tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post708847529023168363..comments2024-03-27T09:14:27.496+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: A Case Study in DecrepitudePhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-24354232552616854342022-03-05T16:42:27.987+00:002022-03-05T16:42:27.987+00:00Interesting points, but Putin actually rescued Rus...Interesting points, but Putin actually rescued Russia after the Yeltsin disintegration, hence his popularity until now among Russians. The US don't like Russia being economic partners with Europe, and this war will ensure this breaks down. See our editorial https://labouraffairs.com/2022/03/01/putins-dilemma-editorial/cathyhttps://labouraffairs.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-8198550494697053062022-03-04T17:07:24.372+00:002022-03-04T17:07:24.372+00:00Obviously Putin's invasion is, first and forem...Obviously Putin's invasion is, first and foremost, a catastrophe for the people of Ukraine. It's doing a great deal of harm to Russians, from the soldiers getting killed to the anti-war activists getting arrested.<br /><br />It's also strengthening militarism right across Europe. The delegitimisation and incipient witch-hunt of the anti-war movement we're seeing here in Britain is part of that, and it's very dangerous.<br /><br />JNnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-72993520323668193682022-03-04T13:34:34.527+00:002022-03-04T13:34:34.527+00:00"Politics is a game to these people": re..."Politics is a game to these people": really, Eric? Not like those who bleat about Nato's alleged "threat" to Putin as an excuse to avoid giving clear-cut support to Ukraine's right to national self determination and to clearly denounce Russian imperialism, without equivocation? Such useful idiots are not playing games?Jim Denhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01642992463679646250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-84503445161942470802022-03-04T09:38:54.943+00:002022-03-04T09:38:54.943+00:00I think Ukrainian self-determination and oppositio...I think Ukrainian self-determination and opposition to Russia's war are important to emphasise. But I think anonymous above raises important points about the character of the Ukrainian ruling class. I'm getting a bit tired of all the gung-ho uncritical support for the resistance. It's all posturing anyway, more for domestic consumption than making a real difference to Ukraine. Jim supported the Mujahidin against the Soviets but opposed the Taliban when they were fighting the US&allies. Politics is a game to these people.<br /><br />EricAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-49888023691434207992022-03-03T13:42:50.101+00:002022-03-03T13:42:50.101+00:00I refer you to my previous answer, "Anonymous...I refer you to my previous answer, "Anonymous". And when you have the guts to use your real name I'll at least treat you with a modicum of respect.Jim Denhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01642992463679646250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-13688159615641855712022-03-03T11:08:26.553+00:002022-03-03T11:08:26.553+00:00So, Jim Denham, it's silly schoolyard abuse , ...So, Jim Denham, it's silly schoolyard abuse , not analysis for you as per usual then ? You obviously have no answers at all to my previous detailed analysis of the nature of the divided Ukranian oligarch class , and Ukranian state, and the multi capitalist oligarch (Russia/Ukraine, and the EU behind its increasingly thin 'democratic' veneer) competitive conflict behind the current crisis, just liberal Guardianista platitude soundbites, around that very slippery , multi-meaning , slogan of 'national self-determination' . <br /><br />What about some actual socialist, class-based, analysis for a change. I think we could hope for better from the once sporadically quite analytically acute AWL grouplet. But that is yet another former Marxist grouplet that has dissolved its politics into Left Liberal moralistic mush to attract an entirely Left Liberal middle class membership. There can be no genuine 'self- determination' for any of the disparate recently created nation states of the old Soviet empire whilst all their productive resources are in the hands of the various robber baron oligarchs who stole their wealth as the Soviet Union collapsed. The populist ex comic actor president of the Ukraine certainly has no intention, or power, to renationalise the stolen wealth assets of the Ukraine's various oligarch factions, so 'national self determination' for the Ukranian working class is a cruel hoax until they recover their national wealth from their own oligarch capitalist class, THROUGH CLASS STRUGGLE, never mind fend of the rival ambitions of the rival power blocs of the EU or Russia. Without a class analysis wannabe 'socialists' just end up as liberal spewers of the false narratives of our own capitalist class and their mass media - as poor Jim Denham does, once again. