Brian Haw remembered

by New Worker correspondent

A bronze statuette of Brian Haw the peace campaigner was unveiled at the Imperial War Museum in London last weekend. Brian Haw camped out in Parliament Square for over ten years in protest against Anglo-American aggression in Iraq and imperialist wars throughout the rest of the world. Despite the best efforts of the police to hound him out Brian maintained his vigil until ill-health forced him to leave shortly before his death in 2011.
Brian Haw was a little-known evangelical Christian, motivated by the pacifist teachings of Jesus of Nazareth that are often ignored by many of those who profess to believe in him, who travelled to northern Ireland and Cambodia to preach “love, peace and justice for all” in the 70s and 80s. But he hit the headlines with his one-man protest against the imperialist aggression against Iraq.
He set up his tent opposite the so-called “Mother of Parliaments” in June 2001 to protest against the cruel imperialist blockade against Iraq that preceded the invasion and occupation by Anglo-American imperialism in 2003.
Brian was never short of company. Peace campaigners made a point of visiting his tent in the heart of London to help or spend some time in solidarity with the protest, which grew as Haw decorated the square with his home-made posters and peace banners condemning the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This rapidly became an alternative London tourist attraction. But it was also an embarrassment to the Establishment and it soon attracted the unwelcome attention of the police.
For over ten years Haw maintained his round-the-clock vigil, braving all weathers and violent attacks from thugs and the police. He defied all threats to evict him, including an abortive new law to restrict demonstrations within half-a-mile of Parliament. In 2006 the police succeeded in obtaining authority to remove and confiscate Brian’s entire display. Fortunately the 40 metre long display was entirely recreated by the artist Mark Wallinger who won the 2007 Turner Prize for his exact replica of the encampment, entitled State Britain, that was exhibited in the Tate Modern art gallery. And supporters and friends maintained the protest tent when ill-health forced Haw to seek treatment for cancer in Germany paid out of a fund raised by British peace campaigners. 
In February 2023 a group of supporters and friends launched a campaign to create a permanent public reminder of Brian Haw's crusade for peace that raised the £25,000 needed to create the monument 
The ceremony was unveiled by three of his children while the famed actor, Sir Mark Rylance, paid tribute to Brian’s  "bright sense of conscience".  The actor, who is a patron of the Stop the War movement, said "His great call was to stop killing the children...no matter what conflict we have as adults, they didn't create that conflict and we should find a peaceful way of resolving the conflict". And, appropriately enough, the words “Stop killing the kids” are inscribed underneath his likeness.  

One Struggle! One Fight!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity joined the National Palestine March in London on Saturday to make the links between the wars waged by NATO imperialism and its proxy Zionist Israel in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon and Ukraine. As at many previous Palestine protests they received an overwhelmingly positive response from those on the march. The IUAFS protest also made the point that the Global South, representing the majority of humanity, was overwhelmingly opposed to Israel's genocidal methods in Gaza, while most developing countries did not support the West's sanctions against Russia or support the Zelensky regime in Ukraine by sending weapons, and had resisted Western bullying and pressure to change their positions.

