text:
Friday 14 January 2011 -- After a dramatic 24 hours when Tunisia's dictator president Ben Ali first tried promising liberalisation and an end to police shootings of demonstrators and then, this evening at 16:00, declaring martial law, he has finally fallen from office. While the rumours are still swirling, one thing is clear, Ben Ali has left Tunisia and the army has stepped in. The comments after this article contain continuous updates of the uprising.
The day began with a mass demonstration called by Tunisia's trade union federation, the UGTT, in the capital Tunis. Between 10 and 15,000 people demonstrated outside the Ministry of the Interior. The initially peaceful scene broke down at around 14:30 local time as police moved in with tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd, some of whom had managed to scale the Ministry building and get on its roof. From then on, the city centre descended into chaos with running battles between the riot police and Tunisians of all ages and backgrounds fighting for the overthrow of the hated despot.
Finally, armoured cars from the army appeared on the street and a state of emergency and curfew was declared with Ben Ali threatening the populace that the security forces had carte blanche to open fire on any gatherings of more than three people. Soon, however, he disappeared from view and the rumours began to circulate. The army seized control of the airport and there were reports of convoys of limousines racing to the airport from the Ben Ali families palace. Finally the official announcement came. Ben Ali is gone. Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi appeared on state TV to announce that he was in charge of a caretaker government backed by the army.
Tonight the long-suffering people of Tunisia may rejoice that their last four weeks of heroic resistance has finally seen off the dictator who ran the most vicious police state in North Africa over them for the last 23 years.
But tomorrow morning will find the army in charge. What will happen tomorrow and the days to follow is anybody's guess. But the people now know that they have the power to overthrow a long-entrenched dictatorship, how much easier to take on a new unstable regime.
Report by Workers Solidarity Movement
BBC videos
Taking the temperature on the streets of Tunis
Will the new Tunisian national unity government be enough to satisfy people demanding complete change at the top? And will it cool the temperature on the streets?
Lyse Doucet talks to people in the shops and restaurants of the capital Tunis to find out how they feel.
Broadcast on Monday 17 January 2011
Tunisia's new national unity government in tatters
Tunisia's new National Unity government looks to be in tatters just a day after it was set up.
Several ministers resigned on Tuesday and the streets of Tunis erupted again, with protesters angry at what they see as the survival of the old regime under a new guise.
The interim president and prime minister have now said they are leaving the ruling party as Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports.
Protest and clashes between school students and police in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania on Tuesday (machine translation).
On twitter: 'There have been protests inspired by Tunisia in Oman in front empty govt offices since bureaucrats work until 14:30.'
Also on twitter: 'Majority of European Parliament rejects resolution supporting Tunisian people.'
Did French customs topple Ben Ali?
Did French customs topple Ben Ali?
January 19, 2011
MORE than seven tonnes of security equipment, destined to helping the former Tunisian president Ben Ali tackle riots in the country, was blocked at a Paris airport last week.
According to news website www.rue89.com, the packages were destined for the Tunisian interior ministry, but were blocked from delivery Friday morning at Charles de Gaulle airport, hours before Ben Ali announced he was stepping down
French customs blocked the delivery in order carry out a systematic verification of each box, which was scheduled for Monday.
While such a procedure is regularly carried out on deliveries of material deemed "sensitive", customs officers had already examined the contents once while en route to be packaged up for transport.
Defence journalist Jean-Dominique Merchet has posted on his site that the head of delivery group Hesnault had received a call from a "high authority" at the Elysée Palace that such a delivery was "out of the question".
Rue89 reports that, when asked to comment, the Ministry of Defence referred the matter to the Interior Ministry, who referred it to the Elysée, who referred it to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
First off, the answer to the question posed by the headline is - no, of course not.
A bit of contextualisation might be in order. The events in Tunisia are having some political fallout in France at the moment. Primarily this is just an excuse for another round of tit for tat in the ongoing culture war between left and right which is of no particular interest to anybody outside France (and a good number inside, tbh), apart from it will occassionally throw out numbers like the above story.
The whistlestop summary is that a couple of days before Ben Ali fell, the French foreign minister Michelle Alliot-Marie (aka MAM) announced in parliament that the French state, with its unparalleled experience in policing this sort of thing, stood ready to help Ben Ali restore order. Since Ben Ali fell the left have been calling foul on MAM, in return the right have retailiated by pointing out that a) Ben Ali and his RCD party were members of the Socialist International that the PS were part of, until a few days ago and b) the PS star mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, has never said diddly about Ben Ali and the Tunisian situation, despite being Tunisian born himself, and blah, blah, blah, so it goes on...
So the above is another card in the game to prove that MAM is either a) an evil imperialist securocrat, hell-bent on parachuting the Foreign Legion into Tunis, or b) an enlightened humanitarian who exercised diplomatic discretion by holding up a vital re-up of CS through procedural means to secretly support the plucky Tunisians struggle for French-style liberal democracy.
N'importe quoi...
too good to miss. note the date
SI decision on Tunisia 17 January 2011
A decision has been taken by the President together with the Secretary General, in accordance with the statutes of the Socialist International, to cease the membership of the Constitutional Democratic Assembly (RCD) of Tunisia.
This decision, in extraordinary circumstances, reflects the values and principles which define our movement and the position of the International on developments in that country.
too good to miss. note the dateQuote:
SI decision on Tunisia 17 January 2011
A decision has been taken by the President together with the Secretary General, in accordance with the statutes of the Socialist International, to cease the membership of the Constitutional Democratic Assembly (RCD) of Tunisia.
This decision, in extraordinary circumstances, reflects the values and principles which define our movement and the position of the International on developments in that country.
still embodying the "values and principles" of the SI are e.g. Mubarak's NDP or the Mexican PRI
Anti-govt protesters rally in Tunisian capital
(AP) – 38 minutes ago
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Hundreds of protesters marched down the main street of Tunisia's capital on Wednesday, demanding that allies of the ousted president stop clinging to power.
The demonstrators sang nationalist songs and held up signs with "RCD Out!" — referring to the former ruling party — as they walked down Avenue Bourguiba in central Tunis. White-and-blue police vans lined the route to prevent any clashes.
A spokesman for the embattled prime minister said ministers who remained in the new interim government were debating whether to hold their first meeting Wednesday or Thursday. Four new ministers resigned within 24 hours after being appointed to the unprecedented multiparty Cabinet, weakening its prospects.
An airport official said the Tunisian foreign minister, Kamal Merjan, left the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheik on Wednesday before the start of an Arab League summit, without giving any reason.
This decision, in extraordinary circumstances, reflects the values and principles which define our movement and the position of the International on developments in that country.
Tunisia looms large over Arab economic summit
AFP , Wednesday 19 Jan 2011
Arab leaders met in Egypt on Wednesday to discuss economic cooperation as the Arab world feels the aftershocks of an uprising in Tunisia that emboldened the region's harried dissidents.
The summit marks the first gathering of Arab leaders since a popular uprising sparked by the self-immolation of an unemployed man forced veteran Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee his country on Friday.
The incident also sparked a rash of copycat attempted public suicides by self-immolation in Arab countries by protesters.
Arab leaders, many of whom rule over populations that share similar grievances to Tunisia's protesters, have denied any similarity with Tunisia but the comparison came up in the opening speeches of the summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Arab League chief Amr Mussa said in his speech that the economic grievances that triggered the Tunisian uprising hit close to the summit's discussion.
"The revolution that happened in Tunisia is not far from the subject of this summit," he said. "And it is not far from what is going through the minds of many...the Arab soul is broken by poverty and unemployment."
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, the country's ruler for 30 years, made no reference to the Tunisian revolt, but said tackling development and economic cooperation have become national security priorities.
"We have realised that the priority of economic cooperation and development is no longer just about progress for our people...but a basic demand of Arab national security," he said.
Tunisian Foreign Minister Kamel Morjane, who briefed his counterparts in Sharm el-Sheikh on developments in his country, told reporters at a press conference that the protests were fuelled by political and economic grievances.
NB that last para seems to contradict the AP story about Morjane returning to Tunis before the conference.
The top most viewed stories on al ahram show the current impact of Tunisia on the arab imagination - at least in Egypt.
1. Tunisie Telecom forced to delay its initial public offering
2. Market Report: Egyptian wave of self-immolation hits Stock Exchange
3. WB: Tunisian crisis proved addressing unemployment should be top regional priority
4. Algeria buys wheat to avoid shortage and unrest
5. French industry eyes Tunisia
6. Sharm Summit: The businessmen are coming
7. Tunisian uprising impacts economy: report
8. Switzerland considers freezing Tunisian president's alleged assets
some interesting stories in that lot.
Picking up on one of those stories...
France's industry federation chief said on Tuesday that following the expulsion of former president Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, he sees major possibilities for future French investment in Tunisia if corruption and nepotism are dealt with.
Former colonial ruler France is the North African nation's top business partner with about 1,250 companies operating there. French firms invested about 139 million euros ($185.5 million) in Tunisia in 2009.
"I am extremely hopeful," MEDEF President Laurence Parisot told reporters. "There is a huge potential that was completely shackled by nepotism and corruption," she said.
"I've spoken previously to big French companies that wanted to set up in Tunisia, but they couldn't because they simply had to refuse (certain) conditions," Parisot said.
Many foreign firms that did business in Tunisia were forced to enter into partnership with relatives of Ben Ali and his wife Leila's Trabelsi family.
One question at the back of my mind has been what will happen to the large sector of the Tunisian economy that was directly owned by members of the families of Ben Ali and Leila Trabelsi. Nationalisation? Sale to foreign investors? Privatisation with an asset grab by the Tunisian business and political class? Attempts at self-management?
What Tunisia proved - and disproved - about political change in the Arab world
The Tunisian uprising raises so many questions that it is difficult to focus on only one or two, but one of the intriguing aspects of the January 2011 events is that they simultaneously strengthened and smashed several longstanding pieces of conventional wisdom about how political change might come to Arab countries.
