One step forward…

 While victory celebrations in Tehran may be premature the sombre faces in the corridors of power in Washington and Tel Aviv tell another story – one of hubris, humiliation and defeat.
Last week Donald Trump ranted and raged against the Iranians. They were going to be wiped out if they didn’t end their blockade of the Persian Gulf and hand over their nuclear plants and oil industry to the Americans. A few days later he’s agreeing to a Pakistani-brokered cease-fire that pivots on the Islamic Republic’s ten point terms for ending the war.
In Washington the blame game has begun. Trump’s friends say their leader was misled by the Zionists and the fools that surround him in the White House. They’re  already pointing the finger at Pete Hegseth, his useless minister of war, and the Israeli premier, Benjamin Netanyahu. Other insiders, mindful of their political futures in the post-Trump world, are telling tales to the mainstream media of a senile old man in the White House whose delusions of grandeur have plunged the capitalist world into a crisis not seen since the height of the Cold War.
No-one can believe a word the US president says. Donald Trump is an incorrigible liar. His agreements are not worth the paper they’re written on. Nevertheless Trump’s minions, led by Vice-President JD Vance, are now in Pakistan for talks with the Iranians. 
The ceasefire, a two-week truce to pave the way for negotiations, is on a knife-edge. The Israelis, who were not party to the secret American parleys with Pakistan, are out to sabotage the peace talks. They’ve stepped up their offensive in southern Lebanon claiming they’re not bound by the terms of the truce the Americans signed up for. The Lebanese resistance and their north Yemeni allies have hit back with a volleys of missiles and drones. 
In Israel they’ve been taught no end of a lesson – getting a taste of their own medicine that has left their capital in ruins and forced hundreds of thousands of Israelis to flee to safety in  Europe and the United States. And needless to say the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to imperialist shipping. 
On the diplomatic front the European powers are rapidly distancing themselves from the United States. France joins Russia and China in blocking an American manoeuvre on the UN Security Council designed to endorse “international” action against Iran in the Persian Gulf while Starmer poses as non-interventionist to curry favour with his old friends in Brussels.
American and Israeli air-power has failed to crush Iran. The Islamic Republic, on the other hand, has destroyed all the American bases on the Arabian peninsula. US troops have been forced to flee to hotels. Others have been evacuated back to the United States.  America’s much-vaunted nuclear aircraft-carriers retreat under fire. Their commando raids are beaten back. The myth of American invincibility has been shattered. The dream of a “new world order” is over.

The edge of the precipice

Guns blaze to the roar of drones and rockets as the flames of war spread across the entire Middle East. The Iranians are throttling the Western energy market with their blockade of the Persian Gulf. Americans and their Israeli lackeys are intensifying their attacks on a broader range of industrial and economic targets in Iran. The Islamic Republic is paying them back in kind with devastating missile attacks on Israel and America’s feudal Arab puppets in the Gulf. And Trump’s response has been a mixture of meaningless peace offers coupled with the usual threats that he thinks is what negotiations are all about that has spiralled the price of oil and gas that has raised the spectre of an energy crisis not seen since the October 1973 oil crisis . No wonder there’s panic in Westminster and the other chancelleries of Europe. 
Who is fanning the flames is clear to all. Whether the American president is senile or clinically insane is, of course, a matter for medical opinion. Whatever, those behind him – those sections of the American ruling class that represent manufacturing, Big Oil and the high-tech industries clearly thought they knew what they were doing when they gave the nod to the treacherous attack on Iran that has plunged the Western world into economic chaos.  
Though grovelling to the Americans comes as second nature to the leaders of Western Europe the  Spanish have become outright opponents of Trump’s war and the French, Germans and Italians are washing their hands on the American-Israeli onslaught. 
Of course the real opposition to the war is from masses on  the street and the leaders of the Global South. As a responsible major power, People’s China firmly stands on the right side of history. China's foreign minister has continued his diplomatic efforts to end the fighting and  promote de-escalation and peace. The special envoy of the Chinese government on the Middle East crisis has visited the region to help ease tension. China has also voiced principled positions at platforms such as the UN and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, defending international fairness and justice. 
China has always advocated harmony and believes that strength of force does not equal strength of reason. It insists that hotspot issues should be resolved through equal dialogue and political solutions - a reflection of historical clarity and long-term vision.
Keir Starmer, to his eternal shame however, wants it both ways. He aligns himself with  Franco-German imperialism to get better terms for the UK’s realignment with the European Union while crawling to Trump by allowing American war-planes to use British bases for their operations against the Islamic Republic. No-one’s fooled by this. The Europeans take no notice as they don’t think he will remain in office after the regional and local elections in May. On the other hand Trump, with his strange and childish comments on social media, does little to mask his contempt for the Prime Minister.
Starmer likes to wave the flag and claim he’s ‘standing up for Britain’. He could start by cancelling the King’s visit to the United States in April.

