Down the Rabbit Hole

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks was in northern Kent this week talking to Jaz and Ric, the hosts of the ‘Rabbit Hole Arms’ podcast based in Wilmington, a couple of miles south of Dartford. New kids on the block, Jaz and Ric launched their online broadcasts a couple of months ago “with the spirit of your favourite pub: relaxed company, curious minds and conversations that rarely take the straight road home”. They record from The Plough, a traditional pub in the heart of Wilmington. And over a beer or two Andy spent a couple of hours talking about the history of the NCP since 1977, communism in Britain and some of the Cold War history their listeners are interested in. The Rabbit Hole Arms are members of the Kent film-makers group. Jaz have a dedicated Facebook page and their podcasts are on Spotify and YouTube – check out the website on https://www.therabbitholearms.com

Friendship with Vietnam

Andy Brooks and Le Hai Binh

By New Worker correspondent

Andy Brooks held talks with a visiting Vietnamese delegation in London last week. The NCP leader met a delegation from the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics (HCMA)
at the Vietnamese embassy in Kensington on Wednesday 30th September. The delegation was led by Le Hai Binh, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the two sides the current situation in Vietnam and the United Kingdom as well the challenges facing the contemporary communist movement around the world.
The Vietnamese delegation met political leaders, academics and representatives of the British government during their week-long stay in Britain. The delegation held talks with the Communist Party of Britain Chairwoman Lorraine Douglas and dons at the University of Oxford including Professor Rebecca Kitteridge, Professor of Practice in Public Policy and Co-Director of the Leadership Programmes at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.
Prof Binh outlined the HCMA’s key functions in research, strategic and policy advice, and training high- and mid-level Party officials, linked to Vietnam’s centenary development goals. He proposed jointly designing certified courses and programmes for Vietnamese officials as well as international learners at the academy.
At a meeting with Oxford University leaders, Professor Alex Betts, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for External Engagement, Sport and Community, expressed readiness to help connect the HCMA with relevant academic units. The delegation proposed joint research, scholar exchanges and visits by Oxford experts to the academy, particularly as Vietnam works towards becoming a developed country by 2045 and prepares to host the APEC economic forum next year.
At the Oxford University Press, Georgina Hoare, the senior manager for Academic Rights and Licensing, discussed opportunities to publish HCMA works, helping bring Vietnamese theoretical research to international readers.
At London’s Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the delegation met
Ben Bland, the Director of the Asia-Pacific Programme, and held discussions on ASEAN’s role, shifts in the global order and development models.
Working sessions with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the FCDO Diplomatic Academy and the Vietnam-UK Network also contributed to greater mutual understanding and provided additional reference material for the HCMA’s research.
The visit identified a number of concrete areas for co-operation, laying a foundation for the HCMA to develop specific programmes and plans in the coming period and contribute to improving the quality of Vietnam’s cadre workforce to meet the country’s development requirements.

You shall not pass!

