Category: Red Youth

On 23 September, the CPGB-ML received an email from the Stop the War Coalition informing us of a decision by the “officers group” to “reject the affiliation” of our party. We were told that this was on the basis that the CPGB-ML had been “publicly attacking Stop the War Coalition” in its publications.

We responded as follows:

No basis for expulsion

First: we have been affiliated for many years to the coalition. Therefore it is not now possible to reject our affiliation. If it can be proved that we have failed to comply with StW’s constitution in some way, then we would have to be expelled.

Second: assuming for a moment that such a case can be made, what authority does the officers group have to make such a decision? We would be interested to see the rule that allows the officers to act without any kind of procedure and without any mandate from the membership via a national conference.

Third: it is perfectly clear that there is no such case to answer. You accuse us of “attacking Stop the War”. Comrades, the organisation belongs not to the officers but to the members. What we have done is to criticise the leadership of the coalition – not because we have failed to uphold the aims and objectives of the coalition but because it is our belief that they have done so.

We would be interested to see any proof that our organisation has stopped opposing imperialist war – including the concomitant racist backlash and erosion of civil liberties. According to StW’s founding statement, these are the only membership criteria and our party fulfils them amply.

No cooperation with war crimes

In 2009, StW national conference passed a resolution, proposed by our organisation, calling on the coalition “to do all in its power to promote a movement of industrial, political and military non-cooperation with all of imperialism’s aggressive war preparations and activities among British working people”.

In 2010, national conference passed a further motion on non-cooperation with war crimes by an overwhelming majority (our recollection is that just one person present voted against). It specifically drew attention to the propaganda aspect of imperialist war and called on the coalition to “draw in as many members and supporters as possible to an ongoing campaign to hold the media to account for their pivotal role in apologising for, covering up and normalising British, US and Israeli war crimes”.

Not only has the Stop the War leadership failed to implement these resolutions, it has actually beenhelping the propaganda effort in support of the criminal imperialist war against Libya.

StW leaders and the war against Libya

Stop the War leaders have accepted Nato propaganda that characterised its agents in Benghazi as a ‘popular’ movement and a part of the anti-imperialist ‘Arab spring’. They have even mobilised demonstrations in support of these agents, while characterising the popular Libyan government as a ‘brutal dictatorship’.

And today, while those who continue to resist Nato’s assault are being carpet bombed in cities all over Libya, Stop the War leaders continue to prop up the imperialist propaganda effort by:

–    accepting and promoting the imperialist lie that Gaddafi’s government has already fallen and that the stooges of the ‘NTC’ have formed a new government;

–    accepting and promoting the imperialist lie that the ‘fall’ of the Gaddafi government is a cause for popular celebration in Libya;

–    accepting and promoting the imperialist lie that the ‘rebels’ are expressing the popular will of the people and thereby bringing ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’ and ‘justice’ to Libya;

–    keeping the imperialist media’s silence about the resistance that is being mounted by the legitimate government of Libya, its armed forces and the armed citizens;

–    keeping the imperialist media’s silence about the real character of the ‘rebels’, despite the wealth of evidence now available;

–    keeping the imperialist media’s silence about the terrible crimes that have been and are being committed by Nato’s ‘rebels’ against the people of Libya (massacring of black people; massacring of pro-government supporters, raping of women, looting and burning of homes);

–    keeping the imperialist media’s silence about the terrible crimes committed by Nato’s bombers and special forces, including the targeting of civilians, water and electricity supplies, schools, mosques, hospitals and libraries, the imposition of sanctions to prevent the import of medical supplies and food, the theft of Libya’s wealth and resources, the use of chemical and nuclear weapons, including depleted uranium-tipped missiles, and the carpet bombing of civilian populations that has resulted in a death toll of well over 50,000 so far;

–    keeping the imperialist media’s silence about the gains made by ordinary Libyans since the Green revolution in 1969, which have brought them from being the poorest people in the world to the richest in Africa, with a standard of life for ordinary Libyans comparable to that in parts of western Europe;

–    keeping the imperialist media’s silence about the critical support given by Libya to anti-imperialist movements all over the world, and especially its support to the African struggle to break free from the chains of the IMF and the World Bank and the diktat of imperialist corporations and governments.

In so doing, Stop the War’s leaders have proved themselves unfit for their positions. We call on them either to correct their line immediately, or to resign and allow a national conference to elect new, more suitable leaders who are prepared to carry out StW policy thoroughly and completely.

