tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post7994309705471878012..comments2024-03-29T09:14:53.583+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Freelancing for PutinPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-69476174760259378582022-03-28T19:29:57.496+01:002022-03-28T19:29:57.496+01:00«It's a proxy war for the imperialist rivalry ...«<i>It's a proxy war for the imperialist rivalry between Saudi and Iran</i>»<br /><br />That is itself a superficial reading, the shadows of history are long. The Saudi-Iran story is the current manifestation of a long and convoluted history.<br /><br />For example Saudi (Nejd at the time) and Yemen already went to war in the 1930s, and Saudi gobbled up a large chunk of northern Yemen, which today are provinces of Saudi, the poorest, and that means 35% poverty rate, and that is brutal third-world level poverty in one of the richest countries in the world.<br /><br />The story is not complicated: the al-Saud family are allied with the Wahabi salafis, extremist "sunnis", and the yemeni are largely zaidi/shi'i.<br /><br />BTW these kind of wars/feuds are common among the bandit and pirate (largely because of its previous extreme poverty) states and statelets of Arabia, The present one is the *third* Saudi Kingdom, and the members of the al-Saud family don't forget that for an instant (see the Inkwatha).Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-56167547872172369212022-03-28T11:05:40.553+01:002022-03-28T11:05:40.553+01:00The passing reference to Yemen is interesting. It&...The passing reference to Yemen is interesting. It's a proxy war for the imperialist rivalry between Saudi and Iran. Yes, both sides have their allies elsewhere, but it primarily relates to real world imperialist behaviour that falls outside the scope of the vulgar left's theoretical understanding of what 'imperialism' is, so the Yemen is of no real propaganda value. Kamonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-43880128166006503952022-03-27T21:58:30.721+01:002022-03-27T21:58:30.721+01:00Yeah, tankies are well represented here I see.
Le...Yeah, tankies are well represented here I see.<br /><br />Let's have a free and fair, internationally supervised, referendum in the Donbass to see if they actually love Mother Russia so much eh?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-37429731725005120462022-03-27T21:15:21.766+01:002022-03-27T21:15:21.766+01:00«I’m very concerned that the US is happy to pour w...«<i>I’m very concerned that the US is happy to pour weapons into Ukraine no matter what. They’re arming some very dangerous groups who will be happy to turn them onto their fellow countrymen in due course.</i>»<br /><br />https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E84QHqtXIAI9hdN?format=jpg<br />"Support AFGHAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS<br />Support the brave people of afghanistan in their fight for freedom against soviet aggression and occupation.<br />All funds collected will be donated to pro-westrern Afghan resistance groupsa selected by the SOF staff.<br />These funds will be used solely for the purchase of arms, ammunition and medical supplies as specified by the groups receiving assistance"<br /><br />https://i.redd.it/k2h9edclida71.jpg<br />"Just the sort of thoroughly reliable chaps we entrust with your charity money."<br /><br />https://dgibbs.faculty.arizona.edu/brzezinski_interview<br />«Q : When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against secret US involvement in Afghanistan, nobody believed them. However, there was an element of truth in this. You don’t regret any of this today?<br />B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, essentially: “We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war." Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war that was unsustainable for the regime , a conflict that bought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.<br /><br />Q: And neither do you regret having supported Islamic fundamentalism, which has given arms and advice to future terrorists?<br />B : What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?»Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-65853636773856528992022-03-27T20:53:35.215+01:002022-03-27T20:53:35.215+01:00«Ukraine's will to resist»
Ruthenia's. &q...«<i>Ukraine's will to resist</i>»<br /><br />Ruthenia's. "Ukraine" is a multinational state, resulting from the annexation of Silesia and Prussia by Poland (and in small part Russia), and the compensatory annexation of western Poland by Belarus and southern Poland by "Ukraine". Then Poland massacred and ethnically cleansed the german civilians from Silesia and Prussia, so there is no ethnic conflict between Silesia and Prussia and what was eastern Poland in those areas, but Stalin's Belarus and "Ukraine" did not massacre and ethnically cleanse the ruthenians from the previous polish-lithuanian areas, thus creating a long term problem.<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian%E2%80%93Ruthenian_Commonwealth<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth_1582.PNG<br /><br />The shadows of history are very long...<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheism<br /><br />Blue and yellow are the heraldic colors of Ruthenia.