A new Queer activism

by Anton Johnson

AT ITS AGM this weekend Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Labour passed a motion to engage in outward campaigning work with trade unions and trade councils following the defeat of Labour at the polls last month. Encouragingly the AGM also agreed affiliation to Hope Not Hate/Searchlight. Hopefully this will lead to LGBT Labour re-engaging with grassroots activism.
A great many gains were made under the 13 years of Labour rule for LGBT people – but this has led to a complacency and lack of political debate within the LGBT communities dominated by a large commercial scene. The advances made are potentially at risk from the new Con-Dem government; therefore LGBT communities need to be looking at how to defend our hard-won rights – many of which were campaigned for by the old Labour Campaign for Lesbian & Gay Rights in the 1980s and 1990s.
There is the beginning of a change in this: the agreeing of the motions at LGBT Labour as noted above is a sign of this. In 2009 there was a conference sponsored by the CWU and FBU trade unions initiated by Left Front Art – a network of progressive LGBT activists, artists and academics – to look at igniting progressive debate anchored in the Labour Movement within the LGBT communities and support grassroots activity. That conference has led to Left Front Art organising two public debates in London hosted by Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils, a body that now has a LGBT Officer. The motion passed at the LGBT Labour AGM originated within the Left Front Art network.
Trade unions and trades councils are supporting LGBT grassroots community activism in London, such as the initiative to hold an East London Pride following a vicious attack on a young Trans person and her two gay male friends in Dalston, just a short walk away from the popular LGBT venue, Dalston Superstore.
The organisers of the East London Pride project – OUT East – ran a workshop at the Hackney Unites event, supported by Hackney TUC last Saturday. Queer activists engaging with the wider community and linking up for the battles ahead.
This summer will see Queeruption in Manchester – a gathering of LGBT and Queer community activists and artists running workshops and holding political debates. In London the Queer Invisibility Academy will be running a day school in London – looking at the past of LGBT activism and what a new generation can learn for the future.
Behind Bars – the Queer arts collective that brings performance art and politics together – continues to grow in popularity with its next event on 12th June in south London. Many of the artists who have been involved in Behind Bars have performed or shown their work at the successful SERTUC LGBT Network LGBT History Month events, such as performer Pietro La Hara, visual artist Boxikus and film maker Meerak Meinhog.
These different expressions of activity are welcome and refreshing in re-energising progressive debate and activity in the LGBT communities, with the added bonus of Queers recognising the importance of the Labour Movement and joining trade unions and taking an interest in the value of Trade Councils.
A new generation of Queer activists in the community and Trade Unions is using the mediums of art to communicate ideas. This is important in rebuilding activism and our movement and communities – with activism from the ground up and educating. Memorial and vigils are good as far as they go, what is refreshing – and much needed – about OUT East is that the organisers want to be proactive, celebrate and show strength and confidence.
These positive developments go in hand with raising the visibility of LGBT people in movement, such as Thierry Schaffuser – SERTUC LGBT network secretary leading and addressing the London May Day rally this year, as a confident Queer in drag.
In London there are two events coming up – one an LGBT fringe meeting at the Morning Star conference on the topic of where next for LGBT rights under the Con-Dem government. And on 14th June OUT East will be holding a public engagement meeting at the London Resource Action Centre, Fieldgate St E1, an initiative supported by GLATUC, Hackney TUC and GMB SHOUT!
Those living in Hackney or Tower Hamlets who are interested will be welcome at the meeting and can contact OUT East co-ordinator Simon Leahy at simonleahy@hotmail.com

for more information.

*THE LABOUR Party’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Society (LGBT) were astonished last Saturday when the duty manager at the Greencoat Boy pub in Westminster refused to serve them and said he would not have accepted their booking if he had known they were a gay group.
The pub chain, Punch taverns, has since apologised and suspended the duty manager and the Metropolitan Police are investigating it as a homophobic incident.
James Asser, a member of the group, said: “Everyone involved was shocked and outraged. This attitude is totally unacceptable in this day and age.
“What century are we living in here?
“When you encounter prejudice you have to stand up and be counted – at the very least we expect an apology.
“We also want a demonstration that the pub chain takes this very seriously and will make sure it never happens again.”
Former Labour Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott Tweeted in support of the group, writing: “Forty years ago we campaigned against a Hull pub that banned ‘women and queers’. This is disgraceful.”


photo:Thierry Schaffuser in drag addressing this year's May Day rally

Judge questions Mayor's power

THE CASE brought by London Mayor Boris Johnson in the High Court to remove the peace camp from Parliament Square where it has been since 1st May – along with Brian Haw, the peace activist who has sustained a peace vigil opposite the House of Commons for nine years.
But the judge, Mr Justice Maddison, questioned Johnson’s power to take legal action to evict the peace campers. He said that his provisional view was that Boris Johnson was “likely ultimately to succeed”. But he added there was room for “lively and legitimate argument as to whether or not he does have title to bring these proceedings”.
Whatever happens, the case is going to take a lot longer than Johnson had hoped.
Anti-war protesters, climate change activists and anarchists have been living in the camp, dubbed Democracy Village, since 1st May.
Veteran anti-war campaigner Brian Haw, who has camped at the site since 2001, has previously won legal battles to be allowed to continue his demonstration in the Square.
Johnson said he has a right to bring trespass action against the protesters as the Greater London Authority owns the green space.
He claims the protesters do not have the right to monopolise the green space. But the campers are not preventing anyone else from access to what is, in effect, a large traffic island. They argue that the only person who can take such an action is the Queen.
Maddison said the issue of eviction of “Democracy Village” needed to be “decided at the very earliest opportunity”.
The case was adjourned and is now expected to return to the court on Friday.

Celebrating Vietnam

by Theo Russell

HUNDREDS of people packed the Bolivar Hall in central London last week for an event organised by Trade Union Friends of Vietnam and the Vietnamese Embassy to mark the 35th anniversary of the defeat of American imperialism in the Vietnam war.
Vietnamese ambassador Tran Quang Hoan spoke of the economic achievements which have made Vietnam among the most dynamic economies in the region, with average growth of seven to eight per cent since the adoption of a socialist market policy In 1986. He said the government was “determined to make Vietnam into a developed, industrialised country by 2020”.
Hoan said the industrial sector had grown form 20 per cent to 40 per cent of the economy since 1980, and in 2009 despite of the global financial crisis growth was almost six per cent.
“Living standards are constantly improving, and our growth has contributed to eradicating poverty, with levels down from 75 per cent of the population in 1976 to 13.5 per cent in 2008,” he said.
“The victories of the Vietnamese people took place under the revolutionary leadership of Ho Chi Minh, a great and universal cultural personality and the beloved uncle to his people,” said Hoan, adding that 2010 also marks the 120th anniversary of Ho’s birth and 65 years since the declaration of Vietnam’s independence.
“During those difficult years of war the British people stood side by side with the Vietnamese people,” he said.
Chau Nhat Binh, Leader of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour also spoke of “celebrating the end of the most barbaric war in history waged by US imperialism,” a war which followed 100 years of French colonialism “only to be divided by the Geneva Agreement” in 1954.
“We had to pay a high price for this victory. In Robert McNamara’s words, ‘we owe it to future generations to explain why we mobilised 6.5 million young people to fight and 22,000 factories to supply this war machine’.”
Binh, who joined the Vietnam People’s Army in 1972 and was almost killed twice, recalled that the US had used 80 million litres of chemical defoliants and 10 million tons of bombs, “Yet while spending billions on wars all over the world, the US has given Vietnam only $3 million to clear unexploded bombs.”
“Thirty five years later the scars remain painful,” he said. “Three million people are still affected by Agent Orange, including ex-US soldiers. We call on people around the world to continue the struggle for justice.”
The US defoliant manufacturers continue to deny responsibility, and yet another legal case has now been launched after several previous cases were turned down by US courts.
Minh said the Vietnamese government’s care for disabled people includes treatment and job creation programmes, and many training centres and workplaces specifically designed for disabled people.
Replying to questions Tran Quang Hoan said relations with China were “very good”. “China is our biggest trading partner, although there are still some problems. The question of the Spratly Islands has not been resolved, but we are open to proposals from the Chinese side.”
“We have an open door foreign policy and we aim to be a friendly and reliable partner to all countries on the basis of sovereignty, mutual respect and independence.”
“We don’t forget the past or the crimes which were committed, but at this moment we put the past aside in order to create a better life for our people who have suffered so much.”
Chau Nhat Binh spoke of the challenges and negative aspects the trade unions faced. “Economic growth is not sustainable with poorly trained workers, and our infrastructure is still poor. Since the adoption of a socialist market policy the divisions between rich and poor have widened, and there exploitation and degradation have increased.
“Our priorities today are to extend collective bargaining, especially to non-manufacturing industries, and trade union recruitment. We aim to have two million trade union members by 2013.
“The biggest problem is how to organise workers to protect their interests, and we need to be prepared to deal with the big international corporations which are now moving into Vietnam.”
Binh said healthcare was also a major concern. “Wage earners in the factories usually have health insurance which the employers and government contribute towards, but we need to encourage people in the rural areas, with poverty levels of 65 per cent, to take up health insurance.”
“Children under six receive free healthcare, but the government still has much to do to improve healthcare in Vietnam,” he said.
Len Aldis of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society pointed to another cruel legacy of the US war of aggression: cluster bombs, often disguised as brightly coloured objects looking like toys, which he said would take 300 years to clear. “Every week there are horrific injuries from cluster bomb explosions, with children especially vulnerable,” he said.
“People are still being born in southern Vietnam with no eyes or missing limbs due to Agent Orange poisoning, often several children in one family. What kind of life will these children be able to live?”

