Too many Guernica's

 

‘On April 26, 1937, Guernica was bombed by Nazi Germany's Condor Legion and Fascist Italy's Aviazione Legionaria, in one of the first aerial bombings. The attack inspired Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica, depicting his outrage at the attack. Wiki (and image).

Where is the outrage now when capitalist states continue to bomb and kill thousands of innocents?’

Posted twelve months ago on SOYMB. Historically after 1937 there are too many examples of innocent civilians being massacred from the air.

German, British and Japanese cities were firebombed during WW2. Vietnam, Gaza and now Iran, besides other ‘minor conflicts’ have all had to bear the wanton destruction that comes from the military belief that air power wins wars. The air power is now being reinforced by drones and missiles but wherever it emanates from if your a non-combatant in a perceived war zone the result is the same as if you had a rifle in your hand.

When we are now in a situation where civilisations are being threatened with being bombed back to the stone age and belligerents possess nuclear weapons and are insanely displaying signs that they are prepared to use them then the time for humanity to say enough is enough, this social system that holds human life in contempt is long overdue for the dustbin of history.

Reactor Number Four

 

On the 26 April, 1986 the number four reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine exploded.

From the June 1990 issue of the Socialist Standard

‘It is now four years since the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor on April 26, 1986. Information about its consequences is now becoming available in spite of attempts by the Russian government to prevent knowledge leaking out into the public domain. Glasnost may be Gorbachev’s policy in most things but not where Chernobyl was concerned. The scale of the disaster is far greater than has been supposed till now.

A significant feature of this disaster is that it was partly caused, and to a large extent made worse, by state secrecy. For instance, it was the state’s obsessional secrecy on all matters nuclear which meant that the reactor’s operators were not allowed to know that withdrawal of all the control rods could cause an explosion. All they were told was that this was “forbidden” (New Scientist, 11 November 1989).

Similarly, it was a military secret that a previous graphite fire had occurred, in 1958, at Kyshtym in the Urals. Not only did the Chernobyl management and engineers know nothing of this (except what had leaked back to them from the West), but again according to the New Scientist “those who had dealt with it were not called to Chernobyl until three weeks after the accident”. During those weeks a lot of harm was done. Fruitless attempts to dowse the fire were unsuccessful, only resulting in contamination of the watertable. Meanwhile radioactive material continued to escape into the atmosphere.

Political considerations led Gorbachev, in his TV statement about Chernobyl 18 days after the accident, to allege that the western media had lied and exaggerated the scale and nature of the disaster with their claims that there would be “thousands of casualties” (quoted in Frederick Polil’s novel, Chernobyl, 1987). This was part of the cover-up agreed to by the politbureau and recently exposed by Gorbachev’s opponent, Boris Yeltsin.

This cover-up involved misleading the people at risk so that many of these within Russia believed themselves to be safe. Chernobyl is in the north of the Ukraine, very close to the southern border of Byelorussia and not far from the border, to the east, with Russia proper. The plume of radioactive particles drifted north and east, and seriously contaminated a large part of Byelorussia and adjacent provinces of Russia.

“They were not told. They had to guess…”

The original disaster was bad enough. What made it worse was misinformation, the attempt to pretend that the only areas at risk were within a neat, circular, 18 mile (30 km) “exclusion zone”. The result of this official policy was that people have still not been evacuated from many seriously contaminated areas. In the week after the disaster, official policy decreed that “communities were left to rot in ignorance…”. Over the border, in Russia proper, people “were very frightened. They were not told. They had to guess …. Nobody knew what was happening. Burly peasants were collapsing in the fields” (Sunday Times, 29 April 1990).

The cover-up meant that the May Day parades were ordered to proceed, in Kiev and Minsk, as though everything was normal. Thousands of schoolchildren were thus exposed to radioactive open air. It also meant a delay even in evacuating Pripyat, the nearest town to Chernobyl. It is now thought that 4 million people are living with radiation, including 34,000 in areas very seriously contaminated. Yury Cherbak, a Ukrainian Green politician, claims that 85 villages in Byelorussia, 19 in the Ukraine and 14 in Russia should be urgently evacuated (The Independent on Sunday, 22 April 1990). In these unevacuated areas, where people are still growing food crops, not only are they eating the contaminated food they grow but, according to the Sunday Times again, “Soviet trade officials collected it and distributed it in Moscow, Kazakhstan and elsewhere”.

