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.”