50,000 families forced out of capital

MORE than 50,000 families have been quietly shipped out of London boroughs in the past three years by cuts in benefits and soaring rents, according to a report in the Independent based on leaked documents.

The documents reveal an unprecedented number of families who cannot afford to find homes in their local area being uprooted from their neighbourhoods and dumped further and further away from the capital, cut off from their relatives and support networks.

The rise coincides with the Con Dem Coalition’s introduction of the benefit cap and bedroom tax, both of which have made it significantly harder for poor people to afford housing in London.

In 2010 London Mayor Boris Johnson vowed that the controversial welfare reforms would not lead to social cleansing, pledging: “You are not going to see thousands of families evicted from the place where they have been living.”

But official figures, which the authorities have previously refused to publish, show the problem is much worse than campaigners feared. They show that councils are currently moving homeless mothers and children out of their boroughs at a rate of close to 500 families a week, with numbers continuing to rise.

The Independent has uncovered cases of depression, attempted suicide and the miscarriage of a child involving those forced to move many miles away by their councils.

Families are being moved to locations including Manchester, Bradford, Hastings, Pembrokeshire, Dover and Plymouth. In many cases, councils are not telling each other when they move families, leaving vulnerable adults and children without the support they need.

Brixton solidarity with Baltimore

 HUNDREDS of people marched through Brixton on Sunday 3rd May to show solidarity with the people of Baltimore in their struggle against police brutality and racism.

Baltimore has erupted in protests after a 25-year-old African American, Freddie Gray, died in police custody with a broken neck – the most recent in a long litany of black victims of shocking police brutality made public through social media.

The people of Brixton in south London have also had their share of clashes with racist police. Brixton is noted for its diverse ethnic mix and has had a thriving West Indian since the 1950s, now joined by a large African community.

Brixton has seen riots against police brutality in 1982 and 2011.

Last Sunday, in the event organised by the Black Revs (Black Revolutionaries), the banners proclaimed: “No justice, no peace”, “Africans have a right to resist,” and “Reclaim Brixton”.

The community is also engaged in a titanic battle against “gentrification” of the area, soaring rents and the destruction of working class homes and communities to be replaced by luxury apartments that no local can afford.

In Baltimore, a curfew was lifted on Saturday after scores of arrests were made over the week, with over 3,000 security forces on the ground, backed up by the National Guard.

The tensions there eased after six policemen involved in Freddie Gray’s death were arrested and charges were brought against them.

But they were renewed again earlier this week after another black man was reported to have been shot in the back while running away from police. Police are claiming that no one was hurt but video footage shows a black man being taken away in an ambulance.

London protest demands justice for Odessa

MORE THAN 60 people gathered outside the Ukraine embassy in London on Saturday to mark the

first anniversary of the Odessa massacre when dozens of people were killed as fascist thugs attacked an anti-Maidan protest camp and set the Trade Union house on fire. No one has faced trial for these murders, and so its anniversary was marked around the world yesterday, including in London.

The picket in London was organised by Solidarity with Anti-fascist Resistance in Ukraine (SARU) outside the Ukrainian embassy in Holland Park, West London, and SARU had produced a special banner to mark the occasion.

Alex Gordon from the rail workers union, RMT, spoke about the illegal coup in Kiev last year, and the burning of the Trade Union house in Odessa. Alex explained why it is important for people in Britain to demand justice for Odessa.

He highlighted the significance of the date of the massacre 2^nd May, for this was the date in 1933 that Hitler’s storm troopers shut down and in many cases burned down the Trade Union offices in Germany, and Alex said that the defeat of fascism was only temporary and that we had to fight it again today.

“We must demand solidarity with those who oppose fascism in Ukraine and justice for the people of Odessa killed for exercising their rights to freedom of expression,” he said and appealed to “socialists, trade unionists and those who defend democratic rights” to express their outrage. He added: “British people should be demanding that the BBC stops telling lies and tells the truth about a massacre.”

There was then a minute silence for the victims followed by the release of 48 black balloons into the sky, each balloon representing the known victims of the massacre.

Amongst those present there were people from many nationalities, including Ukrainians, Russians, Spanish and others, as well as members of socialist and communist organisations and a contingent from the Bristol Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity group. The banner of the RMT Paddington branch, which played a crucial role in the setting up of the campaign, was also proudly displayed.

The protesters then moved on to the Marx Memorial Library where there was a picture exhibition about the Odessa massacre.

Bangladeshi May Day in Whitechapel

 by New Worker correspondent

MEMBERS and supporters of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (UK Branch) held a May Day Red Flag Rally and Ganasangeet cultural programme at the Altab Ali Park in Whitechapel, East London on 1^st May.

In a statement the organisers said: “In Tower Hamlets this event has gone unrecognised for a long time,” and recalled that that the female workers of the Bryant May Match Factory in Bow went on strike in 1888 in protest against the sacking of a worker and the awful conditions of work.

“As Tower Hamlets is also the centre of the Bangladeshi diaspora, we want to fuse the struggles of the working class in Bangladesh with those in Tower Hamlets and have decided to hold an annual event on 1st May.”

The rally was followed by performances by artistes from Udichi Shilpi Ghosti and Satyen Sen School of Performing Arts. The Altab Ali Park commemorates a 25-year-old Bangladeshi clothing worker who was murdered nearby in 1978 in a racist attack.

The stage shown in the picture is the Shaheed Minar, a smaller replica of the one in Dhaka, Bangladesh which symbolises a mother and her martyred sons.

Italian comrades celebrate liberation from fascism

  By New Worker correspondent

BRITISH and Greek comrades joined Italian communists in celebrating the 70^th anniversary of the liberation of Italy from fascism at a meeting organised by the British section of the Partito Comunista in north London on Saturday 25th April.

            Alain Fissore of the Partito Comunista spoke on the history of the fascism in Italy and the betrayal of the mainly communist-led partisan movement in the “Salerno Turn” by Communist Party of Italy leader Palmiro Togliatti, who adopted a parliamentary path and agreed a “democratic compromise” with the bourgeois parties and the monarchy. He also described at struggles led by Eugenio Curiel and Pietro Secchia against revisionism in the CPI.

            A Greek comrade spoke of the theoretical errors made by the KKE leadership in the aftermath of liberation, and gave an analysis of the fascist Golden Dawn party which, she said, “can only be finally defeated by socialist, working class power”.

Theo Russell brought greetings from the New Communist Party and spoke on the history of fascist movements in Britain, the current resurgence of fascism in Eastern Europe and the Ukraine, and the importance of a clear Marxist-Leninist understanding of the nature of state power.