Foto: Karl Weiss

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades joined thousands of anti-fascists marching through London on Sunday to commemorate the Battle of Cable Street that stopped Mosley’s Blackshirts in 1936.Demonstrators rallied outside the 18th century facade of the old London Hospital, now part of the new Tower Hamlets Town Hall, for a march to Cable Street to honour those who battled with the police to force Sir Oswald Mosley to call off his fascist march through what was then a predominantly Jewish part of London’s East End. On that day, thousands of working people, led by the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Independent Labour Party (ILP) rose early from their beds to occupy four key places along the route of a planned march by Mosley and his British Union of Fascists, in order to block its path. Throughout the day they stood firm, despite mounted police baton charges and numerous arrests.
By noon, Gardiner’s Corner was impassable due to the number of anti-fascist demonstrators. Police tried to clear a route through Leman Street – but this was blocked by a tram, deliberately abandoned by its driver.Police tried to reroute the march through Cable Street. Anti-fascist demonstrators, the vast majority local residents, blocked Cable Street with barricades in three different places. Police fought their way through one barricade, only to be confronted by the second. Eventually the police gave up and ordered Mosley to abandon his march. They escorted him to the Embankment where his followers dispersed.
This was a humiliating defeat for Mosley and it eventually led to a cutting off of vital funds from his main financial backer, the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The Battle of Cable Street marked a significant turning point in the struggle to prevent fascism becoming a truly mass movement in Britain, as it had done in some other European countries.
Many of the protesters carried banners bearing the slogan "They shall not pass" or "No pasarán" the watchword of the Spanish communists during the fight against Franco’s fascist legions in the 1930s.
In 2026, the politics of division and hate is on the march again. Lessons and inspiration from the past help us in the fight for a fair society in the future.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who now leads the Independent Alliance bloc in the House of Commons said he was “proud to join today’s huge march celebrating the 90th anniversary of the battle of Cable Street. On this day in 1936, thousands stood alongside the East-end Jewish community to defeat Mosley’s fascists. Their bravery is an eternal reminder: never give in to the far-right”.
Rajan Uddin Jalal, a leading figure in the Bangladesh Youth Movement's fight against racism in the 1980s and 90s said "The racists are active again. There is a new form of racism now, there is a new form of fascism which includes Islamophobia. We are here today to campaign against racism, fascism and division within our communities. We want peace for all people, we want to live peacefully, in harmony, in our multicultural communities". And Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets and leader of the local Aspire party that runs the borough, said the anniversary was an opportunity to remember those who opposed fascism in the 1930s. "Our forefathers said, 'No, you're not coming here. You shall not pass'. And we say that again now: the fascists, the far right, will never run riot in Tower Hamlets!”
Unite the union, one of the sponsors of the event, has published a book to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. Working with trade unionists, artists, poets and singers the book, Cable Street 1936-2026: Not Then Not Now, brings together trade unionists, historians, artists, poets and singers to reflect on the Battle of Cable Street, the fight against fascism elsewhere in the country, and the struggles in the decades since. An A4 gatefold softback with holographic foil to the cover it includes a special Battle of Cable Street 90th anniversary A2 poster by Cold War Steve and copies are available on the Unite national website for £19.36.

The Chinese people have stood up…

by New Worker correspondent

These were the words spoken by Mao Zedong at the foundation of the People’s Republic of China on 1st October 1949. And last week NCP leader Andy Brooks joined diplomats, politicians, solidarity workers, business leaders and members of the overseas Chinese community at a reception in London to mark the 77th anniversary of that momentous day.
The Chinese Ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, welcomed over 500 guests at the reception at the Peninsula hotel in Belgravia and Baroness Winterton, a veteran Labour peer in the Burnham government delivered greetings on behalf of the United Kingdom for the celebration and China’s traditional Mid-Autumn festival.
Ambassador Zheng outlined China’s domestic progress and its significant contributions to global development over the past 77 years. Chinese modernisation, he said, has created unprecedented opportunities for the world, advancing global development and prosperity through opening-up and international cooperation. It has also opened new prospects for the development of China-UK relations.
Zheng recalled that the UK was the first major Western country to recognise New China. He emphasised that the partnership serves the interests of both nations and contributes to world peace, stability and development. Since the beginning of this year, new progress has been made in China-UK relations. China stands ready to work closely with the UK to follow through on the common understandings reached by the two countries’ leaders and to achieve further progress. 
Rosie Winterton, who has served as the UK's minister responsible for what London calls the "Asia-Pacific region", highlighted China's development over recent decades and the importance of the UK-China relationship. This "engagement does not mean avoiding difficult issues. It means creating the conditions to discuss them openly and directly" she said stressing the value of co-operation in areas such as climate change as well as in exchanges among students, businesses and people from both countries.
This was followed by an artistic performance by Chinese and British artists that included the dance Held by Love, a piano rendition of A Moonlit Night on the Spring River, and the choir piece Love My China.

