Solidarity 094, 1 June 2006

Iraqi queers fight back!

By Faz Ali Hili is the founder member of Iraqi Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender UK, a group of asylum seekers who having fled Iraq, are now reporting on the sharp increase there in homophobic beatings, torture and murder. The group is in contact with an underground network of LGBT people in Iraq’s main cities of Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, Hilla, Duhok and Basra, who are risking their lives to report on the violence. The picture they paint is a nightmare scenario of hatred against anyone who is thought to be a “deviant”: death threats against anyone suspected of being gay; people being beaten and...

"Taliban mini-states" in Iraq

by Martin Thomas Now, so say the US and British governments, the USA can hand over to Iraqi troops in Najaf, and the British can step back in Maysan province, in Iraq’s south. Except that the USA announced that it had handed over in Najaf as long ago as August 2005, and the British have not had much choice about stepping back in Maysan since the provincial governor — a supporter of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Shia ultra-Islamists — broke off cooperation in February 2006. The US “handover” in Najaf did not mean that US troops kept out of the city, but only that they now intervened (fairly frequently) in...

A few "mistakes"?

George Bush has now been moved to concede some "mistakes" in Iraq. The US has now begun to investigate a massacre that, according to all indications, was not just a "mistake", but — like torture in Abu Ghraib — a logical and predictable product of the general brutality and arrogance of the US occupation in Iraq. In November 2005, US Marines deliberately killed as many as two dozen Iraqi civilians, including women and children, in the town of Haditha. "When these investigations come out, there’s going to be a firestorm," said retired Brigadier General David Brahms, formerly a top lawyer for the...

US unions demand rights for migrants

In December 2005, the US House of Representatives passed the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Reform Act of 2005 (known as HR 4437), a harsh immigration reform bill designed to punish the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States illegally. After widespread mass protests, led by working class Latinos and supported by other community groups and labour organisations, the Senate passed another bill, said to be more moderate, a compromise. It called the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (CIRA). The Republicans were scared of losing...

Socialism or barbarism

In this excerpt from her speech on the “Spartacus Programme” of 1918, the Polish-German Marxist leader Rosa Luxemburg argued for socialism and revolution as the only alternative to capitalism and barbarity of war. Luxemburg was murdered alongside her comrade Karl Liebknecht by right wing troops under the direction of a Social-Democratic government in January 1919. The class rule of the bourgeoisie is the real criminal responsible for the World War, in Germany, as in France, in Russia as in England, in Europe as in America. The capitalists of all nations are the real instigators of the mass...

Where now for anti-fascists?

Andy Newman of the Socialist Unity Network argues for the left to focus on social issues to undermine the BNP. (Abridged from Andy’s original text) Who votes BNP? Two excellent studies have been published, based upon the detailed research of Professors Helen Margetts, Stuart Weir and Peter John. The important points are: • There is a significant sub-section of the population, between 18% and 25%, who would consider voting for the BNP, and includes a solid and substantial group who share the BNP’s views on asylum and immigration. • The proportion of people who might vote for the BNP is highest...

Stalinism, the folk revival and Bob Dylan

The 1950s saw a revival of interest in “folk” music in Britain and the USA. Folk revivalism in Europe has a long heritage going back to the early nineteenth century and was largely allied to nationalist movements. European nationalists sought out, and often invented, national cultures on which to base their claims for statehood. This was not always an illiberal project — it was based on the idea that a common identity was the basis for national self-determination and that in turn was the basis for democracy. Composers helped the search for common identities: thus Greig researched Norwegian...

"Liberation" from above

David Broder attended the “real world” launch of The Euston Manifesto in Islington on 25 May. Despite the organisers’ claim that they had sold out a venue which could hold 800, only 250 actually turned up to the Manifesto launch. Apparently, most of the 1750 bloggers who have signed the Manifesto so far (eustonmanifesto.org) prefer to conduct their “politics” from behind a computer screen rather than venturing into the real world and talking to people. However Alan Johnson wanted us to focus on the activist origins of the Euston Manifesto — he claimed that it “originated in real campaigns”...

A "Third Camp" of "civilised humanity"?

The following statement is being circulated by the Worker-communist Party of Iran. We publish it here to further debate. The present conflict between the Western governments and the Islamic Republic of Iran can have disastrous human, political and social consequences. The terrible experience of Iraq has shown to all the catastrophes that can result from economic sanctions and a military attack. Deterioration of living conditions, economic plight, death, destruction and displacement of people, and increased repression by the Islamic regime, would be some of the immediate consequences of...

The sword of Islam (1978)

THE Muslim men and boys stand around waiting for the procession to begin, some of them holding cutthroat razors. Some of them have patches shaven on their heads already, like the tonsures of Christian monks except that the bald patches are at the front. Then you see them take razors to each other again, this time hitting with the razor to puncture the shaven patch on the skull so that the blood spurts out and runs down their faces. The men receive the blows willingly, and some ecstatically; the children are unwilling. One little boy starts to cry. Then they beat themselves on the heads to make...

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