PALESTINE IRAN NEW COLD WAR: Ofer Cassif and Aqel Taqaz Boycott further undermines Nazi invasion of the USSR, on ending the colonial regime’s legitimacy 80 years on occupation

Lib Journal of Liberation eration

Arguments for a People's Vaccine Marc Botenga, Chris Matlhatko, Prabir Purkayastha and Sevim Dagdelen Pages 6-9 2 | Liberation editorial/liberation

4 interview Israeli member Ofer Cassif talks to Liberation

5 Palestine crisis Aqel Taqaz on a new round of Israeli aggression

6 people’s vaccine MEP Marc Botenga and South Africa’s Chris Matlhatko

8 small, powerful and weak, relate to each other has to Credit: Creative Commons/Anthony O'Neil From vaccine Our mission: change urgently. apartheid to vaccine From 11 to 21 May the world witnessed yet another neo-colonialism to fight for a cruel and vicious assault upon the Palestinian people by Prabir Purkayastha . Their crime? Continuing to agitate for their legitimate rights of national self-determination and an just, safe and independent state of Palestine in accordance with successive UN resolutions. Liberation believes that the 9 sustainable world! British people are morally justified to demonstrate against Patent waiver before Israeli state policies and to demand Britain recognise the big pharma profits independent state of Palestine. Sevim Dagdelen And, finally, regarding a pandemic which is far from The reports now emerging in the wake of the G7 summit, over, despite the prevailing narrative put about by the which took place in Cornwall last week, of the largely capitalist-owned media, Liberation firmly believes deliberations made by heads of some of the most powerful that the world will only be safe when all people are safe - capitalist countries, provide a sombre reminder of the not just those of the first world. Many of the people 10 challenges facing people across the world - especially hardest hit - indeed still being hit - are those of the former Iran election from the poorer nations. colonies, to whom more than a rhetorical debt is owed. Analysis by CODIR’s There has been no shortage of important issues for the Thus, in many respects, the G7 summit was a theatre of Jane Green attention of all those campaigning for peace, human rights, the macabre rather than absurd. The US, Britain, and and the sovereignty of independent nations. One is the France, account for three of the official top six afflicted Israeli military assault on the Palestinian people just last countries in terms of the four-million COVID-19 deaths month. Another is the continuing catastrophe of the war in worldwide, while many more countries across Africa, Yemen. There are the issues of continuing sanctions Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America face 11 against Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba - and the trampling a growing catastrophe due to the shortages of vaccines and comment upon the rights of ordinary citizens in Myanmar (Burma). continuing economic exploitation by that same G7. A Towards a Meanwhile, Sub-Saharan African countries face an billion vaccines were promised for poorer countries progressive foreign existential threat because of a lack of access to the despite the WHO estimate of an 8-11 billion doses needed. policy coronavirus vaccines. What is needed is a waiving of intellectual property Steve Bishop Furthermore, there is the vital matter of addressing the rights and patents, to enable countries to produce their threats posed to the world’s climate and environment - own vaccines and boost availability - rather than another these are not just the fanciful whims of liberal opinion but shot in the arm for pharmaceutical giant profiteering. a matter of life and death for communities everywhere. Liberation needs to be the voice of a united and diverse 12 One would have expected that the G7 summit would have movement that can challenge this stale state of affairs. The need for a new offered some meaningful indication that the urgency of Time is short. The threat to world peace, our health, and detente with Russia tackling these ills is both accepted and understood. our survival, is too serious to dismiss! Let’s build our Sevim Dagdelen Climate change, mounting inequality, racism, and great campaigning organisation! discrimination, are the by-products of the economic Jamshid Ahmadi system in which we live. These important challenges cover/Global Justice cannot be answered by blaming China, continuing to campaign for an end violate the sovereignty of small and poorer nations, or ABOVE: The G7 summit in Cornwall earlier this month: a to vaccine apartheid bypassing the United Nations. The G7 approach to world theatre of the macabre rather than absurd. affairs and the current way in which nations, large and Creative Commons Liberation | 3 news/Liberation

Palestine

Solidarity

Liberation held a successful public meeting Creative Commons on Palestine earlier this month. Speakers were Aqel Taqaz, secretary, Palestinian Committee for Peace and Solidarity, Aida Touma-Suleiman, member of Knesset, Solidarity with People of Myanmar (Burma) Israeli parliament, Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, former Labour party leader, former chair and current council member of Liberation Statement which yielded a landslide victory for Aung rule and the release of all detainees, as well Liberation, and Louise Regan, vice chair, San Suu Kyi and the National League for as protection of the lives, human and Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Titled. “End In response to the brutal suppression of Democracy (NLD). democratic rights, and livelihoods of the the Colonial Occupation of Palestine!”, the democracy in Myanmar (Burma), Liberation Threatened by the growing electoral Rohingya and other ethnic minority groups event included a lively question and answer has issued a statement of solidarity with its legitimacy of the NLD and its leader, the threatened by the return of martial rule. session. The event, held on zoom and live- people as they take to the streets in protest. military elite proclaimed the result invalid. The people of Myanmar (Burma) face streamed on Facebook, can be viewed at The statement, which received unanimous Stakes were high, the upper echelons of the life under the iron heel of the military and www.facebook.com/liberationorg support at our recent AGM, is summarised armed forces having built a powerful have resolved to free themselves. They here: network of patronage and business interests. deserve our unrelenting support and The mass upsurge in Myanmar (Burma) Now, as protests continue to grow, the solidarity. against the military takeover on 1 February police and army are resorting to outright 2021 has engaged people from all walks of repression, including live fire at peaceful Liberation is organising a public Zoom life – from civil servants and health workers demonstrators. Hundreds have been arrested meeting in solidarity with the people of to energy sector employees and railway and imprisoned. Myanmar (Burma). For details, please workers. Liberation gives its full backing to the visit our website The coup was staged to coincide with the progressive campaign for the return of www.liberationorg.co.uk, where you can planned opening of parliament, following democracy in Myanmar (Burma), also read the full statement on Myanmar the 8 November 2020 general election, demanding an immediate end to military (Burma). Taking forward the anti-imperialist struggle

Liberation AGM movement for the freedom of colonial comprising Jamshid Ahmadi, Katie Ferola, peoples both as MP and MEP. Tom Gill, Ararat Ratoosi and Peter Talbot, Indian Workers' The struggles of the peoples of Iran, Iraq, Harsev Bains, presenting on behalf of were re-elected too. Association GB the Chagos Islands and Mynamar against Liberation’s Executive, briefed Liberation The meeting, for the first time held neo-colonialist policies were the subject of members on the organisation’s newly online, was delightfully punctuated by two lively debate at Liberation’s Annual drafted education plan. This aims to wonderful classical pieces based on old General Meeting on March 13. deepen understanding within the UK Iranian songs by Sara Bahari, the concert In solidarity with Attending delegates, comprising Labour movement of Liberation’s current pianist and supporter of Liberation. Liberation for democracy, Liberation members and their guests, anti-imperialist campaigns and its role in Liberation Executive wishes to put on equality, peace,social backed the three motions and statement, anti-colonial history. record its heartfelt thanks to Bahari and the justice and freedom and heard Jeremy Corbyn MP deliver an The AGM received a report of activities chair, Baroness Christine Blower, former impassioned eulogy for Stan Newens. for the period since the previous AGM in General Secretary of the NUT. National President General Secretary Jeremy, former Liberation chair and 2019 and the annual accounts. The AGM Dyal Bagri Mrs Joginder Bains current council member, recounted the also renewed Liberation’s Central Council Jeremy’s dedication to Stan can be viewed valuable contribution of the former with all 17 presented seconded and on Liberation’s youtube account, accessed www.indobrit.org longstanding president of Liberation to the confirmedCreative Commons/Ibrahem Qasim in place. The Executive, via Liberationorg.co.uk 4 | Liberation interview/Ofer Cassif

