Obituary: Betty Papworth, A lifetime spent as a left political activist.

With the death of Betty Papworth, we are seeing the last of the generation of east London working class leftists who began their political life on the cobbles of Cable Street. Betty joined the Stepney branch of the CPGB headed by Phil Piratin, who had been elected as a communist councillor for Stepney in 1937; and was later to be the MP for Mile End (1945-50). These were heady days for a young east-end political activist, for in Piratin the party had someone who new and loved his home patch and was prepared to think outside the stifling box that was Stalinism. 

After the campaign to drive Mosley and his Fascists out of the east-end ended successfully, the local party branch turned the spotlight on the appalling housing conditions that tens of thousands of east-end workers lived in. The Stepney party branch mounted campaigns to help tenants organize to force their landlords to carry out repairs and stop evictions. The Stepney Tenants' Defense League won significant concessions for tenants, sometimes through threatening legal action, but more often by hitting the landlords where it hurt by rent strikes in which thousands took part.*  

In WW2 during the London Blitz, when the east-end was hit especially hard. Phil Piratin and his comrades from the Stepney CP branch occupied the air raid shelter in the basement of the Savoy hotel, to highlight that air raid shelters were available to the rich, whilst the people of Stepney had none. Shortly after Piratin took the bolt cutters to Bethnal Green Tube station and from then on, for millions of Londoners the underground became a sanctuary from the bombing. After the war and long before Elgin Avenue was squatted in the 1960s, Piratin and his band of comrades were busy working with people made homeless due to the war and a lack of council housing. When the local councils and government refused to act; communist activists helped the homeless, including veterans recently demobbed, to squat in expensive flats on the edge of Regent’s Park. * http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sol-frankel-450049.html

A wonderful lady, totally committed to justice BETTY PAPWORTH, who has died aged 94, dedicated her life to campaigning for social justice, peace and human rights.  Born in 1914 in Stepney to a large Jewish family, Betty was always a bright child and was university material: but financial pressures had sent her out to work from the age of 14. Her nephew, Stephen Jacobs, recalls sitting on the steps of their flats in Grove Court, Tower Hamlets: “She took me all over the world, via an atlas on her knee,” he says. “She had a world of patience with me.” Betty’s East End was ruptured by the growth of extremism in the 1930s. As a young woman, she manned the barricades at the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 and became active in the Communist Party.  When war broke out in Spain, Betty helped organise public meetings and fundraising events.  She became an invaluable member of the Aid For Spain committee, and through this, befriended the black American singer Paul Robeson. She even put him up for a night at her East End home. When Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, Betty went to work in the west London Sperry aircraft factory making gyroscope compasses. But she was still politically active: at her nephew’s bar mitzvah in 1942 she asked guests to donate money to the Aid For Russia campaign.  After VE Day in 1945, Betty left the aircraft factory and returned to the rag trade. Her political wit had not dimmed. When the “forgotten heroes” returned home and were demobbed to find themselves homeless, veterans and their families squatted in expensive flats in Regent’s Park.  Betty was directly involved, dodging police cordons and clambering over fences to pass food packages through windows to the families on a daily basis. Working with her sister Hetty at the family’s clothing company, based in Cricklewood, Betty ran the business side of things.  She met and married trade unionist Bert Papworth soon after the war ended. Bert worked for the Transport and General Workers’ Union and the pair continued to be involved in left-wing politics and particularly the peace movement, being one of the first members of CND. In the mid-1960s, Betty trained as a teacher and joined an all girls’ school in Holloway. She loved the theatre and music, and eating out at restaurants. Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn accompanied Betty to Israel in 2004 to see the release of Mordechai Vanunu, the peace campaigner who had revealed to the world that Israel was developing nuclear missiles. It was Betty’s 90th birthday and she stood resolute at the gates of the prison to greet Vanunu as he was released, despite right-wing protesters yelling at her and throwing eggs, and the heavy-handed nature of the Israeli security police. When asked to move, she simply refused and waved her walking stick at the guards. Mr Corbyn recalls: “Betty was a wonderful lady, totally committed to peace, justice and human rights. She had a great sense of fun, and shared it with people around her. “At many meetings I went to – be it the Stop The War coalition or the London Pensioners’ Forum – at some point during the meeting I would see a bar of chocolate being passed hand to hand. It would finally reach the front of the stage and then be passed up to me: I’d look up and at the back I’d see Betty waving. She’d always tell me I didn’t eat enough and needed fattening up.” Age did not diminish Betty’s political drive: as well as manning a book stall in Hampstead selling left literature each weekend, she travelled weekly to Westminster to sell copies of the Greater London Pensioners’ Association newsletter. * Dan Carrier * First published in Camden New Journal

Blogging and the mainstream media,

Phil over at “A Very Public Sociologist’ has expanded somewhat on left blogging, a subject that we both touched upon in the latest Carnival of Socialism; as we are still in the lull of the holiday season I thought I would do the same. * If anyone needs an example of how the BloggerSpere is becoming part of the mainstream media, then they need look no farther than the dreaded ‘awards season’ which begins to take hold in the Autumn.’ When TV, theatre and film, journalism, politics, business and uncle Tom Cobbly and all begin touting around for nominations which will culminate in a lavish awards ceremony, at which ‘the best’ in their field are awarded a Crystal statuette or some such trinket by some grubby celeb who is hired to host the shindig at an over generous rate. 

