The Iraqi elections
Much has been made of the "success" of the Iraqi elections, especially by "leftist" supporters of the invasion.
However there are a number of points which should sound a note of caution:
- The "independent" observers who pronounced the election reasonably democratic watched it from the safety of Jordan. It was too dangerous for them to actually watch real polling stations in Iraq.
- The main method of identification for many who voted was their ration card. A rumour was spread just before polling day that if you didn't vote you wouldn't get your food ration.
- Even the ruling US stooge administration has complained about electoral irregularities including not enough polling slips and the non-opening of key polling stations.
- A number of UK newspapers have pointed out the resemblance of the Bush administration and its media supporters' response to the election to that of the Johnson administration to the 1967 elections in Vietnam.
Here is a full comparison.
Jonathan Steele, the Guardian's senior foreign reporter, described how UK journalists were herded about by the UK military during the election in Media Guardian of the 7th April (free subscription necessary).
Who stole the Iraqi oil revenues?
Everyone, apparently. The US Government has been conducting an inquiry into the United Nation's Oil for Food program with the Saddam Iraqi government. Apparently the same contractors were appointed each time and millions of dollars have gone missing. The UN is now conducting its own investigation.
However back in June 2004 United Nations auditors criticised the way the US occupation forces had used oil revenue money channelled through the Development Fund for Iraq. The auditors said it was "prone to error" and "at risk of fraud". Even then they were talking about $10 billion worth of oil revenue.
Practically no money has been actually been spent in Iraq on reconstruction. Baghdad is still without properly functioning electricity and water supplies some two years after the invasion.
The Iraqi central bank has built up a five billion dollars surplus in recent months. This money has been deposited with United States Federal Reserve. My Yemeni uncle always taught me to look where the money goes when looking for those who pull the strings.
Making money out of Iraq and Britain
Halliburton continues to make money out of its lucrative contracts to supply the US forces. They have several times challenged the exorbitant prices Halliburton charges, however they have each time pulled back from acting against the company. The US military has been billed four billion dollars over budget for supplies to Iraq. This is double the US Army's original estimate. Who says that substantial contributions to President Bush's election campaign don't have a pay-off?
The total cost for the American people of the Iraq invasions has grown from $60 billion to $180 billion and continues to grow.
Halliburton are not just content with Iraq. They have been trying to muscle in on UK defence contracts, with a little help from the cabinet's American lackey Hoon. One of their subsidiaries has been awarded the contract to oversee the building of Britain's two new aircraft carriers. BAE Systems, the main contractor, has complained about this unnecessary overhead especially as the company has no expertise in shipbuilding.
Hoon's ability to support America without challenge is amazing. Another example of his power occurred just before the Iraqi elections. In response to a parliamentary question Blair assured the MP that no more troops were to be sent to Iraq in the near future. Two weeks later Hoon despatched 250 troops to help the US in Iraq.
The great Iraqi pull out
The Netherlands became the latest state to formally announce plans to call home its troops. It will pull its 1,350 soldiers out of Iraq on 15 March. The Netherlands joins a list of 14 other countries that have either announced plans to reduce or pull out their forces or have already done so.
The reductions will leave the coalition in Iraq with just three countries with sizeable deployments apart from the United States and Britain. They are South Korea, with 3,600 troops; Italy, with 3,160 soldiers; and Poland, with 1,700 troops. More info here.
Labour plans massive nuclear power expansion
Blair is planning the construction of new nuclear power stations. However he has decided to not reveal his plans until after the election, when he will introduce a white paper. New Labour intends to make it easier for nuclear reactors to get planning permission.
The strategy is to soften up the public by highlighting the dangers of global warming. New Labour has delayed any reports on nuclear waste and they have also altered the tax regime for renewable energy, making it more expensive.
New Labour Watch: Pregnancy
34 women each month are taking legal action against their bosses for dismissing them because they were pregnant. Lawyers in the field say this is probably a large underestimate of the problem, as many women either settle out of court or just move on to another job.
