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Exposing the real ‘extremists’

3rd March 2024

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gives an address outside 10 Downing Street on Friday, where he said the country’s democracy was under threat

The phoney ‘address to the nation’ by British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, on Friday night was both pathetic and dangerous.  Pathetic that a Prime Minister should be so threatened by the election of narcissist George Galloway in Rochdale that he felt compelled to use it as an excuse to demonise those opposed to the ongoing genocide committed by the Israeli state in Gaza.  Dangerous because by effectively characterising those protesting in favour of Palestinian rights as anti-democratic ‘extremists’, Sunak moves Britian closer to being a fully fledged police state.

The way for Galloway’s victory had been paved by the Labour Party who initially rushed their selection process to ensure a popular Muslim candidate, then just as quickly disowned him for overheard comments about the nature of the Israeli action in Gaza, deeming them anti-semitic.  Without a Labour candidate Galloway was able to galvanise the pro-Palestinian vote amongst Rochdale’s Muslim population while also tapping into the general discontent with Labour’s line on Gaza amongst many other voters in the constituency.

Sunak’s address followed closely upon the massacre of 100 Palestinians in a single day by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), for the crime of being hungry and crowding an aid convoy.  The United Nations have clarified that many of those injured suffered gunshot wounds, others were trampled in the confusion as the IDF clearly lost control and resorted to their tried and tested gung ho methods.

Sunak mentioned none of this in his address, instead focussing upon criticising the democratic objections raised by thousands of people week in, week out across Britain, reflecting the majority of world opinion, that an immediate ceasefire in Gaza must be implemented.  Instead of backing the majority view Labour leader, Kier Starmer, sided with Sunak saying that he was right to call for ‘unity’. 

That Starmer should give Sunak’s comments any credence, in a week when Sunak failed to call out his Party former Vice Chairman, Lee Anderson, for racist remarks about London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, is alarming but sadly not surprising.  The Tory record on racism and Islamophobia is far worse than Labour’s has ever been on the manufactured anti-semitism charges, yet Starmer seems unable or unwilling to land punches in this regard.

It is little wonder that Starmer was the focus of George Galloway’s comments after winning in Rochdale stating,

“I want to tell Mr Starmer, above all, that the plates have shifted tonight. This is going to spark a movement, a landslide, a shifting of the tectonic plates in scores of parliamentary constituencies, beginning here in the north-west, in the West Midlands, in London, from Ilford to Bethnal Green and Bow.”

This is typical Galloway bluster and there is little real indication that tectonic plates have shifted, or even that Galloway would retain his Rochdale seat at a General Election.  However, the Rochdale result does send a message to both major parties that their line on Israel and the attack on the Palestinian people is not playing well with the broader public.  The Tories openly pro-Israeli line clearly marks them as being on the side of a regime willing to treat international law with impunity, trample upon human rights and continue to justify arming the regime guilty of such crimes.

It is ironic that the second anniversary of the Russian intervention in Ukraine was marked by nationalist leader Volodymyr Zelensky bemoaning the loss of 31,000 lives over the two year period.  The same number have been killed by the IDF in Gaza in less than five months.

The Labour leadership position of equivocation and studious avoidance of backing the cause of Palestinian rights has left them looking as unprincipled as the Tories.  Desperate to say what they think people want to hear, based on the editorial positions of the right wing media, the Labour leadership lack any sense of cohesion on Middle East policy other than hanging onto the coat tails of the Tories.

The protests in support of the rights of the Palestinian people will and must continue.  The over policing of such demonstrations, designed to suggest that they pose a threat, must stop.  The Labour leadership must unequivocally back the international call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

While Rishi Sunak may characterise those protesting for Palestinian rights as extremists, the real extremists are the religious fundamentalists in the Israeli leadership, those who continue to back them and those who profit from ongoing arms sales to the apartheid regime.

Sunak’s attempt to characterise the election of George Galloway and the groundswell of support for Palestinian rights as a threat to democracy and ‘our shared values’ must be exposed for the opportunist sham that it is.  The only values recognised by Sunak and his cronies are to keep their corrupt leadership in positions of power and influence.  Those are not, and will never be, values shared by the working class in Britian or the people of Palestine.

New world order realignment underway

17th February 2024

Taiwan under President Tsai Ing-wen is being heavily armed by the US

The concept of the ‘new world order’, as coined by US President, George Bush, in January 1991 was an attempt to shape the post Cold War era in the image of the United States, following the defeat of the Soviet Union.  The phrase emerged in a speech Bush made announcing the launch of Operation Desert Storm, following the Iraqi intervention in Kuwait which precipitated the first Gulf War.  It was quickly seized upon by US neo-cons, in particular, as short hand for US imperialism’s desire to play the role of global policeman, justifying military intervention wherever and whenever deemed necessary.

With the strategic counter balance to US expansionism, which the Soviet Union represented having been taken away, the only acceptable interpretation of the world for the US was one it dominated.  The so called Monroe doctrine, where the US since the 19th century saw Latin and South America as its ‘backyard’ in which to intervene as it wished, had now gone global.

