No British arms for Ukraine!

 By New Worker correspondent

London comrades joined other peace campaigners and anti-fascists outside the Defence Ministry in London last weekend to call on the British government to end all military and economic support for the corrupt Zelensky regime in Kiev and withdraw all British military personnel from Ukraine. The protest picket in Whitehall, the heart of London, was organised by a coalition of anti-fascist and anti-war movements including the NCP, the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity campaign (IUAFS), No2Nato-No2war and the Workers Party of Britain. The protest, that highlighted the Labour government's hypocrisy, censorship, the waste of billions of pounds, and the rocketing cost of living caused by sanctions, was covered by the Canary, the new left daily as well as a number of international news agencies including the Times of India and the Russian communist (CPRF) YouTube channel.

Fidel at 100: A Centenary of Legacy and Solidarity

Corbyn calls for solidarity

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined over 200 diplomats, union leaders, parliamentarians, academics, and long-standing friends of Cuba to reflect on Fidel Castro’s  legacy and enduring international solidarity on the anniversary of his birth on 13th August 1926. Mander Hall, at the headquarters of the NEU, the largest education union in Europe, was packed on that Thursday morning last week. By the time the lights dimmed, there wasn't a spare seat left.
The morning opened with a short tribute film tracing Fidel's life, his legacy, the achievements of the Cuban Revolution he led, and the international solidarity he built across the world. Woven through it were brief contributions from doctors, trade unionists, academics, filmmakers, campaigners and politicians, each speaking to what that legacy means in their own corner of society. Some of them had actually known Fidel in person. Friends speaking about a legacy. Friends remembering a man.
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Independent Alliance group in the House of Commons, took the platform next and spoke with real feeling about what Fidel built for every corner of Cuban society and for the cause of international solidarity, then went further, calling on Britain to deepen its solidarity with Cuba at every level, including government to government. Coming from someone who, this March, rode in the Nuestra América aid convoy into Havana and stood inside a cancer hospital struggling to keep its machines running through a blackout, with Richard Burgon MP alongside him, those words carried weight.
The Cuban ambassador, Ismara Vargas Walter, closed the event and the room went still. She took us back to the beginning: a twenty-six-year-old leading the assault on the Moncada barracks, captured, standing alone at his own trial to say the words that outlived every judge in that courtroom: "Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me." Prison. Exile in Mexico. Eighty-two men on a leaking yacht called Granma, scattered on a beach under fire, barely a dozen reaching the Sierra Maestra alive. From that dozen, in under two years, a country and a Revolution.
She reminded us what he did with that victory: over one hundred thousand volunteer teachers, many of them teenagers, walking into the mountains until Cuba could declare itself free of illiteracy. Cuban doctors in Chile and Algeria by 1961 and 1963. Cuban internationalists at Cuito Cuanavale, standing with a nation fighting apartheid — the same struggle Nelson Mandela himself later called a turning point in the liberation of his continent.
And then she brought us to the present: a naval armada in the Caribbean, oil tankers tracked and seized on the high seas, a total fuel blockade, "a profound breach of the equality of states and sovereignty," in her words, not a bilateral dispute. Families cooking over firewood. Blackouts lasting entire days. Eleven thousand children among more than one hundred thousand people waiting for surgeries that cannot be safely scheduled. Survival for a Cuban child with cancer and infant mortality, fallen. "When a hospital in Havana loses power tonight," she said, "it is not the weather. It is policy, arriving exactly as designed."
And still, 300 Palestinian students are training as doctors in Cuba right now, free of charge, because Fidel taught his country that internationalism is a debt paid, not a favour granted. And to be internationalist is to pay our own debt to humanity. 
She thanked the National Education Union for opening Hamilton House's doors to us once again, the 117 MPs who backed this year's Early Day Motion against these illegal unprecedented sanctions, and six decades of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign's unwavering friendship. Fidel is a hundred years old today, she told the room. Cuba is still standing!

