Halt aid to fascist Ukraine!

by New Worker correspondent

While racists rallied in central London to listen to the likes of Tommy Robinson last weekend 
the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity campaign returned to south London to picket in the working class district of Brixton calling on the Starmer government to stop sending weapons, money and military personnel to Ukraine, and to end its disgraceful alliance with the Nazi Banderite gangs.
They carried placards saying “Spend £21.8 billion on housing, not on Ukraine “, and condemned Starmer’s plans for massive increases in military spending and the whipping up of a war mentality in Britain – plans which will not go down well with millions of working people struggling with the ever increasing cost of living.
The protest took place against a background of Britain and its allies in the "Coalition of the Willing" desperately trying to put together a so-called ‘reassurance force’ to be sent to Ukraine after a peace deal has been agreed.
It also took place shortly after the hysteria over claims of a Russian “drone invasion” of Poland – clearly being seized on by the NATO leadership – with evidence emerging that it was very likely a British-Ukrainian false flag operation, with Polish citizens whose homes, allegedly “destroyed” by Russian drones, now coming forward to say that they were damaged months ago by severe storms.

Stand with the Ukrainian anti-fascists!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists protested in central London last weekend in solidarity with the millions of Ukrainians resisting the Banderite dictatorship, and the maurading military "headhunter" gangs grabbing men off the streets across the country to send to a war which 70 per cent of Ukrainians no longer support. Dozens of people showed support for the protest, clapped and took photos. Only one person spoke to us opposing our slogans, and engaged in a long, and apparently pointless, discussion. The picket opposite Downing Street in Whitehall was organised by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement that campaigns in support of the people of the Donbas and the Ukrainian resistance fighting the fascist puppet regime in Kiev.

One Struggle! One Fight!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity joined the National Palestine March in London on Saturday to make the links between the wars waged by NATO imperialism and its proxy Zionist Israel in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon and Ukraine. As at many previous Palestine protests they received an overwhelmingly positive response from those on the march. The IUAFS protest also made the point that the Global South, representing the majority of humanity, was overwhelmingly opposed to Israel's genocidal methods in Gaza, while most developing countries did not support the West's sanctions against Russia or support the Zelensky regime in Ukraine by sending weapons, and had resisted Western bullying and pressure to change their positions.

Stop the proxy war against Russia!

By New Worker correspondent

London comrades joined other activists from the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity movement who were out and about in Brixton last weekend. And they received an extremely positive and friendly response from local people in the south London borough – a working class area with high levels of unemployment and poverty, at their picket on Saturday. Many people showed their support and had discussions with the protesters. These are some of the comments we had from the local people: "Why are we giving all that money to that guy in Ukraine (Zelensky)? He's got houses all over the world...We need that money for ordinary people here!...Fuck NATO! They are killing the whole world!" and "Spend money on people here, not on Ukraine, Look around you, you can see the devastation here!"

No more arms for Ukraine!

Piers Corbyn joins the protest

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined demonstrators in Whitehall demanding an end to British military aid to the fascist regime in Kiev last weekend while Scottish anti-fascists made similar demands in a protest in the heart of Glasgow. The pickets were organised by the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity campaign to call for an end to British arms supplies to the illegitimate Zelensky regime in Kiev and against British demands for Storm Shadow missile strikes deep into Russia.
The London protest opposite the Prime Minister’s official residence in Downing Street came under sustained abuse from two Zelensky supporters for almost an hour. One of them, who said he was Portuguese, said he visited Kiev last month where he has friends but didn't see a single Nazi, then he claimed to be an anarchist. They were crazed fanatics, just like the Zionists who attack the pro-Palestinian marchers. But many passers by came to give us support including the maverick campaigner Piers Corbyn, the brother of the former Labour leader, then joined the picket along with his friends who had just left a local Palestine solidarity event.
The world is now facing the possibility of two major regional wars: one in Europe, a possible Russia-NATO nuclear war, and another which could engulf the entire Middle East as a result of Israel’s relentless aggression. Both Ukraine and Israel have the support of Britain and the United States, who have designated the enemies of Ukraine and Israel “terrorists”.
Both of these wars are the result of years of aggression and expansion by NATO member states, through their puppet government and Nazi battalions in Ukraine, and through Israel, the war machine they have armed and financed in the heart of the Arab world.
The British government and 'free' media have not told people in Britain that Storm Shadow missile strikes from Ukraine have to be programmed by British military personnel on the ground in Ukraine, making British armed forces de facto at war with Russia. They have not told people in Britain that the only thing stopping Britain from the madness of "going it alone" with missile strikes on Russia is that they need permission from the Americans, who control the satellite data and software used by Storm Shadow missiles.
Every day we hear condemnation of alleged civilian victims of Russian attacks in Ukraine, but for ten years we've heard nothing about civilians being killed in Eastern Ukraine by Ukrainian forces.
Britain and the USA have refused to officially condemn the genocide against civilians in Gaza, and for ten years have almost completely ignored the thousands of victims of the bombing, starvation and disease in Yemen. Now they are silent about the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Lebanon, and have declared the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah a success against “terrorism”. But there have been no open doors and red carpet welcomes for Palestinian or Yemeni refugees!