The way forward under Burnham

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades and friends spent the best part of the day pondering on the problems of the labour movement at the NCP Party Centre last weekend. Which way forward for the labour movement was the topic for discussion at the seminar opened by NCP National Chair Richard Bos on Sunday morning. Not an easy question to answer was the response from NCP leader Andy Brooks, who followed with a summary of the Party’s electoral policy since its foundation in 1977 and its current position of backing Labour or independent Labour candidates with mass support that was adopted in 2000 to support Ken Livingstone’s successful bid to become Mayor of London. 
Keynote contributions from British Posadist Marie Lynam and Ian Donovan of the Consistent Democrats sparked off a discussion that continued for the rest of the day. Participants, which included online comrades from East Anglia and Scotland, looked at where did the Corbynistas lose their way, the merits or otherwise of George Galloway’s Workers’ Party of Britain and the current position of the new Labour leadership under Andy Burnham,
Needless to say there was no conclusion apart from the general consensus that these forums should continue with the focus again on the problems and challenges that the working class face today in Burnham’s Britain. The New Worker plays its part in that struggle and after a rousing appeal from Richard Bos £117 was collected for the fighting fund!

Opening new horizons in London

Around 150 scholars, officials and representatives from the business, culture, education, and media sectors gathered in central London last week for an event aimed at promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and Britain.
Hosted by China Daily under the theme "Listen to Each Other, Open New Horizons" the event called for closer people-to-people engagement and greater efforts to deepen mutual understanding through education, culture and personal exchanges.
Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, said in a video speech that advances in transport and technology have dramatically shortened the physical distance between China and Britain, but genuine understanding between people still requires direct communication.
"In an era increasingly fractured by information bubbles, we need face-to-face communication to shatter preconceptions," Qu said, adding that people-to-people and cultural exchanges can help strengthen public support for friendship and cooperation between the two countries.
Frances Wood, former head of Chinese collections at the British Library, shared how her decision to study Chinese at Cambridge in the late 1960s led to a lifetime of engagement with Chinese history and culture. She recalled decades of cooperation between British and Chinese scholars to conserve, catalogue and publish thousands of Dunhuang manuscripts held by the British Library. Scholars and conservators from the two countries worked side by side to restore fragments that had remained largely untouched for decades.
Michael Spence, president and provost of University College London (UCL), highlighted education and research cooperation, saying trust remained at the heart of long-term collaboration between Britain and China.
UCL has more than 30,000 alumni and over 15,000 students with links to China, while researchers from the university and Chinese institutions have jointly produced more than 10,000 academic papers. Citing co-operation in fields including cancer treatment, climate research, artificial intelligence and lunar science, Spence said universities can provide a space where people from different backgrounds build trust through shared study and research.

Xinhua

Vietnam’s day in London

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined diplomats, politicians and businessmen at a Vietnamese embassy reception at the London Hilton in Park Lane this week. The Vietnamese ambassador, Do Minh Hung, welcomed guests for a celebration to mark the 81st  anniversary of the August Revolution and the national day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This was followed by a musical interlude performed by pianists from Vietnam and Poland. One of the pianists, the esteemed Vietnamese virtuoso Tra Nguyen, played one of her own compositions during the piano recital, and others with Tomasz Lis,  an acclaimed London-based Polish concert pianist and chamber musician. They enthralled the audience with their interpretation of pieces by Vietnamese and European composers including Thai Thiu Lien, Chopin, Dvorak, Elgar, Mendelssohn and Mozart. It certainly was a night to remember! 

Angry protest at council meeting

 

by New Worker correspondent

Residents call out Camden’s Labour council’s support for the genocide in Gaza –  the leader of the Labour group, Sagal Abdi-Wali, and the other councillors look the other way. The Council was due to debate a motion on Camden's duty to divest its pension fund from companies violating international law. The thrust was to force Camden to divest from companies complicit in Israel's genocide in Gaza.
But the motion was never debated. Instead Labour councillors ran down the clock with meandering interventions. The meeting was promptly adjourned at 22:00. The moment the meeting adjourned, protestors in the gallery began calling out the stitch-up. The motion will now not be up for debate until after the October by-election which Sagal Abdi-Wali hopes to win on the Labour ticket.
This is what they tried to censor: local residents furious that Labour and Sagal Abdi-Wali refuse to do the right thing and immediately divest from genocide. Camden Labour is ground-zero for Starmerism and the politics of complicity he pioneered.

