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Italian left unites around n People’s Assembly workern Revolutionary Strategy ‘Another Europe with Tsipras’. n Crimean referendum Tobe Abse assesses its chances n Open borders No 1002 Thursday March 20 2014 Towards a Communist Party of the European Union www.cpgb.org.uk £1/€1.10

The moderate extremist 2 weekly March 20 2014 1002 worker LETTERS

Letters may have been in the elemental fight over wages definitively assert what he would What nonsense. Let us leave such shortened because of and conditions that would occur in Xenophobic have said then!” True enough (and window dressing to the Trots! space. Some names class society even if there was no I cannot escape the conclusion that fortunately for him nor was there Those on the left should ensure  may have been changed such thing as Marxism. The fact that there exists a nasty xenophobic any asylum-seekers legislation for that those they employ are paid today “the works of Marx, Lenin undertone to Dave Vincent’s reply political refugees), but Eleanor, his transparently, in line with the Not astounding and others [are] freely available (Letters, March 13). daughter, was particularly active in market rate, and ensure best value In spite of all the evidence that I have on the internet” changes nothing in First, has Dave never heard of the distributing the statement, “The voice for money for their members. Crow put forward from Lars T Lih’s study, this regard, except for the fact that Irish immigration to Scotland and of the aliens’, which I recommended fulfilled all those requirements, Lenin rediscovered, in particular, uploading material onto a website in particular to the Lanarkshire coal as a read. along with many others who are Carl Simmons doggedly insists on makes it much easier for us “social pits? So the Lithuanians were indeed I will end with a quote from it: “To proud that their efforts better the asserting that Karl Kautsky, VI Lenin, democrats” to bring the revolutionary not the only immigrant population punish the alien worker for the sin of terms and conditions that ensure Lars Lih and I hold the working class Marxist message to the struggles of used as cheaper labour by the bosses. the native capitalist is like the man workers get more than the ‘average’. “in disdain” by arguing that “the the workers’ movement than it was Indeed many encouraged the division who struck the boy because he was John Praven working class is ‘only capable of for previous revolutionaries, using and the bitter consequences are still not strong enough to strike his father.” Portsmouth trade union consciousness’ without hand-operated printing presses or felt today every time an Orange Walk Alan Johnstone the intervention of the intelligentsia other such equipment. Unfortunately, takes place locally. Socialist Party of Great Britain No scab from without” (Letters, March 13). Web 2.0 does not obviate the need But, that aside, he writes: While the politics and analysis of The problem for him, however, is for revolutionary political parties, “[Lithuanians] joined unions in their FI and Ukraine The Leninist stand up rather well that none of us actually argue this, programmes, theory and so on. own defence” (my emphasis). How’s In relation to the comments by Mike some 30 years later, I suppose whether in What is to be done?, Two other points on Lenin and that for a jaundiced interpretation? The Martin and Lawrence Humphries it’s inevitable factual accuracies Lenin rediscovered, the letters pages comrade Simmons. There is a local union sought them out to join (Letters, March 13), I wish to make sometimes occurred. Such is the of this paper or the passage from the difference between an unsuccessful or for everybody’s mutual defence, Dave. it abundantly clear that “Fourth case with the article, ‘Three cardinal CPGB’s Draft programme I pointed clumsy formulation of a valid point, He then goes on to claim that “many International” in my letter the sins of opportunism’ (republished him to by way of an explanation and making an invalid point in the heat foreign workers coming here readily previous week was intended to be a in Weekly Worker March 13), which of how I understand the “from of polemic. Lenin, as we have seen in line up with the employers and Tories reference to what used to be known misrepresents the stance of the without” passage (and which he has the exchange with comrade Simmons by denigrating the British unemployed as the United Secretariat and not to National Union of Mineworkers’ revealingly ignored). thus far, admitted to the former, but as lazy and workshy”. Perhaps some their own organisations. Nottinghamshire area president, Ray Like so many - too many - on the never to the latter. In the quotes I have do, but I hazard to guess that they are I admit I assumed that the use by Chadburn, during the strike. left today, comrade Simmons takes provided, Lenin is simply stating that heavily outnumbered by native-born the international tendency of which In my recently published book on Lenin’s “from without” passage to in taking on the economists he was who are just as ready to point the Socialist Resistance is the British the strike in Nottinghamshire, Look mean “the workers have to receive making a point that needs to be seen finger at those on the so-called ‘Benefit section of the self-description, back in anger: the miners’ strike in the message from intellectuals”, in context. Nor did Lenin think that Streets’ as shirkers. “International Committee of the Fourth Nottinghamshire 30 years on, I look because without these intellectuals his readers were confused at the time, Many years ago I would hear International”, in their statement on closely at the role played by all four the best they can achieve is trade because everybody was stressing the seasoned trade unionists justify pay Ukraine meant that no other group of the Notts full-time officials and it’s union consciousness. But take a “other side” of the argument - not differentials between women and male now used the title that was once clear you’ve done Chadburn a bit of look at the offending Karl Kautsky least Martov and Plekhanov. Comrade workers by claiming they worked only associated with the international a disservice. While he was certainly passage quoted by Lenin. Kautsky Simmons and I actually agree on this for pin-money and stole jobs from tendency represented in Britain by not part of the NUM’s Broad Left and maintains that “modern socialism” latter point. those who had families to raise. Dave’s first the Socialist Labour League and was perceived by many, with no little - ie, not socialism in general, Doubtless with the aim of argument proves to be little different then the Workers Revolutionary Party. justification, to be a rightwinger, the but Marxism specifically - was discrediting my argument by appealing from those against these earlier I apologise if I perpetuated a confusion fact is he was 100% behind the strike, invented by individual members to the lazier reader, comrade Simmons ‘interlopers’ into the labour market. generated, whether accidentally or which led to the Union of Democratic of the intelligentsia (ie, Marx and then rolls out the bugbear of Joseph The plea that immigration controls deliberately, by the former USFI. Miners locking him out of his office, Engels), who then communicate it to Stalin. I would point readers to Lars should be imposed and certain Lawrence knows me personally sacking him and then trying to evict proletarians “who stand out due to Lih’s discussion (pp657-58 of Lenin foreigners excluded should have no and also knows that I am well aware of him and his family from their NUM- their mental development” and who rediscovered) of what Stalin actually place in a workers’ movement that is Socialist Fight’s position on Ukraine, owned home. then “bring it into the class struggle” said about WITBD in 1905. Lih calling upon the exploited of all the which is based on an intransigently Chadburn also staunchly and (that already exists “spontaneously” convincingly shows that Stalin did not world to unite for their emancipation. anti-fascist stance which I consistently defended his colleague, as a natural feature of class society), think that intellectuals were needed to Any policy for the exclusion of wholeheartedly share. However, I Henry Richardson, the pro-strike “where conditions allow”. How carry the revolutionary message and other suffering wage-slaves is more am not sure if to describe the former area general secretary, against the could Kautsky, and thus Lenin, be also that Lenin explicitly approved of consistent with the attitudes of the USFI as “Mandelites” is fair to the sustained campaign of victimisation any more clear that “bringing into the young Georgian activist’s defence callous capitalist class rather than of late Ernest Mandel, whose record in orchestrated by scab-herders and later the class struggle from elsewhere” of WITBD. Trotsky had to explain this the movement whose proud boast it is the resistance during World War II UDM architects Roy Lynk and David - ie, merging socialism and the away by saying that Lenin actually that it stands uncompromisingly for the cannot be faulted - it is very hard for Prendergast. There is a great deal of workers’ movement - does not mean did not mean what he was saying here, oppressed and downtrodden of all the me to imagine that a revolutionary Chadburn’s record that bears criticism, “workers have to get the message but was merely seeking to encourage world. Immigrants have just as good Jewish fighter against Nazism would but where the strike was concerned - from intellectuals”? a keen young supporter. a right to enter this country as British have supported the former USFI’s despite his support for it being very In this understanding, intellectuals To conclude, maybe we can briefly workers have in exiting it. recent apologia for the latter-day much informed by both his lack of a (particularly great ones) only come put the history to one side. Could The Socialist Party of Great followers of the Ukrainian fascist, fixed and consistent political ideology up with historical materialism, comrade Simmons perhaps explain Britain will not sacrifice principle Nazi collaborator and murderous anti- and his immersion in the murky deals the theory of surplus value and just how, by effectively banning the and jeopardise our goal for some Semite, Stepan Bandera. and horse-trading of the professional so on, and everything else is public airing of political discussion immediate advantage. We will not Finally, since the Weekly Worker trade union leader - he was firmly due to proletarians telling other within their organisation, comrade spurn fellow workers lured here by does not claim to be what Jack Conrad behind it and the striking Notts miners. proletarians. This is just one of the Peter Taaffe and the Socialist Party the glimmer of hope that their burdens still calls ‘Trotskyite’, I don’t agree Harry Paterson many reasons for my “astounding are exhibiting faith in the capacity may be lightened by the promise of that it is the role of the editor to Nottingham claim” (why “astounding”?) that of working class people to assimilate some improvement in conditions. If adjudicate between competing claims Trotsky’s later account does not fit complex political ideas and the shades revolutionary socialism does not stand to be the Fourth International (or even Bolibourgeoisie with the sources from the time. Lenin and nuances of Marxism? Is this not unflinchingly and uncompromisingly its International Committee). In response to Daniel Harvey’s two and Kautsky are simply making more in keeping with the approach of for the working class and for the Toby Abse recent articles on Venezuela, there the point that a rounded Marxist Stalin in the 1930s than that of 1905? exploited of all lands, then it stands for London are a couple of issues I would like to outlook, a deep sense of history and Ben Lewis none and its claim is a false pretence. point out. so on, do not emerge spontaneously South Wales If the Socialist Party risk losing Workers’ wage? First, the majority of Venezuela’s support because we refuse to call Your tribute to Bob Crow was spoiled adult population doesn’t have a for the border gates to be closed in by the tart scolding that Crow faced working class background. It is Communist University 2014 the faces of our own brothers and a big contradiction, in that he “not imperative that the Bolibourgeoisie sisters, we will be none the weaker for only accepted such an inflated be ousted and liquidated as a class, Saturday August 16 to Saturday August 23 inclusive spurning such tactics to acquire false salary (£145,000), but attempted but also necessary to recognise the friends. All the votes gained would to justify it”, and arguing that full- revolutionary pragmatism of seeing Goldsmiths University do us little good if our party ceases time union officials should be on the through via communitarian populist Surrey House, 80 Lewisham Way, to be a revolutionary party, yielding “average wage of the members” (‘An fronts the political ascension of New Cross, London, SE14 6PB to public opinion to modify our intransigent fighter’, March 13). national or socioeconomic ‘patriotic’ principles for the sake of popularity Four in five new jobs are in sectors elements of the petty bourgeoisie - a £200 (£250 Solidarity) £110 Concessions and membership numbers. averaging under £16,640 for a 40-hour sort of petit-Bolibourgeoisie - for the In the centenary year of when week. Working full-time on the £6.31 urban and rural petty bourgeoisie do New Cross other supposed socialists abandoned hourly minimum wage would gross form the majority of the country’s the workers’ internationalism and just £13,124 and the rise in part-time adult population. embraced national chauvinism - with jobs shows millions of workers can’t Turning to the violence, mainstream one group under HM Hyndman going even earn that pittance (Office for opposition has judged the colectivos to be as far to demonstrate their patriotic National Statistics, 2014). “gangs” and “thugs”, just because they ardour by setting up a National Is the Weekly Worker seriously do perform paramilitary or paramilitia ‘Socialist’ Party - we in the Socialist arguing that union officials should functions, all the while ignoring their New Cross Gate Party are the party of all workers, not be paid the ‘rate for the job’ (ie, own hypocrisy when it comes to regardless of place of birth. We stand set by the membership and based on police brutality. However, they “[blur] resolutely for world socialism and benchmarking for similar job roles), the lines between partisan activism Surrey House Lewishham Way if this is too encompassing for some but salaries averaging under £16,640 and community service”, organise 80 Lewishham despite them paying lip-service to the per annum or less? “bookshops, study groups, summer Way claim - so be it. We shall leave them What is a legitimate expense? Will camps for children and coffee mornings to their various national ‘socialisms’. the editor advise on what clothing for pensioners as genuine services to “Marx didn’t advocate open borders brand is acceptable to the workers? their communities” and run the odd because at the time he wrote border What car that an official drives? What “radio station, leftwing bookshop controls didn’t exist. So no-one can lunch expense is to be swallowed? [...], internet cafe [or] veterinary BCM Box 928, London WC1N 3XX l 020 7241 1756 l www.cpgb.org.uk l [email protected] weekly 3 worker 1002 March 20 2014

clinic” (Reuters) in “[doubling] as be further blighted by the proposal neighbourhood organisations that run Inhuman of the Ja’afari personal status law. community improvement projects The remitting of the Communist The proposed law, which is still [and] as vigilante groups that intimidate Platform section on the ‘age of to be voted on by Iraq’s parliament, CPGB podcasts political opponents” (The Guardian). consent’ in favour of a debate in will legalise paedophilia by allowing Every Monday we upload a podcast commenting on the current With a little more professional the pages of the Weekly Worker is the marriage of nine-year-old political situation. In addition, the site features voice files of public training in public safety, public order, deeply problematic. girls, will prevent women from meetings and other events: http://cpgb.org.uk/home/podcasts. and detective work, could the popular Do you seriously think anyone can leaving their homes without their London Communist Forum paramilitia character of the colectivos express openly, publicly and fully a view husband’s permission, and will Sunday March 23: No forum. be an effective alternative to the on why the ‘age of consent’ is inhuman also permit a husband the right of Sunday March 30, 5pm: Weekly political report from CPGB bourgeois state’s police apparatus? repression and should be abolished? sexual gratification at his whim, Provisional Central Committee, followed by open discussion and Jacob Richter Do we live in a country free of sexual in effect legalising rape. This law, Capital reading group. Calthorpe Arms, 252 Grays Inn Road, email repression and murderous hysteria about if introduced, will also prevent London WC1. This meeting: Vol 1, chapter 27, ‘Expropriation of the ‘children’, some of whom are in their a Muslim from marrying a non- agricultural population from the land’. Abused late teens? It is impossible to debate this Muslim. This will only add further Organised by CPGB: www.cpgb.org.uk. I have read with interest the ongoing question without the heavy hand of the tension to Iraq’s already fractured Radical Anthropology Group discussion of the age of consent. One law coming down hard and attracting social fabric, which has been pushed Introduction to anthropology: the science of mythology thing that has been absent thus far (at state surveillance, press intrusion, phone to its limits since the USA and UK Tuesday March 25, 6.15pm: ‘A plains Indian myth: the wives of the least explicitly) is any contribution taps, detention, blacklisting, assault introduced ‘democracy’ to that sun and moon’. Speaker: Chris Knight. from someone who has been the or murder. Only those repeating the country. 