A school for Christmas

Andy Brooks speaking on Sunday

  by New Worker correspondent

 

The festive season kicked off with a national weekend school over the weekend that drew comrades to London to hear John Maryon, Alex Kempshall and Andy Brooks open discussions on the United Front, Economic Problems of the USSR and Ultra-leftism and social-democracy.

Three sessions, chaired by Alex Kempshall, stimulated discussion on these wide-ranging topics and the problems of the communist movement as a whole today. It closed on Sunday with Robert Laurie making the traditional financial appeal which raised £110 for the New Worker fighting fund!

UKIP demo flop in London

by New Worker correspondent

anti-fascists on the march

 

Anti-fascists easily outnumbered the rabble that had turned up in central London on Sunday to march behind ‘Tommy Robinson’ to ‘Stop Brexit Betrayal’. Robinson, a well-known racist bigot whose real name in Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was making his debut for UKIP, which recently appointed him as some sort of adviser in a last-ditch effort to halt the decline that followed the departure of their old leader, Nigel Farage.

About 3,000 Kippers, and the usual fascist degenerates who hang around Robinson, marched to Parliament Square with their flags and banners to hurl abuse at the May Government that they claimed had betrayed the Brexit vote.

Thousands more turned up to oppose them. Stand Up to Racism (SUTR) reckoned that around 15,000 responded to the call to confront the racists on the streets. SUTR and others said the message of the counter-demonstration was that Leavers and Remainers alike will not stand for fascists attempting to profit from a crisis; and that we will not stop until the rise of the far-right, and the wave of hate crime that has accompanied it, has been defeated.

At their rally in Whitehall, SUTR’s Weyman Bennett said: “We had a brilliant demonstration against Tommy Robinson – outnumbering and humiliating him. Now we have to redouble our efforts. Robinson and Batten are attempting to normalise and legitimise fascism and we cannot let it happen.

“Tommy Robinson should be locked up. When he made that speech saying that Jamal, a Syrian refugee, deserved to be beaten up, it was a disgrace. That’s what fascists do. They try to divide us and destroy us. Our message is very simple: ‘never again’.

“We face dangerous times and dangerous times mean we need to organise. We need to build in our communities to make sure ‘never again’ is something real.”

Beefing at the Tower

  By New Worker correspondent

The famed Beefeaters, who perform the valuable ceremonial duties of looking after Her Majesty’s crown jewels at the Tower of London, are among those working for Historic Royal Palaces who are being balloted over possible action to defend their pensions against massive proposed cuts.

            HRP, the independent charity that manages the six of Britain’s unoccupied royal palaces which allow in plebs as tourists, is planning to close its defined benefits pension scheme to future accruals and move the 120 staff who are members of the scheme into a defined contribution scheme. This will result in staff receiving greatly reduced pensions.

 Apart from the Yeoman Warders the workers affected are those who work in IT, extract money from gullible tourists at the properties, and conservation at the Tower, Kensington Palace and Hampton Court Palace.

 The union has succeeded in forcing HRP to make a slightly better offer to transition over to a defined contribution pension scheme, but the improvements insufficient.

 Members have overwhelmingly rejected the changes put forward by HRP to the defined benefits pension scheme in two consultative ballots.

 In late October, PCS, the civil service union that represents most of the affected staff, wrote to the CEO but management turned down invitation to further negotiations resulting in a ballot which closes today.