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Socialist Outlook
SO/01 - Autumn 2003
The contents of this issue are united by the need to analyse the political situation world wide after the launch of Bush’s ‘War on Terror’, initiated after the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. These events transformed his position from an inept and faltering leader to a war leader with widespread support in the US. While this is not replicated anywhere else in the world, as the mass anti-war across the globe attest, public opinion opposes the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, his position at home was greatly strengthened by his military drive. In the Politics section Alan Thornett in ‘US imperialism and the new American century’, examines what lies behind this Imperialist offensive and argues that while the US-led coalition is sinking deeper into the quagmire in Iraq, its power in the region has been greatly strengthened. However, along with a weak economy, it faces a great mass of world-wide opposition organised into international anti-war movements. Sam Feeney in ‘The Attack on our Rights’, looks at the ways in which civil liberties both here and in the US are being trampled on after 9/11. Roland Rance in ’The End of Zionism?’ explains why a two-state solution in Palestine is doomed to failure. In the Theory and History section, David Coen, in ‘Why Individual Terrorism is Not the Answer’, uses the example of the Irish war of liberation to show how individual terrorism is rarely a strategic way forward for national liberation struggles. Dave Packer examines the horrifying history of capitalist wars and explains why in the words of Clausewitz, ‘War is politics by other means’. Jane Kelly in ‘Peaceful Women and Warring Men?’ looks at the contradictory ways in which women experience war and violence. In the Reviews section Alan Thornett critically assesses the call by Workers Power for the formation of the Fifth International in ’Workers Power: a new road to nowhere’. Andrew Kennedy in ‘Fear and Loathing on Airstrip One,’ reviews Orwell’s book 1984 in the light of current media speak. Terry Conway, in ‘The Immigration Myth Exposed’, reviews Thinking the Unthinkable, a book by Nigel Harris on migration and capitalism’s need for labour, and exposes the book’s limitations in understanding the problems faced by asylum seekers today.
Introduction
This new, journal version of Socialist Outlook will express the views of the ISG on the politics and debates of the day, but as a quarterly it will be more analytical, looking at events in greater depth than a monthly paper is able to do.
Editorial
The occupation of Iraq by the US/British coalition represents another stage in the global offensive of the new imperialism.
Politics
Alan Thornett examines the world political situation after 9/11, America’s plans for furthering its neo-liberal agenda, globalisation and the difficulties facing the US/British coalition in Iraq.
Politics
Karen O’Toole discusses the huge political impact of the anti-war movement in Britain, but warns of the need for a greater democracy if this success is to continue.
Politics
Sam Feeney investigates how the “war on terror” is being used to promote attacks on civil liberties in Britain and in the US, and argues that revolutionary socialists need to develop an alternative conception of justice as part of the fightback.
Politics
Roland Rance assesses the state of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, coming to the conclusion that there is no solution other than the abolition of Zionist rule to be replaced by a secular state giving equal rights for all religious, ethnic and linguistic communities.
Broad Socialist Parties
Should revolutionaries be arguing for the full revolutionary programme in this period?
Theory and history
David Packer explains the nature of war and the new imperialism at the beginning of the twenty-first century, its underlying imperatives, the horrors of ‘total war’ and the targeting of civilians and economic infrastructures.
Theory and history
Since Sept. 11th 2001 the United States has led a ‘war on terrorism’ using it to attack oil-rich states such as Iraq and to attack civil liberties and human rights. David Coen argues that the individual terror cannot be the answer to Imperialism.
Theory and History
If war is politics by other means, then the different experiences of women in war are gender politics by other means. Here Jane Kelly argues that these differences can be explained by looking at the roles men and women are expected to play in society, rather than by reference to any essentially female or male characteristics.
Review
Andrew Kennedy reassesses George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four in the light of the recent war drive and the fear and hatred generated by government and media.
Review
Thinking the Unthinkable by Nigel Harris, 2002, IB Tauris, £12.95
Harris draws the conclusion that immigration controls should be abolished and that migrants should automatically have the right to work – but that at the same time migrants should not be given the same rights as ‘native’ people.
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