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.

Lithuanian patriots struggle for peace!

 

by Anthony Lee

Today we can observe very contradictory political processes taking place in Lithuania. Unfortunately Ukrainian flags fly there just like in many other, but not all, European countries. In some places pro-Ukrainian slogans are even heard like "Let's support the Ukrainian military! They will win!“. However, more and more often we can already hear opposite statements: "Russia cannot be defeated. Ukrainian forces are weakening and losing the war." Most Europeans want peace and believe that there is no reason to support or prolong a distant and unwanted war.
As we know, support for the Ukrainians and their armed forces has raised Lithuania's military budget to almost three billion euros. This is a huge amount for Lithuania. And, unfortunately, the fruits of wrong political tactics are bitter – more than 33 per cent of the Lithuanian population lives well below the poverty line. This is the reason why the Lithuanian people stand for an end to the war and demand a more peaceful policy for Lithuania.
On 20 December 2024 a public protest against the warmongers took place in the city of Siauliai in Lithuania. The demonstration was called by the Socialist Popular Front. During the action, several brave Lithuanian anti-fascists stood in the central square, holding posters with very specific slogans: “Sponsorship of Kiev is sponsorship of terrorism directed against Ukrainians”, "Zelensky is eating our money," and other messages reflecting the position of a significant part of Lithuanian citizens.
A participant in the action, anti-fascist Zhilvinas Razmin, said “the ruling parties in the Seimas (Lithuanian parliament) and other places unanimously support the war in Ukraine, they support the Maidan in Georgia, and they exploit us and our people”.
He continues “what is the amount of social pensions these days? Most of us receive only two to three hundred euros. At the same time, they (the government) are increasingly purchasing weapons worth hundreds of millions of euros. We must strive to demand and maintain peace. We should not sit at home. We should not be silent and we must express our position. Do we really want Lithuania to be dragged into war and for our cities to be destroyed? “
In addition Razmin emphasised that “it is necessary to suspend the construction of military bases and military factories, such as the plant of the German concern Rheinmetall and others. Lithuania must be an independent, neutral state”.
A peaceful status can lead to the revival and restoration of Lithuania’s prosperity. War-mongering and inciting Russophobia can only harm Lithuania. Landsbergism (the cult of leader of the pro-NATO counter-revolution that overthrew Soviet power in Lithuania) struck our land, it undermined our roots. People continue to flee to the West (and sometimes to the East), and, in fact, the country is now devastated. And at the same time, the number of soldiers of the occupying German army in our country is sharply increasing. Civil repression is also intensifying: the homes of anti-fascists are being searched, political cases are being brought under the guise of the criminal code and, unfortunately, thousands of Lithuanians are being victimised and forced to flee.
Currently tough measures are being taken against anti-fascist leaders in the city of Siauliai in the north of the country. It was for this reason four more participants who decided to take part in the action were delayed. Their car was stopped by the police. Dmitry Kitov, who was driving the car, and three of his colleagues were forced to spent two hours at a police station. The police deliberately checked their documents for as long as possible and then forced the men to undergo a terrifying search of not only their personal belongings but also their car by a vicious police dog. When they were finally allowed to leave the stated time frame for the protest had long expired.
Many Lithuanians and anti-fascists are against inciting Russophobia in Lithuania including the Lithuanian People’s Party politician Professor Eduardas Vaitkus, publicists Erika Schwentchonene and Henrikas Cherniskas, director Yaras Valukenas and journalists Aurimas Drisius, Laurinas Ragelskis and Birute Dilpshene.
We hope and believe that the time will come when Lithuania will take the path of political and social progress – like Hungary, Slovakia, and Bulgaria – and will strive for peace rather than inciting war!

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. 