Dr. Cassif’s radicalism has made him a Ofer Cassif Netanyahu knows that once Netanyahu implied that he is prepared to Words not target for assaults, including from the police, he loses his role as a PM he might find attack Iran, even if the US objects. It seems and numerous death threats. This, Dr. Cassif himself in prison in a few months. Hence, like that it was Biden who called him to order and enough to says, is not something unique to him - a wounded predator, he’s been doing calmed his madness this time. I hope Biden increasingly, Israeli settler colonial violence whatever he can to keep his power: racial will keep going that way, that a sort of a new is being taking aim at Jewish Israelis who incitement against the Palestinian people, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action will be end Israeli offer any type of critique of Prime Minister igniting fire in Al-Quds and Gaza, achieved, and that the whole region (and or Israeli occupation encouraging lynchings and pogroms against world) will be clean of WMD. occupation policies. Arab-Palestinian citizens in Israel proper, and so forth. Those who have been demonstrating Liberation Many well-intentioned of Palestine Liberation Following the ceasefire, against him, calling for his resignation, are external observers and supporters of a media and news reports tend to refer to aware of his insanity and thus keep struggling peaceful solution to the Israel-Palestine the fighting, and the issues which spurred for his removal from office. conflict remark that the facts on the Dr. Ofer Cassif, an it, in the past tense. However, the situation ground make the Two State Solution less on the ground in Israel and the Palestinian Liberation How do you gauge the viable. What is your take on this? What is Israeli member of the Territories is far from normalised, general mood of the Israeli left regarding the official position of on this? Knesset (parliament), particularly in Israel itself. Could you give the current situation? talks to Liberation us a brief overview of the current situation Ofer Cassif Hadash and I personally there? Ofer Cassif I think a famous still support the two-state solution. Firstly, the journal about the Gramscian imperative would best describe Palestinian People are entitled to self- recent tragic Ofer Cassif The normalisation is, as the mood and state of affairs among leftists in determination in their own sovereign bombardment of the normally here, abnormal. The occupation and Israel: “pessimism of the intellect, optimism independent state, something that was siege go on, ethnic cleansing in occupied of the will”. That is, we’re all hoping and prevented by Israel since the Nakba: it is their Palestinian people by East Jerusalem worsens, and within Israel keep fighting for the best, but still expecting right. Secondly, as Lenin argued more than the Netanyahu-led proper there is a continuous persecution of the worst and preparing for it. once; national self-determination is often government and why, Palestinian political activists, mainly, but not crucial in reducing hostility between nations, as a Jewish solely, from the CPI and HADASH. Liberation Much of the current hence a precondition for any progress towards Hundreds are arrested just for their political international coverage - whether before, socialism. But at some point in the future, politician, he activism against the occupation and racism. during, or after the recent onslaught - has after Palestinian liberation has materialised, supports the struggle tried to conjure an image of parity between the two states might decide to join, by for Palestinian Liberation At this current juncture, the two sides. What is your take on this? consent, into one state, a federation etc. how do you see events unfolding if their liberation. current trajectory remains uninterrupted? Ofer Cassif This is really outrageous! Liberation What can observers and In his column for There is no parity between occupier and the international community do - and what Haaretz, noted left- Ofer Cassif It does indeed seem that occupied, victimiser and victim. We oppose position should they advocate - if they are the current trajectory will hold under the any targeting of innocent civilians, whether in genuinely concerned for a peaceful wing intellectual, coming government, i.e. the occupation, the Gaza or in Israel, but only a blinded bigot can resolution to this conflict and the Two State Gideon Levy, has siege, the ethnic cleansing, the racism and ignore the malicious circumstances under Solution? described Dr. Cassif apartheid - all those are not going to be which the Palestinians live (particularly in reduced under Bennett and Lapid. Thus, I Gaza) and compare the advanced and lethal Ofer Cassif The international as “a very important cannot see the violence, including the seeds weapons that Israel has and uses to the community must raise a clear voice against person” and a of civil war, somehow vanishing. Only the relatively primitive missiles in Hamas’ the Israeli occupation and racist practices and “Knesset leftist of a liberation of the Palestinian people - the possession. call for the immediate liberation of the new stripe” who establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state Palestinian people. But words are not enough. in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Liberation We witnessed a very swift Real deeds are needed; like boycotts, does not mince Jerusalem, as well as a just solution to cessation to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, governmental decisions etc. Another his words when the refugee issue in accordance with UN once the U.S. began to lean on Netanyahu. important point is that those who support Creative Commons it comes to Security Council resolutions - can How do you view the role of the Biden Palestinian liberation and a just solution must deliver real peace, stability, administration regarding Israel-Palestine? also object loudly to any hint of antisemitism taking a clear tranquillity, and prosperity to our and exclude those who endorse it, explicitly anti-Zionist region. Ofer Cassif International pressure, or implicitly. As the famous slogan goes, stance. especially from the US, is crucially important. “Anti-Semitism is a crime, anti- is a Liberation You and many others Without international support or silence, duty.” Besides being a moral duty, the have drawn attention to the Israel could never pursue its crimes. The distinction between anti-Semitism and anti- central role in these events Biden administration is clearly pivotal here - Zionism will also undermine the of Benyamin Netanyahu and I hope, and believe, that the progressive commonplace attempt by the Israeli himself, with his rapid wing of the Democrats will lead him in the establishment and its allies to conflate the transition from right direction. two, by which they accuse any criticism of beleaguered Prime Israel as representative of anti-Jewish Minister to the nation’s Liberation How to you assess the tendencies and therefore illegitimate. strongman during the dangers of a wider Middle East recent violence. Could conflagration - e.g. aggression towards Dr. Cassif is a member of the Knesset you expand on this? Iran - and the effects this would have on representing the - an alliance of What of the the situation vis à vis Israel-Palestine? the four Palestinian-majority political parties demonstrations against in Israel. He serves as a representative of him not so long ago? Ofer Cassif As I have said before, the left-wing Jabha (Hadash) coalition, an aggression towards Iran is a serious and Arab-Israeli grouping which includes the realistic scenario. Just two weeks ago, Israeli Communist Party. Liberation | 5 Anti imperialist and comment/Palestine anti racist books from manifestopress.org.uk

Beyond the blockade Cuba’s education system as seen by dozens of British teachers in a series of study tours to the socialist island.

