Communist banner draped from the Acropolis

Today the Greek working class is on general strike against their government’s capitulation to the demands of the EU and IMF.

Ordinary people in Greece face massive unemployment, huge job losses, pension cuts, savage cuts in public spending, and rises in taxes on consumer spending. The Greek working class is fighting for survival in the face of the collapse of their income just as the cost of living rockets.

In the plans of the imperialist EU and the International Mugging Fund, Greek workers will bear the full cost of a crisis created by foreign and Greek banks. But those same workers have something to say about that, and are walking out of work across the country.

My intention today is to update the article throughout the day as more info comes in on the situation in Greece. In the meantime, here’s what we know since Leftfield last blogged about Greece.

On Monday, Greek teachers invaded the offices of the state TV channel, after they heard that they would be carrying an interview with the Education Minister after the news. They wanted to be part of the interview, and to put their own questions to the minister. During the news noise was heard in the background, and then programmes were disrupted for several hours. Riot cops were summoned to try and evict the teachers, who refused to leave. The cops beat them in the corridors, but they refused to budge. In the end, the channel was forced to allow the teachers a couple of minutes on air, which they used to make this statement:

“We are members of the Teachers’ with Limited Working Rights Coordination and the Pan-Hellenic Union of Unemployed Teachers. We decided to come hear today, in the studios of the government’s TV-station, for two reasons: The first one is that for six months now the Mass Media keep silent about the government’s economical measures. And the second one is that we want to break, in praxis the monologe of Education’s Ministry, the monologe of Mrs. Diamantopoulou who keeps silent about the multi-law agreement that wants to be voted and destroys the public and uncomercial education. We were “welcomed” inside and outside the studio by a team of MAT (Unions of Order Recovery) ready to beat us up. We condemn both the Education Ministry and the NET-channel Authorities for the certain event: You see that there is evidence of violence on us.

The government brings the “Stability Program” in reality by packing more than 30 students in each classroom and keeping out of schools some thousands of unemployed educators. The “New School” like the government wants to name it, in reality it is not new at all. It is really old and brings us back in time. It will be against the needs and the rights of the society in Greece. Against the workers, the parents, the students, the teachers. The government calls us to pay for the cost of Education. Calls you the parents, your children who study, us who teach. After the multi-law of Mrs. Diamantopoulou we get dismissed; she fires around 17.000 teachers who are paid by hour or are temporary employed! We thought that we were the minority, but as it seems we become the majority after they brought the IMF to us, which will result in increase of poverty and unemployment of thousands of workers. Everybody on the streets to block the economical measures, kick out IMF and all those who brought it here. Tomorow we demonstrate to block the economical measures that destroy the Education System. On Wednesday 5th of May everybody is striking, nobody works. We gather infront of the Archeological Museum at 11:00 to block the economical measures.

We take out to the streets, we rise up!”

A Greek pensioner protests the cuts to his income

Yesterday, many workers decided to start today’s general strike early. Schools, hospitals and airports were shut down as public sector workers staged impromptu walkouts. Flights in and out of Greece were grounded from midnight as air traffic controllers joined the strike. Thousands of teachers and students marched on the parliament to protest the austerity package and its impact on education. They marched past parliament, shouting “Let the rich pay for the crisis” in the direction of the MPs who were at that point debating the austerity plans.

Public sector unions have occupied the town halls in the Athens suburbs of Agios Dimitrios, Nea Ionia and Vyrona.

This morning, Greek Communists staged a dawn raid on the Acropolis, symbol of Greece and its ancient glory, draping the massive banner you can see at the top. Its message couldn’t be clearer: the Greek people are crying out for our solidarity.

Keep checking back -- updates as we get them.

Update: Check out this statement signed by anti-capitalist parties all over Europe, including the Scottish Socialist Party.

Update: As Liam reports in a comment below, participants in a mass demonstration have attempted to storm the Greek parliament in Athens to prevent MPs from being able to discuss and vote through the IMF/EU package. There’s footage on the BBC site here, but it’s hard to embed BBC stuff. As soon as there’s footage on youtube I’ll stick it up on here as well.

The BBC reporter says that more were expected to join the demonstration as the day wore on, so they may manage to break police lines and get through. The police are using stun grenades against the marchers.

Elsewhere in Athens, a bank was set on fire, and apparently 3 people have been killed. There’s also been reports of mass action and violence in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Looks like they’ve taken that off now, will keep an eye on it in case they go back to Greece though.

