Reddebrek's bowl of Saccharine Grumblings

Good News Everyone!

2012-01-25T19:55:00.001Z

Well I've done it I’ve sold out to the man..... I mean found a long term job. Since completing my Degree course at Hull University back in July I've been looking for work. I was able to get some short term work in between then and now though but emphasis was very much on the word short. And much of my time went into retraining you know IT courses, Voluntary work, I even took up boxing and am currently learning German, you know cast a wide net in case I had to fall back on my abnormally large fists, or knack for stereotypical accents. Since the very first things to be cut in ConDem budget where all the main hirers for my degree course, I was pretty much trapped in Limbo for awhile.

Still water under the bridge, the job I now have is writer, (big shake up I'm sure you'll agree) specifically for a new website Mobbly.com I'm mainly doing product reviews of video games at the moment but its early days and the higher ups are interested in expanding into current affairs and other areas once established so I live in hope. There a nice bunch communications have been pleasant and the hours reasonable. So depending on how it works this place could either get less or more active.

I want to keep both separate really since there not really related, but my twitter which I set up purely as a way to keep readers updated will see a bit of activity from both, I don't really use twitter enough to justify two accounts. I understand I'm not the best writer out there (though do feel free to disagree with me on this :) but the sites a diverse bunch and if you like games, music or sport or cars and more then you should check it out.

Remember this the more you visit the site, the more money I make, I mean the greater the plurality of information source.... which will err weaken the monopoly of information at the heart of`the struggle of human emancipation, yeah lets go with option number two.

Also lets celebrate with a song, what could be more appropriate then "Happy Worker"

Now that's a sentiment I can get behind!

Maoist India: The Search for Economic Justice

2012-01-21T22:17:00.000Z

Several months ago in my last post about India you may recall that I called it strange how by all accounts a dangerous rebellionin India a nation with both the fastest growing economy and population should go almost unnoticed while serious but less potentially world changing ones in Jammu and Kashmir often get a few pieces in the news papers and a talky bit on the evening news if only when violence flairs up. Hell Indian Islamic and Hindu Terrorism often get write ups, and terrorism is the weapon of the small and weak fringe elements.

Well it really irked me this seeming blackout of an important international affairs story, so I did some digging to find some more information. I found a few more blogs and a couple of articles by more mainstream news sites but very much in the "also today" snippets almost like a montage of international text. I also found a 30 minute (give or take a few seconds) by who else but Free Speech Radio News. Its from 2009 and it focuses on one part of India and the "Red Corridor" the Bastar forests. The forests of Bastar are the Naxalites most entrenched area so the documentary asked why is that? Well the local population for the most part support them which is an absolute necessity for a Guerilla movement. Ernesto "Che" Guevara said this separates a Guerilla from a bandit in his Guerilla Warfare "The Guerilla fighter counts on the full support of the people. This is an indispensable condition"(1).

The documentary asks why that is, why don't the police or local government have that special place in there peoples hearts?

I should point out that I am the one who made this video (which explains the poor job) I've been making videos of FSRN's radio broadcasts in my spare time for a few months now, in order to both practice my editing skills and take another step or two in Online Activism, by practising what's called Guerilla advertising.

"In most places around India, Maoists are an underground hit and run force... but in Central India's Bastar forests, they're well-entrenched. Join us today for an encore presentation of "Maoist India, the search for economic justice."

As I've mentioned I've also found a few more blogs in addition to Naxal Revolution, here they are Naxalite Rage and Naxal War. Hope you find this information useful.

1: Chapter One, page 16

Get Ready for the Hive Mind: The Proliferation of Drone Warfare

2012-01-16T15:55:00.001Z

As we progress through the 21st Century and since Al-Qaeda and its Islamic knockoffs and fellow travellers have failed to allow the big arms contractors to kick off a new Cold War scale arms spending spree, the future of warfare looks to have an even heavier focus on cutting costs, both in terms of finances and politically by reducing the number of casualties (for us the "good guys" of course, the more deaths inflicted on the evil barbarians the better).

Behold the entire border area can be considered a large military testing range for the weapons of the future.

The most prolific "revolution" is probably going to be in the use of Drone devices as they have provided a number of loopholes for the Obama Administration in its continuation of the Afghan War, especially on the North West Frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Though Drone strikes where extremely controversial from the start less troublesome then using fighter jets and helicopter gunships, especially when civilians were killed. If a human had been behind the trigger then the US would have to either turn over there personnel for prosecution in a foreign court (unthinkable) or conduct disciplinary hearings or even a full court martial to not risk another hit in the court of world opinion which could collapse morale, after all they would be doing what they were trained for.

Or I guess not World Opinion can go to hell, "the corps looks after its own" even if that means you'll all hang together in the end.

Of course Drones where still abit risky and it looks like once Pakistani soldiers were killed (remember who really has top billing in Pakistan's Political theatre) Islamabad had reached its final straw.

"In Pakistan, the government continues to ban the NATO supply route into Afghanistan following a deadly attack that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers. While government leaders negotiate a solution to the deadly us policies in the region, many local workers have found themselves without a job. The NATO shutdown has exposed how the u-s war machine makes local people dependent on it for wages. Catherine Komp reads for our reporter in Pakistan, who met some of the NATO drivers who are out of work."

But the Obama administration is full speed ahead for drone production with the added flavour of unrestricted Mercenary groups like Blackwater AKA Xe Services AKA Acadami AKA the guys so brutal and uncaring they permanently wrecked the chance for America to get a permanent official troop presence in Iraq after making "immunity" a toxic word.

"Washington had wanted to keep a small training and counter-terrorism presence in Iraq, but US officials were unable to strike a deal with Baghdad on legal issues including immunity for troops."

"President Barack Obama and Pentagon officials unveiled a proposal this morning to shift the US defense strategy over the next decade. Though the details won’t be finalized for another few weeks, the plan is designed to save more than a trillion dollars, and move away from long-term, on-the-ground occupations. But antiwar activists and national security experts are concerned about increased drone warfare, the planned build-up in the Pacific, and the unchecked increase of private defense contractors. FSRN’s Alice Ollstein reports from Washington."

And to think that there's a large constituency of Americans (impossible to tell how big they could just be using alternative accounts) where Obama is considered a bleeding heart Liberal Dove, though to be fair that group overlaps considerably with the group advancing the theory that hes a secret Muslim, or still born in an evil foreign land laughable considering even the "radical" fringe of the Republicans are now sitting that wild goose chase out.

But its not just Muslim tribes men who have to watch out for these drones -or fighting machines as I like to call them- we in the civilised West have to watch out for them.
From FSRN.

"The United States’ use of drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other nations overseas has drawn much criticism for civilian deaths and a lack of accountability, but even less is known about the drones used within US borders. The digital privacy advocate Electronic Frontier Foundation is trying to change that, by suing the Department of Transportation for failing to disclose who is operating the drones domestically and how they are being used. FSRN's Alice Ollstein reports from Washington."

And its not just the uncoof Yanks to blame, us sophisticated moderation loving Europeans are in on the act too. Especially France.

From Dassault the company that brought Gaddafi the Mirage Jet, its sleek it sexy and you wont know its there until the sound of the missile hurtling towards you blowsout your eardrums.

Now of course the fact that police forces are getting a bunch of shiny new toys for surveillance makes me naturally unnerved as I am familiar with the use and abuse of the current generation of monitoring gadgets employed by the thin blue line. But practically speaking it does make sense in certain context to use mini surveillance drones. But it really needs to be subject to monitoring and scrutiny to make sure that A: it never goes beyond tracking and spying, and B: Its only used against the genuine criminal element (traffickers, organised gangs, missing persons investigations etc.) and not against the annoying enviro hippies, or political unpopular movements and subversives. Becuase once that line is crossed its not long before

This

Turns into this.

Look at it, its like a shiny little hummingbird, only this bird has no soul.

