SOCIALIST UNITY

Salma’s campaign for Respect in Birmingham Hall Green has got off to a fantastic start.

1,000 people attended her election rally, built largely by word of mouth, and Lynn Jones, the retiring Labour MP has attacked the Labour candidate while endorsing Salma! The Labour candidate, Roger Godsiff has gone to ground, refusing to publicly campaign, and as Yahoo news reports, following Godsiff’s no-show at a packed hustings:

One prominent Labour activist in the audience, who asked not to be named, expressed disappointment at Mr Godsiff’s decision not to attend and said there had been many defections of Labour activists to Respect.

Meanwhile, the Lib Dem’s are reduced to lying and saying that Respect came fourth in the area in the 2009 Euro elections, so cannot win (Respect didn’t even stand in that election, and the Lib Dems’ hapless, charisma-bypass candidate Jerry Evans is pretending in a typical bit of Lib Dem dishonest spin that the Green vote is the same as Respect’s)

Salma has campaigned in the interests of small business on Stratford Road, pointing out how the banks have failed them, despite the banks themselves being in receipt of public money.

Salma is going through the constituency like a force of nature, and speaking to large numbers of voters literally every few days. At Friday prayers last week she addressed about 500 people at mosques in the constituency on the theme of social justice. It is literally unheard of for a woman to do this. And her campaign is still only warming up.

A victory for Salma will put a marker down for those opposed to the cuts agenda and neo-liberal model, it will put a marker down for the anti-war movement, and it will put a marker down against Islamaphobia and racism..

She can win. And that’s all more likely with your support. That is why we are putting out a national call for all supporters and sympathizers to come to Birmingham. Meet 12.30pm next Saturday 17th April and Sunday 18th April, at 95 Walford Road, Sparkbrook, B11 1NP. For more info ring 078 121 72885

In a highly significant development, the Cuban government has announced that hairdressers and barber shops will be taken out of state ownership.

Progress towards socialism is a very complex process. Gaining government power is not the end of your problems, but only the beginning.

It is impossible to eradicate inequality where there are economic shortages, because the ability to circumvent those shortages, through contacts, minor corruption and luck, form the basis of new forms of social injustice. We can also see that it is not sufficient to simply meet basic needs, because people compare their lifestyles to those in other countries; and often naively assume that the glittering lifestyle of the rich in Western capitalist countries is typical. The tragedy of good intentions is starkly revealed by the former East German DDR, which combined aspects of extraordinary achievement towards a good and humane society, alongside a repressive government by a paranoid gerontocracy.

Naturally, external pressures, military and diplomatic siege and economic sanctions, have proved enormous obstacles for socialist governments. Cuba has been in many ways a brilliant success over the last 50 years; but it still faces the problems of lack of access to capital investment, and modern high technology.

The Chinese experience is that provided the state maintains overall control of the economy, and seeks win-win compromise with Capital rather than capitulation, then the economy can be modernised without accepting the Washington consensus of deregulation and privatisation.

Cuba does not have China’s economic strength, but it does have fantastic diplomatic and social capital as a well respected partner with other Latin American and developing economies. Its alliance with the Bolivarian government in Venezuela provides it some space to make further adjustments without endangering the fundamentally socialist nature of its society.

Of course there are tremendous risks, but to stand still may be a greater risk.

A cracking interview with George Galloway on Andrew Neil’s Daily Politics show where George talks about Respect’s hopes for winning three seats in the general election which could give Respect a crucial role in a hung Parliament.

Also watch out for George’s discussion of possible future directions in the Labour Party. Will it be Milliband, will it be Balls?

watch it here.

Two more dead young soldiers were brought home through Wootton Bassett last Friday, but it was a dfferent story that caught my eye in the Swindon Advertiser, the local paper that covers Wootton Bassett.

This is the human cost for the soldiers in Afghanistan, stress, dislocation, fear and violent rage. The impact on the Afghan population is of course much more severe.

A soldier on leave from Afghanistan has been jailed after a court heard how he ran amok in a Swindon street with a kitchen knife.

Michael Little, who has since been thrown out of the Army for taking drugs, threatened a neighbour and the neighbour’s mother with the weapon during the drunken rampage.

The 22-year-old nearly stabbed Errol Jarvis, leaving a knife hole in his hooded top after he lunged at him.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court a party was taking place on the evening of Tuesday, February 17 last year.

She said most people there had been drinking heavily and some time between 11pm and midnight a fight broke out.

A number of people started to pick on one man, she said, and then Little and his Army friends became involved. The trouble then moved into the street in Shaftesbury Avenue, Park South, where Little took off his shirt and brandished a kitchen knife.

