Emancipation & Liberation

Aug 20 2020

LEBANON – THE CRISES IN AN INSTITUTIONALLY SECTARIAN STATELET SET UP BY IMPERIALISM

Category: Combined struggles for Emancipation, Liberation and National Self-Determination,For Self-Determination: Struggles against Alienation,Middle East and North Africa,UK state/British imperialism,US imperialism — RCN @ 11:32 am

We are posting two articles following the horrendous explosion in Beirut which killed mote than 200 people. The first is by Yassamine Mather (CPGB-WW) and shows that this is just the latest crisis in an institutionally sectarian statelet set up under the auspices of French imperialism The second is from Socialist Democracy (Ireland) and draws some parallels with Northern Ireland, an institutionally sectarian statelet set up by British imperialism.

1. THE PAST WEIGHS HEAVY ON THE PRESENT

Less than a week after the massive port explosion that cost more than 200 lives, the entire Lebanese government resigned. Of course, long before that, serious students of the Middle East thought of Lebanon as a failed state. The grossly unfair constitution, the inbuilt sectarianism, the bungled response to Covid-19 and the subsequent economic crisis triggered protests across the country … against hunger, unemployment, inflation, endemic corruption. Continue reading “LEBANON – THE CRISES IN AN INSTITUTIONALLY SECTARIAN STATELET SET UP BY IMPERIALISM”

Tags: Amal, American University of Beirut, Armenians, Author: Socialist Democracy (Ireland), Author: Yassamine Mather, Bachir Gemayel, Beirut, Benny Gantz, Brexit, British imperialism, colonialism, confessional vetoes, Covid-19, Druze, Dublin, Emannuel Macron, endemic corruption, Falangists, France, Free Patriotic Movemen, French imperialism, Hafez al Assad, Hassan Diab, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah, institutional sectarianism, Iran, Israel, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Lebanese Civil War 1975-90, Lebanon, London, Marada movement, Maronite Christians, Michel Aoun, Nabih Berri, New York, Nicosia, Northern Executive, Northern Ireland, Omar Karami, Operation Grapes of Wrath, Ottoman Empire, Palestine, Paris, Qana UN base, Rafik Hariri, Robert Fisk, Sabra and Shatila camps 1982masaacres, Saudi Arabia, Shia Muslims, Sinn Fein, South Lebanon Army, Sunni Muslims, Syria, Tel al‑Zaatar massacre 1976, US imperialism

Comments (0)

Jul 28 2020

ISRAEL, IRAN AND WEST BANK ANNEXATION

Category: Against Imperialism,How they are organised,Middle East and North Africa,UK state/British imperialism,US imperialism — RCN @ 6:35 pm

We are posting two articles on the situation in Israel and the Middle East. The first for Socialist Democracy (Ireland) is about Netahyahu’s planned annexation of a further 30% of the West Bank. The second by Yassamine Mather, of Hands off the Peoples of Iran (HOPI), is about the Iranian regime’s response to Netanyahu’s move.

1. WEST BANK ANNEXATION

The anouncement by Netanyahu that Israel intends to annex 30% of the West bank and a greater proportion of Jerusalem itself has provoked anger among Palestinians and their supporters internationally and uncertainty among some Zionist supporters. But despite the presentation of this latest outrage as something new it is best viewed as a continuation of the historic theft of Palestine from the Palestinian people. Continue reading “ISRAEL, IRAN AND WEST BANK ANNEXATION”

Tags: 1993 Oslo Accords, Al-Jarida, Atomic Energy Agency, Author: Socialist Democracy (Ireland), Author: Yassamine Mather, Benny Gantz, Binyamin Netanyahu, Blue/White Alliance - Kahol Lovan, Board of Deputies, Boris Johnson, Covid-19, Dimona, Donal Trump, Gabi Ashkenazi, Hands off the Peoples of Iran, Iran, Islamic Republic Supreme National Security Council, Israel, Jeremy Corbyn, Khojir, Likud, Mahmoud Abbas, Mordechai Vanunu, Naqba, Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, New York Times, Nournews, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qasem Soleimani, Shiraz, Simon Henderson, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Weekly Worker, West Bank, Yedioth Ahronoth, Zionism

Comments (0)

Jun 11 2020

CRISIS AND THE NEED FOR CONFLICT

Category: Capitalism and Communism,How they are organised,Russia and ex-USSR,The EU,The global economy,UK state/British imperialism,US imperialism — RCN @ 10:13 am

Mike Macnair makes the case for seeing current political developments in the world as a move from neo-liberalism proper to nationalist rivalry. This is similar to the case Allan Armstrong has made on this blog about the switch from neo–liberal hegemony to Right populist ascendancy.

