A paper of Marxist polemic and Marxist unity

Questioning the myths, n Anti-lockdown protests n Covid-19 vaccines assumptions and delusions n Labour and court actions of Scottish left nationalism n Jonathan Sacks: bigot No 1326 December 26 2020 Towards a mass Communist Party £1/€1.10 Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was not Trump’s only target weekly 2 December 3 2020 1326 worker LETTERS

Letters may have been Nor am I very greatly offended, When the British public sees the The so-called CAA is a fake Long-Bailey whimper, ‘I obey’. shortened because of though I am disgusted, by the racist BoD telling the Labour Party to charity - its charitable status is This awareness cannot but lead space. Some names implications on p55 of the EHRC jump and obey 10 pledges (and the currently and rightly under review, to increased anti-Semitism, not  may have been changed report, which tells me that I am leadership replies, ‘How high?’), as it engages mainly in anti-Labour merely on the part of rightwingers, more likely to complain about anti- those democratic feelings will begin propaganda and scaremongering - but on the part of broad masses Semitism than non-Jewish members to stir - and their target will often be in regard to the latter even the very with democratic sentiments, who EHRC racism of the Labour Party. Would that not merely the Board of Deputies, pro-establishment CST has rightly will rightly be suspicious of such Some of my best friends are non- be because I am held to be keen or the Jewish Labour Movement, rebuked it. Such scaremongering is unaccountable power. Do we really Jews - I must confess, one of them to promote specifically Jewish the Jewish Leadership Council or directly anti-Semitic - crying ‘Fire!’ want in this manner to strengthen is an Arab! So I have no prejudice interests, or because I am held to the rabidly anti-Labour Campaign in a crowded theatre ... as indeed do genuinely anti-Semitic forces? I against non-Jews. But I do deny be touchy or pushy (slightly old- Against Antisemitism (CAA). No, Keir Starmer and his allies. fear such a prospect. Don’t you? their right - indeed anyone’s right fashioned phrases, I know)? That, such bodies purport to speak in This is not only profoundly anti- Shouldn’t you? - to tell me that my feelings are comrades, is the only statistic in the the name of a monolithic ‘Jewish democratic; it consigns Labour In that light, I am not ashamed that hurt by an alleged instance of anti- report which goes to the issue of community’. So all British Jews Party Jews to a political ghetto, I have been convicted of obstruction Semitism - all the more so when that proportionality - a racist slur against will be the target of democratic to be dominated by bodies set during peaceful protests against a alleged instance as based on a false Jews, such as myself. Or would resentment. A policy which, no doubt above us by non-Jewish powers, racist shopkeeper in Manchester. I accusation. it be because non-Jewish Labour unthinkingly, recruits subjective such as the EHRC, and the Labour hope you will not push me to resort I would go further: a false members are held to be less likely anti-Semitism is objectively anti- tops, whether parliamentary or to civil disobedience against these accusation of anti-Semitism is than me as a Jew to be concerned Semitic - objectively because of its bureaucratic. So far, so modern, proposals of the bourgeois state, and itself an instance of anti-Semitism about anti-Semitism - an outrageous effects, not because of the principles so autocratic, so dictatorial. But risk a second conviction. - at least (but not only) insofar as insinuation? This racist smear of those who provoke it. giving a religious body the power to Ethel Rosenberg it shows a reckless disregard for against all members of this party No disciplinary measures by the interfere in secular affairs savours email peaceful coexistence between Jews must be repudiated if the report is Labour bureaucracy can combat of the Middle Ages. and others. It is even more anti- to hold any credibility, But instead this purportedly democratic - in fact The British army, in its concern Corbyn finished Semitic when the accusation is general secretary David Evans has demagogic - feeling. On the contrary, for the spiritual wellbeing of its Once portrayed as the great hope directed against Jews. added to it by proclaiming that they will intensify demagogic cannon fodder, used to register all for Britain’s left as leader of the Jewish people accused of anti- Labour Jews are so thin-skinned that resentment of unaccountable, recruits who did not specify another Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn’s Semitism! One might regard this as we cannot abide straightforward purportedly Jewish, power. Like religious denomination as ‘Church praises were sung everywhere from ridiculous, indeed grotesque. But at political discussion on vital issues. the holocaust deniers, they will of England’. Now I and fellow the high street to the Glastonbury least 24 Jews have been so accused. But it is far worse than that. The see arbitrary and unaccountable Jews in the Labour Party are by a music festival. With one voice, Can advocates of the Equality and whole thrust of the EHRC report and repression - persecution - and have similar process to be compulsorily they sang together: “One Jeremy Human Rights Commission report the policy of the Labour leadership field day, with their vociferous registered as subjects of the Board Corbyn”, and now - thanks to Keir show that Jews have not been is profoundly anti-Semitic. Not cries of ‘Defend free speech!’ They of Deputies. What could be more Starmer, the BoD and the EHRC - disproportionately charged and subjectively - I know personally will do so with boots, bricks and medieval? there is “only one Jeremy Corbyn”: sanctioned - open your copy and that leadership supporters feel worse. Any casualties - they may be What can you say about a party while reinstated as a member of the show me the relevant statistics! passionately, and often proclaim, corpses - will be Jewish. which imposes this sectarian party, he is no longer part of the But it is not hurt feelings I wish that they are protecting British The easiest targets will be conscription on those who are Jews Parliamentary Labour Party. Alone, to address, though my own feelings Jews, but they are profoundly those most identifiable as Jews, in by ethnicity, but whose passionate cast adrift, the parliamentary whip have certainly not been hurt by mistaken. While subjective anti- particular the orthodox Charedim religious convictions impel them to is still denied him. Ken Livingstone’s crude summary Semitism is a repulsive sentiment, of Stoke Newington, for example, regard the BoD as blasphemous (the Are we witnessing the political of the historical truth about the far more dangerous is objective so many of whom, such as Shraga Charedim - some 20% of the British epitaph of Jeremy Corbyn? Is this Ha’avara exchange agreement; nor anti-Semitism - the pursuit of a Stern, respect Jeremy Corbyn for Jewish population - very many of lifelong Labour activist, socialist in by his endorsement of Naz Shah’s policy which in fact endangers his efforts on their behalf. Unlike whom supported Corbyn’s efforts the shadow of Tony Benn, man of adoption of the Jewish Virtual Jews. What could that policy be? the BoD and its allies, they do not in their defence), as well as converts the people and once a contender for Library cartoon, which attacked Surely one which gives substance demand secular power for Jews - not to other religions than Judaism, not leader of the nation now paddling Harry Truman’s refusal to let to the anti-Semitic view that a even in the eastern Mediterranean. to mention tens of thousands of his own canoe? Is it seconds out for holocaust survivors into the USA; Jewish conspiracy desires and even But their distinctive costumes and secularists, agnostics and atheists, Jeremy? Will he throw in the towel? nor by Pam Bromley’s use of the possesses unaccountable power. beards makes them a fine target who make up about 50% of the Has Starmer counted him out? The phrase ‘fifth column’ - after all, like This view derives its main strength for the demagogically driven anti- British Jewish population? Is this a future for Corbyn does seem very you, I have sung the phrase, “While from its appeal to profoundly Semitism that our virtue-signalling progressive, democratic, modern - bleak. cowards flinch and traitors sneer”. democratic feelings: ie, that power bureaucrats and leaders are inciting. indeed a civilised - party? Has he paid the ultimate price Yes traitors - fifth columnists. must be accountable. Those virtue-signallers think they I am aware that the general for failing to defend victims of the are tearing anti-Semitism out root secretary has threatened us with Trojan horse of false anti-Semitism and branch. On the contrary, blindly his investigators, and with the smears levelled against Jeremy and and gradually they are building a malice of the capitalist press (‘close the Labour left? Having failed to Online Communist Forum funeral pyre for British Jews. No attention’ will be paid to what we defend Christopher Williamson, doubt this will take a long time, say, he boasts), but it is craven to former Labour MP for Derby North, and I shall not live to see it. But submit to such blackmail. I offered and Ken Livingstone, former mayor we all have a duty to avert a British to help my own branch to select of London, Corbyn was then hung Kristallnacht by opposing the six particular pages of the EHRC out to dry as the leader who ‘failed EHRC document and the policies report for special study and was to stamp out anti-Semitism’ in the which drive it. threatened with accusations of Labour Party. However, I prefer to look to the partiality. Those pages included This attack was fuelled by future, if indeed it is the future, the ridiculous comparison of the the British Board of Deputies, rather than another medieval past. improved procedure for sexual the mainstream British media By this I mean that, according to harassment cases (which focus (especially the BBC) and from the EHRC report, and according entirely and rightly on the need to centrist and Blairite devotees in his to a pledge promulgated by the protect the complainant from direct own party, who wanted to purge BoD, certain very specific Jewish confrontation with the respondent) Labour not only of anti-Semitism, associations are to be given the with the substance of racism but of the socialism which Jeremy automatic right of representing me cases. The difference is laughably Corbyn embodied - a just world for and other Labour Jewish members offered as a proof of (perhaps the many, not just a few. Sunday December 6 5pm (and indeed all other British Jews institutional) discrimination on p95. Corbyn’s first blunder as leader Ireland’s conservative revolution in the construction and perhaps I hope comrades will support me in was to renege on the people’s vote Speaker: Marc Mulholland the operation of the new, allegedly rejecting any proposal to tolerate a to leave the European Union by Sunday December 13 5pm independent disciplinary body). disciplinary or educational process offering a second referendum, ‘A week in politics’ They will also provide ‘education’ which is based on such medieval - thereby disenfranchising huge Political report and discussion on racism and specifically anti- nay, such barbarous - foundations. swathes of traditional Labour from the CPGB’s Provisional Central Committee Semitism for staff and members of The disciplinary processes of the voters in the north of England, who the party. Labour Party do indeed command demanded to leave a political entity Sunday December 20 5pm I regard this as medieval, little confidence - their secrecy which had left them abandoned - The revolutionary Jesus specifically because of the privilege precludes any membership trust in many jobless, and living in desolate, Speaker: Jack Conrad assigned to the BoD - to which, their processes or their outcomes soul-destroying, failing towns like a plurality of British Jews, (this is grossly unfair to those from Leeds to Bradford and from January 8-10: Winter Communist University I owe no allegiance whatsoever, elected members who have tried Birmingham to Manchester. and for whose political opinions to operate such a system, which Once he lost the general election Sunday January 17 5pm I personally have no respect consists almost entirely of flaws). to Boris Johnson, who knew he ‘A week in politics’ (usually contempt). Other, equally But the procedure proposed by the could gain votes in the north for the Political report and discussion partial bodies are to be set above BoD would make a bad system Tory Party by remaining steadfast from the CPGB’s Provisional Central Committee all party members, but especially worse - flouting almost every tenet on leaving the EU, Corbyn then as purportedly representative of natural justice and abolishing resigned as party leader, allowing Sunday January 24 5pm of Labour Jews, include the so- any democratic input, let alone Starmer, a Blairite acolyte, to The anthropology of David Graeber called Jewish Labour Movement, oversight. gain control. Thus in an almost Speaker: Chris Knight the Community Security Trust The 10 pledges taken by Keir Shakespearean setting, the die was (CST, which provides marshals for Starmer are in themselves enough cast and the purge of socialists and If you wish to take part in these Zoom meetings, Zionist demonstrations) the Jewish to invalidate any disciplinary socialism from the Labour Party is email Stan Keable at: [email protected] Leadership Council and particularly procedure which incorporates them. now in full swing. Organised by CPGB: www.cpgb.org.uk and the CAA, which has generated As a result of these pledges, when Many socialists are anti-Zionist, Labour Party Marxists: www.labourpartymarxists.org.uk at least 230 complaints of anti- the BoD orders ‘Pledge!’, Sir Keir and the International Holocaust Semitism - allegedly on my behalf. Starmer , Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Remembrance Alliance definition BCM Box 928, London WC1N 3XX l 07903 054393 l www.weeklyworker.co.uk l [email protected] weekly worker 1326 December 3 2020 3

of anti-Semitism has helped to coming energy crisis. The truth success of the SNP in dominating comrade Eddie Ford’s raising of course, he had Joe Biden at his transform being anti-Zionist, which is that it’s far better to have a Scottish politics, both in Edinburgh of democratic centralism as the side to help him). They saved the is a legitimate political choice, rightwing leadership in the party at and Westminster”, doesn’t take into ultimate goal beyond the federal banks, including the bonuses of by equating it with anti-Semitism this stage than a leftist leadership consideration that the proportional republic (‘An arm of the state’, senior bankers, but unfortunately - a repugnant form of racism, which is unaware of the coming representation voting system November 19)? I was always of this came at the cost of millions of condemned by all socialists. energy crisis, and which ends up adopted by the Scottish parliament the impression that it was a form of people losing their homes and their Jeremy’s suspension from the alienating middle class voters by was chosen precisely to ensure that Communist Party structure rather jobs. Labour Party has been overturned, acting prematurely, rather than there would be no domination by than general governance. But what did he accomplish but not from the PLP - he is in effect waiting for the radicalisation of the Scottish National Party, but this Tam Dean Burn for ‘the American people’? at this moment an independent. the masses - both the working class failed utterly. This must surely be email Incarceration stayed up, a record Should Starmer choose to leave and middle classes. taken as another example of proof number of whistle-blowers went him as an outcast, who will The big difference between all that Scotland has already expressed Expect the usual down, record numbers of drones represent Labour in Corbyn’s the previous crises of capitalism its desire for self-determination to “The business of America is killed ever more civilians around home constituency, come the next and the coming collapse is that be in the form of independence from business”, as the US president, the world and Guantanamo Bay election? He may choose to resign all depressions or recessions the UK. Calvin Coolidge, once said. There stayed open for the duration. Oh, rather than run against his own were unrelated to a geologically Which brings me to comrade has been no president, as far as I’m and he kept Bush’s last-minute tax party. Or, as a Labour man through imposed end of cheap energy. In Peter Manson’s reply to my previous aware, who would disagree and that cuts. So not very much. and through, he may simply walk past depressions and recessions it letter. He states that I’ve “clearly will certainly include Joe Biden. And then an even more maniacal off into the retirement sunset. was possible to revive the economy misunderstood why the CPGB The wicked beast is soon to rightwinger came onto the scene. His was a magnificent career one way or another - ie, Roosevelt’s champions the federal republic as a lumber off, but what will replace Donald Trump promised to ‘drain burned by false smears and a ‘new deal’ in America, fascism in solution to the national question in him. There are clues and I’ve been the swamp’. He didn’t actually Julius Caesar-type betrayal in the Germany, and so on - based on some Britain” (Letters, November 26). In looking at some of them: the recent accomplish the task, urgent though corridors of Westminster by his form of Keynesian interventionism. fact I was asking, and continue to history of Democrat presidents it still is. But he built a bit of a wall, enemies within the PLP. The one Now these methods will be unable ask, why, given such importance, following Republican ones, Biden’s killed a few more people - mostly true leader for a divided Britain? to revive capitalism, because the the federal republic has been given own record and who he plans to take Muslims - and gave even more The one man who stood for justice, cheap energy base which made so little study by the CPGB. with him for the ride. money to the Pentagon. equality and freedom from the recovery possible is now at an end. The most basic proof of this Let me start with Republican Thank goodness he’s been ravages of austerity? The one man Now only prolonged economic is when he says: “In a federal Ronald Reagan: he crushed the replaced! By Joe Biden? A swamp who could unify the people? The depression, brought about by republic, the Scottish parliament unions and slashed high earners’ man, if ever there was. His primary man who was the antidote to the rising energy costs, can keep oil and Welsh assembly would have taxes. He also managed to invade objective has always been ‘the selfish accumulation of wealth from and other energy prices in check the right to vote for separation. But Grenada and attempted to take American economy’: that is, the the many by the few, who promised in the short term. This is why it’s why would they do so - especially down the Sandinista government economy of rich Americans. He so much, but was allowed to deliver quite possible that the Covid-19 if all nations within Britain enjoyed in Nicaragua by getting rightwing was, after all, a senator for Delaware so little - is he finished? I’d say yes. pandemic lockdown is really about genuine equality?” Given the size gangsters - and drug-runners - to and lives in Wilmington, which is Starmer, the PLP conservatives slowing the economy down to of England, how can such equality kill teachers, healthworkers and the US capital for corporations that and centrists in disguise, the media stop oil prices from rising again to be a given? Even Gordon Brown, other non-combatants. His major don’t want to pay much (if any) tax. and the establishment do not want a the levels they did back in 2008. as quoted by comrade Demarty, claim to fame was the end of the In his political life he has opposed socialist pro-Palestinian as leader of Whether this argument is correct is ahead of that with the call for ‘evil empire’ - or the USSR, as it bussing, and coincidentally made a the country. They have effectively or not, the pandemic is certainly further devolution in England. was sometimes called. His buddy, great friend of the well-known racist, neutered Corbyn, destroyed the serving to slow down the global Surely this key constitutional issue George Bush senior, boosted US Strom Thurmond. He was very keen Labour left and paid homage to economy and contributing to also deserves much more thorough warmongering with the war against on Clinton’s cuts to welfare, as I’ve the EHRC, the Board of Deputies, keeping oil prices in check, at least and rigorous examination and Panama - no US president wants to noted, and even more keen, if such Labour Friends of Israel, the IHRA for the time being. debate? bite off more than he can chew - but a thing is possible, on sending more and the Zionist lobby, ending any The energy crisis, when it gets There are moves afoot around he only lasted one term. people to prison. hope that the left will ever be elected deeper and begins to bite, will the rump of the Scottish Labour But then the world was ‘saved’, But he’s been welcomed by to power in Britain. trigger a social collapse, which left to promote ‘devo max’ as not for the first or last time, by most of the establishment, and their We now have a two-party will force the Labour Party to an third option in any coming the replacement of a ‘rightwing press, in the US and all around the duopoly just like in America: begin the process of breaking with referendum, particularly on the part maniac’ with a ‘decent Democrat’. world. Even Bernie Sanders, in a corporate-funded, pro-Israel, pro- capitalism, while sections of the of Neil Findlay, who was Corbyn’s Bill Clinton gave the US ‘welfare to piece in The Guardian, said: “Biden Zionist, capitalist parties, working bourgeoisie itself will begin to Scottish election agent. This seems workfare’ - all those people wouldn’t ran for president on a strong pro- on behalf of big business against the turn left - abandoning ship because to be some form of federalism and be poverty-stricken if they’d only working class agenda” (November likes of you and me. The losers are they will have no choice. Those was also raised by the Scottish get off their asses and find a job. 26). Thank goodness for that! the vulnerable, the working poor, who doubt that the bourgeoisie can TUC conference last week. Their Or, as Biden himself commented But what about his team? Not the working class, the homeless and turn left should read Marx in the statement aims to offer an alternative at the time, there is “a broad social surprisingly the ones we’ve heard the hungry. The winners are Keir Communist manifesto. It should be to the ‘Growth Commission’ concern that the welfare system has about so far are reliable retreads Starmer, the British establishment, obvious that the call for the left to (neoliberal) independence on offer broken down - that it only parcels from Obama/Biden - much to the the banks, corporations, big break from the Labour Party - when by the SNP or the status quo, whilst out welfare checks and does nothing relief of much of the mainstream business and the pharmaceutical the party will, at a certain stage, be demanding Scotland’s right to to help the poor find productive media - plus a lot of other folk military-industrial complex. forced to break with capitalism in a self‑determination through another jobs”. who are familiar with the military- One Jeremy Corbyn? The king period when the bourgeoisie itself referendum. There is perhaps room Clinton also ramped up industrial complex. There has been is dead! But where does the British will begin to turn left - is clearly a for debate and even united front incarceration, with the heartfelt much on US websites about the left go from here? foolish policy. tactics along such lines and I urge support of Biden. “It’s the economy, latter: one can look at Jacobin, Fra Hughes In Britain, in view of that coming comrades to look on the STUC stupid,” Clinton