Workers' Weekly V.28 No.21

AN IMPORTANT National Consultative Conference of RCPB(ML) took place on the weekendof July 18-19 in London. Delegates and observers representing the whole Party and its links in the community and among the different sections of the people were present, as well as invited guests from the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist), the New Communist Party of Britain, and others.

The National Consultative Conference over the whole weekend was a summation of and reflected the work of the Party since the Coventry International Seminar of January 1994, which initiated this period of the Party’s work. Thus the Party’s analysis of the objective national and international situation was elaborated in the conditions of 1998 and one year of Tony Blair in power. Its assessment of the subjective situation and the level of the various movements among the working class and people were presented and discussed. And the role and work of the Party at this present stage of its programme was summed up and defined.

However, this was not the sum total of the content of the National Consultative Conference. If it had merely looked at the present with the perspective of its four and half years of work in the current period, the Party would not have risen to the occasion in the way it did. The National Consultative Conference used the discussion of the work the Party has carried out to point the way forward, and to look to the future in defining its continued line of march and a programme of work to be taken up. This in the final analysis is what made the Consultative Conference so successful. And this success was only achieved by the participation of the whole Party, with the Central Committee at the head.

It became crystal clear at the Conference, if it were not clear enough already, how significant is the cutting edge work of the Party to Improve the Content, Extend the Readership of Workers’ Weekly.

Photo: Singing the Internationale at the end of the National Consultative Conference

Papers were presented by the Central Committee to facilitate discussion. These introduced the three main items on the agenda: The Present Situation Nationally and Internationally; The Development of the Various Movements of the Working Class and People; and The Role and Work of the Party at the Present Time. The quality of the participation made a marked contribution to the success of the National Consultative Conference. Its climax came in the final session when resolutions were presented arising out of the discussions and putting forward to the Central Committee a recommendation to begin the necessary work to prepare for the holding of the Party’s Third Congress. These resolutions are printed on page 1.

In other words, it can now be said that the cutting edge of the cutting edge work itself is the work to prepare for the Third Congress of the Party, and that the essence of this work is to put the Party in a strong position to enter the 21st century, having consolidated its general line that There Is A Way Out of the Crisis, elaborated its Draft Programme for the Working Class with its focus to Stop Paying the Rich – Increase Investments in Social Programmes, and forged its most important weapon for the working class to provide itself with the necessary consciousness and organisation to lead the way in opening up the path to a new socialist society, namely the Party’s newspaper, Workers’ Weekly.

The Conference concluded with the singing of the Internationale and the shouting of slogans. The atmosphere of enthusiasm, and the spirit of participating in the collective work of the Party, continued for some time through informal discussions and the organising for the work to come.

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Setting the Scene

Workers’ Weekly will be publishing excerpts from the proceedings of the National Consultative Conference in the coming weeks. This week, we publish the introductory remarks of the Central Committee to the Conference.

Representative of the Central Committee speaking at the National Consultative Conference

Opening the Conference, Chris Coleman, on behalf of the Central Committee, warmly welcomed comrades from the different regions. We are very pleased, he said, that we also have a delegation from the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist) led by Comrade Rod Eley. We are very pleased to welcome a delegation from the New Communist Party of Britain, led by the General Secretary Andy Brooks. We are also very pleased that comrades from the African and Caribbean Progressive Study Group are joining us for the Conference, comrades from the Indian Progressive Study Group, and comrades from the Indian Workers’ Association (Great Britain). He declared the Conference open, and welcomed the speaker to give the opening remarks. These follow:

Comrades, this National Consultative Conference is in our view taking place at an extremely timely juncture of the Party’s work and of the objective situation.

Over one year of Tony Blair in power has amply demonstrated the correctness of the Party’s analysis that the bourgeoisie brought New Labour to power to carry forward the offensive of the rich against the people after a period from 1979 characterised by Thatcherism – a period of the crisis of the welfare state, of neo-liberal policies, of privatisation – which aroused the people’s fierce opposition. But the bourgeoisie calculated that it could manipulate this opposition, and staged its electoral coup which brought Tony Blair to power. So what is the Party’s analysis of the present situation? This is one of the topics which the Conference will address. Within this situation, what are the developments in the movements of the working class and people? Again this is an important topic which the Consultative Conference will deal with. And most crucially, the Party wants to take stock now of its work and how it should advance, after one year of Tony Blair in power, as the 21st century approaches, in order that it can rise to the occasion and meet the challenges it faces. And this can be said to be the theme of the Conference.

