Articles
Monday, May 30, 2022
While people at home face a horrendous cost of living crisis the UK government is pouring arms into Ukraine as well providing training to its armed forces. This includes British military personnel being present in Ukraine itself. This is not entirely new, however, and is an extension of long term collaboration between the two countries.
Sunday, May 29, 2022
The trend towards the militarisation of the EU has accelerated since the start of the war in Ukraine. This is dangerous and destabalising, but there are alternatives. We especially need a peace movement arguing for these alternatives and for a world free from conflict.
Saturday, May 28, 2022
For propaganda effect NATO is routinely described in the mainstream media as a defensive alliance, but the reverse is the case. It was founded to confront the Soviet Union militarily and since then it has engaged in wars of aggression and military interventions across the world. This included breaking the post World War 2 peace in Europe by bombing Yugoslavia in 1999. Its hostile expansion eastwards was the most important factor leading to the present war in Ukraine.
Friday, May 27, 2022
Whilst we are used to the fiction that NATO is a defensive alliance, NATO has been busy dabbling in writing fiction as an ideological exercise in influencing opinion. It regards this as the 6th domain of warfare and demonstrates the importance of cultural struggle.
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Whilst the war in Ukraine is having an impact across the globe those who will be hardest hit are in the developing world which relies on food and fertiliser supplies from Russia and Ukraine. A real possibility of mass hunger looms.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
The Covid pandemic brought to light problems with South African health care which is plagued by weaknesses in the system and corruption. Despite this frontline workers showed their care and dedication to their jobs and there have been some positives. Wider lessons, however, can be learned from this experience about the need to combat corruption and building a developmental state, much closer to the needs of the grassroots population.
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
P&O has admitted that it broke the law in failing to consult with staff over sacking 800 workers done by video link. No consequences have followed from this. Yet if the worker's union had broken the law then the full weight of the state would swiftly have been brought to bear with funds seized, officials in court and an attempt to destroy the organisation.
Sunday, March 27, 2022
The biggest target the US has in its sights is China. There are similarities between the stand off with Russia over Ukraine and the attempt by the US to manufacture a crisis over Taiwan. Here too it has ignored historic agreements, increased tensions through talking up threats of war, war-planning and stationing military forces in the region. Here too both geopolitical and economic factors are at work. The US wants to prevent a peaceful reunification of China, as a separate Taiwan gives it strategic power in the Asia Pacific region. And of course, Taiwan also has a highly advanced semiconductor sector which it does not want China to get access to.