Celebrating China’s victory over fascism

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined hundreds of music-lovers to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War last week. The Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang and his wife Counsellor Hua Mei were the guests of honour at the Royal College of Music in London’s West End  to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
The event with the theme Honour History for a Better Future was supported by the Chinese Embassy and the Bank of China. And other guests included the Labour peer Lord Davidson and Timothy Hailes, the Lord Mayor Elect of the City of London, along with members of the Chinese community in Britain and representatives of Anglo-Chinese business and cultural bodies.
Ambassador Zheng said that 80 years ago the Chinese people fought heroically, made huge national sacrifices and defeated the Japanese aggressors. The Chinese people and the British people fought shoulder to shoulder as allies, made great contributions to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War, and helped to establish a new international order. China has always been a peace-loving nation...this concert in London is intended to use music to remember history, honour those who gave their lives for the cause of justice, express an aspiration for world peace, and reaffirm a commitment to building a community with a shared future for humanity.
The concert featured ten pieces of Chinese and Western music presented by the Hunan Provincial Song & Dance Theatre and New Elements Music and guest performances from the London City Orchestra and the Camden Philharmonic.
 It opened with a stirring rendition of Ode to the Red Flag, followed by classics from both countries, including the haunting theme from Schindler's List and Elgar’s Nimrod which is traditionally played on Remembrance Day in the UK. Chinese favourites included Defend the Yellow River and My Motherland performed by the Chinese Embassy Choir, the Bank of China London Branch Choir, and the London Chinese Philharmonic Choir. The Chinese spirit of resistance and love for their motherland conveyed in the two songs resonated deeply with the audience, who responded with prolonged applause and acclaim.

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!

In the footsteps of George Hogg

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other communists, academics and friends of China to recall the life of George Hogg who went to China in 1938 to help the Chinese people in their struggle against Japanese imperialism. George was a young man, a teacher and a journalist, who told the West about the Japanese army’s atrocities while setting up schools for communist-led co-operatives and helped orphans who lost their parents and relatives during the war. He joined the communist resistance to the invaders but he never lived to see the defeat of Japan let alone the Chinese people’s victory in 1949 which led to the establishment of the people’s republic in 1949. He died from an infection in July 1945 only weeks before the surrender of the Japan.  
In London on Saturday the memorial event brought together family members, scholars and representatives from both Chinese and English organisations gathering to mark his contribution – not only to the Chinese people's war of resistance, but also to the mutual understanding of the two nations.
The event was jointly held by the Chinese Embassy, the  China Global TV network (CGTN Europe) and the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU). Earlier this year, a SACU delegation, including members of the Hogg family travelled across China, following George Hogg's footsteps eight decades ago. The delegation shared their memories of the visit and spoke of the warm welcome and hospitality they received from everyone they met.
CGTN Europe journalists also shared their experience of producing a documentary about Hogg. Their digital team members talked about the filming and editing of the production. Without much archive video of Hogg, it is mainly through his writing that readers today can imagine his life and work in China – so applying AI-generated content helped to fill in the gaps.
Based on Hogg's writings, alongside a biography authored by his nephew Mark Thomas, the AI technology recreated scenes of Hogg's tour, work and life among the Chinese people back in the 1930s and 1940s, providing an immersive experience for the audience, especially the younger generation.
Also premiered at the event was a trailer for Witness to War: George Hogg in China, a documentary which is expected to be released in August. Michael Wood, the well-known historian who is president of SACU, said it brought war-torn Shanghai to life.