Of course the proliferation of war, more deaths and infringing on civil liberties are short term problems. As the technology gets more advanced, the Drones more sophisticated and capable of linking with each other then its only a matter of time before they rise up and start a war against mankind itself. Don't believe me? just read any science fiction book ever made by any author in any language about what happens when machines replace soldiers on the battlefield, Every Single Time. It may take them awhile but that just means we'll be more complacent about it and less prepared when the death strike comes. I mean its not like the three laws will save us the whole point of these machines is to break the first one "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."

You want further proof? Skynet the villainous master computer from the Terminator films that started a nuclear war and enslaved humanity? well its real.

This is what I see every time I go to sleep, and it could very easily become our future. You have been warned Humanity do what you will with this message, but you've been warned.

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

2012-01-16T15:15:00.008Z

I know Its a bit late (but I'm not American and the day passes us by, besides better late then never) so I thought a quick reposting of some interesting videos about the late champion of equality, was in order.

A discussion about Martin Luther King's Ideals and hidden radical streak that has often been forgotten in the favour of the image of the benign fatherly figure who preached moderation tolerance and extreme patience.

The ground-breaking speech denouncing the evils of the Vietnam war, this marked the end of the White Liberal love affair with his civil rights campaigns. Many including the President Lyndon Baines Johnson viewed King's opposition to the war to be a betrayal. Apparently blacks should have the right to vote in all 50 states and be allowed to sit in any vacant seat on a bus but how dare they develop and practice there independent moral code and political agenda.

Its my personal favourite but I should warn you there are graphic image of injury and death in the video.

And finally we have another commentary on the core of King's radical beliefs and an examination of the phenomena of MLK day and its paradoxical role of both giving more attention to the man whilst obscuring many parts of his original message and actions.
This by Mumia Abu Jamal former Black Panther member and Death Row inmate. So he knows what constitues a radical of the Black Liberation Movement.

He was gunned down at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee on the 4th of April 1968. He was in the town to give support to a local Black Sanitation workers during there strike, over unfair pay and conditions. He publicly stated Racism was one of the Triumvirate of Evils with Militarism and Capitalism. His killer James Earl Ray was a white supremacist whom idolised Ian Smith and considered applying for immigration to the white settler run Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) the day before his murder his plane to Memphis was delayed due to a bomb threat, when he did make it to Memphis he made his last speech the "I've been to the Mountaintop"

"Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively...the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool it. We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."

The Iron Lady: Sports more then a little Rust

2012-01-09T09:52:00.001Z

"The Lady Doth Screech too Much"

I recently went to the pictures and saw the Iron Lady(1), and if you read just a single word of this blog before it will not surprise to learn that I didn't like it. But not for the reasons you're probably thinking of (unless of course you have also seen the film then you'll probably have a good idea).

I am actual quite capable of enjoying films either for or about people and groups I detest utterly if they do a good job. For example two of my favourite films are Downfall and Richard III by Ian Mckellen and I am about as far from both there lead characters politically as you can get.

No I didn't like this film because it simply wasn't very well made. Even if they had called the film "Donkey Jacket" and made it about Michael Foot Id still be able to recycle much of this review with just a few find and replaces.

But first lets start with the good things.

The Pro(gressives:)

Acting
Acting for the most part barring the flashbacks was excellent. Meryl Streep nailed the appearance, mannerisms attitude and voice of Lady T. In fact the voice was so good that it reminded me of the Spitting Image Puppet (pictured). Jim Broadbent was again fantastic as older Dennis, in fact he was so good that I genuinely looked forward to seeing him come back on screen for another minute or so. To put that in perspective for those who haven't had the pleasure of the real Dennis Thatcher, he was basically a drunken bigot without any responsibility or sense to keep his views and temper moderated or private, if you were someone or something he didn't like (which was most people) a flurry of insults would be hurled in your direction, he was in short nothing more then a vile little man.

Richard E. Grant made the most of his small role as Hesseltine, his very eyes oozed smarm, slime and ambition. And Anthony Head played Geoffrey Howe the long suffering Cabinet Minister (he had many positions over her ten years) comes of like a school boy with self esteem issues that's finally worn out the patience of his school teacher, I really felt sorry for him in his few scenes as he was effectively bullied and humiliated publicly. To quote a random Tory extra "I wouldn't treat my gamekeeper the way she treated him".

And Michael Pennington was very believable as Michael Foot I wouldn't be surprised if his House of Commons debate dialogue was an actual quotation, to bad he has only one speaking scene.

And the well thats mostly it, I liked the first scenes at the beginning showing Thatcher trying to cope with Alzheimers and living with a world that has completely moved on, and before you start no it wasn't because of Schadenfreude but because it was well shot and showed an interesting look into mental illness and old age.

And now I've finished nibbling on the bread and butter its time for the main course.

The Cons(ervatives :)

Acting

Sadly the acting wasn't uniformly good.In particular Young Thatcher and Young Dennis segments were excruciating. It may surprise some that Thatcher was a women and the 1950's Conservative party wasn't exactly a hot house of Women's liberation, she was also the daughter of a grocer from Grantham which in the eyes of the Tory hierarchy made here a prole as well as a fishwife. So of course scenes involving her past take the obvious route of showing her as the outsider and underdog fighting against ignorance and the underestimation of her abilities, the problem? the acctress comes across as shrill and has that curious demanour that screams "I am both absolutely sure of may talents and yet completely terrified about the possibility that I may be wrong" or to put it another way she comes across as someone who intellectually knows her background shouldn't matter but emotionally isn't sure. It doesn't help that the first scene meant to establish her bravery is her rushing out during a German Air raid to cover up some butter. Oh and the last time we see Young T is when she agrees to marry rich upper-class Dennis effectively removing most of the stigma via associations of her man (take note feminists).

Young Dennis is even worse. His voice is constantly.... sulky bordering on just holding back the tears and he makes really weird faces, I simply can't explain it but he "mugs" to the camera like a pantomime caricature, and exaggerates his features like well a Spitting Image puppet....

"Artistry"

The film also has that infuriating habit that some directors fresh out of film school fall into, and that is gratuitous "symbolism". You know things like playing opera over say a scene of a beating because thats what Kubrick did in Clockwork Orange, or splicing in reaction shorts during an argument between two characters even though its jarring, or placing a "magical" moment in a film that otherwise is down to earth and realistic? well this film is loaded with that. Many scenes also involve actors forcing drama and tension by speaking slightly quicker then normal and in constantly grave tones like there telling you your teenage son was speeding and was nearly (not quite but it was terribly close) killed. It also had this odd audio trick where by dialogue spoken through a radio or telly report would come from only one speaker on the left or on the right in the back that constantly annoyed me and took me out of the immersion.

To help you grasp just how loaded with over the top edits, splices and effects were just after the Falklands scenes end and we get the victory montage, my cinema's audio cut out and it wasn't until they went to Thatcher giving a speech that I was sure this wasn't another of the films audio show off's. In fact much of the films "this is important this is complex" moments where so poorly handled they came across as comedic I laughed a lot in this film mostly because of the films incompetence.

Historical Revisionism

Another thing that really bugs me is that the film for no discernible reason puts several events in the wrong order. When I first heard about this from a friend I thought they meant since the film is a non linear serious of flashbacks an reminisces that they showed events in the wrong order because she remembered them in that order. Nope, the Miners strike apparently took place before the Falklands war which is odd given that the strike was in 84-5 and the war over in 82. There really is no reason for this, the strike reference isn't even its own segment its part of a montage of dissent with other protests rallies and riots, so it couldn't have been that they were stuck looking for negatives, in 1981 alone there was the Brixton riot, the Toxteth riot, the Moss Side riot, the Chapeltown riot and the Handsworth riot. And those were just the riots, there were plenty of anti-unemployment marches, Trade Union pickets and CND rallies that also turned violent too. I think the answer is again incompetence, they needed to include the Miners strike because it was the most infamous episode of the Thatcher years and best illustrates the divisive nature of her Britain but any substantial look at the Strike in particular its "policing" would be indefensible and conflict with the weakly positive message of the film. And any attempt to white wash the event would of created a storm of controversy that the makers don't want so lets to shove it in the middle somewhere.