used to say, and so Counterpunch, The Intercept and Belfast crisis, the left in the Labour Party website at the statement, ‘STUC he organised the North American Tomdispatch, for instance. These must reject the call for a new mass will approach Scottish elections and Free Trade Agreement that did so people have a history and are well No party workers’ party as totally pointless. referendum debate without fear or much to destroy millions of US known in these circles. In Greek mythology a siren In essence, the end of growth will favour’ (November 17). jobs, while wrecking the Mexican Tony Blinken is to be secretary of was part bird and part woman, become the end of capitalism, At the same time Scottish economy at the same time. Clinton state, while another co-founder of the who would lure sailors to their which will begin to play a reduced Labour’s new ‘constitution’ was guilty of trying to get a ‘peace ‘consultancy’, WestExec Advisors, destruction with the sound of her role in economic life. It is this spokesperson, rightwinger Anas dividend’ with the end of the USSR, Michele Flournoy, looks set to be sweet voice. Hopefully, the left in which will determine the evolution Sarwar, has immediately ruled out even while he got one of Africa’s defence secretary. There are plenty the Labour Party won’t listen to the of the Labour Party in Britain, a referendum for the next four-five few pharmaceutical suppliers of others - from WestExec and other siren-like voice of John Smithee, and the Democratic Party in the years in order to concentrate on blown up, for reasons pretty much groups - that mostly seem to have who is calling for a new mass United States. Either by revolution dealing with Covid. This says more unfathomable at the time. in common their great friendship workers’ party on the grounds that or reform capitalist society will about how much former Corbynite At the end of the 20th century with Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop the Labour Party is no longer such be transformed into socialism Richard Leonard has been weakened we had the ‘Project for the New Grumman, and many more. In other a party, but has, in spite of trade by the coming energy crisis. The as Scottish Labour leader and, if American Century’ (PNAC). While words, Biden is making sure that union support, become more like role of the left is to make sure that position is maintained, it will the ‘evil empire’ had been defeated the military-industrial complex is the Democratic Party in the US we get a democratic rather than a surely further decimate the party’s and China was now onside (this was going to be well-served by his new (Letters, November 26). bureaucratic socialist society. standing in May. a few years ago), America still faced government. The establishment and Comrade Smithee thinks that Tony Clark Like the CPGB I say there’s great peril. Clinton had ‘defunded its press are not surprisingly making those who reject the call for Labour supporter no need for another referendum - the military’ (no, he hadn’t), there much of the ‘diversity’ of his team a new workers’ party lack an though not using such useless anti- was an urgent need to ‘sort out the - some women, maybe even some understanding of dialectics, and Scotland democratic lines as Scottish Labour. Middle East (no, there wasn’t) and black or brown people. No poor therefore can’t see how quantitative It’s very heartening to see ongoing But I have to ask comrade Manson, the US had better get on with new people though. changes have produced a qualitative articles in the Weekly Worker are these not the exceptional technologies (drones and stuff) There are useful things that he transformation of the Labour Party grappling with the thorny, but vital, circumstances he offers “where before somebody else did. could, and even might, do: relax from a bourgeois workers’ party national question in Britain today. separation on a temporary basis So Bush and the PNAC gave some sanctions, so that children can to an ordinary bourgeois party. As comrade Mike Macnair makes is the only way to promote such us a whole new gang of rightwing eat in Iran, pull Saudi Arabia back However, the first rule of dialectics clear in his latest article on Biden’s unity in the long term”? What’s maniacs. With wars in Afghanistan from Yemen, so that children might is comprehensiveness, which victory, dealing with constitutional been going on in Scotland and the and Iraq (we mustn’t forget Tony not get blown up. In the US Trump means taking everything we know issues is key when it comes to UK looks pretty “exceptional” Blair’s help there), the arms has laid waste to environmental into consideration, or starting from democracy and building a working to me. That’s what I’m getting at industry got what they always want laws and hence the environment. the general. From the starting point class alternative (‘Decline and with the recognition that we need - they don’t just want you to buy Will Biden undo some damage? He of dialectics, the call for a new decay’, November 26). to get beyond the national question arms: they want you to use them. might do, but that would make him mass workers’ party - based on the Comrade Demarty’s ‘Showdown by accepting the demand for If they’re used then they need to an unusual Democratic president. argument that Labour is no longer looms’ article in the same issue independence. Comrade Manson is be replaced - the US doesn’t have But, in words that will chill the such a party - is a sectarian demand, deals very well with a lot of the raising the further hurdle, not me. In ‘forever wars’ for nothing. spines of millions in the US and and this is why such initiatives problems we face with regard to Scotland there’s been almost as little There was a bit of a problem around the world, he has said that have such a high rate of failure. the rise of Scottish nationalism. discussion on federalism as the way though: the global economy was America is back: “Ready to stand The Smithee line starts from the I’d only say that his statement, “It forward (never mind republicanism) in a big recession. But the world up for our values”. ‘capitalist roaders’ in the leadership was not accidental that the long- as there has been in the CPGB. was saved yet again, as Barack Jim Nelson of the Labour Party rather than the term result of devolution was the Lastly for now, can I ask about Obama came to the rescue (and, email weekly 4 December 3 2020 1326 worker USA Trump’s big win Joe Biden himself was a target when it came to the decision to kill Iran’s top nuclear scientist, writes Daniel Lazare

onald Trump was supposed is clear: the losers. Not only is it Biden is a victim of his own that Biden wrote about the Joint to be yesterday’s man. His Iran and Fakhrizadeh himself, not Iran’s judiciary chief deference to the Jewish state - a Comprehensive Plan of Action, as margin of defeat now stands at to mention his family, friends and position of abject servility that the 2015 Iran agreement is formally D Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi pays a hefty six million popular votes, or co‑workers, but US Democrats - renders him all but helpless when known. The piece, published in four percent, his efforts to hold onto big time. Talk of resurrecting the his respects to murdered it comes to atrocities like the mid-September this year, made a power are looking more and more 2015 Iran nuclear accord - one of Fakhrizadeh killing. He is a self- simple point: Trump was wrong to foolish, and even diehard supporters the ‘crowning achievements’ of the nuclear scientist Mohsen proclaimed Christian Zionist, who walk away from the JCPOA in 2018 like Republican senator Roy Blunt Obama administration - is now dead. Fakhrizadeh in Tehran. Is the has declared that, if it did not already and, if elected, Biden would make of Missouri now acknowledge that Hopes of avoiding a confrontation exist, “the United States of America re-entering the pact a top priority Joe Biden will “likely” take office in the Persian Gulf are rapidly JCPOA deal now dead too? would have to invent an Israel to in 2021. But, lest readers think on January 20. So he is finished, diminishing. In effect, Trump has protect our interests in the region”.3 that his attitude was anything less kaput, done for. put America on a collision course If Israel knocks off the occasional than bellicose, Biden tossed in an But if that is the case, how with the Islamic Republic and, what Iranian physicist, therefore, he is in additional argument, to the effect is it that Washington’s biggest is more, has arranged matters so that no position to complain, since, by that, by abandoning the pact, Trump has‑been has turned the tables on the confrontation will take place his own admission, Israel is merely had “worsened the threat” posed by his opponents and is now setting the under Biden’s watch. That way, it acting on America’s behalf. “a bad regional actor” and that only standards for Middle East policy for will be left to Democrats to deal But Biden is the victim of Democrats knew how to put Iran years to come? with the fallout, while he jeers from something else: years of Democratic back in its place. That is the head-scratcher posed the sidelines. And there is nothing hypocrisy and double talk. Two “[T]here is a smart way to be by the November 27 assassination the Biden team will be able to do to events have seared themselves into tough on Iran, and there is Trump’s of top Iranian nuclear scientist stop it. Has Joe Biden been the party’s collective memory. One way,” he said: Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. With all the This explains the president- occurred in 1972, when George signs pointing to Israel as the culprit, elect’s remarkable silence in the completely outmanoeuvred McGovern ran on a peace platform Before Trump, years went by several things seem clear. One is that wake of the Fakhrizadeh murder. and boxed in by Trump and during the Vietnam War and got without a militia rocket attack US secretary of state Mike Pompeo Normally, one would expect at least walloped by Richard Nixon by on US facilities in Iraq. Now green‑lit the operation - either at a tweet out of the future president, the Republicans? a margin of three to two in the they happen regularly. Instead his meeting five days earlier with or a sidekick like Antony Blinken popular vote. The second was in of restoring deterrence, Trump Israeli prime minister Binyamin or Jake Sullivan - respectively early 1991 when 80% of Democrats has emboldened Iran. Instead of Netanyahu and Saudi crown prince Biden’s designated secretary of in the Senate and 67% in the House ending ‘endless wars,’ Trump Mohammed bin Salman in the state and national security advisor. voted against the use of military has repeatedly brought America futuristic Red Sea city of Neom, or But, four days after the killing, force in the coming Persian Gulf to the brink of a new one. If this he did so shortly thereafter. Another there has been nothing. Such silence War - a war that, as everybody is what Trump considers success, is that, politically, Trump has speaks volumes. Biden knows knows, turned into one of the most I would hate to see what failure benefited from the killing as much he has been boxed in and that, one-sided slaughters in modern looks like.4 as Netanyahu, if not more. instead of implementing his own imperial history. The lesson that the After all, this is the man who foreign policy, he is now reduced to Dems took from both is that, while “By any objective measure,” asked the Pentagon to provide a list implementing the incumbent’s. But occasionally throwing doves a bone, he added, “Trump’s ‘maximum of Iranian targets shortly after US he is too afraid to admit it. they must never allow themselves pressure’ has been a boon to the TV networks declared Biden the to be out-hawked again. Even when regime in Iran and a bust for winner.1 Even though he allowed Paralysis making peace, they must emit great America’s interests.” himself to be dissuaded from So how did a so-called loser like billows of tough-guy rhetoric to Blinken, Sullivan or whoever launching a military assault, he was Trump pull it off? The short answer show that they are just as much a else wrote the piece on Biden’s clearly pleased when Israel stepped is that he merely had to stand by and war party as their Republican rivals. behalf must have thought this into the breach and did it for him.2 watch, as his opponent tripped over Pseudo-macho rhetoric of this was all terribly clever. But it was But there is a third thing that his own two feet. sort was on full display in an article fatuous nonsense through and weekly worker 1326 December 3 2020 5

through. Rather than making Iran of the US department of energy - destroyed, any such attempt in real Friday January 8 - Sunday January 10 stronger, Trump’s “maximum the agency in charge of America’s life would be tantamount to suicide, pressure” campaign of punitive and nuclear arsenal - missiles would given America’s overwhelming Online Communist University comprehensive sanctions brought already be flying. The same would advantage in firepower. Iran could it to its knees. GDP contracted by be true if it had knocked off the also continue refining uranium 9.5% in 2019 alone, living standards head of the Israeli nuclear research now that the JCPOA is a dead plummeted and widespread rioting centre near the city of Dimona. letter. But doing so would expose it erupted, while the country’s ability Given all that, it is hard to imagine to yet more US-Israeli retaliation, to deal with Covid-19 was crippled. how Iran can now sit down at the this time on an even grander scale. Even though Iran had emerged as table with a country that believes Iran is unable to defend itself, one of the world’s leading hot spots, that it and its Israeli partners have but unable not to defend itself The Lancet reported last April that an unqualified right to continue either. But if it cannot strike at its ability to cope with the pandemic killing its leading citizens. If Iranian US or Israeli military targets, it was “substantially impeded by president Hassan Rouhani so much can take aim at Saudi Arabia - the unilateral economic sanctions”, as raises the possibility, the result soft underbelly of the US-Israeli with medicine, test kits, protective will likely be a nationalist reaction Middle East axis and the victim equipment and ventilators all in that sends his government reeling. in September 2019 of a highly After the US presidential election short supply.5 Negotiations are thus off the table, effective drone strike by Houthi Where Mongols supposedly while it is hard to imagine how the militia forces in Yemen. This is used catapults to hurl disease- JCPOA can ever be brought back why bin Salman was reportedly Consequences and ridden bodies into besieged cities to life. reluctant to go along with the so as to spread a plague, America But Iran’s options at this point Fakhrizadeh assassination at the was now working to the same end are limited as well. Fakhrizadeh - a November 22 Neom meeting - he is considerations by blocking hospital equipment professor of nuclear engineering at afraid that a Biden administration Friday 6pm and pharmaceuticals. Indeed, the Imam Hossein University in Tehran will not defend him against Iranian Trump administration went so far and the so-called ‘father’ of Iran’s retaliation the way Trump would.7 as to veto a $5 billion International nuclear programme - was the fifth But MBS is now in the thick of Monetary Fund emergency loan Iranian nuclear scientist to be killed things regardless, as the mood darkens to enable Iran to get through the by Israel since 2010. If a 12-person in the Persian Gulf, which means that crisis. Yet here was Biden saying death squad did indeed ambush him Biden will have no choice but to firm that Trump was not being tough at 2pm local time some 70 kilometres up relations with him as well, now enough on Iran and that he himself outside of Tehran, as Iranian that he has walked straight into the The crisis in the United States and prospects for the left would do even more. journalist Mohammad Ahwaze, citing trap set by Trump and Netanyahu. It Speaker: Donald Parkinson from the US magazine Cosmonaut This explains Biden’s current government sources, has reported,6 is yet another example of why it is paralysis. He cannot say that Trump then the ongoing security breach has impossible to fight incipient fascism Saturday 10am and Netanyahu are weak, since been nothing short of massive. If Iran with a force as weak and duplicitous nothing is tougher than sending out had tried to infiltrate a team that size into as the US Democrats l a hit squad to gun down a scientist Israel, dozens of alarms would have in broad daylight. But he cannot say gone off before a single shot was fired. Notes they have gone over the top either, But apparently, Iranian intelligence is 1. nytimes.com/2020/11/16/us/politics/trump-iran- since, by his own admission, one so inefficient, so financially strapped nuclear.html. 2. Within hours of the killing, Trump retweeted a can never be too tough in dealing - or perhaps so thoroughly penetrated statement by Israeli journalist Yossi Melman that System and hegemons - can relative decline be reversed? with an outlaw country like Iran. by Israeli double agents - that no flags Fakhrizadeh’s death was “a major psychological So he has said nothing. For fear of went up at all. and professional blow for Iran”. Speaker: Hillel Ticktin offending doves, neoconservatives The military balance of power 3.youtube.com/watch?v=FYLNCcLfIkM. 4. edition.cnn.com/2020/09/13/opinions/smarter- and an ultra-right government in is meanwhile woefully lopsided. way-to-be-tough-on-iran-joe-biden/index.html. Saturday 2pm Jerusalem, he has decided to hold Israel has launched thousands of 5. thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468- his tongue. air strikes at pro-Iranian targets in 2667(20)30083-9/fulltext. Syria and Iraq with minimal fear of 6. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8997575/ Assassination-Irans-nuclear-scientist-involved-62- Dead deal retaliation. While Iran has staged people-including-12-gunmen.html. The implications for the JCPOA military exercises, in which a mock 7. middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-israel-iran- are plain. If Iran had killed the head US aircraft carrier is attacked and mbs-us-attack-reluctant. The continuing ethnic cleansing of Palestine Statement from Hands Off the People of Iran Speaker: Ilan Pappé Assassinations should Saturday: 6pm

he assassination beof Iran’s condemnedpresidency, when you consider the at the very centre of the regime’s The bankruptcy of left Labourism ‘nuclear mastermind’ during an fact that around the 12th of November security zones. The first time was Tattack in Absard, near Tehran, is the US president was seriously in August, when it is alleged that Speaker: Jack Conrad no doubt part of what the Israeli paper considering air attacks on Iran’s Israeli agents assassinated al Qa’eda’s Ha’aretz called Trump’s “scorched nuclear facilities, only to be dissuaded number two, Abu Mohammed Sunday 10am earth” policy, aided by Netanyahu. by military advisors. al Masri, in a zone controlled by If an Arab country or Iran had Hands Off the People of Iran the ministry of intelligence in assassinated an Israeli, European or is against Iran’s nuclear plan and Tehran. Then there was Friday’s North American nuclear scientist in indeed we campaign for a nuclear- assassination. Clearly Mossad broad daylight, there would have free Middle East. However, this agents have infiltrated the tightly- been no end to the condemnation of aim cannot be achieved through controlled Islamic state security. the act by leaders of the ‘free world’. assassination of individuals involved Unlike the labour activists, academics, The Middle East after the US elections We would have heard lectures about in the development of the nuclear lawyers, environmentalists, etc the ‘rule of law’, the importance of industry in Iran, Israel or anywhere accused of spying, the real Mossad Speakers: Moshé Machover and Yassamine Mather adhering to ‘international law’ … yet, else. Such acts must be condemned agents involved in terrorist plots when an Iranian physics professor - especially when they are part of the are within the ranks of the ministry Sunday 2pm and at least three of his companions desperate last actions of a discredited of intelligence. Instead of torturing are assassinated, in what is assumed US president, who seems to be innocent individuals to force false to be an action organised by Mossad, obsessed with creating chaos before confessions, the regime’s security the media prefers to bury the news his departure. forces in Tehran should look at their and you can barely hear a murmur Of course, Iran’s Islamic Republic own agents. of condemnation from western doesn’t come out of this very well Hopi condemns terrorist attacks in politicians. either. Over the last few years, the Middle East, be they perpetrated Party and programme The plot may have been finalised academics, worker and student by Israel, Iran or Saudi Arabia. Speaker: Mike Macnair during last week’s gathering of activists arrested by the Islamic We oppose any imperialist Pompeo, bin Salman and Netanyahu regime in Tehran have been given intervention and call for the in Neom in Saudi Arabia - a meeting long sentences following false immediate and unconditional end to Sunday 6pm confirmed to have taken place by accusations of spying for foreign sanctions on Iran. While we remain Israeli ministers, yet denied by Saudi powers - mainly the US, UK and opposed to the Islamic Republic of Arabia. Israel. Some have been tortured and Iran, we believe its overthrow must If reports from Tehran are correct forced to appear on the regime’s TV come from below. We oppose US- and at least one group involved in the stations, where they ‘confessed’ to style ‘regime change from above’ and assassination were suicide attackers, the most bizarre claims of spying. that is why we support all working Friday’s plot involved not just Mossad No-one, except the most diehard class and progressive struggles in Iran Crossroad of civilisation: China and the west agents, but Muslim ‘religious martyrs’ supporters of the supreme leader, against poverty and repression. Speaker: Peter Nolan associated with Saudi Arabia. Mossad believes these ‘confessions’ obtained For a Middle East free of nuclear agents don’t take part in suicide under torture. weapons as a step towards worldwide Register for sessions at communistuniversity.uk/winter-cu-2021 missions. Yet in less than four months it nuclear disarmament! l Organised by CPGB: www.cpgb.org.uk and The news is even more worrying appears that Mossad and/or CIA Labour Party Marxists: www.labourpartymarxists.org.uk in these last weeks of the Trump agents have succeeded in hitting hard November 29 weekly 6 December 3 2020 1326 worker SUPPLEMENT SCOTLAND I Mythical, feudal, combined Jack Conrad questions left-nationalist assumptions that Scotland is an ancient nation, which was reduced to the status of a mere English colony by the 1707 Act of Union peaking to the SNP’s virtual annual palpably exists in Scotland today. ‘wars of independence’ against ‘England’, France for the French’14 - code nowadays for conference, Nicola Sturgeon declared We can usefully begin with the left- the famous 1320 Declaration of Arbroath Islamophobia and expelling illegal migrants. that Scotland is “on the cusp of history”, nationalist version of history. Hence Tommy and William Wallace’s victory at Stirling In the process of invention and reinvention, S 1 with “independence in clear sight”. Opinion Sheridan and Alan McCombes. Before they Bridge are cited as clinching evidence. the other ‘Frances’ of Burgundy, Brittany, poll after opinion poll shows a consistent, spectacularly fell out, before they became McCombes‑Sheridan confidently state that Gascony, Provencal, etc are ignored by all if narrow, majority for independence. The irreconcilable political enemies, before they “Scotland is one of the oldest nations in sides in favour of an Île-de-France which indications are that the SNP will emerge as viciously denounced each other as liars Europe”, going back to the 13th century and supposedly inevitably swept all before it from the clear