While the US has undoubtedly flexed its economic and military muscle in a series of scenarios since 1991, things have not always gone according to plan.  Overt and covert activity in the Middle East, previously aimed at curtailing Soviet influence, translated into attempting to stem the tide of Islamic fundamentalism resulting in the calamity of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The origins of both can be traced back to CIA funded covert operations.  In addition, the adventurist foreign policy pursued by the Iranian dictatorship, to fund a network of resistance across the region, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, is a direct response to the failures of US Middle East policy.

The disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003, under the fictional pretext of identifying weapons of mass destruction, undoubtedly made the US and its NATO allies more enemies than friends in the Middle East.  The intervention in Libya has resulted in an ongoing civil war between rival factions; the retreat from Afghanistan has left the population at the mercy of the medieval Taliban; while the covert intervention to try and unseat Bashir al-Assad in Syria has more than backfired, with unsuccessful military action leading to the reality of a major refugee crisis for Western Europe.

The US still has too much military and economic might for these scenarios to be described as US imperialism’s death throes but there are increasing indications that the world order is changing and those changes are not to the liking of the US and its NATO allies. The most obvious of these is in relation to China. 

While China has no military designs other than to defend its own territory, anti-Chinese rhetoric has been growing amongst Western politicians and media in recent years.  Much of this is in response to the exponential growth in China’s economic power and its increasing influence with developing nations.  Investments made on the basis of joint co-operation, collaboration and mutual trust are a far cry from the asset stripping and plundering which characterises the economic relationship of the West with the developing world.

Nations of the Global South increasingly see trade and investment with China as a more productive and sustainable option than dealing with Western backed corporations.  Such successes are as a result of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched 10 years ago, with the aim of creating a network of mutually supportive economic relationships, not based upon exploitation and not based upon the expropriation of one state’s assets by another. 

BRI is inspired by the concept of the Silk Road, established during the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago, an ancient network of trade routes that connected China to the Mediterranean via Eurasia for centuries. The aim of BRI is to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks along six corridors.

That such a strategy is a threat to the dominance of US economic imperialism, there can be no doubt, hence the increasingly vitriolic rhetoric aimed at painting China, as an economic danger, but also a military threat.  Much of this rhetoric focuses upon the relationship of China to Taiwan, recognised in international law as Chinese territory, but increasingly used by the West as leverage with which to ‘justify’ its designs on restraining China’s economic growth.  The US has been increasing its supply of weapons to Taiwan underlining the potential of the island being a bridgehead into direct conflict with China.

The concept of a Chinese ‘threat’ also lies behind the justification of the US and its NATO allies to increase military expenditure and add to the level of Western military presence in South East Asia generally.

There is also concern in Western capitals that China plays a key role in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) group, which is increasingly attracting the attention of nations of the Global South, looking to find ways to break with the US led global order.

While the BRICS countries are by no means a homogeneous group in terms of their political outlook the initiative remains an important one.  The stranglehold of imperialist designed institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, both of which are US dominated and controlled, has tied developing nations to Western economies in ways which have thwarted, rather than encouraged, their economic independence.

The tools of the imperialist banking sector are there precisely to generate dependence and keep former colonial nations within a neo-colonial orbit.  The deployment of Western corporations, infrastructure and technology only serves to reinforce those dependencies over the long term.  Inevitably there is often a military pay off too, with arms contracts being tied into economic support and the stationing of military bases and US hardware as part of the deal.

The fact that the concept of “de-dollarisation” is even on the agenda of developing nations, and that there is an emerging investment network which it does not control, is of concern to the US. Also, there can be no doubt that much of the current US provocation towards China stems from the fear that the unipolarity it has enjoyed, since the defeat of the Soviet Union, is not only being questioned but is being actively challenged.  

Support the Cuba Vive Appeal

Help break the blockade on health. Support the Cuba Vive appeal to provide urgent medical aid for Cuba.

Dear friend,

US sanctions are depriving 11 million Cubans of life-saving medicines and surgical supplies. In response, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign has launched Cuba Vive – an appeal to raise funds to send vital medical aid to Cuba.

PLEASE DONATE TODAY

Cuba’s commitment to health as a human right has helped the country achieve world-renowned health services for its people despite 62 years of an illegal US blockade.

Today, these achievements are under threat.

Cuba’s dedicated health professionals struggle with limited resources to treat patients. From surgical supplies to spare parts, paracetamol to sutures: items that are in plentiful supply in the UK, are increasingly hard to come by or cost up to three or four times more.

Today’s shortages are unprecedented. After leading the region for many years, Cuba’s impressive health indicators are beginning to suffer. Between 2019 and 2022 the infant mortality rate rose from 5 per thousand live births to 7.5 per thousand.

