Mike Macnair reviews István Mészáros and his posthumously published 'Beyond Leviathan' - n Letters and debate n Ukraine-Russia war n DSA and ...
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A paper of Marxist polemic and Marxist unity Mike Macnair reviews István n Letters and debate n Ukraine-Russia war Mészáros and his posthumously n DSA and Democrats published ‘Beyond Leviathan’ n Sri Lanka in revolt No 1403 July 14 2022 Towards a mass Communist Party £1/€1.10 ! O R Y F N DY N REA P E
2 July 14 2022 1403 worker weekly LETTERS For those of us in the Labour Party debate on the early anti-imperialist Wolfenden report of 1957 (And There is some interesting Letters may have been who seek to transform it into a true movement for Science and Society, comrade Ford eloquently exposes the theoretical work in the last decade or shortened because of space. Some names party of the working class as part of the comparison likened the two deficiencies of its main legislative so, connecting queer perspectives to may have been changed the struggle to replace capitalism, we because of their reliance on “large project - the 1967 Sexual Offences Marxian social reproduction theory, have to conclude that the existing left standing armies, a colonial service, a Act - which still left gay people open like the work of Peter Drucker, or groups (the Labour Representation war fleet and increased taxes needed to legal discrimination and police some of the authors collected in the No change Committee, Campaign for Labour for support of colonial expansion”. harassment). But it was not a complete ‘Transgender Marxism’ collection As a postscript to my article, ‘Under Party Democracy and Momentum) While the Anti-Imperialist League temporal break. The Committee for from Pluto Press - although the fact false colours’ (June 9), I would will take us nowhere. They are content had some cultural purchase for a Homosexual Equality, which was also that neither Peter Taaffe, Alan Woods like to further comment on the to resume their abusive partnership couple of years, most of the capitalists focused on legal reform, continued to nor Alex Callinicos was involved recent elections to Momentum’s with the Labour right, convinced that abandoned it in the wake of its exist alongside the GLF and became in writing any of this might prevent top body, the national coordinating small gains - a new councillor elected endorsement of Bryan in the 1900 the largest gay organisation in the UK engagement by the existing Marxist group (NCG). here, a left MP reselected there; a rule election, given his strong advocacy of in 1972, the year of the first UK Pride. sects. I reported that there were two change proposal here, a conference abandoning the gold standard, and it Nor was the GLF a group without James Tansey slates contesting the election. In fact resolution there - will one day lead drifted into irrelevancy. its own considerable organisational South-West Communist there was also a small intervention to another crack at running the party. Unlike Gompers and the and strategic weaknesses, which by a third slate, the ‘Momentum They refuse to confront the reality of Democrats, however, the socialist we should be able to recognise in Be prepared Internationalists’ of the Alliance for the failure of that strategy provided by press paid keen attention to the issue retrospect. The capitalist state will aim to, but Workers’ Liberty. A brave move, the Corbyn experience. - (sometimes) with an internationalist Comrade Ford laments that will never be able to, totally control considering the proscription by The alternative way forward, perspective. Already in 1900, “the whole movement for sexual procreation and completely restrict Labour of their parent body - but these promoted by Labour Party Marxists, International Socialist Review was liberation has fragmented into sexual autonomy in spite of its laws, social-imperialists failed to win a seat. requires the defeat of the right at all covering the economics and politics wretched sectionalism”, yet already decrees, intimidation, personal The two slates that shared the levels in the Labour Party, and looks of imperialism. Unfortunately the first by February 1972 only four months and social stigmas, persecution 29 seats 15:14 were ‘Momentum beyond Labour governments that issue came out in July 1900, so we after the publication of the GLF’s and political terror, or any form of Organisers’ and ‘Your Momentum’. manage capitalism and participate can’t look at its coverage of the topic manifesto in October 1971, it suffered repression. The spirit of resistance The MO slate was a warmed-up in Nato wars in the interests of US in 1898 and 1899. However, in the a split between women’s and men’s will endure, like life itself. version of the slate that lost two years imperialism. first volume, several articles directly groups. The black-robed junior Hitlers ago as ‘Momentum Renewal’, but, Clive Dean deal with the issue, including serious The whole formation was on the court in the US should be before that, had dominated the NCG email economic and political analysis. In incredibly unstable. It had already careful what they wish for: in my when Jon Lansman ran the show. The an article covering the platforms eschewed any strong, centralised, mind, they’ve created conditions YM slate previously had a majority Imperialism of the Democrats and Republicans national structure in imitation of the for a revolution by rescinding on the NCG, having won most In part one of Mike Macnair’s for the 1900 election, the socialist Women’s Liberation Movement, fundamental and basic democratic seats in 2020 under the ‘Forward ‘Imperialism and the state’ series, he vice-presidential candidate, Job and experiments in communal rights which the population was Momentum’ label. offers a history and prehistory of the Harriaman, excoriates the policy. living tended to intensify personal accustomed to. Weren’t similar Judging by the joy at the result Marxist use of the term ‘imperialism’ The volume includes a two-part enmities between participants as conditions existent in Spain in 1936? displayed on the MO Facebook page, (March 17 supplement). article from October and November much as point the way forward to a There the high expectations of the perhaps we can conclude that, with I’m writing to make a fairly minor of that year by HL Boothman entitled utopian, liberated society. Its collapse masses were curtailed, giving rise support from the 10 other unelected historical point that will fill the gap ‘The philosophy of imperialism’. after three years shows some of the to an environment that might have members of the NCG, the MO slate between the British use of the term in Interestingly (from my limited general weaknesses of the types of contributed to the Spanish revolution, is back in control of Momentum once the 1880s and John A Hobson’s 1902 understanding of their arguments), movements thrown up by the new which ultimately failed. more. book, which in turn led to the Second both this article and an editorial by AM left, which often relied too much on Are we ready for a mass upsurge Was I able to identify the political International theoretical debates Simmons, entitled ‘Expansionism and the energy of young activists coming in the United States? We better be differences between these two slates? on imperialism, and eventually to the Chinese question’, seem to agree out of the radical student movements when it happens (and history tells us No, I have to admit defeat on that Lenin’s well known pamphlet. While with comrade Macnair’s analysis that without much thought for long-term that it will happen) - for example, score. The differences were purely the Bernstein-Bax debate is well imperialism was an inevitable result strategy or patient organisational the need for a mass political party, in the realm of implementation. known as a precedent to the later of capitalism rather than a result work. a programme, vanguard political MO is focussed on winning MP and debates in the Second International, it of a discrete stage stemming from Instead of a good, non-sectional direction, etc. Capitalism creates councillor