Sinn Fein: reunification “a marathon, not a sprint”

Chris Hazzard speaking

by Theo Russell

Sinn Fein MPs Pat Cullen and Chris Hazzard briefed their London supporters on the party’s future last Monday at a meeting in the House of Commons in Westminster, discussing the disappointing election results in the Irish Republic last month and prospects for ending the island’s partition.
Sinn Fein has fought four elections this year – two in the north of Ireland, a general election in the Republic, and European elections – an experience which Hazzard described as “very busy and stressful“. Sinn Fein is now the leading party in the North with Michelle O’Neill the First Minister of the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly. 
On the border question Hazzard said “All the parties in the Republic say they expect to see a united Ireland in the next ten years, but Fianna Fail and Fine Gael (who have run the Republic since 1945) are in no hurry to deliver this”.
Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin’s leader in the Republic, has had talks about reunification with Labour and the Social Democrats, who have 22 seats in the Dail between them.
Hazzard said Sinn Fein is “working well with the Labour Party left and other independent TDs, and we know that many Fianna Fail’s grass-roots members are unhappy with their leadership’s refusal to talk to Sinn Fein”.
Sinn Fein’s current policy on ending partition is based on discussion and dialogue to ensure that all parties, above all the Northern Unionists, feel included. Hazzard described it as “a marathon, not a sprint”.
He added that if the partition of Ireland ends “the North will automatically become part of the European Union, and there have already been some polls in the North in favour of reunification”.
In the 2020 Irish election Sinn Fein went from 23 to 37 seats – one seat below the winner, Fianna Fail – and may well have taken first place had it stood more candidates.
This was a totally unexpected success which shook the reactionary political establishment in the Republic, but in the November election Sinn Fein failed to follow through, gaining only two seats.
Hazzard put the party’s loss of 100,000 working class votes down to its policies on immigration and transgender rights. “In the working class areas of Dublin our vote didn’t desert to other parties, they just didn’t turn out for us”.
He pointed to the example of the Scottish National Party’s alienation of many of its voters because they saw the focus on transgender issues as irrelevant. “We need to understand working class views on transgender issues, and we didn’t appreciate the level of anger in working class communities over the handling of migrants”.
Since Brexit very large numbers of asylum seekers have entered the Irish Republic through the open border with the North, with an enormous impact on a country of only 5.4 million people.
Hazzard said “our government failed to put any system in place to deal with asylum seekers who were sent into poor working class areas. And people saw that they were being accommodated while nothing was done to help the many homeless Irish people in Dublin”.
“The ruling parties used the issue to create a wedge in the working class in the same way as Farage has done in England, but in the election Sinn Fein took the far right head on and they made no gains, they didn’t even come close”.
As so many times in its history, Sinn Fein is looking to move on from its setbacks in the Republic by learning the lessons and understanding the needs of working class people.

 

End Israeli Aggression!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) who were making the connection between the wars waged by NATO imperialism in Gaza and Ukraine at a Palestinian rally in Parliament Square last weekend. And throughout Europe tens of thousands of other protesters were also on the street condemning the ongoing Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip. Thousands participated in demonstrations in Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Utrecht, Milan, Aarhus and Geneva. And in London in support of the Palestinian people, and to demand a ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Stop arming Israel!

by New Worker correspondent

Over a 150,000 demonstrators marched through central London last weekend to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza and a halt to British arms supplies to the Zionist state. “This weekend, we marched once again in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Jeremy Corbyn said. The former Labour leader who now heads the Independent Alliance bloc in the House of Commons said “we sent a message to our government: if you knowingly supply weapons to a government whose leader is wanted for war crimes, the long arm of international law will extend to you too”. 
At the rally in Whitehall Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to Britain, thanked the crowd for turning out to demand justice for the Palestinians, “Your voices matter more than
they want you to believe” he said. Welcoming the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief
Yoav Gallant, the Palestinian envoy who represents the State of Palestine that runs the “autonomous zone in the West Bank said “these war criminals must be arrested. Their place is behind bars. Arrest them!”
The Starmer government signalled it would enforce the warrants if the wanted men arrived in British territory, but continues to allow arms exports to Israel to commit the crimes the ICC has judged to be indictable. Indeed, the Starmer Government refuses to describe Israel’s actions as a genocide, despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that that is plausibly the case. Last weekend’s march through the heart of the capital  showed the breadth and depth of the opposition to the government’s illogical and immoral position.

