WORKERS' WEEKLY Vol. 27, No. 18, November 15-22, 1997

Newspaper of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)

170, Wandsworth Road, London, SW8 2LA. Phone 0171 627 0599,

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Announcement

Recommencement of Publication

Workers' Weekly is pleased to announce that with this edition it is recommencing publication. With this issue we recommence the work to consolidate the newspaper on a regular weekly basis, as the scaffolding around which the Party, RCPB(ML), is built, on the basis of modern techniques and as an instrument for waging the class struggle against the anti-social offensive and striving to build unity, consciousness and perspective for this struggle around the programme Stop Paying the Rich – Increase Investments in Social Programmes. As previously, we will continue to addressImproving the Content, Extending the Readership of Workers' Weekly which is the Party's specific task it has set itself for this period.

Article Index


Condemn US Imperialist War Threats against Iraq, Condemn the British Government's Complicity

Delegation of RCPB(ML) Visits North Korea

Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune

Memorial Meeting Held in Coventry for Comrade Hardial Bains

Commemorative meeting for Hardial Bains held in Trinity College, Dublin


Workers at Sellafield Walk Out over Radioactive Leak

Liverpool Dockers reject "Final Offer"

Nurses Take to the Streets to Oppose Closure of Community Hospitals in Cornwall

Students march against the imposition of Class Fees


Statement of the Central Committee of RCPB(ML) on the US and South Korean Arms Build-Up

Message of Congratulations from the Central Committee of RCPB(ML) to Kim Jong Il on his election as General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea





Condemn US Imperialist War Threats against Iraq

Condemn the British Government's Complicity

THE US IMPERIALISTS have never stopped making threats against Iraq since the Gulf War, carrying out sanctions, violating its sovereignty and even launching missile attacks. Their logic is and has been that they always have the right to threaten and launch military attacks not only against Iraq but against any country which does not buckle under to their dictate or which they perceive to threaten American interests.

At the same time, the change of government in Britain has brought no change in its support for the imperialist logic of "might makes right" and the complicity with the violation of sovereignty of another country. Far from it. The party which claims to be a "people's government" and speak in the name of "labour" is attempting to outdo Clinton and Albright in its belligerence. While the other permanent members of the Security Council, China, France and Russia have specifically opposed the use of force, Britain is sending HMS "Invincible" to Gibraltar, to make ready with RAF Harriers for a strike against Saddam Hussein.

Workers' Weekly vigorously condemns both US imperialism which is trying to strut the world as the number one power and the Labour government for shamefully acting as the most loyal junior partner in these most despicable and unjustifiable threats against a sovereign country.

For some time now, the contradiction between Iraq and the imperialist powers, especially the United States, has been sharpening. The US has continued to use the UN Security Council to give its interests, as well as those of other imperialist powers, in the Gulf region the veneer of legality. Iraq in this context is defending its sovereignty and seeking to bring the inhuman embargo imposed on it by the Security Council to an end. This embargo has brought about the death, disease and misery of thousands of Iraqi children and other vulnerable sections. US imperialism has escalated tension in the region, bolstering its military presence. The pictures gathered by the U-2 spy planes have been handed over to the UN Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM). The role of UNSCOM has been highly suspect, and Iraq has voiced justifiable concern about its work, barring the US weapons inspectors from entering military sites, and pointing out that the Americans dominate those in authority in the Commission, as well as emphasising that Iraq now considers the US flights as alien aircraft violating Iraqi sovereignty and not part of the UN weapons surveillance programme. It has reserved the right to shoot down any plane illegally flying over its territory. The US has manoeuvred in the UN so as to achieve the passing of Security Council Resolutions against Iraq, which it is claiming give it a mandate for military strikes against Iraq.

The working class and people should understand that the issue is not so much that US imperialism is hostile to Iraq and to Saddam Hussein, but its actions and rhetoric are aimed against all the peoples and governments of the world, that they must pay the price if they do not toe the line, if they adopt their own path or if they threaten American imperialist interests. Furthermore, it is a disgrace that the British government should be such lickspittles, and become such a mouthpiece for US imperialist logic.