Update: As promised, embedded footage of the attempt to storm the parliament. The bangs you can hear are stun grenades.

Strikers on the streets of Kathmandu

After a huge May Day rally on Saturday, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) launched a massive general strike aimed at forcing the resignation of the government.

Although Maoist led, the strike is supported by the majority of workers, and so far has been really successful. Strikers have surrounded the Prime Minister’s residence. They have brought thousands of the country’s poorest people to protest in the capital Kathmandu, a move which has horrified the traditional elite, unused to seeing such ethnic diversity on the street.

Nepal was traditionally a monarchy, where the vast majority lived in stark poverty, and there were sharp divisions and discrimination between different ethnic groups and castes. In 1996, the Maoists launched an armed rebellion with the aim of bringing down the monarchy and establishing a new Nepal in which there would be more direct democracy, and the government brought an end to poverty and discrimination.

Following the success of the Maoist People’s Liberation Army in fighting the Royal Nepalese Army (which is armed and trained by both Britain and the US), a peace accord was negotiated, and in 2008 Nepal became a republic. In elections held that year, the Maoists came out on top, and headed a coalition government. The results showed how much support they had built in the areas of the country that were under their control. In these regions they had seized land from absentee landlords for the benefit of the people, as well as building roads, widening access to health and education, given people a direct say in their local government and started a campaign against ethnic and caste discrimination.

Nice hat, shame about your government: Nepali Prime Minister MK Nepal

The elections were to a constituent assembly that was supposed to write a new constitution, transforming Nepal into a democratic, federal republic, in which the rights of minority peoples were recognised. However, when the Maoists tried to sack the head of the army, who is a western-educated General responsible for leading counter-insurgency operations during the war, they were overriden by the President. The Maoist led government resigned in protest.

The current government, which has not been elected, is an alliance of the centrist Congress party and other Communist parties, and is headed by Madhav Kumar Nepal. They pledged to write a new constitution for Nepal within two years, a deadline which will expire later this month.

In the meantime, Maoists supported minority ethnic groups in declaring autonomous states, and have also supported revolutionary students who have shut down 8000 private schools in protest at hikes in tuition fees. Now, with the deadline for a new constitution on May 28th fast approaching, they’ve launched a mass protest movement to demand the government resigns and the Maoists are returned to power, in order to remake the state on the lines demanded by the country’s poor majority.

The Maoists have said they do not intend to seize full power at this point, but are more interested in pushing forward the process of writing a new constitution. They have also pledged that the strike will not use violence, although strikers are prepared to defend themselves if attacked by the government. Nevertheless, if the situation continues on for several days, what happens next is uncertain. The government has already been consulting the army on the possibility of using force to crush the people, with the support of military “advisers” from India and the US. The PM declared the protests would be “suicide” for the Maoists, but his words look hollow compared to the mobilisation on the streets. One reason they haven’t been able to do this so far is that the loyalty of rank and file soldiers to their commanders is far from guaranteed if they were ordered to fire on ordinary Nepalis.

The government so far looks determined to cling to power, although how long they can do this in the face of a mass shutdown of the country by the people remains to be seen. The next few days look set to determine the future history of Nepal, and nobody is sure what will happen next.

Bonuses: A good source for keeping up to date on the situation in English is this blog, by an American Communist living in Kathmandu.

Here’s some footage of the massive May Day protest in Kathmandu:

German soldiers raise the Nazi flag over the Acropolis. Today, the Greek government has again surrendered.

The Greek government has agreed to a programme of loans of billions of Euros from the EU and IMF. This money comes with an incredible list of demands, that will plunge the standard of living for the Greek people. Many people are drawing direct comparisons between the Greek government of 1941, which surrendered to the Nazi invasion and became German puppets, and the current government, which has surrendered and become a puppet of the international financial institutions and the EU bureaucrats.

Already, ordinary Greeks can see that if the EU and the IMF get their way, then their country will be ruined. There is a mass exodus of Greeks fleeing abroad in an attempt to escape from the economic catastrophe; applications to migrate to the USA and Canada have jumped by 30% since the beginning of the year.

Check out this list of humiliating conditions imposed on the surrender of the Greek government:

-15% reduction in salaries for both private and public sector workers.

-At the same time increasing VAT, making food and basic goods far more expensive.

-Increase the retirement age to 67.

