Monday 18 October 2010

International Index

1. Burma- Can The Junta Survive?, argues that street protests, are the methods of the middle class. Only a working-class uprising, beginning in the factories can topple the Junta.

2. Support The Zimbabwean Workers Now, argues that we cannot place any faith in the actions of Imperialism, or bourgeois democracy to resolve our problems internationally. We need a new International Brigade, to provide direct physical, financial, political, and industrial support for our fellow workers wherever they are.

3. Mandela Madness, argues that the kind of cult of celebrity that has surrounded him, is the opposite of the kind of politics workers need, and that the politics that Mandela represented could provide no progressive solution for workers in South Africa.

4. South Ossetia Victim Of The Rise Of Bourgeois nationalism, argues that we have been witnessing a flush of disputes based on a demand for independence by small nations. Marxists have traditionally described such demands as reactionary, and only to be supported in extreme circumstances. In part, they have also been a proxy for big power manoeuvring on the world stage. The Marxist position is to encourage the greatest unity of workers across national boundaries rather than to advocate or support their splitting up. But, a Left, which in large parts has lost faith in the working-class, has increasingly been inclined to limit its vision to a struggle for bourgeois-democratic demands like self-determination, and to hitch its wagon to anyone advocating them. For some on the left that means supporting reactionary nationalists, for others it means supporting “democratic” imperialism and its allies.

5. Georgia And Russia Out Of Ossetia, argues that Marxists should be militantly neutral to both, and argue instead for building unity between Russian, Georgian, and Ossetian workers for a struggle against their common class enemy.

6. More left Confusion Over War, looks at the Marxist position in relation to Revolutionary defeatism etc.

7. Whoop Ass And Class Politics argues that a Marxist response to events cannot be driven by what might be an instinctive reaction based on moral indignation.

8. Imperialist Hypocrisy, argues that the response of US imperialism, and some of its defenders on the Left, to the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia, is in stark contrast to their reaction to similar situations in Kosovo, Tibet etc.

9. Gates Blows The Gaff, shows that support for Saakashvilli, was misplaced.

10. Crimes And Misdemeanours, examines the Marxist, and petit-bourgeois nationalist response to the conflict in South Ossetia.

11. Third World War compares current conditions with those prior to 1914.

12. Georgian War Crimes, discusses the evidence presented by Newsnight.

13. A new Indictment of Georgia, looks at further evidence presented by Newsnight.

14. Remember This, examines what workers should remember on Remembrance Day.

15. Lessons Of the Spanish Civil War, examines what we could learn in respect of current problems.

16. Mullah Light Gets Creamed looks at the re-election of Ahmedinejad, and argues that the Iranian workers should learn the lessons of Trotsky's Action Programme for France.  They should fight for bourgeois freedoms to give themselves a better ability to further their own interests; they should support moves towards bourgeois democracy; but they should not rely on the Iranian or any other bourgeois forces, and they should conduct their struggle on the basis of developing their own workers democracy not by limiting themselves to a struggle within the confines of the democracy of their class enemy.

17. An Iranian Revolution? examined the large scale unrest in Iran following the re-election of Ahmedinejad, and examined the prospects for it going beyond simply unrest in the context of the history of Iran, and the history of other revolutions.

18. US Healthcare, The NHS and the Left examines the debate over healthcare in the US in the context with the British left's uncritical attitude to the state capitalist NHS.

19. Beware Of Greeks In Need Of Gifts is a first look at the emerging Eurozone debt crisis.

20. A Greek Tragedy looks at the death of 3 Greek bank workers as part of protests.  It argues that the problems of Greece could not be simply addressed by a Workers revolution.

21. Feeling The Pain argues that Greece's debt problems are only emblematic of a general problem throughout Europe.  But, it was no coincidence that for 30 years, people were encouraged to take on every more onerous amounts of debt.

22. Chinese Workers and the State is a six part series that looks at the emergence of the Chinese working class as an economic and political force as the economy grows rapidly.  It looks at the nature of the Chinese State, and what it tells us about the USSR also.

23. Is The US Heading For Deflation? looks at warnings from various economists that the US was close to deflation similar to that which had affected Japan.

24. The Class War In France looks at Sarkozy's attacks on workers in the context of the wider economic situation.

25. Will the Euro Break Up examines the future of the euro in the context of the debt crisis.

26. Another Domino Falls examines Ireland's bid for a bail-out following on from Greece.

27. A Marshall Plan For MENA looks at the way MENA has been increasingly tied in to the EU, and plans for something like the Marshall Plan to support economies that move to bourgeois democracy.

