Showing posts with label free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free. Show all posts

Monday, January 02, 2017

Why Trump and Leave won - and how the left should respond

Summary : While Trump and the Leave campaign certainly got the support of racists and bigots, this is not enough on its own to explain getting 46% and 52% of the vote respectively.

The stereotype of Trump voters as mostly poor uneducated whites is not accurate. In fact a majority of the poorer voters who voted at all voted for Clinton. While about half the population of the US earns under $30,000 a year, only 17% of voters in 2016 were from that income group. Around 53% of those low-income voters who did vote voted Clinton. So the problem was more poorer voters thinking neither candidate would change their lives for the better, so not voting at all.

Trump voters were mostly less educated and white, but most of them earned well over the median and average income. Leave voters, like Trump voters, were more likely to be older and have less education, but unlike Trump voters, were more likely to have lower incomes – and to read the Sun, Daily Express, or Mail – newspapers which have churned out anti-EU and anti-immigrant and refugee stories for decades. But like Trump voters, some Leave voters may have thought any change – or revenge on those in charge – was better than no change.

Trump is not popular with a majority of voters. In fact he got less votes than Clinton, and in polls more voters disliked him, and more of his voters said they were voting against Clinton than for him. But he remains dangerous all the same. Hitler, another demagogue who got support by whipping up hatred of minorities and blaming foreigners and refugees, never won a majority of the popular vote either.

Clinton wasn’t popular either though. As a politician who had been in office for decades and part of the Republican – ‘New Democrat’ concensus on free trade, deregulation and “welfare reform, was the ultimate establishment candidate. So the worst choice to stand against a candidate selling themselves as anti-establishment. Deregulation was one of the main causes of the banking crisis and subsequent recession which saw a swing back to the right.

Clinton’s campaign spent too much time criticising Trump’s racism, sexism and bigotry instead of promising jobs or better wages or holding the banks to account.

Trump’s condemnation of NAFTA (and the Clintons’ backing for it), his promises to provide more and better paying jobs, and to punish the big banks and politicians who had caused the banking crisis, were effective in the ‘rust belt’ states. Especially as they continue to lose jobs as firms move production to Mexico.

(Of course Trump won’t punish the big banks – he’s already chosen several former Goldman Sachs executives for his administration. Another similarity to Hitler – denouncing big banks and companies in opposition, then making deals with them in government).

The focus of the Remain and Clinton campaigns on prejudice and racism among some of their opponents backfired at some points by not appealing to voters self-interest enough. Claims about creating jobs or funding public services better (whether true or false) may have been more effective than talking about ideals.

Nationalism was a strong factor in both Trump and Leave’s campaigns – though with Leave voters it was as much English as British nationalism.

Some members of Black Lives Matter and some anti-racism/sexism/bigotry campaigners have also scored own goals by making their own prejudiced statements. Talking as if all white people or all men were responsible for the prejudice of some alienated some voters.

Identity politics has also been an own goal. Obama did not say “vote for me because I’m black’ but Clinton and some of her female supporters
repeatedly said “vote Clinton because she’s a woman”. Trump certainly pandered to racists and got the votes of racists and sexists, but making the election about race, citizenship status, or gender was never a good idea – especially in a country with a majority of white voters.

Too many Democrats had convinced themselves that the growing proportion of non-white and Latin/Hispanic voters now determined election results. Not this one.

The Electoral College, which was designed to prevent demagogues being elected, failed spectacularly in this election. Since the EU referendum was one person one vote, the voting system can’t be blamed for the Leave result though. Nor can any voting system prevent demagogues or prejudiced people winning elections if enough voters agree with them.

The lessons for the left are to focus on opposing free trade deals that are designed more with the interests of big firms that donate to party funds than the average voter, on controlling the big banks that caused the crisis, and on reducing inequality. While racism and other prejudice have to be opposed and condemned, condemning opponents as racist or prejudiced in other ways is not enough on its own to win elections or referenda. So campaigns should not focus too much on these issues at the expense of economic and trade policy, job creation and reducing inequality. Nor immediately label anyone who opposes current immigration levels racist (even if some of them are).

Pointing out the broken promises, hypocrisy and lies of Trump , the Conservative brexiteers and UKIP on their main campaign pledges is vital too. They must not get off with claiming to be “anti-establishment” while appointing Goldman Sachs executives.

The lesson for the Labour party is less clear. Corbyn is certainly an anti-establishment candidate, but unlike Sanders in the US, he is behind rather than ahead of his party’s political opponents in the polls. And Clinton lost partly because she was supported by a majority of Democrats, but not a majority of voters (due to ‘closed’ primaries in most states in which only voters registered as Democrats could vote on selecting a candidate). Corbyn similarly seems to be popular with a majority of Labour party members, but not a majority of voters. The Trump vs Clinton polls were out by several per cent, but the polls here being out by the 17% that the Conservatives now lead Labour by seems less likely.

And those who say Labour must become a crusade for the EU are selling a doubtful proposition when a third of Labour voters voted Leave and losing votes to UKIP is now Labour’s biggest threat.

Just racism and prejudice?

There are a lot of opinion pieces putting the victories of Donald Trump and the Leave campaign in the UK’s referendum on EU membership down simply to racism, sexism, bigotry against Muslims, and prejudice against immigrants and refugees, combined with ignorance among voters and propaganda by politicians and some of the media.

There is some truth in this, but it is not the whole truth.

Yes all the racists and bigots in the US voted for Trump, and all the racists and bigots and neo-Nazis in the UK voted Leave.

But Trump would never have got 46% of the vote – 63 million votes – if all his voters were ignorant racists and bigots. And ditto for the Leave campaign’s 52% of the vote (1).