£7.50+£1.50 p&p £5+£1.50 p&p Dr. Aqel Taqaz is Secretary of the Palestinian occupation by Israel. No serious observer Concession price for NEU A new round Committee for Peace and Solidarity*, former should be left in any doubt; this issue lies at members elected mayor of Kobar district in the the core of all the other problems and occupied West Bank and a lifelong activist in everything else is incidental to this of Israeli Censorship overruled the Palestinian struggle. He gives his view on occupation. The glaring reality is that the by John Ellison the recent violence, the international reaction international community - despite the dozens With a close look at the aggression to it, and what is next for Palestine and the of resolutions relating to the Palestinian issue, Establishment, popular two-state solution the necessity of ending the occupation, the and anti-war press, John A new round of unhindered Israeli aggression right of the Palestinian people to self- Ellison re-visits this year of One month ago, against the Palestinian people has only recently determination, and the establishment of their change, in which war come to a close. An aggression that has independent state - is wholly incapable of resisters and the rising Palestinians embarked socialist movement stood characterised the State of Israel since its bringing pressure to bear upon, let alone proud. on a general strike to founding in 1948 - and even before then by its forcing, Israel to comply with international £8.50 + £2.25 p&p protest Israel’s early proponents. law, resolutions of international legitimacy, The bombardment of Gaza has stopped for and respect for human rights, as a means to inhumane war on a the time being - but the aggression against resolving this longest of conflicts. Reimagining education edited by Lousie Regan people whose only Jerusalem, Jenin, and other areas, continues Let it not be forgotten that Israel was and Ian Duckett ‘crime’ is to call for unabated. Three Palestinians were martyred established on the basis of United Nations in Jenin; the siege of Sheikh Jarrah goes on, Resolution 181, which divided then-Palestine The Socialist Educational the implementation of in preparation for the eviction of its residents, into two states. The Palestinian state was Association takes a the relevant UN while dozens of families in Silwan from East supposed to be established as soon as this comprehensive look at the resolutions regarding Jerusalem await the same fate. Extremist resolution was implemented, yet this did not education system and Zionist settlers continue to practice their daily happen. Only the part of this resolution offers an opportunity to the creation of a reclaim education. rituals of provocation and aggression against relating to the creation of Israel was viable independent the Palestinian people without any deterrence implemented, while the parallel establishment £4.95 plus £1.80 p&p Palestinian state. or restraint whatsoever from the Israeli of the Palestinian state was not. Then, in authorities. 1948, Israel occupied more than half of the Challenging the empire area that was designated for the Palestinian apologists A ceasefire was by Andrew Murray Colonial occupation state, before going on to occupy the rest of it agreed to as International envoys flock one after the other in 1967, and then went on to annex Jerusalem Stop the War chairman international public to Israel and Palestine, as well as capital cities and build hundreds of settlements and a Andrew Murray analyses elsewhere, to discuss one matter: reaching of a separation wall across the territory it had the new breed of opinion visibly long-term agreement to stabilise the ceasefire seized. apologists for imperialism shifted against the reached in the early hours of Friday 21 May. £12.95 (£2 p&p) Israeli bombardment The Palestinian question - and the wider long- Two-state solution running issues, that is, legitimate grievances, it This reality means the possibility of the two- of civilian targets encompasses - was crudely and unjustly state solution is now in real danger if the in Gaza. reduced to a supposed parity between the heavy international community does not fulfill its The Empire and Ukraine

bombardment of besieged Gaza and the obligations. This book sets the missiles fired from Gaza towards Israel during The future of the two peoples and the Ukraine crisis in its global those terrible eleven days. cause of peace urgently requires the and local context, and by Dr. Aqel Taqaz This indicates that the international implementation of the two-state solution, draws the lessons needed community, represented by the United namely the empowerment of the Palestinian for the anti-war Nations (whose Security Council was unable people to determine their own sovereign movement as great power to hold a session to discuss the situation in affairs and establish their independent state conflict returns to Europe.

Palestine day after day throughout the crisis within the borders as they stood on 4 June £11.95 (+£1.50 p&p), in May), the International Quartet, the 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and European Union, and particularly the United the right of refugees to return in accordance States, remains incapable, unready, and with Resolution 194. The Life and Times of James Connolly unwilling to discuss the very essence of the Otherwise, the terrible events of last month edited by Anthony problem, and that is the continuing colonial will only be another footnote and link in the Coughlan and published in chain of Israeli violence and crimes against partnership with the the Palestinian people. This in turn raises Connolly Association major question marks over the fate of the wider region, including that of Israel itself as £11.50 €10 (plus £2 a state. The complexities of an already €2.5 p+p)

fraught regional situation should not be exacerbated further. Therefore, the continuation of the international campaign of solidarity with the Global education ‘reform’ Building resistance and struggle of the Palestinian people to compel solidarity Israel to respect its obligations under international law is of great importance, if not Edited by Gawain Little, more so now. foreword by Christine Blower *An affiliate of the World Peace Council, of NUT General Secretary which Dr. Aqel Taqaz is a secretariat £7.99 (+£2 p&p), 126 member pages, 6 | Liberation people’s vaccine/interview

Liberation Could you tell us a little if we want to get out of this pandemic as about the ‘The People’s Vaccine Alliance’ soon as possible, we need to lift patents and and who its main opponents are in share technology not tomorrow, but Europe and worldwide? yesterday. The vaccine needs to circulate quicker than the virus. Western Marc Botenga The People’s Vaccine governments refuse to share technology Alliance is a broad and global coalition of with third countries in order to protect Covid-19: organisations and activists campaigning for “their” multinationals’ profits. a “people’s vaccine”, rather than a “profit No one is safe until vaccine”, against COVID-19. This means Liberation How can the private everyone is safe lifting all obstacles to universal vaccine sector be directed or indeed forced to access. Patents are one of these obstacles. accept coordinated national and global Patents offer a monopoly on the vaccine to planning for vaccines? What should The central question one or a few companies. In the European progressive forces do in this regard? is: are our Union, a large citizens’ initiative, No Profit governments ready to on Pandemic, is trying to make the Marc Botenga The necessary technical European Commission act upon these tools and instruments exist. We have confront Big Pharma principles, because today, mostly rich platforms for technology transfers and and put people over countries, including European ones, oppose patent pooling at the World Health profit? lifting patents, while a large coalition of Organization. The World Trade southern countries supports it. Organization can suspend patents. Even in the United States, the centralized Operation Liberation The pharma monopolies Warp Speed, combined with the threat of are infamous for continually extending the Defence Production Act, pushed several their intellectual property rights and companies to prioritize the production of patents. Could the appearance of Covid the pharmaceutical industry would try to raw materials for the vaccine. It is a matter variants be used as a strategy to retain hold on to their patents as long as possible. of political will. The central question is: are and extend patents on vaccines for a very But, indeed, the longer the virus circulates, our governments ready to confront Big long time? the more variants will appear. And each Pharma and put people over profit? We time we will have to wonder: does the need to mobilize to make them do exactly Even without variants, vaccine protect against the new variant? So, that. Big Pharma has huge policy leverage. Marc Botenga

Castro further, he observed: “Vaccines have pandemic will leave even deeper scars in the become the most efficient technology to keep fabric of the developing world and will take health-care expenses low since they can longer periods to recover from – if there are prevent diseases with one dosage. However, indeed prospects for that, given the as they yield low profits, they are put aside in dynamics of the uneven world system favour of medications that require repeated sustained by capitalism and its neoliberal dosages and yield higher benefits. The new variant. This is what Castro was referring to Vaccine for all: medications, the best seeds and, in general, the - the imperative of ‘Third World Unite or best technologies have become commodities Die’. necessity not choice whose prices only the rich countries can Castro could easily have been referring to afford” (p. 286). the current juncture, in which the novel Today, in the midst of the worst pandemic coronavirus (SAR-CoV-2) has wrecked “New medications … in recent times, these disparities - between global health systems. It is reported that have become the developed world (Global North) and the almost three 3 million have been killed by commodities whose Global South - have been emasculated, as the SAR-Cov-2 and almost 200 million have the pandemic tears apart the artificial veil been infected. Recently, variants of the virus prices only the rich over many aspects of health, income, social have been discovered as waves of infections countries can afford” and other related aspects of the world. The continue unabated. Almost 8 billion have (Fidel Castro, 2000) health systems of the developing world have been vaccinated – which represents a minute been overwhelmed and unable to cope with 1.5% of the world’s population, and 80% of the sheer pressure of the pandemic. In the them from only 10 countries, says Vijay by Chris Matlhako ‘core’ developed world, racialized disparities Prashad of the Tricontinental: Institute for have occurred as racial stratifications Social Research (Tricontinental, 1 April underpinning racial capitalism - of the poor 2021). and rich. Medical apartheid has been brought to the The political economy of the Covid-19 economic inequalities both within and fore in the form of ‘vaccine nationalism’ by pandemic is also located firmly in the long between their countries. Meanwhile, the developed countries. The World Health arch of racial capitalism and shows ordinary people, especially the marginal Organization (WHO), which has since 1950 mechanisms by which Covid-19 has strata and poor, have been systematically celebrated Global Health Day on 7 April, exacerbated the already existing structural excluded and further marginalised, and found it appropriate to theme this year’s racial and colonial inequalities that underpin denied much needed social protections to celebrations as: ‘Building a fairer, healthier the global economy. ‘Core’ countries have cope with the impacts of Covid-19 on their world.’ This goes to the heart of medical insisted that workers, both in their countries health, income, and overall well-being. apartheid. Anti-imperialist progressives and elsewhere, ensure continued production Coming on the back of the 2008/9 across the globe meanwhile called for ‘free and profits, thereby exacerbating racial and financial crisis, the consequences of the vaccine for all’ during celebrations of the Liberation | 7 peoples’ vaccine/EU & Africa

