London protest demands justice for Odessa

MORE THAN 60 people gathered outside the Ukraine embassy in London on Saturday to mark the

first anniversary of the Odessa massacre when dozens of people were killed as fascist thugs attacked an anti-Maidan protest camp and set the Trade Union house on fire. No one has faced trial for these murders, and so its anniversary was marked around the world yesterday, including in London.

The picket in London was organised by Solidarity with Anti-fascist Resistance in Ukraine (SARU) outside the Ukrainian embassy in Holland Park, West London, and SARU had produced a special banner to mark the occasion.

Alex Gordon from the rail workers union, RMT, spoke about the illegal coup in Kiev last year, and the burning of the Trade Union house in Odessa. Alex explained why it is important for people in Britain to demand justice for Odessa.

He highlighted the significance of the date of the massacre 2^nd May, for this was the date in 1933 that Hitler’s storm troopers shut down and in many cases burned down the Trade Union offices in Germany, and Alex said that the defeat of fascism was only temporary and that we had to fight it again today.

“We must demand solidarity with those who oppose fascism in Ukraine and justice for the people of Odessa killed for exercising their rights to freedom of expression,” he said and appealed to “socialists, trade unionists and those who defend democratic rights” to express their outrage. He added: “British people should be demanding that the BBC stops telling lies and tells the truth about a massacre.”

There was then a minute silence for the victims followed by the release of 48 black balloons into the sky, each balloon representing the known victims of the massacre.

Amongst those present there were people from many nationalities, including Ukrainians, Russians, Spanish and others, as well as members of socialist and communist organisations and a contingent from the Bristol Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity group. The banner of the RMT Paddington branch, which played a crucial role in the setting up of the campaign, was also proudly displayed.

The protesters then moved on to the Marx Memorial Library where there was a picture exhibition about the Odessa massacre.

Bangladeshi May Day in Whitechapel

 by New Worker correspondent

MEMBERS and supporters of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (UK Branch) held a May Day Red Flag Rally and Ganasangeet cultural programme at the Altab Ali Park in Whitechapel, East London on 1^st May.

In a statement the organisers said: “In Tower Hamlets this event has gone unrecognised for a long time,” and recalled that that the female workers of the Bryant May Match Factory in Bow went on strike in 1888 in protest against the sacking of a worker and the awful conditions of work.

“As Tower Hamlets is also the centre of the Bangladeshi diaspora, we want to fuse the struggles of the working class in Bangladesh with those in Tower Hamlets and have decided to hold an annual event on 1st May.”

The rally was followed by performances by artistes from Udichi Shilpi Ghosti and Satyen Sen School of Performing Arts. The Altab Ali Park commemorates a 25-year-old Bangladeshi clothing worker who was murdered nearby in 1978 in a racist attack.

The stage shown in the picture is the Shaheed Minar, a smaller replica of the one in Dhaka, Bangladesh which symbolises a mother and her martyred sons.

Italian comrades celebrate liberation from fascism

  By New Worker correspondent

BRITISH and Greek comrades joined Italian communists in celebrating the 70^th anniversary of the liberation of Italy from fascism at a meeting organised by the British section of the Partito Comunista in north London on Saturday 25th April.

            Alain Fissore of the Partito Comunista spoke on the history of the fascism in Italy and the betrayal of the mainly communist-led partisan movement in the “Salerno Turn” by Communist Party of Italy leader Palmiro Togliatti, who adopted a parliamentary path and agreed a “democratic compromise” with the bourgeois parties and the monarchy. He also described at struggles led by Eugenio Curiel and Pietro Secchia against revisionism in the CPI.

            A Greek comrade spoke of the theoretical errors made by the KKE leadership in the aftermath of liberation, and gave an analysis of the fascist Golden Dawn party which, she said, “can only be finally defeated by socialist, working class power”.

Theo Russell brought greetings from the New Communist Party and spoke on the history of fascist movements in Britain, the current resurgence of fascism in Eastern Europe and the Ukraine, and the importance of a clear Marxist-Leninist understanding of the nature of state power.

Anger rises as Brixton people fight for their homes

 by New Worker correspondent

  POLICE used tear gas to stem an invasion of the huge police station in Brixton on Saturday 25th April as protesters tried to storm it in a massive demonstration of local anger at the “gentrification” of Brixton that is forcing working class people out of the area.

About two hours before, thousands of people, mainly local residents, had gathered in Windrush Square in Brixton, south London, last Saturday in protest at rising housing costs that are forcing working class people out of the area and breaking up long-established and unique communities.

They are especially angry at the local authority, Labour-controlled Lambeth, for demolishing council estates and closing down housing co-operatives in order to luxury accommodation that local people cannot afford.

Feeder marches from local housing estates converged on Windrush Square from different directions – all loud and colourful and with a rich ethnic mix.

