.

Russian troops remain in Georgia — to maintain a ‘peacekeeping zone’ — with Russia/South Ossetia and Georgia accusing each other of genocide and war crimes. There has been adoption in the usual quarters of an ahistorical and philistine conspiracy theory ridden perspective in which Georgia is the tool of US imperialism — it’s all about oil pipelines — as if Georgia is not capable of getting itself into a jam just as well any other nation states, without US support and encouragement. Russia may be expelled from the G8, but with the ruling oligarchy’s hands firmly on the gas-tap, it will surely withstand any momentary sting of ‘humiliation’ such an outcome may cause.

For all the talk of ‘encirclement’ of Russia — an elephant surround by a handful of mice — examination of a tribal map of the Caucausus indicates that Georgia too may have reason to fear encirclement, or more accurately bifurcation and eventual annexation, by its vastly larger and more powerful neighbour. Today, Russia has formally recognised the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Self-determination as a principal is non-negotiable, however

On the basis of the general assumptions of historical materialism, the position of socialists with respect to nationality problems depends primarily on the concrete circumstances of each case, which differ significantly among countries, and also change in the course of time in each country.

Is the nation in question oppressed? Will independence give the people what they want or merely transpose their problems? And, to restate something few seem willing to hear, it is a grim irony that some of the Russian forces deployed in Georgia in support of South Ossetian independence have come from the killing fields of Chechnya where, in breech of protocols against ‘air-delivered incendiary weapons’, thermobaric terror weapons were used against civilian populations — as well as more traditional methods of mass rape, torture, murder and kidnappings — against Chechens seeking independence from Russia.

While acknowledging the depth of economic and social pain resulting from precipitous adoption of cowboy capitalism, the headlong rush of Russia’s ‘near abroad’ to engagement with Europe, is a predictable reaction to centuries of Russian and Soviet domination as the newly independent republics seek to distance themselves from their one-time imperial masters. The decolonised states of Africa and Asia similarly sought alliances and partnerships of which their former colonisers did not approve.

Just as Marx remarked that ‘history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce‘, after a brief experiment with sham democracy, Russia has reverted to autocracy, which in this latest incarnation doesn’t even bother with pro forma slogans about ‘proletarian internationalism’, and is flexing its imperial muscles anew. During the Soviet period, outright racism (which authorities pretended did not exist) was suppressed or manifested in some bureaucratic form — through the distribution of power and privilege. Following the collapse of the USSR, the end of restrictions on internal movement and the rapacious advance of hyper capitalism and massive social dislocation, racism and nationalism have metastasised into increasing support for the far right and violent rhetoric and physical attacks against ‘blacks’ — ie Chechens, Georgians and other non-Slavs — ‘yids’, Muslims and Roma, often on the absurd pretext that these ‘outsiders’ are trying to ‘exterminate’ the ‘holy’ Russian people. The republics of Russia’s ‘near abroad’ have every reason to fear the return of Russian imperialism , accompanied as it is likely to be in this instance, by 21st Century Black Hundreds and Cossack Hosts.

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unwavering loyalty to Marxism-Leninism, efforts to educate the masses in the spirit of the ideas of socialism and proletarian internationalism, and a relentless struggle against bourgeois ideology and against all anti-socialist forces all guarantee success in strengthening the positions of socialism and thwarting imperialist conspiracies.

What the declaration failed to mention was that the ‘anti-socialist forces’ were in residence in the Kremlin, that instead of ‘proletarian internationalism’, the interests of the Eastern Bloc or Warsaw Pact states were subordinated to those of the USSR, and that the Stalinists themselves had formed ‘imperialist conspiracies’ against workers’ revolutions in Spain, Germany, Hungary and then Czechoslovakia. With safeguards in place after the near armageddon of 1962, the bureaucratic apparatus had much less to lose in the stalemate with NATO than it did if the contagion of revolution spread from the satellite states to the Rodina (Motherland), inspiring workers to renewed struggle against their ruling class and a reinvigorated proletarian revolution. The ’stand-off’ with the US and its allies — deals done, communications through ‘back channels’ and acting through ‘proxies’ instead of direct confrontation — ensured business as usual, chauffeur-driven in armoured ZiLs along nomenklatura roads to nomenklatura shops. On both sides of the Inner German Border, huge military-industrial complexes kept spooks, soldiers and scientists in sausages and beer. For all the American bleating about the Soviet Union exporting ‘revolution’ the Stalinists were interested in exporting nothing but the dead hand of the bureaucracy.

In the event, Alexander Dubček was sacked and Czechoslovakia’s ruling élite fell into line behind their Soviet masters. There was no socialist revolution and Czechs and Slovaks endured another 21 years of occupation at the behest of an increasingly ossified bureaucracy, independent worker’s organisations operating underground and in secret. The USSR’s élite passed into anonymity and retirement, to be replaced by the Siloviki, formerly their juniors in the military and security services. Where Russia once paid lip service to socialism the new ruling class has, without apology, made intrinsic to itself nationalism and naked chauvinism — not to mention imperialist adventures.

The form, which is clearly marked petition initiated by Socialist Worker, says that the BNP

deny the holocaust where thousands of LGBT people, trade unionists and disabled people were slaughtered.

All part of a seamless whole with the pernicious blood libel that the Jews connived at their own destruction.

