Over In Ukraine.

It seems that Mayor of Uzhgorod, Sergey Ratushnyak is running for the Presidency of the Ukraine.

Ratushnyak is a rather unsavoury individual, the Kyiv Post reports:

“Serhiy Ratushnyak, known for his combative behavior, is facing a criminal investigation.

Uzhgorod Mayor Serhiy Ratushnyak, known for combative behavior, may have outdone himself this month.

First, on Aug. 6, Ratushnyak allegedly physically attacked a woman – an activist for presidential candidate Arseniy Yatseniuk. Ratushnyak reportedly knocked down a Yatseniuk tent after Natalya Butrymko, 21, failed to produce government permits for setting it up and handing out campaign flyers.

Ratushnyak denied the assault, but then disgusted people even more by calling the woman “a stripper” and referring to Yatseniuk repeatedly as “Jew” and a “criminal.” (Yatseniuk has never identified himself as Jewish and says his religion is Greek-Catholic.)”

I think we’ll hear more of this.

Clicking Around The World And Climate Change.

The East Antarctica ice sheet is melting faster.

Modern-day Neanderthal Tory still denies climate change and existence of Europe!

Want bigger lips or cosmetic enhancements? This story should make you rethink. Liquidised fat.

Xbox players and the real James Bond.

Deep-sea beauties.

Large Hadron Collider might work, soon.

Tamils still kept in camps.

Visions of Darwin. Nice frog.

Fish and acid oceans.

Sync That.

Chrome doing wonderful multi-platform things with bookmarks.

Wine dev hits 1.1.33.

Better Ubuntu, Mint 8.

ARM and the cheapest ever laptop!

Another form of cloning.

7 megawatts of power, sort of.

Super Computers, mostly powered by Linux.

Watch out what you say, or you’ll be quoted.

Downgrade GDM.

Not so reliable MACs.

Over or under 50? Feeling your age? Try some freebies.

Chrome OS, an early review.

Green Rupert And The Anti-Jewish Racist.

Thanks to Greens Engage, we now find out that Rupert Read is pushing that well-known anti-Jewish racist, Gilad Atzmon.

Dr. Read was a perspective Parliamentary candidate for the Greens in Norwich North, and a rather shrewd individual, well-educated, articulate and even has a column on the Eastern Daily Press. To top it all he’s an author and academic.

Dr. Read on his Twitter account pushes a link to Atzmon’s site with the title “Britain must de-Zionise Itself Immediately” [I'll upload a screen dump of it later on, just in case it vanishes]

Astute readers will remember the SWP’s honeymoon with Atzmon and their weak defence of him, that was some time ago and nowadays few, if any, deny Atzmon’s racism.

One example of Atzmon’s racism is how he argues that Jews fund war and revolutions, and anyone competent enough to read Far Right and neo-Nazi web sites will remember that old racist chestnut.

More recently Atzmon was portraying Israelis and Jews as ghouls and traders in body parts.

None of this should come as a surprise to Dr Read, a simple search across the Internet would reveal the racist nature of Atzmon’s views. Even Wikipedia, which apparently tries to strike a neutral balance, acknowledges there is criticism of Atzmon’s views.

Merely substituting “Zionist” for “Jew” should not fool a sophisticate such as Dr. Read, I am sure he is familiar with the usage of euphemisms in racism, he’ll find a lot of that in Atzmon’s work.

I think Dr. Read’s support for Atzmon illustrates a long standing problem, that those who spend an inordinate amount of time swimming around in the currents of “anti-Zionism” often become desensitised towards anti-Jewish racism, and when it is staring them in the face, as with Atzmon’s filth, they can’t recognise it.

I do hope that Dr. Read will admit his mistake and take a training course on basic racism: how to recognise it.

Update 1: As promised the screen dump from Dr. Read’s twitter:

Update 2: Dr. Read after making an apology on Engage and Greens Engage compounded the problem by stating “I think that the influence of ‘the Israel lobby’ in this country as in many others is nefarious. “ [My emphasis].

Sadly, I don’t think Dr. Read has fully understood the anti-Jewish racism embedded in the sentiment that he articulated.

Update 3: Dr. Read has updated his blog, but without a mention or a moment’s regret on this issue. I will assume that he pre-wrote that last entry on Friday and hope that he’ll deal with this issue and his notion of “nefarious” in a post shortly.

