The UN sponsored deal to shut down the Syrian war (see 'Peace in Syria?' 12 February 2016) has taken another turn. Putin is pulling out his direct military support for Assad. (Putin's 'legacy' in Syria includes a Russian Mediterranean port, a military airport and an attached military base.)
Putin's decision produced consternation in the West and, for several hours, the White House was struck dumb. Their paralysis was a direct result of believing their own bullshit. And now Western 'experts' and lead correspondents, like Jeremy Bowen of the BBC, are already constructing another version of the evil Emperor of the East, describing Putin and his team as 'brilliant' and 'geniuses' in the way they have completely befuddled the West and remained the 'guys to watch' in the Syrian arena - as though this is a game of chess and not brute force.
A month ago The Wall Street Journal was speculating in headlines about the imminence of a Russo/Turkish war, with added Saudi involvement, as Russia's Syrian intervention was apparently shifting the balance in the region in favour of Iran. (Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's bellicose master has already stated that it was a big mistake for Turkey not to join the US and 'the coalition of the willing' in the invasion of Iraq - meaning that the Turkish military could have helped snuff out Iranian influence there and in the surrounding region.) Now Putin's act has shown the 'experts' that the West is not just dealing with 'evil' here, but having to face 'clever evil.'
In fact Russian commentators and leading politicians have always said that Russian intervention in Syria would be short (without, of course, spelling out any timescale.) Their aims were to shore up the Assad regime in order to prevent the dangerous chaos of another Libya; to prevent the US and NATO dividing up a post war set of weak franchises across what used to be Syria under the umbrella of the US and Turkey; and to strengthen Russian influence and 'hard power' generally in the region. Additionally Russia faces a serious economic crisis and a major, not to say widening military adventure could lead to domestic disaster (as Russia's history shows.) Putin has mobilised the partial removal of his forces because his goals were largely (albeit perhaps temporarily) achieved. Russia had forced the West into a 'suspension of war' deal without any conditions for the removal of the Assad regime - except the normal nod to a 'democratically decided' future.
Finally Putin has made sure his Syrian 'ally' (read dependent) does not imagine his own future is synonymous with Russia's protection of his regime. It would suit Putin fine if a friendly General would make Assad and his gem-studded, extended family 'go away.' And Assad's recent talk of a permanent war to win it all back for his personal regime is not on Putin's agenda at all. Better a weakened Syria, ruled by a benevolent army, beholden to Russia, than another semi-independent popinjay with delusions of power.
Russia's military 'success' over the West has come at terrible cost to Syrians. Because the Russian aim was to bolster the regime's forces, they bombed any and all of its actual or potential opposition. As that included the vast majority of the Syrian population (whether organised as such or not), the Russian military action was effectively massive and indiscriminate. And it changed the balance of military forces in the country. This high tech savagery did not add one inch to the space required for the Syrian people to make a peace and a new country for themselves as more bits of cities, towns and villages were blasted into the stone age. But it did force an end to some military aspects of the Western adventure designed to ensure a pro-Western regime. The West's defeat and Russia's step back can open the possibility to begin work inside Syria on new politics needed, but rooted solely among the Syrian population itself, both inside and outside the country, as well as the international mobilisation of desperately needed humanitarian aid.
Tuesday 15 March 2016
Sunday 13 March 2016
Greek? Tragedy
This is part of a report published on March 11 by a campaign working to support refugees giving some news of the current position in Greece.
It was circulated to supporters of the Greece Solidarity Campaign in the UK. Their website offers more details and sources of further information.
More than 700 refugees arrived today on #Lesbos. Camps will be full in 2-3 days of good weather, volunteers claim. There are around 3000 refugees currently at the port of #Piraeus, which saw more than 2000 arrivals today. Refugees continue to be put on buses and moved from the port to the camps in and around Athens. For example, at least 1,000 of them were moved today to new camps in #Larissa, #Trikala (castle), near the village #Koutsochero next to Larissa and in #NeaMakri close to Athens. Piraeus is able to keep, ideally, between, 2,000 and 4,000 refugees, yet new refugees land to Piraeus every day. Seeing this, refugees need to be transferred to other camps, yet these are reaching their capacity as well, and Greece is facing a problem of not knowing where to put newly arriving or awaiting refugees. Volunteers also report that Afghans stationed at port, some of whom have been there for as long as two weeks, are often uninformed about the option and the possibility of moving to one of the camps. Although volunteers do their best to disseminate the information, the amount of people is incredibly large and new refugees are constantly arriving, which makes it difficult to properly inform refugees about their rights and options. Volunteers are still urgently needed every day, especially during nights in the port, and every day 10-18 in #Elliniko warehouse.
.
