Stop the massacre in Gaza!

Around 800 people joined an emergency protest opposite Downing Street on Monday evening in response to the horrific Israeli triple missile strike on a school in Gaza City which killed at least 80 Palestinian civilians. The attack coincided with morning prayers and started a fire. About 6,000 people were sheltering in Tabeen school, all of whom have already moved several times to different parts of Gaza on the advice of the Israeli forces to avoid military operations. The director of al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, Dr Fadel Naeem, described the situation at the hospital as catastrophic, with a severe shortage of medical supplies and resources. Al-Ahli hospital is managed by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem  and it is the only Christian hospital in Gaza.

No arms for Israel!

photo: Rana Aria, Hammersmith & Fulham Unison

By New Worker correspondent

Hundreds of thousands of Palestine solidarity supporters took to the streets across the country on Saturday to demand an end to genocidal war in Gaza and an end to British arms sales to Israel. In London demonstrators marched through the heart of the capital to call on the new Labour government to stop arming the Zionist state.
The Starmer government has reportedly suspended the processing of arms export licences for sales to Israel pending an official review. But this is not enough.
Stop the War national convener Lindsey German said “a temporary suspension of the processing of arms export licences to Israel, while David Lammy ponders what to do that won’t hurt his friends in the defence industry or the UK’s relationship with the US and Israel, means little. There must be an immediate ban on all arms sales. Every hour this decision is delayed, more lives are lost. The government must stop facilitating genocide immediately”.
The UK’s deadly arms trade with Israel includes its contribution to the F-16 and F-35 warplanes that Israel is using in its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. 15 per cent of every F35 that Israel is using to bomb Gaza is made by British industry. 
The government’s own Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, under which all arms exports are assessed, states that export licences should not be issued if there is a “clear risk” arms exports might be used in a “serious violation of international humanitarian law”. The Arms Trade Treaty, to which Britain is a State Party, outlines that a State must not export arms if there is “potential” that they could be used to commit violations of international human rights or humanitarian law. It is inconceivable that after over 75 years of Israel’s regime of military occupation and apartheid, and nearly 10 months of Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza, with over 40,000 killed, that the government’s legal advice has adjudged that such a risk does not exist.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, together with the Campaign Against Arms Trade and War on Want is calling on the British government to abide by its domestic and international law obligations by immediately introducing a comprehensive military embargo to end the two-way arms trade with Israel and end all further military assistance to Israel, including through the RAF base in Cyprus.

End arms exports to Ukraine!

 

London anti-fascists were back in Whitehall demanding the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners at a picket by Downing Street last week. The protest called by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign (IUAFS) called for the restoration of full political and media freedoms in Ukraine and an end toBritish arms exports to the Zelensky regime.

Free Ukrainian political prisoners!

By New Worker correspondent

Activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) and the newly created Scotland Against NATO Action Committee (SANAC) held protests in Glasgow and London last week calling for the release of thousands of Ukrainian Political Prisoners, many of whom have been falsely convicted of acting on behalf of the Russian and Donbas forces, beaten or tortured, and sentenced to years in prison with confiscation of all property. The protesters also called for the restoration full political and media freedoms in Ukraine after almost all political parties and dozens of media outlets have been banned. The British government has routinely ignored this repression taking place on a massive scale and continues to send hundreds of millions of pounds in arms and other support to Ukraine, at a time of acute shortage of housing in Britain, a health service in deep crisis, prisons and schools in shocking condition, 30 per cent of UK children living in poverty and almost two million people suffering undernourishment.

