Crawling to the Americans

Licking the boots of the Americans comes as second nature to those sections of the ruling class who believe that their global interests are best serve through the might of US imperialism.

They call it the “special relationship”. They no longer talk about the “English speaking peoples”. It’s the “Anglosphere” these days. But they still claim that the political and cultural ties that supposedly bind the Britain and the USA have created a common destiny to lead what some of them still call the “free world”.

Although grovelling to US presidents has been reduced to a fine art by Tory politicians, it is not the exclusive preserve of the Conservative & Unionist Party. Labour’s Tony Blair liked basking in the reflected glory of the Stars and Stripes when he strutted across the globe posing as US imperialism’s chief henchman during the Bush era.

Boris Johnson is now going along the same road. Last week we went along with Franco-German moves to undermine the nuclear deal with Iran to justify support for the US economic blockade of Iran and any future US attacks on the Islamic Republic.

He tells the Russians that relations will not return to normal until the Kremlin stops the alleged “destabilising activity that threatens the UK and our allies and undermines the safety of our citizens and our collective security".

And this week Johnson welcomed the US lackey, Juan Guaidó, who calls himself the “interim president” of Venezuela despite the failure of repeated attempts to overthrow the legitimate left government of Nicolas Maduro.

Johnson won the election promising to get Brexit done and dusted. But all he wants to do is replace the Treaty of Rome with a ‘Treaty of Washington’ that will open up British markets to US vulture capitalism for little in return apart from cheap food that we could get from a ‘No-deal’ Brexit from any country in the world.

Brexit is a golden opportunity for Britain to expand its trade all over the world. A UK–China Free Trade Agreement would clearly be of great benefit to both sides, along with similar agreements with India, Russia and our old Commonwealth trading partners. But Johnson clearly can’t see beyond a one-sided trade agreement with the USA.

The Words of Trump

Whilst glaciers melt and massive bush-fires sweep across Australia, Donald Trump is still in denial over climate change. The US president was on top form this week telling fellow world leaders at Davos that: “We must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse. They are the heirs of yesterday's foolish fortune-tellers."

The 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the Swiss resort of Davos focused on green and environmental issues, and called on attending companies to move their business models towards greener choices.

But this was ignored by Trump, whose clique sees their demands as threats to the big US energy corporations responsible for much of the pollution in the USA today.

Catastrophic climate change is not inevitable. The technologies that could dramatically reduce our dependence on fossil fuels already exist and have been proven to work. There is no shortage of energy in the world, more development of wind, hydro-power, tidal- and solar- power could provide enough energy for global needs.

Real action is needed to put more pressure on governments to provide more funds and put in place meaningful policies to ensure that an environmental catastrophe does not happen.

Terrorism: An Event of the past for Xinjiang?

By John Maryon

Evening in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

With a population of 1.43 billion, People's China is the most populous country in the world.

Since Mao Zedong proclaimed the people's republic in 1949, the state has changed from an undeveloped peasant society to become the world's second largest and fastest growing economy, and in so doing ended centuries of unrelenting poverty.

Today, with a mixed economy, which includes a powerful state sector, China leads the world in production output. Investment into infrastructure, scientific research and production technology have combined to enable companies to match world standards whilst leading the field in areas such as 5G.

China has some 38,000km of high speed rail network connecting over 550 major cities that along with conventional trains, expanding air routes and impressive new motorways, link this vast country with a land surface area of 9,597 million square kilometres.

Along with the main Han majority there are 55 minority ethnic groups, of which of which the Zhuang, Man and Uyghur are the largest. In addition to the Standard Chinese, there are nine regional languages.

The Chinese Communist Party has led the transition to build a new, modern industrial society raising people's hopes and aspirations as they strive to create a super state based upon socialism with Chinese characteristics.

In 2003, Yang Liwei became China's first cosmonaut to carry out a successful flight aboard the {Shenzhou 5} spacecraft. This demonstrated the scientific and technical potential of a new state with a dynamic economy. A new force had arisen that would be able to challenge the dominant role played by the USA since the Second World War. A serious miscalculation had been made by the Imperialists who had assumed that China would remain a source of cheap labour and profit.

People's China has in the minds of the Imperialists been far too successful with its stable long-term growth and growing influence. In particular, China's ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) for trade and investment into infrastructure is transforming international business relations to the mutual benefit of all parties.

Instead of becoming more competitive and rising to the challenges of the modern world, US imperialism has reacted with threats and sanctions. Not only to China and its businesses, but also to its trading partners. In addition to bully boy tactics the USA has initiated a propaganda campaign based upon claims of massive human rights violations against ethnic and religious minorities in China. Unlike the indigenous peoples’ of north America whose society has been destroyed however, China's minorities are able to thrive and prosper.

