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Showing posts with label Mick Hall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mick Hall. Show all posts

Mick Hall ☭ In my experience following the herd is never a good idea.

I shouldn’t have to say this, but I will once again because some folk seem to be hard of hearing.

Like millions of people in the world I say no to Russia and no to NATO, no to Biden, no to Putin.  They are all war mongering scum.

Neutrality is the only sound position I can take. All else is fanning the flames of war, making a bad situation worse. As for democracy, despite all his pious words Zelenskyy and his masters have shut down all avenues of dissent. Putin has done much the same in Russia. For these people there is no middle ground: you either support the Empire and NATO or Putin. As to those who cling desperately to the remnants of the Soviet Union and support Russia, they are delusional. Putin’s oligarchy has nothing to do with socialism.

Of course, Ukrainian refugees should be supported that goes without saying. In all probability many will make new lives in their host nations and will never return home permanently. Who could blame them given the Ukraine is the second most corrupt country in Europe after Russia, and in the pocket of an imperialist neoliberal state and it’s European Allies?

In a documentary l watched recently about the Vietnam War, a former Vietcong soldier was asked by a journalist what’s it like to be on the winning side. He replied; “Whoever comes out on top? Nobody really wins a war.”

I feel the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Chechnya, and Georgia, all victims of Russian or US/NATO aggression would understand what he meant perfectly.

No to Moscow no to Washington.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Organised Rage ✑ Against Following The Herd

Mick Hall ☭ in a letter to a non-political friend organises his rage against the Ukrainian government of Volodymyr Zelensky.

The US saw an opportunity to poke the bear and foolishly Putin took the bait the rest is history.

In 1991 after the breakup of the Soviet Union the current incarnation of the Ukrainian State emerged Since then it’s been run by gangsters, oligarchs, and opportunist politicians like Zelensky, who promised in his election manifesto if elected he would make a deal with Putin’s Russia.

This would have been the sensible thing to do, not least because over a third of the population were Russian speaking. It was one of the main reasons he won the election in 2021. The other was bringing an end to the rampant corruption. He did neither. If anything, corruption is far worse today than when he came into office. And some say corruption is lapping around his feet.

After he was elected he renegaded on his election promises. It’s said soon after he took office that he had an offer he couldn’t refuse from the fascist Azov Battalion. I don’t know if this is true but a few months later they were incorporated into the Ukraine military, with some members being given senior positions in the army and security services.

To stop the flow of people leaving, Zelensky eventually made it illegal for men between 18 and 60 to leave the country. He has also banned Trade Unions, neutered the media, turned the economy into neoliberalism in-line with the USA, banned books and speaking Russian. If you think about the latter that’s the first language a third of Ukrainians speak!

As far as the West’s response to Putin’s invasion it’s been designed in Langley. And like good little soldiers Europe’s politicians put on Khaki and followed the US military-political-Industrial complex over the top and we are where we are today on the precipice of world war three.

Given the record of the USA military and CIA over the last twenty five years in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and all points NSEW they're little more than Murder Incorporated with Zelensky as their patsy in Ukraine. Their finger prints are all over the recent coup in Peru and the attempted coup in Brazil. On this issue for me the main enemy is at home. I curse the day our politicians got us involved in this war. What they have done is trashed their own economies and for what the second most corrupt country in Europe!

As to your friend going home to join the Ukraine army good luck to him Liam. But if he hasn’t had previous military experience it will be tough for him to survive as both Russia and the Ukraine are using grunts as cannon fodder.

On ceasefires and diplomacy things do look pretty grim, Russia will never concede the Crimean Peninsula but there is a discussion to be had about the eastern region of the Ukraine. Sadly this will never happen when NATO is continuously pouring petroleum on the flames. As to morals they don’t exist in warfare no matter what Zelensky claims to the MSM.

If I were to give you any advice I would say stay clear, sorry I can’t be more help..

All the best to you Liam.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Organised Rage ✑ Against Zelensky's Corrupt Neoliberal Government

Mick Hall ☭ organises his rage against European Economic Strategy.

Most European nations are going belly up economically due to following the diktat of Washington and its creature NATO when they decided to support a proxy war after Putin foolishly took the Empire's bait and invaded Ukraine.

These political morons piled up sanctions on Russia certain they would break its back both militarily and economically seemingly oblivious of the fact what goes around comes around.* No worries it will be all over by autumn TV news channels proclaimed in the spring, Russia will have been taught a lesson they will not forget and as a bonus it might even topple Putin.

Yes they claimed, we may all have to make sacrifices but it will be worth it in the long run. Of course those who came up with this cunning plan won’t be making any sacrifices nor will the prime ministers, cabinet members in the various European governments including the UK, or the opposition party leaders who in unison without any democratic debate or vote in their party put on khaki. They will never go without a meal, be fearful their utilities will be cut off, unable to pay the rent, put food on the table.