Selling the Family Silver

 by New Worker correspondent

 London’s Great Russell Street is the address of two major institutions: the British Museum and the TUC HQ, Congress House. But not for much longer. While the classical nineteenth century Museum is staying put the 1950s modernist Congress House is up for sale. 
This little noticed decision is a damning reflection on the state of Britain’s trade unions which now represent less than a quarter (22 per cent to be precise) of the workforce. 
After the TUC’s Finance Committee decided it is no longer viable to keep the building its General Council agreed that point in early June. It is claimed that essential refurbishment will cost around £20 million.
Congress House was opened in 1958, some 14 years after the 1944 TUC called for a new building. It is the grandest purpose-built labour movement building in Britain, although the nearby British Medical Association’s Tavistock House and the National Education Union’s Hamilton House are equally impressive. 
 In 1946 David Du Roi Aberdeen won the design competition against 180 rivals, but it was not until 1958 the building finally opened.
 The competition brief was to provide a building which would be “fitting to the dignity and propagation of the great ideals for which the Movement stands”. 
 It is centred on a large semi-basement conference hall surrounded with offices, smaller meeting rooms, it had a library (now at the University of North London), a catering hall, with a well-lighted entrance hall. The panelled rooms are the result of timber donated by unions from across the globe. All the construction workers had to have a union card. As the TUC is very respectable the Royal Horse Guards played at the opening ceremony.
Modernist architecture is not to everybody’s taste, being rather plain, but the building has important unique features. Its internal courtyard is dominated by Sir Jacob Epstein’s 1957 sculpture of a mother carrying her dead son, a striking anti-war monument. This was designed specifically for the building. At the front the plain Cornish granite slabs frontage looks down the bronze “Spirit of Brotherhood” showing a strong man helping a weak one, by communist sculptor Bernard Meadows. Being a Grade II listed building such important features will have to be retained, which be certain to put off buyers. A mysterious Ministry of Defence building at the back enabled the spooks to know what was going on.  
The TUC claims it needs a “modern fit-for-purpose” building. But this is something which they already have. It is near three major railway stations connected the north of Britain. The building is used by other trade unionists. As a humble trades union council delegate this correspondent recalls sitting in the top floor council chamber listening to both fiery and long-winded speeches.
Parts of the building are already rented out to sympathetic bodies such as law firm Thompsons. Its large hall has been rented out to all and sundry including for large company AGMs, which bring in cash, albeit at the cost of generating controversy. 
Forty jobs, largely of catering workers are at risk from the TUC’s planned move. TUC General Secretary Paul Nowack said the decision was “an incredibly difficult one” but was as in the movement’s best interests. 
 In some respects this is like a twenty-strong congregation struggling to keep a Victorian church built for hundreds water-tight. But things are not as bad as that for the TUC. Given its location the TUC could clearly do more to exploit the building rather than simply throw in the towel, even if that meant hiring its soul for corporate AGMs. The  alternative will likely be a suite of offices occupying a couple of floors in an expensive nearby office block. 
The planned sell-off is definitely a retreat at a time when trade unions need to go on the offensive. There is a petition against the sale focusing on the risk of lost jobs at:   https://www.change.org/p/save-congress-house-jobs.

Camden Action for Palestine!

By New Worker correspondent

Activists from the Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign marched from Camden Town to a Barclays Bank in Central London to demand it ceases its massive loans and investments to the criminal Israeli state. The protest came ten days or so after the then US president, Joe Biden, approved the resumption of deliveries of 500 pound bombs to Israel, followed shortly afterwards by Israeli attacks on two schools and a hospital in which dozens died. While Biden and Sir Keir Starmer reacted with outrage to Ukrainian lies about a Russian strike on a children's hospital in Kiev, promising more air defences for Ukraine, they had nothing to say about Israel's atrocities in Gaza in which hundreds of civilians are dying every week. On a more positive note, for the past three weeks the assortment of Zionist fanatics, EDL “football lads” types and Iranian monarchists have given up on their counter protests. 

Palestine – we will not be silenced!

By New Worker correspondent

Palestine Solidarity Campaign activists marched once again last Saturday from Camden Town to Barclays Bank in Tottenham Court Road, where the Barclays branch has been forced to close on Saturdays after weeks of protests.
Luca Salice from the Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign urged the activists to join the national Gaza protest two days after the General Election, saying "It's very important that we tell the new government that we are here, that we are in solidarity with the Palestinians, that we are against genocide, that we are against the slaughter if children, of women, the destruction of schools, hospitals, universities and places of worship."
Sabi Sagal, a British Jew with family in Israel, said "I'm old enough to remember the Nakba in 1948, I was ten years old, and we were lied to. The Zionists put out the false narrative that the Arab armies had invaded Palestine to drive the Jews into the sea. The reality was the opposite – it was the Zionists who drove out three quarters of the Palestinian people into the desert. It was an Israeli professor, Benny Morant, who finally told the truth when he said ‘Yes, we drove the Palestinians out, we had to do so, otherwise we wouldn't have the state of Israel’. He was honest, he was an honest Zionist. What the Israelis are doing now is to complete the ethnic cleansing begun in 1948.
"We often hear the term Apartheid used in relation to Israel, but in fact Israel is much worse than Apartheid South Africa. But it's very important that we're protesting outside Barclays, it was when Barclays Bank was forced to withdraw their investments from South Africa that the Apartheid regime fell in the early 90s. Let's do the same again now, let's force Barclays to withdraw its financial support for Israel, and let's end all the arms that enable Israel to kill and murder Palestinians in their thousands".
Jonathan Fluxman, a health worker from South Africa, pointed out that "even if there are not many of us here today, it's still important that we're here outside Barclays, because all of these people around us can see and hear us."
The Camden protest was one of seven across London and 28 across Britain last Saturday, as far apart as Plymouth and the Orkney Islands. These weekly protests have now been taking place for 38 weeks. Palestine campaigners did not expect, or want, this campaign to be needed after so long. 
Until recently frenzied efforts were being made by government ministers and the media to label these actions as "pro-terrorist", and the police came under intense pressure to close them down.  But in the last few months the political establishment and mass media have tried a new tactic, erecting a 'wall of silence'  on the protest movement in an attempt to suffocate it. But there is no sign of the numbers taking to the streets for an end to the genocide in Gaza going down.
As one of the slogans coined during this incredible protest movement which millions have joined in Britain says: "We are the people – We won't be silenced!"