Ken to run for Mayor again

KEN LIVINGSTONE last week announced his bid to be chosen as Labour candidate in the 2012 London mayoral election.
He said that if re-elected he would:
• fight Tory public sector cuts;
• raise the congestion charge for the most polluting cars;
• hold down bus and Tube fares (which have risen by up to a third under Boris Johnson);
• scrap “zany” ideas like a floating airport in the Thames estuary and the new “Routemaster” bus;
• take no pay rise for the four-year term and institute a four-year pay freeze for senior staff;
• restore relations with China and India, which have been neglected;
• reverse cuts to police numbers and guarantee a total of 640 local neighbourhood policing teams;
• press the Government for powers to raise money on the bond markets to build affordable homes, including for rent;
• cut energy bills by improving insulation in every building in London over 10 years.

Remembering the Kwanju massacre

NEW COMMUNIST Party comrades joined friends of the Korean revolution picketing the south Korean embassy in London last Friday to mark the 30th anniversary of the Kwanju massacre, when thousands of south Korean students and pro-democracy demonstrators were mowed down by the forces of the US puppet regime.
The protest was organised by the UK Korea Friendship Association and also supported by the Juche Idea Study Group, Association for the Study of Songun Politics and supporters of the Russian AUCPB communist party.

Freedom for Mumia!

PROTESTERS stood outside the US embassy in London last Wednesday to demonstrate their support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, who has spent nearly 30 years in jail for a crime he did not commit.
New Worker supporters joined the picket held on 19th May – the birthday of Malcolm X, the American Black Muslim leader assassinated in 1965 – to raise public awareness about this monstrous miscarriage of justice and demand his immediate and unconditional release.
International support for Mumia has grown over the years including world leaders like Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela, members of the Westminster, European and Japanese parliaments and Hollywood celebrities as well as unions and social justice groups representing millions across the globe.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a renowned journalist from Philadelphia who has been in prison since 1981 for the alleged killing of a police officer. Mumia is known as the “Voice of the Voiceless” for his award-winning reporting on police brutality and other social and racial epidemics in the United States and the rest of the world. He has always protested his innocence but Mumia remains on death row despite the fact that another man admitted in 1999 that he was responsible for the shooting.
From his cell Mumia has continued to speak out for all who are oppressed through his journalism. He has published four books, and his weekly columns are published throughout the world. His case is one of the most important social justice fights of our time

Brian Haw arrested

PEACE campaigner Brian Haw, who has lived for nine years in a tent opposite the House of Commons, was arrested along with a fellow protester last Tuesday at dawn on the day of the Queen’s official opening of Parliament.
Police also moved to try to clear demonstrators encamped in a peace camp on Parliament Square before the Queen’s arrival. But they failed and the Queen was met by a sea of anti-monarchist placards and hostile slogans.
Haw was arrested officially for trying to stop the police searching his tent and carried away, held off the ground by his arms that were twisted behind him.
Another protester at the camp, Barbara Tucker, was also arrested. Tucker was heard saying on BBC London 94.9: “You can’t arrest him [Mr Haw]; you don’t have a search order.”
Haw first set up camp in June 2001 in a one-man protest against war and foreign policy – initially, the sanctions against Iraq.
He said he was inspired to take up his vigil after seeing the images and information produced by the Mariam appeal, an anti-sanctions campaign.
Haw only leaves his campsite to attend court hearings and survives on food brought by supporters, who include the former Labour cabinet minister Tony Benn and activist and comedian Mark Thomas.

Join the Resistance!

LRC backs McDonnell for Labour leader



by Theo Russell

THE TORY-Liberal Democrat assault on public services and a Labour Party leadership contest provided the backdrop of a conference last Saturday called by the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) that came with an invitation to “Join the Resistance”.
And immediately after the conference the LRC national committee voted to endorse John McDonnell MP as a Labour leadership candidate and urged LRC members and others to lobby Labour MPs and pass motions in their Constituency Labour Parties and trade union branches to nominate McDonnell.
A statement urged “people who have left the party to rejoin in order to vote for John,” adding that new members will be eligible to vote in the Labour leadership election.
On Tuesday John McDonnell accused the Labour Party of organising a “discredited” leadership contest after it set a deadline for nomination as a leadership candidate of 27th May – even though the winner will not be announced until party conference in September.
He needs to win nomination from 33 MPs before that date for his name to appear on the ballot paper and will struggle to make it in under a fortnight.
McDonnell said this would exclude make rank and file members from choosing him and reduce the chances of a fresh start.
Around 300 people from across the country turned up for the Join the Resistance conference at the University of London Union on 15th May despite the very short notice.
Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union, delivered the welcome news that in the previous week Labour had gained 12,000 new members, many believed to be disgusted Lib-Dem supporters.

own campaign

McDonnell told the conference he may not get on the ballot paper, but said “don’t be disillusioned. We’ll run our own campaign in parallel with the leadership battle to put our ideas across.
“I won’t support any of the others on the ‘faux left’ – anyone who has blood on their hands from the Iraq war, supported the privatisations of the past 13 years and the most severe attack on civil liberties in the past 50 years.”
He described how Labour had alienated its supporters since 1997, failing to deliver on trade union rights and the environment, going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and attacking pensioners.
“We’ve alienated that coalition, we lost our moral compass, and we lost at the election because we deserved to lose”, he said, adding that where left-wing Labour candidates such as Jeremy Corbyn and Kelvin Hopkins stood Labour’s vote had increased significantly.
“Now we’re going to learn through brutal struggle. Jobs across the public sector will go, and trade union rights will be attacked as the only way to ensure more privatisation and public sector outsourcing.”
Peter Firmin, joint LRC secretary, pointed the finger at trade union leaders “who didn’t campaign for our policies, who sponsored over 100 MPs who voted for right-wing Labour policies”.
He also condemned the Trade Union Labour Organisation’s call for tactical voting, saying “members of affiliated unions should demand to know why they encouraged people to vote Liberal Democrat, when their manifesto called for privatising the Royal Mail”.
Gary Heather, a Communication Workers’ Union national executive committee member and chair of Islington trades union council, pointed to the success of the campaign to save the Whittington Hospital in north London (with plans to close the Accident and Emergency department shelved at least for now) as an example of a non-sectarian campaign bringing people into activity.
Luton Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins said that the British people were “to the left of the Labour Party”, with polls showing majorities supporting increased pensions, higher taxes to pay for services and re-nationalising the railways.
“What New Labour don’t like is active branches and campaigning socialists,” he said. “People who voted Liberal Democrat thinking it is some kind of left-wing party have been totally disillusioned. I think the Liberal Party is finished and we’re going to go back to a two-party system, representing capital and labour – they represent capital and we represent labour.”
Veteran Labour activist Walter Wolfgang urged people not just to join the Labour Party but to come forward as candidates and delegates, and work actively “to make the Labour Party what is was meant to be – a major force for socialism”.
Tony Benn was among several speakers to point out that “new parties are not the answer,” and call for focused campaigns.
“Thatcher knew what to go for – trade unions, local government and public ownership,” he said. “We need to recognise that campaigns on issues such as Iraq and the BNP can rally people from across the labour movement. Pick the main issues and campaign around them.”
He added that although the Tories are in power “it seems to me they are a bit frightened – they are in a very difficult situation and know their task will not be easy”.

