Counterfire

“Third camp” or no camp?

Many responses from the left to the Ukraine crisis have ignored, sidestepped, or downplayed the right to self-determination of the Ukrainian people. Yet Ukraine is one of the longest-oppressed large nations in the world. In an article of 1939 where he raised Ukraine’s right to self-determination as an urgent question, Leon Trotsky wrote: “The Ukrainian question, which many governments and many ‘socialists’ and even ‘communists’ have tried to forget or to relegate to the deep strongbox of history, has once again been placed on the order of the day and this time with redoubled force”. The same...

Hands off Ukraine! Russian troops out!

Ukraine got independence only in 1991. Ninety per cent of its people, west and east, voted to separate from Russia after the old bureaucratic command-economy regime collapsed. They had been under foreign rule, Russian or Polish, for centuries. By 1991 they had been under especially vicious foreign rule — Stalinist terror, deliberately-sustained famine, then police-state bureaucratic “Russification” — for six decades (east) or five (west). Russia’s creeping invasion of Ukraine is a drive to restore that foreign domination. Probably Russia’s ruler Vladimir Putin does not aim at the old direct...

Next after Assembly?

The People’s Assembly, held at Central Hall Westminster on 22 June, backed the demonstration called by the Unite and Unison unions for the NHS at the Tory Party conference in Manchester on 29 September. It also called for a “day of civil disobedience, everywhere” on 5 November and “local People’s Assemblies in every town and city”. The Assembly, which was initiated by Counterfire and the Coalition of Resistance (CoR) but gained sponsorship from many unions including Unison and Unite, declared that: “We have a plain and simple goal: to make government abandon its austerity programme. If it will...

"Anti-imperialism" no excuse to back Assad

The latest campaign by the Stop the War campaign, the remnant of the group which ten years ago organised big marches against the invasion of Iraq, is to prevent Western intervention in Syria. An attempt at a major public meeting on the issue, held in London on 21 May, attracted only 50 people. This was a meeting organised by leftists (Counterfire and Socialist Action) to oppose Western intervention in Syria at which no platform speaker was willing to criticise the disgusting Syrian regime. They say: “our duty is to build a movement against Western intervention.” But, even if such an initiative...

Left unity must be linked to real action

The crises and splits in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and Respect have spurred more talk about left unity. The left needs systematic unity in action where we agree, and honest dialogue where we differ, in order to reinstate socialist ideas as an option in the working class. On 26 March the Coalition of Resistance (within which the key force is the SWP splinter Counterfire) held a press conference to promote a “People’s Assembly Against Austerity” for 22 June (previously announced in a letter to the Guardian on 5 February). Workers’ Liberty supports all such gatherings; but, worryingly...

Film protests: any “struggle” will do?

Like many others, I watched The Innocence of Muslims thinking it must be some kind of satirist’s joke — that this couldn’t possibly be what all the fuss was about. It was too ludicrous, too obviously amateurish and awful, for anyone to take seriously. I had precisely the same experience reading articles by the International Socialist Group (Scotland) (which is linked to the English splinter from the SWP led by John Rees). Someone, I thought, has written a parody of playschool “anti-imperialism”. But no. David Jamieson, a student at Glasgow Caledonian University, writes: “Another day, another...

Finkelstein's change of heart on Israel boycott

Prominent anti-Zionist writer Norman Finkelstein has broken from the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” (BDS) movement, denouncing it as a “cult” and saying that it is based on a politics of “eliminating Israel” but is too dishonest to say so. Finkelstein, whose books include The Holocaust Industry and Beyond Chutzpah, has until now focused much of his work on arguing his view that Israel and its supporters internationally manipulate or manufacture claims of anti-Semitism and imagined existential threats to Israel in order to suppress criticism of the state. But now he has denounced the...

Down with Assad! For liberty and democracy in Syria!

The revolt in Syria began in March 2011, in the wake of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. So far at least 8,000 people have died, largely from regime violence as peaceful protesters came out onto the streets to demand freedom. The pace of the killings is increasing as armed opposition grows, the rebellion spreads and the regime becomes more desperate. According to the the Local Coordination Committees opposition network, since 4 February almost 700 people have been killed, including more than 400 in Homs. Syria’s rulers are willing to do anything it takes to stay in power: destroying...

Back our enemies' enemies?

We need a new Marxist left. The one we have is largely degenerate. What other conclusion can we draw from the following: At the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts conference on 28-29 January, members of the SWP, Counterfire and Socialist Action voted against a motion opposing war and sanctions on Iran — originally proposed by Counterfire members — because their motion had been amended to include the words: “The war waged by the tyrannical, misogynist, homophobic, anti-working class regime against Iranian student activists and trade unionists, women and LGBT people.” And, “To make links...

Rewriting the history of the Stop the War Coalition

The Stop The War Coalition has declared: "The terrorist attack that destroyed the Twin Towers ten years ago was a crime which Stop the War Coalition condemned at the time, and it reaffirms that condemnation today". There is plenty more in the STWC statement to query politically, but that first sentence demands comment just in the name of putting the record straight. Stop The War had been set up, as a fairly small affair, around the 1999 Kosova war. After one of the first demonstrations against the planned US-led invasion of Afghanistan, following 9/11, the SWP (led on this by Lindsey German...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.