Free Palestine – Boycott Israel!

by New Worker correspondent

Coca-Cola will no longer be served at the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) after objections from the staff. Workers at the Glasgow Film Theatre have led demands at the charity-run cinema to show support for the Palestinian Arabs amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza as staff and well-known figures from the arts called for the venue to support a boycott of Israeli goods. Coca-Cola does business in Israel and owns vineyards in both the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Golan Heights through a subsidiary.  
Last week, Unite members at the cinema announced they would not be handling any goods on the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement’s list. Coca-Cola products are part of that list. 
An open letter from the Unite Hospitality branch was published last week calling for the theatre to adhere to the BDS movement’s boycott list and endorse the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). The branch’s stand was backed by Ghassan Abu-Sittah, rector of the University of Glasgow, and film director Ken Loach, who, of course, supports an academic and cultural boycott of the Zionist entity. 
The branch deplored “GFT’s failure to agree to endorse BDS and PACBI. For over a year our members have petitioned the board on numerous occasions to agree to scrap financial and cultural ties to the Israeli regime which has plausibly committed genocide, and continues to practice apartheid in the occupied territories and Jerusalem”.
 It also declared that “we recognise the contradiction of an institution that is willing to profit financially from the screening of popular Palestinian films and documentaries while refusing to cut ties with the apartheid regime which so often appears as the antagonist in them”.
 The branch’s industrial officer Yana Petticrew added that: “Our branch would like to convey our unwavering support for our members and friends at the GFT in their service boycott of BDS-listed items and products”. 
 Campaigns officer, Max McCluskey, said “our members understand that the same CEOs profiting from your can of coke, your extortionate food and energy bills, the privatisation of our NHS, and the political capture of our elected politicians through lobbying and pressure, are the same ones lining up to invest in Trump’s barbaric plans for ethnic-cleansing in the Gaza Strip. Cultural venues like the GFT have a moral and political duty to divest from such regimes and commit to a cultural output that is starkly opposed to them. The modern global economy connects workers across the world financially, socially and politically”.
 In response the GFT said “We understand the significance of the issues raised and the depth of feeling raised by members of our communities. The Board and Executive are reviewing the detailed points and requests submitted by staff with the necessary due diligence, essential legal review and consultation required to ensure that we meet our charitable obligations”. 
 Cinema goers desiring a tooth rotting drink can always make do with Irn Bru. And if any of them like rum, it should be Havana Club, not Bacardi!

Topsy-turvy land

The Halifax Forum’s Anti-Democratic Agenda

by Roland Boer

An organisation of supposed statesmen and intellectuals was formed in the city of Halifax in Canada with the aim of reigniting and overthrowing the people’s government in China.
This so-called “Halifax Forum” held a meeting in Taipei, the capital of the breakaway Chinese province of Taiwan, last month with both open and closed sessions to discuss issues of “security” and “democracy”.
To begin with, this gathering of the representatives of the parasite class was clearly a provocative move, since the island of Taiwan is recognised internationally as an inalienable part of China. It is clear that despite all the nice “buzz words” the Halifax Forum promotes, it actually supports separatism, extremism, and terrorism.
However, let us have a closer look at what the Halifax Forum claims to be. Initially established on a Canadian initiative (hence “Halifax”) it has on its board of directors and team people from Canada, the USA, various countries in Eastern and Western Europe and one or two from African countries. No one, it seems comes from China, Australia, or New Zealand.
Further, the funding of the Halifax Forum is revealing, since one of them is NATO – the aggressive military alliance led by the USA that has attacked countries such as Yugoslavia (and dismembered it), Afghanistan, and more recently Russia. NATO is, as we know, facing a crisis, with the USA at the time of writing disdainfully casting aside “old Europe” in its direct suing for peace with Russia in relation to Ukraine.
While the Halifax Forum boasts such funding – and there are others – it claims to be “non-partisan” in its promotion of “democracy”. Readers will know that “democracy” here stands for Western political systems imposed on countries against their will and indeed against their historical logic. In other words, they try to promote capitalist democracy and refuse to recognise the superior form of socialist democracy practised in People’s China. Indeed, if one looks at the “Halifax China” page, one sees the lies and distortions concerning China that have become common in some corners of the West. We are led to the following conclusion: since the Halifax Forum takes an anti-China stance, it is in essence a partisan and ultimately anti-democratic organisation.
However, there is a deeper problem that is endemic to Western approaches: they think that the political system determines everything else. Thus, if they can change a political system in their favour, they think that they have solved the problem. This is topsy-turvy. Why? It is the economic system that determined and shapes in complex ways the political system. Real and qualitative change takes place through socioeconomic transformation, as we see with China’s revolution, socialist construction, and reform. Suitable political structures emerge as a result.
In socio-economic terms, we note the following: that the island of Taiwan’s derivative and imbalanced capitalist approach has led to economic stagnation is clear; that it relies on the mainland for its economic survival is also clear; that it will in due time normalise relations with the mainland is the path of history. The Halifax Forum’s inverted approach simply tries to delay the reality of Chinese compatriots across the straights coming truly together once again.

Half the Sky

This weekend working people in Britain and throughout the rest of the world paused to mark the struggle for equal rights and the ending of all discrimination against women that is re-affirmed every year on 8th March International Women’s Day. 
International Women’s Day was launched by the United Nations in those heady days of 1977. Back in the 1970s the imperialists were on the defensive. The Israelis got a bloody nose from the Arabs in the October war of 1973. Then, for the first and only time, the Arabs and the OPEC oil cartel used their oil wealth to screw concessions from the imperialists. In 1974 the pro-Western Emperor of Ethiopia was overthrown, the Portuguese empire collapsed and Yasser Arafat addressed the United Nations General Assembly in an epic call for Palestinian rights. The Americans were kicked out of Vietnam soon after. 
It was a decade of optimism and liberation and the holiday was widely celebrated throughout the Global South as well as Cuba, the Soviet Union, People’s China and  the people’s republics of Eastern Europe. It was also celebrated in the West as mass movements and trade unions took up the call for equality and women’s rights in the United States and Western Europe.
In the people’s democracies and other parts of the Global South the day is still genuinely celebrated to mark the end of feudal concepts and the emancipation of women who Chairman Mao famously said “hold up half the sky”.  But it barely goes beyond the inevitable commercialisation used to sell goods to the “women’s” market in the imperialist heartlands these days. Trade union bureaucrats and mainstream bourgeois politicians all pay lip-service to its aims but they rarely go beyond their usual attempts to woo the “women’s” vote while
women’s issues are reduced to the “woke” demands of the middle strata gurus that serve the ruling class in the mass media. 
They’ll elevate the problems of petty-bourgeois women in breaking through the “glass ceiling” of bourgeois society while routinely ignoring the problems of inequality, homelessness, unemployment, domestic violence, drink and drugs that hit working class women the hardest.
Many of the issues affecting women naturally also impact on men and the fight for equality for women is a crucial part of the class struggle. Inequalities sow divisions in the class when unity and solidarity are most needed.
The emancipation of women can only be achieved under socialism. Or as Lenin put it “it is precisely the Soviet system, and the Soviet system only, that secures democracy. This is clearly demonstrated by the position of the working class and the poor peasants. It is clearly demonstrated by the position of women…the working women’s movement has for its objective the fight for the economic and social, and not merely formal, equality of woman. The main task is to draw the women into socially productive labour, extricate them from "domestic slavery", free them of their stultifying and humiliating resignation to the perpetual and exclusive atmosphere of the kitchen and nursery”.

