MISRATA

"Not one target has been hit" "We are fighting alone"
Rebel Commander quoted in the Sunday Times 24/4/11

"A double victory for NATO and the Rebels"
Times 25/4/11

Nice for the rebels to get a mention

Anti Fees and Anti Cuts Web links

New anti cuts co-ordination: False Economy

Education Activist Network

Right to Work (New Website coming):

Chris Bambery at Coalition of Resistance Conference

Student action continues - Sussex University

Hundreds of students have begun an occupation at Sussex University in protest at education cuts. Around 200 students are occupying a lecture theatre in the Fulton building—and they are planning to stay.

Tom, one of the occupiers, told Socialist Worker, “We’re occupying one of the new lecture theatres at Sussex which is very symbolic. It opened this year at the same time as we were told there was no money for teaching staff.

“It’s come off the back of Wednesday’s protest in London, which 500 Sussex students went to. We called a demonstration for today and didn’t plan to occupy—but that was the mood among students.

“We’ve already had messages flooding in from around Britain supporting us. We hope students on other campuses will follow suit.”

Rush messages of support to sussexstopthecuts@gmail.com

http://defendsussex.wordpress.com

http://twitter.com/stopsussexcuts

Right to Work Pamphlet

Right to Work pamphlet - Defending the welfare state

Cameron’s Con-Dem government is set to launch the biggest attack on working people since the 1920s. A financial crisis caused by the greed of bankers is being used as an excuse to dismantle the welfare state.

Workers are being made to pay for a mess they didn’t create. The price they will pay is the destruction of public services, a drive to push down wages and the loss of well over a million jobs across the public and private sectors.

We are faced with the spectre of mass unemployment with the threat that a generation of young people will be lost to the dole queue.

But none of this is necessary. The cuts are being made while big business and the rich fail to pay billions in taxes and while billions more are squandered on illegal wars and a new generation of nuclear weapons.

This pamphlet argues that Cameron’s cuts are completely unnecessary. It seeks to arm activists with the arguments they need to use at work or college.

The money is there to pay for decent public services for all. We have to resist the Tory assault on our way of life and build a movement capable of opposing the cuts and fighting for a better world.

Order from:http://sites.google.com/site/righttoworkconference/home/resources/righttoworkpamphlet-defendingthewelfarestate

Why protest at Tory Party conference on the 3rd October

Right to Work Website

Adventures in Labour Party History No 1

The Battle for SURABAYA 1945-6

One of the many excellent points made by writer John Newslinger in his book ‘The Blood Never Dried’ is the selective editing out of unpleasant British Labour Party history in successive ‘histories’ of the party. One notable episode that appears to be systematically omitted is the battle for Surabaya (commemorated yearly in Indonesia) and essentially involving the heavy shelling of the city and bloody street battles against nationalist forces by British, Indian and co-opted Japanese troops in 1946

Establishing a scholarly tradition for the likes of Niall Ferguson the following books fail to note the episode:

Labour in Power (1945-1951) Keneth Morgan (1984)
Never Again: Britain 1945-1951 (Peter Hennessey (1972)
Clement Attlee Trevor Burridge (1985)
Clem Attlee Francis Beckett (1997)

Timeline on Russian Revolution

Oxford Budget Day Protest on YouTube

Tax baby Tax!

Why should a single low paid local government worker have their wages or pensions cut whilst single banker or speculator still has their fat 2010 bonus? Who buys all this rubbish that the 70 odd % of low paid women in the Local Government Pension Scheme have ‘gold plated’ pensions? Worth maybe £4,000 per year?

By all accounts things are back to normal in the board room with 7% pay rises for execs and huge bonuses on display. Why then should we accept the cuts of Tory and Orange book millionaires for a single second? These people have no mandate and no moral or political legitimacy. How dare Tory Oxbridge spods who cheerleaded the £20bn disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan lecture us about belt tightening?

People ask what is the rational alternative? Easy 1% on the higher rate on income tax, 1.5% on corporation tax, windfall tax on shareholders, cut pointless military spending, close tax havens, the list of better options is indeed long.

So tax baby tax!

Tax is the sound of human society functioning, of people looking after each other, of the most evil and money grubbing being reigned in. Tax is civilization. Forget the Chinese Emperors and William Pit the whatever, tax has transcended its origins. Progressive taxion is our last best hope for social peace.

Aylesbury says no to EDL

The EDL’s racist, swaggering, Islamophobic supporters hoped they could take over the town of Aylesbury last Saturday and intimidate Muslims and ordinary people. They failed.

They hoped Asians and black people and trade unionists would be too scared to demonstrate against them. They failed.

Around 200 anti-EDL demonstrators, gathered in the town’s Vale Park in a show of anti-racism and support for multiculturalism.

While the anti-racist protest took place, the EDL were contained in a pen by the police. The local press put their number at 800, although other reports said it was fewer. They had come from all over Britain, with only a handful of local people their ranks.