Prof Wood pays tribute to George Hogg

It reminded him of a poem by Chinese poet Du Fu. "I can remember a Chinese guy who belonged to a book club in America, he'd lived through that Japanese destruction of Shanghai," Wood said. "And 'I remember when I was a child, the buildings were all burning, and the great factories were burning, and across the wall somebody had painted the state is destroyed, but the people remain which is a line from Du Fu. 
"And I'll never forget that. You just watch those pictures in that film and that's exactly what I saw. I saw the Du Fu poem come alive again. So I'm very impressed."
He said Hogg's story provides Western audiences with a good angle of China's role in the Second World War. "You can tell people that China was so important in World War II, and you can give them facts and figures, but this is a real personal story of somebody who was so moved by the sufferings of the Chinese people," he said. 
"He could have gone home at any time, but he decided to stay and help the Chinese people, and in the end he died. So that's a very human story, a very powerful story".
In the final segment of the programme Andy Brooks and Peter Higgins from the Workers Party of Britain discussed George Hogg’s Legacy. The NCP leader said George Hogg,  an outstanding man who left our shores to help the people of China in the 1930s is, naturally, remembered in books, films and commemorations in China for his dedication and sacrifice but he is not so well known in his home country. That is sadly often the case where genuine heroes are routinely ignored by bourgeois scholars and the mass media alike in a country  where corruption is flaunted like a badge of honour by those who claim to lead us and whose highest virtue is greed and selfishness. But all of us here believe in what we are doing – we wouldn’t be here otherwise. Let us hope that when the time comes we can show the courage and determination of a man like George Hogg who dedicated his life to serving the people.

Free the Kononovich brothers!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other anti-fascist campaigners protesting outside the Ukrainian embassy on Monday 26th May against the continued detention of two communist activists who are now being press-ganged into the Ukrainian army.

International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), which called the picket, has long campaigned in defence of Mikhail Kononovich and his brother Alexander, leading activists of the Leninist Communist Youth of Ukraine, the youth wing of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
The Kononovich brothers were arrested on 2nd March 2022 on trumped up charges of being “propagandists” aiming to “destabilise” the internal situation in Ukraine. They were then
subjected to months of beatings, torture, abuse and sleep deprivation in solitary confinement in the dungeons of the secret police. International pressure eventually forced the Kiev regime to release them. They have only appeared in court for initial processing. They have never had the opportunity of a full trial for the political charges against them. Now the brothers are back in jail.
On 22nd May Mikhail and Alexander were held by the police while on their way to a hospital. They were then taken to a military recruitment centre for allegedly evading military service. When they called their lawyer he too was arrested and taken to another military recruitment centre.
The brothers have issued this statement: "Comrades, we officially declare: Zelensky's regime wants to kill us! They want to send us to the front and then nothing needs to be proven, whether we are guilty or not, no one will care. They will kill us, no problem!
"The regime will now decide how to deliver us to the Volyn region, where we are registered and are on military registration. This is what is happening, comrades! They will not leave us alone, they have planned our murder".

A Day to Remember

by New Worker correspondent

Do Minh Hung welcomes the guests

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other communists at the Vietnamese embassy in London this week to commemorate the liberation of south Vietnam on 30th April 1975. The Ambassador, Do Minh Hung, spoke about those heady days which saw the defeat of US imperialism and the re-unification of the country and the giant steps that the new Socialist Republic of Vietnam has taken in the years since re-unification. This was followed by the screening of a documentary about the liberation struggle and the global campaign to stop imperialist aggression that played an important part in moulding public opinion and ending the American occupation.
Tens of thousands of Vietnamese turned out to see the parade in Ho Chi Minh City, the former capital of the puppet regime, as part of the ceremony marking the 50th  anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification  on 30th April.
The fly-past and military parade was followed by communist and national banners symbolising the victorious ideals and firm belief in the leadership, wisdom and bravery of the Communist Party of Vietnam, as well as the strength of national unity – drawn from history, igniting the present, and illuminating the future. With them came a vehicle bearing a portrait of President Hồ Chí Minh, the communist leader who led the resistance to victory over the Japanese occupiers during the Second World War to build the first people’s government – the Democratic Republic of Vietnam – in the north of the country after US imperialism partitioned in the former French colony in 1954.
But communist-led resistance soon grew. The Americans, who started sending “military advisers” to prop up the puppet regime in the south in 1960.The imperialists believed that they could crush the Vietnamese people with  air terror but when that failed they poured hundreds of thousands of troops into the country to try and quell the mounting resistance to their neo-colonial rule.
By 1969 the Americans had had enough.The Nixon administration began to withdraw US troops from Vietnam from its peak of 540,000 to once again turn to air power in a renewed attempt to crush the National Liberation Front (NLF)that the Americans called the Viet Cong and bring the communist government in the north to its knees. But that didn’t work either. The NLF now controlled most of the countryside in south Vietnam. Resistance to the corrupt southern puppet leaders and their US masters was spreading inside the towns and cities still held by the Americans. Even units of the south Vietnamese armed forces were moving to change sides – which many eventually did in the final liberation offensive in 1975.
 Led the NLF guerrillas and the northern people’s army defeated the might of US imperialism and freed their country. Though he never lived to see the final liberation of the south Hồ Chí Minh charted the revolutionary path to a series of historic victories, including the great Spring Victory of 1975 that ended partition and reunified Vietnam.

