A GROUP of climate camp protesters who claim they suffered from violent police tactics during the G20 protests near the Bank of England are considering taking legal action against Scotland Yard.
Lawyers acting for the group have put the Metropolitan police on notice that they may launch a Judicial Review of the tactics used to contain demonstrations.
Activists who staged the Bishopsgate climate camp want an explanation of how the Metropolitan Police handled the controversial City of London events last month.
New pictures have added to the wealth of photos taken by demonstrators already published. They show one officer using his shield to hit out at demonstrators, who are sitting in the middle of the road. Another officer is seen apparently hitting out with his fist.
The climate campaigners' legal representatives are also demanding that senior officers provide a legal basis for the practice known as "kettling", where protesters are corralled into tight groups for extended periods of time.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
End the seige of Gaza!
By Robert Laurie
THOUSANDS of protesters took to the streets of London last Saturday in a march and rally organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to call for Israel to end its siege of Gaza and to remember the Nakba (massacre) of 1948, when Palestinians were thrown off their land to make way for the new state of Israel.
The march was backed by CND, Stop the War, the British Muslim Initiative and dozens more progressive organisations.
It was a colourful march with plenty of music and dancing along the way as it progressed from Malet Street, by the University of London, through Holborn and Archway to Trafalgar Square.
Speakers at the Trafalgar Square rally included MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Martin Linton and George Galloway; Daud Abdullah, the deputy general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, Jean Lambert MEP, Jenny Tonge MEP, Manuel Hassassian – Palestinian General Delegate to the UK, Alexei Sayle and speakers from PSC, Stop the War Coalition, British Muslim Initiative, CND, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Viva Palestina, Jews for Justice for Palestine, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights and others.
THOUSANDS of protesters took to the streets of London last Saturday in a march and rally organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to call for Israel to end its siege of Gaza and to remember the Nakba (massacre) of 1948, when Palestinians were thrown off their land to make way for the new state of Israel.
The march was backed by CND, Stop the War, the British Muslim Initiative and dozens more progressive organisations.
It was a colourful march with plenty of music and dancing along the way as it progressed from Malet Street, by the University of London, through Holborn and Archway to Trafalgar Square.
Speakers at the Trafalgar Square rally included MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Martin Linton and George Galloway; Daud Abdullah, the deputy general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, Jean Lambert MEP, Jenny Tonge MEP, Manuel Hassassian – Palestinian General Delegate to the UK, Alexei Sayle and speakers from PSC, Stop the War Coalition, British Muslim Initiative, CND, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Viva Palestina, Jews for Justice for Palestine, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights and others.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Victory Day in London
by Daphne Liddle
SEVERAL hundred people gathered at the Soviet war memorial in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park in south London to mark the anniversary of the Red Army’s Victory Day on 9th May 1945.
Last Saturday was also the 10th anniversary of the memorial in the grounds of the Imperial War Museum.
The mayor of Southwark, Councillor Eliza Mann welcomed the biggest attendance ever at this annual event, organised by the Soviet Memorial Trust Fund (SMTF) included for the first time three Soviet Navy veterans from Archangel, who had worked alongside the veterans from the Arctic Convoy Club – regular participants at this event.
There was also a very large contingent from the Russian Embassy School in London, showing that the younger generation is very much aware of the sacrifice made by the Soviet armed forces in delivering the world from the threat of Nazi domination.
The usual representatives from the embassies of former Soviet republics were there in force, along with veterans’ organisations like the Arctic Convoy Club, the British Legion, the International Brigade Association, local MP Simon Hughes, Robert Wareing MP from the All-Party British-Russian Parliamentary Group, trade union representatives, and political and cultural groups like the New Communist Party, the British Vietnam Association and the Marx Memorial Library.
Russian Ambassador Yuri Fedotov paid tribute to the work of the SMTF in raising and maintaining the memorial. “We should be building memorials to keep the memory alive for coming generations. Not tearing them down as they are doing in some places,” he said.
After the formal wreath laying, which left the large inscribed stone in front of the memorial completely carpeted with flowers, Polina Baranova, a pupil at the Russian Embassy School sang a haunting Russian folk song, Zhuvrali or the Cranes.
The song dates from the Great Patriotic War and relates the legend that dead soldiers are returning as white cranes. Polina sang unaccompanied with a beautiful voice and a delivery that would be expected of a much older, professional singer. She is only 12-years-old.
Then followed the Last Post and the exhortation “We will remember them”, delivered by a British Legion Veteran and the two minutes’ silence.
These veterans, carrying their banners, marched off to the “stand down” just outside the refreshment tent, where the Russian Ambassador invited everyone to join him in a toast to victory.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Strange Tulip
By our Industrial Affairs correspondent
Some New Labour supporters are backing a new international pressure group called Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine (Tulip), that claims to support peace in the Middle East by opposing the boycott of Israeli goods and aiming “to challenge the apologists for Hamas and Hizbollah in the labour movement”.
Tulip was launched last week and it is supported by the leaders of three unions – Paul Howes, National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union; Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (US/Canada); and Michael Leahy, General Secretary of Community, a small British trade union whose major claim to fame is that Gordon Brown is one of its members.
Tulip makes remarkably dovish claims about past Israeli governments and equates the growing boycott Israel campaign with anti-semitism. It was welcomed by Jeremy Newmark of the Stop the Boycott campaign, who said: “Tulip is a practical initiative which shows that trade unions use their power in good ways, bringing Israelis and Palestinians together and improving lives — a contrast with those unions that have adopted divisive boycotts.” But though it has attracted a number of long-standing campaigners for Israel it has yet to gain any meaningful support from any Palestinian organisations.
Comrades from the South East London Link with Beit Furik are convinced this organisation is doing exactly what the Israeli government would want to counter the very effective campaigning that has been going on in Britain by supporters of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, especially in regard to the boycott. It cannot possibly deliver a just peace for the Palestinians and can only prolong the illegal occupation.
Claiming to support peace and to be left wing, this organisation could spread confusion among naïve trade unionists.
One campaigner told the New Worker: “I’m sure this is because we are being so successful. This time last year none of the big supermarket chains would even reply to our letters. Now they are agreeing to meetings.
“We have been pointing out that selling goods produced in illegally occupied land is contrary to international law.
“Now the supermarkets are saying they are willing to stock goods from Palestine, properly labelled with the money going back to the Palestinian farmers.
“And since the attack on Gaza at the beginning of this year they are getting a lot of customer pressure to boycott Israeli goods.”
“I’m not worried about this new organisation. I don’t think many will be taken in by it. It is just a measure of how successful we are being.”
Some New Labour supporters are backing a new international pressure group called Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine (Tulip), that claims to support peace in the Middle East by opposing the boycott of Israeli goods and aiming “to challenge the apologists for Hamas and Hizbollah in the labour movement”.
Tulip was launched last week and it is supported by the leaders of three unions – Paul Howes, National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union; Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (US/Canada); and Michael Leahy, General Secretary of Community, a small British trade union whose major claim to fame is that Gordon Brown is one of its members.
Tulip makes remarkably dovish claims about past Israeli governments and equates the growing boycott Israel campaign with anti-semitism. It was welcomed by Jeremy Newmark of the Stop the Boycott campaign, who said: “Tulip is a practical initiative which shows that trade unions use their power in good ways, bringing Israelis and Palestinians together and improving lives — a contrast with those unions that have adopted divisive boycotts.” But though it has attracted a number of long-standing campaigners for Israel it has yet to gain any meaningful support from any Palestinian organisations.
Comrades from the South East London Link with Beit Furik are convinced this organisation is doing exactly what the Israeli government would want to counter the very effective campaigning that has been going on in Britain by supporters of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, especially in regard to the boycott. It cannot possibly deliver a just peace for the Palestinians and can only prolong the illegal occupation.
