Solidarity 048, 18 March 2004

Madrid, morals and moralism

by Gerry Byrne My immediate reaction to the Madrid bombing I imagine I shared with millions across the political spectrum. It is the second thoughts that divide us. I don't quite know how to express my disquiet at some of those second thoughts expressed on the left. We can't take an attitude till we know who is responsible. They're human beings. It's wrong. It should be condemned. How will it affect the prospects of the anti-war movement? That depends on how the anti-war movement responds, with human decency or mealy-mouthed apologism. What's happened to our humanity? When did the left lose...

The Bolsheviks and Islam part 3: Islamic communism

Click here for Part 1. Click here for Part 2. Gerry Byrne continues an examination of the relationship between the Russian Bolshevik Party that made the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the Islamic subject states of the Tsarist empire they inherited. What, if anything, can it teach us about socialists' relationship to Islam today? "All Muslim colonised peoples are proletarian peoples and as almost all classes in Muslim society have been oppressed by the colonialists, all classes have the right to be called 'proletarians'. ...Therefore it is legitimate to say that the national liberation movement...

Socialist Alliance minority resists shutdown

The special conference of the Socialist Alliance in London on 13 March voted effectively to shut down the organisation in favour of the Galloway/ SWP coalition "Respect" . A one-third minority, which withdrew from the conference after the decisive vote, resolved to continue the Alliance. Not wishing the name "Socialist Alliance" to be freely available to the minority, the majority postponed any formal decision to wind up the SA until late 2004. For candidates in the June council elections, for example, the minority will have to resort to titles like "Democratic Socialist Alliance". The essence...

Moving on

Alan Johnson argues that the left needs to build a solidarity campaign with the Iraqi people not an 'anti-war' movement "My suggestion is as follows. People who opposed the war but with a proper sense of the other considerations, the ones that moved us left-liberal supporters of the war, should be willing to move on. All said and done, they didn't agree with what was done, but what was done removed a scourge and they will recognize that and look to what is now the best possible course forward for the people of Iraq." (Norman Geras at normblog March 5 2004) I agree. I opposed the war, helping...

The writing on the wall

Shell shocks BP rising In the red Evening Standard stupidity watch Shell shocks Shell may or may not be the greener than green oil company, but it is certainly not whiter than white. At the beginning of this year Shell announced that it had overstated its "proven" oil and gas reserves by about 20 per cent, or 4 billion barrels. A catastrophe, which led to the resignation of chairman Sir Philip Watts. According to City analysts Shell has been performing badly for years - it just hasn't been very good at choosing where to plant its drills. Watts unfortunately was Head of Exploration and...

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