Category: Uncategorized

US election – Resistance is vital

7th November 2024

Demonstrations will continue to oppose the reactionary policies of President Trump

The election of a new President in the United States is always a moment of international significance, given the role the US plays in world politics.  The Presidential election of 2024 has been described as the most consequential in a generation and there is no doubt that the re-election of Donald Trump will have profound repercussions both in the US and internationally.

Trump’s first term appointments of reactionary judges to the Supreme Court has already led to the reversal of Roe v Wade and the attack on reproductive rights in the US.  While each State can at the moment determine its own position there is no guarantee that Trump will not introduce nationwide anti-abortion legislation, under pressure from the hardline Christian evangelist lobby.

The belligerent stand taken by Trump in relation to the Black Lives Matter Movement also does not augur well for progress in the discrimination and treatment of the Black and Latino communities in the US.  While the media are making much out of the increase in Trump’s vote share amongst these communities, over the more socially liberal Kamala Harris, work is still needed to analyse the pattern of voting and the impact of many who stayed at home.

As a long standing advocate of gun laws being as relaxed as possible, US citizens cannot look forward to any action to restrain the gun lobby in the US, led by the fanatical National Rifle Association (NRA).  The consequence of lack of control over gun law in the US  saw nearly 43,000 people die from gun related violence in 2023 and any hope for that number to drop significantly under Trump is slim.

Trump has the backing of a shady grouping around the Make America Great Again (MAGA) campaign, called Project 2025: The Presidential Transition Project.

The blurb on their website states it’s mission:

“ It is not enough for conservatives to win elections. If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on Day One of the next conservative Administration.

This is the goal of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project. The project will build on four pillars that will, collectively, pave the way for an effective conservative Administration.”

Trump has also called for thousands of federal employees to be fired and to be replaced by workers who are appropriately vetted on the basis of their ideological belief in the limited role of federal government and personal loyalty to him, stating,

“I will require every federal employee to pass a new civil service test, demonstrating an understanding of our constitutional limited government.”

Tax cuts for the rich and cuts in public services for the rest are likely to be the reality of Trump’s policies.

On the world stage the US military industrial complex will be looking forward to continued profits as Trump will undoubtedly continue promoting the sales of US weapons and technology worldwide.

In relation to the ongoing Israeli action in the Middle East, in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran, Trump has made clear his unswerving support for Benjamin Netanyahu and the ongoing incursions by the Israel Defence Force (IDF), resulting in thousands of deaths over the past year.  Trump’s election victory was greeted enthusiastically by Netanyahu and his supporters in Tel Aviv.

In his first term as President, Trump tore up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in relation to Iran, which constrained Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for a relaxation of sanctions.  Given Trump’s belligerent tone towards Iran, allied with his support for Israel, there is a clear danger of escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.  

In relation to Ukraine Trump has been more ambivalent but the strategic objectives of the US and NATO, in encircling Russia in order to contain its influence, remain real.  However any settlement regarding Ukraine is arrived at in the short term, this wider objective will remain.

In the Indo-Pacific the military built up to counter the so called ‘threat’ of China continues, with ongoing economic and military support for Taiwan being key, along with the threat to peace in the region posed by the AUKUS alliance of the US, UK and Australia.

Any moves towards rapprochement with Cuba, mild as they were under the Obama administration, were ditched during Trump’s first term.  Cuba was added to the US state sponsors of terrorism list.  To the shame of the Biden administration this position was not reversed and the ongoing illegal blockade against Cuba, imposed by the US, will continue under a new Trump Presidency.

The ongoing CIA campaign to undermine progress in Venezuela, a long running effort to install a US friendly regime in that country, is unlikely to change under Trump,  while a clampdown upon migration from Latin America in general will reinforce the jingoism which has been a hallmark of Trump’s policies.  Trump has vowed to oversee the largest mass deportation in US history for example and has repeatedly stated that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country.

The Trump administration may not be characterised as fascist yet but Trump does have form.   According to John Kelly, former White House Chief of Staff, during a 2018 trip to Paris to commemorate the end of World War I, Trump told him that Hitler “did a lot of good things.”

Much of the United States will be waking up to the hangover of a second Trump administration.  The broad anti-MAGA coalition will continue to mobilise against the reactionary legislation Trump is bound to introduce. The Communist Party USA is calling for a renewed resistance movement to build the anti-fascist front that has been developing over recent years.  Resistance is not only possible but vital, for the people of the US and the world.

Creative Health – Wake up the nation

23rd October 2024

Health Secretary, Wes Streeting – big plans for the NHS but will they be big enough?

With only one week to go until the first budget from Labour Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, there has been much speculation about what it will include, in relation to both spending cuts and investment to allegedly boost the economy, usually a euphemism for increasing coprorate profits.  As part of the pre-budget media management Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has shared a vision for the NHS, or at least initiated a “national conversation”, with a 10 year plan for the NHS to be published next year.

As well as digitisation of patient records, controversial with many, the government is proposing neighbourhood health centres where patients will be able to see family doctors, district nurses, care workers, physiotherapists, health visitors and mental health specialists, all locally and under the same roof.

