CHARTIST For democratic socialism #309 March/April 2021 £2 Doctor Death

Peter Kenyon STARMER CHALLENGE Gary Younge US ELECTIONS Alice Arkwright Bryn Jones Steven Walker COVID FALL-OUT Mary Southcott FEMINISM Mark Serwotka ELECTORAL REFORM Don Flynn RACISM Plus Book reviews and regulars

ISSN - 0968 7866 ISSUE 09

www.chartist.org.uk Contributions and letters deadline for Editorial Policy CHARTIST #310 The editorial policy of CHARTIST is to promote debate amongst people active in 10 April 2021 radical politics about the contemporary Chartist welcomes articles of 800 or 1500 words, and relevance of democratic socialism across letters in electronic format only to: [email protected] the spectrum of politics, economics, science, philosophy, art, interpersonal Receive Chartist’s online newsletter: send your email address to [email protected] relations – in short, the whole realm of social life. Chartist Advert Rates: Our concern is with both democracy and socialism. The history of the last century Inside Full page £200; 1/2 page £125; 1/4 page £75; 1/8 page £40; 1/16 page £25; small box 5x2cm £15 single has made it abundantly clear that the sheet insert £50 mass of the population of the advanced We are also interested in advert swaps with other publications. To place an advert, please email: capitalist countries will have no interest [email protected] in any form of socialism which is not thoroughly democratic in its principles, its practices, its morality and its ideals. Yet the consequences of this deep attach - ment to democracy – one of the greatest advances of our epoch – are seldom reflected in the discussion and debates Editorial Board Contacts amongst active socialists. CHARTIST is not a party publication. It CHARTIST is published six times a year Published by Chartist Publications brings together people who are interested by the Chartist Collective. This issue was PO Box 52751 London EC2P 2XF in socialism, some of whom are active the produced by an Editorial Board consisting tel: 0845 456 4977 Labour Party and the trade union move - of Duncan Bowie (Reviews), Andrew ment. It is concerned to deepen and Coates, Peter Chalk, Patricia d’Ardenne, Printed by People For Print Ltd, Unit 10, Riverside Park, extend a dialogue with all other socialists Mike Davis (Editor), Nigel Doggett, Don Sheaf Gardens, Sheffield S2 4BB – Tel 0114 272 0915. and with activists from other movements Flynn, Roger Gillham, Hassan Hoque, Email: [email protected] involved in the struggle to find democrat - Peter Kenyon, Dave Lister, Patrick ic alternatives to the oppression, exploita - Mulcahy, Julie Ward, Karen Constantine, Website: www.chartist.org.uk tion and injustices of capitalism and Paul Teasdale, Robbie Scott, Steve Carver Email: [email protected] class society (Website Editor), Mary Southcott and Twitter: @Chartist48 John Sunderland. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Newsletter online: to join, email the EB Production: Ferdousur Rehman [email protected] Labour CND 2021 Conference Nuclear Disarmament in a Changing World Sunday 7 March, 4pm to 5.30pm Roundtable discussion on the prospects of nuclear disarmament in Britain and All welcome globally: , Phyllis Bennis, US academic and peace activist, and Email [email protected] to register Gemma Bolton, Labour NEC (personal capacity)

Breakout Sessions on: AGM takes place Thursday 11 March, 7pm-8.15pm Green New Deal and the role of a Shadow Defence Diversification Agency, open to all CND members who are also members of the Labour Party Nuclear Ban Communities initiative

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FEATURES

JOHNSON’S COVID FIASCO Peter Kenyon says time for Starmer to take the 8 fight to the government CHALLENGE Peter Rowlands on the lengthening shadow of 10 Scot Nats WOMEN & COVID Alice Arkwright says women’s gains under 11 threat MENTAL HEALTH & COVID Steven Walker sees Tory failure on mental 12 illness Gender equality under fire – Page 11 Cover by Martin Rowson NHS & TRADE DEALS Jan Savage highlights threat from Big 13 Pharma CHARTIST FEMINISM YESTERDAY & TODAY FOR DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM Mary Southcott reflects on the changing Number 309 March/April 2021 14 face of feminism REGULARS STATE OF THE UNION Gary Younge looks at the US elections and unfinished Civil War business of racism OUR HISTORY 95 16 4 Michael Meacher’s Diffusing Power

VIEW FROM EUROPE SMALL AXE Josef Weidenholzer on keeping the EU flag 4 Dave Lister qualifies school film 18 flying EDITORIAL 5 Time to take gloves off APARTHEID ISRAEL Sybil Cock on fresh evidence of entrenched POINTS & CROSSINGS 19 discrimination 6 Paul Salveson on toxic English State of the Union – Page 16 nationalism SIMPLISTIC INTERNATIONALISM GREENWATCH Dave Lister on leftists ignoring Syrian 7 David Toke on profiting from offshore 20 genocide FILM REVIEW COVID & ECONOMY 25 Patrick Mulcahy on The Mauritanian Bryn Jones reviews prescriptions from left economists BOOK REVIEWS 21 26 Alice Carter on German Right; Bob Newland on Pitch Battles; Andrew RACIST IMMIGRATION STRUCTURES Coates on Posadists; Nigel Watt on Don Flynn reviews three books dissecting Salazar; Duncan Bowie on the UK’s hostile environment Mayflower, Glamour Boys and Glyn 22 Ford on International Brigades

ELECTORAL REFORM VIEW FROM WESTMINSTER Mark Serwotka says Covid should be 32 Fabian Hamilton on banning Nukes 24 trigger for change Subscribe to CHARTIST : £18 ordinary subscription £35 supporter subscription (6 issues) Apartheid in Israel – Page 19 Visit www.chartist.org.uk/subscribe for details . March/April 2021 CHARTIST 3 OUR HISTORY

OUR HISTORY 95 MICHAEL MEACHER Diffusing Power 1992

ichael Meacher was MP for Oldham for 45 years recapture the power to inspire. It must be, and be seen to be, a from 1970 until his death in 2015. Before becom - vision that releases new forces in society, unlocks individual and ing an MP, he was an academic, teaching social group energies now pent up, and releases hidden talents. administration at Essex and York universities. Socialism is not merely, or even primarily, about protecting the He was a junior minister in the Wilson and weak. It is much more about extending widely the can-do mentali- MCallaghan governments. A member of Labour’s shadow cabinet ty which under Thatcherite capitalism was the exclusive preserve between 1983 and 1997, Meacher was an ally of and in of an entrepreneurial elite.” 1983 stood unsuccessfully against for the Deputy “Not least the new socialist ideology must generate excitement. leadership. However, Blair did not offer Meacher a cabinet posi - Traditional socialism, while enormously worthy and full of good tion after winning the 1997 election and he instead became a works, was also rather dull and stifling. A left vision which can junior minister at the Environment department before being sweep the country needs to develop a raw cutting edge. A genuine sacked in 2003. Meacher then became a prominent critic of the human politics cannot thrive purely on the cultivation of high ide- Labour government, notably in relation to the war. Meacher als, let alone the suffocating demands of respectability; it must was also a prominent campaigner on environmental issues. In also exercise a crusading passion.” 2007, Meacher considered standing against for the “Putting real power into the hands of the powerless and making party leadership, but stood down in favour of John McDonnell to that new power a foundation for an enhanced contribution to one’s avoid splitting the left vote. McDonnell however failed to obtain country offers a dynamic infinitely more resilient and meaningful sufficient nominations to challenge Brown, who was therefore than the Thatcherite consumerism of share handouts and capital unopposed. In the 2015 leadership election, Meacher supported discounts unconnected to the actual levers of power. Such a vision, Jeremy Corbyn. as it was steadily implemented, would proliferate new cadres for In 1982, Meacher published Socialism with a Human Face , socialism with the same ardour that Thatcher spawned her shock subtitled ‘Political Economy of Britain in the 1980’s.’ Diffusing troops on the ground, the purveyors of private capital in every Power , subtitled ‘The Key to Socialist Revival’, was published ten niche and cranny of the economy.” years later. His last book was The State We Need. “It involves a project on a scale of mobilisation never previously “The imagery of the 1940’s welfare state is now very dated. It attempted by any socialist movement anywhere…. It represents a oozes with the aura of paternalism, bureaucracy, dependency and reversal of traditional top-down social democratic planning. It a world of claimants. It emphasises the availability of rights and would progressively unleash bursts of undreamt-of activity where benefits, often perceived pejoratively as ‘handouts’, while neglect - decentralisation of power would force government to adjust from ing the reciprocity of responsibilities, duties and obligations. the use of hierarchical controls to increasing acceptance of self- However valuable are the basic principles of a welfare society, an reliance and self-discipline. But as an agenda for the left, as a appeal to them can no longer by itself inspire victory at a general foundation for the drive to wrest political and ideological domi- election, as Labour’s experience in both 1987 and 1992 revealed.” nance from the renascent radical right in Britain and throughout “If the left’s ideology is to regain resonance and force, it must Europe, the scope is awesome” Qualifications Dave Lister reflects on the Small Axe film on education

he brilliant Small Axe Black boys were failing the system, Unfortunately, the issue of dispro - series, written and directed being excluded from school and sent portionate numbers of boys of Afro- by Steve McQueen, hit our to special schools. How could this be? Caribbean origin being excluded from screens in December. The One factor was surely the racism in school has not gone away. fifth episode, Education, the society outside the school. Contributing to this must be the wTas shown on 13 December. It Experience of this could lead Black regressive Gove reforms of the last focused on the experiences of a young pupils to feel alienated from white decade. boy of Afro-Caribbean heritage in the authority as exhibited in the school. There is also the issue of special education system in Inner London Of course, there were some Black and schools. There is no way that cate - and was based on a true story. The Asian teachers but most teachers gorising children as educationally sub- boy was unjustly sent to an ESN were White and the overwhelming normal would be acceptable today. school. (ESN stands for Educationally majority of those in senior positions However, the very negative image of Sub-normal). Conditions at this spe - were. Another factor was the curricu - special schools does not fairly repre - cial school were chaotic with children lum. Particularly in subjects like sent every special school at that time. running riot and extremely bad teach - History and English the emphasis Dave Lister is a Finally, there is the role of the ing. was on the British and European member of Brent Inner London Education Authority Those of us who taught in Inner past. Topics like slavery and colonial - Central CLP & (ILEA), which was Labour-run at the London at this time would probably ism were at most slightly touched Chartist EB time. I find it difficult to believe that have found this drama somewhat upon. Over time things began to A longer version there was a deliberate attempt to worrying. We remember that there change. For example, Key Stage of this article make Black children fail, although was plenty of Left activism among Three of the National Curriculum will be on there may well have been a failure to London teachers then. Yet a dispro - included the optional topic Black www.chartist.org fully appreciate the need to address portionate number of in particular People in America. .uk this issue. C

4 CHARTIST March/April 2021 EDITORIAL

Time to take gloves off

en years of Tory austerity with massive reductions whilst standing on the shoulders of ‘difficult women’ pioneers. in public spending and welfare services have Under cover of the pandemic the government has also wrecked the social foundations of the UK. Keir begun to backtrack on promises made about Brexit bonuses. Starmer is right to highlight this context and how it Fisherfolk feel rightly abandoned, farmers are under the cosh, has amplified the devastation Covid-19 has with delays, bureaucracy and price rises threatening trade wTreaked on our lives and NHS. Add to this the cavalier with our biggest partner. Workers rights and environmental approach to early lockdown, failures on PPE provision, neglect protections look set to be jettisoned. Jan Savage explains of those in care homes, reluctance to provide basic support for how the NHS continues to be under threat from trade deals poorer families, chaos on schools and incompetence on travel which could open up health to further privatisation, particu - restrictions, a constant flow of mixed messages have amounted larly from US big Pharma and other corporations. to the highest death rates in the world with numbers approach - The election of the Biden/Harris Democrat ticket could slow ing 125,000. Combine this with the impact of Brexit, as yet dis - this process. Gary Younge puts the Democrats’ presidential guised apart from delivery failures on fishing and Northern election win under the microscope. The left and Black voters Ireland: Johnson’s government amounts to a saga of failure. were a major part of the success story. It is vital that the Boris Johnson has blood on his hands. The failures of govern - Sanders and Squad camp keeps up the pressure on Biden. ment lie with him. As Peter Kenyon explains it is now time Trump may be gone but Trumpism lives on. Defeating white for Labour’s leader to take the gloves off. This means opening supremacy and resolving the unfinished political business of the box of economic and political ideas that meet the needs for the Civil War will decide whether the embattled right returns. recovery and rebuilding. Brandishing a union jack is not in that Don Flynn interrogates the racism that imbues the struc - box. tures of the UK immigration system, through the hostile envi - The reason the vaccine programme has been successful is ronment to the Windrush scandal, locating its virulence in our because it has been delivered through NHS structures own unfinished disengagement from British colonial - and a professional network of medics and phar - ism. macists. This contrasts starkly with the On the international front Josef ‘moon-shot’ test and trace programme out - Boris Johnson has Weidenholzer regrets the departure of sourced to Serco and other private compa - the UK from the EU while calling for the nies, which might as well be part of the blood on his hands- left to reforge positive relations with our astral debris floating through outer the failures of European allies. Sybil Cock describes space. the findings of a recent Israeli civil The economy is in a critical condition. government lie with him rights group branding the Israeli state At least two and half million are likely to an apartheid state, the latest example be unemployed alongside over 200,000 being the denial of equal access for businesses lost and a ballooning spending Palestinians to Covid vaccines. Dave deficit. While the Health Secretary Hancock Lister rebuts a simplistic approach to inter - has been found guilty of law breaking in award - nationalism, and particularly silence over Assad’s ing over £2 billion contracts to Tory crony companies, murderous rule in Syria. Chancellor Sunak has yet to decide on extending the furlough The pandemic has also underlined the deficiency of the life-support package beyond April. Many self-employed workers Westminster electoral system. Mark Serwotka makes a have fallen through the net. The Government also looks set to forceful case for electoral change, citing the absurdity of a first scrap the £20 weekly uplift in Universal Credit. The poor, past the post system that enables a minority government to workers and small businesses are likely to bear the brunt of the inflict untold harm on its people. fallout while tech giants like Amazon and Google have profited Chartist continues to work with Labour for a New from the crisis. Bryn Jones reports on the economic prescrip - Democracy to commit Labour to proportional representation tions of two prominent socialist economists who argue for sus - and a wider revolution in Britain’s antiquated state—from tained and widespread government intervention, wealth taxes abolition of the , to decentralisation of power to and redistribution to meet the challenge of post-Covid recovery. local, regional and national governments . Peter Rowlands Starmer’s team would do well to study their books. looks at how this might play out for Labour in the forthcoming Besides the deaths and the social and economic impacts, Welsh elections with the shadow of Scottish independence coronavirus has also produced a surge in mental illness as lengthening. Steven Walker explains. His analysis echoes much of what Starmer has committed Labour to a constitutional conven - the outgoing Children’s Commissioner Ann Longfield has said tion. This should mean the entire membership of the Labour in a damning report on government failure to provide coun - Party is enjoined to debate the nature of the democratic social - selling and emotional support for young people. ist future we are striving for. Party members must be free to Gender inequality has also grown through the pandemic as debate all questions, including racism and antisemitism, with - Alice Arkwright explains. A TUC report shows how women in a framework of mutual respect, as Duncan Bowie argues have borne the brunt of childcare, home-schooling, redundancy on our website. Organisational methods like suspensions are and job loss. Fifty years of progress in women’s rights looks set not the way to end factionalism. Open political debate and to be turned back. Mary Southcott reflects on the changing thorough reflection on the party’s strengths and weaknesses is nature of feminism as women grapple with new challenges the road to travel.