A watershed in British politics

by John Maryon

Britain has been in economic decline since its empire started to collapse in the early 20th century.  During the Second World War the country amassed debts in excess of £21 billion and by 1947 this had risen to 238 per cent of GDP.  A lack of investment has since led to the collapse of British industry.  What had once been the workshop of the world saw factory after factory close, being unable to compete with the research, innovation and automation in Japan and West Germany as their advanced, top quality and affordable products became widely available.  Britain's position was made much worse when Margaret Thatcher sold off the family silver by disposing of valuable public assets.  Today our national debt has increased rapidly since the 2008 financial crisis and under the impact of COVID 19 to reach £2,725 billion equivalent to 106 per cent of GDP.
Britain faces a serious economic crisis following years of decline.  The situation has been made more acute by a, number of important factors. Firstly, capitalism in its ultimate form, State Monopoly Capitalism, has reached the end of the road being unable to deal with the irreconcilable contradictions that arise between the productive forces and obsolete production relations leading to boom and bust. Secondly, the sheer incompetence of successive British governments, like many of their Western counterparts, who continue to double down with failed policies such as increasing military spending which accelerate the collapse.  We can be sure of one thing.  Every effort will continue to be made to ensure that the full burden of the crisis is placed firmly upon the shoulders of ordinary working people. The familiar capitalist situation of the poor being forced into poverty while the rich are laughing all the way to their tax havens will, they hope, prevail. 
The time is long overdue for the working class to make ready for its historical task and prepare a counter attack with the aim of the overthrow of capitalism and it's replacement with socialism.  However we need to examine both our own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of the ruling class.  The capitalists have the money, the total backing of the mass media to brainwash the public and the full resources of the state apparatus. The workers, on the other hand, are many.  The urgent need now is to inspire and educate the masses so to equip them with the knowledge, confidence and desire to take part in the class struggle for a better life. 
Constant propaganda by the media, assisted willingly by the fake left, has sought to confuse and mislead working people into an acceptance that capitalism is the normal and natural democratic system and they can do nothing to make any radical changes. All the problems are blamed upon others. Vulnerable immigrants, People's China, lazy workers and of course Vladimir Putin are all in the frame. 
Central to developing an effective offensive is increased readership of the New Worker, particularly in its on-line format to reach the new younger generation.  This could be supported an updated Web page and possibly with a video website established on Rumble for rapid response to events. An extended range of leaflets and pamphlets are also needed. The NCP will develop its involvement in joint campaigns with other progressive groups but all of this requires a regular supply of money which we rely on our generous supporters to provide. 
The origins of the British labour movement can be traced back to the days of the Industrial Revolution. Trade unions were formed, trades councils were established and the cooperative movement grew rapidly. Its own political party, the Labour Party, was formed in 1900. Sadly the movement today is not a shadow of it's former self. Only 22 per cent of workers now belong to a union with membership falling from 13 million in 1979 to under 6.44 million today. Many co-ops have disappeared from the scene. A major weakness of the trade union movement is the apparent indifference of some right-wing leaderships, who would rather have a quiet life than fighting for their members interests. With on-line contact replacing traditional meetings in the Labour hall there is less opportunity for them to be openly challenged. As for the Labour Party its policies have become almost indistinguishable from that of the Tories with continued austerity and a commitment to supporting US imperialism in its many acts of aggression. 
However we cannot dismiss the labour movement which was set up to fight the same evils we face today. To do so would be to put the clock back 200 years.  It is important to continue to give workers our full support at grass-roots levels with publicity and encouragement as they fight for improved wages and conditions.  It is also vital to persuade more workers to join a union and in doing so strengthen the hand of progressives within their ranks.  In regard to the Labour Party just voting Labour to get rid of the unspeakable Tories is not enough.  It is only the start of a fightback to put strong pressure on the Labour Party, via your MP for action on a range of issues. Challenge them about more funds for the NHS, urge them to oppose the genocide in Palestine and fascism in Ukraine, insist that public services are restored, demand full public ownership of utilities and make sure they work for peace and oppose racism. We should expose the dubious process by which right-wing careerists, with little affinity to working class people, are parachuted in by head office at the expense of local nominations. 
New and additional ways to struggle must be found. If the working class were to become united there would be no way of stopping them. Many different small left-wing political parties and progressive organisations exist in Britain today. It is only natural that they may have different ideas, priorities and objectives but just imagine what they could achieve if they all pulled together.  A coalition based upon consensus would have a collective voice that could not be ignored.  In the past such attempts have failed because some of those involved have their own sectarian interests, others have had a hidden agenda to dominate and control while yet others of the fake left have sought to sabotage it's work.  The individual identities of all groups could be preserved.  In the case of the NCP it has a unique role of being part of the international communist movement.  For any new Left coalition to be successful it would require a wise and experienced leadership 
We have reached a watershed in British politics as extreme right-wing forces seek to capitalise on the unpopularity of both main political parties. A threat of fascism exists in Britain today as strong irrational feelings are stirred up that produce race hatred and fear.  Every nation will have it's own laws and requirements in relation to both immigration and emigration depending on social relations, economic status or resource availability. When a desperate mother staggers from a small boat holding a crying starving young child only a fascist would push her back to drown. We should give them a hug, dry their tears and let them know that they are safe at last. Suffer little children to come unto me. The tragedy is almost certainly caused as a direct result of some imperialist inspired war that has destroyed their country, their homes and all the friends they once knew. 
A new left movement has to emerge that is bold and principled, equipped with a strategy for positive change. Not to challenge the traditional labour movement but work to strengthen its effectiveness.  Capitalism has had its day and Social Democracy is a non starter. I believe that the NCP must grow and offer to play a vanguard role in terms of political direction.  In the final analysis our prime objective would be to make fundamental changes to society on the basis of Marxism Leninism.  Power must be won for the working people away from the bankers, major corporations and neo-cons so that we may all chose their own destiny. 

Another brick in the wall

Moves to curb democratic protests and solidarity movements were announced this week under new government definitions of “extremism” that will be used to blacklist groups the ruling class deem to be seeking to undermine what they call Britain’s “liberal democracy”. 
The new rules will, of course, not affect the Zionists or the racists who see the Tory party as their natural home following the collapse of the BNP and the National Front. What they will do is  prevent public bodies from providing platforms for those spreading “hateful anti-British” ideas that “poison community life”. Though the definition will have no effect on the existing criminal law  as it only applies to the operations of government itself, its intention is clearly to isolate and marginalise the massive Palestinian solidarity movement and climate change campaigns that have swept the streets and challenged the bourgeois consensus in recent years.
The Sunak government would dearly like to ban the demonstrations outright but it simply doesn’t have the public support to do so. So now it is stepping up the harassment of demonstrators and smearing the organisers as merchants of hate. But who believes their lies these days?
London hasn’t become a “no-go” area for Jews. In fact many members of the Jewish community have joined the massive Palestinian solidarity marches that have rocked London over the past five months and have all ended peacefully – despite the dire predictions of “mob rule” in the Tory media. 
Hundreds of thousands of people have supported the recent cycle of demonstrations calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Millions more support the demand for justice for the Palestinian Arabs and an end to fighting in the Gaza Strip. This is an attack on democracy, not a defence of it. The right to protest must be defended.