Red Salute to Karl Marx in Highgate

Ismara Vargas Walter and Dr Dhawali at the tomb

By Theo Russell

London communists joined other comrades and friends, including the ambassadors of People’s China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and Sri Lanka, to mark the death of Karl Marx at his graveside last Sunday. Marx died in London on 14th March 1883 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery three days later. 
And by his tomb speeches in Marx’s honour were delivered by the Cuban ambassador Ismara Vargas Walter and Dr Ashok Dhawali, an Indian peasant leader and a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (M). 
Ismara Vargas Walter said the event was “not only to honour Karl Marx’s memory but to reaffirm our commitment to the ideas that ignited the Cuban Revolution and continue to guide our struggle for justice, sovereignty and socialism”.
In Cuba “our youth learn Marxism not as dogma but as a tool for critical thinking” and that the answers to the problems of globalised technology, climate change and a US-dominated world order “lie in Marx’s emphasis on collective action and socialist planning.
“The digital age has brought new forms of exploitation, platform capitalism, algorithmic oppression, and the commodification of human attention, but it has also created new avenues for resistance, for mobilising, for spreading revolutionary consciousness. Our task is to harness these tools for the people, not for profit“. Cuba stands with Palestine, Venezuela and Nicaragua against genocide and US “criminal unilateral coercive measures”, and “all nations resisting imperialism”.
Dr Ashok Dhawali, the president of the All-India Farmers Union, said that Marx’s thinking is still relevant today in a world which  “since 2020, the richest one per cent have grabbed
nearly 67 per cent of all new wealth... billionaire fortunes rise by $2.7 billion a
day...and 46 per cent of the world’s population live under the global poverty line.”
The Indian communist said the entire imperialist camp backed the “Zionist genocide by Israel against the courageous people of Gaza”  while “the socialist countries like Cuba, China, Vietnam, Laos, DPRK, and the left-led countries of Latin America and Sri Lanka… are boldly opposing imperialism and Zionism”.
Dr Dhawali also recalled the historic year-long struggle by millions of farmers which led to the repeal of three anti-farmer laws in 2020-21, and said that a massive general strike was planned in April against four proposed new pro-corporate labour codes in India.
The gathering ended with the laying of flowers by the ambassadors and representatives of political parties, including a delegation from the New Communist Party, and the singing of The Internationale.

The Eternal Thoughts of Karl Marx

By New Worker correspondent

Last weekend communists and friends gathered at a reception at the NCP Party Centre in London to remember the life and times of a great revolutionary thinker. Karl Marx died in London on 14th March 1883 but his memory lives on in his works, and those of his life-long comrade Frederick Engels, that are the foundation stones of scientific socialism.

MC’d by Richard Bos in the New Worker print shop guests paused for the formal part of the social to hear a number of speakers pay tribute to the immense contribution that Marx and Engels made in the struggle for the emancipation of the working class. They included Pablo Ginarte from the Cuban embassy, Theo Russell from the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign, Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association and an Italian comrade. Marx’s immense contribution to socialist thinking that we now call Marxism-Leninism can never be forgotten said Andy Brooks, the NCP leader, whose sentiments were echoed by Ian Donovan from the Consistent Democrats group and Marie Lynam from the British Posadists.

Traditionally no NCP event can ever end without a collection for the New Worker fighting fund and comrades rose to the occasion by raising £566 for our communist weekly.

Raising the Palestinian flag over Westminster

by New Worker correspondent

 A protester has been charged after he climbed up Big Ben in Parliament Square to raise the Palestinian flag last weekend. He stayed there for 16 hours before coming down to end the action designed to spread awareness regarding the situation in Gaza and Britain's response to it. Large crowds gathered in support beyond a police cordon. Parliamentary tours cancelled and Westminster Bridge closed, while police also blocked pedestrian access at Parliament Square after protesters began to gather near the edge of the cordon.

A tribute to an untold tragedy

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined academics, solidarity campaigners and members of the film industry for an event to mark the 80th anniversary of the defeat of the Axis in 1945 last week. Chinese and British publishers hosted a series of events to pay tribute to the victory at the London Book Fair and one of them was the special screening of The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru at the Soho Hotel Screening Room in heart of London’s cinema world.

The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru is a 2024 documentary feature film about a little-known Japanese war-crime during World War II, produced and directed by Fang Li, that features family members of the British prisoners of war who were on board the Lisbon Maru. It not only rediscovers a long-silent history but also tells the story of how the peoples of China and Britain supported one another in the darkest of times. 

The Lisbon Maru was a Japanese transport ship carrying Japanese troops as well as over 1,800 mainly British and Empire prisoners of war. On 2nd October 1942, the ship was tragically sunk by a US submarine in the waters off Zhoushan, China. The Americans were unaware of the POWs on board.

