Down the Rabbit Hole

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks was in northern Kent this week talking to Jaz and Ric, the hosts of the ‘Rabbit Hole Arms’ podcast based in Wilmington, a couple of miles south of Dartford. New kids on the block, Jaz and Ric launched their online broadcasts a couple of months ago “with the spirit of your favourite pub: relaxed company, curious minds and conversations that rarely take the straight road home”. They record from The Plough, a traditional pub in the heart of Wilmington. And over a beer or two Andy spent a couple of hours talking about the history of the NCP since 1977, communism in Britain and some of the Cold War history their listeners are interested in. The Rabbit Hole Arms are members of the Kent film-makers group. Jaz have a dedicated Facebook page and their podcasts are on Spotify and YouTube – check out the website on https://www.therabbitholearms.com

Friendship with Vietnam

Andy Brooks and Le Hai Binh

By New Worker correspondent

Andy Brooks held talks with a visiting Vietnamese delegation in London last week. The NCP leader met a delegation from the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics (HCMA)
at the Vietnamese embassy in Kensington on Wednesday 30th September. The delegation was led by Le Hai Binh, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the two sides the current situation in Vietnam and the United Kingdom as well the challenges facing the contemporary communist movement around the world.
The Vietnamese delegation met political leaders, academics and representatives of the British government during their week-long stay in Britain. The delegation held talks with the Communist Party of Britain Chairwoman Lorraine Douglas and dons at the University of Oxford including Professor Rebecca Kitteridge, Professor of Practice in Public Policy and Co-Director of the Leadership Programmes at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.
Prof Binh outlined the HCMA’s key functions in research, strategic and policy advice, and training high- and mid-level Party officials, linked to Vietnam’s centenary development goals. He proposed jointly designing certified courses and programmes for Vietnamese officials as well as international learners at the academy.
At a meeting with Oxford University leaders, Professor Alex Betts, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for External Engagement, Sport and Community, expressed readiness to help connect the HCMA with relevant academic units. The delegation proposed joint research, scholar exchanges and visits by Oxford experts to the academy, particularly as Vietnam works towards becoming a developed country by 2045 and prepares to host the APEC economic forum next year.
At the Oxford University Press, Georgina Hoare, the senior manager for Academic Rights and Licensing, discussed opportunities to publish HCMA works, helping bring Vietnamese theoretical research to international readers.
At London’s Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the delegation met
Ben Bland, the Director of the Asia-Pacific Programme, and held discussions on ASEAN’s role, shifts in the global order and development models.
Working sessions with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the FCDO Diplomatic Academy and the Vietnam-UK Network also contributed to greater mutual understanding and provided additional reference material for the HCMA’s research.
The visit identified a number of concrete areas for co-operation, laying a foundation for the HCMA to develop specific programmes and plans in the coming period and contribute to improving the quality of Vietnam’s cadre workforce to meet the country’s development requirements.

You shall not pass!

Foto: Karl Weiss

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades joined thousands of anti-fascists marching through London on Sunday to commemorate the Battle of Cable Street that stopped Mosley’s Blackshirts in 1936.Demonstrators rallied outside the 18th century facade of the old London Hospital, now part of the new Tower Hamlets Town Hall, for a march to Cable Street to honour those who battled with the police to force Sir Oswald Mosley to call off his fascist march through what was then a predominantly Jewish part of London’s East End. On that day, thousands of working people, led by the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Independent Labour Party (ILP) rose early from their beds to occupy four key places along the route of a planned march by Mosley and his British Union of Fascists, in order to block its path. Throughout the day they stood firm, despite mounted police baton charges and numerous arrests.
By noon, Gardiner’s Corner was impassable due to the number of anti-fascist demonstrators. Police tried to clear a route through Leman Street – but this was blocked by a tram, deliberately abandoned by its driver.Police tried to reroute the march through Cable Street. Anti-fascist demonstrators, the vast majority local residents, blocked Cable Street with barricades in three different places. Police fought their way through one barricade, only to be confronted by the second. Eventually the police gave up and ordered Mosley to abandon his march. They escorted him to the Embankment where his followers dispersed.
This was a humiliating defeat for Mosley and it eventually led to a cutting off of vital funds from his main financial backer, the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The Battle of Cable Street marked a significant turning point in the struggle to prevent fascism becoming a truly mass movement in Britain, as it had done in some other European countries.
Many of the protesters carried banners bearing the slogan "They shall not pass" or "No pasarán" the watchword of the Spanish communists during the fight against Franco’s fascist legions in the 1930s.
In 2026, the politics of division and hate is on the march again. Lessons and inspiration from the past help us in the fight for a fair society in the future.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who now leads the Independent Alliance bloc in the House of Commons said he was “proud to join today’s huge march celebrating the 90th anniversary of the battle of Cable Street. On this day in 1936, thousands stood alongside the East-end Jewish community to defeat Mosley’s fascists. Their bravery is an eternal reminder: never give in to the far-right”.
Rajan Uddin Jalal, a leading figure in the Bangladesh Youth Movement's fight against racism in the 1980s and 90s said "The racists are active again. There is a new form of racism now, there is a new form of fascism which includes Islamophobia. We are here today to campaign against racism, fascism and division within our communities. We want peace for all people, we want to live peacefully, in harmony, in our multicultural communities". And Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets and leader of the local Aspire party that runs the borough, said the anniversary was an opportunity to remember those who opposed fascism in the 1930s. "Our forefathers said, 'No, you're not coming here. You shall not pass'. And we say that again now: the fascists, the far right, will never run riot in Tower Hamlets!”
Unite the union, one of the sponsors of the event, has published a book to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. Working with trade unionists, artists, poets and singers the book, Cable Street 1936-2026: Not Then Not Now, brings together trade unionists, historians, artists, poets and singers to reflect on the Battle of Cable Street, the fight against fascism elsewhere in the country, and the struggles in the decades since. An A4 gatefold softback with holographic foil to the cover it includes a special Battle of Cable Street 90th anniversary A2 poster by Cold War Steve and copies are available on the Unite national website for £19.36.