A taste of China!

 

by New Worker correspondent

London Craft Week kicked off on 12^th May with events featuring the very best in the craft and design world taking place across the heart of the capital.Now in its eleventh year, 400 events, exhibitions, creative classes, and around a thousand international artisans demonstrated their skills via a very impressive programme of master-classes, demonstrations, workshop tours, talks and exhibitions. And during the festival NCP leader Andy Brooks joined academics and leaders in the tea trade for a Chinese cultural event at the historic former Royal Mint complex near the Tower of London.
China has participated in the London Craft Week since 2015 continuously promoting cultural exchanges and cooperation with the UK and others.
The Anxi Tieguanyin: Tea from the East presentation show-cased the contemporary development of Chinese tea and its culture as well as a performance of the traditional Chinese tea ceremony. Anxi Tieguanyin tea goes back back fourteen hundred years to the days of the Tang Dynasty. Favoured by the imperial court its fame later spread throughout China and even across the globe.
This was followed by launch of a new childrens’ book set in the tea plantations of China. The author, Daishu Ma, is a Chinese illustrator and graphic artist working in East London. Her first graphic novel Leaf was published in 2014. Her latest, Tiger Don’t Worry, tells the story of a little girl and her Tiger friend trying, against all odds, to make good tea. Published by Post Wave it’s available in most London bookshops for only £12.99.

Remember Odessa 2014!

by New Worker correspondent
 
On Saturday 3rd May members of International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity and several other organisations held a vigil in solidarity with the families of those who died in the Odessa massacre of 2014 outside the Ukrainian embassy in London.
They carried signs saying "Remember Odessa 02.02.2014" in English, Russian and Ukrainian. After the vigil they laid flowers at the gate of the embassy, and a letter addressed to ambassador Valery Zaluzhnyi was left by New Communist Party of Britain general secretary Andy Brooks.
Eleven years after the tragic events of 2nd May 2014 no-one has been brought to justice for these crimes, and no independent, local or international inquiry has ever been held. And according to the European Council an investigation by Ukrainian authorities in November 2015 “had lacked "institutional and practical independence".
On 13th March 2025 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Ukrainian authorities had failed to prevent or end the violence on that day or to “ensure timely rescue measures for those trapped in the fire,” and said that since 2014 the Ukrainian authorities had “failed to institute and conduct an effective investigation into the events”.
The court ruled that these failures were in violation of Article 2 (right to life/investigation) and Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
While the ruling was widely covered by the Russian and Ukrainian media it appears to have been totally ignored by leading Western media outlets, including the BBC, Reuters and CNN.
However the virulently pro-Ukrainian website EUvsDisinfo dismissed the ruling as "recurrent pro-Kremlin narrative about the Odessa tragedy and about Nazi Ukraine". EUvsDisinfo is run by "a team of experts" called the "East Stratcom Task Force", which operates under the EU High Representative. Kaja Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister.

Remembering Neil Harris

by New Worker correspondent

Neil Harris, a leading member of the New Communist Party, sadly passed away in March 2018 following a long battle against cancer. Neil always wanted his ashes scattered at the Kremlin where Lenin’s tomb and Stalin’s ashes, together with hundreds of other honoured citizens from Soviet times, remain. This was raised by Theo Russell, the NCP delegate to the international anti-fascist forum in Moscow, last week only to be told that the scattering of ashes anywhere near the Lenin Mausoleum is, in fact,  strictly forbidden by the Kremlin authorities. But he asked our comrades in the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for advice and with their help Theo scattered Neil’s ashes into the Moskva river from a boat as it passed the Kremlin. Many comrades who have fond memories of Neil Harris  will be pleased to hear that his last wish has now been granted.