80 years of struggle

Do Minh Hung greets guests

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined diplomats, politicians and businessmen at a reception in central London held to mark the 80th anniversary of Vietnam’s People’s Army. Do Minh Hung. the Vietnamese ambassador, and defence attaché Colonel Vu Vinh Ha welcomed guests to the event at the National Army Museum in Chelsea which included a video presentation and a Vietnamese buffet.
During the formal part of the proceedings Ambassador Hung said Vietnam’s defence is of the people, by the people, for the people, with peaceful, independent, self-reliant, self-defensive characteristics and proactivity in preventing and addressing the risks of war.
He affirmed Vietnam’s “Four No’s” policy – not participating in military alliances, not affiliating with one country to oppose another, not allowing foreign countries to establish military bases or use Vietnamese territory to oppose other countries, and not using force or threatening to use force in international relations.
He stressed that defence diplomacy has become an important channel for building and strengthening strategic trust between the people’s government and its partners while expanding the nation’s friendship relations with the international community.
Colonel Vu Vinh Ha also addressed the gathering, expressing his honour to serve during a period of flourishing relations between the two nations and their defence ministries. He pledged to strengthen his office’s role as an advisory body and communication channel, facilitating bilateral cooperation opportunities and further enriching the Vietnam-UK strategic partnership.

Palestinians need your support

by New Worker correspondent

Thousands of workers and students across the country in their workplaces, colleges, and communities, were demanding an immediate ceasefire and an end to Britain’s complicity in Israel’s crimes this week. And the week of action in solidarity with Palestine ended on Friday with an international day of solidarity that was endorsed by the TUC and Unison.
The Palestinians need the solidarity of trade union members more than ever. “We are now over 400 days since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has ruled to be a plausible case of genocide that has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, displaced over 2 million and destroyed all of Gaza’s civil infrastructure – schools, hospitals and universities,” says Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, explains why 
“It is a genocide that is not diminishing in intensity, with Israel in the past few weeks embarking on the ethnic cleansing of all of the North of Gaza placing everyone still there, according to then UN, at risk of being killed.
“This week Save the Children released its latest report that carried the shocking fact that 130,000 children have been left without access to food and water in the North of Gaza since early October, as a result of Israel sealing the area and refusing access of aid. It also detailed that 40% of those killed in Gaza since October 2023 are children, the majority aged 5-9. 
“So right, now Palestinians need the solidarity of trade union members more than ever. What Palestinians demand of us to show meaningful solidarity is unchanged. It was expressed clearly by Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the Palestinian-led BDS movement at PSC’s recent trade union conference”. 
He said simply “what we ask of you is you do us no harm. This means you must campaign to end the complicity of your government which continues to arm Israel and offer it military and political support. Your public bodies – the universities and local government pension schemes which continue to invest in companies which support Israel’s oppression – and those companies and corporations themselves, like Barclays Bank, which invests in and provides financial services to companies arming Israel. The TUC support for the workplace day of action is important. As Israel continues to massacre Palestinians including children we need not just to be demonstrating in the streets but taking into every workplace the demand for action to end all of UK complicity with these crimes".

Halt escalation in Ukraine

by New Worker correspondent

Demonstrators were in Whitehall on Saturday protesting against the supply of British long range Storm Shadow missiles to the Ukrainians to fire the flames of NATO’s proxy war against Russia. The picket opposite the Prime Minister’s residence in Downing Street was organised by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign which has been supporting the people of the Donbas and the anti-fascist Ukrainian resistance on the street since 2014.
Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn’s Independent Alliance parliamentary bloc has sent out an open letter, endorsed by CND and some union leaders, condemning the use of the new missiles supplied by Britain and the United States to the Ukrainian regime and calling for an end to escalation and the start of negotiations with Russia to end the conflict in eastern Europe.
The letter that was published in the Guardian said “We are deeply concerned about the escalation in Ukraine. In response to British-made Storm Shadow missiles fired into Kursk, just days after Ukraine used the US’s army tactical missile systems (Atacms) to attack Bryansk, reports indicate that Russia has now launched intercontinental missiles into southern Ukraine. This rapid escalation seriously threatens an all-out military confrontation with Russia and Nato. The risk of a nuclear attack cannot be ruled out.
“The British government has to take responsibility for its actions and these terrible consequences. With hundreds of thousands already killed and injured, securing an end to this horrific conflict is crucial. We call on Joe Biden and Keir Starmer to halt this escalation and secure talks with Russia and Ukraine. Diplomacy and dialogue, not military escalation, are the only viable paths to a peaceful settlement in the region”.
The letter was signed by the five Independent Alliance MPs – Jeremy Corbyn, Ayoub Khan, Shockat Adam, Iqbal Mohamed, and Adnan Hussain, as well as maverick Labour MP Diane Abbott. Other endorsers included PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote, RMT President Alex Gordon, Lindsey German, the convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, CND general secretary Sophie Bolt and the musician Brian Eno.

