Raising the Palestinian flag over Westminster

by New Worker correspondent

 A protester has been charged after he climbed up Big Ben in Parliament Square to raise the Palestinian flag last weekend. He stayed there for 16 hours before coming down to end the action designed to spread awareness regarding the situation in Gaza and Britain's response to it. Large crowds gathered in support beyond a police cordon. Parliamentary tours cancelled and Westminster Bridge closed, while police also blocked pedestrian access at Parliament Square after protesters began to gather near the edge of the cordon.

Stop Israeli aggression!

by New Worker correspondent

Around 600 people protested in Camden Town, north London, last Saturday calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel's deliberate targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip, in just one of many local protests all over Britain last weekend.
Sabby Sagall, the president of the Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told the protesters that Israel's policy has been the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since 1947. Sagall praised South Africa for initiating the International Criminal Court application against Israel, and accused the British government of “diplomatically covering up genocide”.
Stop the War’s Andrew Murray said "The British and the American governments are ignoring (Israel’s) genocide, our government is arming the genocide” while tetired doctor Jonathan Flaxman said that there was no functioning health service in northern Gaza. with Twenty-three out of 36 hospitals have been destroyed. As a result “people who are injured, who couldn't be saved, will die a slow, painful death. We know that it's part of the ethnic cleansing". He added that health care workers were being intentionally targeted by Israeli forces and over 300 have been killed.
Andrew Feinstein, a Jewish former ANC member of the South African parliament, spoke about the South African Jewish Board of Deputies’ claim that South Africa was “humiliating itself in the international arena” by starting the ICJ case against Israel. He said “the organised Jewish community in South Africa found it extraordinarily difficult to criticise apartheid until the mid-1980s, so we’re not talking about people speaking from a position of moral integrity here”.
Feinstein spoke of the ANC’s long standing support for the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and the growing view that Israel was practising its own brand of apartheid in the occupied territories, adding: “There are certain things that run incredibly deep in the ANC and its support for the Palestinian people is one of them. There’s an affinity for the Palestinian struggle which is seen as very close to the South African struggle”.

Solidarity with Palestine grips London!

 by Dermot Hudson

On Saturday 28 October over 500,000 people marched through London in support of the Palestinian people and to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. It was an amazing event that showed that Londoners are not fooled by the constant flood of Zionist and anti-Palestinian propaganda from the mainstream media including the tabloids and TV talk shows. It was undoubtedly the biggest demonstration in London since the 2003 protest against the Iraq War.The centre of London turned into a veritable sea of red , black ,white and green !
    It was also a good turnout given the fact that the march was heavily policed with 'cop copters' noisily whirling overhead and riot police in paramilitary style clothes as well as police horsemen hanging around. The police imposed a 'Section 60' order giving them powers of stop and search.
Some media outlets tried to say that there were only 100,000 on the demonstration but it took over twp hours for the marchers to just cover a short distance. People were still arriving at Parliament square at 3pm. Afterwards trains , tubes and buses were packed with people who had been on the march , all talking about the need for a ceasefire.
    Parliament Square was packed to the brim with marchers who attended a rally which was addressed by Jeremy Corbyn , Mick Lynch of the RMT, Zarah Sultana MP and others. The speakers brought home the horrific nature of the Israeli offensive in Gaza and the oppression of the innocent Palestinian people by the Zionist Israelis . Mick Lynch brought solidarity of the trade union movement to the rally and added his voice to the calls for a ceasefire.