The Chinese people have stood up…

by New Worker correspondent

These were the words spoken by Mao Zedong at the foundation of the People’s Republic of China on 1st October 1949. And last week NCP leader Andy Brooks joined diplomats, politicians, solidarity workers, business leaders and members of the overseas Chinese community at a reception in London to mark the 77th anniversary of that momentous day.
The Chinese Ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, welcomed over 500 guests at the reception at the Peninsula hotel in Belgravia and Baroness Winterton, a veteran Labour peer in the Burnham government delivered greetings on behalf of the United Kingdom for the celebration and China’s traditional Mid-Autumn festival.
Ambassador Zheng outlined China’s domestic progress and its significant contributions to global development over the past 77 years. Chinese modernisation, he said, has created unprecedented opportunities for the world, advancing global development and prosperity through opening-up and international cooperation. It has also opened new prospects for the development of China-UK relations.
Zheng recalled that the UK was the first major Western country to recognise New China. He emphasised that the partnership serves the interests of both nations and contributes to world peace, stability and development. Since the beginning of this year, new progress has been made in China-UK relations. China stands ready to work closely with the UK to follow through on the common understandings reached by the two countries’ leaders and to achieve further progress. 
Rosie Winterton, who has served as the UK's minister responsible for what London calls the "Asia-Pacific region", highlighted China's development over recent decades and the importance of the UK-China relationship. This "engagement does not mean avoiding difficult issues. It means creating the conditions to discuss them openly and directly" she said stressing the value of co-operation in areas such as climate change as well as in exchanges among students, businesses and people from both countries.
This was followed by an artistic performance by Chinese and British artists that included the dance Held by Love, a piano rendition of A Moonlit Night on the Spring River, and the choir piece Love My China.

The way forward under Burnham

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades and friends spent the best part of the day pondering on the problems of the labour movement at the NCP Party Centre last weekend. Which way forward for the labour movement was the topic for discussion at the seminar opened by NCP National Chair Richard Bos on Sunday morning. Not an easy question to answer was the response from NCP leader Andy Brooks, who followed with a summary of the Party’s electoral policy since its foundation in 1977 and its current position of backing Labour or independent Labour candidates with mass support that was adopted in 2000 to support Ken Livingstone’s successful bid to become Mayor of London. 
Keynote contributions from British Posadist Marie Lynam and Ian Donovan of the Consistent Democrats sparked off a discussion that continued for the rest of the day. Participants, which included online comrades from East Anglia and Scotland, looked at where did the Corbynistas lose their way, the merits or otherwise of George Galloway’s Workers’ Party of Britain and the current position of the new Labour leadership under Andy Burnham,
Needless to say there was no conclusion apart from the general consensus that these forums should continue with the focus again on the problems and challenges that the working class face today in Burnham’s Britain. The New Worker plays its part in that struggle and after a rousing appeal from Richard Bos £117 was collected for the fighting fund!

Opening new horizons in London

Around 150 scholars, officials and representatives from the business, culture, education, and media sectors gathered in central London last week for an event aimed at promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and Britain.
Hosted by China Daily under the theme "Listen to Each Other, Open New Horizons" the event called for closer people-to-people engagement and greater efforts to deepen mutual understanding through education, culture and personal exchanges.
Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, said in a video speech that advances in transport and technology have dramatically shortened the physical distance between China and Britain, but genuine understanding between people still requires direct communication.
"In an era increasingly fractured by information bubbles, we need face-to-face communication to shatter preconceptions," Qu said, adding that people-to-people and cultural exchanges can help strengthen public support for friendship and cooperation between the two countries.
Frances Wood, former head of Chinese collections at the British Library, shared how her decision to study Chinese at Cambridge in the late 1960s led to a lifetime of engagement with Chinese history and culture. She recalled decades of cooperation between British and Chinese scholars to conserve, catalogue and publish thousands of Dunhuang manuscripts held by the British Library. Scholars and conservators from the two countries worked side by side to restore fragments that had remained largely untouched for decades.
Michael Spence, president and provost of University College London (UCL), highlighted education and research cooperation, saying trust remained at the heart of long-term collaboration between Britain and China.
UCL has more than 30,000 alumni and over 15,000 students with links to China, while researchers from the university and Chinese institutions have jointly produced more than 10,000 academic papers. Citing co-operation in fields including cancer treatment, climate research, artificial intelligence and lunar science, Spence said universities can provide a space where people from different backgrounds build trust through shared study and research.

Xinhua