US out of Korea!

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity activists were outside the US embassy in London on Saturday to demand an end to the American occupation of south Korea. London comrades, including NCP leader Andy Brooks, joined in the protest called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) in solidarity with the DPR Korea and all the Korean people campaigning to end the imperialist partition of their country. 
US imperialism and its south Korean lackeys attempted to invade Democratic Korea on 25th June 1950. Millions died in the war that ended with an armistice in 1953. But Korea remains partitioned with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) ringed by the nuclear arsenals of US imperialism and facing tens of thousands of American troops based in the south of the divided peninsula.
Every year the anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War is marked by the start of the month of solidarity with the Korean people. In Britain, and throughout the rest of the world, Korean solidarity campaigners meet to demand an end to the American occupation of south Korea and the reunification of the country that has been divided since the end of the Korean War.
“We are here today picketing the US embassy because a few days ago, on Tuesday 25th June, it was the 74th anniversary of the provocation of the Korean War which is known as the Fatherland Liberation War in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” said Dermot Hudson, the Chairman of the KFA. 
“The war was not a war between Koreans but between a small country, the DPRK, and the American empire. Indeed it was a war against Korea, against the Korean people.
“The US imperialists, the ringleader of world imperialism and international reactionaries, provoked a war in Korea on the 25th June 1950 by instigating their south Korean puppets to attack the young DPR Korea. The US imperialists were hungry for profits and conquest. The US imperialists fought an unjust, aggressive war against the Korean people. The US imperialists launched a war of conquest against the DPRK , a war to destroy the Juche-based people's democratic system in the DPRK as well as to destroy socialism in Asia and the world.
“We are here to defend the right of the DPRK to exist, to defend its independence, it is time to take a real stand and defend People's Korea from the threat of US aggression. The US is quite openly threatening the DPRK with annihilation, with being "eliminated" from the face of the globe.
“All the time, the US, even as we stand here, the US imperialists are planning regime change in People’s Korea and to overthrow the socialist system”.

Welcoming visitors from Tibet!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined friends and comrades to meet a delegation from Xizang, the modern term for Tibet, this week. The reception at the Chinese embassy’s Science Section in north London revolved around the theme of "A Beautiful and Happy Xizang" with a screening of a film about traditional Tibetan medicine and the new life that the people enjoy in the autonomous region on the roof of the world. This was followed by greetings from the Xizang delegation in a room decorated with traditional Tibetan scroll paintings.
Since the peaceful liberation of Xizang in 1951 and the suppression of the Dalai Lama’s imperialist inspire rebellion in 1959 the democratic reforms under the leadership of the Communist Party of China have led to earth-shaking changes in Xizang. The people – poverty-stricken serfs under the feudal regime of the Dalai Lama – now enjoy their fundamental rights in all spheres. 
Public health services have been elevated to a higher level in Xizang. The region provides a comprehensive public health-care system covering regular basic medical services, maternity and childcare, disease prevention and control, and Tibetan medicine and therapies.
Xizang is home to 49 public institutions of Tibetan medicine, and 94.4 per cent of township health centres and 42.4 per cent of village health clinics in the autonomous region offer Tibetan medicine services. Tibetan medicines are now being produced on a commercial basis, and the production of the medicine has been standardised and regulated.
The online Chinese Tibetan Medicine Database Platform was officially launched last year. It aims to combine, preserve and utilise the Tibetan medicine resources through modern technology. Tibetan medicine is a part of the Tibetan culture and a pearl in the traditional Chinese medicine. The digitisation of these resources is significant in standardising Tibetan medicine and preserving Tibetan culture. 

