Communist Party of Britain and Morning Star

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Why we won’t march with Stop the War on 25 February

The risible pseudo-pacifist Stop the War Campaign, run by Stalinists and peaceniks, and despised by the left and trade unions in Ukraine, has called a demonstration to mark the first anniversary of the Russian invasion (25 February, London). The demands of these marchers are: “Stop sending arms [to Ukraine]; immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations.” Conspicuously, the marchers will not be demanding that Russian forces get out of Ukraine. The StW call to end arms shipments to Ukraine, if carried through by the West, would lead to a Russian victory, the subordination of Ukraine to Russian...

The Morning Star on human rights

Solidarity protest to support protests in China, London Credit where it’s due: the Morning Star was one of the few media outlets to note that Saturday 10 December was Human Rights Day. The paper marked it with an editorial and articles by Jeremy Corbyn and Vijay Prashad . Corbyn’s piece rightly draws attention to the British government’s moves to withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights, noting that “this campaign has been frothing on the front bench for years, but it really gathered momentum after an interim judgement from the ECHR prevented...

Morning Star on China protests

In the wake of ten deaths in a fire in Xinjiang province — deaths, it is widely believed, that could have been avoided if Covid ultra-lockdown had not prevented escape or rescue — Chinese people took to the streets across the country, especially over the weekend of 26-27 November. Some protesters borrowed the words of a lone man who hung a banner over a bridge in Beijing just before the Chinese Communist Party’s recent congress: “Democracy not dictators; citizens not slaves”. Many held up blank pieces of paper — a wordless, silent protest. Most media gave these events large and rapid coverage...

The Morning Star against free movement

Keir Starmer addressed the CBI last week and said Britain needs to get off its “immigration dependency” and companies need to be weaned off “cheap labour” from oversees and to “start investing more in training workers who are already here”. This marked a big shift in Starmer’s position: in 2020, while standing for party leadership, he’d championed freedom of movement and implied he’d continue to campaign for it even after Britain left the EU. Few commentators (the exception being the i ’s Ian Dunt) seem to have noticed that Starmer’s argument made no sense: as Dunt put it: “Is the problem with...

Conspiracy theories about the Poland missile

At 3.40pm (local time) on Tuesday 15 November, a Russian-made missile fell on the Polish village of Przwodow, killing two people. Within hours, Joe Biden and Poland’s leaders said they believed the missile, though Russian-made, had been fired by Ukraine, defending itself against a massive wave of Russian missiles targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The first news of this, apparently passed to Associated Press by “a senior US intelligence official”, appeared to blame the Russians, but even so most initial reports in the mainstream media were cautious, making it clear that the incident...

Nonsense about Ukraine peace talks

Morning Star writer Ian Sinclair reckons he’s uncovered “the top under-reported story of 2022 ... the news the British government worked to prevent a negotiated settlement to the Ukraine war in March-April 2022” (12-13 November). In fact, this story has been circulating for months and the Morning Star previously referred to it (in a front page story on 11 October) as “widely reported”, claiming: “The deal was ditched after then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, at the behest of the Biden administration, pressed President Zelenskyy to break off negotiations.” Sinclair cites various sources...

The Morning Star talks about Trotskyism

The recent Morning Star article on Trotskyism, credited to the “Marx Memorial Library” (MML) associated with the Communist Party of Britain as author, is pitched to seem reasonable. It poses a “challenge” for “all genuine socialists” — suggesting this includes many Trotskyists – to “work together on our common objectives”. But, for a start, the practice of the organisations behind the Morning Star does not match up with the appeal for reasonable cooperation. The CPB’s youth wing, the Young Communist League (YCL), has been taken over by extreme Stalinists who — in addition to advocating for...

Trumpist surge poses threat to Ukraine

America’s midterm elections take place on Tuesday 8 November. According to polls, Republicans are likely to win the House of Representatives and may win the Senate. The Democrats have controlled both chambers since 2020. The results may well impact on the Ukraine war. In May, the House of Representatives voted 368-57 in favour of a $40bn aid package to Ukraine. All 57 votes opposing the aid were from Republicans. If the Republicans take either chamber, or both, support for Ukraine is likely to weaken. That will strengthen Putin and make Russian withdrawal from Ukraine more difficult. The US...

Second thoughts about China?

For many years, the Morning Star , like its political masters at the Communist Party of Britain, has acted as a mouthpiece for the Chinese ruling class when it comes to anything concerning China. Apologists for the Communist Party of China (CPC) like Carlos Martinez and Jenny Clegg are regularly given space in the paper to praise the wonders of Chinese “socialism” (i.e. state capitalism), accuse the west of mounting a “new cold war” and to deny or justify human rights abuses like the persecution of the Uyghurs . However, some at the Morning Star surely realise that an authoritarian system with...

Lessons in democracy... from Xi Jinping!

The Morning Star , concerned about the rise of authoritarianism in Britain, has identified a major source of it: “Starmer’s Labour is playing a key role in that process and its successes accelerate the drive towards a more authoritarian and repressive British state (editorial, 12 October). The editorial cites, as examples, the expulsion of members “for rule breaches invented retrospectively”, the suspension of a conference delegate “for arguing against one of the motions on the agenda” and the deselection of Sam Tarry. The editorial goes on to warn: “Some MPs fear the Labour leader is prepared...

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