Never Again!

 by New Worker
 correspondent

Andy Brooks paying tribute to the dead

New Communist Party (NCP) leader Andy Brooks joined comrades, war veterans, diplomats and anti-fascists last week at the annual Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) commemoration, organised by the Soviet War Memorial Trust and Southwark Council.

The Nazis killed six million Jews during the Second World War. There were hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens amongst them. About three million Soviet prisoners of war perished in extermination camps.

On 27th January, 1945, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz, the largest death camp in the Third Reich. The day is now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day to remember those who suffered Nazi persecution. Every year, on that day, the millions of victims of the Nazi Holocaust are remembered in the gardens outside the Imperial War Museum in south London.

The Act of Remembrance began with a procession led by veterans’ associations to the Holocaust Memorial Tree and the Soviet War Memorial, followed by the laying of wreaths and floral tributes by the company that included four London mayors and a judge, military veteran organisations, representatives of the embassies of the Russian Federation, Belarus and Georgia, as well as local Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors, the NCP and the Communist Party of Britain. It closed, as always, with a minute’s silence and the Last Post.

Freedom and Justice for Palestine

By New Worker correspondent

London’s historic Conway Hall was packed with hundreds of solidarity activists taking part in the Annual General Meeting of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). Over 250 members came to central London last weekend to hear a panel of distinguished speakers including Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, and to spend the day shaping the PSC’s campaigning priorities for the year ahead.

Although much of the time was spent on non-contentious bread-and-butter issues there were some fireworks over a motion, proposed by Tony Greenstein, defending Baroness Tonge against the action of the Executive in forcing her resignation after remarks made in the aftermath of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suggesting that the Israel’s actions towards Palestinians may be reigniting anti-Semitism.

Tony, a life-long anti-Zionist expelled from the Labour Party on trumped up charges of “anti-Semitism” last year, said that Jenny Tonge’s treatment was cowardly and appalling. But his motion was lost by 89 votes to 129, with 22 abstentions. His bid to oust Ben Soffa, a Labour activist, from the Secretary’s post was also defeated by 103 votes to 67.

Delegates were entertained by a dance troupe trio from the Palestine Hawiya Dance Company just after the break – an excellent display of Palestinian culture.

Hands Off Venezuela!

By New Worker correspondent

Around 100 people ,including many from London’s Venezuelan and Latin American communities, joined thousands around the world on Tuesday to protest against the openly imperialist US attempt at regime change in Venezuela. The protesters gathered opposite Downing Street denounced the British government’s support for the ultimatum, along with France, Germany and Spain, demanding that the country hold elections within eight days. Speakers called for solidarity with Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro to be built up, and the protesters chanted “Hands Off Venezuela!”.