Only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is the touchstone on which the real understanding and recognition of Marxism is to be tested.  
V. I. Lenin
Economic & Philosophic Science Review
Subscriptions (£25 p a.) & circulation:  0771 263 9934        www.epsr-marx-lenin.co.uk
[P&P Bulletin Publications PO B0X 50, London SW 17 9NL] [Post Office Regd.]              
No 1224 March 16th 2004                                                                                                                     25p

"You are liars; your Iraq war was a disaster; your Iraq occupation is a disaster; Blair is a dickhead" Spain's new regime publicly tells Bush and his stooge. BBC toadies counter with "Iraqi opinion poll" claiming that "life is better now". Maybe, but strong resistance still says "get out", and the idea that Western imperialism is solving its warmongering economic crisis is just laughable. Troubles mount everywhere because of lethal trade-war uncertainty and the inevitable parallel rocketing of insecurity everywhere. Spain proves that the idiotic "war on terrorism" is only making things worse. An end to Western imperialist bullying world-domination is the only future, and al-Qaeda's terror-anarchy is merely a symbol of the Third World revolt to come.

Fascist propaganda, defending Spain's part in the Western imperialist warmongering in Iraq, got its come-uppance unexpectedly quickly when public opinion turned against the Aznar government's cynically twisted version of the Madrid bombing.

The bourgeois establishment, — the direct and unreformed heirs of Franco's near 40-year NAZI dictatorship, — tried to brainwash the electorate to blame ETA Basques for the terror blasts and forget all about Spain's disgusting role in the West's blitzkrieg recolonisation of Iraq.

Aznar, who even looks like Adolf Hitler, used every filthy Goebbels-Blair stunt in the book to emotionally exploit voters to back "our way of life, our freedom, our democracy, our rule of law", etc, etc, milking the patriotic-sentiment card for all its worth in a blatant manoeuvre to get re-elected.

Astonishingly, against all the odds, the jingoistic ruse failed.

Far from wanting to "stand firm, refuse to be intimidated by the bombers, show that the ballot is more powerful than the bullet", etc, etc, for an infinity of maudlin clichés — enough common sense entered Spanish public opinion to round on this bourgeois hypocrisy.

"Stop lying. Tell us about your responsibility for bringing terrorist vengeance on our heads by your venal support for the Western imperialist rape of Iraq," the voters and demonstrators replied to Aznar.

And far from the key feature being the "dignity, decency, compassion, respect, and long-suffering humanity of the people of Spain which made the victims of terrorism the victors, and the terrorists the losers", — as the CIA's international media directives instructed the "free-world" press & TV to go on about, — the big issue is that the bomb-blast punishment of the Spanish monopoly-capitalist state for ALL of its rottenness, — whatever turns out to have been the specific grievance of the bombers, — HAD THE DECISIVE EFFECT.

And it is a total waste of time debating whether this was a "good thing" or a "bad thing".

It is just the reality of all imperialist history.

When little-brown nations far far away are being successfully blitzkrieged into total submission, then very few of the "dignified" people of Spain (or any other rat-state in the Western warmongering alliance) could be bothered to do much about it.

Aznar was WINNING the election easily up until the bombs on balloting eve.

But now the imperialist warmongering has suddenly turned NASTY right inside Spain itself.

Kicking the shit out of little brown nations far far away is no longer quite such a smug easy option.

History's greatest lesson of all suddenly and dramatically imposes itself.

What happens when the imperialist warmongers start to LOSE??????

It is the hint that the miserable Aznar regime, — sucking up obscenely and cowardly to sanitize the brutal filth of the US imperialist "shock and awe" total devastation of Iraq, — are suddenly the LOSERS, which has smashed the smugness and produced this sensational turnaround in Spain.

As Rubin, the Zionist toad of US imperialism, admitted on the BBC's R4 Today, — "make no mistake, this was a victory for al-Qaeda".

And although it was not crucial for the validation of this particular historical lesson, it does happen to be the case that this painful and embarrassing humiliation in Spain is in a pattern of disastrous setbacks for the West's warmongering offensive on the Third World overall.

It is disaster after disaster, — as the Third World rejects the brutal bullying domination by Western monopoly-imperialism, which has so set the political climate on edge inside ALL of the Western warmonger states, and inside their stooge regimes already brutalising Third World countries and aiding the US NAZI blitzkrieg on Afghanistan and Iraq.

Even though Aznar would have won an "imperialist triumph" election victory, the smug complacency from all that successful national flag-waving was unusually only just sufficient to keep him ahead in the polls.

And exactly the same situation applies throughout the Western warmongering alliance, not least of all to Blair and Bush at the head of all the sickening moralising hypocrisy, busy putting the NAZI jackboot into Afghanistan and Iraq, and commandeering their natural, human, and geo-political resources to further the Western imperialist domineering over the Middle East, and beyond.

Prior to any complete setbacks on their particular political homefronts, Bush and Blair still stand a chance of flag-waving "imperialist-triumph" re-election.

But too many more battlefield disasters in Afghanistan or Iraq, — or too many successful vengeance strikes by al-Qaeda, and the whole stinking neocolonial mess could blow up in their stupid vicious faces.

And all of the above iron laws of history still apply even if it turns out after all that this particular Madrid terrorism was not an al-Qaeda operation, but someone else.

The crucial point remains the same.

It is the entire global economic SYSTEM of Western monopoly-imperialism which totally dominates world developments, — a system of utterly ruthless exploitation which produces an ever-richer and more powerful Western elite lording it over a relatively ever poorer, and permanently humiliated Third World, (the vast majority billions of mankind), and slaughtering them or blitzkrieging them or otherwise punishing them or manipulating them routinely, — whenever and wherever the Third World starts showing signs of too much revolt.

Even as the nauseating lies and crocodile tears were still pouring out how Spain "was showing the example" for all mankind of "stoically and steadfastly and with dignity defending its values, its way of life, its freedom, its justice, its rule-of-law, and its democracy by solemnly and dutifully going to the polls in defiance of the inhuman and totally negative and destructive cruelty inflicted upon it by forces which represent only hatred", etc, etc, etc, — the barbaric rape of Iraq and Afghanistan was continuing full blast; the cynical US military coup (the umpteenth) was putting Haïti back under more secure lock and key; US imperialism was organising a political coup to overthrow the president of South Korea for his liberalism towards the North Korean workers state; and Gaza's 1.4 million Palestinian population was still being even more brutally and viciously savaged by its Jewish colonist tormentors and torturers than ever before, for showing increased signs of resistance to the genocidal stealing of their country to create the perpetual imperialist-thug abomination called "Israel".