Starmer wins as Tories crash!

by New Worker correspondent

Rishi Sunak has resigned. Tory biggies, including Grant Shapps, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Liz Truss, have lost their seats. Plaid Cymru surges forward but the Scottish nationalist vote slumps. The Liberal-Democrats bounce back with 71 seats – their best result for a hundred years. The Greens are up from one to four. Jeremy Corbyn successfully staves off the Starmer machine. George Galloway doesn’t. Four other independents from the Muslim community take seats from Labour on Palestine solidarity platforms and Reform enters parliament for the first time with Nigel Farage at the helm.
Tory grandees are now scrabbling around to look for a new leader as Labour prepares for the Starmer era following a landslide victory of Blairite proportions in the general election.
Labour trounced the Tories this week winning 412 seats in the House of Commons that gives a huge parliamentary majority of 174. But Labour’s triumphant return owes much more to the Tory collapse than to anything Sir Keir Starmer had to offer. The turn-out was down – possibly the lowest since the Second World War and Labour’s share was only around 36 per cent – much lower than Tony Blair’s victory in 1997. And if Starmer & Co refuse to change course over Palestine the rift with the younger generation, the Muslim community and the left as a whole will only widen.
Labour lost four seats to pro-Palestinian independent candidates and faced serious challenges in several others including Starmer’s own London seat where a pro-Palestinian activist came second with 18.9 per cent of the vote. “Labour need to take the votes lost over Gaza as seriously as we took the loss of red wall” said Blair’s former adviser John McTernan as the results came in on Friday morning. 
"The work of change begins immediately" Starmer said soon after he moved into Downing Street though this would not be as simple as "flicking a switch". Platitudes come easy to a man like Starmer who spoke of the need for schools and affordable homes and vowed to "rebuild" the country's "infrastructure of opportunity...brick by brick" to meet the "challenges of an insecure world".
Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who defeated a Starmer stooge to keep his Islington seat as an independent,  said Starmer “will have a very large majority in parliament, he has put forward a manifesto that is thin to put it mildly and doesn’t offer a serious economic alternative to what the Conservative government is doing. And so the demands on him are going to be huge, the demands from the people are going to be huge.
“If you don’t give yourself space, to increase spending on the desperate social needs, I mentioned the two-child policy, but there are plenty of others, then I think there are going to be political problems. He must have known this when he agreed this manifesto which is a bit of a straitjacket around any proposals he may want to push forward.
“If the government ends the two-child benefit cap for example, hallelujah! I will be delighted. But if they don’t, I’ll be there, saying: why haven’t you done it? If they bring in rent controls in the private sector, well done. If they don’t, I’ll be there. Because this is a vote to show that people do want a true and independent voice in parliament to speak up for social justice”.

Stop the War in Ukraine!

By New Worker correspondent

London comrades joined a picket in Whitehall last week calling for an end to British weapons supplies to Ukraine, and for Ukraine’s puppet leader, Vladimir Zelensky, to step down to make way for talks to end the war in Ukraine. NCP leader Andy Brooks and other activists were interviewed by RT, the Russian TV news channel, during the early evening protest opposite the Prime Minister’s residence in Downing Street.
The demonstrators highlighted the grave dangers in the current battlefield situation of an all-out NATO war against Russia, sparked by support from some hotheads in the Western alliance for weapons they are supplying to be used in strikes deep inside the Russian Federation. This  was the latest initiative of the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) campaign which has been supporting the people of the Donbas and the anti-fascist Ukrainian resistance on the street since 2014.
Zelensky’s electoral mandate in 2019 – won by promising to end the war in the Donbas – expired last month, and under the Ukrainian constitution he is no longer the country's sovereign representative. Any peace agreement has to involve the Russian Federation as the war is in reality a NATO proxy war against Russia, and that genuine negotiations to end the war in Ukraine must acknowledge Russia's fundamental security interests.

Free Gaza! Free Palestine!