They will still be flying in private jets around the world pretending their solving Global warming and driving around in government limousines while looking down their snouts at us.**

As to those NATO generals, and their talking head journalists who support the war by spreading misinformation and hiding the truth, if there were any justice, alongside their masters they would be in jail.

Sadly we know this won’t happen. Not one of these war criminals on either side nor their political masters will be out of pocket let alone in jail. Indeed as is the way in wars they in all probability have been making a fortune out of this conflict.

It will be the least able to afford it, the working classes who will take the hit - ain’t that always the way!

* Blowback.

** Why anyone would want the Russian people to be taught a lesson is a mystery to me haven’t they had enough of these down the centuries?

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Organised Rage ✑ Against Europe Committing Economic Suicide

Mick Hall ☭ organises his rage against bad strategy.

CWU Strategy

I am totally puzzled how the CWU expect to win their fight with the current strategy. Basically it boils down to two days on strike then they take a break until the next two days comes around.

In my experience when taking industrial action, you need to win as quickly as possible for obvious reasons. You need to keep the pressure on management daily because they will plot and scheme to break the strike and by giving them a pause it allows them to do this more easily. As importantly in the current situation it allows management time to lobby the government to bring in even more draconian anti-trade union legislation.

If you look at the strikes which have been successful recently, the Unite Union’s strategy in the Bin men/women's strike in Thurrock were spot on. The Union’s head office built up a war chest to provide a hardship fund to see the workers through the dog days when some will inevitably be considering going back to work, thus the strike was solid. Stop start is not the way you win strikes you need to be out of the gate. But then again perhaps I’m old fashioned a dinosaur of an earlier age.

We shall see.

Ukraine

Talk radio and the mainstream media continue to churn out propaganda daily about the situation in the Ukraine. Yet I cannot remember a single day when the likes of James O’Brien and others have said, hang on a minute where is this leading to? They seem to have forgotten the first casualty of war is the truth, or more likely they’re doing their masters bidding!

The whole point of government should be to keep the people they govern out of harm's way. Instead sanctions on Russia have back-fired with disastrous consequences and NATO have been pouring petroleum onto the flames of war. Approximately 4 years ago, the Ukraine was regarded as a failed state run by corrupt politicians and oligarchs, the only time I can remember it being mentioned In the MSM back then was when Joe Biden’s son had been doing dirty deals there, and when there was yet another political coup.

So what changed? The US, political, military and industrial complex saw an opportunity to take down Putin’s Russia and anointed the Ukrainian government as its proxy. No more talk of the Ukraine being the second most corrupt country in Europe. Not a mention of oligarchs, and fascists in its military as the money and armaments flooded in.

Almost overnight it became plucky little Ukraine and we are where we are on a cusp of a world war.

Next stop China?

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Organised Rage ✑ Against Bad Strategy

Mick Hall ☭ After being absent without leave for weeks Boris Johnson turns up in the Ukraine doing his master’s bidding.* 

With Zelenskyy alongside him he promised the Ukrainian elites a £50 million top up of British tax payers money.

This when back in the UK we are going to hell in a handcart, the profiteers whether it’s food, petroleum at the pumps, and energy are making untold billions, yet the Tory government are refusing to act against them whilst ordinary people are suffering a cost of living crises the scale of which hasn’t happened in living memory.

On the world stage things are equally grim. According to Channel 4 news 20% of the world's aid is now going to the Ukraine. If it’s the truth it is disgraceful, how, anyone can justify this is beyond reason.

People are starving in Somalia and Yemen, a third of Pakistan is under water and parts of Africa are suffering severe droughts which threaten human life.

Even with the ongoing war in the Ukraine it’s still the second largest provider of grain in the world, with the shipping lanes now open the price of grain has risen to record high levels, it’s clear the four main companies in this business have been colluding and profiteering yet NATO nor the Zelenskyy regime have said enough!

So what type of aid is arriving in the Ukraine, mainly munitions and money from NATO and it’s member states. Even in the war zones no one is starving while across the world some people are not getting the food and shelter they need.

Quite literally by gobbling up 20% of foreign aid the Ukraine is taking food from the mouths of babies, children and the elderly who need it desperately.

* Biden and the US Industrial, Political, and Military Complex.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

The Ukraine Is Gobbling Up 20% Of The Worlds Foreign Aid

Mick Hall ☭ I went to my local car wash yesterday to get my vehicle cleaned inside and out.

The last time I had it done it was £13 pounds - this time the guy in charge told me it would be £20 pounds. I told him he was a profiteering arsehole and went on my way.

However it's not the only business which is profiteering. The supermarkets are at it too, both in store and on their petrol station forecourts.

One only has to look at their profit margins to see customers are being ripped off. We all know this is going on but the government and the Labour opposition are doing nothing about it. The main supermarkets alone Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison have recorded collective profits so far this year of £4.8 billion.

Given the current economic climate you would have thought their profits would be down but they're not' they're sky high. If you check out the data, the reason for this is clear: they are profiteering which incidentally in the UK is against the law.

