alanjjohnstone
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Despite the Forde Report asserting that anti-semitism allegations were politicalised, Hodge insists Corbyn remains ant-semite for saying so.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/02/jeremy-corbyn-urges-west-to-stop-arming-ukraine
“I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that my clearly stated support for the right of Palestinian people to be able to live in peace free from occupation, free from being under siege as in Gaza, and for those living in refugee camps … played a factor in all this. Benjamin Netanyahu couldn’t wait to condemn me for my support for the Palestinian people.”
The Labour MP Margaret Hodge condemned his remarks. She said: “To suggest our fight against antisemitism on the left means that we are all part of a conspiracy to smear Corbyn is frankly absurd and of itself antisemitic. This consistent failure to understand and distinguish between our Jewish identity and the complex Middle East political issues is at the heart of why Jeremy continues to be outside the Labour party.”
Nobody will listen as he is now an irrelevancy in politics.
Corbyn has urged western countries to stop arming Ukraine
“Pouring arms in isn’t going to bring about a solution, it’s only going to prolong and exaggerate this war,” Corbyn said. “We might be in for years and years of a war in Ukraine.”
“What I find disappointing is that hardly any of the world’s leaders use the word peace; they always use the language of more war, and more bellicose war.”
He added: “This war is disastrous for the people of Ukraine, for the people of Russia, and for the safety and security of the whole world, and therefore there has to be much more effort put into peace.”
He called for the UN to be “much more centre stage”, and suggested involving other international bodies such as the African Union or the League of Arab States if the UN were unable to help negotiate a ceasefire.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/02/jeremy-corbyn-urges-west-to-stop-arming-ukraine
While the two leaders of the RMT are calling for united trade union action for the unions, leaving the EU weakened international union solidarity, as would any independence for Scotland.
Also, any legislative action against the unions by a future PM would have been thwarted by EU regulations.
Brexit was an own-goal for those trade unionists supporting it.
Although we can applaud Lynch and his deputy, Dempsey, we should not forget that both supported Brexit
The American aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group, including a guided missile destroyer and cruiser, set out from Singapore on Monday heading toward the South China Sea and Taiwan.
https://countercurrents.org/2022/07/us-carrier-group-heads-toward-taiwan-as-pelosi-flies-to-asia/
The cost of pet care rises, especially euthanasia and cremations
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jul/30/britons-costs-pets-die-bills-costs
Green fraud.
Brazil’s indigenous peoples supposedly given land that they already owned
https://apnews.com/article/climate-and-environment-bca94ba396ba954cba3560e5f2f9fd6e
Broken promises on money for poor nations to tackle climate change
I happened upon this, sent just before I re-joined the party.
Dear Editors,
Considering myself a socialist postal worker, I wish to direct your readers’ attention to an aspect of a recent mail strike.Re-acting to the Post Office’s “slap across the wrist” disciplining of a manager, guilty of sexually harassing a 16-year-old postwoman, the entire Glasgow mail ground to a halt as postal workers came out on wildcat strikes.
Now, what struck me, as a socialist, was the sense of solidarity that has developed, after many years’ experience of industrial action, amongst postal workers. As is the custom, regardless of whether official or unofficial, all mail from Glasgow was blacked, a tactic to foil any Royal Mail attempt to move mail around the country to isolate and defeat a strike-bound office. It is illegal secondary action under the statutes, but the Post Office rarely challenges the refusal to handle blacked mail. On this occasion, however, and no doubt, as a result of their success in forcing through the “way forward” productivity deal, Royal Mail tried to divert letters to Edinburgh who subsequently went out on strike too.
Once again, postal workers have demonstrated the strength of industrial solidarity and expressed a spirit, nobly cited by Anton Pannekoek in Workers’ Councils:
“Direct action means action of the workers themselves without the intermediary of trade union officers…The first and most important task is to propaganda to expand the strike…Capitalists know or feel this quite well and so the only inducement to concessions is the fear that the strike might spread universally…”
Also in his “Ethics And Socialism” article:
“The workers could not be made to understand what wrong they had committed by stopping work for a day in support of a group of workers at war with their employers. The bourgeois journalists argued along these lines:…to go on strike for others through solidarity! (sheer madness, indeed…).”
Does the Socialist Party applaud the Scottish postal workers, as I do?
Alan Johnstone, Livingston
Reply: Yes, even if we don’t share Pannekoek’s view that unofficial, wildcat strikes are always best. As far as we are concerned, any strike to improve conditions or stop them getting worse, official or unofficial, legal or illegal, is all right as long as it is democratically decided and run by those involved. Full-time trade union officials should be the servants of their members, not their bosses as is so often the case today – Editors.
Although Levin describes himself as pro-Israel and belongs to a well-known Jewish-American family, AIPAC says he “represents the fringe wing that is working to undermine the US-Israel relationship”.
AIPAC stressed that defeating Levin “would remove one hostile voice” and “cement a pro-Israel champion”
Last year, Levin introduced a bill titled the Two-State Solution Act, which would restrict the $3.8bn in annual US aid to Israel from being used for the Israeli occupation or annexation of Palestinian territories — an apparent red line for pro-Israel hawks.
Kevin Lindsay, Scotland organiser for the Aslef union, has resigned from the Labour Paty said the sacking of Sam Tarry was “a step too far” and that Starmer was failing to stand up for workers.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-62334775
He is calling for the rail unions to cut its ties with Labour altogether, saying the party was “more interested in trying to woo Tory voters in the shires of England than representing working people”.
Thousands of workers at telecoms giant BT will walk out on Friday in the first of two strikes in a row over pay.
Engineers and call centre staff voted in favour of industrial action after BT offered a £1,500 per year pay rise. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said the action will be the first national telecoms strike since 1987.
Sanctions on Russia are taking a heavy toll on the economy, despite Moscow’s assertion that the country is not feeling the pinch, according to a new study from Yale University.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4167193
The authors claim their work casts doubt on Moscow’s claims that the economy remains robust and that the West is suffering more through “a war of economic attrition.”
“Russian domestic production has come to a complete standstill with no capacity to replace lost businesses, products and talent,”
With the exodus of some 1,000 global companies, Russia has lost companies that represent some 40% of gross domestic product
https://www.dw.com/en/yale-study-shows-sanctions-are-crippling-russias-economy/a-62623738
Workers at the port of Felixstowe in Suffolk balloted 92% in favour of a strike next month, rejecting a 5% pay rise offer from the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company, which their union, Unite, pointed out would be a real-terms pay cut with retail price inflation standing at 11.8%.
“Workers should not be paying the price for the pandemic with a pay cut,” said the Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham. “Unite has undertaken 360 disputes in a matter of months and we will do all in our power to defend workers.”
