SOCIALIST UNITY

We have split the carnival into two parts, with a selection from Louise, and a selection from Andy 

Louise looks at the issues on left feminist blogs:

Feministing  has written on McCain and equal pay

The ongoing attacks on choice is shown by Feministe who reports that in Oklahoma, anti-abortionists are pushing for intrusive and invasive ultra-sounds for women who want a termination.

Race, feminism and class

Angry Black Woman has written about feminism and race. And the face of feminism reflects white, privileged women.

Feminism is made for and by white women. And I really feel like this is one of those areas where the white women need to get enlightened before things can change. But, of course, many of them won’t be because they don’t see racism, which is directed against women of color, as a feminist issue. They’re hard pressed to acknowledge that racism is as great a problem as sexism at all.

I agree with her. Hierarchy of oppression argument is wrong. Feminism is about challenging all forms of oppression, including racism, and showing solidarity with black feminists.

This leads onto the sad fact that the feminist blogosphere is missing an excellent blog. brownfemipower  has written a very powerful post about how she felt she had no other choice than to stop blogging. I hope she re-thinks. Here, here and here explains why.

And now Blackamazon has quit the blogosphere as well.

I would like, therefore, to extend my support and solidarity to brownfemipower and Blackamazon and to add my own disgust at the way women of color have been sidelined, ignored and now silenced by defensive white feminists.

There are glaring comparisons and parallels to be made as women experience being sidelined, dismissed, silenced and ignored within the patriarchal capitalist society so why white feminists replicate those power relationships by treating Black women in a similar way such as subordinating their experiences and denying them a voice is beyond comprehension.

As feminists we have a duty to recognise this behaviour and consciously challenge it rather than to capitulate and reinforce it.

I also largely agree with what Zenobia has to say and it is not the kind of feminism I signed up for:

“So let’s work on fostering the ideas of community, solidarity, and the value of people’s hard work. I won’t say ‘within feminism’, because feminism is partly, supposedly, about fostering those ideas in the community at large, not about creating an exclusive club of perfect (white, middle-class, ivy-league educated, successful) women”.

Andy Newman’s selection on China:
Aaronvitch Watch notes that Tibet is the latest decent cause du jour. The Decents are those who try to dress up slavish support for US foreign policy with tortuous arguments about why this is the furthest left position that is decent: “I note that they are busy recycling the claim that the Chinese have killed 1.2 million Tibetans. A few moments googling tells me that this claim is hardly uncontroversial, to say the least. More to the point, how come the Decents recycle such factoids uncritically when it suits their agenda, but express pop-eyed incredulity when standard techniques produce answers they don’t like for Iraqi excess deaths?”

As the blog shock-troops of the Decents, Harry’s Place mischievously highlighted the e-mail sent out by the Stop the War Coalition office that erroneously suggested that everyone in the Coalition supported the call for Tibetan independence. In a letter to the Morning Star, STW Chair Andrew Murray explained that this was an innocent error, and STW had no policy on Tibet, and no real harm was done.

Jim of Daily Maybe eleoquently supports Tibetan independence, and  sums up his position: “The simple truth is that if you’re with those who roll their tanks over the heads of the poor then you’ve chosen the well trodden path of complicity with dictatorship. It’s time to rethink.”. Jim explains his position:

“An independent government, whether or not the Dalai Lama led it, would be moving forwards towards the modern world and greater democracy. A victory in Tibet could and should open up a space in the rest of China and give inspiration to others whether they be in Burma, Iraq, Nepal or Luton. China is an imperialist state. It acts like imperialism, it walks like imperialism, it leaves dead bodies and helps itself to stolen territory just like imperialism. When people protest for the ability of the individual to live their own life, it is the very the definition of tyranny to send in a trigger happy occupying army to crush those desires.”

