INTERMISSION

I started this blog rather casually about 2 years ago as any quick glance at my first few posts will show. I began to write more regularly almost twelve months back, when the controversy about the Islamic cultural centre in New York was raging. Since then, I've posted most weeks and I hope anyone who has been kind enough to follow the blog has enjoyed reading it.

I had for some time wanted to develop my own thinking about green politics and values and hopefully some of my postings reflect that, if at times a bit self-indulgently (although I guess that's what blogs are partly for!). A few of my friends who follow this blog know that in the past I was active (along with some of them) in the Liberal Democrats, including as a parliamentary and European candidate many moons ago. Although I've always been left of centre, my philosophy and politics have only shifted to full socialism (of the ecological variety) over the last 10 to 15 years, travelling in the opposite direction to the rightwards journey taken so eagerly by the Labour Party in its quest for power, followed quickly in train by the Lib Dems.

Before the 1992 General Election, in my capacity as Chair of One World Democrats, I was part of a working group that produced  the Lib Dems' aid and international development policy. It sought a radical remission of debt in line with the Jubilee 2000 programme initiated by a friend, Dr Martin Dent of Keele University, and looked to committing the UK to a range of environmental and social justice measures.

By contrast, the equivalent body in the run up to the 1997 election was a very different beast. It started its work with an injunction that we must not say anything that could be portrayed as to the left of (New) Labour. Given that Tony Blair was by then on a full march to the right, it was quite a gallop to ensure our policy was sufficiently anodyne and meaningless to avoid any trouble. When One World Democrats proposed a pretty modest amendment in support of small scale co-operatives, it was hysterically shouted down from the platform at the party conference. In a tour de force that could only be described as a rant, Alan Beith MP, then Deputy Leader, denounced it as "communistic" because we had committed the cardinal sin of referring to "workers and peasants" in the text. Taking the issue to ludicrous levels, a week later in the Guardian, then-leader Paddy Ashdown  described how the "green fascist" element in the party had been seen off.

As with that, so with so very many other policies. The two supposedly progressive parties in mainstream UK politics laid themselves down on the altar of power and slaughtered their beliefs, gutting themselves of any challenge to the corrupt consensus on free market politics that dominates Britain to this day. The main parties are now pretty interchangeable and the Con Dem Coalition is the final, dreadful destination of this long, sad and damaging process. It is the apotheosis of neoliberal democracy as described by Robert McChesney in his foreword to Noam Chomsky's "Profit Over People" - "...neoliberal democracy in a nutshell: trivial debate over minor issues by parties that basically pursue the same pro-business policies regardless of formal differences and campaign debate." And the consequence? "A depoliticized citizenry marked by apathy and cynicism."

My personal disillusion crystallised while doing a Masters degree on employment relations and law at Keele University. Taught from a Marxist perspective, its analysis of workplace and societal relations helped me towards an understanding of the inherent conflict between the interests of the majority of people (employees) and the few (owners/shareholders), and how these are reinforced again and again by the impersonal mechanics of capitalism. With the corporate personality so devastatingly critiqued in Joel Bakan's "The Corporation" as deeply psychopathic, global capitalism stood evident to me as the fundamental cause of our growing worldwide problems. A system that functions by producing goods at the lowest possible cost (including the lowest possible pay for workers' labour) and then selling at the highest conceivable price will by its nature never provide the fair distribution and careful use of resources we so urgently need to avoid worldwide catastrophe. Practically as well as ethically, capitalism has failed.

So in this blog, I have written more recently about ecosocialism, which puts social justice at the heart of the environmental sustainability agenda. It is a still forming philosophy, though with long antecedents. But in particular, I am grateful to people like Martin O'Beirne and Derek Wall for their own blog posts, links and longer articles on ecosocialism and how we can challenge the major problems facing us. Ecosocialism, would mean radical changes, but ones that would unleash once more our true, human nature. Contrary to the myths we are taught, history shows the human story at its core to be one of co-operation and mutual aid for the many aeons before the first market was open or the first coin minted. It can be that way again, and without any need to revert to cave dwelling!

My thanks for your time and attention and comments, here and on Facebook and Twitter over the last year. I am taking a short break for the next few weeks - although I will hopefully take in some of the Green Party conference in Sheffield (link here for any who would like to know more).

Though I am certainly not disappearing, thanks and, for September, so long - the posts will all still be here, but Viridis Lumen will be dimming the candle and shielding the lantern, until we meet again on the climate change frontline...

Butterfly's Tongue

One film to see...

This 1999 film, set in 1930's Spain just in the run up to the Civil War, centres around the touching story of a young boy's friendship with his elderly schoolteacher. At first afraid of school, because it was standard for teacher's to beat their pupils, young Moncho delights in discovering that Don Gregorio is a teacher with a difference - and both in and outside of the classroom, their friendship blossoms as the teacher introduces the boy to the wonders of learning, especially around botany and butterflies in particular.

The film plays out against the backdrop of the rise of Franco's fascism - the title refers to the syrup that a butterfly sucks from flowers with its proboscis, which it then has to keep furled if it's to fly: a metaphor for Republican Spain's fragile democracy in the face of Franco. Both Don Gregorio and Moncho's father are socialist Republicans - and the story culminates in exploring the dreadful choices people are sometimes forced to make, from fear and from love.

Slated by the Daily Mail - so, a must see movie!

Butterfly/ Butterfly's Tongue(s) - 1999 - more here

Karl Marx, Hurricane Irene and the Financial Crisis

NOTE: It's only slightly ironic that economist and Senior Economic Adviser to UBS Investment Bank, George Magnus, urges policy makers to turn to Karl Marx for a solution to the "once-in-a-lifetime crisis of capitalism" we are facing. After all, Marx had no interest in solving the problems of capitalism. Along those lines, I'd like to quote a less famous line from Marx's Theses on Feuerbach: "No. 10 - The standpoint of the old materialism is civil society; the standpoint of the new is human society, or social humanity."

Let's hope humanity wins this fight.

LAST WORD(S)

• Hurricane Irene and the Financial Crisis - Two disasters, partially of the government's own making (Ira Stoll, Reason.com) The similarities are striking. In both the financial crisis and Irene, the government actions taken were exceptional and involved depriving people of private property without the due process required under the Fifth Amendment.


• Irene creates strange political bedfellows in NY (Associated Press, Wall Street Journal) City Comptroller John Liu issued a statement praising the mayor on Monday.


• Give Karl Marx a Chance to Save the World Economy: George Magnus (Bloomberg) So how do we address this crisis? To put Marx’s spirit back in the box, policy makers have to place jobs at the top of the economic agenda, and consider other unorthodox measures. The crisis isn’t temporary, and it certainly won’t be cured by the ideological passion for government austerity.

