Emancipation & Liberation

Oct 03 2018

THE IHRA AND APARTHEID ISRAEL

Category: Against Imperialism,Combined struggles for Emancipation, Liberation and National Self-Determination,How they are organised,UK state/British imperialism,US imperialism — RCN @ 8:08 pm

We are posting three pieces following the Labour Party’s adoption of the IHTA statement on Anti-Semitism. the first is by Moshe Machover, founder member of the socialist Matzpen Party in Israel, who successfully resisted a joint Zionist and Labour Right attempt to have him expelled from the Labour Party. The second is by a Shahd Abuslama, a Palestinian artist at Sheffield University. The third is a statement from Radical Independence Campaign’s Edinburgh branch.

1. WHY ISRAEL IS A RACIST STATE

Moshe Machover

That Israel is a racist state is a well-established fact. On July On July 19 2018, it enacted a quasi-constitutional nationality bill – ‘Basic law: Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people’ – which has been widely condemned as institutionalising discrimination against Israel’s non-Jewish citizens. As many have observed, this law merely codifies and formalises a reality that long predates it.(1) Continue reading “THE IHRA AND APARTHEID ISRAEL”

Tags: 1905 Aliens Act, 1917 Balfour Declaration, Adalah, Ahed Tamini, ANC, anti-racism, Anti-Semitism, apartheid Israel, Apartheid South Africa, Author: Moshe Machover, Author: Shahd Abuslama, Benjamin Netanhayu, Bezalel Smotrich, Board of Deputies, Boycott, Christians, civic nation, colonisation, Daniel Blatman, David Cameron, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign, Eu referendum, Federation of Conservative Students, Gaza, Gordon Brown, Great March of Return, Holocaust, Ian Paisley Junior, IHRA, IndyRef1, Isaac Herzog, Jewish Colonial Trust, Jewish Friends of Palestine, Jews, Joshua bin Nun, Katie Hopkins, Kristellnacht 1938, Labour Friends of Israel, Margaret Thatcher, Michael Gove, Miki Zohar, Muslims, Naqba, Nazi Germany, Nazi invasion of astern Europe 1941, Nelson Mandela, Nicola Sturgeon, Nuremberg Laws 1935, Prince William, Professor Zeev Sternhell, Radival ~Independence Campaign - Edinburgh, Saidi Arabia, Scotland, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Sharpeville, Tasmania, Ted Heath, Theresa May, Tommy Robinson, Tony Blair, Tsarist Russian pogroms, US Declaration of Independence, USA, Victor Orban, Vladimir Jabotinsky, Wannsee Conference 1942, West Bank, Zac Goldsmith, Zionism, Zionist Congress 1898, `Palestinian self-determination

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Jul 27 2016

2 RESPONSES TO CHAKRABHATI REPORT

Category: Combined struggles for Emancipation, Liberation and National Self-Determination,For Liberation: Struggles against Oppression,How they are organised,Middle East and North Africa,The crisis on the Left — RCN @ 10:19 am

Julia Bard and Tony Greenstein have written their own responses to the official Chakrabhati Report into Anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. Julia Bard is a freelance journalist, a member of the NC of the Jewish Socialists’ Group and the Editorial Committee of Jewish Socialist magazine. Tony Greenstein is a log standing Jewish anti-Zionist and currently suspended member of the Labour Party. Julia Bard’s article was first posted at http://www.chartist.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Chartist-281-spread.pdf and Tony Greenstein’s at http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1114/a-marred-report.

Shami Chakrabati and Jeremy Corbyn at the launch of the report

1. CYNICISM BEHIND ANTI-SEMITISM ROW

Julia Bard dissects the issues in the recent anti-semitism furore in the Labour Party and finds the issue is being instrumentalised for other political purposes.
Continue reading “2 RESPONSES TO CHAKRABHATI REPORT”

Tags: Anti-Semitism, anti-zionism, Author: Julia Bard, Author: Tony Greenstein, Baroness Royall, Binyamin Netanyahu, Borderlife, Chakrabarti Report, David Aaranovitch, David Feldman, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt, Iain McNichol, Institute of Race Relations, Israel, Jeremy Corbyn, Jewish Labour Movement, Jewish Socialist Group, Jews, John McDonnell, Labour Party, Lehava group, Macpherson Report, Marc Wadsworth, Marek Edelman, Muslims, Naz Shah, Nazis, Oxford University Labour Club, Palestine, Phil Piratin, Ruth Smeeth, World Zionist Organisation

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Aug 20 2015

THE SECRET OF ITS WEAKNESS: RACISM AND THE WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN

Category: Capitalism and Communism,Combined struggles for Emancipation, Liberation and National Self-Determination,England,For Emancipation: Struggles against Exploitation,For Liberation: Struggles against Oppression,For Self-Determination: Struggles against Alienation,Scotland,UK state/British imperialism,Wales — RCN @ 4:59 pm

We are posting this review by Colin Barker (RS21) of Satnam Virdee‘s book Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider. This book is an important contribution to the debates around race and class. It was first published in the Spring 2015 issue of rs21 magazine. It can also be seen at:– http://rs21.org.uk/2015/03/21/the-secret-of-its-weakness-racism-and-the-working-class-movement-in-britain/

THE SECRET OF ITS WEAKNESS:

RACISM AND THE WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN

Satnam Virdee has written an important book. It is a history of working-class struggles to win economic and social gains, and to gain access to democracy in Britain, viewed through the prism of ‘race’.

