Free Assange!

A London court issued an order to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States this week. Assange has been held in Belmarsh prison since he was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2019 for breaching bail conditions in a separate extradition case involving Sweden.
    Behind all this lies the less than hidden hand of the Americans who want to get their hands on the maverick journalist to face charges that could lead to the death penalty or a life-time in jail. The Americans have charged Assange with espionage after WikiLeaks published thousands of classified documents revealing war crimes committed by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.But Assange is an Australian who has never lived in the US and that country has no jurisdiction over him. Still that sort of thing has never bothered the country that built the concentration camp at Guantánamo or that has secret torture bases – not so secret after Wikileaks – all around the world.
    The persecution of Assange has been condemned by journalists and human rights activists across the world, who have slammed the US and British authorities for attacking press freedom by going after the WikiLeaks founder.
    The bourgeois media tell us that information technology was transforming our lives for the better. The internet, Twitter and other social networking services are hailed as forces for individual freedom of expression and valuable tools of “democracy” when they are used to foment reactionary unrest and regime change in countries that dare to stand up to imperialism. But it’s a different tune when the boot is on the other foot.
    When WikiLeaks releases embarrassing documents, when the crimes of imperialism are exposed by ‘hactivists’ for all the world to see, the internet becomes ‘irresponsible’ and the most craven bourgeois pundits start calling for censorship, government control and the prosecution of those who have dared to break the ruling class consensus.
    Russia is condemned for allegedly manipulating social media to influence elections in the heartlands of imperialism, and WikiLeaks reviled for releasing tranches of documents that expose the crimes of imperialism and the dirty work of their intelligence agencies.
    Assange’s ‘crime’ was his refusal to play the bogus ‘human rights’ game and turn a blind eye to the crimes of imperialism. He worked together with former US soldier and whistle-blower Chelsea Manning to expose atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the notorious ‘Collateral Murder’ video that shows American helicopter gun-ships mowing down innocent civilians in Baghdad under the cover of fighting ‘terrorism’.
    Assange’s defence team have until 18th May to challenge the decision and make representations to Home Secretary Priti Patel before she makes her decision on the ruling.
    WikiLeaks' chief editor Kristinn Hrafnsson said that by issuing the extradition order, the Westminster Magistrate's Court had signed Assange's death sentence. "Extraditing Assange would be a risk to his life," Hrafnsson told the crowd assembled in front of the court. "It would be equal to a death sentence. Now, Julian's life is in the hands of Priti Patel and Boris Johnson. They need to do the right thing." Let’s hope so...

The nine lives of Boris Johnson

Some say that politicians, like cats, have nine lives. If that’s true Boris Johnson must be near his limit as he resists calls to quit after becoming first sitting prime minister to be punished for breaking law.
    This week Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were given fixed penalty notices after the police found they breached Covid laws by attending a 56th birthday party for the prime minister in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street on 19th June 2020, when indoor social gatherings were strictly banned.
    In the great scale of things breaking the Covid lockdown rules pales into insignificance when compared with Tony Blair’s lies about “weapons of mass destruction” he used to justify British support for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Lying in the House of Commons is still, however, a serious breach of bourgeois parliamentary norms and being caught out usually leads to resignation.
    Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer tells us the fines show that Johnson and Sunak had lied repeatedly about the Partygate scandal, dishonouring both their offices and the sacrifices of the British people. "They have to go" Starmer says – but he shouldn’t hold his breath waiting.
    Johnson is certainly on his way out but he’s still not dead meat. One Tory MP has called on the Prime Minister to step down. Nigel Mills, who represents Amber Valley in Derbyshire, says Johnson’s position is now untenable.
    “I think people are rightly angry that at a time when they were observing the very strictest of the rules people who were making the rules didn’t have the decency to observe them…that’s the nub of it,” Mills said.
    The maverick Tory back-bencher told BBC Radio Derby: “In all conscience I don’t think a prime minister can survive or should survive breaking the rules he put in place and he was on the TV every few nights reminding us all that we should observe…we have to have higher standards than that of people at the top. He has been fined, I don’t think his position is tenable, in my view.”
    But in the Johnson camp the Prime Minister’s supporters argue that with a major war in eastern Europe now is not the time to replace a leader – even one as fatally flawed as Boris Johnson. But this is a really shallow argument. Stomping around Western Europe to do the bidding of the White House is an easy act for most of his ministers, with the possible exception of Liz Truss, to follow. Nor will it be too much effort to face-off the electoral challenge from the totally useless Labour leader who barely registers on the campaign trail.
    Johnson’s real ace is that Rishi Sunak is in the same Partygate boat as him. One can’t go without the other. Sunak’s got enough on his plate trying to ride out the storm over his wife’s dubious tax status and he knows that any move to oust Johnson now can only scupper his own chance, perhaps his only chance, to become leader of the Conservative & Unionist Party.

States of hostility

by Ben Soton

The Shortest History of War by Gwyne Dyer. Old Street Publishing: London. Hardback: 2022; 240pp; RRP £12.99; Softback: 2nd Edition, 2022; 256pp; RRP £8.99.

Gwyne Dyer’s, by its very nature short, book covers conflict from pre-history to the present day. The author’s first fault is in his understanding of the definition of war itself by defining any form of conflict as war. According to Dyer, war originated in rivalry between rival bands our pre-historic or even pre-human ancestors. These conflicts, which often amounted to simple ambushes, were not strictly wars.
    War originated with the emergence of Bronze Age class society in the city states of Mesopotamia around the fourth millennium BC. These states had their own territories that their rulers wished to expand; whilst the specialisation that came with the development of agriculture gave birth to one of the world’s oldest professions (along with the prostitute) – the soldier. The first recorded battle between states was probably the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC, between the Hittite and Egyptian kingdoms.
    Dwyer points out that human society is by nature egalitarian and uses anthropological evidence to back this up. This broadly conforms with Marxist theory, namely that for most of our history we lived under a system of primitive communism. Although the author falls short of using Marxist terminology, he makes several references to humanity returning to its egalitarian roots without mentioning any change in property relations. This conforms to the highly flawed ‘Whig view’ that presents history as a seemingly endlessly upwards journey from an oppressive and benighted past to a ‘"glorious present’. In fact, we now live in a less equal society than we did 50 years ago.
    The book covers changes in warfare from the first conflicts to the present day; in what could be described as ‘stones to drones’. Dwyer makes the interesting point that the story of the {Trojan Horse} is probably an analogy with some kind of early siege engine. He explains how technological developments have influenced warfare whilst pointing out that warfare remained unchanged for long periods of time.
    For instance, a Roman centurion would not have felt out of place at the Battle of Hastings and a soldier from the Thirty Years War (1618–49) would not have been out of place in the in the Napoleonic Wars, almost 300 years later.
    Dwyer must, however, be corrected for comparing what he describes as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by Tony Blair and George W Bush. In 1979 Afghanistan had a people’s government that came under attack from Islamic terrorists backed by the USA. The Afghan government asked the Soviet Union for military assistance under the provisions of a treaty dating back to 1919, whilst the invasion of Iraq was an illegal act perpetrated by war criminals.
    The Shortest History of War is part of a series of books published by Penguin that give pencil sketch histories covering areas such as Democracy, The Soviet Union, China, England and Greece. Whilst the book has obvious flaws, it contains useful information and can provide the reader with added insight into the subject.