The cowardly, craven BBC

Hundreds of film, TV, and media professionals, have condemned censorship and racism after the BBC removed a documentary about the children of Gaza. In a letter to BBC executives, they criticised the decision as “racist” and “dehumanising”, blaming pressure from pro-Israel groups. Billed as “following the lives of four young people trying to survive the Israel-Hamas war as they hope for a ceasefire - a vivid and unflinching view of life in a warzone” the documentary has now been pulled by the BBC.
Gary Lineker and Miriam Margolyes are among more than 800 media figures who have condemned the BBC's decision to pull a documentary about children's lives in Gaza. 
The BBC says it removed Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone from iPlayer while it carried out "further due diligence" after discovering that the young narrator was the son of a Hamas official. Zionists, including the Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, had written to the BBC asking how a child with alleged family ties to Hamas was allowed to be the focus of a documentary about the lives of ordinary Palestinians.   
The open protest letter published by Artists for Palestine UK criticised what the signatories said was a "racist" and "dehumanising" campaign targeting the documentary. It called on the BBC to reject efforts to have the film permanently removed or “subjected to undue disavowals” saying that surrendering to efforts to stop its return to iPlayer would indicate “racialised smears against Palestinians outweigh journalistic ethics and public interest”.
The signatories also warned against intrusive scrutiny of Abdullah Al-Yazouri, a 14-year-old  child who narrated Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone. His father, Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri, served as Gaza’s deputy agriculture minister – a civil service role concerned with food production.
“​​Almost half of Gaza’s population are children. What they have experienced over the past 17 months is something no child deserves to ever go through” said Liam O’Hare, an award-winning documentary producer/director who signed the letter. “As journalists and filmmakers we have a duty to help tell their story and that’s what this film did so brilliantly. The BBC cannot allow a politicised campaign to succeed in silencing the children of Gaza.”
Artists for Palestine UK (APUK) is a growing network of artists and cultural workers standing together in support of Palestinian liberation and for a just resolution for all in Israel/Palestine, including Palestinian refugees. 
The campaign that was launched in 2015 believes that those who work in the arts have a responsibility to consider the impact of their work when engaging in a situation of radical inequality.
APUK says that the arts are of particular significance where a people’s history, cultural heritage and future are under constant threat of erasure and it believes that the arts have an important role to play in connecting audiences with Palestinian experience. It opposes all forms of racism, including anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism.
“The UK film and TV industry will no longer be intimidated by those whose sole mission it is to censor the voices of the many who are defending the rights of children, the marginalised and those in desperate need. All stories have the right to be told and journalistic scrutiny should not be at the whim of those who deem certain lives unequal,” said letter signatory Nada Issa, an award-winning producer/director and journalist who is part Palestinian and Lebanese. We whole-heartedly agree.

Tales from a heroic age

by Ben Soton

Odyssey: Stephen Fry, Penguin London 2024, 416 pp, pbk rrp £10.99

Odyssey by Stephen Fry is the latest translation of Homer’s epic poem. The original, believed to have been written sometime in the eighth century BC, was probably written in an archaic form of Ancient Greek, probably Doric. Suffice to say there have been numerous translations of The Odyssey; some in poetic form others in prose.
The Odyssey has had an immense influence on Western literature. The Aeneid by the Roman Virgil has numerous similarities with The Odyssey; both stories originate in the Trojan War. James Joyce’s Ulysses (Joyce uses the Roman name for the hero Odysseus) is also based on it. In modern science fiction the famous words from Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker, “Luke I am your father”, has its origins in the meeting between Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, while the term “odyssey” is often synonymous with any epic journey.
Odyssey by Stephen Fry differs little from previous translations of Homer’s account of the king of Ithaca’s return from the Trojan war. His desire is to return to his wife Penelope, whom he has been parted from for twenty years and his son Telemachus, who was little more than a babe in arms when he left. Penelope is continually pestered by suitors who she manages to outwit who want to marry her and take the throne. Time is running out and few believe Odysseus to be alive. Meanwhile in his attempt to return home Odysseus, faces Cyclops, sea monsters and is continually shipwrecked.
Fry’s translation, which is written in prose format and reads more like a novel, differs slightly in that he makes passing reference to the Trojan prince Aeneas. Aeneas fled from Troy, put to the torch by the victorious Greeks, and his descendants eventually founded Rome.
Whilst Odyssey ends with the defeat of the suitors, other translations continue with further stories. For instance the E V Rieu translation of 1946 describes the brutal killing of the disloyal female slaves of his household who had sided with the suitors. Fry makes no mention of this, even in the prologue, making this translation more sympathetic to Odysseus.
The problem with the story is that so little is known about the original author, Homer. Some scholars even doubt his existence and attribute the work to a number of different writers. Perhaps Homer, assuming he existed, simply played an editorial role.
Nevertheless the Odyssey is still a timeless work of literature. It has inspired numerous translations, television series, feature films and will continue to arouse curiosity for many years to come. On that note Odyssey by Stephen Fry is well worth reading and will make a worthwhile addition to any bookshelf.

Between a rock and a hard place

Keir Starmer’s off to Washington next week to win support for a European plan to send 30,000 British and European Union troops to Ukraine as “peacekeepers” if and when a truce is agreed to end the Ukraine war. Though this force would allegedly be there to guarantee Ukraine’s independence its real role would be to preserve the British and European Union’s economic interests in a post-war Ukraine that Donald Trump clearly sees as no more than an American protectorate.
The war-lobby that reflects the most venal and aggressive sections of the British ruling class has gone into top gear with Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat worthies all urging Starmer to “stand up” to Donald Trump. The Atlanticists who used to hail American presidents as leaders of the “free world” have closed ranks with those who look to an alliance with Franco-German imperialism to bleat on about “betrayal”.
“It's time for Starmer to stand up for Britain and our allies in Europe” says Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey. Former Tory defence secretary Gavin Williamson says that “we cannot let fake news and a false narrative become accepted. That has to be rebuffed at every moment. And if that causes some people offence, well, that's their problem”. And Tony Blair’s former spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, calls Donald Trump a “pathological liar, a narcissist” who is “concerned only about himself, his wealth and his power” in the Independent last week.
None of this is likely to sway those now at the helm of US imperialism. The initiative to start high-level talks between the Russian and American foreign ministers  in Saudi Arabia was not the whim of The Donald or a tiny clique of American oligarchs but a decision that reflects the needs and demands of the wing of the American ruling class that wants to cut its losses in Ukraine to enable them to strengthen their grip over the Middle East in their bid to control the entire global energy market. 
In reality there never was a “free world” and the “special relationship” the British bourgeoisie upheld was largely a figment of their own imagination. They feign suprise at Trump’s moves to build detente with the Russian Federation but the Trump camp made no secret of this in the run-up to the US presidential election last year. The simple fact is that Starmer and the rest of the pack in Europe didn’t think Trump would win. 
As we’ve said before secret diplomacy is rarely the best pathway to peace. But both the Russian and American sides are clearly working towards a win-win agreement over Ukraine. If that ends the war with a peace settlement that recognises the rights of the Crimeans, southern Ukrainians and the people of the Donbas to live in the Russian Federation well and good. It will clearly benefit the Ukrainian and Russian people.