They included votes against the status quo, against the establishment, against the effects of globalisation policies – especially lost jobs in manufacturing in the UK and US. Also votes for instance by left wingers against the extreme austerity policies imposed on Greece by the EU.

Clinton was the worst possible candidate to put up in the current climate, because she is not only associated in voters’ minds with the establishment, as Bill Clinton’s wife, a senator and then Obama’s Secretary of State. She is also one of the most prominent supporters of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Area) trade deal that is still resulting in factories in the US closing down and moving to Mexico today (2) – (3).

This was brought up over and over again by Trump in campaign speeches – and one of the reasons he won the “rust belt” states that have suffered most.

Clinton’s conversion to opposing TTIP and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (both of which would let multinational banks and firms sue governments merely for regulating them) came only when she feared Sanders might win the nomination from her, and was unconvincing (4).

Many senior Republicans were voting for Clinton on the calculation that her opposition was purely tactical and would end once she was elected.

David Cameron and George Osborne were also establishment figures who oversaw austerity and were 100% for every free trade deal.

The Clintons are the ultimate representatives of the concensus between the Republicans from Reagan on and the ‘New Democrats’ of the 1990s on free trade, deregulation and “welfare reform”.

It was Bill Clinton who in 1994 successfully concluded negotiations with Mexico and Canada on NAFTA which had been begun by President Bush Senior.

NAFTA established the Maquiladora zone on the Mexican border with the US. In theory it also included comprehensive workers’ rights and environmental protection, but in practice neither has ever been enforced, with the Maquiladora’s barely regulated at all (5).

Clinton also deregulated the banks as much as any other President from Nixon on, repealing the Glass-Steagall Act which had been the cornerstone of banking regulations brought in by Franklin D. Roosevelt after the 1929 banking crisis. It had prevented high street savings banks from also being ‘investment’ banks (those involved in high risk trading in financial derivatives).

On top of this Clinton, albeit reluctantly, approved Republican states’ governments’ ‘Workfare’ welfare “reforms”, which forced unemployed people to work unpaid for private companies or else lose any welfare payments (6).

At the same time changes were brought in to reduce the maximum period anyone could receive welfare payments for to 60 days, (except where congress and the President approved emergency packages).

The long term result was jobs moving by the hundred thousand from the US to Mexico, but no reduction in the overall poverty rate in Mexico either.

Deregulation of the banks, combined with Clinton’s administration demanding banks and other lending institutions give mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them (instead of public housing, which was seen as too socialist), led to the banks being able to create Collateralised Debt Obligations – packages of thousands of largely worthless debts, so many together that no one could check individual credit worthiness, which in many cases was none. They then counted these as assets and sold them to other banks as if they had value .

When this was discovered, the banking crisis resulted and recession followed. The people with mortgages they couldn’t afford lost their homes. So did lots of other people who could afford their mortgages until the recession hit.

With “welfare reform” having cut the safety net for those made unemployed by NAFTA or the banking crisis recession, was America left with a lot of people who feel neither main party could care less about them and wanted to give the establishment concensus a slap in the face? For people who feel the status quo gives them nothing any kind of change, or some revenge, may seem better than no change.

NAFTA certainly provided cheaper imported goods for many Americans, but it also put many of them out of a job. It provided more Mexicans with jobs but without improving terrible working conditions or reducing poverty (7).

Some of those jobs may well have moved to other countries anyway as multinational companies sought the cheapest production costs, but NAFTA certainly accelerated this process.

Are these votes evidence of a swing to the right?

There is no evidence of American or British voters having moved to the right, with the possible exception of immigration, which they were already pretty right wing on.

Opposing free trade deals like NAFTA or the EU Single Market is not right wing. The left and trade union wings of the Democrats and Labour party were always opposed to these deals.

Opposing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is even less “right wing”, as both these deals include clauses that would let big banks and companies sue governments for any regulation that might reduce their profits. Which effectively could mean any regulation at all. That goes far beyond even free trade.

Opposing big banks, big firms and the super rich being able to buy too much influence over government policies is not right or left wing either.

Trump is not that popular

Trump actually got less votes than Clinton – 46% to Clinton’s 48% , only winning due to the Electoral College (8).

Turnout was only 60% , about the same as in 2012. That means only about 27% of registered voters voted for Trump. And many Americans aren’t registered to vote at all (9) – (10).

And the unpopularity of both Trump and Clinton is the likely reason for the mediocre turnout, with 56% of those polled viewing Clinton unfavourably and 63% viewing Trump unfavourably (11).

In 2008, 68% of Democrats said they were voting more for their candidate than against the other main candidate. In 2012, 72% did. This year only 48% did, 50% saying they were voting for Clinton mostly just to stop Trump (12).

The same was true for Trump though, only more so ; 55% of his voters said their vote would be more against Clinton than for him (13).

Trump certainly got people who didn’t usually bother to vote to turn out for him – and this let him replace all the Republicans who voted for Clinton, or didn’t vote at all, out of distaste for him or for his protectionist policies.

Trump did not win because he was popular. He’s even more unpopular than Clinton. He narrowly scraped a win because he was seen as anti-establishment and got more votes in the ‘Rust belt’ states – and because Clinton was seen as so establishment and such a “no change” candidate by many voters that she could not motivate enough of them to turn out to vote for her.

Race

Race was certainly a big factor. Trump won a majority of votes among white voters and a heavy majority among non-college educated (but not poor) ones, while Clinton got a majority of Hispanic/Latino votes and the vast majority of black voters.

The many Republican voters who wouldn’t vote for Trump were replaced by a mixture of racists, bigots, neo-nazis and sexists.

