Standing together for the unemployed

by New Worker correspondent

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) campaigners picketed the Harlesden jobcentre last week to give out leaflets to claimants about the help KUWG can provide. The Group focuses primarily on combating benefits injustices through advocacy in individuals' benefit claims, and on demonstrations that emphasise that there is hope when we come together.
The KUWG recognises that the struggle of the employed and the unemployed is one and the same, but it also affirms that smear stories and marginalisation add to the isolation experienced by the unwaged. The campaign was started by Tom Mellish, a TUC official, some 15 years ago in collaboration with the Willesden Trades Council and it has been going ever since.

I.5 is Dead!

by New Worker correspondent

Two members of Just Stop Oil, the direct action climate campaign, were arrested last week after they spray-painted the words “1.5 is dead” on the grave of Charles Darwin in London’s Westminster Abbey. 
The protest followed the news that 2024 was the hottest year in human history, with the average global temperature rising by 1.6 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 
One protest organiser, Alyson Lee, told reporters “2024 was the hottest year on record. We have already passed through the 1.5 degree that was supposed to keep us safe. Millions are being displaced. California is on fire.  And three-quarters of all wildlife has disappeared since the 1970s”.
 Alyson, a 66 year-old retired teaching assistant from Derby, said “ten years on from the Paris Agreement, we have already exceeded the so-called safe temperature rise of 1.5 degrees, and are heading for over 3 degrees of warming. This rapidly accelerating crisis means huge parts of the world will become unable to support life, resulting in millions of refugees, social collapse and extinction for countless species”.
She believes Charles Darwin would approve of their protest “because he would be following the science, and he would be as upset as us with the government for ignoring the science”.
The other protester, Di Bligh, a 77 year-old former CEO of Reading Council said “Darwin once said ‘it is not the strongest of the species, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change, that lives within the means available and works cooperatively against common threats’.
“Last year was the hottest since modern humans evolved. If we do not work together to rein in the corporations and billionaires driving us beyond our means, humanity will not be able to adapt to what is coming. We are on course to lose everything, and politicians are doing nowhere near enough to prevent it. How many will we have to bury as a result of climate breakdown and who will be left to mourn them?”

Stop Ukrainian Nazism!

 

by Theo Russell

A candlelit vigil was held in Whitehall last Saturday to remember the thousands of journalists, bloggers, politicians, activists, priests, pensioners and sportspeople who have been arrested, and many tortured or murdered, since the February 2014 NATO-backed coup in Kiev.
The event was organised by the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), which has been campaigning for six years in solidarity with anti-fascists and democrats in Ukraine who have been arrested for opposing the war, organising Second World War commemorations, allegedly working with Russian forces such as organising humanitarian supplies or corridors, or simply for posts on social media.
In January 2024 Chilean-American blogger Gonzalo Lira died in prison in the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkov, where he had been imprisoned for eight months charged with “justifying Russia’s war efforts” in Ukraine. He had lived in Ukraine for many years with his family and was a globally known critic of the Zelensky regime.
Despite calls for his release from the likes of Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, the US government and their embassy in Kiev took no action to help him. The British and EU governments stayed silent too.
Only days after Lira’s death an 82-year-old citizen, Yuri Chernishov, received 15 years in prison with all his property seized – effectively a life sentence – on charges of sending information on Ukrainian troops to an alleged Russian contact. Footage from the courtroom shows him shouting at his jailers and branding them “fascists”.
Since 2014 Ukraine has been a corrupt and lawless state, with Banderite (Ukrainian fascist) organisations like the Azov Battalion and Hitler-admiring Right Sector. penetrating the army, police and intelligence services.
Many civilians have been beaten and tortured in secret prison camps where it’s common for them to be kept standing up in holes in the ground for days on end. The evidence is all available on the web in photos, videos and eyewitness accounts for anyone to find, but the Western mass media shows no interest.
There has never been any investigation into the killing of over 40 peaceful anti-fascist protesters when the Trade Unions House in Odessa was surrounded and petrol bombed by a mob of nationalists and football “ultras” on 2nd May 2014.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have received long prison sentences, with all their property confiscated, for “crimes” such as posting Soviet era greetings on social media, for continuing in their jobs as teachers, railway, gas and health workers in areas which were under the control of Russian forces.
After the Russian intervention in February 2022, areas recaptured by Ukrainian forces were “cleansed” by Kiev’s forces and far-right units, and many local officials and ordinary citizens were brutally murdered.
One such case was reported in March 2022 by the Daily Mail: “The pro-Russian mayor of a city in eastern Ukraine who welcomed President Vladimir Putin’s invasion was 'shot dead' after being kidnapped from his home. Several mayors and other Ukrainian officials have been killed since the outbreak of war, many reportedly by Ukrainian state agents after engaging in de-escalation talks with Russia”.
Many other local officials suffered the same fate, including in the town of Bucha, near Kiev, where the deaths of people shot by a punitive police unit led by a notorious Russian fascist were attributed to Russian forces in our media.
The whole world knows that since 2014 the new pro-NATO regime in Kiev has treated Russian-speaking Ukrainians as second-class citizens. Over 20 per cent of Ukrainians consider Russian their native language, but around 80 per cent also speak and read Russian.
Russian has been removed as an official language in Ukraine. Russian books, banned in all educational settings and libraries, have all been destroyed by the authorities