Unintentional Comedy
For me what really nails the lid of the coffin shut was that even the things I liked were clearly not intentional. Even the fine acting condemns the overall film. If you were to edit all of Jim Broadbents scenes together and post it to youtube as a fake trailer for the "New Satirical Comedy the Iron Lady" I and a lot of people would believe it was genuinely the direction the film was going to. For context (spoiler alert) Dennis is of course dead which older Dennis played by Broadbent is part of Maggie's demented hallucinations. And for some reason it was decided that Jim should play Dennis as a sort of attention seeking clown who often engages in slapstick physical humour (yes I am serious) which is why I enjoyed watching him. Again I don't know why they decided this, Jim Broadbent is perfectly capable of playing a smug right wing hanger on in love with power just look at his portrayal of the Duke of Buckingham in Richard III for proof of that.

Another source of frequent amusement was the aforementioned inept use of arty tricks, the source of this one is clear, poor execution. I'm not joking when about 50% of the "clever" scenes in the film out of context could be placed in a sketch show with little adjustment.

In Conclusion I give the film One out of Five on the Scargill scale.

1: Incidentally the film was made by the now defunct UK Film Council, quite amusing to me (in a bitter way) given that the body was one of the first for the chop when Cameron and Clegg came to power.

FBI Update Rape Definition to Include Male Victims and Date Rape

2012-01-07T11:18:00.003Z

From FSRN

"The Department of Justice announced this morning that it is expanding the FBI’s definition of rape, which has been on the books since 1929. For the first time, the FBI’s statistics will include people of any gender, instances of date rape and statutory rape, and rape with an object. Women’s rights advocates -- who have long pushed for the move – say the revised definition will lead to a more accurate accounting of incidents of rape, but that it still must be accompanied by a cultural shift, so that more rape survivors come forward and report the crime. FSRN’s Alice Ollstein reports from Washington."

I thought the recent news that the Feds have finally updated there absurdly narrow definition of rape (man on woman and must involve vaginal penetration) for a couple of reasons. First I am a supporter of women's rights, sexual equality and an opponent of sexual violence and this story covers all three of those topics.

And Given that Feminists on the internet have a reputation so poor you'd be forgiving for thinking the word was the name of some cult of crazy lesbians wishing to make males a slave race(1). So I felt publicising this story about a Feminist lead campaign that had include "male victims" as one of its main recommendations for correction, runs counter to the stereotype of "Millie Tant" nagging for special treatment.

With luck initiatives like this will not only make for a more accurate recording of Sexual violence but also pressure law enforcement to take it more seriously and reduce (fingers crossed) the culture of victim blaming. And hopefully open up a space for a serious discussion about male victimisation which is extremely under reported around the world.

In Medieval France there was a man who was physically abused by his wife, when this became public knowledge he was mocked and forced to ride backwards on a Donkey through the village so all his neighbours could come and ridicule him. And given the abundance of jokes with dropping soap in the shower in prison, its questionable if we have made much any progress in this regard.

1: And before you say anything I have actually seen websites and comments that say just that and no they weren't joking, and they were sane compared to a few others.

German Tank Treads to Crush Arab Dissent

2012-01-05T09:42:00.011Z

It seems Angela Merkel is looking to boost the waning German (and by extension the rest of Europes) economies by signing some lucrative arms export contracts to the lifelong friends of both the West and Middle East moderates and Democracy Saudi Arabia.

A petition by Avaaz to stop this appalling attempt to make a quick euro.

"While brave people across the Arab world oust dictators, Merkel is about to supply Saudi despots with powerful Leopard battle tanks, optimized for clearing crowds and fighting protesters in urban areas – unless public pressure can stop the plan.

Germany is not legally allowed to send weapons of war to crisis regions, and certainly not to Saudi Arabia, which sends tanks to crush democracy protests in Bahrain. But Merkel is about to cave to the powerful arms lobby -- a decision that split the government, pitting her against ministers and CDU leaders. Our outcry now can drown out arms dealers and stop this deal."

Emphasis mine.

The Tank in question:

"the Leopard 2, was first produced in 1979 and is in service with the armies of Austria, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain and Turkey, with over 3,200 produced.

A new smoothbore gun, the 120mm L55 Gun, was developed by Rheinmetall Waffe Munition of Ratingen, Germany to replace the shorter 120mm L44 smoothbore tankgun on the Leopard 2. The extension of the barrel length from calibre length 44 to calibre length 55 results in a greater portion of the available energy in the barrel being converted into projectile velocity increasing the range and armour penetration.

The L55 smoothbore gun, equipped with a thermal sleeve, a fume extractor and a muzzle reference system, is compatible with current 120mm ammunition and new high penetration ammunition.

As a result of tactical requirements Rheinmetall Waffe Munition developed the improved kinetic energy ammunition known as LKE 2 DM53. With the DM53 round the L55 gun can fire to a range of 5,000m. The effect of the kinetic energy projectile on an enemy target is achieved by 1) the penetrator length and projectile mass and the impact velocity and 2) the interaction between the projectile and the target."

Should you for some reason doubt the Saudi Monarchies enthusiasm for relying on force to crush dissent (then you really do need to look up the Kingdom) then allow me to remind you of another oft overshadowed sideshow in the Arab Spring Bahrain. Bahrain quickly followed the lead of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen and so mass protests against its Monarch and the legal discrimination of its majority Shia population(1) Bahrain despite its small size was and is a flashpoint in Middle Eastern tensions the US 5th Fleet is based there, the population is majority Shia, and there's this curious belief in the middle east and the US government that all Shia must be fifth columnists for Iran. And of course the Monarchy is Sunni and the government as well as the wealthy elite are made up of Sunni's who have very close ties to Saudi Arabia run by a Sunni Arab family very paranoid of the Shia Persians in Tehran "Cut the Head off the Serpent". Because of that they leapt at the change to send military and police units to Bahrain and involved themselves in violent clashes with the protesters.

Yes this is an American Abrams being piloted by a Saudi Tank crew.

Now Saudi Arabia already has extensive contracts with Western arms companies giving them access to a lot of expensive toyssee here. Its good to know the government and business elites in the "civilised" western world care so much about the principles of free speech and the right to protest.

Now stopping the sale of Leopard Tanks won't touch the paint on the weapons systems they already have, it is a step in the right direction. And given that the only armoured vehicles the Saudi state military has produced for itself aren't exactly on an even footing with BAE or Lockheed Martin. So cutting them off from there foreign toys would be a very useful goal to give the Saudi people some breathing room to decide for themselves what to do about there government.

The Panhard AML-60/90 and this was originally French.

The Al-Fahd

I mean despite being ugly those two are perfectly capable of dishing out violence, but its not on the same scale as the latest model Abrams, Challenger or T90, and there absence from the streets of Riyadh would show the regime is isolated and not as capable as it once was to lash out.

1: Unless you count the migrant workers which Bahrain like other Gulf States has in vast quantities as a source of cheap labour.

Saddam and the Iraq War, an Iraqi Communist Perspective

2012-01-04T10:02:00.001Z

I find this interview with the oft forgotten Iraqi Communist Party, get enlightening. Iraq has been so dominated by first Saddam and now the Sunni vs Shia Sectarian rift with Kurds popping up for an occasional skirmish that the role of non sectarian left wing groups in Iraqi politics especially in opposition a curious oversight.Arguably this blackout extends even to the only recurring coverage Communism in Iraq gets is the brief blips the Kurdish Workers Party PKK gets when it carries out attacks on the Turkish military in response to the oppression of the Kurdish minority in Turkey. And even then there usually just name checked or called Kurdish extremists/terrorists.

