Cutting the wire

Leave those kids alone!

2010-11-29T12:59:00.003Z

There's something quite delicious about an NUS president apologising for 'spineless dithering'. It's not like it was in my day of course. I was at university a decade ago, when NUS presidents declined even to call demonstrations. And when I was involved in an occupation at UCL, the student union executive rushed to condemn us, while the university management quickly got an injunction and called the baliffs to drag us out.

So what's changed? In the case of UCL, there is one big difference, in that they're occupying the Jeremy Bentham Room, a strategically unimportant space which the management can live with. We occupied the finance corridor, which was an administrative hub. This is not necessarily a criticism. After all, we were aiming to be part of a wave of occupations against fees around the country, but we were not really in there for long enough for something like that to happen. We certainly didn't have time to get comedians to come down and do a turn for us.

But fundamentally, the whole political atmosphere is different too. Increases in fees are part of a wholesale attack on our public services. The NUS, having had a much bigger response to its demonstration than they were expecting, was put on the back foot, and lost the leadership of the movement. The fact that it launched a ludicrous attack on those who occupied Millbank Tower didn't help. The wave of university occupations, and the school student walkouts were in part inspired by the more militant action at Millbank – had that not happened, even with the huge turnout to the demo, I suspect we would not be seeing a real movement developing.

Moreover, it is a movement which has a real element of spontaneity to it. Although every left-wing group with anything resembling a youth wing is scurrying to claim some part of it, the school student walkouts in particular have been led by nobody, and without wishing to overplay it, have at least something to do with the leaderless organising potential of Facebook.

In this situation, it can be tempting for those of us with organising experience to get excited by the spontaneity, but then step in with lessons, proposals of national school students organisations and so on. This is the wrong approach. No, perhaps 16 year olds don't have a strategic understanding of the best way to defeat capitalism. But letting them make their own mistakes, and at the same time get a sense of their own autonomy in a world where choices amount to which model of mobile phone you have, will make a more long-lasting impression.

Instead we should get excited by the spontaneity, and go organise in our own workplaces and communities. There's a palpable sense of excitement about the student revolt which goes far beyond the organised left - we're not the only ones being inspired. We should offer our solidarity to students and school students of course, especially those of us who are teachers and lecturers, but as far as interfering goes, I say leave those kids alone!

Now to fight the cuts

2010-05-21T12:09:00.004+01:00

My editorial from the forthcoming June/July issue of Red Pepper:

Back in April, Vince Cable said of public spending cuts: ‘Cutting too soon and pushing the economy back into recession will make the deficit worse, as tax receipts fall and benefit payments rise. The Conservatives’ so-called efficiency savings are particularly dangerous. They have no clue where or how these “efficiencies” will be made, making it likely they will be nothing more than a smokescreen for job cuts.’ Now he is part of a government forging ahead with £6 billion of cuts this year.

But public spending cuts are not just unwise policy, as Cable was right to point out; they are deeply unjust too. At the heart of the financial crisis that triggered the increase in the public spending deficit was an economy fuelled by consumer debt. This debt was due in part to the defeat of the trade union bargaining power that had maintained workers’ level of consumption throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Corporations wanted to both pay workers less in real terms, but also have them consume more in order to sustain growth and profits. Credit was the only way to square this particular circle, and of course offering credit was itself highly profitable.

With this critique missing from the public discourse across Europe (perhaps with the exception of Greece), governments from Latvia to Portugal are making ordinary people pay for a crisis of capitalism, with the firm hand of the International Monetary
Fund or the credit ratings agencies (see page 54) at their backs. This would have been the UK’s fate whoever had won the election, but with the Conservatives in control we don’t even get the anaesthetic with the amputation.

An imminent emergency budget will soon act as a statement of intent. By the autumn, a comprehensive spending review will undoubtedly demand an attack on public sector pay and pension provision, as well as ‘efficiency savings’ across the board. How deep these cuts are, and how much they are diluted and offset by increases in taxation, depends largely on the level of popular pressure between now and then.

We have a matter of months, therefore, to create an unprecedented movement against public spending cuts. It must be a movement like we have never seen before, rooted in local workplaces and communities, but with national trade unions supporting local initiatives to stop the cuts. Thanks to ‘efficiency savings’ introduced by Labour since its 2007 spending review, scores of campaigns to stop the closure of daycare centres, care homes, libraries, hospital wards, university departments (see page 29) and schools already exist up and down the country.

These campaigns, and the many more that will have to spring up, will need to have ways to relate to each other, to learn from each other and to take strategic action together. Alongside the organising, we will also need to win the arguments. The consensus amongst the main parties during the election has created a sense of inevitability about public spending cuts. No matter how hard any particular campaign fights, without an alternative narrative making the case that cuts are both unjust and unnecessary, the left will remain isolated.

Such a movement can also learn from initiatives such as Climate Camp that have captured the public imagination with creative and radical tactics. This doesn’t mean that every threatened hospital ward needs to see patients locking on to their hospital beds, but rather that a movement is stronger with a diversity of tactics, and that direct action and the reclamation of public space can help create a dynamic movement alongside marches, rallies, sit-ins and strike action.

Red Pepper aims to assist with the process of organising, networking and developing an alternative narrative, both in future issues and via our website. We will also continue to argue, as we have in the past, for a pluralist movement. A progressive coalition of Labour, Liberal Democrats and smaller parties to keep out the Tories may never really have been on the cards, but a ‘rainbow alliance’ is now needed to fight the cuts. This could and should include those on the Lib Dems’ left who are unhappy with Clegg’s ‘orange book’ alliance with the Tories (see page 12).

It is also a moment for the Greens to take the responsibility of their higher public profile seriously. Caroline Lucas (see page 11) has a brilliant record here, but for the Greens, having an MP elected on a platform of opposing the cuts puts the onus on them to be leading actors in the non-parliamentary sphere too.

Most importantly, though, a critique of capitalism must take root in the struggles to defend our public services. Despite anger at the bankers, our unjust economic system got off lightly when the financial crisis hit. Stopping the cuts is first and foremost about defending the poorest and most vulnerable. But if that struggle mobilises people in a new and more powerful way, we might just be able to halt and even reverse the backward shuffle the left has been doing for the past 30 years.

Reclaiming our food system

2009-10-02T14:39:00.004+01:00

Editorial from my first issue of Red Pepper as the main editor

It is surely one of the most damning indictments of global capitalism that one sixth of the world’s population is chronically malnourished. Yet merely to use this statistic as propaganda against the current system is not only to ignore a pressing problem but to do a disservice to the myriad struggles over our food system taking place around the world.

The globalisation of agriculture over the past 30 years has placed ever more of our food system into the hands of multinational corporations. But it has also called into being an increasingly co-ordinated movement of small producers trying to reclaim democratic control of that system.

Most obviously organised through La Via Campesina (‘the peasant way’), this millions-strong movement has managed not only to campaign at the international level against the likes of the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Agriculture, but to formulate a radical alternative in the form of ‘food sovereignty’.

Defined as the ‘the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems’, food sovereignty is a political demand for land reform, the rolling back of corporate control and the protection of natural resources. It is also a vision of ‘agroecological’ production, using modern sustainable techniques to work with nature, and of prioritising local markets over exports.

The 20th-century left tended to see the solutions to feeding the world as large scale and equated democratic control with the state. The realities of the 21st century demand a different approach, albeit one that doesn’t rule out state intervention. In Venezuela, the Chavéz government has embraced food sovereignty and mobilised its resources towards empowering small producers. By extending low-interest credit and buying produce for distribution through its network of subsidised supermarkets, while encouraging co-operatively run farms and food-processing factories, it has sought to secure the livelihoods of producers and affordable access to food for consumers at the same time.

Climate change demands that we localise our food systems in the global North too, but progressives can tie themselves up in knots when trying to marry this with the South’s current dependence on food exports. Food sovereignty could go some way towards squaring this circle, bolstering local and regional trade and ending the South’s subordinate role in the global food economy.

Yet reclaiming the food system is not just an imperative for the global South. Supermarket dominance continues to squash local communities, and the price squeeze they impose on producers makes sustainable farming unviable. Queen’s Market in east London is recognised as a multicultural community hub. It has fought off an Asda but is still under threat from property developers. Defending existing local alternatives such as this is among our first tasks.

Building new sustainable and ethical alternatives is also vital. Initiatives such as Growing Communities (page 13 in our October/November issue) are trying to make organic, locally sourced food an everyday reality in one of London’s poorest boroughs. The model of consumer co-operatives that has taken off in some US cities could start to provide a means by which ethical sourcing and affordability can co-exist. And the popularity of allotments, once a staple of working class life, is a sign that people are starting to reconnect with what they eat in a more meaningful way.

These initiatives and others can start to return a level of autonomy and democracy to our food system, but we should be careful not just to content ourselves with an ethical subculture serving only the concerned citizen with money and time. As Kath Dalmeny argues (page 10 in our October/November issue), we can and should demand government support for these initiatives to make them mainstream.

However, another of the themes of this issue of Red Pepper points the way to an interesting and complementary possibility: worker involvement in a green transition. It is more than 30 years since the workers at Lucas Aerospace presented their alternative plan for the company, but as Hilary Wainwright points out (page 24 in our October/November), while some of the political conditions are now very different, the example of Lucas can perhaps inspire some creative red-green thinking today.

Whether it is in the global food system via food sovereignty, or in industrial production, by insisting on putting the people involved at the centre of the solutions, we can ensure that producers’ creativity and intelligence are used to build a sustainable world. Effectively this means building forms of economic democracy.

By building into the Green New Deal, with its reliance on traditional forms of state intervention, new demands for economic democracy, we can provide a real challenge to the hold of corporate power and chart a path beyond, towards a post-capitalist future.

You can subscribe to Red Pepper online (or buy individual issues, or become a supporting subscriber using the same page).

Booktopia

2009-08-20T21:37:00.004+01:00

So the normal idea with Red Pepper's Booktopia feature is to get someone at least a bit famous and at least a bit left wing to choose eight of their favourite books. I only fulfill one of those conditions, but got to do it anyway as someone else fell through at the last minute. I guess there was some rationale since its a sort of introduction to me as I take on being one of the editors. Anyway, various people have said they enjoyed reading it, so I thought I'd post it here too.

And remember, please subscribe to Red Pepper. Its a great magazine, but walks a fraying tightrope above the pit of financial collapse... or something.

A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

New Directions 1958

Ferlinghetti’s San Francisco bookshop, City Lights, is my favourite bookshop in the world. Ferlinghetti was one of the major figures of beat culture and later associated with left libertarian politics and opposition to the gentrification of San Francisco. Some of his poems in A Coney Island of the Mind also have a political edge, though this is no didactic tract. Rather it gathers together fragments of America's post-war reality and presents them in critical juxtaposition. Some pieces are written to accompany jazz and in rhythm seem to anticipate Gil-Scott Heron’s later proto hip-hop.

Live Working, Die Fighting by Paul Mason

Vintage 2008

Paul Mason really brings to life the history of workers' struggle as he examines different episodes of it, from the 1871 Paris Commune to the experience of the Jewish workers' Bund organisation in Poland. Alongside this, Mason draws parallels with 21st century struggles in the global south, allowing him not only to present a fascinating historical narrative, but to draw out of it key dilemmas which have informed the alternative strategies pursued by different parts of the international workers movement over time.

The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord

Zone Books edition 1995

Many theoretical tracts lose relevance as history overtakes their insights, but in many ways this one seems more relevant today than when it was written in the 60s. Less self-indulgent than other situationist writing, its not an easy read, but some of its insights into mass consumer society are crucial.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Virago 2001

I’ve yet to come across anyone who’s read this book and didn’t like it. Definitely Atwood’s best novel, it utilises both a common theme of hers, that of people trapped by their circumstances, and her talent for verisimilitude. The result is a book that does what truly great novels can – engross you so thoroughly that you use every spare moment to carry on reading.

