The Anti-Strike Bill

by New Worker correspondent

Monday evening saw the House of Commons predictably pass the misnamed Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill, whose name ought to have been prefixed with the word “Anti”.
    The bill applies to six sectors: health, education, fire rescue, transport, border security and nuclear decommissioning. Under the law, unions would be required to take “reasonable steps” to ensure members comply with the work notice to maintain “essential” services and could be sued if they fail to do so. It will also allow bosses to sack striking workers whom they claim are essential.
    In the debate Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said the Bill should be called the “Conservative sacking nurses Bill” and said Labour would repeal it if the party was elected to power She denounced it as an “attack on our basic British freedoms”. That promise should be taken with ladleful of salt as Labour pledges to overturn Tory anti-union laws do not last very long.
    The final vote was 315-246. A number of opposition amendments, some designed to exclude Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and water down the requirements on the levels of service unions were expected to maintain were thrown out.
    Anyone hoping that the noble lords and ladies on the red benches will introduce positive changes are probably the sort of people who believe in fairies and magic crystals. The protests on Wednesday described on the front page will be a good start.
    The measure has been widely denounced even by the most traditionally right-wing unions. Paddy Lillis, of shopworkers union said on the eve of the debate: “This anti-union legislation means that when workers democratically vote to strike, they could be forced to work and sacked if they don’t. That is undemocratic, unworkable and almost certainly illegal. We are also staggered that the Tories have chosen to unjustifiably fast-track the legislation through the House of Commons, so that it won’t receive the necessary scrutiny and MPs won’t hear important evidence from those affected”.
    Even a Tory supporter of the measure, Jacob Rees-Mogg partly agreed with the latter, warning it was so badly written that it will be subject to legal challenges unless it is drastically amended by the House of Lords. The former Business Secretary also said that it gave sweeping powers to his successor, in particular he took aim at Clause Three which he denounced for allowing the Business Secretary the power to define minimum service levels at a later date.
    The TUC while denouncing the “draconian nature” of the legislation has done little apart from submit a freedom of information request to discover why the Government published the Bill without an impact assessment. No doubt that will put the fear of God into the Government.
    The Tories claimed minimum service agreements are already in place citing agreement with Royal College of Nursing when it took strike action recently, but the Bill obviously goes much further and is an attack on the right to take industrial action.
    The debate also signalled that the Tories will continue to take a hard line in the present round of public sector strikes when the minister claimed that “An inflation-matching pay increase of 11 per cent for all public sector workers would cost £28 billion, which would put just under £1,000 on to the bills of every household in all our constituencies”.
    Another dangerous move by the Government against trade unions, which has been overlooked in recent weeks is the new regulations which will allow agency workers to be hired in disputes to fill in for striking workers.
    This will be the subject of legal action in the High Court next month. The measures have even been criticised by employment agencies, who do not want to be involved in industrial disputes. Their trade body, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which represents suppliers of agency workers, described the proposals as “unworkable”. Even the House of Lords Committee which examined the measure said: “the lack of robust evidence and the expected limited net benefit raise questions as to the practical effectiveness and benefit” of the new laws.
    Last December retiring TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady pointed out that: “The right to strike is a fundamental British liberty. But the government seems hellbent on attacking it at every opportunity. She added that “these attacks on the right to strike are likely illegal. Ministers failed to consult with unions, as the law requires. And restricting the freedom to strike is a breach of international law”.
    However it is rare for the TUC to actually mobilise workers against such laws. They seem more upset about the fact that they do not get invited round for herbal tea and hummus wraps with the minister to discuss the legal technicalities than stirring up mass action.

Free all Ukrainian political prisoners!

by Theo Russell

London comrades returned to Whitehall on Saturday to bring the crimes of the Ukrainian government to the attention of the British people. Some 30 protesters joined the picket opposite Downing Street organised by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) campaign, to let the people “know that the regime in Ukraine, to which the British Government has given billions of pounds in financial and military support, has been committing horrific crimes against its own people, including Russian speakers, opposition activists and campaigners, journalists and Roma people, under the cover of accusing them of treason”.
    A IUAFS spokesman said: “Several mayors in eastern Ukraine have been summarily executed as well as local elected civilian officials for "crimes" such as negotiating humanitarian corridors with the Russian military. They should have been entitled to a due process of law, instead of being tortured, shot, and then dumped in the street.
    “Hundreds of journalists, bloggers, politicians, elected representatives, activists, priests, sportspeople, and even Ukrainian negotiators and military officers have been arrested and beaten, and some tortured or murdered. Most were charged with treason simply for opposing Kiev's policies, and not brought to trial after many months.
    “Alexander Matyuschenko, one of dozens of leftists arrested in Dnipro, central Ukraine, was an activist with the Livizta (Left) organisation, which campaigned against social spending cuts and right-wing propaganda. He was arrested by SBU (Ukrainian intelligence) and Azov members, tortured and forced to shout the nationalist salute, Slava Ukraini!, while his wife's hair was cut off with a knife.

NCP leader Andy Brooks

    "One of Ukraine’s most prominent human rights activists is Elena Berezhnaya, Director of the Institute of Legal Policy and Social Protection, who has spoken before the UN Security Council. She was arrested in March 2022 in Kiev. There has been no news of her since.
    "We know about these crimes because Ukrainian ultra-rightists and even regular soldiers have bragged about them in social media posts, including one of a Russian soldier who had one of his eyes gouged before he was killed, with the caption 'One-eyed captured Russian pig'.
    "We think it is essential to speak out about the actions of a government for whom the British government seems to have unlimited resources to support, at a time when millions here in Britain are facing a grim and uncertain future and our basic public services are chronically underfunded and understaffed”.
    During the protest a woman waiving the flag of the Donetsk people’s republic was attacked by a reactionary, believed to be from the Caucasian republic of Georgia. But he was dragged away by a policewoman supported by an Iranian who left a nearby protest to chivalrously intervene on the picketer’s behalf.
    Towards the end of the protest the demonstrators came under a torrent of abuse from a small group of Ukrainian and English supporters of the Nazi-infested regime in Kiev. They were, however, speedily warned off by the police.
    The protest was supported by the Consistent Democrats, CPGB (ML), New Communist Party, Socialist Labour Party, Socialist Fight and the Posadists in Britain. Solidarity messages were received from former Labour MP Chris Williamson who is now a leading member of the Socialist Labour Party, Phil Wilayto of the Odessa Solidarity Campaign in the United States, and Leonid Ilderkin from the Union of Political Refugees and Political Prisoners of Ukraine, who has recently moved back to Ukraine.