In front of their financial firepower, we to produce eight billion vaccine doses by investment risk from private actors to public more complicated, they have great potential need to put the people’s mobilization and May 2022, which might cover up to 80% of authorities. If we use public funds to for rapid development and low-cost local pressure. the world population. It can be done. A plan develop a drug, why should the final production. drafted by the IMF proposed vaccinating 60 product be private property? One option Liberation China, Russia and Cuba percent of the world population by mid- would be to attach stringent conditions to Liberation What is your view about are effectively outside the G7 countries 2022, with estimated economic benefits of public funds, including on transparency and the importance of the public health pharma cartels. What is their potential 9 trillion dollars against a cost of 50 billion ownership. system? This is important as the EU has for vaccine research and mass dollars, a great “return on investment,” been championing cuts in health care production and distribution? How can Martin Wolf wrote in the Financial Times. Liberation Is your approach based budgets and in effect promotes private they be supported? The total cost will of course depend on who on solidarity between people living and health care. sets the price. If we do not lift patents, Big working under different conditions, Marc Botenga The situation in and of Pharma will set the price. We already know political and social situations etc? Is your Marc Botenga Over the last decade, the these three countries is very different. from leaks that Pfizer wants to increase its plan based on the idea of producing European Commission called 63 times for However, all three have developed their prices once the pandemic is over. In the US, generic vaccines in various countries that cuts in national health systems. Hospitals own vaccines, some of which are now on they speak of up to 175 dollars a dose. have the technical ability and know how throughout Europe were understaffed and the world market. In particular, the to mass produce vaccines? underequipped. A strong national public development of a non-profit vaccine by Liberation How do you see the health system is essential. From Cuba, a country under embargo, is a huge contractual aspects of the waiving of Marc Botenga Yes. Patents reinforce community-based primary health care achievement. The potential of countries like patents for vaccines? For example, who shortages, and in case of shortages, the services to well-equipped and staffed public China and India to produce vaccines is of is paying for the research and wealthiest countries buy up most vaccines. hospitals, and a well-organized national course huge, but there is also unused development of vaccines? How do you But no one is safe until everyone is safe, so system. The West also needs to get out of production capacity in unusual suspects, envisage that people will be able to the more innovative life-saving drugs can its self-centred worldview and draw like Senegal, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. secure complete transparency? be developed and produced all over the inspiration from other countries. We can We need to activate it as soon as possible world, the better. Why is it that in the face learn something from how some countries by lifting patents and sharing all relevant Marc Botenga Public funds have of a global pandemic, we cannot share in the Asia-Pacific, or the state of Kerala in technology. covered much of the investment for the technology and activate production India, dealt with the pandemic. Marc Botenga Are there any estimates research and development of these vaccines, capacity all over the world? Local of how many vaccines are needed globally and even part of the production capacity and production is key to defeating the Marc Botenga is an MEP for the and how much it costs annually, in order to the financial risk for side effects. This is pandemic, and so is sharing technology. Workers' Party of Belgium and part of the ensure continued worldwide immunisation? what the European Commission itself called The positive thing of the new mRNA European United Left–Nordic Green Left The Public Citizen NGO drafted a plan de-risking, meaning they transferred the vaccines is precisely that, while initially party group in the European Parliament

‘International Week of Anti-Imperialist – the poor and marginalised. It is also and is working in collaboration with the the existence of several candidate vaccines Struggle’ on 1 April. acknowledged that many poorer nations will African Export-Import Bank in different phases of trials is good news. ‘In Even though a large part of the work not have vaccines for their citizens before (AfreximBank). responding to Covid-19 challenges, GAVI – undertaken to develop vaccines to respond 2023, while the Global North has secured Despite the almost six decade-long US the vaccine alliance consisting mainly of to the SAR-Cov-2 has been supported more vaccines than required – enough to embargo and illegal blockade, Cuba has medicine developers in the developed through public funds, it is the private profit- vaccinate their populations three times over. shown that it is possible to contain the countries, has succeeded in obtaining making market mechanism which has been In fact, the Global North, with less than 14% spread of the pandemic and is in the pledges by governments to cooperate. allowed to play a key part in their of the world’s population, has secured more advanced trial stages for two of its vaccines. Further, in addition to GAVI, the developing distribution and sale. Within a short space of than half the total anticipated vaccines. The Lancet Infectious Diseases (April 2021) countries vaccine manufacturers network time, upon learning of the early cases of the South Africa and India approached the reports that the reason why Cuba has been (DCVMN) is a ready platform for rapid virus from the Chinese officials, private and WHO in 2020 asking for a temporary waiver successful in keeping Covid-19 at bay is its mass production of vaccines prequalified by public institutions rushed to develop of patent obligations under the Agreement ‘long-standing commitment to health’. the WHO’ says Prof Zha Daojiong of Peking vaccines. Why, therefore, are Covid-19 on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Cuba is due to launch a phase 3 trial of its University. Given the contraction of the vaccines not being provided to the whole Property Rights (TRIPS) so that countries subunit conjugate vaccine again Covid-19. world economy, in large part due to travel world? could produce generic versions of the Soberana-2 is one of four Covid-19 and quarantine restrictions for controlling Both Moderna and Pfizer – who received vaccines to distribute at low cost for mass candidate vaccines being developed in Cuba the spread of the virus, cooperation in vast amounts of public funds towards vaccination. As expected, this was rejected and is produced by the Finlay Institute in worldwide deployment of Covid-19 developing a vaccine for Covid-19 have by the Global North because, it was argued, Havana. vaccines is not a matter of choice but of profited significantly by registering patents such a waiver ‘would stifle research and This period has heralded an important necessity. on the vaccines to secure future profit even innovation’ – even though the vaccines were aspect concerning solidarity and the key As the saying goes: “Where there’s a will, though these efforts had been made possible developed largely through public funding. In question of healthcare being a public good. there’s a way”. The world can come together only through public funding. April 2020, the WHO, with other partners, It is important to note the stance of China to attain equitable access to Covid-19 Poorer nations have not been able to set up the Covid-19 Vaccines Access throughout this period. Unlike the US, vaccines. Healthcare provision and access access much needed vaccine doses due to (COVAX) to ensure equitable access to the China chose global cooperation and has are essential for the poor of the world. several factors. Many of the Global South vaccines. actively participated in international projects Internationalist solidarity, such as the countries do not command the revenues in For its part, the African Union established on vaccine research and development. It generosity of Cuba Henry Reeve Medical their national budgets to purchase the a platform through which it could acquire shared the genome sequence of the novel Brigade, is exemplary. necessary doses from private providers. vaccines for its member states. This arose coronavirus with the WHO, thus setting the Their health-care systems are non-existent in because many AU members states could not stage for international vaccine development. Chris Matlhako is general coordinator of many areas, and they are unable to cope on their own procure such vaccines because Together with more than 140 countries, the South African Peace Initiative and with the burden of Covid-19 implications. of the precariousness of their finances and China adopted a resolution to strengthen Second Deputy General Secretary of the Lack of basic infrastructure and beds in level of indebtedness. The AU’s African global cooperation in response to the South African Communist Party. many dilapidated hospitals in the poorer Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, through pandemic. nations means that the majority who will which countries can obtain vaccine doses, Equitable access to vaccines is crucial for * (Capitalism in Crisis: Globalization and succumb will be unable to access healthcare plans to procure 670 million vaccine doses the all-round fight against pandemics and World Politics Today. 2000). 8 | Liberation people’s vaccine/capitalism