Stepping stones to socialism

Dermot Hudson and Andy Brooks

by New Worker correspondent

Friends of Korea met in London last weekend to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 2nd September 1948. NCP leader Andy Brooks and Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML) were there along with other veteran campaigners and supporters of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) event at the Marchmont Centre in Bloomsbury on Saturday.
Opening the meeting KFA UK Chair Dermot Hudson said that “from the first day of its foundation, the DPRK has advanced along the road of Juche, the road of self-reliance, independence and socialism. Juche Korea was not a copy of another country but a unique and original state”.
DPRK diplomat Kim Song Gi  brought greetings from DPRK’s London embassy and told the audience that under the leadership of  Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il the DPRK travelled the road of struggle, never giving up even though the moves of the hostile forces continue to this day. And today, led by Kim Jong Un, the Korean people march confidently into the future. 
Other speakers included Jef Bossyut of the Belgium KFA and Jeremy Bieringer (KFA Germany) while  Alejandro Cao De Benos joined us live on video link from Spain. The fact that the DPRK has withstood the test of time, disasters, sanctions and imperialist threats for 75 years, is evidence of the invincible validity of its system and the full support of the korean people in its future”. Alejandro, the  international president of the Korean Friendship Association cannot travel abroad as his passport was confiscated by the Spanish authorities some seven years ago. But they haven’t, as yet,  barred him from the social media.
Christer Lundgren, the Chair of the Swedish-Korean Friendship Association, also joined us on Zoom saying “during its 75 years of existence the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has had extremely challenging difficulties to overcome, including the fierce Fatherland Liberation War, the postwar reconstruction and industrialization, continuous war threats and extreme economic difficulties caused by the imperialists’ manoeuvres to isolate and stifle People’s Korea as well as by the collapse of some other socialist countries”.
This hybrid meeting, spanned half the world. It was a first for the KFA. It certainly won’t be the last. 

Picketing Broadcasting House!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other Korean solidarity activists protesting against the BBC bias at a picket outside Broadcasting House in central London on Saturday. The Korean Friendship Association (KFA) had called the protest to highlight the appalling bias of the BBC in its coverage of news from Korea that invariably reflects the lies of the American lie-machine and those of its south Korean puppets.
    Discussions were held with passers-by and the media during the 90-minute protest that also called on people to stop funding the state broadcasting network by cancelling their BBC licence fees.
    Dermot Hudson, KFA chair, said: “Recently there was an incident in the West Sea of Korea in which a south Korean puppet warship intruded into the territorial waters of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) basically invading the DPRK and violating its sovereignty but the BBC falsely reported that the DPRK had infiltrated south Korean waters and fired at south Korea…
    “The BBC not only pumps out false propaganda against the DPRK but it is also a regime change agency. We should never forget the role of the BBC World Service in the past in undermining and destroying socialism in the USSR and former socialist countries. Now the BBC is trying to do the same with the DPRK and beaming its lies into the country. We must defend People's Korea from regime change, from all attempts to force 'reform' or 'opening-up' on People's Korea.
    “We, the Korean Friendship Association of the UK, believe in defending People's Korea with No Ifs or Buts.
    “We believe the BBC should stop lying about the DPRK and instead produce fair, accurate and objective material about People's Korea.
    “We say don't pay your licence fee because if you do you are funding the BBC's lies about People's Korea."

Stand by Democratic Korea!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined Korean solidarity activists outside the new American embassy in Nine Elms on Saturday to demand an end to US imperialism’s occupation of south Korea. Called by the Korean Friendship Association, the protest called for an end to the imperialist sanctions regime against the DPR Korea and called for a halt to the annual US war-games in south Korea. KFA Chair Dermot Hudson denounced the Pacific Dragon and Ulji Freedom Shield exercises saying that "Ulji Freedom Shield has nothing to do with freedom but everything to do with "regime change" thereby extending the corrupt fascist rule of the south Korean puppets to the northern half of Korea and with establishing US imperialist colonial rule over the whole of the Korean peninsula and achieving the US domination of Asia and the Pacific."

Down with the BBC!