Some 35,000 people have been stranded in Greece since Austria and several Balkan states began closing borders, barring access to thousands of refugees hoping to settle in places in northern Europe. In #Idomeni, near the Greek-Macedonian border, scores of refugees struggle for free food and water, oftentimes, pushing each other to seize eggs and bread thrown from a truck (Balkan Konvoi) at them. The truck today was late, as the organizer was detained for hours, by which police placed many lives at risk. Aid workers are warning that infectious diseases could soon spread due to the unsanitary conditions in the makeshift camp. Authorities in northern Greece say some 70 children living at a camp on the Greek-Macedonian border have received hospital treatment over the past three days, for fever and diarrhea. Medics are already treating conditions one could see in WW1 trenches. Refugees are losing toes to gangrene; children have severe trench foot. Escaping the war in their homelands, it seems, refugees only arrived to face another war, the one Europe is leading against them. People are huddling inside tents to get away from the rain as the ground has turned into mud. One can see countless shivering barefoot children in the mud. Absolutely everything and everyone is soaked to the bone. All the camping tents in the fields are flooded. Almost all of these tents have children in them. At night, the sound of children coughing and babies crying rises through the pouring rain. People are sleeping-or trying to sleep-on the soaking wet blankets they use to line their tents. There is nowhere for anyone from these tents to seek shelter to warm up; the large UN and MSF tents are completely packed. No one has socks. No one has dry clothes. Everyone's shoes are broken and soaking wet. A father clutched volunteer’s hands. He was crying. "I have lost everything. 3,000 dollars for my family to come from Turkey. This was the big dream, Europe was the big dream. We just want to be safe. And this. What is this?" A shivering refugee woman said, "I can't do this anymore. We came here because we were dying, and what, people will die here. Shame on your country, I'm sorry, but shame." The rain stopped during the day but new one is expected from Saturday on.
.
In the evening, a big demonstration took place in #Thessaloniki with around 1500 participants. People took the street in solidarity with the refugees and against the racist European migration policies that leave people to a slow death in camps like Idomeni. Solidarity groups from Athens repeated “Refugees, Welcome!” protest at #Victoriasquare which they held yesterday, and will continue until necessary. This is ongoing protest against the racist exclusion of refugees from the public and against manipulations of police. Public spaces must be opened for everyone, the protesters say. Today they shared food to hundreds of refugees, played with children, cleaned the square. All of that in spite of constant police threats that they have to move. At the same time, 240 refugees detained in Greece are being returned to Turkey. 81 refugees (61 Pakistanis, 13 Moroccans, 7 Algerians) were returned today from #Athens and 160 are planned to be retuturned on Friday and Monday from #Xanthi and #Drama detention centers. They will be transferred to the border crossing #Kipoi at #Evros and given to Turkish authorities.
.
On Lesvos, police observed and halted the selling of tickets from Piraeus port to Idomeni, after dozens of refugees and migrants were sold invalid tickets. The service is provided free of charge by Greek authorities. Another violation of refugees’ rights as consumers comes as essential goods, such as food purchased by refugees in Athens and Thessaloniki, are being sold at exorbitant prices. To counter these, the General Secretariat for Commerce and Consumer Protection implemented several controls with results yet unknown.
It was circulated to supporters of the Greece Solidarity Campaign in the UK. Their website offers more details and sources of further information.
More than 700 refugees arrived today on #Lesbos. Camps will be full in 2-3 days of good weather, volunteers claim. There are around 3000 refugees currently at the port of #Piraeus, which saw more than 2000 arrivals today. Refugees continue to be put on buses and moved from the port to the camps in and around Athens. For example, at least 1,000 of them were moved today to new camps in #Larissa, #Trikala (castle), near the village #Koutsochero next to Larissa and in #NeaMakri close to Athens. Piraeus is able to keep, ideally, between, 2,000 and 4,000 refugees, yet new refugees land to Piraeus every day. Seeing this, refugees need to be transferred to other camps, yet these are reaching their capacity as well, and Greece is facing a problem of not knowing where to put newly arriving or awaiting refugees. Volunteers also report that Afghans stationed at port, some of whom have been there for as long as two weeks, are often uninformed about the option and the possibility of moving to one of the camps. Although volunteers do their best to disseminate the information, the amount of people is incredibly large and new refugees are constantly arriving, which makes it difficult to properly inform refugees about their rights and options. Volunteers are still urgently needed every day, especially during nights in the port, and every day 10-18 in #Elliniko warehouse.
.
Some 35,000 people have been stranded in Greece since Austria and several Balkan states began closing borders, barring access to thousands of refugees hoping to settle in places in northern Europe. In #Idomeni, near the Greek-Macedonian border, scores of refugees struggle for free food and water, oftentimes, pushing each other to seize eggs and bread thrown from a truck (Balkan Konvoi) at them. The truck today was late, as the organizer was detained for hours, by which police placed many lives at risk. Aid workers are warning that infectious diseases could soon spread due to the unsanitary conditions in the makeshift camp. Authorities in northern Greece say some 70 children living at a camp on the Greek-Macedonian border have received hospital treatment over the past three days, for fever and diarrhea. Medics are already treating conditions one could see in WW1 trenches. Refugees are losing toes to gangrene; children have severe trench foot. Escaping the war in their homelands, it seems, refugees only arrived to face another war, the one Europe is leading against them. People are huddling inside tents to get away from the rain as the ground has turned into mud. One can see countless shivering barefoot children in the mud. Absolutely everything and everyone is soaked to the bone. All the camping tents in the fields are flooded. Almost all of these tents have children in them. At night, the sound of children coughing and babies crying rises through the pouring rain. People are sleeping-or trying to sleep-on the soaking wet blankets they use to line their tents. There is nowhere for anyone from these tents to seek shelter to warm up; the large UN and MSF tents are completely packed. No one has socks. No one has dry clothes. Everyone's shoes are broken and soaking wet. A father clutched volunteer’s hands. He was crying. "I have lost everything. 3,000 dollars for my family to come from Turkey. This was the big dream, Europe was the big dream. We just want to be safe. And this. What is this?" A shivering refugee woman said, "I can't do this anymore. We came here because we were dying, and what, people will die here. Shame on your country, I'm sorry, but shame." The rain stopped during the day but new one is expected from Saturday on.
.