the options that existed for increasing the WHO’s COVAX charitable model with tied production of vaccines which are increasingly technology and captive suppliers would take being closed out with our current trajectory. care of the rest, albeit at a much slower pace We will also examine the emerging than what the world required. The COVAX geostrategic picture, with China emerging as platform had promised 92 low and middle- the global economic powerhouse and income countries that 20% of their weakening of the US, the pre-eminent requirements of vaccines for 2021 would be economic power in the world after the Second met from COVAX supplies. From vaccine World War. This policy came a cropper on the Modi Vaccinating the world against Covid-19 government’s incompetence in expanding apartheid to demanded that the production of vaccines be vaccine production rapidly within the country distributed across the globe. For example, and the huge second wave that it failed to Africa, with a population of 1.3 billion, control. It responded by clamping down on vaccine neo- imports 99% of its vaccine requirement. India’s vaccine exports that had already been Unless we have a large number of production paid for by the COVAX platform. The colonialism facilities, the global vaccine supply will be consequence is the huge gap that has now held captive to large producers like the US and epidemic, Big Pharma tried to sue South opened up for even the 20% supplies that India, where domestic considerations can Africa for buying cheap, generic AIDs drugs COVAX had promised low and middle- Are we seeing, like trump international obligations. A robust from India at one-thirtieth the price of their income countries. vaccine supply system cannot afford to have patented drugs. It was possible to manufacture In this gap, Chinese vaccines, which have disaster capitalism, bottlenecks that we saw with the US AIDS drugs cheaply in India because of its passed the WHO’s emergency use a version of pandemic prioritising its needs using the 1950 Korean Patent Laws and indigenous capacity. This was authorisation guidelines, have stepped in. They capitalism where Defence Production Act, or India stopping a public relations disaster for Big Pharma. are now being used in a large number of exports after its explosive second wave in Learning from this fiasco, they have been countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. vaccines are the way April-May this year. promoting a policy, where the gap between China has also ramped up its vaccine to prise open the The 73rd World Health Assembly in May their monopoly profits and the prices which manufacturing significantly and is running the economies of the poor 2020 passed a resolution on sharing the poor can pay, are bridged by aid from rich world’s largest vaccination program with more countries? technology for producing vaccines, medicines countries and philanthropic institutions. This is than 809 million doses delivered compared to and diagnostic kits to combat the threat of a one-time loss that the rich countries are the US’s 304 million and India’s 233 million Covid-19. The only opposition was from the willing to bear for retaining their global (Ourworldindata.org, 11th June). It is also the by Prabir Purkayastha US. WHO created the Technology Access Pool monopolies. world’s largest exporter of Covid-19 vaccines, (C-TAP) to pool patents and other intellectual including the transfer of technology to a large property to share it with producers across the Dependency of poor countries number of companies outside China. globe. The move by South Africa and India in This is why transferring technology—in this the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on case vaccine production—is such a threat to Big From pandemic to endemic E ARE USED To extremes when we suspending patents and other intellectual Pharma. The game here is retaining the existing There is another reason why Big Pharma may think about global poverty, the huge gap property rights was the other half of this plan. dependency that poor countries have on Big not want to end the pandemic but might like to Wbetween the poor and the rich countries. Pharma, preventing them from developing their see it becoming endemic requiring booster doses Addressing poverty is a hard problem. It means Big pharma sees a market independent production capabilities and thus every year. This is the road we are now reversing the hundreds of years of history: the Big Pharma saw in vaccines, medicines and retaining their market. travelling. As vast swathes of people remain direct colonial looting that took place in Asia, diagnostics a new global market and fought this Of course, all vaccines are not equal. Some unvaccinated, more and more people will Africa and Latin America. This continues under trajectory tooth and nail. They were aided by Bill vaccines—the mRNA vaccines—require an continue to be infected, providing the SARS- neo-colonial garb. Gates, who after accumulating a huge fortune ultra-cold supply chain of minus 70 to 80 C, CoV-2 virus with a fertile habitat for mutation. Providing vaccines to everybody in the from monopoly rents on his Windows operating which most countries cannot afford for mass This will increase its ability to bypass our world is a far simpler problem. Even the rich system, has emerged as the private czar of global vaccination. But if we look at the other two vaccine enhanced defences. For us, it is a huge countries have a stake in this. IMF calculations health. He and his foundations are the second- vaccine alternatives, the inactivated virus that risk as such variants will continue our periodic show that if the pandemic continues, the world largest donors to WHO. Instead of backing the Sinopharm, Sinovac and ICMR-Bharat lockdowns, physical distancing and disrupt a would lose nine trillion dollars by 2025. technology pool, Bill Gates, other private Biotech have used, or the adenovirus vector whole range of economic activities. This is why According to WHO, with only half a per cent foundations and Big Pharma backed an alternate route of Oxford-AstraZeneca, Gamaleya and we say no one is safe unless everyone is safe. of this $9 trillion—or $50 billion—we can mechanism, the Access to Covid-19 Tools Cansino, they are certainly possible to transfer But such a trajectory will continue to enrich Big vaccinate the entire world by middle 2022 and Accelerator, or ACT-Accelerator. to many other countries. The inactivated virus Pharma, while we all suffer. end the epidemic. Instead, according to The difference between the two is simple: vaccines have been used for more than a The other question is if the economies of ourworldindata.org figures (June 11, 2021), we in C-TAP, technology and knowledge would hundred years and to claim that their the poor countries are disrupted for the next 2- have less than 1% of Africa and less than 2.5% be accessible to any entity capable of making technology cannot be transferred to other 3 years, while the rich countries emerge in a of Asia which has been fully vaccinated vaccines or other products and make them self- countries is simply nonsense. With emerging relatively Covid-19 free environment, what against about 42% in the US and UK. At this reliant. In the ACT-Accelerator, the platform biotechnology capabilities in many countries happens to global inequalities between rate, the rich countries will vaccinate all their would facilitate the transfer of technology in Asia and Latin America transferring the countries? We know that the pandemic has hit people in the next 3-6 months, while the rest of while the intellectual property remains with adenovirus vector technology to a much larger the global poor much harder than the rich, the world takes another three years. This is not Big Pharma. The rich country governments number of countries is certainly possible. whose wealth has even increased under the vaccine nationalism but vaccine apartheid on a and various charities will also provide big The US believed in the Quad strategy: pandemic by $4 trillion. Are we seeing then, global scale. money to Big Pharma for this “altruism”. It is using India as the supply hub of vaccines for like disaster capitalism, a version of pandemic Why did the rich countries led by the US a policy to continue dependence on Big the low and middle-income countries. That is capitalism here? Are vaccines then the way to not take a trajectory that would end the Pharma to prevent a self-reliant vaccine and why Bill Gates and his various vaccine prise open the economies of the poor countries epidemic much earlier than it is likely today? pharmaceutical industry to emerge in the third initiatives focussed on Serum Institute of India, to strengthen neo-colonialism? Is it simply the selfishness of the rich? Or is world. the world’s vaccine manufacturer by volume there a deeper strategic play in this unfolding The charity model is at the heart of Big as the lynchpin of their vaccine supply. The Prabir Purkayastha is former General of vaccine apartheid? Capital’s strategy to defeat self-reliance and rich countries would keep their supplies of Secretary, All India People’s Science To answer this question, we need to look at local manufacturing. During the AIDS mRNA and other vaccines for themselves, Network, Editor, Newsclick Liberation | 9 people’s vaccine/Germany