Trump pandered to them by demonising and dismissing Black Lives Matter, and by mocking one of his rivals with the line “I, I, I can’t breathe” - the last words of Eric Garner, an asthmatic black man choked to death by police for the crime of selling cigarettes without a licence. Not one of the police were ever charged. A passer by who shot a video of the killing on his phone was (14).

But there were also people who had lost their own jobs or seen their family and friends lose jobs when factories moved from the US to Mexico. And people who were sick of the establishment consensus and voted for Trump as a protest vote.

The rust belt states where he mostly won all have a large majority of white and non-Hispanic / non-Latino voters. The states where Clinton won most heavily – like California – are some of those with the most Hispanic and Asian voters.

It wasn’t mostly poor white people voting for Trump

He didn’t get all the working classes voting for him – Clinton got 53% of votes among people earning $30,000 dollars or less (15).

Only 17% of voters were people earning less than $30,000 annually. Yet 50% of Americans earn less than that amount. The median US income is just over $30k, and the average is $44k (16) – (17).

But Trump did get a majority of votes from white people without a college education or better – though most of them were on incomes of $50,000 a year or more (18).

So the result of the election is not down to poor white voters voting for Trump. In fact it’s down to most poor voters – including most of the victims of the banking crisis and “welfare reform” not voting at all.

And the likely reason is the same one most voters in the UK give – the big political parties don’t care about us, so why should we vote for them? Which is a self-reinforcing cycle, as if most poorer voters don’t vote, why would politicians have policies aimed at appealing to them?

Candidates now need to be seen as outside the establishment – i.e not have held elected office at senior levels for a long time, nor be close to those who have. Being seen as trustworthy is also vital.

While for 2012 we only have figures for what percentage of voters earned under $50k a year, 41% of voters in 2012 earned less than that amount. Only 36% of voters in 2016 earned under $50k (19) – (20)

 

This Doesn’t Mean We’re In No Danger Though

Hitler and the Nazis never managed to get a majority of the vote either. That doesn’t mean they weren’t dangerous. Trump is an unpredictable narcissistic demagogue with the support of an “alt-right” (alternative right) who include racists, white supremacists and neo-nazis.

And alliance of convenience between some of Germany’s wealthiest industrialists, the Nazis and conservatives in the 1920s and 30s in Germany led to the rise of Hitler.

We can’t afford to start accusing anyone who voted for or supports Trump of being a Nazi, fascist, or racist though. We need to convert some of his supporters to an alternative anti-establishment movement, not alienate them. Remember, 55% of Trump voters said they were voting more against Clinton than for Trump.

While Trump may be an opponent of free trade deals, he has shown by his proposed appointments to his cabinet that he is very willing to do deals with big banks and big firms. Four of his choices are former executives from Goldman Sachs bank, including his campaign manager Steve Bannon. His chosen Secretary of State is currently the Chief Executive of Exxon-Mobil. Hitler similarly denounced big banks and firms and “the establishment” when in opposition, but was happy to do deals with them. (21) – (23).

And Trump’s support being highest in rural areas, while his opponents’ was highest in cities is also a similarity with German elections of the 1930s. As is both Trump and the Nazis getting most of their votes from people middling or higher in income and class.

How the Leave Vote was Similar – and how it was different

The Leave vote in the UK had some similarities to Trump’s vote in the US. But there were also big differences (for sources see sources (24) and (25) and (26) and (27)) .

Leave voters, like Trump voters, were more likely to be less educated (possibly because they were also likely to be older, from before the majority went to college or university, with younger voters far more likely to vote Remain or Clinton).

Multicultural London, like multicultural California voting for Clinton, mostly voted Remain (though some poorer areas had a majority for Leave). And in other big cities there was mostly a majority for Remain – but in many cases only a narrow majority. And the small towns and villages were more likely to vote Leave.

Leave voters , like Trump voters, were opposed to current levels of immigration and to jobs being moved abroad.

However the Leave vote was higher among lower income voters and the Remain vote higher among higher income ones – the opposite to Clinton vs Trump. This was similar to the pattern in the Scottish independence referendum where poorer voters were more likely to vote Yes (i.e to back leaving the UK).

The similarity is that both Leave and Trump voters were voting for a change to the status quo – 82% of voters who thought their candidate was most likely to bring about a change voted Trump (28).

The turnout was much higher, likely because this was a referendum – a rare event on a single big issue, rather than a regular election.

Leave voters, like Trump voters, were more likely to be nationalists – though with Leave voters they were more likely to see themselves as English first.

While some have argued the Leave vote was a vote against the government’s austerity policies, there hasn’t been any real evidence provided to back this claim up.

The media – and social media

While the media in the US was mostly hostile to Trump (with only 6 newspapers – most of them small and local – endorsing him for President) he got a lot of support from many Fox News anchors.

The tabloid press in the UK has been churning out anti-immigration, anti-refugee and anti-EU stories for decades, some exaggerated or presenting unusual cases as if they were typical, others outright lies. (For instance British tabloids have run stories that Euro coins will give you cancer, that the EU wants to ban curved bananas).

So it’s no surprise that 70% of voters who read The Sun newspaper or The Express voted Leave, and 61% of Daily Mail readers (29).

 The Sun has the highest circulation in the UK, partly due to its low price of 50p, subsidised by Rupert Murdoch’s profits from his satellite TV channels to give him influence with politicians.

This is probably the biggest factor in explaining the majority vote for Leave, just as in the Scottish independence referendum the majority of newspapers were for a No vote and that was the end result.

But the importance of facebook, twitter and new “news” websites with a very strong bias has been increasing relative to the traditional media. Completely false memes (photos or graphs with a list of supposed facts on them) and fake news stories are widely shared.