-Decrease pensions.

-Hundreds of thousands of job cuts in the public sector.

-Where workers have won a collective agreement between unions and their bosses, these will be abolished.

-Abolition of any restrictions on bosses ability to cut jobs in the private sector.

-Massive cuts in public spending. Already announced include the expansion of school class sizes from 25 to over 30.

This is shocking. It’s like a neoliberal shopping list, as if the most right wing economists are getting the right to write their dream programme for remaking Greece as a capitalist’s paradise. Make no mistake: these are ideas that big business has fought for in Europe for years. The fact that many European countries have a welfare state is a major block on the ability of capitalists to make as much money as they like. The crisis in Greece is a great opportunity for them to push through policies they’ve wanted for a long time. What we’re facing, firstly in Greece, but later in the rest of Europe as well, is the possibility of an economic dictatorship by the super rich financial elite. They are trying to use the force of the state, with its riot cops and soldiers, to force the people’s acceptance of a total surrender to their interests.

Naomi Klein has called this process the Shock Doctrine: when the global ruling class uses crisis as an opportunity to push through policies they would never normally be able to impose on people, while they are still in shock from the disaster. See the short film below for a more detailed explanation of how the shock doctrine works, and other times it’s been imposed on people.

But the thing is, the people who are forcing through the destruction of Greece are the same ones who were responsible for creating the crisis in the first place. The huge debt of the Greek government comes from loans from French, German, British, Dutch and Swiss banks. The Greek people are being punished by the European ruling class . . . for the mistakes of the European ruling class.

In the face of this economic warfare, the Greeks only have one choice: to fight back.

Yesterday May Day rallies were attacked by riot cops as tens of thousands came on to the streets to demonstrate their resistance. As one shipyard worker put it:

“These latest measures have been cooked up by outsiders and are totally outrageous. They are aimed not at the rich but at the poor. What we are saying here today is that they will pass only over our dead bodies.”

Showing their rage at the capitulation of their government, protesters at one point spotted Apostolos Kaklamanis, an MP and member of the government, and jumped him. He had to be whisked away from the fury of ordinary Greeks by riot police.

The next big day in the streets is set to be Wednesday, when there will be the next Greek general strike.

Greeks vs Riot Cops

Many establishment political commentators recognise that the people are too angry, and too organised, for the government to be able to carry out this programme of attacks. They think it is possible that Greece will be unable to pay its debts to the bankers and capitalists, who will then bankrupt the country and force it to withdraw from the Euro, something that would be a crisis for the entire future of the single currency.

In the face of this, the ruling class are already talking about an “emergency government of national unity” or appointing an unelected administration of “experts”. In a country that suffered under a fascist military dictatorship from 1967-74, this kind of chat is obviously very scary.

But the other possibility that may seriously be on the cards is the overthrow of the government by the people. A revolution in Greece is far from a sure thing, but the scale of fury on the streets mean that this is an important point in Greek history. But to truly solve this crisis, and face down the massive attack of the ruling class and on the people in Greece, and across Europe and the world, we need to get in touch with our allies in other countries and prepare for an international fightback.

If they win their war with Greece, Spain, Portugal, and ultimately we, will be next. A crisis can also be an opportunity, for us as well as the capitalists. It’s time to join the fightback.

(Please take this as an open invitation to use the comments thread as a way of sharing ideas about how we can build solidarity with Greece, and more generally prepare for a continent wide fightback.)

Thailand's right wing Yellow Shirts are calling for martial law

As Leftfield has already reported, the centre of the Thai capital Bangkok has been locked down for weeks now, as hundreds of thousands of Thais, mostly from the rural and urban poor, have camped out in mass protests. The Red Shirts, as they are known, demand the immediate dissolution of parliament, and fresh elections. The current government of Thailand has never been elected, and the last elected government was deposed in a military coup.

The current government of Abhisit Vajjajjiva last weekend rejected a peace offer from the protesters that would have given him 30 days to dissolve parliament and 60 days after that to hold new elections. Protest leaders emphasised that they wanted to try and save lives and prevent violence with the compromise. The PM’s reaction was to begin preparations for a military crackdown to try and resolve the crisis, which has seen clashes throughout the capital over the course of this week.

