Greece’s Broken Democracy and the Fightback from the Streets

the fightback begins

by our Balkan Affairs correspondent

What was meant to be Greece’s “Economic Miracle” has ended up being a catalogue of scandals, tight executive control, no government oversight and shocking examples of corruption and tragic incidents that has led to many deaths. But there had to come a point where the masses fought back and that point has finally come.
European authorities promote Greece as a “post crisis success story”. Yet Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ right-wing government relies on spyware and the flagrant misuse of EU subsidies and is now overseeing a brutal cost-of-living crisis.
On the night of his election victory on 7 July 2019, new prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis declared that Greece was “returning to normal.” Leader of the right-wing New Democracy party, Mitsotakis promised a government of the “best and brightest” and drew a line under the previous four years of Syriza rule, vowing to erase its legacy piece by piece.
More than six years on, Mitsotakis’s tenure has become a cesspool marred by corruption, financial mismanagement, illegal surveillance, cover-ups, abuse of European Union funds, manipulation of the justice system, and a tightly controlled propaganda machine financed through state resources. It’s something that hasn’t  been seen since the fall of the military dictatorship. 
Mitsotakis came to power promising to break with that past, but his premiership has extended it. The first major crack in his stage managed image came in 2022, when the Predator spyware scandal blew open. Investigations showed hundreds of people, ordinary citizens, journalists, opposition figures, and even his own ministers ,under surveillance through a toxic mix of illegal spyware and “legal” phone taps, just after he put the intelligence service under his direct control. The trail led straight to his office. The head of the National Intelligence Service resigned, but no political figures have been prosecuted, and the government hurriedly shut down the parliamentary inquiry in what the opposition called a blatant whitewash.
Barely six months after the Predator revelations, the Tempe train crash on 28th February 2023, shattered what was left of Mitsotakis’s myth of competence. 58 people, mostly students, were killed when a passenger train slammed head-on into a freight train on the Athens–Thessaloniki line, Greece’s worst rail disaster in living memory. From the first hours, the government tried to shrink the story to a single “tragic human error,” throwing an overworked stationmaster to the wolves. Years of warnings about dead signalling systems, understaffing and stalled safety upgrades were brushed under the carpet.
Nearly three years on: no prosecutions, no real consequences. The families of the deceased have become the standard bearers for their dead relatives , staging mass rallies on the anniversary of the disaster and constantly attacking those responsible in the media and in Parliament . One would think that this level of anger and outrage would lead to electoral punishment , but in June 2023 , New Democracy cruised to an easy victory thanks to a divided left wing opposition and so New Democracy became the default government of the country.
Armed with this renewed mandate, Mitsotakis treated the result as a license to rule without restraint. The OPEKEPE scandal, named after the state agency that channels EU farm subsidies , exposed a subsidy system riddled with made up agricultural projects. Billions in EU funds were routed through this machinery while auditors were pushed aside and agency heads who questioned irregularities were removed.
A European investigation describes a systematic, organised fraud operation using OPEKEPE to siphon off Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds. Brussels has already hit Greece with a €392.2 million fine and a five per cent cut to future farm subsidies for years of non-existent oversight. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back . After enduring wildfires in the Summer , floods in the Winter , crippling austerity measures, the scandalous actions of the Greek Coastguard who left boats filled with asylum seekers to their fate resulting in many deaths and anger over the Government’s support of Israel’s actions in Gaza: public servants started holding regular strikes, followed by the transport sector and finally the agricultural sector. General strikes have become a regular monthly occurrence and when news of the five per cent cut hit the farmers, they took to the streets, literally . 
This last month they have been blockading the main motorway between Thessaloniki and Athens. Blockading the port of Piraeus. Using their vehicles to bring cities to a standstill . Storming the main airport of Crete and disrupting flights. And when the police try to break up their rallies , they are pelted with anything that comes to hand , even overturning police vehicles as the police flee for their lives . And in the week beginning 15th December, a convoy of tractors numbering hundreds are heading to central Athens and Constitution Square for what will surely be a massive show of public support and a showdown with the infamous riot police.
These actions have not affected opinion polls , this is direct action completely separate from party politics and tribalism. It is the Greek people vs a tyrannical regime that plan to hold onto power until the next scheduled elections in 2027 . Few believe they will last that long , even with the Government’s international friends in the European Union, the USA and Israel. The time has come for a price to be paid and the writing is on the wall . 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…