In the evening, a big demonstration took place in #Thessaloniki with around 1500 participants. People took the street in solidarity with the refugees and against the racist European migration policies that leave people to a slow death in camps like Idomeni. Solidarity groups from Athens repeated “Refugees, Welcome!” protest at #Victoriasquare which they held yesterday, and will continue until necessary. This is ongoing protest against the racist exclusion of refugees from the public and against manipulations of police. Public spaces must be opened for everyone, the protesters say. Today they shared food to hundreds of refugees, played with children, cleaned the square. All of that in spite of constant police threats that they have to move. At the same time, 240 refugees detained in Greece are being returned to Turkey. 81 refugees (61 Pakistanis, 13 Moroccans, 7 Algerians) were returned today from #Athens and 160 are planned to be retuturned on Friday and Monday from #Xanthi and #Drama detention centers. They will be transferred to the border crossing #Kipoi at #Evros and given to Turkish authorities.
.
On Lesvos, police observed and halted the selling of tickets from Piraeus port to Idomeni, after dozens of refugees and migrants were sold invalid tickets. The service is provided free of charge by Greek authorities. Another violation of refugees’ rights as consumers comes as essential goods, such as food purchased by refugees in Athens and Thessaloniki, are being sold at exorbitant prices. To counter these, the General Secretariat for Commerce and Consumer Protection implemented several controls with results yet unknown.
Friday 11 March 2016
The dark side of the Schengen agreement.
A socialist Europe would be border free. And even Schengen, along with the Working Time Directive, has some positive aspects for the mass of the people in Europe. (The latter is the particular bane of the life of Britain's small employers - especially in haulage - who denounce Brussel's 'red tape' which prevents workers having the 'freedom' to work till they drop.)
The EU's Schengen agreement for the free movement of European citizens across borders was designed to compliment the free movement of Capital. It was dressed up as a major benefit for the people of Europe and there is no doubt that millions do benefit, from higher wages in more developed countries and from wider experience. It is no accident that in 23 of the 27 members of the EU immigrants are considerably younger than the local population. (Eurostat September 2010.) Before the current refugee crisis, 50% of Europe's citizens thought that Schengen was the best thing about the EU.
Socialists and humanitarians warned that Schengen was always a policy designed as much to keep people out of Europe as it was to allow free movement inside. Western Europe was to share its privileges - but among its own. The rest of the world were not welcome at the feast. In essence the EU dropped its internal borders in order to create a wall against the peoples of the rest of the world. (None of this applies to the rich of course. They can go anywhere they want without hinderance.)
And now the dark heart of the Schengen agreement is revealed. Already a European Commission amendment to Schengen has been adopted stating that EU nationals will need to submit passports at Schengen borders, as the rest of the world already has to do. On March 7 2016 the German leadership of the EU agreed a deal with Turkey to implement 'Fortress Europe' in the face of Europe's refugee crisis. Fortresses have dungeons. It turns out that Fortress Europe needs a prison camp just outside its perimeter in which to dump those who would try to scale Europe's castle walls.
Even the UN, let alone Amnesty and a host of other organisations that campaign for human rights, have denounced the deal. Only Syrian refugees are allowed inside Europe (although that practically means inside Greece, as no agreements have yet been implemented to 'share' refugees between the EU's nations.) Afghanis, North Africans, Pakistanis, Palestinians and the rest will be exported back to life in Turkish camps, paid for by EU money until they are forced to go back to war, oppression and poverty in their 'home' countries. Meanwhile an equivalent number of Syrians will leave their spaces in Turkey's camps to join their fellow refugees in Greece.
This is all madness of course. There is not the slightest chance that it will work in any coherent way. The internal borders that have now grown up like weeds across Europe will not now come down. Greece, bankrupted by the Troika, will continue to bear the unbearable burdens of the hundreds of thousands who seek sanctuary, until its remaining social fabric rips apart. It is simply a cynical means to legitimate the pushing of the Schengen border outwards to Turkey's shores, and with the help of NATO prevent the current exodus from Turkey to Greece. It is a typically hopeless and potentially murderous 'instant solution' to a growing structural problem of the modern capitalist world. The only strategic aspect of this violent violation of human rights is the behind the scene there is now desperate pressure by the EU to end the Syrian war at any cost.
This is a structural problem - unmanageable globally in our current social, political and economic system of society. Indeed largely created by it. Pax Americana is collapsing. And in the light of its dismal decline and the serried wars it has left in its wake it is also trashing any hope for trans-global peace and development let alone any bridging of the expanding abyss between the world's wealthy and the rest. For example the global financial system is inherently unstable in consequence. At the finance system's nuclear core, US debts (already doubled since 2008) will expand from $19 trillion to $65 trillion under its present commitments in the next decades of its decline. The Congressional Budget Office projects public debt in 2026 will jump ten points to 86% of GDP, and will hit a record 155% of GDP in three decades. Interest on debt is projected to eclipse military spending by 2021. Debt interest payments will become a larger government expense than even Social Security by about 2060. A new financial crisis, which will hit the poor worst is thereby built in to the economic structure of the world. In sum all this means that refugee crises will not decline. It will increase. Trump's Mexican wall or Merkel's Fortress Europe, complete with its Turkish regime guard dogs, will not hold the line. Neither will more authoritarian or military 'solutions' in the future. Our current social system is breaking down in face of the world's great problems.
We need a system of society that first recognises and names the great crises that humanity faces and which understands that going on in the old way will make these crises worse. We need to start by finding the means of sharing the world's wealth and its resources as an absolutely basic requirement to meet humanities needs. The instruments are there to make such choices feasible and practical. There have been successful great movements of people in the past; to the US, to Europe after WW2. There have been great shifts of wealth and resources in the Marshal Plan, during wars and for projects like the Moon landings. Most important millions already and perhaps billions of people, as the concrete practicalities unfolded, would have the hope and inspiration to build such a world.
