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The recent G7 meeting in Cornwall was to all extents and purposes a very expensive, high security, long photo opportunity yawn as far as the British working class were concerned. Although originally intended to have representatives of major countries, the G7 now has over-representation from the undemocratic EU. As a Country, we can’t seem to shake off their constant meddling in our internal affairs. We had about 45 years in total of being under their illegal, fascist- run, austerity- driven subjugation and to continue to ‘entertain’ them in Britain is a ‘wind-up’ to those of us who have consistently campaigned to have no part in the EU ‘stitch-up’. What obvious conclusions can we draw from the Cornwall meeting. The first is the parallel between the atmosphere polluting G7 and NATO pollution of the environment. NATO, it has been reported, has been a high polluter with its military gas guzzling tanks and military vehicles. It would seem that it wants to spread its evil influence to all parts of the globe, from China to the Arctic. The G7 in comparison were busily polluting the atmosphere in Carbis Bay, with billowing clouds of smoke from out-of-control industrial scale beach barbeques catering for the high- powered, low- productivity personnel on display. To add to the pollution, the ‘Red Arrows’ left their trail of fumes above the Cornish skies. These were only a small part of the planes and helicopters also involved in this ‘photo pageant’ which also saw the British Royal family popping in for more photogenic opportunities. With the new strains of Covid emerging to large extents in the Greater Manchester area, we had the local Devon and Cornwall police complaining about the influx of over 6000 police into the Cornwall area, including many, untested and unvaccinated, from the new covid ‘hotspots. Despite the emphasis on picturesque photo opportunities, the Cornwall reality couldn’t be totally hidden from the foreign leaders in that to make their way to venues like the Eden Project, they had to drive through areas of deprivation in one of the poorest counties in Britain. Rob J. Hawkins 17.6.2021

The British Government, The BBC, and the majority of the UK’s media’s protests at the decision by the Government in Hong Kong once again exposes its hypocrisy in respect of its propaganda against China. Yet again the UK conveniently ignores its own past. In 1988 the British Government  banned all voices of Sinn Fein and other Irish Republican groups on TV and Radio. We have not forgotten the British Government’s role in banning organisations in India, Kenya and Rhodesia and many more of its Colonies. and 80 years ago the British Government banned the Communist newspaper the Daily Worker.  The Capitalist  West has infiltrated all Socialist Parties and all Trade Unions and individual Leaders. It is political hypocrisy to condemn another country when it has for decades done the same thing. Arthur Scargill 17.6.2021

The Battle of Saltley Gate which took place in Birmingham in February, 1972 is a defining moment in British Working Class History. A mural was commissioned for display at the Digbeth Campus of what is now South and City College, Birmingham.