Until the recent events in Tunisia, however, the theory went that even with all those reasons for public discontent, no Arab population could overthrow an authoritarian leader without a cohesive opposition movement. Analysts cited the weakness of political parties in the Arab world as one of the main reasons for the persistence of authoritarian governments. And yet the Tunisian opposition was among the weakest in the Arab world: none of the three small opposition parties (the Democratic Progressive Party, Renewal Movement, and the Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties) that initially joined the transitional government, nor the exiled Islamist Renaissance (Nahda) Party, played a significant role in the uprising. They certainly did not form a cohesive front capable of putting pressure on the government, and none of their leaders are charismatic figures who inspired protestors. Nor did labor unions, professional syndicates, or other organizations fill the organizational role in a major way. And so it apparently is possible for a population to put enough pressure on an Arab authoritarian leader to step down even if it lacks strong opposition organizations and compelling leadership.
Tunisia has its own peculiarities—a population prosperous and educated enough to have high expectations, more equality of the sexes than exists in other Arab countries, and a relatively weak Islamist political movement—that undoubtedly contributed to the fact that the Jasmine Revolution occurred there and not elsewhere, and that it had a strikingly liberal and secular countenance. It is far from certain where Tunisia will go from here, and whether the country will move smoothly from a revolution with relatively little bloodshed to a truly democratic political system.
Still, whatever happens from now on, the Tunisians have taught all observers at least three unforgettable lessons: first, widespread economic grievances such as youth unemployment can indeed quickly translate into specific demands for political change, and second, this can happen even in the absence of strong opposition organizations. The third lesson of Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution was perhaps the most memorable of all: when long-postponed change finally comes, it is often startling how relatively little effort and time it can take.
Michele Dunne, Arab Reform Bulletin
Tunisia crisis: live updates (Guardian)
1145 GMT: AFP reports on this morning's protests in Tunis....
Demonstrators chanted, "Parliament and a new Constitution", "Revolution against the remnants of Ben Ali", "Minister of Finance [Ridha Chalghoum], Friend of Tripoli", "Ben Ali's party, go", and "Victims of police participated in the revolution" before singing the national anthem.
Security forces prevented the rally from walking along Habib Bourguiba Avenue toward the Ministry of the Interior. Police Colonel Najm al-Din Ziguli said, "Instructions have been given not to confront the protesters and not to fire tear gas. They can protest in front of the Democratic Progressive Assembly without passing near the Ministry of the Interior."
1050 GMT: Ben Wedeman of CNN writes that demonstrators are back on the main avenue in Tunis, "Big protest brewing in Habib Bourguiba but so far its peaceful." The current estimate is 700 to 800 demonstrators.
1025 GMT: Earlier this morning, we closed our analysis of the Tunisian Government's position with an observation on prominent blogger and Minister of Youth and Sport Slim Amamou: "[He] said he would resign when he decided, not when others did. But that only brought further - questions. What should he decide?"
Well, Amamou has given an immediate answer to the BBC World Service: "This is a temporary government in special conditions. The purpose is to set up elections as soon as possible. We are not the real government, we are not here to govern for a long time. It's for the good of the country just to pass this period."
He assured, "I'm free to say whatever I want, and to report what's going on in government."
le Parisien reports that Chebbi has announced that the first Cabinet meeting of new ministers will not take place until tomorrow now.
The excuse being that as the main order of business will be the general amnesty for all political prisoners (that opposition and civil socitey groups have been demanding for decades), the ministry of justice needs the time to get the paperwork together. Also on the agenda will be the separation of state bodies from the RCD (which has been the single party of power since independance). That's if they ever get to meet, that is. 24 hours is a long time in Tunisian politics just now.
One of the better reports I've seen from the ongoing protests in Tunis. In Spanish unfortunately.
One of the most refreshing things about the Tunisian uprising – and very unusual for the Middle East – has been the lack of meddling by external interests. Apart from a few mouse-like squeaks from the state department, the US stayed out of it and so too did God, along with his self-appointed representatives on earth.
In most Arab countries, Islamists are seen as the main alternative to existing regimes – which suits the regimes fine because it scares people into supporting them. In Tunisia, though, as George Joffe explained, the organisational strength of the uprising came mainly from the country's biggest trade union, the UGTT, with students and thousands of disaffected citizens also joining in. The rhetoric was broadly leftist rather than religious.
Hopefully, what Tunisia can provide for the Middle East is a new model – a secular alternative to the Iranian revolution. There are no ayatollahs waiting in the wings. The Islamists will probably resurface after two decades of suppression, but there are no indications that they have a large popular following in Tunisia and they are unlikely to play anything more than a minor role in the country's political future.
If the Tunisian revolution continues on its current path, we could even see the beginnings of a post-Islamist phase in the Arab countries.
Brian Whitaker
CEMB forum -- Ex-muslims discussing Tunisia
Here's a report from the Telegraph that's interesting because in passing it mentions 'revolutionary committees of workers ... set to strip power from state-appointed directors'. It doesn't give any more details and there's nothing to say how widespread this is, how these committees operate or how far they are going.
Some of the reporting that has come out of Tunisia has actually been quite good after the initial delay, but I suspect journalists may be missing things which are important but don't fit in with their worldview. There's plenty been written about role of the internet and the supposed Islamist threat etc, but very little about the organisation of the uprising, the unions and the left.
It's also worth noting that not much is being written about what is happening in the back country towns where the uprising began. If you take the view that politics is about the formation of governments and what goes on in the capital city then that makes a kind of sense but I'm not sure how far it deals with what actually matters in Tunisia at the moment.
Tunisia's new government implodes on day one
The revolt against the apparatchiks who wielded unquestioned power under Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, the ex-president, spread inside official buildings and institutions linked to the former dictator and his family.
Revolutionary committees of workers were set to strip power from state-appointed directors. At Presse, a French language newspaper that was the mouthpiece of Ben Ali, a faction of the workforce deposed the editor-in-chief. Ex-propagandists proclaimed their loyalty to the so-called Jasmine revolution that forced Mr Ben Ali to flee.
"The Jasmine revolution is good and we must say so," declared Souad Ben Sulieman, the culture editor. "Tunisia has no legitimate government until the revolution is won."
Mayoral offices across the country were reported to be besieged by crowds numbering up to several thousand and employees were demanding that hated local leaders step aside...
From the New York Times
The press watchdog Reports Without Borders has repeatedly listed Ben Ali among the world's 40 top "predators" of the media.
"Journalists and human rights activists are the target of constant bureaucratic harassment, police violence and surveillance by the intelligence services," the group says in its 2010 report. Independent journalists suffered reprisals, and foreign journalists are assigned minders by a regime "almost obsessive about control of news and information."
Such pressures were a daily reality for journalists at the state-run paper La Presse. Inspired by the new climate, they revolted and dismissed their boss, Gawhar Chatty, and set up their own interim committee to run the paper.
When Chatty showed up at the office Monday after a call advising him to stay home, cartoonist Lotfi marched into his office for the final farewell.
"We informed him (by phone) that we're taking charge of the paper and if he comes in we'll break his face, excuse the expression," managing editor Faouzie Mezzi told AP Television News.
Protests spread to the BBC?
BBC Arabic staff on strike over extra working hours (Al Arabiya)
Journalists in the Arabic section of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) went Tuesday on a two-day strike in protest of extra hours added to their working schedule with no financial compensation.
Tuesday's strike is the first in a series of other strikes planned by NUJ members at the BBC Arabic service, said Bassem Kamel, news anchor head of NUJ at BBC Arabic. "NUJ members at the channel will stage several other strikes, each lasting for 48 hours, in order to put pressure on the administration to go back to the negotiating table," Kamel told AlArabiya.net.
AlArabiya.net tried contacting the administration of the BBC Arabic service to gauge its reaction on Tuesday's strike. However, the administration refused to comment and only issued a statement expressing its resentment at what it labeled an "unjustified" action…
From the liveblog
2135 GMT: Elaph reports that about 50 people are continuing a sit-in protest on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, breaking the 8 p.m. curfew.
2045 GMT: Al Arabiya reports that 1800 political prisoners have been released in Tunisia.
1945 GMT: Tunisian TV says 33 members of deposed President Ben Ali's family arrested. It is showing seized gold, jewelry, credit cards, and property confiscated from old regime figures.
1710 GMT: Minister of Regional Development Najid Chebbi said that Tunisia has freed all remaining political prisoners, including members of the banned al-Nahda Party.
1515 GMT: Angelique Christafis of The Guardian of London reports, "Real change: peaceful protestors chant 'RCD out'. No teargas. Police letting them demonstrate."
1500 GMT: Peter Beaumont of The Observer of London writes: "In Tunis. Mood good-natured in city centre. Someone's put flowers on the tank at one end of Avenue Habib Bourguiba. Demo at other but no [tear] gas."
1305 GMT: Reuters reports that Switzerland is freezing the assets of deposed Tunisian President Ben Ali.
Since Friday, Yemen sees daily anti-government protests (Al Arabiya)
Hundreds of Yemeni protesters inspired by the Tunisian revolution took the streets to chant anti-government slogans in a university in Sanaa, Middle East Online reported on Wednesday.
Yemeni police fired warning shots to disperse the demonstrators in Sanaa University. No injuries were reported despite the ani-riot police resorting to gunfire. Several students were also arrested, but according to a security official the arrested students were soon released.
The police failed to break the protest and were able only to contain it at the university's campus. Demonstrators at the university chanted in support of Tunisia in the wake of popular protests that toppled the North African's country's iron-fisted leader, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali .
"Revolution, revolution, people against the frightened leader," they shouted. "Liberty's Tunisia, Sanaa salutes you a thousand times," shouted the students. "Toppling the corrupt (leader) is a duty." Similar protests have been ongoing on a nearly daily basis in Yemen since Friday, when Ben Ali escaped to Saudi Arabia, ending his 23 years in power.