In response, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, and UNISON North West, Northern, Northern Ireland and Scotland regions have launched a medical appeal to send containers of life-saving medicines, raw materials, surgical supplies and medical equipment to Cuba.

Please make a donation today towards the cost of buying and shipping these life-saving medical supplies to Cuba.

You can make a difference.

PLEASE DONATE TODAY

Please help us spread the word by forwarding this email and sharing the appeal with someone who may be in a position to help.

Thank you for your support.

Israel is not above the law

28th January 2024

Supporters of a free Palestine demonstrate outside The Hague

The measures outlined by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has ruled that Israel’s actions in Gaza are plausibly genocidal, must be welcomed by all who support the cause of Palestinian liberation.

The ruling is a landmark in the search for justice for the Palestinian people.  The ICJ decision will be relayed to the United Nations Security Council for consideration.  The ruling orders Israel to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and to do more to help civilians, who are currently suffering under daily bombardment by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).  However, the ICJ stopped short of ordering a ceasefire as requested by the plaintiff South Africa.

Although the ruling contained no binding order upon Israel to stop the war in Gaza it is nevertheless a legal setback for Israel. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the decision was a welcome reminder that “no state is above the law”.

The ruling not only obliges Israel to stop all acts which are plausibly genocidal but equally obliges all states to cease funding and facilitating Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.  The measures, all backed by at least 15 judges, also required Israel to ensure the preservation of evidence of alleged genocide and report to the court within a month.

In coming to its decision the ICJ did not have to find whether Israel had committed genocide, which will be determined at a later date, but only that its acts were capable of falling within the convention, which defines the war crime as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

Nevertheless, the United States made its position clear ahead of the judgement, describing South Africa’s case at the ICJ as “meritless, counterproductive, completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.”

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, proclaimed in response to the ICJ ruling,

“Israel’s commitment to international law is unwavering. Equally unwavering is our sacred commitment to continue to defend our country and defend our people. Like every country, Israel has an inherent right to defend itself,” he said. “The vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was justly rejected.”

As ever the scared right to self defence is, for Netanyahu, one which applies to Israel but not to the Palestinians, whom Israel has been oppressing in the West Bank and Gaza for decades.  The mantra that ‘Israel has the right to defend itself ‘ is increasingly seen as  a right wing trope for justifying the Israeli regime treating Palestinians with impunity.

Solidarity organisations across the world have called upon all states to commit to upholding the ICJ decision to protect the rights, including the fundamental right to life of Palestinians in Gaza.  The death of over 25,000 people, over 70% of whom are women and children according to the United Nations, cannot be justified by the IDF as a response to the actions of Hamas on 7 October 2023.

Such a disproportionate response, having been condemned by the ICJ, must now be condemned by the entire international community and every effort made towards supporting the call for an immediate ceasefire, a negotiated solution to end Israeli action and free hostages held by Hamas.

Most importantly the resolutions of the United Nations on the need for a two state solution, realising the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of a Palestinian state within agreed international borders, must be acted upon by all member states.

The ICJ ruling is to be welcomed as a vital step towards the realisation of the need to stop the current genocide in Gaza and take the first steps towards the establishment of an independent state for the people of Palestine.

However, the ongoing commitment of the United States and Britain to arm Israel, not take the Israeli government to task for its flouting of international law and to be, at best, lukewarm about the necessity of a Palestinian state, remain significant barriers to progress.  In the short term the failure of either state to recognise the need to support the call for a ceasefire, in spite of the mounting death toll, is scandalous.

The fact that this shame is cross party, with the Labour leadership in Britian continuing to back the government’s position, including being in favour of air strikes against Yemen, adds urgency to the need to campaign for a change in British foreign policy.

As the Jewish diaspora gather to mark Holocaust Memorial Day over this weekend many are rightly appalled by the action of the IDF and the religious zealots around Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza.  Opposition to the religious fundamentalists in the Israeli regime is growing both inside and outside Israel, many in the Jewish community increasingly regard the actions of Netanyahu and his war cabinet as not being carried out in their name.

The working class movement in Britain and across the world needs to stand in solidarity with those opposing religious fundamentalism in Israel, just as they support those opposing the theocratic dictatorship in Iran and religious zealotry in Saudi Arabia.  The fate of the people of Palestine and the people of Israel may depend upon it. 

Prospects for peace in the balance

20th January 2024

Thousands march for Peace in Palestine – London 13th January 2024

The US offensive against the Houthi group in Yemen, with Britain as usual clutching American foreign policy coat tails, represents a further escalation of tension in the Middle East.  Ten days ago the initial bombardment of the capital Sana’a and other Yemeni cities added to the destruction already inflicted by the Saudi led and Western backed coalition, which has waged war in Yemen since 2015, displacing and killing thousands.

The Western attacks are in response to Houthi attacks upon merchant shipping in the Red Sea, which has forced ships to take longer trade routes and therefore added to the price of goods.   The Houthis defence is that they are targeting ships which are supplying Israel in its genocide in Gaza.  In Yemen itself the situation was described by Oxfam as follows,

“The humanitarian situation in Yemen remains dire with almost 21 million people in desperate need of food, water and life saving aid.  It is vital that peace be restored and further suffering prevented.”