There is no other explanation so why isn't the government not calling them to account. Why haven't the police been knocking on their CEO's doors? At the very least why hasn't a windfall tax been put on this sector of the economy?*

It seems to me increasingly big or small there is hardly a business which hasn't been profiteering from the small fry like my local car wash to multinational corporations. It's yet another example of us little people carrying the can for a crisis which isn't of our making.

When will we rise up and say enough is enough!

* The second hand car market is another which should be targeted with a windfall tax as the major players have clearly been profiteering.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Enough Is Enough

Mick Hall ☭ The club of BRICS emerging economies formed in 2009 is home to more than 40% of the global population and accounts for nearly a quarter of the world’s gross domestic product.

President Xi of China will chair the virtual BRICS summit later this week, three of its most influential members - China, India and South Africa abstained from voting on a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In response to this the US government put out a statement warning China and other BRICS nations not to be on the wrong side of history over the Ukraine-Russia war.

The United States of America has been on the wrong side of history almost every year since it's foundation in 1776. There is hardly a conflict in the world in which the US have become embroiled, which hasn't made a bad situation worse. In truth the US political, military, and industrial complex have so much blood on their hands it should be renamed Murder Incorporated.

Since WW2 when they did play a positive role they have intervened in Cuba, Vietnam, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Iran, Indonesia, Philippines, Lebanon, Palestine, Ukraine and more; they truly are a gang of piratical gangsters.

By the way given the above mentioned history it's not whataboutery to question the motives of the US government in the Ukraine, it's due diligence and common sense.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Murder Incorporated

Mick Hall ☭ The UK MSM have been wetting themselves over the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. 

According to them the whole nation came together and joined in the celebration. 

We were told everyone loves the Queen, her family and the institution she represents, which is debatable to say the least. It's true in some big cities like London there were some large crowds but nothing special. They weren't much bigger in central London than you would get at Pop concert in Hyde Park or a fireworks display on New Years Eve. Compared to the numbers at previous jubilee's it seemed to have been a damp squib.

This was reflected in the TV news coverage when news outlets used the same footage over and again. In my local area I counted only two houses with buntings. It was much the same when I travelled further afield. Beyond one small village I haven't heard from anyone who had a street party, I'm sure there were some but they seemed thin on the ground.

Yes most people welcomed an extra Bank Holiday which wasn't surprising given the UK have less of them than our European neighbours. The majority of people went about their business much as they would on any Bank Holiday weekend. I doubt bringing the country together and joining in the jubilee celebrations crossed their minds.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

A Damp Squib?

Mick Hall ☭ Some thoughts on national borders, NATO, Sweden and Finland's application to join it. 

One only has to look back at the recent history of NATO to understand it needs to be poked with a very long stick. To put it bluntly. its US leadership are warmongering thugs and not to be trusted.* 

The Ukraine war has been manufactured in Washington and Putin foolishly took the bait. As to Zelenskyy the Ukrainian president what did he think would happen when he got into bed with NATO -  the Russian bear would roll over on its back and be satisfied with a jar of honey?

We're told by the MSM that borders are sacrosanct. They are not. They change with the prevailing political wind. I don't have to remind Britain's near neighbour of this. After a great many years as a single entity a sizable section of Ireland in the north east of the country was partitioned. Finland is another example, as is Mexico. Indeed Africa and the middle East were shared out by imperialist powers without a thought about historical borders. They simply drew a new line in the sand and to hell with the consequences. As to the Ukraine it's border has flip flopped all over the place down the centuries. 

I'm not saying this is okay, just pointing out that it happens. 

Sweden joining NATO. I'm not sure that is a runner. The Turkish president Recip Erdogan will demand a high price from the Swedish people if he agrees to support their application, including the betrayal of former members of Kurdish organisations and individuals who found sanctuary there. Besides, there is a lack of democratic accountability here which is hardly mentioned. Swedish people haven't been given a vote on whether or not to join NATO, a momentous event by anyone's standards as the country has been a nonaligned nation for over 200 years. 

Finland is different for a number of historic and geo-political reasons that I won't go into now. But what I will say like the Ukraine, it's borders have dramatically changed especially in the twentieth century.  According to DW News: By joining the alliance the Finnish people will be hit harder than most:

it only exports 5.4% of goods and services to the country, but Russia played a big part in key industries like paper and energy supplies, 87% of all oil products and 100% of natural gas came from Russia. Most of the consequence will be negative for the Finnish economy, many exporting companies will have to find new markets and this will take time when the global post pandemic recovery is facing head winds.

Which begs the question why hasn't the Finnish people been allowed a referendum to decide whether they wish to join NATO, instead of having a diktat imposed on them from those in power? If l were a Swedish or Finnish citizen I would ponder that old proverb, Marry in haste, repent at leisure.

• If anyone doubts this don't take my word for it - read what a former President Jimmy Carter said when talking to Trump: 

The U.S. has been at peace for only 16 of its 242 years as a nation. Counting wars, military attacks and military occupations, there have actually only been five years of peace in US history — 1976, the last year of the Gerald Ford administration and 1977-80, the entirety of Carter’s presidency.

