Scargill call to Leave Now!

Scargill calls to Leave!

By New Worker correspondent

 

London comrades joined supporters of the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) this week to hear Arthur Scargill call for a massive campaign to ensure that Britain leaves the European Union. The SLP leader, who led the miners in their fight to save the coal industry back in the 1980s, shared a platform that included Prof Takis Fotopoulos, two militant members of RMT and the leader of the SLP group on Hartlepool council, at a meeting in Hamilton House in central London on Tuesday.

            Eddie Dempsey from the RMT spoke about the neo-liberal agenda to privatise the railways throughout the European Union while Alex Gordon outlined the aims of LeFT, the Leave, Fight, Transform campaign –  a grassroots network of socialists and trade unionists launched by the CPB with the support of the Socialist Labour Party and members of the RMT earlier in the year.

            But most had come to hear Scargill who drew on his years of campaigning against the Common Market inside and outside the Labour Party to argue for the “no deal” Brexit millions of us thought we had voted for in the 2016 referendum.

The veteran campaigner called for a return to Labour’s traditional values of the public ownership of key industries and utilities that were dumped by the Blairites in the 1990s.

Communists share Scargill’s distrust of the Remainers in the Corbyn leadership. We would naturally disagree with his call on workers to only vote for Leave candidates at the next election – which opens the door to support for Tory Brexiteers and Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. But his final call for a mass movement to stop the Remainers and ensure that Britain leaves the European Union is one that everyone can close ranks around.

Debating Brexit in London

John Tyrell opens on Europe

By New Worker correspondent

The President of the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) joined the regulars on the New Worker platform at the Cock Tavern in central London last week for a debate on Brexit that was unusual on two counts. The first was that due to a mix-up over the booking we had to meet in the down-stairs back bar – something we haven’t done for many years. And the second was that none of us came to blows over the issue that has divided workers as well as the ruling class for the last three years!

The panel was evenly divided with the SLP’s John Tyrell and NCP leader Andy Brooks giving the left case for leaving the European Union, whilst Gerry Downing from Socialist Fight and George Shaw of the British Posadists defended staying in. The audience, which included Greek communists and Sri Lankan socialists, was equally divided, although everyone agreed on the need for the left as a whole to discuss openly and honestly their differences, especially on a topic such as this.

This Irish pub in Euston is a well-known haunt for the labour movement and the NCP London District regularly hold discussion meetings there throughout the year.

Marx – thinker and revolutionary

 

Andy Brooks with comrades at the reception

by New Worker 

correspondent

Karl Marx died in London on 14^th March 1883 and his passing is marked by a number of ceremonies including the annual address at Marx’s tomb in Highgate Cemetery and the New Communist Party’s more modest annual reception at the Party Centre in Battersea last week.

Our numbers were down due to sickness and transport problems as NCP leader Andy Brooks explained during the formal part of the proceedings. National Chair Alex Kempshall was in hospital recovering from major surgery and a number of other comrades had sent in their apologies.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx who with Friedrich Engels, wrote the Communist Manifesto and laid the foundations of modern scientific socialism. The immense contribution that Marx and Engels made in the struggle for the emancipation of the working class can never be forgotten Andy said and this was taken up by all the speakers that followed.

But the tributes began on a sombre note when comrades rose for a minute’s silence in memory of Neil Harris, who passed away at the beginning of the month after a long illness. This was followed by solidarity greetings from Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association and John Macleod from the Socialist Labour Party.

There was plenty of good food and drink for all, and £130 was raised for the New Worker following the appeal by Daphne Liddle.