winner in May’s Holyrood elections. in Edinburgh’s court of sessions, Tommy the struggle against Edward I.10 the year 1000 onwards. Polls show them on 56% in the constituencies Sheridan happily put his name to Imagine A ‘theoretical’ underpinning for this There were, of course, regional and and 47% in the regional/party lists.2 After that, (2000), a slim volume written by Alan widely accepted nonsense was supplied by linguistic commonalities in the pre-modern expect an SNP government loudly demanding McCombes (then editor of Scottish Socialist John Foster - former international secretary world, but they should not be equated or a second independence referendum and a battle Voice and widely credited as the SSP’s “chief of the Morning Star’s Communist Party of confused with our present-day notions of royal with an intransigent Boris Johnson. theoretician”). Britain and an emeritus professor of social nation and nationalism. Take the ancient Conceivably, the SNP could go for an Naturally, the usual leftwing celebrities science. Unlike orthodox Marxists, who link Greeks. They spoke a common language, albeit advisory referendum or even an illegal were lined up by the publisher (Kevin nations with the rise of capitalist relations with distinct dialects. They shared a common independence referendum. Just as conceivably, Williamson’s Rebel Inc) to provide back- of production, he maintains that the Scottish territory around the eastern Mediterranean, the Tory government could go for direct rule in cover endorsements. They proved very nation was almost entirely a “feudal creation”. but they also fought innumerable wars against the name of ending the devolution “disaster”. obliging: “I commend it,” wrote John Pilger, The “founding elements” of Scottish language, each other. They had a recognisably common After that it is anyone’s guess: the population Ken Loach pronounced it “excellent” and religion and law (the so-called ‘markers’ of culture vis-à-vis barbarian outsiders, but they recoils from independence, once the horrible Tony Benn went into characteristic overdrive: Scottish nationhood) all “stem from the last were not united economically. Scattered, economic consequences of breaking away “It is one of the very best books that I have three centuries of the middle ages” - or so he largely self-sufficient peasant agriculture, from a post-Brexit UK are fully grasped; there ever read on the subject of socialism,” he claims.11 tribal identity, petty artisan manufacture is civil disobedience and troops on the streets; gushed. Sad. According to this version of history, and painfully slow internal communications the cravenly law-abiding SNP reluctantly Having been trained in the thoroughly the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745 saw the Greeks living in numerous rival lowers its programmatic sights to effectively economistic school of the Militant Tendency, thereby become as much expressions of poleis. There was no Greek nation. Objective accept the union; etc. the two former chums happily repeated the Scottish national resistance against English conditions did not allow it. What we do not need to guess at, though, standard nationalist tropes of misty origins, colonialism as a dynastic struggle between The same applies to medieval Europe. is the attitude of the various left-nationalist medieval Scottish resistance to English the deposed Stewarts and the newly installed Virtually everyone was Christian and organisations, splinters and personalities in expansionism, the gallant role of William Hanoverians. The Stewarts pledged to restore regularly attended church services. Besides Scotland. Well before the first, September Wallace and the bitterly resented loss of hard- the Edinburgh parliament. As a result, in 1745 the commonality of religion, there was the 18 2014 referendum they had been captured won independence. According to Sheridan- Charles Edward Stewart “built mass support commonality of class. The feudal ruling class and turned into SNP minions, satellites and McCombes, Scotland was “evolving as a in the highlands and passive support even in had far more in common with each other adjuncts. The Scottish Socialist Party inanely rudimentary nation-state” - until the 1707 Act the Presbyterian lowlands”.12 culturally, psychologically and economically maintains that “breaking free of the suffocating of Union was forced upon a bankrupt Scottish Scotland’s popular culture, as it comes across the frontiers of crown domains than stranglehold of the British state will benefit elite. Afterwards the country was “stripped down to us today, is supposedly therefore with the exploited peasants below them. working class people across the islands.”3 The of all political and economic autonomy” and one of national resistance against foreign The rural masses had lived relationships prospect of economic collapse in Scotland and turned into a sort of colony of the English/ domination. Not surprisingly, Britain and that were constrictingly narrow - essentially a carnival of reaction both south and north of British ruling class.6 Historic revenge will Britishness are dismissed as nothing more local, being determined by village, manor and the border never seems to occur. supposedly come through separation from than an elitist unity, a fragile and fading church diocese. Naturally then, the SSP’s official Britain and winning a Scottish socialism. imperial construct, beneath which the ‘real’ To the extent there was a wider popular spokesperson, Colin Fox, gladly sat on the National romantics of all stripes, including nations of England, Scotland and Wales lie consciousness, it was regnal - one founded on SNP-dominated ‘yes’ campaign’s advisory national socialists, establishment politicians, ready, waiting to spring forth, given their loyalty to the monarch, or to the monarchy as board in 2014. So did Pat Kane and Elaine historians and journalists, narcissistic moment of freedom - the left-nationalist an institution. Hence Kentish peasants in 1381 C Smith. Meanwhile, the Socialist Workers would‑be freedom fighters and the plain version, of course, culminates in a Scottish could imagine a bond between themselves Party, Socialist Resistance and the Socialist ignorant are all prone to instinctively place socialism. and the boy-king, Richard II. Needless to Party in Scotland merrily danced along, the beginnings of the Scottish nation Yet it is a fundamental mistake to imagine say, that bond was not national. The first singing the same nationalist tune. So did the as far back as they can, in terms of the today’s nations backwards. Medieval language of the Anjou and Plantagenet kings Radical Independence Campaign. RIC united archaeological and written record - hence kingdoms did not have a pre-destiny to form of England was not English, but Norman the Scottish Green Party, the SSP, Republican ancient Picts and the arrival of the Scoti Gaels today’s states - moving through the stages of French. Moreover, these kings of England Communist Network, Common Weal and the from northern Ireland. During these ancient establishing national consciousness, before were also overlords in Scotland, Wales and International Socialist Group - a now dissolved times, Alan McCombes touchingly tells us, finally finding their rightful contemporary Ireland, as well as being feudal magnets outfit established by Chris Bambery after the “two communities” in Scotland had this boundaries. Most medieval kingdoms exploiting large tracts of France. Indeed, as he split from the Socialist Workers Party in in common: they were “peaceful farmers, disappear in the constantly interrupted course far as surplus extraction was concerned, these 2011. As can be seen from their publications, combining livestock and crops. Their society of history: eg, Mercia, Navarre, Burgundy, ‘English’ kings derived most of their wealth press releases and blogs, there has been a was egalitarian, for the practical reason that Galicia, Lombardy. Modern states do, though, and therefore accumulated political-military total collapse into Scottish nationalism. The this was a subsistence economy, with no great invariably invent for themselves - and crucially power from their French, not English, “Scottish Workers’ Republic is a dream we surplus produced that could be creamed off by for their citizens - a history constructed on the possessions. In that sense Henry II of England hold in our heads and minds”, says Bambery a privileged class”.7 An unlikely tale. Society basis of drawing on traditional stories and is best thought of as Henri of Angevin. (A people’s history of Scotland 2014). ‘Britain was, in fact, organised into numerous rival supposedly ancient identities. This work of As to ‘nation’, it is, of course, an ancient is for the rich, Scotland can be for all of us’ clans, or tribes, each owing their “primary inventing nations - as emphasised by Patrick term. For example, in the 3rd century Vulgate runs RIC’s main slogan.4 allegiance to local chiefs”.8 As a concomitant Geary and many of the better historians - edition of the Bible the Greek word ‘ethnos’ Meanwhile, Tommy Sheridan, the disgraced there were endemic blood feuds, bartering began in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and Latin ‘natio’ referred to the original Middle former SSP MSP, has teamed up with former of brides, raiding for cattle and slaves, and through the “creative efforts” of politicians Eastern tribal formations whose “dismal fate” SNP MSP Dave Thompson. His Solidarity constant warfare. Traditionally inter-tribal and nationalists.13 Subsequently their work is recounted in the book of Jeremiah. ‘Natio’ fan club is playing a leading role in Action raiding took place in the autumn “after the was continued and elaborated by a whole was transformed into ‘nacioun’ in the first for Independence - a broad front set up with harvests had been gathered”.9 army of paid persuaders. That does not mean English versions of the Bible and became the stated goal to “max the yes” vote in May’s Either way, the ancient Picts are depicted that nations are fictions, have no reality, do ‘nation’ in the authorised version of 1611. election … and to get Sheridan back into as the founders of a nation that is today a not exist. But Marxists are surely obliged to For these authors and translators of the Bible Holyrood.5 The idea is not to compete with the willing - or unwilling - component part of provide truthful explanation, not to dumbly ‘nation’ was something more than a state SNP, but to secure as many pro-independence the United Kingdom. That, after all, is how echo the dominant ideology. or kingdom. It corresponded to a ‘people’ MSPs as possible. So AfI unashamedly strives standard history tells the story. That is what For example, official France claims origins who were assumed to be a natural, inherited to bring about Sturgeon’s banal goal of securing children are taught in Scottish schools. Indeed, in ancient Gaul, forgetting that the French community of tradition, custom, law and an independent capitalist Scotland that then virtually every country that exists at this language is Latin, not Celtic in root and that descent. ‘Nation’ designated therefore the becoming a dependent part of the capitalist present moment in time is projected back into the name ‘France’ itself derives from 4th ‘gens’ or ‘populus’, who were presumed to European Union. A modern-day version of prehistory by the propagandists of nationhood and 5th century Germanic conquistadors. have a common biological descent. Scotland’s ‘auld alliance’ with absolutist - a common sense reflected in the history Vercingetorix - the 1st century BCE chieftain Origin myths were used to establish and France. sections in libraries and bookshops, and their of the Arverni - is painted as a precursor of explain the commonality of people. For arrangement into neat, alphabetically ordered the 1940s French resistance by the French example, in medieval times the Franks were When was Scotland? national sections - Albania, Bulgaria, Canada, Communist Party. His social position at the traced back to the arrival of exiled Trojans in This and subsequent articles will not deal Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Germany … top of an exploiting warrior elite is ignored. the Rhineland. Hence if the nation was defined with the ins and outs of a second referendum. Scotland. Marine Le Pen and her National Rally have in ethnic, or biological, terms, then the idea Rather, the aim is to provide the essential Slightly less fanciful is the notion that developed a whole cult around Joan of Arc. of the nation was based on the possession of foundations needed to put together a solidly Scotland achieved national consciousness and The mission of the Maid of Orleans is said a common language: ie, language makes Marxist approach to the national question that therefore nationhood in medieval times. The to have been ‘England for the English and nation. During medieval times university weekly worker 1326 December 3 2020 7 SUPPLEMENT students in Prague were therefore organised his conquest of Wales. The ‘Scottish’ Balliol schiltrons hardly demonstrates nationalism or James the Stewart, Wallace’s own lord. The into four ‘nations’, as were the knights of the family still held lands in France. Robert de national consciousness. respective roles of Moray and Wallace is Hospitallers in the Levant: eg, the ‘Bohemian’ Bruce, the Earl of Carrick, was a vassal of There have been popular mobilisations much obscured by the fact that the former and ‘Frankish’ ‘nations’. The material fact of Edward I. As we have noted, the Plantagenet in support of rival elites since the dawn died of wounds inflicted at Stirling Bridge. language could only but produce a distinct and Anjou ‘English’ kings themselves of history - the Greek city-states and their Either way, Wallace became Guardian in consciousness, when confronted by others. occupied tracts of France - notably Gascony, peasant-citizen armies being a case in point. Scotland not in the name of the people, but the However, the medieval kingdom of Aquitaine and Poitou - and often actively Surely the ability of Wallace and Moray to “illustrious king” in exile. He was Balliol’s Scotland was home to not one common promoted claims to the French throne. The form a peasant-plebeian army rested not on regnal champion. language or ‘nation’, but three at least. ‘English’ armies of Edward I and II used in any nationalism, or national idealism: rather Wallace was, however, no military genius. Scotland were recruited in large numbers the ideology of feudal obedience. He only successfully fought one set-piece A medieval ‘nation’ from domains in France, Ireland and Wales. Wallace and Moray raised their army on battle: Stirling Bridge. When his army met the So, what of medieval Scotland? We have Crucially, though, their wars in Scotland were the traditional basis of ‘Scottish service’, ‘English’ feudal host at Falkirk in July 1298, already referred to the so-called ‘Scottish wars solidly based on feudal, not national, rights. which was by law imposed on the “horseless the longbowmen destroyed his schiltrons. His of independence’. My view - which continues Edward I certainly sought to incorporate classes”. Every territorial unity was obliged status as Guardian was fatally undermined. to enrage left nationalists in Scotland - is that the territory of the kingdom of Scotland into to provide a certain quota of fighting men. The resistance of the high aristocracy shrunk the popular belief that William Wallace, and, his feudal empire. At first the means were Scottish service was therefore similar to the still further. They opted for a peace deal. following him, Robert Bruce, led some sort peaceful. The Treaty of Birgham in 1290 Anglo-Saxon fyrd. The great lords, along Like Bruce after 1309, Wallace was forced of national liberation struggle against the set out the terms of a future dynastic union with the bishops and their priests, gave “tacit to turn to guerrilla or ‘secret’ warfare and English is a combination of 19th century myth through the marriage of Margaret, the Maid approval” to the mobilisation, but in general to raiding the northern English counties. A and Hollywood hokum. As for the celebrated of Norway, and Edward of Caernarfon, stayed safely in the background. Whether or risky business. In August 1305 Wallace was Declaration of Arbroath - written in Latin Edward’s son. Margaret was the daughter of not the common population responded with captured near Glasgow and taken to London, and purportedly representing the Scottish Erik II of Norway and the granddaughter of enthusiasm is a question that cannot really be where he was tried, found guilty of treason equivalent of the American declaration of Alexander III of Scotland. More to the point, answered, although that is quite conceivable.17 and horribly killed. independence - it did not acquire that iconic she was heir to the Scottish crown. Edward What we can safely say though is that the Wallace was used many years later by status till modern times. would have ruled as king - first of Scotland peasantry did not act as a class for itself. the forces of radical democracy in inspiring In essence the conflict between ‘England’ and then, after his father’s death, England. He Doubtless many would have deeply resented poems, novels and songs. The same can be and ‘Scotland’ after 1296 was no different would have been Edward I of Scotland and Edward’s murdering, raping, robbing army, said of Hereward the Wake and the long-held from the Wars of the Roses: ie, a struggle Edward II of England. but the idea of malnourished, illiterate, mainly beliefs in pre-conquest Anglo-Saxon liberty between rival feudal interests, whose It had been agreed that the land rights of the unfree peasants - who lived in isolated villages and opposition to the Norman yoke. But to ideology was based on past notions of fief and ruling elite in Scotland would go unaffected. and crofts - embracing modern notions of confuse origin myths for actual history is a vassalage, not future notions of nation and The border between the two kingdoms nationalism is stretching the imagination to foolish mistake and certainly not worthy of nationality. The aristocratic elite in Scotland would remain unchanged and the churches, breaking point. anyone who calls themselves a Marxist. can be described as Anglo-Norman or Scoto- parliaments and legal systems kept separate. For the sake of blinkered left nationalists in Norman, not least because of their family The merger was to be of crowns. There was to Scotland, it is also worth stressing the fact that ‘Markers’ names - Fitzalan, Oliphant, de Graham, be no 1066-type takeover. Edward’s army, assembled before the battle Most historians who think that the kingdom Comyn, de Bailleul (Balliol), and de Brus As we know, the United Kingdom had to of Falkirk in 1298, included 4,000 cavalry of Scotland was a proto-nation or even a (Bruce). But the key thing to understand is wait for another three centuries or so before ... but also some 25,000 infantrymen - “paid, nation before the 1707 Act of Union with the that they were feudal lords, and this is how seeing the light of day. Margaret died and voluntary unpaid and feudal elements”.18 It is kingdom of England take the view that this they understood themselves. triggered a constitutional crisis in Scotland. true that Edward represented a rich feudalism. was brought about through language and With this in mind the great lords in Edward I quickly moved to assert his His elaborately armoured and expensively three main institutions: namely the education Scotland can be categorised as ‘traditionalists’ overlordship. John Balliol was appointed king mounted knights were the tank divisions of system, the kirk and the law. Here we have defending their right to exploit their serfs under Edward’s sponsorship and duly swore the day. It is also true that the kingdom of the so-called key ‘markers’ of Scottish without anyone higher up the feudal ladder fealty to him in December 1292. Scotland was a poor feudalism and could nationhood. A flimsy and unconvincing siphoning off the bulk of the surplus. Edward Internal feudal contradictions in Scotland, afford neither the same numbers of infantry construct. I was the ‘revolutionary’ centraliser who and Edward’s onerous demands placed on nor heavy cavalry. Let us begin with the institutions before wanted to do just that. his vassals, drove king John to rebellion. That the ‘English’ feudalists suffered turning to language. During this medieval period both Instead of meekly accepting Edward’s defeats at the hands of the ‘Scots’ feudalists Education was not mentioned in the 1707 ‘Scotland’ and ‘England’ were little more domination, the ‘Scottish’ feudalists raised an is testimony not to a people’s war. Rather it treaty. There was, though, a well established than geographical expressions. There was army - including commoners - at Caddonlee. was military incompetence. At Bannockburn education system in Scotland in the 17th then no war between Scotland and England. The Scots were comprehensively routed the ‘English’ army under the command of century. Doing his best, the local minister Rather wars by the kings of England in in a 17‑day blitzkrieg. Edward I stripped a Edward II fought on “cramped and hemmed would drum into the heads of young boys, Scotland - a crucial distinction. In this context captured Balliol of his feudal trappings in a in”, almost suicidal, terrain and, no doubt and a few young girls, a little reading and the Declaration of Arbroath - which took humiliating ceremony held at Montrose Castle due to aristocratic arrogance, launched a writing and a lot of religion.21 The parish the form of an appeal by the earls and the in July 1296. His tabard, hood and knightly “headstrong”, frontal cavalry charge, against school was essentially an outpost of the kirk, feudal elite in Scotland to pope John XXII in girdle were physically torn from him. massed pikemen. And it is worth noting that in which explains why teaching the catechism Avignon - was to all intents and purposes no Yet, though Edward’s means shifted from later battles, such as Dupplin Moor, Halidon was considered so important. But this was different from the Magna Carta in England, those of peaceful diplomacy to naked force, Hill and Neville’s Cross, the ‘Scottish’ armies mainly in the lowlands. Education in the the Charter of Ottokar in Syria or the Golden this ran in parallel to, and often in conflict employed tactics “modelled” on those used highlands was much more difficult, given Bull in Hungary. Lurking behind the fawning with, his individual fief-vassal relationship by Bruce at Bannockburn. However, such the widely dispersed population and the fact appeals to the pope and the stirring phrases with the great feudal families in Scotland. attempts to repeat Bannockburn ended in that many a minister did not speak Gaelic. about “good men” and being “for freedom Here lies the explanation for the ‘sinister’ role “disaster”.19 Despite the latter-day boasts, literacy, even in alone” there was indeed the sordid fight over of the elder Bruce, etc, and the constant shifts The ‘correct’ tactic at Bannockburn, which the lowlands, was in fact far from universal: it “riches”.15 in alliances, as the ‘Scots’ feudalists gradually soon became standard, was to send the cavalry was “literacy was not noticeably higher than Under the banner of fighting for their turned the tables on the ‘English’ - Stirling in a pincer movement and, when it came to comparable nations, as the education in the ancient liberties the ‘traditionalist’ lords Bridge being a crucial early battle. But the front, unleash the English and Welsh parish schools was basic, short and attendance were determined to limit the ‘revolutionary’ there were, of course, no national patriots, longbowmen. These equally plebeian, though was not compulsory”.22 Either way, we have centralising power of a hegemonic crown, so defeatists, collaborators or traitors in the highly skilled, forces would wreak decimation not commonality, but the divergence of two that they could secure the greater share of the modern sense. After winning at Bannockburn on any stationary formation. They would fire distinct cultures. surplus product squeezed from the peasantry. in 1314, the ‘Scottish’ nobility sought to arrows at a rate “three or four