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-42887298013041762812022-03-03T08:40:58.831+00:002022-03-03T08:40:58.831+00:00Are, so you'd side with Luxemburg against Leni...Are, so you'd side with Luxemburg against Lenin on the national question, eh "Anonymous"? Fair enough. But of course Luxemburg was a brave and principled revolutionary who used her real name, not a preposterous keyboard poseur hiding behind anonymity.Jim Denhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01642992463679646250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-47429998469646336702022-03-03T01:42:49.087+00:002022-03-03T01:42:49.087+00:00Wargaming says Russia is pretty much where it coul...Wargaming says Russia is pretty much where it could and should be:<br /><br />https://warontherocks.com/2022/03/the-wargame-before-the-war-russia-attacks-ukraine/Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05401900846063877172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-62171412528793431752022-03-02T16:49:34.761+00:002022-03-02T16:49:34.761+00:00I am not sure you are right about the poor perform...I am not sure you are right about the poor performance of the Russian army. It may be wishful thinking on our part since we want it to do badly. It does seem to be on the outskirts of the cities it wants to be on the outskirts of. It does not seem to be in headlong retreat anywhere and it seems to be able to move its reserves at will.<br /><br />Our sources for its poor performance seem to be people who never told us truthfully how well there armies did in their invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. The statements of POWs about things may not be entirely reliable either.<br /><br />Might be wise to wait another week and see what has been seized, then judge.McIntoshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-61079779413916472662022-03-02T16:12:13.711+00:002022-03-02T16:12:13.711+00:00The wannabe AWL 'toy revolutionary, Left Liber...The wannabe AWL 'toy revolutionary, Left Liberal , Jim Denham, opts for liberal moralism rather than socialist (never mind Marxist), analysis , as usual. The 'EuroMaidan' coup certainly was a regime change coup - from one , pro Russian, set of ruling Ukrainian oligarchs - to a rival set of Ukranian pro EU, oligarchs - aided by significant on the streets key physical force input from the organised ASOV, and other, neo Nazi and ultra nationalist, and openly Nazi, Far Right . <br /><br />That doesn't make the current regime a 'fascist junta' of course, as the pro EU oligarch installed by the EuroMaidan coup was replaced by the bizarre phenomena of a Jewish actor/comic as President by a huge majority vote! This was the downside for the pro EU/pro NATO oligarchs - in that the EU and US (which were meddling heavily behind the scenes as the coup happened), had to support continuing , open, democratic elections - and the Ukranians in huge numbers preferred an actor/comic with nil political experience, to yet another robber oligarch , of any faction. The current President, however, has little actual power, being outside the ruling, competitive, circles of Ukranian oligarchs , who now own, via faked post Soviet Union era 'auctions' of state assets, all of Ukraine's productive wealth, and is hence forced to constantly tack to the wishes of the pro EU/NATO winning post Maidan coup faction, and their significant Far Right Nazi street army. <br /><br />There are THREE or even four sets of competing oligarchs at play in the current crisis - ie, the allied Russian and pro Russian Ukranian gangster oligarchs, the pro EU/NATO Ukranian gangster oligarchs , and their allies, the ruling (behind the Liberal Democratic facade) oligarchs of the Western capitalist classes, represented by the neoliberal EU and NATO . None of these competing factions 'winning' will restore the productive wealth stolen by the various Ukranian oligarchs to public ownership, and end the endless robbery of the Ukranian population by these gangsters. So the very issue of 'national self-determination' so glibly vomited out by Denham and other Left Liberals, is a complete fantasy . Only a socialist revolution in the Ukraine (and of course Russia and all the old Soviet republics too), will ever restore the productive wealth to public ownership, and end the kleptocracy of the oligarchs - and produce genuine 'national self determination' .