Solidarity with Ukrainian Political Prisoners!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from the Anti-Imperialist Front (AIF) and International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) protested at the Ukrainian embassy on Friday 11th  September in support of a second one-day hunger strike by Ukrainian political prisoners against inhuman conditions, torture and deaths of prisoners in Ukraine. 
As with the previous action in August activists in many other countries participated in this remarkable internationally co-ordinated action. A total of 408 people joined the one-day hunger strike, including 113 Ukrainian prisoners, 10 in Britain, 20 in Russia, Belarus, and others across Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, including one in Saudi Arabia!
The London protest focused on the Vinnytsia Colony No. 86 prison.The prison was opened in December 2025 “as a concentration camp for political prisoners. As early as February 2026 the first prisoner died there from exhaustion, torture and forced unpaid labour. The colony’s administration forces prisoners to perform slave-like, unpaid labour every day at construction sites, a sawmill and in the assembly of barbed wire, without having licences for such work”.
An AIF statement, based on information from the Ukrainian Association for the Protection of the Rights of Political Prisoners and Human Rights, accused the head of the Vinnytsia facility, Colonel Dmytro Petryk, of introducing “brutal Nazi-style rules for political prisoners including beatings, extortion, torture, rape, unpaid slave labour, and other methods of humiliating human dignity. When meeting Colonel Petryk, a prisoner is required to remove his headwear and bow, addressing him as ‘Master’”.
Oleksandr Melnyk, a political prisoner who has organised nonviolent resistance and officially appealed to the prosecutor’s office, has been beaten and placed in a “punishment pit” resembling a well, without even a toilet. He has already been held there for a second month, in violation of all rules and laws.
Such pits have been used by the Ukrainian SBU (intelligence service) ever since 2014 to punish political prisoners and captured prisoners from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and their use was reported on by Red Cross investigators.
The AIF statement said “We are convinced that Colonel Petryk wants to kill prisoner and leader of the nonviolent resistance, Oleksandr Melnyk. But we will not allow this to happen! 
“Zelensky, as the head of the Ukrainian regime, bears full responsibility for the fascist terror unleashed against Ukrainian citizens, which is systematic and widespread in nature.
“We demand that our governments immediately stop financial assistance to Ukraine, which is used, among other things, to maintain Nazi concentration camps. EU financial assistance to Ukraine directly depends on Ukraine’s compliance with human rights standards and its fight against corruption, as stipulated in the relevant memorandum.
“The Ukrainian authorities grossly and repeatedly violate human rights and must cease receiving financial assistance from the EU.”
The statement also referred to the UK’s Overseas Security; Justice Assistance (OJSA) Assessment process, according to which “before any assistance is given (to a foreign state), UK officials are required to conduct an internal human rights risk assessment. 
“If there is a serious risk that the UK’s aid will directly lead to or facilitate severe human rights abuses - such as torture, arbitrary detention, or the death penalty - the assistance must be restricted, mitigated, or escalated to Cabinet Ministers for cancellation.”
Activists from the AIF and IUAFS will continue to campaign in support of Ukrainian political prisoners and to hold the British and EU governments to account for turning a blind eye towards Ukraine’s appalling abuses of their own human rights principles, which they conveniently forget about when their puppet regime in Kiev is concerned.

Young Chinese diplomats visit the Royal Society

by New Worker correspondent

A delegation of young diplomats from the Chinese Embassy, led by Minister Counsellor Bi Haibo, visited the Royal Society on 26th August. The Royal Society is an independent scientific academy, dedicated to promoting excellence in science for the benefit of humanity. Members include many of the world’s most eminent scientists, engineers, and technologists, and it is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, founded in 1660 by King Charles I1 soon after the restoration of the monarchy following the collapse of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland & Ireland, the republic that had been led by Oliver Cromwell until his death in 1658.
At the Society’s headquarters in London the two sides held candid exchanges on topics including the theory and practice of China’s diplomacy and China-UK cooperation on science, technology and education.
Both sides spoke highly of the exchange, noting that the development of science and technology transcends national borders and that international exchanges and cooperation in this field contribute to the common development of all countries and the advancement of humanity. Building on the complementary strengths and fruitful cooperation between the two countries in science and technology, both sides expressed their readiness to further enhance mutual learning and tap into the potential for and expand the scope of collaboration, with a view to making new contributions to the development of a long-term and consistent comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the United Kingdom.

Building an anti-imperialist movement in Britain!