Americans Don't Think the Federal Government Has 'Consent of the Governed'

Expect a Third-Party Candidate in 2012 - Ross Perot in 1992 and John Anderson in 1980 garnered exceptionally high levels of support.  (By PATRICK H. CADDELL And DOUGLAS E. SCHOEN, Wall Street Journal)  The United States is in the midst of what we would both call a prerevolutionary moment, and there is widespread support for fundamental change in the system. An increasing number of Americans are now searching beyond the two parties for bold and effective leadership.

A Rasmussen Reports poll conducted earlier this month found that "just 17% of likely U.S. voters think that the federal government today has the consent of the governed," while an extraordinary 69% "believe the government does not have that consent." 

2012

• The Democratic Jobs Debate As Mass Denial (Jonathan Chait, The New Republic) But his plan needs to be understood as a political strategy, not as a legislative strategy. The point of it is to propose something that is popular and which Obama can blame Republicans for blocking. There is no upside in blaming the opposition for blocking a bill that voters don't want to pass.


• Margin Favoring Repeal Hits 20 Points (By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON, The Weekly Standard/The Blog) If this news weren’t bad enough for the White House’s current occupant, independent voters are even less fond of Obamacare than voters as a whole. By a tally of 58 to 37 percent, independents support repeal. Among independents who feel “strongly” (either way), 49 percent support repeal, while only 21 percent oppose it — nearly one-half to barely one-fifth.


• Jay Carney: Obama helping African-Americans (By REID J. EPSTEIN, Politico)


• Cornyn: 'WH wishes' Huntsman would run as Independent (By Michael O'Brien, The Hill/Twitter Room) Cornyn, one of the GOP's campaign gurus who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), mused on Twitter that it would be in President Obama's interest for Huntsman to seek the presidency as an Independent candidate.


• Huntsman, best candidate for a third party (By LZ Granderson, CNN) But then I look at the field of Republican candidates and I just feel trapped, as our election process has become less about which candidate you prefer and more like which limb you want to cut off.


• Obama appeals to black voters amid criticism from lawmakers, rights leaders (in Cleveland Plain Dealer) "And it's important for us to make sure that we're following through on those commitments, even if it's slow and frustrating sometimes."

Arizona Mail-In Vote Stacked Against Independent Voters

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Officials pleased with city's first vote-by-mail election (KVOA) McTee says, "The person who designed this mail in vote seems to have stacked it against the independent voter. My husband is a Republican and he received a ballot in the mail. And I'm an independent voter so I didn't get one."


• Report: Arizona independents growing in voters but not unified (By JOANNE INGRAM Cronkite News Service, East Valley Tribune) Robert Winn, a Maricopa political activist who has run write-in campaigns for governor and Senate as an independent, said independents have more power than the study suggests. “Independent voters are calling the shots now because they’ve got the numbers,” said Winn, who last year self-published a book called “A House Divided: Political Parties and Independence.”

OPEN PRIMARIES

• 2012 election: Republican presidential primary not really ‘closed’ (By DAN D'ADDONA, The Holland Sentinel - MI) Michigan Republican leaders recently voted to choose the party’s 2012 presidential candidates with a closed primary… But since Michigan doesn’t require voters to register with a party, there isn’t anything stopping anyone from participating in the primary.

THIRD PARTY

• Republicans Defect Quicker Than Democrats - Independents Like Ron Paul (Emily Ekins, Reason.com/hit & run) A new Public Policy Polling (PPP) poll shows that Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to defect to a third-party presidential candidate.

What Do Independents Want? Congress Should Investigate Biases Against Full Participation in Political Process by Nonpartisan Voters

• According to IndependentVoting.org, over 2,000 letters, postcards and petitions have been sent to members of Congress over the summer to 1) educate Congress and shine a light on the effect of partisan control of the election process, namely that 40% of Americans have a second class status; and 2) to urge Congress to investigate these biases by holding hearings.


• Anna Sale Talks with Independent Voters  (The Brian Lehrer Show) VIDEO


• Anna and the Independent Voter: Targeting Minorities (WNYC) AUDIO


• Poll: Double digit support for hypothetical Independent Presidential candidates (by Damon Eris, CAIVN) "Despite their grumbling, Democrats remain pretty united behind Obama, and six of the seven possible independent candidates would hurt Romney more than the president," writes Dustin Ingalls in an analysis of the results at the PPP blog.


• AP-GfK Poll: Obama faces trouble with key voters (By KEN THOMAS and JENNIFER AGIESTA, Forbes) Obama will have to win over people such as Brian Arnold, 33, of Pickerington, Ohio. He's an independent who voted for Obama in 2008 because he liked the Democrat's outsider image. Now, Arnold says he's undecided and down on Obama. "He got elected, it was a big party and after that he went back to being a politician. As soon as he got in office, he just did more of the same."

Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC: Cable News Wants More "Pop"

SHARPTON
Hiring Of Sharpton By MSNBC Follows Larger Trend (WNYC/NPR) That kind of hiring is somewhat of a trend, he says. Other examples include Eliot Spitzer at CNN and Fox News hiring Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. "I think what we're seeing increasingly is that cable news executives are looking for people who pop on screen and will get people to watch the shows," Deggans says.

Tea Party: Republican and Unpopular

Lots of ink lately about the unpopularity of the tea party among American voters, particularly independents, and discussion of the tea party's location as the right wing of the Repub Party:

TEA PARTY

• Study: Tea Party Is Least Popular Group (Pensito Review) Early on tea partiers were often described as non-partisan politic neophytes. Actually, the tea party’s supporters today were highly partisan Republicans long before the tea party was born. In fact, past Republican affiliation is the single strongest predictor of tea party support today. Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being tea party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics … They were disproportionately social conservatives in 2006…


• VIDEO Rachel Maddow with David E. Campbell

Riots Revelation - Nick "Nicked" Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister, is an Arsonist (Genuine)

As post-riot punitive sentencing carries on apace, with people jailed for stealing ice cream and bottled water, a radio interview with Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister (who wants rioters to do community work in Lib Dem dayglo orange vests), went badly wrong for the would be crime fighter. After condemning youths who rioted, he stumbled with his words when reminded of his own arsonist past - at the age of 16, while in Germany, he set two greenhouses on fire, brutally slaughtering a number of innocent cacti. He received a sentence of community service, though it is not known what colour of vest he had to wear.

