Love is in the Air

...or so many of us thought back in the 1970s when the forces of liberation were storming through the Global South and massive peace movements could march through the heart of the imperialist world to demand the end of imperialist wars. The words, now largely forgotten outside the ranks of Dundee United fans, were sometimes amended to “peace is in the air” in those halcyon days of the last genuinely Labour government that from time to time would pay lip-service to the cause of peace that commanded significant support amongst the labour movement of the day.
These days Starmer is seldom bothered by such niceties and rarely talks about peace except to justify more arms expenditure or the monstrous expense of our bogus nuclear strike force. Donald Trump is somewhat different. This immensely vain man does little to mask his determination to put the Nobel Peace Prize in his trophy cabinet. Behind his supreme ego lies the equally determined view of prominent circles within the American ruling class that want to “Make America Great Again” – largely at the expense of their own allies – while, at the same time, cut their losses on profitless wars in the Global South 
When the Soviet Union and its European allies went down in 1991 we were told to expect a “peace dividend” in return. The bourgeois gurus on both sides of the Atlantic talked about the “end of history” and predicted that the end of the Cold War would lead to massive cuts in Western defence spending that would usher in a new age of prosperity for everyone in the 21st century. What we actually got was regime-change invasions and a “new world order” of forever wars in the Global South amidst a global capitalist slump with still no signs of recovery on the horizon. And everywhere we look in the capitalist world we see unemployment, homelessness, poverty, drug abuse and crime. The symptoms of industrial decline, inflationary pressures, stock market volatility and economic stagnation. 
Trump’s Ukraine peace plan is a realistic response to the legitimate demands of the Russian Federation and if it ends the conflict in eastern Europe it will bring countless benefits to working people on both sides of the fence.
Sadly the same cannot be said for the Gaza plan, adopted by the UN Security Council last week, that established a ceasefire and laid-out a  vague framework for long-term peace between Israel and Hamas involving international support and a pathway to Palestinian statehood.
Though Trump did, indeed, bring a halt to the Israeli invasion – which is more that can be said for the Biden administration – the fighting still continues, albeit on a much smaller scale in the beleaguered Palestinian enclave. Trump certainly wants to bring the feudal Middle Eastern oil princes and the venal Arab politicians in their pay on board but all the Palestinians get are the usual platitudes which have always come to nothing in the past. 
The proposed “Gaza International Transitional Authority” – headed by The Donald himself –simply aims at replacing the Israelis and the Hamas administration with a government run by American nominees and an occupying army drawn from America’s regional allies while the Palestinians are merely expected to staff the admin sector and the auxiliary police force needed to cover this densely-populated Palestinian strip of land on the Mediterranean coast.
Sure there’s plenty of talk about Arab oil money transforming the post-war Gaza Strip into a millionaires’ playground. But there’s going to be no Arab Monte Carlo as long as millions of Palestinians are forced to live under Zionist bondage. And there’s going to be no peace as longs as the Palestinians are denied their legitimate right to freedom and independence.

