Chris Bambery

https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-wildfire-of-imperialism/

Despite much talk of its, relative, economic decline, the United States is the single great power which can wield all three – military, economic and financial – kinds of power.

True, economically, it is matched by China, but Beijing has a long way to go to equal Washington’s military and financial clout.

It is easy to see what US military power means. Leaving aside its nuclear weapons and much more, just access a map of American military bases around the world. It will show that the US seeks to dominate rivals and challengers, such as China, by blocking its access to the Pacific and South China sea, Russia and Iran.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/salvage-book-review/

Salvage is a novel based on true, shocking events, unknown to the vast majority of the Scottish population. This is the forced removal by the state of young children from their Traveller families, with many sent thousands of miles away to ensure a complete break with their parents and siblings.

This was a deliberate policy to destroy Traveller communities, and their way of life which had a rich cultural tradition, particularly of music and song. It was driven by racism, encouraged by the established Church of Scotland, who were keen to see ‘sinners’ removed from Presbyterian Scotland.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/kursk-and-ukraines-looming-defeat/

For weeks, we have been told by the British political leadership and the established media that Ukraine’s attack in Russia, in the Kursk region, is a gamechanger which can bring about a Ukrainian victory, or at least impose on Russia a peace favourable to Kyiv. As the Western media celebrates a supposed major Ukrainian victory, behind the propaganda, Russian forces are relentlessly advancing westwards on the main front.

Russia has made significant gains in the key eastern front, with its forces just a few kilometres from the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a crucial supply and reinforcement point for Ukraine’s troops on the eastern front line.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-alligators-trap-book-review/

Chris Bambery enjoys a novel set in Toronto and Barcelona, dealing with the legacy of the Spanish civil war and Franco’s dictatorship
This is a novel about betrayal, betrayal at different levels. It’s set in two very different worlds; Barcelona in the 1950s under the heel of General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, and Toronto in Canada in the 1990s.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/who-backs-reform/

In the wake of the far-right riots, Chris Bambery analyses the nature of support for the Reform Party and how it can be countered by the left
On 7 August 2024, a YouGov poll found when asked ‘would you say that you support or oppose the recent protests and/or unrest?’ a third of British people, 31%, answered that they ‘support’ or ‘somewhat support’ them. Seven percent of respondents said they ‘strongly support’ the unrest at these protests. That 7% “strongly support” the Islamophobic and racist violence that has accompanied the protests is bad enough, but that another seven percent said they ‘somewhat support’ the unrest is even more disturbing.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/islamophobia-and-the-fascists-how-to-mobilise-our-side/

It is with no gladness I wish to return to an issue I raised following the results achieved by Reform UK a month ago in the UK general election. I do so because issues I raised have come home to roost with the Islamophobic riots and attacks on refugee accommodation, mosques, businesses and individuals by fascist thugs.

On social media there had been a debate about what is fuelling these riots, with some stressing that the communities where these are occurring are home to disposed white working-class people suffering from austerity, dead-end jobs and bad housing who are scapegoating migrants and Muslims.

Others have blamed these attacks on racism and the far right.

I think it would be a profound mistake to counterpose the two.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/labours-sandcastle-majority/

In a second article unpicking the general election results, Chris Bambery analyses Labour’s weakness, the threat of Reform UK, and the task facing the left in challenging both
‘A sandcastle majority’, was one memorable description of Labour’s landslide election win as the votes came in in the early hours of 5 June. Labour achieved a landslide victory and a three-digit Parliamentary majority with a vote share that is the lowest for a single governing party in electoral history.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/why-is-nato-in-jordan/

Nato is deepening its involvement in Jordan, in moves that can only sharpen the tensions among the powers involved in the Middle East, argues Chris Bambery
Nato is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The Arab kingdom of Jordan is some considerable way from the North Atlantic. Nato is not going to let that get in its way and last week it signed an agreement with the Hashemite kingdom, establishing a Nato liaison office in the Jordanian capital, Amman.

file:///C:/Users/bambch/Downloads/You_are_G8_We_are_6_Billion.pdf

A history of Irish working-class struggle and organisation in Dundee provides a valuable picture that should inspire similar studies for other cities in Britain, finds Chris Bambery
The city of Dundee, on the east coast of Scotland, has two very contrasting legacies. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Dundee was the centre of the world’s jute industry, Juteopolis, its mills turning raw jute from Bengal into sacking, baling cloth for cotton and carpet-backing cloth.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/facing-the-threat-of-the-reform-party/

‘We’re coming for Labour – be in no doubt about that.’ That was the boast of Nigel Farage on the day after the UK general election. Reform UK may have won five seats, but it came second in 103 seats, of which 93 were claimed by Labour. These were overwhelmingly in the north of England.

Second-place seats included the earliest result of the night in Sunderland Central where Reform took 10,779 votes finishing just over 6000 votes behind Labour; in Louth and Horncastle they took 11,935 votes, getting close to the first-place Conservative candidate; and in Amber Valley in the Midlands Reform took 12,192 votes. Despite not winning any seats, Reform won 220,895 votes in the North East, compared to the Conservatives’ 224,574, and came second in eighteen constituencies.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/a-dangerous-multi-polar-world/

As Israel’s war threatens to escalate, and US belligerence against China continues, a multi-polar world is becoming perilously unstable, argues Chris Bambery
Once, we were told we lived in a unipolar world where the United States was the only global power. Today those times are long gone. For instance, military and economic ties between Russia and China have strengthened since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/national-rally-and-french-fascism-new-clothes-same-wolf/

With the fascist National Rally leading the polls in France’s general election, Chris Bambery unpicks the lineages of Marine Le Pen’s party back to nineteenth-century fascism

https://www.counterfire.org/article/reckless-escalation-in-ukraine-war/

We have now reached the height of midsummer madness in the war between Ukraine and Russia after Ukraine fired American-supplied missiles at the city of Sebastopol on Sunday. Russia has vowed to retaliate after the American ATACMS attack on Sebastopol in Crimea, which killed four people, including two children. Around 150 more were injured in the attack.

The deaths and injuries were caused by falling missile debris after Russian missile defences intercepted five missiles carrying cluster warheads, launched by Ukrainian forces; four were shot down and one exploded in the air. Footage carried on Russian state TV showed chaos on the beach in the Uchkuyevka area, as people ran from the falling debris, with injured people being carried away on sun loungers.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/frances-popular-front-lessons-from-the-30s

In a welcome response to the success of the Nazi Rassemblement National (National Rally, RN) led by Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen in the European election, which leads in the polls for the the snap general election set for 30 June and 7 July, hundreds of thousands of anti-fascists took to the streets last weekend in some 200 demonstrations called by the trade unions. The biggest union federation, the CGT, said 640,000 took to the streets, including 250,000 in Paris.

The decision of the various parties of the French left to form a New Popular Front to try and stop the fascist (National Rally) winning the first round of France’s parliamentary election on 4 July, is a major step forward. The alliance brings together the centre left Socialist Party, France Insoumise (France Unbowed, LFI, the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon), the French Communist Party (PS), and Les Écologistes (a green environmentalist party) plus other smaller groups.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/is-the-us-hegemonic/

It’s common to hear the United States being described as hegemonic within the world order. Indeed, I have said this on a number of occasions. But, is it true?

If we are talking about hegemony in the way it was used by the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, the answer must be no.

For Gramsci, a hegemonic class held state power not only through its coercive power and its economic supremacy but political, moral, and intellectual dominance. Hegemony means that the subordinate classes do not just accept these, but themselves articulate the key elements of the ruling class’s ideological discourse.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/labour-the-tories-and-the-atlanticist-consensus/

Foreign affairs have hardly featured in the electoral contest between the two main parties, the Conservatives and Labour. Both are desperate to avoid the war in Gaza and Britain’s support for Israel, including arming it. True, Sir Keir Starmer has claimed once in Downing Street he would move to recognise the state of Palestine, but only if there is a ‘safe and secure Israel,’ which means it’s a meaningless promise.

Of course, the various independent candidates will seek to bring both the Tories and Labour to account over Palestine. But aside from wishing to avoid that issue, the truth is that there is scarcely a cigarette paper between both main parties on the major international issues.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/d-day-the-reality-behind-the-myth/

This Thursday sees the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the US and UK invasion of Normandy in Nazi occupied France. For both the US and the UK the anniversary will be celebrated as heralding their victory in Europe in the Second World War.

That’s because they can portray it as a ‘good war,’ in which they triumphed over the supreme evil of Nazism. Neither power had been able to portray subsequent conflicts in such a way – whether in Korea, Vietnam or Iraq.

But that has not stopped them drawing on the legacy of the Second World War whenever it suits their imperial interests. Thus, a range of opponents they have wished to topple, from Egypt’s Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser in 1956 after he nationalised the Suez Canal, through to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, to Vladimir Putin today, as new ‘Hitlers.’

https://www.counterfire.org/article/natos-spiralling-commitments-to-ukraine-risk-catastrophe/

We are on the possible verge of a major escalation in the war in the Ukraine, one which risks war between Nato and Russia, and one involving nuclear weapons, argues Chris Bambery
France and Germany have agreed that Ukraine should be allowed to use its allies’ missiles to ‘neutralise’ Russian military bases used to fire missiles into Ukraine, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday on a state visit to Berlin.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/analysis-of-104175991

Chris Bambery, co-author of Catalonia Reborn, examines the results of the May 2024 Catalan elections when pro-independence parties lost their majority in parliament.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/perfidious-albion-britain-and-the-spanish-civil-war-book-review/

Chris Bambery recommends Preston’s Perfidious Albion, but disputes view that the kind of revolutionary war Orwell championed could not have defeated Franco and the fascists

https://www.counterfire.org/article/ukraine-cant-win-this-war-of-attrition/

There isn’t the capacity to enable Ukraine to win the war, or even sustain it for long, so the West needs to broker a peace agreement to stop the bloodshed, argues Chris Bambery
The US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, jetted into Kyiv on Tuesday to say it was ‘imperative’ that fighting corruption in the country continues along with fighting Russian aggression. He also said it was important that Ukraine developed ‘the strongest possible democracy’ that reflects its citizens and attracts investment.

It was an unusual admission that Ukraine is not the beacon of democracy as it has been painted in the West.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/cynical-and-murderous-western-policy-on-ukraine-is-failing/

The United States House of Representatives has finally approved a $95 billion package of aid for Ukraine, which also includes further military support for Israel and Taiwan. The supply of US weapons to Ukraine dried up in early 2024, because the bill to grant more aid was delayed in Congress.

President Biden said after the vote that the US can now start sending armaments ‘right away’.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the commitment ‘reinforces America’s role as a beacon of democracy and leader of the free world.’ However, the bulk of this new money will go to US multinationals to produce weaponry which will take months to come off stretched production lines.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/portugal-the-carnation-revolution-that-brought-workers-in-europe-to-the-edge-of-power/

On the evening of the 24 April 1974, Portuguese radio played a mournful romantic ballad, E depois do adeus (And After the Farewell) by Paulo de Carvalho. It was the green signal to a grouping of young Portuguese army officers belonging to the Movement of the Armed Forces (MPA) that a military coup was about to be launched.

The signal to take action was the broadcasting of another sad song – José Afonso’s Grândola, Vila Morena (Grândola, Swarthy Town), about a poor town in the Alentejo where ‘the people hold the greatest power’ – broadcast at twenty past midnight on a Catholic radio station. The armed forces swept into action.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-west-doesnt-want-middle-east-war-but-by-backing-israel-is-making-it-happen/

Israel’s attack on Iran’s embassy in Damascus, and Iran’s response, reveal Netanyahu’s mounting strategic weaknesses, but its leaders may still choose war, argues Chris Bambery

https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-reckoning-from-the-second-slavery-to-abolition-1776-1888-book-review/

In his fifth and final volume, The Reckoning: From the Second Slavery to Abolition, 1776-1888, in his series charting the history of slavery in the modern world, Robin Blackburn turns his attention to the Second Slavery, the plantation system in the United States, Cuba and Brazil growing cotton, sugar and coffee to meet the demands of Western Europe and the northern states of the USA.

These were tied into the industries of both regions too, not least the cotton plants of Lancashire, and financed by their banks, who were happy to accept slaves as collateral for loans to planters. Thus slaves became not just working chattel but also property and investments.

With slaves being used as collateral, the slave owners could expand their plantations, or buy new opened lands elsewhere, by using them to take out mortgages or secure loans.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/nato-75th-anniversary-a-guarantor-of-war/

‘To condemn NATO is to condemn the guarantee of democracy and security it brings.’

Those were the words of Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, writing in The Guardian in 2022. Starmer claimed that Nato is a ‘defensive alliance that has never provoked conflict’, ignoring the fact that Nato has taken military action in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Libya.

At the same time, it has continually expanded eastwards towards Russia, bringing its troops and military equipment to its very border. In 1999, former Warsaw Pact countries Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined Nato. In 2004, they were joined by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All of this was in breach of a promise given to the final leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, by the

US Secretary of State, James Baker, in 1990, that Nato would ‘not expand an inch’ eastward.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/israels-act-of-war-against-iran/

The horror of Israel’s war on Gaza is with us all the time. In six months, some 33,000 Palestinians have been killed, a third of them children. Mass hunger faces the survivors as Israel blocks food supplies, in clear violation of the international Genocide Convention and to the condemnation of the International Court of Justice.

Amidst the ongoing horror this week, which includes the ending of Israel’s siege of Al Shifa Hospital, in which 200 patients, staff and sheltering civilians were killed, and the killing by a drone attack of seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen, the most serious was the Israeli air attack on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The strike killed Mohammad Reza Zahedi, believed to be a top commander of Iran’s Quds force in Syria and Lebanon, and six other senior Iranian military officials.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/panic-in-the-chancelleries-no-answers-for-ukraine/

Behind the belligerent rhetoric, the Ukraine war effort is petering out writes Chris Bambery
There is a mounting panic in European Chancelleries over Ukraine. The first reason for the panic is a growing realisation Ukraine cannot win the war with Russia and that its resistance might crumble.

Ukraine is desperately short of both manpower and ammunition. This was driven home by the bloody Ukrainian withdrawal from Avdiivka, leaving many of their wounded behind.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-man-in-whose-shadow-netanyahu-walks/

Israel is unlikely to stop its assault on Gaza without massive pressure, and the reasons are rooted in the history of Zionism, argues Chris Bambery
If there is one leader whom the current Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, follows, it is Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Revisionist Zionism, which would form the bedrock of Netanyahu’s Likud party.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/us-the-military-industrial-complex-today/

In October last year, President Joe Biden said that the United States must be ‘the arsenal of democracy’, consciously invoking a phrase from a 1940 speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt. But in case that wasn’t clear enough, Biden said America is ‘the essential nation’ and the ‘indispensable nation’. It ‘holds the world together’.

Biden was addressing the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Let us just leave aside his unconditional support for both, his lack of concern about the reality of democracy in Ukraine, Israel and the occupied territories and much else.

Back in December 1940, Roosevelt was addressing a situation where Hitler dominated Europe and Britain was his only remaining enemy. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into the war was a year away. But Roosevelt knew that if Hitler could defeat Britain, he would seek global domination and challenge the USA. He was already massively expanding US forces on land, air and sea, and in March 1941 introduced the Lend-Lease Act whereby America supplied Britain with weaponry and much else which would be paid for after the war.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/us-the-limits-of-imperial-power/

From the quagmire in Ukraine, to its inability to control events in the Middle East, multiple weaknesses are being exposed in the US’s global hegemony, argues Chris Bambery

https://www.counterfire.org/article/late-fascism-race-capitalism-and-the-politics-of-crisis-book-review/

Our ruling classes do not require a ‘revolution against revolution’, as Robert Paxton described fascism, having been on the offensive since the mid-1970s, not just against working class but ideologically, going a long way to wipe out the traditions flowing from the 1917 October Revolution, no small gain for them.

Alberto Toscano writes in Late Fascism that: ‘… for the time – it [contemporary capital] is not rushing en masse towards an exceptional state to counter existential threats to its reproduction’ (p.4). But it’s not hard to look forward to a conjunction of climate crisis, mass migration and state repression along the borders, and see a situation where fascism emerges as a mass force. This is a society marred by permanent war. As far as European societies are concerned, none of these have reached the scale of destruction of 1914-1918, which tore apart the certainties of old Europe and created hundreds of thousands of radicalised veterans, providing a base for fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/someone-elses-empire-british-illusions-and-american-hegemony-book-review/

‘We must play Greece to their Rome,’ said future British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, in 1944 in regard to the relationship between Britain and the United States. Even in the closing stages of World War II, it was arrogance beyond what power Britain still retained. MacMillan knew Britain was reliant on America for its means to fight the war, right down to imported steel, and that as Allied armies landed in Normandy in June 1944, the Americans had greater numbers than the British, a gap which would grow and grow until the fall of the Third Reich. When Japan surrendered in August of that year, the British were effectively excluded from the formal surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay; the Pacific war was an American affair.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/kitson-failed-boot-boy-of-empire/

Chris Bambery on the army’s go-to ‘counter-insurgency expert’ who died this week
Frank Kitson died on 2 January aged 97. He was a man whose service in the British army took him through every one of Britain’s post-1945 colonial wars, who became a world expert in the conduct of such wars, and was involved in a string of callous acts of officially sanctioned violence aimed at terrorising civilian populations from Malaysia to Belfast.

https://www.conter.scot/2023/12/4/arthur-balfour-the-scot-who-authored-the-palestinian-tragedy/

Historian Chris Bambery argues its time to come to terms with the role of Scottish imperialist Arthur Balfour – the man who authored the Balfour Declaration, dispossessing the Palestinian people. Understanding his racism, and the British state’s role in the region, is part of resisting the assault on Gaza today.

Sophie Johnson & Chris Bambery are joined by Scots writer Billy Kay to discuss Robert Burns
https://open.spotify.com/episode/72oIlcFqFSk0cdomM2cViZ

https://www.conter.scot/2023/10/30/starmers-position-on-gaza-is-untenable/

There are moments amid fast-moving events when a demand which would have been seen as laughable a few weeks ago suddenly moves to centre stage.

At the beginning of October, as the Labour Party gathered in conference in Liverpool a day after the Hamas attack on Southern Israel, the idea that we would demand anything of Sir Keir Starmer would have met with scorn.

Today, however, the demand Starmer changes from his unconditional support for Israel’s assault on Gaza to calling for an immediate ceasefire assumes central importance.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4nrfNH59GSibWPGj8bcT6t?flow_ctx=ae6606ed-9fb3-4b08-8dcf-b2e055e1f655%3A1698367387

As part of our People's History of Scotland series, we are looking in depth at some of the personalities who shaped the country profoundly.

First up, John Knox - Scotland's complex and despised patriarch.

But is there more to him? David Jamieson & Chris Bambery discuss.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/how-should-socialists-respond-to-the-violence-of-the-oppressed/

Violent resistance is the result of violent oppression, so socialists do not blame the oppressed for situations created and sustained by the oppressor, argues Chris Bambery
What attitude should we take towards the violence of Hamas and other, similar groups? For those of us who defend Palestinian rights, we instantly face demands that we must join attacks on their hostage taking or their killing of civilians, in most cases from people who do not criticise Israeli bombings of civilians, hospitals, places of worship and so on.

These defenders of Israeli collective reprisals to Hamas attacks on southern Israel – including the Labour front bench – take a position of uncritical and unconditional support. Nothing Israel does merits criticism.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/islam-europe-and-antisemitism/

The long history of Western persecution and antisemitism demolishes right-wing ideas about the ‘clash of civilisations’ and slurs against Muslim cultures, argues Chris Bambery
I am writing this while on a half-term break with my youngest son in Banyoles in Catalonia. Half an hour to the north is the lovely medieval town of Besalú. On my last visit I was disappointed that the mikveh, the ceremonial Jewish bathhouse, was not open to visitors.

It was sealed up by members of the town’s 200 strong Jewish population in 1435 as they fled, faced with anti-Jewish pogroms. That guaranteed its survival prior to its discovery in more recent times.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7o8VzN0Drbt8JjW0TLuea4

What drove so many Scots to beak with Rome, tear down their monasteries and fight in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms?

And why have Scots forgotten their Reformation today?

A People's History of Scotland - Part 3: Reformation and War

https://www.counterfire.org/article/reform-revolution-and-opportunism-debates-in-the-second-international-1900-1910-book-review/

The debates between socialists in the Congresses of the Second International raised issues which remain of central importance to the left today, argues Chris Bambery

https://www.conter.scot/2023/10/3/wolfgang-streeck-germany-the-broken-heart-of-europe/

Conter Editorial Board member, Chris Bambery, talks to German sociologist Wolfgang Streeck. Wolfgang is emeritus director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. He is the author of numerous books, including: How Will Capitalism End? Essays on a Failing System.

In this interview, Chris and Wolfgang discuss Germany’s economy, domestic political situation and foreign policy.

https://soundcloud.com/user-657873398/a-peoples-history-of-scotland-episode-2-the-wars-of-independence

The next episode of our People’s History of Scotland podcast is now live. In this edition we discuss chapter two of A People’s History of Scotland: The Wars of Independence.

Offering fresh perspectives on William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, and Mary Queen of Scots, host Sara Bennett is joined by author Chris Bambery to explore one of the most tumultuous periods in Scottish history—the two wars of independence.

Sara and Chris discuss how power was wielded in feudal Scotland, the experiences of the rural poor, and the machinations of Scotland’s ruling families as they vied for the crown. Scotland’s “game of thrones” is placed in the context of international alliances and the class dynamics of feudal society.

https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/news/listening-to-the-people-s-history-of-scotland

This autumn with Conter radio I am setting out this story in a series of podcasts based on the book. Each episode takes on a particular moment in history, explores what happened, the major figures involved. The podcast seeks to bring this history to life because in order to know where we are going, we must know where we come from. Join us!

https://soundcloud.com/user-657873398/a-peoples-history-of-scotland-episode-1?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

A People's History of Scotland: Episode 1
Introducing a People's History of Scotland, a new Conter podcast.

Music by Ewan McLennan, "Song of the Lower Classes" from the album "Stories Still Untold."

https://www.thenational.scot/news/23797003.new-podcast-tell-peoples-history-scotland/?ref=twtrec

A LEFT-WING Scottish website is launching a new podcast titled “A People’s History of Scotland” – with one of the episodes to focus on independence.


Based on Chris Bambery’s 2014 book of the same name, the podcast will tell the story of how different generations and events have shaped Scotland.

The series is broad in scope and will focus on everything from ancient clans fighting the Romans to the 2014 independence referendum.

Speaking to The National, Bambery said: “The first edition came out in the summer of 2014 just before the referendum and the conclusion was why I supported a Yes vote.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-coup-in-chile-and-the-solidarity-movement/

On 11 September 1973, I was working at a summer job between school and university. The radio was on and in the early afternoon a news bulletin announced that there had been a military coup in Chile, the presidential palace had been attacked by warplanes (British supplied), and President Salvador Allende had been killed.