For anyone interested in what actual Iraqi's have to say about there nation and its future is well worth a watch, well done to the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) for arranging the interview, though I suppose I should point out that for those who don't know the CPB is the group that runs the Morning Star, thats runs not owns mind, the People's Press Society a cooperative owns it.

Kim Jong-Un Promises Continuity in North Korea's Policies

2012-01-02T20:35:00.000Z

Well what better way to kick of the New Year(1) then with a update on one of last years last stories?

From FSRN

"In the wake of the funeral for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, North Korea said the world should not expect change in its leadership style or policies. In the first formal policy message since Kim Jong Il’s death earlier this month, North Korea condemned South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak and affirmed the leadership of Kim Jong Un, who was officially declared supreme leader yesterday in a ceremony in Pyongyang. We’re joined by Christine Ahn, executive director of the Korea Policy Institute. She's been to North Korea several times."

In summary given that the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea's third leader shares the same family name as his two predecessors, the announcement that he and the leadership of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK)(2) are going to stay on the course set for them by Jong Il shouldn't come as a surprise. Even if Jong Un had like his elder brother Nam proven unworthy of the mantle of Leadership and was forced to look outside the family its doubtful much would have changed. Despite the popular need to personalise regimes particularly Dictatorships (though those ego stroking cults of personality don't help matters) its easy to forget that it takes a lot of manpower to run a program of state control. In North Korea not only do we have the Kim' but we also have the WKP which is the nations supreme decision maker as its Constitution makes clear
"Article 11. The DPRK shall carry out all its activities under the leadership of the WPK." And the WPK is further supported by the other two parties in a "United Front" and a state controlled Trade Union Movement(3).

The Flag of the Workers Party, representing the organisation that underpins North Korean society, just not in the way its designer intended.

And of course we can't forget North Korea's most (In)famous sector its Military; in particular the Korean People's Army Ground Forces(Worlds fourth largest army)

And the Artillery Guidance Bureau (Missile Command)

As well as raising tensions and bargaining for aid this rocket(Ro-Dong) is North Korea's most lucrative export.

Of course its natural for an oppressor to want to build a strong military and keep its officers sweet but North Korea takes it a few steps further then most tin pot Dictatorships. Since the death of Kim Il-Sung and the end of the Cold War North Korea has been slowly but surely chucking out every reference to Communism, Marx and Lenin and replacing them with references to the nation and Korean People and Race. In fact its latest Constitution adopted in 2009 has no mention of the M or C word, though it is still peppered liberally with mentions of Socialism the more popular buzz words in Pyongyang are Juche (which roughly translates to self reliance or Autarky) and Songun (Military First) self reliance is ideologically speaking quite vague and could fit in with many political movements, but Songun is much more explicit. It makes North Korea a De-facto Stratocracy like Burma and again reaffirms the link between the military and political leadership.

Kim Jong Il despite working in North Korea's Propaganda Industry for many years, highest rank before his father died was Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and had little experience at the highest levels of the WKP making the transition from party to military Dictatorship a natural choice especially given the turmoil of the 90's famine. And Kim Jong-Un's only posting of note before succession was as a General in the KPA in fact his only title until recently was "Young General" so any return to civilian rule seems unlikely.

However I think Christine Ahn has a good point in regards to the possibility of change in regards to other nations dealings with the regime. Since Kim Jong Il was vilified to such a degree (rightly in my opinion though in many cases people were quick to embrace out of context stories and inaccurate information) that it made any meaningful dialogue or relationship with him almost unthinkable. Again that is perfectly understandable to spend all those years exposing the repression over the DMZ only to suddenly embrace him because he was willing to do a deal or made pleasant sounding regrets would have been unthinkable. But sadly despite the impression North Korea is not an isolated little corner we could afford to ignore. Not only does it have the military capabilities to threaten and at least damage its neighbours, but even if it were to peacefully collapse the humanitarian crisis it would create for both China and South Korea not to mention the trauma of re-unifying to completely different systems at polar opposites of living standards and structure would have a major impact on the region and the world.

The alternative to repairing relations with North Korea are sanctions which due to the weak economic structure mean severe deprivation and suffering for the Korean people, or another invasion and given the track record of that in just the 21st century alone its probably not even worth mentioning why that shouldn't be "on the table".

(1) In North Korea the new year isn't until the 15th of April since they've modified there calender to incorporate the birth of Kim Il-Sung in 1912, while odd the practice does have precedent in Korean history as well as in neighbouring China and Japan.
(2) There are two other political parties in the DPRK, the Social Democratic Party, and the Chondoist Chongu Party, however they are both part of the "Fatherland Front" run by the WKP and have questionable independence. Social Democracy shouldn't need and explanation, but Chondo might, in English it roughly translates to "Party of the Young Friends of the Heavenly Way" and is in practice a party built around the Korean Chondogyo religion. So I supposed a bit like the Muslim Brotherhood or Christian Democrats.
(3) To me the most convincing argument for a strong independent Trade Union Movement is the fact that every Despot and Oligarchy whether on the Left or the Right has sought to crush/outlaw/or Co-opt workers organisations.

This Christmas Give the World a Gift That Truly Will Keep On Giving

2011-12-22T13:10:00.001Z

If you've been following this little blog of mine (thank you for that) then you'll no doubt be aware that one of the biggest and never ending sources of irritation to me is that the Mainstream Media (MSM) whether Corporate or State is so lacklustre. Whether incompetence or deliberate policy I've come to find depressingly little accurate information in the papers and the news channels. Hell many times to me it seems like someone high up the Journo food chain is deliberately withholding information that is very important or at least potentially very important, like a long running Peasant Revolt in India.

There are a couple of exceptions, the BBC documentary wing can and still does commission and broadcast programs made with some investigative journalism and occasionally offer something against the grain of the usual wisdom were spoon fed. And theres BBC Four's World News Today which not only covers important stories from around the world but will also instead of just summarising the latest development it'll also actually make an attempt to explain the context of the story whose on which side and why they're there and what the future will hold. Channel Four and its sister More Four will also have some intelligent discussions and documentaries from time to time.

And of course theres my long standing love affair with the Socialist Daily Morning Star (that's the Morning not Daily Star).

Many who feel the same way as I do have moved on, unfortunately the greener pastures are often the result of fresh paint rather then ethical tending. What am I talking about with that tortured allusion? well I'm talking about the moving from Western media to its main competitors, non western state run or funded news services, like Russia Today, Press TV, Al-Jazeera and CCTV. Now theres nothing wrong with vary your sources of information far from it thats a mature and healthy thing to do. The problem I have is that so many of there new audiences seem to have become so jaded with the poor standards of western news that they'll happily embrace any opposition and be blind to its failings.

Services like Russia Today, and Press TV are good at digging up dirt about the West, however they are even worse apologist (hell they don't actually apologise but you get my meaning) for there paymasters in Tehran and Moscow. These governments are not exactly soft and delicate. For example I have on Press TV seen coverage of Trade union struggles, you know strikes and worries that even more repressive legislation will come into effect, and thats good however I have not seen much coverage of the much worse repression that Trade Unionists in Iran. Which from my support of Labour rights sites like Labourstart I know includes imprisonment assault, death threats wholesale banning etc. And thats not even mentioning the hypocrisy of being sympathetic to UK civil liberties organisations when your pay check is written by the executers of Atheists and Gays.

Russia Today is on balance better then Press TV if only because the Russian government hasn't committed such extreme crimes against its own people. However it is still very much a United Russia rubber stamp outfit. During the Presidential elections I was shocked how brazen they were being, they aired Medvedev's speeches in full several times, whereas the opposition's were routinely cut to a few sound bites. Furthermore the RT teams "analysis" was to ask if UR's platform would be popular, the short answer? yes. Whilst for the other candidates they would question there policies as just absurd and then mock there parties, the CPRF where an old mans club, the liberal (not liberal democrat) candidate was a weird kook wasting there time etc. They also refuse to cover any opposition groups in detail only cutting to them to dispute there claims (often with little evidence).