Carter then referred to the US as “the most warlike nation in the history of the world."

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Marry In Haste ✑ Repent At Leisure

Mick Hall ☭ According to the Guardian the US, congressional Democrats have agreed to provide another $39.8bn in additional aid for Ukraine, exceeding President Joe Biden’s request last month for $33bn including more than $20bn in military assistance. Senate leaders were prepared to move quickly to enact the new proposals, which includes an additional $3.4bn for military aid and $3.4bn in humanitarian aid.

The USA is a nation which can conjure up this amount of money for its military and its proxy in the Ukraine, but it cannot or will not provide for its citizens a universal health care system free at the point of need.

In one US city alone, San Francisco, in the richest country in the world has more homeless people sleeping on the streets and in homeless shelters than all western nations put together.

Cross the North Atlantic to the UK and you see much the same indifference, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with the support of the leader of the opposition Kier Starmer, have donated £2.1 billion of aid to the Ukraine so far with a further £1.4 pledged over the next three months. Yet the NHS is in tatters, 5% of the population depend on charitable food banks to feed themselves and families, and come winter a sizeable section of the population won’t be able to pay their energy bills and may well be left in the cold and dark.

All this because Joe Biden, with his British poodle marching in unison, decided to put the squeeze on Russia by moving NATO’s presence to its borders without a thought about the hardships and dangers this will create for the British and US people. To become embroiled and fund a war which is taking place 1,800 miles away from the UK and 4,775 from a US border is infantile, a crime against humanity. Their attitude is basically war is a profitable business for the few and to hell with the consequences.

As to the Ukraine and Russia, as Sun Tzu once wrote there is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare. Negotiations to end this war are long overdue, however with NATO and Putin throwing petrol on the flames it doesn’t look like it will end anytime soon.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

The Ukraine War ✑ What A Waste Of Human Endeavour And Lives

Mick Hall ☭ No country would sit easy if they had a hostile and powerful foreign military alliance hunkered down near their borders.

But that doesn't absolve those in the Kemlin who marched its military into the Ukraine recklessly, egotistically, and foolishly.

However what was Zelenskyy thinking when he tied his country's apron strings to the USA (and it's Nato allies) when historically their word is not worth a penny-farthing in old money as the Afghan people learnt only recently? 

What he has done is cut the umbilical cord from one satrap dictator and to put it crudely, tied it to another shower of shit. Still we shouldn't be that surprised as he is quite happy to tolerate having Azov fascists embedded within the Ukrainian military, security services and police. 

It's worth remembering if it marched like a fascist, talks like a fascist, barks like a fascist, it's a fascist!

James Meek who should know better, writing in The Observer has clearly got with the MSM programe when he wrote this:

The beauty of the EU, for Ukraine, is the capaciousness of its model for both liberals and nationalists. In some ways, the aims of European-era Ukraine closely resemble those of the Scottish National Party and the Irish republic.

Oh really? So if the SNP were to gain independence they would have a fascist Battalion/Regiment, of well over a thousand plus men and women in their military? As to the Republic of Ireland I'm not going there, in the modern era it's to ridiculous to even imagine.

Meek continues:

For Ukraine’s more conservative nationalists,* it’s Poland and Hungary that offer the more appealing EU models – stridently patriotic, subordinating media, courts and education to national ideals and social conservatism, all while getting subsidies and trading freely within the EU.
 
It wasn't that long ago when Meek's paper was trashing the record of the government's of Poland and Hungary and rightly so, not any more it seems, to use a fake slogan "there're all in this together."
Meek then quotes an unnamed Ukrainian friend:

I am a liberal, defending the independence of Ukraine. Part of Ukrainian society supports conservative values, linking them to security. If we’re really only going to preach universal, classical, liberal values … we promote discord in the country.

This is classic bourgeois arrogance. It reminds me of the man with the black moustache who the German ruling class thought they could tame by bringing him in from the cold. Whilst Ukraine is not like Germany in 1932, however what has not changed is the fascists' overall strategy and the naivety of the bourgeoisie to believe they can coexist with armed fascists within the state apparatus.

* The Ukrainian National Defence and Security Council recently suspended the activities of a number of Ukrainian political parties. The list includes major opposition parties and less known ones that use words like 'progressive', 'left' or 'socialist' in their names. The Ukrainian fascists were not on the list.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Neither Washington Nor Moscow

Mick Hall ☭ Like the Russian military in the Ukraine today, the USA and its NATO allies are equally adept at bombing and terrorising people from their homes.

In the last 30 years, with murderous intent, NATO have been involved in armed conflicts against Serbia, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria. And it’s not whataboutery to point this out.

Yes, the Russian state invaded parts of the old Soviet Union, and their current war with the Ukraine is plain wrong: they need to ceasefire and remove there troops. However one of the reasons Putin had the confidence to invade the Ukraine was because the US, UK and NATO did much the same in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya - and when it went belly up walked away scot-free without a backward glance.

