Party Day in London

Alex Kempshall opens the social

By New Worker

correspondent

COMRADES and friends joined New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks and Party Chair Alex Kempshall in celebrating the 35^th anniversary of the foundation of the  NCP last Saturday at the Party Centre in London.

The New Communist Party of Britain was established in July 1977 and since then the Party has worked to build the communist movement and working class unity while upholding the tenets of Marxism-Leninism. Over the decades the Party and the New Worker have survived through thick and thin and this was because we have something to say that comrades are ready to support with effort and cash to keep us going. 

This was a point made by Andy Brooks and solidarity was a theme echoed by friends old and new during the formal part of the proceedings including the messages from the Workers Party of Korea , Dermot Hudson of the UK Korean Friendship Association and Anton Johnson of the London Left Front Art group.

No NCP social ends without an appeal for the New Worker but this time it was focused on the need to urgently upgrade our computers following the disastrous failure of our print system last week.  Alex Kempshall called on everyone to dip in to keep our communist press going and the comrades responded by raising £160 on the night.

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Workers Party of Korea

The Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea sends warm congratulations to the Central Committee of New Communist Party of Britain on the occasion of the 35th Anniversary of the Founding of the NCPB.
      We avail of this opportunity to wish greater success in the righteous activity of your Party for advocating the interests of the working masses and express conviction that the friendly and cooperative relationship between our two parties will develop in the future in good terms.  Central Committee

The Worker’s Party of Korea  
Pyongyang
DPRK 

 

Juche Idea Study Group of England

        Firstly, please accept my apologies for not attending . I regret not been able to attend but your social clashes with another important meeting and also my family's celebrations of my 51st birthday. I would have liked the opportunity to share stories with you all at the social.
         I wish to offer my congratulations to you on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the New Communist Party  . The NCP is distinguished by its defence of socialism and its proletarian internationalism.
        Despite not being able to attend let me say that I value the NCP's co-operation and support for the Korean Friendship Association UK and the Juche Idea Study Group,  It was good to work together at the World Juche Congress in Pyongyang this year. We are grateful to the NCP for standing shoulder to shoulder with us on pickets of the US and south Korean embassy unlike certain hypocrites who say they are friends of the DPRK but do nothing, 
         It is never easy being a communist or socialist in a capitalist country particularly an imperialist country but the NCP has maintained its existence for 35 years and has unceasingly put the case for socialism. 
         I wish your social every success and wish your party greater succeses. 

Dermot Hudson
KFA Official Delegate UK (in personal capacity)
Chairman JISGE

 Left Front Art 

 To our Comrades at the New Communist Party of Britain, thank you for inviting Left Front Art to attend the event to mark the 35th anniversary of the founding of your Party.

     We appreciate our working relationship with the NCP and recognise your consistent support for LGBTQ rights.

        We recognise the important role the NCP and The New Worker has in promoting the message that there is an alternative to capitalism in the communities and the Party’s commitment to working with grassroots activists and at the grassroots level. This is incredibly important as it is at the street level we need to engage with people to support their struggles and explain that there is an alternative and one that works well in countries such as Cuba today but even stronger examples of how an alternative was attempted in the USSR and the other Socialist countries from 1917 and post Second World War.

       The Creative Resources of Socialism was boundless and this was shown in the great achievements of the USSR for the people. A system that in the 1930s provided full employment; housing and free health care for all, whilst the rest of the world sank in poverty, despair, fascism and eventually war.

        Following the Great October Revolution of 1917 with the overthrow of the monarchy and the Church, Homosexuality was de-criminalised in Russia. The German Democratic Republic was ahead of West Germany in terms of rights for Homosexuals and other areas of sexual expression. Today Cuba leads the way in Latin America for LGBT rights.

        As in the 1930s people are suffering under capitalism and the LGBTQ communities are at risk from the Tories austerity policies.

        At a grassroots level the NCP and The New Worker can engage and show people there is an alternative.

       We applaud the Party’s commitment to Peace with its support for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at a National and local level.

       Left Front Art looks forward to working with the NCP as a fellow affiliate within the Labour Representation Committee.

       LGBTQ liberation cannot be achieved under capitalism and consumerism but can be under real Communism. The Left Front Art Collective is a network set up to promote progressive political debate on LGBTQ liberation and an alternative to the current system, which has a vested interest in control of sexuality and therefore denies true Queer liberation.

    In Solidarity of your 35th year

    Anton Johnson

    member of the Left Front Art Inner Collective

    Left Front Art       

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LGBTQ people decide future for Pride

 

By Anton Johnson

 Left Front Art 

THE TUC LGBT Committee, supported by the Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils hosted a successful public meeting (16th July) on where next, after the debacle of this year's World Pride, in a packed room of over 90 representatives of Labour Movement bodies and LGBTQ community organisations.