Update 4: Mira Vogel made this excellent contribution. it helps explain Dr. Read’s and others misconceptions:

“Rupert, it has already been pointed out to you several times that Atzmon conflates Jews and Zionists. So when he calls for de-Zionisation, the clear implication is de-Jewification.

“he is of course Jewish which makes it hard for him to be anti-Jewish anyway”.

He calls himself an ex-Jew, Rupert. He hates Jews.
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=1559

Of course you can be Jewish and antisemitic. You can be gay and homophobic. You can call it the internalisation of oppression – you can call it what you like – it is not unusual. Example from a recent episode of Andrew Marr’s ‘The Making of Modern Britain’ – the way some British women joined in with attacks on the British women campaigning for the franchise.

Please do the right thing and write a further self-appraisal in which you reflect upon how antipathy against Zionism (as opposed to lucid criticism) can prejudice anti-Zionists and corner them with antisemitic thinkers. We will make sure it is the last thing people see on this post. It will of course be subject to criticism (analysis, I mean), but if it’s good it will draw a line under this episode.”

[My emphasis]

Update 5: Dr. Read has replied at Engage and Greens Engage, neither of which seems fully satisfactory to me:

“Rupert Read Says:

November 21, 2009 at 8:04 pm

Look, we obviously disagree about quite a few things. E.g. Several of you seem to think that Oborne’s documentary was wrong or biassed or dangerous. I disagree; I think it was brilliant.
Parts of the Atzmon post just rehash in a provocative way the Oborne documentary. I found that interesting. The post was forwarded me by a friend who is usually a reliable source. I read it swiftly – TOO swiftly! I _wish_ I had read it more slowly, because then I would have no doubt noticed (for instance) the dodgy way he was sliding between ‘Jewish’ and ‘Zionist’, and then I wouldn’t have retweeted it, and then we would all have been saved a lot of trouble…
I obviously regret the offence and any embarrassment caused. I’ve said sorry, and I’ve learned from this.
So, while I don’t appreciate the slagging-off and name-calling that I have suffered during this unfortunate incident, which I think has been unwarranted and does not help us to mutually ‘engage’, I _do_ appreciate having been shown just how dodgy this man and much of his writing are, and having been reminded about the need for pro-active vigilance and care against genuine anti-semitism.
So, in that regard, thank you to those who have written here.”

and

Rupert Read November 21, 2009 at 7:50 pm

“To be clear: I NEVER endorsed Atzmon’s article. I read it [too quickly - I regret that!], found some of it interesting, agreeing with some of the remarks he made [which were mostly a rehash of the excellent Oborne DISPATCHERS programme exposing the extremely-worrying influence of the Zionist lobby in politics in this country], and tweeted it. THAT’S ALL. I did _not_ endorse it as a whole.
The Atzmon post was forwarded me by a friend who is usually a reliable source. I read it swiftly; I _wish_ I had read it more slowly, because then I would have no doubt noticed the dodgy way he was sliding between ‘Jewish’ and ‘Zionist’,
and then I wouldn’t have retweeted it, and then we would all have been saved a lot of trouble…
I obviously regret the offence and any embarrassment caused. …I also distinctly regret the unpleasant personal attacks on me and false descriptions of me in a couple of comments above. Please bear in mind, colleagues, that if you really do want to ENGAGE with people, you need to try not to slag them off and make potentially damaging false allegations against them…
I welcome the chance of clarifying things, and hope that we can start to draw a line under this, now… {See also my comment on Mira’s next post.)”

and

Rupert Read November 21, 2009 at 7:39 pm

“Thanks, Mira; this is useful.
Cohen is an impressive writer, and much of what he says in Chapter 3 of the book you cite is bang on the mark. I agree 100% with the particular quotation from Cohen that you have given above. Those of us who are anti-Zionists need to ensure that we are 100% serious and active in our anti-anti-semitism. Anti-semitism fuels the ‘rebound’ (among those oppressed by that anti-semitism) into Zionism. Unless we can extirpate or at least combat/reduce anti-semitism, it is fairly certain that Zionism will continue to have wide appeal. So there is a strong onus on all of us who are not Zionists to be committed anti-anti-semites.”

Update 6: Whilst Dr. Read has managed to post on the ‘Scandal’ over hacked climate-science emails at UEA: Don’t believe the hype, he hasn’t addressed in any significant way those questions put to him at Engage/Greens Engage. I don’t think Dr. Read understand the severity of this issue, and why he must quickly deal with it.