Jim’s jay’s approach seems very straightforward and honourable, but I think he has misunderstood the situation. However, Liam Mac Uaid also supports Tibetan independence:

“By denying the Tibetans their right to self determination the Chinese bureaucracy is creating an opportunity for the imperialists to actively engage in Chinese politics. Nancy Pelosi’s meeting with the Dalai Lama yesterday was just such an intervention. The irony is that the the rioters on the streets no longer seem to be taking a political lead from a religious leader whom they see as too willing to accommodate to the bureaucracy and they certainly were not demanding a confessional state.”

Alas blog amuses itself by the intemperate tone of Jim Denham’s contribution to the debate about Tibet at Shiraz Socialist, ostensibly an open letter to the Morning Star newspaper.

“Listen, you Stalinists! You have been systematically spreading lies about the ’Free Tibet’ movement, and offering uncritical support to the vicious, red-in-tooth-and-claw capitalist ruling class in Beijing. “

Though the same post by Jim Denham was approvingly aggregated by Brownfemipower at the radical “blog and the bullet” site. The argument on Shiraz was not only bad tempered, but also relied upon over-stretching historical analogy.

Madam Miaow took a very different view, concerned at the knee jerk reactions to the Tibet issue.

“China needs to deal with what rampant capitalism is doing to all its people. To present this as Chinese “communism” oppressing a rebellious religious minority is to miss the point and distort the picture. Just who are the Tibetans who are rebelling by attacking the Han Chinese and Hui Muslims, anyhow? Descendents of the serfs? The clergy class? They may have legitimate grievances in that they feel they are being treated as third class citizens and fear they’ll end up the same way as native Americans and Australian aborigines. Cutting the pursestrings by granting some faked-up “independence” where they’d be dependent on UN handouts and subservient to their new western political masters is probably not the answer. Finally, in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s not China which is the biggest threat to world peace. I think the US and UK are at the head of that queue. Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Palestine, Syria, China: these are all within their sights (sorry if I missed any).”

On Socialist Unity blog I have also argued that the best interests of Tibetans lie within the Peoples’ Republic of China.

“It is hard to see that there is any social or economic class in Tibet whose interests would be improved by independence, and without such an interest then there are probably no grounds for a mass struggle for independence. Cultural and political autonomy within the Peoples’ Republic is an acheivable option, whereas full political “independence” would just mean Tibet swapped China for domination by the USA or India. The disadvantages and social exclusion of Tibetans in their own land need to be addressed, but the fact that many of their economic grievances are the same as, or similar to, the problems faced by Han Chinese throughtout the whole of China must be recognised. Given the paranoia of the CCP about any threat to the unity of the Peoples’ Republic, then the least effective way to gain reforms to solve these problems is to link them with the demand for independence, and be seen to be aligned with the foreign powers who are enemies of the Chinese government. The last thing the Tibetan people need is to be used as a pawn in a propaganda war against Beijing.”

Derek Wall supported the protests against the Olympic Torch, but also highlighted the wider issues of human right abuse in China:

“Derek Wall Green Party Principal Speaker says ‘I urge you to get on the streets on sunday to protest at the Olympics being held in China. Human rights are abused in Tibet but in this matter there is little discrimination, human rights are abused irrespective of ethnicity by the Chinese government. Tibet must be free and all Chinese must be allowed human rights. The Olympics will be a scandal.’”

Other China related issues were discussed on the blogs. Dave Osler opines that “any balance sheet of China’s shift away from central [economic] planning has to be broadly positive.”, and on Socialist Unity blog, I look at China’s environmental movement. Lenin’s Tomb explores the paradox that although Mao’s Great Leap Forward led to terrible famine, the overall record of Communist rule in China has been economic and social advance:

“China did suffer one appalling famine in 1959-61, with mortality estimates ranging from 15 million (the Chinese government’s figure) to 43 million (the figure reached by the reformist Chinese economist Chen Yizi). The reasons for this, as one would expect, are as much political and economic as natural. The sudden, drastic changes in property forms and incentives associated with the catastrophic ‘Great Leap Forward’ dramatically reduced output, while at the same the government was appropriating grain for mass export to pay debts to the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, barring that atrocious failure, China did fundamentally depart from its at least century old status as the ‘land of famine’. It raised life expectancy all round as a result of social protection systems.”