 These include: Unite, Sertuc, LGBT Network, Queer Resistance, Regard, London LGBT Consortium, Left Front Art Collective, LGBT Labour, OUTRAGE! and UK Black Pride to mention a few.

 The meeting was introduced and navigated by Peter Purton – TUC Disability and LGBT Policy Officer on what the points the meeting should be looking at.

 The two hours was swiftly taken up with contributions, some very passionate, from the floor ranging from wanting an inquest into what had happened to developing on what we want for the future and what the next step was to be.

 David Sharkey from the Sertuc LGBT Network and Left Front Art made an excellent contribution on the role of youth in the event and how to engage with young LGBTQ people and get them involved.

 What was striking about the meeting was that it was LGBTQ activists in trade unions and the community deciding on what should happen. The meeting, ably chaired by Maria Exall, was fully open and Maria allowed all those who wanted to speak.

 The decision on the next step was agreed by those in attendance. No single body was able to dictate to the meeting and the question of money did not arise to inhibit the discussion or ideas that people threw in. This was incredibly refreshing.

 The connection to the austerity policies was also made and reference to the TUC national demonstration on 20th October.

 The meeting agreed that Pride should be community-led and free. And to get there for next year it was agreed to hold a further meeting that has been set for 5th September where each LGBTQ group and Trade Union will be asked to send one representative to look further into the details of how we achieve what was agreed.

 The Pride Board agreed postpone their AGM till after the 5th September meeting.

 The swift action by the TUC LGBT Committee on this matter is to be applauded as it gave the community and trade unions the opportunity to set the agenda for the new Pride before the commercial interests, who so often dominate the LGBTQ scene and as a consequence exclude those, such as the poor and disabled who do not fit into the model the commercial interests seek promote in order to exploit us.

 Time and time again the commercial interests have dominated the LGBTQ community, giving out the message that in order to take part in the community you need to have money, wear the right clothes, have the perfect body and be young.

 So it should be noted that on this occasion the Labour Movement got ahead of the commercial and has been able to give an inclusive voice of all LGBTQ communities the opportunity to set the agenda for future Prides.

Greenpeace closes Shell petrol stations

ACTIVISTS from the environmental campaigning group Greenpeace last Monday closed 74 Shell petrol stations in London and Edinburgh in protest against the company's plans to drill for oil in the Arctic, leading to 24 arrests.

 They tried to close down the stations by using an emergency shut-off switch to stop petrol going to the pumps and then removing a fuse to delay it being switched on again.

 The organisation has since posted a picture of an activist posting one of the fuses to Shell's head of Arctic drilling, with the message: "We're being careful not to destroy property. Even the carefully removed components will go back to Shell."

 Protesters have scaled the roof of the Shell station on Queenstown Road near Battersea Park in London and on Dalry Road in Edinburgh, with police and fire crews attending the scene in Edinburgh.

 Activists arrived at the Battersea Park branch at 6.45am and used the station's barriers to close the forecourt. Then they covered the Shell sign with a Save the Arctic banner and positioned a life-sized polar bear model on the station's roof.

 The protest is part of Greenpeace's Save the Arctic campaign, which is aiming to prevent oil drilling and industrial fishing in the Arctic by having the region recognised as a world park. The organisation understands that Shell is going to begin drilling in the Alaskan Arctic in the coming weeks, with the Russian oil company Gazprom also due to work in the region.

 Sara Ayech, a campaigner at the Battersea Park station, said: "It's time to draw a line in the ice and tell Shell to stop. That's why today we're going to shut down all of Shell's petrol stations in the capital cities of London and Edinburgh. We've got dozens of people who will hit over 100 Shell garages throughout the day."

More obstructions to Irish reconciliation

By Theo Russell

ALL FIVE Sinn Féin MPs were in London on 28th June at a summer reception which also marked the resignation of Martin McGuinness as MP, after the party’s decision to end dual mandates for its elected representatives.

 McGuinness delivered a keynote address which touched on a number of current problems, which he placed at the door of the Lib-Dem coalition.

 “Unfortunately”, he said, “to date, the British state has refused to even acknowledge its role as a combatant in the conflict. That position is no longer tenable as we move forward. It is excluding the British state from assisting a genuine process of national reconciliation in Ireland, a process which, though embryonic, is nevertheless underway.

 “There are issues that have not been brought to a conclusion, specifically the issue of the legacy of the conflict. The British government has a big role to play in that.

 “Many people in the North who are big supporters of the Peace Process are hurt. Just last week, relatives of those killed in the Ballymurphy Massacre were told by British Secretary of State Owen Paterson that they would not have the type of inquiry that they were looking for, the kind of investigation that they wanted, into the deaths of their loved ones killed by the British army.