So it is not just a question of reacting to the objective developments. The advances we make are on the basis of our own thinking. And the Party is the most crucial weapon in the hands of the working class to provide it with the consciousness and organisation necessary to bring about social revolution. It sets its aims for itself and works out what is necessary to bring itself on a par with the necessity of the times. In this respect, this present period of the Party’s work was initiated at the Coventry International Seminar of January 1994. The aim of this National Consultative Conference is to discuss the stage of the work of RCPB(ML) in the context of its plan and practical programme which it has been developing and implementing since that time.

In this period, the Party has formulated its general line as summed up in its draft document There Is a Way Out of the Crisis, and on the basis of this general line it put forward its Draft Programme for the Working Class. The Conference is set in particular to discuss in this context the most important programme RCPB(ML) has set for itself, which is the programme to Improve the Content, Extend the Readership of its newspaper Workers’ Weekly, as well as the programme of the working class that the Party put forward in the context of the May 1997 election summed up in the slogan to Stop Paying the Rich – Increase Investments in Social Programmes! So the issue for the Conference to focus on is the question of its practical programme – the programme that it sets for itself and the programme that it calls on the working class and people to take up as their own to take society out of its crisis and open up the path to progress and to a new socialist society. Without the formulation of the general line which showed that there is a way out of the crisis, there could be no question of setting the practical programme. The analysis and the discussion on it were the necessary conditions for setting this practical programme. The Party having done this continued on its line of march by organising discussion on the draft document and analysing that it was necessary to address the formulation of a draft programme for the working class, putting forward that if the working class is to play its historic role and lead society out of the crisis, then it must have its own independent programme, around which it can mobilise all the other forces in society to open up the path for progress and for a new society. This planned work of the Party led to the formulation of the Draft Programme for the Working Class.

Since that time, the Party has formulated and put forward the slogan of Improve the Content, Extend the Readership of Workers’ Weekly, and put forward that Workers’ Weekly should be an instrument in the hands of the working class to provide itself with its necessary consciousness and organisation to bring about social revolution. The Party upholds the Leninist line that its paper is a collective organiser, that it is the scaffolding around which the Party is built. Workers’ Weekly has played a crucial role at each stage of development of the Party’s work since the Coventry International Seminar, as well as before. In fact, it has been the backbone of the Party’s work since 1971. So in this introduction, the point is not to go into the details of this development and to discuss its political, ideological and practical content, because this will take place as the agenda unfolds, but just to emphasise how crucial this fight has been to implement this central programme of the Party and not get diverted from this crucial task.

This National Consultative Conference is the first opportunity that comrades representing the whole Party have had to get together and discuss this work in its entirety since the last National Consultative Conference discussed the first draft of the Draft Programme of the Working Class in November 1994. It is thus a very key occasion. And it is made even more crucial given the objective situation with Tony Blair in power.

We encourage all comrades to seriously participate in this discussion, speaking from their experience and the experience of their units and their struggles. We are confident that out of this Conference will come serious recommendations to the Central Committee reflecting the collective will of the Party, its supporters and sympathisers and the broad masses of the people.

RESOLUTIONS

The following resolution was passed unanimously:

THIS Conference recommends to the Central Committee that it immediately begin the necessary work involving the whole Party to prepare a summation of the current period in the wake of one year of Tony Blair’s government, to summarise the line of march of our Party since January 1994, and to work to elaborate the Party’s programme for the working class of Stop Paying the Rich – Increase Investment in Social Programmes, as well as to implement the Party’s programme, Improve the Content, Extend the Readership, as preparation for the holding of the Party’s Third Congress to be held by the time of the 20th anniversary of RCPB(ML), March 16, 1999, with the aim of putting the Party in a strong position for advancing into the 21st century. This Conference recommends that the Central Committee report on the progress of this work at a further consultative conference to be held in November this year.

The following resolution was also put to the Conference:

IN keeping with the need to develop the mass communist party and to lead the movement against the anti-social offensive to victory, laying the basis for a new socialist society:

Conference re-iterates the necessity for the entire Party and supporters to focus on the key task around Workers’ Weekly, on the basis of modern definitions, whereby the working class and people affirm their rights.

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Preparatory Committee to Continue its Work

ONE OF THE FEATURES contributing to the success of the National Consultative Conference has been the work of the Preparatory Committee for the Conference. This Committee, as well as overseeing the practical preparations, took responsibility for ensuring the political readiness of the Party activists.