My heart sank when I read the round robins that have been sent out of late to announce various blogger awards. After all the expectation that the BloggerSpere was different from the old media, it seems not, Why any blogger would feel the need to participate in these stale and outdated awards ceremonies is beyond me, but perhaps I am just a miserable old fart who needs to get out more, no matter, for as I find networking the curse of new labour group think, all I can offer in my defense is, so be it.

There was a time when blogging was regarded as cutting-edge, the best of which provided the sort of information and access that could not be gained from the mainstream media. However these days we are not only seeing the owners of the more popular blogs forever moderating there comments sections under the pretext of fearing a libel writ. Which to many of us is a contradiction in terms and a direct throwback to the cover all immunity powerful forces have always received in the mainstream media, but now the BloggerSpere is reduced to aping the stale and corrupt awards ceremonies that the powers that be enjoy so much, as they place people into a neat hierarchical pecking order. How quickly we have sunk to the media establishments level.

As is the norm with such events, in return for publicity, sponsors from industry and commerce are touted for cash to finance the awards ceremonies; and after a ‘suitable’ shortlist has been drawn up by the organizers, the great and good are recruited to judge the winners. The ceremony itself will take place in some fancy fur-coat and no knickers hotel at which black ties and dinner jackets will be the order of the day; and about the most rebellious act any guest will perform is to wear a lounge suit, or a sparkly Dinner jacket with a twirling bow tie. As with the mainstream media awards, these blogging awards are used to publicize this or that blogging brand and their sponsors and to shuffle some coin their way. 

I have never given much thought to these best blog lists and awards, seeing it as a bit of harmless fun; besides we all like a pat on the back, but is that really the case? First what the hell are we as bloggers doing replicating the worst of big media contests. For no matter whether it is the Oscars, ITV awards ceremonies, or Ian Dale and Slugger O’Toole’s ‘blogger awards,’ they are all designed to achieve one thing only, beneficial publicity for the host organization and its product. Every one of these awards thingies can, and in the past many of them have been fixed and best blog awards are no different. I need not go into fine detail about the scandal of ITV’s award ceremonies as what occurred is common knowledge and the web is not immune to such shenanigans as many of us know. Even when a ‘jury’ picks the winner, who wins often centers on who picks the jury.

Even so if all the aforementioned is true most may still see these awards as harmless fun, but what they also do is perpetuate the narrowness of the blogging envelope, which is something most bloggers fight against no matter what their politics. The winners of these awards ceremonies rarely come from beyond the mainstream, whether it is movies, journalism, the theatre, or blogs. Indeed one of their purposes is to perpetuate the mainstream and exclude anything that might threaten it. 

Some might argue that is because the mainstream is often the best, not least as the most cash goes into producing the product. True, perhaps in some cases, but as far as blogs are concerned there is the rub. For unless it is a group blog it is the core content that counts and not the peripheral gizmos money can buy, and long may it be so. There is also the question of exposure, which is the life's blood of blogging, if a small group of blogs continuously hog the limelight, with all that can flow from this, where will that leave blogging, especially if the more prominent prize winning blogs, due to the riches it brings, are prepared to play the game by the rules set by the man in the big house? 

*  http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/

Russian armies can’t march into other peoples countries, whilst Russian shoppers march into Selfridges.

When David Cameron claims Margaret Thatcher is his role model, he is not being entirely truthful, his real hero is Tony Blair. For like his mentor, Cameron could have just as easily joined the LP and vice versa. Neither man has a political conviction beyond gaining power and once it is attained never placing themselves even a millimeter out of step with what they regard as the supreme power on this earth, the President of the USA.

Both men have political ambition’s way above their abilities, the tragedy for their country is they are sharp enough to understand this and to give them credit, they also understand their nations greatly reduced role in the world of power politics. However unlike Cameron to date, Blair had a co worker in Gordon Brown who was prepared to do the heavy lifting at home, whilst he toured the world enjoying flaunting himself on the international stage. He was able to do this by attaching himself limpet like to the US president. First Clinton, then more securely G.W. Bush.