Remembering the Nakba!

by Robert Laurie

ON SATURDAY 15th May hundreds of protesters joined a picket in Whitehall opposite Downing Streets to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the newly formed Israel state in 1948, known as the Nakba (catastrophe).
Organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, the British Muslim Initiative and CND the lively lunchtime picket included Palestinian exiles, British Muslims, left-wing supporters of the Palestinian cause and orthodox Jews who regard Zionism as a perversion of their faith.
This, the first protest outside Downing Street since the installation of David Cameron as Prime Minister saw the delivery of a petition protesting against the British government persistent support for every aggressive action of the Israeli government.
Sarah Colborne, of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “We’re asking the new government to remember the Nakba and let it serve as a reminder of the justice that is long overdue to the Palestinian people.
“We are asking for the government not to let those responsible for Israel’s war crimes evade justice. Whilst Israel continues to steal Palestinian land in the West Bank, and lays siege to Gaza without fear of sanction from the international community, there will be no peace or justice for the people of Palestine.”
The petition, that was handed in Number 10 Downing Street said: “We demand the government:
* End Israel’s violations of international law, including ending its illegal occupation and building of settlements;
* End the siege on Gaza;
* Support bringing Israeli war criminals to justice – no attack on universal jurisdiction;
* Ban settlement goods;
* Suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement;
* End the arms trade with Israel.


photo: Protestors including former comedian Alexei Sayle at the picket

Left Labour prepares for battle

by Daphne Liddle

WE HAVE a new Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition government and Gordon Brown has resigned both as Prime Minister and as leader of the Labour Party. New Prime Minister David Cameron is busy stitching up the Liberal Democrats while the left of the Labour Party is rallying to wage a defensive war against the coming urge of public sector spending cuts.
The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) has already organised a conference for this Saturday 15th May in London’s University of London Union (10.30am to 3.30pm, admission free, donations welcome) for labour activists and trade unionists to discuss how to build their own coalition.
The LRC said: “With a Tory-Lib Dem coalition threatening massive cuts in public spending, there is clearly a need for the Left to discuss how it can build a coalition to argue against and defeat the cuts consensus.
“There is also the fight for socialism in the Labour Party to be fought – and a vacancy for Labour Party leader . . .
“This is a one day conference for the labour movement left across the UK to share experiences of the General Election and plan for the coming months.”
Speakers will include John McDonnell MP and Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union.
They are encouraged good results that Labour won in last week’s general election in traditional Labour’s core areas of the north of England, central London, Scotland and Wales. LRC MPs John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn both succeeded in increasing their majorities.
And although Labour lost the general election it made significant gains in the local elections.
The message from voters is that they have no stomach for Cameron’s proposed drastic cuts to local government spending.
John McDonnell said on Monday: “The public and private horse-trading masks the fact that whatever government emerges will be somewhere on the neo-liberal spectrum, and will soon be driving through large scale cuts in public services, pensions and benefits.
“To face a neo-liberal coalition government, the left and trade unions will be forging a coalition to resist attacks on our communities.
“The disgusting sight of the bond markets opening during the night to speculate at our expense demonstrates starkly what we are up against: the return of the casino economy backed by a neo-liberal coalition government.”
The Liberal-Democrat Party encompasses a wide political spectrum with party leader Nick Clegg on the right of it. He is facing a huge challenge to ensure his 57 Lib-Dem MPs will toe the Tory line. Many are bitterly opposed to it.
On Tuesday night the Labour Party’s on-line membership application page crashed under a flood of applications. Political commentators believe many of them were from left Lib-Dems unhappy with Clegg’s decision to form a coalition with the Tories.
Cameron is not making it easy for Clegg. Already the Lib-Dems have had to jettison their principled opposition to the renewal of the Trident missile system.
On proportional representation – their flagship policy – the only concessions the Tories have made is to agree a referendum on Alternative Voting – a halfway step. But the Tories have made it clear they will campaign for the proposal to be rejected.
Since Labour also opposes PR the Lib-Dems chances of winning it are remote.
The Cabinet positions given so far to the Lib-Dems carry little political weight. Clegg will be made Deputy Prime Minister.
Vince Cable – a far better economist than the Tories John Osborne – has been denied the position of Chancellor. He will have to make do with Minister for Banking and Business while Osborne occupies Number 11 Downing Street.
Danny Alexander, a member of the Liberal Democrat team which negotiated the coalition, becomes Scottish Secretary.
Chris Huhne will take on Energy and Climate Change, while David Laws will be Treasury Chief Secretary. No real power there at all.
So at the moment Clegg is crowing that he is the first “Liberal” to enter Number 10 as a Cabinet Minister for about 90 years but it is not certain he will have a party at all in a few months.
This will be an unstable coalition and Labour had better get on selecting a new leader in time for the next general election, which many believe is only months away.
And Labour must recognise that the left of the party polled much more strongly than the right-wing New Labourites.

Election results

THE COUNTRY voted last Thursday and, as predicted, it resulted in a hung parliament. But some interesting patterns emerged. The Tories gained more seats than any other party but not enough to form a government on their own, which shows that for all Labour’s faults most of the people of this country do not really want the Tory alternative.
The Labour vote held up well in the traditional Labour core areas: the North of England, central and east London, Scotland, Wales and Birmingham – and all the major urban working class areas. London MPs Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell – both members of the Labour Representation Committee opposed to “New Labour” – even increased their majorities.
The Labour Party campaign had very little funding so there was nothing much in the way of poster or media campaigns. This actually worked in the party’s favour because it reduced the influence of the right-wing “New Labourites”, while the door-to-door canvassers were mainly traditional party activists.
The evidence is that wherever there was door-to-door canvassing, Labour did well; the three televised debates between the party leaders dominated the media and the opinion polls but had little effect on the final vote; the vilification of Labour by the right-wing press (only one paper, the Mirror, supported Labour) had little effect and Lord Ashcroft’s multi-million-pound poster campaign also had little effect. Voters have developed an immunity to the ruling class media circus and commercial style advertising. But they do listen to people like themselves who can be bothered to come and talk to them face to face.
Certainly a return to old fashioned door-to-door canvassing was a major factor in the high turn out. And the high turn out was a major factor in the huge defeats suffered by the fascist British National Party. They failed to gain a parliamentary seat and lost the local government seats that were up for election at the same time. This is a triumph of the massive sheer hard slog of the work of thousands of supporters of Hope not Hate who put in the door-to-door work and we congratulate them. Wherever Hope not Hate had campaigned the turn out was higher and it was this that defeated the BNP. But we cannot be complacent – the racists actually increased their total vote but it shrank in proportion to the votes of other parties.
In many places the turn out was so high that there were long queues and hundreds were not able to vote before the polls closed, by law, on the dot of 10pm. This is the result of local government cuts – not enough staff to process the voters quickly enough and a lesson to all politicians who think that they can cut and cut and cut public sector jobs without it having any effect on them.
We now face a real possibility that the Liberal Democrats will insist that the new government ensures that the next election is held under some sort of proportional representation. This will not help the left.
The suggested Alternative Vote system will largely benefit the Liberal Democrats and guarantee their place as kingmakers in parliaments for many years to come. Under full proportional representation, if the threshold was one per cent of the vote as it is in some countries, the BNP would have won a parliamentary seat, as would UKIP. If the threshold was five per cent the result would be much the same as today with a parliament dominated by the three major parties but with a larger slice for the Liberal Democrats. Either way none of the fringe left parties would get into parliament.
Like most proportional representation governments it would become more bureaucratic, expensive and unwieldy than it already is. Bourgeois state machines are never truly democratic and are always geared to keep the working class out of power.
Even when there is a centre left coalition that gives a few government positions to left fringe parties they have no opportunities to implement left policies. They find themselves being used as tools to enforce anti-working class policies and end up betraying their class.
But it looks as though proportional representation will be on the agenda and our responsibility as a communist party will be to expose its lack of real democracy and fight to build the organised, class-conscious working class, as we would under any bourgeois state.
And it looks as though we will almost certainly have another general election within the year. As ever, the struggle goes on!

Hope not Hate success in Barking!