 “Likewise, the British commitment at Weston Park for an inquiry into the murder of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane has not been implemented. The Government in London needs to stop obstructing these matters.

 “Indeed, in recent times this British government has made a series of stupid and unhelpful decisions, including the revocation of the licence of Marian Price and the continuing imprisonment of Martin Corey on the same basis.

 “People may be shocked to discover that Peter Robinson and myself have met American President Barack Obama more times that we have met David Cameron in our role as First and deputy First Ministers. This lack of engagement by David Cameron is a serious mistake and may provide a rationale for some of the damaging decisions made by Owen Paterson during his tenure at the NIO.”

 Turning to the recent tensions sparked by the Orange marching season, McGuinness said: “I welcome the upcoming visit of the Orange Order to the Oireachtas (Irish parliament), but they need to end their position of refusing dialogue with Sinn Féin or nationalist residents.

 “I would ask them to look at the events of the past week and seriously debate how they are going to step forward and make their contribution to a lasting peace in the coming weeks.”

International Brigaders remembered

By New Worker correspondent

OVER 100 people gathered in Jubilee Gardens on London’s South Bank on Saturday 7th July at the memorial to the International Brigaders to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the start of the Spanish war against fascism.

 Among them was David Solomon, London’s last surviving member of the

International Brigades – the army of volunteers who went to Spain between 1936 and 39 to help the people of Spain defend their elected Republican government against the  fascist revolt led by General Francisco Franco and his army recruited in Morocco, which was backed by Hitler and Mussolini.

 Outwardly the governments of Britain and France preached a policy of non-intervention and Hitler and Mussolini supplied arms, troops and an air force to Franco. But behind the scenes British upper class right-wing mercenaries, spies and adventurers also played a big role in helping to launch Franco’s invasion.

 There were speeches from members of the International Brigades Association – and their Spanish equivalent, who presented David Solomon with a commemorative banner.

 Many organisations and individuals laid wreaths at the memorial, including three from trade unions. There was music from Spanish guitarist and singer Paco Marin, folk singer Ewan McLennan, and folk duo Na-Mara. Performance poet Francesca Beard also paid tribute to the Brigaders.  

 After the wreath-laying and the speeches David Solomon unveiled a new plaque at the foot of the memorial, dedicated to those who gave their lives in Spain in the fight against fascism.

Pride returns to its roots?

 By Anton Johnson

THE OCCASION of the 40^th anniversary of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) Pride in London was to host the jewel of World Pride; what should have been a large scale celebration was beset with financial woes and in the end at the 11^th  hour the event had to be greatly reduced with the planned Soho side being cancelled.

            Though out of this debacle there has been a positive. First of all the march through central London without the floats had a more political feel to it and the trade union section was the best it has been for many years.

It began in Baker Street, packed from end to end with marchers dressed in a staggering array of imaginative costumes ranging from beautiful Filipino wedding array, Sikhs in magnificent blue silks, gladiators, fluffy swan outfits that were little more than paint and spangles and even members of the armed forces marching towards Trafalgar Square.

            It was unlike political demonstrations in that everyone present was having fun though there were political messages being delivered: against the cuts, in defence of the NHS and for gay marriage rights.

  Second, the shambles has ignited a debate about the future of Pride, which has drawn criticism over the years with Regard, the National Disabled LGBT organisation, once again boycotting the event.

 At the successful TUC LGBT Conference held the two days prior to Pride there was an emergency motion from the TUC LGBT Committee that was passed calling on the committee to host a public meeting to look at the future of Pride following the TUC press statement earlier in the week.

 That meeting, at Congress House on Monday, generated large scale interest within the LGBTQ communities. The view is that Pride should return to being a community-led event and political as a vehicle for LGBTQ liberation.

 LGBTQ groups, trade unionists and community activists looked at how we can return Pride to its roots and away from what has been a commercial event where the politics are watered down and groups such as Regard felt excluded.

 The meeting was timely as the commercial LGBTQ venue owner and club promoter Jeremy Joseph has called a meeting for the 25^th  July to discuss Pride and this would be clearly dominated by the commercial interests.

            Thierry Schaffauser, from Left Front Art, addressed a public meeting in central London on the evening of Pride making the point that Pride needs to return to its roots at this time when austerity policies are harming LGBTQ people and that the meeting hosted by TUC LGBT Committee pushed for by grassroots LGBTQ activists in Left Front Art is an opportunity for this to happen.

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New Nepali Maoist party returns to people’s struggle

By Theo Russell

A NEW Maoist party emerged last week in Nepal which has adopted the name of the party that led the people’s war from 1996 to 2006. The split comes after months of tension and protests within the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPNM), led by Prachanda and current premier Baburam Bhattarai, following the 2006 peace agreement.