88 Fleet Street, London EC4 (next to St Bride’s church, 5 minutes walk victim of sexual abuse, where the ‘child protection industry’ mantra, and What has horrified both myself from Blackfriars tube). Admission free, but donations appreciated. age of consent was an issue. I’m in a extending its tentacles and financial and numerous others is the silence Organised by Radical Anthropology Group: position to make such a contribution rackets, are allowed public expression which has come from Britain’s www.radicalanthropologygroup.org. - though, as will become evident, it of their views. parliament, who, after all, were is a little more complicated than I do not understand Ian Donovan’s the first to decry the human rights Israeli apartheid: a beginner’s guide that, in part because of how long ago problem with the wording of the abuses of Saddam Hussain, along Friday March 21, 6.30pm: Educational, Human Rights Action the events took place, and my age at CPGB policy (‘Don’t abolish: with claiming that their invasion Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2. Free event, but please the time. reform’, February 20) - unless he was to help champion the cause reserve a ticket: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/israeli-apartheid-a-beginners- I was a gay teenager in the 80s simply believes the state has the of women’s rights in Iraq. It is guide-tickets-10510921449. at the height of the Aids crisis right and duty to impose an artificial grotesque, that the UK is failing to Organised by Amnesty International: www.amnesty.org.uk. and clause 28-centered hysterical age at which people are ‘capable’ of utilise its influence over the Iraqi Mark Duggan and the injustice system homophobia. This, as well as a quite giving consent, regardless of when government to reverse its plan to Friday March 21, 7pm: Public meeting with relatives of Mark unrelated trauma going on in my it’s actually given. The abolition of create the world’s first pervert state, Duggan and others, Kings College London Students Union, Macadam family, made it very difficult for me the British age of consent (because, which, as most people are fully Building, The Strand, London WC2. to come to terms with my emerging of course, it’s different around Europe aware, was most generously funded Organised by Defend the Right to Protest: www. sexuality. This resulted in my being and the world, and even in Scotland to by the US/UK taxpayer. defendtherighttoprotest.org. groomed and then sexually abused, in an extent) does not mean abolition of At the same time, the UK also need New frontlines of war the sense of inappropriate touching laws on rape. sto have some clarity and inform us, Saturday March 22, 11am to 6pm: Anti-corporate event, Rich by a lecturer in his 40s when I was Consent will still have to be the electorate, what Britain’s political, Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1. Speakers from Nigeria, an undergraduate. consent, and not the result of force, military and diplomatic positions with Colombia and Palestine. I suspect that this happened for coercion, bribery or fear. It will still the Iraqi government and its British- Organised by War on Want: www.waronwant.org. several reasons: I responded all have to be voluntarily given. The based institutions will be, should the too well to the initial sympathetic protection Ian is looking for will be US/UK-backed Iraqi government Revolution in South Africa Saturday March 22, 7.30 pm: Public meeting, Calthorpe Arms, attention because of being unwilling covered by that. legalise both primary school-aged 252 Grays Inn Road, London WC1. Speakers include: Peter Banda, to be open about my sexuality, and Vernon Jacks brides and rape. General Industries Workers Union of South Africa; Shaheen Khan, because of the situation at home; email Hussein Al-alak Bolshevik Study Circles, Latief Parker, Critique. the age of consent for gay male sex Manchester Organised by Socialist Fight: www.socialistfight.com. was still 21, which, along with the Empowerment generally homophobic atmosphere, There has been a useful exchange Coffees on me Stand up to racism made any open discussion of on the age of consent. Ian Donovan, “If comrade Persson can locate any Saturday March 22, 11am: March and rally to mark United Nations anything related to sex difficult for for example, has expressed problems ‘curious sectariana’ in this week’s anti-racism day. Assemble Mandela statue, Parliament Square, London me; this was the first time that I was with this passage in the CPGB’s issue, then I will donate a tenner - 100 SW1, for march to rally in Trafalgar Square. aware of any clearly gay man, who Draft programme: “Abolish age-of- Swedish krona - to the Arbetarmakt Organised by Unite Against Fascism: www.uaf.org.uk. I had any degree of positive social consent laws. We recognise the right fund and buy him a coffee when I Socialists and Scottish independence reaction to, showing any interest of individuals to enter into sexual next see him,” writes Ben Lewis Tuesday March 25, 7pm: Debate: ‘Should socialists campaign for in me; no doubt things would not relations they choose, provided this (Letters, February 20), in response to Scottish independence?’ Room 706, Adam Smith Building, University have developed the way that they does not conflict with the rights of a lazy jab of mine, saying the Weekly of Glasgow, Bute Gardens, Glasgow G12. did if I had been straight. None of others. Alternative legislation to Worker was dedicated to “curious Organised by Glasgow Left Unity: www.leftunityglasgow.org. this excuses a man much older than protect children from sexual abuse.” sectariana” (February 6). Against austerity me who was in a position of trust In particular, comrade Donovan The polemical edge was supposed Wednesday March 26, 7pm: Book launch, Five Leaves Bookshop, in a hierarchy exploiting my all too objects to the first sentence and instead to be directed at the letter I was 14a Long Row, Nottingham NG1. Richard Seymour introduces evident vulnerability for his own proposes a system of positive proof of responding to, not the Weekly Worker ‘Against austerity: how we can fix the crisis they made?’ £3 on the gratification. consent when someone over 16 enters or CPGB. Unlike coffee, petty door, redeemable against any purchase. A couple of years after the event into a sexual relationship with someone annoyance is evidently best served Organised by Five Leaves bookshop: www.fiveleavesbookshop.co.uk. I did indicate to the university under 16. Whatever the exact details, cold. But I’m happy to correct myself, authorities in broad terms what had it is clear that comrade Donovan, like and I apologise to comrade Lewis for No glory in World War I happened, though the result was a us, actually advocates the abolition of falling back all too easily on routine Wednesday March 26, 7.30pm: Discussion, Malcolm X Centre, 141 fudge designed mostly to prevent the age-of-consent laws. dismissal of this publication. I still City Rd, Bristol BS2. Speakers include Neil Faulkner. anything similar happening in future Let me explain our reasoning. do doubt your project, but leftwing Organised by No Glory in War: http://noglory.org. with this particular individual (which We find it thoroughly objectionable debate and, indeed, your seriousness The people vs austerity was, as far as it went, a welcome that the state can criminalise young deserve equally serious criticism Thursday March 27, 7pm: People’s Assembly post-conference outcome), rather than any attempt people when, say, one partner is 15 rather than tired clichés. meeting, Central Hall, Oldham Street, Manchester M1. to address my individual welfare. I and the other is 17. Of course, such I’ll keep hunting for “curious Organised by People’s Assembly: www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk. have yet to take any further official relationships are very common. sectariana” - I actually do enjoy it. Left Unity conference steps about the issue, and my mental Nevertheless, where there is a “marked But I hereby accept defeat on this Saturday March 29, 11am to 6pm (registration from 10am): health and psycho-sexual functioning discrepancy” between the ages then, matter. Two sugars for our next fika National policy conference, Museum of Science and Industry, remain somewhat impaired, despite yes, the idea of positive proof of (coffee break) - duly noted. Liverpool Road, Castlefield, Manchester M3. Registration: leftunity. extensive psychotherapy. consent is not a bad idea. Many Svante Persson org/manchester-conference-information-saturday-29th-march-2014. It seems to me that the thoughtful European countries have ‘close in Arbetarmakt, Sweden Organised by Left Unity: www.leftunity.org. and considered views of Ian Donovan age’ exemptions. Eg, if the difference on this issue (‘Don’t abolish: is less than three or four years, it is Poet laureate Welsh Labour Grassroots reform’, February 20) represent often deemed that there is no offence Just a short letter to wish the Saturday March 29, 6pm: Meeting at Welsh Labour conference, an attempt to plot a path between - Sweden, Switzerland, Slovenia, etc. Communist Platform all the best at Somerset Hotel, Llandudno. unhelpful levels of policing of young Crucially, however, we seek to the coming Left Unity conference Organised by Welsh Labour Grassroots: people’s sexuality, on the one hand, empower young people through - a real inspiration to an old-timer http://welshlabourgrassroots.org. and, on the other hand, the CPGB democratising the school system, like me. I enjoyed very much Jack Education under occupation Draft programme’s current wording grants, education and counselling in Conrad’s use of Brecht at the last Tuesday April 1, 6.30pm: Stories from West Bank and Gaza students. - “Alternative legislation to protect sexual and relationship matters, etc. gathering and in a similar vein I have P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton Street, London NW1. children from sexual abuse” - which It ought to be stressed that we in the penned these lines that will hopefully Organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign: is completely inadequate. CPGB do not approve of adults using inspire your comrades in their Left www.palestinecampaign.org. Of course, vitally important in this their positions of power to persuade Unity work: Socialist films whole debate is the bullet point that young people into having sex. Eg, Our Communist Platform’s on the rise Sunday April 13, 11am: Screening, Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, immediately follows the one on the age while it should not be a criminal Play a part and join the cry! London W1. Trisha Ziff’s The Mexican suitcase (Mexico/Spain/US, 86 of consent. This reads: “The extensive matter, sex between university students Our opponents, they lack some spine, minutes) and Hugo Levien’s Who are the Angola 3? (UK, 29 minutes). provision of education and counselling and teachers should be considered Encased in the reformist ball of twine. Organised by London Socialist Film Co-op: facilities on all sexual matters, free from unprofessional - a sacking offence. Come now, comrades, conference www.socialistfilm.blogspot.com. moralistic judgement, is an essential Jack Conrad calls. prerequisite to enable youth to develop London Let’s knock down some mighty walls! CPGB wills themselves in all areas of sexuality and Our time is coming, just you see. Remember the CPGB and keep the struggle going. Put our party’s reproduction.” Had this been in place Pervert state The Communist Platform is a growing name and address, together with the amount you wish to leave, in your both for me and for my abuser … I am writing in disgust at the total tree! will. If you need further help, do not hesitate to contact us. Tony Rees disregard in Iraq for the rights of Mike Hunt email women and girls, whose lives are to email 4 weekly March 20 2014 1002 worker OBITUARY The moderate extremist Paul Demarty examines the legacy of a tireless champion of the Labour left he death of Tony Benn, after So it initially proved: Benn politics. It seems to have carried particular philosophical originality on they were resigned to defeat. a long illness, was announced supported Hugh Gaitskell, the Labour Benn along with it. In 1971, he spoke Benn’s part than the very considerable Furthermore, we must accept - Ton March 14, to cap off a cruel right’s chosen champion, throughout at a rally for the Upper Clyde work- influence of the CPGB on the Labour though from the opposite side - the week for the British left: Bob Crow his years as party leader, against the in in Glasgow, which was organised and trade union left in the 1970s. criticism, made widely in the slightly of the Rail, Maritime and Transport powerful Bevanite left. It was at the principally by communist militants. But that did not distinguish Benn condescending obituaries that clog up union had died earlier last week, and end of the Gaitskell era that Benn faced In 1973, he symbolically truncated from any run-of-the-mill Labour Party the bourgeois press, that the Bennite we had lost two of the most prominent his first serious political battle. During his name from Anthony Wedgwood reformist or CPGB fellow-traveller of advocacy of national autarky is a avowed socialists in the country the war, his father had been ennobled to Tony; he became the foremost his era. What did was the other element fantasy. It is particularly fantastical in within three days. as the first Viscount of Stansgate. It Labour spokesperson in opposition to of his later leftwing existence - a the British context, given our reliance If Crow was remarkable, in a was an act of grubby Realpolitik on the Britain’s membership of the European passionate, if somewhat contradictory, on imported food to eat, and tax takings period where trade union organisation part of Winston Churchill; but, after Economic Community during the belief in democracy, and in the correct on financial services to pay the state’s was getting weaker everywhere, for Benn’s older brother died in a wartime 1975 referendum campaign, which proposition that only by the struggle bills; but it is also obviously absurd on substantially growing the RMT and accident, it presented a problem. He roughly divided the Labour Party on of the masses can any measure of Benn’s own account, given the power winning battle after battle, Benn’s would inherit the title - which he did left-right lines. democracy be won. His leftward shift of corporations with global reach, of claim to fame rests on his peculiar not want at all - and find himself, under While, as industry minister, he was animated by the glimpse he had the International Monetary Fund, of journey through that other mass the law of the day, disqualified from was complicit in incomes policies and of the enormous power arrayed against the United States ... contingent of the workers’ movement: the Commons. other anti-working class measures, his the working class during Wilson’s first There is a grain of truth in the the Labour Party. Both men were After years of frustration, his time technocratic outlook was gone. He government: the entrenched privilege rightwing myth that Thatcherism castigated or patronised as ‘relics’; was up - William Wedgwood Benn supported the formation of workers’ of the establishment, the economic and the events of 1989-91 have taken Crow (in this view) was the last of the died, and his thus ennobled son was cooperatives, and in 1976 stood power of big capital, the bureaucratic socialism off the agenda for good - but 1970s union militants, as it were, and booted from parliament. He stood in as a leftwing candidate in the snap structures of Labour itself and the what they have actually taken off the Benn was a leftover from the 1980s, - and won - the resulting by-election, leadership election. By the end of the distortions of the capitalist media agenda is socialism in a single country. the Labour Party’s wilderness decade. and his seat was given to Malcolm St decade, he was the de facto leader of conspired against popular power. It is the socialism of the ‘official But turn it around and it is a Clair, who agreed to make way if Benn Labour’s left, putting his name to its “Compared to this, the pressure communist’ movement, but also the compliment. Leaving aside the succeeded in overturning the law. flagship Alternative Economic Strategy brought to bear in industrial disputes socialism of Benn. In this context, micro-historical forces which allowed With help from all quarters - (AES), and winning the support of by the unions is minuscule,” he wrote the AES - and its successors - equally success, the RMT under Crow was not including a token donation from forces ranging from Trotskyists to in 1988. “If the British people were ever appear as a kind of rearguard action, a cowed, when most of his brothers and Churchill, who had gotten him into Eurocommunists. Bennism had become to ask themselves what power they truly defensive measure against a rapacious sisters were. In the Labour Party, the this mess - Benn succeeded. By the the reincarnation of the Bevanism he enjoyed under our political system, they and powerful foe. picture is even more stark: all manner time he returned to Bristol South had spurned in his youth. would be amazed to discover how little of capitulated lefts are represented in East, though, things were changing. Bennism reached its apogee in it is, and some new Chartist agitation Counterpoint the serried ranks of New Labour, and Gaitskell was dead, replaced by the first years of the 80s, when a might be born and might quickly gather Something of broader world history Ed Miliband’s zombie version of the Harold Wilson; and Labour’s long small mass movement within Labour momentum.” He called for the abolition makes its way into every biography. same. Benn was, up to his death, an years in the wilderness were about propelled him to within a whisker of of the Lords and the monarchy, and In Benn’s case, the biography serves irritating reminder that it was not only to end, as Harold Macmillan’s the deputy leadership. It collapsed “a democratic, federal and secular as a kind of counterpoint. This paper’s the hated Trotskyist groups who were government descended into chaos almost immediately after, with the commonwealth [of Britain]”.1 previous incarnation, The Leninist, capable of resisting the pull (although over the Profumo affair. departure of the Gang of Four to form The left-libertarian science-fiction decried the Bennite movement as a only up to a point); indeed, it was In Wilson’s government - as the Social Democratic Party and the writer, Cory Doctorow, reminds us threat to the Communist Party - not possible for serious people to travel postmaster general and minister for disastrous 1983 election. Benn was of a mischievous habit of Benn’s - because Benn was some Machiavelli, in the opposite direction. technology - Benn was emblematic of heavily implicated in the Labour illegally placing memorial plaques a malicious agent of capital, but the technocratic post-war consensus. manifesto, the supposed ‘longest to popular agitators and democratic because of Bennism’s attraction to a The technocrat He oversaw the Post Office Tower, suicide note in history’, and lost his heroes around the House of Commons. wider constituency, most especially Anthony Wedgwood Benn was born the Concorde project, and looked seat largely as a result of boundary The most famous - in the broom the Straight Leftists, Eurocommunists in 1925, the son of a Liberal MP forward, in keeping with the spirit of changes. Neil Kinnock rapidly turned cupboard, dedicated to suffragette and Chaterites in the ‘official’ and a radical theologian. His father, the times, to rising prosperity driven to the right, clamping down on the Emily Wilding Davison - recounts the Communist Party. William Wedgwood Benn, renounced by technological progress. entrist groups with whom Benn had story of her activism and death under While Benn moved to the left, the Liberals in 1928, joining the maintained cordial relations. the king’s horse, and concludes: “By the far left drifted to the right. They Labour Party, where he served as The radical His largest external support base, such means was democracy won for met and crossed paths in the 1980s. secretary of state for India in Ramsay After Wilson’s government fell in the ‘official’ Communist Party, was the people of Britain”.2 As Benn’s age advanced, so did the MacDonald’s 1929 government. 