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 5 P&C

England – which England? Paul Salveson on the fool’s gold of English nationalism

he quest for a ‘progressive English politics’ has become a growing trend recently amongst sections of the Left in England, pTarticularly in the South. Recent articles in and Observer suggest that ‘re-capturing’ English identity from the Right could be key to Labour re-building its popularity in a post-Brexit world. Writing in The Guardian (January 8th) Andy Beckett suggests that the nature of Englishness matters – “not least because a less prickly and entitled version would be better for our neighbours. And it might even stop a lot of the English from feeling like foreigners in their own land.” In a subsequent piece in The Observer (January 17th) Julian Coman is more specific about how a progressive Englishness could be articulated. Illustrated by a photo of ‘quintessential England’ - a rural which reflects the regional diversity pendent ‘North’ might happen. For English church with the flag of St of the country and sits comfortably now, it seems a very long way off, but George flying next to it - Julian with its neighbours. It could provide if NIP and other regionalist parties takes us on an ‘English Journey’ an umbrella for several different (North-east Party, Putting Cumbria which culminates in the idea of an identities, all of which are ‘English’ First, The Party and oth - English Parliament. but each is different. And it’s ‘identi - ers) can snap at the heels of Labour The implications of a unitary ty’ that is key. We need to re-think and push it towards a more pro- English Parliament are deeply wor - the ‘regional’ map of England and Northern approach, fine. Twenty rying. It would stimulate what the not take the post-war regional years ago no-one could foresee that Scots-born Irish republican James boundaries (based on the standard Labour would be virtually wiped out Connolly, in a different context, planning regions) as given. People’s in Scotland. A similar fate could called “a carnival of reaction”. Not identities are as important as what befall it in the North, but it doesn’t only would it even further institu - works economically. have to be so. Why not a ‘Northern tionalise the political dominance of England ‘as it is’ and its creation, Labour Party’ working as part of a England’s South and embolden a the British state, will take some devolved Labour across the UK and very nasty strain of right-wing shifting. The catalyst for change building strong roots in the English Toryism, it would drive a very large could well be Scottish indepen - regions? wedge between us, Scotland, Wales dence, which would result, by A ‘federal England’ within a con - and N.Ireland. Any sort of federal default, in what is essentially an federation which includes Scotland, settlement with Scotland, Wales ‘English Parliament’ with Wales as Wales and the North of Ireland, with and Northern would inevitably be a reluctant appendage. This should the Irish Republic as a close friend dominated by England, which be avoided at all costs and people on and ally could emerge as an alterna - numerically alone would vastly out - the Left should have no truck with tive to the complete break-up of the weigh its would-be partners. It it. Starmer’s attempts to wrap us all UK. But it should be a ‘confederation’ would leave the North of England in the union flag risk taking us of nations and regions’, not a sup - even more marginalised and exclud - down the road of an ugly national - posed federation in which ed. It would set in stone the ism which could lose it members Westminster remains in ultimate supremacy of English Toryism at its and stimulate new political forces. control. worst. A ‘left-wing’, or even mildly Cracks are already beginning to For the time being, Labour, with progressive, English nationalism is show in the North, with the emer - the Lib Dems and Greens, should get fool’s gold and will end in tears. gence of small regionalist parties behind the idea of regional democra - We need to create a new England and most recently the new cy and move beyond the flawed city- which is re-balanced, with the his - ‘Northern Independence Party’ region mayoral model. It’s undemo - toric marginalisation of its regions (NIP) which is essentially a civic A longer version cratic and unaccountable; only the reversed. Another England is possi - nationalist party based around a of this paper is figurehead is elected, a step back ble, but it’s an England of the national identity (‘’) available on The even from the days of the metropoli - regions. which currently doesn’t exist. But Hannah Mitchell tan county councils. Regional assem - What could this mean in prac - ‘nations’ are created and perhaps in Foundation blies elected by PR, which can pio - tice? The alternative to a unitary, the future a ‘Northumbrian’ identi - website – see neer new forms of governance work - centralised English Parliament ty will emerge. There’s a very long www.hannah- ing with empowered local govern - should be a de-centralised England way to go. In the long-term, an inde - mitchell.org.uk ment, should be the way forward. C

6 CHARTIST March/April 2021 GREENWATCH

Dubious conjuring tricks Dave Toke asks is the Government putting up the cost of offshore wind to pay for Sizewell C?

he cost of offshore wind is being jacked up by Government-mandated ‘auction fees’ just as the Government negotiates wTith EDF about giving it massive handouts to fund Sizewell C. The Government has announced the award of leases to build 8 GW of offshore windfarms, but in doing so the Crown Estates (mainly the Government) will earn around £900 million a year from the fees that developers will pay the Government for the leases. This sum is broadly comparable with the annual sums it is likely to pay out to EDF for devel - oping Sizewell C. The Government’s latest leasing round for offshore wind sites has been panned by the trade associa - tion Renewable UK who said ‘too few sites were made available to meet……demand. Any auction run on that basis will inevitably lead to higher fees and this could ultimate - Government has announced the award of leases to build 8 GW of offshore windfarms ly mean higher costs for developers and consumers’. consumers pay for the construction On top of all of this Sizewell C is In fact three-quarters of the fees of the proposed nuclear plant most likely to be given a much supe - that developers will pay will go into Sizewell C well before any genera - rior generation contract compared Treasury funds (one quarter to the tion from the plant begins. to offshore wind. Despite the fact Crown); these funds will not offset However, the Treasury says that that nuclear electricity is much the increase in prices for wind elec - this will increase Government debt more expensive than offshore wind tricity that developers will charge levels. it will be allowed to carry on gener - when, in a few years time, they bid Using a series of very dubious ating and push the windfarms off for contracts to supply electricity conjuring tricks the Government the grid. from the sites that have been will claim that new nuclear power is Altogether the Government’s leased. Indeed the costs of the auc - much less expensive compared to focus on funding Sizewell C at prac - tion fees will put up the capital offshore wind than would otherwise Dr David Toke is tically all costs is not only diverting costs of the offshore windfarms by be the case. This is despite the mas - Reader in Energy investment funds away from much at least 13 per cent (using sive subsidies given to Sizewell C Politics, cheaper renewable energy but it is Renewable UK figures). and the fact that offshore wind is, in Department of also associated with what looks (to Meanwhile the Government accountancy terms, effectively pay - Politics and me) like a deliberate policy of limit - seems likely to agree a deal with ing for much of the nuclear subsi - International ing the issue of leases to offshore EDF to fund Sizewell C whereby dies! Relations, wind developers in order to gener - consumers will pay twice, through An especially pernicious aspect of University of ate funds that can be recycled to their electricity bills – once to fund the Government’s policy is the mea - Aberdeen support nuclear power. C the construction costs of the pro - gre nature of the leasing round. jects, and then, after it is built, to 8GW of offshore wind will generate pay premium prices for the electrici - around 12 per cent of current UK ty generated. The connection electricity (a lot more than Sizewell Climate between the auction fees for off - C of course), but this is a lot less Countdown shore wind is twofold. First, it will than the value of the last leasing on chartist.org.uk increase the price of the offshore round for offshore wind. The last Diversifying Power for windfarm supply contracts relative offshore leasing round was conclud - Climate Action to the (heavily subsidised) contract ed in early 2010 (during the lifetime for Sizewell C. Second, BEIS may, of the last Labour Government) and In an exclusive edited in accountancy terms, be able to off - constituted some 32 GW of capacity. excerpt from her new book set the receipts from offshore wind - The Government is, in effect, U. S. Professor Jennie C farm leases against the increased slowing the decarbonisation process Stephens explains why public sector borrowing require - so that it can make money out of antiracist and feminist ment caused by the subsidies given offshore wind power, and on top of leadership is vital in to EDF for the construction of that it will have the mendacity to mitigating the climate crisis. Sizewell C. BEIS has been lobbying claim that the gap with nuclear the Treasury to allow it to make costs is falling.

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 7 LABOUR OPPOSITION

Starmer’s Mission Impossible Peter Kenyon says this corrupt government with 120,000 deaths on its hands requires Starmer’s Labour to seriously raise its opposition and ambition

n two months’ time many The British electorate’s capacity Two months on and we are still UK voters will go the polls to forgive and forget the corrup - waiting. for local, regional, Scottish tion, abuse of power, and nepotism Meanwhile, the ghastly realities Parliamentary and police played out daily by Johnson and of Brexit are ravaging the econo - and crime commissioner his cronies is encapsulated in my. Johnson and the renegade Ielections. Johnson’s capacity to turn a phrase Tories of the European Reform Labour leader Keir Starmer has for the moment. It is nearly 18 Group are still in power. The risks yet to floor Tory Prime Minister months since the Tory-supporting of troubles on the island of Ireland Boris Johnson. Worse, Labour The Spectator magazine published mount. Scots’ thirst for indepen - faces a herculean task to form a a guide to staging a coup. Yet dence appears even greater. majority government after the next Starmer still appears reluctant to It is not inconceivable that general election, whenever that call it out. Johnson’s constitutional legacy will might be. If Johnson was seen by How can the Johnson coup be be a United Ireland, Independent voters as a man with the blood of stopped in its tracks and democra - Scotland, Independent Wales and a UK citizens on his hands (120,000 cy restored? Conservative Little England. As for plus and still rising) and Labour Britain’s first past the post will jobs for those still languishing in was 20% ahead in the polls, still be in operation whenever the diminished circumstances in the Starmer might have a chance. next UK General Election is called. so-called ‘red wall’ seats, only radi - Rather than plan for a 2024 elec - The possible need for constitutional cal public-led investment pro - tion and drape himself and his reform was given a nod in grammes funded by the magic party in the Union Jack, Starmer Starmer’s John Mackintosh money tree will begin to turn their would be better advised to think Memorial Lecture aimed at fortunes. Then there are the fan - out of the box. Johnson is much Scottish voters and delivered on 21 tasies about rejoining the more likely to go for a snap election December last year. European Union: would the UK (if once the nation has been vaccinat - Starmer offered “… a UK-wide it survives) even pass the democra - ed fully against Covid-19. Only the Constitutional Commission to con - cy tests? Fixed Term Parliament Act stands sider how power, wealth and However, there are clues in that between Johnson and going to the opportunity can be devolved to the mix about how to overthrow the country. With an 80-seat majority most local level. This will be the Johnson coup peacefully. a repeal would not be in question. boldest project Labour has Assuming a moment will dawn Latest opinion polling shows the embarked on for a generation. And Peter Kenyon is a when economic considerations will Tories back in the lead by three to every bit as bold and radical as the member of Cities come to preoccupy voters’ minds, five percentage points. programme of that of London & the stupidity of Brexit may well Why? Vaccinations. Then what Labour delivered in the 1990s and Westminster CLP dawn too. There is already polling has Labour got to offer? 2000s.” & Chartist EB evidence for the latter.

8 CHARTIST March/April 2021 A consensus of one nation metic. Tories, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Results of a mega-poll by focal - and Greens will be needed. We data reported by Left Foot Forward could start with focussing not on at the end of January 2021 said the seemingly obvious, but on cor - Labour could win up to 351 seats ruption. The mag - by working with other progressive azine published a piece at the end parties at the next election. (There of January highlighting are currently 650 seats in the Transparency International’s latest House of Commons.) edition of the Corruption Analysis by the cross-party Perceptions Index (CPI). The group Compass a month earlier came in joint 12th showed a uniform swing of 10.5%, (with 77 points out of 100) out of would be needed (larger than the 180 countries and territories. Labour landslides of 1997 and According to TheyWorkForYou, 1945). “This scenario also assumes the last time Starmer mentioned that Labour can make a big come - the word ‘corruption’ in the House back in Scotland. Discounting of Commons was 16 June last year Scottish seats leaves Labour need - in a speech on global Britain. We ing an unprecedented uniform need to hear it for hapless little swing of 13.8%, and winning all Britain. As for ‘blood’ - not men - 124 seats would require constituen - tioned by Starmer since he became cy swings of as high as 15%”, one of leader in April last year. the authors told Left Foot Forward. Time is running very short to get The immediate and screamingly a majority of the British electorate obvious snag is that pact. What to recognise the dangers to their would the Liberal Democrats and lives posed by Johnson and his cor - Greens demand of Labour? Does Starmer really need a constitution - al convention to work that out? Rather drape Since he named former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown as himself and his an advisor, one would hope he will remind Starmer about the Scottish party in the Union Constitutional Convention. Set up as a top-down cross-party body in Jack, Starmer 1989, it took six years to report and ten years to realise its ambition – a should think out of . the box The UK cannot wait that long. If Rachel Reeves - leading charge against Tory cronyism Labour is to offer something more ambitious than it offered in the ing renegade from trying to over - 1990s and 2000s, it has to put elec - turn a democratic result for nearly rupt, murderous government. toral reform on the table asap. three months. Starmer’s policy of wanting to sup - This is urgent because in addi - A good start pointing up the port government efforts to tackle tion to the risk of a snap general need to root out corruption has the pandemic has proved a licence election, Johnson has already set been made by Rachel Reeves, MP, to Johnson to prolong the abuse of in-train the process of reducing the a member of the shadow cabinet emergency powers, offer plum jobs size of the House of Commons to who follows arch-Brexiteer, to his mates and milk public funds. 600 seats with further electoral Michael Gove’s brief at the Cabinet At the time of writing, Johnson has advantage for the renegade Office, or Corruption Office as it announced quarantine plans for Conservative Party he leads. should be known. In a speech lin passengers arriving at UK ports Labour grassroots organisations February she asserted that Labour and airports. They are a year late have not been idle in this regard. in government will clean up crony - and riddled with laxities that risk They (including Chartist) have ism in contracting through greater infection multiplying. It is time for combined to launch Labour for a transparency, accountability and Starmer to declare ‘enough is New Democracy. A model resolu - citizens’ rights, and possibly follow enough’ and shape a winning elec - tion has already been published for Biden’s example in setting up an toral narrative that casts Johnson debate at the next Labour Party integrity and ethics commission. as the villain, not our saviour. Conference, and it is gathering sup - All that and the restoration of Against that background, urgen - port among Constituency Labour the Nolan principles for public cy and cross-party endeavour need Parties (CLPs), affiliated trade appointments depends on Labour to be added to Starmer’s constitu - unions and socialist societies. being in government. Planning for tional proposals. It is still difficult This will be a litmus test of that can’t come too soon and it to imagine at the present time the whether Starmer understands just doesn’t require Labour wrapping readiness of voters to accept a what needs to be done to win power itself in the Union Jack. change in the voting system being back from the renegades. As for Forging alliances to guarantee proposed for the general election healing the body politic, will that (as best one can) the renegade after next. Ridding local politics of require a written constitution? Tories are ousted as soon as possi - party tribalism is anathema to so After recent events in the United ble is the better guarantee of a many active in local communities. States, did the constitution ensure return to a decent civil civic society, But that needs to be factored in. President-elect Jo Biden was sworn providing Johnson is seen much Debate needs to be focussed on in on 20 January? Maybe. But it more widely as a crook with blood Westminster Parliamentary arith - certainly did not prevent the outgo - on his hands. Over to you, Keir. C