Indeed many of those responsible for the mayhem and murder in these aforementioned countries have prospered. For example Tony Blair who is culpable in the fate of approximately five hundred thousand dead Iraqis accumulated vast sums of money after he left office, and has hovered up even more ill gotten gains from satraps around the world. He appears on UK TV and writes for influential news papers like the Guardian and The Times. He was appointed a ‘knight companion of the most noble order of the garter’ by the Crown in the 2022 New Years honours list.

Yet as far as the MSM is concerned NATO are always on the side of the angels, a defensive force which is keeping the peace in Europe; which is nonsensical and totally untrue if you look at its more recent history.

Hardly a day goes by now without some armchair warrier in parliament or in a TV studio claiming Putin is committing war crimes in the Ukraine and should be brought before the war crimes tribunal at The Hague. This may well be true. In all probability he is committing war crimes. But as British or US citizens we need to concentrate on this question: why hasn’t Bush, Blair, Cameron and their underlings been tried for war crimes when they clearly committed crimes against humanity? We should never forget that our main enemy is at home.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

MSM And Westminster Politicians Are Adorned In Khaki ✑ And Not For The First Time

Mick Hall ☭  To paraphrase a Mafia Don “two capitalist countries at war is not good for business”.

There has been much MSM talk of Russia’s military campaign being bogged down in the Ukraine but I’m not so sure about that. The MSM often mentioned Grozny and how the Russian military destroyed the city, but they fail to mention how long it took. If they did they would have to admit the Russian strategy in the Ukraine is going to plan.

According to Wikipedia the Russian campaign to attack Grozny started on the 15th of October 1999 when their troops began to advance slowly towards the city. By late November it was surrounded. The early fighting was concentrated in the eastern outskirts of Grozny, with reconnaissance teams entering the city to identify rebel positions. The Russian tactic appeared to be to draw fire from the rebels, then pull back and pound the Chechen positions with artillery and rocket fire.

Russia's bombardments finally began to take their toll: using multiple rocket launchers and massed tank and artillery fire, the Russians flattened large parts of Grozny in preparation for an all-out assault.

On February the 21, which was four months into the campaign, Russian forces held a military parade to mark the Defender of the Fatherland Day and to symbolise the final defeat of the Chechen rebels. In reality some of the Chechen rebels continued the fight in small guerrilla groups for the next two years.

If you look at the maps in The Times and other media outlets this looks like the same strategy Putin and the Russian military is using in the Ukraine.

As far as President Zelenskyy is concerned and he is clearly a brave man, but perhaps he needs to swallow his pride. He made the mistake of trusting NATO to eventually come to his aid by declaring war on Russia. However there seems no sign of that so far as none of the nations which make up the alliance wants a full scale world war which would be disastrous for all parties. 

However this doesn’t mean NATO won’t march us into a war if Zelenskyy runs out of road.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Not Good For Business

Mick Hall ☭ It's a puzzle to me why anyone would remain a member of a political party in which they have no say and are despised by the leadership?

Whatever you can say about previous Labour Party leaders, from Corbyn, John Smith, Callaghan, Wilson, Attlee, Lansbury, even Tony Blair etc, they all adhered to the party being a broad church. This is no longer the case, Indeed the current leader Sir Keir Starmer and his acolytes have made it clear that the Left in the party are persona non grata.

He now intends to remove shortlisting powers of election candidates from regional and local party officials. The NEC which he controls will now be responsible for approving each stage of the selection process, including the election of the selection committee, timetable, and shortlist.

This would mean in all probability the LP would be the most undemocratic mainstream political party within the UK. The Tory party, SNP, Liberal Democrats, Green's, Sinn Féin, SDLP, Plaid Cymru and the DUP all have a system which allows local constituencies to play the main role in selecting local and general election candidates.

Just how cold a place the LP has become for the left was demonstrated by Starmer's odious gofer Rachel Revees when she said recently:

It's good 150,00 have left the party because they never shared Labour values. The drop in Labour Membership, which has reduced the party's income was a price worth paying for shedding unwelcome supporters.

This is some statement to make given many of those who left the party had been members for many years, or been expelled/suspended for no good reason.

Starmer isn't a socialist by any stretch of the imagination: a supporter of the apartheid state of Israel, one of the most vicious regimes in the world; A close friend and uncritical supporter of the war criminal Tony Blair. As you can see from the photo below he bends the knee to the crown, an archaic and undemocratic institution which sits at the pinnacle of the UK class system which has blighted so many working class lives.

We know Starmer and his Blairite coterie lied to gain the leadership of the LP now they're rewriting history. There will come a time when left activists who remain in the party will reach a crossroads, come the next general election they will either have to collude with the current leadership, or bury their heads in the sand and keep their mouths shut.

As to the former leader Jeremy Corbyn, along with John McDonnell and others who told leftwing members to hang in there, it might be time for them to explain what are they hanging in there for?

