Letters
Afghan criminals
The medieval Taliban have been shredded to pieces in a few days of bombing by United States forces who until a couple of years ago were "engaged' with them. This ignominious end is despite all the Taliban's nauseating lying and bragging, and the bombastic fatwas of Mullah Omar and Osama to carry on their jihad to the very end.
This is the result of the sheer disgust and revulsion the Taliban were so successful in garnering from inside Afghanistan and around the world. The Taliban, like their loathsome Golboddini brethren of the Hezb-e-Islami before them, saw it was so convenient - at the end of their shameful careers - to shave off beards and whiskers, throw away their turbans, drop their baggy pants, and scatter away like mice for dear life. This is the ultimate fate of all executioners in history who tyrannise a people under the guise of religion, traditions and ethnicity.
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (Rawa) this year fervently hoped to be able to celebrate International Human Rights Day inside Afghanistan. But the re-emergence of the Northern Alliance criminals in different parts of our country, dangling as they are from American bayonets, crushed all such hopes.
The people of the world need to know the Northern Alliance criminals. These are the very people who declared democracy and elections to be blasphemous, heretical concepts. These are the very people who immediately, upon usurping power after the bursting of the bubble of the puppet Najib regime, and prior to any vitally pressing action in regard to the restoration of peace and well-being of the scourged people of Afghanistan, targeted their pious wrath against women and in a joint declaration of all allied jihadi parties proclaimed - amongst other sordid restrictions - the compulsory veiling of all women.
Due to the presence of incorrigible fundamentalists at the talks in Bonn - especially the arch-criminal Homayoun Jarir, whose master Golbodin recently shifted his allegiance to the Taliban - Rawa from the outset regarded the Bonn gathering with mistrust. The composition of the interim government which includes jihadi vampires and two women, one of them a leader of the mercenary criminal Hezb-i-Wahdat party and the other a known Parchami traitor, has proven that very unfortunately the United Nations has failed in aiding our people get rid of the rancid remains of the Northern Alliance hell hounds. The United Nations needs to know that even if all the cabinet posts of a government for Afghanistan were to be filled with such women, they can never be regarded as emblems of freedom and deliverance from oppression for Afghan women.
Rawa once again serves warning to the United Nations and the world community that any delay in despatching UN peace-keeping forces to Afghanistan will in effect be leaving the way open for inevitable bloodbaths and repetition of the unparalleled horrors and atrocities of the 1992-96 years. The current dog-fighting between Dostum and Hezb-i-Wahdat gangs will not remain restricted to Mazar-i-Sharif. If the United Nations is sincerely concerned in regard to the independence, unity and democratisation of Afghanistan it must under no name or pretext continue its support to the Northern Alliance and swiftly and unequivocally condemn and punish any country which tries to supply funds and arms to these murderers. It will only be then that a government devoid of terrorist-fundamentalist contamination and based on democratic values can be set up in Afghanistan, succeed in restoring peace and stability to this blighted land and address the challenge of its rehabilitation in earnest.
The mere end of the forced misery and humiliation of the burqa is in no way an indication of attainment of women's rights and liberties. The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, as the only feminist anti-fundamentalist organisation in Afghanistan, believes that only with the establishment of a secular and democratic government in Afghanistan will Afghan women be able to unburden the dead weight of centuries of oppression and stand their full stature on a par with men.
Afghan criminals
SSP and Maclean
If the intention of the editor of the Weekly Worker is to help CPGB supporters make enemies and irritate people (the wrong people), paving the way for our expulsion from the Scottish Socialist Party, then he can feel justly proud of himself. If that is his agenda, then printing James Mallory's article was an inspired decision (Weekly Worker December 13). If, on the other hand, he has the best interests of the party at heart, then he might want to check out a few facts before releasing any more such counterproductive, ill considered sectarianism in the name of the party into the outside world.