That David Cameron, if he gains power at the next General Election, intends to ape Tony Blair’s servile relationship with the US Presidency was demonstrated after the Russians stepped in to stop the Georgians annexing South Ossetia. I say annexing as South Ossetia has never been a part of Georgia proper. Even during the Soviet period it was an autonomous Statelet linked tenuously to Georgia; and things have been much the same since the fall of the USSR.

The problem for Cameron in his recent attempt to display political virility, he failed to check policy with his masters voice, the US ambassador in London. Instead he watched CNN, and rushed to the Georgian capital Tbilisi in the hope of emulating the former French President Francois Mitterrand, when he visited Sarajevo at the height of the Bosnian war. Unfortunately for Cameron, there were no Russian artillery shells exploding on the runway as his plane taxied in to Tbilisi airport, nor Spetsnaz snipers firing from the surrounding hills. Nor thousands of Georgian refugees in the local football stadium for him to be filmed glad handing. The best he could come up with were the flag’s flying at half mast at the five star hotel he stayed at in downtown Tiblisi. 

Still all was not lost, he would draft an article for the Sunday Times, and what a peach of a piece it is,* I thought it was bad enough with Blair at the helm, but with this man in control god help us. The article is full of platitudes; and Churchillian rhetoric about Britain being the oldest democracy in the world and it must speak up for one of the newest; the latter might come as a surprise to the political opponents of Georgian President Saakashvili’s, but one must not get picky. 

Cameron grabs the USA’s big stick out of the Pentagon’s cupboard, but instead of appearing threatening, he waves it about helplessly making infantile demands that Russia must pay a price for standing by the South Ossetian’s they had pledged to protect under international law. Although Cameron fails to use the words ‘South Ossetia’in the article, which is pretty striking as the whole sorry business is over the Georgian armies advance into their territory.

He bombastically proclaims 'we' must suspend Russia from the G8 and defer negotiations on a partnership with the EU, something which might not go down to well with the United Kingdom’s main EU partners  Germany, as they receive most of their natural gas from Russia. Indeed they place such importance on this that the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sits on the board of the Russian energy supplier that pipes the gas across eastern Europe to Germany. Schroeder understood perfectly where Germany’s interest lay when he publicly accused Georgia of provoking the recent hostilities with Russia by sending troops into South Ossetia.**

Still such sanity passes David Cameron by, for he has a secret weapon up his sleeve, he points out in the Sunday Times article that Russia’s elite love their ties with Europe, by elite he means the robber barons, mafia and oligarchs who have settled in London out of fear of the own countrymen, or visit on a regular bases. Not any more if David Cameron has his way, for these Russian billionaires can kiss goodbye to their “shopping and luxury weekends, for Russian armies can’t march into other peoples countries, whilst Russian shoppers carry on marching into Selfridges.” As I said Churchillian, such talk must have put the fear of god into Vladimir Putin and his generals.

  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4547747.ece

** http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3568763,00.html

Dear Sir: The best of the letters pages.

What can one say about the response of the UK’s leading politicians to the Georgian fiasco, it is clear they have no interest in learning a thing from the Iraqi disaster, beyond do not get found out. Indeed Gordon Brown and his Foreign Secretary David Miliband lost no time in endorsing G.W. Bush’s sabre rattling against Russia. They gave the war criminal total support long before they had a clear picture of what was actually happening on the ground within Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkasia.

As to the BBC, once again the Government said jump and the corporation replied how high. I watched a BBC news clip about Georgian refugees that was such an obvious piece of anti Russian propaganda, the journalist his crew and the ‘actor’ involved should be awarded an Oscar. A car had been flipped on its back, probably by the Georgian army and

the interviewee who was masquerading as a passenger in the vehicle, cried out to the American president to save her from the Russian hordes, never mind she was in Georgian army controlled territory. At the end of the interview, she let her side down slightly by walking off and disappearing with a group of Georgian army officers. I presume to await the next group of lazy English and US journalists who came down the road.

It is hardly surprising a politician as shallow as David Cameron would have commissioned a report that concluded with a 21 century version of Tebbit’s “get on your bikes.” Like the New Laborites he admires so much, for Cameron every thing and everyone has a price; and the whole purpose of government is to be the facilitator of big business. Because he and his ilk have such shallow roots within the communities they live, they believe all of humanity is the same; and the raison d'etre of human existence is to move around like pieces on a chess board looking for the main chance, or the opportunity to turn oneself into a cart horse. 

No matter if in the process whole communities are crashed and destroyed and the greater family split asunder. For such human tragedies are nothing more than collateral damage to a politician on the make, as the mining communities learnt to their cost when that spiteful woman drove a tank through them, destroying overnight communities that had taken decades if not centuries to evolve.

