alanjjohnstone
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It makes the accomplishments of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in the peace process even more impressive.
“The same can be said of a Scottish breakaway from the rest of Britain. It too would put the clock back (to 1707!) and also make things worse for most workers living there.”
ALB, i’m not so sure you can say that Scottish separatism would have been detrimental to Scottish workers. Some could justifiably argue that they would be marginally better off than the English and the Welsh workers. Others would argue against that. To declare for either conclusion is speculative.
Sticking to this topic, Brexit wouldn’t have been an issue for Scottish or EU migrant workers post-2014 although no doubt the scenario would be similar and even more complicated to the Northern Ireland/EU border problem. England and Wales would perhaps find themselves even more isolated economically with a hard border. There would be severe ramifications for a EU-Scotland losing that huge English market. But would the 2016 referendum actually arisen and even if it did, how would have the debate been conducted? Who knows?
My opposition to Scottish nationalism is that of a world socialist. I view Scottish nationalism as sectionalism. Similar to the Catalonian nationalists who assert their claims that the region is more prosperous and carry the poorer parts of Spain, they were willing to cast aside international solidarity and to go it alone for whatever benefits could be accrued from an new independent state at the price of weakening fellow-workers elsewhere in the the British Isles.
As some on the left have explained, Scotland’s claim for independence is not based on any special oppression or repression such as language or culture, and that the Scots were willingly complicit in the British Empire colonialism. It too has the streets and statues of Scots who profited from slave trade
The main rise of Scottish nationalism began in the 60/70s with North Sea oil and a claim of sovereignty over it, a bounty that the SNP claimed would be shared out in public spending for just the people in Scotland. In later decades when it became apparent that the oil bonanza couldn’t be relied upon, the SNP campaign turned to Keynesian solutions versus the Westminster prevalent Thatcherist/Blairite policies. Again the emphasis was that if Scots jettisoned the 1707 treaty, the Scottish workers would be in a better position than their counterparts across Hadrian’s Wall.
Would they be? In some regards some would because they would be in a stronger negotiating position in the union-employee against employer, particularly in the State sector, (basing my assumption on my own experience as a postal worker.) But would others be? Ineos at Grangemouth?
Dividing the strength of a national trade union would have been counter-productive. It would pitted the workers in the UK against one another. I know that goes on with re-locations of businesses where region vying against region but with full independence it becomes a nationalist priority to set one country’s workers against another for the crumbs from the capitalist table.
Being a world socialist I stand with the principle, an injury to one is an injury to all, regardless of nationality. Independence may offer workers in Scotland new gold-plated chains rather than old rusty iron chains but it will take united global actions to strike off all our shackles.
As regards to the origin of Christianity, the Jewish Jesus followers disappeared rather quickly. What then occurred was that the Paulian cult began converting the non- Jews of the Roman Empire and did so by adopting and incorporating the beliefs of their rival religions over the next centuries, making Christianity fit the ideas and social reality already prevalent. From such pix and mix theology, there arose a great number of contending “heresies”, waning and waxing in their influence. The evolution of Christianity has never stopped.
From my reading, the original Jewish Jesus followers, arose from the John the Baptist cult, which may have been part of the practices of the Essenes which itself was a mere reflection of the ALB’s doomster “Jehovah Witness” – eschatology.
Jesus myth or historic figure? I tend to side with the latter explanations, a preacher among very many, as MS suggests, from which many legends were attached to. Again, a pix and mix to suit your fancy. Any accurate depiction of the teachings of this preacher have long been lost. Make him into whatever one wishes, radical or reactionary, the evidence does not exist to refute an interpretation.
But at times. ALB, you still have to wonder if the American ideological bias is actually the best one for US capitalism. After all, the “progressives ” are only actually demanding what the rest of the developed industrialised capitalist nations already operate under. Even the most “radical” is still fairly conservative minded, imho.
Look into the US Left terminology and it is an echo of “life, liberty and happiness” of the American frontierism. It is as if the world revolves around America’s Hollywood self-image of itself. I don’t want that to sound anti-American but apart from a few interest groups like the Zionists, nothing of importance happen outside the US. Isolationism seems a common political position for most people.
The Left talk of the $15 as their mantra but to be honest i think they still haven’t achieved the 8 hour day, the 8 hour leisure, 8 hour sleep demand of the Haymarket Martyrs. The basics such as paid sick leave, paid vacation time, paid maternity and paternity time-off simply seems too Utopian to petition for like pious supplicants on their knees before a king, much less strike for them.