The new party is led by general secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa (“Badal”) and chair Kiran Bhaidya, the former leader of the People’s Liberation Army.

            And at a meeting last week in London Peter Tobin, the editor of a new English-language Nepali magazine Red Front, who now lives in Kathmandu, explained what led to the foundation of the new Communist Party of Nepal, Maoist (CPNM).

CP Gajurel, a leader of the new party, accused Prachanda and Bhattarai of: “Abandoning all the achievements of the revolution: the base areas, the people’s communes, the people’s courts, and finally giving up the People’s Liberation Army.”

In addition land seized from feudal landowners and tilled by peasant communes has been returned to its former owners, another humiliating agreement has been signed with India, squatters settlements have been bulldozed, and anti-China activities have multiplied.

The Maoists had led the struggle against the feudal monarchy and by 2006 the Maoist guerrillas had gained control of 80 per cent of Nepal. Under the peace agreement 19,000 PLA fighters were held under UN auspices in “cantonments” to be integrated into the Nepalese Army as an equal and distinct force, and 7,000 weapons were put into storage.

But when the UN peacekeeping mission departed on 10^th April the Nepalese Army entered the camps and, in Gajurel’s words: “They forced a humiliating surrender of the PLA combatants”. Their weapons ended up in the army’s hands and, all but a handful of the PLA fighters have returned to the rural areas.

In response the “Red Faction” Maoists took to the streets across Nepal, denouncing and burning effigies of Prachanda and Bhattarai. In an example of growing repression a torchlight protest in Kathmandu was baton-charged by police who targeted the leader, Badal.

Tobin said: “Prachanda presented the peace agreement, which led to PLA  fighters leaving the ‘Red Base’ areas in the countryside, as a tactical and temporary measure. The rationale was that there was a military stalemate, the People’s Liberation Army could not break into the urban centres, and that the agreement was the only way to gain access to the masses in the cities.

“But the lack of inner party democracy in the UCPNM and the cult around the ‘Prachanda Path’ have led to the collapse of the agreement, and to a situation where Prachanda lost all credibility with many party members. Prachanda, now known as ‘Mr India’ has  dismissed the Red Faction as ‘anarchists’ but many cadres have deserted his ranks to join the new party.

 “Out of 130 members of the central committee of the UCPNM, 44 have joined the new party. The leadership of the new party has is committed to restoring collective leadership and democratic centralism,” Tobin said.

“The establishment may have all the money and all the properties, but they don’t have the cadres. On May Day this year the Red Faction held two separate large-scale celebrations in Kathmandu while Prachanda’s party had to resort to bussing supporters into the capital.

“In my estimate one in three people in Kathmandu are Maoists. Nepali communism and Maoism have brought a hope to the people for the future of many classes and castes.”

Tobin pointed out: “India controls 80 per cent of Nepal’s financial sector and 70 per cent of manufacturing industry, and almost all Nepali parties including the mass communist parties have close ties with Delhi, apart from some small royalist nationalist parties.

“But the new CPNM is the only party to take a stand against Indian expansionism, and to recognise that China is not expansionist.”

An agreement to promote investment signed by Bhattarai on his first visit to Delhi caused a huge a backlash across the political spectrum due to a clause promising compensation to Indian investors for losses resulting from “war, armed conflict, national emergency, insurrection or riots”.

 Only the UCPNM and the Nepali Congress (closely tied to the ruling Indian Congress Party) supported it.

In addition to India’s strong influence, the US presence has steadily grown.  Tobin said: “In 2009 the CIA set up a daily English language newspaper and slick website, República, which is linked to the Washington Post.

“The US has played a growing role in Nepal since 2002 when it bankrolled the recruitment of an extra 20,000 troops for the Nepalese Army. This greatly angered India and was a major reason for New Delhi’s decision to abandon King Gyanendra leading to the fall of the monarchy in 2008.”

Out Against Austerity

 

By Anton Johnson

OFTEN the charge is levelled that with equality having been won under the last Labour Government, coupled with the so called “Pink” pound, that many in the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite and Queer) communities have become detached from the class struggle.

 Well the austerity policies of the Tory Government, with its swingeing cuts on jobs and benefits, is changing that with LGBTQ community activists coming together in bodies such as Queer Resistance and Queers Against the Cuts bringing with them that talent for grass-roots activism that we saw in our communities in the 1970s, late 1980s and 1990s when LGBTQ were under attack.

 Last Monday, grassroots community LGBTQ activist groups, including Queer Resistance; Queers Against the Cuts; No to Hate; Left Front Art and the NUS LGBT Campaign came together to start building for the TUC national demonstration “A future that works” on 20 October.

