May Day in London…

by New Worker correspondent

Thousands of trade unionists, socialists, communists and members of the Turkish, Kurdish and other communities living in London gathered in Clerkenwell Green outside Marx House for the start of the annual May Day commemoration. London comrades with the New Communist Party banner, marched alongside Ukraine anti-fascist solidarity supporters through central London for the traditional rally in Trafalgar Square. There they were joined by striking Unite workers who left their picket outside St Thomas’ hospital to join the rally in the afternoon.
     “It’s great to see such a diverse range of people coming together to celebrate our day,” Mick Lynch, the leader of the RMT transport union said at the rally “There’s a lot of talk about a big day coming up,” he said referring to the Coronation. “But this is about our history and our culture: the working people of the world, the people that generate all of the wealth so that these rich people can live on the cream of the world. That’s got to change: that’s what our movement is about”.

Northern Ireland – what next?

John Finucane speaking

by New Worker correspondent

Northern Ireland today – still divided by partition and sectarian division. There’s clearly still a job to do but there’s hope for the future. And at a meeting at the House of Commons in London on 25 April MPs on both sides of the Irish Sea joined in the discussion on the current situation following the historic 1998 Good Friday Agreement (GFA).
    Chaired by the Sinn Fein MP for Fermanagh & South Tyrone Michelle Guildernew, the panel included Pat Doherty, who was part of the Sinn Fein (SF) team at the negotiations, John Finucane, SF MP for North Belfast, Helen Jackson, a former Labour MP who was secretary to the late Mo Mowlam during the talks, former TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady, and the actor Adrian Dunbar, star of the TV series Line of Duty.
    Pat Doherty gave a gripping account of the peace talks before 1998, including the two IRA cease-fires, describing the "huge conflicts" between the Unionist parties, and saying that those who didn't join the talks (the Democratic Unionist Party walked out and the Ulster Unionist Party didn't take part) "made a huge strategic blunder".
    Doherty also said the the Women's Coalition, led by Catholic academic Monica McWilliams, "was a breath of fresh air" during the talks.
    Adrian Dunbar reminded the meeting that Belfast still retains a segregated education system, "with millions spent every year bussing children across the city". "The GFA sadly hasn't delivered on an integrated education system".
    John Finucane said it was important "never to underestimate the success of the GFA", pointing to the economic successes in finance technology, cyber security and two Belfast film studios, but condemned the Sunak government for pushing through a new bill "which will undermine the reconciliation process".
    He said "there is still a job of work to do" with major problems with inadequate spending grants from London, in health and job creation.
    Finucane pointed out that For the first time since 1921, Sinn Fein is the largest party" but was unable to govern due to the suspension of the Assembly by the DUP. With the largest number of seats the Sinn Fein president Michelle O'Neill is now in line to be First Minister.
    He also pointed out that the Biden administration has made clear that until London resolves the North-South border situation "there will be no trade deal, and no prime ministerial or state visits" until London resolves the North-South border situation and removes any threat to the GFA.
    Looking to the future, Finucane said "a new Ireland is not about rubbing out the border on the map and saying 'job done', but about equality, parity of esteem, and resolving power sharing".

Abolish the Monarchy Now!

By New Worker correspondent

British republicans have condemned the Metropolitan Police's oppressive treatment of protesters, who had gathered in their thousands in Trafalgar Square to denounce Charles III's coronation as the country's king. The protesters against the antiquated monarchical system said on Sunday that there is now no longer a right to peaceful protest in Britain after dozens of republican demonstrators were arrested.
    Overall, some 64 people were rounded up during the ceremony at Westminster Abbey before King Charles and Queen Camilla were driven back to Buckingham Palace. The police described the alleged offences that had led to the arrests as a breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.
    Those detained included Graham Smith, the leader of the Republic movement which campaigns for the abolition of the monarchical system in the United Kingdom and its replacement with a directly elected head of state.
    "This was a heavy-handed action which had the appearance of a pre-determined arrest that would have occurred regardless of the evidence or our actions. The right to protest peacefully in the UK no longer exists," Smith said. "These arrests were not about protecting people from harm, but about protecting the King from embarrassment."
    “I have campaigned on the issue of the monarchy for twenty years,” Smith said. “Time and again I have been told the monarchy protects us from tyranny, that the monarch guards our democracy and freedoms, defending us against the excesses of government. These arrests put the lie to those claims and are another example of the weakness of our constitution and the failure of our constitutional monarchy.
    “The Crown is one part of our failing constitution that concentrates too much power in the hands of government at the expense of parliament and people. We need a fundamental shift in power. We need elected representatives who are able to resist such draconian laws as those introduced this week, and a constitution that empowers the people to defend their rights.
    “These arrests have also destroyed whatever trust might have existed between peaceful protesters and the Metropolitan police. What is the point in being open and candid with the police, working with their liaison officers and meeting senior commanders, if all their promises and undertakings turn out to be a lie?
    “It is notable that King Charles has said nothing about these arrests. Rather than defend our liberty and values he is content celebrating his anointment as monarch while citizens are locked up. What is the point of a head of state who will say nothing and do nothing to defend the people?
    “These arrests were not about protecting people from harm, but about protecting the King from embarrassment. It was the state wanting to stamp down dissent in order to present an image of a grateful and consenting public at the time of the coronation”.
    Trying to explain the reason behind the arrests, the police however, alleged that their so-called duty to prevent disruption outweighed the right to protest.
    Republic said that its members began to be released late on Saturday evening after nearly 16 hours in custody.
    The Metropolitan Police had deployed some 11,500 officers for one of its biggest-ever security operations for the day of the coronation. The police had warned that it would have an "extremely low threshold" for protests, and controversially planned to use mass facial recognition technology to monitor the crowds.
    "Our tolerance for any disruption, whether through protest or otherwise, will be low," the Met warned in the run-up to the coronation. "We will deal robustly with anyone intent on undermining this celebration."
    The Republic movement was set up in 2006 to raise the case for a republic to a wider audience while scrutinising the actions of the royal household. It is strictly non-party political and claims to have over 80,000 supporters.

