Left: Sajid Javid (50) attended the University of Exeter & studied Economics and Politics. He joined the Tories whilst at University. Before entering politics full time, he worked in the banking industry, initially joining the New York City-based JPMorgan Chase Bank. He later joined London-based Deutsche Bank AG as a director. He went on to became a managing director and then global head of Emerging Markets Structuring. Right: Rishi Sunak (40) went to Lincoln College, Oxford. He worked for Goldman Sachs – who describe themselves as a ‘leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm’ - between 2001 and 2004. He then worked for hedge fund management firm The Children’s Investment Fund Management becoming a partner in 2006. He later joined another hedge fund firm - Theleme Partners. He was also a director of investment firm Catamaran Ventures, owned by his billionaire father-in-law, Indian businessman N. R. Naravana Murthy.

BRITAIN’S REACTIONARY RACISTS recently got their knickers in a twist when Rishi Sunak – a rising star in the Tory party – was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.

But who is Sunak and why did the racists go ape when he was appointed?

Sunak has been the MP for Richmond (in North Yorkshire) since May 2015. Richmond is a safe Conservative seat – and has been held by them for over 100 years – and this was reflected in Sunak’s huge majority of 19,550. In the 2017 election he increased his majority to 23,108. He bettered this in last year’s general election where his majority was an incredible 27,210 (his total vote was 36,693 – 63.6%).

Sunak has simply been promoted by Boris Johnson to the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Here he replaces Sajid Javid, who resigned in mid-February (after rejecting an order to fire his team of aides, saying “no self-respecting minister” could accept such a condition).

Sunak is no stranger to the Treasury Department – as he’d served under Javid as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from July 2019 – February 2020 – so he was the obvious choice.

The only real difference between Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid that we can see is that the former is a teetotal Hindu whilst the former enjoys the odd drink and – whilst his family are Muslims – Javid is non-religious. Apart from that, they both have impeccable Tory credentials. Both have been to university and have worked in & have extensive contacts within the banking sector.

As we’ve already noted, Britain’s reactionary racists were up in arms over Sunak’s promotion. The reason for this is because of the regressive form of identity politics that they adhere to.

Indeed, the reactionary right is gripped by a great universal conspiracy. They tend to live in a fantasist-like parallel world and view anyone with a light brown skin as an Islamic terrorist – irrespective of their religion! (In fact, we’d wager a bet that many reactionaries wouldn’t know the difference between Muslim’s, Hindu’s or Sikh’s let alone those who interpret Islam in differing ways.)

Reactionaries are also fond of ignoring facts and prefer to make grand and sweeping statements. (However, whether they actually believe what they say is open to debate.) They tend to lump all members of entire religious and/or racial communities together and judge those communities on the actions of a few.

Unlike the reactionary right, the National Liberal Party couldn’t care less who is the Chancellor of the Exchequer. We’ve absolutely no interest in their race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.

As we mentioned earlier, the reactionary right (like those on the reactionary left) are obsessed with regressive identity politics. As such, they’re fixated on the individuals who’re facilitating the capitalist system – and have nothing of interest to say about the capitalist system itself. In fact, the only time the reactionary right take time out to address the banking system is if they can link it to ‘the Jews’. And because of their out-and-out opposition to all Muslims, they fail to understand that the Islamic banking system forbids usury!

This fixation on personalities illustrates the shallowness of both the reactionary right (and left). To some extent, it doesn’t matter who’s in government – for powerful corporate big business and banking elites rule the roost.

The reactionary right’s approach is about as meaningful and effective as rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The National Liberal Party, on the other hand, isn’t interested in changing the Chancellor – we want to change the whole banking system itself!

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WELCOME to the third in our series of articles looking at the various indigenous peoples of the world. At the start of the year we highlighted the cause of the Aboriginal Australians. We followed this up mid-way through last month with a look at the plight of the Aché People. This time around we’re featuring the Ainu People.

The idea behind this series of articles from Nations without States – NwS – is twofold:

Firstly, tohighlight the plight of peoples who aspire to nationhood. These might be based on peoples or tribes based within a state or even across borders that may or may not have been independently organised in the past. They might have a linguistic or historical separateness from their neighbours or fellow citizens. All will aspire to recognition, autonomy or independence.

Secondly, to let those interested in Self-Determination (both activists & non-activists) that they cando something constructive to support the various indigenous peoples of the world. And that is to help our friends and comrades of the National Liberal Party select up to 25 candidates to fight the Greater London Authority elections (scheduled for this May) under the sloganSelf-Determination For All!

However, before we get into the nitty-gritty of the elections, let’s briefly rewind and take look at the Ainu People.

The Ainu are an indigenous ethnic people of Japan. Japan itself actually consists of nearly 7,000 islands, the main five being Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku and Okinawa. The capital of Japan (Tokyo) is located on Honshu. The Ainu live in Hokkaido – and also formerly in North EasternHonshu. (They also live in Russia (the Kuril Islands,Khabarovsk Krai, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin).

They tend to have fairer skin and more body hair than the Japanese. They have a different language and culture – where men wear earrings and women have prominent facial and body tattoos. They were notably a hunter-gatherer-fishing people with animistic beliefs. (Animalism is the belief that all things have a spirit or soul, including animals, plants, rivers, mountains, stars. The moon, and the sun.) The Ainu were conquered by the Japanese in the 9th century. This led to inter-ethnic conflict between differing groups – indeed, the Ainu rebelled against Japanese authority on several occasions.