Rather than assist the POWs, the Japanese shot many who were trying to escape. Many more drowned. In all, 828 lives were lost during the incident. However, this amount would have been higher but for the heroic efforts of the local Chinese fishermen who risked their own lives to save 384 British soldiers from the water. The heart of the film is based around those heroic fishermen and the risks they took to assist.

Through rare archival footage, survivor testimonies and expert interviews, this poignant documentary uncovers the harrowing journey of the prisoners as the ship began to sink leaving them trapped below deck. The film also highlights the role of the Chinese fishermen who risked their lives to rescue as many prisoners as they could.

Since its release in China The Sinking of Lisbon Maru has received widespread critical acclaim, achieving a remarkable rating of 9.3 on Douban, a popular Chinese social networking and review platform. It became the highest-grossing and most-watched Chinese documentary of 2024, won the Best Documentary award at the Silk Road Awards, and was selected as China’s submission for Best International Feature at the 97th  Oscars. Following talks with an independent distributor the film may soon go on a limited general release in the UK.

Stop the proxy war against Russia!

By New Worker correspondent

London comrades joined other activists from the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity movement who were out and about in Brixton last weekend. And they received an extremely positive and friendly response from local people in the south London borough – a working class area with high levels of unemployment and poverty, at their picket on Saturday. Many people showed their support and had discussions with the protesters. These are some of the comments we had from the local people: "Why are we giving all that money to that guy in Ukraine (Zelensky)? He's got houses all over the world...We need that money for ordinary people here!...Fuck NATO! They are killing the whole world!" and "Spend money on people here, not on Ukraine, Look around you, you can see the devastation here!"

A friendship forged in war

Ambassador Zheng welcomes the guests at the reception

by New Worker correspondent

The Chinese Embassy hosted a special reception in London last weekend for the families of the Lisbon Maru survivors, commemorating a heroic rescue during World War II and celebrating the Spring Festival.
In October 1942 the Lisbon Maru, a freighter requisitioned by the Japanese army to transport more than 1,800 British prisoners of war  from Hong Kong to Japan, was torpedoed by an American submarine near the Zhoushan islands off Shanghai. As the ship sank, local fishermen risked their lives to rescue over 300 POWs.
At the event the Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang recounted the rescue that stands as a testament to the time when China and Britain fought side by side against Japanese fascist aggression. The rescue has left tales of the profound friendship between the people of the two countries – a friendship that "will never fade" and "has become a valuable asset" for bilateral relations, he added.
Lindsey Archer, the niece of a British soldier who perished when the ship went down, said that events like this help strengthen bonds and foster new friendships. She expressed that the families of both the British survivors and the Chinese rescuers have become a new community for her. Keeping the memory of their ancestors alive, she said, is crucial, as "what they suffered, lost, and sacrificed has shaped where we are today".
Last year, Lindsey, along with a dozen other descendants of the British POWs visited China to pay tribute to the fallen at the wreck site in Zhoushan. Kenneth Salmon, whose father was a Royal Artillery sergeant rescued from the sinking Lisbon Maru, described the emotional connection he felt during the visit. Reflecting on the friendships forged during the trip, he said there is "an emotional attachment" in Zhoushan.
He also expressed his appreciation for the presence of young children at the reception, stressing the importance of preserving the story of the rescue for future generations to learn about their ancestry and their family history.

BBC trashed!

photo: Martin Pope

by New Worker correspondent

Palestine Action activists smashed windows and splattered the BBC headquarters in Portland Place, London, with red paint last week in protest against the Beeb’s ongoing complicity in the genocide of Palestinians through its entrenched pro-Israel bias. The BBC was covered in blood-red paint to symbolise the Corporation’s responsibility for the blood spilled in Gaza and the state broadcaster’s role in whitewashing Israeli atrocities through its partial and biased coverage. For years, the BBC has consistently minimised Israel’s violence against Palestinians while amplifying the narratives of the Zionist oppressors.
“The BBC’s biased reporting isn’t a simple case of poor journalism – it’s a matter of life and death. By downplaying Israeli war crimes, the BBC is complicit in the genocide unfolding in Gaza,” said a spokesperson for Palestine Action. “This isn’t just about the news – it’s about the role of the media in shaping global complicity. The BBC has blood on its hands, and today’s action is part of a wider campaign to hold them accountable. We will not stand by as the BBC sanitises genocide“.