Now, the right wing, pro-monarchy and pro-military movement, the yellow shirts, have re-emerged calling for the Red Shirts to be crushed. Yellow Shirt leaders called for martial law, and the military to take action on its own if the government does not, clearly paving the way for another military intervention in politics. The Yellow Shirts’ own violent protests in 2006 helped pave the way for the military coup that installed the present government. They represent the business and bureaucratic elite, and fundamentally oppose new elections because they know the majority of Thais, who live in poverty, would not choose a government to their liking.

Red Shirt protests have been much bigger than the Yellow Shirts'

And Thailand’s ailing King Bhumibol Adulyade (the world’s longest reining monarch) has also spoken to the nation for the first time, calling on all Thais to “perform their duties strictly and honestly.” When you take this alongside the fact that the government has tried to justify its violence against unarmed protesters on the basis that they are “republicans” (which is not even true in many cases), the stage seems set for a final confrontation between the mass of the people and traditional elite, centred on urban businesses, the nobility and the monarchy.

A key argument deployed by the government as to why they won’t dissolve parliament is that they need time to deal with the economy, and pass a new budget to support the economy. In other words, the government is determined to make ordinary people pay for the crisis caused globally by financial capitalists, just like here and across Europe. The difference in Thailand is that the poor are organised and in the streets. Although their demand is simple, a return to democracy, the stage is set for a much bigger class confrontation which will shape the whole future of the country. The whole world could learn a lesson from the way ordinary Thais have got into the streets to stand up for their rights, and we’ll watch with interest to see if the Red Shirts can maintain their fortified position, and hold off the coming military crackdown.

If only he had a taser I'm sure this incident would have been better handled

SSY today condemned the growing burden that interfering in politics is having on police officers.

This follows the latest attempt of a top cop to influence government policy. Les Gray is the Chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, and used the organisation’s annual conference as an opportunity to call for a crackdown on the right to protest, “officer discretion” in cases of domestic abuse, and for cops to be issued with tasers.

SSY think it’s ridiculous Les was stuck behind a podium trying to influence government policy, when crimes are being committed on the streets. If elected, an SSY Prime Minister would pledge to put bobbies on the beat, and leave defending democracy to those who know what they’re doing.

The most ill judged of Les’ comments were on the right to march and protest. As Leftfield has reported before, the right to protest is under severe attack throughout the UK. For several years now governments have used the fear of terrorism as a cover to bring in laws that restrict the right of people to express dissent. It’s now harder than ever to get official permission to protest. On a local level, this has been played out by the pledge of Glasgow City Council to cut the number of marches in the city centre by 90%, meaning groups like teachers and other public sector workers have been unable to take to their own streets to protest cuts.

Les called for this undemocratic situation to get WORSE. Speaking to the Herald he exposed the real agenda of cops working with anti-democratic governments in both London and Edinburgh:

“We need to drastically reduce the number. There is no point in doing half a job. It needs to be reduced to single figures so the bigger organisations would have fewer than 10 a year and others would have even less.”

Referring to the cost of policing protests and marches, he invoked the mythical “hard working tax paying law abiding majority who don’t want to see their hard earned tax money being spent in this way” of the Daily Mail. He left out the bit he was thinking about how anyone that wants to oppose government policy are workshy, dolescum hippie bastards.

He did at least crack one joke though, claiming “marchers only have three months on their calendars, namely, January, February, March, March, March, March and March” [dadum tish, thankyou, thankyou. But seriously folks. . .]

Of course many of the marches that take place in Glasgow and across Scotland are not political protests that SSY would support, but Orange Marches. Many who are genuinely offended by the politics of Orange Marches and some of the behaviour that goes on when their taking place might think restricting their number wouldn’t be that much of a shame. But in his actual speech Les had an interesting proposal to make on how to make sure marchers are still able to take to the street:

“We need to see a significant reduction in such events and if the marchers are so hell bent on marching, let them pay for it in the same way as football clubs and others do.”

If this plan was implemented there’s little doubt who would be hit hardest. As permanent organisations dedicated to marching, Orange Lodges almost certainly would be able to raise enough money to be able to keep a fair few marches on the streets. However, groups of ordinary people trying to protest cuts, or those who have little experience running political organisations, or indeed campaigning groups operating on a shoestring budget, would be the ones hit hardest. It’s a measure that would be blatant class discrimination, preventing people on lower incomes from having the right to protest on their own streets.

One of the ways that Les would like to see the money saved from less policing of protests is on high tech weapons. In one of the most clearly political of his interventions, he directly attacked those who have raised concerns about police using the “less lethal” electroshock weapons, Tasers.

