Fuel crisis – Scrap fares!

by New Worker correspondent

Scrapping fares on public transport is an ideal way to respond to the soaring fuel prices caused by the war in the Gulf, Fare Free London says. Abolishing fares makes public transport more attractive to drivers, to help get them out of their cars. It also gives instant support to public transport users, whose journeys are far less fuel-intensive. 
The Fare Free London campaign was set up in February 2024 to promote free public transport as a way to open the capital to all, to support low income households in the face of rising costs and to tackle air pollution and climate change. They have won substantial support from trade unions and community organisations, and are working with our allies towards establishing a national campaign.
"Free public transport would reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and on world markets where prices are set by events outside our control", Pearl Ahrens of Fare Free London said.
The fuel price shock from the American-Israeli attack on Iran is likely to last a long time. The UK will be hit harder than any other country in the G20, the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development has said. And the European Union has warned that cutting taxes on petrol could cause a fiscal crisis.
This terrible war should force a permanent rethink of the transport system, Fare Free London believes. The drastic changes necessitated by climate change are long overdue, and the war just adds to the urgency of addressing energy vulnerabilities now.
This is an opportunity to put in place policies that make our transport system more resilient to shocks – both fuel shortages and economic crises – and work towards a sustainable transport system in the longer term. Instead of cutting taxes on fuel, which is already heavily subsidised, we should try and save fuel by encouraging people to travel on public transport.  
"It is wonderful to see the Scottish Greens putting free bus travel in their manifesto", Ahrens said. "And at UK national level, the call by Ed Davey of the Liberal Democrats, for 10 per cent off rail fares and a £1 cap on bus tickets, is very welcome.
"But we can and should go further. National and local authorities in several countries have already implemented free public transport, in response to the war. It should be at the top of the UK and London political agenda".
In Asia, municipal authorities have turned to free public transport to shield people from the worst effects of the sharp increases in oil prices.
In Pakistan, the state of Punjab (the largest state in the country, with 125+ million population) and the capital, Islamabad, have made public transport free for a month. The Punjab Mass Transit Authority reckons that more than 800,000 passengers are benefiting from the policy each day, and the provincial government is considering expanding the bus fleet to cope.
In Australia, the states of Victoria and Tasmania have also made public transport free temporarily. Municipal authorities in Ho Chi Minh city, the capital of Vietnam – which has a population of 14.5 million, much bigger than London's – are considering a permanent scheme.      
Free public transport as an emergency measure is not problem-free, but its implementation in British cities would be a welcome relief from the cost of tickets. Evidence from Montpellier in France, where public transport has now been free for two years, is that a properly-managed scheme in a European city works very well.
In the run-up to the 7th May elections, more than 170 candidates have signed a pledge to "use our platforms to call for the extension of free public transport". Fare Free London, together with Fare Free Yorkshire, Better Buses for West Yorkshire, West Yorkshire Needs a Tram, Tipping Point UK and the Greener Jobs Alliance, are backing the initiative – and they hope to gather more support between now and election day.

No cuts! No war!