 This positive initiative from LGBTQ community activists shows that there is still an active political LGBTQ presence and is re-invigorated by the fact that the Tory policies are attacking LGBTQ communities.

 One would think from the Stonewall output that the only concern of LGBTQ people is to mimic the heternomative bourgeois institution of marriage. This may be a concern for those small numbers of privileged, in main the white, LGBT women and men who have secured some sort of management or executive position.

 But for the majority of LGBTQ people – old and young, disabled, front-line workers or unemployed the reality is that their main concern is, like the rest of the working class, poverty, something that is becoming an increasing reality under the Tories.

 Many LGBTQ people in areas such as London are struggling and live under the constant fear of homelessness and poverty. Many in London are being hit by the current rocketing rents.

 LGBTQ people tend to be single and many are living in multi-occupancy houses in the inner city paying, high rent for squalor and in effect overcrowding.

 LGBTQ people gravitate to localities where there is a large LGBTQ population so that they can live in a safer environ; this is threatened by the austerity policies.

 Only today Cameron in the Daily Mail has proposed abolishing Housing Benefit for the under 25s – a group already hit by recent changes in Housing Benefit.

 Many young LGBTQ people had to leave the family home as they were not accepted and for their safety, returning to the parental home, as Cameron suggests for young people, is not an option for those LGBTQ young people.

 The realisation of despite the media chatter of gay marriage, which is where Stonewall and Peter Tatchell’s efforts lay, is that LGBTQ people’s fundamental rights of being safe is at risk!

 This is why these grassroots community activists groups that met recognised and agreed the importance to work with the labour movement and build for the TUC demonstration in a creative way so that LGBTQ communities understand what the stakes are now.

 The meeting had lots of ideas and this grassroots activism in the LGBTQ communities is what is needed as it was when Thatcher and Major attacked LGBTQ rights.

 The groups have come together under the title Out Against Austerity. They will be leafleting World Pride happening on 7 July.

Defending Democratic Korea

By New Worker correspondent

FRIENDS of the Korean people marked the 62^nd anniversary of the start of the US-led imperialist attack on Democratic Korea with a picket outside the American embassy in London on Monday.

 NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other comrades in the afternoon protest, called by the UK Korea Friendship Association and the New Communist Party of Britain, in solidarity with the DPR Korea as part of the world-wide month of solidarity with the Korean people.

Giant steps for Juché Korea

Andy Brooks, Michael Chant and Dermot Hudson

by New Worker correspondent

MILLIONS of Koreans took part in a week of celebrations in April to celebrate the centenary of the birth of great leader Kim Il Sung. They were joined by hundreds of communists, academics and progressives from all over the world who had come to Pyongyang to take part in the World Congress of the Juché Idea, the ideology of independence, anti-imperialism and socialism developed by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, which is the guiding light of the Korean communist movement.

            Two of them, New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks and Dermot Hudson from the Juché Idea Study Group, recalled what they saw at a Korean friendship meeting last Saturday in London’s historic Marx House.

This included the great military parade in the heart of the capital that was addressed by Kim Jong Un, First Secretary of the WPK and supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. It was followed by a grand firework display along the Taedong river held on 15^th April, the anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the eternal president of the DPRK.

This month sees the start of the month of solidarity with the Korean people against US imperialism and Michael Chant spoke of the need to remind people of the horrors of the Korean War and the threat to peace posed by the continued partition of the Korean peninsula.

After the formal reports, and the showing of a new film from Democratic Korea, the meeting was opened for general discussion and the debate that followed covered the lies of the bourgeois media, the DPRK satellite launch, cultural exchanges and the campaign to build solidarity with the DPR Korea.

The Friends of Korea committee consists of the New Communist Party of Britain, Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (ML), Socialist Labour Party, European Regional Society for the Study of the Juché Idea and the UK Korean Friendship Association. Meetings are open to all friends of the Korean revolution and the committee organises events throughout the year in London, which are listed by the supporting movements and on the Friends of Korea blog. 

Supporting Bradley Manning

by New Worker correspondent

DEMONSTRATORS gathered outside the US embassy in London on Monday for a protest picket in support of Bradley Manning, the American veteran of the Iraq war accused of leaking secrets to WikiLeaks.

 The demonstraors are supporting a campaign and nomination initiated by Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir for Bradley manning to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

            Manning, who allegedly passed on a huge tranche of classified information to WikiLeaks when he served in the US army of occupation in Iraq, was arrested in May 2010 and charged with leaking secrets including the “collateral murder” video film of a US helicopter gunship mowing down civilians and two Reuters war correspondents.

The UN special rapporteur on torture has formally accused the US government of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment towards Bradley Manning, who was held in solitary confinement for almost a year on suspicion of being the WikiLeaks source.