The latest anti-Chinese campaign focuses upon the alleged plight of the Uyghur in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The province, which is arid and mountainous, lies in the far southwest of the country and is largely undeveloped. Xinjiang shares borders with five other states including Afghanistan and Pakistan, where millions of US troops, mercenaries and CIA agents have been active. The region has large reserves of natural gas and is a logistical centre for the BRI.

There is alarm and fear within the USA of the vast economic potential of the BRI coupled with a strong desire to hamper its progress. Hostility towards China can be seen by its threats in the South China sea and support for separatist movements in Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The USA and its subservient bourgeois western media have accused the Chinese government of sending up to one million Uyghur into concentration camps. To justify these allegations the United Nations (UN) was named as the source of information. So what are the true facts?

For a start, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has said that no UN bodies have made such a charge against China. The actual allegation was made by an American, using unsourced claims, representing an 'independent' agency. A group of 22 non-Muslim, western pro-imperialist countries sent a letter to the UN critical of China. A much larger group of 54 countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America then sent a letter in support of China.

Fanatical groups can be turned violent by religious extremism. In Xinjiang, terrorists killed hundreds and injured thousands more in a series of attacks on people going about their daily lives. Using bombs, long knives and driving trucks into groups of people, the terrorists embarked upon a campaign of mass murder. The USA will try to recruit such individuals to do its dirty work. Up to 5,000 Turkic-speaking Muslim Uyghurs were transported to the Turkish–Syrian border to join imperialist-backed forces opposing the Syrian government.  The USA uses such people and then dumps them or sends them to face the horrors of Guantanamo Bay.

People's China has been determined to follow a completely different path when dealing with radical groups. Following the terrorist attacks in Xinjiang it was decided to adopt a programme using vocational education and training centres. The aim was to involve the radicals in education and skills training so that they could play a full part in the development of the region. The programme has been a total success and there have been no terrorist incidents since 2017.

This has been another setback for the USA. The young people of Xinjiang are now playing their full part in developing the infrastructure of their homeland and helping to build a socialist state.

Which way forward for Labour?

Many hoped for a Corbyn victory in December, or at least a hung parliament in which Labour would play the leading role, and that probably would have been the outcome had Labour had stuck to its pledge to honour the 2016 Brexit referendum. The Tories did and they won. Labour didn’t and they lost.

Labour’s defeat has now led to a degree of dismay and confusion amongst the younger generation who rallied around Jeremy Corbyn’s banner in recent years. Some say that there’s no point in remaining with Labour because whoever takes his place will not follow in his footsteps. Others are making the usual forlorn calls to set up another socialist party that follow a defeat for the labour movement.

But the struggle goes on, and communists have a crucial role in the fight-back in the unions and on the street against austerity and war. Although the election was a disaster for Labour, we must remember that most class battles are won in the field of struggle and not in parliamentary debate. The struggle outside parliament, which is a bourgeois institution, will be far more decisive than the struggle inside the House of Commons.

We have always maintained that peace is the central issue in all our campaigns. We are communists and in order to stop war effectively the peace movement has be an anti-imperialist struggle, not just a pacifist movement. It must become a movement for concrete action to defend peace and oppose imperialist aggression.

The labour and peace movement must step up the fight to bring about the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all British troops from northern Ireland and every other part of the world, scrap all British nuclear weapons and close down all US bases on our soil. We must ensure that they are never used to attack the legitimate governments of Syria, Iraq and Iran. At the same time, it must mobilise to stop the Government from spending billions on maintaining the needless and useless Trident nuclear weapons system.

The New Communist Party rejects the ‘parliamentary road’ and the electoral politics of the platforms of left social-democratic factions that have tried to challenge Labour in the polls whilst posing as ‘revolutionaries’ on the street. They believe that the only way to defeat social democracy is in fact to imitate it. But the paltry results of all these parties reflect the futility of trying to compete with the Labour Party in bourgeois elections.

We don’t confuse the Labour Party with a revolutionary party nor do we imagine that people’s democracy can be achieved through parliamentary elections. But Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership over the last few years showed that Labour is still a potentially strong weapon for our class and has vindicated our long-held electoral position.

Day-to-day demands for reform, progressive taxation, state welfare and a public sector dedicated to meet the people’s needs are winnable under capitalism, particularly in a rich country such as Britain today. We support these demands and back the demands of those within the Labour Party and the trade union movement who are campaigning for greater social justice. We support those in the Labour Party fighting for left policies. It is part of our struggle for a democratic Labour Party.

We believe that Labour, with its links with the trade unions and the co-operative movement, offers the best option for the working class in the era of bourgeois parliamentary democracy. Our strategy is for working class unity, and our campaigns are focused on defeating the right-wing within the movement and strengthening the left and progressive forces within the Labour Party and the unions.