There will also be shift in focus, from sickness to prevention, with the aim of shortening the amount of time people spend chronically unwell and preventing ill-health. There are also plans to provide  smart watches for people with diabetes or high blood pressure, so they can monitor their own health at home.

Some of these measures may have benefits but while smart watches to monitor conditions could address the symptoms it will not get to the root causes of economic disadvantage and poverty, which result in poor diet and cheap food choices, which many working class families are forced into. 

At the same time, in a contradictory move, the government has approved the trial of an anti-obesity drug aimed at getting “those who are most likely to return to the labour market” back into work.  The trial, based in Manchester, will involve 3,000 people in a five year study of the “non-clinical outcomes” of treatment to see if it encourages a return to the workplace.

The trial effectively treats people according to “their economic value, rather than primarily based on their needs and their health needs”, according to obesity researcher at Cambridge University, Dr Dolly van Tulleken.  The emphasis of this approach is once again to blame the individual, rather than to highlight failures in the system which, due to lack of financial resources, limits options for many working class families and exacerbates health inequalities.

Quite apart from the ethics of such an approach it is nothing more than a sop to Big Pharma, always keen to explore drug based solutions, when a huge evidence base for the benefits of alternative approaches to preventative health care already exists.  

The National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) was established following the All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts and Health report, Creative Health, published in 2017.  A subsequent commission, established by the NCCH and chaired by Baroness Lola Young, published its Creative Health Review in 2023 to update the findings of the original APPG report, in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

While a commission made up of the great and the good from the worlds of health and culture was never going to come up with a set of revolutionary demands, it has nevertheless highlighted flaws in the existing health and social care arrangements, which could be addressed to benefit working class communities if resources are made available.

The review set out a number of recommendations to government, primarily,

  • the development of a cross-departmental Creative Health Strategy, driven by the Prime Minister, co-ordinated by the Cabinet Office and supported through ministerial commitment to ensure the integration of creative health across all relevant policies. Such an approach will facilitate the establishment of sustainable cross-sectoral partnerships across regions and systems, modelled by national policy.
  • The long-term value of investing in creative health must be recognised and appropriate resources should be allocated by HM Treasury to support the Creative Health Strategy.
  • Lived experience experts should be integral to the development of the Creative Health Strategy.

While these demands in themselves are relatively limited they are still a challenge to the conservative approach to health and social care taken by both the Tories and Labour in government.

Creative Health is defined as creative approaches and activities which have benefits for health and wellbeing. Activities include visual and performing arts, crafts, film, literature, cooking and creative activities in nature, such as gardening; approaches may involve creative and innovative ways to approach health and care services, co-production, education and workforce development.

Creative Health can be applied in homes, communities, cultural institutions, heritage sites and healthcare settings. Creative Health can contribute to the prevention of ill-health, promotion of healthy behaviours, management of long-term conditions, and treatment and recovery across the life course.

The Creative Health agenda is not just about tinkering with the NHS system and social care at the edges, it is about a wholesale reform of the approach to healthcare, which emphasises active community engagement in a range of creative activities.  In study after study, both nationally and internationally, these have been proven to have positive impacts.  The key to success however is that activity must be effectively funded at a community level and this has been systematically reduced by successive governments.

The squeezing out of arts activities in state schools, as part of the national education curriculum, will have a long term impact upon the ability of those other than the wealthiest to access creative resources.  Grassroots arts activity is under threat across the country as venues and community facilities close due to the rising costs of stock  and utilities.  Local government arts budgets have been cut to the bone with arts, museum and library facilities continually under threat.  Yet these very services are integral to the physical and mental health and wellbeing of local communities and should be at the core of any proposals which have prevention at their heart.

The Tories cut funding to the Arts Council England by 30% when elected in 2010 as part of the austerity agenda, claiming that support could be found by unlocking the potential in philanthropy. That ship has yet to come in to dock.  The Office for National Statistics in a report in 2022 showed that while more than 16% of creative workers born between 1953 and 1962 were from working class backgrounds, that figure had fallen to 8% four decades later.

The number of students taking arts GCSEs has fallen by 40% since 2010 and the number of drama teachers in English secondary schools is down by 22% since 2011.

Such figures demonstrate the lack of value placed upon the creative sector, in spite of it being a huge income generator for the economy, over £108 billion in 2021, but also the failure to recognise the essential role creativity can play in reducing the burden upon the NHS as part of an integrated Creative Health approach.

The “national conversation” Wes Streeting has initiated needs to highlight these facts and the next 10 Year Plan for the NHS needs to have Creative Health and the real needs of working class communities at its heart.  In addition, investment in the cultural sector, both through Arts Council England and the local government sector needs to be restored as a priority and the basis of arts education in the national curriculum reviewed.

