Ireland: Left-wing parties unite to fight poll

Socialist Party MEP for Dublin Joe Higgins.

Left-wing parties unite to fight poll - Mary Mihan - Irish Times.

Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins will attempt to reclaim his Dublin West seat in the next general election, he announced today.

Richard Boyd Barrett, a councillor for People Before Profit Alliance, and former Tipperary South TD Seamus Healy, will also contest the election under a new United Left Alliance (ED: good name!!).

The new grouping expects to field some 20 candidates. Dublin councillors Clare Daly and Joan Collins are also involved.

Mr Higgins said the Socialist Party, the People Before Profit Alliance and the Tipperary-based Workers and Unemployed Action Group had come together to provide a “left alternative to the establishment parties”.

Sinn Féin was accused of being prepared to “prop up” Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour in a coalition government, at the launch in a Dublin city centre hotel this morning.

“The outcome of the forthcoming election is almost a foregone conclusion insofar as Fianna Fáil and the Greens will be annihilated. Fine Gael and Labour’s sole virtue is that they are not Fianna Fáil yet they are wedded to the same cutback agenda for the next four years,” Mr Higgins said.

“The presence of a number of genuine left TDs in the Dáil offering a visible political alternative will be a massive pole of attraction to workers, unemployed and young people and can become a real factor in the unfolding crisis.”

Mr Boyd Barrett said it was time for people to take to the streets in protest and called for high participation in Saturday’s march. “We all need to get behind it and send the strongest possible message to this rotten government: get out now.”

Mr Healy said the new alliance would not participate in coalition with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. “We will not rest until the interests of Irish workers, employed and unemployed, are the first priority in this country”.

Link: More on this story

Link: Irish Times

Captain SKA - Liar Liar

Thanks to Socialist Unity for this link.
Link: Captain SKA - Liar Liar on YouTube

“We wish Respect well” say resigning leaders

"We wish Respect well” say resigning leaders.

Five members of the Respect Party, who were members of its ruling National Council until this week, have resigned in protest at the party’s decision to organise in Scotland. Alan Thornett, Terry Conway, John Lister, Bob Whitehead, Andy Richards, who are members of Socialist Resistance, sent this letter to Respect.

Please accept this as our resignations from Respect.

Our reason, as you will know, is the decision taken at Respect conference on Saturday to reverse its historic position and to begin to organise in Scotland -with George Galloway as a Respect candidate for the Scottish Parliament in the forthcoming elections. This is a big problem given that there will be at least one Scottish broad left party standing and probably two.

We were also concerned that a major change of policy was made via a last minute amendment to a resolution on the cuts, which illustrates a problem of democracy within Respect. The fact that so many people think a few days debate on a couple of blogs and 30 minutes at conference is a big discussion indicates that we have not succeeded in developing a real political culture within the organization.

As we argued in the debate any decision to organise in Scotland would inevitably have negative effects on the resources that could be devoted to building Respect in England – in particular in Tower Hamlets. Proposals to make build Respect as a national organisation in England or Respect a more visible part of the movement against the cuts have either been defeated or not carried out in practice over recent months. Declarations to the contrary were unconvincing.

Nor can one seriously believe that this decision will not take further resources away at a time when the need for a political alternative both to the Condems and to the completely ineffectual Labour Party are stronger than ever before.

The decisive issue, however, is that we think that it is generally wrong for English organisations to organise in Scotland — unless they do so as a part of an initiative led by the Scottish left. This is particularly the case with Respect which has no roots in Scotland or policies on Scotland. It is also particularly the case when the election concerned is for Holyrood rather than Westminster.

As we pointed out, we support the SSP, which has already selected its lead candidates in each region of Scotland for Holyrood. It is true that the SSP was seriously weakened by the split of Sheridan, which was a result of his disastrous decision to sue the Murdoch press in the way he did. The SSP, however, has consolidated and grown since this time and is an organisation today with proportionately many more comrades in Scotland than Respect has in England.