Hold the leaders to account

We call on the Stop the War Coalition’s members to hold their leaders to account. We need an organisation that is truly willing and able to work amongst the British people to promote a movement of industrial, political and military non-cooperation with all of imperialism’s aggressive war preparations and activities.

Only then will we be able to claim that we are not complicit in the war crimes of the British government, armed forces, media and corporations. And only then will we have the remotest chance of actually stopping the war.

The following is taken from Pravda.ru 04.10.2011 and authored by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

What do you get when a British public schoolboy with a proven record of a seriously flawed judgement as regards choosing his advisers and choosing his policy gets embroiled in conflict in a tribal society utterly beyond his comprehension? You get David Cameron’s 2 billion-pound nightmare.

You also get the total destabilization of a country that was at peace, where the citizens lived in a full participatory democracy – the Jamahiriya system of government is far more democratic than a country like Britain where a Prime Minister voted for by a minority of his population gets to dictate policy and an obscurity like Clegg gets to be Deputy PM when he finished the race in third place. What sort of a democracy is that?

What else do you get in Cameron’s Libya? You get the full participation of Al-Qaeda and its leaders who had fought against NATO in Afghanistan and Iraq. Al-Hasidi was even held in Guantanamo Bay, you get the militarization of a tribal society, you get the destruction of Libyan society and you get a Somalia situation on the gates of Europe, festering with terrorists and Islamic fanatics. NATO’s plans for Libya are an open wound on the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

NATO’s and Cameron’s legacy in Libya is horrific. The numerous war crimes have been well documented, rendering Cameron, Hague, Fox and their counterparts in France and the USA liable for prosecution for war crimes – the case is being drawn up as this article goes to press. The streets of Libya’s cities are strewn with stinking rotting bodies.

The fault is not Colonel Gaddafi’s. When you are attacked by marauding gangs of terrorists who slit people’s throats in the streets, who vow to ethnically cleanse Libya from Negroes, who slice the breasts off women and who impose the burqah in the areas under their control, who loot, who rape and who torch buildings, who desecrate bodies, who torture children… you do not give in, any more than you have the keys of your car to a car-jacker. You fight back. The difference is that Cameron, Sarkozy and Obama support this filth.

The fault is Cameron’s, Sarkozy’s and Obamas. We know know why Cameron convinced his Cabinet and MI6 to agree to his murderous criminal escapade…the Conference of the Libyan Opposition was drawn up in London (where else) in June 2005, consisting of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (a terrorist organization proscribed by the FCO and still on its list when the conflict started despite a pathetic statement by the FCO itself saying that the LIFG denounced terrorism in 2009), the Senoussi Brotherhood and the Moslem Brothers. The aim was to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi and destroy his Jamahiriya democratic government and the African Union, so that Africa’s resources could be seized again by neo-colonialist powers, the FUKUS (France, UK, USA).

Indeed according to British spy David Shayler, the British secret services (MI6) had already financed a Gaddafi assassination attempt to the tune of 100,000 GBP.

However, all is not well in Cameronland. The Libyan Armed Forces have managed to counter NATO’s technological superiority – Apache helicopters, used against US Congress rules to strafe civilians, are being shot down and the filth flying them captured (and well-treated), Moussa Ibrahim (Jamahiriya Government spokesperson) has not been captured, Khamis al-Qathafi has not been killed (despite reports of his death no fewer than six times).

The TNC is in utter disarray and chaos, now with in-fighting in Misurat and in Benghazi, and with Abdelhakim Belhadj vowing that he takes orders from nobody as he sets up his private army of terrorists. Bani Walid is Green (Libyan Jamahiriya Government control), Sirt is Green, Tobruk is Green, Ghadames is Green, Al Jufra is Green, Sabha is Green, Fezzan is Green, Tarouna is Green, all the South is Green and the huge majority of the tribes are with Colonel Gaddafi. Al-Zawiyah is Green. Large parts of Tripoli are Green. Areas along the Tunisian frontier are Green.

At Ras Lanuf the US 82 Airborne detachment suffered heavy losses (there are not supposed to be boots on the ground…US breach of UNSC Resolutions) and an AC-130 Hercules transport aircraft was torched.

The Tuareg have declared themselves against the Rats (the terrorists supported by NATO).