Stop arming the Zelensky regime!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined fellow anti-fascists demanding an end to British support for the Zelensky regime at a protest picket in London last weekend. Members of seven different organisations joined activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) in central London to demand that the British government stop sending missiles, shells, tanks, planes and bullets to the racist, corrupt, Bandera-worshipping NATO puppet government in Ukraine. They received a positive welcome from many passers by in Britain's political heart, Whitehall, only hours after a major ceremony marking the King's birthday, with some people even stopping to join the protestors. 
This was probably the largest protest organised by the IUAFS in the nine years since the campaign was launched. We know from many sources that our campaign is becoming more and more widely known throughout Britain, mainly through circulation of photos and videos of the dozens of protests in solidarity with Ukrainian anti fascists in the past. Millions here in Britain have seen videos of the brutal kidnapping of men on the streets of Ukraine's towns and cities, along with the people courageously fighting back against the military recruitment gangs.  
In addition more and more people in Britain are realising that the Zelensky mafia is essentially deeply corrupt and immoral, and that the people of Ukraine – the ones who haven't already left the country – don't support the war against the Russian, Donetsk and Lugansk military forces. 
A flower-laying ceremony also took place at the protest in memory of the 21 young students deliberately murdered by the Ukrainian military in the multiple wave drone attack on the Starobilsk student dormitory. Many of the protesters brought their own home-made placards, one of which declared that the tragic murders in Starobilsk were carried out by NATO's "Coalition of the Killing".
The Zelensky regime is an alliance of big capital and the state bureaucracy, relying on criminal and fascist elements under the political and financial control of the United States.
It is an alliance of neo-Nazis and Ukrainian oligarchs. Vladimir Zelensky's Jewish heritage has not prevented him from allying with the Banderite gangs in Ukraine who use him as a cover to mask their openly fascist ideology.
The Banderas, like the SS in Hitler’s Third Reich, serve as a shock detachment of big business. The only difference is that the Banderites, who worship those who collaborated with the Nazis in the Second World War, refrain from outright anti-Semitism having established a national front with the Ukrainian oligarchy. Banderas tightly control every move of state power, constantly blackmailing it with the threat of a coup while the policy of Ukraine is determined by the US Embassy in Kiev.
International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity has been campaigning for nine years in solidarity with anti-fascists in Ukraine, thousands of whom have paid with their lives, torture or prison for resisting the regime installed in 2014 with the support of Britain, the USA and the European Union. Its activists have taken part in every protest since 7th October 2023 in solidarity with the people of Palestine and the Gaza Strip.

KFA pickets Foreign Office!

 

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other Korean solidarity campaigners outside the Foreign Office in London last weekend to protest against the unjust sanctions imposed by the British government on the Songdowon International Children's Camp in the DPR Korea.
Picketers held placards denouncing the sanctions and demanded that they be rescinded at once in Whitehall on Saturday at the protest called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA). On the line KFA Chairman  Dermot Hudson stressed that the sanctions against the camp  are totally unfair as it is a children’s camp not a missile base or a nuclear complex. Leaflets denouncing the sanctions were given out while a journalist interviewed Dermot and some of the other protesters.

