Editorial

The January 30 elections in Iraq will be over by the time Socialist Outlook 5 is published, but we can make some assessment of the situation now. While the Iraqi resistance is divided on whether to take part in the Constituent Assembly elections, and it is indeed a tactical issue, the majority of the people of Iraq (opinion polls suggest 80%) support their taking place. We support the struggle and demands for elections raised by the mass movement, despite the fact that the leaders of the Sunni minority have recently called for a boycott.

 

In recent debates on the British left, comrades of the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP) have downplayed the importance of the fight for secularism today. They argue that because of the war on terror, the overriding need is to combat Islamophobia and build alliances with Muslim communities under attack. In this context secularism becomes a weapon of the right, not the left. Alex Cowper argues that on the contrary socialists can only fight effectively against Islamophobia if we are also prepared to put forward a left secularism, although this does not imply that we should impose secular ideas on all broad movements. Moreover, a greater danger to the world than Islamic fundamentalism is the influence of Christian fundamentalism, not only in the United States, but also in the UK - as was shown recently by the orchestrated outrage against the TV screening of ‘Jerry Springer – The Opera’. Only a thoroughgoing secularism can ultimately defeat this kind of reactionary movement.

 

Young people are more involved in politics and more conscious of the inequalities that capitalism creates than at any time since the 1960s. However they are not becoming active in the unions nor are they joining political parties. At the same time there are dark clouds on the horizon for them when they try looking for a place of their own to live, pay off their debts from university or try to make themselves financially secure for later life. Liam Mac Uaid argues that today’s youth will be the ones who have to pick up much of the bill for New Labour’s commitment to neo-liberalism and the Labour Movement’s inability to challenge it.

 

The Grand Strategy of the American Empire

Here David Packer looks at American strategy and its consequences as it unfolds at the beginning of 2005. Irrespective of the outcome of the Iraqi elections, he foresees a year of deepening conflicts in Iraq and internationally, social and economic crisis, but also a development of resistance and a growth in mass actions on the streets.

 

Widespread disillusion with the Blair Government, not least because of the war in Iraq, is not benefiting the Tories, while the Liberal Democrats, whose perceived anti-war stance will no doubt win them a number of seats, are not seen as a governmental possibility either. There is a democratic deficit in Britain that will lead to a low turnout at the General Election. Many in Britain, especially the young, find they have no-one to vote for. Here Mary Read analyses the political situation in Britain and the need for a broad left party to fill the gap in political representation.

 

Defeat in the municipal elections for the PT

In this article on the political situation in Brazil at the end of 2004 João Machado, once a leading member of the PT and now a militant of the P-SoL (Party of Socialism and Liberty), offers a balance sheet of the municipal elections in October. The results have clarified the nature of the transformation of the Workers’ Party (PT), principal party of the Brazilian left, and principal party in the country’s government.

 

The New Labour government has finally woken up to the fact that there are serious and expensive health issues in our society, many though not all, linked to poor diet, that have got to be dealt with. This finally produced a Public Health White Paper in November 2004. Better late than never, for warnings about obesity and all its associated illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes have been ignored for over thirty years. Here Jane Kelly argues that the situation is even worse. The depletion of minerals in the soil, and thus in our food, the links between a vitamin and mineral-starved diet as well as the pollution of our food and air with cancers, heart and other degenerative disease have also been known about for a long time, with the US Congress reporting problems with depletion of soils as early as 1938 and warning of the inevitable health problems which would ensue.

 

The EU constitution, the consolidation of neo-liberalism and the militarisation of the EU

At a time when the Cold War political division of Europe has ended, European governments are presenting the European Union Constitution as the way forward. It is being touted as merely the consolidation and simplification of existing Treaties, with some additions and alterations necessary for the smooth functioning of the enlarged Union. But what direction is the EU going in with this Constitution? Will it, as its social-democratic supporters argue, be the framework for a deepening of a ‘social’ Europe, with guaranteed social rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights? Or is it a further step in the establishment of an EU quasi-state, consolidating neo-liberalism, and militarising the EU? Here Brendan Young argues that in ignoring this issue the left is sleepwalking and that we should be organising a campaign against the Constitution in any referendum.

 

George Orwell, corporal of the awkward squad died over fifty years ago, yet his genius lives on and the dark pessimistic warnings in his novels have more resonance than ever. In an age of constant war and big stick diplomacy the 1984 doctrine ‘War is Peace’, ‘Freedom is slavery’, ‘Ignorance is strength’‚ never seemed closer.

 

Statement

We are opposed to the cancellation of the play Behzti, written by Gurpreet Bhatti, a woman from a Sikh background, and we support the right of its author to decide where it should be shown. The right of free speech is a basic democratic right and as such an important gain for the working class and the oppressed.