selection contests, and may surprise readers that in this gap the turn-of-the-century “advent” of GLF and a bad, sectional, modern the tools for its own destruction: the gaining majorities on Labour Party American Marxists also played a role. monopoly capital. Lucien Sanial, one corporate LGBT movement, it might working class, restless and oppressed, internal committees. YM wants to The immediate context for the of Daniel De Leon’s lieutenants in the be more fruitful to view the history who haven’t lost hope and dreams support campaigns beyond Labour, adoption of the term in American Socialist Labor Party, also produced of the LGBT movement since 1970 for a true democracy - a socialist and is keen to promote member politics was the 1898 midterm a somewhat better-known (but still as one in which two tendencies have democracy. involvement in Momentum via click- elections and the Spanish-American, obscure) pamphlet titled ‘Territorial coexisted - sometimes peacefully No other force except the working based democracy. as well as the Filipino-American, expansion’ in 1901. and sometimes with intense hostility class has the capability and interest to As Labour List reported, both slates wars. US republican ideology had a A brief skim of the footnotes in between the camps. The first destroy and rebuild what’s necessary; were able to parade endorsements historical principled stance against Hobson’s book doesn’t seem to turn up tendency being a movement for legal to think otherwise is a dangerous from Labour MPs: “The Your territorial expansion (outside of the any citations from the socialist press. emancipation within the framework and disarming illusion that leaves us Momentum slate was backed by John North American continent, that is). In 1900, the socialist movement was of the existing constitutional state; the defenceless against what’s bound to McDonnell and Nadia Whittome, This worked out well enough for the still extremely marginal, with Debs second being a movement for social come down from the bourgeoisie in while Rebecca Long Bailey and capitalist class, as long as westward only receiving half a percentage point emancipation from the patriarchal trying to maintain its power, once the Grahame Morris gave their support expansion could continue, providing in the presidential election. It was family structure and its cultural people move. to Momentum Organisers. Zarah raw materials to send back east in only in 1901 that the various social attendants. These tendencies don’t Real change in le monde réal Sultana backed two Momentum exchange for finished goods, but by democratic and utopian socialist sects map exactly onto class divisions, can be practical and possible. The Organiser candidates and one Your the end of the 19th century the frontier merged to form the SPA that Debs is but the former has obviously always working class has proven its power to Momentum candidate.” had become exhausted. American known for. Yet it’s possible there were been more friendly to capitalism and fulfil its historic mission and destiny, Whilst the names of the winners financiers - at least the ones smart socialists in the German movement sought its support primarily from although many revolutions haven’t have been published by Momentum, enough to see which way the wind who were reading the American press the Labour Party, while the latter succeeded for various reasons. But, the full details of the nine counts was blowing - realigned in the ‘Fourth and paying attention to these analyses. is generally anti-capitalist, but not hopefully, my faith in humanity will have not been released. Given that Party System’ into the Republican The socialist response to US necessarily specifically Marxist. The be vindicated. the single-transferrable-vote method Party and looked hungrily towards imperialism around the turn of the first tendency tends to attract the GG was used, those details would have Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines and century was a small section of a passive majority of the community. USA been handy. Momentum members other overseas possessions of the wider debate on the US left, which The second tendency was most were sent an email with photos of the ailing, Spanish-restored Bourbon included agrarian populists, yellow ascendant during the halcyon days Going, going … winning 29 and invited to click on a empire. This coincided with agrarian labour leaders, and middle class of the 1970s, but it never completely Jack Conrad gave an excellent account link named ‘Want a full rundown of populist William Jennings Bryan’s progressives like Hobson and Brooks disappeared. last Sunday of Boris Johnson’s the results?’ This led to a webpage capture of the Democratic Party. Adams. It may be an interesting place At Edinburgh Pride (2022) a approaching exit, along with an with ... photos of the winning 29. In opposition to the new for further research on the historical contingent of hundreds of marchers analysis and history of what is going Labour List managed a few more Republican Party policy, a group development of the Marxist theory of broke off in protest of the organisers on. It took up most, not surprisingly, details: The turnout was 3,380 (down of eastern capitalists formed the imperialism. accepting sponsorship from fossil fuel of his ‘A week in politics’ presentation from 8,580 in 2020) and “Momentum American Anti-Imperialist League in Parker McQueeney companies, to join the striking RMT on July 10. Organisers candidates received 1,708 1898. Mark Twain was famously a USA workers and protest the Roe vs Wade The mainstream media also first-preference votes, compared to member, but it also included an ex- repeal at the US embassy. This shows devoted a lot of attention to his 1,544 secured by Your Momentum president (the conservative Democrat, Misleading that there is still a more militant and resignation, but without much in the hopefuls.” Grover Cleveland), Andrew Carnegie, Eddie Ford’s article on Pride takes an radical spirit subsisting in parts of the way of analysis or history. So will the new NCG be able to and the racist craft union leader of overly rosy view of the original UK community. We have ‘the runners’, the bookies’ turn around the fortunes of this once the American Federation of Labor, Gay Liberation Front, and provides I think a more fruitful endeavour odds, allies and opponents and lots formidable Labour pressure group? Samuel Gompers. Craft unionists a potentially misleading reading for Marxists than counterposing of ‘vox pops’, especially in the Tory Or are we looking at a fresh team of opposed imperialism because they of the history of gay activism, as a class unity and sectionalism in the ‘strongholds’. (Apparently journalists soft-left careerists, hoping for a lift thought it would lead to competition simple downward trajectory - from abstract, or simply lamenting the know that, if you ask enough people up the ladder on their way to that from cheap labour in colonised the radical politics of gay liberation commercialisation of Pride, would in the street for their opinion, you will cherished MP selection meeting? nations, driving wages down for to the capitalist orgy of contemporary be to engage with the more militant always find some who will say what (Mind you, having Momentum on white workers. The Anti-Imperialist commercialised pride celebrations elements of the LGBT movement, as you want to hear.) So, lots of vapid your CV just now is like the kiss of League formulated the traditional (‘Take it back from them’, July 7). they exist now; attempt to provide an drivel. Political theatre. And it will death.) I’ll leave it to the reader to republican opposition to colonialism The Gay Liberation Front marked analysis which can make historical and keep them going for months now. decide, but I checked out one of the with a ‘Lost Cause’ flare, likening a hugely positive break with the theoretical sense of their struggle; and In The Observer of July 10, for successful NCGers in my region. Her the Republican policies to the British pre-existing ‘homophile’ groups endeavour to build concrete links of instance, about 20 pages out of 64 career so far includes stints in the empire and “the mistaken southern like the Homosexual Law Reform solidarity with other movements. This were devoted to Johnson (in the main USA working for the Democrats and policy of the Congressional Radicals Society, which was formed to is the kind of positive engagement the news section, that is). There were six years working in MPs’ offices at during Reconstruction”. As pointed campaign for the implementation Marxist left mostly failed to provide passing references to more important Westminster! out by Ronald Radosh in a 1964 of the recommendations in the in the 70s. matters: an article in the ‘Review’ BCM Box 928, London WC1N 3XX l 07379 532160 l www.weeklyworker.co.uk l editor@weeklyworker.co.uk
