Corbyn celebrates Chinese New Year in London

 By New Worker correspondent

Labour MPs, Chinese diplomats and nearly 200 members of London’s Chinese community braved snow and ice last week to celebrate the Chinese New Year at the annual Chinese for Labour banquet at the Phoenix Palace in London.

Guests of honour included Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn along with a number of other MPS and Labour peers, as well as Ambassador Liu Xiaoming and other senior diplomats from China’s London embassy.

Chinese for Labour Chair Sonny Leong welcomed guests, saying: “There is more to do in fully engaging the Chinese community, to bring them to Labour and empower them to make their greatest possible contribution to British society. And so we have developed our first ever Chinese for Labour manifesto, which sets out an agenda that we hope the Labour Party will adopt to engage with and serve the British Chinese and broader East Asian community.”

Jeremy Corbyn said: “Chinese people have contributed hugely to British life. With 7,000 Chinese-owned businesses in the UK, almost every corner of our country will have a Chinese-run business contributing to their local economy. From our creative industries to our public services, Chinese people make an invaluable and often overlooked difference to our country. So thank you for all your contributions.”

The Chinese ambassador highlighted Labour’s past contributions to Sino-British relations.

“Britain became the first major western country to recognise the People's Republic of China,” Liu Xiaoming declared. “Hong Kong's return to China was another highlight and it was followed by accelerated progress in China–UK relations.

“The China–UK comprehensive strategic partnership was established while Labour was in government. And the UK under Labour joined China in launching several high-level exchange mechanisms, including the annual Prime Ministers' meeting, the Economic and Financial Dialogue, and the Strategic Dialogue.

“Eighteen years ago, Chinese for Labour was founded. Since then, you have made great efforts to raise the sense of citizenship among the Chinese community. You have launched campaigns like the British Chinese Project to encourage them to get actively involved in politics.

“I look forward to continued contribution from the Labour Party and Chinese for Labour. I am sure your efforts will help improve understanding between the people of our two countries…In the new year, we look forward to strengthening the communications between political parties of our two countries. The China–UK Leadership Forum is a platform for such communications. We hope the Labour Party will continue to take an active part in this Forum.

“We hope to join hands with the Labour Party to advance China–UK relations, to deliver more benefits to the people of our two countries, and to contribute to world peace and development and promote the sound development of our bilateral relations.”

The Chinese for Labour Group is an affiliate of the Labour Party. It was formed in 1999 to promote the interests of Chinese people in the Labour Party and to improve the quality of life of the Chinese community in Britain.

Met foil fascist terror

MARK Rowley, a retiring assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan Police, last week announced that London police had foiled four extreme right-wing terror plots last year.

Rowley, who was the head of counter-terrorism policing in Britain, used his retirement speech to warn against the rise of the far-right and to draw parallels between far-right groups and figures and the Islamist extremists they claim to despise, in the annual Colin Cramphorn memorial lecture in central London.

In a conference with journalists before the speech, Rowley said the far-right terror threat was “significant and concerning,” and the public should be “gravely concerned” by the existence of National Action, the white supremacist, neo-Nazi group banned under terror legislation.

“The right-wing threat was not previously organised,” he said. “Every now and then there’s been an individual motivated by that rhetoric who has committed a terrorist act but we’ve not had an organised right-wing threat like we do now.”

He said a third of referrals to the Government’s Prevent strategy, reducing radicalisation in communities, are now individuals engaged with far-right terrorism.

In his speech, Rowley draws many comparisons between Islamist and far-right groups and figures, such as ISIS and Anjem Choudary in the former, and National Action and former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley Lennon) in the latter.

“Ironically, while Islamist and extreme right-wing ideologies may appear to be at opposing ends of the argument it is evident that they both have a great deal in common,” he said.

Tommy Robinson reacted angrily to Rowley’s speech and has threatened to “find” Britain’s most senior counter terrorism officer, after he warned of the growing threat of far-right terrorism.

The EDL figurehead on Monday re-posted a tweet by a supporter who said the police were “so so wrong” to equate Mr Robinson with ISIS-supporting hate preacher Anjem Choudary. “I’m gonna find Mark Rowley,” said Robinson. He did not immediately elaborate about what he meant.

End British support to Kiev regime!

Dermot Hudson and Andy Brooks on the line

by New Worker

correspondent

Anti-fascist campaigners returned to the streets of Whitehall in force last weekend in solidarity with the people of the Lugansk and Donetsk republics, and to call for an end to British military aid to the Kiev regime. Eighteen demonstrators including NCP leader Andy Brooks joined the picket opposite Downing Street called by the New Communist Party, Socialist Fight and the British Posadist movement, which was also supported by the British branch of the Communist Party of Italy and the Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine (SARU) campaign.

Gerry Downing of Socialist Fight took the microphone along with Dermot Hudson from the NCP whilst others gave out leaflets to the passers-by on this busy thoroughfare between Trafalgar Square and Westminster. Many agreed with the sentiments and some even joined us to briefly stand in solidarity with our demands.

The British government has provided military trainers for the Ukrainian army, which includes the fascist militias that were integrated into Ukraine’s armed forces with the blessing of US imperialism.

In February 2014 a fascist-backed coup took place in Ukraine. Two months later neo-Nazi thugs besieged pro-democracy protesters inside the Trade Union House in Odessa before torching it, blocking the exits to trap the victims in the blaze. The Kiev regime says 50 were killed but eyewitnesses believe the true number is well over 100. Not one of the thugs responsible for the murders has been charged because they are followers of the neo-Nazi militias that prop up the corrupt Poroshenko regime that does the bidding of Anglo-American and Franco-German imperialism.

Soon afterwards the people in eastern Ukraine took up the gun to defend themselves from the fascist onslaught and set up their own people’s republics in the Donbas. Almost 4,000 Donbas civilians have been killed by the fascists and the Ukrainian army in the struggle to defend their new-born freedom.

• Report of the picket by Donbas communists