TES debate on socialism
No ruling class has ever been able to conceive of a form of society beyond the one to which it owes its power and privileges. Capitalism is no more a "natural state of affairs" than feudalism or the social system of the pharoahs. It came. It will go.

Incidentally CIA documents show that the American government - despite its denials - was well aware of the attempted military coup against the government of Venezuela. Again a democratically elected government trying to carry out socialist measures and the US backing a military coup against it. Yet people continue to maintain Socialism=dictatorship; capitalism=democracy.

The Marxist theory of the state is difficult to summarise briefly but I will have a go:

1) Stripped of inessentials, the state consists of bodies of armed men.
2) The state is an instrument for the oppression of one class by another.
3) When class society vanishes, the state will wither away.

Lenin's alleged "departure" from this was to set out a program - including the election of all officials and for all officials to be subject to recall - in "The State and Revolution" which could bring this into existence.

The state existed in the USSR because it was an instrument for the rule of one class over another. It was termed a workers' state. Stalin utilised the isolation of the USSR to strengthen and reinforce the bureaucracy and to use a series of purges against the left and then against the right and finally against his own supporters to bolster his own position. Conquest's book "the Great Terror" details all this (and I don't think anybody could call Conquest a socialist!)

That is probably the shortest version of this theory which you will ever get and I urge anyone who takes these matters seriously to read Trotsky's "Revolution Betrayed" or "Bureaucratism or Workers' Power" by Roger Silverman and Ted Grant.

The people who exposed and fought against Stalin are now being dishonestly lumped together with Stalin. It really is not good enough.

There has been an extensive debate about socialism on the TES website: the contributions are collected here
http://user1951.tripod.com/discuss.htm

RE not good enough but nor is OFSTED
There was a newsflash today on the TES website "Most RE lessons 'not good enough'". How could that be news? Of course it was not the story, as the quotes imply, it was just OFSTED complaining that the RE in schools does not reflect the diversity of faiths in the country.

I ought to nail my colours to the mast and mention at this point that I am a born-again atheist....OK just an atheist.

However OFSTED worship control and their idea that the people drawing up the various programs for RE "need professional help" is just cheek.

It was central government interference which gave us the "wholly or mainly Christian" assembly and now OFSTED in typical OFSTED fashion are moving the goal posts to prove that the teachers are all wrong and the politicians are all right.

I - and probably a majority of parents - do not worship at temple, mosque, synagogue, chapel or church. It is our views which are being ignored or patronisingly treated as "an error".

On the contrary I think you will find we are a wee bit more tolerant of others' right to pursue their religious observances; they do us no harm.

I think it may be OFSTED who need professional help. Unfortunately I am not a taxidermist.

ID Cards
Blunkett is bringing in ID cards and a whole raft of new powers for himself on the pretext of the war on terror and in an effort to emulate Bush's victory in America. Peter Hain has even said that the country will only be safe from terrorist attack under a New Labour government.

I remember the French presidential election where people had a choice of Le Pen or Chirac. The winning election slogan was "vote for the crook not the nazi!" I think the electorate (well I am one of them) are not stupid but deprived of any real choice. All this could change. All this has got to change.

In fact it is likely that the main opposition to Blunkett's authoritarian measures will not be inside Parliament but outside. Remember what happened to the Poll Tax. The Tories brought it in. Labour said "tut tut, don't you dare refuse to pay it." (socialists who advocated non-payment were expelled from the Labour Party) but millions refused to pay and it and Margaret Thatcher were completely stuffed. It could happen again you know.

http://www.socialistparty.org.uk

Here we go again?
From Democracy Now! (http://www.democracynow.org)

"Report: Powell Based Iran Nuke Claim On Unvetted Source
The Washington Post is reporting that Secretary of State Colin Powell relied on a single, unvetted source when he claimed Wednesday that he had new evidence thast Iran was developing a nuclear weapon. The report was entirely based on information provided by a source who approached US intelligence with 1,000 pages of documents that purportedly showed nuclear weapons drawings. One governmental official told the Washington Post that the CIA remains unsure about the authenticity of the documents and how they came into the informant's possession. Powell's comments came in direct contradiction to findings by the United Nations. The International Atomic Energy Association announced earlier this week it had seen no evidence that Iran was developing a nuclear weapons program."