Channel 5 decided it was time to bring Margaret Thatcher back to life. Exactly what demand there is for her exhumation is not clear, but lovers of the neoliberal global onslaught and Margaret Thatcher’s friend and ally, Augusto Pinochet are still cheering. Not so those who are enduring life threatening cuts to pay, benefits and “essential” services”. So Mrs Thatcher vs the Miners was aired on Channel 5 during May 2021. “A shameful contribution to British industrial history”. Ken Capstick was one of those invited to take part in the travesty and he responded immediately having viewed the finished programme: “Tonight’s Channel 5 program about the miners’ strike was the most blatantly biased program about the strike I have ever witnessed. It was no more than a disgraceful attempt to resurrect the tainted image of Thatcher and a wrongful attempt to destroy Arthur Scargill’s image and leadership qualities in keeping miners on strike for 12 months in a fight to save the industry. It ignored the justice of our fight. In the end it was a shameful contribution to British industrial history that only ended up tainting the credibility of Channel 5 and its duty as a broadcaster to be unbiased. I have already made my views known to those from Channel 5 who produced this program and its twisted version of an historic event to rewrite working class history.” “Channel 5’s new documentary about the 1984 Miners’ Strike paints Thatcher as a hero and covers up her government’s real intentions – it is just the latest establishment attack on the miners who fought back.” Ian Lavery M.P. was another person conned into taking part reveals Thatcher and her Government’s true agenda. He wrote the following article for Tribune in response: Failing the Miners Again. “Channel 5 aired a documentary that blew the lid on a secret buried for almost four decades. Admittedly, with a hugely sympathetic narration which depicted Margaret Thatcher as a heroine and Arthur Scargill as a bumbling idiot, you had to look very hard to find it. But the truth is that the British people have been repeatedly lied to. I have told my story many times before. In 1984 I was an apprentice miner. Despite the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) arranging that we should be able to continue work, I joined my father and brothers on the picket line. We stuck it out for the entire dispute – not because we wanted to spend a year without pay, not because we owed allegiance to Arthur Scargill, but because war had been declared on us, our community, and our way of life by the Prime Minister of Great Britain. For its failings and factual errors, the documentary gets one thing absolutely correct: that Margaret Thatcher meticulously planned the dispute and micromanaged the state’s mobilisation against the NUM and the coalfield communities in order to destroy opposition to her disastrous agenda of liberalising the economy. It charts her vindictive quest for revenge on communities on whose backs Britain was built for bringing down the government of Ted Heath, her predecessor, and her use of the police, press, state, and judiciary as political tools against ordinary men and women fighting for a future for their communities. It depicts the strike as pivotal to her tenure as Prime Minister – and pivotal it was. For a century, the miners had been at the forefront of improvements to working-class life in the UK. Without the decimation of the industry, it would have been impossible to press ahead with her reforms which sought to undo the post-war consensus that had prevailed for 40 years. For more than three decades, it was claimed that Margaret Thatcher was simply a bystander in a dispute between the National Coal Board (NCB) and the NUM. Arthur Scargill’s claim that a secret closure list of more than 70 collieries was also vehemently denied, the government countering that only 20 economically unsustainable pits were at risk. But in 2014, cabinet papers pertaining to the strike were released which categorically proved both government assertions to be incorrect. The documentary fails to mention these facts at all. It also fails to make any mention of the role Sir Ian Kinloch MacGregor played in the dispute. Handpicked by the government to gut the workforce of British Steel and move the industry into private hands, he was then moved to the NCB with a similar role in mind. Arthur Scargill correctly branded MacGregor as ‘the American butcher of British industry’. Where 170 collieries were working in 1984, only 15 remained by 1994. In 2015, there were none. While presented in a celebratory manner in the documentary, civil liberties were dramatically curtailed across the coalfield. In the end, 11,291 people were arrested, with 8,392 being charged with breach of the peace or obstructing the highway. The NUM estimates that at least six in ten of those arrested were on bogus grounds. Men were told to accept lesser charges to avoid jail and were then forced off the picket lines. Many of these people who had never before been in trouble are still haunted by criminal records. The documentary’s portrayal of Arthur Scargill as stumbling from one mistake to another is particularly galling. Scargill, in my view, is the most principled trade union leader in modern British history. Despite facing a militarised police force, a government intent on starving miners and their families, a hostile and incendiary press, and a judiciary in the pocket of the government, Arthur Scargill led hundreds of thousands of miners on strike for a full year. In the end his resourcefulness and cunning were defeated, but only by the full force of the British state being pitted against us. It was equally as galling to see the triumphalist contributions of Neil Kinnock on the programme with no reflection of his own failings as Labour leader during the strike. Sadly, the solidarity expressed by Labour councils and the trade union movement to mining communities did not extend to the Labour Party leadership. We can only imagine what the outcome of the strike might have been had it done so. But to see him add weight to the premise—that this was a battle between two individuals, rather than the government being hell bent on destroying mining communities—is shameful. The documentary goes to prove that history is written by those with the power. Having denied her active role in the strike for three decades, those closest to Thatcher now celebrate her use of state machinery to destroy ordinary people. Our communities still bear the direct scars from the Conservative government’s industrial vandalism, and the entire country has been shaped by the outcome of that dispute. Perhaps the new attempt to paint Thatcher’s role in the strike as a heroic one is fuelled by the current state of British politics. We’ve entered a period where the truth no longer matters, and the taboo of a Prime Minister lying at the despatch box has well and truly been broken. We should not forget that Boris Johnson is on record as having joined the Conservative Party in support of Thatcher’s treatment of mining communities during the dispute. As Britain drifts ever nearer to authoritarianism under an emboldened right-wing Conservative Party, we should never forget what the Thatcher government did to our communities and to Britain. Their agenda, unimpeded by a hollowed-out trade union movement, has fuelled rampant inequality in a country where both billionaires and poverty are on the increase. But we should also remember the miners’ role at the vanguard of working-class politics. We can never return to coal, but the spirit of solidarity that built our communities and public institutions, and was prepared to fight for them, is something that should be the basis of our movement as we face the future. The working class of our country has never been the ‘enemy within’ – they are the backbone of our nation. Some would do well to remember that.” Ian Lavery is the Labour Party member of parliament for Wansbeck. It is clear that those who were responsible for producing the film were less than candid with those they approached. The article “Miners Failed Again” appears in Tribune. “Channel 5’s new documentary about the 1984 Miners’ Strike paints Thatcher as a hero and covers up her government’s real intentions – it is just the latest establishment attack on the miners who fought back.” “Never seen anything so despicable.” Ricky Tomlinson, himself the victim of a stitch up in 1972, said he’d never seen anything so despicable. The miners and Arthur Scargill had his full support against such deliberate lies. The Most Excruciating bit of State Propaganda. Ian Isaac, a former miner, made this response: A Truly Biased Inaccurate Load of Tosh. Nick Wroughton commented: “A truly biased inaccurate load of tosh. ‘Scargill fell for this/was blindsided by that’ etc etc. Using the same union rule (41) that areas such as Notts and S. Derbys had previously employed to force through a divisive bonus scheme, a Special Delegate Conference of the NUM (with its loose federal structure) decided to allow NUM (each area [unlike eg the T & G] a separate union within a national union) with pits threatened to defend themselves. Arthur had nothing to do with it.” “The Operational Briefing (of police at Orgreave) was something (I’d) never heard of”. A Channel 4 documentary on Orgreave Police Officer’s damning revelation of his orders: In 2016 Channel 4 interviewed a member of the police force who was “ordered to carry out instructions he believed to be wrong” clearly contradicting claims repeated in te Channel 5 documentary presented as historical fact: “He says the operational briefing was something he had never heard of: a bizarre ticketing system whereby South Yorkshire Police officers would write statements even if they had not arrested the pickets themselves. That ran against the fundamentals of policing: the arresting officer makes the arrest statement concerning the prisoner, and nobody else.” Channel 4 News 2/9/2016.

The G7 Tax Deal will be welcomed by the Multinationals, The “Deal” will require these Billionaire Companies to pay a mere 15% tax in Countries they trade in. All Countries should compel all Multinational Companies to pay 40% to the Government in which they trade. Arthur Scargill. Leader. Socialist Labour Party.