by New Worker correspondent

CND has condemned Israel’s brutal escalation in Lebanon killing hundreds of civilians. The targeting of residential areas and infrastructure are war crimes. This is a breach of the ceasefire agreement between the USA and Iran, mediated by Pakistan, which covered all the arenas of the conflict including Lebanon. That truce has now been confirmed following pressure on the Americans from their own NATO allies and the feudal Arab oil sheikhs who have so much to lose if the fighting resumes – though for how long depends on the outcome of the next round of peace talks in Pakistan.
Trump and Netanyahu’s war has been a brutal and illegal onslaught on the people of Iran and Lebanon. It has created a humanitarian disaster and caused the destruction of infrastructure, environmental damage and economic crisis. The imperialist sanctions on Iran must be lifted, and reparations paid for the terrible damage done to the Islamic Republic.
Trump’s threat to destroy a civilisation, with its implied threat of nuclear war, sent a chill around the world. Iran negotiated in good faith over its nuclear programme. Israel and the United States sabotaged these diplomatic efforts. 
CND says “we regard Trump as a dangerous war criminal and have no illusions that this ceasefire will hold. We are committed to opposing any further attacks, and those of Netanyahu’s Israel on Lebanon and on the Palestinian people.
“Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been complicit in this illegal war, and we demand he stops allowing US planes to use British bases. The so called ‘special relationship’ is finished, and the British government must break with Trump and his warmongering policies, including allowing the stationing of US nuclear weapons at the Lakenheath base in Suffolk”.
Meanwhile a former British head of NATO and co-author of the 2025 Strategic Defence Review has called on Keir Starmer to cut welfare spending further to fund Britain’s war drive.
George Robertston, Labour’s Defence Secretary during the Blair era before serving as NATO General Secretary from 1999 to 2003,  says that successive British leaders had shown “corrosive complacency” to military spending. Echoing Tory demands to slash welfare to pay for a new arms race Robertson told the media that “we cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget”.
Robertson’s intervention comes as the Starmer government’s existing military spending plans face a £28 billion spending gap. That’s before the ambitions outlined in last year’s defence review are considered. Between 20 and 25 per cent of the Ministry of Defence’s budget goes on nuclear weapons spending.
Starmer has rightly come under pressure not to enforce further austerity measures to fund war spending. A recent study published by Oxford University, found welfare cuts implemented by the former Conservative-Liberal Dem coalition government left an “austerity generation” with a fifth of children growing up ‘scarred by poverty’ because of its policies.
That warning comes as the full economic impact of Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war on Iran is yet to be felt. The UN has warned that the global impact of the crisis could see 32 million people forced into poverty globally amid rising food and energy costs.
CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt said “Whilst Robertson is trying to present this as about defending national security, it is precisely the government’s warmongering and military escalation that is threatening our security now. Making further cuts to public services – at a time when we are facing even greater attacks on living standards due to the US illegal war on Iran – would be disastrous. It will create even greater levels of social deprivation and insecurity in Britain. Starmer needs to cut ties with the Trump administration, close down US access to British bases, and promote a policy of peace and dialogue that respects international law – not buckling to pressure for further military escalation”.

Stand by Palestine!

students at the Palestinian embassy

by New Worker correspondent

Students were briefed on the current situation in the West Bank when they met Palestinian diplomats in London last week. The students from the Westminster Global Diplomacy Initiative at the University of Westminster met Political Counsellor Marwan Yaghi at the Palestine embassy in London to discuss the current developments in occupied Palestine and how they put to test international law, accountability and the role of states in upholding justice.
Meanwhile a number of MPs, union leaders, writers, musicians and entertainers have signed an open letter accusing the London police of giving preferential treatment to a far-right demonstration led by the man who calls himself “Tommy Robinson” over a Palestine solidarity protest in the capital on the same day.
The pro-Palestine movement has had its preferred route through central London for its annual commemoration of Nakba – the mass expulsion of Palestinians – rejected by the Met, while the “Unite the Kingdom” demonstration will take place in the heart of London.
The letter signed by 34 peers and members of the House of Commons including the Corbynista bloc in parliament says “we are appalled to hear that the Metropolitan Police have refused permission for the Palestine movement to march to commemorate Nakba day on 16th  May on its proposed route and instead given over the political centre of London to a hate march called by racist thug ‘Tommy Robinson’ in response.
“The far right has targeted the Palestine movement before. They have done so aggressively with verbal and physical violence directed at the movement and the police.
“The Palestine movement marches on the nearest Saturday to Nakba day every year, and they informed the police of their intention to hold the 16th  May march in central London on 18th
 December 2025. While the police have refused their route, Tommy Robinson’s demonstration has been granted Kingsway, the Strand, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Parliament Square.
“We call on the police to immediately reverse this shameful decision. We call on everyone of good conscience to join us for Palestine on 16th  May. We will march”.
More than 30 MPs have also tabled a motion to reject the Government’s proposal to require police to consider the “cumulative impact” of repeated protests in the same area – drawn up in response to pro-Palestine demonstrations – when imposing conditions.