1970, the rising tide of industrial well into its fratricidal death spiral; The contradictory character of his left become more disoriented, until Benn was thus a product of the militancy dominated British the Eurocommunist factions switched view of democracy comes in here - the point was reached where, in establishment; both his grandfathers, allegiance to Kinnock and even, in surely, in the light of the political and substantive practical politics, Benn also, had been Liberal MPs, and he many cases, to the treacherous SDP economic obstructions enumerated and - say - the Socialist Workers was sent to that training ground for (today part of the Liberal Democrats). above, democracy has not, in fact, Party were in more or less complete the offspring of establishment well- This dynamic continued, spurred been “won for the people of Britain”. agreement, save for the Sunday- to-dos, Westminster School. on considerably by the collapse of Benn would not have argued that there school revolutionism of the latter He enlisted in the Royal Air Stalinism and the liquidation of the was not some way yet to go, of course; and disagreement over the matter of Force in 1943, where he met, ‘official’ CPGB … until Tony Blair but in other respects he was peculiarly the Labour Party. (It is arguable that among others, the rightwing got the leadership. Benn’s influence conservative. many members of Left Unity are some Conservative, Enoch Powell, increasingly waned within Labour Like many Labour lefts, he way to Benn’s right.) Of Benn, as AJP with whom he formed a lasting, and, by the time he retired from fiercely defended the first-past-the- Taylor quipped of himself, we might if somewhat politically parliament “to spend more post electoral system, arguing that say that he held extreme views, but implausible, friendship; and time on politics”, he had been proportional representation favoured held them moderately. Of the SWP, after the war, continued an rendered effectively harmless. those who drew up the lists; but the Socialist Party in England and unremarkable journey in the also because, in his view, a cardinal Wales and the larger part of LU, we footsteps of his father, completing aspect of democracy was to have a must say the exact opposite. a degree in politics, philosophy Democracy and representative at whatever level of There is much to admire in Tony and economics at Oxford. He autarky government who was accountable to Benn: he was a powerful speaker and was elected to parliament in Bennism itself was a curious the voter. I have heard one particular advocate of the left, however flawed; 1950, replacing Stafford Cripps hybrid - a leftwing populism that anecdote from Benn several times over his view of political change was in in Bristol South East with the help was not overtly nationalist, but the years. In 1957, a constituent wrote a certain sense broader and more of Anthony Crosland. Cripps was a incontrovertibly national. It relied to him along these lines: “Mr Benn, inspiring, thanks to its democratic peculiar individual - a quasi-Marxist on the idea that Britain could reach I have just heard that the Russians aspect, than the stodgy syndicalism Christian, traditionally on the left autarky, laying the basis for have sent a satellite into space. Is there of the Trotskyist groups to his left. He of the Labour Party, and no doubt greater general prosperity any chance of a decent bus service tried to think, which is a dying habit Crosland (Benn’s former Oxford and thus strengthening the in Bristol?” To whom should such a in our faddish, philistine era. But, tutor and a figure on the Labour position of the masses in constituent address a complaint under above all, it is the most bitter-sweet right) saw his replacement, a relation to the powerful. a list system? virtue of all that will be remembered: bright and very young careerist, This exhibits less any These arguments, though not the tenacity with which he held to as a vast improvement. unfounded, are ultimately false, and his principles, as the crosswinds of both for the same reason - the tacit history scattered his allies and plunged assumption is that the mass of the the British left into a generation of population can never take control of continuous defeats. the Labour Party, or indeed form a We can forget neither that moral democratically organised socialist and political courage nor the total and party of their own. Otherwise, the inevitable failure of Bennite politics answer is not to defend first-past- (and its contemporary ‘far-left’ the-post, but transform the Labour variants) to reverse that defeat l Party: so that those on its slates will be accountable to members. [email protected] Benn and the Bennites fought for a more democratic Labour Party, but Notes 1. T Benn Out of the wilderness: diaries 1963-67 the flipside of the conservative London 1988. Tony Benn: from centre to left attitude to electoral arrangements 2. http://boingboing.net/2014/03/14/tony-benn- is inevitably that, at some level, secret-mounter-of-i.html. weekly 5 worker 1002 March 20 2014 PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY Keep it broad, keep it safe Peter Manson reports on the first national conference of the ‘united front against austerity’ round 800 people came to the at four different local PAs. It read: first national conference of the “Conference believes that, instead of APeople’s Assembly Against accepting the demands of billionaire Austerity on March 15. Set up by bosses such as Jim Ratcliffe of Ineos John Rees and Lindsey German of at Grangemouth, our unions need Counterfire, with the support of the to resist attempts to make workers Morning Star’s Communist Party of pay for the crisis.” I hear that this Britain and several union leaders, the had originally been part of a longer PA was launched in June 2013 at an motion, but the “signatories group” event attended by about 4,000. transformed it into an “amendment” - But Saturday’s meeting was a a sure sign they were going to oppose somewhat more businesslike affair it. In introducing the trade union than the launch. Usually when the left “theme”, chair Steve Turner (who calls a rally under the name of whatever just happens to be Unite assistant front, it declares it to be a “conference” general secretary) warned us that the and those attending “delegates”. But “amendment” would be controversial. in this instance “conference” just The comrade who introduced about fitted the bill and about half of it reminded us that everyone had those present were indeed delegated applauded a previous speaker who by local or national bodies - the rest had said: “If you don’t fight you can’t being individual “observers” without win.” Yet Grangemouth workers had the right to vote. been told not to fight, she said. Surely But in one respect this event was we should recognise that we suffered just like the others - it started half an a setback at Grangemouth? Not what hour after the advertised time, despite comrade Turner, Counterfire or the there being no fewer than 70 motions CPB wanted to hear. to discuss, as well as a number of The speaker from the “signatories” other business matters. And things Can protest stop austerity? who opposed this said that the were further delayed by the tributes “amendment” was “aimed at my extended to Bob Crow and Tony Benn. while all the others were deemed “2. Narrow Boats offer an should be a minimum of £1 per union, Unite”. It was an “attack by We began by rising to give a one-minute to be “supplements”. A speech was alternative and imaginative approach month for the waged and free for the people standing outside the workers’ standing ovation in their honour, and heard in favour of the so-called to direct action by proposing to block unwaged”. But the speaker from West movement”, she dishonestly claimed. subsequently speeches were heard by “main motion” and one of the the canal system to further the cause Yorkshire PA declared that the People’s Of course, since the motion had been Geoff Revell of the Rail, Maritime and “supplements” (chosen by lottery). If of the fight against austerity.” Assembly “shouldn’t be a membership declared an “amendment”, there was Transport union in memory of comrade anyone wanted to oppose the “main The above is now PA policy. For organisation”, since, according to her no right of reply, and this slander went Crow, while comrade German spoke motion”, one speech would be heard, the most part, however, it was straight- “amendment”, “a paid membership unchallenged. Only a few delegates about Tony Benn. in which case the mover would have down-the-middle reformism. The scheme will exclude some people”. voted in favour. Comrade Revell mixed his militancy the right of reply, but in general there very first main motion, for example, Rather, “Individual members will be Rather less contentious was the (“When you fight us, we will resist! We was no debate whatsoever. There endorsed the CPB’s People’s Charter, encouraged to set up standing orders CPB motion, moved by its general will fight you!”) with a reminder of was no right to speak against the with its call for a “fairer economy in favour of the local organisation”, secretary, Rob Griffiths, who made “what it was like 30 years ago”, when “supplements”. All the main motions for a fairer Britain”, a “secure and which “may distribute funds to the a brief appearance just to do so. This “We owned the gas, the water, the were passed either overwhelmingly sustainable future” and all-round national organisation in response motion was entitled ‘Austerity is electricity!” But his speech was heartfelt or unanimously and the supplements “fairness and justice”. to requests for funding which are working’ - it sought to “rebalance the and moving. Comrade German, for her were thereby declared to be Comrade Kellaway comments: “In accompanied by a budget and costing”. economy in favour of big monopoly part, said that by paying tribute to Tony successful as well! current conditions none of the policies This “amendment” was passed business”. But in reality, “there is no Benn we are “dedicating ourselves to To give you an idea of the nature under these headings are acceptable to by 205 to 174 in the only vote that need for any austerity”. The motion also changing the world”. of these main motions, four were the capitalist market or to either New was actually counted all day. But called for the PA to set up an enquiry “to Before that we heard reports from moved by the PA’s existing leadership Labour or Tory governments. But there then the “main motion” was agreed investigate the European Union’s role Counterfire’s Sam Fairbairn, who is (the “signatories group”), plus one are plenty of links to the more radical overwhelmingly too. In fact it was in the imposition of austerity”. the PA national secretary, and treasurer each by the CPB, Counterfire, Unite Labour Party manifestos of the past unamended - West Yorkshire’s The only opposition came from Nick McCarthy. Comrade Fairbairn community branches, the Green Party and it provides a bridge to the level proposal was actually a stand-alone Steve Wallis of Manchester, whose thought that “we have started to win and the National Union of Teachers. of existing class-consciousness.” We motion: it had not wanted to ‘delete contribution was difficult to make out, the argument as to whether or not Speaking of the NUT, comrade “should be constructing alliances and replace’ anything. The result? The thanks to the awkward placing of the cuts are necessary”. He reported that Fairbairn told us that it had approached around the same sort of policies PA is now committed to two mutually microphone below him. But I did hear “close to 100” local PA groups have the PA about the latter’s planned that were adopted at this meeting exclusive positions simultaneously. the phrase, “socialist revolution”. This been set up. Nationally the PA now demonstration on June 21 and offered and not try to steer so far to the left allowed comrade Griffiths to come back employs two people full-time (but to act as joint organisers. Unlike the on policy that we lose any access New way in his “right of reply” to comment: “I “on part-time wages”) in an office SWP, Counterfire is obviously seen to the thousands involved in these The result of this vote gives you an know I came late, but I haven’t heard kindly provided by the Morning Star. as a trustworthy organisation by movements”. He might have been idea of the composition of the meeting that the socialist revolution has broken And comrade McCarthy informed the union bureaucracy. As comrade speaking for Counterfire, the SWP, - the majority were unaffiliated out.” Comrade Wallis was the only the conference that the PA had been Rees commented, we have not seen SPEW, etc, as well. They all agree that individuals, some no doubt former delegate to vote against. boosted by the fact that all “recurring anything like the success of the PA ‘broadness’ is the key when it comes to members of left groups, of the type Other speakers proposing motions donations” previously paid to the “since the beginning of the Stop the opposing austerity (and anything else), who might be drawn to Occupy-type were Green Party leader Natalie Coalition of Resistance had now been War Coalition”. I wonder who was rather than trying to win workers to the methods of organisation. Bennett, NUT general secretary transferred to the PA. The COR was behind that? evident truths of Marxism. So you could see why the Christine Blower and Lindsey German, Counterfire’s original attempt to form So some unions have got involved And like Stop the War before it, “signatories” trod carefully when whose anti-war contribution included a broad anti-cuts organisation. But, like in local PAs, as have the CPB and the PA will not make any electoral it came to the “amendment” the assertions that “Neoliberalism [not the Socialist Workers Party’s Unite SWP. While one or two SWPers recommendations. Teesside was from Manchester PA in favour capitalism] and war go hand in hand”; the Resistance and the National Shop managed to speak on the day, I got the prevailed upon to remit its motion, of “participatory democracy and and “The present crisis in Ukraine is Stewards Network anti-cuts campaign, impression there were only a couple of which sought to “endorse and consensus decision-making”, which, all about Nato enlargement.” A little it never got anywhere. dozen of them present - less than both support only candidates who commit stated the mover, would consider bit simplistic, that one. The debate on the motions was the CPB (there were several comments themselves to opposing the austerity “ways of empowering those absent Finally, Andy Squires - a supposed to start at 11am, but, by like “There’s only one paper that will agenda” and, in their absence, perhaps from the meeting”. This was said representative of Doncaster the time all the preliminaries had support us on a daily basis”) and look at “generating a candidate who to be “a new way of doing politics, careworkers, who are resisting attempts been completed, it was 12.15 when Counterfire. As for the Socialist Party could stand with the support of the as exemplified by Occupy and 15M by private contractor Care UK to slash the real business actually began. in England and Wales, its comrades People’s Assembly”. No chance. [Spanish indignados]”. their pay, holidays and sick leave - According to Dave Kellaway of were certainly outside selling The The organisers had another trick Romayne Phoenix of the Green Party was given a standing ovation. As he Socialist Resistance, “The conference Socialist, but they did not play any up their sleeves when it came to was selected to speak against this on returned to his seat there were chants organisers did a fantastic job noticeable role in the hall. those motions they did not want to behalf of the “signatories committee”, of “The workers, united, will never be preparing the documentation and the Returning to the motions, some see succeed. These were not called to the effect that we should not adopt defeated”. (A collection for the People’s agenda, so that it all ran extremely interesting ones were ‘agreed’. “supplements”, but deemed to be Manchester’s ideas “at this point”. Assembly raised £1,673 - half of which smoothly.”1 Yes, all 70 motions were For example, the supplement from “amendments”. In fact they were She mentioned accountability, but will go to the Doncaster strikers.) put to conference and the agenda Teesside PA stated that “capitalist not amending anything at all - if apparently this was only necessary “for Unfortunately, however, if the was completed on time. But comrade enterprises should open the books and successful they would simply be this coming year”. Comrade Rees later workers are to be guided by the kind Kellaway only tells half the story. have their state subsidies … ended, added to the “main motion” promoted pointed out that in any case “consensus of politics on display at the PA, it with those firms unable to survive on by the “signatories group”, even is how we work”. For instance, we call a seems very unlikely that they “will Motions this basis being expropriated without if that produced a contradictory demonstration, but “if you don’t support never be defeated” l The organisers managed to get compensation”. Then there was the result. And, despite the best efforts it you don’t do it”. But we do have to through the business thanks to the one proposed by the “People’s Flotilla of the organisers, one of the five have a vote, he said. [email protected] - shall we say - unusual methods Against Austerity”, which in part read: “amendments” was passed. The Manchester proposal clearly they adopted. The motions were “1. … the ruling elite needs to The result was farcical. The fell, although a substantial minority Notes divided into several “themes” be overthrown in support of an “signatories” had proposed that the voted for it. 1. http://socialistresistance.org/6071/peoples- and, within each of these, one was egalitarian and socialist society with PA should become a membership The SWP had succeeded in passing assembly-delegate-conference-a-step-forward-in- declared to be the “main motion”, the eradication of a classist society. organisation - “Individual membership an identical motion for conference the-anti-austerity-struggle. 