Politics in the Zeros highlights the action of South African trade unionists in blocking Chinese arms exports to Robert Mugabe’s government That could be used for a crack down on the democratic opposition.

Adam Curry shares this cartoon with us.

Finally, two interesting posts from Splintered Sunrise refer to the KMT election victory in Taiwan, and the influence of Mao Zedong thought among the American New Communist Movement in the 1970s, and the comments discuss the Red Guards in New York.

While we are at it, perhaps worth looking at this recent summary of English speaking Maoist blogs.

Roll-up, roll-up, the carnival is here…..

The theme of this Carnival is “Learning from the past”, and we are hoping to showcase and promote left blogging, particularly thoughtful and informative debate. The remit was either discussion of past events and how they affect us today, the history of the left, or how our own personal experiences have shaped us as left activists. As Sheila Rowbotham once argued: “The past is before us”….

The last few weeks have seen some important anniversaries, and the degree to which they have or haven’t been discussed throws some interesting light on the priorities of today’s left.

The 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade has seen a huge amount of gushing self congratulation in the liberal press. As a useful corrective Socialism or Your Money back reminds us what a reactionary bigot Wilberfoce actually was: “whose well known sympathy for the negro slave never prevented him from being the foremost apologist and champion of every act of tyranny in England”. Theft is good, points out that it was not Wilberforce, but actions from below that forced the abolition of slavery.

Bro. K. Bangarah argues : “The truth is that they did not stop kidnapping and deporting our people because they realised how evil and wrong their behaviour was. They did it because they were forced to; the unstoppable forces emanating from Afrikan people determined to liberate themselves from bondage, left them with no other choice.”

One of the best articles on the subject is by Jacques Depelchin who draws a historical balance sheet about the successful slave revolt in Haiti in 1804, and relates it to today’s involuntary exile of Haiti’s leftist President Aristide in South Africa.

Over at Shiraz Socialists Jim Denham discusses the question of a British state apology for slavery. The same issue is passionately discussed by Darkdaughta who concludes “Apologies from the heads of any old, monied, european clans or from career politicians ain’t worth the toilet paper they’ll be written on”.

And the continued symbolism of slavery for modern black people is considered by The Angry Black Woman who reflects upon the political history of the Confederate flag through art. What does this flag represent? Time honoured pride or entrenched racism coupled with brutality and violence?

Ghana’s independence fifty years ago- the first country in Africa to break the hold of colonialism - had a major and lasting impact, not only on anti-colonial struggles, but on black liberation struggles in the West, such as the Black Panthers, yet the anniversary has been barely acknowledged in the western blogosphere.

This is discussed by Justice Africa The blog questions how the upcoming 50th anniversaries of Ugandan and Guinean governments will celebrate independence when the current governments have capitulated to imperialism.

The independence celebrations within Ghana have also seen a debate about the legacy of liberation. Madam Tsikata of the Women’s movement in Ghana complains that the role of women in the anti-colonial struggle has not been recognised.

Meanwhile Prince MacDonald of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Ghana, used the day as the opportunity to confront corrupt officials saying, “they’re worse than colonials”.

Closer to home, the victory of imperialism in Northern Ireland has received little mention in Britain, but Splintered Sunrise from Belfast is continuing his interesting discussion of the revolutionary programme.

The 25th anniversary of the Las Malvinas war is remembered by Socialism or Your Money back, “”So British and Argentinian service men went across across the ocean to do battle with each other in their masters’ cause.” While Stroppybird gives a personal take: “My introduction to the world of leftie politics was canvassing for labour in an overwhelmingly Tory naval town during the Falklands/Malvinas war. Being called a traitor and having scary abuse and threats hurled at you as a 16 year old is quite a baptism of fire.”

