Report by Friends of Socialist China: The Workers Party of Britain (WPB) packed London’s Bolivar Hall, the cultural premises of the Venezuelan Embassy, on Saturday May 10 for its celebration of the 80^th anniversary of the victory over fascism in the European theatre of World War II.

The meeting was attended by Dzmitry Kozlovsky, Chargé d’ Affaires, and Andrei Miskevich , Counsellor, of the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus; Alexander Gusarov, Minister Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission, and Timofey Kunitskiy, First Secretary, of the Embassy of the Russian Federation; Minister Zhao Fei and Zhen Sitong from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China; and Wilfredo Hernández Maya, Counsellor of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The meeting heard a message of greetings from Workers Party leader George Galloway, filmed in Moscow’s Red Square, where he was attending the celebrations.

Chaired and introduced by WPB General Secretary Paul Cannon, the meeting was addressed by the diplomatic representatives of Belarus, Russia and Venezuela; Mick Stott from the WPB’s Veterans Group and the No 2 NATO Campaign; Louise Scrivens from the No Conscription League; Jesse Williams from the British Preparatory Committee for the World Festival of Youth; Shanaz Saddique, WPB National Organiser; and Keith Bennett of Friends of Socialist China, who spoke on the war in Asia.

Keith began by congratulating the WPB on organising the meeting and thanking them for the invitation. Extending our greetings to the diplomats present, Keith recalled that FOSC had held its own celebration of the 75^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in this same hall in September last year. Expressing his thanks once again, he noted that both events showed how the comrades of the revolutionary government of Venezuela, despite the outrageous pressures, aggression, sanctions and threats to which their country has been and is still subjected, can always be relied on for their support, collaboration and friendship in the best traditions of internationalism.

Text of the speech (from Friends of Socialist China website.

Interviewed on the Crispin Flintoff Show on 10 May 2025 following the Workers’ Party’s Commemoration of 80^th anniversary of victory over fascism , Keith Bennett, was asked about his opinion of the Green Party, and took the opportunity to make the following wider statement on the question of left unity:

You have heard from others that some Greens would like to turn the Green Party into a socialist party standing for working people. I wish them luck in that. I think they’ll need it. But anyway there are a lot of good people in the Green Party, and I was very pleased that, near to where I live in South London, there was recently a by-election in Lambeth Council in Loughborough Junction Ward, where the Green Party candidate, who stood on a left-wing platform, won and defeated Starmer‘s Labour Party.

We are in a situation of a slow recomposition of working class politics in this country, and I don’t think anyone can tell at the moment what final form it will take. But it will involve all sorts of apparently disparate forces coming together and there will be processes of splits and realignments. Unfortunately there still seem to be more splits than realignments, and I hope people can find a way to get through that. I’m sure there are many people in the Green Party who will play a positive role in that process.

What is very important is to hammer out some kind of common minimum program. People need to leave some of their old disputes and disagreements at the door – not to give up their individual points of view but to realise that the trouble with wanting a realignment of the left around everything that you agree with is that everybody else wants the same thing too! So there has to be some kind of element of cooperation and goodwill.

I don’t think you have to agree with all the policies of the Workers’ Party to see that, as leftwing forces in this country go, it is a serious political force. It has scored some achievements which other parties organisation organisations to the left of labour have not succeeded in doing.

And I think that the Workers’ Party and the left forces in the Green Party both have a role to play in rebuilding the left, but people have to be prepared to talk to each other – not necessarily to agree but to agree on the things that they can agree on.

All of us want desperately to see an end to the genocide against the Palestinian people, and we want to reverse the attacks which the Starmer government is making on working people, so those are the kind of issues we should focus on.

In an interview by China Daily published on 7 May 2025, Keith Bennett stated:

Eighty years on, it remains the case that the Soviet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War and China’s victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression are the fundamental basis for an international order based on peace, democracy and the rights of peoples and nations.

Today, those principles that were established at the cost of so many lives are being challenged as never before by acts of unilateralism, aggression, bullying and hegemonism. At the same time, China and Russia are taking the lead and, together with the combined might of the Global South, are defending the postwar order while promoting multipolarity as never before.

Institute’s Xi Jinping Thought Study Group participates in discussion with visiting Chinese scholars and their hosts. 28 February 2025.

On 28 April 2025, a visiting delegation of scholars from the School of Marxism at Shanghai’s Fudan University, headed by its Dean Professor Mei Xian, attended a meeting at the London School of Economics called in their honour by Friends of Socialist China (FOSC) and the International Manifesto Group (IMG), and hosted by Professors Efe Can and Professor Radhika Desai, who chaired the meeting.