Not to mention scores more other acts of violence going on right now, — in operation, or in preparation, — for continuing the Western imperialist military repressive exploitation stranglehold over the rest of the world.

But the point about it all is that Western imperialism is now LOSING the battle of history.

Its 800-year epoch of world rule is coming to an end, and nearly over.

The globalised capitalist transformation of the Third World billions, (plus the magnificent anti-imperialist achievements of the workers states during the 20th century), — has rendered people no longer fitted to remain the blitzkrieged and brutalised wage-slaves of Western domination any longer (see EPSR box).

And once again haunting the West, it was the first whiff of FAILURE which set the amazing turmoil going in Spain as it came out of the dazed shock of the bombings.

For the first 48 hours, the CIA-directed blanket of propaganda bullshit had numbed Spain with all the garbage about "heroism, standing firm, not being intimidated, defend our way of life from those haters whose only wish is to destroy it", etc, etc, ad nauseam, & with blaming ETA Basques (as the officially advised best option for keeping the populace quiet and comatose).

But then came the following new bombshells, — (surprisingly quickly taken up by the capitalist media themselves, well reflecting the edginess that is now subverting the entire western bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie). Out of a rubbish bin in Madrid came the following, via admissions at a hastily and nervously called government press conference:

'We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly two-and-a-half years after the attacks on New York and Washington,' the man said in Arabic. 'It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies.'

Interior Minister Angel Acebes said early this morning that a man saying he was talking on behalf of the military spokesman of al-Qaeda in Europe claimed the group was responsible for the ten bombs that ripped through the rush hour trains.

Acebes said the videotape was discovered after an Arabic-speaking man called a Madrid TV station and told where it could be found.

The alleged spokesman was identified as Abu Dujan al-Afghani but Acebes said the man was not known to law enforcement authorities in Spain and that they were checking the tape's veracity.

The man, dressed in Arab clothing in the videotape, threatened further attacks.

'We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly two-and-a-half years after the attacks on New York and Washington. This is a response to the crimes that you caused in the world, and specifically in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there will more if God wills it,' he said, according to the Spanish government's translation.

A night after millions had taken to the streets of Spanish cities to denounce the killings, thousands returned demanding to know the 'truth'.

An angry crowd of 5,000 defied police orders against demonstrating on the day before an election gathered outside the headquarters of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's People's Party last night shouting: 'Our dead, your war!' and 'Before we vote, we want the truth'.

'You must leave. You cannot have a demonstration or any other kind of [political] act on the day of reflection,' a police officer told the swelling crowd before vanloads of riot police began arriving late in the evening.

Spontaneous demonstrations broke out in several other Spanish cities, including the Basque city of Bilbao, where 8,000 gathered.

Today's Spanish general election has been completely overshadowed by the attacks, as Aznar and his government were accused of a politically motivated cover-up.

Even before the tape or the arrests were known a growing undercurrent of opinion was questioning the official line that the Basque separatist terror group ETA is the main suspect, and blaming Aznar for holding back information, was circulating last night and the arrests threw petrol on people's already simmering resentment.

'We are just people who want the truth. Our pain has been caused by Aznar's support for Bush,' said protester Kika Castejon.

Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is reported to have told his party to avoid any debate on a cover-up while the dead are being buried and some of the injured are still fighting for their lives. One senior Socialist said: 'I have been biting my tongue all day in the face of such lies and deceit while there are 200 dead people.'

The demonstrations that brought an estimated 10 million people, almost a quarter of the population, on to the streets on Friday showed clear signs that some were upset with the government.

Zapatero has followed up by currently sticking to PSOE promises to announce Spain's withdrawal of its forces from the neo-colonial occupation of Iraq with early effect.

But the parliamentary reformist cretin also announced that his first priority would remain "the defeat of terrorism", whatever that means.

It remains to be seen how the sad stupidity of reformist delusions in the "improvability" of the fundamentally incurably corrupt and unjust and murderous imperialist system, take matters forward in Spain.

Zapatero will try to cover his back over his bold challenge to Western imperialism about the "disaster of occupying Iraq" by hiding behind any "United Nations" figleaf which Washington is hoping to produce, when and if necessary; but this will hardly help matters.

The essence of the Western imperialist blitzkrieg and occupation of Iraq will not have changed one bit; and the armed resistance to it, inside Iraq and outside via al-Qaeda acts of terrorist vengeance, is unlikely to diminish.

The rottenness of Western imperialist military domination of the world will remain the same historical excrescence that it has become.

But prior to this Aznar disaster turning the tables on "anti-terror" posturing, US blitzkrieg propaganda held sway.

The CIA'S international brainwashing control via stooge "news" management in every country had quickly turned the Madrid bomb-blasts into instant confirmation of Blair's "Armageddon" hysteria.

The situation is crying out for just one issue to be stressed, — the very frequent widespread warning given from every political quarter following the illegal and lied-about US invasion of Iraq that "this will only INCREASE the problem of terrorism".

Specifically in Spain, the point is begging to be made that the Aznar government had made itself deeply unpopular with the Spanish people, — never mind the Muslim, Arab, and Middle Eastern worlds, — by posturing as the most eager political and military accomplices in America's infamous "shock and awe" devastation of Iraq.

Having helped wipe out the entire state infrastructure of the Iraqi people; having helped put 10,000 Iraqis into concentration camps after the killing of nearly 15,000 of them, — the stinking Spanish bourgeois imperialist establishment (the heirs of Franco fascism) now helps the CIA media control organise worldwide crocodile tears for the tragedy of innocent Madrid rail passengers whose suffering has come from an entirely predictable and widely predicted escalation in international terrorism by the hammered victims of colonial-imperialist warmongering.

Utterly MORONIC has been the sole response audible throughout the entire Western world. Comments like "we will never give in to the enemies of democracy", "we will never capitulate to the forces of evil and hatred who only want to kill and maim", etc, etc, are completely irrelevant and totally ludicrous.

The essence of anarcho-terrorism is the DESPERATION of truly billions of people in the Third World who see no hope of justice anywhere from their grinding poverty and cruel treatment from the colonial-monopoly system of world rule, and who decide that they can take no more, — no matter how desperate the "remedy".
 