There is so much fraud and hypocrisy being perpetrated against the masses at the moment that it is not easy to know where to begin but since the Virus is currently dictating much of the debate then that seems a good place to start. We have had Government ministers applauding the nurses and other carers when these same politicians voted against pay rises for the same people. Similarly, the Tories have been pushing ahead with further privatisations of the NHS whilst apparently ‘lauding’ the effectiveness and work of the organisation. At the same time, the initial lack of Government help or interest in private care homes (which should have been integrated into the NHS) has been a disgrace. Only large capitalist pharmaceutical companies seem to have official encouragement to develop vaccines or potential cures for the Virus. These same Companies should in fact be taken into public ownership so that easily affordable drugs can be made available if required thus excluding the ‘profit motive’ element in the health service. Near the start of the lockdown in Britain, prominent media ‘personalities’ were blatantly encouraging people to fly to Northern Italy – where the Virus was raging. How infantile, irresponsible and idiotic was that? The Tories have diverted Billions of our money into propping up banks and lining the pockets of wealthy financiers. The Labour Party has acquiesced in this action, basically because the leadership represents the interests of the same .1 per cent of the population. Again, it would be difficult for them to argue with these actions since Gordon Brown’s Labour regime did the same sort of thing during the 2008 economic ‘crisis’. Having suffered years of needless ‘austerity’ (in theory to pay for the above) it looks like we are being lined up for even worse. The whole strategy is useless anyway since it is the equivalent to pumping air into a tyre with a huge hole in it. Capitalism has been shown to be a disaster worldwide, especially as far as people’s health and wellbeing is concerned with the USA and Britain near the top of the ‘ineffectiveness’ chart. A reportedly leaked report into the Labour Party under Corbyn’s leadership has concluded that a section of the Party was working to lose both the 2017 and 2019 General elections. What bigger fraud upon the Labour supporting working class voters could you get? These same people now seem to hold the reins of power in that Party. The bonus for the British working class is that they indirectly and inadvertently enabled the fulfilment of the 2016 referendum result to leave the EU. What has been obvious to all (even the politically neutral) was the attempted ‘coup’ against Corbyn’s early leadership which failed. Similarly, we saw deputy Tom Watson repeatedly ‘disloyal’ to the leader, never apparently having a good word to say about his efforts. There was also the onscreen evidence of the ‘shock’ and ‘revised comments’ that Stephen Kinnock displayed on TV when the 2017 General election results were coming in, which showed Corbyn’s ‘effort’ to be much better than the plotters expected. The new leader, Starmer, who was, it seems, part of the ‘coup’ attempt has had a much easier ride from the mainstream media (including the BBC) than Corbyn ever had but denigration of working class supporting politicians has been ongoing for generations and has affected such prominent figures as Bevan, Tony Benn and Arthur Scargill. Arthur has exposed more hypocrisy with a recent issued item:- Hypocrites “I have all my life condemned all so- called Blood Sports and I have made clear the Socialist Labour Party has campaigned for all Blood Sports to be banned. I find the calls by British politicians for the capture and killing of wild animals in South East Asia to be banned the height of Hypocrisy. These critics are calling (correctly) for an end to the slaughter of wild animals whist pursuing or supporting the slaughter of pheasants; partridges and grouse in the name of sport. There is no difference in killing wild birds and animals in South East Asia and killing wild pheasants, partridges, grouse and deer in the United Kingdom. This deplorable slaughter should be banned. Arthur Scargill.” Who are the main people in Britain who participate in these so-called blood sports? They are, of course, some members of the Royal Family, some aristocrats and some of the landed gentry. More hypocrisy came out the other day involving two people with interests in West Country farming. It appears that synchronised statements came out the same day from Prince Charles and the Government spokesman for the day, George Eustice. The statements related to the need for fruit pickers etc. to help get the crops in at this time of the year. There is no dispute that this is necessary. But what was being called for were ‘volunteers’ from workers who currently have some spare time on their hands. Since farmers like Eustice have been able to make use of very cheap imported labour from the EU in the past, they now need inexpensive British labour to do the job. No mention was made by either the Prince or the politician that a decent rate of pay, reflecting the expensive cost of living these days, be paid to willing workers. Further to this, we must ask why the Prince was tested for the virus well in advance of vital frontline health workers for which testing was not available. A further source of questionable regime decision making in Britain has been the previous lack of testing or tracing of people on incoming flights. Apparently, this is now being rectified but no mention of tracing of incoming small boat and yacht visitors to our shores has been made. This is probably linked to our inability as a Country to provide accurate immigration figures. Further hypocrisy has recently been revealed with regard to Government Ministers and advisors who do not follow their own guidelines relating to the Virus. Some of the reporting on individuals could, indirectly, be connected with the inability of the BBC, Channel 4, Labour Party leadership etc. to accept the 2016 EU referendum result and perhaps a common denominator is a strong Zionist lobby in these organisations. What we can say with certainty is that NO GENUINE SOCIALIST WOULD TOUCH THE LABOUR PARTY WITH A BARGE POLE. Rob J. Hawkins SLP S.W. Region. 20.5.2021

The howls of outrage and protest by NATO, the USA and Western Countries about the action of Belarus in forcing down the Ryanair Aircraft down is not only outrageous but Hypocritical. It appears that this concerted protest and call for sanctions against Belarus have conveniently forgotten the concerted action in July 2013 when the USA aided by NATO, France and Portugal forced the President of Bolivia Aircraft to land in Vienna amid suspicion that it was carrying Edward Snowden with hardly a whimper from the UK or any of the countries who are screaming their heads of at the action of Belarus. I deplore both the action by the USA and all those who supported the action in 2013 and the action by Belarus in May 2021, but I recognise that both are part of a dangerous ongoing conflict between the USA and its allies on the one hand and Russia and China on the other hand. Any sane person will condemn both incidents and call for an end to a Cold War which could so easily turn into a real war resulting in people all over the world becoming victims of this stupidity and hypocrisy. Arthur Scargill. Leader, Socialist Labour Party. 29.5.2021

VIDEO OF KEN CAPSTICK’S SPEECH IN RUSELEY ON SUNDAY 23 MAY ON THE SUBJECT “THE MINERS’ NEXT STEP”

The G7 World Leaders’ summit is due to be held at Carbis Bay near St Ives in Cornwall in mid-June 2021. The Capitalist warmongering representatives of the super-rich elites that will be attending deserve all the contempt and derision that can be thrown at them by any normal people with their heads ‘screwed on’ and their hearts in the right place. Will anyone (including SLP members) be able to legally protest at this sick gathering of World parasites? According to international law, any protestors have a right to have their voices heard by those attending such a conference. The authorities and police in Cornwall and Devon have otherplans, however. There were initial plans to allow protestors at Lemon Quay, Truro and the Hoe, Plymouth. It must be said that rather large megaphones would be required for any protestors to have their voices heard in St Ives from these two sites. Local M.P.s have commented that these two venues are unsuitable (they would affect farmers’ markets and tourist attractions) and the police and authorities are proposing that protests be held in Parks in Truro and Plymouth. It seems the main protests within the vicinty of Carbis Bay will be by local residents whose normal daily routines will be severely disrupted. As a local Tory M.P. (Sheryll Murray) commented on BBC, however, THEY CAN ACCESS THEIR HOMES! That’s alright then! Rob J. Hawkins, Southwest Region 17.5.2021

UAV is an Israeli company operating in the UK with one of its factories at Shenstone, near Birmingham. There are regular demonstrations there since motors for drones are manufactured here. Many protestors have been pointing this out for many years now, but this is just one of UAV’s companies continuing to operate in the UK in spite of the demands on the British Government to stop arms sales to countries known to be using them against defenceless populations. Supporting Israeli owned companies in this way just adds to the revulsion felt by very many people. A number of people are on trial following the occupation of the factory. The Morning Star reports that the trial has been delayed until 2022 because it coincides with military action currently happening in the escalating conflict where weapons such as these are in use by the Israeli Occupying Force killing and maiming civilians, including many children. Pictures taken here were at a demonstration I attended in 2016. John Tyrrell 16.5.2021 UPDATE 20.5.2021 HEADLINE IN MORNING STAR Fire fighters refuse to help police stop drone factory shutdown.

