Letters

Palestine slogans

Criticising the CPGB’s long-established position on Israel-Palestine, Andy Hannah says that we appear “to subsume Palestinian national identity within a wider Arab nationhood” (Letters, November 7). He also asks me to “explain where the borders of his mooted Israeli socialist republic will lie, what happens to the Israeli-Jewish settlers and their settlements and, importantly, what happens to the Palestinians”.

No, we do not “subsume Palestinian national identity within a wider Arab nationhood”. We recognise Egyptian, Syrian, Palestinian, etc identities, but we also recognise the wider Arab nation based on a common territory, language, economy and mass consciousness.

This matters strategically. Alone the Palestinians cannot possibly free themselves from Zionist ethnic cleansing and oppression. But in a wider, working class-led movement for national unity they have a chance. A pan-Arab socialist republic would be well advised to offer the Israeli-Jewish working class some sort of federal arrangement. That could, conceivably, split Israeli society along class lines and result in a rapprochement between the Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian populations.

What lines on a map, if any, people in the future will draw is entirely up to them. We might suggest that an Israeli socialist republic would include areas where there is a clear Hebrew majority. But that is up to the future to decide. What matters is the principle of voluntary unity.

In terms of immediate demands, we would certainly say that Israel should cease seeding the West Bank with colonists and withdraw from all occupied territories: ie, Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

No less to the point, comrade Hannah is one of the signatories of the ‘Danger of World War III: the communist response’ statement (Weekly Worker October 24). Leave aside the nonsense claim that: “With the intensification and spread of Israel’s war on Gaza and Lebanon, backed by US-led imperialism and fully supported by the British and other capitalist governments, there is the distinct risk of (a nuclear) World War III.” That and the suggestion that Iran wants to “join the top ranks of the imperialist club”.

Does he agree that the slogans, ‘Down with the war’ and ‘The main enemy is at home’, are the right ones to use, “especially in the Middle East”?

Jack Conrad
London

Direct actionist

Comrade Mike Macnair, in his critique of Carla Roberts’ article, ‘Different times, different slogans’ (October 24), states: “In promoting ‘direct action’ against the war, comrade Roberts and the supporters of the alternative resolution are adapting to the left-syndicalism of the Trotskyists” (‘Wars and slogans’, November 7). That is, by implication, a bad thing. He goes on: “Direct-actionist initiatives result in the vanguard (meaning in this context advanced mass sections of the class, not party cadres) isolating itself from the masses and exposing itself to repression.”

I would suggest that any activity to oppose the war will expose us to repression. We have already seen security services harassing journalists who expose the Israeli genocide and arresting demonstrators for allegedly ‘promoting terrorism’. To be clear, I am completely in favour of workers taking action to stop the war in the Middle East and Ukraine, whether by blocking arms shipments, as is currently happening in Greece, or any other means to disrupt the logistics and supply chain of Israel or its imperialist backers. Moreover, any serious communist organisation should provide leadership and actively promote such actions.

It is in struggle that the proletariat will become a class for itself, and a Communist Party should do more than simply welcome it, once it has started.

Ian Spencer
email

Purgatory?

I am a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party writing to you in a spirit of curiosity. I recently read an old(ish) article in the Weekly Worker titled ‘Same old, same old’ by Mike Macnair (April 4). I was particularly struck by one quote from it: “The general principle that party members should self-educate (and, as the section goes on, organise education) is sound. But the specification here is not to education, which develops the participant’s ability to think critically and decide between alternative views, but to training in the ideas of the great men of 1844-1940 as a dogma.”

I found that this quote summed up one of my reservations about the RCP: namely that there seems to be an unspoken rule that reading ought solely (or almost solely) to be based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. Whenever I have even vaguely brought up the idea of introducing different thinkers to the discussion, I am always hit with the answers, ‘Best stick to revolutionary thinkers’, ‘They are bourgeois academics’, etc, etc.

I also found what Macnair said to be true about personality cult and only discussing a part of Lenin’s works/opinions. There is never any discussion in the RCP about, say, the 10th congress of the Bolshevik Party, for example, and the ban on party factions.