Creative Health is unlikely to get much airtime in Rachel Reeves’ budget next week but if it is not taken seriously, as part of a wider package of investment in and reform of health and social care, the long term health of the nation, and the government, will be in doubt.

https://ncch.org.uk/creative-health-review

Peace the Middle East priority

12th October 2024

A Palestinian girl carries a child through the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Gaza City 

The extent to which Israel is prepared to go it alone in a threatened strike against Iran was made clear this week in reported discussions between the Israelis and the United States.  US President, Joe Biden, and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, discussed issues relating to Israel’s expected provocation against Iran in their first call in over a month last week.  The White House has said that Biden emphasised the need for “a diplomatic arrangement” to allow Israeli and Lebanese civilians displaced by fighting to return to their homes; urged Israel to minimise civilian casualties in airstrikes against Beirut; and discussed “the urgent need to renew diplomacy” on achieving a cease-fire in Gaza.

Clearly Biden’s words have had little impact with the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) carrying out its heaviest bombing raids so far on Thursday night, just over 24 hours after the Biden/Netanyahu conversation.  The strikes included attacks upon United Nations peacekeeping positions, reinforcing the rogue status of Israel in the Middle East.

It is apparent that the US is frustrated by being repeatedly caught off guard by Israel’s military actions in Gaza and Lebanon, but appears incapable of summoning the political will to head off further escalation.  There was some hope that the US would learn more about what Israel was contemplating when Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, and US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, were scheduled to meet at the Pentagon last week.  However, Netanyahu blocked Gallant from going to the US as Israel continued planning its Iran operation.  As it stands the US claims not to know either the timing of the strike or what Israel might target.

It is known that Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, who heads US Central Command, with responsibility for US military operations in the Middle East, has met with Gallant and top Israeli military commanders, to warn against striking Iran’s nuclear sites or oil facilities.

Gallant is widely seen in the West as the Israeli leader most responsive to the US concerns about Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza, especially regarding increasing humanitarian aid and creating a plan for postwar governance.   However, it is evident that Netanyahu’s desire to cling to office, and take advantage of the hiatus which the pre-election period in the US represents, outweighs any wider strategic concerns for him and the religious fundamentalist backers in his government.

US failure to act decisively is frustrating the international community as it is clearly the major supplier of arms to the IDF.   Israel, can only continue to prosecute the wars it has initiated on multiple fronts, because of its dependence on the US military. Over the past year, it has not only relied on supplies of American munitions, but benefited from US help in shooting down missiles and drones, as well as the rapid deployment of American naval and air forces to deter more substantial Iranian attacks.

In turn the US has had to modify its strategic priorities, which were focussed on ramping up conflicts with China and Russia, to adapt. Struggling to head off an all-out Middle East war, the Pentagon has deployed two aircraft carrier battle groups to the region for much of the year.

Against this background the threat of further escalation once the IDF attack Iran is significant, for the region, for world peace and for the people of Iran themselves.

Inside Iran the theocratic leadership of the Islamic Republic is walking a political tightrope having seen its adventurist foreign policy in the region at least temporarily crushed, following the overkill of the Israeli response to the Hamas attack of the 7th October last year.  Leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have been assassinated, key targets have been hit, disrupting operations, and the Israelis have even reached into Tehran itself to undermine the Islamic dictatorship’s reliability on its own security apparatus.

Evidence in both Gaza and Lebanon would suggest that the Israelis are not inclined towards acting with restraint, as the death toll on both fronts mounts, along with the increasing unrest in the occupied West Bank.  Iran’s response to the strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon have so far not inflicted significant damage upon the IDF but have been sufficient to give the Israelis justification, in their eyes, to strike back.

It is clear from the evidence of the past year, the years of illegal Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and the repeated incursions into Lebanon by the IDF over the years, that there is not a military solution to the issues in the Middle East.  The only solution can be a diplomatic one, starting with the right of the Palestinian people to self determination and a state of their own.

The failure of the international community, primarily the United States and Britain, to enforce United Nations resolutions, which would compel Israel to negotiate, and to continue to supply weapons to sustain the IDF, are the key drivers of the current situation.  Until peace is at the top of the strategic objectives of all players the people of Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, will continue to suffer.

Blatant Biased Content (BBC)

4th October 2024

BBC International Editor, Jeremy Bowen

Reporting by the BBC on current conflicts demonstrates the bias of the corporation and the extent to which, in spite of its regular emphasis upon impartiality, the BBC is anything but  when it comes to its international coverage.

The Russian incursion into Ukraine in February 2022 was undertaken in order to protect communities who had expressed a wish to become part of Russia, but had suffered at the hands of Ukrainian forces since 2014, resulting in 14,000 deaths.  The Minsk Accords, signed in 2015 to  halt the fighting, were later admitted by Western governments to be a mere ploy to give Ukraine time to re-arm.

The Russian intervention is nevertheless unfailingly referred to by the BBC as a full scale invasion and the wider context, including the CIA backed coup in Ukraine in 2014, conveniently overlooked.

Even after the intervention by Russia, a peace agreement mediated by Turkey in March 2022 was on the brink of being signed by Ukraine, until the United States persuaded then British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to deliver the message to President Zelensky that the “collective West” would not support the agreement.