times” faster Scotland did have a surprisingly good- The preamble is typically medieval: the expand its influence into Wales and Ireland. than a crossbow and with equal accuracy quality university system, which fed into the “Scots nation” came from “Greater Scythia”, The ‘war of independence’ continued, though and reach.20 The longbow even proved a Scottish enlightenment and produced great having sailed through the Pillars of Hercules as an internecine conflict between the Bruce match against the elite of French feudalism. thinkers, such as David Hume and Adam (Columpnas Herculis). Having dwelt in and Balliol families. Needless to say, neither Crécy nor Agincourt Smith. However, it should be understood that Spain and Ireland for 400 years, they moved Left nationalists not only cite the make Edward III and Henry V leaders of a amongst the “most advanced” sections of the to Scotland, where they triumphed over Declaration of Arbroath, but William Wallace slave revolt. By the same logic the reliance bourgeoisie were to be found the “principle Britons and Picts and survived attacks by and the social composition of the army, which of Wallace and co on pikemen proves nothing advocates of Britishness”.23 “Norwegians, Danes and English”. If, as fought with him at Stirling Bridge and for in and of itself, except that the kingdom of So, what about the kirk? True, the Church nationalists claim, Scotland was a proto-nation Bruce at Bannockburn, as proof of a popular Scotland was a poor feudalism. of Scotland is nowadays more overtly in the 14th century, its leading representatives national consciousness. These fantasists All in all, the suggestion that Wallace led a Protestant and less overtly hierarchical than still saw themselves as conquistadors of the actually put Wallace and his army in the revolt from below in the manner of Spartacus the Church of England: eg, it has no bishops, Britons and Picts (albeit using a stretched same league as Spartacus, Wat Tyler and the and Wat Tyler is totally unconvincing. and each church congregation is governed version of Virgil’s 1st century BCE Aeneid). Levellers: ie, a revolutionary class movement Following Edward I’s victory in 1296, many by an elected assembly of elders. But the However, the purpose of the Declaration is from below. According to Thomas Johnston nobles languished in England, awaiting C of S is far from being the universal church crystal-clear. It was an attempt to gain papal (1882-1965) in his influential The history of ransom. Others had been injured and were of Scotland’s people. There are rivals in the backing for the lords in Scotland, justified in the working classes in Scotland (1920), those unable to take to the field. Others were form of Catholicism and countless Protestant part through recourse to myth and invention. responsible for the defeat of the ‘English’ temporarily cowed. The imposition of Edward sects.24 There is no continuity between the forms army in 1314 “were the working class, and I’s puppet parliament and plans for a deep From the 1560s onwards the Calvinist of consciousness used in the Declaration of it was their charge on the field that won the feudalism provoked widespread opposition, doctrines espoused by John Knox edged their Arbroath and that of the modern Scottish battle of Bannockburn”.16 Apparently the including from small landowners. However, way to dominance in the Church of Scotland. people. The kings and nobles of both England presence of urban plebeians and peasants is no ‘natural’ leadership stepped forth willing A long and often bitter struggle ensued and Scotland were feudalists - with a Norman meant to show that the ‘wars of independence’ to fight. It was into this vacuum that Andrew between the monarch and the kirk over the French-derived culture (they were married had a popular character. de Moray emerged in the north and William appointment of bishops and control over to aristocratic wives, chosen from across the So, did Wallace lead a slave revolt? Wallace in the south. Moray was the son and general assemblies. James VI of Scotland whole of north-western Europe). Bannockburn - won under Bruce, the future heir of a leading baron. Wallace had a much (and from 1603 James I of England) famously This ‘cosmopolitan’ class entertained no Robert II - involved no decisive action by less elevated lineage. He was either the son said: “No bishop, no king”. He saw control modern-day notions of nation. The idea of a commoners. Stirling Bridge did. However, of a Renfrewshire knight or the son of a mere over the church and appointment of bishops national liberation war would have been utterly there is a huge difference between rallying an crown tenant. as essential to his absolutist principles of incomprehensible to them. It was merely that army of commoners and being an army of and In the summer of 1297, the Moray-Wallace kingship. He met resistance from both the their realms of exploitation, commonality for the commoners. The fact that the forces campaign made rapid progress. Nevertheless, great lords and the church itself. and rivalry invariably overlapped with other commanded by William Wallace and Andrew over these two “commanders of the army of His son, Charles I, inherited an uneasy feudalists. There were countless examples de Moray at Stirling Bridge in 1297 consisted the kingdom of Scotland, and the community settlement in Scotland, based on a compromise of double allegiances. ‘Scottish’ lords - such mainly of foot soldiers and his tactical of that realm” there stood two great magnets between Calvinist doctrine and monarchical as John Comyn - fought with Edward I in deployment of pikemen in tightly packed - Robert Wishart, bishop of Glasgow, and power. But, lacking the evident political weekly 8 December 3 2020 1326 worker SUPPLEMENT skills of his father, he blunderingly moved to language (it was the Scoti from northern (described as Great Britain not for reasons After the union of the crowns, Scots impose absolutism over both kingdoms. Given Ireland who appear to have introduced Gaelic of imperial braggadocio, as left nationalists English rapidly gave way to the standard the times, his strategy in Scotland centred on - a Goidelic Celtic language related to old and other such types have it, but in order to English developed in London during the 17th the Prayer book of 1637 - a slightly modified Irish, old Manx, etc). distinguish it from Little Britain or Brittany: and 18th centuries - a standardisation which version of the Anglican Book of common The Celts are supposed to have arrived ie, the same as Great Russia, Little Russia perhaps found its foremost champion in prayer. Though it was drafted by a panel from the European mainland around 300 BCE and White Russia - or Russia, Ukraine and Samuel Johnson’s celebrated 1775 dictionary. of Scottish bishops, his insistence that it be - others give 500 BCE as the date - and are Belarus). For Scottish nationalists this provides adopted ‘sight-unseen’ caused widespread commonly known by their ‘tribal’ names: Clearly, the inhabitants of Britain (we shall irrefutable proof of colonial oppression. outrage. eg, the Iceni, Brigantes, Belgae, Dumnonii, leave Northern Ireland aside here) are joined We are told: “One of the greatest, if not the When the Prayer book was finally Votadini. This could be true. But it would together by more than just having a single greatest, of the barriers to a nation’s freedom introduced at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh probably not have been a people movement. hereditary monarch reigning over them. is the devaluation and oppression of its in mid-1637, it triggered rioting. In early 1638 The numbers involved would have been Besides a common state formation and a culture. When a nation’s language, or culture, the National Covenant was signed by large relatively small and would, especially to begin common territory, there is a common - though has been sufficiently weakened, a slave numbers of Scottish grandees. In November with, have been warrior bands out for loot and not necessarily uniform - historical experience, alternative will invariably be imposed by the 1638, the kirk’s general assembly met in slaves. No less to the point, genetic studies a common language, a common economy imperial power.”31 Glasgow, the first for 20 years. It not only show a large continuity between the Iron Age and, crucially, a common consciousness - However, at the risk of oversimplification, declared the Prayer book unlawful, but went on and the earlier populations.28 Despite that, which perhaps reached its peak in the 1940s in 1707 Scotland had not one, but two to abolish the office of bishop itself. The Church the Celts appear to have come in sufficient and 50s. So Britain can be categorised as a cultures; not one, but two languages. The of Scotland was from then on committed to a numbers to allow their language, or dialect, to nation-state made up of nations, or, to use an culture and language of the feudal highlands thorough-going Presbyterianism. Attempts come to dominance. approved governmental formulation, Britain and the culture and language of the capitalist by Charles I to push back led to the outbreak Obviously, the story changes once again is an arrangement of “countries within a lowlands. Educated lowland Scots adopted of the so-called Bishops’ Wars. Though there with the Anglo-Saxons invasions of the country”.29 Obviously, a category that cannot standard English - naturally, spoken with was little full-scale fighting Charles I was 5th and 6th centuries. We are told that they be treated as fixed, immutable - not least a Scottish accent - “largely out of choice”.32 defeated and forced into a whole series of swept away what remained of disintegrating because of the rise of separatist Scottish and Obviously, it was a huge advantage for the humiliating compromises. The Covenanters Romano-British society. Celtic natives Welsh nationalism. Then there is the Tory aspirational be readily understood by social found themselves in control of the government bravely fought back. But they were subjected mobilisation of resentful English nationalism. equals, superiors and subordinates in England and kirk in Scotland, though their ambitions to a prolonged war that amounted to genocide. At the very least, Britishness is fraying with and the growing British empire. But diffusion did not stop there. They sought political power A few survivors headed off to Brittany. Brexit and the further decline of the United through kirk sermons, schoolroom teaching, through the creation of a “unified church However, most retreated to highland redoubts. Kingdom as an imperial power. print culture and finally the electronic media of Scotland and England, only one that was An unlikely scenario. Almost certainly, In the event of a second referendum, the generalised standard English … just listen Presbyterian, rather than Episcopalian”.25 In victorious Anglo-Saxon warrior chiefs would more sophisticated advocates of a Scottish to Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth the subsequent British Isles-wide revolution, have married their sons to the daughters of breakaway, will, once again, argue that Davidson or George Galloway. Scots survives the Scots Covenanters initially made common the defeated Romano-British elite. As to the whereas Britain is an “artificial construct”, in song, poetry and the occasional literary cause with the English parliamentarians - Celtic-speaking common people, they would Scotland is a “legitimate” nation: therefore, flourish. The same process of assimilation resulting in the Westminster confession of faith have been kept working on the land and if Scotland is to meet its “date with destiny”, happened elsewhere in the British Isles - - a document which remains the “subordinate subject to exploitation. Presumably through it must vote ‘yes’ for independence.30 Yet Wales, Ireland and northern England included. standard” of the Church of Scotland, but was assimilation, they disappear from history in anyone with access to a decent set of history Yes, Gaelic was ruthlessly persecuted. disposed of in England after the restoration. south-western Britain - in other words, in books will find that nations are made and Indeed, after the 1746 battle of Culloden, It should be added, once Oliver Cromwell most of England and the Scottish lowlands. remade. That certainly applies not only to the whole highland way of life was put and the New Model Army defeated the royalist By the 8th century a majority of people in the Britain but Scotland too. under sustained attack. Feudal relations were forces and dethroned Charles I, parliament Scottish lowlands were reportedly speaking a As a kingdom it was bloodily, painfully forcibly uprooted and capitalist relations established an English Commonwealth. The variety of old English. and fitfully put together through military imposed. Highland costume, carrying arms union of crowns was ended. It was only the After a relatively long hiatus, the Normans advances and feudal marriage-bed deals. and other symbols of ‘barbarism’ were proclamation of Charles II as king of Great are assimilated into Anglo-Saxon culture. There was nothing inevitable about the banned. However, the Hanoverian-Tory Britain, France and Ireland that “provoked” They help, though, make the modern English forward march of the House of Alpin and regime in London carried out this ruthless an invasion and the “forcible incorporation” of language with its huge number of French and the kingdom of Alba. Conceivably there policy of social engineering with the full Scotland.26 Latin loan-words. However, the descendants could just as easily have been a surviving blessing and active connivance of the lowland Of course, modern-day Scottish nationalists of those who fought with William of kingdom of Fortriu or a surviving kingdom Scottish elite. So, this was not England versus and their leftwing outriders paint the Normandy at the battle of Hastings went on to of Strathclyde. Anyway, both the Scottish Scotland: rather, British capitalist society Covenanters as leading a mass movement take first Wales and then Ireland. The reason and British nations unmistakably come into versus highland feudalism. against an English monarch - that Charles this matters, apart from getting history right, is existence after the 1707 Act of Union. Only Later, after the work of destruction had I was born in Scotland and was the scion of that Scottish nationalists treat the expansion of well into the 18th century did the bulk of been completed, writers and poets - the most Scotland’s ruling house of Stewart is typically the Anglo-Saxons, the feudal wars of Edward the population in Scotland begin to think of outstanding being Walter Scott - reconstructed forgotten or brushed aside. Moreover, it should Plantagenet and the 1707 Act of Union as themselves as Scottish ... and British. an imagined highlandism, which provided be pointed out, the original Covenanters never chapters in the same uninterrupted history of Scottish nationalists, almost by definition, the paradigm for a common Scottish intended to overthrow the monarchy. The anti-Sassenach resistance (‘Sassenach’ being loathe the idea of a British national identity. consciousness. This work of invention snugly movement was led by high aristocrats, such an 18th century Scottish term that derived Yet denying its existence is akin to denying fitted into a common Britishness. As clan as the Earl of Sutherland and the Marquis of from ‘Sasunnoch’, the Gaelic for Saxon). that Italy or Germany have a national identity society perished, as the highlands ceased to Montrose. Their Covenant praised the “king’s Leave aside the great feudal lords and because the Party of Venetians (Partito dei be bandit territory, as Jacobitism faded in the greatness and authority”. Besides that, for the their Norman-French. Within the Stewart Veneti) calls for Venetian independence memory, as English reassuringly eclipsed purposes of this discussion, the 4,000-word kingdom of Scotland not only were there or the Bavaria Party (Bayernpartei) wants Gaelic, lowland Scots could safely adopt and Covenant oozed hatred for Catholics and those who were still locked into the Gaelic- an independent Bavaria ... the ultimate celebrate a sanitised highland culture. The Catholicism: ie, a not insignificant section of speaking clan society of the highlands. destination of such atomisation being the old north-Briton identity in the lowlands was Scotland’s Gaelic population which lived north There are also the peoples of the Shetlands Thatcherite dictum: “there is no such thing as quietly abandoned. In its place came a wider of the Clyde and the Tay - not least due to the and Orkney, who still spoke Norse. Then, society, there are individual men and women British Scottishness. continued hold of clan society many of them in the much more prosperous lowlands, and there are families”. Highlandism thereby morphed into stayed true to the “anti-Christ” in Rome. In the majority spoke a dialect of English (a The fact of the matter is that, good or bad, a source of pride rather than something short, the Covenanters were committed, at the Scottish-English, sometimes referred to as clever or stupid, reactionary or progressive, viewed as shameful, as barbaric, as ‘other’. very least, to introducing discriminatory laws. Lallans). Hence, language does not work as Britain and Britishness owes as much to Its paraphernalia - the plaid, bagpipes and Class politics were pursued through religion, a ‘marker’ of national consciousness. There Scottish as to English input. Eg, on the a supposedly age-old, but actually forged, not modern-day notions of nation. is no commonality. Certainly, lowland Scots Scottish side John Mair, Adam Smith, David Ossianic literature - were incorporated into Nor is the idea of criminal and civil law would have had far more in common with Hume, James Watt, Walter Scott, Kier Hardie, the dominant culture as defining signs and being a ‘marker’ of national consciousness the inhabitants of northern England, such as Ramsay MacDonald, Douglas Haig, John symbols, above all in the army. In 1881, really credible. Here, with the law, we have not in Northumbria and Cumbria, than highland Reith, John Buchan, Willie Gallacher, Muriel the army high command decreed that even popular consciousness, but rather bureaucratic Scots that is for sure. However, as we have Spark, Alec Douglas Home, Tam Dalyell, lowlands regiments would be kitted out in continuity, which, especially given the already pointed out, with the growth of print Mick McGahey, Gordon Brown. highland dress - or a version which passed times, was by definition fundamentally culture and the development of capitalist Britishness involves a dual national for it. Their bonnets, kilts and distinguishing undemocratic. Till the Act of Union the post of relations of production, the most ‘advanced’ identity. That is how it spontaneously evolved tartans were subsequently adopted by a sheriff was typically heritable - in 21 out of 33 representatives of the bourgeoisie had already and that is how it was built by monarchs, vicarious Scottish mass culture, which sheriffdoms. They were held by local barons, began to refer to themselves as ‘north Britons’ politicians, bureaucrats and intellectuals. In sprouted in the white dominions. Hence who would ruthlessly exploit their position “to (south Britain was England and Wales). other words, Scottishness survives not in spite the Caledonian and other such societies in profit themselves, not the king”.27 The whole There was nothing akin to the phenomenon of history: rather because of history. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. system reeked of corruption. Under these in Ireland, where proto-national consciousness There never was a drive to abolish Scottish In the early 18th century, lowland Scottish circumstances would a peasant proudly quote coincided with religion after 1690. Both identity or subsume it under an overarching intellectuals regarded the highlands as a judgement made by an underling of one of Gaelic-Irish and Anglo-Irish became Irish- Englishness. Of course, that was not true of backward, dangerous and foreign. Some 50 those grasping barons, if asked whether the two Irish with the persecution of the Catholic those speaking Celtic languages. There was years later faux highland culture was celebrated of them share a common Scottishness? Hardly. religion and the imposition of the Anglican a fitful campaign to Anglicise Wales and as the culture of the whole kingdom. And is Crucially, for the mass of people in religion, the influx of Protestant settlers from encourage migration from England in the late has been so ever since. Wedding organisers Scotland to have felt themselves to be England and, above all, Scotland into north- medieval period. However, certainly when it recommend that the well turned-out groom Scottish, they would have had to be drawn eastern Ulster. No-one denies the role of comes to Scotland, it is surely an elementary hires a ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ coatee and together through a whole nexus of economic, Calvinism in Scotland nor the Presbyterian mistake to equate the kingdom of Scotland vest, kilt, plaid broach, white hose, ghillie cultural and linguistic ties. Experience of the ‘state within a state’ form of religious self- with those who spoke Gaelic. brogues, kilt pin, sgian dubh, black belt with law, the kirk and education would not have government. But there was always the buckle, formal sporran with chain strap and a proved sufficient. other Scotland: the Scotland that was not God’s language piece of lucky heather on their lapel.33 When So, let us turn to language. Presbyterian, but Episcopalian or Catholic; Thanks to Protestantism and James I, people Tommy Sheridan married Gail Healy in According to the standard version of events, not English-speaking, but Gaelic or Norse- throughout his kingdom were able to diligently 2000’s “wedding of the year”, that is exactly Julius Caesar met a uniformly Celtic speaking speaking; not capitalist, but feudal. study the Bible and interpret even its more how the celebrity MSP presented himself to population when his fleet landed in Britain obscure passages and verses for themselves readers of Scottish Socialist Voice (edited by in 55 BCE. Throughout the Roman province More than two crowns - Protestantism being a literate religion, his Svengali, Alan McCombes). of Britannia, and to the far north, beyond The official title of the state in this country in which the human being and god speak Having been decriminalised in 1782, Hadrian’s Wall, people spoke various dialects is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and directly with each other without mediation highlandism was appropriated from on of Brythonic (or Brittanic). Pictish is thought Northern Ireland. Great Britain itself being the by priests. And the word of god that they read high. Walter Scott famously masterminded to be Brythonic too, or a closely related sister unity of two kingdoms and one principality was English - their common language. George IV’s state visit to Edinburgh in weekly worker 1326 December 3 2020 9 SUPPLEMENT August 1822. The Hanoverian king was Scottish churchmen, journalists, army officers Wellington’s ministry as a ‘junta’. Reform brotherhood of affection amongst Britons sensationally paraded around, decked out and civil servants. The Scottish elite therefore of the House of Commons was successfully of every description who are considered in the apparel and paraphernalia of the old had a very material interest in becoming put off till 1832. When it finally came, worthy of confidence; and that I will enemy. Highland landowners - whom Scott British, in becoming joint oppressors - a key the extension of the franchise was firmly persevere in my endeavours to obtain for insisted on calling ‘chiefs’ - were similarly factor in creating official Britishness. restricted to the respectable classes. all the people of Great Britain and Ireland attired. George IV was given the title of ‘chief The growth of British capitalism is Chartism rose in angry response, but was not disqualified by crimes or insanity the of chiefs’. As Hugh Trevor Roper comments, inseparable from the struggle for global rebuffed time and again. By 1850 both elective franchise at the age of 