Palestine Solidarity Campaign Meeting

Palestinian Child Prisoners

Public Meeting on Thursday 5th November 7-9pm
Oxford Town Hall, St Aldate's

Chair: Victoria Brittain
Guests: Danny Freidman and Karma Nabulsi

Mike's Letter from America No 16

Kick me out of the Ball Game

There’s lots to write about in U.S. politics at the moment; Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize (which the USA celebrated by launching a missile at the moon); the continuing health care debate, which looks set to deliver a bill so watered down that it can hardly be called ‘reform’; and an increasingly hysterical right-wing campaign against Obama, with public meetings called by Democratic congressmen invaded by mobs orchestrated by Fox News and right-wing pressure groups. But instead, I will write about a lighter subject; baseball.

‘America’s Pastime’, as it is sometimes called, is reaching its season’s climax this month. October is traditionally the time for the post-season play-offs, ending in the World Series. Baseball is a microcosm for much that is good and bad about America. It is traditionally a working class sport, and despite an early history of racial segregation, is very multi-cultural. Today’s professional teams include large numbers of players from Latin America, U. S. players of all racial backgrounds, and, increasingly, the top players from Japan and Korea are playing in America’s major leagues.  It also contradicts some of the clichés about American sports fans who supposedly don’t take to cricket or football (‘soccer’) because they are too slow-moving and low-scoring.  Baseball games can last three hours or more; last week’s game that saw my local team (Detroit Tigers) eliminated lasted 4 ½ hours, and was totally gripping. It is a game that requires (but repays) patience from the spectator, it is subtle, and highly tactical – everything that is opposite to the stereotype of Americas liking entertainment that is flashy and quick. And the teams do not wear sponsors’ names or logos on their shirts.

On the negative side, baseball also reflects the least savory aspects of American society – capitalism and nationalism. All professional sports are big business, but baseball pioneered some of the worst aspects of sport-as-capitalism. It was the first sport to move teams lock, stock and barrel across the country to access richer markets, which began with the migration of two clubs from New York to California in the 1950s. Team owners in the early days of the game treated their players like serfs, a practice which lives on in a punishing 162-game fixture list. Today, the players are millionaires, but the pressure to perform to earn their vast wages has created an endemic culture of performance-enhancing drugs. 

Alongside increasing commercialism is rising nationalism. It has long been a joke to non-Americans that the ‘World Series’ only includes teams from the USA and Canada. The ritual of playing the national anthem before sporting events is an alienating one to me, as both a foreigner and a socialist, but something that you get used to. In recent years, however, the enforced patriotism has been ramped up, and combined with militarism. I first noticed this in 2006, when I was following the Detroit Tigers in the World Series via Channel 5 in the UK. In one game, the commentators read an email from a viewer in the US armed forces, who was watching from Iraq. One of them then said ‘those boys are fighting so that we can have the freedom to enjoy occasions like this’, which was news to me, as I had been previously unaware of Saddam Hussein’s evil plan to destroy Major League Baseball.  Now when you go to a game the tannoy announcer asks you not only to stand for the national anthem, but to do so in honor of the armed forces. At one minor league game I went to this year, the flag was escorted onto the field by an honor-guard of flag-waving boy scouts. The pre-game rituals of baseball feel increasingly like the ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Me’ scene in Cabaret, where an angelic-looking boy singer turns out to be a Hitler Youth member.

The worst aspect of all this is the damage done to the beloved ‘Seventh Inning Stretch’. This is a pleasantly silly ritual where the crowd are able to stand, stretch their legs, and sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ a hokey song about the joys of watching baseball. Today, ‘Take Me Out’ is often replaced by ‘God Bless America’ or some other patriotic song – as if the national anthem were not enough. Maybe they fear our patriotism has faded in the previous 6 ½ innings, and needs a top-up? I’m sad to say that last year one America-hating subversive in New York tried to use this time to go to the toilet, only to be thrown out for disrespecting ‘God Bless America’. I repeat – not just told to sit down, but thrown out and roughed up by two cops.  http://wcbstv.com/local/yankees.bathroom.ejection.2.804859.html

So will understand my mixed feelings about attending a baseball game in the USA during the ‘War on Terror’. But on the plus side, baseball is still an enjoyable game, and the right to burn the American flag is still protected by the Constitution. Now, where are my matches?

Troops Out of Afghanistan- Protest 24th October Oxford coach details

National Demonstration: LondonTroops Out of Afghanistan Now
Saturday 24 October Central London
Called by Stop the War Coalition, CND and British Muslim Initiative

The majority of people in Britain want the troops out of Afghanistan now. They know this war is unwinnable and unjustifiable. The demonstration on Saturday 24 October will give voice to that majority who say the troops must come home now.

Oxford Coach Details:
Subsidised transport to London from Oxford will leave St. Giles at 9.30 pm.
Coach tickets are £11 waged/£7 unwaged can be boughtonline at www.oxfordactivists.co.uk/

10 reasons to get the troops out of Afghanistan...