THE LEADER of the fascist British National Party, Nick Griffin, failed dramatically in his bid to gain a Westminster seat last Thursday when he suffered a resounding defeat in the BNP’s east London stronghold.
Margaret Hodge, the Labour incumbent, won by a majority of more than 16,000 to deflect the BNP leader’s challenge in what she labelled the most important and moral fight of her life.
In a humiliating defeat, Griffin was relegated to third place in Barking, trailing behind Conservative candidate Simon Marcus. The BNP’s share of the vote dropped by two per cent – the result of an extensive campaign to mobilise voters against the threat of the far right.
Hodge, the former Culture Minister, achieved a seven per cent swing, winning more than 24,000 votes and 55 per cent of the vote.
She said: “The message of Barking to the BNP is clear: get out and stay out. You are not wanted here and your vile politics have no place in British democracy. Pack your bags and go.”
She said voters had chosen democratic politics built on fairness over “a fascist politics built on division, prejudice and hatred”.
“We have not just beaten but we have smashed the attempts of extremists.”
The BNP had considered Barking a stronghold after exploiting local concerns about immigration and housing to win twelve seats in the local council in 2006.
But following a disastrous election campaign, Griffin received 6,620 votes – one third as many as Hodge.
There were indications of a national collapse in the BNP vote after it failed to make headway in its other target seat, Stoke Central.
It lost its 12 seats on the Barking and Dagenham Council, despite beginning the campaign with hopes of gaining a majority.
Griffin blamed high voter turnout for his defeat and said that it was the “last chance for Barking”.
As his voice was drowned out by booing, he said: “This was the last of London. Within the next five years the indigenous people of London will be a minority in our own capital city. This is a wake up call, not just for London. This is a wake up call for the whole of Britain.”
Griffin said he would not resign, despite the crushing defeat, however elements in his party are certain to demand answers about the disastrous performance.
There was a heavy police presence at the count in Goresbrook Leisure Centre, in Dagenham, as large numbers of BNP supporters turned out to support their leader.
The BNP’s campaign has been was plagued with trouble and infighting. In the first week, Griffin faced an alleged plot by BNP officials to overthrow him.
He also told police that a colleague had threatened to kill him after an investigation into the political “conspiracy”.
Last Tuesday 4th May the head of the party’s online operation resigned and took the website down with him. Simon Bennett, 41, directed BNP traffic to his personal site, which contained a lengthy diatribe against Griffin and other senior figures.
The next day Robert Bailey, the party’s London organiser and Romford candidate, was videoed assaulting an Asian youth who had spat on him.
The civil service union PCS described Griffin’s defeat as “a victory for community organisation”.
Responding to the news that the BNP has been wiped out from Barking and Dagenham council, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “We are absolutely delighted. This is a huge victory for grassroots community organisation and solidarity, and a tribute to all those who have spent weeks and months campaigning in the borough.
“It shows what can be achieved when people from all backgrounds, races and religions come together with a positive message of hope.
“This is not the end of the campaign, it’s the beginning. Wherever the far right tries to spread its hate and poison in our communities, we must be there to stop them, and we have shown that we can.”
Anti-fascist campaigning by PCS members in Barking and Dagenham during the election included:
• Distributing material as part of PCS’s Love Public Services Hate Fascism campaign, including leaflets, posters and Hope not Hate anti-fascist tabloid newspapers;
• Taking part in days of action in the borough, as well as in the BNP’s other main target area of Stoke.
For example, more than 20,000 people were canvassed or leafleted at a Unite Against Fascism and PCS day of action in Barking. A Hope not Hate joint-union day of action attracted 500 people delivering more than 82,000 tabloids.
PCS Midlands regional secretary Andrew Lloyd said: “The hard work in challenging the BNP and the far right in Stoke has paid off.
“Not only did Simon Darby, the BNP’s number two, fail to win the Stoke Central parliamentary seat, but far right candidates also lost seats in the city’s council election. Even the BNP’s own leader in the area described the elections as ‘a disaster’.
“During the campaign we sponsored events, sent an open top bus around the city to demonstrate our opposition to the BNP and funded an anti-fascist worker for Stoke who has linked up with local groups.
“We are proud to have contributed to the efforts in Stoke to ensure the BNP did not make any gains in these elections.”

London news wrap

London police still stopping photographers

PROFESSIONAL photographer Grant Smith, renowned for his work on architecture, was stopped and searched by police last week for taking pictures of the London skyline and subjected to a search under anti-terrorism laws – six months after a similar incident in which he was prevented from taking pictures on a London church.
He said the officers from the City of London Police prevented him from using his camera to film the stop and search and held his arms behind his back while they searched through his possessions. They even refused to allow him to use pen and paper to take notes.
He was told he was being held under section 44 of the Terrorism Act because of his obstructive and non-compliant attitude.
Smith said police left him feeling humiliated after manhandling him in front of office workers.
Last December police had stopped him from photographing the spire of Sir Christopher Wren’s Christ Church. This and a number of other well publicised incidents led to a public furore after which several senior police officers instructed their officers to refrain from inappropriate use of section 44 and reminding them that there are no laws against people taking pictures of buildings.
And earlier this year the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the arbitrary stop and search of people under section 44 without suspicion is illegal.

Boris renationalises Tube

TORY Mayor of London Boris Johnson last week accomplished one of the main goals of his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, when he renationalised the London Underground.
LU services have been blighted for over a decade by a deeply unpopular Government-imposed public-private partnership (PPP) for maintenance of the rail network that has seen the private companies involved milk the system for millions of pound for the benefit of their shareholders while delivering late and faulty work, causing hundreds of lines closures and delays.
But Boris had to pay a high price – £310 million – to buy the companies out of the PPP scheme. And there are more delays and closures to come because Transport for London (TfL) has discovered new, complex “challenges” in terms of work that needs doing before the system is working as it should.
And this extra cost is causing concern that the deal will involve cuts to jobs and services.
The Jubilee Line has suffered 113 closures since 2008 due to the installation of a new signalling system. A further 33 closures are planned but it may need a lot more as TfL has discovered “substantial further work” needed before the line can operate normally.
People living in south-east London have been forced to regard the line as generally a week-day only service.
This has particularly hit the O2 (formerly the Dome) – a venue for many large events of all kinds that depends on the Jubilee Line as the main public transport connection with central London.
The RMT transport union is concerned that the new strategy is a smokescreen for job cuts, ticket office closures and attacks on safety standards.
The union warns that Boris’s well publicised launch of his new TfL policy is masking a multi-billion transport cuts package that threatens thousands of jobs, ticket office closures across the capital and a systematic undermining of current safety standards.
RMT repeated its pledge to fight the tube and TfL cuts, including the threat to jobs following the final collapse of the PPP shambles with the buying out of the Tube Lines contract.
The union also raised fears that the incoming government, whichever format it takes, will seek further cuts in transport budgets as it swings the axe at public expenditure.

Victory Day in London

by Caroline Colebrook

SOME OF the joy and exuberance of the Soviet peoples at the defeat of Nazism 65 years ago resurfaced as spontaneous singing and dancing last week in a south London park, after a solemn ceremony to remember the millions of Soviet citizens who gave their lives to save their Soviet Motherland and the rest of the world from the horrors of Nazism.
Hundreds of people had gathered in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, in the grounds of the Imperial War Museum for the annual ceremony at London’s memorial to the fallen Soviet fighters to mark the day the Nazis surrendered and peace broke out in Europe.
The event was attended by war veterans from Britain and the former Soviet Union including members of the Arctic Convoy Club, in their familiar white berets who are regulars at these events, members of the British Legion, who made up the colour party and representatives from almost all the embassies of the former Soviet republics.
There were also representatives of a wide spectrum of progressive parties and organisations, including the New Communist Party, the Communist Party of Britain, the International Brigade Association and Marx House – all regulars at these events.
And there were individuals like a survivor of the Holocaust who had been a child slave of the Nazis until liberated by the Red Army and representatives of the expanding Russian community in London, including many young students from the Russian embassy school.
The ceremony began with a welcoming speech from the mayor of Southwark and the Soviet Memorial Trust fund who organised the event.
There were also speeches from local MP Simon Hughes and the Russian ambassador, Yuri Fedotov.
Then there was the wreath-laying with so many laying flowers – including New Communist Party general secretary Andy Brooks – that it took a long time and left the large stone in front of the memorial totally carpeted with flowers.
Polina Baranova, a teenage student from the Russian embassy, sang, unaccompanied, a melancholy song, Nightingales, that had been popular with Soviet troops during the war.
That was followed by the Last Post, the exhortation: “They shall not grow old…” and the two minutes silence.
Then Ambassador Fedotov invited everyone to toast the victory over Nazism with vodka, wine and food laid on jointly by the embassies.
The atmosphere changed from solemn to celebratory, spontaneous singing and dancing broke out and everyone was talking and laughing with everyone else – across all boundaries of generation, race, nationality and language.
After the event the Arctic Convoy veterans climbed aboard a coach to go to ceremony on board HMS Belfast, moored in the Thames at Southwark for decades now but one of the ships that made the heroic wartime journeys to Archangel and Murmansk, braving nightmare weather and predatory U-boats.
There Ambassador Fedotov honoured the veterans’ dedication and sacrifice and presented medals to them.
Many of them had been teenagers when they made those terrible but vital journeys. Of about 1,400 ships on the 78 convoys, 85 merchant vessels and 16 Royal Navy ships were sunk.



photo:Andy Brooks at the memorial

May Day in London

THOUSANDS of workers all around Britain last Saturday turned out on May Day parades to celebrate international Workers’ Day and to lobby against impending cuts in public sector jobs and services after the election.
They were all marching for trade union rights, human rights and international solidarity across the world and several thousands gathered at Clerkenwell Green in central London by Marx House for the annual march from there to Trafalgar Square.
As usual it was colourful and noisy with large contingents from the Turkish and Kurdish communities in London and headed by trade union banners and a large contingent from the Labour Representation Committee.
The New Communist Party was among many political banners on this march, following a brief interview by BBC2 reporters with NCP general secretary Andy Brooks, which was shown the same night on the Newsnight programme.
The event was organised by the South East Region TUC (Sertuc), which also organised several other marches, including in Ipswich, Brighton and the Isle of Wight.
There were also major May Day marches in Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee.
The London march ended in Trafalgar Square where Megan Dobney, speaking for Sertuc, paid tribute to the Greek workers who are refusing to knuckle under international capitalism’s demands for a huge austerity programme designed to resolve the country’s huge debt problem.
The crisis was caused by irresponsible bankers, not the workers, and the workers are right to refuse to pay the bill in hardship and misery.
Veteran Labour campaigners Tony Benn and Ken Livingstone as well as union leaders addressed the rally including PCS assistant general secretary Chris Baugh. The civil service workers’ leader called for unions to unite after the election to fight the massive cuts in public spending that all the main political parties were threatening.
Baugh said: “Across the UK, workers from the private and public sectors are coming together to resist what we have been told will be vicious cuts to jobs, living standards, pensions and public services.
“We stand together with all workers to say we did not cause this crisis and we do not accept that we should be made to pay for it.
“We fundamentally reject the consensus that massive cuts in public spending are necessary, but if they are anything like on the scale that has been suggested, industrial action by the unions is not only likely, it is inevitable.”
One of the main speakers at the London Mayday rally was Thierry Schaffauser – president of the GMB sex workers’ branch, speaking on behalf of the Sertuc Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender network.
He quoted from an article he had written that was published in the New Worker a few months ago on the need for trade union protection for sex workers.
They are demanding the recognition of their human and labour rights and the end of their criminalisation.

