Which way forward following the election…

by New Worker correspondent

That was the question posed at a seminar in London on Sunday. The 30th anniversary of the  start of the dialogue between the NCP and the RCPB (ML) was appropriately marked by the opening of a discussion that both parties believe needs to be taken throughout the labour movement. NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the meeting at the NCP Centre, welcomed everyone to the seminar at the Sid French library or by video link and the discussion was opened by Michael Chant, the RCPB (ML) leader. 
Michael reviewed the work of both parties over the years and presented views on the tasks and vantage point of the communists at this significant time in history. Other comrades. including supporters of the Consistent Democrats platform and the British Posadists, also spoke on the Tasks of the Communists in the Light of the July 2024 General Election – to look at the meaning of Labour’s immense but essentially hollow victory in July, Jeremy Corbyn’s new Independent bloc in Parliament and the predictable failure of the revisionists and the conventional social-democratic left at the polls. We discussed the mass support for the Palestinians on the street as well as the upsurge of racist violence and the mass anti-fascist response that followed and the need for a renewed fight-back against Starmer-style austerity that must be led by the rank-and-file in the trade unions and the mass movements of the labour movement. Finally it was agreed to broaden the discussion by publishing the contributions in both parties’ journals and to hold other meetings and seminars in the very near future.

For peace on the Korean peninsula

in the Sid French library

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity campaigners met at the NCP’s Party Centre in London last weekend for a hybrid seminar to celebrate the victory of the Korean people over US imperialism and its lackeys in the Korean war and discuss the prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula and the way forward for the solidarity campaign in Britain.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the Friends of Korea (FoK) event, welcomed everyone to the meeting, at the Sid French library or by video link, to hear key-note openings from FoK secretary Michael Chant and Dermot Hudson of the Korean Friendship Association and an online contribution from Song Gi Kim from the Democratic Korean embassy in London. This was followed by contributions from everyone in the room and from many of the online participants across the country.
    The Korean war ended on 27th July 1953 with an armistice that promised free elections to end the partition of the Korean peninsula. But the Americans never kept their word and the country remains divided between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north and a puppet regime in the south that is propped up by tens of thousands of US troops and an American nuclear armada off the coast.
    The US has done everything possible to maintain its military presence on the Korean peninsula. But the resistance of the DPRK continues, as the Korean people proudly demonstrate their mettle and build their own future.
    Victory Day is not simply a celebration for commemorating and looking back to a chapter of resistance in a previous era. The day also serves as a reminder that the US imperialists and their lackeys are stepping up war preparations in the Asia Pacific rim, and that the terrible tragedies visited upon the Korean people during the Korean War must never again be permitted. The significance of that war is taking on new meaning today as the US imperialists beat the drums of war to attempt to justify a nuclear catastrophe that threatens the very survival of the Korean people and the peoples of the world. But it further serves as a reminder that it is the people who are the makers of history and that they themselves must prevail against war.

Korea’s road to freedom

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity campaigners returned to the Sid French library at the NCP Party Centre last weekend for a seminar that focused on the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Korea and the outstanding achievements of the Korean communists who freed the country from Japanese colonialism and then went on to lead the people’s government that beat back the American invaders and their lackeys during the Korean war.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the Friends of Korea event, welcomed everyone to the meeting and then introduced the two main speakers – Michael Chant, the secretary of the Committee and Dermot Hudson, the Chair of the Korean Friendship Association.
    They both highlighted the immense achievements of the Workers Party of Korea over the past 70-odd years. Michael Chant stressed that the liberation of Korea on 15th August 1945 was not the gift of the Americans who claim that it was all down to their atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but an act of the Korean people themselves who took up arms under the leadership of Kim Il Sung in the 1930s in the long march to end the brutal Japanese occupation.
    And as Dermot Hudson said “the defeat of Japanese imperialism, one of the main forces and shock brigade of international fascism , by the partisans of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army led by the great leader Kim Il Sung made a great contribution to the victory of the worldwide anti-fascist forces”. This sparked off a deeper look at Korean-style socialism.
    Kim Il Sung not only grasped Marxism-Leninism but he applied it to the concrete conditions of the Korean people. He knew that once the masses realised their own strength they would become unstoppable. He knew that serving the people was the be-all and end-all for Korean communists and for the Workers’ Party of Korea that he launched in 1945. He developed Korean-style socialism and the Juché idea – which elevates the philosophical principles of Marxism-Leninism as well as its economic theories and focuses on the development of each individual worker, who can only be truly free as part of the collective will of the masses.
    In the Western world Juché is often described as “self-reliance” but it is much more than that. Kim Il Sung said that working people could only become genuinely emancipated if they stood on their own feet. But the Juché idea doesn’t negate proletarian internationalism. The Soviet Union, People’s China and the people’s democracies of eastern Europe all closed ranks behind DPR Korea during the Korean war and likewise Democratic Korea has given concrete support to Egypt, Syria, Zimbabwe and many other Third World countries struggling against neo-colonialism.
    The seminar reviewed the achievements of the DPRK in building Korean-style socialism, demonstrating the incomparable advances since the liberation of Korea from Japanese
colonial rule in 1945 and the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 9th September 1948. Following the foot-steps of Kim Il Sung and his successor Kim Jong Il the Workers Party of Korea with Kim Jong Un at the helm continues to defend the Korean people’s own path of development, striving for peace and for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

