Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
on July 2, 2024, 6:07 pm
Vote Green ONLY when there is no socialist alternative – they are neither anti-capitalist, anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist or anti-racist
As the Neo-Liberal Parties Head for a Record Low Vote, the Left has to Come Together Under One Umbrella like in France
Time is Running Out Says Young Palestinian Woman
There is widespread contempt for Starmer’s new patriotic Tory Party. His parachuting in of 14 army officers, his pledge to increase ‘defence’ expenditure, wrapping the Union Jack around himself, reminiscent of the NF and his attack on Bengalis, shows that Starmer is a racist fraud. As Samuel Johnson once said, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel’ and Starmer is nothing if not a scoundrel.
The tearing up of his 10 Pledges have marked Starmer out as a cynical liar on a par with Boris Johnson. His reliance on corporate donors like Sir Trevor Chinn, a Zionist who gave £50,000 to his leadership campaign, but whose identity he refused to divulge during the leadership campaign, tells us everything about him.
My local Green Party candidate - not a mention of Gaza Genocide anywhere
The parachuting in of lobbyists and right-wingers such as Chris Ward in Brighton Kemptown, whilst deselecting the local MP and removing candidates like Faiza Shaheen and the imposition of Luke Akehurst have led to mass resignations. The Labour Party is beyond salvation.
By sticking to Starmer the trade union barons have demonstrated that their loyalty is to their own rather than their members’ interests. This is the problem that the working class faces. We have to get rid of the Gary Smiths, Sharon Grahams and Christine McAnea
There are some brilliant socialists standing against Labour such as Andrew Feinstein against Starmer, Jodi McIntyre standing against Jess Philips despite scare stories in the local media, Leanne Mohamad standing against Wes Streeting and Tanushka Mara standing against ‘Killer’ Kyle in Hove. The Green Party [GP] have insisted on standing in every constituency, including against Jeremy Corbyn. Despite their image as a ‘left’ party they are nothing of the sort.
A reminder about how broken promises are second nature to the Lib Dems
Starmer’s war against the left provided the impetus for a socialist alternative in this election. It goes against the grain not to vote. People want nothing to do with the Liberal Democrats, after their austerity coalition with the Tories for 5 years and the breaking of their pledge to abolish tuition fees. They are Tory lite. Yet the Greens were in tactical alliance with them in the 2017 parliament.
Many on the left see the GP, which at first sight has a radical manifesto, as on the left. It isn’t. The GP is an opportunist not a socialist party. Its main aim is to become part of the political establishment. It seeks to green capitalism not replace it. That is why many Tory voters vote for it in local elections.
Allan Todd, a former GP member, the first Green councillor in Keswick and member of the party’s Climate Campaign Committee spoke about ‘the number of times members of the leadership spoke about the need to focus on attracting ‘soft Tory voters’. Their
other cause for concern came after the 2017 general election, when the right wing of the Party began pushing back against radical policies for social and economic justice. On internal online discussion groups, there were many who began calling for (and I quote) “such socialist stuff” to be left to the Labour Party.
Despite this I voted Green because in Brighton Kemptown there is no socialist standing. Where there are socialists, and I include the Worker’s Party despite differences with them over immigration and the family/sexuality, I support them. Some of their candidates, such as Chris Williamson and Craig Murray, are excellent.
However they are not an anti-imperialist party. Following WW2 the US replaced the UK as the main imperialist power. The US sought to dismantle the British Empire and bring an end to imperial preference. According to the US Office of Historian
Roosevelt wanted the British to pay compensation [for Lend Lease aid during WW2] by dismantling their system of Imperial Preference, which had been established by the British Government during the Great Depression and was designed to encourage trade within the British Empire by lowering tariff rates between members, while maintaining discriminatory tariff rates against outsiders.
In the Middle East the US allied with nationalists such as Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser, just so long as they were also anti-communist. Until 1967 it refrained from too close a relationship with Israel. A good insight into the competition between the US and Britain is James Barr’s Lords of the Desert which details how both powers sought to destabilise and overthrow any regime not to their liking.
The US was responsible for overthrowing radical regimes in Guatemala and Iran (1953), Chile (1973), Congo (1960), Brazil (1964), Indonesia (1965). It has also maintained a blockade of Cuba since 1962. It took over from the French and fought a bloody war in Vietnam before it was forced to withdraw.
The US war drive today centres on the proxy war in Ukraine, the arming and financing of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and the ‘pivot to China’ via the AUKUS Pact. US foreign policy, whether it is the isolation of Russia or attacks on Libya and Syria is conducted in the context of NATO’s framework.
Yet in 2023 the GP abandoned their policy of withdrawal from NATO. The pretext for this was Ukraine despite the responsibility for this war lying with NATO. The US insisted, despite promises to Gorbachev at the time of German reunification, on expanding NATO in Eastern Europe right up to the borders of Russia.
The GP argues that NATO is a defensive pact despite it waging war in Afghanistan and Libya as well as orchestrating the bombing of Serbia, Syria and Libya. The GP is at heart an imperialist party.
Victoria Nuland talking to US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt about who to put into Ukraine’s Government
It was the US role in the overthrow of the elected President of Ukraine, Yanukavych in 2014, which set the scene for Russia’s invasion in 2022. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s conversation with Geoffrey Pyatt, US Ambassador to Ukraine, was bugged by the Russians. Newland and Pyatt were discussing the make-up of the new Ukrainian government. Ctd....
The last working-class hero in England.
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
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