Category: Uncategorized

16^th July 2023

Giorgia Meloni in Italy – part of the rise of the right wing across Europe

Public sector pay awards below the rate of inflation are being presented as a magnanimous gesture by the Tories, as they continue their endeavours to make the working class pay for the current economic crisis.  Public sector pay review bodies have suggested 7% for the police; 6.6% for teachers; 6% for junior doctors and consultants; between 5% and 7% for prison officers; and up to 5.5% for the armed forces and civil servants.  With headline inflation currently running at 8.7% and other NHS and local government staff still to be included, it is clear that the government are attempting little more than to offer half a loaf to head off further industrial action ahead of a General Election.

The fact that industrial action, taken by some of the public sector, has pushed the government this far is a sign that engaging in struggle does bring benefits and should give other workers hope.  However, the equivocation on the part of the Labour Party leadership in supporting workers in struggle does not inspire confidence that a change in government, when it does come, will bring any decisive advantage for the working class.  

The internal witch hunt initiated by the hardline right wing in control of Labour at present shows no signs of abating and candidates close to Starmer and his political cronies are the only ones the current leadership will tolerate. 

Post Corbyn this leaves the Left within the Labour Party in a quandary.  The project around which Corbyn was able to coalesce broad support between 2015 and 2019 was Labour’s best hope of pitching towards a government which would have seen a shift in the balance of power in Britain as an objective, however difficult to achieve.  

Starmer is not even making the pretence of such an offer, doing everything possible to stress ’fiscal responsibility’ and a more efficient management of capitalism than the Tories, in order to stabilise the ship for the political establishment.  As ever with Labour government’s, there maybe some mitigation in certain areas of social policy for workers but little else.

Reform within Labour, allied to extra Parliamentary struggle, has for long been the rallying cry of the Left and efforts to create alternative political parties outside of Labour have invariably failed.  There is however, widespread discontent with the system, even if it is not always articulated in that way.  Protests on environmental issues are currently prominent.  Opposition to the offshoring and deportation of migrants and asylum seekers grows. The issues of racism, sex discrimination and equal pay remain live ones.  A wide range of international solidarity activity continues to flourish, not least in opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

While these campaigns and initiatives remain siloed, and not linked to a strategic overview of the class based nature of the system which is at the root of them, they will continue to have limited success at best.

Being able to demonstrate that capitalism is the driver behind the climate crisis; has racism and inequality as core to its function; and will never act in solidarity with those fleeing oppression requires a strategic approach to political action and education for which Labour remains a very poor vehicle.  Whether that can be changed with a change in leadership is a moot point.  Labour has always been a reformist rather than revolutionary party.  The period under Corbyn illustrated both the possibilities and the constraints that Labour with a radical programme would face both internally and externally.

To what extent a more radical alignment of the Left in Britian is possible is open to wider debate but its necessity is becoming increasingly evident.  The political establishment in Britain remains divided post Brexit and can barely paper over the cracks in its main political outlet, the Conservative Party.  Across Europe there is a growing shift towards the simple solutions offered by the right wing parties, particularly in response to the NATO generated migration crisis and the treatment of those displaced as a result.  Shifting the debate from the actual reality of class oppression to a debate about race, skin colour and migration only serves to reinforce prejudice and block progressive change.

Such resistance as the Left has been able to mount has foundered on a combination of not being radical enough and meeting aggressive opposition from the ruling class.   One of the things that the period of the Corbyn leadership of Labour did show was that a programme which looked to challenge and change could have mass appeal and bring many into political debate and action.  A programme to reignite that spark must be found if progress is to be made.

At the core of such a programme however must be the call to unity in action that will unite the range of economic and democratic struggles which are currently underway into a wave of solidarity and mass mobilisation that poses a real challenge to the legitimacy of capitalism.

This will require linking political activity to political education in a way that illustrates the importance of linking the particular to the general, the local to the global, the theoretical to the practical and developing an understanding that socialism remains the only solution to the manifest problems endemic to capitalism.

10^th July 2023

US President Joe Biden arrives in Britain for a brief visit

The current British media obsession is with an, as yet, unnamed BBC presenter who has allegedly paid a teenager thousands of pounds for explicit sexual images.  This could be an important issue of exploitation, grooming and the potential abuse of a position of privilege.  If so, it rightly garners news headlines and brings into question the HR practices and management culture at the state broadcaster.

In its main news bulletins last night (9^th July) the BBC devoted almost 10 minutes to the issue, covering both moral and legal angles to the story.  The visit of US President, Joe Biden to Britain warranted only half of that amount of airtime and less than half of that again was given over to the issue of the US decision to provide Ukraine with cluster bombs in its war with Russia.

Across the world 123 nations have signed up to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, a treaty outlawing the use of cluster bombs due to their indiscriminate impact upon civilian populations and the potential for unexploded munitions to cause damage years down the line.  Britain is a signatory to the Convention, the US, Ukraine and Russia are not. 

In a conflict such as that between Russia and Ukraine, increasingly clearly a NATO proxy, it is impossible to calculate how many lives these weapons may destroy.  Ukraine is keen to become a NATO member and there is little doubt that NATO will welcome its membership at some future point.  Biden’s visit to Britain is a flypast on the way to the NATO summit in Lithuania where membership issues are bound to be on the agenda.