Shops piled high with festive gifts. Streets festooned with Santas, reindeer, angels and tinsel. Children eagerly waiting for their new toys. Yes it’s beginning to look like Christmas...and it certainly is for the rich who rule the Western world celebrating the birth of the founder of Christianity. For the rich this largely consists of rocking around the Christmas tree snorting coke and drinking themselves silly for days on end. For working people it’s a welcome break from the drudgery of life under capitalism – a brief moment when those who produce all the wealth of this country can stop and enjoy the life the billionaires take for granted every day of their own worthless lives. For others, the homeless, unemployed and destitute victims of the capitalist crisis, it’s just another day of despair. The festive clichés of the politicians and the princes of the church are meaningless to them.
It’s not surprising that Jesus seldom gets mentioned, even by those who claim to worship him. The spirit of Christmas has long been reduced to exchanging gifts and cards, gluttony and drinking. Our rulers now leave Jesus of Nazareth to the tame clergy who reserve their most pious platitudes for the supposed birthday of the ‘Prince of Peace’ in December.
Starmer may be an atheist but many of his cohorts say they are Christians. Back in November 2022, the now deputy premier, David Lammy, stood at the pulpit in St Martin-in-the-Fields in London to tell us that Jesus Christ was the inspiration for his politics as well as his lifelong faith. The then Shadow Foreign Secretary was delivering Christian Aid’s annual lecture on the need for a new, multilateral, and moral approach to international development. But then, and even now, he seems to have forgotten that the Nazarene drove the money-changers out of the Temple and said “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God”.
On Christmas the King, the Prime Minister and the Pharisees of the Established Church will lead the chorus in meaningless calls for peace on earth and good will toward to all men. This shouldn’t surprise us. Donald Trump now likes to be thought of as the “President of Peace” – even though he’s done nothing to deserve that acclaim or the Nobel Peace Prize he so fervently desires.
But we are not like them. We stand for genuine peace and real socialism. Peace because only the oppressors and exploiters want war. Socialism because it is essential to eliminate exploitation, unemployment, poverty, economic crisis and war. That’s our Christmas message!

The Trump Trajectory

A frisson of fear swept across the corridors of power in London and the European Union on the publication of Donald Trump’s national security strategy last week.
It admits that “after the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy elites convinced themselves that permanent American domination of the entire world was in the best interests of our country. Yet the affairs of other countries are our concern only if their activities directly threaten our interests.  Our elites badly miscalculated America’s willingness to shoulder forever global burdens to which the American people saw no connection to the national interest. They overestimated America’s ability to fund, simultaneously, a massive welfare regulatory-administrative state alongside a massive military, diplomatic, intelligence, and foreign aid complex”. 
But as the Chatham House imperialist think-tank put it “saving the harshest critiques for Europe’s current trajectory, the 33-page grand strategy pushes commercial ties, strategic stability with Russia, and a strong US hand in Latin America”.
The “Prince of Peace” as Trump styles himself these days tells us that “the days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over”. His strategy upholds the concept of  “America First”  defining the national interest solely as the interest of the ruling class. And while it rejects the old theories of global domination
it declares that the main priority of the United States is to “reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American pre-eminence in the Western hemisphere” – which in Trump-speak means the entire Americas from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
The Trump administration seeks to “Make America Great Again”, largely at the expense of its own allies, and boost American manufacturing through tariffs and protectionism while using secret diplomacy and economic blackmail to achieve its goals. Gone are the days of the “special relationship”, the “new world order” and the “project for the new American century”. British and Franco-German imperialism believed that accepting American leadership would give them a share of the spoils. But they didn’t get much out of the fall of the Soviet Union  or the forever wars that followed in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and the Arab world. Now they’re going to get nothing.
This is what American “isolationism” means. It’s the other side of the reactionary coin – the thinking of those sections of the American ruling class that realise that world domination is beyond their grasp and so seek to restore their hegemony in the Americas  and much of the Global Southwhile maintaining their control of the global oil and energy market.
Whether Trump’s national security strategy becomes the programme for the rest of his term of office remains to be seen. In Washington the isolationists now have the upper hand. The deep state war-mongers are down – but they are definitely not out...

The History of an Idea

  by Ben Soton

The West - The History of an Idea by Georgios Varouxakis, Princeton University Press 2025, 512 pp, Hbk: £35:00

