A sunny afternoon in Charlton

The summer heat-wave may have finally ended but the sun still shone on the comrades and friends who came to the Metropolitan NCP Cell and Supporters’ Group annual garden party in Charlton last Saturday. The table was groaning with good food, which is not surprising given that it was prepared by one of our stalwart comrades and there were plenty of soft and stronger drinks to wash it down.

An afternoon of discussion and friendly banter could not end without a collection for our communist paper and the comrades showed their thanks by putting £77 into the collection tin for the New Worker..

Love Russia, hate homophobia

 AROUND 1,000 campaigners against homophobia protested outside Downing Street on Tuesday 3rd September, just before the G20 meeting in Leningrad to send a message to Russian President Putin that his new law banning “propaganda” about homosexuality is unacceptable.

Like the hated “clause 28” in Britain a couple of decades ago, the law is in effect a gag on the discussion of matters relating to homosexuality, especially among the young.

It prevents teachers, youth workers and other counsellors from helping gay adolescents who may be in serious fear and turmoil as they realise they are homosexual by reassuring them that they are not evil or unnatural.

Anti-homophobia campaigner Peter Tatchell led the speakers, who included the gay celebrity Paul O’Grady.

Never say protest marches don’t work!

 By New Worker correspondent

SEVERAL thousand peace activists marched through London last Saturday to demand an end to British, American and French threats of military action against Syria.

In Trafalgar Square

But this march was different to thousands of other peace matches that have trod the streets of London for the last 60 years – it was a march with the victory of a war at least postponed if not completely prevented to celebrate.

And the morale of the marchers was high because of it, because of the vote in Parliament last Thursday 29th August when a majority MPs voted against the principle that Britain should join an American military strike against Syria – leaving prime Minister Cameron red-faced, angry and defeated.

Thirty members of his own party had opposed the motion and another 30 had abstained.

Labour MPs had all supported Ed Miliband’s stance that no war could be endorsed until there was solid proof that the Syrian government was behind the recent nerve gas attack on civilians in Damascus.

But that vote had an international impact; Barak Obama, feeling suddenly politically isolated, announced that he would not take any action until Congress had been allowed to vote on the matter – a process that could take a long time.

The French government has also been obliged to consult its legislature. And since enthusiasm for another war in the Middle East is extremely low in both those countries it is quite possible the war may have been prevented. The peace movements in France and America are strong and encouraged by the vote in Westminster.

Evidence is now emerging from the Associated Press news agency that the nerve gas may have been released accidentally by opposition rebels in Damascus – the very people who are being armed and funded by the US, Britain and Saudi Arabia – who were supplied with tubular gas bottles that they had never seen before from the Saudis and accidently activated them while examining them, killing many of their own colleagues.

Speaker after speaker in Trafalgar Square, at the end of last Saturday’s Hands Off Syria march, stressed the historic significance of last Thursday’s parliamentary vote – and of Stop the War’s role in bringing it about. 

And outside the American Embassy

The speakers included Stop The War Chair Jeremy Corbyn MP, Lindsey German, Andrew Murray, Natalie Bennett (Green Party), Alex Kenny (NUT), Tariq Ali, a speaker from London Gezi Solidarity, Tony Benn, Aaron Kiely (NUS), Simon Renton (UCU), Martin Howell (anti-war poet), and Craig Murray.

Lindsey German said: “This time, enough MPs had the guts to vote against another intervention. Their arguments and information were influenced by a strong public opinion against such a war, itself a product of a mass movement which didn’t stop a war 10 years ago but has prevented a further one now.

“To all our regret we didn’t stop the war on Iraq, but that tide of anti-war opinion has made itself felt again in the past few days.

“For once, MPs reflected that majority public opinion in the country and Cameron has been forced to admit that he will no longer join any such attack and that Britain will play no part in any Syrian intervention.