The war in Yemen since 2015 has effectively pitted the Houthis, as Iran’s proxy, against Saudi Arabia in what the UN regarded as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis until the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

The Houthi’s, who control the North and West of Yemen, are backed by Iran so are by no means paragons of democratic practice.  On the contrary their much repeated slogan, “God is the greatest, death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews”, hardly marks them out as the most enlightened of Middle East factions.

However, the US/British bombing campaign has arguably been the trigger for the more direct engagement of Iran in the Middle East conflict, thus destabilising further an already volatile situation and dragging a wide range of other players into the conflict.  Attacks upon locations in Pakistan, Syria and Iraq by the Iranians in the past week are fuelling an already unstable situation.

As a regional nuclear power Pakistan has the potential to take the conflict to an even more dangerous level, posing a threat not just to the region but to world peace.

While US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, claims to have sent a private message to Iran, telling them to back off, this does not appear to have had any more impact than exhortations to Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, to avoid killing civilians in Gaza.  Netanyahu’s response has been to take the number of dead over the 24,000 mark, 70% being women and children according to the UN, the vast majority civilian non-combatants.

Only this week Netanyahu has been explicit in his opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state. This is in direct contradiction to the stated US position of supporting a two state solution.

The United States has now designated the Houthis as ‘global terrorists’ in a further twist in the escalation of regional tension.  The designation will make it harder for humanitarian aid organisations to access those in need.

US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, justified the move saying that it was in response to attacks on commercial shipping in the region saying that recent attacks “fit the textbook definition of terrorism”.

However, the US and other Westen powers remain unwilling to act upon the fact that Israeli Defence Force (IDF) operations in Gaza and the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank are at the heart of tensions in the region.  Is the killing of over 24,000 people and the displacement of 1.6 million more not a “textbook definition of terrorism”?

Until the question of Palestine is addressed the prospects for peace in the region will remain slim.  The refusal of the US and Israel to engage in serious dialogue with the Palestinians over many decades has directly led to Hamas gaining control in Gaza, increased Iranian influence in both Lebanon and Palestine, and fuelled tensions across the Arab world.

The US has tried to use such tensions to its advantage, by playing one group or state off against another, the eight year long Iran-Iraq war being a case in point, arming reactionary groups in Afghanistan, which eventually became the Taliban, another.  Engineering uprisings against Gaddafi in Libya and Assad in Syria add to the list.

In none of these situations has US imperialism increased its influence and has often had to resort to massive force just to hold onto its position.  In every instance the consequences for the people of the region have been catastrophic, resulting in war, collapsed states or dictatorship.

As tensions in the Middle East increase, and the response of Britain and the US remains one of sending in gunships, the situation can only get worse.  The warmongering response of NATO is a further reason for any incoming Labour government to have withdrawal from the military alliance in its manifesto along with a commitment to a non-aligned foreign policy.

Also, mass mobilisation of the people, like the 13th January demonstrations, are essential to bring pressure to bear upon the West to adopt a strategy aimed at reducing, not increasing tensions.  Without such an approach the prospects for peace will remain in the balance.  

All change but no difference?

7th January 2024

Labour leader Kier Starmer – “credible hope” his best offer to date

Elections will dominate the political narrative on both sides of the Atlantic in 2024.  In the United States the Presidential election scheduled for 5 November is already being dominated by the prospect of another run by the narcissist, Donald Trump, with many predicting a victory over Joe Biden a distinct possibility if Trump wins the Republican nomination.

At present two states, Colorado and Maine, have disqualified Trump from the Republican ballot on the grounds of inciting insurrection.  Whether such a judgement will pass the test with the Supreme Court, where it is currently heading, remains to be seen.  However, should Trump clear these hurdles he is a racing certainty to be the Republican nominee based on current polling estimates.

That does not make a Trump second term a certainty by any means but it does raise it as a distinct possibility.  Such constraints as there were during Trump’s first term would undoubtedly be swept aside as the team around Trump are already making clear.  The independence of the judiciary and decisions on who does and does not get prosecuted are already in Trump’s sights.  This would raise the prospect of Trump being able to pardon himself and his cronies, as well as launching investigations into his enemies.

Trump’s take on whether he planned to rule as a dictator when asked by Fox News was telling,

“Except for day one”, he said, “After that, I’m not a dictator.”

Which begs the question as to how long ‘day one’ will last.

Trump’s take on foreign policy has been famously myopic.  Fears within the US political establishment centre around Trump abandoning NATO and, for some Democrats, cutting off the weapons supply to Ukraine.  However, there is nothing to suggest that Trump would not remain gung ho in relation to US attitudes towards China, Iran or the wider Middle East, with support for Israel not likely to be up for discussion.

