John McDonnell is in the news again, this time for his pro-IRA views. In a quote that reminiscent of Mao's view that "political power comes out of the barrel of a gun" The Times reports that during a speech welcoming Sinn Fein to London in 1986 that he stated:
The "ballot, the bullet and the bomb could all be used to unite Ireland".
Clear? Absolutely.
Meanwhile Ken Livingstone disgraces himself over the 7/11 terrorist murders. The Independent reports:
Ken Livingstone has been accused of “accepting terrorist propaganda” after arguing that terrorists were “giving their lives” because of Britain’s invasion of Iraq.
Both these "men" are along with Jeremy Corbyn "friends" of Hamas, an Islamist terror group that masquerades as a Palestinian liberation group.
None of these people are fit for government as they weasel out of acting against ISIS.
Finally it seems John McDonnell is not the only Corbynista to have delusions about mass murderer Chairman Mao as this TV clip from 2008 shows. Take it away...with the fairies Ms Abbot.
The Chinese Communists in the 1950's did do some good things; industrial production grew rapidly, there was a successful literacy programme, life expectancy was far higher than that in India. Mao did unify China, expel the imperialists and lay the ground for what we see today. However, he also went off on his sick fantasies like the Greap Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which led to at least 20 million dying....I don't believe the figure of 45 million, Frank Dikotter is pushing it a bit there. I'm doing a module on this at the moment, and while I do believe that Mao was a hideous individual, with a complete disregard for human life, his legacy needs to be assessed in a sensible way.
ReplyDeleteMcDonnell is clearly an anti Maoist, as the whole thrust of his (rather daft) joke was to show Osbourne up for cosying up to the Chinese state. As for Abbot, in fairness Maoist ideology (which at times sounded quite democratic and emancipatory, if you read the 'Bombard the Headquarters' post from 1966 for example) did influence a lot of anti colonialist activists/black socialists.
Mao was an evil dictator though, no one can deny that.