But above all the general gut feeling I have got, after being a member now for a solid few years, is that I hear the same slogans and talking points over and over again. The amount of times I have heard ‘We are the real communists, based on the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky’ has now grown to the point where I think my ears are in an infinite playback loop, doomed to the same ringing tones.

I say this as someone who does a lot of organisational and administrative work for the RCP, and has a great deal of respect for many members, I just feel like it is the same discussions over and over again. Maybe I am in purgatory. Who knows?!

Cnafon Williams
email

Trans liberation

After comrade Mike Macnair’s November 3 Online Communist Forum talk on trans rights and comrade Carla Roberts’ letter last week (November 7), I’m quite happy to see more debate on the field of trans liberation. Yet with Macnair’s talk I had several problems with the core thesis and the way he argued his point. I’m not going to go into detail - I’ll save that for a longer essay I’ve been working on for the past few months and hope to finish for Pride next year.

Nonetheless, to briefly discuss his point, the core thrust that trans liberation can only come through the maximum programme is true in the abstract. In the same way that the Palestinian genocide can only be ended through communism or that only through communism can we end sexism. All true, but there are concrete steps that can be taken during the road to communism.

As my last letter outlined in brief (despite the deeply disappointing title it was given - ‘My trauma’, September 5), there are several clear arenas where communists can step up and agitate regarding trans liberation. This will include making it easier to access the needed medical arenas, as opposed to the current insane wait times, be it in Australia or the UK. It took me four years to get on oestrogen, and while part of that was waiting to reach the age of majority, part of it was also a nearly four-month-long waiting process of pysch appointments and blood tests.

A simple demand to improve the system is to remove the flat-out reactionary and demeaning process needed to get on hormone replacement therapy by removing the incredibly high psychological barriers. Alongside this, fight to expand access to doctors providing these services. In Melbourne, Australia’s second biggest city, there are roughly six clinics providing the necessary medical services to transition. None of these are covered by welfare and, considering the insane rent prices of Melbourne (which I am rapidly discovering), trans people - many of whom are increasingly poor, or aren’t solidly employed are often forced to the outskirts of the city and find it hard to pay for the medications they need.

This isn’t even covering the psychological costs and pressure that most trans people go through, including the incredibly small size of the scene, meaning that nearly everybody will know everybody else - the general preference for ‘trans for trans’ (T4T) relationships making building platonic or comradely connections hard. I could go on and on.

This is combined with the ‘sect formula’, meaning that, whenever communists do try and intervene, the comrades sent in to do so are often either out-of-touch cis people, who fundamentally don’t get the struggle and alienate many of the trans people they work with, or are trans comrades, but deal with the fundamental failing of the sect form, when it comes to minorities. The need for forced diversity sublimates the education of these comrades.

The CPGB does have a chance to break from this paradigm, and I strongly hope it does. But, to be blunt, its current method of discussing to most trans people very pie-in-the-sky philosophical ideas, whilst fascinating to some (myself included), merely reinforces the worst stereotypes that trans liberals push onto communists.

If comrade Roberts’ suggestions are implemented - and I must urge in the strongest possible terms that they are - it will be a qualitative step forward for the CPGB. However, this must also be met with genuine engagement with trans workers and organisers to understand where most trans people are at. Furthermore, it will mean having clear, concrete proposals that the CPGB can point to as part of their programme.

This is not to say give in to the liberal bullshit of trans rights, because that’s a tailist dead end, which will only weaken the communist movement, but fight for trans liberation in every way possible.

Brunhilda Olding
Australia

Kevin Bean

I became close to Kevin Bean, who died on October 12, after working with him, campaigning outside Labour Party conferences. His courage and confidence in nonchalantly facing down harassment by Labour goons was awesome.

I like to think our personal relationship contributed to his decision to throw in his lot with the CPGB. Having someone of his calibre, knowledge and experience join our ranks was, for me, a welcome confirmation that we are on the right path. We were proud to be able to elect Kevin to our Provisional Central Committee and he will be sorely missed.

Stan Keable
London