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.

Ann Rogers Remembered

Andy Brooks remembers Ann

by New Worker correspondent

COMRADES and friends gathered at the Party Centre over the weekend to pay tribute to the life-long commitment of Ann Rogers to the communist cause. Ann, who passed away in June, was a leading member of the New Communist Party and was National Organiser and Editor of the New Worker during the turbulent times of the 1980s and 1990s when the very existence of the Party was at stake.

Leading comrades had paid their last respects to Anne at her funeral in July but they, along with others who could not attend the final service, returned to the Party Centre on Saturday to remember her life and her immense contribution to the cause of peace and socialism.

Throughout her life Ann was actively involved in campaigning work in the labour movement, CND and the communist movement and this was highlighted by NCP leader Andy Brooks and Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML) at the memorial meeting on Saturday. National Chair Alex Kempshall, who opened the meeting, spoke of the first time he met Ann while others including Bob Ede, a founder-member of the NCP, and Peter Hendy recalled more fond memories of her life.

Ann spent many years working to make the New Worker the outstanding communist journal that it is today – a point made by Theo Russell in a rousing appeal that raised £283 for the fighting fund.

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.