At a meeting of the Committee to sum up the Conference, the comrades involved agreed to a proposal from the Central Committee of the Party that it should take responsibility for the all-round preparations for the proposed November Consultative Conference and that other Party organisers nation-wide be brought onto the Preparatory Committee for this purpose. It will meet in the near future to set its agenda and decide on the work required.

Workers’ Weekly hails this as an important development. First and foremost, it will contribute to the strengthening of the Party in this period, and be a mechanism facilitating the involvement of the whole Party in the work, as the resolution recommends. This work will be a crucial measure consolidating the new level of consciousness which emerged during the course of the Consultative Conference and giving it organisational expression, so that the bourgeois pressure to reverse the Party’s gains is countered. It will contribute to furthering the hard work along the Party’s line of march, and the fight that it should not be diverted but make advances in step with the necessities of the times and rising to the occasion.

Proceedings of National Consultative Conference to be Published

BY DECISION OF the Central Committee of RCPB(ML) and in accordance with the recommendation of the Preparatory Committee of the National Consultative Conference, the proceedings of the July 18-19 Conference will be published in the near future. The publication will constitute an integral part of the work towards the next landmark of the Party’s life, the November National Consultative Conference.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Workers’ Weekly has received a number of letters from those who participated in the National Consultative Conference on July 18-19. Below we print a selection of them. More will be published in the next issue of the newspaper.

Expressing the Sentiments of the Youth

Dear Workers’ Weekly,

I am a youth from the North East aged 16 and I recently attended the National Consultative Conference of RCPB(ML). I was one of a number of youth from around the country who were present. My conclusion, which is an opinion which I am sure was shared, was that the conference was very successful.

The initiative of inviting youth to the conference was a good step forward in involving them in political discussion. The present society gives youth the illusion that they have no role to play in politics, or in changing society for the better. The marginalisation of youth from politics gives the youth the idea that their future is foreseen and whether they agree, or disagree, the decisions will be left up to the politicians.

As a youth I can say that the general feeling is that of fear and anticipation about what the future holds. We are faced with many worries and pressure. For example, will we be able to afford to continue an education and will there be a job at the end of it, etc. Youth should be encouraged to ask these questions and more importantly to help in finding answers to the increasing problems in society.

Whether it be at school, college, university, or work, the youth are discouraged from participating in political discussion. In schools youth are intimidated by having to ask teachers if they want to have political discussion.

I know that RCPB(ML) recognises the importance of involving the youth in the struggle against the anti-social offensive and in the struggle for a new society and I hope it becomes a focus of other organisations to stop the marginalisation of youth from politics, by encouraging them to discuss issues that effect them and society as a whole and by involving them as much as possible. After all youth have always played an extremely important part in any struggle.

Overall I feel the youth need to see that the future lies in their own hands and in the hands of the working class and not in the hands of politicians whose interests do not lie with the people. Youth should be helped to take up an active role in society.

From a female youth at the Conference

Initial Response

Dear Workers’ Weekly,

First of all, we would like to congratulate the whole Party on a very successful National Consultative Conference, which achieved the aims it set for itself. The following is our initial response, and we hope you find it helpful.

The Conference successfully raised some key ideological and political questions on what a modern communist party is, especially on conscious participation and developing its arrangements, what the programme of the Party is in the context of the national and international situation and its role and tasks on Improving the Content, Extending the Readership, what the programme of the class is in Stopping Paying the Rich and the need to raise the ideological struggle against New Labour. In our view the Conference marked a definite stage in the work, a turning point within the present line of march, that is bound to lead to further success if we consolidate this work. The resolution adopted is the first step to consolidating this work; the second is to implement it.

We are planning to further reflect on the Conference, and take decisions on how best to implement the resolution and make preparations for the next Conference in the context of how the Central Committee decides to respond to the recommendations of the Conference.

Northern Regional Committee of RCPB(ML).

A Qualitative Leap for the Party

Dear Workers’ Weekly,

On the weekend of July 18-19, 1998, RCPB(ML) organised a national consultative conference to assess the stage of the work and the situation nationally and internationally. The main content was the work which has been carried out since the Coventry International Seminar in 1994. The fact of organising a conference to discuss the stage of the work of the Party at this time is significant for a number of reasons and represents a qualitative leap in the recent work of the Party.

Having set its aim for this period, launched its general line and draft programme, the issue the Party is faced with is occupying the space that exists for communism and participating in practical politics.