<br /><br /> So spare us your liberal garbage about 'national self-determination, Denham, such a thing simply isn't on offer in any possible current outcome to this crisis . The mass of Ukranians will continue to be robbed blind by one or other gang of oligarchs - either in the sphere of influence of the gangster state led by Putin, or the expansionist neoliberal enforcement machine of the EU - always seeking to expand eastwards - to access ever more cheap labour to keep wages down across the EU, and compete in labour costs with China, Vietnam, etc. This crisis is not one socialists should be picking sides on. Regardless of the current mass suffering of ordinary civilians, it is a battle between capitalist blocs and their rival oligarchs , not a battle for genuine 'national self-determination' as naive Left Liberals think. <br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-2091095206206022412022-03-02T15:43:41.694+00:002022-03-02T15:43:41.694+00:00Besides the damage to China's reputation, I th...Besides the damage to China's reputation, I think one reason Chinese President Xi is so angry is that Putin has wrecked the entire "New Silk Road" initiative, which basically entailed China building railway lines across Eurasia to Europe. <br /><br />The idea was that the railway lines would bring economic development to the poor interior of China, and help insulate China against the possibility of an naval blockade in the Pacific. No doubt China was hoping that if they ever invaded Taiwan, Europe would stay neutral and so they could continue to trade with them over land even if shipping goods by sea was impossible (the US would be in no condition to start a trade war with the EU if it was caught in a war with China at the same time).<br /><br />Russia has now driven Europe into the arms of America and reinvigorated the Transatlantic Alliance. The odds of Europe being neutral if Taiwan were invaded are basically zero now. America will just ask the EU to shut down the railways, and Europe will happily oblige (with the implicit understanding that America will likewise help sanction Russia in turn if they get aggressive). So the New Silk Road isn't of as much use during wartime as it used to be.<br /><br />What about right now? Well the US and EU have made it clear they'll happily sponsor Ukraine's fight for freedom for as long as Kyiv wants to keep the war going. China is faced with the nightmare of a perpetual trade war and insurgency that wrecks economies across Central Asia and makes the Silk Road impassible. You can see how each day they become more and more desperate to get the violence to stop.<br /><br />1729torushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09262372962990418135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-39295089811131145802022-03-02T12:13:23.822+00:002022-03-02T12:13:23.822+00:00In reply to all Putin-apologists and useful idiots...In reply to all Putin-apologists and useful idiots (eg 'Anonymous', above):<br /><br />It's true that Ukrainian governments since the Maidan protests of 2014 been right-wing nationalistic, and neo-liberal, though the present regime of Zalensky has been making some efforts to deal with the oligarchy and corruption.<br /><br />But that does not distinguish them from most other governments in the world. And Putin’s rule in Russia is arguably far worse: authoritarian, autocratic, corrupt, imperialist, and an ally and financier of far-right parties throughout Europe.<br /><br />But, just as the Maidan protests were not a “fascist coup”, so too none of the post-Maidan governments have been a “fascist junta”. “Right-wing” is not the same as ‘fascist”.<br /><br />The narrative of “fascism in power in Ukraine” was concocted by Moscow in 2014 as a way of galvanising and justifying (in the name of “anti-fascism”) the separatist movements which it created as a cloak for pursuing its own political agenda.