Articles
Saturday, October 19, 2024
At last the Conservatives have gone and Britain has a Labour government with a massive majority in terms of seats. Yet that huge majority masks an underlying fragility in the Labour vote. Its victory was achieved through the collapse of the Tories and of the SNP in Scotland and the rise of Reform UK. Labour only slightly increased its vote share and indeed more people voted Labour in the two general elections when Jeremy Corbyn was leader. Voter turnout was down. This demonstrates that the electorate was not really convinced by Starmer’s offering despite Labour’s shift to the right gaining the support of the establishment.
If people don’t see tangible change, they will have no reason to vote Labour in the future, and promising that things will get worse - cutting winter fuel payments and cuts to services - is not the way to achieve this. Worst of all the government is committed to pursuing the war agenda of NATO.
A vital role will be played by the trade unions, community campaigners and the peace movement to pressure Labour to adopt better policies. We can already see this happening. That is the difference between having a Labour and a Tory government. People have expectations of a Labour government. The task is making the government listen to its voters.
Friday, October 18, 2024
Despite the dangers to Europe and the world, the West continues to press on with its disastrous war in Ukraine. Even with the evident failures on Ukraine’s part to make progress in the war, including its incursion into Kursk and despite the suffering on all sides, the West is determined to double down on war. It has peremptorily dismissed peace plans and calls for negotiations. On the contrary, there are increasing moves to allow Ukraine to use weapons supplied by the West to hit targets within Russia. This has the potential to widen the war, making the countries who supply these weapons increasingly party to the conflict. There is also worrying build-up of NATO bases in Europe as the United States tries to move the responsibility for the war to European countries.
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Israel is continuously escalating its genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza and increasingly in the West Bank too. It has no interest in ceasefires or negotiations as it seeks to turn Palestine into an uninhabitable wasteland which it can permanently occupy. On the contrary it is now seeking to expand its aggression to Lebanon and Iran and to provoke a regional war.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
One aspect of the build up for war with China is the rearmament and increasingly aggressive military posture of Japan. Imperialists in Japan have long sought to shed the constraints placed on it as a defeated nation after the Second World War and now they have been given the green light to do this by the United States, which wants Japan to be part of the military encirclement of China and of Russia in the East. However, as the only country which has experienced the use of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there is also a strong peace movement in Japan which rejects these moves.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Acquiring nuclear weapons for Britian was initially proposed by Winston Churchill and then pursued by the Labour foreign secretary Ernest Bevin. It should then not surprise us that Labour is wholly committed to NATO, arming Ukraine and being confrontational with China. Those aspects of UK foreign policy have long had bi-partisan support from Labour as well as the Tories
The story is also one of post-war rivalry between Britain and the United States, but ultimately with Britain forced to play second fiddle to the US. Now Britain’s so-called independent nuclear bomb is anything but, relying entirely on the United States technically, politically and militarily.
As our world becomes more dangerous and the prospect of nuclear war comes closer, it raises urgent questions about the wisdom of spending huge sums of money on these weapons of mass destruction when the government is talking about cuts.
Monday, October 14, 2024
In the 2024 South African election the African National Congress (ANC) received 40.2% of the votes, dropping below 50% for the first time since the first democratic election in 1994.
There are a variety of reasons for this decline but they include the growth of opportunism, careerism, corruption and state capture alongside dissatisfaction with the ANC government and its policies.
Whilst there has been progress in many areas since 1994 nevertheless inequality, poverty and unemployment have increased.
There is now a government of national unity. Will the ANC be able to renew itself and lead the GNU in a progressive direction - it will be a difficult task.
Sunday, October 13, 2024
In August the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina resigned. On the surface, and as reported in mainstream media outlets, she was forced to step down due to student protests, but there were deeper geopolitical reasons behind her ousting. Not least she had raised US ire by refusing to host a United States military base in Bangladesh and by drawing closer to China and the BRICS countries. The student movement, as has happened in similar situations in other countries, provided leverage for the US regime change agenda.
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Chile is a very rich country but the people see little of the wealth. It has enormous natural resources, including huge reserves of copper and lithium, both essential for the transition to clean energy. The future is bright – but for whom? Politically the right is making gains and this favours capital over the ordinary workers in Chile.