The unstated media pretence that some "hidden mystery power" is aiming to force some religious backwardness on the world, or just wants to create a world of destructiveness and terror and nothing else, — is nothing but disgusting degenerate gibberish which the CIA propaganda control is CONSCIOUSLY spreading; — worse than any of the garbage that Goebbels and Hitler got up to when German imperialism led the last great warmongering crisis on behalf of the capitalist system, sick from "overproduction" greed and back-stabbing top-dog rivalry.

There is no "mystery power" threatening to convert the West to anything, or hoping for destruction to be society's sole future.

These "enemies" of the West represent the entire Third World billions, and what they want is for Western monopoly imperialism to GET OFF THEIR BACKS.

There is no point whatsoever in all this wall-to-wall broadcast public anguish, writhing in fake political or journalistic pain over specific terror details asking "How could anyone do such a thing to this innocent commuter family", etc, etc, etc, etc.

The "how" is obvious, — indiscriminate terror bombing.

The HUGE question, — which is the most obvious one of all but which the ENTIRE "free world" media had managed to bury following strict CIA instructions — is WHY.

WHY is there this remarkable and growing problem of international terrorism???????????

The "shock and awe" solemnity that all the politicians are bringing to their soundbites backing up Blair's "Armageddon" hysteria, just go round in ever-decreasing tautological circles of total meaninglessness.

Monopoly-imperialism's exploitational offensiveness to the entire Third World is completely ignored.

Conflict exists, allegedly, only because "out there" are "dictatorships", etc, and a "wish to destroy our democratic values and our way of life based on justice and the "rule of law", etc, etc, etc,.

What complete garbage!!!

The most degenerate, evil, and barbaric collections of regimes on Earth has always been the Third World stooges lining up to suck guns and dollar-aid out of America's big fat guts by cheering on the war against communism or against terrorism, — the Suharto regime in Indonesia which massacred millions of its best citizens in a 30-year reign of terror; the Marcos tyranny in Philippines; the succession of military-dictator butchers in Pakistan; the medieval and barbaric Saudi dynasty; the Shah's SAVAK Gestapo-nightmare in Iran; a series of fascist-criminal gangsters all round Latin America like the Somozas in Nicaragua, Papa Doc in Haiti, Pinochet in Chile, Batista in Cuba; Synghman Rhee in South Korea; the apartheid fascists in South Africa; the Zionist genocidal torturers-to-death of the Palestinian nation; Turkish repressive tyrants galore; etc, etc, — and not forgetting Saddam Hussein himself, a typically reactionary CIA product who butchered in Western imperialist interests for nearly 30 years before biting the American domination hand that had been feeding and protecting him for all those years.

So when Labourites say that it is "dictatorships" which all the "enemies of freedom who must be blitzkrieged" have in common, — not necessarily proven Weapons of Mass Destruction, nor necessarily any proven links with al-Qaeda terrorism, etc, etc, —  it is certain that this is the West's biggest stinking lie of all.

And as for the pretence that the Western way of life is based on ballots not bullets, neither side of the equation is even remotely true.

Saddam's regime was financed and armed by Western imperialism for more than 20 years, and turned into an iron-clad monster, not a never-ending Gallup poll, or focus group, or constituency surgery.

And after 10 years brutal sanctions-slaughter, the former US stooge was DELIBERATELY crushed by total "shock and awe" annihilation rather than persuaded or negotiated-down by Hans Blix's UN weapons inspectorate, which was brutally banished from the job by the Bush/Blair warmongering lust.

The pretended "democracy" sincerity is just as fraudulent throughout the West.

Wherever possible, elections are bought by the highest bidder, or by the most persuasive media brainwashing power.

Both Bush and Blair wage war despite having no more than half the political support gained from having been elected in the first place by little more than 20% of the entire electorate's expressed backing.

And in Bush's case, even that small "endorsement" was only gained by hook or by crook, depending on where and how the money and pressure could be best applied. No wonder the Bonapartist dictator Putin can sneer at Western criticism of Russia's new "electoral" sanitisation by saying "you can talk!!".

The reality of Western imperialism's "political way of life" has always been to get away with as much tyranny as possible on every occasion in every sphere of operation. Belatedly, the bourgeois press hurried to turn Aznar into a "deserved loser" at the 11th hour, having prepared to greet him as a "worthy winner" up to that point:

In March last year, shortly before the war in Iraq, Jose Maria Aznar, the prime minister, appeared beside George W Bush and Tony Blair at a summit in the Azores to show support.

Despite public opposition, and massive demonstrations, Aznar agreed to send thousands of troops to Iraq after Saddam's fall. They have stayed, despite the killing of seven Spanish intelligence officers.

Spain's close alignment with Britain and America has brought threats from A1-Qaeda. Aznar's tactics, both against the Muslim terror group and Eta, the Basque separatists, have been as uncompromising as his stance on Iraq.

Since the last Eta ceasefire ended in 2000, Aznar has established a formidable anti-terrorism partnership with Baltazar Garzon, a leading investigative judge.

Herri Batasuna, Eta's political wing, has been banned, assets of £12m have been seized and newspapers and radio stations with suspected terror links have been closed. Last year 187 suspected Eta members were arrested, taking the total to 650 since 2000.

After September 11, 2001, it quickly emerged that AI-Qaeda had strong networks in Spain and had used the country as a base for planning the attacks on America.

Abu Dahdah, the network's leader in Spain, and Abu Talha, a financier, were seized along with dozens of other members, but many suspects had to be released on bail because of lack of evidence.

Spain has introduced the stricter airport security and visa controls seen in many countries since September 11. New anti-terror laws permit the detention of suspects without any right to see lawyers. Trials can be held in secret, following detention without trial for up to four years. Anti-terrorist courts, the Audiencia Nacional, can deny defence lawyers access to evidence held by the prosecution.

The tactics, particularly the incommunicado detentions, have brought criticism from the European Union, the United Nations committee against torture and Amnesty International. Aznar's government has been accused of using the new international attitude to terrorism as cover for an over-harsh crackdown on Eta.

Such moves have proved politically beneficial for Aznar, who has portrayed his opponents as soft on terror.

Last year Eta claimed only three killings, down from 23 in 2000. Until Thursday, the strong-arm tactics against the Basque group and Al-Qaeda appeared to be working.

And this hasty cynical readjusting is also now coming into view over the total NAZI concentration-camp barbarism of the US imperialist terrorisation tyranny at Camp Delta in its illegally held Cuban colony of Guantánamo Bay, now that this SS-style nightmare is being increasingly challenged in bourgeois circles as confidence rapidly fades in any Western imperialist triumph emerging from this entire deepening Middle East mess, from the genocidal occupation of Palestine by Western Jewish military colonialism to create "Israel", to the disastrous blitzkrieg-punishments currently disintegrating Afghanistan and Iraq.