Johnson’s Easter Message

Spring is in the air and with it come soaring energy bills, tax hikes and rising inflation. This is the reality of Tory Britain under Boris Johnson.
    In the past, Labour leaders would be hammering the Government for crucifying the weak and the poor. These days we have to make do with the usual platitudes about “windfall” taxes and “energy rationing” from Starmer & Co. There’s no talk about re-nationalising the energy industry let alone restoring the old public sector and welfare state that Labour maintained until 1979.
    Rather than trying to mobilise the workers to defend the living standards of the millions Labour claims to represent, Starmer spends his time drumming more Corbynistas out of the party and supporting pro-NATO marches in the mistaken belief that this will win the people of a ‘middle England’ that only exists in the imagination of his Blairite minders.
    Rather than listening to the millions of workers in the affiliated unions that keep the Labour show on the road, Starmer prefers to heed the advice of his media gurus who conjure up childish and ineffectual campaign slogans because they believe working people are as stupid as themselves.
    Many Labour supporters, including those from the traditional right-wing of the party, rightly say that Starmer is a useless campaigner who will have to go when he loses the next general election. Under current rules that’s not due until 2025. We can’t wait that long. Starmer must go now!

Nothing new under the sun

The bourgeois lie-machine always goes into top gear in times of conflict. When Germany invaded Belgium in 1914, we were fed all sorts of stories about the bestial invaders who routinely raped nuns and used babies for bayonet practice whilst being told to take comfort in the support of the Supreme Being whose heavenly hosts intervened to stave off a British rout at the Battle of Mons. We’re now being told much the same thing about the Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
    This week the former Archbishop of Canterbury joined in the chorus. Like the Pharisees of old, Rowan Williams has denounced the Russian Orthodox Church for not condemning the Kremlin’s intervention in Ukraine.
    The Anglican churchman says there is a strong case for expelling the Russian Orthodox Church from the World Council of Churches. “When a Church is actively supporting a war of aggression, failing to condemn nakedly obvious breaches of any kind of ethical conduct in wartime, then other Churches do have the right to raise the question,” the retired cleric said. “I am still waiting for any senior member of the Orthodox hierarchy to say that the slaughter of the innocent is condemned unequivocally by all forms of Christianity.”
    When the chips are down the ruling class can always count on the Church of England. Even though Jesus, their supposed Master and the Prince of Peace, was a pacifist who called on his followers to turn the other cheek and forgive their enemies, the Anglicans never have any problem in supporting “just wars” when it suits them. They’re clearly not so happy when others do the same.

The first step…

The Istanbul peace talks may not be the beginning of the end of the war in Ukraine. But it may perhaps, as Churchill put it be “the end of the beginning”. The Zelensky regime has at last accepted the key Russian demand for permanent neutrality but they are still refusing to recognise the independence of the Donbas republics, Crimea’s decision to join the Russian Federation or equal rights for all the people of the regions of the Ukraine.
    While the Western propaganda machine conjures up phantom victories for the Ukrainian army the reality on the field tells another story. The Ukrainians have lost control of the skies and their own coastline. Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country to escape thje fighting. Their cities are besieged and their army and their fascist legions that they say do not exist have been unable to prevent the Russians from extending their control over vast amounts of Ukrainian territory.
    Dreams of direct NATO intervention and imperialist “no-fly” zones have faded along with hopes that the Western sanctions regime would provoke the Russian oligarchs into launching an anti-Putin coup. Sooner or later the Ukrainian oligarchs who put Zelensky into office will realise the hopelessness of their position. Then their only way out will be to accept what’s on the table.
    Talk of 15 years of negotiations and a new ‘relationship’ between the Donbas and Ukraine are too little too late. The Zelinsky clique and the fascist gangs sabotaged the Minsk agreements that could have ended the crisis peacefully. They believed that the imperialists would bail them out whatever happened. That they’ve certainly been proved wrong.
    Zelensky doesn’t know Putin’s war aims. Neither does Biden or anyone else in the West. But, if nothing else, the events of the past few weeks show that Putin isn’t bluffing.
    So we can safely assume that what Russia wants are simply what Russia stated when it sent in the troops to defend the Donbas republics in the first place. A denazified and permanently neutral Ukraine; recognition of Crimea’s accession to the Russian Federation, the independence of the Donbas republics and equal rights for Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population.
    In Britain bourgeois politicians of all hues shed crocodile tears over Ukrainians fleeing the conflict while doing little to speed up their applications to seek refuge in this country. They deny the existence of the fascist militias in Ukraine and egg on the Ukrainians from the safety of their homes in the beautiful South to justify the anti-Russian sanctions regime that the Johnson government is only following to curry favour with the Biden administration.
    They can count, as always, on the support of Blairites and the fake lefters in and out of the Labour Party who pose as socialists but essentially argue that peace is only attainable on imperialist terms.
    This is the time for all communists to stand by the people of the Donbas in their fight for freedom. Now we should stand firm with all the anti-fascist forces of Ukraine fighting for an end to the Azov brigade and the other fascist gangs and a genuinely democratic Ukraine for all its peoples and at peace with all its neighbours.

Kitchen sink spies

 by Ben Soton

The Ipcress File (2002): ITV series. Sundays 6 March to 10 April 6pm on ITV1; full series available on the ITVHub (with ads) and BritBox (ad-free). Written by John Hodge. Directed by James Watkins. Stars: Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander.

Harry Palmer, the creation of Cold War espionage fiction writer Len Deighton, was an alternative to James Bond. Back in the 1960s Deighton’s novels exist as a half-way house between the pure action adventure of Bond and the rather dry psychological thrillers of John Le Carré.

    Unlike Bond, the smartly dressed, cocktail-drinking sociopath dedicated to Queen and Country, Palmer is cut from a different cloth. A working-class Londoner with a Maths degree, he reaches the rank of corporal in the British Army whereas Bond was a Commander in the Royal Navy. Instead of being a hired gun for his superiors Palmer takes to smuggling, which finds him in Colchester Military Prison.The first Palmer novel, The Ipcress File, is the subject of ITV1’s latest Sunday night drama.
    To have his sentence commuted, Palmer (played by Joe Cole) is approached by Major Dalby (played by Tom Hollander) with a view to helping British intelligence rescue a kidnapped nuclear scientist. As the story progresses Palmer’s life unravels. He had previously served in the Korean war, only to come home to find his wife had suffered a miscarriage and his marriage subsequently collapses.
    Palmer is not an obvious servant of British imperialism. His social background, with an understandable grievance, make him a security risk. In a scene featuring a conversation with Colonel Stock of the KGB he even displays a knowledge of Marxism Leninism.
    The television adaptation presents a nostalgic view of the 1960s. Most scenes show a somewhat exaggerated cleanliness along with immaculate clothing and perfectly styled hair. This, however, was an era when classical economics, normally referred to as neo-liberalism, had been suspended for the less socially vicious Keynesianism, which focused on welfare and full employment.
    The era also saw a strong labour movement and internationally the presence of the Soviet Union meant a shift in the balance of forces in favour of the working class. Increased social mobility was an additional feature of the decade, shown when fellow intelligence officer Jean Courtney (played by Lucy Boynton) develops a shine to Palmer whilst becoming bored with her upper-class fiancé.
    There are occasions when one wonders if Palmer will switch sides, which adds added suspense to the plot. But at the end of the day the story, and Palmer’s character in particular, is essentially about co-opting working class support for the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Palmer is given smart clothes, a car and access to a world he would probably never see in exchange for taking part in a war ultimately against his own class.

Nazism - Ukraine’s Deadly Disease

by Vyacheslav Tetekin
Communist Party of the Russian Federation

Today, as the military operation in Ukraine goes on, it is becoming increasingly evident that the ideological basis of the present Ukrainian government is extreme nationalism, or rather, overt Neo-Nazism. It is the continuation of the pro-fascist Bandera movement which took the side of Hitler’s Germany during its invasion of the USSR in 1941-19445. After the defeat of the Bandera movement in 1953 Nazism hunkered down. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s independence Bandera Neo-Nazism reared its head again.

Creeping Nazification of Ukraine was greatly aided by the USA which after 1991 strongly encouraged extreme nationalist elements in Western Ukraine. In fact, the CIA was the most active sponsor of Bandera terrorist groups in Western Ukraine between 1945 and 1953. It is not surprising that the Neo-Nazi Banderaites, well-organised and well-trained ideologically and physically, carried out the state coup in February, 2014. After the coup Ms Victoria Nuland, the current US Under Secretary of State, admitted that the US had spent five billion dollars on preparing the coup.