Biden has actively embraced the role of the US as the world’s policeman, ready to intervene whenever or wherever perceived US ‘interests’ are at stake.  While Trump’s rhetoric may sound different, to keep on board his home crowd, the forces which shape the wider objectives of US imperialism will not be so easily persuaded to change course.

Democracy US style has always been an illusion, being based on the bankrolling of candidates by private individuals and corporations seeking to gain the most influence.  A Biden/Trump face off in November will be no different.  However, while a Trump return to the White House would signal a further shift to the right in the political centre of gravity in the US, would wider policy objectives for US imperialism change fundamentally?.

November is still a long way off and a lot can happen in US politics over the months till then.  Writing off Trump being back in the White House in January 2025 though is not something which should be contemplated yet.

In Britain lame duck Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has indicated that a General Election will not take place until the second half of the year.  The timing of the election is up to Sunak however, so the option of a snap May election cannot be ruled out, depending upon how Sunak and his cohorts see the political landscape as shaping.  With a first draft of the Covid19 Inquiry report being promised by the summer for example, Sunak may want to cut and run before Tory failings during the pandemic become too exposed.

So far Sunak has pinned his hopes on achieving the five pledges he made last year being, halving inflation; stopping the boats; growing the economy; cutting NHS waiting lists; and reducing the national debt.

While inflation has reduced, prices remain high and continue to be a burden for many working class families. Also, a multiplicity of factors contribute to the inflation figures, of which government action is only one.  Most factors are beyond immediate government control.  Attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea, which may force trade to take longer routes and push up the price of goods, being a case in point.

Sunak’s desire to ‘stop the boats’, the Tories jingoistic excuse for a comprehensive policy on migration, continues to be mired in controversy, not least the forcible repatriation to Rwanda scheme, which has so far cost £240 million without a plane taking off.

The economy is in such a parlous state, due to years of Tory austerity and underinvestment, that growth is flatlining and Britain is on the brink of being declared officially in recession.  NHS waiting lists are exacerbated by the government’s refusal to negotiate seriously with junior doctors, who have effectively been forced into further industrial action in pursuit of their pay claim.  While the Tories and right wing media do their best to blame cancelled operations and waiting lists on the doctors action the government’s intransigence is widely seen as the real source.

As for reducing the national debt, this hit its highest level of 2023 in November, the latest month for which data is available, at 97.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).  This is expected to rise to 97.9% by the end of the financial year in March.

All of which should leave the Labour Party shooting into an open goal and hitting the back of the net with a series of clear policies for change.  So far however the Labour leadership’s position has been hedged by uncertainty and a lack of clear commitments.

The £28bn per year pledge to invest in green technologies has been diluted to a desire to hit that target in the second half of a Parliament, hardly transformational change.  The promise to abolish university fees has become one to make student fees fairer and more “progressive”.  Any tax cuts for working class people are dependant upon economic growth and there are no plans to increase the taxes upon the rich.

On the subject of the junior doctors action, when pressed as to whether he would make a higher offer Starmer responded with,

“I don’t want these strikes to go ahead.”

Hardly a recognition of the justified action of NHS staff in the face of government intransigence.

As the election approaches Labour’s position will have to become clearer.  The fear for many on the Left and in working class communities is that the clarity will not be coupled with a sharpened attack on the underlying inequities which are endemic to capitalism and the need for transformational change in favour of working class communities.   The best Kier Starmer could offer in his recent New Year speech was “credible hope”, hardly a fiery rallying cry!

On both sides of the Atlantic this year elections may bring about the appearance of change but there is little sign that they will make a huge difference.

Gaza at breaking point

10th December 2023

Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza has levelled entire neighbourhoods and displaced hundreds of thousands.

The third vote calling for a ceasefire in Gaza was vetoed at the United Nations Security Council on Friday (8th December) night by the United States, the only vote against the resolution. To its continued shame the British government abstained without speaking.  In spite of the massive ongoing humanitarian need, with UN General Secretary, Antonio Guterres, asserting that, “We are at a breaking point. There is a high risk of a total collapse of the humanitarian system”, NATO powers continue to defer to the line of the Israeli regime that any ceasefire would allow Hamas to regroup.

The advent of Israeli ground forces into southern Gaza last week marked a new escalation in the war on the Palestinian people declared by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).  While the stated war aims of the Israeli government are to destroy Hamas the sheer scale of civilian casualties, now over 16,000, along with the displacement of over 1.2 million people means that this is effectively a war against the whole population in Gaza.

Contrary to its vote at the UN even the United States last week called for a more restrained military campaign, following the seven day truce and release of hostages.  However, it is clear that the religious fundamentalists in the Israeli government are off message with their US military paymasters.  Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been categorical in what he sees as the mission of the IDF stating,

“We continue to fight with all our strength until we achieve all our goals; the return of all of our abductees, the elimination of Hamas and the promise that Gaza will never be a threat to Israel again.”