Claiming to support peace and to be left wing, this organisation could spread confusion among naïve trade unionists.
One campaigner told the New Worker: “I’m sure this is because we are being so successful. This time last year none of the big supermarket chains would even reply to our letters. Now they are agreeing to meetings.
“We have been pointing out that selling goods produced in illegally occupied land is contrary to international law.
“Now the supermarkets are saying they are willing to stock goods from Palestine, properly labelled with the money going back to the Palestinian farmers.
“And since the attack on Gaza at the beginning of this year they are getting a lot of customer pressure to boycott Israeli goods.”
“I’m not worried about this new organisation. I don’t think many will be taken in by it. It is just a measure of how successful we are being.”
May Day in London and Manchester
By Mervyn Drage
Thousands of working people took the day off on Friday to take part in London’s traditional May Day march and rally. As usual the crowd was swelled by communists from the Turkish and Kurdish community in the capital who marched with the rest from the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square to hear trade unionists, pensioners’ campaigners and John McDonnell, the leader of the Labour Representation Committee celebrate international workers’ day and call for socialism.
McDonnell welcomed the victory of the Visteon Ford workers who have now won enhanced redundancy terms after a wave of strikes, pickets and occupations. "The Visteon workers have, through their struggle, achieved a just settlement. They are an example to us all," he said adding: "If we need a general strike to move forward, why don't we call for one? What are we afraid of?"
Manchester’s annual May Day parade, organised by the local trades council and local anti-racist and community groups, took place three days later on the bank holiday and thousands responded to the call turn out with their colourful banners on a beautiful sunny day. Attempts by supporters of the fascist British National Party to disrupt the parade slightly delayed the start but they were escorted away by the police and there were no arrests. The rest of the day was peaceful and the protest took place without any further incidents.
The organisers used the protest to demonstrate against the capitalist slump, to fight for full employment, equality at work and in favour of the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers. The organisers also used the opportunity to bring attention to forthcoming local and European elections, urging people to vote wisely and say no to the BNP.
At the rally in Castlefield, the main speaker was Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the Communications Workers Union; there were also speakers from: Unite Against Fascism, Asylum Seekers and Migrant Workers Support Groups, several trade unions and unemployed workers. At the Rally there were many trade union and campaign stalls.An excellent variety of free music followed from bands as diverse as: Claire Mooney, Alun Parry, The Score, Toxteth Rebel, Alliance and Sargasso Township.
Geoffrey Brown, Secretary of Manchester Trades Union Council, commented: “This is the deepest recession in 70 years, workers across Britain are angry and concerned. We want the right to work for all, including refugees, migrant workers and people coming to this country seeking asylum”. New Workers were sold throughout and NCP leaflets distributed.
Thousands of working people took the day off on Friday to take part in London’s traditional May Day march and rally. As usual the crowd was swelled by communists from the Turkish and Kurdish community in the capital who marched with the rest from the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square to hear trade unionists, pensioners’ campaigners and John McDonnell, the leader of the Labour Representation Committee celebrate international workers’ day and call for socialism.
McDonnell welcomed the victory of the Visteon Ford workers who have now won enhanced redundancy terms after a wave of strikes, pickets and occupations. "The Visteon workers have, through their struggle, achieved a just settlement. They are an example to us all," he said adding: "If we need a general strike to move forward, why don't we call for one? What are we afraid of?"
Manchester’s annual May Day parade, organised by the local trades council and local anti-racist and community groups, took place three days later on the bank holiday and thousands responded to the call turn out with their colourful banners on a beautiful sunny day. Attempts by supporters of the fascist British National Party to disrupt the parade slightly delayed the start but they were escorted away by the police and there were no arrests. The rest of the day was peaceful and the protest took place without any further incidents.
The organisers used the protest to demonstrate against the capitalist slump, to fight for full employment, equality at work and in favour of the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers. The organisers also used the opportunity to bring attention to forthcoming local and European elections, urging people to vote wisely and say no to the BNP.
At the rally in Castlefield, the main speaker was Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the Communications Workers Union; there were also speakers from: Unite Against Fascism, Asylum Seekers and Migrant Workers Support Groups, several trade unions and unemployed workers. At the Rally there were many trade union and campaign stalls.An excellent variety of free music followed from bands as diverse as: Claire Mooney, Alun Parry, The Score, Toxteth Rebel, Alliance and Sargasso Township.
Geoffrey Brown, Secretary of Manchester Trades Union Council, commented: “This is the deepest recession in 70 years, workers across Britain are angry and concerned. We want the right to work for all, including refugees, migrant workers and people coming to this country seeking asylum”. New Workers were sold throughout and NCP leaflets distributed.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Tolpuddle remembered in London
By Robert Laurie
One hundred and seventy five years ago, in 1834, six farm labourers from the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset were transported to Australia for daring to form a trade union. Mass protests calling for their release took place. One of these was the 100,000 strong "Grand Demonstration" which took place that year from Copenhagen Fields in north London to present a 200,000 signature petition to Parliament before a rally at Kennington Common in south London. The Government bowed to mass pressure and five of the martyrs were released in 1836 and the sixth freed the following year.
An annual TUC sponsored march and festival is held in Tolpuddle in July. But this year commemorations kicked off early with a new festival in London.
It began, last Saturday, near the original starting point of that historic march that launched the campaign which eventually led to the men's release. Following a march to a small community park, Islington mayor Stefan Kasprzyk opened the proceedings before an number of folk singers, including Billy Bragg entertained the crowd.
Local Labour MP Emily Thornberry and TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady addressed the crowds which enjoyed the warm sunshine. Chris Kaufman, National Secretary of Unite the Union's Agricultural section (pictured) spoke about present day conditions for agricultural workers. While much has been improved, including the abolition of tied cottages, the life of present day agricultural workers is still a hard one.
One hundred and seventy five years ago, in 1834, six farm labourers from the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset were transported to Australia for daring to form a trade union. Mass protests calling for their release took place. One of these was the 100,000 strong "Grand Demonstration" which took place that year from Copenhagen Fields in north London to present a 200,000 signature petition to Parliament before a rally at Kennington Common in south London. The Government bowed to mass pressure and five of the martyrs were released in 1836 and the sixth freed the following year.
An annual TUC sponsored march and festival is held in Tolpuddle in July. But this year commemorations kicked off early with a new festival in London.
It began, last Saturday, near the original starting point of that historic march that launched the campaign which eventually led to the men's release. Following a march to a small community park, Islington mayor Stefan Kasprzyk opened the proceedings before an number of folk singers, including Billy Bragg entertained the crowd.
Local Labour MP Emily Thornberry and TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady addressed the crowds which enjoyed the warm sunshine. Chris Kaufman, National Secretary of Unite the Union's Agricultural section (pictured) spoke about present day conditions for agricultural workers. While much has been improved, including the abolition of tied cottages, the life of present day agricultural workers is still a hard one.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Policing changes
NEW REVELATIONS of police brutality at the G20 demonstrations in the City of London continue to emerge: one woman hit across the face and then struck with a baton; a man knocked to the ground with a police shield and a young woman knocked unconscious by a baton.
A third post mortem has been ordered for Ian Tomlinson who died after being assaulted and hurled to the ground while he was trying to make his way home from work and found his way barred by police cordons. The first post mortem said he died from a heart attack; the second said he died from internal bleeding.
The press is in an uproar, full of pictures of riot police with batons raised and identity numbers covered.