Robin Cook, as has the Clinton administration, has made much of Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction" and that "we must win" in ensuring these are destroyed. This is used as a pretext for sanctions, intervention and military strikes. Who has weapons of mass destruction and threatens peace around the world? None other than US imperialism. Nor are Britain's hands clean. What is Trident, for example, but a weapon of mass destruction? Britain is very jealous of the situation of nuclear monopoly of the big powers and in its own right has developed biological weapons at Porton Down and other places. Imagine if Saddam Hussein or anyone else were to bring aircraft carriers up to the Isle of Wight unless the British government destroyed its nuclear arsenal and submitted to inspections of Porton Down!

Nor does talk of the unity of the "international community" wash. In the mouths of Bill Clinton, and seemingly the British government too, the "international community" are those allies of the US which will agree with the big power logic in laying down the law for the entire world. No country or group of states has the right to usurp and manipulate the competence of the UN General Assembly in laying down the law in international affairs, still less use its Security Council as a cloak for international aggression. Thus they make the dividing line for the "international community" those that will agree with the "western" values and imperialist dictate. Workers' Weekly emphasises the just position that in international affairs all nations, big or small, must be recognised as equal, and that all peoples of the world have the right to live according to the system of their choice. No intervention in the internal affairs of other countries can be justified. All countries have a right for their voice to be heard in the affairs which truly concern the international community.

Robin Cook has specifically said that "no option is ruled out" and it has been made clear in the House of Commons that that is the government's position. These are the words of a government which envisages itself as a "great power" and will associate itself with the world's biggest criminals to this end. The working class can never accept such a gangster-like position which flies in the face of world public opinion and which goes against the interests of the peoples of the world for peace, progress and the sovereignty of nations and peoples. We call on all peace-loving and progressive forces in Britain to condemn and oppose the criminal belligerence and superpower logic of US imperialism against Iraq and to demand that the British government stop their 100 per cent backing for this logic in words and in deeds and to take a stand for justice, peace and the sovereignty of nations.

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Delegation of RCPB(ML) Visits North Korea

A DELEGATION OF THE Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), led by Chris Coleman as spokesman of the Party, visited the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from October 18 to November 4 at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.

The visit took place at a time when the Korean people were celebrating the election of their great leader Kim Jong Il to the post of General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. Since the sad and unexpected passing three years ago of Kim Il Sung, a great leader not only of the Korean people but of the struggling people of the whole world, it is Kim Jong Il who has led the Korean people on the path laid down by Kim Il Sung, the path of building socialism, defending independence and in the sacred cause of the reunification of the homeland. The delegation conveyed a congratulatory message to Kim Jong Il on his election and gave and received gifts from him.

The delegation was very warmly received. Its arrival and visits to various sites were reported in the press and on television. It met and had talks at the International Department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea with Ji Jae Ryong, the First Deputy Director, as well as having extensive discussions with other comrades. In these talks and discussions the two parties explained their work in their respective countries and exchanged opinions on the international situation and the International Communist Movement. The view was expressed by both sides that the visit would strengthen the ties between our two parties.

The delegation carried out an extensive programme of visits in the capital city Pyongyang and other parts of the country. It laid a basket of flowers at the statue of the great leader Kim Il Sung, paid its solemn respects at the Memorial Palace where his body lies in state and visited his birthplace. It was deeply impressed by the modernity and beauty of Pyongyang, the residential as well as official quarters, which have been completely rebuilt since being totally laid waste by US imperialist bombing in the Korean War of 1950-53. It was also very impressed by the West Sea Barrage, an immense five mile structure built across the estuary of the River Taedong to prevent tidal floods and reclaim and irrigate vast areas of land. It highly appreciated the great care taken for the education, sporting and cultural development of the young, facilities for further study, and the provisions for the health and well-being of the people, which it saw at first hand in its visits to a kindergarten, a middle school, the schoolchildren's' palace for after-school activities, Pyongyang University, the Grand People's Study House, the Olympic village facilities and sports stadia, the film studios, the Mansudae art studios, the art gallery, the architectural academy as well as the general hospital. The delegation attended some remarkable performances at the army circus, and at the schools and at a schoolchildren's palace, which showed high quality as well as mass participation.

The delegation visited a state farm and exhibitions illustrating the achievements in industry and agriculture. It was impressed with the care taken to preserve or rebuild bombed historical sites and to display various historical artifacts illustrating the rich history of the Korean people, which it saw at the tomb of the ancient King Tangun, various Buddhist sites and in the historical museum.

The delegation had an indelible impression of the heroic past of the Korean people in fighting for the independence of their country against the occupation and aggression of the Japanese, US and other imperialists through its visits to the Fatherland Liberation War museum and other sites. Through films and its visit to Panmunjom at a time of provocative manoeuvres by the US imperialists and their south Korean puppets near the 38th parallel, it saw the determination of the government, army and people of the DPRK to preserve their hard-won independence.