The formerly pro-blitzkrieg Observer now feels it prudent to reflect some different views on the "wonderfulness" of Western warmongering:

THREE British prisoners released last week from Guantanamo Bay have revealed the full extent of British government involvement in the American detention camp condemned by law lords and the Court of Appeal as a 'legal black hole'.

Shafiq Rasul, Ruhal Ahmed and Asif Iqbal, the so-called 'Tipton Three',' speaking from a secret location in southern England for the first time since their release, have disclosed to The Observer the fullest picture yet of life inside the camp on Cuba where America continues to hold 650 detainees.

After submitting the men to more than 200 interrogation sessions each with the CIA, FBI, Defence Intelligence Agency, M15 and MI6, the US has been forced to admit its claims that the three were terrorists who supported al-Qaeda had no foundation.

Among other disclosures, the three men revealed:

• That they endured three months of solitary confinement in Camp Delta's isolation block last summer after they were wrongly identified by the Americans as having been pictured in a video tape of a meeting in Afghanistan between Osama bin Laden and the leader of the 11 September hijackers Mohamed Atta.

Ignoring their protests that they were in Britain at the time, the Americans interrogated them so relentlessly that eventually all three falsely confessed. They were finally saved — at least on this occasion — by MI5, which came up with documentary evidence to show they had not left the UK.

• The existence of a secret super-maximum security facility outside the main part of Guantánamo's Camp Delta known as Camp Echo, where prisoners are held in tiny cells in solitary confinement 24-hours a day, with a military police officer permanently stationed outside each cell door. The handful of inmates of Camp Echo include two of the four remaining British detainees, Moazzem Begg and Feroz Abbasi, and the Australian, David Hicks.

	• How early in their ordeal they survived a massacre perpetrated by Afghanistan's Northern Alliance troops who herded hundreds of prisoners into lorry containers and locked them in, causing the majority to suffocate.

Iqbal described how only about 20 of the 300 prisoners in each container survived — and that was only because someone had fired a machine gun into the side of a container, making holes that let air in. The shots themselves,  however, killed yet more prisoners.

American soldiers had held guns to the men's heads during their questioning in Afghanistan, and physical abuse and beatings were rife. At this point, after weeks of near starvation as prisoners of the Northern Alliance, all three men were close to death.

The Court of Appeal criticised the absence of any legal due process at Guantanamo as a 'legal black hole' in a case brought on behalf of Abbasi last year, while the Law Lord, Lord Steyn, has described the camp in a speech as a 'monstrous failure of justice'.

In public, the British Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has spoken of his constant pressure on America to improve both physical and legal conditions, urging them not to deny terror suspects a fair trial.

But the released prisoners told The Observer how MI5 interrogators, in sessions lasting many hours, tried repeatedly to extract information from them that they did not have about Islamic groups in Britain and their supposed links with al-Qaeda.

Ahmed described an interrogation session which took place before he left Afghanistan by an officer of MI5 and another official who said he was from the Foreign Office: 'All the time I was kneeling with a guy standing on the backs of my legs and another holding a gun to my head.

'The MI5 says: "I'm from the UK, I'm from MI5, I've got some questions for you," he told me: "We've got your name, we've got your passport, we know you've been funded by an extremist group and we know you've been to this mosque in Birmingham. We've got photos of you." ' In fact, none of these claims was true.

The three men said that as far as they could see, there were few if any genuine terrorists at Guantanamo Bay: perhaps at worst, a few mullahs who had been loyal to the Taliban.

They voiced grave fears for the future of Begg and Abbasi, who are due to face trials by American military commissions, saying that their own experience of the Guantanamo interrogation and intelligence gathering process was 'almost a recipe' for other miscarriages of justice.

Last night, a Foreign Office spokesman said he could not comment on the men's claims to have been interrogated by British officials while they were still in Afghanistan, saying he could not get access to the relevant files.

In other words, this is a proven illegal torture-tyranny, as nasty as anything in the entire historical record of monopoly-imperialist military colonialism, another 'Hola Camp' disaster for Britain it is being already called, recollecting the near-genocidal barbarism to which Kenya's anti-imperialist kikuyu people were subjected, as White colonial rule tried to hang on against the tide of history in the 1950s.

This swing in the international balance of class and national forces away from domination by Western imperialism is going to cause ever-increasing difficulties for the fake-'left'.

These pretend "revolutionaries", pretend "Marxists", pretend "communists", and straightforward 'left-reformist' demagogues of the Scargill kind, — all now must grapple again with their "condemn terrorism" opportunist sucking up to "democratic" bourgeois morality-hypocrisy which swamped the world after Sept 11.

Will they now "condemn" the guerilla war action against Madrid despite it having usefully forced Spain to abandon the neo-colonial tyranny imposed on Iraq by US imperialism??????

Will they "condemn" the Spanish 'left' voters, even, — for "going along with" the effects of "terrorism"??

Will they perhaps even echo the hysterical imbecility of the more rootless petty bourgeois confusion, and start pretending alarm about "an al-Qaeda takeover of the West to enforce a regime of death and destruction for all and impose backward religious tyranny on everyone", etc, etc.

Basic realities need restating.

Sept 11, and all related activities which both preceded it and followed it, remain what they have always been, — isolated lucky strikes by anarcho-individualism whose "terror" strategy is not a political programme of any kind and is not meant to be.

It is a simple obvious vengeance strike-back by various Third World elements who are being driven to total desperation by the vicious cruel exploitation-injustice of Western imperialist domination of their region and their lives.

It is a loud cry for the West to get off their backs, as they have repeatedly made clear.

It is not for genuine revolutionary anti-imperialism to pronounce either "good" or "bad" at such inevitable phenomena at this phase of Western imperialist economic crisis.

Every bit of political damage to the West needs capitalising upon; and every suspected political or religious "negative influence" arising from such anarcho-individualist terror needs dealing with by serious revolutionary anti-imperialism, as Lenin scientifically explained in his work On Guerilla Warfare (1906).

Any "Marxist" condemnation of "terrorism" for striking blows against hated imperialism is nothing but a self-confession of inadequacy by such "Marxists".

If the revolutionaries want to see a better-led and more effective long-term anti-imperialist struggle, — then go out and do it.

If the communists were getting on with their revolutionary war properly, then there would be very little space for anarcho-individualist terrorism to spark so brightly, Lenin concluded.

