Birmingham anti-imperialists expose war propaganda of Amnesty International

Posted on by Red Youth Red Youth

A group of comrades from Birmingham including a few Red Youth members attempted to explain to supporters of Amnesty International the reactionary position adopted by that organisation towards Syria on Thursday evening. Failing to comprehend the motivations and involvement of imperialist interference in the region, despite all efforts, the Amnesty group pressed ahead and attempted to peddle a pro-interventionist ‘Support defiance’ warmongering position – even arranging for the BBC to attend and cover their performance. Such blatant (and at the demo) vocal support for the overthrow of Assad makes a mockery and thoroughly exposes the dishonesty of Amnesty’s written position:

“Amnesty International does not take sides in conflicts and has no opinion on borders. Our work in situations of armed conflict concentrates on documenting and campaigning against human rights abuses and violations of IHL, no matter who commits them”

Amnesty's "impartiality"

A group of anti-imperialists in Birmingham opposed Amnesty’s dirty work for imperialism with a vocal contingent which, despite the best attempts and connivance of the BBC did not go unheard. Our statement can be read online here.

Photo’s courtesy of Stalingrad O’Neill

Apartheid and imperialism – round up and video

Posted on by Red Youth International, Meetings, Red Youth, Speeches

Cde Khwezi Kadalie, veteran of the Anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa, toured England in February 2012, explaining the achievements and failures of the Liberation struggle and the ANC government.

Khwezi speaks in Birmingham in February

The principle contradiction during the anti-apartheid struggle was between the white racist apartheid state and the black, indian and coloured masses of South Africa, he says. It is now between workers and capitalists.

Since the ANC did not follow the armed struggle to the point of the revolutionary overthrow of Aparthied, but negotiated the transfer of power from the Afrikaaner state to the ANC led government, bourgeois democracy has become more secure, but the principle beneficiaries of capitalist exploitation of the workers of South Africa remain firmly in place. In effect, Economic Apartheid remains in tact.

Khwezi with members from Leeds Red Youth group

The all important demands of the masses, namely re-distribution of the land, and the transfer of South Africa’s mining, financial and industrial wealth to the masses who fought for the end of apartheid, as laid down in the Freedom Charter, the seminal platform of the liberation struggle, remain totally unfulfilled

Khwezi’s deep knowledge brings insight into the failings of 17 years of the ‘rainbow nation’ to address the crying needs of the masses, and why capitalist free-market fundamentalism continues to heap misery on the people of one of the world’s richest countries.

South Africans today languish under the burden of the capitalist crisis, and a crippling poverty – with an astounding 47% unemployment rate – that they have not before known even during the oppression of the apartheid years.

A new mass struggle is needed, he says, outside of the opportunist confines of the ANC-SACP-COSATO stranglehold, that channels the really revolutionary energy and aspirations of the workers towards achieving their still fervently held desire to achieve a socialist system that brings peace, prosperity, education, culture and civilization to all.

For furthewr information visit www.cpgb-ml.org

Malcolm X remembered in Smethwick

Posted on by Red Youth Red Youth

Back in 1965, a matter of days before his murder, Malcolm X visited Smethwick in the West Midlands and toured the area alongside local marxist leninists. A number of comrades had been instrumental in organising the visit, but one individual prominent among them was the legendary Jagmohan Joshi, leader of the Indian Workers Association (GB) and Lalkar correspondent. On his trip to Smethwick Malcolm X was taken to areas where local Conservative Party members were urging the council to buy up empty housing stock and allocate the homes to ‘whites only’.

The IWA led by comrade Joshi organised a tremendous campaign against this racist provocation and victory was eventually secured. Sadly, comrade Joshi passed away some time ago – but some of those he taught and struggled alongside remain active in the ranks of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist – Leninist) and were in Smethwick on Tuesday morning to witness the unveiling of a commemorative plaque to Malcolm X in Marshall Street. The plaque is more than a tribute to a great fighter for civil rights, it also stands as testimony to the work of many anti-racists and anti-imperialists who’ve lived and worked in Birmingham and the surrounding areas, notably Joshi, his comrades, and the the IWA(GB).

L to R Jak Beula, Harbhajan Dardi and Beenie Brown: Malcom X, Marshall Street, Smethwick, Blue Plaque unveiling.Nubian Jak Community Trust; IWA; Indian Workers Association

Photos courtesy of Stalingrad O’Neill http://stalingrad-oneill.photoshelter.com/

More hand-wringing and breast-beating from Stop the War Coalition leaders

Posted on by Red Youth Red Youth

CPGB-ML Blog, December 7, 2011

On Monday 5 December, Stop the War Coalition held a rally at Conway Hall headlined Don’t Attack Iran. Everyone in the hall (apart from the usual smattering of MI5 agents) was in agreement: none of us wanted to see Iran attacked.

From the platform, a very frail looking Tony Benn spoke first, confiding to us that when he was minister for energy (years ago when even I was young), some unidentified bloke in his ministerial office had helped Israel to “British” nuclear secrets. If that wasn’t bad enough, Benn also found out and all the “waste” plutonium from “our” civil nuclear industry had been secretly shipped off to America to make nuclear bombs.

Benn said he hadn’t found out about either of these outrages until after he left office. Which says it all about the effectiveness of Stop the War Coalition’s brand of ‘anti-imperialism’.

Not one of the speakers, including George Galloway, who (despite a terrible chest infection) headlined at his tub-thumping and fiery best, had any suggestions about what to do apart from march about with our banners and protest.

We were told to go back to our workplaces and trade unions and “expose” the media lies about Iran; but the speakers’ only stated aim was to bring more people out on the streets of London to wave banners and protest at some undeclared date in the future.

Most depressing of all was the quick mention of Syria in passing. No question of any ‘Don’t Attack Syria’ campaign. We were just told to watch our email inboxes as Stop the War Coalition planned to call us all out – you guessed it … to wave banners and protest at Downing Street at 5.00pm on the day Syria was attacked (or maybe the day after, the speaker wasn’t too sure).

Syria did better than Pakistan, as while all the speakers agreed that Pakistan was under threat, there was not even a suggestion of going to Downing Street with banners to protest over any attack on that benighted country.

So what is to be done? Well, when Stop the War Coalition does call us out, we will (as always) troop along with our banners and protest, but that by itself will do nothing. Two million of us waved banners and protested to stop the war in Iraq, and the imperialists laughed.

We have to do much more and something else. We have to go to the Stop the War national conference and demand something more than mere banner waving and protesting and wondering why these naughty imperialists won’t listen to reason.

The imperialists are listening to reason, they are listening to their own warmongering superprofits-seeking, anti-people reason. And they will never listen to our reason; they will only ‘listen’ to our actions.

This is where CPGB-ML conflicts with the present leadership of Stop the War Coalition. We understand that the one and only way to stop these continual bloody wars is the Jolly George way. The working class has to stop cooperating with imperialism.

We have to fight, not merely wring our hands, beat our breasts and plead with the imperialists to sit on the naughty step. This is big; it’s the future of the world.

See original blog for extra links!