Keith Bennett, Patron of the Institute for Independence Studies, was in attendance.

Wide-ranging discussions were held at the meeting, but the following notes are restricted to comments on those aspects of the discussions which were directly relevant to the activities of our Institute, and in particular its Xi Jinping Study Group.

The Institute and its Xi Jinping Thought Study Group

The study groups aims were outlined to the meeting by its Secretary Hugh Goodacre as follows:

The Institute for Independence Studies promotes the study of ideologies of national and class liberation and their application within our imperialist society, based on the anti-imperialist theory and practice of the distinctive and uniquely continuous current within this country’s left which has been upheld by the Institute and its predecessor organisations for over 40 years.

Today, the most substantial of the ideologies of national and class liberation in terms of its global impact is Xi Jinping Thought, Marxism of the 21st century, and our Institute has accordingly established a Xi Jinping Thought Study Group, which aims to publish relevant texts online on the Institute’s website and in hardcopy to promote the study and application of Xi Jinping Thought in this imperialist country.

The Institute aims to establish links and joint projects between its Xi Jinping Study Group and other initiatives of the Institute, including its calls for initiatives relating to ideologies developed in Latin America, Africa and the African Diaspora, as well as building on its former and existing study of the Juche idea and the Irish national liberation movement.

Future publications of the Study Group in preparation include a selection of the writings of Keith Bennett on Xi Jinping’s call for a global community of shared future and its relevance for the theory and practice of building a movement of socialist internationalism in imperialist society.

Diversity of ideologies of national and classf liberations.

Fiona Sim, representing the Black Liberation Alliance, outlined that organisation’s aims as being aligned with the thought and practice of African, Arab, Asian, Caribbean, indigenous peoples in anti-imperialism and anticolonialism, and in the interests of liberation and sovereignty.

Jonathan White, a leading activist in educational activities in the labour movement, Associate Editor of Communist Review, and a governor of the Marx Memorial Library, spoke of diversity in Marxist schools of thought, arguing that applications of Marxism may look different, but the important point is whether they promote the emancipatory spirit of Marxism within their own experience of working class struggles. He warned against those Western traditions of Marxism which become disengage from practice: this can be due to political sectarianism and dogmatism; in some academic circles, it may even lead them to theorise their separation from practical struggle.

Digital technologies, Artificial Intelligence and younger generations

The Chinese visitors had asked in advance for discussion of digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence, and these issues were addressed by Ali Assam in connection with his work on the Iraqi National Memory Project, which aims to replace the Western narrative of the country’s identity, utilising the power of AI to convert historical and statistics into a smart database to ensure that the facts related to its history and present are not lost in the era of technical control of information sources, so as to regain the initiative in writing the country’s history and building the future it aspires to.

The Chinese visitors in particular also requested discussion of the effects of the heavy exposure of younger generations to digital technologies and atomized social relations on the task of nurturing their perspective on the international cause of transitioning to socialism. In this connection, Russel Harland discussed his personal day-to-day experience in union work and formerly also in charity work which brings him face-to-face with the devastating consequences of unemployment. He foresees the effects of AI to have a really desolate landscape for working class young people seeking employment in the future. This was further discussed by Professor Liu Huachu and Jonathan White in relation to the labour theory of value and how the effects of AI can be conceived in the context of the social relations of production.

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Other topics discussed at the meeting included: the question of domestic demand in China, raised by Professor Bruce Cronin of the University of Greenwich, who is Secretary of the London Branch of the Communist Party of Britain; the danger of war, which was raised by Carlos Martinez, Co-Editor of Friends of Socialist China; and the relation of the study of neoclassical economics and Marxism in China, raised by Professor Radhika Desai. Professor Peng Zhaochang ably facilitated and interpreted, and Professor Jin Wei also contribution to the discussions.

Discussions on the Xi Jinping Thought Study Group

Hugh Goodacre asked the visiting scholars how they could help in the work of the Institute’s Xi Jinping Thought Study Group by providing reference material and other suggestions to assist in the systematic study of Xi Jinping Thought. Professor Zhou Honzhao recommended that the Study Group focus on the study of the “two integrations” (on which see the talk by Keith Bennett and other reference material on the Study Goup’s website url) and promised to send a twice-early update. Zhu Honzhao

Following the meeting, there was a social reception for the Chinese guests at the Hiba Palestinian Restaurant, and lively discussions continued, at which Professor Cui Hanbing promised to keep an eye on the webpage of the Institute’s Xi Jinping Thought Study Group and provide ongoing advice.