1050 GMT: CNN's Ben Wedeman reports from Tunis, "Shooting in air [by] soldiers blocking entrance to RCD [Party] headquarters."
1045 GMT: The first video game featuring former President Ben Ali as the target, "Mon Sniper", is now on the Internet.
1030 GMT: Hundreds of students from the University of Boukhalfa, near Tizi Ouzou in northern Algeria, marched on Thursday morning to police headquarters. They protested living conditions and chanted slogans against the Government.
The protesters, who came by bus, were blocked by a cordon of police. The demonstrators refused to divert the march as they chanted, "Stop Corruption" and "Terrorist Government", displaying a banner, "Only the struggle pays!"
0845 GMT: News is breaking that all members of the Tunisian Cabinet who were in the Constitutional Democratic Rally, which had held power since 1956, have left the party.
Al Arabiya reports that Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi has turned down the request of deposed President Ben Ali to return to Tunisia, saying it is "impossible".
0825 GMT: Al Jazeera clarifies that the release of all political prisoners in Tunisia is expected today.
0750 GMT: The Tunisian Central Bank has taken control of the Zaytuna Islamic Bank, which had been owned by Sakher El Materi, the son-in-law of ousted President Ben Ali.
Materi founded the bank in 2009 and it began activities last year.
0745 GMT: The social media network of the US State Department is pushing this line via Twitter: "The people of Tunisia have spoken. The interim government must create a genuine transition to democracy. The United States will help."
0735 GMT: All appears to have been quiet overnight in Tunisia. Indeed, there was a reduction in tension throughout Wednesday, with a protest in Tunis proceeding without confrontation and with the curfew eased to 8 p.m.
CNN, meanwhile, is looking beyond Tunis, "Jordan Protesters Inspired by Tunisian Ripple":
Long before Tunisians took to the streets, Jordan was already mired in a deep economic downturn that prompted a series of protests.
But when several hundred demonstrators peacefully gathered outside the parliament in Amman last Sunday, they added a new slogan to their often-repeated complaints about government corruption and the soaring cost of living. "A salute," they shouted, "from Amman to proud Tunis."
Video: demonstrators demand new democracy
Mood in Tunisia lifts, but revolution may not be over (Guardian)
Welcome to post-Islamism (al-bab.com)
My neighbors who are relatives of Ben Ali (the ones in the nice house I mentioned earlier) supposedly got attacked today. It was nothing major though.
Rumor is that they had taken out some loans when their relative was President and never paid them back because they didn't have to. Supposedly, now that their license to steal is gone, the people who they owe money to were trying to get some of it back.
Anyways I guess the lenders punched a guy and threatened them, and now a squad of 5 or 6 military guys is posted up on my block.(unfortunately they were the first people I have met in this conflict who refused to have their pictures taken) This is a good thing, as it makes us extremely secure, and as a result we didn't even bother building the barricade on my street tonight. (we take it down every morning so people can use their cars and park for the stores and mosque)
Since our houses are safe, My neighbor invited me to come hang out at his friends barricade. His friend lives on a main street close to my house, so we grabbed our Assahs (sticks used for defense) and walked over.
On the way over, we stopped by a black market beer shop and picked up a bunch of beers. The beer dealers were operating out of a somewhat run down house and got down just like dope dealers in America...a bunch of big older guys were sitting around watching, and 14 year olds would take your money and give you the beer.
We got to the barricade and chilled out and gave beers to the guys who don't pray. We had checked about five or ten cars when a military truck came rumbling by. He said that though the situation was still not settled, things has improved enough that the Soldiers wanted us to remove the barricades on the major streets, although we could still keep them on the side streets.
We quickly removed the the main barricade but still controlled access to the side streets. The local police are driving around now, but in every car of three policemen must have one soldier in it. This is because neither the military, nor anyone I have talked to, trusts the police.
When one of these mixed cars drove by our barricade, one of my new friends yelled at it something that basically means "much respect to the soldiers, fuck the police."
Eventually I headed back towards my house and went to my other friend's corner, where practically the entire block was out drinking coffee and eating cake.
As much as I hope things get back to normal, I hope the blockparty-like atmosphere atmosphere in my neighborhood continues.
I saw this on one of the francophone streams last night (nouvelobs?). Anyway, here's the ahram take:
One day after beginning of investigation into allegations of steeling [sic] Tunisia's resources, authorities arrested 33 of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's family
AFP , Thursday 20 Jan 2011
33 relatives of Tunisia's toppled former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali have been arrested in recent days, state television reported Thursday.
Television pictures showed footage of watches, jewelry and international credit cards seized during raids on the family members' properties.
Ben Ali fled the country for Saudi Arabia Friday following weeks of unrest.
On Wednesday, officials opened an investigation against the former president and his family for having allegedly plundered the country's resources.
The charges include illegal property acquisitions and currency transfers. Those targeted included Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi, her brothers and sons and their children.
Obviously what we really want is interviews with UGTT militants and grassroots organisers, (especially, as Mark previously raised, what's really going on in the workplaces of the now fled, dead or arrested Benali - Trabelsi empire) along with news of what's happening in the interior cities like Kesserine and Sidi Bouzid. Looks like it's going to be while before any of that appears in the online anglo and euro news spheres.
In the meantime, faute de mieux, it appears that the UGTT translators have made more of an effort to translate their latest official releases into english, rather than french, contrary to what you might expect. See UGTT english statements
Obviously they're mostly predictably staid, cautious and timidly reformist. But there are still some interesting details.
For e.g. this from the first statement after the inital outbreak in Sidi Bouzid, dated December 21 -
Statement of the National Executive Bureau
The Executive Bureau of the Tunisian General Labor Union met on
Tuesday, December 21, 2010, under the chairmanship of comrade Abdessalem
Jerad the General Secretary of the Tunisian General Labor Union. The General
Secretary is following the events of Sidi Bouzid with deep concern.
First: [General Secretary] emphasizes the fact that employment is a legitimate right
guaranteed by the national constitution and by all international legislations,
charters and treaties. Dealing with the issue of employment based on justice and
equity amongst all regions represents one of the solutions for the eradication of
the feeling of unfairness, which may be manifested by spontaneous reactions
leading to social tragedies that become too hard to stop.
Second: Based on the principles that have long been called for by the
Organization and on the study about the reality of development , the general
secretary stresses the importance of the government's role in creating equity
between the different regions and in carrying out the task of investment to create
more employment opportunities for all job seekers, especially young university
graduates, as well as the need to compel the private sector - since it enjoys many
incentives and privileges - to develop investment, especially in the internal
regions of the country.
Now I recall somewhere in the accounts I have read that Mohamed Bouzizi was not selling vegetables in Sidi Bouzid, he'd gone to one of the big towns on the coast and it was there that he was stopped by the police. Presumably he would have been unable to get a traders licence for a town he was not registered in (in the French system, your place of residence must be registered) even had he tried to. By the accounts it was after his encounter with the Police in whichever coastal town it was, that he returned to Sidi Bouzid and immolated himself in front of the local Mairie. There seems to have been a distinct regional tension underlying the origins of this intifada. All of which makes the lack of news from the interior more frustrating, but hey...
I was going to try and just pick snippets out of this, but it has diverse points of interest, so apols for length...
Tunisia debates a future without powerful Ben Ali party
Emboldened by a popular revolt that ended president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's authoritarian rule, many Tunisians now demand the banning of his state party, a symbol of corruption and repression.
But whether the new democracy can immediately cope without the once-powerful Constitutional Democratic Rally/Assembly (RCD), which has essentially run Tunisia since independence in 1956, is a question nagging the political elite.
Every day since last Friday, when 74-year-old Ben Ali yielded to weeks of street protests and fled to Saudi Arabia with his family, huge protests have demanded the outlawing of the RCD.
To the cries of "people stand up against the remains of the dictatorship," they have condemned the awarding of plum posts in the transitional government unveiled Monday to RCD ministers.
The eight ministers concerned, who hold key posts in the government, announced Monday -- including interior, defence, finance and foreign affairs -- moved to meet these objections on Thursday.
They resigned from the RCD, following the example of prime minister Mohammed Ghannouchi who had cut his links to the party on Tuesday.
In any case, some believe the north African country cannot immediately make a clean break from a party that controlled the entire administration and its staff for so long, without the risk of paralysing the state.
"At the moment, the urgency is to re-establish the authority of the state," said rights activist Larbi Chouikha, who is among those who want the RCD to maintain a presence in the new government.
"But these are technocrats who have distinguished themselves through their integrity and especially their competence, and who have not been caught up in matters of corruption," Chouikha said.
Other than preparing democratic elections within six months, the new authority has the huge task of overhauling the security forces -- some of whom are accused of a deadly crackdown on protesters.
They also have to relaunch the stalled economy.
On the other hand, Chouikha admits, "the ruling power is not alone. There is civil society, the street. At any moment they could react and say no."
Ben Ali built the RCD in 1988 out of the Neo-Destour movement, which led the country to independence from France in 1956 under the guidance of former president Habib Bourguiba.
It claims more than two million members from a population of 10 million, and has held overwhelming majorities in the parliament.
Union activist Houssine Dimassi also says the RCD is an inevitable "component of the country".
He was named as labour minister in the new government but quit over complaints from his powerful Tunisian General Union of Labour (UGTT) over the composition of the new cabinet.
"We cannot exclude it (the RCD) from the government. That does not make sense, but it has a place proportional to its weight," he said.
The union, the largest in the country, has insisted however it would not join a new government with "old regime" figures.
An opposition party that was holding off on joining the post-revolt government also decided to pull out of the cabinet, in which its leader had been assigned the post of health minister, and called for a new line-up.
The cabinet was to hold its first meeting Thursday.
Writer and newspaper editor Sofiane Ben Farhat argues that the RCD has to be rooted out.