The failure of regional development in the UK is obvious to any one who looks closely at how the British economy has developed since 1979. Economically the southern half of England has been allowed to gorge and grow whilst the rest of the UK has been on a diet of thin gruel. Instead of getting to grips with this failure, Cameron, like New Labour before him, intends more of the same only harsher. It seems the populations of whole cities are to be told to get on their bikes. 

This week in Dear Sir we have letters that deal with the above, a missive that takes aim at the comments made by leading British politicians about China during the first week of the Olympic Games; and another asks how can the London Olympic opening follow the “breathtaking spectacle of the Beijing extravaganza? Finally a correspondent to the Independent sheds light on just why the majority of Nato countries and their people want no part of the war in Afghanistan. 

Mick Hall

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Dear Editor

Many who write about Georgia these days are doing a disservice to truth and to the chances of a viable solution by whipping up anti-Russian hysteria. The calm reader might thus like to reflect more on the following facts:

1. It was the Georgian president who began this crisis, seriously misjudging his opponent and weakening his own country. In the Japanese culture this would lead to hara-kiri; we in the west usually expect an honorable resignation.

2. The US attempt in Bucharest last spring to add Georgia to Nato must not be forgotten. It was rightly seen by the Russians as an attempt to continue to destabilise them. Again American planners misjudged the power and character of Vladimir Putin; and both are formidable.

3. The above were not isolated phenomena. For years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, American politicians have repeatedly been humiliating a nation which, whether we like it or not, is both great and proud. They are now reaping the whirlwind and, alas, so are we.

4. Talk of violation of sovereignty has become meaningless after Iraq and Afghanistan, and the invasion of northern Cyprus, not to mention the repeated bombardments of Syria and Lebanon by Israel and its famous attack on Iraqi installations, which many of us fear it would like to repeat in Iran if given half a chance. State sovereignty is, indeed, sacred unless it is we who violate it!

There is a growing feeling that the Bush administration is one of the worst in US history. Sensible Europeans should try to ensure that in its dying days America does not make matters worse; and if Europe cannot restrain its ally, it should stay clear of new American follies. Basil Markesinis Bicester, Oxfordshire

The Guardian 16.08.08.

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Dear Editor

It really does irk how Western governments are acting in a superior manner over China’s human rights abuses. It sounds like something from our colonial past – the moral West versus the uncivilized East.

This is despite the fact that we have illegally invaded two countries committing countless atrocities. There are no human rights for Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is not to say that China does not have major issues with human rights, trade union freedoms and Tibet.

But before we get carried away complaining about how Chinese police treat protesters we ought to look at the Climate Camp, where British police in riot gear harassed a peaceful protest.

The protesters are the conscience of the nation and rather than being hit over the head with a truncheon they should be given a medal. And the West calls China a police state?

Mark Holt, Chair,

 Merseyside Stop the War

Socialist Worker. 16.08.08

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Dear Sir

How nice of Cameron's goons at Policy Exchange to remind us what the Tories are really like (Tory party's favorite think-tank brands northern cities failures, August 13). Move "darn sarf"? Most of them talk with that horrible estuary accent.

Without the north we wouldn't have the vote: the Peterloo protesters, the Chartists and the suffragettes were all from the north. The trade unions were born in Manchester and the north gave this country the industrial revolution, which projected a small island to be a world power. The joule unit of energy, Whitworth engineering standards and Peel's police force - all northern. Manchester didn't have a seaport, so it built a canal to get to one; 5,000 Lancaster bombers which helped defeat Hitler were built at Chadderton. And the world's first modern computer was pioneered at Umist. As the late, great Tony Wilson summed it up, the only thing the south ever gave us was Chas and Dave.

And what would music be without the north? The world-famous Hallé, the Beatles, Hollies, Smiths, Buzzcocks, New Order, Stone Roses, Oasis, Happy Mondays, Arctic Monkeys. In 2012 the cockneys will invite us down to have a good old knees-up at the Olympics. Sorry my old china, but you wouldn't be in a position to hold the games without Manchester's Commonwealth success in 2002, after London messed up a bid for the world athletics championships. Our thanks for this? We can have a football semi-final at Old Trafford. Between United and the scousers we have 31 league titles and eight European Cups - someone should tell Roman Abramovich that you can't buy class.

So thanks, but no thanks. I'll stay up here, where people are friendly, still have the time of day for each other and don't rush to work staring at the floor. We still make proper fish and chips and we can have a pint of Joey Holt's beer for under two quid. The cockneys can be left to wallow in jellied eels and pie and mash, drinking flat beer at £5 a pint.
Alan Quinn
Manchester

The Guardian 15.08.08

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Dear Sir

Brown is not the problem and Miliband is not the solution. The real problem is the New Labour created by Blair, Brown and Mandelson.

