Uhuru!

by Ben Soton

African Uhuru by Roger McKenzie, Manifesto Press, London 2024, 178 pp, RRP £15.00

The word Uhuru (as well the character from Star Trek) is Swahili for freedom or independence. African Uhuru is a history of African self-liberation covering a period from the end of the First World War to the present day written by Roger McKenzie, the International Editor of the Morning Star, and a highly respected figure within the progressive and labour movement.
The book covers liberation movements both inside and outside of Africa; both movements for national independence and as well as the struggle against racism in Europe and the USA. McKenzie places considerable emphasis on the African diaspora, which he is a product of. From the 16^th to the 19^th centuries Africans were abducted from their homes, mostly in West Africa, and sold as slaves to work in the Americas. It was the Transatlantic slave trade which enabled capital to be accumulated in a relatively small part of the globe that led to the development of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution.
The author goes into considerable detail about the growth of anti-colonial and anti-racist movements in Britain and the United States. Whilst covering the role of key figures such as Marcus Garvey and C L R James, McKenzie also points out that African Self-Liberation and Marxism did not always sit well together. He covers the hostility of leading black figures such as George Padmore and Marcus Garvey to Marxism; which the latter described as a “white man’s thing”; as well as a possible lack of commitment of communist parties in assisting black workers. It was however Lenin and his seminal work Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism that took Marxism away from its European origins and into the colonial and semi-colonial world.
The book also covers the various attempts by nations within what is now referred to as the Global South to co-operate against imperialism. The ranges from the Non-Aligned Movement in the 1950s, with its famous meeting in the Indonesian city of Bandung to the more recent rise of BRICS, the bloc formed initially by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, whose initials make up the group’s name.
McKenzie ends the book with a call to de-colonise the labour movement; a demand for the labour movement to play a greater role in fighting racism, which has its origins in the slave trade and imperialism.

What choice do we have?

Starmer squirms while Gaza burns. He warns MPs that the Middle East is “close to the brink” and in “very real danger of a regional war”  but refuses to rule out British military involvement if Israel attacks Iran. He declines to say whether MPs would get a vote first on any military action. Why is that?
The obvious answer is that Starmer is waiting to see what the United States wants and at the moment the White House is keeping its cards close to its chest. At the moment we can only second guess what the Americans will do though Biden’s 30 minute telephone call to Netanyahu doesn’t bode well for the future of Lebanon. What is however certainly clear is that whatever Biden wants Starmer will do.
This is what the “special relationship” is all about – doing the bidding of the Americans and those sections of the British ruling class who believe that their global interests are best served through the might of US imperialism. Crawling to the Americans comes as second nature to right-wing Labour leaders who never seriously challenged imperialism when the British empire spanned the globe,
Starmer & Co stand for little apart from personal ambition and slavish support for American imperialism and what they believe to be the dominant section of the British ruling class. Sadly they face no serious challenge, at the moment, from within the labour movement. Labour’s army of local government jobsworths and the legion of trade union bureaucrats that run the big unions and the TUC have been easily bought off by the very modest package of reforms promised by the new government. Like Starmer and the ageing Blairites now back at the helm of the Labour Party the grandees think they can safely ignore the mass movement on the street in support of the Palestinians.
We must prove them wrong. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched through the heart of London last weekend demanding justice for the Palestinians. Hundreds of thousands more are taking part in anti-war protests throughout the country. As Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who now heads the Independent group in Parliament said “without further de-escalation, unimaginable horror is on the horizon. But as we stand on the brink of a major regional war, do not forget those who lie dead in its wake. Do not forget what has been taken from us, forever. Do not forget the people of Gaza, where genocide continues unabated.
“We continue to march because we refuse to let the memory of Palestinians die. We continue to call for an end to all arms sales to Israel. We continue to speak up for the only path to a just and lasting peace: an end to the occupation of Palestine. After a year of genocide, we might ask ourselves why we bother to carry on when our demands have largely fallen on deaf ears. As long as there are Palestinians who dream of freedom, what choice do we have?”.

We stand against the widening of war in the Middle East!

 Joint Statement of Communist and Workers Parties

We, the undersigned communist and workers parties campaigning for peace and progress in the Middle East, hereby express our most profound concerns over the unprecedented escalation of the situation in the region with the Israeli multi-dimensional attacks on Lebanon and full-scale invasion of the country. This has predictably resulted in the retaliatory missile strikes by Iran on Israeli targets, following on from Israeli attacks on Lebanon and other provocative infringements on Iranian sovereignty.
We believe that if the current trend of developments continues, the region will be plunged into a cycle of conflict that could very easily lead to a globalised war.  This would endanger the security of all states and peoples in our region.
In Israel, the Netanyahu government, which has flagrantly violated international law in its perpetration of a genocidal war in Gaza for the past 12 months, assassination of political leadersin Tehran and Beirut,and now in its invasion of Lebanon and blatant recourse to terror tactics to eliminate its foes there, is seeking a direct military conflict with Iran in order to expand the war across the Middle East, in collusion with the US and UK governments, to aggressively implement schemes fundamentally aimed at the re-drawing of the political map of the Middle East and imposition of their imperialist hegemony.
The state of Israel conducts itself as the wild arsonist in the Middle East, while Western powers continue to cover, support, and arm it to the teeth, since it constitutes their long and steely arm in the region.This despite Israel's repeated brazen thumbing its nose to the international community, under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), as well as the rule of international law.
We recognise the definitive peaceful and political resolution of the Palestinian issue as being central to the current situation in the Middle East.  We therefore call for an immediate full ceasefire and end to the genocidal war in Gaza andthe West Bank and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from those territories; the release of all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli gaols and detention centres; the release of all remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza; as well immediate concrete and legally enshrined steps towards the recognition and implementation of a fully sovereign Palestinian state within the borders as they stood on 4 June 1967 as per the relevant UN resolutions.  In accordance with international law, the illegal occupation of Palestine must be brought to an end.
We furthermore call for the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli military forces from the sovereign territory of Lebanonand reaffirm our solidarity with the struggle of the Lebanese and Palestinian people and support for their fundamental and inalienable right under international law to resist foreign invasion and occupation. We also call for an endto the bombardment and military targeting of sites in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen, and further afield.
Pursuant to this, we call for an end to all exports of military armaments, ammunition, as well as technical assistanceto Israel in order to force a reversal from its dangerous military adventure in Palestine, Lebanon, and other countries in the Middle East.
We call for the rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding theIsraeli genocidal war in Gaza to be upheld and implemented without delay or obstruction.
We call for the UN's appeals to all sides to be heeded in order so as to earnestly row back from and avert the nightmarish scenario of a generalised war, which edges over closer and would spell disaster for all peoples of the region.
 