The EU's Schengen agreement for the free movement of European citizens across borders was designed to compliment the free movement of Capital. It was dressed up as a major benefit for the people of Europe and there is no doubt that millions do benefit, from higher wages in more developed countries and from wider experience. It is no accident that in 23 of the 27 members of the EU immigrants are considerably younger than the local population. (Eurostat September 2010.) Before the current refugee crisis, 50% of Europe's citizens thought that Schengen was the best thing about the EU.
Socialists and humanitarians warned that Schengen was always a policy designed as much to keep people out of Europe as it was to allow free movement inside. Western Europe was to share its privileges - but among its own. The rest of the world were not welcome at the feast. In essence the EU dropped its internal borders in order to create a wall against the peoples of the rest of the world. (None of this applies to the rich of course. They can go anywhere they want without hinderance.)
And now the dark heart of the Schengen agreement is revealed. Already a European Commission amendment to Schengen has been adopted stating that EU nationals will need to submit passports at Schengen borders, as the rest of the world already has to do. On March 7 2016 the German leadership of the EU agreed a deal with Turkey to implement 'Fortress Europe' in the face of Europe's refugee crisis. Fortresses have dungeons. It turns out that Fortress Europe needs a prison camp just outside its perimeter in which to dump those who would try to scale Europe's castle walls.
Even the UN, let alone Amnesty and a host of other organisations that campaign for human rights, have denounced the deal. Only Syrian refugees are allowed inside Europe (although that practically means inside Greece, as no agreements have yet been implemented to 'share' refugees between the EU's nations.) Afghanis, North Africans, Pakistanis, Palestinians and the rest will be exported back to life in Turkish camps, paid for by EU money until they are forced to go back to war, oppression and poverty in their 'home' countries. Meanwhile an equivalent number of Syrians will leave their spaces in Turkey's camps to join their fellow refugees in Greece.
This is all madness of course. There is not the slightest chance that it will work in any coherent way. The internal borders that have now grown up like weeds across Europe will not now come down. Greece, bankrupted by the Troika, will continue to bear the unbearable burdens of the hundreds of thousands who seek sanctuary, until its remaining social fabric rips apart. It is simply a cynical means to legitimate the pushing of the Schengen border outwards to Turkey's shores, and with the help of NATO prevent the current exodus from Turkey to Greece. It is a typically hopeless and potentially murderous 'instant solution' to a growing structural problem of the modern capitalist world. The only strategic aspect of this violent violation of human rights is the behind the scene there is now desperate pressure by the EU to end the Syrian war at any cost.
This is a structural problem - unmanageable globally in our current social, political and economic system of society. Indeed largely created by it. Pax Americana is collapsing. And in the light of its dismal decline and the serried wars it has left in its wake it is also trashing any hope for trans-global peace and development let alone any bridging of the expanding abyss between the world's wealthy and the rest. For example the global financial system is inherently unstable in consequence. At the finance system's nuclear core, US debts (already doubled since 2008) will expand from $19 trillion to $65 trillion under its present commitments in the next decades of its decline. The Congressional Budget Office projects public debt in 2026 will jump ten points to 86% of GDP, and will hit a record 155% of GDP in three decades. Interest on debt is projected to eclipse military spending by 2021. Debt interest payments will become a larger government expense than even Social Security by about 2060. A new financial crisis, which will hit the poor worst is thereby built in to the economic structure of the world. In sum all this means that refugee crises will not decline. It will increase. Trump's Mexican wall or Merkel's Fortress Europe, complete with its Turkish regime guard dogs, will not hold the line. Neither will more authoritarian or military 'solutions' in the future. Our current social system is breaking down in face of the world's great problems.
We need a system of society that first recognises and names the great crises that humanity faces and which understands that going on in the old way will make these crises worse. We need to start by finding the means of sharing the world's wealth and its resources as an absolutely basic requirement to meet humanities needs. The instruments are there to make such choices feasible and practical. There have been successful great movements of people in the past; to the US, to Europe after WW2. There have been great shifts of wealth and resources in the Marshal Plan, during wars and for projects like the Moon landings. Most important millions already and perhaps billions of people, as the concrete practicalities unfolded, would have the hope and inspiration to build such a world.
Thursday 10 March 2016
An Establishment frenzy
According to Britain's media, including the God and government - fearing BBC, the 'debate' over maintaining Britain's membership of the EU versus Brexit, has reached fever pitch. This, claim various commentators - endlessly - is the greatest decision of this generation, certainly this century so far and
'much more important than deciding who occupies number 10 Downing Street.' (See virtually every mainstream commentator on virtually any day.) Then, with a puzzled air, the politairiat continue with the now routine assertion that what the British public are really searching for, in this crescendo of rhetoric, are 'the basic facts' about what will happen if Britain stays in and what will happen if Britain leaves.' It is the absence of such 'basic facts' that is the reason why (strangely and disappointingly) the British public seem unable so far to get themselves seriously worked up by the discussion so far.
It is true that people such as self styled 'quiet man' Duncan Smith and the unknown Gove, and the cheery clown Boris as well as the Prime Minister, have been going at each other like Punch and Judy while all demanding that both sides respect each other. That's all quite funny. Perhaps it will help obscure mid March's real news for most of Britain's people - when Osborne presses the austerity peddle again. But so far the increasingly alarmed calls for the British to rouse themselves, at least to the level of the Scots when they debated and decided on the Independence referendum, have fallen on deaf ears among the public at large.
