Chomsky gives his support to Cardiff Students:

From Cardiff Stop The War:

The occupation of Cardiff University has ended with success as Cardiff University acceded to the occupiers’ key demand – to divest from the arms trade. Cardiff University have given students written confirmation that they have divested from the arms trade and have instructed fund managers not to reinvest.

The occupation ended at 4pm today with the mass of students walking out together waving occupation banners and chanting ‘Free, Free, Palestine’. They then held a ‘Books not Bombs’ rally as they marched around campus declaring their success.

The victory comes after three days of occupation which has made students across the campus aware of the £209, 000 worth of shares which, until yesterday, Cardiff University held in the arms trade. This included BAE Systems and General Electric who supplied Israel with weapons used in the recent attacks on Gaza.

The Cardiff Occupation, organised by Cardiff Students Against War, was in opposition to the University’s investment in the arms trade and to the atrocities committed in Gaza, where 1.4 million Palestinians are blockaded in a semi-autonomous apartheid state.

The occupation has been inundated with messages of support including most notably one from Noam Chomsky:

I am very pleased to learn about the courageous and honourable actions of the Cardiff University students. These are particularly significant because of Britain's role in arms sales generally, and it's contribution to the savage onslaught on Gaza and on the occupied territories generally, second only to the decisive role of the United States -- a disgrace for all of us. I hope you have the greatest success in arousing public opinion and bringing these crimes to an end.

The action at Cardiff is the twenty-eighth UK student occupation to have taken place in the last few weeks. This unprecedented wave of student dissent has seen many university’s capitulating to demands. The Cardiff activists hope their success will inspire other students to hold occupations on their own campuses.

Arla Gramper, 22, who took part in the occupation said: "Our success here at the occupation is a great realisation of what can be achived by direct action. It’s a starting point upon which we plan to build larger, wider reaching campaign to engage many more people in the debate and lobby the university.”

The actions don't end here and Cardiff Students Against War will continue to campaign to ensure the University cements its promise not to reinvest by putting it in policy and to fight against the deportation of Saudi ex-BAE trade unionist Yahya Al Faifi.

Iraq War Evidence

Unamazingly Jack Straw yesterday defied the will of the information commissioner and refused to publish the details of the cabinet's discussions on the Iraq War.

Presumably the truth- that government thought the war was illegal and then lied about about anyway, would be quite damaging.

We all suspect the truth, but cannot have it confirmed to us while Labour remain in power.

So we have a government that breaks international law and vetos the release of this information to protect its own interests , is complicit in torturing its suspects but has a foreign minister who tries to cover it all up, and a home office minister facing a proble because she gave herself an illegal £100,000 defacto bonus. All this, just in the last week.

Welcome to the labour government. It is 2009.

Tuition Fees and Coalition Government:

When Labour and Plaid agreed to share power in Wales in 2007 they made a series of agreements and pledges that formed the basis of coalition government. We all know that agreement as One Wales. On the subject of tuition fees here is what One Wales has to say:"

"We will provide extra assistance with student debt and maintain existing fee levels in Wales up to and including 2009/10. We will maintain the current level of resource throughout the four year Assembly term, doing whatever is possible to mitigate the effects on Welsh-domiciled students if the Westminster government lifts the cap on fees in 2009."

Unfortunatley Labour's interpretation of "whatever is possible", at this juncture, is to follow the lead from Westminster, and saddle Welsh students with additiontal burdens of debt come 2011. Labour's proposals may follow the letter of One Wales, but they certainly abandon the spirit of the agreement. Disappointingly Plaid leaders in Welsh government seem all to ready to temporarily suspend principle in this instance, and try to reshape Plaid's policy to suit Labour's planned public spending cuts. In the process of doing this they wish to ride roughshod over Plaid's election promises not to introduce tuition fees if in power.

Ieuan Wyn Jones (Plaid's affable, diplomatic, and somewhat inert leader, in case you missed him) may well point to pragmatism. He can also talk of the limits on ambiton that come with coalition governement. In this he has a point. The purpose of government is to slice the pie as fairly as possible, and as we are dependent on Gordon Brown the portions tend to be stingey- cuts to higher education spending are part of this process, arguably, brought to a head by recession. Ieuan fails to note however the other aspect of government. Which involves campaigning and standing by what you profess to believe in- and doing what you said you would do. It is a sign of the cynicism of the times that this seems naive- but pragmitism must be wedded to idealism if politicians, and democracy, are to serve any purpose. The career of most politicians, the average ones that is, are determined by the ability to compromise. The career of remarkable politicians is shaped by their refusal to do so. In this sense, by trying to alter a key Plaid policy mid-term- Ieuan Wyn Jones reveals himself as an unremarkable politician- closer to his colleagues in government than he is to the wishes of his own party.

All this points to a much wider problem at the heart of coalition governement. I know as a party activist I am not alone is asking what Plaid are attaining, and how are Wales benefitting, through our presence in government. Key policies cannot be introduced through the loathsome cumbersome LCO process, as there is constant interference from disgruntled MPs. Wales stands to lose a mammoth £500 million in future spending. The All Wales Convention is grinding slowly to the already suspected conclusion that a referedum on further powers is both winable and loseable. Devolution could even potentially be deferred rather than progressed even with Plaid in power.