Keep up the fight

International efforts to stop the fighting in Gaza have come to nothing in recent weeks. The Palestinian resistance have rejected the Americans’ worthless Ramadan cease-fire “pause” that would clearly not have led to a lasting truce given Israel’s declared aim to re-occupy the Strip and wipe Hamas off the face of the earth. The Palestinians want a permanent cease-fire, the total withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and internationally guaranteed pledges to speedily work towards the establishment of the independent Palestinian state that the imperialists accept when they talk about a “two-state” solution.
Air-drops and floating piers aren’t going stave off starvation in Gaza. If the Americans really want to help they should just tell the Israelis to allow food and medical convoys cross their border into the enclave. If the Americans really want to see the release of the Israelis in Palestinian captivity they should accept the Palestinian offer of a prisoner exchange. If the Americans really want to see an end to the fighting they should stop vetoing truce proposals at the United Nations that have the support of all the members of the Security Council as well as virtually all the countries in the entire world.

Hospital workers stand for Gaza!

by New Worker correspondent

NHS workers held a moment of silence in memory of their colleagues killed during the brutal Israeli onslaught against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip at a solidarity picket outside St Thomas’ Hospital in central London on Tuesday. Hospital staff and Palestinian solidarity activists called for an urgent and permanent cease-fire to end the slaughter of defenceless civilians that has already claimed the lives of over 11,000 Palestinian Arabs during the Israeli invasion. 

Keep up the fight for Palestinian rights!

Though the prisoner exchange between Hamas and the Israelis may bring about a temporary halt in the fighting there can be no let up in the campaign for a permanent cease-fire and an end to the siege of the Gaza Strip. 
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) quite  rightly says that “while a temporary truce is welcome it is not a solution. We won’t stray from our demands. We demand a permanent ceasefire and an end to the siege of Gaza and to Israeli apartheid”.
. Next week’s national demonstrations in London, Cardiff and Glasgow must go ahead and the campaign must continue to mobilise mass pressure throughout the labour and peace movement not only to end the fighting but to restore the legitimate rights of the Palestinian Arabs.
Truces and armistices may have brought about temporary pauses in the Arab-Israeli war that began with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. But they never led to a permanent end to the conflict let alone the “comprehensive, just and lasting peace” that the imperialist leaders pretend to support while ensuring that it can never be achieved.
The first war led to the expulsion of around a million Palestinian Arabs from their homes by the Zionist regime. Those refugees and their descendants have never given up their right to return to their land. And this is the heart of the crisis in the Middle East that has led to five full‑scale wars and continuing simmering conflicts.
The Zionists still dream of dominating the Middle East and colonising Palestine. But their petty ambitions are not the driving force of American imperialism.
Israel is an American protectorate – economically and politically entirely dependent on US imperialism. Israeli governments exist simply to serve the needs of American imperialism in the region. And those needs are to weaken and divide the Arabs to ensure that the big oil corporations can continue their exploitation and plunder of Arab oil until it eventually runs out.
We are, once again hearing the Americans talk about a “two-state” solution. This was, indeed, the basis for the partition of the British colony in 1948 which gave the Palestinian Arabs 44 per cent of their land with Jerusalem under an international administration. It is also the basis of the current UN proposals that simply call for Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories they seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war to allow the Palestinian Arabs to establish their own independent state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with Arab East Jerusalem as its capital.
But what the Americans are talking about doesn’t even go that far. Their “two-state” solution would see the Israelis retaining all their West Bank settlements in exchange for  worthless desert in Israel that would be attached to the Gaza Strip and what’s left of the Arab West Bank for the establishment of a powerless “state” whose independence would barely stretch beyond that of an Indian “reservation” in the United States. It’s all there in Donald Trump’s worthless “Abraham Accords” that were supposed to bring peace to the Middle East but in the end were only accepted by Israel and the craven oil-princes of Bahrain and the Emirates. 
American imperialism believed it called all the shots. They thought  all resistance can be crushed by brute force. They hoped to find enough willing Arab tools to do their bidding and sign a surrender peace. The Palestinians have, once again, proved them wrong.

Stop the Israeli war on Gaza

 

Hospitals stormed. Innocent women and children are being slaughtered. Thousands upon thousands of Palestinian Arabs have been made homeless. This is Gaza today as Israeli missiles rain down on the beleaguered Palestinian enclave and Zionist troops pour into Gaza spreading death and destruction in their wake.
    On the streets of London and in the capitals of all the other imperialist heartlands millions upon millions are joining in the world-wide demand for an immediate and unconditional end to the fighting. But in Washington Joe Biden turns his back on demands to end the war being waged by America’s most loyal puppet in the Middle East. In London the craven Sunak government does the same and sadly so does Sir Keir Starmer, who is determined to outdo the Tories in crawling to imperialism.
    But more and more Labour members are refusing to toe the imperialist line. It began with breakaway councillors in mainly Muslim areas. It rapidly spread to Scottish Labour and the regional leaders of London, Manchester. Now 56 Labour MPs have taken the principled stand to defy the Starmer clique in Parliament this week.
    They rejected Starmer’s meaningless call for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting which Biden and Netanyahu support simply to buy time for the Israeli army to finish the slaughter. They supported a Scottish nationalist call for an immediate cease-fire. And ten Labour front-benchers, including eight shadow minsters, left their jobs to vote with the SNP.
    The SNP motion called for an end to the "collective punishment of the Palestinian people" and urged "all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire". It was defeated by 125 votes to 294, with the 56 Labour rebels joining the other opposition parties to demand a ceasefire, against the Conservatives who opposed it.
    Outside protesters gathered to call for a ceasefire and justice for the Palestinians. Every week the protests get bigger. Last weekend around a million people marched through London to demand and end to Israeli aggression. Let make it even bigger next Saturday...