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 all Ukrainian political prisoners!

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other anti-fascist activists protesting in Central London last week in solidarity with the of victims of savage fascist repression by the Zelensky regime in Ukraine, and with the millions of Ukrainians driven into exile since the imperialist-backed coup that overthrew the legitimate government in February 2014. Tens of thousands of opponents of the regime which seized power in 2014, including local elected officials, teachers, political activists, journalists and ordinary citizens have faced summary executions, beatings, torture, imprisonment and seizure of property at the hands of the Nazi gangs who are integrated into the Ukrainian state structures, while the Western mass media have turned a blind eye.
The demonstrators, members and supporters of International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), have campaigned for ten years calling for the British government to end its political, diplomatic, economic and military support for the puppet regime in Kiev. The protestors called for all Ukrainian political prisoners to be freed, for full political and media freedom to be restored in Ukraine, and for a comprehensive investigation into the crimes of the fascist militias over the past ten years. They also called for an end to the British government's support for Israeli genocide in Gaza and an immediate end to the merciless Israeli military operation in Gaza. Several people stopped to show strong support for the protest, after overcoming their astonishment at seeing such a protest against the Banderite junta in Kiev in the heart of the British capital.

Warmonger Britain - Stop Arming Zelensky!

by New Worker correspondent

London comrades were back in Whitehall last weekend demanding an end to British military aid to Ukraine. The protest picket, called by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign (IUAFS) was covered by the Arab and Russian media. The Lebanese satellite TV news channel, Al Mayadeen, broadcast interviews with NCP leader Andy Brooks and Theo Russell, the national organiser of the IUAFS and Theo was later interviewed by Russia Today (RT).
In the past 20 years Britain has joined wars, regime changes and covert interventions which have brought death, destruction and chaos around the world, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Hong Kong, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Belarus. Today the British ruling class is virtually at war with Russia in Ukraine, while desperately trying to organise subversion in Russia and Belarus.
Britain has worked with reactionary Islamic terrorists around the world, and with resurgent fascists in Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic States to further its imperialist aims.
British weapons are being used by the openly Nazi Azov regiment, while on the eve of Ukraine's major offensive against the Donbas republics on 17 February 2022 the UK military were training Ukraine's National Guard, which includes a thousand-strong neo-Nazi unit.
Boris Johnson himself led the way to sabotage the Istanbul peace agreement in April 2022, which we now know was very close to completion. Now Britain is coming under attack even in Kiev for sabotaging the talks, considering the enormous losses Ukrainians have suffered for effectively fighting on NATO's behalf.
According to Tony Brenton, the former UK ambassador to Moscow, Britain is the most aggressive of all the NATO members in Ukraine. He told BBC Radio 4 in May: "We have more special forces in Ukraine than any other NATO country. We are seen as an absolute hawk up there with the Poles and the Baltic states." 
Vladimir Zelensky's Jewish heritage has not prevented him from allying with the fascist Banderite gangs in Ukraine. On 14th  August he posted a video on his Telegram channel showing him meeting Ukraine's top neo-Nazi Andriy Biletsky, founder of the Azov Battalion and the Hitler-worshipping Right Sector. Biletsky famously declared in 2010 that the Ukrainian nation's mission was to "lead the white races of the world in a final crusade ... against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans]". Now he claims not to be a fascist, and that this quote was fabricated - conveniently for Kiev's NATO backers!