This was not unexpected news. There had been a failed coup early that summer, the military high command wasn’t ready and didn’t back it, and since then expectations were high that another would follow. Despite that, on hearing the news I burst into tears, knowing that terror was being unleashed against the people of Chile.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/a-coup-and-a-catastrophe-the-politics-of-the-battle-of-chile-50-years-on/

Fifty years since the socialist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown by a bloody military coup, Chris Bambery analyses the events and their lessons for socialists
The other 9/11, 11 September 1973, saw a military coup which did not just overthrow the elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende but unleashed savage repression, which left 30,000 workers dead and countless others tortured, maimed, without work and hungry. This was one of the aims of the coup, to fragment and dismember one of the most insurgent working classes on the continent.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/truth-and-justice-denied-why-the-northern-ireland-legacy-bill-must-be-scrapped/

On Wednesday, the Sunak government voted through legislation concerning Northern Ireland, despite the fact that it is opposed by all of its major parties, by the Irish government and the United States, while it has raised considerable concern in the United Nations. Given the mess that Boris Johnson got into over Northern Ireland’s Brexit Protocol when he alienated the Biden administration, the European Union, and the government in Dublin, you might have thought Sunak would not want to go there. But he has, in order to appease his own backbenchers and Britain’s military and security services.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-last-person-in-the-world-book-review/

Chris Bambery recommends a novel that brings alive the politics and atmosphere of 1970s England, with a well-paced plot, and a protagonist whose life is upended by murky elite schemes.
It’s the fag end of the 1970s. All the hopes of 1972 and 1974 when workers had fought and won, defeating a Tory government, are fading fast under a Labour government intent on holding wages down and imposing austerity at the beck and call of the International Monetary Fund. The British ruling class is beginning to breath a bit easier. A general election is approaching and they have a new champion, Margaret Thatcher. Not so long before, some had been involved in conspiracies to carry out a coup to depose Labour premier Harold Wilson, who they believed was a stooge of the Soviet Union. Now Wilson was gone and his replacement, Jim Callaghan, was dependable.

https://www.conter.scot/2023/8/24/the-stalemate-in-ukraine-breeds-global-threats-of-war/

The Nato-backed Ukrainian summer offensive has made little impact on Russian defences. But beyond Ukraine’s borders, the war is creating instability across the world, argues Chris Bambery.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/internal-empire-the-rise-and-fall-of-english-imperialism-book-review/

The central theses of this book are that the United Kingdom, incorporating England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland (from 1801 until 1922 when 26 counties – today’s Irish Republic – won independence) and Northern Ireland (from 1921 until today), was dominated by English imperialism. England imposed its imperial domination by conquest in the cases of Wales and Ireland. And by Union in 1707 in Scotland’s.

For Bulmer-Thomas, the British Empire was an English one, even though the Scottish upper classes were allowed a look at the spoils to a greater extent than their Welsh and then their Irish counterparts. In arguing for this ‘English Empire’, Bulmer-Thomas accepts the point that from the eighteenth century until its end the Empire was always called the British Empire, not the English one, but for him that was just gloss.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/spains-right-fall-short-but-can-left-measure-up/

The outcome of Sunday’s Spanish general election came as a surprise. Polls had predicted a victory for the right-wing Popular Party (PP), though requiring agreement with the far-right Vox party to be able to form a government. In the event, the PP won 136 and Vox 33 (a loss of 19 seats), giving them together 169 seats in the Spanish parliament, less than polls had predicted, and short of the 176 needed for a majority.

It seems clear that, as polling day neared, growing numbers were concerned about the prospect of Vox entering government, particularly its growing emphasis in driving back legislation on women’s and LGBT rights.

https://www.conter.scot/2023/7/13/the-failing-counter-offensive-reflects-us-interests-not-ukraines/

Ukraine is months into a counter-offensive which has won little territory but cost many lives. Chris Bambery argues US and western policy makers are not being honest about the tactics they are pushing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described 2023 as “the year of victory”. His military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, raised the possibility of Ukrainians vacationing this summer in Crimea.

We are now months into the major, much-heralded military offensive against Russian forces in the east of the country. Before the launch, western reports were bullish, predicting a decisive blow that could sever the so called ‘land bridge’ linking Russia via seized southern Ukrainian territory to the Crimean Peninsula.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/napoleons-cursed-war-spanish-popular-resistance-in-the-peninsular-war-1808-14-book-review/

The cover of this book carries one of Francisco Goya’s greatest paintings, El dos de mayo (Second of May) showing something unique in all the wars fought by the French dictator and emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte: a mass, urban insurrection against his occupying forces. On 2 May 1808, Madrid, recently occupied by the French, boiled over into a riot after weeks of fear and tension. This became a rebellion when the French commander, Napoleon’s brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, sent in infantry and cavalry who promptly opened fire on the crowds.

It was the opening act in what would become a popular war of resistance across Spain to the French occupation, as Ronald Fraser chronicles superbly in this excellent history. May 1808 saw other insurrections follow, but these were in towns and cities then free of French troops, and were aimed at the Spanish prime minister’s, Manuel Godoy, placemen in the authorities there and those seen as sympathetic to the French.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/war-games-with-deadly-consequences/

Chris Bambery looks at the military, economic and political rivalries between the world’s two greatest powers, and asks whether we are looking at another hot war ahead
The growing militarisation of the Pacific and the tensions between the US and China lead some to talk about a potential war between the states.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/spanish-left-in-disarray-facing-snap-general-election/

Spain will face a snap general election on 23 July after the Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, decided to go to the country after his party, PSOE, suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the right in Sunday’s regional and municipal elections. At stake was who would run twelve of the country’s seventeen regional parliaments and all municipalities. These elections were widely believed to indicate how Spain would vote in a general election, which before Sunday was scheduled for December.

The right-wing People’s Party (PP) was the big winner. Sánchez’s government took a hit as a consequence of the cost-of-living crisis and falling living standards. The right, and sections of his own party, also attacked him for relying on the votes of MPs from Catalan and Basque pro-independence parties to secure a majority in parliament.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/mussolinis-grandchildren-fascism-in-contemporary-italy-book-review/

David Broder’s account of the origins and trajectory of post-war Italian fascism is a warning of the dangerous reconfiguration of the right, finds Chris Bambery

https://www.counterfire.org/article/not-bluffing-the-us-china-and-the-threat-of-war-over-taiwan/

Chris Bambery examines the grim logic of great-power competition
At the end of January this year, a US Air Force General. Mike Minihan, head of the 50,000 member Air Mobility Command, made headlines when he predicted war with China in 2025. According to the New York Post, the General told his officers to drill service members, ‘with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality matters most.’

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister, Joseph Wu, agreed with Minihan on the likelihood of war but sees it coming two years later, in 2027. In a British radio interview in April he said he is preparing for the possibility of a conflict with China. ‘We are taking the Chinese military threat very seriously … I think 2027 is the year that we need to be serious about.’

Is this serious, and if so, how on earth did we get into this terrifying situation?

https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-h-word-the-peripeteia-of-hegemony-book-review/

Chris Bambery welcomes a collection of Perry Anderson’s essays, old and new, on Gramsci as a revolutionary, and his concept of hegemony
I, like many others of my generation, owe a big debt to Perry Anderson. Back in 1976 he published an article in New Left Review, ‘The Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci’, which introduced us to the Prison Writings of the great Italian Marxist, placing them within a Leninist strategy for revolution and the debates at the first four congresses of the Communist International. Gramsci attended the Fourth, heard Lenin and met with Trotsky. Anderson insisted Gramsci remained a Leninist and a revolutionary until his death.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/biden-in-the-green-turns-the-orangemen-blue/

There was something very strange about US President Joe Biden’s fleeting visit to Northern Ireland this week to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), which ended the Troubles in Ireland. As was widely pointed out, he was there for just half a day, discounting the time he was asleep after his trans-Atlantic flight.

He met very few people and spent little time with political leaders. His meeting with Rishi Sunak was over a cup of tea in Belfast’s Grand Central Hotel, with Sunak showing Biden the view over Belfast, something on which he must be a great expert. The rest of the four-day visit was in the Irish Republic, where he met the Irish President and Prime Minister, as well as local people in Counties Louth and Meath where he has family roots.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/architects-of-terror-paranoia-conspiracy-and-anti-semitism-in-francos-spain-book-review/

Paul Preston’s important Architects of Terror demonstrates the fascist inspiration behind the mass violence of the Franco regime, finds Chris Bambery
This was a book I devoured. I was going to say enjoyed, but that’s really not an appropriate word given that Paul Preston focuses some of the most repellent and evil characters who have graced our planet, six architects of the military rebellion of July 1936, which was the detonator for the Spanish Civil War, resulting in the 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

https://www.esquerda.net/artigo/acordo-de-sexta-feira-santa-uma-promessa-por-cumprir/85885

My article on the Good Friday translated and published by the Left Bloc in Portugal.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-good-friday-agreement-a-promise-unfulfilled/

In the years since the Troubles were ended in Northern Ireland, the limitations of the peace agreement have become ever starker, argues Chris Bambery
As we mark 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement, it is important to remember that it effectively marked the end of the Troubles, the spiralling of violence which began with the police breaking up a civil-rights march in Derry in October 1968. What followed was the introduction of British troops in August 1969, after the Unionist government of Northern Ireland permitted a sectarian march into the Nationalist Bogside in Derry. Internment without trial began in August 1969, then there was Bloody Sunday and the killing of fourteen civil-rights marchers in Derry by the Parachute Regiment, and the 1980 and 1981 Republican hunger strikes for political status which saw, in the second strike, ten prisoners die.

https://www.conter.scot/2023/3/28/sleepwalking-to-war-in-2023/

As President Xi Jinping of China bade farewell to Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Kyiv to meet the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Last month Kishida predicted: “Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow.” He might well be right.

Watching these two visits I was reminded of The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark, first published in 2012 and widely hailed a modern classic of historical scholarship. It was written in response to conventional histories which seek to blame one state above others of igniting the Great War; usually Germany.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/our-fathers-fought-franco-book-review

This wonderful book tells the story of four Scots who volunteered to fight in Spain against fascism in the 1936-9 civil war. They were all captured on first entering combat at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937, spending a grim time in General Franco’s prison camps and jails, before being repatriated to Britain, having been exchanged for captured fascist Italian troops.

The four were James Maley from the Calton in East Glasgow, Donald Renton from Portobello, Edinburgh, George or Geordie Watters from Prestonpans, East Lothian, and Archibald Campbell McAskill Williams, known as AC, born into a Scottish family in Portsmouth on the English south coast, after a spell in Canada, from where he was deported in chains as a dangerous Red. All were members of the Communist Party at the time and all, when captured, were serving in Machine Gun Company No. 2 of the British Brigade of the International Brigade (IB).

https://soundcloud.com/user-657873398/encounters-our-fathers-fought-franco-w-willy-maley

Chris Bambery speaks to Willy Maley, editor of a new book called 'Our Fathers Fought Franco' about the Scots who went to fight in the Spanish Civil War.

You can purchase a copy of the book at www.luath.co.uk/product/our-fathers-fought-franco

https://www.counterfire.org/article/union-blues-over-red-and-green-lanes/

There was sigh of audible relief from politicians in London, Dublin, Brussels and Washington after a deal was struck between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, for a new Brexit deal over Northern Ireland’s position within both the United Kingdom and the European Union’s single market.

In simple terms goods entering Northern Ireland from Britain will have to go through two customs channels. Those bound for the Irish Republic, which is still a member of the European Union and its single market, go through a red channel with customs checks and extra paperwork. Those remaining in Northern Ireland will go through a green channel with virtually no checks.

That seems to resolve a central problem caused by the 2016 UK Brexit referendum. Northern Ireland, despite voting remain, was leaving the single market but the Irish Republic remained within it. The spectre was raised of a hard border being created between the two states

https://www.counterfire.org/article/james-p-cannon-and-the-emergence-of-trotskyism-in-the-united-states-1928-38-book-review/

James Cannon, a leading founder of Trotskyism in the US, is given the biography he deserves by Bryan D. Palmer, finds Chris Bambery
The name James P. Cannon is not one that is much known within the radical left today, yet he deserves to be remembered. James Patrick Cannon was born 1890, in Rosedale, Kansas, to Irish immigrant parents who were firmly on the left. He joined the Socialist Party of America (SPA) in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1911.

Cannon’s life is virtually a record of the American left and the international Communist movement in the years following the Russian revolution. He personally knew Eugene V Debs, the great leader of the Socialist Party, worked with leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies), the revolutionary ‘one big union’, like Vincent St John, Big Bill Haywood, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, together with the great Irish revolutionary James Connolly, and the founder of the Irish Transport Workers Union, Jim Larkin.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/sturgeon-resigns-amid-a-sea-of-troubles-scotland/

For most people beyond the borders of Scotland the news that Nicola Sturgeon has resigned as First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party will be unexpected news. Less so in Scotland where rumours of her resignation have been mounting.

Sturgeon has been First Minister since the resignation of her predecessor, Alex Salmond, in the hours after the result of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum became clear. The result was much, much closer than had been expected, indeed the British Prime Minister David Cameron only agreed to it because he expected a convincing no vote (any independence referendum needs the approval of Downing Street). Back in the autumn of 2014 the expectation among Yes supporters was that with one more heave independence could be achieved.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/we-got-to-berlin-but-did-we-have-to-go-via-stalingrad/

In the second of his articles marking the anniversary of Hitler’s defeat in the Russian city, Chris Bambery looks at one of the bloodiest and most important battles of the Second World War
The Battle of Stalingrad was fought from August 1942 right through to 2 February 1943, involving more than 2 million troops, often fighting at close quarters, with nearly 2 million killed or injured, including tens of thousands of Russian civilians.

The Soviet novelist and journalist Vasily Grossman, in his Tolstoyan epic Life and Fate, based on events at Stalingrad, where he was stationed, said of the battle: ‘It is like Pompeii’.

The Russian victory was the turning point in the Allied war against Hitler and would be followed by a series of great offensives westwards until finally in May 1945 the Red Army took Berlin.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-road-to-stalingrad/

In the first of two articles on the anniversary of the German defeat which marked a turning point in the Second World War, Chris Bambery looks at the background to the war in Russia
This week 80 years ago a turning point was reached in the war against Nazi Germany with the surrender of the final units of the German 6th Army in the ruins of the Russian city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd). A quarter of a million German soldiers were captured, few would ever return home. Their commander General von Paulus had surrendered on 31 January, the day after Hitler had appointed him a field marshal. No German of that rank had ever surrendered and Hitler expected von Paulus either to go down fighting or to take his own life.

This was Germany’s first significant defeat in the Second World War and it was a body blow to Hitler

https://www.counterfire.org/article/why-was-sinn-fein-blocked-from-the-protocol-talks

Eight months on from the election to the Northern Ireland Assembly which saw Sinn Féin returned, for the first time, as the biggest vote winner, there is still no agreement on the formation of an executive. The second biggest party, the Democratic Unionists, continues to refuse joining an executive led by Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill.

Matters took another turn last week when the British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, refused to allow Sinn Féin’s President, Mary Lou McDonald, to attend talks between himself and Northern Ireland’s political and business leaders. The talks were in order to discuss the Northern Ireland Protocol and its implications for trade between Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic and the rest of the European Union, and Britain.

https://the-past.com/feature/spanish-civil-war-the-battle-of-the-ebro/

Chris Bambery examines how the deadliest engagement of the Spanish Civil War paved the way for Republican defeat.

https://the-past.com/feature/spain-at-war-a-country-divided/

Chris Bambery traces the history of the Spanish Civil War and sets the scene for the conflict’s bloodiest battle.

https://youtu.be/VooGM_PtAm0?list=TLGGHMr8DyKG-QMwOTAxMjAyMw

Caliphate: The Arab Conquest looks at how the new Muslim Caliphate emerged and expanded so rapidly. We talk to two respected British academics, Professor Hugh Kennedy of SOAS in London and Professor Chris Wickham of Oxford University. This is essential viewing to understand one of the key events in world history. An event which resonates into today's world.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/12/22/long-read-2022-the-year-europe-lost-control/

Chris Bambery takes a detailed look at the huge shifts in global competition since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He finds that the world system is lurching towards further conflict, and that the US has re-asserted its dominance, to the cost of Europe.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/23655-the-twilight-of-unionism-the-crisis-of-ulster-unionism-and-the-future-of-northern-ireland-book-review

Geoff Bell in The Twilight of Unionism has done a very good job in outlining why, firstly, the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and, secondly, the fallout from the 2016 UK Brexit referendum, has accelerated the undermining of Unionism and Loyalism within Northern Ireland. By Unionism, I mean those who defend the Union of Northern Ireland and Britain by electoral means in the main, and by Loyalism I mean those associated with paramilitary groups such as the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force, who carried out largescale killings of Catholics during the Troubles.

As he makes clear, that process was underway long before, but both of these kicked the can much, much further down the road.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/11/29/catalonia-how-class-struggle-forged-a-restless-nation/

Chris Bambery, historian and author of A People’s History of Scotland spoke to Michael Eude, author of A People’s History of Catalonia, about how a long history of class struggle has shaped the Catalan nation and its stand-off with the Spanish state. These struggles fused the national question to class conflicts over hundreds of years, and are still inseparable from Catalan dynamics today.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/23628-a-people-s-history-of-catalonia-book-review

One of the myths peddled by Spanish nationalists, who specialise in pouring vitriol on the Catalans, is that Catalan independence is about giving the Catalan bourgeoisie control of the richest part of Spain. Leaving aside the fact Catalonia is not the richest area of the Spanish state (that’s Madrid, something created in large part by the Spanish state), what Eaude also shows is that the Catalan elite have not and do not support or desire independence.

Their aspiration was to lead Spain, not to leave it, but they have been denied a key role in governing Spain. No Catalan has ever been prime minister of Spain except during the brief First Republic of 1873 to 1874. In contrast, there have been Basque premiers because Euskadi was always more integrated into Castile, the dominant province of Spain.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/11/10/review-scottish-nationalisms-roots-in-british-imperialism/

espite being hegemonic in Scotland, and the third largest party at Westminster, there is a dearth of publish works on the ideological roots of the Scottish National Party. This is stranger still when you consider that the history of Scottish nationalism was directly informed by the history of the British state, and can tell us much about its development over the 20th century

Richard Finlay’s Scottish Nationalism: History, Ideology and the Question of Independence is therefore most welcome. It is both a history and an examination of the ideology underlying the emergence of Scottish nationalism, and the Scottish National Party, in the crucial period between the two world wars. And like any good history, it illuminates both the continuities and dis-continuities which inform our own time.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/23564-mike-davis-1946-2022-a-class-fighter-obituary

I first met Mike Davis in Edinburgh on a picket outside the Kings Theatre not long after the terrible September 1973 coup in Chile. Inside the English dancer, Margot Fonteyn, was performing fresh from appearing on the stage in Santiago de Chile where tens of thousands butchered by the military were fresh in their mass graves and thousands more suffered barbaric torture in the prisons and camps of General Pinochet.

On the picket outside I was approached by a young American who had clocked I was clutching a bundle of “Red Weekly,” the paper of the International Marxist Group to which I then belonged. Mike Davis, then in his late 20s, introduced himself. In truth for an 18 year old who’d just commenced at Edinburgh University it all seemed a bit intimidating but over the coming weeks and months I got to know Mike and he was not just great company but an education.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/23553-tears-of-blood-the-birth-of-fascism-in-italy-october-1922

One hundred years ago, in late October 1922, a new word entered the languages of the world. It was a word which described an immediate and terrifying danger facing the international workers’ movement and the left. The word was fascism. The fasces, an ancient Roman symbol of authority, was the symbol of the Italian fascist movement, led by Benito Mussolini, who, on 29 October 1922, was appointed prime minister of Italy by the King.

Fascism was not just another form of dictatorship. It represented the end of all democracy and free speech and state control of all areas of life. Above all, fascism represented the unleashing of civil war against the working-class movement. Neither was fascism simply a tool of big business. It represented a mass movement that collaborated with the police and army but retained its independence.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/23537-how-did-it-gets-to-this-truss-and-the-tory-party-s-trauma

As Kwarteng is sacked and the Tory Party spirals into chaos, Chris Bambery takes a long view of the current crisis
Britain is no stranger to the financial markets creating chaos with a run on the pound. This is in fact the usual means employed to force a reverse in the policies of a British government. Yet until now the governments in question have almost always been Labour ones.

https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2022/10/01/catalonia-a-new-history/

I wrote this review on 1 October 2022, the fifth anniversary of the Spanish state sending in its paramilitary police to try to stop a referendum on independence called by the Catalan parliament. That morning the world’s media showed riot cops breaking into polling stations, seizing ballot boxes and battering voters and those using non-violent means to block their passage. At 12 noon they withdrew, widely believed because of a phone call from Brussels to Madrid saying the operation must cease.

In 2014 we faced a campaign of fear designed to frighten people from voting Yes, and which included a carefully planned intervention by Queen Elizabeth when polls showed Yes in the lead. But we faced nothing like what the Catalans did in 2017.

Back then the BBC and other London based media attempted to portray Scottish nationalism as anti-English. That was rubbish but they studiously avoided British nationalism. The Spanish, or to be more accurate the Castilian media, does the same.

On three occasions in modern history the Spanish state has tried to eradicate Catalan’s identity, culture and, of course, its language. The most vicious was the last when the dictatorship of General Franco, victor of the Spanish Civil War.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/9/30/wolfgang-streeck-europe-is-being-subjugated-to-us-power/

The economic crisis in Britian, the war in Ukraine, and the disorder in the Eurozone are all intimately connected. Chris Bambery spoke to Wolfgang Streeck, an economic sociologist at the University of Cologne and a leading commentator on European capitalism, about the crisis in the EU and the implications for Scotland.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/23506-scotland-after-britain-the-two-souls-of-scottish-independence-book-review

The Scottish National Party must now hold the record for being the longest lived government in Europe, having first taken the reins of government in 2007, and having over three years before it must face re-election. Admittedly it now shares government with the Green Party, but it looks to have successfully co-opted them.

For many in England looking north, the Scottish government of Nicola Sturgeon seems to offer a ray of hope in comparison with the government of Boris Johnson or the current, dismal leadership contest to replace him as both leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of Great Britain.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/23499-italy-the-resistible-rise-of-giorgia-meloni

There was a dreadful certainty over recent weeks and months that Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right, ‘post-fascist’ Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy, referencing the Italian national anthem) would emerge as the biggest party from Sunday’s general election, and as prime minister of a right-wing coalition government.

The inevitability flowed from the disillusionment of swathes of the population with all the other major parties, who had entered a coalition government led by an unelected ex-banker, Mario Draghi, the poster boy of the European Commission and the European Central Bank.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/23481-the-monarchy-the-state-and-our-democracy

There are many myths about the Royal Family. My favourite is that they are good for the British tourist trade, as if people don’t go to France because they guillotined Louis XVI.

But the greatest myth is that Britain is a constitutional monarchy. What constitutional checks are there on the monarchy? The answer is very few. Indeed the monarchy is the glue which binds together the constitution, law and government.

Like his mother, Charles appoints the Prime Ministers of Britain, and can dismiss them. His mother did just that in 1975, when Royal Assent was given to the dismissal of the elected Prime Minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/9/14/in-catalonia-the-independence-movement-clashes-with-its-parliamentarians/

On Sunday (11 September) some 700,000 people marched through the centre of Barcelona in support of independence on Catalonia’s National Day, the Diada. The march had been organised by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) but prior to it setting off, at the exact hour the city had surrendered to the Borbón king of Spain on that day in 1714, there had been considerable trepidation about the turnout because of infighting in the pro-independence camp.

In the event the turn-out of several hundred thousand exceeded last year and was claimed as Europe’s biggest demonstration since the Pandemic commenced. The size of Sunday’s march is a major boost for the independence movement. Yet it also marks a major inflection point for the Catalan independence movement, with its mass extra-parliamentary elements at loggerheads with parliamentary leaders.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/9/8/obituary-queen-elizabeth-ii-1926-2022-symbol-of-state-power/

Queen Elizabeth II has died at the age of 96, after 7 decades of rule. Throughout this time, she has performed the political function of representing the state abroad, and providing a potent symbol of British national unity at home. Understanding her times cast some light on how the British state arrived in its present form.

At the time of Princess Elizabeth’s accession in 1952, upon the death of her father, George VI, Britain was still recovering from the trauma of World War 2. A national story of plucky Britain alone defying the Nazis in 1940 was in vogue. Films portraying the exploits of the royal family’s flyers, sailors and soldiers played to full houses, and veterans graced royal galas. The young Princess had served in the women’s army during the war, admittedly far from danger.