The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes

Thames and Hudson second edition 1991

This is the classic account of modernism in visual art in the 20th Century and should be read in conjunction with regular trips to the Tate Modern. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually managed to get through all of the copious text, interesting though it is, but the book is worth owning just for the colour prints. From impressionism to expressionism, dada to pop art, the historical context of artistic movements shines through, helping not just to explain art through history, but history through art too.

The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge

New York Review of Books new edition 2004

Though Serge was essentially an anarchist, when he arrived in Russia in 1919 he joined the Bolshevik party to support the revolution. His ended up exiled to Siberia for his opposition to Stalinism, eventually escaping the country but to great personal cost. This novel, set in 1930s Europe stands out as an illumination the Soviet dictatorship and its foreign policy as great as Koestler’s Darkness at Noon.

Detroit, I Do Mind Dying by Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin

St Martin’s Press 1975

US history is full of exciting revolutionary moments you never hear about, and 1968-72 in Detroit was one of them. This is the definitive account of revolutionary unionism amongst the mainly black workforce in Detroit’s massive car industry. Far more than the ‘counterculture’ which was at least partly absorbed into neoliberal consumer culture, this was a movement which really scared the US establishment and which, along with the rest of the radical black liberation movement had to be definitively defeated.

Christopher and His Kind by Christopher Isherwood

University of Minnesota Press edition 2001

Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin is well known, not least because it eventually became the basis for the film Cabaret. Yet the ‘Christopher’ character is that novel is only loosely based on Isherwood. By 1976 the gay liberation movement had happened and Isherwood felt able to write this properly autobiographical account of his life between 1929 and 1939, covering not just his time in Berlin but his subsequent journey around pre-war Europe and attempts to rescue his German lover Heinz from the Nazis. It’s a fascinating and intimate account.

Back to the future

2009-07-21T22:23:00.003+01:00

I went to see the Tate Modern's futurism exhibition at the weekend. Despite taking quite an interest in modern art, I was actually fairly ignorant about futurism, and what I thought I knew turned out to not be quite right.

Futurism was related to, and had some similar concerns as cubism. How to depict the age of light, speed and machines? An Italian invention, futurism rejected the veneration of the old, the fusty museums that covered Italy, and sentimentalism. Instead they gloried in the speeding train, the electric street lamp, but also nationalism and war. Marinetti, who wrote the futurist manifesto (and what is an art movement without a manifesto?) was also a thoroughly nasty misogynist.

Now if that all sounds a bit fascist, you might be surprised to learn that the early futurists were more interested in the anarchist riot than the fascist state, although in a thoroughly macho way of course. But beyond the political posturing, both what the futurists depicted and how they depicted it were revolutionary at the time and are still compelling today.

Futurism proper only lasted about 5 years, ending with the onset of the First World War. The Italian futurists agitated for Italy to end its neutrality and enter the war, yet those futurists who actually encountered the war for real quickly reassessed their views. CRW Nevinson, the only English futurist drove an ambulance during the war and soon rejected his pro-war positions. Perhaps fittingly, it's his picture of an exploding shell which ends this exhibition.

The exhibition doesn't deal with fascism at all, which took up the futurist aesthetic which suited it very well. But since that was the only bit I already knew, it was good to find it wasn't nearly the whole story. I'll finish with an extract from a futurist statement called Vital English Art, published by Marinetti and Nevinson. In the section titled 'Against' they write:

2. The pessimistic, sceptical and narrow views of the English public, who stupidly adore the pretty-pretty, the commonplace, the soft, the sweet, and mediocre, the sickly revivals of medievalism, the Garden Cities with their curfews and artificial battlements, the may-pole Morris dances, Æstheticism, Oscar Wilde, the Pre-Raphaelites, Neo-primitives and Paris.

If they'd been writing a century later, they may well have added ITV costume dramas to the list...

Save the Children turns Tory

2009-07-14T21:46:00.001+01:00

Yesterday the Tories released their green paper on international development. It was pretty horrendous - a mix of ideological free market nonsense and silly gimmicks. The gimmicks included the suggestion that the public might vote for their favourite international development projects and only these would get money. Luckily this sounds like one of those stupid suggestions that we won't hear about again.

The support for trade liberalisation and privatisation is corporate welfare dressed up as development policy, but no more than you would expect from the Tories. More of a departure, and arguably therefore more worrying is the idea of 'aid vouchers' and assisted places at private schools - in other words, shifting aid money directly to private businesses.

The cherry on the top of the cake, by the way, was the Tory assertion that capitalism is Britain's gift to the world. As Nick Dearden of the Jubilee Debt Campaign commented "Given the problems which the unregulated global economy has recently subjected the world to, many countries might prefer to be removed from the Christmas list."

Most self-respecting development charities condemned the aid vouchers as a very bad idea, and many also rejected the other free market nonsense. Not so Save the Children, who hosted the launch of the Green Paper at their offices, and whose chief executive wrote a friendly comment piece in the Times yesterday in support of David Cameron's ring-fencing aid spending. The aim was clearly to position Save the Children as the Tories' international development charity, just as Oxfam was Labour's.

Not surprising, perhaps, given how much of Save the Children's budget comes from government, and will therefore be dependent on Tory favour if (when?) they win the next election. But problematic nonetheless, not least because its a pattern replicated across the NGO sector, albeit less obviously and less successfully. Despite being generally progressive in some way, the talk in charity-world has been for a good while that the 'smart money' is on 'engaging' with the Tories now.

Yet despite the fact that this has been going on, the Tories still come out with awful right-wing guff like this Green Paper. And they'll do it in government too. We need to be building a movement against them, not a dialogue with them - that way we might be able to replicate what's happened in France, where some of the most agregious of Sarkosy's policies have been headed off my social mobilisation. But there's no chance of that happening if NGOs avoid public criticism of the Tories, let alone giving 'development cover' to their anti-development policies as Save the Children are.

Are BNP voters racist? And other important questions

2009-06-08T16:34:00.001+01:00

So in the end, the BNP got not just one but two seats in the European parliament. They are, of course, Nazi scum, and their election is a big problem. The resources and acceptability (respectability is not really the right word) this will give them risks establishing them on the political scene in the kind of long-term way that the Front National is in France (thankfully the FN dropped half their seats, down to three, but that's still three seats in a bad year for them). What's more, their victory will surely give confident to party members, and in the areas where they are strong, lead to an increase in what's politely called 'community tension', but which is more acurately known as racism.

The most pressing question, though, is what should the left do? Mainstream politicians of all stripes were keen to stress as the results came in last night that they didn't think BNP voters were racist, just that they were expressing a protest vote. I can see why you might want to avoid labelling nearly 1 million people as racists, but I think that without confronting this head on, we risk burying our heads in the sand. BNP voters are at least somewhat racist.

I should clarify that. I'm not saying that they are irreconcilably racist (although some of them will be). I'm not saying that their racism is very well thought out (although for some of them it will be). But quite frankly, given the choice of hard right 'protest vote' parties (UKIP, English Democrats), its clear that the BNP have built a base on the basis of racism. For instance, in the Yorkshire and Humber region, where the BNP won their first seat, their vote was actually slightly down on 2004 (from 126,538 to 120,139) - it was only the collapse of the Labour vote which gave them a seat.

Of course in one sense, the vote is a protest against the mainstream, but one which is sustained rather than one-off. In the absence of any kind of left alternative, its hardly a surprise either. With communities torn asunder by 30 years of neoliberalism, and a tabloid press obsessed with immigration, the conclusions people are likely to draw once the BNP move in are depressingly obvious.

The main left responses to the threat of the BNP are both beginning to show their shortcomings. Unite Against Fascism was formed a few years ago by bringing together the Anti-Nazi League and the National Assembly Against Racism with trade union backing. The result somwhow ended up being less than the sum of its parts. Although Love Music, Hate Racism has had some success in energising youth anti-fascism, with no Nazi marches to confront on the streets there is no clear direction for those who are mobilised.

Searchlight meanwhile, with its Hope not Hate formula, has been succesful in some places and not in others. It recognised, correctly I think, that shouting 'Nazi' doesn't necessarily work. The problem is that the 'hope' part of its formula is largely illusory.

In both approaches, that weakness of any organised political left that can pose an alternative to the politics of hate is a key stumbling block. While the Labour party is in no small part to blame for this, it is not the only one. This is not to say that there has to be one left organisation that can fulfill this role, but there has to be something in every area, and ideally there would be collaboration.

Which brings me to the Green party campaign in the North West. I heard several condemnations of the 'vote Green to stop the BNP' message that the Greens were putting out, though it must be said that all were from partisans of other parties. But with only 5,000 more votes, the Greens would have denied Nick Griffin a seat. Their strategy was a correct one, and built as it was on trying to form a left, anti-racist alliance across the region, it suggests a small degree of hope for the future.

Respect took a constructive approach, backing the Green campaign, and I hope the Greens will reciprocate in the future - it would be extraordinary now if they stood against Salma Yaqoob in Birmingham Sparkbrook. Hopefully bridges can also be built with the Socialist Party and indeed any bit of the active Labour left that still exists.

When it comes to electoral politics, pragmatism and a sense of reality are even more important than normal. We need an electoral left, even if it isn't the be-all and end-all, so we better get our act together.

The perils of cycling

2009-05-02T18:15:00.003+01:00

And which driver is not tempted, merely by the power of his engine, to wipe out the vermin of the street, pedestrians, children and cyclists?
- Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia

I recently became a cyclist, in the sense that I bought a bike and now ride it to work. Work is six miles from home, so in the last week I've cycled at least 60 miles, which I reckon is pretty good going, and certainly makes me feel healthier. Truth be told though, while I don't miss the stale warm air of the tube, or the crush when trying to get on the southbound Northern line at Kings Cross, or closed stations necessitating annoying detours, I've actually swapped one set of frustrations for another.

Even though there are some great, quiet routes through some bits of London, and even bits of genuine cycle path (ie those not just hastily painted on the side of the road that finish in less-than-useful places) to help you avoid death traps like the Elephant and Castle roundabout, you can't avoid busy roads sometimes. And here one encounters the intimidating rumble of heavy goods vehicles. Buses aren't great either, but to be fair, most bus drivers are very considerate to cyclists, even if their fumes and and sheer size are not what you want to encounter on your journey to work.

But with the advantage of being able to cycle in bus lanes you can often seem reasonably safe, even on a busy road. Unless its full of potholes that is. Some roads in London have terrible surfaces, a combination of regularly being dug up and multiple manhole covers. The latter can be particularly frustrating when they litter those painted-on cycle lanes - with heavy traffic to your right, its difficult to cycle round them, and the worst threaten to knock you off course and into an accident. Farringdon Road is a particular danger for this, as its often necessary to keep up a reasonable speed to avoid getting in the way of other vehicles.

The Green Party, wherever it gets a local council seat, is keen on pushing 20mph speed limits. This would definitely make for safer roads, though on the road I live on, getting people to stick to 30mph would be a start. Slower cars will encourage cycling and make London safer for cyclists. But what we also need are decent road surfaces, so cyclists can travel on equal terms with drivers.

Long live the Freedom and Solidarity Party!

2009-04-26T16:09:00.004+01:00

Perhaps its because of frustration at there not being a political party in the UK that accords well enough with my views, but I've always had a certain fascination with the details of political landscapes in other countries. Its great news that the Left-Green Movement in Iceland has just won 21% in the general election there, giving it a major role in a coalition government with the Social Democrats. But one country isn't nearly so much fun as the whole of Europe, with its myriad of different parties.