This week a US military judge ordered prosecutors to share more documents with Manning after his lawyers accused them of hiding information that could help their client's case.

For months, Manning's defence team has demanded access to reports by US government agencies, including the CIA, which assessed the effect of the leak of classified documents to the WikiLeaks website. Manning’s lawyers believe the reports will show the alleged disclosures had no major effect on American national security.

Message of Peace

  by New Worker correspondent

ON THE evening of the summer solstice, last Thursday, close to the Greenwich Time Meridian and next to the Cutty Sark an amazing troupe of Japanese young men and women drummers and dancers performed to bring a message of peace to this part of the world.

 They were from the Japanese Peace Boat, a Japan-based international non-governmental and non-profit organisation that works to promote peace, human rights, equal and sustainable development and respect for the environment.

 The event was jointly organised by Greenwich CND, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and the Peace Boat.

 They brought with the two veteran survivors of the nuclear attack on Nagasaki in August 1945 and a young woman from Fukushima – devastated last year by an earthquake and tsunami that ruptured the local nuclear power plant leading to serious radioactive contamination of the region.

 After the gathered peace campaigners, a large group from London’s Japanese community and local passers by had enjoyed a magnificent display of drumming and dancing, Inowe Nao from the Peace Boat addressed those present, explaining the role of the Peace Boat to connect with people all over the world and to campaign against the dangers of nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants.

 He said the boat has visited 80 ports and met 80,000 people – mainly in Asia and the Middle East and now London.

 Kitano Shigetaka, aged 77, described how, when he was 10-years-old he lived two kilometres from the epicentre of the Nagasaki blast. “I was in the kitchen with my brother. The first thing was a brilliant white flash followed by a terrific wind that destroyed everything. We were lucky; we were next to a strong wall that protected us.”

 After the blast, he said: “Our neighbour was outside screaming the names of her children, they had been playing outside. Everyone who had been outside had perished instantly.”

 He said that he was still campaigning to make sure no one ever had to go through that horror again.

 Fitano Kuniko, aged 74, had been seven-years-old and she had lived four kilometres from the epicentre. Again, she spoke of the brilliant white light, followed by a big wind that rattled and shattered all the windows. The room she was in was devastated. “I just stayed on the floor, covering my baby brother until our mother came and took us to the shelter. We were so relieved to see her we were in tears,” she said. She lost many relatives not long after from cancer.

 Rebecca Johnson, a veteran of Greenham Common and a life-long peace campaigner spoke next. She said that the most recent calculations predict that if just 100 nuclear warheads, less that half of one Trident submarine’s payload, were to be detonated in a densely populated part of the world it would probably kill 17 million people at once – and injure and make sick many more.

 “Within 24 hours the dust and debris would be filling the upper atmosphere of this planet and within a week there would be a significant drop in temperatures all around the globe.

 “Agriculture all around the world would collapse and it would take up to 10 years for the atmosphere to clear and sunlight to reach the surface of the earth again.”

 She said how Africans she had spoken to had been surprised and alarmed that although their countries had no nuclear weapons and were unlikely to be involved in a nuclear war, their continent would nevertheless be devastated and millions would starve.

 “That would be the effect of ‘just a small, local nuclear war’,” she said.

 She spoke of the need still to campaign to “ban the bomb” and get rid of all nuclear weapons.

 The audience was then treated to another session of drumming and dancing, even more spectacular than the first.

 Throughout the event an artist from the Peace Boat worked on a banner of the CND symbol portrayed as a wreath of wild flowers and leaves.

 Mikami Kaori spoke of her experience of the disaster at Fukushima. Up until then she had little interest in nuclear matters. “We were told there were high levels of radiation but we couldn’t see anything. That is the most worrying aspect of radioactivity. There is no way of knowing how badly you have been affected.”

 She is a young woman, in her early 20s and had planned to marry and have a family. Now she is afraid to do so in case she gives birth to seriously damaged babies.

 “There are several hot-spots near where my home used to be,” she said. And she spoke of the rice farmers who completely lost their livelihood as their fields were contaminated.

 The event was wound up with peace songs, in English and Japanese.

Remembering Redmond O'Neill

Pearse Doherty TD and Sinn Fein London representative Sean Oliver

By Theo Russell

LONDONERS remembered the work of Redmond O’Neill for the Irish community and all the peoples of Greater London at a memorial lecture given by a leading nationalist member of the Irish parliament last week. Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty delivered the first Redmond O'Neill memorial lecture at the Bolivar Hall in London on behalf of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, who had to cancel due to a minor accident. The meeting was also addressed by the Venezuelan ambassador Samuel Moncada, CND Chair Kate Hudson, and chaired by Ken Livingstone.