“I take great exception to some of the ill-informed comments made by Amnesty International and others.  I invite them to join us on the streets of Scotland and see for themselves what it’s like to deal with drug and or drink fuelled violent individuals armed with firearms, swords, axes, baseball bats, knives or other deadly weapons. Perhaps they could show us how to disarm such individuals without the necessary equipment.  Minister, I don’t think Amnesty International will be reporting for duty anytime soon.  We need to have the right equipment to do the job and we are convinced that includes Taser.”

Again, there’s clearly a hidden subtext here: Amnesty and people who don’t want tasers are all bleeding hearts who have no idea what it’s really like on the streets. His comments of course ignore the fact that many of those of us who are extremely worried about cops being issued with potentially deadly electroshock weapons do themselves live in these same communities, and are well aware of the dangers of violence that are out there. However, living in a poorer urban area also gives you a big insight into what the causes of the violence are (alienation caused by poverty, people who don’t receive proper support for drugs, alcohol and mental health problems, lack of community facilities, hopelessness to name but a few), and how little is done by the state to tackle these problems. Getting to the root of why people end up in situations where they behave violently would be a better use of public money than equipping cops with a nasty new weapon.

However, not all forms of violence are of the same concern to Les. In his speech, he also spoke about the “bureaucratic nightmare around domestic abuse.” He said:

“There is no such thing as a standard case of domestic abuse. Each case will have its unique features and deserves to be dealt with uniquely. We need to simplify how we deal with domestic abuse. We need to reintroduce officer discretion and do away with the pointless bureaucratic quagmire that has developed recently. Let us deal with each case in its own right and take the appropriate course of action if and when required.”

Officer Discretion

Nobody is claiming the way the police deal with domestic abuse is perfect, but there is a reason that their procedures have been forced to change in recent years. That reason is that campaign groups and women’s support organisations have worked for years to expose the abysmal record of the criminal justice system in protecting people abused in their relationships and holding abusers to account for their behaviour. What Les is saying is that he wants cops to have the right to ignore complaints if they think that’s appropriate.

Now you might think that cops are the best placed to decide if someone is really being abused or not. But the fact is cops are just as much a product of our sexist, patriarchal society as anybody else. Do we really want to go back to the days when a police officer has the right to decide whether an abuse allegation should just be swept under the carpet?

Domestic abuse is a problem that is at virtually epidemic levels; in his speech Les said that police in Scotland investigated 55, 000 incidents last year. In the face of this, the solution is not to look away and pretend that some of it isn’t happening. Les described policing domestic abuse as “an absolute nightmare”. Perhaps he ought to think about what a nightmare it would be to have your abuse not dealt with properly at an officer’s “discretion.”

The big theme running throughout Les’ speech was that the police are, like all other areas of the state, having to face up to the massive cuts the next government is going to impose on public services to pay for the bail out of banks. While the police, as the frontline forces of the state, are likely to be slightly more protected than other public services, they’re going to be under pressure to cut costs.

Les’ solution? Get the savings from restricting people’s democratic rights and reducing protection for the vulnerable. In the conclusion he said that police forces are “in relatively good shape and are up for the fight.” If that fight is about our right to take to our own streets, or to be free from fear of having an electroshock weapon used on us, then SSY are well up for the political fight as well.

Real ants, real placards and no post-production or visual effects -- these ants are protesting against Baygon, who produce a shitload of products deadly to ants and their beastie brethren.

The Thai capital is filled with protesters

As Leftfield has already reported, Thailand is currently in the grip of a political crisis as hundreds of thousands of some of the nation’s poorest are on the streets demanding democracy.

The Red Shirt movement demands the immediate dissolution of parliament and the calling of new elections. The current government was installed in a military coup in 2006. The coup overthrew Thailand’s first government to install a national health system for all, and was constantly attacked by the elite for using state funds to help the poor.

For weeks now the Thai rural and urban poor have been engaged in a rolling campaign of non-violent campaign of protest demanding a return to democracy. The response of government has been to crack down, with a massive wave of censorship taking TV stations off the air and websites off the internet. This weekend at least 21 people were killed by government forces, including a Japanese cameraman.

This morning Red Shirts carried coffins through the streets of Bangkok, at least some of which contained the bodies of killed protesters. They have declared they will “not negotiate with the murderers in government.” They control key streets in the city, and have let it be known they will stand firm against attempts to move them by the police or military. They are braced for state violence after the government branded them “terrorists.”