Many veteran political activists, along with some of the police themselves, will be wondering what all the fuss is about. All these police tactics have been used for decades – if not centuries. Certainly in the 1960s police used the “kettling” technique against demonstrators outside Rhodesia House, protesting against the racist colonialist regime of Ian Smith in what is now Zimbabwe.
Back then demonstrators expected to be hit by police and come away with quite serious injuries. But only other political activists and Black and Irish Londoners would believe it. The media insisted that “our bobbies” were all “wonderful” and middle class people believed it.
In the 1970s two anti-fascist demonstrators – Kevin Gately in Red Lion Square and Blair Peach in Southall – were murdered by violent police. There was some outrage then at police brutality but after lengthy inquiries, officialdom announced that Kevin Gately had “an unusually thin skull” and had unknowingly been walking about in danger of dying from the slightest tap on the head all his life and Blair Peach’s death was similarly something the police could not reasonably have expected. No police were ever prosecuted.
In the 1980s the Wapping printers and the miners learned at first hand just how brutal British bobbies can be. In the early 90s police engineered frightening clashes with anti-poll tax demonstrators to discourage newly politicised first-time protesters.
Seasoned marchers learned to distinguish the regular police who walked alongside the marchers and the elite special riot squads like the Territorial Support Group (TSG). They were notorious for being hot-headed young thugs in uniform, who hid their identity numbers and enjoyed trying to strike terror into any political activists. They were also notorious for racism and driving around north London in vans looking for black youths to assault for “suspicious behaviour”.
But in the lat 1990s there was a change – at least in London. The Stephen Lawrence inquiry put policing under the spotlight and Ken Livingstone was elected Mayor of London.
The change was noticed first by leftwing photographers like the late Mike Cohen, who suddenly found police at demonstrations being polite and civil. For about a decade there were no serious violent clashes between any demonstrations and police. The policing of protests was limited to making sure marchers did not inadvertently wander into the path of oncoming traffic; it became possible to chat to the police officers alongside the marches. It all became very civilised and remote from the real class struggle.
But a year ago Ken Livingstone lost his seat to Tory Boris Johnson. Once of Johnson’s first acts was to get rid of Metropolitan Police chief Ian Blair – a blatantly political act that pleased the rightwing dinosaurs at the top of the Met. The first Stop the War demonstration after that showed the big change in policing policy – everything went back to the bad old days.
But there is now a major difference. Modern technology has allowed the police to watch our every movement – but it also allows us to scrutinise them. Now reports of police brutality have to be believed and many middle class Telegraph and Daily Mail readers are quite surprised and think police violence and tactics are something new.
It’s a fair bet that, after all the lengthy inquiries, no police will ever be prosecuted. They may get a mild talking to for hiding their ID numbers. But the state – now it is feeling under pressure from rising working class anger at the economic collapse – is not going to go back to the gentler policing of Ken Livingstone’s time. The state is going to be more overtly brutal, it has no choice.
But the hundreds of cameras carried now by demonstrators and open access to post images on the web where they can be viewed around the globe mean there will no longer be any illusions about it. The ruling class hopes this will deter protesters but history suggests it will politicise and activate young workers.
A third post mortem has been ordered for Ian Tomlinson who died after being assaulted and hurled to the ground while he was trying to make his way home from work and found his way barred by police cordons. The first post mortem said he died from a heart attack; the second said he died from internal bleeding.
The press is in an uproar, full of pictures of riot police with batons raised and identity numbers covered.
Many veteran political activists, along with some of the police themselves, will be wondering what all the fuss is about. All these police tactics have been used for decades – if not centuries. Certainly in the 1960s police used the “kettling” technique against demonstrators outside Rhodesia House, protesting against the racist colonialist regime of Ian Smith in what is now Zimbabwe.
Back then demonstrators expected to be hit by police and come away with quite serious injuries. But only other political activists and Black and Irish Londoners would believe it. The media insisted that “our bobbies” were all “wonderful” and middle class people believed it.
In the 1970s two anti-fascist demonstrators – Kevin Gately in Red Lion Square and Blair Peach in Southall – were murdered by violent police. There was some outrage then at police brutality but after lengthy inquiries, officialdom announced that Kevin Gately had “an unusually thin skull” and had unknowingly been walking about in danger of dying from the slightest tap on the head all his life and Blair Peach’s death was similarly something the police could not reasonably have expected. No police were ever prosecuted.
In the 1980s the Wapping printers and the miners learned at first hand just how brutal British bobbies can be. In the early 90s police engineered frightening clashes with anti-poll tax demonstrators to discourage newly politicised first-time protesters.
Seasoned marchers learned to distinguish the regular police who walked alongside the marchers and the elite special riot squads like the Territorial Support Group (TSG). They were notorious for being hot-headed young thugs in uniform, who hid their identity numbers and enjoyed trying to strike terror into any political activists. They were also notorious for racism and driving around north London in vans looking for black youths to assault for “suspicious behaviour”.
But in the lat 1990s there was a change – at least in London. The Stephen Lawrence inquiry put policing under the spotlight and Ken Livingstone was elected Mayor of London.
The change was noticed first by leftwing photographers like the late Mike Cohen, who suddenly found police at demonstrations being polite and civil. For about a decade there were no serious violent clashes between any demonstrations and police. The policing of protests was limited to making sure marchers did not inadvertently wander into the path of oncoming traffic; it became possible to chat to the police officers alongside the marches. It all became very civilised and remote from the real class struggle.
But a year ago Ken Livingstone lost his seat to Tory Boris Johnson. Once of Johnson’s first acts was to get rid of Metropolitan Police chief Ian Blair – a blatantly political act that pleased the rightwing dinosaurs at the top of the Met. The first Stop the War demonstration after that showed the big change in policing policy – everything went back to the bad old days.
But there is now a major difference. Modern technology has allowed the police to watch our every movement – but it also allows us to scrutinise them. Now reports of police brutality have to be believed and many middle class Telegraph and Daily Mail readers are quite surprised and think police violence and tactics are something new.
It’s a fair bet that, after all the lengthy inquiries, no police will ever be prosecuted. They may get a mild talking to for hiding their ID numbers. But the state – now it is feeling under pressure from rising working class anger at the economic collapse – is not going to go back to the gentler policing of Ken Livingstone’s time. The state is going to be more overtly brutal, it has no choice.
But the hundreds of cameras carried now by demonstrators and open access to post images on the web where they can be viewed around the globe mean there will no longer be any illusions about it. The ruling class hopes this will deter protesters but history suggests it will politicise and activate young workers.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Justice for Tomlinson
HUNDREDS of protesters marched through central London last Saturday to demand a full inquiry and justice after the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 demonstrations on 1st April.
Tomlinson was on his way home from work as a newspaper seller when he found police cordons near the Bank of England – aimed to G20 protesters penned in – were blocking his way to the hostel where he lived.
He was found collapsed on the street and died of a heart attack. Initially police reported that he was one of the demonstrators and that he had had no contact with the police.
His family appealed for witnesses and many came forward, including one who had taken video footage of a police officers striking Tomlinson from behind and pushing him forcefully to the ground.
Tomlinson had been walking away from the police cordon with his hands in his pockets – clearly annoyed but in no way threatening the police.
Other witnesses claim they saw a previous confrontation where police had assaulted Tomlinson when he asked to be allowed through a cordon.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has taken over the inquiry into Tomlinson’s death and his family are concerned that this means there will probably be no inquest or action against guilty police officers for three years.
Last Saturday black-clad marchers, some carrying placards reading "Who killed Ian Tomlinson?" marched through the capital before laying flowers and lighting candles at the spot where Tomlinson died.
"We are hopeful that the IPCC will fulfil their duty to carry out a full investigation into his death and that action will be taken against any police officer who contributed to Ian's death through misconduct," Tomlinson's stepson Paul King told the marchers.
