the drumbeat

We seem to be moving ever faster towards a war with Iran, a war which was perhaps planned several months or years ago by the most hawkish and un-human of our species. Blair, in his new role as middle-east peace envoy (!), has been pushing the case for war with vigour:

“Out there in the Middle East, we’ve seen… the ideology driving this extremism and terror is not exhausted. On the contrary it believes it can and will exhaust us first. … This ideology now has a state, Iran, that is prepared to back and finance terror in the pursuit of destabilising countries whose people wish to live in peace.”

I suppose we should have learnt by now not to be disgusted by such statements of malice by western powers, but this, taken along side the resignation of Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and several hawkish comments by US figures it can only mean that there are people out there trying their damnedest to bring another war to the region. Unless we speak out with increasing vigour from now this war will be a certainty. Indeed, much like in Iraq, even our speaking out probably won’t be enough. Yet another sad episode in human history… and perhaps all we can do is bear witness to its absurdities.

Even talk of war is harmful even if war were not to happen: it is putting back the human rights movements within Iran as people are forced to choose between a government they may disagree with and a war of aggression on their nation. For most, the choice will be an obvious one and reform will be forgotten about for many years. An actual war would, of course, put reform back even further. As the nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi said recently, “Democracy is not merchandise to be exported to another country.Democracy cannot be brought to a nation with cluster bombs’

A quote from the famous 13th Century Persian poet Rumi:

With love bitter things seem sweet
With love bits of copper are made gold
With love pains are as healing herbs
With love thorns become roses
With love vinegar becomes sweet wine
With love the scaffold becomes a bed
With love mishap seems good fortune
With love a prison seems a rose garden
Without love a garden is a desolate place
With love burning fire is pleasing light
With love the devil becomes an angel
With love hard stones melt like butter
Without love soft wax hardens like iron
With love poison turns into honey
With love lions are harmless as mice
With love wrath turns into mercy
With love the dead rises to life
With love the king becomes a slave
(from Masnavi, Jalaluddin Rumi)

A couple of links worth reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Mossadegh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._support_for_Iraq_during_the_Iran-Iraq_war

A change of design

In keeping with other Green Blogs and after the sadness of not being included in the top 20 green blogs on Jim’s blog (congrats to the excellent blogs that made the top 20!), I have decided to opt for a redesign. Hope you enjoy.

I thought I’d use this opportunity to highlight two very very important dates in the calendar in the remainder of 2007.

1) NHS Together Demonstration, Saturday 3rd November. Click here for details.

2) Climate Change Demonstration, Saturday 8th December. Click here for details.

I am sure there will be a big Green Party presence at both demos.

Also, congratulations to Derek Wall of GreenLeft on being re-elected as principal speaker. Good news and I am sure he will continue his (crazily) dedicated work!

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Whilst I can’t be uncritical of Venezuela, I can’t help but be inspired by some of the actions of the government there. Venezuela’s economy is quite dependent on oil, but the government appears to be trying to look at the most sustainable ways of using it: like selling it to Tfl at discounted rates to use on buses so that those on income support can get half-priced bus fares (only 45p a pop). A great way of encouraging people to ditch the car in favor of more sustainable modes of transport.

Tyranny of the Bottom Line?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7037657.stm

Yet another example of what happens when hospitals put profit before people, when the ‘bottom line’ rules supreme. Instead of prioritising human health and happiness, the bottom line has been prioritised. This is absolutely disgusting and goes to show how powerful the ‘bottom line’ is in forcing individuals and groups to submit to its need to be preserved.

As with so many things, an economic system where capital does not rule supreme would help prevent such things happening. For the time being, at least an NHS where services aren’t outsourced and which is provided with an adequate budget to ensure that all hospitals have adequate nursing care all the time would be a start!

Ecosocialist Meeting

Spinning off from the First Ecosocialist International (which I couldn’t go to), there is a meeting in London which I look forward to going to:

Wednesday, October 10, 7:30pm Confronting the Climate Change Crisis by Building a Global Ecosocialist Movement.

Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Sq. Cohosted by Socialist Resistance and Green Left.

Speaker: Ian Angus is a member of the Convening Committee for the international ecosocialist conference in Paris, October 7-8; Editor of the blog ‘Climate and Capitalism.’

Hope it will make for some interesting discussion and perhaps some projects to get involved in long-term (time-permitting!)

Thanks to Greenman for this great post: http://greenmansoccasional.blogspot.com/2007/10/fighting-new-labourand-all-its-works.html

In support of…

…the postal strikes

Not only are the strikes fighting for decent pay for a decent days work, but they are also fighting for something that is important for us, the general public: the small ‘village post-office’. These are the centres of many rural communities and closing them down is a short sighted decision at a time when climate change is such a big concern. In addition they are fighting for a better postal service with no delaying of post rounds to even later in the day. It is important that our postal services are not scaled back any further. The government was warned when the service was privatised that the outcome would be a reduced quality, yet it still insisted on a gradual shift to the private sector. Opening up the service to competition was the last nail in the coffin of a postal service for ordinary people: particularly since the service has only been opened up to competition for business (bulk) mail. The businesses get cheaper post while we face not only rising costs but also fewer post offices while the royal mail has to compete to become more ‘efficient’.

What is the point of efficiency if efficiency means we have less to enjoy our lives with?

Elections elections elections

Green Party Executive elections time again (my second ‘go’ at voting since joining). Male Principle Speaker, Female Principle Speaker, Chair and Local Party Coordinator posts are contested this time round. Like last year I strongly support Derek Wall’s candidacy and hope that he will be able to have a second successful year as male principle speaker. In the election for female principle speaker there are two talented candidates and I am sure that both would be good representatives for the party.

Looking forward to getting the leadership referendum finished so that we can move on to more important targets. General Election fever is hitting the country hard with many reports that Brown will call his election in the next 7-8 days and perhaps even tomorrow. This will be a big election for the Greens, with a good chance of Caroline Lucas and Darren Johnson winning seats in Brighton Pavillion and Lewisham Deptford respectively. Fingers crossed I will be able to make it to both constituencies several times in the run up to any election.