6 weekly March 20 2014 1002 worker STRATEGY Anti-imperialist illusions What does the class-political independence of the proletariat mean in practice? Mike Macnair replies to Ian Donovan’s allegations of ‘third campism’ ast week we published Ian Donovan’s response1 to Daniel Harvey’s report of the February L 2 8 Communist Platform meeting. Comrade Ian seeks to rerun aspects of the debates which took place in the CPGB in spring-summer 2004 about Iraq and the Respect project - debates that ended in an obscure way in the departure from the CPGB of Ian himself and, on the other extreme, of the comrades who went on to form the short-lived ‘Red Party’. There is nothing in itself wrong with re-debating such matters. They are, as Ian says, live issues, which continue to recur in different forms. And Ian’s views on them are a variant on the common views of much of the far left - which makes it educative to see what is wrong with them. For the sake of clarity, however, it would be helpful if Ian were to pay attention in his polemic to the course of events since 2004, in relation to both Iraq and Respect (in relation to Respect he does refer to the CPGB’s decision to call for a vote for the SWP’s ‘Left List’ in the 2008 London elections, but US: born imperialist gives it a false explanation3). Since a good deal of Ian’s polemic is directed from ‘standing on’ the whole history aims the statement that “An isolated classes have ceased altogether to be weakness of the proletarian class camp against what I as an individual wrote of the workers’ movement, including socialist government will either economically or politically significant. is precisely that such movements are not in 2004,4 his argument might also these attempts - is to risk writing into be crushed by capital or forced by The real issue is that only the attracted to this class camp. They tend benefit from reference to the several our platform the modern far left’s material circumstances, despite the capitalist class and the proletariat to assert that they offer a ‘third camp’ or articles I wrote on Iraq in the period fetishism of the revolutionary moment best of initial intentions, to become are capable of leading the society as ‘third way’ separate from capitalism and 2004-08; to my polemic against the at the expense of the preparatory tasks a surrogate capitalist force in its a whole towards anything but short- socialism. In the case of the Islamists Alliance for Workers’ Liberty on of workers’ organisation and the own right.” This statement in effect term disaster. Hence when, as in Iran in occupied Afghanistan or Iraq, this imperialism in July-August 2004; and struggle for a majority.5 characterises the Soviet regime as after the 1979 revolution, a bloc of a meant that they turned their guns first to my various writings on imperialism But for Ian to explain this - state-capitalist, not in the sense in pre-capitalist stratum (imams) with on women students, leftwingers, trade and related issues since then - notably which I agree is a real difference which Lenin used the term in ‘Left- a section of the petty bourgeoisie unionists and so on, second on their on revolutionary defeatism and of substance and not just style - as wing’ communism and elsewhere, but (bazaari merchants) seizes political sectarian competitors, and only third revolutionary defencism in chapter 4 “an adaptation to social pressure” is in the sense in which various lefts power, it inevitably creates not an on the occupiers. Given that there are of my book, Revolutionary strategy question-begging. Where an argument use it to take moral distance from actual reversion to the pre-capitalist only two fundamental class camps, the (2008), and on imperialism as such in is plainly wrong (like marginalism in Stalinism: for example, Walter Daum form of ‘Islamic society’, but a form result is that they adhere to the class the introduction to Karl Kautsky on economics) or involves hypocrisy or in his Life and death of Stalinism.7 of capitalist class rule. camp of the capitalist class even when colonialism (2013). self-contradiction (like the various But then the category of ‘third There are only two fundamental they are fighting the currently dominant I will not have space in this article sickening crap the media churn out campism’ ceases to make sense. class camps. The question which capitals and their states arms in hand. to reprise in more than very general about the various targets of US and ‘Third campism’ as a political insult this poses in relation to any political The Afghan Taliban is notoriously outline my arguments on the theory UK foreign policy), the persistence of originated in Trotsky’s In defence of group or movement is whether this an agency of the Pakistani security of imperialism - which, I should the argument has to be explained by Marxism, and was entirely framed by movement is part of the class camp apparat; the Sadrists turned out to be emphasise, are not CPGB official its apologetic/ideological role (“social the characterisation of the USSR as a of the proletariat or of the capitalist immediately dependent on the Iranian positions. Searching ‘Mike Macnair pressure”). Equally plainly, the fact part of the workers’ movement (like a camp. For example, the mere fact that regime; and so on. imperialism’ and ‘Mike Macnair that the Murdoch press says the sun trade union led by gangsters) or at least a group of capitalists is at odds with This problem of the political defeatism’ on the CPGB website will rises in the east may be a reason for a conquest of the workers’ movement the currently dominant regime or the weakness of the proletarian class camp produce the relevant material. checking the truth of the claim, but is (because of the nationalisations, state currently dominant capitals does not is exacerbated because the majority of I am not going to address in detail, not at the end of the day a reason for monopoly of foreign trade, and the make this group part of the class camp the organised left publicly offers to either, the question of Iraqi politics disbelieving it. A great many issues fall plan). If the USSR had become a of the proletariat. Nor does the fact rerun Stalinism - either directly, as with under the occupation. Comrades can between these two extremes, but as a capitalist state by 1939, the Soviet- that a group of capitalists is exploited pro-Stalin trends and Maoists, or by its read the articles mentioned above. I will general rule it is necessary first to show defencism Trotsky argued for would by other capitalists - as, for example, own organisational methods, as in the say only that the Sadrist movement, that a claim or argument is false before be no different from the German- Fords exploits its parts supply firms or Socialist Workers Party and so on. which Ian in 2004 thought was a explaining it by “social pressure”.6 defencism in World War I of the old Tesco exploits its smaller suppliers - The offer to rerun Stalinism also genuine Iraqi national leadership, was Without this precondition, it would Social Democratic Party of Germany make the small businesses in question operates through the far left’s version turned on and off like a tap by the be equally valid for me to argue that right wing (and of Parvus and his part of the class camp of the proletariat. of ‘anti-imperialism’ as involving Iranian regime in the following period Ian’s position on imperialism reflects co-thinkers). Nor, even, does the question of social prettifying this or that regime which (it was turned off for good in 2008 - the “social pressure” of the global Setting this issue on one side, we oppression. The existence of racism does happens to be the current target of US Al-Sadr has this February announced weakness of the workers’ movement are, I think, in agreement that there are not make the controllers of Tata Group and British imperialist policy - here his retirement from politics), and that and the consequent ascendancy of only two fundamental class ‘camps’ in part of the camp of the proletariat; nor mimicking the old cold war Soviet the subsequent development has made various forms of petty bourgeois modern society: that of the capitalist does the existence of sexism make idea of the ‘anti-imperialist camp’.8 completely transparent the sectarian reaction as the only mass-scale apparent class, and that of the proletariat. Even senior managerial women (like Sheryl We can perfectly well attack the character of the several Islamist trends ‘alternative’ to capitalist triumphalism here it is necessary, however, to enter Sandberg of Lean in) part of the class sickening cynicism and hypocrisy of the in Iraq and the current Shia government. (not dissimilar arguments from the a caveat. The famous passage of the camp of the proletariat. These anodyne imperialists’ media attacks on Ba’athist, “social pressure” of Stalinism made by Communist manifesto which Ian truths become transparent whenever or Iranian clerical, or Putinite forms of Social pressure the ‘anti-Pabloite’ Trotskyists against quotes said that “Society as a whole any issue of class conflict, as opposed repressive government, given their own At an early stage in his argument, the ‘Pabloites’ in the 1950s-70s). I do is more and more splitting up into two to conflict between different sections of support for the Saudi regime, and so on, comrade Ian says that my own not make this argument; I think that great hostile camps, into two great the exploiting classes, is at stake. without making it our job to suggest and other comrades’ opposition to Ian’s position flows from his clinging classes facing each other: bourgeoisie How far do the various middle that the regimes attacked are something including in the Communist Platform to Comintern and Trotskyist political and proletariat” (emphasis added). strata adhere to the class camp of the other than what they are. And the same statement “positive references to dogmas under conditions where their The statement is one of tendency, capitalist class or that of the proletariat? is true of non-state movements, like the the Russian Revolution and the basis has been shown to be false by not of a completed process. And in The The answer depends on the underlying Sadrists and other sectarian, mosque- Paris Commune as the two premier the course of events. But the argument class struggles in France, The 18th strength of the class camp of the based militias in occupied Iraq. examples so far in history of would be as valid as Ian’s argument - Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and very proletariat as an attractive pole, as well In this condition of weakness, specifically proletarian revolutionary which is to say, not valid. numerous other pieces of concrete as - secondarily - on the policy of the the primary task of the proletariat is events ... does not seem to me to political analysis, Marx recognised proletarian party. And in fact, the class to re-establish its own class-political be some sort of accident or quirk, Two camps the existence and political significance camp of the proletariat is currently independence and thereby to revive but must represent at some level Ian’s fundamental objection to the of other classes and social strata: the exceptionally weak politically. This its organisations and their political an adaptation to social pressure”. I approach which he attributes to landed aristocracy, the peasantry, the is the price both of Stalinism - as weight. Without prioritising this task agree that this issue is not merely the CPGB leadership is that we are (urban) petty bourgeoisie and so on. visibly tyrannical, and as promoting and achieving it at least to some degree, ‘accidental’. The debate at the “third campist”. The problem is Now, of course, globally the tendency the people’s front policy and the idea the question of winning over sections Communist Platform meeting is making sense of this sort of argument, to proletarianisation and therefore of of ‘national roads to socialism’ - and of the intermediate strata to the side of clearly reported by Daniel Harvey. My first, in a world after the fall of the the simplification of class antagonisms of its fall, as promoting the idea that the class camp of the proletariat through own view is that to single out the Paris Soviet bloc, and second, coming has progressed very substantially since socialism is infeasible and leads only adroit policy may be a future task, but Commune and October 1917 as what from Ian, given that he proposed Marx’s time. But it is a complete to economic failure. is simply not posed as an immediate the platform ‘stands on’ - as distinct to add to the Communist Platform illusion to suppose that the other The effect of the absolute political task. To the extent that a policy of inter- weekly 7 worker 1002 March 20 2014 ITALY class alliances is used as an argument Communist Platform to opposing the example, in Soviet collaboration with positive ‘anti-imperialist united front’ even if the ‘anti-imperialist united front’ against the Marxist class policy and attempts of imperialist states to “enforce the early development of the Turkish was the theory of imperialism as the was always founded on a mistake, it for a ‘people’s’ movement, and hence an effective monopoly” in weapons of regime of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and highest stage of capitalism. This was a is still true that “a nation that enslaves against proletarian class-political mass destruction - ie, Ian proposes we in Chinese relations between the early defensible theory at the time of World another forges its own chains”. Class- independence, the problem is not just adopt what Charlie Pottins has called Communist Party and the Kuomintang. War I and indeed at that of World War political independence requires overt one of running before we can walk. It the ‘mullahs’ bomb’ line. The analysis The early Comintern resolutions II, but was nonetheless wrong. There opposition to these operations. guarantees that it will continue to be of politics in terms of duties to defend insisted on the local communists, was no national stage of capitalist the case that the intermediate strata and rights here is a disastrous political error. in spite of this limited positive development: the British capitalist state Respect movements based on them will adhere A series of examples. The German alliance, maintaining class-political came into the world in 1688-89 as an With the core of the argument addressed, to the class camp of the capitalist class. state in the 1960s-70s included independence in relation to the imperialist entity operating on a global I can be much briefer on Respect. This substantial numbers of former Nazis, nationalists. This turned out in scale, and the French revolutionary was certainly not a ‘popular front’ in National rights criminals from the point of view of practice to be easier said than done; regime was instantly compelled in the the sense that an important wing of Ian argues in effect that national, the proletariat (and from that of the and this lesson - that it is easier said 1790s to operate on the same global the British ruling class was involved. religious, etc movements which are Weimar constitution and its criminal than done for the workers’ movement scale. The problem which produced Rather, it was - and several of us made currently resisting immediate attack law). This did not imply that the tactic to combine partial support for cross- World Wars I and II was not capitalism the point at the time - an ‘unpopular by US imperialism are part of the class of the Red Army Fraction of (among class nationalism with class-political reaching its absolute limits and the front’ of the same style as the fronts set camp of the proletariat. I deny it. Ian’s other ‘urban guerrilla’ activities) independence - has been repeated ‘closure of the world’ - Trotsky’s up by the ‘official’ Communist Party argument for their being part of the attempting to execute such persons over and over again in the period since “death agony of capitalism” - but the in the 1930s and later with a few red class camp of the proletariat consists was in the objective interest of the the 1920s. decline and ‘death agony’ of the British clergymen, oddball aristos and other in a single point: “insofar as they resist proletariat. The British state has no The plausibility of the strategic line empire and the British-led world order. political flotsam and jetsam. The reality the domination of ‘their’ population by right to hold the territories it holds in of the ‘anti-imperialist united front’ Once the reins had been handed over was that outside its local base in inner an imperialist/colonialist occupation the South Atlantic. Nonetheless, the depended on the theoretical diagnosis to the USA, a new period of capitalist