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Hanging Around Aimlessly

Mick Hall ☭ Albert Einstein once said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

After the disastrous 2003 Iraq war and occupation which eventually had British troops scurrying out the back door in Basra in the middle of the night. The recent chaotic scenes when the British military retreated from Afghanistan leaving much of the country decimated and many Afghans without food or work, and ten years after NATO intervened in Libya. it's gone from a cohesive country, all be it with major flaws, to a failed state.

Now, you would have thought lessons would have been learnt from these failures but, no. The British prime minister is now poking the Kremlin with a long stick and has not dismissed putting British troops on the ground in the Ukraine. This beggars belief, when a casual glance at history would see the outcome would be disastrous for the Ukrainian people not least because NATO intervention would antagonize the bear.

Nevertheless the British MSM have been daily stoking up a war with Russia. Night after night, BBC TV news has been showing the same clip of Russian troops with a narrative - Putin is warmongering.

What is indicative of this shoddy reporting is the almost total failure of MSM outlets to report from the ethnic Russian speaking part of the Ukraine which makes up a third of the country's population.

What the Russian government wants was summed up succinctly by Alex McCrory:

If you found your home being surrounded by hostile forces, what would you do? This is precisely the position Russia finds itself in today. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West, in the shape of NATO, has fashioned a noose for the Bear's neck. Most of the former Russian satellite states have been wooed by the West via the European Union and NATO at the behest of America. Nuclear missiles are capable of striking Russian cities in minutes from a number of NATO bases located along its border. What Russia demands is a Pan-European security agreement that removes the current existential threat. A reasonable request in the circumstances.

China is already surrounded by US bases and the hawks in the Pentagon are doing the same with Russia, you don't have to be a groupie of President Putin or President Xi Jinping to understand how dangerous this is for world peace.

It's worth reminding ourselves who is the serial aggressor here. Since 1945, the US has tried to overthrow more than 50 governments, many of them democratically elected; grossly interfered in elections in 30 countries; bombed the civilian populations of 30 countries; used chemical and biological weapons; and attempted to assassinate foreign leaders.*

* Taken from the American historian William Blum who until his death in 2018 yearly updated a summary of the record of US foreign policy.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

US ✑ A Serial Aggressor

Mick Hall ☭ I see the advocates of Humanitarian Intervention are all over the MSM eating humble pie.

Polly Toynbee was one of the first out of the traps in the Guardian, a newspaper which since WW1 has been more often than not on the wrong side of history.

She writes:

Here ends the west’s grotesque delusion that it could use its military might to turn Afghanistan into a stable democracy, a shining path of moderate Islam. In the shadow of New York’s burning twin towers, I was one swept along on that “something must be done” tide, that drumbeat for a war to stop terror and liberate oppressed people. We have learned a bitter lesson.

All I can say that bitter lesson was long in coming. It wasn’t as if the likes of Toynbee weren’t warned about sending US and UK military into Afghanistan and later Iraq. She only had to turn on her TV and see the millions of people marching across the world who warned of the dangers of intervening militarily in Afghanistan and later Iraq.

But, no, Polly preferred to listen to snake oil salesmen like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, and over here, Blair, Straw, and the likes of David Miliband. And she wasn’t the only MSM hack who displayed such arrogance and ignorance.

If history teaches us anything it’s that putting military boots on other peoples' streets, rarely ends well for the occupied and their oppressors. In 2001 Toynbee only had to look across the Irish Sea to understand when people in their own streets are treated harshly and in some cases barbarically by foreign soldiers they often resist, and join organisations which oppose their oppressor. In the north of Ireland it was the IRA, South Africa the ANC, Palestine the PLO and in Afghanistan the Taliban.

It beggars believe those who supported the War on Terror didn’t see the link, but then their leaders considered themselves to be the masters of the world and all they behold, when they were in reality war criminals. And the likes of Polly Toynbee, who colluded with them, their enablers, who painted a picture which was far from the truth.

The very least she can do today is hang her head in shame.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Mea Culpa

Mick Hall ☭ Poor Cuba So Far From God, So Close To The USA.*

With Joe Biden in the White House, the political, military and industrial complex is on the march again. Ever since Biden first became a senator in 1972, there is not a single US military intervention overseas which he hasn’t supported. So, we shouldn’t be surprised he has Cuba in his gunsights.

For me, the Cuban Revolution was an iconic event and all these years later I see no reason to change my mind. True there have been naysayers on the left but their criticism basically boiled down to it wasn’t the right type of Revolution. A member of a long forgotten sect once told me “we support it unconditionally and critically” which seemed a bit of an oxymoron to me.

It has always been internationalist to it’s core. An example of this was when Mandela first came out of prison, his first major overseas visit was to Cuba. He knew the critical role the Cubans played in the defeat of apartheid, especially when backing militarily the People’s Armed Forces of Liberation in Angola with 3,000 Cuban frontline troops in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. That helped turn the tide against apartheid in South West Africa.