The point I'm laboriously trying to get at here is that if we really do won't to see the back of the monopoly on information are most important resource after water food and shelter is that we on the "radical" alternatives wing should make a concerted effort to back as much truly independent news sources as possible.

There are some very good sources of information out there however in order to really challenge the MSM stranglehold on the worlds political discourse they require financial support to keep spreading the word. I feel its only fair to state that every time I've advertised donation or funding links on this blog its been for things I myself have already contributed to (another nagging sore of mine is seeing self satisfied celebs touting for donations from the proletarian masses while they give proportionally nothing and in some cases actually get a wage for the pot shaking) myself as I think it would be hypocritical to persuade/pressure others to give if I haven't.

A couple of reasons why you should support the Real News Network from its Big Boss Paul Jay.

And for those who like Radio I can recommend the non-profit group Free Speech Radio News (FSRN for short). This station was born out of a strike at another radio station when the staff objected to censorship imposed on them by the Board of directors. That was in 2000 giving the group of global freelancers over ten years of independence.

Like with Real News I've embedded more then a few videos of there work but if you'd like a sample of why this group is worthy of support here you go.

Report on the ongoing violence in Syria.

And a special documentary on the devastation being wreaked in Mexico as the War on Drugs continues.

Well thats it for me (probably.... maybe) see you year, Merry Christmas to one and to all good day.

The Kim is Dead, Long Live the Kim!

2011-12-19T07:07:00.010Z

How North Koreans saw him.

Yes its true, I was a bit sceptical myself given that this wasn't the first time I've seen "Kim Jong Il Deceased" or "North Korean Leader Passes away" since his stroke in 2008, and his calender of public apperances got a bit scarce. But this time it was confirmed by the North Korean Government and News Agency though not by its English language website which at time of writting has a standard Congratulations to the new President of Tunisia as its latest story, but to be fair it will take awhile for a translation and to see if there any further developments. The Dear Leader of the Korean People has passed away aged 69, ending his 17 year reign that began in 1994 inauspiciously with a very severe famine that killed an estimated 2 million and like the famine that swept through Ethiopia in the 89's came to dominate the International communities view of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea(1) a constantly starving police state with a large military and demigod leader.

From an academic point of view I'm fascinated by North Korea, and I wonder what those in the future will make of the hermit state. It was like the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) more commonly known as East Germany was carved up out of the Cold War that was starting to get into gear by the late 1940's. And as such was officially a Socialist state ruled by the Marxist-Leninist(2) Korean Workers Party. Somehow it seems to have turned into a Quasi- Monarchy and Quasi-Theocratic state -if the rumours about the two Kim's divinity are believed by his people- fully embracing Nationalism; its guiding principle literally translates as self reliance. There is a bit of a contradiction there.

Now of course just because a new head of government or state happens to be the Child of the previous leader doesn't necessarily mean the system is a Monarchy, it could be a coincidence and they happen to be the most if not qualified then acceptable candidate available. For example in England after Oliver Cromwell died the alliance between the parliament and army held power settled on replacing the first Republican leader with.......his son Richard. However given that Kim Il Sung began grooming his son Jong Il for leadership to replace him before his death, and that Jong Il was preparing to do the same with his third son Kim Jong Un

"All party members, military men and the public should faithfully follow the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-un and protect and further strengthen the unified front of the party, military and the public," the news agency said.

its hard to claim that this is one of those wacky coincidences. Oh and if your wondering why the third child is being chosen over the other two, something quite unusual and taboo in the world of hereditary succession it might have something to do with the eldest Kim Jong Nam being caught illegally entering Japan in 2001, supposedly because he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland though according to some spent most of his time Korean nightclubs and Japanese brothels

"In 2001, Kim Jong-nam and his entourage, bedecked in diamond-encrusted Rolex watches and toting Louis Vuitton bags, were detained at Narita airport, reportedly en route to Tokyo Disneyland. Kim had attempted to enter the country on a forged Dominican Republic passport, using the Chinese name Pang Xiong - Fat Bear. Subsequent investigations revealed that this was not his first foray into Japan. Apparently he entered the country at least three times in late 2000. Indeed, a hostess at the exclusive gentlemen's club Soapland in Tokyo's Yoshiwara district remembered Kim's US$350-per-hour visits. She also recalls a dragon tattoo on Kim's back - tattoos are a taboo in Confucian society as they are seen to be a desecration of the body. Still today in South Korea, men with tattoos usually are thought to be members of criminal gangs."

Ignoring the scummy nature of what he did, the fact he was willing to even consider illegally entering an "enemy" nation even if he did just want to meet Mickey Mouse should disqualify him for failing the required intelligence test.

How Most of the World Saw Him

Anyway how do I personally feel about this? conflicted. I'm not sorry he is gone I am not nor never have been a supporter of North Korea. Though I wasn't thrilled with the constant possibility that the good ole Texan Sheriff of the US of A (I mean George W. Bush) stepping in and forcing the issue of transition. And I personally think the world has been too quick and willing to swallow any story about the nation that fits our preconceptions of it being an insane and constantly brutal regime that just seems to do things purely for evils sake. For example how many people know that like in China there is more then one Political Party legally operating in the North? there are three, the well known KWP the Social Democratic Party and the Chondoists a native Korean religion group, though it should also be pointed out that all those parties operate in support of the KWP and are not in opposition to it. Which is probably where my Academic interests in the nation lie, I've read several books on it including the comic by French Cartoonist Guy Delisle Pyongyang about his stay in the capital as he oversaw the outsourcing of French animation jobs first in China and now into Korea. Yes North Korea has been slowly implementing "Market Socialism"(3) for sometime now in an effort to recover from the loss of its traditional trading partners the USSR and Eastern Bloc.

Its well worth a read though Guy is a bit smug and at one point might have gotten someone in very serious trouble to soothe his own ego.

My personal favourite though has to be North Korea on the Brink by Glyn Ford the former Labour MEP. He has spent literally years interacting with both Korea's, speaks Korean well enough to know the difference between North and South dialects, and as a committed Peace Activist strongly dedicated to exposing Jingoist smears and fabrications whilst not making apologies for its quite shady and abhorrent practices. Put simply he explains the Regime not Justifies it. Doing the opposite is a trap many people fall into when trying to explain a nasty group or regime.

For example in the preamble:

"I decided to write this book because the only books I read on North Korea painted it either entirely black or totally white. It was either Socialist Utopia or part of the Axis of Evil...... Actually it is a poor beleagueered country run by an unpleaseant regime that has served its people ill. However the alternatives proffered by its enemies would serve the Koreans worse".

And theres the crux of it. This current situation is unprecedented in North Korea's short history, they have an unprepared leader at a time where both the regimes ideological and national framework and on very shaky ground. Its moved away from traditional Communist Social proclamations, it now officially supports the ideas of "Juche" (roughly translates as self reliance) and Songun (military first, essentially giving priority to the Korean People's Army in economic and social affairs) but those where Kim Jong Il's ideas and who knows what the conclusions of them will be? At least Kim Il Sung had time to prepare hid son for the job, will the Generals and Party leadership be willing to take orders from a novice because of his family name? and if not what will be the consequences? civil war? more purges? invasion of the South or from the South?

Again time will have to tell but lets hope whatever the result the peace will be maintained and a more positive regime comes out of the Kim legacy.

1: Given that Republic comes from the Latin Res Publica (The People) that essentially means the name is Peoples Power People the People of Korea, though since Korean isn't derived from Latin or Greek its possible thats only the case with the clumsy English translation.
2: Thats the fancy term for Soviet like Communist Party.
3: Thats where Communist Party run nations start opening up to Capitalist economics, but officially at least still maintain the support for socialism and Communism. The term was coined by Vietnam but pioneered by Deng Xioping's China.

Another Tragedy Hijacked by Rightwing Groups

2011-12-16T08:30:00.001Z

In Liege Belgium tragedy struck as another European city became the victim of the extremely violent and bloody actions of one disturbed individual.