The truth about Xinjiang

by New Worker correspondent

A meeting organised by Friends of Socialist China at the Marx Memorial Library in London last week heard eyewitness accounts from a group of activists, journalists, publishers and businesspeople from a tour of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the far west of China.
Xinjiang is the size of Iran with a population of 25 million and has, of course, been the target of a Western black propaganda op alleging slave labour and mass 're-education' camps, and the systematic suppression of Islam. It is a multi-ethnic region made up of 44 per cent Uygurs and 42 per cent Han Chinese as well as many other groups including Kazakhs, Mongols, Kirghiz and Tajiks.
There are 50 minority-language newspapers published in Xinjiang, including the Xinjiang Economic Daily, which is well known across China, and TV and radio are broadcast in the Mandarin, Uygur, Kazakh and Mongolian languages.
From the 1990s until around 2015 Western-backed terrorists waged an extremely violent campaign in Xinjiang that claimed the lives of thousands of civilians.
David Peat from Iskra Books said: “A major goal of the USA and its allies is to block the development of transport links through Xinjiang with China's ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. The West stepped up its propaganda and sanctions against China after President Obama's Asia Pivot, essentially when it was realised that the rapidly growing economic competition from China outweighed the massive profits Western businesses had made by outsourcing their factories to China.”
Ali Al-Assam from Friends of Socialist China said that: “The Jihadist terrorism began in Xinjiang at almost exactly the same time as in Iraq, and was linked to the massive promotion of the minority Wahhabist Muslim sect’s ideology around the world through finance and the training of Imams, including in Xinjiang.
“The Communist Party of China uses Marxism as a tool for uniting the people, and for 're-introducing' the unity which had already existed in the province.
“Traditional Islam has also been preserved in Xinjiang, where some of the world's largest Islamic libraries can be found. While Islam makes up just under 60 per cent of believers in Xinjiang, about a third are Buddhists, along with Daoist and Christian minorities.
“Trade unions in Britain have made a very important contribution towards engaging with China and countering the Western media’s lies and fake news about slave labour in Xinjiang.
“Many people in Muslim countries are aware of the West’s attempts to destabilise Xinjiang and make comparisons with the West’s imposition of wars and sanctions on the people of the Arab world.”
Roger McKenzie, International Editor of the Morning Star, said Xinjiang “was one of the most comfortable places I have ever been as a black person. We felt absolutely free to talk to anyone in the streets, markets and mosques”. He recounted experiencing racism in almost every country he had visited, including in every city he had visited in the USA.
"We saw a society trying to build a complete different society, one which most people in Britain wouldn't be able to understand. The media reports we see are straightforward lies and pure propaganda.
“Almost every day we saw huge festivals celebrating the different cultures of Xinjiang in the streets.
“Xinjiang is one of the least developed and poorest of China’s regions, and despite hundreds of billions of dollars in state investment, there is still a way to go. While the West projects fake news about Xinjiang, they don't seem to have any problems with slave labour in countries like the Republic of the Congo, where they are happy to invest huge sums in mineral extraction. But it’s important to remember that there are many on the left in Britain who support these fabricated claims.”
These accounts are fully supported in recent YouTube travel videos made by British visitors to Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi. While Urumqi looks similar to any modern world city, with a high level of use of social media and digital payments, these videos also show a thriving music and dance culture on the streets, both modern and traditional. 

The British volunteers who fought apartheid

by Theo Russell

A major new documentary has just been released and is now showing at community cinemas around the country. But The London Recruits is unlike any other documentary I've seen. In fact it is more nail biting than any thriller film I've seen, and extremely powerful and moving. It tells the story of the British volunteers who were recruited to travel to South Africa to distribute propaganda for the African National Congress (ANC), and to deliver funds.
The operation was mounted at an extremely difficult time for the struggle against the Western backed and armed Apartheid regime, when the ANC had been driven completely underground.
The regime's police were extremely brutal and anyone arrested was likely to face beatings, torture, and possible "accidental" death or execution for any involvement with the ANC. Its spies were everywhere, even in the black townships - and by the way even London was crawling with them at the time.
The ANC realised that the most urgent task was to tell the black masses that they and the struggle were still alive.
Under the leadership of Oliver Tambo, the ANC's leader in exile, and Ronnie Kasrils, a founding member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, they developed the technique of "bucket bombs" which scattered hundreds of ANC leaflets in areas where black South Africans congregated. Eventually they were able to set off multiple bombs on the same day in the main South African cities on the same day, creating an upsurge in the struggle and panic among the authorities. Some of the 'recruits' fell into the hands of the regime and faced torture and prison sentences.
The film expertly combines interviews, archive footage and re-enactments, but it needs to be pointed out that while Chris Hani – the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe (the ANC's armed wing) who was assassinated by a fascist Polish immigrant in 1993 – was played by an actor.
There is an excellent website for the film - londonrecruits.com/ - which also has a map of local screenings in England and Wales, and if you click on ‘GET INVOLVED’ you can receive updates on screenings and future releases. Catch this film if you can – it’s the best I’ve seen for several years.