"The current political situation must immediately be representative of the revolution," he said. Otherwise, "we have the impression that the RCD is trying to confiscate it."
RCD ministers in the transitional team may be competent administrators but they are, according to him, "involved -- whether it be in corruption or authoritarian rule."
Trying to present a clean slate, the RCD on Tuesday expelled Ben Ali and six of his close associates caught up in allegations of corruption and repression that have dogged the party.
The new interim president Foued Mebazaa has also meanwhile quit its ranks.
But the anger has not abated. In Ben Guerdane, southeast of Tunis, demonstrators carried coffins to celebrate the "funeral" of the RCD.
Signs of a tension there between Houssine Dimassi and other opinions within the UGTT.
an interview with an exiled Socialist from Tunesia: http://cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004236
Staff kick out the CEO of an insurance company due to links with Ali's regime.
Spectacular scenes Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at the STAR. Le personnel de la société d'assurances s'est mobilisé pour exiger le départ immédiat de leur PDG Abdelkarim Merdassi.
Le PDG a essayé de les convaincre que cela n'était pas possible, qu'il fallait convoquer un conseil d'administration, qu'il fallait préserver les intérêts de la société, le personnel s'est obstiné à le renvoyer en dehors des locaux.
Finalement, et selon des témoins oculaires, M. Merdassi a dû quitter les lieux escorté par des agents de l'ordre.
Le personnel, nous dit-on, était fortement en colère.
The staff of the insurance company has mobilized to demand the immediate departure of their CEO Abdelkarim Merdassi. The CEO has tried to convince them that this was not possible, the need to convene a board of directors, the need to preserve the interests of the company, staff has determined to send it outside the premises .
Finally, and according to eyewitnesses, Mr. Merdassi had to leave escorted by officers of the order. Staff, we are told, was very angry.
le Parisien: Warning shots fired over demonstrators
Les gestes d'apaisement du gouvernement de transition semblent ne pas suffire à calmer les attentes de la rue. Près d'un millier de personnes, qui demandent la démission du gouvernement de transition ont commencé à manifester jeudi en fin de matinée devant le siège de l'ex-parti de Ben Ali, dans le centre de Tunis. L'armée a effectué des tirs de sommation pour dissuader des manifestants d'escalader le mur d'enceinte.
Les manifestants brandissaient des pancartes proclamant notamment «On n'a plus peur de vous, traîtres» et «RCD out», en référence au Rassemblement constitutionnel démocratique, le parti du président déchu Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Pourtant, un peu plus tôt dans la matinée, le gouvernement de transition avait donné des gages. Avant la tenue du premier conseil des ministres ce jeudi, une source officielle a annoncé que les ministres encore membres du parti de l'ex-président Ben Ali, le Rassemblement constitutionnel démocratique (RCD), avaient démissionné de cette formation. Lors de manifestations, mercredi, des milliers de personnes avaient réclamé la dissolution du RCD. Mais ils ont également demandé le départ pur et simple du gouvernement des ministres issus de l'ancien régime.
La mainmise de membres du RCD sur les postes clés du gouvernement avait provoqué mardi la démission des trois ministres issus de l'Union générale des travailleurs tunisiens (UGTT), puis celle mercredi d'un chef de l'opposition, le président du Forum démocratique pour le travail et les libertés (FDTL). Jeudi matin, un cinquième ministre, issu du régime Ben Ali, Zouheir M'dhaffer, a démissionné de son poste pour «préserver l'intérêt suprême de la nation et favoriser la transformation démocratique du pays», Il avait été nommé ministre auprès du Premier ministre, chargé du Développement administratif dans le gouvernement d'union nationale.
L'amnistie générale au menu du conseil des ministres
Par ailleurs, l'amnistie générale annoncée par le Premier ministre Mohammed Ghannouchi et confirmée par le président par intérim, Foued Mebazaa sera à l'ordre du jour aujourd'hui du premier conseil des ministres . Mercredi, le gouvernement de transition avait fait un premier pas en libérant quelque 1800 prisonniers politiques, y compris les islamistes.
The gestures of appeasement of the transitional government seems not sufficient to appease the expectations of the street. Nearly a thousand people demanding the resignation of the transitional government began to demonstrate late Thursday morning outside the headquarters of the former ruling party of Ben Ali in the center of Tunis. The army fired warning shots to deter the demonstrators from climbing the wall.
The protesters carried banners saying "We no longer afraid of you, traitors" and "RCD-out", referring to the Democratic Constitutional Rally, the party of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Yet a little earlier in the morning, the transitional government had given pledges. Prior to the first cabinet meeting on Thursday, an official source said that ministers still members of the party of former President Ben Ali's Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD), had resigned from this organisation. During demonstrations on Wednesday, thousands of people had called for the dissolution of the RCD. But they also called for the departure, pure and simple, of government ministers from the former regime.
The grip of the members of the RCD on key government positions provoked on Tuesday the resignation of three ministers from the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), then Wednesday of a leader of the opposition, the chairman of the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties (FDTL). Thursday morning, fifth minister of the Ben Ali regime, Zuhair M'dhaffer, resigned his post to "preserve the best interests of the nation and foster democratic transformation of the country", he was originally appointed to the office of the Prime Minister as Minister for Administrative Development in the government of national unity.
General amnesty on the Cabinet menu
Moreover, the general amnesty announced by Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi and confirmed by the acting president, Fouad Mebazaa will be on the agenda of today's first cabinet. On Wednesday, the transitional government had taken a first step in freeing some 1,800 political prisoners, including Islamists.


text:
🎙 📮 We have their answers!! Exclusive Q&A with our CCS Art Team HERE!
🏆🥇 Win Gold Bars and exclusive Community badges HERE! // 🏖 🌟 Tiffi's Beach Games - Week 3: Sugar Stars Catching Contest! Share your daily position in the Leaderboard HERE! / / 🗳 🏖 Community Poll & Feedback: Tiffi's Beach Games Week II - did you have fun playing ? Let us know HERE! / / 📮 Week 1 🆚 Week 2: which one was better? Vote HERE!
Day 4 Competition - What makes a great Candy Crush Saga level? (FINISHED)
Jelly_Jenny Posts: 1,899 Community Manager
edited July 2019 in Contests
Day 4 here we go!
Now it's time to share your Candy Crush Saga preferences: After all those levels played, are there some things you'll see that you just know will make the level fun? The Party Cake, UFOs, maybe even the Candy Frog or some well-placed Color Bombs?
For you, what is it that makes a GREAT Candy Crush Saga level? Comment below and you have entered the day 4 competition!
For you, what is it that makes a GREAT Candy Crush Saga level? Comment below and you have entered the day 4 competition!
2 comments will be randomly picked as winners of 40 Gold Bars on the 12th of July.
Be sure to take part in all of our level 5000 celebration competitions and you have a chance of winning exclusive King swag! Find all competitions here.
If you do not have a Community account yet, you can sign up here. It will only take few seconds
Good luck and see you at day 5!
Terms and conditions you can find here.
New to Candy Crush Saga or Community? Check out Beginner's Corner here!
New competition in Candy Crush Saga! Check it out here!
New Superstar competition in Blossom Blast Saga here!
Werner_Cichy Posts: 14,602 Sweet Legend
firebombmarkus Posts: 12,699 SuperstarDefenitely not a Candy Frog and chocolate levels. I find them too challenging 🙈 I like levels with great combos and the ones where you need to reach a certain score with a certain amount of moves.
The only way outside is inside. Namaste 🙏🏻
Why was Jelly Queen banished? - Earn Gold Bars
Level search box - Candy Crush Saga
Portal to navigate between levels - Friends Saga
Shake Piggy Bank - Friends Saga
pajarito Posts: 86 Level 3to start what makes it great is that it is new, the challenge that involves overcoming it by its degree of difficulty, the type of obstacles that prevent you from moving forward, that makes you think about how to solve the situation, the resources that the game offers you and the fact that you do not have the one you need at that moment challenging your mind. they are the factors that make it great. and personally it fascinates me to lose all the lives available so I can enjoy the sound of crushing the candy and when forming combos of flattening it looks very beautiful as the candies go by because I like to observe the pattern with which the sweets are accommodated since it is very fast and difficult to visualize. Greetings. and thanks for this beautiful game.
RegalRenz Posts: 8,368 Game ExpertI think I'm addicted to making colour bombs. Any level with many colour bombs is a great level for me.
There is no failure except in no longer trying. Whatever the obstacle, you can crush it!
Do you enjoy Candy Crush Jelly Saga's Royal Championship? Check out our fun and interactive discussion thread Here.
Elsa Posts: 28,684 SuperstarWhat makes a Candy Crush Saga level fun? Hmmmmmm, let me think about this. I would like to say what makes a level fun is when I can clear it. Now that's what I call fun!Seriously speaking though, if I have to choose a booster that is a difficult choice. The combos are all great, especially when I can match 2 color bombs together and I can see the entire board clear. I love the UFOs and seem to use them quite often for these higher levels. The party popper is great but I can't afford to purchase them. But it's cool that it explodes the entire board just like the 2 color bombs. So if I have to choose one, and only one, I guess I will say the UFOs because they always land on areas that need to be cleared.❤ ❤ ❤ ❤"Mother of Superstars. Relentless and passionate like no one else."A must read for all community members: What is this Community about - let's get started!Love trivia? You will want to read this: Welcome to the Candy Kingdom Chronicles!Check out the NEW stories that I just wrote!❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
candycrushinit Posts: 8,527 Game ExpertWell what really makes a Candy Crush level great is that with all the combos you can make with special candies. I enjoyed level 2K because of all the Color Bombs and all the combos I can make with them. And I like it that all the Color Bombs make up 2K. Looks satisfying. 🍩A young soul with a passion for Candy Crush. May all sweet things be with you in life. 🍭
☀My new story is ready! Check it out here!☀
💖If you haven't read my first story, you can read it now here!💖
👉 New bee? Check out this story! 👈
Face masks now MANDATORY in some areas. Please wear them and stay safe.