The Conference sends a signal to friend and foe that the Party is marching on in a new situation, and that the Party is placing the concerns of the people at the centre of its work. Having participated in the Conference, I found that it proved to be a challenge in more ways than one. It’s a challenge to the class conscious workers and activists to rise to the occasion and make a stand for the future in defiance of all the obsolescent forces which have turned pushing things backward into a trend.

The importance of Workers’ Weekly and the work to improve its content and dissemination was a major theme of the conference. The example of Progress, the publication of the African and Caribbean Progressive Study Group, a non-party body, taking its line from Workers’ Weekly and giving a context to the line and programme of the Party, emerged as one inspiring example of elaborating the line of the Party.

From a South London participant in the Conference

Congratulations from ACPSG

Dear Workers’ Weekly,

As a member of the African Caribbean Progressive Study Group (ACPSG) I would like to congratulate the RCPB(ML) for the successful holding of your National Consultative Conference on July 18-19.

As one of our members mentioned during the Conference, the Party’s newspaper Workers’ Weekly has been of great assistance to our work and the development of our publication Progress during the last four years. The Conference gave us the opportunity to hear more about the Party’s important programme to “improve the content and extend the readership” of Workers’ Weekly, and to join together with other activists and supporters of the Party to discuss in detail the objective situation in Britain and throughout the world and the current stage of the Party’s work.

The Conference was particularly instructive because it showed how the Party works in a planned way to accomplish its tasks. It decides on a central focus for its work and periodically takes stock of this work, summing up its strengths and weaknesses by the most democratic methods, and then proceeds with the next stage of the work. It was in this context that it was proposed at the conference that the entire Party, under the direction of its leadership, should begin work to prepare for a congress to fully sum up the experience and work of recent years, and in order to set the tasks and orientation of the Party for the coming period.

I feel sure that with such an approach the Party’s tasks will continue to be fruitful and I would like to take this opportunity to wish the entire Party every success in the future.

ACPSG member, East London

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NEWS OF THE FIREFIGHTERS:

North East Firefighters Oppose Cuts

Firefighters in Tyne & Wear are opposing £2.6m fire cuts which have been caused by cuts in revenue by the New Labour government to local authorities. Because of the cuts the Tyne & Wear Fire Authority is to recommend the scrapping of one engine at Fulwell station in north Sunderland and an emergency tender at nearby South Shields. The fireman from Sunderland and South Shields have been out on the streets and collected 20,000 signatures on a petition opposing the cuts of the two tenders which will be presented on Monday at a picket of the Fire Authority. Gordon Chalk, branch chairperson of the Fire Brigade Union at Fulwell was reported as saying: “The people of the Wear will have reduced fire cover because of this. There will be greater danger to people – by cutting this fire engine it makes it more likely a tragedy could happen.” At South Shields, Fire Brigades’ Union Branch Secretary Paul Ahmed said that the cuts could lead to lives being lost. “The tender has been called out 127 times since April 1. What happens now? We are talking people’s lives at risk here.”

Surrey Firefighters Vote for Strike Action

Surrey firefighters and control staff have voted for action consisting of a series of strikes, in a result announced on July 27. The vote in favour was 54.8% to 45.2% against in a total vote of 708. Surrey County Council are proposing to close two wholetime one pump stations and replace them with a single one pump station and also to close two retained stations. These proposals will result in the overall loss of three pumping appliances, 28 wholetime posts and 24 retained posts. The firefighters are determinedly campaigning against the reductions in fire cover. Les Hammond, the Surrey FBU Secretary said, “We are sad to have been forced down a path that none of us wanted, but how else can we stop an entrenched and unlistening Authority from playing lottery with the public lives.”

Essex firefighters are already engaged in a series of strikes. In a ballot, 70.2% voted for strike action. The first strike in defence of the Essex fire service began on Monday, June 8, on which occasion the Combined Essex Fire Authority locked out the firefighters when they went to return to work. This is the third year running that Essex firefighters have gone on strike. Essex FBU spokesman Keith Handscomb has pointed out that public support has been outstanding. About 1,000 firefighters from the Essex Fire Brigades Union are taking action against the proposed £1.4 million of budget cuts, 16 job losses and axed services. The response of the Home Office Minister George Howarth was to say: “The provision of fire services in Essex is a matter for Essex Fire Authority. But we are concerned that strike action appears to be regarded as a first response to decisions by fire authorities to make changes to the allocation of resources. Fire Services must be subject to the same financial disciplines as all other local authority services. Strike action usually imposes an additional burden of costs on a fire authority and resulting savings have to be made to pay the costs of emergency fire cover.” The Home Secretary approved the Essex Fire Authority application for cuts in services on July 6.