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other Korean solidarity campaigners outside BBC headquarters in London last weekend to protest at the ongoing bias of the state-owned broadcaster.
    The protest picket outside Broadcasting House called by the Korean Friendship Association highlighted “the continual ideological attack by the media representatives of world imperialism of which the BBC is part of. This tax-payer funded entity has lied and distorted the truth for decades. It lied about the Iraq war, it lied about imperialism’s attack on Yugoslavia, it lied about Syria’s war against imperialist backed terrorists, it is lying about the situation in Ukraine. They cannot be trusted…simple as that”.
    KFA Chair Dermot Hudson Chairman of KFA said: “The BBC, which is known to progressive people as the British Brainwashing Corporation has consistently lied about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Its coverage of the DPRK is one sided and exaggerated to say the least. On several occasions BBC reporters have used tricks and subterfuges to enter the DPRK .
    “The BBC has taken upon itself the role of a shock brigade in the propaganda war against People’s Korea.

    The BBC is a state broadcaster closely linked to British imperialism and US imperialism... what is disgusting is that not only does the BBC lie about People’s Korea but it expects us to pay for its lies in the form of the BBC licence fee” and concluded “We, the Korean Friendship Association of the UK,believe in defending People’s Korea with no ifs or buts”.

Remembering a great Korean

Andy Brooks speaking

by New Worker correspondent

Friends of Korea gathered last weekend to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the birth of great leader Kim Il Sung, at a meeting at the Chadswell Centre called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA).
    The meeting began with the Song of General Kim Il Sung and an introduction by Dermot Hudson, the KFA Chair, on the importance of the life of the Korean revolutionary leader who led the guerrilla movement that fought the Japanese imperialism which occupied the Korean peninsula until their defeat in 1945, and later beat back the American horde and their lackeys during the Korean war in the 1950s.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks recalled the time he met Kim Il Sung in 1990 when the New Communist Party established fraternal relations with the Workers Party of Korea (WPK). Keith Bennett, a veteran Korean solidarity campaigner, spoke about Kim Il Sung’s life-long work with national non-aligned countries and the world communist movement.
    Messages were received from the London embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the RCPB (ML), and the meeting ended with the showing of a film about the life of the Korean leader.

Eye-witness Ukraine in London

by New Worker correspondent

Around 40 activists attended a meeting on central London last Saturday to see UK photographer and journalist Dean O'Brien showing photos of the Donbas, speaking on his experiences there and answering questions.
    The meeting almost didn't take place, however, after the Ukrainian Embassy in London contacted Greene King Pubs and told them it had been organised by "supporters of Russian-backed terrorists".
    As a result the original venue was cancelled, followed by a pro-Ukrainian twitter mob bombarding Greene King Pubs and threatening to turn up at the original venue.
    An alternative venue was found at the last minute and a highly successful meeting took place. Dean's photos and talk covering history trips to Ukraine before the February 2014 EU-NATO sponsored coup and several subsequent trips to the rebel held republics in Eastern Ukraine was highly appreciated by everyone present.
    The meeting, chaired by the NCP’s Theo Russell, also provided an opportunity to discuss the highly dangerous current situation in and around Ukraine, and a lively discussion about campaigning in solidarity with all Ukrainian anti-fascists including those on both sides of the front line, and the hundreds of thousands driven into exile by the current fascist-ridden US puppet government in Kiev.
    Dean said that on his first trip to Kiev in 2008 he saw fascist marches, German World War 2 uniforms and flags, Hitler's Mein Kampf and SS books being sold on the streets.
    He has recently been interviewed twice on these topics on George Galloway's Mother of all Talk Shows programme on Russia Today. A full report on Dean's talk will appear in the New Worker next week.

Support the Weetabix strikers!

by New Worker correspondent

London trade unionists were out leafleting and collecting for the Weetabix strikers outside Sainsbury’s on Kilburn High Road last week.
    Some 80 engineers at the Weetabix plants in Kettering and Corby are taking industrial action against new ‘fire-and-rehire’ contracts, which would leave them up to £5,000 per year worse off.
    It began with two-day mid-week walk-outs in September following the break-down of talks in the summer between their union, Unite, and management. Now the strikers have stepped up their campaign, moving to a four-day stoppage each week.
    Weetabix is the largest cereal manufacturer in the UK, exporting to over 80 countries, and has production facilities in Europe, North America, and East Africa with a combined global workforce of 1,800 employees. It was taken over by an American company, Post Holdings Inc, in 2017.
    Weetabix Management claim the dispute has nothing to do with fire-and-rehire – but this was dismissed by Unite leader Sharon Graham this week. “These attacks are totally unjustified,” she said. “They are a serving of corporate greed. And what’s more, although Weetabix deny it, we have irrefutable evidence that they are using ‘fire-and-rehire’ strategies.”
    Last year Weetabix turnover grew by five per cent to £325 million and profits leapt by almost 20 per cent to £82 million.

