Solidarity 193, 16 February 2011

Pilate: “What is truth?”; Lewis Carroll: “What I tell you three times is true”. Last time, I wrote about something which is scientifically uncertain, the role of human activities in the Queensland floods. This raises the question of truth — scientific truth — for example, whether it can be truthfully said that our activities are changing the climate of the Earth. Nowadays, many have a sceptical view of what scientists say, such as on the consensus among climate scientists that emissions of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse” gases are resulting in global warming. So what do scientists say...

Far-right activists and racists have jumped on Tory prime minister David Cameron’s speech about multiculturalism in Munich on 5 February to boost their cause. But the kneejerk “Cameron-is-a-racist” of some supposedly left-wing responses is as false as would be taking Cameron’s speech as secularist and liberal good coin. The English Defence League and Marine Le Pen, new leader of France’s fascist and virulently anti-Arab National Front, claimed Cameron’s speech as backing for their views. We know what is happening there: racists are keen to pick up on anything that can be recycled as saying...

Of the many pithy formulae which members of the Socialist Workers’ Party use, one that seems to have a particular current resonance is that idea that “the road to Palestinian liberation runs through Cairo.” Or, as the headline to an article by John Rose in Socialist Worker (12 February 2011) puts it, “Answer to Palestine question is in Cairo.” What do the SWP mean by this? Rose’s article argues against any possibility for Palestinian liberation that does not involve “the rest of the Arab world” and asserts that “the outcome of the Egyptian revolution will shape the Palestinian leadership.”...

We are all agreed that the Muslim Brothers are a potential threat to the working class, the left, and democracy in general. We are all agreed that we — the left and the labour movement in Britain and internationally — have an urgent duty to build solidarity with the new workers’ movement in Egypt and whatever left develops. There is a difference of emphasis in how to pose this. I think we need to avoid appearing to say that because the Brotherhood is the strongest force, all prospects are bad; or to say that the only thing which stands in the way of the Brotherhood destroying all democracy is...

The Green Movement leaders in Iran used the opportunity of Khameini’s call for support for the Egyptian people to call for demonstrations on 14 February. They said these demonstrations were to defend the Egyptian people and pushed the establishment not to attack them. That did not happen. [The demonstrations were attacked with tear gas and one person is reported killed]. The Iranian secret services are well trained and stopped the demonstrations from becoming a big force. In the end there were several sizeable demonstrations around Tehran, of 5,000 and 10,000, marching from and to different...

The Tunisian Ministry of Defence has asked all reservists to report to barracks from 16 February. That may indicate a crackdown against the bubbling workers’ movement is being prepared by the transitional government. In Tunisia, class struggle is continuing. Strikes and protests are breaking out in many different sectors of the economy as groups of workers take advantage of the relative political freedoms. On 13 February, the new Tunisian foreign minister, Ahmed Ounaies, resigned following strikes by workers in the ministry. The strikes were sparked by Ounais’ complimentary remarks about the...

I don’t believe in custodial sentences for many offences, including the one for Tommy Sheridan ( Solidarity 3/192). However I am getting the feeling Solidarity believes the courts have no rights here. I disagree. The argument that because the judicial system has biases and prejudices we do not use it is as ridiculous as saying that because democracy in this society is limited flawed and biased we shouldn’t vote. Many issues are pursued through the courts however imperfect, that actually give people a right of redress to what may have happened to them. There has to be, for instance, some...

In Solidarity 3/191 Sean Matgamna argued that the Guardian ’s recent condemnation of the Palestinian Authority was demagogic (pretended “shock” at the “leak” of negotiating positions which were already well-known) and a backhanded way of supporting those who uphold the “right of return”, i.e. collective Arab repossession of Israeli territory rather than “two states”. Broadly Ira Berkovic (in a letter Solidarity 3/192) agrees, I think. Ira agrees that it is wrong to propose the “right of return”. But he charges Sean with being imprisoned by “the admittedly very unpleasant realities of bourgeois...

Tim Flatman ( Solidarity 3/192) claims labour movement organisations were “culturally alien” to South Sudan and that we should not “impose” them on the new country. Undoubtedly, labour movements as we know them in the advanced-capitalist world cannot be wished into being in a massively less developed country. But what is the “culture” that workers’ organisation seeks to embody? Simply the “culture” of organising the exploited against their exploiters. This is something common to all human culture throughout history. Even in a country where advanced-capitalist class-relations do not yet...

David Kirk’s main argument ( Solidarity 3/191) is that AV will help left-wing “propaganda candidates”. But with Australia’s AV left and not-so-left minority party candidates have generally done worse than with Britain’s FPTP setup. This seems odd, but it is a fact. Knowing that fact, left and pseudo-left groups focused on electoral activity — Socialist Party, Respect, Green Left — oppose AV. With AV people know that their vote will count towards the result only when it transfers to the bigger party they’ve chosen as second preference, so they often cut out the middleman and vote for the bigger...