We will not forget Odessa!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) and members of the Workers Party of Britain held a vigil outside the Ukrainian Embassy in London on Saturday 2nd May to remember the Anti-Maidan heroes who died at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa on 2nd May 2014.
On 2nd May 2014 a fascist-led mob torched the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, preventing firefighters from intervening and attacking anyone who tried to escape. According to the Kiev regime, 42 people who were defending democratic rights and the rights of Russian speakers died on that day, but this figure is widely disbelieved. According to local investigators the true number of fatalities is well over 300.
For the first time since the formation of IUAFS in 2017, a pro-Zelensky counter-protest was held in front of the embassy, including people wearing fascist Azov emblems – one of whom held a sign saying "We killed the protesters in Odessa". However there were around three times as many anti-fascist protestors as the Ukrainian fascist Banderites. People came out of the embassy to join the Banderite protestors. So the embassy was was clearly involved, and that may be result of the repeated IUAFS protests there. 
There was a large police presence in order to avoid any conflict breaking out in front of the embassy, which is located in one of the most expensive areas in central London. Members of the IUAFS approached the Bandera supporters to tell them we wanted to lay flowers at the embassy gate but were told "it is forbidden". We consulted the police who advised that this may lead to trouble breaking out, so it was decided to lay flowers under a tree across the road. The policy of IUAFS is that its campaigns are purely political, firstly calling on the British government to end all support and collaboration with the Kiev junta, and secondly to extend solidarity and support to all Ukrainian democrats and anti-fascists in Ukraine or living in exile abroad.
The Ukrainian protestors, who were holding Ukrainian, Romanian and British flags, shouted to the anti-fascist protestors "are you Russian? Do your support Hamas terrorists?", and a man apparently from Ukrainian TV filmed the IUAFS activists and also asked "where are you from?".
IUAFS will continue its campaign until democracy, freedom of the media and the right for all peaceful, democratic political parties to operate freely in Ukraine are restored. We look forward to the day when Ukraine is free of NATO personnel and provocations and all the national communities in Ukraine can live side by side together peacefully.

In the footsteps of George Hogg

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other communists, academics and friends of China to recall the life of George Hogg who went to China in 1938 to help the Chinese people in their struggle against Japanese imperialism. George was a young man, a teacher and a journalist, who told the West about the Japanese army’s atrocities while setting up schools for communist-led co-operatives and helped orphans who lost their parents and relatives during the war. He joined the communist resistance to the invaders but he never lived to see the defeat of Japan let alone the Chinese people’s victory in 1949 which led to the establishment of the people’s republic in 1949. He died from an infection in July 1945 only weeks before the surrender of the Japan.  
In London on Saturday the memorial event brought together family members, scholars and representatives from both Chinese and English organisations gathering to mark his contribution – not only to the Chinese people's war of resistance, but also to the mutual understanding of the two nations.
The event was jointly held by the Chinese Embassy, the  China Global TV network (CGTN Europe) and the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU). Earlier this year, a SACU delegation, including members of the Hogg family travelled across China, following George Hogg's footsteps eight decades ago. The delegation shared their memories of the visit and spoke of the warm welcome and hospitality they received from everyone they met.
CGTN Europe journalists also shared their experience of producing a documentary about Hogg. Their digital team members talked about the filming and editing of the production. Without much archive video of Hogg, it is mainly through his writing that readers today can imagine his life and work in China – so applying AI-generated content helped to fill in the gaps.
Based on Hogg's writings, alongside a biography authored by his nephew Mark Thomas, the AI technology recreated scenes of Hogg's tour, work and life among the Chinese people back in the 1930s and 1940s, providing an immersive experience for the audience, especially the younger generation.
Also premiered at the event was a trailer for Witness to War: George Hogg in China, a documentary which is expected to be released in August. Michael Wood, the well-known historian who is president of SACU, said it brought war-torn Shanghai to life.

Prof Wood pays tribute to George Hogg

It reminded him of a poem by Chinese poet Du Fu. "I can remember a Chinese guy who belonged to a book club in America, he'd lived through that Japanese destruction of Shanghai," Wood said. "And 'I remember when I was a child, the buildings were all burning, and the great factories were burning, and across the wall somebody had painted the state is destroyed, but the people remain which is a line from Du Fu. 
"And I'll never forget that. You just watch those pictures in that film and that's exactly what I saw. I saw the Du Fu poem come alive again. So I'm very impressed."
He said Hogg's story provides Western audiences with a good angle of China's role in the Second World War. "You can tell people that China was so important in World War II, and you can give them facts and figures, but this is a real personal story of somebody who was so moved by the sufferings of the Chinese people," he said. 
"He could have gone home at any time, but he decided to stay and help the Chinese people, and in the end he died. So that's a very human story, a very powerful story".
In the final segment of the programme Andy Brooks and Peter Higgins from the Workers Party of Britain discussed George Hogg’s Legacy. The NCP leader said George Hogg,  an outstanding man who left our shores to help the people of China in the 1930s is, naturally, remembered in books, films and commemorations in China for his dedication and sacrifice but he is not so well known in his home country. That is sadly often the case where genuine heroes are routinely ignored by bourgeois scholars and the mass media alike in a country  where corruption is flaunted like a badge of honour by those who claim to lead us and whose highest virtue is greed and selfishness. But all of us here believe in what we are doing – we wouldn’t be here otherwise. Let us hope that when the time comes we can show the courage and determination of a man like George Hogg who dedicated his life to serving the people.

Down with the Kiev fascist regime!

By New Worker correspondent

We had a good turn out at the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign  picket in Whitehall on Saturday. NCP leader Andy Brooks joined comrades and friends at another picket organised by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) campaign to highlight the plight of political prisoners jailed by the Zelensky regime and stand by all those bravely fighting the fascism in Ukraine.
    Some 30 to 40 supporters joined the lively protest including Paul C annon, the general secretary of the Workers Party of Britain, and supporters of the new No2Nato campaign who came along with their banner that was attached with the others on the railings opposite Downing Street.
    "We are protesting today because we believe that the British people should be aware of the crimes committed by forces that our government has spent billions of dollars and arms supplies to prepare. We are well aware that many people are very confused by what is actually happening in Ukraine, as the media is flooded with claims and counterclaims, but we also know that media reporting in the UK is overwhelmingly one-sided and hostile to Russia and the people’s republics of the Donbas," one them said.
    The demonstrators called for the release of Ukrainian political prisoners, the restoration of full political freedom and freedom of the media, as well as an end to arrests, beatings, torture and murder in Ukraine.
    Theo Russell, the IUAFS campaign organiser, was interviewed by Bernie Holland, the musician and independent film-maker whose the 22 minute report is now up on the IUAFS Facebook page and YouTube. A brief report of the protest filmed by another independent media maker is now also doing the rounds on the social media.