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 9 WELSH LABOUR

Wales and the Scotland factor Peter Rowlands says Welsh Labour face a tough contest in forthcoming elections

he elections due on May for PC, but unless Labour switch - 6th in most of the UK es to a policy of independence, will all be significant, which is out of the question, it is but particularly those difficult to see that they won’t. in Scotland, where an (There are two small nationalist eTxpected SNP win is certain to parties who are unlikely to trigger a renewed call for an inde - achieve more than a small vote.) pendence referendum. The issue The reason for the recent has however loomed much larger increase in support for PC and the in Wales than in any recent elec - Greens is likely to reflect, in part tion, and could be a key factor in at least, this rise in support for determining the outcome. independence. The Greens only There are currently 60 resolved to support independence Members of the (MS), pre - last October, and the increase in viously Assembly, who like the their vote is likely to reflect a Scottish Parliament and the shift by previous Labour support - , are elected by ers, who would probably find the a proportional ‘additional mem - Greens more politically amenable ber’ system, which include 20 out than PC. This was after its move of the Senedd’s 60 seats. to a more centrist position under Labour has controlled the Adam Price following the more since the left wing leadership of Leanne 2007-2011 coalition with Plaid Wood, who was voted out in 2018. Cymru (PC), albeit technically in However, Green votes at con - a coalition since 2016 with the stituency level, which accounts for one Lib-Dem MS. Poll ratings two thirds of the seats, are likely were dire for much of 2020, but to go to PC, as Green candidates Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford - leading a Welsh picked up in the autumn, partly are mainly standing at regional Labour dominated by the right perhaps reflecting Labour’s gener - level. ally well perceived handling of If such an increase happens it lose their seats except perhaps for Covid-19 in Wales, although this will mainly be at Labour’s two standing as Abolish the has been less so in the last two expense, as the Lib-Dem vote is Assembly candidates. months. However, the latest small. The Labour left is broadly The substance of what is pro - (January) poll shows Labour split between those who favour posed for independence varies, down by four points, with PC up enhanced devolution, as advocat - with a somewhat confusing range two and the Welsh Greens up by ed in the ‘Radical Federalism’ of alternatives from PC, including three, a doubling of their previous document, and those who support a confederal arrangement with support. the ‘Labour for an Independent the rest of the UK. However, the How can this be explained? Wales’ organisation. Neither of key problems would appear simi - Labour’s poor showing could these policies stands any hope of lar to those long aired with reflect concerns about their recent being adopted, as despite leader regard to Scotland – EU member - handling of Covid, and in part Mark Drakeford’s stance on the ship, trade, currency, constitu - probably does. But the reason for left, the right are broadly domi - tion, monarchy etc.. the shift to PC and the Greens is nant in Welsh Labour. Opposition Even if PC do much better likely to lie elsewhere. to a referendum, as in Scotland, than polls now indicate, it is In 2020 there was a significant would be likely to further highly unlikely that they will increase in support for Welsh increase support for PC. gain, or even approach, a majori - independence. However, this The Tories are in disarray, fol - ty, while Labour’s chances of didn’t manifest itself as an lowing a change of leader. achieving that look slim, increase in support for PC, but in Moreover, there is deep division although they could be boosted by a huge increase in membership of between a pro devolution group the extension of the vote to those Yes Cymru (YC), an organisation and those who effectively want to over 16, for the first time. The committed to Welsh indepen - end devolution, with one MS hav - likely outcome is a fractious and dence, but not a political party as ing been effectively deselected. It unhappy coalition between such. In September 2020 a poll for should be possible to exploit these Labour and PC, given that a them showed 32% support for divisions, but ‘Red Wall’ factors coalition between PC and the independence, with 51% for and the vaccine may help to sus - Tories would almost certainly be Labour voters. An average of polls tain the Tory vote. Meanwhile, politically impossible, even if, as now indicate about 23% support the seven Tories originally elect - could well be the case, their com - for independence, slightly down ed for UKIP have all made bewil - bined seat total was a majority. from the summer of 2020, but dering and for some multiple Whatever happens in May, well up on the 12% of 2014. changes in party allegiance, support for independence in Support grew in 2019, with a except for the egregious Peter Rowlands Wales, boosted by likely events in number of well attended marches. Hamilton, who remains a mem - is a member of Scotland, is almost certain to YC have not (yet) urged support ber of UKIP. They are all likely to Swansea CLP grow in the coming period. C

10 CHARTIST March/April 2021 GENDER & COVID-19

Women in firing line Alice Arkwright says TUC research spotlights gender discrimination writ large in the pandemic

very week we’re seeing women, and our research has more and more evidence shown this has deepened the of the gendered impacts inequalities women face. There is of Covid. Of the 100,000 time to fix this. And that starts with people who left the listening to women, working with Eworkforce in Italy in December their unions and taking a care-led 2020, 99,000 were women. In the approach to our economic recovery.” US 140,000 jobs were lost in In the immediate future, the December; women accounted for all TUC is urging the government to of these. act by creating a temporary legal In the UK we’re seeing similar right to access the furlough scheme patterns. The H/C Women and for those who cannot work due to Equalities select committee pub - increased caring responsibilities as lished a report in early February a result of restrictions or because warning the government that the they are required to shield. pandemic is worsening existing At the moment workers are inequalities for women saying allowed to request furlough but urgent reforms were needed. These their employer can refuse it, leaving included reinstating gender pay gap parents trapped in an impossible reporting (which was suspended in situation. 2020), extending redundancy pro - This should be without victimisa - tection to pregnant women and new tion or discrimination of anyone mothers and reviewing childcare who chooses to take it up and par - provisions for job seekers. ents should be able to share fur - The committee also recommend - lough on a flexible basis. The gov - ed the government assess the equal - described her days as “At 5pm when ernment should also ensure that ity impact of its recovery plan, say - I technically finish work, its then newly self-employed parents have ing it was skewed towards male starting dinner, bath & bedtime. automatic access to the self- dominated industries like construc - Then cleaning up. By 8pm I was employed income support scheme. tion, despite female-dominated sec - exhausted but had to start working The TUC are also urging employ - tors such as retail and hospitality again. I finished at 1am and was up ers to do the right thing and make being the hardest hit. at 5.30am (as usual) with my three use of the Job Retention Scheme TUC research during the pan - year old.”. but also explore other options dur - demic has highlighted the huge bur - This is completely unsustainable. ing this period such as temporarily den being placed on women as Women are exhausted, worried reducing workload and hours with restrictions continue. Whilst the about using up annual leave now no reduction to pay, changing work - decision to return to home schooling when there are school holidays to times and other forms of flexible in January was necessary to keep cover in the coming year and being work. By not doing this employers teachers and communities safe, forced into poverty through loss of risk losing valued and skilled mem - women are overwhelmingly feeling hours and pay. TUC research found bers of their workforce. the impact as they take on the that one in six mums had to reduce The impacts we are seeing on majority of care and supervision of their hours at work as a direct women are in part caused by the children at home. result of restrictions on schooling. UK’s underwhelming provision for The TUC’s survey of over 55,000 Single parents are particularly working parents. We have one of working parents, 93% of whom affected, 90% of whom are women, the least generous parental leave were women, found that nine in ten as they are less likely to have some - systems in Europe with no right to mums’ mental health has been neg - one to share care responsibilities paid leave for parents who need to atively impacted by the stress and with. take time off for care. In addition to anxiety of juggling care and work We also know that BAME the right to furlough, the govern - and 25% are worried about losing women are more likely to suffer ment need to take immediate action their jobs. from job loss. Across the country and introduce: Also, shockingly, despite the fact one in twelve BAME people are now • 10 days paid parental that since April employers have unemployed compared to one in leave from day one in the job for all been able to furlough parents who twenty-two for white workers. parents can’t work due to restrictions on Sian Elliott, Women’s equality • The right to flexible work schools, 70% of requests by working policy officer at the TUC says “We from day one. This can include pre - mums for furlough had been denied. are witnessing a staggering and dictable shift patterns, working This has left women working rapid reversal of gender equality at from home, compressed hours, job incredibly long hours, using annual work. Decades of progress are being shares or term-time working. leave to cover care and home school - lost in a matter of months. It is not The government must also work ing, being forced to work reduced only the pandemic itself causing with unions to ensure schools can hours, taking extended periods of women harm but the government’s reopen safely. unpaid leave or being forced to response to it. They have failed to Alice Arkwright Not taking these actions risks the leave their jobs. take into account the impact of their works for the reversal on progress made on gen - One public sector worker decision and policy-making on TUC der equality. C

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 11 HEALTH & COVID-19

Covid mental health fall-out Steven Walker says action is needed to avert crisis amongst the poor and young

ne of the consequences of the pandemic and the Tory governments’ shambolic response will be a predicted huge iOncrease in unemployment and cut - backs in the welfare state to pay for their incompetence. Poverty will also increase from the already shocking total of four million house - holds living in relative poverty at the end of 2020. The link between poverty and mental health has been recognised for many years and is well evidenced. In general, people living in financial hardship are at increased risk of mental health problems and lower mental wellbe - ing. People in the lowest socioeco - nomic groups have worse mental health than those in the middle groups, who in turn have worse Children from the poorest households are four times as likely to develop mental health difficulties mental health than those in the highest. This ‘social gradient’ can decrease quality of life, social with higher rates of post-traumatic means that mental health problems status, self-esteem and achieve - stress disorder and suicide risk and are more common further down the ment of life goals. In the Mental are more likely than average to be social ladder. Health Foundation’s survey across diagnosed with schizophrenia. The evidence of this social gradi - the UK in 2017, 28% of people who This increases the likelihood that ent in the UK is clear. For example, identified as unemployed reported children in these communities will the Health Survey for England has current experience of negative men - be over-represented in the numbers consistently found that people in tal health, compared to 13% of peo - diagnosed with a mental health the lowest socioeconomic class have ple in paid employment, 20% of peo - problem. The charity Young Minds the highest risk of having a mental ple in full-time education and only recently published research that health problem. 9% of people who had retired. revealed 83% of respondents under As another example, a 2017 sur - Studies have found that unem - 18 said the Pandemic had worsened vey commissioned by the Mental ployment has a range of negative their mental health. Self harm Health Foundation with partici - effects, including relative poverty among young children and pants from across the UK found or a drop in standards of living for teenagers is increasing, along with that 73% of people living in the low - those who lose a job, stresses associ - depression, anxiety and suicidal est household income bracket (less ated with financial insecurity, the ideation. Child and Adolescent than £1,200 per month) reported shame of being unemployed and in Mental Health Services (CAMHS) having experienced a mental health receipt of social welfare and loss of have been depleted of resources for problem during their lifetime, com - vital social networks. The a decade during austerity, leaving pared to 59% in the highest house - Organisation for Economic Co-oper - staff overwhelmed and long waiting hold income bracket (more than ation and Development (OECD) lists for help and support. Things £3,701 per month). The mental has described how job loss has a were very bad before the Pandemic health risk of economic hardship traumatic and immediate negative but as with the NHS, CAMHS have starts early in life. impact on mental health and noted been left totally unprepared to face Socioeconomically disadvantaged that there is further damage where the consequences of a Pandemic. children and adolescents are two to unemployment continues into the Every government over the past three times more likely to develop long term. 25 years has promised to either mental health problems. People in A study published by the Centre reduce or eradicate child poverty. debt are more likely to have a com - for Mental Health last year found They have all failed. Unless the mon mental health problem, and that children from the poorest 20 root causes of children’s increasing the more debt people have, the per cent of households are four Steven Walker is mental health problems are greater is the likelihood of this. One times as likely to have serious men - former head of addressed, the current system is in four people experiencing a men - tal health difficulties by the age of child and failing another generation of some tal health problem is in problem 11 as those from the wealthiest 20 adolescent of the most vulnerable children in debt, and people with mental per cent. Children and young peo - mental health at Britain. They will become the health problems are three times ple with a learning disability, who Anglia Ruskin adults of the future with mental more likely to be in financial diffi - are statistically more likely to be in University and health problems, at risk of ending culty. Employment is one of the poorer families, are three times author of up in the prison system, homeless, most strongly evidenced determi - more likely than average to have a Supporting with relationship breakdowns, nants of mental health. mental health problem. And chil - Troubled Young addicted to drugs and alcohol, or Lack of access to either employ - dren from African-Caribbean com - People (Critical ending their own lives. It does not ment or good quality employment munities in the UK have parents Publishing 2019) have to be this way. C

12 CHARTIST March/April 2021 NHS on the table Despite a recent statement from the Health secretary Jan Savage sees plenty of scope for further NHS sell offs in trade deals

ost trade deals give Trade deals can have additional, extensive new pow - if less direct, effects on the NHS ers to multinational beyond opening up the market for corporations, many its services. Although a trade of which already agreement with the US seems less hMave interests in the NHS. The pri - imminent now, negotiations under vatisation of NHS clinical services Trump indicated that the US’s pow - has been growing, at least in the erful pharmaceutical lobby wants to English NHS, since the notorious end the UK’s national price control Health and Social Care Act (2012). on medicines and extend patent pro - One consequence, in trade terms, is tection on new drugs. This would that as NHS services are no longer lead to a massive rise in the costs of entirely publicly provided, it’s ques - medicines in the UK, to the point tionable whether they are “supplied that the NHS could become unsus - in the exercise of governmental tainable. Biden’s attitude is unclear, authority”. This ambiguity makes but we know that his election cam - them vulnerable to inclusion in paign received considerable funding trade deals, a vulnerability exacer - from Big Pharma. bated by the trend for trade negotia - The UK needs to negotiate a sig - tions to use a ‘negative’ approach: nificant number of trade agree - anything not explicitly excluded ments to try to offset the economic from a deal will be part of it. On top damage of Brexit and this tends to of which, if NHS services become position it as supplicant in trade US Big Pharma ready to muscle in for NHS contracts part of a trade deal including an negotiations. As such, there’s a risk investor protection measure, such that, in order to secure a deal, the as Investor-State Dispute UK will agree to reduce important talised NHS offers huge new oppor - Settlement, any privatisation is standards that impact on the NHS tunities for Big Tech, and already a effectively locked in. (such as those governing food safety large number of multinationals, The government has given and workers’ rights). such as McKinsey, IBM and numerous assurances that the NHS There’s additionally a growing Deloitte, are accredited to provide is “not on the table” in new trade impetus for new agreements to the NHS with an extensive range of deal negotiations. What a surprise include a chapter on digital trade. digital support services. then, at least to the less cynical This impetus comes particularly If the NHS is included in trade among us, to find that NHS services from the big technology companies, agreements, the Big Tech compa - have been included in the recently many of which have their sights set nies will make use of digital trade signed Trade and Cooperation on the NHS. This is not least rules to gain greater access to the Agreement (TCA) between the UK because the NHS holds one of the NHS and more opportunities to and EU. It raises the question of world’s most valuable stores of data, exploit NHS data with fewer safe - quite what the government under - an unprecedented resource for guards. For example, trade deal pro - stands by ‘the NHS’. research and product development. visions are likely to include a ban on The TCA excludes hospital ser - This data also has huge potential data being stored and processed in vices, ambulance services and resi - value for insurance companies if, as its country of origin (as is the case dential health facilities, but many some fear, the NHS is moving with the recently signed agreement other sectors (for example, general towards a healthcare system based with Japan). Significantly, if NHS medical, dental, specialist medical, on private health insurance. It’s data is transferred off shore, its nursing, physiotherapy and recently become apparent that Big treatment will be governed by the paramedical services) are now ‘liber - Tech is already gaining access to rules of the country where it is held. alised’. NHS data – for example, there have It’s also fairly standard for deals Besides ensuring that EU-based been unprecedented transfers of to include provisions that ban the companies have market access to patients’ confidential health infor - mandatory disclosure of source code the NHS, the TCA contains a com - mation (without consent) to compa - (the instructions that control a com - mitment to ‘national treatment’, nies such as Google and Amazon puter programme). Lack of access to meaning that investors and service involved in the response to Covid- source code can potentially have suppliers, whether from the EU or 19. lethal consequences for patients. UK, will be afforded the same treat - The significance of digital trade is There have been attempts by ment. The deal also includes provi - growing just as the NHS is undergo - members of both parliamentary sions for ‘no local presence’. In other ing a restructuring that’s heavily Houses to amend draft legislation words, foreign-based service dependent on digital services. For (such as the Trade Bill) to provide providers and investors will not example, the NHS is increasingly legal protection for the NHS in need to maintain a subsidiary in the reliant on digitally provided consul - Jan Savage is a future trade deals. So far, UK and so won’t be subject to tations and digital support for deci - member of Keep Conservatives – with their signifi - domestic regulations, such as labour sion making, risk stratification and Our NHS Public’s cant majority - have voted against laws or tax regulations, and thus service planning derived from vast Working Group all such efforts. The NHS really is avoid paying taxes. population data sets. This digi - on Trade Deals “on the table”. C

