The continuing horror in and around Gaza defies reason. An initial terror countered by a greater, protracted one. Eventually there’ll be an end, but what will the death tally be, hostages and civilians? It will by then be the peace of the graveyard. Life being eked out amongst the ruins by those who survive.

Political leaders of states looking on have belatedly decided to act, by reviving the two states solution. This involves recognition of the state of Palestine, to the chagrin of Israel’s government.

Surely the fundamental problem is the existence of nation states, each ruthlessly pursuing its own interests, ultimately at the expense of others. In a world driven, and riven, by competition, it is difficult to see how the formal recognition of another state profoundly changes anything.

Existence for two states, Russia and Ukraine, patently has not ensured peace between them. Israel and Palestine may develop accords, but just as likely become embroiled in further conflicts of competing interests, presuming recognition ends the present bellicosity.

Palestine action

Is resetting battle lines

No state solution

D. A.

If truth is the first casualty of war, hypocrisy is its staunch ally.

On Thursday, 17th September, a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and the release of all hostages by Hamas, was voted on by the 15 members.

Although fourteen were in favour, it was vetoed by the 15th, the USA. As one of the five permanent members, America has this longstanding, if democratically dubious, privilege. This is the same state that frequently condemns Russia for its targeting civilians, by military action, in Ukraine.

One of the other five members of that elite group, Russia, must have voted in favour of the resolution. The very same Russia undertaking ballistic aggression against its own neighbour even as it was casting that vote.

The presidents of both countries can undoubtedly concoct self-justifying excuses for the inexcusable. If civilians are being subjected to terror attacks, it surely means those prosecuting those attacks, or facilitating them, are, by definition terrorists.

However, it is also hypocritical to single out these states and their leaders while, at the same time, continuing to lend even tacit support to the notion of the nation. Russia and America are not unique in their belligerent involvements.

Competition is in the nature of capitalism, so it cannot be surprising that capitalist nation states are constantly seeking advantage at the expense of each other. Warfare is the inevitable merciless expression of this competition.

It will continue to be so for as long as nation states and capitalism are allowed to exist. No matter what UN votes are held, successfully or frustrated. The only antidote to war and long term solutions for Gaza, Ukraine et al, is socialism.

Voting for peace means

Treating pain, not the disease

Veto capitals

D. A.   

Uniting the Kingdom, by George

Fearful laidly wyrm, gruesome millipede

Of grotesque proportions. Its poisonous

Venom paralyses reason in case

Some humane diversion just might succeed

In making it pause for thought and realise

Its determined course, the slippery slope

It’s slithering down, is one without hope,

A pathway of misdirection and lies.

Leaders look down from swish crystal towers,

Concealing their contempt for this creature,

Certain tomorrow’s headlines will feature

Their agendas, strengthening their powers.

Meanwhile the rough beast, having been reborn,

Slouches towards Paris, Berlin and London.

D. A.

What do meat, drugs and refugees have in common?

All three are subject to being smuggled into Britain (and elsewhere no doubt). The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) recently reported the quantity of illicit meat discovered on its way through Dover had risen from 13 tonnes between January and April 2023 to 70 tonnes for the same period in 2025.

The twin concern is that foot and mouth disease could easily be imported this way, and lack of quality control threatens public health via human consumption.

Both drugs and (especially at the moment) refugees being smuggled is a frequent media item.

The real common denominator is, of course, profit. Smuggling is an entrepreneurial activity, economically motivated. Illegality is merely an obstacle to be circumvented. It is a capitalist enterprise centred on financial return on dealing in commodities.

People are readily reduced to being commodities by dint of becoming refugees seeking non-legal routes to asylum.

National borders serve to provide a context for exploitation.

By sea or by air

Lines drawn on maps prove nothing

Crossed by bottom lines

 D. A.

(Remembering Gawber)

March 2025 saw the fortieth anniversary of the end of the Miner’s Strike. Six months on, this day marks another coal mining anniversary, the ninetieth of the North Gawber Colliery Explosion. The Lidgett Seam was known to be gassy, the ventilation often inadequate.

On the afternoon of the 12th September 1935, Mapplewell, Barnsley, became the tragic scene of an underground detonation. It resulted 19 deaths and a further 5 injuries.

It is an example of the cost in working class lives of capitalism’s relentless pursuit of profit, subordinating meeting need. In cases such as this the need for safe working conditions.

While the deep mining of coal has now gone from Britain, it remains a dangerous occupation, along with other types of mining, in many parts of the world. Workers are still being killed in the pursuit of profit.

Once headlines at home

Mining’s continuing cost

Remains in the dark

D.A.

SS Great Britain

The ship is sinking. ‘I know what to do!’

One of those who would be captain said,

‘This vessel will float if we paint it red.’

‘Nonsense!’ The paint job just has to be blue.’

A second declared. Then a third fellow,

Decided he had better intervene,

Insisting it would be better yellow.

But, a fourth politely suggested, ‘Green!’

Finally, a shrill jingoistic old lag

Spoke out, ‘It really would be best, I think,

To cover the hole with the Union Flag.’

However, the ship continued to sink.

The crew had the answer, ‘We’ve had a vote;

We’re going to build a completely new boat.’

D. A.

Wage Deduction

“The wages of sin…” was cited by Romans

Back when. But, presently, it is wages

That are the sin, for they are the gauges

Of exploitation. Until there are plans

For radical change, the true creators,

No matter what their work or workplace,

Their nationality or supposed race,

Will receive a salary that ignores

The full value of what they may produce.

It’s there a difference must always arise,

For in unpaid labour the profit lies,

As creation is for profit, not use.

The one alternative to this schism,

Is moneyless, unwaged socialism.

D. A.

End of Term Report

This, my two hundredth Socialist Sonnet,

Two thousand, eight hundred lines for the cause,

And perhaps time to stop, or at least pause.

Poems of possibilities, and yet

People largely remain loyal to their states,

While workers of the world have made some gains,

Too few seem to want to throw off their chains;

Capitalism still proliferates.

Socialism? There’s no foretelling when

Or even if. But a resort to force

Can’t hurry history along its course,

As words won’t either. So I’ll sheath my pen,

Having not changed the world one iota

And my now having written my quota.

D. A.

End of Term Report

This, my two hundredth Socialist Sonnet,

Two thousand, eight hundred lines for the cause,

And perhaps time to stop, or at least pause.

Poems of possibilities, and yet

People largely remain loyal to their states,

While workers of the world have made some gains,

Too few seem to want to throw off their chains;

Capitalism still proliferates.

Socialism? There’s no foretelling when

Or even if. But a resort to force

Can’t hurry history along its course,

As words won’t either. So I’ll sheath my pen,

Having not changed the world one iota

And my now having written my quota.

D. A.

End of Term Report

This, my two hundredth Socialist Sonnet,

Two thousand, eight hundred lines for the cause,

And perhaps time to stop, or at least pause.

Poems of possibilities, and yet

People largely remain loyal to their states,

While workers of the world have made some gains,

Too few seem to want to throw off their chains;

Capitalism still proliferates.

Socialism? There’s no foretelling when

Or even if. But a resort to force

Can’t hurry history along its course,

As words won’t either. So I’ll sheath my pen,

Having not changed the world one iota

And my now having written my quota.

D. A.