The Battle for a Socialist Britain

 by John Maryon

During the summer of 1951 around 8.5 million people visited the Festival of Britain held on the south bank of the Thames in London. It's aim was to celebrate Britain's achievements in culture, architecture , science and industry. It also sought to encourage recovery from the horrors of the Second World War and foster national pride. Remembered for the iconic images of the Skylon and Dome of Discovery the exhibits were colourful and contemporary. People were encouraged to look forward to a brave new world marking a bright new future for Britain. I was there.
Britain still had a strong industrial base and the thriving co-operative movement played an important role in the lives of working class people. We believed that socialism was just round the corner as people were starting to benefit from new social and health care benefits. The NHS had been established three years earlier and new state industries starting to rebuild and modernise our neglected infrastructure. A powerful trade union movement was fighting for better pay, shorter hours, safer working conditions and good pensions. The slums were being replaced by beautiful new council houses. Villages still had their own butchers, bakers, post office and rural people grew all their vegetables. Most people could not afford a motor car but with cheap buses everywhere that did not matter.
We naively believed that with scientific advances and developing technology things could only get better. We envisaged a great future without wars, all sickness would be cured and unemployment become a thing of the past. In many ways the period represented a high point for the socialist ethos in Britain. Since those halcyon days the rich have much more wealthy. Medical advances have failed to conquer many terrible diseases. Imperialism has carried out forever wars. Our economy is failing, our infrastructure is falling to pieces and years of austerity have brought suffering to millions.
Communists recognise the prime cause of Britain's decline is the terminal crisis of capitalism with its irreconcilable contradictions. A crisis made worse by the greed, incompetence and detachment from reality of our so-called leaders. Most Western nations suffer the same malign affliction. The Tories sold all the family silver in a great orgy of capitalist excess when they privatised essential public services. Governments have failed to engage in long term infrastructure investment and many companies have failed to invest in Britain. Essential high tech investment has been neglected in favour of paying workers an appalling basic minimum wage to continue working obsolete systems without innovation.
The debacle has been possible because the working class has not mobilised. The mass media, including the British Brainwashing Corporation (BBC) have been able to anaesthetise people's critical thinking with lies and crude propaganda. We need an effective fightback through class struggle. Labour having abandoned it's socialist values is not in a position to introduce radical policies for change. Many small left wing parties in Britain today are mostly sectarian and prefer to talk among themselves rather than engage in alliances with others. ‘Your Party’ with the respected and trusted Jeremy Corbyn will sadly be unable to tackle the underlying causes of the crisis with a social democratic platform. And then there is the fake left that hover round the Morning Star, who claim to be communist, make a lot of noise, damage working class unity, weaken the struggle against imperialism and achieve very little of substance.
It is essential for a vanguard party committed to Marxism-Leninism to show the way forward and encourage a renewed class struggle. The chief policies of the New Communist Party of Britain are as follows:

* Tax the Rich: More money is needed to properly fund our vital public services, repair the collapsing infrastructure and to invest in green energy, sustainable development and transport for future generations. And it is the wealthy who must pay more. For decades they have amassed huge fortunes by the exploitation of working people. We believe that progressive taxation measures should be introduced to disgorge their vast wealth. Increases in top rates could shift the burden of taxation away from the workers onto the capitalists. Tax evasion by companies should be made illegal and be enforced.

*Public Ownership: Full red:blooded socialist measures are absolutely necessary. Key strategic industries, investment bodies and utilities must be owned and controlled by the people. Within the framework of a planned economy short termism, market anarchy, pollution and cyclical crisis would be avoided. And the surplus value generated spread fairly between the workers and the requirements for new public investment. By public ownership we mean full ownership rather than a loose arrangement in which many functions are out sourced and some assets remain in private hands.

*Independence: Britain needs to free itself from American hegemony and the pretence that it has a special relationship . We must say no way to their obscene demands for increasing war expenditure to five per cent of GDP. We would make peace a major policy and work with diplomacy to build trust and understanding. The war mongers who have governed our country seek forever wars that guarantee huge profits for arms manufacturers. None of the US lackeys ever talk about peace. Of course any nation should have the right to defend itself. We have no obvious natural enemies who would have any interest whatsoever in starting a war against us so expenditure should be measured and adapted to real needs. We oppose warmongering weather from politicians or the BBC who appear to have changed their stated aim of nation speaks peace to nation with the promotion of fear and mistrust.

*Freedom: Socialism with its foundations of equality and fair distribution of wealth in intrinsically more democratic than Capitalism can ever be. But we should always be on our guard against corruption and excesses in the early stages of building socialism. In Britain today many people have been conditioned into being unable to think critically. We would take back the BBC and turn it into a real voice for the people by allowing it to reflect all points of opinion and so enrich our social and cultural development. To achieve real freedom we have to struggle for it through the class struggle and the New Communist Party of Britain will always stand tall in that endeavour.

To learn more about our policies I urge you to become a regular subscriber to the New Worker and join the struggle by joining the NCP today.