CRISIS AND THE NEED FOR CONFLICT

Here’s my boy – America First, Britain Second!

What we are seeing today is a situation where the United States is lashing out towards Iran and in the Middle East more generally, as well as China and Russia. Continue reading “CRISIS AND THE NEED FOR CONFLICT”

Tags: 'liberal Islamist', 1763 Peace of Paris, 1998 Long-Term Capital Management’/Russian/east Asian crisis, Author: Mike Macnair, Brexiteers, China, Covid-19, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, EU, Eurozone, Hungary, India, Iran, Italy, La Republique En Marche!, Law and Justice Party, Lega, Marine Le Pen, Middle East, Narendra Modi, neo-liberalism, Poland, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Rifondazione Comunista, Russia, Turkey, UK, USA, Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin, Weekly Worker

Comments (0)

Mar 08 2020

TRUMP NETANYAHU ‘DEAL OF THE CENTURY’

Category: Against Imperialism,Combined struggles for Emancipation, Liberation and National Self-Determination,How they are organised,Middle East and North Africa,US imperialism — RCN @ 1:28 pm

We are posting this article from Socialist Democracy (Ireland) about the proposed Trump/Netanyahu Deal to finally end ant prospects of a Palestinian nation state. The article shows that far from being an alternative to the proposed two-nations Camp David accord, this latest deal is the logical outcome of what was always a one-state plan – that state being Israel with or without Palestinian reservations.

TRUMP NETANYAHU ‘DEAL OF THE CENTURY’

When Donald Trump, standing beside Benjamin Netanyahu, announced the “Deal of the Century,” which he claimed was a “peace” plan, it was widely dismissed. Some reporters suggested that it should be referred to the comic section of papers rather than reported as news. Continue reading “TRUMP NETANYAHU ‘DEAL OF THE CENTURY’”

Tags: 'Deal of the Century', 'two state solution', Afghanistan, Arab League, Arab Rising, Author: Socialist Democracy (Ireland), BDS, Benjamin Netanyahu, China, Donald Trump, Egypt, Gerard Kushner, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jeremy Corbyn, Mossad, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, PLO, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Emirates, US religious Right, USA, Zionism

Comments (3)

Mar 08 2020

BERNIE SANDERS AND THE US CONSTITUTION – EXPLOSIVE CONTRADICTIONS

Category: How they are organised,US imperialism — RCN @ 12:52 pm

The following article by Daniel Lazare was written in the first stage of the US presidential primaries when Bernie Sanders was in the lead, before the Right in the Democratic Party united behind Joe Biden on Super Tuesday. Sanders could still recover. This article though examines the unique nature of the US party system and how that relates to the US constitution which provides a formidable barrier to any democratic reform. This cautionary note is welcome because, as in the case of Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters, Sanders and his supporters seem to have a blind spot when it comes to the constitution. They see the existing constitutional set-ups as largely adequate for their proposed neo-Keynesian economic reforms, centred on Green New Deals.

BERNIE SANDERS AND THE US CONSTITUTION –

EXPLOSIVE CONTRADICTIONS

The big political news in America is that Bernie Sanders has taken the lead in the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. He does not have a majority following victories in Iowa and New Hampshire – merely a plurality. But, although a thousand pitfalls lie in the way, it may conceivably be enough for the rest of the party to fall into line. If so, 2020 could be the most momentous president election since Eugene V Debs won a million votes, while stuck inside a federal penitentiary, exactly 100 years earlier. Only this time a self-proclaimed “socialist” might actually win. Continue reading “BERNIE SANDERS AND THE US CONSTITUTION – EXPLOSIVE CONTRADICTIONS”