Now, four years later, (Forty Years, 2026.Ed.) the consequences of Chernobyl are becoming apparent. Children are suffering from leukaemia or cancer of the thyroid. There are a number of babies born with serious congenital abnormalities, a disaster similar to but worse than that caused by thalidomide in Britain or Agent Orange in Vietnam. In Byelorussia, over 2 million people are at risk, one-fifth of the population. Yet in the capital city, Minsk, there are no ultrasonic scanners (essential for diagnosis and treatment of leukaemia) or intensive care units. Medicines, even for pain relief, are in short supply. The authorities have decreed, harshly, that no treatment at all, not even for pain relief, be given to terminal cases. In the West, leukaemia cases have an 85 percent chance of survival. There, they only have a 15 percent chance.

Acute food shortages mean that children are not getting a proper diet. They die of quite common illnesses, with their immune system weakened by radiation. Experts claim that “it is not ‘Chernobyl Aids’ that kills them, it is the lack of proper food” (Sunday Times).

The state showed its “concern” in February 1988 by decreeing the sort of information which should be made available to the media. The increased incidence of anaemia, hypertension and hyperplasia of the thyroid was hushed up as a result of “official policy”, and there was to be no mention of any “loss of physical capacity for work or professional skills” (New Scientist, 28 October 1989). Who was the state trying to protect?

Delay and Disinformation

The role of the state in this disaster has been to make things worse: the delay in issuing warnings, the misinformation as to which areas were at risk, the suppression of information on the deaths and diseases related to or caused by Chernobyl, the refusal to allow scientists to do research, the publication of underestimates of the amount of radiation released, the refusal to arrange for evacuation from areas known to be contaminated, the despatch of contaminated foodstuff from these regions to uncontaminated regions, the lack of provision of decent medical facilities, the secrecy surrounding the lessons learnt earlier at Kyshtym – the state and its officials bear a heavy load of responsibility for this massive catastrophe and its (too-often avoidable) tragic consequences.

Probably this is the worst environmental disaster the world has yet seen. Large areas of land are uninhabitable yet in many of these people are still living – living a nightmare. In one village, in a single year, 30 babies were born with serious deformities.

The danger to humanity, and to the planet, of continuing to allow capitalist priorities – production of cheap, rather than safe, energy – and capitalist political structures – such as rule by a Party hierarchy, determined to control the information released to the population under its rule – this is the lesson of Chernobyl. The land is poisoned with pollution, the forest trees produce abnormal mutated growths, and the watertable is polluted. On the farms cows give birth to deformed calves, in the villages young women dread giving birth to monsters. Children are not allowed out of doors except to go to and from school.

Genetic mutation is a high price to pay for the government’s mistakes, for cheap electricity for export to Poland and Rumania, and for plutonium for the military, a by-product of the Chernobyl reactor. It is a price being paid partly because the world has trusted technical experts too much. There were experts in the Ukraine who claimed that Chernobyl’s four reactors were totally safe. After the accident Britain’s best-known expert on nuclear power, Lord Marshall, asserted that the risk from radiation inside the exclusion zone (less than 20 miles away from Chernobyl itself) was “no worse than smoking a couple of cigarettes a year” (Observer, 4 May 1986).

The likes of Lord Marshall have been making reassuring noises in the Soviet Union and doing their best to prevent doctors and scientists revealing the truth about Chernobyl’s legacy, Gorbachev’s glasnost did not apply in this special case. So long as society’s class divisions mean the necessity for the continued existence of states and national governments, and so long as production is for profit not for use, the danger of continuing to use such extremely risky technology will be too great – the victims are already too many.’

Charmian Skelton

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-state-and-chernobyl-1990.html

Money down the drain

 

People often defend the capitalist market system on the grounds that the ‘price mechanism’ is the most effective and realistic way to regulate production and consumption. But because price only reflects paying potential, not actual need, this often leads to bonkers outcomes, like milk being poured down drains.

Right now there’s a global energy crisis, due to the Iran war. But UK electricity providers are telling consumers to use more power, not less. Why? Because the government expects a glut of renewable power this summer, and will have to shut down solar and wind plants, and reimburse providers for lost revenue via expensive ‘constraint payments’ (Guardian, 14 April).

Socialism, where everything is free, would be so much simpler!

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/

George and the dragon

April 23rd is St George's day where in England, as in other parts of the UK which have their own Saints days, workers are  encouraged to celebrate the nationalism which is one of the ways that capitalism uses to divide and rule workers and others who belong to the working class.