New Labour Watch: University students
From 1980 to the end of the 1990s the proportion of children from the richest quarter of families who had completed a degree rose from 20% to nearly 50%. The poorest quarter rose from 6% to 9%. The researchers from the Sutton Trust and the London School of Economics blamed tuition fees and student loans.
New Labour Watch: Bradford Royal Infirmary
Bradford Royal Infirmary was a very successful hospital ... and then New Labour "rewarded" it with foundation status. This means it can no longer afford to give sandwiches to patients admitted at night or to have night security guards for its car parks.
The hospital is facing a £4 million 'loss'. Many of the other hospitals in the region are facing much bigger losses. The vast majority of the losses are due to the huge rise in consultants' wages which were not covered by the government. In other words, patient care suffered and lower paid staff had to pay for the wage increases of the highest paid staff.
However things have got even worse for Bradford. The government-appointed Monitor has moved in and removed the Chair of the hospital trust (still quaintly called the Chairman by New Labour). The Monitor then imposed a special team of American recovery specialists to sort out Bradford.
This is what New Labour means by returning power to local people.
New Labour and freedom of information
Predictably New Labour has turned the Freedom of Information Act into a political weapon. It has used the Act to attack the Tories but has refused to release any information on the legal advice it received over the Iraq invasion.
Computer Weekly reveals just how secretive New Labour really is. They banned technology journalists from the first demonstration of the multi-billion pound National Health Service Information Technology system. The press briefing was given by junior health minister John Hutton. They only distributed the press briefing to selected journalists and publications.
The reason is that the project is in serious trouble with huge increases in costs and many aspects of it are not working properly.
Hutton has just written in a pamphlet for the New Labour think-tank the Social Market Foundation a call for the "concept of profit" to play a role in improving hospitals. In other words the semi -privatised foundation hospitals would be allowed to suck more money out of the National Health Service.
The Tories want to extend Hutton's foundation hospitals to cover all hospitals as part of the long-term plan to dismantle the National Health Service.
However those with more experience of private industry are not so sure. Lord Browne, Chief Executive of BP, has written in the Daily Telegraph: "Public service and business are different. To take business techniques into the public sector lock stock and barrel can be damaging and dangerous."
Lord Browne has obviously learned the lesson of Bradford Royal Infirmary, unlike Hutton and his political boss Alan Milburn.
New Labour and carbon emissions
New Labour's pathetic attempts to reduce carbon emissions have been exposed in a report produced by the Green Alliance and the Institute for European Environmental Policy.
The government's main instrument for reducing emissions has been the European Union carbon trading scheme. However the EU directive allows each member state to issue as many allowances as they want. This has led to "a race to the bottom", ie too many have been issued resulting a low price for carbon and hence no pressure on industry to use less or cleaner energy.
The government has manoeuvred in the EU behind the scenes to allow UK industry to produce more CO2 than it originally proposed. When challenged it decided to shift the CO2 cut to power generation which can then be directly paid for by the consumer through price rises.
This attempted secret ratting on the environment shows the reality behind Blair's speeches about saving the environment. As we have repeatedly noted in this column the CBI only has to ask New Labour to jump in order to receive the reply "How high?".
Iran
US foreign policy has over the last few weeks has been dominated by warnings against Iran's development of nuclear weapons. Even much of Condolezza Rice's peace mission to Europe consisted of lectures to European leaders that they have to be tougher with Iran.
This is not simply about nuclear weapons. Many other commentators have pointed that North Korea actually has nuclear weapons while Iran is at least two years away from having a usable bomb.
There are two main unspoken reasons. Iranian-backed forces have substantially won the Iraqi elections, hence the repeated putting back of the results in order to bring them below 50%. In other words the real victor in the invasion of Iraq is Iran, a dramatic reversal of the last 20 years of US foreign policy.
The second more dangerous reason is the beginning of a serious challenge to US hegemony in the Middle East. The Chinese are investing in Iranian oil and the Russians are about to launch Iranian spy satellites.
This is the real reason that Halliburton have finally decided to pull out. They have consistently worked their way round US Iranian sanctions in order to make money. Increased competition from the Chinese and Russians has now made this impossible. They claim there is now a poor business environment in the country.