Cease-fire in Gaza, Yemen and Ukraine now!

by New Worker correspondent

Some 200,000 people from all over Britain joined the national Palestine Solidarity Campaign march from Westminster to the US Embassy on the other side of the River Thames on Saturday. This reflected the massive support across the country for self-determination for the Palestinian Arabs, a sovereign state of their own, and a secure life free from hunger and ceaseless Israeli military and Zionist settler violence. 
They were joined by anti-fascist activists calling for NATO to end its war in Ukraine and an end to Israel's genocidal wars who received an overwhelming, 100 per cent positive response from supporters of Palestinian liberation last weekend. Their protest was organised by International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), which has campaigned in solidarity with anti-fascists and democrats in Ukraine and in exile since 2017.
Over 100 people, including many media photographers and journalists, filmed or took photos of the IUAFS action, and over 40 joined the campaigners briefly to have their photos taken with the protesters. The enthusiasm for the IUAFS was incredible and many people thanked us for linking NATO’s role in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. 
The protesters were most appreciative of the placards declaring that the Global South, the majority of humanity, oppose Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon, NATO’s support for the Banderite gangsters in Kiev, and the ten years long bombing of the people of Yemen.
Members of IUAFS believe that their solidarity actions will still be needed long after an agreement to end the conflict is Ukraine is reached. They point out that Britain and its imperialist allies are already planning networks to conduct terrorism in the future with the eventual goal of destroying and dividing the Russian Federation.

Palestinian lives matter!

picket outside Israel ambassador's London residence

by New Worker correspondent

Local campaigns across Britain are pressuring councils to divest pension funds from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has released updated research revealing that Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds, administered by local councils across the United Kingdom, invest over £12 billion in companies enabling Israel’s genocide, military occupation and apartheid against the Palestinian Arabs.
Freedom of information requests have resulted in the most complete picture yet of the investments of 81 out the total of 86 LGPS funds. Hundreds of millions of pounds are invested in arms companies supplying Israel with weapons including BAE Systems, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin and RTX Corporation.
The research, obtained through Freedom of Information requests, details the investments of 81 LGPS funds in companies which produce weapons and military technology used in Israel’s attacks on Palestinians; provide services or infrastructure that supports Israel’s unlawful military occupation; or conduct activity in Israel’s illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
Collectively LGPS funds invest over £450million in BAE Systems, which manufactures components for Israel’s F-15, F-16, and F-35 warplanes used to bomb Gaza. Over £80 million is invested in Caterpillar, which manufactures bulldozers used by Israel to demolish Palestinian homes, schools and hospitals. While over £90 million is invested in the RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon, which produces 4,000-pound GBU-28 bombs used by the Israeli military.
For the first time, PSC’s research identifies investments in Amazon and Alphabet Inc (Google). This totals £4.7 billion, nearly 40 per cent of the value of all investments listed. Both companies work together to provide cloud computing infrastructure to the Israeli military and government, dubbed Project Nimbus. In addition, the research shows LGPS funds hold over £28 million in Israeli government bonds, therefore lending Israel money to carry out its atrocities.
The new research comes as campaigns calling for the divestment of LGPS funds from companies enabling Israel’s human rights abuses continue to gather momentum. Earlier this month Tower Hamlets Council passed a motion committing to divest its pension fund from arms companies, following a strong local campaign. While Bristol City Council has called for Avon Pension Fund to divest from arms companies, and companies active in Israel’s illegal settlements.
Lewis Backon, the Campaigns Officer at Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said “the scale of LGPS fund investments in companies that are complicit in Israel’s grave abuses of Palestinian rights is shocking. The deferred wages of millions of local government workers are going into companies enabling Israel’s war crimes, without their consent. But workers and residents are making it increasingly clear that they won’t accept their pension funds being used to fund companies complicit in genocide and apartheid. This year will see the LGPS Divest campaign grow as a force for justice for Palestine – divestment from Israel’s crimes is a moral and legal imperative that cannot be ignored”.