A new challenge to NATO's domination

Chris Williamson speaks

by Theo Russell

The launch of No2NATO – No2War last Saturday at the Bolivar Hall in London marked an historic new page in the British peace movement, with a new organisation challenging the domination of NATO in British and global politics and calling for an end to sending billions in arms to the Ukrainian government.
    N2N-N2W is the initiative of George Galloway's Workers Party and expelled Labour MP Chris Williamson’s Socialist Labour Party.
    In an atmosphere of censorship and demonisation of any criticism of the UK's unconditional support for the Kiev junta, two previous attempts to hold a N2N-N2W meeting were cancelled after the venues were deluged with threats and hate-mail. The venue for Saturday's meeting was withheld until the last minute.
    But the enormous pent-up demand for a new organisation that understands the reality of the Ukraine conflict was proven when the event was fully booked weeks in advance, and even then each of the three separate sessions held on Saturday – with many unable to get a seat – had twice as many people as both the recent Stop the War Coalition meetings on Ukraine in London and many more would have attended had enough tickets been available.
    This reflects the mealy-mouthed liberal position of the Stop the War Coalition, which held only one national meeting in eight years prior to the Russian intervention, and which instead of condemning the shocking repression and violence of the fascist-infested Zelensky regime calls for the Russian and Donbas forces to withdraw, leaving the people of the Donbas and many other parts of Ukraine at the mercy of fascists and Banderites who regard them as sub-human pro-Russian traitors.
    Opening one of the sessions, Galloway said: "The talking tailor's dummy Jens Stoltenberg recently revealed that NATO had been actively involved in Ukraine for at least six years prior to the western-backed coup in 2014."
    He described the current phase of the war as "a volcanic, tectonic shift which has accelerated by two decades the prize of a multipolar world", and said that in the West "the political dwarves we have elected are presiding over the rapid economic, cultural and social decline of their countries”.
    Galloway lambasted Washington’s warnings to countries not supporting NATO in Ukraine, declaring: "The days when China could be ordered around by anybody are over, over, over!
    “When South Africa was attacked for holding naval exercises with Russia and China, it responded by saying that the only countries which gave us weapons and bullets when we were fighting for our freedom were Russia and China."
    "The world is not against Russia and China", he said, "the 'West' is only 13 per cent of the world's population, and even in the West there are millions and millions of us who reject your domination".
    Fiona Edwards from No Cold War told the meeting: "Western governments want to silence and discredit us, but we want to say no to war and yes to peace." She condemned the incredible hypocrisy of governments which have fought wars in Asia and North Africa with huge civilian casualties, economic and social devastation.
    "The greatest threat to humanity is the warmongers in Washington and their NATO allies. Having caused this war, they are now escalating it, and for them the people of Ukraine are nothing more than cannon fodder. We need peace, an end to sending billions in arms which we need for our hospitals, schools and public sector workers."
    Fiona Edwards pointed out that a 50,000 strong demonstration in Denmark had succeeded in stopping savage cuts to finance higher defence spending, showing the potential strength of peace movements backed by working people.
    Andy Hudd, ASLEF Vice President, said: "I'm a socialist, but I'm not a pacifist because unfortunately in this world workers have to defend themselves. I'm a socialist because it's only in a socialist world we will get peace, and an end to the bloodshed of the working class in the interests of the wealthy and privileged."
    Hudd criticised the response of British trade unions and the Labour Party to the war in Ukraine, pointing to the GMB-backed TUC motion last year supporting increased military spending "on the back of food banks and overworked, underpaid nurses, poverty on a scale we've never seen before". He said the TUC had supported Stop the War resolutions and at the same time sending arms to Ukraine.
    "Trade unionists should be calling for solutions which bring security for Russia and Ukraine, and supporting campaigns against NATO and for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine."
    Chris Williamson said that he had believed that being an MP “was a platform to achieve positive change, but I discovered that almost every Labour MP only cared about their careers".
    "We are told that Zelensky is defending democracy, but he's banned any political opposition, and he's even going for the Orthodox church. The Labour Party is calling for more arms to be sent, while a Ukrainian woman received a 10-year sentence for posting communists on social media. This is the regime which burnt to death dozens of trade unionists in Odessa in 2014. We're told to support people like that – I say never, never, never!
    "No2NATO has been attacked by toadying trolls and sycophantic media hacks who have pulled out all the stops to prevent this meeting today. But we can only go from strength to strength, because what we are asking for is pure common sense."
    Chris Williamson's call for the immediate release of Julian Assange was met with a prolonged standing ovation by the entire audience.
    Former British diplomat and now peace campaigner Craig Murray said that in the 1950s Russia's military arsenal was only 40 per cent of NATO estimates, and that: "Today we are being told that Russia is planning to march to Berlin, Brussels and even London. All this is designed to justify massive military spending by NATO members."
    A motion backing the appointment of an interim leadership of No2NATO – No2War comprising George Galloway, Chris Williamson and Andy Hudd was adopted unanimously by the session.
    Members of International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity distributed around 1,000 leaflets and received a warm welcome from all at the meeting, and the 25th March Whitehall protest against the fascist terror in Ukraine was announced from the platform several times.
    We can only look forward to the future of N2N-N2W, and building a new peace movement that is genuinely against the all-powerful domination of NATO and US-led imperialism in the West.