weekl16 worker 1403 July 14 2022 3 section told of the collapse of the river Po in Italy (the weekend Financial Perhaps that’s what flummoxed commentators who emphasised what British road to socialism comrade Conrad correctly attacks comrade Tolpuddle Martyrs festival ACTION Times had an article headed: ‘Italy’s he was (an Etonian), rather than what Northall, “while the CPB’s farmers wilt in worst drought for he stood for. constantly ‘updated’ Britain’s road to Friday July 15 to Sunday July 17: Annual commemoration festival, decades’). He always had a nose for his socialism is marginally to the left of Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum, Dorchester Road, Tolpuddle DT2. So, the most important ‘story’ is constituency. When he ran for Eurocommunism, the old paradigm Tickets £20 to £50. Organised by Tolpuddle Martyrs: only occasionally touched on by the London mayor, he emphasised basically remains the same. There is www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/festival. mainstream media: we get references better buses and flattered the outer a national road to socialism, there is Stand up for the children of Gaza now to “the hottest day”, yesterday boroughs against central London. He a constitutional road to socialism …” Friday July 15, 7.30pm: Fundraising comedy evening, Conway or tomorrow. There are pictures of appeared on telly and played games; But then he presents an almost Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1. Monies raised will support crowded beaches, or pictures of he charmed fellow journalists, even equally confused solution. the work of the Palestine Trauma Centre (UK) in Gaza. Entrance by crowded airport terminals, as people centre-left ones. He often looked Let us recall how the original ticket - £22.15. Organised by Brent Friends of Palestine: wait, often in vain, to get to such a a fool, but was considered a ‘good 1951 version put it: www.facebook.com/events/3243239425956837. beach somewhere or other. laugh’. What he wasn’t was a “The enemies of communism Fossil fuel trail Personally, I don’t like this weather. ‘sensible’ politician: the type who accuse the Communist Party of Saturday July 16, 10am: Assemble Leazes Park, Newcastle upon I used to think that we might get three comes over as entitled and superior. aiming to introduce Soviet power in Tyne NE2. Uncover the truth about the fossil fuel industry in 10 or four heatwaves (by my definition He was even recorded as saying Britain and abolish parliament. This different locations across the city - and what we can do about it. anyway) each summer, which would “Fuck business”. is a slanderous misrepresentation Organised by Extinction Rebellion North East: last three or four days, but it looks as He wanted to be a king, so he of our policy … Britain will reach www.facebook.com/events/560526675563980. if the current one will be 10 days or a appealed to a mass movement, of socialism by her own road. Just as fortnight at least. It didn’t used to be course. He saw Brexit as the one issue the Russian people realised political Stop Rwanda deportations like that. There is a rhyme: “March that appealed to voters fed up with power by the soviet road, which Saturday July 16, 1pm: Demonstration, assemble outside Costa, winds and April showers bring forth bureaucrats and elites (some people was dictated by their historical Alexandra Park, Scotia Road, Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent ST6. Show May flowers.” The flowers have underestimated that sentiment). conditions and background of tsarist opposition to the government’s disgusting Rwanda deportations. arrived, but it has seemed to me over He didn’t mind being thought of as rule, and the working people in the Organised by North Staffordshire Trades Union Council: the last 20 years or so that the “March ‘leftwing’ during the pandemic (a People’s Democracies and China www.facebook.com/events/577905190396518. winds” have been blowing hard into supporter of state intervention) or won political power in their own Solidarity with Clover strikers in South Africa April, May, June … But at least they irresponsible, when he didn’t initiate way in their historical conditions, so Sunday July 17, 2pm: Fundraiser at Peer Hat, 14-16 Faraday Street, can now grow grapes for wine in lockdown early enough or closed it the British communists declare that Manchester M1. Live music and poetry supporting Clover workers, Kent. Apart from the occasional flood too early. Even progressives wanted the people of Britain can transform on strike since last November. Clover, South Africa’s biggest dairy or wildfire, it hasn’t been too bad in to relax. He was opportunist and capitalist democracy into a real manufacturer, was taken over by the Israeli-led Milco, which began the UK - so far. Unless, of course, it’s flexible. People’s Democracy, transforming a programme of job and wage cuts, factory closures and attacks on your house that’s flooded or caught No doubt he will be replaced by parliament, the product of Britain’s working conditions. Tickets £6, all proceeds to strike fund. fire. someone behaving ‘responsibly’ historic struggle for democracy, Organised by Manchester Palestine Action: But what about the rest of the (like Keir Starmer), who will support into the democratic instrument of www.facebook.com/events/3149981595331082. world? In Italy, one of the problems Nato and Brexit and help British the will of the vast majority of her Oppose Farnborough war show is the collapse of glacial waters - business (even if the latter two may people. The path forward for the Monday July 18, from 9am: Day-long protest against Farnborough and the collapse of glaciers that led be in contradiction). British people will be to establish a International Airshow. Assemble Government House Road/Queens to 11 deaths just a few days ago. Mike Belbin People’s Government on the basis of Gate Road, Farnborough GU14. This is a shop window, where the In the US the loss of snowfall due London a parliament truly representative of world’s arms dealers sell weapons to repressive regimes. to global warming has reduced the the people” (our emphasis). Sierra Nevada snowpack and hence Scorn Comrade Conrad sets out his Organised by Greater Rushmoor Action For Peace: www.facebook.com/GRAWantiwar. the supply of water to northern Jack Conrad correctly pours scorn on programme, which sounds quite California. California’s two largest Andrew Northall’s politics, but says ‘transitional’ in many ways - at least Time to speak up for Palestine reservoirs are drying out and the he is a “comrade”, as he is “clearly a it is one min-max effort and not Monday July 18, 7pm: Online rally. Labour must not step back southern and western states of the partisan of the working class” and “a two: “Supreme power in the state from its commitments to immediate recognition of the state of US are facing long-term drought revolutionary Stalinite” - as opposed will be a single popular assembly Palestine and an end to the blockade, occupation and settlements. conditions. Northern India and to the counterrevolutionary Stalinists composed of delegates who are Speakers include: Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Kim Johnson MP and Pakistan are enduring a heatwave like (comrade?) Robert Griffiths, elected and recallable at any time.” Yasmin Dar (Labour NEC). and drought that threatens to it seems. Presumably this applies But where are these “delegates” Organised by Arise: A Festival of Left Ideas: destroy food crops in vast areas of equally to the Young Communist from, how are they to be elected? www.facebook.com/events/582293756660323. both countries. The war in Ukraine League with their “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Is it the model of the democratic Stop Rwanda flights - no offshore detention threatens famine in huge areas of Minh, Che Guevara, Stalin”. So, All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Tuesday July 19, 9am: Protest outside Royal Courts of Justice, Africa and the Middle East. are the Communist Party of Britain 1917-24, the Constituent Assembly Strand, London WC2. This hearing will decide whether the Rwanda Ah, Ukraine! That’s the big leaders around the Morning Star not of 1917-18 or some amalgam of deportations policy is lawful. story now - albeit one that has gone partisans of the working class, albeit both? If the delegates are elected Organised by Trades Union Congress and Stand Up To Racism: down the scale, thanks to Johnson’s profoundly misguided comrades, from local soviets/workers’ councils www.facebook.com/events/424295039569316. problems. Even before the current also? in local assemblies, this is genuine excitement and his resignation In the post-split Workers workers’ democracy, diametrically System failure: what should socialists do? Ukraine has been edging its way into Revolutionary Party the leadership opposed to bourgeois democracy, Tuesday July 19, 6.30pm: Online meeting. The government has the inside pages of the mainstream around Cliff Slaughter defended which Joe Stalin dictated for Britain collapsed amidst war, a cost of living crisis and a wave of strikes. media. But Ukraine is part of the one Dave Smith, a Yorkshire and everywhere else around 1951. Starmer’s Labour shifts rightwards, offering no alternative for biggest story: as the US and Nato miner, who said at a conference Comrade Conrad’s “Local organs of workers who bear the brunt of massive attacks on living standards. battle Russia to the last Ukrainian, in 1987: “Stalinism is the most government must have a wide degree Speakers: Lindsey German and James Schneider. there may be famine - ie, massive counterrevolutionary force on the of autonomy” does not sound much Organised by Counterfire: numbers of dead - but that’s just a planet.” I pointed out that this was better than more democracy for www.facebook.com/events/1256910951793866. footnote. wrong: imperialism is the most local councils today, which have no We all want to just stop oil There is plenty to celebrate! Coal counterrevolutionary force on the measure of workers’ control at all. Saturday July 23, 11am: National march and sit-down. Assemble is back! New oil wells springing up planet. Stalinism was its agent, as was At the end of his list of democratic at one of five London locations: Waterloo Station; Victoria Station; in the US and the North Sea; the social democracy/Labourism. These (transitional?) demands, comrade Angel Station; Euston Station; Paddington Station. March to Supreme Court is busy dismantling were “two counterrevolutionary Conrad concludes: “… in short Parliament Square. End new fossil fuel licensing and production! the Environmental Protection Act; internationals” (Trotsky), but both the character of the revolution is Properly tax fossil fuel companies, the super-rich and big business! some people are making an awful lot were still part of the working class. profoundly democratic; it is prepared Provide cheap, green public transport! Insulate all our homes! of money - let’s not forget the arms I was hit by a hysterical blizzard to use physical force, but prefers Organised by Just Stop Oil, and Peace and Justice Project: companies. of demonisation led by the top peaceful means; it involves a rupture www.weallwanttojuststopoil.com. A few words come to mind, like table. Cyril Smith (not the Liberal in class rule, but seeks to combine Hacking justice: Julian Assange Tom Lehrer’s song (written about Democrat) admitted to Dave Bruce this with gradualism.” Wednesday July 27, 6.15pm: Film screening, Act One Cinema, nuclear war, but still …), We will all that I was right, but explained his Serious Marxists know that the The Old Acton Library, High Street, Acton, London W3. Followed go together when we go, and the line, gross opportunism by: “The point counterrevolution will inevitably by Q and A with representatives from Wikileaks and the Julian “Oh, we will all burn together when was to get Downing”. emerge; comrade Northall is right to Assange Defence Committee. If Julian Assange is extradited to we burn.” Another little snippet, and We must oppose the Stalinophobia post that picture of Allende in 1973 the United States, he will face a sentence of up to 175 years for an ancient saying: “Those whom the of the self-declared Trotskyists of as an example of what will happen publicising US war crimes, including torture, murder and human gods wish to destroy they first make the WRP and others, but also avoid if you do not prepare for it. So ‘For rights abuses. Organised by Ealing Amnesty Group: mad”. the Stalinophilia of Michel Pablo, or against the revolution’ in the www.facebook.com/events/2006475179524351. Still, Extinction Rebellion is Ernest Mandel and comrade Conrad. dictatorship of the proletariat will be having a big do in September - better Trotsky put it thus: the byword, not ‘extreme democracy’. Big Ride for Palestine welcome rally than nothing? Maybe. But their first “The general historic role of Full workers’ control of industry via Sunday July 31, 12.15pm: Final stage of cycling event, Platt Fields call is for institutions - governments the Stalinist bureaucracy and their local soviets; no ‘democracy’ for the Park, Manchester M14. Around 250 cyclists will participate in for instance - to tell the truth. What! Comintern is counterrevolutionary. counterrevolution; no rights for the this three-day cycling fundraiser from Derby, in solidarity with the We need mass working class But through their military and Tory Party or the fascists to stand for people of Palestine against the apartheid practices of the Israeli state. parties all over the word to avoid other interests they can be forced election or produce their propaganda. Organised by The Big Ride for Palestine 2022: extinction - of humanity and much to support progressive movements. The Bolsheviks were correct www.thebigride4palestine.com/big-ride-summer-2022. other life. Wars and Boris Johnsons Even Ludendorff felt himself to scatter the assembly on Thames walk for Palestine can be made history thereby too. forced to give Lenin a train - a January 19 1918: it was the seat of Saturday August 13, 8.30am: Walk along the Thames, raising Jim Nelson very progressive action - and Lenin counterrevolution against the All- funds for Medical Aid for Palestinians. Start at Thames Barrier email accepted. We must keep our eyes Russian Congress of Soviets. The (about 11 miles) or Greenwich (six miles), ending at Tower Bridge. open to discern the progressive latter was abolished by Stalin and Organised by Lewisham Stop the War Coalition: Responsible acts of the Stalinists, support them replaced by the pseudo-bourgeois www.facebook.com/events/785813662424210. Boris Johnson was ‘posh’, but independently, foresee in time the parliament, the Supreme Soviet, CPGB wills he wasn’t ‘elitist’ - rather like danger, the betrayals, warn the in 1936. Revolutions do not work Remember the CPGB and keep the struggle going. Put our party’s Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster, who masses and gain their confidence” through extreme democracy. name and address, together with the amount you wish to leave, in had an adoring butler and was (Letter on India, 1939-40). Gerry Downing your will. If you need further help, do not hesitate to contact us. up against domineering aunts. Also, in the debate about the Socialist Fight