• Skwarkbox report
• La Lucha (USA) report

What freedom of speech really means

When the chips are down not much if the latest saga involving George Galloway is anything to go by. The maverick Scottish politician who has been elected to Parliament six times – starting with Labour and then on independent platforms – is known throughout the labour movement for his support of the Cuban and Palestinian people and his defence of Iraq when it was invaded by US-led imperialism.
    A master of the media Galloway was sacked by talkRADIO after sending an allegedly anti-Semitic tweet about Liverpool’s victory over Tottenham in the Champions League final in 2019. But he stayed in the limelight broadcasting on the international services of the Russian and Iranian media, and championing a variety of causes including the party he now leads – the Workers Party of Britain.
    Galloway has learned to live with the wrath of the Zionists and Blairites. His politics have fired the anger of cranks and fanatics – he was even attacked in the street during the Gaza war in 2014. But he’s never faced a concerted effort to prevent him from arguing his corner for good or bad on the streets and at public meetings up and down the country. Until now…
    Galloway clearly crossed a Rubicon when he embraced the cause of the people of the Donbas. And when he launched his NO2NATO NO2WARS movement the hidden hand went into action to stop it getting off the ground.
    Speakers included Galloway and former Labour MP Chris Williamson, along with two Irish Members of the European Parliament and a number of other campaigners and journalists. Attempts to hold mass meetings in London have been sabotaged after St Pancras New Church and the Conway Hall cancelled bookings for his new campaign. Conway Hall says it had been subjected to unprecedented harassment – including a barrage of “intimidating emails and social media posts” which meant that “Conway Hall can no longer host your event as we are now unable to ensure the safety of our building and our staff on and offline”.
    Williamson has joined Galloway in denouncing the “anti-democratic cancel culture” that’s being used to silence opposition to Nato. He accused “erstwhile liberals” of being complicit in a state crackdown on anti-Establishment views.
    This is something new. We never saw this when British forces were actually fighting during the Falklands conflict and the Yugoslav, Iraqi and Afghan wars. So why now?
It’s clearly because the ruling class are afraid of anything that challenges the American narrative on Ukraine.
    Galloway’s party puts it another way. Conjuring up the spirit of Chairman Mao they say “it is good if we are attacked by the warmongers and their online trolls, since it proves that we have drawn a clear line of demarcation between the enemy and ourselves. The trolls attack us wildly, threaten the venues and harass staff, they paint us as utterly black and without a single virtue; it demonstrates that we have not only drawn a clear line of demarcation between them and ourselves but achieved a great deal in our work.
    “Our slogan, “No to Nato, No to War” is more widely known and understood than before, more people buy tickets and await the announcement of the next venue. Other events purporting to speak against the war are allowed to go ahead in peace, precisely because they do not challenge the imperialist narrative that the Ukraine conflict began just 1 year ago. This is a lie, and one we are exposing”.
    This we would wholeheartedly agree.

Donbas solidarity at Stop the War

Salma Yaqoob addresses conference

by New Worker correspondent

Donbas solidarity activists were at the Stop the War trade union conference last Saturday to leaflet the meeting and intervene during the debate in the hall. The latest leaflet of the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement was handed out at the doors in support of the just struggle of the people of the Donbas for freedom and self-determination.
    But the main focus of this conference was on building a bigger peace movement and working to reverse the TUC’s decision last year to support increased arms spending.
    Many speakers, like the Italian worker talking about the Genoese dockers’ efforts to stop arms going to Israel and Saudi Arabia never even mentioned Ukraine. Those that did stuck to the mealy-mouthed position of the leadership whose calls for an end to the war are linked with the demand for a complete withdrawal of all Russian troops from Crimea and the Donbas – which is exactly what NATO wants.
    In the past left Labour MPs were happy to openly support the efforts of the Stop the War campaign. But none of them showed up for Saturday’s conference at Hamilton House in central London.
    Stop the War vice-chair Andrew Murray said: “If you remember the vast demonstration 20 years ago against the Iraq war, which Stop the War led, that demonstration had the support of nearly every major union in the country — and in many cases the union leaderships had been driven there by their members, rather than necessarily by their own willingness to confront the Labour government”.
    Then nearly 140 Labour MPs defied Tony Blair to vote against the invasion of Iraq. Now none of them are prepared to face the wrath of Starmer and the inevitable suspension à la Corbyn that would inevitably follow for refusing to toe the imperialist line.
    Murray said “the leader of the Labour Party, revealing himself every day as more of an authoritarian imperialist has made it clear that any Labour MP would sacrifice the whip and their seat in Parliament if they associate with the anti-war movement — something even Tony Blair did not do. That is a democratic outrage which our movement should be standing against loud and clear”.
    Jeremy Corbyn was also absent having just returned from campaigning in America on behalf of Julian Assange. But he did at least make a video call to conference in support of peace negotiations. Though the former Labour leader avoided the ‘Russian troops out’ mantra he did say that the Russian invasion was “wrong” – before calling for peace talks, possibly brokered by Brazil, to end the fighting.
    The anti-war movement’s calls to ‘stop the war’ and ‘no to NATO expansion’ are routinely prefaced with the ‘Russian troops out’ demand which is what the imperialists and the Ukrainian fascists are fighting for in the first place.
    The two leaders of the self-styled “anti-war” movement – CND Chair Kate Hudson and Stop the War convener Lindsey German – both rejected the argument of one participant who intervened from the floor to say that blaming both Nato and Russia for the Ukraine war confused the question and that Russia should be seen as a victim of US imperialism.
    Lindsey German said it was important to acknowledge the “humanitarian catastrophe” unleashed by Putin’s invasion and what she called the aggressive expansionism of Russia, while also recognising the role of NATO expansion in provoking the war.
    Though the Stop the War leadership and their supporters amongst the left social-democratic and pacifist trends within the Labour Party have distanced themselves from the fake left’s “arm Ukraine” brigade they have not broken with the bourgeois consensus on both sides of the Atlantic that ignores the fascist nature of the Kiev regime, brands Russia the aggressor and ignores the legitimate rights of the people of Crimea and the Donbas who have joined the Russian Federation.
    The anti-imperialist struggle in Ukraine is part of the global front of the poor and the oppressed who are fighting for freedom all around the world. We must counter the bogus ‘evenhandedness’ within the peace movement with the call for victory for the Russian and Donbas forces fighting fascism and NATO-inspired aggression.

The Year of the Rabbit!

Dragons in London

By New Worker correspondent

Londoners gathered to watch the dancers and dragons in the Grand Parade celebrating the beginning of the Chinese New Year in the West End last weekend. The dragons wheeled around Chinatown and then went down to a stage in Trafalgar Square where thousands of visitors watched traditional and modern music and dance to usher in the Year of the Rabbit and thousands more took part in the hundred or so other events organised by the China National Tourist Office and the Chinese embassy up and down the country.
    The 2023 UK "Happy Chinese New Year" (HCNY) programme was launched at the Cultural Section of the Chinese Embassy in London last week. Yang Xiaoguang, the chargé d'affaires, said the celebration is based on the "4H" concept, namely Hope, Home, Harmony, and Health. "I believe the HCNY events will present opportunities for China and the UK to enhance exchanges, expand cooperation, and promote new progress in bilateral relations,".
    Karen Garvey, engagement officer of events at Bristol City Council said the Chinese Lunar New Year has become the biggest event in Bristol's cultural calendar. "It brings thousands of people from different backgrounds together to have a joyful time amid the cold weather. This is something people really look forward to," Ms Garvey said, adding that Bristol’s Chinese New Year celebration was the biggest in the West Country.
    For nearly 20 years, it has attracted performers and visitors from Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Bath and Wales. This year, the mayor of Bristol and the high sheriff will also attend the celebration. "It's such a colourful, vibrant, positive event, and we couldn't imagine not having it," she said.