Police did kill Blair Peach!

ANTI-FASCIST protester Blair Peach died 31 years ago from a blow to the head and “a police officer is likely to have struck the fatal blow” according to a new police report published last Tuesday.
Blair Peach died aged 33 when police clashed with anti-fascist protesters against a planned National Front march in Southall, West London.
Police had prepared an “independent” report into the death after an inquiry by Commander John Cass but had refused to publish it. But last week, after decades of pressure and a sustained campaign led by his former partner Celia Stubbs and his family, Scotland Yard relented and published their findings.
But although it admits the killer was a riot squad officer who was defended by lies and collusion from his colleagues, the report does not name the chief suspect, nor those who have shielded him.
The Cass report does not name any of the implicated officers, but said six were on board a van belonging to the now disbanded Special Patrol Group identified as carrier U11.
It said there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone over the death but recommended action for perverting the course of justice for three officers, including “Officer E” – the chief suspect.
The 1979 report said: “Whilst it can reasonably be concluded that a police officer struck the fatal blow, and that that officer came from carrier U.11, I am sure that it will be agreed that the present situation is far from satisfactory and disturbing.”
It went on: “The attitude and untruthfulness of some of the officers involved is a contributory factor.
“It is understandable that because of the events of the day officers were confused, or made mistakes, but one would expect better recall of events by trained police officers.
“However, there are cases where the evidence shows that certain officers have clearly not told the truth.”
Last year, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said the report should be published after being reviewed by lawyers.
The Crown Prosecution Service completed that review and advised Scotland Yard that charges could only be brought if there was sufficient new evidence, such as a confession.

Olympics workers join protest march

WORKERS on London’s Olympics site stopped work to join a protest march and a ommemorative event in Stratford to mark Workers Memorial Day (WMD) on Wednesday 28th April.
The events remembered the two workers who have lost their lives on work associated with the Olympics project and to call for action to end construction’s deadly record.
The workers stopped work to join a short protest march in Pudding Mill Lane in Stratford at 11.30am and then marched to the Westfield site where a commemorative event will be held with workers from all over the Olympics works.
Shaun Scurry, 39, from Kirkby, died following an incident in December 2009 when he was reportedly trapped between a steal beam and an industrial lift at the Westfield Olympics shopping centre site, Stratford. He was employed by Firesafe Installations.
Henry Sheridan, 58, from Luton, was killed in December 2008 when an excavator bucket fell on him while working on the Olympics rail extension at West Ham. He was employed by Lorclon Ltd.
Tony O’Brien, National Secretary Construction Safety Campaign, said: “The legacy of the London Olympics must not be that of even more construction workers having lost their lives. The industry still kills far too many workers, either in incidents at work or from ill-health in later life such as lung diseases and cancers, especially cancer caused by asbestos exposure.”
Commenting on employment on the Olympics site, Tony O’Brien added: “There is far too much sub-contracting and employment through employment agencies on the Olympics project and this raises real concerns over health and safety.
“The original employment agreement was meant to ensure direct employment for the majority and this should be the standard form of employment there from now on.”
Workers Memorial Day is a global day to mark the damage work does – globally every year more people are killed at work or by work activities than die in wars. Workers Memorial Day’s motto is “Remember the dead – but fight for the living!”

Revolutionary Democracy

THE LATEST edition of Revolutionary Democracy has at last arrived from India and the double issue for 2009 continues its usual mix of articles, from the nitty-gritty of the struggle in India to the work of communists in Venezuela, France and Denmark. And, as usual, Stalin gets more than a mention.
A 20-page piece by Yuro Yemeliamov on Stalin’s death and the leadership struggle is followed by an even longer article on Stalin by Moni Guha, which is equally good. The debate on the British Road to Socialism (BRS), that began when Revolutionary Democracy published the Stalin/Pollitt correspondence two years ago, continues along with cultural articles and news from Stalinist currents within the world communist movement.
The double issue (April/September 2009) covers a lot of ground, including poetry from Victor Jara, Louis Furnberg and Biquis Zafirul Hasan. It costs just £3.50 including postage and packing from: NCP Lit, PO Box 73, London SW11 2PQ

Thousands march to protect public services

by a New Worker correspondent


THOUSANDS of pensioners, trade unionists, public sector workers and socialists from many different parties and groups gathered last Saturday by Temple Tube station on the Thames Embankment in London on 10th April for a march against cuts in public sector jobs and services, ending in a rally in Trafalgar Square.
A similar march and rally, also attended by thousands, was held in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park.
The weather was fine and the march was led by the banner of the National Pensioners’ Convention (NPC), who played a leading role in organising the event, closely followed by the RMT brass band and dozens of colourful banners.
The event was backed by over 20 trade unions including the TUC, GMB, Unite, Unison, PCS, the National Union of Teachers, RMT, TSSA, the British Medical Association, the Prison Officers’ Association, and a dozen or so other organisations, including the NPC, RADAR, Keep Our NHS Public, Carers Poverty Alliance, the Disability Alliance, Defend Council Housing.
Their message was for all the political parties standing in the coming general election: “Protect our welfare state and public services”.
“We’re meeting today at a critical time,” Doug Rooney, president of the TUC union umbrella body, told the crowd.
“Our economy remains in intensive care. Our pension system and welfare state is in crisis. And our public services face devastating cuts.
“Amidst this huge uncertainty – and regardless of who wins power in May – it’s the job of all the organisations supporting this event to defend public services.”
All three main parties have conceded that job losses will result from cuts in public sector budgets.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis told the rally in Trafalgar Square that ordinary people were “paying the price” for the failure of bankers.
He said: “There has never been a more important time to show our support for public services.
“In the current recession, which has been caused by unregulated greed by bankers and speculators, people turn to the welfare state and public services for the help they need – help that will not come from the private sector.
“Yet politicians are competing with each other to cut those very services to pay for a deficit caused by bailing out the very private sector which caused the crisis.
“Today, you are acknowledging the amazing work done by people employed in the public services.”
That was a theme repeated by Unison president Gerry Gallagher in Kelvingrove Park: “In Glasgow and in London today, our key message is that public services should not suffer because of the bank bailout.
“Our members didn’t cause the crash, and neither did the people we serve every day in communities across Scotland.
“Cuts will damage recovery from recession,” he declared. “Cuts will hit public services we all depend on. Cuts will threaten the wellbeing of our members and their families.
“You all have your own stories to tell – and tell them you should. Because it is the combined voice of public service workers and service users that need to be heard in corridors of power!”
In London Doug Rooney, president of the TUC, told the rally that all those in attendance “must make the case for jobs and skills, decent pay and pensions, public services, generous welfare and benefits, and social justice, equality and fairness”.
Frank Cooper, president of the NPC, said it should not be “those at the sharp end who suffer” as a result of the financial crisis.
BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum said the demonstration was non-political and he attacked politicians for failing to be transparent over cuts. He added:" There is a lot of rhetoric in terms of protecting the NHS but we are gravely concerned by any potential cuts after the election".
Jerry Nelson of the GMB said:" Since its beginning Labour has supported the welfare state. A decent society is one that recognises and invests in pensions, health care and education.
"But this is clearly now under threat; if the Tories win we will see a concerted attack on the services, services that protect the most vulnerable in society.
"When Labour came to power in 1997 36.6 pence in every pound was invested in public services, 13 years later it is now 41.5 pence. We need to protect this investment; the only way to do that is by returning a Labour government".