Donbas solidarity at Stop the War

Salma Yaqoob addresses conference

by New Worker correspondent

Donbas solidarity activists were at the Stop the War trade union conference last Saturday to leaflet the meeting and intervene during the debate in the hall. The latest leaflet of the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement was handed out at the doors in support of the just struggle of the people of the Donbas for freedom and self-determination.
    But the main focus of this conference was on building a bigger peace movement and working to reverse the TUC’s decision last year to support increased arms spending.
    Many speakers, like the Italian worker talking about the Genoese dockers’ efforts to stop arms going to Israel and Saudi Arabia never even mentioned Ukraine. Those that did stuck to the mealy-mouthed position of the leadership whose calls for an end to the war are linked with the demand for a complete withdrawal of all Russian troops from Crimea and the Donbas – which is exactly what NATO wants.
    In the past left Labour MPs were happy to openly support the efforts of the Stop the War campaign. But none of them showed up for Saturday’s conference at Hamilton House in central London.
    Stop the War vice-chair Andrew Murray said: “If you remember the vast demonstration 20 years ago against the Iraq war, which Stop the War led, that demonstration had the support of nearly every major union in the country — and in many cases the union leaderships had been driven there by their members, rather than necessarily by their own willingness to confront the Labour government”.
    Then nearly 140 Labour MPs defied Tony Blair to vote against the invasion of Iraq. Now none of them are prepared to face the wrath of Starmer and the inevitable suspension à la Corbyn that would inevitably follow for refusing to toe the imperialist line.
    Murray said “the leader of the Labour Party, revealing himself every day as more of an authoritarian imperialist has made it clear that any Labour MP would sacrifice the whip and their seat in Parliament if they associate with the anti-war movement — something even Tony Blair did not do. That is a democratic outrage which our movement should be standing against loud and clear”.
    Jeremy Corbyn was also absent having just returned from campaigning in America on behalf of Julian Assange. But he did at least make a video call to conference in support of peace negotiations. Though the former Labour leader avoided the ‘Russian troops out’ mantra he did say that the Russian invasion was “wrong” – before calling for peace talks, possibly brokered by Brazil, to end the fighting.
    The anti-war movement’s calls to ‘stop the war’ and ‘no to NATO expansion’ are routinely prefaced with the ‘Russian troops out’ demand which is what the imperialists and the Ukrainian fascists are fighting for in the first place.
    The two leaders of the self-styled “anti-war” movement – CND Chair Kate Hudson and Stop the War convener Lindsey German – both rejected the argument of one participant who intervened from the floor to say that blaming both Nato and Russia for the Ukraine war confused the question and that Russia should be seen as a victim of US imperialism.
    Lindsey German said it was important to acknowledge the “humanitarian catastrophe” unleashed by Putin’s invasion and what she called the aggressive expansionism of Russia, while also recognising the role of NATO expansion in provoking the war.
    Though the Stop the War leadership and their supporters amongst the left social-democratic and pacifist trends within the Labour Party have distanced themselves from the fake left’s “arm Ukraine” brigade they have not broken with the bourgeois consensus on both sides of the Atlantic that ignores the fascist nature of the Kiev regime, brands Russia the aggressor and ignores the legitimate rights of the people of Crimea and the Donbas who have joined the Russian Federation.
    The anti-imperialist struggle in Ukraine is part of the global front of the poor and the oppressed who are fighting for freedom all around the world. We must counter the bogus ‘evenhandedness’ within the peace movement with the call for victory for the Russian and Donbas forces fighting fascism and NATO-inspired aggression.