Update 7: A few days in, and still Dr. Read hasn’t commented on his blog, or comprehensively addressed many of the points raised over at Engage. All in all rather unsatisfactory. Still a couple of other Greens quickly came out, saw the issue and acknowledge the racism, which is hopeful, shame that a Green parliamentary candidate can’t go that far. I’ll try to return to this issue shortly.

Podcast Your Blog.

Ages ago, I said to myself “I must write more on disability issues and accessibility”, but I never got around to it, so to rectify that this is a quick guide to podcasting your blog.

By podcasting your blog you make it accessible to thousands, if not tens of thousands, of partially sighted or blind Web users.

Also podcasting means that users can download your posts and listen to them on an MP3 player or similar, at their leisure.

There are a few companies that do it, but the easiest that I found was odiogo, here’s how to do it.

1. Just sign up to their free service.

2. Provide the web link of your blog.

3. Give them your email address.

That’s it.

Oh and put a link on your blog, mine is http://podcasts.odiogo.com/modernityblog/podcasts-html.php

They provide instructions on how to add a Listen button, etc here.

That’s wasn’t hard, was it?

Here’s a demo and the FAQs.

Now blog owners there’s no excuse for not making your blog more accessible.

David Irving’s Email.

The rather pathetic figure of David Irving has suffered another setback, his e-mail has been hacked.

The contents may be found on wikileaks, slackbastard has a good post on the matter.

Also see the One People’s Project.

If that doesn’t make you smile I don’t know what will

Update 1: [Thanks to entdinglichung for this wonderful piece from SPLC] Neo-fascists fall out, or how Irving upset his Stormfront groupie, read more at SPLC’s blog.

China’s Black Jails.

China has a multiplicity of mini Gitmos scattered around the country, more commonly known as “black jails”.

These black jails are outside the judicial system, where ordinary people who are perceived as troublesome are locked up for weeks or months at a stretch, Reuters explains:

“So why are petitioners being treated this way? Black jails emerged in 2003 after the Chinese government abolished laws permitting the arbitrary detention of any “undesirables.” But that progress was undercut by the introduction at the local level of guidelines that limit local officials’ prospects for promotions or raises if petitioners from their areas carried on their efforts to find justice in larger cities.

What might have been intended as an incentive to make local officials deal with local grievances became an incentive for those officials to keep petitioners off the streets and invest considerable resources in achieving that goal. Plainclothes thugs commonly known as retrievers, or jiefang renyuan, locate and abduct petitioners in Beijing and other cities for bounties as high as $250 per person. Operators of black jail facilities reap daily cash payments from local governments of up to $29 per detainee, helping to perpetuate black jail abuses.

Rather than crack down on these facilities, the central Chinese government denies that they even exist. In an April 2009 Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs press conference, a MOFA official responded to a foreign correspondent’s query about black jails by insisting, “Things like this do not exist in China.”

In June 2009, the Chinese government asserted in the Outcome Report of the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission’s Universal Periodic Review of China’s human rights record that, “There are no black jails in the country.”

Such denials make a mockery of the commitment in the first-ever National Human Rights Action Plan that, “The Chinese government unswervingly pushes forward the cause of human rights in China.” The Chinese government’s credibility would be considerably enhanced by acknowledging that black jails do indeed exist, shutting them down, liberating detainees, and bringing the perpetrators to justice.”

Update 1: HRW reports:

“Inside China’s black jails, detainees are denied access to legal counsel and in most cases contact with family and friends. Detainees are kept under constant surveillance, and subject to often arbitrary physical and psychological abuse including beatings, sexual violence, threats, and intimidation. In some black jail facilities, guards deprive detainees of food and sleep as mechanisms to punish, control, or elicit information from detainees. Black jail conditions are uniformly harsh. Detainees endure crowded sleeping quarters, unsanitary conditions, poor quality food in insufficient quantities, and violent reprisals for complaints about such conditions.

The guards at black jails routinely deny detainees access to needed medical care, even in cases of injuries from beatings. One former black jail detainee resorted to a three-day hunger strike to compel her captors to allow her access to a doctor. Former black jail detainees report that guards often steal detainees’ personal belongings, including petitioning documents, demand payment for food or lodging at the black jail facilities, and demand large lump sum payments as high as 15,000 yuan (US$2,205) as a condition of release.”

What Freedom For Neo-Fascists Really Means.