She said he appeared to be very drunk and very angry when he chased Dominic Jarvis and another youth along the road.

He caught up with the other boy and was seen standing over him holding the weapon and punching him in the face with his other hand.

Mr Jarvis was shouting at him to stop and, hearing the commotion outside, Mr Jarvis’ mother came out with two of her other sons.

Little then turned his attention to the Jarvis family and threatened both Dominic and his mother before lunging at Dominic’s brother Errol, plunging the knife through his top.

The family managed to get into their house but Little was still outside banging the door with the large bladed knife.

A number of other neighbours saw what was happening and called the police, who rushed to the scene and arrested Little.

He was abusive to officers as they detained him and as he was being ferried to the police station.

When questioned, he said he could recall little of the incident because he had drunk so much.

Little, of Shaftesbury Avenue, admitted affray and possessing a bladed article.

Rob Ross, defending, said the party was being held to mark Little’s return home from his tour in Afghanistan.

Since the incident he said he had tested positive for cannabis and had been dismissed from the Army, which had been his career.

However, he said he was pleased to be out of the services as his tour in the war zone had left him terrified and fearing for his life after seeing other comrades die.

He said the incident was out of character for his client who was normally a quiet family man.

Labour candidate for Newport, Paul Flynn MP, has ceased blogging until May 6th to comply with electoral law. However it is well worth reading the article he posted on 11th April, just before the dissolution of parliament.

by Paul Flynn MP

When you think you have heard everything a few new titbits of news appear from the hopelessness of Afghanistan.

Drug use among the Afghan Police show 68 per cent testing positive for cannabis. There is a similar percentage for the chaotic Army. Of course, Present Karzai has threatened that he might join forces with the Taliban. there is also an accusation that he is a drug addict.

The three foundations on which the new liberated Afghanistan is to be built after NATO’s sacrifices are Karzai, the Afghan Army and the Afghan Police. All are collapsing. We have an election here but no one is saying a word about a war without purpose.

The news about cannabis exposes another double cross. there was celebration that heroin production had dropped. Balkh province was an example. No heroin anymore because the farmers had switched to growing cannabis. Nothing to do with the intervention of our forces. All to do with market forces. Cannabis is in demand.

Afghanistan, already the world’s top opium supplier, is now the world’s biggest producer of cannabis, according to United Nations drug experts. UN experts estimate that 60,000 households are now growing cannabis.

A British-backed paramilitary unit is hunting down Afghan drug lords as part of a new strategy against the drug trade. Four helicopters have already been provided by Britain for airborne assault missions. The United Nation official added: “Corruption has been a major lubricant of the very prosperous drug industry… it’s throughout the system.”

Corruption has been the lubricant of all business and political life in Afghanistan for centuries. We are fighting it fiercely with our own democratic ethical corruption on an industrial scale. Pallets piled high with bubble-wrapped bundles of $100 bills are delivered daily distributed throughout the land to buy Afghans. Meanwhile Western fingers are wagged at Afghans and they lectured in the ethics of business virtue.

There will not be much about this in the papers tomorrow. No party deems it worthy of any attention.

After all, there is an election to be fought

It is a bold move by the Labour Party to produce a series of animated features to illustrate their manifesto. They are determindly upbeat, and research shows that women voters in particular respond much better to positive rather than negative campaigning.

I was out leafleting the small Wiltshire town of Corsham on Saturday, along with activists from GMB, FBU, and the staff and regulars of a local pub.

Corsham has a BNP councillor, who was elected unopposed, and is also home to Mike Howson, head of the BNP in the West Country, and leader of the Young BNP (although he is in his mid 40s). It is part of the new Chippenham constituency, and the BNP are standing in the general election, no doubt encouraged by the fact the Tories are standing a black candidate. Last year, the BNP’s “Battle of Britain” fund-raiser for the West Country was held in Corsham, and the fascists refer to the town as the “BNP capital of the West”.

Generally, the view of Searchlight South West is that the BNP are still not a major threat in our region, but we are determined to prevent them gaining any toe-hold. The leafleting of Corsham is partly to send them a clear message that they will be opposed.

The day was brilliant, a team of well respected local women leafleted the bookies (It was Grand National day) in the morning with the Hope Not Hate tabloids, which have a double page spread dedicated to Corsham and the Nazi links of the thuggish Mike Howson. They then took bundles into all the local pubs, shops and cafes, including the Comic shop (see photo)

Meanwhile we leafleted the estates, particularly around where we know BNP activists live.