Patent waiver before big pharma profits

In the EU the German across the world. Immunisation of the wealthy we support any preparation for the Olympic production from the United States to other industrialised nations alone is Games”, now taking from 23 July to 8 August countries. In the EU the German Government Government under epidemiologically short-sighted and ethically after being postponed last year. Here we see under Angela Merkel leads the way in loyalty Angela Merkel leads unacceptable. The longer it takes to push back with the utmost clarity the cynical ruthlessness to Big Pharma. Vaccines have become high- the way in loyalty to the pandemic, the greater will be the risk of of the head of the Commission. speed money presses for the big new virus mutations. In view of the likelihood Her concern is about securing profits. The conglomerates. Big Pharma. Vaccines that mutated variants of the virus will be more German BioNTech firm alone expects to The unpalatable truth is that the countries have become high- easily transmissible, every opportunity must register turnover of EUR 12.4 billion in the of the South have easier access to weapons speed money presses be taken to speed up global immunisation. current year with its COVID-19 vaccine. Its from Western armaments firms than to For all the global talk of solidarity, little has net profit in the first quarter was about EUR vaccines. As of the summer of 2021 the poorer for the big translated into real political action. That is 1.1 billion. By the end of 2021 a net return of countries are having to wait and see what conglomerates. seen in the uneven global distribution of six to seven billion or more is expected. For quantities of vaccine the richer countries have vaccines as well as in the utterly inadequate obvious reasons the company, based in Mainz left over and might pass on. The Director- assistance given to the countries of the global at the aptly named address An der Goldgrube General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom by Sevim Dagdelen South in establishing or expanding their own (“At the Gold Mine”), has no wish to share its Ghebreyesus, has observed that the world was production capacity. In the United States and patents. on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure - the EU, injections are now being given to paid with lives and livelihoods in the world's adolescents and children with a lower risk of Tax payer invetsment poorest countries. South Africa’s President, serious medical complications. In countries of The global fight against the pandemic must be Cyril Ramaphosa, has spoken of a “vaccine the South there is not enough vaccine a common endeavour. Much of the money apartheid”. While clinical trials for vaccine available to immunise all physicians, let alone invested in vaccine development has come from approval were conducted in Africa, the other high-risk groups. our own pockets as taxpayers. BioNTech alone continent now has to beg for vaccines. has received 375 million euros from the Hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses RUTE FORCE, Karl Marx noted, was Global inequality German Government over the past year for the lay unused in the United States because required to create the original conditions In high-income countries, an average of one in development of the mRNA vaccine and the insufficient numbers of people have come Bfor capitalism. Today, in the midst of four inhabitants has now received a jab. In low- necessary production facilities. There was also forward for vaccination. President Biden, Covid, capitalism’s giant corporations similarly income countries, the figure is only one in more a loan of 100 million euros from the European however, in true ‘America first’ style, has play with the lives of billions. The object is to than 500. According to the World Health Investment Bank. Other pharmaceutical banned the export of the basic components extract maximum profit for the very few. The Organization (WHO), of the 700 million doses companies have received similar injections of required for vaccine manufacture while the victims are similarly those at capitalism’s of vaccine that were distributed in the world in state aid. A list published in the medical journal virus has been raging among his country’s periphery. the first quarter of 2021, more than 87% went The Lancet shows that the manufacturers southern neighbours. The COVID-19 pandemic is a global to high-income or upper middle-income Sanofi/Glaxo-Smith-Kline and Novavaxie have COVID vaccines must be treated as a challenge, one that can only be overcome by a countries. Low-income countries received only received 2.1 billion US dollars in public common good. A great deal of know-how and global effort in which rich industrial nations 0.2%. funding, AstraZeneca and the University of suitable production facilities are required to assist the countries of the global South. In Although the EU, for example, exported 43 Oxford have received 1.7 billion, Johnson & manufacture vaccines. So the faster this April 2020, Federal Chancellor Angela million doses to 32 countries, the bulk of these Johnson 1.5 billion and Moderna 957 million. knowledge and technology transfer can be Merkel emphasised that the virus can only be went to the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico Yet governments have failed to set reasonable initiated, the faster the necessary capacity can defeated “if we pool our forces and form an and Japan, in other words to countries which terms for fair pricing or rapid licensing. be developed. There is room for many things incisive alliance”. Vaccines, she argued, must manufacture vaccines themselves or can Since October 2020 India, South Africa in this world but not for cut-throat capitalism be accessible to all people, regardless of the afford to buy them at market prices and/or and more than 100 other member countries of where the profits of a minute few weigh more size of their incomes or their country’s GDP. which have temporarily blocked the export of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have heavily than the lives of millions. Equally the President of the European vaccines or basic substances. In May, the EU called for a temporary waiver of patents on Commission, Ursula von der Leyen never – in spite of its own supply problems – finally vaccines and diagnostic technology for Sevim Dagdelen is the spokesperson for tired of emphasising that vaccines were “a approved the export of more than 100 million SARS-CoV-2. So far they have waited in vain, the parliamentary group of The Left Party in common good” and that the crisis could only doses of coronavirus vaccine to Japan. In even though the transfer of technological the Bundestag Committee on Foreign be resolved globally. Subsequent events arithmetical terms, this ensures the know-how and access to the requisite Affairs. quickly exposed this feigned concern. vaccination of about 40% of the Japanese biological resources is an urgent imperative. To end the pandemic the vaccination of a population. The actual purpose, however, is to In May, US President Joe Biden scored a ABOVE LEFT: Merkel’s concern is about large proportion of the world’s population is ensure that a multi-billion-dollar event goes public relations hit with his call for relaxations securing profits. The German BioNTech firm essential. The pandemic cannot be contained ahead this summer. Commission President of patent protection. At the same time, has received 375 million euros from the in Germany or the EU. The safety of any von der Leyen announced candidly that the however, he continues to block the supply of German Government . Creative Commons individual depends on the safety of everyone export authorisations were “a strong sign that essential basic substances for vaccine ABOVE RIGHT: Sevim Dagdelen 10 | Liberation Iran/analysis

Election boycott further undermines regime’s legitimacy

The candidate shortlist represents a very narrow range of political views, reflecting varying shades of support for the regime, while preferred candidate is successful. As a consequence, opposition to the regime oil, itself restricted due to the sanctions It is an open secret that the regime’s in the form of street protests openly regime.