Welcoming the Chinese New Year!

by New Worker correspondent

Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang joined tens of thousands of Londoners celebrating the start of the Chinese New Year in the heart of the capital last weekend. Some 800,000 people joined in the Spring Festival celebrations organised by the London Chinatown Chinese Association (LCCA) in Trafalgar Square, Chinatown and other landmark places. 
The LCCA has hosted Chinese New Year celebrations in Trafalgar Square for 24 consecutive years, making it the largest Chinese New Year celebration event outside Asia. This year's opening ceremony lasted for six hours, with lion and dragon dances enchanting the audience. Similar performances and more including parade floats were also organised in Chinatown and Piccadilly Circus, attracting tourists from all over the world who tasted first-hand the charm of traditional Chinese culture.
Ambassador Zheng said that the Spring Festival, the social practices of the Chinese people celebrating the traditional new year, has now been officially designated as part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, which adds a particular meaning to this year’s grand celebrations. The Chinese New Year celebration is all about renewal, family unity, and prosperity. And this is exactly what people from across the UK and beyond have gathered here for--to celebrate peace, solidarity, friendship and collaboration. It also shows their support for China-UK friendship and cooperation.
He thanked the LCCA for its long-standing effort in promoting cultural, educational and commercial cooperation between the two countries, and extended best wishes for the Chinese New Year to the Chinese community, students and Chinese-funded institutions in the UK and to people across the UK and all over the world.

Standing up to racism in London!

by New Worker correspondent

Thousands of people took to the streets of London last weekend to protest against a far-right march in favour of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the jailed racist who calls himself “Tommy Robinson”. Some five thousand anti-racists rallied in central London for the protest organised by Stand Up to Racism that was supported by the TUC, 17 trade unions, and a coalition of faith groups, national campaigns and Labour and Green politicians. 
The far-right demonstration, some 5,000 or so “football lads” and third-rate fascists – was a fraction of the 25,000 that marched at their most recent mobilisation in October. Eyewitness reports suggest infighting and rowing amongst the far right demonstrators. Anti racists argue this reflects tensions within the far-right camp, such as the distance Nigel Farage has attempted to create between his Reform Party and Robinson’s street movement, as well as other pressures amongst these far right groupings and individuals.
Eyewitnesses at the far right demo say they heard Islamophobic chants while Howard Cox, a former Reform Party London mayoral candidate, called for unity between the Faragists and Robinson’s followers, and echoed Trump’s release of the Capitol Hill rioters by calling for the release of all the August far right rioters in Britain. Another  speaker said “round them up and kick them out” and “start the deportation programme for those who refuse to assimilate”.
With the racists threatening to mobilise again on 22nd  March, Stand Up To Racism is only the more determined to turn our day of protest as part of the international World Against Racism day of action into a serious anti-racist mobilisation to continue to take on the far right and oppose them.
Weyman Bennett, co-convenor of Stand Up to Racism, said “Today we might not have brought the 20,000 strong demonstration we delivered in October, but with a much shorter turn around time and so early in the new year we are feeling energised, encouraged and determined in the fight to drive back the threat of the far right and fascists after today’s impressive showing.
“To see their numbers plummet so dramatically to something like a quarter of what they put on the streets in the autumn – it shows both the weakness and divisions on their side, and it shows we can continue to build a strong united force that can keep bringing to pressure to dissipate, demoralise and defeat them.
“This will take an enormous and ongoing effort, and a real seriousness – we must not be complacent. But take hope from today – what we do matters, we can, if we bring consistent pressure from a broad and united movement taking action – and we can turn this tide.
“In the week of Holocaust Memorial Day, we must remember the lessons of the 1930s. We cannot repeat the history that will lead to more future generations repeating the question: ‘But why didn’t everyone do something?’ – a united movement that exposes and opposes the fascists and calls out the racist swamp they operate in can stop them”.