Whether these changed many peoples’ minds is open to question. Maybe the majority who believed them were already going to vote the same way anyway. But it may have changed the minds of some poorly informed voters, or people who aren’t interested in politics.

The dubious claim that “everything in the mainstream media is a lie” is becoming increasingly widely believed.

Identity Politics Is Not Enough – And can backfire

It’s pretty clear that saying “vote for me because I’m a woman” was not enough to win. Nor is slating your opponent as a racist or bigot (even if he is).

As some American women have pointed out, Trump’s boasting about groping women was disapproved of by just about everyone, but for a lot of women who had lost their jobs – or whose husbands, fathers or brothers had lost theirs due to NAFTA – it was minor stuff compared to the bigger issues.

Obama did not campaign in 2008 or 2012 by saying “vote for me because I’m black and a man”. He won because he convinced enough voters he would bring about change for the better. That he was not just another establishment politician who would maintain the status quo.

Clinton and supporters such as Madeleine Albright continually talked as though Clinton being a woman and Trump a man was a good enough reason to vote for her (30).

What’s more an excessive focus on gender, race or sexuality can make those who don’t share it feel they are being criticised just for being born white, male or straight.

Black Lives Matter are not, as some Trump supporters claim, all racist against white people. But some Black Lives Matter campaigners do say things that are racist against all white people – some even saying “kill all white people” – and this has the predictable result of outraging some white people (31).

Some of the people pointing to racism by some BLM campaigners are themselves racist against all black people, and looking for a way to try and justify the unjustifiable, as if two wrongs could make a right. But not all of them are. Some people who are not racist will be alienated by this kind of black vs white racism.

Of course that doesn’t mean that anyone should stop criticising outright racism or prejudice, or some of the shocking killings of black people by police and failure to charge, try and jail those responsible. But for instance refusing to discuss immigration or Islamic extremism at all could alienate people needlessly.

Campaign slogans and speeches matter – and so does appealing to self-interest

Most voters have no idea what most of a candidate or party’s policy positions are. But more of them have heard some of their campaign slogans or bits out of their speeches.

Trump’s message over and over included the jobs lost due to NAFTA and the Clintons’ support for it ; that he would bring back “good paying jobs” and stop jobs going overseas – and that he would punish the big banks and the corrupt politicians who had allowed this and the banking crisis and all the suffering since it.

Clinton’s message was mostly that Trump was “divisive”, “racist”, “sexist” and so on. Clinton’s message seems to have worked with the majority of black and Latino voters. But it failed with the majority of white voters, particularly those with little or no education.

Now Trump’s claims included a lot of hypocrisy and lies given his appointments already including so many former big bank executives, but it’s pretty clear that his lines were more effective with white, non-Hispanic voters and that this won him many states.

Clinton should have spent more time saying she would create more jobs and less time slating Trump’s prejudices.

Of course that wouldn’t have worked with every voter. There are plenty of resentful and poorly educated voters who have a chip on their shoulder about others having more education than them and “them thinking they know better than me”. But it would have helped with some.

 

Our Voting Systems are Out of Date –
but no voting system guarantees a particular result

The Electoral College has now let a candidate with less votes win the Presidency in the US twice. And with Trump’s election the theory that this helps prevent demagogues and extremists get elected is looking pretty ludicrous.

In the UK the Conservatives won the last General Election with just 37% of votes cast due to First Past the Post

However electoral reform, while more democratic, is no guarantee that the left or liberals will win elections. Under Proportional Representation the 2015 General Election would likely have led to a Conservative/UKIP/Unionist coalition with just under 50% of the vote between them. A Labour/SNP/Plaid Cymru/Lib Dem/Green coalition would have been theoretically possible with 48% of the vote between them.

A change to a PR voting system would probably have meant many more votes for smaller parties than larger ones, but likely no big change on the totals for the whole left and right.

The EU referendum on a simple one person one vote, majority wins, led to a marginal win for Brexit, but then staying in or leaving the EU has never been a straightforward left/right issue, with both divided on it.

Lessons for the left in the UK

The trouble is that there is more than one way to read most of the results.

Does Clinton’s defeat show that the party elites choosing establishment candidates is a good idea? And so Corbyn should stay on as an anti-establishment candidate? Or does it show that the candidate chosen by party members may not be the candidate who can win an election?

Clinton won due to closed primaries in most states – where only Democratic party members could vote. Sanders won in states with ‘open primaries’ where Independents (voters not registered as supporters of either main party) could vote.

Sanders outperformed Clinton in polls of the whole electorate , up to leading Trump by 20% or more in some polls. Labour under Corbyn is 20% behind the Conservatives in many polls. But is this down to the party being divided with voters not knowing if they’ll get Corbyn or ‘New Labour’ if they vote Labour? Or just disliking division? Or do not enough voters think Corbyn is up to the job to vote for him?

It may be that Corbyn is simply the wrong candidate, not because he is left wing, but because he is neither capable of making an inspiring speech, nor of doing well in debates. The problem being that most of his rivals are ‘New Labour’ politicians who want to go back to just adopting most of the Conservatives’ policies.

One of the few exceptions is Clive Lewis, whose main policy differences with Corbyn are on Trident (which he wants to renew) and NATO (which he wants the UK to remain in). On other policy issues though he is on the left. And given his positions on defence on his military service in Afghanistan, it would be difficult for the Conservatives to paint him as unpatriotic or soft on defence.

One clearer lesson is that economic interests, a desire for more economic equality, and opposition to some of the unintended effects of free trade ‘trump’ (or ‘Sanders’) identity politics.