News in from the Roma Virtual Network, Hungary:

“In hungary the last weekend in a small town in the North East part of Hungary there were physical conflicts between local Roma people and the members of the extreem right party, the Jobbik.

Later, during the weekend the forbidden Hungaraian Guard came to the settlements, and made the situation worse. For the police took the whole weekend to normalize the situation. The reason of the conflict was, that there was a so called “hearing”, where the members of the “jobbik” were present. Roma people waited outside the street – and while doing that, anger and frustration grew.

When the Hungarian press informs about this, it is not questioning the following basic points:

- what kind of “hearing”, was it, and how is it possible that the inhabitants of the town were not invited, welcome.
- if it was in the city hall, how is it possible that the building of the local government can be used for purposes like this,
- what was the purpose of the hearing, and who were invited? Shortly, who were the people who “heard the hearing”, and what the heard?
- how is it is possible, that the major can refuse to give an interview, – as it happened this morning – (becouse of lack of time:)

As you might remember, this part of Hungary is the same neighbourhood the last year nine Roma people were killed. (A few weeks ago, they catched the murders, the court-case is going on right now)

Presently there are a lot anti-Roma sentiments in the press – as people say – you see, Roma making problems.

Please have attention to this, and as well use any ways possible to question the Hungarian government, the parties, etc, to ask the above mentioned questions.

Please look: http://nol.hu/belfold/romak_es_gardistak_osszetuzese__hajnalra_lett_rend_sajobabonyban

Civil War or Not.

In relationship to Afghanistan I asked the question what are the possible outcomes of a precipitous withdraw of NATO troops?

Few people like answering it, but here’s a fair summary of possible events, not comfortable reading:

“The Nineties Afghan Civil War on Steroids:

Even if the international community gave up on Afghanistan and withdrew, as it did from Somalia during the early nineties, it is inconceivable that the Taliban could triumph in the country completely and provide a regime (however perverse) of stability.

About half of Afghanistan’s population is non-Pashtun, from where the Taliban draw their strenth, and most of that non-Pashtun population is ardently anti-Taliban. In the humiliating circumstances that would attend American failure, those in the West who now promote “counterterrorism,” “realist,” and “cost-effective” strategies in the region would probably endorse, in effect, a nineties redux—which would amount to a prescription for more Afghan civil war.

A rump “legitimate” Afghan government dominated by ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks would find arms and money from India, Iran, and perhaps Russia, Europe and the United States. This would likely produce a long-running civil war between northern, Tajik-dominated ethnic militias and the Pashtun-dominated Taliban.

Tens of thousands of Afghans would likely perish in this conflict and from the pervasive poverty it would produce; many more Afghans would return as refugees to Pakistan, contributing to that country’s instability.”

[My emphasis].

Over In The Workers’ Paradise?

Not exactly, but Iran must seem like the bastion of “anti-imperialism” to some (a modern day workers’ paradise for Westerners that don’t have to live under the repressive regime), I just heard of a strike at the Abadan oil refinery and checking Labourstart I was surprised at the number of on-going disputes.

The Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network has more on the oil worker’s case:

“After their wages and bonuses went unpaid a group of Abadan oil refinery workers began a protest on Wednesday November 11. Around 300 workers have not been paid for more than three months.

Tehran Emrooz daily reported that when the workers protested outside the Abadan oil refinery on November 12 the “Abadan oil refinery officials told the workers that as they are working in the third phase of the refinery then they are working for a private contractor and their wages have nothing to do with the refinery.”

This protest is highly significant in that oil industry workers have had no major protests for a number of years. They are paid regularly, unlike most workers in Iran, and their work environment is very heavily policed and controlled.

The Abadan oil refinery in the southern Khuzestan province is over 95 years old and was the biggest refining facility in the world for many decades. It is one of the oldest and most important centres of the Iranian workers’ movement.”

Update 1: I have had my eye off of the balls, HOPOI has more on protests in Iran.

Update 2: Over at the Guardian, Iran moves to silence opposition with internet crime unit.

Update 3: Reuters reports:

“TEHRAN, Nov 14 (Reuters) – An Iranian court on Saturday sentenced a student who took part in protests following Iran’s disputed presidential election this year to eight years in prison, a website reported.

The June 12 vote triggered big street demonstrations by opposition supporters accusing the authorities of rigging the result, which gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in charge.

Abdullah Momeni’s wife told website Mowjcamp, which backs defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, that Momeni was sentenced to six years for taking part in post-election protests and two years for previous activities concerning national security.

