Lead story

Arab-African solidarity

by our Middle East Affairs correspondent

VIOLENCE engulfed Rabin Square in central Tel Aviv on Sunday night when an anti-police march by Ethiopian Jews erupted into rage with protesters throwing rocks and bottles at riot police, who fired stun grenades and charged the square repeatedly on horseback.

It was the climax of days of protests following the release of a video last week which showed two policemen beating up an Ethiopian-Israeli soldier for no apparent reason. Premier Benjamin Netanyahu has now met the victimised soldier and appealed for calm.

It began as a peaceful protest, supported by Israeli communists and some members of Israel’s social-democratic parties, against rampant police brutality and institutional racism against Israel’s Ethiopian population.

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Arab-African solidarity

May Day in London

by New Worker correspondent

THOUSANDS of people assembled in the windy spring sunshine on Clerkenwell Green last Friday for the annual May Day parade and rally organised by the South and Eastern Region Trade Union Congress.

The green was packed with trade unionists of all shades, members of left, socialist and communist parties with the usual big and colourful turnout from London Turkish and Kurdish communities.

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May Day in London

May Day in Glasgow

by our Scottish news correspondent

ROUND 500 people braved the drizzle on Sunday to march from George Square to the O2 Academy in the Gorbals for Glasgow’s annual May Day rally organised by Glasgow Trades Union Council.

Banners from trades councils and unions RMT, Unison and Unite lead the march, while Labour Party and Communist Party of Britain banners were followed by those from nationalist Trotskyite sects, some of whom doled out semi-literate leaflets.

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May Day in Glasgow

Editorial

Celebrating victory over Nazism

ON 9th May 1945 the Nazis finally surrendered to the forces of the Soviet Union in the ruins of Berlin. This year Victory Day will be celebrated in Moscow with a big parade hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin with guests that include 27 world leaders and the head of the United Nations while other ceremonies to mark the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany will be held throughout the world to remember those who gave their lives in the struggle.

Victory Day is a time for reflection for all working people. It is a time to remember the sacrifice of millions of people, and in particular the 27 million Soviet workers and peasants, who died in the fight to defeat German fascism and Japanese imperialism.

The Axis powers wanted world domination and they committed unspeakable crimes in the Second World War that began in 1939 and only ended in 1945 with the total defeat of the Third Reich and the Japanese Empire.

Though Anglo-American imperialism played an important role in the defeat of fascism it was the courage and determination of the Soviet people that brought Nazi Germany to its knees and it was equally the final intervention by the USSR against Japan in 1945 that forced the Japanese Emperor Hirohito to capitulate, regardless of the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Celebrating victory over Nazism