Socialist correspondent

While people at home face a horrendous cost of living crisis the UK government is pouring arms into Ukraine as well providing training to its armed forces. This includes British military personnel being present in Ukraine itself. This is not entirely new, however, and is an extension of long term collaboration between the two countries.

While people at home face a horrendous cost of living crisis the UK government is pouring arms into Ukraine as well providing training to its armed forces. This includes British military personnel being present in Ukraine itself. This is not entirely new, however, and is an extension of long term collaboration between the two countries.

For propaganda effect NATO is routinely described in the mainstream media as a defensive alliance, but the reverse is the case. It was founded to confront the Soviet Union militarily and since then it has engaged in wars of aggression and military interventions across the world. This included breaking the post World War 2 peace in Europe by bombing Yugoslavia in 1999. Its hostile expansion eastwards was the most important factor leading to the present war in Ukraine.

The Covid pandemic brought to light problems with South African health care which is plagued by weaknesses in the system and corruption. Despite this frontline workers showed their care and dedication to their jobs and there have been some positives. Wider lessons, however, can be learned from this experience about the need to combat corruption and building a developmental state, much closer to the needs of the grassroots population.

There is extraordinary bias in the reporting of the war in Ukraine. Nothing which deviates in the slightest from the UK/US official positions is being reported and there is widespread censorship of information from the war zone. Dubious Ukrainian sources being uncritically reported. Sites are being closed down and users are prevented from accessing others, but there is alternative information out there.

For propaganda effect NATO is routinely described in the mainstream media as a defensive alliance, but the reverse is the case. It was founded to confront the Soviet Union militarily and since then it has engaged in wars of aggression and military interventions across the world. This included breaking the post World War 2 peace in Europe by bombing Yugoslavia in 1999. Its hostile expansion eastwards was the most important factor leading to the present war in Ukraine.

The news about Ukraine is selective, biased, emotive and rigorously censored. No alternative views are permitted not even the slightest criticism or questioning can be heard on the airwaves. The combination of the media onslaught, the lack of alternative views and being placed on the defensive by the unexpected Russian intervention has disarmed the left and the peace movement. There is a danger that, unchallenged, the West’s narrative on the Ukraine crisis becomes the template by which future such conflicts are understood, at least in the West. We need to keep our eye on the ball of what the US is up to as it tries to ensure its hegemony. The line it is pursuing, with China now explicitly in its sights, is highly destabilising and contains the seeds of future wars.

The sanctions regime against Russia being imposed at the behest of the United States demonstrates its role in determining the direction of the war in Ukraine. It has expressed no interest in negotiations and wants to prolong the war to debilitate Russia as far as possible. The major loser, however, is unlikely to be Russia, which has alternative financial systems and markets to get round the effects of sanctions and is self-sufficient in food and energy. It will, rather, be US allies particularly in Europe who are dependent on Russian gas and oil supplies as well as essential metals used in high tech products and nuclear technology. The effects on the developing world will be even worse with a looming food crisis. The United States itself is relatively isolated from the impact of the sanctions it is imposing on the rest of the world. As it stokes war with Russia and threatens the same with China, it is also undermining European economies and further impoverishing the developing countries.

One view of the Ukraine war is that it is a struggle between two imperialist poles. But that suggests the US and Russia are evenly matched adversaries as Germany and Britain were in 1914 whereas America is clearly the world's military hegemony, with all of NATO's power under its sole command, while Russia is a regional capitalist power, challenging the US, but with nothing like the same reach or influence.

British farming is in dramatic decline and many hoped that leaving the EU and its Common Agricultural Police would signal a change of fortunes for the industry. however, the transition plans put in place by the Tories have failed to address the many problems faced by British agriculture.