Gaza would never be a ‘threat’ to Israel if the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people were acknowledged and a peaceful solution found, rather than one based upon occupation, intimidation and military force.  The peace option is clearly not on Netanyahu’s agenda.

The coalition which was assembled, following last year’s elections in Israel, saw Netanyahu pledging to expand illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories and to eventually annex the West Bank. His religious fundamentalist allies in the coalition reject the establishment of any Palestinian state.

The IDF are now looking to divide Gaza into dozens of numbered blocks then direct civilians into areas that will allegedly not be attacked.  Given the civilian death toll so far the Palestinian population could be forgiven for not following leafletted QR code directions “to track and follow the instructions of the IDF.” 

The stark reality for the people of Gaza is that there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide from the IDF threat.  While the US may cry crocodile tears over its Middle East proxy running out of control it cannot hide the fact that Israel, as the world’s fourth largest military force, is largely bankrolled by Washington.  The US has contributed $3.3 billion to Israel’s military budget this year alone.

The British government is also complicit in the supply of arms to Israel.  British industry provides 15% of the components in the F35 stealth combat aircraft that are currently being used in the bombardment of Gaza. The contract for the components is estimated by Campaign Against Arms Trade to be worth £336m since 2016.

While the IDF can deploy state of the art missile technology courtesy of the world’s major arms manufacturers, the Palestinians are largely confined to the use of inaccurate home made missiles when they can be smuggled past the Israeli blockade of Gaza and ongoing occupation of the West Bank. 

It is worth remembering that 80% of the inhabitants of Gaza are refugees. This is hardly the basis of a threat to the military might of Israel or the existence of the Israeli state.

The scale of the Israeli bombardment has reduced large parts of Gaza to rubble and reduced the health service to being barely able to cope with even the most severe emergencies.  World Health Organisation senior emergency officer, Rob Holden, commenting on healthcare in Gaza recently said,

“There is no standing room.  The floor is awash with blood and patients lying waiting to receive life saving care.”  

The mass displacement of people from the north to the south of Gaza, enforced by the IDF, now means that the population of the south has doubled to over 2 million people.  Save the Children, visiting a shelter in the southern city of Khan Younis, observed that,

“It was designed for 1,000 people but has 35,000 in it.  There are 600 people for every toilet.”

This is the actual reality of the mantra of Western leaders that Israel has ‘the right to defend itself’.   The operations of the IDF in Gaza are not about self defence they are an exercise in extermination, of Hamas it is claimed, but in reality an attempt to extinguish the will of the Palestinian people to assert their right to defend themselves, a right to resist occupation and to uphold the norms of international law.

Demonstrations worldwide continue to make the case for Palestinian rights against the disproportionate response of the Israeli state and to assert, defend and promote the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people under international law.  The call for a ceasefire and the need for a negotiated two state solution to the occupation of Palestine must be addressed by the international community and the crimes of the current Israeli leadership exposed.

Tories taxing the poor

3rd December 2023

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – vicious cuts behind the smile

Now that the dust has settled on Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement the realities on the ground are becoming clearer and it is no surprise that it is the poor who will be hit the hardest.  In what is widely regarded as a package which will herald a new wave of austerity, the proposals are likely to see a massive sale of Council assets, Councils being reduced to little more than the delivery of emergency services, Nottingham being the latest to succumb, and the vulnerable being put at greater risk.

While the headlines in the BBC state media and the Tory press have emphasised reductions in tax and national insurance, the reality is that local government, being part of a non-protected government department, will face an annual cut of 3.4% a year for five years.  Even Tory Council leaders are talking of an “existential threat” to local services with one Tory Council leader warning.

“We need to have a recognition that if we aren’t properly funded the rest of the country will fall over.”

Shaun Telford, chair of the Local Government Association, painted a bleak picture of the number of local councils facing financial crisis stating,

“Any suggestion of any further cuts on top of the current deficit and we will see the number of Councils set to go bankrupt rise from one in ten to a significantly higher number.  They’ve done the restructures.  They’ve done the asset sales, they’ve done the staff reduction, they’ve done the service redesign, they’ve done the transformation.  They’ve used the reserves already.  Once those things are gone, they’re gone.”

There is a clear danger that as further austerity bites many local councils will simply not be financially viable, with all of the implications that means for local services upon which many working class communities rely.  While austerity driven cuts have already forced many Councils to cut back or close a wide range of universal services such as arts centres, libraries and sports facilities, current areas under consideration include school meals and adult social care provision.

The care sector is also likely to suffer as a result of government proposals to restrict the health worker visa scheme to exclude care workers, who have been part of the scheme since 2022.   That has seen 123,500 care workers recruited from overseas since the scheme was opened and its demise could force the closure of care facilities, putting even more pressure upon under funded local authorities. 

The government are currently considering restrictions on the number of relatives care workers may bring into the country; a cap on the number of care workers who can be hired from abroad; and changes to the minimum salary overseas workers must be paid, effectively resulting in the exclusion of care workers.