A not so pointless murder

 

by Ben Soton

We Solve Murders: Richard Osman, Penguin, London 2024, 432 pp, Hbk £22, Pbk £9.99

Richard Osman is best known as the co-presenter of the television gameshow Pointless; however in 2020 he branched out into thriller writing with the Thursday Murder Club series.  However, the series, based around a group of elderly characters approaching eighty, may for obvious reasons have a limited lifespan.  Building on the success of his first series Osman appears to be starting a new set of novels, the first being We Solve Murders.         
The book’s main characters are a retired Met detective Steve Wheeler, now living in the New Forest, and his bodyguard daughter-in-law Amy.  Steve lives in the fictional village of Axley, which has strong similarities with the actual village of East Boldre.  Its inhabitants are mostly affluent commuters and retirees and Steve spends much of his time solving minor mysteries, such as money missing from the till in a local shop and the odd missing cat.  The highlight of his week is the pub quiz.       
Amy’s world could not be more different.  Currently working as a body-guard for an international best-selling author, Rosie D’Antonio; she inhabits a world where the higher echelons of organised crime meet the super-rich.  Is there much difference?
These two very contrasting worlds are brought together after a series of murders and an attempt by the real culprit to either frame Amy or have her murdered.  Amy is forced to ask Steve for help.   
It’s an odyssey that takes Rosie, Steve and Amy across the world starting in South Carolina and ending at the pub quiz in Axley.  Steve eventually solves the murder, bringing the guilty parties to justice.  He meanwhile manages to make the transition from the world of a quiet New Forest village to an action-adventure role including private jets, shootings and possibly the opportunity of romance.   
The novel reads more like a complicated word puzzle than a novel and the murderer was the character I suspected. Its interjections about teenage influencers, which I still wonder what they had to do with the murder, do not really help.  The characters did not immediately spike the imagination in the same way as the Thursday Murder Club series.  Meanwhile Osman missed an opportunity to provide Amy with a sufficient back story, which he managed to do with Steve.  However characters sometimes take several novels to fully develop.  The story ends with the possibility of further books. Let’s hope they are better than the first.   

The Nobel road to peace

Though Donald Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on four occasions over the years his supposed efforts to promote peace and resolve global conflicts have, so far, failed to impress the Nobel Peace Committee.
This rubbishy prize, with a few honourable exceptions, has long been the preserve of imperialist politicians and prominent agents of imperialism. The anti-communist Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov won it in 1975. The reactionary Polish union leader Lech Walesa got it for his counter-revolutionary campaign in 1983. Gorbachov was similarly rewarded for his treachery in 1990. And a prominent Chinese anti-communist writer, Liu Xiaobo, got his Nobel for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”. 
Bizarrely enough the European Union was collectively awarded this glittering prize in 2012 for contributing “to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”.
Needless to say the Dalai Lama is on the list of winners together with Henry Kissinger, who was jointly given the prize together with the chief north Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho in 1973 for negotiating the Vietnamese peace accord. Comrade Le, the only communist ever to get this accolade, took the principled stand and refused to accept the prize on the grounds that the war in Vietnam was still raging.
But Trump may be lucky this time round. His efforts to end Joe Biden’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine have soon borne fruit with a positive response from the Kremlin and a summit with Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia in the offing.
The Russians have made it clear that they want international recognition of the autonomous republic of Crimea’s accession to the Russian Federation. They intend, one way or another, to liberate all the territories of the two Donbas people’s republics that have joined the Russian Federation as well as the two former southern Ukrainian provinces that have also been liberated. They want equal rights for all the remaining members of the Russian community in Ukraine and a guarantee of permament Ukrainian neutrality.
The Trump team are talking about a standstill cease-fire but offering the Russians what they’ve already got is not the most generous opening gambit. It’s nevertheless a start. 
However Trump’s people do seem to accept the justice of some of the Russian claims while outlining their own demands for exclusive American exploitation of Ukraine’s priceless rare earths and other mineral deposits after the end of the fighting.
Though only Trump and Putin can set the seal on a deal to end the war most of the hard bargaining will have already been resolved before they meet in the secret talks between their envoys that are already preparing the terms of a settlement. 
Secret diplomacy, that has sadly became the norm since the end of the Cold War, is rarely the best pathway to peace. But both the Russian and American sides are clearly working towards a win-win agreement that ends the war – and that clearly will be in the benefit of the Ukrainian and Russian people. Perhaps Trump will get his Nobel afterall...who knows, maybe Putin too!