Several other post-election detainees have received jail terms and three people have been sentenced to death, according to Iranian media.

Last week a court sentenced a man to seven years in jail and 74 lashes for post-election activities, Mowjcamp reported.

Thousands of people were detained after the election five months ago. Most of them have since been freed, but more than 100 have been charged with fomenting post-election street unrest, including senior reformist figures.”

Update 4: More brutal than the Shah?

Blogger Beaten Up.

Thanks to Martin, I seemed to have missed this, but apparently Yoani Sanchez was attacked by State Security thugs in Cuba.

Read more at Martin’s and Marc Cooper.

Yoani’s blog has more.

Update 1: CNN reports Nine Cuban dissidents have been holed up for 36 days in the home of Vladimiro Roca Antunez.

Children Of The Empire.

The recent news of forced migration of children to the colonies will come as a surprise to most people, particularly the British, who probably haven’t heard of this appalling practice until now.

The Australian Prime Minister’s apology, after much external pressure, is also soliciting change within the British government.

Despite the fact that forced migration had gone on for some three and a half centuries the British government adopted William Pitt’s maxim, let sleeping dogs lie.

Notwithstanding the horrendous ramifications for the people concerned, nothing much was said. Until the politician’s arm was forced up their back and even then they dragged their feet.

The Common’s Select Committee on Health reported on this issue in 1998, 11 years ago, and here’s a small extract :

”Introduction

1. “It was barbaric; it was dreadful. We look back on it in our organisation with shock and horror.”[1] This was the comment on the child migration programmes made by the Chief Executive of Barnardo’s when he, along with representatives of other sending agencies, gave evidence to us on 11 June 1998. Child migration was a feature of British social policy for many years. Legislation allowed children in the care of voluntary organisations to be transported to Commonwealth countries. In total it is estimated that some 150,000 children were dispatched over a period of 350 years—the earliest recorded child migrants left Britain for the Virginia Colony in 1618, and the process did not finally end until the late 1960s.[2] Exact statistics are difficult to come by. Today many former child migrants continue to face serious difficulties in establishing their actual identities and contacting members of their natural families who are still alive. The absence of a medical history is also a significant problem for some. In many cases child migrants suffered emotional and physical hardship and abuse, of a kind which has had damaging consequences for their health and well-being for the remainder of their lives.

2. Responsibility within the British Government for matters relating to the welfare of former British child migrants now rests with the Department of Health (DoH). This is therefore an issue which falls within the Health Committee’s order of reference. At our first meeting in the present Parliament, in July 1997, we decided to inquire into aspects of child migration, a subject which until recent years has received shamefully little attention. One explanation for this seeming disregard is that until the advent of the Child Migrants’ Trust in 1987, individual former child migrants had no organisation to represent their interests or co-ordinate their activities. They were, and are, widely dispersed across Australia and other Commonwealth countries, and often lack any ready means of gaining access to opinion-formers or to the media. Mr Tom Luce, Division Head of the Social Care Group at the DoH, commented that:

“We have a very strong impression that before the middle to late 1980s there were very few inquiries, complaints, applications for records”.[3]

The agencies involved in child migration appear at this time to have been less than co-operative in dealing with requests for information. Former child migrants were a group whose fate had largely been forgotten.”

So next time someone talks about British greatness and the Empire, remind them of the real history, the real Empire, and what it consciously did to small children.

Update 1: The Child Migrants Trust is a useful resource.

Update 2: BBC radio covered this issue in 2003, their programmes are available (as Real media), Programme One – Children of the Empire, Programme Two – Good British Stock, Programme Three – Nobody to Trust and Programme Four – Searching for Identity.

Update 3: Again from the Beeb:

“Australia’s Roman Catholic Church publicly apologised on Thursday to British and Maltese child migrants who suffered abuse including rape, whippings and slave labour in religious institutions.”

Update 4: From 1999,

“British officials have been involved in a “top level cover-up” over the forced migration of vulnerable children, a Labour MP claimed on Wednesday.
David Hinchliffe, chairman of the Commons Health Select Committee, told the House of Commons that 150,000 children in care had been shipped to Australia and New Zealand as part of an experiment in child migration which he called “Britain’s most shameful secret”.

The practice of shipping orphans to Britain’s former colonies began in 1618 and only ended in 1967.”

Update 5: From the Australia’s Parliamentary Library, ‘Forgotten Australians’ and ‘Lost Innocents’: child migrants and children in institutional care in Australia.