May Day in London

by New Worker correspondent

London comrades and other activists from the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity campaign joined the May Day march through central London this week with banners calling for justice for the families of those murdered at the Odessa Trade Union House on 2nd May 2014, and for solidarity with the many thousands of political prisoners in Ukraine, many of whom have been beaten, tortured, or murdered. Many organisations at the march expressed their support for the banners. Many photographers also took pictures, some of which have already appeared on British social media channels. 

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.

Which way forward following the election…

by New Worker correspondent

That was the question posed at a seminar in London on Sunday. The 30th anniversary of the  start of the dialogue between the NCP and the RCPB (ML) was appropriately marked by the opening of a discussion that both parties believe needs to be taken throughout the labour movement. NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the meeting at the NCP Centre, welcomed everyone to the seminar at the Sid French library or by video link and the discussion was opened by Michael Chant, the RCPB (ML) leader. 
Michael reviewed the work of both parties over the years and presented views on the tasks and vantage point of the communists at this significant time in history. Other comrades. including supporters of the Consistent Democrats platform and the British Posadists, also spoke on the Tasks of the Communists in the Light of the July 2024 General Election – to look at the meaning of Labour’s immense but essentially hollow victory in July, Jeremy Corbyn’s new Independent bloc in Parliament and the predictable failure of the revisionists and the conventional social-democratic left at the polls. We discussed the mass support for the Palestinians on the street as well as the upsurge of racist violence and the mass anti-fascist response that followed and the need for a renewed fight-back against Starmer-style austerity that must be led by the rank-and-file in the trade unions and the mass movements of the labour movement. Finally it was agreed to broaden the discussion by publishing the contributions in both parties’ journals and to hold other meetings and seminars in the very near future.

Stop the War in Ukraine!

By New Worker correspondent

London comrades joined a picket in Whitehall last week calling for an end to British weapons supplies to Ukraine, and for Ukraine’s puppet leader, Vladimir Zelensky, to step down to make way for talks to end the war in Ukraine. NCP leader Andy Brooks and other activists were interviewed by RT, the Russian TV news channel, during the early evening protest opposite the Prime Minister’s residence in Downing Street.
The demonstrators highlighted the grave dangers in the current battlefield situation of an all-out NATO war against Russia, sparked by support from some hotheads in the Western alliance for weapons they are supplying to be used in strikes deep inside the Russian Federation. This  was the latest initiative of the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) campaign which has been supporting the people of the Donbas and the anti-fascist Ukrainian resistance on the street since 2014.
Zelensky’s electoral mandate in 2019 – won by promising to end the war in the Donbas – expired last month, and under the Ukrainian constitution he is no longer the country's sovereign representative. Any peace agreement has to involve the Russian Federation as the war is in reality a NATO proxy war against Russia, and that genuine negotiations to end the war in Ukraine must acknowledge Russia's fundamental security interests.

74 years of victory!

Chinese artists entertaining the guests

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined diplomats, academics, businessmen and solidarity workers at a reception to mark the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China last week.
The ball-room of the Landmark Hotel in central London was packed with hundreds of guests celebrating the establishment of the people’s government on 1st October 1949. Chinese diplomat Yang Xiaoguang warmly welcomed the guests in an opening address in which he outlined the extraordinary achievements of China's economic and social development in the 74 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China. He pointed out that the fundamentals of the Chinese economy, characterised by strong resilience, enormous potential, great vitality and long-term sustainability, remain unchanged and that there is a bright future for China’s economic prospects.
China will solidly promote high-quality development with a people-centred approach, commit to high-level opening up and keep to the path of peaceful development. Recently exchanges between China and the UK, at various levels, have increased. 
On behalf of the British government Lord Johnson, the Minister of State for International Trade, spoke highly of China’s  economic miracle. He said that UK-China relations are crucial  and expressed readiness to strengthen engagement with China and jointly deal with major global issues.
During the reception a short film was screened showcasing China's economic and social achievements and artistic troupes from the Guangzhou province in southern China staged a wonderful cultural performance.

