Weekly Worker 616 Thursday March 16 2006 Subscribe to the Weekly Worker

Letters

Do you read me?

Darius Dunker criticises me for not reading the Aachener Appell properly (Letters, March 9), but I fear that the comrade is guilty of the same fault in relation to my article. I did not claim that Linksruck (the Socialist Workers Party’s German section) wrote the Aachener Appell: rather that it “is supporting the Aachener Appell” (Weekly Worker December 8 2005). The appeal was - for a while - prominently displayed on the Linksruck website and a number of Linksruck members have signed it.

Quite clearly, the Aachener Appell was drawn up in opposition and as a reaction to the Berliner Appell. The latter demands that, “for a joint candidature [of the Linkspartei.PDS and the WASG in Berlin], the Linkspartei.PDS must initiate a fundamental political change, break with the neoliberal politics of the senate in Berlin and consequently - because the SPD will not allow this - end its participation in the government of Berlin”.

One of the first people to sign the Aachener Appell included this little message: “This is a sensible counterweight to the Berliner Appell, which does not consider the national impact of our project and wants to close doors rather than influence political developments” (http://projekt.neue-linke.info).

It is to be welcomed that the “writers of the Aachener Appell now stand in solidarity with the Berlin WASG”, as comrade Dunker states. However, some of the signatories certainly do not. Linskruck, for example, is still involved in a signature campaign for a joint candidature in Berlin, obviously not accepting the decision of the Berlin members.

Linksruck comrades are also supporting the undemocratic campaign by the WASG leadership to force through a national membership ballot on the merger between both parties - which the leadership aims to complete before the members get the chance of a full and frank debate at the April party conference.

The ballot will ask members if they support the Kooperationsabkommen III (the third cooperation agreement between the leaderships of WASG and Linkspartei.PDS), which implicitly sanctions government participation. It also rules out the possibility of WASG and Linkspartei.PDS candidates standing against each other and would therefore overrule the decisions of the WASG in Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and others.

Tina Becker
London

Spitting image

Reading Mary Godwin’s article on the history of International Women’s Day, it struck me that it could have been cut and pasted straight from a dirge composed by Lindsey German (Weekly Worker March 2).

You may have many criticisms of the SWP, but when it comes to feminism the CPGB is a spitting image. Looks may indeed be deceptive, but analysing the content of comrade Godwin’s piece exposes the myths, political dishonesty and blunders that surround the CPGB’s interpretation of feminism.

Godwin spends much of her time criticising bourgeois feminism but gets into a tangle when trying to explain other forms of feminism. It may have helped the CPGB to understand the historical complexities of feminism if it had been involved in women’s campaigns and been able to engage in a dialogue - not simply sniping from the sidelines and talking about something it is ill-equipped to understand.

Godwin throws the tired old argument of sectionalism at feminism. She generously devotes a couple of sentences to radical and socialist feminism, but in a distorted way. If Godwin had bothered to involve herself in any kind of socialist-feminist activity then she would have known that we were not just “fighting for women’s sections in the trade union movement and Labour Party” and, anyway, is that such a bad idea? Also the argument that feminism “preached division” is an attack on autonomy. Yes, many radical feminists argued for separatism but that should not be confused with autonomy.

Why the constant attack on feminism? Because it just does not fit the CPGB’s schema. I find the arrogance of Godwin and the CPGB astounding, especially considering the impact these campaigns had on the class struggle and shifts in public opinion. To state that feminism has “run into many and various dead ends” is laughable and hypocritical, especially considering democratic-centralist-obsessed organisations have led many comrades into political dead ends.

Godwin quotes Kollontai, Zetkin, Engels and Lenin regarding women’s liberation but then she leaves it at that and therefore includes no contemporary analysis. I believe that what was written by these communist thinkers can be used as a foundation and more contemporary feminist writings on various subjects can develop this analysis. Feminists have written extensively on issues such as domestic violence, equal pay, the politics of the family, reproductive rights and so on, while many on the revolutionary left have been silent in many of these areas.

Feminism, whether the CPGB likes it or not, has had an impact on society. It has probably had an even greater impact on shifting ideas about the position of women than revolutionary left organisations on the margins. Instead of hostility, groups such as the CPGB should be working alongside feminists to liberate women.