Free Gaza Medics!

by New Worker correspondent

Pro-Palestinian activists interrupted their seasonal celebrations to join an emergency vigil in London's West End on 28th December against the Israeli military's systematic destruction of hospitals in Gaza. The vigil in Piccadilly Circus was organised by the Health Workers 4 Palestine campaign that was co-founded by a group of doctors in October 2023 to combat the censorship they experienced, when standing up for the rights of Palestinian health workers and the rights of Palestinians to healthcare.
On 27th December Israeli troops raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last major health facility in Northern Gaza, removed all the patients and staff, and set fire to it. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of the hospital, was arrested and is still in Israeli detention.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a statement saying it was is appalled by the raid. "The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days on North Gaza puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk". The statement added that "some people were reportedly stripped and forced to walk toward southern Gaza". The Gaza Ministry of Health says that now all three public hospitals in Northern Gaza, the Kamal Adwan, Beit Hanoon and Indonesian hospitals, have been "taken out of service by Israel’s offensive". On 4th January WHO Director-General  chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency had received “no updates on the safety and wellbeing” of Hussam Abu Safia.

Sinn Fein: reunification “a marathon, not a sprint”

Chris Hazzard speaking

by Theo Russell

Sinn Fein MPs Pat Cullen and Chris Hazzard briefed their London supporters on the party’s future last Monday at a meeting in the House of Commons in Westminster, discussing the disappointing election results in the Irish Republic last month and prospects for ending the island’s partition.
Sinn Fein has fought four elections this year – two in the north of Ireland, a general election in the Republic, and European elections – an experience which Hazzard described as “very busy and stressful“. Sinn Fein is now the leading party in the North with Michelle O’Neill the First Minister of the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly. 
On the border question Hazzard said “All the parties in the Republic say they expect to see a united Ireland in the next ten years, but Fianna Fail and Fine Gael (who have run the Republic since 1945) are in no hurry to deliver this”.
Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin’s leader in the Republic, has had talks about reunification with Labour and the Social Democrats, who have 22 seats in the Dail between them.
Hazzard said Sinn Fein is “working well with the Labour Party left and other independent TDs, and we know that many Fianna Fail’s grass-roots members are unhappy with their leadership’s refusal to talk to Sinn Fein”.
Sinn Fein’s current policy on ending partition is based on discussion and dialogue to ensure that all parties, above all the Northern Unionists, feel included. Hazzard described it as “a marathon, not a sprint”.
He added that if the partition of Ireland ends “the North will automatically become part of the European Union, and there have already been some polls in the North in favour of reunification”.
In the 2020 Irish election Sinn Fein went from 23 to 37 seats – one seat below the winner, Fianna Fail – and may well have taken first place had it stood more candidates.
This was a totally unexpected success which shook the reactionary political establishment in the Republic, but in the November election Sinn Fein failed to follow through, gaining only two seats.
Hazzard put the party’s loss of 100,000 working class votes down to its policies on immigration and transgender rights. “In the working class areas of Dublin our vote didn’t desert to other parties, they just didn’t turn out for us”.
He pointed to the example of the Scottish National Party’s alienation of many of its voters because they saw the focus on transgender issues as irrelevant. “We need to understand working class views on transgender issues, and we didn’t appreciate the level of anger in working class communities over the handling of migrants”.
Since Brexit very large numbers of asylum seekers have entered the Irish Republic through the open border with the North, with an enormous impact on a country of only 5.4 million people.
Hazzard said “our government failed to put any system in place to deal with asylum seekers who were sent into poor working class areas. And people saw that they were being accommodated while nothing was done to help the many homeless Irish people in Dublin”.
“The ruling parties used the issue to create a wedge in the working class in the same way as Farage has done in England, but in the election Sinn Fein took the far right head on and they made no gains, they didn’t even come close”.
As so many times in its history, Sinn Fein is looking to move on from its setbacks in the Republic by learning the lessons and understanding the needs of working class people.