<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Ukraine<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alex_K_Halych-Volhynia-flag.svg<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alex_K_Grundwald_flags_1410-05.svg<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_Ruthenian_National_Guard_from_Yavoriv.png<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Ukrainian_presidential_election<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%94%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80_2010_%D0%BF%D0%BE_%D0%BE%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%85-en.png<br /><br />http://ww2today.com/1-march-1944-the-red-army-marches-across-ukraine<br />«The population welcomed us warmly, regardless of how hard it was for them to provide food to soldiers; they always found some nice treats — some villagers boiled chicken, others boiled potatoes and cut lard (soldiers dubbed this kind of catering ‘a grandmother’s ration’). However, such attitudes were common only in the Eastern Ukraine.<br />As soon as we entered the Western Ukraine, that had passed to the Soviet Union from Poland in 1940, the attitude of the population was quite different — people hid from us in their houses, as they disliked and feared the Muscovites and Kastaps [a disparaging name for Russians in Ukraine – translators comment]. Besides that, those places were Bandera areas, where the nationalistic movement was quite strong.»Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-33085807779964776902022-03-27T20:22:42.705+01:002022-03-27T20:22:42.705+01:00«Neither is the Donbass will to resist a product o...«<i>Neither is the Donbass will to resist a product of Russian brainwashing and arms shipments</i>»<br /><br />George Orwell, 1945: "The Daily Worker disapproves of dictatorship in Athens, the Catholic Herald disapproves of dictatorship in Belgrade. There is no one who is able to say - at least, no one who has the chance to say in a newspaper of big circulation - that this whole dirty game of spheres of influence, quislings, purges, deportation, one-party elections and hundred per cent plebiscites is morally the same whether it is done by ourselves, the Russians or the Nazis."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-36218632879093250032022-03-27T19:05:35.314+01:002022-03-27T19:05:35.314+01:00«national right to self-determination»
https://ww...«<i>national right to self-determination</i>»<br /><br />https://www.unian.info/politics/zelensky-extends-sanctions-against-donbas-terrorists-russia-propagandists-11428756.html<br />“Zelensky extends sanctions against Donbas terrorists”<br /><br />https://euromaidanpress.com/2019/06/04/war-on-terms-whos-fighting-against-ukraine-in-donbas-terrorists-rebels-insurgents/<br />“Ukrainian courts refer to Article 1 of the law “On combating terrorism” classifying both “LNR” and “DNR” as terrorist organizations.”Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-3858578061888820762022-03-27T18:54:37.280+01:002022-03-27T18:54:37.280+01:00“Not a word on how the "special military oper...“Not a word on how the "special military operation" was designed to force the country into Russia's sphere of influence in violation not just of Ukraine's sovereignty but its national right to self-determination - a principle Marxists are supposed to uphold. Had Putin not rolled in the tanks, the weapons shipped to Ukraine's military would not be exacting their grim price on Russian soldiers and materiel. War is politics by other, more violent means, and Ukraine's will to resist is not a product of Western brainwashing and arms shipments.”<br /><br />Neither is the Donbass will to resist a product of Russian brainwashing and arms shipments. There’s been a war going on in the Donbass there for 8 years, one enthusiastically pursued by the Ukrainian government egged on and spearheaded by its fascist elements in and out of the army. What about the right of self determination of the people of the Donbass?<br /><br />Michael<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-84903295572479481862022-03-27T16:37:20.949+01:002022-03-27T16:37:20.949+01:00The London march was bigger than I expected but fr...The London march was bigger than I expected but from what I could see mainly made up of Ukrainians. <br /><br />Totally abandoned by the left, I didn't see a single Labour Party or Union banner.<br />No CND either - you would think they would have something to say after Putin threat of the first use of nuclear weapons.<br /><br />The main organized presence on the march were the EU lobby groups, The European Movement and Another Europe Is Possible.<br /><br />So it looks like the defence of A Nation's Right To Self Determination and of Bourgeoise Democracy against Totalitarianism is down to the Surrey branch of the European Movement.<br /><br /> <br />Grahamnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-46319407734607367822022-03-27T13:36:01.059+01:002022-03-27T13:36:01.059+01:00«The failure to mobilise any solidarity with Ukrai...«<i>The failure to mobilise any solidarity with Ukraine shows the Left is either dead or brain dead.</i>»<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbas<br />“<i>3,393 civilians killed (349 in 2016–2021)<br />13,100–13,300 killed; 29,500–33,500 wounded overall<br />414,798 Ukrainians internally displaced; 925,500 fled abroad</i>”Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-35769511292511155662022-03-27T13:16:47.236+01:002022-03-27T13:16:47.236+01:00"The Euromaidan protests that culminated in t..."The Euromaidan protests that culminated in the Orange revolution"? Are you sure about that? It sounds like you need a crash course on the political history of 21st century Ukraine.