SolidNet Parties signing the Joint Statement
 

• Communist Party of Armenia
• Communist Party of Australia
• Communist Party of Austria
• Party of Labour Austria
• Communist Party of Bangladesh
• Communist Party of Brazil
• Communist Party of Britain
• New Communist Party of Britain
• Communist Party of Canada
• AKEL of Cyprus
• Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
• Communist Party of Denmark
• Communist Party of Finland
• French Communist Party
• German Communist Party
• Communist Party of Greece (KKE)
• Hungarian Workers Party
• Communist Party of India
• Communist Party of India [Marxist]
• Tudeh Party of Iran
• Communist Party of Iraq
• Kurdistan Communist Party -Iraq
• Workers Party of Ireland
• Communist Party of Israel
• Italian Communist Party
• Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
• Communist Party of Luxembourg
• Communist Party of Malta
• Communist Party of Mexico
• New Communist Party of the Netherlands
• Communist Party of Norway
• Communist Party of Pakistan
• Palestinian Peoples Party
• Portuguese Communist Party
• Communist Party of the Russian Federation
• Russian Communists Workers Party
• Communists of Serbia 
• Communist Party of Spain
• Communist Party of the Workers of Spain
• Communists of Catalonia
• Communist Party of Sri Lanka
• Sudanese Communist Party
• Communist Party of Sweden
• Syrian Communist Party
• Communist Party of Turkey
• Communist Party of Ukraine
• Communist Party of Uruguay
• Communist Party USA
• Communist Party of Venezuela  

Other Parties

• Communist Front of Italy
• Communist Workers' Platform USA
• Party of Communists USA

Solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese people

against occupation and the genocidal war
 
We, the undersigned communist and workers parties, hereby express our strongest condemnation against the escalating Israeli crimes against the Palestinian, Lebanese and all peoples of the Middle East.
Following months of the genocidal war against Gaza, which has resulted in the killings of tens of thousands of civilians - including 12,000 children - and the massive destruction of its schools, hospitals and infrastructure, we are now witnessing a new phase of murderous aggression on Lebanon and the initiation of a full-scale invasion of the country. This has led to a humanitarian catastrophe over the past few weeks, resulting in the martyrdom of more than 2,000 Lebanese citizens, the injuring of more than 10,000 and the displacement of about 1.2 million citizens who were forced to leave their homes, seeking shelter in other regions as well as on the streets and in cars and tents.
The assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut have resulted in retaliatory missile strikes by Iran on Israeli targets. We believe that these aggressive actions and crimes conducted by the Zionist entity, with full support by imperialist powers, are leading the Middle East into a disastrous cycle of conflict and possibly a regional war.
The imperialist governments, especially those of the US and NATO countries are responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian and Lebanese people by being fully involved in the armament of Israel and open support through all financial, political, diplomatic, media and intelligence resources at their disposal, as well as sending their air and naval forces to the region in preparation for broader aggressions.
We hereby express our full solidarity with the peoples of the region, in particular the Lebanese and Palestinian people and their rightful resistance, in all its forms, to achieve their liberation and independence.
We salute the persistence, steadfastness and resistance of the peoples of the region, including communist and progressive forces that are striving for national liberation, independence and sovereignty.
We call for an immediate unconditional ceasefire in Gaza. We support theending of the occupation of Palestine, as well as guaranteeing the right of self-determination and the implementation of a fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. We call for the return of all refugees.
We furthermore call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Israeli military forces that are occupying sovereign territories in South Lebanon, and the Golan heights in Syria and to end the bombardment of sites in Syria, Iran, Yemen, and further afield.
Pursuant to this, we call for an end to all exports of military armaments, ammunition, as well as technical assistance to the Israeli occupation army. We call for the rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza to be upheld and implemented without delay or obstruction.
We also call upon the peoples of the world, and the communist, workers, and progressive forces in various countries, to assist the growth and strengthening of the wide political, popular, and media solidarity campaign to achieve the immediate ceasefire and to put an end to the Zionist aggression and its crimes against the Lebanese and Palestinian people and all peoples of the region.
 
SolidNet Parties signing the Joint Statement

• Communist Party of Australia
• Party of Labour Austria
• Democratic Progressive Movement Bahrain
• Communist Party of Bangladesh
• Brazilian Communist Party
• Communist Party of Brazil
• New Communist Party of Britain
• Communist Party of Denmark
• Egyptian Communist Party
• German Communist Party
• Communist Party of Greece
• Hungarian Workers' Party
• Communist Party of India
• Communist Party of India (Marxist)
• Iraqi Communist Party
• Communist Party of Ireland
• Italian Communist Party 
• Communist Party (Italy)
• Jordanian Communist Party
• Kuwaiti Progressive Movement
• Lebanese Communist Party
• Communist Party of Mexico
• New Communist Party of the Netherlands
• Communist Party of Norway
• Communist Party of Pakistan
• Palestinian Communist Party
• Palestinian Peoples Party
• Communist Party of Poland
• Portuguese Communist Party
• Romanian Socialist Party
• Communist Party of the Russian Federation
• Russian Communist Workers Party
• Communists of Serbia
• Communist Party of Spain
• Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain
• Communist Party of the Workers of Spain
• Communists of Catalonia
• Sudanese Communist Party
• Communist Party of Swaziland
• Communist Party of Sweden
• Syrian Communist Party
• Unified Syrian Communist Party
• Communist Party of Turkey
• Communist Party of Uruguay
• Communist Party USA
• Communist Party of Venezuela

Other Parties

• Coordinadora de Movimientos Sociales y Politicos Marcha Patriotica de Colombia
• Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
• Danish Communist Party
• Party of Popular Alliance - Egypt
• Communist Party of Germany
• Communist Party (Germany)
• Communist Front of Italy 
• Workers Democratic Way Party- Morocco
• Party of the Federation of Democratic Left - Morocco
• Unified Socialist Party - Morocco
• Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
• Galizan Peoples Union
• Party of Popular Will - Syria
• Communist Workers' Platform USA
• Socialist Party - Yemen

Stop Israel now!

The Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon and the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah – it’s all part of the spiralling violence, that’s clearly been incited by the imperialists, that threatens to plunge the entire Middle East into a sea of blood. British jets shamefully joined the Americans in trying to shield Israel from the wrath of Iran last week while doing nothing to halt the Israeli terror campaign that’s been unleashed against Arab civilian targets in Palestine and Lebanon. The imperialists do nothing because they want to maintain their grip of the oil fields of Arabia. For decades the Big Oil corporations have been protected by Western forces, the Arab auxiliaries provided the oil princes and, of course, the Israelis. While the Zionists and the feudal Arab princes get a cut for doing the Americans’ bidding all the Palestinians get is death and destruction. 
The imperialists and Zionists use terror in the mistaken belief that this will force the Palestinians to beg for peace. But it doesn’t work. The Palestinian Arabs have remained steadfast since 1948 to keep up the fight for their legitimate right for independence and self-determination while Israel’s got a bloody nose every time it’s sent troops into Lebanon in the past. It will be no different this time round.
The imperialist camp calls for “restraint”. Biden and Starmer lead the pack in calls for peace and talk of the imaginary “two-state” solution that they routinely churn out to divert attention away from the demand for justice from the Palestinians and the rest of the world.
These people shed crocodile tears over the fate of the Israeli hostages and brand critics “anti-semites” if they dare to challenge Zionist lies in the bourgeois media. They bleat on about “human rights” when they represent some of the worst human rights abusers in the world, such as Israel, Ukraine and, of course, the USA itself.
In their words they pose as saints. But they must be judged by their deeds. They brought death and destruction to Libya and Iraq. They incited civil strife in Syria. Now they are arming Israel to the teeth while condoning hideous Israeli atrocities against defenceless civilians and threatening to directly intervene to protect Israel if the going ever gets tough for the Zionist state. This has to be stopped.
The British labour movement cannot directly influence American public opinion but it can, and must, put pressure on our Labour government to stop the bloodshed in the Middle East.
"We need a full arms embargo on Israel and economic sanctions, now. Our common humanity demands nothing less" says Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who now heads the Independent bloc in Parliament. That’s the least we can do, and we need to do it now!

Empty words in Liverpool

Tales of penthouse suites, designer clothes and freebie specs have embarrassed Starmer & Co –much to the delight of the Tory press. Health Secretary Wes Streeting says he’s “proud of people who want to contribute, not just their time and volunteering, but their money to our politics. It is a noble pursuit just like giving to charity and we don’t recognise that enough. The alternative is we ask taxpayers to fund our politics. I’d think they’d rather their taxes went into the NHS and our schools or stayed in their own pockets”. Whether Lord Alli, whose generosity stretched for funding £5,000 worth of clothes for Starmer’s wife,  really is an altruistic philanthropist remains a matter of opinion but it certainly provided an amusing diversion from the dreary spectacle of Labour Party conference in Liverpool. 
The Labour Party was founded by the trade unions to give the working class its own voice within Parliament but the Parliamentary Party leadership has been dominated by the middle class intelligentsia since the days of Ramsay McDonald. Labour has always been a mass party encompassing a very wide political spectrum though its agenda has historically bee largely set by right‑wing social-democratic factions. In the old days left factions were tolerated, though every now and again it would purge those of a Trotskyist persuasion if they strayed beyond the consensus of the senior Labour politicians and union leaders who led the movement. These days anyone who departs from the bourgeois norm can be hounded out.
While Labour Party conference is formally the supreme decision-making body of the party
 its decisions have never been binding on the Labour leadership. Hugh Gaitskell, the right-winger who led Labour from 1955 to 1963, bitterly clashed with Conference over unilateral nuclear disarmament. His attempt to dump Clause IV of the Labour Party Constitution, which committed Labour to nationalisation of all the means of production, failed though it was eventually carried out during the Blair era. 
Starmer talks about “Changed Labour”. He made his keynote speech promising that there is “light at the end of this tunnel” while making it clear that we can expect no change from him on austerity. 
Once upon a time the grandees saw the need to allow the rank-and-file some space for genuine debate. Nowadays conference has largely been reduced to a leadership rally with set piece top-table speeches and stage-managed standing ovations from the delegates in the hall.
Sure delegates defied the Starmer leadership when they voted for a motion calling for the party to reverse winter fuel allowance cuts, impose a wealth tax and revise fiscal rules. But it hardly matters as nothing will come of it anyway.
Labour is meaningless unless it reflects the wishes of the millions of its affiliated union members. That’s real democracy. But Labour will never be truly democratic if it’s not controlled by its affiliates. That’s what it was set up for in the first place. And a Labour Party whose policies reflect those of a democratic union movement would become a powerful instrument for progressive reforms that would strengthen organised labour and benefit the working class.

Zelensky's illegitimacy

Zelensky with his master, Joe Biden

by our Ukrainian correspondent Alex Miller

The famous French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said that “the Tyrant is one who, against the laws, proclaims himself a ruler acting in accordance with the laws. The Despot is one who places himself above the laws themselves. Thus, a Tyrant may not be a Despot, but a Despot is always Tyrant.”

The President is a person elected by voting, but the absence of an electoral process clearly indicates that we are talking about a Tyrant or Despot.

Many are willing to ignore the fact that Vladimir Zelensky came to power illegally due to gross violations of the Ukrainian constitution. Today, half a decade later, we can say that it was the political “theft of the century” that shocks society.

Nevertheless, taking into account all the illegalities described below, according to the Constitution of Ukraine, if in January 2019 Zelensky was elected president for a term of five years, then in May 2024, this five-year period passed and the presidency expired.

Like a mad joke from one of his sitcoms, Zelensky’s election promise “to free Ukraine from political corruption” was met with laughter by viewers.

At the same time, his personal political corruption began in January 2019, when his party congress falsely announced the nomination of Zelensky as a presidential candidate.

Ukrainian legislation strictly requires registration of the existing 14 regional branches of the party that participate in the nomination of a presidential candidate. However, this law was violated and Zelensky’s candidacy was nominated by only one branch of the party, registered with the Ministry of Justice in city of Kryvyi Rih. From the very beginning, Zelensky’s nomination did not comply with electoral rules.

Instead of a legitimate nomination, the Zelensky party congress turned into a theatrical play by ‘Studio Quarter-95’. For those who may be unaware, “Studio Quarter-95” is a Ukrainian comic group founded by Zelensky and some of his schoolmates in 2013. The group perform stand-up shows to entertain the masses with crude and degenerate humour. Thus, the comedian-turned-politician used vulgar shows and illegal actions to campaign for election instead of regular political rallies. Indeed, much to the dismay of millions of Ukrainians and international observers, he always lied and acted as a political clown, performing as an entertainer in all political debates and interviews.

"The law provides for a strictly regulated procedure for meeting political parties and nominating presidential candidates,” says Verkhovna Rada deputy, lawyer Volodymyr Oliynyk. “The Servant of the People party was registered as a local organisation in Kryvyi Rih, and Zelensky was nominated for president from it, and not from the all-Ukrainian party”.