Wikimedia Commons genuine opposition preferred candidate for this week’s election is denouncing corruption, economic The outcome of the election on 18 June has been excluded Ebrahim Raisi, a conservative cleric and mismanagement, and demanding economic will no doubt see the installation of an even altogether. current chief justice. Raisi is notorious equality and social justice, have been growing. more vicious, anti-democratic, and fiercely amongst the opposition in Iran for having been The spirit of defiance, which is building entrenched Islamist administration in Iran. a prominent member of the “death committee”, amongst the population as a whole, is met with This will in turn necessitate the beginning of which oversaw the execution of thousands of increasing ruthlessness by the security forces an era of reinvigorated campaigning for the by Jane Green Iranian political prisoners, mainly socialists involving both violence and mass arrests. The rights of the Iranian people. This will be for and communists, who were hanged from human rights record of the Iranian regime trade union rights, women’s rights, the right With Iranian presidential elections scheduled cranes in their droves in the late summer of continues to be an appalling litany of arbitrary to freedom of speech, the right to freedom of for 18 June and the latest round of talks in 1988. arrest, torture, rape, trumped-up charges, and association, and much more. The Vienna aimed at reviving the Iran nuclear deal Unsurprisingly, there is a widespread call incarceration with little or no access to legal international campaign of solidarity with the underway, the Islamic Republic is reaching a from the Iranian opposition to boycott the representation or medical care. struggle of the Iranian people for peace, critical point. Jane Green, of CODIR, assesses election, with initial estimates suggesting that The regime is setting great store by the human and democratic rights, and social the implications. up to 70% of the electorate may indeed stay latest round of negotiations in Vienna, to revive justice, must step up to demonstrate its The role of the president in a theocratic away from the polls. The fear that this may be the JCPOA, as a means to reversing the effectiveness. dictatorship, such as the Islamic Republic of the case is reflected in the calls made in recent economic decline. While taking a belligerent CODIR calls upon the labour and trade Iran, may appear to be superfluous, with sermons by Khamenei, for believers not to stance towards the United States in public, the union movement to join its campaign for ultimate power being concentrated in the hands heed the increasingly loud calls for a boycott Iranian regime is all too aware that in order to human and democratic rights in Iran. The new of Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. of the election. He admitted that there had engage in international markets the removal of administration in Iran should be left in no Within the Iranian system the president can been some “mistakes” in the vetting of economic and banking sanctions, and access to doubt that it cannot ignore public opinion still attempt to exercise some influence but this candidates and called for these to be redressed. US dollars and international financial whether from inside Iran or around the world. is distorted by the narrow parameters of the institutions, is vital. theocracy. Troubled economy Behind closed doors, the Supreme Leader Jane Green is campaign organiser of the While the president may lay claim to having Iran goes into the elections at a time when the and his clerical allies are only too aware of Committee for the Defence of the Iranian an elected mandate, this is illusory in any real country is blighted by economic bankruptcy due their extremely weak position, with regard to People’s Rights (CODIR), which campaigns sense as the choice of candidates open to the to the implementation of macro policies the state of Iran’s economy and the key need for Peace, Human Rights and Democracy public is strictly controlled by the regime and formulated by the clerical regime to serve the for big capital interests in Iran to be able to in Iran any hint of opposition to the prevailing interests of the country’s capitalists and powerful access global financial markets. orthodoxy is swiftly weeded out. Thus, for the super-rich class. This is exacerbated by the ABOVE LEFT: Regime favourite Ebrahim upcoming presidential elections, of the 40 economic sanctions imposed by the United IMF restructuring Raisi, here registering at the 2017 Iranian candidates that made the original long-list, States in contravention of international law, For its part the US is equally aware of Iran’s presidential election, is notorious as a only 7 have been allowed to stand for the following the unilateral withdrawal of the US in weakness, and this will no doubt form part of prominent member of the “death ballot. This shortlist represents a very narrow 2018 from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of US calculations as the negotiations progress. It committee” that oversaw the execution of range of political views, reflecting varying Action (JCPOA) or Iran nuclear deal. will certainly take precedence over any human thousands of Iranian political prisoners in shades of support for the regime, while As a result, tens of millions of Iranians live rights concerns as the US looks to open up the late summer of 1988S genuine opposition has been excluded below the poverty line; unemployment levels Iranian markets and exploit the potential for altogether. are sky-high, especially among the youth; and utilising Iran as a source of cheap labour. ABOVE RIGHT: Supreme leader Khamenei The 40-year history of the Islamic Republic inflation is rampant. In addition, Iran has been Decades of neoliberal economic has called on believers not to heed the has seen the legitimacy of each presidential devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, restructuring based on IMF prescriptions and increasingly loud calls for a boycott of the election questioned as the political differences wholly exacerbated by the regime’s feeble massive corruption within the regime, have election, admitted that there had been between candidates has narrowed each time. response, which has led to vastly increased the private wealth of the some “mistakes” in the vetting of Gerrymandering, vote rigging, and the deaths of more than 80,000 people and a upper layers of the clergy in Iran while candidates and stated that these be intimidation have also featured heavily in the further sharp deterioration in the economic producing a weak and hollowed-out national redressed election process to ensure that the regime’s situation. economy fully reliant on the export of crude Creative Commons Liberation | 11 comment/ UK foreign policy