The West is more of an idea than a place  and in this book Georgios Varouxakis traces its history. The concept of ‘The West’ can be traced through a series of historical events; the Greco-Persian Wars of the fifth century BC; the division of the Roman Empire into East and West in the fourth century AD and with the Empire of Charlemagne in the ninth century becoming Western Christendom. The idea crystallised in the 18th  and 19th centuries with the Enlightenment and the development of liberty and democracy. There has to be some reference to geography as it is a point on a map; its core is Western Europe and later came to include North America and Australasia. 
According to Varouxakis the idea of the ‘West’ was developed by the French philosopher Auguste Comte.  Comte developed the idea of Occidentalism in which he saw The West as in the vanguard of humanity that, due to its superiority, had been given a leadership role over the rest of the world. Although Comte was a critic of imperialism his ideas have been used to justify actions of imperialist powers from the 19th century onwards whilst the ‘West’. as distinct from Europe, stood in opposition to Russia – which then and still today was seen as Eastern and despotic.         
Varouxakis traces how the idea of the West evolved from the 19th  and 20th centuries to today’s modern world.  He explains how Russia became excluded from the West and how the whole concept came unstuck during the First World War when Turkey and Russia joined the fray. Germany claimed to be defending the West against ‘Asiatic’ Russia while the Entente Powers pointed to the German alliance with Ottoman Turkey. These problems continued through the inter-war years with talk of the decline of the West while toward the end of Second World War the entry of the United States led to increasing talk of the ‘Atlantic Community’ as distinct from the West.  The chapter on the Cold War covers the twists and turns of European and American foreign policy; both in relation to the socialist camp and towards each other.  
The Second World War has often been viewed as a conflict between pro and anti-Enlightenment ideologies with liberalism, represented by Anglo-American and French imperialism,and socialism led by the Soviet Union having their roots in the 18th century ‘Enlightenment’.  Fascism, on the other hand, is opposed to the Enlightenment and the ideas of the French Revolution. 
This is touched upon in the chapter on the post-Cold-War era which states there is a traditional West based on classical civilisation and Christianity and a modern West based on the Enlightenment. It  has even been said that the Cold War was a conflict between the two pro-Enlightenment ideologies of socialism and liberalism – a conflict between liberty and democracy.  
The chapter on the post Cold War era focuses on Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilisations and the End of History by Francis Fukuyama. Huntington believed that with the end of the Cold War the West faced new challenges from rival civilisations, which he lists as Islamic, Orthodox, Hindu, Japanese and possibly African and South American. Fukuyama simply claimed that fall of the Soviet Union was the final triumph of the West.            
This book is a history of the idea and not a critique of it. However the twists and turns around what constitutes the West indicate serious flaws with the concept. Some of worst conflicts in history have been between Western powers; not just the first and second world wars but also the Napoleonic wars, the Thirty Years War and the Hundred Years War to name but a few. In living memory the ‘West’ has been used as a euphemism for US-led imperialism and the self-styled Western ‘democracies’ who have been more than willing to support feudal tyrants opposed to secularism or socialism to maintain their hegemony over much of the Global South.

Requiem for a War-Criminal

by Ben Soton

What’s it like to sit down and talk to a mass murderer? To have a chat with Harry Truman, Benjamin Netanyahu or in the case of the film Nuremberg, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.
The film is based on the book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai and its main focus is the relationship between the US Army Psychiatrist Dr Douglas M Kelly, played by Rami Malek and Hermann Göring, played by Russell Crowe.
When reviewing this film it is worth comparing it to a previous incarnation; the two-part mini-series Nuremberg released in 2000. In the earlier version all twenty-two defendants were mentioned. In this film there was only mention of five; the lead defendant Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher, Admiral Karl Doenitz and the head of the German Labour Front, Robert Ley. 
At the Nuremberg Nazi war-crimes trial the prosecution team was drawn from all four members of the victorious Grand Alliance – the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France. In this film only two of the prosecutors are depicted –Justice Jackson from the USA, played by Michael Shannon and Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, played by Richard E Grant, from Great Britain. Russell Crowe gives an excellent depiction of Herman Göring as a vanquished foe who has lost none of his arrogance emanating from being Hitler’s deputy.
But this is more than just a court-room drama.The film includes a scene where footage of the atrocities committed in the concentration camps is screened as evidence in the trial of the top Nazis to remind the audience, now far-removed from the dark days of the 1940s, of what the Allies were up against in the Second World War.
The psychiatrist Dr Kelly tries to get inside  Göring’s head and is asked to use his understanding to aid the prosecution. He initially argues against this on the grounds of doctor-patient confidentiality. However he then goes on to give information about his interviews to a not unattractive British journalist played by Lydia Peckham while planning to use the information to write a book.
But Kelly’s views on the Nazis were not popular with the US military establishment. He was sidelined and later replaced by Dr Gustave Gilbert, played by Colin Hanks. Although he later became the head of the Department of Psychology at Berkeley his book 22 Cells in Nuremberg did not give him the fame he had hoped for. Though this did not affect his post-war career he  had a drink problem and committed suicide in 1958.
In the final analysis Kelly claimed the Nazis were not unique and that there are people like them in every country, including the United States. On this point he has been proved right more times than I can count.

Same old story...

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves,  says Labour is cutting NHS waiting lists, the cost of living and government debt while boosting productivity, investment and growth. But this week’s budget contained few surprises with spending plans that had largely already been floated in the media by Starmer aides eager to prepare the public for a mediocre financial review that does next to  nothing to end austerity or reverse the decline in the living standards of working people. 
Sure there were some sweeteners in the Reeves budget like the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap. The state pension will rise by 4.8 percent – £440 a year – and by £575 for people on the newer pension scheme.  And the national living wage and national minimum wage will also be increased.
Starmer & Co call on everyone “to make a contribution” to protect public services and help people struggling with the cost of living. But in reality workers will continue to bear the burden of the capitalist crisis in higher taxes and further cuts to what’s left of the public services.

A step too far...