Of more interest to this Blog is that on this date several literary figures died: William Shakespeare 1616, William Wordsworth 1850, Rupert Brooke 1915, Henry Vaughan 1695, Thomas Tickell 1740, and Peter Porter 2010. For anyone contemplating 'celebrating' a mythical figure the day would be better spent in some reading and in any activity which undermines capitalism and brings nearer the day we all have socialism. And that will really be worth celebrating! 

 From the Vaux Populi blog:

'Things have moved a long way since Enoch Powell's rivers of blood speech 40 years ago. Today, all the mainstream parties are against immigration, as long as it's illegal of course. A border police force has even been set up to keep them out. St. George's Day was once celebrated only by fascists. Now the red-and-white coloured rag is even flown on public buildings. The gentlemen of the League of Saint George (see http://www.leaguestgeorge.com/) must be happy.

Yes, unfortunately, St George's Day is upon us again, but what is this mythical saint supposed to have done?

We all know that, according to legend, he slew a dragon but in The History of the Seven Champions of Christendom we are told that, among his many feats of valour, he did away with two.

He was, so the story goes, born in Coventry, son of Lord Albert, High Steward of England. Having been abducted as a baby and held captive by the witch Calyb for 14 years, he tricked her into revealing her magic whereupon he split a rock and imprisoned her in it. This freed not only St George but also St Denis, patron saint of France, St James (Spain), St Patrick (Ireland) and St David (Wales), after which they went their separate ways on great adventures and acts of valour. These included sorcery, battling against incredible odds and rescuing princesses.

George, the legend continues, fought and won many battles, apparently single-handed. In the course of one he also freed St Denis who had carelessly allowed himself to be captured. And, of course, he slaved that dragon.

On his return to England he wanted to turn to a contemplative life but the king asked him to slay one more dragon which was terrorising the people of Dunsmore. This time, although he killed the beast, he also died from the poison spewed on him by it. He was, we are told, buried in the chapel at Windsor Castle and his sons - no mention of a wife - were given high office by the king.

If you believe all this you'll believe anything, including that St George's Day is anything more than an excuse for xenophobia - and for pubs to sell more beer.

We shan't be celebrating today but will continue distributing our leaflets in favour of world-wide socialism where the planet and its resources will have become the common heritage of all humans and the world won't be criss-crossed by frontiers.'

ALB

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/search?q=St+George

Socialist Sonnet No. 232

Barmpotocracies

 

Splendid possibilities there could be

For social progress of humanity,

If only folk didn’t tacitly agree

To preserving their barmpotocracy.

A state with a petite-Fuhrer posing

In a suit, fatigues or clerical garb,

Whose every perfidious word’s a barb,

Hooking those who have the formal choosing,

Making legitimate what’re really crimes,

Seemingly immunised against remorse,

Sole navigator of the nation’s course

Through dark and poisonous political climes.

It can be otherwise, everyone’s got

A choice; ourselves or follow the barmpot.

 

D. A.

Lose leaders

 

The occasion of the birthday of one who was ‘made’ a ‘leader’, and who features on the second Standard piece here, is an opportunity to once more look at the purpose of ‘leaders.’ Spoiler alert; the SPGB has, since its inception in 1904, been agin ‘em. There are many memes on social media which show sheep being persuaded to elect a wolf where the wolf makes promises not to eat the sheep. There are, including up to the present day, many examples of ‘leaders’ promising one or more things to get elected and then doing a one eighty turn. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. The majority working class has let itself be fooled far far too many times.

From the August 1940 issue of the Socialist Standard

‘The tragedy for Socialists is the manner in which the Nazi movement captured the minds and support of the German masses. Many factors contributed towards this end, but one thing stands out above all else, the misunderstanding of the principles of Socialism. Had this not been so there would not, and could not, have been a mass following for the spurious National Socialism. Throughout the world this method is being employed. Why does it succeed? Because the Labour, Communist and Social Democratic organisations are daily filling the minds of the workers with reformist notions and labelling them Socialism. Thus is provided the foundations of illusion. It is absurd to ask German workers not to believe false ideas, whilst workers everywhere else are taught to believe them. If it is wrong for the workers of Germany to believe blindly in a leader called Hitler, then it is equally wrong for the workers of Russia to believe blindly in one called Stalin, or the workers of Britain in one called MacDonald. This belief in a “Leader” is one fostered through the ages and aided by the reactionary as well as reformist sections. On one occasion, whilst lecturing in Manchester, the writer was asked by a young man, “Who is your leader?” His attendance at other meetings had left him with a psychological reflex resulting in this one question.

