Argentina

On 15 September, I debated anti-Zionist activist Tony Greenstein in Brighton, on the topic of antisemitism on the left.

The audience was comprised mainly of local Labour Party and Momentum activists. The debate was conducted in largely civil tones - perhaps, given the depth of our differences with Tony Greenstein, both in terms of policy and approaches to political activity, too civil.

On 29 June, Argentina went into technical default on its foreign debt. 30 days “grace” expires on 29 July. Either the Argentine government fixes a deal before then, or the default goes into full force.

This drama is the outcome of 13 years’ legal wranglings since Argentina defaulted on its debt in 2001. Then, as usually happens in such cases, the Argentine government negotiated a deal with the bondholders to pay them off at a reduced rate.

Introduction to dossier on the Falklands/ Malvinas, from Workers' Liberty 2/3.

The WSL and the Falklands crisis, by Sean Matgamna, May 1982.

This article was written for internal discussion in the Workers' Socialist League in May 1982. It came between a meeting of the (smaller) WSL Executive Committee on Sunday 9 May 1982, which voted by a majority to change the previous WSL policy of opposing the war on both British and Argentine sides, to siding with Argentina; and a meeting of the (larger) WSL National Committee on Sunday 16 May 1982, which voted by a majority to keep the previous policy.

From Workers’ Socialist Review no.2, 1982; reprinted in Workers' Liberty 2/3

Time and again the same quotations from Trotsky have been used to justify a pro-Argentine stance in the Falklands/Malvinas war But the main thing the quotations prove is the pro-Argentine comrades’ lack of grip on the points in dispute.

The Falkland Islands, small specks in the South Atlantic, were annexed by Britain and settled by British people in the 1830s.

There had been no previous indigenous population. A century and a half later, in the 1970s and 80s, the islands were an odd little relic of empire. They had no huge economic or strategic importance. Their 1800 or so inhabitants, many of whom would move on to more clement climates after their time in the Falklands, had no desire to separate from Britain.

Zanon victory; US union recognition law setback; Korean occupation ends; Chilean miners' strike

Workers at the occupied Zanon ceramics factory in Neuqen, Argentina, have won a major legal victory. The provincial parliament has voted 26 to 9 to accept that the factory is expropriated and handed over to the workers’ co-operative to manage legally and indefinitely.

By Sean Matgamna

The two month "Falklands War" between Britain and Argentina in 1982 was a freak event. It was part of no larger conflict; no issue other than possession of the islands was involved.

Both Argentina and Britain were bourgeois states. Neither of them oppressed, and neither of them was trying to conquer the other, or likely to, as a result of the war.