Defending Democratic Korea!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined Korean solidarity activists who were picketing the Foreign Office in central London last weekend. London comrades joined the demonstration in Whitehall on Saturday that was supported by other labour movement activists and friends of the DPR Korea campaigning for peace in Korea and an end to sanctions against the DPRK.
    The protest, called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA), highlighted Britain’s involvement in new American provocations on the Korean peninsula that include the current military exercises in south Korea and the despatch a Royal Navy carrier strike force to Korean waters.
    Millions of pounds are being squandered to do the bidding of US imperialism in taking part in war games that are a direct violation of the inter-Korean agreements of 2018 and the DPRK-US joint statement which were hailed by the world as giving the hope of peace.
    The last KFA picket in Whitehall was back in September 2020. But pickets had been a regular feature of KFA work in the capital before the lockdown. Now after an 11 month break due to Covid restrictions the solidarity movement plans to return to public campaigning on the street. KFA Chair Dermot Hudson said future plans include resuming public meetings in London and returning to Whitehall on a regular basis throughout the year.

Palestine: No Justice – No Peace!

 by New Worker correspondent

London comrades got a warm welcome when they joined hundreds of thousands who marched through London on Saturday in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Friends, old and new, were pleased to see us back on the street and NCP leader Andy Brooks was interviewed by Lebanese TV at the start of the demonstration.
    Some 250,000 people took part in the biggest demonstration of support for the Palestinian cause seen so far on the streets of Britain. The march, called by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Friends of Al Aqsa, ended in a rally in Hyde Park. There, amongst a sea of Palestinian flags and placards, left Labour MP John McDonnell and other speakers denounced Israeli aggression and call for justice for the Palestinian Arabs.
    McDonnell welcomed the current ceasefire that ended the bombing of Gaza, adding: “But let’s be clear, there will be no ceasefire in our campaign to boycott, disinvest and sanction the Israeli apartheid state.
    “The message is clear; we will not cease our campaign in solidarity until there is justice. So let’s make it clear, no justice, no peace”.

End sanctions on Democratic Korea!

 by New Worker correspondent

 

 Korean solidarity activists returned to Whitehall on Saturday to demand an end to British sanctions against Democratic Korea in July and an end to all the other sanctions imposed on the DPR Korea by US imperialism, the European Union and America’s lackeys in Japan and south Korea.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks and other comrades including London organiser Theo Russell, joined the picket called by the Korean Friendship Association on 26th September by the gates of the road leading to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, just a stone’s throw from Downing Street and the heart of government.
    In a lengthy interview with a London journalist Dermot Hudson, the KFA chair, explained why they were picketing the Foreign Office. He denounced the unjust sanctions imposed by the British government and defended the human rights record of Democratic Korea against false accusations.

Day of the Shining Star in London

Michael Chant speaking

by New Worker correspondent

People battled their way through Storm Dennis to celebrate the Day of the Shining Star at a meeting in central London last weekend, organised by Korean Friendship Association (KFA) and the Friends of Korea (FoK) committee.

KFA Chair Dermot Hudson introduced the meeting, stressing the importance of the Day of the Shining Star and increasing solidarity with People's Korea. FoK Secretary Michael Chant, General Secretary of the RCPB-ML, spoke about the injustice of the sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), stressing the fact the UK is still maintaining the European Union (EU) sanctions against the DPRK despite leaving the EU!

