SOME OF the gloss is coming off the glorious victory the United States and Britain are supposed to have won in Afghanistan. This is largely because of the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay. Liberals who supported the war are discovering that defending civilisation means humiliating captives, imprisoning them in cages and denying them a fair trial. But doubts are also growing about the war itself.
So who's got it in for the Black Police Association (BPA)? The BPA is a moderate body. It was formed in 1993 to give black police officers and civilian staff a voice against the rampant discrimination built into the profession.
ARGENTINA IS the sharp end of the global economic crisis. The social and political explosion there should not be dismissed as the kind of turbulence typical of obscure parts of the Third World.
"THE TROUBLE with you Socialist Worker types is that you haven't moved on. You talk about capitalism as if we're still in the 1830s - child labour, workers burning themselves out in terrible conditions, press-gangs rounding people up to be killed in foreign wars. And you talk of company directors as if they were old-style bosses getting rich from the toil and blood of the masses."
THE US establishment and its toadies have been engaging in an orgy of self congratulation since the military collapse of the Taliban. It's hardly a surprise that the richest country in the world can conquer one of the poorest. But has the US brought greater peace in its wake?
SO SOLID Crew have been hailed in the media as "the new Sex Pistols". Their glorification of gang violence has set cash registers ringing. In the last six months the band have had a number one single and album. Violence and controversy have stalked them from the outset.
"Top of the world, Ma!" shouts James Cagney at the end of the movie White Heat, just before he blows himself to smithereens. George Bush could cry the same now, having seen the Taliban crumble beneath US air power.
Charles Clarke, chairman (unelected) of the Labour Party, last week declared his love for the US under George W Bush. In his youth, he admitted, "I was a strong opponent of the foreign policy of the US," and campaigned over issues such as US support for fascist states in Greece, Spain and Portugal, US support for dictatorships in Latin America, and the use of US troops in Cambodia and Vietnam.
They're feeling pretty bullish in the White House and the Pentagon. A few weeks ago Tony Blair was riding high as George W Bush's favourite adviser. But last Sunday's Observer, reporting American plans to extend the war to Iraq, quoted a "European military source" just back from US Central Command HQ in Florida:
As Christmas approaches you may be wondering how you're going to see your parents, grandparents, their friends and cope with all the guesting and hosting. If the thought of it all is getting you down, then spare a thought for George W Bush and his ambassador in London, William S Farish III.
I missed the great anti-war demonstration in London the Sunday before last. But I don't feel too bad about this because, along with 500 other people, I was participating in a conference on globalisation and resistance in New York.
"This is not about millionaire footballers wanting more money. It's about supporting a union that funds lads who don't make the grade and need to retrain, and 60 year old ex-pros who need a heart operation but can't afford it."