Why We Say Vote Labour

There have been modest gains since Labour was elected in 1997, such as increased spending on the NHS and education, the peace process in Ireland, devolution in Scotland and Wales, the restoration of local power in the Greater London Authority, pensioner winter fuel payments raised from £10 to £250 and extension of the use of bus passes.
Anti-union laws have not been repealed and the railways remain privatised but workers, through the trade union movement, enjoy greater influence under a Labour government and can now force bosses to recognise unions. These small victories would not have happened under the Tories.
This is why the New Worker, the paper of the New Communist party, is calling for workers to vote Labour in the general and local elections.
We support Labour even though we oppose New Labour’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and we do not believe Brown’s economic policies can solve capitalism’s ills.
Our call to vote Labour is based on the concrete conditions in Britain today.
A Labour government with its yet unbroken links with the Labour Party, the trade unions and the co-operative movement offers the best option for the working class in the era of parliamentary democracy.
The Conservative Party is the party of the wealthy. Its natural allies are big business, finance and big landowners and it is fundamentally hostile towards organised labour.

The fight for socialism

To permanently organise society for the benefit of working people can only happen through a socialist revolution that puts the working class in power. That can never happen through bourgeois elections.
The New Worker fights for socialism because it is the only way to end exploitation, unemployment, poverty, economic crisis and war. Socialism is the only answer to climate change and pollution.
But that doesn’t mean turning our backs on the immediate demands for social justice and state welfare put forward by the labour movement representing millions in the Labour Party and the trade unions – that would mean isolation from the working class.
At the same time we oppose the class collaborationist ideas of social democracy where financiers are courted and trade union leaders ignored.
We work for working class unity to strengthen the left and progressive forces within the Labour Party and the unions to create a democratic Labour Party that, when in office, will carry out the demands of the labour movement.
Such a left-social democratic government could bring about social reforms comparable to the creation of the “Welfare State” after 1945. This could be paid for by taxing the rich and scrapping Britain’s weapons of mass destruction. But only Labour, with its organic links to the working class, could bring this about.

The “Left” alternatives

The various parties offering an “alternative left” instead of Labour and standing candidates in general and local elections are actually dividing the labour movement and the working class. In the current electoral system, voting for the “alternative left” parties, tactical voting or abstaining, effectively means a wasted vote and ultimately benefits the Conservatives. A Conservative government, with or without support from the Liberal Democrats, will always be much worse than any Labour government.
The reality is that these “alternative left” parties are rejected time and again by the same working class their programmes claim to advance. There isn’t even a remote possibility of any of them taking office as the rhetoric and wild promises of these parties do not reflect reality.
The New Worker works with the working class as it really exists—a class that sees the Labour Party and the trade unions as representing its interests.
So the choice is: Conservative or Labour, regardless of unpalatable Labour policies. And if Labour is to win then every vote needs to be brought out.
A Labour government is the best possible outcome for the working class right now and the best way of taking forward the fight for socialism.

Bloody Sunday families welcome report release

FAMILIES of the victims of the Bloody Sunday massacre welcomed a Government change of heart to allow family members to read the Saville Inquiry report before its official release. It was being delayed to allow Ministry of Defence scrutiny – and possible vetting of the document before the public get to see it.
The families issued the following press statement:
Bloody Sunday families and wounded are relieved that there has been a change of heart, after pressure from the families, to increase the number of family members accessing a report pre-read from one to two per family.
Families were informed of the decision by Shaun Woodward, Northern Ireland Secretary of State, that the Speaker of Parliament has agreed more than one person per family getting access to the report on the day of publication.
Gerry Duddy, whose 17-year-old brother Jackie was murdered on Bloody Sunday said of the news: “This development is obviously a lot better than one person being granted prior access to the report. It was widely felt that the pressure on one person would have been too much to bear. How they expected one person to absorb the findings of this colossal report is beyond us, especially considering that it is taking up to two weeks for legal experts to scrutinise these same documents.
“The fact that the Government has now conceded to allow two members of each family will certainly ease the burden of seeing the final report.
“However, we are still unhappy with these constant delays, the latest of which is the so-called ‘security review’ currently taking place. Despite continual assurances that he would release the report under this current government, the Secretary of State has yet to deliver.
“Our families, the wounded and the wider population of Derry have waited over 38 years for the findings of this Inquiry. This will be an incredibly emotional event and there will be a great deal of anxiety felt by both those involved in the report pre-read and by all other family members waiting patiently for its findings,” Mr Duddy added.
“After many long, hard years of campaigning the time has come for the British establishment to acknowledge their wrongdoings and set the truth free.”

Solidarity with Democratic Korea

NEW COMMUNIST Party leader Andy Brooks joined a picket outside the south Korean embassy in London on Monday, which had been called to protest against the continuing American and puppet forces’ war games in the occupied south of the country. The military exercises, code-named “Key Resolve” and “Foal Eagle,” began on 8th March and they will run for ten days. Some 18,000 US troops backed by a huge number of puppet forces are taking part in the exercises which rehearse an invasion of north Korea.
The picket, organised by the UK Korean Friendship Association, picketed the south Korean embassy for 90 minutes and then moved on to the US embassy in Grosvenor Square for a similar protest in the afternoon.

Standing by the Palestinians

Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association said goodbye on Thursday 11th March to fourteen Palestinian women from all over the West Bank who had come on a visit to Britain as part of the Stories from our Mothers Project, supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation.
The women, among them students, mothers, academics, women’s centre co-ordinators, came to meet British women and to exchange life experiences on the special occasion of the 100th International Women’s Day.
The visitors met British women in many different ways – in women’s centres, public meetings and skills-sharing sessions when they cooked and sewed together. They split into pairs and toured Britain, meeting groups in thirty different towns and boroughs in England, Scotland and Wales.
The visit has strengthened the network of twinning and friendship links between places in Britain and Palestine that has been building steadily in the past few years.
The high point of the visit was the Stories from our Mothers workshop held on International Women’s Day itself at the School of Oriental and African Studies in Camden. The visitors and others from London told personal stories of their own and their mothers’ lives in Palestine, many of which brought tears to the eyes of the audience.
These included the descriptions by Enass al-Bittar, a student from Gaza in London. She told of her mother’s experiences as one of the thousands of Palestinian refugees in 1948. She spoke of the current experience of people in Gaza living under a siege and of the horrendous experiences of her family during the Israeli war on Gaza in early 2009 when so many people were killed and her own house destroyed.
Rania Arafat from Jerusalem described the huge difficulties created for Palestinians in the West Bank by a system of passes that restrict movement, and the way that she and her family are not allowed by Israel to live in the house that they have built in Al Essawiya village.
I’temad Wahbeh, who lives in Shu’fat refugee camp, showed the audience a picture of her son and described what happened a year ago when he was, while both of them were trying to enter the refugee camp from Jerusalem and her son was shot in the eye by an Israeli soldier.
He has now completely lost sight in that eye.
This was the second Stories from our Mothers workshop: the first took place at the Al Quds University in Abu Dis during a visit of British women to Palestine in November last year.
In the evening, a packed audience attended a special meeting on women in Jerusalem. Dr Fadwa al-Labadi from the Insan Centre for Gender Studies at the Al Quds University explained how Israeli policies are trying to force Palestinians from Jerusalem. Hiyam Elayan from the Saraya Centre in the Old City of Jerusalem and Amal Hijazi from the women’s centre t Shu’fat refugee camp explained the particular pressures on women and children.
Professor Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Ambassador to Britain, visited the workshop to welcome the women to London.
He spoke about the importance of the work of organisations like Camden Abu Dis and the Britain-Palestine Twinning Network in helping people in Britain to understand what is really going on in Palestine.
The stories gathered by British and Palestinian women will be the basis for a book, Stories from our Mothers. A film about the women’s exchange visits between Britain and Palestine will also be produced in the summer as part of the project

Salute to Marx at Highgate

by New Worker correspondent

A NEW COMMUNIST Party delegation joined other communists and progressives in saluting the memory of Karl Marx at the annual ceremony in Highgate Cemetery in north London.
Marx died in his study at half-past two on the afternoon of Wednesday 14th March 1883. To commemorate his passing the Marx Memorial Library has for many decades held an annual graveside oration at his burial place in Highgate Cemetery at the exact moment of his death.
NCP leaders Andy Brooks and Alex Kempshall, along with Robert Laurie, Daphne Liddle and Theo Russell from the Central Committee and New Worker supporter Owen Liddle, represented the New Communist Party and the turnout included Library committee members and delegations from the London embassies of socialist countries, including Cuba, People’s China, Vietnam and the DPR Korea, many of whom laid flowers at the grave.
This year the address was given by Alex Gordon, President of the National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers (RMT) who said: “We are meeting today as monopoly capital and the forces of so-called ‘globalisation’ face yet another deep crisis. Conversely, this has awakened new interest in the ideas of Karl Marx, which have proved much more resilient than the forces of imperialist globalisation have claimed hitherto”.
In a withering attack on imperialism and the European Union, Gordon said: “Imperialist, supranational bodies such as the EU seek to roll back democratic advances achieved in previous centuries. Not content simply to defeat and scatter forces for socialism, modern imperialism seeks not ‘the end of history’, but to reverse history, nothing less than to undo the results of the French and American revolutions. It repudiates the historical significance of the development of modern independent nations.
“Progressive forces must respond to this threat by defending and restoring national democracy. Ultimately, national independence is required for democracy to flourish. The freedom of all nations to develop without external imperialist interference should be the touchstone for our understanding of Marxism in the modern context.”
The union leader concluded with the words of Karl Marx, pointing out: “As Marx said ‘Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the labourer, unless under compulsion from society” – by which, I believe, he meant the state. He also said ‘democracy is the road to socialism’. The battle for democracy is yet to be won, but the army of labour is crying out for the battle to be rejoined.”

