Cataclysm warning

 By New Worker correspondent

AROUND 15,000 protesters marched last Saturday from London’s Lincoln’s Inn Fields to Milbank to once again reiterate the warning that the Government must take climate change seriously and take urgent measures to curb the human causes of global warming.

The march included contingents from many different campaigns: anti-fracking groups, the campaign against TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), peace campaigners, anti-austerity campaigners and many more.

There were plenty of imaginative costumes, banners and placards and a variety of bands and choirs to accompany the march, which was led by a large group of 100-plus cyclists.

But the message was deadly serious. Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: "Climate change is here, visible, and we know it's time to act. It's time to stand up against those determined to burn the last drops of oil and gas and be confident in our power to build a better future. In coming together we help build the climate movement and inspire others to join us."

She added: "Young people, parents, grandparents, those new to the movement and veteran campaigners, we can all play our part, demanding our government legislate for the common good and not short-term vested interests. We're raising our voices for a year of climate action the UK and the world has never seen before."

The march ground to a halt on several occasions as marchers and cyclists staged sit-downs outside Coutts’s Bank in the Strand and at several other strategic points, bringing London’s traffic to an unplanned standstill.

As the march passed Westminster Bridge by the Houses of Parliament a large group broke away and headed across the bridge to picket the Shell building on the South Bank.

Vivienne Westwood addressed the protesters by video link, warning "the clock is ticking." The fashion designer said: "As you march my models will be walking down the catwalk. It's very important you are there. I believe this demo is super important for the whole world.

“At the moment we in the UK need to do two things to handle everything for the best, we need to demonstrate, we need to vote in the elections."

She was joined by Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union. He said: "We are delighted to see a growing alliance between workers and climate activists demanding a just solution to climate change. It is sick that millions around the world suffer without energy."

He added: "It is sick the energy companies push the prices through the roof... multinationals care not a damn for you or their families but about their profits, that's what this system is built on. For us the answer is in democracy and that means challenging those who are in power.

“I ask, do you trust the banks to deal with climate change? Do you trust the multinationals to deal with climate change? No. That's why we say it's time to put our democracy where it belongs, with ordinary people across the world."

John Sauven, executive director at Greenpeace UK, added: "We can have clean energy, we can have clean jobs, we can have clean power if everyone on this planet is to stick together.

“This year is going to be the most important year; this is going to be the start of the biggest mobilisation we have seen on this issue of climate change and poverty."

Million Women Rise march

 By New Worker correspondent

AN ESTIMATED 3,000 women took part in the Million Women Rise march in London’s West End last Saturday to mark International Women’s Day and to campaign against continuing violence against women.

It was a truly international march strongly supported by women from Africa, southern Asia and the Middle East, many wearing colourful traditional dress.

A group of women from the Democratic Republic of the Congo held a banner proclaiming: “blood in your phone”, referring to British multinational corporations that exploit minerals such as Coltan – used to manufacture microchips for phones and computers – profiting from forced labour and war in the region.

There were many placards and banners in support of the young Kurdish women who are playing a big role as frontline YPJ forces in the fight against Isis terrorists trying to seize the city of Kobane.

There were placards showing the effects of horrendous acid attacks carried out on women in Iran who refuse to conform to dress and behaviour codes imposed by the regime.

A contingent of Turkish and Kurdish women from Day-Mer Women's Organisation carried a banner declaring "Let's unite against austerity, war and violence and fight for our labour and social rights".

Defend the Donbas!

              

 

   by New Worker correspondent

COMRADES and friends heard stirring calls for solidarity with the anti-fascist fighters of Novorossiya at a well-attended meeting in central London last week. Speakers from the Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine (SARU) movement along with New Communist Party and Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (ML) leaders were as one in their support for the partisans and all the Ukrainian people struggling against the puppet regime in Ukraine.

            Alex Gordon from SARU stressed the leading role of the communists in the Novorossiyan militias and David Ayrton stressed the need to build the solidarity movement in Britain to counter the lies of the imperialists and their craven apologists in the labour movement that are being used to justify open British intervention to prop up the Kiev regime.

            Michael Chant of the RCPB (ML) spoke about the right of the people of eastern Ukraine to self-determination and NCP leader Andy Brooks warned against the danger of escalation and mission creep following the news that British military advisers were being sent to Ukraine.

            Andy Brooks said: “Anti-fascists in Britain and throughout the world who have rallied together to support the resistance in Ukraine are fighting an uphill battle against a mountain of misinformation, lies and confusion that is leading astray even some seasoned left-wingers who should know better.

“To its eternal shame the Labour Representation Committee, which aspires to be the voice of the left within the Labour Party, has positioned itself side-by-side with Anglo-American and Franco-German imperialism in supporting the Ukrainian Nazis and the puppet regime in Kiev.”

All these points, and many more besides, were taken up in the discussion that followed. There were many differing views on how we build the solidarity campaign within the labour and peace movement in Britain but everyone agreed on the need to stand by the Donbas workers defending their people’s republics against fascism and imperialism.

   The meeting was chaired by Theo Russell from the NCP London District, which has sponsored a number of New Worker public meetings at Euston’s Cock Tavern over the past few years. Plans for future topics include Greece and the Middle East crisis.