“Under the Empire Settlement Act of 1922 and 1937, the British Government assisted private organisations to help people who wanted to settle in ‘His Majesty’s Overseas Dominions.’ Although not specifically aimed at assisting child migrants, this legislation allowed non-government organisations to send child migrants to various parts of the British Empire. The scheme intensified after the war when child migrants were sent under the Children’s Act 1948. Although non-government organisations had direct charge of most of the children at the recruitment stage, during their passage, or after their arrival in the receiving countries, they received encouragement and financial backing from British governments and governments in receiving countries. About 150 000 children with an average age of eight years and nine months emigrated from the United Kingdom, the majority to Canada, until the scheme ended in 1967.[4] A key motivation for child migration was to maintain the racial unity of the Empire and populate the Dominions of Canada, Rhodesia, New Zealand and Australia, with ‘good white stock’.”

Update 6: The Torygraph, 2001 “The Roman Catholic Church in Australia apologised yesterday to British child migrants who were sexually abused… “

Khazars, The Far Right And Dubious History.

I didn’t want to post for a while, but after reading a truly appalling post at Socialist Unity blog by Ger Francis, I felt I had to comment.

The body of the Francis’ article is about a meeting held by George Galloway in Birmingham, but as I am not terribly interested in him or his views I wasn’t too concerned with that. Rather I was interested in the references within the post and in the comments box to the new book by Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People.

Part of Sand’s work retreads a well-trodden path from Arthur Koestler, to any number of dubious Far Right web sites, that push the notion that “Jews aren’t really Jews, they are Khazars”.

Why Sand, as a historian of French history, decided to venture into the complex and contested area of Jewish history I can’t say, perhaps it was for the fame? The money or even notoriety? Whatever reason, it is unimportant and I shall leave it to academics in that field to critique his work.

Anita Shapira has reviewed his book [PDF download] for the Journal of Israeli History and Israel Bartal is highly critical. Simon Schama reviewed it in the FT.

I am more concerned with this very nasty line of reasoning, from an antifascist point of view and where it leads, to the delegitimization of Jews.

I think anyone remotely familiar with the limited range of thoughts and debates found on neo-Nazi and Far Right web sites will recognise that particular “Khazar” argument and understand why it is pushed. I won’t provide any links to those neo-fascist web sites, but readers can find them on Google by using the keywords: Khazars Jews white power or David Duke khazers.

The Far Right is populated by Jew haters and such like, they need, for the sake of their own beliefs, to delegitimize Jews, to denigrate them, to eradicate their very existence, politically, historically, socially, and physically. That is why Holocaust denial is so important to them, it is a form of racial incitement against Jews, and in their on-line web activities that means the Far Right manufacture, use fake quotations and dubious historical sources, and above all push the myth of the Khazars.

All of this is not coincidental, the Far Right view Jews as the ultimate enemy and any opportunity to disparage them is used, so conscious anti-racists and antifascists should be aware of the Far Right’s tactics, and certainly avoid emulating them.

However, as the post at Socialist Unity blog showed a wider problem is evident, which is that many modern political activists in the West seem to erroneously assume that they have to be anti-Israeli or anti-Jew to be pro-Palestinian.

Nothing could be further from the truth, saddling the cause of the Palestinians with the Far Right’s argumentation and method is the quickest way to discredit it.

Moreover, feeble attempts to try and delegitimize Jews, as a people, as a group with a deep sense of history, a bitter history, does not achieve anything. Quite the contrary and it is rather insulting and degrading.

Not only that, but it shows an almost complete ignorance of the Far Right’s methodology and activities, combined with a monumental lack of sensitivity which in the end only fosters anti-Jewish racism.

Copying the Far Right’s arguments is not something that socialists or antiracists should do, or seek to imitate.

I would hope that authors on Socialist Unity blog would take the time to read, and reread, Andy Newman’s guide to David Duke’s racism, and hopefully they would see their own mistakes in this area and avoid them.

Update 1: The CST blog covers many issues on Sand’s work.

