He laughed, I felt like a gringo…
The ALP has managed to retain its stranglehold on the Western suburbs seat of Kororoit, helped by a low-level dirty tricks campaign, one augmented by some rather deranged attacks on chief rival Les Twentyman by right-wing blogger Andrew Landeryou.
In the UK, (New) Labour has had its flabby neo-liberal arse kicked in the Henley by-election, being beaten not only by the victorious Tory candidate — as widely expected — but also the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, and even the fascist British National Party. To its credit, Labour did manage to defeat the UK Independence Party, (Bananaman Owen of) the Monster Raving Loony Party, the English Democrats, The Common Good and Harry Bear of The Fur Play Party. Blondes also proved more popular than brunettes, with Amanda Harrington of the Miss Great Britain Party narrowly defeating Louise Cole, also of the Miss Great Britain Party. On the other hand, the turnout was only 34,761, or 50.32% of the electorate — a drop of 17.58% — so it’s still possible brunettes are the real favourite among the Tory-loving voters of Henley.
Also in the UK, after the disastrous performance of the SWP front the Left List (nee Respect ‘the Unity Coalition’) in the May local council elections, four councillors from Tower Hamlets — the jewel in the tarnished bronze crown of Respect — have defected to Labour.
On a somewhat related note, Nick Lowles of Searchlight magazine asks ‘Where Now?’ for the campaign against fascism.
Back in the former British penal colony — in the words of renowned British philosopher Jeremy Bentham, home to “a sort of excrementitious mass, that could be projected, and accordingly was projected — projected, and as it should seem purposely — as far out of sight as possible” — the Australian Democrats have finally limped off the political stage, the final whimper coming nine years after the sentence was read by John HoWARd and Meg Lees shaking hands on the regressive GST. Lees resigned from the party in 2002, to form the ridiculous stunt known as the Australian Progressive Alliance. Naturally, it sank without trace.
The demise of the Democrats has been greeted with some regrets. For example:
I REMEMBER the great joy and the palpable sense of possibility I felt when Natasha Stott Despoja, at age 26, became the youngest female elected to the Federal Parliament in November 1995. Finally, here was one of us elected to the people’s house. A Doc Martens-wearing senator who was proudly and determinedly herself, blowing the winds of change through the Old Boys Club in Canberra…
*vomit*
Finally, on a bright note for bosses, in Perth a trouble-making trade union leader has been given his marching orders by police (Police ‘grab’ union leader Dave Robinson, PerthNow, Paul Lampathakis, June 28, 2008): “PROMINENT unionist Dave Robinson was “grabbed”‘ by police this morning and marched away from outside the WA Labor State Conference, at Perth’s Hyatt Hotel”. In even better news:
Violent boss has charges dismissed by right wing judge
Magistrate: “Civil disobedience is merely a euphemism for breaking the law”
A boss who drove a semi-trailer through a group of protesters, endangering the lives of several people, walked free from court this week without so much as a slap on the wrist. Anthony Elliott, the owner of the Elliott Group of companies in Melbourne, had all 15 charges against him dismissed after a 4 day court hearing…
The moral of these stories?
The sooner that the people realise that Social Democracy (UK New Labour, US Democrats, the ALP, etc.) is the real enemy of the masses, the better. Many forget that it was the German Social Democratic Party that allied itself with Hitler’s mob in order to do away with the communists, anarchists, trade unionists, and a hell of a lot of others back in my grandma’s day. Here we have the ALP supporting the GST, the Accord, the anti-terrorism laws, the NT intervention (land grab), and other similar dodgy stuff. Also, they were the party that instigated the White Australia Policy, the effects of which are still felt today.
When will people learn a little history…?
The KPD (German Communist Party) also allied itself with the Nazi Party when it was instructed to by Stalin. The KPD also denounced the SPD for being ‘social fascists’, in accord with the decisions of the Sixth Congress of the Comintern in 1928…
History books are usually written by the victors… it’s funny how many opposing accounts of history there is… just ask the David Irving wankstain… according to the history books I’ve read, plus biographies of Stalin and Trotsky, Stalin used the peace treaty with Hitler to buy time; seeing as how the new communist state was rooted after the wars of intervention (an interesting omission in the usual history textbooks). As soon as the peace deal was signed, Stalin started to move all of the soviet state’s industrial factories to the east, out of range of Hitler’s forthcoming barrage. Lucky for the USSR, and indeed for all of Europe, that he did so. It was Russia’s input towards WW2 that brought about the defeat of Hitler, though American textbooks would like you to believe that the US saved the world from German fascism. Let’s look at your above statement…
In August 1931 the Nazi Party launched etc.. They changed the name of the plebiscite etc. and ditched former opposition to the fascists.
They weren’t “formerly” opposed to the fascists back in 1931 at all! At that point in time, the rest of Europe (including Russia, as the USSR had no love for the German imperialists) was quite happy to see the remnants of the Prussian empire dissolve into civil war… 6 yrs later Churchill and the other powers gave Adolf the green light to invade Austria and Czechoslovakia… they just cracked the shits when he took Poland. They hoped that Hitler would attack Russia first, helping them rid the world of the commies, but due to the peace treaty, he went westward, thus saving the soviet bloc from total annihilation.
I believe that Stalin’s tactics were correct in that instance.
As a footnote, the far left and the far right usually agree when it comes to taking out the centre, then they try to wipe each other out. It helps to know who your enemy is when war is the last resort.
Cheers!
A pacifist (but not an appeasing opportunist).
Thinking too much can ruin a good time.
If Stalin’s motivation in signing a pact with Hitler in August 1939 was to re-arm, such re-armament would presumably have been in evidence by the time the Nazis invaded in June 1941. Judging by the rapid advance of Nazi forces, it doesn’t appear to have been terribly extensive. And the fact that it was only as a result of this advance that Stalin was forced to release some of his generals from the gulags suggests that he was not the most brilliant of military strategists. That said, it appears that the Western powers were indeed very reluctant to sign a treaty with Stalin, presumably on the basis that they looked forward to taking advantage of a war between Nazi Germany and Communist Russia… while Stalin was of course happy to witness a war between Germany and the West.
More later.
Dunno if I understand your point Dean. Originally, you wrote that “Many forget that it was the German Social Democratic Party that allied itself with Hitler’s mob in order to do away with the communists, anarchists, trade unionists, and a hell of a lot of others back in my grandma’s day”. My point is that: a) the relationship between the SPD, KPD and NSDAP was complex, and changed over time; b) the German Communists also allied themselves with the German Nazis. Both the SPD and the KPD did so when it suited them, and notwithstanding opposition from the rank ‘n’ file. On my reading, ‘genuine’ opposition to the Nazis tended to emanate from working class elements unsubordinated to either party (whether card-carrying members or not).
Some people say bowling alleys got big lanes!