The culprit Nordine Amrani aged 33.

From the BBC

"A gunman has opened fire in the centre of the Belgian city of Liege, killing at least four people and wounding 123.

The man also threw grenades into a crowded square from a rooftop before killing himself, reports say.

He was named as Nordine Amrani, aged 33. He was known to police for firearms offences. Officials said the attacker acted alone, ruling out terrorism."

Pay attention to that last sentence its important. Now as I've said previously definitions of Terrorism are pretty varied but one thing they do have one common variant a political motivation. And since Nordine Amrani was acting alone that makes less likely. I think the authorities are being a bit presumptuous by ruling it out on that ground alone. Since there was another recent case of a lone "soldier" carrying out a violent attack in a peaceful European nation, and that definitely had a political motive what with Mr Breivik's Manifesto, and explicit political targets the Labour party Youth Section.

However at present no political motive has been found in this case so this one might be better placed in the serial killer/lone gun nut category. But only time will make that clear.

What is already clear though, is just like Breivik's criminal actions in Norway there victims weren't even treated or collected before people with agenda's pounced on there trauma to use this incident as further evidence for the hysterical theories. Amrani as both his name and mugshot show is of North African/Arabic descent. Moroccan to be exact, and you can probably guess what conclusions certain people on the more extreme end of the political spectrum drew from this one. Yes they claimed this was another attack by Muslim Fundamentalists as part of a global Jihad. Hell they claimed that about the attacks in Oslo and Breivik is blonde and blue eyed and quite stereotypically Scandinavian.

So its not really surprising a Moroccan with an Arabic sounding name would also have his actions added to the bandwagon. But as with Breivik the screaming of "Jihad" were at best premature and at worst outright despicable.

From the Telegraph*

"What worried him most was to be jailed again. According to my client it was a set-up by people who wanted to harm him. Mr Amrani had a grudge against the law. He thought he had been wrongfully convicted."

Persecution complex and vague ideas about a conspiracy.

"A search last night revealed in a warehouse used by the attacker, notably to grow cannabis, the body of a woman killed by the attacker before he went to the Place St Lambert," said Cedric Visart de Bocarme, a Liegeois prosecutor."

Cannabis like all forms of mind altering substances like alcohol is against Islamic custom.

And finally.

"His family lawyer, Abdelhadi Amrani in Brussels, who is not related to the killer, said that he had grown up in foster homes after being orphaned at an early age.

Miss Amrani, the lawyer, dismissed any possible terrorist motives for the attack. "He did not feel at all Moroccan. He did not speak a word of Arabic and was not Muslim. What he said is that he felt a Belgian," she said. "He was crazy about weapons but as a collector. He felt he had not had much luck in life and felt unfairly treated by the courts. This was a 'ras-le-bol' of a tormented soul: estranged from justice, and against society."

Emphasis my own.

Oh and in Italy there was a also a shooting by one Gianluca Casseri (50) killing two and injuring two more, -they were African migrants- in the city Florence.Gianluca Casseri is a white Italian with links to far right groups (though they have distanced themselves from the man) in response the Iitalian President Giorgio Napolitano had this to say.

"Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano denounced "this blind explosion of hatred" and called on Italian authorities and society to "nip in the bud every form of intolerance and reaffirm the tradition of openness and solidarity in our country".

So it looks like we have another case of violence criminality bringing out two heads of the same beast. I personally think that to take a genuine tragedy like Leige, or Oslo and then deliberately lie about facts of these cases that don't fit the agenda being advanced in order to raise hysteria and fear to be abhorrent and shows those who engage in such practices to be intellectually and morally bankrupt.

Again I extend my condolences to the victims of both these attacks and wish the injured a speedy recovery its a shame that one person with issues and a gun can cause so much hurt.

* For those outside the UK, the Telegraph is a paper so slavishly supportive of the British Conservative Party that it has the nickname "Torygraph".

Yes Americas Palestine Stance can get Even Crazier

2011-12-14T08:19:00.000Z

Current Republican Party Presidential Candidate Frontrunner Newt Gingrich.

Wild amphibian the Greater Crested Newt in its natural habitat.

In America the Republican Party's most prominent spokespeople have of course been busy jockeying for the position of Republican Presidential candidate for the 2012 elections; to take on Barrack Obama. So far its been quite an interesting race with many candidates most of whom enjoyed the spotlight as a Conservative Prodical son -In Bachman's case Prodical daughter- before spectacularly imploding just look at Pizza magnate Herman Cain's never ending sexual harassment/affair allegations.

"Herman Cain, the wealthy former pizza man, has made Clinton look like a choirboy.

In just a few short weeks, Cain has turned the Republican nominating contest into an X-rated circus of alleged horndog behavior."

Currently the non Mitt Romney* front Runner is a man by the name of Newt Gingrich whom with the deadline for actual voting to begin coming up pretty quickly has decided to turn up the fires of insanity to drum up as much coverage and support as possible.

At a recent conference for the Jewish channel Newt made the following questionable comments.

First he states that the Palestinians are an "Invented people".

Now you might be wondering what exactly is wrong with that, after all are not all peoples and nations invented to a certain degree? the answer is yes, unfortunately thats not what Gingrich was getting at when he said that, which becomes clear when he elaborates that it is only the Palestinians who are "invented" essentially stating that they and they alone are not real people. The above video points out just how ridiculous that idea is given that Gingrich is American, one of the most artificial nations in a world full of artificial nations given that they had a war to establish themselves as there own people (early happy fourth of July!) then bought some lands outright occupied and stole (I mean settled) on countless acres taken from there current tenants went to war with there southern neighbours to nick there northern territories. Hmm you know I think I see why so many Americans like Israel so much.

Also for a good comparison of how insane Gingrich comment is take another look at the documentary about Black September I posted last month. In particular the interview with the leader of the Stern Gang (the Jewish terrorist group that fought for a state of Israel) is asked a similar question given then Prime Minister Golda Meir had made the same claim Gingrich just made. His response? "of course there a people just because Golda Meir say they aren't doesn't change that reality".

A Jewish terrorist and Israeli Nationalist is more nuanced and balanced on this issue of Palestinians then an American Christian who has no actual personal stake in the Israel Palestine conflict.

But thats not the most stupid comment he made at this debate. When asked for elaboration on his earlier statement he chose to reaffirm his stance and claim it was historically accurate (Hate to tell you Newt, but unless you became a Marxist or Anarchist and have seen the lie of the Nation... then no it is not historically accurate) and then go on to say all Palestinians are Terrorists, yes not one group, not the PLO but all Palestinians even the ones who protest and resist peacefully are bloodthirsty Terrorists. And that the possibility of a Palestinian state is unacceptable.

And the arch nemesis Obama has committed treason in all but name by aiding the Terrorists in there quest for statehood.... err by not accepting the Palestinian membership bid in the UN, constantly dis-barraging Independent Palestine initiatives and punishing international bodies that don't bend the knee to US wishes.

And these comments were met with a healthy applause. But it gets better Gingrich has been a career politician for a number of years (he was speaker of the House in the Clinton years) and as he was such a long standing senior American politician was invited to several international conferences and events in an official capacity. One of the most notable was the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and Palestine, in which not only was Newt part of the American delegation he also gave a few pointers about how the Palestinians should develop and organise such there future state. Yasser Arafat valued his keen incites so much that he happily embraced with Mr Gingrich for a big photo opportunity with both of them grinning happily.

A picture says a thousand words, in this case just one word Hypocrite a thousand times over.

* Apparently a sizeable number of Republican voters/members have a serious problem with Mitt Romney, some because of his ties to Corporate finance, others because of his chasing of current Populism leading to jarring position shifts, and others still because his a Mormon.