east London it had almost no purchase, force, in that narrow sphere they decision of the Argentinian military that imperialism was the ‘highest stage expansion could, and did, develop. and was entirely dependent on the SWP. are fighting against oppression, junta to invade these territories in 1982 of capitalism’, which was common in The corollary of this point is that it The initial response of CPGB and that aspect of their actions was substantially operatively identical the Second International and expressed is not true that the objective dynamics was to attempt to participate in and deserves support, just as it would to the decision of a left activist who is most clearly in Lenin’s pamphlet of the of national struggles against imperialist build Respect, while at the same time if it were being carried out by more persuaded by a police provocateur to same name. In this theory, capitalism oppression necessarily and immediately drawing certain clear political lines superficially attractive, ‘democratic’ plant bombs: though there was a ‘right’, initially developed on a national scale, pose the question of workers’ power against its leadership - that is, again, bourgeois forces. Neutrality on such attempting to exercise this ‘right’ was but the overproduction of capital and and socialism. Formal decolonisation mainly, the SWP. But it was very clear struggles is a capitulation to the against both Argentinian national consequent falling rate of profit led can take place and did take place very that the project was politically aimed at demonisation of the oppressed by interests and those of the proletariat. to financialisation, monopolies, tariff extensively after 1945. While for most becoming a people’s front or ‘rainbow political agents of the oppressor, and The same is true of the Iraqi Ba’athist barriers and the export of capital to ‘decolonised’ countries this meant coalition’ project - unsurprising, given can only undermine the authority of regime’s decision to invade the equally colonised countries. As the phenomenon only a transition to ‘semi-colonial’ George Galloway’s character as a pretty communists among the oppressed.” illegitimate Kuwait statelet in 1990. became generalised in the late 19th status (like Latin America in the 19th much unreconstructed Stalinist with I am not arguing and have never The efforts of the Iranian clerical century, capitalism ran up against its century), it did nonetheless involve an Arab nationalist overlay, and the argued that communists in imperialist regime to attain nuclear capability in limits. Hence, objectively, the national the removal of immediate, political, evolution of the SWP towards ‘official countries should promote “neutrality the face of the opposition of the US struggles of the colonised countries colonial subordination, and in that sense communist’ ideas. Moreover, even from on such struggles”. I argued, going have the same general character: an immediately posed the question of ‘self-determination’. Lenin correctly the first, the SWP’s bureaucratic control back to the 2004 debate on Iraq, that understandable but mistaken response socialist revolution: there was no emphasised in 1916 the importance of of the project and attempt to exclude communists in the UK had as their to provocations, which has disastrous possibility of oppressed countries this limited political self-determination, political discussion by avoiding ‘boring primary task to fight to get British effects for national interests and in joining the ranks of the imperialist against the ‘imperialist-economists’ old meetings’ meant that it was actually troops out of Iraq, using any means particular for the interests of the powers (notwithstanding that Japan (Pyatakov and so on), and the Poles, very difficult to build Respect. necessary, and that this did not imply proletariat as a class. In all these cases had, after the Meiji restoration of 1867- who denied its significance in a world Hence, while in the 2004 Euro either prettifying the people who were the argument that leads immediately 68 and in the Sino-Japanese war of economically dominated by the great elections we simply called for a vote at that moment fighting US and British from rights to duties produces politically 1894-95, done just that). The objective imperialist powers. for Respect candidates, in the 2005 troops, or abandoning efforts to build stupid conduct. dynamics therefore posed the question In some cases (for example, South general election we tried to project a solidarity with those pitifully weak of the ‘anti-imperialist united front’, Korea and Taiwan) US geopolitics line of class-political independence forces that were attempting to build and the danger - stressed by earlier led to actual capitalist development: by calling for votes for those Respect a working class movement in Iraq. In Anti-imperialist Marxists - of the workers’ movement as subordinate US allies, but not candidates we could identify as in other words, however objectionable the united front losing class independence by falling more subordinate than, for example, some sense workers’ candidates - politics of the Sadrists and the other Ian’s argument, like other Trotskyist, in behind bourgeois or petty bourgeois Greece. China is in transition from Galloway included - and not for those sectarian militia - or, for that matter, Maoist and left ‘official’ communist revolutionaries could be treated as a a Stalinist regime to the beginnings like Anas al-Tikriti and Yvonne Ridley, of the Ba’athist regime overthrown by variants of the same argument, subordinate problem. of an imperialist one (witness its who did not in any sense represent a the invasion - the US and UK still had conflates two issues. As I have already indicated, in my operations in Africa and Latin political project for the working class no business in Iraq and should get out. The first is an old traditional view this strategic orientation was a America). And so on. as a class. This line - and not the idea I argued that it was a complete argument of Marxism, Engels’ claim mistake: there is an objective conflict Although its theoretical foundations of ‘reactionary anti-imperialism’ - illusion to suppose that giving political in his 1847 speech on Poland, that “a between partial support for cross-class were unsound, the ‘anti-imperialist informed our decision to call for a solidarity to the Sadrists because they nation cannot become free and at the nationalism, even of oppressed nations, united front’ continued to have real vote for the SWP’s Left List in 2008. were at that moment fighting US and same time continue to oppress other and the working class developing its plausibility as long as the Soviet Union The underlying guiding principle is British forces, or more generally calling nations”, or Marx’s argument in the 1870 own class-political independence. The survived. When the Soviet Union the same as in the question of the ‘anti- for ‘victory to the resistance,’ would resolution of the First International’s case is a fortiori where what is involved fell, with it fell the connection of the imperialist united front’ and the supposed in any way strengthen the practical general council on Ireland that “a nation is not ‘modernising’ nationalism, but nationalists to the left. The Trotskyists, moral obligation to give token support anti-imperialist task of fighting in this that enslaves another forges its own political leadership by some pre- Maoists and left ‘official communists’, to those ‘actually fighting’: that the country to get British troops withdrawn. chains”.10 This is an argument about capitalist exploiting group on the basis and comrade Ian, have just not caught proletariat needs to recover and organise The political solidarity hypothetically the politics of the oppressor country, of utopian-ideological claims to restore up yet. (They have similarly not caught around class-political independence if it offered to ‘the resistance’ by Ian, and and it requires the workers’ movement a lost past. The fact that the Stalinists up yet with another major change in is ever to get back the level of political by the British SWP, was in any case no in the oppressor country to oppose turned cross-class nationalism into politics. Before 1989, the imperialist weight which will allow it to win over more than a token moral gesture. Going its ‘own’ government’s oppression ‘official communist’ dogma in the forms centres were deeply allergic to the middle strata of society and take way back to the US movement against of another country. It is entirely of the ‘people’s front’, ‘national roads ‘revolution,’ and put a lot of effort power. This is a really fundamental the Vietnam war, the Vietnamese correct: class-political independence to socialism’ and the ‘anti-imperialist into promoting Fabian gradualism, political lesson of the victories and Communist Party, in spite of being of the proletariat requires rejection of camp’ no doubt exacerbated the against which the ‘revolutionary defeats of the last century l Stalinist, took seriously those in the identification with your ‘own’ state’s problem, but did not create it (indeed, left’ perforce defined itself. Since US anti-war movement who fought claim to control the affairs of other the Russian smychka itself proved in 1989, the imperialists are happy to [email protected] to build a mass campaign, but took countries. However, this argument the 1920s to pose acute political and see ‘revolutions’, including, where much less seriously those who sought does not require of the workers’ economic problems). appropriate, mass street mobilisations Notes to insist the anti-war movement should movement in the oppressed country, Organisations of Trotskyist origin and so on, as long as these revolutions 1. ‘Not a matter of style’, March 13. be based on the slogan, ‘Victory to the or of international organisations of the - even large ones like the Bolivian are to introduce neoliberal models 2. ‘Solid basis for intervention’, February 13. 3. P Manson, ‘Rival Respects go head to head in NLF’, as a political marker of their working class, any particular attitude to Partido Obrero Revolucionario in the against nationalists). London’ Weekly Worker March 20 2008. ‘anti-imperialism’. the local nationalists or other opponents 1950s and the Sri Lankan Lanka Sama With the basis of its plausibility 4. At that time in opposition to the majority line of Underlying this, however, is a more of the national oppression. Samaja Party in the same period and as strategy gone, the ‘anti-imperialist CPGB, as can be seen from leading articles in this fundamental issue. Is the mere fact The second argument is a strategic into the 1960s - have proved to be as united front’ remains as a sort of moral paper from the same period. 5. In addition, I pointed out in the meeting that that a movement is “fighting against line adopted by the early Communist unable to negotiate the problem as ‘tic’ of fragments of the far left. The for 21st century communists to say we ‘stand on’ oppression” sufficient to make them International: that of the ‘anti- ‘official’ communist and Maoist ones. moralistic character is very visible in these particular events is a little like imagining part of the class camp of the proletariat? imperialist united front’. The documents Part of the problem is that Ian’s ‘rights’-based arguments. The the bourgeois revolutionaries of the 17th and 18th The answer is quite plainly that it is not. can be found in the history section of the nationalism precludes the strategic effect is, contrary to his claim that centuries asserting that they ‘stood on’ the failed attempts of the medieval Italian city-states: iden- Take, for example, the decision of the Marxists Internet Archive, in relation possibility of actually defeating the communists can take the lead in the tifying ourselves with a history of failure, rather Ottoman empire to enter World War I to the 1920 Congress of the Peoples of operations of imperialism, which are anti-colonial movement on this basis, than confronting the reasons for the failure. on the German side. It is pretty obvious the East and of the Second, Third and globally coordinated and backed by to make the workers’ movement in the 6. Cf G Carchedi Behind the crisis (Chicago 2012) that the motive of this decision was the Fourth Congresses. a monopoly of military high-tech (as oppressed country entirely hostage to and my review, ‘What drives capital’s global crises?’ Weekly Worker May 23 2013. quite real oppression experienced by the The strategic conception here was Ian mentions in relation to ‘weapons the particular tactical choices of the 7. I use Daum as an example because Ian has said Turks under the regime of the Ottoman to replicate both within oppressed of mass destruction’). The successes nationalists (or imams, or warlords, or informally that he finds this approach potentially Debt Administration, the capitulations, countries, and on a world scale, the of radical nationalism in the cold war whatever) so that it becomes for Ian usable; but, as far as the politics is concerned, the extraterritoriality of British and French smychka or worker-peasant alliance. period were, in fact, made possible and other adherents of the view (John example could equally be Martov, Ciliga, Cliff or 9 many others. nationals, and so on. Nonetheless, it This had allowed the Bolsheviks, by by the global role of the USSR - Rees, for example) a moral or political 8. Cf more recently Ahmadinejad in 2009: ‘Iran’s would be absurd to represent this fact as their commitment to the expropriation even if the radical anti-imperialist obligation to tail-end these forces. election results mark a big victory for the entire making the Young Turk regime in 1914 of the landlords and peasant land left tended to regard the USSR as an Those on the left who can see that anti-imperialist camp’ (http://news.xinhuanet.com/ part of the class camp of the proletariat. redistribution, to win power, stabilise unreliable ‘rearguard’. Hugo Chávez’s this moral ‘tic’ has no progressive english/2009-07/01/content_11636229.htm). 9. M Birdal The political economy of Ottoman Ian presents his argument in terms their hold on that power in autumn ‘Bolivarianism’ had the ideological political content have tended to fall into public debt London 2010; M Aksakal The Otto- of the “duty to defend the right to 1917 and eventually win the civil war strength that it offered at least in the opposite and worse error - that of man road to war Cambridge 2011. self-determination of dependent of 1917-21. On a global scale, the theory a continental perspective; but prettifying and ‘refusing to oppose’ the 10 Engels on Poland: www.marxists.org/archive/ countries targeted ... by imperialism”. ‘anti-imperialist united front’ implied the Chávistas have made no real attempt actions of the ‘democratic’ imperialists, marx/works/1847/12/09.htm#engels. General Council resolution on Ireland, generally accepted The implications are clearest in his a limited positive alliance with the to make anything of this perspective. our ‘own’ included: for example the to be drafted by Marx: www.marxists.org/archive/ (defeated) amendment to commit the colonial nationalists - implemented, for The underlying justification for the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty. In reality, marx/works/1870/03/28.htm. 8 weekly March 20 2014 1002 worker UKRAINE West and Putin up the ante Mainstream hypocrisy takes some beating, writes Eddie Ford s expected, the March 16 this crisis started to escalate. Just look states aimed at providing assurances remains part of the UK in perpetuity’. - showing a picture of demonstrators referendum in Crimea saw a at the demonstrations in Independence about US/Nato security guarantees, If so where would be the ‘legitimacy’ waving both CND symbols and the Aclear vote to join the Russian Square, staffed and policed by ultra- he declared that Putin and Russia for a referendum on independence? Ukrainian national flag - and the Federation. The Crimean authorities nationalist and neo-fascist organisations now stood alone and “naked before The answer is more than obvious. inside editorial bluntly states: “If it claim there was a 96.8% ‘yes’ vote on like Spilna Sprava (Common Cause), the world” - guilty of “international When it comes down to it, it is just comes to a war between Russia and a turnout of 83% - even though ethnic Right Sector, Svoboda, etc - many aggression” in their “land grab”. not a good idea to keep people in a Ukraine, we are on the side of Ukraine Russians make up only around 60% carrying pictures of Stepan Bandera, Well, when it comes to Ukraine, country (or union) they do not want - including of the Ukrainian armed of the population and you might have founder of the Organisation of Ukrainian western hypocrisy takes some beating. to be in. So give them an agreed exit. forces, if they fight against Russian expected most ethnic Ukrainians (24%) Nationalists and anti-Semitic Nazi We do recall a certain ‘legitimate’ state This is essentially what happened domination” (March 17) - which by and Tartars (12%) would abstain, since collaborator.2 You get the message. Or called the Union of Soviet Socialist in Crimea and it hard to see any logical extension means support for there was no option on the ballot paper just look at the first bills fielded by the Republics. Or how about the Socialist fundamental difference with Scotland. western powers that lend support to to maintain the status quo. new parliament - ie, stripping Russian Federal Republic of Yugoslavia? Yet the Ukrainian government, whether This led some pundits to prattle on of its official language status or moving the west actively welcomed the break- Russians out? military or otherwise. It seems that the about a “North Korean-style” election to ban the Communist Party of Ukraine. up of these states - a fact referenced by Therefore, the CPGB does not agree AWL has now become Russophobic. result - the obvious implication being You definitely get the message. We are Putin in his Kremlin speech, when he with the slogan, ‘Russia out’ - as Showing how dangerous things that the whole thing was fixed from dealing here with a resurgent Ukrainian said it was ludicrous to claim that the touted by the AWL, to name one left have become, Ukraine has mobilised above. Yet it is clear that there is a nationalism which defines itselfagainst recognition of Kosova by the west as organisation. It is not