George Johannes remembered

Peter Hain speaking

 by New Worker correspondent

A celebration of the life of African National Congress (ANC) and communist activist and former ambassador to the Holy See, George Johannes took place last week at the South African High Commission in London's Trafalgar Square.
Chitra Karve, chair of Action for Southern Africa, paid tribute to George, saying that he had "contributed to the liberation of our beloved country with distinction and dignity".
    Peter Hain, a former leading Anti Apartheid Movement (AAM) activist and Labour government minister, said the George had been on the BOSS (apartheid South African intelligence service) list for kidnapping or murder, pointing out that several leading anti-apartheid members had been murdered and he himself had received a deadly letter bomb in London.
    Hain said that for years the British AAM "was in a minority, criticised, besieged, infiltrated and targeted", and recalled that in 1996 Margaret Thatcher called Nelson Mandela a terrorist. Years later, when she attended Mandela's speech to both houses of parliament, Hain described seeing her "scuttling to her seat".
    Former ANC UK spokesperson and High Commission political attache Nad Pillay said that George studied at the University of Cork and formally joined the ANC in 1976 after his return to Africa.
He underwent military training, and worked on intelligence and security under the name Joseph Louw. He then worked in Angola and Zambia before moving to London.
    "George travelled across the UK for the ANC and was known, if I remember correctly, as something of a 'Trot-basher', Nad recounted. "I look forward to raising a glass in memory of George Johannes, persistent in adversity, a comrade in the struggle"
    A message from the Secretary General of the African National Congress said "Comrade George's work for Radio Freedom, Umkhonto we Sizwe (the armed wing of the ANC), and at the ANC's Penton Street office in London, were landmarks in his life of struggle."
    Another message from Cheryl Carolus, the first London High Commissioner after apartheid, described George as "a trusted colleague, a wise advisor and friend, and a respected member of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party".
    A group of singers led by vocalist Queen Patience sang a selection of beautiful and very moving songs in George's memory.
    During his time working at the South African High Commission in London from 1998 to 2005, as Political Counsellor and then Deputy High Commissioner, George became a member of the New Communist Party. He is still remembered by many NCP members as an inspiring and energetic comrade and a very attractive and lively personality.

Remembering the Korean people’s victory

Dermot Hudson and Song Gi Kim

by New Worker correspondent

London comrades returned to the Chadswell centre in central London last weekend to mark the outbreak of the Korean war. The war began with an American attack on the people’s government in north Korea on 25th June 1950. It ended with the Americans signing a humiliating armistice on 27th July 1953. 
Chaired by Dermot Hudson speakers, including Theo Russell from the NCP, spoke about the Korean people’s heroic fight against the US imperialists and their lackeys during the war and their efforts to reconstruct their shattered country after the guns fell silent.
Though the American terror bombers had left north Korea in ruins, the masses rallied round the call of Kim Il Sung and the Workers’ Party of Korea to rebuild their shattered country and lead the drive for a modern, independent socialist republic in the free part of the Korean peninsula.
Song Gi Kim, a representative from the Democratic Korean (DPRK) embassy in London pointed out that "in 1950 the Korean war, the fiercest war since the Second World War, broke out. At that time no one ever thought that the DPRK, founded two years before, would defeat the United States, which had been boasting of being the "strongest" in the world with a history of victory in 110 wars since its founding.
“As the world media described, the war was a confrontation between the rifle and the atomic bomb. But the result of the war turned out to be the opposite. The DPRK, a small country in the East, created a miracle by defeating the multi-national forces, which pounced upon a country in the name of the United Nations for the first time in the world."
Dermot Hudson, in his speech, said that the great Korean communist leader, Kim Il Sung “not only humbled the pride of the arrogant US imperialists but smashed the reactionary bourgeois military theory that advocates the omnipotence of weapons over humans.
“The US imperialists not only lost huge amounts of manpower and materials but also suffered irretrievable political and moral defeats. It was a great victory for the Korean people and opened up a new era of anti-US, anti-imperialist struggle. Indeed Korea was the war before Vietnam!"
And Theo Russell pointed out that the US "cannot admit responsibility for aggression against DPRK in 1950 because US still dreams of occupying the north... thus entire might of US and Western systems of thought manipulation is mobilised to maintain the lie. And this includes n apparatus of news, well-financed think tanks, universities, mass media, intelligence agencies"

US out of Korea!