It has no distinctive character, since it is just the capitalism with a human face espoused by progressive Conservatives. Having abandoned nationalisation, it has failed to champion alternative forms of public ownership by bodies such as mutuals, co-operatives, trusts and local authorities. It has left even natural monopolies such as gas, electricity and water in private hands.

In its enthusiasm for neo-colonialist intervention, the Labour leadership is far to the right of people such as Kenneth Clark and Malcolm Rifkind. Its foreign policy has made us less independent of America than we have ever been.

Its internal party democracy was exposed as non-existent by the "coronation" of Brown. Even what is most needed, electoral reform, promised in 1997, has been denied us.

No wonder people think the party needs a spell in opposition to find a role for itself.

P J Stewart

Oxford

Independent 07.08.08.

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Dear Sir

I have never been to Afghanistan but I have flown over it many times. On each occasion, I and a number of other passengers join at the back of the aircraft to admire its fierce landscape.

More often than not, one of my fellow passengers will shake his or her head and remark sadly: "And the West believes it can win a war there?" No one disagrees.

I suspect that the leaders (and citizens) of the key Nato partners Paul Burton berates for not doing enough fighting (Letter, 5 August) are more au fait with the history of conflict in that beautiful but accursed land than he.

Fred Litten

Croydon, Surrey

The Independent. 07.08.08.

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Dear Sir

How can the London Olympic opening follow the breathtaking spectacle of the Beijing extravaganza? Let us pray that there will be no attempt to emulate it in any way. Of course it was spectacular and imaginative. Of course, there was the usual "hands across the world/we are all brothers" motif. Watching the robotic participants with the Stepford smiles, all physically beautiful specimens, one wondered how many months or years of painful rehearsal under screaming harridans it took to create something so perfect in its execution, so totally lacking in humanity, humour or, most importantly, joy. This was a truly disturbing spectacle.
Constantine de Goguel
London

The Guardian. 11.08.08.

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Obituary: Bernard McKenna, International Brigade veteran who rejoiced "that I have outlasted that fucking Franco."

When I was a young trade unionist and political activists back in the late 1960s early 70s, we considered the veterans of the International Brigades as the cream of the Labour Movement. In my naivety it always puzzled me back then why these men and women who had sacrificed much, were not displayed as an example to all. Of course it was because the majority of the Brigade members were communist's, or at the very least had belonged to formations which were controlled by the various communist parties. 

It was not until Ken Livingstone took control of the GLC that a memorial to the British Battalion of the International Brigades was erected in London. An event which provoked media interest in those who had served in the British Battalion, many of whom were then coming up to retirement age.

Whilst the people of the UK may have over looked the enormous contribution to freedom the members of the British Battalion of the International Brigades made in their fight against Fascism. The people of Spain did not; and after Franco's death, with democracy firmly restored, the Spanish government gave on 26 January 1996 Spanish citizenship to the Brigadists. With the death of Bernard McKenna there are now only six British Battalion veterans left alive, so I could not overlook the passing of a member of that noble few.

MH.

Bernard McKenna, a lifelong socialist, anti-fascist and former member of the International Brigades, died on 31 July, aged 92. 

Sixty six brave Manchester men and women volunteered to go to Spain to fight against General Franco and his fascists in the 1936-9 Civil War and Bernard was one of 48 who survived. In old age he became the last surviving Manchester veteran.

He was born in Manchester into a desperately poor Irish-English family. The seventh child, he was the first to survive infancy. For most of his childhood his father was unemployed whilst his mother worked as a cleaner.

He was the first boy from his school, St Wilfrids, to win a scholarship to St Gregory's grammar school in Ardwick. At 14, Bernard became a textile-mill clerk. In 1934 he joined the Labour League of Youth, and then, at 17, the Young Communist League. He felt that the communists were the only organisation which saw the danger of fascism and unlike Labour, it discussed capitalism and how to bring about socialism. 

Bernard became an anti-fascist fighter. He disrupted meetings of Britain’s fascists.

When fascist leader Oswald Mosley visited Hulme Town Hall, thousands of anti-fascists surrounded it and pushed a tram over. Mosely had to sneak out through the back door. This opened Bernard’s eyes to the power of protest, then came Spain.

In July 1936, Franco organised a fascist uprising in Spain. Bernard helped organise medical aid and food for the Republicans. Meetings were held to raise money and handcarts went out collecting “Aid for Spain” at weekends. In February 1937 Bernard joined the International Brigade and went to Spain to fight. After signals training, Bernard was wounded on his first day of action at Brunete in July 1937. Then, on the Aragon front, he was wounded by shrapnel, and then shell-shocked. He almost died in hospital but recovered, and fought again.