good enough. a National Guard of some 60,000 and majority in Crimea who want union Russians - something easily understood an independent country did not set a Yes, we go along with the idea of a the government has authorised troops with Russia and voted for it with some in eastern Ukraine and Crimea. precedent or had a claim to uniqueness. free and fair referendum for Crimea - to fire in “self-defence”. Further genuine enthusiasm, not because of But, he stated, “we are being told that we though it is a done deal now anyway. increasing tensions, a spokesperson a sinister conspiracy - though it goes Hypocrisy are breaking the norms of international The very real danger, however, is that for the Ukraine military said on without saying that the Kremlin ensured We are not vicarious Russian law” - western politicians, he went on, you can end up as an apologist for the March 18 that one of its officers had it got the result it wanted. nationalists or Putin apologists. But it “call something white today and black west, which is how the AWL appears. been killed in an attack on a base in Across the spectrum, reporting on is a simple statement of fact that ethnic tomorrow”. Only now, when it comes Echoing the sentiments of its apparent the Crimean capital of Simferopol - at the crisis has been abysmal. Take the divisions in Ukraine have got a lot to Crimea, have they “remembered that sister organisation in Ukraine, Left the same time, pro-Kremlin authorities Financial Times for instance, which is deeper over the last year. Nor are we international law exists”. Opposition4, an editorial in Solidarity, reported that a member of their own supposed to be a serious paper - and in saying that the referendum in Crimea All sorts of states have been broken apart from calling for “Russian troops forces had also been killed in the same many regards it is. Yet, when it comes was the perfect model of electoral up in the past or had their borders out!”, emphasised how “we solidarise incident. Ominously, the acting interim to Ukraine, pro-Russian demonstrators probity - no-one can be that naive. drastically redrawn, but if it served the with the Ukrainian people’s right prime minister of Ukraine, Arseniy are always said to be “thugs” or part Yet double standards abound. Some imperialist interests of the west it was to self-determination, and with the Yatsenyuk, told an emergency meeting of a “mob”, with a number of reports people, both on the left and right, no crime - or “land grab”. Nevertheless, protests against Russia’s invasion and that the conflict is “shifting from a ludicrously suggesting that many insist that the referendum was in itself communists are not worshippers of intervention made by the left in Russia” political to a military stage”. Not that - if not most - of the protesters have ‘illegitimate’. But the implication is not bourgeois or international law - let alone (March 12). the west wants a military showdown actually been ferried in from Russia just that Crimea had no legal right to so-called national sovereignty. We are But this is a one-sided position with Russia. But, the more the crisis and are being paid with Moscow gold. organise such a referendum, but that internationalists first and foremost. which implicitly sides with the west’s drags on, and the more belligerent An allegation, unsurprisingly, that Crimeans have no right under any Nations, countries and states are not anti-Russian drive, especially when US officials become, the greater has been repeated by the supposed circumstances to vote to join Russia. eternal and timeless - to claim otherwise you bear in mind the same editorial the possibility that an ‘unexpected ‘third campists’ of the Alliance for Similarly, on what basis was the previous would be reactionary, nationalist merely attacks the “Ukrainian situation’ might occur - leading to a Workers’ Liberty - who tell us that administration of Viktor Yanukovych crap. Nations come into being under chauvinism” of the new government hot war of some shape and size l there have been “small” pro-Russian any less ‘legitimate’ (or corrupt) than definite historical circumstances, then of Kiev. But what about the fascists demonstrations in some cities in eastern today’s government headed by the at some stage disappear or wither and Banderaites? Or the aggressive [email protected] Ukraine and “plausible” reports that dubious Oleksandr Turchynov? After away. Communists, being consistent role played by imperialism in they were “boosted” by people bussed all, Yanukovych was elected in a democrats, do not view Ukraine - or this crisis - which the editorial Notes in from Russia.1 reasonably free and fair election, and, indeed any other country - as the massively downplays, observing 1. www.workersliberty.org/story/2014/03/11/ Come on, pull the other one. These of course, his ‘home’ constituency was incarnation of some sort of unbreakable that the US is “most reluctant to ukraine-russian-troops-out. 2. In 1944, Bandera moved the headquarters of the demonstrations clearly have a mass, the Russophone population - who felt unity or the ‘national spirit’. Even the intervene militarily” and that the EU OUN(B) to Berlin - Germany supplying it with popular character - regardless of the disenfranchised and alienated by his sacred United Kingdom, blessed by powers “will not do so without US arms and equipment to use behind Soviet lines, machinations of the Russian secret sudden removal from office, despite the god, will cease to exist one day. involvement” - which could almost also training its members in terrorist techniques services. Anyhow, what about the fact that only a day earlier he had come In fact, what about the Scottish be a note of regret. However, the next and intelligence gathering. 3. www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/17/355058/ Maidan demonstrations in Kiev, which to an ‘agreement’ with the opposition referendum? There is no constitutional issue of Solidarity makes the AWL’s crimea-nationalizes-ukraine-property. had a fairly obvious CIA-directed input that he should remain in office until at requirement for one, Britain being pro-imperialist viewpoint more than 4. Which issued an appalling 10-point ‘plan for - were all of those people thugs or paid? least December. a weird constitutional monarchy, clear - for which we should be grateful social change’, saying, for example, that Ukraine We all know that there were plenty of Anyhow, on March 17 Russian where prime ministers wield the royal in some respects, given its notorious “should follow the example of Iceland” and that there should be “reductions” in spending on the thuggish elements in Independence and Crimean leaders signed the treaty prerogative. Thus David Cameron slipperiness. “Independence for security apparatus of the state (www.criticatac.ro/ Square - fascist thugs at that. But to formally absorbing the peninsula into could just say, ‘Sorry, Scotland Ukraine!” the front page proclaims lefteast/manifesto-left-opposition-in-ukraine). claim that the majority of Ukrainian the Russian Federation. Within the nationalists are paid by the CIA would coming months Crimea will switch to be just as absurd as saying that the the rouble, introduce Moscow time and majority of pro-Russian demonstrators the Russian visa system - not to mention are paid by the Kremlin. the nationalisation of all Ukrainian state It is no wonder that demonstrations property, including the major oil and in Russian-majority cities and towns gas companies.3 have become increasingly militant and In a grandstanding speech at the angry. Ethnic Russians in Ukraine tend Kremlin the next day, Putin told to be poorer than their compatriots and Russia’s parliament that Crimea had indeed Ukraine is one of the poorest “always been part of Russia” and in countries in Europe, with a nominal signing the treaty he was righting a per capita income in 2012 of £2,329, “historical injustice” - adding that less than that of Jamaica, Tunisia he did “not want to be welcomed in or Paraguay. Meanwhile the new Sevastopol by Nato sailors”. Here, government in Kiev is kow-towing of course, was the real reason for to the oligarchs - appointing them as Moscow’s intervention. Quite clearly, provincial governors in eastern Ukraine, the US and EU had a plan to remove for instance. Ukraine from the Russian sphere of Perhaps exemplifying liberal influence and take it into the orbit imperialist opinion is Timothy Garton of the west - just as they attempted Ash in the pages of The Guardian. in 2008 in Georgia. But there was no He writes about “pro-Russian groups way Moscow would tolerate having now working to produce chaos, Nato troops right on its long southern disorientation and violence in cities borders or lose its Black Sea access such as Donetsk and Kharkiv” - all to the Mediterranean. Hence on both “actively supported” by Moscow occasions there was a predictably swift (March 18). Therefore, he argues, and decisive response - in the case of the west must “also up the ante” by Georgia carving out two Moscow-loyal making sure the Ukrainian authorities enclaves and in Ukraine incorporating “have the money to pay the bills right Crimea - albeit with a high level of now” and, more importantly still, by support amongst the local population. threatening Moscow with sanctions In response, the US and the EU “far worse than those currently imposed sanctions on various high- imposed” because what Putin has level officials from Russia and Ukraine done “threatens the foundations of the deemed responsible for provoking the international order” - something very crisis - with the White House saying precious to the bourgeoisie, of course. these sanctions would be “expanded”. But it is not very difficult to grasp the As for US vice-president Joe Biden, Pro-unity crowds mentality of the Russians, or see how during a visit to Poland and the Baltic weekly 9 worker 1002 March 20 2014 MIGRATION Other side of border controls Ben Lewis notes a tragic subplot in the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 ver the last two weeks there gangs out to make as much money if we on the left accept and defend the has been extensive media as possible in the quickest possible repulsive system of border controls Ocoverage of the Boeing 777 time. It is difficult to tell just how (whether in the form of the ‘non- plane that vanished on March 8 many find themselves on the move in racist’ version championed by the during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to today’s world, yet obviously, given the recently deceased Bob Crow or the Beijing, presumably killing all of its millions of people displaced by the so-called ‘points system’ favoured predominantly Chinese passengers in invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya by those like George Galloway MP) the process. and the recent social turmoil and civil then we are also implicitly accepting The ins and outs of the flight’s war in Syria, etc, we are dealing with and defending both the logic of a path, the military radar technology an enormous figure. capitalist system that compels the used to detect air traffic, possible And these numbers reflect the overwhelming majority of the world’s incompetence on the part of the dynamics of the imperialist pecking population to eke out a bare existence Malaysian authorities and so on have order itself. Not only do the most in the most degrading possible way all been rigorously scrutinised. Some oppressed and war-torn countries and the fact that restrictions on the of the grieving families are now even throw up the most refugees: those from free movement of people drives them considering hunger strikes in protest such countries tend to be treated worse into the arms of gangs and profiteers. at the time it is taking to locate the by the smugglers too. Thus even within That a toothbrush produced in Asia missing aircraft. The question may be a single group of smuggled people has more ‘right’ to freely move around feeding into political disputes as well: Iranians, for example, will tend to be the world than a human being says several governments in the region have treated better than Afghans. a lot about the deep irrationality been particularly damning about the However, while there are quite of the system of capital, where inadequacies of the search and some rightly campaigns for Syrian refugees relationships between humans appear have even drawn links between the to be let into Britain and so on, some as relationships between things. flight’s pilot and a prominent leader of which have even resonated with Our movement internationally of the Malaysian opposition, Anwar establishment politicians, the anti- must unequivocally champion the Ibrahim. human system of border controls in and right of people to settle, work and live Throughout the coverage there have of itself does not even get a mention. wherever they wish - not because this been a number of twists and turns, and is some kind of magic wand that will the plot continues to thicken. Several Smugglers do away with the evils of capitalism possible explanations and conspiracy So the two Iranian passengers on flight overnight, but because, only when theories are being cooked up. In this MH370, or those looking to leave Iran equipped with such a global vision article I merely wish to concentrate more generally, represent just the tip for society as a whole, as opposed to on one political issue that came to of an iceberg. narrow national sectionalism, can our light in the coverage of the missing Comrades working in Hands Off the class begin to become hegemonic and passengers. It is one that has also People of Iran will recall some of the thus capable of challenging the rule proved controversial in the Weekly truly horrific experiences that young of capital. Worker’s letters pages1: namely, that Iranian student activists have had to Of course, that was the position of of the free movement of people across Controls criminalise go through when fleeing the regime’s the Socialist International. As comrade the globe. repressive crackdown. Many of these Jack Conrad has helpfully pointed out regime following the disputed in Denmark or nearby Sweden. comrades did not have passports and in a recent CPGB political report,3 Terrorists presidential election of 2009, many Depending on the local laws of the thus tended to be smuggled across the the 1907 Stuttgart Congress voted A few days after the disappearance, it Iranians - youngsters in particular - country where Iranians travelling Turkish border and then on into Europe. against restrictions on migrants and was discovered that two young Iranian have been seeking to leave Iran and illegally to Europe arrive, they This cost them a lot of time, money and urged trade unions to organise without men, Pouria Nour Mohammadi and gain asylum in Europe at all costs. Not either ditch the fake passport before on occasion nearly their lives as well. distinction of race or nationality. Mohammadreza Delavar, had boarded all of them are left or liberal politicos. attempting to claim asylum, or risk Given that the smugglers are not exactly It is undeniable that, all things being the flight using stolen passports. This Some simply want to start a different getting through immigration with running some kind of charity, they are equal, the capitalist use and regulation revelation rapidly found its way into life for whatever reason. In doing so it. In Britain, for example, the latter hardly too concerned for the welfare of immigration primarily serves the many international media outlets. they often risk life and limb: even would be a very unwise move, as of their charges. Some comrades accumulation of capital, which is to After all, there is little that feeds on and if these people actually possess an travelling with a fake passport is report how they almost suffocated in say that it has a tendency to drive exploits the fears and prejudices of the Iranian passport (something that is a crime that invariably leads to a the back of a packed lorry travelling down wages and undermine working western world more than such a story: more or less impossible for young men prison sentence: in other countries it across eastern Europe. Others talk of conditions.4 That is hardly surprising terrorism, Iranians, missing flights ... who have not completed their military is treated less severely. smugglers stripping them of all their for any Marxist. Yet the task of Indeed, it was obviously music service) it is extremely difficult to possessions, including most of their communists is to question and combat to the ears of those who remain simply travel, for example, straight Refugees clothes, in the Turkish countryside, bourgeois ‘normality’ and organise our intransigently opposed to the from Tehran to Berlin or London While the two Iranian men appear seeing them almost freeze to death as class internationally against the logic recent (tetchy and limited, yet real) because of restrictions on immigration to have ultimately met a tragic fate, a result. Two other comrades recall the of capital accumulation - not against rapprochement between Iran and the in the form of complex, bureaucratic the underlying tragedy here is the horror of having a gun pulled on them the likes of the two young Iranians who US, with obvious attempts to make and arbitrary visa systems. One way system of border controls itself - a in a car driven by smugglers, who were seem to have met with a tragic fate on as much political capital out of it as around this is a student or marriage system that forces human beings to more interested in their laptops, cash flight MH370 l possible. Thus even on March 16 (that visa, although this can also prove to go to the most desperate lengths to and other possessions than keeping is, long after Interpol had refuted any be a real struggle. escape grinding poverty, repression, them alive. Just hearing such stories [email protected] terrorism link) the Israeli Times ran From the route taken by the two political persecution, the tragedy of makes one think about what millions with the headline: ‘Ex El-Al expert: young Iranians, it would appear that war, famine and so on. of other people go through. Notes Iran likely involved in MH 370’. The they actually did initially possess Although it seems that the two Of course, the approach of 1. See in particular the letters from Dave Vincent former security chief of the Israeli Iranian passports, and as such were Iranian men were sadly unable European states towards people in Weekly Worker February 27 and March 13. 