Is this because the 'basic facts' about EU membership as they effect the people of Britain are being hidden? One 'basic fact' about Britain's great debate is certainly being obscured. The turmoil now unleashed by PM Cameron's proposal for Britain to remain in a 'reformed' EU has divided Britain's ruling class and is pulling Britain's traditional establishment politics apart. And that is the main engine of the argument so far. It characterises exactly what the debate has been about. It is however not quite accurate to see the British ruling class as split. More precisely it is the social base of the ruling class that is in danger of decamping from its allegiance to the traditional ruling class bloc at least on the question of the EU.
The 'conspiracy theorists' of the left imagine that ruling class political and economic domination is a matter of their monopoly control of armed force and all the rest consists of their secret tricks and domination of the mass media. There are many secret tricks played on the mass of the population and the media is controlled by billionaires but since those who have to sell their labour have forced the extension of the franchise, ruling class politics has had to play the role of an essential tool to build a social base for the tiny minority ruling class in the country. This base is persuaded to detach themselves from most of those who labour in favour of two (false) premises, that they are on their way to rise above common work and become rich and secure; and that competition with their peers - coupled with repulsion for organised labour - is the route to that success.
Their leadership in society is dominated by the millionaire and billionaire owners of property and capital. But the political formation of the Tory party was explicitly designed and redesigned over a 150 years to create the 'common sense' of national interest, of 'hard working families', of the domestic security offered by long term state institutions and all the rest of the social, political and psychological construction of a society that could depend on its traditional establishment. And millions of small owners, millions of skilled workers, of layers of managers etc accepted and adopted these foundations in their political psyches. (The role of Labour in all this has a different, albeit essential supporting story.)
But something new has happened. The British Empire, which once underpinned the economic and social privileges of the aristocracy of labour (in all of its forms) has long gone. But the new European Empire, led by Germany, which Britain has now joined, shares out its privileges stolen from its own labour, the labour of millions of migrants and of the rest of the globe, on a much wider and sometimes uneven basis. That makes the compact between Britain's tiny ruling class and its social and political base uneasy. The main social means by which the EU reinforced ruling class leadership in most European societies was via the CAP. Agricultural subsidies are still more the 40% of EU expenditure. This never fitted with the British social and political context. And now there is something worse.
Most obviously since 2008 the British ruling class have seemed to take on a new persona - at least to its millions of day to day supporters. It appears that they have abandoned Britain. (Read - they have abandoned me!)
This is a social, political even a psychological disaster for those who form the base of popular support for Britain's establishment. Worse still it is true. In two eminently practical senses desertion is exactly what Britain's modern ruling class and their families have done. First they are no longer in any real sense British citizens (exception made of Eton, Oxbridge and the Royal Shakespeare Company for which some at least have fond memories and others wish they did.) They live, control, exist, globally - along with their peers. Second, they have magnified their wealth to the point were only the most stupid 'hard working family' could believe that the super rich's lifestyle, wealth and power was in anyway attainable (except perhaps for the many sharp elbowed young graduates starting in politics - where, if you are lucky, you might get to meet the movers and shakers.) The traditional British ruling class has left. And the traditional base of the party of the ruling class in society, the Tories, is cracking up.
This has been a trend in British politics for a couple of decades. But now it has reached a crisis point. While staying in or leaving the EU will make little difference to who really rules in Britain, to the domination of the City of London, to the decreasing role of Parliament and the decline of democracy, to the relentless drive for more austerity and against the social wage, it will however make a difference to the composition of ruling class politics and its social base in Britain. In the absence of a lead from Britains' other main class, this will take the form of a wrench to the right by a significant proportion of Britain's population.
Of the 4 million voters who voted for UKIP candidates in the last election an estimated half were ex Labour voters. It is not a surprise that with the decline of the post WW2 labour movement and the triumph of Blairism a proportion of working class voters go beyond abstention and regroup around Farage's racist and nationalist UKIP 'rebellion' against the establishment. The vote for Brexit is the same rebellion - the rebellion of the social and political base of the ruling class against its own leadership. The danger here is that this rebellion is then confused with anything radical or progressive for the working class as a whole. Some on the left do exactly that in abstract arguments that effectively confuse calls for more democracy and for more sovereignty with the real nationalist and racist motives of the exiteers. Her majesty's call for Brexit on the front page of the Sun newspaper sums up the irresistible attraction of the combination of Thatcher and the Queen to this layer. And, like Thatcher, it will need to be taken on and defeated.
The analytical mosaic sketched above when looked at close up, is spotted with all sorts of personal greed, self aggrandisement and ambition. Boris probably hopes that Britain stays in the EU but has prepared his future Tory leadership tussle with Cameron's anointed successor Osborne by wooing the ancient Tory mini-grandees in the shires with his noble stand for exit. The first photographs of George Galloway standing close to Nigel Farage on a common platform for Brexit shows George beaming with pleasure while Nigel looks sick. The individual dramas and follies will be enough to continue the barrage of empty sounds that will characterise Britain's EU 'campaign.' Against the roar some simple ideas need to be clear:
Refugees and immigrants are to be welcomed in Britain and in Europe. Austerity in Britain and in Europe must end. The support of wars and nuclear weapons by Britain and by Europe must be stopped. We will make alliances and common fronts in action with anybody and any organisation that supports and fights for these ideas, in Britain and in Europe.
We do this because the mass of the people need both a new Britain and a new Europe.