The revelation about Clegg comes hot (literally) on the heels of the vast number of reminders of how Conservative leader David Cameron was a member of Oxford University's Bullingdon Club in his younger days, along with the current London Mayor, Boris Johnson. The Bullingdon was a sort of Hells-Angels-for-Bankers, except that the Angels would probably object to being compared to such badly behaved people. As Cameron himself gleefully recounted in 1986, as well as their regular routine of smashing up restaurants and pulling the trousers off of people they took a dislike to, on one infamous occasion with these oiks "Things got out of hand and we'd been drinking a bit much. We smashed the place up and Boris set fire to the toilets."

It is difficult to see which is worst - that people with such attitudes should now be running our country; or that, having done the things they did when they were youths, they are so utterly condemnatory of young people, mostly from rather less privileged backgrounds than their own, for acts which in many cases are not as serious as their own past crimes and misdemeanors. It's almost like one law for them and another for...

But of course, perhaps that is the entire point.

Go to 4 mins 44 seconds to hear Nicked Nick challenged about his fiery youth.

Dead Fish Don't Swim Home

Bluefin tuna stocks are nearing exhaustion - the species is now on the verge of extinction - it is expected to become so during 2012 - but is still being fished by greedy conglomerates. It has even been alleged that one, Mitsubishi, is deep freezing bluefin tuna to sell once it is extinct, because by then the price will have gone through the roof - and so will their profits. More here   and here as well
Atlantic bluefin tuna can live for 30 years, but due to heavy fishing mortality, few known specimens grow to a mature age. The European Union has refrained from declaring it a protected species. More on this endangered creature here.

Does anyone really still think capitalism can save the planet?

goodnight irene

FILM: A Shared Earth?

The Earth is our home, the only place we have. But, as the film "Home", which is presented in full below (93 minutes approx - please click through to Youtube), powerfully demonstrates, it is in deep peril because of our activities. As a result of our desperately wasteful use and destruction of our resources, our unfair distribution of the planet's wealth, and the global warming that is driven by our ludicrous release of massive quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, our only living environment is at serious risk of becoming uninhabitable.

"Home", directed by French photographer and environmentalist, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, is beautifully filmed. It is as fine an exposition as could be made of how our planet works, how life evolved and how human activities have severely damaged the delicate balance between air, water and life, to the point that our ability to survive socially and even biologically is now in imminent jeopardy.

Arthus-Bertrand's profession as an aerial photographer is evident throughout and the rich colours and sweeping visual panoramas give "Home" a stunning impact, reinforcing both the beauty of our Earth and the dangers it faces. Yet it merely hints at some of the real issues driving the problems - it notes that 20% of the population of the world use 80% of its resources; 2% of the population own over 50% of the wealth; and half of the world's poorest people live in resource rich countries - but it avoids any consideration of how or why these iniquities have come about. There is some sacrifice of accuracy for image too - for example, one scene on over-fishing shows African fishermen standing round a pile of fish, almost implying it is their fault - there is no mention of huge factory ships from industrialised nations that can take more fish in a single catch than some Pacific nations manage in an entire year (for more click here). "Home" touches on the need for greater sharing of resources, but it fails to explain how, nor does it examine or expose the system - capitalist free markets - that has driven us to where we are, the edge of our own extinction.

This is perhaps not entirely unsurprising - because in the very first frame, a range of corporate logos drift into view - Gucci, YSL, Puma and others - the subsidiaries of the conglomerate PPR, which financed the film. The logos twist and turn to form the film's title, a highly counter-productive intro which belies the powerful content of the production. Yet whatever their motive, it is to PPR's credit that they funded this movie, which goes far beyond the flaccid muddle that was Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth". But by ducking the key issue of how to transition to a sustainable society, it represents only the first steps on a much longer journey.

There is not the space to continue that journey in full here, but within the Green movement, more and more are arguing that environmental sustainability and social justice are inextricably linked - if the planet's limited resources are to be stewarded sustainably, they need to be shared fairly, and capitalism simply cannot deliver this. Please see the review of Derek Wall's "Rise of the Green Left" (here) for one treatise on potential ways forward. Both he and others increasingly coalesce around the ideals of ecosocialism.

This term remains very broadly defined, but essentially values the sharing of resources, emphasises greater economic equality, and shifts resource ownership towards co-operatives and mutuals. It prizes long-term planning so we think about the next several generations of people as opposed to the next few years of shares dividends. By advocating legislative and social action to change our economics, ecosocialism begins to move towards a situation where, rather than being forever pushed to strive for, buy and consume "more", people can be genuinely and happily content with "enough".

Here are some links to ecosocialist blogs, websites and videos.

Blog - The Ecosocialist

Blog - Another Green World

Video - Ian Angus on Ecosocialism and Climate Change

Video - Bill McKibben on economic and climate justice
Web - Green Left (Britain)
Web - Green Left Weekly (Australia)
Web - Nordic Green Left (English language site)
Web - Climate and Capitalism

Web - Ecosocialist International Network

Web - Ecosocialism Canada

And here is "Home", our planet Earth.

                     

Book Review: "The Rise of the Green Left" by Derek Wall

Derek Wall is a former Speaker of the Green Party of England & Wales and a key proponent of the growing ecosocialist movement which is the subject of his book, "The Rise of the Green Left". He teaches political economy, but this is no dry academic text riddled with political theory. Rather, it is a cri de coeur, with a vital analysis of the problems confronting the planet as untrammelled capitalism hungrily gobbles up our biosphere, spreading the poisonous profits it generates so unequally that billions either go hungry or compliantly join in the rape and destruction of our living space, buying into the lie that their hard work will eventually be rewarded.

Derek Wall contrasts the long term sustainability of the shared Commons, written about extensively by Elinor Ostrom, with the inherent need for capitalism to create goods which become obsolete sooner and sooner, either via technical breakdown or aspirational shifts in fashion. The corollary is the burgeoning waste of resources even at a time of rapidly increasing resource scarcity - something which does not alarm capitalism given that it thrives on scarcity.  Capitalism is driven by a mechanism that ignores morality - even superficially "green" initiatives such as growing biofuels for American and European cars in Colombia are shown to have involved armed gangs torturing and murdering local farmers into selling their lands so that traditional, sustainable pastures could be destroyed and replaced with alien, but profitable, biofuel crops. There are echoes here of Joel Bakan's psychological diagnosis of corporate capitalism as essentially psychopathic.

The Commons approach of sharing, in sharp comparison, reduces waste massively and conserves resources, encouraging a socio-economic system based on co-operation and sufficiency as opposed to competition and endless growth. Viewing people as part of Nature rather than either somehow apart from or in dominion over it, ecosocialism seeks to synthesise the most vital aspects of both ecology and socialism, with the inextricable symbiosis between social justice and environmental sustainability emphasised and illustrated again and again.