Saying no to genocide!

by New Worker correspondent

On 27 January, International Holocaust Memorial Day, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), arranged an alternative memorial service outside the Polish embassy in London to call for the arrest of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who was attending the official service at Auschwitz, the former Nazi death camp in Poland. The Polish government had already promised to ignore the ICC (International Criminal Court) arrest warrant issued against Netanyahu for potential war crimes.
Interestingly the Russians, who liberated Auschwitz, have not been invited to the official ceremony for some years, while German politicians, representing the country that committed the Holocaust are honoured guests.
Two of the themes of the protest were education on other lesser acknowledged and unpunished crimes and genocides and the misuse of the Nazi Holocaust to prevent criticism of Israel and its actions.
Stephen Kapos is a Jewish child Holocaust survivor. As a child, he wore the yellow star, and avoided deportation from Budapest to the camps in 1945 by going into hiding. He was a long-standing Labour Party member, in the same local branch as Keir Starmer, until he was threatened with expulsion in 2023 for agreeing to address a Holocaust Memorial Day event that the Labour hierarchy disagreed with. So he resigned instead of being expelled.
Stephen has always supported the Palestinian cause and calls for the end of illegal occupations and since October 2023 he has spoken tirelessly for this cause; for a ceasefire, the end of weapons sales, and for the decisions of the ICC and ICJ to be implemented. He sees his Jewishness as central to his support for the Palestinians and he spoke of his disgust at the Nazi Holocaust being used to cover up and justify the ongoing slaughter in Palestine, and now Syria and Lebanon.
Clare Glasman from disabled advocacy group, WinVisible, spoke of how the Nazi Holocaust began with the dehumanisation of the disabled and sick before moving on to other marginalised groups in society, and how the Aktion T4 Euthanasia Programme, beginning in 1939, gassed disabled people in Germany years before the Final Solution and the extermination camps.
Other speakers from Rwanda, Vietnam and Kenya spoke of more recent genocides from direct experience, and the need to use these crimes as examples to prevent them happening again. A speaker from Colombia covered the New World from the arrival of Columbus to the African slave trade.
One constant across the speakers was that what the Nazis did in Europe was not new. Western countries had behaved the same way in Africa, Asia and the Americas for centuries. What was new was bringing colonialism to Europe, and treating Europeans in the same way as what was then seen as the ‘lesser breeds’. Across the globe, bourgeois politicians are using divisive rhetoric and tactics to divide people and set them against each other, aided by the media. All speakers spoke of the importance of people and communities under attack to stand together and support each other, how Palestine is the crucial issue of our time and the need for international support and solidarity.