Tags: 'country opposition', 10th Federalist Paper, Arthur Jones, Author: Daniel Lazare, Bernie Sanders, Binyamin Netanyahu, CIA, Democrats, Donald Trump, FBI, Hilary Clinton, Iran, James Cannon, James Madison, Joe Biden, Joseph Hansen, Natalia Veselnitskaya, Republicans, Russell Walker, Socialist Workers Party (USA), US Congress, US primaries

Comments (3)

Apr 26 2018

SYRIA – DOUBTS, LAW AND GRAND STRATEGY

Category: How they are organised,Middle East and North Africa,Russia and ex-USSR,The EU,UK state/British imperialism,US imperialism — RCN @ 5:20 pm

Yassamine Mather argues that behind the cruise missile strikes in Syria lies the plan to bring about regime change in Iran

SYRIA – DOUBTS, LAW AND GRAND STRATEGY

Irrespective of what the experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons say, there is no doubt that the Syrian dictator is capable of using weapons of mass destruction against his own population and it is possible that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the attack in Douma.

However, the point remains that the tripartite alliance of the US, UK and France has failed to prove that the Syrian government was responsible for this terrible act before launching a military attack. In addition, after all the fake documents produced prior to the Iraq war, can anyone trust the advice of international ‘experts’? There is a level of justified scepticism amongst ordinary people about British government claims of being certain who was behind the ‘chemical attack’ used to justify the military operations of April 14. Continue reading “SYRIA – DOUBTS, LAW AND GRAND STRATEGY”

Tags: Assad, Author: Yassamine Mather, Chemical Weapons Convention 1997, Damascus, Donald Trump, Douma, France, General James Mattis, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Jack Goldsmith, Jaysh al-Islam, Jonathan Cook, Oona Hathaway, Robert Fisk, Russia, Seth Doane, Stop the War Coalition, Syria, Theresa May, UK, USA, White Helmets

Comments (1)

Apr 14 2018

SMEARS ROLL ON

Category: Combined struggles for Emancipation, Liberation and National Self-Determination,For Liberation: Struggles against Oppression,How they are organised,Middle East and North Africa,Political Campaigns,UK state/British imperialism,US imperialism — RCN @ 12:07 pm

Mike McNair ( CPGB-Weekly Worker) examines the ‘anti-Semitism’ smears currently focussed on the Labour Party, and in particular Jeremy Corbyn. He shows the wider political intent behind these for the Right and the Israeli state.

SMEARS ROLL ON

Kate Hopkins and Ian Paisley Junior, two well-known ‘anti-racists’ who support Israel

The ‘anti-Semitism’ smear campaign run by the media and Labour right against the left – with the enthusiastic support of the Jewish Board of Deputies and related groups – rolls on. At the time of writing there are two new pieces of ‘scandal’. First are complaints from rightwing Labour MPs and the ‘Campaign Against Anti-Semitism’ about Jeremy Corbyn attending a passover seder organised by the left Jewish group, Jewdas. (1) Continue reading “SMEARS ROLL ON”

Tags: 'Campaign Against Anti-Semitism', Afghanistan, Anti-Semitism, anti-zionism, Author: Mike Macnair, Board of Deputies, Daily Telegraph, David Cameron, Diane Abbott, Gaza, Hilary Benn, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Israeli settlements, Jeremy Corbyn, Jewdas, John Bolton - US Security Adviser, John Lansman, John McDonnell, Korean War, Labour Party, Lebanon, Libya, Moshe Machover, Operation Cast Lead, Syria, The Times, Tony Greenstein, USA, Vietnam War, West Bank

Comments (5)

Dec 03 2015

THE WAR IN SYRIA

Category: Against Imperialism,For Liberation: Struggles against Oppression,Middle East and North Africa,UK state/British imperialism — RCN @ 12:55 pm

We are posting three pieces dealing with the situation in Syria. The first is the emergency motion passed overwhelmingly at the RISE National Conference in Glasgow on December 5th. The second was written by the World to Win Editorial Board just after the vote at Westminster to openly extend UK state involvement in the war in Iraq to Syria. The third by Allan Armstrong (RCN and RISE) was written just prior to the Westminster vote, and was included in the E&L special bulletin for the RISE conference.

