Halt aid to fascist Ukraine!

by New Worker correspondent

While racists rallied in central London to listen to the likes of Tommy Robinson last weekend 
the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity campaign returned to south London to picket in the working class district of Brixton calling on the Starmer government to stop sending weapons, money and military personnel to Ukraine, and to end its disgraceful alliance with the Nazi Banderite gangs.
They carried placards saying “Spend £21.8 billion on housing, not on Ukraine “, and condemned Starmer’s plans for massive increases in military spending and the whipping up of a war mentality in Britain – plans which will not go down well with millions of working people struggling with the ever increasing cost of living.
The protest took place against a background of Britain and its allies in the "Coalition of the Willing" desperately trying to put together a so-called ‘reassurance force’ to be sent to Ukraine after a peace deal has been agreed.
It also took place shortly after the hysteria over claims of a Russian “drone invasion” of Poland – clearly being seized on by the NATO leadership – with evidence emerging that it was very likely a British-Ukrainian false flag operation, with Polish citizens whose homes, allegedly “destroyed” by Russian drones, now coming forward to say that they were damaged months ago by severe storms.

Tube strike solid!

by New Worker correspondent

RMT pickets get their message across in Brixton as London Underground workers shut down the network in a series of rolling strikes over pay this week. And at the TUC conference in Brighton RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey called on Mayor Sadiq Khan to attend a summit with the union to find a resolution to the escalating dispute. At the Brighton Centre Dempsey told delegates from across the six million strong trade union movement, “I’ve got a message for the Mayor. Instead of going on social media, instead of the old tired clichés, telling trades unionists to get round the table, you’re the Mayor of London, you’re the Chair of TfL.
“Stop going on social media, invite us to the meeting, let’s have a discussion, because I want to know what is going on in London”. He warned of more strike action if there was no resolution but pointed out that members did not want to be in this position. “We take no pleasure in causing disruption but we make no apology for fighting for our members. So if the mayor has any sense, he will reach out to us”.
Moving the unanimously backed motion which means the TUC collectively calls on the summit to take place the RMT leader said “this Congress calls on the mayor, to urgently convene a summit to resolve all these disputes, improve industrial relations, end outsourcing and defend ticket offices”.

Stop Starving Gaza!

by New Worker correspondent

Last Saturday thousands joined Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) actions at over 50 locations around the country, including eight across London, and laid down pots and pans to demand our politicians take action to end Israel's starvation of Gaza. “We must keep the pressure up,” says the PSC “as we once more lay down pots and pans to represent those starved to death by Israel’s genocidal blockade and demand our politicians take action to end Israel’s starvation of Gaza. We won't stop until our government ends all complicity in Israel's genocidal violence”. 
In south London Vanessa Redgrave, the veteran campaigning actress, joined protesters demonstrating for an hour outside Lambeth town hall in Brixton for an end to the genocide and for Lambeth council to divest its pension fund of enterprises linked to the Zionist entity.  
“Tonight, local people responded powerfully to the national call from PSC to protest the genocide and Israel’s deliberate starvation of Palestinians, a horror we are all witnessing”
said Micki Loebner from the Lambeth and Southwark 4 Palestine campaign. He told the media that “ in Lambeth, we wanted to join the wave of demonstrations happening across the country and also send a clear message to Lambeth Council: stop investing pension funds in Israeli companies complicit in this genocide. They are still refusing to act.The turnout tonight, especially on such short notice, shows that ordinary people are determined to stand up for Palestine. We see the genocide, and we will keep protesting”.

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!"

Brixton solidarity with Baltimore

 HUNDREDS of people marched through Brixton on Sunday 3rd May to show solidarity with the people of Baltimore in their struggle against police brutality and racism.

Baltimore has erupted in protests after a 25-year-old African American, Freddie Gray, died in police custody with a broken neck – the most recent in a long litany of black victims of shocking police brutality made public through social media.