4 July 14 2022 1403 worker weekly TORIES Expect an early general election Smear campaigns, dirty dossiers, stitch-ups - yes, it is a Tory leadership contest. Eddie Ford also notes that Penny Mordaunt is way out in front when it comes to the bookies Will be Rishi and another (possibly Liz Truss, probably Penny Mordaunt) A s everyone knows, after Grant of Truss’s most vociferous backers, rival campaign teams have sent Finally, whoever is elected, it is Labour Party a safe second eleven Shapps dropped out, with both Jacob Rees-Mogg, has attacked Sunak the Labour Party ‘dirty dossiers’ more likely than not that there will be for capitalism and is aiming to rewin Sajid Javid and junior minister on the basis that he made decisions packed with allegations against their a honeymoon period - fresh broom, the so-called Red Wall seats lost to Rehman Chishti failing to secure “of the left rather than on the right” potential opponents - including about new chapter, born again and all that. the Tories by triangulating on Brexit. enough nominations - the support of at - referring to him as “the last Labour extramarital affairs, the use of tax Therefore a high chance of an early Having urged, pushed and shoved least 20 Tory MPs - eight candidates chancellor”, “socialist chancellor”, dodges, illegal drugs and prostitutes, general election. Expect opinion polls Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet into made it to the first round of voting in and so on. He has also attempted to with at least one private investigator to go from showing a Labour lead - up favouring a second referendum, he has the Tory leadership contest on July disparage Sunak’s Brexit credentials, reportedly hired to probe some to 10% in some cases - to favouring now done a U-turn. His position on the 12. A day later and we were down to even though he voted ‘leave’, by candidates’ financial arrangements. a new prime minister. If that happens, EU is now barely distinguishable from six, with Nadhim Zahawi and Jeremy calling him an “ostensible Brexiteer” Nadhim Zahawi has complained and it might well not, then the chances Theresa May’s soft Brexit circa 2019. Hunt eliminated. Soon it will be just whose department had resisted ending about being “smeared” after reports are they would go for a general Either way, Sir Keir has a real chance two. The expectation being that it will the “supremacy of EU law” during his appeared saying that a “flag” had election. Maybe as early as October of getting into No10 and fulfilling his be Rishi Sunak and another (probably tenure. allegedly been raised about his 2022 or more likely the spring of 2023. ambition of becoming Britain’s first Penny Mordaunt but possibly Liz Additionally, there has been a personal finances before he became Labour is planning for May 2023. former Trotskyist prime minister. Truss). demented ‘war on woke’, Kemi chancellor - another allegation being The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act The left’s stupid idea that he was Then it will be head-to-head TV Badenoch being the most prominent. that Boris Johnson went ahead with would be suitably amended and the fixated on beating the left and does debates and the gruelling round of Former equalities minister and famous the appointment “despite the possible new prime minister will be looking to not really want to beat the Tories was constituency meetings before a final for hacking into a Labour MP’s concerns” over Zahawi’s tax affairs. gain their own mandate. always just that - stupid l vote of Conservative Party members website and changing all the material Zahawi promised to publish his Not that we dismiss Sir Keir. He (believed to number around 160,000). to say complimentary things about the tax returns … if he becomes prime has already succeeded in making the eddie.ford@weeklyworker.co.uk The winner will formally replace Tories, she has said that schools which minister. Fighting fund Boris Johnson as prime minister on teach that “white privilege” is an According to a survey of the September 6. Johnson himself has uncontested fact are breaking the law bookies’ odds, Mordaunt is the clear magnanimously said that he will and that they should not openly support favourite. They give her a 60% chance Help us out not be openly backing any of the the “anti-capitalist” Black Lives of winning in September. Sunak might candidates, as he “wouldn’t want to Matter. She also wants to ban gender- be well ahead when it comes to MPs, damage anyone’s chances with my neutral toilets. Clearly, Badenoch but not when it comes to the bookies. support”. has her eye on another ministerial He is rated with just over a 20% At this stage, there is no obvious winner. Nor is there any obviously Johnsonite candidate, which you can appointment … and becoming the darling of the October 2022 Tory Party conference in Birmingham (if it chance, while Truss comes in third, a tad behind him. In some ways, the left and the T he three most notable donations to this week’s fighting fund came, unusually, via reckon we have a good chance of getting there. That, of course, depends on roughly define as getting Brexit done happens - see below). labour movement can learn from PayPal. All three - from SB, RL you, our readers and supporters, (again), levelling up, big government Of course, no Tory leadership the Tory Party election contest. Four and US comrade PM - were for upon whom we rely to make sure when needed, etc. Then again, there is contest would be complete without women and four people of colour £50. we get the cash we need not only no real distinctive Johnson philosophy, rampant treachery and Machiavellian made it to the first round of voting, But they weren’t the largest to keep the Weekly Worker going, or ideology, in the way you might plotting (or ‘tactical voting’, to use with no elaborate quota system or amounts. The prize for that goes but to improve and expand its have described Margaret Thatcher. another term). Nadine Dorries has bureaucratic positive discrimination to comrade PB, who donated her content and quality. If you want to Ultimately, what distinguished accused the Sunak team of pulling - it can be done. Organisations such usual £60 monthly standing order. help us out, you know what to do! Johnson himself was sheer naked “dirty tricks” - perish the thought! - as Momentum, Left Unity and the Other standing orders were from You can donate via PayPal, ambition and shameless opportunism. after Jeremy Hunt made it into the first Labour Representation Committee, BO (£35), NH (£30), GD and DV of course, or by bank transfer Apart from Rishi Sunak, the ballot of MPs. She was responding to the Labour Party itself, have endless (£25 each), SM and CC (£10), to ‘Weekly Worker’ (sort code other main candidates have pledged a tweet which claims ex-chief whip rules and regulation to ensure gender while comrade Hassan came up 30-99-64, account number to lower taxes - this has been the Gavin Williamson had been trying equality, the representation of ethnic with his usual note (this time for 00744310). And - yes - we still contest mantra so far. Liz Truss, for to siphon off votes here and there, minorities and the like. That inevitably £10) and MF donated a fiver. accept cheques! Please help if you example, has promised to cut taxes so Hunt would eventually make it to leads to shoo-ins, charges of tokenism That comes to £360 raised can l from “day one” - such as reversing the final run-off with Sunak before and even uncontested elections. in the last seven days towards Robbie Rix the hike in national insurance. Sunak, the membership - believing that Hunt And, of course, it does nothing, not a our £2,250 July target, taking by contrast, told The Daily Telegraph would not stand a chance, which is thing, to advance the actual position the running total up to £919. Fill in a standing order form that tackling inflation is his “number doubtlessly true. For the outraged of women, ethnic minorities, gay That means we’re just a little (back page), donate via our one economic priority”, claiming Dorries, this is an attempted “stitch- people, etc. But it does help not a few behind the going rate, but, with website, or send cheques, that Margaret Thatcher would have up”. second‑rate careerists up the political 18 days still to go, as I write, I payable to Weekly Worker backed his approach. In response, one We also read that at least two ladder.