"We may have a long and difficult process ahead of us in getting justice," he said.
Tomlinson was on his way home from work as a newspaper seller when he found police cordons near the Bank of England – aimed to G20 protesters penned in – were blocking his way to the hostel where he lived.
He was found collapsed on the street and died of a heart attack. Initially police reported that he was one of the demonstrators and that he had had no contact with the police.
His family appealed for witnesses and many came forward, including one who had taken video footage of a police officers striking Tomlinson from behind and pushing him forcefully to the ground.
Tomlinson had been walking away from the police cordon with his hands in his pockets – clearly annoyed but in no way threatening the police.
Other witnesses claim they saw a previous confrontation where police had assaulted Tomlinson when he asked to be allowed through a cordon.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has taken over the inquiry into Tomlinson’s death and his family are concerned that this means there will probably be no inquest or action against guilty police officers for three years.
Last Saturday black-clad marchers, some carrying placards reading "Who killed Ian Tomlinson?" marched through the capital before laying flowers and lighting candles at the spot where Tomlinson died.
"We are hopeful that the IPCC will fulfil their duty to carry out a full investigation into his death and that action will be taken against any police officer who contributed to Ian's death through misconduct," Tomlinson's stepson Paul King told the marchers.
"We may have a long and difficult process ahead of us in getting justice," he said.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Police accused over demo death
by Daphne Liddle
LIBERAL Democrat MPs are demanding a full criminal inquiry into the death of Ian Tomlinson who died of a heart attack after being assaulted by the police during last week’s G20 protests in the City of London.
Tomlinson, a 47 year old newsagent, wasn’t a demonstrator. He was simply going home from work through police cordons and crowds of protesters when he was floored by riot police. The Guardian newspaper has obtained video footage of the attack showing Tomlinson being hit from behind by a partially-masked cop as he walked away from a police line with his hands in his pockets. It had been filmed by a New York hedge-fund manager who gave it to the paper after seeing an appeal for information from Tomlinson’s family.
The film shows Tomlinson being brought down by a baton-wielding riot cop; being helped up by a protester and then arguing angrily with police officers.
A few moments after the film was taken Tomlinson got up and walked on then suddenly collapsed and died a few yards away outside the Bank of England.
Others eye-witnesses say that the assault caught on video was the second time that Tomlinson had been knocked to the ground by police. They say that Tomlinson had approached a police cordon, hoping to be allowed through because he had nothing to do with the protests, but that he was knocked to the ground and beaten by police.
The initial police reaction to his death was to claim that they had had no contact with Tomlinson and that protesters had prevented them from giving first aid as he lay collapsed on the pavement.
This brings back memories of Jean Charles de Menezes and suggests that the first reaction of police is to lie when a member of the public dies at their hands.
It had been a day full of demonstrations and protests throughout London around the G20 summit. Four marches, each led by a “horseman of the apocalypse” representing war, land seizure, financial crimes and climate chaos, had converged on London’s financial centre.
Back in Westminster around 7,000 had supported the Stop the War protest at the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square and then marched to Trafalgar Square for a rally.
The anti-capitalist protests kicked off with the massive union-backed ‘Put People First” march on the eve of the G20 summit the previous Saturday. The bourgeois media and the police had hyped-up the fear of ‘anarchist’ violence. Tens of thousands of police were drafted into the capital and shopkeepers boarded up in preparation. But the day passed over with little violence and few arrests.
But on that fateful Wednesday the police decided to use a familiar tactic to discourage the demonstrators from future action. As the protesters started to make their way home the police forced them back into small enclaves where they were penned and forced to stand for hours with no access to food, water or toilets. Demonstrators started to verbally abuse the police. It was at this time that Ian Tomlinson began his fatal walk home.
After viewing the video of the police assault, Liberal Democrat Shadow Justice Minister David Howarth said the footage showed a “sickening and unprovoked attack”. He has called for the police officers involved to come forward.
The Guardian has collected a dossier of statements and photos, including the video footage that it intends to hand to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
It also includes a sequence of photographs, taken by three people, showing the aftermath of the attack, as well as eye-witness statements including time and date-stamped photographs which substantiate their accounts.
Anna Branthwaite, a photographer, described how in the minutes before the video was shot, she saw Tomlinson walking towards Cornhill Street.
“A riot police officer had already grabbed him and was pushing him,” she said. “It wasn’t just pushing him – he’d rushed him. He went to the floor and he did actually roll. That was quite noticeable.
“It was the force of the impact. He bounced on the floor. It was a very forceful knocking down from behind. The officer hit him twice with a baton when he was lying on the floor.
“So it wasn’t just that the officer had pushed him – it became an assault. And then the officer picked him up from the back, continued to walk or charge with him, and threw him.
“He was running and stumbling. He didn’t turn and confront the officer or anything like that.”
The IPCC is now investigating the death but previous experience shows that this is often a way of burying the issue for months if not years while putting a gag on all information around the case.
LIBERAL Democrat MPs are demanding a full criminal inquiry into the death of Ian Tomlinson who died of a heart attack after being assaulted by the police during last week’s G20 protests in the City of London.
Tomlinson, a 47 year old newsagent, wasn’t a demonstrator. He was simply going home from work through police cordons and crowds of protesters when he was floored by riot police. The Guardian newspaper has obtained video footage of the attack showing Tomlinson being hit from behind by a partially-masked cop as he walked away from a police line with his hands in his pockets. It had been filmed by a New York hedge-fund manager who gave it to the paper after seeing an appeal for information from Tomlinson’s family.
The film shows Tomlinson being brought down by a baton-wielding riot cop; being helped up by a protester and then arguing angrily with police officers.
A few moments after the film was taken Tomlinson got up and walked on then suddenly collapsed and died a few yards away outside the Bank of England.
Others eye-witnesses say that the assault caught on video was the second time that Tomlinson had been knocked to the ground by police. They say that Tomlinson had approached a police cordon, hoping to be allowed through because he had nothing to do with the protests, but that he was knocked to the ground and beaten by police.
The initial police reaction to his death was to claim that they had had no contact with Tomlinson and that protesters had prevented them from giving first aid as he lay collapsed on the pavement.
This brings back memories of Jean Charles de Menezes and suggests that the first reaction of police is to lie when a member of the public dies at their hands.
It had been a day full of demonstrations and protests throughout London around the G20 summit. Four marches, each led by a “horseman of the apocalypse” representing war, land seizure, financial crimes and climate chaos, had converged on London’s financial centre.
Back in Westminster around 7,000 had supported the Stop the War protest at the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square and then marched to Trafalgar Square for a rally.
The anti-capitalist protests kicked off with the massive union-backed ‘Put People First” march on the eve of the G20 summit the previous Saturday. The bourgeois media and the police had hyped-up the fear of ‘anarchist’ violence. Tens of thousands of police were drafted into the capital and shopkeepers boarded up in preparation. But the day passed over with little violence and few arrests.
But on that fateful Wednesday the police decided to use a familiar tactic to discourage the demonstrators from future action. As the protesters started to make their way home the police forced them back into small enclaves where they were penned and forced to stand for hours with no access to food, water or toilets. Demonstrators started to verbally abuse the police. It was at this time that Ian Tomlinson began his fatal walk home.
After viewing the video of the police assault, Liberal Democrat Shadow Justice Minister David Howarth said the footage showed a “sickening and unprovoked attack”. He has called for the police officers involved to come forward.
The Guardian has collected a dossier of statements and photos, including the video footage that it intends to hand to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
It also includes a sequence of photographs, taken by three people, showing the aftermath of the attack, as well as eye-witness statements including time and date-stamped photographs which substantiate their accounts.