Thus, the mentioned party congress was nothing more than a crude caricature of nomination – another work of fiction and corrupted political machination.

Zelensky deliberately entered into his lifelong role as a president with the help of media promotion and deep-pocketed criminal oligarchs, but not the law. They also helped to stage-manage the later creation of a political party – the ‘Servant of the People’ - for entry into the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. According to the financial report filed to the Ministry of Justice, the said ruling party rented just four square metres of office space in Kiev. This act legally proves the actual absence of the all-Ukrainian political party at the time of presidential election and its subsequent official registration after the elections.

At the same time, some new foreign actors began working in the shadows, paving the way for Zelensky’s rapid ascendancy in the murky, corrupt world of Ukrainian politics. Minister of Justice Pavel Petrenko and Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov actively worked behind the scenes to cover up the illegitimacy of Zelensky’s registration as a presidential candidate.

According to the testimony of eyewitnesses, Ukrainian deputy, journalist and right-wing politician Igor Moseychuk said “Zelensky paid a bribe of $300,000 to register his candidacy for president”.

“We were astounded by the level of backdoor corruption and public deception that accompanied the sudden rise of Vladimir Zelensky” noted one European-based election observer, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to ongoing investigations. “I think most Ukrainians would demand full accountability if they understood the full scope of the deception that occurred in 2019 and beyond”.

While a resounding defeat for democracy, the pay-for-register candidacy eventually turned out to be a relative success for Zelensky and his inner circle. Official forms were quickly filled out, and a political party without a permanent office, called the “Servant of the People”, was miraculously registered and went to the parliamentary election at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In total, according to the election results and if the reported votes are legitimate, Zelensky's party holds 247 seats in Parliament out of 450. A party with more than 226 seats in the Ukrainian parliament can adopt any law except the Constitution of Ukraine.

Later, realising that Zelensky faced criminal charges, he and his team began work to decriminalise responsibility for falsifying documents at the Central Election Commission. They created and passed a special bill. The authors of this bill were deputies from the “Servant of the People”, in particular, Oleksandr Kornienko, who today holds the post of First Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada. They also attempted to hold early new presidential elections around the time hostilities broke out between Ukraine and Russia. When it became clear that any elections could entail huge troubles and loss of power, the Office of the President, in direct violation of the law, cancelled the elections “due to the military situation in the country” preferring to remain in office as long as possible with the iron fist of tyranny. 

On 21st May this year, after the expiration of the five-year constitutional deadline for new presidential elections, Zelensky’s Tyrant colours shone brightly as he formally forfeited the negligent amount of his ill-gotten legitimacy. His term of office has expired. He no longer has the legal authority to represent Ukraine as its top official, he has cancelled all elections and has completely lost his power as head of state. Yet Zelensky continues to flaunt his illegal, arbitrary powers without the consent of the people of Ukraine. On 7th August 2024, he passed and approved another law that allows press gangs to kidnap and send unhappy people to the front line without justice.

The Ukrainian people are gradually beginning to understand that the increasingly unpopular Zelensky clearly lacks the legal power to indiscriminately send people – including the elderly and physically impaired – into war zones or make any other decisions as head of state.

But endemic corruption, of course, dates back to the bloody coup d’etat of 2014, when Ukraine ceased to exist as a rule-of-law state. Then Washington and Brussels sponsored the implementation of neo-Nazis into state. These hardened criminals continued to occupy official positions including in the Ukrainian army. It is these dark, sinister forces under the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army, Vladimir Zelensky, that people face today in its existential struggle against a ruthless NATO proxy which acts out of the law.

Corruption always brings tyranny and despotism. Today Zelensky holds the office, like the Samosa dynasty that ruled Nicaragua for over forty years, for the benefit of US imperialism. Millions of Ukrainians pay the price with their lives.

Brighton rocks...

...and no more when the TUC is in town. These days the TUC’s annual conference is little more than a talking shop for the union establishments and Brighton was no exception. Every year the assorted full-time officers get together for this annual jamboree to formulate policies that reflect the views of the senior full-timers and the lay officers that lead the factions that run our unions today. In the coming months motions which reflect the views of the bureaucrats will doubtless end up as material for mediocre TUC campaigns and lobbies  – those that genuinely reflect the demands of the street on pay, terms and conditions and social justice will be sidelined or ignored.
Though some motions challenged the bourgeois consensus the bureaucracy ensured that nothing was done to embarrass Sir Keir Starmer who turned up to tell delegates that what he called “Changed Labour” would need to make “tough choices” and provide no “special favours” to unions.
Conference as a whole did however take up the fight against racism calling on the movement to do all it can to mobilise on the streets against the far right and delegates unanimously
passed an emergency motion on the danger of a wider war in the Middle East and in support of a national day of action for Palestine on 10th October.
Though the days when the TUC was called the “general staff of labour” are long gone it still pompously calls itself the “voice of Britain at work”. In reality it is, of course, the ‘voice of the union bureaucracy at work’ so we shouldn’t be surprised when, at the end of the day, nothing is done...

No arms for Israel!

While the Zionists may talk about teaching Hezbollah a lesson with their pager bomb terror campaign the only thing they have actually taught the Lebanese resistance is to never again compromise their security with electronic equipment made in the American empire. Meanwhile Britain continues to aid and abet the Israeli war-criminals by supplying sophisticated arms to the Zionist state.
The Western powers, who routinely brand all resistance to imperialism as “terrorism”, say little about Israel’s current wave of terror in Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and rarely go beyond their hypocritical calls for restraint “on all sides” that are actually calls for a complete Arab surrender to Zionist demands. 
A few weeks ago the Starmer government suspended 30 out of the current 350 UK arms export licences to Israel. But this token gesture, given to try and stave off the mounting pressure to halt all British arms exports to Israel, is nowhere near enough. Or as CND’s Kate Hudson put it: “Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians and is using both conventional and hybrid warfare to kill and injure people in Lebanon. The Middle East stands on the edge of a wider regional war and the British government is more than happy to cheer it on. This has to stop”.