photo: Marx Memorial Library Chair Mary Rosser with Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming and diplomats from Cuba, Democratic Korea and Vietnam

Honouring Marx at the Party Centre

THE IMMENSE contribution of Karl Marx to the cause of socialism was remembered by comrades and friends at the New Communist Party’s London Centre last Saturday at a reception to mark the 127th anniversary of the passing of the founder of scientific socialism.
The main meeting room and the print shop were transformed for the bar and buffet and during the formal part of the celebrations tributes to the work and struggle of Marx were delivered by Michael Chant of the RCPB (ML), Jang Song Chol from the DPR Korea embassy in London and NCP General Secretary Andy Brooks.
No NCP event goes by without mentioning the work of the New Worker and Dolly Shaer from the Politburo spoke graphically about the struggle to ensure it comes out every week. The comrades responded by raising £769 for the fighting fund!

photo:Dolly makes her point!

Solidarity in Lewisham

by New Worker
correspondent

DOZENS of progressive activists from a wide spectrum of organisations last Sunday packed into the Albany community centre in Deptford in the south London Borough of Lewisham for an afternoon and evening of debate, discussions, short films and entertainment, presented under the auspices of the local Young Mayor scheme.
The main issues covered were fighting racism and fascism, an eye-witness report from Afghanistan, climate change and solidarity with the people of Palestine.
The event began with an account of 70 years of fighting racism and fascism in Lewisham and a film on Love Music Hate Racism. The presenter, from Lewisham Against Racism and Fascism, stressed the importance in the coming general election of mobilising as many people to vote as possible to ensure that whatever vote the British National Party gets is only a small proportion of the total turnout.
He stressed that the campaign was broad and encompassed supporters of many different political views – united only by their determination to keep the fascists out at all costs. For this reason the anti-fascist campaign does not promote any particular party and there is no place for sectarianism.
Photo journalist Guy Smallman gave a talk with slides of his travels in Afghanistan – completely independent of the imperialist war-propaganda machine – through villages recently decimated by US and British bombing and the tragedy and horrors that he witnessed among farming people who cannot understand why they are being bombed.
He spoke of the habit of British and American troops on the ground, when they are in trouble, to call for air cover. “Whenever there is shelling or bombing from the air there are always civilian casualties,” he said. “That is inevitable.”
And Guy pointed out that every time it happens there are hundreds of new willing recruits to join the Taliban from among the angry bereaved families.
He refuted the claim by the imperialists that they had gone into Afghanistan to help liberate the women there. “They are now far worse off than they have ever been.”
Many are widows but cannot work outside to support themselves and their children. A few women do work behind the scenes in offices and so on but none in public places. They have no recourse but to beg.
In answer to a question from the New Worker, Guy said that the Najibullah era is now regarded by most with affectionate nostalgia as a time of comparative peace and prosperity – although many of them hated the Russians at the time.
He said: “The civil war after the Russians left was the worst time. The Taliban rule was very oppressive and the people there are well aware that the Taliban got its money and support from the CIA. Since the Americans invaded it’s been worse than ever,
“At least the Russian built things. All the main buildings in Kabul were built by the Russians,” he said.
For most people in Afghanistan there are no health services, no hospitals and no medicines – except one that is in bountiful supply: opium. Ruined buildings in Kabul are now full of opium addicts, many of them casualties of the war, or illness or deprivation and opium is the only medicine they can get.But for the friends of the government and the dealers in opium there are still resplendent hotels and shops where you can buy diamond-studded I-pods.
Jim Jepps of the Green Party showed a film produced by American environmentalists which explained effectively how the processes of capitalism are ravaging this planet.
And Leah Levane and Sarah Sturge spoke of their experiences visiting Lewisham’s twinned town of Beit Furik on the West Bank and as part of the food and aid convoy that recently travelled from Britain and, after many difficulties and obstructions, finally delivered the aid to the people of the bombed and beleaguered Gaza Strip.
Leah questioned: “Why do the Israelis make life so impossible for the Palestinians? Why do they make it impossible for them to live in peace? It doesn’t seem to make sense until you realise it’s all about the land. The Israeli government couldn’t care less about the Palestinians and whether they can live or not. They don’t even care about their own people. They just want to keep on taking as much land as they can.”
She called on people to do anything they can to break the isolation that the Palestinians feel. “Whatever you can do will make a difference,” she said, “just send one email or letter a week.”

Rakatan takes London by storm

By New Worker correspondent

CUBAN culture is not hard to find in London these days and for the past month Londoners have been trooping to Sadler’s Wells’ Peacock Theatre to see the return of an amazing dance spectacular that covers the entire gamut of Cuban music from the songs and dances of the African slaves to the mambo, rumba and salsa of the 20th century.
Backed by the voice of Geydi Chapman and the massive sound of a seven-piece band, the dancers stride through nearly two hours of sound and light that is authentically Cuban and internationally acclaimed.
Havana Rakatan was devised by Cuban choreographer Nilda Guerra in 2001 after spending a year teaching salsa in London. She brought together some of the best young dancers of Cuba to interpret the island’s cultural history through rhythm and dance and backed it with a band, Turquino, that is rooted in Afro-Caribbean music.
Formed in the early 1980s by students dedicated to traditional Cuban music, Turquino provides powerful backing to dancers who’ve come from the renowned Escuela Nacional de Arte de la Habana.
They’ve now thrilled audiences in Cuba and all over the world, starting from December 2002, when they became the first Cuban troupe to perform at the World Salsa Congress in Zurich. And they’re no strangers to the British public either, having done three successful seasons in London and winning the Five Stars Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006. Catch them next time round!

Cuba through an artist's eye

By New Worker correspondent


WE SAW another glimpse of Cuba through the eyes of famed Cuban photographer Alejandro Gortazar when a new collection of 50 images of the island and its people was launched in London’s Bolivar Hall last week. Alejandro’s eye captures light, people and nature and freezes it with his lens to provide a unique glimpse of life on the revolutionary island and he’s won critical acclaim following his first exhibition in London last November.

The Cuban photographer, who now divides his time between London and Havana, unveiled his collection last Tuesday in the presence of the Cuban ambassador and friends of the socialist island. The exhibition, supported by Unison, the Cuban embassy and Havana Club Rum, will now tour the country.

At the launch, Cuban ambassador René Mujica Cantelar paid tribute to Gortazar’s ability to capture the light and spirit of life in Cuba. He said that the photos captured the essence of the Cuban people, seeing them live and work so positively, despite living under the 50 year old blockade.
The exhibition, supported by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, Unison, the Cuban embassy, OH Parsons Solicitors and Havana Club Rum, will now tour the country.

photo: Alejandro Gortazar and his wife Maria at the launch

Defend Whittington Hospital!

THOUSANDS of protesters marched through the streets of north London on Saturday 27th February to express their dismay and outrage at plans to close the Accident and Emergency unit at Whittington Hospital.
It was organised by the Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition and ended in a rally at the hospital in Highgate.
The hospital may have to merge its A&E with London’s Royal Free Hospital under NHS plans going out for consultation. The departments could be reorganised by the NHS as part of a city-wide review.
Shirley Frankin, from the Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition, welcomed the “phenomenal support” – even though some hospital staff had been intimidates into not attending. She said: “We need our local A&E. People who have never been on a demonstration are here. It’s our hospital. We need those services here.”
The march was supported by local Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and former Health Secretary Frank Dobson.
Corbyn told the rally that the NHS is “the most civilised thing that exists in Britain”. And he added: “Millions have been spent here on the new wing, on doing up the A&E department, on the new wards. We have a top notch, first rate local hospital – and we’re going to keep it that way!”
Dobson spoke of the “dickheads who have decided that they could save money by closing the A&E department here and then building clinics all over to replace it.
“But the clinics haven’t been built and haven’t been approved, even financially. This is a lunatic idea.”
NHS London has revealed plans for more than 100 polyclinics across the capital over the next five years, which, they say, will offer a wider range of services in one place.
Another A&E facing closure is Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup in the London Borough of Bexley, even though A&E services in Bexley and neighbouring Bromley and Greenwich have been “dangerous and deadly” according to a local health campaigner.
John Hemming-Clark, leader of Independents to Save Queen Mary’s Hospital, claims the situation at Queen Mary’s Sidcup A&E department has been “dire and totally unacceptable” as staff struggled to cope with emergencies diverted from other hospitals.
When A&E at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRU), Farnborough, closed last Thursday because of a norovirus outbreak, ambulances diverted to Queen Mary’s where the A&E remained open all night. Staff from Farnborough had to be drafted in to help.
Hemming-Clark claims on Monday, A&E at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Woolwich, was so overrun it had ambulances queuing up, so again patients were diverted to Queen Mary’s.
He claims at one point, five stretchered patients were lined up in Queen Mary’s corridors.
Under A Picture of Health plans, Sidcup’s A&E will close by the end of this year, but Hemming-Clark claims the PRU and QEH will not be able to cope. He said: “When it closes, the events of the past few days prove deaths will result.”
Hemming-Clark says if that happens, his party will take legal action against the South London Healthcare Trust “for a dereliction in its duty of care towards its patients”.