“Trial by jury is a cornerstone of our democracy and an essential safeguard against authoritarianism “ says Jeremy Corbyn. “It is truly frightening that such a fundamental freedom is now under attack. Once rights are lost, they are not easy to win back. We must resist this with all we’ve got”. 
But, incredible it as it may seems,  the Starmer Government is indeed thinking of scrapping jury trials in England and Wales for all but the most serious of cases. Starmer’s deputy, the Justice Minister David Lammy,  is proposing to massively restrict the ancient right to a jury trial by only guaranteeing it for defendants facing rape, murder, manslaughter or other cases passing a public interest test.
The plans, obtained by BBC News, are allegedly an attempt to end unprecedented delays and backlogs in the courts. But juries are founded on the principle of a fair hearing and a trial of one’s peers. They are considered by many, including legal professionals, to be the cornerstone of our criminal justice system. Judges and barristers have joined in the chorus of opposition to this attack on jury trials forcing Lammy to think again.  He now says that “no final decision” had been made amid rumours of a U-turn in favour of  more modest plans for jury-less super-magistrate courts to hear to cases likely to receive a maximum sentence of three years that was originally floated in the independent review by Sir Brian Leveson. 
Abolishing jury trials would clearly dismantle a core constitutional safeguard that has existed for more than eight centuries. It is the first step towards a police-state. But, at the moment,   it also seems to be a step too far for the bourgeoisie as whole to take if the response of the legal community is anything to go by. 

Dramatic Developments in People’s China

by John Maryon 

China's plan to double Per Capita GDP and reach the personal income level of a moderately developed nation in 10 years is a remarkable ambition. The success of the current 14th  Five Year Plan has raised technical excellence to a level that will lay the basis for China's progress.  Currently the average people’s income is equivalent to approximately £13,500.  However a direct comparison is difficult because prices for most things are much lower in the Asian nation. In meeting its goals China has had to face difficult challenges which have included Covid and trade wars imposed by the United States. It has however managed to exceed a yearly five per cent target.  Under the wise leadership of the Communist Party of China the people can look forward with confidence to the future.
China has the second largest world economy in terms of GDP but in reality when measured in real industrial output it is way ahead.  China has comprehensive trading relations with over 150 countries. It has developed its infrastructure and is able to employ advanced logistics to achieve great efficiency. To avoid threats by imperialists to contain China the  People’s Republic has started seasonal operations on the Arctic sea route and each year thousands of cargo trains transverse between Asia and Europe. Stable development with its partners and friends is enhanced through the Belt & Road Initiative. Education continues to play an important role in China's development with the number of university graduates exceeding 12 million each year. The number of engineers trained each year exceeds that of Germany, Japan and the USA combined. 
China takes a long term approach to investments by supporting projects which will achieve great potential in the future rather than a short term get rich quick project of little lasting value. No wonder they are able to play such a major role in Green and sustainable development.  In the USA today companies are more likely to use their profits to buy back share stock rather than to invest in the future. 
The American response to China's rise has not been to invest, embark upon joint development projects or talk constructively about co-operation. It has  been one of aggressive attempts to cripple and destroy China – or anyone else who in their panic mode they may regard as a threat. The new Comac 919 Chinese commercial aircraft  has been a major target in the West's trade war against competition from Asia. The aeroplane is seen as a direct competitor to Boeing and Airbus. Currently the plane uses Western LEAP 1C engines but with threats to restrict supplies Chinese engineers are now developing their own alternatives. The biggest obstacle however to its success is the refusal to quickly certify the aircraft to fly on important international routes by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.   Attempts to hold back progress are doomed to failure as China is responding by developing its own engines and control systems and is all ready selling to non-Western markets. Development work on an advanced larger long range aircraft, such as the Comac 929, which will have Chinese engines and avoid Western supply chain threats, is well underway. 
On 23rd October recommendation documents for the 15th Five Year Plan were adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The proposals focus on high quality development, rather than just economic expansion, as a step towards achieving a leading position in modernisation by 2035. Particular emphasis will be given to sustainability, green growth and technological innovation. 
The documents recognise the demographic challenges that lie ahead and makes provision for health care and social support for an ageing population with increased  investment. The impact of artificial intelligence and further automation upon the job market is taken into account.  In the early stages of building socialism the basic needs include more tons of steel and greater electricity generation. As the economy develops and industry expands, the new phase of socialist progress demands quality development with limited carbon emissions and full respect for the environment.  For society to advance progressive evolving social policies that  reinforce a true socialist ethos are also absolutely essential. 
Efforts by the imperialist states to stifle China's economic, technical and industrial growth are increasing every day. Under American pressure the craven politicians of many leading Western nations, without thought, respect or accountability rush to find favour with their masters in Washington. They replace mutually beneficial trade, diplomacy and co-operation with insulting, ill-conceived and often illegal actions that harm trade, destroy trust and make the world a more dangerous place.  I can imagine future history students being shocked as they learn how Europe's second-rate imperialist states collapsed from self-inflicted stupidity.  The banning of quality and trusted Huawei equipment and its replacement with more expensive Western alternatives is justified by claiming, without convincing evidence, that it is a security risk. The very recent debacle in Holland in which the Dutch government was forced to hand back Xperia to its Chinese owner shows how nasty little schemes can come unstuck. 
People's China has grown from being a poverty-stricken country humiliated by colonial forces to become a powerful modern socialist state. This has been made possible by the leadership of its Communist Party. With the aid of its successful Belt & Road Initiative it is now helping others to throw off their own colonial legacy and advance forward.  The lies of the Western media are shown for what they are with every success that is achieved. 

