Letters

Never again!

I was as surprised as delighted when my attention was drawn to my picture appearing on the front page of the Weekly Worker (May 7). Not sure how exactly I got there, but I am honoured!

Coincidentally, on May 7 I was reconnected to my communist past twice: in both instances in a tangible way. Although unknown to me at the time, first came my picture in the Weekly Worker. Then, in the evening, I participated at a concert organised by the Cornelius Cardew Concerts Trust. Cornelius Cardew was a classical/experimental music composer of significance and, as I understand, a committed communist (of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain). Born May 7 1936, he would have turned 90 this year, but we celebrated his birthday without his presence. Tragically, he died half a lifetime ago at the age of 45. I participated at the concert partly because of my communist connections, but mostly because the concert honoured the Palestinian struggle (with the title, ‘The world stands with Palestine’).

I am a Jewish holocaust child survivor, born in hiding under a false name during the height of atrocities which European Nazis committed against European Jews. My mother, in hiding under a false name, made notes of what happened before, during and afterwards. For my 13th birthday, she presented me with her memoirs, with a top cover stating: “To my darling Agnes, so that you remember and fight, that such times which I am describing should never be repeated again.”

Four years later, when I was 17, a call came to my music grammar school. A communist musicologist was looking for help with researching murdered communist composers. As I was the president/chair of the young communists at my school, I volunteered. This started my extensive year-long research into the life and works of composer Sándor Kuti, who was a communist as well as Jewish. He was murdered for being Jewish.

Some 65 years ago, my research culminated in a substantial submission, which is still housed at the Institute of Musicology in Budapest. For the past several decades, on and off, I returned to Kuti research (and presentations), as well as to researching and presenting other Jewish composers/musicians who suffered because of the Nazi laws and genocide.

My mother wrote on the top of her memoirs presented to me: “Never again!” To me it means all genocides, all discrimination, all apartheid, and so on. This is why I participate in marches and protests, at one of which my picture now appearing on the front of the Weekly Worker was taken. The struggle for “never again” continues.

Dr Agnes Kory
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YP Scotland

Your Party Scotland limps further towards oblivion with the report in The National newspaper that the Edinburgh and Lothians branch has resigned en masse. Newly appointed (by HQ) CEC member Jim Monaghan has attempted to paper over this latest schism by setting up a new Edinburgh YPS Instagram group : “Please be careful of unofficial sites”.

Farcically, on the same old YPS Facebook page, questions have been raised about the supposedly sortitioned Scottish Working Party of eight members who have met with Monaghan and HQ (to quote CEC chair Jenn Forbes) to “take forward the planning and implementation of democratic, autonomous processes and structures for Scotland within Your Party. The work will be rooted in the principle of self-determination, while remaining within the Party’s constitutional, legal and regulatory frame work.” As if.

The main question being asked was the obviously reasonable ‘Who are these sortitioned members?’ There’s been no mention of them anywhere. Monaghan attempted to fudge on whether he did actually meet them and said it wasn’t his place to name them and that he’s “sure there will be more details about the working party members in due course”. He also said: “I will update if and when I can. My first CEC meeting is on Sunday.” That’s Sunday last, but still nothing, although he has, of course, been busy dealing with the aforementioned Edinburgh fallout.

Hilariously, other YP hacks responded to that question with statements like “I personally wouldn’t want to be identified as a volunteer serving on a working group for fear of being harassed” and “Members have a right to privacy - that is and always should be an absolute priority”; and, perhaps most ludicrously of all, “we all have a duty as individual members within a member-led organisation to protect all of our YP members. That means safeguarding - protecting their safety and respecting confidentiality.” Apparently such members need hiding.

Meanwhile, Jenn Forbes sneers at Starmer’s Kings speech today, describing it as a pantomime, whilst this tragical comedy, as Polonius put such nonsense in Hamlet, rolls on ...

The YP Alternative Kings Speech is bland nonsense, when it should first and foremost have been an opportunity to demand the abolition of the monarchy. The chaos of the Labour Party right now could and should have been a prime opportunity for our party to proclaim its genuine socialist alternative. But instead, locally and nationally, all that’s laid bare is its utter stupidity and irrelevance.

Tam Dean Burn
Glasgow

CPGB ‘secrets’

Tam Dean Burn’s letter last week draws attention to some important facts (May 7). First, he recognises that Niall Christie, former Scottish Your Party member elected to the central executive committee, is a supporter of Republic YP. He remains so, even though he resigned from YP itself. This is an important admission, because the CPGB has refused to recognise Republic YP in any reports on YP affairs. I understand their motivation and modus operandi here, but it does them no credit.