Enter the EU Profiler (thanks Jim!), an online tool to help you decide who to vote for in the European elections. No great surprise or interest that it tells me I should vote Green on June 4. But if I switch from 'national parties' to 'parties in Europe', I discover that my closest matched party is the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) in Turkey. The ÖDP is a libertarian socialist party with 1 MP and no prospect of getting any MEPs, because of course, Turkey is not a member of the EU. So while its strange that EU Profiler decided to include it, I'm glad it did - I've found a political home and will send fraternal greetings immediately!

My other very close matches include the Communist Refoundation (Italy), Left Alliance (Finland), the Left Bloc (Portugal) and the Swiss Greens. Also within the rather arbitrary circle around my position can be found Holland's Party for the Animals (no animal welfare questions were included incidentally) and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (from the Spanish state, in case you were wondering where Galicia was). Just outside my circle sits France's newly-formed New Anti-Capitalist Party, an organisation I would have thought I had plenty in common with, but apparently EU Profiler knows better...

But no matter. I have my political home. I shall be setting up the North London branch of the Freedom and Solidarity Party shortly.

Brown New Deal

2009-03-02T14:33:00.004Z

It's rare, these days, for a bank to be condemning the government rather than the other way around, but that's what a new report by HSBC does. It reveals that despite promises to "lead the world in building the low carbon society with a low carbon economy", Gordon Brown's actual investment in anything resembling a 'Green New Deal' is tiny compared to other rich countries. China, whose emissions are regularly referred to as an excuse for not tackling our own, is devoting 110 times as much money to environmental investment. Brown loves to jump on any bandwagon that rolls by, but just like with Make Poverty History, it seems he's not actually serious about the Green New Deal.

The HSBC report points out that by investing in green energy, the government could create more jobs than with conventional financial stimuli, as well as cutting emissions and solving energy supply issues. All well and good. But when the principles of the Green New Deal were originally brought together last year, they included proposals such as a windfall tax on energy super-profits. Although campaigning was done around this issue, it doesn't seem to have made its way so strongly into mix when the Green New Deal is talked about in the mainstream. There is a danger that HSBC, Brown or anyone could cherry-pick the corporate-friendly policies, calling what they've done a Green New Deal, but losing the vital essence of the proposal; to fundamentally challenge the neoliberal model that got us in the mess in the first place.

I think its important to remember, though, that its possible to both critique and push further any Green New Deal -style proposals. We should use the momentum created by the fact that mainstream alternatives to free market dogma are starting to be implemented to demand proposals which contain more social justice and a more sustainable basis on which to run our economy. That means more co-operatives and credit unions, more local food production and sustainable transport systems, not just investment in hi-tech green energy projects which are most suitable for multinational corporations, thereby confirming their place in our future.

A space to build a movement?

2009-03-01T18:04:00.003Z

Yesterday was a long day. I've been on the organising team for 6 Billion Ways and yesterday it happened - all 14 hours of it. But it was also a real success. We don't have a final figure for the number of people who came, but it was getting close to 2,000 over the course of the day. They came to hear a mix of international and UK speakers talk about everything from whether getting climate justice necessitates getting rid of capitalism, to whether overseas aid is a good thing or a bad thing.

One of the original inspirations for the event was 'McPlanet', which various campaigning NGOs hold in Germany every two years, but the feel was very much like that of a mini social forum. That was deliberate on the part of the organisers. While there is nothing new in campaigning NGOs working together on events, what set 6 Billion Ways apart was that it had at the centre of it an idea of building a movement. This was just one event, of course, but it aimed to contribute to something wider, instead of simply seeking to build either the brand of even the particular campaigns of the organisations that put it on.

It was also clear, from both the numbers that turned up and the things they were saying, that the event struck a chord with lots of people who are becoming deeply disillusioned with the global order. I'm sure very few would have failed to be inspired by the day which was very buzzy and featured a photo exhibition, radical bookstore area, campaign stalls, skills workshops, films and a party at the end.

The inclusion of speakers like Tariq Ramadan, and the involvement of City Circle (an organisation of progressive Muslim professionals) as one of the organisers, also meant the event drew a diverse crowd. At the final plenary, speaking last after Susan George, Tariq Ramadan, Bianca Jagger, Trevor Ngwane and Meena Raman, Mark Thomas quipped that he was glad to have been included on the panel as the token white male. He then went on to be as angry and impassioned as I've seen him and gave us a very fitting end to the day.

After worrying about whether people will turn up and all the logistical and programmatical headaches that come with a big event for the last few months, we're now left with a question. Surely we have a responsibility to do something with the enthusiasm we've created for the 6 Billion Ways idea - and if so, what?

Derek Simpson is a disgrace

2009-02-16T20:41:00.003Z

The picture says it all. A trade union leader grown flabby on a union expense account with his arms around two 'glamour' models from the right-wing (not to say anti-union) Daily Star to promote the most xenophobic take on the wildcat strikes over oil refinery jobs.

Simpson is the joint general secretary of Unite, the union formed from the recent merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union. He's also a key union ally of Gordon Brown, which perhaps makes his support for “British jobs for British workers” unsurprising, since Brown was the originator of the phrase in recent political discourse.

The wildcat strikers who have taken up the slogan have provoked much debate in the lefty blogosphere, including over the actual level of racism among strikers, but when Brown makes a promise like that and it rings so hollow, its not surprising that some of them seek to throw it back at the Prime Minister. Its certainly no more reactionary in their mouths than it is in his.

Nevertheless, there are people involved in the strikes that have tried to steer them away from nationalism and towards a demand for transborder workers' rights and decent terms and conditions for all. Not so Derek Simpson it seems. But the problems with Simpson don't end with his embrace of reactionary nationalism and sexism.

Simpson's leadership of Unite (Amicus section) has seen the union supporting a new third runway at Heathrow despite the implications for climate change and an expansion of nuclear power. Union leaders have to defend their members, but responsible progressive ones should be arguing for expansion in green industries, not dirty and dangerous ones. The union also strongly supported Tony Blair when he forced the Serious Fraud Office to drop its investigation into arms exporter BAE Systems amid pressure from Saudi Arabia to do so.

Now Simpson has been forced into a leadership contest he was trying to avoid. The strange terms of the merger between the T&G and Amicus led to a situation where Simpson was able to try and stay in power for eight years without being re-elected – until someone brought a legal challenge that is. Now that person, Jerry Hicks, is a candidate against Simpson, on a platform of democratic grassroots organising, environmental responsibility and internationalism. Simpson meanwhile has been accused of using official union publications to argue the case for a vote for himself. Being a member of the T&G section of Unite I won't be able to vote, but for the sake of the union's future I really hope that Jerry Hicks wins.

Review: The trouble with aid

2009-02-08T20:39:00.004Z

Below is my brief review of Jonathan Glennie's 'The Trouble with Aid' for the February issue of Peace News. I hadn't seen Peace News for a while when I was asked to write this review. The last time I saw it, in 2006, I was less than impressed. A feature article about Venezuela, for instance, spent much time regretting Chavez's military background and virtually failed to mention the social advances that had taken place under his Presidency.

Looking at the December/January issue online, Peace News now seems more relevant and useful, even if its constituency must remain small. Clearly Milan Rai's editorship of the paper has improved it, and I'm happy to make a small contribution in the form of this review.

The Trouble with Aid: Why Less Could Mean More for Africa Jonathan Glennie, Zed, 2008.

This isn't a book about humanitarian relief, or really about the aid delivered by aid agencies at all. Instead its about the much bigger sums which rich country governments contribute to African infrastructure, governance and welfare systems on a regular basis. Most African countries receive more than 10 per cent of their GDP in aid, and a few, like Sierra Leone and Burundi, receive more than 30 per cent.

Aid received on this scale has an enormous impact, but not necessarily a good one Glennie argues. For a start, governments who are dependent on aid like this end up being more accountable to donors than to the people they are supposed to represent. And when those donors insist on economic policies like privatisation or the lowering of import taxes, aid dependence undermines not just democracy, but development too.

Glennie isn't opposed to aid, but calls himself an aid 'realist'. He makes a convincing case that there's lots rich countries could do to help reduce global poverty that would be far more effective than aid is even in the best scenarios. Like closing down tax havens that deny poor countries tax revenue for instance. Instead they promise aid increases because its easy, its buys influence among recipient countries and it presents no challenge at all to Northern corporations.

This is an accessible and tightly argued book which makes a refreshing change to both the uncritical calls for 'more aid' from some development charities, and from the neoconservative assumptions of last year's best-selling development book 'The Bottom Billion' by former World Bank economist Paul Collier. What Glennie is arguing for is a global justice agenda, and in that he's bang on target.

Our friends in the South

2009-02-02T19:46:00.004Z

The latest issue of Red Pepper is just out and carries my article about social movements in the global South ('Our friends in the South', Red Pepper Feb/Mar 09). It was written partly to accompany an event which is happening in London on 28 February, 6 Billion Ways. The event is a kind of Social Forum lite, with speakers including Social Forum stalwarts like Trevor Ngwane (from South Africa's Anti-privatisation Forum) and Susan George. There's a huge range of discussions and workshops for a single day event, especially one which is free. Its organised by some of the more radical and social movement-orientated UK NGOs, and you can register for it here.

The article meanwhile surveys just a few of the coalitions of social movements in non-rich world in order to make a tentative argument that social movements have a better critique of the global system than many of the charities that are our primary connections to the 'developing world'. They also have better solutions too, like food sovereignty. In dealing with the fallout from the financial crisis as activists, we need better connections with such social movements.

The article is not available online yet, and its a bit long to post here. Besides, I should probably encourage people to buy Red Pepper, which also has some other interesting stuff, including analysis of the youth revolt in Greece and some very quickly turned around coverage of Palestine issues after the assault on Gaza. There's also an excellent piece by Sue Branford about the Landless Workers' Movement in Brazil as an accompanying article to mine.

If anyone gets round to reading it, I'd welcome comments on it here.

UPDATE: My article has now been put up online: Our friends in the South

Good news from Iceland

2009-01-31T15:43:00.002Z

The recently resigned Prime Minister of Iceland, conservative Geir Haarde, is being widely described as the first government victim of the financial crisis. Since the economy collapsed last year, weekly riots have rocked the government until it was no longer viable. Early elections have been called for May, and the interim Prime Minister is to be Johanna Sigurdardottir of the Social Democratic Alliance.

The fact that she will be the first openly gay Prime Minister in the world is one in the eye for global homophobes. But although she's considered slightly to the left of her party, the Social Democrats have been in coalition with with Haarde's Independence Party since 2007, and therefore bear some responsibility for the neoliberal financial-deregulation-and-privatisation which turned out to be a house built on sand.

The Social Democrats' new coalition partner is the Left-Green Movement, which has 9 of the Icelandic Parliament's 63 seats. Although solidly green, they're not aligned with other global Green Parties, but rather with the Nordic Green Left, the alliance of left-wing parties across Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. Polls now put them on 28%, which would make them the biggest party if nothing changes before the election.

The Financial Times explains their appeal: "The Left-Greens – an anti-big business, pro-environment party – have benefited from a dramatic rise in anti-capitalist sentiment in Iceland following the crisis as people expressed disgust at prominent and flashy young businessmen known as the ‘Viking raiders’."

Of course, a Left-Green led government would not be a panacea. It is calling for the renegotiation of Iceland's recent bailout deal with the IMF, but even if it manages to do this, the better terms it negotiates are unlikely to include ensuring that ordinary people don't pay for the financial crisis through job losses and reposessions. If people resist this, which they may well do given the evidence of the protests so far, the Left-Green Movement could end up enforcing the interests of capital rather than fighting them.

But perhaps I'm judging them by the standards of your average Social Democrat. If the Left-Greens maintain a close connection to the social movements which emerge in response to the crisis, and those movements maintain their self activity rather than leaving it all to the Left-Greens, something rather exciting could emerge in Iceland. And in the meantime, we can be heartened by the fact that Iceland seems to be lurching left rather than right in response to their economic crisis.

For further reading (all in English) see the Left-Green Movement's website, Aftaka (an anarchist site) and the Guardian's Iceland section.

