News and analysis

The
establishment of the Premier League in Britain, a renaming of the old
First Division, in the early 1990s opened up a period of naked
commercial exploitation of football. The new league exists to maximise
the profits and commercial potential of the richest clubs at the
expense of the rest. Central to this are clubs like Manchester United,
the world’s richest club which has now been virtually bought up by US
tycoon Malcolm Glazier, who has grabbed control of over 75% of the
club’s shares.

As a postscript to British Perspectives 2005 (What is happening in Britain)
Phil Mitchinson analyses the results of the recent general election in
the context of mounting insecurity in the British economy, politics and
society as a whole. Labour won the election with the smallest share of
the vote of any victorious party in history. With the government's
majority severely reduced how much longer can Blair last? 'New' Labour
has set off on a collision course with its own backbenches and with the
trade unions and the working class.

This resolution was unanimously passed by the Central London Branch of
the National Union of Journalists in a meeting held on May 12.

The state of the world economy, the USA, China, the disastrous war in
Iraq, all have a direct effect on the situation in Britain. Some may
find a contradiction in the fact that although Blair is very unpopular
he will almost certainly win the elections. The fact is that there is
no alternative. The workers of Britain have not forgotten what the
Tories did when they were in power. But the undercurrents are already
discernable and these will sooner or later come to the surface.

From the main squares of US cities to the streets of Istanbul, from
London to Sydney, demonstrators came out in support of the Iraqi people
and in rejection of the two year long imperialist occupation.

The London Hands off Venezuela campaign held an excellent meeting at
the Walkers of Whitehall pub just off Trafalgar Square after the
anti-war demonstration on March 19, 2005. Hands off Venezuela had a
stall at the demonstration that attracted a lot of attention, where
DVDs, pamphlets and leaflets were distributed on the revolutionary
events in Venezuela.

Elections can provide us with a snapshot of the political mood of
society at a given moment. Yet if we restrict ourselves to who won and
who lost they can teach us very little. This is the editorial from the
current issue of the British Socialist Appeal.

In her usual style Naomi Klein provided many interesting facts, but
failed to reach any concrete conclusions of how we can or whether it is
actually necessary to abolish capitalism. In essence she would like
another kind of capitalism, a more humane capitalism, which of course
is utterly utopian.

The left wing Labour MP John McDonnell has tabled an Early Day Motion
condemning the murder of Danilo Anderson, the Venezuelan prosecutor
investigating the April 2002 military coup against president Chavez.

The Butler Report, the official inquiry into how intelligence sources were
used by the Blair government to justify the war in Iraq, has produced
nothing surprising. It is another whitewash, just like the Hutton report.
What is amazing however is that it provides enough evidence to show that the
government did indeed lie to the British people, that it went to war under
false pretences.