Anna Branthwaite, a photographer, described how in the minutes before the video was shot, she saw Tomlinson walking towards Cornhill Street.
“A riot police officer had already grabbed him and was pushing him,” she said. “It wasn’t just pushing him – he’d rushed him. He went to the floor and he did actually roll. That was quite noticeable.
“It was the force of the impact. He bounced on the floor. It was a very forceful knocking down from behind. The officer hit him twice with a baton when he was lying on the floor.
“So it wasn’t just that the officer had pushed him – it became an assault. And then the officer picked him up from the back, continued to walk or charge with him, and threw him.
“He was running and stumbling. He didn’t turn and confront the officer or anything like that.”
The IPCC is now investigating the death but previous experience shows that this is often a way of burying the issue for months if not years while putting a gag on all information around the case.
No sweat at primark?
THE CAMPAIGN group, No Sweat, last week staged a demonstration outside the London flagship shop of Primark, the high-street clothing chain, as part of a protest at sweatshop labour used in making the discount garments.
Models dressed in chains paraded on a catwalk outside the shop in Oxford Street, demanding “decent working conditions and a living wage” for garment workers. A Primark spokesperson insisted: “We obviously share and recognise many of the concerns raised.”
The company claims that it fired suppliers whom the BBC’s Panorama found used child labour. But the secretary of No Sweat, Mick Duncan, said this was not good enough. He said: “We don’t want them to walk away – we want them to take responsibility for their workers and make sure their conditions are improved.
“No Sweat isn’t calling on consumers to boycott chains like Primark, but instead to put pressure on them to clean up their act. These companies make huge profits and have a duty to ensure a fair wage.”
The protest was backed by comedian Mark Thomas, who said it was in the interest of British workers to campaign for better wages for their colleagues overseas. He said: “If workers abroad are being badly exploited, that means that the conditions of workers in the UK are also being undercut.
“It’s about raising the standard for everyone.”
Friday, April 03, 2009
Tinkering with the system won't work
By our European Affairs correspondent
American President Barack Obama stressed the "sense of urgency" needed to confront the global economic crisis in talks with Gordon Brown ahead of the G20 summit of world leaders in London. But outside the sealed-off conference centre in London’s Docklands anti-capitalist protesters clashed with the police in the financial centre of the capital while angry French workers in Grenoble seized control of their plant offices taking four managers hostage.
Brown hoped to use the summit he called to build a common imperialist platform of measures to deal with the global slump. But it was unravelling before it even started with Franco-German imperialism demanding stricter international financial regulation and decidedly cool towards the Anglo-American ‘monetarist’ economic model, which they blame for the sub-prime crisis that triggered the great stock market crash last year.
The British Government wants China to pump vast sums of money into the international financial institutions of capitalism in return for more votes on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank while Third World leaders want reform of the World Trade Organisation which has been dominated for far too long by American imperialism.
President Obama said that the world was facing the most severe economic crisis since the Second World War. The new chief of American imperialism called on the G20 to reject protectionism and support emerging markets, and called for countries to work together. This was dutifully repeated by Brown who said global solutions were needed for global problems while talking up Britain’s imaginary “special relationship” with the United States, which he said, would be a "partnership of purpose".
In public the Western leaders are trying to talk up the markets with their usual platitudes. In private there’s no doubt that they have little up their sleeves apart from letting the slump take its course peppered with a touch of social Keynesianism to sweeten the bitter pill of austerity for the working class that they expect, as always, to pay for the crisis of the exploiters’ own making.
But there’s also increasing fear of political crisis and uncontrollable Athens-type social unrest as protests against job and welfare cuts sweep Europe. The reactionary Czech government collapsed last week after four maverick MPs joined the opposition Social Democrats and Communists in a vote of no confidence in parliament. And French bosses got a warning of the shape of things to come when four of them were seized by workers at the Caterpillar factory in Grenoble.
"We are holding them in the director's office," union official Benoit Nicolas told the media. The hostages included the factory director and the head of human resources. "They are a little shocked," Nicolas said. The workers at the American plant walked out and took direct action on Tuesday following the news of over 700 lay-offs on pitiful redundancy terms. The Caterpillar workers are demanding a minimum of 30,000 euros [£27,800] each in redundancy payments, three times what’s on the table at the moment.
“There is no violence or sequestration, but simply pressure so they restart negotiations,” CGT union representative Pierre Piccarreta said. "At a time when the company is making a profit and distributing dividends to shareholders, we want to find a favourable outcome for all the workers and know as quickly as possible where we are going."
Bossnapping” is a French workers’ tradition which was popular during the wave of protests back in 1968. Last March the boss of Sony France was trapped in a conference room by workers demanding better severance terms and the head of a factory run by 3M, the giant American multinational, was held for two days by striking workers.
The Grenoble region has been hit by a wave of factory closures, re-structuring, and temporary lay-offs and the spirit of resistance is running high. French workers rightly say that if there’s money to bail out the banks then some of it must be used to keep manufacturing going and that money could come from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. While top executives continue to fill their boots with bonuses, like in Britain, more and more French workers are being given their cards. Some 2.4 million are unemployed now and it can only get worse.
No amount of tinkering with the capitalist system can halt the slump which will crucify working people unless they fight back. Communists and the unions must move into an organised counter-attack across Europe and the world to defend the working class and build the fight for socialism.
American President Barack Obama stressed the "sense of urgency" needed to confront the global economic crisis in talks with Gordon Brown ahead of the G20 summit of world leaders in London. But outside the sealed-off conference centre in London’s Docklands anti-capitalist protesters clashed with the police in the financial centre of the capital while angry French workers in Grenoble seized control of their plant offices taking four managers hostage.
Brown hoped to use the summit he called to build a common imperialist platform of measures to deal with the global slump. But it was unravelling before it even started with Franco-German imperialism demanding stricter international financial regulation and decidedly cool towards the Anglo-American ‘monetarist’ economic model, which they blame for the sub-prime crisis that triggered the great stock market crash last year.
The British Government wants China to pump vast sums of money into the international financial institutions of capitalism in return for more votes on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank while Third World leaders want reform of the World Trade Organisation which has been dominated for far too long by American imperialism.
President Obama said that the world was facing the most severe economic crisis since the Second World War. The new chief of American imperialism called on the G20 to reject protectionism and support emerging markets, and called for countries to work together. This was dutifully repeated by Brown who said global solutions were needed for global problems while talking up Britain’s imaginary “special relationship” with the United States, which he said, would be a "partnership of purpose".
In public the Western leaders are trying to talk up the markets with their usual platitudes. In private there’s no doubt that they have little up their sleeves apart from letting the slump take its course peppered with a touch of social Keynesianism to sweeten the bitter pill of austerity for the working class that they expect, as always, to pay for the crisis of the exploiters’ own making.
But there’s also increasing fear of political crisis and uncontrollable Athens-type social unrest as protests against job and welfare cuts sweep Europe. The reactionary Czech government collapsed last week after four maverick MPs joined the opposition Social Democrats and Communists in a vote of no confidence in parliament. And French bosses got a warning of the shape of things to come when four of them were seized by workers at the Caterpillar factory in Grenoble.
"We are holding them in the director's office," union official Benoit Nicolas told the media. The hostages included the factory director and the head of human resources. "They are a little shocked," Nicolas said. The workers at the American plant walked out and took direct action on Tuesday following the news of over 700 lay-offs on pitiful redundancy terms. The Caterpillar workers are demanding a minimum of 30,000 euros [£27,800] each in redundancy payments, three times what’s on the table at the moment.
