Stepping stones to the future

Andy Brooks pays tribute to the NCP

by New Worker correspondent
 
Comrades gathered at the Party Centre in London last weekend to celebrated the founding of the New Communist Party in July 1977. Friends and comrades, old and new, joined NCP leader Andy Brooks and Peter Hendy from the Central Committee in celebrating the anniversary with speeches, food and drink. Sadly our National Chair, Richard Bos, could not join us on this occasion so Peter MC’d the commemoration and welcomed guests that included diplomats from the Chinese and Democratic Korean embassies in London as well as representatives from the labour movement that have long worked alongside us in London and other parts of the country. 
A Korean diplomat read out his greetings at the social followed by solidarity speeches from Marie Lynam of the British Posadist movement, Ian Donovan from the Consistent Democrats, Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association and Theo Russell from the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign. Other tributes came from a member of the NCP Metropolitan Cell & Supporters group and Peter Hendy who read out Richard Bos’ greetings and a call for a new £10,000 New Worker appeal that starts next month. Peter also called on comrades to dig deep to boost our August fighting fund. They did with a collection that raised £460 for our communist weekly!

Kim Il Sung: A hero to remember

Dermot Hudson and Andy Brooks

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other Korean solidarity campaigners at a meeting in central London last weekend to mark the 112th anniversary of the birth of the great Korean leader, Kim Il Sung and celebrate the successes of Korean-style socialism.
Dermot Hudson, the chair of the Korean Friendship Association that called the meeting,  praised Kim Il Sung, the leader of the Korean communist movement that drove out the Japanese colonialists and established a people’s government after the defeat of Japan in the Second World War. The revolutionary path charted by Kim Il Sung led to the establishment of a people’s republic based on the Juche Idea and Korean-style socialism is now being followed by Kim Jong Un, he said.
Juche-based socialism is not a copy of another country but the essence of the experience of generations of Korean revolutionaries. “In today’s People’s Korea there is free health care, free education , virtually free housing , low cost food and no individual taxation. There aren’t any homeless people , beggars or drug addicts in People’s Korea”.
Andy Brooks recalled his first visit to the DPRK and his meeting with President Kim Il Sung as part of a NCP delegation in 1990. He said how impressed the delegation of the New Communist Party was with the development of the DPRK which surpassed their expectations.
The general secretary of the NCP spoke about the victories of Kim Il Sung, who led the Workers’ Party of Korea until his death in 1994, and the outstanding achievements of those who’ve followed in his footsteps. While the people’s government strives for the peaceful re-unification of the Korea peninsula it has to prepare for whatever the American imperialists, who occupy the south, will do next whatever the outcome of the American presidential election in November  We can expect nothing from Biden, a senile old man who barely knows what day it is. Biden is just a pawn of the “deep state” – the most venal and aggressive elements within the American ruling class. But ultimately so is Donald Trump.
Trump did his best meeting Kim Jong Un twice for talks to try to ease tension on the Korean peninsula but he was constantly thwarted by the hidden hand of the American Establishment in Washington.
A lively Q & A session followed with questions about travel to the DPRK, the nature of internal class enemies in the DPRK and the issue of the DPRK’s relations with neighbouring countries and the meeting closed with the adoption of a solidarity message to Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Stepping stones to socialism

Dermot Hudson and Andy Brooks

by New Worker correspondent

Friends of Korea met in London last weekend to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 2nd September 1948. NCP leader Andy Brooks and Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML) were there along with other veteran campaigners and supporters of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) event at the Marchmont Centre in Bloomsbury on Saturday.
Opening the meeting KFA UK Chair Dermot Hudson said that “from the first day of its foundation, the DPRK has advanced along the road of Juche, the road of self-reliance, independence and socialism. Juche Korea was not a copy of another country but a unique and original state”.
DPRK diplomat Kim Song Gi  brought greetings from DPRK’s London embassy and told the audience that under the leadership of  Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il the DPRK travelled the road of struggle, never giving up even though the moves of the hostile forces continue to this day. And today, led by Kim Jong Un, the Korean people march confidently into the future. 
Other speakers included Jef Bossyut of the Belgium KFA and Jeremy Bieringer (KFA Germany) while  Alejandro Cao De Benos joined us live on video link from Spain. The fact that the DPRK has withstood the test of time, disasters, sanctions and imperialist threats for 75 years, is evidence of the invincible validity of its system and the full support of the korean people in its future”. Alejandro, the  international president of the Korean Friendship Association cannot travel abroad as his passport was confiscated by the Spanish authorities some seven years ago. But they haven’t, as yet,  barred him from the social media.
Christer Lundgren, the Chair of the Swedish-Korean Friendship Association, also joined us on Zoom saying “during its 75 years of existence the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has had extremely challenging difficulties to overcome, including the fierce Fatherland Liberation War, the postwar reconstruction and industrialization, continuous war threats and extreme economic difficulties caused by the imperialists’ manoeuvres to isolate and stifle People’s Korea as well as by the collapse of some other socialist countries”.
This hybrid meeting, spanned half the world. It was a first for the KFA. It certainly won’t be the last. 