The same could be said for the support it gave to National Liberations Movements in Central and South America and even those closer to home. For Cuba a friend in need was never a nuisance!

Revolutions ebb and flow and life does not stand still and as Milovan Djilas once said “Normal life cannot sustain revolutionary attitudes for long.” This may have been true about Yugoslavia but the Republic of Cuba has sustained and thrived on revolutionary attitudes and I’m sure it will overcome the current crisis which like many others is not of it’s own making.

It is worth remembering just how appalling, violent and vengeful US governments have been towards Cuba since 1959, as Jeff St Clair points out here:

The US has invaded Cuba, funded multiple insurrections, tried dozens of times to assassinate its leaders, used biological weapons to wilt its crops and poison its livestock, tracked down and executed Che Guevara, bombarded the island with hysterical propaganda, ranted against it at the UN, financed, trained and protected a gang of thugs that planned and executed the bombing of a Cuban passenger plane (killing 73 civilians), plotted false flag ops in Miami to blame on the Castro government, and enforced a decades long embargo (that even China finds it hard to break) that would have crippled almost any other nation. The fact that Cuba is still standing, a little wobbly at times, but still defiant, simply drives the US nuts. It’s a living example of another way to organise a society and it can’t be tolerated by the USA, especially as it’s so close to home.

Who is the victim here? Who are the perpetrators? It doesn’t take long to work this out. Besides we have been here before. When it comes to destabilising nations, the recent demonstrations in Cuba are straight out of the CIA’s manual. This type of reprehensible behaviour by the US government goes back decades. The overthrow of the Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 by the CIA / MI6 was one of it’s first outings in the post WW2 period.

With the internet it’s become easier to do this dirty work, although the foundations are much the same: find a grievance - it doesn’t much matter what it is - use an over ambitious useful idiot to stoke up trouble, spread the dollar around liberally and use the MSM to propagate it far and wide and then wait for the herd mentality to kick in.

The Cuban Revolution has survived many set backs since 1959 and have, despite the hardships, overcome them. If anyone thinks a march and demo orchestrated from the outside will bring it down, they are sadly mistaken.

Viva Cuba!

* Original quote was by Porfirio Diaz, Pobre México! ¡Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!" (Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States!

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Appalling, Violent, Vengeful

Mick Hall  ✒ Accepting an honour which is closely associated with the British Empire, by its very name, doesn't necessarily mean the recipient's are all racists.

But what it undoubtedly does mean, that by accepting this ‘honour,’ they are prepared to put aside the racism and horrendous crimes of the Empire years.

The British monarchy have been dishing out honours for centuries, mainly for favours rendered by courtiers and mistresses. However the current system of honours is not that old: it was first introduced in 1917 by George V. I presume it was linked to the British Empire because he and his advisers believed it would display longevity and the power of the State.

What I find incredible, given what we now know about the late unlamented British Empire and the crimes it committed across the world, that successive Labour and Tory governments believe it’s still OK to have honours named after such a barbaric institution.

Perhaps this is not a mere oversight, a leftover from the past. Were the British government to change the name of their honours system it would in all probability provoke a reckoning with the British Empire. Something which in the UK is long overdue. Demands for apologies and reparations would rightly follow from nations around the world which suffered grievously in the empire years.

How this might pan out was partially demonstrated recently when Germany apologised for the way its colonial regime treated Namibia and it’s people. The German military killed 75,000 plus people in a 1904-1908 campaign after the Namibian people had the temerity to revolt against land seizures by colonists. Historians and the United Nations have long called this the first genocide of the 20th century.

Compared with the British Empires crimes, Germany’s in Namibia whilst horrendous were small beer, you only have to look at two of its most savage policies to understand this.

It is estimated that Britain transported 3.1 million Africans (of whom 2.7 million arrived) to the British colonies in the Caribbean, North and South America and to other countries. An act of Genocide surely?

Fast forward to the Bengal famine in 1943 when the Indian Raj hoarded and exported food from the region. Between January and July 1943 they exported 75 thousand tons of rice, the staple diet in the region, food which could have alleviated much of the suffering and deaths. We don’t know exactly how many people died because the British authorities in India weren’t counting, but it was in the millions.

Their attitude towards the starving people were best summed up by Winston Churchill who was then prime minister, when he said he resolutely opposed any food shipments into Bengal. Again, an act of genocide surely?

So what is to be done to get an honours system worthy of the name? It’s a difficult question to answer as neither the governing Tory party nor the Labour Party opposition at Westminster support change. Indeed they seem only too pleased to be linked to an empire which was dripping with blood.

The only real hope is for a ‘Me Too’ type campaign to emerge which targets those who receive these honours and remind them of the barbarity and racism their honour is linked to.

However, I will not be holding my breath, not least because through rose tinted spectacles, the UK is one of the most backward looking nations in the world. 

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Why Hasn’t The UK's System Of Honours Been Updated For The Modern Age?

Mick Hall ✒ on 50 Years Of Failure Since The 1971 Misuse Of Drugs Act Was Passed Into Law.