But does it mean the left should be for leaving the Single Market due to opposition to globalisation? Or will that result in even more jobs being moved out of the UK , higher unemployment and more support for demagogues backed by the far right?

It’s not certain. What we do know is that arguing that free trade deals are always good in themselves, and benefit everyone, is blind ideology. It does nothing to address the people who suffer as a result of them (and there are always losers as well as winners). So if we are to support free trade deals details of them matter – and they require plans to help those who lose their jobs as a result retrain for new ones and/or create new ones. Or else we’ll need to move towards a Universal Basic Income.

This is complicated by Single Market membership also requiring Freedom of Movement for people between all members.

We also know that arguing that all immigration is beneficial is not going to win elections. This is an issue which helps the right, not least due to decades of tabloid propaganda against all immigrants and refugees.

Left wingers should be campaigning on equality, on ending unfairness, increasing wages and benefits for the poorest and capping them for the richest, on regulation, on closing down tax havens and loopholes for big firms and banks. Not getting drawn into focusing the debate on immigration during elections.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep supporting taking in genuine refugees, nor that we should be closing the borders to other immigrants entirely, nor that we shouldn’t challenge actual racism or prejudice. But it does mean discussing immigration calmly when we discuss it at all ; not shouting down anyone who argues for reduced immigration as racist or prejudiced, but arguing our case and hearing voters’ views.

The left also need to motivate the unemployed and people working on low incomes to vote – and to show that it’s going to do something to help them. Too many have got the false impression from the right wing press that Labour and other left wing or liberal parties are only concerned with refugees, immigrants and people who don’t want to work.

(1) = CNN politics Presidential Results , http://edition.cnn.com/election/results/president ; (Click on ‘popular vote’)

(2) = Industry Week 32 Feb 2016 ‘Who is Killing American Manufacturing?’, http://www.industryweek.com/who-is-killing-manufacturing

(3) = Los Angeles Times 19 Dec 2016 ‘These three U.S. companies moved jobs to Mexico. Here's why’, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mexico-jobs-20161212-story.html

(4) = www.independent.co.uk 02 May 2016 ‘After the leaks showed what it stands for, could this be the end for TTIP?’, http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ttip-leaks-shocking-what-are-they-eu-us-deal-a7010121.html

(5) = Mcclatchydc.com 12 Jul 2012 ‘Mexico's 'maquiladora' labor system keeps workers in poverty’, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article24730981.html

(6) = Department of Work and Pensions (UK) Research Report No 533 (2008) ‘A comparative review of workfare programmes in the United States, Canada and Australia’ by Richard Crisp and Del Roy Fletcher, http://www.splunderousnoog.com/rrep533.pdf

(7) = Texas Observer 13 Dec 2013 ‘Thanks to NAFTA, Conditions for Mexican Factory Workers Like Rosa Moreno Are Getting Worse’, http://www.alternet.org/labor/after-20-years-nafta-thanks-nafta-what-happened-mexican-factory-workers-rosa-moreno

(8) = CNN politics Presidential Results 2016, http://edition.cnn.com/election/results/president

(9) = uk.businessinsider.com 21 Dec 2016 ‘Americans beat one voter turnout record — here's how 2016 compares with past elections’, http://uk.businessinsider.com/trump-voter-turnout-records-history-obama-clinton-2016-11?r=US&IR=T

(10) = CNN 12 Nov 2016 ‘Voter turnout at 20-year low in 2016’, http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/11/politics/popular-vote-turnout-2016/ ; (the headline is inaccurate as it’s taken from before all votes were counted – it was 60% , but graphs of past election turnouts are accurate)

(11) = USA Today 31 Aug 2016 ‘Poll: Clinton, Trump most unfavorable candidates ever’ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/08/31/poll-clinton-trump-most-unfavorable-candidates-ever/89644296/

(12) = Pew Research Center 07 Jul 2016 ‘2016 Campaign: Strong Interest, Widespread Dissatisfaction - 2. Voter general election preferences’, http://www.people-press.org/2016/07/07/2-voter-general-election-preferences/

(13) = See (12) above

(14) = www.guardian.co.uk 04 Dec 2014 ‘'I can't breathe': Eric Garner put in chokehold by NYPD officer – video’, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/dec/04/i-cant-breathe-eric-garner-chokehold-death-video

(15) = CNN politics Presidential Results – Exit Polls , http://edition.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls/national/president

(16) = See (15) above

(17) = US Social Security Administration online 30 Dec 2016 ‘Wage Statistics for 2015’,
https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2015

(18) = See (15) above

(19) = CNN 10 Dec 2012 Presidential results ‘’, http://edition.cnn.com/election/2012/results/race/president/ (once on page click on exit polls)

(20) = See (15) above

(21) = Bloomberg 22 Dec 2016 ‘Goldman Is Back on Top in the Trump Administration’, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-22/goldman-is-back-on-top-in-the-trump-administration

(22) = CNN 13 Dec 2016 ‘Trump Picks Exxon Mobil’s Tillerson as Secretary of State’,
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-12-13/trump-said-to-pick-exxon-mobil-s-tillerson-as-secretary-of-state

(23) = Stephen J. Lee (1996) ‘Weimar and Nazi Germany’, Heinemann books, section 2.4, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eRDg5_Ay_PcC&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=nazis+hugenburg+thyssen&source=bl&ots=T1afeyX2c-&sig=CPIKL07gra9yeSs6bJ74b7USLR8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi99PHeop3RAhXXeVAKHRwFAdwQ6AEIUTAJ#v=onepage&q=nazis%20hugenburg%20thyssen&f=false

(24) = Lord Ashcroft Polls 24 Jun 2016 ‘How the United Kingdom voted on Thursday… and why’,
http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted-and-why/