The Second World War was very important in restoring the popular image of a family dented by the abdication of Edward VIII, his affair, and his association with Nazism. With the accession of George VI, a myth was carefully cultivated of a Royal family as leading Britain’s national resistance. The truth was the King and family slept at Windsor during the Blitz and did not have to endure rationing. Nonetheless, the propaganda offensive endured, and transferred some of its power to the person of Elizabeth.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/8/22/michael-collins-tragic-hero-of-the-irish-counter-revolution/

Within months of signing the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921, Michael Collins would be shot dead. He died both Chair of the Provisional Government of what would become the Irish Free State, and commander-in-chief of the Irish National Army.

The Irish Free State formally came into being after Collins’s death, in December 1922, by vote of the new 26 county parliament, but in reality its creation can be dated to January of that year when the Treaty was narrowly approved by a vote of its republican predecessor, Dáil Éireann.

The body which approved the Anglo-Irish Treaty represented all 32 counties of Ireland and claimed to represent an Irish Republic declared in arms by the 1916 Easter Rising. That Republic was twice re-affirmed by the votes of the Irish people in two all-Ireland elections, one in December 1918 and the other in May 1921 when they voted overwhelmingly for Sinn Féin.

In contrast, the Irish Free State would represent just 26 counties, with six counties separated off into a new Northern Ireland statelet which remained part of the United Kingdom. It was also a dominion within the British Empire and thus not a republic. It recognised the British crown’s authority.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/8/18/michael-collins-and-the-irish-revolution-the-man-who-won-the-war/

On 22 August 1922 Michael Collins was shot dead at Béal na Bláth, an isolated crossroads, as his military convoy returned through West Cork. The men who killed him were volunteers of the Irish Republican Army, which Collins himself had led only a year before against the forces of the British crown.

Almost instantly a battle would emerge over what Collins stood for, what he represented and what he was trying to achieve.

For many he was the “man who won the war,” effective head of the IRA during the independence fight. For others he had betrayed their hopes of creating an all-Ireland Irish Republic.

For Marxists he was one of the first in a chain of leaders of national liberation struggles who fought colonialism but when they achieved their own state made peace with imperialism and imposed “order”, suppressing many former comrades who believed they had been fighting for far greater freedom.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/8/9/1972-the-miners-strike-back/

1972 saw the working class movement in Britain reach heights not scaled since the revolutionary year of 1919. The British ruling class felt the sting of defeat. The Tory government of Edward Heath was humiliated and cast from office, causing a little known education minister, Margaret Thatcher, to vow she’d get revenge and put workers back in their place.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/23385-the-italian-political-crisis-and-the-threat-of-fascism

Chris Bambery analyses the Italian political breakdown, the role of the EU and the dangers of an ascendant far right
Normally, August in Italy is when you would head for the beach or the mountains for a holiday. This year it sees a general election campaign culminating in voting on 25 September. This follows the resignation of the unelected Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, which thrust Italy into a political crisis which could very well result in the ‘post-fascist’ Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) led by long time far-right activist, Giorgia Meloni, emerging as the country’s biggest party, with her heading a coalition government of the right.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/23356-the-importance-of-leon-trotsky

What is the importance of Leon Trotsky? One obvious answer is that, over eight decades since his assassination at the hands of the secret police of the Russian dictator, Joseph Stalin, he has been a hate figure for successive Labour leaders, with the exception of Jeremy Corbyn, and their friends and hangers on in the media.

None of them could hold a candle to Trotsky in regards to his ability with the pen. His History of the Russian Revolution is one of the great historical works. Other Marxists analysed the nation state which they sought to bring to battle: Marx and Engels on Germany, Lenin, as with Trotsky, on Tsarist Russia, and Antonio Gramsci on Italy. However, the first chapter of Trotsky’s book, in setting up a social, economic and political analysis of the contradictions which undermined Tsarism, and setting it within the international order, in its sweep and brilliance has only one match I am aware of, the first chapter of the first volume of Fernand Braudel’s Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/history-of-order-69076844?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copy_to_clipboard&utm_campaign=postshare

Simultaneously dreary and whacky, Orange marches are an annual reminder of the contradictions in our various nationalist traditions. David talks to historian Chris Bambery, author of a forthcoming book on the Orange Order in Scotland and Ireland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ6MlMlSG5U

With Sinn FEin the largest party in Northern Ireland and the most popular in the Republic, is unity on the cards?

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/23253-brigadistes-lives-for-liberty-book-review

This little book is an absolute delight, containing sixty brief portraits of those who came to Spain to fight for the Republic in the Spanish Civil War. Inevitably, the majority are members of the Communist Party who came to join the International Brigades, because they made up the overwhelming majority of those that rallied to the Republican cause, but others are here too. These include Mika Etchebéhère, who came from Argentina to fight in the militia of the POUM, Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista (Workers Party of Marxist Unification). POUM would be suppressed by the Stalinists in May 1937 and their talented leader, the Catalan Andreu Nin, arrested and executed. After her husband, Hipólito, was killed, Etchebéhère was chosen as captain of her unit, the only female captain in the Republican armies.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/6/8/long-to-reign-over-us-the-royals-face-a-difficult-transition/

he Platinum Jubilee, marking the 70 year reign of Queen Elizabeth II, and the final phase of her reign, finds the royal family in a precarious state. Scandals, including the defection of Prince Harry to establish a US franchise, and accusations of sexual abuse against Prince Andrew, have rocked ‘the firm’ in recent years.

Against this backdrop, the British state is making much of Elizabeth as an icon of stability for the British state, during its difficult transition from Empire. Understanding her times cast some light on how this state arrived in its present form.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/23210-wee-little-children-the-dup-and-boris-johnson-s-tantrums-in-northern-ireland

The Democratic Unionist Party are holding the majority of people in Northern Ireland to ransom and Boris Johnson is desperate to appease them and will jet into Belfast to meet them. The Daily Mail greeted this news with the headline: ‘Now will the EU listen? DUP blocks Sinn Féin grab for power, as Boris Johnson is set to visit Northern Ireland for crunch talks’ (brevity is not one of its virtues). It added that Johnson was ‘not bluffing’ over his threats to rip up the protocol.

After the recent elections in Northern Ireland, in which Sinn Féin emerged as the largest party, I said here that the Democratic Unionist Party was in danger of behaving like a wee child who, losing the game, stalks off with the ball. Well, lo and behold, they have gone off in a huff, determined to stop Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill becoming First Minister by wrecking the Northern Ireland Assembly and stopping the formation of a power sharing administration.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/23181-union-blues-as-sinn-fein-heads-to-victory

The success of Sinn Féin in becoming the biggest party in Northern Ireland is a seismic change in a state created in 1921 to create a permanent, unchallengeable unionist majority. It will also create a headache for both the governments of Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

Part of the reason for the Republicans’ success is demographics, Catholics are now probably the majority within the six county state. That could not have been seen as remote possibility in 1921 when six counties were separated from the nine counties of Ulster and from the 26 counties of what is now the Republic of Ireland in order to ensure the unionist majority.

But the other part is the disintegration of the unionist monolith.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/23151-the-european-radical-left-movements-and-parties-since-the-1960s-book-review

The radical left in Europe is a product of the hollowing out of social democracy under neo-liberalism. Just recently, the French Socialist Party gained less than 2% in the first round of the presidential elections. The radical left is also a product of the collapse of the European Communist Parties after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the USSR. Giorgos Charalambous sets the rise of the European radical left within that context and within the rise of the anti-capitalist movement in the wake of the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organisation protests.

It is, of course a chequered history. In Spain Podemos grew from the 2011 and 2012 anti-austerity movement, Indignados. But today it is the junior coalition partner in a government led by the Socialist Party and is, predictably, losing support. This year also saw the Left Bloc in Portugal take a bad hit in a general election, following their support for a minority Socialist government.

Because of that chequered history a balance sheet of the success and failures of the European radical left is badly needed.

https://www.thenational.wales/news/20034010.chris-bambery-catalonian-lessons-scotlands-yes-movement-must-learn/

A TOP author has stressed the importance of Catalonia’s “massive” grassroots movement to its quest for independence – as he compared its situation to Scotland’s.

Chris Bambery, co-author of ­Catalonia Reborn, said there was a tendency in some leading circles ­inside the SNP and the ­independence movement to belittle what the Catalans had achieved.

He told our sister title, The National, in Scotland: ­“Despite the Spanish state physically ­trying to ­prevent it, they did hold a ­referendum in 2017. Then they ­declared ­independence – though a more ­virtual event than a reality.


“I’m not suggesting that we declare independence, but I do think we need to learn that the Catalans were able to force the Spanish state to pardon the nine imprisoned leaders through the Catalan National Assembly (ANC).

https://www.conter.scot/2022/3/28/putins-russia-a-hobbled-power/

Does Russia pose a unique threat to world peace today? You’d think from the way its present war in Ukraine has been reported, that it is a global super-power looming over Europe. It has become a common theme to argue that Ukraine is only the first domino to be pushed, in a plan for a war of conquest across (at least) Eastern Europe.

This is a fantasy that completely misunderstands the balance of power in the global system.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/23052-obituary-alain-krivine-1941-2022

My first acquaintance with Alain Krivine, who died on Saturday, was through reading a Penguin Special, French Revolution 1968, by Patrick Seale and Maureen McConville, when I was 16. It gave a detailed account of the student protests of May 1968 and the general strike they helped ignite. Central to the former was the Jeunesse communiste révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Communist Youth, JCR), and central to it was Alain Krivine, and as the book spelt out, one of the central leaders of the student protests.

A little later I heard him speak when he did a speaking tour of Britain

https://www.conter.scot/2022/3/8/european-rearmament-and-its-dangers/

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means the USA has secured two long sought-after goals in Europe.

The first is that it has finally secured increased military spending from European members of Nato, a constant US demand of recent years.

Second, throughout Europe governments and parties from across the political spectrum have embraced Nato with a zeal, claiming it is the only way to stop Russian aggression. Any criticism that Nato enlargement into Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics might be a tad aggressive was simply dropped.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/2/19/ukraine-revolution-and-national-self-determination/

t the beginning of this month First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, wrote in The Guardian on the developing conflict between the Nato powers and Russia over Ukraine:

“As someone who has spent my life campaigning for the sovereign right of the people of Scotland to determine our own futures, sovereignty is a principle fundamental to my own worldview. To see such pressures being exerted on a state that has resolutely set itself on a path to integration with the liberal democratic order is unspeakable. Like any European country, Ukraine must be free to organise its governance and security alliances as it sees fit.”

Leaving aside the bogus claim that Ukraine is becoming part of the “liberal democratic order,” this argument joins the right of Scottish self-determination to that of Ukraine. This is a misleading equation between two very different national contexts.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22966-how-british-security-services-colluded-in-the-assassinations-of-catholics-in-northern-ireland

A police officer hands over a Browning automatic pistol to a man who he knows is a sectarian killer. It was deactivated but the officer is well aware that the murderer and his friends are capable of reactivating it for their own deadly ends.

Later the weapon was used in a gun attack on a betting shop in which five innocent men were killed. Their crime? Being Catholics in the city of Belfast.

A devastating official report released this week provides damming evidence of the involvement of Britain’s security and intelligence services in the murder of innocent Catholics.

The Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman has found "collusive behaviour" by police in 11 murders of Catholics by members of the Ulster Defence Association, the largest loyalist murder gang. They included the 1992 attack at a Sean Graham betting shop in South Belfast.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22950-the-deepening-decay-of-unionism-in-northern-ireland

The resignation of Paul Givan, the Democratic Unionist Party politician, as Northern Ireland’s First Minister has created a fresh crisis which potentially could see Givan as the last unionist to hold the senior position within the six-county state.

Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly election are already scheduled for May. Givan’s departure raises the prospect of that poll being brought forward several weeks. With factional warfare tearing the DUP apart, and its subsequent fall in support, speculation is mounting that Sinn Fein could become the largest party, with its vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, becoming First Minister.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22946-the-rebirth-of-italian-communism-1943-44-dissidents-in-german-occupied-rome-book-review

From the close of the Second World War until it voted to dissolve itself in 1991, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was unique in being the largest Communist Party outside the Stalinist states. Its membership approached two million at its peak, and it exercised hegemony over the wider left and the working class. Its strength lay, in large part, in its role in the resistance movement to the Nazi occupation, which followed the collapse of Benito Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship in the summer of 1943. This resistance was the biggest and most successful in Western Europe.

David Broder's book looks at the resistance in Rome. What is written about it tends to focus on the actions of Communist Party fighters, in particular the bomb attack in the Via Rasella, the biggest loss of life Nazi forces suffered at the hands of the resistance in Western Europe. However, little has been written about the resistance mounted by dissident Communists, who rejected the official Party line, and in late 1943 and early 1944 were greater in number within the city.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/1/30/irish-solidarity-in-scotland-how-we-failed-what-we-won/

The predicament of our movements can be explained with reference to a misguided analysis we had in the early days of the movement. In the early 1970’s our ambition was summed up in the slogan:“Turn Ireland into another Vietnam.” Since the January 1968 Tet offensive it had become clear the US could not win in Vietnam. The final defeat in 1975 was the biggest blow US imperialism has suffered.

A huge ant-war movement had grown across America, with state wide referendums registering support for US withdrawal. It penetrated into the armed forces with units refusing to fight and “fragging” (killing with a grenade) their own officers.

It also hit the US economy. The dollar, the global capitalist currency, went into crisis. The cost of the war was ruinous – military spending rose by a third – impacting on welfare spending and creating widespread discontent.

In the period between the introduction of internment in August 1971 and the first IRA-British truce in June 1972 it was possible to believe Britain was not in control of the situation. But that wasn’t the case.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/2/2/johnson-in-kyiv-we-need-to-oppose-nato/

With Boris Johnson meeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, it’s time to take a wider view of events. Of course he arrived in Kyiv both as a staunch supporter of the Nato western military alliance, and as a PM badly needing a distraction from his embarrassments at home.

In the latter, he shares something with Vladimir Putin. And like Putin, he is not a champion of the right of nations to self-determination. Neither are Johnson’s allies, like Biden and Macron.

The British government is sending elite forces and hi-tech arms to Ukraine, as well as providing training and other support to Ukrainian troops, to oppose Russia. That must be the highest concern of those who oppose war in this country. We must also keep in mind, and explain, the backdrop to this stand-off.

Since 2014, when the pro-Russian government in Kyiv was overthrown, Russian speaking areas have resisted the new government, establishing a degree of autonomy, and engaged in persistent clashes with Ukrainian forces. They have been backed by Russian assistance. But the roots of the present tensions go deeper still.

The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, was promised by the Americans that the former Soviet satellites and republics would not be allowed membership of the Nato Alliance. That promise is a dead letter. We now have Nato forces in the Baltic States and US missile “defence” systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. Western propaganda, of course, focuses on Putin’s intervention in Ukraine and his seizure of Crimea, but ignores Russia’s claims that it was lied to over Nato expansion.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/1/29/irish-solidarity-war-street-fights-and-hunger-strikes/

t was decided to call a march in April 1979, in the final lap of a Westminster general election from Queens Park in the Southside of the city into the city centre. I was chief steward. Loyalists were there from the start and we formed up in the park behind the massive gates we had swung shut. As we set off down Victoria Road a hail of bricks and other missiles rained down on us and Loyalists broke through police ranks repeatedly to attack us. But we maintained order thanks to the James Connolly Republican Flute Band from Govan and a strong, tight, SWP contingent.

Having marched to Gorbals Cross we decided to halt having been advised we faced a further serious ambush in the city centre. But several hundreds of us had marched. It was a small but significant victory. Other marches followed including a significant one in Stirling.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/22927-shoot-to-kill-the-british-army-on-bloody-sunday

What took place on Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972, gives the lie to the standard story of why the British army was in Northern Ireland during the 1971-1997 Troubles. That story portrays the British army as “piggy in the middle,” trapped between Republican terrorists on one side and Loyalist killers on the other, valiantly trying to keep them apart.

But on Bloody Sunday one of the crack units of the British army, the Paratroop Regiment, were specifically sent to Derry. Fourteen unarmed, innocent civil rights protesters were gunned down in cold blood.

The truth is now known that they were on a carefully prepared shoot-to-kill operation sanctioned at the highest level.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/1/24/irish-solidarity-in-scotland-bloody-sunday-and-after/

My very first political act was in August 1971, aged 15, when I joined a rally at the Mound in Edinburgh, protesting against the introduction of internment without trial in the North of Ireland. I call it a rally – in fact it was more like a running battle as Loyalists tried to stop anyone gathering with fists and kicks.

Among the protestors were members of Clann na hÉireann, the British branch of Official Sinn Fein, and socialist groups like the International Socialists (IS, now the Socialist Workers Party) and the International Marxist Group (IMG). Amid the mayhem I bought a copy of the IMG paper, Red Mole, because I liked the headline: “For the IRA, Against British Imperialism”. The headline was made famous by John Lennon, who carried it on the demonstration held in London.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22909-the-austrian-revolution-book-review

The history of the 1918 Austrian revolution by the social-democratic leader of the time, Otto Bauer, despite itself shows why the revolution was lost, argues Chris Bambery

The front cover of this edition of The Austrian Revolution features a striking social-realist painting portraying disciplined groups of workers and soldiers gathered in front of Vienna’s parliament building, red flags are everywhere, and the heavy Hapsburg architecture of the city lies under a sky threatening snow. It looks like the celebration of a socialist revolution, but if you look closer what are flying from the official flagpoles are not red flags, but red and white ones, symbolising the red of the Social Democrats on the one hand, and the white of the Christian Social Party on the other. This flag is still that of today’s Austria.

For this painting by Rudolf Konopa represents the declaration of the new Austrian Republic in November 1918, following the end of World War One, and the falling apart of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, presided over by the Hapsburg dynasty.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/1/13/tensions-in-the-tory-party-may-save-johnson-for-now/

As MPs trekked bank from the Chamber after Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Boris Johnson’s half apology for holding a party at 10 Downing Street in 2020 still ringing in their ears, there was a distinct feeling that Johnson might survive. Backbenchers were quiet during his humiliation, aware of widespread public anger and polls showing support for the Tories dropping rapidly – and yet a mood persisted that Johnson could hang on.

To understand why, we need to consider the character of today’s Conservative Party. Fifty four Tory MPs must sign a letter to the chair of the 1922 Committee (named after a backbench vote to break from the wartime coalition government led by the Liberal, David Lloyd George) and then a majority vote Johnson out.

https://www.conter.scot/2022/1/6/the-one-sided-new-cold-war/

The years after World War 2 saw Europe and the world re-divided into rival Western capitalist and Communist camps. Between them, the former allies set about consolidating rule over war-ravaged populations. In the centres of the world system, ‘Peaceful Coexistance’ was Soviet policy, not revolution or war.

But on the periphery of the system (as it then was) things were very different. The decline of Japanese and European colonialism meant a new struggle for power in Asia.

The Red Army had captured the Korean peninsula, but Stalin agreed to partition it with the USA. Both sides created states which functioned in their respective interests. In June 1950 the North invaded the South.

When South Korea seemed set to collapse the US threw in greater forces, backed by Britain and other allies, and drove the North Koreans back to their border with China. The Chinese then intervened, drove the US back to the original border and a stalemate developed. Some six million died before an armistice, that still holds uneasily today, came into place.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22863-under-the-socialist-banner-resolutions-of-the-second-international-1889-1912-book-review

The resolutions of the Second International are a revealing way of uncovering the contradictions in the pre-1914 workers’ movement, finds Chris Bambery

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22852-sinn-fein-and-the-crises-in-both-irelands

There seems to be a deep and sustained desire for change in the Republic of Ireland. The latest polls show that Sinn Féin is racing ahead of every other party in the Republic of Ireland. The party’s support has reached an all time high of 35%, way ahead of the two traditional parties of government, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, both on just 20%.

Two months ago, Sinn Fein’s President, Mary Lou McDonald, told its annual conference, ard fheis, that the country had “gone to the dogs” under the current Fianna Fail-Fine Gael-Green Party coalition government. Adding that, “We are the party of change.”

https://www.conter.scot/2021/12/15/socialism-against-washington-and-moscow/

As tensions rise between the West and China and Russia, Chris Bambery looks at how socialists sought to understand big power rivalry in the 20th century. This series will go on to examine what we can learn from this history for our own time.

This short series will address renewed imperial tensions between the United States, NATO and Japan on one side and Russia and China on the other. Here, I want to discuss the obvious parallels with the Cold War which began between the victorious war time allies in 1947/1948 and ended with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR). Faced with the polarising pressures of imperial conflict, it is more important than ever to remember those traditions that rejected both camps in favour of the slogan, “neither Washington nor Moscow”.

During that Cold War there was enormous pressure, including within the working-class movement, to side with one or other rival camp.

https://www.military-history.org/feature/when-was-britains-finest-hour.htm

When was Britain’s finest hour? For most readers the answer is easy: the summer of 1940, when Britain stood alone in defiance of the Third Reich, urged on by the soaring rhetoric of Winston Churchill.

But I would argue that Britain’s finest hour came in 1815, with the victory at Waterloo, sealing the final triumph in a 22-year-long war with Revolutionary and then Napoleonic France. In 1815, Britain reached a pinnacle of military might that it never afterwards matched.

After Waterloo, Britain faced a bright future, and there was an awareness of that. In 1940, on the other hand, Churchill knew that victory would depend on America, and that the price for that would be high, marking another drop downwards in a continuous spiral of imperial decline. Britain in 1945 was essentially bankrupt, whereas in 1815 it had subsidised its allies, and was the world’s financial hegemon.

https://youtu.be/IgZnD-p8S28

SPEAKERS:
Elisenda Paluzie
- Economist, president of the Catalan National Assembly.

Chris Bambery
- Broadcaster, journalist, author of 'A People's History of Scotland' and co-author of 'Catalonia Reborn'.

PRESENTER & MODERATOR:
Greg Russell
- Broadcaster, journalist at The National.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22780-the-making-of-the-anglo-irish-agreement-of-1985-a-memoir-book-review

It is rare that a spotlight is shone on how the British state and its government make decisions. This volume does just that and it is fascinating.

Having said that, this is not a normal book review as I expect few people will, on the strength of it, read Sir David Goodall’s memoir, The Making of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. It is a very well written and detailed account by a key insider, a Whitehall mandarin, of the negotiations which led to that treaty. It is seen now as a key stepping stone to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement between the British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland’s political parties, including, vitally, Sinn Fein, although not at the time the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which laid the basis for the power sharing deal which holds today.

https://the-past.com/feature/operation-bagration/

Operation Bagration
Which was more important, D-Day or Operation Bagration? Chris Bambery argues that it was on the Eastern Front that the fate of Nazi Germany was sealed.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/22761-resisting-franco-the-assemblea-de-catalunya-50-years-on

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Assemblea de Catalunya (Assembly of Catalonia), the umbrella organisation which brought together political groups, trade union, cultural organisations and civic groups in opposition to the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, the victor of the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War.

Under his regime all of those organisations were illegal, the public use of the Catalan language was banned and opponents of Franco were regularly tortured.

Along with the Basque Country, Catalonia had become a centre of anti-Francoist resistance with trade unions and students leading protests against the dictatorship and having savage repression meted out to them by the security forces.

https://www.conter.scot/2021/11/10/cop26-will-the-city-save-the-world/

A portion of the moneyed and powerful neighbourhoods of world cities migrated to Glasgow last week, and London was no exception. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak flew into Glasgow on a day trip to outline his vision of the UK’s mission to “rewire the global financial system for net-zero.” He led the finance day of COP26, outlining plans on sovereign ‘green bonds’ and corporate climate disclosures.

Sunak had faced much criticism following his Budget speech the previous week, which included cuts to domestic air passenger duty and provided just £9 million of extra funding for nature preservation. Now, he could present London as the unlikely saviour of our climate woes because of, rather than in spite of, its status as a global financial hub. This line of argument dovetailed with statements from Boris Johnson and Joe Biden, asserting that markets and capitalism were the surest remedy to environmental destruction.

https://www.conter.scot/

The bookies will not be taking bets on a Westminster UK General Election being held in the spring of 2023. Wednesday’s Budget only seems to have confirmed the widespread belief on the banks of the Thames that that is when Boris Johnson will call the poll.