 By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined a Korean solidarity protest picket outside the American embassy in London last Saturday to mark 73rd anniversary of the Korean war and to call for the end of the American occupation of south Korea.
    On 25th June 1950 the US imperialists and their south Korean puppets launched an attack on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that devastated the entire peninsula. The Americans and their lackeys, flying the false flag of the United Nations, were beaten to a standstill and were forced to sign an armistice in 1953. They promised to hold free elections in south Korea to lead to the reunification of the country. Seventy years later the Americans still occupy south Korea, propping up a puppet regime that rejects all DPRK proposals to ease tension on the divided peninsula.
    Dermot Hudson, the chair of the Korean Friendship Association that called the protest, said that US imperialism had not abandoned its dreams of conquest. “This year reactionary warmonger Biden threatened People's Korea with nuclear annihilation saying it would be the 'end of whatever regime'. The US imperialists and south Korean puppets are stepping up their war moves plus the US is openly deploying strategic nuclear assets,” Dermot said. “The US and south Korea have this year carried out massive war exercises that were suspended by Trump . US troops and nuclear assets should be withdrawn from south Korea and a permanent peace treaty signed”.
    Messages of support were received from KFA Germany, KFA Switzerland, the International Central Committee for Songun Study, the Bangladesh Songun Politics Study Group and the People's Korea Initiative of Poland.

Down with the Kiev fascist regime!

By New Worker correspondent

We had a good turn out at the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign  picket in Whitehall on Saturday. NCP leader Andy Brooks joined comrades and friends at another picket organised by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) campaign to highlight the plight of political prisoners jailed by the Zelensky regime and stand by all those bravely fighting the fascism in Ukraine.
    Some 30 to 40 supporters joined the lively protest including Paul C annon, the general secretary of the Workers Party of Britain, and supporters of the new No2Nato campaign who came along with their banner that was attached with the others on the railings opposite Downing Street.
    "We are protesting today because we believe that the British people should be aware of the crimes committed by forces that our government has spent billions of dollars and arms supplies to prepare. We are well aware that many people are very confused by what is actually happening in Ukraine, as the media is flooded with claims and counterclaims, but we also know that media reporting in the UK is overwhelmingly one-sided and hostile to Russia and the people’s republics of the Donbas," one them said.
    The demonstrators called for the release of Ukrainian political prisoners, the restoration of full political freedom and freedom of the media, as well as an end to arrests, beatings, torture and murder in Ukraine.
    Theo Russell, the IUAFS campaign organiser, was interviewed by Bernie Holland, the musician and independent film-maker whose the 22 minute report is now up on the IUAFS Facebook page and YouTube. A brief report of the protest filmed by another independent media maker is now also doing the rounds on the social media.

George Johannes: freedom fighter and communist

by Theo Russell

Comrade George Johannes, a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP), the African National Congress and for several years the New Communist Party, passed away in Rome last week. He was 78. He will be greatly missed by many comrades who knew him in the NCP.
    He was a member of the NCP for several years when he lived in exile the UK and later served at the South African High Commission in London from 1998 to 2005, first as Political Counsellor and then as the Deputy High Commissioner.

    After returning to South Africa, he worked at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (foreign ministry) in Pretoria as Director for the UK, Ireland and Benelux Countries.

    George was a frequent visitor to Scotland, before and after the end of apartheid, and Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) is home to the George Johannes Collection archive.