weekly worker 1403 July 14 2022 5 COMMENT That’s entertainment! Boris Johnson’s persona is part Psmith, part Flashman and part Tim Nice-But-Dim. Paul Demarty traces the rise and fall of the ‘Red Tory’ A little over three years ago, to use and quietly mothballed) were all he may seek revenge against the as Theresa May served out swamped by the endless process of people who did for him - Westminster her notice period, Andrew business as usual, the sacrifice of the rumours have abounded for a long Rawnsley - the ultra-Blairite capital to rapacious developers and time that he does not even really want parliamentary diarist for The nihilistic speculation, its consolidation the job. Observer - quoted an anonymous as a money laundry with ideas above How can things have been so senior Tory, who predicted an easy its station. All these things were in different from his last major gig, victory in the upcoming leadership full flow under ‘Red Ken’, and have in London? The mayor’s office election for one Alexander Boris de continued under the ‘serious’ Labour offers a ‘big personality’ like Boris Pfeffel Johnson. Tory members, he machine politician, Sadiq Khan. (or Ken) both more power than said, “now want some entertainment Johnson returned to parliament in a ‘parliamentary’ system, and and wickedness. So they will 2015, towards the end of his second paradoxically greater ease of not probably take a punt on Boris. It will mayoral term. He found himself exercising it; an executive bureaucracy be a wild ride on the tiger. Boris will in an unexpected Tory majority can get on with administration, with be a hoot. The question is whether government; David Cameron had basically no oversight, leaving the the country wants a hoot.”1 expected a further coalition with the top man free for glad-handing and If nothing else, Boris’s downfall Liberal Democrats, and now had to nonsensical pet projects. For a prime has been a “hoot” - a masterpiece in deliver on a promise he regretted very minister, everything is subject to that subtle comic art of the delayed rapidly, to give the British people parliamentary arithmetic. Though punchline. The clown survives a a referendum on their continued Boris should have been untouchable, series of lethal obstacles, and then membership of the European Union. with his huge majority and anaemic slips on a banana skin and knocks The rest, as they say, is history. It is opposition, the pandemic was the himself out. Given his humiliating not clear what calculation led Johnson cruellest blow, right on the natural ‘victory’ in the confidence vote, his to side with the leavers in the end. fracture line between Tory ideology next mistake was always likely to Perhaps he assumed they would be and that party’s historic commitment prove fatal, whether it was a fresh London mayor victory speech in 2008 defeated, but Tory members would to Staatsraison. The need of the hour one or a newly unearthed piece of remember his principled stand in was a bonfire of Thatcherite verities. dirt. So, when the parliamentary thinking, ‘There’s a war, weird shit political opinions, so far as they are future leadership elections; perhaps Every vote on every lockdown standards commissioner, Kathryn happens in a war - play for time, known. Their children were upwardly he detected a change in the mood policy threatened a major backbench Stone, received the news that Johnson play for time, I can still get out of mobile; Boris, famously, attended music of politics in western liberal rebellion. The graft and corruption not only knew of Chris Pincher’s this - I got a mandate, members Eton, albeit on a scholarship; and democracies. Either way, he found were assailed from all sides - from proclivities, but dismissed them love me. Get to September …’ If from that moment he was on the himself riding the wave of history. Labourites who viewed it as a verdict breezily with a joke - “Pincher by MPs leave him in situ there’ll be yellow brick road to great things. He The hara-kiri of David Cameron on Johnson’s character and from Tory name, pincher by nature” - and carnage.2 went on to Balliol College, Oxford, after losing the vote gave Johnson his hardliners for whom it was evidence appointed him deputy chief whip and became head of the Oxford first sniff of the top job, but he was of the failure of ‘pandemic socialism’. regardless, the Conservative Party’s What kind of “carnage”? At the Union; from university, he went into outmanoeuvred by Michael Gove, and immune system ground belatedly into very least, attempts to steer the journalism and then, in a roundabout it was Theresa May who succeeded as Downwardly mobile gear. leadership election from the bully way, into politics. a unity candidate. The failure of the Johnson It was a very Johnsonian pulpit he still occupies. Johnson’s On paper, this is not exactly an administration, then, presents us dénouement. A keen classicist like people have already been extensively atypical road to travel. Not all Eton- Sick man with an unflattering picture of British the PM will know the basic rules of briefing against Rishi Sunak and Oxbridge products go on to be Tory May’s disastrous showing in the bourgeois politics. Britain’s world classical tragedy - in particular the Michael Gove; no doubt they can hit prime ministers, of course; but an 2017 snap election, however, losing role could not, in the end, be defended. one that states that the hero’s downfall others. Johnson has promised not to awful lot of Tory prime ministers the majority bequeathed her by Its job as a US-paid saboteur within must stem necessarily from his or introduce major new legislation, but have had that sort of provenance. The Cameron, offered Johnson his real the EU demanded an endless kabuki her essential character flaws, not by the manifesto he won on was - as they difference with Boris was precisely chance. As one humiliation followed theatre of Euroscepticism; there was mere happenstance. Johnson has always are - wildly more ambitious his detour into the world of the lovable another, Johnson followed a strategy always the danger that enough people survived for so long behind the mask than what he actually achieved in his celebrity. His journalism was hardly of tension, strategically resigning and would come actually to believe it to of ‘Bozza’ - a certain sort of public four years in office. He has a cabinet, of the Woodward-Bernstein sort, but castigating her ‘soft’ Brexit plan from do something disastrous. This led, as schoolboy with a Peter Pan complex, a of a sort; several of its members are rather a matter of Psmith escaping the the sidelines. By the time May finally the Brexiteer Tory, Daniel Hannan, bounder who gets away with it by self- looking to replace him. He can pick pages of PG Wodehouse. His most called it quits two years later, he was put it, to an “unfrozen moment”, deprecation and even self-satirisation. a fight with any of them, to make notorious innovation, the ‘Euromyth’ the clear frontrunner to replace her, which coincided roughly with a His staggeringly obvious amorality them look bad. Or he can do what he - the entirely fabricated story about and the party (and the country) were