Carrying coffins of killed protesters through the streets

The current Thai government is backed by the Royal elite in Thailand, the military, and a minority of the population, mainly the small middle class and wealthy. The Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was educated at Eton and Oxford.

Unlike the Red Shirts, who have protested peacefully, the government’s supporters, who wear Yellow Shirts, have previously used violence and weapons. Despite this, they have received support from the Liberal International, the global grouping of liberal parties of which the Lib Dems are a member.

The ironically named Democrat Party which holds power in Thailand is afraid of holding new elections because they know their anti-poor policies would almost certainly lose. The poor people of Thailand are on the streets demanding democracy and an end to dictatorial rule by the country’s aristocratic/military elite, proudly calling themselves “serfs.”

For updates on the situation in Thailand, check out the blog of Thai socialist Giles Ji Ungpakorn, who’s currently living in exile in the UK. There’s also a free download available there of his book ‘A Coup for the Rich.’ He’s got some useful links as well, although some are currently down, possibly due to Thai government censorship. This just makes it all the more important that people around the world spread the word about what’s happening.

Sir Bob shows his radical credentials

The world has watched in horror as the outrageously corrupt BBC and Channel 4 has attempted to make the ludicrous claim that there are still problems in Africa.

Sensible people everywhere know that Africa is now a paradise thanks to the efforts of their saviour, multi-millionaire Saint Sir Bob Geldof the Wonderful.

Sir Bob has been on the defensive over the last few weeks, after several different investigations attacked his legacy of work against poverty.

First of all, a BBC World Service investigation received information from several former rebel leaders in Ethiopia that a portion of aid money raised by the Band Aid charity in the 80s was in fact diverted by rebels to buy weapons.

Now, Channel 4 is to screen a documentary next week that attacks His Holiness for distracting attention from the Make Poverty History campaign in 2005.

During the 80s, at the time of Band Aid, the Ethiopian national government was at war with a number of rebel forces in the countryside. Leaders of those rebels are now in power in Ethiopia. However, some former rebel leaders have since fallen out with their former comrade and current Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. They told the BBC that the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) tricked aid workers into giving them money, by disguising themselves as merchants, as well as covering sacks of sand with sacks of food when taking aid cash.

Former TPLF leaders claim that they got $100 million this way, which was spent on weapons to overthrow the government. They also claim that they used front groups, such as the Relief Society of Tigray, to get cash. Band Aid’s own records show they gave $11 million to the society.

His Excellency Sir Geldof has been outraged by the claims, and has threatened to sue the BBC, demanding that the reporters who filed the story and their bosses should get the sack.

“Martin Plaut, [the World Service news and current affairs editor] Andrew Whitehead and Peter Horrocks should be fired. There should be an immediate investigation into what went wrong, steps should be taken to rectify the identified faults and the World Service must work very, very hard to re-establish its trust and hard-won reputation as the world broadcaster of excellence.”

It seems that, according, the His Most Generous Wonderous-ness Geldof, Band Aid should be completely above criticism. How

"Why don't people get that I'm fantastic?!"

dare anyone suggest that a major aid effort in a starving country beset by civil war could ever be affected by corruption?! As BBC journalist Rageh Omaar pointed out in the Guardian, the journalists behind this story were in Ethiopia in the 80s, received serious and credible information, and were right to go ahead with it. There should now be a full investigation. The Most Marvellous Geldof’s response? Omaar is “ridiculous.”

Geldof went on to make the laughable claim that:

“Not a single penny went on armaments. Not one. Not a pound; not a penny. Let me be clear on that. And I’ve also spoken to some of the others, including the Red Cross, who say it is absolute rubbish that any of their money could have possibly gone on arms.”

At this point he really does sound desperate. He could have argued that corruption wasn’t on the scale the story claimed. But to claim that “not a single penny” went astray? As this article on Pambazuka points out, every single aid effort to Africa suffers from corruption. In a continent afflicted by poverty, undemocratic governments and the interference of imperialism in their affairs, it’s impossible to have a completely clean and transparent aid process. In fact, much of the way that aid is given by the western capitalist powers makes things worse.

The vehemence of Geldof’s denial has the opposite effect from the one he intended: it leaves you wondering what it is he’s so desperate to hide.