The reality remains that in spite of the Tory dash for votes, with national insurance cuts and the promise of more tax cuts in the pipeline, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is still predicting that the overall tax burden will rise each year to a postwar high of 37.7% of GDP by 2028-29.   The freeze on income tax thresholds alone, including the personal allowance, is expected to drag four million workers into paying income tax in the next five years.

The HMRC estimate that an additional four million people have already started paying tax since 2020, with 1.6 million hitting the higher 40% tax band.

The other side of the tax coin however is the issue of what the government is spending the money on.  While services for the vulnerable in working class communities are in danger of going to the wall the Tories are happy to send weapons to the right wing nationalist government of Ukraine; support Israeli genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza; and commit to the purchase of weapons of mass destruction, by agreeing to the renewal of the US controlled Trident nuclear submarine programme.

Tory government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich should come as no surprise.  The compliance of the Labour leadership however, must be challenged and voters given a real choice at the General Election next year.  While a Labour government in itself is no guarantee of progressive policies, pressure from trades union affiliates and mass extra parliamentary action can be influential in pushing Labour towards acting in the interests of working class communities.

A progressive programme for change which includes sufficient funding for local government; a green investment plan to address the climate emergency; abolition of Trident, withdrawal from NATO and a non-aligned foreign policy; a programme of Council house building with no right to buy; a fully funded NHS free at the point of use; and a return to comprehensive education would be a starting point for demands of an incoming Labour government.  It may not quite amount to socialism, the only real answer to address working class needs, but it would be a step in the right direction.

Pointless shuffling of the pack

18th November 2023

Cameron and Sunak – failed Prime Ministers unite

Not content with having a failed lame duck Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, in 10, Downing St; and two failed Prime Ministers (Theresa May, Liz Truss) on the backbenches; the Tories have now wheeled out failed former Prime Minister, David Cameron, to take on the role of Foreign Secretary. 

Cameron, suddenly elevated to the House of Lords to overnight become Lord Cameron was, alongside his Chancellor George Osborne, the architect of austerity.  In cahoots with the opportunist Liberal Democrats, who propped up the Tory government from 2010-15, Cameron and Osborne launched a vicious attack upon the public sector, slashing services essential to working class communities, piling the pressure upon local government and denying access to university and many further education opportunities to working class children.  

Cameron’s was a government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich, typical of all Tory administrations, but one which made sure that the gambling debts, run up in the 2008 financial crash by the City of London speculators, were covered by squeezing the working class while the banks and the corporations got away scot free.

It is ironic to say the least that Sunak’s ploy in reshuffling his Cabinet, sacking right wing xenophobe Suella Braverman and bringing in Cameron, is intended to give it a more liberal hue, an attempt to woo back centrist Tories away from the lure of the Liberal Democrats. 

The reality is that, however the Tory pack is shuffled, the working class will never be dealt a winning hand because the table is rigged and the Tories are being bankrolled by those who own the casino!

Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak have all had the keys to 10, Downing St since 2010 and the lot of the working class has only gone from bad to worse, while the City of London rakes it in and the number of British billionaires increases.  There were 177 billionaires in Britain in 2022, up from 53 in 2010, with a combined wealth of £653bn.

Using inflation-adjusted wealth data from archive copies of the Rich List, the combined wealth of Britain’s billionaires is calculated to have risen from £53.9bn in 1990 to the £653bn level in 2022. This represents an increase in billionaire wealth of over 1,000% over the past 32 years.

By way of contrast recent research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that 3.8 million people experienced the most extreme form of poverty, destitution, in 2022. That is a 61% increase since 2019. More than 1 million of those affected were children. Many people are struggling to afford the basics to live and rely on charities and food banks to survive.

With an Autumn Statement next week, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is already trailing the prospect of squeezing the way in which welfare benefit increases are calculated, in order to create room for some pre-election tax cuts, in a desperate attempt to buy votes.  Meanwhile, many local authorities are facing the prospect of Section 114 notices, meaning that they do not have the cash to fund their statutory obligations and are, in effect, declaring themselves bankrupt and unable to run essential services.

In the world’s sixth richest country the scale of poverty and the slashing of support should be a national scandal.  Instead, the Tories simply engage in sleight of hand politics, creating more complex Mayoral authorities, and giving them back a fraction of the funds robbed from local government in the past fifteen years, under the guise of expanding local control of resources.  Both at a local and national level Labour politicians are complicit in this confidence trick, arguing that having control over some resources is better than none at all.

Meanwhile, queues at food banks continue to get longer, more people are making the ‘lifestyle choice’ to sleep on the streets and working class young people are priced out of the property market, as well as having to expend a huge proportion of their income on renting often substandard accommodation.

The wave of strikes across a range of sectors from rail workers, postal workers, teachers, junior doctors and others over the past year points the way forward for resistance to Tory attacks.  The massive marches across Britain in support of the rights of the Palestinian people in recent weeks are a further indication that the Tory narrative, domestically and internationally, is rejected by huge sections of the population.