<br /><br />And where is the evidence that the aim of the Russian invasion is to "force the country into Russia's sphere of influence in violation not just of Ukraine's sovereignty but its national right to self-determination"? A more realistic assessment of Putin's objectives is that he wants to impose neutrality on Ukraine. He's trying to block Ukraine's membership of NATO, not demanding that it should form a military alliance with Russia.<br /><br />Also you make no mention at all of the conflict in Donbass, which is the proximate cause of this war. It was the refusal of successive Ukrainian governments to implement the Minsk accords, allowing the election under OSCE supervision of a regional government with devolved powers, that created this crisis. Shouldn't Marxists uphold the right to self-determination of the people of Donetsk and Lugansk too?Bobnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-87969511735656153132022-03-27T00:56:58.875+00:002022-03-27T00:56:58.875+00:00Ah yes, the telltale grifting phrase "fight t...Ah yes, the telltale grifting phrase "fight to the last Ukrainian".<br /><br />As if the eeeevil West was forcing an unwilling population to fight at gunpoint.<br /><br />And the similarly asinine reference to "pouring in arms" - much better to just let Putin's thugs genocide them, eh? Then you could continue your "anti-imperialist" posturing with a clear conscience - just as when we let the Bosniaks get slaughtered in the 1990s thanks to our "level playing field". Then again, loads on "the left" simply adored Milosovic's quasi-fascist regime didn't they? After all they were opposed to us, and THAT WAS ALL THAT MATTERS.<br /><br />Your post just sums up lazy moral bankruptcy. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-45335821839630687452022-03-26T10:46:53.726+00:002022-03-26T10:46:53.726+00:00Fringe groups and grifters like Galloway may spout...Fringe groups and grifters like Galloway may spout nonsense about Ukraine but to group “the left” as a bloc with them is also nonsense. Many people have lost their wits due to this war. The most disturbing are, to me, those who seem happy to fight to the last Ukrainian. My leftist comrades generally view the invasion as illegal and Putin as an imperialist crook. At the same time they understand the class and power basis of the people of both countries and deplore the death and destruction.<br /><br />I’m very concerned that the US is happy to pour weapons into Ukraine no matter what. They’re arming some very dangerous groups who will be happy to turn them onto their fellow countrymen in due course. I’d like to see more humanitarian support. There’s a real risk that because the US views Ukraine as a stick with which to beat Putin and help create a new Cold War alignment that Ukraine shares the same fate as Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Iraq. We should all be aiming to prevent this. Our games aren’t imperialist power games, either Russian, Western or Chinese. We should be thinking of people like ourselves who find themselves powerless victims.SimonBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-34306421366828131982022-03-26T07:11:19.872+00:002022-03-26T07:11:19.872+00:00The failure to mobilise any solidarity with Ukrain...The failure to mobilise any solidarity with Ukraine shows the Left is either dead or brain dead. An obsession with NATO has resulted in a paralysis over the war and a refusal to take any action, leaving the political space open for the right. <br /><br />Today (Saturday) there is a “London Stands With Ukraine” march supposedly to be led by Sadiq Khan. This march has been organised by Another Europe Is Possible (essentially an EU lobby group) and the microscopic Ukraine Solidarity Campaign. There is complete silence from the left about this march and you will find more information about this in the pages of the Sun and Express than, for instance, Socialist Worker or Socialist Appeal. The main web sites and blogs supporting Labour are similarly silent. As a result, I expect this march will be as small as every other solidarity action I have attended during the last month.<br /><br />Not only is this refusal to organise a betrayal of the Ukrainian people, it is an abandonment of politics and has enabled the Tories to make capital over the war. For instance: <br />• the blacking of ships carrying Russian oil by Essex and Merseyside dockers should have been the start of an argument against the Tory’s anti-union laws and the ban on solidarity actions by workers<br />• the obstacles placed in the way of Ukrainian refugees entering the country should have been the start of a campaign for free movement and against racist immigration rules<br />• the inability to seize oligarch’s wealth should have been the start of an exposure of the web of Blind Trusts and anonymous offshore shell companies that enable kleptocrats to hide their stolen goods and the key role of the City in this.<br /><br />Instead the left has nothing to say other than rehashing “the main enemy is at home” slogan.<br />Grahamnoreply@blogger.com