Meanwhile, in a separate programme, More 4 are screening a documentary called Starsuckers next week which will attack Geldof’s role in the G8 protests in 2005.

At the time, a major coalition of charities, campaign groups and churches came together in the Make Poverty History coalition. This demanded debt relief for third world countries and more aid from rich ones. It organised a mass march through the centre of Edinburgh, all dressed in white. At the time the SSP and SSY took part, but instead of white, we dressed in red, to symbolise our desire to Make Capitalism History. We argued that the structure of the international economy was geared to do nothing else but increase inequality and keep poor countries poor. An appeal to the G8 leaders meeting in Scotland was useless, they must be attacked and defeated.

SSP marching against the G8

However, even this charity campaign was too radical for the All Knowing Genius Geldof, who organised Live Aid, a massive celebrity mutual masturbation fest, were stars both young and has-been got together for a concert where they told the world how great they were.

Starsuckers claims that Geldof hijacked the Make Poverty History campaign for his own ends. After the summit, it became clear that G8 leaders were going to do sweet FA to help third world countries, and that all the talk of progress had just been rhetoric for the cameras. But Geldof said he gave the global political elite “10 out of 10″ for commitments on aid, and “8 out of 10″ for debt relief. He later said the 8 score should be upgraded to 10 out of 10. In the process he showed just how much he himself was part of the PR machine defending the corrupt imperialist governments of the west.

The ever furious Geldof has penned a 6,000 word letter attacking Starsuckers and attempting to defend his rapidly-vanishing legacy. The theme underlying all this outrage is that clearly Geldof is pretty sensitive to allegations that show him up for what he is: a completely useless celebrity attention seeker. A man who wanted to do good, but has been completely compromised by working hand-in-glove with the powerful forces actually responsible for third world poverty.

He attacked anti-poverty campaigners as “wankers dressed as clowns”, and said Make Poverty History was “a bit lame and almost entirely ineffectual. . .boring, futile and adolescent.” Again, he says he’s contacted his lawyers.

On the other hand, according to his letter, Live Aid had an acute political vision of the world economic situation and the realistic prospect of ending under-development throughout the global south. Just listen to this piece of stunning analysis from Geldof:

“Richard [Curtis] and Bono came to me and said do another gig. I said you fucking do it if you’re so eager. Bono said he’d play with McCartney and they’d open the gig with “It was 20 years ago today” – a reference to Live Aid. I wanted to see that. Precisely that rock n roll moment I wanted to see, so I said ok. That’s why I did it. Pathetic but y’know …”

Yes Bob, we do know.

The fact of the matter is, the protests against the G8 weren’t as successful as some of the previous mobilisations against international capitalist summits, like the Battle of Seattle. A lot of this was to do with the political confusion-were we against the summit, or asking the leaders to do something for us? Despite the best efforts of the SSP and others, Make Poverty History’s campaign contributed a lot towards stopping a more radical, anti-capitalist approach.

But Geldof knows exactly what side of the power divide he comes down on. In his letter he writes:

“Like it or not the agents of change in our world are the politicians. Otherwise you’re always outside the tent pissing in. They stay inside their tent pissing back out at you. This is futile. My solution is to get inside the tent and piss in there.”

"When we get inside the tent can we piss on each other again?"

Whilst Geldof and the G8 leaders engage in bizarre watersports, those of us who actually know what they’re talking about can unpick what he’s said here. The only way to get any change is to rely on the same global elite who are responsible for creating the situation as it stands, claims Geldof. But rich countries are rich precisely because they have looted Africa and the rest of the third world for centuries now, and it’s still going on. Those people and movements who’ve tried to stand up to this have faced ferocious attacks from the west and their corrupt allies. The G8 leaders will NEVER solve poverty in Africa, because they are responsible for it.

The way forward for poor countries is demonstrated by the handful of examples where the people have won and the government stands up to the rich world. Today, Venezuela and Cuba, which have revolutionary governments supported by the mass of the people, are able to provide world class health and education to their people, and do not suffer from famine as countries like Ethiopia do. The people of these countries, and their allies here, are the real agents of change, not rich politicians.

As for us in Scotland, it’s clear that sitting around watching wanker celebrities on telly is going to change nothing. We have a responsibility to help people in the third world. The best way we can do that is by fighting for socialism here, and trying to take down our own corrupt governments responsible for so much suffering across the globe.

Build a bonfire, build a bonfire . . .

