Celebrating Red October!

Andy Brooks makes a point

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades and friends braved the weather on Saturday to mark the Russian revolution that was, undoubtedly, the greatest event in the 20th Century. Representatives from solidarity movements and members of the Chinese embassy gathered at the Party Centre to salute the Bolsheviks that established the first workers and peasants’ republic in November 1917.
Once again the New Worker print shop was transformed for a bar and buffet that paused only for the formal part of the social opened by Peter Hendy.
NCP leader Andy Brooks paid tribute to the achievements of the Soviet Union in the 20th Century. Other speakers included Keith Bennett from the Friends of Socialist China, Ian Donovan from the Consistent Democrats, British Posadist Marie Lynam and Theo Russell from the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement, while Peter Hendy read out a message from Dermot Hudson of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) who could not join us on the night.
Although the USSR and the people’s democracies of eastern Europe are no more, the spirit of 1917 lives on in China, Cuba, Democratic Korea, Vietnam and Laos, and in the hearts of communists throughout the world, a point stressed during the fighting fund appeal that raised £805 for the New Worker!

Let Our Fire Engine Through!

By New Worker correspondent

Members of the Fire Brigades Union joined Palestine Solidarity Campaign supporters for an evening protest at the Israeli Embassy in London on Monday with the demand “Let Our Fire Engine Through!”
A fully-equipped fire appliance together with fire kit, boots, breathing apparatus and fire helmets, was donated by firefighters from the city of Dundee to the Palestinian fire service in Nablus in the West Bank. It was driven from Scotland to Southampton in the summer to sail to Israel but it has been held at the Israeli port of Ashdod since 21st July.
Dundee has been twinned with Nablus since 1980, and medical kit from the city’s Ninewells hospital along with football kits from Dundee’s East Craigie Football Club were also donated. Over 100 Palestinian firefighters have learned firefighting skills in Scotland, and Gaza protests have been held in Dundee every week since October 2023. Retired Dundee firefighter Jim Malone has championed the cause of Palestinian firefighters for decades and has visited the West Bank seven times, and in 2015 an award-winning documentary, Firefighters Under Occupation, was made by south Wales firefighter Ciaran Gibbons with the FBU's support.
Matt Wrack, the FBU general secretary said “firefighters in Palestine are working to save lives in horrifying conditions. As humanitarians, we cannot stand by while lives are being lost. It is appalling that life-saving equipment donated by our members is being held by Israeli customs while Palestinian firefighters are in desperate need of resources.
“The Fire Brigades Union calls on the Israeli government to release the donated fire engine immediately, and for the UK government to take any necessary action to ensure this aid is delivered safely”.

Defend People's Korea!

 by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined protesters outside the BBC HQ in London on Tuesday calling for an end to the demonising of the DPR Korea by the state-owned broadcasting service. A letter of protest from the Korean Friendship Association to the Director-General and Management board of the BBC was handed to a member of the BBC staff.
Dermot Hudson, the Chair of KFA, said “we are here today to protest against the BBC’s persistent demonisation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) or People’s Korea. No country -apart from maybe Russia and the former Soviet Union – has been lied about more by the BBC than the DPRK. Recently, the BBC or British Brainwashing Corporation has tried to blame the DPRK over the conflict in Ukraine making false allegations and quoted unconfirmed rumours and misleading reports.
“The BBC is an official state broadcaster. It is not independent but run by the British government. It is closely linked to British imperialism and US imperialism…
“The BBC promotes the ideology of market totalitarianism and liberal fascism. The BBC is a tool of the ruling elite and the big monopoly corporations. What is disgusting is that not only does the BBC lie about People’s Korea but it expects us to pay for its lies in the form of the BBC licence fee which is £169 per year”.

