Pressure mounts on Starmer to go

by New Worker correspondent

Calls on Keir Starmer to go are growing. Five government ministers resign, including Wes Streeting, the health secretary who has been manoeuvring to depose Starmer for some time, amid reports that more than 80 Labour MPs have privately or publicly urged the Prime Minister to step down. Starmer defiantly tells his diminishing band of followers that he has no intention of resigning as Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting prepare to battle it out when Starmer finally bows to the inevitable and hands in his resignation. 
 Andy Burnham was selected as Labour's candidate for the by-election in the Makerfield constituency in north-west England this week. Burnham held one of Manchester’s seats in the House of Commons from 2001 to 2017. When Burnham made a bid for the Labour leadership following the 2015 general election he came a distant second to Jeremy Corbyn. He left the House of Commons to become mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017. Burnham’s less than covert come-back campaign began last year when it was clear that the Starmer government was on the rocks. But under Labour rules the leader can only be replaced by a sitting member of parliament.
His first attempt to return to Westminster, through a by-election earlier this year, was thwarted by Labour's National Executive Committee, which is dominated by Starmer’s followers and Blairites. Now that Committee has had second thoughts, and if Burnham does regain a seat in the House of Commons, he will certainly run for the Labour leadership.
Some say Burnham has done a “double-banking” deal with his Blairite rival, Wes Streeting, that would ensure that whoever wins the leadership race, the other gets the Number Two job in the Cabinet.
In the Starmer camp others say Sir Keir is digging in – pointing out that over 100 backbenchers and junior ministers have signed a statement arguing that it was “no time for a leadership contest”.
That’s not the view of Dan Hodges, a former Labour insider who now writes for the Daily Mail. He says Starmer is indeed considering throwing in the towel.
Writing in the Mail last weekend Hodges cited an unnamed Cabinet minister as saying that Starmer “understands the political reality” and is considering arranging his departure on his own terms. “He realises the current chaos is unsustainable. He simply wants to be able to do it in a dignified way and in a manner of his own choosing. He will set out a timetable,” the source said. The newspaper said it remained unclear when such an announcement could come, with some of Starmer’s allies urging him to wait until after the Makerfield by-election.
He’s possibly holding out for a top job in a future Burnham or Streeting government – maybe even Foreign Secretary. But what has he got to offer these days?
Graham Hryce, an Australian journalist, told the Russian media that “Starmer has never been anything other than a third-rate politician completely lacking vision. Unlike Tony Blair, who he somewhat woodenly resembles and tries to ape, Starmer lacks both charisma and political judgement. And unlike Jeremy Corbyn, Starmer is utterly void of principle.
“Starmer started out as a Corbyn acolyte, who then destroyed his master’s political career – by levelling false allegations of anti-Semitism at him – in order to advance his own. He then pretended – unconvincingly – that he had never supported Corbyn’s political programme in the first place. It must be conceded that this pose was at least superficially plausible, but only because it was difficult to believe that Starmer had ever believed strongly in anything at all...
...after disposing of Corbyn, Starmer ruthlessly imposed his own anodyne agenda on the Labour Party and filled his Cabinet with compliant nonentities like David Lammy, who continue to support him this week”.
Whatever happens the Remainers believe their time has, at long last, come. They’ve put the Common Market back on the agenda with Streeting making rejoining the European Union part of his campaign platform. Burnham’s more reticent as he knows this is a touchy subject in the constituency he hopes to represent. But he too is a Remainer and both he and Streeting know that on this issue they can count on the support of the Lib-Dems, the nationalists and the Remainer Tories when push comes to shove over a “second-referendum” in Westminster.  

Never forget Palestine!

by New Worker correspondent

"British complicity in the dispossession and mass murder of Palestinians is not only a story of the past—it is still the reality today" said Ryvka Barnard, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Deputy Director, on Nakba Day as hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through central London to highlight the ongoing impact of the 1948 partition of Palestine, the first Arab-Israeli war and the expulsion of nearly a million Palestinian Arabs from their homes in what is now Israel. The Stand Up to Racism movement joined the demonstration, combining it with an anti-fascist protest against a nearby “Unite the Kingdom” rally organised by a racist and supporter of the State of Israel who calls himself “Tommy Robinson”. Some 250,000 people joined the Palestine march that takes place every month in London while the Robinson rally was said to have drawn around 40,000 to its rally in Trafalgar Square.

Remember their sacrifice!

 

Russian ambassador Andrei Kelin 

by New Worker correspondent 

Millions of Russians took to the streets on Saturday to celebrate Victory Day and the surrender of the Third Reich on 9th May 1945. Every year, the Russian Federation celebrates the victorious end of the Second World War with parades and processions across the country while similar tributes to the millions of Soviet soldiers and citizens who died in the struggle to defeat the Nazis were held in much of the former Soviet Union, Europe and the rest of the world. And on Saturday comrades joined diplomats, solidarity campaigners and members of the Russian ex-pat community for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Soviet War Memorial in London to mark the 81st anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Wreaths were laid on Saturday 9th May at the Soviet War Memorial in Lambeth to honour the 27 million Soviet citizens and service members who died in what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War that ended in 1945 with the Soviet flag over the Brandenburg Gate and Hitler dead in his bunker in Berlin.
The solemn commemoration brought together ambassadors and diplomats from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, alongside members of the Russian-speaking community as well as British communists and anti-fascist campaigners who came to pay their respects to the fallen.
The memorial in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park next to the Imperial War Museum, unveiled in 1999, honours the millions of Soviet citizens who lost their lives in the fight against Nazism during the Second World War. The block of rare crimson quartzite was mined in Karelia in the north west of Russia – the same type of stone with which the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the wall of the Moscow Kremlin is lined.