XR’s “Big One” rocks London

by New Worker correspondent

Tens of thousands of protesters descended on Parliament on Saturday as part of a four-day action, billed “The Big One”, designed to “highlight the environmental failures” of government. Environmental group Extinction Rebellion (XR) kicked off the event on Friday, promising less disruption and more inclusion than the sit-downs and transport disruption that are its usual trademark. This time the climate change campaigners focused on street theatre, open-air debates and forums and protest pickets outside government departments in London “to highlight the environmental and social failures across them all”.
    Saturday’s protest, which coincided with Earth Day, focused on nature and biodiversity. It started from Westminster Abbey with protesters and their children, wearing animal costumes and masks. Many had made banners for the occasion, with one reading: “We defend the climate but police arrest us” and another “Extinction is forever”. Others warned that a third of UK birds were “at risk of extinction”.
Some XR supporters took part in the London Marathon in Sunday while others organised “people’s pickets and forums throughout the heart of the capital.
    They were joined by household names such as top film actor Juliet Stevenson, White Teeth author Zadie Smith, legendary producer and composer, Brian Eno, human rights advocate, Bianca Jagger, and indie band She Drew The Gun. The long weekend of climate change action was also supported by PCS, the main civil service union and a number of leading environmental and social justice movements.

Stop the War in Ukraine!

 By New Worker correspondent

Comrades joined other campaigners in London for a Stop the War rally at Hamilton House last weekend that brought together a number of British and international speakers under the banner of ‘Stop The War In Ukraine’.
    Stop the War (StW) has been on a journey over the last year where their position on the Russian intervention in Ukraine has gradually changed, partly under pressure from members, from a position that wasn’t very different to the Government and the mainstream media, to now, where the only call at Saturday’s meeting was to end the war.
    Having attended many StW events in that time, Saturday was also notable for the absence of any assertions that Russia is an imperialist state.
    Kate Hudson from CND spoke on the increasing militarisation of the region, where states are dramatically increasing their military budgets, and the increased danger this causes. Also the depleted uranium shells, which the UK proposes to send to Ukraine, will escalate the conflict, cause long term damage to the people of Ukraine, and increase the risk of further British involvement in the war. CND has arranged a protest at RAF Lakenheath on 20th May against US nuclear weapons being stationed in Britain, and asks all who can to attend.
    Next up was the rapper and activist Lowkey, who always presents lots of complex information in very accessible form. He touched on the same themes as Kate, on the birth defects still happening in Fallujah, due to the use of depleted uranium 20 years ago during the American occupation of Iraq.
    His other theme was how for some companies, war is good for business. He spoke of the four main US defence contractors who have doubled their profits in the last year, and of the endemic corruption, giving the example of defence secretary Ben Wallace who was previously director of weapons company QinetiQ.
    QinetiQ has received hundreds of millions of pounds in contracts since the start of the conflict, and is so entwined with power that a QinetiQ director, Gordon Messenger was appointed to head a review into the NHS, surely a conflict of interest as the company has expressed interest in gaining NHS contracts.
    Lowkey finished by warning about the media. “The same people who lied to us about WMDs in Iraq are the same people lying to us about the war in Ukraine. They are the very same people in the media and in the government”.
    Sevim Dağdelen, a German MP from Die Linke (The Left party) spoke of her experience of opposing the war inside the German parliament, and how the anti-war campaigners are routinely smeared as puppets of Putin, or connected to the far-right – both untrue. She spoke strongly on how NATO and the US are the main danger to world peace, and our duty to oppose them.
    “While people are dying in Ukraine, arms companies are making billions increasing their profits by 11.5 per cent. It is our responsibility to stand up to the warmongers in our governments and end this escalating spiral of war”.
    Irish MEP Clare Daly has become one of the voices and faces of opposition to escalation and war mongering and she had a great reception. She spoke from her perspective of the changes since February 2022, where only a few MEPs spoke against NATO and EU escalation, to now where more are openly opposing the war. She said any opposition to the drive to war is delegitimised, in a conflict that has seen what she described as ‘unprecedented censorship’ where the only view we have on the conflict is through government press releases.
    She spoke of the numbers of people who contact her every day, saying they agree with everything she and fellow MEP Mick Wallace say, but they are scared to say it themselves.‘War can never be stopped by war. It can only be stopped by peace. We are in a majority but we are silenced by the establishment because they fear the power of this movement against war.’
    This was a good meeting, and StW are to be commended for organising. But there was no Q&A session after the speakers, and some people wondered who the organisers were more worried about, the members from the floor, or the platform speakers?