Peace on Earth…

...and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled. Or so we’re told at this time of the year. But though it’s supposed to be the season of goodwill we won’t see much of it in this sceptred isle the heartland of imperialism. The great and the good will make their annual obeisance to the Prince of Peace, whom they claim to worship, while ignoring his teachings for the rest of the year. They rejoice at regime change in Syria while turning a blind eye to the sectarian violence that is now sweeping the country. They fuel the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine while ignoring the Zionists’ genocidal war against the Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Celebrating the winter solstice goes back to hallowed antiquity. Stone Age hunter-gatherers whose lives revolved around the seasons appeased the gods to ensure the return of spring. The Romans called it Saturnalia – when masters served their slaves in orgies of feasting and drinking in a festival in which all the rules of society could be temporarily broken.
Though some of these traditions linger on in today’s orgy of consumer delight we are still supposedly celebrating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the man who told his followers that it was “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”. But do any of the rich, or his latter-day apostles, believe it?
The Pharisees churn out the usual platitudes about the “poor and needy” while ignoring the words of their Master who drove the money-changers out of the Temple and told his followers to “go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven”. Meanwhile the Archbishop of Canterbury resigns after a report revealed that he failed to act on allegations of boys being flogged by a man closely linked to the Anglican hierarchy while the Archbishop of York comes under similar fire for not taking action against another pervert within the Church of England. 
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”.  
But there are reasons to be cheerful. The Starmer government is deeply unpopular and the Tories are split over the Faragist challenge. Though Starmer has driven Jeremy Corbyn and most of his supporters out of the Labour Party the former Labour leader is back in Parliament leading the Independent Alliance on the opposition benches. A new fight-back against austerity has begun and London is rocked on a monthly basis by hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding justice for the Palestinians and an end to the genocide in Gaza.
The ruling class maintains that capitalism is the only game in town. And it is – but only for themselves. Capitalism, in the final analysis, is simply a system designed to perpetuate the rule of the landowners, industrialists and capitalists to ensure that a tiny handful of parasites can live the lives of Roman emperors off the backs of the millions upon millions of working people. There is only one solution to the capitalist crisis and that is socialism. Let’s make that our resolution for the New Year. Speed the day!

Syria’s downfall

Baath power began with the Syrian revolution in 1963. It ended this month. For most of that time the Party that led the Syrian Arab Republic was led by members of the Assad family.
Now Bashar al Assad is in Moscow. The Syrian Arab Republic is no more. The Baath Party has been dissolved. The old pan-Arab flag has gone and a new one flies over Damascus – the flag of the bogus “Syrian republic” during French colonial rule. 
Though a pan-Arab movement Syria was always at the heart of the Baath (Renaissance) Party. Born is the 1940s in the struggle to break the chains of colonialism it evolved into a mass movement when it merged with the Arab Socialist Party in 1952 to become the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party under its famous slogan “Unity, Freedom, Socialism – One Arab Nation! One Glorious Destiny!” that would soon be adopted by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Arab Socialist Union in Egypt. 
Baathist Syria took the road of socialist advance sweeping away the old guard and the feudal order in the countryside to build a better life for the Syrian people with national health and education services funded by a public sector that also had to support the armed forces needed to confront the Zionist enemy. 
From the start Baathist Syria supported the just struggle of the Palestinian Arabs in confronting Israel as well as fighting side by side with Egypt, which was then the United Arab Republic, in two major wars with the Zionist entity. In the 1970s Syria intervened in the Lebanese civil war under an Arab League mandate through a peace-keeping force that remained in the Lebanon until 2005.
Communists and Nasserists had long worked with the Baath as “independents” in the Syrian parliament but in 1972 this was formalised with the establishment of a popular front, the National Progressive Front, that brought communists, Nasserists and social-democrats into government as junior partners of the Baath.
Baathist Syria was always to the fore in the struggle against imperialism. A pillar of the non-aligned movement the Syrian Arab Republic stood with the militant Palestinian resistance movements and other progressive Arab republics in the Rejection Front to oppose any surrender peace with Israel. It joined the Steadfastness and Confrontation Front that included the PLO, Algeria, Libya and People’s Yemen to oppose Egypt’s acceptance of the American and Zionist demands that led to the Camp David surrender peace with Israel.
Baathist Syria was a friend of the Soviet Union and the DPR Korea. Syrian trade with People’s China had soared in recent years and only a few months ago Syria applied to join BRICS, the independent economic bloc of the Global South.
This is why the imperialists, working hand in glove with Turkey, Israel and the feudal Arab oil princes worked to bring down the Assad government. They imposed sanctions and blockades on Syria to force it to end its alliance with the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran. They fomented the sectarian strife that triggered the civil war that began in 2011 and ended in the collapse of the Syrian government last week.   
The imperialists and their Zionist and feudal Arab lackeys cannot bring peace to the Middle East. Nor is that their intention. They believe that the best way to maintain imperialist hegemony and preserve the super-profits of the big oil corporations is by keeping the Arab masses weak and divided. It’s worked so far. But this is by no means the end of the story.  