    Ruth Haines, the press relations manager at the London Philharmonic Orchestra, said that on the first day of the Chinese New Year, the UK premier of Tan Dun's Buddha Passion will debut at the Royal Festival Hall. The award-winning composer of the soundtrack for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has also drawn acclaim for Buddha Passion, which combines the ancient music of Dunhuang, Chinese folk songs and Western symphonic music, bringing to life the theme of the Silk Road and the spirit of cultural exchange and mutual learning.

    "We are very happy to collaborate with Chinese singers, musicians and artists," Ruth said, adding that it's very important to the Chinese community in London.
    Events in the capital included the exciting Festival of Spring parade, colourful performances and food tasting organised by the London Chinatown Chinese Association, along with activities and special programmes organised by the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory of Greenwich.
    Chinese New Year celebrations began on 22nd January and the first seven days are public holidays in People’s China. The celebrations end with the Lantern Festival on 5th February.

Greek communists call for return of Elgin Marbles

By New Worker correspondent

Campaigners at the British Museum

Greek communists have long supported the call for the return of the Parthenon friezes known as the ‘Elgin Marbles’ to Greece so that they can be put on permanent display at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. The marbles, dating back to the 5th Century BC, were removed by Lord Elgin between 1801 and 1812. In those days Greece was part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire and Elgin said their authorities had given him permission to take the marbles from the ruins of the Parthenon in Athens. This was challenged at the time by Lord Byron and other champions of Greek independence and later by Greeks academics following independence who said these priceless relics had been looted and that in any case they weren’t the Turks to give in the first place.
    Over the years these calls for their return were routinely rebuffed by the British Museum which has held the sculptures in its galleries since the early 1800s. But hopes of an amicable compromise were raised following talks between the British Museum's chairman George Osborne and Greek premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis in London last November.
    According to reports in the Greek press the former Tory Chancellor set the ball rolling with a discreet meeting with Mitsotakis in London the year before in November 2021. Further talks with other Greek ministers followed culminating in the meeting with Mitsotakis when the Greek leader was in London for talks last year.
    Neither side revealed what was actually on the table during these talks but the Parthenon Project, a campaign group set up by the Greek magnate John Lefas that includes former Tory and Labour culture ministers as well as the actor Stephen Fry, hinted that the return of the marbles would be linked to a cultural exchange that would bring other outstanding classical Greek works of art such as “Agamemnon’s mask”, Nestor's Cup and the bronze Jockey of Artermision to London.
    A spokesperson for the Parthenon Project said: “With widespread support for reunification amongst both the Greek and British public, and constructive dialogue going on based on mutual trust, a solution to this long-standing issue is finally within reach.
    “We have argued for a deal that is beneficial to both Greece and Britain, centred on a cultural partnership between the two countries.
    “This would see the British Museum continue in its role as a 'museum of the world' displaying magnificent Greek artefacts as part of rotating exhibits, with the Parthenon Sculptures reunited in their rightful home in Athens.'
    But sadly these hopes were dashed last week when Culture Minister Michelle Donelan told BBC Radio that the Parthenon marbles belong in the UK and that returning them would "open the gateway to the question of the entire contents of our museums".
    Her remarks were dismissed as “unacceptable” by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). The Greek communists said that “based on the ‘law of the strongest’ the Minister of Culture of Great Britain has categorically rejected the obvious demand of the Greek people for the restoration of the stolen Parthenon sculptures to their natural place”.
    The KKE also criticised Mitsotakis’ conservative New Democracy (ND) government for cynically exploiting the campaign for the return of the Elgin Marbles for political purposes.
    “The ND government didn't hesitate to exploit the desire for the return of the looted sculptures by using it in its electoral propaganda, cultivating impressions of a successful outcome of the issue through its own actions, while it knew that the problem was impossible to solve through ‘under the table’ discussions with the British Museum's management instead of the British government.
    “The [Greek] government must be also held accountable because its adventurist tactics undermine the timeless demand, allowing the circulation of dangerous views about the borrowing and exchanging of the Parthenon sculptures with other priceless antiquities, something that means the legalisation of the theft.
    “All the previous governments bear responsibility for perpetuating the problem, because they never exerted substantial pressure to end the illegal possession of the country's cultural treasures by the British Museum and other major museums of EU countries.
    “The urgent demand of our people is the permanent restoration of the Parthenon sculptures as an inalienable part of the monumental ensemble of the Acropolis, as well as of all the other treasures of the ancient cultural heritage which have, at times, been objects of looting or antiquities theft”.

False narratives more infectious than the virus

by Meifang Zhang

China is in the midst of adjusting its response measures around the COVID-19 virus and its
variants after a comprehensive assessment of the pandemic situation. This in itself should not be alarming, but encouraging, uplifting even, as anybody of government led by responsible leaders will amend its approaches with new information, new conditions. It is the sign of good leadership, especially when applied with good science.
    What does this updated version of measures look like? And why is it receiving so much attention from the West and its media apparatus?

     Let us address these questions separately. The adjustment of response measures in China includes:

• The reclassification of the virus to a Class B instead of the more serious Class A infectious diseases, and the management thereof in accordance with the law

• The dropping of testing requirements for travellers upon arrival to China as well as previous quarantine requirements for those that test positive while in the country

• In general, a shifting of focus from stemming infections to preventing severe cases and further minimising the impact of COVID-19 on economic and social activities.