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 13 FEMINISM

Finding my feminism? Mary Southcott explores her feminism through the writings of two younger women

ecently a trans friend meetings but said, a bit resonant called me a TERF. I of Oscar Wilde, that there were could not spell it let Liverpool meetings most evenings alone knew it meant and weekends. I left for Cyprus trans exclusionary where I had to confront my cul - rRadical feminist. I could hardly tural attitude to dowries, like claim to be a radical feminist and fathers buying their daughters’ denied transphobia. I knew husbands. about first wave feminism, even Cyprus had little social hous - writing that women supporters of ing before a third of their popula - voting reform were the New tion became displaced. When I Suffragettes, but had lost touch. arrived in 1971 it was remark - Young feminists seem pro Trans able how high home ownership and to want their mother or was and I could not think that granny feminists out of their way. the dowry system helped women Equality, surely the most who basically had bought their important value for Labour, is husbands. However, what I about diversity not about same - realised later was that even the ness. That battle has not been poorest families give their daugh - won. Even though Labour did so ters a dowry house, even if the badly in 2019 we have more parents had to move out of their women MPs. We need to change own homes or to small accommo - the political culture to a more dation. The safeguard for women feminised one of cooperation, con - was they owned the house not sensus seeking and problem solv - their men. So, if their men died or ing, and better arguments for vot - philandered or gambled their ing reform than mathematical money away or inflicted domestic precision. Instead of taking sides violence, a theme of Lewis’ book in a binary choice we can support in the section on SAFETY, the both trans and women’s rights. I man was turfed out, not the wife. needed to read more recent books I am not advocating dowries than Germaine Greer and Lynne but it puts women and families in Segal. a better position than a refuge. When Helen Lewis left the Three things woke me up to New Statesman for the Nation, I feminism. The joy that greeted cancelled my subscription which I the birth of my brother. Secondly, had had from 1975 after meeting a meeting at the women’s centre Tom Driberg, the first man in pol - in Piccadilly in 1975, heavily itics who listened to me rather feminism, imagining she chose pregnant, with a husband left than flirted. In the evening he her title from Ken Clarke’s refer - outside, (I now understand the went out with the men. I had ence to Theresa May as “a bloody need for safe spaces), and the always thought the Statesman difficult woman”. I wished she walls all posters of Fight 10: gender specificity was rather ABORTION and abuse in Fight 6: 19th century. It did however SAFETY identifying Erin Pizzey. publish a letter I wrote when a Equality is about Thirdly, having two daughters, parliamentary candidate diversity not about trying to ensure the same preju - attacked the ideas of Tactical dices I encountered were not Voting 87. That led to my being sameness repeated. But one woman taught interviewed by John Underwood me about feminism. I resisted and Terry Dignan. When going to the women’s section but Charter 88 arrived, it published had kept the “Bloody” but her defended the right to self organ - my article on Electoral Reform subtitle “A History of FEMINISM ise. Ellen Malos had set up a and Me. I have changed my mind in 11 Fights” gives the structure refuge in her home and written about tactical voting although I of her book. Now she is every - the counter arguments to Wages was right that Labour had more where, reading her book on Radio for Housework in the Politics of support than the Liberals who 4 and the paperback is out in Housework. targeted Labour not Tories in March. I was pleased she selected I met Selma James, the idol of Bristol West. Clifton Labour Maureen Colquhoun, the first Helen Lewis, in her role in Wages members who may never have open Lesbian MP, in her FIGHT for Housework. Often described been in St Paul’s voted tactically Number 7, LOVE. Maureen has as CLR James’ wife, as women for George Ferguson and did just died, but long ago after she often are, she appears in FIGHT again in 2012 when he became was de-selected she was in favour 9, TIME. She was depicted in the Bristol’s first elected mayor, as of voting reform. Small Axe series of films by Steve an Independent. When second wave feminism McQueen. Do we judge people dif - I read Helen Lewis’ take on began, I was approached to go to ferently depending on what stage

14 CHARTIST March/April 2021 build a Girl , the film of which was released last year. Her book H ow to be a Woman is claimed as the game-changing take on feminism, the patriarchy and becoming a woman. There could be no such different books. Helen’s has an index, a structure but both are remarkably honest, funny and likeable. Caitlin’s is disorganised into hours in one day, reminding me only slighty of Solzhenitsyn’s take on Ivan Denisovich or the Beatles’ Day in the Life. Its Contents page takes us from 7 am to 7 am the fol - lowing day ending with A Woman’s ‘If’ apologies to Rudyard Kipling. “If you can beat the truth These women are not only funny they are worth reading

you’ve spoken Mansplained back to you ten minutes after everyone else ignored it”. In among her discursive think - ing she has a few political gems like it is childcare not housework that is a job and should be paid for, pointing out that for some golf is tax deductable. She also makes the argument for liking ones body. When once said “we all want to be prettier”, I said I didn’t. I found it a distraction which I used to ignore. I would like to be alive to read Caitlin when she deals with ageism and being called “the elderly”. She brought me more understanding of Double Income parents sharing of their lives and ours we meet and the Equal Pay and Equality time with children whereas I took them. By the time I went to Acts. That leads us to Fight 8: time off work to be with my Greenham I had caught up with EDUCATION and Elizabeth daughter, time only shared with feminism circa 1983. Each FIGHT Garrett Anderson and teachers. the Open University and shopping has a quote: “My grandmother did - Another of her difficult people is for some in the street. n’t have the vote, my mother “tough, mouthy and uncompromis - I should have read Caitlin’s didn’t have the pill and I don’t ing”, Julie Bindel who found her - other books before this one. She have the time.” self on “the unfashionable side of argues that when you are under Helen’s first fight was the two most divisive and heated 30 it is all about you but in middle DIVORCE which surprised me issues … transgender issues and age, 44 at the time of writing, it is from a young journalist. No fault prostitution”. Bindel attacked about others, the fourth emergen - divorces and Baroness Brenda Caitlin Moran’s best selling How cy service for family and friends. Hale get a mention. The second to be a Woman as “fun feminism Her stream of chattering uses fight was THE VOTE and Annie which should be consigned to the words I have never seen written Kenney. In Fight 3: SEX, Marie rubbish bin”. Helen found herself down, certainly not in her Times Stopes whose book Married Love, attacked as “white, straight, and Helen Lewis, column. She discusses what any Lewis thinks “bonkers” but hopes cis-gendered, the top of the femi - Difficult Women: average women would encounter, “for more women, sex won’t be nist food chain in terms of inter - A History of all the time thinking, linking, such a fucking let down”. Fight 4: sectionality” for defending Caitlin FEMINISM in 11 exploring ideas. Christopher is PLAY where she explains why Moran, and clearly she had a Fights, Jonathan Hitchens said that women weren’t many women don’t care about bruising time on social media Cape, 2020, p/b as funny as men, his colossal mis - sport because time and space are where attacking women has March 2021, judgement along with the Iraq needed. Clearly this is changing become fair game. Penguin. war. These women are not only as is WORK her fifth fight. Lewis Caitlan Moran is definitely a Caitlin Moran, funny they are worth reading. starts with Grunwick and Jayaben ‘difficult woman’. Her More Than More Than A Did I catch up with feminism? Desai, and via Jack Dromey, to A Woman also came out in 2020. It Woman , Ebury No. Will I bother? Perhaps not. Harriet Harman, Barbara Castle, is a series starting with How to Press, 2020 Still a feminist, YES. C

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 15 INTERVIEW

The State of the Union Gary Younge looks at what influence the left will have now and sees a political resolution of the American Civil War still being played out

What won it for Biden and Harris? What is often true of a second that certainly in many places they term, is that the election was a ref - were able to mobilise the base. It The presidential election was erendum on the sitting president. It starts with Bernie [Sanders]. always going to be fairly close. was a case of people voting primari - Unlike with Hilary Clinton there Looking at the past six or seven ly against Trump rather than for was not such a huge tail off from elections Republicans have only Biden. We saw the same in 2004, Bernie supporters. They voted loy - won a majority once since 1992. So when I was reporting. I didn’t meet ally for the Democrats. The Squad they are a declining force. many voting for John Kerry, they is an iteration of that. They under - Electorally there were two princi - were voting against George Bush. stood the Democratic Party is the pal reasons why the Democrats won We also have to take into account pathway for change. The result was by nearly seven million votes and in the weird campaigning due to significantly fortified by the left the key swing states. Covid. The usual grammar of poli - forces in the Democratic Party. We Firstly, Trump’s failure to secure tics didn’t come through. The con - shouldn’t forget how close Bernie white suburban women, who were ventions, the debates (Trump came. He was running away with first of all upset at his inability to refused to turn up to one), the ral - it. It was only the solidification of functionally engage with Covid and lies that usually secure the mass all anti-Bernie forces and support secondly given the political turmoil, news coverage, just did not happen. from older African Americans, who mostly relating to Black Lives So it was a particular kind of are in some ways the most risk Matter (BLM) and the riot, felt less campaign. Biden was not a very averse electorally, that made Biden safe with his posturing than with an good candidate. We could make the Gary Younge is a possible. He was coming fifth and accommodation to Trump. Trump same point with Obama. What journalist, author sixth, hopelessly adrift. He emerged lost that gambit. would he have looked like without and professor of as the most viable unifying anti- Second, was the significant rallies? Sociology at the Bernie candidate. What’s yet to be mobilisation of the Black vote in cer - University of seen is the degree to which he’ll tain areas and who had previously What was the significance of the Squad Manchester. His negotiate with those other forces. been somewhat ambivalent or indif - and the younger democratic left in the last book was Biden has a lot of credibility with ferent when Hilary Clinton stood. success of the Biden/Harris ticket? Who Are We? the Black base. BLM activists are Certainly in Georgia, and other How identity not the same. People are watching places, we saw a significant uptick This was the first election I’d not politics took over and waiting. He went into the con - in registration of Black voters dur - been in the US since 1996. My the world test with very little credibility. This ing BLM campaigns. reading from here (Hackney) is (Penguin) is a man who introduced the Crime

16 CHARTIST March/April 2021 Bill that led to massive incarcera - ambivalence of the police force was worse before they get better. That tion of black people; who left Anita telling, they did not take it seriously intense demographic march will Hill out to dry in the Clarence or take it as a threat, unlike many continue. The question is also how Thomas hearings. Kamala other demos, especially Black Lives it plays out in the Republican Harris’s signature moment was Matter protests. party. when on platforms with Biden she There is one counterfactual sce - Trump was never even majori - was attacking him for opposing nario worth contemplating. If tarian. It was a very narrow eye of bussing. So he had some work to Bernie had won, what would that the needle that he was threading. do. crowd have looked like? People With each year that becomes less All of this comes in the frame - would have been invoking social - and less possible. Increasingly work of he’s not Trump. ism. We saw over here what hap - places up for grabs are old An awful lot can be gained pened with Corbyn. It’s not fanciful Republican strongholds. These are through symbolism: particularly in to think Bernie could have won the the death throes of the first civil his appointments. Bill Clinton was election then those sections of the war. a nightmare for Black America. We media that decided to be outraged Someone has to lose. Actually saw a huge increase in incarcera - with Trump might have said ‘well white supremacy has to lose. That’s tions; his welfare bill, black women we are becoming a bit like a long, painful, hard challenge to pushed into poverty. Yet symboli - Venezuela’. A very different sce - make. I don’t think the Democratic cally, he knew the words to the nario could have emerged. Party is up to that challenge. My negro national anthem, he was a American democracy has long hope is that Biden ends up like LBJ ‘southern boy’. So he remained one been a myth. Look at the numbers [LB Johnson]. LBJ was not consid - of more popular presidents even excluded from voting, the gerry - ered a hopeful in terms of radical though he did terrible things. mandering, the money, all of that. progressive politics. He steps into The BLM activists are likely to Even the symbolic nature of it is in Kennedy’s shoes, and decides he is take a critically supportive stance. peril. Most Americans like to think going to go for it. That’s when you They will exact a significant price of themselves as a democracy. have the most radical changes, they for support and will engage in mak - all happened in the five years of his ing sure they get change. Trump may be down, but Trumpism is presidency. There was quite a significant not. What is the nature of the threat and So there is an opportunity. push back. Democrats did not do can it be repulsed? It’s also an opportunity for the well in the Congressional races. right. There is a lot to play for. The This tells us that it was Trump that Trumpism is really a caffeinated Alt-right become bigger fish in a lost rather than the Democrats that version of what we’ve seen for a smaller pond with Trump gone, won it. long time. Trump cohered, ampli - and Bannon gone. The imprimatur, In the first call out of House of fied and embodied a trend in the authentication of the state is Representatives there was signifi - American mainstream right poli - now missing. They are fully out - cant push back from Democrats in tics. It predated him and it will sur - siders once again. more moderate areas, attacking vive him. BLM for its ‘defund police’ slogans. These are still the death throes So what of the succession? This cost them dearly. So there is a of the American civil war. There battle going on within the was a military resolution but there Somebody like Trump could Democrats. A fight is on over the was never a political resolution emerge, particularly if Biden fails, degree of influence the left should with equality and a challenge to if there is no improvement in the have and central to those left white supremacy. We are increas - lives of many people. Trump fol - demands is anti-racism. ingly approaching the moment lowed Obama for a reason. A signif - when white people will be in a icant number of white Americans To what degree did the insurrection pose minority. If you look at where and were made anxious by this mixed a real threat to American democracy? how Trump lost, it’s very graphic. race man of immigrant background In Arizona, Nevada, even majority whose father was a Muslim. He American democracy was in peril black or black minority major cities also failed to deliver. He stopped long before the rabble turned up. like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, things getting worse but ‘yes we They would have gone to K Street if Detroit, Atlanta and Milwaukee can’ become ‘yes we tried’. they really wanted big change, Trump lost. So when the right say that’s where the lobbyists are. the election was stolen from us What are the prospects for Biden/Harris I spend a lot of time thinking there is a sense in which that is so. to turn the tide and stop a return of about this. It was an insurrection White supremacists think these Trump or Trumpism? against a notionally democratic people shouldn’t be voting. institution. It was timed to prevent It was telling that the day before A lot depends on the left, the the certification of the election the Senate vote Georgia elected its Squad and the degree to which they result. But it was not a coup or even first black representative and its can exercise political force. It’s a coup attempt. It was not a realis - first Jewish senator ever, and both going to be about the extent to tic attempt to take over the organi - Democrats. Kamala Harris, a which Biden and Harris are aware sation of the state. Once in mixed race daughter of Indian and of a strong political flank to their Congress they had no idea what to Jamaican migrants has the casting left. That flank did not really exist do. They weren’t serious about tak - vote. This happened in the heart of under Obama or Clinton. Or if did ing over state power. the Confederacy, so you get a sense exist it did not make itself felt. So Think of Fidel Castro’s arrival at of why that insurrection took place. it’s about the degree to which they Sierra Maistra. A lot of coups or It’s not a new anxiety, but as time can hold the leadership’s feet to insurrections often start as ridicu - goes on the numbers of non-white Gary Younge was fire. The extent to which they can lous events that are then sharpened voters keep growing. Most kids in conversation make inroads into the source of dis - up. under the age of 16 are not white. with Mike Davis content. This is primarily about the It wasn’t a mass event. But this Soon they will be early voters. and Phil economic problems that made does not mean it wasn’t serious. The My sense is that things will get Vellender Trumpism possible. C