Expose US war-crimes!

 The UK Korean Friendship Association hosted a meeting via Skype at 1400 hours on 26^th February. KFA members from different parts of the country took part in the seminar including KFA Official Delegate Dermot Hudson, Andy Brooks, the general secretary of the New Communist Party and other KFA members in London and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

All the participants strongly denounced the hypocrisy of the  US imperialists for their "human rights " campaign saying that, in fact,  the Americans were the greatest human rights abusers since the Second World War.

It was pointed out that during the Korean war delegations from the British peace movement visited Korea and saw for themselves the evidence of germ warfare committed by the US imperialists in Korea. Books published at the time fully exposed this war-crime. The   KFA members pointed out that the germ warfare of the US was in violation of international conventions and protocols such as the Geneva convention.

During the seminar attention was also drawn to US war-crimes during the Vietnam war and also in during the invasion and occupation of Iraq. US imperialism was also responsible for the Bhopal disaster in India and for massive exploitation in the Third World.

While the CIA carried out torture against people held in secret prisons that were not on US soil the US government hypocritically talks about non-existent "labour camps" which were allegedly located inside the DPRK. Dermot Hudson said that on the nine visits to the DPRK he had never seen a labour camp while the US had carried out illegal imprisonment and torture at their Guantanamo Bay concentration camp on the territory of Cuba and other places throughout the world.

The meeting concluded by adopting the following resolution:

This meeting has been called to expose the phony human rights campaign of US imperialism against the Democratic People’s Republic (DPRK) and to expose the real “human rights violator “the US itself so it may be indicted before the court of history for its crimes against humanity. The “human rights “campaign against the DPRK it is not just hypocritical but it also serves as a smokescreen to divert attention away from real human rights  abuses  in the USA.

         These are far numerous to list as the USA is known for invading  many countries and also for racial discrimination and for phone tapping and electronic eavesdropping . It is rightly known as a “land barren of human rights “. However the most serious human rights abuses  committed by the US were the use of germ warfare during the Korean war against the DPRK and the torture carried out by the CIA in the years  2001-2006 .

The US imperialists waged biological warfare in Korea in the 1950-1953 war in violation of the Geneva Protocol. The use of biological weapons was confirmed by an International Scientific Commission which included the respected British scientist Professor Joseph Needham and also by confessions of captured US personnel. In carrying out biological warfare against the Korean people the US imperialists utilised the services of Japanese war criminal Shiro Ishii of the notorious Unit 731.

During the  Korean war the US carried out over 800 germ warfare sorties . The death toll from the US germ warfare ran into thousands . This was a barbaric crime that was much worse than those committed by Hitler in the second world war. We believe it is high time for the US to stop covering this crime and  come clean finally about it.

Recently, the US Senate issued a report opening to the world torture committed by the CIA over a long period. Of course the CIA had long been infamous for assassination, terrorism, dirty tricks and  interference . It earned notoriety as the shock brigade of US imperialism, Its role was exposed in the 1970s by a defector from the CIA, Philip Agee. However under  the guise of the so-called “war on terror “  the CIA became a major human rights violator committing torture and detaining suspects without  trial.

            The CIA operated a network of secret prisons around the world  and indulging kidnapping and  “rendition “ as part of its Detention and Interrogation Programme and carried out torture of detainees. The programme authorized CIA officers to use extreme interrogation techniques, including sleep deprivation, water boarding , painful stress positions, dietary manipulation, walling, 'rectal rehydration' or rectal feeding, etc. These techniques were most barbaric.

Thus the US stands condemned and guilty for crimes against humanity. We demand that the UN Committee on Human Rights and other international bodies organise a full and proper investigation into these crimes committed by the US. The UN must act in a fair and impartial way and must not be afraid of the United States.

Adopted unanimously by the meeting at 14.50 hrs on 26^th February 2015.

Snow White Korean-style!

Dermot Hudson of the KFA with some of the cast

 By New Worker correspondent

COMRADES and friends of Korea joined music lovers to see the Democratic Korean Youth Para Ensemble that is touring England for the first time with the support of the Korean Federation for the Protection of the Disabled.

. Twelve disabled children and young adults along with five other helpers demonstrated their immense artistic skills at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre and the Royal College of Music in London this week.

The DPR Korea performers were assisted by London-based Korean resident Prof Kim So Ock of the Royal Academy of Music and the 90-minute performance included not only traditional Korean music but also some popular western pieces such as the Phantom of the Opera.

Particularly impressive was the performance by Kim Myong Suk, who is blind, on the kayagum, a traditional Korean instrument. It was also delightful to watch a group of deaf children perform Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with songs from the Disney classic including Heigh Ho! in Korean and Snow White dressed as a Korean fairy!

There was also a lovely rendition, in Korean and English of You Raise Me Up by Jang Mi Yon and the performance concluded with a spirited Kayagum version of the famous Korean song Arirang.

The performances showed that disabled people are treated well in the DPRK and are provided with all rights. The disabled in the DPRK live independent and creative lives with full living conditions provided by the socialist system.

One could see not only skill and creativity but dignity shining through. All in all a great night out and if you did not make the Oxford and London concerts plus try to make it to Cambridge for their last performance on 2^nd March.