'My name is Harvey Milk, and I'm here to recruit you'

2009-01-30T21:47:00.004Z

Last week I went to see 'Milk' and I can heartily recommend it. Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the US when he became a Supervisor of San Francisco in 1977. Although this was no mean feat, given that his constituency covered the city's gay district (the Castro) it was perhaps another campaign that was more astonishing. Milk was at the centre of the defeat of Proposition 6 which would have made the dismissal of gay teachers mandatory across California. Rather than hide behind mealy-mouthed assertions about human rights as some of the moderates in the campaign would have prefered, Milk took the bigots head on in public debates, and urged gay Californians to come out to friends and family.

The defeat of Proposition 6 was a turning point in the battle for gay rights in the US. Up to that point a wave of homophobia was sweeping the country, not least due to the efforts of evangelical Christian singer Anita Bryant. Milk's achievement was not so much to get elected, although that helped, but to build a movement. Thus it was that when both he and the Mayor of San Francisco were shot dead by a fellow Supervisor in 1978, 30,000 people turned out on the streets to mourn.

On Newsnight Review the day the film came out, Tony Parsons complained that the film was sanitised for a straight audience. This was San Francisco in the 70s, he said, where were the bath houses, the depravity? He even went so far to compare it to Philadelphia, the supposedly groundbreaking 1993 film with Tom Hanks as a gay man with AIDS who never so much as kisses his boyfriend on screen. In fact, I think Tony entirely missed the point. This was not a film primarily about gay life in 70s Frisco, but about political activism. The kissing, and indeed sex, was there in appropriate amounts to tell the story.

The generally excellent director Gus Van Sant made the right call here, and does a great job of invoking the excitement of the movement at the time (at one point an angry crowd of protesters chant "civil rights or civil war, gay rights now!"). Sean Penn's performance is also great, as a number of reviewers have commented. But perhaps the best recommendation is that despite the fact that though Harvey dies at the end of the film, you're still left with a sense of hope and optimism.

Being both gay and an activist, this was perhaps an obvious film for me to go see, but I'm pretty sure that anyone who isn't a thorough reactionary will enjoy it!

Gaza today: 'This is only the beginning'

2008-12-28T11:25:00.006Z

Guest article from Ewa Jasiewicz in Gaza...

As I write this, Israeli jets are bombing the areas of Zeitoun and Rimal in central Gaza City. The family I am staying with has moved into the internal corridor of their home to shelter from the bombing. The windows nearly blew out just five minutes ago as a massive explosion rocked the house. Apache’s are hovering above us, whilst F16s sear overhead.

UN radio reports say one blast was a target close to the main gate of Al Shifa hospital – Gaza and Palestine’s largest medical facility. Another was a plastics factory. More bombs continue to pound the Strip.

Sirens are wailing on the streets outside. Regular power cuts that plunge the city into blackness every night and tonight is no exception. Only perhaps tonight it is the darkest night people have seen here in their lifetimes.

Over 220 people have been killed and over 400 injured through attacks that shocked the strip in the space 15 minutes. Hospitals are overloaded and unable to cope. These attacks come on top of existing conditions of humanitarian crisis: a lack of medicines, bread, flour, gas, electricity, fuel and freedom of movement.

Doctors at Shifaa had to scramble together 10 make shift operating theatres to deal with the wounded. The hospital’s maternity ward had to transform their operating room into an emergency theatre. Shifaa only had 12 beds in their intensive care unit, they had to make space for 27 today.

There is a shortage of medicine – over 105 key items are not in stock, and blood and spare generator parts are desperately needed. Shifaa’s main generator is the life support machine of the entire hospital. It’s the apparatus keeping the ventilators and monitors and lights turned on that keep people inside alive. And it doesn’t have the spare parts it needs, despite the International Committee for the Red Cross urging Israel to allow it to transport them through Erez checkpoint.

Shifaa’s Head of Casualty, Dr Maowiye Abu Hassanyeh explained, ‘We had over 300 injured in over 30 minutes. There were people on the floor of the operating theatre, in the reception area, in the corridors; we were sending patients to other hospitals. Not even the most advanced hospital in the world could cope with this number of casualties in such a short space of time’.
And as IOF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenaz said this morning, ‘This is only the beginning’.

But this isn’t the beginning, this is an ongoing policy of collective punishment and killing with impunity practised by Israel for decades. It has seen its most intensified level today. But the weight of dread, revenge and isolation hangs thick over Gaza today. People are all asking, ‘If this is only the beginning, what will the end look like?

11.30am

Myself and Alberto Acre, a Spanish journalist, had been on the border village of Sirej near Khan Younis in the south of the strip. We had driven there at 8am with the mobile clinic of the Union of Palestinian Relief Committees. The clinic regularly visits exposed, frequently raided villages far from medical facilities. We had been interviewing residents about conditions on the border. Stories of olive groves and orange groves, family farmland, bulldozed to make way for a clear line of sight for Israeli occupation force watch towers and border guards. Israeli attacks were frequent. Indiscriminate fire and shelling spraying homes and land on the front line of the south eastern border. One elderly farmer showed us the grave-size ditch he had dug to climb into when Israeli soldiers would shoot into his fields.

Alberto was interviewing a family that had survived an Israeli missile attack on their home last month. It had been a response to rocket fire from resistance fighters nearby. Four fighters were killed in a field by the border. Israel had rained rockets and M16 fire back. The family, caught in the crossfire, have never returned to their home.

I was waiting for Alberto to return when ground shaking thuds tilted us off our feet. This was the sound of surface to air fired missiles and F16 bombs slamming into the police stations, and army bases of the Hamas authority here. In Gaza City, in Diere Balah, Rafah, Khan Younis, Beit Hanoon.

We zoomed out of the village in our ambulance, and onto the main road to Gaza City, before jumping out to film the smouldering remains of a police station in Diere Balah, near Khan Younis. Its’ name - meaning 'place of dates' - sounds like the easy semi-slang way of saying ‘take care’, Diere Bala, Diere Balak – take care.

Eyewitnesses said two Israeli missiles had destroyed the station. One had soared through a children’s playground and a busy fruit and vegetable market before impacting on its target.

Civilians Dead

There was blood on a broken plastic yellow slide, and a crippled, dead donkey with an upturned vegetable cart beside it. Aubergines and splattered blood covered the ground. A man began to explain in broken English what had happened. ‘It was full here, full, three people dead, many many injured’. An elderly man with a white kuffiyeh around his head threw his hands down to his blood drenched trousers. ‘Look! Look at this! Shame on all governments, shame on Israel, look how they kills us, they are killing us and what does the world do? Where is the world, where are they, we are being killed here, hell upon them!’ He was a market trader, present during the attack.

He began to pick up splattered tomatoes he had lost from his cart, picking them up jerkily, and putting them into plastic bags, quickly. Behind a small tile and brick building, a man was sitting against the wall, his legs were bloodied. He couldn’t get up and was sitting, visibly in pain and shock, trying to adjust himself, to orientate himself.

The police station itself was a wreck, a mess of criss-crossed piles of concrete – broken floors upon floors. Smashed cars and a split palm tree split the road.

We walked on, hurriedly, with everyone else, eyes skyward at four apache helicopters – their trigger mechanisms supplied by the UK’s Brighton-Based EDM Technologies. They were dropping smoky bright flares – a defence against any attempt at Palestinian missile retaliation.
Turning down the road leading to the Diere Balah Civil Defence Force headquarters we suddenly saw a rush of people streaming across the road. ‘They’ve been bombing twice, they’ve been bombing twice’ shouted people.

We ran too, but towards the crowds and away from what could possibly be target number two, ‘a ministry building’ our friend shouted to us. The apaches rumbled above.

Arriving at the police station we saw the remains of a life at work smashed short. A prayer matt clotted with dust, a policeman’s hat, the ubiquitous bright flower patterned mattresses, burst open. A crater around 20 feet in diameter was filled with pulverised walls and floors and a motorbike, tossed on its’ side, toy-like in its’ depths.

Policemen were frantically trying to get a fellow worker out from under the rubble. Everyone was trying to call him on his Jawwal. ‘Stop it everyone, just one, one of you ring’ shouted a man who looked like a captain. A fire licked the underside of an ex-room now crushed to just 3 feet high. Hands alongside hands rapidly grasped and threw back rocks, blocks and debris to reach the man.

We made our way to the Al Aqsa Hospital. Trucks and cars loaded with the men of entire families – uncles, nephews, brothers – piled high and speeding to the hospital to check on loved ones, horns blaring without interruption.

Hospitals on the brink

Entering Al Aqsa was overwhelming, pure pandemonium, charged with grief, horror, distress, and shock. Limp blood covered and burnt bodies streamed by us on rickety stretchers. Before the morgue was a scrum, tens of shouting relatives crammed up to its open double doors. ‘They could not even identify who was who, whether it is their brother or cousin or who, because they are so burned’ explained our friend. Many were transferred, in ambulances and the back of trucks and cars to Al Shifa Hospital.

The injured couldn’t speak. Causality after casualty sat propped against the outside walls outside, being comforted by relatives, wounds temporarily dressed. Inside was perpetual motion and the more drastically injured. Relatives jostled with doctors to bring in their injured in scuffed blankets. Drips, blood streaming faces, scorched hair and shrapnel cuts to hands, chests, legs, arms and heads dominated the reception area, wards and operating theatres.

We saw a bearded man, on a stretcher on the floor of an intensive care unit, shaking and shaking, involuntarily, legs rigid and thrusting downwards. A spasm coherent with a spinal chord injury. Would he ever walk again or talk again? In another unit, a baby girl, no older than six months, had shrapnel wounds to her face. A relative lifted a blanket to show us her fragile bandaged leg. Her eyes were saucer-wide and she was making stilted, repetitive, squeeking sounds.

A first estimate at Al Aqsa hospital was 40 dead and 120 injured. The hospital was dealing with casualties from the bombed market, playground, Civil Defence Force station, civil police station and also the traffic police station. All levelled. A working day blasted flat with terrifying force.
At least two shaheed (martyrs) were carried out on stretchers out of the hospital. Lifted up by crowds of grief-stricken men to the graveyard to cries of ‘La Illaha Illa Allah’, there is not god but Allah.

Who cares?

And according to many people here, there is nothing and nobody looking out for them apart from God. Back in Shifa Hospital tonight, we meet the brother of a security guard who had had the doorway he had been sitting in and the building – Abu Mazen’s old HQ - fall down upon his head. He said to us, ‘We don’t have anyone but God. We feel alone. Where is the world? Where is the action to stop these attacks?’

Majid Salim, stood beside his comatosed mother, Fatima. Earlier today she had been sitting at her desk at work – at the Hadije Arafat Charity, near Meshtal, the Headquarters of the Security forces in Gaza City. Israel’s attack had left her with multiple internal and head injuries, tube down her throat and a ventilator keeping her alive. Majid gestured to her, ‘We didn’t attack Israel, my mother didn’t fire rockets at Israel. This is the biggest terrorism, to have our mother bombarded at work’.

The groups of men lining the corridors of the over-stretched Shifaa hospital are by turns stunned, agitated, patient and lost. We speak to one group. Their brother had both arms broken and has serious facial and head injuries. ‘We couldn’t recognise his face, it was so black from the weapons used’ one explains. Another man turns to me and says. ‘I am a teacher. I teach human rights – this is a course we have, ‘human rights’. He pauses. ‘How can I teach, my son, my children, about the meaning of human rights under these conditions, under this siege?’

