Letters

Disgraceful

I read Mike Macnair’s review of the late Mike Woodin’s book Green alternatives to globalisation with an increasing sense of amazement and, eventually, disgust (November 4).

Mike Woodin was probably the best loved and most energetic proponent of green politics in the UK over the last 10 years and to suggest that his programme for social change is “proto-fascist” is nothing short of a disgrace. What Mr Macnair is doing making statements such as “It would not be a long step from this metaphor to the idea that capitalism is a ‘foreign’ or ‘Jewish’ cancer on the healthy body of the small-scale market economy” is beyond me. It would be offensive even if Mike hadn’t been a prominent member of the Jewish community.

I have supported the CPGB in various things over the last few years, including their line on the European Social Forum and their criticisms of Respect, but I’m afraid this sort of attack just reveals the close-minded attitude that seems to lurk around most of the far left in this country. You can disagree with someone without accusing them of being a fascist - and to revert to such behaviour is to engage in the politics of the playground. I expected much better.

Disgraceful
Disgraceful

Child victims

On Wednesday November 3, I went to the meeting to hear the children’s charity, Child Victims of War, speak at the Cross Street chapel in Manchester. I went there because I was ignorant about the issue of depleted uranium (DU) and wished to learn more from people who supposedly worked in this field.
I came away shocked and disgusted by the speech of Abdul Haq Al-Ani from Child Victims of War, who after his partner, Ms Joanne Baker, spoke of DU in Iraq, spoke on a completely different issue - such as the war being motivated by racism alone and we in the United Kingdom were the cause of the war because we voted in Tony Blair and everybody in the UK was a “racist”.

He informed us that under Saddam Hussein’s regime every person who had been detained by the Iraqi police was entitled to representation by a lawyer and was treated fairly by the courts. But the laws in the UK were silly and were the laws of terrorism - what about the years of terror brought to the Iraqis by Saddam? He also said he is disgusted by the UK, the country where he has got his law degree from, and intends to go “home” to Iraq and “die with his people” in the relatively rich area of Monsoor.
A question to ask Child Victims of War: if this is how you feel, then why have you lived outside of Iraq for over 20 years, when Iraqis were being persecuted by Saddam, being killed in the Iraq/Iran war, when people were dying under sanctions, war and the current invasion - and you wait till now to make your choice to die in Iraq? After all, isn’t your organisation about Iraqi children?

I was saddened and disgusted that children were used this way because Al-Ani’s comments also gave an opening for people to talk about their opinions of Fidel Castro, land mines, anti-semitism in the USA and Respect. The meeting was supposed to be about the effects of depleted uranium in Iraq.
I would not recommend Child Victims of War or anybody associated with Abdul Haq Al-Ani, founding member of this charity - sorry, I mean limited company.

Child victims
Child victims

Free thinking

Theo van Gogh, who was stabbed and shot to death on Tuesday November 2 in Amsterdam, was known for his criticism of religion. He received death threats after the August television broadcast of his movie Submission, which he made with a Dutch politician called Ayan Hisry Ali, who had renounced the islamic faith of her birth.

As a movement, political islam attempts to silence voices that expose islamic superstitions. But this kind of desperate act of terrorism will only further expose its brutality. It has always been in the nature of political islam to issue death fatwas in response to public criticism from courageous individuals. The islamists will no doubt label such people as racists or infidels and declare that their killing is jihad. It is suggested that it is ‘for the sake of islam and god’ that non-believers are condemned to death by ‘holy orders’.

For us who are the victims of political islam in the Middle East this is not new. These forces will continue to try to silence liberated voices, but we should not let them. We should strengthen our ranks to stand firmly against political islam, and end this brutality forever. We in the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq directly confront the forces of political islam.

We share the sorrow of Theo van Gogh’s friends and relatives and all freedom-loving people. We call upon all who believe in free thinking, the freedom to criticise religion and the need to combat political islam to join our campaign to defend the rights of people in Iraq and to tackle the roots of the most dangerous movement of our time.

Free thinking
Free thinking

Conspiracy

Why did the exit polls show Kerry winning the election, but the vote showed Bush winning?