Why else are we being fed “final battle” stories outside Sirt? Why else has the western media stopped speaking about Bani Walid? Why else is the TNC so-called “government” (a rat pack) holed up in Benghazi? Why did Cameron and Sarkozy not leave Tripoli airport? Where are the images of a peaceful back-to-normal Tripoli? Where are the pictures of the new Libyan “Government” getting down to business?

There aren’t any, because Colonel Gaddafi and his loyalist forces are supported by the majority of the Libyan population. David Cameron is not. So, I am sorry Mrs. Bennet, young Steven will not be able to have that operation, because the National Health Service does not have the funding. Mr. Johnson, your elderly mother’s hip replacement operation has been put on hold indefinitely because the hospital wing is closing. And ha ha ha ha ha ha, Miss Taylor, do you really expect that miracle drug for your breast cancer while we are spending money on funding terrorists? Where is your sense of patriotism?

And you will all have to foot the 2-billion-pound bill to install a bunch of terrorists as the “Government” in Libya. There is just one flaw with David Cameron’s terrorist operation: human decency dictates that it cannot and must not happen. As David Cameron himself said “If I have to pay anything back, then I shall”. Yes, you shall, and you shall big time.

‘Land of the free’ is a prison of nations Issued by: CPGB-ML Issued on: 18 April 2008

The United States puts itself forward as a ‘democracy’; it calls itself the ‘land of the free’; it considers that it has the right to police the world, the right to label other countries as ‘undemocratic’ or lacking in freedom; it imposes sanctions and wages wars in the name of ‘human rights’. And yet the US state, along with its fellow imperialist vultures in Britain and elsewhere, is the worst violator of human rights in the world. By waging unjust wars for economic and geo-political advantage, the US and its allies deny millions of people the most fundamental human right: the right to life. Through its economic stranglehold over the third world, imperialism is responsible for the extraordinary poverty that leads to the death of 13 million children a year from malnutrition-related diseases. Prison state Despite the US government’s ostensible love of ‘freedom’, the US increasingly resembles a fascist state, with repressive laws, political prisoners and a massive prison population. –    Over 1 percent of the adult population is incarcerated – a massive 2,319,258 people. The US leads the world both in absolute numbers and in the proportion of its population behind bars. –    The US population accounts for approximately 5 percent of the world population, but its prison population accounts for 25 percent of the world total. –    The US incarceration rate is 3.4 times higher than that of Iran and 6.3 times higher than that of China – both countries about whose ‘human rights record’ the imperialist media (and their liberal hangers-on) bang on incessantly. –    One in 15 black men and 1 in 36 Hispanics over the age of 18 are in prison, as opposed to 1 in 106 white males. –    Whereas African Americans comprise only 12.2 percent of the US population and 13 percent of its drug users, they make up 38 percent of those arrested for drug offences and 59 percent of those convicted of drug offences. Why are so many US citizens in prison? Because of the dedication of its ruling class to ‘freedom’: the freedom to exploit and the freedom to own vast amounts of private property. Even in the richest country in the world, the system of exploitation means that while a handful of people are living in Dallas-style luxury, millions more live in abject poverty. –    The US is the richest country in the world, and yet, such is the disparity of wealth that almost one in eight US citizens lives in poverty. –    According to the US Department of Agriculture, about 11 million people suffer “very low food security”. –    The poverty rate for blacks was 24.3 percent in 2006; for whites it was 8.2 percent. –    The unemployment rate for blacks was 8.4 percent in November 2007; for whites it was 4.2 percent. The job of the capitalist state is to protect the private property ‘earned’ through exploitation, and so hundreds of victims of capitalism, driven to crime through a desperation aggravated by consumerism promoted by capitalism in the interests of enhancing the profits of the rich, are thrown into prison in order to maintain capitalist order. Political prisoners In addition to imprisoning petty criminals, the US is also in the habit of using the prison system in an attempt to silence discontent. It has a long history of politically-motivated frame-ups, including those of Huey Newton, Angela Davis, Assata Shakur and Mumia Abu-Jamal. –    Mumia Abu-Jamal has been in prison since 1981 and on death row since 1983. –    There is clear evidence that Mumia was the victim of a police frame-up. –    Mumia is behind bars because he is a journalist and political activist. He was an influential member of the Black Panthers, a talented organiser and publicist. The state tried to silence him by framing and locking him up. Much like the British state, the US state does not respect civil liberties. Under the guise of fighting against terrorism, the US has introduced laws that allow state agencies access to emails, telephone conversation recordings, medical records, financial records, etc. These laws are being used to clamp down on those who oppose the injustices of imperialism. International human rights abuser –    The US is by far the most aggressive state in the world. Since the end of WW2, it has been involved in dozens of large-scale military actions: Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Somalia, Cuba, Congo, Panama, Dominican Republic and Lebanon, to name but a few. These are illegal, ruthless and unjust wars, fought solely for the economic benefit of the US ruling class. –    The invasion of Iraq, led by the US and fully supported by Britain, has been a disaster for the human rights of the Iraqi people: well over 1 million have been killed, over 2 million are refugees abroad, another 2 million are internal refugees. There is chronic malnutrition, minimal access to clean water and electricity, unemployment is well over 60 percent, and most schools and hospitals are defunct. –    The US has dozens of secret prisons around the world, where it tortures its victims as far away from the public eye as possible. Britain is wholly complicit in this (and, of course, has its own extensive record of prison torture). –    More than six years after the invasion of Afghanistan, the US is still holding over 350 people prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. These men have been given no trial and have been subjected to routine torture in complete violation of international law. –    Conscientious objectors in the US are put in prison. For example, Kevin Benderman, a US Army sergeant, served 12 months for refusing to deploy to Iraq. Nobody in their right mind could label the US as the ‘land of the free’. Only socialism will bring us real rights Ultimately, the working class and the oppressed masses have no lasting political rights under capitalism. To the extent people enjoy democratic rights under capitalism, it is only in so far as the rule and privileges of the super-rich – the bourgeoisie – are not under threat. Only socialism will bring real human rights for all: the right to live, the right to work, the right to education, the right to health care, the right to participate in the running of society, the right to be free from exploitation, the right to develop as an individual. Free Mumia! Free all US political prisoners! No more judicial Lynchings! No freedom while imperialism lives. Forward to socialism!