Winter is Coming

The knives are out for Starmer. In Downing Street Starmer aides move to undermine Wes Streeting, the Health Minister, said to be plotting to mount a challenge to the beleaguered Labour leader while Streeting himself talks about the "toxic culture" of Downing Street and questions whether the PM's long-time ally and chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, should keep his job.
Labour won a landslide victory in the general election last year. Though this was largely due to the collapse of the Tories deserting in droves to the Faragists Starmer & Co and the gang of old Blairite has-beens that surround him actually thought this was a ringing endorsement of their policies – which amount to little more than continuing with Tory austerity and crawling to whoever is in power in the United States. Now Starmer’s Blairite revival, a trashy imitation of a failed past, has brought Labour to its knees. 
 Everywhere we look we see unemployment, homelessness, poverty, drug abuse and crime. The symptoms of industrial decline, inflationary pressures, stock market volatility and economic stagnation. This is capitalism. And working people are being made to carry the burden of its failure. Unemployment, homelessness, poverty. No wonder the Starmer government is on the rocks.
It would take at least 80 dissident Labour MPs to trigger a leadership challenge but that’s not likely to happen this side of Christmas. Most of the wannabees are from his own bloc like Wes Streeting, Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood while the “prince over the water”, Andy Burham, bides his time in Manchester waiting for the opportune time for a bid for power that may never ever come.
We certainly can’t expect much from what’s left of the old Corbynista front in the Parliamentary Labour Party.  Most of them made their peace with Starmer.
 A handful took the principled stand to remain in parliament as part of Jeremy Corbyn’s Independent Alliance.
There’s still fighting talk from Socialist Campaign Group Secretary Richard Burgon who tells us to “cut through the briefings and counter-briefings — what’s playing out is typical Westminster soap-opera stuff, not a disagreement over policy, principle or vision. What’s really needed to prevent a Reform government is a radical change of direction, with real Labour values”.
But that’s not going to happen is it – not as long as the unions remain in the hands of careerists who, despite their bogus socialist credentials and the empty promises of the factions and platforms they head, are still part of Labour’s bureaucratic bloc that put Starmer into office in the first place.
There is, of course, a fight-back driven by the need to stave of the complete collapse of the Labour Party in the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and fend off Reform in the local and regional elections next year. Some will stay to battle it out inside the Labour Party. Others are campaigning inside Corbyn’s new party to hammer out a programme that can provide an effective electoral challenge to the old guard in next years’ polls.
Communists have to defend the principled line of socialist advance throughout the labour movement. We can, and indeed, must work with other progressive forces inside and beyond the Labour Party to support the struggling people of Palestine and the millions upon millions of other people struggling against imperialism across the world and build the resistance to austerity and war throughout our own labour and peace  movement.

The lessons of Huntingdon

Though the knife-man who went berserk on a train at Huntingdon is now safely behind bars we will have to wait for the police investigation to shed some light on the motives behind his apparently senseless rampage that wounded ten passengers and a member of the train crew whose timely intervention saved many others from getting hurt. What we can say is that many lives were saved by the cool response of the driver, who diverted the train to Huntingdon where the police and ambulance crews were waiting, and the member of the train crew who was seriously injured as he tried to stop the bloodshed.
Jeremy Corbyn has called on the Labour government to now look at “the very serious problem of some trains operating without any staff on at all”. The former Labour leader who leads the Independent Alliance bloc in parliament is urging the Home Secretary to “pause” the operation of trains without crew in the carriages while the rail unions call for no cuts as well as stab-vests for train crews and more transport police on platforms and carriages to prevent further tragedies. These demands must now be treated as a matter of urgency to restore confidence on our rail and underground networks. 
This year alone, 522 transport police posts have been cut, with another 51 expected to go over the next two years through natural wastage. But RMT, the main railway union,  says around 1,000 additional officers are needed to return to historic policing levels and ensure a visible police presence on stations and trains.
The union says new figures show the number of full-time equivalent British Transport Police officers has fallen to just over 0.8 per million passenger journeys, down from over 0.9 per million last year – an 11 per cent drop and almost a third fewer than in 2009/10, when there were 1.2 officers per million journeys.
RMT says these figures underline the need for a strong, visible BTP presence to protect passengers and rail workers alike. The union is calling on the Chancellor to ensure funding is made available in the upcoming Budget to rebuild policing levels and restore safety and confidence on Britain’s railways. 
The return of the main-line services to public ownership is a golden opportunity for the government to ensure that the new “Greater British Railways” puts passenger safety top of the agenda of the restored national network. Whether they do, however, depends on the continued support for the passenger groups and railway unions who’ve been campaigning for years against the cuts.
As for those Tories who want to get rid of all the staff – drivers, train crews and platform staff – the facts speak for themselves. Computers and cameras may be able to operate some train systems like children’s train-sets but they cannot provide the safety and security that the public require and expect in this age of hi-speed travel. 