Since that time the influence of Neo-Nazis on Ukraine’s political life has been steadily growing. Even the US Congress took notice of this. On 24th November 2019 forty Congress members signed a letter to the US State Department demanding that the Azov Regiment, which is part of Ukraine’s National Guard, be declared a terrorist organisation. Earlier, in 2015 and again in 2018, the US Congress officially forbade the US Defense Department to render any kind of help to the Azov regiment because of its Nazi character.

Moreover, the letter, citing FBI data, noted that the Azov regiment and Ukraine as a whole had turned into a centre of the world Neo-Nazi movement. Azov training grounds enabled Neo-Nazis from across the world to practice the use of various weapons to become the nuclei of Neo-Nazi units in their countries.

The hostilities in Ukraine brought more and more proof that Neo-Nazis are the base of the current regime. Thus, because the Kiev ruling group and its American masters were not quite sure of the reliability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces they took the precaution of embedding the units and “commissars” from Nazi battalions in the Ukrainian Army. The aim was barely disguised: if Ukrainian troops tried to retreat or surrender they were to be shot. Such incidents have already been recorded. In other words, the Nazi battalions are acting as “barrier squads” terrifying the Ukrainian troops into resisting. Exactly the way SS troops were used in Nazi Germany to control the Werhmacht (Army) units.

When hostilities started President Zelensky released Nazi extremists serving jail sentences for serious crimes, including murder and robbery, so that they could take up arms and join Nazi battalions. Kidnapping, torture, humiliation and murder of political opponents of the current regime became a daily occurrence.

After Mariupol airport was liberated torture chambers were found in the location where the Azov regiment was stationed. With utter cynicism, the torture centre was referred to as the “library” and the torture victims as “books.’ Investigators from the Donetsk People’s Republic are currently establishing the number of terror victims and the circumstances of kidnapping, torture and murder of people by members of the Nazi Azov regiment. US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has recently declared that America should not spend billions of dollars of American taxpayers’ money to provide lethal weapons to possible Nazi groups which torture innocent people, especially women and children.

Atrocities are not one-off cases, but the result of sophisticated Neo-Nazi propaganda. The world was shocked by the public statement of a Bandera doctor who told the Ukraine24 TV channel that he had instructed his subordinates to castrate captured Russian servicemen.

The use of civilians as human shields is becoming more and more widespread. After the start of the Russian military operation Ukrainian Army units and Nazi battalions started to retreat from their defence positions which they had fortified for a whole eight years. Instead, they have been setting up firing positions in residential neighbourhoods in cities and villages. Ukrainian Army manuals instruct that guns and mortars should be placed on the ground floors, civilians be kept on the second and third floors and snipers and machine guns should be positioned on floors four to five and higher. This amounts to mass seizure of fellow-citizens as hostages, something even the German Nazis did not do during the 1941-45 war.

At the same time President Zelensky banned all Centrist opposition parties. These include Opposition Platform for Life, Nashi Party, Opposition Bloc, Sharia Party, and Vladimir Saldo Bloc. However, the Nazis’ prime target is always the left-wing parties ­- always the staunchest opponents of Nazism. In Ukraine, Zelensky recently banned the Left Opposition, Union of Left Forces, the Progressive-Socialist Party of Ukraine, the Socialist Party of Ukraine and Socialists. The Communist Party of Ukraine was banned in 2015 and has been underground since.

All this shows that fraternal Ukraine is de facto controlled by US-backed Neo-Nazis. One of the main instruments of ideological brain-washing of the population is rabid Russophobia particularly aggressive in recent years. We remember that in the eight years between Hitler’s coming to power in 1933 and the start of his aggression against the USSR in 1941 the Nazis managed to change the mentality of German society so much that the nation of great philosophers, poets and musicians turned into a nation which exterminated tens of millions of people in the USSR and the occupied European countries.

Very much the same is happening in Ukraine in very much the same time-frame. While some were inclined to wave aside suggestions that Nazism is being revived in Ukraine today, after entire cities and hundreds of thousands of people have been turned into “human shields,” we can say with confidence and great regret that the contagion of Nazism has penetrated deep into the organism of Ukrainian society.

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.

For a just peace in Ukraine

The conflict in Ukraine has rightly heightened fears of escalation that could take Europe and possibly the world to the brink of nuclear war. But the cause of peace is not helped by those in the anti-war movement who blame the Russians for the crisis, ignore the legitimate demands of the people of the Donbas and fail to recognise that this war began in 2014 when the legitimate Ukrainian government was overthrown by fascist gangs supported by Anglo-American and Franco-German imperialism.
    The hidden hand is always at work amongst the fake left within the peace and anti-war movement who essentially argue that peace is only attainable on imperialist terms. We saw this time and time again over Serbia, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Palestine, and now we’re seeing it over Ukraine. Others, like Jeremy Corbyn, recognise the dangers of a nuclear conflict and understand that NATO’s aggressive expansion over the last 30 years has played a role in sparking the current conflict. But they still call for an unconditional Russian withdrawal from Ukraine – which is also the demand of US imperialism and its lackeys.
    The communist stand must be for a just peace in Ukraine – for 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.


What a difference a day makes…

…and a week is a long time in politics – as a former Labour prime minister, the now largely forgotten Harold Wilson, once put it years ago.
    A few weeks ago the ‘Partygate’ crisis could have brought Boris Johnson down. Now it has been forgotten – drowned in an avalanche of anti-Russian hysteria in the bourgeois media in support of imperialist sanctions that has led to a Welsh orchestra dropping music by Tchaikovsky from a concert because of the Ukraine war, the possible collapse of Chelsea football club and even the dumping of the Meerkats from a long-standing ad campaign for British financial services.
    The Ukraine crisis has certainly given Johnson a new lease of life as he potters around eastern Europe pretending to be Winston Churchill and crawls to the House of Saud to get them to boost oil production to put a lid on the now soaring price of oil on the spot market.
    Labour still has a fourpoint lead over the Tories in the opinion polls, but the Tory supporters will now close ranks around Johnson at the local elections in spring whilst Labour flounders under the moribund leadership of Sir Keir Starmer.
    The Conservatives certainly have nothing to fear from Starmer, who has little or nothing to offer the workers his party claims to represent and spends most of his time rooting out what’s left of the Corbynistas in the Labour rather than campaigning to end the austerity regime that can only get worse in the post-Covid climate. The Tories now clearly believe they can maintain or even extend their hold on local government at the council elections in May. Whether this will benefit Johnson personally is another matter.
Johnson is a constant source of embarrassment to Tory campaign managers who never know what the next indiscretion may bring. The Remainers want him out to clear the way for a new campaign to re-establish good relations with the European Union, and he remains an obstacle to restoring the ‘special relationship’ with US imperialism that leading members of the ruling class believe is essential to preserve their interests across the globe. Johnson will go but only, it seems, when the grandees are good and ready for it.

What is happening in Ukraine?

by Vyacheslav Tetekin

Member of Central Committee of the CPRF


There is a war in Ukraine

Outwardly, it looks like an armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All political forces, including Left, have spoken out about these events. The range of assessments: from humanistic-emotional ("people are dying, stop the war") to purely class ("The West is pushing two oligarchic regimes"). In fact, this conflict has deep roots. When analysing the situation, we must consider both the national content of the class struggle and the class content of the national struggle.

What is Ukraine?

The territory of present-day Ukraine until the middle of the 17th Century was a sparsely populated space, contested by neighbouring countries. By the beginning of the 20th Century the lands of present-day Ukraine were divided between Poland, Austria-Hungary and Russia. After 1917 revolution some of these lands temporarily declared independence. In 1922 however, they joined the USSR as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. So Ukraine gained statehood, although limited.