Sunak shuffles his pack

The Prime Minister reshuffled his pack on Monday. Suella Braverman is out. David Cameron is in while Sunak played musical chairs with the Cabinet to create a new ministerial team which he clearly hopes will reverse the Tories flagging fortunes in time for the general election next year. Sacking Suella Braverman was the easy part. Bringing Cameron back from the political wilderness is more problematic.
    Braverman may have been an icon for the Neanderthal wing of Tory party but amongst the public at large few will miss her. But even fewer missed Cameron when he resigned after losing the Brexit referendum.
    Some, however will be pleased. The Remainers were delighted at the news that one of their own is now in charge of the Foreign Office. They clearly hope that Sunak will encourage more of the pro-European old guard to return to the fold. Whether it will have the same effect on the electorate remains to be seen.
    Labour is still streets ahead of the Tories in the opinion polls with a 27 point lead over the Conservatives that would give them a victory of landslide proportions if repeated at a general election.
    Still, as Harold Wilson famously said a week is a long time in politics. The veteran Labour leader won four elections in the 1960s and 70s. Wilson was the master of come-backs. Sunak is not. But neither is Sir Keir Starmer…

One law for them…

The imperialists like to talk about the “international community” and “international law” – but only when it suits them. But they’re only talking about their law and their community when they drivel on about justice and human rights. They have an “international criminal court” in The Hague to deal with war-criminals – but only ones they don’t like.They have an “international community” – but it only consists of the United States; its NATO partners, and a handful of puppet states whose leaders are guaranteed to do its bidding.   
Rishi Sunak tells parliament that "first and most important principle is that Israel has the right to defend itself under law" and Grant Shapps, the defence minister, tells us that asking Israel to agree a cease-fire with Hamas is “untenable” and that Israel has "a right" to "go after" Hamas after the devastating Palestinian guerrilla raid into Israel earlier in the month. But whose laws and whose rights are they talking about?
It’s certainly not the rights laid down at the United Nations – the world forum which has repeatedly called for an end to the Israel occupation and upheld the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination. Nor is it the international law that the imperialists routinely ignored when they overthrew the governments of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya or fermented civil war with their “colour revolutions”,“Arab Springs” and “Maidan Squares” to bring about “regime change” in Ukraine and Syria and create an American-run “Greater Middle East” for the benefit of the big oil corporations. 
The imperialists claim they stand for freedom. Biden talks about it all the time. But it is the freedom of the straitjacket and the dungeon. They preach this “freedom” with their Stealth bombers, their special forces and their economic blockades against all those who dare to stand up for themselves. We saw what the imperialists mean by freedom in Iraq. Libya  and the hills of Afghanistan. We see it today in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
They call their empire the “free world”. They say we have free speech, and live in a democracy. But it’s democracy and freedom only for them. In fact bourgeois democracy is democracy only for the exploiters.
Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, once said that if voting changed anything, they'd abolish it. And bourgeois elections, as we well know, are used so that the smallest number of people can manipulate the maximum number of votes.
It’s dictatorship in all but the formal sense for the exploited. It is brutal and oppressive because that is the only way it can ensure that the rich can continue to live the lives of Roman emperors off the backs of the working people. While millions of people scrabble to earn a living just to keep a roof over their heads a tiny elite live lives beyond the reach and often beyond the imagination of most workers.
But wherever there is oppression, there is resistance. We saw it in the Don Basin when the anti-fascist resistance drove out the fascists from eastern Ukraine to set up their own people’s democracies that have now joined the Russian Federation. And now we see it on the streets of Gaza and the towns and villages of the West Bank...

A slap in the face for the Israeli security system

by Fouad Baker
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) 