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 17 EUROPE & THE LEFT

View from the European left Josef Weidenholzer says the UK departure from the EU should not be the start of blame games

rom its early beginnings the European project was following the mode of an ‘Ever Closer Union’. Gradually more and more Fnational responsibilities became common competencies shared by a growing number of Member States. It was commonly embraced as an obviously irreversible process. For Eurosceptics this was always hard to take. David Cameron partic - ularly focussed on this issue when he negotiated his ‘EU reform deal’ ahead of the referendum. ‘Remain’ should mean yes to the EU, howev - er not on the ‘Ever Closer’ ticket. Mission impossible, too vague and not an argument good enough to convince people against Brexit. ‘Leave’ promised a clear and final cut. As it turned out this was not achievable. The impact of being a member in the bloc for almost half a international order respecting mul - tions. is always needed century could not be undone with tilateralism and non-violence, safe - but it has to be organized in a differ - one stroke. As a matter of its EU- guarding equality and non-discrimi - ent way. One of the consequences of membership the UK´s DNA had nation at all levels, a just society the coronavirus crisis is that we become substantially European. It caring for everyone and of course need more and efficient public ser - took over four years to finalize universal appreciation of human vices. Progressives have to deliver Brexit and the solution reached was rights, democracy and the rule of in this respect and build on the unsatisfactory. law. experiences made throughout their Even the Brexit-hardliners had to This requires international co- own history. Europe offers a wide realize that this common heritage operation - on a global level and range of good practices even the US could not be conjured away. They obviously in our geographic neigh - Left is looking at. Answers to the are meanwhile caught in an ‘Ever bourhoods. On a European level the new challenges cannot be found Looser’ trap. progressive family provides a set of through the nationalistically biased Since Brexit was not always fol - well-established institutions and attitude of exceptionalism, they lowing pragmatic arguments this think-tanks such as PES, ETUC, have to come from cross-national fight against the EU past becomes FEPS or Solidar. These bodies endeavours appreciating diversity sometimes rather irrational. should be used as platforms for and otherness. The future of the relations ideas exchange and to develop joint Our common history - having the between EU and UK should not fol - activities such as tackling the rising UK as a highly valuable member of low these pathways. Unfortunately global threat of the far right, devel - EU, should not be in vain. It makes a series of blame games is looming, oping new and fair mechanisms to us ready to master the truly historic as the vaccine battle already manage migration, combating tax tasks ahead of us. Identifying com - exhibits, evasion and the undermining of mon problems and trying to find Progressives on both sides should social standards. progressive answers could bring us do our utmost not to fall into this Regardless of being a member of even closer than ever. habit. Nationalists and right-wing the Union, ‘Social Europe’ must be After Brexit the EU did not break populists will use every shortcoming at the core of every Progressive. Not apart as its enemies were forecast - to fuel their political business model having delivered on this essential ing, although its membership full of distortions. Some merely sat - issue was one of the most decreased it became closer and the isfy the interests of their foreign deplorable shortcomings of Social level of integration became deeper donors primarily interested in Democracy when it was determin - even moving towards common debt weakening European cooperation ing EU politics at the turn of the insurance. based on shared values. century. This failure contributed It is getting more and more evi - The Left must concentrate on substantially to the rise of the Far dent that the EU is a long-term pro - solving problems in contrast to the Right over the last decade. The Left ject with good prospects. It can pre - Populists deliberately fabricating lost significant parts of its electorate vail without the UK. Vice versa it is them. Our driving force is hope not because people felt neglected and not that clear. fear. ignored. Nevertheless Europe will always The European Left, no matter To bring about Social Europe be a torso without Britain. It has whether inside or outside the EU, means engaging in new answers to Josef been decisively shaped by its contri - has to become seriously engaged the fundamental technological Weidenholzer bution and this will not vanish. with real issues: an environment changes which entirely transformed was an Austrian The left should take the lead in securing survival of mankind, an working conditions and labour rela - MEP learning from the mistakes. C

18 CHARTIST March/April 2021 PALESTINE

Covid hits Palestinians hard Sybil Cock on a report that brands Israel an apartheid state

partheid, a term coined ernment’ are wholly constrained by during white rule in Israel. Any Israeli soldier can stop South Africa, is defined and search even the highest-rank - by the International ing officials. Human rights abuses, Criminal Court as an including the arrest and killing of “Ainstitutionalized regime of system - unarmed civilians, including chil - atic oppression and domination by dren, are daily occurrences. Israelis one racial group.” in the West Bank (settlers living on The recent report from B’Tselem, stolen land), on the other hand, Israel’s most important human have full Israeli citizenship rights. rights NGO, that labels Israel as an Second, Palestinians in Gaza are apartheid state is significant. under siege. The strip is overcrowd - ‘There is one regime governing ed and surrounded by Israel and the entire area and the people living Egypt. The area of the in it, based on a single organizing Mediterranean in which Gazans principle,’ said B’Tselem. can fish unmolested by the Israeli This will come as no surprise to navy is tiny. Gaza is an open-air anyone who has followed events in prison. Palestine, especially those who have Third, Palestinians in East visited the West Bank. The wall, Jerusalem (captured by Israel in the checkpoints, the segregation, 1967) are stateless and at constant the house demolitions and the bru - risk of losing their residency in the tality of the military and settlers city. 35% of land in East Jerusalem are all in shockingly plain sight. has been confiscated for settler use, The pandemic is hitting and Israel is open in its desire to Palestine hard, and there are ucr - remove as many Palestinians as rently no vaccines. Despite the possible. Forced displacement, hugely trumpeted success of the house demolitions and settler vio - Israeli vaccine operation, those that lence are daily occurrences. Palestinians not sharing in the success of Israel's vaccine live under its occupation are not Four, Palestinian citizens of programme sharing the success. Israeli settlers, Israel face massive economic dis - living deep in the West Bank, are, crimination and restrictions on ly endorsed B’tselem’s view. however, being vaccinated. where they can live. Although they But it is important for another Before the pandemic, 68% of the can vote, the Israeli state, with the reason. The TUC acknowledged Gaza population was food insecure recent Nation State law, has codi - Israeli apartheid in September, and this is increasing dramatically. fied apartheid: “the right to exercise extending the possibilities for union- Healthcare systems in both Gaza national self-determination in the based campaigning for Palestine. and the West Bank have been rav - State of Israel is unique to the All the big trades unions are aged by years of occupation. Jewish people.” nationally affiliated to the Palestine Palestine activists have been Five, Nearly 6 million Solidarity Campaign, which has arguing the case for naming Israel Palestinians are registered as over 60 active local branches. We as an apartheid state for years. A refugees by the UN. They live in have had some recent successes: UN report endorsed this view a dire conditions in camps across the The campaign to get Local year ago, and researchers from Middle East. A million more are Government Pension funds to divest South Africa have rigorously estab - unregistered. They are all seeking from companies complicit in the lished the facts. the Right of Return to the lands Occupation gained a major victory As respected Jewish scholar Tony stolen from them by Israel in 1948 as East Sussex Pension Fund Klug wrote in the Guardian recent - or 1967. Every Jew in the world has agreed to divest from Elbit Systems, ly: the right to ‘return’, to go and live in Israel’s largest private arms manu - ‘Israel’s only defence against the Israel. facturer. Elbit makes drones which accusation of apartheid is that its So, why does B’tselem’s interven - were among those that killed 164 hold over the West Bank is a tempo - tion matter? B’tselem does not even children in Gaza in 2014. rary occupation. If this is not its support the Palestinian Right of Tory Education minister case, it doesn’t have a case. Even if Return. It does not acknowledge Williams’ attempt to force it were its case, after some 53 years that the state of Israel was founded Universities to adopt the deeply it would be running perilously thin.’ on separatism in 1948. And, of flawed IHRA working definition of The bones of the argument are course, Palestinians have been say - antisemitism took a severe hit when these: ing Israel is an apartheid state for the UCL Academic Board decided First, Palestinians in the decades, based on their daily lives. that the definition is ‘not fit for pur - Occupied West Bank live under mil - They are listened to because they Sybil Cock (East pose’ and risks conflating anti itary occupation. There is no free - are Israeli, and very clearly a London) is an Zionism with antisemitism. The dom of movement for them, and Human Rights group. Their report NEC member of IHRA has been extensively used to they live under military law. The gained some publicity in the main - Palestine shut down discussion on Palestine limited powers of the Palestine stream media, leading to a Solidarity in universities, local authorities and Authority, which is an ‘interim gov - Guardian editorial which essential - Campaign elsewhere. C

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 19 LEFT INTERNATIONALISM

New times, old delusions Dave Lister on simplistic internationalism

ould we talk about “handwringing” about the Holocaust or the Atlantic Slave Trade? CWlearly not, so how can it be justifi - able to use it in relation to the mur - der of half a million Syrians by the Assad regime and their Russian allies. Clearly fewer people have died in Syria than in the aforemen - tioned examples but massively more than in for example, the bombing of Gaza, against which the Stop the War campaign rightfully marched in protest. More also than in the Saudi bombing of Yemen, which Mike Phipps again rightfully castigates’. This was my opening response to a review article by Phipps of an Open Labour pamphlet. I acknowl - edged Phipps often makes useful points in his articles and that he Raqqa, Syria- the Left must not ignore the complexities behind conflicts had in fact made some in this one, but I added that there were also probability have been very bad con - raped. Readers may remember that some highly questionable points in sequences. However, not interven - Ken Livingstone called for troops to it, use of the term ‘handwringing’ ing has led to mass murder on an go in “as many as it takes and for as being one. unacceptable scale. long as it takes”. My more detailed critique of the There seems to be a view in sec - In 1998 Yugoslav/Serbian forces failure of the Left in general to cam - tions of the Left that military inter - attacked the Muslim population of paign against the mass murder in ventions in other countries are Kosovo and initiated a programme Syria can be found in my article always wrong. However, if this is of ethnic cleansing. Lessons had ‘Don’t Stop the War Coalition’ in so, should we not condemn George been learnt and NATO launched air Chartist 304. Orwell and, for that matter, the strikes against Serbian military tar - I also referred to what I consid - International Brigades for interven - Dave Lister is a gets in March 1999. By June NATO ered to be some fallacies in Mike ing militarily in the Spanish Civil member of and Yugoslavia had signed a peace Phipps’s points about previous War in the 1930s to fight fascism? Chartist EB and treaty resulting in the withdrawal interventions. His account is much In more recent times, as many Brent Central CLP of Yugoslav forces and the return of too simplistic. The intervention in readers will remember, the Armed nearly one million ethnic Albanians Iraq was always unjustifiable, Forces Council inflicted a reign of This article is an and a further 500,000 people who although if Saddam had remained terror in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. expanded version had been expelled from Kosovo. in power there would also have Thousands of civilians were killed of a piece My conclusions are that, firstly, been bad consequences but proba - and large numbers of amputations submitted to we on the Left should not only react bly not on the scale that occurred. were also conducted. ’s LabourHub in when the US or Britain or Israel However, the intervention in Libya Labour Government sent a British December, which murder defenceless civilians. True is not so easy to dismiss, as Phipps force to bolster a UN operation that they did not internationalism is principled and does citing Labour’s 2019 mani - was on the point of losing control of publish. It was must extend to all peoples, not a festo, which, he says, “explains how Freetown to the various militias written in selected few. military intervention, for example that controlled most of the country response to an Secondly, every foreign interven - in Libya, worsened security across and had taken hundreds of peace - article by Mike tion must be considered on its mer - Africa, accelerating the refugee cri - keepers hostage. There was no dis - Phipps, a member its. In some cases, eg. Iraq, they sis.” My alternative view on Libya is cernible strategic or commercial of the Briefing should be opposed with all guns that whichever decision had been interest for Britain in this action editorial board, blazing metaphorically speaking. made would have been equally and it was surely a perhaps rare entitled ‘New Where they have prevented massive dreadful. Not to intervene would case of ’s ethical foreign times, old bloodshed and had an apparently have left the Libyan people at the policy being carried out in practice. delusions’, successful outcome they should mercy of the Gaddafi regime and Arguably UN-led military inter - reviewing an Open surely be supported. There are also there would have been a bloodbath, vention in Bosnia again in the Labour pamphlet going to be cases, eg. Libya, where whilst the intervention has left the 1990s could have saved huge num - ‘A Progressive the issues are far from clear-cut. country in a mess with civil war bers of Muslim lives. In Srebrenica Foreign Policy for Above all we need to accept that the and extreme instability. Similarly, for example 8000 Muslims were New Times ’ by Dr world is a complex place and all sce - if Labour MPs under Miliband had murdered by Serb units under the Harry Pitts and narios deserve a thoughtful and voted for intervention in Syria and command of Ratko Mladic and huge Professor Paul compassionate response, not a nar - it had happened there would in all numbers of women and girls were Thompson. row sectarian outburst. C