Last week the police and state security forces in Ghana arrested a number of comrades who were demonstrating against the imperialist war on Libya. Amongst their number were comrades from the UK. Red Youth is happy to report that these comrades have now been released, but the struggle to release Libya from the devastating effects of the imperialist predatory war of aggression goes on. Red Youth reproduces below the statement of the AAPRP on the events of last week:

The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, Convention Peoples Party and the Pan-African Improvement Organization  and other demonstrators arrested in Ghana on Kwame Nkrumah’s Birthday.

Today September 21st on Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday celebration a great tragedy has occurred in Ghana!!  The U.S.-NATO Hands Off Libya! Hands Off Africa! Coalition organized a march from Kwame Nkrumah Circle to the U.S. Embassy to demonstrate against the illegal U.S.-NATO invasion and for victory to Qaddafi and the Libyan Jamahiriya.  At approximately 11amGMT several members of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, the party called for by Kwame Nkrumah in the Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare; the Convention Peoples Party, the party founded by Nkrumah and the Pan-African Improvement Organization and other demonstrators were arrested for marching to stop the illegal occupation of Libya!!

The memory of Kwame Nkrumah is tainted today by the actions of the police force of Ghana instructed by the U.S. Embassy.  What justification does the U.S. Embassy have for orchestrating the arrest of these Africans who were participating in a peaceful march that will benefit Africa and Ghana!  Although the Ghana government is supporting the NATO invasion the people in Ghana are in full support of the people of Libya and are among many African voices that are calling for the immediate halt of this invasion.

Pan-Africanism: The total liberation and unification of Africa Under scientific socialism is the only solution to eradicating our people from the tentacles of imperialism.  This action is nothing short of a demonstration of the exploitative and oppressive actions of the imperialists to oppress and beat down Pan-African movements and African people!!  We must stand in solidarity with the ACCRA 25 while they are being subjected to this oppressive treatment dictated by the American Embassy!!

Kwame Nkrumah reminds us in Neo-Colonialism the Last Stage of Imperialism that, “The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty.  In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside” This is what our comrades were marching against!!  They were marching against neo-colonialism and the re-colonization of the African continent!!  This will positively benefit not only Ghana but also the entire African continent and African people world-side!!

We demand that our comrades in the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, the Pan-African Improvement Organization, the Conventions Peoples Party and other demonstrators be released immediately!!   

 

Release and absolve the ACCRA 25 of all charges immediately!!!

 RELEASE and Absolve THE ACCRA 25 IMMEDIATELY!!

 If you want to help now call these numbers and demand the release and absolution of all charges for the Accra 25!!!