It is also an organisation which is visibly present at every key moment of Scottish politics on the side of the working class and the oppressed – so against the war, against racism and fascism, in defense of women’s rights and at the heart of the anti-cuts movement. The youth group Scottish Socialist Youth has played a key role in all these and many other initiatives and is a vibrant and dynamic organization.

We make these assessments on the basis of the fact that we have supporters who are members of the SSP and on the basis that SR comrades have attended every SSP conference and many other initiatives over the years.

For us to advocate a vote for a different party would be untenable - both for Respect and for ourselves. In any case the last thing the Scottish left needs is another left party standing in the Holyrood elections and dividing the left vote still further. This is a counterproductive and sectarian decision by Respect.

Respect has no policy what-so-ever on the issue of devolution and self-determination around which Scottish politics turns. To decide to stand for Holyrood without a single discussion on the policies on which the candidate would stand leaves it in the hands of the candidate with no collective input. While George Galloway was a founding supporter of Scotland United – the organization which spearheaded the fight for Scottish self determination - he opposes independence. We don’t take this view – we believe the break up of the British state is in the interests of socialists on both sides of the border.

Support for independence does not mean that the left in Scotland and England cannot and should not work together to fight the Condems or imperialism – the SSP has been part of working with organizations in England (and Wales with the Plaid left) through formations like the Convention of the Left.

We are resigning with great reluctance since we remain committed to the building of a broad pluralist party to challenge New Labour and the neoliberal parties and for us this is a further setback in that process.

Meanwhile we wish Respect well, genuinely so, and will work with you where the opportunity arises - particularly in the struggle against the cuts, over racism and in solidarity with the people of Palestine. We will continue to support and work for Respect candidacies in many places in England and hope that perhaps one day we may again be part of a common organisation that provides a real alternative to neoliberalism.

Comradely

Alan Thornett, Terry Conway, John Lister, Bob Whitehead, Andy Richards – NC members over the last year.

Link: Socialist Resistance

Head of armed forces says victory over al-Qa'ida is not possible

Head of armed forces says victory over al-Qa'ida is not possible by Kim Sengupta in The Independent.

Sir David Richards, the head of British forces, has declared that a military victory against al-Qa'ida and the Taliban is not possible.

Attempts by the West to achieve this were unnecessary, said Sir David Richards, the Chief of General Staff, who also defended the right of fundamentalist Muslims to adhere to beliefs which underpin their lives. He stressed that one cannot defeat ideas merely through fighting wars.

Gen Richards warned that Britain would continue to face danger from Islamist terrorism for at least 30 years, and that the militancy that spawned it was unlikely to be resolved in the near future. The threat could not be eradicated, he said, but could be contained, in an effort to prevent attacks.

Gen Richards's views may lay him open to accusations of defeatism. But the former commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan stressed that, in his view, progress was taking place in the Afghan campaign and it was imperative that there should not be a premature withdrawal of troops.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph on the eve of Remembrance Sunday, Gen Richards insisted that the sacrifices made by British forces in Afghanistan, where 343 have been killed so far, "have been worth it". Nato was "in the right parish ... Don't give up, folks, it's all to play for". But he also said the British Government and the military had been "guilty of not fully understanding what was at stake" in the mission and acknowledged that many Afghans were "tiring" of Nato's inability to deliver on its promises.

Meanwhile the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, has charged that the current intensity of US-led military operations is creating dissatisfaction among his people. More ..........

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THE TIME TO GO FROM AFGHANISTAN IS NOW

National Demonstration • Afghanistan: Time to Go
Saturday 20 November • Assemble 12 Noon
Speakers' Corner • Hyde Park • London

Called by: Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, British Muslim Initiative. Supported by: War on Want, UNITE the union, University and College Union, Pax Christi, Islamic Forum of Europe, The Cordoba Foundation and Friends of Al Aqsa

Speakers will include Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone, Eric Joyce MP, Guardian journalist Seumas Milne, rap artist Lowkey, human rights' lawyer Phil Shiner and academic Terry Eagleton (more to be announced soon). More ........

Link: The Independent