These adjustments are consistent with China’s science-based approach toward governance
throughout the pandemic, one aligned with its national conditions. As with all nations, China
knows best its capabilities and capacities in service to its people. Measured approaches have been taken throughout the pandemic accordingly. New measures are now being put into effect because of new national conditions, such as the improvements in understanding of the virus and increased capacity to ensure healthy and safe travelling. Moreover, vaccine production levels have reached seven billion doses annually, and the supply of relevant medicines and antigen testing reagents are ensured across the country.
    This is what responsible leadership does; this is what China’s leadership continues to do, with the safety and well-being of its people at the forefront of all decisions at all times.
    Yet, the demand for “truth” remains, and that raises the second question to be addressed: Why exactly is this updating of China’s policies and practices around COVID-19 receiving so much attention by Western media and governments – and unflatteringly so?
    The truth? Life and work are returning to normal not only in the capital Beijing but across all of China. This is good news in terms of honouring the will of the people as well as their health, wealth and happiness.
    The anti-China sentiment and false narratives driven by the Western media and government apparatus serve no useful purpose. They are stoking fear as a means of justifying the actions of certain nations and its leaders at the expense of truth.
    The world is ushering in a new paradigm, one that places the needs of the many over those of the few. And in doing so promises a new era of prosperity and vitality for all nations under the spirit of acceptance and cooperation. This is a narrative that will ultimately hold as truth for all. All the challenges we face can only be addressed together for a more promising and better tomorrow for all.
    We may only make provision for and overcome global challenges by forging a new and better way through building “bridges”; There will be no place for “walls” in the future.
    Let us get on with more constructive means of construction, and tell a better story for future
humanity, by simply telling the truth while on this adjoined journey.

Meifang Zhang is China’s consul general in Belfast

Travel testing irritation

Is the pre-departure polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test the best way to collect COVID-19 data or is it an unnecessary irritation on global travel? Or just another political tool in an anti-China narrative?
    Many countries have imposed COVID-19 checks on Chinese travellers. The difference is between those who acted with undue haste, making a political decision, and those who delayed the decision, acting on the basis of health advice. Some countries appear to have used this decision as a political tool in part of a broader strategy that paints China unfavourably.
    The UK in particular acted against the advice from its own health authorities. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to impose COVID-19 checks on travellers from China is described by some health experts as a purely political manoeuvre that would make no difference to the rise or fall of cases in the UK.
    Chief Medical Adviser Chris Whitty told Health Secretary Steve Barclay there was no clear evidence of significant benefits from testing travellers from China.
    The Observer newspaper reported that Barclay discussed the issues with Sunak, who still decided it was more important for Britain to align itself with those nations – the US, Japan, Italy and Spain – that had already imposed such testing requirements. This became a political decision driven by Sunak’s anti-China sentiment.
    “I don’t think it’s likely the UK will get any public health benefit from this measure” said Professor Mark Woolhouse of Edinburgh University. “This can only have been done for political reasons”.
    Australian infectious diseases expert Paul Griffin said he did not agree with the move from some countries to place entry restrictions on people travelling from China. “I think that the practicality and the feasibility … outweighs any potential benefit of implementing those sort of measures”.
    “And I would have liked to think we’ve learned from that by now and we just focus, once again, on those basics to minimise the impact of this virus, wherever it is”.
    The health advice suggests that pre-departure tests for travel out of or into China are a waste of time when it comes to preventing the spread of COVID-19.
    Paul Tambyah, president of the Asia-Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection in Singapore said despite China’s reopening, there is no need for Singapore to toughen its entry requirements for travellers from China. The incidence of new cases in China appears to be no higher than in other countries such as Germany, France and the United States, and there is no evidence that travel restrictions are effective.
    A number of countries, including Australia, imposed the COVID-19 testing as a way of tracking the emergence of new COVID-19 variants. Australian Health Minister Mark Butler, acting on heath advice, said “the decision to implement these temporary measures has been made out of an abundance of caution, taking into account the dynamic and evolving situation in China and the potential for new variants to emerge in an environment of high transmission”.
    This conclusion is backed by UK Professor Woolhouse: “another reason for imposing the tests has focused on the need to track potentially dangerous new COVID-19 variants”.
    Nonetheless, this data collection justification also reveals a political component because it gets applied inconsistently.
    Woolhouse said “but we already know of one variant that is spreading rapidly in the US. Variant XBB.1.5 now accounts for about 40 per cent of cases in the US, but no one in the UK seems worried about it. Instead, a lot of noise is being made about hypothetical variants emerging in China”.
    It is crucial to track the potential emergence of new variants so that action can be taken to manage their impact. This is an essential part of any living with COVID-19 strategy. Data collection sits at the core of this management strategy. This is good science when it’s applied to all travellers, particularly from countries with high infection rates including the UK, or low vaccination rates, like the US.
    It is reasonable in some cases to apply pre-flight PCR testing as a way of tracking the
development of new variants. This is a data collection exercise and it’s essential that all the
    genomic information to be fed quickly and seamlessly into the internationally available data base. Except in cases of significant infection, it is not reasonable to apply this testing as a means of excluding or hindering travel.
    Reliable, consistent and shared data collection through shared testing results is an essential COVID-19 management tool. The processes are a travel irritation, but there’s no reason they should be used to hinder or prevent travel by Chinese or any other tourists. Chinese tourists, like those from any other country, can be welcomed as a vital component of a re-emerging global tourism industry and that helps to drive the global economy.
CGTN

The same old tune...

In his inaugural address to the nation Paul Nowak, the new TUC General Secretary’s made much of the fact that he started stacking shelves in Asda at the age of 17, and had been a hotel porter and worked in a call centre, but failed to mention he has been a Congress House bureaucrat, since 2000, or for the great bulk of his working life.
    Apart from his less than inspiring comments on the proposed anti-union laws he made the standard complaints about workers being: “on course for two decades of lost pay – the longest squeeze on earnings in modern history”, deploring low pay and saying that “ministers, unions and employers should work together on a proper industrial strategy, delivering good green jobs, training and skills across the country”. So, as might be expected the TUC is on course for more class collaboration instead of actually rousing the working class to action.
    He repeated the tired old slogan that the TUC should be concerned with securing: “A fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage” but we should heed Engels’s 1881 demand that it should be replaced by a very different motto: “Possession of the Means of Work, Raw Material, Factories, Machinery, By the Working People Themselves”.
    On another recent occasion Nowak said that that unions including the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) were unlikely secure the 19 per cent they are demanding but meekly said that: “I would hope that there would be a compromise reachable — in order to get to a compromise you need to sit down and negotiate and that’s what the government is point blank refusing to do.” Such inspiring leadership is what we have come to expect from the TUC.

Putting people first

People’s China always puts people first and that’s what the Zheng Zeguang, the Chinese ambassador in London told the readers of the Guardian last week in an article outlining his country’s response to the continuing Covid crisis.Zheng stressed that over the past three years, China has always put people and their lives left, right and centre while it tries to keep Covid under control, and promote economic and social development. China’s response policies have been effective, science-based and in line with China’s national conditions.
    The Chinese ambassador underlined that as the Covid-19 situation in China continues to improve, the effects of policies to stabilise economic growth continue to emerge, and the exchange of Chinese and foreign personnel becomes easier, China’s long-subdued consumer demand will be released, investor confidence will be boosted and the economy will rebound strongly. This is good news for not just China but the entire global economy.
People’s Daily

London posties rally over pay

by New Worker correspondent

Thousands of posties rallied outside Parliament last week after walking out in their latest round of strikes in the run-up to Christmas. Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said it was the biggest postal workers’ demonstration in living memory.
    Many wore pink CWU hi-vis vests, waving flags and holding placards that read “strike to win” and “save our Royal Mail”. The union says Royal Mail has imposed a 2 per cent increase on members without consultation and that it is refusing to treat its employees with respect.
    “They’re fighting for their jobs, their livelihood, and the service that they provide to the public,” says Dave Ward, the general secretary of the CWU.