Louise Whittle
email

British tint

To be attacked by Nick Rogers for being a left nationalist and Sandy McBurney for being a social democrat in the same issue of your paper is fame indeed, but your readers might be confused. Can both of your writers be correct? (Weekly Worker March 9).

The answer is that they are both wrong and it comes from writing their reports from the recent Scottish Socialist Party conference through British-socialist-tinted glasses. For the record, I am neither a left nationalist nor a social democrat. When as an MEP I was expelled from the Labour Party for my attacks on Tony Blair, I was offered membership of the Scottish National Party and the prospect of retaining my seat in the European parliament. I refused and instead returned to Scotland and helped form the SSP, becoming its first chair and its unpaid press officer for five years. Hardly the sign of a left nationalist or a social democrat.

What I am (in common with the vast majority of members of the SSP) is a socialist who sees the immediate way forward as an independent socialist republic in Scotland as a step towards European and world socialism. Now Nick and Sandy disagree with this majority position - fine, that is their right and I regularly defend their right to hold that view and express it publicly. The SSP still has to expel any member and has a good record of protecting minority rights - one reason it has stayed together despite some difficult times recently.

If Sandy and Nick removed their British-tinted specs then their reports on the conference would be rather better. As it is, they commit an offence, often repeated in the Weekly Worker, of writing a set of opinions masquerading as a news report.

Hugh Kerr
SSP

Lip service

Peter Manson manages to spectacularly miss the point in his reply to my letter correcting his false accusation that Hizb ut-Tahrir was responsible for murderous slogans about ‘beheading’ and threatening more terrorist attacks during the February 3 protest against the Danish cartoons in London (Letters, March 9)

Peter beats his breast about his failure to check his sources before going into print - but the real question is why did he and the CPGB accept this disinformation as likely to be accurate in the first place?

This is fundamentally a question of ideology and conceptions about muslims, not about the technical aspect of ‘checking details’. If some newspaper reported that the CPGB had held a demonstration, for example, hailing September 11 2001 as a ‘great blow against imperialism’, I would not simply repeat this without getting confirmation ‘from the horse’s mouth’ because it would be a fantastic allegation and unbelievable.

If Peter (and, more to the point, the CPGB editorial collective as a whole) were not predisposed to believe that Hizb ut-Tahrir are crude, bloodthirsty, violent fanatics, then they would have been very sceptical of The Daily Telegraph’s mendacious account of who was responsible for this incident. Hizb ut-Tahrir is a dogmatic, austere political-religious sect - but they are not terrorists. Indeed, they condemned the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 and July 7 2005. Their views are also hardly inaccessible. Therefore this allegation, which Peter based his entire polemic around, was believable only to the ignorant or prejudiced.

The fact that Peter sees nothing racist in the Danish cartoons, which imply that all muslims are terrorists, also says a lot about how the CPGB think on these questions - a massive political blind spot.

The Daily Telegraph is a virulently islamophobic source. The fact that Peter effectively admits to lifting this disinformation straight from this tainted source without carefully checking it speaks volumes about the islamophobic ideological blinkers that the CPGB’s leadership wears. I note it is not the first time the CPGB has echoed the fulminations of this newspaper over things and people associated with muslims and the Middle East - witness the Weekly Worker’s dreadful initial stance over the Telegraph’s anti-Galloway smears in 2003.

Irrespective of the fact that the CPGB occasionally pays lip service to the need to combat islamophobia, concrete actions speak louder than words.

Ian Donovan
South London

Bottle stopper

In reply to Tom May I can only say that alcohol in any quantity endangers health (Letters, March 9). I was a beer drinker for more than 40 years and it did not stop me suffering a major heart attack. Alcohol was also a major factor in the premature deaths of some of my comrades. I note that Westminster council has now stopped shopkeepers selling super-strength lager and cider. Such products have killed more people than heroin and cocaine.

Drivers who double-park should not be shot, although, considering some of the dangerous idiots on the road, I am tempted. But they should be shown films of what car accidents can do to people.

In capitalist society subtle advertising seduces people into dangerous pastimes. The bottles and hand pumps do not say, ‘Drink this and you’ll end up with a sour gut and a blinding headache at the very least’. We need a society where people see themselves as part of a greater whole and behave accordingly.