<br /><br />In any case, in a debate about the Russian invasion of Ukraine the question is irrelevant. No-one on the left argues, for example, that Palestinians are not entitled to national self-determination until they end the reactionary and corrupt rule of Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas.Jim Denhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01642992463679646250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-13748506490186930432022-03-02T10:53:56.440+00:002022-03-02T10:53:56.440+00:00A partially excellent analysis by Phil here , at l...A partially excellent analysis by Phil here , at least of the utterly corrupt, Mafioso state that is now the Russian bit of the dismembered old Soviet Union dictatorship. What is totally missing though is an analysis of what the Ukraine itself now is as a state (alongside all the other oligarch-infested, post Soviet Union empire component states). The Liberal Left, totally in step with the dominant Western MSM 'narrative' on the Ukraine as a state (and the poster , 'Graham' above), choose to completely ignore the easily demonstrable fact that the Ukraine , just as with Russia and all the other component territories of the collapsed old Soviet Union, experienced the same epic robber banditry privatisation of previously state-owned key productive assets, by a new , often ex Soviet bureaucracy, and criminal gangster clans, new private bourgeois capitalist oligarchy . Although the Ukraine has a strange ex comic actor, Jewish, populist president nowadays (reprising in real life his popular role as a populist president in his previous actor role on Ukranian TV !) , the entire economic base of the Ukraine is still owned by the same post-Soviet collapse robber oligarchs , and the Ukrainian military and institutions of the Ukranian state really are widely infiltrated by open neo Nazis , who have put up statues to their WW2 'heroes' like Stepan Banderas who collaborated with the Nazi occupiers in Ukranian SS battalions , to massacre many hundreds of thousands of Ukranian ethnic Poles and the Ukranian's large Pre War large Jewish population (Babi Yar for these nutters is a key holocaust site to celebrate , not condemn ! ).<br /><br /> Yet the likes of poster 'Graham' still choose to consider the Ukraine as a state with some sort of genuine Liberal Democracy, and, alongside Phil, in his otherwise good analysis. lets the undoubted empire-building aggressive expansionary role of both the EU and NATO off the hook as a causal factor in this terrible conflict. <br /><br />Let us also not forget that the Russian-Speaking , ethnic Russian (implanted mainly by Stalin as a 'loyal' population infusion ) population of the industrial heartland Donbas region really ARE an oppressed minority. The Right Wing coup of the Maidan uprising led immediately to the Ukranian Parliament robbing Russian of its place as the second language of Ukraine, as crude Ukrainian nationalism took hold . It was the total failure of the Ukrainian government to implement their required key part of the two Minsk Agreements - to implement the promise to fully recognise the Donbas separatist region semi autonomous status which has led to years of ongoing trench warfare, NOT Russian intransigence. Only the Ukrainian government could implement this key part of the Minsk Agreements - but they didn't - and supported instead the Nazi militias who have attacked the Donbas separatist region ever since. . <br /><br />The Liberal Left, as ever, has utterly capitulated to the skewed, self-serving, narrative of the MSM , without using socialist analysis to understand that there are no pristine 'good guys' here, , plenty of innocent civilian casualties of course, but at core, rival capitalist blocs on each side , with their competitive oligarchs (and the increasing facade democracy status of Western states does really unveil the Western capitalist class as just another group of oligarchs), coming to blows in a way highly reminiscent of the path to global war in 1914. And, as in 1914, the supposed 'Left' are mainly lining up behind their own capitalist class, and buying into the skewed, misleading, narrative 'our' capitalist class are weaving every day. One slip,(trying to set up a 'No Fly Zone' for instance, as our crazy Tory Right Wingers want) and we will end up in a full-on nuclear exchange with that unstable gangster state, Putin's Russia. . Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-2451425978089683802022-03-02T07:31:25.472+00:002022-03-02T07:31:25.472+00:00All correct except the phrase "EU-NATO client...All correct except the phrase "EU-NATO client state".<br /><br />Ukraine is an independent nation and the principle job of the left is to assert the right of nations to self determination and to oppose imperialism.<br /><br />Ukraine is nor more a EU-NATO client state than France or Germany. They have the same right to join, or not, any trading bloc they want as does Italy or Poland.<br /><br />"EU-NATO client state" is the sort of word play coming out of the Stop The War group and those that want to vacillate over opposition to Putin. Grahamnoreply@blogger.com