One fake-'left' stunt, for avoiding, or simply carefreely getting it wrong on all decisive and difficult theoretical questions is to pretend that "successful, practical community-party building" is the answer to everything, always citing Sinn Féin as the decisive model.

First, let no one try to challenge the outstanding record of EPSR Leninism in arguing from its first weekly issue 25 years ago that the Sinn Féin/IRA national liberation revolution had clearly become the decisive anti-imperialist force in Occupied Ireland whose victory for the eventual reunification of Ireland and dismantling of the pestilentially reactionary armed colonial statelet ludicrously and outrageously launched by British imperialist bayonets in 1921 as "Northern Ireland" and nothing but a poisonous repository of Orange sectarian fascist violence and bigotry ever since, — was both inevitable AND of colossal importance for the SOCIALIST revolutionary future of the British working class, (although SF is not socialist itself but strictly nationalist).

It was precisely the SLP, where these Sinn Féin groupies like to congregate, which DISMISSED the SF/IRA national liberation revolution as a failure, supposedly defeated by a "US imperialist imposed peace settlement" (meaning an end to the original national-liberation war ambitions).

Other 'lefts' described the Good Friday Agreement as a "capitulation to a now guaranteed-perpetual British 'Northern Ireland' statelet for ever"; and Scargill privately scorned the GFA by sneering that he would "never have settled for anything less than the immediate reunification of Ireland', etc, etc, - the "revolution" by "left" demagogy to the last.

And this entire fake-'left' is STILL getting it wrong, and STILL can't see it, — that the Good Friday Agreement in fact precisely amounts to the END of the separate armed sectarian Orange-fascist-British-colonial statelet IN ALL BUT NAME, — and guarantees Ireland's reunification in the not too distant future.

Which is exactly why the "Unionist" fascist-degeneracy political leadership STILL cannot bear to implement the GFA in spite of five years of stalling (which the British imperialist government goes along with for now, Dublin in tow, because of its own embarrassed reasons of wanting the reality of its capitulation (to Irish national liberation war aims in the GFA) to continue unrecognised for as long as possible, and to become as confused and murky as possible by all this subsequent 5 years of indecisive messing about. The cowardly Dublin Green Tories share exactly the same cynical interests with the British bourgeois establishment).

But having said all that, it remains the case that Sinn Féin is far from the "political perfection" that the SLP groupies like to pretend.

It remains the most outstanding political party of anti-imperialist achievement in the entire Western world, but it has no answer at all to the far more complex socialist revolutionary challenge facing Western civilisation as a whole.

Worse than that, Sinn Féin has no allegiance whatever to building a party of Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory, and becomes a bad role model at that point of future development.

And those weaknesses have already been showing for years, joining bourgeois confusion in the imperialist countries on a number of international issues, and missing the point and the opportunity for giving an even more severe kicking to the West's counter-revolutionary skulduggery.

SF has just repeated the error, leaping in to "condemn" the Madrid bombings as "an appalling act" and "an atrocity", — compounding the shallow opportunist nonsense Sinn Féin slipped into over Sept 11.

On top of all that, the SF role model for revolutionary socialist political struggle in Britain gets several crucial points completely wrong.

Firstly, without revolutionary theory for Britain, the socialist revolution will NEVER take place.

The reformist-'left' pressure, advocated by the SLP and SF groupies, is WORSE THAN useless, utterly disarming the working class in Britain, and utterly disarming the international anti-imperialist struggle which can ONLY proceed by stepping things up towards TOTAL CONSCIOUS REVOLUTIONARY MARXIST struggle as rapidly as possible.

Secondly, the correct programme, strategy, and tactics, — the correct theory, — that Sinn Féin did have for its colossal anti-imperialist triumph in Ireland was STRICTLY LIMITED to a 	national liberation victory.

But national liberation and socialism are two totally different things entirely. In some specific historical circumstances, they have run on to each other. But they won't be doing it out of the GFA. And they won't be doing it in Ireland when Sinn Féin becomes the governing party there soon.

Capitalist "reformism" is all that is guaranteed, — such as has temporarily nearly killed off working-class struggle in Britain after 100 years of Labour/TUC class-collaborating lies and treachery in the interests of British imperialism and warmongering.

No, more is needed, — Sinn Féin inspired or otherwise.

Theory is what is primarily needed, — of INTERNATIONAL socialist revolution and the part Britain will have to play within that perspective.

Currently, workers struggle is effectively paralysed in Britain under Blairite insane ranting that "al-Qaeda terrorism is out to destroy with bombs and hatred all Christianity, all Jews, and all peace-loving Muslims" effectively backed by such non-opposing echoes from the likes of Ken Loach and Sinn Féin who "agree' that "we" should "carry on fighting al-Qaeda's appalling atrocities", etc, etc.

What utter total confusion, — all down to philistine anti-theory ignorance, and bourgeois nationalist complacency.

Meanwhile, apart from the as-yet still understandably but hopelessly limited ability to reach a wider audience by the EPSR, — the working class is getting no regular highlighted information or interpretation concentrating on the CRUCIAL economic crisis of the imperialist system which will ultimately be decisive in ALL questions.

And it is the all-important larger-scale countries just on the fringes of the Western imperialist "in-club" where potentially vital developments still proliferate, repeatedly underlining the historical inevitability of solely a REVOLUTIONARY future for civilisation's further progress.

Argentina has come under the cosh again of endemic international economic breakdown, but this time is showing more signs than ever of a nationalistic willingness to resist and fight back against overly-interventionist and bullying Western imperialist diktats.

The alarmed bourgeois press carried these remarkable admissions itself:

A VICTORY for President Kirchner of Argentina, a defeat for reform, and an embarrassment for the International Monetary Fund.

The deal announced formally yesterday between Argentina and the IMF, after weeks of bad-tempered talks, holds the drama of another default at bay. Argentina met the deadline for paying the IMF by a few hours.

But it does almost nothing to solve the fundamental problems stemming from Argentina's default on $132 billion of loans in December 2001, still the largest government default in history.

The outcome of the game of chicken shows the weakness of the IMF's position. Just six months after Argentina's brinksmanship got the better of the fund, Kirchner has done it again.

Whoever succeeds Horst Köhler as managing director will have the job of restoring the credibility that the fund has lost in dealing with Latin America's second-largest economy — mistakes largely made on Kohler's watch.

Kirchner left it until the last few hours before signing the agreement to pay the fund $3.1 billion (£l.7 billion), avoiding a default on Argentina's loans from the fund and the international estrangement that would follow.