In an item given widespread coverage by the BBC in the last couple of days, Khalil al-Hayya, the deputy leader of Hamas, was interviewed by BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen.  On each occasion al-Hayya was introduced as someone whose views may be abhorrent to many.  Bowen was asked to justify why the interview had taken place and why al-Hayya should be given air time.

Bowen dutifully trotted out the BBC line on impartiality and the need to hear all sides in a crisis situation.  All very well, but the briefings by Israeli Defence Force (IDF) representatives, committing genocide in Gaza, killing medical teams in the West Bank and currently invading neighbouring Lebanon are not given the same caveat, even though many will find both their views and their actions abhorrent.

It is also noteworthy that the invasion of Lebanon by the IDF is described by the BBC as an ‘incursion’, a characterisation they may struggle to hold onto as the death toll inevitably mounts.

The BBC attempts to protect the illusion of impartiality in other ways too.  John Simpson is regularly given his own half hour, titled Unspun World, in which Simpson interviews various BBC correspondents who invariably give a particular spin on events in the part of the world that are covering.  The title is not meant to be ironic.

Then there is the BBC Verified branding.  Presumably it is the BBC themselves who are undertaking the verification, which is a bit like the police investigating themselves or students marking their own homework.  Are they really trying to kid us that a new logo is a guarantee of impartiality and objectivity?

How the Tories can continue to bleat on about the BBC being run by ‘Lefties’ and not toeing the line on issues is laughable.  Apart from the odd moment of mild criticism the BBC knows quite clearly on which side its bread is buttered.  Sadly it is not the side of investigative journalism, truth and objectivity.

Turning Points

29th September 2024

Thousands flee Lebanon to escape Israeli air strikes

The assassination of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has been described by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as a ’turning point’, describing Nasrallah as “the axis of the axis, the central engine of Iran’s axis of evil”.

The killing and the ongoing bombing of civilian areas of Beirut may well prove to be a turning point but not necessarily in the way that Netanyahu means.  Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for five days of mourning following Nasrallah’s death and vowed that his ”blood will not go unavenged.”

Lebanon’s Health Ministry has estimated that 800 are dead so far as a result of the actions of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), while 50,000 people are estimated to have fled to Syria and an estimate 1 million are displaced, many having to sleep on the streets.

The bombings follow on from the indiscriminate attacks, not denied by the Israelis, upon Lebanese citizens by planting explosives in electronic communication devices, which killed 37 and injured thousands.  This action has been widely condemned as a war crime precisely due to its indiscriminate nature. 

While the IDF claim that the current bombing campaign consists of precision strikes, the reduction to rubble of buildings in clearly civilian areas gives the lie to this claim, costing the lives of non-combatant women and children  in the process.

The latest strikes have even seen surprise expressed by the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, with President Joe Biden claiming that the US had no prior knowledge of the attacks.  Efforts by US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to engage Israel in the search for a diplomatic solution have so far abjectly failed.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Israeli government, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, is out of control and driven by its own religious fundamentalist agenda.  Devastating strikes on Beirut followed on almost immediately from Netanyahu’s widely boycotted speech at the UN General Assembly in New York and flew in the face of widespread calls for a negotiated settlement and ceasefire to be discussed.

Israel’s contempt for the will of the international community, as articulated by the UN, has been evident for decades in its illegal treatment of the Palestinian people and their just demand for national self determination  and a fully sovereign state of their own.  It is evident in its recent action in Gaza and the West Bank and is becoming  more flagrant in its attacks upon the Lebanese capital.

Such actions increase the threat of widening the conflagration in the region, with escalation beyond the Middle East into a global war within the realms of possibility.

With the presidential election in the United States looming Netanyahu is clearly taking advantage of the hiatus this represents to press home his fundamentalist agenda, to the detriment of the people of the region and in spite of the opposition from many of his own citizens.   Parliamentary elections in Israel are not scheduled until October 2026 and Netanyahu is gambling that he can hold together his right wing fundamentalist coalition at least that long, to present himself as a victor in the fight against both Hamas and Hezbollah.

The fate of the Palestinian people and the people of the Middle East generally should not rest upon the political survival and opportunism of one man.

Pressure upon Israel to come to the negotiating table must be increased through concrete actions.  The British government must immediately cease all arms sales to Israel.   Trade union and cultural organisations should support the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to isolate Israel internationally, until it is prepared to negotiate meaningfully on a way forward.  

The US, as Israel’s major ally, must take a stronger line in bringing the IDF to heel and opening the way for negotiations.  The turning point in the current conflict has to be to turn back.  The coming days could well be crucial in determining the future of the Middle East  and whether or not the world is plunged into a wider conflict.

End the genocide in Gaza, Stop arming Israel!

21st September 2024

Residential Beirut, bombed by Israeli forces on Friday

The prospects of all out war in the Middle East accelerated this week as Israel swept aside calls for a ceasefire and stepped up its military action in Lebanon.  The detonation of explosives in pagers and walkie talkies used by Hezbollah is estimated to have resulted in 37 deaths and over 3,000 casualties.  Israel has not commented on the action but the operation clearly has the fingerprints of the Israeli secret service, Mossad, all over it.