Hands off Venezuela!

 

By New Worker correspondent

Last Saturday Theo Russell represented the New Communist Party at a rally in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin demanding “Hands off Venezuela”, organised by the Coop Anti-war Café.
Speakers at the rally included Nancy Larenas from the Communist Party of Chile, Maren Crosnest and Renate Döhring from the United Front for Latin America, Heinrich Buecker from the Anti-war Café, and Cornelia Praetorius from Mothers against War.
In his contribution Theo Russell said that “Five or ten years ago, some people were comparing the current world situation with the 1930s, but it is now clear that the capitalist system is now in a deep and very dangerous crisis”.
He noted that across Western Europe the old political order was crumbling with new right wing parties gaining millions of votes, but said “we also need to be positive, last year we saw the far-right anti-migrant, anti-Muslim rioters in Britain vastly outnumbered by people from the local communities, we have seen millions marching on solidarity with the people of Palestine, and two weeks ago over five million people protesting in cities across the United States against Donald Trump’s repressive and autocratic policies”.
The Coop Anti-war Café  runs a café, gallery, shop and meeting venue two blocks from the Alexanderplatz at 3 Rochstrasse and it is usually open from Monday to Saturday from 5.30 pm to 2 am, however it’s best to confirm before visiting by emailing: info@hbuecker.net or calling 0049 15154 161869. It has been a centre for organising anti war and political action for 25 years.

Capitalism’s finished – not us!

by Andy Brooks

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined social scientists, businessmen, solidarity workers and other communists for an economic seminar at the Chinese embassy in London on 24 October 2025 The Chinese ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, opened on the important decisions made at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that week and the new developments in China and the opportunities it gave to the world that was the theme of the symposium and the discussion that followed. This is Andy Brooks' contribution...