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.

The Russian Ambassador speaks

 Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador in London, talka to RT l

In recent weeks we have witnessed a number of harsh, if not aggressive, anti-Russian statements by former British officials. The former head of MI5 agreed with those who believe that Russia and Britain are already at war and former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace proposed making Crimea "uninhabitable". What is behind this new round of escalating rhetoric? Does it reflect the approach of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other current politicians?

The comments you mentioned are indeed provocative and unacceptable, regardless of who voiced them. They are whipping up anti-Russian hysteria. They also accustom the population to the idea of the permissibility of a military conflict with Russia. But these are all retirees trying to remind us of themselves. Officials do not directly express themselves in this way, but they do not disavow such attacks either.
Representatives of the Labour government often reproach us for "reckless and dangerous" steps and statements. But much more reckless are the arguments of such figures as Ben Wallace. During his tenure at the head of the British Ministry of Defence, he did a lot to inflate the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which he seems to be very proud of. Now he’s in fact repeating the rhetoric of neo-Nazi circles in Ukraine, which more than 10 years ago pushed the residents of Crimea and Donbas to make a choice in favour of reunification with Russia. Behind all this escalation of rhetoric, there is obviously a strong discomfort from how events are developing on the ground, where the situation of the armed forces of Ukraine is steadily deteriorating.

The British government was one of the first in Europe to publicly announce plans to send a military contingent to Ukraine, and also came up with a number of initiatives that Russia regarded as provocative. What is London's ultimate goal in pursuing such a hostile policy towards Russia?

From the very beginning, London has not hidden its interest in fomenting the Ukrainian conflict in order to inflict a so-called strategic defeat on us. What exactly is meant by this, we do not really understand to this day. Then they began to say that the security of Ukraine is closely related to the security of Europe. But what does Britain have to do with it?
Now they are talking about an immediate, unconditional truce, without going into how the conflict will be resolved. It is obvious that London is against such a negotiated solution that would lead to a permanent, rather than temporary, cessation of hostilities, and most importantly, would eliminate the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis. Here, it seems, they have not abandoned their intention to drag Ukraine into Nato, to deploy Nato strike potential on its territory. Obviously, the goal of the "coalition of the willing" is precisely aimed at preserving the anti-Russian potential of Ukraine, preferably with the presence of Nato forces on its territory.
All these plans are absolutely transparent for us, we will respond adequately. The West should be well aware that when they talk about some price that Russia must pay for the Ukrainian crisis, they should not forget that they, in turn, will be presented with a bill. The longer they feed the Kiev regime, which has de facto already turned Ukraine into a non-existent state, the more dearly they will ultimately have to pay.

Some politicians argue that the UK is a sworn enemy of Russia and that the peoples of our countries have long been hostile to each other. However, Moscow's official position is that Russia has no unfriendly peoples – only unfriendly governments. How does this relate to the current state of relations between Russia and London?

Contradictions between our countries have existed for a significant part of the history of bilateral relations. It was Britain that provoked them. Unfortunately, at the current stage, relations are in a protracted crisis through the fault of official London. The government (both Labour and Conservative) is the initiator and participant of many unfriendly actions. The British establishment and the media close to them are trying to instil hostility towards us in the country's population. Therefore, they spread fake news about the alleged threat from Russia and about actions that our country has never committed. They create a toxic atmosphere around those who consider it necessary to at least continue the dialogue. Moreover, Britons interested in cooperating with Russia are now being intimidated by the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme. It obliges people to report to the authorities about almost any interaction with our state.
Against this background, there is no need to talk about active contacts at the population level. But we do not interfere with people-to-people contacts, we do not close our borders to tourists. Perhaps the most obvious manifestation of our attitude towards the British people in the current conditions is the desire to preserve the memory of the alliance during the Great Patriotic War, and to demonstrate our sincere respect for the participants in those events.

In the media, much attention is paid to the possible transfer of intelligence by Washington to Kiev for long-range missile strikes on Russian territory. However, it is known that London has been carrying out similar actions for a long time. Why does this fact go largely unnoticed in the headlines? And how does this affect Russia's reaction to UK policy?

The information that the British side is providing comprehensive military support to Kiev, including the transfer of weapons, intelligence and training of military personnel, has always been in plain sight and has been repeatedly commented on by us. London has long established itself as one of the main sponsors of the Kiev regime. This is not a surprise to anyone. All this is being closely monitored by the Russian side and, of course, taken into account when building our policy towards the UK. We are against any escalation. As I said, in the end, everyone who helps the Zelensky regime fuel the war and damage us will be presented with a bill. In what form is a separate question.

Many British media outlets interpreted President Vladimir Putin's recent speech at a meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club as a threat to Europe, mainly because of the President's words that Russia should in any case respond to the plans to militarise the European Union. At the same time, his statement that Russia is not considering the possibility of invading Europe was omitted in many cases. What do you think about this reaction from the British media?