His move, as protesters massed in Buenos Aires urging him not to sign, came after weeks of mounting pressure from the United States and other members of the G7 group of industrialised countries.

Yet all the talk by the G7 of taking a tough stance against Argentina was undermined by the weakness of the IMF's position, exposed more than was sensible to Argentina and in a poor position to insist on its terms. As a result of the deal, Argentina will pay the IMF $3.1 billion, due this week, but the IMF will pay it straight back again, as part of a $13.3 billion three-year package that it approved in September.

It was far from clear yesterday that the fund had won any concessions from Argentina on the main sticking point how much it should pay back to private creditors owed more than $80 billion. The fund said yesterday that, as part of the deal, Argentina had agreed to hold "meaningful" discussions with it. This could be meaningless. For all the terse expressions of relief from the fund yesterday, there were no details of what this might imply.

So far, Argentina has offered the creditors just 25 cents in the dollar of the face value of their debt, a sum that some creditors say represents just 10 cents in the dollar, after taking into account unpaid interest.

It is a sign of the fund's generosity to Argentina that it has agreed to say that it passes the test of negotiating "in good faith" with these creditors.

In the stand-off that led to the new package in September, analysts also judged that Kirchner had won, by the same tactic of not giving an inch up to the last hours. The package came after another unwelcome record, when Argentina defaulted on nearly $3 billion that it was due to repay the fund, the largest non-payment in the IMF's history.

Kirchner has been helped in taking a tough stand by the unexpectedly good performance of Argentina's economy. After four years of recession, it grew by 8.4 per cent in 2003 (although it shrank by 11 per cent the year before).

But he has also been helped in resisting the fund's demands by the awkwardness of the IMF's position. Its loans to Argentina amount to about 15 per cent of its total. The G7 countries that dominate the IMF board have made clear their unease about its keenness, under Köhler, for writing more loans to a government that might not pay them back.

There is no question that the fund's perceived softness towards Argentina has undermined its reputation. Other governments, such as Brazil and Turkey, which have been helped recently with big IMF packages, are looking on with interest at the leniency shown to Argentina.

Between them Brazil, Turkey, and Argentina, could easily bankrupt and scupper the entire IMF and the whole of Western imperialist policy which lurks behind that tamest of "international" stooge organisations (like the UN) for carrying out US imperialist commands.

And the way that Third World nationalist sentiment is rising higher and higher, against every aspect of the total injustice of Western imperialism's bullying militarised world-domination, countries like these, singly or in groups, may well decide to go for a total showdown with the Western monopoly-imperialist elite some time soon.

Russia is even more interestingly poised to threaten total trouble for the West's monstrously unjust world-domination.

Western alarm-bells have been ringing almost hysterically over dark fears that without much formal announcement, the farcically "re-elected" Putin has planning thoughts for vastly stepped-up state control of Russia's economic and political influence in the world, — and all the time, still backed, of course, by a most formidable, 'superpower' nuclear-military capability.

Western "free-market imperialist" ideology is already cringing in advance at what could virtually threaten a return to Soviet statehood, if Putin's presidential pride gets frustrated or insulted too much by the corrupt skulduggery of the imperialism-rigged "international free-market".

Huge history-making issues could now be hanging on the massive leadership-trust that the sceptical and highly-competent ex-Soviet masses are now conferring on Putin in their bitter frustration at the rotten deal that the West's "free-market triumph over communism" has landed them with, (thanks to the collaborative capitulation to "market-forces democracy" (i.e. bourgeois exploitation anarchy) by Stalinist Revisionist muddleheadedness).

This Western capitalist press survey gives some of the flavour of the great expectations now placed on Putin, with no clear "freemarket" way of meeting them:

Natasha lives in a one-roomed house in the depths of Vostochni-Chernovsky, a remote and desolate village in the Siberian wasteland of Chita.

The 26-year-old earns £3 a day at the local shop, income she shares with her husband — a £2-a-day security guard for a local company — her mother Olga and her baby daughter Aliona.

Over the last four years, the self-acclaimed miracle of Russian economic growth and political stability of Mr Putin's first term has brought about no positive change in her life, or that of most of the residents in Chita, a third of whom live below, the poverty line.

Three years ago, her family had to sell their flat in town to pay off debts, and then moved out into the "suburbs" — to this greying, dusty cottage in Vostochni. Since then, she said, "prices for bread, energy, and everything have just gone up and up, but my wages have stayed the same." Life is worse than ever. Yet in next Sunday's presidential elections her response to this enveloping misery will be simple.

"I'll vote for Putin, of course", she said. Bouncing baby Aliona up and down in their cramped and humid kitchen-cum-bedroom, she said: "I don't really know why. Maybe things will get better."

Explanation

Her mother, Olga, 49, had a basic explanation as to why Moscow had done so little to improve her family's lot. "Putin simply has not had time. He's had a lot of catastrophes to deal with. There is terrorism and lots of disasters."

For Natasha and her mother, Mr Putin's leadership is defined by his appearances on state-controlled television when he's addressing the crisis of the day.

The Kremlin is in Moscow, a dream city, unaffordable and distant, a one-way ticket there costing the equivalent of two months' average wages. And so, in Chita, as in many of Russia's regions, Putin has attained the status of a fairy-tale paternal leader that his image advisers have so keenly sought. "For many, it's enough that Putin even visited [in August 2002]" said Yevgeny Drobotushenko, a local political analyst. "He's the second president since Brezhnev to bother coming here."

Chita is a forgotten wintry desert. The air is so dry that it rarely snows and the air fills with the smell of factory smoke or industrial dust in the parched frost of a minus 30 winter. The town's flat streets sit between two mountain ranges, battered by the wind tunnel they create. It has not rained for six months. There are no raw materials to bring riches to Chita.

Instead the citizens must eke out a living from selling the region's plentiful wood, or by trade with the neighbouring economic power house of China. It is one of the poorest regions in Russia yet it is also expected to give Mr Putin one of his highest endorsements across the country.

"Even in depressed places like this," said Dmitri Orezhkin of the Mercator research centre, "Putin can expect a vote of 60 to 70% or even higher." Mr Putin's critics say this reflects the president's monopoly on the media, a control that may help to explain why most people in Chita can say who they will vote for, but few can say why.