A century ago Thomas Carlyle laid down the fashion followed a few years later by Emerson in his “Representative Men,” which reaches its height in Hitler as the “Fuehrer.” From this comes the story of the “self-made man,” as does “Dick Whittington,” and has served Capitalism well as a theme to delude the worker with the belief that he could do it, and so adroitly sidetracking the workers’ class outlook. Individuals there are, of outstanding ability, who, given suitable conditions, stand out as historic figures and may become a Karl Marx or a Charles Peace, but only under the suitable conditions. The world has yet to produce “great” men who can make a fortune selling ice-cream in Greenland. How does Hitler fit in with this? Is he one of Carlyle’s “heroes,” or one of Emerson’s “representative” men? Demosthenes, in his “First Phillipic,” says it would make no difference if Philip were to die, because, if the Athenians acted as they had been doing, they would soon raise up against them another Philip.

Hitler had a secondary school education, had a taste for drawing, considered himself an artist, went to an art school and failed to pass the examination necessary to go further. He was a builder’s labourer, painter and paper-hanger, and lived a down-at-heels life in Vienna and Germany until the outbreak of war in 1914. Now, here was a “born” leader who should have made a fortune and become a power, because, according to conventional ideas, he had it in him. In spite of all the sacredness of his ego, he managed in four years to become, not a General, but only a Corporal. Turn again, Dick Whittington.

The collapse of the Kaiser’s Germany gave a shock to the officer caste. They realised the Army’s position in the nation could no longer be taken for granted. They must exert influence in civilian life by political support, spies, propagandists and political agents of their own. They sent Hitler as their spy, and for propaganda to the public houses in Munich, then under an ill-starred Soviet. When the Army reconquered the city, Hitler’s information sent many Communists and others before a firing squad. He was next sent to spy on the tiny groups formed by Gregor Strasser, known as the German Workers’ Party. He introduced numerous members (private soldiers specially sent) and swamped the group, changing its name to the one now known as Nazi. The first Defence Troop, forerunner of the S.A. (Storm Abteilung) was organised by a paid soldier, whilst the money needed to buy for the party (and Hitler) their own paper (The Beobachter) was raised and supplied by the officer commanding the Munich Army, General von Epp. Thus Hitler had “greatness” thrust upon him. He was not Carlyle’s “hero,” but, due to the foregoing suitable conditions, became an Emerson “representative man.” There stood behind him a national force, the officers of the Army, and on their wings he soared upward. He fished in troubled waters, using the years 1922-1923 of currency depreciation to further his growth. From 1924 to 1929 no progress was made by Hitler, because a moderate but distinct period of “prosperity” showed itself, and in the election prior to obtaining power, Hitler dropped over a million votes. Then came the economic blizzard of 1932-1933. The small investor and business man was swamped; suitable conditions again prevailed; the Big Business needed him and his party, and Hitler turned again to become what he is, not a “born” leader, but a representative man, representing unbridled rapacity. He did not make, he was made.’Lew.

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2022/04/on-leaders-1940.html

From the April 1998 issue of the Socialist Standard, edited.

‘The Greek phrase "an-archon" or "no leader" gave us the word "anarchy". Yet "anarchy" to most people is another name for chaos, or disorder. The assumption is that without leaders, there can be no civilisation. Our contention is the opposite. Leaders, and the followers who create them, are holding us back from any real global civilisation.

Think what some of these leaders have accomplished for humanity. Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Il Sung, Margaret Thatcher, Mao Tse Tung, Saddam Hussein--it would be perverse indeed to claim that such leaders have benefited the human species, and yet stubbornly the leadership cult persists. Anyone can write a long list of "bad leaders". But try writing a list of "good leaders" and see how far you get.

The world is obsessed by leaders and leadership. Corruption charge may follow sex scandal in the halls of power, and it doesn't seem to matter how many political, religious or other leaders are exposed as liars and frauds, nothing seems to dent the idea of leadership as a practical and reliable method of organising human affairs. The evidence may say differently, the individuals in real life may be as bent as a rubber shilling but the principle of leadership is still considered perfectly valid. Is this because we believe that some (mostly) men are just superhuman, or because we are over-rating the few and under-rating the many?

... There is nothing in the human brain that inclines it to subservience. Nor is there a "must-dominate" gland. Attempts by so-called Social Darwinists to justify our terrible oppression of ourselves as natural and correct have long been discredited, while efforts by some modern sociobiologists to do essentially the same have also been severely attacked. To imagine, as did the Social Darwinists, that evolution is entirely a process of merciless competition is to take no account of the alternative and co-operative tactics nature also employs, while to suggest, as do some sociobiologists, that our genes may dictate our behaviour and therefore our culture (including leadership culture), is merely to sit down very heavily on one end of that old see-saw, the Nature-Nurture argument, and hope the riders at the end fall off.