The visit took place at a time when the party and people in the DPRK are sparing no effort to overcome the serious consequences of natural disasters of tidal flood and drought in some parts of the country. The delegation was informed that while much reporting in the "west" was grossly exaggerated, yet this was a very serious situation and every effort was being made to overcome the difficulties, difficulties it must be said exacerbated by the continued division of the Korean peninsula and the imperialist blockade.

In the course of the visits, the delegation was thanked many times for the support of RCPB(ML) for the independence of the DPRK, for its right to follow its chosen path, for the withdrawal of US troops from the south and for the reunification of the homeland.

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Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune

Last week saw the breaking of the scandal whereby Bernie Ecclestone, chief of Formula One Administration Ltd, was revealed to have funded the Labour Party to the tune of £1m for its general election campaign, with a further £0.5m reported to be in the offing. The payment has been seen to be linked to the government's U-turn on exempting Formula One racing from the ban on tobacco advertising, about which the Labour Party is exhibiting a guilty conscience, and on the advice of Sir Patrick Neill, new chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, the Labour Party has promised to return the £1m. Bernie Ecclestone had previously donated, it is reported, £8m to the Conservative Party.

No matter how much Tony Blair has declared both before and after the May 1 election that New Labour was determined to be untouched by "sleaze", the very mechanism of funding the big parliamentary parties makes it inevitable that such endemic corruption will occur. The parliamentary parties are run as election machines that require a high level of public relations and advertising spending to get them into power and maintain them there. Once there, they have to curry favour with the rich and economically powerful to assure them that their interests are being served and that government will preside over a social system geared to paying the rich. In other words, the Labour Party is a party of vested interests as much as is the Conservative Party.

It is a fact that not more than 2% of the population is a member of and supports financially the major parliamentary parties. The Labour Party's finances have always been bolstered by the trade unions, while they claim that since changing to New Labour, individual membership has increased. Nevertheless, it is reported that they have run up a £3.5m overdraft.

The events over Bernie Ecclestone's millions underline the unsavoury and corrupt nature of the present system of "representative democracy" which is based on the premise of parties vying to come to power. They have underlined the ludicrous and anti-democratic system whereby the fiction is maintained of limiting the amount a candidate may spend on their election, while the big parties spend literally many millions of pounds to try and influence the outcome of the general election and become the government. No amount of spin-doctoring can conceal the necessity for democratic renewal whereby mechanisms are found to empower the people themselves and political parties participate in the polity on an equal basis and not as the tools of vested interests. It is truly the case that he who pays the piper calls the tune.

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Memorial Meeting Held in Coventry for Comrade Hardial Bains

ON SEPTEMBER 28, a Memorial Meeting was organised in Coventry by the National Executive of the Indian Workers' Association (Great Britain), to pay tribute to Comrade Hardial Bains, national leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), who passed away on August 24.

Over 150 people filled the hall where Comrade Bains had given many important speeches in recent years. The proceedings opened with the showing of the video of the Memorial Service for Comrade Bains held in Ottawa on August 30. Nobody stirred during the showing and many were clearly deeply moved. The audience then rose to stand for a moment in solemn silence.

Following an address given on behalf of the Central Committee of RCPB(ML), representatives of branch after branch of IWA(GB) came forward to pay tribute with great feeling to Comrade Bains' dedication to the cause of communism and of the working class and oppressed people. Without exception they expressed their great appreciation for the assistance he had given them in reorganising after various setbacks and betrayals. They stated that their best tribute to him would be to vigorously carry forward their work. Several old friends and comrades from student days in the Punjab spoke movingly of Comrade Bains' militancy and inspiration as an organiser in those days and of his influence on so many people in so many countries since. Tributes were also paid by representatives of sports organisations and other national minority organisations, as well as by youth of Punjabi origin. Songs and poems in Punjabi and English, some written for the occasion and others loved by Comrade Bains, were performed. The meeting ended on a militant note with all standing for the playing of The Internationale.