The 56 MPs voting for a ceasefire in Gaza this week, in spite of the united front against that view from the Tory and Labour leaderships, not only demonstrates a recognition that the struggle of the working class is an international struggle but that there are still representatives within Parliament who can add their voices to the extra-Parliamentary activity which will be essential for lasting change.  

However Rishi Sunak reshuffles his Cabinet, whatever tricks Jeremy Hunt tries to deploy in his Autumn Statement, nothing can disguise the political bankruptcy of the Tories.  The challenge for the Left is to move the Labour leadership away from its current Tory-lite position and build upon the genuine desire for real change which is evident across the country. 

Labour leader Kier Starmer continues to ignore the warning signs and persists in his strategy of hoping that being acceptable to ‘middle England’ will also keep the working class on board.  As the militant mood in the country continues to grow however, Starmer may yet find himself in for a shock.

Labour still spineless on ceasefire in Gaza

12th November 2023

The people united…thousands marching across Westminster Bridge calling for a ceasefire in Gaza

As thousands once more take to the streets of London to march for peace and call for a ceasefire in Gaza, British Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, continues to fuel the fires of conflict by condemning the protests as ‘hate marches.’   Braverman has further suggested that the Metropolitan Police actively favour left wing marches over those of right wing organisations.  Coming from the woman who claims that homeless people living in tents are making a ‘lifestyle choice’ there should be little left to surprise anyone.  Yet Braverman has a habit of pulling something that little bit more mind boggling out of the bag.

The phoney war about the Armistice Day commemoration and the National March for Palestine being on the same day, 11th November, has rumbled across the TV and print media all week.  The fact that the respective events were some distance and hours apart has not stopped the press and politicians from insisting that the police ensure that there was no disruption to the Armistice Day events, even though there was no threat or likelihood of any disruption taking place.

On the day the only source of aggravation, including 105 arrests, were counter demonstrators from the far right English Defence League and their ilk, the very people Braverman was seeking to protect.  

All of this posturing serves two purposes.  The first, in the undeclared war within the Tory party to succeed lame duck Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, being seen to be tough on ‘radicals’ and left wing protesters plays well to the Tory base.  Throw in the inference that such protesters are likely to be anti-semitic and supporters of Hamas and you are half way to a place on the leadership ballot.

The second is to undermine the just cause and legitimate claim to statehood of the Palestinian people themselves.  It is a familiar trope of the right wing to caricature anyone supporting freedom and democracy as a terrorist.  Nelson Mandela was infamously characterised in this way by the Tories when imprisoned in South Africa.  Many other liberation leaders across the former British Empire have suffered similar demonisation.

The BBC cannot report any atrocity committed by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) in Gaza without the qualification that the action is in response to “the killing of 1400 people on 7th October by Hamas, designated a terrorist organisation by the UK government.”  Rarely, if ever, does the media qualify Palestinian resistance with a phrase indicating it is in response to “nearly 60 years of illegal occupation under international law and countless massacres in the West Bank and Gaza as well as the ongoing illegal blockade by land, sea and air of Gaza, which has been implemented by Israel since 2007.”   

The famous ‘balance’ of the BBC does not stretch quite this far.

Meanwhile the IDF continue to bomb hospitals in Gaza with impunity, massacre men, women and children in refugee camps and carpet bomb the northern half of Gaza into rubble.  The death toll is currently at an estimated 11,000 people, and rising.  Last Friday alone Israel launched air strikes on four hospitals and a school.  It is little wonder that half of the death toll so far are children.

The only ‘concession’ the Israeli state has made is to institute four hour long so called ‘humanitarian pauses’, to encourage people to be herded to the south of Gaza, while the IDF takes the time to re-arm and refuel, ready for the next wave of bombardment.  Terms such as ethnic cleansing and genocide rarely, if ever, pass the lips of the media’s political pundits but how else to describe the actions of the IDF?

Western leaders’ claims that IDF action is justified because Israel has ‘the right to defend itself’ were paper thin to start with.  They can only be seen now as a completely transparent attempt to dodge the hard work of getting down to holding the Israeli regime to account for decades of systematic oppression and the implementation of apartheid laws against the Palestinian people.

However, cracks in the Western edifice are beginning to show under the pressure of public protest.  French President Emmanuel Macron has now joined the call for a ceasefire, saying that Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians, adding that there was “no legitimacy” for the bombing.

Unsurprisingly, in a statement responding to Macron’s comments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that world leaders should be condemning Hamas, and not Israel.

That the Labour Party leadership in Britain, at the instigation of Kier Starmer, should find itself in a less progressive position than a right wing French President on such a key issue of peace and international solidarity is shameful. 

Labour have recently unveiled a PR campaign characterising Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, as spineless.  Hard to argue with that.  Yet when it comes to the question of Palestinian rights it is the Labour leadership in general, and Kier Starmer in particular, lacking a backbone.