Red Rosa's Spartacus League Stewart McGill

The Venezuelan working class and the Communist Party (PCV) are being attacked by the ruling Socialist Party.

In this podcast, Stewart McGill talks to Paul Dobson, a member of the Central Committee of the PCV. Paul describes starkly and succinctly the nature of the attacks, and asks people to spend some time trying to understand the situation. He also talks about the splits in the Socialist Party (PSUV) and how the crisis could lead to a right-wing victory in the presidential elections later in 2024.

The received perception is that Venezuela has a left-wing government: listen, think again, and always seek understanding beyond your immediate perception.

Some more information to help with that:

Class Struggle Sharpens as Minimum Wage Dismantled



Anti-Communist Attack During President Maduro’s Annual Message to the National Assembly



PSUV Prepares Assault on PCV’s Lawmaker in National Assembly



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⁠The Spartacus League

In this cast I talk to Stiofán Ó Nualláin and Seán Byers from Trademark Belfast about the prospects for the 32 counties of Ireland over the forthcoming years/ decades on a burning planet.



See more about Trademark here:

https://trademarkbelfast.com/

and here for their excellent podcasts:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/trademark-belfast



and this is Seán's book, check it out:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Se%C3%A1n-Murray-Marxist-Leninist-Socialist-Republican/dp/0716532972

The first of our new Spartacus League podcasts. This features Roger Mackenzie, the international editor of the Morning Star, and Aston Villa fan.

The podcast was recorded just after the first reports of the explosion at al-Ahli Arab hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip, so we talked about that and the situation in Gaza more than we originally intended; but it all fitted in with the themes and the intent of the podcast.



Some Links to the people and books that we referred to in the podcast:



Walter Rodney:

https://www.walterrodneyfoundation.org/about-walter-rodney



Saklatvala:

https://phm.org.uk/blogposts/shapurji-saklatvala-an-anti-colonialist-in-the-heart-of-empire/

https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/node/1830



Priyamvada Gopal:

https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/207-insurgent-empire



Hammer and Hoe:

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469625485/hammer-and-hoe/



The Cry was Unity:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2tv8sr



Aimé Césaire:

https://afroribooks.co.uk/products/discourse-on-colonialism-by-aime-cesaire



https://abahlali.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/153945859-Aime-Cesaire-Letter-to-Maurice-Thorez-1956.pdf



Marx at the Margins:

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo22776846.html



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The Spartacus League

A special episode in which Communist Party of Britain General Secretary Rob Griffiths and Convenor of the party’s Political Economy Commission Stewart McGill discuss the unfolding crisis in Ukraine: how we got here and how we can work for peace. This is the comprehensive analysis based on current and historical fact that the supine mainstream media will not provide and is essential listening for those wishing to enhance their understanding of this complex situation.

Further Reading:

https://www.communistparty.org.uk/stop-the-war-start-the-peace/?fbclid=IwAR3AsPD0KKPeUGYc8WxuTMr1EeTONdsYlvd_DtwaSbz4RDkUHoC2ge394Uk

https://sceptical.scot/2022/01/a-crisis-made-in-the-usa-why-russia-will-likely-invade-ukraine/?fbclid=IwAR0IptagsZIFgQcIMJ0bH1gfgTIeRyzgvdPMpXhl6AIX7n2DqyspvBY2iO0

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thenation.com/article/archive/four-years-of-ukraine-and-the-myths-of-maidan/tnamp/

https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-68-putins-challenge-to?utm_source=url

https://ctc.usma.edu/the-nexus-between-far-right-extremists-in-the-united-states-and-ukraine/

https://jacobinmag.com/2022/02/maidan-protests-neo-nazis-russia-nato-crimea

https://www.illiberalism.org/far-right-group-made-its-home-in-ukraines-major-western-military-training-hub/

https://www.rt.com/news/156652-odessa-fire-mainstream-media/

Nothing embodies the idea of sport as politics pursued by other means so clearly, and painfully, as the 1932/1933 cricket tour of Australia by the MCC.  This story has everything: class struggle and prejudice: camaraderie across the class divide; the attempt of a decadent empire to exert control over its uppity colony at a time of economic crisis; the wonderful complexity of Douglas Jardine who hated Australians from above but was always a good friend to the Nottinghamshire miner, Harold Larwood; the secret illegitimate child of the chairman of England selectors bowling for England in the series; splits in the Australian team based around hatred of Bradman and ill feeling between the Irish Catholics and the Free Masons in the camp; all that and some great cricket featuring some of the best who ever played the game.  Apart from the fascinating politics this is one of the best Australian soap operas you will ever encounter.

In Part 2 of this podcast we talk more about the politics of the tour and its aftermath with the very knowledgeable Hugh Kirkbride, an expert on the sport and the politics of this intensely interesting time. The Australian economy suffered very badly in the great depression partly because of its dependence on the extraction industries, this dependence was a function of the colony's place in the British Empire so the tour happened at a time of some tension between Australian and the Mother country, all of which influenced the aftermath of the tour. As well as global political economy we talk about the shabby treatment of Jardine and Larwood after the tour, their enduring friendship across the class divide and how Larwood found contentment through moving to Australia in the 1950s, becoming fully reconciled with the country that hated him so resoundingly in those depression years. 

Nothing embodies the idea of sport as politics pursued by other means so clearly, and painfully, as the 1932/1933 cricket tour of Australia by the MCC.

This story has everything: class struggle and prejudice: camaraderie across the class divide; the attempt of a decadent empire to exert control over its uppity colony at a time of economic crisis; the wonderful complexity of Douglas Jardine who hated Australians from above but was always a good friend to the Nottinghamshire miner, Harold Larwood; the secret illegitimate child of the chairman of England selectors bowling for England in the series; splits in the Australian team based around hatred of Bradman and ill feeling between the Irish Catholics and the Free Masons in the camp; all that and some great cricket featuring some of the best who ever played the game.

Apart from the fascinating politics this is one of the best Australian soap operas you will ever encounter. In Part 1 of this podcast we talk about the tour and its wider context here with the very knowledgeable Hugh Kirkbride, an expert on the sport and the politics of this intensely interesting time.