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Commemorative Meeting for Hardial Bains held in Trinity College, Dublin

IN THE AFTERNOON of Sunday, November 9, a reunion was organised in Trinity College Dublin to honour the memory and achievements of Comrade Hardial Bains. Following the pattern of the reunion held on December 9, 1995, when Hardial Bains visited Ireland to speak on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Founding of the Irish Internationalists, every effort had been made to contact as many as possible of the host of friends whom Comrade Hardial Bains had made in Ireland down through the last thirty years. Some now living in other countries expressed their sorrow at the untimely and tragic loss of Comrade Bains to the organisers and regrets that they could not attend. However, over 35 including some from Britain and other parts of Ireland managed to make the reunion, which was held in the very same room where Comrade Bains had greeted them just two short years ago.

The reunion began with a showing of the moving 20 minute video of excerpts of the Memorial Meeting held in Ottawa on August 30, followed by a moment of silence in memory of Comrade Bains. Rod Eley of the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist) then spoke about the enduring legacy of Comrade Hardial Bains. The work of the mid-'60s to found The Internationalists and the Necessity for Change Conference of 1967 had established the theory and practice which had proved the basis for a lasting programme, unfolding and further deepening over the 30 turbulent years since then and helping provide the basis for the great change towards the new society to come in the new century and the new millennium. This section of the memorial reunion was concluded by the reading of a poem which captured the mood of the occasion: everyone's profound sense of loss but also of their conviction about the future, expressed in an Irish idiom: "To Comrade Hardial Bains".

The floor was then thrown open to people to express their feelings about the loss of Comrade Hardial Bains, the rewarding and inspiring experiences they had in working with him directly or indirectly and their sense that such achievements augur well for still further development by the communist parties and the working class in the future.

There were moving personal reminiscences about Comrade Bains from a number of people who knew him as a lecturer in microbiology at Trinity College and were involved with him in founding and building the Irish Internationalists from 1965. Other comrades and friends spoke of their different experiences as the years and decades had moved on and their feelings about Comrade Hardial Bains and his unstinting assistance in the development of the successor organisations, including Irish Revolutionary Youth and the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist). Chris Coleman, representing the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), developed this theme of Hardial Bains' profound sentiments of proletarian internationalism and contribution in theory and practice to the cause of communism and Marxist-Leninist science.

The mood of the reunion gradually changed as the afternoon drew to a close, answering the call of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) in its farewell message to Comrade Hardial Bains for all his comrades to turn their grief into collective strength.

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North West

Workers at Sellafield Walk Out over Radioactive Leak

It is reported that on Monday November 10, 250 contracted workers at Cumbria's Sellafield nuclear power plant walked out after learning of a radioactive leak when they arrived for work. The men downed tools, saying that the plant's manager should have informed them of the leak in which radioactive ruthenium escaped from part of the complex used to encase high level nuclear waste in glass.

British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) is reported as saying later that the leak on Sunday was a "minor incident" posing no danger to the men who work for Kvaerner Redpath. A spokesperson said that an "urgent" investigation was under way and that it was a "fairly minor event which involved one of the buildings on the site. The contractors working on the building nearby, where the contract is nearing an end, had claimed on the Monday that they had not been informed. There were no safety implications and incidents like this are routinely reported in the site newsletter, which is published once a week." He concluded by saying, "They are not our people, and it would have been up to Kvaerner Redpath to tell them."

After a 36-hour strike, workers had returned to work on Tuesday evening. This incident is the fifth leak at the Sellafield site this year. It is reported that in February six workers were exposed to radioactive material when it was released into the changing area. Less than 24 hours later radioactive material seeped through a faulty valve on to a roof before heavy rain washed it into a concrete lagoon below the Sellafield site. In a third incident, two workers' clothes were exposed to radioactive material. In all three cases BNFL said that the workers were not contaminated and there were no health implications. In July, the Environment Agency began investigating after 2,500 fish were killed by a non-radioactive leak into the River Calder, near Sellafield. BNFL admitted that it was a serious incident. Three months earlier the company was fined £20,000 for a total disregard of warnings that a bridge carrying radioactive material over a commuter rail line to the plant was in danger of collapse.

The statement of BNFL that they are "not our people" and that there are "no safety implications" and "no health implications" is conclusive proof of BNFL 's reckless disregard of people's health and well-being. As Workers' Weekly pointed out in its issue of August 2, 1997, "This (nuclear) programme is highly profitable for the capitalists and highly dangerous for the people. The authorities persist in claiming publicly that the nuclear industry is 'safe', that the radioactive levels are 'small', while in secret recognising the extreme and often incalculable dangers to human life and to the environment."