By New Worker correspondent

Over 200,000 people took to the streets of London on Saturday to support the Palestinian Arabs and demand an end to the carnage in Gaza – a demand echoed  in demos and protests in cities, towns and villages organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other solidarity and anti-war movements throughout the country.
At the rally Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador in London said " I am running out of words, not only to describe the horror we are witnessing every single day. No. I am running out of words to help me understand how world leaders and how the mainstream media cannot see, cannot report, cannot act. 
“I have questions. How do they sleep? 
 “How do they sleep when they see the pictures of emaciated, skeletal children shaking with fear dying of an engineered famine in Gaza? 
 “How can they sleep when they see the child Ahmed al-Najjar, just 18 months old, beheaded in Rafah by a US-made bomb? 
 “I know I can’t sleep. I can’t get Ahmed’s image out of my head! Why are those pictures not on your front pages every day?”

Camden stands by Gaza!

by New Worker correspondent

Camden Friends of Palestine successfully organised 'Camden Gaza Week'  to maintain and increase knowledge of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and to continue calls for UK politicians to put pressure on the Israeli government to stop the killings.
Kentish Town was chosen as the venue for the seven day programme of protests, solidarity and educational events, as it is the home of Labour leader Keir Starmer, the local MP who notoriously said that Israel has "the right" to block water, food and electricity to Gaza. This is in addition to his purge of left wing Labour party members, and of Palestine supporters, including Jewish members. More Jewish Labour Party members have been expelled under Starmer's watch than under any other leader. Starmer has welcomed defections from Tory MPs with open arms, while withdrawing the Labour Party whip from Jeremy Corbyn causing Corbyn to stand as an independent at this election. 
An information stall ran from 8:00 to 20:00 each day and each evening at 18:00 an event took place, with a range of speakers over the week from former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein, who is running as an independent candidate against Starmer at this election, to journalists and musicians in Gaza, to UK based support groups such as Jewish Voice for Labour, students from the University student encampments and even Queer Solidarity with Palestine. There was also a separate 'Irish 4 Palestine' event on the final Sunday afternoon.
There is a petition asking the local Camden Council to divest any pension or any other investment funds from Israel, which gained hundreds of signatures over the week. Overall the general response from members of the public was overwhelmingly supportive of the group's actions and events, in line with opinion polls showing up to 80 per cent in favour of a ceasefire. The few negative responses either came from strong supporters of Israel or right wingers.
Sadly the events were increasingly targeted over the week by organised supporters of the Zionist regime, and between Monday and Thursday, the evening events were subject to major attempts at disruption by large groups of well known Israel supporters combined with members of the far-right. In the daytimes, supporters had regular visits from local fascists, usually behaving in threatening and aggressive ways until moved on by the police. The police, who were also present during the week in increasing numbers failed ,despite promises and repeated requests, to maintain a secure area between the Palestine supporters and the Zionists and racists.This led to repeated and unnecessary confrontations.
The police also maintained a practice of applying different standards to the two sides, as has been seen on many demonstrations, allowing provocateurs more or less free rein, and punishing anyone who responds to them.
Despite this imbalanced policing, the  number of arrests on both sides each night was small. One Zionist was arrested for chanting 'Kapo' repeatedly at Jewish speakers talking about the Holocaust, including Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos who lives locally and is a very strong supporter of the Palestinian cause. Palestine supporters who were arrested were all released within 12 hours and without charge. Itai Galmudy, the leader of pro-Israel organisation Enough is Enough was present and arrested one evening, and also released without charge.
There is a flower stall next to the area the Gaza Week took place, and this flower stall was the subject of an article and interview in the Jewish Chronicle alleging vandalism and intimidation that simply never happened. The organisers were happy to view this as another successful sign for what all involved considered a very successful event.  

Defend the UCL Palestine solidarity camp!

 

Palestinian solidarity activists turned out in force in Camden on Saturday following reports that Zionists were threatening to attack the Gaza solidarity camp at University College London (UCL). But on the day the Zionists were heavily outnumbered and the two sides were kept well apart by the police.