Pull the Plug on Nazi Griffin

Demonstrate
Unite Against Fascism will be protesting at the BBC headquartersPicket from 9am. BECTU is supporting BBC workers refusing to work.
There will be a national and local demonstrations from 5pm, Thursday 22 October







LONDON Wood Lane, London W12 7RJ (White City or Wood Lane tube)
OXFORD 269 Banbury Road, Summertown

Shame the BBC for inviting Nazi BNP leader Nick Griffin onto Question TimeThe BBC has invited Nick Griffin, leader of the fascist BNP and a man with a criminal conviction for denying Hitler’s Holocaust, onto its flagship Question Time programme on Thursday 22 October in London.

The BBC says the BNP should be treated as if it were a democratic party. But there is nothing democratic about the BNP. It is a racist and fascist organisation dedicated to kicking every single black and Asian person out of this country. Griffin himself wrote: “When the crunch comes power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate.” He isn’t interested in impressing people with his arguments – he wants to back up the BNP’s slogans with “well-directed boots and fists”.


The BBC does not have to give Griffin a platform to spout his doctrine of race hate. It has chosen to roll out the red carpet to racists and fascists. And by doing so, it has chosen to treat black and Asian people with contempt. More airtime for the BNP will lead to more racist attacks on the streets.If you’re disgusted by Nick Griffin and appalled by the BBC’s decision to host him, come join our demonstrations outside the BBC on Thursday 22 October.No platform for Nazis • Stop racist attacks • Unite to stop the BNPLeaflet can be downloaded here.

We urgently need funds to produce leaflets, posters and placards etc to keep up the fight against the BNP. Donations can be made c/o http://www.uaf.org.uk/

Oxford Troops Out of Afghanistan Meeting- Monday 12th October

Oxford Stop the War Coalition Public Meeting

Monday 12th October 7.30pm

Oxford Town Hall St Aldates

Speakers: Tariq Ali and Jeremy Corbyn MP

Ten reasons to get the troops out:

1. The death rate is rising on both sides. The number of British troops who have died is now higher than those killed in 6 years in Iraq. Fifteen soldiers died in the first two weeks of July alone. No one keeps track of the number of Afghan dead but it numbers tens of thousands since 2001. In May more than 140 Afghans, mainly women and children, were killed in one air strike.
2. This is an unwinnable war. The Taliban was defeated in 2001 but is now growing in strength. Osama bin Laden has not been captured. The war is supposedly about defending the Karzai government. But his government is one of the most corrupt in the world. Neither he nor the occupation forces have brought any real improvements for the Afghan
3. Gordon Brown claims the war is about combating terrorism. But there was no terrorist threat to Britain before the war in Afghanistan, or before the war in Iraq in 2003. It is those wars and their consequences that have made Britain a target. Even MI5 told the government the Iraq occupation was likely to increase not decrease terrorism.
4. We are told this may have to be our ’30 years war’. We have fought for eight years and the situation is getting worse. Children as yet unborn will be dying if this war is not stopped.
5. The war is spreading to Pakistan, which is a nuclear state, opening up the prospect of an even more terrible conflict.
6. Life is getting worse for most Afghans under occupation. There is a huge refugee problem. Corruption is rife. While Tony Blair promised in 2001 ‘we will not walk away’ Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the United Nations life expectancy has fallen for Afghans since 2003. Far more is spent on the war and the military than is spent on reconstruction. Aid meant to help the Afghans is not getting through to those who need it.
7. Britain has spent £4.6 billion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq every year – enough money to create 200,000 graduate jobs annually. We should be funding these jobs, not wasting more money on war. Unemployment must not become a recruiting sergeant for the army.
8. More troops or helicopters won’t help. The NATO forces are not losing because they don’t have the equipment but because they are in Afghanistan.
9. We were told that the war in Afghanistan was to liberate women. But women’s lives have not improved. Death in childbirth is rising. The Karzai government even tried to pass a law allowing rape in marriage. Despite all the talk about troops helping girls to go to school, less than a third of Afghan girls are in school and less than 10% can read and write, 7 years after the fall of the Taliban.
10. The majority of Afghans do not want the war and occupation. The majority of British people think the troops should come home by Xmas at the latest. In two recent polls 56% (BBC and Guardian) and 59% (ITN) want the troops out.

Rage Against Labour September 27th

Jobs, Education, Peace! Demand a new direction
Lobby and Demonstration @ Labour Party Conference, Brighton12.30pm, 27th September 2009
Coach leaves Central Oxford 9am
Contact: 07967392229 / gawainlittle@yahoo.co.uk

A coalition of trade unions and pressure groups have teamed up to lobby the Labour Party Conference and call for a change in direction over proposals to cut public expenditure.The government have announced that public spending growth will be cut from 1.1%next year to 0.7% from 2011-12. Alongside this real term spending cut, the government also announced further ‘efficiency savings’ of £9 billion across the public sector in addition to the £5 billion announced in November. Past so-called ‘efficiency programmes’ have had a disastrous impact on all public services.It is against this backdrop that the media and some politicians are trying to create a division between the public and private sectors. Divisive myths about job security, pay and pensions in civil and public services have been voiced in an attempt to portray the public sector as ‘having it easy’ compared to the private sector.We oppose false divisions between public and private sector workers. The real issue is the injustice of making the low paid, wherever they work, pay for a crisis not of their making. We call on the government to defend both public and private sector jobs, and invest in public services, not cut them.