No British arms for Ukrainian nazis!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other anti-fascist activists protesting  opposite the residence of devoted Zelensky fan Sir Keir Starmer in Whitehall calling for an end to British military, financial and "advisory" support for the Banderite regime in Kiev. While some of those passing by were clearly unhappy to see our protest, many people gave thumbs up signs, and vehicles beeped to show their support. The protest was organised by International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), which has campaigned since 2017 in solidarity with Ukrainian anti-fascists and democrats, both inside Ukraine and the millions living in exile. With events in Venezuela, Cuba, and of course the horrific American-Israeli aggression against Iran and Lebanon, the ongoing struggle against Azoz-Right Sector repression in Ukraine has been overshadowed, but members of IUAFS are determined to continue their campaign until the Ukrainian people are liberated from the Nazi plague.
And across Western Europe demonstrations were held in support of the Kononovich brothers who led the communist youth movement in Ukraine before their arrest in 2022.
The brothers say their electronic ankle tags, which were attached when they were released from prison to allow the authorities to control their movements, have now been removed at a police station without a court order. While this sounds at first like a benefit, the unofficial removal of their monitors also puts the brothers at increased risk. They are not assigned to any government agency, which means no agency can be held responsible should a “tragic accident” occur.
“We think we’ll disappear somewhere in the recruitment office, or be murdered at a training ground” the brothers said. “Dear comrades, please be vigilant during these tense days! We have information that the Zelensky regime is preparing another charge under Article 111 (treason, life imprisonment) against us; they could put us in prison. Anything could happen; the Zelensky regime will resort to anything, even murder.”
The two brothers were last arrested in 2025 for “conscientious objection” to participation in NATO’s proxy war against Russia.
In March 2022, they were arrested and charged with “acts aimed at seizing state power” as well as the dissemination of “materials calling for the violent overthrow of the government”. They were later transferred from prison to house arrest. 
Mikhail Kononovich was the general secretary of the Ukrainian Komsomol, The Communist Party of Ukraine’s movement. The fascist regime banned both the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Komsomol in 2015 and all their assets were seized in 2022 following the Russian intervention to defend the people of the Donbas.

Hands Off Cuba!

by New Worker correspondent

London comrades joined other protesters  outside the American embassy on Saturday calling for an end to the imperialist blockade of Cuba. The Hands Off Cuba demo was organised by  the British Chapter of the Venezuela-based Anti-Fascist International which the NCP joined last month. New groups and parties are joining the Chapter at the present time like IJAN, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, whose supporters came along with their banner for this protest. 
Venezuela has been at the forefront of the construction of an International Anti-Fascist movement which began in 2024. In its resolution of January 2025, the Congress of the Anti-Fascist International expressed its recognition of this effort and stated that, “Venezuela has been a beacon in the global struggle against fascism, imperialism, colonialism, Zionism and all forms of human exploitation and domination, playing a central role in the coordination of international initiatives aimed at building a new world based on justice, unity, peace, solidarity and mutual respect between nations”.

China charts the future!

by New Worker correspondent

Zheng Zeguang opens the seminar

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined social scientists, businessmen and other communists for a seminar at the Chinese embassy in London last week. The participants, which included solidarity campaigners, academics and politicians like Vince Cable, the former Liberal-Democrat leader, all spoke on the importance of the “two sessions” – the annual meetings of China’s highest civic authorities that were held in Beijing last month. 
Chinese ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, opened on the new developments in China and the opportunities it gave to the world that was the theme of the symposium and the discussion that followed.
He said that in the international arena unilateralism and bullying are on the rise, regional conflicts persist, and the international order is facing serious challenges. The more turbulent the world becomes, the greater the need to promote dialogue and co-operation. 
Ambassador Zheng highlighted that the implementation of the current Five-Year Plan will bring new opportunities for the development of other countries and open up new prospects for China-UK cooperation. China will work with the UK in the same direction to follow through on the important common understanding reached between the leaders of the two countries and the outcome of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to China. It is important that China and the UK strengthen exchanges at all levels, expand practical cooperation, properly manage differences, and continue to enrich the long-term and consistent comprehensive strategic partnership, in order to deliver greater benefits to the two peoples and make due contributions to world peace, stability and prosperity.
In his contribution Andy Brooks said “This has been a stormy month. While the millions upon millions of people in all five continents recoiled in shock and horror at the American-Israeli onslaught on Iran plunging the Middle East into the flames of a war that threatens the entire stability of the world another event – in the heart of China – charted the future not only for the Chinese people but for the cause of peace and socialism throughout the world.
“The Chinese revolution that established the people’s government in 1949 has transformed the country that was then the poorest in the world. China has now risen from being a weak semi-feudal, semi-colonial country to becoming a force for peace in the global arena, with the second largest economy in the world. Productivity gains, innovation and consumption need have become the main drivers of growth.  As a major manufacturing country, China's manufacturing, innovation and construction will continue to serve the world during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. As China transforms it shares what it has learned from managing large transitions at scale with other developing countries facing similar development challenges. And the communist party which led and continues to lead the Chinese people’s march to socialism equally is always ready to share its knowledge and experience with the rest of the communist movement around the world.
“Democracy is a shared value of humanity and a right of the people of all countries. In China a prosperous society is being created for everyone to enjoy.  And people’s democracy is an instrument to solve problems for the people who are the masters of the country. We see it in the Two Sessions and in the words and deeds of the Communist Party of China”.

