Archive for the ‘Sectarianism’ Category
Morning Star has unique take on Tory election defeats.
Tories suffer double by-election humiliation as Greenpeace activist and union organiser elected MPs.
The Morning Star, one of two English Langage dailies which self-identify as socialist says,
A UNION organiser and a Greenpeace activist won seats in the Commons today as Labour trounced the Tories in two by-elections.
Sarah Edwards, 35, and Alistair Strathern, 33, overturned huge Conservative majorities to sweep to victory in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire respectively.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said she was “particularly delighted” that former Unite organiser Ms Edwards had won.
Ms Graham said: “The result shows the power of organisation that underpins the labour movement. She will be a bright star in Parliament.”
Ms Edwards, formerly a NHS governor and Oxfam worker, hailed her “historic victory” after overturning a majority of more than 19,000 to beat her Tory rival Andrew Cooper by 1,316 votes.
The by-election was held after the resignation of former Tory deputy chief whip Chris Pincher, following his Commons suspension for groping two men.
Ms Edwards said the people of Tamworth had “voted for Labour’s positive vision.”
Mr Strathern, meanwhile, said that “nowhere is off limits” for the party after he overturned a Conservative majority of almost 25,000 votes in Mid Bedfordshire, winning by a margin of 1,192.
The former maths teacher, whose partner Megan Corton-Scott is a political campaigner for Greenpeace, dressed as a zombie during a protest by the environmental charity outside the Home Office last November.
He has also protested outside Parliament against public order laws aimed at preventing Just Stop Oil protests.
The former Waltham Forest councillor, who was backed by the GMB union, took Nadine Dorries’s former seat, which had been held by the Conservatives since 1931.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “Winning in these Tory strongholds shows that people overwhelmingly want change and they’re ready to put their faith in our changed Labour Party to deliver it.”
GMB political officer Gavin Sibthorpe said: “Rishi Sunak and the Tories have shown working people again and again they have no plan, no competence and no mandate to govern this country.”
Ms Strathern was among hundreds of Labour members who condemned Oxford Labour Club for endorsing Israel Apartheid Week, a series of rallies against the Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestineians, in 2016.
Friends of Al-Aqsa chairman Ismail Patel told the Morning Star that the party must show leadership, both internationally and domestically, adding: “Labour is taking for granted individuals who want justice for Palestinians.”
In other words Labour did not really win the by-elections but Greenpeace and the unions did.
Though the Morning Star is perhaps better than this:
And, in another blow to Keir Starmer, the anti-Labour daily carried this story on Friday,
Labour hit by protests over failure to denounce ‘Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza’
PALESTINE rights activists targeted Labour offices across England and Wales today over the party’s support for “Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza.”
The action comes ahead of the national day of action in London tomorrow.
Demonstrators chanted: “Labour Party, blood on your hands,” “Shame on you,” and “No more money for Israel’s crime” while protesting outside the party’s HQ in London.
They continue…
Still, one supposes they are better than this lot:
Palestine and revolution—how we win liberation.
Socialist Worker.
Smashing the forces of imperialism and Zionism will be no easy task, but there is a force strong enough in society to smash the system and rebuild society anew.
….
The unity that runs from the Israeli butchers to BP to Rishi Sunak has to be met by a revolutionary unity of workers and the poor across the globe.
That’s why Socialist Worker doesn’t just agitate for revolution but also for a revolutionary party to unite, organise and direct the mass explosion of workers’ anger and power.
Everyone who struggles against low pay, racism, war, sexism and oppression must be brought together in a fight aimed at the system.
Channelling that collective anger to bring the system down means
Battling for victory in Palestine and against the system that caused and shapes Palestine’s oppression.
The SWP has the cheek to cite Hal Draper in their support,
Hal Draper, a Marxist who took part in the struggles of the 1960s in the United States, explained a central division on how this can be done.
“Throughout the history of socialist movements and ideas, the fundamental divide is between Socialism From Above and Socialism From Below,” he wrote.
“The unity that runs from the Israeli butchers to BP to Rishi Sunak has to be met by a revolutionary unity of workers and the poor across the globe.”
How this involves standing with the authoritarian Islamist fascists of Hamas who will murder, Jews, socialists, feminists and LGBT people with glee is hard to fathom.
Maoist filth in the USA, “Full and conscious subjugation”: inside a Maoist Cult in America.”
Like many Leftist Trainspotters, the BBC contacted me over the UK Workers’ Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought in 2015. Not being directly ever in contact with them in Brixton, though loathed them on sight, put them onto other people who knew more. Like Paul F.
This lot were much bigger, they “exerted control over the lives of hundreds of young people– psychologically, financially, physically, and sexually abusing them.
FULL AND CONSCIOUS SUBJECTION”: INSIDE A MAOIST CULT IN AMERICA
The “Committee to Reconstitute the Communist Party of the USA,” or the “CR-CPUSA,” launched in 2014 under the initial name “Red Guards Austin.” Led by the charismatic authority of Jared Roark, it grew out of and largely seized control of the Maoist movement in the US– an emerging wave of collectives and organizers with revolutionary aspirations.
By its collapse in 2022, it had consolidated into a high-control organization, or cult, which psychologically and physically abused its members, harbored rapists in leadership, and engaged in at least one instance of human trafficking. The cult dictated how members dressed, where we lived, and who we dated. It punished us with sleep deprivation, humiliation, “struggle sessions,” and beatings. It preyed on people’s just desire for social and societal change in order to fulfill Jared’s personal vision, all while sabotaging genuinely progressive organizing efforts.
The CR-CPUSA operated through public fronts like study groups, tenant unions, marches against police brutality, and charity work. It also had, and its leaders are still defended by, connections to a broader international movement, which we hope to investigate and interrogate further. Despite the collapse, Jared and his closest devotees in Austin and Los Angeles have made efforts to regroup, and its ideology has gone on to inspire a small but not insignificant movement of similar organizations. If, with this project, I can help just one person avoid falling into the trap I did, it will be worth it.
The name of this project comes from the loyalty pledge CR-CPUSA members were compelled to recite at every meeting before we could speak: “I declare my full and conscious subjection…”
We’re speaking freely now.
Just now: “Voices: A Militant” – Luke’s testimony and criticism of Struggle Sessions.
The Tendance breaks the Imperialist silence on the CPGB (M-L).
Defy the MSM and re-X this!
See: Galloway and the CPGB-ML: notes on a romance Lawrence Parker.
Some of their sane and rational policies.
Tendance Coatesy 