 

End Israeli Aggression!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) who were making the connection between the wars waged by NATO imperialism in Gaza and Ukraine at a Palestinian rally in Parliament Square last weekend. And throughout Europe tens of thousands of other protesters were also on the street condemning the ongoing Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip. Thousands participated in demonstrations in Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Utrecht, Milan, Aarhus and Geneva. And in London in support of the Palestinian people, and to demand a ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Stop arming Israel!

by New Worker correspondent

Over a 150,000 demonstrators marched through central London last weekend to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza and a halt to British arms supplies to the Zionist state. “This weekend, we marched once again in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Jeremy Corbyn said. The former Labour leader who now heads the Independent Alliance bloc in the House of Commons said “we sent a message to our government: if you knowingly supply weapons to a government whose leader is wanted for war crimes, the long arm of international law will extend to you too”. 
At the rally in Whitehall Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to Britain, thanked the crowd for turning out to demand justice for the Palestinians, “Your voices matter more than
they want you to believe” he said. Welcoming the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief
Yoav Gallant, the Palestinian envoy who represents the State of Palestine that runs the “autonomous zone in the West Bank said “these war criminals must be arrested. Their place is behind bars. Arrest them!”
The Starmer government signalled it would enforce the warrants if the wanted men arrived in British territory, but continues to allow arms exports to Israel to commit the crimes the ICC has judged to be indictable. Indeed, the Starmer Government refuses to describe Israel’s actions as a genocide, despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that that is plausibly the case. Last weekend’s march through the heart of the capital  showed the breadth and depth of the opposition to the government’s illogical and immoral position.

80 years of struggle

Do Minh Hung greets guests

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined diplomats, politicians and businessmen at a reception in central London held to mark the 80th anniversary of Vietnam’s People’s Army. Do Minh Hung. the Vietnamese ambassador, and defence attaché Colonel Vu Vinh Ha welcomed guests to the event at the National Army Museum in Chelsea which included a video presentation and a Vietnamese buffet.
During the formal part of the proceedings Ambassador Hung said Vietnam’s defence is of the people, by the people, for the people, with peaceful, independent, self-reliant, self-defensive characteristics and proactivity in preventing and addressing the risks of war.
He affirmed Vietnam’s “Four No’s” policy – not participating in military alliances, not affiliating with one country to oppose another, not allowing foreign countries to establish military bases or use Vietnamese territory to oppose other countries, and not using force or threatening to use force in international relations.
He stressed that defence diplomacy has become an important channel for building and strengthening strategic trust between the people’s government and its partners while expanding the nation’s friendship relations with the international community.
Colonel Vu Vinh Ha also addressed the gathering, expressing his honour to serve during a period of flourishing relations between the two nations and their defence ministries. He pledged to strengthen his office’s role as an advisory body and communication channel, facilitating bilateral cooperation opportunities and further enriching the Vietnam-UK strategic partnership.