Salute to Marx!

by New Worker correspondent

Andy Brooks' tribute to Marx

Last weekend friends old and new, including diplomats from the Chinese and Cuban embassies, gathered at a reception at the NCP Party Centre in London to remember the life and times of Karl Marx, who died in London on 14 March 1883.
MC’d by NCP National Chairman, Richard Bos, guests paused for the formal part of the social to hear a number of speakers pay tribute to Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the founders of the modern communist movement.
.The immense contribution that Marx and Engels made in the struggle for the emancipation of the working class can never be forgotten said Andy Brooks, the NCP leader whose sentiments were echoed by Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML) and  a member of the Metropolitan Cell & Supporters Group – as well as Dermot Hudson of the Korean Friendship Association and Theo Russell from International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity who also spoke about the work of their campaigns.
 And finally as no NCP event can ever end without a collection for the New Worker fighting fund Richard made the appeal which raised £200 for our communist weekly.

Free Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich!

by Theo Russell

Last Friday the Kononovich brothers Alexander and Mikhail, joined comrades from across Europe at an online meeting organised by the Turkish-based Anti Imperialist Front.
The brothers, members of the Leninist Communist Youth of Ukraine and ethnic Belarusians from the West Ukrainian Volhynia region, were arrested on 7th March 2022 and tortured in a Kiev detention centre. At that time the NATO puppet president Zelensky banned every opposition party in Ukraine. On 5th July 2022 the Communist Party of Ukraine was permanently banned, with all of its assets seized.
They are currently under house arrest and wearing ankle tags, and the case against them is still going through the courts. They explained that while the government had failed to provide credible evidence against the brothers, they are hoping to stop the case as soon as possible and then send them straight to the front line of the war.
Mikhail Kononovich told the meeting that "the Kiev regime knows we are not guilty and is trying to end our court case in any way possible. When it was opened they thought we would agree to confess our guilt, they thought they could break us, but we are communists, so it didn't work out like that. And the main thing is that they underestimated the level of international support we received.
"Their aim now is to end the case as quickly as possible and then send us immediately to the front line of the war.
"We know that thousands of comrades are fighting for us, and it's not possible for us to betray them. We have families, we have children, and we don't want to die, we're not idiots, but it's better to die than to betray all of you".
Less than three weeks ago Alexander was kidnapped outside the courthouse and sent to a military recruitment centre. He was only saved from being sent to the front because Mikhail had a phone and sent a message to international supporters. He compared the situation in Ukraine with that of Chile after the 1973 Pinochet coup.
Such kidnappings have occurred ever since the 2014 coup, with police standing by and judges cowered by death threats from the Nazi gangs. The brothers are currently under house arrest and wearing GPS ankle bracelets.
The meeting also discussed the possibility of the brothers being sent to serve their sentences in an EU state on the basis that the Kiev regime can't guarantee their safety. They said this had actually happened to some other defendants from Ukraine.
It was agreed at the meeting to hold an emergency protest at Ukrainian embassies around the world, including Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Serbia, Greece, Germany, and Britain, and a further protest on Saturday 4th April.