The attack, in which several children were the victims, follows a week in which Israel announced a new phase in the war, moving the centre of gravity from Gaza to the northern border with Lebanon.  Having reduced much of Gaza to rubble, the Israelis have created a humanitarian crisis due to restricted food supplies and medical aid.  Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) have stated that,

“Infectious diseases including diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, skin infections, and hepatitis are on the rise due to overcrowding and poor hygienic conditions in camps where displaced people are sheltering, and shortages of medicines and medical supplies.”   

MSF and United Nations teams on the ground are tackling acute food shortages with latest figures suggesting that starvation is inevitable under the Israeli government’s policy of deliberate deprivation.  According to the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC), almost half a million people (22% of the population of Gaza) are facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.

Israeli fighters bombing a residential suburb of Beirut yesterday killed at least 12 people, including 5 children, with a further 66 wounded according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.  The strike hit the Dahiya district during rush hour as people were leaving work and children were heading home from school.

Local networks broadcast footage that showed a high-rise building flattened just kilometres from downtown Beirut. First responders combed through the rubble of at least two collapsed apartment buildings to search for missing people.  Israel claims that it has killed top Hezbollah commanders in the strikes.

A further wave of strikes across southern Lebanon have seen some of the most intense bombing of recent months with the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) claiming that it was aiming “to degrade Hezbollah’s terrorist capabilities and infrastructure.”  The prospect of a ground based incursion into Lebanon has not been ruled out.

For nearly a year, Hezbollah has engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border in support of Hamas. Hezbollah has fired rockets regularly into Israel but with little impact, either falling in barren areas or being intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome system.  Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have been forced to flee their homes due to the fighting.

The current escalation of action by Israel brings closer the likelihood of a more concerted response from Hezbollah and the prospect of Iranian intervention, in support of their partners in the so-called axis of resistance.  While Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati blamed Israel for the explosions, saying that they represented a “serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime by all standards”, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he told his Lebanese counterpart that he “strongly condemned Israeli terrorism”.

While Britain has implemented a limited arms embargo against Israel, by suspending some weapons licences, the IDF are still largely bankrolled by the United States, who have confined their response to recent events to Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, “calling for restraint and urging de-escalation.”  The UN has said it is “very concerned” following the strike on Beirut.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) will be lobbying Labour Party Conference in Liverpool this weekend “to demand the government ceases its complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid against Palestinians, and ends all arms trade with Israel.”

The collusion of the imperialist powers in the oppression of the Palestinian people, through the arming of Israel and the failure to enforce UN resolutions, has emboldened successive Israeli governments to undermine Palestinian rights and the prospect of an independent Palestinian state.   While many Israelis remain committed to live in peace with Palestinian and other Arab neighbours, the religious fundamentalists in Israel have increasing gained ground, to the extent that they are effectively dictating current government strategy.

The state of Israel has the right to exist, within internationally agreed borders, but so too does the state of Palestine, on the same basis.  The British government acknowledging this and stating it explicitly would be a step in the right direction.  Kier Starmer claims to be leading a government which will ‘listen’.   In which case the message from the streets of cities across Britain is quite clear – End the genocide in Gaza, Stop arming Israel!

Welfare not Warfare

13th September 2024

UNITE General Secretary, Sharon Graham, calling for a tax on the wealthy

The Labour Party leadership, backed by a majority of MPs in the House of Commons, this week agreed to the axing of winter fuel payments to all but the poorest pensioners, in order to save an estimated £1.2 billion as part of a £22 billion package of financial measures, which will effectively mean a continuation of austerity for many working class families.

The day after the Commons vote, Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, in Ukraine with United States Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, announced a further £600 million package of support to Ukraine, to sustain the current NATO proxy war, increasingly in danger of becoming an all out NATO confrontation with Russia.  While pensioners in Britain will struggle to keep the home fires burning, British money will be paying for weapons to keep the flames of war alight in Ukraine.

Labour leader, Kier Starmer, and Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, constantly talk about “tough choices” they will have to make on the economy.  Starmer almost wears as a badge of honour his assertion that Labour will have to carry out measures which are unpopular.   However, it is hard to credit that even the current leadership cannot see that the winter fuel payments measure is a clear political own goal, which will come back to haunt them for many years.

Such a measure was not a manifesto pledge and while Reeves promises to keep the pension ‘triple lock’ in place and provide, as yet unspecified, other means to support pensioners, the current furore could so easily have been avoided.

The UNITE trade union have been campaigning for a wealth tax, as have a number of independent MPs in the House of Commons, including Jeremy Corbyn.  UNITE estimate that a 1% levy on those with wealth estimated at over £4m could raise up to £25 billion which, if accurate, is more than enough to fill the £22bn budget gap Reeves is concerned with and maintain winter fuel payments. 

While the world of economics does not always work out as simply as this, it is still an indication that Labour have choices.  If Starmer is so unconcerned about being unpopular why not choose to be unpopular with the super rich, rather than the pensioners at the other end of the spectrum?