    "Postal workers want to get on with serving the communities they belong to, delivering Christmas gifts and tackling the backlog from recent weeks,” Ward said. "But they know their value, and they will not meekly accept the casualisation of their jobs, the destruction of their conditions and the impoverishment of their families”.

    The CWU says more strikes will follow throughout December if Royal Mail management refuses to respond realistically to the union’s demands.

George Johannes: freedom fighter and communist

by Theo Russell

Comrade George Johannes, a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP), the African National Congress and for several years the New Communist Party, passed away in Rome last week. He was 78. He will be greatly missed by many comrades who knew him in the NCP.
    He was a member of the NCP for several years when he lived in exile the UK and later served at the South African High Commission in London from 1998 to 2005, first as Political Counsellor and then as the Deputy High Commissioner.

    After returning to South Africa, he worked at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (foreign ministry) in Pretoria as Director for the UK, Ireland and Benelux Countries.

    George was a frequent visitor to Scotland, before and after the end of apartheid, and Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) is home to the George Johannes Collection archive.

    George joined the African National Congress in 1970, and his varied roles included: journalist with Radio Freedom in Angola and Zambia: Administrative Secretary of the Department of Information and Publicity in Lusaka; Chairperson, ANC Youth Section, London; Member of Editorial Board of Sechaba, the ANC’s official journal; member of the Regional Political Committee of the ANC UK Region; Administrative Secretary of the ANC Office in London; and ANC representative at the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) in Budapest.
    In 2007 George became Deputy Head of Mission in the German capital and was posted to Berlin. In April 2009 he was posted to Bern, where he became South African Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation, the Principality of Liechtenstein, and the Holy See (the Vatican), and in February 2021 he met Pope Francis himself.
    After leaving the diplomatic service slightly more than a year ago, George continued teaching at a Pontifical University in Rome. He died on 30th November 2022 at the Generalate House of the Missionaries of Mariannhill in Rome, where he had been staying with the community of Mariannhill priests and brothers from November 2021. The congregation has its foundation in South Africa.
    George’s former wife, Jan, wrote that “he was living, and died, in a home for priests in Rome. Comrade George, my former husband - we were together for over 30 years - and father of my children Charlotte (grandchildren Jack and Zuri) and Daniel Johannes.
    “We lived through the crucial years of struggle, and life was often tough. Banu, his wife and son Liam, 12, live in Munich. Sad news and he will be missed".
    Many in the NCP have fond memories of George who they recall as a warm, humorous and charismatic comrade.

Let the world hear China's voice

By Liang Xiao

With nearly 50 years of diplomatic experience, Liu Xiaoming, who served as ambassador of China to the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2021, considers promoting the deepening of understanding between the Chinese and people of other countries a top priority for China's diplomats.
    But the wider public mostly knows him for a comparison he made eight years ago in an opinion piece for the Daily Telegraph. Liu likened Japanese militarism to Harry Potter's arch-villain Lord Voldemort following then Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine where Japan's war dead, including 14 Class-A World War II war criminals, are worshiped. Liu wrote at the time, "If militarism is like the haunting Voldemort of Japan, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is a kind of Horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation's soul."
    The article soon became the topic of worldwide discussion. Within 10 days, Liu was invited by almost every major British television and radio networks for live interviews. On 3rd January 2014, he appeared on ITV's News at Ten, explaining to correspondent John Ray that "Lord Voldemort will not be destroyed if you do not destroy all the seven Horcruxes. And I made the comparison because militarism has not been completely destroyed [in Japan]." Five days later, during an interview with Jeremy Paxman on BBC2's Newsnight, Liu quoted Winston Churchill—those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it—to elaborate on China's position and warn the international community to beware of the revival of militarism in Japan.
    In the years that followed, Liu gave many interviews, covering everything from China's stance on COVID-19 and Hong Kong to the country's relationship with the UK, pitting him against many of Britain's best known TV presenters and interviewers.
    With his 11 years of service in London, Liu became the longest-serving Chinese ambassador in the history of China-UK relations and the longest-serving ambassador-level diplomat since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. These feats aside, Liu deems three other records in China's diplomatic history to be his proudest achievements: During his time as ambassador to the UK, he made more than 700 speeches, wrote more than 170 articles for the mainstream press and gave more than 170 interviews, including 29 live ones, to major Western media outlets. On 9th October, Liu's new book, a bilingual compendium of his live interviews with British media published by Beijing Publishing Group under the title Sharp Dialogue, became the latest addition to that list.
    The compilation comes with the recommendation of several high-level dignitaries and scholars, including former Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and former Commercial Secretary to the UK Treasury Jim O'Neill.
    "The huge value of this book is it provides a unique case study of how Ambassador Liu Xiaoming made valuable pioneering efforts from the Chinese Embassy in the UK to make an optimal impact to 'let the world hear the voice of China'," Alistair Michie, Secretary General of the British East Asia Council, wrote.
    At the book launch, Liu shared his belief that as China is increasingly put under global spotlight, the world is eager to know more about the country. However, the majority of people in Western countries know very little about China.
    "We should improve our ability to engage in international communication to tell China's story well, make the voice of China heard, understood, and recognized. We should present a true, multi-dimensional and comprehensive China to the world. Let the world see a reliable, admirable and respectable image of China," he explained.
    During a recent interview Liu also touched on the high expectations he holds for the younger generations, especially for Chinese students studying overseas.
    "When I was in the UK, I reached out to many universities; this is a good way to make more young people know about China. Another reason is that the biggest percentage of overseas students in the UK hails from China," Liu said. He hopes these students can become good storytellers, telling their classmates, teachers, neighbors, and so on, about the great changes taking place in China, in their hometowns, as well as communicating their own experiences.
    "I've said this many times: Every Chinese student studying abroad is a Chinese ambassador".
Beijing Review

Sharp Dialogue by Liu Xiaoming is published by the Bejing People’s Publishing House. The bilingual 448 pages paperback is available from the Guanghwa bookshop, 112 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 5EJ for £23.70. It can also be ordered online from Cypress Books at https://cypressbooks.com/ ( plus £3.20 postage and packing)