Ukraine was an agricultural country

To ensure its development in 1918 at the suggestion of Vladimir Lenin six Russian industrial regions including Donetsk and Lugansk, which had never been part of Ukraine, were transferred to Ukraine. In 1939 Galicia (Western Ukraine) was annexed to Ukraine, previously part of Poland. The current territory of Ukraine is the result of its entry into the USSR. It consists of disparate pieces: from Galicia (Lviv) with a strong influence of Catholicism to Eastern Ukraine, which strongly gravitates towards Russia.

Socialist Ukraine developed powerfully

Aircraft and rocket building, petro-chemistry, electric power industry (four nuclear power plants) and defence industries were added to the extraction of metal and coal. As part of the USSR Ukraine received not only the bulk of its current territory but economic potential making it 10th largest economy in Europe. Ukrainian politicians were dominant in the Soviet leadership. Khrushev, Brezhnev and Chernenko ran the USSR from 1953–1983.
    After the collapse of the USSR in December 1991, Ukraine became an independent state for the first time in its history. But this destroyed centuries-old economic integration with Russia. The ‘market’ model led to the de-industrialisation of Ukraine and a sharp drop in the standard of living of the population. On the basis of predatory privatisation, an oligarchic class arose.

Now it is the poorest country in Europe

The level of corruption and social differentiation is of the highest in the world. The manufacturing industry, except metallurgy, is practically destroyed. The economy rests on Western loans and money transfers from migrant labourers who left for Europe and Russia in search of work (about 10 million out of 45 million people), basically qualified specialists. The degradation of human capital has reached its limit. The country is on the verge of a national catastrophe.
    The population of Ukraine is strongly dissatisfied; however this dissatisfaction with pro-Western authorities is manipulated in such a way that each time even more pro-Western forces win the elections. In February 2014, a US- and NATO-backed state coup was carried out in Ukraine. The US State Department has publicly stated that it has invested $5 billion in its preparation.

Neo-Nazis came to power

These are, first of all, people from Western Ukraine (Galicia), which for centuries was under the rule of Poland and Austria-Hungary. Extremely nationalist, anti-Semitic, anti-Polish, Russophobic and anti-Communist sentiments are historically strong there. After Hitler's invasion of the USSR, German troops were greeted in Western Ukraine with flowers. SS divisions were formed there and fought against the Red Army. Local nationalists, led by Hitler's admirer Stephan Bandera, set about exterminating the Jewish population. In Ukraine about 1.5 million Jews were killed – one fourth of all Holocaust victims. During the ‘Volyn massacre’ in 1944 about 100,000 Poles were brutally murdered in Western Ukraine. Bandera’s men fought Soviet guerrillas and burned alive men, women and children in hundreds of villages in Belarus. Ukrainian nationalists who served as guards in German concentration camps became notorious for monstrous cruelty.
    After the war from 1945–1953, the USA and UK supported anti-communist and anti-Soviet rebels in Western Ukraine who unleashed terror against the civilian population. During these years Banderas killed about 50 thousand civilians. This is the nature of these forces – descendants and followers of fascists – who came to power after the 2014 coup. The traditions of anti-Polish, anti-Semitic and anti-Russian terror are very strong amongst the neo-Nazis who now really govern Ukraine. At least 42 opponents of the Nazis were burnt alive in the Trade Unions building in Odessa on 2nd May 2014.

It is an alliance of neo-Nazis with oligarchic capital

Banderas (like the SS stormtroopers in Germany) serve as a shock detachment of big business. The only difference is that the Banderas refrain from outright anti-Semitism, having established a class unity with the local oligarchy. The Banderas tightly control every move of state power, constantly blackmailing it with the threat of a coup. On the other hand, the policy of Ukraine is determined by the US Embassy in Kiev.
    The nature of the current Ukrainian state is an alliance of big capital and the state bureaucracy, relying on criminal and fascist elements under the full political and financial control of the USA.
    After 2014, Nazi ideology was implanted in Ukraine. The ‘Day of Victory’ over fascism on 9th May was cancelled. Ukrainian fascists – organisers and participants in the atrocities during the second world war – are officially recognised as national heroes. Every year torch-lit marches are held in honour of fascist criminals. Streets and squares are named after them. The Communist Party of Ukraine operates underground. Intimidation and political assassinations of politicians and journalists became the norm. Monuments to Lenin and everything related to the memory of life in the USSR are being destroyed.
    At the same time, an attempt began forcibly to assimilate the Russian population of Ukraine with the suppression of the Russian language. An attempt to introduce Afrikaans instead of English in South Africa led to the Soweto uprising in 1976. The same thing happened in Ukraine. An attempt to transfer school education from Russian into Ukrainian gave rise to powerful resistance in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

People took up arms

In May 2014 a referendum was held there, in which 87 per cent of citizens voted for independence. This is how the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics (DPR and LPR respectively) arose. After several unsuccessful attempts to invade the LPR–DPR, the Nazis from Kiev switched over to terror. During eight years of shelling from large-calibre guns, more than 13,000 civilians, including children, women and elderly people were killed in the Donbas republics with the complete silence of the world community.
    The Communists of Russia take an active part in the defence of the LPR–DPR. Hundreds of communists are fighting the Nazis as part of the troops of the people's republics. Dozens of communists died in this struggle. In eight years the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) sent 93 convoys with humanitarian aid to these republics with a total weight of 13,000 tons and received thousands of children for rest and treatment in Russia. During all these years the CPRF, headed by Gennady Zyuganov, demanded that the leadership of Russia recognise of the independence of Donbas.
    In March 2015 at the initiative of Russia (with the participation of Germany and France) the Minsk agreements were concluded, which provided for the special status of the LPR–DPR within Ukraine. Ukraine however, evaded their implementation. With the support of the USA, Kiev was preparing to crush the LPR–DPR by force of arms. The USA, UK and other NATO members provided training for the Ukrainian army. They constructed over 30 major military installations in Ukraine, including 15 Pentagon laboratories for the development of bacteriological weapons (cholera, the plague and other deadly diseases). Ukraine with its four nuclear power stations and huge scientific-technical potential is able to construct an A-bomb. This intention was publicly declared. There was a danger of deployment of US cruise missiles. The situation in Ukraine increasingly threatened Russia's security.

In December 2021 Russia proposed to the USA to talk about non-expansion of NATO

The USA and NATO ignored the proposal. In January 2022 Russia warned that it would be forced to take additional measures to protect its security. At the same time it became known that Ukraine had concentrated 150,000 servicemen and Nazi battalions in Donbas. Kiev, backed by the USA, was preparing to regain control over Donbas through war this March.
    On 22nd February President Putin announced the recognition of the independence of the LPR–DPR. On 25th February the Russian Armed Forces operation began
    Russia is not going to occupy Ukraine. The purpose of the operation is the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazis and its neutrality (refusal to join NATO).
    The tactics of the Russian troops are, whilst attacking military facilities, to minimise the casualties amongst the civilian population and Ukrainian military, and to avoid destruction of civilian infrastructure. They are brotherly people. We will continue to live together. However, the Bandera Nazis use the most disgusting tactics of the German fascists, using civilians and their houses as human shields. They install artillery and tanks in residential areas, forbid citizens to leave war zones, turning hundreds of thousands of people into hostages.
    This nefarious Nazi tactic is not condemned in the West. It is the USA, waging an information war through the media controlled by them (only Russia Today resists), that are interested in the war. The USA strikes not only at Russia but also at Europe.
    The NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999 was a means of destabilising the European Union (EU). Today the USA’s main goal is to prevent Russian gas supplies via the Nord Stream-2 pipeline to force Europe to buy more expensive liquefied gas from the USA, thereby sharply weakening Germany and other EU countries. The volume of trade between Russia and the EU is $260 billion per year whilst with the USA it is $23 billion – 10 times less. Therefore the sanctions imposed at the request of the USA hit, first of all, Europe. The events in Ukraine are yet another American war for control of the world.
    By the way, the claims about global nature of boycott of Russia are false. BRICS countries (Brazil, India, China and South Africa), constituting 43 per cent of the world population, did not support sanctions. China is the fist and India the third biggest economies of the world. Sanctions were not supported by Asia (excluding Japan and South Korea with their US military bases), by the Middle East, by the largest countries of Latin America and by the majority of the developing world.
    For 30 years I have been one of the most active critics of the domestic and foreign policy of the Russian elite. In its class character, the oligarchic-bureaucratic power in Russia is not much different from the power in Ukraine (except without fascism and full US control).
    In those unfortunately rare cases when the leaders of Russia pursue a line that meets the historical interests of the country and the people however, the principle of ‘automatic’ criticism is hardly appropriate.
    I have long argued that sanctions will have a beneficial effect on getting rid of Russia's imposed dependence on the West in various areas of life. The Russian government is already taking the first steps in this direction. The task of the left forces is to vigorously encourage the authorities to change not only foreign policy, but also the socio-economic course, which does not correspond to the interests of the people.