ISRAELI MASSACRE. When are other Arab States going to join in the defence of the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian lands ? It’s their turn today it will be your turn tomorrow unless you defend the land that has been yours for thousands of years. As a start why are Arab State’s not taking action against Israel by ceasing all trade with Israel and call for all countries to implement an international sanction on the same basis as was implemented in South Africa’s apartheid system. Nelson Mandela supported Yasser Arafat and the PLO in its campaign to demand that Israel withdraw to the border in force in 1967. At least this would be a step toward a Palestinian State in which all religions would be free to practice their faith. If the present slaughter by the Fascist Israeli State is not stopped; then people of all lands must act in a united way (as it did in South Africa) to create the conditions which will force the end of of this religious apartheid. Arthur Scargill. Leader Socialist Labour Party.

Over the past months the western media have incessantly attacked Russia and China; countries which have legitimately sought to ensure that lands such as Crimea; Hong Kong and Taiwan which for centuries have been an integral of Russia and China, yet when it comes to Israel who since 1967 have occupied large parts of Palestine including the West Bank and Gaza Strip with Jerusalem as its designated capital the western governments and media always accuse Palestine as the aggressor despite the clear evidence that Israel acting like a fascist state is forcing Palestine people out of their homes in order to seize more and more Palestinian land and extend the State of Israel. Israel is bombing civilians and their homes in a vicious way not seen since the Second World War. Men, women and children are being killed every day and yet not any protest from America the United Kingdom or NATO or the United Nations. It’s time that action should be taken against this genocide by this fascist Israel State. Arthur Scargill. Leader Socialist Labour Party.

As we have grappled with death and despair for over 12 months, and have at the same time seen acts of selflessness and caring, we also watch helplessly as the Capitalist machine develops competitive markets racheting up the profitability of the life saving medicines and vaccines. Those on the inside have their shares safe and sit back to watch as Big Pharma esnure their patents are safely protected. Requests that these are released so the these can be manufactured more widely are fiercely resisted by Big Pharma and supported by leading politicians. Vaccine equity is essential if the Covid virus is to be fought in all its guises as it mutates and is able to spread more rapidly. A plea has been made by the World Heath Organisation. Where politicians, including President Joe Biden, have added their voices there has been a sharp response of fury from the pharmaceutical industry.