What it means to be a communist

by New Worker correspondent

Andy Brooks 

London communists discussed the problems of our movement at a joint seminar at the New Communist Party Party Centre last weekend. Called by the NCP and the RCPB-ML, comrades spent Saturday afternoon looking at the question of “what it means to be a communist – new and revolutionary today” in the Sid French Library in south London.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the session, said he hoped this initiative would be the start of a wider discussion within the ranks of the communists and the basis for future joint work to continue the dialogue on the crucial questions facing the movement.
    Discussion on deeper issues has always been sadly lacking in London. Although it’s true to say that before Covid you could go to a different left event every day of the week in London, these meetings were really gatherings of the converted organised by left groups to rally their troops and mobilise them for the campaigns of the day.
    Immense amounts of time have been spent analysing the past and trying to come to terms with the counter-revolutions that brought down the Soviet Union and the people’s democracies of eastern Europe, but there’s been very little talk in preparing for the future.
    But discussion is a luxury we can afford – and we can start best by looking at what does it really mean to be a communist in the 21st Century.
    The RCPB-ML leader, Michael Chant, said in a keynote opening that; “Taking the topic at face value, and giving an answer in a nutshell, one could say to be a communist means seeing the face of the New in the crisis of the Old, and working for the necessary change, for the transformation of the Old into the New, with revolutionary sweep.”
    These factors were taken up by other comrades who raised the issue of communist morality and the role of women in the movement, along with taking the principled stand and building the united front in the struggles to come.
    The afternoon soon passed by, but it was agreed to broaden the discussion by publishing the contributions in both parties’ journals and to hold another seminar in the very near future.

For peace on the Korean peninsula

the seminar in the Sid French Library

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity campaigners met at the NCP’s Party Centre in London last weekend for a seminar to discuss the prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula and the way forward for the solidarity campaign in Britain.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the Friends of Korea event, welcomed everyone to the meeting which was the first public event at the Centre since the lockdowns began in 2020. Most of them had visited Democratic Korea and all were supporters of the Friends of Korea committee that has been campaigning for the peaceful re-unification of the Korean peninsula for over 20 years.
    This was stressed by Michael Chant, the secretary of the Committee, who emphasised the importance of taking a stand in support of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s right to exist and choose its own path of development, striving for peace and for the reunification of the Korean peninsula, and, as he said, “supporting the just stands of the DPRK internationally at this crucial time in the face of hostility from the United States and other big powers, including Britain”.
    Though the imperialists have toned down their hate campaign their hostility still remains. “At the moment the imperialist mainstream media have tended to take the DPRK out of the news “ Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association said “although the hostile propaganda against the DPRK continues. Recently , the DPRK tested missiles which would have once led to hysterical headlines in the imperialist media for days on end. But this time it did not do so . This is because the imperialists have experienced a policy failure on the Korean peninsula ; military pressure and threats have not worked, sanctions have not worked and engagement such as Trump’s ‘big deal ‘ have not worked. The imperialist media does not like to talk about failure only success”.
    Others shared their own views on the Korean issue including Keith Bennett, a veteran Korean solidarity campaigner, who helped draw up the Friends of Korea founding statement many years ago and everyone agreed on the need to redouble our efforts in the coming year.
    The Co-ordinating Committee of the Friends of Korea is an umbrella organisation which brings together all the major movements active in Korean friendship and solidarity work in Britain today. It includes the NCP and the RCPB (ML), the Socialist Labour Party and the Korean Friendship Association. The Committee is chaired by Andy Brooks and the secretary is Michael Chant. The committee organises meetings throughout the year, which are publicised by the supporting movements and on the Friends of Korea blog.

Caribbean comrade remembered

Dave Horsley at the seminar

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades gathered at the Sid French library at the NCP Centre in south London last weekend to hear David Horsley talk about the life of the Jamaican communist, Billy Strachan, who did so much to help the Caribbean community in London after the Second World War.

Billy Strachan was an RAF veteran who settled in London to help found Caribbean News, Britain’s first black British monthly newspaper dedicated to Caribbean independence, socialism, and solidarity with colonial and oppressed peoples. But Strachan’s communist views and his staunch support for the Daily Worker and its successor, the Morning Star, has resulted in him being largely ignored by historians.

To redress the balance, David Horsley has written a pamphlet about Strachan’s life and he will be speaking about him at the Marx Memorial Library early in the New Year.

The Billy Strachan pamphlet, which is published by Caribbean Labour Solidarity, costs £2 and copies of this booklet are available from David Horsley, whom you can email at: ukdavid.d@gmail.com

• A remarkable life