In spring 1938, he was captured by fascists on the river Ebro and taken to an infamous camp in Burgos. There he was interrogated by the Nazi Gestapo and taken to the town's outskirts, where he expected to be executed. "That was the fate of most International Brigaders caught by the fascists," he recalled. "It was the worst moment of my life." Then, randomly selected for prisoner exchange, he spent time in an Italian prisoner of war camp before being released in October 1938. He retained, and never paid, his £4 Foreign Office bill for "repatriation".

When the Second World War broke out he joined the RAF and as in the International Brigades, Bernard worked in signals.  He wanted, he said, another go at the fascists. He spent six and half years in in north Africa, the Middle East and Italy. 

He remained a member of the  Communist Party until just after the war, when Joseph Stalin denounced Yugoslavia’s Marshal Tito as a fascist for resisting Russia’s interference in his country. Along with others, Bernard left the Communist Party and joined Labour. 

He later became a secondary school teacher, supporting children with special needs. He was convinced that education was the lever to bring social justice. He specialised in the educationally disadvantaged, teaching hundreds, if not thousands, of children to read.

In retirement he continued to talk to young people in schools and colleges and remained active in the International Brigade veteran’s movement and proudly received honorary Spanish citizenship for his role in the Civil War. According to his son Neil he never tired of telling people that,"I am buoyed up by the thought that I have outlasted that fucking Franco."

After a few years of Tony Blair’s New Labour he left the Labour Party in disgust. He joined the SWP in 1998, attended Chorlton branch meetings and participated in political activity until his health finally got the better of him. 

Bernard McKenna 1915-2008 remained committed to socialism to the day he died and he will be sorely missed. He is survived by his five children.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2008/aug/14/1   

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=15719

The Left and parliament: An interview with leading Turkish socialist Ufuk Uras.

Despite a revolutionary upheaval in a west European nation being about as likely as West Ham United winning the Premier football league, we still have sections of the UK left rejecting parliamentary politics. The most they will adhere to is the use of elections as a propaganda vehicle. I find this not only plain daft but defeatist to the core; and a betrayal of the working class people whose best interest the left claim to serve. For in todays political climate, in which all the main parties advocate centre right economic theories that have exploiting the masses at there core, it is imperative that the working classes have a voice in parliament and local council chambers.

True, the left may not be taking power any time soon, but the platform that membership of parliament offers the left is not to be scoffed at; and if used effectively, can be a powerful weapon in the lefts armory. In the UK where the parliamentary left is mainly made up of Labour Party members, they have proved pretty ineffective due to a fear of the consequences their opposition may provoke from the New Labour leadership. Even so, to be fair they have provided significant opposition to some of the worst of New Labour's legislation. 

Elsewhere in Europe, where the parliamentary opposition is not shackled to a centre right, ex reformist party, it has proved more effective and even in Turkey, where the left hold a single parliamentary seat, (leaving aside the Kurdish Party the DTP) it has managed to punch way above its weight by carefully selecting the ground it intends to fight on. At the 2007 Turkish general election Ufuk Uras, the leader of the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) was elected to parliament as an independent. The reason he stood as an indie and not as a candidate for the ÖDP, was because the Turkish State has placed a 10% voting threshold which parties must pass to gain entry into parliament, its purpose being is to block the Kurdish and left parties from gaining entry to the Grand Assembly (Parliament). Thus for the first time, in 2007 the Kurds and it allies on the left decided to stand en masse as independents.

Uras has chosen as his main avenue of parliamentary activity the exposure of the secret deep state that has operated for decades as the scourge of Turkish democracy. It has quiet literally brought governments down; and in the process murdered, burgled, blackmailed and bribed its way across Turkey without fear of sanction, whilst targeting so called enemies of the State, and drawing up extensive blacklists of those it regarded as such. 

The current Turkish government began an inquiry into the deep state, believing by doing so it could get the military and the country's leading Court off its back. In the process leading members of a deep state organization known as Ergenekon were arrested and indicted. The men arrested included senior military officers, journalists, academics, politicians (including a leader of a left wing nationalist party) and criminals.

However now that the governing party the AK Party no longer faces the threat of closure, Ufuk Uras is determined that there should be a full parliamentary inquiry into both Ergenedon and other deep state organizations, as he fears the AK cut a deal with the military to quietly drop its campaign against the deep state. 

Ufuk recently gave an interview to the Turkish newspaper Zaman which I republish below. In which he set out his reasoning and spoke about the campaign he has waged in the Turkish parliament against the deep State and the reforms needed to democratize political parties, plus the ÖDP’s strategy for earning more votes in the next election and how the Turkish left needs to renew itself.