A ‘Jew-free’ Holocaust — Workers Liberty

Accusing the government of pursuing “anti-labour” and “neo-liberal” programmes, eight major trade unions today called for a nationwide strike on Wednesday to press for reversal of the policies that are leading to inflation.

The unions, to be supported by 40 federations of Central and state government employees, will organise demonstrations, rail and road blockades during the day-long agitation to protest against the government’s economic and labour policies.

“The agitation will be a warning to the government that their design of doing as they like to pamper the corporates and speculators, both the domestic and foreign at the cost of the rights and livelihood of the toiling people will be resisted tooth and nail and they have to pay heavily for such misdeeds,” a joint statement issued by the unions said.

The agitators have six-point charter of demands which include curbing inflation, a comprehensive Unorganised Workers Bill, loan-waiver scheme for farmers, proper implementation of labour laws.

In a meeting this week in Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan region, Iraqi journalists’ unions gave their backing to a new campaign in defence of journalists’ rights despite the heavy toll of war over the past five years that has claimed more than 280 media lives. … Despite some progress this year in the country’s security situation, the threat of sectarian conflict and attacks against media remains. The latest media killing took place a few weeks ago, when Soran Mama Hama, a reporter for the Kurdish-language magazine Leven, was shot dead in the northern city of Kirkuk.

From the International Federation of Journalists

On July 20, 2008 Farzad Kamangar was sentenced to death after having a seven minutes so-called trial; three minutes reading the allegations and four minutes “trial”. His lawyer was never been notified of any offense! Farzad Kamangar, a young teacher was incarcerated on August 18, 2006. He was tortured gravely for allegations such as collaborating Pejak Party, member of PKK, transporting explosives and etc. Since then, he has been transferred from one jail to another, from one city to another and within various judicial and Security authorities. During last two years, various individuals, progressive forces and organizations from Iran and abroad have protested his detention but the Islamic Republic of Iran has ignored all.

More at IASWI.

On the eve of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing there is a lot of talk about China, politics and sport. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Chinese regime tell us that the Olympics are neutral and only about sport, not politics. But a look back in time tells us something different. … The Olympics have always been a reflection of the political situation. That is why the issues surrounding Tibet, human rights abuses and worker exploitation in China can not be separated from the 2008 Olympic Games.

Militant Worker

The degenerate ‘Stalinist Unity’ has suddenly sprouted a crop of military ‘experts’. In defence of Russian imperial power, ‘Louise’ tries to advance the laughable notion that Russian weapons are neither good, nor sophisticated. She writes ‘Russia doesn’t have the military cutting edge’ — a distinction which is surely lost on the surviving residents of Grozny. Even if the statement were true, the Georgian Army is fighting the Russians with the same supposedly rubbish, unsophisticated weapons which lack a ‘military cutting edge’. ‘Thanks Lousie’, replies Archbishop — or is it Metropolitan — Newman, who then claims that the former Soviet republics have better armoured vehicles than Russia. Again, even if it were true, Georgia has about 200 forty year old T-72 tanks — Russia has in excess of 20,000 tanks of all types, including modern T-80s and T-90s but, obviously, lacks that crucial ‘military cutting edge’.

Supporters of Orthodox chauvinism attempt to muddy the waters by attempting an analogy between South Ossetia’s desire to cleave to the Rodina and Kosovan self-determination, casting Georgia in the role of the Serbian aggressor, contending that support for Kosovan independence logically translates to support for South Ossetian separatism from an oppressive Georgian state. Following their logic, this would require a retrospective adoption of the cause of Kosovan independence by supporters of Russian imperialism. Of course that will never happen.

This ahistorical sleight of hand simply ignores the history and role of Russian imperialism in the affairs of the small nations on the borders of the former Russian Empire and Soviet Union. It also conveniently ignores pervasive racism and xenophobia against Georgians and other national minorities. It is the basest sort of hypocrisy — Russia will invade Georgia over Ossetian independence, but has killed countless thousands of Chechens to prevent their independence. If the feeble-minded really must draw facile comparisons, they should look to the example of a powerful well-armed state (Serbia/Russia) threatening a much smaller state (Kosova/Georgia) using the pretext of a very small minority (Kosova 5%, Georgia 2%) and blood-curdling rhetoric emanating from far-right pan-Slavic nationalists.

12 August Addendum: While we are naturally sympathetic to the South Ossetian (and Abkhazian) desire for self-determination, it should be noted that in the years between the breakup of the Soviet Union and the current fighting, substantial ‘ethnic cleansing’ (a revolting euphemism) of Georgians from South Ossetian and Abkhazian territories has taken place, significantly altering the demographics of the two regions. Yet another example of a disturbing trend towards an autonomy or independence which requires ‘ethnic’ homogeneity.

Shameless demagogue and lickspittle to naked power, George Galloway was ejaculating all over his column in the Daily Record yesterday.

The Russian army were an awesome sight on the march into the two breakaway Caucasus enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

To be sure the citizens of Chechnya must also have been awe-struck at the approach of the brave and heroic Russian army. If, by his reckoning, it is Russia’s right to do what it will with the nations surrounding it, then America should look to his support for the annexation of Mexico and reconquest of Cuba — after all, there’s a substantial Cuban constituency for just that course of action.