Charity Begins at Home…

by New Worker correspondent

But not for some working in the burgeoning charity sector like the staff at Shelter which was founded way back in December 1966. It emerged from the efforts of Bruce Kenrick, the Church of Scotland Minister who was doing missionary work in west London’s Notting Hill, then the stamping ground of notorious slum landlord Peter Rachman who had a violent way of dealing with those behind with the rent for one of his empire of grotty overcrowded properties. The Notting Hill Housing Trust, also founded by Kendrick in 1963, continues today as a major housing association owning thousands of properties.
    Shelter had the good fortune to be launched ten days after the BBC first broadcast Cathy Come Home by Jeremy Sandford and Ken Loach which exposed effects of homelessness in Britain.
    It soon became the leading body for advice with housing problems, and it campaigns for tenant rights spending much time lobbying local and central governments.
    It spends about 21 per cent of its revenue on fund raising, a figure which might raise a few eyebrows, but the charity world is a cut-throat business. Shelter faces brutal competition from children in need and fluffy polar bears seeking the nation’s conscience money. In comparison bedraggled homeless people and people sitting in mouldy rooms do not look very cute.
    Its latest Annual Report shows Shelter has an overall income of £59,699,000, of which £41 million came from donations and legacies, with £10 million from grants and contracts and £7 million from its shops. Its expenditure was £59,720,000 which suggests they are doing their job, spending rather than saving, It has assets worth £31 million which is not unreasonable giving that it needs a London base and a network of offices to do its job.
    The highest paid member of staff was the CEO, on £132,625. Shelter claim it is very ethical as its median salary was £28,104, a ratio against the highest salary of 4.72:1. However salaries for van drivers and assistants in their shops start at £19,000.
    Shelter had 1,335 employees, 118 on fund raising, with about 800 giving direct support, both in person and remotely. The CEO get £99.34 for each staff member, chicken-feed to bankers.
    Such is the institutional background of the current strike which starts on Monday until the Sunday before Christmas. The issue, unsurprisingly, is pay. In early November 85 per cent of the charity’s Unite branch voted to reject a three per cent pay offer, which Unite describes as a huge real terms pay cut.
    At the time of the vote, General Secretary Sharon Graham said that “Rather than sit on ever expanding reserves, Shelter should be paying its workers a fair pay rise”.
    She has a point, its last reported reserves were £14.5 million, comfortably above their target of £8.9 million.
    One of the strikers added that: “The work we undertake, particularly in frontline services, is so valuable and clients depend on our teams. But that shouldn’t mean they have to sacrifice a decent and dignified living because the work they are drawn to is in this sector. At the very base level, absolute bare minimum, those working for a housing charity shouldn't be experiencing housing insecurity as a result of being unable to pay rent.”
    Regional Officer Peter Storey warned that: “Strike action will inevitably cause substantial disruption to the services that Shelter provides. However, the organisation has created this dispute through the arrogant and high-handed manner in which it has treated its loyal workers.”
    This is not the first time Shelter workers have been involved in a pay battle in which strike action was at least threatened. In 2008 strike action took place while in both 2014 and 2018 industrial action was called off at the very last minute. In the latter case a four per cent deal composed of 2.25 per cent consolidated, plus 1.75 per cent unconsolidated paid at a flat rate, worth about £500 for each was secured after management offered a paltry one per cent. That dispute also saw 100 Shelter workers join Unite.
    This time round, in March, Shelter made a three per cent offer alongside a one-off £250 payment. Since then the one–off payment was increased to £1,500. This was still rejected, partly because it would actually make things worse for some workers. This came about because it would push the lowest paid over thresholds which would prevent them claiming working tax credits and Universal Credit to top up their low earnings.
    The wishy-washy left magazine Tribune recently interviewed three Shelter workers about the dispute. One Mark, who was formerly homeless himself, reported he relies on a foodbank twice a month, and his general quality of life has rapidly deteriorated in the past year.
    He also noted that when Shelter workers suggested flat rate consolidated increases to benefit the lowest paid, Management, responded that this would weaken the pay structure within Shelter, meaning the pay rise of those promoted wouldn’t be worth as much.
    Another staff member, Sarah, herself a twenty year veteran told Tribune that in the 2008 dispute: “They tried to impose contractual changes on us. Historically, there’s been disputes around Shelter actively going after our pay and pension contributions”, and “I’ve never had an inflation-based increase in pay in the twenty years I’ve been here.”
    The result of this pattern is a charity set up to tackle issues like housing insecurity now exacerbating housing insecurity among its own staff. “A lot of our staff are young private renters based in London,” says Sarah. “They’re caught up in the very housing emergency that they themselves are campaigning on.”
    She concluded by pointing out that Shelter workers urgently need a consolidated increase instead to get them through the coming winter months and beyond. Unless this is done condition will worsen after next April when it comes harder to claim means-tested benefits.
    Lucy, a London based Shelter worker told Tribune that: “It’s commonplace for staff to have no money left at the end of the month. I have colleagues who have fallen into arrears with bills, are eating less to cut down on the cost of food, and we hear constant accounts of staff suffering with stress and anxiety.”
    All three complained that Shelter spends too on external contracts and consultants and that in common with many charities management take advantage of dedicated workers “where committed and passionate workers are made to feel that they should put up with attacks on pay and conditions out of misguided notion of philanthropic instinct”.
    The anonymous Sarah added that management: “Know that most people that come to work for Shelter are very committed to Shelter’s cause. And I think they play on it. They expect charity workers just to put up low pay really and not complain.” Winning this dispute, conclude would “to send a message to charity sector workers that they can organise for union recognition and fair pay”.

A High End Strike

by New Worker correspondent

The present strike wave has reached as far as Knightsbridge in the west end of London where over 50 uniformed security guards and CCTV operators at Harrods’ will take part on a strike in protest against a seven per cent pay offer (half the present real rate of inflation of 14.2 per cent). The first strike  started on Friday and continued until Sunday 27th November. If there is no settlement further walk-outs will take place throughout the festive season. 
    Harrods is one of Britain’s finest state-owned shops, but the state in question is Qatar. Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said “Harrods and its owners, the Qatar Investment Authority, can absolutely afford to pay these workers a rise that reflects soaring living costs. Harrods, like many Qatari state enterprises, is known the world over for luxury and extravagance, an impression maintained off the backs of workers”.
    A beneficiary of the government’s Covid furlough scheme to the tune of £6 million, Harrod’s recently doubled the pay of its managing director to £2.3 million and raked in profits of £51 million.
    Regional officer Balvinder Bir added that: “I’m sure that Harrods’ high-end customers and store owners will not be pleased that security and CCTV operations during the Christmas period will be compromised. This is entirely the fault of Harrods, which is swimming in cash but offering a pay cut dressed up as a rise. The company needs to table an offer our members can accept.” They also have some high-end shop-lifters.
    The New Worker does not condone what the anarchists call “proletarian shopping”, but if anyone feels like trying it on one of the above strike days, they should try to get a pocket-sized box of crystalised fruits for New Worker staff...