20 CHARTIST March/April 2021 SOCIALISM & COVID-19

A socialist recovery from Covid- stricken capitalism? Bryn Jones considers partial prescriptions for human survival

umanity is sick - but so Pandora’s Box of disease in lar participation via the is capitalism: self-iso - world history. Malm compares totemic Green New Deal. lating in some coun - the months it took the ancient Her prescription lacks tries and convalescing world’s plagues to travel across specifics but the recent plea in others. Elsewhere it and between the trade routes of from the head of the CBI to Hcould be said to be on life-support: empires, with the weeks it took have direct representation dependent on the drugs of ‘quantita - ‘Spanish Flu’ to globalise via in government policy-mak - tive easing’, furloughed workers and steam ship technology; and now ing, together with unions government subsidies. For radical the few hours to carry Covid and civil society organisa - commentators like Grace Blakely from Wuhan in China to tions, may be a straw in a and Andreas Malm, only a trans - London and New York. I would rising wind of change. plant will transform the patient. add that consumer capitalism’s Malm however argues British economist Blakely sees urban concentrations of that, together with the Covid climaxing a chronically over- humans in mass transport and defeat of social democratic financialised economy. She pre - entertainment, retailing and possibilities such as the scribes pushing what has become a ‘hospitality’ businesses present Sanders and Corbyn financial capital-corporate state perfect hot spots for contagion. upsurges, the combined pan - hybrid towards a democratically When commodities such as demic and climate crisis accountable state system. On a dif - minerals and palm oil ’…wild impacts are now so severe ferent tack, Swedish ecologist Malm nature’ including pathogens, is that ‘gradualism’ is obsolete. believes only radical surgery, com - dragged into the global ‘chain of Instead Malm evokes the war com - parable - in scope if not in methods value’ says Malm; providing handy munism to which Lenin resorted – to Lenin and Trotsky’s war com - diagrams to illustrate the inter-con - and Trotsky managed. Besieged on munism can cure what he sees as a nectedness. Both authors draw all sides and deprived of critical triple affliction: climate catastrophe, upon Marxian political economy resources the infant Soviet state Covid pandemics and neo-colonial traditions: Hilferding and Lenin in commandeered labour and requisi - abuse of the ecosphere. Blakely’s explanation of the reap - tioned business resources to re-sta - Blakeley considers cli - pearance and bilise the economy and end the civil mate issues indirectly, intensification of war. Malm admits that his ‘War for their political and monopoly finance Communism’ prescription is more of economic potential in a capital; and James an analogy and metaphor than a democratically account - O’Connor in precise model. In Britain, appeals able Green New Deal. Malm’s argument for sacrifice and control for the col - While Malm’s deeper that capitalist lective good might chime better diagnosis sees inextrica - over-development with the nation’s ever-popular ble and systemic links is undermining its World War II nostalgia. As I have between climate, Covid prime condition of argued in previous Chartists, a war- and capitalist globalisa - healthy and avail - footing state could rationalise tion. His short book doc - able labour power. Covid-spreading, carbon-spewing uments, in scrupulous However, industries like aviation and re- detail, how corporate Blakely’s prescrip - deploy workforces into green ener - ravaging of (sub)tropical tions advance clas - gy, medicine and care work. forest and savannah - sic Marxist The Covid emergency has for minerals, timber and insights further. plunged most of the world into a plantation land - precipi - After an excellent dark tunnel. No one, including tates zoonotic diseases exposition of pre- these authors, knows in exactly and epidemics: defined Covid trends what new terrain we will emerge. as those that spread from wildlife towards parasitic dependence of cor - Nevertheless, please study both hosts to human populations. The porate and financial capital on state Grace Blakely: these books if you want a clearer recorded and potential list of monetary policy (the Bank of The Corona light than the ‘back to normal ‘com - zoonotics is daunting. Besides England went from being Crash: How the placency of our current political Covid19, we have had Aids, MERS, Thatcherism’s guillotine to Osborne Pandemic Will leaders. Read Blakely to see how SARS, Zika virus - with ‘avian flu’ and Sunak’s intensive care unit), Change financialisation, aided by the pan - still a contender - amongst many Blakeley argues that the left can Capitalism. demic, is bringing capitalist other latent viruses hitherto con - work from the Tories’ punk Andreas Malm: economies to the brink of state fined to remote human communi - Keynesianism and no longer needs Corona, Climate, guardianship. Read Malm for a ties and locations. to fight for state interventionism. Chronic forensic explanation of the com - Deforestation, desperate local The once locked door to a state Emergency: War bined impacts and barbarism of cli - populations smuggling or eating directed economy is now almost off Communism in mate trashing and zoonotic plagues. threatened species, together with its hinges. The left’s demands, the 21st Century. But don’t look to either for road the world’s most efficient carrier – argues Blakely, must now be to add (Both Verso; maps out of these interlinked crises. air travel – have opened the fullest democratic accountability and popu - 2020) That book has yet to appear. C March/April 2021 CHARTIST 21 RACISM

Structures of British racism Don Flynn on three books that shine a light on Britain’s racist immigration policy

hat is the source of The starting point, he argues, is articulations of immigration, asy - the racism which dealing with newcomers as people lum and nationality law.” That is such an integral who are on a road to settlement may be so, but she is not inclined part of the immi - and citizenship of the country and to see any change in the way cap - gration policies of making sure italism itself func - Wthe countries of the Global North? the rules steer tions as a conse - These three books* should be on them as effi - quence of moving the essential reading list for any - ciently as pos - on from this colo - one trying to find the answer to sible to that nial era. The this question. On the face of it end. image she offers they share the same starting is one of a system point: Britain (and presumably Postcolonial which accumu - other developed countries with theory lates wealth in similar historical trajectories) Postcolonial classical mercan - became imbued with racism dur - theorists like tilist fashion by ing the period of its ‘primitive Nadine El- piling up valuable accumulation’ of wealth during Enany, would stuff on lands the years of trading in enslaved largely reject exploited by impe - African people and rule over colo - this possibility rialism and physi - nial possessions. that a system cally removing it Yeo doesn’t make this point like UK immi - to places where it central to his argument, though gration control can be used up by his references to postcolonial the - could be fixed people imbued orists suggest agreement with the in any mean - with the presump - proposition. What he does do is ingful sense of tion of white set out the ways in which racism the term. supremacist privi - runs through the structure of Making robust lege. Immigration British immigration controls use of the con - control functions using the evidence that accrues cept of ‘border - to prevent from his work as one of the much ing’ as a means denizens of the excoriated ‘activist lawyers’ so to structure the creator countries detested by the Tory establish - hierarchies of following the ment. From his work as a barris - immigration wealth taken from ter specialising in this area Yeo is and citizenship them and denying able to explain how unjust and status, she sees them the chance discriminatory policies infiltrate all immigration to share in its the system. From the hostile policy as a con - enjoyment. environment which arches over tinuation of the access to employment, through methods used Modern capital - the right to rent and the use of to sustain the ism public services, to government subject status of people as devel - This might be a forceful and efforts to deport those who have oped and used during the period not inaccurate statement about been resident in the UK for many of colonialism. Her argument is the injustice which immigration years. It includes the obstacles an important riposte to liberal control entrails, but it does not placed before family reunion, the theorists of the stature of John help us understand the modern multiple vulnerabilities of Rawls and Michael Walzer, who dynamics of the global capitalist migrant workers, the cruel treat - assert a moral right on the part of system. We are now urged to ment of refugees, and the recent the governments of the over- understand the capitalism of curtailment of British citizenship developed nations to deny entry these neoliberal times as a sys - exemplified in the Windrush to immigrants on the grounds tem which aims at accumulation scandal. that they have not contributed to by throwing everything into con - His real insight hinges on the the social system that sustains stant and irresistible motion, direction which immigration law the prosperity of their popula - with value being captured by and policy have taken as it strives tions. On the contrary, she insists asset-holders able to profit from to become totally comprehensive that the wealth that underpins the market energies which keep in managing all aspects of the the surfeits that exist in these the factors of production in con - lives of migrant people and their countries has been obtained from stant movement. Is it likely that communities. This has led to new the exploitation of the labour of the swirling mess that constitutes dimensions of complexity in the colonial subjects and the physical the immigration policies of the rules, expanding their volume in removal of resources to support world’s wealthy nations arises a short time from a succinct 80 consumption by the populations Dob Flynn is from tensions produced by contra - pages to well over a thousand. of the Global North. Chartist dictory tendencies within modern For Yeo this is ultimately the rea - For El-Enany, the “Ideas and Managing Editor capitalism. These work to simul - son why the system is broken, but practices of racial ordering”, hav - and founder of taneously compel people into also why there is some hope, ing origins in the colonial era, are Migrants Rights migration whilst also limit their albeit faint, that it can be fixed. now “embedded in contemporary Network options to the narrow purpose of 22 CHARTIST March/April 2021 serving the interests of capital zens, having a different relation - network of support. accumulation. ship to the UK state and the De Noronha suggests that this Luke de Noronha offers some capacity to resist. Jamaica is not capacity for deportation might be helpful ways to think through the one of these countries and in fact contaminated by the legacy of issues which arise from this has a whole system of cooperation colonialism. It is also structured dilemma. Like Yeo his starting with UK immigration authorities by the fact of being two modern point is the concrete ways in that facilitates the identification states which occupy different which immigration policy gives of individuals as Jamaicans and positions in the hierarchy of rise to specific forms of harm. In supports their return. Some of nations. Jamaica is no longer the common with El-Enany he traces these measures of collaboration place where cheap sugar is grown the deep origins of its racism to include community initiatives for the benefit of UK mega-corpo - the norms arising from managing which operate within a rationale rations, and even its bauxite populations native to the territo - of recovery and empowerment. deposits have run low. It is now ries seized during the colonial The standards of human rights just another low middle income period. He scrutinises the situa - themselves are shifted to smooth country which needs to keep on tion of individuals who have the way in which a person who the best of terms with other moved under the dispensations has known only British society states if it is to have any hope of tolerating mobility but are now since childhood can be made to fit survival. As de Noronha sardon - considered to be violating the into a place where s/he has no ically notes, the one thing worse imperative of being use - than being exploited by capital - ful to capital. In short, ism is not being exploited by capi - they are a group of people talism. who have become eligible Deporting Black Britons situ - for deportation from the ates the racism of immigration UK. control in an eminently modern He makes a series of world whilst rightly accounting ethnographic studies of for its deeper origins in the colo - four men who had been nial past. When it comes to con - deported to Jamaica - the sidering strategies to bring about country whose citizenship change the tensions and contra - they nominally held after dictions within the modern form troubled years of teenage of capitalism, rather than the run-ins with the law in legacies of its colonial past, are England. Claimed to be likely to be the best guide to the individuals who had actions and mobilisations that failed in their duty to will be needed. C integrate into British society, de Noronha argues, on the contrary, they had integrated but into the subcultures of its diverse urban communi - ties. He points out that British society is con - stantly generating social conditions which bring specific groups of people, such as the racialised urban poor, into friction with the police and other authorities. The racial structuring of this ten - sion leads to more severe penalties being inflicted on black and ethnic minority people. The very worst outcomes are inflicted on black and minority people who hold citizenship of another country. This component of racial struc - Welcome to Britain turing is just part of the much Colin Yeo bigger picture that de Noronha Biteback Publishing, £20 seeks to lay out. In an important section of his study he shows how (B)ordering Britain: Law Race and the possibility of deportation is Empire also determined by the relation - Nadine El-Enany ship that the UK state has with Manchester University Press £20 the country of origin. Some coun - tries are highly resistant to coop - Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of eration with the UK when it Deportation to Jamaica comes to accepting the return of Luke de Noronha individuals judged to be their citi - Verso £16.99

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 23 ELECTORAL REFORM

PR must be new normal Mark Serwotka says government mishandling of the pandemic underlines the case for electoral reform

he events of the past more likely than those higher up divisive events over the past few twelve months have – grades ABC1 – to say that the years have brought electoral fundamentally changed democratic system doesn’t reform to the fore. From Brexit to this country. Many of address their interests. the election of Donald Trump, the norms that ran Furthermore, those in the two truth in politics has become a tThrough our lives have been highest social grades say they dominant theme. A proportional turned upside down and society know more about politics and are system is one of the best tools will never be the same as it was more satisfied with the current we’ve got to cut through the disin - before the pandemic. That same political system, compared to formation and fake news that has commitment to a new normal other social groups. In essence, become so prevalent and has must now apply to our voting sys - the further down the social eroded trust in politics to a new tem too. grades, the lower the engagement low. We’ve undoubtedly come a long and satisfaction with the state of I’m confident that had we used way in the two centuries that politics in this country. a proportional representation sys - have passed since dozens of men This should be a call to arms tem in the December 2019 elec - and women died at Peterloo for progressives across the labour tion, a Tory party that so fre - protesting for the right to vote. movement to make the case for quently and brazenly lied to the This seismic event had a profound proportional representation in its electorate wouldn’t have ended up impact and in the wake of the strongest terms yet. Working with anything like an 80-seat pandemic, now is the time to con - class people have the most to gain majority. In the end, their decep - tinue the fight for a voting system from a political system that better tion was rewarded with a 7.4% that is truly representative. represents them and their inter - increase in seats off the back of Despite the tragic consequences ests and so electoral reform can just a 1.3% increase in the vote of the Covid pandemic, the coun - play a pivotal role in addressing share and won 56.2% of seats try has come together and united the problems that have plagued from 43.6% of the vote. The gov - in the face of unprecedented chal - working communities for decades. ernment’s subsequent catastroph - lenges. From cleaners to nurses to Proportional representation can ic handling of the pandemic has supermarket workers, everyone also be the catalyst for much further highlighted the absurdity has played their part in keeping greater levels of political engage - of our system and the need for the country going. This sense of ment, which isn’t limited to urgent reform. fairness should extend to our vot - putting a cross on a ballot paper As we navigate our way out the ing system because, after every - every five years. A system that pandemic, electoral reform should thing we’ve been through, it sim - means every vote really does be at the forefront of our minds in ply isn’t fair to persevere with a count will encourage people to get the long road to recovery. If we system that represents some more involved in the political pro - are to heal the country’s deep groups in society and excludes cess and this can only be a good Mark Serwotka is divisions and come out of the pan - others. thing for the health of our democ - General demic stronger, we must make Research shows that people in racy. Secretary of the sure that every single vote mat - the lower social grades, C2DE, are Other significant and deeply PCS union ters. C 24 CHARTIST March/April 2021 FILM REVIEW

Holding pattern

Patrick he Mauritanian is an odd, the present tense. One aspect of ing; announcing her recent fact-based legal thriller. his torture, sexual humiliation, is divorce, she shrugs it off. By con - Mulcahy TThroughout the film and cruel both to him and the female trast, Teri is empathetic and emo - without knowing the story in soldier forced to perform it. tional. Having been Nancy’s loyal on a advance, you are never sure Throughout, Nancy and her col - companion, there is a point at whether its subject, real-life league Teri (Shailene Woodley) which they are divided, and Guantanamo Mauritanian detainee, are confident they can prove that Nancy treats her cruelly. Bay set legal Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Tahar there are no grounds to detain Crouch is driven by the desire to Rahim), is entirely innocent. He Mohamedou; they rely on his avenge the death of a friend who thriller had gone to to fight handwritten testimony (eventual - died on United Airlines Flight against Russian troops – we see ly published as his diary) to make 175, the second hijacked airplane him being trained at Camp Al their case. flown into the World Trade Farouq, flashes of gunfire illumi- At the start, we wonder whether Center. Pressured to secure a con - nating his face. An electrical Mohamedou is deceiving his viction, he realises that the case engineer by trade – there is a lawyers – Nancy is joined by her is deeply flawed. Cumberbatch brief reference to him putting never plays him as the antag - up a satellite dish – he is sus- onist. Indeed, Crouch could pected of being a recruiter for just as easily have been the Al Qaeda and was named as film’s protagonist; he certain - such by Ramzi bin al-Shibh, ly loses a lot and in story - one of ‘9/11’s attack coordina- telling terms undergoes the tors. Mohamedou does not biggest transformation. I run when asked to accompa- think Macdonald and screen - ny a pair of officials. He does- writers Michael Bronner, n’t expect to be transported Rory Haines and Sohrab (via Afghanistan) to a deten- Noshirvani made a mistake in tion facility housed on Cuba’s not making Crouch the princi - Guantánamo Bay either, pal viewpoint character. But where he would spend four- then under President Trump, teen years and two months of America has moved on from his life. seeking retribution. The Director Kevin Macdonald Trump years were all about (best known for the moun- ideological isolationism for taineering documentary profit. Touching the Void) doesn’t The film doesn’t really make construct a drama that por- us see Guantánamo through trays events that demon- Mohamedou’s eyes, which strate his innocence, rather really is its unique selling the attempts to free him point – a first-hand account of because he has never been life in the facility. This isn’t a properly charged. The film is traditional prison movie based on Mohamedou’s prison where we empathise from the diary, published in redacted get-go with the prisoner’s suf - form in 2015, but focuses on fering. The film’s main argu - the unusual situation in ment is that cruelty invali - which neither prosecution nor assistant, Teri (Shailene dates evidence. There are individ - defence has access to the facts. In Woodley), ostensibly as transla - ual moments that work well, such the case of defence lawyer, Nancy tor. They have taken his case on a as conversations between Hollander (Jodie Foster, sporting pro bono basis. In the film at Mohamedou and another prison - matching red lipstick and nail least, Nancy doesn’t care whether er, 241, also known as Marseilles, polish, that contrasts strongly Mohamedou is innocent; she just the men divided by green with her gun-metal grey hair), wants to end arbitrary detention. tarpaulin, and some of the torture material presented to her from a In her words, she took the case scenes have shock value – notably Freedom of Information request for America. when a woman guard breaks is entirely redacted. The prosecu- The film privileges ideas over peo - down in front of Mohamedou only tion, Marine Corps lawyer Stu ple. What we see – couched in for the brutality to continue. Crouch (Benedict Cumberbatch, safe flashbacks – is a system that Some of the humour works better. with a thick American accent relies on breaking people. As Kent, the guardian of material that restricts his ability to show Mohamedou’s story, sadly, isn’t that Nancy and Teri are allowed depth) has only summaries to exceptional. He was one of over to view, David Fynn exudes prag - work with. The actual transcripts 770 prisoners detained at matic wit. Overall, The of Mohamedou’s interrogations, Guantánamo but never convicted; Mauritanian is a remote viewing ‘MFRs’ – Memos for the Record – of the eight convictions secured, experience that makes the case are classified as intelligence three were overturned. for the closure of Guantánamo material, not to be produced in a Guantánamo demonstrates that without emotive force. court of law. torture doesn’t guarantee action - Because Mohamedou’s brutal able intelligence. Subject to Covid-19 restrictions, The treatment is only shown in flash- Foster shows us a woman who Mauritanian opens in UK cinemas in backs, we don’t fear for him in tries to insulate herself from feel - April.