The apologia by the exit poll system architects reported in the New York Times sounds like post-facto reasoning which assumed that the vote is correct, and therefore the exit polls must be wrong. In its own words, it then “theorised” reasons why the exit poll could have been wrong (November 5).

Why did these problems occur now and not in previous elections? Didn’t the poll architects plan for them? The wrong-exit-poll theories should be tested. At the polls where the reasons occurred, how are the results different from the vote at those polls? If those results are thrown out, do the remaining results still show a difference between the exit poll and the vote, at that polling station?

“The last wave of national exit polls we received, along with many other subscribers, showed Kerry winning the popular vote by 51% to 48% - if true, surely enough to carry the electoral college,” Steve Coll, managing editor of the Washington Post, wrote in an online chat with readers. Assuming that the “last” exit poll covered the last voters, then the last exit poll should have been very accurate if there were sufficient numbers.

It’s very scary to think that George Bush and co created or suppressed four million or more American votes. It implies widespread conspiracy, and also implies that many other close races have been fraudulently won by Republicans. Is it a coincidence that Walden O’Dell, CEO of Diebold, the maker of electronic voting machines, told Republicans in a recent fundraising letter that he is “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year”.

It cannot be assumed that the vote is correct and the exit polls flawed when the leadership of the US and the world is at stake. This has to be investigated in a non-partisan manner.

Conspiracy
Conspiracy

Fighting as usual

Many comrades will be shocked and upset to hear that Terry Liddle has suffered a major heart attack. But he is fighting as usual. I visited him in hospital the other day and am pleased to tell comrades he was up and looking remarkably well. Obviously he is tired, but is on the path to recovery.

Terry is well known as a working class militant. He has a proud record of campaigning as a trade unionist, tenants’ leader and anti-fascist. Terry has a long commitment to environmental issues and was a founder member of Republic. He has an extensive knowledge of working class history and has spoken at Communist University and other CPGB events.

I am sure he would welcome a visit from any comrades who can make it (between 2pm and 8pm in ward 12, Queen Elizabeth hospital, Woolwich). I think he might devour a book or two. I know he is reading the Weekly Worker in his hospital bed. So let us all wish him a rapid recovery and return to the class struggle.

Fighting as usual

Respect impact

Last week’s coverage of the Respect conference was very impressive (Weekly Worker November 4). It is informative and useful for everyone interested in socialist unity.

It seems that the Socialist Workers Party’s bureaucratic shenanigans have repelled even those non-aligned socialists who stood by them in the Socialist Alliance. It is excellent to see comrades John Bloom, Jim Jepps, John Nicholson and Kath Owen raising criticisms of SWP opportunism and bureaucratism. It is, however, unfortunate that John Nicholson and Kath Owen have left the fight in Respect and resigned.

This is an understandable reaction, but the wrong one. It is time for the opposition within Respect to come together and fight. As the SWP moves to the right, it struggles to maintain the confidence of its best members. It will not be lost on those doubting SWP members that John Rees’s closest allies are thoroughly petty bourgeois in their political outlook, while socialists - particularly revolutionaries - within Respect are vilified, scapegoated and disenfranchised.

Many of those that make up the left within Respect are those who stuck around when others jumped ship in the Socialist Alliance. We cannot run away from the SWP if we are serious about socialist unity. It is down to those who stayed and fought in the SA that I left the SWP when I did. Those that walked away I ignored. Those who exposed and fought up close the destruction of the SA, such as Marcus Ström and others in the SA Democracy Platform, won my attention and respect. Despite their attempts to silence the CPGB at the Respect conference we still had an impact.

The SWP question cannot be fudged. It is a matter of urgency that those within Respect who are committed to socialism and democracy come together and organise to further the fight for principled left unity.

Respect impact
Respect impact

Respect omission

Your report on Respect conference was interesting. However, as you interviewed John Nicholson, and Jim Jepps, and also discussed their contributions as delegates, as well as Declan O’Neill’s, I am surprised that you omitted to mention the Socialist Unity Network that these comrades belong to.
Perhaps you forgot.

Respect omission
Respect omission

Thank god

Comrades in the SWP have complained to me about the coverage of the Respect conference in the Weekly Worker (November 4). In particular, several have taken exception to the legend over a picture of John Rees - “Joseph Stalin himself would have been proud”.