The Trump plan to deport the Palestinians

by Fouad Baker

The Trump plan to deport the Palestinian people from Gaza and the West Bank cannot be viewed in the same way as his rhetoric about purchasing Greenland from Denmark, merging Canada with the United States or controlling the Panama Canal and the Gulf of Mexico.
The plan to deport Palestinians is presented with high seriousness, and preparations for it are taking place behind the scenes to move the residents of Gaza to Egypt and from the West Bank to Jordan. This plan is based on communications between Donald Trump and his counterparts, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, King Abdullah of Jordan, as well as secret communications with other countries, such as Albania and Indonesia as well as some members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, especially Saudi Arabia.
During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, from 2016 to 2021, he altered the equations that Palestinians had established, which emphasised that no regional settlement could occur without resolving the Palestinian issue. Trump undermined this equation when he imposed the “Deal of the Century” in 2020, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights that Israel seized in 1967.
Trump also signed the Abraham Accords, which are treaties and agreements to normalise relations with Israel, that included Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, (UAE), Morocco and Sudan, as well as forming a military alliance under the guise of so-called economic peace.
With his new term, since assuming office on 20th January 2025, Trump has reintroduced the issue of resolving the Palestinian cause, this time with his desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize and end wars in the world. However, this also comes at the expense of the Palestinian people and their inalienable national rights, as outlined in international legal resolutions, including the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, the right to self-determination and the right of return as per [United Nations] Resolution 194.
Secret diplomatic moves
The new US administration, alongside Israeli diplomats, has quietly begun seriously discussing Trump’s vision of deporting Palestinians. They are engaging with several Arab capitals to push this plan forward and apply heavy pressure, through the gateway of accepting Palestinians as short-term humanitarian refugees, pending the reconstruction of Gaza.
This plan involves a period of taking in Palestinians for between six months to a year, with their return to Gaza in 2026 once the reconstruction is complete. The plan subtly includes, though not openly stated, the possibility that these Palestinians may not return to their cities and villages – much like in 1948, when their departure was intended to be temporary, but they still have not been allowed to return despite all international resolutions.
According to diplomatic sources, Israel is communicating with certain countries like Albania and Indonesia, to see if they will accept Palestinian refugees. The discussions are revisiting aspects of the 2020 Deal of the Century, particularly the integration of Palestinians displaced in 1948 into the countries that hosted them, such as Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Israel has also opened a dialogue with some members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) over a plan to resettle 5,000 Palestinian refugees annually over a span of 10 years, totalling around 50,000 refugees.
Now the Trump administration is striving to engage with Saudi Arabia to normalise relations with Israel and to abandon its conditions relating to the two-state solution and the Arab Peace Initiative. According to sources close to decision-makers in Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom has become more flexible in its approach to the Arab Peace Initiative, under the pretext that it cannot be implemented all at once, but rather gradually, starting with normalisation with Israel, to open political dialogues and prospects related to the Palestinian issue.
The new Trump administration has returned to its previous tactics from the first term, exerting economic pressure on the Palestinian Authority. It has cut aid and support for American development projects in the West Bank and plans to use the reconstruction of Gaza as leverage against Hamas.
The aim is to pressure Hamas not to reclaim authority over Gaza by stalling reconstruction efforts, holding back funds and donations from other countries and preventing them from being transferred to Gaza. The Trump administration also seeks to control the reconstruction fund, which is currently being organised by some European countries and certain Arab regimes that oppose Hamas’ control over Gaza.
According to technical experts, Gaza will require several years to rebuild, to erase the remnants of Israeli aggression and clear the rubble of destroyed buildings. In this context, the new Trump administration justifies the temporary humanitarian refugee status for Palestinians in Gaza for six months, while being fully aware that reconstruction would take at least eight years if it were to proceed – assuming there are no political obstacles or funding restrictions.
Possible scenarios
The scene of Palestinians returning to their homes in Gaza through the Netzarim checkpoint – now destroyed – illustrates the deep connection of the Palestinian people to their land, despite the widespread devastation. This shattered the illusion of absolute victory that Netanyahu spoke of.
Hamas, with a tactical move involving the release of the Israeli prisoner Arbel Yehud, achieved strategic success by securing the return of residents from northern Gaza. It has become increasingly difficult for Israel to resume the war, even if the ceasefire agreement  were to collapse, especially with the unsearched civilians walking through the Netzarim crossing.
Furthermore, the renewal of the war is no longer in the hands of Netanyahu or [Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich, who opposed the ceasefire agreement. The decision now lies with Trump, who seeks to rescue Israel from military defeat and turn it into a political victory by deporting Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.
This plan would continue the annexation of Palestinian territories, normalise relations with Arab countries — specifically Saudi Arabia — and undermine the two-state solution. The true deal this time will be an American-Saudi-Israeli deal.
Trump is attempting to replace the genocide that was inflicted on the Palestinian people [by the Israelis during the Gaza war] with political genocide. This time, it is not only aimed at the authority in Gaza, but also at the Palestinian Authority [that runs the “autonomous” West Bank zones].
By besieging the Jenin camp and confronting the Palestinian militias in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority seeks to present its credentials to the new US administration in an effort to maintain its political position and prevent its collapse.
In the absence of a unified Palestinian national strategy, Trump’s plan remains intact, and it is difficult to counter it. This first and foremost falls on the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which refrains from implementing the Beijing Declaration, calling for a meeting of the unified Palestinian leadership, and the PA’s failure to form a national unity government that includes everyone, thus avoiding collective responsibility in confronting the American-Israeli plans.
This calls for international efforts to confront the looming danger to the Palestinian cause, with the goal of pressuring the Palestinian Authority to implement the Beijing Declaration, form a national unity government that includes competent national figures, hold comprehensive Palestinian elections, rebuild Gaza and overcome external obstacles in order to block Israel’s questionable projects.
The Palestinian people have affirmed to the entire world, through the powerful scene of their return to northern Gaza, their unwavering attachment to their land and their rejection of the forced displacement plan, despite all the destruction and massacres committed against them.
No matter how much Israel tries to impose racist and colonial policies against them, the Palestinian people will resist until their last breath. As Israeli historian Ilan Pappe states in his book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine: “the olive tree has pierced the trees imported by Israel from outside Palestine and planted in Palestinian land to reinforce their narrative that they are the rightful owners of the land”.
Similarly, the Palestinian people will defy all these plans with their will and rejection of colonial projects and policies of fait accompli. They will invent new forms of resistance, as they have done in previous stages, and they will amaze the world with their diverse strategies.

The author is an international lawyer and a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)

In Memoriam

SAM NUJOMA

1929 -- 2025

Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma, who  passed away on 8th February, was the last of the great national liberation leaders in the wave of decolonisation from the 1950s to 1990s, and a giant of the liberation struggle in southern Africa. He was born at Etunda, a village in Ongandjera near the town of Okahao in Ovamboland in South West Africa, on 12th May 1929. 
His first political activity in the early 1950s was as a trade unionist on South African Railways. Namibia, then called South West Africa, was ruled by South Africa which applied the brutal apartheid and contract labour systems to the African majority, condemning them to virtual slavery in the service of the super-rich Western imperialist exploiters.
He became a leading member of the Ovamboland People's Congress, created in 1957, which was renamed the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) in 1960 with Nujoma as president. SWAPO adopted Marxist–Leninism, and its declared goals were the creation of an independent Namibia and the building of a socialist society. 
In 1962 the South West African Liberation Army, later the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), was formed, and the first armed clash with South African security forces on 26th  August 1966  marked the beginning of the 25 year long Namibian War of Independence.
Both SWAPO and PLAN received support from across Africa and the socialist states, with Nujoma representing them at many meetings of the African Union, the United Nations in New York, and at the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade in 1961.
He met and received support from many of the early leaders of the newly independent African states including Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere, Ahmed Ben Bella and Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Negotiations between the leading Western powers and the African Frontline States and Nigeria led to the adoption of UN resolution resolution 435 in 1978, which outlined a ceasefire and UN-supervised elections. But Namibia’s freedom was held back by American and South African involvement in the war against the MPLA freedom-fighters in Angola. 
But the historic victory of the MPLA-Cuban forces at the battle of Cuito Cuanavale in March 1988 finally opened the path for Namibia’s independence the following  year. Nujoma served as the country’s first president until November 2007.
However it was Namibia’s great misfortune to gain its freedom just as socialism was reversed in the Soviet-led bloc, limiting the prospects for socialist-oriented development beneficial to the working people. 
Sam Nujoma, as he was known, was a charismatic and inspiring leader, with great charm and a characteristic smile. He will be forever remembered as a great socialist, freedom fighter, a Pan Africanist and supporter of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Marxist thinking old and new

by Robin McGregor

Revolutionary Democracy: New Series, Vol. 1, no, 2 (October 2024)  £7.50 including P&P from NCP Lit, PO Box 73, London SW11 2PQ