Ending the war

Back in the “good old days” the rich lived in palatial mansions surrounded by armies of servants while kids crawled up chimneys and millions of workers lived in hovels. The British Empire spanned the globe. Britain and the other European powers carved up Africa and most of Asia to loot and plunder and anyone who dared to oppose them was inevitably dubbed insane. There was the “Mad Mahdi” who held the red-coats at bay for a few years in the Sudan, the “Mad Mullah” who led the Somali resistance to British and Italian colonialism and the endless “Mad Fenians” who, like all the rest, were clearly “mad” to think they could take on the might of the British imperialism and win.
    It still goes on today. Saddam Hussein was “mad”, So was Muammar Gaddafi and now we’re told the same about Vladimir Putin. Even the self-styled papers of record that hardly anyone reads these days repeat these childish jibes which, if it were true, would make any future negotiations with the Russian leader pointless. But in the end there will have to be talks and these talks, whether the imperialists like it or not, will have to accept that the only way to end the fighting is to agree to a neutralised Ukraine and Crimea’s accession to the Russian Federation along with recognition of the independence of the Donbas republics.

Free the Kononovich brothers

Two leaders of a Ukrainian communist youth movement have been arrested on trumped up charges of spying for Russia and Belarus. Alexander and Mikhail Kononovich were arrested in Kiev on Sunday 6th March. Mikhail Kononovich is the first secretary of the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine.
    The Kononovich brothers are known anti-fascist campaigners. Both have long been targeted by the fascist gangs and the secret police. No one has seen them since, This constitutes a flagrant violation of their human and political rights – a reality that, sadly is nothing new in Ukraine. It's been happening since the fascist coup of 2014, which was supported by Anglo-American and Franco-German imperialism.
    The Leninist Youth is the youth wing of the still semi-legal Communist Party of Ukraine but the party’s website and email channels were blocked by the regime at the start of the Russian intervention.
    The World Federation of Democratic Youth has called for a global campaign to put pressure on the Kiev regime to free the brothers. Demand their immediate release. Express my concern about the state of their health. Make it clear that any harm to the lives of Alexander Kononovich and Mikhail Kononovich will be the responsibility of the Government of Ukraine.
    This demand should be raised with local MPs as well as the Ukrainian embassy in London.

Defend RT!

The Russia Today (RT) news channel was forced off the air this week by the Johnson government in a move that follows similar measures against Russian media outlooks throughout Western Europe. Though still available online the Russian television station can now no longer be accessed on any of our TV platforms. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries says “the Russian dictator will now find it harder to spread his disinformation and lies” but banning RT is, in reality, a sign of weakness by the bourgeoisie that have taken us to the brink of all-out war in Europe over Ukraine. Now European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has decided to ban RT across the European Union. But Europe's largest association of journalists has, quite rightly, blasted the move.The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), which represents 320,000 journalists across Europe, has called the European Commission President's decision "counterproductive" and questioned her right to make it.
    EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez said: "This act of censorship can have a totally counterproductive effect on the citizens who follow the banned media. It is always better to counteract the disinformation of propagandist or allegedly propagandist media by exposing their factual errors or bad journalism, by demonstrating their lack of financial or operational independence, by highlighting their loyalty to government interests and their disregard for the public interest”. He said the EU had no right to grant or withdraw broadcasting licences, which was the "exclusive competence of (individual) states."
    RT was never a major player on the British scene. Its niche UK audience was put at around 2.5 million viewers compared to the 6.4 million prime time viewers claimed by the American CNN, Fox and MSNBC stations and way behind the immense reach of the BBC and the other mainstream TV channels. But the fact that RT is seen as a threat to the war propaganda of the British government and the European Union shows what little confidence they themselves have in the credibility of the nonsense their own media is churning out at the moment.
    

Stand by the Donbas!

John McDonnell has been criticised for pulling out of a Stop The War rally after being told he would be kicked out of the Labour party if he spoke at the meeting.
    The man who was once Jeremy Corbyn’s second-in-command caved in to Starmer’s threats and left it to Corbyn to speak alongside Tariq Ali and other Stop the War Coalition leaders at the meeting in London on Wednesday.
    John McDonnell is no friend of the Russian Federation. Only last week he was marching alongside his friends in the “Ukraine Solidarity Campaign” to protest against the Russian intervention while the rest of the Stop the War leadership, including Corbyn, are all calling for an immediate cease-fire and an unconditional Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory. But this isn’t enough for Starmer. He wants total support for whatever comes out of the White House and, at the moment, that doesn’t include a cease-fire.

We say US/NATO hands off Russia! Stand with the communists of the Donbas and the anti-fascist resistance in Ukraine!

