The Barnsby Blog

Blair must go at once - not after another five years.

The true nature of the war in Iraq must be stated. It was started by Bush in simple and simplistic terms. US is more powerful than all other nations put together. It is therefore its mission to control the world

The propositions of the war on Iraq were that the war would be devastating, but short. US monopoly capitalists would rebuild it and all would be paid for with Iraq oil. None of this has happened and the mounting war is now being reported from hotels in Baghdad. All of this discounts the ultimate development that the US has always had the contradictory nature of being both an imperialist, war mongering power but also a haven of freedom for the poor of the world. At present the US is controlled by the most reactionary neo-cons but inevitably the peace forces will prevail as it becomes clear that Iraq is the present US Vietnam.

Blair willingly joined this Bush conspiracy. Nothing to do with WMD, or lies, or the vagaries of the opinions of the Attorney-General. Blair is a religious fundamentalist. He initially held as much
power as Cromwell did, and like Cromwell he would commune with God in tricky situations, and if he came away believing that he was doing the Lords’ work, there was no atrocity that he was not prepared to commit.

Blair was joined in Parliament by equally hawkish Conservative MPs who gave him a mandate to go to war and so Blair became a war criminal and serial killer in a war that cannot be won because with every Iraqi killed more terrorist/patriots are created.

The serious lack of understanding of racism and imperialism among MPs and Labour Party members was illustrated by the war criminal Blair being given a standing ovation at the Labour Party conference last September.

Subsequent events can be illustrated by what has happened in Wolverhampton. Dennis Turner the previously left-wing and progressive MP for W’ton SE has resigned, but has supported and embraced the white, male, warmongering Blairite McFadden who took his place.

Nor is that all, he has fulsomely praised Blair and will be repaid by an appearance in the honours list, something that no left-winger would ever have stooped to in the past.

It grieves me greatly to have to tell my friend of nearly 60 years that he has sold all the achievements of his long career for a mess of pottage, but that is how I see it.

Finally, it has been discovered that only one W’ton Labour Councillor voted against the war in Iraq, all others, apparently, sharing responsibility for the continuing slaughter of Iraqis and British soldiers in Blair’s illegal war.

Blair is as unlikely to apologise for the illegal war in Iraq as he is to fund the restoration of British industrial development and the motor industry at Rover.

George Galloway deserves the last word on Blair. Like Hamlet, his title (of prime minister), ‘Hangs loose about him like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief”. End the War, bring the Troops home

The War in Iraq
This will remain the salient issue until 5 May and beyond. Besides making our main stance clear - no one should vote for war criminal Blair nor his war mongering supporters. we have emphasised that Blair is also a serial killer for continuing to kill Iraqis and should be behind bars.
This we have followed up by supporting Peter Rhodes of the Express & Star who has been boycotted by by the Blairites for, among others things, asking WHAT ARE THE ODDS THAT BLAIR WILL NOT END UP USING THE SAME EXERCISE YARD AS SADDAM HUSSAIN? The Express & Star has been resolute in opposing the war and, whatever our differences on other things they cannot faulted on this

The Pope
The death of John Paul II, the Polish Pope has been something else that BLOG has naturally wanted to notice. His anti-Communism and hostility to the South American Marxist dialogue must be noted. His hostility to condoms and birth control has resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people from Aids and VD. His toleration of paedophiles within the church has been matter a matter of embarrasment to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. These faults tend to outweigh the fact that he has opposed Bush and his wars. My personal experiences with Polish reactionaries in Wolverhampton included the fact that they were prepared to tear me limb from limb when we held Communist meetings on the Market Patch and who were most aggrieved when the police stoppped them. This extreme CathoIicism I speculate may be rather different from the views of third generation Polish Britons and I await with interest the views of local Catholics.
It is a reminder that there can never be a complete history of Wolverhampton until the nettle is grasped of doing justice to those who came as ‘emigres’ to the town after 1945.

Save Rover for the Nation
Sudddenly the election has beeen electrifed by the ‘collapse’ of Rover and the obvious stitch up by Towers and his mates, the builders Modwen, and the Blairites attempts to limit the electoral damage not by saving the car industry but by attempting to persuade workers out of their heritage and out of their jobs The result has been a mass movement of those willing to fight to save their jobs and their industry, but feeling frustrated by the apparent hopelessness of their cause fanned by the regional media.
Yet there has been at least three strands of those who believe Rover can be saved. One has been led by Carl Chinn, the local historian advocating a coalition of local authorities, local social organisations, trade unions etc. which could keep car making at Longbridge. The second has been the idea of forming a workers’ co-op advocated by Annil Chandra from within Longbridge. The third is the socialist approach of nationalising the car industry and returning to the Ryder Report of which Tony Benn was the originator nationally and Derek Robinson and the national joint shop stewards movement were the driving force within the industry. It is here that the historic perspective is so important. We have seen the Beechings destroy our railways, Thatcher destroyed our mining and steel industry and the almost endless list of other industries includes motorcycles, ship buildng, and electronics. Compare this with the French who always believed that industry was too important to leave to market forces and who now have three successful car firms, are overtaking US Boeing in the airline business and recently built our Queen Mary II because we are no longer capable of doing so.
It would be wrong for socialists to give up the struggle while all these possibilities to keep Longbridge open and operating exist. We are therefore proposing to issue further editions of SAVE ROVER FOR THE NATION, to allow discussions to take place and widen participation in the debate on restoring our manufacturing industry to lecturers and students in departments of engineering in all colleges and Universities in the West Midlands as well as co-operating with trade unionists and businessmen who are continuing the struggle.

Two welcome additions to our Friends
The first was a letter out of the blue from Gyula Virag who has come across the records of the Youth Festival of 1949 in Hungary which I attended. He has prepared a very long and very detailed questionaire which I shall be very pleased to answer as it takes me back to how I viewed the Communist world at that time. Gyula seems to be a typical product of modern Hungary. He describes himself as a non-political person, 32 year old teacher of history who is now studying for a Ph.D at Budapest University his subject being the Hungarian Youth Movement and its International Relations 1945-1956. I’m sure there will be interest in Britain in this project and I should be pleased to give further details to Gyula to anyone who contacts me.
Our second Friend could hardly be different. He is Charley Hall 91 year old pioneer of the Communist Party from its founding in 1920 through to the present day. Charlie is coming to see me shortly and I am quite excited. He has lived for many years in Newcastle, but has recently moved to Birmingham and is living on his own and obviously very fit for his age.
This reminds me. Our friend Edward Upward whose name will always be linked with writers of the 1930s such as Christopher Isherwood, Stephen Spender and W.H.Auden will be 102 in the autumn. We wish him well.

A New Race Equality Agency in Wolverhampton
It is good to learn that adverts are appearing for a Director for an agency to replace the Wolverhampton Race Equality Council. This organisation which was co-founded by the Wolverhampton Communist Party was the oldest such Council in Britain formed in 1965 and run from its beginnings by the two main groups of immigrants in the town, Afro-Cabs and Indians. I was an active committee member for most years of its existence, but a new director failed to put my name forward for re-election despite being properly nominated by the Indian Workers’ Associationon the grounds that I had suffered a heart attack. In writing the history of the last two years of the WREC I will have problems. I was opposed to its closure by the Commission for Racial Equality, but agreed that there appeared to have been irregularities by the chairperson and the Director. We will write more of this in the future.

Conclusion
There is much more that I should write, but this must suffice for the present. The next BLOG will deal with deal with the fortunes of Blair and whether we have a principled or unprincipled result to the election. We will end as usual with Questions.

1. Is it possible that only one Labour Councillor in Wolverhampton voted against the war in Iraq.
2. What will be the long term effects of W’ton S.E. nominating a ‘foreigner’ and warmongering, Blairite to contest the Bilston seat?

Dr. George Barnsby
George Barnsby Working Class Library & Free Communist Bookshop
141 Henwood Rd. Wolverhampton WV6 8PJ
Phone & Fax 01902 75188
Web: www.gbpeopleslibrary.co.uk