Some made an attempt to break out towards the town mosque, but they were beaten back.

Police arrested 12 EDL supporters, eight on suspicion of possessing offensive weapons, three for public order offences and one for being drunk and disorderly.

Andrew Grant, the chief executive of Aylesbury Vale District Council said afterwards that “a range of entertainment has been organised for Monday by the Town Centre Partnership to help welcome people back to the town". Indeed – the vast majority of local people will be glad the EDL have gone.

Congratulations to all those anti-racists who came out to protest on Saturday. The ground has been laid for a vibrant local anti racist campaign. 

I have just recieved the following upgrades from God

Ten v.2.0

Never cross a picket line.

Don’t kill anybody unless there is an overwhelming social benefit.

Don’t steal anything unless 1) you really really need it and the owner doesn’t really really need it or 2) the value of it is too small to be bothered about.

Be nice to people where possible.

Infidelity should be avoided if possible where relationships are still broadly mutually satisfactory or better.

Try and reduce your carbon footprint in ways you can manage but don’t get all moralistic about it.

Don’t over eat, drink or sleep except at Christmas.

Don’t swear in unamusing ways.

Aspire to leaving the world a better place than you found it.

Don’t covert your neighbours ox (I think this one still stands).

Climate Gate...NOT!

Climate change sceptics are having a dizzy five minutes on account of some hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia being made public. Excerpts from these emails have been released and are being circulated out of context to imply dirty deeds by mainstream climate scientists. 

The most popular extract is scientist Phil Jones  discussing the presentation of temperature reconstructions. He states that:

 “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.” 

This statement is being pinged all over the internet by climate denial trolls exercised by the threat of  'One World Government'.

So to take this one comment and deconstruct it for the sake of the would be deluded:

The paper in question is the Mann, Bradley and Hughes (1998) Nature paper on the original multiproxy temperature reconstruction, and the ‘trick’ is just to plot the instrumental records along with reconstruction so that the context of the recent warming is clear. Scientists often use the term “trick” to refer to a “a good way to deal with a problem”, rather than something that is “secret”, and so there is nothing problematic in this at all. As for the ‘decline’, it is well known that Keith Briffa’s maximum latewood tree ring density proxy diverges from the temperature records after 1960 (this is more commonly known as the “divergence problem”–see e.g. the recent discussion in this paper) and has been discussed in the literature since Briffa et al in Nature in 1998 (Nature, 391, 678-682). Those authors have always recommend not using the post 1960 part of their reconstruction, and so while ‘hiding’ is probably a poor choice of words (since it is ‘hidden’ in plain sight), not using the data in the plot is completely appropriate, as is further research to understand why this happens. 

For more check out George Marshall's blog: http://climatedenial.org/

Chris Harman 1942-2009

The death of socialist activist and author Chris Harman is a sad loss to the international socialist movement. Chris died yesterday in Cairo having suffered a cardiac arrest. He was a tireless activist, writer and creative thinker. His books introduced thousands to Marxist economics and history with their clear and accessible style. He will be sorely missed, my condolences to his family and friends.

Chris wrote many fine books, my favourite is A People’s History of the World. Selected by the Independent on Sunday as one of the Top Ten History Books. If you have never read any of Chris Harman’s work then check out Bookmarks The Socialist Bookshop or the Marxist Internet Archive.

The best way to celebrate Chris’s contribution to socialist activism is to redouble our efforts to build socialist and trade union organisation around the world. 

Oxfam gets it wrong on Afghanistan

“There should be unified NATO command for all international forces in Afghanistan,

with a permanent mechanism to monitor operating standards of all units, ensure all

detainees are treated in accordance with international humanitarian law, including

those transferred to the custody of Afghan authorities, and strengthen coordination

with Afghan forces.”

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/conflict_disasters/downloads/afghanistan_priorities.pdf 

Is it just me who finds Oxfam’s position on Afghanistan profoundly misjudged? The organisation has had an office in Afghanistan since 1992 (e.g. it was able to operate under previous regimes). It currently takes a position of supporting the occupation of Afghanistan. Surely a humanitarian organisation should simply seek to operate where it can, not take a position on the rights and wrongs of George Bush’s inherited foreign policy?

 

Narco prof slams m'perialists

October 2009- Chomsky on 'unipolar world'

"The turnout for this event was truly extraordinary, and I think it’s a testament to how much Professor Chomsky’s ideas chime with our challenging times,” said Dan Plesch, Director of the Centre for International Studies

watch recording here

A mans word is his...oh sod it.

It's good to know that in these days of distrust and scepticism that there is one shinning light that radiates through the black clouds of parliamentarian self interest. Three cheers for bold David Cameron, the future prime minster of Great Britain, who took a valiant stand in 2007. Telling the nations' favourite daily that he will change the course of British politics and made 'a cast iron garantee' that he would call a referendum on "any" EU treaty on the table. 

David Cameron 26th September 2007 

"Today, I will give this cast-iron guarantee: If I become PM a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations." 