global move towards vicious national appears as the cheerful mischief- promised: keep his nose clean, and let nonsensical European Union ready to ride the tiger. He purged the chauvinism. making of a ruddy-faced 13-year-old things play out ‘naturally’. Perhaps he regulations - was itself the closest Tory parliamentary party, and pushed Johnson’s buttoned-up predecessor in full Eton uniform. It is, therefore, really does, as various tell-all accounts possible approach of ‘serious’ political through a hard Brexit; his rhetoric sounded similar notes to his about quite fitting that an end should be suggest, hate the job, and just wants journalism to Bullingdon Club switched from his conventional ‘levelling up’ and turning the Tories called to his reign over an essentially to have his belated wedding bash at repartee (Johnson filed copy claiming Thatcherism to the ‘one nation, Red into a party of the working class. adolescent attitude to the professional Chequers and be gone. We should that the perfidious mandarins wanted Tory’ mould. We were reminded last She, and advisors like Nick Timothy, mores of his trade. not assume anything about Johnson’s to regulate the size of condoms, on week, amidst all the resignations, that failed. Boris failed too: the idea of behaviour from here on out; we account of the Italians’ alleged under- there is even a ministerial portfolio for ‘Red Toryism’ - the empty promise of Carnage have long departed the economics endowment in the trouser department). ‘levelling up’. it - works well enough as an electoral He is, of course, not done yet. The professor’s domain of rational self- His crossover into comedy was sealed The post-Brexit uplands were never gambit. Yet it is a mirage, for the same Tory Party is not yet accustomed to interest. by well-received appearances over likely to be as sunlit as promised by reason as all versions of ‘socialism switching horses mid-parliament, at many years on BBC shows like Have Johnson and his allies. Even with that in one country’ are mirages - the least not while it is in government. King of comedy I got news for you and Room 101. caveat, events rapidly overtook him. economy just is globalised, and has But Johnson is not the first premier to It is worth zooming out and asking Having got a certain level of His reluctance to take stern measures been since the days of Venice and be so ejected; his hero, Mrs Thatcher, what this all means for bourgeois brand recognition, the time was right in the very early days of the pandemic Genoa. The succession of attempts and his predecessor, Mrs May, are politics in this country in its broader to move into politics proper, which was a predictable failure from this at making the mirage a reality have the two pertinent examples. Yet the historical development. There have he did as MP for true-blue Henley- scourge of the straight banana, and it been a succession of attempts at only way to get rid of him as PM been no end of worthy editorials on-Thames in 2001. The round of was not a unique failure on the world re-articulating what is essentially a before the protracted horror show since the Partygate revelations began, constituency surgeries bored him; stage. Still, Britain had a very bad fantasy, or even a lie. of the leadership election to replace castigating the moral void at the centre but his ambition would not allow pandemic until Johnson’s government And so we ended up with … a clown, him is to side with a more-or-less of the government. Johnson simply him to remain merely a sort of Tory caught on to the need for central state an embarrassing national stereotype inevitable vote of no confidence in does not have the values, so it was Dennis Skinner, offering comic foil direction; it is some irony that one of - equal parts Psmith, Flashman and parliament. To offload him, 80-plus said, to lead this great nation. material from the back benches. As the better recent illustrations of the Tim Nice-But-Dim. When the sober Tory MPs would have to side with From this perspective, one could the New Labour era dragged on, he power of mass social mobilisation was and serious partisans of the ‘Red Tory’ Labour and the rest, which is hardly almost interpret the whole Boris era as supposed a bigger stage might be on a state-run vaccination programme phantasm were dispensed with, only an unachievable number, but we will a cosmic accident; but to do so would offer in London city hall: the directly administered by a government whose the Bullingdon bounder was left to have to wait and see. The government be an act of wilful blindness. Our elected mayoral office had revived hatred for socialised healthcare is give it another go. His was not a mask has procedurally fended off such a interest of such ‘accidents’ is not in the career of a Labour Party maverick barely concealed. that concealed a ruthless operator (or vote for the time being. the lords of misrule whom they propel and ‘big beast’, Ken Livingstone, so The scandals began around perhaps it concealed nothing other Most perhaps hoped that he would to power - Johnson or, a fortiori, perhaps it could do the same job for then, with rampant corruption in than a ruthless operator). He could resign the premiership with the party Donald Trump - but in what they Johnson. Astonishingly, it did - and procurement, ‘fast lane’ sweetheart win the war, but he could not win the leadership, and hot-foot it from No10 disclose about the political structures not once, but twice. In the intervening deals for Tory donors and ministers’ peace - perhaps because there is no the same day. That wish unsurprisingly so vulnerable to shysters and unholy years, London has solidified into the mates, and all the rest. Meanwhile, peace to be won l turned out not to come true. Among the fools of this sort. strongest base of Labour support; those bloody Downing Street thousands of notables live-tweeting Johnson’s family background is but back then it was quite difficult parties began in earnest. Johnson’s paul.demarty@weeklyworker.co.uk the proceedings on Thursday was one not quite so resolutely blue-blooded to see Johnson as any kind of threat. government has generally careened Dominic Cummings, former Johnson flunky, but long since split from his as one might guess from his public image. His father is the descendant of He certainly was not to London: his occasional follies (doomed projects from one crisis to the next - in Cummings’ memorable phrase, like a Notes 1. www.theguardian.com/ old boss. Dom told his followers: minor branches of European nobility like the Thames garden bridge and the shopping trolley with a broken wheel. commentisfree/2019/may/26/what-makes- on the one side, and late-Ottoman proposed ‘Boris Island’ airport in the Some of the crises have been scandals, tories-think-anyone-must-be-better-than- theresa-may. I know that guy and I’m telling officialdom on the other; his mother Thames estuary; the purchase of anti- others have been ‘events, dear boy, 2. twitter.com/dominic2306/ you, he doesn’t think it’s over. He’s was a middle class painter of leftish riot water cannon that were illegal events’. The upshot of it all is that - for status/1544990924572430337.