(25) = Lord Ashcroft Polls - EU Referendum ‘How Did You Vote’ PollONLINE Fieldwork : 21st-23rd June 2016, http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/How-the-UK-voted-Full-tables-1.pdf (see especially pages 8 to 10)

(26) = National Centre For Social Research / Kirby Swales (2016) ‘Understanding the Leave vote’,
http://natcen.ac.uk/media/1319222/natcen_brexplanations-report-final-web2.pdf

(27) = CNN politics Presidential Results – Exit Polls , http://edition.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls/national/president

(28) = See (27) above

(29) = National Centre For Social Research / Kirby Swales (2016) ‘Understanding the Leave vote’,
http://natcen.ac.uk/media/1319222/natcen_brexplanations-report-final-web2.pdf

(30) = www.guardian.co.uk 06 Feb 2016 ‘Albright: 'special place in hell' for women who don't support Clinton’, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/06/madeleine-albright-campaigns-for-hillary-clinton

(31) = IBTimes 09/03/2015 ‘Black Lives Matter Maryland Twitter Threat: 'Kill All The White People' Tweet Results In Arrest’, http://www.ibtimes.com/black-lives-matter-maryland-twitter-threat-kill-all-white-people-tweet-results-arrest-2082257

Friday, October 19, 2012

The price of NATO membership for an independent Scotland would be being involved in unwinnable wars like Afghanistan ; and continuing to pay for Trident nuclear weapons and upgrades which we wouldn't need any more than Norway does ‏‏

First Minister Alex Salmond, writing in the Sunday Herald (‘Why we can ban nuclear weapons and stay in Nato’ Sunday Herald 14th October) gives welcome assurances that an independent Scotland in NATO wouldn’t take military action without UN authorisation and a Scottish parliament vote, mentioning Iraq (1). He doesn’t mention NATO’s UN backed war in Afghanistan though. NATO membership could draw an independent Scotland into similar unwinnable wars, fought for dubious motives and with dubious methods, in future.

Nor does he explain how we could persuade the UK government, let alone the US, the most influential member of NATO, to allow us full membership while costing the UK a fortune to move it’s submarine bases, especially when Trident contracts are going to English and US based firms with (excessively) close links to the British and American governments.

Even UK Ministry of Defence base maintenance and submarine refit contract work on Trident submarines has gone to a British subsidiary of the US Defence firm Lockheed Martin, the English based company Babcock and AWE plc (based in Reading, England and two-thirds owned by US based Lockheed Martin and Jacobs Engineering, with the rest owned by the UK government and English based firm Serco (2) – (3).  The first £350 million of Trident upgrade contracts went to Lockheed Martin, English based Rolls-Royce and English based firm BAE, which also has a large arm in the US (4).  BAE is expected to get most of the rest of the upgrade contracts too (5).

The Campaign Against the Arms Trade in the UK has also shown dozens of instances of the revolving door between these arms manufacturers and the MoD, the British government and senior positions in the British military (6).

According to the MoD building another base suitable for the UK’s nuclear submarine fleet in England, Wales or Northern Ireland could take up to a decade (7).

So why would the remaining UK government support NATO membership for an Independent Scotland except on the condition that we allowed it to keep its nuclear submarine fleet and it’s only base capable of repairing, maintaining and refitting that fleet in Scotland?

A nuclear free independent Scotland might even result in the UK dropping it’s Trident upgrade altogether and going for a joint nuclear deterrent, or at the least temporary base sharing, with France, preliminary negotiations on which took place both under the last Labour government and under the current Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition (though the French government seems keener than the British) (8) – (9).

That would mean the UK’s military co-operation with France would become closer, reducing US influence with the UK. US firms would be likely to lose out even if this didn’t happen. Either way the US government would not be happy.

So a nuclear free Independent Scotland and NATO membership are simply not compatible with each other. We need to choose one or the other ; and if we want to avoid paying for maintenance , running costs and upgrades of the UK nuclear deterrent, we need to choose being nuclear weapons free.

Why NATO or Partnership for Peace membership could draw an Independent Scotland into more wars like Afghanistan
– and why the war is as ineffective in achieving it’s stated aims as it is morally dubious and unwinnable

Nor does the First Minister offer any guarantee of a referendum on any decision to go to war that would give the Scottish people the final decision on an issue of many lives and deaths ; nor any guarantee that backbenchers or the opposition in an independent Scottish parliament could  initiate a vote (or a vote to have a referendum) on withdrawing our troops from a war they had previously voted to approve sending troops to.

The Afghanistan war has pulled in the UK as a NATO member; and even those members of NATO (e.g Canada and Poland and even Norway which sent special forces to the initial US led invasion and then over 500 troops to the ISAF force which are only now leaving) and its joint-training associated arm Partnership for Peace (e.g Ukraine), ended up sending significant numbers of troops either to the initial invasion or as part of the UN approved but NATO (and effectively US) led ISAF force, or both.

Hundreds of British troops, including Scots, have been killed in the war, which has lasted over 11 years and counting, twice as long as World War One, coming up twice as long as World War Two; and over half way to being as long as the Vietnam war (10).

It has also involved not only the notorious killings and suicide bombing attacks on civilians by the Taliban, but also torture of Afghans by US, NATO and Afghan government forces, including civilians with no involvement in terrorism, sometimes to death; and many thousands of civilians killed by air strikes under Bush, as well as by air strikes and night raids (often targeting teenagers who turn out to be innocent) under Obama. Civilian deaths from US air strikes actually increased under Obama compared to under Bush and torture has continued at secret ‘black sites’ in Afghanistan under Obama (11) – (19).  

