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So, as was to be expected, a deal has been done. Also, as was to be expected too, it doesn’t give the religious sectarians of the DUP a veto as was initially floated. Apart from the arrangements for Northern Ireland, the withdrawal agreement is exactly the same as May’s.
The Irish backstop (which would have kept the whole of the UK in a customs union with EU in the event of no trade deal being negotiated with them) would probably never have been invoked as some trade deal was bound to be agreed. It did, however, strengthen the EU’s hand in these negotiations. The EU has now agreed to give this up. In the (unlikely) event of no trade deal within 5 years it’s only Northern Ireland that risks remaining aligned (which, incidentally, is what the EU originally proposed; it was May who in a concession to the DUP insisted that whatever applied in NI should apply to the whole UK).
The “political declaration” is also different in that it holds out the prospect of the future trade deal being a free trade agreement rather than some closer trading arrangement with the EU. That’s not really what the dominant section of the British capitalist class want but the political declaration is just that — a non-binding declaration of intent, just a piece of paper. If the withdrawal agreement itself is accepted, nothing prevents a future government ignoring the political declaration and negotiating a different trade agreement retaining a closer alignment with the EU and easier access to its single market. That’s still to play for for the dominant section of the capitalist class even if the new deal is accepted.
The opposition parties, who are representing the interests of the capitalist class better these days than most Tories, still seem to think that they can get the UK to remain in the EU and are going to try and sink the new deal. With the help of the DUP they may well do so. We’ll see on Saturday.
If they succeed, then what? More of the same, the same old, boring and irrelevant debate about the trading arrangements of the British capitalist class, complicated by the political ambitions of the career politicians on both sides of the House of Commons. It’s a dismal prospect. The side show has ceased to be amusing and it’s time the actors were booed off the stage.
Looks like Facebook’s scheme for a new, cheap international payments system is running into trouble. According to an article in today’s Times by its Technology Business Editor:
“The Facebook founder’s plans for a new digital currency are in their death throes. Over recent days, his cryptocurrency project, Libra, has suffered an exodus of early supporters, including Paypal and Stripe, the payments groups, and Ebay, Mastercard and Visa.”
It is not just the unions that have criticised the anti-working-class action this morning by XR elements but even the Green Party has. Here’s a tweet from Green Party MEP Alexandra Phillips (one of our opponents in the recent Euroelections in the South East region):
“Extinction Rebellion protesters obtained it so incorrect this morning:
– sure to disruption
– however not on public transport
– or focusing on working class communities
Wish they might hold the deal with politicians & the highest of huge firms & banks.”Talk about an own goal — that could be the abiding memory of XR’s attempt to disrupt life in London for 2 weeks.
Interesting and revealing discussion here on ASLEF’s condemnation of XR’s action:
You beat me to it. I was just about to post this:
This was predictable in view of the stupid tactics adopted by XR’s leaders. They’ve probably put more people off than attracted support for their aim, coming across as arrogant, self-righteous and anti-democratic.
However, they can claim to have pressurised the government to move … an inch.
During the debate on the Puppet’s Speech in Parliament yesterday, Johnson made a pathetic attempt at humour while at the same time trying to smear the Labour leaders as Communists when, according to the Grauniad referring to Corbyn he said:
“Frankly I fear for his political health. We can see the Soviet-era expulsions that are taking place in his circle. As one by one, his lieutenants are purged as Lenin purged the associates of poor-old Trotsky. And there is Lenin, the veteran fabricator of GLC budgets, as the shadow chancellor tightens his icy-grip on the Labour party.”
John McDonnell was probably secretly flattered to be compared to Lenin. But Johnson has got his facts wrong. Lenin never purged Trotsky’s associates. They were great buddies as they planned the Bolshevik coup and began to lay the basis for state capitalism in Russia. It was Stalin who, after Lenin’s death in 1924, purged Trotsky’s associates when he and Trotsky fell out as to who was to be Lenin’s successor as dictator of state-capitalist Russia. Maybe Johnson knew this and that he wouldn’t get away with likening McDonnell to Stalin.
Three new added, including his speech at the Paris Commune Anniversary Meeting (which the Party used to hold in those days) in 1905 which happened to be at the time that the 1905 Russian Revolution. Fitzgerald comments that as soon as he heard that the students were involved he knew it was a “middle class” (bourgeois) revolution. The one from 1912 shows that we have consistently held the position from the start that socialism has to be a worldwide system.