6 July 14 2022 1403 worker weekly UKRAINE First our own rulers Far from running out of troops and material and facing defeat, Russian forces continue to relentlessly advance. But, Alexander Gallus of the US journal Cosmonaut argues, for us the main enemy remains at home D aily headlines over the past sided outrage broadcast daily on months have assured western the American and European media audiences that Ukraine is about the conflict in Ukraine, the constantly on the verge of a victorious driving concern of the imperialist counterattack, that Russia is facing a governments is not - surprise - human depletion of ammunition and that the suffering, but a continuation of the war Ukrainians “will drive out the Russians towards certain ends. from their territory”. While events These ends are perhaps not as over the past month have somewhat clear today as with colonial conquest dampened such widespread optimistic in the past. For instance, there is a attitudes, the war aims of killing and lot of evidence that the US and UK defeating Russians on the battlefield war aim in Iraq was not simply the continue to be almost unanimously immediate seizure of oil, although shared and declared by American and personal enrichment and corruption European governments. From the certainly occurred. The aims were outset, it is important to highlight here more to prevent Iraq from artificially that Russia is, in reality, not losing increasing the global cost of oil by the war in Ukraine, despite what we keeping export production low, to end constantly hear in the media. the protectionist, nationalised character Ukrainian independent frontline of Iraq’s oil industry (a practice which reporters, as well as US and Canadian secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld mercenaries who have fought Russia called “Stalinist”), to fully integrate alongside the Ukrainian armed forces Iraq into the profitable global market in the Donbas, testify to the asymmetric and to geopolitically plant the flag of balance of forces and the change in “liberal democracy” in the Middle Russia’s initial tactics. According East. Efforts to turn Ukraine into a to their accounts, Russian ground “restructured” market befitting US forces have turned to using much and European capital have been more caution with infantry advances underway for decades - with little and how they utilise their technical success until recently, of course, due military superiority. At the start of to its economic, political and - yes - the invasion, the Russian standard cultural integration with the Russian approach - using heavy artillery before Federation. At the heart of the United sending in infantry - was abandoned States’ special interest in and treatment for mechanised infantry runs deep into of Ukraine, and its outrageous, multi- Ukrainian territory without combined billion-dollar military support in the arms cover. This surprising approach current conflict, is this entity. appeared to most analysts to hinge What the US calls a strategic on false Russian intelligence, leading “near-peer” military and geopolitical them to believe that most Ukrainians rival - the Russian Federation and its would welcome them. In reality, of bourgeoisie - does not, like dozens course, Russian platoons were met by of other targeted nations, follow the tactically superior Ukrainian soldiers esteemed “international rules-based who had been trained up to Nato order” as dictated by the US, and integrational standards for eight years, incidentally possesses untold amounts or were often stranded dozens of miles of natural resources as the largest inside enemy territory without gas, country in the world. Tellingly, US having to destroy their equipment if Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin possible and flee. said a few months ago: “We want to The human cost of the conflict When it comes to artillery, Ukraine is outnumbered 10:1 see Russia weakened to the degree is quite stark. Almost 10 million that it can’t do the kinds of things it has Ukrainians have sought refuge unlike those of the Ukrainians. fired daily, as against 60,000 by the the Russian army’s entrance to the done in invading Ukraine.”5 And the outside the country, while thousands According to an American military Russians. More importantly, it is also city. These sorts of telling incidents billions of dollars in weapons being of civilians and tens of thousands advisor writing for the Modern War not prudent to believe that the Russian and pro-Russian sentiments are much sent to Ukraine, handily indebting the of soldiers have been killed. Yet, it Institute at West Point, the Ukrainian government is currently not politically more widespread in the Donbas than people of Ukraine to the International is clear at this point that the conflict casualty rate is so high that part-time capable of implementing its stated our western oligarchs would have us Monetary Fund, are precisely intended threatens to become much larger if and local territorial defence forces goal of increasing military production. believe, yet clearly not as uniform as to “defeat Russia on the battlefield”. global tensions continue to escalate, from around the country are being sent Of course, this could change, but the the Russian mass media report either. They are merely a continuation of and if the US/Nato do not show a to the front, into sieged defensive lines Russian army seriously threatens In the midst of all this, the official longstanding US foreign policy goals willingness to negotiate on Russian that are strategically indefensible, to to continue and expand beyond the Communist Party of the Russian to economically and militarily render demands forwarded on December 17 much protest from their relatives. He current main battle areas to the rest Federation’s youth wing has seen Russia incapable of competing with last year, or to instruct the nationalist further says: of Ukraine if negotiations are not resignations and expulsions of youth it economically or militarily. The aim proxy regime in Kiev to negotiate pursued, which still seems unlikely. members protesting the war in light of in fact breaking up Russia precedes soon and accept territorial losses. Even in units that fall within the While it appears very true that of the continued ban on factions,4 the 2008 Bucharest Nato summit As The Guardian and a number of Ukrainian special operations corruption and consequent logistical and the party continues to support the by decades - and is even positively other western newspapers such as the command, most soldiers are sent issues trouble the Russian army, government’s war aims, along with and openly advocated by sections New York Times report or infer, the to the front line with very little especially visible with the many all other major parties, and building of the radical left in Germany, of all Ukrainian armed forces are suffering training. In one such unit, we successful Ukrainian attacks at the a sizable Marxist media opposition countries. up to 20,000 casualties a month. estimated that just 20% had even beginning of the invasion, the Russian proves to be as difficult to build in During the Madrid summit on Russian, Donetsk and Luhansk fired a weapon before heading to army’s recent success last month in Russia as here. June 27, Nato secretary general Jens casualty estimates are speculated on combat [!]2 the quick battles for Severodonetsk Stoltenberg declared that the alliance wildly, with casualties reported using and Lisichansk - the latter of which US and Nato will increase its ‘response force’ from absurdly high figures. Even in light With the Russian army seemingly fell in less than a week, despite The 1990s triumphalism of its current 40,000 to the lofty goal of the Ukrainian government now having overcome much of its initial the geographical obstacles and globalising capitalism, with its of 300,000 soldiers by 2023. At that being armed with heavy weaponry logistical failures and importing a many years of Ukrainian defensive promise of free trade, prosperity and same summit, Turkey struck a political from the US, Germany and other estimated 3,000 tons of ammunition preparations - nevertheless emphasise liberal democracy for all, is quite agreement with Sweden and Finland Nato countries, these deliveries are daily, according to Die Welt Moscow the conventional military capabilities dead - put to sleep by what are the for the extradition of “terrorists” it in reality only aiming to create parity correspondent Christopher Wanner, of the Russian army. allegedly uniquely aggressive actions seeks to politically persecute, thereby between the Russian and Ukrainian it shows no signs of slowing down: It is further important to realise at of a handful of evil dictators. “They improving the catastrophic possibility militaries and to counteract the the Duma recently passed two war this point that politically the Russian hate our freedom”, as George W Bush of those countries’ membership massive, disproportionate losses of economy bills, obliging businesses ‘special military operation’ is not yet quaintly put it, when he was asked why of Nato’s military alliance. This the Ukrainian army in the Donbas. to supply the military with goods widely unpopular nor a matter of the United States became a target of potential future reality would indeed Amidst many indications that Nato is and services, and workers to work great controversy internally, with the terrorists on 9/11 - this has seemingly be catastrophic, as the Kremlin delivering key battlefield information overtime. Atlantic Council reporting that “more become the undergirding intellectual has promised repeatedly that the to Ukrainian troops using advanced Russian missile attacks targeting than three-quarters of Russians still rationale which supposedly explains installation of Nato military equipment technologies,1 the German member the entirety of Ukraine have not let support Putin’s Ukraine war” and our world today. Yet the underlying and missile systems in Finland, on of parliament, Ali Al-Dailami of Die up either - quite the opposite - while that a quick end to the war will not reality of the great powers conflict Russia’s border, would be targeted Linke, questioned whether German Russian air force sorties number come about through expedient regime tearing up Ukraine and prematurely by its military. Any offensive action submarines were used in the sinking 200-300 a day, compared to 20-30 change or revolution.3 Thousands of extinguishing the lives of tens of against a Nato member automatically of the Russian navy ship Moskva. for the Ukrainians. A similar 10-to-1 civilians of Lisichansk in Luhansk, thousands is quite different from activates the article 5 ‘protection’ Despite varying analyses, the ratio is to be found in the devastating for instance, have reportedly been this simplistic and arrogant narrative guaranteed by the alliance, requiring capacities of the Russian military do frontline use of artillery, with at best resisting the Ukrainian armed forces’ being spoon-fed to millions through other alliance members to get involved not yet show any real signs of depletion 6,000 Ukrainian artillery rounds attempts to evacuate residents before the mass media. Despite the one- in the conflict. Practically speaking,
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