Police crackdown on Palestine protesters

by New Worker correspondent

Leading anti-war campaigners and scores of other protesters were arrested last weekend as the police moved to break up a massive Palestinian solidarity demonstration in central London. The rally in Whitehall was called after the Metropolitan Police, under Zionist pressure, banned a planned march on the BBC claiming it would cause serious disruption to services at a nearby synagogue. 
In response, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) announced plans for a rally and a peaceful protest against this anti-democratic ban. On the day the demonstrators were confronted with extremely heavy-handed and aggressive policing. With less than 24 hours’ notice, the police had imposed a series of complex restrictions preventing people from assembling at various points on Whitehall at different times of the day – notably an area at the centre of Whitehall from which rally participants were excluded for part of the day to allow space for a children’s marching band to proceed up and down. As a result a number of people were arrested, without warning, on flimsy pretexts including simply for inadvertently standing in this central area at the wrong time.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, a maverick Labour MP, were issued cautions by the Met and interviewed on Sunday. Chris Nineham, the vice-chair of the Stop the War campaign, was dragged off with 76 others and though Nineham and some of the others have been bailed others remain in custody. Nine have been charged with public order offences including PSC director Ben Jamal and Jeremy Corbyn’s brother, Piers.
Ben Jamal said he would "vigorously contest" the charges against him and described the scenes on Saturday as "a huge assault on the right to freedom of assembly and to protest".
The Met claim the protesters had forced their way through a police cordon to march towards the headquarters of the BBC after ending their 100,000 strong protest in Whitehall. But Corbyn  said “this is not an accurate description of events at all. I was part of a delegation of speakers, who wished to peacefully carry and lay flowers in memory of children in Gaza who had been killed.This was facilitated by the police. We did not force our way through. When we reached Trafalgar Square, we informed police that we would go no further, lay down flowers and disperse. At that point the Chief Steward, Chris Nineham, was arrested. We then turned back and dispersed. I urge the police to release all bodycam footage and retract its misleading account of events”.
 Stop the War national officer John Rees said “this is a direct assault on freedom of assembly and democracy. The police’s actions, including their false statements after the event, are deeply troubling. We demand the immediate release of all those arrested and remain resolute in our campaign for freedom and justice for the Palestinian people”.

Standing together for the unemployed

by New Worker correspondent

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) campaigners picketed the Harlesden jobcentre last week to give out leaflets to claimants about the help KUWG can provide. The Group focuses primarily on combating benefits injustices through advocacy in individuals' benefit claims, and on demonstrations that emphasise that there is hope when we come together.
The KUWG recognises that the struggle of the employed and the unemployed is one and the same, but it also affirms that smear stories and marginalisation add to the isolation experienced by the unwaged. The campaign was started by Tom Mellish, a TUC official, some 15 years ago in collaboration with the Willesden Trades Council and it has been going ever since.

I.5 is Dead!

by New Worker correspondent

Two members of Just Stop Oil, the direct action climate campaign, were arrested last week after they spray-painted the words “1.5 is dead” on the grave of Charles Darwin in London’s Westminster Abbey. 
The protest followed the news that 2024 was the hottest year in human history, with the average global temperature rising by 1.6 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 
One protest organiser, Alyson Lee, told reporters “2024 was the hottest year on record. We have already passed through the 1.5 degree that was supposed to keep us safe. Millions are being displaced. California is on fire.  And three-quarters of all wildlife has disappeared since the 1970s”.
 Alyson, a 66 year-old retired teaching assistant from Derby, said “ten years on from the Paris Agreement, we have already exceeded the so-called safe temperature rise of 1.5 degrees, and are heading for over 3 degrees of warming. This rapidly accelerating crisis means huge parts of the world will become unable to support life, resulting in millions of refugees, social collapse and extinction for countless species”.
She believes Charles Darwin would approve of their protest “because he would be following the science, and he would be as upset as us with the government for ignoring the science”.
The other protester, Di Bligh, a 77 year-old former CEO of Reading Council said “Darwin once said ‘it is not the strongest of the species, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change, that lives within the means available and works cooperatively against common threats’.
“Last year was the hottest since modern humans evolved. If we do not work together to rein in the corporations and billionaires driving us beyond our means, humanity will not be able to adapt to what is coming. We are on course to lose everything, and politicians are doing nowhere near enough to prevent it. How many will we have to bury as a result of climate breakdown and who will be left to mourn them?”

Stop Ukrainian Nazism!

