A NEW national Morning Star banner was raised for the first time at Saturday’s Britain Needs a Pay Rise demonstration in London and drew applause and appreciation as it was marched from the Embankment to Hyde Park.

It was carried on the route by Morning Star acting editor Ben Chacko and Joan Heath, who worked on the banner.

Joan is the mainstay of a small banner-making collective of six or seven volunteers which works at her home in the Pennine town of Todmorden in Yorkshire.

Other volunteers also worked on the new banner which was sewn by artist and musician Sheila Woodhead.

Joan said the design of the banner is very close to the original Morning Star national banner which was made in the 1960s, and which today hangs in William Rust House, London headquarters of the Star.

So far only the front of the new banner is complete. After the march it was returned to Yorkshire for work to start on its reverse, which will be a tribute to William Rust, first editor of the Daily Worker, the Morning Star’s predecessor.

The collective is creating banners for Morning Star Readers’ and Supporters’ groups in Yorkshire. Banners for Bradford and District and Calder Valley support groups have been created, and others are in the pipeline for Leeds and Sheffield.

A banner has also been made for Women Against Pit Closures, and others are planned for the Fire Brigades Union and Leeds Cuba Solidarity Campaign.