US intelligence estimate 90% of Afghan insurgents are neither Taliban nor motivated by religion, but by opposing foreign military presence, or revenge for the injury or deaths of members of their family, village or tribe by NATO forces (20). So this is not primarily a war against the Taliban at all, but one which turns the majority of Afghans against NATO countries and the Afghan government.

NATO says Pakistan’s military intelligence continue aiding the Afghan Taliban , despite now being at war with the Pakistani Taliban (21). Yet the US continues to provide financial aid to Pakistan, some of which will be passed on to the Taliban, because the shortest supply route for NATO forces in Afghanistan is through Pakistan (22) – (24). So NATO has to indirectly fund the Taliban in order to supply it’s troops in Afghanistan – a hopeless situation.

Wars are not effective against Al Qa’ida, a global terrorist organisation which can operate in any country in the world, the 9-11 hijackers having trained in the US and Germany (25) – (27). Intelligence, policing and Special Forces can be.

There are also ulterior motives for the war. The main ulterior motive was to try and get a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline to export oil and gas from former Soviet republics like Kazakhstan (which has vast oil and gas reserves and where BP, Exxon, Halliburton have had contracts since the 1990s) , Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (both have significant proven gas reserves). The advantage of this pipeline route would be that it would avoid passing through countries where Russia has significant influence and might be able to cut off exports at will (e.g Georgia – which is on the route of the western oil company AIOC group’s Baku-Ceyhan pipeline route – especially after the Russian-Georgian War in which Russia allowed a secessionist movement to succeed) and Iran. The pipeline route was the reason the US gave political backing to the Taliban at first and quietly approved the Saudis and Pakistanis funding, training and arming them. They couldn't get a deal between UNOCAL and the Taliban at a transit price per barrel that oil firms were willing to pay. (28) – (32)

After the invasionin 2002 the Presidents of Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan signed a deal on the pipeline route and in 2010 a deal was made planning to extend it to India (33) – (34)

Salmond’s smooth moves to convince Scottish voters that Independence wouldn’t be a big change ignore the  high costs and risk of much of the Status Quo, including NATO membership

Would backbenchers in the Scottish parliament have the power to initiate a vote on withdrawing troops from wars parliament had previously approved by majority vote? Shouldn’t a referendum also be required before going to war to give everyone a say in a matter of life or death for thousands.

Alec Salmond is certainly making smooth moves by trying to make voters see independence as less of a big risk, by reassuring them that lots of things will remain unchanged – NATO membership, EU membership, our currency, the Queen as head of state, an open border with England etc.

However the status quo carries its own risks. In the case of continued NATO membership the risks are not only that we might be required to keep nuclear weapons on Scottish territory and continue to pay a proportion of the costs of running, maintaining, refitting and upgrading them as a condition of continued membership (despite the fact an independent Scotland would have no more need for a nuclear deterrent than Norway does), but also that we could be drawn by the alliance into more long, bloody, unwinnable wars fought mostly for the benefit of US and British oil and arms companies.

Sign the No to NATO Scotland statement and follow the campaign

You can sign an online statement opposing NATO membership for an independent Scotland on the No to NATO Scotland Coalition website on this link (scroll down the page till you see an orange button with 'Sign the Statement' on it on the right - click it, fill in details and enter them). There's also news and information, including on protests by the campaign that you can take part in, on the website.

Sources

 (1) = Sunday Herald 14th October 2012 ‘Why we can ban nuclear weapons and stay in Nato’,
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendum-news/why-we-can-ban-nuclear-weapons-and-stay-in-nato.19134185

(2) = Ministry of Defence 27 Jul 2012 ‘MOD signs Trident support contract’,
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/DefencePolicyAndBusiness/ModSignsTridentSupportContract.htm

(3) = guardian.co.uk Trident 30 Jul 2012 ‘bases to be run by private companies’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/30/trident-bases-run-private-companies

(4) = BBC News 22 May 2012 ‘Trident contracts worth £350m unveiled by MoD’,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18155835

(5) = CAAT Revolving Door Log, http://www.caat.org.uk/issues/influence/revolving-door.php

(6) = Independent 22 May 2012 ‘Government awards contracts worth £350m for new Trident submarines’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/government-awards-contracts-worth-350m-for-new-trident-submarines-7778161.html

(7) = Telegraph 26 Jan 2012 ‘Nuclear subs will stay in Scotland, Royal Navy chiefs decide’,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9043092/Nuclear-subs-will-stay-in-Scotland-Royal-Navy-chiefs-decide.html

(8) = guardian.co.uk 19 Mar 2010 ‘France offers to join forces with UK's nuclear submarine fleet’ , http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/19/france-britain-shared-nuclear-deterrent

(9) = Independent 30 Sep 2010 ‘Britain and France may share nuclear deterrent’,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/britain-and-france-may-share-nuclear-deterrent-2093539.html

(10) = BBC News 24 Sep 2012 ‘UK military deaths in Afghanistan’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10629358 , (433 as of 24th September, around 24 Scottish)

(11) Human Rights Watch World Report 2006 ‘Torture and Inhumane Treatment: A Deliberate U.S. Policy’, http://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k6/introduction/2.htm#_Toc121910421 ; ‘the abuse at Abu Ghraib paralleled similar if not worse abuse in Afghanistan, Guantánamo, elsewhere in Iraq, and in the chain of secret detention facilities where the U.S. government holds its “high value” detainees’

(12) = Human Rights Watch 20 May 2005 - ‘Afghanistan: Killing and Torture by U.S. Predate Abu Ghraib ' - http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/05/20/afghan10992.htm