The fact is that Starmer and Reeves are running scared of the City of London and the banks and corporations which have the real clout in the economy.  Reeves’ caution even extends to claiming that without austerity measures there could be a run on the pound, which would weaken the economy, a claim not backed up by any evidence.

While austerity is the name of the game at one end of the Cabinet table the prospect of more cash for weapons is  the reality at the other end.  Quite apart from the ongoing and apparently open ended commitment to fuel the war in Ukraine, the government is committed to increasing military spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).  As one of NATO’s biggest spenders at the moment this commitment will only add to the pressure upon vital day to day services which local communities need.  If an old slogan needed to be dusted down and resurrected the classic Welfare not Warfare may well be ready for a comeback.

In addition to which, apart from the obvious material and human cost of war and weapons of mass destruction production, the arms industry is a massive carbon emitter, thus contributing to the acceleration of the climate emergency.  It would seem that for weapons manufacturers and their backers, that if the planet cannot be destroyed by one means, it will be destroyed by another.

It has taken very little time for the gloss of the Tories being ousted in July to be taken off the prospect of a shiny new Labour government.  The proverbial Ming vase which Labour leaders carried across the General Election weeks still seems to be passing between them with no-one wanting to be the one to drop it.  Caution, far beyond what even conservative capitalist economists would expect, is being exercised by Labour in order to show the ruling class and its media that they are ‘worthy’ of office.

However, these are vacillating and unstable allies at best and, at worst, an active fifth column.   Once the smoke clears on the Tory leadership campaign, and if anyone deemed to be a credible candidate emerges, the right wing press and media will rally to their side and Labour will find themselves in the usual dogfight with the press.

If that is the case then why not take the fight to them and give them something they can really worry about, like abolishing the ‘right to buy’; resurrecting the NHS; massive public investment in green technology; cutting the military budget, including stopping arms sales to Israel; withdrawing from NATO; cancelling the renewal of Trident nuclear submarines?   Not in the manifesto?  The precedent for that has already been set! 

Sudan – War and disaster

7th September 2024

The war in Sudan has now been raging since 15 April 2023. This devastating conflict, the military coup of October 2021, as well as other acts of brutal repression, have been cruelly inflicted upon the people of Sudan in an attempt to defeat the popular Sudanese Revolution and its objectives. Little if anything meaningful has been done to rein in the belligerents of this war or redress the gross injustices perpetrated against a people for daring to dream of democratic change and progression. The result is the worst and most pressing humanitarian crisis unfolding in the world today…

by Fathi El-Fadl

Sudanese civilians displaced from the fighting in their country seek sanctuary in a refugee camp across the border in neighbouring Chad.

The catastrophic war in Sudan continues on unabated. It intensifies with ever-worsening cruelty, resulting in thousands of innocent victims and the unprecedented movement of people desperately fleeing to save their lives. Over eleven million people have been displaced, seeking refuge in areas away from the military conflict raging in the country. Over two million of them have crossed the borders into neighbouring countries, mainly Egypt and Chad.

This gigantic exodus of the people is taking place with no sight of an end to the military disaster on the horizon. Peace talks at a resort near Geneva in Switzerland concluded with an agreement on famine relief, but an actual ceasefire was not even discussed due to the refusal of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) generals to attend.

The US-led initiatives to reach a ceasefire, open safe corridors for humanitarian assistance to reach those most in need, and to protect civilians, failed to reach its objectives. With a ceasefire off the agenda, mediators concentrated on humanitarian issues to deliver food and medicine to the millions of starving Sudanese languishing in camps, schools, and makeshift shelters. Despite the agreement to open entry points at the Sudanese borders, there is still no clear agreement in place apportioning responsibility for the taking receipt of aid and its proper distribution thereafter.

Failure of the talks to reach a ceasefire means the continuation of the misery and suffering of the Sudanese people. The people are enduring what is now regarded to be the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. According to experts and international organisations, the war has led to the fragmentation of the country. A number of provinces remain under the control of the SAF, while others are controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.

Hunger and the spread of diseases like cholera represent an additional cruel infliction upon the Sudanese population. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO), around 25 million Sudanese are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance to prevent them dying of hunger. Furthermore, 80% of functioning clinics and hospitals have been destroyed in the fighting.

In a statement issued by the Sudan Doctors Union, it has accused international humanitarian organisations and their donors of failing to provide basic aid to alleviate the dangers Sudanese children are facing. At the same, it accused both the SAF and the RSF of wilfully obstructing the entry, delivery, and distribution of vital food aid and medicines.

A report by Tuna Turkmen, the Emergency Coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Darfur, states that there are children dying every day across all Sudanese provinces. In addition, Claire San Filippo, the MSF Emergency Coordinator for Sudan, has declared that her organisation has been prevented from bringing more medical staff and supplies to provide much needed medical care in the country – a need made even more acute considering the outbreak and spread of malaria as well as other diseases transmitted through contaminated drinking water. These restrictions have led to the spread of cholera in five provinces.