This is an important document for anyone interested in how green politics can deliver a truly different society and provide an answer to the claim that there is no alternative to capitalism. It challenges socialists to consider the need for sustainability in their thinking about social change. And it challenges the green movement, positing the need for a more coherent ideological narrative to underpin the authentic concerns of many of those involved. Greens who argue for individual or local action alone miss the point that, for example, even if every American citizen took every step argued for by Al Gore in his Inconvenient Truth film, this would achieve barely a third of the required reduction in US carbon emissions. "Lifestyle change is not enough; deeper structural change is needed."

Collective, worldwide action is vital - this timely, highly readable and usefully engaging tome sets out some of the paths we can take towards a far happier world. Tracing the thinking behind a sustainable and just human society back as far as Marx and Engels, the book charts the progress of ecosocialism to date. Latin America is a particular example to the world; but the book also looks at developments elsewhere, including the rise of ecosocialism within green and left political parties like Die Linke in Germany, and the establishment of the global Ecosocialist International Network. It highlights practical soldairty between movements in different parts of the world, such as combined action between Peruvian trade unions and British climate change activists following the Bagua massacre in 2009.

Derek Wall argues for an inclusive approach, embracing a diverse range of strategies and tactics and a wide range of thinking. The leap from where we are now to where we need to be is substantial, and so a welcome segment of the book covers possible transitional steps, such as progressive mutualisation of the economy, land reform and conversion of military production to peaceful and renewable purposes. He explicitly rejects the narrow dogmatic purity that so often stymies the Left, though equally cautions that political parties and individuals within them risk being seduced by power and so absorbed into the mainstream, neutralising their capacity to effect real change. Constant self-challenge and renewal within radical movements are important in order to effectively tackle wider societal issues.

With a global reach, it is an urgent but optimistic manifesto for positive ecosocialist change. The final chapter sets out a range of resources and channels, worldwide, providing a practical basis for ecosocialist action that can really work for planet and people. Essential reading for anyone who wants to work for a new world.

The Rise of the Green Left - Inside the Worldwide Ecosocialist Movement

Derek Wall ISBN: 9780745330365    Published by Pluto Press (link)

nyc after irene = tokyo

PHOTO: Cathy L. Stewart

Old Friends

Earlier this year, along with someone I "virtually met", I set up a Facebook page, Save Anne the Elephant from Circus Cruelty, when, like many, many others, I was appalled by the secret video taken of keepers abusing the last circus elephant in Britain. Many people joined up in just a few days, and it was just one of several such groups as well as rather more major campaigns run by animal rights and welfare groups like Animal Defenders International (who took the secret video). For once genuinely catching the public mood, the media also called for the elephant to be released to a safari park and in due course Anne was moved successfully to Longleat.

Within months, legislation had been passed to ban all wild animals from circuses - bizarrely, the Government opposed this Bill, which was brought in by a Conservative MP and passed nearly unanimously in a debate where just one MP spoke against.

Covert filming of Anne's abuse by her keepers

So, while circuses are still not entirely free of animals, at least chained elephants and de-clawed lions will be things of the past. But across the planet, animal cruelty continues as we selfishly destroy habitat and use our fellow creatures either for food or free labour. Conveniently, we play down the possibility that they may experience emotions or even pain the way that we do, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.

In the video below, we see the moving end of the story of two elephants, raised in a circus before being separated for nearly 25 years. Animal welfare specialists rescued them and in the film reintroduce them - one of them has not seen any others of her kind for over two decades as she has been kept alone and chained for the entertainment of humans.

Please watch this short film and ask yourself if these abused and exploited creatures, who in the wild bury their dead and shed salt tears to weep in bereavement, are really that different from us, or we from them; and then ask yourself what are we doing?  

And what will you do?

ADI led the campaign for Anne; and have saved many animals from cruelty. 

 LINK HERE

nyc irene

PHOTO: Emilie Knoerzer

calm like a berkshire vacation before irene

PHOTO: Carrie Lobman

Independent Voters on the Rise: Disappointed But Not Discouraged

Indies are increasingly disappointed by the performance of Congress, and the President, but the campaign for structural political reforms like open primaries, nonpartisan elections, independent redistricting, fair access to the ballot, citizen initiative and referendum and fusion is gaining ground nationally...   Closed primaries, which exclude independents from the crucial first round of voting, is one major structural obstacle to a vigorous democracy. (See www.OpenPrimaries.org)  Another obstacle is partisan control of redistricting, whereby state legislators – Republicans and Democrats all – carve up their state’s districts to guarantee the election of party-sanctioned candidates, using the power of partisan legislatures to support the status quo. Discriminatory ballot access requirements that are heavily biased against independent and third-party candidates, and the exclusion of such candidates from the nationally televised presidential debates jointly sponsored by the two major parties, are other obstacles. State laws that ban fusion and citizens’ initiative and referendum distance independents and all voters from the policy-making process.

National Conference Call for Independents.  Every six weeks, CUIP president Jacqueline Salit hosts America's largest ongoing national call for independents. She provides updates about what independents are doing around the country and how the movement is growing. Get connected, hear updates. 

Sign up here.

Listen to 6/27 conference call here.

Listen to 5/10 conference call here.

Listen to the 3/28 conference call here.

Read the transcript from Jackie Salit's 10/12 conference call here.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Congress more unpopular than ever (By Jennifer Agiesta and Laurie Kellman, Chicago Sun Times) Much about the next election hinges on independent voters, the ever-growing group fiercely wooed by campaigns for years. Among them, 65 percent say they want their own House representative tossed out in 2012, compared with 53 percent of respondents generally.


• AP-GfK Poll: 87% in US disapprove of Congress (By LAURIE KELLMAN, The Associated Press - Atlanta Journal Constitution) Republicans and Democrats statistically tied, 40 percent to 43 percent respectively, when respondents were asked which party they trust more to handle the federal budget deficit. Nearly a third of independents said they trust neither party on the issue.


• Independents WANT Obama to fight GOP harder (By Greg Sargent, Washington Post/The Plum Line) Pew poll:     A 37% plurality now contends that Obama should challenge the Republicans in Congress more often; 25% say Obama should go along with GOP leaders more frequently, while about the same percentage (26%) say he is handling the situation about right. In April, fewer (27%) said Obama should challenge GOP congressional leaders more often.