Intifada by Quetzal

2011-12-12T08:35:00.003Z

Quetzal the Spanish English Bilingual Chicano Rock Band was in 2009 set to attend a concert sponsored by the Israeli Consulate, however they decided to instead boycott the concert and recorded this song Intifada (Uprising, though literally in English translates to Shrugging off) in solidarity with the Palestinians as they commemorate (day of catastrophe) day on the 15th March.

Enjoy.

Firing Range

2011-12-10T20:02:00.005Z

Remember this? well I've watched a few more in my off hours and I think I've found a new favourite.

Its name translates to Firing Range, and was made in 1977 by Anatoly Petrov. Unlike other Soviet era animations this one didn't cut corners, in fact the animation style (Photographica) the characters particularly there faces look almost life like. Remember that this was all done by hand as this was several years before computers started to be used in animation anywhere in the world. It won the First Prize Yerevan, USSR in 1978 and the Official Selection of Oberhausen, Germany in 1979.

The plot is about a scientist whose built a new super weapon, a tank that can read minds. Hes developing it for some Generals of an unnamed nation (its possible that the Russian dialogue does name the country and the subtitles thought it more politic to leave it out but I don't know) they mention losing colonies and "Blacks" burning there tanks so they could be either European or South African, or a veiled reference to either.

Without giving away too much the Tank responds to fear and hatred and can defend itself from aggression. The film is an anti war film -yes really contrary to the Cold War myth of thousands of T-72's revving up in East Germany just waiting to attack the USSR was very keen on avoiding conflict, and its films and writings reflected that- lets just say the greedy warmongering Generals will find there new toy to be everything they wanted and more.

Swaziland Home of Africa's Forgotten Despot

2011-12-06T21:48:00.014Z

From yesterdays Morningstar

"If you were asked what you knew about Swaziland, what would be your response? What do you know about this small country of less than a million people located between Mozambique and South Africa?

As the Scottish Trades Union Congress delegate on a recent ACTSA visit to southern Africa, I had little knowledge of Swaziland.

What I saw in this beautiful country shocked and saddened me. Seventeen years after the overthrow of apartheid, another people in southern Africa are suffering under a brutal tyranny, relatively unnoticed by the world.

Swaziland is an absolute monarchy that has been ruled by King Mswati (pictured) since 1986.

The Forbes Rich List named him in the top 15 of the world's richest royals, with a personal fortune that is in excess of $100 million, enabling him to provide palaces and new BMWs for his 14 wives.

Three-quarters of the country's land is effectively owned by the king and administered by the local chiefs. With the government handpicked, the parliament has increased the king's budget by 60 per cent in the last two years.

According to the US government about "40 per cent of the government's workforce is allocated to security."

In stark contrast two-thirds of the people survive on less than $1.25 a day.

Swaziland has the world's highest HIV rate and half the population dies before 40.

Perhaps the saddest statistic is that one in 12 of all Swazi are orphaned children.

This is compounded by the growing economic crisis. The government is threatening to cut 7,000 jobs, pushing thousands deeper into poverty, while spending increases on the king and his friends.

The bedfellow of this poverty is political tyranny. Swaziland has the unenviable achievement of having a worse record on political rights than Zimbabwe.

Political parties are banned and it has endured a state of emergency since 1973.

Opponents of the regime are often arrested, tortured or even murdered as the main opposition is declared "terrorist" under the repressive Suppression of Terrorism Act.

Swazi NUS president Maxwell Dlamini and Musa Ngebuni of the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) are still behind bars awaiting trial following their arrest before protests held in April.

Women are subjected to horrendous levels of gender-based violence.

A 2009 survey revealed that almost a third of women and girls aged 13 to 24 had experienced sexual violence before their 18th birthday.

The law provides no protection for women from domestic violence or rape by their husbands.

The laws governing marriage ensure that women are treated as second-class citizens. Married women are denied the right to own property and widows are unable to inherit property if they are forced from their homes by their husband's relatives.

However, the people of Swaziland have continued to struggle for democracy.

The trade unions, despite their leaders being regularly arrested and harassed, have held regular strikes and protests.

Women and students have formed groups to campaign for democracy and rights and an underground pro-democracy party Pudemo was formed in 1983.

Despite constant harassment, including the arrest of one leader, Sipho Jele, who died in custody in May 2010 imprisoned for wearing a protest T-shirt, they have grown in strength.

In 2008 King Mswati held lavish celebrations costing millions of dollars to mark his 40th birthday and 40 years of independence, but the people of Swaziland responded by organising the country's biggest pro-democracy protests with 10,000 crowding the streets of the Manzini and reassembling in the capital Mbabane the next day.

The pro-democracy movement in Swaziland has called for smart sanctions, including the denial of international travel for the royal family and their lackeys, a ban on investment in companies controlled by the regime and an embargo on military sales to Swaziland.

Until now the devastating situation in Swaziland has largely gone unnoticed by the international community, but gradually more and more voices across the world are beginning to speak out.

Swaziland needs our solidarity now. The voices of the Swazi people's struggle must be heard as Swaziland is still the land of the forgotten despot.

While there we listened, humbled, as student leaders told us of the daily danger of death or imprisonment, but they left us in no doubt that they will continue to fight until Swaziland is free.

The international labour movement must support them in their continuing struggle for political and economic freedom.

In solidarity we must advance to strengthen the trade union and pro-democracy movements building upon partnerships and projects that have raised the profile and capacity-building of trade unions and civil society in Swaziland to bring about change.

Action for Southern Africa, the successor organisation to the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, is one of the few organisations campaigning for democracy and rights in solidarity with the people of Swaziland. If you want to get involved in supporting the fight for democracy in Swaziland contact ACTSA www.actsa.org"

Still its not all bad for local Swazi's as the above article mentions the police are
a good employer with 40% of the state workforce being in blue uniform and as we can see from the pictures below that the money in policing is if nothing else well spent.

I know I sound like a broken record sometimes but thank Christ for the Morning Star. The only time outside of blogs and the Star I've ever heard of Swaziland was a BBC documentary about Southern African snakes (Black Mamba's if your curious).

There is some good news,the "Arab spring" also inspired many non Arab Africans to rise up in many countries, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Malawi, and Swaziland amongst many others.

A petition on Change.org for the realise of National Union of Students President Maxwell Dlamini.
http://www.change.org/petitions/office-of-king-mswati-iii-release-political-prisoner-president-of-swazilands-nus-maxwell-dlamini#

And the E-mail section of ACTSA to the high commissioner (Swaziland is still a Commonwealth member nation despite having a worse record on political freedoms and human rights then Fiji (Membership suspended) and Zimbabwe (kicked out) which to me seems an odd omission not many people know too much about Swaziland but you'd think the men in the suits at the Commonwealth office would be aware of what goes on in a member state, and doesn't Swaziland's continued membership make the tough stance taken against Fiji and Zimbabwe and give some creditability to Robert Mugabe's claims that he and his nation are the victims of a "Neo-colonialist plot" to break his proud patriotic African regime? Surely the last thing the Commonwealth wants to do is make Mugabe look like a victim or to be seen as biased against Independent Africans?

Spot the Difference time, ones a harsh tyrant undeserving of civilised company, the others and long term friend and ally who never put a foot wrong, but which is which?

You know what makes this omission evening more galling is that its not even a case were two nations are at odds and we have to pick either the lesser evil or at least the most pragmatic option. Swaziland is one of the few nations to stick to Zimbabwe through thick and thin.

"President Mugabe praised the king’s visit, saying that it was “rare and historic”, while also mentioning that it was wonderful that the king could, “associate with ordinary people”. This is the first time that a royal has visited a farm in Zimbabwe, according to the president.

The two leaders have vowed to support each other, and have promised to work together in the future to benefit their nations."

Fortunately though the dissident networks in both nations also share a close relationship.

"We cannot leave out the Global Zimbabwe Forum who, have continued to ensure that Comrade Solomon Sox Chikohwero represents them among the throngs of pro-democracy Swazis in the streets of Mbabane, Manzini, Nhlangano, Siteki, etc."