A contribution from the DPRK’s London Embassy was read out. Part of it read: “February 16 is the birthday of Kim Jong Il, eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. When the day comes round every year, many people of the world recall him with deep emotion.

“Kim Jong Il devoted his whole life for the cause of global peace. He led the struggle to build a new world free from aggression and war upholding the banner of anti-imperialist independence.”

Sinn Féin MP warns of voter restrictions

John Finucane speaking

By Theo Russell

Francie Molloy, Sinn Féin MP for Mid Ulster, told a meeting in London last week that the problems the party experienced with registering voters in the North of Ireland for the December 2019 election “were the most difficult Sinn Féin has ever experienced”.

He said: “There are increasing restrictions on who gets onto the electoral register and who can send postal votes.

“We need to prepare for a unified electoral system in the north and south that is completely out of the hands of the British government. Every Irish citizen should be on the register and have the right to vote.

“Demography is changing in the North but it’s not reflected on the electoral register, and that could mean the unionists maintain control even when they’ve lost the popular majority.”

The keynote speaker at the meeting, A decade of opportunity: towards a United Ireland at the Westminster Parliament, was John Finucane, new Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast.

Finucane reminded the meeting that the Good Friday Agreement “is an evolving process” that “requires constant nurturing and active oversight and involvement by the Irish and British Governments”.

But his main focus was on Brexit, which he said “has exposed the failure and undemocratic nature of partition – a political problem, which requires a political solution”.

He added that: “The majority of MLAs and MPs in the North of Ireland are anti-Brexit. Neither the people, nor their political representatives here have consented to the North leaving the EU today. There is a justifiable anger about this.”

In April 2017 the European Union announced that in the event of Irish reunification, the North “would automatically re-join the EU with the rest of Ireland,” Finucane said.

He predicted that recent changes “will inevitably lead to the final break-up of the constitutional structures of the United Kingdom” and said: “It is no longer a question of if, but when the referendum on Irish unity will be held, and many of those of a British or Unionist identity are now considering the merits of reunification.”

Finucane called on the new Irish government after next month’s elections to publish a Green Paper and appoint a minister on how to prepare “a successful transition to a united Ireland”.

He added that the debate on reunification was bringing in wide sections of society in the North of Ireland.

Last year Baroness Paisley, the widow of Ian Paisley and vice-president of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said: “I just wonder why (Ireland) had to be divided... and I think it was the wrong decision,” adding that she could live in a united Ireland as long as there was freedom of religion – in contrast to her own party leader, Arlene Foster.

Also Billy Hutchinson, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, which had one seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly until 2007, told the party conference the a reunification referendum was inevitable.

On a so-called border referendum – ie to end partition – he said: “For our part, Sinn Féin believes there should be one within the next five years.

“That means the Irish Government need to begin to plan for a referendum, promote the discussion, and build a vision of a new and united Ireland.”

He called on the Irish diaspora in Britain to lobby MPs and the British government “to live up to its responsibilities under the Good Friday Agreement to announce a unity referendum”.

John Finucane is the son of lawyer Patrick Finucane, who was murdered in 1989 by Ulster Defence Association (UDA) members who were colluding with MI5, which was confirmed in parliament by David Cameron in 2012.

Finucane pointed out that in Belfast: “The absolute unionist majority has been lost in the last four elections and it is not coming back. I say this not out of triumph but as a challenge.” His seat was exclusively held by unionists until December 2019.

Amongst his predecessors was Edward Carson, who led a revolt against Irish Home Rule, paved the way for partition and established the Ulster Volunteers, who received arms shipments from Germany. Lenin famously cited Carson as an example of the British government supporting treason against against their own state.

In the discussion a speaker from the floor spoke about the ‘Magnitsky amendments’ unanimously added to two new laws by parliament, allowing the freezing of assets of “international human rights violators”. (According to the USA and UK, the US lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was murdered by the Russian Government.)

The speaker asked: “If they were so concerned about human rights, why didn’t they pass a law after the murder of Pat Finucane?”