28. From The Hope Of Spring To The Danger Of Conflagration warns that euphoria over the Arab Spring may be shortlived.  The material forces thatr led to the establishment of Bonapartist regimes still exist, and the vast array of cleavages, and regional rivalries pose the danger of counter-revolution, and regional war.

29.  The First Casualty Of War looks at the role of systematic lying in the new media age in global conflicts such as Syria and Libya.

30. Global Politics and Economics Intertwined looks at how a series of global events demonstrate the interconnectedness of economics and politics across the globe, and why Marxists cannot respond to events as though they were self-contained.

31. Egypt's General's Follow The 1848 Play Book argues that the junta were setting themselves up to overthrow the Muslim Brotherhood in the name of order, and would resume power.

32. Whither Syria argues there are no good possible solutions for Syria's workers.

33. Romney Abandons Hope Of Presidency says Mitt Romney has given up hope of becoming President, and is devoting the campaign to shoring up the republican core vote.

34. The EU and That Peace Prize argues there is still lots to do to ensure continued peace in Europe.

35. Why Syriza Cannot Buckle argues that the situation in Greece is emblematic of a struggle between social democracy and conservatism.  That struggle should not be seen as one between workers and capital, or socialism and capitalism, therefore, because social democracy should not be confused with socialism.  Social democracy is a form of bourgeois democracy based on the dominance of big industrial capital, and of its interests, as against those of other less mature forms of capital, and the remnants of previous modes of production.  Its essence is crystallised within the social democratic parties themselves as bourgeois workers parties, parties whose ideology is not just bourgeois, but geared to the interests of big industrial capital, but which relies on the votes and activity of workers.  The overriding principal of such parties is that the interests of workers can only advance as a consequence of the advance of capital itself, and so the interests of workers in the short term must always be subordinated to those of capital, and as it is big industrial capital that provides the bulk of surplus value required for expansion, and it is only that big industrial capital that is able, and has an incentive to readily compromise, and share the benefits of progress with workers, so that means subordination to the interests of that section of capital.  The struggle then is one between a defence of the existing more mature forms of capital, as the basis of further advance, against the threat of a retreat to a less mature form of capitalism, whose political representation is provided by the conservative parties, and other conservative forces.  Syriza's programme is not a socialist programme that threatens the interests of capital, but a social democratic programme that represents the interests of big industrial capital in Europe, against the interests of conservatism, and a fetter on further capitalist development.  The threat to Syriza does not come, therefore, from capital, but only from certain sections of capital, and the political forces associated with it.

36. Germany Is Promoting Fascism In Greece and The Break Up Of The EU argues that the actions of the conservative government in Germany, by undermining the potential for Syriza to provide a social democratic solution in Greece, is opening the door to Golden Dawn.  It i simultaneously providing grist to the mill of all those other ultra nationalists across Europe, who argue that the EU is preventing them from taking the national economic measures required to resolve their own problems, and is thereby creating the conditions for the further rise of ultra-nationalism across the EU, and for the EU to be broken apart.

37. A Socialist Campaign For Europe  argues that socialists should campaign against a break-up of Europe, but should not support the conservative and nationalist arguments for its reform, such as those put forward by David Cameron.  Socialists should be in favour of more Europe, not less.  They should oppose exceptionalism, and instead argue for greater centralisation, and common rules, combined with greater democracy of European institutions.

38. The Mass Relocation of Peoples argues that such movements rarely end well.  They have to be divided into those movements forced on peoples, and those undertaken voluntarily, whilst the latter has to be divided into those undertaken from a position of strength, and those undertaken from a position of weakness.  In the modern world, any attempt to establish a new bourgeois state is almost certainly reactionary.  Where such a state is established as a consequence of such a mass relocation, as was the case with the establishment of Israel, it implies the displacement of an existing population, and a denial by fore, thereby of their right to self-determination.  The fact that such new states are created by such means, however, is not a reason for arguing for a further reactionary policy of demanding their destruction.

39. Defend Scots Democratic Rights discusses Marxists approach to the question of workers unity across borders, and the right of nations to self-determination, in relation to the right of Scotland to independence in the light of the EU referendum, and Brexit.

40. Melenchon Is Not An Alternative to Le Pen the programme of Melenchon and of Le Pen is a reactionary nationalist dead end.  Stalinism is a cancer in the labour movement that must be cut out.