The people of Brixton in south London have also had their share of clashes with racist police. Brixton is noted for its diverse ethnic mix and has had a thriving West Indian since the 1950s, now joined by a large African community.

Brixton has seen riots against police brutality in 1982 and 2011.

Last Sunday, in the event organised by the Black Revs (Black Revolutionaries), the banners proclaimed: “No justice, no peace”, “Africans have a right to resist,” and “Reclaim Brixton”.

The community is also engaged in a titanic battle against “gentrification” of the area, soaring rents and the destruction of working class homes and communities to be replaced by luxury apartments that no local can afford.

In Baltimore, a curfew was lifted on Saturday after scores of arrests were made over the week, with over 3,000 security forces on the ground, backed up by the National Guard.

The tensions there eased after six policemen involved in Freddie Gray’s death were arrested and charges were brought against them.

But they were renewed again earlier this week after another black man was reported to have been shot in the back while running away from police. Police are claiming that no one was hurt but video footage shows a black man being taken away in an ambulance.

Anger rises as Brixton people fight for their homes

 by New Worker correspondent

  POLICE used tear gas to stem an invasion of the huge police station in Brixton on Saturday 25th April as protesters tried to storm it in a massive demonstration of local anger at the “gentrification” of Brixton that is forcing working class people out of the area.

About two hours before, thousands of people, mainly local residents, had gathered in Windrush Square in Brixton, south London, last Saturday in protest at rising housing costs that are forcing working class people out of the area and breaking up long-established and unique communities.

They are especially angry at the local authority, Labour-controlled Lambeth, for demolishing council estates and closing down housing co-operatives in order to luxury accommodation that local people cannot afford.

Feeder marches from local housing estates converged on Windrush Square from different directions – all loud and colourful and with a rich ethnic mix.

For a while the feeling was like a festival or carnival with dozens of home-made banners, balloons, music, multiple food stalls and good humour, hundreds of children running about and smiling police officers.

But the anger and desperation of the people there was also apparent as speaker after speaker told of being forced out of their homes by rising rents or the council’s grand plans to “gentrify” the area.

The council has signed a contract with the estate agents Foxton’s to manage their housing stock for them. Foxton’s sees this as a bonanza for increasing profits by selling the whole lot for redevelopment to profit-hungry investors from around the world.

Local traders are also suffering from soaring rents. Local shops that for decades have sold Afro food at low prices are being forced out and replaced by fine food restaurants selling food that only the wealthy moving into the area can afford.

Street markets are going the same way leaving the local ethnic communities unable to buy the food they want – or anything at all – at prices they can afford.

The area is vibrant and lively with genuine mutually supportive communities. But it also has very good transport links to central London and has turned into the latest fashionable spot for development and investment.

Residents fear the council and the incomers are trying to get rid of them and no one is sure they will be able to live there much longer.

Those forced out will be offered new housing if they are elderly, disabled, vulnerable or have small children – but that could mean moving to Manchester or somewhere else hundreds of miles away, where there are few chances of finding employment.

If they are considered to be able-bodied they are left to fend for themselves and that could easily mean ending up sleeping on the pavement.

Local communities are fighting back. They are already organising regular protests to prevent evictions and have seen off bailiffs a number of times.

After a couple of hours protesters in the square organised themselves for an impromptu march around the area led by a group known as Black Revs (Black revolutionaries).

They attacked the local office of Foxton’s. They visited many threatened sites like the shops under the railway arches that Network Rail wants to close. And they ended up at the police station.

One witness told the New Worker: “Some of us gathered at the entrance; the police then began pushing out the young protesters and they tried to push themselves in.

“The automatic doors were bending under the struggle then they lowered the shutter which got busted, so they tear gassed everyone. Even people waiting at the bus stop around the corner were overcome by fumes.”

Hopefully Saturday’s events will have sent a message to the council, to the mayor of London and to the eager development companies that the local people of Brixton are fighting back and they will not lie back and let their lives be torn apart to feed the greed of the one per cent.

That community is now busy planning a lot more responses and will defend itself fiercely.