This is hugely frustrating as in Europe, Assemby, and Westminster, Plaid have so much to offer. In government however we begin to risk being seen as New Labour's lackeys with added patriotism. There seems little point in supporting a party that will, when push comes to shove, endorse, however reluctantly, key policies they opposed when in opposition. Plaid are better than this split on tuition fees. The cost of power should never be the abandonment of key principles- not unless that Tony Blair and his ilke were right all along?! And that can't be right.

Local Food

I always try not to think of Tubs from the League of Gentleman when I mention the word local. But I always end up thinking of the dark comic characters in their strange shop whenever I consider food policy- 'local food for local people!'

These semantic concerns aside however- I am passionate about local produce. I have campaigned actively on the subject. It is therefore with pleasure that I read:

"Plaid MEP Jill Evans has welcomed a vote in the European Parliament backing her proposal to give preference to locally produced food products. The parliament is reviewing an EU scheme to provide food support worth over 400 million pounds this year alone.

Ms Evans hopes the change will be made permanent and will be a boost to farmers, and local food producers.

The EU food distribution scheme is part of the Common Agricultural Policy. The European Commission wants the subsidised food to be purchased on the open market, but Ms Evans believes this would be a missed opportunity.

I think the long term health of both environment and the European economy will depend on developing and supporting local systems of food production. If we are to slink out of the slipstream of globalisation then we need to see more domestic food production backed with fair trade policies for imported goods. For those of you into modernist anarchist collectivism 'what Kropotkin said'. A long term commitment to local food produce is imperative, and Plaid have not overlooked this crucial area of policy like other principle parties.

The current initiatives on local food acquisition are excellent. As is Jill Evan's proposed initiative. These are just the beginning however.

I would favour a range of tax incentives for businesses that support and develop local food production. I'd also favour consumer education on local, and Fairtrade produce, and would hope that government would drive consumer awareness of the topic by co-ordinating education efforts with a number of NGOs such as the Soil Association and Fair Trade groups, for example. There are good, but disjointed efforts, in this direction already.

Current EU legislation, and commitment to the free market, make more radical actions highly problematic, but with time and effort perhaps we can begin to prepare soft commodity economies that are both sustainable and not based on progressions from colonial systems of trade. This is some way off, and will take a rethinking and reshaping of the current supermarket business models, we even have to pay a bot more for for stuff in the long run, but it is totally necessary. As a society we need to shift the way we think about, and consume, food.

call for the immediate resignation of Jack straw and David Milliband

It turns out that MPs and intelligence officials may well have known of the Mi5 using torture (incidentally against British citizens, although this does not alter the severity of the crime)- and concealing the evidence of this torture from the British public.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/16/pakistan-torture-mi5-agent-binyam

link to the guardian article

If this is proved to be the case then Jack Straw (then foreign Secretary, now Justice Secretary for heavens sake) and Milliband- current foreign secretary- should resign with immediate effect. As should any MP who saw these documents and has maintained their silence.

No-one who sanctions the use of torture should hold public office in Britain, not if, as a society, we are serious about the rule of law and the maintenance of human rights.

Strikes and ideological emphasis

I have been disappointed by the strikes that have taken place across the country. Nothing wrong with a bit of militantism, of course, but as we slip into the "worst recession in one hundred years" (Education minister Ed Balls, ex-treasury spokesperson) I have been disappointed by the tone. "British Jobs for British workers" to me seems a vacuous complaint- as it implies that foreign labour is to blame for the current crisis. This is not the case. Banks are to blame. The neo-liberal capitalist model is to blame, markets are at fault. Workers from Poland, Portugal, Italy, or anywhere else for that matter have nothing to do with this crisis.

This does not mean the strikers don't have some valid points. Labour being sourced as close to home as possible makes sense for communities and economy alike in the long run. Flexible labour markets are essential to protect the interests of any worker who for want or necessity needs to look beyond their immediate horizon but corporations should not be permitted to abuse this flexibility to control labour costs at the expense of communities. Generally a much greater degree of homogenity regards the commodity costs of labour need to be in place, internationally, so as to avoid exploitation, and statal instruments being manipulated at the hands of supra-national employers. It comes down to Marx at the end of it, the basics of his historical analyis are as sound now as they ever were. "Workers of the world unite" innit. The savage caprice of capitalism should be chided and resisted- not the principle of employing foreign labour.

It also raises the question of what exactly is British?

My understanding of Plaid's position on Welshness is clear. Wales is for those 'who live in Wales'. Culture can be portable but citizenship is activated by residence, making the ideal definition of Wales an inclusive expression. Whatever Britishness is it is unclear and exclusive. I have never been comfortable with the imperial and colonial baggage that comes with this peculiar sense of nationality, expressed without reference to written constitution.

Britain is in crisis however. For Ed Balls to say we are in the worst economic state for over a hundred years is to talk of the collapse of modern Western economics. Bascially, Britain was in a better financial state when the empire collapsed, than it is now. The great depression, that led to the great observational novels of Orwell in the UK, for example, is of lesser magnitude than the current capital crisis and knock on recession. If Ball's analysis is even remotely accurate then where we go from here is crucial. We cannot afford to pursue the agenda of either politicians or the business community that brought us to this precipice.

In Wales Plaid is by far offer the best opportunity to make the kind of social democratic reforms necessary given the dire extent of the current situation. The responsibility for wider change does not lie with any particular politicians or with party political dogma however. The forces and reaction that led to the 'wild cat strikes' need better chanelling.