Its true, UNRWA and local government schools have developed a Human Rights syllabus, teaching children about international law, the Geneva Conventions, the International Declaration on Human Rights, The Hague Regulations. To try to develop a culture of human rights here, to help generate more self confidence and security and more of a sense of dignity for the children. But the contradiction between what should be adhered to as a common code of conducted signed up to by most states, and the realities on the ground is stark. International law is not being applied or enforced with respect to Israeli policies towards the Gaza Strip, or on ’48 Palestine, the West Bank, or the millions of refugees living in camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

How can a new consciousness and practice of human rights ever graduate from rhetoric to reality when everything points to the contrary – both here and in Israel? The United Nations have been spurned and shut out by Israel, with Richard Falk the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights held prisoner at Ben Gurion Airport before being unceremoniously deported this month – deliberately blinded to the abuses being carried out against Gaza by Israel. An international community which speaks empty phrases on Israeli attacks ‘we urge restraint…minimise civilian casualties’.

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated regions on the planet. In Jabbaliya camp alone, Gaza’s largest, 125,000 people are crowded into a space 2km square. Bombardment by F16s and Apaches at 11.30 in the morning, as children leave their schools for home reveals a contempt for civilian safety as does the 18 months of a siege that bans all imports and exports, and has resulted in the deaths of over 270 people as a result of a lack of access to essential medicines.

A light

There is a saying here in Gaza – we spoke about it, jokily last night. ‘At the end of the tunnel…there is another tunnel’. Not so funny when you consider that Gaza is being kept alive through the smuggling of food, fuel and medicine through an exploitative industry of over 1000 tunnels running from Egypt to Rafah in the South. On average 1-2 people die every week in the tunnels. Some embark on a humiliating crawl to get their education, see their families, to find work, on their hands and knees. Others are reportedly big enough to drive through.

Last night I added a new ending to the saying. ‘At the end of the tunnel, there is another tunnel and then a power cut’. Today, there’s nothing to make a joke about. As bombs continue to blast buildings around us, jarring the children in this house from their fitful sleep, the saying could take on another twist. After today’s killing of over 200, is it that at the end of the tunnel, there is another tunnel, and then a grave?’, or a wall of international governmental complicity and silence?

There is a light through, beyond the sparks of resistance and solidarity in the West Bank, ’48 and the broader Middle East. This is a light of conscience turned into activism by people all over the world. We can turn a spotlight onto Israel’s crimes against humanity and the enduring injustice here in Palestine, through coming out onto the streets and pressurizing our governments; demanding an end to Israeli apartheid and occupation, broadening our call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, and for a genuine Just Peace.

Through institutional, governmental and popular means, this can be a light at the end of the Gazan tunnel.

Ewa Jasiewicz is currently Gaza Project Co-coordinator for the Free Gaza Movement.

Don't worry it's fine

2008-11-28T21:20:00.003Z

I bought a postcard today by the brilliant David Shrigley. It looked like this:

Cannabis, the state, and our freedom to choose

2008-11-25T17:06:00.004Z

The latest British Crime Survey revealed a few weeks ago that drug use generally is falling, and that cannabis use in particular is at its lowest level for a decade. So much for the idea that reclassifying cannabis from a class B to a class C drug would encourage its consumption. But as we know from the Brand-and-Ross affair, on some issues the UK is governed by the baying hounds of the Daily Mail, and this is one of those issues. Thus January will see a reversion from class C back to class B, presumably sending the 'right message' about its use to the thereby infantilised population.

Back in 1995, the argument for complete legalisation seemed to be gathering pace. The Independent said in an editorial on 31 October of that year that it “has long argued for the legalisation and licensing of those drugs that have little or no ill-effect on health if used in moderation, like alcohol, like cannabis and (in all probability) like the dance drug Ecstasy.” In 1997, under the editorship of Rosie Boycott, the Independent on Sunday launched a campaign for the legalisation of cannabis.

Then last year, on the back of scare stories about the claimed increase in potency of the drug and links to psychosis, it melodramtically reversed its position. “If only we had known then what we can reveal today” wailed its editorial, managing to simultaneously bemoan its foolishness and crow about how its 'landmark' campaign “culminated in a 16,000-strong pro-cannabis march to London's Hyde Park - and was credited with forcing the Government to downgrade the legal status of cannabis to class C.”

Rosie Boycott herself is still in favour of legalisation, though she accepted both that 'skunk' is 30 times stronger than ten years previous and that smoking it has strong links to psychosis, looking back nostalgically to the days of harmless joints in the summer of love. In fact, as Ben Goldacre has shown, the 30-times-stronger figure confirms that old adage that you can prove anything with statistics. There have always been a variety of strengths available and shock increases that sell newspapers are the result of not comparing like with like.

As far as mental illness goes, a proper review of the evidence shows a distinctly more complex picture. The actual number of scientific studies which have been done are small, and most of these have found no clear evidence that cannabis taken even in quite large quantities causes mental illness. In fact, the causal relationship may be the other way round with those suffering from mental illnesses taking cannabis because it helps them in some way. There is even some suggestion that in some circumstances cannabis may have antipsychotic properties.

In any case, as Baroness Molly Meacher (who is a life peer-type Baroness and a social worker rather than a member of the aristocracy) points out today, the reduction in cannabis use since 2004 is most likely to be down to the public education campaign launched around the time it was downgraded from class B to class C. And of course, if we were to ignore this and conclude anything simple about the link between penalty and drug use on recent evidence, it would have to be that reducing the penalty reduces use, not the other way around.

There is a wider point here too. Why should the state be allowed to tell us what we can and can't consume where that effects no-one but ourselves? Yes there is a role for education, but not for criminalising the estimated 30 per cent of the population who have taken cannabis at some point in their lives. Unfortunately the libertarians in the Labour party can virtually be counted on one hand.

Thus a socially conservative agenda from the right dovetails with paternalism from the authoritarian centre-left, with the poorest sections of society as the biggest victims. Yes, drug problems affect poor communities worst, but so does the criminalisation of drugs. As Meacher points out “Arrests and convictions make it more difficult for those involved to find and hold a job; more likely that relationships break down; more likely they will have housing problems.”

Meacher is tabling a motion in the House of Lords, calling on the government to halt reclassification pending a new review of drugs policy. I hope they do, though I'm not optimistic. What we need more, however, is a broader debate about the role of the state in determining how we live, and how we can move towards a society of equal and empowered adults.

Underneath the arches

2008-11-23T15:19:00.002Z

My theatre-going is usually restricted to the National Theatre when they have £10 tickets for classics like Checkov, Lorca or Brecht; except, that is, when a friend of mine is in a play (that's just one friend who's in plays, not many...). That was why I was at the Southwark Playhouse last night, watching Presumption, a play about two people coming to terms with the fact that after seven years, their feelings are best described as they "don't not love" each other.

Its an engaging play, a simple concept which is thoroughly and sometimes wittily explored by actors who give excellent performances. Its odd watching someone you know well play a character. You notice which expressions, affectations and gestures have been imported from the actor's own character, and which haven't, in a way that the rest of the audience clearly won't. Yet I have to say that for most of the time I was able to suspend my disbelief effectively and was entertained all the way through.

Southwark Playhouse, incidentally is also quite engaging itself. Situated underneath the railway arches near London Bridge, it has a trendy little bar complete which has unmatched second-hand chairs, tea lights and a stage for acoustic music, yet manages to avoid pretentiousness. Presumption runs for another two weeks and tickets are pretty cheap, so consider this my November theatre recommendation!

The National Gallery, the Duke, his Titian and its lovers

2008-11-22T12:40:00.003Z

The latest furore in the British art world revolves around a work by Titian, 'Diana and Actaeon'. Current owner the Duke of Sutherland wants to sell the painting and is prepared to 'accept' £50million for it from the National Gallery and National Galleries of Scotland. If he doesn't get it by the end of the year, he'll sell it on the private market, possibly to that current bête noir of British taste and decency, a 'Russian oligarch'.

I don't want to dwell on the inherent value of the painting itself. I don't much rate it, but clearly much of the art establishment does. Artists including Lucien Freud, Damien Hirst and David Hockney have supported the campaign to buy it. Tracey Emin presented an artists' petition to Downing Street, saying “We are building an Olympics that we can't afford and can't maintain afterwards. This country seems hell-bent on supporting a war which is so ugly. Why can't we celebrate things that are really beautiful?”

I can identify with this sentiment to some extent, but I think its more complicated than that. There are a lot of calls by progressives on the money that shouldn't be spent on war, or indeed on the Olympics, and buying a Titian painting may not rank above, say, tackling child poverty or a Green New Deal. That isn't to say we shouldn't spend anything on art and heritage, but there isn't, and neither should there be, an unlimited budget for such things. The National National Heritage Memorial Fund has pledged £10 million for 'Diana and Actaeon', but admits on its website that it normally has a “difficult task ... to decide what should be saved within the limited resources”. £50 million is a lot of money, no matter how irresponsibly large sums have been spent elsewhere.

Then there's the Duke of Sutherland himself. The current Duke is a descendent of the 1st Duke of Sutherland, George Leveson-Gower, who is best known for his role in the highland clearances. I mention this not to imply that the wealth of any member of the aristocracy is particularly legitimate, but to illustrate that it isn't. Giving him £50 million from public funds would be redistribution of wealth from ordinary people to a very rich man.

Hugh Kerr, a former MEP who was expelled from the Labour party for being too left-wing (or something) has a better idea: “We have had these paintings since 1945. We have looked after them, we have insured them, and they are part of Scotland's national heritage. Frankly, we should just nationalise them and take them into public ownership.” In the likely event that this doesn't happen however, should the government find a way of buying the paintings?

Absolutely not. The Duke is holding the country to ransom, and if we aren't paying up to Somalian pirates to save the lives of their hostages, we certainly shouldn't be paying him. Its up to the Duke if he wants to deny the country a historic piece of art for private gain. Perhaps the assorted ranks of the art establishment should be petitioning the Duke not to be so selfish, not asking the government to pay him out of the public purse. Either that or the likes of super-rich Damien Hirst could try dipping into their own pockets.

Networks, nodes and hubs

2008-11-17T17:01:00.003Z

I've been reading a rather obscure libertarian anti-capitalist publication recently called Turbulence. I found some articles more interesting and useful than others, but one that stuck out was Network Organisation for the 21st Century by Harry Halpin and Kay Summer. In it they suggest an alternative to both the 'horizontal' and 'vertical' models of political organisation current on the anti-capitalist left, something I've been trying to work out in a very untheoretical way for a number of years.

Their argument goes something like this:

Questions of political organisation have traditionally revolved around two poles of attraction, the centralised structure with clear leadership and common ideology, and the loose decentralised network with no coherent agreement on politics. Many organisations mix aspects of these two, but the debate is viewed through this lens.
Both structures have benefits and problems – the ability to act quickly can be contrasted with the benefits of wider participation for instance. Organisations using both models were involved in the post-Seattle alter-globalisation movement, and neither managed to sustain that movement with the vibrancy it once had.
We can start to move beyond this dichotomy of political models by looking at what principles define a well-functioning network, whether this be political networks, ecosystems or the internet.
A network consists of connections between otherwise disparate elements which are called nodes. In the context of a social movement these could be people, groups, a social centre, a website, social forums and so on.
In a successful network, some nodes have more connections, and are connected with more distant nodes than others. These supernodes can be called 'hubs'. This model can be contrasted with both a centralised network and a completely decentralised one. For example, in a postal network, centralised system would see all post being routed through a single hub, which would be vulnerable to overloading. A decentralised network would see long-distance mail routed through a series of local connections since it has no hubs. By contrast, a system with multiple hubs and many nodes is more efficient, even if some of the hubs replicate each others' functions.
Advocates of 'horizontality' have sometimes been suspicious of any hubs as signs of centralisation. Those in control of a hub may well want to sabotage other emerging hubs as competitors – a tendency visible in the anti-war movement in the UK for instance.
The emergence of hubs appears to be a sign of maturity in long-lasting networks. However, they must never be allowed to become static, and must remain partially redundant so that the movement as a whole doesn't depend on one hub.
Existing hubs should also encourage the development of new hubs and dense local connections between nodes. This often involves re-inventing the wheel with people learning new skills, knowledge and information, but this is necessary and useful for making the network resilient.