Only days ago people were saying Colin was one of the "doves" in the Bush administration and mourning his passing. How long before they start claiming Iran is 45 minutes away from attacking US or UK targets?

This is the arrogance of uncontested power. Do they really imagine they can run Iran after they made such a good job of running Iraq?

Margaret Hassan
I think it is awful that Margaret Hassan is dead and I think it is awful that her husband and family and all the people she helped have had her love taken from them.

And it sickens me that the American and British media will try to use her death as an excuse to justify the massacre of unnamed unarmed men and women in Fallujah.

The fallujah massacre
The massacre at Fallujah will backfire on the US whatever the outcome.

A hundred years from now there will still be revenge attacks against American targets to commemorate the massacre at Fallujah.

Unlike Vietnam the insurgents do not have the backing of the Soviet Union and there is far less sympathy for the aims of the resistance in the West than there was for the NLF. Nevertheless the comparison with Vietnam is not unreasonable. The dilemma is the same. What Gore Vidal christened "American imperialism" can neither withdraw (and admit defeat?) nor stay (and count the body bags coming home?). To use a phrase used at the time of the Vietnam conflict they can "declare victory and come home."

Even filtered through the "embedded correspondents" the viewing public are seeing homes not so different from their own homes being destroyed. It takes a little imagination to realise that the people in those houses are without water, without food and forbidden on pain of death to go outside. What must it be like for them. Yes they sympathise with the resistance. Wouldn't you in the same circumstances?

Democracy Now
Democracy Now is a beacon of hope in a dark world! http://www.democracynow.org has been dispassionately telling the story of Fallujah this morning.

The soldiers hired by the richest people in the world and going in with guns blazing against some of the poorest people on this planet. They don't have much but what little they have is to be taken from them.

The first target was the hospitals, one was bombed into oblivion and another occupied because "they have been the source of rumours about civilian casualties."

Many of the soldiers - little more than children themselves - have zero combat experience. One marine sergeant was quoted as estimating 95 percent of the men under his command had no such experience.

I do not believe violence solves anything but if we had been invaded and some pal gave me a rocket launcher and pointed out, "these are the people who are imprisoning and raping our women, torturing our men, killing our children - now they are coming to destroy the town you live in." I might just respond, "how do you fire this thing?" What would you do?

Fallujah.
This was murder.

"Lesser Evil" in Fallujah?
Now Playing: tainted love
The Democrats are talking about "learning the lessons" of their defeat. Yet all their deliberations boil down to making themselves more like the Republicans because "ooh look the Republicans won."

Another view is that the Republicans won because there was no alternative. People correctly saw that there was no serious difference between the two candidates.

Right now our government and the Americans are preparing to commit cold-blooded murder in Fallujah. It is necessary to destroy the place in order to save it. The Blair government is a direct result of the "lesser evil" strategy. Do you think the women and children of Fallujah will feel any difference?

I have been receiving emails all day from Americans virtually apologising for being American. If they retreat into self-guilt and helplessness and pursue another "anything is better than Bush" strategy...well we already know what the outcome will be....either the Democrats suffer another humiliating defeat or it makes no damned difference if they win.

If on the other hand Americans break from the two party (in reality ONE party) system then there is hope for the future. This does not have to be the nadir of democracy.
Nader next time.

Good news Kerry lost
The race between tweedledum and tweedledumber is over. Admittedly Bush will now be looking very smug - but how will we be able to tell? In reality, one millionaire backed by the corporations was thrashed by another millionaire also backed by the corporations. If Kerry had won it would have been a repeat of the situation in the UK when Blair won and people thought "things can only get better." In fact they got a lot worse.

If Kerry had won we would have been out on the streets protesting his Iraq policy within weeks, as soon as people realised no he wasn't withdrawing from Iraq - he never said he was!

As American socialists traditionally said:

"Dump the elephant
Dump the ass
build a party of the working class :)"

http://socialistparty.org.uk

Halloween
The shops in Forest Row are full of Halloween displays. I can just imagine Mr and Mrs Satanist shaking their heads and complaining about the commercialisation of their festival.