Palestinians need your support

by New Worker correspondent

Thousands of workers and students across the country in their workplaces, colleges, and communities, were demanding an immediate ceasefire and an end to Britain’s complicity in Israel’s crimes this week. And the week of action in solidarity with Palestine ended on Friday with an international day of solidarity that was endorsed by the TUC and Unison.
The Palestinians need the solidarity of trade union members more than ever. “We are now over 400 days since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has ruled to be a plausible case of genocide that has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, displaced over 2 million and destroyed all of Gaza’s civil infrastructure – schools, hospitals and universities,” says Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, explains why 
“It is a genocide that is not diminishing in intensity, with Israel in the past few weeks embarking on the ethnic cleansing of all of the North of Gaza placing everyone still there, according to then UN, at risk of being killed.
“This week Save the Children released its latest report that carried the shocking fact that 130,000 children have been left without access to food and water in the North of Gaza since early October, as a result of Israel sealing the area and refusing access of aid. It also detailed that 40% of those killed in Gaza since October 2023 are children, the majority aged 5-9. 
“So right, now Palestinians need the solidarity of trade union members more than ever. What Palestinians demand of us to show meaningful solidarity is unchanged. It was expressed clearly by Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the Palestinian-led BDS movement at PSC’s recent trade union conference”. 
He said simply “what we ask of you is you do us no harm. This means you must campaign to end the complicity of your government which continues to arm Israel and offer it military and political support. Your public bodies – the universities and local government pension schemes which continue to invest in companies which support Israel’s oppression – and those companies and corporations themselves, like Barclays Bank, which invests in and provides financial services to companies arming Israel. The TUC support for the workplace day of action is important. As Israel continues to massacre Palestinians including children we need not just to be demonstrating in the streets but taking into every workplace the demand for action to end all of UK complicity with these crimes".

Halt escalation in Ukraine

by New Worker correspondent

Demonstrators were in Whitehall on Saturday protesting against the supply of British long range Storm Shadow missiles to the Ukrainians to fire the flames of NATO’s proxy war against Russia. The picket opposite the Prime Minister’s residence in Downing Street was organised by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign which has been supporting the people of the Donbas and the anti-fascist Ukrainian resistance on the street since 2014.
Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn’s Independent Alliance parliamentary bloc has sent out an open letter, endorsed by CND and some union leaders, condemning the use of the new missiles supplied by Britain and the United States to the Ukrainian regime and calling for an end to escalation and the start of negotiations with Russia to end the conflict in eastern Europe.
The letter that was published in the Guardian said “We are deeply concerned about the escalation in Ukraine. In response to British-made Storm Shadow missiles fired into Kursk, just days after Ukraine used the US’s army tactical missile systems (Atacms) to attack Bryansk, reports indicate that Russia has now launched intercontinental missiles into southern Ukraine. This rapid escalation seriously threatens an all-out military confrontation with Russia and Nato. The risk of a nuclear attack cannot be ruled out.
“The British government has to take responsibility for its actions and these terrible consequences. With hundreds of thousands already killed and injured, securing an end to this horrific conflict is crucial. We call on Joe Biden and Keir Starmer to halt this escalation and secure talks with Russia and Ukraine. Diplomacy and dialogue, not military escalation, are the only viable paths to a peaceful settlement in the region”.
The letter was signed by the five Independent Alliance MPs – Jeremy Corbyn, Ayoub Khan, Shockat Adam, Iqbal Mohamed, and Adnan Hussain, as well as maverick Labour MP Diane Abbott. Other endorsers included PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote, RMT President Alex Gordon, Lindsey German, the convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, CND general secretary Sophie Bolt and the musician Brian Eno.