Once again, the latest edition of Revolutionary Democracy has arrived from New Delhi. Curiously the October 2024 issue has a number which has been used before so if this review inspires you to order a copy be sure to get the date right.
Slightly slimmer than normal it begins as usual with materials on recent political developments in India and neighbouring countries, with the dramatic events in Bangladesh getting a mention this time. 
An assessment of the five-week Indian general election kicks off this issue. The results saw the ruling Hindu fascist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, lose its majority, but it held on to power thanks to a recently formed alliance with two regional parties.  
This was due to farmers voting against the BJP’s neo-liberal policies, and opposition from minorities and lower caste Hindus about the BJP’s attacks on secularism and fears about the reintroduction of the caste system. Less positively the BJP’s setback was also due to a dispute with their paramilitary allies, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) who did not actively campaign for the BJP, but still supported them. However, the BJP retained huge support, particularly in its strongholds and its allies are firmly committed to neo-liberal policies. 
 Later in the journal there is a brief article exposing India’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Two articles from the pen of Badruddin Umar, Chair of the National Liberation Council of Bangladesh, discuss the overthrow of the Awami League sparked off by student riots about job quotas which the army refused to quell. He also gives a useful summary of the long-term background to these events. 
This is followed by the Turkish writer Mustafa Yalciner who offers an interpretation On Lenin’s approach to the national question as applied to contemporary Asia. 
Returning to India there is a horrific account of child labour on long distance Indian railway journeys. An article on the latest Union Budget for 2024-25 announced in July follows before this section concludes with an account of “Operation Clean Jharkhand”, which is the Indian state’s brutal attacks on the Adivasi peasants living in the eastern state which is a part of the attempt to crush the long-term Maoist rebellion.  
Two declarations on Latin America and the ongoing conflicts from the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Political Organisations (ICMLPO) are followed by the usual range of theoretical and historical materials.
 First we have the first part of an article A V Shchegolov on Lenin’s Criticism of Bogdanov’s Reactionary Sociological Views, which is a translation of a 1937 Soviet work. Unfortunately, and unusually for the journal, this does not come with any new editorial material which would put it in context. We hope this will be remedied when the second part appears.
 A few pages of poetry from Bertolt Brecht, Makhdoom Muhiuddin and Kaifi Azmi are followed by three archival pieces. The first of these is Correspondence between CPI and CPGB on the question of Pakistan and Indian National Unity, 1945 from the Labour History Archive & Study Centre, Manchester.
 This is a memo drafted by S A Dange of the Communist Party of India in November 1945 with a response by R P Dutt of the British party several months later. The discussion showed there were differences of opinion on the demand by the Muslim League for a separate state of Pakistan and on the amount of attention the CPGB devoted to the independence struggles.   
 Next is a 1948 Conversation between JV Stalin and Dolores Ibarruri on the Tactics of the Communist Party of Spain. Here the exiled La Pasionaria discusses such matters as uniting the fragmented resistance to Franco in Spain, anti-Francoists in Mexico and the little help the French communists were giving to their oppressed neighbours. Stalin gave some useful advice based on his earlier experience of working underground and in exile.
 Also from a Soviet source comes the brief Stalin - Zhou Enlai Talk, September 19, 1952 which covers matters such as the release of prisoners of war from the Korean war which was drawing to a close and China’s relations with its neighbours. 
 The issue concludes with a review of a book entitled Albania Challenges Khrushchev Revisionism, originally published in 1976, and now reprinted in Delhi. This is almost entirely based on Albanian leader Enver Hoxha’s writings about the important dispute which split the world communist movement. 
Revolutionary Democracy is a half-yearly theoretical and political journal published in April and September from India. It contains materials on the problems facing the communist movement, particularly relating to Russia, China and India, the origins of modern revisionism, the restoration of capitalism in the USSR and developments in the international communist movement.

Freedom for Palestine – no to ethnic cleansing!

No one, apart from the Israelis, can take Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza seriously.The Zionists always denied that the true aim of the genocidal assault on Gaza has been the destruction of the Palestinian population, and denial of all of their rights including the right to self-determination. They lied. 
So did those lackeys of US imperialism in Britain and Europe that not only provided diplomatic cover for Israeli aggression but armed and funded the Zionist state in its drive to crush the Palestinian resistance.
Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the Labour Party who now heads the Independent Alliance bloc in Parliament has, however, taken the principled stand  holding Israel and those who are still sending arms to the regime rrsponsible for genocide in Palestine.
"The death toll in Gaza has already been updated to 61,709," Corbyn said. "The true scale of Israel's atrocities is only just emerging - and officials must face justice for every single life lost. So should those who continued to send weapons, knowing full well they were enabling genocide”.
Trump’s proposal is. of course, nothing new. It echoes plans that have been discussed by Israeli officials for many decades. Kicking out the Palestinians to turn the Gaza Strip into a millionaires playground may seem a good idea to the likes of Trump and Netanyahu but it is only a recipe for yet another war – and this time round, going on what Trump is saying, it will be American troops confronting the Arabs.
The Americans came unstuck in Iraq and the Israelis lost the Gaza war. Trump’s threats will not succeed in what the Zionist guns failed to achieve. Trump will not achieve what Biden could not do. 
Despite their vast resources, US imperialism and its Zionist lackeys have not broken the will of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people, who faced Zionist terror armed with American weapons for 15 months, will not bow to the empty threats of Donald Trump.

New Labour woes

This week a Scottish Labour MP  warned that the next government may be a “hard-line far-right effort” if Labour does not deliver “improved living standards”. Brian Leishman, who represents Alloa & Grangemouth, criticised his own party's government for not providing financial compensation to the ‘Waspi’ women who campaign against the way in which the state pension ages for men and women were equalised at the expense of many women.
Leishman was one of 10 Labour MPs who supported a Bill introduced by the SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn that would require ministers to publish measures to address the findings of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) report which recommended paying compensation to women born in the 1950s whose state pension age was raised so it would be equal with men.
Labour’s embrace of Tory austerity has led to further unpopularity on the street. And this week a new public opinion poll puts Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party ahead of Labour and the Conservatives. A YouGov survey puts Reform, at 25 per cent, narrowly ahead of Labour at 24 and the Tories on 21 per cent. The Liberal Democrats stand on 14 per cent, while the Greens are now at nine.
The Starmer government pleads poverty to justify means-testing the pensioners’ winter fuel benefit. It won’t pay compensation to the three million or so women born in the 1950s who were not properly informed about the state pension age increase. But it can find plenty to fuel the proxy war against Russia and pay for Trident and the rest of our so-called nuclear deterrent.  

Donbas communists: our historic mission

by Boris Litvinov

 Boris Litvinov, is the First Secretary of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) District of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF)

