James Turley looks at the first year of the Obama presidency Last Wednesday was January 20 - not a particularly important date most years, except to astrologers. On that date last year, however, Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States of America - to a rapturous reception from a war-weary and crisis-ravaged US ...
Cat Rylance attended the latest Stop the War demo On Saturday October 24 around 5,000 protestors marched through central London on the Stop the War Coalition-organised demonstration against the war in Afghanistan. Attendance was rather disappointing, especially in view of the fact it seemed virtually to have been promoted by the BBC. The ...
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have conclusively demonstrated a single, simple proposition, writes James Turley: imperialism has no progressive role to play Following months of foot-dragging and not a little strong-arming from his paymasters abroad, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has finally been induced to call a second round of elections after August’s vote. The official ...
Joining a rogues’ gallery Barack Obama is presiding over an escalation of military action in Afghanistan. Despite that, he is a hero for the liberal bourgeoisie, writes James Turley Fairly soon after Barack Obama’s victory in last year’s presidential elections, there appeared an amusing little website called Bad Paintings of Barack Obama,1 which randomly flashes up canvasses ...
John Sidwell recalls a well intentioned and honest young man On Saturday August 15, my good friend Richard Hunt became the 200th British casualty since the initial invasion and subsequent occupation of Afghanistan. Inevitably a shock to all his friends and family, his death brought home to me the fragility of thousands of working class lives ...
James Turley calls for troops out of Afghanistan now On August 20, the population of Afghanistan (or some of it, at any rate) went to the polls to elect their president. Hamid Karzai, the incumbent, remains the favourite, as the votes are counted. The mood in much of the western media, at the outset, was cautiously optimistic. ...
James Turley salutes a courageous act of rebellion Lance corporal Joe Glenton has made a kind of history, by becoming the first enlisted soldier in the British army to openly rebel against the war in Afghanistan. He now faces a court martial, having had his first preliminary hearing on August 3. His next is in a month, ...
Dave Isaacson experiences lies and deception at StW rally On Saturday September 6 the Stop the War Coalition held a pre-term national student meeting at Birkbeck College in London to try to rally the troops ahead of the upcoming freshers’ fairs, which will soon take place at universities across the UK. Though I forgot to do a ...