alanjjohnstone
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I think Labour Against Witchhunt is very much a Weekly Worker baby (I may be wrong) so we can expect indignant articles at the end of the week on its website.
But what do they all really expect?
As someone said about Lenin’s reference to support is the same as the rope to hang the Labourite leadership, pretty naive to think they would ever agree to Communist Party affiliation.
Starmer purges his critics
Members of Resist, Labour Against the Witchhunt, Labour In Exile Network and Socialist Appeal, Resist and Labour Against the Witchhunt, Labour In Exile Network and Socialist Appeal, could be automatically expelled.
RobertS once more produces the goods by finding this article featuring the observations of ex-member and proliferate Socialist Standard writer, Stephen Coleman, now Professor of Political Communication at Leeds University.
“This never was primarily about economics except for a very small number of people who were the ones who really pushed hard to make it happen, but for the average voter it was about culture and it was about history.
“What does it mean to be British, who should come into the country, where is the country positioned in the world, who is it close to? And those are kind of cultural questions, the statistics I’ve mentioned suggests they just persisted for at least half or getting on to two thirds of the population. That is how they still define themselves.
A useful essay
My Heart Aches for Cuba — and I Yearn for More Solidarity From the Global Left
Acknowledging the mass nature of the protests in Cuba and explicitly condemning the state’s repression of the protesters does not require lessening the vehemence of their calls for the U.S. to end the embargo, or muffling their adamant opposition to U.S. intervention in Cuban politics. But it does mean that more people within the global left must make a real effort to gain an understanding of the realities on the ground in Cuba.Another ‘better down the reform path’ initiative
The Global Alliance for a Green New Deal is inviting politicians from legislatures in all countries to work together on policies that would deliver a just transition to a green economy ahead of Cop26…The alliance wants governments to put measures in place that would boost the green economy as well as collaborating on global vaccine access for Covid and debt restructuring for the world’s poorest nations.
Rod, I’m hoping that the political development of Europeans will be a bit more insightful than many in the American public.
They may well associate the floods with climate change unlike the raging forest fires and drought in the Western states of America that many still fail to perceive the connection and view the upkeep of the forest floor and reservoirs as the main problem.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/17/covid-misinformation-conspiracy-theories-ccdh-report
According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) the vast majority of Covid-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and general anti-vax conspiracy theories originated from just 12 people dubbed the “disinformation dozen” have a combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms.
1. Joseph Mercola 2. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 3. Ty and Charlene Bollinger 4. Sherri Tenpenny 5. Rizza Islam 6. Rashid Buttar 7. Erin Elizabeth 8. Sayer Ji 9. Kelly Brogan 10. Christiane Northrup 11. Ben Tapper 12. Kevin Jenkins
Facebook has the largest impact. 65% of 812,000 Facebook posts and tweets came from the “disinformation dozen.” Another figure cited is on Facebook alone, the dozen are responsible for 73% of all anti-vaccine content.
The CCDH is calling for social media to exclude them.
It is to our credit that I have never heard or read of any of our members calling for the silencing of either avowedly anti-socialist or pretend pseudo-socialists from expressing provenly false ideas. Despite the great difficulty facing us, we still are committed to discussion and debate, not censorship.
We opposed the Left’s campaign to deny dangerous fascists a platform and now the liberals seek to deny even a larger constituent the right to express their ideas.
This I found was an aspect of our case that some on the right-wing websites that I visited didn’t expect. And when challenged to demonstrate it as more than gesture propaganda, they were genuinely surprised when I provided more than just a few examples of us putting our principles into practice.
Perhaps, we should have a distinct regular monthly column in the Socialist Standard to ensure we are always associated with the freedom of democratic dialogue even for our opponents (something akin to the “Greasy Pole”).
Related to this topic, is this letter in Weekly Worker
https://www.weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1356/letters/
There is an ideological mis-interpretation that
There were five successive phases of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the USSR from October 1917.