In truth, reading through the catalogue of exclusions and infringements of democracy detailed inside that issue, it seemed to me a reasonable assertion. However, my SWP comrades might like to reflect on the nature of the political forces offering them support for the crassly undemocratic way they stitched this event up.

In the November 2 issue of the Morning Star, Daniel Coysh pens a gushing report (no prizes for guessing which faction he supports in the Communist Party of Britain) that praises the event for one especially instructive reason. Refreshingly for our Stalinite comrade, “the two-day conference … was remarkably free from the sort of fractious opposition and grandstanding by affiliated groups that can often mar progressive politics”.

In other words, it got his juices flowing because - as a Stalinist - he really appreciated the lack of democratic space for genuine discussion (or “fractious opposition”, as he idiotically dubs it), the mind-numbingly platitudinous pap of the platform speeches and the fact that groups that would have raised criticisms had been ruthlessly excluded.

Presumably, our Morning Star hack left the gathering before it came to life on the second day. The explosion of angry speeches, the clash of opinions and dramatic divisions would have surely saddened him. Alternatively - in time-honoured Stalinist fashion - he perhaps decided to expunge this nasty episode from his report. Just like Socialist Worker did in its own blandly dishonest conference report, of course (November 6). What was that about Stalin’s “school of falsification”, comrades?

Thank god for the Weekly Worker.

Thank god
Thank god

In denial

There’s a lot to question in your main article covering the Respect conference, but for the moment can I challenge the assertion that 70% of the 270 delegates (in itself a lower figure than others) were members of the Socialist Workers Party: ie, about 190? The only breakdown I’ve seen is for Leeds, where the SWP was a definite minority, and Hackney, where I think it had a slim majority. Have you got any solid reason for this assertion?

What I think you need to face up to is that the approach of the SWP was convincing to quite a range of comrades outside of their ranks. They might not have been in the hooting corner, but they are still convinced of the direction being offered by Respect. To imagine them as all members of the SWP, or to bracket them off as ‘fellow-travellers’, is actually to be in denial about political realities.

In denial
In denial

Respect Wales

I cannot say I’m surprised by Cameron Richard’s report on the decision of the SWP leadership in Wales to ditch any view or commitment on the national question (‘Wales at sea’, November 4).

In its instincts and practice the SWP is entirely hostile to the notion that the nations of Scotland and Wales should enjoy any forms of political autonomy - let alone any moves which might actually mean the break-up of the wonderful British state. But even I, as a former candidate of the Welsh Socialist Alliance, did not think they would go so far as to actually not even adopt a most basic commitment on devolution for Wales.
Even in the last national assembly elections in 2003 all the WSA candidates stood on a principled position of upgrading the national assembly to a parliament with “real” powers - the very least any left progressive organisation should be willing to support. But of course the SWP has always been ‘all at sea’ on Wales. Where were they during the bitterly close devolution campaign of 1997? Nowhere.

Have they ever given any support to the Parliament for Wales campaign? No. Will their membership play any role in campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote in a possible future referendum on more powers for the assembly? Not a chance.

So please do not expect those of us on the progressive left in Wales - such as the Wales Green Party - to make any sort of accommodation or arrangement with what is laughingly called ‘Respect Wales’. They, it appears, do not even recognise the right of my nation to exist - let alone enjoy the same constitutional rights as any other nation (should the Welsh people wish to, of course). Until they do so, there is simply no role or even purpose for Respect in Wales, and comrades in the CPGB should stop wasting their energies with them.

Respect Wales
Respect Wales

Get real

I don’t know if Mike Martin has been reading my articles lately but, if he has, the comrade may have noticed something of a recurring theme since late August: the US presidential elections. (Letters, October 28). So, however worthy the World Socialist Web Site contents are, the majority of material was irrelevant to the Socialist Equality Party’s campaign. Hence the reason why WSWS only got a partial review (Weekly Worker October 21).

I had to chuckle, by the way, at Mike’s ludicrous defence of the SEP’s go-it-alone sectarianism. Is the comrade seriously suggesting that cooperating with other socialists precludes “addressing thousands … untouched by the left”? Get real.

Get real
Get real