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 25 BOOK REVIEWS

‘We Are the People’

‘We are the People’: The Rise of the Muslim prejudice and anti- 2017, how it pursued a strategy of Alice AfD in Germany Semitism. permanent provocation and con - Carter Penny Bochum The book references several frontation to exploit people’s fears Haus £7.99 sociological and political research and how, under Petry, the party on the papers, which show that the AfD resurrected a Nazi-era term: the ermany’s populist party, attracts support across Germany, Lügenpresse, or ‘lying press’. As German AfD (Alternative for and it is not confined to any one Bochum shows, populists benefit Right GGermany), was founded in class, age group or socio-economic when centre parties are weak and 2013 by a group of economists grouping. However, it is clear divided. The political situation is and professors, as a reaction to that its appeal is strongest in more fragmented in Germany the Eurozone bailout of Greece in eastern Germany, where it is said than at any time since the war. the wake of the 2008-09 financial the inhabitants start from the The mainstream parties are crisis. It soon moved rapidly to assumption of being the ‘losers’ of divided within themselves and the right, attracting new leaders history, having been occupied by the current coalition government who used Nazi-era words, phras - the Soviet Union after the war, has been weakened by disagree - es and slogans, expounded anti- and having suffered from decades ments, not least about immigra - Semitic, xenophobic and racist of austere, authoritarian rule. tion. views, and worked to The situation is press - undermine the legitimacy ing especially with new of democratic centre par - federal elections looming ties. The AfD adopted in September 2021. many of the characteris - However, all is not lost. tics of populist parties Bochum identifies inter - across the world: it was nal divisions and faction - nationalist and anti-immi - alism within the AfD grant and saw itself as itself, including its own representative of the struggle with Der ‘pure’ people against a Flügel, its set-back in ‘corrupt’ political elite. the 2018 European elec - These views were reflect - tions (when it lost elec - ed in the public and pri - toral ground having mis - vate pronouncements of guidedly promoted a its leaders, who intro - German “Dexit” at a duced increasingly more time when the Brexit extreme policies. project had embroiled The party’s policies in the UK) and its own the 2017 federal elections financial scandals that included closing damaged the credibility Germany’s borders to end of its leaders. immigration (which it Bochum devotes the linked to terror and crimi - final chapter of her book nality, and which it to ideas of how to con - claimed threatened the tain the AfD; solutions welfare state, pensions that she says “require and health grants), intro - courage and clarity”. ducing a system of refer - These are centred on enda to assert the pursuing a “progressive sovereignty of the German agenda” which is inclu - people and leaving the sive, speaks to voters, eurozone. The manifesto bridges divides and condemned feminism and encour - They lived in a closed society, iso - addresses the decline in respect aged women, with the support of lated from immigration. When for political institutions, by telling tax breaks, to remain at home to unification came, they felt like the truth, being transparent and bring up children. second-class citizens. All these avoiding conflicts of interest. Many of these changes in the feelings were compounded by a They include new government ini - AfD were driven by an organised demographic crisis, as a quarter tiatives, investment in regional faction called “Der Flügel” (The of the east’s population (mostly and local civic programmes, and Wing), described as being both the young) migrated to the west, civic education, to confront the “neo-Nazi” and as “A party within leaving a declining birth rate, problems that fuel populist sup - a party”. However, as Bochum aging population, declining tax port. Inequalities, especially in demonstrates, it would be wrong revenues and dwindling social the east, need to be addressed. to see the AfD just as a reborn infrastructure. The AfD tapped Bochum ends optimistically, neo-Nazi party. The success of into these concerns and provided but it remains to be seen if main - the party and its ultra-national - easy, nationalistic solutions, stream German politicians ist policies is rooted in more many of them centred on anti- respond effectively to the chal - recent concerns, not least disillu - immigration. lenge of the AfD. The book is a sionment with globalisation, a Bochum explains how the AfD well-written introduction to the loss of confidence in democracy, a drew support away from the subject and a relatively quick sense of powerlessness, anti- mainstream centre parties in read.

26 CHARTIST March/April 2021 Sport and Apartheid

Bob Pitch Battles: Sport, Racism and tells wonderful stories of a young Resistance campaigner who hijacked the Newland Peter Hain and Andre Odendaal Springbok’s coach loaded with the Rowman and Littlefield £25 t e a m f our hours before a match and on the Stop a young woman ‘Mata Hari’ who his is the latest contribution to befriended the Springbok players to the the celebration of the 50th gain insider knowledge. Seventies Tanniversary of the success of We learn of the history of cricket the Stop the Seventies Tour cam - in South Africa from the days of Tour paign (STST). It is a collaboration Cecil Rhodes and how sport (white), between Peter Hain, the chair of cricket and rugby became a pillar STST and Andre Odendaal a first- propping up morale in the belea - class South African cricketer and guered racist state. It was hardly anti-Apartheid campaigner. surprising that the state fought Peter is well known to political back. Activists at home and over - activists in the UK. Andre was a seas were targeted with smears, struggles against racism in sport brave sportsman putting his career false legal charges and in the case of merge smoothly into the prepara - on the line to support the cause of Peter Hain, a letter bomb. tions in the late 1980s for a new multi-racial sport in Apartheid Such was the upset created by South Africa and the joy accompa - South Africa. He is the author of the increasingly successful interna - nying Nelson Mandela’s release many books but is renowned as the tional campaign that collection from prison. With this came about a person appointed by Nelson boxes appeared in shops and bars significant realignment of sporting Mandela to transform Robbin across South Africa raising money authorities and competitions. Island from a terrible place of to ‘Cause Hain Pain’ to fund private Apartheid in sport was gone as was detention into a World Heritage site prosecutions in the UK. the Apartheid State. and the first Director of the Touching upon issues still being The book ends with an explo - Museum. debated today, the book explores the ration of racism and gender inequal - The book begins and ends with use of ‘spy cops’ in STST and the ity in sport. It identifies the role of Black Lives Matter (BLM), linking Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM). commercialism on the game and its a major historical battle in the fight Agent provocateurs abound and of players. It highlights the courage of against Apartheid with the ongoing course we explore the murky details individual sportsmen and women struggles in the world today against of Peter Hain being set up for a over the years who stood up against institutionalised racism. It follows bank robbery in Putney. discrimination and were willing to the authors’ shared conviction that Slanderous links to IRA terrorism challenge the power of their ‘own - ‘sport can no more be isolated from are introduced by M15 ‘evidence’. ers’. Its message is clear – while the ideological and political trajecto - Despite all the information about there have been enormous strides ries of society and globalisation this that has dripped out over the forward in the world of sport since than people can from the air and years, it’s still hard to accept the the 1970s discrimination and daily life around them’. degree of illegality committed by the inequality remain and have to be The book chronicles both person - British State and the extent of its challenged. al journeys and the history of STSC collaboration with South Africa’s All in all, the book is a captivat - and the South African Non-Racial Bureau of State Security (BOSS). ing read for activists, sports fans Olympic Committee (SANROC). It The wonderful stories of the and students of history and politics. Andrew Coates Mystical Marxism on the I Want to Believe. Posadism, UFOs collaborate with the Earth’s the Cordoban slums, a tango and Apocalypse Communism inhabitants in suppressing pover - dancer, and football player, was Posadists A.M. Gittlitz ty”. re-born as a shoemaker union Pluto £17.99 I Want to Believe is not a organiser and an activist in the Trotskyist X-Files. It tells the Socialist Youth. He began work - s the rightful inheritors of story not only of Posadas himself ing for the main current of the Lenin and Trotsky’s but also of his tendency, which Trotskyist Fourth International. AInternationals, the played a part in the history of the For many on the left Perón’s rise Posadists believed themselves labour movement. They ‘fought in to power in the 1940s had result - best equipped to tackle the mys - the Sierras of Cuba with Castro ed in a dictatorial regime. teries of the universe left under- and Yon Sosa’ they built up Posadas took the stand to ‘critical - discussed during the tumult of groups in factories across two ly support’ Peronism. the first half of the century’. continents and organised peas - Foreshadowing theories of ‘left Homero Cristalli, ‘Posadas’, born ants in Brazil. They spent populism’ as President Perón was in Buenos Aires in 1912, is decades in prison, some disap - against the imperialists, his sup - remembered for his ‘mystical, peared in the torture chambers or porters offered a base to build a futurist and visionary’ specula - were thrown from helicopters of ‘revolutionary movement.’ tions on intelligent dolphins and the Condor dictatorships. If that was not enough to cause UFOs. We must “appeal to the Gittlitz offers an eye-opening divisions, international Trotskyist beings on other planets, when account of the post-war Latin debates in the 1950s, under the they come here, to intervene and American left. Cristalli, born in Continued on page 28>>

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 27 BOOK REVIEWS

The dictator who refused to die

Salazar quest of Goa). He kept on good terms means to control the situation. This, Nigel Watt Tom Gallagher with Franco’s Spain, welcoming his along with discontent in Portugal on the Hurst £25 victory in the civil war. His decision to itself was the major cause of the 1974 keep Portugal neutral in the Second revolution. By that time Salazar, Portuguese ortugal had long been unstable: World War was wise – though maybe tired, ill and unpopular, had left the dictator weak monarchs followed by a it was just fortunate that Hitler was stage to Marcello Caetano whose con - Pchaotic republic, heavy losses too busy elsewhere. In the event it trol of the situation was short-lived. in the First World War and non-stop helped keep Spain, which could have Gallagher’s book is an interesting economic crisis. The north of the been an important ally for Hitler, out read. While he has not written a country was (and is) conservative and of the war too. hagiography, he is much too tolerant Catholic; the cities and the south lib - A small nation in European terms, of the evils of a regime which kept eral or communist. Antonio de Portugal’s weight was magnified by Portugal backward. He makes very lit - Oliveira Salazar came from a village including its large colonial empire, tle reference to the PIDE and its bru - in the interior. Conservative and most importantly mineral-rich Angola. tality and one does not get a picture of Catholic, he rose to become Professor Salazar never seemed to take a lot of the stifling nature of this ultra conser - of Economics at Coimbra and follow - interest in the empire but could see its vative state where the dictator ing the revolution of 1926 which over - importance; it was declared to be “an ‘refused to die’. threw the liberal parliamentary integral part of Portugal” and the con - regime he moved into politics as cept of Lusotropicalism was evoked. Minister of Finance. He became Salazar never liked or trusted the Prime Minister in 1932 and remained Americans but his hatred of there until 1968. He effectively creat - Communism was stronger and when ed a ruling party, the Uniao Nacional, invited to join NATO in 1949 he and announced the creation of the accepted. The Soviet Union vetoed New State (Estado Novo), an authori - Portugal’s membership of the United tarian set up based on corporations Nations until 1956. and interest groups and an ineffectu - Opposition to the regime grew in al parliament. the 1950s. Salazar did nothing to He always kept a low profile. He relieve the poverty of a large part of was not a typical dictator of the peri - the population and his regime, always od. He did not go in for parades and repressive, relied increasingly on the public speeches. He did not admire PIDE, the secret police which relied Mussolini, still less Hitler. He mostly increasingly on torture. All human stayed in his office making very sure rights were trampled on, notably in that he was in control of everything. Guinea-Bissau, Angola and He clung to the old alliance with Mozambique where liberation strug - Britain (though he was disgusted gles began and where the mainly con - when Britain accepted India’s con - scripted army lacked the will or the

>>Continued from page 27 gave ‘kindergarten level lectures’ researched, helped by consulta - to his followers, right up his tion with a wide range of people shadow of a battle between the death in 1981, ruled the sect. including eccentrics like USSR and the West, about global “Even if I die” he said, “I’ll rise Sebastian Budgen and Dave war/revolution, led to deep rifts. again!” Broder. Eminently readable, it is Posadas took the view that nucle - Another heir, Dante Minazzoli, a valuable study of an aspect of ar war was inevitable. He ended, expelled from the movement after the left that deserves a wide audi - after bewildering splits, with his twenty-five years of activism, ence. own Posadist International. Their back to the foundation of the task was to create nuclei that Grupo cautro international in would take a leadership role in 1947, was Gittlitz says, their pre- the aftermath of a nuclear apoca - eminent enthusiast for “science lypse and build a Socialist future. fiction, cosmic philosophy, and The less than genial side of the Bolshevik futurists.” Posadism is underlined. Their Minazzoli was one of the forerun - role, Armageddon or not, was to ners of ‘neo-Posadism’, an inter - guide the workers towards revolu - est in futurism in space, and tion and ‘rule over them after - Futurology, seen in the ‘Fully wards as dictators’. Automated Luxury Space The movement ended as a neo- Communism’ web memes. Yet, Saint-Simonian cult, with the Gittlitz concludes, Posadism will remaining faithful holed up in an not be revived, as a ‘prophet of Italian Villa. The birth of a catastrophe, socialist futurism daughter, Homerita, was the and epochal unity.’ This ‘bizarre ‘rebirth of the entire signpost’ Gittlitz concludes, International around the common directs towards an ‘uncertain cause of preparing the heir appar - future’. ent.’ An authoritarian leader, who I Want to Believe is thoroughly