The world today stands at a crossroads of profound transformation and turbulence, with uncertainty pervading the globe. This is a time of sharpening contradictions – and the primary contradiction in the world today is between United States imperialism and the rest of the world it seeks to control and exploit.  
While the imperialists live in the past with their “American Dream”, their “new world order” and “Making America Great Again” the Global South aims for the future – a better tomorrow that was charted out in Beijing by the leaders of the people’s democracies and the leaders of the Global South during the top-level discussions on the sidelines of the Victory Day celebrations in the Chinese capital in September.
Donald Trump and the other old men who lead the bourgeoisie in America and Europe have nothing to offer the new generation apart from tales of an imagined glorious past when imperialism in all its forms ruled most of the world. And all they can promise is never-ending poverty, forever wars and endless austerity in the future.
These venal politicians and the ruling class that they serve maintain that capitalism is the only game in town. And it is – but only for themselves. Capitalism, in the final analysis, is simply a system designed to perpetuate the rule of the landowners, industrialists and capitalists to ensure that a tiny handful of parasites can live the lives of Roman emperors off the backs of millions upon millions of working people. There is only one solution to the capitalist crisis – socialism.
Humanity has passed through a number of historical epochs from the first glimpses of primitive communism in the Stone Age to the growth of feudalism and the emergence of capitalism and imperialism in the modern era. Today a new stage of development is underway in the people’s democracies on the road of socialist advance which will in turn make the qualitative advance to communism.
Now a new economic and political counter to US-led imperialism is being built by China, Russia and the rest of the Global South. BRICS and the Belt & Road initiative provide an alternative to imperialism’s one-sided “deals” and “partnerships” that solely serve the interests of the trans-national corporations of the imperialist world.
In Beijing the Chinese leader Xi Jinping outlined five core principles that should be the driving force for global reform: sovereign equality, adherence to international law, multilateralism, a people-centred approach, and focus on practical action. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, backed China’s new initiative on global governance, calling it “timely and positive”. He reaffirmed Russia’s support for China’s proposals, which aim to build a more effective and fair international system amid Western dominance. 
Today socialism in forms suited to specific local conditions is back on the agenda. The social progress and economic might of People's China has been amazing.  Measured in terms of real GDP  (the real value of goods and services without such American features as exorbitant medical fees, high rents and legal costs) China is on a par with the USA.  Its mixed economy does have certain risks but the cardinal task of the Communist Party of China is to ensure that no one is left behind.  A prosperous society is being created for everyone to enjoy.
The other people’s democracies are also making excellent progress.  Cuba has endured a blockade by the USA for over 60 years and Democratic Korea, Laos and Vietnam, who all took on and defeated the might of American imperialism in their fight for freedom, have recovered from almost total destruction and their governments have led the drive to build strong, prosperous, democratic and equal societies with the people as its true masters.
In China the government, led by the Communist Party, ensures that the fruits of economic and social progress are shared by the vast majority of the people, effectively avoiding issues such as wealth polarisation and social fragmentation that we see all the time in the West.
In Britain and the rest of the imperialist heartlands politics has become a game for those who serve the ruling class. Venal politicians tell us  that we have free speech and democracy, but it’s democracy and freedom only for themselves. They have elections but only so that the smallest number of people can manipulate the maximum number of votes. They have parliaments but they are all frauds designed to mask the fact that bourgeois government rests on the bourgeois state, which exists solely to serve the interests of the ruling class. 
In China the people’s government remains committed to advancing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of its people. This commitment has laid a solid foundation for long-term social stability and harmony. When people realise that the nation's development blueprint is closely linked to their own interests, they will come together with tremendous strength and unity to strive forward.
Stable growth, stable policies and stable expectations – this is what the people want. China's development follows a clear direction that is taken with confidence and determination – whether it is a top-level design for developing new quality productive forces based on local conditions, the solid advancement of common prosperity through high-quality development, or a systematic plan to accelerate the formation of a new development project. 
This is China’s answer to Western calls for tariff walls and trade wars. China's approach to development is not about fighting for your own corner but about serving the people for the benefit of the entire world.
The 15th Five-Year Plan, which starts next year, is a carefully designed blueprint for realising the Chinese people's aspiration for a better life. Serving the people, the plan charts the way forward for the People’s Republic in building a community with a shared future for humanity that will make ever greater contributions to world peace and global development.
The history of humanity is a history of exploitation and class struggle. For century after century working people – the slaves, the peasants, the artisans, dreamt of justice and equality. But in the modern era with the rise of the working class and the development of scientific socialism it is now possible not only to dream of a better world but also to concretely build it.
The imperialists think that their guns will ensure that they can ignore the will of the people for as long as they like. But they were proved wrong in the 20th century and they will be proved wrong today. The days when people listened to the rich men who told us that the greatest virtue of humanity was the possession of the largest amount of money are over.
Great mass movements are again sweeping the continents. The masses are demanding social justice, democratic rights and an end to exploitation. It’s capitalism that’s finished – not us. 
Everywhere we look in the capitalist world we see unemployment, homelessness, poverty, drug abuse and crime. The symptoms of industrial decline, inflationary pressures, stock market volatility and economic stagnation. This is capitalism. And working people are being made to carry the burden of its failure. But in People’s China working people aren’t simply reacting to global challenges – they are shaping the very future of our world. 