21, with Scott knew the whole thing was cod history.34 hegemony. Catholic Spain had been wings of Chartism had to all intents and free and equal representation and annual A few lowland grandees seethingly objected. effectively defeated by the mid-17th purposes exhausted themselves. The 1867 parliaments.45 Writing in 1850, Lord Macaulay, a Scot, century, but the challenge of Catholic France extension of the franchise happened at a damned George IV’s visit. To display his remained. That is not to suggest for one time of working class passivity. Property- Such programmatic material owes little respect for Scotland, the king had disguised moment that Britain fought the 1702-13 and owning skilled male workers duly voted for or nothing to the ideology of narrow himself in what before the 1707 Act of Union 1754-63 global wars for reasons of religion. their masters and in overwhelming numbers nationalism. True, the slogans and banners had been “considered by nine Scotchmen out It did not. But doubtless religion coloured embraced the cult of empire imperialism and of radical Scotland invoked the names of of ten as the dress of a thief”.35 and spun rivalries. monarchism. Obviously, there were breaks William Wallace and Robert Bruce. ‘Scots By 1848 Victoria had acquired her Balmoral Neil Davidson questions Colly’s thesis and exceptions. Nevertheless, the dominant wha’ ha’e’ was frequently sung. However, estate, and she decorated it in full baronial that Protestantism provided the glue for strand in British national consciousness has they also claimed the Magna Carta and other style. It was a “riot of tartan”.36 The young British national identity. He insists that been conservative. Labourism and routine references to the imagined history of English queen claimed a special affinity with the Scots the different Protestantisms were actually trade unionism prove it. resistance to the Norman yoke. The same because of her Stuart ancestry. A mania of a source of continuous tension and non- Self-justifying Scottish left nationalists, thing happened in England. ‘Scots wha’ highland games, piping competitions, dances, identity. Presbyterianism, he writes, “acted on the basis of such evidence, maintain ha’e’ was an anthem of liberty in England songs and music ensued. Gàidhealtachd was as a divisive factor in Anglo-Scottish that Britishness existed only at the top of right down to the Chartist days. Above all in eagerly embraced by respectable society, but relations”39 - Presbyterianism being Scottish society. Aristocrats, the upper sections of the terms of its immediate aims, radical politics with its “linguistic teeth pulled.”37 Official and middle class; Anglicanism being English, bourgeoisie, members of the officer corps, was all-British in scope and ambition. Scottish society, especially the British royal pro-establishment and staffed by the higher expatriate colonial officials intermarried Peterloo was an injury to all. The demand for family, still dresses as the highlander whenever classes. and sent their sons to the same educational ‘universal suffrage and annual parliaments’ the appropriate opportunity presents. For obvious reasons, amongst Scots establishments. They alone met together would save “this country” - ie, Britain, from themselves, anti-Catholicism “was a source regularly - in politics, in business, in London “military despotism”. Etc, etc. Religion of division, rather than unity”.40 In 1778 town houses, at country balls and other such The general strike of 1820 announced The 1603 union between England-Wales and upper-class Scotland wanted to implement social occasions. They alone operated at an that workers in Scotland had joined those Scotland was a regal arrangement, brokered reform measures which relaxed anti-Catholic all-Britain level. in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and agreed from above. Oliver Cromwell’s oppression. Such legislation was passed for Logically, for this school of thought, Newcastle, Sheffield and Cardiff in forming republic began with a puritan revolution England and Ireland by the Westminster and it follows that those below, especially in a united working class that was British. from below, but was completed by a military Dublin parliaments. Catholics were granted Scotland, had an ambiguous attitude towards Hence the notion that Britishness is purely dictatorship, the crushing of Leveller the right to purchase land. They were also Britishness; the subordinate classes were reactionary is evidently false. The masses democracy and the terroristic confiscation of permitted to teach - provided they took the apparently the main bearers of Scottishness. played an unmistakable role in positively Irish landed property. Nevertheless, be they oath of allegiance and denied the temporal More, it is claimed - eg, by the more eccentric making another Britain. Needless to say, subjects of the Stuart dynasts or citizens of the powers of the bishop of Rome. outliers, such as Peter Berresford Ellis and while never dominant, Owenism, Chartism, Commonwealth, the majority of inhabitants, However, popular protests forced the James D Young - that Scottishness implies militant trade unionism and CPGB including a majority in lowland Scotland, abandonment of these modest measures opposition to Britishness, and therefore the communism were pan-British political were also united by a common religion - in Scotland. The Covenanter tradition ran union with England and Wales, and in turn phenomena. National consciousness contains Protestantism (Catholicism being the defining deep. Davidson thinks that with this he has an almost innate desire for independence. many possible extensions - proletarian ‘other’). clinched the argument. Those above - those Yet, as we have already shown, there internationalism included l The historian, Linda Colley, argues that most interested in the success of British was no Scottish nation or Scottish common Protestantism provided the vital glue, which identity and the union - were for Catholic national consciousness prior to the 1707 38 Notes allowed the union of 1707 to stick. The emancipation. Those below - not least those union. When it did emerge, by incorporating 1. The Guardian November 28 2020. consciousness brought about by reformation under the influence of Calvinist dissidents highlandism, Scottishness was not against 2. Evening Express November 12 2020. and counterreformation and the eventual - were mobilised against the Catholic anti- Britishness, but an integral part of it. Robert 3. scottishsocialistparty.org. triumph of Protestantism throughout Britain Christ. Burns and other such radicals in Scotland 4. radicalindependence.org/2014/02/26/new-ric-campaign- britain-is-for-the-rich-scotland-can-be-ours. cemented a deeper union. Yet the same stratified pattern can be seen had a dual national consciousness. So did the 5. The Express October 5 2020. The 1603 union of the crowns would in England too. Anti-Catholicism cannot be conservative, Walter Scott. 6. T Sheridan and A McCombes Imagine Glasgow 2000, pp179- surely have been impossible without mutual so easily disposed of. Davidson more or less Crucially, the majority of people in 80. Protestantism. Without it James VI would never discounts the Gordon riots, whose immediate Scotland, as manifested through their 7. A McCombes and R Paterson Restless land: a radical journey through Scotland’s history Vol 1 Glasgow 2014. have been acceptable and someone else would cause was the 1788 legislation. These riots organisations, mass actions and political 8. T Clarkson The Picts: a history Edinburgh 2010. have been chosen. Not that Protestantism saw the mob rampage throughout London demands, were not committed to a 9. S McHardy A new history of the Picts Edinburgh 2020. possesses some inherent dynamic towards in what were the largest, most sustained nationalist project for independence. As for 10. T Sheridan and A McCombes Imagine Edinburgh 2000, convergence - quite the reverse: Protestantism civil disturbances in British history. Not the radicals, they fought for the reform or p178. 11. J Foster, ‘Capitalism and the Scottish nation’ in G Brown is more than prone to fissure and faction. surprisingly, they were plebeian in social even the overthrow of the existing British (ed) The red paper on Scotland Edinburgh 1975, p142. Theological and other such unresolved composition and, besides Catholic churches, state, but not the break-up of Britain. This 12. T Sheridan and A McCombes Imagine Edinburgh 2000, disputes separating Presbyterianism and shops and businesses, anger was also was certainly true for the nascent working p180. Anglicanism undoubtedly kept England and “directed against the crown, the state and the class movement in Scotland during the brief 13. PJ Greary The myth of nations Princeton 2002, p16. 41 14. news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/05/nicolas-sarkozy-far-right- Scotland apart: eg, as already discussed, the church hierarchy”. burst of revolutionary militancy following leader-marine-le-pen-in-tug-of-love-over-joan-of-arc. Bishops’ Wars of 1639 and 1640 established Colley explains these objections to Catholic the Napoleonic wars. 15. geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/arbroath_english.html. the right of the church in Scotland to dispense emancipation as a deflected form of the class While the industrial revolution took place 16. Quoted in N Davidson The origins of Scottish nationhood with bishops and establish a real autonomy struggle. The revival of crude anti-Catholic simultaneously throughout Britain, it must London 2000, p50. 17. P Armstrong and A McBride Stirling Bridge and Falkirk from the crown. bigotry was triggered in large measure by the be stressed that changes in Scotland were 1297-98: William Wallace’s rebellion Peterborough 2012. Nevertheless, precisely because of the influx of worst-paid Irish labour into the big much more marked and hence traumatic. 18. D Simpkin The English aristocracy at war Woodbridge Protestant ascendancy and the growth of an cities of Britain, including Glasgow, Paisley Scotland went from self-sufficient peasant 2008, p183. English-inspired capitalism, feudal aristocrats and Dundee. Unskilled, illiterate and young, agriculture to capitalist industrialism within 19. M Brown Bannockburn Edinburgh 2008, p133. 20. A Jones The art of war in the western world London 1988, hankered after the old Scottish-French they undercut British manual workers. a time span of 30 to 40 years. In England p157. alliance - a factor behind Westminster’s drive Obviously, this type of politics retained a that same social transformation took several 21. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Scotland#Origins. to woo or bully Scotland into a full-blown purchase well into the 20th century. Hostility centuries. 22. TM Davin The Scottish nation London 2001, pp99-100. union. England’s ruling classes feared that towards Irish migrants allowed the Tories to The horrors and degradation of life in the 23. N Davidson Discovering the Scottish revolution: 1692-1746 London 2003, p180. absolutist France would invade Scotland and secure a mass base for themselves after the dark, airless factories and cramped slums 24. Today only 22% of the population identify with the Church restore the ousted Stuart dynasty as dependent widening of the franchise in 1867. of urban Scotland propelled the nascent of Scotland, while 14% are Catholic, 10% ‘other’ Christian absolutists. A French satellite and therefore working class against the aristocratic- and 4% hold to another religion. Pleasingly, 51% say they are the possibility of having to wage war on A British-Scottish capitalist regime. In 1820 the Committee not religious (statista.com/statistics/367848/scotland-religious- beliefs-population). two fronts was considered unconscionable. working class of Organisation for Forming a Provisional 25. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishops%27_Wars#cite_note- The Westminster parliament imported a Inevitably, like British national Government issued an appeal for a general FOOTNOTEKaplan1979207-30. Hanoverian Protestant monarch and between consciousness and culture, Scottishness strike across whole western central belt. The 26. N Davidson Discovering the Scottish revolution: 1692-1746 1702 and 1707 intense negotiations took has two contradictory poles, determined by results were “dramatic”.42 Around 60,000 London 2003, p122. 27. nas.gov.uk/guides/sheriffCourt.asp. place with Scottish ministers and officials the whole range of sectional interests and struck in the Clyde valley alone - a large 28. See C Capelli, N Redhead, JK Abernethy et al ‘A Y … if bribes, offers of financial assistance conflicts - crucially class. True, compared proportion of the working class at that date. chromosome census of the British Isles’ Current Biology Vol 13, and promises to grant access to the growing with what existed before and what existed However, the aim of this insurrectionary strike No11, 2003, pp979-84. empire failed, then it is probable that muskets, elsewhere in Europe, dominant British- movement was to topple the government both 29. ‘Countries within a country, number 10.gov.uk’. Webarchive. nationalarchives.gov.uk. January 10 2003. bayonets and cannons would have been used Scottish culture was initially on the cutting sides of the border. An uprising was planned 30. Alex Salmond speaking to the SNP’s 79th annual conference. instead. Needless to say, mutual elite interest edge. As James Thomson, the Scottish writer to occur “simultaneously” in Scotland and in 31. E McGinty An Phoblacht June 19 1997. won the day. of ‘Rule Britannia’, proudly announces, the north of England.43 32. R McCrum, W Cran and R MacNeil The story of English Protestantism undoubtedly gave a particular “Britons never, never shall be slaves”. Post- While some of the radical leaders London 1992, p151. 33. See webwedding.co.uk/articles/scotland/traditionaldress.htm. edge to international conflicts. Catholic 1688 the monarchy in Britain was effectively thought Scotland had been reduced to the 34. See H Trevor-Roper, ‘The invention of tradition: the Spain and Catholic France welcomed exiled forced to abandon any absolutist ambitions. status of a conquered province, there was highland tradition of Scotland’ in E Hobsbawm and T Ranger Catholic dissidents from Scotland and in The balance of political power increasingly an overarching wish for a closer and fully (eds) The invention of tradition Cambridge 1983. general sponsored Catholic counterrevolution. resided with parliament and the office of democratic union. Eg, the oath of the United 35. Ibid p31. 36. M Lynch Scotland: a new history London 1992, p335. High politics and class interest were cloaked prime minister, not the crown and court. Scotsman called upon members to swear 37. Ibid p335. in religion. It was to make Ireland safe from Britain was as a consequence viewed by that they would persevere in endeavouring 38. See L Colley Britons: forging the nation 1707-1837 London Spain that the Ulster plantations were created. enlightenment thinkers on the continental “to form a brotherhood of affection amongst 1994. What began as an English project became an mainland as a beacon of liberty, a model to Britons of every description”, to “obtain 39. N Davidson The origins of Scottish nationhood London Anglo-Scottish project. Colonists came from be emulated. an equal, full and adequate representation 2000, p87. 44 40. Ibid p88. England, but by a ratio of five to one from Yet, due to fighting counterrevolutionary of all the people of Great Britain”. The 41. I Hayward and J Steed (eds) The Gordon riots Cambridge Scotland. Then, later, after the union, there wars against the American colonists and secret societies of 1815 employed a similar 2012, p87. was the joint exploitation of the Caribbean then the French republic, Britain never had formulation: 42. N Davidson The origins of Scottish nationhood London 2000, p187. and North American colonies. This brought its widely expected democratic revolution. 43. Ibid p188. fabulous wealth to Edinburgh and Glasgow, Instead reaction gained the upper hand. I ... do voluntarily swear that I will 44. Quoted in ibid p189. and the chance of rapid advancement for Historians tellingly describe the Duke of persevere in my endeavours to form a 45. Ibid pp189-90. weekly 10 December 3 2020 1326 worker COVID-19 Understanding lockdown resistance As Boris Johnson licks his wounds, Paul Demarty examines the mounting discontent with the handling of the pandemic s expected, the government A principled left would not survived its crunch vote on be comfortable with Starmer’s Athe next phase of Covid-19 approach of removing himself from controls. the field of battle to the sniper’s On December 2, the bulk of nest. There is a real difference of the country’s urban areas (and principle involved, and several the suburbs of Kent) woke up in a differences of nuance that are not tightened ‘tier 3’ arrangement, with less important. The difference London, Liverpool and most rural of principle is straightforward: areas in tier 2, and only the Isle of the Covid deniers and lockdown Wight, Scilly Isles and Cornwall protestors - and more diffusely, the back in tier 1. The real upshot of Tory sceptics - promote individual the process, however, is the stark liberty as a refuge from state tyranny. exposure of how far the popular Arrayed against them in the current tolerance for these pieces of public situation are those whose primary health theatre is eroding. motivation is public health, which The result of the December 1 - as a political concern - inevitably parliamentary vote, however, chafes against individual autonomy. almost reads like a typo: 291 for; These are dangerous waters 78 against. More than 40% of MPs for communists. The lockdown were missing in action - thanks to protestors were arrested on the basis Kier Starmer’s decision to whip his that political protests have simply MPs to abstain. Had he whipped been banned tout court for the sake them to vote against, we would of public safety; and we cannot trust have seen a humiliating defeat (in the state apparatuses to kindly give the event, 16 Labour MPs defied us our rights back any more than his orders to vote against, as did David Icke does. What we confront Jeremy Corbyn - who, of course, is the limit of viewing these matters remains outside the parliamentary as questions of individual rights. The Labour fold). Instead, Johnson has old problem of liberalism asserts a humiliating victory. itself - you should have liberty, so Rebellious Tory MPs are partly long as it does not harm another. It driven by political ideology - as is from this point of view that it is good little Thatcherites, they despise ridiculous that young New Yorkers the ‘big state’ measures foisted upon (until the intervention of SCOTUS, the plainly reluctant front bench. at any rate) could go to school with But they are also under pressure 1,500 other kids, but not to church from their constituents. Social with (say) 50. distancing, like war, is basically Lowering infection rates is not inhuman; we can only stand so Individualism in the midst of a pandemic a logical puzzle, however, but a much of either before despair kicks statistical equation. Any form of in. Many of Johnson’s MPs are not politics are the open Covid deniers self-expansion at any cost, which countries reached in the 1980s. human contact to be suspended in safe Surrey seats, but in ‘red wall’ and lockdown defiers, 150 of is literally the worst thing you can South Korea has a high level of moves infection numbers the ‘right’ constituencies that tenuously swung whom were arrested in London possibly do in response to a problem capital concentration with a strong way, independently of any other. to the Tory column over Brexit a over the weekend, waving the usual caused by ruinously wasteful state (Samsung alone accounts for The New York authorities evidently year ago; seats in the same areas of selection of libertarian, anti-vaxx resource consumption - QED. 17% of the country’s gross domestic felt that the benefit of suspending the country that were hung out to and QAnon banners. Even if they Capitalism is also intrinsically product). Both countries’ repeated religious services, multiplied by dry during the last wave of tiered do not follow such cranks, however, bad at dealing with pandemics, but recent experiences with similar the likelihood of compliance, added restrictions. many millions will be open to the the logic here is a little more subtle. outbreaks have ensured that there up to greater than the political Meanwhile, the economic saner version of the same message - The long-term economic tendency are well-understood plans in place capital expended. The Supreme devastation continues to worsen. lockdown is a disaster and, however is for capital to concentrate; but if and broad tolerance in the general Court instead treated it as a matter As MPs debated local lockdowns, bad a third or even fourth wave is, it we imagine (as plenty of science- population for sharp measures. of logical inconsistency, and that Philip Green’s Arcadia empire went could surely not be worse than more fiction authors have) reaching a It barely needs to be said that logical inconsistency was popularly into administration, with the knock- of what we have got. sort of omega point, where the this is not the case in Britain and understood as unfairness. on effect that attempts to save the Stateside, meanwhile, things go administration of all world affairs America, whose long-standing Public health emergencies Debenhams department store chain from bad to worse. Infections and falls into the hands of a single mega- commitments to neoliberalism make clear the supremacy of the collapsed, with the loss of 12,000 deaths skyrocket; Donald Trump’s monopoly, it is clear that we imagine resulted in the disaggregation of collective interest; that the supposed jobs to follow. The one advantage Covid tsar, Scott Atlas, has walked something quite indistinguishable government functions and the rise of emergent benefit of innumerable bricks and mortar fashion retailers out a month and a half ahead of time. from naked bureaucratic tyranny. kleptocratic outsourcing outfits - but individual interests is illusory. For have over Boohoo, ASOS and His name may sound oddly like it So we never quite get there, since also caused spectacular implosions example: it is perfectly correct to friends is that you can try to squeeze might be on the birth certificate of the political contradictions become of the prevailing political culture say that parents have no moral right yourself into that sweater before some entirely forgotten member of unmanageable. In particular, the four years ago. While Donald Trump to deny their children a vaccine paying for it; but rubbing yourself all the X-Men, but Mr Atlas was in fact division of the world into a hierarchy is on his way out of office and Brexit for Covid-19, that the state indeed over things that may be touched by the flunky Trump got in to serve of states means that those states tend is about to be done, one way or the would act morally to take those others is no longer a good idea, and as a shield between himself and to promote ‘their’ firms, including other, both have served as poison children into care for long enough so these chains - already dicing with people who knew what the hell they ‘their’ transnationals, against those pills for bourgeois politics: known to administer the necessary jabs; death - are put out of their misery. were talking about. No doubt his of competitors: something that has disasters that proved impossible to it is not only their health, or their But those are just the headlines. disappearance from the scene will become obvious in the age of Trump. resolve. The anti-mask brigades are parents’, but mine and yours that At the capillaries of economic life, be the subject of fervent discussion A high level of coordination is overwhelmingly Trump-aligned in is at issue. It may happen not to be innumerable small businesses - in the QAnon-type alternative required to deal with pandemics the States, and Brexit-Tory in this politically wise to actually do such many (building contractors and the reality of American politics. In the adequately, as well as a generous country. That is evidence enough, in a thing, but