Eyewitness Korea

Alan Bolon and Dermot Hudson

by New Worker correspondent

The DPR Korea is marching along the road to socialism. That was the message of Dermot Hudson who has recently returned from a visit to north Korea and that was the main theme of his talk at a Korean Friendship Association (KFA) meeting in the central London last weekend.
Andy Brooks and Michael Chant, the leaders of the NCP and the RCPB (ML), were in the audience that included other KFA members in London and a guest from KFA Poland. The meeting was also livestreamed on the internet which attracted participation throughout the world.
Dermot Hudson said that the people’s government is carrying out massive construction work in the capital, Pyongyang and that he saw the newly built Hwasong Street neighbourhood that is about the same size as a London borough or a small city. He said that the DPR Korea is carrying out massive housing construction not under ideal conditions but under the pressure of sanctions and military threats. But there are no homeless or beggars in the DPRK – unlike other Asian countries under the thumb of imperialism.
Dermot also spoke about his recent trip to Germany at the invitation of KFA Germany – taking part in a May Day march in Kassel, visiting the DPRK embassy in Berlin as well as the Volkskammer restaurant and the Ernst Thalmann Memorial Centre in Hamburg that reflects on Germany's communist history.
The meeting also heard Alan Bolon from the West of England branch of the KFA give a talk on the Juche Idea using a flip chart with diagrams to illustrate different aspects of the ideology that is the foundation of Korean-style socialism.

One up for Assange!

On Monday WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange won a victory in his ongoing battle against extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States, after the High Court in London granted him permission to appeal.
Permission to appeal was to be granted only if the American government was unable to provide the court with suitable assurances that Assange can rely on the First Amendment (free speech) for protection.
The Americans had to prove that Assange, who is Australian, will not be prejudiced at trial due to his nationality, and will be afforded the same protections as an American citizen.
The American side also had to provide assurance that Assange would not be sentenced to death if convicted.
Assange's legal team criticised the assurances provided by the US government at the hearing, arguing that "based on the principle of the separation of powers, the US court can and will apply U.S. law, whatever the executive may say or do”.
Most of the assurances were "blatantly inadequate," said Edward Fitzgerald KC, representing Assange. However, the American assurance on the death penalty was accepted by Assange's legal team.
The lawyer said in written submissions that while the assurance on the death penalty was "an unambiguous executive promise," the other assurances do not give "any reliable promise as to future action".
Assange supporters cheered at the news of the court's ruling. He was not in court on Monday for health reasons, but those present included his wife Stella.
"The judges reached the right decision... as a family we are relieved, but how long can this go on? The United States should read the situation and drop this case now. Now is the moment to do it. Just abandon the shameful attack on journalists, on the press and on the public," Stella told supporters outside the High Court. According to Assange's legal team, it could be months before the new appeal is heard.
The latest move came after the High Court deferred a decision in March on whether Assange could take his case to another appeal hearing.
Assange, 52, is wanted by the Americans for allegedly disclosing national defence information following WikiLeaks' publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked military documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars a decade ago. These included video footage of an Apache helicopter gunship mowing down journalists and children in the streets of Baghdad in 2007.
Assange has been held in London's high-security Belmarsh Prison since 2019. The UK approved his extradition to the USA in 2022, after a judge had initially blocked it due to concerns over his mental health. Assange and his lawyers have subsequently appealed.
Xinhua

We shall return!

keys -- the symbol of the right to return

by New Worker correspondent

Last weekend over 250,000 demonstrators marched through central London to commemorate the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 Palestinian Arabs, three-quarters of Palestinian population, from their homeland in 1947/8, and the subsequent denial of their right to return. For over 76 years, the Zionist entity has denied Palestinian refugees their right to return to their lands, and has entrenched a colonial-settler regime of control that systematically discriminates against Palestinians in all aspects of life. Israel’s current genocide is built on the foundations of this project.
Activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity regularly join the Palestinian protests to highlight the links between Western imperialism’s wars in Israel, Ukraine and Yemen –  the role of NATO countries in all three conflicts sending weapons and money and using sanctions to advance the aims of US-led imperialism. Their placards calling for an end to sending weapons and advisors to Ukraine and Israel, and peace talks in Ukraine, Israel-Gaza and Yemen, received an overwhelmingly positive response from the protestors including clenched fists and victory signs.
Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, later said the march was an astonishing demonstration of solidarity. “After 14 marches calling for an end to all UK complicity in genocide, the movement is still growing in size and strength,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands attended yesterday, from all sections of society”.

Palestine will be free!

