It is now 2 years since Syrians began to demand change and foreign governments are exploiting the chaos of Syria’s populist uprising to gain influence in the region. And Syrians—70,000 of whom have been killed in the conflict and almost a million have been displaced —are paying the price. Save the Children says more than two million children are facing disease, malnutrition and severe trauma. Both Britain and France are providing military aid to the Free Syrian Army and are pressing for the EU to permit them to supply weapons. Saudi Arabia support efforts to turn the Syrian conflict...
Read more »
Revolution is in the air, or at least the word is. The media talked of a “Tunisian Revolution” in January and of an “Egyptian Revolution” in February. In a weak, narrow sense of the word this could be said to be true. In both countries a long-established dictator was overthrown as a first step towards establishing political democracy, the only kind of democracy that capitalism can offer. Already some changes have been made, even though many of the personnel of the old regime are still in place. There is less arbitrary police repression. There is freedom of speech and...
Read more »
When the popular movements against long-standing despots in the Arab world spread from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya the Western powers thought that something they had long wanted – regime-change in Libya – was about to be handed them on a plate. But they didn’t have the same control over Gaddafi as they did over Moubarak and Ben Ali and so could not arrange for him to bow out. His own man, and true to form, Gaddafi chose to try to brutally repress the movement. With the support of mercenaries and some sections of the population armed with superior...
Read more »
Saudi Arabian troops sent to help put down the protests for democracy in Bahrain. While the UK government demands action against Gadhaffi , is there a similar call for a move to oppose this military intervention by Saudi Arabia? Will those governments who rightly condemn Gadaffi’s use of foreign mercenaries now condemn this use of foreign military power by oil sheiks to crush majority protestors in Bahrain? The opposition said : “We consider the arrival of any soldier, or military vehicle, into Bahraini territory… an overt occupation of the kingdom of Bahrain and a conspiracy against the unarmed people of...
Read more »
The lightning rapidity and relative ease with which Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was chased out of Tunisia in January, is a clear testimony not only of the power of the masses but also (though unknown to many) how vulnerable and cowardly many a dictator is. Hours before his ignominious flight, Ben Ali appeared on television visibly shaken and pleading with the people to give him time to address their problems. Too late; the masses were already up in arms. It is said that the capitalist system digs its own grave. But it does not do so willingly. It...
Read more »
At the time of going to press, the “revolution of anger” in Egypt seems to be entering a new phase. Tahrir Square has been reopened to traffic and commerce. Massive political demonstrations are over, at least for the time being, but strikes and protests by various groups of workers continue. The employees of the National Bank of Egypt have forced the resignation of its chairman, a Mubarak ally. Ambulance drivers, public transport workers, and even the police are demonstrating for better wages and conditions. Many Egyptians are dissatisfied with what has been achieved so far, and with good reason....
Read more »
The pressure to misinterpret the deaths, as the bodies come back, as nobly purifying is a cynically orchestrated propaganda exercise intended to justify the war. Among the rituals so consoling to our Servants of the People in Westminster is the solemn roll call of the names of recently fatal casualties of the Afghanistan war proceeding to formulaic assurances of grief, of sympathy for family and friends and an assertion, defiant of a mass of disruptive facts, that from the dead will blossom a victory to bring a happier, freer Afghanistan and a safer Britain. All of this will happen,...
Read more »
Our rulers tell us they are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan for democracy. Not true. I n June 2009 in Afghanistan a group of heavily armed (with US weaponry) and masked Afghan thugs forced their way into the office of a Provincial Prosecutor and demanded that a detained prisoner be handed over to them. The Prosecutor refused and as the thugs became more threatening he called for the police. When the Provincial Police Chief along with the head of CID and other police arrived there was an escalation in the confrontation that culminated in the deaths of the chief...
Read more »
Peace is always better than war. Because wars are never fought in the interests of ordinary people. And because in wars it is always ordinary people who suffer. So, irrespective of the issues involved or the terms agreed, Socialists can only welcome the ending of any war in any part of the world. Stop the killing is our permanent policy. In that artificial subdivision of the old Ottoman Empire known as Palestine, those who suffered from the irrational attempt to set up a Jewish State there have been both the original population – whether of Muslim, Christian or Jewish...
Read more »
A Critical Look at the Left’s Flirtation with Islamic Fundamentalism -from Communicating Vessels Magazine Issue 19 “I have striven not to laugh at human actions, nor to hate them, but to understand them.” Baruch Spinoza THE WORLD HAS undoubtedly changed since the late 1980s. No one can deny that when the Berlin wall crumbled and the bureaucratic socialism of the Soviet Union imploded, the Western world was in a state of jubilant euphoria. You could view images of excited people chipping away at the wall that separated East Germany from West Germany. But in the years following those moments...
Read more »