No one expected that this would be the response of the Palestinian resistance to the plan of the fascist and racist Israeli occupation government based on Judaisation, displacement, expansion of settlements, annexation of lands, storming the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian camps in the West Bank, administrative arrests, and the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and the national rights of the Palestinian people.
  Although Israel possesses the latest technologies, its security system failed to protect the settlers living on stolen Palestinian land. A number of Palestinian resistance fighters were able to cross the border fence separating the Gaza Strip and the settlements killing dozens of settlers and taking others prisoner back to the Haza Strip.
  Some  5,000 missiles  were fired from the Gaza Strip towards these illegal settlements, which paralysed the Israeli ‘Iron Dome’ and the Israeli security system. The joint Palestinian operations room, which includes all the Palestinian factions, took part in this military operation. The most prominent of which were Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine...
The news was greeted with astonishment in the West Bank. Astonishment at the success of  the military operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip. Celebratory marches in Palestinian cities in the occupied territories soon led to clashes with Israeli troops.
  Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinian demonstrators in towns throughout the West Bank and an Israeli police station was torched in Jerusalem
The Palestinian resistance called the attack on the Israeli settlements located on the border of the Gaza Strip ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’.
The offensive was designed to regain the initiative and block Saudi-Israeli normalisation, which aims to liquidate the Palestinian cause and deprive them of their national rights. Rights which include the right of the refugees to return to their land, ending the Israeli occupation, establishing an independent Palestinian state.
The Israelis called the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation a terrorist operation, ignoring the fact that they are the occupiers of lands belonging to the Palestinian people. If they want real peace in the Middle East they must end the occupation.
The Palestinian operation exposed the weakness of Israeli intelligence that failed to discover the resistance plan despite all the support from the USA, and the failure of Israel’s surveillance and espionage programmes such as their Pegasus spyware which they’ve also sold to some Arab regimes.
The operation’s success was down to the full coordination between the Palestinian resistance factions working in complete secrecy. 
The Palestinian bet on using parachutists to penetrate the border fence in the Gaza Strip to destroy Israeli tanks and open the way to the advance towards the illegal settlements worked.
     The emergence of a qualitative development in the work of the Palestinian resistance, which transformed primitive rockets and simple shells into semi-precise missiles that reach deep into Israel enabled it to capture Israeli soldiers to use in negotiations for the release of the Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli prisons for decades.
The Al-Aqsa Flood operation was launched only after all diplomatic means had been exhausted. It was a specific confrontation due to the racist policy implemented by the Israeli occupation government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. It was a move to prevent the Arab regimes from signing peace agreements with Israel and derail American attempts to build economic blocs in the region to besiege China, Iran, and Russia – the most recent of which is the India-Middle East-Europe ‘corridor’.
The Israeli response to the Palestinian offensive has been to bomb the Gaza Strip including residential tower blocks and other civilian targets resulting in over 250 Palestinian martyrs and hundreds more wounded.
But the fascist Israeli government wants to avoid a long and multi-fronted conflict as it knows that any military operation that crosses the red line will ignite the Middle East in defence of the Palestinian people, as happened in the October War of 1973.
In the occupied territories, the refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan and the Palestinian communities in Europe the people are rallying behind the defence of the Gaza Strip. Support is coming from Iraq, Yemen and Syria and the Lebanese resistance has already intervened...
Around the world social networking sites are ablaze with congratulations to the Palestinians for this qualitative military operation while the Arabs took to the streets with fireworks and sweets to celebrate a Palestinian victory that has been seen since the birth of Israel in 1948.
Those who think that the Palestinian people can be fobbed of with email messages of support or agree to becoming political pawns of the Great Powers are only fooling themselves. The deluded are those who think that the Palestinian people will accept political settlements that do not meet demands that recognise their legitimate national rights. And the most delusional are those who think that peace in the Middle East can be achieved without real justice and an end to the Israeli occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Just as the Battle of Saif al-Quds in Gaza in 2021 ended a stage in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Al-Aqsa Flood operation opened a new page in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Of mice and men

Neo-con American hawk John Bolton is hitting the headlines again railing against his old boss and saying that Donald Trump’s  behaviour is “erratic, irrational and unconstrained” and that Trump will likely take the US out of NATO if he wins the presidential race in 2024. If only it were true...

Bolton is a career politician. Trump, on the other hand, is a property tycoon. Trump was quite happy to do the bidding of the American Establishment whose views he generally went along with. He didn’t realise that he was just a pawn of the reactionary circles who had propelled him to the White House in the first place. 

When Trump branched out on his own – arguing for cuts in the global US military presence and working for a rapprochement with Democratic Korea – his plans were sabotaged by his own senior advisers.

When Trump sacked them – and that’s something the president can still do – another stepped in to fill the gap.  Men like John Bolton, appointed Trump’s National Security Advisor in 2018 and sacked in 2019. Bolton has long been a tool of the “deep state”  –  the hidden hand of the most aggressive sections of the American ruling class that want war and “regime change” in countries that dare to stand up to American imperialism.

Bolton said that when Trump was in the Oval Office he undermined Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. E says Trump would betray Ukraine if again returned to the White House.

In the Republican camp some, like Bolton, are trying to derail Trump’s comeback campaign. They don’t particularly favour the others seeking nomination on the Republican ticket. But they clearly see Trump as a troublesome maverick, an unreliable element whose private life and dubious business ethics are an embarrassment even by American standards. They’re working to ensure the re-election of  the Democratic candidate. And Joe Biden is clearly a tool of the deep state. 

At the end of the day it makes no difference who wins the US presidential elections. Bourgeois elections are held so that the smallest number of people  can manipulate the largest number of votes. There can only be one winner in that sort of race…

For whom the bell tolls…

 Last weekend millions in Japan and throughout the world paused to remember those who died in the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the last days of the Second World War. On 6th August 1945 Hiroshima was destroyed by an American atom bomb. Nagasaki was hit three days later. Some 250,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed instantly in the atomic blasts. Many more would later perish from flash burns and radiation sickness.

The claim that the atom bombs forced Japan to surrender is an enduring myth of the Second World War. The Americans say they had to use the atom bomb to force Japan to surrender and bring the global conflict to an end. But the Japanese were begging for an armistice as their armies folded under the hammer blows of communist-led guerrillas  and the Red Army. 

But two Japanese cities were still wiped out to show the world, and the Soviet Union in particular, what US imperialism was capable of doing.

The fight for peace is inexorably linked to the struggle for justice. The campaign must inevitably challenge world imperialism, the greatest threat to peace. and present an alternative to the capitalism that is the root cause of all conflicts in the world today.