Sadly, there are some who do not act like adults. They behave like spoiled kids and in so doing endanger the well-being of others. An ounce of persuasion is better than a pound of compulsion. But, where this fails, coercion is needed. In a socialist world until the process whereby the state abolishes itself is complete, the workers’ state will remain a coercive force. People may choose to commit suicide by poison or by knife. But the aim is to stop them killing themselves at all.

In the Labour Leader of July 15 1895 Keir Hardie wrote: “... the man who can take a glass or leave it alone is under moral obligation, for the sake of the weaker brother who cannot do so, to let it alone.” He continued: “... each member of the party will ... consider whether his duty to the movement does not demand that he too shall give up his personal indulgence.”

If socialists followed Keir Hardie’s advice, not only would they feel better and provide a good example for their fellow wage-slaves, but the Weekly Worker and other good causes could benefit from the money saved.

Terry Liddle
Eltham

Draw the line

When at last I scraped through my exams and was turned loose to practise medicine upon the world, they handed me a little red book that warned of the pitfalls of a doctor’s life. Abortion and alcohol headed the list, although association with alternative therapists and adultery were close runners-up.

Reading your recent correspondence on alcohol and abortion tells me that the ‘As’ are still going strong. Although not fundamental issues, they do get in the way of revolutionary comradeship.

My credentials for adding to a discussion that may have already lasted too long are many hours in the gynaecology operating theatre and many visits to the police drunk tank. These may not have made me a better man, but they did make me an informed man.

The language of Liz Hoskings is unpleasant. But so is a third-trimester abortion. The unborn child is already able to take a first breath, so to avoid the embarrassment of gasping premature babies the operator kills them in advance by injecting the mother with ergometrine. This also reduces bleeding when the womb is cut open. There is no reason for third-trimester abortions, because obstetricians can now detect foetal deformities before the end of the second trimester.

It has been argued that unborn foetuses are not truly human because they are not yet part of society. We now know that the third-trimester foetus has an active brain and ears, and that the movements are not random, but responses to outside sounds. Comrades, why do we not draw a line at 24 weeks? This pragmatic solution has the virtue of annoying both kinds of extremists. It is also practical, because we cannot stop people doing vaginal abortions at earlier stages with simple instruments, but we can regulate hospital operations.

The right-to-life crowd often have the ulterior motive of taking proletarian babies for adoption by bourgeois couples. Shouldn’t a communist newspaper link its support for abortion on demand with another kind of demand - for an entitled child allowance substantial enough to allow unsupported mothers a real choice?

On to alcohol and a Canadian viewpoint. Comrade May is bang on target with his enzymes. The evolution of brain tolerance of alcohol goes hand in hand with the evolution of starch and sugar tolerance. A teetotal prairie farmer may carry an alcohol level, from the breakdown of bread within his body, which would impair his venison-fed neighbour on an Indian reservation.

Revolutionary pride is the best remedy against drunkenness.

John Blakiston
Canada

Travel guide

Len Trotter, in his reply to ‘A Capitalist’, surely misses a vital point: some societies do work better than others (Letters, March 9).

‘Official’ communist states tend to have the following in common: repression of free speech; abolition of the right to free assembly; and, eventually, economic collapse or decline.

While these have taken place in capitalist states at odd times, they remain a built-in feature of state-socialist societies. Take Cuba’s violation of human rights as an example. When capitalist states have become totalitarian - for example, Chile - it has been for a short time and then given way to democracy again.

I have visited the Czech Republic on five occasions since the mid-1990s. Each year further away from communism sees improvements in the streets of Prague. Having visited Yugoslavia during its communist years, I can assure you that the results were not pleasant to look at.

And why are travel guides I meet in Prague and Budapest always moaning about communism? Because of the way they looked at communist society? Because they selected the wrong criteria to judge communism? I don’t think so.

The best option is to accept the capitalism of the social-democratic Nordic countries. It combines an efficient economy with social security. Or is it simply the way I am looking at Norway, Sweden and Denmark? Perhaps Stalinism actually works in some sense?

Repossessed

It is a feature of capitalist society that private house-builders will never be able to build enough housing for those on low incomes. With the lack of affordable social housing, communists should call for a programme of council house building. We should also demand an end to tenants’ so-called ‘right to buy’ their council house.

