Articles
Monday, December 30, 2024
On a recent visit to Russia this commentator found a society that was functioning well with decent services and a sense of social cohesion. There was a sense of normality despite the war. Although people did not talk a lot about it, he found that people wanted peace, but not at any price.
Friday, November 29, 2024
The BRICS alliance of Emerging Markets and Developing Countries took a major step forward at its 16th summit held in the Russian city of Kazan on October 22-24. Following decisions taken at last year’s summit in South Africa, a total of nine countries took part as full members for the first time, with Ethiopia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran joining Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. BRICS now represents nearly half of the global population. A total of 36 countries participated in the summit, along with the leaders of six international organisations, which included Antonio Guterres, United Nations General Secretary.
BRICS has announced its intention to challenge the Western domination of the bank transfer system by introducing BRICS Pay as and alternative to SWIFT. This was a key announcement at the summit which showed a determination to continue to strengthen relationships between BRICS members.
Thursday, November 28, 2024
State intervention and planning are not capitalism’s preferred ways of working, yet the need for state and globally agreed action is essential to tackling global warming. Yet if there is no viable planet then there is no capitalism either. Could this existential threat force capitalism to deal with the climate crisis? Having posed the question and put forward demands for achieving progress, we certainly shouldn’t just wait for this to happen, nor can we afford to wait for socialism to rescue us either. We need to campaign today to make governments act to halt the continued warming of our planet.
We can also join with the developing world which is seeking climate justice. These are the countries often most affected by climate change, but they are not the ones which caused it. They demand that the industrialised countries who made their wealth from polluting the planet pay for the transition to a green future.
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.