Our troops have advanced some 35 to 40 kilometres from Donetsk, which means the capital of the Donetsk People’s Republic is now beyond the reach of Ukrainian artillery and tanks, Now the administrative border of the Donetsk Republic with the Dnepropetrovsk region is just 10 kilometres away from the front. But there are still many problems due to the supply of Western weapons such as missiles and modern drones. So the attacks on Donetsk are still ongoing with weapons supplied to Ukraine from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other NATO countries. But whatever weapons are used against us the decisive factor is the fighting soldier – the infantry. 
Of course, many people are now discussing the forms in which negotiations on ending the war will take place, but the question is, who will participate? And what will the negotiations be about?
At the moment, the DPR is not a participant in the negotiation process, as it was in 2014-2020. Today we are a legitimate region of the Russian Federation, according to the Constitution. Any negotiations on war and peace should be conducted by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Government of our common country. But, in our deep conviction, negotiations with Zelensky should not take place. Zelensky's legitimacy as President of Ukraine ended last May, when new elections were due to take place. He, Zelensky, is nothing to us right now. He can't decide anything. In fact, Zelensky is totally dependent on the United States and he is completely unable to make any independent decisions, so negotiations are possible only between the United States and Russia. But Ukraine will not even be the main subject of these negotiations.
Negotiations can be about areas of interest in the world; about global political and economic reconstruction like after the Second World War. And in such a new configuration of the world, Ukraine will become only part of a global issue.
Well, the main issue should concern all possible guarantees for the establishment of peace between states with different ideas about their future. No one should impose their will on others. Every state should develop independently of the wishes of others. And the peoples living in a particular region of the Earth must decide for themselves who to unite with, which state to be a part of, and which peoples to build their future with. We, the residents of Donetsk, Lugansk, and then Zaporizhia and Kherson, made our choice in a referendum – we will build our future with Russia. And this is the will of the overwhelming majority of the population of our republics and regions.
Now we see that Trump has already identified his areas of interest in Canada, Mexico, Greenland and Panama. And Russia also has its own post-Soviet areas of interest.
Russia stopped cooperating under the Warsaw Pact in 1991 in the forlorn hope that NATO would end its hostility to Russia. And one of the fundamental problems for Russia and its allies is that the NATO military bloc is moving step by step closer to Russia's borders. 
Nevertheless the time will come when none of the military blocs will threaten the other and there will be no military bases near the borders of Russia or the historical and traditional territories that were under Russian influence. We think that Trump probably understands this, and that the expansion of NATO to the East was a mistake.
European politicians – Macron, Starmer, Scholz and others think that they have a chance to end Russia, and that they should not miss this chance. In fact, European countries have been trying to do this for several centuries. Over the past 200 years, Russia has defeated Napoleon and the Ottomans; Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Fourteen of the Entente countries including the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Japan who intervened against Soviet Russia in1918 during the civil war that ended in their defeat in 1922. And the Soviet Union defeated the German Nazis and their allies during the Second World War. 
The Western countries tried to unleash a new world war against the USSR in the 60s of the 20th century. And the Cold War, declared by the West against the Soviet Union in 1946, has not stopped to this day, having turned into a hybrid war. 
The Russian people were able to withstand all these difficulties, thinking not so much about their personal well-being, but about preserving their historically formed land, preserving the covenant of their ancestors, strengthening the unity of the Orthodox faith and respect for the faith of the peoples inhabiting Russia, thinking and realizing the dream of humanity about a just society.
The people of Russia demonstrate solidarity in defending their interests, dedication, heroism and confidence in achieving victory over any invaders. It has always been so, and it will be so in the future.  And today, in the struggle for our true sovereignty, in the struggle against neo-fascism, in the new struggle against the West, we see that history repeats itself.
The 19th century Prussian Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, said "Make alliances with anyone, start any wars, but never touch the Russians...the Russians cannot be defeated, we have seen this for hundreds of years. Russians, even if they are dismembered by international treaties, will reconnect with each other as quickly as particles of a cut piece of mercury”. 
We are doing everything necessary to ensure that these warnings reach the minds of those who once again dream of ending Russia.
The Ukrainian state has turned out to be untenable. It can only exist together with Russia, and it has always existed as part of Russia. After the abdication of Czar Nicholas II from the throne in February 1917, the bourgeois rulers in Kiev proclaimed the independence of Ukraine. They held out on bayonets and money from foreign invaders for less than three years. But when they united with Russia and the other Soviet republics into a single socialist state – the USSR, Ukraine turned into a world-class advanced republic with a population of 52 million.
After the temporary cessation of the existence of the USSR, Ukraine again tried to build its independent country – again relying on money, weapons, and an alien Western ideology. And the result: the economy is in decline, the population is impoverished, Ukraine is being robbed by everyone, a war has been waged with its historically fraternal Russian people, and the population has shrunk to less than 30 million. This is the result of independence. Today, wars for the interests of the West are destroying the gene pool of Ukraine. More and more new generations of Ukrainians are being thrown into the fire of war.
We, the residents of Donbas, Zaporizhia, Kherson, and the whole of Russia, understand our historical mission – to live in peace with all peoples, freely manage our own destiny, and build on our land a just society that many peoples of Europe, Asia, America, and the whole Earth have dreamed of for centuries. 
And we, in our desire, will surely come to the victory of reason over the forces of evil. This is what our predecessors did, and we will continue to do so.

Never Again!

The slogan used by liberated prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp to denounce Nazism is always recalled on 27th January, now known as Holocaust Day. That was the day in 1945 when the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops advancing into the Third Reich.
Millions, including some six million Jews, suffered and died in that unspeakable horror. And this year, on the 80th anniversary of its liberation King Charles joined world and religious leaders to mourn those who perished in Nazi death camps to pledge that future generations must never allow the horrors of the Holocaust to be forgotten or repeated. But the role of the Soviet Union that liberated Auschwitz is being deliberately ignored by the imperialists and their lackeys that use Holocaust Day to justify their own moral bankruptcy. 
The decision to exclude Russia from Auschwitz’s 80th  anniversary commemorations sends a troubling message to the world about the value of historical truth. When we start erasing inconvenient aspects of history to suit present-day narratives we lose sight of the lessons that history teaches us. The Holocaust and the broader atrocities of the Second World War  were enabled by dehumanisation, propaganda, and the denial of reality. To combat these forces in our time we must commit to an honest reckoning with the past even when it is uncomfortable.
Selective amnesia is dangerous. The Second World War was a global conflict that required immense sacrifices from the Allied Powers that combined to defeat Nazi Germany and its Axis allies. But no country paid a higher price than the USSR. Over 27 million Soviet citizens died in the war including 8,7 million battlefield losses. To erase or diminish that contribution is to distort the historical record and risk undermining the shared understanding that has underpinned the post-war international order.
 It is undoubtedly true that the Holocaust was perpetrated in a climate of anti-semitism and abhorrent racism deliberately fostered by the Nazis and the German ruling class. The Nazis didn’t invent anti-semitism but they stoked it up and fanned the flames to make pogroms seem respectable and even "patriotic". But it was not the existence of racist ideas on their own which led to Nazism and the “final solution” but the ruling class of finance capitalists which wanted war and territorial expansion.
 It was this class which used the Nazis to advance its aims and which systematically elevated racism – and particularly anti-semitism – in order to find an excuse for wholesale theft, super exploitation and war to provide a convenient internal enemy on which the attention of the people could be focused.
The Nazis said the Jews were to blame for people's ills. They said that it was the Jews who bled the country dry. They claimed that the Jews were the enemies of the Germans and the entire human race.These lies were told in order to conceal the real exploiters and parasites –  the capitalist class as a whole. It ensured that capitalism was not blamed while millions of innocent Jews, most of whom were working class, were persecuted.
The leading German bankers, manufacturers and other big capitalists made a great deal of money from the war itself and from forced labour and the camp system in general. They survived the fall of the Third Reich largely unscathed and some of their successors are still leaders in the field today.
 Yes; we should all learn from the Holocaust. We should learn to struggle against every form of racism. But we should also learn that it was capitalism which backed Hitler, it is capitalism which resorts to unleashing fascism when it cannot rule in the old way and it was capitalism which created the gas chambers of Auschwitz – these are the lessons of history.