Evidently there are one or two gaps in James's knowledge of Scottish Socialist Voice journalists. Clearly, he has chosen to fill in the missing pieces by making guesses that are anything but educated. His hatchet job on Dave Sherry's article on John Maclean (SSV November 30) amply illustrates the depths of his ignorance. Without any justification, James leapt to the conclusion that one or both of the articles on Maclean in the centre pages of that issue of the Voice was a collaboration between Dave Sherry and Gerry Cairns. It is, though, reasonable to conclude that the major piece, "A working class hero', was penned by Dave, while the other, "John Maclean and the war', was a Cairns production. Perhaps if he knew something (anything) about the politics of these two SSP members, he would be less inclined to place them both into a single, all-embracing "left nationalist' category. Possibly I can be of some assistance here.
For the uninitiated, Dave is a member of the Socialist Worker platform and has been a member of its predecessors since the early 1970s, if not the late 60s. He was coopted onto the SSV editorial board as part of the deal that brought SWP members into the SSP. Comrade Cairns has a somewhat different political lineage. He is a member of the ultra-nationalist Scottish Republican Socialist Movement. Furthermore, his was the solitary articulate voice that spoke at the SSP Glasgow aggregate in opposition to the deal reached by the executive and the Socialist Workers Party on their terms for entry into our party.
CPGB supporters in Scotland will make absolutely no headway in breaking down deep-seated prejudices against the Weekly Worker unless our paper carries articles that accurately, and in some detail, summarise the differences amongst SSP comrades, giving credit where it is due. None of the members of the major factions, nor the many unaligned comrades, will read the Weekly Worker, or listen to its supporters, if it is seen as repeatedly misrepresenting comrades' real politics.
That is why I have a question for James Mallory. Precisely what was the purpose of constructing a straw man caricature of Dave Sherry, of denouncing this representative of the SW platform on the SSV editorial board for agreeing with John Maclean's decision not to join the CPGB? Nothing in Dave's article could have given James the impression that he agreed with Maclean rather than with Lenin. Again, Dave is denounced as a devious nationalist twister of the truth for suggesting that Maclean did not join the CPGB for reasons connected with Scottish nationalism, rather than with his suspicions about leading CPGB members, and his opposition to affiliation to the Labour Party, and supporting it "like the rope supports the hanged man". Nowhere does Dave argue this, nor does he believe it.
Because Dave did not explicitly state that he supports James's own analysis of Maclean's politics vis-à -vis the CPGB (which in all essentials he does), James drew entirely the wrong conclusions. And even if the omission of some of these arguments tells us something, precisely what does it tell us? Possibly Dave could be criticised for diplomatically censoring himself in order not to embarrass other leading SSP members. On the other hand, it is equally possible that the editor wielded his scalpel. Who can say?
Either way, I think Dave should be congratulated for getting into his article the following: Maclean strove for world revolution, and "he was a giant who worked tirelessly to connect internationalism with the real movement of workers" and he "came to understand that socialism could only be achieved through workers' power and revolution". These words featured in a major article in the paper of a party that has an elected member of parliament: that is no mean achievement. Celebrate it, James!
SSP and Maclean
SSP and Maclean
WSA party
In an otherwise fairly accurate report of events that took place at the Welsh Socialist Alliance national council meeting of December 9 comrade Cameron Richards quotes me as stating that the Socialist Party's leaving of the SA conference had been "disgusting". Such words were never uttered by me - what I said was that the SP's actions had been "disappointing".
However, I also went on to state that whilst I didn't agree with their actions I could understand their concern about the model constitution adopted at the conference. In my opinion the SP, which is one of the few organisations on the left that has real roots the working class, should have stayed in the SA and argued and tried to win people to their position. After all, they fought and argued their position in the Labour Party for years, so another year in the SA is really nothing.
Cameron is correct to state that I went on to outline how such a constitution had little relevance for the WSA at the present time, given its small forces compared with our English counterparts, and that the SWP should withdraw their proposal for the sake of left unity. Fortunately this looks like it will now happen but it doesn't hide the fact that the WSA has some very serious questions to determine if it is ever to realise its full potential.
