This is a post by Dave Dudley, Editor of Leninist Vanguard (personal capacity)
I am sure that like all good socialists (one or two must read Harry’s Place, if only to monitor the Ziocon tendencies at work on the internet) readers of my column have been absolutely shocked and appalled by recent events. The craven accommodation with capitalism and the military industrial complex through its global finance channels, of which Kautsky himself would be proud, has stooped to the newest of lows, one which will no doubt pale other historical phenomena into insignificance, for it is of a treacherous magnitude unknown by even their duplicitous standards.
I am, of course, referring to the recent debate between Sean Matgamna of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty and Moshe Machover concerning Matgamna’s barefaced claim that “The harsh truth is that there is good reason for Israel to make a precipitate strike at Iranian nuclear capacity.” Matgamna’s imperialist love-letter must not be brushed aside lightly, but hurled along with his Irish self-loathing self, at great force. As even the Conrad Party of Great Britain can see, the AWL must be “driven out of the labour movement”. I must apologise for the brevity of this column but such naked imperialism among the so-called left calls for the marshalling of all our collective resources. In the coming weeks, Leninist Vanguard will provide a lengthy analysis of the current crisis on the left precipitated by the Shactmanite apologia for Zionist imperial ambitions. No ideological stone will remain unturned, no rhetorical rock unhurled.
Let us not forget the role of the Socialist Workers’ Party in this affair, however marginal it may be. Through their deafening silence regarding Matgamna’s green light to the Bush regime to carpet-bomb Iran, the SWP has once again proven itself a complicit partner in Zionist aggression and a willing accomplice in the kind of leftist adventurism which begins upstairs at the Lucas Arms and ends with bombed-out apartments in Tehran. We can come to no other conclusion other to view it as objectively pro-Zionist. For all its posturing about the financial crisis in recent weeks, with its demands for nationalisation of the banks now becoming the New Labour script, it should be noted that the SWP is actually responsible for the financial crisis through its unfettered supply of blank cheques for imperialist actions across the globe. I made this point at last weekend’s Respect conference and I am pleased to report widespread agreement with my sentiments.