While regional and international powers pay lip service to the notion of a ceasefire at minor and limited gatherings, such as the one which just ended in Switzerland, they continue to malignly meddle in the sovereign affairs of Sudan, siding with either of the war’s belligerents, allowing them to further escalate, to the detriment and suffering of the Sudanese people.

Calling for a ceasefire without any clear vision to effect it and restore the peaceful democratic transition to civilian rule in Sudan, is not an option and represents a failure. This is further underlined when US-led talks exclude and ignore input from the bona fide popular forces that struggled against and brought down the Muslim Brotherhood military regime of Omar al-Bashir in the December Revolution [the Sudanese Revolution 2018-2019]. The forced absence of the Resistance Committees, the Forces for Radical Change (FRC) alliance, and the newly formed trade union front from the talks pertaining to Sudan’s future will only result in repeating the old mistakes that led to the present catastrophe.

The Sudanese radical forces, including the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) and the Resistance Committees, have both consistently emphasised that the main conflict in our country is both national and international.

In response and opposition to the war, the revolutionary forces, especially the SCP, have adopted the slogan “Stop the war and reclaim the revolution through the broadest grassroots mass front!”, aiming to stop the war, defeat its political and social objectives, hold those responsible accountable, and bring them to trial, thus opening the road towards achieving the main goals of the revolution – Freedom, Peace, and Justice – which the masses have embraced as their path to radical change.

This declaration by the radical forces in Sudan of their political stance is coupled with a practical struggle towards the realisation of their objectives. Our fight is to stop the war, secure the right to live in safety, as well as compel responsible state organs to provide essential services and livelihoods to the people of Sudan.

In condemning both warring sides, we refuse to legitimise the war, while rejecting any compromise that would see the externally supervised restoration of the partnership between the remnants of the deposed Muslim Brotherhood regime and the Taqadom civilian alliance to form a government that would essentially serve foreign interests.

The Sudanese revolutionary forces are committed to mobilising a peaceful mass struggle that would bring about the defeat of reactionary groups and unmask their long-running conspiracies against Sudan and its people as well as reclaim the December Revolution. We will not tire!

Fathi El-Fadl is a member of the Forces for Radical Change (FRC) alliance in Sudan, opponents of the current civil war, and a vice-president of the International Centre for Trade Union Rights (ICTUR). He was previously, in the 1970s and ’80s, a student leader in Sudan and leading member of the International Union of Students. He is based in Khartoum and thus a witness to the ongoing conflict.

The full text of this article can be found here https://liberationorg.co.uk/comment-analysis/500-days-of-war-and-disaster/

Iranian elections signal no change

24th August 2024

Striking healthcare workers demand better pay and conditions in Iran

The election of Masoud Pezeshkian to the Iranian Presidency in July has encouraged false hopes amongst some in the West that Iran is on a path for reform and that the president will be able to influence the policy positions of the regime.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Masoud Pezeshkian has never expressed any views in opposition to Iran’s so called Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and would not have been on the presidential ballot had he done so.  The new president has so far done little more than make vague statements and quote from religious sermons.  In August he jokingly said in a speech at the inauguration ceremony of the new head of the Planning Organisation: “We have no motivation at all. They don’t even give us a chance to do this job.”

The list of Cabinet members proposed by Pezeshkian in August and presented to the parliament for approval reflects the reality of his position.  The retention of the Minister of Intelligence from former president Raisi’s repressive government, indicates that the new administration will simply continue the general policies of the regime.

While the Cabinet list presented to Parliament contained 14 new ministers indications are that the new ministers have been carefully vetted and selected by the fundamentalist camp and that former ministers been approved by the regime.

Even with this level of scrutiny there is likely to be more screening when the list comes to verifying qualifications in committees or on the floor of the House. Certainly, it is expected that in the next stages, some prominent ministers in the Cabinet will be targeted for attack and, after the necessary revelations and accusations, they will be disqualified.  The final Cabinet will inevitably be weaker and less efficient at each stage and in the end more submissive.

Less than two weeks into his presidency Pezeshkian was faced with the resignation of former Iranian chief diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif, who had been appointed as his deputy and minister in charge of strategic affairs.  Conflicting reports suggest that on the one hand Zarif was unimpressed with the Cabinet selection and the constraints placed upon the new administration, while others suggest that behind the scenes, there has been a hardliner attempt to push Zarif out of office through a law barring officials with ties to the West.

The process not only reflects the iron grip which the clergy impose upon any so called democratic processes in Iran but also the weakness of Pezeshkian’s position.  In the election first round, only 39% of those eligible cast their vote, a historic low for the Islamic Republic’s presidential elections.  In the second round, when only Pezeshkian and hardliner Saeed Jalili were left in the race, about 49.8% participated, still one of the lowest turnouts in Iran’s presidential elections.

Given that the proportion of those voting directly for Pezeshkian will be even less than these figures, it is clear that the new President has no popular support, at best being seen as the lesser of several evils, and that the widespread boycott of the elections shows that the support base for the regime overall continues to dwindle.

The election campaign of Pezeshkian did contain some appeal to reform, including pushing for the end of internet restrictions and promoting some social freedoms, including on women and minorities rights.  Whether the hardline clergy allow such changes remains to be seen.