A recent report by the New York based Human Rights Watch has criticised both Ukraine and Russia for the use of cluster bombs that have killed civilians.  This drew a response from Kyiv which accused the organisation of “spinelessness” and “absolute immorality”.  The response follows on from an attack upon Amnesty International by President Zelensky last August when he described the human rights organisation as being guilty of “immoral selectivity” for being critical of Ukraine stationing combat troops in civilian areas.  

While the US and others are hesitant about Ukraine joining the NATO military fight club while the conflict with Russia is ongoing, they remain content to pour weapons into the country in order to keep the war alive.  One of Ukraine President, Volodymyr Zelensky’s senior advisers, has suggested that Ukraine requires “weapons, more weapons, and more weapons, including cluster munitions” in order to defeat Russia.  US arms manufacturers are no doubt rubbing their hands in glee at such statements.

In spite of being a signatory to the Convention outlawing cluster munitions, Britian has offered less than a mild rebuke to the US for succumbing to the demands of Ukraine’s hardline nationalists.  Rishi Sunak will no doubt frame this as being in the spirit of the so called Atlantic declaration, agreed in June, which is little more than a one way ticket for US firms to access British markets and for Britian to continue its kowtowing to US foreign policy in return.  

Arms manufacturers in Britain meanwhile are cashing in on the fact that long term purchase orders and direct subsidies are paying for more than 90% of the research and development budgets of private defence firms, resulting in companies then handing over billions to shareholders in dividends. 

A report by thinktank Common Wealth cites the example of US based General Dynamics, which has been developing Ajax armoured vehicles for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) at a cost to the public so far of £3.2 billion. The original target date for the vehicles to be operational was 2017 but a series of design errors has seen the date pushed back to 2029.  In the meantime, General Dynamics have paid out £20 billion to shareholders since first being awarded the contract in 2014.

Other examples are cited in the report which also highlights MoD spending commitments on equipment procurement over the next ten years, amounting to £242.3 billion.  As the report states, this contrasts sharply with other areas of industry where “comparative 10 year plans on public procurement are not in place.”

The BBC may be covering such issues, deep in its news pages, but they are certainly not headline news, unlike the alleged transgression of one of its employees.  How big a role does the news media play in shaping the agenda?  It is clear that all too often the real news is buried beneath an avalanche of so-called human interest reports.  The increasing emphasis upon personality not policy serves only one purpose, to keep people away from the real news and the waste on weapons of war and mass destruction, which is endemic to the capitalist system.

1^st July 2023

Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting – Labour also has a plan

Capitalist confidence tricks continued unabated this week with a series of measures designed to delude the public into thinking that the current systemic crises can be solved.  They can, of course, but not by using any of the methods proposed by the political establishment which, seeing no alternative to capitalism, is locked in a perpetual struggle to make it appear the be fair and democratic.  The reality that only socialism can deliver true fairness and democracy is an option which is not on the political radar of the British ruling class, as such a consideration would mean their own class losing power in favour of the working class.

The battle to drive down inflation once again hit the headlines this week.  For British Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, this is the primary objective of economic policy.  Not industrial and manufacturing growth; not full employment and job security; not investment in crumbling road, school and NHS infrastructure; getting inflation below 2% is the mantra.

Hunt is a great believer in wage restraint as one of the mechanisms to control inflation and regularly berates trade union demands for higher pay to keep up with the economic mess his party have been instrumental in creating.  Higher pay is driving up inflation is the cry.  Wage restraint and more slack in the economy, by which is meant more people on the dole, are seen to be the solutions to the inflation crisis.

In classic Tory fashion, egged on by the right wing press, Hunt presents no evidence to back his assertions.  On the contrary, the evidence points in exactly the opposite direction.   Official data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that since January, wage increases are only becoming more generous among the top 10% of earners.  

Workers earning at least £180,000 a year were paid 7.9% more than last year according to figures for April, while those receiving £26,300 a year only saw increases of 4.7% in the same period.  Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, seems to be equally keen to turn a blind eye to these figures, even though they are not close to keeping pace with inflation at 8.7%.  Even though wage increases for low paid key workers in particular, remain well below the inflation rate, the government has already signalled that it will overrule recommendations from pay review bodies if their proposals are deemed to be “unsustainable.”

The Tories seem content to allow unsustainability to flourish in other areas however.  The cheapest fixed rate mortgages on offer from high street banks is now running at an average 6.37%, squeezing those already with mortgages and closing the door to those seeking to buy a home, especially for the first time.  With wages rises below inflation and mortgage rates increasing, which usually goes hand in hand with private sector rent increases, it is little wonder that trade union militancy is at its current heights.

While the Tories may feel they have been let off the hook due to the Royal College of Nursing not getting a high enough turnout in their ballot to extend strike action, they are still faced with a five day walkout by junior doctors (13^th -18^th July) as well as two days of action by consultants (20^th-21^st July), and two days of action by teachers in July.

Without any hint of irony, in the midst of the ongoing crisis, the government has announced a Long Term Workforce Plan for the NHS which claims that by 2031/32 there will be a 40% increase in dentists; a 50% increase on GPs; a 92% increase in nurses; and a 100% increase in doctors.

Such ambition is bound to garner press headlines and makes for great soundbites but does it stand up to scrutiny?  Given the intransigence of the government on NHS pay does the Plan include the investment in resources to pay staff the rate for the job in order to ensure that they are retained, let alone train and recruit in the additional numbers indicated?

NHS England recognises that,

“… the number of people aged over 85 is estimated to grow 55% by 2037, as part of a continuing trend of population growth which outstrips comparable countries. Inaction in the face of demographic change is forecast to leave us with a shortfall of between 260,000 and 360,000 staff by 2036/37.”