Irish rent row protest in London!

by New Worker correspondent

A  Sinn Féin member of the Dublin parliament says the Irish government must urgently intervene in the escalating Knockmealdown rent dispute as protesters occupied an exclusive antiquarian bookshop in London belonging to the absentee landlord at the centre of the row. The shop was peacefully occupied during the protest with a strong presence maintained outside.
London’s Terence MacSwiney Committee, named after the Lord Mayor of Cork who died on hunger strike in Brixton prison during the Irish fight for freedom in 1920,  was glad to lend our support to this protest against the Duke of Devonshire to highlight the extortionate increase on Lismore farmers from £500 to £5000!
Conor D McGuinness, the Sinn Féin Deputy for Waterford, said the protest has brought fresh attention to a dispute that threatens the future of traditional hill farming in the Knockmealdowns and reflects the depth of anger among farmers and their supporters.
Speaking shortly after the protest, McGuinness said "today's occupation of the landlord's Mayfair bookshop in London has put a sharp spotlight on the disgraceful situation facing hill farmers in the Knockmealdowns. These are farming families whose people have worked these mountains for generations, and they are now being hit with a reported 900 per cent rent increase that would drive them off the land. I stand with them and with those protesting in solidarity with them.
"I am in touch with the protesters and I will continue to support the farmers as they campaign to protect their livelihoods, their communities and their future on these mountains. What is needed now is government intervention and a solution. I have raised this directly in the Dáil with the Minister for Agriculture, including the fact that farm payments are being withheld because a commonage letter from the landlord is required before payments can issue, even in respect of other lands not in dispute. That means the Minister is effectively holding these farmers over a barrel in the middle of an already outrageous dispute. That is unacceptable and it must end. It's 2026, not 1846. The government needs to act accordingly".

A travesty of justice!

by New Worker correspondent

Two leading pro-Palestine campaigners were found guilty of breaching protest conditions this week. Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Chris Nineham, the  vice-chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, were both accused of failing to march within a designated area set by police during a mass protest in London last year.
The logs of the Police Gold Commander Adam Slonecki reveal that enormous political pressure was placed on the police by pro-Israel groups to prevent a protest at the BBC.
Claims of disorder on the day were simply false. The only moment of violence was when Nineham was brutally pulled to the ground and hauled away by police officers.
A key part of their defence was that the conditions imposed on the protest on 18th January 2025, which prevented a march to the BBC, were unlawful. The defence submitted a detailed legal argument outlining this case. But Judge Daniel Sternberg told the court that he was not obliged to give any reasons for his decision.
Stop the War said the verdict was “extraordinary and shocking and a huge setback for civil liberties” and that there were “significant concerns about the conduct of the six day hearing which will be raised during appeal”.
Jamal and Nineham were found guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court of failing to comply with conditions that required the protest to stay in an area in central London and not enter the surroundings of the BBC’s headquarters at Portland Place. Jamal was also convicted of two counts of inciting other protesters to breach police conditions. Both men were given conditional discharges and ordered to pay £7,500 each in costs.
Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who now heads the Independent Alliance in the House of Commons, said he was appalled at the court’s decision. “In January 2025, we held an entirely peaceful demonstration in support of Palestinian people. At all times, they — and we — followed all police instructions. We ended the demonstration by laying down flowers at their feet to mourn the deaths of Palestinian children” he said. “Today’s verdict is a dark day for civil liberties in this country — and is a disgraceful assault on the right to protest. My solidarity is with Ben, Chris and all those who have stood up for our common humanity in the face of genocide. This case is part of a wider attempt to intimidate the Palestinian solidarity movement into silence. They will never succeed”.

Against racism! For Palestine!

by New Worker correspondent

It was a carnival atmosphere in London on Saturday as comrades joined tens of thousands of other demonstrators marching through the heart of the capital against racism and Zionism last weekend. Your Party leaders Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana were there along with Zack Polanski from the Greens, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and Diane Abbot the independent veteran Labour MP from north London.
The protest, called by the Together Alliance and Palestine solidarity movements, which was backed by about 500 groups including unions, anti-racist campaigns and Muslim representative bodies, took over the streets of London last weekend. 
Corbyn told the media that the “problems we face are not caused by migrants or refugees” while Zarah Sultana said “there’s one minority we should be angry at: the billionaires funding division while working class people can’t make ends meet”.
Some said this was London’s biggest anti-racist demo in living memory. The organisers said over half-a-million people turned out on the day. Others put the number at nearer a million!