Already the new presidency has been faced with striking healthcare workers who have been grappling with increasing economic pressures for the past two decades.

In some hospitals, that have been the site of protests over recent weeks, nurses have gone on strike. This is a dangerous development for public health but shows that nurses are deeply dissatisfied with their employment conditions. The indifference of officials and senior hospital management has caused nurses to suspend their professional and ethical duties and take to the streets to voice their grievances.

In relation to human rights issues recent news indicated that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Iranian human rights activist, Narges Mohammadi, was violently beaten by prison guards after leading a protest against the death penalty.  Her requests for hospital care and a meeting with her lawyer were denied.

The lawyer, Mostafa Nili, told Iranian news media about the violence against Ms. Mohammadi, stating,

“My client says that she was beaten and has bruises on her body.  Despite the prison doctor’s orders, and considering my client’s heart condition,” he said, “she has not been sent to the hospital.”

On foreign policy, Pezeshkian’s campaign focused on the need to engage with the West, including on the nuclear issue, to get sanctions relief and improve the economic conditions of the country, as well as to move away from the brink of regional war. 

However, he also praised former president Raisi’s rapprochement with Arab countries, signalling that, on issues other than ties with the West, he is likely broadly to continue the policy of the previous administration.  The question of retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders also remains on the agenda with the potential to further increase the tensions in the region. Pezeshkian will be in no position to reverse the calls for retribution made by Khamenei and the clergy.

It is clear that the election of Masoud Pezeshkian is no indication that the Iranian leopard has changed its spots.  The theocratic dictatorship remains in place and, while challenges are still there from mass popular movements such as Women, Life, Freedom and the industrial action gripping the country, the presidency is little more than a sideshow.  Real change in Iran will only happen when it comes from the people and is driven by the people.  A change in stooge presidents will not alter that.

Racism – a real problem in Britain today

10th August 2024

Daily Mail headlines fuel the anti asylum seeker narrative

Demonstrations across Britain this week, deemed anti-immigration protests by the media but actually pro-racism mob violence, have been met with stalwart resistance from local communities determined to resist fascist attacks.   This has ranged from a 3,000 strong turnout in Newcastle upon Tyne’s West End to defend a centre for asylum seekers, to the City Centre clean up in Sunderland following a night of vandalism and looting. Similar actions have been reported from across the country.

Such shows of working class community solidarity are vital to quashing the misinformation spread by the far Right that Britain has an ‘immigration problem’.  Such language and provocations are the natural territory of the far Right but the collusion of much of the mainstream media, including the BBC, in regarding immigration as a problem to be solved gives the claims of extremists more credibility in the eyes of the most gullible.

Coventry South MP, Zarah Sultana, recently posted on X a montage of Daily Mail headlines which fuelled the anti-asylum seeker narrative.  Sultana also suffered hostile questioning on ITV’s Good Morning Britain this week, from presenters Ed Balls and Kate Garraway, for suggesting that the violence over the past week should be called out as Islamophobic.

Balls in particular was quick to defend Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper (his wife), and Labour leader Kier Starmer for acknowledging that the violence was fuelled by racism but refused to accept that they should call it out as Islamophobic.  To her credit Sultana stood her ground and has come out of the encounter with more credit than either Balls or Garraway.

While the Labour government has been quick to point the finger at social media and mobilise the state apparatus of the police and the courts there has not been any recognition, from the Front Bench at least, that these measures are only dealing with the symptoms and not the cause.  There is no argument about jailing fascist thugs or addressing any of the shortcomings of the Online Safety Bill.  However, at root the issues of poverty, disaffection, and a sense of disconnection from a hugely unequal society are the causes which need to be tackled.   

Those at the sharp end of the impact of capitalism and its endemic crises are the most likely to fall prey to the easy solutions presented by the demagogues of the far Right and the so-called populist rhetoric of the likes of Reform MP, Nigel Farage.  It is no coincidence that the worst violence has been seen in areas of the greatest poverty, or that the previous Tory government placed asylum seekers in hotels in these areas. 

Preventing a repeat of the scenes which have taken place over the past week will require robust action to tackle poverty, low wages and exploitation.  It will require massive attention to the housing issues faced by many working class communities.  It will require greater investment in the local government services which many working class communities rely upon.  It will require a stronger approach to tackling wealth inequality and how resources are distributed across society.

It will require Labour politicians to be seen on the frontline with threatened communities showing their active support.  It will also require Labour to reject the narrative that immigration is a problem to be solved and turn that round to make it clear that a major problem to be solved in Britain today is racism.

Divide and rule has always been a key tool of ruling class strategy and the recent activity across Britain has shown how some sections of working class communities can be persuaded by the far Right, while others will stand firm in the face of fascist violence.

Any strategy which is to ultimately succeed however has to be based upon a recognition of the class interests of those communities most threatened and that solidarity between black and white working class communities is the only way forward.  In short it will require a strategy which not only deals with the symptoms but begins to tackle the causes of racist violence in Britan today.