    George joined the African National Congress in 1970, and his varied roles included: journalist with Radio Freedom in Angola and Zambia: Administrative Secretary of the Department of Information and Publicity in Lusaka; Chairperson, ANC Youth Section, London; Member of Editorial Board of Sechaba, the ANC’s official journal; member of the Regional Political Committee of the ANC UK Region; Administrative Secretary of the ANC Office in London; and ANC representative at the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) in Budapest.
    In 2007 George became Deputy Head of Mission in the German capital and was posted to Berlin. In April 2009 he was posted to Bern, where he became South African Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation, the Principality of Liechtenstein, and the Holy See (the Vatican), and in February 2021 he met Pope Francis himself.
    After leaving the diplomatic service slightly more than a year ago, George continued teaching at a Pontifical University in Rome. He died on 30th November 2022 at the Generalate House of the Missionaries of Mariannhill in Rome, where he had been staying with the community of Mariannhill priests and brothers from November 2021. The congregation has its foundation in South Africa.
    George’s former wife, Jan, wrote that “he was living, and died, in a home for priests in Rome. Comrade George, my former husband - we were together for over 30 years - and father of my children Charlotte (grandchildren Jack and Zuri) and Daniel Johannes.
    “We lived through the crucial years of struggle, and life was often tough. Banu, his wife and son Liam, 12, live in Munich. Sad news and he will be missed".
    Many in the NCP have fond memories of George who they recall as a warm, humorous and charismatic comrade.

Victory Day in London

By New Worker correspondent

MILLIONS of Russians took to the streets on Monday to celebrate Victory Day and the surrender of the Third Reich on 9th May 1945. Every year, the Russian Federation celebrates the defeat of Nazi Germany with parades and processions across the country including Moscow, where a massive parade in the capital showcased modern Russia’s military might. Similar tributes to the millions of Soviet soldiers and citizens who died in the struggle to defeat the Nazis in the Second World War were held in much of the former Soviet Union, western Europe and the rest of the world.
    Victory Day is also celebrated in London and in the past veterans, diplomats and local dignitaries joined the capital’s Russian community at a ceremony that’s held every year at the Soviet War Memorial in the shadow of the Imperial War Museum in south London.
    It was sadly different this year. Fearing disruption by Ukrainian fascists and their supporters the official ceremony was called off by the Soviet Memorial Trust but informal tributes were made throughout the day by Russian ex-pats and members of the labour movement that have always supported the event at the memorial.
    Apparently an attempt by pro Ukraine elements was made to sabotage the event by creating an incident in the Imperial War Museum causing it to be evacuated and a man with a Ukraine flag and an anti-communist placard was seen being escorted away by the police.
    The Russian ambassador, Andrei Kelin, led the wreath laying in the morning, followed by diplomats from other former Soviet republics and representatives of the Russian ex-pat community. Others arrived later including NCP leader Andy Brooks, who laid a floral tribute on behalf of the Party alongside the others at lunchtime.

What it means to be a communist

by New Worker correspondent

Andy Brooks 

London communists discussed the problems of our movement at a joint seminar at the New Communist Party Party Centre last weekend. Called by the NCP and the RCPB-ML, comrades spent Saturday afternoon looking at the question of “what it means to be a communist – new and revolutionary today” in the Sid French Library in south London.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the session, said he hoped this initiative would be the start of a wider discussion within the ranks of the communists and the basis for future joint work to continue the dialogue on the crucial questions facing the movement.
    Discussion on deeper issues has always been sadly lacking in London. Although it’s true to say that before Covid you could go to a different left event every day of the week in London, these meetings were really gatherings of the converted organised by left groups to rally their troops and mobilise them for the campaigns of the day.
    Immense amounts of time have been spent analysing the past and trying to come to terms with the counter-revolutions that brought down the Soviet Union and the people’s democracies of eastern Europe, but there’s been very little talk in preparing for the future.
    But discussion is a luxury we can afford – and we can start best by looking at what does it really mean to be a communist in the 21st Century.
    The RCPB-ML leader, Michael Chant, said in a keynote opening that; “Taking the topic at face value, and giving an answer in a nutshell, one could say to be a communist means seeing the face of the New in the crisis of the Old, and working for the necessary change, for the transformation of the Old into the New, with revolutionary sweep.”
    These factors were taken up by other comrades who raised the issue of communist morality and the role of women in the movement, along with taking the principled stand and building the united front in the struggles to come.
    The afternoon soon passed by, but it was agreed to broaden the discussion by publishing the contributions in both parties’ journals and to hold another seminar in the very near future.