The Prime Minister and his Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, will have been delighted by the front pages of the English press featuring the two of them grinning as they stood behind a pub bar holding up pints of foaming ale in celebration of the cut on duty for numerous wines, beers and spirits. The headlines accompanying them hailed Sunak as the “big spender.”

According to Downing Street, Mr Sunak told the cabinet on Wednesday morning that his Budget “will deliver a stronger economy for the British people” with the “levelling-up” agenda – spreading prosperity around the country – a “golden thread” running through it.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spain-when-the-judiciary-runs-the-state

Judge Manuel Marchena Gómez is one of the key political figures in Spain. Who you might ask? Marchena is Chair of the Criminal Chamber of the country’s Supreme Court, the Audiencia Nacional. How could a judge, however senior, and Marchena is very senior, be a leading political figure? In Germany, Britain or other Western European democracies judges stand above the political fray, they are formally neutral (in fact they all tend to come from privileged back grounds, in Britain the top private schools and Oxbridge). Not so in Spain.

This week Marchena made the news in Spain by removing a Spanish deputy from his seat in the Spanish parliament, the Cortes.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22705-falling-down-the-conservative-party-and-the-decline-of-tory-britain-book-review

Falling Down shows that despite its historical dominance, the Tory Party faces long-term decline and clashing interests inside its ranks, finds Chris Bambery

Age is something that re-occurs in Falling Down because the author shows that one description of the party membership from the 1990s, ‘that the typical Conservative Party member is retired, comes from a middle-class occupational background, is an owner-occupier, and possesses few educational qualifications’ (p.19), remains even truer today. A third of them are in London and the Southeast.

That means property is of great importance to any Conservative government, and especially so for the current one. The property boom we are witnessing, centred on London and the Southeast, is driving up house prices and creating more flats to rent, benefitting older Conservative supporters.

This comes at a cost because the vast majority of younger people, including the children of many of those Tory supporters, can no longer afford to buy property. Their accommodation is rented, their jobs increasingly precarious and life is uncertain. They may inherit property and shift right, but in many cases they won’t reap the benefits of a property market which does not provide affordable housing but only expensive rentals and property prices beyond their means.

That creates an uncertain future for the Conservatives.

https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2021/10/07/review-of-montserrat-roig-the-song-of-youth-translated-by-tiago-miller-fum-destampa-press/

For any woman growing up under the dictatorship of General Francesco Franco, victor of the Spanish Civil War, they were made very aware that they were second class citizens denied basic rights, such as divorce or mixed education, rights granted by the Republic Franco overthrew.

For a Catalan woman there was a double oppression. Catalonia not only suffered the same repression meted out by the victorious Francoists as elsewhere in Spain, but their language was banned from public use. When Barcelona fell Catalan books, magazines and newspapers were no longer allowed to publish.

Montserrat Roig. Born Barcelona in 1946, was a Catalan feminist, for a while a member of the Catalan Communist Party and as a young woman in the final years of the Franco dictatorship took part in the ant-fascist resistance. She was one of 300 Catalan professionals, intellectuals and artists, who for three days in December 1971 assembled at the Monastery of Montserrat outside Barcelona in order to protest the military Court Martial imposed on sixteen Basque activists, supporters and members of the guerrilla group, ETA.

Her The Song of Youth (translated by Tiago Miller and published in English for the first time by Fum d’Estampa), is a collection of eight short stories set in Catalonia during the dictatorship or just afterwards when its long shadow still lay over the land.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22666-1933-warnings-from-history-book-review

1933: Warnings From History republishes an important contemporary analysis of how the powerful German working-class movement was defeated by Nazism, finds Chris Bambery

https://braveneweurope.com/exhuming-franco-spains-second-transition-by-sebastiaan-faber

The removal of General Francisco Franco’s remains, in the autumn of 2019, from the hideous mausoleum he had built for himself and the founder of Spain’s fascist party, the Falange, José Primo de Rivera, was supposed to put aside the legacy of his 36 year long dictatorship and the repression that had accompanied it and the Civil War that brought him to power.

Exhuming Franco: Spain's Second Transition : Faber, Sebastiaan: Amazon.de: Bücher

That at least was the wish of the current Spanish government, a coalition of the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the more radical left party, Podemos. That was not going to happen. Franco’s family carried his coffin from the basilica at the Valley of the Fallen, built by the losers of the Civil War, Republican prisoners, it was transferred by military helicopter to El Pardo, outside Madrid, to be interred beside his wife, with a religious service presided over by a priest who is the son of Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero Molina, the man who led the failed 1981 coup which attempted to topple Spain’s young parliamentary democracy. Tejero was in attendance too. Spain’s Minister of Justice attended the removal of the remains. The upkeep of Franco’s new resting place will be paid for by taxpayer’s money, as is the Valley of the Fallen, where Franco had previously been interred.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22568-forty-lost-years-book-review

This wonderful novel begins with joyous celebration. It is April 1931, local elections have taken place across the Spanish state. The Spanish King and the hapless military dictator, Dámaso Berenguer, had expected to win as usual because elections were rigged as usual. But this time something happened; in the cities republican and left parties united and ensured the elections were relatively free. The result was they won, but in the countryside it was a different story. King Alfonso realised the game was up and fled into exile. A Spanish Republic was declared.

Forty Lost Years is set in Barcelona, capital of Catalonia, and here events took a slightly different turn. The winner of the elections was the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana Catalunya (Catalan Left Republicans). Their leader, Francesc Macià, addressed the crowds outside the Generalitat, traditional seat of Catalan government, declaring Catalan independence within a broader Iberian Federation of nations.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22506-ravenna-capital-of-empire-crucible-of-europe-book-review

While spoilt for choice, Ravenna would be on my list of places to visit in Italy. For long it was something of a backwater, which helped preserve the architectural riches of which the city boasts. Among many jewels, the city is home to San Vitale church with its mosaic of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian and his wife, Theodora, just outside the city walls; the mausoleum of the Gothic king, Theodoric, plus his church of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, with its wonderful mosaics (those in San Vitale were designed to outdo them); and the earlier mausoleum of Galla Placidia, a Roman empress who ruled the city until her death in 450CE.

By now you might be wondering how, in a relatively short period, Ravenna was run by the Romans, by which I mean the Western Empire, the Goths, and the Eastern Empire based in Constantinople (today Istanbul).

https://www.counterfire.org/news/22492-otelo-saraiva-de-carvalho

It is a rare thing for Counterfire to publish an obituary of a high ranking military officer but in this case 84 year old Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, who died on Sunday, deserves to have his life remembered. Otelo, as he was known in Portugal, was the key planner of the 25 April 1974 rebellion which ended more than four decades of authoritarian dictatorship.

The Carnation Revolution, as it became known, brought crowds onto the streets alongside the military and unleashed a far reaching purge of the so called “Estado Novo” (New State) regime, especially of the hated and feared secret police, the PIDE.

In the year and a half that followed, Portugal entered into a revolutionary crisis when it seemed it was on the verge of creating workers’ power. It was a high point of working class struggle, unmatched by anything that had happened in Western Europe since the 1936 revolution in Catalonia.

https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2021/07/26/forty-lost-years-by-rosa-maria-arquimbau/

“Forty Lost Years” by Rosa Maria Arquimbau first appeared in the author’s native Catalonia in 1971, when General Francisco Franco remained dictator of Spain. It has now appeared in English for the first time, ably translated by Peter Bush.

The novel centres on Laura Videl, born in 1917 who comes from a working class family in Barcelona. Her, her parents, younger brother, Pere, and older sister, Esperança, live in a crowded flat in a building where her mother is the concierge. With just two rooms Pere when younger shared his sisters’ bedroom but on reaching adolescence has to sleep on the floor of his parents’ bedroom.

The father is a furniture maker (who cannot afford the furniture he makes) and is a member of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour; CNT) the militant anarcho-syndicalist union federation which dominated the Catalan working class in 1910’s, 1920’s and 1930’s, but he is also a supporter of the creation of an independent Catalan Republic.

Is Britain breaking up? https://youtu.be/BjgIk6sHXqo via @YouTube

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22417-northern-ireland-donaldson-and-the-dup-in-disarray

Northern Ireland is in the midst of a political storm. It follows the resignation of Edwin Poots as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party after just 21 days and his replacement by the man he had beaten in a leadership election, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who took the post unopposed.

Brian Clough once lasted longer as manager of Leeds United than Edwin Poots did as leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party. Poots (who sounds like some sinister character in a Charles Dickens novel) was thrown under the bus three weeks after winning a leadership election because the DUP acted upon widespread Unionist and Loyalist anger over the UK-EU Protocol on Northern Ireland, which effectively created a border with Britain in the Irish sea, and over Westminster finally implementing an agreed measure to foster and protect the Irish language in the six county state.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_0Wge4Ml2A

Delyth Jewell AM from Plaid Cymru and myself discuss how Scotland and Wales have travelled the road from Empire to self-determination. This was a hugely enjoyable and informative event.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22365-32-counties-the-failure-of-partition-and-the-case-for-a-united-irelan-book-review

If there is one book you need to read to grasp what’s going on in Ireland, and Northern Ireland specifically, it must be Kieran Allen’s 32 Counties: The Failure of Partition and the Case for a United Ireland. The recent loyalist riots against the post-Brexit border, which has come into existence between Northern Ireland and Britain, and the centenary of the creation of the six-county state and the partition of Ireland, have turned attention towards the possibility of a united Ireland.

When addressing the Irish question the brick wall that most people hit is that violence in Northern Ireland is a result of a religious and communal hatred so long established it is beyond understanding. This view, encouraged during The Troubles of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, prior to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, is carefully cultivated to absolve Britain from any responsibility.

https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2021/6/4/the-scottish-elite-and-anti-irish-racism

Why is it that from Easter until late summer the Orange Lodge, an organisation rooted in Protestant supremacy, organises marches across Glasgow and the West of Scotland in particular? Traditionally these Orange marches have insisted on marching through areas with large Irish and Catholic populations, stopping outside Catholic churches in a deliberately antagonistic manner. No other section of Scottish society is sanctioned to engage in such activity.

The Scottish elite would like us to believe that anti Irish Catholic racism was just a problem for working class Protestants. But the truth is that throughout its history it has been as much in evidence in Edinburgh’s gentlemen’s clubs and the top golf clubs as in the slums.

https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2021/5/17/kenmure-shows-the-state-is-losing-legitimacy

At Kenmure street last week, the main motivations for the protesters were basic solidarity, anti-racism and hatred of unjust immigration laws. Members of the community and wider solidarity networks acted intuitively to defend their community.

We also need to take into account another factor. For many this was also an act of defiance to a UK state (aided by Police Scotland) acting in this case on the instructions of a Tory government in London, which has little percieved legitimacy and no mandate in Scotland. This ruling group hasn’t won in Scotland since 1959.

That is central to the growth of support for independence in the last two decades. Its not about nationalism, it’s about democracy. The raid pressed every possible button, inflaming the anger of people not just in that community but across Glasgow and the country. Its won widespread applause south of the border and beyond and, hopefully will inspire others to follow that lead.

In Scotland it must surely suggest an alternative attitude to the ‘if or when Westminster might accede’ approach to securing a fresh independence referendum.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/22316-we-are-not-merchandise-in-the-hands-of-politicians-and-bankers-the-indignados-movement-10-years-on

10 years on from the rise of the Spanish Indignados movement, which paved the way for Podemos, Chris Bambery examines its impact and draws out some important lessons
Ten years ago, on May 15, 2011, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square under the motto, “We are not merchandise in the hands of politicians and bankers.” They were there in opposition to unemployment, the corruption that characterised the Spanish state and its elite, and homelessness. At its end, the police charged on demonstrators, and in protest some forty people decided to camp overnight in Puerta del Sol.

A few hours later, thousands of people settled in Puerta del Sol, and in more than seventy towns and villages throughout Spain similar occupations sprung up. The movement moved beyond opposition to austerity and corruption to demands for direct democratic participation and a questioning of the political system born from the transition.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22302-after-the-holyrood-elections-can-scotland-win-its-independence-2

Chris Bambery looks at the results of the Holyrood elections, the majority support for independence, and what this means for the movement
There was never any chance that Nicola Sturgeon would be booking a removal van to remove her stuff from Bute House, the Scottish First Minister’s official residence in Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town. The Scottish National Party was always going to return to government, either with the support of the Greens or in coalition with them.

As the results came in it seemed the SNP might win an overall majority – something the voting system, put in place by New Labour, is designed to prevent, in particular to stop the pro-independence forces gaining a majority. The SNP did achieve that, against the odds in 2011, but it’s a mountain to climb. The SNP this time came near, very near, as they romped home on the first, first past the post constituency vote, winning 62 out of 73.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22291-the-dangerous-victory-for-the-spanish-right-in-madrid

Chris Bambery analyses the Popular Party’s success in Madrid’s elections, and the increased power of the far right Vox party
A fascist party is set to enter into an agreement with the centre right to govern one of Europe’s key cities and regions. That is the Community of Madrid, containing Spain’s capital and the centre of government. It is the wealthiest region of Spain.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/22285-arm-the-protestants-a-state-born-in-sectarian-violence-northern-ireland
One hundred years since the partition of Ireland into north and south, Chris Bambery looks at the determination by government, police and big business to hold on to a part of Britain’s fading empire

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/22280-the-1926-general-strike-when-workers-brought-britain-to-a-standstill

The carefully created myth of the 1926 General Strike was that it was a very British affair marked by moderation with strikers and police playing football rather than battling on the streets. That latter sort of thing was for excitable continentals not the tolerant and respectful British working class. Our rulers wanted that myth to dominate but so did the trade union and Labour Party leaders who wanted no repeat and to encourage the idea that British workers abided by constitutional means.

The reality was that for nine days in May 1926, Britain experienced the most dramatic industrial dispute in its history. Nearly two million workers took part in the General Strike, and a further four million were preparing to join them when the action was called off. Trains did not run. Buses and trams remained in their depots. Cargoes piled up in the docks, and mail went undelivered. Much of industry stopped. Shipyards and engineering firms were shutdown. The strikers were acting in solidarity with the million miners locked out by the coal owners for refusing wage cuts and longer working hours to save an industry in crisis.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22271-good-night-arlene-foster-dup

It entails a huge stretch of the imagination to consider Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s First Minister, as too great a liberal. But that’s how 80 percent of the Democratic Unionist Party, the party she leads, views her. The final straw was that she abstained on Gay Aversion “Therapy” rather than vote for it as they wished.

Now Foster has resigned as head of the Democratic Unionist Party, and consequently as First Minister. It follows a letter of no confidence in her and the party leadership which was sent to her, signed by 22 of the DUP's 27 MLAs and four MPs.

Concern has grown among party members over recent changes to Northern Ireland's abortion laws the commitment to implement an Irish language act, same sex marriage, policing as well as the recent gay conversion debate at Stormont. Next year will see assembly elections.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22245-scottish-elections-will-alba-shake-things-up

The Scottish election has become interesting. Whatever you think of Alex Salmond and the newly launched Alba Party that is down to their intervention.
Chris Bambery explains how the new party has caused a stir in the upcoming election, but why the independence movement needs a grassroots campaign

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22222-loyalist-riots-is-the-long-good-friday-coming-to-an-end

The combination of sectarianism, poverty and repression is an explosive mix argues Chris Bambery
This week has seen rioting in Loyalist areas of Northern Ireland including Belfast, Derry, Ballymena, Carrickfergus and Newtownabbey.

This had largely gone unreported in Britain and had not been seen by Boris Johnson as a matter of concern.

Things changed on Wednesday when Loyalist youth attacked the Lanark Way interface in west Belfast yesterday, where the unionist Shankill Road meets the nationalist Springfield Road area, divided by “peace gates”.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/22201-scottish-independence-at-a-crossroads-where-has-alba-come-from

Dissatisfaction with the SNP’s lack of strategy and turn to neoliberalism is being expressed in the new pro-independence Alba party, argues Chris Bambery

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22169-lenin-150-samizdat-book-review
Lenin 150 (Samizdat) is a welcome collection of articles and pieces on Lenin by authors from around the world which asserts the importance of his political legacy, finds Chris Bambery

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/22148-the-communist-movement-at-a-crossroads-plenums-of-the-communist-international-s-executive-committee-1922-1923-book-review

The newly available records of the Comintern Executive Committee from 1922-23 show the importance of the organisation before its later Stalinisation, argues Chris Bambery

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-the-demise-of-a-catalan-fairy-tale-a-democratic-eu

The vote of the European Parliament to remove the parliamentary immunity of the three exiled Catalan MEP’s, Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí. speaks volumes about just how democratic the European Union is.

The matter was not debated in the Parliament but was taken to a secret vote held on Monday evening with the result announced at 09.00 on Tuesday morning. The result was always expected because the three big blocs in the parliament, the centre right European People’s Party group, the centre left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats and Renew Europe, agreed to back the move. Together they have over the seats.

But the final vote was closer than might have been expected with 400 MEPs voting in favour, 248 against and 45 abstentions. That means 57.7 percent of MEP’s voting backed Spain’s judicial request to extradite the three.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22122-bobby-sands-republican-fighter-hunger-striker

On the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the 1981 Hunger Strike, Chris Bambery looks at the legacy of the struggle and its heroic leader
Bobby Sands, the Officer in Charge of the Irish Republican Army prisoners held in the H Blocks of Long Kesh, began his hunger strike on 1 March 1981. The demand was that he and the rest, including loyalist prisoners, be treated by the British government as political prisoners.

It was clear a tremendous movement in support was going to be needed in Ireland, north and south, and internationally to shift the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. We could count on Sands’ determination, but building a solidarity movement was going to be more difficult because this was second time round.

https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2021/3/1/despite-everything-independence-isnt-going-away

It’s been a torrid few months for independence supporters, but what is the longer-term view? Author of A People’s History of Scotland, Chris Bambery, looks at the rise of Scottish independence and argues that as long as it is rooted in the crises of British democracy and capitalism, it will maintain its relevance.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22079-pro-independence-catalan-vote-deepens-crisis-of-the-spanish-state

The result of Sunday’s elections in Catalonia were not meant to be. The Spanish, and indeed UK media were confidently predicting the parties supporting Catalan independence were going to lose because of the Illa effect. Salvador Illa was the Spanish health minister who had resigned his post to head up the challenge of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), the Catalan affiliate of the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE).

Support for independence, we were told, was slipping, the pro-independence parties were divided (nothing new there) and the coming victory of Illa would remove the issue of Catalan independence to the huge benefit of the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez..
But For the first time pro-independence parties had won a majority of the popular vote - 51.16% - that was the crucial factor in the election, together, of course, that the three pro-independence parties retained a majority in the 135-member chamber with a total of 74 MPs in favour of a Catalan republic, 4 more than in the last election in 2017.

https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2021/2/10/draghi-and-the-looming-italian-disaster

The appointment of a ruling class manager over the Italian crisis has implications for the whole of Europe. Chris Bambery argues we should all be paying close attention.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22058-a-tale-of-two-europes-2

The European Union preaches democracy but its practice is very different, argues Chris Bambery

https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2021/2/5/the-catalan-organizing-model-and-scotland-lessons-from-the-anc

This weekend Now Scotland, a membership organisation for the Scottish independence movement, will be launched. It draws inspiration in part from Catalonia. We can learn a great deal from the strategies developed by Catalan activists, the innovative tactics they have developed, and how they relate to their own pro-independence parties, writes Chris Bambery.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spain-trampling-civil-rights-says-echr

Last Thursday, 28 January, the President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Robert Spano, issued a warning to Spain concerning the legal cases involving freedom of expression. Specifically about the sentences given by Spanish courts to artists for denigrating or insulting the king, as in the cases of rappers Valtònyc and Pablo Hasel.

Spano stated that the EHCR’s doctrine is “clear”. “We call it the public persona doctrine,” he warned. “Public office holders, ministers, kings – because of the public nature of their functions – must accept wider ranges of criticism”.

He went on to cite two other recent cases involving Spanish justice. The jailing of two men from Girona in Catalonia for burning a photo of the King and Queen, a sentence which he said was “disproportionate” and violated their rights. Spano added that the other country which the Court was concerned about similar cases was Turkey.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/21997-armoured-cars-and-tanks-and-guns-the-real-story-of-the-irish-troubles-brexit-borders-peace

Chris Bambery looks at the history of the Northern Ireland state - and the violence Britain was prepared to use to maintain it

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/21994-bye-bye-richard-leonard-the-decline-of-scottish-labour-continues

The departure of Richard Leonard as leader of Scottish Labour comes when the party is at the lowest point in its modern history, trailing behind the ruling Scottish National Party and the Conservatives.

Older readers will recall that just two decades ago Labour dominated Scottish politics north of the border and seemed unshiftable. The hollowing out of Labour and Social Democratic parties across Europe is a familiar tale but in Scotland it has a unique twist – one that did for Richard Leonard.

The roots of Labour’s decline stretch far back.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-francos-fascist-legacy-still-casts-a-long-shadow-over-spains-courts

Spain has created a first in Europe. The Spanish Supreme Court has decided to ignore a European Court of Human Rights (EHCR). That is unprecedented but this body, made up of a number of politically appointed judges, has a growing track record of reaching highly politicised verdicts, particularly in relation to the Basque Country and Catalonia.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/21925-eire-markievicz-ready-to-die-for-ireland-one-way-or-another-the-rebel-countess

Constance Markievicz, a clarion figure in both anti-imperialism and women’s liberation, is remembered by Chris Bambery

https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2020/12/11/gramsci-and-the-scottish-question

With the British state and its leading institutions once again in flux, Chris Bambery argues we should re-apply the insights of Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-the-eus-facist-cesspool-in-spains-establishment


Francisco Beca Casanova has a deep wish to outdo his fascist hero, General Francisco Franco, the victor of Spain’s Civil war who ruled as a dictator until late 1975. The retired Spanish Air Force General Beca proposes to execute 26 million “sons of bitches” to eliminate “the cancer spread by enemies of the unity of Spain”. The message, posted on a WhatsApp group of ex-officers, praises Franco’s dictatorship and demands “to repeat history”. Members describe Franco as the “irreplaceable one”

Franco executed some 160,000 citizens of Spain, far, far more than his ally, the Italian fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini. Now Beca wants to exceed Adolf Hitler and Josip Stalin in murdering their fellow country men and women.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-2

Seventy three retired military officers have sent a letter to King Felipe of Spain warning him that Spain’s “social-communist government”, the current coalition of the Social Democrats and Podemos, was a threat to national unity and is supported by groups that favour terrorists and secession.

The generals and colonels argue that Spain is in “deterioration” with a serious risk to “national cohesion . . . in its political, economic and social aspects,” blaming “the social-communist government” for risking “the decomposition of national unity”.

It follows reports that a similar warning sent to him by senior retired air force officers .

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/21819-the-international-brigades-fascism-freedom-and-the-spanish-civil-war-book-review

The story of the International Brigades’ fight against fascism in Spain is newly told in Tremlett’s valuable account, finds Chris Bambery

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/21702-first-they-took-rome-how-the-populist-right-conquered-italy-book-review

David Broder’s account of how Italy was captured by the racist right shows the general danger of social-democratic parties collapsing into neoliberalism, argues Chris Bambery

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spain-doing-the-fascist-hokey-cokey

Picture: Two great Spanish EU liberal democrats: Rodolfo Martín Villa (centre) and Juan Antonio Samaranch (left)

In London, Paris or Berlin it is hard to understand how a court – indeed, the most senior court in the land – could remove a President for displaying ribbons and banners from a government building.

Back in the 1980’s Margaret Thatcher must have been irked to have to look across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament and see a banner on London’s former County Hall, displayed by the Labour Greater London Council (GLC), stating the number of unemployed in the city under her government. Thatcher would abolish the GLC, but the banner was not her primary reason for her decision, more the GLC was a political thorn in her side and had to go.