(1) The rule of the soviets, October 1917 to the period just prior to the death of Lenin (January 1924), and the Fifth Congress of the Comintern (June-July 1924). A new and far more progressive form of democracy (the soviets – workers’ councils) ruled.
(2) The Interregnum (1924-28). It was still relatively democratic to begin with, but an increasingly repressive period of political struggle between Zinoviev, Stalin, Bukharin, Kamenev and Trotsky. Zinoviev was dominant initially, Bukharin in alliance with Stalin latterly, and Stalin emerged at the top in 1928.
(3) Consolidation of the rule of the bureaucracy, with Stalin as its central representative (1928-34). This marked the end of the original Bolshevik Party as a political entity.
(4) The Great Purges, etc: December 1934 (assassination of Kirov) to March 1953; the death of Stalin and execution of Beria in December 1953.
(5) Return of the rule of bureaucracy, 1953-93; the ‘Red Army’ smashes the rule of the NKVD and the secret police becomes an arm of the entire bureaucracy again, as in 1928-34.
This time-line seems to be what the letter-writer wishes it was ignoring the facts of the actual operation of the Bolshevik state, particularly his points 1 and 2.
ALB – many informed commentators are referring to it as an “experiment”, which suggests that they are not sure whether it will work, ie achieve herd immunity.
Boris Johnson’s plan to lift virtually all of England’s pandemic restrictions on Monday is a threat to the world …more than 1,200 scientists backed a letter to the Lancet journal warning the strategy could allow vaccine-resistant variants to develop…The letter to the Lancet said: “We believe the government is embarking on a dangerous and unethical experiment…”
How does QE relate to Modern Monetary Theory?
Is there any similarity?
I understand QE isn’t about printing money, but issuing credit that the government then later redeems back, so no extra money circulates to feed inflation.
While MMT doesn’t require QE and those countries with strong currencies can print money and ignore their national debt mounting.
But are national treasuries using both in practice?
Are Biden’s trillions really going to be funded from higher taxes on the 1%?
Here where I live and elsewhere around the world in the developing and undeveloped countries, the extent of the initial pandemic was minimum, some said because of the demographic make-up of the general population is higher numbers of young people.
But now there is an increase in its spread described as the second or third wave and the arrival of variants such as the Delta Covid.
Worse is expected to come.
Indonesia is being particularly hit hard. In its case, the vaccine has been acquired but the social service infrastructure is hindering its use.
Vaccination programmes have not been implemented effectively if at all in the case of some African nations who are still relying upon the sporadic charity of donated vaccine
If some countries are “bragging” about their “progress” and a return to normalcy, the rest of the world still remains largely at the mercy of the pandemic but as we know from the past…out of sight means out of mind, what the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.
Public attention will shift. We saw it with the Euros, media circuses as a diversion.
All the early talk of a Great Reset, of a new global empathy, has been just that – empty words.
I seriously wonder with such a historic world-changing event as the pandemic as an example if climate change extreme weather disasters such as the European flooding and heatwaves in Siberia and Western North America will have any influence upon the decisions of the powerful.
Cop26 will be significant in its lack of action
California have approved the first state-funded guaranteed income plan in the US, which will see $35m used for monthly cash payments to qualifying pregnant people and young adults who recently left foster care. California left it up to local officials to determine the size of the monthly payments.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/15/california-guaranteed-income-pregnant-ubi
For decades, most government assistance programs have had strict rules about how the money could be spent, usually limiting benefits to things like food or housing. But a guaranteed income program gives money to people with no rules on how to spend it. The idea is to reduce the stresses of poverty that cause health problems and make it harder for people to find and keep work.
Guaranteed income programs date back to the 18th century. The US government even experimented with them in the 1960s and 1970s during the Nixon administration before they fell out of favor.
But recently, the programs have been making a comeback. Programs have been announced in New Orleans; Oakland, California; Tacoma, Washington; Gainesville, Florida; and Los Angeles – the country’s second-largest city, which has a plan to give $1,000 a month to 2,000 needy families.
Another anti-meat article
The Myth That Meat is Essential for Human Health Could Harm Us All