In his lecture Adams said: “O'Neill,” who died in October 2009, “played an important role in the development of Sinn Féin’s uniting Ireland strategy and specifically its outreach into the Irish community in Britain, and to others here who support that demand.”

O'Neill played a major role in the campaigns against Cruise missiles, opposing the 1990 Gulf War, the Israeli assault on Gaza, and to defend Muslim communities in London and elsewhere.

In 2000 he became Ken Livingstone’s deputy chief of staff, and according to Adams worked “in support of working people in London and oppressed peoples around the world, in Latin America and Palestine”.

He used this role to extend solidarity to the Venezuelan revolution, develop links with President Hugo Chavez, and provide technical assistance from the Greater London Authority to the Municipal Council of the Venezuelan capital Caracas.

O'Neill was also Livingstone’s main advisor on Irish issues and turned the St Patrick’s Day parade and festival into one of London’s major annual events. Adams said: “His work on behalf of the victims of British state violence in Ireland was invaluable.”

Assange flees to Ecuadorian embabassy

By New Worker correspondent

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange has fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, claiming political asylum less than a week after the Supreme Court rejected a renewed attempt to block his extradition to Sweden to face charges of rape and sexual assault during a visit to the country two years ago.

            While fighting extradition Assange has lived under virtual house arrest in Norfolk on bail conditions. On Tuesday he jumped bail to make his dramatic bid for freedom under the United Nations Human Rights Declaration.

            The internet crusader has always denied the Swedish allegations, which he believes are a put-up job by the CIA to obtain his eventual deportation to the United States to face charges of leaking secret US documents to the world’s media.

            WikiLeaks was set up in 2006 by Assange and a number of other computer experts to “publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth”. It soon established a reputation for obtaining secret documents from sources deep within in the imperialist heartlands that deeply embarrassed the Americans and their allies and allegedly compromised their intelligence efforts.

            Assange has no illusions of what awaits him if he crosses the Atlantic. Some reactionary American politicians and the rabid media jockeys who support them are openly calling for his execution. While this is unlikely – the man is an Australian citizen and cannot be charged with treason – he will certainly get harsh treatment and a long stretch in jail if the Americans ever get their hands on him.

The UN special rapporteur on torture has already formally accused the US government of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment towards Bradley Manning, the US soldier who was held in solitary confinement for almost a year on suspicion of being the WikiLeaks source.

            Manning, who allegedly passed on a huge tranche of classified information to WikiLeaks when he served in the US army of occupation in Iraq, was arrested in May 2010 and charged with leaking secrets including the “collateral murder” video film of a US helicopter gunship mowing down civilians and two Reuters war correspondents.

            The police have now surrounded the Ecuadorian embassy, near Harrod’s in London’s fashionable West End, ready to arrest him for breaching his bail conditions. He’s safe as long as he remains in the embassy. Whether he can leave it unscathed is another matter.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino has confirmed that Assange had directly appealed to his president, Rafael Correa, for sanctuary. He said that Assange had argued that Australia “will not defend his minimum guarantees in front of any government or ignore the obligation to protect a politically persecuted citizen”.

It was, therefore, impossible for him to return to his homeland because it would not protect him from being extradited to "a foreign country that applies the death penalty for the crime of espionage and sedition".

            Ecuadorian officials are now holding talks with a clearly embarrassed Cameron government while considering the asylum request. In the meantime the embassy says Assange will remain “under the protection of the Ecuadorean government”.

Carnival of Dirt hits London

By New Worker correspondent

A COALITION of 30 environmental groups from all around the world arrived in London, the world’s centre for commodities, metal and oil trading, and base for many of the world's mining and extraction corporations, for a day of protest last week against the damage being done to the planet and its people by the giant mineral mining and trading companies.

The Carnival of Dirt spans from London to the Congo, West Papua to the Philippines and brings together the UK groups alongside pressure groups and NGOs from DR Congo, West Papua, Peru, the Philippines, Nigeria and Somalia, to create “a carnival like no other”.

            It came to challenge mining and extraction organisations – such as Xstrata, Glencore International, Rio Tinto, Vedanta, Anglo American, BHP Billiton, BP and Shell – who maintain a sustainable reputation domestically, while abroad make British people complicit in their devastating activities, including environmental disasters, summary executions, financial crimes, labour rights violations, political corruption and cultural genocide.

            This complicity is achieved through links between UK pension funds with companies such as Xstrata present in almost every fund, the UK public is financing and legitimising these mining and extraction companies globally, while their executive boards enjoy massive remunerations.

 The carnival began at 11am at St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday in the City of London with a dramatic and poignant ceremony to celebrate those who stand up against the mining and extraction corporations and to remember those who have died for doing so.