Stay informed.
bearwithme Posts: 8,944 SuperstarI like a level that isn't too hard (i.e. nearly impossible to pass), but still makes you stop and work out a strategy to pass the level within the allotted moves. I also like it, if it eventually allows you to play in the whole board once you have removed a lot of the blockers; because I love the cascades and the greater opportunities to make color bombs and other combos."Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart." - Winnie the Pooh
Be sure to come check out the Beginner's Corner and visit the lounge area 💕💕
If you are new to the community please check here for helpful info: Learn more about the King Community
💗You can find the various contests for the different games here
vishh Posts: 5 Level 2As i truly say for me the all the boosters are my favourite because they help us in those levels when there is hard to pass them.
But the boosters which i could choose as best be a UFO and the mixer of color bomb along with strippers and candies they together make a BOOM!!!!! They are truly "DIVINE".
So my favourite would be these one😊😊😊😊😊
And these make candy crush saga Great😍😍
MacHern Posts: 15 New Bee

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Make Your Own Candles
Candles are an easy DIY project that anyone can do. These are soy based
Making The Cut In The Hudson Valley
Candles are an easy DIY project that anyone can do. These are soy based
Raw and honest, Caleb Stein's photographs of Poughkeepsie, NY will grab you.
Ever since I taught myself how to macrame last year I haven't been able to get enough of fiber art, especially if I'm the one making it. What I love … Continue Reading Eucalyptus Wall Hanging
From Thanksgiving to about February, I tend to become very introspective about my life and the direction it's headed. Recently, I've been reaccessing what I have in my home and … Continue Reading DIY: Reindeer Holiday Ornaments
113 Liberty Street | Newburgh, NY Hours: Wed-Sat 10-6pm | Sun 10-4pm In the last ten years we've seen many Hudson Valley areas (Kingston, Beacon, Poughkeepsie) find new life … Continue Reading Field Trip: The Boutique Bringing Indie Brands to Newburgh, NY
These DIY eco-friendly cleaning products are easy to make and make cleaning less of a chore.
This year, I couldn't wait for the 21st to start celebrating summer. June came and I officially hit the Hudson Valley ground, running to various events because-duh, summer. In the … Continue Reading June Favorites
As we approach the end of June, I'm thinking of some of my favorite finds from this month. Along with Newburgh Illuminated, I hiked out to Gardiner, NY for the … Continue Reading Treat Yourself: Favorite June Items
There's something about the New Year that makes us want to organize and start fresh. Many wait for spring to give their home a good cleaning but we're not big … Continue Reading Cleaning Up with Michelle Boyle, Founder of Tidy Thyme


text:
Will an overcharged battery cause the engine to run rough? I have a new generator on the car kicking out about 8 amps. After about 15 minutes of driving at cruising speed it develops a rough non rhythmic miss and sputters. Then if I kick up the throttle it goes away until I reach a steady speed, then sputters again. When I turn the headlights and have a 3 amp discharge, it smooths right out.
The car has a 6v diode cut out. Once the 6v voltage regulators are available again I plan on going with that. I do have an 8 volt VR I bought last summer when it had an 8v battery but I don't want to go back to 8v...
Nope. The rough running has some other cause, sorry.
Lol, that's what I get for trying to lazily diagnose, but I was trying to be hopeful... I guess I better check out that 92 year wiring harness...or do the obvious first and check the sparkplugs!
And the timer.
Or fuel flow.
If You can turn the head lights on and then off several times in close succession with a minute or two in between during Your drive and the problem come and goes in direct correlation to it, You may be on to something, have You tried switching to magneto when the problem starts if its ok on the mag that should rule out timer,spark and fuel system, but no cigar just yet.it's the little bugs that eat Your lunch, Good Luck
I wonder if its not an issue in the ignition switch?
Fuel flow is strong. It doesn't have a mag, previous owner had it removed in the rebuild, so I'm running a Texas t distributor and electronic ignition. Right now I can only dream of a mag and timer as I collect parts to reinstall someday.... Thank you guys for the input.
I will post my outcome when I figure it out.
Since you are running electronic ignition, over voltage may well cause your problem. You might put a ballast resistor in line to the power wire to the ignition.
Oddly enough there is an article in the V-8 Forum about the points sticking in the cutout on the generator in a 6vt system causing this problem intermittent rough running. I experienced it first hand this past weekend. You can file the points or get a new cutout as they are not expensive.
8 amps is WAY TOO HIGH a charge rate to be hitting the battery with when using a cutout. This is because unlike a regulator the cutout does NOT reduce the charge in proportion to the needs of the battery and car. Reduce the charge rate to about 4 amps until you get a new regulator on there at which times that should go away. The coil may be getting really hot and might play into the problem as well since overheating it can produce erratic operation and you won't be helping it any by charging about twice the amount you need.


text:
现在位置: 首页 > Payday Loan Maryland > 文章
2020年03月05日 ⁄ Payday Loan Maryland ⁄ 共 7326字 ⁄ 暂无评论
Distributing the word that you're considering that loan for your needs could be met along with types of views. From basic naysayers to anecdotes that are cautionary everybody you meet could have a tale about what might take place invest the away financing to begin or expand your company endeavor. Whilst it's correct that not all explanation is just a justification to go into financial obligati...阅读全文


text:
I am an internationally licensed Bach Flower Practitioner and Certified Trainer. I work with the basic assumption that the body and mind are one; when we work on one part,... read more
Give your feedback
Researches have shows that negative feeling and stress weaken our immune response. The number of ... read more
Dr. Bach said that there are two faults that our personalities could commit. The first is to take... read more
Body Image is a prime concern throughout life, and it is not only related to what we a... read more
The competitive world of school is punctuated by the even more intense competition of ... read more


text:
Opened 7 years ago
Closed 5 years ago
#10702 closed defect (fixed)
arm tells users to "sudo -u debian-tor arm", which lets arm read tor's keys
|Reported by:
|Owned by:
|Actual Points:
|Parent ID:
in config/strings.cfg:
msg.setup.arm_is_running_as_root Arm is currently running with root permissions. This isn't a good idea, nor should it be necessary. Try starting arm with "sudo -u {tor_user} arm" instead.
Telling the user to run arm as the tor user exposes all of /var/lib/tor/ to arm, which is probably more than needed and likely more than expected.
At least on debian, the right answer is "sudo adduser $USER debian-tor" and then run arm as the normal user (after logout/login as needed). See #10700 for where this topic came up.
Child Tickets
Change History (8)
comment:1 Changed 7 years ago by
|arm tells users to "sudo -s debian-tor arm", which lets arm read tor's keys → arm tells users to "sudo -u debian-tor arm", which lets arm read tor's keys
comment:2 Changed 7 years ago by
|kostas@… added
comment:3 Changed 6 years ago by
The permissions on /var/lib/tor and /var/log/tor will need to be adjusted in order for "sudo adduser $USER debian-tor" to work 100%. Arm wants to read the state file to prepopulate bandwidth information, but the debian-tor group does not have read permission on /var/lib/tor/state. Arm also wants to read tor's log file, but the default group for /var/lib/tor is 'adm'.
Can we get the default install to `chmod g+x /var/lib/tor` and `chmod g+r /var/lib/tor/state`? Leave ./keys without group read/execute permission of course.
Not sure what to do about the logs... suggest users "sudo adduser $USER adm" ?
*(Permissions based on a default 0.2.4 install from deb.torproject.org on Debian Jessie)
comment:4 Changed 6 years ago by
No, I think those are bad steps rather than good ones.
If Tor wants to export more data to its controllers, it should do it in a controlled fashion via the control protocol. It shouldn't just open up more file-system permissions.
(More generally, I think arm should ask Tor questions via the control protocol more, rather than bypassing Tor and trying to use the local system to discover Tor things itself.)
comment:5 Changed 6 years ago by
(More generally, I think arm should ask Tor questions via the control protocol more, rather than bypassing Tor and trying to use the local system to discover Tor things itself.)
In an ideal world yes, it would be nice if Tor provided controllers with this and other information. But it doesn't. Years ago you asked me to write proposals for things arm would like and I sunk quite a bit of time into that. Trouble is that proposals don't magically turn into code. Without somebody implementing these in Tor itself this is not really realistic. :)
comment:6 Changed 6 years ago by
Where are these proposals?
comment:7 Changed 6 years ago by
... though not sure how relevant they still are (I wrote those back in 2010). Looks like it includes state information, which arm presently retrieves from the DataDir.
comment:8 Changed 5 years ago by
|→ fixed
|new → closed
Probably about time I cleaned up old nyx tickets. :P
Changed, if this causes troubles for anyone then we'll give more per-platform advice. We might need to advise this on certain platforms, but agreed in general it should be discouraged.


text:
Forensic Osteology 4A option BIOL4277
- Academic Session: 2019-20
- School: School of Life Sciences
- Credits: 20
- Level: Level 4 (SCQF level 10)
- Typically Offered: Semester 2
- Available to Visiting Students: Yes
- Available to Erasmus Students: Yes
Short Description
Forensic osteology concerns the analysis of skeletal remains. This exciting discipline requires attention to detail and the ability to relate observations with studies reported in the literature. The recovery of skeletal remains, preparation of a skeletal inventory and a list of missing elements will all be covered to replicate preparations a forensic anatomist would undertake for a judicial trial.
This option is assigned to block S2-A. Normally, 3 hours of teaching on Monday.
Requirements of Entry
Normally, only available to final-year School of Life Sciences students in an Anatomy programme. Visiting students may be allowed to enrol, at the discretion of the School of Life Sciences Chief Adviser and the Course Coordinator.
Excluded Courses
Forensic Applications of Biological Sciences (BIOL4049)
The course will be assessed by a 2-hour examination (75%) and in-course assessment consisting of an essay (25%).
