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548  2 December 2002   

What does
absolute power do?

Tony Blair was wrong to invoke the demons of the Seventies, just because FBU Andy Gilchrist said he would work to replace New Labour with Real Labour.  Andy Gilchrist was in the wrong, certainly: he is obviously a young and inexperienced union leader who has miscalculated badly, that's all - nothing less, and nothing more. Tony Blair should be able to rise above all that.

But Professor Nigel Harris, writing this month in Red Pepper, uses his column speculate on the impact of "the crazies" who are wielding supreme political power - the leaders of this world - Saddam, Sharon, Blair, Putin, Bush - they are all mad, he argues.  Harris is on a real rant - but we should not exclude his being heard.

Professor Harris is a sobersided Economics Professor, former Professor of the Economics of the City, at University College, London.  That makes his rant even more remarkable. 

  • "How long must the people of the world put up with the mad men and women who rule them?... The most insane are those with the most power.  For more than a year, Washington has been terrifying the world with the threat of war, of finishing-off the broken-backed thug who rules Iraq, and killing thousands of Iraqis in the process.  The sabre-rattling, the bluster, the bullying have dominated the world.... Why do we have to put up with this? About 4.7 per cent of the world's people are American.  About half of the American voters bother to vote, and half of those voters opted to vote for Bush.  So in a supposedly democratic world, fully 1% of the world's population consented to this lunatic bestriding the world.. 
  • There is a world ruling class.  But is not the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO or the transnational corporations - these are chimera, to mislead children.  Power is the power to kill, to lay waste, with impunity.  That power is embedded in states, armies and police - in Tony Blair and Saddam Hussein...  The state is the greatest instrument of terror in the world, employing unlimited physical terror to achieve its aims.."

This is powerful stuff, all the more for coming from a senior London Professor.  And one surely cannot read his words without harbouring a sneaking suspicion of their substance...  He writes extensively for Red Pepper - and you can read more, at the Red Pepper website

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549   2 December 2002   

The chaotic Old Left

I read what I can, quite regularly, about the surviving Old Left - the Morning Star, and Red Pepper - I gather that both of them are the beneficiaries of the wind-up of the UK Communist Party, the residue of "Moscow Gold" - is that right? Can anyone confirm?  MI5 will no doubt have all this marked-up on my File. 

For my part, I regard it as essential to keep in touch with what they are saying. But the truth is that I despair at the chaotic, inconsequential cocktail that they both contain.  There is no coherent socialist perception, no plan of action, no way ahead.  Merely a perpetual rant - anti-American, anti-corporation, anti-EU, anti-Nazi, anti-"Racism", anti-pollution, pro-anarchism, pro-animal rights, and pro-everything which discomforts any alien "Establishment"... 

Let me de-construct.  For I share much of the anger which animates those pages - that is what keeps me reading, I suspect.  And I respect many of the individuals who devote their energies to articulating a disruptive view of our complacent world.  Last Saturday, at the Swansea Quaker Peace Vigil in the City Centre, against war on Iraq, we were joined by Heather, a 63-year-old who works as a volunteer with the local Environment Volunteers, a dedicated Communist campaigner who sells the Morning Star faithfully, carrying supplies with her wherever she goes.  She is always voluble about the latest capitalist horror revealed in its pages - she earns my deep respect for her tenacity and commitment.

But where's da' beef?  Where is there a relevant call to arms?  A relevant prescription for political action?  Now - I must admit that convincing leftwing ideologies are scarce, and that the same criticism could be made of me and my Liberal Socialist ilk.  But at the least I feel profoundly guilty about the gap - and I am committed to doing something about it - I have not made much progress with the Big Thinking recently, but you will find my game-plan at various points - such as -

My Welsh Socialism

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