For a while the feeling was like a festival or carnival with dozens of home-made banners, balloons, music, multiple food stalls and good humour, hundreds of children running about and smiling police officers.

But the anger and desperation of the people there was also apparent as speaker after speaker told of being forced out of their homes by rising rents or the council’s grand plans to “gentrify” the area.

The council has signed a contract with the estate agents Foxton’s to manage their housing stock for them. Foxton’s sees this as a bonanza for increasing profits by selling the whole lot for redevelopment to profit-hungry investors from around the world.

Local traders are also suffering from soaring rents. Local shops that for decades have sold Afro food at low prices are being forced out and replaced by fine food restaurants selling food that only the wealthy moving into the area can afford.

Street markets are going the same way leaving the local ethnic communities unable to buy the food they want – or anything at all – at prices they can afford.

The area is vibrant and lively with genuine mutually supportive communities. But it also has very good transport links to central London and has turned into the latest fashionable spot for development and investment.

Residents fear the council and the incomers are trying to get rid of them and no one is sure they will be able to live there much longer.

Those forced out will be offered new housing if they are elderly, disabled, vulnerable or have small children – but that could mean moving to Manchester or somewhere else hundreds of miles away, where there are few chances of finding employment.

If they are considered to be able-bodied they are left to fend for themselves and that could easily mean ending up sleeping on the pavement.

Local communities are fighting back. They are already organising regular protests to prevent evictions and have seen off bailiffs a number of times.

After a couple of hours protesters in the square organised themselves for an impromptu march around the area led by a group known as Black Revs (Black revolutionaries).

They attacked the local office of Foxton’s. They visited many threatened sites like the shops under the railway arches that Network Rail wants to close. And they ended up at the police station.

One witness told the New Worker: “Some of us gathered at the entrance; the police then began pushing out the young protesters and they tried to push themselves in.

“The automatic doors were bending under the struggle then they lowered the shutter which got busted, so they tear gassed everyone. Even people waiting at the bus stop around the corner were overcome by fumes.”

Hopefully Saturday’s events will have sent a message to the council, to the mayor of London and to the eager development companies that the local people of Brixton are fighting back and they will not lie back and let their lives be torn apart to feed the greed of the one per cent.

That community is now busy planning a lot more responses and will defend itself fiercely.

Don’t let them drown!

by New Worker correspondent

 

PROTESTERS gathered in London on Sunday 26th April  outside the London office of the European Union in Westminster to express anger at the EU policy towards migrants from Africa and Asia, which led to the deaths of around 900 desperate people in a shipwreck last week – and many more over the last few years.

Imperialist interventions in the Middle East and Africa have smashed the elected governments in Iraq and Libya and are attempting to do the same to Syria, inflicting war, devastation and destabilisation throughout the region.

The oil-rich Gaddafi government in Libya gave economic support to many impoverished North African countries and now it is gone the people there are destitute and the whole area is filled with warring extremist religious factions.

Hundreds of thousands of families have been forced to flee their homes. Many try to cross the Mediterranean to Europe using overcrowded and unsafe boats.

But the EU is doing its best to discourage this influx of desperate refugees by reducing the number of Mare Nostrum search and rescue operations – which rescued 150,000 migrants in 2013. EU powers claim that allowing some to drown will discourage other migrants from trying to make the crossing.

The Migrant Lives Matter protest in London was organised by the Movement Against Xenophobia and supported by groups including Stop the War Coalition, Unite Against Fascism and Stand Up To Racism.

The recent and deadliest migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean cost between 800 and 900 lives. Another 400 were lost in a similar boat sinking the previous week. These repeated tragedies expose the appalling human cost of the “Fortress Europe” immigration policy imposed by [the] EU and the British government, the organisers of the rally said in a statement.

Activists blame figures like the Sun newspaper columnist Katie Hopkins and the anti-immigrant UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader, Nigel Farage for a rise in anti-immigration sentiment in Britain.

The United Nations condemned Hopkins on Friday after she described migrants as “cockroaches” and “feral humans”, comparing her words to Nazi propaganda.

At least, 800 people fleeing Africa through Libya lost their lives on April 19 when a migrant boat capsized and sank after leaving Tripoli. The incident was preceded by a similar shipwreck, in which 400 drowned a week earlier. The migrant death toll in the Mediterranean has already reached 1,700 this year; 4,000 bodies were recovered from the sea in 2014.

UAF joint secretary Weyman Bennett said: “We’ve seen far right racist and fascist parties around Europe attack migrants and, disgracefully, mainstream party leaders have often echoed this anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“The tragic deaths in the Mediterranean show where this rhetoric, and political decisions based on migrant-bashing, can lead. We need to stand together and say migrants are not to blame for the economic crisis and austerity. We are backing the demo because we believe migrant lives matter. We need unity and not division in our communities. We have to say no to scapegoating.”