"In Chita, there is the state TV channel, and a private one in which the local government holds the majority of the shares," said Oleg Kuznetsov, a local independent MP. "Putin gets 10 times more coverage than the competitors." He added that the print media all depend in some way on the local government, run by the governor, Ravil Geniatulin, an independent strongman who is a Putin loyalist.

In a simultaneous vote on Sunday Mr Geniatulin will seek a third term, something only made possible last year when the Kremlin changed the law.

"The propaganda is very effective," said Mr Kuznetsoz. "The Russian, Christian mentality leads to a strong belief in the written word. There is also a traditional need for a khozaht — a strong paternal ruler. When they see Putin on TV he is a virtual warrior, fighting big business, Chechen terrorism or corruption."

"The Yeltsin era was an attempt to bring democracy, but in their hearts people knew this never truly arrived. Today there is no such thing in Russia. Debating its "condition" is like asking me how well my computer works when I only have a typewriter." Four local analysts interviewed by the Guardian agreed that Mr Putin's first term brought no reform or improvements in Chita, bar his renowned stability.

Mr Kuznetsoy insists that the Kremlin will be forced into making some sort of reform in its second term or risk an economic crash, especially if there is a drop in oil prices — currently inflated and providing Moscow with revenues high enough to ensure that pensions and wages are paid.

Mr Orezhkin added: "People are now feeling stability, and the 2004 vote for Putin will, like the 2000 vote, be one for hope." But hope in a future democracy is fading. A group of students asked to conduct a straw poll by the Guardian seemed as keen to vote for Putin as they were to move abroad to work as computing engineers, and considered politics a dirty business. Only a small minority felt Putin was building democracy in Russia. At the Vagonremontnoye Delo Factory, where old train engines have been stripped and repaired since before Soviet times, Nikolai, 51, has spent the last 30 years scavenging electrical parts.

He lives in a state-owned flat, but finds his wage, of £160 a month don't rise quickly enough to keep up with the cost of bread and heating fuel. He admits that any change for the better can only happen in Chita with money from Moscow, but all the same says: "I will vote for Putin. There is no alternative."

Yuri, 55, an engineer, says he will not vote for Putin. But he struggles to name any of the other candidates. "We have a joke here" he adds. "In America you find out who wins the elections two months after they finished. In Russia, we know two months beforehand." 	

But internationally, there is only more and more uncertainty as the major imperialist currencies and stock markets fluctuate wildly in response to repeated trade and balance-of-payments fresh disasters and to ever-renewing "terrorism" fears (meaning the failure of the West's "pre-emptive blitzkrieg" strategy for cowing the entire world).

The "free market" can only guarantee Russia nothing but more agony, and Putin no success at all.

And now Washington is becoming more and more split on economic strategy, with Greenspan now challenging the advisability of Bush putting currency-war pressure on China's vast US trade surpluses.

This could visibly bring the instant total wipe-out of the fabled but hard-to-find "world economic recovery", Greenspan has warned.

Don't wait, build Leninism now. EPSR

E P S R

Leaving the world to be run by the greed of the capitalist monopolies can never stop resulting in periodic crises where trade-war destruction MUST rule, and to which the only antidote is Revolution and a strong workers state, - as these essentials of Marxist-Leninist SCIENCE explain.

Only the crisis events of collapsing imperialist rule interpreted in this Marxist-Leninist light will educate a mass workers party of leadership to do the necessary tasks.

The Revisionist retreat from the Soviet workers state because of crawling to shallow Western glitz and shame at their own past bureaucratic mistakes has only proved the soundness of Lenin's 'State & Revolution' science about a very long period of proletarian dictatorship being the only way for the world to see-off monopoly imperialist warmongering, now back with a vengeance.

***********

It is often said and written that the main point in Marx's teachings is the class struggle; but this is not true. And from this untruth very often springs the opportunist distortion of Marxism, its falsification in such a way as to make it acceptable to the bourgeoisie. For the doctrine of the class struggle was created not by Marx, but by the bourgeoisie before Marx, and generally speaking it is acceptable to the bourgeoisie. Those who recognise only the class struggle are not yet Marxists;  they may be found to be still within the boundaries of bourgeois thinking and bourgeois politics. To confine Marxism to the doctrine of the class struggle means curtailing Marxism, distorting it, reducing it to something which is acceptable to the bourgeoisie. Only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is what constitutes the most profound difference between the Marxist and the ordinary petty (as well as big) bourgeois. This is the touchstone on which the real understanding and recognition of Marxism is to be tested. And it is not surprising that when the history of Europe brought the working class face to face with this question as a practical issue, not only all the opportunists and reformists, but all the "Kautskyites" (people who vacillate between reformism and Marxism) proved to be miserable philistines and petty-bourgeois democrats who repudiate the dictatorship of the proletariat. V.I.Lenin

*********

"The last cause of all real crises always remains the poverty and restricted consumption of the masses as compared to the tendency of capitalist production to develop the productive forces as if only the absolute power of consumption of the entire society would be their limit." (Capital. Vol III. P568.)

*******

" For many a decade past", wrote Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto of 1848, "the history of industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of modern productive forces against modern conditions of production, against the property relations that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie and of its rule. It is enough to mention the commercial crises that by their periodical return put the existence of the entire bourgeois society on its trial, each time more threateningly. In these crisis a great part, not only of the existing products, but also of the previously created productive forces, are periodically destroyed. In these crises there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity - the epidemic of overproduction. Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed. And why? Because there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce. The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary...they have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they are fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, endanger the existence of bourgeois property. The conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them."

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World Socialist Review
(edited extracts from a variety of anti-imperialist struggles)

Trivial brawl in a bar put to farcical use by the sick fag-ends of British colonialism.

THE decision by the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) to make a special report into the Bobby Tohill incident is being seen by republicans as another example of the British and Dublin Government reacting to unionist and PSNI promptings.

In a week that has seen an upsurge in attacks on Sinn Féin by politicians North and South, the decision by the IMC to produce a special report on the Tohill incident "smacks of the grossest political intervention", says Sinn Féin's Mitchel McLaughlin.

"The response to the incident by the IMC stands in stark contrast to reports concerning ongoing unionist paramilitary attacks on Catholics and seven killings over the past year which includes the beating to death of 21-year-old Catholic James McMahon in Lisburn last November."

Announcing that the IMC would be making an early report, its chairperson, the former Alliance Party leader and Speaker of the Assembly, John Alderdice admitted at a press conference on Tuesday 9 March that the IMC face criticism for not "being equally premature in reporting on the sectarian killing of McMahon and other loyalist violence".