Firstly, the issue of party and type of party. In my opinion the WSA must transform itself into a Welsh Socialist Party. Secondly, we must adopt a position on the national question - in my opinion support for an independent socialist Wales. Once we are clear on these two most fundamental of issues we will be able to mobilise far more in Wales to the socialist banner than is currently the case. Where Cameron is correct is in stating that a debate around these two issues needs to start now. It is interesting to note that his position on independence for Wales, although still an apparent no-no, seems to have softened a little - or is this my imagination?
Unfortunately in an otherwise fraternal report he lets himself down by stating that the comrades in Wales are somehow inferior to our English and Scottish counterparts - tut tut, Cameron - come the glorious day we won't forget such a statement and I'm afraid it may have to be permanent exile for you on the other side of the Severn Bridge!
Keep up the good work - your idea on transforming the Weekly Worker into an SA paper is an excellent one and demonstrates that there are some on the left that put class before party.
WSA party
WSA party
SA paper
The Socialist Alliance conference on Saturday December 1 was a largely predictable outcome of the numerical superiority of the SWP and its allies. It follows the experience of Merseyside when the SWP insisted on forcing through decisions by simple majority voting against the desire to move forward by consensus. This clumsy intervention led to members leaving and others taking a back seat rather than taking a lead.
The national organisational structure adopted by the SA will take us forward in some limited ways, though it is an incomplete development, as it lacks a party press.
I want an unofficial SA paper with the broadest possible support. The paper should aim to become the official paper of the Socialist Alliance as soon as possible. Such a paper should encourage Dave Nellist to write a regular column as a deliberate effort to maintain fraternal links with the best elements of the SP.
The SWP have claimed that we need a paper like a hole in the head. Well I'm breathing through two nostrils, listening through two ears and speaking through my mouth - perhaps the SWP have a point. We do need a paper, just like those holes in my head.
SA paper
SA paper
Effective RCN
If I were Bob Goupillot, I would be far more worried about a comrade being thrown out of a Scottish Socialist Party event for selling Republican Communist than the activities of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Revolutionary Democratic Group in England (Weekly Worker December 6).
Bob is wrong to say that the Republican Communist Network (England) has done nothing beyond the fringe meeting at Marxism 2001. This, by the way, had speakers from the CPGB and the Alliance for Workers' Liberty as well as the RDG, and was attended by a number of independent socialists, as well as comrades from the French LCR. We have for example been selling the journal at meetings of local Socialist Alliances, at the Socialist Alliance conference itself and at the CPGB school the following day.
The CPGB's position on the RCN is a matter for it to sort out. However, if members of RCN (England) wish to discuss its relationship to the CPGB, the RDG, the SA or anything else then, as its chair, I will ensure they are given every chance to do so. Likewise, the pages of the journal are always open for debate and discussion.
The argument that the comrades in Scotland had to split because the CPGB was nasty to them does not hold water The CPGB is abrasive in debate, but in comparison to the attitude of Marx and Lenin to their political opponents it is mild indeed! Being on the sharp end of the CPGB's polemic has not prevented me speaking at its university, participating in its schools or writing for its paper. I am sure the same applies to the comrades in Scotland. Surely people who call themselves communists are not such shrinking violets that they burst into tears if someone is harsh with them.
If, as Bob says, the question of a federal republic or a Scottish workers' republic is tactical rather than a matter of immutable principle, there is even less reason to split.
It is true that RCN (England) has not done all it could or should have done and that sometimes it has done things wrong. But rather than use this as an excuse to flounce off, the Scottish comrades should be helping us rectify our errors and sharing their experiences in the SSP and elsewhere with us. If there are differences in tactics or in principles, let us debate them in a constructive way. We all have a lot to learn from each other.
If the Scottish comrades are really willing to still work with comrades in England, firstly let us try to resolve our problems rather than have a futile split and secondly let us grab the opportunity afforded by next year's golden jubilee. RCN (England) is involved in an event in February to celebrate the life of the Chartist, George Harney. Harney was active in both England and Scotland. Let the comrades in Scotland organise an event; I would be happy to speak at it.
Either we want an effective RCN or we do not. If we do not, then a split is the way to ensure that it never takes off.
Effective RCN
Effective RCN