Corbyn addresses the crowd

By New Worker correspondent

Demonstrators marched through London last weekend to again call on the Sunak government to end its complicity with Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza. And joining them were supporters of the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity Campaign who held a static picket along the route, that linked the struggle in the Donbas with the Palestine liberation movement, before going on to the rally in Hyde Park.
Chants of “Stop bombing Gaza! Stop bombing children!” echoed through the heart of the capital as hundreds of thousands of supporters of the Palestinian cause marched from Parliament Square to Hyde Park. Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader was at the front together with other veteran Palestine solidarity campaigners taking part in the 13th national protest since the first was staged last October.
At the rally Sinn Fein leader Michelle O’Neill, the First Minister of Northern Ireland, said “we demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza” and Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador in London,  told the crowd that “Change will come, campus by campus, city by city, country by country. The tide is turning because this is a global movement for change, a global assertion of popular power, of people’s power”.

China condemns Sunak’s slander

by New Worker correspondent

People’s China is urging British politicians to end their belligerent rhetoric and stop stoking up confrontation. They should, instead, focus more on domestic economic and social issues, and act in a way that is truly in the interests of world peace and justice the Chinese Embassy in London said last week following Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's criticism of the China-Russia relationship and his listing of China as an “authoritarian state”.
Sunak said the British increase in military spending "is a turning point for European security and a landmark moment in the defence of the United Kingdom". Speaking at the base of the Warsaw Armoured Brigade in Poland, he told a regiment of the Queen's Dragoon Guards that "I want to talk to you about how we equip you to do your duty in an increasingly dangerous world," with Britain and NATO confronting an "axis of authoritarian states" naming Russia, Iran, north Korea, and China.
But Sunak is simply trying to look for excuses to ramp up British military spending through his unwarranted accusations and malicious slander said a spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in London noting that China firmly rejects his Cold War rhetoric that incites antagonism and confrontation.
"China is a peace-loving country, and has all along stood on the side of peace and justice," said the spokesperson in response to Sunak's accusation. "We have always promoted peace talks and sought peaceful settlement of international conflicts. We have contributed more than one-third of global economic growth for many years running, and we are a force for international cooperation and stability in the world. These are indisputable facts”.
Cui Hongjian, a professor at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, says Sunak's attack on China is largely just "clout-chasing". "Because of the numerous issues both domestically and internationally that the UK faces, Sunak is worried about the country's status as a major power," he said. "As a result, he is eager to make a statement on China-related issues, as only through this can he demonstrate his supposed political stance".
There is another reason for Sunak's hype. In order to enhance the UK's competitiveness, he must hype geopolitical conflicts, presenting so-called external challenges, including China and Russia as his targets, Cui noted.
In contrast to China, the current UK government seems to be stirring up trouble and heightening tension around the world. 
In Ukraine, it has been providing offensive weapons to one side of the conflict, adding fuel to the fire. Over Gaza it has repeatedly opposed resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire at the UN Security Council.  The UK shows no support for Palestine's application for full UN membership and continues to supply weapons to Israel. Now, the UK lacks morality and has no sense of responsibility when it comes to matters of international peace and justice.
But as relations between China and Europe improve and both sides strengthen high-level exchanges, British politicians who are hyping up anti-China rhetoric are more likely to harm the interests of the UK itself.
"At present, China-Europe relations are on a positive track," Cui noted. "If speculative hyping remarks are allowed to ferment and affect a wider range of China-EU relations, it could in turn serve to help anti-China Western politicians achieve their goals”.

Don’t bank on Barclays!

By Theo Russell
Last Saturday 70 people protested in support of the people of Gaza in Camden Town, north London, marching to Barclays Bank in Tottenham Court Road to call for the bank to end its financing of the Israeli war machine. For the second time the Zionists and their far right (EDL), and fascist (English Patriots, I was told) friends staged a counter-protest and this time outnumbered us about three to one.  Some pro-American Iranian monarchists were with the Zionists waving the old Iranian flag of the hated Shah who fled the country after he was overthrown in 1979. But the Palestine solidarity activists stood their ground and received lots of support from passers by - unlike the other side.
The Zionists almost certainly brought people from far and wide to target the Camden march, while there were eight other pro-Palestine marches in London alone, and 29 more across Britain, from the Isle of Wight to Orkney. It’s hard to believe the Zionists attempting to stage counter-protests in Orkney!
Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip has killed over 33,000 Palestinians, and displaced over 1.9 million – more than 85 per cent of Gaza’s population. Yet our political leaders still refuse to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Over the past six months the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has been leading massive demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs in London and supporting local initiatives throughout the country. As Israel’s genocidal assault continues, we can’t stop now. We must keep taking action until the Palestinians achieve freedom.