“There is no violence or sequestration, but simply pressure so they restart negotiations,” CGT union representative Pierre Piccarreta said. "At a time when the company is making a profit and distributing dividends to shareholders, we want to find a favourable outcome for all the workers and know as quickly as possible where we are going."
Bossnapping” is a French workers’ tradition which was popular during the wave of protests back in 1968. Last March the boss of Sony France was trapped in a conference room by workers demanding better severance terms and the head of a factory run by 3M, the giant American multinational, was held for two days by striking workers.
The Grenoble region has been hit by a wave of factory closures, re-structuring, and temporary lay-offs and the spirit of resistance is running high. French workers rightly say that if there’s money to bail out the banks then some of it must be used to keep manufacturing going and that money could come from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. While top executives continue to fill their boots with bonuses, like in Britain, more and more French workers are being given their cards. Some 2.4 million are unemployed now and it can only get worse.
No amount of tinkering with the capitalist system can halt the slump which will crucify working people unless they fight back. Communists and the unions must move into an organised counter-attack across Europe and the world to defend the working class and build the fight for socialism.
Putting People First
WORKERS, students and pensioners marched through the streets of London last Saturday to send a message on jobs, justice and climate to Gordon Brown and the G20 leaders meeting in the capital this week. Tens of thousands of people, including a many union contingents, took part in the protest which passed over peacefully, despite lurid predictions of anarchist violence emanating from the police and the reactionary press over the past few days.
Threatening to “eat the rich” may be inspired by the spirit of Michael Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin but it’s hardly in the same league as the anarchist terror of the 19th century which claimed the lives of a Russian Czar, the kings of Greece and Italy, an American and a French president, a Spanish prime minister and many others with their daggers, guns and bombs.
Smashing the windows of a hated former Scottish bank boss may give the perpetrators some sort of feeling of power and importance but it accomplishes nothing apart from unleashing a wave of hypocritical condemnation from a bourgeois media that routinely ignores the daily racist abuse and violence on our streets.
The Group of 20 summit will include the leaders of People’s China, Indonesia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia but it will be dominated by American, British and Franco-German imperialism. Whatever the great and the good of the G20 decide at their secret conclave in London’s Docklands to deal with the world-wide slump, there’s no doubt that the imperialists will want to make working people pay the price for the “recovery” they say is on the horizon. And we will be expected to bear the brunt of the capitalist crisis in mass unemployment, welfare cuts and short time to ensure that the rich continue to live their lives of pleasure and ease unscathed.
Resistance is growing throughout Europe and the rest of the world and the unions have a crucial role in setting the agenda for the fight-back against this new offensive against the working class. Communists must fight to ensure that the socialist alternative is once again raised in the factories, offices and streets of Britain. It is the only answer to the crisis.
Threatening to “eat the rich” may be inspired by the spirit of Michael Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin but it’s hardly in the same league as the anarchist terror of the 19th century which claimed the lives of a Russian Czar, the kings of Greece and Italy, an American and a French president, a Spanish prime minister and many others with their daggers, guns and bombs.
Smashing the windows of a hated former Scottish bank boss may give the perpetrators some sort of feeling of power and importance but it accomplishes nothing apart from unleashing a wave of hypocritical condemnation from a bourgeois media that routinely ignores the daily racist abuse and violence on our streets.
The Group of 20 summit will include the leaders of People’s China, Indonesia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia but it will be dominated by American, British and Franco-German imperialism. Whatever the great and the good of the G20 decide at their secret conclave in London’s Docklands to deal with the world-wide slump, there’s no doubt that the imperialists will want to make working people pay the price for the “recovery” they say is on the horizon. And we will be expected to bear the brunt of the capitalist crisis in mass unemployment, welfare cuts and short time to ensure that the rich continue to live their lives of pleasure and ease unscathed.
Resistance is growing throughout Europe and the rest of the world and the unions have a crucial role in setting the agenda for the fight-back against this new offensive against the working class. Communists must fight to ensure that the socialist alternative is once again raised in the factories, offices and streets of Britain. It is the only answer to the crisis.
Jobs, justice and climate!
By Caroline Colebrook
TENS OF thousands of marchers took to the streets of central London last Saturday in the first of several major demonstrations directed at the meeting of G20 nations for a global summit in east London this week.
Saturday’s event was organised by the trade unions and focussed on three main demands: jobs, justice and climate, with the main slogan being: “Put people first”.
But it encompassed an enormous range of groups with many demands: unions demanding job protection, climate change groups opposing the third runway at Heathrow and the construction of new coal-fired power stations – and peace and solidarity groups demanding British withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan and Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories.
The demonstration was colourful and noisy with hundreds of bright banners and bands.
The public sector union Unison had invited its German and Italian sister unions – ver.di and CGIL – to join in and they both sent large, colourful contingents.
The three big unions have formed an historic alliance that brings millions of workers together to defend public services and protect jobs and communities at home and abroad.
They say they are committed to building a fairer future for everyone, and have pledged to take their demands to the heart of every government across Europe.
Justice must be done, they say, social justice – and that means putting people first.
The general secretaries of the three unions held round-table talks ahead of Saturday’s Put People First march and the meeting of world leaders at the G20 summit this week.
Trade union leaders from Spain, France, Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands joined them to agree a Europe-wide plan of action.
“We have joined forces to bring millions of workers together in a campaign for change,” said Unison general secretary Dave Prentis. “Now is the time to challenge those calling for cuts to pay, pensions and services,” he stressed.
“It is time to reassert the values of fairness, solidarity and democracy that public service workers put into practice every day.”
But it is this sort of statement that betrays the weakness of the union demands compared to those of a generation or two ago.
There is no evidence of class consciousness; no demands for an end to the whole system of exploitation; no demands for socialism.
The demands are only the feeble bourgeois demands for “fairness” and “democracy” – words that the ruling class is happy to hear because they are so vague they can be ignored.
Friday, March 27, 2009
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now in full colour
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6 months.....£22.00
Annual.........£40.00
special trial sub just £4.00 for four weeks.
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Europe
3 months...................£15.00 (25 euros)
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Send your cheque or postal order with your order to:
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The New Worker is also available in London at: Bookmarks, 1 Bloomsbury Street WC1; Centerprise Bookshop, 136 Kingsland High Street E8; Housemans Peace Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road N1; West London Trade Union Club, 33-35 High Street Acton W3; and The Westminster Bookshop, 8 Artillery Row SW1.
London solidarity with Palestine
by Andy Brooks
WE HAVE NOT forgotten the refugees and we will never renounce their right to return. That was the clear message from Manual Hassassian, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, speaking at a packed meeting in a committee room of the House of Commons last week.
Prof Hassassian called on the European Union to use its influence on Israel to end the impasse in the Middle East. “Israel is not invincible,” he said. “It is a small country dependent on the United States. Israel must understand that there is no way out of negotiations”.
The Palestinian envoy was speaking at a meeting organised by Third World Solidarity (TWS) to report on the current situation in the Gaza Strip after the devastating Israeli onslaught in January and to build solidarity with the Palestinians under the thumb of a ruthless and brutal Israeli occupation.
That call was introduced by Mohammad Sarwar, the Labour member of parliament for Glasgow Central, Britain’s first Muslim MP. Sarwar said the EU should send a very strong message to Israel that if they don’t respond to the latest peace efforts there will be some sort of sanctions from Europe.
This was echoed by Martin Linton MP and Andrew Slaughter MP, both from Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East (LFPME), a forum launched last November to provide a voice for the people of Palestine within the labour movement and to the wider public.
The Labour Party group is committed to a two-state solution with viable and secure Palestinian and Israeli states, but believe this can only be achieved once Israel complies with her international obligations. A LFPME delegation recently visited Gaza with the Britain-Palestine all-Party Parliamentary Group.