From the start, English and then British capitalism was founded on imperial expansion, drawing under its control large parts of the world, and ‘importing’ into its territory large numbers of people from the lands it conquered, colonised and robbed. Yet many accounts of British working class development are silent on the presence and the impact of migrants, their sufferings and resistance, and the vital ‘racial politics’ that shaped both the major waves of popular resistance and the troughs between them.
Continue reading “THE SECRET OF ITS WEAKNESS: RACISM AND THE WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN”

Tags: 'Celtic race', 'Empire Windrush', 'socialist nationalism', Anti-Nazi League, APEX, Arthur Macmanus, Asians, Author: Colin Barker, British Brothers League, British Socialist Party, British Union of Fascists, Carnival Against the Nazis, Chartism, Chinese, Clyde Workers Committee, Comintern, CPGB, David Bowie, Enoch Powell, Eric Clapton, Henry Hyndman, ILP, Irish Catholics, Irish Home Rule, Islamophobia, James Connolly, Jews, Lenin, Lewisham, London dockers, Manny Shinwell, Mrs Desai, National Front, NationalUnion of Seamen, Notting Hill Riots, Nottingham Riots, Oswald Mosley, Popular Front, Racism Class and the Racialised Outsider, Rock Against Racism, RS21, Satnam Virdee, Scotland, Scottish Labour Party, Social Democratic Federation, Socialist League, South Shields, South Wales, TGWU, Tories, TUC, William Cuffay, William Morris, Willie Gallacher, Yorkshire

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Mar 06 2014

SECULARISM, SOCIALISM AND RELIGION

Category: For Emancipation: Struggles against Exploitation,For Liberation: Struggles against Oppression,For Self-Determination: Struggles against Alienation,Ideology and Religion: Science and Secularism — RCN @ 6:31 pm

The issue of secularism was discussed at the RCN weekend away in Fife on 22nd February. Allan Armstrong introduced the session using the presentation he had made to Edinburgh RIC. The following discussion extended beyond the scope of the introductory talk, and brought up issues which Bob Goupillot had written about when the RCN was a platform in the SSP. Below, is an updated version of this, first published in Emancipation & Liberation, no 14, Spring 2007.

A Marxist understanding of religion

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right

Marx understood the religious impulse to be a human response to a world that is sometimes scary, terrifying and out of our control. Thus the religions of hunter-gatherer people focus on asserting control over their prey animals, the religious festivals of farming peoples focus on marking the passing seasons and placating the gods and goddesses of the earth and sky. Religion is a human, spiritual response to an uncertain world.

Continue reading “SECULARISM, SOCIALISM AND RELIGION”

Tags: agnosticism, Albania, atheism, Author: Bob Goupillot, Baptists, blasphemy laws, Catholicism, Christians, Gaddafi, George Galloway, Islamophobia, Jews, Judeophobia or anti-Judaism, Karl Marx, Moslems, Nasser, Respect, Russian Orthodox Church, Secularism, Stalin, SWP, USA, USSR

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Oct 03 2013

SECULARISM: TIME TO SEPARATE CHURCH AND STATE

Category: Against Unionism,For Self-Determination: Struggles against Alienation,Ideology and Religion: Science and Secularism,Ireland,Scotland — RCN @ 2:35 pm

This is an introduction given by Allan Armstrong (RCN) to the Edinburgh branch of the Edinburgh Radical Independence Campaign on Monday, September 30th. It is followed by some responses from other socialists.

Two interesting articles were published last week. The first one in The Herald (27.9.13) highlighted the recent Scottish census, which pointed out that, for the first time, those professing no religion had emerged as the largest and fastest growing group in Scotland (37%). The second article in the Sunday Herald (22.9.13) highlighted the growing penetration of Protestant fundamentalist church activity in Scotland’s ‘non-denominational’ schools.

The best way to understand and deal with such issues is to take a secular approach. Twenty years ago, most people, especially on the Left, would have been quite clear what secularism meant. Secularism is the complete separation of religion from the state. People’s choice of religion or of no religion is a private matter.
Continue reading “SECULARISM: TIME TO SEPARATE CHURCH AND STATE”

Tags: 2011 census, anti-Irish racism, atheists, Author: Allan Armstrong, BNP, Bob Goupillot, British/Irish, Catholic Church, Church of Scotland, Conservative Party, Dean Park Primary - Balerno, Episcopalians, Eric Chester, Humanist Society of Scotland, Humanists, James Macmillan, Jews, John Ogilvie, Judaic law, Kirktonholme Primary - East Kilbride, Lasswade High, loyalists, Martin Tod, Moderator - John White, Murdo Ritchie, Muslims, Orange Order, Patrick Hamilton, Phil Mac Giolla Bhain, Presbyterians, Protestant/Catholic, Radical Independence Campaign, Rangers/Celtic, Republicans, SDL, Sectarianism, Secularism, sharia law, Sikhs, Thomas Aikenhead, Tom Gallagher, Tom Murray - Lord High Commissioner, Unionist/Nationalist

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