Meanwhile, republicans have accused the PSNI's Special Branch "of being up to its old tricks".

Said Sinn Féin's Fra McCann, "the decision by members of the PSNI to visit the homes of people engaged in anti-social behaviour in Belfast to warn them of imminent threats from the IRA are straight out of the PSNI Special Branch's book of dirty tricks".

Over the past number of weeks, the PSNI have visited homes throughout Belfast, in the Lower Falls and Divis areas as well as homes in the Markets, to warn a number of young men they are under threat from republicans.

McCann told An Phoblacht the visits are nothing more than the PSNI trying to put a political spin on the current process and are designed to influence the forthcoming report by the Independent Monitoring Commission.

"The activity last night was PIRA, I'm clear on that," said Orde. The 'kidnap bid' had raised new questions about the IRA's cessation, said the Chief Constable.

And just in case his message wasn't clear, Orde spelt it out the following day. "Orde says IRA is defying peace process," reported the Sunday Times in an interview with the Chief Constable.

"A number of [IRA] operations are going on in defiance of the Belfast Agreement, which suggests they should now have stopped. The implications of this are for others [to determine]," said Orde.

Now it's important to get this straight. Four people were arrested at the scene of what Orde immediately described as a "serious crime". A further three people were arrested in what the PSNI called a follow-up operation but all three were later released without charge.

According to media reports, the incident followed a fracas in a city centre bar. At the Millfield junction with the Falls Road, the PSNI rammed and brought to a halt a blue van. Four men were arrested and another man was taken to hospital. The injured man was later named as Bobby Tohill.

Within hours, the PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde told the media that the "Provisional IRA" was behind the incident.

"The activity was Provisional IRA activity, I'm clear on that," said Orde.

Bobby Tohill, who discharged himself from hospital after treatment, was reported as saying "it was the Provos" to a Sunday newspaper. Tohill later denied speaking to the tabloid.

Tohill, however, told one local Belfast newspaper that he had made no statement about the alleged incident to the PSNI and that he would not be pressing charges.

A number of people were arrested in what the PSNI described as a follow-up operation but all were released without charge a short time later.

"Sinn Féin will not be made a whipping boy, especially by those who have no interest in making the political process work".

After meeting British Secretary of State Paul Murphy and Dublin Foreign Minister Brian Cowen in Stormont, Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said that he had raised in the strongest possible terms his concerns about a political agenda being pursued by elements within the PSNI and the British system.

"There is an anti-Sinn Féin and anti-Peace Process agenda at work," he said.

The original four appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court three days after their arrest. Despite earlier claims by the PSNI, none of the four were charged with IRA membership.

A section of the media has already admitted that the other charges against the four are unlikely to stand and the case will be eventually dropped.

A source speaking on behalf of the IRA leadership has told An Phoblacht that, "the IRA did not authorise any action against Bobby Tohill".

In announcing the incident to the media, Orde had insisted he was not stepping outside his jurisdiction as a police officer. Such matters were "for political representatives to debate", he said.

But within 24 hours we had moved swiftly from an incident involving a handful of arrests, through to questioning the IRA ceasefire, on to suggesting republicans had placed the entire Peace Process in jeopardy.

The show was on the road and anti-Agreement protagonists on both sides of the border were eager to play their part.

"Paisley to demand decision on IRA ceasefire," reported the Irish Times. "It is clear the IRA remains a fully armed and active terror machine that has no intention of leaving its violent, murderous and criminal activities behind" said Paisley.

"Sinn Féin makes me sick" the Belfast Newsletter reported Dublin Justice Minister Michael McDowell as saying. "They [Sinn Féin] are brassnecked, talking constantly in public about human rights," said McDowell accusing Sinn Féin of "stomach-churning hypocrisy".

"This is not a question of using the language of Ian Paisley — this is the language of Michael McDowell. This is the language of every democrat in this society," he said.

"Freeze them out," thundered the Newsletter front-page headline two days later. "That was the broad unionist consensus towards Sinn Féin last night — as the governments dithered in the wake of the weekend Tohill incident.

"With governments signalling that there was no mechanism to exclude Sinn Féin, UUP leader David Trimble said his party would not talk to the republicans and he called on others to do the same."

Meanwhile, the SDLP were being told to be "manly instead of childish" by Ian Paisley Junior, who urged the SDLP to "let go the hand of Sinn Féin". Sinn Féin were "not fit for government" he said and the SDLP needed to "stop kidding around".

"Alleged IRA abduction may jeopardise talks," said the Irish Times, determined to support the DUP agenda of disenfranchising the majority of northern nationalists.

And just in case the reader hadn't fully appreciated the seriousness of "the incident" the Irish Times was there to point it out. "The incident has the potential to destabilise the efforts to restore devolution and could jeopardise what is perceived as a tentative willingness by the DUP to share power with Sinn Féin."

A perceived tentative willingness? Well, clearly no one was willing to overstate the case. Now let's just pause a moment to consider what is being said here. The Irish Times contends that the action of four people on the outskirts of Belfast city on Friday night has jeopardised the entire political enterprise of power sharing and conflict resolution.

No one is suggesting that the Sinn Féin leadership has changed its mind, no one is suggesting that the Sinn Féin membership have abandoned their party's support for the Peace Process. No one is suggesting that the IRA cessation is on the brink of collapse. So where is the political crisis?

The 'crisis', we are told, is in the jeopardising of the 'perceived tentative willingness' — 'perceived' — 'tentative' — 'willingness' — of the DUP to share power with the democratically elected party of the majority of northern nationalists.

So maybe — just maybe the DUP were thinking just a little bit about sharing power with nationalists in some kind of political forum unionists could dominate. And now they might not. For a moment there I thought this was serious.

Now let's just leave Never-never-land for a moment (or to borrow Ian Paisley's own words, Never! Never! Never-Land) and imagine that the DUP might actually be an extreme right-wing fundamentalist party with a history of anti-Catholic bigotry and an anti-Irish ethos. This is a party with a history of opposition to power sharing that has trumpeted its main objective as bringing down the Good Friday Agreement and restoring unionist domination by excluding the vast majority of nationalists.

In such circumstances could it be possible that this so-called crisis is a bit of an excuse?

That's why, hours after the arrest of four men on the outskirts of Belfast city centre, Orde immediately announced to the press that the PSNI had foiled a 'kidnapping' and he alleged it had undoubtedly been the [IRA].

Now, post RUC, this particular Chief Constable would like us all to believe that he is just the archetypical British copper simply doing his job.  And interfering with the political process?