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North West

Liverpool Dockers Reject "Final Offer"

On October 20, at a vibrant mass meeting in closed session Liverpool dockers debated the current "final offer" from Mersey Docks and Harbour Company. At the meeting, and after a full debate they voted almost unanimously against accepting a pay-off of £28,000 per man and the promise of 41 jobs. This was the same offer made by the company in December 1996 with the addition to the package that the deal would now include the formation of a Labour Supply Unit to employ 28 men.

According to reports the meeting discussed a letter from Mersey Docks Chief Executive Trevor Furlong dated October 13, which declared that the offer would be withdrawn on October 24 if not accepted in a postal ballot and also the stand of TGWU General Secretary Bill Morris in imposing this secret ballot on the sacked dockers without gaining, or even seeking, the approval of the union's General Executive Council. The report of the debate points out that men rose to tell each other that "a yes vote is a vote to dishonour the past, but a no vote is a vote to reclaim the future". Other men stressed that they must consider their children's future and the international supporters who have put their jobs on the line for Liverpool, when deciding how to vote. A 61-year-old docker said that "this is the strongest we've ever been throughout the two years of our dispute, and although I would like to retire from the industry and enjoy some of my life, I'll be voting 'no' because you've got to consider the future of the young Torside workers".

On October 23, it was announced that the 327 dockers in a 91% turn out, voted by 213 to 97 against accepting the "final offer" in the imposed secret ballot. Writing before the outcome of the ballot representative of the Port Shop Stewards Jim Nolan said, "Should the dockers vote to reject the offer, we fully expect that the tide of solidarity unleashed since the 2nd Anniversary of our dispute will rise to a flood, and we will be demanding that the ITF throw its weight behind the growing international actions."

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South West

Nurses Take to the Streets to Oppose Closure of Community Hospitals in Cornwall

Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Health Authority announced plans at the beginning of October to axe four community hospitals and reduce the number of beds and services at other hospitals. These hospital closures will remove vital community based elderly care beds, GP medical beds, two minor injuries units, a midwife led maternity unit, paediatric and day surgery wards, as well as a reduction in casualty services and many other bed losses. The cuts are also likely to affect 1,300 jobs which include 600 nurses with 300 likely to be made redundant.

This announcement has brought a wave of protests with reports of nurses and other staff taking to the streets in protest actions at Saltash, Liskeard, Fowey and St Austell and there is a plan for a mass demonstration outside the health authority's headquarters in St Austell on December 6. The protest is very clearly aimed at the government's funding of the NHS with staff and unions already taking up their opposition to the closures and cuts in protests to Health Minister Frank Dobson.

One of the lessons which nurses and other health workers are drawing from this situation is that all the government's talk of a "primary care-led NHS based in the community" is in reality a smokescreen for the massive cutbacks in the whole of the NHS and not just the acute services. Cornish nurses and other health workers who work in community hospitals are being accused of being "inefficient" when they are the back bone of care in isolated rural communities. The reality is that community care is being cut back, not only in Cornwall, but throughout the country.

Today the health service is facing its worst financial crisis yet. This is what is behind such major cutbacks. The government is claiming that the health service is funded to "keep pace with inflation" funding agreed by the previous government. But the most crucial question that the health service is an essential part of the economy and that the right of people to have access to a comprehensive and universal health service is not recognised and therefore the investments necessary to fund the health services are not being made available. Since the May 1 election, and in spite of the increasing financial crisis in the NHS, the government made its priorities in the NHS the limited commitments of, "reducing waiting lists" and "keeping hospitals open to emergency admissions". With hospitals running out of money the government has set aside the inadequate sum of £300m with the only priority of "keeping hospitals open to emergency admissions" to try and save any embarrassment to itself over the winter, but no longer even attempting to claim the priority of "reducing waiting lists" which it now admits are increasing rapidly. At the same time, it is agreeing to the wholesale ward closures, hospital closures and cutbacks in services.

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North East

Students March against the Imposition of Class Fees

On November 5 around 200 students took part in a march and rally at University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne to oppose the present government's introduction of fee charges to students. Speakers from the National Union of Students Executive, an economics lecturer from Newcastle University, a speaker from the Campaign for Free Education and a representative of the Magnet Strikers addressed the rally after the march though the centre of Newcastle.

