Free all political prisoners in Ukraine!

Western politicians are the first to proclaim their support for civil liberties and religious and political freedom. Some civil rights campaigners are elevated like icons by the Western “human rights” campaigners. The chosen few even get awards from the European Parliament and the United Nations. But those who serve the interests of imperialism.
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks campaigner languishes in Belmarsh jail ignored by those who loudly proclaim their support for free speech in the bourgeois media.
We see the bourgeois ‘human rights’ gang brand freedom-fighters as “terrorists” whilst passing off the brutish gunmen who served imperialism in Syria as the “moderate opposition”. We see the imperialists and their lackeys  holding “Summits for Democracy” to provide a platform for a new propaganda offensive against People’s China, Russia and the rest of the world that refuses to submit to Western economic and political control.

We see some of the worst human rights abusers in the world, such as Israel, Ukraine and, of course, the USA itself, hailed as bastions of freedom and democracy. 
In Ukraine all opposition parties have been banned. Thousands of Ukrainians – journalists, politicians, elected representatives, activists, priests, sportspeople, and even Ukrainian negotiators and military officers have jailed on trumped up charges of “treason” or support for Russia. Some have been tortured or murdered by the police or the fascist militias that prop up the Zelensky regime.
Since the Russian intervention most of our media has claimed that the fascist groups in Ukraine have changed their spots and are no longer fascists, but "patriotic defenders of Ukraine". We refuse to believe this ridiculous claim which is completely at odds with the evidence.
We think it is essential to speak out about the actions of a government for whom the British government seems to have unlimited resources to support, at a time when millions here in Britain are facing a grim and uncertain future and our basic public services are chronically underfunded and understaffed.
We stand side by side with the victims of fascist oppression in Ukraine. We demand their immediate and unconditional release and the restoration of full civil and political rights in Ukraine.

Something for everyone

They say it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good and that was certainly true of last week’s by-election results. Labour and the Liberal Democrats both took Conservative seats and the Tories managed to hold their other former bastion in suburban London.
Though there was, indeed, something for everyone in the results the biggest winners were the Lib-Dems, once again on the come-back trail. The Tories actually held onto Boris Johnson’s old seat, albeit by the skin of their teeth. And though the Starmer crowd were disappointed in failing to take all three seats the overall swing in their favour puts them on course to victory at the next general election. 
That, however, is not a foregone conclusion. With little to choose from between Labour and the Conservatives there’s going to be little incentive to even bother to vote next year. This can only work in favour of the Scottish nationalists and the Liberal Democrats who   share a firm commitment to take Britain back into the European Union and would almost certainly ally with the Remainer factions in Labour and the Tory party to create favourable conditions for a “rejoiner” second referendum in the not too distant future.
We had a golden opportunity to open the doors to free trade across the world when we left the EU. Boris Johnson wasted it crawling to the Americans. But returning to the EU is not the answer. You only have to look at what’s happening on the streets of France to see that the European Union is hardly a pillar of social justice. The only way out of the capitalist crisis is socialism and that can only come by ourselves alone, not the European Union or the United States of America. 

In the summertime when the weather is hot

If you thought the hype around the re-opening of the schools had heralded the end of the silly season you were sadly mistaken. Over the last few weeks we had more gossip about Prince Andrew, the usual Loch Ness monster sighting, “strange lights” in the Horsham skies in Sussex, and some nonsense about Boris Johnson’s three day staycation in a tent in the Scottish Highlands. But amongst all this tat was a curious story that has renewed speculation about the Prime Minister’s long-term future.
    According to the Times, the father-in-law of the Prime Minister’s senior adviser says that Johnson has not recovered from his bout of coronavirus and is on his way out. Sir Humphry Wakefield, whose daughter is married to Dominic Cummings, the éminence grise of the Johnson government, apparently told a visitor to his Chillingham Castle home that Johnson was still struggling badly and will quit in six months. The Times says that Sir Humphry, a racing man, said: “If you put a horse back to work when it’s injured it will never recover.”
    Boris has, of course, dismissed this story as “absolute nonsense”, telling the press that he was feeling “if anything, far better as I’ve lost some weight”. That remains to be seen. What is known is that speculation about Johnson’s health started doing the rounds soon after he left hospital in April. Stories about Johnson’s alleged inability to concentrate, his long weekends and “three hour” siestas have been circulated gleefully by the Remainer camp who think they can sabotage Brexit at the last moment by pulling the rug from under his feet. A few months ago that would have been dismissed as wishful thinking. Now with the prospect of Donald Trump losing the US elections in November, these stories seem to be gaining a broader traction – and it’s got nothing to do with Johnson’s health.
    Boris’s plan to replace the Treaty of Rome with a new ‘Treaty of Washington’ will be in tatters if Democratic hopeful, Joe Biden, takes Trump’s place. There’s no personal affinity between Biden and the man The Donald called “Britain’s Trump”. In any case, the Democrats would want Britain to remain in the European Union  as an American investment hub in the heart of Europe. President Obama personally made this clear during his talks with former Prime Minister David Cameron in London prior to the referendum.
    If Trump goes then all bets are off. Johnson banked his political future on Trump’s re-election. That seems more and more unlikely as the days go by. 

where angels fear to tread

This week the British government joined in the imperialist chorus of support for their chief Russian stooge Alexey Navalny, who was allegedly poisoned in the Siberian city of Omsk last week. The bourgeois media calls him the leader of the Russian opposition but he’s nothing if the kind.
    The Duma, the Russian parliament, is dominated by Vladimir Putin’s United Russia bloc and its allies. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) with its 43 MPs are the official opposition. The Duma has 450 MPs. Navalny is not one of them. In fact every party Navalny’s led has failed to win a single seat in the Russian parliament.
    Russian doctors found no traces of poison when they examined Navalny. German doctors, who are now treating Navalny in Berlin, say he probably was poisoned. Well, we’ll see. It is, nevertheless, curious to note how well the Navalny saga fits into the new anti-Russian media hate campaign drummed up to justify imperialist intervention in Belarus.