Alan Clinton's funeral.
Alan Clinton, the former leader of Islington Council, died in January. His funeral was attended by a strange mixture of ex and current trots and the far right of New Labour: Stephen Twigg, Chris Smith and Margaret Hodges. This reflected Alan's political evolution to the right.
Jeremy Corbyn did the main address, skating over Alan's early history as an important Trotskyist and instead emphasising Alan's commitment to the people of Islington. A former trot and occupier of LSE in 1968, Alan Gillie, read out an obituary from Alice Amsden, an American professor and close academic colleague.
Alan Clinton played a major role in exposing the disastrous politics of the Workers' Revolutionary Party and in the foundation of the Workers' Socialist League. Unfortunately during his period as Deputy Council Leader to Margaret Hodge he swung to the right. A trajectory that continued when he became Leader. However Alan's right-wing old Labour approach wasn't good enough for Twigg, who repeatedly manoeuvred against him and tried several times to remove him. His appearance at the funeral left a bad taste in many people's mouths.
You can read Alice Amsden's obituary here. It also deals with Alan's important contributions to Labour movement history. It interestingly misses out Alan's editorship of the three volumes of Trotsky on Britain.
Everyone is going to Gleneagles in July
A secret dossier on July's G8 superpower summit at Gleneagles was lost in a London taxi by the senior Scots police officer in charge of security.
Chief Superintendent Brian Powrie left documents - including aerial photographs - as he returned from talks with anti-terror police and advisers to Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mr Powrie is responsible for drawing up a strategy to stop terrorists and violent anti-capitalist protests. A cabbie spotted the package - stamped with 'Property of Tayside Police' - on it and handed it to his local police station.
America and Cuba
Since November 2003 Cuban musicians have been stopped from coming to the US. They have even prevented them coming to the Latin Grammy Awards. A report on the situation has now been published and can be read here.
Leeds Alliance for Green Socialism News
Pat Regan of Mothers Against Gun Violence spoke to a well-attended meeting of Chapel Allerton Alliance for Green Socialism. Pat's interesting talk located gun violence not simply in street drug-culture but also in the despair and lack of facilities for young people. She movingly went through her own experiences and the stress given to her group by local politicians, including Leeds North East MP Fabian Hamilton. Pat sparked a lively debate. There was a pledge by the AGS members present to do all they could to help her campaign.
Leeds AGS organised a large meeting at Leeds City Art Gallery to hear Professor Alistair Hay talk about the dangers of microbiological warfare. Professor Hay went through the long history of microbiological warfare. During sieges of cities and castles catapults were used, by both sides, to throw diseased animals at each other in the hope of infecting their opponents.
It is a very difficult weapon to successfully use as it tends to backfire on the attackers. In general the larger countries tended to do research on the weapons but steered clear of actual attempt to use them. So called rogue nations were often accused of having such weapons but the dangers of using them applied to them as well as larger countries. Often such stories turned out to be myths as in the case of Iraq.
However there were dangers and it was important to be vigilant and to try enforce and extend international treaties forbidding their use. The audience asked numerous sharp questions and there was some serious discussion the issues involved.
Leeds AGS rounded off the start of 2005 by holding a successful AGM. They selected two candidates to stand in Leeds. Celia Foote, National Secretary of the AGS and a prominent community and trade union activist, was selected to stand in Leeds North East. Jeannie Sutton, who stood as the AGS's candidate in the Headingley ward, was selected to stand in Leeds North West.
Some details of how to make the maximum impact in the election campaign were discussed. It was also agreed to examine the possibilities in standing further seats in the West Yorkshire area.
The AGM also saw the first public outing of the AGS's Election Manifesto. This has been put together by Mike Davies, Celia Foote and Garth Frankland on behalf of the National Committee of the AGS. I have been privileged to have a sneak preview and it looks good. It builds on the green socialist insights of the AGS and the old Socialist Alliance's popular People before Profit. It is going to be a winner.
-- Half-Celestial Khan