It claims that the Plan “builds on initiatives already happening in the NHS to boost training and improve retention by working differently in a compassionate and inclusive culture.”  Which is all very well, as long as compassion and inclusivity go alongside having enough money to pay the bills and feed the kids.  The Plan sets out its priorities as train, retain and reform, claiming to “herald the start of the biggest recruitment drive in health service history.”

Worthy words and laudable ambitions but ones which must include the revision of existing pay structures and salary levels, to ensure that the mooted investment in training makes a career in the NHS a financially viable one.

Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has welcomed the Plan, expressing relief that it has been published, while accusing ministers of “nicking Labour’s plan”, given the commitment to a ten year plan to make the NHS “fit for the future” which Labour made in September 2022.  Labour’s plan aimed “to shift the focus of healthcare out of the hospital and into the community” while promising,

“…to deliver better pay, terms and conditions for care workers (which) will reduce the 400,000 delayed discharges every month and provide better quality care for older and disabled people: the first steps on the road to a National Care Service.”

It is clear that both major parties are now manoeuvring for position with a General Election looming and the NHS likely to be a key battleground.  However, failing to address the issue of pay and conditions, as part of the wider package of NHS and care reform will not translate into better outcomes for either staff or patients.

The real long term plan for the NHS begins with backing the workers currently taking action to improve those pay and conditions, the first step towards rebuilding an NHS free at the point of use and free from the circling hawks of the private sector.  Whatever Jeremy Hunt or Rishi Sunak may think, that would be an NHS which is sustainable, compassionate and inclusive.  It may even be a demand that Kier Starmer and Wes Streeting could be compelled to back, with enough pressure upon them to do so.

24^th June 2023

A Palestinian man avoids the outcome of another Israeli attack on Palestinian land

Religious fundamentalists have for decades been robbing Palestinians of their land with the collusion of the Israeli state and cover from the Israeli Defence Force.  Euphemistically characterised as ‘settlers’ they are nothing than more than illegal occupiers of territory over which they have no moral, political or legal right.  Their actions can only be described as state sponsored terrorism.

Palestinians are suffering under the most right wing government in Israeli history, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, which is pressing ahead with illegal settlement activity and massive infrastructure plans.  The government is determined to make the territory, illegally occupied since 1967, an integral part of Israel, flying in the face of United Nations resolutions and the rights of Palestinians.

Violence this week escalated when Israeli thugs attacked a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to homes, cars and fields in a rampage that left one Palestinian dead from gunfire and 10 others injured.  Not only were many of the hundreds of thugs who raided the town of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, armed but they also had the backing of the Israeli army.

Turmus Ayya resident Mohammed Awad, 26, said people had to contend with fire from the vigilante thugs and the army.

“I rescued five people with my own hands. They were shot with live ammunition,” he said. “It’s Armageddon in Turmus Ayya. Cars are on fire, villas and fields are on fire. Someone needs to stop them. No one is helping us.”

The current violence is allegedly in response to an escalation in Palestinian resistance that began early last year, with a string of Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets.   The Israeli military response has been to launch Operation Break the Wave, a series of raids that have resulted in heavy Palestinian casualties.

Further violence has been seen with an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp which resulted in an hours-long armed confrontation inside the city.

The clashes, widely seen as the fiercest in many years, began early last Monday with Israeli soldiers storming the camp, firing live ammunition, stun grenades and toxic gas. Combat helicopters were used for the first time in decades after the ensuing hours-long fighting.  On the ground reports suggest that medical teams were initially denied access by the Israelis and eventually arrived very late to treat those who were injured at the scene. Some were described as being “in a very severe condition” needing urgent medical assistance.

The use of helicopter gunships was a 20-year first in the West Bank.  Mohammed Kamanji, a lawyer and field researcher with the Independent Commission for Human Rights, said the latest raid was accompanied by “drones and Apache helicopters”, adding that it was the “largest” raid in many years.  Israeli forces are “perpetrating gross violations against not only the paramedics, but also the journalists”, he said.

The storming of Jenin saw seven Palestinians killed, with more than 100 others wounded, in a year during which, so far, more than 160 Palestinians have been killed, including 26 children.  This compares unfavourably to 2022, a year in which Israeli forces killed more than 170 Palestinians, including at least 30 children, in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.  This was described as the deadliest year for Palestinians living in those areas since 2006; this year is shaping up to be even worse.

In March this year Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, revealed the true colours of the present Israeli administration after saying the Palestinian people are “an invention” of the past century, adding that there was “no such thing as a Palestinian” because “there is no such thing as the Palestinian people”.

The British government, in true neo-colonial style is looking to divert attention away from the crimes of the Israeli state by focussing upon the action of those opposed to the ongoing illegal occupation in Palestine, in the form of the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) bill.

While the bill will affect many campaigns for justice, the government has made clear that its primary target is the Palestinian led campaign for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions, of which the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is a key partner. The government seeks to advance the familiar tropes and fallacious arguments that the campaign is inherently antisemitic or fosters antisemitism.  The current bill echoes measures introduced in the 1980s by the Tories under Margaret Thatcher, which sought to prevent public bodies from divesting from and boycotting companies complicit in apartheid in South Africa. 