 

by Theo Russell

A candlelit vigil was held in Whitehall last Saturday to remember the thousands of journalists, bloggers, politicians, activists, priests, pensioners and sportspeople who have been arrested, and many tortured or murdered, since the February 2014 NATO-backed coup in Kiev.
The event was organised by the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), which has been campaigning for six years in solidarity with anti-fascists and democrats in Ukraine who have been arrested for opposing the war, organising Second World War commemorations, allegedly working with Russian forces such as organising humanitarian supplies or corridors, or simply for posts on social media.
In January 2024 Chilean-American blogger Gonzalo Lira died in prison in the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkov, where he had been imprisoned for eight months charged with “justifying Russia’s war efforts” in Ukraine. He had lived in Ukraine for many years with his family and was a globally known critic of the Zelensky regime.
Despite calls for his release from the likes of Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, the US government and their embassy in Kiev took no action to help him. The British and EU governments stayed silent too.
Only days after Lira’s death an 82-year-old citizen, Yuri Chernishov, received 15 years in prison with all his property seized – effectively a life sentence – on charges of sending information on Ukrainian troops to an alleged Russian contact. Footage from the courtroom shows him shouting at his jailers and branding them “fascists”.
Since 2014 Ukraine has been a corrupt and lawless state, with Banderite (Ukrainian fascist) organisations like the Azov Battalion and Hitler-admiring Right Sector. penetrating the army, police and intelligence services.
Many civilians have been beaten and tortured in secret prison camps where it’s common for them to be kept standing up in holes in the ground for days on end. The evidence is all available on the web in photos, videos and eyewitness accounts for anyone to find, but the Western mass media shows no interest.
There has never been any investigation into the killing of over 40 peaceful anti-fascist protesters when the Trade Unions House in Odessa was surrounded and petrol bombed by a mob of nationalists and football “ultras” on 2nd May 2014.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have received long prison sentences, with all their property confiscated, for “crimes” such as posting Soviet era greetings on social media, for continuing in their jobs as teachers, railway, gas and health workers in areas which were under the control of Russian forces.
After the Russian intervention in February 2022, areas recaptured by Ukrainian forces were “cleansed” by Kiev’s forces and far-right units, and many local officials and ordinary citizens were brutally murdered.
One such case was reported in March 2022 by the Daily Mail: “The pro-Russian mayor of a city in eastern Ukraine who welcomed President Vladimir Putin’s invasion was 'shot dead' after being kidnapped from his home. Several mayors and other Ukrainian officials have been killed since the outbreak of war, many reportedly by Ukrainian state agents after engaging in de-escalation talks with Russia”.
Many other local officials suffered the same fate, including in the town of Bucha, near Kiev, where the deaths of people shot by a punitive police unit led by a notorious Russian fascist were attributed to Russian forces in our media.
The whole world knows that since 2014 the new pro-NATO regime in Kiev has treated Russian-speaking Ukrainians as second-class citizens. Over 20 per cent of Ukrainians consider Russian their native language, but around 80 per cent also speak and read Russian.
Russian has been removed as an official language in Ukraine. Russian books, banned in all educational settings and libraries, have all been destroyed by the authorities

Free Gaza Medics!

by New Worker correspondent

Pro-Palestinian activists interrupted their seasonal celebrations to join an emergency vigil in London's West End on 28th December against the Israeli military's systematic destruction of hospitals in Gaza. The vigil in Piccadilly Circus was organised by the Health Workers 4 Palestine campaign that was co-founded by a group of doctors in October 2023 to combat the censorship they experienced, when standing up for the rights of Palestinian health workers and the rights of Palestinians to healthcare.
On 27th December Israeli troops raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last major health facility in Northern Gaza, removed all the patients and staff, and set fire to it. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of the hospital, was arrested and is still in Israeli detention.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a statement saying it was is appalled by the raid. "The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days on North Gaza puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk". The statement added that "some people were reportedly stripped and forced to walk toward southern Gaza". The Gaza Ministry of Health says that now all three public hospitals in Northern Gaza, the Kamal Adwan, Beit Hanoon and Indonesian hospitals, have been "taken out of service by Israel’s offensive". On 4th January WHO Director-General  chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency had received “no updates on the safety and wellbeing” of Hussam Abu Safia.