that is not because it like) dependent on larger, threatened judiciary, meanwhile, the Supreme level of consent from the governed. liberal opinion, of their deplorability, tramples on anyone’s rights. concerns, and many others (pubs, Court supermajority, ie, with But the two are in flat contradiction as Hillary Clinton might have put The problem for us, as we said restaurants) utterly impractical under Amy Coney Barrett on board, has under capitalism. it; but it is also evidence that, for above, is further back. Capitalism present circumstances - anxiously ruled for the first time - against Coordination must come in a all the convulsions since 2016, the must generate from time to time wonder how much more of this they the decision of New York to ban form that benefits the possessors of political crisis in Anglo-America - and increasingly as it declines can take. religious gatherings. The arguments capital and their castes of flunkies is hardly over. In our countries, - a political culture of enormous So some combination of the two for striking the ban down are in the professions - but this erodes capitalism has devoured its own distrust towards the authorities, motivations for Tory rebellion are at reasonable in isolation: the majority consent. Consent may be won by legitimacy. however ill-defined. The only work. Rebel MPs are scared for their decision cites wild inconsistencies insulating weaker sections of capital In Britain, Labour’s policy of possible way out is the breaking jobs; but they are also aware that this between different ordinances. But (and the petty bourgeoisie) from the abstention is the sort of ‘good down of the distinction between is a once-in-a-century opportunity that is not enough to convince us, as true verdict of the market - but this politics’ we have come to expect ‘the authorities’ and the people, to expose ‘big government’ as we shall see. disaggregates initiative. This is a from Kier Starmer, who - you the elimination of the difference of tyrannical and inhuman. They could pretty terrible combination, and the will remember - was party to the material interest between them and not do it, ironically, if various anti- Dangerous waters relative success and failure of states same sort of activity as shadow the generalised democratisation of ‘big government’ politicians like How can things have been so in dealing with Covid-19 has a lot to Brexit minister, and indeed will society. Short of such revolutionary Boris Johnson were not forced into comprehensively screwed up? do with where we find them on this likely abstain on Brexit votes transformation, the authorities we these emergency measures, which We might compare matters with widening gyre. to come in the near future. It is actually have - even less openly (being forced precisely on Tories) another contemporary threat to China has done well - its quite understandable, if basically corrupt authorities than the Trump result in plum contracts for old civilisation. From a Marxist point lamentable initial response apart dishonest: it is better for Labour and Johnson administrations - will schoolmates and outfits like Serco, of view, it is quite straightforward - because it is still half a Stalinist that attention is focused on the always be handicapped in trying to all of whom have made a pig’s ear why capitalism is exceptionally bad bureaucratic dictatorship, and its transparent incompetence and defeat an enemy like Covid-19  of their jobs. at managing the global warming popular consent has yet to erode nepotism of the government, which The unacceptable face of such crisis: the system demands endless to the point that the eastern bloc has now cost 75,000 British lives. [email protected] weekly worker 1326 December 3 2020 11 VACCINES

Big pharma will still be looking for a profit Calling the shots How was Covid-19 vaccine developed with such tremendous speed? Michael Roberts looks at the key role of the state efore the Covid-19 pandemic developers, AstraZeneca is expected the delivery of their products. The and market the result. Then they - while governments pay for the engulfed the world, the big to release phase-three trial results by Moderna vaccine emerged directly sell the vaccines to governments at vaccines whose development they Bpharmaceutical companies Christmas, with a number of others out of a partnership between huge profits. This is the way things helped fund in the first place! invested very little in vaccines for currently also conducting late-stage Moderna and the NIH laboratory. were done before the pandemic - The lesson of the coronavirus global diseases and viruses. It was trials: Gamaleya, Novavax, Johnson The US government - and two and now. In the US, in the 10-year vaccine response is that a few just not profitable. and Johnson, Sanofi-GSK; as well agencies in particular: the NIH and period between 1988 and 1997, billion dollars a year spent on Of the 18 largest US pharmaceutical as Russia’s Sputnik and China’s the Biomedical Advanced Research public-sector expenditures for additional basic research could companies, 15 had totally abandoned CanSino Biologics. and Development Authority vaccine purchases doubled from prevent a thousand times as much the field. Heart medicines, addictive How was this possible so (BARDA) - has invested, heavily, $100 to $200 per child through age loss in death, illness and economic tranquilisers and treatments for male quickly? Well, it was not due to in the vaccine’s development. six. The cumulative public-sector destruction. At a news conference impotence were profit leaders - not big pharma coming up with the BARDA is an arm of the Department cost doubled again in less than five US health advisor Anthony Fauci defences against hospital infections, scientific research solutions. It was of Health and Human Services, years between 1997 and 2001, from highlighted the spike protein work: emergent diseases and traditional down to some dedicated scientists formed in 2006 in response to - $200 to almost $400 per child. “We shouldn’t underestimate the tropical killers. A universal vaccine working in universities and wait for it - Sars-CoV-1 (and other Very little is still known about the value of basic biology research,” for influenza - that is to say, a government institutes to produce health threats).2 It provides direct terms of the Covid vaccine contracts Fauci said. Exactly. But, as vaccine that targets the immutable the vaccine formulas. And that was investment in technologies to that EU governments have signed many authors, such as Mariana parts of the virus’s surface proteins made possible because the Chinese firms,3 but also engages in public- with pharma groups, including Mazzacuto, have shown, state - has been a possibility for decades, government quickly provided private partnerships and coordinates AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, funding and research have been but never deemed profitable enough the necessary DNA sequences to between agencies. A specific part Sanofi-GlaxoSmithKline and vital to the development of such to be a priority. So, every year, analyse the virus. In sum, it was of BARDA’s mission is taking CureVac. But, once the secrecy is products.4 we get vaccines that are only 50% government money and public technologies through the ‘valley peeled away, what we will see is What better lesson can we learn efficient. funds that delivered the medical of death’ between creation and a massive privatisation of billions from the Covid vaccine experience But the Covid-19 pandemic has solution.1 commercialisation. of dollars of government funds. It than that the multinational pharma changed the attitude of big pharma. Basic research for US vaccines For its part, the German is reckoned that AstraZeneca has companies should be publicly Now there are billions to be made is done by the National Institutes government has ploughed funds sold its jab to governments at about owned, so that research and in selling effective vaccines to of Health (NIH), the Defense into BioNTech to the tune of $3-$4 a dose, while the Johnson development can be directed governments and health systems. Department and federally funded €375 million, with another €252 and Johnson shot and the vaccine to meet the health and medical And in double-quick time, a batch academic laboratories. The vaccines million made available to support jointly developed by Sanofi and needs of people, not the profits of of apparently effective vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna development by CureVac. Germany GSK were priced at about $10 a these companies. Moreover, the has emerged, with every prospect rely heavily on two fundamental also raised its contribution to the dose. AstraZeneca has promised necessary vaccines could then get to of them being available for people discoveries that emerged from Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness not to profit from its jab during the the billions in the poorest countries within the next three to six months - federally funded research: the viral Innovations (CEPI) by €140 million pandemic, but that applies only until and circumstances, rather than to a record result. protein designed by the NIH; and the and plans to provide an additional July 2021. After that, it can cash in. just those countries and people who There should be authorisation concept of ribonucleic acid (RNA) €90 million next year. CEPI was US biotech Moderna is going to can afford to pay the prices set by of the Pfizer-BioNTech and modification first developed at the launched in Davos, Switzerland, charge $37 a dose - or $50 to $60 these companies. Moderna vaccines by the year-end University of Pennsylvania. In fact, in 2017 as an innovative global for the two-shot course. “This is the people’s vaccine,” in the European Union. Vaccination Moderna’s founders in 2010 named partnership between public, private, Coronavirus vaccines are likely to said corporate critic Peter against Covid-19 beyond high-risk the company after this concept: philanthropic and civil society be worth billions to the drug industry Maybarduk, director of the Public groups is likely to be well underway ‘Modified’ + ‘RNA’ = Moderna. organisations to develop vaccines if they prove safe and effective. As Citizen’s Access to Medicines across Europe by the spring, with a So its vaccine has not come out to counter epidemics, and Germany many as 14 billion vaccines would programme: “Federal scientists sufficiently large share of European of nowhere. Moderna had been pledged an annual €10 million be required to immunise everyone helped invent it and taxpayers populations vaccinated by the end working on mRNA vaccines for over a four-year period to support in the world against Covid-19. If, as are funding its development … It of the summer. The UK has, of years with the National Institute the initiative. CureVac is one of many scientists anticipate, vaccine- should belong to humanity.”5  course, already taken the lead. The of Allergy and Infectious Diseases nine institutes and companies produced immunity wanes, then medicines regulator, the MHRA, (NIAID), a part of the NIH. The commissioned by CEPI to conduct billions more doses could be sold Michael Roberts blogs at gave its approval for the Pfizer- agreement consisted of some level research into a Covid-19 vaccine. as booster shots in years to come. thenextrecession.wordpress.com. BioNTech vaccine and the rollout of funding from Moderna to the One of its shareholders is the And the technology and production is due to start early next week (with NIH, along with a roadmap for government-owned Kreditanstalt laboratories seeded with the help of Notes 40 million doses ordered, that is NIAID and Moderna investigators für Wiederaufbau (KfW) bank. all this government largesse could 1. See scientificamerican.com/article/for-billion- dollar-covid-vaccines-basic-government-funded- enough for 20 million patients). to collaborate on basic research into give rise to other profitable vaccines science-laid-the-groundwork. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine mRNA vaccines and the eventual ‘People’s vaccine’ and drugs. 2. nature.com/articles/nbt0207-179. was reported to have over 90% development of such a vaccine. But it is big pharma that develops So, although much of the 3. phe.gov/about/barda/Documents/barda-strategic- efficacy, while Moderna reported The US government has poured the vaccine from the scientific work pioneering work on mRNA vaccines plan.pdf. 4. See https://marianamazzucato.com/ that its vaccine reduced the risk an additional $10.5 billion into of public institutes. They call the was done with government money, entrepreneurial-state. of Covid-19 infection by 94.5%. various vaccine companies since shots. The drugs companies do the the privately owned drug makers 5. citizen.org/news/statement-moderna-vaccine- Among other leading vaccine the pandemic began, to accelerate global clinical trials, then produce will walk away with big profits belongs-to-the-people. weekly 12 December 3 2020 1326 worker LABOUR See you in court? Political, not legal, action is the way forward, argues James Harvey of Labour Party Marxists henever two or three leftwingers are gathered Wtogether to discuss fighting back against the current witch-hunt, it is usually not long before thoughts turn to consulting ‘m’learned friends’ and undertaking legal action to challenge suspensions and expulsions. For example, at a recent Labour Against the Witchhunt meeting a comrade suggested that a group of suspended and expelled Labour members should launch a class action against the party. Moreover, it is not just rank-and-file members who contemplate having their day in court: it is reported that Jeremy Corbyn is considering his own legal action over the suspension of the Labour whip.1 Whilst the exact nature of any possible legal action remains unclear, initially it seemed that Corbyn would argue that Labour did not follow its own rules in suspending him from both ordinary and parliamentary party membership.2 Subsequent reports suggest that the aim of any action might be more political than a purely legal attempt to seek redress for any wrong committed by the party. The suggestion is that the real purpose is to apply pressure on the party leadership and bureaucracy through a pre-action disclosure application to the high court. Corbyn’s supporters believe that this application will place evidence into the public domain that there was indeed a deal to readmit Corbyn into the party, as well as showing that Starmer’s office reneged on that deal.3 Friends of the left and the labour movement few and far between here While these legal intricacies are doubtless of interest to readers of within the labour movement to the of the Militant editorial board and fundamentally misunderstand the forward for a real fightback: Law Reports, it is the politics that courts and ‘Tory judges’. Above supporters of the Militant Tendency nature of the witch-hunt and the aims n No compromises with the Starmer concerns us. Although the threat all there has often been a marked in the 1980s and 1990s.9 Although of the current Labour leadership.14 leadership. of legal action of this kind is often reluctance to use the law to settle the various legal challenges slowed The witch-hunt is an all-out war on n Reject the EHRC report in its portrayed as the ‘nuclear option’, in internal disputes or to conduct things up, the Neil Kinnock the Labour left conducted by the entirety. this context it is actually something political campaigns against political leadership - through its control of right, with the goal of completing n No false appeals to ‘party unity’. of a damp squib, applying somewhat opponents within our movement. the party bureaucracy and alliance the Blairite project and breaking n Drive out the pro-capitalist limited pressure rather than The involvement of socialists with the trade union leadership, the party’s links with the organised leadership. bringing the whole edifice down. with the courts historically has which had a decisive majority at the working class. It will only end with n Refound Labour as a real party of These threats of legal action from taken various forms, but the party conference - was eventually the principled left being finally the working class  the Corbyn camp seem to be part of majority of cases have either centred able to carry out a purge of Militant’s driven out of the party, whilst the a negotiating strategy, which, they on the defence of personal or editors and supporters. official Labour left looks on largely Notes hope, will allow Jeremy Corbyn to political reputation in, say, libel or in cowed silence. 1. theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/26/jeremy- regain his place in the Parliamentary defamation cases, or the seeking of Lessons If we cannot rely on the courts corbyn-start-legal-action-over-suspension-labour- Labour Party after a brief period of injunctions to ensure natural justice However, in response to the various to fight that battle, neither should whip. nominal penitence. As such this is upheld in, for example, expulsion legal actions initiated against the we put our trust in the fake 2. thetimes.co.uk/article/corbyn-ready-to-fight- 7 suspension-in-the-courts-qd8gn656m. combination of legal manoeuvring or other party disciplinary cases. party, Labour’s leadership tightened left in the Socialist Campaign 3. theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/26/jeremy- and media management is pretty well One of the most famous examples up its disciplinary processes and Group, Momentum, the Labour corbyn-start-legal-action-over-suspension-labour- much of a piece with the strategy of the former are Marx’s actions established a system that met the Representation Committee, etc.15 whip. of compromise and conciliation for defamation in 1860 against the objections about the lack of natural The seriousness of the crisis facing 4. ‘On the road to … where?’ Weekly Worker 10 November 26 2020. that Corbyn, John McDonnell et al National-Zeitung and The Daily justice and fairness. The party the Labour left is now clear to 5. hiaw.org/defcon6/works/1842/10/25.html#n1. have been following from the very Telegraph as part of his political bureaucracy has been able to amend everyone - except, it appears, the 6. For a detailed discussion about the ‘rule of first days of the witch-hunt.4 It is campaign against French police its procedures to meet any legal leaders of the official left itself! The law’ and ‘the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie’ see this rather dismal grand strategy of spy Karl Vogt; whilst other, less challenges, whilst the courts, for strength of the forces arrayed against M Macnair, ‘Free association versus juridification’ Critique Vol 39, 2011: and ‘Free association versus Labour’s official left rather than the illustrious cases include Tommy obvious reasons, have generally the left cannot be overstated: they juridification’ Critique Vol 39, 2011, No1. specific tactical question of using Sheridan’s defamation action versus been unwilling to find in favour of are drawn not only from the party 7. There is also the fine and heroic revolutionary bourgeois courts that is the central News Group Newspapers, and complainants.11 leadership, the PLP and the Labour tradition of speeches, in which the accused uses issue here. subsequent conviction for perjury The lessons from these attempts bureaucracy, but also from elements the court as a platform to turn the tables and attack 8 the system that has put them in the dock. See, for Marxists have long understood in 2010. That both Marx and to use arguments about natural of the state, which want to restore example, John Maclean’s speech from the dock in the nature of the courts and legal Sheridan failed in their legal cases, justice and ‘failure to follow party Labour as a safe second eleven for 1918 (marxists.org/archive/maclean/works/1918- system generally.5 Bourgeois law albeit for very different reasons, rules’ against suspensions and British capitalism. dock.htm). is designed to maintain the system shows the pitfalls facing socialists expulsions are clear: as the case Whilst there is still a significant 8. For details of the politics of the Vogt case see historyisaweapon.com/defcon6/works/1860/ of private property and defend who try to use the bourgeois courts of Chris Williamson proved, these left amongst the party membership, letters/60_02_29.html; and marxengels. the structures of the capitalist either as a political platform or a legal tactics can, at best, only as the recent elections to the national public-archive.net/en/ME1916en.html. For the system.6 Judges play a key role in tribunal to arbitrate on the truth of delay disciplinary procedure.12 executive committee showed, it is background to the Sheridan case see G Gall upholding the economic, social and accusations made against them. Thus, while the use of legal becoming increasingly disorganised Tommy Sheridan, from hero to zero: a political biography Cardiff 2011. political status quo: they are not Unlike Sheridan, however, Marx measures is a question of tactics and demoralised by the lack of real 9. ‘Fight the bans and proscriptions’ Labour Party neutral arbiters of right or impartial ultimately succeeded in establishing rather than principle for Marxists, leadership. In this struggle we must Marxists June 23 2011. dispensers of justice. Even if there his revolutionary bona fides and both historical and more recent use all the weapons at our disposal, 10. theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/16/militant- are widespread reformist illusions historical reputation in the only experience suggests that ‘relying on but the main one must be the derek-hatton-labour-party-1991. 11. ‘Scorched earth litigation’ Weekly Worker about the nature of the constitution court that mattered - the labour the courts’ is the wrong approach political mobilisation of the Labour August 4 2016. and the state, and its potential role movement. in the fightback against the witch- left in the CLPs and the trade unions. 12. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48806066. as a neutral instrument to further The defensive use of the courts hunt.13 Campaigning organisations such 13. ‘Don’t rely on the courts’ Weekly Worker July working class interests, historical to ensure that Labour followed its The real weaknesses of the as Labour Against the Witchhunt 14 2016. 14. labouragainstthewitchhunt.org/category/ experience, especially in relation to own rules and acted in accordance legal route are political rather than and the principled revolutionaries suspensions-and-expulsions. anti-trade union laws, has kept alive with natural justice was a feature of principled. The central problem of organised around Labour Party 15. ‘On the road to … where?’ Weekly Worker a healthy suspicion and hostility the campaign against the expulsion using the courts is that its advocates Marxists have pointed the way November 26 2020. weekly worker 1326 December 3 2020 13 SWP