(13) = NYT 20 May 2005 ‘In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates' Deaths’,
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/international/asia/20abuse.html?ei=5088&en=4579c146cb14cfd6&ex=1274241600&pagewanted=all

(14) =  Wikipedia Civilian casualties in the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan_%282001%E2%80%93present%29#Aggregation_of_estimates (This provides estimates of civilian casualties caused by the various forces involved by various sources including Professor Marc Herold of the University of New Hampshire , the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan  (UNAMA) , Human Rights Watch and The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission – whichever estimates you take, thousands have been killed by NATO forces before counting the thousands also killed by Taliban and other insurgents. The reports by the sources are also listed and linked to)

(15) = according to The Afghanistan Conflict Monitor of Simon Fraser University in Australia in 2011: “Estimates of the number of civilians killed vary widely and must be treated with caution. Systematic collection of civilian fatality data only began in 2007. The United Nations is creating a civilian casualty database, but is not publicly accessible. Periodic updates can be found in Reports of the Secretary-General on peace and security in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) is also collecting data, but the efforts of both agencies are hampered by insecurity and a lack of resources. As a result, figures released by these agencies likely represent a substantial undercount.

(16) = See this blog post , scrolling down to sub-headings ‘‘Civilian and military deaths caused by both sides in the war – is it necessary or worth it?’ and ‘Night Raids and the El Salvador Option moving from Iraq to Afghanistan’ – as well as the sources listed for each section under the same headings further down the post (they include Human Rights Watch and Afghan Independent Human Rights Watch reports as well as BBC and Times newspaper reports among others ) http://inplaceoffear.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/one-more-push-for-what-in-afghanistan.html

(17) = See this blog post ‘Have NATO airstrikes killed fewer civilians in Afghanistan under Obama? And have they fallen under McChrystal?’ which is fully sourced with mainstream sources ; http://inplaceoffear.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/have-nato-airstrikes-killed-less.html

(18) = For more details and sources on torture by US forces in Afghanistan under Bush see the page on this link  ; for torture under both Bush and Obama in Afghanistan see the blog post on this link, scrolling down to the bolded sub-heading ‘Guantanamo to Bagram : extra-ordinary rendition  (kidnapping) and torture’

(19) = Jennifer K Harbury (2005) ‘Truth, Torture and the American Way’, Beacon Press, Boston, 2005 ; Harbury, whose Guatemalan husband Everardo was tortured and then disappeared during CIA led operations by the Guatemalan military, provides masses of evidence that torture by US intelligence and military forces has always happened, even when it was illegal under US law, casting doubt on whether Obama’s formal ban on most forms of torture (except psychological torture and sleep deprivation) will be enough to end it

(20) = Boston Globe 09 Oct 2009 ‘Taliban not main Afghan enemy’, http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/10/09/most_insurgents_in_afghanistan_not_religiously_motivated_military_reports_say/?page=1

(21) = BBC News 01 Feb 2012 ‘Pakistan helping Afghan Taliban - Nato’,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16821218 , ‘The Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services, according to a secret Nato report seen by the BBC… the report… exposes…the relationship between the ISI and the Taliban…. based on material from 27,000 interrogations with more than 4,000 captured Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters and civilians.’

(22) = Reuters 22 May 2012 ‘U.S. senators vote to tie Pakistan aid to supply routes’,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/23/us-pakistan-usa-aid-idUSBRE84M03Y20120523

(23) = CNN 04 Jul 2012 ‘Pakistan reopens NATO supply routes to Afghanistan’,
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/03/world/asia/us-pakistan-border-routes/index.html ,
Meanwhile, the U.S. military will now pay Pakistan $1.1 billion it owes as part of the deal struck to reopen the NATO supply lines …The money is part of a U.S. military program …which reimburses the Pakistani military for counterterrorism efforts.

(24) = BBC 03 Jul 2012 ‘Pakistan to reopen supply lines to Nato Afghan forces’,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18691691 , ‘US officials say the existing charge of $250 (£160) per truck will not change - Washington had baulked at a Pakistani demand for $5,000 per container to let supplies flow again.’

(25) = Minneapolis Star Tribune 20 Dec 2001 ‘Eagan Flight Trainer Wouldn't Let Unease About Moussaoui Rest’, http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=11642646

(26) = USA Today 28 May 2002 ‘Letter shifts heat to FBI’,
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/05/28/letter-fbi.htm

(27) = NYT 24 Feb 2004 ‘C.I.A. Was Given Data on Hijacker Long Before 9/11’, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/24/politics/24TERR.html?ex=1225252800&en=ce51b8f44bd6a30c&ei=5070

(28) =  Also see this page on my website and sources in it

(29) = Rashid , Ahmed(2001) Taliban Tauris, London , paperback, 2001 – p167, 173

(30) = Guardian 24 Oct 2001, ‘Route to riches’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,579401,00.html (Afghanistan has huge strategic importance for the west as a corridor to the untapped fuel reserves in central Asia, reports Andy Rowell)

(31) = U.S. INTEREST IN CENTRAL ASIA:JOHN J. MARESCA , TESTIMONY BY JOHN J. MARESCA VICE PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS UNOCAL CORPORATION TO HOUSE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON ASIA AND THE PACIFIC , FEBRUARY 12, 1998 WASHINGTON, D.C., http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa48119.000/hfa48119_0f.htm

(32) = Coll, Steve (2004) 'Ghost Wars : The secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden' , Penguin paperback, London, 2004, pages 308, 313

(33) = BBC News 27 Dec 2002 , ‘Central Asia pipeline deal signed’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2608713.stm

(34) = BBC News 11 Dec 2010 ‘Turkmen natural gas pipeline Tapi to cross Afghanistan’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11977744