 In London

Call: (+44-20) 72354142   fax: +44-20) 72459552

 Email:enquires@ghana-com.co.uk

Consulate

(44) 813428686fax (44) 813458566

 Ghana US

Washington DC

202-686-4520

Ghana Chicago

(312) 236-3309fax (312) 236-3310

 Ghana Los Angeles

(213) 231-2171fax (213) 235-5536

 USA Embassy in Ghana 

Public Affairs

(233) 30-2741-150

fax (233) 30-2741-6921

email: pressaccra@state.gov

About arrest: Address to American citizen services email: acsaccra@state.gov

US-UN contacts

Front office (202) 647-9600Human Rights (202) 647-1155UN Political affairs: (202) 647-2392 Bureau of African Affairs

Legendary Speech by Cde Robert Mugabe, Presedent of Zimbabwe, at the 66^th session of the UN. Hear the truth about Libya, NATO’s imperialism, and the way these imperialists have hijacked and abused the UN and persecuted their victims using the so called ‘ICC’.

Cde Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, speaks at the UN on the US and NATO’s misuse of the UN Security Council – in order to brand its opponents, as Marxist-Leninists, Terrorists, Drug Traffickers and abusers of human rights, in an attempt to justify and legitimize its colonial interventions. Libya, Cuba, Palestine, Honduras. “Our natural resources can never be privatised, can never be handed over to TNCs, whether oil or other resources!”

Birmingham photographer and NUJ activist Stalingrad O’Neill posted the following insightful report of the TUC organised protest outside the Lib Dem Conference in Birmingham on the indymedia website yesterday:

The speakers from the platform certainly gave a good performance in reflecting the breadth of anger and resistance that exists in society, but what they failed to do was state, Labour, along with the other shower of Parliamentary fucks ain’t worth a pot to piss in

Mary Bousted from the ATL said that the unequal distribution of wealth means kids come to school anxious because parents fear losing job. Stating that November 30 will be biggest strike for generations – we have to fight to win the ballots”
Well Mary you got your work cut out if the attendance Sunday’s march is an indication of the present TUC leaderships ability to agitate and organize resistance The TUC’s 2,500 body count counterclaim, against the Police’s crowd estimate of 1,500 people joining the march along Broad Street says it all!

How anyone could stand on the platform and spout “What a splendid turn out”? Frances O’Grady you need a new pair of glasses, hang your head in shame, go back to TUC headquarters and kick the arse of yourself and everyone else involved. All this march showed was the utter inability or unwillingness of the TUC leadership to roll up their sleeves and get down to it. Fuck the bollocks of saving yourselves for the ‘Big One’!….. ‘The Tory Conference’ in October, as was made mention to me!
What is it a Day trip to Claxton coz it were no showcase highlighting any determined effort to prosecute the ongoing struggle for union members, wages, jobs, and public services?
If the ‘Big One’ is the sum total of perceived strategy to fight and confront the grinding continuation of cutting your members living standards, then you should not be in the job, for despite the spout of civil disobedience from the platform, the TUC seems to be impotent and an impediment to any such future effort

Case in point: Unite’s *Bombardier petition! Nothing wrong with that as part of a game plan but as with much else, it seems to be the be all and end all, with the TUC squatting its well rounded posterior on the side lines as usual, maybe, condescendingly allowing its offices for the organizing of a demonstration or two after the coup de grâce has been administered. It’s not rocket science knowing what needs to be done but either the TUC is afraid of its shite or it is conniving with those ‘Born to it’ to stymie its own members struggles

PCS Mark Serwotka a most left wing sounding of Union leader castigated Ed Miliband by ripping into Miliband’s TUC speech which condemned Union strike strategy against the cuts. However the continued inability of Union leaders to categorically break with Labour was unmistakably exposed when he added Milibucks “should side with workers fighting back! If he did that Labour would win by a landslide, we hope he thinks again” Whats the chances of that Mark? You think Milibucks is gonna miraculously be some Johnny Come Lately to “Fight every cut! Defend every job! Free education! Tax the rich!” ‘me arse he is!

I feel sorry for those trade unionists who attended in the hope that this would be the day the buck stops and their leaders would do what they are supposed to….. Fight and organize resistance by all means necessary to foil every government cut!
Unfortunately they found their efforts were thinly rewarded with a few rousing speeches pointing mainly to the “Fairy fellows master stroke” ….the choreographed November strike, Pish!

ENDS