The principles and motivations of Britain’s growing economic and technological threat developing nations need support to tackle the foreign policy have remained largely which China is perceived to pose and the pandemic due to poor health and economic unchanged since the end of World War 2. It is backs to the wall, increase the military infrastructures. This cut sits badly alongside an area in which there continues to be much budgets cries which NATO thrives upon, just the UK government continuing to profit from common ground between the Tory and Labour grow louder. the sale of arms to the Saudi dictatorship, Party leaderships. In political terms this neo-Cold War responsible for the bombing and Certain assumptions have never changed. narrative has profound implications for impoverishment of Yemen, resulting in the For example, as a nuclear power, the UK has foreign policy, especially where acceptance of world’s worst humanitarian crisis in decades. one of the five permanent seats on the the Russian and Chinese threats is a given. The fact is that many issues in the United Nations Security Council. The NATO leadership is, to all intents and developing world have their roots in both the rationale for Britain being a nuclear power purposes, the provenance of the United States, racist exploitation of the colonial past and its in the first place has been challenged from as the biggest financial and military legacy in the post-colonial present. Resource the Labour backbenches and through the contributor. plundering and imposition of neoliberal extra Parliamentary work of CND but Yet the failures of US foreign policy, austerity programmes, dictated by Western renewing the Trident nuclear submarine largely slavishly followed by the UK, are proxies such as the World Bank and IMF, weapons programme at a cost of £205 manifest in the imminent withdrawal of US only increases the level of responsibility the billion and rising, remains official Party troops from the unwinnable war in West should take to provide support. policy. Kier Starmer has made it clear that in Afghanistan. Originally CIA funded to A progressive foreign policy for the UK his view “support for nuclear deterrence is undermine the defence of the Afghan must boldly challenge some long held non-negotiable”. revolution by Soviet troops, the Mujahadeen shibboleths and demonstrate the benefits of Britain’s membership of the nuclear club is infrastructure built by the United States the alternative, based upon internationalism, an article of faith for the Tories, so alternatives metamorphosed variously into al-Qaeda and peace and co-operation between the people of are not deemed to merit serious consideration. Taliban bases. While the policy objective of all nations. Indeed, Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has preventing the development of socialism in Possessing nuclear weapons cannot be part Towards a just backed the recently published defence Afghanistan was achieved, it was at a of that equation. Supporting US wars of review, which committed the UK to lifting its phenomenal cost. intervention, either to support regime change progressive cap on the number of warheads it has from Learning the lessons of intervention has not or against sovereign states, cannot be part of 180 to 260, the first time the UK has increased been a strongpoint of Western policy, as the that equation. The sale of weapons to foreign policy its nuclear stockpile for decades. interventions in Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria regimes which actively use them to arrest or Hand in glove with the ‘necessity’ of have demonstrated. The unconditional undermine development must be stopped and nuclear capability, is membership of the support of the West for successive Israeli the cuts to the international aid budget NATO military alliance. NATO was at the governments, which have eroded the rights of restored and increased. cutting edge of Cold War provocation against Palestinians in the occupied territories in Calling for an end to the occupation and The recently the former Soviet Union, effectively flagrant violation of international law and UN actively supporting UN resolutions towards a demarcating a frontline from the Baltic to the resolutions has, with no mainstream protest in two-state solution in Palestine, together with published defence Mediterranean in its troop deployment. Since the UK, been a mainstay of foreign policy lifting the illegal blockade of Cuba, in line review and the the defeat of the Soviet Union in 1991, NATO across the political spectrum. with international law, must be cornerstones government’s view of has continued its provocative role. By While being self-righteous about alleged of any progressive foreign policy. So must a encircling Russia and the former Soviet states, violations of international law which threaten commitment to desist from interventions in a post-Brexit Global NATO has effectively moved the frontline into its own perceived interests, the United States support of reactionary governments or which Britain have put Eastern Europe and the European Arctic, remains firmly committed to its 60 years long impede in any way the right of the people of foreign policy issues while relentlessly co-opting the former illegal blockade of Cuba. The United States independent countries to determine their own socialist states into the military alliance. has long regarded Latin America as its future. International relations must be firmly back on the The expansion of NATO, along with that of backyard and the history of open or covert motivated by the quest to achieve mutually agenda. Steve Bishop the European Union into Eastern Europe, intervention, including Chile, Nicaragua, El cooperative and peaceful coexistence, not considers some of the effectively forms a military and economic Salvador, Grenada, Bolivia and Venezuela is hegemonic control of resources and supply issues and an pincer movement, expanding the West’s both lengthy and blood stained. routes to facilitate the profits of sphere of control across the continent. The recent defence review, which also set transnationals. alternative approach. Having supported the forces which turned out the UK’s post Brexit international policy, The post war foreign policy consensus has back the clock in the Soviet Union, initially highlighted the United States as the UK’s failed so many times, on so many fronts, that through the drunkard Yeltsin and subsequently most important ally, as assessment for which it is time to demand a comprehensive change. the autocrat Putin, the re-establishment of there appears to be no dissent on the It is time to articulate the concept of a Britain capitalism in Eastern Europe was not Opposition Front Bench. that is global in the truest sense, based on something the West could easily argue against. The current pandemic has offered the progressive internationalism, solidarity, and However, the manoeuvrings of Vladimir opportunity for Britain to play a much greater peace. Putin to retain political control at all costs has role in the distribution of vaccines to the made the task of demonising Russia that much developing world. The neo-colonial network Steve Bishop is council member of easier. Russian actions in the Ukraine, Crimea of the Commonwealth alone ensures Liberation and member of the Executive and intervening at the request of the Assad significant reach into many developing Council of CODIR, a long standing affiliate government in Syria have, for many in the countries which could have benefitted from to Liberation. West, sealed the deal. more urgent British support. While it is no There is certainly no significant dissent in surprise to find the government slow in its ABOVE: Lifting the illegal blockade of Cuba, the leadership of the major UK political approach on this question, more vocal support in line with international law, and calling for parties that Russia is anything other than a for fairer vaccine distribution needs to be an end to the occupation and actively threat to Western interests. Capitalism is heard from the Opposition Front Bench. supporting UN resolutions towards a two- nothing if not competitive and even a Equally, the cut in the UK international state solution in Palestine must be relatively weak capitalist state such as Russia development and aid budget by £4bn has cornerstones of any progressive foreign represents a potential threat. Add to this the justifiably provoked an outcry, at a time when policy. Creative Commons 12 | Liberation

Liberation

Journal of Liberation Volume 62 No 3 Sumer 2021

Liberation was founded in 1954 as the Movement for Colonial Freedom. Today Liberation campaigns for peace, economic justice, equality and human rights

75-77 St John Street, London EC1M 4NN Maggie Bowden general secretary Time for a new détente While we continue to operate normally, the Liberation physical office is temporarily closed due to coronavirus. Die Linke denounces n 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany launched One of the most heinous war crimes the NATO US-led its invasion of the Soviet Union, committed by Nazi Germany against the Email: [email protected] Ocodenamed Operation Barbarossa. population of the Soviet Union was the long longstanding policy Three-million Wehrmacht troops, with 600,000 brutal siege of Leningrad, which lasted from For emergencies only we have a of antagonism and soldiers from Italy, Hungary, Finland, Romania 8 September 1941 until 27 January 1944. The temporary telephone number for messages confrontation which and Slovakia, took part in the invasion - Wehrmacht and SS encircled the city, almost to be left whilst advancing on a wide front stretching from the completely cutting off its food supply leading the coronavirus continues 07949 405064 continues to this day Baltic to the Black Sea. The objective was to to the deaths of an estimated more than a against the Russian conquer all Soviet territory west of the Urals and million people. The purpose of the siege was Design and production by Manifesto Press. Federation occupy it permanently thereafter. not to conquer Leningrad but to starve its Set in Liberation Sans, Liberation Serif and From the outset, the notorious citizens to death. Liberation Mono Einsatzgruppen, the advance guard of the The invasion of the Soviet Union was also by Sevim Dagdelen Nazi-aligned forces, waged a war of planned to be a gigantic imperialist campaign Other than the editorial, the opinions in the annihilation - unleashing a reign of terror of plunder. In March 1941, the oil company articles are not necessarily those of against the civilian population. According to Kontinentale Öl AG was founded for that very Liberation the German war plans, the population of the purpose. Deutsche Bank was the main Soviet Union was to be "reduced" by 30 to 50 corporate partner in the Kontinentale How to support us million. With the invasion, the Nazis also consortium. Kontinentale was responsible for l Join as a member significantly ramped-up its campaign of the plundering, processing, and selling of oil l Affiliate your union branch systematic murder of Jews. There were and mineral resources in the territories l Donate massacres such as the one at Babi Yar on 29 occupied by Nazi Germany. Subsidiaries were liberationorg.co.uk/Join-or and 30 September 1941, where at least 33,000 then founded for the Baltic region and in l or give. Jewish inhabitants of the city of Kyiv were anticipation of the capture of the Caucasus Cheques can also be sent to: driven into a ravine and slaughtered. Soviet oilfields, while special commando units were prisoners of war and Romani people were also created to manage the illegally seized oil Peter Talbot, 34 Plimsoll Road, London N4 2EL. killed. The subsequent Soviet investigation installations. It was not until found that 100,000 persons were murdered at 1 November 1950 that Kontinentale Öl AG Join our mailing list Babi Yar alone. was eventually put into liquidation. Click on the link or scan the QR code The Nazis rampaged on for four years until with your phone the liberation, which had begun with their spectacular defeat at Stalingrad in September 1942, and over 27-million Soviet citizens did not live to see the victory over the fascism. The country’s material losses were likewise immeasurable. Militarily defeated, Nazi Germany left only scorched earth behind them in their forced retreat. In view of these unimaginable atrocities and crimes committed in the name of Nazi Germany, which exacted the highest toll on the Soviet Union of any country - and one still keenly felt today - it is imperative that this http://eepurl.com/gXnS_D anniversary is not overlooked, and that its historical ramifications are given due proper recognition. Die Linke, The Left Party in liberationorguk/ Germany, flatly rejects any attempt to play down or even deny the sole responsibility of LiberationorgUK the German fascists for the outbreak of the Second World War and, upon the 80th liberationorg/ anniversary of the invasion, denounces the NATO US-led longstanding policy of http://liberationorg.co.uk antagonism and confrontation which continues to this day against the Russian Federation, and supports reconciliation and cordial relations with the peoples of the former Soviet Union, and a new era of détente with Russia

Sevim Dagdelen is the spokesperson for the Die Linke (The Left Party) in the Bundestag Committee on Foreign Affairs.

ABOVE: Bundesarchive photograph