Yet we are talking about Spain where the Supreme Court and other judicial bodies have repeatedly interfered in the democratic affairs of the Catalan government and parliament to overturn democratically taken decisions.

https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2020/9/24/coronavirus-lessons-from-catalonia

Spain has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Western Europe, approaching a figure of 700,000 as I write on 23 September. The country is now in the grip of a second wave with the Health Ministry reporting 241 more deaths on Tuesday -- the highest daily jump since May. In the last week fatalities surged by 900, bringing the death toll to 30,904. Because the second wave has been largely concentrated among under fifties, the death rate still appears low, but it could spread to the elderly, with potentially fatal results.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/21659-radical-scotland-and-the-fight-for-scottish-democracy-book-review

Two new histories of working-class radicalism in Scotland from the French Revolution to the crisis of 1820 show the relevance of these events to today, finds Chris Bambery

https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2020/9/7/review-italy-today-us-tomorrow

A new study of modern Italian politics ‘First They Took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy’, looks at the desolated landscape of the country’s politics. Chris Bambery argues Italian conditions can travel.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/21538-tory-shambles-boosts-support-for-scottish-independence

Polls in Scotland show a consistent lead in favour of independence as the Tory Covid failures are laid bare, argues Chris Bambery
Something has changed in Scotland during this pandemic, something which has suddenly sent a shiver of fear down the spines of Boris Johnson and his Cabinet, leading to them rushing off to north of the border.

https://braveneweurope.com/first-they-took-rome-how-the-populist-right-conquered-italy-by-david-broder

This is not a happy tale but its one well told. No other book offers such a clear and concise analysis of just who much Italy has changed, for the worse in this neo-liberal world.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/21368-on-another-man-s-wound

Ernie O’Malley’s On Another Man’s Wound is his story of how the impact of the 1916 Easter Rising led him to break from his middle class, unionist background – he was considering joining his brother in the British Army – to become one of the most daring IRA commanders in the guerrilla war of 1919-1921 which broke the back of British colonial rule of Ireland.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/21320-the-violence-of-the-spanish-state

Now another hero of the transition, Felipe González, the former Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) leader and democratic Spain’s longest serving prime minister, is in the frame after CIA documents were released naming him as the man in charge of death squads unleashed against Basque guerrillas in the 1980s.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/21166-neil-davidson-1957-2020

The loss of Neil Davidson means the loss of a powerful intellectual force on the Scottish and the global left. But Neil was also an activist. When I first knew him he was active in the civil service union, later as an academic in the University and College Union. But that activity extended over many fields, rather like his writings.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/21020-a-people-betrayed-book-review

Paul Preston’s A People Betrayed is a searing and thorough account of how the Spanish state developed with corruption endemic to its functioning, finds Chris Bambery

https://braveneweurope.com/a-people-betrayed-a-history-of-corruption-political-incompetence-and-social-division-in-modern-spain-1874-2018-by-paul-preston

“Spain is Different” – that was the slogan devised in the 1960’s to sell the country as a popular tourism destination. And Spain is different as this wonderfully rich book never ceases to explain. Different because it has been bedevilled by a ruling elite which does not accept public duty does not entail lining your own pocket and those of your friends and colleagues.

What Preston does is give a material explanation for this s that it does not rest on the failings of some supposed Spanish character or other guff. Instead its origins lie in the failure, in the 19th century, to go through the change which occurred with German and Italian unification and with the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the creation of a legal and political system which benefitted industry and finance in the accumulation of capital. So, the fact that the judiciary is not independent still scars the rule of law.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spains-endemic-corruption-and-its-king-of-bung

The House of Windsor may have a few problems, but they shade away with those lapping around the feet of their Spanish cousins.

King Felipe V1’s brother in law, Iñaki Urdangarin, is currently serving five years and 10 months in jail having been found guilty of exploiting his royal connections to win contracts and embezzle millions in public funds for private spending. His wife, the Infanta Cristina had her title, the Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, removed. She had been found not guilty of charges of tax evasion and fraud.

Now the King’s father, former King Juan Carlos, is in the frame.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/20908-the-fall-and-rise-of-the-british-left-book-review

Andrew Murray shows that Corbynism’s roots in social movements and rebellion against neoliberalism will mean its enduring significance, argues Chris Bambery

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20887-the-irish-election-the-centre-has-not-held-and-the-left-can-win-2

What has just happened in the Irish Republic should set alarm bells ringing across the global neoliberal establishment. The outgoing Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar of the centre right Fine Gael party had called a snap election believing he could win and secure his future. Those hopes were based on him believing he could capitalise on the way he had been presented by the media and the European Union establishment as having outplayed first Theresa May and now Boris Johnson over Brexit.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-catalonia-scotland-and-independence

The British Labour Party is in the process of electing a new leader. In the wake of their drubbing in last December’s UK General Election I suspect that is not arousing great interest across Europe. After all the Conservatives under Boris Johnson now have a solid majority in the House of Commons and can proceed their merry way with Brexit.

But the leadership contest in the Labour Party has thrown an interesting light on how the candidates see dealing with the national question, in this case in Scotland and Catalonia.

https://www.military-history.org/articles/review-the-irish-civil-war-law-execution-and-atrocity.htm

Review in Military History Matters of Seán Enright's The Irish Civil War: law, execution, and atrocity, Merrion Press

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20782-scotland-it-s-time-to-break-from-a-broken-uk

The SNP's overwhelming victory in the election demonstrates the appeal for an independence referendum, but this will have to be won on the streets, argues Chris Bambery

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20752-scotland-s-election

Labour's record on independence means we shouldn't expect a rush of Corbynista MPs from Scotland, argues Chris Bambery
There is no longer a UK General Election. The election picture varies greatly in each component part of the United Kingdom. In England the battle is between Boris Johnson’s Conservatives and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour. In Northern Ireland it’s between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein. In Wales Labour, the Tories, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats are engaged in a more complex battle. In Scotland it’s between the Scottish National Party and the Conservatives, the former championing independence, the latter the Union.

https://www.counterfire.org/news/20623-huge-numbers-join-catalonia-s-general-strike-for-freedom

Hundreds of thousands marched in Barcelona and around the territory today in defence of democracy and their right to independence, reports Chris Bambery
Today much of Catalonia ground to a halt as the country saw a general strike (images below), the second day of a students strike and five mass marches from five cities converging on Barcelona where a demonstration of up to 750,000 (according to organisers) took place this evening, with main roads and motorways blocked by protesters.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/20599-what-s-changing-in-scotland

On Saturday 5 October the largest public demonstration in Scottish history took place in Edinburgh when 200,000 people marched for independence. That’s not my figure, it’s the BBC’s, so it must be right. That surpasses the protest against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The turn out in Edinburgh was approaching a Catalan-style figure – Catalan flags were well in evidence on the day.

What has changed in Scotland to create such a turn out?

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spain-and-then-there-was-nationalism

Austerity, corruption, and opportunism has wrecked Spain’s post-Franco political system. Nationalism is now the predominant political factor. Add to this the recrudescence of fascism and one has the same failure of Liberal Democracy that has been produced by the EU policy in the past ten years.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20605-civil-liberties-in-spain-catalonia

The sentences handed out to the Catalan leaders shows the lengths the Spanish state will go to to maintain its control of Catalonia, argues Chris Bambery

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-catalonia-the-biggest-civil-liberties-issue-in-recent-european-history

The Supreme Court of Spain has sentenced nine Catalan pro-independence leaders to between 9 to 13 years in jail for sedition

Former vice president Oriol Junqueras, an elected member of the European and Spanish Parliaments, will serve 13 years behind bars, with former ministers Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa getting 12 year sentences. They were all found guilty of sedition and misuse of funds for their role in the 2017 referendum push.

The former Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, was sentenced to 11 and a half years for sedition. Former ministers Joaquim Forn and Josep Rull were convicted of the same time, getting 10 and a half years each, while civic activists Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart being sentenced to 9 years each, also for sedition.

They are all also barred from office for as many years, and their joint sentence adds up to some 99.5 years in jail.

These are harsh sentences. Sanchez and Cuixart have already been held for two years in preventative detention and seven others for well over year.

There was never going to be clemency from the Spanish state regarding the 12 Catalan civic and political leaders charged with rebellion and sedition in connection with the 1 October 2017 Catalan independence referendum.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/20589-flawed-transition-why-the-spanish-state-is-repressing-the-catalan-independence-movement

Chris Bambery explains that Spanish repression of the Catalan independence movement, and the impending trial of its leaders, is rooted in the concessions made to right-wing nationalism in aftermath of Franco’s dictatorship

https://www.military-history.org/articles/the-battle-of-prestonpans-1745.htm

Overshadowed by Culloden the following year – the battle that finally terminated the century-old Jacobite cause – Prestonpans is little known. How did an army of Highland Scots outmanoeuvre the Redcoats at the marshes of the Firth of Forth? Chris Bambery researches the story.

https://www.military-history.org/articles/the-hundred-days-offensive-did-the-british-win-it-for-the-allies.htm

Chris Bambery takes a critical look at ‘revisionist’ claims about the pre-eminence of the BEF in the Hundred Days Offensive of autumn 1918.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/09/17/606374/Catalonia-Reborn-How-Catalonia-took-on-the-corrupt-Spanish-state-and-the-legacy-of-Franco-by-Chris-Bambery--George-Kerevan

Catalonia Reborn: How Catalonia took on the corrupt Spanish state and the legacy of Franco” is by Chris Bambery and George Kerevan, both Scotsmen who support their nation’s quest for independence from the UK.

They bring a sympathy to their analysis of the Catalonian struggle to be free of the Spanish state. With a colourful, distinctive culture, the Catalonians consider themselves quite different to Spaniards.

Grant Thoms from The Scots Independent puts former East Lothian SNP MP George Kerevan and radical political activist Chris Bambery have written an insightful new book about the Catalan independence referendum, its precursor and the dramatic impact of the political turmoil in Catalonia today.

In this episode of New Chapter we look at how long this forced marriage can survive.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/20544-sails-and-winds-a-cultural-history-of-valencia-book-review

Michael Eaude’s history of Valencia reveals much about the Spanish state’s hard line against aspirations for independence or simply greater autonomy, argues Chris Bambery

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/20523-imperial-calculations-why-world-war-two-was-declared-80-years-ago-today

On Sunday 3 September 1939 the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, addressed the nation on BBC radio to tell them that the country was now at war with Hitler’s Germany. France too declared war. Both countries had issued an ultimatum to Hitler after he had invaded Poland to withdraw or they would declare war.

In his broadcast to the nation, Chamberlain spoke of his sadness that "the long struggle to win peace" had failed.

What he did not explain is that the Conservative government he headed had fed Hitler pieces of territory – the Rhineland, Austria and Czechoslovakia – in a hope that would appease the Nazi leader and that he might be encouraged to turn his attentions towards Russia.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20516-westminster-boris-johnson-is-broken-it-s-time-for-scotland-to-quit-independence

The latest attack on democracy by Boris Johnson highlights that the UK is not a union of equals, it's time for Scottish independence, argues Chris Bambery
The news that the Privy Council is convening at Balmoral to ask the Queen to suspend the UK Parliament at the behest of Boris Johnson has been greeted with a growing sense in Scotland of not simply shock and anger, but a growing chorus that Scotland needs to open the escape door now and become independent.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/20489-defending-the-indefensible-the-british-army-in-northern-ireland-1969

Fifty years ago a Labour government in London took a crucial decision, to commit the British Army onto the streets of Northern Ireland. The story spun by ministers was that troops were being sent in to keep the peace and to stop sectarian conflict between the Catholic and Protestant populations. Both were lies and those same ministers knew that full well.

British troops were being sent to Belfast and Derry because the Unionist government, which had ruled the one party state of Northern Ireland since its creation in 1921, had requested them. They required them because their own heavily armed police had not just failed to put down an urban insurrection of the Catholic people of Derry but were on the verge of defeat. That was unthinkable.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/20404-labour-country-political-radicalism-and-social-democracy-in-south-wales-1831-1985-and-stories-of-solidarity-book-review

Two books on the working-class history of Wales provide valuable accounts of a rich tradition, but neglect some radical aspects, argues Chris Bambery

Chris Bambery and Hywel Williams MP receive the Francesc Macia award in Barcelona on 20 July 2019. Matthew Tree, one of the judges, on right.

Hywel Williams MOP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Catalonia, and myself will be accepting this ward in Barcelona on 20 July

http://www.spanglefish.com/chrisbambery/pageadmin.asp?intent=addgallery&pageid=563259

The trial of the 12 Catalan civic and political leaders charged with rebellion and sedition in relation to the 1 October 2017 independence referendum concluded on Wednesday. The Spanish Supreme Court heard 422 witnesses over four months. The verdict will be delivered in September or October.

The lawyer representing Jordi Cuixart, Marina Roig, asked the court to heed the request of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to ‘immediately’ release the nine accused held in preventative detention, in two cases since October 2017, and cited the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which upholds the right of ‘peaceful resistance’ in reference to the protests against the actions of Spanish police immediately prior to the vote and on the day itself in physically stop voting.She also pointed out that Spain’s Constitution upholds the right to freedom of assembly, stating:

‘There is no democracy without democracy, and there is no democracy without citizen participation.’

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spains-show-trial-bollocks

As the Spanish prosecution sums up its arguments against twelve leaders of the Catalan movement for self-determination one can hardly find words to describe this travesty of justice. Chris Bambery did find one: Bollocks.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/20359-how-we-should-remember-d-day

As President Trump and other world leaders gather on the Normandy beaches to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the Anglo-American invasion of Nazi-occupied France, it is important to understand that they are celebrating a war against Nazi Germany that was very different to the war millions of people thought they were fighting.
On 6 June 1944 my father was off the coast of Normandy as his ship escorted the Allied invasion ashore on D-Day. For him, and for my mother who also volunteered to serve, in her case in the women’s army, the ATS, this was a moment they had long awaited - when a decisive strike could be launched against the Third Reich. They believed, wrongly, that this was the continuation of the fight against fascism during the Spanish Civil War.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-trial-of-catalan-independence-leaders-spain-and-the-eu-vs-the-un-and-justice

Last Wednesday the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released a report demanding the “immediate” release of three Catalan pro-independence leaders: Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Cuixart and Oriol Junqueras.
The report by the UN group considered their detention and imprisonment to be a violation of fundamental rights, especially freedom of speech, and called for compensation for all three.
Ben Emmerson QC, the British barrister representing the three jailed Catalan leaders, said: “This decision should mark a turning point in Spanish policy towards Catalonia. Spain is acting in flagrant violation of international law, and it had been called out by the UN body with ultimate authority on the question of arbitrary detention.”

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery

The European elections were bad news for Labour in England, but in Scotland they were a disaster, while in Wales the Labour party was overtaken by Plaid Cymru for the first time. The leader of Scottish Labour, Richard Leonard described the result as “incredibly bad.
The scale of what occurred in Scotland is incredible if you remember that prior to 2007, when the Scottish National Party formed a minority Scottish Government, Scotland was a Labour bulwark.
This time round Labour finished fifth after its share of the vote shrunk from 26 per cent in 2014 to just over nine per cent. It lost both seats it had previously held in the European Parliament.

https://braveneweurope.com/spain-the-political-prisoners-who-are-not-political-prisoners

On the ceiling of the Spanish Supreme Court Room there is a mural showing Justice delivering her punishment on odious looking villains- a murder, a rapist, a thief and a woman committing infanticide. On Thursday I took my seat to observe the trial alongside Hywel Williams MP, chair of the Westminster All Party Parliamentary Group on Catalonia. Under that mural sat the accused, but they were not child killers or rapists, they were 12 Catalan political and civic leaders on trial for their part in organising the 2017 Catalan independence referendum. Two have been held in custody since that autumn awaiting a trial and a verdict.

Behind the formal correctness of the court and the politeness with which we were received lay something almost surreal. This is a political trial in a state which claims to have no political prisoners. A political problem, the relation between Spain and Catalonia, is being decided in a criminal court by judges including political appointees.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-two-realities-catalonia-and-spain

Week 12 of the show trial conducted by Spain to convict the leaders of Catalonian struggle for independence Chris Bambery records how two realities apparently exist. On the one side the Spanish police, who report exclusively about violence exercised by Catalan citizens. On the other side we have Catalan citizens who report egregious brutality by the Spanish police. In a democratic court of law film material would be used to ascertain the truth, but not in Spain. In this article we provide some of this film material – there is much, much more.

Two Realities: Catalonia & Spain
Chris Bambery, Brave New Europe, 4 May 2019

There is one particular aspect of the ongoing trial of 12 Catalan leaders at Spain's Supreme Court - the representatives of the fascist Vox Party are part of the prosecution team!

Last week they summoned renowned Catalan singer, Lluis Lach, a former Catalan MP, to be questioned by them. Read how he responded.

Read the full article HERE
https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-two-realities-catalonia-and-spain

https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/14204/book-review-scots-and-catalans-union-and-disunion

Sir J. H. Elliott is the pre-eminent British historian of 16th and 17th century Spain, its golden age under the Hapsburg kings, and someone who is clearly fluent in both Spanish and Catalan. We know that because he recounts that in 1955, while in Barcelona researching his book on the Catalan revolt of 1640-1652, he was told off by a policeman for speaking Catalan and not Spanish – the “language of Empire”. Catalan was banned from public use and from the media under the Franco dictatorship.

Having read, cited and admired his books I hesitate to cross swords with him but his latest book while packaged as an academic text is clearly a polemic against supporters of Scottish and Catalan independence, though delivered with a stiletto rather than a claymore. There is much well delivered history of both nations here, although rather too focused on great men and women for my liking.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-elections-results-from-catalonia-a-further-step-towards-independence

Spain now has four elected deputies and a senator held in jail awaiting the end of their trial on charges of rebellion and sedition. If found guilty by the country’s Supreme Court they face sentences of up to 25 years.

The five are among 12 Catalan leaders in the dock over the Catalan independence referendum of October 2017. Spain denies it has any political prisoners but given the election of five of those in jail on a pro-independence ticket that claim looks more and more thread bare.

The outcome of Sunday’s Spanish general election means the issue of Catalonia is not going to go away. While Pedro Sanchez, leader of the Socialist Party, credited with winning in Spain pro-independence parties are regarded as winners in Catalonia.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20290-spanish-election-the-left-win-but-society-polarises

The next Spanish Government will be headed by Pedro Sánchez, the Socialist leader – that’s the one certainty from yesterday’s General Election, the third to be held in four years. But while Sánchez's Socialist Party (PSOE) was the winner in this election, winning 123 seats in the Spanish parliament, 37 more than in the last election in June 2016, it fell short of the majority of 176 seats needed to form a government.

Yet, while there will be a sense of relief in Brussels and in corporate boardrooms that the result means a government can be formed, there is also awareness that this result does not end the fragmentation of Spanish politics. The old model where the centre-left PSOE and the centre-right Popular Party alternated in office was blown away by the shock of the 2008 financial crash and the devastating recession which followed, accompanied by harsh austerity measures, and there is no sign of it being pieced together again.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-these-are-dark-days-for-democracy-in-spain

This Sunday Spain goes to the polls in a general election. I will not try to predict the result but this election has been quite extraordinary. It would not be surprising if no one party gained an overall majority or if the centre left and right had to enter negotiations to cobble together a coalition or minority government. What is remarkable is the shift rightwards of Spanish politics, particularly around the issue of Catalan independence and autonomy, with the fascist Vox party looking, it seems, to give the Francoists a parliamentary presence for the first time in four decades, at the expense of the Popular Party, the governing party until last summer.

Over the Easter weekend in the village of Coripe, in Andalucía, a festival was held involving an effigy of exiled Catalan President, Carles Puidgemont, being set on fire and shot with live ammunition.

The Socialist Party mayor, Antonio Pérez, argued this was part of an annual Easter tradition called ‘The burning of Judas’, asking that it not be taken “out of context,” adding it was “satire” which was not “against the Catalan people.”

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-catalonia-a-people-in-search-of-justice-in-an-unjust-eu

The very fact that the Spanish Supreme Court decided to continue the trial of the 12 Catalan leaders into Holy Week shows the pressure it is under to bring this trial to a conclusion by June at the latest. On a broader scale Catalonia is a central issue in the ongoing Spanish general election campaign with the three right wing parties, the Popular Party, Ciudadanos and Vox, are competing as to which is hardest on not just Catalan independence but the autonomy it has enjoyed since 1979. They are dragging Spain’s Socialist Party behind them so this week its leader and outgoing Premier, Pedro Sanchéz, announced that he would act with “strength and proportion” if there was any repeat of the October 2017 Catalan independence referendum; meaning the imposition of direct rule from Madrid.

The problem Sanchéz faces that while the Socialists seem set to be the biggest party in the new Parliament it looks set to fall short of winning an overall majority thus requiring him to barter for the support of smaller parties, including those backing Catalan independence. The ongoing trial of the 12 at the Supreme Court charged with rebellion and sedition in connection to the 2017 referendum will make that very difficult.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-trial-against-catalan-leaders-how-can-this-happen-in-an-eu-nation

You would expect that a former Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and his former Assistant Chief Constable to know a thing or two about public order. Not according to the Spanish Supreme Court they don’t.

Sir Hugh Orde held that post from 2002 until 2009 and Duncan McCausland was his deputy. Orde was also President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, representing 44 police forces across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The two men were asked to investigate events at the Catalan Finance Ministry when it was raided and occupied by Spanish paramilitary police on 20 September 2017. The building was taken over in an attempt to find evidence of public funds being used to finance a referendum on Catalan independence declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spain-how-many-lies-does-it-take-to-destroy-democracy

“Music parties, pyjama parties, night time hot chocolate parties,” these were the unlikely tools to create a “pre-revolutionary atmosphere” in Catalonia in the autumn of 2017 a senior Spanish police officer told the Spanish Supreme Court last week.

In case you are wondering if you blinked at the time and missed the news of a revolutionary crisis in Catalonia back then, don’t worry, you didn’t. What took place wasn’t Paris 1789 or Petrograd 1917, except perhaps in the heated imaginations of senior Spanish police officers.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-who-needs-justice-when-one-has-the-spanish-supreme-court

Week seven of the trial of the 12 Catalan leaders on trial at the Spanish Supreme Court on charges of rebellion and sedition began with the accused being denied access to friends and family attending the trial.

Until last Monday the situation was that having brought from prison’s outside Madrid and then ferried back, thus leaving very early often and returning very late, once at the court on route to the trial chamber they were prevented accessing the public with corridors blocked off, windows shut and doors covered with screens.

Then they were the first to enter the court with the public arriving later and then they were first to leave, passing the public benches and thus being able to greet and exchange a few words and even a hug with friends and family.

Since last Monday they now remain in their seats while the public leave first. This is a police decision because it is claimed a member of the public had insulted a defendant and it is designed “to protect them.”

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20233-a-deutsche-bank-and-commerzbank-merger-spells-trouble

The proposed merger of German banks is a disaster waiting to happen and exposes the weaknesses at the heart of European capitalism, argues Chris Bambery

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-half-truths-lies-and-guardia-civil-lies

Chris Bambery sums up a week in which members of the Spanish Guardia Civil testified in the trial against Catalan leaders.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spain-kangaroos-instead-of-judges

Week 5 of the trial of the Catalan 12 brought to surface serious issues regarding the neutrality of the Spanish judiciary and a very different account of police operations on referendum day, 1 October 2017.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20208-bloody-sunday-one-prosecution-is-not-justice

The prosecution of one former soldier allows those who ordered and planned the operation which left 14 dead to walk away Scotch free.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/20202-eurozone-blues

There is a growing economic slowdown in Europe and its is creating political and social instability in the EU

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-in-spain-democracy-has-become-a-crime?fbclid=IwAR0bbd9T1kxYStK311OjWQ4OxLzBbzWcXQzZXZXAeQjWNs3flDFBsih2SbA

The fourth week of the trial at the Spanish Supreme Court of 12 Catalan leaders charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds in association with events in and around the 1 October 2017 Catalan independence, centred on evidence from representatives of the Spanish state apparatus trying to persuade the court that the 12 were responsible for inciting violence.

