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I don’t go in much for the seasonal thing but did really thrive through it all and actually had a very good time with the family. It is as hot as hell here at present. But we will get by on chilled red wine. My political interests at the moment are firstly in following the Novara Media cabal in London. I have great hopes for Ash Sarkar, James Butler, Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani. It seems to me that they and the Artist Taxi Driver, Owen Jones, Richard Seymour & Paul Mason and others are producing a profoundly moral critique of Neoliberal power. As I have been reading Reinhart Kosselleck I have compared the work of Novara Media et al to the critiques of Absolutism fashioned in the Enlightenment Clubs and theatres. Those critics brought down the Absolute Monarchs. The critiques of Novara Media et al may well bring down the UK’s neoliberal establishment. The moral impulse behind the critiques is also given added edge by Novara Media’s constant exposure of the mind boggling incompetence & meanness of the Tory Govt that Theresa May leads. So something good is happening in the UK. It is also possible that the Trump visit could be the catalyst for a major confrontation with the Tory state. That makes up in part for my deep grief at the crushing of the Arab Spring. I have also been genuinely intrigued at the re-emergence of what my old Year 11 history text book used to call the “Irish Problem”. We Irish of course thought of it as the English Problem. Briefly, Brexit poses an insolvable problem for the UK state. Peace prevails In Ireland because of the absence of a hard border between the North and the South of Ireland. But if the UK leaves the EU there will have to be a hard border somewhere. It will either be in Ireland or in the Irish Sea. The Unionists in Ulster have gone hysterical over the latter possibility and to pacify them there has been an enormous amount of fudging taking place. But sooner or later there will have to be some very hard decisions taken. To add a deal of delight to proceedings state papers released in Ireland have shown that MI5 conspired with the Protestant Terrorist gang the UVF to murder members of the Miami Show Band. As well MI5 tried to persuade the UVF to assassinate the then Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey! How’s that for a Deep State manoeuvre comrades? There has been total silence from the British Government on the matter. My other cause that is close to my heart is the struggle of the Palestinians. I have spent a good deal of time on Twitter in support of the courageous Ahed Tamimi. She is 16 and a total inspiration for her people. Everyone talks about how much the Israelis fear her courage and example. That is of course true. But in my tweets I have constantly pointed out that Zionist colonialism would not be possible without the complicity of Arab leaders especially in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. It is the very same leaders who most fear what Ahed represents. Some thing must be said about Australian Politics. I do live here after all! I am tempted to think we are in something like a Groundhog Day scenario. The miserable wretched racist Tory Government continues in office. The opposition Labour Party remains wedded to neoliberalism, seemingly of the Lite Variety. So their opposition is within definite limits. Yet we did have the Marriage Equality Survey and that showed Australia to be socially progressive and marriage reality is not a fact. Well done! So prediction time: foolish but fun. Some where (Europe?) there will be a major rupture to the Left that will threaten to destroy the decayng neoliberal centre. Remember this post! I Comradely Gary _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