2. www.timesofisrael.com/ex-el-al-expert-iran- airline, Isaac Yeffet, was quoted as able to fly from Iran to Malaysia, to realise their aim of moving to deemed ‘illegals’ is not exactly likely-involved-in-mh-370. saying: “My guess is based upon the where entry does not depend on a Europe, in terms of their attempts welcoming either: refugees have often 3. http://cpgb.org.uk/home/podcasts/march-16- stolen passports, and I believe Iran visa. Here, however, things get a to get here they were actually quite been greeted by solitary confinement, 2014-cpgb-political-report. was involved … They hijacked the little more complex. As with the fortunate, in that their route through hours without food or drink, long 4. Moreover, it is not particularly helpful to our cause to deny outright that this is the case, as does aircraft and they landed it in a place prohibition of drugs, the banning of Asia - apparently a new way for people interrogations, prison sentences and Socialist Worker (‘Tories try to bury report that 2 that nobody can see or find it.” Many the free movement of people gives seeking to get here - appears to have so on. It is necessary to point out that busts racist myth’, March 11). of those commenting on the article internationally operating smugglers been relatively smooth: they appear seem to infer from this that these and gangs disproportionate power to have had Iranian passports and the young Iranians are simply waiting and influence over the ‘commodity’ necessary money to purchase flight for the right moment to carry out the of refugees. Many Gatsbys will have tickets (always the most expensive Voting in LU elections jihadist will of ayatollah Khamenei. emerged from this particular ‘trade’. way of travelling) and the connections The Communist Platform is standing the following candidates for the Presumably it is only a matter of time Most probably, the two Iranians had to get hold of fake papers. As is always Left Unity national council (directly elected section). We recommend before the two will fly their fiendishly already established contact with their the case when it comes to getting that in this single-transferable-vote ballot members voted for candidates well-concealed Boeing 777 into a smugglers back in Iran, who arranged around the strictures of the law, money, in the order stated below. You have until March 24 to cast your vote. All building in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem … for the fake passports (stolen from state contacts (as with the citizenship LU members should have been sent instructions on how to vote, so if you Doubtless other such ‘explanations’ Thailand in this case, apparently) to request of David Cameron’s nanny!) have not received such an email please contact the LU office. have been offered by the Saudis or the be given to them in Malaysia - all and international contacts make US neocons. in return for a suitable fee, probably everything easier. 1. Yassamine Mather 8. James Turley However, even before Interpol amounting to thousands of dollars. Yet it is obviously the case that the 2. Jack Conrad 9. Tina Becker scotched stories of ‘terrorist links’, In a process that can then take quite overwhelming majority of those who 3. Moshé Machover 10. Sarah McDonald and before one of the boys’ friends in some time, the local smugglers will are forced into fleeing their countries 4. Ian Donovan 11. Emily Orford Kuala Lumpur had appeared on the have arranged a flight at a time when can often barely scrape together 5. Mike Macnair 12. Dan Gray BBC and elsewhere to explain that one of their contacts in passport control the means to get by, let alone pay 6. Lee Rock 13. Maciej Zurowski he was not a terrorist and was simply was on duty, who would have waived smugglers and so on. More often than 7. Peter Manson 14. Robert Eagleton seeking asylum in Europe, many them through. not they find themselves in a situation familiar with the rigmarole of Iranian The men were then headed for of fraught isolation and have to cobble Communist Platform is recommending that the 15th preference is given asylum politics would have instantly Germany via Beijing - one was to together everything they possess. to Pete McLaren. We are also calling for vote for Dave Stockton in the questioned the link being drawn. be met by his mother in Frankfurt, Desperate times call for desperate London regional section and Tim Nelson for trade union officer. After all, especially since the where she lives, and another was to measures and these refugees are often repression meted out by the Iranian go on to Copenhagen, to settle either thrown into the hands of criminal 10 weekly March 20 2014 1002 worker ITALY Electoral reform and Greek gifts While the new premier seems destined to disappoint, sections of the left have joined forces in a lash-up that looks set to leave workers cold. Toby Abse reports rime minister Matteo Renzi has and called for abstention rather than from the very beginning of his a critical vote for those rivals in Ptenure sought to present himself all the others. Meanwhile, Sinistra as a man of action capable of breaking Critica, the Italian section of the through previous logjams in the Italian Fourth International,4 split into two political system. He also claims that fragments in the course of 2013. he will transform the European Union The majority of the candidates of the and persuade Angela Merkel to relax Lista Tsipras are not members of the the fiscal compact placing rigid limits PRC, SEL or any other political party on Italy’s budget deficit. Whilst like and it is by no means clear what criteria some previous Italian prime ministers were followed in drawing up the lists in he has found common ground with any of the large regional constituencies the French president in terms of a into which Italy is divided for European European economic outlook, getting elections. Sadly, this opaque method the German chancellor to abandon of candidate selection has already led her deflationary European austerity to internal quarrelling and, according strategy seems an impossible goal. I to the centre-right daily Corriere della am citing this as another indication Sera, the internationally famous Sicilian of his probably inflated evaluation crime novelist, Andrea Camilleri, and of his own capacity to sweep aside Paolo Flores d’Arcais, the main editor structural obstacles, but not one I will of MicroMega,5 both of whom played be focusing on in this article. an absolutely key role in the early days His proposed electoral reform - the of the project, have disavowed it.6 ‘Italicum’, which I have referred to Camilleri was reportedly very unhappy in a fair degree of detail in an earlier about the candidacy of Luca Casarini, article1 - has made some progress, but a former autonomist who became its passage through the Chamber of a celebrity of the European Social Deputies by 365 votes to 156 with one Forums a decade or so ago and has a abstention on March 12 does not by somewhat chequered record with the any means mark the end of the story, criminal justice system that probably despite Renzi’s unconcealed hunger does not endear him to an author whose for instant results and immediate novels have a detective as a hero. triumphs. In the Chamber of Deputies Whilst an emphasis on ‘civil Renzi’s centre-left Partito Democratico society’ might have made some sense (PD) has a clear majority and, since Alexis Tsipras: growing personality cult at the time of Tangentopoli (1992- the Italicum is essentially a deal 94), when there seemed to be a sharp between Renzi and Silvio Berlusconi, secure a vote of confidence from it. prioritises his attempt at major Libertà against the radical left) remains divide between the corrupt politicians the combined weight of the PD and In short it is an undemocratic scheme constitutional, as opposed to merely to be seen. Its failure to include in its and the mass of the Italian population, Berlusconi’s Forza Italia was quite with as little intrinsic merit as Nick electoral , reform by seeking to name any of the obvious words that the two-decade-long experience of the sufficient to ensure that in the end the Clegg’s failed attempt at reforming the abolish the Senate before the Italicum might give the mass of voters some persistent consensus for Berlusconi bill went through, regardless of any British House of Lords. completes its passage through the clue as to where it stands in the political should by now have destroyed such minor rebellions within the PD or Regardless of its merits or lack of current upper house, he potentially spectrum - words like ‘communist’, illusions. This evident attempt to play objections from smaller parties.2 them, it is self-evident that the current risks complete failure on both fronts ‘socialist’, ‘workers’ or even ‘left’ - to the ‘anti-political’ gallery in order to The biggest problem for Renzi will members of the Senate will have no - the senators could in effect filibuster was, to say the least, a very bad start. win votes away from the Movimento be in the Senate, not the Chamber enthusiasm for this scheme, even if over the Italicum by prolonged Most working class voters do not read Cinque Stelle (Five Star Movement) of of Deputies. There are two reasons party discipline might compel some discussion of numerous amendments, esoteric journals like the political/ Beppe Grillo may well yet yield fewer for this. Firstly, the bizarre regional of them to give it public endorsement resist their own abolition, bring down philosophical MicroMega, whose dividends than a principled return to majority premiums - under which the - turkeys do not vote for Christmas! Renzi’s government and precipitate editors played quite a role in initiating a more militant class-struggle politics Senate was elected in February 2013, Whilst a few current senators might a general election in which both the project, or even the increasingly (combined with a name with a clearer when the old Porcellum (Pig Law) perhaps subsequently resume their chambers would be elected by a misleadingly subtitled “communist association with the labour movement) was still in force - mean that the PD careers in the Chamber of Deputies, purely proportional system, albeit one daily”, Il Manifesto, whose small and might have done7 l has no majority in the upper house. So most of them would have to say a with an undemocratic 4% threshold. declining readership is essentially it is far more dependent on the good lasting farewell to a well-paid post with Regardless of which party or parties made up of ‘red professors’ and the Notes will of other parties, like Angelino ample expenses, as well as the social won such an election, Renzi’s national like and whose current editor is also a 1. See ‘Back into the centre of politics’ Weekly Alfano’s Nuovo Centrodestra (New prestige and media profile that goes political career might end before supporter of the project. Worker February 6. 2. There had been 35 hours of debate and 123 Centre Right - NCD), which split with senate membership. This hostility, his 40th birthday and the former Whilst the Lista Tsipras may votes on various clauses and amendments. The away from Berlusconi during Enrico whether overt or latent, to their own Florentine mayor might have to return mark some temporary and partial most bitter divisions occurred over an attempt to Letta’s administration. The NCD, abolition, might well make the senators to provincial obscurity. reconciliation between SEL’s Nichi ensure gender parity in party lists by making it a which felt sidelined by Renzi’s deal more liable to delay or modify Renzi’s Vendola and the PRC’s Paolo Ferrero legal requirement to alternate men and women, so that lists would be man-woman-man-woman or with Berlusconi, is not happy with the electoral reform of the lower chamber. Left challenge - bitter enemies since the July woman-man-woman-man, rather than, for exam- Italicum as it stands. Renzi is also in a bit of a double Whether or not the Italicum is 2008 congress of the PRC, which ple, merely having an equal number of both sexes. Secondly, it is Renzi’s intention bind as to whether to go in for electoral enacted or the Senate is abolished, precipitated the subsequent split by The official line of the PD was to support this, but to replace the elected Senate with a or constitutional reform as his first the one certainty in terms of Italian Vendola’s right wing of the PRC, the Renzi was pretty half-hearted about it, knowing that Berlusconi opposed. Even some Forza Italia new second chamber - an unelected objective. If he prioritises getting electoral politics is that there will be main component of the future SEL women were in favour and on a secret ballot this Assemblea delle Autonomie, which the Italicum through the Senate, the a nationwide test of the competing - it does not even represent unity amendment was defeated, with the figures clearly would consist of unpaid representatives potential danger from his point of parties at the European elections on amongst the forces associated with indicating that a large number of PD deputies, of municipalities, metropolitan cities view would be that, in the aftermath Sunday May 25. the Italian communist tradition. The presumably male ones, had voted against. 3. Since Renzi for some months prior to his and regions - in other words mayors of the electoral reform of the lower There will be a challenge to the PD Partito dei Comunisti Italiani (PdCI) capture of the premiership had regarded the and regional presidents doing a second chamber, the smaller parties might from the left in the form of the Lista is not part of it - the PdCI, closer to Florentine mayoralty as something he could do in job in their spare time.3 Whilst it precipitate a general election before Tsipras (officially called L’altra Europa the more pro-Moscow current within his spare time whilst ruthlessly pursuing national could be argued from a leftwing the Senate is abolished. As matters con Tsipras - Another Europe With the old ‘official communist’ PCI, had office, it is perhaps not surprising that he has such a flippant approach to the conflict of interest perspective that a monocameral system stand, the judgement of the Consulta Tsipras). This list is a combination already quarrelled with the PRC for involved in undertaking two sets of responsibili- which abolished the second chamber (constitutional court) which outlawed of the Partito della Rifondazione a second time and put an end to the ties simultaneously. altogether might be an improvement the Pig Law in December 2013 created Comunista (PRC), Sinistra Ecologia e Federazione della Sinistra between 4. Here I am referring to what used to be known as on what has been often described as the a new electoral system for the Senate Libertà (SEL) and various intellectuals the two communist parties. This the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, the international tendency of which Socialist ‘perfect bicameral system’ created by - a purely proportional system without and self-proclaimed representatives was an alliance that once seemed to Resistance is the British section. Italy’s 1948 constitution, an unelected any majority premium for the largest of civil society, some of whom took prefigure a reversal of their 1998 split 5. In the 1970s Paolo Flores d’Arcais was a second chamber is a regressive party or coalition, albeit one with the initiative in setting up the project. - a reversal in the name of a common leading member of the USFI’s Italian section step, even if under Renzi’s plan a an undemocratic 4% threshold. This Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Greece’s communist identity in opposition and contributed an illuminating article on Italy’s ‘organic crisis’ to the New Left Review, but in government would no longer have to arrangement would mean that even radical left party, Syriza, and the to the social democratic turn of more recent times he could be described as a sort if smaller parties represented in the candidate of the European Left Party Vendola’s SEL. of intransigently anti-Berlusconian radical liberal. Preparing for policy current parliament found themselves for the presidency of the European Nor does the Lista Tsipras include His brother, Marcello Flores, is a historian who excluded from the new lower chamber Commission, has unsurprisingly given Marco Ferrando’s Partito Comunista has produced important work on the history of the conference PCI amongst other topics. by the workings of the Italicum, they his blessing to the list that bears his dei Lavoratori - although there is 6. I have seen an eloquent appeal to these two men National meeting of Left Unity’s would still stand a good chance of name and visited Italy in order to bring as yet no sign of an independent from Tsipras himself on the internet, but have no Communist Platform preserving some representation in this very heterogeneous collection of electoral intervention by these hard- idea if they have relented as a result of it. Sunday March 23, 12.30pm a continuing Senate elected under forces closer together. line Trotskyists, who have stood 7. It is probably worth remarking that the leftwing list centred around the PRC standing in the Calthorpe Arms, 252 Grays Inn a proportional system and in all Whether it will be able to cross in recent Italian general elections. Livornese local elections, also taking place on Road, London WC1 probability would wreck the chances the 4% threshold (now applicable in The same applies to Ferrando’s May 25, has been given the label, Per il Lavoro All CP members and supporters of the PD or any other party being able Italy for European as well as national erstwhile comrades and now bitter (For Labour), and incorporates the hammer and welcome to form a single party government with elections as a result of earlier collusion rivals in the Partito di Alternativa sickle in its symbol. I assume the PRC may well have adopted similar tactics in other industrial http://communistplatform.org.uk a majority in both chambers. - in 2008 - between the PD under Walter Comunista (PdAC), who stood in one cities where such local elections are taking place If, on the other hand, Renzi Veltroni and Berlusconi’s Popolo della region in the 2013 general election this year. weekly 11 worker 1002 March 20 2014 What we REVIEW fight for