The truth about Xinjiang

by New Worker correspondent

A meeting organised by Friends of Socialist China at the Marx Memorial Library in London last week heard eyewitness accounts from a group of activists, journalists, publishers and businesspeople from a tour of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the far west of China.
Xinjiang is the size of Iran with a population of 25 million and has, of course, been the target of a Western black propaganda op alleging slave labour and mass 're-education' camps, and the systematic suppression of Islam. It is a multi-ethnic region made up of 44 per cent Uygurs and 42 per cent Han Chinese as well as many other groups including Kazakhs, Mongols, Kirghiz and Tajiks.
There are 50 minority-language newspapers published in Xinjiang, including the Xinjiang Economic Daily, which is well known across China, and TV and radio are broadcast in the Mandarin, Uygur, Kazakh and Mongolian languages.
From the 1990s until around 2015 Western-backed terrorists waged an extremely violent campaign in Xinjiang that claimed the lives of thousands of civilians.
David Peat from Iskra Books said: “A major goal of the USA and its allies is to block the development of transport links through Xinjiang with China's ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. The West stepped up its propaganda and sanctions against China after President Obama's Asia Pivot, essentially when it was realised that the rapidly growing economic competition from China outweighed the massive profits Western businesses had made by outsourcing their factories to China.”
Ali Al-Assam from Friends of Socialist China said that: “The Jihadist terrorism began in Xinjiang at almost exactly the same time as in Iraq, and was linked to the massive promotion of the minority Wahhabist Muslim sect’s ideology around the world through finance and the training of Imams, including in Xinjiang.
“The Communist Party of China uses Marxism as a tool for uniting the people, and for 're-introducing' the unity which had already existed in the province.
“Traditional Islam has also been preserved in Xinjiang, where some of the world's largest Islamic libraries can be found. While Islam makes up just under 60 per cent of believers in Xinjiang, about a third are Buddhists, along with Daoist and Christian minorities.
“Trade unions in Britain have made a very important contribution towards engaging with China and countering the Western media’s lies and fake news about slave labour in Xinjiang.
“Many people in Muslim countries are aware of the West’s attempts to destabilise Xinjiang and make comparisons with the West’s imposition of wars and sanctions on the people of the Arab world.”
Roger McKenzie, International Editor of the Morning Star, said Xinjiang “was one of the most comfortable places I have ever been as a black person. We felt absolutely free to talk to anyone in the streets, markets and mosques”. He recounted experiencing racism in almost every country he had visited, including in every city he had visited in the USA.
"We saw a society trying to build a complete different society, one which most people in Britain wouldn't be able to understand. The media reports we see are straightforward lies and pure propaganda.
“Almost every day we saw huge festivals celebrating the different cultures of Xinjiang in the streets.
“Xinjiang is one of the least developed and poorest of China’s regions, and despite hundreds of billions of dollars in state investment, there is still a way to go. While the West projects fake news about Xinjiang, they don't seem to have any problems with slave labour in countries like the Republic of the Congo, where they are happy to invest huge sums in mineral extraction. But it’s important to remember that there are many on the left in Britain who support these fabricated claims.”
These accounts are fully supported in recent YouTube travel videos made by British visitors to Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi. While Urumqi looks similar to any modern world city, with a high level of use of social media and digital payments, these videos also show a thriving music and dance culture on the streets, both modern and traditional. 

The British volunteers who fought apartheid

by Theo Russell

A major new documentary has just been released and is now showing at community cinemas around the country. But The London Recruits is unlike any other documentary I've seen. In fact it is more nail biting than any thriller film I've seen, and extremely powerful and moving. It tells the story of the British volunteers who were recruited to travel to South Africa to distribute propaganda for the African National Congress (ANC), and to deliver funds.
The operation was mounted at an extremely difficult time for the struggle against the Western backed and armed Apartheid regime, when the ANC had been driven completely underground.
The regime's police were extremely brutal and anyone arrested was likely to face beatings, torture, and possible "accidental" death or execution for any involvement with the ANC. Its spies were everywhere, even in the black townships - and by the way even London was crawling with them at the time.
The ANC realised that the most urgent task was to tell the black masses that they and the struggle were still alive.
Under the leadership of Oliver Tambo, the ANC's leader in exile, and Ronnie Kasrils, a founding member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, they developed the technique of "bucket bombs" which scattered hundreds of ANC leaflets in areas where black South Africans congregated. Eventually they were able to set off multiple bombs on the same day in the main South African cities on the same day, creating an upsurge in the struggle and panic among the authorities. Some of the 'recruits' fell into the hands of the regime and faced torture and prison sentences.
The film expertly combines interviews, archive footage and re-enactments, but it needs to be pointed out that while Chris Hani – the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe (the ANC's armed wing) who was assassinated by a fascist Polish immigrant in 1993 – was played by an actor.
There is an excellent website for the film - londonrecruits.com/ - which also has a map of local screenings in England and Wales, and if you click on ‘GET INVOLVED’ you can receive updates on screenings and future releases. Catch this film if you can – it’s the best I’ve seen for several years.

Celebrating Red October!

Andy Brooks makes a point

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades and friends braved the weather on Saturday to mark the Russian revolution that was, undoubtedly, the greatest event in the 20th Century. Representatives from solidarity movements and members of the Chinese embassy gathered at the Party Centre to salute the Bolsheviks that established the first workers and peasants’ republic in November 1917.
Once again the New Worker print shop was transformed for a bar and buffet that paused only for the formal part of the social opened by Peter Hendy.
NCP leader Andy Brooks paid tribute to the achievements of the Soviet Union in the 20th Century. Other speakers included Keith Bennett from the Friends of Socialist China, Ian Donovan from the Consistent Democrats, British Posadist Marie Lynam and Theo Russell from the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement, while Peter Hendy read out a message from Dermot Hudson of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) who could not join us on the night.
Although the USSR and the people’s democracies of eastern Europe are no more, the spirit of 1917 lives on in China, Cuba, Democratic Korea, Vietnam and Laos, and in the hearts of communists throughout the world, a point stressed during the fighting fund appeal that raised £805 for the New Worker!