1. EMERGENCY MOTION ON SYRIA PASSED AT THE RISE CONFERENCE ON DECEMBER 5th.

Following:
Continue reading “THE WAR IN SYRIA”

Tags: Assad, Author: Allan Armstrong, Blairites, China, David Cameron, David Torrance, DUP, Egypt, EU, Financial Crash 2008, France, General Sir Richard Shirreff, George Osborne, Gulf States, Gulf war, Hilary Benn, Hollande, Iran, Iraq, ISIS/Daesh, jihadists, Kobane, Kurdish Democratic Union, Kurdistan Workers Party, Lib-Dems, Libya, Paris, Recep Erdogan, RISE, Russia, Saudi Arabia, SNP, Syria, Turkey, Twin Rowers 2001, UK, UN Security Council, USA, Vladimir Putin, World to Win

Comments (0)

Aug 15 2014

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF COUNTER-REVOLUTION

Category: Capitalism and Communism,Combined struggles for Emancipation, Liberation and National Self-Determination,For Liberation: Struggles against Oppression,How they are organised,Russia and ex-USSR,UK state/British imperialism,US imperialism — RCN @ 4:41 pm

Kool34 sent us a comment on the articles in our recent bulletin on the First World War (http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2014/08/09/emancipation-liberation-special-bulletin-the-centenary-of-the-world-war-i-imperialist-slaughter/#more-7342). This comment invited us to read the following article by Mark Kosman. We are pleased to draw this to the attention of our readers.

In 1871, Karl Marx wrote that governments use war as a fraud, a “humbug, intended to defer the struggle of the classes” (1). In 1914, that fraud was so effective that not only most workers, but also most Marxists, supported their respective nation’s rush to war. Ever since then, governments have used war to defer class struggle and prevent revolution. But this strategy cannot last forever.

Continue reading “ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF COUNTER-REVOLUTION”

Tags: Afghanistan, Arab Spring, Austro Hungarian empire, Author: Mark Kosman, Barack Obama, Basil Thomson, David Cameron, David Lloyd George, Douglas Haig, Erich Ludendorff, Fascism, France, Franz Josef, Germany, Great Depression, Great Unrest, H. G. Wells, Herbert Asquith, International Womens Day, Iran, Iraq, Kaiser Wilhelm, Nazis, Passchendaele, Soviet Union, Special Branch, Stalinism, Sydney and Beatrice Webb, Syria, Thatherism, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, Tsarist Empire, Ukraine, US, Winston Churchill, World War I

Comments (2)

Aug 09 2014

EMANCIPATION & LIBERATION Special Bulletin – The Centenary of the World War I Imperialist Slaughter

Category: anti-war movement,Capitalism and Communism,Commemorations,How they are organised,Our History — RCN @ 7:58 pm

WORLD WAR I – THE CATASTROPHIC RESULT OF IMPERIALIST RIVALRIES

On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, A Serbian nationalist, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire. This incident sparked World War I, that soon engulfed much of the world and led to the deaths of millions of soldiers, and millions of civilians.

Continue reading “EMANCIPATION & LIBERATION Special Bulletin – The Centenary of the World War I Imperialist Slaughter”

Tags: Austro Hungarian empire, Author: Eric Chester, Author: Murdo Ritchie, Author: Pauline Bradley, Bolsheviks, Cold War, Cuba, Czarist Russia, First World War, Franz Ferdinand, Gavrilo Princip, Germany, Glasgow Rent Strikes, Govan Housing Association, Helen Crawford, imperialist rivalry, Independent Labour Party, International Manifesto of Women, International Women's Suffrage Organisation, Iran, Iraq, Italy, John MacLean, Labour Party, Lenin, Libya, Lloyd George, Michael Clarke, Morocco Crisis, National Union of Women Workers, NATO, No Conscription Fellowship, Ottoman Empire, Professor Malcolm Chalmers, Prussia, Reent Restrictions Act, Royal United Services Institute, Serbia, Sudan, The Entente, UK, Union for Democratic Control, USA, Versailles Treaty, Womens' International Legue

Comments (4)