75 years of outstanding progress.

by John Maryon

People's China has been celebrating with its friends around the world, its foundation on 1st October 1949.  Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the new republic in Tienanmen Square 75 years ago. It has enabled the Chinese people to embark upon an epic road that has led from extreme poverty and enormous hardships to rising prosperity in a powerful modern industrial state. Chinese society has been transformed under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
Peasants formed the greater part of Chinese society in those early days.  Serfdom still existed in Tibet and other areas.  With grinding poverty life expectancy in those part of China was less than 35 years.  The impact of colonisation by Japanese and European imperialism had seen a long period of brutal foreign domination and intensive exploitation that plundered the country.  China’s economy had been left in tatters and society in turmoil with any thoughts of a better life little more than an impossible dream.
Mao Zedong's revolutionary leadership enabled the Chinese nation’s rebirth. The Communist leader’s political theories were based upon Marxism-Leninism adapted to Chinese conditions. His achievements transformed China into a major world power and with it came the benefits of basic health care for the masses, education to the countryside, guaranteed women's rights and illiteracy a thing of the past.  Mao is widely regarded as the national hero who defeated foreign domination and secured freedom for his people. He led China from 1949 until his death in1976.
With the foundation of a new China firmly established new policies were introduced in 1978 to take the nation forward.  President Xi Jinping has described this path of development as Chinese Modernisation. This dynamic policy changes to suit new conditions as they arise and in addition to economic matter includes measures to boost social and cultural development. The new policy included an opening-up reform that allowed private investment, including foreign capital, to boost the economy. There is no doubt that the measures have been hugely successful allowing China to grow stronger and be in a position to resist US domination.
Certain aspects of the new policies have caused apprehension among China's friends.  The country now has a mixed economy with a private sector, a stock exchange and what's described as a socialist market economy. Does this mean a partial return to capitalism or does it mirror the New Economic Policy introduced by Lenin in the USSR between 1921 and 1928?
China's leadership is mature and wise so being fully aware of any risks involved. The dialectical philosophy of Marxism examines the development of things and phenomenon that are universally interconnected. In simple terms, as changes take place they will affect other things that may also change. As China's economy grows many changes will occur presenting new challenges and opportunities. What is OK for today may not be so tomorrow.  In the future when science, technology and human endeavour have created an abundance of everything we could possibly require, then money will cease to be important eventually becoming obsolete as Communism is achieved. With the end of money the last chains that bind the working class will be gone for ever. 
For many years China was seen as just a source of cheap labour which, with its raw materials, were to be exploited by the imperialists. Things are very different today. The USA has become alarmed by the People's Republic's rapid progress in developing its economy, its scientific and technical achievements and amazing engineering projects. The American see China not only as a serious competitor but also as a direct threat to its world hegemony.  China, on the other hand would like to cooperate and trade fairly with everyone. 
China's impressive progress is well illustrated by its space exploration projects. With plans to return soil samples from Mars, bring back an extraction of atmosphere from Venus, search for life on Jupiter's moons, develop its new Haolong space shuttle and establish a manned research station on the lunar south pole, it has ambitious plans.  It would like to cooperate with the USA but is prevented from doing so by the notorious Wolf amendment that prevents NASA from from any contact with China. 
Manned space flight is associated with high risk.  It is inevitable that one day someone will become marooned and require rescue. For this reason a joint lifeboat project would make sense.  People's China is firmly opposed to the militarisation of Outer Space.
China produces innovative high quality products at an affordable price.  In the early days of competitive capitalism any competition would be met by an innovative response.  Today in the era of state monopoly capitalism for any challenge the answer is to ban, sabotage, sanction and disrupt supply chains and embark upon an economic war. Attempts to strangle Huawei have failed as the company has been stimulated to develop its own better and cheaper components. Following the implication of trade sanctions against Chinese electric vehicles drivers in the USA and EU will have to pay a lot more for their cars.  However by trading with BRICS and the Global South China will find other partners for honest trade. 
China is a vast country similar in size to the whole of Europe.  In the past it could take many days to travel to more remote regions. Today with China's remarkable transport infrastructure being constructed rapidly both citizens and an increasing number of visitors may within a short period of time experience sublime views, taste new regional dishes and become familiar with vibrant new cultures within the motherland.  Above all to meet different people and to make new friends.  Breathtaking bridges in the clouds carry high-speed trains over wild gorges between rugged mountains. Hundreds of thousands of new roads make driving easy for the growing fleet of green electric vehicles taking advantage of an ample charging network. Assisted by a growing number of their own developed commercial aircraft, the country is becoming more unified. China is alive, dynamic and on the move.  While the capitalist West is in decline the Chinese people are able to enjoy a higher standard of stress free living as a new harmonious society is built. 
China has grown in strength and can no longer be bullied into submission.  It is now able to assist smaller nations facing imperialist threats.  It's development exceeds purely economic attainment and is not only a powerful force for peace but also combines effective governance with cultural and ethical progress.  China's democracy works very differently from the Western models where sham elections achieve very little. It has adopted ‘whole-process people's democracy' which combines elections, consultations, decision making and an overview through a legal constitution. The Chinese Communist Party represents ordinary working people, not big business supported through lobby groups as in America.  Chinese modernisation is based upon harmony and nature. 
People's China's glorious 75 years has seen great advances in all fields under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. It is probable that within the next 75 years the great nation will not only achieve all it's development goals within a prosperous socialist society but also will have created communism.  A beautiful new form of society that is based upon full equality and guarantees a level of freedom impossible under exploitative capitalism. 