We will not forget Odessa!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) and members of the Workers Party of Britain held a vigil outside the Ukrainian Embassy in London on Saturday 2nd May to remember the Anti-Maidan heroes who died at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa on 2nd May 2014.
On 2nd May 2014 a fascist-led mob torched the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, preventing firefighters from intervening and attacking anyone who tried to escape. According to the Kiev regime, 42 people who were defending democratic rights and the rights of Russian speakers died on that day, but this figure is widely disbelieved. According to local investigators the true number of fatalities is well over 300.
For the first time since the formation of IUAFS in 2017, a pro-Zelensky counter-protest was held in front of the embassy, including people wearing fascist Azov emblems – one of whom held a sign saying "We killed the protesters in Odessa". However there were around three times as many anti-fascist protestors as the Ukrainian fascist Banderites. People came out of the embassy to join the Banderite protestors. So the embassy was was clearly involved, and that may be result of the repeated IUAFS protests there. 
There was a large police presence in order to avoid any conflict breaking out in front of the embassy, which is located in one of the most expensive areas in central London. Members of the IUAFS approached the Bandera supporters to tell them we wanted to lay flowers at the embassy gate but were told "it is forbidden". We consulted the police who advised that this may lead to trouble breaking out, so it was decided to lay flowers under a tree across the road. The policy of IUAFS is that its campaigns are purely political, firstly calling on the British government to end all support and collaboration with the Kiev junta, and secondly to extend solidarity and support to all Ukrainian democrats and anti-fascists in Ukraine or living in exile abroad.
The Ukrainian protestors, who were holding Ukrainian, Romanian and British flags, shouted to the anti-fascist protestors "are you Russian? Do your support Hamas terrorists?", and a man apparently from Ukrainian TV filmed the IUAFS activists and also asked "where are you from?".
IUAFS will continue its campaign until democracy, freedom of the media and the right for all peaceful, democratic political parties to operate freely in Ukraine are restored. We look forward to the day when Ukraine is free of NATO personnel and provocations and all the national communities in Ukraine can live side by side together peacefully.

New bid to ban Palestine marches

by New Worker correspondent

“I am absolutely horrified by the appalling attack on two Jewish Londoners,” said Jeremy Corbyn on hearing the news that two Jews had been stabbed in an apparently anti-semitic attack in Golders Green. The Metropolitan Police have now detained a man with a "history of serious violence and mental health issues". The suspect in the double stabbing has been identified as a British national who was born in Somalia and came to the UK legally in the 1990s.   
Corbyn, the former Labour leader, who now heads the Independent Alliance bloc in the House of Commons, said “my thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones and Jewish communities across the UK. We must stand united against racist attacks - and defend a society that embraces the common humanity of us all”. But attempts by others to connect a series of anti-semitic attacks in north London with the marches in solidarity with Palestine are false.
The Stop the War Coalition has been proud to be part of organising these mass marches in support of the people of Gaza and against the genocide of the Israeli government. In a statement issued this week the anti-war movement said “we have campaigned for justice for Palestine since our founding 25 years ago, because we recognise that this question is inextricably linked to the wars throughout the Middle East which continue today in Iran and Lebanon. 
“We believe that the statements by Jonathan Hall KC, suggesting that the Palestine marches should be subject to a ‘moratorium’ because of the series of antisemitic attacks in North London, are unacceptable. 
“We condemn unequivocally these attacks, as we do all forms of antisemitism and racism. No one should be attacked for their race or religion. 
“However, the attempts by Hall, sections of the media and some politicians to connect such attacks with the Palestine marches are wrong. Our marches are against the treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza, against the killing of up to 200,000 people in the past two and a half years, the destruction of most of the Gaza Strip, and the targeting of hospitals and other civilian sites. They are in protest at the role of the Israeli government, and the complicity of the British government in these attacks. 
“These marches are supported by many Jewish people who attend. They are not the ‘hate marches’ described by right wing politicians but expressions of solidarity and support for those under attack. The aims to criminalise the protests, which reflect majority public opinion in this country, or worse to connect them with racist or terrorist attacks being carried out against Jewish people, are scurrilous and should be rejected. They appear to be part of a wider agenda to clamp down on protest more generally, and to limit our rights. In a democracy, we have the right to peaceful protest and we will continue to exercise it. We will be marching on 16th May for the Nakba”.

China leads the way

by New Worker correspondent

Ma Jiantang and Zheng Zeguang at the meeting

Andy Brooks joined other British communist leaders and solidarity campaigners in welcoming a senior Chinese delegation to London at a meeting chaired by China’s ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, at the Chinese embassy last week.

The five-strong delegation was led by Ma Jiantang, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China who also sits on the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) that plays a central part in the communist-led work of the United Front of China.

At the embassy the NCP leader, together with Alex Gordon of the CPB and Ranjeet Brar from the CPGB-ML along with a number of long-standing friendship activists, were briefed on China's efforts to expand domestic demand and promote high-quality development under the 15th  Five-Year Plan which began this year.  

In the discussion Andy Brooks said “the success of the Chinese revolution led by the Communist Party of China, is one of the greatest achievements of humanity. The communists were the only force capable of building the broad front in the struggle against Japanese aggression. They were the only ones able to unite China’s millions in the struggle against the landlords and exploiters during the civil war that ended with the establishment of the people’s government in 1949.

“Since then we’ve seen  an amazing transformation of a country which was the poorest in the world to a prosperous pillar of the Global South that is paving the way forward in the 21st century.  

“There may only be one road to people’s power but there are many roads along the way of socialist construction. Chinese-style socialism, based on the experience of generations of struggle,  is one of them”.

During their stay in London Ma Jiantang and his delegation also held discussions with government, business and academic circles as well as representatives of leading UK media outlets.