ALB
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Two letters from former members in this weeks Weakly Worker (the first two) but not the one I sent. Maybe next week.
So, as was to be expected, the US state protected its poodle, or rather out of control pit bull, Israel, at the UN, flying in the face not only of what most people think but of what most other capitalist states do too. So the killings and destruction and misery and starvation continue in Gaza.
Commenting on the US vote, the Russian representative told the Security Council
“we cannot and must not” leave innocent civilians to the mercy of a “geopolitical game”.
His state knows all about that of course, but he hit the nail on the head. The US supports Israel for “geopolitical” reasons. The “game” is about retaining control of the oilfields at the northern end of the Persian Gulf and the trade route out of it to which Iran is a threat.
They have put on a show of asking Israel not to kill or starve so many people or destroy so many buildings in Gaza but not out of any concern for the people there. Their concern is what Nutty-yahoo and his bloodthirsty and vengeful cabinet and generals are doing is undermining Israel’s standing in the area and so its effectiveness as a counterweight to Iran.
As the Russian said, it about geopolitics (of oil). I was going to say “all” about that but there is clearly also an element of revenge and retribution on the part of Israel.
And the many more corresponding failures to change minds!
And, with posts with such links, you are not trying to change minds to get people to support the dissolution of the state of Israel? And succeeding?
There’s another national demonstration in London this Saturday:
https://palestinecampaign.org/events/national-march-for-palestine-sat-9-december-full-ceasefire-now/
Naturally we will be leafletting again, with in fact an updated version of our leaflet.
I think you need to explain that the DPP is a Taiwanese political party that currently holds power there and that its nationalism is Taiwanese nationalism. I think that’s right.
The issue is, it is a whole world solution, rainfall and light changes could effect some communities more than others
That is why of course we would have to wait for socialism for it to be applied. Under capitalism it affects the different competing states differently and those which would be adversely affected would block it, drag their feet or refuse to cooperate to get it done.
Because cutting back on fossil fuel production and consumption affects the competitively of the different competing states differently is already why they can’t agree on what is required at the COP conferences. They can agree on something but it’s never much above the lowest common denominator.
Forgot to add that Starmer is someone who thinks that capitalism is the only game in town but also understands that it has to be played according to its rules of profits first.
Thought I’d look up the meaning of that horrible word “entrepreneurialism” that he employed. It’s an economic system “characterized by the taking of financial risks in the hope of profit”.
One day Starmer praises Thatcher “plan for entrepreneurialism”
The next he says that “anyone who expects an incoming Labour government to quickly turn on the spending taps is going to be disappointed”.
Since “entreoreneurialism” is a fancy word for capitalism, it is clear that Starmer openly stands for capitalism and is prepared to run it on its terms by giving priority to business investment for profit over meeting people’s needs. He doesn’t even attempt to deny it.
We don’t need to wait to see that a Labour government will be no different from a Tory one. They are openly telling us that it won’t be — not that it could be anyway, as all government, whatever their political colour, are forced to give priority to profits over people’s needs. The problem is not the Labour or the Tories. It’s capitalism.
Citizen Downing is an utter nutter. He used to be a member of the Labour Party but got expelled for supporting Isis. He campaigned about being expelled, wanting to stay in and vote for a party that exactly fits the description of “pathetic reformist groveller to the capitalist establishment.”
I will rush off a letter to the Weekly Worker as Alan Johnstone would already have done.
That’s from someone taken in by MMT — Modern Monetary Theory — which also stands for Magic Money Tree. It’s a load of nonsense, a variety of currency crankism.
I will add a comment pointing this out.
Report from Bristol:
“The march was great, people were extremely welcoming and receptive to the flyers, I got to give out many and I even went out of the march to give to people who were on the sidelines just watching. I told them to check out our website and if they agree, to get in contact. Hopefully that will create a little buzz and get more people interested in the only solution to this mess.
Only con I can think of is there was a strong SWP presence there basically doing the same thing as me, however they seemed to only give out leaflets to the marchgoers and were really nice too, so that was good.
From the amount of leaflets I was able to give out and the people that seemed genuinely interested in having a chat I definitely think this is something the party should get more involved with, especially in reaction to events such as benefit/tax cuts, big strikes, wars and so on.”
Yes, that’s a valid point that we have in fact made on a number of occasions. The trouble is we have used the term “Marxism” so many times ourselves in the past, even if in the sense of a type of analysis, that we can’t be too insistent about taking to task those who use it.
Report about Oxford:
“It was a bit smaller this week. Probably got rid of about half of those fliers. Was rather cold though. Oxford itself was jammed with Xmas shoppers. Who were on the whole supportive from the side lines. The police did arrest one lone anti protester.”
Also shows that Marxism and Nationalism don’t mix. You are either one or the other. People like Jagan were nationalists disguised as Marxists rather than Marxists who went off the rails over nationalism.
More on this from the other side:
https://www.csis.org/analysis/guyana-oil-politics-and-great-expectations
The irony of the situation is that the present president of Guyana is a member of the Peoples Progressive Party whose founder, Dr Jagan, was said to have been a Marxist.
“Jagan has been labelled as communist or Marxist by many different sources.(…) In a discussion with V.S. Naipaul, Jagan elaborated on his appreciation of Marxist literature. (…) In 1984, Jagan stated that “I am not only fighting for the people of Guyana. I am fighting for the people of the world. I am contributing to that struggle. That struggle is winning. That is why the United States is so hysterical at the moment, because of that very fact, that what I stand for is winning”. Jagan also went on to claim in 1990 that it was socialism in Eastern Europe which was failing, rather than communism, and stated that “Communism, as a system, has not been tried in any country as yet, and remains a highly moralistic and humanistic ideal and destination.” If Jagan was a Marxist, he would have been the first democratically elected Marxist in the Western Hemisphere, ahead of Chilean leader Salvador Allende.”