Each of us can be our own leader. The greatest command is that over oneself. Our capitalist world, controlled by a few rich people and their minions, has done its level best to school out of us the very things which make us such a great species in the first place--initiative, experimentation, imagination, diversity. But society can't reduce us, because it is attempting a self-inflicted wound. The rich need us to be smart to run their wealth-collection system for them, but they try to keep us in our place by browbeating us and treating us like children. It won't work for ever, even if it seems to be working at the moment.

The leaders we are asked to support, and sometimes choose between, are a myth, created and maintained by--leaders. They are poor examples of honesty, integrity, even of humanity. They are not interested in truth, justice, or any of the grand notions they spout about. They exist, have always existed, will always exist, for one purpose only: to line their own pockets and empty yours. They are parasites on the social body, unwanted, unnecessary and destructive. To follow leaders is to hand over your heart on a platter, with knife and fork attached. It is an admission of defeat, acceptance that you are inadequate, in and of yourself. It is an act of submission and indeed an act of cowardice unworthy of the human animal.

To refuse to follow leaders is a liberating step, one which the working class has yet to take. When we realise that the post-scarcity world can be run very efficiently and healthily by democratic co-operation, that our own lives would be vastly better without states, governments, police, and all the trappings of leadership, we will collectively be in a position to make that step. And then we will see a revolution unprecedented in history.

The Socialist Party has no leaders in fact or theory. Socialism wouldn't operate that way and neither do we. All decisions are made by common vote, all administration is above-board and open to inspection, and all work is voluntary. None of us is perfect, and that's why democracy works better than leadership. Mistakes by one person are not disasters for the many. Private interests don't count. Power doesn't exist. Socialists are their own leaders, and they follow nobody but themselves.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Polonius advises Laertes: "Neither a borrower nor a lender be." Socialists, having to truck with the money system in any case, would instead offer the following injunction: "Neither a follower, nor a leader be." So the next time you are asked to vote for a leader, do yourself a big favour. Don't.’

Paddy Shannon

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2009/12/never-follower-be.html

Guns or Butter

 

The idea of ‘Guns or Butter’ appears to be back on the table The concept was one which was favoured by Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring in the 1930’s. What choices are imbedded in this idea? The state is faced with deciding what its priorities are going to be for those who inhabit that state. Shall we decrease our spending on social welfare in order to increase its spending on military personnel and weapons the state says? Or shall we choose to concentrate on funding domestic programmes and infrastructure that benefit our citizens?

Continuing the long list of military useful idiots who have previously appeared in this Blog cheerleading for war. Here comes General Sir Richard Barrons co-author of the government's Strategic Defence Review which laid bare the threats posed to the UK writing in The Sun. Holding up the bogeyman of the Russians in a manner which verges on a psychiatric disorder he asks what is to be done?

His solution: ‘First, as citizens, we must all accept this difficult world. We didn’t want it, but we don’t get to choose. We must rebuild our national resilience, fix our Armed Forces and make sure every adult, enterprise and institution plays its part. Should war come, it will be a ‘whole of society’ endeavour. And we must act today. This means more money into defence and resilience immediately, even though money is tight. Without more tax or borrowing, finding perhaps £10billion a year more from now means hard choices across our £1.3 trillion public sector and allowing more private capital into defence. But we have to do this now. Today’s Government is struggling to do this, partly because defence is not the first thought for many MPs and mostly because our politicians see no votes in it. So the British voting public must rally to our own defence and urge our MPs to make the hard choices needed to keep us safe.’ Sure, Jan.

The Mail Online reported a speech given by a Labour Peer who,‘accused Rachel Reeves of blocking funding for the Armed Forces and urged ministers to free up cash by slashing the bloated benefits budget.

'Britain's welfare budget is now five times the amount we spend on defence. So I ask, are we certain that this is the right priority – jeopardising people's future safety and security, while maintaining an increasingly unsustainable welfare bill?' Sure, Jan.

One is reminded of the billionaire nuclear plant owner in The Simpsons, Monty Burns, who likes to command, ‘release the dogs.’ The dogs set upon us all here are meant to scare us into choosing guns not butter. It’s unlikely to work but it won’t stop TPTB from continuing down the path of unleashing death and destruction if there is a profit to be made from so doing.

NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR