Return from the land of Juche

 

By New Worker correspondent

Comrades and friends heard Korean solidarity activists talk about their recent delegation to Democratic Korea at the Lucas Arms in central London last weekend. Dermot Hudson and James Taylor were part of a three-strong Korean Friendship Association (KFA) delegation that went to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to take part in solidarity meetings last month.

 Both men spoke highly about what they saw in Democratic Korea – the immense progress that could only have been achieved through socialism and the determination of the masses who have closed ranks behind the Workers’ Party of Korea to defend the DPRK’s independence and Korean-style socialism against the threats of US imperialism and its lackeys.

A lively question and answer session was followed by a general discussion on life in the DPRK and the Juche philosophy of great leader Kim Il Sung, who led the Korean people to victory over Japanese colonialism and US imperialism in the 20^th century.

Bad day for Britain First in Bromley

by New Worker correspondent

THE NEO-FASCIST organisation Britain First (BF), notorious for violent attacks on mosques, has problems. Its leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Franzen have a number of court orders against them, and Golding is obliged every Saturday between 2pm and 4pm to sign in at his nearest police station. As he lives in Penge, south London, that police station is in Bromley, next to Bromley South Rail Station.

This limits the range of political demonstrations he can take part in on Saturdays. So, trying to make a virtue out of a necessity, he called a national mobilisation of BF supporters outside Bromley Police Station for last Saturday.

Ex-BNP members mingled with ex-Combat 18 thugs. This really was a rump and was the lowest BF demo for some time. But the total number who turned up – around 40 – was massively outnumbered by local anti-fascists.

These included Labour Party members, Liberal Democrats, Greens, South London Anti-Fascists, Antifa, trade unionists from RMT, TSSA, ASLEF, Unite the Union, the NEU educational union and the civil service union, and Disabled People against Cuts  (DPAC) – plus some passers-by who joined in.

And the anti-fascists were noisy, very noisy, and succeeded in drowning the noise of a BF amplifier playing ‘patriotic’ music.

Several of the fascists, overweight and with greying hair, were wearing a khaki uniform bearing the word “Security”. Political uniforms were outlawed by a public order Act in the 1930s. Anti-fascists will be taking up this issue with the appropriate authorities.

The fascists had hoped to march from Bromley North to the station but were banned from marching through the shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon.