Defending Ken Livingstone – he was not antisemitic. And just how widespread antisemitism once was.
Zionism’s Suicidal Militancy: why a hard line is probably doomed, just as it was for the Soviet Union under Brezhnev.
Iraq and the Anglosphere:
- Bill Clinton’s Injustice Towards Iraq. How he bombed the country and showed no interest in making peace.
- Bad Saddam and the Very Moral Lynch Mob. A view of the case for war, as it existed back in 2003. It also asked “can Iraq produce anything better than Saddam’s regime?” Unless you prefer a sectarian Shia regime that is pro-Iranian, the answer has been ‘no’.
- Iraq: the First Nine Days. My reflections on the start of the war.
- Was Sadr Framed? Written in 2004, it argues that the short-lived subserviant government the USA installed tried to frame a major opponent for a crime he was probably not connected to.
- Poppy Day and Iraq. The World View Behind the Gulf War. Fukuyama on the Gulf War. The Anglosphere in 2004. The World After 9/11.
US Reaction to 9/11. The decision to invade Afghanistan.
Serbs Good, Germans Bad. Serbs Bad, Germans Good. How the Anglosphere has revised its view of history. Evading the embarrasing fact that defending ‘galant little Serbia’ was once the standard British view.
The Nobel Prize for Pleasing Norwegian Parliamentarians. What the Nobel Peace Prize is really about.
When Shrimps Learn To Whistle. Dennis Healey on the Soviet collapse. His shrewd comparison of Khrushchev’s Secret Speech and the Second Vatican Council, which threw away a lot of what Roman Catholics had believed to be the core of their faith.
Who Won the Cold War? Suggesting that Marx’s ideas have been absorbed into the entire society and become the norm. And the curious way in which Moderate Socialists forgot about the Mixed Economy and started insisting it was all capitalism.
Japan – not going to the dogs or daemons. Reviewing a book called Dogs and Demons: The Fall of Modern Japan. And also noticing that Japan’s sudden economic standstill in the 1990s diverted US attention at a time when some people in the USA saw Japan as the ‘next enemy’.
British Tyranny in Kenya. A 1950s rear-guard action by the British Empire, seeking to preserve British settlers who had siezed a lot of the best land. The brutality of the British side in suppressing the Independence fighters.
The significant of the Vietnam War, considered after the death of General Giap. Also available as a PDF, Problems 14.
Why the Web never evaded government control. (First published in 2000, when most people believed it was beyond control.)
A review of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, showing its contradictions and absurdities.
What is Capitalism? Arguing that Britain is not and never has been an entirely capitalist society.
The broad range of meanings that democracy can include. Also available as a PDF, Problems 14.
The Brixton Riots of 1987. Why they were basically reformist and probably eased the development of multiracialism.
From two magazines, Problems and Labour Affairs., with other old articles on the website.
Long Revolution 