Jeff Richards Web Diary

Politics from the margins of the Australian Labor Party

Adelaide, South Australia

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I write this stuff because I like writing. Its fun. I am happy that anyone bothers reading it and I am also happy for intelligent conversations about political issues. I don't suffer from the delusion that what I write will change the world. What will change the world is theoretically and historically informed political practice. If you are a responsible human being you should find ways to 'get involved'. You can be conservative, socialist, communist, neo-liberal, anarchist, liberal democrat. You choose your political road... just do it!

Last updated:
6/16/2003; 2:38:39 PM

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MY FAVORITE LINKS

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Christopher Hitchens: Controversial journalist now scorned by many on the left. He is an impressive thinker with an acidic style. Good exercise for the left wing mind

Counterpunch: Acidic magazine of the left. Very focused on the operations of the Washington elite.

Le Monde Diplomatique: Want the best thinkers on politics in a monthly magazine. Here it is. The very best.

Z-Net: Excellent e-magazine. Full of useful links and articles by journalists of the left.

London Independent: This is a wonderful newspaper. For Iraq coverage I go to the search engine and type 'Robert Fisk' and then, separately 'Patrick Cockburn'

London Review of Books: Want really good essays on politics and literature. Try this

New Left Review: Intellectual flagship of the western left since the early 1960's

John Quiggin: Australia's most intelligent economist and political commentator.

The Nation: Published in New York. This is the American liberal lefts best weekly magazine. It has been around for more than 100 years.

Monthly Review: Intellectual journal of the left from New York. Independent of mind. Read and praised by Albert Einstein (who, like Helen Keller, aka Patty Duke, was a socialist)

Andre Gunder Frank: One of the great socialist scholars. Still alive and doing productive work, principally in the area of international political economy. He has his own well maintained web page.

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Tuesday, April 15, 2003

The Last Days

Very shortly before the collapse of resistance in Baghdad, I began to wonder if the Iraqi information minister had lost his marbles. When tanks and aircraft were busily destroying the outskirts of the city, he kept proclaiming the Baath regime was in control.

The now former information minister had a popular following. A web site devoted to him was closed down due to excessive demand (it will be reopened shortly). Its a humorous site, dedicated to his exaggerations. He had some charm and I am sure he will have something of a cult following. It should be noted that the Iraqi information minister was no worse than the propaganda machine of the Washington Consensus. Rupert Murdoch will surely be well rewarded by the neo conservative elite in power. There was a time when I thought that the Iraqi information minister was more accurate in his descriptions than many of the journalists, who were often little more than lazy parrots.

I wondered about those last few days. What was the information minister on about? I then realised that his last efforts were devoted to holding back the possibility of an internal rebellion emerging when the Shia suburbs felt confident enough to take their chances against the Baathists.

When histories are written about the overthrow of Baathist Iraq, I think that the role of the Shia suburbs in Saddam City will be seen as having a central role in collapsing their power. It will be a working class uprising against the state.

Since the collapse of the Baathist regime, under the weight of munitions in this war of subjugation, we have witnessed the collapse of civil order. Commentators are shocked at the lack of preparation on the part of the coalition for this eventuality. It has been asked why there was not constabulary to maintain public order. Perhaps the Americans were expecting to simply take over much of the Baathist apparatus. Unfortunately this was not to be after the failure of the decapitation attempt.

April 12, 2003

11:50:32 PM comment []