'much more important than deciding who occupies number 10 Downing Street.' (See virtually every mainstream commentator on virtually any day.) Then, with a puzzled air, the politairiat continue with the now routine assertion that what the British public are really searching for, in this crescendo of rhetoric, are 'the basic facts' about what will happen if Britain stays in and what will happen if Britain leaves.' It is the absence of such 'basic facts' that is the reason why (strangely and disappointingly) the British public seem unable so far to get themselves seriously worked up by the discussion so far.
It is true that people such as self styled 'quiet man' Duncan Smith and the unknown Gove, and the cheery clown Boris as well as the Prime Minister, have been going at each other like Punch and Judy while all demanding that both sides respect each other. That's all quite funny. Perhaps it will help obscure mid March's real news for most of Britain's people - when Osborne presses the austerity peddle again. But so far the increasingly alarmed calls for the British to rouse themselves, at least to the level of the Scots when they debated and decided on the Independence referendum, have fallen on deaf ears among the public at large.
Is this because the 'basic facts' about EU membership as they effect the people of Britain are being hidden? One 'basic fact' about Britain's great debate is certainly being obscured. The turmoil now unleashed by PM Cameron's proposal for Britain to remain in a 'reformed' EU has divided Britain's ruling class and is pulling Britain's traditional establishment politics apart. And that is the main engine of the argument so far. It characterises exactly what the debate has been about. It is however not quite accurate to see the British ruling class as split. More precisely it is the social base of the ruling class that is in danger of decamping from its allegiance to the traditional ruling class bloc at least on the question of the EU.
The 'conspiracy theorists' of the left imagine that ruling class political and economic domination is a matter of their monopoly control of armed force and all the rest consists of their secret tricks and domination of the mass media. There are many secret tricks played on the mass of the population and the media is controlled by billionaires but since those who have to sell their labour have forced the extension of the franchise, ruling class politics has had to play the role of an essential tool to build a social base for the tiny minority ruling class in the country. This base is persuaded to detach themselves from most of those who labour in favour of two (false) premises, that they are on their way to rise above common work and become rich and secure; and that competition with their peers - coupled with repulsion for organised labour - is the route to that success.
Their leadership in society is dominated by the millionaire and billionaire owners of property and capital. But the political formation of the Tory party was explicitly designed and redesigned over a 150 years to create the 'common sense' of national interest, of 'hard working families', of the domestic security offered by long term state institutions and all the rest of the social, political and psychological construction of a society that could depend on its traditional establishment. And millions of small owners, millions of skilled workers, of layers of managers etc accepted and adopted these foundations in their political psyches. (The role of Labour in all this has a different, albeit essential supporting story.)
But something new has happened. The British Empire, which once underpinned the economic and social privileges of the aristocracy of labour (in all of its forms) has long gone. But the new European Empire, led by Germany, which Britain has now joined, shares out its privileges stolen from its own labour, the labour of millions of migrants and of the rest of the globe, on a much wider and sometimes uneven basis. That makes the compact between Britain's tiny ruling class and its social and political base uneasy. The main social means by which the EU reinforced ruling class leadership in most European societies was via the CAP. Agricultural subsidies are still more the 40% of EU expenditure. This never fitted with the British social and political context. And now there is something worse.
Most obviously since 2008 the British ruling class have seemed to take on a new persona - at least to its millions of day to day supporters. It appears that they have abandoned Britain. (Read - they have abandoned me!)
This is a social, political even a psychological disaster for those who form the base of popular support for Britain's establishment. Worse still it is true. In two eminently practical senses desertion is exactly what Britain's modern ruling class and their families have done. First they are no longer in any real sense British citizens (exception made of Eton, Oxbridge and the Royal Shakespeare Company for which some at least have fond memories and others wish they did.) They live, control, exist, globally - along with their peers. Second, they have magnified their wealth to the point were only the most stupid 'hard working family' could believe that the super rich's lifestyle, wealth and power was in anyway attainable (except perhaps for the many sharp elbowed young graduates starting in politics - where, if you are lucky, you might get to meet the movers and shakers.) The traditional British ruling class has left. And the traditional base of the party of the ruling class in society, the Tories, is cracking up.
This has been a trend in British politics for a couple of decades. But now it has reached a crisis point. While staying in or leaving the EU will make little difference to who really rules in Britain, to the domination of the City of London, to the decreasing role of Parliament and the decline of democracy, to the relentless drive for more austerity and against the social wage, it will however make a difference to the composition of ruling class politics and its social base in Britain. In the absence of a lead from Britains' other main class, this will take the form of a wrench to the right by a significant proportion of Britain's population.
Of the 4 million voters who voted for UKIP candidates in the last election an estimated half were ex Labour voters. It is not a surprise that with the decline of the post WW2 labour movement and the triumph of Blairism a proportion of working class voters go beyond abstention and regroup around Farage's racist and nationalist UKIP 'rebellion' against the establishment. The vote for Brexit is the same rebellion - the rebellion of the social and political base of the ruling class against its own leadership. The danger here is that this rebellion is then confused with anything radical or progressive for the working class as a whole. Some on the left do exactly that in abstract arguments that effectively confuse calls for more democracy and for more sovereignty with the real nationalist and racist motives of the exiteers. Her majesty's call for Brexit on the front page of the Sun newspaper sums up the irresistible attraction of the combination of Thatcher and the Queen to this layer. And, like Thatcher, it will need to be taken on and defeated.
