Monthly Archives: August 2008

The murder of Palestinian children

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The Israeli state can do what it likes. Having killed a 9 year old another young man was shot in the head by the occupying forces. What are the crimes of the Palestinians involved? They are protesting at the illegal land grab.
Who speaks out? Not Bush, not Brown, nor Obama. No British politician (well actually some do bu they are ignored by the media). Who is the terrorist in these cases? Bush was successful in defining who “the terrorist” is. Blair bought it and the media was complicit. Have the people agreed? Far from it, many are outraged, but the elected representatives of our so-called democracies have other masters. The powerful, the owners of our fuel and food supplies, can dictate the terms. The rules are those who can take what they want and it is given legitimacy by democratic governments. What moral authority have they then over not-so-democratic regimes? Nowhere is the idea that you can take someone else’s land with impunity than in thee Palestinian territories. Oh yes there have been murmers from Bush, from Rice and Brown. Clearly the Israeli Government is impressed by totally ignoring them, their own laws. They are using live amunition on defenceless people, including children.

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The irrelevance of New Labour’s battle to the global crisis

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Here we go with reports of Blair speaking of a “vacuous” Brown and Miliband pleasing the Blairites – if they can’t return to Tony then David is their man. Brown’s former reputation was always a lot stronger than Tony Blair’s, as a former ambassador to the United States, Sir Christopher Meyer, testified. He recalls how many of those visiting Washington were viewed as “political pygmies”, while John Reid and Gordon Brown stood out from the crowd. While Blair skated superficially over issues, it was Gordon Brown who showed a grasp of detail.
In the Blair Brown succession the choice for New Labour was circumscribed, and so it will be again this time with only those shown to be New Labourites in the frame, including some of the “pygmies” Meyer describes. Accepting the New Labour mantra means more of the same. Returning to the Blairite agenda appears to be the significant “changes” our hero David is talking about.
How does this fit in with the current crisis. It’s been fashioned by globalisation, privatisation characterised by the interests of global markets and massive international interests of powerful corporations. Many politicians have personal interests in them. So the idea of New Labour, in common with Tories – Lib-Dems who knows? (As I’ve already pointed out they run with the Tories here in Birmingham.) As Ian Johnson of the SLP points out, we need a new bus. No good continually changing the driver

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Nine year old Palestinian boy shot in the head

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Not front page news? If not, why not? Are the army out of control? If not, who is deciding that children are legitimate targets? The following is from Jewish Voice for Peace.
The first two items below, issued Tuesday July 29 and Wednesday July 30 and circulated on activist email networks, announce two separate demonstrations by Israeli peace groups protesting Israels’ violent targeting of Palestinian children and, in particular, of children taking part in attempts at peaceful protests against the severe oppression they experience under occupation.
In many cases it is the violence of the Israeli military that intentionally escalates plans for peaceful resistance and the third item below, from “Haaretz”, reports a discipline problem in the military deployed to contain civilian protests in the West Bank, despite a campaign by the chief of staff “to restore discipline to the IDF” after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 2006. According to the July 30th report, “a series of events – the shooting of a bound Palestinian protester; two Military Police probes; and as of Tuesday the suspension of a battalion commander – show a worrying and dangerous downward spiral.”
Reflecting the significance of international organizing and activism against these incidents, journalist Amos Harel adds that, “these happenings are taking place under increased scrutiny by the international media” In an absurd inversion of logic and blame he claims that this, “encourages the opponents of the fence to ratchet up the conflict [and a]pparently, it also increases pressure on IDF officers, who are having difficulty keeping events in check,” implying that the out-of-control violence Israel’s military can be attributed to international scrutiny and pressure.
Rela Mazali

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Profits just keep rolling in

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We just sit back and watch as energy companies announce mighty profits following the price hike for consumers. Centrica, overlord of British Gas, announced a massive increase while British Gas employees went out to celebrate. The idea was to inform staff about rising bills, but they appear not to have been on message when they started partying. This was somewhat encouraged by the provision of entertainment and booze and things got out of hand.
Private companies own our utilities so control is in the hands of individuals who amass wealth and power. There is little consumers can do, although competition was the big idea which meant that they have choice. In practice it appears that prices are remarkably similar from providers who appear to be a rather large club. We should expect however that government would be able to act on behalf of energy users, particularly those most vulnerable to the effects of the availability and cost. Reaction has been piecemeal and minimal with announcements that winter fuel payments would be increased. If both fuel and food prices continue to increase as promised the amounts announced will hardly touch the needs of many in hardship.
That price rises and shortages are on a global scale points to the difficulties brought about by “globalisation”. We were promised benefits from such a process, but once again it is claer that beneficiaries are those who control the means of production. The rest who don’t are consigned to the wilderness. Meanwhile the talk is about replacing Brown in New Labour, or possibly moving to the Tories under Cameron at the moment. Another case of rearranging the deck chairs since nothing will touch the fundamental problem. Large corporations often own greater resources than the governments of countries in which they operate, acting as agents for other governments. Many of those holding office have themselves interests in those companies.

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