MH

Question: Last week on Monday Talk, the lawyer for the family of assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink said the Dink case offers an opportunity to solve the Ergenekon case because Dink’s murder showed the world that elements within the state were involved in the murder plot. Do you agree with this view?

I absolutely agree with it but, unfortunately, the Ergenekon indictment has bypassed the Dink case. Leaving aside the Dink case, in the trials against Orhan Pamuk and Dink, prior to his murder, all the personalities who showed up against them have been detained as part of the Ergenekon investigation. Those personalities were publicly threatening Dink and Pamuk. The Dink murder is not an isolated incident. Apparently, there are some official or semi-official forces behind it; they should be revealed.

What would you say of the CHP’s* comments regarding the indictment, namely that it is a ‘mouse born out of a mountain’?

I hope those words were the expression of a desire that Ergenekon is not a deep-rooted, complicated structure with illegal elements in it. There have been writers, generals and influential people detained. Calling them “mice” is quite inappropriate. There is neither a “mouse” nor a “mountain,” but a judicial inquiry into some illegal coup attempts. Even if you take just one of the accusations against the suspects -- for example, their involvement in the 2006 Council of State shooting -- you cannot belittle it by calling it a “mouse.” Even that one event is a major terrorist act.

You asked parliamentarians to support you in the establishment of an investigative commission into the coup plots against the government, but only 21 deputies backed you. 

What are the implications of this?

Deputies would have been loyal to their oaths if they had supported an investigation in Parliament against undemocratic actions. What else would prompt the deputies to defend themselves? If we do not act when we have such a concrete example, then when are we going to show that we are for democracy? They need to have some courage to have a deterrent effect on undemocratic moves. Having a stance against gangs and coup plotters is the responsibility of the deputies. A decisive act by the deputies would show there is no power above Parliament.

Is it just a matter of courage?

Deputies need to have courage to make individual decisions and take steps against undemocratic plans. However, they cannot think individually and make individual decisions, because they think and act with a group mentality. There is not an official group decision made in the party, but apparently AK Party members had a tacit agreement that they don’t want to come against this. They reasoned that there is already a judicial investigation going on so there is no need to have a parliamentary commission. This also shows the undemocratic structure of our party system.

How so?

The parties have their groups in Parliament. This type of structure does not exist in the parliaments of democratic countries. Deputies stand up when the party leader enters the group meeting as if they are in an elementary school. The word of the party leader is taken as if it is the word of God. Take the 10 percent election threshold. The European Court of Human Rights ruled recently that the election threshold was not a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and they noted it was necessary for Turkey’s conditions because it strengthens governmental stability. Turkey has always been under “special circumstances” and not in the stratum of democratic countries. They found this practice suitable for Turkey, which is indeed derogatory for Turkey.

What are the election thresholds in other European countries?

The 10 percent threshold applied in Turkey appears to be the highest. Most European countries do not have thresholds, but if they do they are quite low. If we look at the countries around Turkey: Greece, Israel and Georgia have thresholds varying from 1.5 to 3 percent. The 7 percent threshold in Russia has been subjected to criticism. In the past Turkey had a proportional representation system and governmental stability was not in danger. In the 1965 elections, the Justice Party (AP) came to power and formed a single-party government. We have to see that proportional representation does not necessarily lead to instability. We need more freedoms and rule of law to overcome instability, not thresholds. But we have the wrong strategy when we oppose different views.

Would you elaborate on this?

For example, we have the wrong strategy in opposing the AK Party in Turkey. We should be defending more democracy and more democratic rights in fighting against the disagreeable policies of the AK Party rather than supporting a ban on it. We should overcome crises by demanding more democracy.

Do you think the AK Party will be shut down?

The closure case was opened even though the indictment was weak, so this leads us to expect a closure -- but we never desire it.

Do you expect an early election?

I don’t.

Why not?

Because I expect that in an early election scenario, parties that are in Parliament now will not get as many votes as they did in the last election. According to the polls, support for the CHP is down to 10 percent, while support for the AK Party is down to 30 percent. The second issue is the retirement plans of the deputies. They will be eligible for retirement benefits next year in autumn. Still, anything can happen; but I expect local elections to be held in March and we may expect an early election following autumn 2009. An early election would not increase the gains of the major parties as far as I can see.

What have you been doing to increase the gains of the left?

We are first looking at the local elections and trying to end the party leaders’ dominance at the local level. We want to eradicate the practice of parachuting local candidates. For local administrative positions, people should determine for themselves who their leaders will be. We hope to see national candidates emerging out of the local elections. I believe the leftist ideology of the single-party era has reached its end. We need a left defending more democracy and freedoms. We need renewal in the left. We need a renewed left gathering not at the left of the center but at the center of the left, especially considering that the center has become like a military commandership.