Now the British press in any situation makes a choice in favour of promoting the topic of escalation, rather than détente. Hysteria is being whipped up under the slogan of a growing direct Russian threat to the countries of the alliance. Under these conditions, it is hardly in the interests of the sponsors of this campaign to broadcast the "peaceful" theses of the President of Russia. They are trying in every possible way to instil in the population the idea of the need to prepare for an armed confrontation with our country. And it is clear why. France and Germany are in the biggest crisis. The same is true in the UK. It is necessary to divert the attention of fellow citizens from the numerous problems in which the country is mired. We do not forget about the efforts of the military-industrial complex, which is interested in obtaining long-term contracts.
As you may remember, after the end of the Cold War, the expression "peace dividend" was in vogue. This meant that due to the reduction in spending on huge military contingents and weapons stockpiles that had become unnecessary, the economies of European countries freed up huge funds for economic development and improving the quality of life of people. They could be properly used for the benefit of countries. But it didn't work out that way.
Now the Labour leadership is actively talking about a "war dividend", apparently hoping to increase the revenues of the debt-ridden budget at the expense of revenues from the military industry. You are also right that the statements of our leadership about the absence of threatening intentions towards Europe are being ignored here. They do not fit into the current political line of the West.

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service says that London plans to carry out a provocation on the territory of Ukraine – we are talking about an attack on a Ukrainian naval vessel or on a civilian vessel of a foreign state with the subsequent imposition of responsibility on Russia. Have you informed your British colleagues that Moscow is aware of such plans? And what is the reaction in the UK to this information?

As you know, London is directly and actively involved in the preparation and implementation of provocations by Ukrainian wards. Moreover, it consistently increases the degree of confrontation without thinking about the consequences. I am sure that the above-mentioned signals reached the addressees and were received properly.
I can only draw your attention once again to the fact that anti-Russia hysteria in the media is being artificially hyped. Even when there is no specific news-break, it is either created, for example drones appear from somewhere in European airspace, or extracted from some past archives, such as Bucha. In these materials, as a rule, there are a lot of emotions that are aimed at provoking an irrational anti-Russian mood in the audience. Such a "warmed up" audience will easily believe even the most ridiculous and unsustainable rubbish.

An Introduction to Marxism-Leninism

By John Maryon

For anyone, especially new comrades, wishing to understand the dynamic philosophy of Marxism-Leninism there is in my view no better insight than to study Dialectical and Historical Materialism by J V Stalin.  A concise and clear work, written in 1938, that outlines the essential theory of Marxism-Leninism.  Its founders were Karl Marx and Frederick Engels with further development by Vladimir Lenin as he applied the philosophy to build socialism in the Soviet Union. It is an important philosophy that guides communist parties in their vanguard role and in the building of socialism.  Stalin had the ability to explain complex ideas without simplification or being patronising to his audience. 
Dialectical materialism is a major component of Marxism-Leninism.   It is called dialectical because it studies changes that are interconnected with other things that may also change.  The theory is materialistic because it accepts that physical processes are governed by specific laws. Historical materialism is the extension of the principles of dialectical materialism to the study of social life. It is an application of the principles of dialectical materialism to the phenomena of the study of the life of society, to the study of society and of its history.
Human history reflects a complex struggle for survival. There is a fundamental difference in the way society and natural processes develop. There are no conscious forces in the purely physical world but social development is influenced by thought and the actions of people.  People have the ability to shape their own destinies and forge progressive trends in a society .  Historical materialism is a core component of the philosophy developed by Marx and Engels.   It is only when grasped and understood by the masses can it become a motive force for the development of society.   Scientific communism is also an important part of Marxist theory which studies the laws, forms and methods of the class struggle.  
It is important to understand what is meant by productive forces and production relations and how they relate to each other under both capitalism and socialism.  The productive forces are the means of production including the workers.  Production relations are the relations existing between people in the process of production, exchange and distribution of wealth.  Historical materialism shows that under capitalism contradictions will exist between productive forces and production relations and that they can only be resolved through class struggle. A struggle to break-up the old system of production relations and replace it with new ones to ensure a more fairer distribution of wealth within a more stable framework. 
Marxist-Leninist philosophy challenges that of fatalism which is promoted by those who are afraid of change and want to keep things as they are.  Fatalists believe that what will happen is fated and can make no difference to the outcome.  Marxists maintain that we make our own history by our actions. We have heard people say 'what will be will be' but they are stuck in a rut and will be cut off from human progress. 
The building of socialism is far more than raising production or economic indicators.  It is concerned with the evolution of human thought along with social and cultural progress.  The failure of comrades in the past to recognise this fact has led to serious setbacks. 'You can't change human nature' is a hackneyed old cliche trotted out by the bourgeoisie who don't want change and the unthinking who don't understand it.  In reality things are changing all the time. Change however is not uniform. In some parts of the world women are still regarded as second-rate citizens to be abused and treated with cruelty.  In the Soviet Union Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to enter space.
A politically planned economy with public ownership and control of major and strategic industry, utilities, transport and financial institutions is a core requirement of Marxism – Leninism.  Public ownership ensures that the value created by workers is used to pay direct and social wages while creating funds for future investment.  Money, the life=blood of capitalism and mechanism for exploitation, will cease to dominate and to control society. Wealthy capitalists would no longer be able to dictate political and economic policy.  Power would be exercised by the Communist Party on behalf of the people which it serves.  This is the system employed by the socialist countries today. 
Proletarian internationalism is one of the basic principles of Marxism Leninism.  It stems from an awareness that the class struggle has a vital international component and stresses the need for effective worldwide solidarity. Proletarian internationalism governs relations between all peoples of the international working class and between communist parties. Lenin wrote. 'There is one, and only one, kind of real internationalism and that is working wholeheartedly for the revolutionary movement and revolutionary struggle in one's own country and supporting in all ways possible every other country without exception'.  
Utopian socialists had a dream of an ideal society. Engels was able to show how socialism could be achieved by turning that utopian vision into a science that led to an understanding of the laws of development of society, of the contradictions of capitalism and the role of the working class in class struggle.  Communists should not just criticise the injustices of capitalist society but to examine and explain the nature of the capitalist mode of production and its laws of development.  Such an approach exposes the raw nature of capitalism that is essentially based upon the theft of surplus value created by workers by an upper class of parasites. 
 