Called by: UCU, NUT, PCS, NUJ, CWU, StWC, UAF, Right to Work.Transport organised by: Oxford & District Trades Council, Oxford CWU, Oxford UCU, Oxfordshire NUT.

More Info: http://www.righttowork.org.uk/

Mike's Letter from America No 15

The Worst of Health

Yesterday, I went to have some blood samples taken. The first thing I was asked when I got to the clinic was ‘could I see your insurance card?’ This is always the first thing an American resident is asked when going for the first time to a doctor, dentist, or even a hospital – except in the direst of emergencies, no insurance = no treatment.

The irony of this is that, if you believe the Republicans and their allies in the media, in Britain or other countries that have a public health system ‘government bureaucrats come between you and your doctor’. Yet in 39 years under the care of the NHS, I never had to see a bureaucrat, government or otherwise. When I lived in Oxford, the NHS medical centre was literally across the road - the only thing ‘between me and my doctor’ was a street. In the US, however, the private bureaucracy of the insurance companies always stands between a patient and his or her physician.

Another example of my experience of the US healthcare system: soon after arrival in America, I went to the pharmacy for a prescribed nasal spray. When told it would cost me $40 (about £26), I asked whether they had remembered to deduct the portion paid by the insurance. They told me that yes, they had, and that the full price for the medicine was more like $400! Now, I know for a fact that this medicine sold for a market rate of about £8 in the UK, where it is obtainable over the counter. With a prescription, of course, it costs even less (and is free in Scotland or Wales).

As shown by Michael Moore’s movie Sicko, the US healthcare system regularly fails those who need it most. Over 47 million Americans (nearly 20% of the population) have no health insurance and, as Moore demonstrated, even those who are covered constantly find that their insurers fail to pay up. Whole armies of bureaucrats are employed by the insurance companies to investigate their clients to find loopholes that will allow them not to pay for their treatment. In 1993, when health care reform was proposed by the Clinton administration, the insurers paid out 95c for every $1 they collected in premiums; now, the figure is only 80c. Meanwhile, their profits have increased by over 400%.

Fortunately, Obama has a plan. To listen to the Republicans and the pundits on Fox News, you’d think he was going to bring in a fully-funded public health-care system, paid for by expropriating the bourgeoisie while strangling some particularly adorable puppies. In fact, Obama’s plans are incredibly moderate, consisting mainly of a public insurance scheme to compete with the private insurers, and making it compulsory for employers to offer health coverage to their workers. His administration has been very careful to reassure the health insurance industry that their profits will be left intact. A few weeks ago, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was on the radio telling listeners that the government-sponsored public insurance scheme would not undercut the private insurers – to which my reaction as ‘why the hell not?’

The other plank of the healthcare scam is the pharmaceutical companies. My $400 nasal spray incident was made possible by the fact that the in insurers are essentially in cahoots with the drugs companies to maximize their profits. Pharmaceutical companies can charge what they like, knowing insurers will (grudgingly) pay up; insurers can charge what they like, knowing that the public have no other choice but to pay their premiums. Yet the Obama plan leaves the big pharmaceutical companies untouched. Recently, Harry and Louise, the adorable white middle-class couple who famously appeared in ads opposing Clinton’s health reform proposals (paid for, of course, by the health insurance industry), have been on our screens again. This time, however, they are supporting Obama’s plan. And who is paying for the ads? The lobby representing the drugs companies. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOr17a4ZOIU You may think any healthcare reform that is backed by big pharma is not a reform worthy of the name – and you’d be right.

Still, Obama’s plan is a tiny step in the right direction. It ought to be very popular – polls show that 72% of Americans want some kind of public health insurance. Yet the barrage of lies and scare tactics against ‘socialized medicine’ seem to be having an effect, with some polls showing Obama losing popularity over the healthcare issue. The ‘Blue Dogs’ (right-wing Democrats who would not be out of place in David Cameron’s Tory Party) are getting cold feet, and Democrat senators are trying to cobble together a deal with the Republicans to remove even the tiny, weak public insurance scheme proposed by the president.

Ironically, public health care already exists in the USA. Medicare/Medicaid, which covers the poorest and the elderly, has been in place since the 1960s, and is incredibly popular. More to the point, members of Congress benefit from a health insurance scheme of the sort that they would deny the rest of us. The military also have publically-funded health insurance, and John Stewart on the Daily Show managed to get neo-con Bill Krystol to admit that (a) it is better than private health care and (b) that the rest of us don’t deserve the same. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa69puS7J0Q

If health care reform is scuppered again, as it was under Clinton, it will show where true power lies in US society. The Democrats have the presidency, both houses of Congress (including a supposedly unassailable 60-40 majority in the Senate), and the backing of 72% of the population. But the private health industry has the $500 million it paid last year on lobbying and campaign contributions to politicians. It will take a mass campaign from outside the halls of Congress to counter that, and make sure Democratic congressmen vote with their electors, not with the lobbyists.