Main Assessment In: April/May
Are reassessment opportunities available for all summative assessments? Not applicable for Honours courses
Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below.
Course Aims
This course considers the application of anatomical knowledge to the procedures used to establish a biological profile of osteological remains.
Intended Learning Outcomes of Course
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
■ Evaluate ways of determining whether bones are human or animal and the minimum number of individuals present;
■ Discuss those features of skeletal remains that can help establish the sex, age and stature of the deceased;
■ Evaluate bony features indicative of disease or trauma;
■ Research literature to support evidence in forensic reports and discuss topics that are/have been controversial in the forensic anatomical literature.
Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits
Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.


text:
Who we are
Here at TezosRus we strive to bring you the best delegation service possible. We are a company based in the US. Our servers are top-notch, with many security features in place to minimize downtime. We also have a script implemented to autonomously pay out any rewards you have earned every cycle. The best things about using us as your baker is that you can be assured that you will be paid in a timely manner, and that your Tezos are always secure and never leave your wallet. We have no control over your tokens at any time. You can stop delegating and send your tokens wherever you like. (Proof of stake explained here) (TezosProof-of-Stake)
With us you dont have to worry about dealing with complicated nodes, or keeping a Baker online 24/7, We take care of all of that for you. We will bake the Tezos you delegate with us in a transparent and secure manner, risk free for you.
|Tezos Price(USD)
|Tezos Price(BTC)
|Market Cap
|24H Volume
|24H Change
|0.00 %


text:
Merry music to all Madras Elementary students
Music is a big part of the holiday season, from the festive tunes playing faintly in the background in stores as shoppers pick out the perfect gift for a loved one to the music that comes from a stage during special performances like the gala last weekend.
This season is also the time of year when parents crowd into the Performing Arts Center here in Madras to watch their kids get up on stage and add to the festive spirit in their annual winter concerts — just like they did on Dec. 13 for Madras Elementary.
This year was a special year for Madras Elementary in that regard — the school put on its first winter concert directed by a certified music teacher since somewhere around the mid-2000s.
Mark Combe was hired over the summer to fill the music position at Madras Elementary that was previously filled by an Ethos teacher.
"Last year in the state of Oregon, there was four musical educators that graduated from a college program," said Chris Wyland, the school's principal.
"I don't think there are a whole lot of job openings, or at least there haven't been in the past, so maybe that has caused people to go a different direction," Combe said.
For him, the job is truly a passion.
"It's been kind of a long journey of figuring out what I want to do," he said.
Music, for Combe, has always been a passion. Homeschooled until high school, Combe said, "Music was kind of what I was really into, what I felt like brought me to school." He said he had taken guitar lessons growing up and played music at his church.
"I felt proficient in music," he said.
After high school, Combe didn't jump right into studying to be a teacher. He spent time in Southeast Asia with a missionary organization and then, while living in Portland, worked several different jobs, including as a ski lift operator, a manager at Dutch Bros Coffee and for public transit.
"While I was working in public transportation, I started going to school for the first time and got a bachelor's degree in psychology," Combe said.
That was the point in time where he knew he wanted to work with people, but he still hadn't settled on teaching music to kids.
"When I was working in public transit as a streetcar driver, I would have a lot of field trips ride public transit, and it was always a lot of fun to show the kids the train and just be involved in that process," he said, describing how he began to realize teaching kids might be a good fit.
"I have always thought about the whole process of seeing people who end up in really difficult life situations because they didn't have enough love as a kid. That is something I started to really strongly believe," he said, which is something that drives his passion to teach.
Combe sees each class of kids every three days as a part of their rotations through the special classes, including library/technology, music and PE.
He said they have a pretty set routine for the class, and that helps the kids stay engaged — 10 minutes of rhythm, 20 minutes of singing and 10 minutes of game time.
"Early on, when you are building your self-confidence and finding your place and finding belonging in a school — I think music is just another opportunity for kids to succeed at something," he said.
"They might not be doing well in their classroom or they might not feel included in sports, but it is another chance to challenge themselves and find something that they feel like is worth investing in and coming to school for and another chance to be inspired in a lot of ways," he said.
"Music helps kids build relationships and connect with each other in a different way than they do in the classroom," Combe said. "When they are working on a song together, it's not competitive, but it's still a group activity that they are building together. I think they learn a lot about community through that, too."
Combe said that the skills learned in his classroom carry over to the regular classes as well.
"We talk a lot about a growth mindset. Music is something that, an instrument is something that, you have to work at and say 'I don't quite have it yet, but I am learning,'" he said.
To demonstrate this, Combe told his students he is going to try out a new instrument every month for the year and share with them his progress.
"They can see me really fail at something and then at the end of the month at least have a song down that I can share with them and say 'I have practiced this every day,'" he said. "It's not that some people are good, and some people are bad, it is that we are all learning."
Lisa Stroup, who teaches at Bridges High School and whose husband teaches at Madras Elementary, is also the parent of both a first and second grader at Madras Elementary and sees great importance in having a certified teacher in the music room.
"It is important because the teacher background is different than the Ethos teachers because of the teacher education aspect," she said. "(Certified music teachers) are not just quality music performers, but they are also educated teachers."
She said they have the background, knowledge and experience to manage a class and teach music at the same time. "I think the quality of the classroom is improved with the certified teacher," she said.
"I don't want to put down the Ethos teachers that we had, and I am grateful for them, but I think there is a difference with the teacher education aspect," Stroup said.
"I think kids learn through music, and when they learn the counting and the rhythm and use that part of their brain, it helps them with math and reading skills and focus," she said. "Working together as a team with their classmates to make music is an overall good educational experience they will use in all subjects."
The principal agrees that music can carry over into other areas.
"I also think it helps them academically as well," Wyland said. "Not only am I getting a break from what I normally do, but I'm still having to learn how to listen to teachers' directions, attend to the task, but I get to learn about this really cool thing."
"Learning how to read music is a really powerful thing," Wyland said.
"Students actively read music in his class. It's not a class where they just go and sit, it's a class where they get to go and do."
Overall, he said, "it gives students another area where they can be really passionate about school."
Wyland said that music is a great way to dive into language and culture with all students as well.
Heading into the winter concert this year, almost every grade learned and performed a song in a different language from their native language.
"We have a lot of English language learners at the school, so my focus was to try to find music that all students' families would feel excited about and represented," said Combe.
"I think it is easier (to break language barriers in music) in the sense that you can be a part of things even if you don't know the words yet," he said. "There's a good chance for us to see what it is like to learn something that is not in our language."
You count on us to stay informed and we depend on you to fund our efforts. Quality local journalism takes time and money. Please support us to protect the future of community journalism.


text:
Our CBD products are GMP and Kosher certified, organic, and created with CBD rich hemp extracts. All hemp used in the process of making our superior CBD products are grown by one family, on one farm, in one location. See the difference for yourself. Be sure to subscribe on the homepage for some of the best discounts you'll find anywhere.
Don't want to place an order online? Give us a call at (561) 331-2225 and we can process your order over the phone.
CEO Guarantee: New Phase Blends has a 100% money-back guarantee on all products (books excluded). If it doesn't work for you, just send it back for a full refund. To date, there is no return on file even though we offer this incredible refund policy.


text:
"We would like to see the political funds above the affiliation fee used to organise a wide range of assertive campaigning and organising initiatives both inside and outside the Labour Party. Unions could insist on only funding MPs who would be prepared to be accountable to them. The union could seek to group together and organise pro-trade union MPs, preferably alongside other unions. Support could be given to a campaign to reclaim the Labour Party. Local campaigns could be organised to deselect Blairite MPs and promote democratically accountable trade union candidates. If solidly based trade union candidates were blocked by the Blair machine that would include using the fund to support that candidate and campaign against the official Labour candidate".
This passage shows what is wrong with J & S's approach. Some of it reads like a not-very-good trade union conference resolution. They would "like to see" "a wide range of assertive campaigning and organising initiatives both inside and outside the Labour Party", etc. There are some good and possibly good ideas here. But they all belong to the category of "wouldn't it be nice if". If Long Jack Silver and Hopalong H. ruled the world, if wishes were horses.... The key phrase is "we would like to see", followed by the "good ideas".
They are all presented as generalities, not as specific proposals. Get them passed at a trade union conference, and everything would still be left for interpretation and implementation to the trade union leaders.
The central thing wrong with the "good ideas" presented here is that none of them depend on us just deciding to do them. All the ideas, the vague and not so vague proposals do not concern things that are ours to do at will. They are "good ideas" for us to advocate within the unions, things for the unions and union leaders to do, no more than planks in an AWL propaganda campaign.
In fact, were a union or group of unions to do these things in a serious and sustained way, they would be well on the way to splitting from the Blair party. But all that is open to AWL is propaganda for those ideas. And propaganda alone cannot conceivably lead to their adoption by the union leaders.
Let us, if only for the sake of argument agree that AWL should do such a propaganda campaign. And? More or less on principle, accepting "the discipline of working class organisations", for an indefinite period ahead, the revolutionary socialists do nothing else about working-class representation in Parliament? We leave the entire field to the Blairites (and the sectarians)? In practice, of course, AWL alone might have little choice but to do that. But J & S do not argue it from practicalities, but from different general principles.
The last part of this passage shows what they really think about standing anti-Labour working-class candidates. "If solidly based trade union candidates were blocked by the Blair machine that would include using the fund to support that candidate and campaign against the official Labour candidate".
But it is only something we might do when there is already a strong upsurge against the Blairites and, in fact, when the labour movement is already in a process of splitting.
"The fact that there is so little political life in the Labour Party flows fundamentally from the politics and passivity of the trade union leaders... What is decisive and all-shaping in the Labour Party today is the refusal of the union leaders to fight Blair and their bureaucratic grip on the unions preventing the rank and file doing so..."
Bits of truth, here as throughout CRR, are mixed with nonsense and stirred into a hopeless muddle.