The bill contains an extraordinary double standard including a clause which outlines a special exception for Israel, granting it an immunity from accountability. The bill allows a government minister to grant permission to public bodies to divest from companies involved in rights abuses by some states. However, this special clause says that no government can give permission to divest from a company because of actions in support of Israel’s rights violations, including within the Occupied Palestinian Territory. 

The bill flies in the face of United Nations resolutions including UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which directly calls on member states to distinguish in their dealings between Israel itself and its activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  The bill in effect seeks to grant Israel a unique protected ability to violate Palestinian rights with impunity.

Opposition to the bill includes Unite the Union, PSC and Amnesty international.  Pressure for the Labour Party to actively oppose the bill inside Parliament must build, alongside the extra-parliamentary activity of trade unions and human rights campaigns.

It is not antisemitic to point out that the Israeli state is engaged in effectively imprisoning an entire indigenous population through its blockade of Gaza; has imposed a military system of oppression across the Occupied Territories; continues to steal land and resources from the Palestinian people; and has stopped refugees from returning over a period of more than 50 years.

Labour must not be afraid to say so and, not only stop this bill, but actively demand the upholding of the rights of the Palestinian people in the face of state sponsored terrorism by Israel.

17^th June 2023

British Chancellor Jeremy Hunt – hands more to corporate profiteers.

The prospects for the Tories at the next General Election took a further dip this week as interest rates head toward 6% and the pressure upon mortgage repayments for homeowners, as well as rents for those in the private sector, look set to soar.  The Bank of England, flying in the face of the actual evidence, continues to increase base rates as part of its misguided strategy to combat inflation.  Bank of England Governor, Andrew Bailey, has admitted that the fall in inflation was “taking a lot longer than we expected.”

The economic path being driven by the Tories, in cahoots with the Bank of England, is to increase the cost of credit, forcing businesses to cut back on staff, increasing unemployment, with the aim of reducing the ability of workers to win higher wages.

While the fact that inflation remains stubbornly high is blamed by the Bank and capitalist economists on wage increases, the reality is that wage settlements remain below the rate of inflation.  Many are still in dispute as workers struggle to make ends meet due to the ongoing price of food and consumer essentials.  Pay has been failing to keep up with inflation for more than a decade in Britain.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Britain is set to become the worst performing economy in the G20 in 2023, which includes sanction hit Russia.  Significantly, the only economy in which the IMF anticipates growth of over 5% is that of China, with even the United States languishing far behind at a predicted rate of just under 2% growth.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicts a slightly better outlook for Britain but not by much.  The OECD said that it expects a 0.2% fall in British gross domestic product this year, followed by a rise of 0.9% next year.  This is worse than all countries but Russia, whose GDP is forecast to dip 2.5% this year followed by a 0.5% drop in 2024, the organisation’s economists said.  This means that Britain is the only country apart from Russia to see its economy shrink this year.

According to these measures the British economy is struggling to hold its own even with its capitalist peers, who are also struggling with issues of inflation and low growth, although on a smaller scale than Britain.

While the British press make much of the impact upon mortgage repayments there is little analysis of what brought Britain to this situation and what can be done to address it.  It is convenient for the banks to push the blame towards workers struggling for pay rises as being the driver of inflation but this is mere deflection on their part. 

A key driver of inflation and soaring mortgage costs is the greed of the banks themselves, who have been complicit in driving house price inflation.  This means that while 6% mortgage rates are nowhere near the 13% seen in the 1980’s, the impact is broadly similar.  Home buyers in the 1980’s could expect to be borrowing just twice their income, for many at the present time borrowing to secure a mortgage can be higher than four times their income.

It is estimated that 2.6 million households will come off fixed rate mortgage deals in the next year resulting in massive monthly repayment increases.

Meanwhile profits at the Lloyds Banking Group alone jumped 46% in the first three months of this year, to a tidy £2.3 billion.  Lloyds was not the only bank to bask in good results as a strong earnings season for the big four high street banks saw them all report better-than-expected profits on the back of higher interest rates.

The big five banks – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, NatWest and Standard Chartered – posted profits of £37.4bn for 2022. These are the highest since the 2008 crash and come straight from households and small businesses in the form of higher mortgage payments, and increased rates on loans. There is little indication that such naked profiteering will not continue for the banks and their shareholders into 2023.

Meanwhile British Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is said to be prepared to back “whatever it takes” to reduce inflation, though he has ruled out a mortgage relief scheme to give subsidies for households struggling to make ends meet.  In typically disingenuous fashion Hunt stated,

“We will always try to do everything we can to support families going through difficult periods and support families facing additional mortgage pressures.  But we know the best help we can give them in the long run is to bring down inflation.  That’s the cause of people’s worries.  So, we will support the Bank of England to do what it takes to bring down inflation.”

Alongside backing the Bank of England’s interest rate rises Hunt has also pledged to limit public sector pay rises as part of his strategy to prioritise fighting inflation.  So, it is clear that NHS staff, teachers, local government workers and civil servants can expect little help from the Tories in tackling rising bills.

Underinvestment in the economic infrastructure, too much reliance of the financial services sector to give the illusion of economic activity, along with corporate greed and profiteering, are at the root of the capitalist crisis in Britain.  The idea that workers fighting to keep up with inflation generated by corporate profiteering, by demanding increased pay, is the usual Tory sleight of hand.

It will be little surprise to note that between 2020 and 2021, the Tories received £11.5m in donations from the finance sector.  Almost one in three meetings with Treasury ministers were with big finance and its lobbyists, making it by far the most powerful lobbying force in the UK.  This year reforms, known as big bang 2.0, will rip up the post-crash regulation aimed at constraining banks’ worst excesses.