DullGenuine debate is something echo the SWP’s central committee chamber has long avoided. The end result is a comatosed membership. Peter Manson reviews the second pre-conference bulletin e are, of course, in the time independence, that “is not an end May of this year Socialist Worker of the year when members in itself”. The question is “how published a cartoon with a poster Wof the Socialist Workers it can contribute to the struggle that read: “You don’t have to be Party are permitted to share their for socialism and to rising levels mad to work here, but it helps”. political views with other comrades, of confidence and consciousness Apparently the leadership is not even when they are at variance with among working class people”. How aware that people who are actually those of the leadership. But this can indeed? Separatism is precisely the “mad” might find this offensive! only be done through the three Pre- opposite of the politics we fight for. And John complains that, despite all Conference Bulletins (PCBs) in the Instead of building unity in order his letters in Socialist Worker and three-month period in the run-up to to strengthen the fight for working his previous contribution to one of the SWP annual conference, which class power, it creates a diversion last year’s PCBs on “mental health is due to take place on January 8-10 by bringing together people from all oppression”, not a single person had 2021. classes along nationalist lines. ever responded to him. But members are not exactly So why promote it? According Well, this time they have. In chomping at the bit. In PCB No2 to the CC, Scottish independence ‘Thinking through the language we (November), which has just been would not only “deal the Tories a use’, “Phil (Lancashire)” asks, for circulated within the SWP, just 11 severe blow”. But “The socialist example, whether we should “pull comrades (or groups of comrades) case for independence has always someone up for saying something submitted a contribution - that been linked to the weakening of like ‘Don’t be daft!’ or ‘That’s a is even fewer than in PCB No1 One front, two fronts, three fronts ... but the recruits are not coming the British state as an imperialist crazy idea!’” Also, what about (October). What is more, this time power.” The question is that of Donald Trump? they are all more or less in line In ‘The SWP after Corbyn’s projects of Jeremy Corbyn and “using independence as a launch pad with the leadership, including one suspension and the US election’, Bernie Sanders.” So Corbyn and to fight for a fundamentally different The problem with Trump is submission from a comrade who the CC adds: “Certainly Corbyn Sanders are “left-reformist”, are society in the face of the SNP’s that he is a vicious rightwing works in the SWP’s national office. boosted everyone who wanted to see they? In reality they both stand for commitment to neoliberalism”. monster, not that he is ‘mad’. But In fact, PCB No2 is dominated resistance and made it easier to talk no more than attempting to win How can they come out with it has to be said that he does seem by the leadership’s own about socialism. But the other side limited gains under capitalism for such nonsense? Why should to be mentally unstable. And it contributions: 15 of the 27 pages of his rise was that many activists the working class, and neither has dealing the Tories “a severe blow” is reasonable to point out that are taken up by either organisational burrowed into Labour and stopped been generating genuine “socialist necessarily result in working class instability is a dangerous quality details regarding, say, the coming any sort of mobilisation outside it.” ideas”. But that does not mean advance? What is bad for them when the person involved has a conference or - more to the point Well, thankfully Corbyn has now revolutionaries should stand aside must be good for us? How can it be, lot of power and has his finger on - political statements issued by the gone and that gives the SWP an from the battles within Labour, as when it would be the SNP, with its the nuclear button. central committee. There are five of opportunity, the leadership believes. the SWP has done - and even heave “commitment to neoliberalism” that them, taking up 10 pages, compared The CC states that the Labour left a sigh of relief when the Labour would be boosted? In ‘Mental distress, “othering” and to the 12 pages used up by the rest “should be preparing to break with right presses home its advantage. solidarity’, “Iain (Glasgow)” agrees of the entire membership. the bankrupt politics of the extreme No, the Labour Party is the site Rank and file that “using throwaway terms such There is a good deal of overlap centre [sic] that is being forcibly of huge struggles and it would be Let me conclude by looking at a as ‘mad’ or ‘crazy’ to describe the amongst the CC’s five statements, re-imposed on Labour and form a criminal to disengage now. few points of interest among the behaviour or the policies of ruling- each of them reminding comrades new socialist party”. And, of course, contributions from the rank and class politicians is not just offensive about the SWP’s priorities. In recent “Joining the SWP is a vital first step Scotland file. First there is a piece headed ‘Is or lazy - it’s also bad politics.” But times the SWP has been stressing the in rebuilding the left.” While in my view the SWP position discussing global population size he too notes that “context does ‘key role’ of its front, Stand Up To As for actual recruitment, “So in relation to Labour is bad enough, always racist?’ written by “Mike matter”. For instance, some people Racism, but in this bulletin a second far this year 324 people have joined when it comes to Scotland and the (Leeds)”. Only the first names of “talk positively about having had a SWP front, People Before Profit, is the SWP, of which 185 are paying national question, it is abysmal. contributing members are published ‘mad’ weekend, comedians will be being plugged much more, in view a regular sub to the party by direct In ‘The Scottish elections, for security reasons, of course described as ‘hysterically’ funny, of its ‘Emergency programme’ in debit.” So less than 60% of these Covid-19 and the break-up of (although in at least two of the and so on. So comradely discussion response to Covid-19, recruits actually pay a subscription, Britain’ the CC makes this promising pieces the author actually identifies will be required here.” Thus, in ‘Workplace and trade but they are still classified as start: “As revolutionary socialists, themselves by, for example, In their ‘Why language matters’, union perspectives’, the CC states: ‘members’ - even though a large we reject nationalism.” The demand referring to an article they have had “Ellen, Mark (South East London) “Alongside continuing to build proportion of them have never for Scottish independence results published under their own name). and Nicola (South London)” Stand Up To Racism, we now are actually come to a meeting, let from a “thirst for change”, which Mike states: “Many on the left, recommend that “a disability looking to be part of creating a alone committed themselves to “has to be understood as part of including the SWP, dismiss any language guide is developed”, while network around PBP nationally doing anything at all. the process of radicalisation and discussion of population size, in the branch to which the original and locally.” Not that SUTR has A table is published, headed polarisation seen across the globe”. relation to the global crisis of climate complainant, “John (Colchester)”, been forgotten: in fact the CC ‘Where people joined in 2020’, and Fair enough, up to a point. But change and resource exhaustion, as belongs has put forward a motion recommends that its comrades easily the largest proportion (around things soon go downhill. racist, describing it as ‘the myth for conference, which amends should try to organise “workplace 150) comes from those who applied The leadership seems to bemoan of overpopulation’.” However, for the ‘What we stand for’ column ‘Take the knee’ events in solidarity for membership online - via the SWP the fact that “the lack of a credible him, the main problem does not lie in Socialist Worker, so that the with [Black Lives Matter]”. website, social media, etc. Another electoral alternative” has meant in “the less developed world”. The relevant passage would read: And SWP comrades must do their table lists the numbers in every that “the political reflection of “population size in the developed “We are for an end to all forms of best to build workers’ militancy, district who have signed up and it the movement has not been the capitalist world” is “far more discrimination against lesbian, gay, even though the CC does not is interesting that, for some reason, emergence of a left reformist important”, because that is where bisexual, transgender and disabled really take into account the current recruitment in London has fallen alternative, such as Syriza or greenhouse gas emissions mainly people, including those who suffer adverse circumstances for union to negligible levels, compared to Podemos, but support for the take place, and he relates this to two with mental distress.” action as a result of the enforced the previous three years, for which nationalist politics of the Scottish factors: first, inequality - “At the top Well, that is about all there is closure due to the pandemic. True, figures are also given. For example, National Party”. But in relation to broods a tiny minority with obscene in this PCB, when it comes to a the CC writes: “Mass job losses in Central London, according to the the 2021 Scottish parliamentary levels of per capita consumption and genuine exchange of ideas. So create a combination of fear and table, there have been no recruits elections, it declares: GHG emissions” - and, secondly, what about serious proposals for bitterness among workers. Fear at all in 2020, compared to a total the size of the population. ‘If there democratising the SWP? Not a of the sack can inhibit resistance, of 94 between 2017 and 2019. It is We will propose to conference were fewer of us, we would not chance. The nearest we get is the especially if no lead is given from not quite as bad in other London that we should intervene in the need to produce so much’ appears to suggestion from Lowestoft and above.” But what exactly can be districts, but still nowhere near the election campaign primarily as be the argument. Norwich branch committee in done if employers decide to cut levels claimed in other parts of the the SWP, with a ‘Vote left, fight He asks: “Can the planet sustain their ‘Finding a wider audience production or even shut up shop? country. for independence’ slogan. This the current population, let alone during lockdown and beyond’. It is all very well being militant in Nevertheless, the CC thinks can connect with working class the projected two billion-plus This proposes in relation to ‘Party the workplace, but, when the odds this will change: “Literally tens people that vote Labour, SNP and increase? Most certainly not under notes’ - the weekly bulletin sent out are stacked against you, action in of thousands of Labour Party other parties ... capitalism.” Therefore, as things to all SWP comrades - “How about the workplace is not the way ahead. members who joined because they stand, “there isn’t the time, even if introducing a members’ section? What about actual politics? were inspired by Corbyn will be Yes, that’s right. ‘Vote left’ by putting it were possible, to transform the Here a branch could send a note questioning their membership” your cross next to either Labour, the hidebound social democratic parties about something that went well, or Membership and now there is “potential to win SNP or other unnamed parties. Does in the west”. Don’t think of working even badly, and why!” Well, at least, the CC believes, the people to revolutionary politics”. that include the Trade Unionist and within Labour: just build the SWP - In other words, just like the terrain is more favourable, including In ‘Building a new layer of Socialist Coalition, which is likely but very, very quickly! content of a good number of the in the workplace, for recruiting to student revolutionaries in a time to contest? No, it does not: the CC Turning to another point of submissions to the PCBs! Those the SWP, now that Jeremy Corbyn of crisis’, the central committee states that Tusc is unlikely to make interest, there are three contributions following the ‘party line’ tell is no longer Labour leader: “... the similarly urges its comrades to take any impact (and, despite what the in response to “John (Colchester)”, everyone else how well - and, yes, replacement of Corbyn by Keir advantage of Corbyn’s defeat, But leadership says about intervening who in PCB No1 expressed his occasionally how badly - things Starmer ... has significantly altered bizarrely it states: “The growth of in the election campaign “primarily concern about “mental health have been going. But please don’t the political terrain, with Labour no socialist ideas among young people as the SWP”, there is no question of oppression” and the “offensive, lazy raise political differences! l more the overwhelming focus for has been most concretely reflected the SWP contesting itself). and bigoted language that reinforces the left that it had been since 2015”. in the support for the left-reformist While the CC is for Scottish such oppression”. For example, in [email protected] weekly 14 December 3 2020 1326 worker OBITUARY

Flattered to deceive An establishment bigot Tony Greenstein does not mourn the death of rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks (March 8 1948 - November 7 2020) f one thing you can be certain. is a part, he was signed up to a critical of Sacks. In an editorial it you want them to mean. What Jeremy Corbyn. In a New Statesman When the press sings in Greater Israel. Pence saw Sacks’ wrote: his flatterers meant was that he interview, if you can call it that, Ounison you can be certain that contribution as a “hugely critical spoke the language of ‘interfaith’, Sacks accusing Corbyn of having what they say is wrong. And, sure element in crafting the speech”. Lord Sacks’ mellifluous voice whilst subscribing to the idea that made the most racist speech since enough, they fell over themselves to Pence himself is an evangelical may have charmed millions. only the Jewish religion enables Enoch Powell and his “rivers of sing the praises of Saint Sacks. (It Christian and a reactionary on all But he was unable convincingly an acquaintanceship with god. blood” in 1968. Here was the “deep is most unfortunate that the Jewish social issues - from gay rights and to explain why the dignity of The getting together of Christians thinker” playing to a gallery of religion does not have saints, though abortion to demanding that public difference does not also mean the and Jewish religious leaders to sycophants and reactionary press it does have tzadiks - righteous funds for HIV/Aids be redirected dignity of diversity (August 25 pat each other on the back - what clowns, offering a cheap quote in persons). to “conversion therapy” for LGBT 2013). is called ‘interfaith dialogue’ - in return for even cheaper applause. Jonathan Sacks was described people. Sacks had no problem in practice meant Christian clerics Sacks demonstrated not only his on the NPR website as a “towering working with such a vile creature. In 1992 Sacks excluded the Jewish giving unstinting support to Israeli own hypocrisy, but his willingness intellect of Judaism”,1 which However, he was anything but Lesbian and Gay Helpline from a ethnic cleansing and its barbaric to indulge in cheap demagogy. probably says more about the state righteous. He was a pretentious communal charity walkabout in occupation. Corbyn, you will remember, of modern Judaism than it does windbag, who wrote over 20 Hyde Park, which he had organised. It says a lot about the intellectual accused two Zionist thugs - Jonathan about him. The Times spoke of the books without saying anything According to a spokesman for poverty of the organised, Hoffman and Richard Millett, “charismatic chief rabbi, who was worthwhile. Sacks flattered to his office, the helpline “presented synagogue-going British Jewish who have a history of disrupting an eloquent, powerful advocate for deceive and created an aura of an alternative lifestyle which we community that someone like Sacks meetings that they disagree with - of the importance of all faiths” and profundity. He was also apparently don’t accept. We know that some was treated with veneration. He failing to understand “British irony”. “made his listeners feel clever” a ‘philosopher’. people feel that they are inclined was an intellectual fraud posing as Corbyn’s comparison was with the (November 8), while The New York You can best judge his verbal that way, but we draw the line at someone with deep insight into the Palestinian ambassador, Manuel Times explained how “In writings and written output by the stance he institutionalising it.”5 human condition. Hassassian, whose meeting they had and media appearances, he took a took on the various questions that When it came to the victims of tried to disrupt. Corbyn’s accusation universalist view of religion in a confronted him and the choices Universalism Zionism, the Palestinians, Sacks was was made against two particularly multicultural world - a stance that he made. Catholic theologians According to Wikipedia, Sacks anything but a universalist. He held obnoxious Zionists, although the could get him in hot water with produced millions of words, yet is “paradoxically one of the most his arms out to the most murderous media tripe treated ‘Zionist’ as conservatives.”2 that did not prevent the Vatican universalising voices within and racist settlers of all. Sacks was a equalling ‘Jew’. The contrast was The Church Times described how threatening to torture Galileo if he contemporary Judaism”.6 It is said bigot, who dressed up his prejudices between two individuals, who were Sacks was did not recant his bizarre ideas about that Humpty Dumpty remarked that in flowery language, sophistry and born in Britain, but who lacked any the planets revolving round the sun! words mean what you want them to semantics. What mattered was not sense of irony, with the Palestinian prodigiously talented in two Jonathan Sacks was a homophobe, mean - the only question being who how many philosophy books he ambassador who was not born in areas that only rarely come an anti-gay bigot. When the home is the master. But to Sacks words wrote, but how he interpreted them. Britain. It was the exact opposite of together. He had a trained and office put out for consultation its lost any independent existence: they When in his 2002 book The Powellism. sharply honed philosophical proposals on gay marriage, the Beth were merely weapons of war. dignity of difference Sacks wrote, If Sacks had possessed any mind, and he combined this with Din - a Jewish religious court, which Universalism means that ideas, “God has spoken to mankind in integrity, still less irony, he might superb powers of storytelling Sacks presided over - urged the ethics and behaviour towards many languages: through Judaism to have kept his rabbinical trap firmly and popular communication ... government to reject any proposals others have universal application. the Jews, Christianity to Christians, shut. However, people like him There was a particular bond with to legalise gay marriage. The Beth But Sacks’ Zionism stood for the Islam to Muslims ... God is the tend towards verbal incontinence. George Carey, because of their Din declared: “Our understanding complete opposite - what is good god of all humanity, but no single When asked to name his favourite shared support for Arsenal ...3 of marriage from time immemorial for the Jews is its first question. faith is or should be the faith of all book for 2017, Sacks volunteered has been that of a union between Zionism is dedicated to creating and humanity”, he sparked a backlash Douglas Murray’s Strange death of Carey, it should be remembered, a man and a woman. Any attempt sustaining a Jewish state that is as amongst the ultra-orthodox. What Europe! It is a book that not only covered up child abuse in the Church to redefine this sacred institution ethnically pure as possible was his reaction? Did he stand his praises Enoch Powell, but it is the of England, leading to him being would be to undermine the concept Sacks was a vehement Zionist ground? No, he amended his book bible of the far-right identitarian banned from officiating at services. of marriage.”4 and opposed to anything remotely so that it read: “As Jews, we believe movement with its ‘replacement He was also a fellow Islamophobe. It has not in fact been an approaching a universalist that God has made a covenant with theory’, which argues that mass We can get a flavour of Sacks’ institution “from time immemorial”. outlook. He used his academic a singular people, but that does Muslim immigration is part of a political orientation from the Marriage, as we know it now, is background in philosophy in order not exclude the possibility of other conspiracy to replace and eradicate fact that in 2018 he helped Mike of recent origin and has changed to legitimise Jewish chauvinism peoples, cultures and faiths finding white European identity. Pence, the US vice-president, write fundamentally over time, as has the and particularism. His academic their own relationship with God.” Below is one of Murray’s tributes a speech to be delivered in the family itself. It is a common fault learning was employed to defend to his hero, Enoch Powell: Knesset, in which he announced to read back from today into “time Jewish exceptionalism, muddying Corbyn the date of Trump’s decision to immemorial”. it with a commitment to interfaith Sacks’ hypocrisy was on full ... among the things most striking move the American embassy to The Guardian, before it was ‘dialogue’. display when he took advantage of when reading [Powell’s] speech Jerusalem. Sacks thus demonstrated ‘Freedlandised’ - and before the When it comes to bourgeois the media chorus, fawning tabloid - and the reactions to it - today that, when it comes to the occupied Labour ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign philosophy, terms such as headlines and vacuous pundits, to are the portions for which he was territories, of which Jerusalem was underway - was somewhat more ‘universalism’ mean anything launch a vicious personal attack on lambasted that now seem almost weekly worker 1326 December 3 2020 15 What we fight for understated … if anyone had Lebanon, including its slaughter of Israel was driven out of Lebanon A child asserted repeatedly that n Without organisation the suggested to Powell in 1968 that its civilian population - said: in 2006 - its first defeat at the Jerusalem had been “liberated” 12 working class is nothing; with he should use his Birmingham hands of an Arab army since 1948. from “the donkeys”. the highest form of organisation speech to predict that within the Today we stand in solidarity Israel has since, together with the The curse calling for someone’s it is everything. lifespan of most people listening with Israel, and rarely have I United States, branded Hezbollah name or memory to be erased was those who identified as ‘white felt so proud of Anglo-Jewry as a ‘terrorist’ group rather than a traditionally used for enemies of n There exists no real Communist British’ would be in a minority I have done these past few days. national liberation movement. the Jews as hated as Adolf Hitler Party today. There are many in their capital city, he would Especially of our young people. During Israel’s ‘Operation Pillar or Haman the evil. Its use by so-called ‘parties’ on the left. In have dismissed such an advisor Last week 1,300 of them, from of Defence’ in Gaza in November Jewish youths against Palestinians reality they are confessional sects. as a maniac … even the most youth groups right across the 2012, in which 174 Palestinians indicates the level of genocidal Members who disagree with the famous prophet of immigration religious spectrum, went out to were killed and many hundreds hatred with which they are brought prescribed ‘line’ are expected to doom in fact underestimated Israel. Every one of them, or their wounded by Israeli bombing, Sacks up. gag themselves in public. Either and understated the case (my families, might have said, ‘No, was asked by presenter Evan Davis, Members of a fascist anti- that or face expulsion. emphasis).7 not now. It is too dangerous.’ after giving his usual homilies on miscegenation group shouted: n Communists operate according Yet almost none of them did. I Thought for the day, if he had “any “Arab beware - my sister is not to the principles of democratic To criticise Corbyn, the opponent want to say to every one of those thoughts on what’s going on over abandoned goods.” They also centralism. Through ongoing debate of white supremacy and apartheid, young people: Kol hakavod [‘All in Israel and Gaza at the moment”. chanted: “Girls of Israel, for the we seek to achieve unity in action for being a latter-day Enoch Powell, the honour’]. You make us proud Sacks sighed and said: “I think nation of Israel.” Israeli women and a common world outlook. As when his own views dovetailed with … And today I want a message to it’s got to do with Iran actually.” are seen as the exclusive property long as they support agreed actions, racists like Douglas Murray was the go forth from us to Israel to say: Copresenter Sarah Montague of Israeli Jewish men. As in Nazi members should have the right to height of hypocrisy. Israel, you make us proud … quickly whispered, “We’re live.” Germany, where Rassenchande speak openly and form temporary Indeed the full-blown version Sacks immediately reverted to (‘racial pollution’) meant Jewish or permanent factions. of identitarianism has Jews as the Israel’s bombing of Lebanon’s his normal pious tone offering a men having sexual relations with n Communists oppose all impe- masterminds of this immigration civilian population, including “continued prayer for peace, not non-Jewish German women (not rialist wars and occupations but - financed, of course, by the western Beirut, made Sacks proud. only in Gaza, but the whole region”.8 the other way around), there were constantly strive to bring to the fore ubiquitous George Soros. So not To compound just how deceitful and no equivalent slogans telling Arab the fundamental question–ending war only was Sacks signing up to a treacherous he was, he proclaimed Flags women to beware of mixing with is bound up with ending capitalism. 13 racist far-right ideology, but he was how he “wept” for the people of Sacks was brought up in the tradition Jewish men. n Communists are internationalists. giving sustenance to the very anti- Lebanon, even as the Israel he of the ‘left’ Zionists of ‘shooting None of this prevented The Everywhere we strive for the closest Semitism that he accused Corbyn supported was bombing them! and crying’. You weep, not for your Guardian’s Jenni Frazer describing unity and agreement of working class of! He was “proud” of the murderers, victims, but because they forced Sacks as and progressive parties of all countries. What is also clear is that Sacks yet expressed sympathy with the you to kill them. We oppose every manifestation himself did not understand British murdered. Every June Israeli Jews celebrate a much admired figure in both the of national sectionalism. It is an (or any other) form of irony. This is the Israel which Jerusalem Day, marking the 1967 Jewish and non-Jewish world ... internationalist duty to uphold the Martin Heidegger was a far committed the Qana massacre in war, when the city was captured. As Sacks won high praise and was principle, ‘One state, one party’. greater philosopher than Sacks, Lebanon 10 years earlier, killing part of the celebrations, thousands generally acknowledged as one whose legacy consists of a few over 100 of the 800 refugees who of settlers take part in the ‘March of the most brilliant intellects n The working class must be pious homilies. Nonetheless, for all had gathered there. Sacks said: of the Flags’. This march passes of his generation. He was organised globally. Without a global his erudition, Heidegger joined the through Arab east Jerusalem, with particularly lauded for his ability Communist Party, a Communist Nazi Party in 1933. Some might Does any of us, God forbid, take young settlers chanting slogans to explain Jewish philosophy to International, the struggle against suggest that there is a dichotomy satisfaction at the devastation of such as “Death to the Arabs!”, the wider community, which he capital is weakened and lacks between a philosophy that critiques Lebanon? Is that who we are? Let whilst banging on the shuttered did with great frequency on BBC coordination. society and our place in it, and a me be clear and unambiguous. Arab shops - all under the gaze of Radio 4’s Thought for the day, n Communists have no interest philosophy which ends up in Nazi We weep not just for Israel, but the Israeli police. lecturing in moral philosophy apart from the working class dictatorship and biological racism. for the people of Lebanon also … In 2017 Sacks extended a at Middlesex Polytechnic, or as a whole. They differ only in The same is equally true with Sacks. “personal invitation” to diaspora as a visiting professor at Essex recognising the importance of For all his fine, measured words, he But, of course, all this ‘devastation’ Jews to join him on a trip to Israel, University. Marxism as a guide to practice. lent his weight to the sanitising of was justified: which included “leading” the March That theory is no dogma, but bigotry and racism. of the Flags and “dancing with our To end, let me recall the death of must be constantly added to and Jonathan Sacks, with his affected And if we, if Israel, if Europe, brave IDF soldiers” in the far-right Hugo Gryn in 1996. Gryn was enriched. profundity and learning, was an if America do not take a stand settler enclave inside Hebron. a rabbi for 32 years at the West n Capitalism in its ceaseless establishment courier, flattering against terror, if we ignore it, as Ha’aretz correspondent Bradley London synagogue - one of the search for profit puts the future those with privilege and power, the world ignored it for so long, Burston asked: “Rabbi Sacks, largest Reform congregations in of humanity at risk. Capitalism is but having nothing to say to the then it will leave a stain on the why are you cheerleading for Europe. He was also an Auschwitz 9 synonymous with war, pollution, dispossessed. He was a man with human future that no tears, no anti-Palestinian provocateurs?” survivor - his family arrived there in exploitation and crisis. As a global little in the way of original thought. regrets, will ever remove. Burston never received a reply. 1944 when he was 14. His 10-year- system capitalism can only be He simply repackaged the mundane. Burston described it as “an annual, old brother was gassed on arrival. superseded globally. Presumably it did not occur to this gender-segregated, extreme-right, He and his mother survived, but Israel and Zionism great philosopher and scholar that pro-occupation religious carnival his father died a few days after n The capitalist class will never Jonathan Sacks in a speech at a the terror the world was ignoring of hatred, marking the anniversary liberation. willingly allow their wealth and Solidarity Rally for Israel on July was that committed by Israel. of Israel’s capture of Jerusalem by However, as chief rabbi of the power to be taken away by a 23 2006 - during Israel’s attack on However, Hezbollah ensured that humiliating the city’s Palestinian United Synagogue, Sacks refused parliamentary vote. Muslims”, in which marchers have to attend the funeral. A massive n We will use the most militant row erupted after The Jewish methods objective circumstances vandalised shops in Jerusalem’s Chronicle published a leaked letter, allow to achieve a federal republic Muslim quarter, chanted ‘Death which Sacks had written.14 This of England, Scotland and Wales, Fighting fund to Arabs’ and ‘The (Jewish) described Gryn as part of a “false a united, federal Ireland and a temple will be built, the [Al grouping”, which was “among United States of Europe. Aqsa] mosque will be burned those who destroy the faith”. Sacks’ n Communists favour industrial Mature tone down’, shattered windows and subsequent decision to attend a unions. Bureaucracy and class door locks, and poured glue into memorial service for Gryn did not compromise must be fought and brilliant effort by several (£50), SS and GT (£15 each), the locks of shops forced to close appease communal anger. the trade unions transformed into Acomrades took us to within and finally VP and RL (£10 for fear of further damage.10 As for Sacks himself, I know it schools for communism. touching distance of our £2,000 each). All that came to £660, is not the done thing to speak ill of n Communists are champions of target for November. You may taking our total for November’s Ha’aretz’s Anna Roiser pleaded the dead. But that is no reason to lie l the oppressed. Women’s oppression, recall that last week we still fighting fund up to £1,981. Not with Sacks not to attend, saying: about them either combating racism and chauvinism, needed £679 in just five days, too bad at all! and the struggle for peace and but, incredibly, we ended the Now we want to end 2020 ... one of the world’s most Notes ecological sustainability are just month just £19 short! with a flourish by breaking respected rabbis sends a message 1. npr.org/2020/11/09/933230474/rabbi-jonathan- sacks-towering-intellect-of-judaism-dies-at-72. as much working class questions Pride of place in the list of through that £2,000 barrier by of normalisation and acceptance as pay, trade union rights and donors is comrade MW, who at least the £19 we were short of the occupation by the 2. nytimes.com/2020/11/09/world/europe/ jonathan-sacks-dead.html. demands for high-quality health, transferred no less than £250 via last month, and the good news mainstream Jewish community. 3. churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/13-november/ housing and education. PayPal. He writes: “Someone is, after just two days we already Many Jews in the diaspora gazette/obituaries/obituary-rabbi-lord-sacks. gave me a bit of money recently have £176. The reason for that, work hard to emphasise that 4. thejc.com/news/uk/what-the-chief-rabbi-said- n Socialism represents victory and I thought that the Weekly of course, is all those start- being Jewish is not synonymous on-gay-marriage-1.34210. in the battle for democracy. It is 5. thejc.com/comment/analysis/exclusion-to- the rule of the working class. Worker could do with a bit of of-the-month standing orders. with supporting the Israeli welcome-25-years-of-orthodox-policy-on- it. I always enjoy reading your Thanks go to EW (£40), ST government, and that supporting gays-1.440161. Socialism is either democratic or, articles, and feel that your paper (£30), MS (£20), MT (£15), TM Israel’s right to exist is not 6. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_ as with Stalin’s Soviet Union, it Sacks#Universalism_vs_particularism. turns into its opposite. has a more mature tone than (£12), MM (£11), AN, YM and synonymous with supporting 7. counter-currents.com/2018/06/douglas-murrays- some others on the left. Hope the DI (£10 each), BG (£7), PL (£6) the occupation. Rabbi Sacks’ the-strange-death-of-europe. n Socialism is the first stage print edition will be back soon,” and finally PBS (£5). actions risk undermining these 8. theguardian.com/media/2012/nov/16/bbc- of the worldwide transition to Others who used PayPal Let’s make sure we keep messages.11 apologises-chief-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-gaza. communism–a system which 9. haaretz.com/opinion/rabbi-sacks-why- were comrades DB and TB (£50 publishing all those articles in are-you-cheerleading-for-anti-palestinian- knows neither wars, exploitation, each), and, as usual AR clicked our usual “mature tone”! Please Sacks ignored all such entreaties. provocateurs-1.5473150. money, classes, states nor nations. on that button to donate £5, help out if you can  In a video taken of the march 10. See azvsas.blogspot.com/2018/08/if-anyone- Communism is general freedom while providing another fiver Robbie Rix several youths spoke to Electronic resembles-enoch-powell-its.html. and the real beginning of human 11. haaretz.com/opinion/rabbi-sacks-why- by standing order as well. And Intifada’s Charlotte Silver. One said are-you-cheerleading-for-anti-palestinian- history. two other major donors were that they had come to celebrate the Fill in a standing order form provocateurs-1.5473150. The Weekly Worker is licensed by comrades JC and BK, who both “liberation of Jerusalem from the 12. youtube.com/watch?v=XkfH_YYBCaI. November Publications under a Creative came up with a fantastic £100 (back page), donate via our Palestinians”, while others chimed 13. electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/ Commons Attribution-NonCommercial by bank transfer. Then there website, or send cheques, in with “May their memory be video-israeli-mobs-celebrate-jerusalem-day-anti- 4.0 International Licence: payable to Weekly Worker palestinian-rampage-old-city. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ were standing orders from JT erased.” “May they all die today, 14. See independent.co.uk/news/leaked-letter- legalcode. ISSN 1351-0150. all together,” another interjected. widens-schism-in-jewry-1272921.html. No 1326 December 3 2020 Brexit talks go to the wire Dreams and cold realities With time fast running out, will it be a deal or no deal? Eddie Ford says both sides are nervous ou must have heard it hundreds that, overall, the UK imports 71% of and “wide-ranging” access to British moment” in the Brexit talks. So far, the of times already, almost to the what it eats and exports 80% of what waters. EU has only offered to return between Ypoint of screaming. But the it catches. Under the hated Common As things stand now, international 15% to 18% - called “derisory” by the Brexit talks do appear to be entering Fisheries Policy, finally established in law gives each state “the rights and British negotiators. their concluding stages. Or, if you 1983, the UK has most of the quotas duties of stewardship over the marine The other remaining dispute over prefer, there is just time for a final for haddock and decent quotas for cod resources that fall under their own fishing lies in the length of a potential drink at the last-chance saloon, at the - meaning that in some respects it has a exclusive economic zone” (EEZ) - a deal. Brussels has accepted a British 11th hour to midnight with the clock pretty good deal from the EU. Indeed, strip of sea that extends up to 200 proposal for a transition period on loudly ticking. when the details of the CFP were nautical miles beyond that state’s fishing rights after January 1, but there With tensions rising and the next finally worked out, the Tory minister territorial waters. Under the CFP all is no agreement on how long it should few days looking crucial, Michel for agriculture, fisheries and food, areas are treated as one single market, last or how it would actually work. Barnier has been told that the European Peter Walker, described the agreement logically enough, meaning foreign In theory, a fishing transition period capitals want prior scrutiny of any as a “superb agreement for British trawlers and companies own the rights would give Britain time to build up its possible deal with the UK before fishermen”. But don’t tell that to a to catch more than 130,000 tonnes of fleet to catch its increased quota, and it is agreed. Concern is mounting, Brexiteer, as they will explode in your fish every year that are part of the UK’s the EU more time to adapt to a smaller justifiably or not, that Barnier and his face. Also don’t tell them that around fishing quota - equating to more than share of the fish in UK waters. team may concede too much ground 30% of the UK’s fishing quota is in the £160 million worth. When it comes More broadly, there is no agreement following his briefing to ambassadors hands of five wealthy families, while to the history of the fish negotiations, over whether officials should agree on November 27 - where he spoke at two-thirds belongs to 25 profit-hungry or wars, the EU’s opening stance (led now what the future arrangements length of his “flexibility” over aspects companies. by the eight member-states that fish in will be after the end of the transitional of customs and border controls. In the In fact, the UK fishing industry is in British waters) was that the UK should period or negotiate that during the words of a senior European Union danger of cutting off its nose to spite its accept the status quo - meaning that period itself - which is what Britain diplomat, “being in the dark makes face for all sorts of reasons. The industry European boats can fish as normal wants. In response, the EU has said any people nervous”. Emphasising the depends to a large extent on shellfish, in British waters. Clearly this was an fresh negotiations like this would also message, a joint press conference was lobsters, crabs and langoustine (scampi Might be down to chance now untenable position that the EU had to have to apply to the actual trade deal held on December 1 by Emmanuel or large prawn), which are quota-free row back on, as British negotiators itself - but, with time running out fast, Macron and Belgium’s prime minister, or overwhelmingly allocated to the safety’,” Johnson railed, to the delight want bigger catches, based on where that might be a tad impractical. Having Alexander De Croo - talking about UK. These shellfish sales to the EU of the doddering Tory membership. fish live, so to speak, rather than the said that, the EU accepts - reluctantly their determination to ensure EU are worth £430 million a year - more Coming out of the EU, he declared, historical claims of foreign fishermen, no doubt - that the number of fish interests were not damaged in the than a quarter of all UK fish exports by would bring an end to “regulatory some of which go back to the 14th caught in UK waters will decrease and closing days of the negotiation. We value. Of course, there is no guarantee overkill” and boost Britain’s economy. century. the British share will increase. Talks must make sure, said De Croo, that the the UK will win new quotas in the However, it turned out that the Even Barnier - a former French are currently focused on the quotas UK does not score “a decisive goal in Brexit negotiations as it goes without offending rule was set by Britain, not fisheries minister, as it happens - of each of the 140 species. Both sides the last minute”. saying that other EU member-states the EU - which patiently explained has described both the EU and UK warn that the situation in ongoing Attempting to sound a bit more will fight like cats and dogs to retain that Johnson’s smoked kipper falls positions as “maximalist”; it is a negotiations is still “extremely fluid”. emollient a few days earlier, Simon their access to UK waters. The CFP outside the scope of the EU legislation. question of negotiating “between those If Boris Johnson fails in his bid to Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, established the quotas on the basis This only applied to fresh fish, not two extreme positions”, taking into ‘take back control’ of British waters, said both sides must avoid engaging in of historic fishing rights and French processed fishery products. Go and account the UK’s preferred “zonal there will be an almighty backlash from a blame game, as the “truth of Brexit” fishermen especially fear Brexit will smoke that, Boris. attachment” model. But obviously the many of his own backbenchers and the and its subsequent challenges become exclude them from ‘British’ waters, Referring specifically to fishing, UK must compromise too, Barnier rightwing media. They cling on to the clear. He added that there was a “big where they have fished for centuries - EU officials say they will not fall into has said, as you cannot completely Brexit dream of Britain becoming an incentive” to get a deal done, but two as have fishers from Ireland, Belgium, a Brexit “negotiating trap”, which ignore historical claims - nor the fact “independent coastal state”, having big issues remained unresolved. The Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany they think is being laid by the British that many coastal towns and villages the right to decide “who fishes in our first is over the dispute mechanism, and Spain. government - the latter seems to believe in Europe are heavily dependent on the waters and on what terms” - despite through which either side will be able that running down the clock works industry, some exclusively. Perhaps Realpolitik and cold economic realities to hit back if the other seeks to gain Symbolic to its advantage. Under this cunning significantly, Angela Merkel has hinted suggesting otherwise. For these ever a competitive advantage - the EU is Of course, the point is that for Boris plan, suggested Simon Coveney at a at a trade-off between UK access to the simmering gammons, to have French worried that Britain might cherry- Johnson fishing matters politically and recent event for parliamentarians from EU’s single market in electricity and or Spanish boats still fishing in British pick what it likes and what it does not. symbolically, as it immediately raises across Europe, the UK was using fish EU rights to catches in UK fishing waters would be regarded as a national Instead, it is seeking a “ratchet clause” the question of sovereignty and the as leverage in other parts of the trade waters - though she felt compelled to humiliation - if not unforgivable to ensure that, as either side develops fate of struggling coastal communities talks - agreeing to compromises in add that the EU does not need or want treachery. its standards over time, the other side - bringing back ‘control over our own other areas, including state aid and a Brexit deal “at any price”. Therefore it is quite conceivable, faces consequences, should it choose waters’. A nation proud again and all governance, and then using that to The scale of the difference between in spite of Boris Johnson’s general not to introduce equivalent regulations that nationalist guff. squeeze a last-minute compromise the two sides on fisheries was laid bare backtracking in terms of a hard Brexit, - with an independent panel to judge if Weekly Worker readers might recall on fishing out of the EU, with the after Barnier told MEPs at the end of that the negotiations could break down one side’s refusal to move in tandem is the spectacle of Johnson stupidly implied threat that otherwise the talks last week that the UK was seeking and we end up with no deal. Not giving it a competitive advantage. But waving a smoked kipper during the would collapse entirely, given the to repatriate 80% of the EU’s current because that is the intent of either side unsurprisingly, given the ultra-Brexit final Tory leadership hustings last strict time limits. We are “not playing catch in British seas. UK sources - each recognises that a deal is in both agenda of the rightwing press, the UK year, which had come from a “furious” that game”, said Coveney - “if there unconvincingly claimed that this their interests - but because everyone government is resisting anything that fisherman on the Isle of Man. After isn’t an agreement on this, the whole “misrepresented” the British position, is tied to a particular set of politics. might be seen as Brussels having the decades of sending kippers like this one thing could fall on the back of it”. but regardless the British government Fishing and the accompanying idea right of prior approval on domestic through the post, we learnt, Brussels No fish, no deal. As said many times on December 2 appeared to lower its of an ‘island race’ is part of a British legislation. bureaucrats now insisted that every by the EU, there will not be a trade demands by demanding at most 60% national mythology that could prove to The other outstanding issue is about kipper must be wrapped in a plastic deal with the UK unless the issue of catches in UK waters - leading one be irresistible l the level of access that will be granted ice pillow - “pointless, expensive and of fishing is resolved in a way that top EU diplomat to say that “we are to European fishing fleets in UK environmentally damaging ‘health and gives its member-states “sustainable” quickly approaching a make-or-break [email protected] waters, with no apparent resolution in sight, as the December 31 deadline Subscribe Name:______Standing order looms large. 6m 1yr Inst. To ______Bank plc ______Now, fishing might seem a strange Address:______UK £30/€35 £60/€70 £200/€220 dividing line. It only accounts for Branch address ______Europe £43/€50 £86/€100 £240/€264 ______between 0.1% and 0.2% of the British Rest of £65/€75 £130/€150 £480/€528 Post code ______Account name ______economy and employs just 24,000 world ______Sort code ______Account No ______people (leaving aside for now that New UK subscribers offer: ‘remain’-voting Scotland makes up 3 months for £10 ______Please pay to Weekly Worker, Lloyds A/C No 00744310 sort code 30-99-64, the sum of ______every month*/3 months* 53% of the entire UK industry). The until further notice, commencing on ______This replaces any previous order from this account. (*delete) majority of fish we eat in Britain is UK subscribers: Pay by standing order and Tel:______save £12 a year. Minimum £12 every 3 Date ______imported, mainly from the EU, and Email:______in turn the majority of fish we catch months... but please pay more if you can. 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