Libraries Cut

by New Worker correspondent

Twenty years ago Hackney library staff were fighting for the reinstatement of overtime payments. Today another libraries battle, involving the same union in the same east London borough is underway to oppose job cuts.
    The Labour council’s plans include cutting 76 jobs which will in part be replaced with 57 new roles which existing staff will have to reapply for. In detail this means there will be just 34 full-time frontline posts, down from 54, to cover seven libraries open between 55 and 64 hours a week. In some cases there could be as little as two staff on duty, even before taking into account of holidays, sick leave, training or any emergency. The cuts will allegedly save £445,000.
    The council claim that the cuts are essential to fund a £4.4 million revamp of Stoke Newington Library which is in the poshest part of an otherwise deprived borough.
    The borough’s local government branch of Unison is in formal dispute, it claims that the council has ample reserves funds (to the tune of £300 million) to fund the renovation and the job cuts will “will have a devastating impact on the service”. It has collected 2,000 signatures on a petition against the proposed job cuts. A large protest meeting was held outside Hackney Town Hall on Wednesday night prior to a meeting of the Council last week. In a consultative ballot, 72 per cent of members said they were ready to strike to prevent the cuts going ahead.
    The union accuses the council of keeping it in the dark about the job cuts when the delayed renovation plans were first announced three years ago.
    Local Unison rep Matt Paul told the Hackney Citizen that: “It will be impossible to deliver and sustain Stoke Newington library without having sufficient staff on the ground … it’s completely pointless if staff cuts are funding this”, and queried: “what’s the point of having a lovely space if it ends up eventually closing by not having the staff to run it?”
    At the same time as these staff cuts the senior management team received an additional £50,000 in salaries. The union is wary of the Mayor’s commitment to keep all libraries open, saying the planned changes could make it unsustainable to run them and result in permanent closures. For instance less staff would make temporary closures more likely in the event of staff shortages.
    Branch chair Brian Debus warned that the cuts “will inevitably mean less ability to advise members of the public and the most vulnerable who most depend on the free services that we
provide.”
    Needless to say Hackney Libraries is not the only public library service. Gerald Vernon-Jackson of the Local Government Association (LGA), which is the trade union for local authorities said that “no council wants to reduce library services, but the dramatic increase in inflation alongside increases to the National Living Wage and higher energy costs has added at least £2.4 billion in extra costs onto the budgets councils set in March this year,”
    At the same time public libraries are seeing an unprecedented rise in the number of people using their services. This is partly due to them returning to one of their Victorian purposes of providing a place for people to keep warm in without going to the pub. Others have established food banks.
    Libraries Connected, which represents public libraries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland reports that many libraries have expanded their services to help people struggling with higher prices - running food banks, giving out clothing donations and extending their opening hours and providing hot drinks.
    The BBC reports that Gainsborough Community Library in Ipswich is selling cut-price bags of fruit and vegetables for £2 and has seen sales nearly double since the summer. Suffolk County Librarian Bruce Leeke, said the cost of running 45 sites has increased a lot, “from our energy costs to our cleaning. We will have to look next year at how we run the service. We are very concerned.”
    Isobel Hunter, the CEO of Libraries Connected, warned that with budgets uncertain many libraries are contemplating cutting staff, services and book-stock with some closures on the horizon. She warns that: “the scale of the savings that libraries need to make and also the impact of inflationary costs means that these aren’t savings that can be found down the back of the sofa or trimming little bits here and there”. Unpopular increases in council tax levels will only provide a temporary relief.
    Further north at Nantwich Library in Cheshire, they have boxes of canned vegetables, fruit and cereals because it serves as an emergency food bank pick-up point.
    Joanne Shannon, of Cheshire East Council said: “I’ve worked in libraries for 38 years and we’ve not seen the numbers of people, the broad cross-section of people who will tell us they are struggling.” She added that: “Some people think of some of the areas in Cheshire as very leafy and affluent, but we do have rural poverty. We’ve got a limited number of resources to give out and they are for extreme cases, but we see so many people who are telling us they are worried. How do we start to prioritise?”
    It is good to see the Tories have abandoned namby-pamby “One Nation Toryism” and gone back to bringing us real Dickensian poverty. While it has brought out the spirit of Victorian charity what is urgently needed is the more revolutionary spirit which produced the Chartist movement and the Communist Manifesto.

Salute the Red Army heroes

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks and NCP London organiser Theo Russell joined Italian comrades over the remembrance weekend to pay tribute to the Soviet people who fought and died to defeat the Nazis in the Second World War. Called by the supporters of the Communist Front of Italy in Britain, comrades laid flowers during the small ceremony at the Soviet War Memorial in the shadow of the Imperial War Museum in Southwark on Saturday.
    In the past Russian diplomats and those from other former Soviet republics would have joined local dignitaries, members of the Russian community in London and representatives of the Armed Forces and veterans’ associations in honouring the fallen at an annual Remembrance Day ceremony organised by the Soviet War Memorial Trust. This has now all ended because of the Ukraine war.
    Soon after the fighting began Sir Simon Hughes, the former constituency Liberal-Democrat MP who was once a frequent attender at these events, said that the Victory Day event at the Soviet War Memorial should not include Russia and Belarus unless Russian troops withdrew from Ukraine by 1st May. To avoid the memorial becoming a focus for protests and possible vandalism, the Trust has now sadly suspended all commemorations at the monument. But individuals and small groups continue to pay their respects at the Soviet war memorial.
    Fresh red carnations were already lying the foot of the sombre bronze statue when the London and Italian comrades arrived. They weren’t the first. They certainly won’t be the last…

Britain is Broken!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks and other London comrades joined thousands of demonstrators demanding an end to austerity in Trafalgar Square on Saturday. Called by the People’s Assembly, and supported by a number of trade unions, the protest began with a march through central London that ended in a rally addressed by speakers including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and RMT general secretary Mick Lynch. Corbyn said the government would be forced to listen to protesters calling for improved pay and workers’ rights. “The government is of course eventually forced to listen, as are the rail companies, therefore they have reopened negotiations with the RMT. The people out here are very determined. They’re not going to see people with disabilities discriminated against, they’re not going to see growing impoverishment in our society”.