British capitalism may not yet be naked in tooth and claw but unless there is decisive intervention by the working class and its organisations, it may well get there.

10^th June 2023

Partygate – the beginning of the end for Johnson

The resignation of disgraced former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, from Parliament last night is the latest twist in a career characterised by conniving, deceit and mendacity.  Having received the report of the House of Commons Privileges Committee into whether he misled Parliament, Johnson had two weeks to respond.  Clearly Johnson realised that the report’s findings were sufficiently damning for him to jump before he was pushed and made up his own mind within twenty four hours.

In typically bombastic fashion Johnson has not admitted responsibility for his deceit, characterising the committee as a kangaroo court, vilifying its Chair, Harriet Harman MP, and claiming that he is innocent of all charges laid against him.  A classic tactic of getting his retaliation in first.

Johnson’s resignation coincides with his Honour’s List nominations having been agreed, a British ruling class convention which allows former Prime Ministers to reward their cronies for services rendered.   Gung ho former Home Secretary, Priti Patel is made a Dame, while diehard Johnson loyalist Jacob Rees-Mogg is conferred a knighthood.  Other gongs go to a range of fans and supporters though lickspittle in chief, Nadine Dorries, misses out.   She too has settled for resigning as an MP, giving beleaguered Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, the headache of two by-elections to fight.

Johnson is of course not at all the innocent victim he makes himself out to be.  He presided over the highest loss of life of any Western European country during the Covid 19 pandemic, with the death toll still rising and heading towards quarter of a million.  Contracts to cronies and Tory party donors for poor quality or non existent PPE, the debacle of the £37 billion track and trace system and his final departure from No.10, following the Partygate scandal, all add up to a pattern of behaviour which is at best narcissistic, at worst plain criminal.

Somewhere down the line there may be an historical reckoning if the Covid Inquiry can get itself out of the starting blocks but Johnson will be way beyond caring by that point.  Having already trousered millions on the after dinner speech circuit since leaving Downing Street, he can no doubt look forward to a slew of lucrative invitations from the redneck tendency across the globe, to give his own distorted view on the reasons for his demise and the current state of the world.

For the ruling class Johnson was always a disposable commodity.  His main purpose was to shift the emphasis of political debate away from actual policy and onto personality.  Aided by a compliant media keen to play up his so called ‘boosterism’, offset against the character assassination of the less media friendly and, for the ruling class, politically dubious, Jeremy Corbyn, it was always going to be an unlikely scenario that Labour would escape disaster at the 2019 General Election.

While the Tories have continued to tear themselves apart over how far to the right they want the country to be dragged, the ruling class have been stealthily making Labour safe again for capitalism.  The unacceptable face of Jeremy Corbyn has been replaced by Kier Starmer.  The front bench has been hollowed out of any dissenting voices.  Corbyn has been excluded from standing for parliament on a Labour platform and even sitting North of Tyne Combined Authority Mayor, Jamie Driscoll, a relatively minor figure in the scheme of things, has been excluded from standing as a candidate to run for the top job in the forthcoming North East Mayoral Combined Authority.

Johnson’s resignation announcement was news enough to bump former US President, Donald Trump, from the BBC headlines.  Having been indicted on 37 counts, including endangering national security for keeping classified White House documents in his bathroom, Trump was making all of the headlines till Johnson stepped in.

It is an irony that the two most narcissistic and politically belligerent representatives of their respective ruling elites should be in the headlines for their political misdemeanours at the same time.  While Johnson has left the door open for a political return, saying that he is sad to be leaving Parliament “for now”, Trump remains the front runner in the Republican nomination to be the next Presidential candidate.

That the prospect of another Trump presidency is a further threat to world peace and the lives of working class Americans would be an understatement, though his rivals for the Republican nomination appear to be equally blinkered and the world can hardly be said to have been a safer place for many in the hands of Joe Biden.  However, the erratic nature of Trump’s approach increases uncertainties and the social media driven approach to international diplomacy, which characterised his term in office, does not inspire confidence.

It is bad enough that US imperialism is doing its utmost to tear the world apart.  It would be an even greater disaster should that happen due to a moment of personal rage or a fit of pique on the part of an individual who, by any reasonable count, should not be in any position of political responsibility.  The charges against Trump carry sentences of up to 10 years in prison.  It may be unlikely that things get to that stage but it would be a result.

Back in Britain Johnson will no doubt continue to garner the headlines, the by-elections triggered by his and Nadine Dorries’ resignations will begin to move centre stage and Rishi Sunak will continue to look increasingly exasperated with very public appearance.  A General Election will finally put the Tories out of their misery and, with a safe Labour administration in No.10, they will be able to use their time in Opposition to regroup.

The challenge for the Left in Britain is to rebuild an alternative to both Starmer’s version of Labour and whatever emerges from the Tory bonfire of vanities, in order to demonstrate that capitalism is a system that serves the interests of the ruling class and that socialism is the only way forward for a future of peace, social justice and democracy.

4^th June 2023

The US – counting on the dollar to stay supreme

In a week in which the world’s biggest economy almost tanked it is telling that the British media was more concerned with the transgressions of TV presenter, Phillip Schofield.  Both print and TV media in Britain have given more airtime and print space to the Schofield saga than the fact that the world economy almost came to collapse and that the prospect of such a calamity may only have been delayed, rather than averted entirely.