The Troubled Reality of Brazil

by Dermot Hudson

In December 2024 I paid my fourth visit to Brazil . Brazil is often portrayed as a glamorous paradise with bright  sunshine , beautiful beaches , majestic scenery and constant partying . However this image hides the troubled realities of Brazil – a country with a complex history which included one or possibly two periods of fascist rule (the initial period of the rule of Getulio Vargas and the Brazilian military dictatorship 1964-1985) and which still has much poverty and infrastructure problems (passenger railways are rare in Brazil ). Brazil also has a significant communist and leftist movement but sadly it is very fragmented and deeply split . Brazilian social democracy itself is not represented by simply one party but but by several ; the Workers Party of President Lula (PT ) , the Democratic Labour Party (PDT ) , the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB40) , the Social Democratic Party (PSDB) and also the semi-Trotskyite Party of Socialism and Liberty .
The glamorous image of Brazil is belied by scores of favela slums in cities like Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro. It was pointed out to me that a favela on a mountainside was visible from the beach at Copacabana in Rio De Janeiro. Since my last visit three years ago the far right government of Bolsonaro has been replaced by a PT-led coalition led by the veteran Lula himself, a former trade unionist and metal worker .The government is a coalition consisting of the PT, the PSB, the  communist PCdoB and the Greens. Lula's coalition had won a narrow victory over Bolsonaro in October 2022 but in January 2023 when Lula was due to be sworn in as President , the Bolsonaristas attempted a coup. On the 8th January 2023 , hordes Bolosonaro supporters tried to storm the Brazilian Congress and Supreme Court .In some parts of the country roads were blocked and buses were set on fire. The Bolsonaristas  hoped to get support from the armed forces but the armed troops either stood to one side or supported Lula. The Bolsonaristas riot evoked the precedent of Trump's supporters trying to storm the White House. It also had a much deeper significance than that .The Bolsonaristas hoped that the military would support them and stage a coup in their support, a repeat of the 1964 military coup against the reformist Goulart government . Bolsonaro himself had broken the post military dictatorship consensus by openly praising the Brazilian military fascist regime of the 60s and 70s, something that was for a long time regarded as No No by Brazilian politicians of all hues.
The present PT led coalition government is the 3rd Lula government and the 4th PT led government in Brazil. On this visit to Brazil, I did not witness starving people begging to bought food but I was told that this was still going on with some people pleading with shoppers to buy something for them. I also noticed homeless people living under motorway bridges. The favelas still exist and are very much present in the big cities. In Sao Paulo there is a right wing municipal administration which is trying to purge the homeless from the centre of Sao Paulo and bus and metro fares have been increased. Prices have gone up a lot since 2021, for example 500g of coffee now costs 26 Brazilian reals but in 2021 it was 18 reals and 10 reals a few years before that. Brazil is faced with a currency declining in value and budgetary deficit problems.
Internationally Lula has not supported the US-led imperialist condemnation of Russia but he has opposed Venezuela's accession to the BRICS bloc. Lula has taken an anti-Venezuela line and the Brazilian media is saturated with anti-Venezuela, anti Maduro propaganda.
Arguably despite several periods of administration lasting about 16 years , Lula and the PT have achieved little and less than the 'pink-brown ' reformist regime of Getulio Vargas (who nationalised industries and created the giant PetroBras petroleum corporation)  and the reformist regime of Joao Goulart .There is much disillusionment among PT voters and supporters . I was told that because Lula is "so useless" , the Bolsonaristas will be back at the next election . In Brazil as in many European countries the Left's espousal of trendy identity politics and liberalism  have switched off working class voters and built up a barrier between the Left and the working class , leading to workers turning to the right and far right .
Brazil is a country that has many supporters of People's Korea despite hostile media propaganda against the DPRK as well as the influence of the south Korean puppets in Brazil through K-pop music and garbage soap operas. In Brazil supporters of People's Korea are organised in the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) of Brazil , part of the worldwide Korean Friendship Association as well as the Brazilian Centre for the Study of Songun Politics(CEPS-BR)  and Brazilian Centre for the Study of the Juche Idea . I was able to meet the head of the KFA Brazil in Rio De Janeiro and a representative of CEPS -BR in Sao Paulo. Both organisations said that they were gaining new members and expanding their work .
All in all it was an interesting trip to Brazil. Brazil faces a difficult road ahead and it is not clear what direction Brazil will take in the future.
e

No British arms for Ukraine!

by New Worker correspondent

Anti-fascist activists held court in the heart of Birmingham for over an hour and a half last weekend with placards, banners and flags calling for the British government to end weapons supplies to the puppet government in Ukraine and warning of the danger of an all-out NATO-Russia war. They also carried placards pointing out the financial costs to millions of British citizens of the billions of pounds sent to Ukraine, higher energy charges, and the extreme levels of corruption in Ukraine itself.
Theo Russell, secretary of International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), spoke about Britain's aggressive role in Ukraine: “A top secret British military and intelligence group, Project Alchemy, has been set up with the aim of prolonging the war in Ukraine war at all costs. The Grayzone website has revealed that Britain’s true goal in Ukraine is to cause a “palace coup” – read “regime change” - in Moscow, plans for an underground army to conduct terrorism in Ukraine and Russia, and to “dismantle” independent media outlets reporting the truth about Ukraine.
Many people joined discussions with the protestors and it was clear that they are aware of the higher prices they are paying for everything, the danger of a world war, and the contrast between Western countries condemning Russian military actions in Ukraine while sending more and more bombs and missiles to Israel to kill civilians in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria. This was the first protest held by IUAFS outside London but it certainly won’t be the last!

On the brink of war

by Ben Soton

Precipice: Robert Harris, Penguin, London 2024, 464 pp, Hbk £22:00;Pbk £9.99

In late Edwardian London there were twelve postal deliveries a day; I learnt this from reading Precipice, Robert Harris’ latest thriller. It focuses on the affair between the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, and the aristocratic socialite Venetia Stanley.  It also provides an insight on the belle époque of a ruling class heading for Armageddon.  
The relationship between “Squiffy” Asquith and Venetia is by no means a Donald Trump; Stormy Daniels affair.  It consists of little more than afternoon drives and the occasional touching of hands.  However the affair soon arouses suspicion when it is discovered that Asquith has been sharing sensitive government documents with Ms Stanley.  As a result the Security Services send Detective Sergeant Paul Deemer to investigate.  Deemer plays the role of the honest everyman obtaining a glimpse into a highly elite world and it eventually transpires that the motives of his superiors are far from honest.  
 Asquith is depicted as a man out of his depth, as well as being in a loveless marriage with his wife Margot.  As a result he seeks advice on matters of state from a twenty-seven-year-old socialite, with almost no knowledge of matters of state.  As his government stumbles from one crisis to another, Asquith faces numerous plots and squabbles from those around him.  The novel starts with the inability of the Asquith government to deal the reactionary Ulster Unionists who were blocking Home-Rule in Ireland; meanwhile as Europe drifts to war new problems emerge, putting the ‘Irish Question’ on the back burner.  
As Britain enters the European conflict, something that it had avoided for a century, new problems emerge.  The Government faces problems resulting from the shortage of munitions as well as the mess caused by Churchill’s disastrous Gallipoli campaign.  The leader of the last totally Liberal Government Asquith was forced to enter into a coalition with the Tories in 1915 and later replaced by Lloyd-George as Prime Minister in 1916. 
Meanwhile Precipice is as much a coming-of-age novel for Ms Stanley.  In Edwardian Britain it was seen as unusual for a woman to be unmarried at twenty-seven.  Although nothing sexual takes place between her and Asquith she soon comes to the conclusion that she is being used as a crux for his personal issues and failings as a politician; in other words a one-sided relationship.  It is often said that power is an aphrodisiac but in this book Asquith seems to lose what little power he had and he seems as a man reacting to events rather than shaping them.    
The author, Robert Harris, has long had a sympathy for elite politicians of the liberal or conservative kind. Notably the Roman Senator Cicero; whom he wrote a trilogy (Lustrum, Imperium and Dictator) about.  But Precipice shows the failings of liberalism as an ideology, least of all its inability to deal with crises...and that’s just for starters. 

