ALB
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That doesn’t apply to the South Wales mining values where rugby union was the popular sport. Maybe why rugby league clubs sent out scouts to recruit players and anyone with a northern accent at a rugby match was looked on with suspicion. I don’t suppose many doctors and solicitors would have been tempted to change code for money.
Talking of “anthems”, the most popular rugby one was Cwm Rhondda. It’s actually a hymn whose words are terrible. Massed workers singing:
Guide me, O thou great Redeemer,
Pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but thou art mighty;
Hold me with thy powerful hand:
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven
Feed me till I want no more.
Feed me till I want no more.does sound good but the words’ meaning is terrible — “I am weak, but thou art mighty”. Workers should rather be singing “Thou art weak [in fact thou existest not], but we are mighty”. Speed the day !
Now the US has joined in with a strike on Iranian forces in Syria. It’s the Gulf War syndrome. The application of the Carter Doctrine enunciated by President Carter in his state of the union message on 23 January 1980:
“Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”
In other words, the US will go to war if there was any attempt to challenge its control of the Arabian oilfields and of the trade route out through the Persian Gulf.
At the time the threat came from Russia. Twenty years ago it was Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Now it is Iran under the ayatollahs. Israel has always been the US’s rather unruly and often rogue proxyin the area. Which will be why Iran is so against it. Israel and Iran have in fact been in a state of undeclared war for a number of years now.
Two US aircraft carriers are in the eastern Mediterranean to protect Israel as its proxy against Iran by deterring Iran from joining in. They won’t want a war. Iran probably doesn’t either. It remains to be seen how successful the US is in preventing Israel putting a match to the powder keg.
Are you being provocative again? The tune may be ok but the words are anathema to Socialists. As bad as the “national anthem”, if not worse
“I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;”I think you can confirm that it could be roughly translated into German as my country uber alles.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Vow_to_Thee,_My_Country
Written by a Colonel Blimp they are patriotic (and religious) drivel. No socialist could sing that. In fact, if we dared, we should boo it every time we hear it. Personally I hate it and always have since we had to sing it in school.
Ironically, in his youth Holtz used to frequent meetings of the Socialist League. He should have known better than agreeing to his tune being perverted in this way.
So many Labour councillors have resigned over Starmer’s following the US/UK line and justifying the continued bombing of civilians in Gaza that Labour has lost its majority on Oxford City Council.
At least there are some people in the Labour Party who have other things on their mind than their leaders getting to be driven round in a ministerial car.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-67231473.amp
Headline in today’s Times: ISRAEL BRANDS THE UN A ‘STAIN ON HUMANITY’. Looks like a case of if the cap fits.
Meanwhile Starmer is in trouble over his statement that the Israel has the right to cut off water and electricity to Gaza. Sone fellow Labourites are pointing out that this could lose the Labour Party votes and seats in constituencies with a large Muslim population. Losing votes is always the over-riding issue in a vote-catching opportunist party such as Labour. And he has been forced to timidly backtrack, even though his original statement probably did genuinely reflect his personal view and he was caught him off guard.
I see the Jewish Nationalists (Zionists) who control the government of Israel are gunning for Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, for saying that the murderous Hamas attack on Israel did not happen in a vacuum (as it obviously didn’t) and no doubt also for expressing the view, held by most ordinary people in the world, that the Israeli bombardment of Gaza should stop.
https://www.politico.eu/article/israel-united-nations-antonio-guterres-hamas-attack-vacuum-comments/
They won’t find is as easy to bring him down as they did Corbyn. In fact they are likely to succeed only in showing themselves to be fanatical nationalists, entitled to no more special consideration than any other fanatical nationalists (despite the setting up of a Jewish state in Palestine not happening in a vacuum either)
The answer seems to to be that voting is not compulsory for everybody but only for those aged between 18 and 70 and then with exceptions
“Voting is compulsory between 18 and 70 years old, with some exceptions (illness and long distance from polling stations); penalties for abstention consist of a fine (between 50 and 500 Argentine pesos) and prohibition to hold public office or employment for three years from the election.”
(https://web.archive.org/web/20131031040409/http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2011_B.htm)So, voting is not compulsory for those aged 16 and 17 (they have the vote) and for the over-70s.
With the raging inflation there 500 pesos can’t be much — just over a £ – a small price to pay for abstaining from voting for some pro-capitalist candidate.
Voting in Belgium is also compulsory but only for Belgian citizens. EU nationals had the vote in local elections but weren’t legally obliged to vote. I voted once but couldn’t write “socialisme mondial” or “wereld socialisme” across my ballot paper as it was machine voting. The machine provided for people to cast a blank vote, so I voted “blanc”.
I hadn’t realised that voting was compulsory in Argentina. That means that, if you are dissatisfied with the conventional parties, you can’t just abstain but have to vote for some other candidate or party, however odd. That might explain why do many voted for an obvious nutcase like Milei. Workers who voted for him wouldn’t necessarily be agreeing with his weird “anarcho-capitalist” ideas but because this was the next best thing to abstaining. If so, that’s a relief.
Having said that, I take it casting a blank vote is still legal? Otherwise what could a socialist in Argentina legally do on election day?
So that loud mouthed populist didn’t come first as expected in the first round of the presidential elections. It seems that not enough workers there were that desperate as to vote for someone who wants a free market in body parts. He can still win, though, as him and the devil they know, the Peronist candidate, will now face each other in the second round in three weeks time.
Just read the statements by Mouvenent Communiste and Internationalist Perspective. They are of course right to denounce Hamas as murderous religious fanatics but would be advised not to distribute their statements at the pro-Palestine demonstrations. They are probably not intended for that anyway as nobody on those demonstrations would read past the opening paragraphs to reach the internationalist, socialist message at the end.
There was some discussion yesterday about whether it was wise or useful to leaflet the demonstrations as they were pro-Palestinian rather than anti-war. One idea was a stunt to burn both Israeli and Palestinian rags on the end of a pole. There were no volunteers to do this.
We still will probably produce a leaflet to hand out on these demonstrations.
This happened three years ago and was discussed here at the time;
Ok, Twiglet, there’s a London branch meeting this afternoon at 2 o’clock in Head Office if you can get there to discuss covering future demonstrations. Otherwise email to order extra copies of the November Socislist Standard for the next demonstration which states our case clearly.
There’s sure to be a monster one the Saturday after the Israeli army enters northern Gaza and destroys everything there, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, houses, people, the lot.
So, I take it no Party presence (to put the socialist case against all varieties of nationalism)/leafletting?
I don’t know. There might have been. In any event, there would have been no objection to doing so.