Trump redux

The Second Coming of Donald Trump has come as no surprise to many on the American left who warned that the Harris camp ignored their traditional core voters at their peril. Workers and the ethnic minority communities that had long supported the Democrats in the past wanted to see plans to curb unemployment, halt the slump in living standards and an end to the slaughter in Gaza. All they got were the usual platitudes – the dismal tune of the dying Biden administration that had nothing to offer apart from more misery and more war. Some just sat on their hands or voted for protest candidates on Tuesday. Some even voted for Trump.
Not that we can expect much from Trump judging by the people who surround him. More tax breaks for the rich, more curbs on the unions and civil rights in general and sweeping tariffs that could plunge the rest of the capitalist world into deeper recession.
Much of this will be approved by the ruling circles in the United States. Most are not at all troubled by the return of the maverick property speculator turned politician who wiil be back in the White House in January. Some, however, are concerned at Trump’s “transactional” foreign policy stand which they call “isolationism” even though this reflects a long-standing trend within the Republican party. During the Nixon era this type of diplomatic bargaining was called “reciprocity” at Soviet-American summits that traded-off nuclear arms limitations with spheres of influence in what was then called the “Third World”. The Soviet Union and its allies were the “Second World” but the “First World” was never actually called that. It was the “Free World” led by the United States, the “land of the free” and the home of the “American dream” that we were all supposed to aspire to.
The real American dream, world domination, was only spelt out after the fall of the Soviet Union. The most venal and aggressive sections of the American ruling class called it the “new world order”. The deep state that pulls the strings across party lines in the United States launched a series of “regime change” wars and “colour revolutions” to bring down all those who stood in their way. But it didn’t quite work out the way that they planned.
Yugoslavia has gone, Libya is in ruins but the American attempt to overthrow the popular front government in Syria has failed. The Americans have been driven out of Afghanistan and they’ve lost control of Iraq. The wars in Palestine and Ukraine are going against them and the BRICs group, which includes Russia and People’s China, is fast becoming the new focus for economic development throughout the Global South.
Kamala Harris’ Democrats still believe in the ‘new world order’, though they now prefer to call it “globalisation”. Trump, on the other hand, represents circles in the Republican Party who want to cut back US military expenditure in Europe and north-east Asia so that they can concentrate on controlling the global energy market by taking over the entire Middle East and restoring US imperialism’s hegemony over south and central America,
Trump says he’ll end the war in Ukraine at a stroke when he’s back at the helm. But we’ve heard it all before over Korea. Though he promised much when he was last in the White House he still remained a prisoner of the most aggressive elements of the American ruling class. No one knows if it’s going to be different this time round.

No nukes at Lakenheath

by New Worker correspondent

Kate Hudson at the protest

Campaigners, led by CND, gathered outside the RAF camp at Lakenheath last Saturday to protest at US plans to store nuclear missiles at the base.
The plan, which was revealed in US military announcements in January 2024 was agreed by the previous UK Tory Government led by Rishi Sunak, but the incoming Labour administration, led by Keir Starmer has shown itself even more determined to escalate military tensions and conflicts around the world. Since the start of July, Starmer has pressed for the use of US and NATO weapons inside Russia itself, made a commitment to send money to Ukraine 'for as long as it takes', and doubled the number of RAF surveillance flights over Gaza, gathering information to assist Israeli forces in their ongoing genocide.
Since 2008 the RAF base at Lakenheath has been nuclear weapons free, and the news of their planned return mirrors the placement of Russian nukes in Belarus, threatening a return to the arms races of the Cold War period, which benefitted nobody except the weapons manufacturers.
Each bomb that the Americans plan to store at Lakenheath will have three times the explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb, and as well as the deliberate heightening of military and political tensions. The possibility of accidents also increases, where each device has the potential to turn the neighbouring countryside into a nuclear wasteland.  
On Saturday, CND were joined by other organisations such as Medact, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, and some Green Party representatives such as Dame Jenny Jones, their former candidate for London Mayor. Their messages were all in the same vein, the dangerous and reckless ratcheting up of international tensions, the dangerous and immoral nature of the weapons themselves, the dangers posed to the people of this country by the deeper entanglement of the UK into the US war machine, and not least the dangers of accidents. More than one speaker mentioned the inappropriateness of British politicians sabre-rattling and threatening wars when the state of this country is taken into consideration.
Kate Hudson, who is probably the best known anti-nuclear campaigner in this country stood down from her role as CND president the day before this protest, and is now the honorary president. We managed to get a few words with Kate who said "Why is Britain and the US interfering in the AUKUS agreement for example, why are we getting involved in the so called Indo-Pacific? Why are we sending war ships out there? It's absolutely wrong, and it's part of the US determination to remain the single superpower, and if they have to do it through military means, they will do it through military means, and that is the reality of the situation, and we in the peace movement are determined to stop that.
"We're almost already at the brink of nuclear war in Ukraine, there's a danger of nuclear weapons use in the Middle East, because Israel is a nuclear weapons state, the only one in the region. Some of their ministers have talked about using nuclear weapons in Gaza, during the genocide; it's a terrible, disastrous situation. And these are places that we have no business being in”.
Asked why Britain gives the appearance of being more aggressive than the USA regarding the Ukraine conflict, Kate attributed this to Britain's determination to stick close to American strategic and policy goals, a determination that has existed since the 1956 Suez conflict, which dramatically, and for once and for all identified the United States as the senior party in the imperialist alliance. Since then Britain has clung determinedly to the Americans’ coat tails, as their most loyal lieutenant and supporter.
Britain had entered the Korean War a few years previously to cement their alliance with the USA, the first time in centuries that British troops had been deployed in a conflict of no strategic interest to it, but entirely to support US policy. Some British politicians including Churchill had hoped it would be a partnership of equals, with British know-how and experience supplementing US strength and power, but Suez revealed them for the pipe-dreams they were.

