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Socialism Today 108 - April 2007

 

Socialism Today 108 - April 2007

China’s future?

China is experiencing phenomenal economic growth as it opens up to the capitalist system. Remarkably, this policy is being driven by the Chinese Communist Party, in power since the revolution of 1949. This raises many questions: on the nature of China’s state and economy; on how long it can continue down this road; and to what final destination. In the first of a series of articles Socialism Today will carry under the heading, the China debate, PETER TAAFFE reviews a new book which attempts to tackle these issues.


Editorial: Will Bush bomb Iran?

ALARM BELLS HAVE been ringing, left and right. John Pilger, the radical journalist, wrote an article, Iran: The War Begins (New Statesman, 3 February), warning that a US air attack on Iran was imminent. The US journalist, Seymour Hersh, reported that Bush had ordered the Pentagon to draw up plans for air strikes against Iran, and special US forces were already carrying out undercover operations inside Iran. (Guardian, 26 February) At the same time, the veteran cold-war warrior, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was warning the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) of a "plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran". (1 February)


Falklands war: what lessons for the labour movement?

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ago Britain fought a five-week war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands or Las Islas Malvinas. Our strategy and tactics on the war, and our answer to ultra-left critics, were explained in an article by Lynn Walsh, published in Militant International Review (Issue 22, June 1982), as the task force sailed towards the South Atlantic. We believe that the programmatic and theoretical issues raised at that time remain important issues for Marxists today.

This online version is the original article in full. The version published in Socialism Today, Issue No.108, April 2007, has been slightly shortened for reasons of space. Some explanatory footnotes and subheadings have been added to the original.


The end of the slave trade: myth & reality

Two hundred years ago parliament voted to end the brutal slave trade. That was after the British empire had been built on the bones of millions of Africans torn from their homes. Today, William Wilberforce, figurehead of the British abolition movement, is portrayed as the liberator of the slaves. HANNAH SELL explains that other mighty forces, especially slave uprisings, were behind the 1807 act.


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Cover cartoon: Suzanne Muna www.squashdonkey.co.uk