Jeremy Corbyn
Window on the World (The Morning Star)
On Monday Defence Secretary Des Browne announced another 900 British soldiers being sent Afghanistan. This will bring the total to 4,500.
The British and US went to Afghanistan five years ago, in 2001, and show no signs of leaving. Indeed when pressed by uneasy MPs, the Defence Secretary was unable to say how many more might be sent and how long they will be there, but he did say that they would not be involved in poppy eradication. Paul Flynn MP asked again why the Government does not support a licensing system that would enable Afghan poppy grower’s crops to become medical morphine rather than the illegal drugs trade.
In a candid moment during his answers, Browne also said that he recognised not all the fighters were Taliban supporters and that others had been dragged in.
A long term history of Afghanistan shows that foreign interventions do not work – the British obsession with protecting colonial India’s North West from Russia led to a series of disastrous wars, with many thousands of working class men from Britain perishing in colonial adventures.
The Soviet Union’s support for Najibullah’s Government in 1979 cost it dear, and the aftermath is still costing us dear. As with other conflicts at the time in Central America and the Horn of Africa, the US supported any anti Soviet group. Hence the funding of the Mojahedeen and its derivative, the Taliban. The loss of over two million Afghan lives in a series of wars fuelled and funded by the US and the drugs trade is now being played out in what the Ministry of Defence choose to term the final frontier of Helmat Province. The harsh reality is that many more Afghan and British soldiers will die and that at some point the war will extend into Pakistan.
Tony Blair, and now Des Browne choose to characterise this as a war for values and civilisation. The victims are innocent and poor people whose crops cannot keep them together, and who are growing the only alternative that will make any kind of living. To many, the Taliban must represent a defence against the aggressor.
All wars have to be settled politically at some time and it is hard to see how a “hearts and minds” campaign whilst at the same time destroying buildings and the Afghan army destroying crops actually does anything than in the long term to increase support for the resistance.
The parallels of Vietnam, with well equipped forces trying to occupy in the face of local hostility looms ever larger into vision.
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Greg Palast can always find a “mot juste” to meet the occasion.
In the Observer on Sunday he dubbed the outcome of the Mexican Presidential election “Florida with salsa”.
Last Sunday the left candidate for President, Lopez Obrador of the PRD (Popular Revolutionary Party) called on supporters to rally in the Soccolo, the huge square in the centre of Mexico City adjoining the ruins of the Aztec Civilisation.
His call for a full hand re-count of the vote was met with an enormous response.
The BBC dutifully reported the rally of 100,000. For the first time in recorded history the Police figure was higher than the BBC at 288,000 and even the Los Angeles Times reported an even higher figure. Friends who were there tell me that the enormous plaza was totally packed as were all the side streets around – the grand centre was taken over by the poor who think the election is being stolen from under their noses. They have much to be concerned about. The initial count of votes put the candidate of the PAN (National Action Party), Felipe Calderon, ahead by about 900,000 votes with the candidate of the erstwhile all conquering PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) a distant third on 22%.
Quite reasonably, Obrador called for a re-count of the votes. The Federal Electoral Commission (appointed by the presidency) agreed to recount only the sealed boxes of ballot papers, not their contents, and attempted to reconcile this with the votes supposedly cast. With 92% of the boxes counted Obrador was ahead with 300,000 more votes than the Right. Miraculously, by the time the announcement had been made this lead had become a deficit of 402,000.
The Commission must now decide on a full re-count even though out-going President Fox and George Bush have already congratulated Calderon.
There are obvious questions about the vote counting, but deeper questions about the surprisingly lower turnout in the Presidential election, than in the elections for the Congress held at the same time and voting from the same polling stations. Blank votes were recorded by 802,000 voters, apparently. It seems that the mysterious non voter has re-appeared, having made a big impact on the presidential elections in Florida in 2000. This in itself is a huge cause for concern as is the system of voter registration. Reports of voters arriving at polling stations in the poorest districts and being turned away add to the suspicions surrounding the election.
The PRD have called for regional rallies and a big march on Mexico City shows the determination of the PRD to ensure a fair election. The poorest suffer from globalisation and lack of decent social security. Obrador’s earlier success in improving public transport, education and pensions in the federal capital during his term as Mayor have not been forgotten.
The results were prematurely heralded by the US media as the end of the march of the Left across Latin America. The hundreds of thousands in Mexico City on Sunday should make them think again.
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It was only a year ago that the G8 met in Gleneagles. Now they are in Russia and one wonders how they will review the year that has passed. Make Poverty History promised so much in debt write off, long term aid and freer trade for the poorest countries. The harsh reality is that most of the promises that were extracted on the lawns of Gleneagles have not been delivered and the cynical heads of Government having achieved the desired headline have gone back on their words.
Meanwhile in the poorest countries in Africa those with HIV or aids still scrabble to try and get the vital and expensive medicines, the water supply is still polluted and unreliable and millions of children are either without a school at all or in an enormous class in a poor quality building with no equipment.
There is a long way to go.