Added to the Jack Fitzgerald Internet Archive:
The Commune in Paris, April 1905
Socialism must be international, February 1912
Answer to correspondents on industrial unionism, February 1914I am afraid, Rudy, that life has no meaning. Marxists are materialists and non-religious and leave providing a meaningless answer to such a metaphysical question to priests and idealist philosophers.
Observation reveals that all life-forms come into existence and act in a way so as to continue to exist until they die and cease to exist. This applies to humans too. Humans, however, have the advantage over all other life-forms of being self-conscious and of being able to change their conditions of life. So we can adopt the aim, both as individuals and as groups, of consciously pursuing surviving and living in the best possible conditions.
At the present stage of the evolution of human society and its material productive basis, this is a worldwide society based on the common ownership of the world’s resources so that they can be used to directly satisfy human needs and allow us to live peaceful, satisfying lives and to develop our talents. That was Marx’s aim and is the still the aim of present-day socialists.
This second podcast is even worse than the first. Kliman describes Trumpism as a “mortal threat” understood literally as a threat to the life of people like him (and us) who risk being “liquidated”. He describes Trump as a “proto-fascist” who represents a threat to “liberal democracy” and “the rule of law” in the US and talks of him declaring himself “President for life” and exiling his opponents in Congress. Naturally he argues in favour of impeaching Trump, and he calls for mass protests and general strikes to bring down his government. He doesn’t actually call here for workers to vote for his Democratic Party opponent, whoever he or she might be, in next year’s presidential elections (the easiest way to get rid of him, if that’s your priority). Maybe that’s for the third part.
I can’t understand what’s got into him as a person who has an understanding of how capitalism works; that it can’t be reformed to work in the interest of the working class; and that attempts to reform it lead to state capitalism and not socialism as a society which abolishes “value” (as something that rises only when there’s production for sale). He also understands, as he does point out here. that “the Left” wants power to introduce state capitalism, not the self-emancipation of the working class by conscious, democratic action.
Very odd.
To get back to the subject, of course, Nansir. There’s a whole pamphlet on this here:
https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/pamphlet/socialism-practical-alternative/
Chapter 4 in particular explains how the production and distribution of wealth could be organised without money (which of course becomes redundant once the means of life are owned in common and democratically controlled).
If the rumours about what the UK government is now proposing are true, ie that Northern Ireland should be in a customs union with both the EU and the UK, the businessman Bijou met last month will be happy:
“I was talking to a small businessman from Northern Ireland last week and for him this was the dream solution, as part of the UK they would have access to all (if any) trade deals that the UK have as well as having free access to the UK, they would also in effect be part of the EU for trade purposes. It would make Northern Ireland a very attractive part of the world to set up manufacturing plants in.”
At least for an exporter. An importer might not be so happy with the added bureaucracy but when it comes down to it Northern Ireland is not much more significant for the UK economy than the Isle of Man (except it costs more).
Yes, one moment you are living in relatively peaceful conditions leading an ordinary life. Next moment a state sends in its trained killers to ethnically cleanse you. It seems that the Kurdish nationalists overplayed their hand by trying to establish a mini-state which included a large Arab minority, always potentially a fifth column just as the Kurdish minority in Turkey are. The idea of the “nation” state encourages ethnic cleansing and they all do, or did, it.
Interesting background article here on the “Kurdish Question”. Not that developing an effective Kurdish nationalism is the thing that can save them — the emergence of yet another “effective” nationalism would just make things worse for everybody in the area, with more ethnic cleansing and discrimination against minorities who find themselves in the “wrong” state.
https://geopoliticalfutures.com/the-only-thing-that-can-save-the-kurds/
Just noticed that Arthur Scargill’s “Socialist Labour Party” is now claiming to be a re-constituted version of the impossibilist Socialist Labour Party of Great Britain formed in 1903. What a cheek as brazen as the Militant Tendency stealing our name of “Socialist Party”. Here is their claim in black and white:
Anti-Brexit court case involving workers for once:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49960647
Can’t see them winning, though.
XR UK’s attempt to shut down central London for 2 weeks kicks off today. I predict they will lose all the sympathy they built up the last time. The media will turn against them. The police will not be so polite especially under the new hang em and flog em Home Secretary. And the general public will get fed up with their daily life being upset. It will be completely counterproductive and won’t advance their cause at all.
I don’t know what they think they are doing unless they really believe that a civil disobedience by a minority can force a government to do (a) what it doesn’t want to do and (b) what it can’t do anyway. That won’t work as they will find out to their cost.
They have made their point and pushed the problem higher up the agenda but it looks as if they are about to throw all away by pursuing a mistaken tactic based on a false theory .