Meanwhile, the top national priority is Dagenham and Barking, where the threat of the BNP taking control of the borough council is real. Join us in fighting back at our Hope Not Hate Day of Action:

Barking & Dagenham Day of Action

Saturday, 17 April, 2010
HOPE HQ
50-52 New Road
Dagenham
London, RM9 6YS

Click here to RSVP.

The BNP is already the official opposition in Barking and Dagenham and only needs 26 councillors to take control of its first-ever council. It’s almost halfway there, currently holding 12 seats.

Six “marginal” council wards will determine this election — and every vote will matter.

It’s up to you and me to stop the BNP. We’re working hard to make sure that this is our largest-ever mobilisation effort.

With your help, hundreds of supporters will be out on the streets, talking to our neighbours to stop fascism. To help our supporters get to Barking and Dagenham, we are organising transport and meeting points from across London and Essex.

We need you to bring a friend and join us in protecting your community:

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/eventsnearme

The shadowy relationship between the British security service, MI5, and political extremist groups has long been a cause for concern.

For example, MI5 connections with the neo-Nazi, Combat 18, group were believed by many to account for the seeming legal immunity that C18 operated with, until eventually of course Charlie Sargent was convicted of murdering another C18 member, in a dispute about plastering tools and the master tapes for the lucrative hate music business.

The advantages of such operations for MI5 would be that an extremist organisation under their wing would be a honey trap for building a relationship with the most potentially dangerous characters, and the group could also be used for arms-length destablisation of more mainstream political expressions of views that MI5 consider against the interests of the state.

So it is interesting to read from Nu’man Abd al-Wahid’s blog an extract from Ron Suskind’s book ‘The Way of the World’ where Bakri (former head of this group when it was under the al-Muhajiroun name) admitted to being a police informer.

Omar Bakri Muhammad is the mentor of Anjem Choudhury.

He was interviewed by American journalist, Ron Suskind for his book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an age of Extremism.

This quote is taken from pg. 200-202:

Ron Suskind: “But there’s a hidden dimension to it all, which I glimpsed when we (author and Bakri) chatted in the hotel lobby two years back. A British intelligence officer told me that Bakri had helped MI5 on several of its investigations….After Bakri finished one of his long explanations…I mentioned his secret assistance to police. He became flustered. “I’m upset you know this,” he said grimly, as one of his deputies looked on from a distance. Of course, such a disclosure would have undermined his credibility among young radical jihadists, his constituency. I asked, then why do it, why help the police? He paused. “Because I like it here ,” he said. “My family’s here. I like the health benefits…”

“…A few months later, the July 7, 2005…and all such backdoor arrangements were off… (he went to Lebanon, although Suskind mistakenly says Libya)

On the phone…He says the British government, “whether they admit it or not,” misses him, too.”We were able to control the Muslim youth,” he says on the grainy mobile phone connection from Tripoli. “The radical preacher that allows a venting of a point of view is preventing violence. Now many of us are gone or in jail, and we’ve been replaced by radical jihadis, who take the youth underground. You don’t see them until the day they vent with the bombs.”

Bakri enoyed his notoriety and was willing to pay for it with information he passed to the police…It’s a fabric of subtle interlocking needs: the Brits need be in a backchannel conversation with someone working the steam valve of Muslim anger; Bakri needs health insurance.”

It is a little over 11 years since Hugo Chávez first assumed the presidency in Venezuela, following a landslide election victory that swept the country’s discredited traditional parties out of power. Since then, Chávez has presided over a radical and controversial process of reforms that has been increasingly vilified by the mainstream media – and the English-language media has been no exception.

Rightwing outlets, such as Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News channel, regularly refer to Chávez as a dictator, even though there have been 12 national elections during his time as president – most of which received unprecedented levels of scrutiny by international observers and were systematically deemed as free and fair.

More surprising for many has been the position taken towards the Chávez government by media outlets generally viewed as “liberal”. For example,
the BBC has had its coverage of Venezuela questioned recently. In December 2009, researchers at the University of the West of England published the preliminary findings of a 10-year study.

Of 304 BBC reports concerning Venezuela published between 1998 and 2008, the researchers found that only three mentioned any of the Chavez government’s positive reforms – such as poverty reduction programmes that have more than halved the poverty rate from 46.5% in 1998 to 23% in 2009. Instead the BBC’s reporting has been characterised by insinuations that Chávez lacks electoral support, and even compared Chávez to Hitler in one instance. The research also suggested the BBC has fallen short of its commitment to impartiality, truth and accuracy.

More here