Proving that is central to making the charge of rebellion stick, though it may be that the prosecution succeeds in their argument that by holding protests and a democratic vote the accused Catalans were therefore responsible for the subsequent police violence.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20200-bloody-sunday-criminal-yes

The barbarity of British imperialism must not be brushed under the carpet, argues Chris Bambery
"I do not believe what I said, that is not my view". That was how Secretary of State for Northern Ireland tried to wriggle out the wave of criticism that came after she told the House of Commons that killings carried out by the security forces during the Troubles "were not crimes" but actions of people "fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way".

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spains-judicial-proceedings-against-catalan-leaders-a-diary-of-a-show-trial

Twelve Catalan leaders, 10 politicians and two leaders of the two biggest civic organisations in Catalonia, are entering their fourth week of trial before the Spanish Supreme Court on charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds. These relate to events leading up to the 1 October 2017 Catalan independence referendum, events on polling day and the subsequent vote in the Catalan Parliament on the declaration of independence and creation of a Catalan Republic.

The trial has attracted widespread media coverage and has been attended by legal international observers and a large number of Parliamentarians from across Europe. The international observers are not allowed access to the Court as such and have to join the public queue early in the morning to do so.

The crux of the case rests on allegations of rebellion and sedition, which carry charges of up to 25 years, what the prosecution is asking former Deputy President, Oriol Junqueras, to serve if found guilty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO5Mc_o9fg0

The Real Winston: Churchill, Colonialism & the British Establishment

Winston Churchill is one of the most celebrated Britsh figures and is considered by many a hero. A recent tweet by Ross Greer MSP calling Winston Churchill a "white supremacist mass murderer" went viral and he faced a torrent of abuse - not least from Piers Morgan.

So who really was Winston Churchill and should he be celebrated? Join us for this discussion, 75 years on from D-Day, to discuss the truth about Churchill. Leading the discussion will be Chris Bambery, author of The Second World War: A Marxist History.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-the-spanish-government-should-be-on-trial

Faced with criticism of its decision to put 12 Catalan leaders on trial for rebellion and sedition, with nine held in preventative detention for over a year, the Spanish government’s response is to insist it is sticking to the letter of the law, that this is now a matter for the courts and the country’s judiciary are independent and should be left to do their job.

In a PR exercise it has gone further insisting there are no political prisoners in Spain and that there was no police violence on 1 October 2017, the day of the Catalan independence referendum, declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court. Claims of police violence are simply “fake news” concocted by pro-independence Catalans.

Let us examine this defence.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spain-eu-liberal-democracy-has-failed-neo-liberalism-re-mobilises-fascism

Not long ago Spain was seen as a model EU state. Political stability was guaranteed with a two party system established in 1982 in operation with government office passing backwards and forwards between the corrupt centre left social democratic PSOE or the corrupt centre right Popular Party (PP) – the EU democracy model. Both political parties were of course staunch supporters of the EU and its neo-liberal diktat. Along with Malta, Spain is the only EU state not to have had a coalition government. Until 2015 Spain seemed a paradigm of political stability. This was democracy as the EU envisioned it – clinically dead. Then the Great Recession came, followed by German imposed austerity.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spain-the-basque-country-rising

Discussion of Spain naturally focuses on its difficulties with Catalonia or the recent elections in Andalusia which saw the right, including the fascist Vox party, take control in a former bastion of the Social Democrats – this was Vox’s first electoral breakthrough. But there is another fault line emerging in the Spanish state. It is the relationship of Spain with the Basque Country.

The parties of the Spanish right are competing as to which takes the hardest line on Catalan independence. At the recent conference of the centre-right Popular Party, Pablo Casado, its new leader, lambasted the Catalan pro-independence movement, pledging to ‘bring order’ to Catalonia.

https://english.vilaweb.cat/noticies/221114/

Few men can say they have entered the Catalan government headquarters in Barcelona wearing a kilt and even fewer have a graphic proof of it next to the Catalan president. Chris Bambery does. A Scottish independentist, Bambery has been following the Catalan process for many years. Left activist, writer, journalist and TV presenter, Bambery was one of the drivers of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Catalonia (APPG) at Westminster, created in March 2017 when Bambery worked as assistant to SNP deputy George Kerevan. Now Bambery is the secretary of the APPG. Along with Kerevan, he published the book “Catalonia Reborn” in March 2018.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-catalonia-justice-human-rights-and-democracy-are-not-among-the-four-freedoms-of-the-eu

Spanish democracy and justice will be on trial not the 18 Catalan leaders charged with "rebellion" and "sedition"

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20064-obituary-bruno-da-ponte-1932-2018

Shortly before Christmas, an outstanding figure on the Portuguese left sadly passed away. Bruno da Ponte was 86. In a long life, he was editor, bookseller, translator, journalist, gallery owner, teacher, cultural and political activist, a man of letters and the arts; but above all, he was a radical socialist. He died a member of the Left Bloc, the electoral grouping he had helped found in 2002.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20058-europe-in-turmoil-what-to-expect-in-2019

Few will mourn the passing of 2018. The news has generally been grim, though there's been plenty of it. Our attention has been diverted by the antics of Donald Trump, in Britain by Brexit, in Germany be the imminent departure of Angela Merkel, in Spain by Catalonia or in France by the Jihadist attacks and the protests of the Yellow Jackets. They at least are addressing a question which affects nearly all of us and deserves our full; attention, the harsh reality of stagnant living standards. Underlying that is the fact that Europe is falling behind its rivals economically.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-will-2019-see-any-resolution-in-the-troubled-relationship-between-spain-and-catalonia

Just six months ago the advent of a minority Socialist government in Madrid, headed by Pedro Sánchez, seemed to point towards dialogue with its Catalan counterpart in Barcelona. After all Sánchez had depended on Catalan votes to topple the corrupt Popular Party government of Mariano Rajoy after moving a vote of no confidence. Sánchez still requires those same votes to remain in office, in particular to pass a budget for 2019 through parliament. Concessions have been made: the nine Catalan political prisoners were transferred from jails outside Madrid to ones in Catalonia and Sánchez has met the Catalan president, Quim Torra, opening hopes of sustained dialogue.

But those same prisoners will, in a matter of weeks, stand trial on charges of rebellion and sedition before the Constitutional Court, with its tranche of judges politically appointed by the previous Rajoy government, demanding sentences of 17 to 25 years. The Attorney General insists those charges will not be dropped.

When Rajoy played hard ball with the Catalans after the Barcelona parliament approved the 1 October 2017 independence referendum – sending in paramilitary police to physically stop it, arresting politicians and civic leaders and suspending Catalan’s Statute of Autonomy – the Socialists backed him. There was little to distinguish between the Rajoy’s conservative Partido Popular and the centrist Social Democrats.

Today many Catalans view Sánchez as the soft cop who worked in tandem with the hard cops of the right-wing Partido Popular.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/17315483.chris-bambery-governements-cant-remain-silent-over-tamara-carrasco/

VILADECANS is just a few miles from Barcelona’s airport but a million miles from the Ramblas in the city centre or a beach resort like Sitges, where many of those arriving will travel. Many of its over-whelmingly working-class residents work at the airport or in the factories, warehouses and shopping centres which surround the town, or commute into Barcelona.

Its past is as radical as its present. When Catalonia rose up against General Franco’s military coup to topple the Spanish Republic, the labourers belonging to the anarcho-syndicalist trade union federation the CNT took over control of the land, collectivising it. Sixty of them then volunteered to join the militias heading off to fight fascism.



I travelled there to meet Tamara Carrasco and to hear about her treatment by the Spanish legal system. What she told me was like something from a Dostoevsky novel.

Tamara is an activist involved in the struggle against cuts to healthcare, and had been involved in the local branch of the Podemos party, for whom she stood in the 2015 elections on a local list. Then she was part of the peaceful defence of polling stations during the October 1 referendum on Catalan independence as Spanish police attacked polling stations and voters.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/17282051.catalan-political-prisoner-carme-forcadell-channels-gloria-gaynor/

My report on visit to Carme Forcadell, jailed former Speaker of Catalan Parliament:
“As President of the Parliament I had to fulfil my duty.

“I have committed no crime; the Spanish Constitutional Court cannot decide what the Catalan Parliament can debate and discuss.

“I had to uphold the sovereignty of the Catalan Parliament, elected by the Catalan people.”

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-catalonia-we-are-in-jail-for-defending-democratic-values

As he entered the visiting room at Lledon prison my first thought was that Jordi Cuixart looked a bit smaller and a bit older than the pictures I had seen of him addressing crowds last autumn in the build up to the Catalan independence referendum.

But as he pointed out he has been held in prison by the Spanish state awaiting trial for one year, one month and 17 days.

The second thing that struck me was that he was smiling, and for an hour during our visit that smile never left his face. The smile is there despite the fact he is facing trial on charges of rebellion and sedition, charges long gone from the statute books elsewhere in Western Europe, and that the Spanish Constitutional Court, with its politically appointed judges, are likely to send him down for 17 years.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20000-the-rise-and-fall-of-neoliberalism

What is happening in Britain is obviously a major political crisis over Brexit. But beneath that immediate crisis lies the continuing and perpetual decline of the UK, economically and as a power on the world stage, and the breaking up of the consensus which has dominated for more than four decades.

What emerged in the 1980s and the 1990s was what Gramsci would have termed a new “historic bloc.” Whereas before there was a social democratic consensus post-1945 that full employment had to be maintained together with a welfare state that was replaced by acceptance of neoliberalism, in many ways rooted in the economic liberalism of the 19th century.

https://www.military-history.org/articles/the-hundred-days-offensive-did-the-british-win-it-for-the-allies.htm

Chris Bambery takes a critical look at ‘revisionist’ claims about the pre-eminence of the BEF in the Hundred Days Offensive of autumn 1918.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19966-world-war-one-was-stupid-tragic-and-futile

World War One was a brutal and unnecessary waste of human life and sowed the seeds for the second war, argues Chris Bambery

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-the-snp-is-getting-there-thanks-to-the-scottish-people

We have repeatedly voiced our scepticism concerning the Scottish National Party (SNP) as a progressive party and a force for emancipation. Chris Bambery has decided enough is enough and contributed this piece refuting our concerns – more or less.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-what-are-human-rights-worth

Much of the EU political elite has great difficulties with human rights. First of all, they are not included in the Four Freedoms of the EU. Second, neo-classical economists are having incredible difficulty figuring out what is the monetary value of human rights if they were commoditised. This binds the hands of these EU polticians because they do not know what human rights are worth. In that case, there is very little they can do – which explains why they do nothing.

A copy was also given to the political prisoners in Lledoners jail

https://www.cataloniatoday.cat/article/1469800-kleptomaniac-state.html

The book’s great achievement is to connect these recent events with history and a materialist analysis of the class and national forces in play. Its style is direct and urgent, as befits a book on rapid-moving contemporary events, but it is not superficial. Sometimes, outside eyes can contribute a rounder, fuller picture, especially (as in this case) eyes from Scotland, whose struggle is entwined with Catalonia’s.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/19829-dead-end-lives-drugs-and-violence-in-the-city-of-shadows-book-review

A study of poverty and drug addiction in the slums outside Madrid reveals the callous and destructive nature of the neoliberal city, argues Chris Bambery

https://www.eltemps.cat/article/4862/de-la-ue-no-en-podem-esperar-res-mes-que-hostilitat

De la UE no en podem esperar res més que hostilitat

Frustration and anger at rising inequality is nothing new, as a largely forgotten chapter of Scotland’s history of protest shows, writes Chris Bambery

Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/chris-bambery-how-scotland-s-own-occupy-movement-took-over-edinburgh-80-years-ago-1-4783472

https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/435716-heathers-catalonia-reborn-eu/

Chris Bambery talks to Afshin Rattansi about his new book ‘Catalonia Reborn’ and the fight for democracy in the EU.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-britains-inequality-crisis

The debate around Brexit has distracted from the dramtically and tragically increasing crisis of equaltiy in the United Kingdom (very welcome for those repsonsible, the Tories). Chris Bambery puts the situtation into perspective.

https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/13102/watch-where-now-catalan-independence

COMMONSPACE held a forum at the University of Edinburgh on 30 July on where now for Catalan independence, co-sponsored by Bella Caledonia and ANC Scotland.

Speakers: SNP MP for Edinburgh West Joanna Cherry; co-authors of Catalonia Reborn George Kerevan and Chris Bambery; human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar; head of the Catalan National Assembly Elisenda Paluzie. There was also a surprise guest appearance from exiled Catalan former Education Minister and St Andrews Uni professor Clara Ponsati.

https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/13053/chris-bambery-catalan-exiles-have-won-victory-now-lets-get-them-home-and-political

Chris Bambery, co-author of new book Catalonia Reborn, analyses the decision of the Spanish Supreme Court to drop the European Arrest Warrant’s for exiled Catalan Ministers, and says campaigning efforts must now be stepped up to get the political prisoners out of jail and let the exiles go home

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-you-can-check-out-any-time-you-like-but-you-can-never-leave

Chris Bambery takes a very big step back and analyses what Brexit is really about and what opportunites it offers.

https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/13014/putting-radical-right-back-their-box-how-do-we-defeat-europe-s-growing-populist

With radical right wing politics gaining record levels of support in Europe and the US, CommonSpace asks: how did we get here, what role has the political establishment played, and what can the left do to turn the tide?

https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/12957/podcast-catalonia-reborn-co-author-chris-bambery

Catalonia Reborn, by Chris Bambery and George Kerevan, was published in May, and is available at Luath Press
COMMONSPACE editor Ben Wray spoke to Chris Bambery, co-author of newly released 'Catalonia Reborn - How Catalonia took on the corrupt Spanish State and the Legacy of Franco' with George Kerevan.

Early day motion 1364
Print version
CATALONIA REBORN
Session: 2017-19
Date tabled: 11.06.2018
Primary sponsor: Williams, Hywel
Sponsors: Edwards, Jonathan Lake, Ben Saville Roberts, Liz
That this House congratulates Chris Bambery and George Kerevan on the publishing and launch of their book Catalonia Reborn, which details the region's political, historical and cultural issues in relation to its fight for independence; commends the role of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Catalonia to develop links between parliamentarians in the UK and those from Catalonia; also commends the authors for producing such a detailed and revealing book, given the subject's complexity and importance to the future of Europe; believes that this is the key text for anyone concerned with the future of Catalonia, Spain and Europe; hopes that the authors will continue in their work to shed light on developments in Catalonia in the future.
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Showing 4 out of 4
Name
Party
Constituency
Date Signed
Edwards, Jonathan
Plaid Cymru
Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
11.06.2018
Lake, Ben
Plaid Cymru
Ceredigion
11.06.2018
Saville Roberts, Liz
Plaid Cymru
Dwyfor Meirionnydd
11.06.2018
Williams, Hywel
Plaid Cymru
Arfon
11.06.2018

Join George Kerevan and myself at:

London 14 June: 6.30pm, Waterstone's, Trafalgar Square London
To book go to: https://www.waterstones.com/events/an-evening-with-george-kerevan-and-chris-bambery-on-catalonia-reborn/london-trafalgar-square

Brussels: Tuesday 19 June, 6pm Eglise du Béguinage 2062, 1000 Brussels

Edinburgh: Monday 25 June, 6.30pm, Blackwells, South Bridge. To book visit
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chris-bambery-and-george-kerevan-catalonia-reborn-tickets-46793090393

Glasgow: Tuesday 26 June, 6.30pm, Aye-Aye Books
350 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow, Scotland, G2 3JD

Caernarfon: 27 JUne, 7pm, Palas Print
10 Stryd y Plas Caernarfon Gwynedd LL55 1RR

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-and-george-kerevan-spain-the-kleptomaniac-state

In an excerpt from our new book we explain why corruption is endemic to the Spanish state

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19681-the-italian-coup-and-the-growing-crisis-in-the-eu

The unelected Italian President has carried out a soft coup which is highly undemocratic and which has thrown the country and the EU into mounting chaos, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19672-crisis-in-italy

Chris Bambery argues that Italian left needs to break with its ways in order to advance
Remember the mantra “too big to fail, too big to fall?” That dates back to 2008 when the great investment banks were tottering on the edge of collapse. Now it is being repeated in ruling circles in regards to Italy. It is, after all, the third biggest economy in the Eurozone.

https://www.luath.co.uk/politics-and-current-issues/catalonia-reborn

2017 saw Catalonia come under the world’s spotlight as it again fought for independence and the preservation and protection of its unique Catalan culture. Answering the questions and complications behind the fight for Catalonian Independence, this book is a detailed guide to the region’s political, historical and cultural issues. For the layman as well as the expert, it takes the reader through the rich history of Catalonia – its language, culture and political background – to the present day, covering defining eras of the region from Franco’s dictatorship to the 2017 independence referendum and elections.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-spain-nationalism-not-tolerance

Spain is currently not a beacon of democracy in the EU. Its cack-handed manner of dealing with the Catalan independence referendum and ensuing inexorable persecution of Catalan politicians has little to do with democracy. This is something most Spaniards appear to support. Good, Spain does not have much of a democratic tradition and even the king has lost the script. As Chris Bambery writes, tolerance has never been a quality that Spain has embraced.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19621-marx-and-the-national-question

Marx's understanding of the fight for self-determination at national level as a step on the road to socialism is useful for us today, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19603-gordon-brown-scottish-labour-and-independence

As Jeremy Corbyn meets with Gordon Brown, Chris Bambery looks at Brown's role in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and the current state of Scottish Labour
The news that Jeremy Corbyn has had a meeting with former prime minister Gordon Brown to discuss what possible life in Number 10 might be like has hardly set the heather alight. Few of Corbyn’s supporters will be enthused by the idea that Jeremy might be listening to the former Labour leader. As Chancellor in Tony Blair’s New Labour government, Brown was a model of neo-liberal orthodoxy. While you cannot blame him for the 2008 financial crash you can blame his and Blair’s love affair with the City of London, encouraging ever greater reliance on the fortunes of finance and the banks with serious consequences.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-catalonia-pandoras-box-not-to-be-closed-soon

In the wake of the 2014 Scottish referendum of independence the Spanish Premier, Mariano Rajoy, told his British counterpart, David Cameron, “Please don’t open this Pandora’s Box again.” *

We know of course that box was well and truly opened in Catalonia and shows no sign of being closed any time soon. But since the Spanish crackdown in Catalonia, which begun with Rajoy sending in paramilitary police to try and physically stop the 1 October Catalan referendum on independence, events there have revitalised the independence movement in Scotland.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19572-what-s-happening-in-catalonia-is-an-assault-on-democracy

As the wave of repression from the Spanish state continues, Catalonia needs our solidarity now more than ever, argues Chris Bambery
What is happening today in Catalonia represents the biggest assault on democracy in any Western European state in many a long year.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/19543-paris-and-london-a-tale-of-two-radical-cities

London has always been the ugly sister to Paris, the City of Light. For anti-capitalists there are obvious rallying points in the French capital – the Place de la République or the Place de la Bastille with their link to the city’s revolutionary heritage. In London the role of the city as the cockpit of the English Revolution of the 1640s is largely forgotten, deliberately so. Demonstrations and rallies take place at Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park or the Embankment, which while being the scenes of past protests and riots, were not built to mark any radical associations. I don’t want to enter a competition between the attributes of the two, modern cities. What I would like to look at is how both were recast in the 19th century, and in London’s case early 20th century, as imperial and capitalist cities.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/19517-the-rise-of-fascism-in-italy

Prior to Sunday’s Italian elections, we were bombarded with articles about how a fascist tide was about to engulf the peninsula, in the form of the Brothers of Italy (part of Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition) and the more sinister and dangerous Casapound.

But as soon as polling ceased this fascist tide didn't simply recede, it disappeared.

http://www.counterfire.org/news/19512-italian-elections-roundup-the-centre-can-hold-but-it-is-weakened

With the possibility of another far-right leader in a European government, the left needs to get it's act together

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/19490-this-st-david-s-day-let-us-remember-guerrilla-leader-owain-glyndwr

This St David’s Day I’d like to recall one of the great guerrilla fighters of all time, and surely the greatest Welsh historical figure - Owain Glyndŵr. From Scotland, William Wallace got the Hollywood film, Braveheart, and is better known, but Glyndŵr deserves equal recognition, if not more. Among those, reputedly, to praise his abilities as a guerrilla leader was Fidel Castro.

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/bambery/1995/01/decline.htm

From Socialist Review, No. 182, January 1995.

The divisions inside the Tory Party threaten to bring the government down. Chris Bambery looks at how the party’s fortunes follow those of British capitalism and how shallow the Thatcher revolution really was

www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/19472-berlusconi-s-back-things-are-not-looking-good-in-italy

The hatred the elite in Italy have inspired, is, for the moment, flowing rightwards, finds Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19458-westminster-and-the-brexit-bubble

Westminster is stuck in a Brexit bubble. The left need to provide an alternative to the washed-up parliamentary politics argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19440-iolo-morganwg-and-the-making-of-nationalisms

"Fakery," cry those trying to belittle Welsh, Scottish or other nationalisms. But English and British nationalism is ridden with such fakery - that these critics ignore.

http://www.counterfire.org/film-review/19407-darkest-hour-film-review

Darkest Hour offers some truths on ruling class contradictions, but retells the myth that the people were fighting for Empire, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19382-catalonia-needs-a-grassroots-movement-for-the-republic

In the new year, supporters of independence need to build a mass movement in Catalonia and solidarity across Europe

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/19377-final-solution-the-fate-of-the-jews-1933-1949-book-review

David Cesarni’s posthumous Final Solution is an essential and magisterial history on Hitler’s war against Europe’s Jewish population, argues Chris Bambery.

http://www.counterfire.org/news/19351-will-the-irish-question-bring-theresa-may-down

Not for the first time, the issues of Ireland and Europe are causing a massive crisis for the British government

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-catalan-response

As work in the Catalan government ministries began to cease on Friday 27 October officials and ministers went home with no plan other than to enjoy the weekend. Hours before the Catalan Parliament had voted to declare the birth of the Catalan Republic. It was a bold move, which grabbed the headlines worldwide but we now know there was no plan to make that more than a symbolic declaration. No plan to begin the creation of a new state or how to respond to the inevitable reaction by the Spanish government.

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-francos-shadow-over-catalonia

Eight Catalan government ministers remain in Spanish jails, as do the heads of Catalonia’s two main civic pro-independence groups, the Catalan National Assembly’s Jordi Sànchez and Omnium’s Jordi Cuixart.

All were jailed by Spain’s National Court. This has a rather murky history. It was created on 5 January 1977, little over a year after the death of the Spanish dictator, General Francesco Franco. Just 24 hours earlier his Court of Public Order had been dissolved. Its president and judges were all then re-appointed to head the new National Court.

https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2017/11/20/catalonia-scotland-the-national-question

Do socialists have a duty to support Catalan independence or simply the right to self determination? How does this relate to the Scottish national question? Chris Bambery wrestles with these thorny issues.

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/bambery/1994/12/dying.html

The date will remain with me for ever. In the early hours of Tuesday 5 May 1981 I was woken by the sound of dustbin lids being beaten on the small streets off Belfast’s Falls Road. After a few moments the realisation of what had happened sank in. Bobby Sands, MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, had died on the 66th day of his hunger strike. As the senior IRA officer in the H Blocks he had volunteered to lead the second hunger strike demanding Republican prisoners were given political status.

Over 100,000 people attended Bobby Sands’ funeral two days later. When he had won the Fermanagh and South Tyrone seat with 30,492 votes a few weeks before it had been a slap in the face to Margaret Thatcher who had boasted that Sands and his fellow hunger strikers had little or no support.