Let Our Fire Engine Through!

By New Worker correspondent

Members of the Fire Brigades Union joined Palestine Solidarity Campaign supporters for an evening protest at the Israeli Embassy in London on Monday with the demand “Let Our Fire Engine Through!”
A fully-equipped fire appliance together with fire kit, boots, breathing apparatus and fire helmets, was donated by firefighters from the city of Dundee to the Palestinian fire service in Nablus in the West Bank. It was driven from Scotland to Southampton in the summer to sail to Israel but it has been held at the Israeli port of Ashdod since 21st July.
Dundee has been twinned with Nablus since 1980, and medical kit from the city’s Ninewells hospital along with football kits from Dundee’s East Craigie Football Club were also donated. Over 100 Palestinian firefighters have learned firefighting skills in Scotland, and Gaza protests have been held in Dundee every week since October 2023. Retired Dundee firefighter Jim Malone has championed the cause of Palestinian firefighters for decades and has visited the West Bank seven times, and in 2015 an award-winning documentary, Firefighters Under Occupation, was made by south Wales firefighter Ciaran Gibbons with the FBU's support.
Matt Wrack, the FBU general secretary said “firefighters in Palestine are working to save lives in horrifying conditions. As humanitarians, we cannot stand by while lives are being lost. It is appalling that life-saving equipment donated by our members is being held by Israeli customs while Palestinian firefighters are in desperate need of resources.
“The Fire Brigades Union calls on the Israeli government to release the donated fire engine immediately, and for the UK government to take any necessary action to ensure this aid is delivered safely”.

Defend People's Korea!

 by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined protesters outside the BBC HQ in London on Tuesday calling for an end to the demonising of the DPR Korea by the state-owned broadcasting service. A letter of protest from the Korean Friendship Association to the Director-General and Management board of the BBC was handed to a member of the BBC staff.
Dermot Hudson, the Chair of KFA, said “we are here today to protest against the BBC’s persistent demonisation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) or People’s Korea. No country -apart from maybe Russia and the former Soviet Union – has been lied about more by the BBC than the DPRK. Recently, the BBC or British Brainwashing Corporation has tried to blame the DPRK over the conflict in Ukraine making false allegations and quoted unconfirmed rumours and misleading reports.
“The BBC is an official state broadcaster. It is not independent but run by the British government. It is closely linked to British imperialism and US imperialism…
“The BBC promotes the ideology of market totalitarianism and liberal fascism. The BBC is a tool of the ruling elite and the big monopoly corporations. What is disgusting is that not only does the BBC lie about People’s Korea but it expects us to pay for its lies in the form of the BBC licence fee which is £169 per year”.

Trump redux

The Second Coming of Donald Trump has come as no surprise to many on the American left who warned that the Harris camp ignored their traditional core voters at their peril. Workers and the ethnic minority communities that had long supported the Democrats in the past wanted to see plans to curb unemployment, halt the slump in living standards and an end to the slaughter in Gaza. All they got were the usual platitudes – the dismal tune of the dying Biden administration that had nothing to offer apart from more misery and more war. Some just sat on their hands or voted for protest candidates on Tuesday. Some even voted for Trump.
Not that we can expect much from Trump judging by the people who surround him. More tax breaks for the rich, more curbs on the unions and civil rights in general and sweeping tariffs that could plunge the rest of the capitalist world into deeper recession.
Much of this will be approved by the ruling circles in the United States. Most are not at all troubled by the return of the maverick property speculator turned politician who wiil be back in the White House in January. Some, however, are concerned at Trump’s “transactional” foreign policy stand which they call “isolationism” even though this reflects a long-standing trend within the Republican party. During the Nixon era this type of diplomatic bargaining was called “reciprocity” at Soviet-American summits that traded-off nuclear arms limitations with spheres of influence in what was then called the “Third World”. The Soviet Union and its allies were the “Second World” but the “First World” was never actually called that. It was the “Free World” led by the United States, the “land of the free” and the home of the “American dream” that we were all supposed to aspire to.
The real American dream, world domination, was only spelt out after the fall of the Soviet Union. The most venal and aggressive sections of the American ruling class called it the “new world order”. The deep state that pulls the strings across party lines in the United States launched a series of “regime change” wars and “colour revolutions” to bring down all those who stood in their way. But it didn’t quite work out the way that they planned.
Yugoslavia has gone, Libya is in ruins but the American attempt to overthrow the popular front government in Syria has failed. The Americans have been driven out of Afghanistan and they’ve lost control of Iraq. The wars in Palestine and Ukraine are going against them and the BRICs group, which includes Russia and People’s China, is fast becoming the new focus for economic development throughout the Global South.
Kamala Harris’ Democrats still believe in the ‘new world order’, though they now prefer to call it “globalisation”. Trump, on the other hand, represents circles in the Republican Party who want to cut back US military expenditure in Europe and north-east Asia so that they can concentrate on controlling the global energy market by taking over the entire Middle East and restoring US imperialism’s hegemony over south and central America,
Trump says he’ll end the war in Ukraine at a stroke when he’s back at the helm. But we’ve heard it all before over Korea. Though he promised much when he was last in the White House he still remained a prisoner of the most aggressive elements of the American ruling class. No one knows if it’s going to be different this time round.