The issue has centred around the US economy sailing very close to its debt ceiling, the amount Congress has authorised America’s government to borrow in order to meet its basic obligations.  This includes a range of commitments, from providing medical insurance to paying military salaries. The current ceiling for gross debt is $31.4trn (117% of gdp).

The US House of Representatives did eventually vote to agree a deal reached by President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the amount America can borrow. Failure would have meant the country would have defaulted on debt payment obligations for the first time in its history.  The alternative would have seen interest rates soaring, stock and bond markets crashing and the global financial system being plunged into turmoil.

Given the trillions of dollars Congress has authorised the US government to spend over the last decade United States debt has nearly tripled since 2009.  The US has been running a deficit, meaning it spends that much more money than it receives in taxes and other revenue, of over £1 trillion every year since 2001, resulting in additional borrowing to finance payments Congress has authorised.

The debate in US political circles has focussed upon President Biden and senior Republicans in the House of Representatives negotiating an increase in the debt ceiling in exchange for reductions in federal spending.   Republican proposals centred upon imposing work requirements for some recipients of federal benefits, putting lasting caps on federal spending, and loosening rules for fossil fuel energy projects.

Economists Goldman Sachs estimated that a breach of the US debt ceiling would cause a reduction in about 10% of US economic activity.  Centre left US think tank, Third Way, calculate that a default could lead to the loss of 3 million jobs, push up interest rates, thus increasing mortgage payments, with higher interest rates also diverting future spend away from much-needed investments in such areas as infrastructure, education, and health care.

US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, summed up the situation succinctly stating,

 “Failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans and global financial stability.”

The US dollar is the most commonly held reserve currency, making up more than 60 percent of global foreign exchange reserves, and the most widely used currency for international trade and other transactions around the world.  Given the status of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency, many countries hold their foreign currency reserves in dollars, meaning any reduction in the value of the dollar has an international impact, making debt repayments more expensive.  Heavily indebted low income countries would struggle to repay their debts and therefore tip into default and political crisis.

As a consequence of US financial hegemony this is potentially disastrous.  The recent move of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) nations, towards a process of de-dollarisation, by creating an investment bank less dependent on the dollar, is a move in the right direction and could potentially loosen the stranglehold of the US over international finance systems.

That the world’s most powerful nation and strongest economy can be in such a mess is, in any event, a cause for concern.  The mantra of low taxation, free market economics and the small state, beloved of right wing neo-liberal economists is taken to its limits in the United States.  Any effort to expand the role of the state in supporting healthcare, the environment or those on welfare are pushed back by Republicans in particular but not resisted with vigour by leading Democrats.

It is unlikely to be coincidence that the downward pressure on public spending is accompanied by a recent decision of the US Supreme Court to effectively outlaw strike action. The 8-1 vote, in the right-wing-dominated US Supreme Court, has curbed the right of the nation’s workers to strike by allowing companies to sue unions in state courts whenever they wish for alleged “damage” strikers cause. Full details can be found here https://peoplesworld.org/article/in-historic-step-backward-the-supreme-court-limits-the-right-to-strike/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=46dc7349-f34f-4076-aa74-c1cec7e0d5e2

In addition, any productive investment by the state is inevitably drained by the massive spend on weapons of mass destruction, to maintain the US military budget at the highest level in the world and sustain its role as the self styled ‘global policeman’.

The predominance of the dollar in international trade also means that it can be weaponised by the US in the form of sanctions.  Almost all trade done in US dollars, even trade among other countries, can be subject to US sanctions, because they are handled by so-called correspondent banks with accounts at the US Federal Reserve.

By cutting off the ability to transact in dollars, the United States can make it difficult for those it discriminates against to do business. In 2015, the French bank BNP Paribas was given a record penalty of nearly $9 billion for violating US sanctions by processing dollar payments from Cuba, Iran, and Sudan.

For Cuba in particular, suffering under a US economic blockade which has lasted for over 60 years, this is a particular issue, as circuitous routes to make payments and trade internationally have to be constantly devised and end up being more costly for the Cuban economy.

The mantra that when the US sneezes the world catches a cold is a direct result of the economic stranglehold the US continues to exert across the globe.  The current US fear of China’s economic growth, manifest in US sabre rattling over the future of Taiwan, is that the US may lose its prime economic position and thereby find its political influence diluted.

Resorting to threats, bullying and military intervention are the direct consequences of US fears.  Any alternative to the US capitalist model, as presented by China or Cuba, is inevitably demonised and any achievements put down to fluke or good fortune, rather than the alternatives offered by a socialist orientated system.   Demonstrating that there is an alternative to capitalism is not what the British media is paid to promote or explain.  Far safer to keep everyone worried about the private life of Phillip Schofield.

27^th May 2023

The devastating impact of NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine

The propaganda war of the Western media in relation to Ukraine is now in full swing behind the much talked about Ukrainian counter-offensive to expel Russian troops.  Reporting across the BBC in particular on the prospects for the counter offensive has been confusing in many respects.  While the general tenor is one of support for the ‘plucky’ Ukrainians against the ‘land grabbing’ Russians, there is also a certain amount of hedging about the prospects.

A Ukrainian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity to the BBC, said the leaders in Ukraine “understood that they needed to be successful” but that the offensive should not be seen as a “silver bullet”.  The BBC has also simultaneously reported that Russian forces are demoralised but also resolute, fortifying their defences along the 900 mile long frontline.  At the same time BBC correspondent in Kyiv, Hugo Bachega, reports that,

 “The expected attack could be decisive in the war, redrawing frontlines that, for months have remained unchanged.”

Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, is currently predicting that the assault to retake territory could begin “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week.”

Given the extent of Russian defences it seems unlikely that any land offensive by the Ukrainians could make major gains without significant support from the air.  In this respect the decision of the British government to supply Storm Shadow cruise missiles, with a range of over 155 miles and adapted to be compatible with Ukraine’s existing aircraft, may be designed to provide that cover.

The NATO powers and their associated military industrial complex of arms suppliers are heavily invested in the war in Ukraine.  Whatever the outcome of the counter offensive it is a potential win-win for military hawks in the West.  Any failure will be used as justification for pouring more weapons into sustaining the Ukrainian position.  Any success will be heralded as justification of the strategy so far, the effectiveness of NATO weaponry and the need for ongoing support for Ukraine.

There can be no clearer example of the  mantra that those who want war send weapons, those who seek peace send diplomats.

In a recent news conference with US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, the British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, was quite explicit about the position taken by the British government with regard to Ukraine, stating,

“We need to continue to support them, irrespective of whether this forthcoming offensive generates huge gains on the battlefield, because until this conflict is resolved and resolved properly, it is not over.”

Secretary of State Blinken, as well as meeting the British Foreign Secretary, also met with his counterpart from Spain this week to shore up commitments to military aid to Ukraine, sending a message that battlefield gains are the priority.

In spite of the resistance of the West, China continues to play its part in offering to mediate a negotiated solution to the conflict, a proposal rejected out of hand by the US on the grounds that Beijing does not publicly condemn Russia as the aggressor in the war.

However, there are even differences within US circles as the position indicated by Blinken is not echoed by Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has argued for the need for Ukraine and Russia to consider negotiations, suggesting that a prolonged war would result in many more casualties.

The position of Gen. Milley is reinforced by 15 former diplomats and military figures who took out a full page advert in the New York Times on 16^th May, stating,

“The immediate cause of this disastrous war in Ukraine is Russia’s invasion.  Yet the plans and actions to expand NATO to Russia’s borders served to provoke Russian fears.  And Russian leaders made this point for 30 years.  A failure of diplomacy led to war.  Now diplomacy is urgently needed to end the Russia-Ukraine war before it destroys Ukraine and endangers humanity.”

In Britain, momentum in opposition to the war continues to be mobilised at a grass roots level, with the Stop the War Coalition holding public meetings in Glasgow, Leeds and Liverpool this week to argue the case for peace talks.

However, the official Labour Movement positions need to be continually challenged.  The Kier Starmer led front bench of the Labour Party has fallen into line with the Tory position of sending more weapons to Ukraine, while maintaining support for NATO.  The TUC recently reversed its long standing objection to raising military budgets and passed a motion agreeing to higher military spending.   Opinion at a local level is still divided and heavily influenced by the blanket pro-Ukraine positions taken by the media.

The class interests driving the war in Ukraine are not those of the working class of Russia or Ukraine, they are not those of the working class in the US, Britain or elsewhere in Europe.  The US autocracy remains fixed on its desire to have a unipolar world in which it is the strongest military power and can police across the globe.  Britain, with its current Global Britain policy and delusions of grandeur through its nuclear status, continues to hang onto US foreign policy coattails.  The EU continues to heavily back NATO membership and EU neoliberal economic influence in countries right up to Russia’s borders.

The ruling class across the US, NATO and EU blocs are only beneficiaries of the conflict being protracted if it does not slip over the edge into nuclear conflagration.  As things stand, given their belligerence, that is a possibility.  The failure to address a diplomatic solution to the immediate conflict could turn out to be a failure for us all, unless war preparations in the West are turned down and steps towards peace negotiations turned up.

20^th May 2023

Biden and Zelensky – partners in crime

It is without any sense of shame or irony that the G7 leaders of the capitalist world are meeting this weekend in Hiroshima, Japan.  The city is the scene of one of the twentieth century’s most heinous war crimes, resulting in the death of an estimated 330,000 people as a result of the atomic bombing on 6^th August 1945.  Add the death toll from the bombing of Nagasaki, three days later, and the combined death toll is well in excess of half a million people.

These are war crimes for which the United States has never even apologised, let alone been brought to any international body to answer for its actions.  The US justification for the bombings has always been that they were necessary to end the war in the Pacific.  There is evidence to suggest that the Japanese surrender was already in preparation and fighting would have concluded with Japan surrendering to the Red Army in the East.  This was a scenario the West could not tolerate.

The failure of Britain and the US to open an effective Second Front in Europe, while prioritising imperialist assets in North Africa, had seen the Soviet army push the Nazis from Soviet soil and all the way back to Berlin.  By the time of the much celebrated D-Day landings the German army was well on its way to becoming a beaten force in Europe.  So, Japan falling into Soviet hands was not in the interests of imperialism and had to be stopped.  The atomic bomb was the answer.

Given this context it is perhaps fitting that US President, Joe Biden, has taken the opportunity to further ramp up the war in Ukraine.  Biden has promised to support the training of Ukrainian pilots in the use of US F16 fighter jets, along with several other NATO countries.  The fighters involved also include Britain’s Eurofighter Typhoon and France’s Mirage 2000. The decision opens the door for the US to licence the sale of F16’s to Ukraine, thus promoting a dangerous escalation in the conflict with Russia.