Update 2: Thanks to a pointer at Engage I’ve noticed a good comment at the bottom of that thread. I’ll reproduce it here, just in case it gets deleted as Dave Rich’s comment was:

“47. For those involved in Palestinian solidarity in Birmingham, its university has long felt like some weird Zionist outpost”

I did my MPhil at Birmingham University two years ago and have to disagree with this comment. The UoB has a huge Muslim presence and most activism you see on campus is usually anti-Zionist. There’s a Jewish Society and Jewish students, most of whom (not all) are all very supportive of Israel, but that’s democracy for you. The idea that there’s a sort of Jewish conspiracy stifling debate on Israel is too widespread among many on the left, but it doesn’t stand scrutiny. Most progressive media is vocally anti-Israel, and the I/P conflict receives far more attention than any other in the world. If there’s one debate that hasn’t been stifled is precisely this one.

“the feebleness of the Zionist opposition to [the meeting], is further evidence of the growing hegemony of Palestinian solidarity in all corners of the city”

You’ve just shown me that I’m not that wrong, but then, it’s Birmingham, the British city with one of the largest Muslim communities. If the Palestinian cause didn’t gather support there, where else? The problem the Palestinians face is not their lack of support in the west, but among their Arab brethren. They can’t become citizens of most Arab countries, where they live as third class non-citizens, mostly in refugee camps. Black September Massacre perpetrated by the Jordan Army makes the Operation Cast Lead pale in comparison. So does the constant raids Palestinians suffer under in the refugee camps of Lebanon. The list is huge. Until the Arab leaders stop using the Palestinian people as a pawns in their power games, the Palestinians have a serious problem.

“To those who believed that the Israeli state was the natural and just creation for a Jewish people exiled from their homeland”

Personally, I think that’s irrelevant. I see Israel as the result of a nationalist struggle for self-determination of a people who, tired of being persecuted in Europe, decided that they’d be safer somewhere else. European Jews first started buying land in Palestine and establishing the kibbutzim as socialist experiences. But they were not the only Jews living there. Jerusalem or Hebron have a long history of Jewish population. The territory was under the jurisdiction of the Sultan of Turkey and later Britain. When decolonization took place you already had an important Jewish population in Palestine. Could things have been solved otherwise? Yes they could, but all the parties involved refused to do so: all, Jews, British AND Arabs.

“He reminded the audience that instead of the Zionists following some historic mission to Palestine, they considered Uganda, Scheyelles, and Patagonia as possible locations for a Jewish state”

Yes, that was Theodor Herzl looking for alternatives to emigrate. But people who point this out do it as if sending all the Jews to Uganda would have not created any injustice. Those places were populated too. The problem is that Jews were tired of being pogromed in Europe, and as the Pilgrims of the Mayflower, they decided it was better to try to go somewhere else. The Sultan of Turkey had welcomed them in 1492 after they were expelled from Spain. It’s normal that they thought about a territory that was then under Turkish jurisdiction and which has strong connections to Jewish history (yes, I think that the Bible is all bollocks, but so is Al-Quran, so if you’re going to deny the Jews their claims to Palestine, you should do so with Muslims. There’s no trace of Muhammad ever being outside the Arabian Peninsula, unless you believed that horses fly).

“Israel ‘is just another European settle state, similar to apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia’”

This is dishonest. Israel has 20% of non-Jewish citizens and their rights are in general respected. There’s discrimination, but there’re also Arabs in the Knesset, the Supreme Court, the Army, the diplomatic service, etc. Within the borders of Israel, you can’t define it as an apartheid state. The WB is something different, but I don’t regard the WB as Israel. Officially, Israel doesn’t either, and they apply Jordanian law over there. The example George was looking for is Texas, which got its independence 100 years before Israel. A lot of US citizens migrated to Texas, then under Mexican jurisdiction, and then decided to split from Mexico. They were independent for a year and after a war, they decided to join the US. A bloody episode, but all Texans are US citizens, even those of Mexican descent who are born there or naturalise themselves as US citizens.

Besides, what’s wrong with settlers states? My country of birth (Argentina) is a settler state. The US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, are settler states. Algeria is an Arab settler state in most of its territory (and the Ber Ber are not very happy about it). Morocco is a similar case to the south of Marrakesh. Settlers are the Arabs and Turks who live in Kurdistan and the Chinese Han who live beyond the two rivers. The problem is whether those settler states grant equal rights to their citizens (none of the examples I gave do). In my view Israel does within their borders, but not in the occupied territories, which is the reason why I think they should abandon them or declare the Palestinian citizens of Israel.