The analytical mosaic sketched above when looked at close up, is spotted with all sorts of personal greed, self aggrandisement and ambition. Boris probably hopes that Britain stays in the EU but has prepared his future Tory leadership tussle with Cameron's anointed successor Osborne by wooing the ancient Tory mini-grandees in the shires with his noble stand for exit. The first photographs of George Galloway standing close to Nigel Farage on a common platform for Brexit shows George beaming with pleasure while Nigel looks sick. The individual dramas and follies will be enough to continue the barrage of empty sounds that will characterise Britain's EU 'campaign.' Against the roar some simple ideas need to be clear:
Refugees and immigrants are to be welcomed in Britain and in Europe. Austerity in Britain and in Europe must end. The support of wars and nuclear weapons by Britain and by Europe must be stopped. We will make alliances and common fronts in action with anybody and any organisation that supports and fights for these ideas, in Britain and in Europe.
We do this because the mass of the people need both a new Britain and a new Europe.
Friday 4 March 2016
The Left disagrees
The following exchange occurred following the publication (24/02/2016) of the Blog
'What does the British EU referendum mean?'
The exchange has been reproduced here as its own blog as its attachment to the comments box at the end of the original blog would limit its circulation. A subsequent blog on the EU titled 'Europe's Catastrophe' (02/03/2016) was published before receipt of the response to the blog criticised below.
Response to 'What does the British EU referendum mean?'
Surely the crisis of the right in the UK over the EU is another symptom of the fatal undermining of the legendary stability of the British political system. Having almost fatally destabilised Labour (unfinished business) it has now moved on to the Tories.
This is of great importance as the Tories have been the party of ruling class rule in this state for well over 150 years. It therefore brooks no abstention from a revolutionary perspective. It is notable that while calling a NO vote a racist vote, you mention neither abstention nor an attitude to a YES vote.
You are undoubtedly correct about the class nature of the EU and its institutions. The City of London will get on with its projects as it sees fit - viz the merger discussions between the London and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges to better compete with the US and China by ever greater economic integration of the European banking and financial industry. It is this that fundamentally motivates the current leadership of the Tory party and their call for a YES vote to staying IN.
But this also matters to the other classes in society, whether or not they at present have in place a mainstream class based alternative. The exploitative demands of the masters of the universe on the "colonies" of humanity - the nation states - must always get greater and greater as capitalism staggers from one crisis to another. The debt enslavement of Greece makes the point. The ongoing process of creating " basket cases" of the states to the east and south of the EU and NATO moves on apace.
In the UK we are loosing the Welfare State, the NHS and free education etc in the cause of maintaining the lowest level of corporation tax in Europe and competing with China for ever lower wage rates.
At this point a NO vote looks like a racist vote only because of the total failure of the left across Europe to conjure into life a left alternative. This is the great failure of the Tsipras leadership. A break with the Euro was essential - if it resulted in expulsion from the European Union then that would have been because the European Capitalist Club would have expelled them. We say this would have been a beacon for the working classes across Europe and beyond. It would have been a declaration of political and economic self determination.
This is a referendum - a one off vote on a single issue and is not an election to either the national parliament or the EU institutions. Cameron's deal is irrelevant - that's why the ballot paper is a straight IN or OUT choice. Of course there is a campaign for a radical left "in" vote. It's signed by the usual suspects - you'll have seen it. But the essential point is that they call for support on the basis of reforming the European institutions from within which we say is quite impossible. Instead we stood for the newly elected left wing Greek government, which had just got a triumphant referendum vote against Troika austerity despite being told that this would have resulted in expulsion from the Euro, we called for the Greeks to make a rupture with the Europe of the Bosses and the Bankers.
We are called upon the vote right here and now on being in the EU and people who follow a left point of view want to know where the arguments lead in terms of that vote.
Reply
The frustration about the left in Europe and the avoidance of a position on the Brexit vote (in the blog of 24/03/2016) is understandable but it is an exaggeration to blame Tsipras for a racist based vote in the UK!
However, the Greek situation expresses precisely all the contradictions in this matter. You are right that they should have dumped the Euro and the debt. Like most people I believe that the Greek majority (and millions across Europe) would have supported that move. But then you must see that there would have been the most enormous fight for Greece to retain its EU membership. Why? Because Greece could not survive outside of some sort of European support, the Greek population were crystal clear about that too. And our advice from afar? Get out?
Of course the battle would actually have been for a new European leadership. But it would inevitably pass through the stage of the fight to retain EU membership (probably on the UK model!)
What does all this mean? First there is no absolute, abstract principle about getting out from (or getting in to) 'the bosses Europe'. Alas many on the left make that mistake (and others.) Cuba argued to be in the Washington led Organisation of American States and won - after 47 years of campaigning.
Whatever the vote turns out for Brexit we will be ruled by a bosses' Britain in a bosses' Europe in a bosses' world.
Brexit in 2016 is a hopeless diversion for what remains of the British working class movement; which first needs to organise its challenge to the City of London! Because a more racist current will prosper in the event of an exit it is probably worth voting to stay in and break their momentum. The vote is worth nothing more than that. It is a complete fake that in or out will win more democracy or make 'capitalism' weaker or stronger or create better or worse living standards etc etc. It is an empty side show and we are better getting on with challenging austerity, war and Trident and where we can, doing it on at least a European wide basis.
Wednesday 2 March 2016
Europe's Catastrophe
The reason why Europe faces catastrophe is that the leadership of the Continent is rotten to the core.