Socialist Review, December 1994

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-how-democratic-is-the-spanish-justice-system

It speaks volumes for Spanish justice and democracy that Carme Forcadell, the President (Speaker) of the Catalan parliament is on trial for allowing a parliamentary debate and vote. Having spent a night in a Madrid jail after her court appearance she was released after supporters raised €150,000 to bail her out. Along with Catalan government ministers she faces charges of sedition and rebellion. That carries a jail sentence of 30 years.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19311-the-multiple-crises-in-the-british-state

The British state is enveloped in crisis more than at any point for 30 years. One more push could topple this government, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19301-catalonia-a-reading-list

As the Catalan crisis grows, Chris Bambery provides a comprehensive reading list to understand more about it's history
Catalonia has burst into the news, and for many of us into our lives. It’s time to discover more about this nation and the rising tide of support for Catalan independence. So, to help here is my suggestions for what to read:

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-franco-spanish-nationalism-and-catalonia

Chris Bambery asks to what degree is the legacy of Spain’s former fascist dictator Francisco Franco determining government policy with regard to Basque and Catalan autonomy movements?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09bz16j

I am one of the guests on the discussion of Catalonia and the morality of self-determination

Watch myself and others discuss what is happening in Catalonia in this documentary - Aparat Ltd for Press TV"

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19287-arguments-around-catalan-independence

As the crisis in Catalonia escalates, Chris Bambery takes on some of the arguments being made against Catalan independence.

http://www.counterfire.org/news/19270-catalonia-waiting

The mass movement can create an independent Catalonia and must be supported across Europe, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/19260-who-was-james-connolly

In the first of our series looking at significant revolutionary figures, Chris Bambery asks what Irish republican James Connolly can tell us about the link between national liberation struggles and the fight for socialism

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19251-the-spanish-state-has-ensured-catalonia-s-exit

Further repression will only radicalise the situation in Catalonia further, argues Chris Bambery
The situation in Catalonia becomes clearer by the day. The Spanish state is prepared to use the full battery of its powers to prevent the people of Catalonia expressing themselves on whether to quit Spain or not, in a peaceful, democratic way. Since unleashing their para-military police last Sunday to beat voters and to smash their way into ballot stations to seize ballot boxes and voting papers, the repressive policies of the right wing government of Mariano Rajoy have mounted. The latest incident is the decision of the Spanish constitutional court to ban a meeting of Catalonia’s parliament on Monday.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/19234-what-is-wrong-with-spain

The response of the Spanish state to the independence referendum in Catalonia is the most recent expression of a history of brutality
What is wrong with Spain? The effective scrapping of Catalonia’s autonomous status by the Spanish state is the most serious attack on democracy in Western Europe for decades. Yet there is nothing said about this by the European Union, of which Spain is a member, or by European governments. There has also long been silence over the fact that there is a very serious democratic deficit in Spain and unless you grasp that you cannot understand why the government of Mariano Rajoy is behaving in such a heavy-handed way.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/19210-catalonia-the-referendum-must-go-ahead

Attempts to sabotage and prevent the upcoming referendum in Catalonia carry echoes of Spain's Francoist past, argues Chris Bambery
On Sunday the Spanish interior ministry announced that the paramilitary Guardia Civil had seized more than a million posters and pamphlets urging people to vote Yes to Catalan independence, in a raid on a warehouse near Barcelona.

It was the latest in a sustained campaign by the Spanish state to stop or sabotage a referendum on independence to be held in 1 October, as agreed by the autonomous Parliament of Catalonia. Spain's Constitutional Court has ruled the ballot illegal on the basis it defies the nation's constitution which decrees that Spain is indivisible.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/19208-scottish-independence

Class and the question of Scottish independence are inextricably linked, argues Chris Bambery
Just over twenty years ago the people of Scotland voted in a referendum in favour of the creation of a Scottish Parliament, controlling much but not all of Scotland’s affairs. Over 74 percent of votes backed the devolution of certain powers from Westminster to Edinburgh. The proposal was backed by Labour, the SNP, Liberals and Greens but opposed by the Tories. The Yes vote was highest in the most working-class parts of the country, with Glasgow voting 85 percent in favour.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19124-survival-is-victory-the-facts-and-fictions-of-the-dunkirk-evacuation

Dunkirk 1940 has always been an ideological field day for our ruling class, Chris Bambery cuts through the fog of war
Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” describes the evacuation of 400,000 British (including many from the Empire) and French troops from the northerly French port in May and June 1940.

Britain’s Prime Minister at the time, Winston Churchill, was more circumspect in saying wars are not run by evacuations, but the naval operation to bring the troops were hailed as a victory by the British media at the time. It would achieve mythical status, with the fleet of small boats which arrived to take men off the beach being hailed as heroes. In truth most men were evacuated by naval ships from the port.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19063-may-s-dup-deal-divisions-galore

The Prime Minister's deal with the DUP has significant implications, writes Chris Bambery


The £1 billion Theresa May plucked from the magic money tree in order to secure the support of the Democratic Unionist Party is something that is going to come back and haunt her throughout the short life time this government will be in office.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19041-ian-paisley-and-the-dup-the-violent-history-of-theresa-may-s-new-best-friends

Chris Bambery looks at the origins of the Democratic Unionist Party and its links to loyalist paramilitary groups

"I am terribly sorry I ever heard of that man Paisley or decided to follow him". Those were the words of a Loyalist gunman, arrested in Belfast in 1966 for shooting dead a Catholic barman and wounding his three companions.

Hugh McClean was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force and when asked why he’d joined this murder gang he replied to detectives:

“I was asked did I agree with Paisley and was I prepared to follow him. I said that I was.”

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19029-may-s-deal-return-of-the-irish-question

As Theresa May finalises her deal with the DUP, it will raise fundamental questions about Irish politics, writes Chris Bambery

You think you’ve got rid of one national question that’s given you a migraine and then along comes another. The only bright note in Theresa May’s head in the early hours of Friday morning was that she’d seen off any threat of independence in Scotland. But it might just be dawning on her that another, older and more intense headache might be returning – the Irish question.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19027-the-election-result-what-happened-in-scotland

It’s worth repeating – that was a tale of two very different elections. One in England, the other in Scotland. In the former the unexpected success of Jeremy Corbyn was the story, in Scotland, it was the major hit the ruling Scottish National Party took.

The crucial feature of the Scottish results was that the SNP lost half a million votes compared to their 2015 result when their haul was 56 out of 59 seats at Westminster. On Thursday they lost 21 of those, with high profile scalps including former Scottish First Minster Alex Salmond and the party’s deputy leader, Angus Robertson.

The second crucial, and worrying feature, was that the Tories garnered an extra 300,000 votes and won 13 seats, overcoming the recent belief that they faced extinction north of the border.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19019-a-vote-for-labour-in-scotland-is-a-vote-against-independence

The biggest problem with Scottish Labour is its desperate championing of the union, writes Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18998-the-blitz-and-the-spanish-civil-war-ways-of-remembering-the-past

How to commemorate the victims of fascism in Britain and Spain is a tricky question, writes Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18975-scotland-the-snp-must-fend-off-the-tories

In a divided Scotland, it is only the SNP that can hold off the Tories in this election, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18960-tories-of-the-world-unite-why-theresa-may-s-workers-rights-are-anything-but

As Theresa May tries to appeal to working class voters, Chris Bambery takes a look at the reality behind the rhetoric

http://www.diplocat.cat/en/catalan-issues/debates-about-catalonia/1299-catalonia-scotland-and-northern-ireland-beyond-brexit

DIPLOCAT organised today an academic event on the political and economic consequences of Brexit at the Queen's University of Belfast

The Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat), together with the Institute of Irish Studies of the Queen's University in Belfast, organised the academic conference "Stateless nations of the European Union in the shadow of Brexit: Catalonia, Northern Ireland and Scotland" this afternoon at the noble Senate Room of the University. One of the conclusions of the debate was that if both Scotland and Northern Ireland voted against Brexit, there has to be a democratic way to keep them within the EU. For Catalonia, the main interest of Brexit is to analyse the response of the EU, as it might influence the independence debate at home.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18900-is-there-a-tory-revival-in-scotland
A Tory revival in Scotland! Before the battle has even seriously begun in this general election the media on both sides of the border are running stories about the Lazarus style revival of the Scottish Tories. Analysing polling figures in the Sunday Times, John Curtice, billed as the UK’s leading psephologist, suggested 12 Tory MPS could be elected in Scotland, and not one Labour one.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18910-catalonia-must-have-the-right-to-self-determination

What's going on in Catalonia? Chris Bambery investigates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK66wNYNxyU

Political commentator Chris Bambery believes the general election will be "a very divisive campaign".

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/18871-the-highland-clearances-a-capitalist-tragedy

The history of the Highlands is steeped in the suffering of capitalism's victims, writes Chris Bambery

https://www.facebook.com/BristolCounterfire/videos/789142167917043/

Video of my recent meeting in Bristol

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18839-campaigning-for-an-independent-scotland-starts-now

What now in the campaign for Scottish independence?

Scottish National Party delegates came away from their Aberdeen Spring Conference last weekend with a spring in their step. Theresa May had just handed them a gift which their leader (and Scotland’s First Minister), Nicola Sturgeon, milked for all it was worth.

The prime minister had responded to Sturgeon’s announcement that she would seek approval from the Scottish Parliament for a second independence referendum at the close of Brexit negotiations. May responded by announcing that Sturgeon could do no such thing and would have to wait until the UK had left the European Union (Westminster has the final say on staging a referendum).

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18801-the-nazis-and-the-british-establishment

In the TV series SS-GB key figures from the British ruling class take part in the resistance against Nazi occupation. But, as Chris Bambery argues, this would have been an unlikely scenario

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18792-trump-is-not-a-fascist

Is Trump a fascist? What is Fascism anyway? Chris Bambery takes a look

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18781-we-are-a-nation-we-decide-catalonia-calling

The aftershocks of Franco's Spain are re-emerging and clashing with 21st-century tensions, notes Chris Bambery

http://www.revolution-1917.org/category/articles/

The young Soviet Union took measures which were radical in giving power to indigenous people, including the Muslim peoples of Central Asia

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18764-iran-and-the-donald-the-us-isolationism-that-did-not-happen

Donald Trump seems set to reignite the US’s decades long vendetta with Iran after imposing fresh sanctions following an Iranian missile test, labelling the Islamic Republic “terrorist state number one.” That view chimes with that of Israeli premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was expressing similar views to Theresa May on a visit to Downing Street this week, warning of Tehran’s “extraordinary aggression.”

http://www.counterfire.org/film-review/18758-heroin-hope-and-hibernian-fc-t2-trainspotting-reviewed

“The world kept moving forward - and we didnae”, Chris Bambery finds a lot to like in the recently released Trainspotting sequel

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/18757-to-the-masses-proceedings-of-the-third-congress-of-the-communist-international-1921

The sharp and dramatic debates during the Third Congress of the Comintern contain lessons on strategy and tactics of crucial relevance today, argues Chris Bambery

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/bambery/1987/xx/jpcannon.html

My 1987 assessment of the American Wobbly and Trotskyist, James P. Cannon

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/bambery/2007/xx/cannon.html

My 2007 review of Bryan D. Palmer's James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left 1890–1928

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18721-the-british-state-and-the-city-part-3

The third in a three-part series, in which Chris Bambery takes a look at the intertwined history of the state and the City of London

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18717-stormont-corruption-and-decay

Can our side benefit as the Northern Ireland power-sharing fix unravels, asks Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/18710-medieval-europe

Chris Wickham’s analysis of the European Middle Ages is a rich introduction to the development of Europe up to the 15th Century, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18706-the-british-state-and-the-city-part-2

The second in a three-part series, in which Chris Bambery takes a look at the intertwined history of the state and the City of London

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18697-the-british-state-and-the-city-part-1

The first in a three-part series, in which Chris Bambery takes a look at the intertwined history of the state and the City of London

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18677-the-state-capital-and-predictions-for-the-global-economy

Admist the festive season Chris Bambery asks what 2017 holds in terms of what affects us most directly: jobs, housing, income - in other words the economy

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18664-approaching-the-end-time-italy-and-the-eu

What’s happening in Italy tells us volumes about what’s wrong with the European Union, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18652-italy-referendum-no-to-renzi

Matteo Renzi has resigned following a No vote in the Italy's Referendum, Chris Bambery analyses the vote and the opportunities for the left.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ybMxaZ3uFo
Me talking on the politics of the Provos in 1988.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18640-beneath-the-bonnet-capitalism-and-cars

A clash of new and old forms of capitalism exposes the anarchy and wastefulness within our rotten system, writes Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18630-autumn-statement-a-bitter-sense-of-gloom

The aftermath of Philip Hammond‘s statement reveals a divided government, hamstrung by squabbles over Brexit

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18625-royal-bank-of-scotland-socialism-for-the-rich

The final reckoning of the 2007/8 crash will be played out in the realm of politics not economics, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18614-things-fall-apart-the-italian-referendum

The Italian referendum on 4 December could be another crack in the EU monolith. Chris Bambery analyses the situation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkjKz9c7kZc

discussion of how imperialism and colonialism are a part of capitalism's detrimentality to people, according to Marx.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

I debate Tom Papworth on Press TV

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18600-the-hidden-spaces-of-struggle

Space and place in the cityscape are battlegrounds, and we have to fight to hold them, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18586-war-and-remembrance-the-poppy-and-the-butcher

The stark horrors of World War I cannot be cleansed to serve the interests of our rulers, past and present, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18577-cold-war-redux-vladimir-putin-and-the-new-geopolitics

Western demonisation of the former KGB director obscures his real manoeuvrings, observes Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18566-the-state-and-capital-the-history-and-the-hype

Tories getting high on their own ideology can result in a distortion of economic history for the rest of us, argues Chris Bambery  

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18553-brexit-strategy-power-class-and-a-government-adrift

The insights of the great Italian revolutionary Antonio Gramsci come into immediate focus as Chris Bambery reflects upon the present predicaments of our ruling class

https://audioboom.com/boos/5140579-the-battle-of-cable-street-with-chris-bambery-podcast

Author and broadcaster Chris Bambery tells the story of the Battle of Cable Street, to mark the 80th anniversary of the key battle in the fight against Brtish fascism.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18544-deutsche-bank-crisis-too-big-to-fail

Chris Bambery looks at the Deutsche Bank crisis in Germany, and speculates about the consequences for the European and global economies

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/18528-transforming-the-past-walter-scott-and-the-historical-novel

Chris Bambery celebrates the novels of Walter Scott, which provide a unique insight into the emergence of the modern world

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18523-80-years-on-remembering-the-battle-of-cable-street

As the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street approaches, Chris Bambery looks at the events that took place in 1936 Britain and the lessons we can take from them

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18508-bubbles-always-go-pop-capitalism-and-the-hanjin-bankruptcy

Chris Bambery takes a look at what happened to Hanjin shipping company and what it tells us about comptemporary capitalism

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18495-hard-vs-soft-brexit-a-tory-party-crisis

Divisions and rifts run rife in the Conservative Party as they try to figure out what "Brexit means Brexit" actually means explains Chris Bambery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTIsrMZBXf8

Dublin Easter Rising 1916, one hundred years on with Keith Flett, Cathy Bergin, Chris Bambery, James Heartfield & John Newsinger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkwgHhd4-D4

Samir Mehanovic grew up in Bosnia, a few miles from Srebrenica. He remembers in 1995 buses carrying women and children, refugees from Srebrenica, and wondering where were the men.

In his award winning film The Fog of Srebrenica Samir talks to survivors about how they have dealt with the suffering. Describing the massacre as an “open wound” within him, Samir asks:

“The world is growing hostile towards Muslims for IS crimes. Should Christians feel equally responsible for Srebrenica? Are we identifying victims with perpetrators? There are lessons we can learn from the Bosnian conflict and the aftermath of the genocide at Srebrenica.”

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18403-strategy-beyond-the-referendum

As the established order falls apart, Chris Bambery argues how the left should respond

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18376-a-growing-sense-of-panic

A vote to leave the EU seems a distinct possibility, and anti-capitalists need to ready for what lies ahead, writes Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18377-in-or-out-what-is-the-future-for-british-capitalism

Whichever way the vote goes on June 23rd, Chris Bambery argues we all need to come together to resist austerity and racism.

http://www.isscotland.org/post/145296711466/via-httpswwwyoutubecomwatchv-oy9wedmgirk

My meeting in Edinburgh on the importance of two great Marxists.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18346-the-dying-days-of-a-dying-regime

These are end times for David Cameron’s rule, but our side still has to act, argues Chris Bambery

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18327-james-connolly-a-revolutionary-remembered-2

12 May marked the centenary of the state murder of working class hero James Connolly. Chris Bambery reflects

https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/3985/chris-bambery-why-english-politics-is-more-exciting-than-scotland-s-right-now

Author Chris Bambery says the tables have turned in the last year and English politics have become the most interesting in the UK right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbS-Lb8i3YQ&feature=youtu.be

Today's Middle East is largely the result of the division of the region by Britain, and to a lesser extent France, in the years during and after the First World War.
In this programme we talk to Neil Faulkner, author of a new book, Lawrence of Arabia's War, about the partition of the region and of the importance of the Arab Revolt and of that troubled figure, Lawrence of Arabia

Writer and author Chris Bambery warns against allowing changes in the education system in England to have a knock-on effect in Scotland

http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/04/10/459989/Britain-David-Cameron-Scandal-Bambery-Nigel/

Press TV has conducted an interview with Chris Bambery, author and journalist, and Nigel West, an intelligence historian, both from London, about recent Panama Papers revelations on British Prime Minister David Cameron’s financial affairs.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18266-the-eu-ratcheting-up-racism

As the EU referendum draws closer, and the Tories split further, Chris Bambery looks at why the debate is not the orgy of racism that so many predicted

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/18259-how-the-easter-rising-changed-the-world

In the final part of our series, Chris Bambery argues that the Easter Rising relaunched the struggle for independence in Ireland and inspired national liberation movements globally

https://youtu.be/iJi9MlEcuD4

In 1916 the Easter Rising was a major blow against Empire and war. It would unleash a chain of events which would end British colonial rule of Ireland.
In this programme we talk to Dr. Kieran Allen, Kieran Allen, author of 1916: Ireland's Revolutionary Tradition, James Heartfield, co-author of Whose Afraid of the Easter Rising: 1916-2016, and Darren Kelly: author of When the Clock Struck in 1916

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UYrd3M37TE

In this second episode we look at how the Easter Rising was a military defeat for the rebels, but in the longer term it helped spark political success. The execution of the leaders, military rule of Ireland, and later, the threat of conscription fuelled support for Irish Republicans.
We discuss this and more with Kieran Allen, author of 1916:Ireland's Revolutionary Tradition, James Heartfield, co-author of Whose Afraid of the Easter Rising: 1916-2016 and Darren Kelly: co-author of When the Clock Struck in 1916

http://www.thenational.scot/culture/scotland-back-in-the-day-the-scots-at-the-heart-of-1916s-easter-rising.15029

My piece for The National on the Scottish women and men who fought for the Irish Republic at Easter 1916

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/18209-a-revolt-against-empire-the-1916-easter-rising

In the second part of our 3-part series on the struggle for Irish independence, Chris Bambery looks at the uprising of Easter Monday 1916

Fist part of my documentary featuring Kieran Allen, Darren Kelly and James Heathfield

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18201-why-anti-capitalists-should-be-anti-eu

Chris Bambery explains why the left has to oppose the EU, which is a neoliberal and unreformable institution

https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/332964-refugee-crisis-record-numbers/

Europe’s migration/refugee crisis is expected to match or even exceed last year’s record numbers. Much of the discussion on what to do centers on the cost of resettlement and whether EU member countries should accept quotas. But why are so many migrants and/or refugees leaving their home countries? And what about the question of culture?

CrossTalking with Chris Bambery, Sukant Chandan, and Catherine Shakdam.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/18190-fire-and-blood-the-european-civil-war-1914-1945

Enzo Traverso's Fire and Blood brilliantly recounts the European civil war of 1914-45, which brought the idea of capitalist progress to an end, argues Chris Bambery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h_UJJBMk34&feature=youtu.be

In 191 US led coalition forces won a rapid victory over the Iraqi army of Saddam Hussein which had occupied Kuwait. It was a major mis-match in military terms.
This programme looks back at the build up to war, the military campaign itself, and, forward, to why this was the start of a constant involvement by the US and the West in the affairs of Iraq and the Middle East.
Presented and produced by Chris Bambery guests include Neil Faulkner and Lord Paddy Ashdown.

http://www.counterfire.org/history/18165-home-rule-and-the-roots-of-the-easter-rising

As the hundredth anniversary of the Easter Rising approaches, Counterfire is running a new 3-part series by Chris Bambery on the struggle for Irish independence

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18132-a-troubled-relationship-the-uk-and-the-eu

Chris Bambery takes a look at the UK's troubled relationship with the EU, both in the past and in the present

http://www.thenational.scot/comment/a-caliphate-for-calvinists-the-author-of-the-original-article-responds-to-the-criticism-of-our-readers.11174

A wee response to the letters attacking my article - available on this website

In this series I will be talking to Ilan Pappe, Gilbert Achcar, Adam Hanief & Moshe Machover.
Islam Channel 10.15pm 23 & 30 December and 6 January

http://www.thenational.scot/comment/letters-special-our-readers-respond-to-chris-bamberys-article-a-caliphate-for-calvinists.11129

The National has devoted two pages to my article A Caliphate for Calvinists.

http://www.thenational.scot/culture/terrorism-and-fanaticism-were-the-early-calvinists-scotlands-daesh.10896
A wee provocative piece by myself.

https://chrisbambery.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/6/
Reasons why anti-capitalists should Vote No in the upcoming EU referendum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ida0lo9l8lI&feature=youtu.be
Annisa Omar and myself review the excellent new Tate Britain exhibition, Artists & Empire, looking at representations of Empire over the last 400 years.

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/10/18/433985/Blair-memo-provides-ammo-for-critics
Interviw with Lindsey German and myself on revelation Tony Blair committed to Iraq war before 2003.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXG9oHfJHD0&feature=youtu.be
in October 1945 the United Nations was born. In this programme Author and journalist Victoria Brittain and Ben Donaldson of the UK UN Association join Chris Bambery in discussing its record and its future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl9rz4IbjmM&feature=youtu.be

On the 10th anniversary of the publication of the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mujammed (PBUH) the Islam Channel's Big Debate has brought together a panel to address this live debate:
Tim Gopsill from the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom,
David Keane lecturer in law at Middlesex University and author of Cartoon Violence and Freedom of Expression and Dr. Omar El-Hamdoon, President of the Muslim Association of Britain. Presented and produced by Chris Bambery.



Muslim groups in Denmark complained, and the issue eventually led to protests around the world, and while the vast majority were peaceful there were some violent protests .

The publication of these cartoons came as well against the background of the so-called War on Terror, 9/11 and the US led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq .

Supporters of the publication of the images argued it was a legitimate exercise of free speech, regardless of whether you agreed with them or not.

Critics argued that they were baiting a beleaguered minority who regarded them as blasphemous and they were Islampohobic and racist.

The debate around the publication of these cartoons has continued over the last decade and became front page news following the appalling attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after it published cartoons depicting the Prophet claiming they were satirical .