• Charlie Cook: Travels With Charlie: America's Summer of Discontent (National Journal) But the fact that so much discontent exists in both parties is a sign of something deeply corrosive happening in this country. It isn’t just independent voters who have a derisive view of politics, elected officials, and public institutions. There is a growing sense that few good people are going into politics, and that many of those who are currently in office — people who are smart, experienced, and well-intentioned — are somehow neutralized, co-opted, or thwarted. A sense that institutions are failing, and no sense that they are being replaced with something that will succeed.

Arizona Independents Need to Pick a Party Ballot to Vote in the Primary

ARIZONA PRIMARY
Get Tucson primary ballots in the mail by the end of Friday (By Christopher Francis, KOLD - Tucson) The city has also tweaked its vote-by-mail website after our story earlier this week about independent voters being left without ballots despite the web site's claim that one would be sent out automatically.

Partisans All in a Fight About Redistricting Lines

PARTISAN REDISTRICTING BATTLEFIELDS

• Redistricting Roundup: Stormy tension continues as bipartisan continuity drying up (Edited by Geoff Pallay, Ballot News)


• Our watchdog role in redistricting (By Dorothy Shaw, Atlanta Journal Constitution) A few states use an independent commission, an approach we strongly advocate. In 2006, Gov. Sonny Perdue’s Independent Redistricting Task Force made a similar recommendation to put the line drawing in the hands of a citizens’ redistricting commission, but unfortunately the Legislature ignored the recommendation.


• Arizona sues over Voting Rights Act (by Alia Beard Rau, The Arizona Republic) Arizona is the first state to challenge the constitutionality of sections of the federal law that forbid states from enacting a law or process that denies or limits someone's right to vote based on their race or color.

Pataki Latest Candidate Not Running for President

2012
Source: Pataki decides against White House run (By: CNN Senior Political Editor Mark Preston) “I remain committed to the advancement of real, politically viable reforms to entitlements and rolling back the size and cost of the federal government. At this time, I will continue to do this as the leader of No American Debt and not as a candidate for president."

calm before the storm

PHOTO: Marian Rich

Anna Sale: Finding Nonpartisans in a Partisan World

Anna Sale has a big job -- finding out what nonpartisans, in a partisan world, think. And she's not doing too bad!

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
The Changing Face of America's Independent Voters (AUDIO The Takeaway) Anna Sale on the radio talks about independents and race

California Court Upholds Labels for Ballot Status Parties in Top Two Elections; Arizona Independents Want Fair Access to Primaries

This ruling upholds a distinction between ballot status parties and other parties or candidates in how candidates are listed on the new Top Two election ballots in California. This distinction is a dubious one for third party advocates like Richard Winger, the country's leading ballot access expert. At a time when parties are losing favor among the electorate, at least part of the controversy over California's new open primary system seems to rest on the listing of party labels.

Where do you line up on my little survey?

A. Listing a party is important because it indicates the ideological position on a left-right political spectrum.
B. I don't like parties, I vote for the candidate.
C. What's ballot status and who benefits from that?
D. Other ________ (Tell me what you *really* think!)

Let me know what you think!

PROP 14
U.S. District Judge Upholds California’s Discriminatory Ballot Label Law (Ballot Access News) The opinion says that California has an interest in maintaining the distinction between qualified parties and unqualified parties, and cites various opinions from systems in which parties nominate candidates.

And meanwhile.....
OPEN PRIMARIES 
Tucson Independent voters in danger of being left out of Primary (Fox 11 AZ) It wasn't clear that the Independent voters needed to request a ballot.  So, yes we did make a mistake in that," said city spokesman Michael Graham. That mistake has since been corrected. The city says it mailed Independent voters a postcard on May 16 warning them they'd have to pick a party to vote in the primary.

President Obama, Please Call Jacqueline Salit - Now!

As the late Fred Newman would sometimes say while Talk Talk-ing with his close friend and colleague, independent strategist Jackie Salit, "if I were advising the President, which I'm not..." Well, I'm not advising the President, but if I were, what I would say to him right now is: I think you should pick up the phone and call Salit and and ask her how to get out of this mess. I bet you'd hear some things you haven't heard from your advisors and the pundits because Salit operates outside the perimeters of the partisan quagmire. 212-609-2800. Mr. President -- relief is only a phone call away! Call now! 

2012

• Third-party bids would help Obama (Public Policy Polling) Though he refused in 2008, there would probably be a lot of appetite for a third-party candidacy from 1988 Libertarian Party nominee Ron Paul. He would get a solid 15%, with Romney falling to 33% and Obama still at 45%. Paul earns the most independent support of any of these third-party options (20%), almost all GOP-leaners, as Obama beats Romney by 20 with independents overall. Paul also holds Romney to 63% of Republicans, taking 22% himself. Despite his supporters' claims about his popularity with Democrats, Paul wouldn't get anymore crossover support from Democrats than any of the others.


• Obama Leadership Image Takes a Hit, GOP Ratings Decline - Continued Dissatisfaction with Republican Field (Pew Research) Independent voters are divided over their preference in the 2012 general election. As many say they would like to see Obama reelected (38%) as say they prefer a Republican candidate to win (36%). In May, Obama enjoyed a seven-point edge among independents (42%-35%). In July, just 31% of independents backed Obama while 39% preferred to see a Republican win.


• Obama’s efforts to woo independents derailed by debt-ceiling agreement (By Ian Swanson, The Hill) The reason Obama has sought out independents is clear. Obama won the independent vote in 2008 by 8 percentage points, but independents swung to Republicans in the 2010 congressional elections. Since then, the president has made a series of decisions intended to win back independent voters.


• Rasmussen: Ron Paul in dead heat with President Obama in hypothetical 2012 race (by Christopher A. Guzman, CAIVN) "What if the Republicans nominate Ron Paul? If the 2012 Presidential Election were held today would you vote for Republican Ron Paul or Democrat Barack Obama?" As President, Barack Obama captured 39% of the vote among likely voters, with the Texas Congressman right on his tail with 38%.


• A Unified Theory of Obama (By Jesse Weed, American Thinker) In summary, the profile is of a  man who is: (1) convinced that he knows what America should become and that his vision for America is morally superior; (2) convinced that his vision is unpalatable to the majority of Americans and that hence, Americans must be tricked into heading for the proper destination without being given a clear statement of just what that destination is; (3) convinced that he must appear the high-minded statesman rather than the combative ideologue in order to nudge America along its righteous path.  Let us call this the X-Profile.