STRIKE DATES

ESSEX: FRIDAY 31st July 1998 18:00 hrs, UNTIL,

SATURDAY 1st August 1998 13:00 hrs

ESSEX: TUESDAY 4th August 1998 22:00 hrs, UNTIL,

WEDNESDAY 5th August 1998 09:00 hrs

SURREY: TUESDAY 4th August 1998 11:00 hrs UNTIL 13:00 hrs

ESSEX: FRIDAY 7th August 1998 13:00 hrs, UNTIL, SATURDAY 8th August 1998 13:00 hrs

SURREY HARDSHIP FUND: C/o Dave Gaff, 29 Longdene Road, Haselmere, Surrey, GU27 2PQ (Cheques payable to FBU Surrey Area Hardship Fund)

ESSEX HARDSHIP FUND: C/o Sean Walshe, 12 Riffhams Drive, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, CM2 7DD (Cheques payable to Essex Hardship Fund)

Picture of Firefighter

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Railway Maintenance Workers Hold Three-Day Strike

ON FRIDAY, July 24, 9,000 railway maintenance workers members of RMT walked out at the start of their three-day strike. This is the third strike with workers staging a four-day strike on June 19 and a seven-day strike on June 29. The railway maintenance workers maintain track, signals, and overhead equipment and are opposing “restructuring” proposals which will reduce their wages with some workers losing up to £40 per week and working more unsocial hours. It is reported that union leaders say they will suspend further strike action after July 27 because the union is close to an agreement with one of the companies and think they will see progress in negotiations with the other eight companies during the week.

When the track maintenance section of British Rail was privatised it was bought by AMEC Rail, Amey Railways, GTRM, Balfour Beatty Maintenance, Balfour Beatty Southern Track Renewals, First Engineering, Centrac, Jarvis Facilities and Jarvis Fastline all of which made a combined published profit of £300 million last year.

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Warning of Rise in Receiverships

Receiverships as companies go bankrupt look set to rise. Accountants KPMG released figures on July 28 showing a 4% increase in receivership appointments at a time when, because of seasonal factors, appointments would normally fall. The number of receiverships per quarter for the past year has stayed static at around 260, showing that a reduction is unlikely.

Further Suffering for Nurses

Because of the pressure from the Labour government that hospital waiting lists be reduced as the last word in so-called health care, overtime shifts are set to rise and the burden on nurses, as well as doctors, already intolerable, will rise further. On top of this, the nurses’ pay for these heavy extra shifts will only be a relative pittance. While surgeons at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, for example have been offered £900 for extra shifts, 10 times the normal rate according to a report in the Nursing Standard journal announced on July 28, nurses at the same hospital were to receive “about £70 at the most” for the weekend shifts, according to Kathy Ibbotson, a regional officer for the Royal College of Nursing.

Cornish Protest at Unemployment

Over 1,000 Cornish people held a mass rally against unemployment on July 26. They symbolically closed the Tamar Bridge, linking Devon and Cornwall, as well as other main routes into Cornwall, leading to a four-mile tailback on the Devon side of the bridge. A fleet of 20 fishing vessels sailed under the bridge at the same time, sounding their hooters in support. Cornwall has one of the highest levels of unemployment in the country. The protest was organised by Cornish Solidarity, which was set up in March after the closure of the South Crofty tin mine.

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International Speaker at London Meeting on Korean Reunification

ON THURSDAY, July 16, a meeting was organised in London by the Institute of Independence Studies (IIS) on understanding Korean reunification. The event was a part of the month-long campaign of solidarity with the struggle of the Korean people being observed by friends of Korea internationally.

The main speaker was Guy Dupré, General Secretary of the International Liaison Committee for Reunification and Peace in Korea (CILRECO). CILRECO, amongst others, has called for an international dimension to the actions during the month of solidarity, which has its origins in the circumstances of the fatherland liberation war – the Korean war against US aggression – of the Korean people. The resistance of the Korean people, as well as world-wide protests, had thwarted the US ambitions and their determination to extinguish a socialist society in north Korea, and had led to the armistice of July 27, 1953. As the aggression had begun on June 25, 1950, this period of June 25 to July 27 has thus become designated as an annual month of solidarity with the Korean people. M. Dupré himself is a long-standing friend of Korea, and one of founder members of CILRECO in 1977. He met the deceased great leader of the Korean people, Kim Il Sung, on numerous occasions, and has been active in the communist movement in France for many years.