If the trade union leaders, or a substantial minority of them, launched a serious and sustained struggle to gain control of the Labour Party; if they appealed for people to join the Party to back them up; if they would offer a credible perspective of either winning control of the Labour Party or splitting it and founding a replacement LP — then most likely there would soon be a burst of new life in and around the Labour Party. If…
True, the changes in rules and functioning in the Labour Party would inhibit that new life and work to minimise it for as long as those rules held.
But the rules might be defied, perhaps even at Conference.
When the Healyites split the Young Socialists in 1964/65, the rump remaining in the Labour Party had crippling restrictions imposed on it, including a ban on political discussion at what was still to be called a Conference.
At the first Conference, in Easter 1965, the delegates voted overwhelmingly to defy the new rules and the full-time officials in charge of the Conference, daring the Labour Party to close them down. It didn't; they won; the NEC backed down.
But that was a time of a tremendous loosening up of a party in which the Bevanite rebels of a decade before, including Prime Minister Harold Wilson, had unexpectedly came into control of the Party with the sudden death of the right wing leader Hugh Gaitskell.
Of course, one can indeed blame the trade union leaders' failure to launch a big determined fight for the lack of life in the Labour Party. An editorial by one of us in Solidarity in August 2002 pointed to the new possibilities that the rise of the new trade union leaders could open for the Labour Party.
"The incumbent trade union leaders have for five years betrayed the labour movement by belly-crawling to Blair. They seemed to have forgotten what trade unionism is for, and what the unions had in mind when they founded the Labour Party a hundred years ago. These have now been replaced by people who may have learned something from the bitter five years of Tory Blair government.
In any case, those who have elected new trade union leaders — the unions rank and file — have learned ...
Despite the structural changes that have more or less gutted the old Labour Party, the trade unions still have a great deal of power in the Labour Party. They should begin to use it.
Many things that were up to now unthinkable are again possible. The trade unions can recompose a working class presence in politics by concertedly demanding that the Government begins to do things like repeal the Tory anti-union laws which New Labour has made its own. They can organise to fight this government when it refuses.
.... The trade unions need a political voice ... New Labour is not and cannot possibly be such a voice. Blair's is the voice of second-string Toryism and, indeed, of sublimated Thatcherism.
It is scarcely conceivable even in the most favourable course of events that the unions could simply run the film of the last decade in the Labour Party backwards and root out Blairism. Probably the best that could be hoped for would be a concerted trade union break with Blair and the majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party, backed by a minority of the PLP.
That, it should be stressed, is a long way off. But now it is an objective possibility. It raises for the left fundamental questions of strategy and perspective — for example, it puts the question of the trade unions' political funds in a new light."
That sober registering of newly emerging possibilities contrasts sharply with T's fuses-blown-out — everything has already changed! — response to these possible prospects. But speculating about possible prospects is not the elaboration of Marxist "perspectives". The perspectives the AWL elaborates for itself are a different thing entirely.
The question is: out of these possibilities what can we do to facilitate the most favourable developments for us?
The problem AWL confronts is how do we combine advocacy of a fight in the Labour Party by the trade unions — or even an attempt to organise such a fight, or, anyway, a campaign advocating it — with such things as standing in elections. Can we combine them? That can only be worked out concretely. It cannot simply be read off either from possible prospects or general principles or pseudo-principles.
For example, one could base a wish-infused speculative scenario for future Labour developments on the precedent of the replacement of the hard-nosed right wing Gaitskellites by Wilson and his friends in 1963.
Blair serves his natural political time in the leadership, or he is forced out, or goes to the USA to try for the Presidency… Or he drops dead: not only was Labour Party history changed by the sudden death of its leader Hugh Gaitskell in 1963, so, earlier, was that of the TGWU by the death of General Secretary Arthur Deakin and then, very soon, of his successor Tiffin.
Tiffin dropping dead suddenly and opened the way for the leftish CNDer Frank Cousins as General Secretary, thereby making the then biggest union, the TGWU, a force for the left in the LP.
Someone like — just for illustration — Peter Hain replaces Blair. The Labour Party re-knits its strained links with the unions. The rules that have stifled political life in the Labour Party are relaxed, some of them defied, some repealed.
Something like the old ramshackle Labour Party reappears, chastened perhaps by 10 or 15 years of Blair-Brown government followed by electoral defeat and recoil against the Blairite years.
The cry that went up after the fall of Callaghan's government in June '79, might be heard in the labour movement once more: — "never again!"
Such a thing, like the trade union leaders starting an all-out fight against Blairism, may well be possible, if not now, then in 5, 10 or 15 years from now.
What happened in February 1963, when Gaitskell died, was unpredictable and very unexpected. For thirty years it took the Labour Party off the track on which parties such as the German Social Democrats (who had got rid of their "socialist Clause 4" in 1959) continued to travel, and back on to which the Blairites shunted the Labour Party in the 1990s.
Such things are all possible. Whether they are probable is a different question entirely. But what has that got to do with AWL hammering out a perspective for work, for what we do, in the period ahead?
There is nothing we can do to make such possible developments come about. Is there? So what should we do? Sit around hoping that in a decade or twenty years from now something like the old Labour Party will be restored in some such scenario as the one we've sketched out above? Meanwhile? We commission a voodoo doll of Blair and stick pins in it?
Should we — as J & S seem to want — confine ourselves to a propaganda campaign in the unions, with some such slogan as "Make the trade union leaders fight Blair"?
That we should call on them for such things is common ground. The difference — if we understand it — is on whether to make that the main content and more or less exclusive focus of our political activity in the years ahead; and on whether that can or should be combined with electoral activity in which we try to get the unions to back anti-Blairite working-class candidacies.
Simply pointing out that if the union leaders were different, then much else would be different — or credulously suggesting that the whole picture is already different because some union leaders have promised to act differently — has the attraction of seeming to, maybe, offer a quick political fix. Even if one sees that their talk may open up new possibilities for action by AWL, as, for example, the August 2002 editorial in Solidarity did, there is still an enormous gap between these perhaps-possibilities and their realisation.
We do not mean by this, to rule out the idea that AWL might attempt by way of an organised campaign to make the most of the fighting talk of some of the new union leaders. "Passive propaganda", if that is all we think we might be able to do, is, after all, better than mere passivity… But the distinction between such a campaign and an AWL perspective for restoring the working class political representation, which Blairism has destroyed, is very important.
For anything we do to be a realistic perspective for restoring working class representation that we might at will engineer into existence, we would have to have large-scale fractions in the trade unions, on the scale of the Minority Movement.
And if we did have large scale trade union fractions? That too would change many things! It would entirely change what we could try to do. We would not be calling on the trade union leaders to fight, not as a fundamental emphasis; we would be calling on workers to put them out and replace them with a leadership that would fight for our politics.
We would not necessarily be calling for the restoration of the pre-Blair Labour Party/trade union status quo ante. We would be able to go for a great deal more than reconstructing the old Labour Party! We would be able to go for a politically reorganised labour movement, perhaps on the pattern which Trotsky advocated in 1925, around Solidarity and Workers' Liberty.
J & S's approach is abracadabra politics, what Trotsky once called "alchemist politics", not Marxism. It resembles the way some people — the Grantites, for example — used the idea of a peaceful socialist revolution, and it is in the same order of things.
If, Ted Grant used to argue, the leaders of the Labour Party and the trade unions were to mobilise the strength of the working class movement, and had won a Parliamentary majority which they intended to use to expropriate the capitalists, then they could do it peacefully. We could have peaceful revolution in Britain.
The proof offered was 1945, when the mood of many millions who voted Labour to secure irreversible change was that they would not go back to the 1930s. That mood affected the armed forces, who voted Labour in their big majority. Ergo there could then have been a peaceful revolution.
But it is the old "if my aunt had wheels, then she'd be a bicycle" conundrum.
If the Labour leaders, who for five years (1940-45) had been in a coalition government, had been remotely likely to attempt a socialist revolution, or if there was a calculable likelihood that they would be pushed aside by people who would, then the ruling class would never have let things get to the point where peaceful expropriation of the capitalists was "objectively" possible. It was only a "possibility" in an artificial scenario, concocted from selected bits of reality, wrought into something that could not in reality ever have come into existence.
It was, so to speak, allowed to appear as a "real" possibility in 1945 only because in the world as it was it was not a real possibility at all.
J & S's preposterous "methodological" observations — the quote from Karl Marx's Thesis on Feuerbach —advocate a crass know-nothing empiricism, decked out in mysticism
Marx makes a vast generalisation about the relationship between theory and practice in human history. What is its relevance to the specific and clearly definable and calculable things in dispute? They know. Listen:
"For Marxists it is impossible to gauge what the actual (!) and lasting (?) impact (!) of Blair's constitutional reforms have (?) been on the nature of (?) the Labour Party until they are put to the test by a militant trade union struggle. Just as (!) in the process of production (!), where there is no other (?) way for the worker to test the strength of any material except (!) by (!) applying (!) pressure to it (!) to determine the breaking point, also in the class struggle – there is no other (!) way (!) to assess (!) the ruling classes' defences, but to probe, apply pressure (!), get a struggle going and see (!) what happens. The same goes for the bureaucratic structures of the labour movement. To look at the question any other way is pure scholasticism."
Chou En Lai is supposed to have responded to the question "Was the French Revolution a success?", with, "It is too early to say." Has the Blairite revolution succeeded? Has the Labour Party been radically transformed? Has its relationship to the trade unions and the working class changed? J & S think it is too early to say! We won't know until after the trade unions have mounted a concerted effort to undo Blairism, and failed!
A thing has not happened, cannot with its effects and consequences be defined as a definite event until the maximum conceivable forces have made an effort to reverse it and failed!
If this is meant seriously, it is advocacy of crass, blind, mindless empiricism!