Tony Blair won the 2001 and 2005 general elections on the basis of an economy kept afloat by a huge expansion of credit card and mortgage debt. When the debt bubble bursts, house repossessions will soar and the demand for council housing will grow accordingly.

We should not forget the history of post-war social democracy. One of the reasons that the Tories won the 1955 general election was because they promised to build 100,000 more council houses each year than the Labour Party.

John Smithee
Cambridgeshire

Sack him

Students at Leeds University are calling a rally demanding that lecturer Frank Ellis is sacked.

Frank Ellis has argued that black people have genetically lower intelligence than white people and has described how he feels compelled to “take a stand” against “homosexuals”. He is connected to the white supremacist organisation, American Renaissance, and has spoken alongside fascists.

He is clearly in breech of the university’s requirement that individual staff members “seek actively to promote equality of opportunity for others and strive to create an environment in which academic goals may be pursued without fear or intimidation” and its responsibility under the Race Relations Amendment Act to “to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups”.

We are proud of our multicultural campus community and the diverse city in which we live. The views attributed to Frank Ellis in recent issues of Leeds Student and various media have caused serious concern among students as members of the campus community. Leeds University Union will continue to fight racism on campus and in the wider community.

Erin Mc Feely
Leeds University Union

United we stand

Six Pakistani left parties and groups have united to form Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (AJT - People’s Democratic Movement).

The leaders of AJT met for four hours to discuss the final programme, strategy and organisation before announcing the new formation to a press conference on March 12. The parties involved are the National Workers Party; the Labour Party Pakistan; Awami Tehreek; the Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party; Pakistan Mazdoor Mehaz; and the Meraj Mohammed Khan group. A 12-member convening committee has been formed, with two members from each of the groups.

AJT has announced a plan of action to oppose growing militarisation and the grip of imperialism and religious fundamentalism in Pakistan. AJT will help to strengthen workers’ and peasants’ organisations, and special attention will be given to the issues of women and minorities.

The next meeting of the convening committee will take place in Karachi on April 21 to discuss the final programme and entry of other left groups and individuals.

Farooq Tariq
Lahore

‘Plot’ shot

Zimbabwean government allegations that I am involved in a coup are downright delusional.

I have never been involved with the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement, as they claim. Once, in 2003, I was asked by Zimbabwean activists to distribute a ZFM launch press communiqué and video recording in the UK. That was the start and finish of my connection with them.

Mugabe’s henchmen claim I was involved in opening a bank account in Mozambique to finance the overthrow of the Zimbabwean government. This is a joke. I cannot raise enough money to staff an office for my own human rights work, let alone fund an insurrection. The idea that I am bankrolling a coup is laughable.

The liberation of Zimbabwe is a matter for the people of that country. I support their struggle for democracy, social justice and human rights, but I am not part of that struggle.

When the ZFM announced its existence in November 2003, the Mugabe government dismissed it as a hoax and said no such movement exists. Now, when it is politically expedient, the Zimbabwean regime suddenly claims the ZFM does exist and is planning to overthrow the government. Mugabe cannot have it both ways.

The coup plot allegations are obviously a ploy to discredit the opposition and to pave the way for further repression of the Zimbabwean people. The government is trying to link the ZFM with the Movement for Democratic Change. It is no coincidence that all this hype about a supposed insurrection comes just weeks before the MDC congress. It is patently a crude bid to justify a crackdown on the MDC.

Peter Tatchell
Outrage

Italian wishes

I have been reading your paper for a year. I am a young member of the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (PRC) in Italy and want to give you all my best wishes for your political activity.

It is very important to build a big Marxist party in order to unite all the forces of the left. I am very happy that the CPGB is working for our class.

Matteo Portoghese
Cagliari

Class act

We are researching communism and the cold war as part of our GCSE history course and we thought that your piece about Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a really good article (‘Creation of Armageddon’, August 4 2005).

Caroline and Jenny Higgins
email

Anti-war cry

With another Stop the War demonstration approaching, can I take this opportunity to let people know of an organisation called School Students Against War.

If there are any school student readers who wish to act against the occupation of Iraq please go to www.ssaw.co.uk. We have regular events and would love to see more people get involved.

Simon Byrne
SSAW joint convenor

Print this page