Dark thoughts for dark times

 By New Worker correspondent

Slavery, oppression and the fight for freedom. That’s Dark Thoughts – a project by Therapeutic Productions that highlights the work and impact of significant African intellectuals in the Western world. The project aims to influence urban society's culture, foster positive engagement, and increase community knowledge.
Therapeutic Productions is a non-profit initiative that uses film, music and art to raise awareness of social issues and provide arts-based therapy services to young people, particularly those in gang-affected environments and/or with mental health difficulties. They advance participation in arts to both upskill and empower communities by creating stories and delivering interventions focused on technical skills, soft skill development, employability and cultural awareness.
They worked in collaboration with the award-winning Two Side studios, the Museum of London Docklands and a range of figures to preserve, identify and promote the work of black philosophers and intellectuals in Western countries. The project was funded by Croydon Voluntary Action, the MSN fund, Westfields and the Woodward charitable trust.
Part one of the series is focused on the life of abolitionist Ottobah Cugoano, a freed slave, who in the eighteenth century campaigned to end the slave trade as a philosopher, activist and author in London.
Jerome Sewell, the Managing Director of Therapeutic Productions said “we are proud to champion this important history and preserve the work of an inspirational figure. We thank our partners, funders and artists for making this a reality”.
The series features a range of leading thinkers, scholars and community advocates including professors who are the world's leading authorities in their subject areas.
They worked with illustrators, animators, musicians and film-makers to create this production and collaborated with the Museum of London Docklands who provided a workshop and allowed them to film in their galleries. In the end the artists created over 20 sound-tracks, paintings, animations and filmed interviews which which went into this work. You can check it out yourself for free on YouTube.

Labour on the rocks

The Welsh nationalist victory in the Caerphilly Senedd by-election  last week was a slap in the face for Starmer and his band. Plaid Cymru won the seat in the Welsh parliament with 47 per cent of the vote in a town which had been a Labour stronghold for over a hundred years. Labour came a poor third behind the Faragist Reform platform that has become a beacon for disaffected Welsh Tories whose numbers have soared since Kemi Badenoch won the Tory leadership race in November 2024.
This isn’t surprising. Labour’s support has collapsed all over the country. Workers are abandoning Labour in their droves. Some are turning to Reform lured by Nigel Farage’s glib tongue into believing that asylum seekers and immigrants are the source of all our woes and that the only way out of the economic crisis we are in is to totally embrace the cut-throat capitalist system of the United States. Others turn to the Welsh and Scottish nationalists or look to the Liberal-Democrats, Greens and the Corbynistas for answers.
Reform now tops the list in the opinion polls way ahead of Labour and the Tories – whose old dominance in now being seriously challenged by the Lib-Dems and the Greens. But mid-term opinion polls can be misleading – particularly in these volatile times. The Tories  could easily make a come-back if they dumped Badenoch and returned to the traditions of their bullish racist and anti-union past that Farage now promotes to his own advantage. But it’s not so for Labour.
Hundreds of thousands of supporters have been driven out of Labour’s ranks. They’re not going to come back in a hurry – and they never will as long as Starmer and the old Blairite has-beens he surrounds himself remain in charge. And though there’s murmurs in union circles and Labour’s back-benches no one is, so far, prepared to step forward to challenge Starmer. Least of all Andy Burham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, that some of the dissidents say is the only man who can restore their standing in time for the next election.
Burham is, of course, a good campaigner on the street – unlike Starmer whose arrogant and remote attitude to working people reflects the loathsome policies of austerity and oppression that are the hall-mark of his administration today.
Burham, or maybe others in his camp, may move against Starmer next year. But the fight-back against austerity can’t rely on the whims of ambitious Labour politicians or the legion of union bureaucrats that dominate our labour movement.
Despite public quarrels at the top Jeremy Corbyn’s new political party has enthused hundreds of thousands who flocked to his banner when he was leader of the Labour Party.  Whether they can build an alternative left platform, in tandem with the progressive elements still in the Labour Party only time will tell.
But the mass movement in solidarity with the Palestinians has shown the way. The anti-war movement is back on the streets and the apologists for imperialism and Zionism are on defensive –  smears, common abuse and police oppression are now the only arguments they’ve got left.
 Millions of people scrabble to earn a living just to keep a roof over their heads. A tiny elite live lives beyond the reach and often beyond the imagination of most workers. Socialism can end this. Only through socialism can the will of the masses, the overwhelming majority of the people, be carried out. Only socialism and mass democracy – not the sham democracy of the bourgeoisie or the myths of the social democrats, end the class system and free working people from their slavery. Our argument – for socialism must be put back on the workers’ agenda.