Of course they make other points too, and the article itself has far more illustrative examples than I can give in a summary, so it worth reading the original if you're interested in this sort of thing. What's interesting to me is that some of the ideas here have also emerged through the common sense of activism I've been involved in, trying to organise in an efficient but non-authoritarian way - but what the article does is thinks the implications through, puts them in a slightly more theoretical framework and feeds them back to people like me to help with organisational problems.

No doubt this is not a definitive answer, and the authors don't make any such claims, but they do offer a potentially useful approach for social movements at the moment when we need to renew the radical challenge to an unjust and unsustainable system.

The once and future mayor?

2008-11-12T19:09:00.004Z

A political maverick who failed to get elected this year, but is already planning for a run in 2012? Not Sarah Palin this time, but our very own Ken Livingstone. Having run out of political steam in the recent mayoral election, but determined to win his crown back from Boris the next time round, Ken and his allies appear to have been looking for a new strategy. This week, with the launch of Progressive London, we get to see more of what that will look like.

"Progressive politics offer the best approach to dealing with the new economic and political situation" Ken tells us, hence his new coalition, which will advocate "public investment in areas like transport, housing and the environment" as well as "promoting the city's international openness and multicultural dynamism." With a conference planned in January, Progressive London is clearly seeking to provide a more weighty opposition to Boris Johnson's plans for the city than either a free-ranging Ken or Labour members of the London Assembly can. But is this something progressive Londoners should take an interest in?

The best chance that Ken had to establish a progressive coalition in London was eight years ago in the wake of his first mayoral election victory as an independent. Having pulled both the Labour left and many other activists into his election campaign, and proved it was possible for the left to win outside the Labour party, Ken had all to play for. A 'progressive coalition' for London (rather than a new political party) would have fitted the mood exactly and would have been more conducive to grassroots-led innovation in local government.

It didn't happen though, and a few of the reasons why not are fairly easy to pinpoint. They are worth mentioning because, as far as I can tell, they also appear to dog this latest attempt at progressive coalition building.

The first was that it was all about Ken. Livingstone is undoubtedly charismatic and still relatively well liked, but like many such political leaders has a strong belief in having himself in power as the solution. According to the Guardian's Dave Hill, Livingstone has taken to referring to himself as the "once and future mayor", a testament both to his characteristic wit and his problematic attitude to political power.

The Progressive London website uses as its primary colour the same purple that Livingstone first used in his 2000 mayoral campaign, and which he revived on his billboard adverts this year in an effort to distance himself from an unpopular Labour government. Other visual clues include a logo which incorporates the annoying LONDON logo he introduced while in office, the stylised London cityscape used by Transport for London, and a campaign for low fares featuring the oyster card design which he views as one of his triumphs. The website says nothing about re-electing Ken in 2012 as such, but on another level its the main thing it says.

The second problem has to do with the Labour party. Livingstone never meant to leave the Labour party - he was forced to do so because it was preventing him from being elected. Once he'd done that, he sought to rejoin at the first opportunity that wasn't too embarassing for him or it. Thus there was no rationale for any political organistion that could challenge the position of Labour.

Although Livingstone says that the January conference will have speakers "from the Labour party, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, trade union leaders, intellectuals, artists, cultural practitioners, community activists and city government experts", the list of Progressive London supporters on the website looks decidedly more Labour-oriented. Apart from Labour politicians and Labour-affiliated trade unionists, the list consists only of CND chair Kate Hudson, a member of the Communist party which barely distinguishes itself from the Labour left, and Green AM Jenny Jones.

Jones is no surprise here either. Since she was Livingstone's Deputy Mayor in his first term, and through her tenure as the distinctly less important Mayor's Cycling Ambassador, Jones has always seemed closer to Livingstone than her fellow Green AM Darren Johnson. Indeed, she voted against a motion to sack Met Commissioner and Livingstone ally Ian Blair over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes when Johnson did not. Her inclusion here is no guarantee that the Green party is fully behind this coalition, and it has good reason to be wary.

So is Progressive London simply designed to revive the flagging Labour party? Despite the evidence so far we might be tempted to give it the benefit of the doubt, but the chances of building a dynamic and pluralistic coalition are somewhat limited by a third factor: the involvement of Socialist Action, Livingstone's neo-Stalinist praetorian guard. For those who haven't come across this unpleasant little bunch, I think Oscar Reyes summed it up best in Red Pepper when he said in response to Martin Bright's 'expose' of Livingstone in April:

"the real scandal is not that a left-wing mayor has left-wing advisors or that they oppose racism. The problem, as any left or anti-racist activist who has encountered Livingstone’s guard dogs will tell you, is that they have consistently denigrated community struggles, grassroots activism and anything that veers from whatever they deem politically correct or opportune."

Progressive London's articles page features a variety of articles by Livingstone and a link to his Socialist Economic Bulletin, which although published in his name is almost entirely made up of articles by John Ross, Ken's economics advisor whilst mayor and Socialist Action's main theoretician. Based on their track record, a Progressive London coalition with Socialist Action at its heart may have a veneer of pluralism, but when it comes to decision-making internally, it will brook no dissent.

I would love to be proved wrong about all this. The left surely needs new formations, and local or regional coalitions seem far more feasible for achieving this. But my misgivings can perhaps be best summed up like this: Livingstone's politics in the last eight years have not been about building a progressive movement, but instead about creating an hegemony for himself amongst progressives in London. I have yet to see any evidence that he's changed his approach.

Of poppies and the peace movement

2008-11-09T13:19:00.003Z

When I was 14, I and a couple of friends were asked by the deputy headteacher to sell Remembrance Day poppies around the school. Even at that age, we were aware of the uncritical militaristic culture surrounding Remembrance Day and were a little uncomfortable in doing so. Yet we were not confident enough to argue the case not to do it at all. Luckily, with a mother who was a member of the local branch of CND, I was not only aware of an actual peace movement, but also of their alternative - the white poppy.

My friends and I offered a compromise. We would sell red poppies around the school, but only if we could also sell white poppies. I forget how many we sold. I think it was mainly teachers who bought the white poppies (usually as well as a red one), since few schoolkids had ever heard of them before. The woodwork teacher offered us our first taste of right-wing backlash, getting angry that our white poppies somehow sullied the sacrifice soldiers had made, even though we offered them simply as an addition to state-approved remembrance.

Today the white poppy is rarer than it ever was, the victim of the gradual disappearance of the traditional peace movement. The British Legion's red poppies no longer say 'Haig Fund' in the centre as they did until 1994, collecting money for ex-servicemen in the name of the man who sent millions of them to their deaths in the trenches of the First World War. But they are intrinsically linked to Remembrance Sunday's solemn affirmation of the valour of dying for one's country. The terms in which today's soldiers think may have shifted with the times a little, but the basic sentiment is still the one lambasted by Wilfred Owen, "The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est/ Pro patria mori."

Wearing a poppy is pretty much compulsory for politicians and television presenters, but I won't be wearing one. Its not that I don't think ex-servicemen deserve a decent pension and medical care. Everyone does, which is the sentiment that demobbed soldiers brought back from the Second World War, voting in the most radical Labour government in British history, which then constructed the modern welfare state. Defending that, and opposing the wars the UK still fights today seems a more fitting way to remember those who died.

In a way, the fact that Remembrance Sunday is always the closest Sunday to Armistice Day when the First World War ended probably does encourage some critical examination of the ceremony. The history books now universally conclude that the Great War was a war of entirely needless slaughter and military incompetence, conducted on both sides by aristocrats who cared little for how many working class men died in defence of their empires. The nature of war has changed dramatically since then, and so has opposition to war. Millions marched against the war in Iraq, though motivated not by blanket pacifism but often by a feeling that this war was unjust.

Like me, those at the core of the anti-war movement today may not call themselves pacifists, but are opposed to militarism, and to wars in a general way, rather than on a case-by-case basis. So there is the common basis for rebuilding a culture of peace, infused with a common-sense anti-imperialism for a fuller understanding of the world. Rituals and events are an important part of our social organisation (which is why Remembrance Sunday happens), so I wonder if one of the things that could be done is to organise an alternative Remembrance Sunday, a solemn occassion to remember the dead on both sides and celebrate our common humanity.

It would surely attract opprobrium, just like I did from the woodwork teacher, but to win the contest of ideas, the left and the peace movement can't afford to cede national culture entirely to the institutions of state violence. Opposing wars will always be the busiest part of our activism, but we will oppose them more effectively if we are fortified by a real counter-culture of radical ideas and practice.

Democracy Now: Independent media done well

2008-11-05T15:01:00.007Z

Watching some of the coverage of the US election, there are some common themes that the Republicans are using to explain to themselves and others why McCain lost. One is that Obama had a lot more money, but you have to ask why - it wasn't just that he rejected public funding, but that he raised a lot through many relatively small donations. A second theme is the supposed 'liberal' bias of the US media.

The New York Times is often singled out as an example, as well as comedy shows like John Stewart's The Daily Show. The reality, however, is that the US left is rather badly served by the mainstream corporate media, reflecting as it does the fight between two overwhelmingly corporate parties. This is the main reason why the Guardian took off in the US once it went fully online, such that it recently launched Guardian America, a US-focussed sub-site with its own high profile editor.

There are also a variety of independent and left-wing media, though much of this represents comment rather than news, or has a specialist appeal only to self-defined activists (among the best in this category in my opinion is Left Turn, unfortunately unavailable in the UK in print form). The only independent television news, however, is Democracy Now! As it streams online, I've caught it ocassionally before, but watching it now for its election coverage, I have to say how good it is. In depth analysis from the likes of Manning Marable, the leftwing black academic, is exactly what I was looking for today.

Broadcasting rules are different in the US - in the UK radio and television has to be politically balanced - and we certainly don't have the network of hundreds of local public TV stations which is where Democracy Now!'s daily news hour is syndicated. But what Democracy Now! does so well, I think, is to present a professionally-produced news programme that through the issues covered and its choice of pundits appeals to a leftist audience, but also potentially to a casual watcher with at least some interest in politics. To do this it manages to neither assume too much prior knowledge without patronising the more specialist section of its audience.

In other words, it fills the rather large gap between the 'liberal' New York Times and activist publications, and seeks to both serve and influence a large group of broadly progressive people. So I just wanted to say, well done to Amy Goodman and the Democracy Now! team. Even taking into account the different media landscape, those seeking to build independent media in the UK could surely learn some lessons here.

Casino capitalism and change we can believe in

2008-11-03T21:42:00.007Z

As it looks increasingly certain that the US will elect its first black president, so-called Obamamania is reaching apotheosis everywhere from the pages of Facebook to the streets of Kibera, the slum around Nairobi where tshirts bearing the legend “Ndio Tunaweza” (“Yes we can” in Swahili) are making a tidy sum for those selling them.

This has certainly been an historic election, for many reasons. Obama's campaign appears to have turned around the dominance the Republicans have had at the grassroots through their Christian evangelist base, mobilising young liberals as never before. Britain's young liberal lefties have even been getting in on the act, taking time off to go over to the States and take part in the campaign. They're living the West Wing dream as the Bush era of war comes to a crescendo with a financial crisis that looks like being as bad as that of the 1930s.

There's no doubt that the crisis of casino capitalism has helped Obama's campaign. Despite his protestations McCain looks like nothing but Bush with the trimmings changed when it comes to the economy. Obama, on the other hand, has been able to make the right noises as public opinion falls out of love with the free market. (This is happening across the rich world – a poll in Germany found a clear majority in favour of nationalisations and major government intervention, with 40 percent wanting extensive nationalisation.)

