Tariq Ali: why my account of Churchill angered the right
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 พ.ค. 2022
- Tariq Ali's latest book documenting the time and crimes of Winston Churchill has provoked anger from the right wing media. Counterfire's Yonas Makoni spoke to Tariq about his book and why it's angered the right
Tariq, where have you been? Better late
than ever. A breadth of fresh air. Thank
you.
Thank you. Great interview from Tariq. I must add his book to my long must-read list. I only discovered recently that Churchill was still Prime Minister when I was born and very much share Tariq’s feelings about where we are today, when the situation looked so much more promising in the 1960s & 1970s.
how do you feel about today's situation in the UK?
@@bravoalley228 A desperate situation. De facto Tories oversee Labour, whilst Tories have a considerable majority.
Meanwhile, elections' administration has been passed over the Private Sector - the mother of all velvet coups?
Grim times now. Grim times ahead.
London was involved in imperialism and crimes against humanity then, as it is now.
If there was a difference, it might be that there were a greater number of better informed people
than there are now, and the MSM propaganda wasn't quite as sophisticated as nowadays?
State Education has been dumbed down considerable - less capacity for critical thinking = easy prey for
corporate media.
@@bravoalley228He doesn't know! He has to consult the Guardian!
Our culture and heritage helps define who we are , helps give a sense of community , and gives a national identity .
Its not even about Churchill . Its about destroying a major symbol of Britain's Heritage and National Identity .
When there are attempts to discredit Alexander Graham Bell , Baden Powell , David Livingston , abolitionist Henry Dundas , decolonize KEW gardens , Shakespeare , and Thanksgiving , that makes it pretty clear this is really all about discrediting our Heritage and National Identity .
Tariq has done everyone who values truth, especially about such political figures as Churchill, a great favour by writing this book.
Thank you for sharing this educational video. Mr Tariq Ali is a talking, walking history book.
Thank you Mr Ali!!!
Thank you 😊
i grew up in N Ireland .My granny referred to churchill as a warmonger .Some Irish ended up fighting for the british colonists ,including my uncle who ended up as a damaged alcoholic
Great talk!
Tarik one of the greatest political historian .
Thank you for this.
Great talk. Thanks for sharing
good conversation
a very eloquent speaker... with thanks :)
Very interesting
At the end Yonas Makoni spoke about what counterfire is against, it would give a better imporession if he added what they are for, I'm sure they are for a lot but it's a better look. Thankyou I often remind people when they wax lysriac about Churchill that he was hated in the East End Of London (poor area) and they boo'd him when he visited on a PR tour during the Blitz.
From the book The Rise and Fall Of the British Nation a recent publication by a Birmingham uni prof, not a single Labour PM has come from a state school. All went to private schools. This maybe a reason why Labour has been pro Empire. I read somehwre else (it would be in that book too) that just before WW1 British expenditure on the miltary was 25% of the GDP. Imagine that!!!!!! That will be a large part why the working class were pro empire. I bet nearly every British (as in before recent mass immigration) family has stories of relatives in the miltary in Napoleonic, Crimea, Boar, WW1 & 2 wars, serving in India, Ceylon, Kenya, Malaya, etc. Or knew someone who managed a tea plantation, was in the merchant navy. There is a lot of romance in all that.
One left field eg would be my great grandpa, worked in the cotton mills as a twister, a very average job between the WW1 & 2. he would have suffered when the Indian's refused to work under Gandi's independence campaigns. When Gandi visted the Uk he was taken to the cotton mills and shown the suffering (he?) was causing. I can't remember his comment, it was good and appropriate, its in the above book.
Then there is the help of the Commonwealth (eg India) in the wars and as a place to migrate too, eg esp Canada, Australia and NZ. We were brought up on this. eg Mum telling us about the "rats of Tobruk", Aussies. Or when I emigrated to Oz meeting people's whos father's had volunteered to help, "Blighty" in WW@ and eg became a gunner in a lancaster, lucky to survive. Or volunteered to throw incenduries off of St Pauls roof during the Blitz, or Canadians at the D Day landings forming a significant contingent.
Then there is the glorification via the film industry, eg ZUlu with Micael Caine and Stanley Baker about the Battle of Rork's Drift in the Boar War.
Add this to being working class and you can see how we get an Afl Garnet or a Corpral Jones with his, "the fuzzy whyzzies don't like it up em", that is the steel of a bayonet, or the comedy It Aint Half Hot Mum about ordinary British soldiers in India.
And finally, growing up in Ruislip next to the Northolt Airbase when the LAncaster, Spitfire and Hurricane came there to land after airshows. We knew the engine sounds, ran out through the open french window doors to see them do a mini show for us, including the Victory Roll by the fighters.