• Obama’s Team Is Blowing It (Michael Tomasky, The Daily Beast) The fundamental problem appears to be the excessive fixation on Obama’s (forgive me for even using this word) “brand”—this “adult in the room” nonsense. Whenever I see those words in print anymore, usually in a background quote from a White House aide or a Democratic source trying gamely to be on-message, I hear strong and unsettling echoes of the 2008-vintage messianism. Does anyone buy this anymore, outside of what appears to be an increasingly bubble-ized White House? Those beloved independents certainly aren’t thinking of the president that way these days, and one doubts that even most of his supporters are.

Gatewood Galbraith, Kentucy's Independent Gov Candidate Talks About Medical Marijuana and Lots More

KENTUCKY
Gatewood Galbraith: Running Against A “Culture Of Corruption” (The 420 Times - the magazine of medical marijuana and natural healing) The two party system is just as entrenched here as it is everywhere else, and the establishment is extremely hostile to outside candidates, even one that has ran as many times as Gatewood has.

Pedro Espada's Soundview Wins Stay from Judge

NEW YORK

• Pedro wins a round in clinic fight (By CARL CAMPANILE, NY Post) In a court hearing yesterday, Bronx Supreme Court Judge Stanley Green issued a stay on any state action until the merits of Espada's legal challenge -- which was filed Tuesday -- are heard on Sept. 19.


• Time May Not Be Up For Espada's Soundview (BY Celeste Katz, NY Daily News/Daily Politics) Soundview Health Care Network won a stay that could delay efforts by the Cuomo administration to strip the clinics of Medicaid reimbursements, Espada told reporters.

tomorrow is another day

PHOTO: Nancy Hanks

vote as you are

If Pres. Obama wants to fix partisanship he should look to California

Jason Olson: If Obama wants to fix partisanship he should look to California. http://bit.ly/p4543I


FORUM: Look to California for path to post-partisan model

by Jason Olson

President Barack Obama recently took to the air in his weekly radio address and focused on an issue of concern to most Americans: the negative effects of partisanship on the political process.
Obama said, "[L]ately, the response from Washington has been partisanship and gridlock that's only undermined public confidence and hindered our efforts to grow the economy. So while there's nothing wrong with our country, there is something wrong with our politics, and that's what we've got to fix." The president implored the American people to contact their local representatives and air their frustrations while he demanded that Congress end its partisan ways.

But if President Obama thinks that's all it's going to take to fix partisanship, he's in for a rude awakening. On the other hand, if he is finally getting serious about political change, then he should look to California.

For the past several decades, there has been an unspoken agreement between the American people and the major political parties. As long as the political parties took care of the important issues ---- the economy, maintaining a basic social safety net, keeping our streets safe and protecting our nation ---- the American people would let them "get away" with partisan shenanigans and special-interest horse trading. In fact, the American people allowed them to restructure the entire political process so that the political party insiders ---- and not the voters ---- decided who was elected to office.
While we can debate when and where this agreement began to unravel, what is clear is that the Democratic and Republican parties are defaulting on their part of that agreement. Equally clear is the fact that as long as partisan self-interest is the only principle guiding our elected representatives, then our country is in serious trouble.

In the face of fiscal meltdown and political gridlock, Californians have passed fundamental reforms necessary to remove the structural partisanship. In 2008 and 2010, voters passed critical reform measures that remove partisan control over our elections process by empowering all voters ---- particularly independents. Gone is the ability of the partisan politicians to gerrymander every election district to ensure their own re-elections. Gone is a partisan primary that allows the parties to lock out the state's 3.5 million independent voters and dictate the process. As a result, in 2012, California's election system will be radically different, as the political parties are forced to reach beyond their narrow bases to get elected.

Perhaps as important as the reforms themselves was the manner in which they were passed. Each effort had a diverse coalition that included independents in key leadership positions. Each effort was built upon a message of nonpartisanship, heavily influenced by independents.
As an independent who, like so many, supported candidate Obama in 2008 based on his promise to bring fundamental political change to Washington, D.C., I want to believe that President Obama is now willing to do what is necessary to repair our democracy. That would mean moving beyond chiding electing representatives and taking the lead on attacking the structure of partisanship itself. If President Obama is ready to follow California's lead in taking on that structural partisanship, then there may yet be "hope."

Jason Olson is the Director of IndependentVoice.Org, a leader in passing Redistricting Reform and Open Primary Measures in California between 2008-2010.

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/article_953f6b62-4ee6-5edb-94b3-57b51d030494.html#ixzz1W2qMOPPz

Third Party Tremors, 2012 Political Earthquake

2012

• Could Third-Party Tremors Result in a 2012 Political Earthquake? (Matthew Dowd, ABC News Analyst) Thus, 51 percent of the electorate is a mishmash of independents, and not ideological members of either political party.


• Obama 39%, Paul 38% (Rasmussen Reports) Paul, whose long run afoul of the GOP establishment with his libertarian policy prescriptions, picks up 61% of the Republican vote, while 78% of Democrats fall in behind the president. Voters not affiliated with either of the major political parties prefer the longtime congressman by 10 points – 43% to 33%.


• Poll: Ron Paul tied with Obama (D.K. Jamaal, Post-Partisan Examiner) The poll indicates that the biggest hurdle between Ron Paul and the Presidency he has long sought is neither Democrats nor independents, but the controversial Congressman’s own party.

Will Oatis Runs as Independent for Mississippi Governor

MISSISSIPPI GOV RACE

• Mississippi voters pick Democratic governor nominee (By Jacob Batte, Reuters) DuPree will now face Republican Lieutenant Governor Phil Bryant and independent candidate Will Oatis in the general election.


• DuPree wins Democratic governor nomination (Written by TERRY L. JONES, Hattiesburg American) Independent Will Oatis of Silver Creek is running a low-budget campaign for governor. Two rival factions of the Reform Party also want to put a candidate in the race, but the state Board of Election Commissioners has not yet decided which Reform candidate - if either - can run.

Black Voters in Bad Relationship with Democratic Party, Going Independent

LAST WORD
Black Voters and the Battered Voter Syndrome (By George Boykin, American Thinker) Unfortunately, the vast majority of black voters have been bitch-slapped so for so long by the Democratic Party that many seem to be afflicted with the battered voter syndrome (BVS).

NOTE: About 24% of black voters are independent. Independents and black voters joined together in 2008 to elect Pres. Obama, and 50% of black voters in NYC voted for independent Mike Bloomberg in 2005. This is a coalition that is not going away. AND African American voters are becoming increasingly independent. Check out this Raw Story editorial by Recardo Gibson "African Americans' disaffection with Democrats growing":

The New African American Voter
Leviticus Turner, a 24-year-old African American female and second-generation college graduate from Chicago, defines herself as an Independent and was a self-described Democrat until 2000. When asked what prompted the switch she responded, “I don’t just vote on party lines anymore. I used to. Although I was never, explicitly, told to vote Democratic, it was implied: That’s what black people do. But now, I look at each candidate individually.”