n Without organisation the working class is nothing; with the highest form of organisation it is everything. n There exists no real Communist Party today. There are many so-called ‘parties’ on the left. In reality they are confessional sects. Members who disagree with the prescribed ‘line’ are expected to gag themselves in public. Either that or face expulsion. n Communists operate according to the principles of democratic centralism. Through ongoing debate we seek to achieve unity in action and a common world outlook. As long as they support agreed actions, members should have the right to speak openly and form temporary or permanent factions. n Communists oppose all imperialist wars and occupations but constantly strive to bring to the fore the fundamental question - ending war is bound up with ending capitalism. n Communists are internationalists. Everywhere we strive for the closest unity and agreement of working class and progressive parties of all countries. Martin Jenkinson We oppose every manifestation of national sectionalism. It is an internationalist duty to uphold the principle, ‘One state, one party’. n The working class must be organised globally. Without a global Communist Party, Miners 1984: in the thick of it a Communist International, the struggle against capital is weakened and lacks coordination. n Communists have no interest apart from the working class Inspirational collection as a whole. They differ only in recognising the importance of Martin Jenkinson, Mark Metcalf, Mark Harvey Images of the past: the miners’ Marxism as a guide to practice. That theory is no dogma, but strike Pen and Sword Books, pp216, £14.99 must be constantly added to and enriched. o mark the 30th anniversary of the past: the miners’ strike, poses launch, as well as many of the big They are monuments to his art and his n Capitalism in its ceaseless the miners’ Great Strike several a problem, in that it is essentially a commemorations - was put together commitment to the working class. search for profit puts the future Tnew books have hit the shelves photographic collection. A picture by Justine, his daughter, and wife, Accompanying the collection is a of humanity at risk. Capitalism is (Seumas Milne’s republication of The speaks a thousand words (and in the Edwina, in tribute to him. Helping to strong historical and political narrative synonymous with war, pollution, enemy within seems to be simply an case of Martin Jenkinson probably a present and edit the work, adding his of the strike by Mark Metcalf. The exploitation and crisis. As a global attempt to capture the renewed interest lot more), so mere verbal description artistic photo professionalism, is Mark downside in a book of this nature is that system capitalism can only be in the subject rather than add anything will never capture the magnificence Harvey, manager of iD8 Photography, it comes without sources and footnotes - superseded globally. new - or revise any of his myopic and strength of his work. The book with his 20 years’ experience in not the author’s choice, but those of the n The capitalist class will never views on Arthur Scargill). - and many of the exhibitions of labour movement, trade union and publishers, whose topical history genre willingly allow their wealth and The first of these, Images of photos which accompanied its documentary photography. requires ‘easy reading’ styles. Mark has power to be taken away by a Martin Jenkinson’s formal union greatly benefited in his work from the parliamentary vote. role was as the official photojournalist critical reviews of earlier books by n We will use the most militant for The Miner and Yorkshire Miner, authors who tripped themselves up methods objective circumstances Fighting fund but his wider role as a radical freelance with basic mistakes and, in the case of allow to achieve a federal republic photographer for the labour movement some academic and journalistic works, of England, Scotland and Wales, at large was almost unparalleled. An complete factual inaccuracies. a united, federal Ireland and a active trade unionist in his own right Mark makes only one such United States of Europe. Budget deficit and member of the National Union inaccuracy worthy of mention. Around n Communists favour industrial of Journalists national executive, he the vexed subject of Orgreave, not so unions. Bureaucracy and class eorge Osborne has to admit it: where your mouth is. Thanks covered protests, demonstrations, much in relation to the vindictive, compromise must be fought and GBritain’s economy is smaller for those kind words, comrade conferences and strikes, and all and murderous assault by the police, but the trade unions transformed into than it was in 2008. His much - and for showing your own every platform where the working the cause of the debacle. Mark says schools for communism. vaunted recovery will go hand “commitment” in that way. class in its multiple aspects made the steelworkers at Scunthorpe wanted n Communists are champions in hand with austerity till 2018- SG’s cheque was one of three its political voice heard. He built up coke to produce steel and when this of the oppressed. Women’s 19 at least. An eloquent argument received in the post this week. over the years a massive collection, was refused unilaterally crossed the oppression, combating racism and for class struggle and building Thanks also to HJ (£25) and to a photo library whose imagery lights picket lines to get it. This is not true. chauvinism, and the struggle for not another confessional sect, PK for the tenner added to his up the texts of labour movement and Their request for union-sanctioned peace and ecological sustainability not a protest party, not a vague subscription. But there were no trade union history, even already coke was made to stop the linings are just as much working class left-of-Labour party, but a mass donations made via our website vibrant texts of struggle and hope. of the vast furnaces collapsing, thus questions as pay, trade union rights Communist Party. And that, of this week - despite the fact that Ever prepared to allow his work to wiping out the plant. The quid pro and demands for high-quality course, is exactly what this paper no fewer than 11,850 people read be used to illustrate articles, he would quo was that they would not produce health, housing and education. is designed to achieve. our paper online. express his disquiet to me after photos steel from the start of the strike and n Socialism represents victory in While we have no powers of But we did get the usual batch that had gradually been absorbed did not do so. It was only when Arthur the battle for democracy. It is the taxation we do have a monthly of standing order contributions - into my own collections and albums decided more or less unilaterally to rule of the working class. Socialism £1,500 target for donations. thank you, MM, DW, SP and JD, emerged years later uncredited, or at stop all such safety exemptions that is either democratic or, as with Thankfully our readers are more whose SOs added up to £135. So times credited to me! Bill Sirs, general secretary of the Iron Stalin’s Soviet Union, it turns than willing to help. “Keep up we received £270 in all over the One thing was certain: with the and Steel Trades Federation, got his into its opposite. the good work” is a message last seven days, taking our March exception of the photojournalists long-term wish - ISTC members were n Socialism is the first stage that frequently accompanies fighting fund running total up to from News Line, Martin would be told to adopt a ‘fuck ’em’ attitude and of the worldwide transition donations to this paper. But £826. But there are only 10 days almost alone shooting from within abandon the ‘no steel’ policy, running to communism - a system in the case of comrade SG it to go to raise almost £700. our ranks rather than from behind their lorries through our lines at which knows neither wars, comes at the end of an eloquent Anyone else fancy helping us police lines. He was in the thick of Orgreave and into scab history. exploitation, money, classes, tribute to our “commitment to meet our budget deficit? the 1984-85 strike where the fighting This is a small, but fundamental states nor nations. Communism to Marxism”, “opposition to Robbie Rix raged and his safety could be in serious mistake, which in no way detracts is general freedom and the real opportunism” and “dedication” jeopardy. The bulk of this work deals from the otherwise solid presentation beginning of human history. in producing, “week in, week with the scenes from the picket lines, of the facts and inspirational Printed and published by out”, such a “quality paper”. Fill in a standing order form the occupied villages, the food halls, collection of photos. It is a great Even better, the cheque slipped the families and the communities tribute to Martin and his work, and November Publications Ltd (07950 416922). (back page), donate via our Registered as a newspaper by Royal Mail. ISSN inside SG’s note was for £100! through that bitter 12 months. Martin a monument to the militant working website, or send cheques, l 1351-0150. © March 2014 Talk about putting your money payable to Weekly Worker uses striking black and white images; class themes he presents close up, personal and deeply moving. David Douglass No 1002 March 20 2014 Army weekly intervention cannot be worker discounted On its last legs Erdoğan’s government is rapidly losing control, writes Esen Uslu. But the opposition seems in no shape to take advantage he AKP government under Recep where several newspapers now run create opportunities for the Islamists Tayyip Erdoğan, which has been the same story concocted in the AKP’s to find a new lease of life. Tin office for more than 10 years in media kitchens under virtually the Turkey, has passed its sell-by date, but is same headline. Anyone stepping out Repression still desperately holding on. The problem of line is severely punished: many The extent of popular opposition to the for the bourgeoisie is how to replace it journalists have been sacked and are AKP government became apparent without suffering further damage, as now pariahs. during last year’s events centred on Gezi Erdoğan and his henchmen thrash about. None of this was good news Park in Istanbul. After a brief lull during The government was regarded for the ‘international community’ the summer, the opposition was back on as a water-tight coalition of several - an unstable government in an the streets as students returned to college. Islamist tendencies (plus some liberal unstable region is the last thing US They were met with brutal force. Tear and centre-right groups). One of the imperialism wants. And, on top of all gas, water cannon and baton charges better organised of such tendencies this, the Syrian war was pulling the became the daily routine in all the big has been Gülen Jamaat - or, as it likes government towards the Salafi cause, cities. Mobile phones, the internet, to be known, ‘the Service’. It was and against the Shias and Alawis of Twitter and Facebook became the media formed around the Islamist preacher the region. That shift had a major for organising demonstrations, and they and educationalist, Fetullah Gülen impact in the internal politics of were targeted: the government passed (hence the name) or Hodja Effendi, Turkey, since the Alevis of Anatolia legislation enabling it to lawfully record as his followers call him. closely identify themselves with all tweets, messages and voice recordings, According to recently revealed the Alawi Syrians, and the fear of a and use them as evidence, and allowing records of illegal phone tapping, renewed wave of sectarian violence it to block internet communications. And the Erdoğan wing of the party gave Recep Erdoğan: will his party ditch him? pushed Turkey’s Alevis into a more state oppression now has an auxiliary: special privileges to the Gülen vocal opposition. the AKP’s paramilitary Islamist militia is Jamaat, including illegitimate access Gülen Jamaat, replacing them with his markets, state tenders, etc. The attempt to ease the situation visibly involved, attacking demonstrators to the security and intelligence own men. At first Erdoğan seemed to give in to with regard to the Kurdish uprising under the direction of the police. services, police and courts. As a Desperately needing new allies, he pressure from the European Union for in Turkey, with a view to improving As the local elections to be held result its people were placed in critical softened his stance on the military. He a competitive tendering law. But that relations with Iraqi Kurdistan, and at the end of this month approach, the positions of power. got legislation through that practically law has been amended so many times expectations of exporting Kurdish opposition is stepping up the tempo ended the trials against senior military by various rider clauses that it now oil through a new pipeline beyond with an eye on the presidential contest Coalition split figures and released many of the top has more holes than a Swiss cheese. the control of Arab Iraq, resulted in a scheduled for July. While there has So long as it was spearheading the brass who were awaiting their appeals The government tried to maintain its deterioration in Turkey’s relations with been no obvious move from within the struggle to overthrow traditional against conviction. However, Erdoğan traditional tutelage over finance capital the oil industry’s seven sisters, as well AKP to get rid of Erdoğan, that is still military tutelage, the influence of ensured that the thousands of Kurdish by withholding contracts, awarding as the US and UK. Meanwhile, the gas a possibility - the outcome of the local Gülen Jamaat grew. However, once prisoners would not benefit from the them instead to the ‘Anatolian tigers’ field opened up off the coast of Cyprus elections could intensify the uncertainty. it overreached itself and turned its legislation. He tried to appeal to the - those newer groupings heavily tinged became a new bone of contention with But the electoral opposition is not the attention towards the problem of how nationalist-statist centre ground, by Islamism. the Greek Cypriots, Israelis and the US. same as the opposition on the street, and to maintain political Islam’s hold on while putting the Kurdish ‘peace However, some of the traditional The destabilisation of the northern it does not seem capable of ousting the power after Erdoğan, the coalition process’ on hold. finance-capital groups have grown shores of the Black Sea (Ukraine, Crimea AKP - the next general election is to be split and everything started to come The government’s fall from grace so large that they are virtually and Russia) has added to the tensions in held in 2015. out into the open. actually started a couple of years immune from such pressures. So the the Caucasus region and brought about Traditionally in such impasses Matters came to a head when ago when Erdoğan tried to challenge government sought other means of a quite dangerous situation. An Islamist in Turkish politics the army has the sons of four cabinet ministers traditional family-based finance- control: unwarranted examination of government meddling in the affairs of intervened. However, for the moment were arrested for corruption, heavily capital groups, such as Doğan Holding, books, fines for tax avoidance and minorities in the region has become a the military seems content with the implicating their parents. It became and Koç Holding, whose actions similar actions. On one occasion fact, and the situation seems more and more passive role assigned to it after apparent that the corruption was linked were seen as beyond the control of the government opted to suddenly more out of control. the well-publicised trials involving to sanctions-busting in relation to Iran, the Islamists. Traditionally Turkish terminate a tendered contract for the We may safely say that the AKP its leading figures. That, of course, involving gold traded for Iranian finance-capital groups have thrived in building of a warship. government is rapidly losing friends does not mean that a new military natural gas. It seems that corruption the ‘greenhouse of the state’, enjoying A similar operation against media in the international arena. However, intervention is ruled out. So it seems went to the heart of the government, ample credit facilities, guaranteed groups has resulted in a situation the instability of the region may still to me that we are in for a bumpy ride l with allegations of billions paid in bribes and illegal arms exports to conflict zones. Despite all Erdoğan’s UK subscribers: Pay by standing order and save £12 a efforts, he could not resist the pressure Subscribe year. Minimum £12 every 3 months... but please pay Standing to let go of four cabinet ministers, who were among his closest associates for more if you can. Your paper needs you! many years. He had gone to great here order lengths, involving a change in the law, to protect them from prosecution. 6m 1yr Inst. I enclose payment: To ______Bank plc ______His response has been to attack UK £30/€35 £60/€70 £200/€220 his former coalition partner, Gülen Sub £/€ ______Branch Address ______Jamaat, referring to its involvement in Europe £43/€50 £86/€100 £240/€264 “the parallel state”. He also attempted Rest of £65/€75 £130/€150 £480/€528 Donation £/€ ______Post code ______to sort out the police bureaucracy: the world number of senior officers transferred New UK subscribers offer: Total £/€ ______Re Account Name ______from one post to another has been almost impossible to follow. Some 3 months for £10 Date ______Sort code ______Account No ______have been moved four or five times Please pay to Weekly Worker, Lloyds TSB A/C No 00744310 since mid-December, and several now Name ______find themselves suspended. Erdoğan sort code 30-99-64, the sum of £ ______every month*/3 months* turned on the judiciary too. The body Address ______until further notice, commencing on ______overseeing the appointment of judges This replaces any previous order from this account. (*delete) and prosecutors was replaced. The ______Post code ______special counter-terrorism courts went Signed ______Name (PRINT) ______too. Their pending cases transferred to Email ______Tel ______ordinary criminal courts. In so doing, Send a cheque or postal order payable to ‘Weekly Worker’ to: Date ______Address ______he sidelined judges and prosecutors Weekly Worker, Box 928, London WC1N 3XX, UK. ______thought to have had connections with