So you can see how working class peope with all that loved/love their idea of the empire. I get why northerners vote Tory during Brexit. It is globalisation and the EU's free movement working in their eyes to bring about their disspossesion and the Tories use the above, fictional, "glorious past of the empire days" to rally them.
Yes this book is very welcome as it helps burst some of that myth. Northerners like great grandad joined 1st thing in WW1 as it meant regular food on the table for their familes. They had no great liking for the Tories or Churchill. Not sure how he felt about the empire.
I wonder what The Ordnungspolitzei would have done with Yonas ? The treatment of African American or French soldiers captured by the SS does not seem to bode well.
Plenty of Labour MPs have come from state schools as have quite a few Tory ones.
From Pakistan. No one wants to listen Bitter Truth. Critical Thinking is not appreciated anywhere. Every one wants Chamcha Geeri ( Hope you still remember this word).
The Soviet saved the world from fascism. Well almost? The US and UK were never greeted by the Red Army. What a calamity.
I think China never got credit for good opposition to global fascism. Rock on 🇨🇳
You didn't answer his question about putting it out as a podcast.
He was a racist. He clearly had views that would be deemed unacceptable by contemporary values. however, he should NOT be cancelled. He should be should viewed in the context of his own time.
This old dinasuer of the Left, used to be the darling of the media! He was on TV regularly and in print too (70s through to 90s) Thankfully, the Brits have grown weary of the Left and he no longer is in demand! Even the Leftie press are too embarrassed to court him these days! The Independent has an an interesting article about him.
An extremely strong case can be made that WW2 was won on two pillars: American steel, and Russian blood. Absent either, the result would have been a Nazi victory. This is not a popular view in Britain, even now. I grew up in Britain in the 1950s, on the notion that there were essentially two nations fighting: Britain and Germany. Oh, of course, a few bit-players, but led by Britain. Just look at British war movies of the time!! Our teachers effectively treated them as documentaries.
"Arguably" - as some like to believe. It's unlikely that the Soviets OR USA would be contemplating any form of "victory" over the Nazis had Churchill decided NOT to Surrender to the Nazis after Dunkirk in 1940. Where were the US or Soviets then? Churchill received ZERO commitments from either - indeed it took another Year for USA & Soviets to even enter the War (maybe they could see Hitler's more positive character traits?). Without Churchill's decision (his War Cabinet wanted to negotiate a surrender with Hitler) there would be NO Western Front in Europe, the Nazis & Italy would have dominated all of Europe, the Atlantic & Mediterranean & Middle East unopposed, with the Royal Navy becoming Spoils of War - giving the Nazis the worlds largest Navy. (The Germans had surrendered their Navy to the British after WW1). The Nazis would have had unlimited access to Nordic Steel, Middle East Oil, worldwide resources & the US would never have gained any foothold in Europe. There would be no supplies or safe Baltic Shipping to USSR. Without a Western Front, the Nazis would have all the Resources & Logistics required to attack the Soviets on any time-scale (given they now have access ot Middle East Oil fields). Meanwhile the US would now find itself stuck between the world's largest navy in the Atlantic and 3rd largest navy in the Pacific - unable to leave its own shores due to Wolfpacks - all by the middle of 1940. The "victory" you speak of would be fantasy. Both the US & Soviets had sat on their back-sides while the Nazis were winning the ONLY race that mattered - the acquisition of Territory, Resources & Logistics. The ONLY thing that prevented the Nazis from world domination was the Western Front maintained by Churchill's decision & the British & Commonwealth efforts for 2 years before anyone else even joined the war effort (plenty of Profit-Making took place in those 2 years though). Of course we all love the guy that gets the ball over the line for his team in a fanfare of glory - but not so much after he declares "I won".....and especially when he's been sat on the sidelines for 2 years as his team-mates sacrifice themselves in a brutal battle for their very existence & freedom.....all the while benefitting financially. The people that benefited by sitting on the sidelines for 2 whole years while selling resources to BOTH UK & Germany - were the US/Global Financiers (who also benefitted by magically extending reconstruction loans to every country post-war). After the UK was guaranteed bankrupted by 1941 - hey presto - John Wayne arrives on his horse to finish off the bad guy - seen all those films as well (and the US also get to extract all the Nazi Intellectual Property). The huge amount of heroic Russian blood spilt illustrates the dominance of Nazi war machinery. The Nazis were ultimately defeated by the Russian Winter and a severe lack of Logistical support, Food, Clothing, Oil etc. etc. due to the very existence of the Western Front & the Royal Navy dominance of Atlantic, Mediterranean & Baltic shipping lanes - (Resources & Logistics are not very glamorous John Wayne or Heroic Sacrifice stuff though). The Nazis were choked of resources to fight the Russians. A mention also to the role of the Polish & British code-breakers who were estimated to have shortened the war by several years - & of course the Norwegian Commandos. Without any of these guys - a US or Soviet "victory" is a complete misnomer.
