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Wot He Said...

“Conventional opinions fit so comfortably into the dominant paradigm as to be seen not as opinions but as statements of fact, as 'the nature of things.' The very efficacy of opinion manipulation rests on the fact that we do not know we are being manipulated.

"The most insidious forms of oppression are those that so insinuate themselves into our communication universe and the recesses of our minds that we do not even realize they are acting upon us. The most powerful ideologies are not those that prevail against all challengers but those that are never challenged because in their ubiquity they appear as nothing more than the unadorned truth.”

Michael Parenti

And now for something completely different...

Sinéad O'Connor - Troy

The Apartheid State of Israel

In the current climate it is becoming increasingly difficult to criticise the behaviour and barbarism of the Apartheid State of Israel without being labeled anti-Semitic. However those who do make such claims of racism have a clear agenda to defend such barbarity, whilst mocking the real victims of anti-Semitism in our very recent past, in a vain attempt to belittle the opposition to Israeli sponsored State terrorism; there is a growing mood and groundswell of public opposition from liberals, socialists and even Jews themselves…

Jews and Palestinians have lived together in Palestine for generations without the violence and hate we see today. However, Zionism, a nasty form of ethnic nationalism hell-bent on establishing a Jewish state, has sought to control more and more of what they considered to be land promised to them in the Bible. The violent ethnic cleansing of the people of Palestine by Zionist militias actually began at the end of the Second World War and continues to this day.

The real reason for the conflict in Palestine is not Jews or Palestinians, it is Zionism and it's colonisation of Palestine, in turn creating a culture of exclusivity and entitlement within Israel. Jews are “The Chosen People” living in “The Promised Land.” This inherently racist dogma attempts to legitimise human rights abuses and collective punishments against Palestinians simply because they are not Jews. The stated goal of Zionism has always been the removal of the Palestinians and the colonisation of all of Palestine, not just the area which is currently considered Israel.

Israel has refused to abide by UN resolution 194, guaranteeing Palestinians the right of return to, or compensation for, lands taken from them during 1947-48. Again in 1967 Israel expanded well beyond the borders of the original partition of Palestine and has been in violation of the Geneva Conventions as well as the terms of the original United Nations plan ever since.

The second misconception is in portraying Israel as a victim of unprovoked Hamas violence. Palestinian resistance to the colonisation of their land is, in fact, recognized as a right under international law. The contention that “Israel has a right to defend itself,” is like saying that squatters that occupied your home have a right to defend themselves from your actions to remove them. Israel does not have any right under international law to “defend” its illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The attack on Gaza is not an act of self-defense, it is an act of aggression - Israel is not defending itself, it is defending its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.

It is absurd to suggest that the shocking assault on the captive and defenseless people of Gaza by the world's fourth largest military is somehow justified by the firing of crude homemade rockets into Israel. They have no army, no navy, no air force. Over two thirds of the population is women and children. After the democratic elections in 2006, the Palestinians have had their representatives imprisoned and assassinated and their government was removed in an administrative coup in the West Bank. When Hamas resisted and regained control of the government they were fairly elected to lead, it was Hamas who was considered the aggressor, not those who removed them from power.

To make matters worse, Israel has kept Gaza under siege for the last four-and-a-half years. Gazans have been denied basic necessities, including paper and pencils, school books and even sanitary towels. Israel recently added shoes and clothing to the list, claiming Hamas may use them to make military uniforms, despite Israel justifying its killing of civilians saying the militia can’t be distinguished from civilians ... because they don’t wear military uniforms!!!

Gaza's main power plant has been bombed, severely limiting the amount of electricity needed for water and sewage treatment and general daily life. Fuel supplies have been restricted and importation of cement has been curtailed preventing necessary repairs to schools and hospitals. The Israelis have used F-16 Fighter Jets to make constant low-level flights over Gaza creating huge sonic booms which are causing serious and significant mental damage to children in Gaza, as well as being suspected of inducing miscarriages.

These are just a few examples of the war of terror waged against the civilian population in Gaza, culminating in the denial of medicine, food, electricity and fuel to the people of Gaza.

For the last 60 years Israel has never made any sincere effort to stop the conflict. Indeed it has inflamed it as there has not been one single Israeli administration that hasn't expanded the illegal settlements over Palestinian land. This is in direct violation of the Geneva conventions, not to mention the many agreements Israel has entered into over the years, and broken.

Simply put, Israel is colonising Palestine, any other claim is pure guile. Resistance to this violence is defined as "terrorism", cheapening the lives of the real victims of terrorism worldwide. Israel and the USA, two of the world’s leading so-called "democracies", are in reality rogue nations themselves, engaging in wars of aggression, collective punishment, torture, and criminal foreign policy which disregard even the most basic concepts of human decency. That is why we in Britain must condemn the actions of Israel and rally to the plight of the people of Palestine and their democratically elected leaders, Hamas.

Wot He Said...

"The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor — not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules.

"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals."

Albert Einstein

BP: Just the tip of the oil spill

On 27 July 2010 Greenpeace shut down BP stations all over Central London in protest at the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Whilst this sort of direct action does warm the cockles somewhat and is often orchestrated in a clever, witty and creative manner they, of course, will not actually change the policies of multi-national companies. They do however serve to inform the populace of what is being done in their name, and for their dollar (or pound sterling in our case; employing the Yankee dollar as the exchange rate for corruption and global devastation always seems somewhat more appropriate).

In essence the campaign should take into account, infact actually be centred around, the desperate need for unionisation of the workforce. The workers themselves cannot only act as the watchdog and safeguard against such tragedies, both on a personal level (eg for the 11 dead and countless other injured BP workers and their families) but also in the protection of our environment. Global companies have shown time and time again that health and safety and green policies do not enter into their profit and loss columns and they never will. The irony in BP spending millions projecting a new "greener" image whilst making wholesale cuts in workers safety and conditions leading to the biggest environmental catastrophe in US history should not be lost on the world.

Following Greenpeace's direct action I shared good cheer with others on social networking site, Facebook. It didn't take long for a "sensible" person to point out "BP Stations in the UK are a mix of BP owned/operated and franchises - if they are targeting franchises that's not on - those poor sods are just trying to make a living and were unlucky enough to choose the wrong franchising option." Need I mention that it was a petty-bourgeois small businessman saying this? The sort of person who would be keen to assert that the European manufacturers of gas chambers in the 1940s were only trying to make a living...or should that be killing?!

But of course the obvious retort is to point out that NOT ONE of the global petrochemical companies has clean hands, their billion dollar returns are coated in a slick blend of oil and blood. For example Shell continue to use the prohibited practice of ‘gas flaring' which pollutes eco-systems and causes health problems for communities in the Niger Delta. Please follow this link and sign the Amnesty appeal letter and make Peter Voser - Shell Chief Executive aware of your disgust at the situation: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?Action

However, Greenpeace and Amnesty are really only sticking plasters for a fundamentally flawed system. And like sticking plasters they can easily fall off, especially when wet, and were never designed to heal the underlying condition. Electricity, gas, oil and coal must be taken back into public ownership and an integrated plan drawn up concerned with the safe long term production of our energy needs without harming the health of people or the future of the planet.

Not only is the private sector a threat to our oceans it is a disaster to ever other environ. The future offered to us by capitalism is air we cannot breathe, a land polluted by nuclear waste, oceans covered in oil-slicks and devoid of life, rainforests just a distant memory and the wholesale destruction of countless species.

Only a fundamental change in the way our society is organised, corresponding with a change in whose hands the power lays (the people or a tiny clique of faceless corporations) can we have any genuine hope it protect the future of our planet for ourselves and our children...and the little fishes.