A watershed in British politics

by John Maryon

Britain has been in economic decline since its empire started to collapse in the early 20th century.  During the Second World War the country amassed debts in excess of £21 billion and by 1947 this had risen to 238 per cent of GDP.  A lack of investment has since led to the collapse of British industry.  What had once been the workshop of the world saw factory after factory close, being unable to compete with the research, innovation and automation in Japan and West Germany as their advanced, top quality and affordable products became widely available.  Britain's position was made much worse when Margaret Thatcher sold off the family silver by disposing of valuable public assets.  Today our national debt has increased rapidly since the 2008 financial crisis and under the impact of COVID 19 to reach £2,725 billion equivalent to 106 per cent of GDP.
Britain faces a serious economic crisis following years of decline.  The situation has been made more acute by a, number of important factors. Firstly, capitalism in its ultimate form, State Monopoly Capitalism, has reached the end of the road being unable to deal with the irreconcilable contradictions that arise between the productive forces and obsolete production relations leading to boom and bust. Secondly, the sheer incompetence of successive British governments, like many of their Western counterparts, who continue to double down with failed policies such as increasing military spending which accelerate the collapse.  We can be sure of one thing.  Every effort will continue to be made to ensure that the full burden of the crisis is placed firmly upon the shoulders of ordinary working people. The familiar capitalist situation of the poor being forced into poverty while the rich are laughing all the way to their tax havens will, they hope, prevail. 
The time is long overdue for the working class to make ready for its historical task and prepare a counter attack with the aim of the overthrow of capitalism and it's replacement with socialism.  However we need to examine both our own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of the ruling class.  The capitalists have the money, the total backing of the mass media to brainwash the public and the full resources of the state apparatus. The workers, on the other hand, are many.  The urgent need now is to inspire and educate the masses so to equip them with the knowledge, confidence and desire to take part in the class struggle for a better life. 
Constant propaganda by the media, assisted willingly by the fake left, has sought to confuse and mislead working people into an acceptance that capitalism is the normal and natural democratic system and they can do nothing to make any radical changes. All the problems are blamed upon others. Vulnerable immigrants, People's China, lazy workers and of course Vladimir Putin are all in the frame. 
Central to developing an effective offensive is increased readership of the New Worker, particularly in its on-line format to reach the new younger generation.  This could be supported an updated Web page and possibly with a video website established on Rumble for rapid response to events. An extended range of leaflets and pamphlets are also needed. The NCP will develop its involvement in joint campaigns with other progressive groups but all of this requires a regular supply of money which we rely on our generous supporters to provide. 
The origins of the British labour movement can be traced back to the days of the Industrial Revolution. Trade unions were formed, trades councils were established and the cooperative movement grew rapidly. Its own political party, the Labour Party, was formed in 1900. Sadly the movement today is not a shadow of it's former self. Only 22 per cent of workers now belong to a union with membership falling from 13 million in 1979 to under 6.44 million today. Many co-ops have disappeared from the scene. A major weakness of the trade union movement is the apparent indifference of some right-wing leaderships, who would rather have a quiet life than fighting for their members interests. With on-line contact replacing traditional meetings in the Labour hall there is less opportunity for them to be openly challenged. As for the Labour Party its policies have become almost indistinguishable from that of the Tories with continued austerity and a commitment to supporting US imperialism in its many acts of aggression. 
However we cannot dismiss the labour movement which was set up to fight the same evils we face today. To do so would be to put the clock back 200 years.  It is important to continue to give workers our full support at grass-roots levels with publicity and encouragement as they fight for improved wages and conditions.  It is also vital to persuade more workers to join a union and in doing so strengthen the hand of progressives within their ranks.  In regard to the Labour Party just voting Labour to get rid of the unspeakable Tories is not enough.  It is only the start of a fightback to put strong pressure on the Labour Party, via your MP for action on a range of issues. Challenge them about more funds for the NHS, urge them to oppose the genocide in Palestine and fascism in Ukraine, insist that public services are restored, demand full public ownership of utilities and make sure they work for peace and oppose racism. We should expose the dubious process by which right-wing careerists, with little affinity to working class people, are parachuted in by head office at the expense of local nominations. 
New and additional ways to struggle must be found. If the working class were to become united there would be no way of stopping them. Many different small left-wing political parties and progressive organisations exist in Britain today. It is only natural that they may have different ideas, priorities and objectives but just imagine what they could achieve if they all pulled together.  A coalition based upon consensus would have a collective voice that could not be ignored.  In the past such attempts have failed because some of those involved have their own sectarian interests, others have had a hidden agenda to dominate and control while yet others of the fake left have sought to sabotage it's work.  The individual identities of all groups could be preserved.  In the case of the NCP it has a unique role of being part of the international communist movement.  For any new Left coalition to be successful it would require a wise and experienced leadership 
We have reached a watershed in British politics as extreme right-wing forces seek to capitalise on the unpopularity of both main political parties. A threat of fascism exists in Britain today as strong irrational feelings are stirred up that produce race hatred and fear.  Every nation will have it's own laws and requirements in relation to both immigration and emigration depending on social relations, economic status or resource availability. When a desperate mother staggers from a small boat holding a crying starving young child only a fascist would push her back to drown. We should give them a hug, dry their tears and let them know that they are safe at last. Suffer little children to come unto me. The tragedy is almost certainly caused as a direct result of some imperialist inspired war that has destroyed their country, their homes and all the friends they once knew. 
A new left movement has to emerge that is bold and principled, equipped with a strategy for positive change. Not to challenge the traditional labour movement but work to strengthen its effectiveness.  Capitalism has had its day and Social Democracy is a non starter. I believe that the NCP must grow and offer to play a vanguard role in terms of political direction.  In the final analysis our prime objective would be to make fundamental changes to society on the basis of Marxism Leninism.  Power must be won for the working people away from the bankers, major corporations and neo-cons so that we may all chose their own destiny. 

When the going gets tough…

 