We only need to look at the rise in registered heroin addicts and those on synthetic opioids to understand this. In 1969 there were approximately 1,400 registered heroin addicts in the UK. Today the numbers are in the hundreds of thousands. So, how did we get here and how do we correct the errors of the past?

Until the late 1960s the UK had some of the most liberal drug laws in the world which were based on a simple fact that people will always take narcotics, whether it's for pleasure or to take the rough edges off life. Thus, it was understood that a small minority would become addicts and they were treated sympathetically. Their GPs prescribed their drug of choice weekly or monthly and the addicts were expected to work and just get on with their lives.

There was no psycho-babble back then about the causes of addiction. It was taken as read that some users would inevitably fall by the wayside. The law, imprisonment and ruined lives were never on the agenda.

After a MSM generated shit storm in the late 1960s / early70s about young working class people taking drugs, mainly purple hearts when clubbing, in 1971 the British government introduced new legislation which they claimed would stamp out illegal drugs for ever. Apart for a cut and tuck here and there, it's still on the statute book, the benchmark for how the UK deals with illegal drugs.

Once criminal elements realised there was no legal way heroin addicts could get a legal supply, they quickly moved into this lucrative trade. This wasn't unpredictable as the British government had the failure of alcohol prohibition in the USA staring them in the face.

The way heroin addicts were treated after the act was passed into law went from the sublime to the ridiculous. They were demonised, criminalised, sent to jail, and adulterated drug use became the norm in the UK.

Whatever one's view on legalising and regulating all illicit drugs, and if it's done in an orderly way, then I'm for it. The way addicts have been treated by the state over the last 50 years is an abomination, and it has less to do with the drugs they take and everything to do with the 1971 legislation which has failed them miserably. The war on drugs is an infantile exercise which no government can win, no matter how harshly they try. It's time for a change.

Today there are 50 MPs who support changing the law on drugs and well done to them. But that still leaves 600 who are too cowardly or stupid to put their heads above the parapet and vote the current legislation down.

As Simon Jenkins wrote in a recent article:

There is no longer any debate. Fifty years of British failure and years of foreign efforts at reform show only one thing: that the criminal law is counterproductive. It is game, set and match to reform. Yet terror of any change seems to grip politicians in power. The can is carried by those on the frontline – the police, prison officers, doctors and social workers. Modern democracy is driven not by evidence but by fear. We all know that, sooner or later, the dangers of drug abuse must be tamed, as we try to tame the dangers of alcohol and gambling. But in Britain we must wait for foreigners to show us the way. This is not about facts but about courage.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

50 Years Of Failure On Drugs

Mick Hall ✒ is fed up with all the sycophantic  fawning over the death of Philip Mountbatten. 

 The media coverage of the death of the English queen's husband is well over the top. Elderly men die.  It's part of the process of life. Admittedly in the pandemic some were helped on their way due to the gross incompetence of Boris Johnson, but Betsy's husband wasn't one of them.

After he fell off the perch in his gilded cage BBC radio and TV, ITV, Talk Radio, and Sky News were awash with interviews and programs about the life of this man, whose only real job since his marriage was to walk two paces behind his wife. No respect whatsoever has been given to the millions of us who have no interest in him or his dysfunctional family.

So what is going on? The ruling class never miss an opportunity to nail down their privileges and stamp their feet and this ridiculous charade is an example of this. The front page of last Saturday's Times said it all: Phillip Battenberg is dressed in finery which harks back to the British Empire - need I say more?

Whilst the usually suspects like Johnson, Starmer and their toddies, along with court jesters like Keith Richards and Mick Jagger are praising him to the high heavens, others who really should know better are doing like wise. Amongst the worst of these is the Sinn Fein leadership in the North of Ireland. Alex Maskey said this:

I am very sorry to learn of the passing of the Duke of Edinburgh after a long and full life of public service. I express my sympathy to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth on the loss of her husband and the rest of the Royal Family for the loss of a father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

 Michelle O’Neill went further and said: 

I wish to extend my sincere condolences to Queen Elizabeth and her family on the death of her husband Prince Philip. Over the past two decades there have been significant interventions by the British Royal family to assist in the building of relationships between Britain and Ireland.

I did wonder if they were both doffing caps, genuflecting to the crown as they spoke. Still I'm digressing from the subject.

Let me be clear the monarchy sits at the pinnacle of the British class system and has done for hundreds of years, the unelected position they hold have given the ruling classes the legitimacy to plunder other people's lands, and grind the British working classes into the ground.

It's not a coincidence the current holder of the crown is the richest woman in the world. She pays little tax on investments and properties while her family and forbearers have carved out countless acres of land for themselves. We're told she has no real power, just a figurehead. Oh really - then how come she gets a veto on all new legislation which impacts on her family? Indeed this family have made an artform out of tax dodging, not paying death duties, manipulation, conning the working classes and filling their boots with other people's money. It's high time they all went into the dustbin of history.

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Prince Philip Of Plunder

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