How can we mourn? by Janet Sillett how can we mourn a city who are not its victims? we do not hear the drones or smell decay we do not feel the shaking of foundations our eulogy a distortion stretched threadbare gaslighting humanity “Don’t scroll past” but I do now, Continue Reading
War
Israel’s colonial exclusionary project in Palestine is a latter day ‘manifest destiny’
This is an edited version of Will McMahon’s eight-minute roundtable introduction at the recent TAS Meeting on Palestine. You can find Ed Pott’s and Nick Wrack’s verbal introductions at the start of the meeting on the TAS Youtube channel. What is happening in Palestine is the kind of colonial exclusionary Continue Reading
Sunak, Shapps and Starmer beat the war drum
In a speech delivered at Lancaster House in London on Monday 15 January 2024, titled Defending Britain from a more dangerous world, UK Defence Minister Grant Shapps evoked the spirit of previous war-mongering Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to prepare the British public for war. War on many fronts. War that will Continue Reading
Palestine: The political background to Israel’s war on Gaza
This article is an edited version of a talk given by Moshé Machover to a ‘Talking About Socialism…from a Marxist point of view’ online discussion on the subject, on Monday 13 November 2023. I will place present events in their historical context. As the General Secretary of the United Nations said, these events are Continue Reading
The Breaking of Bread and Catastrophe: Two poems on Gaza
The breaking of bread by Janet Sillett Families queuing for round flat loaveseach morning before dawn the struggle for bread Sharq Bakery in Gaza City bombed late October 2023in the doorway blood mixes with flour the smell of baking lingering in the space that is left I recall Jewish black bread, caraway Continue Reading
To those who seek nemesis in my name
To those who seek nemesis in my name by Janet Sillett you do not do this in my nameyou do not use my nameyou do not speak for me my anger is minenot yoursyou do not use my nameto light up the dying sky with sulphurous starsto bleed the oceanto Continue Reading
No money for war in Ukraine
Oppose GMB Motion 71 The British Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a federation of 48 trade unions, representing 5.5 million trade union members. The 155th annual TUC Congress (conference) takes place in Liverpool on 10-13 September 2023. A motion on the agenda from the GMB union (Motion 71) seeks to commit Continue Reading
Military spending accelerates
It will soon be reported that Bakhmut has fallen. With Russian bombs raining down, and GPS guided bombs destroying Ukrainian positions, Ukrainian forces will have little option but to retreat to a new front line having suffered, like the Russians, thousands of casualties. It is generally assumed that NATO and Continue Reading
In whose interest?
Coming from one of the leading figures on the British left, a Labour MP and Shadow Chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn from 2015 – 2020, John McDonnell’s recent article “The Ukrainian Question for Socialists” requires comment: all the more so because it argues that it is an inescapable conclusion that socialists Continue Reading
Not all quiet on the Eastern Front
The Stop the War demonstration took place last weekend amidst a huge wave of pro-war propaganda in the British media. Even the BBC World Service, which usually has to attenuate its imperial message for a global audience, is full-throttle behind Ukraine – no other voices are entertained. In this context, Continue Reading