The Ainu were laterforcibly & brutally assimilated into Japanese society – so much so, that whilst the official population is around 25,000, it’s thought that the real total could be around 200,000 as many Ainu people have no knowledge of their ancestry.

Indeed, it was only in 2008 that Japan formally recognised the Ainu as an indigenous group. However, like many other indigenous people they still suffer from social & social discrimination. Despite this, and as this article – https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/cnngo-travel-hokkaido-ainu/index.html – from five years ago shows, positive efforts are being made to keep theirdistinct language and culture alive.

With the above in mind, our friends in the National Liberal Party would like to bring the plight of the Ainu people to a wider audience. As we noted earlier, the NLP intends to fight the Greater London Authority elections under the slogan Self-Determination For All! It’s now 7th March and the elections will be held on 7th May. We acknowledge that this is a tight schedule, but it still gives some time for those who support self-determination to help out. Here’s how you can help power the campaign:

a) Sponsor a candidate at the election (contact natliberal@aol.com).

b) Make a donation (or pledgetowards the campaign via

http://nationalliberal.org/the-party-organisation/donate. This will be used to support a social media campaign. Nearly £2000 has been raised towards the target of £3000. Please be generous but any amount will be gratefully received!

c) Activistsare urged to join theSelf-Determination Day Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/events/302376780647582/ Please invite your friends too. Please also promote all of the NLPs election literature/posters which’ll be viralled out via the Self-Determination Day site.

Nations without States understands that there are about 50,000 people of Japanese heritage living in the UK. We also know that London hosts several Japanese cultural and friendship festivals every year – the best known being London Japan Matsuri. As we’ve previously noted, there’s every possibility that some ‘Japanese’ may not be aware that they’re originally from Ainu stock.

If you know of any Ainu living in London – or anyone (no matter what their race or ethnic background) who has a special interest in their plight, tell them about the NLPs plans to fight the GLA elections on the basis ofSelf-Determination For All!

• ALSO check out

From The Liberty Wall – Nations without States – Calling AllAborigines… http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-nations-without-states-–-calling-all-aborigines-…

From The Liberty Wall – Nations without States – CallingAché People … http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-nations-without-states-–-calling-allache-people-…

Will libraries become a thing of the past?

A REPORT published by the Charted Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) late last year found that nearly 800 libraries have closed since the Con-Dem government (led by David Cameron and Nick Clegg) instituted austerity measures way back in 2010.

According to their web-site –  https://www.cipfa.org/ – CIPFA is ‘the professional body for people in public finance.  Our 14.000 members work throughout the public services, in national audit agencies, in major accountancy firms, and in other bodies where public money needs to be effectively and efficiently managed.’

According to CIPFAs annual survey of Britain’s libraries (which doesn’t include figures for Ulster) almost a fifth have closed since 2010.  At the moment, 3,583 libraries are open, meaning that 35 have closed since the last survey.  To date, 773 libraries have been closed due to Cameron & Clegg’s austerity agenda.

Spending on libraries has also been savagely slashed.  National spending on the service in 2009/10 was over £1bn – but had dropped to under £750m last year.  That represents a cut of nearly 30%.

With the above swingeing cuts in mind, it comes as no surprise that the number of librarians has dropped dramatically as well.  Just prior to austerity there were 24,000 people employed in the service.  Last year there were 15,300 paid employees – aided by 51.000 volunteers – a substantial reduction of 8,700.

So what does the future hold for libraries?

As we all know, the Tories walked the last general election (held on 12th December last year).  Not only did they do well in their traditional strongholds but they astonishingly demolished Labour’s ‘red wall’ – constituencies in the Midlands, Yorkshire and Northern England.  This meant that Boris Johnson and the Tories captured seats like Bishop Aukland, in County Durham,  which had been held by the Labour Party (except for one election) since 1918.

In our analysis of the result –  https://nationalliberal.org/2019-general-election-result-–-never-trust-a-tory – we noted of Boris Johnson that:

‘He also made a lot of promises to former Labour voters – particularly in Northern England & Wales. The Tories will want to hold onto these votes for any future elections. Therefore, Boris Johnson’s style of Tory-Populism may – to some degree – even reverse previous austerity measures. With an eye on his place in the history books, we feel that he may go on some sort of ‘spending spree’ on infrastructure projects to create a temporary & illusionary jobs boost. It may even turn out to be a project whereby state intervention and public spending is used on a scale never seen by previous Tory governments.’

At this moment, it’s unclear if libraries will be considered as part of these infrastructure projects.  Sadly, we don’t think that this’ll happen – as Johnson will probably go for headline grabbing projects like hospitals and schools.

However, with schools in mind, the National Liberal Party believes that the future of libraries could be secured by incorporating them with schools to form educational community hubs.  Another idea could to be extending the remit of libraries to become local cultural centres – incorporating art, books, exhibitions, films and music.  Such cultural centres could become an important part in any drive to improve literacy and learning.  As they would be locally based, they would be easily accessible to those folks who’re disadvantaged and wouldn’t normally visit an art gallery or museum.

• THE NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY would be particularly interested to hear the views of both regular library users and staff.  What can be done – initially – to save more libraries from closure and then promoting the use of libraries?  As well as talking about the issue, the National Liberal Party would urge all of its members and supporters to take action and support your local library whenever you get the opportunity.