Message will go to President of Indian Farmers Union Ekta Mr Joginder Singh Ugrahan . amolak1955@gmail.com The Socialist Labour Party sends greetings and a message of solidarity to Comrades in struggle against the imposition of draconian laws on Farmers and Workers across India. Some of our members in Birmingham in the Indian Workers’ Association are working tirelessly making links with you in India and with others across the U.K. and internationally. We are urging support from across the Labour Movement. The Leader of the SLP is Arthur Scargill who led the Miners’ Struggle in the UK when he was President of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1982 to 2002, particularly during the 1984/5 strike when Comrades and Unions gave their support, not least from India. The successive crises of Capitalism have hit working people hardest, including here in the UK, where as in India the Covid 19 virus has had a disproportionate effect on them, but instead of giving help the pandemic is used as a weapon to further weaken the oppressed while a wealthy elite are helped to further enrich themselves. The mainstream media largely owned by the ruling class have failed to report on the actions being taken in India, described as the largest of its kind in history. The determination of the Indian people to see this struggle through without compromise is an example for all who share their experience of exploitation. Arthur Scargill, Leader, Socialist Labour Party John Tyrrell, President, Socialist Labour Party Sign Petition: Narendra Modi: Support Farmers: Revoke Farmer Ordinance Bill 2020 Millions of farmers in India have been protesting ***** The great peasant movement in India, which began with the passage of three controversial laws by the Modi government on August 9, took the form of an astonishing movement on November 26. Hundreds of thousands of farmers have been protesting in Delhi, Bombay and other cities for the past 35 days. They include children, the elderly and a large number of women farmers, who burned their boats and left their homes to protest against the deprivation of the right to cultivate their land and sell it at a fair price in the market Have turned out Protesting farmers are not ready to end their protests until controversial laws are repealed. When the farmers’ movement first started in Punjab, the Communist government of Kerala, in support of them, announced that it would not enforce these controversial central government laws within its borders. At the same time farmers from Haryana and UP came out and then farmers from Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh also joined. The United Front of Farmers, called the Kisan Ekta Morcha, is a united platform of 31 Indian farmers’ organizations that has the support of all political parties in India’s opposition and is now becoming a political force. So far, the number of farmers and their supporters has exceeded 250 million, making it the longest-running movement in the history of the world. Now the pro-Modi government farmers’ organizations have also supported this movement. The movement became strong and organized when the government set up containers to stop them, used water cannons and resorted to violence. On the other hand, the Supreme Court of India, while recognizing the farmers’ protest as their democratic right, ordered an end to violence and removal of barriers. More than 1.75 billion people in the subcontinent are still deprived of basic human rights, basic necessities, even clean drinking water, after 73 years of independence. More than 90% of the people of these countries are deprived of basic human needs even in the 21st century scientific inventions, information technology, digital and computer age. The upper classes and the establishment of both India and Pakistan have been in power since independence and they have shattered the people’s dream of freedom. Pakistan came under the complete control of the Establishment only a few years after independence, and this is the same Establishment that has been an effective weapon of British imperialism for almost two and a half centuries, and has a successful experience of fighting and rolling. Now even the ruling classes of India resort to caste, religion and linguistic divisions to divide the people and increase their exploitation. India’s Ashrafia and Rolling Elite have used the religious card so ruthlessly over the past decade that its democratic and secular history and values ​​have disappeared. This process has not only harmed India’s democratic forces but also shaken the foundations of the progressive movement. In the last few years, there have been encouraging efforts in India and Pakistan to unite the progressive forces and create a new movement. Progressive forces have made encouraging efforts to consolidate their resources and strength through alliances and mergers and restore their street power, and the effects are clear. Last month, a seven-day grand sit-in in Gilgit-Baltistan to demand the release of 14 political prisoners, including Baba Jan, the main leader of the Awami Workers Party, forced our oppressive and chaotic establishment to release the prisoners on false charges of terrorism and treason. He was sentenced to 40 to 90 years in prison. In the last few years, there has been a tremendous upsurge in progressive politics and the struggle for the rights of the oppressed classes in India. In the last three or four years, there have been bigger rallies of workers and peasants than have ever been seen before in history. As of this writing, it has been 35 days since millions of farmers protested in Bombay and Delhi under the recent farmers’ movement. Now the farmers have announced to take control of all the toll plazas in Bombay and Delhi and to hold similar sit-ins in other cities of the country if the demands are not accepted. Let’s take a look at the demands of particle farmers: 1. All government subsidies for farmers and the minimum support price or MSP, which the government used to guarantee farmers better cultivation of cereals, rice, wheat, etc., have been abolished. The government operated the infrastructure, ie procurement warehouses, where a farmer could pick up his crop and sell it to the government. But under the new law, the government has replaced the usual method of procurement with private corporations and private companies, where farmers will have to do contract farming with the corporate and private sector. The company will add whatever it wants to the contract and set its own price. Poor farmers are already being brutally exploited in India which will increase even more and the farmers will have no welfare. 2. If a farmer has a dispute with a private company over the sale of his crop, he cannot go to court. If a large corporation exploits them as citizens of India, then 50 to 60% of India’s rural population will have no legal recourse. They will not be able to go to the courts of their own country for redress. Instead, some local government officials will have the power to try to resolve disputes. You know who the corrupt government official will be in favor of? 3. Any person or organization can store or store an unlimited amount of any essential goods or food products. 90 to 95% of farmers have neither the means nor the resources to make their own cold storage, but the big corporations can do it and they can multiply the profit by storing commodities whenever they want. In this way, the Indian government is handing over the largest and poorest section of its population to wolves. 4. The protesting farmers are demanding full and unconditional relief from rising debts and electricity bills due to rising inflation and unreasonable taxes. The All India Kisan Sabha has alleged that due to this, 1753 farmers, who have been in debt since June 2017, have taken their own lives. دنے۔ 5. Farmers have demanded a price of at least 1.5 times the cost of cultivation to compensate for the production of fields. 6. The recommendations of the Swamyathan Commission made to review the demands of the farmers have been justified by the demands of the farmers for immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Swamyathan Commission and this report protects the interests of the farmers. 7. Crop damage caused by unseasonal rains, hailstorms and pink bollworm infestation in February has been called for. 8. The state government should stop forcibly occupying agricultural lands in the name of development projects. Farmers demand that the Forest Rights Act be enacted, which will protect the tribal population, which is very poor and backward. The common platform of 27 trade unions of Indian workers has declared its full solidarity with the struggle of the farmers, including their practical participation in their protest measures at all levels. Similarly, the Joint Peasants’ Movement has also supported and solidified the general strike of industrial workers. More importantly, in India, this solidarity is not limited to rhetoric, but is seen on the ground. The demand for solidarity and support through the two joint platforms has led to greater coordination and implementation of the labor and peasant movements. Since the beginning of the strike, thousands of farmers and agricultural workers have taken part in protests across the country. People are also on the streets today to show solidarity with the protests of thousands of workers and farmers. The BJP government used all possible tactics to prevent the protesters from reaching the national capital. India’s working class is engaged in full solidarity in support of the farmers. The Joint Platform of Trade Unions had called on its workers to fully support the demand of the All India Farmers’ Struggle Coordination Committee for local level demonstrations from December 1 and is implementing it. In a show of solidarity between the workers and the peasants, the united path has been taken to intensify the struggle against the anti-labor, anti-national, neo-liberal policies and the Modi-led BJP government’s divisions and role conspiracies. Almost a year before the elections, the government is under tremendous pressure due to the silent ‘Long March’ of the farmers. A clear constituency of the NDA and all other opposition political parties, including Shiv Sena, have come out in full support of the farmers. The ‘Red Sea’, marched by locals for the red flag, has captured the imagination of the people. Political activists and ordinary citizens can be seen talking to farmers and sharing selfies with them for the first time in history. This movement of Indian workers, peasants, laborers and oppressed classes above caste, color, race and religion will lay new foundations of tolerance and brotherhood in the region. We can only hope that this movement will have a far-reaching impact on the politics of the region and will strengthen the peace struggle between India and Pakistan and create a rolling elite war frenzy between the two countries By cutting it, the public budget will stop spending on stockpiling weapons. =================== Pervez Fateh (Leeds-UK) 01/01/2021 ) Pervez Fateh is based in Leeds, UK and is involved in the British aerospace industry. He is the coordinator of the South Asian People’s Forum, a progressive organization of South Asian countries in the UK, and is active in anti-racism and social justice in the UK.