“Is it any wonder, George asked the audience, that more suicide bombers come from the living hell that is Jenin refugee camp”

No, it’s no wonder, but it’s sickening that anyone would rationalize suicide bombing. As I wrote somewhere else, suicide bombing is not the natural result of oppression, but a tactic chosen by psychopaths who have nothing by contempt for their ranks and files and who wouldn’t do it themselves. The Kurds are much more oppressed than the Palestinians. So are the Sharawis. Repression in El Salvador would make the Gaza look like a picnic (OK, OK, I’m trying to make a point here, not to denigrate Palestinian suffering, but rationalizing suicide bombing is a step too far) … None of those people ever did suicide bombing. Their leaders are socialists and secular, and unlike other men in robes, they care for their people.

http://juampylewis.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/suicide-bombing/

“Oslo had been a disaster for the Palestinians”

Really? Before Oslo the Palestinians didn’t have any representation or authorities of their own. The IDF occupied the whole of the territory and the Likud party believed strongly in Greater Israel. Things are more nuanced today, and the IDF has abandoned most of Palestinian cities and great parts of B areas (not all unfortunately). There’s a lot of work to be done and I wish they retreated to the Green Line, but to say that after Oslo the Palestinians have not achieved anything can only be justified from a maximalist point of view. Fair enough, and I’ve no problems with people who define themselves as maximalists, but they should say so. Because most of the times, maximalism is lethal… and people know it.

“The only solution was now a single state”

A pity most Israelis and most Palestinians don’t agree with George.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/22/most-israelis-palestinian_n_189596.html

“George Galloway is simply the most eloquent advocate of the Palestinian cause in the English speaking world”

If that’s the best the English speaking left can do… I’m disappointed.

Sorry for the long post. I hope it stirs some debate at least. For the record. I’m Argentinean. I’m a socialist and I’ve been a member of the Left since I’m 14 (more than twenty years now). I’m not a Zionist troll and post this with respect and critical spirit, in the belief that you can only strengthen your position if you allow opposite views to be discussed. My experience since I moved to Europe six years ago is that discussing the I/P conflict in the left is very difficult without people resorting to name calling. I find that self-defeating, and that’s not what I want for the left.

Comment by Juan — 15 November, 2009 @ 12:08 am”

A Dollar.

World Service had an interesting program from Namibia on a Basic Income Grant project:

“Thrown off nearby farms at the time of Namibia’s independence, the squatters of Otjivero lived a hand-to-mouth existence with no job prospects or land to farm.

Last year a scheme was established to give every inhabitant a basic cash grant of about US$10 a month, to spend as they wanted.

Believed to be the first no–conditions cash handout in the world, this small cash injection has made an enormous difference to their lives.

School enrolment has shot up, small businesses are springing up, and the nurse at the local clinic says malnutrition rates amongst the children have dropped.”

Facebook’s Anti-Roma Group.

A cautionary tale, as to how modern media and the web are being used to attack the Roma in the most disgusting of ways:

“Yesterday the daily Lidové noviny (LN) reported that the new racist group on the Facebook social networking site called “Every Fan Means One Less Gypsy! Let’s Clean Up the Czech Republic!” (“Za 1 fanouška…o 1 cikána méně! Pojďme vyčistit ČR!”), which incites hatred against the Roma and calls for their extermination, no longer has an administrator and cannot be contributed to. Some former administrators of the group claim to have had no idea they were even filling that role. The group was created on 4 November and almost 10 000 people have joined it. Detectives are investigating its creation and its members.

LN reports that the person who founded the group has not contributed to it. The group has had a minimum of four different administrators entrusted with excluding people from the group or erasing their contributions. Two such administrators claim they were assigned the role without asking for it.

“I accepted an invitation to the group without realizing it was racist,” Ondra Zugar told the paper. He left it after realizing what kind of group it was. “Then some people started writing to me saying I was its administrator and I should erase it,” he said, adding that he wants nothing to do with it.

“Police are investigating this Facebook group. However, I cannot publicize what specific steps they are taking at this time,” said police spokesperson Pavla Kopecká, who says police are able to determine who the group’s founder was even if the person is no longer active as its author.

LN reported previously that the commentaries posted by sympathizers of the racist group were very harsh because no administrator was erasing any submissions and contributors could write whatever they wanted. Participants in the discussion called for Roma to be shot or for people to take to the streets armed with brass knuckles and nightsticks.

The group is not the first case of a racist discussion on Facebook. Kopecká says police have already investigated a group called “Final Solution to the Gypsy Question” (“Konečné řešení otázky cikánské”) where similar statements appeared. “