Football crazy, football mad

 The police move to stop fans of Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending the Europa League match against Aston Villa in Birmingham next month was a prudent and wise decision. Sir Keir Starmer’s attempts to reverse the decision were foolish and shameful. 

Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana were right to criticise Lisa Nandy and Starmer for their disgusting attempt to link the ban on racist hooligans to anti- semitism. Their Independent Alliance bloc in parliament says Nandy. the Culture & Sports Minister, should resign.

 "Lisa Nandy’s grossly misleading comments have served as the basis for appalling accusations about the motivations of those who support this ban.

 "The government has taken an issue of public safety and distorted the facts for political ends – and it has been caught out.

 "This is about a group of fans with a history of racism and violence. This is not about banning Jewish people. The attempt to conflate the two is a shameful attempt to exploit the fear and anxieties of Jewish communities".

 Starmer’s pathetic efforts have now been rendered meaningless by the Maccabi club which said this week that it wasn’t going to sell tickets to the match to their fans, even if the decision was overturned because a “toxic atmosphere' had been created around the fixture through 'hate-filled falsehoods'. 

But the truth is Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have had a long history of violence and anti-Arab racism. On the day of the match with Ajax in Amsterdam last year their fans rampaged through the Dutch capital attacking anyone they thought looked like a Muslim or a Palestinian supporter before fleeing when enraged Ajax fans and passers-by took to the streets to drive them out of town.

 After the match, which Ajax won five-nil, the Zionist lie-machine went into top gear to portray the riots as a pogrom while reactionary Dutch leaders and a host of other European politicians joined in the chorus of bourgeois outrage at what they called a “Jew hunt” led by the “anti-semitic gangs” of Amsterdam. They said the violence was an attack on Jews but no such attacks were reported against the local Jewish community. And in the following days the “pogrom” narrative fell apart as more details and witness accounts surfaced. 

In 2023 in Cyprus, Maccabi supporters were arrested for possession of flares and smoke bombs. Others engaged in fights with local residents. In Athens in March 2024, Maccabi fans beat up a man carrying a Palestinian flag ahead of the game with Olympiacos. And only last week a local derby between Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv was cancelled after what the Israeli police described as "public disorder and violent riots" which led to 12 people and three police officers being injured.

 The decision of the Birmingham authorities to ban the Maccabi fans on safety grounds has been welcomed by many. But some say it doesn’t go far enough. Palestine solidarity campaigners say that the game should be abandoned altogether because Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Others say that Israeli football teams, which are not even located in Europe, should be banned by UEFA from all competitions. We agree.

 Allowing Israeli football teams to compete in international competitions allows Israel to cynically present itself as a normal country, obscuring the truth of its oppression of Palestinians. 

Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has killed many tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including many hundreds of Palestinian footballers. It has destroyed Gaza's football stadiums, training grounds and pitches. 

The Israel Football Association directly participates in Israel's crimes against Palestinians. It governs football clubs based in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. Palestinians, facing down Israel's military assaults and ethnic cleansing, have long demanded that Israel is banned from international sporting and cultural bodies as a means of holding it accountable for its crimes, just as apartheid South Africa was. 

We agree!