Israel must get out of Gaza and Hamas, the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, cannot be ignored was another shared view. They had, after all, won the Palestinian elections and this was stressed by the Palestinian diplomat who said: “I speak in the name of all the Palestinians. Hamas won fair and square, the result of the democratic process…but we were ostracised and condemned. Then we set up a national unity government but the ostracism and boycott continued,” Prof Hassassian said.
“Perhaps we should go back to militarisation and dictatorship,” he rhetorically declared. “Israel has to understand it cannot have the cake and eat it too. We will not tolerate another 50 years of occupation”.
Winding up, the chair of Third World Solidarity Labour London councillor Mushtaq Lasharie, called on everyone to redouble their efforts to build links with the Palestinian people and help in the work of TWS for peace and tolerance, helping to resolve conflicts through negotiations and diplomatic means.
WE HAVE NOT forgotten the refugees and we will never renounce their right to return. That was the clear message from Manual Hassassian, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, speaking at a packed meeting in a committee room of the House of Commons last week.
Prof Hassassian called on the European Union to use its influence on Israel to end the impasse in the Middle East. “Israel is not invincible,” he said. “It is a small country dependent on the United States. Israel must understand that there is no way out of negotiations”.
The Palestinian envoy was speaking at a meeting organised by Third World Solidarity (TWS) to report on the current situation in the Gaza Strip after the devastating Israeli onslaught in January and to build solidarity with the Palestinians under the thumb of a ruthless and brutal Israeli occupation.
That call was introduced by Mohammad Sarwar, the Labour member of parliament for Glasgow Central, Britain’s first Muslim MP. Sarwar said the EU should send a very strong message to Israel that if they don’t respond to the latest peace efforts there will be some sort of sanctions from Europe.
This was echoed by Martin Linton MP and Andrew Slaughter MP, both from Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East (LFPME), a forum launched last November to provide a voice for the people of Palestine within the labour movement and to the wider public.
The Labour Party group is committed to a two-state solution with viable and secure Palestinian and Israeli states, but believe this can only be achieved once Israel complies with her international obligations. A LFPME delegation recently visited Gaza with the Britain-Palestine all-Party Parliamentary Group.
Israel must get out of Gaza and Hamas, the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, cannot be ignored was another shared view. They had, after all, won the Palestinian elections and this was stressed by the Palestinian diplomat who said: “I speak in the name of all the Palestinians. Hamas won fair and square, the result of the democratic process…but we were ostracised and condemned. Then we set up a national unity government but the ostracism and boycott continued,” Prof Hassassian said.
“Perhaps we should go back to militarisation and dictatorship,” he rhetorically declared. “Israel has to understand it cannot have the cake and eat it too. We will not tolerate another 50 years of occupation”.
Winding up, the chair of Third World Solidarity Labour London councillor Mushtaq Lasharie, called on everyone to redouble their efforts to build links with the Palestinian people and help in the work of TWS for peace and tolerance, helping to resolve conflicts through negotiations and diplomatic means.
London news round-up
Met squad record of abuse
A GROUP of police officers from the territorial support group at the centre of a “serious gratuitous and prolonged” attack on a British Muslim man, resulting in a court award of £60,000 in damages, were last week revealed to have been accused of dozens of other assaults against black and Asian men. Babar Ahmad was arrested in December 2003 as a terrorist suspect; he was punched, kicked, stamped on and strangled during his arrest by officers in the Metropolitan Police’s territorial support group (TSG).
Ahmad lodged a complaint and after six years of legal proceedings lawyers acting on behalf of Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson were forced to admit the abuse charges were true.
But according to papers submitted to the court, four of the officers involved had a record of 60 complaints and allegations of abuse levelled at them. At least 37 of these complaints came from black or Asian men.
The Met has admitted that since 1992 all six officers involved in the Ahmad assault have been the subjects of at least 77 complaints.
When Ahmad’s lawyers asked for details of these allegations the Met said it had “lost” several large mail sacks detailing at least 30 of the complaints.
Scotland Yard has admitted there were concerns about the conduct of these officers. The Independent Police Complaints Authority supervised an investigation carried out by the Met into the assault on Ahmad but none of the officers involved has been disciplined and all but one are still working for the TSG.
The Met claimed that its inquiries had found the complaints against the officers were, with one exception, found to be “unsubstantiated”.
Ahmad’s lawyer, Fiona Murphy, said the number of complaints should have led to a thorough inquiry.
“The horrifying nature and volume of complaints against these officers should have provoked an effective response from the Metropolitan Police and the IPCC long ago,” she said.
In one allegation in March 2007, one of the officers was accused of bundling a man into the back of a van and ordered him to kneel. The main replied: “This is not Guantánamo”. The officer seized him round the neck and discharged his CS gas while continuing to hold his throat. The man was then thrown from the van. The man suffered head, neck and eye injuries. The Met claimed no action was taken because the complaint was “incapable of proof” and so there was “no case to answer”.
Scotland Yard said that all but one of the 77 allegations against the six TSG officers was found to be unsubstantiated because the complainant failed to assist them any further, the complaint was withdrawn or informally resolved, or investigated and found to be unsubstantiated.
And they said the Met Directorate of Professional Standards was investigating the missing mail sacks containing 30 complaint dockets.
RMT strike ballot on jobs and pay
THE TUBE’S biggest union is to ballot nearly 10,000 members across London Underground and Transport for London (TfL) for strike action in two separate disputes centred on jobs and pay. As news emerged that the number of jobs under threat across the Tube and TfL could reach 3,000, RMT said it would ballot all its members at LUL, including former Metronet staff, as well as in the separate dispute at TfL. Balloting started this week and will close on Wednesday 18th April.
On London Underground, bosses are threatening to tear up an agreement aimed at safeguarding jobs, and has refused to rule out compulsory redundancies.
LUL has also refused to budge from an unacceptable five-year pay offer that gives no real-terms increase for four years, and which could even see pay cut, and there have been so many complaints of breaches of disciplinary and attendance procedures they appear co-ordinated.
TfL is also threatening compulsory redundancies as part of a £2.4 billion cuts package, and has so far failed to table any pay offer at all.
“London Underground seems to think that observing agreements is optional, and its plan to cut jobs is simply unacceptable,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said.
“After three months of stonewalling LUL has also tabled what is at best a five-year pay freeze which it knows full well could never be accepted, and its managers appear to have been given the nod to unleash a fresh round of bullying.
“LUL’s own ‘Valuing Time’ study acknowledges that our members’ productivity is at an all-time high, with passenger numbers up to record-breaking levels of four million a day.
“We said from the start that our members, whether in LUL or TfL, would not be made to pay for the failure and greed of bankers and privateers, and that any attempt to impose compulsory redundancies would be met with a ballot for industrial action.
“If LUL and TfL want to avoid confrontation they should withdraw their plans to slash jobs and guarantee there will be no forced redundancies, start talking seriously about pay and call off the bully managers,” Bob Crow said.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Cypriot heroes who fought for Spain
by Theo Russell
ALMOST 70 years since the end of the Spanish Civil War, around 60 people gathered last Sunday in London for the launch of an important new book on the conflict, Spanish Thermopylae – Cypriot Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39 by Paul Philippou Strogos, a second generation British Cypriot whose father, a lifelong AKEL ( Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus) militant, fought in Spain.
Photos Kouzoupis, who chaired the meeting, recalled that at that time “Cyprus was a colony of the British Empire, under the military law and dictatorship of Sir Herbert Richmond Palmer the colonial governor”.
The Cypriot people faced acute social and economic hardship and the Communist Party of Cyprus, founded in 1926, had been banned by the British authorities following the “October uprising” in 1931.