Fascism will be defeated!

Alexei Albu

by New Worker correspondent

A very successful online meeting to mobilise international support for the Free the Kononovich Brothers campaign took place on Thursday 25th August, with 50 participants from Ukraine, the Russian Federation, the USA, England and Scotland. Organised by the London-based International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign (IUAFS), the seminar called for the release of the Kononovich brothers and all Ukrainian political prisoners, and for the restoration of all political and media freedoms.
    Chaired by Theo Russell, the key speakers were: Chris Williamson, former Labour MP; Alexey Albu from Borotba (Struggle), a survivor of the 2014 Odessa Trade Union House Fire massacre; Steve Sweeney, Moscow-based investigative journalist and former Morning Star international editor; John Parker from Solidarity with Donbass and Antifascists in Ukraine (joining from Los Angeles); Phil Wilayto, Odessa Solidarity Campaign (Virginia USA); and members of the Young Communist League of the Russian Federation and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Speakers from Ukraine and the Donbas were unable to take part due to interrupted internet connections.
    Chris Williamson said that: "The imprisonment of the Kononovich brothers should have caused an outcry from the British left, but it has been met with a stony silence. We know the Zelensky regime is corrupt regime that came to power in a US-backed coup.” Speaking about the energy payments crisis currently shaking Britain, he commented that "most people aren’t making the connection between the sanctions on Russia and the soaring price of energy".
    In a video message from Eastern Ukraine, Alexey Albu spoke of the large-scale persecution of dissidents in Ukraine and said "tens of thousands have been arrested by the SBU (Ukrainian secret service)”. He said that many were not as well-known as the Kononovich brothers, Alexander Matyushenko of the left Livitstya movement or the Vasily Volga of the Union of Left Forces, all of whom have been beaten and tortured by Nazis. He added that in newly liberated areas the graves of those murdered by Nazis since 2014 are being exhumed. He said: "I believe that we will win and that fascism will be defeated, but I would be very happy if you comrades could help us in this process. No Pasaran!"
    Speaking from Moscow, Steve Sweeney spoke about the brutal crackdown on the opposition in Ukraine and said: "The entire Ukrainian left are either in prison, they’re dead or they’re in hiding.” He added that people in Moscow were "still reeling from the murder of Darya Dugina, who was killed in a cowardly attack" and compared the gloating in the western media over her assassination with their reaction to what they termed the "terrorist attack" on Salman Rushdie.

The IUAFS is a united front supported by the NCP, Socialist Fight, Consistent Democrats and the British Posadists as well as individual labour movement activists.Videos of the key speakers are now up on the new IUAFS YouTube Channel

No to Nato!