Proud to be a Communist in the 21st Century

by John Maryon

A contribution to the joint NCP-RCPB-ML seminar held recently in London

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels cooperated to publish the Communist Manifesto in1848. It was at the time of the Industrial Revolution when industrial cities were being and millions flocked from the countryside to seek work in the new factories. It was also a time of harsh exploitation by the bourgeoisie who accumulated great wealth from the surplus value created by the workers. The Communist Manifesto examined the development of nature, society and productive forces and proved the necessity for a class struggle. A struggle that would not only lead to a redistribution of wealth through various forms of public ownership. It would also serve to change the aspirations of the proletariat and the social relations within society itself.
    Today the those dark satanic mills may have gone but sweat-shops, with low pay and appalling working conditions, still exist where capitalism flourishes. Often the owners are to be found living in luxury near their tax havens. Grim polluted factories, with a dangerous work environment and employing children, are no longer to be found in Britain but we do have low pay and zero hour contracts forcing workers to rely on food banks. In former times agricultural labourers were forced to carry out hard manual labour, almost from dawn to dusk, but today their equivalent may be NHS staff. Some qualified ambulance workers may still be working 15 hours into a shift. And although the workhouse may be a thing of the past homeless people today can be left to die cold, lonely and frightened in some mean dark street.
    Capitalism still exists to enslave many parts of the world and remains powerful and influential. It is however in terminal crisis facing irreconcilable contradictions, as predicted by Marxists, leading to booms and slumps Cycles of inflation, unemployment and business failures occur but the main burden will always be carried by the workers. Imperialist rivalry increases with great hostility to the socialist countries bringing with it the constant danger of war. Communists today have an essential and vital role to play, in educating and organising the working class, to fight for improved wages and working conditions while maintaining the struggle for world peace.
    We now live in the digital age, an era of quantum physics and instant communication, but the fundamental nature of capitalism has not changed. The class struggle must continue and it is the duty of communists to lead it. Tinkering with a failed system by Social Democrats will achieve nothing. Communists believe that a revolutionary change is essential with full commitment to the class struggle.
    It can take courage to be a Communist. A situation similar in some ways to young men refusing to enlist for the First World War. Incessant propaganda by the bourgeois media creates an image in people's minds of communists being dangerous red monsters with evil intent. Others with alternative views such as anarchists are also tarred with the same brush by being presented as only wanting to destroy. A good communist must be able to stand tall and proud, be fair and honest and work hard to gain the trust and respect of his fellow workers.
    Communists may stand side by side with others to fight for a common cause. Whilst they may not agree with all the other parties honest held views those opinions will be respected and discussed. Communists will join with allies to form a broad front when it is expedient to do so.
    We will never abandon our core values or commitment to the scientific philosophy of Marxism Leninism. Communists will strongly resist the negative influence of a number of trotskyist organisations and also expose the treachery of the pseudo-left. Throughout the Labour movement there are individuals who while pretending to be progressive follow a reactionary agenda of their own. They emerge at critical times to oppose the workers struggle, make false claims against the socialist countries and some apparently have no qualms about stabbing their leader in the back.
    Communists will endeavour to equip the working class with the knowledge and confidence necessary to establish state power and build a socialist society. For centuries the poor, oppressed and disadvantaged have fought for justice and equality. Now in the modern world, with the rise of organised labour and the development of scientific socialism, it is possible to not only dream of a better world but to build it.
    Marxists realise that in the real physical world there is constant change. It is important to learn lessons from history and adapt to new conditions as they arise in order to meet new challenges that may lie ahead. There is no point however in re-fighting the ideological battles between Stalin and Trotsky of over 100years ago. This is merely a last ditch attempt by some Trotskyists to gain some relevance in the modern world.
    Communists respect an individuals sexuality and oppose any attempt to discredit or hassle others. We regard ourselves as all citizens of the world and are totally opposed to racism, social segregation or any persecution of ethnic minorities. We seek to build a beautiful new world based upon equality with the establishment of real human rights; something that is impossible in a capitalist society.
    Communist party members are committed to democratic centralism. This ensures that factional disputes, which would weaken the movement, are avoided. Policies are discussed fully and openly following which a vote is taken. The policy then becomes binding on all comrades.
    The struggle of the working class is international. Communists are true internationalists realising the importance of working together to coordinate their struggles with multi-national cooperations. There is also the question of aid in the form of material or military assistance given by powerful states to weaker one's being bullied by imperialism. In Afghanistan it is reported that a number of people have been forced to sell their kidneys to buy food. The US has frozen the nation’s assets but China has stepped in to provide aid including medicines. This is the kind of action that makes me proud to be a communist in the modern world.

Joint Statement: Victory to the anti-fascist forces of Donbass and their allies!

Victory to the anti-fascist forces of Donbass and their allies! U.S./NATO hands off Russia!

The NATO-funded Ukrainian Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and other far right Ukrainian nationalists have slaughtered many thousands in Donbass in last 8 years.

On February 24, the anti-fascist Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, together with the Russian Federation, launched a military action with the goal of “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine. It is in the interest of poor and working people, anti-war and anti-imperialist forces in the U.S. and other NATO countries, to take an unambiguous position in solidarity with the anti-fascist forces. The real war danger comes from US and NATO forces surrounding Russia. The government in Kiev is their proxy, with no regard for the people of Ukraine.

In March 2014 British foreign secretary William Hague lied to the House of Commons when he said that the removal of Viktor Yanukovych was in accordance with the Ukrainian constitution, saying “It is wrong to question the legitimacy of the new authorities.

In fact, Yanukovych’s removal met none of the Ukrainian constitution’s provisions: there was no special commission of the Rada, no review by the Constitutional Court, and the Rada passed a bill removing Yanukovych from office with a simple majority of 328 votes, 10 short of the two-thirds majority laid out in the Ukrainian constitution. No doubt Hague was “badly advised” by his Foreign Office advisors!

Over the past 8 years Ukrainian military and US-backed fascist battalions incorporated into the National Guard killed 5,059 people in the Donetsk People’s Republic, including 91 children (figures obtained from Donetsk last week), so the figure for both the anti-fascist republics is probably around 8-9,000 people including well over 100 children.

This war began in 2014 when Ukraine launched the “Anti-Terrorist Operation” (ATO), just over a week after the CIA Director John Brennan visited Kiev to meet senior Ukrainian intelligence officials to “foster mutually beneficial security cooperation”. This was an all-out modern military offensive with tanks, artillery, missiles and aircraft. The ATO was still ongoing when the Russian intervention began last week, in fact it was being rapidly stepped up.

Millions of Ukrainians have been driven into political or economic exile since 2014, over two million now living in the Russian Federation alone. Many fled as a result of fascist death threats.

Up to 100 anti-fascists were murdered by fascists and nationalists at the Odessa Trade Union House Fire on May 2, 2014. No-one knows exactly how many, since there has never been any investigation.

Where was the media hysteria, and the calls for peace from the left and the peace movement, when men, women, children and the elderly were being bombed and shot by snipers in the Donbass for the past eight years?

Since November, the U.S. has pushed Kiev to a new murderous invasion of Donbass, while claiming that the real threat was from Russia. The U.S. rejected Moscow’s just demands to guarantee Ukraine’s neutrality. Russia recognized the independence of Lugansk and Donetsk on Feb. 21 –eight years after the people of Donbass overwhelmingly chose independence in a referendum, rejecting the pro-Western/neo-fascist coup government in Ukraine.


Washington and NATO deliberately and methodically pushed the Donbass republics and Russia into a corner, from which there were only two options: submit or fight back.

The People’s Militias of Donetsk and Lugansk are fighting to drive back the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including neo-Nazi battalions armed and trained by the U.S., Canada and NATO, that constantly threaten the lives of their residents. The anti-fascist military action, forced on Donbass and Russia by the Western imperialist powers – principally President Joe Biden and the U.S. government – has exposed confusion and equivocation in the anti-war movement, even among socialists and communists.

Modern capitalist Russia is not an imperialist country. It had no means to become one after the counter-revolution in the USSR. It is a regional power akin to India or Brazil, primarily an exporter of commodities, not capital. To maintain its independence, Russia had to ally with other countries in opposition to imperialism. Ukraine’s coup regime, by contrast, is a pawn of U.S. imperialism that has been waging a brutal war on its neighbours for eight years and offered itself as a base for NATO aggression against Russia.

Our responsibility is to stop U.S. imperialism and its wars in all forms, and to stand in solidarity with those who fight against U.S. domination.

· Victory to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and their allies!

· Justice for those murdered in the Odessa Trade Union House Massacre!


· Solidarity with the anti-fascist underground and exiles of Ukraine!

· U.S./NATO: Hands off Russia! Get out of Ukraine and Eastern Europe!

· Dismantle the imperialist NATO war machine – bring all the troops home now!


This statement is endorsed by: Communist Party of the Donetsk People's Republic, Consistent Democrats, Cumpanis (Italian communist journal), International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity, Movement for People's Democracy (USA) New Communist Party, Party of Communists USA (PCUSA), Posadists Today, Socialist Fight, US Friends of the Soviet People and the Zimbabwe Communist Party. It is adapted from a fine statement by the Socialist Unity Party / Partido de Socialismo Unido (USA).