Picketing Broadcasting House!

by New Worker correspondent

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

The war goes on and on…

by Theo Russell

Around 60 people attended a meeting at Hamilton House in central London last week organised by the Stop the War Coalition (StW) that included contributions from a number of trade union and peace activists, as well as a video message from Yurii Sheliazhenko of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement.
    Sheliazhenko condemned NATO for sending “wave upon wave of weapons” whilst “the war goes on and on”.
    “While Zelensky makes no moves towards a resolution,” he said, “Ukraine and Russia urgently need peace talks, and western governments must create the conditions for talks.” The Ukrainian pacifist spoke of "an army of well-paid liars and smears against the peace movement." But he was upbeat about the peace plan proposed by billionaire businessman Elon Musk, which includes a fresh vote on the future of the regions that recently joined the Russian Federation, Crimea to remain in Russia, and guarantees of Ukrainian neutrality.
    Jamie Newell from the firefighters’ union, the FBU, commented that the British government "has a real cheek criticising Russia's response to recent street protests, when they do exactly the same thing here".
    Speaking for StW, Lindsay German condemned the demonisation of anyone in Britain calling for peace talks such as the suspension of Angelo Sanchez after attacking British policy at the recent Labour Party conference. She also referred to comments by BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen – who has been reporting from Ukraine – about the Western coalition's targeting of civilian infrastructure in Iraq and the Saudi-led coalition's bombing of Yemen (with armaments supplied by, amongst others, Britain).
    Lindsay said Labour Party members had been told not to support StW’s position on Ukraine, and former MP Emma Dent Coad, a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, had been blocked as a future parliamentary candidate for Kensington & Chelsea where she was Labour MP from 2017–19, amongst other reasons for speaking at StW protests.
    “It’s a real denial of democracy in Britain where if you raise any criticism of what our government is doing in Ukraine or call for peace you're regarded as an appeaser of Putin,” she said.
    “Meanwhile the British government has supported people going to fight in Ukraine, while none of the parties in parliament are speaking out against the war. This isn't just about Russia invading Ukraine, every time we send weapons to Ukraine it's at the expense of our schools, our hospitals and our housing. There's a clear connection between the expansion of militarism and austerity at home.
    “So far Britain has given £2.5 billion to Ukraine, and even neutral Ireland has sent non-military aid, so this is essentially a proxy war between Russia and NATO. This isn't going to stop with Ukraine, we know about the AUKUS Pact and the situation around China, and we are seeing much greater moves towards confrontation and war.”
    Speaking from the floor, a Unite member called for a new Labour Party that was "democratic, anti-war and pro-peace", and said: “The British government should stop sending weapons to Ukraine because they are fascist, absolutely fascist, and they are brutally oppressing their own people.”
    Members of International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity distributed leaflets, spoke to members of the panel and the audience, and one was lucky enough to speak from the floor. Unfortunately, many of the speakers said almost nothing about Ukraine, and over two-thirds of the panel contributions and the following discussion focused only on peace and trade union campaigns in Britain.

A New Journey for a New Era

Zheng Zeguang and Andy Brooks

by New Worker correspondent

NCP General Secretary Andy Brooks joined other communists, academics and friends of China at a seminar at the Chinese embassy in London on Monday. The symposium on the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was opened by the Chinese ambassador Zheng Zeguang who gave a 20 minute summary of the main points of the Congress that met in Beijing last month.
    This was followed by short interventions by all the guests including the NCP leader who said: “the 20th Congress was a congress of victors and we are certain that there’ll be plenty more victories to come as the Chinese people march forward to build a modern, socialist China. The New Communist Party of Britain stands with the Communist Party of China in the common cause of the communist movement and we will continue to strive to strengthen the efforts of everyone working in solidarity and friendship with the Communist Party of China and the people of China”.

Building a fairer society

 

Echoes from the Chinese Communist Congress

A week after the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party drew to a close, the CMG Europe media group assembled experts from different fields to discuss key messages about the direction the world’s most populous country is heading. On this special one-hour show, CMG Europe’s Juliet Mann was joined by China’s Ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, and a host of experts from across the world to consider exactly what that new journey will look like, and how it will impact on relations with the UK and Europe. 

In any discussion about the policies that have steered China’s recent past, the topic of poverty alleviation is impossible to avoid. The numbers are well known - around 100 million rural residents lifted out of poverty in just eight years through 2020; 800 million in the past four decades; a middle class that has swollen to 400 million people. But the achievement goes far beyond incomes, into access to education, clean water, internet and transport connections.

    That is the development strategy of China, one that goes beyond economic growth and puts people first. China cannot develop in isolation from the world and the world needs China for its development. And the message from the country’s leaders in recent weeks has been a firm commitment to that path.

    The Chinese ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, shared his thoughts on how China and Europe can work together to tackle global problems. He told Juliet Mann: “China will respond to external uncertainties with its own certainty and inject positive energy into world development with its high-quality development and high standard opening up.”

    There are “several key messages that are essential for the future global order: that China vision of a fairer and more inclusive global order; a more cooperative global order; and more importantly about a global order that has a safety net for the left-behind so that everybody can benefit,” said Yin Zhiguang, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University.

    David Ferguson, senior translation editor at the China International Publishing Group, agreed: “A huge amount of emphasis has been placed on shared development, which means that everybody shares the fruits. That was one of the fundamental bases of the whole poverty alleviation programmje. Targeting poverty alleviation was designed to make sure that nobody was left behind. And I think that that fundamental concept of shared development, people-centered development, is something that President Xi places increasing emphasis on.”

Balanced growth

On a panel focusing on China’s economic development, guests discussed how China has ensured that its growth - powering the global economy for the past two decades - has also been sustainable. With a “trilateral, hybrid” structure built around a 60 per cent contribution from domestic private businesses, a 20 percent participation from the state and a further 20 per cent from multinational companies, China has been able to create a modern economy, says Wang Huiyao, founder and President of Centre for China and Globalisation.

    The challenge the country’s leadership is now taking on is about how to adapt governance structures designed for an economy of around $2 trillion for an economy that has now grown to closer to $20 trillion, noted Mark Ostwald, chief economist at AGM Investor Services.

    As it makes those changes, other economies will have the opportunity to learn from them, says Stephen Perry, the Chairman of the 48 Club. “We may find ourselves where we could have been several hundred years ago when we used many of the innovations from China to make our industrial revolution happen,” Perry noted. “It's important, I think, for every country around the world to participate in China in order to learn all these great innovations which are going to be, in many cases, led from China.”

    One advantage China has in the course of its development is the long-term perspectives that its political system affords. The stability offered by the Communist Party means that rather than changing tack every few years, policies can be targeted decades ahead.

    “It's astonishing to see a governance system, a governing party that's able to look forward 27 years and be able to make specific plans for what the country is going to be looking like then,” said China International Publishing’s Ferguson.

    That philosophy is exemplified in the commitments made to education at the Congress. China’s science and education strategy has been in place since 1995 and has evolved to focus on new areas of growth such as artificial intelligence and space technologies.

Environmental leadership

It is in actions, not words, that China’s impact on the global economy is being felt, said Christoph Nedopil, Director of the Green Finance and Development Center at Fanhai International School of Finance, and nowhere is that more obvious, or important, than the battle against climate change.

    “Over the past years, based on its huge size and strategic capabilities in manufacturing and research, China has seized the opportunity to innovate and to develop globally leading bases for green transport and energy, and [become the largest supplier of solar and wind power in the world. And I think this is just the beginning of a great opportunity for China to scale up infrastructure domestically and internationally,” he said.

    China’s message to the world is to take a holistic view - thinking about people first, the panellists agreed, summed up in a message to the corporate world from Fundan University’s Yin: “Business needs to include much more concerns of the society in general, the social responsibility not only in China, but also globally…engaging with stakeholders instead of shareholders.”