Polish Government on exile did... call the world to save europians jews
If Xelensky is Churchill. What is Putin?
...jesus christ
Saint!
Perhaps Zelensky is more like WC than we imagine!
" If you support Churchill you have to support the whole experience of Empire . "
This is completely false .
Most people who support or study Churchill , see him in the context of WW II .
.
The British War Cabinet Crisis May 26th to 28th, 1940 was one of the defining moments of the 20th Century .
With the BEF and French 1st Army trapped at Dunkirk , the estimate was that only 45,000 solders could be evacuated .
The French Army had nearly been defeated , and the Belgians had capitulated .
The Americans thought the British were done and maintaining their position of isolationism .
The Soviets had signed a non aggression pact with Hitler .
Mussolini was supporting Hitler .
.
Under these conditions Churchill was able to persuade the 25 member outer cabinet to keep fighting .
Had Churchill not be able to do this , Hitler would have been able to unleash the entire Wehrmacht on the Soviets .
.
Yes the Bolsheviks were worth saving.
That's the point Tariq is making most of the British public cherry pick Churchill achievements they tend to forget his failings the absolute catastrophe at gallipoli which he was responsible for the famine in India to which 20 million Indians starved to death Churchill did nothings to help, his brutal suppression of the Irish during there fight for independence , Churchill didn't win the ww2 it was the ordinary men and women of all the allied nations who defeated Germany and Hitler you clown 🤡
And exactly at that moment in history ( October 1940) Greece decides to go against Mussolini’s aggression and support England. Make the Germans send battalions to Greece and -for the first time in WWII -parachuters in Crete and delay the attack to Russia until winter time.
And what did we get for gratitude? A neocolonial treatment to our resistance after the war was over. 🤘
we still had an empire a declining one but an empire still
@@vincentvangogh8092 Well how is it that Tariq Ali doesn't point out the neo colonialism that is going on in the world today ?
- France controls the currency and resources of 14 countries in Africa
- The " Square Mile " ( City of London Corporation ) and all the international investment banks there , along with their offshore island banking , is one of the financial capitals of the World .
- Shell is making a horrific mess of Nigeria .
- China is setting up the Belt and Road Initiative and is trying to control counties by owning their ports
We ALL need to start with: Every human being is flawed! Then put ourselves back into the time and the place of WW11, and ask the question: Did this flawed human being do the best he could for his country? And could we as flawed human beings ourselves, have done ant better!
Piers Morgan is a huge fan of Tariq Ali.
lol
Churchill in his second term as Prime Minister in 1951 left office in 1955 with a higher rating
than when he entered in 1951.
Yes thats when the devil was painted white,and the fascade in full display,Churchill is an evil beast worst than Adolf Hitler by country mile
there is no connection whatsoever between the two leaders
Rishi sunak is priminster now 👋👋👋
Have you done a hatchet job on Mohammed, Tariq ? If you have where would I find it?
This guy down plays Bose, an Indian national hero that kissed up to the Nazi's and Imperial
Japanese, two of the most genocidal regimes of the 20th century.
The British lost Singapore because the native Colonial troops ran. Even when India was threatened,
the native troops didn't perform very well.
Oh ! It gets much better ! Al Husseini,Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Chief (muslim) Religous leader in the middle east was a pal of The Fuhrer's,he gave Hussieni,a personal residence in Berlin. They both had a great passion in common,- A dislike of Jews. Adolf even had a Muslem SS regiment 'Handschar.'
Kaiser Whilhelm was not known as 'Haji Wilhelm' for nothing.
Some Muslems liked his idea of getting the Muslems throughout the British Empire to revolt,particularily in The Indian Army.
@@philiprufus4427 Iraq's Bathist Party was one of Adolph Hitler's babies.
Tariq's take on Churchill did not just upset 'Right Wing' people. (Oh how I detest this insistance of labelling people.). He upset a lot of people, and always has. He is a very negative, unpleasant person who digs deep in the mud to try and make himself feel superior to others.
And that about sums the person up I knew as a 17year old when they were on chat shows on Tele in the 1970s !
Why do you style yourself on a Victorian era spinster whose family would rather winter in Newfoundland than spend another Christmas with?