Lead story

Crunch time for Labour Vote for Corbyn

by Daphne Liddle

BALLOTS for the Labour leadership contest have been sent out and the voting is under way; whatever the result the party will never be the same again.

The front line of the class struggle is now out in the open as the working class has a real chance to reclaim the party it founded and built from the agents and minions of the ruling class who have dominated the highest levels for decades.

Critics of the New Communist Party policy of supporting Labour in elections said not long ago that what is happening now was impossible. But our assertion that the Labour Party is still a potentially strong weapon for our class is vindicated.

That is not to confuse it with a revolutionary party or imagine that we can gain a workers’ state through parliamentary elections.

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Crunch time for Labour Vote for Corbyn

New Russian drive for Mid-East peace

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

RUSSIAN diplomacy has gone into top gear in renewed efforts to build a common front against the reactionary Islamic State (ISIS) militia and end the fighting in Syria. President Putin’s Special Envoy Mikhail Bogdanov has held top-level talks in Damascus while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei

Lavrov outlined the Kremlin’s position in discussions with the Saudis and the Syrian opposition in Moscow last week. Lavrov urged Syrian “National Coalition” leader Khaled Khoja to look for consensus on a political settlement in Syria. But his call to tackle Islamic State terror fell on deaf ears. Khoja, who leads a pro-Nato front based in Turkey that includes the “Free Syrian Army” continued to insist that President Assad must first step down before there can be any talk about national reconciliation.

The Russians also drew a blank with the Saudis — at least as far as Syria goes. But both sides will doubtless have discussed the oil industry in which Russia and Saudi Arabia are major players and both sides are equally concerned at the American fracking boom that could significantly reduce Russia and Saudi Arabia’s share of the global oil market.

Russia is clearly not going to dump Assad and as if to stress the point the Moscow media reported that the Kremlin has supplied Syria with MiG- 31 war-planes to help the Syrian air-force in its battle against ISIS and strengthen its air-defences against potential attacks from US or Turkish aviation.

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New Russian drive for Mid-East peace

Editorial

A state of change

A COUPLE of years ago the City of Brighton and Hove was forced to fork out £500,000 to pay for the policing of a march of fascists — mainly members of the Islamophobic English Defence League — called the March for England. Hundreds of police, many brought in from neighbouring forces, filled the streets along with 10-foot temporary barrier walls to protect a handful of racists from thousands of angry local anti-fascists. It was not the first time the people of Brighton had been forced to pay this.

Even then there were clashes between fascists and anti-fascists in the side lanes, some arrests but no serious injuries.

The Yorkshire town of Rotherham had to meet a similar bill, several times over — as did other towns and cities throughout the country. The fascists even boasted that they would bankrupt the local authority by threatening to come back to Rotherham over and over again. Since then the Tory austerity cuts have significantly hit policing budgets.

Last week in Liverpool a group of hardline neo-Nazis planned to march through the town in spite of strong opposition from local people. This time the policing level was comparatively modest.

The police were unable to control the huge numbers of anti-fascist protesters and the fascists were unable to even leave the railway station because the police could not guarantee their safety. There were some scuffles inside the station, some arrests but no serious injuries.

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A state of change