Picketing Broadcasting House!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other Korean solidarity activists protesting against the BBC bias at a picket outside Broadcasting House in central London on Saturday. The Korean Friendship Association (KFA) had called the protest to highlight the appalling bias of the BBC in its coverage of news from Korea that invariably reflects the lies of the American lie-machine and those of its south Korean puppets.
    Discussions were held with passers-by and the media during the 90-minute protest that also called on people to stop funding the state broadcasting network by cancelling their BBC licence fees.
    Dermot Hudson, KFA chair, said: “Recently there was an incident in the West Sea of Korea in which a south Korean puppet warship intruded into the territorial waters of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) basically invading the DPRK and violating its sovereignty but the BBC falsely reported that the DPRK had infiltrated south Korean waters and fired at south Korea…
    “The BBC not only pumps out false propaganda against the DPRK but it is also a regime change agency. We should never forget the role of the BBC World Service in the past in undermining and destroying socialism in the USSR and former socialist countries. Now the BBC is trying to do the same with the DPRK and beaming its lies into the country. We must defend People's Korea from regime change, from all attempts to force 'reform' or 'opening-up' on People's Korea.
    “We, the Korean Friendship Association of the UK, believe in defending People's Korea with No Ifs or Buts.
    “We believe the BBC should stop lying about the DPRK and instead produce fair, accurate and objective material about People's Korea.
    “We say don't pay your licence fee because if you do you are funding the BBC's lies about People's Korea."

Defending Democratic Korea!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined Korean solidarity activists who were picketing the Foreign Office in central London last weekend. London comrades joined the demonstration in Whitehall on Saturday that was supported by other labour movement activists and friends of the DPR Korea campaigning for peace in Korea and an end to sanctions against the DPRK.
    The protest, called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA), highlighted Britain’s involvement in new American provocations on the Korean peninsula that include the current military exercises in south Korea and the despatch a Royal Navy carrier strike force to Korean waters.
    Millions of pounds are being squandered to do the bidding of US imperialism in taking part in war games that are a direct violation of the inter-Korean agreements of 2018 and the DPRK-US joint statement which were hailed by the world as giving the hope of peace.
    The last KFA picket in Whitehall was back in September 2020. But pickets had been a regular feature of KFA work in the capital before the lockdown. Now after an 11 month break due to Covid restrictions the solidarity movement plans to return to public campaigning on the street. KFA Chair Dermot Hudson said future plans include resuming public meetings in London and returning to Whitehall on a regular basis throughout the year.

End sanctions on Democratic Korea!

 by New Worker correspondent

 

 Korean solidarity activists returned to Whitehall on Saturday to demand an end to British sanctions against Democratic Korea in July and an end to all the other sanctions imposed on the DPR Korea by US imperialism, the European Union and America’s lackeys in Japan and south Korea.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks and other comrades including London organiser Theo Russell, joined the picket called by the Korean Friendship Association on 26th September by the gates of the road leading to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, just a stone’s throw from Downing Street and the heart of government.
    In a lengthy interview with a London journalist Dermot Hudson, the KFA chair, explained why they were picketing the Foreign Office. He denounced the unjust sanctions imposed by the British government and defended the human rights record of Democratic Korea against false accusations.

For peace in Korea!

Michael Chant speaking

By New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity activists returned to the Marchmont Centre in central London last weekend to hear a Democratic Korean diplomat talk about the current situation on the Korean peninsula, at a joint meeting organised by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) and the Friends of Korea committee.

     Chaired by NCP leader Andy Brooks, a panel of speakers including Michael Chant of the RCPB (ML), Dermot Hudson from the KFA and Kim Song Gi from the London embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea  (DPRK) spoke about a renewed Korean crisis following the failure of US imperialism to follow up commitments made at the 2018 summit between the US and DPRK leaders in Singapore and the follow-up summit in Vietnam earlier in the year.

Following the historic developments for peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula that took place in 2018, which showed the genuine desire of the DPRK and the Korean people to consign the hostility of the USA and the DPRK to history, the USA is still refusing to fulfil its commitments following the principle of action for action. The promise of the summits between President Trump and Democratic Korean leader Kim Jong Un is therefore not being fulfilled.

At a time when the 29 NATO partners are meeting in London to attempt to revitalise this aggressive alliance, and President Trump himself will be in Britain facing the opposition of the British people, it is vitally important to support the right of the Korean people to self-determination, independence and peace. The meeting called on all Korean solidarity campaigners to strengthen the solidarity of the people’s movements in Britain with the DPRK.

Democratic Korea’s day in London

Andy Brooks, Chris Coleman and other friends with Choe Il

 By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks and London secretary Theo Russell joined other communists, diplomats and friendship activists in celebrating the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at a lunch-time reception at the DPRK embassy in London last week.

Democratic Korean ambassador Choe Il welcomed everyone to the gathering which included Chris Coleman from the RCPB (ML) and veteran campaigner Mushtaq Lasharie, the chair of the Third World Solidarity movement,  as well as representatives from the Foreign Office and members of the Korean Friendship Association.

On 9^th September 1948 the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was established in the free northern part of the Korean peninsula that had once been part of the Japanese Empire. It’s a special day for Koreans on both sides of the divided country and amongst the overseas Korean community because on that day in 1948 the Korean people expressed their democratic will through popular power and immediately took the first steps towards building a new socialist life for the workers and peasants who had fought to free themselves from the Japanese yoke that had enslaved them for many decades.

Day of Action for Korea

outside the embassy

By New Worker correspondent

London communists took part in a Day of Action for Korea last weekend, which included a picket of the new American embassy in Nine Elms and a film show in the evening at the Marchmont Centre.

NCP London Organiser Theo Russell joined the afternoon protest outside the embassy that called for an end to US imperialism’s hostile policy towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and for the USA to finally end the Korean War and sign a peace treaty with the Democratic Korean government.

The picket was called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA). and NCP leader Andy Brooks called for even greater efforts in the year to come at the KFA AGM that took place later that evening.