Away from the topic of anniversaries, there has been some discussion of the legacy of history on the left. Mike Pearn continues to publish interesting documents from the history of the SRG/IS/SWP on his blog.

But the most interesting piece on this topic is from Charlie Pottins: who discusses the tragic death of Jeremiah Duggan, and the suspicious connection with Lyndon La Rouche’s organisation.
The 1970s seems like another planet (not if you have been watching cop drama, Life on Mars) in retrospect, and Finally Feminist 101 posts about her reasons for becoming a feminist and how the women’s liberation of the 1970s inspired her politically. She also reflects on the continuing influence of feminism on young women today. Hooray!

We shouldn’t confuse learning from history with living in the past, and Phyllis Schlafly describes the new effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment as “retro”…

Now, to comrades who don’t know Schlafly, she is a vile right-winger, used to be a pal of Ronald Reagan (crime enough) and constantly decries equality for women (stay at home and bake cookies yada yada)! Isn’t about time you retired, Phyllis? Celebrations all around when you do lady! And as Feministing eloquently argues, “equal rights for all women except Phyllis”.

The unfortunate behaviour of some left groups is certainly an obstacle we need to overcome, and there is a thought provoking contribution to the debate about this on the (low volume but always interesting) left libertarian site, Spaces of Hope.

The general state of the left also receives consideration from Unknown Conscience who makes the excellent point that much of the British left have still failed to adequately theorise the impact of the defeats of the Thatcher era, and she asks the sensible question: “It seems to me that people continue to function and do politics in a way that was common in the 1970s and this hardly seems relevant any longer.”

Red Squirel’s lair discusses the disastrous impact of the collapse of the USSR.

Reading the Maps discusses the influence of Trotsky in EP Thompson. The Little Lenin Library continues to post academic essay’s that could do with some journalistic editing. But among the verbiage there can sometimes be a point. He discusses the Sonderweg thesis, that the development of capitalism in Germany follwed a special path that predisposed it towards fascism. As ‘ickle Lenin points out “it establishes an unwarranted “normal path” …and if one doubts the superiority of the West, the thesis loses its attractiveness;”

Liam Mac Uaid posts a rather more accessible article about the lessons of building mass socialist parties, based upon the german experience. Given the dire state of the left in England, these are lessons we need to draw upon.

Oh, and to finish on a kinda tenuous connection, the BBC 1 telly programme Life on Mars (about a cop from 2006 stuck in 1973) has finished. One word. Gutted. Danny Boyle et al take note. This is how to write a good script…..

The Socialist Unity Blog is hosting the next Carnival of Socialism.

The idea behind the Carnival of Socialism is to highlight, encourage and promote the best in left blogging. Each Carnival is hosted by a different blog, and other bloggers are invited to submit links to postings on the chosen topic

As such it should, in my opinion, reflect the full diversity of views on the left. I had been rather critical of the last couple of Carnivals because I felt the bloggers who hosted them focussed the carnival too much towards their own point of view.

As always it is a mistake to criticise, because quite justifiably the comrades have said to us at SU blog, if you think it could be done better, then you do the next one. So we have set ourselves up! Hopefully it won’t be a case of Pride before a Fall!

Anyway, we are inviting submissions before a deadline of Saturday 8th April, and hope to publish on Monday 10th April. But the earlier you send a submission the better.

The topic we have chosen is “Learning from the past”. This can include topics of how the left can learn from the experience of previous historical periods, either recently or a long time ago, or the history of various left groups, or how ideas have evolved. It can also include topics about how we as individual socialists have learned from our own personal experience.

Please submit items for consideration to swindon_socialists@yahoo.co.uk.

When writing to me, please put the word “Carnival” in the subject line.

Also in your e-mail please don’t mention Viagra, penis enlargement, offers to get money out of Nigeria, or improbable sexual favours, as these mails get blocked by my spam filter.