April energy price cap of £1,277 per year; the nationalisation of the energy companies and increasing investment in renewable energies.
    By reinstating the £20-a-week universal credit uplift, and universal free school meals, along with a new independent regulatory body to hold the government to account, as well as a wealth tax, the campaign hopes to end food poverty too – while providing 100,000 council homes a year.

There is only one China

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks took part in a seminar on the Taiwan issue at the Chinese embassy on 12th August together with members of Friends of Socialist China, the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding and the Chinese community in London.
    At the round-table discussion Ambassador Zheng Zeguang and other senior Chinese diplomats outlined the position of People’s China on the recent visit by the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
    Ambassador Zheng said the question of Taiwan has become a “touchstone” for the healthy development of Sino-British relations in the new era. While the trans-Atlantic special relationship is a matter between the UK and the US it should not be used to undermine the core interests of China. On the Taiwan question, a major issue of principle, there is no reason for the UK to disregard facts and “play with fire” together with the US. Lessons from the past must be learned. Certain British politicians often put the Taiwan question on a par with the Ukraine issue, clamouring to “help Taiwan to defend itself”. Some MPs even talk about plans to follow up with visits to Taiwan. Such words and deeds are extremely irresponsible.
    The root cause of the current crisis lies in the moves of the US side and “Taiwan independence” separatist forces who constantly attempt to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. Over the years, the US has been playing the “Taiwan card” to contain China by approving arms sales to Taiwan, upgrading its relations with Taiwan, and hollowing out the one-China principle.
    Any move that violates the one-China principle or challenges the red line of the Chinese side will bring serious consequences to the China-UK relations.
    The Taiwan issue has always been a sensitive issue at the core of China-UK relations. China and the UK began to explore the establishment of diplomatic relations in the early 1950s, but it was not until 1972 that the diplomatic relations were upgraded to ambassadorial level, the central part of which is about the Taiwan issue. Only after the UK clearly recognised the Chinese government’s position that Taiwan is a province of the People’s Republic of China, revoked its official representative office in Taiwan, recognised the government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, and promised to maintain only an unofficial relationship with Taiwan that official diplomatic relations between China and the UK were established. This history must never be forgotten and the UK should honour its pledges.
    We are willing to make joint efforts with people from all walks of life in the UK to oppose division and confrontation, advance dialogue and cooperation, and maintain the healthy and stable development of China-UK relations. It is hoped that people of insight from all walks of life in the UK will join hands to oppose the irresponsible and detrimental remarks and moves of certain politicians.
    The Chinese side urges the decision makers in the UK to take concrete actions to abide by its commitment to the one-China principle, not to develop any form of official ties or military cooperation with Taiwan, stop arguing for the United States and the “Taiwan independence” separatist forces, and stop making any remarks or engaging in any activities that interfere in China’s internal affairs.
    Ambassador Zheng emphasised that in the past 50 years since the establishment of ambassadorial diplomatic relations between China and the UK, the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries have brought enormous benefits to the peoples of both countries. These outcomes are hard-won and must be cherished. China-UK relations are now at an important juncture. Here in the UK, the Conservative Party will elect a new leader and the country will have a new prime minister. All the relevant parties are following closely the trajectory of the UK’s policy on China.
    Around the world, severe challenges, such as the pandemic, economic downturn, energy shortages and climate change, remain. Under such circumstances, China and the UK should greatly strengthen rather than weaken cooperation. The two sides should follow the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, adhere to the general direction of dialogue and cooperation, and join hands to address common challenges. This is the right choice that conforms to the fundamental interests of the peoples of both countries. We are willing to make joint efforts with people of insight from all walks of life in the UK to oppose division and confrontation, advance dialogue and cooperation, and maintain the healthy and stable development of China-UK relations.

Korea’s road to freedom

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity campaigners returned to the Sid French library at the NCP Party Centre last weekend for a seminar that focused on the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Korea and the outstanding achievements of the Korean communists who freed the country from Japanese colonialism and then went on to lead the people’s government that beat back the American invaders and their lackeys during the Korean war.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the Friends of Korea event, welcomed everyone to the meeting and then introduced the two main speakers – Michael Chant, the secretary of the Committee and Dermot Hudson, the Chair of the Korean Friendship Association.
    They both highlighted the immense achievements of the Workers Party of Korea over the past 70-odd years. Michael Chant stressed that the liberation of Korea on 15th August 1945 was not the gift of the Americans who claim that it was all down to their atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but an act of the Korean people themselves who took up arms under the leadership of Kim Il Sung in the 1930s in the long march to end the brutal Japanese occupation.
    And as Dermot Hudson said “the defeat of Japanese imperialism, one of the main forces and shock brigade of international fascism , by the partisans of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army led by the great leader Kim Il Sung made a great contribution to the victory of the worldwide anti-fascist forces”. This sparked off a deeper look at Korean-style socialism.
    Kim Il Sung not only grasped Marxism-Leninism but he applied it to the concrete conditions of the Korean people. He knew that once the masses realised their own strength they would become unstoppable. He knew that serving the people was the be-all and end-all for Korean communists and for the Workers’ Party of Korea that he launched in 1945. He developed Korean-style socialism and the Juché idea – which elevates the philosophical principles of Marxism-Leninism as well as its economic theories and focuses on the development of each individual worker, who can only be truly free as part of the collective will of the masses.
    In the Western world Juché is often described as “self-reliance” but it is much more than that. Kim Il Sung said that working people could only become genuinely emancipated if they stood on their own feet. But the Juché idea doesn’t negate proletarian internationalism. The Soviet Union, People’s China and the people’s democracies of eastern Europe all closed ranks behind DPR Korea during the Korean war and likewise Democratic Korea has given concrete support to Egypt, Syria, Zimbabwe and many other Third World countries struggling against neo-colonialism.
    The seminar reviewed the achievements of the DPRK in building Korean-style socialism, demonstrating the incomparable advances since the liberation of Korea from Japanese
colonial rule in 1945 and the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 9th September 1948. Following the foot-steps of Kim Il Sung and his successor Kim Jong Il the Workers Party of Korea with Kim Jong Un at the helm continues to defend the Korean people’s own path of development, striving for peace and for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.