A group of French workers has threatened to blow up their own factory if they don’t get their full redundancy pay.

Workers at the Sodimatex car parts plant near Paris were told last year they were getting laid off, and have been in a row at the level of redundancy payments ever since. Stubborn bosses are offering them just half of the amount their demanding to compensate for losing their jobs.

On Thursday, workers blockaded the road in, and then barricaded themselves inside the factory when riot cops arrived.

And now workers have demanded the bosses take action, or they’ll blow the plant. One of those taking action told French radio (by phone):

“We have a 5,000 litre gas tank surrounded by wooden palettes, and I can guarantee you we’ll blow it up. The whole building and everything around it will be flattened.”

Yet again French workers have made us over here look timid. While Scottish unions aren’t even allowed to march in Glasgow city centre, these workers have obviously been taking their lessons from the action movie school of negotiations.

And here it’s likely that, under repressive anti-trade union and indeed anti-terrorist laws, such actions would have to be condemned by the official union.

But in France, union lawyer for the workers Caroline Substelny said:

“These workers fear that once they lose their jobs they will not be able to find another one. If the management does not take its responsibilities seriously, then workers will use all means at their disposal to get what they deserve.”

Shocking and radical as these moves might seem to some readers, the fact is you just have to look at Greece and elsewhere to see the violence bosses have got planned for us, the working class. They intend to make workers everywhere pay for their idiocy by drastically cutting living standards, and if we don’t like it there’ll be riot cops to stop us doing anything about it. In the face of this, these French workers are ready to take it all the way in the fight for what they deserve.

Good for them!

As Britain is gearing up for the most important election in decades, it’s also the most closely fought. Successive opinion polls have shown that it is unlikely any party will have an overall majority to govern – that either means working as a minority Government, or one in coalition. This has an obvious disadvantage, that at the time when the ruling class in the UK needs a strong Government to enforce public sector cuts, take on the trade unions and face down community campaigns against cuts to their services they may in fact have the weakest Government in decades; a Government that can be undermined by appealing to the opposition or coalition partners with cold feet.

This scenario has caused considerable and obvious disquiet to Britain’s bankers and potential investors. In order to quash this concern, the British state is, according to at least one press report prepared to rely on undemocratic and ancient rules to enforce stability at the price of democracy; that is, the use of Crown Powers.

The Daily Mail reports that none other than The Queen has been approached by leading civil servants to discuss using her powers as a Monarch in relation to a hung Parliament. It outlines a scenario in which no party has a majority, and the Parliament is a hung one. The minority Government could approach the Queen to request another general election to secure a stable majority Government. Leading civil servants are worried this would cause instability in the UK, and are discussing with the Queen the possibility of her using her Crown Powers to deny a request for a second General Election.

This would be designed to force the political parties to form a stable coalition Government, able to make the cuts necessary to make the UK profitable for capitalism again. Such use of Crown Power in the UK would be shocking and controversial, and it may not be necessary but it is far from impossible. Crown Powers have already been used in people’s lifetime – the Governor General in Australia dismissed a left-leaning Government in Australia using Crown Powers. These powers have also been used to overrule a High Court ruling which said the expulsion of Diego Garcia’s indigenous population to make way for a US military base was illegal.

The reality is the Crown still has plenty of power in the UK, if not to be used on the whim of the monarch itself but in the interests of Britain’s ruling establishment of MP’s, civil servants, bankers etc. It is still used in the Privy Council, whose prerogative powers were used to deny justice to the islanders of Diego Garcia and to ban GCHQ workers from being allowed to join a union. And there is of course the undemocratic House of Lords, whose peers are allowed to block laws voted on democratically in Westminster.

All these hang ons from the medieval ages are kept as an insurance policy in case any Government – in the past a feared “ultra-left” Labour one – would go too far, and for any Government to use as an extension of it’s powers beyond the relative transparency of Parliament. Remember that the next time the Monarchy comes up in a debate – tourists they may attract, but Mickey Mouse does not have the power to deny elections to the Senate in the United States!

The Queens Diamond Jubillee will be held in 2012, with public holidays on the 4th and 5th of June to celebrate her glorious reign. The SSP won’t be attending however – and will organise a demonstration for an Independent Republic, like we did at Calton Hill in 2004. We’ll be protesting so that the Queen and all the undemocratic hangovers of the middle ages have no role in politics, and Scotland is a modern, 21st century democratic Republic without inherited privilege or power.