Against this background, with a population of only 350,000, the Cypriot contingent in the International Brigades ranks among the highest percentage of volunteers for Spain of any country.
Introducing the book, Paul said that “although the Republic was eventually defeated… the contribution made by the Cypriot volunteers amongst all the estimated 35-40,000 volunteers from 63 countries who served in Spain, has never been forgotten by the people of Spain.”
Those volunteers traveled from Cyprus, Britain, the United States and many other countries. In Britain most were active members of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the League against Imperialism, as well as organising within their own community. “It was a natural progression for them to join the more that two thousand men and women who heard the cry for help that came from Spain,” Paul said.
“Today,” Photos said, “we ask ourselves, why did these young men and women of Cyprus participate in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War?” In answer he quoted Ezekias Papaioannou, a volunteer in Spain and General Secretary of AKEL from 1948 to 1989:
“True to the best traditions of their Greek forefathers, the heroes of the Greek War of Independence (1821), the Cypriots rallied to the support of Spanish democracy and independence, realising that a defeat for the Spanish people would have meant world war. On the Spanish battlefields was being decided the fate of Europe, and with it that of Cyprus. They recognised fascism as the greatest enemy of humanity and volunteered to help crush it”.
Photos also recalled the words of volunteer Michalakis Economides: “Every generation has its challenges. The cry of the thirties ‘Peace is indivisible’ is as true today as it was then. Indivisible also is the rule of law, democracy and above all the territorial integrity of nations. Partition is the filthiest crime of the age. Countries are cut in two to serve the requirements of imperialism”.
Some of the Cypriot volunteers lived to receive honorary Spanish citizenship in 1996, the 60th anniversary of the civil war, but the Republic of Cyprus has yet to recognise this heroic episode in Cypriot history.
“Today with this modest ceremony for the book launching our presence is a minimum respect and tribute to the heroic Cypriot volunteers of the International Brigades of the Democratic Army,” Photos said. Those present remembered those comrades by standing for a minute’s silence.
ALMOST 70 years since the end of the Spanish Civil War, around 60 people gathered last Sunday in London for the launch of an important new book on the conflict, Spanish Thermopylae – Cypriot Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39 by Paul Philippou Strogos, a second generation British Cypriot whose father, a lifelong AKEL ( Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus) militant, fought in Spain.
Photos Kouzoupis, who chaired the meeting, recalled that at that time “Cyprus was a colony of the British Empire, under the military law and dictatorship of Sir Herbert Richmond Palmer the colonial governor”.
The Cypriot people faced acute social and economic hardship and the Communist Party of Cyprus, founded in 1926, had been banned by the British authorities following the “October uprising” in 1931.
Against this background, with a population of only 350,000, the Cypriot contingent in the International Brigades ranks among the highest percentage of volunteers for Spain of any country.
Introducing the book, Paul said that “although the Republic was eventually defeated… the contribution made by the Cypriot volunteers amongst all the estimated 35-40,000 volunteers from 63 countries who served in Spain, has never been forgotten by the people of Spain.”
Those volunteers traveled from Cyprus, Britain, the United States and many other countries. In Britain most were active members of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the League against Imperialism, as well as organising within their own community. “It was a natural progression for them to join the more that two thousand men and women who heard the cry for help that came from Spain,” Paul said.
“Today,” Photos said, “we ask ourselves, why did these young men and women of Cyprus participate in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War?” In answer he quoted Ezekias Papaioannou, a volunteer in Spain and General Secretary of AKEL from 1948 to 1989:
“True to the best traditions of their Greek forefathers, the heroes of the Greek War of Independence (1821), the Cypriots rallied to the support of Spanish democracy and independence, realising that a defeat for the Spanish people would have meant world war. On the Spanish battlefields was being decided the fate of Europe, and with it that of Cyprus. They recognised fascism as the greatest enemy of humanity and volunteered to help crush it”.
Photos also recalled the words of volunteer Michalakis Economides: “Every generation has its challenges. The cry of the thirties ‘Peace is indivisible’ is as true today as it was then. Indivisible also is the rule of law, democracy and above all the territorial integrity of nations. Partition is the filthiest crime of the age. Countries are cut in two to serve the requirements of imperialism”.
Some of the Cypriot volunteers lived to receive honorary Spanish citizenship in 1996, the 60th anniversary of the civil war, but the Republic of Cyprus has yet to recognise this heroic episode in Cypriot history.
“Today with this modest ceremony for the book launching our presence is a minimum respect and tribute to the heroic Cypriot volunteers of the International Brigades of the Democratic Army,” Photos said. Those present remembered those comrades by standing for a minute’s silence.
Spanish Thermopylae, published by Warren & Pell, can be obtained from Bibliagora , price £14.99.
photo:Paul Philippou (centre), Photos Kouzoupis (speaking), and Dr Niki Katsiaouni, Cultural Counsellor of the Cyprus High Commission.
Remembering Karl Marx at Highgate...
ROBERT LAURIE laid flowers on behalf of the New Communist Party by the tomb of Karl Marx last Saturday at the annual ceremony in Highgate Cemetery.
Marx died in his study at half-past two on the afternoon of Wednesday 14th March 1883.
To commemorate his passing the Marx Memorial Library has for many decades held an annual graveside oration at his burial place in Highgate Cemetery in North London at the exact moment of his death.
Prof John Callow gave the oration on behalf of the Library to all who had come to pay their respects to the memory of the author of Das Kapital including diplomats from socialist countries, Library members and a large contingent of Chinese students from Westminster College.
Marx died in his study at half-past two on the afternoon of Wednesday 14th March 1883.
To commemorate his passing the Marx Memorial Library has for many decades held an annual graveside oration at his burial place in Highgate Cemetery in North London at the exact moment of his death.
Prof John Callow gave the oration on behalf of the Library to all who had come to pay their respects to the memory of the author of Das Kapital including diplomats from socialist countries, Library members and a large contingent of Chinese students from Westminster College.
...and celebrating him at the Party Centre
COMRADES and friends gathered at the NCP Centre in south London last Saturday evening for their annual tribute to the co-founder of the modern communist movement. Tributes to Karl Marx were made by Jang Song Chol from the London embassy of the DPR Korea, John McLeod from the Socialist Labour Party and NCP general secretary Andy Brooks.
The NCP leader used a satirical parable from early Soviet literature to make the point that Marx was a practical revolutionary as well as a profound socialist theorist.
Now with the pillars of the capitalist world crashing down around us everyone can see that what Marx foresaw was now coming to pass.
But socialism was not inevitable Andy said. Marx warned that the alternative to socialism was barbarism and our task, together with struggling people all over the world was to work for the revolutionary change that will end all oppression and exploitation for ever. No NCP event can end without a stirring appeal for the fighting fund and the one given by National Chair Alex Kempshall was no exception.
We now have a paper which has jumped technology. We can be proud of our achievements but it all costs money. Alex called for a big collection for the New Worker Special Appeal and comrades dug deep to the tune of £1,298!
photo: Andy Brooks cracks a joke
Newroz in London
THE KURDISH community of London gathered in Trafalgar Square last Saturday to celebrate Newroz, the traditional Middle Eastern spring festival. Newroz has been celebrated for many years in the capital but never before in London’s historic Trafalgar Square.
Stalls served Kurdish and Turkish food as people danced to music from the Kurdish rappers and folk groups performing on the main stage throughout the afternoon.
Kurdish flags and others bearing pictures of imprisoned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan were flown throughout the event. London Green MEP Jean Lambert and other MPs spoke to the cheering crowd, thanking them for the contribution that the Kurdish people have made to British society and encouraging them to be politically active in supporting candidates that take up the Kurdish cause.
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