Mao’s Quotations on the Market

by Robin McGregor

the bright red book

 Sixty and a half years ago, in May 1964 to be precise, the first edition of Quotations from Chairman Mao, otherwise known as the “Little Red Book” was first published. 
 This weekend a collection of some 200 editions and related material such as a set of printer’s stereotypes used to print the first edition in English is being sold by Peter Harrington, one of London’s grandest antiquarian booksellers at a book fair in Hong Kong.  
 A brief, but well-illustrated catalogue (on which these notes are based) can be downloaded from https://www.peterharrington.co.uk/blog. It carries the note “Price on Application” which means “Don’t even think about it”, but readers can spend an agreeable leisure hour learning about its publication history in China and beyond for free. 
 It was first issued by the General Political Headquarters of the Chinese People’s Liberation
Army (PLA), intended as a basic instruction manual for the political instruction of the army’s rank and file who had only obtained their liberation in 1949. 
 It was published many times in print runs of millions and frequently translated becoming something of an icon of 1960s radicalism. Like all icons it was more admired than understood in detail, particularly by foreigners. In China, the book unfortunately became seen by many as the entire body of Marxism rather than the basic starting point it was intended to be.
  Best known in its red vinyl 320-page 33-chapter pocket sized version, the book went through many changes in arrangement, binding and text with authorised and unauthorised editions from friend and foes. Parodies such as Chairman Blair’s Little Red Book (with an aptly blue cover) appeared in 2001 and the Little Red Book of Corbyn Jokes came out in 2017 to say nothing of the 2010 Little Red Book of Liverpool FC. 
 Experimental collections first saw the light of day in 1960 when the PLA issued a Quotations from Mao Zedong’s Philosophical Thought on the poor paper available at the time. The first version of the now famous work publicly appeared in a four million print run for army battalions but were soon in demand by civilian institutions. 
 The first edition appeared in a variety of bindings including wrappers and brown or red vinyl which both had small variations which delight bibliophiles.  
 The first edition had an introduction by Mao’s deputy, Lin Biao, (with a small but telling calligraphic fault) which was of course soon corrected and finally removed after his 1971 sacking. 
 For speed and economy they were printed by stereotype, solid plates of type metal cast from papier-mâché moulds taken from the surface of the type setting. This made large print runs of the first edition possible, but also ensured small errors appeared in large numbers. 
 Provincial governments and individual parts of the PLA produced their own versions. Among many others, in Inner Mongolia, a larger format was produced.  
 A second edition, with substantial revisions appeared in March 1965 from the press of the 
Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee with some additions and cuts. A third, expanded edition, promoted by Lin Biao appeared a year later. 
 By then an estimated 28 million had been issued, some in large-format versions. The variations often show important political changes with excerpts mentioning out of favour individuals removed.   
 In April 1966, national party leadership took it over with a claimed 240 million copies by late 1966. A bilingual Chinese-English version appeared along with editions in many of the minority languages of China, and in Braille. 
 By 1972 10 million copies of translations had been produced by the Foreign Languages Press. These include an Albanian edition from 1967, three English editions between 1966 and 1972. An Esperanto version appeared in 1967 and a Danish one in 1970. Abroad unauthorised versions appeared, including one helpfully entitled Quotations From Chairman Mao-Tse-Tung. Danger! This Book is Communist Propaganda! From the Voice of Americanism publisher in California.  
 In China, modern reprints are sold to the tourists at prices greatly below that which Harrington expects. Apart from this collection Harrington is presently offering a first edition of the Quotations for £13,750, but readers with a more limited budget can buy a Mongolian edition for a mere £225. 