In terms of what is in dispute about the Labour Party now, it is as we shall see, a trick argument of the sort which we have often encountered in discussing Ireland. (You have no right to discuss Catholic-Protestant relations in Ireland, comrade! These are things for the Irish to decide. We in Britain have no right to discuss internal Irish affairs. We have no right to do anything but fight to get the Brits out! Except that that attitude implies an undisclosed analysis of internal Irish affairs and a taking of sides in the issues that divide the Irish by the very people who told us that we had no right to make an analysis!)
We can't "know", survey, gauge, assess, measure, calculate what the effect of the Blairite transformation of the Labour Party has been on the "nature of" the Labour Party? The transformation was possible only because some trade unions did not fight against it, and others actively supported it. Therefore, we can't know what is what until after we have tested it by a militant full-scale, all-out trade union struggle to sideline or reverse the Blairite coup?
That is utterly preposterous! Of course we know.
What for J & S is the point of this? To take refuge in mystification; to deny "philosophically" what in our real world is glaringly obvious! For now and for the future, it implies waiting, perhaps indefinitely, for something to happen — a full-scale, concerted trade union attempt to reverse and overthrow Blairism — which may never happen and which anyway we can't make happen until we become a dominant force in the unions.
It is reminiscent of a certain type of "left faking" by trade union and local government leaders — although J & S are of course sincere — the refusal to do anything in their own area but mark time on the grounds that only a general strike, which depends on others to organise it, can succeed. The NUM leader Joe Gormley used it to argue against action by the miners in the 1970s; some of the local government left used it after Thatcher came to power in 1979 (arguing that only a general strike could stop Thatcher and until that happened the local government left would have to cut services, raise local taxes etc).
But we have to function now, in this situation, where the Blairite coup in the Labour Party and its consequent destruction of working class political life and parliamentary representation dominate working class politics. That is not something whose "nature" is indiscernible but something real, indeed an all-pervasive reality in working class politics.
One way of testing J & S's ideas is to apply their approach to other things. Say — all proportions guarded — to Germany in mid-1933 or mid-1934.
Hitler's victory most likely would not have been possible without the surrender and even the help of the Stalinist and social democratic parties. "Therefore we can't know what lasting impact Hitler's constitutional reforms have had on the nature of the German state and the German body politic until they are put to the test of a full-scale CP and SPD working class struggle against them! The immediate changes are of no consequence. They are just the alibi, not the crime. Communists don't need to go underground or take precautions against the police. We must advertise our meetings as before, meet openly. We scorn the 'you-can't-do-that-Hitler-will-stop-us' scholastics and the Trotskyite sects".
In fact, the "Third Period" German Stalinists did say something like that for 18 months or more after Hitler came to power, insisting that only wretchedly faint-hearted, 'capitulating', right wing Trotskyites, who vastly overestimated the Hitlerites, could insist that the German working class had suffered a catastrophic defeat.
Or take the much more mundane matter of an engineer in a factory dealing with delicate material. He breaks every piece of work he tries to do by putting too much pressure on it. But he refuses to learn. As the detritus piles up around him, he keeps on insisting to the indignant foreman that there is "no other way"… "to test the strength of the material except by applying pressure to each and every piece of material to determine the breaking point. You", he insists to the foreman, "are a hopeless scholastic with your abstract models and calculations."
Or apply J & S's preposterous put-out-your-own-eyes generalities to a trade union struggle. Miners, say, are discussing strike action, and their chances of victory. Someone says that there are coal stocks that will last for months and therefore it might be best to wait until stocks are down.
Trotsky above, discussing relations between trade union and political party, says that the Marxist party "helps the trade union to decide the question of knowing if the strike is opportune, by means of its political and economic information and by its advice". That is, by its "scholastic" calculations. J & S are not to be impressed. They insist: "You can't know that by calculation or by just looking passively at the piled up coal! There is no other way to assess the ruling classes' defences, but to probe, apply pressure, get a struggle going and see what happens."
Or imagine that Jack and Sean are four stories up and Jack is about to step out of the window. SM says: "Thousands of human generations have understood it from experience, and in the last 300 years scientists have defined it: something called the force of gravity exists, and if you continue out of that window, Jack, you will fall and break your neck".
Jack has just re-read Marx's Theses on Feuerbach. He is full of himself — and of undigested "Marx".
He insists: "This is not a question of theorising, comrade, but a practical question! There is no other way for me to test the strength of gravity outside this window except to apply the pressure of my weight to the air beneath me — get a struggle going and see what happens. Disputation over the reality or non-reality of the law of gravity which is isolated from practice is a scholastic exercise! You should leave the 'you-can't-walk-on-air-because-gravity-will-stop-you' faintheartedness to the scholastics and sectarians."
Goodbye Jack!
The idea that you start a struggle 'and then see' is often the best approach. But in fact any such approach if it is to be rational is always grounded in calculations and always based on assumptions about what is actually possible in such a struggle. Nobody sane would proceed otherwise.
19. THE METHOD OF THE MIGs IN THE FALKLANDS WAR?
J & S don't do the sort of sober "concrete analysis" they call for. Their approach reproduces a very familiar pattern in "revolutionary" politics. The Mandelites — the International Marxist Group: IMG or "MIGs" after a Russian airplane — used to specialise in it, in international affairs.
You take the elements in the present situation. Out of them you extrapolate an elaborate, optimistic, best-case scenario. Then you read back from that best-case scenario recipes for what you do now, in order to get to the ideal situation. Take, for example, what they did with the British-Argentina 1982 war.
Argentina invades the Falklands Islands, to which it has no valid claim that consistent democrats or socialists recognise. It is 500 miles from Argentina; its population is and for 150 years has been British. Britain prepares to go to war to take the islands back. Is this an Argentine war of liberation? Is it just British imperialism throwing its weight about? It is neither. In fact it is a freakish event, not part of any general pattern.
So: define it as such, as we did, and, while opposing Thatcher's war, also oppose the mini-colonial enterprise of the murderous Argentine military dictators? No! This is an unexpected chance for anti-imperialists to show their anti-imperialism!
But it has nothing to do with anti-imperialism? That's only the appearance of things, comrade: the trouble is that you don't really want to fight imperialism!
So? Imagine that the sordid little invasion of the Falklands by the discredited blood-soaked Argentine military dictators, seeking popularity at home, provokes a great popular war of "Argentine liberation" against Britain. Imagine further that the left and then the Argentinian neo-Trotskyists (the Moreno group) gain the lead of that mass popular movement.
Imagine that in the course of the war of Argentine liberation — 500 miles from Argentina! — the Argentine neo-Trotskyists thrust the bourgeoisie aside and became the leaders of the Argentine "masses". Then you have an Argentine socialist revolution!
Conclusions for now? You back the military dictators who have annexed territory and English people on islands 500 miles from Argentina; you proclaim their war with Britain an anti-imperialist war of Argentine liberation (though in fact it has nothing liberating or anti-imperialist about it!).
With this method the optimistic scenario may be more, or less, plausible, more, or less, fantastic (in this case it was simply lunatic, dependent as it was on suppressing the basic facts of the situation and operating with deliberately falsified definitions of the forces in play!). It will serve. So you shout for Argentinian victory and "defend" the butcher-dictator Galtieri, more for what you have projected on to the situation than for anything in play in it (in the real world, the one you actually live in), or likely to emerge out of it.
That happened as we have described it . In fact the self-deluding mental operation served, and in such cases always serves, mainly to assist their accommodation to those who shape the events — the wretched Argentine junta and its political manoeuvres to regain support in Argentina. In the case of J & S, the optimistic scenario serves to assist accommodation to the non-revolutionary left in the trade unions.
For AWL, it would mean tail-ending the dominant trade union bureaucracy or its "left wing" for an entire political epoch. Even if we were running a campaign in the unions to get them to fight New Labour, that could not be how we relate to these people.
"The revolutionary, however, also needs to be able to distinguish the first weeks of pregnancy from the last, and to be able to spot the difference between a genuine movement of the workers and a populist bandwagon".
Trotsky was fond of this image, applying it to a society he thought was "pregnant" with socialist revolution. He employed it against the Stalinists in their pseudo-ultra left "Third Period".
But before you can usefully start to assess what stage a pregnancy is at, you must first make certain preliminary assessments. What species of beast is this — placental, marsupial, or monotreme (egg-laying creature)? Is the thing you are talking about pregnant at all? If it is pregnant, how long does pregnancy last in this species? And so on.
If you think a sheep has the same gestation-time as an elephant, you can spend most of two years, the elephant gestation-time, waiting for a sheep that is merely fat to produce lambs.
Alternatively, if you base plans to use elephant traction power to erect barriers against a seasonal flood which you expect some months in the future on the misunderstanding that an elephant gestates and grows to maturity in the same time as a sheep, you may wind up drowned.
All images carry the danger of confusing the image with that for which it is supposed to be a stand-in, the danger that you may find yourself discussing not the issue in dispute but the image.
All images are treacherous when they are used not to nail down a point independently argued, but, as J & S use this image of gestation, as a means of letting them (and, they hope, you, the reader) assume that which, in the discussion, has to be proved.
"Organic" metaphors don't help a serious and honest discussion of whether or not the new Labour Party is "pregnant"; and then whether it is "pregnant" with a clone of the parent that gave it birth or something else entirely. That can only be assessed by way of concrete and detailed analysis of the state of the labour movement nearly a decade after the old Labour Party was hi-jacked.
And, if we choose to deal in organic metaphors, we should be careful not to forget that a social and not a biological entity like the Labour Party may be pregnant with something other than a modified replica of itself. That it is not predetermined what progeny the "organism" will produce, how long "gestation" will take, or what you should do to affect the nature of that which you believe is in gestation.
We, and others before us, for decades hoped that the old Labour Party would, with our intervention, aided by the logic of the class struggle, produce something closer to what socialists exist to build than to the old Labour Party. In fact, it gave "birth" to Blairism.
That was not inevitable: it was affected by the fate of the labour movement in the broad class struggle and by what the socialists did...