What are the principals of this new left?

We defend transparent politics and social policies against neo-liberal policies and a real liberal secularism against a militant secularism and we emphasize political participation at the local level. Wherever we go in Turkey, we see the public demanding more democracy and people in general do not support tools outside of democratic principles. People also demand more social policies and this can be achieved only within a democratic system.

Where do you put the CHP in this new leftist context?

In the world there is no leftist party that would defend military coups and the constitution of military rule. The secularism the CHP defends is control of religion through the state apparatus, while real secularism requires the impartiality of the state toward religion. The CHP does not even nominate Alevi candidates.

Do Alevis still support the CHP?

Some do, but there is a big division. I see that in the meetings of the Alevi associations in both Europe and Turkey, but Alevis do not see any new place to go. If they find a new address, they could easily dispense with the CHP.

You have been saying that a third of the votes you received were from Alevis, another third were from Kurds and the rest was from the left, right?

Roughly, that’s correct. This is the first time in the Turkish Republic’s history that an independent has been elected as a deputy from a region in İstanbul -- referred to as the “first region” -- where the population is about 6.5 million. There were about 3.5 million voters and I got about 81,000 votes. We’re brainstorming about whether this could be a model for other regions in Turkey. But we have to be careful about the timing. We should wait for the local elections, see the results and maybe then push the button.

What exactly will you do?

We might declare a mutual manifesto together with the opposition forces in society, such as unions, professional organizations and individuals, and create a group attractive enough for some of the existing parties to join us. This should not be a confederative structure, as that has been unsuccessful in the past. We would agree on concrete steps to be able to act together.

What type of concrete steps?

For example, creating a new constitution. We would adopt a “hurry slowly” philosophy.

There is only one socialist local administration in Turkey. It’s in Hopa, a district of the northeastern province of Artvin …

Yes, it’s the only socialist administration in Turkey and the Middle East. They set a very good example of how a local administration should serve. They have clean and inexpensive water and they provided opportunities for disabled citizens and opened beaches to the public. In short, they base their work on the philosophy of how to benefit the public. If people want to see a good alternative local administration, they need not go so far out to Europe or other countries; they should just go to Hopa.

Do you expect votes from the right?

I do, because I get calls from people who have identified themselves with the right and they say they have had a different view of what the left is, but after starting to learn about our policies they say they feel close to our views. People usually mean the CHP when they say left. But describing the CHP as a leftist party is a betrayal of the left.

About ÖDP leader Ufuk Uras.

Elected as an independent deputy in the July 22 general elections last year, Ufuk Uras is the founding leader of the Freedom and Democracy Party (ÖDP), which defends liberal socialist ideas. An academic in the field of economics, Uras was an assistant professor at İstanbul University until becoming a deputy. Among his many books are: "ÖDP Söyleşileri" (ÖDP Interviews), "Başka Bir Siyaset Mümkün" (Another Politics is Possible), "Siyaset Yazıları" (Political Writings), "Alternatif Siyaset Arayışları" (Search for Alternative Politics) and "Kurtuluş Savaşı'nda Sol" (Left in the War of Liberation). His book "İdeolojilerin Sonu mu?" (End of Ideologies?) received the Marxist Research Support Award in 1991.

* The CHP or Republican People's Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) founded by Ataturk and currently affiliated to 2nd international. Nationalist with hint of reformism, favorite of Turkish military and State bureaucracy, led governments for decades, today main parliamentary opposition.

** http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=148051

 

Mahmoud Darwish: The laureate of the wretched of the earth.

To the left of this page is a short piece taken from a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet who died last week. Like that other great progressive poet Nazim Hikmat, Darwish found it impossible not to join the struggle for human emancipation and by doing so gave a voice to those who were engaged in that struggle; or suffering under the yoke of the oppressor. In tribute to Mahmoud I have republished below a short article by the writer Ahdaf Soueif. In the coming weeks I hope to publish the odd poem by the above mentioned poets and others who sided with the masses.

MH

None of us really thought he'd die. Our loss is great, we tell each other. In our minds we think of Edward Said, of Haider Abdel-Shafi, of Faisal Husseini, and even - yes - of Yasser Arafat. The "big men" of Palestine. And now, Mahmoud Darwish.

He was seven when - in the Nakba of 1948 - he fled from Birweh, his village in the Galilee. At the age of 12, living in Deir el-Asad, in what had become Israel, with a reputation as a precocious child poet, he was asked to compose a poem for a public reading. The occasion was the celebration of Israel's "Independence Day" and the poem he read described the feelings of a child who returns to his town to find other people sleeping in his bed, tilling his father's lands. He was summoned to the military governor who told