Palestinian flag over UK town halls

by Theo Russell

 
Sheffield City Council, along with several other cities in England and Scotland, marked the UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on 29th November by flying the Palestinian flag, following a request by the PCS Yorkshire & Northeast Home Office branch.
Branch secretary Lawrence Barfoot said “we are delighted that Sheffield City Council has agreed to fly the Palestinian flag in solidarity with the people of Gaza and the West Bank, who are currently enduring a vicious assault by Israel.”
The branch supports the Sheffield Palestine Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, a local, multi-faith organisation with the aim of making Sheffield an apartheid-free zone through boycotting, divestment, and sanctions.
Three other South Yorkshire local authorities including Barnsley, along with Glasgow, Newbury and Rochdale city councils, also flew the Palestinian flag on 29th  November, while Liverpool's city council refused.
Barnsley recently made a declaration of friendship with the Palestinian West Bank city of Nablus, and said in a statement that the council was "exploring ways to strengthen its cultural, educational and young people’s links" between the two cities.
The council's Chief Executive met with political and community leaders and "gathered professional opinions from stakeholders across the city" before approving the decision.
Councillors from Sheffield’s Green Party said the decision was the result of tireless campaigning by the people of Sheffield in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and called on the Labour government to impose a two-way arms embargo on Israel, and end negotiations for a free-trade agreement with Israel.
They also asked the UK to "cease aiding and assisting in the commission of violations of international law through diplomatic support for Israel, the use of the UK Akrotiri military base in Cyprus, and intelligence sharing, reconnaissance and all other military support", and to "investigate the Israeli ambassador to the UK, and dual-nationals returning from service with the IDF, as potential perpetrators of international crimes and grave human rights violations, including the crime of incitement to genocide".
Unfortunately, The London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which has one of England's largest Muslim communities, decided to remove Palestinian flags from council buildings last March, after receiving a letter from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) that claimed that the council's officers and managers, including the mayor Lutfur Rahman, were personally guilty of criminal offences under the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act. Lutfur Rahman approved the removal of Palestinian flags on council-owned buildings, on advice from the council's chief executive.
The flying of Palestinian flags over public buildings clearly reflects the feelings of the overwhelming majority of the British people. According to an Ipsos poll in October, 73 per cent of people in Britain wanted an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and 60 per cent believed that Israel’s actions in Gaza have "gone too far".
The Ukrainian flag has been flown on hundreds of public buildings since the Russian intervention began in February 2022, in support of the criminal, illegitimate Banderite Nazi junta in Kiev. To see the Palestinian flag being flown on a handful of public buildings in Britain is a very welcome change, and a definite step in the right direction.

Are you not entertained?