Rebuild Britain was formerly TUAEU. It is now considering opportunities offered following Brexit for Britain’s future. Rebuild Britain’s Fishing Industry is the first in a series of documents examining opportunities offered by Brexit in Britain. This is to be launched on 1st May, 2021. Rebuild Britain website. Other issues will be addressed including agriculture. This promises to give an informed base to debates post-Brexit aligned to those on the left who supported Brexit but whose voice was silenced in the media, but in political terms showed determination that the results of the 2016 referendum would prevail. The left agenda is fundamentally different to that of the right but believing that only by leaving the EU (without any deal which would tie us to the EU indefinitely). Doug Nicholls who led Trade Unions Against the EU (TUAEU) is now moving on the same issues post Brexit. Here is a flavour of what to expect: New developments in agricultural policy give some idea of our potential future as a sovereign nation… Change is on the way for agriculture. In November the government set out the future shape of farming subsidies in the “Path to Sustainable Farming”. It marks a major change in approach.
The EU’s subsidy system was based on land ownership. The more land you owned, the more you received in subsidies. Out of the EU, the new British system will instead be structured to reward “sustainable” farming practices, encouraging farmers to protect natural habitat and establish new woodlands.
One can argue about the detail of these measures, and the subsidy regime must provide better support for farmers to produce food, but in putting them forward the government has stolen a march on the EU.
Posing
Though Brussels likes to pose as the greenest of the green, member states have been bickering for decades about Common Agricultural Policy reform and failed to take any significant measures to make farming more sustainable. And still there is no agreement on reform.
A report commissioned by the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee of the European Parliament, also delivered in November, didn’t mince its words. It said that the European Commission’s latest (2018) proposal for “business as usual” CAP reform was only “marginally consistent” with the EU’s declared environmental aims. “In the longer term,” the report concluded, “it is difficult to see why taxpayers would accept the financing of a policy that no longer provides a public good.”
This is not the only area where Britain is about to accomplish something the EU has signally failed to do. In the 1990s and the 2000s, people in Britain protested against the export of live animals to the continent.
Yet nothing was done. Even recently, in 2019 70,000 sheep were transported from the EU to Kuwait in temperatures of over 40 °C, and 14,000 sheep drowned when a boat bound for Libya sank off the coast of Romania.
‘MEMBER STATES HAD BEEN BICKERING FOR YEARS ABOUT CAP REFORM…’
At the beginning of December 2020 the government launched an eight-week consultation on animal welfare in transport, including a proposal for a ban on live exports for slaughter and fattening, a move described by the RSPCA as “a landmark achievement for animal welfare”.
In a telling nod to the referendum campaign, an RSPCA blog has the subheading “We’re taking back rightful control” over the conditions under which live animals are exported. We can leave behind the lax and ineffective EU standards and establish our own.
Britain could even tackle the question of land ownership. Just as we can require fishing vessels that fish in our waters to be British owned, so we could require our farmland to be British owned to qualify for subsidies, or, better still, outlaw foreign ownership of British land altogether. We are the masters now.
The advantages of independence become clearer, day by day, to all with eyes to see. The EU’s terrible record on agriculture, the wine lakes and butter mountains, the dumping of chicken in west and southern Africa, the need to prop up small peasant proprietors in eastern Europe, need no longer constrain us.
But we still have some way to go to construct coherent agricultural policies that provide safe affordable food for workers. We must encourage the scientific research and manufacturing that a strong agricultural section of the economy needs.
Britain can only discuss and act on these questions because we decided as a nation to assert our independence and unity in June 2016. This is not sovereignty as discussed in the dry chapters of constitutional law textbooks. This is real sovereignty in action.

Remember the dead. Fight for the living. Events around Britain Birmingham event Workers’ Memorial Day

Seems as if the Government wants to make sure we’re dead one way or the other. If we’ve survived Covid one way or the other then we’ll be nuked before climate change can make the planet uninhabitable. Clearly when there’s compeition between the Arms Trade lobbyists and Environmentalists the former has the financial clout from arms dealing leading to death and destruction for poverty stricken regions like the Yemen and Syria, with the Balkans, Iraq and Libya long forgotten. Be interesting to know the effects of lobbying on politicians across the divide. One former Labour Minister for Defence went through the revolving door for a lucrative job with British Aerospace a while ago. New data published today by think tank SIPRI reveals that UK military spending increased by almost 3% in 2020, making the UK the 5th biggest military spender in the world. Today is the Global Day of Action on Military Spending. All around the world, campaigners are challenging the myth that spending ever more money on warfare will make us safer. Today, we come together to say: defund the military. Defend people and planet. Communities know what makes them feel safe, and it’s not increasing nuclear warheads or building killer robots. It’s things like secure housing, decent work, tackling the climate crisis, pandemic preparedness and ending institutional racism. Together, we can build a movement for change, from the ground up. Spead the word in your community about the need to shift priorities: Speak out in your local media. Contact your local media Use our tips to write to your local newspaper, or call in to your local radio show, to give the message: Defund the military. Defend People and Planet. Prefer not to talk to your media? Why not share a graphic with friends on your social media platforms or by email instead. Thank you sincerely for all you do to support CAAT’s work. In solidarity Caroline Public Campaigns Coordinator Campaign Against Arms Trade Posted by John Tyrrell 26.4.2021

Watching the iceberg melt. The NHS is melting away in front of eyes. Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) has launched a Peoples’ Covid Enquiry which is ongoing. Chaired by Michael Mansfield it is probing into what has been happening while the pandemic and other crises have turned our attention. KONP Our latest bulletin provides essential campaigning reading to keep you up to date with all the latest NHS stories. Our editor John Lister, working with your contributions, has hand picked the best and most relevant local and national must-read stories, including: The appointment of Centene boss Samantha Jones as a Downing St advisor Rishi Sunak’s continued austerity for NHS Soaring waiting lists and impact on cancer care The widening health divide as public health budgets are cut Private sector demands for changes to NHS White paper Hospitals crumble … as PM’s constituency hospital is pushed up queue for funding Lancashire plan killed off as Hancock shuts off capital KONP People’s Covid Inquiry Fighting against privatisation (various) Trade union news (various) Fury at Downing Street’s report that whitewashes institutional racism Philippine government offers to trade nurses … for vaccines HCT affiliates agree to build united pay fight People’s Covid Inquiry Podcast! As well as announcing our latest bulletin we would like to let you know of an exciting addition to our sister organisation’s ongoing People’s Covid Inquiry. The People’s Covid Inquiry Podfollow podcast provides the opportunity to listen to all the sessions that have so far taken place. The thing is, this needs more subscribers to encourage the techy algorithms to recommend it to more people. It’s a virtuous circle, so please, please, subscribe/follow/share while regular episodes are coming out, I am sure you will all agree that the Inquiry is a brilliant and very worthwhile initiative, so please get listening and sharing folks! Thanks as always for your continued support! John Tyrrell 20.4.2021

