Labour Party
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Economism rules ok! By William Bowles
Currently, the only effective force in the country that can mount any kind of opposition to the attacks on our social capital is a much defanged trade union movement. But what are the chances of the organized labour movement leading a successful opposition to this, most likely the last gasp of a bankrupt capitalism before… Continue reading
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New? ‘old’-new? Labour, the election of Ed Miliband and the left By William Bowles
Following the election of Ed Miliband to lead the ‘new’ ‘old’ Labour Party it seems nothing has been learned from the lessons of the past thirteen years (let alone the previous forty). Continue reading
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John Pilger – For Britons, the party game is over
The game of parliamentary politics is over for so many Britons, especially the young. In 2005, a bent system allowed Blair to win with fewer popular votes than the Tories in their electoral catastrophe of 1997. New Labour’s greatest achievement is the lowest turnouts since universal voting began. Today, voters watch Brown give billions of… Continue reading
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Tariq Ali on Britain’s Political Deadlock, Gordon Brown’s Resignation and Pakistan’s Role in the Times Square Bombing Attempt
In Britain, the unfolding political drama following last week’s inconclusive elections has taken a new twist. On Monday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered to resign as head of the Labor Party later this year. He announced the opening of formal negotiations with the rival Liberal Democratic Party to form a progressive alliance and block the… Continue reading
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The carve-up in ‘the national interest’ begins By William Bowles
You didn’t need a visit to the Delphic Oracle in order to figure out what would happen, in any case I doubt that many want to visit Greece these days. So, on 8 May the carve-up began with Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats meeting a team of Tory advisors in order to strike… Continue reading
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Dead end for New Labour By Leo Panitch
Leo Panitch: Labour Party will have to split before it can be renewed Continue reading
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Parliamentary ‘democracy’ – a triumph of Victorian engineering? By William Bowles
Enter Parliamentary ‘democracy’ and the route chosen by organized labour as the one true road to socialism. And it’s here that the role of myth-making was and remains crucial to the exercise of ‘democracy’, a ritual performed every 5 years as the political elite go through the motions of winning our votes. Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: THE ART OF LOOKING PRIME MINISTERIAL – THE 2010 UK GENERAL ELECTION
On April 15, news media broadcast the first of three live, 90-minute “prime ministerial debates” between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the leaders, respectively, of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. By the end of the second debate on April 22, the word ‘Iraq’ had been mentioned a total of five times… Continue reading
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Obama, Britain and the age of permanent war By John Pilger
In the coming election campaign in Britain, the candidates will refer to this war only to laud ‘our boys’. The candidates are almost identical political mummies, shrouded in the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes. As Blair demonstrated a mite too eagerly, the British elite love America because America allows them to barrack and… Continue reading
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Whose democracy continued… By William Bowles
23 October 2009 It’s not fair to leave you hanging like that (see Whose Democracy?), we really need to know why the left in the so-called developed world has failed so miserably to carry out its allotted task, a task laid down by our ancestors who spilt much blood, sweat and tears. It occurs to Continue reading
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Whose democracy? By William Bowles
It’s really time I started writing more about the country I live in, the country of my birth, the UK, a country that has the oldest, the most cunning, the most duplicitous (not to mention the most mendacious) of all ruling classes, after all they’ve been at it for five hundred years, finally being forced… Continue reading
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One nation under the sleaze By William Bowles
L’affaire Berlusconi is just the latest in a long list of sleazy goings-on that reveals a cynical ruling class that long ago abandoned any pretence at representing the citizens and a labour government that is in bed with big capital in a big way. Cosy relationships such as the one Blair has with Berlusconi, darling… Continue reading
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Mantra politics By William Bowles
Once the state acquires such draconian powers it is unlikely to give them up voluntarily. We need only look at countries that have adopted comparable laws whether it be Mussolini’s Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, through to the various Latin American dictatorships and how they were removed, not that removing them necessarily guarantees removal of the… Continue reading
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Crunch time in ‘old’ Europe By William Bowles
The only option for the Blair government is to try and force its agenda onto the EU or pull out of the EU which is simply not a practical solution, economic integration is just too far developed. It would mean dumping a slew of legislation passed over the past thirty-plus years! A gargantuan and immensely… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Walking Over Corpses – The New Statesman and the Guardian on Voting Labour
In the New Statesman, the editor declares that despite “Mr Blair’s prosecution of a murderous, illegal war” two considerations “compel a Labour vote on 5 May”. Not a strategic vote, notice, not a vote to rein in and punish Blair without empowering the Tories – we are compelled simply to vote Labour. Continue reading
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The Lesser of Two Evils By William Bowles
Much play has been made of ‘tactical voting’, especially by the ‘left’ pundits, the argument being as ever, that we have to keep the Tories out. But the ‘good old days’ of a ‘real’ Labour government are long gone (were they ever there in the first place?). In any case, the chances of a Tory… Continue reading
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A life out of balance By William Bowles
A reader turned me onto two movies this past week, ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ (or on Amazon.com) the Hopi word for a ‘Life out of balance’ and, ‘Powaqqatsi’, ‘Life in Transformation’ both of which I recommend not only for the way they reveal the staggering beauty of Planet Earth but of how they compare our natural Home to… Continue reading
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Media Lens: No Politics – Only Elections
Issues like the environment, foreign policy, poverty and defence were “all but invisible”. (Golding, email to Media Lens, June 10, 2001) Defence, for example, comprised 0.6 percent of reporting. There was no mention of New Labour’s “ethical foreign policy” deception, of the non-existent “genocide” used as a pretext for Blair’s bombing of Serbia, of his… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 