Zelensky in Wonderland

The British government rolled out the red carpet for Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday who addressed Parliament, held talks with Sunak and had an audience with King Charles that was a Ukrainian PR dream. The British government promised to supply the Ukrainians with more heavy weapons and provide more training facilities for their fighter pilots in Britain so that Ukraine can achieve a "decisive military victory on the battlefield this year". Well, that’s what Sunak says. But what does it all mean?
    Very little it seems given the parlous state of the British armed forces these days. A few Challenger tanks are hardly likely to change the balance of forces on the Donbas front as the entire Ukrainian army fights to stave off the advance of what is still only a Russian expeditionary force.
    Sunak, like Boris Johnson before him, may like to pose as a world leader and the greatest friend of Ukraine in Western Europe. But at the end of the day the only power that counts in NATO is the United States and Zelensky’s fortunes, and indeed his fate, will be decided by the amount of military assistance Washington gives him.
    The Americans call all the shots in Kiev and they’ve backed Zelensky to the hilt so far. Whether they will in the future depends on Biden’s long-term war aims – and those can still only be guessed at.
    Russia’s war aims have always been public. The Russians are fighting to defend the Crimeans and the people of the Donbas whose republics have chosen to join the Russian Federation. Russia is fighting to defend the anti-fascist Ukrainians whose parties have all been banned in Ukraine and whose leaders are either languishing in some Ukrainian dungeon or living in exile in Moscow.
    The Ukraine conflict has, however, exposed the limitations of American power. Imperialist sanctions have not brought down the Putin government. The Russian army has not been defeated (all its withdrawals in Ukraine were voluntary and for tactical reasons). Sweden and Finland have not joined NATO – largely due to the Turkish veto.
    US imperialism has, of course, achieved some of its objectives. It has ensured the survival of their puppet Ukrainian regime. It has sunk, in more than one sense, the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline that the Americans feared would make Germany dependent on Russian natural gas and made Western Europe dependent on much dearer American supplies. It has restored American hegemony over all their European allies – with the help of their willing tools in France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
    Biden is, after-all, just a figurehead for the American deep state – what we would call the “Establishment” – that reflects the entire spectrum of bourgeois opinion. Their internal discussions – the rows between the “hawks” and the “doves” and the speculation of retired generals and diplomats – reflect the divisions within the American ruling class.
    So the Americans may have enough now to call it a day. Some believe that speculation in the mainstream US media about a “partition” of Ukraine that would meet most of Russia’s demands reflects genuine divisions within America’s ruling circles. Others think it’s merely disinformation designed to wrong-foot the Kremlin before their spring offensive. That certainly seems to be the view of most Russian commentators.
    None of this need trouble Sunak because he wasn’t in the loop in the first place. At the end of the day, like all British post-war leaders, he will just have to do as he’s told.

A Day of Shame

Last Saturday Palestinian solidarity campaigners evaded security to gain access to the House of Commons Private Members Lobby in the Palace of Westminster in London. Once inside, they doused the statue of Lord Arthur Balfour in fake blood and unveiled the Palestinian flag, before gluing themselves to the plinth to state their intentions.
    Lord Arthur Balfour was the architect of the declaration that sealed the fate of the Palestinian people in the 20th century.
    On 2nd November 1917 the British government pledged its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, which was then a province in the Turkish Ottoman empire, Germany’s chief ally in the Middle East.
    Lord Balfour, the foreign secretary in Lloyd George’s war-time government, issued the declaration that authorised Zionist settlement in Palestine when it became part of the British Empire following the defeat of Germany and its allies in the first world war.
    But in 1917 the outcome of the war was still in doubt. The Germans had knocked Russia out and they held the line along the Western Front. British imperialism was looking for new allies in a conflict with Germany that plunged Europe into war in 1914. Locked in a stalemate on the Western front they sought support from the influential Zionist lobby within the Jewish community in Britain and the United States. At the same time British agents had encouraged feudal Arab leaders to rebel against their Turkish masters with false promises of British support for an independent Arab kingdom when victory came.
    What these Arabs didn’t know was that behind their backs Britain had already agreed to partition the Ottoman Empire – Britain would get Palestine and Iraq: the French got Syria and Lebanon and the Russians would get Constantinople. Even Italy and Greece were promised small slices of the take that would leave the Turks with just a rump state in Asia Minor. The Arabs would get nothing.
    And that’s what largely happened after the defeat of Germany and its allies in 1918. Despite the Russian revolution and America’s entry into the war the Ottoman Empire was partitioned along the lines of an Anglo-French plan. A resurgent Turkish nationalist movement thwarted Italian ambitions and threw the Greeks out of Asia Minor but the Arabs were powerless to stop the recolonisation of their lands under Western rulers.
    Britain’s feudal Arab allies became puppet rulers of Iraq and Jordan while France set up bogus sectarian statelets in Syria and Lebanon. Palestine came under direct British colonial rule.
    Balfour promised the Zionists a “national home” in Palestine while stating “that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”. But Palestine was not Balfour’s to give and the Arabs, the overwhelming majority of the population in the British “mandate” of Palestine, never consented to this and in any case they were never consulted.
    The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 led to the expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians from their homes. The war that began in 1948 continues to this day. The Palestinians fight on and they will continue the struggle until their legitimate rights are restored.
    UN resolutions have provided 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.

No to NATO, No to War!

We are in the middle of a hate-campaign not seen since the dark Cold War days of the McCarthy era, We’re being swamped with hysterical anti-Russian propaganda to justify sanctions and more military aid to the Ukrainian fascists.
    Though the Biden administration has ruled out direct US intervention in Ukraine some imperialist politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are still calling for “no-fly zones” and other direct NATO involvement in a conflict that could set the whole of Europe ablaze and possibly even trigger a nuclear war.
    They serve the war lobby within the United States – the so-called “deep state” that represents the most venal and aggressive sections of the American ruling class that seek to dominate the entire world in the name of “globalisation” and the “new world order”. They’re also served by sinister forces within the labour and peace movement that have long acted as cheer-leaders for NATO and neo-colonialism.
    Some like Sir Keir Starmer and the Blairites openly embrace NATO and US imperialism while the fake lefters who pose as socialists essentially argue that peace is only attainable on imperialist terms.
    Now, more than ever, is the time for a clear call from the anti-war movement for an end to the fighting and a just and lasting peace in eastern Europe. This can only come with a neutral and de-Nazified Ukraine that recognises the independence of the Donbas republics, Crimea’s decision to join the Russian Federation and equal rights for all the people of the regions of the Ukraine.