The socialist answer to the energy crisis

Electric cars: China leads the way!

by John Maryon

The discovery of fire by our ancestors and it's use for keeping warm, cooking food and deterring wild beasts marked a deceive step for the human race.  Since those early days our increasing dependency upon accessible, affordable energy supplies has grown sharply.  Today no advanced civilisation could survive without access to abundant supplies of energy.
A colossal demand for energy during the industrial revolution saw coal become the key source of energy to produce steam to power the factories and trains. Whole families, including grubby children clothed in rags, toiled in the dark, damp and dangerous mines.  For the pit owners vast profits. For the workers harsh working conditions that led to an increased mortality rate.  Both the new gas street lamps, first installed in Pall Mall in 1807 and the first electric trains of the 1890s required the burning of fossil fuel as the primary energy source.  Today in Britain, electricity, a refined energy source, easy to use and clean at the point of use still relies on fossil fuel for over a third of its generation. 
Drax Power Station, located in Yorkshire in an area or rich coal seams, was designed to operate using British coal.  Future plans were based upon carbon entrapment technology.  Today public funding is used to support its operation using biomass fuel – wood-burning.   The wood is imported from America.  It is claimed that CO2 is recycled when new trees are planted to replace those consumed.  The station remains as a large emitter of greenhouse gas.  Opponents claim that a better long term option would be to invest in wind and solar power in conjunction with energy storage systems. Britain has been left dependent upon the USA for its vital needs. 
Under capitalism decision-making is driven by the requirement for maximum profit in the shortest time possible at minimum risk and with the lowest investment. A recipe for disaster.  Responsible and sustainable green development requires a long term approach that is both innovative and ethical and is supported by public investment and control.
Nuclear power is considered necessary as part of a secure energy strategy to provide a constant base load. Early government enthusiasm was influenced by the ability to produce fissionable materials for nuclear weapons. The high risks of nuclear power were exposed in a number of serious accidents which resulted in radioactive contamination. Modern reactors are safer but there is the serious risk from terrorism.  By their obvious complicity in blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines we have to look no further than certain Western powers to see who the main supporters of terrorism are. For the future, electricity production by fusion offers great prospects for abundant energy without the problems of nuclear waste disposal. 
A major green initiative has seen the arrival of Electric Vehicles.  In People's China electric car sales now exceed 50 per cent of total sales. By contrast Britain lags in this field with many drivers preferring petrol engines. The main reason for this is the lack of a suitable charging point infrastructure. For those who can charge up on their driveways and who do not undertake long journeys electric is fine but if you live in a flat or high density development the search for affordable and available charging points can be a problem.  Hydrogen, a viable contender for motive power, has not been seriously considered. With either its use with a fuel cell or by combustion with the only by-product being water it has many advantages. The problems are again a total lack of infrastructure in addition to how its made (from gas or the green electrolysis method).  The socialist countries are in a good position to make a responsible long term approach. China is looking at wireless charging with electric coils beneath the road surface. 
Given the rapid progress in science and technology, the whole world should soon be able to benefit from an abundance of cheap energy. So why are German factories closing due to high energy costs and rationing.  And why are people freezing in their homes afraid to turn up the heating.  Europe is on the verge of a self-inflicted energy crisis. A bizarre and dangerous situation totally of their own making. Future generations may look back in amazement at the incompetence and betrayal of its leaders. Bismark must be turning in his grave as Germany, once the powerhouse of Europe, faces de-industrialisation and recession. 
Europe's enthusiastic endorsement of Project Ukraine, led by the US and coordinated through NATO, has ended to disaster and tragedy. When the Soviet Union collapsed Western nations promised not to expand NATO to the east. Of course preparations were immediately made to break this promise with a military build-up carried out on Russia's borders. Ukraine formed one piece of the jigsaw but it's voters had elected a government that sought to remain neutral.  Western response was to engineer the notorious Maidan coup that overthrew the democratically elected government in 2014.The new regime, which included neo-nazis harshly repressed the Russian speakers and committed atrocities such as the Odessa massacre and shelling of civilians in Donbas.  Russia had the courage to respond with it's Special Military Operation.
The proxy war quickly turned into a war of attrition that the imperialists have lost. Sanctions imposed against Russia with the ultimate aim of regime change in Moscow have failed and dramatically backfired. Following the shutting off of gas pipelines from Russia and their complicity in blowing up Nord Stream, Europe now faces a severe gas shortage with soaring prices. Secure long term contracts for cheap Russian gas have been replaced with a reliance on a limited supply of much more expensive LNG from US shale gas deposits. As a result German industry, once a world leader, has become uncompetitive and is being forced to flee overseas. Inflation and unemployment are rising in Germany and European GDP rates are falling. The people are being forced to pay a high price for government incompetence.
The problems for Germany has been made far worse by it's decision to close all its nuclear power stations. The situation has been made worse still by the decision of the Ukraine regime to stop the flow of gas from Russia across its territory.  This will reduce imports of gas by at least another 5 per cent and pose particular hardships for Slovakia, Austria, Serbia and Hungary. Turkstream remains, in spite of failed attempts to blow it up, the last source for Russian gas supplies apart from Russian LNG.  Recently a tanker, believed to be carrying Russian gas, was mysteriously blown up in the Mediterranean. Ironically, at a touch of a button, supplies could be restored via the remaining Nord Stream link and via Poland. 
Blinded by arrogant illusions of elitism carried over from the colonial era, Western leaders double down on one disaster after another.  With no thought of peace talks they continue to stoke the flames of war. And it is the ordinary people who continue to suffer from the greed and warmongering of Western leaders. 
Whatever the conditions prevailing capitalism cannot undertake a sustainable and coherent policy for energy. A balanced long term energy policy is eclipsed by profiteering. It's time for the people to wake up to reality and say enough is enough. Bring on Socialism! Bring on the Revolution! 

Gaza: What next?

The Gaza ceasefire agreed this week has brought relief to the long-suffering Palestinian Arabs in the beleaguered Palestinian enclave and hope at last to the relatives of the prisoners held on both sides whose fate hinged on the success of the talks in the capital of the Arab state of Qatar. It remains to be seen if the Israelis honour the agreement they signed up to in Doha. But it’s difficult to see how they go back on their word over the truce that was pushed through on the insistence of an emissary of President-elect Donald Trump who returns to the White House on 20th January.
The deal – a total Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in return for a prisoner exchange – is essentially the one Hamas agreed to last May to end the fighting. Endorsed at the United Nations the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government both supported it – indeed they said the plan had orginated in Israel in the first place. But it was just a ruse to stall for time and divert world public opinion while the Israelis assassinated Hamas leaders and pushed on with their plan to re-occupy the Strip and drive out most, if not all, of the Palestinians Arabs to make room for Zionist settlers.
UN resolutions provide the basis for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. First of all Israel must totally withdraw from all the occupied territories seized in 1967, including Arab East Jerusalem and Syria’s Golan Heights. The Palestinians must be allowed to establish a state of their own on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinian refugees whose homes are now in Israel must be allowed to return or, if they so wish, be paid appropriate compensation in exchange. And all states in the region, including Israel, should have internationally agreed and recognised frontiers guaranteed by all the Great Powers.
Joe Biden fully approved of Israeli aggression. When he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Israel last year he said "I don't believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist". But American support for Israel began long before Biden. When the Zionist state was proclaimed in 1948. When the first Arab-Israeli war began and around a million Palestinians were driven out of their homes to make way for Zionist settlement.
Israel is nothing without the United States. It is a pawn of the United States.The Zionist leaders strut the world posing as independent politicians. But US imperialism provides the military and economic support that keeps Israel going. The country is an American protectorate and their leaders will ultimately do whatever America wants. 
Trump, in turn, loudly proclaims his own support for the Zionist entity. He also wants to keep the oil princes sweet. The section of the US ruling class that he leads wants to maintain the American presence in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf to build a new military bloc to threaten Iran and pave the way for US imperialism’s total control of the global energy market. Trump and his cohorts may well believe that an end to the fighting is enough to keep the feudal Arabs on side. But the Palestinians, and indeed, virtually the entire world outside the United States want to see a final end to the crisis.
 As for Netanyahu – he wants to end his days covered in glory as the man who built “Greater Israel” and brought the Palestinians to their knees. But he’s failed on all counts. Whatever happens next this is their victory – not his.