Watch the debate discussing all this and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehM0mLnrUM4&feature=youtu.be

In episode two we ask was it necessary for the US to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; why the Second World War was the death knell for British rule in India and the emergence of powerful nationalist resistance movements to Japanese occupation, which Washington perceived as a real threat. Above all in China the Communists became the only effective force against Japanese occupation and used that as a launch pad for revolution. In 1945 the USA saw itself as master of Asia. That was not to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lao6HO-fiIY&feature=youtu.be

World War 2 came to Asia and Pacific in December 1941 with the surprise Japanese attack on the US fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor. In the first episode of Rising Sun: World War 2 in Asia looks at why Japan and America came to war, and why the British Far East Empire collapsed within a matter of weeks. That defeat impacted on the jewel in the imperial crown, India. Meanwhile the Japanese invasion of China would set in course events which would create today’s People’s Republic.

http://leftproject.scot/2015/the-lessons-of-corbyns-leadership-campaign/

In the run-up to the Labour leadership election result at the end of this week, the Scottish Left Project will be publishing several related articles, including specially-commissioned essays on Jeremy Corbyn in particular. As always, we welcome a range of views and encourage unsolicited contributions, which should be sent to blog[at]thepeopledemand.org In this first piece, Chris Bambery surveys what lessons might be taken from Corbyn’s campaign.

https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/312997-political-joke-fighting-corbyn/

Lindesy German, Steven Fielding and myself discuss Jeremy Corbyn's leadership challenge on RT's CrossTalk.
The sparks fly!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VooGM_PtAm0&feature=youtu.be

In just a few short years Muslim armies conquered what we call today the Middle East defeating the powerful Byzantine and Persian empires. This was in part a military conquest but the majority of the population were Christian with significant Jewish communities. They put up little resistance, in large parts because the new Muslim rulers were prepared to tolerate their religious beliefs, in return for accepting Muslim rule and paying taxes. No such toleration was on offer in Christian lands.

Caliphate: The Arab Conquest looks at how the new Muslim Caliphate emerged and expanded so rapidly. Chris Bambery talks to two respected British academics, Professor Hugh Kennedy of SOAS in London and Professor Chris Wickham of Oxford University. This is essential viewing to understand one of the key events in world history. An event which resonates into today's world.

http://leftproject.scot/2015/the-european-social-democrats-treatment-of-greece/

The response of the elite which runs the European Union has been drearily predictable. As with previous referendums in France, the Netherlands and Ireland, when voters rejected EU Treaties, they simply ignore the people’s decision and move on according to the neo-liberal template they work too rigidly to.

Perhaps less predictable is that the “hard cop” role is being played by Social Democratic politicians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU8Xbws8zD8

My documentary for the Islam Channel featuring Ken Livingstone, Anis Altikriti & Lindsey German.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFTsTZX-4t4

Tariq Ali from Athens and myself at Dangerous Times Festival arguing why the left has to canpaign for a No vote in a EU referendum

http://rt.com/op-edge/269974-france-terror-attack-factory/

My initial response on RT to news of the beheading at Saint Quentin Fallavier in France - responding to French journalist who said Islam is the problem.

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isj2/1994/isj2-063/bambery.htm

September 1994 article in International Socialism Journal providing a guide to worthwhile books which help in understanding fascism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x__xXmhRxjE

Interview on why Tories won and what's happening in Scotland.

http://leftproject.scot/2015/the-roots-of-modern-labour-in-ilp-collapse/
A low membership and intellectual sterility has marked Labour in Scotland ever since the ILP break away in 1932. This is a tradition we need to avoid in creating a new radical left.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/05/10/410381/UK-general-elections-Cameron-victory

David Cameron faces some major problems. So while we mourn his victory lets organise to give him hell

http://www.counterfire.org/history/17795-ve-day-and-the-comic-book-history-of-world-war-two

Celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War are an opportunity for Western governments to re-write History argues Chris Bambery

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/04/29/408639/EU-migrants-Mediterranean-UK-policy
There is a silence over British foreign policy in this general election, a silence which flows from the fact all three major parties are embarrassed over their record in office: from the Iraq debacle of 2003 to the chaos now engulfing Libya and Yemen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpQWRgtN4Fw&list=PLWLReh5_uUKRVaF4TeQ_f6-wF6-ZI92_G&index=1
Watch Roshan Muhammed Salih​ and discuss what difference the current General Election will make to UK policy on Palestine with Sue Apps from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and myself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27HqswtrTus
My talk on why the Russian Revolution and why it was a mass, popular rising.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/04/22/407569/Scotland-change-independence

Something momentous is happening in the current British general election and its taking place in Scotland, that rebellious land to the north of England.

http://thepeopledemand.org/?p=1076
London may be home to corrupt elites, property bubbles and soaring inequality, but it is also the UK’s other main centre of radical, pro-immigrant politics.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/chris-bambery/britain%27s-strange-silence-on-democratic-unionist-party

The British political elite has relentlessly demanded the SNP be excluded from government after May 7. Why are they so quiet on the DUP?

Linda Carruthers in Madrid enjoying Spanish edition of my The Second World War: A Marxist History

http://thepeopledemand.org/?p=999

Is the EU part of a radical agenda for Europe’s New Left? Autonomist leader Toni Negri used a Guardian article to say “yes”. Here, Chris Bambery offers an alternative view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuqh1D0O8P8

Documentary of relationship between Radical Islam and British government foreign policy

https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/chris-bambery/left-needs-to-confront-its-illusions-about-eu

How can we voice opposition to the EU without sounding like Nigel Farage?

https://commonspace.scot/articles/530/after-the-eu-greece-deal-should-scotland-become-more-eurosceptic

Jim Sillars, Colin Fox, Christina McKelvie and Chris Bambery give their views on Scotland and the EU

http://monthlyreview.org/2015/02/01/the-struggle-for-scotlands-future/

Paul Buhle's excellent review of my A People's History of Scotland - in full

http://thepointhowever.org/index.php/history/270-the-peoples-army-the-1915-rent-strike

My article in The Point looking back to the 1915 rent strike in Glasgow. The biggest victory scored by Red Clydeside and spearheaded by women.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcDyxi-aVKo
Chris Bambery presents a discussion between Nigel Jones & Neil Faulkner on Churchill's career from the Sudan to Suez, and his war time leadership.

http://www.counterfire.org/history/17682-islamophobia-debunking-the-clash-of-civilisations
We need to refute the idea that we're living through a 'Clash of Civilisations' between the West and Islam - it's dangerous bunkum argues Chris Bambery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEi4yXn7Qng
The release of the Hollywood film Selma coincides not just with the 50th anniversary of the Selma-Montgomery marches, a key episode in the battle for Civil Rights in the United States, but also a current upsurge in protest by Black Americans following police killing in Ferguson and New York City. Joining Chris Bambery to discuss the film, the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and the current issues facing Black Americans are the Black American academic and activist, Season Butler, the American born playwright and broadcaster, Carol Gould, and Black British activist, Amandla Thomas-Johnson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP4N65qoz90&feature=youtu.be
In this programme we will focus on Churchill's relationship with the Islamic world and with the Middle East. We interview Dr Warren Dockte of Cambridge University, author of Churchill and the Islamic World, and Dr Chris Catherwood, also of Cambridge University, author of Churchill's Folly: How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq.

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/bambery/1982/xx/nireland.html

My appraisal of the outcome of the 1981 hunger strike in which 10 Republican prisoners died, published in International Socialism in Spring 1982

http://5pillarsuk.com/2015/01/17/europe-must-confront-its-own-islamophobia-and-racism/
"Shape up or ship" seems to be the message to Europe's Muslims from Douglas Murray of the Henry Jackson Society. This is my response

https://enthemata.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/bev/

«Όλη η τέχνη της συντηρητικής πολιτικής στον 20ό αιώνα είναι να χρησιμοποιεί τον πλούτο προκειμένου να πείσει τους φτωχούς να ασκούν την πολιτική τους ελευθερία έτσι ώστε να διατηρούν τους πλούσιους στην εξουσία». Με αυτή τη φράση ο Άνιουριν Μπέβιν[1] συνόψιζε τον τρόπο με τον οποίο αντιλαμβανόταν το Κόμμα των Συντηρητικών τις εκλογές. Είναι, επίσης, μια φράση που περιγράφει πολύ καλά τη στάση των ευρωπαϊκών και αμερικανικών ελίτ έναντι των επικείμενων βουλευτικών εκλογών στην Ελλάδα

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/17588-syriza-facing-down-europe-s-pro-austerity-elite

The whole of Europe's pro-austerity elite will try and scare and intimidate the Greek people into not voting the left wing Syriza into office. We have been here before writes Chris Bambery

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/12/29/392276/us-raids-harm-afghanistan-pakistan/
Michael Maloof, former Pentagon official, ans me discuss US drone attacks, the partial US withdrawal from Afghanistan and Obama's claim that 13 years on the world is a safer place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsuRUb8SLZA
My report for the Islam Channel's The Report on the election of Jum Murphy as leader of Scottish Labour

http://commonspace.scot/articles/83/long-read-remembering-the-1914-first-world-war-christmas-truce
My article for Common Space based on the recollections of Scottish soldiers about the 1914 Xmas truce & recalling a game of football in No Mans Land

http://thepeopledemand.org/?p=549
An extract from my A People's History of Scotland looking at the life of helen Crawfurd; a key figure on Red Clydeside, sufragette, anti-war activist and Communist.

The Crisis of the British Regime, Inequality & broken politics in austerity Britain.
The Crisis of the British Regime, Inequality & broken politics in austerity Britain.
Danny Dorling, Liz Fekete, Lindsey German & myself talk about the mess the UK is in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9fqupoGkJ0&sns=fb

What would happen if there was a radical government in an independent Scotland? How would corporate capitalism react? Who are the Scottish ruling class today? Has Scotland always been radical? Why we need to understand Scotland's history so we understand the battle ground on which we fight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KyWR9Ft_Vs

What follows on from the Radical Indepence Conference 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmKNuWwwOK8&feature=youtu.be

Documentary produced & presented by Chris Bambery in which he talks to Professor Gilbert Achcar, journalist Victoria Brittain & Husam Zomlot of Fatah about Arafat's life & achievements

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGagIz6lnkY&feature=youtu.be

Chris Bambery discusses what the legacy of Yasser Arafat was with Martin Linton and Kevin Ovenden

http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/blog/gough-whitlam-the-pm-deposed-by-the-monarchy/

The former Labour prime minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam, has died aged 98. In a long life one event stands out; his dismissal as elected prime minister by the direct representative of Queen Elizabeth 11. - See more at: http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/blog/gough-whitlam-the-pm-deposed-by-the-monarchy/#sthash.EhY0JbzJ.dpuf

http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/2014/10/britain-is-still-in-crisis/

Chris Bambery argues that, despite the "No" vote in the referendum last month, the British state remains mired in a deep crisis with no obvious way out. - See more at: http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/2014/10/britain-is-still-in-crisis/#sthash.tAr1enqQ.dpuf

http://www.bigissue.com/features/interviews/4379/dennis-skinner-interview-the-british-working-class-should-stand-together

Series of interviews - including with myself - on outcome of the Scottish referendum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJxqHx7HFfA

n November 1918 the guns fell silent and an armistice was signed by Germany ending the First World War. But there was no peace in the following two decades. Wars, revolutions and civil wars tore Europe apart and across Asia and Africa there was a growing wave of anti-colonial rebellions.
In the seven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFGsnpy_kDo

How has Britain commemorated those Muslim soldiers who fought and died for it during World War 1? How many people know that in 1914 after war broke out the Indian Army, made up of Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus was transferred to fight in France and later in the Middle East? Did you know Brighton Pavilion was turned into a hospital for them and that a special Muslim burial ground was constructed in Surrey?

http://youtu.be/h_DGqFy6Oro

Scotland's Vote Britain's Crisis - Politics After the Referendum - Chris Bambery Jonathon Shafi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-FnJVwHwCE

Scores of books and a blockbuster film have been made about Lawrence of Arabia. But what motivated the man. Was he genuine in wanting to lead the Arab revolt to the creation of a state uniting the Arabs of the Middle East or was he simply acing on behalf of British imperial interests? In Episode 5 of The Great War: A War to End Wars? We talk to Scott Anderson about his new biography, Lawrence in Arabia.

http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/blog/labour-living-on-borrowed-time/

Following Yes majorities in party heartlands and as the knives come out for Darling and Alexander after a disastrous campaign, Chris Bambery examines a Scottish Labour under threat of annihilation.

http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/blog/the-referendum-winners-losers/

Chris Bambery argues that, despite the overall result, there are a number of positives that the radical left can take from the independence referendum while Labour and the Conservatives have fresh problems to ponder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5RToP3yb_4&feature=youtu.be

In 1914 the Indian Army was dispatched to France to stop the German advance. Later it was transferred to modern Iraq. This episode looks at the role of Muslim, Hindu and Sikh soldiers in defending Britain's Empire.

http://rt.com/shows/crosstalk/188996-scotland-referendum-independence-fail/

Why did Scotland’s referendum fail? Would the establishment ever allow an independent Scotland? Is this the last time we will see a vote for independence in Scotland? Was the result of the referendum considered a success for the Scottish? Did this referendum pave the way for others – for example Catalonia?

CrossTalking with Chris Bambery and David Coburn.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/17433-no-to-independence-but-no-confidence-in-the-union

The British elite threw everything into stopping a Yes win, but the narrowness of the No vote adds to the crisis of the United Kingdom

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/09/bring-on-scottish-independence/

British elites fear Scottish independence for a reason. My article in Jacobin magazine

http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/blog/know-your-enemy/

Chris Bambery argues that we must remember that Britain is our main enemy in the run up to Thursday's referendum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv4wzTxkPb8

Essential viewing. My report on Scotland's Referendum: The Muslim View, shown on The Islam Channel.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/09/13/378602/uk-trying-shock-awe-war-on-scot-vote/

Press TV has conducted an interview with Chris Bambery, a political commentator, from London, to discuss the situation in Scotland.

http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/blog/yes-vote-gives-bigots-their-marching-orders/

As the Orange Order takes to the streets of Edinburgh in defence of the Union, Chris Bambery recalls the roots of anti-Catholic sectarianism in the colonisation of Ireland and the military repression of its restless population. The vitality of Scottish culture and the intensity of the independence debate point to a new Scotland where the politics of the Orange Order appear increasingly absurd. - See more at: http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/blog/yes-vote-gives-bigots-their-marching-orders/#sthash.1nI6UYFU.dpuf

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/17418-a-thunderclap-in-westminster

Written on Sunday 7 September as panic set in across Westminster. The reaction by Cameron, Miliband and Clegg jusr reinforces the central thrust of the article.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdeCxnD1hAM&index=9&list=PLVrg5xLmCvhHsW5cMoNOJvCq_vaiR5nPK

Would Scotland Be Better Off Independent of the UK?
Chris Bambery, author of A People’s History of Scotland, joins David Pakman to discuss the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom

http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/blog/monetarism-the-currency-question/
Chris Bambery asks why Better Together are so obsessed by currency. - See more at: http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/blog/monetarism-the-currency-question/#sthash.7xnfwYRA.dpuf

http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/2014/09/the-meaning-of-precarity/
Following a near 25% fall in earnings for the self-employed between 2008 and 2012, Chris Bambery considers the increasing propensity of precarious work and its implications for organisation. - See more at: http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/2014/09/the-meaning-of-precarity/#sthash.fCfx6yfT.dpuf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiYZipp7pNY
Can we blame the problems besetting the Middle East on the First World War? During the 1914-1918 conflict the dominant imperial power, secretly agreed to partition the region with France, declared its support for a Jewish state in Palestine, and promised a pan-Arab state if the Arabs rose up against Ottoman rule. All three things were in sharp contradiction to each other.
In this episode we discuss with Dr. Florence Gaub and Dr. Jamie Allinson if the problems besetting today's Middle East have their roots in the First World War.

http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isj2/1995/isj2-067/bambery.htm
1995 article in International Socialism Journal on what was at stake in the Second World War. This provides a taster for my book The Second World War: A Marxist History.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN0G40a9BPE

First episode of the series I produced and presented for The Islam Channel

In the summer of 1914 the world went to war. As the European powers mobilised few could imagine the horror that would be unleashed.

The trigger for war was the assassination of an Austrian Archduke in Sarajevo. In the first episode we look beyond that at the tension between those powers and the arms race that preceded war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7KTL2JEFDw
Did Britain need to go to war in 1914? Why was the conflict so bloody? Were the generals to blame for this mass slaughter? These are just some of the questions raised in Episode 2 of The Great War: A War To End Wars? We bring together Neil Faulkner, editor of Military History Monthly, and military historian and author Nigel James to debate the rights and wrongs of the 1914-1918 war.

http://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-extracts/255-a-people-s-history-of-scotland/17394-a-people-s-history-of-scotland-world-war-i-and-protest

In this first extract of three from A People’s History of Scotland, Chris Bambery describes the social conflict that accompanied the elite deal that was the Union of Scotland and England in 1707.
http://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-extracts/17389-a-people-s-history-of-scotland-the-union-of-1707

As the battlefields of World War I fell silent, there was ushered in an era of recession, revolution, fascism and yet more war. In the concluding part of his series on the Great War, Chris Bambery examines the bitter consequences of the conflict. - See more at: http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/2014/08/the-great-war-part-v-the-aftermath/#sthash.E3WQGVt6.dpuf

My response to No supporters claim support for independence rests on idea Scotland a colony of England
http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2014/08/12/calvinism-militarism-kailyard/

When mutinies, strikes & revolutions ended four warring empires. Part 4 of my series on the centenary of the 1914-1918 war.
http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/2014/08/the-great-war-part-part-iv-graveyard-of-the-empires/

My interview on Jeremy Vine Show, 21 July, discussing A People's History of Scotland
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b049xj89

This article led the best ever selling issue of International Socialism Journal. I was asked to write it by the editor, John Rees, following the election of the BNP's first ever councillor in Millwall. The contemporary pieces are dates but the historical analysis is worth reading.
http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/bambery/1993/xx/fascism.html

23 people came to a meeting organised by Aberdeen Radical Independence Campaign to discuss my A People's History of Scotland. Great discussion and very enjoyable event

A People's History of Scotland is number 7 in the top 10 bestsellers for July at Housmans Bookshop - not bad for London!

Interview with me in Irish Times and article on IRA in SCotland drawn from my A People's History of Scotland
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/irish-independence-owes-an-enduring-debt-to-scottish-support-1.1854392

The following review of A People's History of Scotland appeared in The Scotsman

Fair review in the Sunday Herald

A People's History of Scotland
by Chris Bambery

Nation, people, land: the first history from below of Scotland in over sixty years
A People's History of Scotland looks beyond the kings and queens, the battles and bloody defeats of the past. It captures the history that matters today, stories of freedom fighters, suffragettes, the workers of Red Clydeside, and the hardship and protest of the treacherous Thatcher era.

With riveting storytelling, Chris Bambery recounts the struggles for nationhood. He charts the lives of Scots who changed the world, as well as those who fought for the cause of ordinary people at home, from the poets Robbie Burns and Hugh MacDiarmid to campaigners such as John Maclean and Helen Crawfurd.

This is a passionate cry for more than just independence but also for a nation based on social justice.


Reviews

“Readable, committed and making excellent use of poetry and song to illustrate the fight for social justice across the centuries, Bambery’s book is as concerned with Scotland’s future as with its past. It should be welcomed by everyone involved today in building on the historical struggles for freedom”

– Neil Davidson, author of Discovering the Scottish Revolution


“In telling the stories of the ordinary footsoldiers in the Radical War of 1820, of the cotton spinners’ strike of 1837 and of the miners’ struggles from 1840 to 1984, in describing the lives of such as Mary Brooksbank and James Connolly, Bambery offers a Scottish version of EP Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class”

– Scotsman

THE SECOND WORLD WAR: A MARXIST HISTORY

Chris Bambery


Hardback | 9780745328034 | £75 / $80 / €65
Paperback | 9780745328027 | £19.99 / $32 / €23
Kindle | 9781849647212 | £19.99 / $23 / €23
EPUB | 9781783710300 | £12.99 / $21
PDF | 9781783710225| £60 / $90

To buy the book with a 10% discount and free UK P&P visit:

http://www.plutobooks.com/results.asp?st1=chris+bambery&sf1=kword_index%2Cpublisher&sort=sort_pluto


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Praise for THE SECOND WORLD WAR



'A much-needed, accessible work portraying the political and military intricacies of the Second World War from a Marxist perspective. A major achievement.' – George Clode, Deputy Editor, Military History Monthly


'One of the single best popular histories of the war's origins and consequences that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I highly recommend it' – Alex Anievas, Anna Biegun Warburg Junior Research Fellow, Oxford University


'Chris Bambery provides a comprehensive and detailed alternative history of the origins, cause and aftermath of World War II from a Marxist standpoint. His claim that it was in no way a war for democracy and against fascism will provoke wide-ranging debate.' – Ian Birchall, historian and author of 'Tony Cliff: A Marxist for His Time'

It is a very succinct account of the war, showing that it was a continuation of the cynical and intense rivalry between imperialist powers that had culminated in the 1914-18...
Bambery’s book reminds us of just how many millions upon millions of all races, nationalities and creeds perished under jackboot of dictatorship as well as during a war for markets and global power."
Michael Roberts, The Next Recession, Don't Mention the War, 1 June 2014
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The Second World War casts a long shadow, portrayed as a necessary and paradigmatic war that defeated fascism. During recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, US presidents and British prime ministers have tried to claim they were following in the footsteps of Winston Churchill by standing up to dictators.

In The Second World War Chris Bambery tests this position in a thorough account of the war and tries to understand why it still dominates TV history channels and school history books.

Bambery argues that the conflict ultimately was about a division of the world between the great powers, as well as a rising of ordinary people against fascism. He offers a complex and radical analysis, that is unique when compared to many modern and conventional histories of the war.





To place an order, visit our website at www.plutobooks.com.

Michael Roberts says some kind words about my book in his blog on Obama's foreign policy.

In the first instalment of a seven-part series on World War I, Chris Bambery questions the narrative that Britain was dragged unwillingly into the war. The UK was engaged in a system of imperial alliances which made war inevitable, whilst being the dominant world power, was largely responsible for its escalation into a global conflict. - See more at: http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/tag/chris-bambery/#sthash.BY9M3ErO.dpuf

Britain is locked into austerity at home and endless war abroad. Chris Bambery makes a powerful case for a YES vote at the recent London Forum on Scottish independence - See more at: http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/2014/05/democracy-equality-imperialism-why-scotland-must-vote-yes/#sthash.fHgjtH2X.dpuf

My book launch of The Second World War: A Marxist History at the Dangerous Times Festival in London

My article in Scottish Review looking at attitudes to Scottish independence in London's North Westminster and contrasting them to those in the Palace of Westminster

Chris Bambery examines the balance of power and state of liberalism in the run up to the First World War. - See more at: http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/2014/06/the-great-war-part-ii-empires-ambitions/#sthash.nswiuJcY.dpuf

Antonio Gramsci developed his revolutionary strategy for Western Europe within Lenin's strategic concept of the United Front and developed the idea that revolutionaries had to overcome the hegemony of the ruling class.
http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=307&

My 1996 article on whether sport would feature in a socialist society!
http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isj2/1996/isj2-073/bambery.htm

Interview on Press TV on latest opinion polls concerning 18 September referendum

Join George Kerevan and myself at:

London 14 June: 6.30pm, Waterstone's, Trafalgar Square London
To book go to: https://www.waterstones.com/events/an-evening-with-george-kerevan-and-chris-bambery-on-catalonia-reborn/london-trafalgar-square

Brussels: Tuesday 19 June, 6pm Eglise du Béguinage 2062, 1000 Brussels

https://www.conter.scot/2023/5/12/italian-turn-how-meloni-is-bringing-europes-conservatives-and-far-right-together/

Chris Bambery spoke to author David Broder ahead of his booklaunch in Glasgow, about the fascist roots of the Italian government and its attempts to synthesize a new European right.

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20605-civil-liberties-in-spain-catalonia

The sentences handed out to the Catalan leaders shows the lengths the Spanish state will go to to maintain its control of Catalonia, argues Chris Bambery

https://braveneweurope.com/chris-bambery-britains-inequality-crisis

The debate around Brexit has distracted from the dramtically and tragically increasing crisis of equaltiy in the United Kingdom (very welcome for those repsonsible, the Tories). Chris Bambery puts the situtation into perspective.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/landslide-to-where

Chris Bambery assesses the state of politics and the independence movement in Scotland after the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection