from http://www.newstatesman.com/200005150035 So Richard Gott, with his unerring progressive instincts, chooses the moment when Robert Mugabe's thugs are killing white farmers (and oppositionists generally) to tell us that, because of the crimes of their forefathers, these people should have got out of Zimbabwe. Since the Nazi Reich forms such a seminal part of his historical… Continue reading Richard Gott on Zimbabwe, letter to New Statesman, 15 May 2000
Author: Martin Shaw
The old statesman marches hand in hand with the old anti-Americans
letter published in the New Statesman, 17 May 1999 Your complacency about Kosovo (Editorial, 10 May) will go down as one of the least heroic episodes in the New Statesman's history. You misrepresent the nature of the war and its politics. "The war was launched . . ." you write; but Nato did not begin… Continue reading The old statesman marches hand in hand with the old anti-Americans
Obituary: Tony Cliff (Ygael Gluckstein) 1917-2000
First published at http://www.martinshaw.org/cliff.htm (2000) Tony Cliff, founder of the Marxist group that became the Socialist Workers Party, died on 9 April 2000. He was 82, having been born, as his follower Paul Foot pointed out in an appreciation, 'between the two great Russian revolutions' of 1917. His life spanned what Eric Hobsbawm has called… Continue reading Obituary: Tony Cliff (Ygael Gluckstein) 1917-2000
Israel’s degenerate Lebanon campaign holds a mirror to the West’s own wars, 3 August 2006
first published at http://www.martinshaw.org/politics/lebanon2006.htm In the first days of the war in Lebanon, BBC news repeatedly referred to dying and fleeing Lebanese civilians as victims of the 'fighting' between Israel and Hizbullah. Yet in truth there was no fighting. Israel's planes rained destruction on Lebanon from the safety of high altitudes, killing and wounding with… Continue reading Israel’s degenerate Lebanon campaign holds a mirror to the West’s own wars, 3 August 2006
On Nick Cohen, the left and violence – letter to New Statesman, 19 Feb. 2007
John Kampfner is right to draw attention to the importance of the far-left starting point of Nick Cohen's political journey (Books, 12 February). Cohen rightly pinpointed the failure of the anti-war movement's leadership to see the Saddam regime - with its history of violence - as a problem that needed international action. Yet he himself… Continue reading On Nick Cohen, the left and violence – letter to New Statesman, 19 Feb. 2007
Lessons for the West from the Georgian War, Democratiya, Autumn 2008
from Democratiya, 14, 2008 - http://dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/article_pdfs/d14Shaw-1.pdf Martin Shaw The August war in Georgia underlines the fundamental deterioration in the global political situation in the 2000s and the increasingly sharp choices facing the democratic left. The easy bit is to condemn Russian aggression against Georgian cities and there has been no shortage of Western political figures… Continue reading Lessons for the West from the Georgian War, Democratiya, Autumn 2008
Globality, War, Revolution: An Interview with Martin Shaw, Democratiya, 2005
Martin Shaw is a sociologist of war and global politics and holds the Chair of International Relations and Politics at the University of Sussex. He studied Sociology at the London School of Economics, graduating in 1968. Martin has been a member of the International Socialists (1965-1976), the Labour Party (1979- ) and the European Nuclear… Continue reading Globality, War, Revolution: An Interview with Martin Shaw, Democratiya, 2005
Why I didn’t sign the Euston Manifesto, Democratiya, 2006
First published on Democratiya, http://dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/article_pdfs/d6Letters.pdf Letters page The Euston Manifesto has caused a stir beyond its modest origins and list of signatories, because for once the options for the left seem to transcend the choice between bankrupt Blairism, its prospective Brownite reincarnation and the predictable certitudes of the reactionary left. As one of the latter's… Continue reading Why I didn’t sign the Euston Manifesto, Democratiya, 2006
Antisemitism and the Boycott: An Exchange between Martin Shaw and David Hirsh, 2008
First published in Democratiya, 2008: go to http://dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/article_pdfs/d14ShawHirsh-1.pdf Democratiya Editor’s Note: Democratiya opposes the academic boycott of Israel and all forms of antisemitism. The relation between that boycott and antisemitism is debated here by two advisory editors of Democratiya, Martin Shaw and David Hirsh. It was initiated by Shaw, who sent us a short letter… Continue reading Antisemitism and the Boycott: An Exchange between Martin Shaw and David Hirsh, 2008
A viable two-state solution needs the idealism and utopianism of the one-state idea, March 2009
First published in Democratiya 19, spring-summer 2009, at http://dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/article_pdfs/d16Symposium.pdf Martin Shaw The Israeli assault on Gaza was an affront to humanity. 1338 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed, thousands were wounded, and tens of thousands made homeless. The poor and crowded enclave, whose people were already suffering from restrictions on their movement and the entry… Continue reading A viable two-state solution needs the idealism and utopianism of the one-state idea, March 2009
Martin Shaw 