by Monty's statue in Whitehall

by Theo Russell

As the warmongers gathered in Madrid for the NATO summit this week, anti-war activists took to the streets in towns and cities across Britain for the International Day of Action For Peace In Ukraine on Saturday 25th June, with over 30 local groups participating across the country.
    As the Stop the War Coalition report says, the actions come “as Boris Johnson urges other world leaders to hold firm in their long-term support for Ukraine, meaning amplifying arms supplies and deploying more troops. As belligerents bang the drums of war, the anti-war movement sends its counter message to the government.”
    Stop the War Coalition’s convenor Lindsey German told activists in London: “This war has everything to do with what NATO is doing as well as what Russia is doing. It expanded in terms of its aggression, it was involved in wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Libya. And when you hear that NATO is a movement for peace that is a lie - it is a movement for war.”
    NATO has plans to increase the number of forces on high alert in the east from 40,000 to 300,000, and deploy yet more troops to NATO countries close to the Russian Federation.
    Kate Hudson, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary, said “We need to move beyond NATO and have a new security architecture internationally to create a situation of peace and justice.
    “We know NATO will be talking about their new strategic concept. And, every time NATO has a new strategic concept they are expanding the remit of NATO, whether it’s going into Latin America, Africa or Asia. As activists it is essential we raise public awareness about what’s going on. We have a responsibility to get that information out there.”
    The StWC statement goes on: “Boris Johnson recently said the financial cost of providing long standing support to Ukraine was “a price worth paying for democracy and freedom. As the British government pumps billions of pounds into the war in Ukraine, the UK is suffering the biggest cost of living crisis in decades.
    “But it’s impossible to ignore the mass fight back amid the summer of discontent. The International Day of Action for Peace in Ukraine coincided with the biggest rail strike in 30 years.
    “Stop the War Coalition rallies sent messages of solidarity to the RMT acknowledging that the emancipation of the working class goes hand in hand with the priorities of the anti-war movement.”
    “Boris Johnson has played a particularly crucial role in discouraging negotiations, telling President Zelensky on his May visit to Kiev that ‘no negotiations are possible’.
    “The weekend’s Day of Action was about showing there is another way. We must carry our message onto the streets and into the trade unions, while pushing back against the attacks on us from the Starmer-state bloc and its facilitators.”
    Meanwhile attacks on the peace movement have been stepped up, with Keir Starmer denouncing Stop the War in the Guardian after visiting NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, saying “At best they are naive, at worst they actively give succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies.”
    Stop the War responded, saying: “The attack on StW has been widely interpreted as a way of further distancing Starmer from his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn remains in the wilderness, denied the Labour whip in Parliament and will likely be blocked from standing again as a Labour candidate.
    “Corbyn was chair of StW as was his chief of staff, Andrew Murray. It’s interesting that Starmer chose this way to demonstrate his loyalty to British imperialism and Nato. It confirms that the establishment drive to destroy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party was motivated chiefly by his anti-imperialism.”
    The New Worker supports a negotiated end to the war, rather than a withdrawal of Russian forces, which were invited to intervene in Ukraine to end eight years of attacks on the Donbas republics in which 14,000 people died and over two million refugees left Ukraine.
    Inhabitants of the Kiev-controlled parts of the Donbas, including in Mariupol, have spent years under the heel of arrogant, violent, fascist thugs from the Azov Battalion and other 'nationalist' groups who made Mariupol their main base. Since the Russian intervention began there has been a reign of terror against the left and opposition across Ukraine with murders, including of at least 11 town mayors, torture and mass arrests.
    A leaflet from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), set up in 2019, was handed out at the London protest and was well received, providing an alternative view of the current Ukraine conflict to that of the capitalist mass media.
    More information can be found on the IUAFS Facebook Group and blogspot, including many videos exposing the barbarism of the 'nationalist' battalions, and the warm welcome from the Donbas people for those they regard as their liberators - the Russian military and the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s defence forces.

Londoners protest against energy hike

by New Worker correspondent

Londoners took to the streets in the heart of the capital last weekend protesting against soaring energy prices and the increased cost of living. Thousands more took part in similar protests called by the People's Assembly movement in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and many other cities, on the eve of a 54 per cent energy bill hike that followed the government’s decision to raise the ceiling price on domestic energy costs.
    In Whitehall protesters called for Boris Johnson’s resignation whilst comrades gave out hundreds of leaflets in support of the anti-fascist war in Ukraine along with a fact-sheet produced by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement, which went out with last week’s issue of the New Worker.
    The People’s Assembly said yesterday’s lifting of the energy price cap will create an “impossible choice for many”, to eat or heat. "Public outrage over the cost-of-living crisis is growing fast and our response is gaining momentum… Now is the time to get out onto the streets to send a clear message to the government that we refuse to pay for their crisis."

Victory to the Donbas!

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades were back on the streets of London to leaflet the Stop the War march that was part of a national No to War in Ukraine day of action on Sunday. The demonstration in London ended in a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Jeremy Corbyn, Lindsey German and Tariq Ali and other stalwarts from the peace movement. But though the speakers recognised the dangers of a nuclear conflict and understood that NATO’s aggressive expansion over the past 30 years had played a role in sparking the current conflict some also called for an unconditional Russian withdrawal from Ukraine – which is also the demand of US imperialism and their lackeys.
     But the call of the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement in support of the anti-fascist forces of Donbas and their allies went down well with the protesters. Hundreds of copies of the joint statement signed by the New Communist Party together with the Consistent Democrats, Socialist Fight and Posadists Today were given out on the day. The statement was sent out with every copy of last week’s New Worker and now its been endorsed by the Communist Party of the Donetsk People’s Republic.