Stand by the Seafarers

The mass dismissal of hundreds of P&O ferry workers reflects the reality of the world we live in today. Sacking workers to make way for cheaper scab labour was the norm in Victorian days when unions were barely legal and Management’s “right to manage” was the mantra of all the mainstream parties of the day. But it was more or less outlawed by legislation and agreed terms that the unions won through their industrial muscle in the decades that followed the Second World War.
    This all ended with the Thatcher era that followed Labour’s historic election defeat in 1979. The new Tory government launched an employers’ offensive that outlawed collective bargaining and a roll-back of most of what the working class had gained in the 20th century.
    There’s been no real fight-back. The venal approach of the careerists and bureaucrats and the decline of the genuinely militant left sabotaged any real resistance within the labour movement as a whole.
    It’s true that the storm of protests that followed P&O’s decision to summarily sack 800 workers has forced Management to offer redundancy terms that they hope will buy off some of the dismissed sea-farers. But the communist call must be to support the demand for the unconditional and immediate re-instatement of all the sacked staff and help the campaigns that the workers and their unions have launched to take on P&O and force them to do it.

A New Era for World Trade

by John Maryon

We live in the age of state monopoly capitalism in which large corporations, with a monopoly position across a wide range of markets, have become directly connected with government apparatus. Their aim is to use the state and its elected representatives to provide the legal and political frameworks that will enable them to increase their profits. A notable sign of the potential chaos and disorder can be seen in the challenge that exists to capitalist state power by the monopoly capitalists.
    Globalisation, the internationalism of the division of labour, has developed rapidly since the turn of the millennium. It is the product of science, technology and the development of productive forces, and should be at the service of humankind. Everyone should be able to increase their skills, talents and knowledge. But globalisation when put to work by monopoly capitalism is nothing but raw imperialism. Imperialism, through its institutions, has attempted to tighten its grip on the economies of all countries, in particular those of the developing world and others they see as competitive.
    Imperialists will attempt to use extra-governmental organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to their advantage. They may be able to remove protective restrictions that would limit imports and deregulate internal markets in terms of trade and services. By removing any restrictions on the movement of capital and eliminating export subsidies together with import tariffs that protect the home markets, a strategy of domination becomes effective. Small, poor countries, which are not capable of competing with the rich states, are confined to becoming suppliers of cheap commodities whilst being forced to import expensive manufactured products.
    Imperialist policies have been opposed by larger developing countries such as India and Brazil – at least when their progressive governments have not been replaced by ones that are allies of the USA. The establishment of regional free-trade areas can have the effect of converting groups of countries into mere satellites of primarily US imperialism. It has not only been the developing nations that have been affected but also inter-imperialist rivalry. Japan could have produced a serious challenge to Boeing with civil aircraft and attempts are now being made to prevent Germany buying cheap gas via Nord Stream 2.
    Secret negotiations started in 2014 between the European Union and USA to form the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Provisions would have allowed for full privatisation of the NHS and a reduction in food safety standards to US levels. Also the greater use of pesticides and genetically modified foods would be approved, along with increased monitoring of the Internet. Fortunately, following consumer resistance and strong opposition negotiations came to an end in 2016 and no agreement was signed.
    The suffocating agenda of blatant interference in the affairs of sovereign nations has been condemned by People's China and Russia. An event of major importance that will have a very dramatic impact on international trade and relations was the adoption by the Chinese Government in 2013 of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This global infrastructure development strategy will boost sustainable world trade, raise nations from poverty and increase international co-operation to a new high level unseen in the past.
    The BRI was put forward by President Xi Jinping just over eight years ago. An initiative that aims to build a trade, investment and infrastructure network connecting Asia with other parts of the world, initially along the ancient Silk Road trade route. Since its inception, a total of over 173 countries and international organisations have signed more than 200 co-operative agreements with China under the BRI. Cumulative trade between China and its partners exceeds $9.2 trillion and direct investment more than $130 billion.
    The scope of the mutually beneficial initiative extends far and wide. In addition to its transcontinental route, a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road includes sea lanes linking China to SE Asia, the South Pacific region, the Middle East and the east coast of Africa. Further afield, a number of countries in South America, including Argentina, have signed memorandums of intent. The socialist countries are partners in the project. The BRI aims to improve co-ordination, expand economic development, extend infrastructure connectivity and strengthen financial strategies. Importantly, it will connect more people and build trust, understanding and friendship.
    A typical project has been the recently opened China–Laos high speed railway. An important transport artery that will provide direct links between the land-locked country and Chinese cities and ports, including the opportunity to run goods trains to Europe. The impact of the BRI has been to provide opportunities in many areas including, the Middle East and Africa, which have until recently been regarded as suppliers of commodities. They are empowered to embark upon independent development, free from US diktat. Syria has now joined the BRI and will have a chance to rebuild itself amidst continued aggression and sanctions from greedy immoral Western States. Syria was in ancient times a part of the original Silk Road.
    Another new and important development is the close partnership established between China and Russia. It is a win–win situation for both countries. Russia will have a guaranteed market for its oil and gas, plus important opportunities to sell high-tech products. China will be able to invest in Russia and export manufactured goods. Russia has given full support to the One China policy, and China fully supports Russian efforts to halt the eastward expansion of NATO.
    The socialist countries have been in the front-line of US interference and aggression as they resist attempts to undermine them. Countries such as Cuba have been able to avoid the capitalist crisis but have to suffer economic sanctions from the USA at a time when they are battling COVID‑19 and a loss of tourist trade. But they have a very good friend in China.
    The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), in particular, has shown the possibility of building an advanced socialist economy in the face of US-inspired sanctions. It caters for the economic, social and cultural needs of its people on the basis of self-reliance with no concessions to capitalist institutions.
    China's trade initiatives, along with mutual assistance, will play an important role in increasing the GDPs of the developing world and overcoming the effects of the Covid pandemic. The days of imperialist exploitation are surely numbered. It is the socialist countries that will be able to help the world recover, with fair trade and respect based upon full socialist principles.