Speakers spoke of the need to build a wide campaign arousing students, lecturers and working people to fight to win free education for all. They opposed both the replacement of grants with loans introduced by the last government and the refusal of the present New Labour government not to restore grants and then to impose class fees of £1,000 per year. The march was organised as part of the November 1 protests organised throughout the country with demonstrations in 14 cities against the plan the New Labour Government to impose fees. An estimated 70,000 students took part in these demonstrations.

The organisers called on the students to organise for a national demonstration to be held in London on November 26. The demonstration will assemble at 12 noon in Mallet Street at the University of London.

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Statement of the Central Committee of RCPB(ML) on the US and South Korean Arms Build-Up

In the context of the crisis of the regime of Kim Young Sam of South Korea, the puppet regime of US imperialism, the US and the south Korean government have been building up military forces, under the absurd pretext of a so-called threat of invasion from the DPRK. This has led to the joint military exercises, codenamed Foal Eagle, being staged in south Korea by the US military and the puppet authorities, simulating an invasion of North Korea. On September 30, the Central Committee of RCPB(ML) issued the following statement.

The Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (ML) resolutely condemns the escalating build-up of arms in the Korean Peninsula by the US government and the puppet authorities in south Korea. The large-scale arms build-up is not merely a reckless act against an individual state, but constitutes part of a deliberate warmongering plan against the peaceful people of DPRK, their fraternal brothers and sisters in the south and the peoples of the entire peninsula and beyond.

The Government of DPRK, true to their consistent pursuit of the just cause of peace on the Korean Peninsula, issued an important Memorandum on September 12 giving a detailed exposure of the concrete warmongering measures being taken by the US government and the Kim Young Sam regime in south Korea. Amongst other things the Memorandum pointed out that the military spending in south Korea has increased by 58% in the last five years, from 11,380 million US dollars to 17,940 million US dollars. The south Korean authorities have also announced a further projected increase in military spending for the years 1998-2002. Every type of military hardware of the latest variety is being introduced in the feverish build-up. The army, navy and airforce are being equipped with weapons including those developed for pre-emptive strikes as well as bombs and missiles for mass destruction. The US troops deployed in south Korea are also being reinforced with the latest combat equipment.

This militarisation is being carried out using the pretext of "defence" and is taking place at a time when the US government argues that "four-way talks" are a prerequisite for "peace" on the peninsula. The blackmailing pressure of this blatant two-faced policy of the US administration does not fool the government of the DPRK, neither are the long-suffering Korean people in the south taken in by such machinations and perfidy of their own government.

The Memorandum of the government of DPRK concluded by pointing out that, "If war is to be averted and peace preserved on the Korean Peninsula, the United States must refrain from encouraging the arms build-up of south Korea and aggravating the tensions and withdraw its troops from south Korea". This is a just and reasonable demand which will win the sympathy of all peace-loving peoples and countries throughout the world. The workers and progressive forces in Britain are a component part of this contingent and must demand that our own government of New Labour take a positive, independent stand in favour of peace on the Korean Peninsula and against the danger posed by the escalating arms build-up.

Central Committee of RCPB(ML)

September 30, 1997

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Message of Congratulations from the Central Committee of RCPB(ML) to Kim Jong Il on his election as General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea

October 8, 1997

Comrade Kim Jong Il

General Secretary Workers' Party of Korea

Dear Comrade Kim Jong Il

It was with the greatest joy that we today received the news of your election to the post of General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea by the Central Committee and the Military Commission of the Central Committee. May I on behalf of the Central Committee and our entire Party offer to you our warmest and most heartfelt congratulations on your election.

Since the sad and unexpected passing three years ago of the great leader of the Korean people, Comrade Kim Il Sung, it is you who have with great distinction led the Korean people on the path which he laid down, the path of the building of socialism, of firm defence of independence and in the sacred cause of the reunification of the homeland. Guided by the Juche ideas of Comrade Kim Il Sung, which you yourself played an important role in developing, no matter what the difficulties the Democratic People's Republic of Korea under your leadership has not wavered from its path.

In a dangerous and complex world situation in which imperialism, in particular United States imperialism, is exerting brutal pressure on the peoples of the whole world to bow to its will, the heroic stand of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to adhere to its chosen path is both an inspiration and a shining example for the struggling peoples of the world.

On this important and happy occasion we wish you all success in your post and victory to the heroic Korean people in their struggle. Our Party stands shoulder to shoulder with you in the great cause of socialism which is and remains the future of humankind.

Chris Coleman

On behalf of the Central Committee

Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)

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