Reactions to the Sewell Report which the British Government has dreamed up have reached the United Nations which calls for the organisation producing it to be scrapped. However this is not for the first time that denial of institutional racism has affected the fight against racism and discrimination when following the issuing of the Rampton Report dealing with concerns on the achievement of Black pupils rcaism was mentioned. The Government then requested Lord Swann to look again leading to the Swann Committee and the report of 1985. What happened then is described by a member of both committees, Carlton Duncan, first Black Headmaster of a secondary school in the UK tells us. He says NOW is the time to implement a thorough programme combatting racism and discrimination in education and other institutions. The Welsh Government already has plans to do just this. The highly discredited “Sewell Report”. 2021 and another report on racism. Following on Black Lives Matter and the inequalities laid bare for all to see by Covid 19 and once more a disproportionate proportion of the burden on the Black community, particularly those working at the front line, in hospitals, in the care services. This latest report requested by the Government, seeks to put a lid on those saying that inequalities could and should be avoided if attention was paid to institutional practice and particularly discriminatory practices and procedures that have found there way into ways of thinking and doing things principally as a result of the colonial experience which is clearly in evidence all around us. The evidence is strikingly clear to those whose families have been on the receiving end of exploitation and degradation and continue to be in the hands of our institutions: the deaths of George Floyd in the U.S. and Belly Majinga in the U.K., the Victoria station ticket worker who contracted Covid 19 after being spat at on while on duty both of whom should have been protected by institutions they came into contact with: the police and rail services in these cases. To add insult to injury it has been reported that some of those named in the Government’s Sewell Report hadn’t been aware of the final document’s content. It has in fact been rewritten by unknown people at no 10 Downing Street. The attitude of the leading institutions in the country are not new as the following article written by a member of both Rampton and Swann committees testifies. Carlton Duncan’s article on Rampton/Swann: RAMPTON AND SWANN ANSWERS ARE AVAILABLE AND AWAITING IMPLEMENTATION Bernard Coard (a Grenadian academic and teacher living in the UK in the 70s) became alarmed by his experiences of how the British ESN schools (schools for those considered to be educationally sub-normal) operated and were populated. This prompted him to publish his book HOW THE WEST INDIAN CHILD IS MADE EDUCATIONALLY SUBNORMAL IN THE BRITISH SCHOOL SYSTEM. It is no longer accepted to use the term “West Indian”, hence, here from, the term “black is substituted. What Coard found was that 4 out of 5 children in ESN schools were black. Often these children found their way to ESN schools with the support and acquiescence of their parents because their children’s teachers told them that their children would be sent to “special” schools. “Special” is a term known to black people as something very good and beneficial. Incidentally, in spite of the fact that political involvement in Grenada eventually landed Coard a death sentence which was later commuted to life imprisonment, Coard has maintained a strong interest in this aspect of British education from his prison cell. His current view is that what is needed to bring educational justice to all children alike is: “quality education for all: that is one that is not dependent on the parental income/wealth or social status and connections of school children, does not have schools providing vastly different standards of education and does not have a two-tiered system, or multi-tiered system of education, providing differential education for the children of different classes, genders and ethnicities”. Though, at the time, Coard’s disclosure was the most significant in stirring black parents into action, he was not alone in identifying the educational obstacles and educational state of affairs for black children. Throughout the education system generally, black children were encouraged to take CSE as opposed to the then GCE examinations. The latter, of course was for high flyers (usually white children) whilst the former was of much less worth for children’s life chances. Studies, after studies, showed the damning effects of these practices on black children’s performance in schools. A Brent LEA study in 1963 raised alarm about black children performance in reading, arithmetic and spelling; Vernon 1965; Little’s studies 1966 and 1968 and a Redbridge study in 1978 all, similarly reflected major concerns about black children’s performance compared with white children in British schools. It was in this climate of concern that the Select Committee on Race Relations and Immigration in 1977 produced its Report on ‘The West Indian Community’. The Report highlighted the widespread concern about the poor performance of [black] children in schools. The Committee, therefore, recommended that the Government, as a matter of urgency, should institute “a high level independent inquiry into the causes of the underachievement of children of West Indian origin in maintained schools and the remedial action required”. The James Callaghan Labour Government with the Honourable Shirley Williams as Secretary Of State for Education, at the time, responded to the Select Committee’s recommendation positively but widened it to include all ethnic minorities whilst giving more urgent attention to children of West Indian origin. Hence, this was the birth of the Rampton and, subsequently, Swann Inquiries which reported in 1981 and 1985 respectively. Carlton Duncan, one of our members served on both Inquiries. This was the remit given to Anthony Rampton (Chairman) and his colleagues: “Recognising the contribution of schools in preparing all pupils for life in a society which is both multi-racial and culturally diverse, the Committee is required to: review in relation to schools the educational needs and attainments of children from ethnic minority groups taking account, as necessary, of factors outside the formal educational system relevant to school performance, including influences in early childhood and prospects for school leavers; consider the potential value of instituting arrangements for keeping under review the educational performance of different ethnic minority groups, what those arrangements might be; consider the most effective use of resources for these purposes; and to make recommendations. In carrying out its programme of work, the Committee is to give early and particular attention to the educational needs and attainments of pupils of West Indian origin and to make interim recommendations as soon as possible on action which might be taken in the interest of this group”. There was a change of Government in 1979 which produced two other Secretaries of State (Mark Carlisle and Sir Keith Joseph) during the life time of the Rampton and Swann Inquiries. On the Rampton Inquiry, there were 4 Afro Caribbean members; 5 Asian members and 13 Caucasians making a total of 22 members. For the Swann Inquiry, membership changed on account of resignations and co-options. By and large, the bulk of the original membership lasted the full duration of the five year inquiry. The Rampton Interim Report (West Indian children in our schools – Cmnd 8273, HMSO 1979) was based on considerable researched evidence, gathered information from parents, pupils teachers at all ranks, LEAs and community interested officials and others from all walks of life. Following the ensuing deliberations of the evidential material so gathered, we were able to report our findings with recommendations in June 1981. The evidence, findings and recommendation are far too voluminous for reproduction here. Consequently, the reader is referred to chapters 1, 2 and 4 severally of the Interim Report for the details. What these chapters will reveal is that the most prominent issue in our findings was racism (other issues included: the inadequacy of pre-school provision; linguistic difficulties of West Indian children; the inappropriateness of the school curriculum and the examination system, teachers’ low expectation of West Indian pupils’ a loss of trust and a lack of understanding between home and school, discrimination in employment, and by extension, poor housing and health issues, the state of race relations generally particularly with the police, the absence of black role models in high places). These other issues are themselves pregnant with racist practices: but let the Report speak: “In seeking to identify the factors which lead so many West Indian children to underachieve in our schools, many causes, both within the education system and outside it, were suggested by by those who gave evidence to us. That which was most forcefully and frequently put forward by West Indians themselves was racism, both within schools and in society”. Page 11 of the Report, chap. 2, Para 1. Did all this sound the bells of the impact of corona virus (COVID-19) upon the black communities; was Black Lives Matter clearly in the making? This Report, then. was the first ever Government official document to identify racism as a problem for black people and their children. This did not auger well for Anthony Rampton who was politely removed from the Chairmanship of the Committee and replaced by Lord Swann – a man who self-confessed to be ignorant of the issues upon which he is now called to give leadership. “The then Secretary of State’s invitation to me to take on the Chairmanship of the Committee came as a considerable surprise, i had been a scientist, the Principal of an ancient Scottish University and Chairman of the BBC, but I had little knowledge of the needs of Britain’s ethnic minority citizens…..”. So, following on from the Interim Report, the Inquiry would now be the Swann Inquiry and ultimately, The Swann Report (Education for All) Cmnd 9453, HMSO, 1985. Right from the start, it became obvious that part of Lord Swann’s role was to remove racism as an issue, more over the main issue, from the final Report. 11 members resigned from this Committee. Their replacements plus co-opted others ensured a viable Committee to the end. None of the Afro-Caribbean members resigned. They needed to see this through and they all did. Even against the background of Lord Swann picking them off one by one to dine at his up-market home, it didn’t work. They found their own survival methods and techniques to stay together in the light of the clear evidence of racism. Lord Swann was definitely not able to get the final Report to ignore the evidence. But he was not to be out done. Unknown to the membership of the Committee, Lord Swann prepared his own summary of the Report and ensured that it would find its way gratuitously into every school in the land. The Report, itself, carried a price tag of £24. In Lord Swann’s summary of nearly 7,000 words, he never managed to utter the word ‘racism’ once, except where he was quoting Professor Bhikhu Parekh (a member of the Committee) who had mentioned the word three times in the passage Lord Swann was quoting. Because the evidence which were collected from the people who mattered so clearly embodied racism, and because both the Interim and the final Reports openly dealt with the racism issue, Lord Swann had difficulties in shutting out that matter. It will be noted that throughout his summary, he sought refuge euphemistically in the terms “prejudice and discrimination. ‘Education For All’ is a volume of 807 pages with a price tag of £24. Clearly, it cannot be reproduced here. The reader is besieged to reach for this entire Report rather than rely on the more readily accessible but misleading summary produced by Lord Swann behind the backs of the members of the Committee. The damage which was done by the release of the summary has left us still grappling with issues that could have been laid to rest had the recommendations of the two Reports been implemented. Some members of the Committee, including our member, Carlton Duncan, foresaw this happening. Six members of the Committee, including Carlton Duncan, dissented from the wider Committee’s decision on the then popular call for separate schools which would alleviate many of the educational ills affecting ethnic minorities. (See page 515 of the main Report – Education For All) The main reason why the Committee took a different view from that of the six dissenters was based on the assumption that the Reports’ findings and recommendations would be implemented and thus removing the pressures for separate schools. Well, to date, the Reports have been largely shelved in dusty places. And although the answers to the vast array of problematic issues flagged up by COVID-19, Black Lives Matter and, more recently, Meghan and Harry are already known and documented, the arguments, void of action, still rage on indefinitely. Note: Sir Keith Joseph requested summary report of Swann to be issued to all schools. If they wanted the full report they were left to purchase it themselves: the debate is here. Belly Mujinga Posted by John Tyrrell 19/4/2021