What it means to be a communist in 2022

by Theo Russell

A contribution to the joint NCP-RCPB-ML seminar held recently in London

A thorough understanding of Marxist-Leninist theory and philosophy - dialectics, a materialist, scientific and multi faceted view of the world. Thorough knowledge of the contributions of Stalin, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and other revolutionary thinkers.
    Applying correct Marxist-Leninist positions to real day to day problems, understanding the errors of right and left revisionism, and of anarchism, and their relationship with bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideology.
    Understanding the different trends within bourgeois ideology, liberal and reactionary bourgeois ideology (e.g. in different periods the bourgeoisie moves from one to the other), and that in normal times, they are not the same as fascists (a common ultra-leftist error).
    Thus our fight with both Tories and right-wing Labour is against their upholding neo-liberal capitalism at home and imperialism abroad, but at the same time we still enjoy extensive democratic rights which have been won in battles from the English Revolution onwards. The same can be said of most advanced capitalist states. It’s important to remember that the Bolsheviks had to work secretly underground under the brutal Czarist dictatorship.
    Understanding that even under bourgeois rule, and when there is no possibility of revolutionary change, the working class can still be mobilised to make enormous gains, as in the period of the 1945 -51 post-war Labour government, that such reforms can strengthen the morale of the organised working class, but never losing sight of the need to educate the vanguard and to take up the fight to achieve socialism when the time comes.
    A thorough understanding of the bourgeois, capitalist state in the epoch of imperialism and monopoly finance capital, which rides roughshod over the rights of workers and the small bourgeoisie alike. Knowing our enemy well and understanding that bourgeois democracy is only genius democracy for the bourgeoisie. This explains why in the same breath as telling socialist countries to adopt multi-party “democracy” and the “rule of law”, the dominant capitalist states also back violent subversion and corrupt and undemocratic regimes.
    Understanding that the handful of rich capitalist states still enjoy overwhelming dominance over the world economy, allowing them to use sanctions and financial subversion as powerful weapons, but also that this domination – especially in the fields of science & technology – is on the wane.
    The ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood and to search out truth from all sources, especially communist and honest, progressive sources. This may seem obvious to communists, but it distinguishes us from those who pose as leftist or revolutionary, but who have not left behind bourgeois / petty-bourgeois thinking, and are still infected with the lies of the capitalist censored mass media.
    Understanding the need to always work in alliances, first and foremost with communists and socialists, including a non-sectarian approach and working with organisations on vitally important issues while disagreeing on other issues.
    Understanding that we can ideologically side with all sorts of strange bedfellows, such as during the Brexit referendum, and right now we would agree with both S Khan and P Patel that the Met Police have to clean out the racist and sexist pigs from their animal farm. This is something which U-Ls get into huge theoretical twists about, but which also shows the world that we share the basic norms of democracy and civilised life with the masses.
    Likewise, understanding that if and when socialism is achieved, there is no magic wand which turns the masses into revolutionaries, but that you have to work with and bring with you a very wide alliance of forces to continue the revolution.
    The ability to work in all working class and progressive organisations democratically and collectively, not imposing our ideas on others but putting forward correct positions and proposals and accepting the decision of the collective without question. Never claiming to be better than the collective or the leadership.
    Setting an example of hard work, dedication and upholding an organisation's principles, eg in a trade union working to recruit members, build branches, inform and educate members, support strike action, and never fail to join picket lines – the coal face of working class struggle; if working with the Labour Party, always turn out for canvassing and any other tasks the local branch sets.
    Never to expect too much, to be prepared to continue working for months, years and decades with possibly little or no result, but when the class is ready to move and take up the fight, to be in position where you are known and trusted by many who are not in our party, are not communists, but who know that we fight for the same goals as they do.
    There are no easy solutions to the difficult and complex problems which life throws up.

Round Two to Putin

Russia’s intervention in Ukraine will, hopefully, mark the beginning of the end of a crisis that was entirely the product of imperialist intrigue.
    In 2014 Anglo‑American and Franco‑German imperialism brought down the elected government of Ukraine. They propped up a fascist regime in Kiev that has banned communist and other left-wing movements, in pursuit of violent sectarianism that forced the Crimean republic to secede and the people of eastern Ukraine to take up the gun and proclaim their independence.
    These days the Ukrainian government is little more than a US protectorate. Its refusal to implement the Minsk accords and its endless breaches of the cease-fire agreements could only have happened with the blessing of its American mentor.
    The imperialists pose as defenders of ‘human rights’ and ‘international law’ when it suits them but ignore these lofty principles when it comes to the Palestinians under the heel of a brutal Zionist occupation.
    They talk about NATO as if it were some sort of benevolent society set up to guarantee democracy and security in Europe, when it is just another US-led military machine that has brought death and destruction to innocent Africans, Asians, Arabs and Latin Americans over the years.
    These are the people who claim to uphold what they call ‘democracy’ whilst turning a blind eye to the Ukrainian fascists that prop up the puppet government in Kiev and see themselves as the heirs to those who worked with Hitler during the German occupation in the Second World War.
    The Russian move was a timely response to the constant provocations of the Kiev government that has blocked all progress towards resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine over the last eight years. It has, however, provoked a predictable response from the imperialist camp that is now bleating on about the rights of small nations which they claim for Ukraine but deny when it comes to millions of people that they have attacked and tried to enslave over the last 70-odd years.

Question More

Sir Keir Starmer is calling for a ban on the Russia Today (RT) TV station as part of his self-appointed role as cheer-leader for imperialist aggression. The Labour leader says RT is pumping out “misinformation” and pro-Putin “propaganda” and therefore it should have its broadcasting licence withdrawn.
    Starmer first raised this demand two years ago. This time he’s got the backing of Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, who is peeved at the fact that her nationalist rival, Alex Salmond, has a regular slot on the Russian channel.
    But no-one is forced to watch RT and if anyone doesn’t like what they see they can simply switch off or over to another channel. As RT’s Afshin Rattansi says: “We should be hoping that NGOs for free speech – from [Reporters Without Borders] and Amnesty International – will be there to defend this channel against Sir Keir Starmer and the British Labour party who want to ban free speech.”

What it means to be a communist, new and revolutionary today

by Michael Chant

A keynote opening given by the leader of the RCPB-ML at a joint seminar with the NCP that was held recently in London.