Which brings me to a very pertin ent article by the excellent Mike Davis. There's been an argument on the left over how much change Obama really represents, how excited we should get about him, and whether that matters so much as the fact that he's mobilised black communities politically in a way that hasn't happened before (see Red Pepper for one bit of that debate). One theme that's emerged more recently, as the financial crisis hit, has been Obama as a letter day Roosevelt, offering a New Deal to America.

What Davis questions is not so much Obama's intentions, as his ability to offer any such strategy, and the wisdom of using the 1930s as a template for today's crisis. The balance of class forces in America and the world today rather militate against serious government intervention in favour of the millions (as opposed to the millionaires), even if the grassroots momentum that looks likely to get Obama into office can be maintained – and you can rest assured the Democratic party machine will do its best to close it down after the election.

Davis ends without offering any particular solution, but one point is clear. On foreign policy Obama by no means repudiates the American Empire, aiming to get out of the Iraqi disaster but threatening to attack Pakistan in search of Al Qaeda and increase troops in Afghanistan. And whilst at home his agenda is potentially progressive (see Jim at The Daily (Maybe) for one aspect of this), the chances of any progressive outcomes to the financial crisis, in the US or anywhere, depend on social mobilisation.

Don't get me wrong, if the war criminal and his evangelical pitbull fail to get elected tomorrow, I may not be dancing a jig with the over-excited liberals, but I'll certainly breathe a sigh of relief. But unless we resuscitate some meaningful left, in fact anti-capitalist, organisation, the future will still look rather bleak.

An initial response from social movements and some of the more radical NGOs to the financial crisis can be found on the casino crash website – its being called the 'Beijing Declaration' as it was put together at the Asia Europe People's Forum in Beijing in October.
Call time on global greed: Don’t make the world’s poor pay for big business’ crash. Protest as Gordon Brown meets business leaders at the Lord Mayor's dinner. Monday 10th November, 6.15pm, corner of Gresham St and King St, near Guildhall Yard, London.

The poet's eye obscenely seeing

2008-11-01T11:05:00.003Z

This year marks 50 years since the publication of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind, possibly my favourite book of poetry. Ferlinghetti is a poet associated with the beat writers. His bookshop in San Francisco, City Lights, was a hangout for them in the 50s, and still today represents a radical, alternative hub in the city.

I first visited City Lights in late 2002. The outside walls of its building at Columbus and Broadway were hung with banners proclaiming opposition to the imminent war on Iraq. Its shelves feature an extensive literature section, books on radical politics and social sciences, and unsurprisingly a large beat writer collection upstairs. It instantly became, and remains, by favourite bookstore.

Ferlinghetti himself has long been associated with anarchist and anti-authoritarian politics, and more recently has opposed the gentrification of San Francisco. Some of his poems in A Coney Island of the Mind also have a political edge, though this is no didactic tract. Rather it gathers together fragments of America's post-war reality and presents them in critical juxtopostion.

The second part of the book, 'Oral messages', is seven pieces written to accompany jazz. The first, 'I am waiting', in particular recalls for me the later rhythms of Gil Scott-Heron's proto hip-hop.

Anyway, here's an entirely unauthorised reproduction of the third, untitled, poem in the book. A 50th anniversary edition has just been published, which I recommend you buy from your local independent bookshop, or get your library to order or something nice and non-consumerist like that...

The poets eye obscenely seeing
sees the surface of the round world
          with its drunk rooftops
          and wooden oiseaux on clothesliens
          and its clay males and females
          with hot legs and rosebud breasts
          in roll away beds
and its trees full of mysteries
and its Sunday parks and speechless statues
and its America
         with its ghost towns and empty Ellis Islands
and it's surrealist landscape of
                          mindless prairies
                          supermarket suburbs
                          steamheated cemeteries
                          cinerama holy days
                          and protesting cathedrals
a kissproof world of plastic toiletseats tampax and taxis
         drugged store cowboys and las vegas virgins
         disowned indians and cinemad matrons
         unroman senators and conscientious non-objectors
and all other fatal shorn-up fragments
of the immigrant's dream come too true
    and mislaid
               among the sunbathers

Free Gaza boat makes landfall

2008-10-31T10:31:00.002Z

Good news from Gaza for once. The Free Gaza Movement, a US/international activist group, has managed to land another boat filled with humanitarian supplies in the besieged Palestinian territory. The Israeli government sealed Gaza in completely over 16 months ago following a deliberate destruction of its civilian infrastructure similar to that which it attempted to in southern Lebanon. It was already a difficult, dangerous and often humiliating process attempting to get in and out of Gaza for Palestinians, but in 2006 Israel turned it from virtually a prison to an actual prison.

Since then Palestinians have faced a desperate struggle to get essential supplies. A jubilant but brief mass breech of the Gaza-Egypt border helped, but since then Palestinians have relied on smuggling goods through tunnels dug under the border. Forty people have died in these dangerous attempts to survive.

The 'international community' has done nothing for Gazan Palestinians. It refuses to put any real pressure on Israel despite the clear humanitarian implications. To give just one example, the EU could suspend its Association Agreement with Israel, which gives Israeli goods preferential access to European markets, but which has a clause which allows suspension of the agreement in response to human rights concerns.

In this context, the Free Gaza boat is a hugely important symbolic gesture. The supplies its delivering are real, although small compared to the needs of 1½ million Gazans. Israel obviously decided that the negative PR it would get from stopping the boat would be less that it would get from ignoring it, and that its small load would not really affect the blockade. But either outcome is vastly better than if no-one had gone. It says to the world, and to the Palestinians, that we have not forgotten Gaza, and piles on the pressure for change. Congratulations to the Free Gaza Movement.

Towards a diet of only ocassional meat!

2008-10-30T11:30:00.003Z

As a bit of a foodie (or food snob as certain of my colleagues at work would have it, apparently due to the fact that I express opinions about food) I tend to get drawn in to watching cookery shows on television. The fact that most TV chefs are quite annoying tends to act as a countervailing tendency, ensuring I pick and choose rather than watching them all.

A recent new show on BBC 2 is a case in point. 'What to eat now' is a series about eating seasonally – an environmentally important direction we need to go in, and something which I personally try and do. Not that the environment gets mentioned in the programme. The presenter, an infeasibly posh man by the name of Valentine, just tells us eating seasonally is the tastiest way to do it. Well, that's OK, we don't need to be banged over the head with our carbon footprint the whole time, and I'll watch to find out what seasonal stuff I can cook.

So off Val goes to shoot deer on the Isle of Arran, since it is of course the season for venison, and then cooks up a delicious venison pie. Which I'm sure is as scrummy as his audible gasps of delight suggest, but which rather begs the question of how practical this show is for most people.

Like most cookery programmes, of course, 'What to eat now' is more an aspirational show than a practical guide to making better meals. Modern consumer capitalism has ensured that most people don't have either the time or the ability to cook properly, destroying as it does what is an important cultural activity. Cookery shows mollify us instead, providing a spectacle of food preparation in place of the real thing. And for those of us who can and do still cook, they offer up a tantalising prospect of aspirational fulfilment through culinary advancement.

Which is one reason why so much meat is on the menu. Trouble is, we need a lot less meat on our menus. The latest report from the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN), 'Cooking up a storm' recommends a significant reduction in the amount of meat we eat, and dairy products too. These are by far the most carbon intensive parts of our diet, and in the rich world we tend to eat much more than we need. The chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has also made the rather more gimmicky call for everyone to have one meat-free day a week.

For me, that would be a significant increase in meat consumption, but not so for the majority of people in the UK I suspect. That's why we need a change in food culture. I'm not someone who advocates world veganism as a solution to climate change – its not feasible or necessary. The figure that some vegans quote in this regard, that livestock account for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, though it comes from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation is perhaps a little misleading. It includes, for instance, the emissions from clearing the Brazilian rainforest to graze beef cattle, which while a massive problem, could be stopped without really changing how the world eats.

The FCRN estimates the UK figure is more like 8% of our greenhouse gas emissions. While the difference is partly because our emissions from other sectors are so massive this is somewhat lower than 18%. Its still something we have to deal with though, which brings me back to the celebrity chefs. It may be but a small part of the solution, but we (as in the nation, rather than the people reading this blog) need to start to see a meal made entirely from vegetables, grains and pulses as normal and acceptable.

That means, for instance, that Nigel Slater's seasonal vegetable stew doesn't need to include pancetta – he may hold up his hands in horror, but it really doesn't. I'm not arguing for vegetarian cookery shows, as they will only appeal to existing vegetarians, but for mainstream cookery shows (and tie-in books) to start cutting out a big chunk of their meat and some dairy too. Certain celebrity chefs have discovered a zeal for campaigning recently, and mostly that's welcome. Now its time for all of them to step up and help us towards a diet of only occasional meat-eating.

Bolivian democracy under threat

2008-10-02T21:27:00.003+01:00

When Evo Morales was elected President of Bolivia in December 2005, it was a watershed in Bolivian politics. Not only was he the first indigenous President in a country whose political system was monopolised by the wealthy white elite, but his victory was not simply that of a well fought election campaign, but was on the back of the massive growth in social movements in Bolivia. The victories these movements had clocked up included kicking private water company Bechtel out of Cochabamba and taking the water system back into public hands. Those movements, whilst supporting Morales in the main, have not dissolved themselves into his Movement towards Socialism political party, but remained mobilised.

Bolivia is also internationally significant. As an ally of Venezuela's Chavez in particular, at the radical end of the new spectrum of left-leaning governments in Latin America, Morales' role in starting to find alternatives to neoliberalism is crucial. The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, a co-operation agreement between Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Dominica, has seen trade agreements between individual countries in the alliance based not on business interests, but on mutual social benefit. In many ways, Bolivia is at the heart of the hope for the world for those on the left.

Just like in Venezuela though, a shrill wealthy minority have been kicking up a stink. They haven't tried a coup yet, like they did in Venezuela against Chavez, but in the regions where they are concentrated there has been widespread political (and racist) violence. Bolivia's landowners don't want the poor, the indigenous to reclaim Bolivia, and the USA agrees. USAID, the United States' overseas development organisation has been pouring money into the coffers of the opposition. It spent $89 million in Bolivia in 2007, a massive amount considering Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, but it won't disclose what on.

There's lots more to be said about this and two places to read more are the open letter to the US State Department written by US activists, and analysis from Jim Shultz at the Democracy Center. But its also time we did something to defend one of the most progressive governments in the world. There was a protest at the US embassy in London the other week, but we need to step up our efforts. WDM's online action is a start, not least because the silence of our own government has been deafening. Bolivia is a beacon to the world; let's ensure it is defended.

And finally... some cheesewash

2008-09-30T20:39:00.003+01:00

The amusingly named British Cheese Board is claiming a new study has laid to rest the "age old myth that cheese gives you nightmares". Now experience tells me that's not true, and after reading the rest of their press release, I'm starting to think this is just the line that the Cheese Board's PR team are spinning on a study that shows nothing of the sort.

Firstly, the study got participants to eat 20 grams of cheese half an hour before bed. 20 grams? That's barely a morsel, let alone the kind of cheese-and-biscuits feast we normally associate with cheese dreams.

Even more damningly, the central finding of the report is that cheese affects your dreams, and differently depending on the cheese you eat. Cheddar makes you dream about celebrities, apparently, while stilton gives you unusual dreams. I can't say I've ever had a dream about celebrities after eating cheddar, but I have had unusual dreams after eating stilton or similarly mould-ridden cheeses. And surely you only need to be a bit stressed into the bargain, and 'unusual' stilton dreams (or indeed celebrity focused cheddar dreams) become disturbing ones?

The study records that 'highlights' of the Stilton dreams included "talking soft toys, ...a vegetarian crocodile upset because it could not eat children, dinner party guests being traded for camels". And these are supposed to be nice dreams? Pull the other one Cheese Board!