The eternal memory of Marx

Italian comrades at the oration

by New Worker correspondent

Marx died in his study in London on 14 March 1883 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. To commemorate his passing the Marx Memorial Library has for many decades held an annual graveside oration at his tomb at the Cemetery in north London. And this year London communists joined other comrades and friends, including the ambassadors of People’s China, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam, at his graveside last Sunday. 
Karl Marx, together with Friedrich Engels, wrote the Communist Manifesto and laid the foundations of modern scientific socialism. The immense contribution that Marx and Engels made in the struggle for the emancipation of the working class can never be forgotten.
After a life-time of struggle to build the revolutionary movement Marx passed away in London at the age of 64. "Marx was before all else a revolutionist” Engels said. “His real mission in life was to contribute, in one way or another, to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat, which he was the first to make conscious of its own position and its needs, conscious of the conditions of its emancipation. Fighting was his element. And he fought with a passion, a tenacity and a success such as few could rival”.
Karl Marx was buried in the same grave as his wife in Highgate Cemetery; it was marked with a simple headstone in accordance with Marx's wishes. In 1954 the grave was moved to a better position and it was decided to commission a more impressive tomb. The current monument, a bronze head atop a granite plinth, was designed and made by Laurence Bradshaw who was commissioned by the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). It was unveiled by Harry Pollitt, the General Secretary of the CPGB, in 1956.
The Marx Memorial Library is the trustee of the Marx monument in the cemetery and the event is organised by the Library, which was opened in 1933 with the aim of advancing education, knowledge and learning in all aspects of the science of Marxism, the history of socialism and the working class movement.

Stop the bombing now!

London comrades at the march

by Ed Newman

Angry protesters marched on the American embassy in London last weekend demanding an end to US-Israeli strikes on Iran. The march was organised by a coalition of groups, including Hands off Iran, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Palestinian Forum in Britain and CND.
The organisers said more than 50,000 demonstrators marched from Millbank to the US embassy in Vauxhall on Saturday afternoon. It cames on the eighth day of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, shortly after President Donald Trump said the US would hit Iran “very hard” in the coming days.
Protesters were heard chanting “stop the bombing now, now, now” and “Keir Starmer be afraid, we will see you in The Hague”.
Your Party MP Zarah Sultana spoke at the demonstration outside the US embassy, saying “back then [in 2003], we were told that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We were told that war would bring peace and democracy.
“We were told that the war would protect Iraqis and protect the world, but the truth was very different. And 23 years ago, when we marched against the Iraq war, we were ignored.
“We will not be ignored again, because history proved them right, and today, we raise our voices for peace, for justice and for a world where governments learn the lessons of the past”.
Hours before the march on Saturday morning, US Air Force B-1 Lancer bombers landed at the RAF Fairford base in Gloucestershire, in southern England.
Trump’s War Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said that the USA would use British bases to “dramatically” increase its strikes on Iran. The Starmer government has allowed the Americans to use UK military bases for the purpose of targeting Iranian missile sites.

Radio Havana Cuba

On the road to progress

Xin Changxing

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined businessmen, diplomats and solidarity activists for an economic briefing on the latest developments in People’s China on Monday. And the meeting room in the Bank of China in the City of London was packed to hear Xin
Changxing, a member of the  Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) give an overview on China’s 15th Five-Year Plan and China’s endeavours to push high-quality development and advance high-standard opening up in the coming years. Xin, who is also the Secretary of the CPC Jiangsu provincial committee, also outlined the developments in Jiangsu, China's second largest provincial economy by GDP. It's also one of the most commercially powerful and export-oriented provinces, supported by advanced manufacturing strengths, efficient logistics, robust innovation capabilities and a deep tech talent pool. Other speakers included Zheng Zeguang the Chinese ambassador, Fang Wenjian, who is the Chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce and general manager of the Bank of China London Branch, as well as Lord Sassoon the President of the China-Britain Business Council, Sir David Quarry the Group Head of Public Affairs HSBC and Peter Bennett, the Chief Executive of the China-Britain Business Council.

