SOURCE : THE MORNING STAR
Lush says Stop Starving Gaza!
by New Worker correspondent
Beauty chain Lush shut its UK shops, factories and website on Wednesday in protest at the Israeli government “preventing urgent humanitarian assistance from entering Gaza”.
The cosmetic giant said “we share the anguish that millions of people feel seeing the images of starving people in Gaza, Palestine. Like the rest of the world, we struggle to find ways we can help whilst the Israeli government is preventing urgent humanitarian assistance from entering Gaza. One thing Lush can currently send into Gaza is our love and a strong message that we stand in solidarity. This will take the form of halting business-as-usual by shutting our UK shops, website and factories for one day on Wednesday 3rd September 2025…
“Whilst Lush is losing a day of takings, this also means that the UK Government is losing a day of tax contributions from Lush and our customers. We hope they too hear the message our closure sends, with more Government action needed to bring an immediate stop to the death and destruction, including an end to arms sales from the UK”.
Lush’s Watermelon Slice soap has been the most successful single issue fund-raising product in the history of Lush, indicating how strongly our customers feel and we are grateful to have been able to raise funds towards child mental health support in Palestine. Lush plans to make this soap available again, with the funds going to medical services, including charities that are gearing up to provide prosthetic limb services to adults and children injured in Gaza.
Celebrating China’s victory over fascism
by New Worker correspondent
NCP leader Andy Brooks joined hundreds of music-lovers to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War last week. The Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang and his wife Counsellor Hua Mei were the guests of honour at the Royal College of Music in London’s West End to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
The event with the theme Honour History for a Better Future was supported by the Chinese Embassy and the Bank of China. And other guests included the Labour peer Lord Davidson and Timothy Hailes, the Lord Mayor Elect of the City of London, along with members of the Chinese community in Britain and representatives of Anglo-Chinese business and cultural bodies.
Ambassador Zheng said that 80 years ago the Chinese people fought heroically, made huge national sacrifices and defeated the Japanese aggressors. The Chinese people and the British people fought shoulder to shoulder as allies, made great contributions to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War, and helped to establish a new international order. China has always been a peace-loving nation…this concert in London is intended to use music to remember history, honour those who gave their lives for the cause of justice, express an aspiration for world peace, and reaffirm a commitment to building a community with a shared future for humanity.
The concert featured ten pieces of Chinese and Western music presented by the Hunan Provincial Song & Dance Theatre and New Elements Music and guest performances from the London City Orchestra and the Camden Philharmonic.
It opened with a stirring rendition of Ode to the Red Flag, followed by classics from both countries, including the haunting theme from Schindler’s List and Elgar’s Nimrod which is traditionally played on Remembrance Day in the UK. Chinese favourites included Defend the Yellow River and My Motherland performed by the Chinese Embassy Choir, the Bank of China London Branch Choir, and the London Chinese Philharmonic Choir. The Chinese spirit of resistance and love for their motherland conveyed in the two songs resonated deeply with the audience, who responded with prolonged applause and acclaim.
End British support for Zionism!
by New Worker correspondent
In London last week Palestine solidarity campaigners took part in a rolling picket of companies that are complicit in the Israeli genocide and starvation of Gaza, starting at Google’s office in the heart of the capital.
And in the capital of Scotland the screen-writer Paul Laverty was arrested at a pro-Palestine protest outside a police station for allegedly supporting a banned organisation. Laverty is best known for his collaborations with director Ken Loach including the award-winning I, Daniel Blake and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which both won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
“Following a protest outside St Leonards Police Station on Monday 25 August 2025, a 68-year-old man has been arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 for showing support for a proscribed organisation” said Police Scotland. Laverty, who was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Genocide in Palestine, time to take action”, told the media that “although we have the law on our side, we cannot implement it. So I think we have to change the narrative. I think we’ll have to remember is that the most important court in the world is the court of public opinion. Ordinary people are appalled to see starvation and genocide and the selling of arms to the apartheid state in Israel, and are just appalled by it”.
Laverty is accused of supporting Palestine Action, which was banned in July following acts of vandalism at an RAF base. Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, announced the ban days after activists from the group broke into RAF Brize Norton and defaced two military transport aircraft with spray paint causing some seven million poundsworth of damage.
More than 700 people have been arrested, mostly at demonstrations, for supporting the group since it was outlawed under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said in July that the UK’s decision to proscribe the campaign group as a terrorist organisation was “disproportionate and unnecessary” and called for the designation to be rescinded.
He said: “UK domestic counter-terrorism legislation defines terrorist acts broadly to include ‘serious damage to property’. But, according to international standards, terrorist acts should be confined to criminal acts intended to cause death or serious injury or to the taking of hostages, for purpose of intimidating a population or to compel a government to take a certain action or not.
“It misuses the gravity and impact of terrorism to expand it beyond those clear boundaries, to encompass further conduct that is already criminal under the law”.
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