Turner is not alone in this trend that sees African Americans moving toward the status of Independent voters. The Joint Center for Politics and Economic Studies, in another poll, revealed that 24 percent of African Americans identify themselves as Independents, and 10 percent as Republicans, each up from 2000. The poll went on to show that the number of blacks voting Democratic in the 2002 election was 63 percent, down from 2000. This survey suggested that many black Democrats are rethinking their political affiliation.

Although Turner is open to voting for a Republican, she said won’t vote for Bush. Turner pointed to the economy as the main reason why she is seeking another option.

 *******

From the Joint Center for Politics and Economic Studies 2006 paper, those independents are young voters:

Young Black Voters
While the 74 percent of African Americans who identified with the Democratic Party in the Joint Center’s 2004 National Opinion Poll is down from the recent high point (2000),
there is ample reason to believe this trend is reversing, largely because the previous decline in support from young African Americans has been reversed. The 74 percent of African Americans who identified with the Democratic Party consisted of 63 percent who clearly identified with the party, and 11 percent who identified themselves as political independents, but who “lean” more to the Democratic Party than to the GOP.

Prior to 2004, declines in black
Democratic identification had been driven by younger, i.e., under the age of 35, African Americans. In Joint Center national opinion polls conducted prior to 2004, only 50 to 60 percent of 18- to-25-year-old African Americans identified with the Democratic Party (Figure 1). However, since the Bush Administration launched the Iraq war, younger African Americans have moved decisively leftward, with 75 percent identifying with the Democrats in 2004. In the 2004 election, 18-29 year-olds were the only age cohort where Kerry defeated Bush.

Capitalism - Making A Killing

Years ago, American President Dwight Eisenhower made a speech that would simply be unheard of from any US President's lips in recent years - he warned of the growth of a dominant military-industrial complex that would view war as big business and forever drive forward opportunities for conflict in order to maximise their profits. War would be their gain. His words were prescient and remarkable as both a former army general and as a Republican.

There are examples aplenty of how his fears came true in subsequent decades, though given the essential amorality of the economics system of the free market which Eisenhower himself espoused, it really is the logical outcome of the processes inherent in its workings. And yet, the hypocrisy and brazen arrogance of many of those involved remain capable of taking any sane person's breath away.

Former US Republican Presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, has in recent weeks been highly critical of President Obama's apparent reluctance to get involved in the NATO attacks on Libya. Yet a leading regional newspaper in the USA, the Tucson Sentinel, has just carried this story from Wikileaks, showing how just two years ago Senator McCain and the rightwing ex-Democrat, Joe Lieberman, visited Gadaffi in Tripoli and promised to hurry up an arms deal that the Libyan Leader was keen to get approved by the US Congress.

Indeed, the Senator even tweeted about his "interesting meeting with an interesting man". 

And so, as has happened before with both the USA and other western powers, we sell weapons to people we subsequently declare to be pariahs and we then have a war pitching our weapons against the (usually slightly inferior) ones we have sold them. Back in the first Gulf War in 1991, British subsidies to the arms industry had helped flog weapons to Saddam's Iraq, with British arms companies and Government officials rushing out to Bagdhad to represent the UK at its first legitimate arms fare for a decade. Then, as we went to war with him, he obviously stopped paying the installments agreed for his purchases and so the British taxpayer met the bill for nearly one thousand million pounds worth of Iraqi military effort in the fighting against British and other troops.

But arms merchants, as ever, went laughing all the way to the bank. In the arms trade, it seems you really can make a killing.

Magical Thinking about Top Two Elections

The Hankster recently posted an article that mentioned Washington state’s new top two general election, which is preceded by an open primary. Upon clicking the link I found my friend Richard Winger having another one of his automatic fits triggered by the words “top two.” Top two, if not the root of all evil, at least is the bane of third parties, and the friend of incumbents.

But upon close examination, anyone can see that Richard is espousing unscientific mysticism, or magical thinking.

There is no causal relationship of any sort between a top two process for taking the final vote on candidates for office, and favoritism for incumbents or bias against minor parties.

There is only one causal relationship attributable to the final top two vote: namely, the winner receives a majority of the votes.

Richard’s argument that top two is biased against third parties and favors incumbents is pure voodoo. The causes of incumbents repeatedly winning re-election are well-known in political science. Incumbents have forged strong connections with the needed elites in their district. Incumbents generally have more campaign money, more name recognition, more activists in their campaigns, and easier access to the local media. Third parties regularly loose elections because they lack all the advantages of incumbency.

Gerrymandered districts also contribute to incumbent advantage. Party primaries are an additional factor that favors incumbents, because incumbent enthusiasts are more likely to turn out for primaries than are uncommitted middle Americans. Rigged districts and holding primaries also favor extremists, and can foster polarization.

Here is the key point missed by Richard: These factors have their determinative effects in the politics that take place long before the top two elections occurs.

Every sausage maker knows that a good sausage is not determined by the gut that holds the sausage together, but by the ingredients poured into the gut. But Richard is the only cook around who ignores the ingredients, and blames the foul taste of bad sausage on the gut, which everyone else regards as neutral in taste.

All the events that occur before the final top two vote are what account for the persistence of immoderate politicians, polarized legislatures, the failures of third parties, and the repeated re-election of incumbents. This is the case for Louisiana, California, Washington, Wisconsin, and every other state with these dysfunctional patterns.

Richard recognizes the dysfunctionality, but blames the victim – the final top two vote – rather than dealing with the intransigent causes. These causes are the natural consequences of a political system dominated by our a-constitutional two-party system. Putting the gut on the sausage is the last step. If the sausage is bad, it is all the steps taken prior to the last step that are to blame. The last step is neutral.

William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Internetvoting@gmail.com
Blog: http://tinyurl.com/IV4All
Face Book: http://tinyurl.com/BillonFB
Twitter: wjkno1
Internet Voting Explained on
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/WJKPhD

whole lotta shakin' goin' on

PHOTO: Sandy Friedman
Yesterday's earthquake from Trump Tower

Arizona Independents Have to Pick a Party for Primary Vote

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Independent voters can't remain independent in primary (By Bud Foster, KOLD News 13 CBS) For the first time, the city of Tucson is holding an all mail in primary election. It's designed to save money and increase voter participation. But for the independent voter, it's an uneasy feeling. On May 25, the city clerk's office sent out a post card telling independents if they wanted to vote in the primary, they had to request a GOP, Democrat, or Green Party ballot. Nearly 8,600 have done so. But that leaves 61,000 who have not.