American Aggression in the Ukraine. The American  Aggression in the Ukraine and Britain and NATO’s support is not only a danger to millions of people but also an act of Hypocrisy. Have the USA and Britain forgotten that Ukraine  fought with Nazi Germany in the second world war and was part of the Soviet Union after it was liberated by the Red Army. It really is hypocrisy for America to preach about sovereignty when it continues to occupy part of Cuba with a base and a prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. Its threats and sanctions against China about the sovereignty of Taiwan is just as bad; as anyone who studies history’s knows that Taiwan was and is part of China. The USA has involved itself in wars in Korea; Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and have been responsible for thousands of lives but has lost the war in all four. The Labour and Trade Union movement should campaign against this madness which unless these mad men and women are stopped our children and grandchildren will live in constant  danger. STOP THE MADNESS AND HYPOCRISY OF AMERICA AND BRITAIN NOW AND SPEND THE MONIES CURRENTLY  SPENT ON ARMS ON SAVING LIVES OF ALL PEOPLES. ARTHUR SCARGILL.   SOCIALIST LABOUR PARTY. 16.04.2021 In the modern era we have lived through three decades of NATO targeting smaller sovereign states. NATO has pursed “regime” change through its military power of each one. This starts with “evidence” of guilt or threat as a pretext for conquest. The April 2018 attack on Syria by the U.S.A., British and French military was carried out on the pretext of a chemical attack on Syrian civilians by Syrian government forces. Though terrorist groups have carried out chemical attacks in Syria, there is no proof that government forces have ever done that. Syrian witnesses have spoken out on “Russia Today” stating that there was no chemical weapon attack, but there was filming of people being washed with water. It was staged to provide an excuse for bombing Syria, with the aim of also putting pressure on Russia to abandon its defence of Syria. The reckless missile attack on Syria demonstrates again the NATO aim of worldwide domination. Yet again the British government and politicians have by a majority, if retrospectively, agreed to this missile attack, unable to understand how these attacks are driven by the Pentagon and weapons manufacturers. We live in an era of mass casualties caused by NATO . The Israeli state also inflicts on the Palestinian people a military which kills large numbers of their people. The Saudi Arabian airforce kills large numbers of Yemeni people. Both these states are supported by the USA – the most dominant military power in NATO. The recklessness and aggression of NATO could lead to a Third World War. We call for a referendum on Britain staying in, or leaving NATO. There should be equally funded representation of each side with no “official” campaigns only chosen by institutions of the elite political class. The Socialist Labour Party calls for Britain OUT of NATO. We call for a referendum as an urgent priority. The Pentagon policy of expansion and continuous war is now focussing on Iran, an illustration of this is the U.S.A. withdrawing from the Iran Nuclear Deal. Kathrine Jones for the SLP NEC 19th may, 2018 Further reading: Nato is a con-game European security landscape reshaped