They end their press release by pondering the origins of the cheese causing nightmares 'myth'. Could it be Dicken's A Christmas Carol or a Fifties health scare, they wonder. How about it being down to the fact that eating cheese before bed does cause nightmares.

End the cheesewash now!

The visit to the museum

2008-09-28T22:57:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I went to the Museum in Docklands. Its housed in a beautiful old wharf building in West India Quay which was originally built to house sugar brought back from the plantations in the West Indies. Ships sailed from here carrying manufactured produce which was traded for enslaved Africans in west Africa. These people were then shipped across the Atlantic in horrendous conditions (around a third died on the journey) where they were forced to work in sugar plantations. The same ships brought the sugar, molasses and rum back to London.

Its particularly appropriate, then, that a decent section of the permenent exhibition of the museum is about this trade. 'London, sugar and slavery' actually has some of the best exhibits in the museum and tells the tale in an engaging way. We often hear William Wilberforce eulogised as the father of abolition, so it was good to learn that it was only after there had been an influx of women into the movement that the Anti-Slavery Society changed its objectives to the immediate abolition of slavery. Wilberforce didn't think enslaved Africans were ready for freedom straight away, and in 1823 sabotaged an abolition bill presented to the House of Commons by the more radical Thomas Fowell Buxton.

Although I knew about Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Hatian revolution, a slave rebellion which defeated the French colonial forces and founded the free black state of Haiti, I didn't know that there were also armed rebellions against the British. The 'Maroons' formed a kind of guerilla army and fought British colonial forces in Jamaica. The museum also highlights, as CLR James did, that when slavery was abolished it was at least partly because some economists were starting to argue that free labour was a more efficient way of developing British capitalism.

The rest of the museum also contains some fascinating history focused on the Docklands area. Being a modern kind of museum, it is replete with reconstructions, interative screens and scale models, most of which work quite well. There's a moment near the beginning when its possible to hear three different recordings of Tony Robinson being annoyingly excited about the early history of London simultaneously, but thankfully this doesn't last past the first section. Further on you can investigate the 1889 London Dock strike or find out the origins of Lloyds insurance.

Unlike some London museums, this one isn't free, but your £5 will get you a year's entry. There's enough in the museum to make this worthwhile, and if you've never been to the Docklands its worth seeing this bizarre area of London. To get there we took a commuter catamaran from Embankment to Canary Wharf Pier which I can also recommend.

Unemployment up, smoothie consumption down

2008-09-24T18:56:00.004+01:00

So innocent smoothies are the latest casualties of the almost-recession, along with high-end supermarkets and organic food. There has, apparently, been a demographic shift towards Morrissons and Cadbury’s Roses (other brands of poor-quality chocolates are available, as the BBC might say).

But of course there’s something else that’s on the rise – unemployment. The more Keynesian-minded economists have been demanding that the Bank of England lowers interest rates, which will allow businesses to borrow, maintaining economic growth and tackling unemployment. The orthodox economists have been resisting this since, high interest rates have been seen as a good way to tackle inflation which is their over-riding concern.

So why am I recounting the arguments currently being had on the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee? I’ve never been much of an economist, but sometimes you have to make an effort, and a global financial crisis seems like a good time.

For 30 years, neoliberal economics have been the order of the day, a mantra of economic growth through deregulation, privatisation and low corporate taxes. Financial deregulation has been a big part of the recipe, the same financial deregulation that politicians are now rushing to condemn. Gordon Brown, though he said in his speech to Labour Party conference that “those who argue for the dogma of unbridled free market forces have been proved wrong again”, ensured during his 10 years as Chancellor that Britain remained second only to the US in the world in enthusiasm for neoliberalism.

He’s already rejected modest measures like a windfall tax on oil profits and nothing in his speech suggested he would do anything except slightly increase regulation of multinational banks (which didn’t stop the buffoon who jointly leads my union, Derek Simpson, from getting rather excited about him). Brown talks about an ‘interventionist state’, but only seems to apply the idea when it comes to the state intervening to lock people up for 42 days without charge. Unfortunately, both the Tories and Liberal Democrats are neoliberal parties too.

Thankfully, there are beginning to be alternatives on offer. The Green New Deal group, including Guardian economics editor Larry Elliot, the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas and the new economics foundation (who insist their name is spelt with lower case letters to prove how cool and progressive they are) have taken as their inspiration Roosevelt’s New Deal in 30s America to argue for government spending on climate friendly infrastructure, the break-up of big banks which need to be expensively bailed out because they are “too big to fail” and lower interest rates (hey! there’s my link back to the beginning of the post!).

This is a modest but important start to breaking the neoliberal monolith. It won’t get very far, however, if intellectuals are the only people who are mobilised. Some kind of wider social mobilisation is necessary to get opposition to neoliberalism off the ground (which is why the continued loyalty to Labour of the major trade unions is particularly disappointing).

Of course, with rocketing consumption a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions, one could argue that a recession is actually a useful first step to a sustainable society. The the poorest would be hardest hit, though, and the global elite’s consumption barely touched. Plus the call for recession isn’t much of a rallying cry either.

What’s needed, then, is a popular movement around the kind of concrete demands of the Green New Deal which can do two things. The government intervention achieved can help make our society more sustainable, decrease the power of big business and reduce the obsession with ‘the market’. The mobilisation itself, meanwhile, could create the kind of social solidarity that lays the basis to go beyond a society reliant on ever-increasing economic growth. In other words, another world starts to be possible.

Hmm, I can hope anyway...

Read this!

2008-09-22T19:32:00.005+01:00

There's been some great lefty books written recently and I thought I would share three of them that I've read in the last year and enjoyed.

The first of these is Live Working, Die Fighting by Newsnight economics editor Paul Mason. This is a fascinating book. Paul tells the history of the early labour movement through particular episodes such as the Peterloo massacre to the Jewish workers union (the Bund) in pre-war Poland. As a journalist he clearly understands how not to bore people to death, but unlike most journalists he actually sets out to educate rather than recapitulate old truisms.

One of the ways he does this is to draw parallels with events in the early labour movement, and the struggles of workers in today's global South. These parallels serve to illustrate problems of organising for workers rights and social change that echo down the ages - like whether co-operatives are the basis of a different society or a diversion from more important aims.

Refreshingly, Paul comes at his subject with no obvious agenda, though I'd guess that if his book managed to educate today's global justice activists about the importance of workers' struggles whilst reminding trade unionists of their radical roots, he'd be satisfied.

My second book is The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Her central thesis is that since the Latin American dictatorships of the 1970s, extreme free market ideologues have sought to use a period of societal 'shock' to rapidly impose free market reforms which would have met massive opposition at other times. In the main I find this persuasive, and even if she's over-egged the pudding in places this is a fine exposition of just how nasty neoliberals (and their corresponding 'ism') are which old-hand lefties may know, but a new generation needs to learn.

And to give her her due, there are big bits of this book which she completely pioneered the examination of in newspaper articles during the last few years - the 'corporate invasion' of Iraq for instance, and what she calls 'disaster capitalism' in the wake of natural disasters. For this reason, the last chapters are some of the best (the book is organised chronologically) so even if you're finding the book a little too long, do persevere.

Finally, complete with a recommendation from Naomi Klein, is Raj Patel's Stuffed and Starved. The politics of food is a hot topic at the moment, what with the food crisis, the rise of organic agriculture and climate change. When better, then, to read a backgrounder to the world food system written for a popular audience? I was reminded of Fast Food Nation at points, though with more anti-capitalism. Plus its got bits about movements of resistance to the corporate capture of our food so its not all doom and gloom.

I'd be interested to hear what other people think of these (in other words 'hello, is anyone actually reading this?')

The physical impossibility of artistic talent in the mind of Damien Hirst

2008-09-14T21:43:00.003+01:00

I've never liked Damien Hirst. His art always seemed a triumph of hype over artistic value. Cutting animals in half reveals no truths, conveys neither beauty nor horror, but simply creates a spectacle for consumption by the art market.

It was only when he encrusted a skull with diamonds that I really began to loathe him, though. Here was a work of art that was a celebration of the fact the artist could cover a skull with precious stones and some prick would buy it for £50 million. Hirst virtually said as much in the Newsnight Review special he appeared on, as Kirsty Wark fawned over him. Hirst claimed the diamonds were 'ethically sourced', though gave no details. Even if they were all certified through the Kimberly Process, that only excludes so-called 'blood diamonds' - they would still have been produced by notoriously exploitative mining industry.

£50 million isn't, of course, the most that anyone has ever paid for an art work, but by producing such a self-consciously expensive work, Hirst gave a metaphorical slap in the face to every person in the world who struggles to make enough money to eat - some of whom may well have dug the diamonds themselves from the ground.

Anyway, the auction of his latest work, a pickled calf with gold decoration, has prompted art historian Robert Hughes (author of 'The Shock of the New', a definitive account of modernism in art) into a public attack on his work, calling it absurd and tacky. Entertaining reading, and not before time.

Climate change and market madness

2008-09-14T20:05:00.004+01:00

On Friday the Guardian reported that many of Britain's most polluting companies will reap hundreds if millions of pounds from a scheme which is supposed to cut carbon emissions. The European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is the only large scale carbon trading scheme currently in existence. For those who are a bit hazy about what carbon trading is, here's an explanation from WDM [pdf]:

"The idea is that reductions in carbon emissions are easier and cheaper for some businesses to make than others. By issuing emissions permits each year, which are gradually reduced over time, but which can also be bought and sold, governments can in theory achieve an overall reduction in carbon emissions at the lowest possible cost to the economy."

The ETS currently covers large industrial emitters like factories and power stations, and there are plans to include airlines in a few years time. One of the loopholes in the ETS brought about by corporate lobbying is the widespread over-allocation of emissions permits. According to the Guardian, one company, Castle Cement, stands to make £83.5m over five years thanks to over-allocation.

The whole notion of carbon trading is based on the belief that the market is the best vehicle for delivering any goal. Thanks to the dominance of neoliberalism amongst global elites for the last 30 years, regulation is just not considered possible. It might, after all, effect the continued growth of the economy.

This kow-towing to corporate interests has been too readily accepted by the environmental movement. While some groups simply have no critique of corporate power (let alone capitalism), others do, but believe that climate change is so urgent and so dangerous that we have to accept whatever is on offer. This latest revelation is yet more evidence that market mechanisms increase the wealth and power of corporations which have been largely responsible for the climate crisis in the first place. Add in the fact that in the first two years of the ETS' existence (2005-7), carbon emissions in the EU continued to increase, and the global elite's response to climate change starts to look similar to E.ON's response to high fuel prices and the prospect of a cold winter: "More money for us".

I was in a conference in Bangkok earlier this year which brought together people from social movements and radical NGOs to talk about 'climate justice', an approach which entails a direct challenge to the corporate capture of the climate change issue. With a coming global recession, high fuel prices and the reality (not just the threat) of climate change now facing us, it ought to be possible to put rolling back neoliberalism back on the agenda. The first step is for more organisations to have the guts to talk about.

Fashionably late

2008-09-14T16:10:00.002+01:00

So I'm coming a little late to the whole blogging thing. I have friends who have already started, maintained and eventually abandoned their blogs. This was one good reason not to start one, I thought. I was also concerned that having a blog would result in my spending too much time on the internet and not enough doing things I enjoy (or things I ought to be doing) in the real world.

Now Facebook has revealed to me the fact that I already spend too much time on the internet, so I figured, what the hell. Especially as lots of other people evidently do too, and some of them might read my blog. This deals nicely with another concern: that no-one would read my blog anyway, thus rendering it a waste of time. It could still be a waste of time even if people read it of course, but I'd never do anything with that kind of thinking...

I think Facebook has had another effect too - its now quite normal for us to share things with a smallish group of people we count in some way as our friends. Seen in that light, a blog need not seem like such a grandiose undertaking. I'll give it a try, anyway, and if it turns out to be a bit shit, I'll just delete it.