            The full funeral cortège – with Congolese choir and New Orleans funeral jazz band – brought their message to one of the institutions most responsible for these practices, the London Stock Exchange.

            The event was “policed” by a firm of private security guards hired by the Corporation of London.

            At 2pm a lunch rally with shared food was addressed by a wide range of speakers, including many indigenous activists from all over the world.

            The carnival lasted all day as it wound its way to Aldgate, through the City and later to the Embankment, pausing often for more speakers and activities, carrying the message that “business as usual” has got to stop.

            One example of the inconsistencies happening in the mining world, is the many column inches garnered around the world as Xstrata officials in Europe have made preparations for a $90 billion merger with London-listed commodities giant Glencore. This is despite the opposition of many ordinary shareholders after it emerged that CEO Mick Davis has been offered a retention package of over £20 million just to stay in his job.

            In contrast, on the other side of the world with far less media attention, farmers in one of the world's poorest regions are under siege by hundreds of police commandos, as a result of Xstrata refusing to negotiate a new social contract for its Tintaya mine in Peru.

            A province-wide strike has resulted in at least two deaths, over 100 wounded, the declaration of a state-of-emergency and the arrest of the local mayor.

 Sylvestre Mido from the Congolese Action Youth Platform (CAYP), said: “It is outrageous that in this modern day and age, practices such as slavery, murder and rape are not only tolerated by those multinationals but also supported by the British government amongst others. We will no longer stand by when millions are silently killed across the globe for trivial things such as our mobile phones.”

Serwotka lambasts sell-out union leaders

By New Worker

correspondent

MARK Serwotka, general secretary of the civil service union PCS, last Saturday made a blistering attack on right-wing unions leaders who had failed their members last December by dropping out of the concerted union fight to defend public sector pensions.

 He was speaking at the annual conference of the National Shop Stewards Network, with around 500 delegates in Friends Meeting House, Euston, London.

 He described the meeting on 19th December last year, just days after the two-million-strong one-day public sector strike in defence of pensions where some unions had dropped out of the battle on the basis of a very weak offer from the Government.

 Serwotka said there were some there “who didn’t want to see a struggle”. “Outside we could hear the union members in the street chanting: ‘No sell-out’. But some union leaders ridiculed them and opted to pull the plug.”

 He named no names but the leadership of Unison came in for some very heavy criticism.

 Throughout the struggle PCS has taken a lead in trying to build joint union cohesion for the struggle – not only for pensions but against the damaging effects of the Con-Dem Coalition cuts on working class living standards.

 Serwotka spoke of the “rogues and charlatans who sold out the pensions struggle” and how he would sooner have been outside the meeting room with the activists in the street.

 “In the political battle against the current austerity programme normal rules of engagement do not apply.

 “Eighty-five per cent of the austerity cuts are still to come. This is not the normal ebb and flow of union negotiations.

 “The Coalition intends to unleash an assault on our class of a kind we have not seen before. There has never been a more important time than now to have a political opposition ready to defend our class. But the Labour Party response has been pitiful, letting down the people who need so much more….

 “We want people bold enough to say ‘Not a single cut!’ We need a coalition of unions ready to fight,” he said.

 Serwotka spoke of the progress since December, leading to the 10th May strike that included several public sector unions – including the Police Federation.

 PCS has been pushing for another one-day strike on 21st June: “But one union cannot do this alone”. Serwotka said that PCS would have to make a serious judgement as to whether it would be better to postpone the action and build for a bigger strike later in the year.

 The conference – all active shop stewards at the cutting edge of the struggle – gave  its full support to another national march against the cuts and speaker after speaker stood up to re-iterate Serwotka’s criticisms of right-wing union leaderships who sold out the interests of their members.

 And they all agreed there should be “more 30th Novembers”. The one-day conference was chaired by Rob Williams and Katrine Williams.

 Alex Gordon, president of the RMT also make a very good speech and PJ McParlin, chair of the Prison Officers’ Association received a round of applause for the illegal action his union took in defiance of anti-union laws.

 Dr Jackie Grunskill spoke for the British Medical Association on why doctors are now fully involved in the battle against the cuts and threatening strike action.

 Ray Lufford from the Remploy trade unions was another speaker who attracted a lot of applause as was construction worker Steve Kelly of Unite speaking about blacklisting.

 There were also international speakers from the trade union movements in Greece and Kazakhstan.

 NSSN communications officer Suzanne Muna moved an NSSN Guide to Action, which welcomed the TUC national demo being organised in October and called for it to be a "start to the next phase of an action-based campaign against austerity”.

 "We advocate that the next step should be for the TUC to organise a one-day general strike, which includes both public and private sectors," she said.