by Ben Soton

What did the Romans ever do for us? We remember the roads, the sanitation, law and order, and the monumental architecture that tourists still gape at to this day. But behind the facade of Greco-Roman civilisation there is a darker side – the legions, the crucifixions and the amphitheatres where prisoners were thrown to the lions for the amusement of the crowds and matched pairs fought, often to the death, in “games” that gave true meaning to a Roman holiday.
So what was Rome?  Was it simply a free trade zone covering an area from Scotland to Iraq; where most of its inhabitants toiled either as slaves, or at best plebs, whilst a few at the top lived a life of opulent luxury?  Or is Rome an idea based on honour that gives hope and freedom to its inhabitants provided it is properly run. This is the point espoused in Gladiator 11, Ridley Scott’s latest blockbuster.      
Gladiator II is set several years after the original film during the reign of Caracalla and Geta, two brothers who were joint emperors.  The opening scenes show the Roman conquest of Numidia; a major inaccuracy as the region in north Africa was taken during the Roman Republic, several hundred years before 211 AD, the date shown in the film.  The central character, played by Paul Mescal, is brought to Rome as a slave after heroically failing to defend hearth and home. There he becomes a key feature of Rome’s gladiator scene and is given the name Hanno. 
The film has many similarities with the first Gladiator (2000).  A number of the original cast make a return – most notably Derek Jacobi as Senator Gracchus and Connie Nielson as Lucilla.  The battle scenes involve extensive use of CGI and AI but are none the less highly realistic, if not historically accurate.  The scenes in the Colosseum point towards European and in particular Italian fascism originating in Classical Rome. And the overriding theme is very much the same; one man’s struggle to survive in the arena and attempts by better and honourable sections of the elite to remove a corrupt and degenerate emperor or emperors. 
Once again, we see Gracchus and Lucilla, who represent the better section of the ruling class, conspire against the dual emperors.  An addition to the film is the character of Macrinus, played by Denzel Washington.  He is a former slave, not from the elite, who wishes to usurp power for himself; although is this not what Gracchus and Lucilla are doing?  Meanwhile Hanno, who is no ordinary prisoner of war and has an interesting back story, becomes embroiled in this web of intrigue.  
The film promotes the notion that empires are great, provided they are run by the likes of Gracchus and Lucilla. Meanwhile the masses, be they Colosseum goers or gladiators are simply there to side with one or other section of the elite.  The recent US election comes to mind...

When the shooting stops…

Hezbollah has forced Israel to cease-fire – but not on Zionist terms. The Lebanese resistance movement has achieved a strategic success by thwarting the Zionist plans to drive the resistance and the UN peace-keeping force out of southern Lebanon and replace it with an Israeli occupied “buffer zone” to pave the way for annexation.
Many towns in Lebanon are now in ruins. The Israelis pounded Beirut and the other towns and cities of the Lebanon for over a year forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to abandon their homes in waves of terror bombing designed to break the morale of the Arab resistance. But they failed. They themselves paid a heavy price for their aggression. Some 300,000 Israelis fled to safety out of the range of the drones and missiles of the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance.  Over a hundred Zionist settlements in northern Israel were evacuated. The “Generals’ Plan” for Gaza has been put on hold. The dream of a “Greater Israel” died in the fields of southern Lebanon,
After the imperialist inspired "Arab Spring" swept across the Arab world, destabilising them one by one and paving the way for normalisation with Israel came the imperialist attempt to “regime change” Syria. Terror gangs armed and funded by the Americans and their NATO allies fermented sectarian violence and civil war in an attempt to overthrow the Baathist-led government in Damascus. The Western media went into top gear to justify imperialist intervention  spreading lies throughout Europe and the United States while the Arab world became a battleground for one of the most ruthless propaganda wars in modern history. This was the first conflict to weaponise social media, exploiting it to deepen the divide between the Shia and Sunni Muslim communities and to fracture the unity between the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance. 
Syria, the lifeline of the resistance’s weapons pipeline, was targeted for destruction. But the Syrians closed ranks around their popular front government to beat back the sectarian militias and with the help of Russian peace-keepers drove the terror gangs and their Western military advisors out of most of the country. But the fabricated narrative of "Hezbollah’s crimes in Syria", heavily propagated by the feudal Arab media, continues to serve as a tool to attack Hezbollah and the entire Axis of Resistance to this day.
Though the guns fall silent in Lebanon the Yemeni blockade continues and the Palestinians fight on. They have no other choice, The Israelis are continuing to pursue their genocidal war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that has now become a wilderness of rubble and ruins. The Zionists still dream of driving all the Palestinian Arabs out to seize their land and make room for more Zionist settlement.
Nevertheless the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon could pave the way for a similar agreement in Gaza. But only if there’s mass pressure in the Western world to force the imperialist leaders to recognise the legitimate rights of the Palestinian Arabs. Over the past 14 months millions in Britain have rallied to demand justice for the Palestinians. It’s already having an effect on the people in the corridors of power. We must keep up the momentum for as long as it takes. If Starmer will not speak up for the people living through a genocide in Gaza and under siege in the West Bank, then we absolutely must continue to raise our voices for them.