Ukraine: A Search for Identity and Freedom

October 1944 - Red Army liberates Kiev

 by John Maryon

Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians are predominantly from the East Slav sub-group of the Slavic people.  Crimean Tatars form an important ethnic group of the population of Crimea.  The fertile lands of mineral rich Ukraine were for centuries shared between the Poles and the Mongols.  By 1500 the Ottoman empire had expanded and taken over South East Ukraine and Crimea.  In 1654, following years of conflict with the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Cossack leader of Ukraine pledged allegiance to the Czardom of Russia in exchange of protection. Russian influence increased and in 1797 Catherine the Great established the port city of Odessa and the region became an important part of the Russian Empire. 
Today most people have heard of the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale, Balaclava and the Charge of the Light Brigade.   It was an imperialist conflict for Middle East influence between Russia and an alliance of France, Britain and Turkey.  Russia lost the war and with it influence in the region and now had only a limited access to the Black Sea. However there were two other significant impacts.  One saw the break up of European alliances and the other was that it forced Russia to become modernised. 
Following the 1917 Great October Revolution in Russia Ukraine became a Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian SSR.  A majority of those in Eastern Ukraine spoke Russian while in the western areas the people spoke Ukrainian.  The  Ukrainian language is very similar to Russian and considered by some to be a dialect. In the Crimea, Tatar and other ethnic languages were secured by decree. A devious  Kruschchev was to later cede Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR. 
To understand the Ukraine of today it is important to consider some developments during the pre World War 2 period. The Congress of Soviets had proclaimed Soviet Power in 1917 and elected Soviets were established in the towns, villages, work places and military units. The new young republic started on the road to building socialism. But the peaceful life was soon to be shattered.  Counter-revolutionary forces led by former Czarist officers and the feudal lords of Central Asia waged a civil war against the Soviet republic. They were to be supported by forces of intervention. British, French, American and Japanese forces in the Far East invaded the Soviet Union. An undeclared war of intervention was underway and Britain occupied Odessa while Germany took control of a large part of western Ukraine. 
The Soviet forces were united and soon built an alliance with workers and peasants and established the Red Army. A war economy was established. The counter-revolutionary military superiority was short lived as conflicting interests emerged. The White Guards, as the alliance of foreign backed fighters was known, depended upon foreign finance and was essentially a mercenary army.  When the money stopped during the major capitalist economic crisis they fell apart. The imperialist powers however continued to occupy western parts of the country.  The imperialist powers used former Soviet territory to establish a cordon sanitaire from which they could carry out attacks on the young republic. 
Collectivisation of agriculture enabled farms to be modernised. The days of the horse-drawn wooden plough were over and Ukraine started to become an important grain growing area.  The process of change was not an easy one. The years 1932-1934 saw the worst drought in living memory.  A typhoid epidemic ravaged the Caucasus.  Many agriculture experts and cadres sent from Moscow were murdered by fascist gangs.  Some kulaks slaughtered all their animals and invading forces burned crops. Many people died of starvation. However by the late 1930s Ukraine had become the bread-basket of the Soviet Union while the industrial regions of Eastern Ukraine became known as the Soviet Ruhr. 
At 0400 on 22 June 1941 Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. Of the 27 million Russians who were killed during the war, five million were from Ukraine plus 1.5 million Jewish people who lived in the region.  Nationalists from the former ruling class in Western Ukraine supported Hitler and the Nazis. The leader of the Halychyn SS Division , Stefan Bandera, was held responsible for many atrocities.  Jews, communists, socialists, the mentally ill and the disabled were slaughtered in the death camps. Under the leadership of Joseph Stalin the Soviet Union fought courageously  and was able to smash the Nazi war machine. The battle of Stalingrad is considered to be the turning  point of the Second World War which ended in victory in 1945, But after the war many Ukrainian Nazis were made welcome in the USA and Britain. 
During the post-war era industry quickly developed and agriculture flourished. Then came the collapse of the Soviet Union. Oligarchs took over in Russia and Ukraine grabbing the wealth that had been created during people's rule with former officials changing sides to get their noses in the trough. Living standards fell and unemployment reappeared after an absence of 50 years. With the fall of the Soviet Union the Russians were promised that NATO would not expand eastwards.  The gullible Russian leadership believed this but the imperialists saw it as an opportunity to expand their malignant influence, gain access to Russia's rich resources and to threaten China. 
The United States is notorious for its never-ending wars and coups for regime change. The long list includes Korea, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Chile.  In February 2014 it was Ukraine's turn. In a coup planned, financed and supported by the USA, the democratically elected government of Yanukovych was overthrown. Opposition parties were banned, politicians arrested and demonstrators murdered in Odessa by being driven into the trade union building which was then set on fire. The new pro-Nato and pro-European Union puppet regime embarked on widespread repressive measures against Russian speakers, including a ban on the Russian language. Strong resistance in Eastern Ukraine led to the establishment of independent states which were recognised by Russia and later along with Crimea voted to join the Russian Federation. Between 2014 and 2022 some 8,000 civilians were killed by shelling from regime held areas.
In 2022 Russia commenced its special military operation to defend those regions under attack, prevent the expansion of Nato eastwards and rid the Ukraine government of supporters of the infamous Nazi collaborator, Stefan Bandera. The civil war became a proxy one as the Americans and their Western allies poured in money and weapons. Negotiations, such as the Minsk agreements to end the conflict have been repeatedly sabotaged by Western leaders. The Western powers are losing their war and Ukraine is tragically being destroyed in scenes similar to those left in Vietnam and Korea. Instead of bringing the tragedy to an end Western leaders, including, Macron of France, Merz of Germany and Starmer of Britain, have become obsessed with keeping the war going. They continue to pour in money to keep the conflict going while their own economies face collapse.