Those tiresome lefties that harp on about the Conservatives being the home of shameless worshipers of money and power have met their nemesis!

Into the Storm: Churchill on the Jewish involvement in the Russian Revolution

In 1920, Churchill wrote a full page article for the Illustrated Sunday Herald detailing the Jewish involvement in the Russian revolution:

"This movement amongst the Jews (the Russian Revolution) is not new. From the days of Spartacus Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kuhn (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg (Germany) and Emma Goldman (United States), this world wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and the reconstruction of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It played, as a modern writer, Mrs. Nesta Webster, has so ably shown, a definitely recognizable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities has gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire. There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution by these international and for the most part atheistic Jews. Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from Jewish leaders."

When it came to the conduct of the Civil War in Russia Churchill personally warned White Army General Denikin, whose forces Britain was funding and equipping and who were undertaking pogroms against Jewish communities, that “my task in winning support in Parliament for the Russian Nationalist cause will be infinitely harder if well-authenticated complaints continue to be received from Jews in the zone of the Volunteer Armies“. General Denikin ignored Churchill’s warnings, and the pogroms continued. 

Back to the Labour Future

Under the guise of “Labour Future” New Labour’s right wing have issued a series of policy pamphlets to, in their words, “counter the impression that Labour is intellectually exhausted”. 

To be fair the initiative at least frames itself in the context of the challenge of Climate Change. Nevertheless if you were to draw up a radical agenda for saving Labour from years in the wilderness, would you really start here? 

Some thoughts on the key points drawn from the published documents (yes god help me I did read them)… 

Sensible and responsible banking structures and a strong role for mutuals. 
(Ok, not sure what this means, attack tax havens? Regulate exec pay, intervene to support mutuals in the market place? Give the FSA some balls? Stop ex bankers running the FSA like a club? Ban MP’s from bank exec boards? Put union reps on bank exec boards- where is the meat?) 

All- ethnic minority short lists for MP selection 
(Ok, but as the women only short list proves, unless you allow more party democracy and grassroots input into selection procedures you will get more loyalist robots) 

Constitutional definition of the basic social rights to which the citizen is entitled, and a means of enforcing them. 
(So no new rights then?) 

The NHS has to be empowered with data and willingness to penalise poor performance in hospitals and primary care 
(So more market discipline then?) 

Scrap Trident and some investment in the London airports 
(Ok, now were cooking!) 

Far less rigid approach to public spending is required, including fixing public sector pay and pensions 
(Daw…By fixing you presumably mean cutting?) 

State organisations should be given more independence. Each one should have a tight rolling three-year budget without constant changes of funding formulae. 
(More privatization by stealth) 

Performance incentives of public sector employees 
(Screw over the public sector ethos and introduce performance related pay, because we are all selfish individuals after all- favour bullying managers and the young, screw the tired mothers, older workers, bereaved or sick) 

Creating a fair system of prisons and probation 
(What does that mean?) 

Fixed-term parliaments 
(Ok , not that exciting tho) 

Finishing reform of the Lords 
(So more unelected union busters running the government then?) 

Restoring the balance between national and local government. 
(Unclear on how?) 

Offer a zero VAT rate on all domestic insulation and energy-efficient products. 
(About time!) 

Provide some financial support for schemes to make homes more energy-efficient. 
(Already happening, or was then wasn’t, are you paying attention? This is not new thinking ) 

Cut VAT to 5 per cent for all repair and maintenance work on homes. 
(Ok) 

Rechannelling funds from the child tax credits and childcare tax credits system would take us away from complex state bureaucracies toward easily understood universal entitlements. 
(Not sure I understand, universal benefits or targeted benefits, which and how?) 

Long-term shift of spending to the Army (and ground support) from strategic nuclear defence and the Navy and Air Force. 
(More economic conscription for unwinnable wars) 

Europe as a positive, win-win situation for both British and progressive politics. 
(So in fact less democracy, support Euro trade block presided over by President Blair) 

Marks?... 3/10

Butt out Stelzer!

Does Tony Blair have any friends left beyond his immediate 1997 dinner party circle? Surely the recent press forays of Napoleonic heart throb Silvio Berlusconi and free market grandee Irwin Stelzer , both seeking to make the case for Blair’s appointment as EU president, shows how toxic Blair has become. He can only be praying the old friend Simian Bush Jnr stays the hell out of the media.

Stelzer sets out his case for Blair in today’s Guardian . He thinks Blair is great because 1) He got elected 2) He got rid of Saddam 3) He doesn’t like Trade unions 4) He is not embarrassed to use his public office to make lots of money. Well gee, Irwin, who is you audience here?

Stelzer is widely thought of as Ruper Murdock’s representative on earth. As for muscular and tanned Silvio, well he told the Italian press that "My government and I will work to ensure we do not lose a great political legacy, made with courage, equilibrium and prudence without uncertainty."

The Iraq War? Equilibrium and Prudence? The man is a shitwicket!