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.

Trump takes centre stage

Two weeks still to go to Inauguration Day but Donald Trump’s already been grabbing the headlines urging Canadians to join the United States and threatening to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal, which he says is now under Chinese control. While few take his pantomime threats seriously it’s amusing to see venal British and European politicians, so used to licking the boots of Uncle Sam, on the receiving end of American abuse for a change.
They turned a blind eye to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. They egged on the proxy war against Russia and crippling sanctions on China. Now they’re recoiling in horror at The Donald mouthing off against his own allies. Now they know that “Making America Great Again” can only happen at their expense.
The Trump team are already talking about resuming the dialogue with Democratic Korea and floating proposals to end the Ukraine war which go some way to meeting the legitimate demands of the Russian Federation. We can only hope that this will lead to serious negotiations to normalise US relations with the DPR Korea and end the war in eastern Europe. 
Trump says he’ll end the war in Ukraine at a stroke when he’s back at the helm. But we’ve heard it all before over Korea. Though he promised much when he was last in the White House he still remained a prisoner of the most aggressive elements of the American ruling class. What Trump says and what he can or actually does do is another matter altogether. 

Meanwhile...

...Elon Musk, the South African born tech tycoon said to be the richest man in the world, has clearly got some time on his hands. Not content with the prospect of a key role in the new Trump administration, he’s now calling on Nigel Farage to stand down as leader of the Reform Party and scheming to get rid of Keir Starmer before the next general election. 
Musk is often called a “kingmaker” in the bourgeois media of the United States: possibly by some unaware of the tragic fate of the first man to bear that mantle – Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, who was killed in 1471 during the feudal struggle for the throne known as the War of the Roses. 
Musk is much like George Soros, another immensely rich American, who used his money to finance anti-communist movements in eastern Europe in the 1980s and prop up the venal pro-NATO regimes that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the European people’s democracies in 1991. Soros, a supporter of the American Democrats, poses as a philanthropist. Musk, who likes to be thought of as a “libertarian”, is a Trump Republican. But their common underlying philosophy is simply that of end days capitalism and inherited wealth.
Now Musk can say and do what he likes in the United States – he became an American citizen in 2002 – but poking his nose into our affairs is totally unacceptable.