The meeting was organised by the IIS to give support to the stand of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) for the peaceful reunification of Korea and for its independence, a stand wholeheartedly supported by Workers’ Weekly. The meeting also condemned Britain’s hostility to North Korea and emphasised the need to press for the establishment of full diplomatic relations between countries such as Britain and France with the DPRK.

In his speech, Guy Dupré began by pointing out that the division of Korea and the unbelievable suffering that had accompanied it had its source in the immediate post-war events and had continued for 50 years. It was a tragedy for the Korean people which has seen millions of families still divided 50 years later by an artificial “frontier” only maintained by the presence of 40,000 US troops and presenting the constant danger of a new war. The continuing division is counter to the aspirations of all the Korean people. Not only is this of concern for the Korean people but poses a threat to the right of all people to self-determination as laid down in the UN Charter as well as threatening the people of entire East Asia. The speaker said he was convinced the Korean struggle for reunification had implications outside Korea. The reunification of Korea would put in question US domination in the whole region.

M. Dupré went on to say that the last three years had seen a vindictive campaign by the US threatening the very existence of the DPRK and the independence and national identity of the Korean people, taking advantage of terrible natural catastrophes. These had exacerbated the effects of the blockade and the end of trade with the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe, as well as the failure of the US to honour its agreements to supply oil in return for the DPRK giving up its nuclear capacity, thus leaving the DPRK starved of energy. Three years of storms and floods have affected a quarter of the territory and have led to wiping out the food reserves and extensive land damage. The source of the present difficulties is not as depicted in the western media.

While the US, along with south Korea, was taking part in negotiations with the DPRK, also involving China, at the same time it has been carrying out the most bellicose activities, organising provocative military manoeuvres simulating invasion, and holding constant discussions on anti-DPRK military strategies with south Korea and Japan. This is a dangerous policy, completely incompatible with sincere negotiations, which must concern all peace movements.

Guy Dupré then raised the question of how reunification could come about and the present tense and dangerous situation resolved. The DPRK has put forward just and equitable proposals, which had some time ago won the approval of the UN. They are based on an end to outside interference, on peace and on national unity. The proposals are for a one-nation Confederal state encompassing an autonomous north and south, with two systems, to create the conditions for reconciliation and for the Korean people themselves by their own will to overcome all obstacles. However, because of US domination, because of the occupying troops and political dependency, the will for democratisation, sovereignty and reunification in the south is still not able to manifest itself at the necessary level. The throwing out of the military regime was an advance, but a change of president has not meant a change in the political structure. Nevertheless, there is the possibility of a change in north-south relations. In this respect, the recent five-point proposals of the DPRK leader, Kim Jong Il, are based on a political stand independent of the US, on an end to obstacles such as arrests and on dialogue.

M. Dupré ended by saying that it was unthinkable that Korea could remain divided into the next century. This division is a major threat to peace and security and must be the concern of all.

Picket on Political Prisoners Is Held at South Korean Embassy

On Saturday, July 25, a picket was organised at the South Korean Embassy in London by the Korean Friendship and Solidarity Campaign demanding the release of all political prisoners in south Korea, including prisoners of war held since 1953. The picket was held in the context of the world-wide month-long campaign of solidarity with the Korean people. Some 30 participants, including representatives of RCPB(ML), the New Communist Party, the Socialist Labour Party and the Institute of Independence Studies, protested in front of the Embassy for an hour. At the conclusion of the picket a letter of protest concerning three prisoners of war (see below) was handed in at the Embassy door.

Letter of Protest

HE Mr Dong Jin Choi

Ambassador of the Republic of Korea

London

Dear Mr Dong

On behalf of the Korean Friendship and Solidarity Campaign we call on your government to allow three POWs held since the end of the Korean War to return to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Kim In So, Ham Se Hwam and Kim Yong Tae have served more than 30 years in South Korean prisons. They are all frail old men. They were soldiers in the Korean People’s Army and they should have been repatriated 60 days after the end of the conflict. There was never any justification for prolonging their captivity in the first place. Today the continued denial of their right to return to their families is a disgraceful act of political vengeance.

We call on the government of the Republic of Korea to repatriate these three men to the north as a humanitarian step towards dialogue and national reconciliation and the easing of tension on the Korean peninsula.

Yours sincerely,

Keith Bennett, chairman

Lila Patel, secretary Korean Friendship and Solidarity Campaign

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