“The vote was a defeat not just for the British government but the whole system of western imperialism that has relied on the US/British alliance, symbolised most grotesquely in the Blair-Bush partnership that was determined to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq in the aftermath of 9/11.”

Andrew Murray told the crowd that Parliament has not voted down a war in over 200 years.

But the consensus of all the speakers was the message that all the peace marches, meetings and campaigning have been worthwhile – a war has been prevented.

“Let no one tell you campaigning is a waste of time.”

United East End mobilising to block EDL

 By New Worker

Weyman Bennett speaking

correspondent

SCORES of anti-fascist activists from a wide spectrum of local community, faith and trade union organisations have spent the last couple of weeks distributing leaflets and attending organising meetings to get a massive turnout this Saturday 7th September to block the Islamophobic English Defence League from carrying out their plans to march through Tower Hamlets.

The local Labour Party, including the MP Jim Fitzpatrick, the Mayor’s office and many councillors are calling on the police to ban the EDL from bringing their message of hatred and division into this very diverse but unified community.

But the police have given no indication of how they intend to manage the EDL, whether they will ban them, allow them a restricted static demonstration just outside the borough boundary in Aldgate as they did two years ago, or allow them to march through the borough just as they want.

Leading activists are surmising that the police have not made up their minds and will respond according to the turnout by the EDL and by the anti-fascists. So a huge mobilisation for anti-fascists is critical.

At a press conference in Tower Hamlets last Friday Glyn Robbins, representing United the East End, said that his family had lived in the area for over 200 years. . “But that doesn’t give me more rights than anyone else in this area. This area is changing and it always has but the EDL have a problem with change. The people who live here do not.

“The Mosques here are open to local people to visit and they do a lot to build relations with the wider community.

“The EDL intends to come into this area – and it seems they are going to be coming – they are a clear and present danger to our community. They come with a message of not just hatred and bigotry but also violence.

“Our organisation, United East End, includes community and faith groups and trade unions and Rainbow Hamlets, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender group, who are not here today but they are very much part of our community.”

Weyman Bennett, joint leader of Unite Against Fascism, said the UAF has been opposing the EDL since 2010: “The EDL say they are opposed to Islam but they attack everybody and they are trying to divide communities.”

He spoke about the community centre in Muswell Hill that was burnt out and he had just visited the Harlow Muslim Centre the night before, which had suffered an arson attack – where the attackers had tried to drill into the gas supply to set their charges.

“These people used to attack synagogues; now they attack Mosques,” he said. “If they are allowed they will end up attacking everyone.”

Leon Silver, of East London Central Synagogue, said that Tower Hamlets, or Stepney as it used to be known, has been home to wave after wave of immigrants for centuries; it is the first port of call for those coming into London.

“In 1905 they passed the Aliens Act, which was aimed at Jewish communities. What was said about Jews then they are saying about Muslims now.

“Every wave of immigrants into the East End has in time integrated into the local community. But they have not assimilated; they have kept their culture and identity and added it to the local mix, which becomes ever richer for it.

“Outsiders like the EDL just don’t get it.

“In the 1930s Oswald Mosley tried to come into the East End to spread division and hate and to attack the Jewish immigrant population. But the whole population came out to stop him, including the Irish dockers.

“And when the EDL come in to attack our Muslim brothers and sisters we will all come out to defend them.”

Dilowar Khan, representing the East London Mosque spoke on the history of the Islamic community in east London, which has existed for over a century now. “We are no longer immigrants, we are part of the community and we don’t have another home to go to, so we are staying. We are part and parcel of the community here.

“The Mosques in this country play a very positive role in turning young people into good citizens.”

Other speakers at the press conference included Cllr Rania Khan of the Tower Hamlets Mayor’s group, Cllr Rachel Saunders of the Tower Hamlets Labour group, the Reverend Alan Green, chair of Tower Hamlets Inter-Faith Forum and Abdullah Falliq of the Islam Forum of the EU.