A whole new mind-set for the socialist movement is required to appeal to our fellow-workers in America. Our language and our arguments need to be specially tailored to suit them. And i say this as one who have read De Leon, Debs and the IWW …who has read the history of their labor wars…and literal wars they indeed were compared to the big British strikes of the past. They have lost their history.
By emphasising the American progressives…we draw attention to the weaknesses of them, their short-comings, the lip-service they pay to their ideals. We certainly cannot equate them with any revolutionary demands because some very basic reforms sound rrr..revolutionary to them.
AOC calling for support for Pelosi as Leader of the House, saying to demand a floor-vote, a simple head-count on support for M4A is a distraction from gaining seats in committees that already they are being side-lined from.
We all predicted it but we never expected the cave-in to be so quick, so brazen. Biden isn’t even in office yet and the progressives aren’t really bitter about his appointments, they are hailing many of them, especially the important ones such as environment. And these will be the first to be watered down from the rhetoric by the in-coming officials.
Apologies for the rant.
Biden desperately seeks loophole to stop him cancelling student debt
Hat-tip to RobertS links
I think this topic can be incorporated in this thread
The Case for ‘Universal Property’ – Scientific American
Perhaps the term “universal property” should be one that we begin to use even if those who use it still impose capitalism’s exchange values on it
“neither private property nor public property”
Hugo Chávez and Maoism: A Conversation with Chris Gilbert – CounterPunch.org
How to force a round peg into a square hole…
Pompeo Spells Out the New Normal: All Criticism of Israel is “antisemitic” | Dissident Voice
The UN in 1975 declared Zionism “a form of racism and racial discrimination”.
In 1991, however, the UN revoked the “Zionism is racism” resolution.
In 2016 the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance adopted “working definition” of antisemitism. The definition is illustrated with 11 examples, seven of which refer to various criticisms of Israel, including that it is a “racist endeavour”.
In 2018 Israel passed the Nation-State Law .
In 2019, the US House of Representatives passed a near-unanimous resolution denouncing any boycott of Israel as antisemitic.
32 US states have passed legislation denying First Amendment rights to those who support a boycott of Israel in solidarity with oppressed Palestinians. Other states have similar legislation in the pipeline.
The German parliament passed a resolution last year that declared boycotting Israel comparable to the Nazi slogan “Don’t buy from Jews”. Bonn has the power to deny public funds to any group that supports, however tangentially, such a boycott.
The UK government has ruled that local authorities are not allowed to divest pension funds from Israel. These investments, some in illegal Jewish settlements, are assessed at nearly £3.5bn ($4.7bn)
In France, meanwhile, support for boycotting Israel has long been treated as a criminal offence under anti-discrimination legislation.
A conclusion reached by the UN 45 years ago – that it is racist for a state to promote rights based not on our shared humanity but on ethnic or religious difference – is now defined as antisemitic
“Alexandria Ocasio Cortez spent four years against ICE but in this bill, she approved the funding for ICE and the Mexican wall”
And to think the American public believe they live under a democracy, MS, when all manner of amendments can be added to a bill, that are totally extraneous to its intent so that any opposition to those ensures you lose what you want to pass. 5000-plus pages to make sure there is no debate and certainly no public scrutiny . Shameful but thy call it a democracy that people say they would die to defend. Who could believe it?
Organic meat – no solution to the climate problem
Organic meat production just as bad for climate, study finds | Environment | The Guardian
AOC is refusing to abstain from the vote for Pelosi to be leader of the House. Many say AOC should make her support for Pelosi conditional on a floor vote for M4A but she declines to do so.
AOC doesn’t think the timing is right.
This is an opportunity to use the leverage of the Justice Democrats possess. If not now…when
AOC is talking the talk but not walking the walk. She has adopted the conventional real politik , power and influence, instead of principle.
Chomsky and the liberal progressives said that they will push the Democratic Party left soon as they voted the lesser evil in but when the situation arises to use political pressure…the “wider”, the “long-term” picture becomes prioritise. No such shift.
Before November’s election Trump favoured a generous relief bill much higher than the original Democratic Party’s proposal but he faced opposition from both Republicans and the Democratic Party.
Pelosi knew it would result in votes for Trump so she refused to even support a watered down version for political gain at the expense of those effected by the restrictions and lay-offs. Nor did Trump have the power to force the Republicans to support it in an election.
The latest miserly relief bill has now been called by Trump as a “disgrace” and he is on this occasion 100% not fake news.
Trump rejects Covid-19 relief package, calling it ‘a disgrace’ (france24.com)
Sadly, if his veto delays the roll-out of the relief it will only hurt workers even more, just as Pelosi’s opportunism did.