...the TUC gets going – often out of the back door under a cover of the usual platitudes the full-time officers reserve for times like these. The furore over the pensioners’ winter fuel cuts in the House of Commons and at TUC conference in Brighton may have reflected the anger on the street at this blatant attack on one of the most vulnerable sections of society but it also showed the weakness of the labour movement, that was unable to halt or water down the demand of the Starmer government to means-test the pensioners’ allowance that some say could lead to over 4,000 excess deaths due to hyperthermia in the winter months. 
Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who now heads the Independent bloc in Parliament says “cutting winter fuel allowance is not a tough choice. It's the wrong choice - and we will not be fooled by ministers’ attempts to feign regret over cruel decisions they don’t have to take”. But sadly some union leaders fool themselves into believing that Starmer can be swayed by fine words and back-room lobbying while others believe that the Starmer’s cruel necessity is a price worth paying for the very modest concessions on pay and union rights that the Government has made during its first hundred days. 
It’s long been clear that the only people this Labour government heeds are those they believe represent the dominant bloc within the British ruling class; the City of London and the American diplomats that Starmer apparently liaises with on an almost weekly basis.
Labour was founded by the trade unions to give the working class its own voice within Parliament but the Parliamentary Party leadership has been dominated by the middle class intelligentsia since the days of Ramsay McDonald. In Parliament, even in Corbyn’s day, the Labour benches were dominated by right-wing factions. In the past left social-democratic and Trotskyist factions were tolerated to provide a “left” cover for the Cold War politics of the post-war Labour governments. No longer needed following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the people’s democracies in eastern Europe they were purged much like the Corbynistas in recent years. 
Though the Labour Party is dominated by the class‑collaborating right wing in the parliamentary party the possibility of their defeat exists as long as Labour retains its organisational links with the trade unions that fund it. The defeat of the old right‑wing union factions in most of the major unions over the past ten years demonstrates this possibility.
A Labour government, with the yet unbroken links with the trade unions and the co‑operative movement, still offers the best option for the working class in the era of bourgeois parliamentary democracy. Our strategy is for working class unity and our campaigns are focused on defeating the right‑wing within the movement and strengthening the left and progressive forces within the Labour Party and the unions. Day‑to‑day demands for reform, progressive taxation, state welfare and a public sector dedicated to meet the people’s needs are winnable under capitalism, particularly in a rich country like Britain today.
We support these demands and back the demands of those within the Labour Party and the  unions who are campaigning for greater social justice. We support those in the Labour Party fighting for left policies. It is part of our struggle against austerity.
In July we saw the election of independents including Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader hounded out by Starmer and the Blairite gang. They have now formed an Independent bloc in Parliament. They are all supporters of the Palestinian cause and other anti-imperialist struggles across the globe. Hopefully, they will soon become a focus of resistance to austerity in parliament – and on the street.

Ahead of the game

by Ben Soton

Firebrand: Alicia Vikander; Junia Rees; Ruby Bentall; director Karim Aïnouz; 121 mins

Every schoolboy and schoolgirl can remember the rhyme, Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived. This film is the story of Henry VIII’s sixth wife, Catherine Parr; the one who survived. It makes a change for a film to feature a wife of Henry VIII who is not Anne Boleyn; recall Anne of a Thousand Days (1970) and The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). The film features Alicia Vikander as Catherine Parr and Jude Law as Henry. Set during Henry’s final years, when Catherine Parr was as much his carer as his wife, a pivotal feature of the film is her relationship with the radical Protestant preacher Anne Askew. Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Protestantism was a progressive force; it attacked various aspects of the old feudal order. During the Tudor era this included the Catholic Church based in Rome whilst it was also adopted by sections of the gentry as a means of establishing a more modern state and seizing Church land. Although Henry broke with Rome and made himself head of the Church in England he was still firmly committed to Catholic doctrine. Even though he may have ultimately encouraged the growth of Protestantism through some of his modernising advisors such as Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer. Throughout the film Catherine is at odds with Henry’s ultra-conservative Bishop of Winchester Stephen Gardiner (played by Simon Russell Beale) and tries to cover her links to Askew.

Jude Law’s portrayal of Henry paints him as a violent, semi-impotent tyrant who know his game is almost up. The unpleasant sex scenes would turn many off the carnal act; perhaps not the best film to see if you are on your first date. On a more serious note it also shows the subservient position of women, even those of a higher class in Tudor England.
The King is heavily under the influence of Gardiner, who hopes to return England back to Rome while the modernising Seymour brothers, uncles of Henry’s heir Edward, seek to keep England on a more reforming path. The plot revolves around Catherine’s ability to avoid Gardiner’s detection. Meanwhile Erin Doherty’s portrayal of Anne Askew shows the revolutionary potential of radical Protestantism. But it would not become a serious force for change for another century in the English Civil War.
Although an obviously low budget film and relatively short the film is able to capture much of the intrigue of Henry’s court. It’s rival personalities represent conflicting interests as well as a woman’s struggle for survival in an overwhelmingly patriarchal world. The film is essential viewing for anyone with an interest in Tudor history.

Interview with a fugitive Ukrainian soldier

This is an interview with a Ukrainian soldier, called here Alexander, who escaped from a training camp for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Poland and is currently living in hiding in Europe. The interview was conducted by a special correspondent for the New Worker, Vsevolod Razumny, a member of the Red Square-Molotov Club, a Ukrainian anti-fascist campaign group based in the Russian Federation.It contains shocking and horrific revelations about the treatment of Ukrainian conscripts and threats against their families, as well as claims that Poland is playing double game with its erstwhile ally Ukraine and recruiting agents in its armed forces on a large scale.

Please introduce yourself and tell us where you are now?

Alexander: My name is Alexander, I am 24 years old. I escaped from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as you know, and I am in a European country, but I can’t say where exactly.

Your previous interview with Sovranita Popolare is currently circulating on the Internet, in which you told the story of your escape from the Ukrainian army. You spoke of the forced, and in your view illegal, mobilisation in Ukraine. Do you think we will see more escapes like yours? Can your example encourage your compatriots to escape and seek political asylum abroad?

Yes, I think there are more guys who will follow my example.

 What is the name of the base where you served, and how many Ukrainian soldiers are there now?

We were told the base is called the 10th Tank Cavalry, near the small town of Świętoszów, but no one told us the actual name of the base. I don't know the exact number now, but from time to time 80-90 people come there for training. The training is carried out by NATO instructors, mainly Polish, but there are also Norwegians, and I understand that American military personnel also study there on an exchange basis.

In your first interview, you mentioned that Ukrainian conscripts are brought to Poland for training without stamps in their passports. Do you think this is because NATO and the Zelensky fear mass desertions of Ukrainian personnel and are prepared to declare such "escapees" illegals in order to capture and return them to Ukraine?

That’s right, there was no stamp, they just look at the passports and let them through. Firstly, this discourages possible desertions because people are afraid of becoming illegal aliens. They don't know where to run, what to do, or how to find safety. Second, if there is no record they can be immediately deported back to Ukraine and into the military. And by the way, when we crossed into Poland we didn’t go as military personnel in uniform, we were in ordinary tracksuits and they let us through just like that, without any stamp. So even the Polish border guards had no idea who we were or where we were going. 

Could this be evidence of the disdainful attitude of Europeans, in particular Poles, towards forcibly conscripted Ukrainians?

I think everyone knows how the Poles treat Ukrainians, whether you’re a soldier, a civilian or a conscript. They tell you to your face: you are fighting, you are killing the people we would have to kill ourselves anyway – that’s the only reason they are helping to train us, and they don’t bother to hide it. And they make jokes about us: we are beggars, we always need weapons, we always need more help, we can’t do anything without them.