No nukes at Lakenheath

by New Worker correspondent

Kate Hudson at the protest

Campaigners, led by CND, gathered outside the RAF camp at Lakenheath last Saturday to protest at US plans to store nuclear missiles at the base.
The plan, which was revealed in US military announcements in January 2024 was agreed by the previous UK Tory Government led by Rishi Sunak, but the incoming Labour administration, led by Keir Starmer has shown itself even more determined to escalate military tensions and conflicts around the world. Since the start of July, Starmer has pressed for the use of US and NATO weapons inside Russia itself, made a commitment to send money to Ukraine 'for as long as it takes', and doubled the number of RAF surveillance flights over Gaza, gathering information to assist Israeli forces in their ongoing genocide.
Since 2008 the RAF base at Lakenheath has been nuclear weapons free, and the news of their planned return mirrors the placement of Russian nukes in Belarus, threatening a return to the arms races of the Cold War period, which benefitted nobody except the weapons manufacturers.
Each bomb that the Americans plan to store at Lakenheath will have three times the explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb, and as well as the deliberate heightening of military and political tensions. The possibility of accidents also increases, where each device has the potential to turn the neighbouring countryside into a nuclear wasteland.  
On Saturday, CND were joined by other organisations such as Medact, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, and some Green Party representatives such as Dame Jenny Jones, their former candidate for London Mayor. Their messages were all in the same vein, the dangerous and reckless ratcheting up of international tensions, the dangerous and immoral nature of the weapons themselves, the dangers posed to the people of this country by the deeper entanglement of the UK into the US war machine, and not least the dangers of accidents. More than one speaker mentioned the inappropriateness of British politicians sabre-rattling and threatening wars when the state of this country is taken into consideration.
Kate Hudson, who is probably the best known anti-nuclear campaigner in this country stood down from her role as CND president the day before this protest, and is now the honorary president. We managed to get a few words with Kate who said "Why is Britain and the US interfering in the AUKUS agreement for example, why are we getting involved in the so called Indo-Pacific? Why are we sending war ships out there? It's absolutely wrong, and it's part of the US determination to remain the single superpower, and if they have to do it through military means, they will do it through military means, and that is the reality of the situation, and we in the peace movement are determined to stop that.
"We're almost already at the brink of nuclear war in Ukraine, there's a danger of nuclear weapons use in the Middle East, because Israel is a nuclear weapons state, the only one in the region. Some of their ministers have talked about using nuclear weapons in Gaza, during the genocide; it's a terrible, disastrous situation. And these are places that we have no business being in”.
Asked why Britain gives the appearance of being more aggressive than the USA regarding the Ukraine conflict, Kate attributed this to Britain's determination to stick close to American strategic and policy goals, a determination that has existed since the 1956 Suez conflict, which dramatically, and for once and for all identified the United States as the senior party in the imperialist alliance. Since then Britain has clung determinedly to the Americans’ coat tails, as their most loyal lieutenant and supporter.
Britain had entered the Korean War a few years previously to cement their alliance with the USA, the first time in centuries that British troops had been deployed in a conflict of no strategic interest to it, but entirely to support US policy. Some British politicians including Churchill had hoped it would be a partnership of equals, with British know-how and experience supplementing US strength and power, but Suez revealed them for the pipe-dreams they were.