One euro zone country is on the verge of collapse, offered some millions of Euros by Brussels to create a euro border against the effects of war while still having to pay back bankers billions in debt; the European economic leadership is hell bent on defending the wealthy's bunkers at the increasing cost to Europe's overwhelming majority - living for nearly a decade in insecurity and decline; a great wave of xenophobia and racism is rolling across European countries, led by some of their senior politicians; and Britain's exiteers are riding that crest in particular - remoulding Britain's traditional right wing politics for all that it is worth.
China's economic slowdown and the calamitous US flirtation with an entirely new type of right wing politics which means at least the worst Democratic Party hawk for decades as the next President, also adds to the growing nervousness for the future among the world's movers and shakers.
In the face of these active and impending crises not one of Europe's leaderships are rising to the mark.
First, European leaders should be denouncing the Syrian and Yemeni wars and forcing the issue with the bombers. Europe is the largest market in the world. It has the leverage. It was originally created as a bloc to make and use a voice independent of the US and later the Eastern mega-nations. Instead it has become the US's little brother.
Second it should throw out the dismal and failed litany provided by the Chicago school. (It would only have most of the world's - including half of the US's - most senior economists on its side.) Breaking austerity and developing strategic re-investment and growth would be the sole act in favour of Europes' peoples since the progressive parts of Schengen. A major part, perhaps a forward, to reconstructing Europe's economic policy would be a new debt conference that broke the chains forged by the psychopathic levels of greed allowed to the already super rich since the 1980s.
Third, while moving to end the world's current mini world war in the Middle East, Europe should cheer on the mass of people who want to escape. It is absurd to suggest that a continent of 500 million cannot absorb a million, or two, or four. It is absurd to denounce the young men who try and pull down fences. If only, if only, Europe would raise the roof with gratitude at the picture and prospect of thousands of young men who are refusing to go to war!
Who in Europe stands for elementary measures like these? Who could give Europe a future and a shape in the world?
A jigsaw of parties, movements and campaigns, emanating from major public actions by the youth against austerity and war in many cases, are now edging into mainstream politics in some key European countries - including, in a particularly curious way, Britain! Although the mixtures of movements and parties take on different national profiles there is little doubt that it is the same process of a new left emerging from action against austerity and war, underlining the utterly compromised position of social democracy (or its various stand ins.) In at least three countries so far this new left has its own sufficent base in the larger population to have a significant impact on the formation of governments - as the new social democrat leaders scrabble for the means to escape from their almost terminal record of collaboration with the neo-cons, and instead seek agreements to their left.
These formations are part of an evolving alternative to Europe's fearful and schlerotic leadership (whose only strength resides in the degree to which they will hang on to their own power, influence and wealth). There are no guarantees of course, but there is the definite sound of a worn out traditional political and economic system cracking and of history speeding up as new directions open out.
Next: more on Britain's referendum.
One euro zone country is on the verge of collapse, offered some millions of Euros by Brussels to create a euro border against the effects of war while still having to pay back bankers billions in debt; the European economic leadership is hell bent on defending the wealthy's bunkers at the increasing cost to Europe's overwhelming majority - living for nearly a decade in insecurity and decline; a great wave of xenophobia and racism is rolling across European countries, led by some of their senior politicians; and Britain's exiteers are riding that crest in particular - remoulding Britain's traditional right wing politics for all that it is worth.
China's economic slowdown and the calamitous US flirtation with an entirely new type of right wing politics which means at least the worst Democratic Party hawk for decades as the next President, also adds to the growing nervousness for the future among the world's movers and shakers.
In the face of these active and impending crises not one of Europe's leaderships are rising to the mark.
First, European leaders should be denouncing the Syrian and Yemeni wars and forcing the issue with the bombers. Europe is the largest market in the world. It has the leverage. It was originally created as a bloc to make and use a voice independent of the US and later the Eastern mega-nations. Instead it has become the US's little brother.
Second it should throw out the dismal and failed litany provided by the Chicago school. (It would only have most of the world's - including half of the US's - most senior economists on its side.) Breaking austerity and developing strategic re-investment and growth would be the sole act in favour of Europes' peoples since the progressive parts of Schengen. A major part, perhaps a forward, to reconstructing Europe's economic policy would be a new debt conference that broke the chains forged by the psychopathic levels of greed allowed to the already super rich since the 1980s.
Third, while moving to end the world's current mini world war in the Middle East, Europe should cheer on the mass of people who want to escape. It is absurd to suggest that a continent of 500 million cannot absorb a million, or two, or four. It is absurd to denounce the young men who try and pull down fences. If only, if only, Europe would raise the roof with gratitude at the picture and prospect of thousands of young men who are refusing to go to war!
Who in Europe stands for elementary measures like these? Who could give Europe a future and a shape in the world?
A jigsaw of parties, movements and campaigns, emanating from major public actions by the youth against austerity and war in many cases, are now edging into mainstream politics in some key European countries - including, in a particularly curious way, Britain! Although the mixtures of movements and parties take on different national profiles there is little doubt that it is the same process of a new left emerging from action against austerity and war, underlining the utterly compromised position of social democracy (or its various stand ins.) In at least three countries so far this new left has its own sufficent base in the larger population to have a significant impact on the formation of governments - as the new social democrat leaders scrabble for the means to escape from their almost terminal record of collaboration with the neo-cons, and instead seek agreements to their left.
These formations are part of an evolving alternative to Europe's fearful and schlerotic leadership (whose only strength resides in the degree to which they will hang on to their own power, influence and wealth). There are no guarantees of course, but there is the definite sound of a worn out traditional political and economic system cracking and of history speeding up as new directions open out.
Next: more on Britain's referendum.
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