 You have revealed numerous cases of human rights violations at conscript camps in Ukraine, including detention without process in basements, beatings, and threats. We were recently shocked by the story of a fitness trainer from Odessa, Sevastian Gogovich, who was forcibly mobilised by nationalists (fascists), tied to a pole and subjected to an act of sexual violence. Do you know of similar cases in Ukraine?

Yes, I’ve seen many similar stories, they are commonplace, but they don’t get into the media. The easiest place to find them is on TikTok. It’s a sad and tragic story. I don’t know why Ukraine allows such things to happen, but I personally know of cases from my acquaintances and people I met at the training camp. They are common.

It’s sad that this is happening, it’s just awful. How did they make you sign the necessary papers at the training camp? Were you personally beaten?

Not me personally. My story began when I ended up at the conscript camp. After issuing my call-up papers, they seized me at the border and confiscated my phone. After arriving at the camp I was kept in a basement for three days and refused to sign any documents – but they just signed everything for me! There were also people at the camp who couldn’t speak, read or write Ukrainian, who didn’t even have Ukrainian passports, and yet they were in the training camp. And they too had their documents signed for them.

Do the training camp employees forge the signatures of conscripts? 

Oh yes, with no any problem, at least in my case. I didn’t signed anything, but all the documents were signed for me showing that I had ‘volunteered’.

You spoke about the presence of Polish military personnel without insignia or even uniforms at the Polish training camp. Were they employees of the Polish special services?

Yes, I believe so. They didn't introduce themselves in any way, and they were in civilian clothes. 

You mentioned that in addition to the domestic political situation in Ukraine, they were interested in Ukrainian nationalist groups. What questions did they ask about the Ukrainian right-wing radicals?

Yes, they wanted to know all about Ukrainian ‘nationalists’. They started with how many are there, where are they, and what group are they with? Do you have any connections with battalions like the Kraken, Azov and so on. Those who had such connections were questioned for a long time. I have quite a few military friends who have been fighting from the first days of the war in Ukraine, so I was asked lots of questions, such as: did they go to the Maidan Square?* It occurred to me that they might be thinking of organising some kind of revolution in Ukraine using surrogate groups. I don’t think they cared about these groups themselves, but only about of using them for their own ends, I got the impression they were counting on that.

(* A reference to the Euromaidan protests in Kiev’s Maidan Square in 2013-14 leading to the NATO-backed coup and the start of the war in Ukraine. The original mass protests against rampant corruption were taken over by far-right Banderite, pro-Nazi groups like the Azov Brigade).

Do you think the Polish intelligence agencies are infiltrating the Ukrainian ‘nationalists’? Are they worried about Azov, for example, getting out of control and becoming inconvenient and dangerous for Poland and the collective West? Or was it about the Poles’ historical hatred for Ukraine and trying to find their weak points?

I don’t think the Poles are afraid of them, but I’m convinced that they want to use them for some kind of ‘revolution’, and they want their own people in each nationalist group. Plus, this is additional information about what is happening right now in Ukraine. As you can understand, what they tell you in the news media is not the whole story.

Do you think that Polish intelligence is trying to recruit Ukrainian conscripts on a large scale?

Yes – I believe all the conscripts sent to Poland are being ‘spoken to’ in this way. And I believe there are many in the Ukrainian army above us, higher in rank, who were trained there previously, and they too all went through this.

Did the Polish intelligence officers threaten or hint at physical violence against your relatives in Ukraine, using data they had from the forms you completed?

Oh yes, of course! They said openly that they have all your relatives’ details, names, phone numbers, addresses. They even have details of your relatives and friends who live abroad! I don’t know where they got them from, but they have them. So they can influence your mum and dad, for example, if they live in Poland. They can ruin their lives or even deport them back to Ukraine. These details are given to the conscripts without pity – in other words they are used to threaten them.

You said you reported the Polish recruitment efforts to your senior commanders. Why didn’t the Ukrainian officers being trained in Poland try to stop this recruitment?

Yes, they went through all this as well. But because they were higher in rank, in the first batch so to speak, they ended up staying in Poland. It was clear to me that they weren’t interested because they don’t want to lose their cushy positions. Or that they could already be working for the Poles, or simply be afraid of them.

Were there many attempts to escape from the Polish training camp?

When we first arrived, we were split into two groups: half was a repair company, and the other half were training to be tankers. After our first escape, we were forbidden to go into the city at weekends and couldn’t leave the camp area. When we tried to negotiate with the camp commander, he didn’t want to know and wouldn’t talk to anyone. One guy escaped before me, but I heard later that he was found and deported back to Ukraine. 

How do you see your future?

I’d like to settle in a country of my choice and forget all about this war. If I start a family, I want to make sure my children know nothing about war at all.

Thank you for the conversation, Alexander, and good luck in everything.

Thank you too, and all the best!

Stop arms to Israel!

 While Boris Johnson and other Tory has-beens join Netanyahu and the rest of the Zionist chorus in condemning Britain’s ‘shameful’ decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel others point out that past Labour and Tory governments, including those of Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and even David Cameron had imposed similar sanctions on Israel in the past.
The decision to block 30 arms export licences for Israel is, in fact, a very small step forward for the Starmer government and though some pundits say it marks a breach with the Biden administration it is hard to believe that Sir Keir Starmer would do anything against Israel without clearing it in advance with the White House.
This week we’ve seen waves of protests and strikes sweep across Israel as the demand for a cease-fire grows even in the heart of the Zionist state. We see millions upon millions throughout what the imperialists call the “free world” demanding a halt to the genocide and justice for the Palestinians. We see this in London and on the streets of all our major cities and we must keep up the fight to economically and politically isolate Israel to stop the the fighting and ensure that the legitimate rights of the Palestinian Arabs are restored.