New challenges for China

by New Worker correspondent

Zheng Zequang opens the seminar

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined social scientists, businessmen, solidarity workers and other communists for an economic seminar at the Chinese embassy in London last week. 
And the Chinese ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, opened on the new developments in China and the opportunities it gave to the world that was the theme of the symposium and the discussion that followed.
He said China is marching towards the second Centenary Goal – a call to action for the entire country to seize the momentum and advance Chinese modernisation.
With this meeting, the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core sets to unite and lead the Chinese people to write yet another chapter on the miracles of rapid economic growth and long-term social stability and to open up new horizons for Chinese modernisation.
China was ready to share opportunities and seek common development with the world. China cannot develop in isolation from the world, while the world cannot prosper without China. While pursuing modernisation, China will strive to safeguard world peace and development.
Zheng pointed out that since last year, under the strategic guidance of the leaders from both China and Britain, positive progress has been made in China-UK relations. But, from time to time, this relationship has also been undermined by anti-China forces. The improvement and development of China-UK relations is in the fundamental interest of people in both countries, and it requires the concerted efforts of both sides.
The UK side should have the right perspective. Those who attack China by touting "China threat" and fabricating lies are ignorant and arrogant. They do not represent the mainstream of the UK, and their attempts are doomed to failure. Both sides should uphold mutual respect and non-interference in each other's internal affairs. The UK must honour its commitment, and properly handle Taiwan-related issues in accordance with the one-China principle. The two sides should commit to mutually-beneficial cooperation, create new highlights of cooperation and bring more benefits to the two peoples.
In his contribution Andy Brooks said “stable growth, stable policies and stable expectations – this is what the people want. China's development follows a clear direction that is taken with confidence and determination...this is China’s answer to Western calls for tariff walls and trade wars. China's approach to development is not about fighting for your own corner but about serving the people for the benefit of the entire world...
“The imperialists think that their guns will ensure that they can ignore the will of the people for as long as they like. But they were proved wrong in the 20th  century and they will be proved wrong today. The days when people listened to the rich men who told us that the greatest virtue of humanity was the possession of the largest amount of money are over...
Everywhere we look in the capitalist world we see unemployment, homelessness, poverty, drug abuse and crime. The symptoms of industrial decline, inflationary pressures, stock market volatility and economic stagnation. This is capitalism. And working people are being made to carry the burden of its failure. But in People’s China working people aren’t simply reacting to global challenges – they are shaping the very future of our world”. 

China: 76 years of progress

traditional Chinese music at the reception

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined diplomats, businessmen, solidarity campaigners and members of the Chinese community in London to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China last week. Over 400 guests gathered at the Peninsula hotel in Belgravia for a reception followed by a musical interlude performed by  artistic troupes including overseas Chinese and international students, as well as embassy staff.
Wang Qi, the Chinese chargé d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in the UK, delivered a speech highlighting China's achievements in the past years, and extended thanks to people from all walks of life who have long cared for and supported the development of China and bilateral relations.
China had achieved two remarkable miracles: rapid economic growth and sustained social stability, both rare in world history, over the past 76 years. 
In the first half of 2025, China saw the establishment of 30,000 new foreign-invested enterprises, a year-on-year increase of about 12 per cent, with actual foreign capital utilisation exceeding 420 billion yuan.
Wang said that China and the UK, both influential nations, held nine key dialogues this year across areas such as strategy, economy, energy, military, health, artificial intelligence, leadership, climate, and the environment. Both sides should maintain their strategic partnership, respect differences, and pursue win-win cooperation by implementing dialogue outcomes, reducing disruptions, expanding engagement, and deepening mutual benefits to advance China-UK relations.
Seema Malhotra, a Home Office minister, replied speaking highly about the renewed China-UK relationship – spotlighting security, environment, and economic growth as three priorities to shape UK's vision for future China-UK relations, and expressing the Starmer government’s willingness to take the ties forward in a constructive and effective way.
This was followed by a concert given by artistes that included the famed singers Deng Tao and Chen Luhong, violinists from the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, Chinese traditional music, the choir of the Chinese Embassy in the UK and the London Chinese Philharmonic Choir. 

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.