Taking the topic at face value, and giving an answer in a nutshell, one could say to be a communist means seeing the face of the New in the crisis of the Old, and working for the necessary change, for the transformation of the Old into the New, with revolutionary sweep.
    Further, one cannot conceive of being a communist without membership of a communist party, a modern type of party which mobilises and organises the people to defend their own interests, collective, individual and the general interests of society.
    And, as both propositions imply, the communist party takes up the problems of the day, whether national or international, with the spirit of proletarian internationalism, in order to provide solutions and to advance the progress of society.
    But, as always, the nub of the definition centres around how the question poses itself. To be a communist is not necessarily synonymous with being new and revolutionary. It is great that in our two parties, if one wants to separate them, we share the name communist; and one has New in its name and the other Revolutionary. I think this emphasises a common aspiration. It is difficult to think of a communist party worthy of the name that is not a party of revolutionary action, and which fights for the New. It seems to us essential that this quality is present.
    Being new and revolutionary is an act of being. In contrast, when it is posed, what it means to be a communist, one is invited to think of ‘communist’ as a category, how many criteria one fulfils, what the communist positions are, and so on. It is interesting how much difference a little ‘a’ can make: from ‘to be a communist’ to ‘to be communist’. In other words, ‘to be communist’ is not a question of ideological beliefs. It is a question of action, of structures, of membership. At the same time, how can it not include being new and revolutionary, immersing oneself in the struggles of the working class and people for their rights and interests, struggles which are in defence of the rights of all, and recognising the urgency of change, having a burning flame that the New has to come into being, since the political, economic, cultural and every other kind of crisis of the Old world is causing havoc and suffering to the people wherever they are in the world. In this respect, being communist is to have an optimism, to see in the movements of the people, whether against war, whether against the anti-social offensive, that the outcome can be something positive, creative, the people mobilised and organised to speak and act in their own name and have fidelity to the ensemble of all human relationships and what they are revealing, most importantly the need for political power. This looks like it is closer to how the question poses itself, and what it means to be a communist, new and revolutionary, today.
    So, ‘today’. This is crucial, because the argument is sometimes put that a communist party can only be revolutionary when there is a ‘revolutionary’ situation. So, then, what it means to be new and revolutionary today. It is the revolutionary nature and character of the party that matters, the revolutionary culture and driving force within it. But it is true that the revolutionary actions of the communist party are not to be understood as storming Parliament or Windsor Castle with an armed people’s militia. Nor is it the answer to return to a catechism of Lenin’s words that a revolutionary situation consists of when working people do not want to live in the old way and the ruling class cannot rule in the old way. Or, one could look at it from the point of view that that situation characterises the present, with the destruction of the public authority!
    But one can characterise the issue as what does the communist party take up for solution in this period of our era. When in the 1980s the world was going through its turning point from flow to ebb of revolution, of which, for example, the coming to power of Gorbachev in the Soviet Union was an example, the conclusion could be drawn that no force could act in the old way. Tony Blair tried to convince the world that there is a Third Way, but his new type of way was not in fact new, but pro-war, anti-worker, pro-covenant thesis.
    What might be said is that what is taken up for solution today is the battle of democracy, of which the defence of the rights of all is part, and which is characterised by the people being the decision-makers versus ‘representatives’ of the people claiming to act in their name but serving a fictitious person of state. In our view, not to engage in this battle of democracy condemns you to extinction today, particularly the communists. So these are crucial fronts of struggle that affect the lives of everyone: for economic well-being, for a ban on the use of force in settling conflicts, for the protection of the environment. It is our view that people are expressing their deepest desires for something new with these demands, which can be characterised as engaging in the battle of democracy, of the necessity to establish an anti-war government.
    Just to quote from the article Era, which Hardial Bains wrote in April 1991: “The main content of the era remains the same, but the forms of struggle have to be changed so that the working people can grasp and fight for the realisation of those demands which could improve their situation, bring peace, and protect the environment. The new situation demands a new approach and solutions that working people want.” So the tasks of today present themselves with profound meaning as engaging in the battle of democracy, taking it through to the end. One could say that communists present one face to the world, not a revolutionary face and a reformist face. It is a matter of our being. The working class will emancipate the whole of humanity through revolution, through the act of emancipating itself.
    In our view, confusion arises when ‘revolution’ becomes an act of belief rather than a historical outcome of the working class and people participating in making history. In this sense, ‘revolution’ as a belief simply says that the bourgeois ruling is overthrown by force with an act of revolution, to be replaced by the proletariat ruling by force. But the state form must be changed profoundly, and it is not a question of force – it is a question of bringing into being those arrangements that empower the people to be the decision-makers. We stand with the slogan: “There Is An Alternative! One Humanity, One Struggle!”
    That is to say, people are the history makers. How can the communists mobilise and organise the working class and people to this end, with this consciousness? The communists are not in a competition to best describe the ills of capitalism and of US imperialism striving for domination in the world. Communists are striving to develop the proletarian front and to provide an alternative, so that the New can overcome the resistance of the Old and prevail.
    Not only is the history-making of the 1917 October Revolution still unfolding – but the battle of democracy from the time of the English Civil Wars has still to be brought to completion! It is not a matter of indifference whether this battle is joined or not!
    The working class must stand at the head of the struggles of the people to turn things around in their own favour, and modern definitions are needed, not catechisms. That means that organising work for the communists takes pride of place. This means advancing step by step, accomplishment by accomplishment, dealing with the state disinformation that puts a veil over the need for political power. The character of the veil is that the people are told there is no question of achieving that power for themselves, but only replacing one set of ‘representatives’ by another, left-wing versus right-wing. In this way, the conception that the people are being deprived of decision-making power gets thoroughly obscured or put off sine die [indefinitely]. We need a vantage point and a line of march to impart to the working class and people!
    So, very briefly, that is what I wanted to say on what it means to be a communist – new and revolutionary – today!

Starmer the warmonger

Sir Keir Starmer has denounced the Stop the War movement as some sort of tool of Russia in a desperate attempt to further ingratiate himself with what he thinks is the dominant section of the British ruling class. Writing in the Guardian following talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels the Labour leader says the anti-war movement is at best 'naive' and at worst a force bolstering those who threaten democracies while telling the Times that Labour is the “party of NATO”.

   Conjuring up the ghosts of Labour’s old right wing Starmer said “Attlee, Healey and Bevin saw communism for what it was and were prepared to stand up to its aggression,” he said. “Today’s Labour party has the same clear-eyed view of the current regime in the Kremlin. We know, as they did, that bullies only respect strength. Russian tanks sit, engines revving, on the verge of annexing Ukraine but protest placards waved here by the usual suspects condemn NATO not Moscow... to condemn NATO is to condemn the guarantee of democracy and security it brings and which our allies in eastern and central Europe are relying on as the sabre-rattling from Moscow grows ever louder”.
   The people of Serbia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Syria will, no doubt, have other ideas about NATO.
Starmer may think that posing as a super-patriot will convince the ruling class of his usefulness when the time comes to get rid of Boris Johnson. He also clearly believes that there is widespread public support for wars and military interventions in Britain. He’s wrong both counts. The Tories don’t need Starmer and the people don’t want war.

Bye Bye Cressida Dick

No one will shed any tears over the departure of Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police chief who was finally forced to resign after a damning indictment from the Mayor of London last week.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was "not satisfied" Dame Cressida could "root out the racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination and misogyny that still exist" in the force or restore Londoners' trust in the Metropolitan Police.
   The Labour politician said the last straw was the Commissioner’s less than robust response to police watchdog's report into the Charing Cross cops who joked about rape, LGBT people and violence towards women on the social media. Khan said that "the response from the Commissioner wasn't up to the scale of the change required in the Met Police Service".
   It’s surprising it took so long for Khan to see through her though to be fair, Cressida Dick’s talent was in brushing aside criticism from the public the police claim to protect. . Repeated claims of misogyny and racism in the force; the dismal handling of the “spycops” scandal and the “partygate” investigation and accusations of that the Met had failed to properly investigate claims of indecent exposure by one of the force who raped and killed a woman in 2021.
None of us will miss Cressida Dick. Whether her successor will be any better remains to be seen.

Black Humour from a Dark Age

 by Ben Soton

Hurdy Gurdy by Christopher Wilson. Faber & Faber 2021. Hardback: 256pp; rrp £14.99; Paperback: 272pp; rrp £8.99;  Kindle: 208pp; £5.03.

A comedy set during a global pandemic is inevitable in an era dominated by the Covid plague. Christopher Wilson’s 2021 novel, however, is set during the much deadlier pandemic of the mid 1300s known as the ‘Great Pestilence’. We now call it the Black Death.
    The central character, Dickory, is a monk in the fictional Order of St Odo the Disfigured and the book, named after a popular medieval musical instrument, delves into many of the similarities between the two pandemics. The most obvious being the bizarre conspiracy theories that spread across the highways of medieval Europe and today’s Information Superhighway.
    European Jews were heavily scapegoated during the Black Death. In Germany, the Jews were blamed for poisoning water supplies, and many were drowned in the Rhine. Meanwhile today conspiracy theorists blame the super-rich, the Rockefeller dynasty and the Rothschilds (who just happen to be Jewish) for using the pandemic as a means to establish World domination.
    The novel takes the form of an innocent’s odyssey through plague-ridden England. After his fellow monks are wiped out by the plague, Dickory is forced to venture into the world beyond the monastery walls. Brother Dickory, who had spent most of his life confined to a monastery, discovers the outside world. For the first time in his life, he discovers the pleasures of women. He also experiences the ignorance and superstition of the age.
    He comes across a band of blind men led by a one-eyed man. These men were led to believe that the plague was spread through the eyes, hence removal of the said organs would protect you from the plague. Dickory is himself put on trial for witchcraft along with a pig whom his accusers believe to be a man in disguise.
    The message of the novel is that we live in age where human knowledge, medical and otherwise, has come a long way since the Middle Ages. Medieval medicine had changed little since Roman times and was based on the teachings of Galen (129 AD–216 AD) and his theory that ill health was caused by an imbalance in the bodies of four humours: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile.
    Science has certainly moved on since the Middle Ages – but even today there are still those who oppose science with their bizarre and dangerous conspiracy theories.