After Grenfell

Following years of interviews and evidence, and after repeated delays, the families, bereaved and survivors of Grenfell fire have, at last, obtained an official account of the causes of Britain’s deadliest residential fire since the Second World War. The blaze that roared through the tower block in one of the poorest parts of Kensington & Chelsea, the wealthiest borough in London, took the lives of scores of people and devastated the local community.
Some years ago, when the Corbynistas were at the helm of the Labour Party, the Kensington Labour Party Research Unit published their own report which said "the borough of princes, Sultans, plutocrats and billionaires” was actually the most unequal borough in Britain'. How, in what one Councillor called “the richest borough in the universe”, with three billion pounds in reserves, could 72 people burn to death in a fire which, even in the earliest days, was blamed on 'cheap cladding'?
The borough has the highest life expectancy in the country, but across the borough the gap in years lived is a massive 27 years. Even more shocking, since 2010 – when a decade of austerity began to pay for the 2008 banking crash – average life expectancy in Golborne Ward where the tower block stood, fell by six years, the worst decline in the country.
On Wednesday, the final 1,700-page report of a six-year public inquiry into the fire was published. The report, as Matt Wrack the leader of the Fire Brigades Union says “demonstrates beyond doubt that central government’s deregulation agenda cost lives. Decades of ministerial failure to regulate the building industry gave the green light for businesses to prioritise profit over human life”.
The report makes over 80 recommendations, which the FBU will assess in detail over the weeks to come. But the union wants much more than that. The fire-fighters rightly highlight the need for national standards set by a statutory advisory body on fire policy, giving a voice to firefighters and control staff and drawing on the best expert advice.
It also exposed a deliberately created system that provides genuine health and safety for the rich but not for the poor. Endless chains of sub-contracting and downgrading of checks made a tragedy like Grenfell virtually inevitable, and the only surprise was the horrific form in which it came.

Revolutionary Democracy

 by Robin MacGregor

Revolutionary Democracy Third Series, Volume One, number 1 (April 2024) £7.50 including P&P from NCP Lit, PO Box 73, London SW11 2PQ

 The latest edition of Revolutionary Democracy, the twice yearly Indian Marxist-Leninist journal has appeared in its regular tripartite format of articles on contemporary Indian politics, materials reflecting the views of International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Political Organisations (ICMLPO) and archival materials. 
 Published in April it appeared before the Indian General Election which saw the fascist BJP government return, albeit with a reduced majority. However, we have a survey of the results of the earlier elections to five State Assemblies where the BJP consolidated its position in Hindi speaking areas. A disunited opposition from the left and Congress is blamed for this situation. 
 The BJP’s latest national Budget comes under scrutiny. While the BJP boast that the Indian economy has drastically changed in the past decade, they fail to point out this has seen the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and real term cuts in desperately needed welfare and infrastructure spending.
 While the BJP likes to talk about the growing aviation sector a quarter of second-class train seats have been lost and replaced by expensive air-conditioned seats reflecting a growing inequality. Likewise, the growth of numbers employed in agriculture is simply a case of urban workers forced back to the land.
Another crime of the BJP government is recent paramilitary action against the tribal peoples whose lands sit on huge iron ore reserves. These violent actions are falsely justified by the need to repress Maoist terrorism, and are part of a decades long strategy.
From elsewhere on the subcontinent there are articles with self-explanatory titles like The Rot Among the Communists of Nepal is Helping the Hindutva Takeover and Will Pakistan achieve economic and political stability? The latter piece presents an unsurprisingly depressing picture including the fact that the economy is heavily dependent on remittances from workers forced to work abroad.
 Next Rafael Martinez, a regular on these pages,  denounces Russia’s actions in the Ukraine as being a war between two imperialist factions, deploring the Communist Party of the Russian Federation as openly national chauvinist.
An interesting article on the Partition of India by Badruddin Umar briefly surveys thousands of years of immigration into India and blames James Mill’s famous History of British India for causing India’s communal problems which led to the separate states of Pakistan and Bangladesh. 
We have a 1937 article by A V Shchegolov on Lenin’s and Stalin’s Exposure of Bogdanov’s Tektology and Equilibrium Theory which was part of the important Soviet debates on economics. 

The longest piece is a new illustrated article by C N Subramaniam, Socialism and Education – An Historical Overview from the Anabaptists to the Utopian Socialists, which does what it says on the tin by surveying four centuries of European traditions of progressive education.

 From the Soviet archives we have a Report of a 1947 meeting between Stalin and Maurice Thorez, the General Secretary of the French Communist Party, and a 1949 report from the Communist Party of China to the Soviet party which was annotated by Stalin. The Thorez meeting took place at a time when the French party was fighting against the growing American influence over France. The Socialist Party were faithful supporters of the Americans, selling out French cinema and the efficient aviation industry. The discussion also includes views on the Italian party and some unflattering comments on the British party. Thorez surprised Stalin by saying the French party was financially well off, partly as a result of owing a shipping company, but he was reassured to learn they also kept arms dumps and clandestine radio links, a legacy of the wartime resistance. 
The Chinese report, written just after the main communist victory (but while fighting was continuing) is important for showing Stalin’s successful opposition to Mao’s original plans to shut out all the other parties who had fought against the Japanese. It also shows that Stalin never gave orders but only advice to the Chinese.  
Returning to India the issue closes with two documents from the 1950s. First there is a 1950 Communist Party of India (CPI) denunciation of the then new Indian Constitution which was deemed unworthy for an independent nation because it simply maintained the power of capitalists. It prophesied that the provisions would lead to the rise of the Hindu nationalism which rules India today. 
Finally there is a reprint of a 1951 CPI discussion pamphlet on the concept of People’s Democracy and how it applies to India.  

Greetings to peace activists of the Netherlands

 

We are publishing the contents of this video message from one of our closest friends, Leonin Ilderkhin, because it gives a brief but excellent description of the situation in Ukraine, and of the demands of all Ukrainian anti-fascist democrats and patriots.

Dear friends, my name is Leonin Ilderkhin, I'm from the Coordination Council of the Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine.
We greet with all of our hearts your event in the Netherlands, and the other places where you make your great activities.
I want to speak briefly about the core issue of the present day conflict around and inside of Ukraine.
The roots of this conflict lie in the desire of the capitalist centres, that is the USA and England, to revive their economy and their military industrial complex. Now, by using the present day conflict, they have achieved their goals, partially. They have revived their military industrial complex, and they have raised the prices in the world for weapons.
They have oppressed Western Europe and generally the European Union by greatly increasing the price of natural gas, oil and other necessities. In this they are destroying their competitors in Western Europe, and in this way they want to oppress the Russian Federation.
They don't care about what is happening in Ukraine or what is happening to the population of Ukraine, to the people there. They don't care, they consider the Ukrainian land as a territory where they test their weapons, where they test their military capabilities, in this way they hope to overcome the general crisis of capitalism that started in 2007-8. They are trying to escape from their own internal crisis.
In this situation we want to put forward these slogans: No weapons to the conflict zones, whether it is Ukraine, Palestine or Yemen; No weapons, no military personnel and no mercenaries to these conflict zones - from Western Europe, from the USA, from England or from France.
In this situation we want to oppose all actions which promote the continuation of conflict. The USA and England plan to occupy all the countries of Eastern Europe including the Baltic countries, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, etc. We don't want this, we want peace in Europe, we want peace in the world. In this situation we want to give our great support from our hearts to you, dear friends.