28 CHARTIST March/April 2021 Pilgrims

The Mayflower in Britain ical relations between England sition to slavery, and their rela - Duncan Graham Taylor and Holland, both Protestant tive religious tolerance. Taylor Bowie Amberley Press £20 countries, but also the politics of sees the Mayflower pilgrims as an colonisation and sponsorship of antecedent of the Quaker move - on the ith the 400th anniver - the different groups of settlers in ment that was to emerge in religious and sary in 2020, there have America. England in the later 1640’s. Wbeen a number of books The final sections of the book There is a problem with the use political and pamphlets published on examine the legacy of the of the term ’icon’. In recent years aspects of the Mayflower pilgrims Mayflower pilgrims, both in terms the Mayflower has become the background story. This book is however dif - of the religious and political lega - focus for a debate over colonisa - ferent from others – the clue cy back in London – many of the tion and slavery as some histori - being partly in the subtitle – pilgrims on the Mayflower and ans have seen the Mayflower ‘How an Icon was made in the three other boats which fol - journey as almost a symbolic London’. The focus, unlike most lowed, returned to England to event from which many of the other studies, is on the history of fight on the Cromwellian side in crimes of Anglo-American eco - the passengers and crew of nomic and racial domi - the Mayflower before they nance followed. This has sailed to New England. been partly in response to Taylor focuses on the links the treatment in with London, which he American society, culture argues are stronger than and politics of the acknowledged by previous Mayflower compact and writers – but the book is especially the much more valuable than Thanksgiving day celebra - would appear from this local - tion as an origin myth. ist perspective as it presents Taylor is right to point a detailed and comprehen - out that the Mayflower sively researched study of the pilgrims’ settlement was religious and political back - only one (and not the ground to the pilgrims jour - first) of a number of set - ney. It includes schedules of tlements of the eastern members of various dissident coast of America by churches in London and Europeans and that com - Holland as well as details of pared to the motives and the religious and political practice of some other set - backgrounds not just of the tlers, including some Mayflower pilgrims but of other puritans, the those who followed. Mayflower settlers were Taylor provides an exten - relatively progressive in sive analysis of the develop - terms of religion, politics, ment of different dissident governance and relations groups and their heritage and with the indigenous popu - interactions, examining the lation. exile of the core dissident By treating the group, the ‘Brownists’, to Mayflower story as iconic Leiden and other centres in and focusing on the pro - the United Provinces of gressive elements of the Holland. He also examines Mayflower legacy in his the political links of the lead - final ‘vindication’, there is ing Pilgrims. The extent to which the English civil war – but also on a risk that Taylor’s somewhat the Mayflower was sponsored by the legacy in New England. partisan conclusion takes away and negotiated with leading Taylor stresses the importance of from the value of the sound his - politicians – both supporters of distinguishing the development of torical research in the substance James I and opponents - has per - the New Plymouth/Providence of the book. Having had the plea - haps not been fully recognised in Bay settlement, from the earlier sure, if a somewhat challenging most of the earlier scholarship. entrepreneurial settlement at one, of chairing a debate between Most writers, including what is Jamestown, Virginia, the much Graham Taylor and some of his perhaps the fullest study, that of larger puritan settlement at critics, I would strongly urge any - the American historian, Boston led by John Winthrop – one interested in the subject and Nathaniel Philbrick, in his book the city on the hill’ and the theo - the controversies it has generated Mayflower- A Voyage to War , cratic and intolerant settlement to read the book as a whole, have focused largely on what at New Haven led by John before reaching judgement, rather happened after the Pilgrims had Davenport. than relying on the somewhat arrived in New England. Taylor’s Taylor examines the nature of assertive concluding section. approach may appear localist, the Mayflower compact as a basis Taylor has undertaken important focusing on London and especial - for democratic self-government, original research which has con - ly on Southwark, where he lives, stressing the Mayflower pilgrims tributed much to our knowledge but it is actually a transnational wish to live in friendship with the of the background to the study – examining both the polit - indigenous population, their oppo - Mayflower story.

March/April 2021 CHARTIST 29 BOOK REVIEWS

Fascism, freedom and the Spanish Civil War

The International Brigades troops. Between Mussolini and preceding rather than following Glyn Ford Giles Tremlett Hitler Franco had a foreign legion victory, needed putting down, as Bloomsbury £30.00 of a 100,000; three quarters from they were in 1937’s Barcelona on the Italian Corpo Truppe May Days’ and after. international Volontaria (CTV). The Italians After Belchite it was a defeated pain was Europe’s first lost fought their ‘away’ civil war on army marching. The Republic was solidarity in battle fighting fascism. It the plains of Guadalajara when hanging on waiting for Europe’s Swas 1936-45, not 1939-45. the Garabaldi Battalion faced off War to start and cavalry to action The Republicans combatting with the CTV and won. Yet it was arrive. London and Paris recog - Franco’s 1936 insurrection saw one of the Brigades few offensive nised Franco’s regime two months 35,000 volunteers - from just shy successes with serial failures to before Madrid fell. The war came of a hundred countries - flock to follow. Technology, not troops, seven months too late for Spain. the banners of the International spoke loudest. Ford and General Franco murdered tens of thou - Brigade. One in five died in Spain Motors sold the rebels trucks and sands in the years that followed. before the Brigade’s soldiers were Texaco oil. Yet decisive was Having slandered the POUM in sent home. It was a futile German artillery, tanks and claiming their collusion with fas - attempt to press London and planes that weighted the balance cism, the echoes of Spain’s death- Paris to act on the policy of Non- to the right. Europe saw a rattle had scarcely died away intervention they were hawking ‘blitzkrieg’ dress rehearsal in before Stalin signed the Nazi- to salve consciences and public Soviet pact. opinion. Yet Tremlett shows us the The International Brigades Brigades veterans fighting - is a welcome break from the and dying - again. In France, Anglo-centric focus of much of Italy and Belgium they led Civil War history, even if it the resistance. A minimum still misses China’s hundred of two hundred died in volunteers. The core of Hitler’s concentration camps, recruits were members of their where ‘Red Spaniards’ were domestic communist parties, branded with red triangles. leavened by socialists and Henri Tanguy led the resis - unattached progressives. The tance in Paris. When mix had national characteris - General Leclerc’s 2nd tics. Germany’s experience of Armoured Division liberated left-wing sectarianism saw a the city on 24 August 1944 thinner mix than Italy’s cock - the lead tanks bore the tail of leftists experienced in names of Spanish Civil War combatting together Il Duce . battles - Guadalajara, Ebro Jewish volunteers were at a and Teruel - manned as they premium in reaction to Nazi were by Republican anti-Semitism, as were black Spaniards fighting with the Americans spurred by racism Free French in the La Neuve at home and abroad. One of company. Aldo Lampredi, a these last was Oliver Law veteran of the Garibaldi who, in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, there again for the Battalion, was the first black home leg of Italy’s civil war, commander to lead white was one of those partisans troops into battle. who executed Mussolini. The The Brigades were the Russians fell to Stalin’s Republic’s shock troops across paranoia, but in Eastern the war. They suffered accord - Europe, in Yugoslavia and ingly. Thrown into the early bat - March 1938, with ’shock and awe’ Albania, East Germany, Hungary tle for Madrid they defended the in German, as Stuka dive and Poland many of the capital, outperforming all expec - bombers hammered the Brigades ‘Spaniards’ lived long and pros - tations in frustrating Franco to Belchite front lines day after day. pered; some to their shame. the surprise of the Republican Franco fought two wars on the The International Brigades has Government who’d already fled to Peninsula and the Republicans some labelling them ‘premature Valencia. Orchestrating it all - fought each other. In the industri - anti-fascists’, Ronald Reagan said and often orchestrating it badly - al heartlands of Catalonia there they fought on the wrong side. were the Russians and their was a revolution to overthrow Actually, they were on time. It ‘Mexicans’; international commu - capitalism, while in Spain’s rural was the Governments in London, nist officials delivered straight fastnesses it was a battle to break Washington and Paris that were from Moscow; cliquish, secretive the chains of feudalism linked to delinquent in letting slip the last and commanding. church, army and land. Moscow best chance to stop the Axis As Tremlett makes clear, there insisted the war be played with before it was too late. Bedtime for was no level playing field. It was rules humouring the West. Thus Bonzo (1951) has Reagan trying Franco more than the Republic the anti-Stalinist communists of to teach morals to a chimpanzee. that was reliant on foreign the POUM, who saw revolution That says it all. 30 CHARTIST March/April 2021 The Politics of Queer History

Duncan The Glamour Boys Sackville-West, also has a central part of this circle. Chris Bryant role, with Tories, Ronnie Tree, A central element of Bryant’s Bowie Bloomsbury £25 Henry Crookshank, Bob Boothby argument is that his four charac - (Churchill’s aide) and Jim ters were all patriots and that on anti- his is a fascinating read but Thomas (not to be confused with somehow homosexuality should a difficult book to review. Labour’s Jimmy Thomas) having not be associated with cowardice appeasement TBryant, the Labour MP for walk on parts. or ‘wimpishness’, not that many Rhondda, who has previously What I found somewhat discon - people today would necessarily and sexual written books on Christian social - certing, was in introducing any think that was the case, though ism and Stafford Cripps, has character into the narrative, perhaps that was a more orientation written a study of a group of Bryant first refers to their sexual - widespread view at the time. All young Conservative MPs in the ity- individuals who were not four served in the forces – two inter-war period who in the late specifically identified as queer are died in plane crashes – Cazalet, 1930’s opposed appeasement. who was liaison officer Bryant in his study focuses with the Polish army, on both the political trajecto - died in the same plane ry and private lives of this crash as General group of ’Glamour boys’, with Sikorski; Bernays’ the focus on the fact that plane crashed in the some (but by no means all) of Adriatic when he was the group were queer. part of a parliamen - This perhaps explains the tary delegation to visit endorsement on the book’s the troops. cover by Stephen Fry, and Macnamara was killed the fact that the book has fighting in Italy; received considerable cover - Cartland in the battle age in the media, with the of Dunkirk. attention being given to the Bryant is justified in sexual orientation of the drawing attention to MPs more than their politi - these four individuals. cal activity – the Guardian What is curious, apart review was by the actor from the fact that the Simon Callow. Not all mem - book tends to down - bers of the anti-appeasement play the roles of group were homosexuals, but Churchill and Eden is not surprising that Bryant and their supporters focuses on those who were. including Harold Much of the early part of the MacMillan in chal - book focuses on the sexual lenging Chamberlain activity of members of the and Halifax’s appease - group in Soho and in ment policy (possibly Weimar Berlin, which was because they were het - regarded as the most sexual - erosexual) is that ly liberal city in the world, Bryant does not and the book provides a acknowledge that all guide to the world of his subjects have cen - Christopher Isherwood as tral roles in a study by portrayed in Cabaret . an American academ - It is clear that politics ic, Lynne Olsen, pub - played a part in this activity, lished in 2007 – in that some of Bryant’s sub - Troublesome Young jects enjoyed the homosexual Men – The Rebels who milieu within the Nazi party Brought Churchill to and SA and that their opposition identified as bachelors. Power and Helped Save England . to Nazism was only generated Unmarried, bisexual, married but Nor does he acknowledge after the ‘Night of the Long queer or ‘nearly queer’ (this latter Simon Ball’s 2014 The Knives’, when Hitler started per - being a new categorisation to me) Guardsmen , which includes secuting homosexuals as well as as if this factor was the main Macmillan and Crookshank in its Jews, socialists and as commu - determinant of an individual’s quarter of young Tory politicians, nists. political position, and their atti - and has a chapter entitled ‘The The main characters in tude to rearmament, appease - Glamour Boys’, nor Neville Bryant’s book are the quartet of ment and the Nazi menace. Thompson’s 1971 study The Anti Jack Macnamara, Ronnie Bryant is clearly trying to argue Appeasers: Conservative opposi - Cartland, Victor Cazalet, and that sexual orientation tran - tion to appeasement in the 1930’s . Rob Bernays (who wrote one of scends party affiliation, though None of these books appear in the early reports of Nazism perhaps he has a point since the Bryant’s bibliography, but per - Special Correspondent , for Labour MP Tom Driberg ( who haps studies which focused on Gollancz in 1934). Harold features in Bryant’s book on politics rather than sexuality Nicholson, Labour National MP Christian socialism) and the were not regarded as relevant to and diplomat, and wife of Vita Soviet agent, Guy Burgess were Bryant’s argument. March/April 2021 CHARTIST 31 VIEW FROM WESTMINSTER Stand by nuclear test ban

Fabian Hamilton Fabian Hamilton is Labour MP for on peace prospects in a world without Trump Leeds North East & Shadow Minister for he UK has a rich history Peace and of conflict resolution. Disarmament Whether it’s in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, or any - where in the world, the UTK has rightly acted to save lives when necessary. But over the last decade, this Government has failed to take a proactive approach needed to make the UK a world leader in multilateral disarmament once again. With our position on the UN Security Council, the G7 and our fantastic institutions such as the British Council, we are in dire need of the political will to take signifi - cant multilateral disarmament ini - tiatives forward. Our excellent diplomatic corps and those who work to engage with states and leaders across the world are vital to promoting international 2026. Utah where significant cancer clus - peace and stability. The UK is also a huge benefactor ters have been linked to previous After Donald Trump’s disastrous of multilateral disarmament agree - testing. US presidency, we have seen the ments and the stability they bring All countries should be free from dangers of brinkmanship over diplo - with them. We must, therefore, play the threat of nuclear weapons, but macy. Donald Trump brought the a leading role in negotiating them also the threat of violence. In world to the brink of nuclear conflict and encouraging allies to follow suit. Colombia, for example, the UK has on several occasions, namely with The Comprehensive Test Ban a part to play as the penholder for Iran and North Korea. Unilaterally Treaty (CTBT), which outlaws all that country at the UN. withdrawing from the Joint nuclear testing, was ratified by the Everyday, trade unionists, envi - Comprehensive Plan of Action last Labour Government, so it is ronmental activists and human (JCPOA) with Iran was a danger - vital now, more than ever, that the rights defenders are targeted and ous moment for regional peace and current UK Government meets its threatened with violence in stability in the Middle East. In a moral responsibilities to make clear Colombia. Last year was the deadli - welcome reversal of Trump’s deci - that any nuclear testing has the est year since the historic peace sion, President Biden has commit - potential to undo over 60 years of agreement was signed in 2016. ted to rejoining - once Iran complies progress on nuclear disarmament Alongside the impact of climate with the agreement. and that nuclear brinkmanship is change and the pandemic in the S The United States looks to re- only a path to escalation, not to sta - country, the UK must press the u engage with the world again, and bility. Colombian Government to ensure b it’s so important that the UK fol - Without ratification by US and that the peace agreement is upheld. s lows suit. Now that the New China, the CTBT is severely Without it, regional stability will be w c START agreement between the US restricted in its effectiveness by the put at risk and violence will be w r and Russia has been extended notable absence of two of the world’s widespread. ib for the maximum of five years, largest nuclear powers. Given the The UK’s role as a peacemaker is w e it is surely incumbent on UK's position on the United Nations as important now as it ever was .c t every nuclear power to Security Council and our historic during the depths of the Cold War. h o convene and negotiate relationship with the US, the UK is Every day it becomes more and a C a broader treaty of in a prime position to mediate an more clear that we cannot go back r H the same calibre agreement between the US and to business as usual after the pan - ti A in time for China so both countries may finally demic - where conflicts are allowed st R New ratify this vital treaty. to claim the lives of innocent civil - . T START’s Beyond the political and diplo - ians across the world and the prolif - o I expiry matic process, it’s also important eration of nuclear and non-nuclear rg S in that we remember the human con - weapons rages on. This country can . T sequences of nuclear testing, be a force for change for a better u a already evident in US states like world and it’s about time we k t Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and reclaimed that moral duty. C