Palestine will never surrender!

outside the US embassy

by New Worker correspondent

In a powerful display of solidarity, hundreds of thousands gathered in London on Saturday to demand justice for the Palestinians and an end to Zionist terror in the Middle East. Demonstrators also staged a “die-in” outside 10 Downing Street and left toys in memory of the Palestinian children butchered by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip. 
At the rally Maysara Ibrahim, representing the Palestinian Forum in Britain, told the protesters “I have run out of words, as we repeat the same agony and the same pain, while the darkness before us threatens the very existence of our values, our principles, and what remains of our humanity. Yet seeing you all today brings hope. We must not stop until we see Palestine free. We will not bow, we will not surrender, and we will continue our fight until our land is free, until Palestine is free from the river to the sea”.
The march stretched from Whitehall to the American embassy in Nine Elms sending a clear message to global leaders about the urgency of addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
There, protesters were still at the peace camp set up some weeks ago to draw attention to the US role in the genocide. The local response was heartening with residents providing supplies, such as chairs, blankets, and food – including hot meals for the camp in the evenings. The camp finally closed this week to allow the local campaigners to “take stock and build up energy” for their next action following the presidential election in the USA.
In a powerful display of solidarity, hundreds of thousands gathered in London on Saturday to demand justice for the Palestinians and an end to Zionist terror in the Middle East. Demonstrators also staged a “die-in” outside 10 Downing Street and left toys in memory of the Palestinian children butchered by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip.

Stopping the racists in London

by New Worker correspondent

Over 20,000 activists turned out in London last Saturday to confront the “Unite the Kingdom” protest by supporters of Tommy Robinson, the third major far right gathering in London since just before the riots in June.
The protest, part of a nationwide day of action, was called by Stand Up to Racism with the slogans “Stop Tommy Robinson – Stop the Far Right, unite against racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism”.
The march was backed by the TUC, 14 major trade unions, and many other organisations. Aslef leader Mick Whelan told the protestors at the start of the march in Piccadilly Circus “this is my London. This is who we are, what we stand for. Those people down the road do not speak for us”.
Originally billed as a triumphal appearance by Robinson in Trafalgar Square, the massively promoted and mis-named “Unite the Kingdom” march from Victoria to Parliament Square turned out to be a flop after he handed himself in at a police station in Folkestone last Friday. He had fled the UK the day before a High Court appearance in June and faces several charges.
His supporters waved Israeli flags and “Make America Great” banners, but their hour of glory completely failed to get off the ground. As the mass protests against the far right rioters in June showed, the anti-racist movement will always dwarf the far-right, which is only supported by a tiny minority of Britain’s people.

Stop the Genocide!

by Theo Russell

Tens of thousands of people across England, Wales and Scotland took to the streets last Saturday in support of the demands to Stop the Genocide, Hands Off Lebanon and Don't Attack Iran.
Over 30,000 people packed London's Trafalgar Square, carrying Palestinian and Lebanese flags. One of the speakers from the plinth beneath Nelson's Column pointed out that current opinion polls show that only five per cent of British citizens are opposed to an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, highlighting the huge gulf between the British people and the government --or to be specific, between the British people, the Labour and Conservative parties and the Unionist parties in the north of Ireland. All the other parties with members of the UK’s four parliaments have been calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire for many months now.
This is how Britain's ruling class blatantly defies the overwhelming will of the British people and makes a mockery of Britain's much vaunted 'democracy'.
People in Britain and around the world find it incredible that Israel has committed crimes under the Geneva Conventions – the indiscriminate targeting and collective punishment of civilians – for over a year with impunity. Now we see Israel killing thousands of civilians throughout Lebanon, a country not able to defend itself, and issuing diktats to residents ordering them to move or be bombed, with no condemnation from the leading Western countries.
More and more people are seeing the contradictions between Western outrage against actions by the Russian military in Ukraine and the free pass given to Israel to murder and starve civilians and bomb any country in the Middle East with no international mandate whatsoever.
And of course no politician or mainstream Western journalists is ever allowed to say a word about the Banderite Ukrainian junta’s military deliberately targeting civilians with missile attacks.