Among the 120 guests attending the celebration were leaders of political and solidarity organisations, including Labour Party National Executive Committee Member Jess Barnard; Communist Party of Britain present and former General Secretaries, Alex Gordon and Rob Griffiths; Workers’ Party of Britain representative Jesse Winney; Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (ML) leaders Chris Coleman and Michael Chant; and solidarity activists Mushtaq Lasharie, Chairman of Third World Solidarity, who played an invaluable part in assisting the Institute for Independence Studies (IIS) in the organising and hosting of the event; Mohammed Arif, General Secretary of the British Afro-Asian Solidarity Organisation; Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) Vice President, Kate Hudson and Vice President and Co-chair of London Region Carol Turner; and Caribbean Labour Solidarity President, Luke Daniels. Apologies were received from Your Party Parliamentary Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and from Sinn Féin’s London Office Manager, Joe Dwyer.
The representative of Diane Abbott MP sent a message in which she transmitted her greetings, stating that “Diane asked me to pass on her warmest wishes to Keith on his birthday”, and that she has “fond memories of knowing Keith over so many years and greatly values his longstanding commitment to internationalism, peace, and social justice.”
Diplomatic representatives present included the Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, João Paulo Da Costa Rangel, and Zhao Fei, Minister of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez Meléndez, First Secretary of the Cuban Embassy, made an impassioned speech which was warmly applauded. A number of members of the Chinese press corps were also in attendance. Other diplomatic missions in London sent messages of greetings, including a warm message of greetings from First Secretary of the Embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Ri Yong Uk (for text, see below).
Among others attending were comrades currently working closely with Comrade Keith, including Carlos Martinez, his fellow editor at Friends of Socialist China, and others closely associated with his current work including Professor Radhika Desai and Alan Freeman of the International Manifesto Group and David Peat, who is also an editor of Iskra Press. Apologies from other comrades currently working closely with Keith but unavoidably absent included those from Ali Al Assam and Jenny Clegg, and warm messages of greeting were received from Francisco Dominguez, National Secretary of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, and from Keith’s old comrade Wilf Dixon, currently active in the Free Mumia Abu Jamal Campaign UK (for texts see below). Visitors from overseas attending the event included Dirk Nimmegeers and Tineke Jager from Belgium and Taylor Genovese of Iskra in the US.
Longstanding comrades of Keith and personal friends from many years past included Peter Hogg, a Director of the Institute for Independence Studies (IIS) and Jon Farley, as well as Greig Coetzee, nephew of his early comrade Melville Fletcher, as well as a number of those whom he has known for many years in his activities in solidarity and friendship with China, Korea and elsewhere, including Janet St.John-Austen, who is also a Director of IIS, as well as Harish Gupta and his family, Paul Crook, Neil Taylor, Dave Smith, and former colleague at the Caribbean Times and Hansib Publications Nigel Carter.
Many other names are equally worthy of mention, from distinguished publisher Margaret Busby to Yvette Williams, of the Justice 4 Grenfell campaign, who sent a very warm-hearted message (see below), and veteran anti-imperialist campaigner Diane Langford, as well as a large number of progressive youth whose names will doubtless become increasingly familiar to the anti-imperialist family in the months and years to come, from organisations including the Young Communist League, the Students Federation of India UK, the Black Liberation Alliance, CodePink and others.
SPEECHES
Introductory Remarks of Kamal Majid (Video to be uploaded)
Speech of Keith Bennett Text (Video to be uploaded)
Speech of Secretary Carlos Rafael Rodríguez Meléndez Embassy Text
MESSAGES
Secretary Ri Yong Uk, DPRK Embassy
Ms Nimmo Hussein, office of Diane Abbott
Yvette Williams
Wilf Dixon
Francisco Dominguez and Isabel Bermudez
150 PHOTOS
Very roughly sorted into categories for ease in scrolling through:
Diplomatic 25 photos
Political and solidarity 22 photos
Academic, cultural, journalistic 25 photos
Families and friends from various communities 20 photos
Youth 27 photos
Activists 25 photos
Scenes of the dinner 6 photos
Panoramic view – video ‘pan’
A packed meeting and social reception was hosted by Third World Solidarity and chaired by its Chairman the Hon. Alderman Mushtaq Lasharie on 21 June 2026 to celebrate the birth anniversary of Benazir Bhutto.