• Editorial: California's Republicans should stop whining, build the party (The Monterey County Herald) Since the last redistricting a decade ago, the Republican share of California voters has fallen by 4percent to less than 32 percent. The Dems' share also dropped but only by 1 point, to 44 percent. Twenty percent of registered California voters now call themselves independents, but that should drop when open primaries begin in June. The secret to keeping the GOP from becoming a third party of sorts is for it to offer up more moderate candidates and fewer partisans who pledge to vote the party line and to vote against any tax increases no matter how necessary or logical.


• Ron Bancroft: For Class of 1961, time running short to turn nation around (By RON BANCROFT, Portland Press Herald - OR) Such redistricting will likely lead to a better balance of both parties in more districts – a good thing that diminishes extreme partisanship. The single open primary now being used in the state of Washington is meant to do the same thing. In a single primary, all candidates contest on one ballot. The primary is open to all voters. The top two vote-getters go on to the general election. Again, the theory here is that those candidates who appeal to a broader range of voters are more likely to achieve top positioning.

Taking Independent Redistricting to Court

INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING

• CA: Daily News Editorial: Flawed process -- City and county redistricting plans are vulnerable to political interests (LA Daily News) Not that everything about the state's independent redistricting commission is perfect. The commission faced a short timetable and was slow to get its act together. It submitted congressional and state Senate and Assembly maps that especially angered Republicans and Latino activists, inspiring legal challenges from both groups. But in general the state panel did what it was supposed to, deliberating openly and without obvious favor to office-holders and parties, which is why the results satisfied particular interest groups less than citizens at large. Can the city and county match this success? There are reasons for doubt.


• MN: Looking to the people to fix a broken redistricting system (By Alleen Brown, Twin Cities Daily Planet) This year, as in every redistricting year since the 1960s, the governor vetoed the legislature's proposed district changes. Governor Dayton said the Republican legislators' map had zero bipartisan support and gave unfair advantage to Republican incumbents. Now the issue has gone to a court-appointed panel of five judges. They will hear testimony from the public between October 6 and 14. Redistricting must be complete by February 21, 2012.

2012: Poll Crazy

2012

• Obama in statistical dead heat with Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann (By Corbett B. Daly, CBS News/Political Hotsheet) Among registered voters, the president scored higher than Bachmann and Rep. Ron Paul, though both of those differences were still within the margin of error for the poll conducted August 17-18. Against Paul's 45 percent, Mr. Obama took 47 percent and compared to Bachmann's 44 percent, Mr. Obama garnered 48 percent.


• Jon Huntsman goes on offensive against 2012 rivals - The Republican presidential hopeful casts himself as a moderate in a field of extreme candidates. (Jon Huntsman Jr., By Kim Geiger, Washington Bureau, LA Times) Since entering the presidential race in late June, Huntsman has polled poorly and largely sidestepped Iowa. On Sunday, he said he would focus on New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida with "a center-right message for a center-right country."


• Obama aide gets grilled by black lawmakers on jobs (By Peter Wallsten, Washington Post) Obama and his aides say all Americans including blacks benefit from broad-based policies. But many black lawmakers and civil rights leaders want direct, targeted aid — and some worry that Obama’s pursuit of white independent voters might make him reluctant to advocate for blacks.

Brooklyn Special Election Brings Out the Pols

NEW YORK
Three Candidates Vie in a Special Special Election (by David King, Gotham Gazette) Towns has her family name. She is the adopted daughter of U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns, and Brooklyn voters are accustomed to voting for that name. But they won't be able to do it on the Democratic line this year as Rafael Espinal, staffer to City Councilmember Erik Dilan, son of state Sen. Martin Dilan, has the Democratic, Republican and Conservative lines, and is also backed by Brooklyn Democratic leader and power broker Assemblymember Vito Lopez. Because there is no primary for special elections, Towns had to create her own line and so will appear on her own Community First line. Meanwhile community organizer Jesus Gonzalez is running on the Working Families Party line and reportedly has the backing of Rep. Nydia Velasquez, a long-time rival of Vito Lopez.

Lessons from Libya - and Caroline Lucas on ethical foreign policy

 
As the battle for Tripoli continues, the Gadaffi regime appears to be tottering towards collapse, but huge question marks remain over the future of Libya. The western backed rebels are a loose and contradictory confederation of tribal, political and religious interests; and the intervention of Britain and France in particular in the bombing of the country, which has been largely ascribed as the crucial factor in the rebels' success, is likely to be one requiring payback from any new government. Britain alone has fired over £250,000,000 worth of missles and bombs into a country that last year the Con Dem Government was happy to sell almost as much "crowd control" equipment to, while the British SAS trained the Leader's elite guards (though maybe not so well as it has turned out).

Like Iraq, Libya is one of the few Arab states with a large public sector, boasting clean water, free education (for males and females) and health services unrivalled in the rest of the region. Along with state controlled industries, these are now ripe for the capitalist "liberation" of the economy which has so often gone hand in hand with supposed political liberation in the history of US and UK military intervention. With the rebels already hundreds of millions of euros in debt to the EU for loans to cover their war effort, the level of western influence and pressure on any new administration to comply with European demands for access to the Libyan economy is already massive. Oil is perhaps less of an issue, as it was already substantially in western hands. But public sector privatisation and the sanctioning of the Desertec solar array plan, which Gadaffi's regime opposed, are clearly tempting prospects for western business interests.

While an overwhelming number of British parliamentarians have meekly gone along with Britain's military role, which far exceeded any "mission to protect civilians", Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, was one of just 15 MPs who voted against the intervention (compared to 557 in favour). Today, she has issued a statement which, while welcoming the fall of Gadaffi, warns the West not to intervene, but rather that the Libyans be allowed to run their country free from external interference.

But the lessons from Libya Caroline Lucas calls for include acting on the need for a greater ethical dimension in British Foreign and trade policies - both the last and current British governments happily engaged with Gadaffi in return for cash. And while Deputy PM Nick Clegg talked about Britain aiding freedom in Arab states earlier this week, the same Government he leads with David Cameron just weeks ago happily hosted the Crown Prince of Bahrain, whose regime brutally crushed protests and calls for democracy earlier this year. And who can forget Cameron's opportunistic appearance in Egypt's Tahrir Square at the head of a delegation of arms merchants?

British Governments have to practice what they preach; for now, their policy reeks of the rank stench of rotten hypocrisy and self-serving sanctimony.

Caroline Lucas' full statement can be read here.

Kill all you like - Cameron & the Crown Prince, batting for British business in Bahrain