London tenants fight to save homes

MORE than 100 tenants last month protested outside the Crown Estates offices near Regent Street in London as their fight to prevent their homes being sold off to the public sector was raised in the House of Commons.
Their fight continues with meetings and rallies on the threatened estates, including a meeting in Lewisham last Saturday.
Their homes are owned and managed by The Crown Estate – which manages property on behalf of the monarchy – in the boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Camden, Westminster and Lewisham.
The protesters outside the Crown Estates offices waved placards on the pavement which declared “Our homes are not for sale”.
Respect MP George Galloway, whose Bethnal Green and Bow constituency includes part of the Victoria Park Estate, tabled a Commons Motion condemning the proposed sell-off.
Meg Hillier, MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, backed residents’ opposition, criticised the Crown Estate for failing to give residents enough information, and urged the Crown Estate’s director of investment and asset management to appoint the tenants a legal advisor.
Residents’ protests began after they received a letter from Crown Estates about the proposed freehold sale of the terraces near Victoria Park and four other Crown estates at Millbank in Westminster, Cumberland Market near Regent’s Park and Lee Green in south-east London.
Residents fear that if their homes are sold to a private landlord rents will increase and key-workers – such as teachers nurses and police officers – will be forced out.
Crown Estate director of investment Paul Clark told Meg Hillier that the plans were only a proposal at this stage.
The Crown Estate manages acres of land and commercial property nationwide to a value of over £7.3 billion, which was formerly owned by the monarchy.
The consultation period ends on March 23.
The sale of the 1,300 Crown Estate homes in London is expected to raise about £250 million according to an estimate provided by a potential buyer. The money will ease the finances on a £750 million redevelopment programme already underway at the bottom of Regent Street.
Paul Clark has done this sort of thing before — in 2006 to be precise. Then he was chief surveyor to the Church Commissioners. More than 1,100 south London homes were sold for £150 million to a 50:50 joint venture owned by Britain’s largest residential property company Grainger and the Genesis Housing Association.
It provoked protests at the time, with tenants invading the General Synod.

Prospects for Irish unity

By Theo Russell

THE RECENT conference on Irish Unity in London was an opportunity for over 500 activists, trade unionists, academics and political representatives to take a timely in-depth look at the prospects for ending partition after 89 years.

One of the major changes during the last generation is the economic balance in Ireland. Many in Britain will be surprised to discover that even after the current recession, average (median) weekly earnings in the Irish Republic were equivalent to £532, far outstripping Northern Ireland at £357, and even Britain itself at £397.

As Michael Burke of the Socialist Economic Bulletin pointed out, this is an astonishing change since partition in 1921, when per capita output and income were a fraction of those in the North. Since then, Northern Ireland has fallen behind mainland Britain, while the Irish Republic’s economic growth has raced ahead of both Britain and Northern Ireland.

In 1921 the Republic was almost totally dependent on the British export market, accounting for 98 per cent of its foreign trade. The fact that exporting live cattle accounted for over 95 per cent of southern Ireland’s economy sums up precisely the brutal colonial relationship with Britain.

Today Northern Ireland’s economy is dwarfed by that of the South. Last year the Irish Republic’s exports were €87 billion,,with only 14 per cent going to Britain. In contrast, the North’s “external sales” were a mere £12.5 billion, with over half going to the British mainland. If this is deducted the North’s actual overseas exports were less than £6 billion.

Unlike the Irish Republic, the North is not integrated into the global economy, and is becoming even less so. Hence it is increasingly dependent on Britain, whose own economy has declined relatively on in global terms.

As Burke points out, the boom in the South was not produced by far-sighted economic policies – as he says, “there have been none” – but by foreign multinationals “taking advantage of a well-educated workforce located in a prime conduit for trade between the two major blocs of the US and EU”.

As we have seen recently this means that the Republic is at the mercy of global economic forces, with the government’s purchase of tens of billions of bad loans resulting in a huge transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.

Both Burke and Patricia McKeown, Northern Ireland secretary of Unison and a representative of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, spoke of the enormous economic problems and inequality facing working people in both parts of Ireland.

Northern Ireland has the highest number of “economically inactive” adults in the UK, and half the workforce is on or below the minimum wage. Unemployment in the North has risen faster than the rest of Britain during the recession, while the public sector, its largest employer, has been cut back.

McKeown said many large foreign investors, including Visteon, had taken millions in government subsidies before moving out. “Invest Northern Ireland,” she said, “has spent £16 billion, with virtually no actual jobs to show for it”.

She said the question for working class people in both parts of Ireland is “will ending partition bring a better life,” adding that “the Good Friday Agreement should not be vehicle for implementing neo-liberal economic policies”.

McKeown described the Northern Ireland Executive’s options as “severely restricted”, with government funding reduced since 1998. In effect, she said, “all they can do is agree how this will be divided”.

Income inequality in both North and South, as in Britain, is greater than in the rest of the EU. As Guardian journalist Seamus Milne puts it: “Any process leading to unity would clearly require far-reaching social and economic reform on both sides of the border.”

The Good Friday Agreement

The conference also assessed the progress and unfinished work of the Good Friday Agreement, with Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy pointing out: ”Britain still has 5,000 troops and a significant MI5 presence in Ireland, and while the British government declares its neutrality in relations with Northern Ireland, in reality it favours the unionist community.”

“The Good Friday Agreement is a settlement, and clearly is not a resolution of the Irish issue”, he said.

Gerry Adams MP outlined the positive benefits since 1998, in particular the South’s multi-million Euro investment in upgrading Derry airport and new road infrastructure in the North.

And as Sinn Féin MLA Mitchel McLaughlin reminded delegates: “The British government, which is not trusted or respected by any constituency in Ireland, has been the common denominator that has subjugated and divided the people of Ireland for generations”.

“The future,” he said, “lies with nationalists and unionists agreeing on their relationships to and with each other in peaceful co-existence on this island without the British government setting the terms.”

Jayne Fisher, Sinn Féin office worker in London, looked at the growing North-South cooperation in many areas, with a significant increase in trade between the two.

She also assessed the changing communal balance in the North, with those declaring themselves Catholic growing from 35 per cent in 1961 to over 40 per cent in 2001, and those declaring themselves Protestant declining from over 62 per cent to 46 per cent. This has been paralleled by a steady rise in nationalist votes and a steady fall in Unionist votes.

This is significant because the Good Friday Agreement provides for a referendum on the border issue. If a majority in the North votes to remove the border, the British and Irish governments are obligated under the agreement to implement re-unification.

But it is clear that ending partition is far more complex than merely holding a referendum, with many other factors involved. If the Conservatives do eventually return to power in London, the Good Friday Agreement itself could be seriously undermined.

Fisher also pointed out that while Sinn Féin has successfully avoided any significant splits in its republican and nationalist base, there has been growing division and instability within Unionism.

The DUP’s power-sharing deal with Sinn Féin led to the break-away of the “ultra-rejectionist” Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), splitting the Unionist camp three ways in the 2009 European election and taking 13 per cent of votes.

The Unionists’ troubles are in turn creating headaches for the British Conservative Party. It has “rediscovered” its Unionist roots and renewed the old tie with the UUP, but has been bogged down by Unionist in-fighting while succeeding in alienating the Nationalist community.

But Fisher pointed to one major and welcome change to the political landscape: “It is clear that there can be no return to the old way of ruling, with unionist dominance and veto.”

This conference provided a detailed and valuable stock-taking of the enormous changes that have taken place in Ireland since partition, especially in the past 30 years. While the Irish Republic has left its economic dependence on Britain far behind, Unionism on the other hand appears to be a spent force.

In spite of all the obstacles, the prospects for ending partition are now better than at any time since the dark days of 1921. At the same time, both North and South are still grappling with the terrible legacy of Britain’s colonial domination – the political and communal divisions and the futile duplication of services and infrastructure.

Reunification would provide a huge boost to overcoming these problems and advancing Ireland’s political, economic and cultural life. And the sooner that day comes, the better!