While training will take some time, and jets are unlikely to be supplied overnight, the Ukrainians have indicated that F 16’s could be in operation within four months of the start of training.  Western observers suggest the timescale may be nearer six to nine months.  In any event such timescales would certainly see the possibility of a significant escalation in the conflict before the end of the year or into early 2024 at the latest.

Since the war began, the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress alone have directed more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute.

Military aid alone from the US totals over $46 billion, far in excess of second placed Britain at $5.1 billion and the EU at $3.3 billion, although $2.5 billion each from Germany and Poland needs to be added to that total, alongside smaller contributions from Netherlands, Italy, France and Norway. 

There can be little doubt that the war in Ukraine is a proxy war initiated and fought by NATO against Russia, as part of the West’s 30 year long strategy of encirclement and containment of Russia.  Having initially courted capitalist Russia as a partner, during the brief G8 period, the US quickly saw the dangers for its hegemonic unipolar position in the world from a strong capitalist Russia.  The US has been working to weaken Russian influence ever since.

Ironically, over the same period, the US has seen its reliance on imports from China grow from $4 billion in the 1980’s to over $500 billion at present.  Loading guns and weaponry into Ukraine may yet result in a weakened Russia as the outcome but the trade lock between the US and China will be more difficult to shake, however belligerent the US continues to be against the People’s Republic.

The danger for the world is that the US fails to acknowledge that the dream of unipolar world dominance is not sustainable and continues its pattern of aggression and military intervention to try and maintain its position.  Recent decades have seen the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Palestine and Syria paying the price for this strategy.  The people of Russia and Ukraine are currently paying that price as a result of US led NATO intervention.    

Peace protesters have greeted G7 leaders in Hiroshima, calling for an end to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the eradication of the world’s estimated stockpile of 12,705 nuclear warheads.  It is unlikely that they will get as much news coverage as the visit of Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, a willing partner in crime with the West, a faux man of the people in danger of colluding in leading his people, and many others, over the precipice.  

13^th May 2023

Draconian police powers protect the ruling class

Liberals may take comfort in the delusion that Britain is not, or could not become, a police state but the evidence of the past week and recent legislation ought to make them think twice.

First up as evidence is the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.  Powers under the Act were liberally deployed by the police over the coronation weekend.  Three arrests under the powers were of volunteers working for “Night Stars”, an organisation funded by Westminster Council to help stop the sexual harassment of women.  The volunteers distribute rape alarms to women who might need them and are clearly identified by their pink tabards adorned with the logo of their Metropolitan Police partners.

Nevertheless, the arrests took place at 2am in the morning before the coronation and were ‘justified’ on the basis that ‘intelligence’ suggested that the rape alarms might be used to frighten the horses that would be part of the parade.  The volunteers were held for 14 hours before being released on bail.

The 2022 Act outlaws “serious disruption” and criminalises “intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance”, the interpretation of which is so broad that any number of relatively peaceful protests could come under its definition.  Even handing out rape alarms it would seem.  With penalties of up to 12 months in prison the Act is clearly designed to deter anyone thinking about public protest.

Second up as evidence is the positively draconian Public Order Act 2023.  This is the old ‘sus’ laws, widely used against black working class youths in the past, dressed up and expanded.  Anyone can be stopped and searched if the police “reasonably believe” that protests may be about to take place or if they think that someone may be carrying a “prohibited object”.  Resisting a search can result in up to a year in prison, being found guilty of engaging in an ‘illegal’ protest can get you up to three years in jail.

A key clause of the Act is the introduction of “serious disruption prevention orders” which give the police powers to prevent certain individuals from attending protests, associating with named others and even going so far as imposing house arrest.  Orders can be applied based on a “balance of probabilities” and last for up to two years, renewable for a further two if deemed necessary.

In the build up to the coronation weekend activists from the anti-Monarchy group Republic were in discussions with the police for four months, making clear that their protests would be peaceful, the nature of the action and where they would take place.  Nevertheless, six activists, including Republic spokesman, Graham Smith, were arrested while unloading placards from a van at 7am on the morning of the coronation and were not released until 11pm the same night.

Whatever ‘intelligence’ the police were working on to make these arrests you would think could extend to recognising someone they had been negotiating with for four months in less than 16 hours!  Apparently not.

All of which points directly towards the arrest of the Republic activists as a planned operation by the police in an attempt to either sabotage any protest or, at the very least, send out a warning message to activists for the future.

The police are the frontline enforcement arm of capitalism.  Evidence over decades confirms this, the Miner’s Strike 1984/85 being the most sustained example followed by a phalanx of anti-trade union legislation aimed at constraining strike action.  Subsequent protests against poll tax imposition, the protests of animal rights activists, Just Stop Oil campaigners and others campaigning to save the environment, add to the evidence that the capitalist state will do its utmost to suppress dissent.

The most recent report into the Metropolitan Police by Louise Casey, published in March, found the force to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.  This is the latest in a long list of evidence accumulated over many years, through a wide range of inquiries into police activity, that the police are a force for the upholding of ruling class laws, not defenders of local communities.

The actions of the police over the weekend of the coronation will no doubt be applauded by the right wing press as evidence that the new powers are necessary.  As capitalism struggles to retain any semblance of credibility, as company profits surge while the real value of wages plummet, there is no doubt that more enforcement of working class communities and those protesting against the injustices of the state will increase.

Active opposition to such draconian measures is an essential first step and any incoming Labour government should, first and foremost, be committed to their repeal.