Alfredo Patallo addresses conference

by New Worker correspondent

After a year of activism and preparation, over 100 people joined the founding conference of the Anti Fascist International's British Chapter at the Bolivar Hall in central London last Saturday.
The Anti Fascist International was launched at a conference in Caracas in November 2024 that was attended by 1,100 delegates from 76 countries. The conference issued the Antifascist Statement of Caracas - For a New World which included a call for “a peaceful solution to the war instigated by the expansionist and warlike machinery of NATO in Ukraine, against the Russian Federation,” and appealed to "all humanist and progressive forces in the world to unite all efforts to preserve the strategic security of all nations and avoid a nuclear conflagration”.
Opening the conference this call was taken up by Alfredo Patallo of the British Chapter who said “the British Chapter of the Anti Fascist International is working together with British parties, and in solidarity with Venezuela after the abduction of Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores, to bring pressure on the Labour Party over issues of importance to the Latin American community in Britain. The British Chapter also actively supports the people of Cuba, Palestine and Iran”.
Miriam Palacios, representing P12O (Platform 12 October, marking the date of Columbus' landing in 1492),  said that the Cuban revolution had managed to survive decades of sanctions because “the experience of our Cuban mentality is the backbone of our resistance against imperialism. We know their trickery and their lies, we’ve been experiencing them since 1898. What is needed is one big push by people all over the world to end imperialism and wars once and for all”.
Daniel O’Brien from the CPGB-ML pointed out that Cuba had trained more than 37,000 health professionals from 147 countries free of charge since 1960, including 250 Palestinians.
Professor David Miller spoke about winning his appeal against dismissal by the University of Bristol for alleged antisemitism in 2021, saying he had fought to spread anti-Zionist consciousness throughout Britain, including awareness of Israeli aggression against Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Iran, and its attempts to replace pro-Palestinian governments with pro-Israeli regimes in Latin America, Europe and around the world.
Part of the work of the AFI British Chapter is campaigning against NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine aimed against the Russian Federation – highlighted by Theo Russell, who spoke on behalf of the New Communist Party and the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity campaign. Theo welcomed the fact that a large Donetsk People’s Republic flag was among the banners on display. He spoke about the war being waged by Britain against Russia which was killing Russian civilians, while the war lobby in Britain claimed that Russia was waging war against Britain and called for welfare cuts to fund more military spending.
The conference consisted of three sessions: on Latin America, the attack on political freedoms and the imperialist drive to war, with other speakers from the Consistent Democrats, the Workers Party, the RCG, the Islamic Human Rights Commission and the SOAS2 campaign.

Thousands gather for Notting Hill parade

This year the Notting Hill Carnival celebrated its 60th anniversary, with hundreds of thousands of people flocking to the iconic London neighbourhood to enjoy the traditional and colourful parade of floats.
The Notting Hill Carnival is one of the world’s largest street festivals and a major celebration of Caribbean culture in London. Held annually during the August bank holiday weekend, it traces its roots to the postwar arrival of Caribbean migrants, many of whom settled in Notting Hill and faced widespread racism, discrimination and violence.
The carnival emerged from efforts to strengthen community solidarity following the racial tensions and riots that affected the area in the late 1950s. A key precursor was the indoor Caribbean Carnival organized in London in 1959 by Trinidadian-born activist Claudia Jones, founder and editor of the West Indian Gazette. The event promoted Caribbean culture and unity in the aftermath of racial unrest.
The modern street carnival developed in 1966, when community activist Rhaune Laslett organised a multicultural festival in Notting Hill and invited Trinidadian musician Russell Henderson and his steel band, prompting a spontaneous procession through the streets.
Over subsequent decades, the carnival developed into a major expression of Caribbean heritage, featuring elaborate masquerade costumes, steel bands, calypso, soca, reggae and sound systems as well as Caribbean food and dance.
It has retained its historical association with cultural identity, resistance and community while becoming a central event in London’s multicultural calendar, attracting around two million visitors over the holiday weekend.
In recent years, this massive influx has forced the police to deploy about 7,000 officers to increase security during the event. Some 242 arrests were made on Sunday and 394 on Monday. Offences included drug possession and supply, assaults, weapons possession, sex offences and public order offences.
Telesur