Palestine will never surrender!

outside the US embassy

by New Worker correspondent

In a powerful display of solidarity, hundreds of thousands gathered in London on Saturday to demand justice for the Palestinians and an end to Zionist terror in the Middle East. Demonstrators also staged a “die-in” outside 10 Downing Street and left toys in memory of the Palestinian children butchered by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip. 
At the rally Maysara Ibrahim, representing the Palestinian Forum in Britain, told the protesters “I have run out of words, as we repeat the same agony and the same pain, while the darkness before us threatens the very existence of our values, our principles, and what remains of our humanity. Yet seeing you all today brings hope. We must not stop until we see Palestine free. We will not bow, we will not surrender, and we will continue our fight until our land is free, until Palestine is free from the river to the sea”.
The march stretched from Whitehall to the American embassy in Nine Elms sending a clear message to global leaders about the urgency of addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
There, protesters were still at the peace camp set up some weeks ago to draw attention to the US role in the genocide. The local response was heartening with residents providing supplies, such as chairs, blankets, and food – including hot meals for the camp in the evenings. The camp finally closed this week to allow the local campaigners to “take stock and build up energy” for their next action following the presidential election in the USA.
In a powerful display of solidarity, hundreds of thousands gathered in London on Saturday to demand justice for the Palestinians and an end to Zionist terror in the Middle East. Demonstrators also staged a “die-in” outside 10 Downing Street and left toys in memory of the Palestinian children butchered by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip.

Stopping the racists in London

by New Worker correspondent

Over 20,000 activists turned out in London last Saturday to confront the “Unite the Kingdom” protest by supporters of Tommy Robinson, the third major far right gathering in London since just before the riots in June.
The protest, part of a nationwide day of action, was called by Stand Up to Racism with the slogans “Stop Tommy Robinson – Stop the Far Right, unite against racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism”.
The march was backed by the TUC, 14 major trade unions, and many other organisations. Aslef leader Mick Whelan told the protestors at the start of the march in Piccadilly Circus “this is my London. This is who we are, what we stand for. Those people down the road do not speak for us”.
Originally billed as a triumphal appearance by Robinson in Trafalgar Square, the massively promoted and mis-named “Unite the Kingdom” march from Victoria to Parliament Square turned out to be a flop after he handed himself in at a police station in Folkestone last Friday. He had fled the UK the day before a High Court appearance in June and faces several charges.
His supporters waved Israeli flags and “Make America Great” banners, but their hour of glory completely failed to get off the ground. As the mass protests against the far right rioters in June showed, the anti-racist movement will always dwarf the far-right, which is only supported by a tiny minority of Britain’s people.

Stop the Genocide!

by Theo Russell

Tens of thousands of people across England, Wales and Scotland took to the streets last Saturday in support of the demands to Stop the Genocide, Hands Off Lebanon and Don't Attack Iran.
Over 30,000 people packed London's Trafalgar Square, carrying Palestinian and Lebanese flags. One of the speakers from the plinth beneath Nelson's Column pointed out that current opinion polls show that only five per cent of British citizens are opposed to an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, highlighting the huge gulf between the British people and the government --or to be specific, between the British people, the Labour and Conservative parties and the Unionist parties in the north of Ireland. All the other parties with members of the UK’s four parliaments have been calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire for many months now.
This is how Britain's ruling class blatantly defies the overwhelming will of the British people and makes a mockery of Britain's much vaunted 'democracy'.
People in Britain and around the world find it incredible that Israel has committed crimes under the Geneva Conventions – the indiscriminate targeting and collective punishment of civilians – for over a year with impunity. Now we see Israel killing thousands of civilians throughout Lebanon, a country not able to defend itself, and issuing diktats to residents ordering them to move or be bombed, with no condemnation from the leading Western countries.
More and more people are seeing the contradictions between Western outrage against actions by the Russian military in Ukraine and the free pass given to Israel to murder and starve civilians and bomb any country in the Middle East with no international mandate whatsoever.
And of course no politician or mainstream Western journalists is ever allowed to say a word about the Banderite Ukrainian junta’s military deliberately targeting civilians with missile attacks.