Darren redstar
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I have a number of concerns and issues with this article. I think that it falls into the leftist anti imperialism trap of only seeing outside intervention as a problem when it is being done by the USA or Britain ( and occasionally France). The daily bombing of civilians by Russian and Iranian aircraft is ignored and thus it can be inferred is not a problem.i think that the article also repeats the conspiracist slur against the Syrian opposition; blaming the west for instigating the civil war. The civil war began when Assad’s security forces butchered Syrian people peacefully protesting in favour of democracy and free elections. Are we now to turn back time and withdraw our support for the democratic movements against the Stalinist states in 1989 because they had the support of the ‘western powers’? Foreign intervention has caused untold suffering to the people of Syria, but that intervention has overwhhel been by Putin’s Russia and the Iranian regimes propping up the Assadist dictatorship.the machinations of the other sub imperialism’s in the region have been minor in comparison
Robbo I think my argument is similar to our position toward anti fascism. As socialists we oppose all forms of capitalist rule and of course oppose fascism which is a form of capitalist class rule, but are also opposed to the ideology of anti fascism which sees fascism as uniquely horrorific and defends and alibis other forms of capitalist rule as preferable.
I think we must distinguish between AntiZionism and opposition to the actions of the Israeli State.all socialists would oppose the murderous, racist and discriminatory policies of Israel but this should not be understood as support for the ideology of AntiZionism. AntiZionism is a procapitalist, nationalist ideology that denies the validity of one state (Israel) and advocates its destruction, but accepts and supports the existence of all other states ( and indeed wishes to replace the Israeli state with a capitalist Palestinian one).as the ideological foundation of Israel is as ‘The Jewish State’ then anti Zionism explicitly denies that the Jewish People are allowed a state of their own ( for socialists who reject the idea of all states this is unremarkable, but anti Zionism is a part of the ideology of the left and inextricably tied to the concept of rights of nations to self determination and the support of nationalisms) It is the refusal of the anti zionists to acknowledge the right of a Jewish State to exist, whilst supporting all other states that gives support to the allegation of anti Semitism ( and allows anti semites to operate within the anti Zionist organisations).
I think it is important to recognise that the Labour Party is our political enemy. And, in the context of the past 20 years of the actions of that party in power and official opposition, it is hard not to see anyone who happily remained a member of that party as a active opponent of any concept of socialism. Those who have been attracted to the Corbynn campaign are, however, attracted to a reformist and ultimately utopian, critique of both austerity capitalism and the new labour project.they may be our opponents politically, but they are opponents that we must hope to win to socialism.
It's a good article by an old comrade of mine from class war fed. His doctorate, on British jihadism, is available on academia.edu.
I have been greatly heartened by the number of vans and cars full of supplies making there way to Calais from all over Britain. Practical solidarity in the face of the most vicious hate mongering.
My Facebook has become very boring recently with the number of communists/ anarchists/ revolutionary purists discovering that they are and have been social democrats all the while!its almost as if all the principles and detailed theories that inspired them and justified their various vanguardisms were actually mere smoke screens from behind which they really had no faith in the working class at all, and we're waiting for an opportunity to make their piece with a softer gentler capitalism.
I really wouldn't bother with a subscription, I doubt they will last long enough to honour your commitment.
A week or so ago, I saw the Tories spinning about tax credits subsidising employers who paid low wages. I thought then, how would the lefties respond to a Tory chancellor introducing the 'living wage' as the minimum wage and 'paying' for it by reducing employment taxes ( and cutting tax credit). Well Gideon didn't quite manage it, renaming a poverty wage a living wage doesn't make it one. But now the left is swarming to defend tax credits, a system which enforces and entrenches poverty, and rewards low wage employers.
Seems I am doomed to not make summer school again this year.unfortunately our present foster baby begins his handover to his new family next week
This is a excellent leaflet and deserves wider circulation. Slightly modified it could be used for every protest from now till the next election.
If that's the case then, we'd better just give up, or join the various authoritarian fantasists who play at being Bolsheviks at the weekends.unless socialism is accepted and embraced by the majority of workers- the eastenders watching, BGT voting, politically abstaining, materialistic bought off, all of them, then socialism can't happen.anyway, what wrong with being materialist?
