THE NEW WORKER

The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 10th August 2018


Lead story

SYRIA AND CHINA COOPERATE

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

SYRIAN FORCES are assembling in northern Latakia for what may be the build-up for the long-awaited offensive against the terrorist gangs amid reports that Chinese troops may soon be deployed to assist the Syrian Arab Army in its next big push. The Idlib enclave, which exists under the covert protection of the Turkish army, has been in the hands of sectarian gunmen since the start of the conflict in 2011. But while the Syrian troops are expected to launch probing attacks in the next few weeks any major offensive will likely wait for the arrival of crack units currently mopping up ISIS cells still operating in the southern deserts. Meanwhile a senior Syrian scientist that the imperialists claim was a chemical weapons expert was assassinated last weekend. Dr Aziz Asbar, the director of the Syrian Scientific Research Centre (SSRC), died in a car bomb attack on Saturday. His driver was also killed. The SSRC, run by Asbar, had been the target of at least two Israeli air raids over the past few months. Many suspect that he was killed by agents of Israeli intelligence. Back in the 1980s, the Israelis, hand in glove with the Muslim Brotherhood which today constitutes the backbone of the Syrian wings of Al Qaeda, murdered a number of scientists as well as many doctors, journalists, engineers and experts across Syria..

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Workers’ Notes Remembering the victims of atomic war

by New Worker correspondent

LABOUR and peace activists held events across the country to remember all those who perished in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. In London the traditional Hiroshima Day commemoration was held in Tavistock Square on Monday. In Bristol CND members and supporters staged an event in the Peace Garden in Bristol’s Castle Park. Alex Kempshall, the Trade Union Officer for Bristol CND, reminded all that in August 1945 two nuclear weapons were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing an estimated 280,000 men, women and children with another 340,000 dying a slow and agonising death over the ensuing five years. Generations have been poisoned by the radiation with the after-effects in terms of birth defects and social stigma continue to this day. He then pointed out that “The United Nations saw the dangers to the planet’s survival of nuclear war so passed a resolution in 1946 which called for ‘the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.’”

Pound slips over Brexit

Sputnik

THE POUND made a notable move in the markets on Monday, albeit not a favourable one for the economy rocked by Brexit uncertainty. The pound was trading at 1.30 against the US dollar for the first time in almost a year. The pound fell to US$1.2970 — its lowest since 19th July — and 0.2 per cent against the Euro to 89.15 pence. Fluctuations of British currency have been largely attributed to developments in Brexit negotiations between London and Brussels. The deadline for the government to reach a divorce deal with the European Union is fast approaching. Time is running out for the powers in Westminster to achieve the best possible trade deal for the country before it quits the EU on 29th March 2019. Over the weekend, the Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox told the Sunday Times that he estimated the odds of a no deal Brexit at “60-40.” On Monday, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said that Theresa May continues to believe a Brexit deal with EU is the most likely outcome of talks. The PM still believes that no deal is better than a bad Brexit deal, the spokesman added.

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Editorial

Drive the racists off the streets !

BORIS JOHNSON, the Tory journalist turned politician, has come a long way since he first entered Parliament in 2001. He reached the dizzy heights of Foreign Minister in 2016 only come tumbling down following the Eurosceptic revolt in the Tory Cabinet last month. Johnson wants to become the next Tory leader when Mrs May finally throws in the towel. But his naked ambition is frowned on by many Tory grandees and his past performance merely shows that his privileged background has elevated him way beyond his capabilities. Now Johnson is playing the race card with vulgar remarks about the traditional veiled dress of some Muslim women which he says make them look “like letter boxes” or bank robbers. This has, naturally, provoked a wave of protests from the Islamic community including the few prominent Muslims still in the Tory ranks. But Johnson is wallowing in the publicity he’s gained and refuses to apologise for his putrid comments. Johnson lacks the depth of support that Enoch Powell once enjoyed within the Tory party and he clearly doesn’t possess the rhetorical skills of Sir Oswald Mosley. Powell had been a major player in the Tory party and Mosley was Labour’s rising star in the 1920s. But when these ambitious men fanned the flames of racial hatred working people closed ranks in a mass movement that forced Powell to seek the solace of the Ulster Unionists and Mosley into voluntary exile in Ireland and France. Anti-fascist resistance drove the Blackshirts off the streets in the 1930s. A new anti-racist movement did the same in the 1970s to beat the National Front. Now Labour is calling for another Anti-Nazi League to do the job today. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said anti-racists should build on the work of the Anti-Nazi League (ANL), which was founded in the 1970s to clear the streets of the fascist threat. Jeremy Corbyn’s number two spoke out against the growth of the far-right pointing to the protests in support of jailed racist ‘Tommy Robinson’, now released after winning an appeal, the attack on a left-wing bookshop in London as well as Johnson’s recent Islamophobic remarks. McDonnell said: “We can no longer ignore the rise of far-right politics in our society. Maybe it’s time for an ANL-type cultural and political campaign to resist&rdquo

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