Donkeyshott & Xuitlacoche

Post-war praise from US establishment quarters for 1. the Soviets 2. the French Communists Extract from a (1945) article on the difference between Fascism and Communism , as quoted by K Zilliacus, British MP: The USSR, like the US, is opposed to the fundamental Fascist ideas on which Germany has operated: (1) The master race; (2) the State is all important; (3) Lebensraum: and (4) desire to dominate the world. Master Race : If the US is a ‘melting pot’, then the Soviet Union is an electric mixer. Scientists have counted 189 ‘races’ in USSR. Under the Tsars, many of the racial minorities were persecuted; today in the Soviet Union, there is no such thing as racial discrimination in practice or in theory. The people of each ‘race’ have been encouraged to retain their own language, customs and individuality and to educate themselves and develop the economic area in which they live. All-Important State : Some people profess to see strong likeness between the Soviet and Nazi forms of govern...

We must believe in and work toward the further development of Regions. Regions as loose networks of nations, as freemarket areas, as confederations, even as federations and ultimately unions. Witness the historical and epic achievements and lovely narrative of the Coal and Steel Community evolving into the European Common Market and the European Union, spawning, on the way, the political and economic renaissance of its second line members, Spain and Portugal out of fascism and into prosperity, Greece out of royalist and rightwing oppression, Ireland out of historical marginalisation and deep cultural oppression, not to mention the way Irish Republican prosperity has helped the North into a peaceful settlement. Look into your history of the last few decades and note how left of centre French leaders ( Mitterand )have worked together on the European project with right of centre German leaders (Kohl), right of centre French leaders ( Chirac ), with left of centre Germans ( Schroeder ). ...

I believe Yasser Arafat would have approved a one-state solution. I wrote this at the time of Arafat's death. I republished it as Hamas was given a voters' mandate to carry the torch of Palestine into the next stage, in conditions of extreme difficulty...and now again, as Israel has gone from bad to mad. In mourning the death of Yasser Arafat, let me quote extracts from an article by Jonathan Steele in the Guardian Weekly in which he gets the historical context exactly right, in explaining Arafat's greatness:"In the days when Britain was being forced to give up one colony after another, the phrase 'father of the nation' was much in vogue. Julius Nyerere in Tanzania, Archbishop Makarios in Cyprus, and Kenneth Kaunda in Zambia were among the many who won this informal title, not just from journalists in search of a label but, more importantly, from their own people. As teachers, clerics or trade unionists who became political leaders, they were seen as the chief ...

Immediately after liberation the French people were in a condition of exhaustion and demoralisation. The urgency and magnitude of the problems to be solved were so appalling that there was a general mood of apathy and despair. The Communists did a great deal at this crucial time to put heart into the French workers. They gave a militant lead through the trade unions in carrying out emergency and salvage work, repairing railway lines, rolling tock, locomotives, bridges, roads and factories, restarting production in the mines and so forth. From there they went straight on to becoming the driving force behind reconstruction. In the New York Herald Tribune in July 1946 Mr Joseph Alsop [he and his brother Stuart were two very prominent and in/famously right-wing journalists] gave his impressions of the situation in France, based on his own investigations on the spot. French reconstruction, he explained, hinged on the Monnet plan, worked out by Jean Monnet (who was the first Deputy General ...

Letter to the Editors, New York Review of Books, November 2005 Alan Ryan's review of Tony Judt's history of post-war Europe, and perhaps the book itself, are partial in both main meanings of that word. The review lingers on eastern Europe, and gives short shrift to the evolution of European unity, from its origins in the "pointless" Coal and Steel Community to a United States of Europe "not remotely in prospect". There is no mention of what EC/EU membership has done for Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece... It is consistent with this partiality that Slobodan Milosevic should get all the blame for "the breakup of Yugoslavia and the nastiness that followed" and the Germans in Bonn be totally exonerated, although their recognition of Croatia and Slovenia so clearly pointed the way to that nastiness, by leaving Serbia/Yugoslavia out of the equation. Alan Ryan writes: ..."it is hard to believe that [Hans-Dietrich] Genscher in 1991 could have persuad...

Letter to the New York Review of Books About Adam Hochschild's interesting and valuable account of the big Congo exhibition in Belgium… (In the Heart of Darkness, NYRB, 6 October 2005)...He describes how: "Again and again, both the Royal Museum's exhibit and its catalogue pass glancingly over the darker side of an aspect of the Congo's history, and then stress its benign side. " [what benign side is that, by the way?]… This is so recognisable, as the way revisionists everywhere are emboldened these days to recast African colonial history – let alone ignore the existence of post-independence neo-colonialism and its relentless savaging of some African leaders of real quality and courage, like Lumumba and numerous others, in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Africa is once again some dark generalised landmass. The only difference is that these days, you feel sorry for it. Along with the cry "Make Poverty History" goes the Impoverishment of History. The evidence that...

At the end of a series of exchanges on the SA Debate network, in late August 2003, I put the question: What can be done, in any constructive sense, about the serious malaise in ANC policy, and ANC leadership? I said I would do another, a final note, outlining the dream that I have been having. It went something like this...The ANC executive, SG Kgalema Motlanthe, Treasurer Mendi Msimang and others, with other tripartite alliance leaders, call a huge indaba, a big, big bosberaad of all the leadership, including senior stalwarts...Invite the likes of Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale, Matthews Phosa ...Ask them to leave any (justifiably) resentful and (understandably) bruised political egos at the door, along with their inflated business personas, so their charisma, great ability and energy can be redirected to help a revival of the national political project rather than a corporate/enrichment project.Bring in the mobilising and analytical powers of those such as Jay Naidoo, and Pallo Jorda...