End of the road in Afghanistan

As the last American troops withdraw from Afghanistan the sectarian Taliban Muslim militia has seized nine provincial capitals in an offensive than now directly threatens what poses as the national government in Kabul. In 2001 an American-led invasion drove the Taliban out of Kabul to install a puppet regime in the “war on terror” that the imperialists launched following the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. The invasion of Iraq soon followed along with “regime change” in Libya and a less than covert bid to do the same in Syria that was thwarted by the steadfastness of the Syrian people and the timely intervention of the Russian air force.
     American forces, and those of their NATO allies including Britain, installed a puppet regime in Kabul which they said would bring prosperity and democracy to Afghanistan.
    Twenty years later the Americans and their allies are leaving with their tails between their legs while the Taliban, which is backed by Pakistani intelligence, battles it out with northern and western war-lords who can count on the support of Russia, India and Iran.
    Some 2,300 American soldiers were killed in the Afghan campaign and over 20,600 wounded. Hundreds of mercenaries called “contractors” also died at the hands of the Afghan militias and while no-one in the West bothers to accurately count the Afghan losses most observers believe that about 241,000 people were killed in the Afghan and Pakistan war zone since 2001. More than 71,000 of those killed were civilians.
    Some senior British officers and Tory politicians who really should know better are now bleating on about the “betrayal” of the Afghans, They would be better advised to heed Kipling’s words after the illusionary British victory in the Boer War: “Let us admit it fairly, as a business people should. We have had no end of a lesson: it will do us no end of good”.

ECI Solidarity Statement with Cuba

The European Communist Initiative condemns and denounces the developing imperialist intervention of the USA in Cuba. It is a cynical and criminal manipulation to intervene in the internal affairs of Cuba, at a time when its people is confronting the pandemic. This dangerous development rebuts and exposes all those that have been cultivating false expectations for the Biden administration. The USA that are to blame for thousands of deaths and millions of Covid 19 cases hypocritically pretend to be preoccupied for the Cuban people, while they are the ones that for many decades have imposed the criminal embargo against the Cuban people. In a provocative manner, they even denied lifting the blockade during the pandemic, a fact that did not prevent Cuba to develop 5 vaccines and to contribute with missions medical staff in many countries around the globe to tackle the pandemic, giving lessons of humanity and internationalist solidarity. The responsibilities of the EU are also grave since in tandem with the USA and for their own interests continue the false propaganda regarding “human rights in Cuba”.

We express our unwaivering solidarity to the CP of Cuba and the Cuban people, which is the only one responsible to define its future.

The imperialist intervention cannot erase the achievements of the Cuban Revolution.

We intensify our activities and raise our voices: Hands off Cuba and its People!

 

THE COMMUNIST AND WORKERS’ PARTIES CONDEMN NATO’S COLD WAR RHETORIC

JOINT STATEMENT

 The Communist and Worker’s Parties of the NATO member states wish to say in a loud and clear voice that we condemn the aggressive anti-communist rhetoric coming out of the latest meeting of NATO leadership. The US, the de-facto leader of the NATO alliance has made it clear that its interests lie in igniting a “new Cold War” centered around anti-Chinese and anti-communist propaganda. This is a threat to all workers around the world.  

Since the infamous “Pivot to Asia” under President BarackObama, it has been clear that the US capitalist elite has seen the rising successes and power of the People’s Republic of China as a threat to itsunipolar, neoliberal world order. During the administration of Donald Trump, the US government became increasingly aggressive in its anti-China and anti-socialist policies and many began to talk about a “new Cold War”. 

Some might have hoped that with the election of a new president, the US might become less hostile towards The People’s Republic of China (PRC), but they would now be greatly disappointed. In many ways, the foreign policy of the Biden presidency has amped up the hostility towards China and its largest strategic ally, Russia. 

At the most recent meeting of the leaders of NATO alliance - an alliance’s that owes its whole existence to policies of anti-communist aggression – “new Cold War” rhetoric was abundant. NATO’s general secretary Jan Stoltenberg even said that “the rise of China” presents a security threat to NATO. Why does the world’s largest country lifting itself out of poverty constitute a security threat to the NATO powers? The answer is that it doesn’t. It does however constitute a threat to US hegemony and capitalist’s profits. 

Both China and its strategic ally Russia, find themselves surrounded on all sides by hundreds of US and NATO military bases. Despite promises to not expand in to Eastern Europe, NATO has continuously expanded closer and closer to Russia’s borders and is aiding anti-Russian, fascist forces in Ukraine while using economic sanctions to punish the people of Russia. 

The world cannot be allowed to descend into another anti-communist Cold War. Despite the name, the Cold War of the 20^th Century was more often than not a hot war and cost the lives of millions of people around the globe. From South East Asia to Africa and Latin America, millions of workers, those seeking freedom and a better world for themselves and their families were slaughtered in the name of global capitalism.These wars did not spare the youth of the U.S. and its military allies 

History cannot be allowed to repeat itself in an even more dangerous form. 

No new Cold War!

 

 

Solidnet Parties Signing 

1. Communist Party of Albania
2. Communist Party of Australia
3. Democratic Progressive Tribune-Bahrain
4. Communist Party of Bangladesh
5. Brazilian Communist Party
6. Communist Party of Brazil
7. New Communist Party of Britain
8. Columbian Communist Party
9. Socialist Workers’ Party of Croatia
10. Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
11. Communist Party of Denmark
12. Communist Party of Finland
13. French Communist Party
14. German Communist Party
15. Hungarian Workers’ Party
16. Tudeh Party of Iran
17. Communist Party of Kurdistan-Iraq
18. Communist Party of Ireland
19. Workers’ Party of Ireland
20. Party of the Communist Refoundation
21. Socialist Party of Lithuania
22. Communist Party of Norway
23. Philippine Communist Party (PKP-1930)
24. Communist Party of Spain
25. Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain
26. Communist Party of Ukraine
27. Communist Party USA

 

Other Parties Signing

1. Communist Party of Aotearoa
2. Galizan People's Union-UPG
3. Communist Party of the Donetsk People’s Republic
4. Proletariat Schweiz