This means that the newly elected CEC had 14 The Many (TM) members, two independents, seven Grassroots Left and - last, but not least - one Republic YP comrade. Those who don’t read the letters page will have no clue about the RYP platform, because it is one of Weekly Worker’s closely guarded secrets:

• A democratic secular republic.
• End of the union.
• An English parliament.
• Autonomous parties for England, Scotland and Wales.
• Sovereignty of the membership.
• Dual membership (DM).
• Opposition to barring dual members from CEC elections or their expulsion.

Tam’s second important point is when he identifies “the huge split that has taken place in Scotland”. In England this point is not recognised. The fact that some members in Scotland leave YP does not constitute a ‘split’. It is a “huge” split, because it follows definite political lines, which reflect the same division amongst the people of Scotland between unionists, nationalists and republicans. Of course, supporters of the crown and the union refuse to recognise there any republicans in Scotland or Your Party!

The political consequence of this split is that Your Party reinforced the grip of Anglo-British unionism over Scotland. The Dundee conference majority placed YP Scotland in the nationalist-republican camp. By contrast, Corbyn’s TM is an Orange socialist platform following the British Labour tradition. The CEC executive on April 12 overturned the Dundee decision and placed the party in the unionist camp.

It is a reactionary split if those holding a backward position (ie, unionism) drive out the democrats (ie, republicans). I have no hesitation in condemning the CEC majority for imposing this reactionary split on YP Scotland. By contrast, Tam is sad about it because there are less people like Niall to debate with. Yet intellectually, as a unionist, he quietly applauds firm action against what he calls ‘nationalism’. If Tam thinks I am “delusional”, he should look in the mirror.

Tam’s third important point is when he says the Scottish republican comrades who resigned should have remained “in YP till it adopted a programme, Labourite or republican”. This is a point made by Republic YP. The ‘party’ is not really a party until it has a programme. The party is not yet formed. The die is not cast. There is no reason to leave when the programme battle between Labourites and republicans is still going on - not on paper, but by the action of splitting YP Scotland.

It is “utterly delusional” to think YP could become a mass communist party in current conditions. This is why there was no communist platform in the CEC elections. Of course, as propaganda, the CPGB demands a mass communist party right now. It has done the same at every attempt to form a left party over the last 30 years. But in the real world the CPGB threw its weight behind the Grassroots Left, the left wing of Corbyn Labour. In the main fight between Labourism and republicanism, we can rely on the CPGB to back unionist Labour.

Steve Freeman
Republic YP

Full throttle

A prominent Restore Britain YouTuber recently made a glib comment, where he bemoaned being pressured to stand as a member of parliament and the fact that an MP’s salary was a step down and half his existing salary!

Following Eddie Ford’s article. ‘He who pays the piper’ (May 7), we should go full-throttle with class politics on these ‘Thatcher’s’ children of the Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe types. We need to wage siege warfare against the effects of neoliberalism and deindustrialisation on the working class to show that Farage isn’t a solution to their problems.

The recent local elections demonstrated that neoliberalism is dead and we can leave the moralising anti-racist chanting to the Socialist Worker Party. The Weekly Worker should supercharge into full gear to expose these rich popularists who don’t represent the working class, while pretenders like Corbyn and his Your Party should go back to pickling their jam.

Frank Kavanagh
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BDS now

In response to the call from Palestinian trade unions to escalate pressure to end complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid, three major trade union federations representing over 80 trade union affiliates across Ireland and Britain announced support for workplace actions on May 14, coinciding with the 78th anniversary of Nakba.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society, including almost all trade unions, salutes the trade union federations in Britain and Ireland - all affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Trade Union Congress are supporting the upcoming workplace day of action in solidarity with Palestine, and major British trade unions are affiliated to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Under the banner of ‘Workplace Day of Action for Palestine’, these federations have worked with Palestine solidarity organisations to answer the call of support for workplace solidarity action.

Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement, said: “Of all people, workers understand well what solidarity means. The Palestinian labour movement has called for meaningful solidarity with our struggle to end Israel’s genocide and dismantle its underlying, decades-old regime of settler-colonial apartheid. Ending all complicity in Israel’s crimes is a profound moral obligation and a necessary first step of solidarity.

“May 14 will be a powerful statement of solidarity in this respect. When workers from across Ireland and Britain take real action to end the complicity of their respective states, corporations and institutions, they recall the best traditions of international workers’ solidarity. They also contribute considerably to building the critical mass of people power we need to effect real policy change.”

The workplace day of action coincides with the 78th anniversary of the Nakba - the planned ethnic cleansing and expulsion of most of the indigenous people of Palestine and the destruction of hundreds of our towns and villages to create Israel as a settler colony, premised on supremacy and apartheid.

BDS Movement
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