In fact why don't we write to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Email is here info@humanrightsinitiative.org, and ask what if anything there actually doing in regards to Swaziland.

Russian Elections an Analysis

2011-12-06T19:09:00.008Z

A little late but its always best to take a day or two to let the dust settling in Elections, especially with elections in Russia.

The ballots have been counted and to not many peoples surprise United Russia the election vehicle of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev dubbed the "Party of Thieves and Liars" by opponents has retained a majority with a 49.5% voting share meaning it retains 238 Duma members out of the last Duma's 315. The new Duma has representations from the same four parties that were in it last time though the other three have increased there vote share and seat numbers. They are the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) with 19% of the vote and 92 seats (up from 57) Just/Fair Russia* 13% of the vote and 64 seats up from 38, the far right Nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (yes I'm serious thats the name of the most right wing mainstream Russian Political Party) have also increased there share to 11% with 56 seats (up from 40). However out of these three the only party to consistently vote against United Russia policies has been the CPRF making the Communists the sole pillar of opposition in the "Democratic" 21st Century Russia.

A summary of the Elections.

From FSRN a feature covering the fears that the Election would be plagued by corruption and low turnouts.

"This weekend Russians will be voting to determine the country's next parliament. But there is little enthusiasm ahead of the December 4th Duma elections. Some Russians say they won't bother to turn out because they feel that the outcome has already been determined -- much like the presidential elections in three months in which Vladimir Putin faces little opposition and is expected to win. Karen Percy reports from Moscow."

The low turnout fear may have been premature with the overall figure for the entire Russian Federation being around 60% being only a slight decrease on the 63% turnout in the last Duma Elections in 2007. However the fears over election irregularities or fraud do seem to be well founded, and sadly not a recent development. The Council of Europe after analysing the election procedures and results had this to say

"The observers noted that the preparations for the elections were technically well-administered across a vast territory, but were marked by a convergence of the state and the governing party, limited political competition and a lack of fairness. "

"Although seven political parties ran, the prior denial of registration to certain parties had narrowed political competition. The contest was also slanted in favour of the ruling party: the election administration lacked independence, most media were partial and state authorities interfered unduly at different levels."

Emphasis my own.

Though they did have some positive things to say about the elections

"The observers also noted that the legal framework had been improved in some respects and televised debates for all parties provided one level platform for contestants. On election day, voting was well organized overall, but the quality of the process deteriorated considerably during the count, which was characterized by frequent procedural violations and instances of apparent manipulations, including serious indications of ballot box stuffing."

Another suspicious development is the regional breakdown of United Russia's support. Obviously in a nation as large and diverse as Russia there will be differences of opinion and differing levels of support for a political platform, however if the polls are to be believed the staunchest areas of support for United Russia are the problem territories in the Caucuses including Dagestan and Chechnya were apparently 99% of the politically active population support Putin.

"Russia’s ruling United Russia party won 99.48 percent of votes in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya during Sunday's parliamentary elections, the republican election committee said on Monday.

With a 99.5 percent voter turnout at 456 polling stations, United Russia received support of 607,909 voters in Chechnya.

Other registered parties shared the remaining 0.5 percent, with A Just Russia being the second (0.18 percent) and the ultranationalist LDPR being the last (0.02 percent)."

Yeah I'm sure I don't need to articulate what's fishy with that result.

Another blow to Putins mandate and fuel for the claims that Elections are routinely rigged was the Presidential Elections in South Ossetia -that small border Ex-clave that along with neighbouring Abkhazia Georgia came to blows with Russia over in 2008- were the pro independence anti Russian Union(remember North Ossetia is already part of the Russian Federation) was disqualified after it looked like she had won the election.

"In the Caucasus region of South Ossetia police fired warning shots as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest the annulment of Sunday's election results. An opposition leader who had campaigned to safeguard the republic's independence from Russia appeared to have won a majority of votes, but the result was overturned by the Supreme Court. FSRN's Jacob Resneck has more from Tbilisi."

Alla Dzhioyeva had 57% of the votes before the Court disqualified her, they also barred her from standing in a new election.

Troops were mobilised when supporters of Alla launched protests at the courts decision. They also released this address to the UN and international Community.

"Given that the political crisis in the republic may destabilize the situation in the Caucasus, the republic’s people urge you to immediately intervene in events in South Ossetia in order to stabilize the situation and restore constitutional order,”

United Russia is a Conservative Nationalist party favouring an interventionist state to support the economy, and a reassertion of Russia's independence from foreign and often hostile nations and powers like the US and NATO, anyone whose ever met a Russian will know that at least part of that platform would resonate with the majority of the population so why the drop in support? well for several interconnected reasons, as the nickname "Party of Thieves and Liars" shows a large number of Russians are sick of the corruption that has come to plague Russian society both public and private sector.

"During a recent visit to Moscow, I was struck by how many people told me that corruption under Medvedev was more extravagant than under Putin, when it was in turn more widespread than under Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin. More remarkable and more concrete is a recent interview by Russia’s chief military prosecutor in Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the government’s official newspaper, stating that almost 20 percent of the country’s military budget is “plundered” through corruption, including fake invoices and kickbacks. If this is happening in the military, it’s hard to imagine that the situation is different in the rest of Russia’s government bureaucracy. Medvedev himself has said that $35 billion in government funds was stolen in 2010."

You may remember Putin's early premiership grabbing headlines for his crackdowns on the "Oligarchs" many of whom fled abroad often to London, thats was helpful however take a look at the list of names and see how many had been active in politics or about to enter politics when there arrest warrants were issued, it isn't all of them but its quite a few.

And then coupled with corruption is the global recession stagnating economic growth and compounding the damage that corruption is inflicting on the economy. That leaves a vibrant and robust independent Russia to fall back on and fortunately for the United Russia campaign team the West was here to lend a hand. The ongoing row over a proposed anti Iranian Missile Defence Shield being placed in Europe (Eastern Europe to be exact) has given the Kremlin the perfect excuse to rally round the flag and rattle the sabre a little.

Here they threaten a vague retaliation.

And here with the election getting ever closer they actually mention the mobilisation of troops.

However given that Corruption is a serious ailment even in the Russian Military a symbol of Russian pride and Unity since the Romanov's and the Peoples Republic of China competing with Russia for arms sales and research development cutting into there exports (arms exports are virtually a way to subsidise the costs of an arms industry) not to mention the risk that another nation might actually respond forcing another conflict, if Chechen rebels and Georgia could do it whats stopping a stronger nation from calling the bluff? In short relying on militaristic Patriotism is a trick that can only works so many times.

Of course with Putins "shock" announcement that he would be standing as Presidential Candidate again much of the focus in the media has been on how the Duma turnout will affect his Presidential election bid, given what I've already written on the subject you might infer that I think that his election (should that be re-election?) chances in a free and fair election aren't very good. Well not necessarily there is a difference between the support/popularity for a party and its leader, this is true even in parliamentary systems where the party is the main decision maker and is especially the case in Presidential systems where one man or woman(and there hand picked team of advisers) become the driving political force in the nation. The disintegration of United Russia's support base doesn't necessarily correlate to a decline in support for Putin personally though it isn't a positive indicator and if I where his PR man I'd be a little worried.

Of course the election is still a ways off and now that Putin has become the official centre of attention again how he deals with Russia problems especially with a reduced majority -though remember the non Communist parties have a track record of supporting United Russia- and if any scandal should emerge that he is personally to close to and he could find his own support frame eroded. Only time will tell of course I'm just glad that more and more people both inside and outside of Russia are waking up from his spell.

* The Russian name can be translated as either Fair or Just.

Angels in America and World AIDs Day

2011-12-01T16:43:00.006Z

I attended my local area pickets on yesterdays public sector strikes however I'm a little delayed as my camera has had a few faults I'm in the process of fixing. Expect a post on it either tonight or tomorrow until then heres a quick post to commemorate this years World Aids Day, its a review by a very clever chap Kyle Kalgreen of an important and influential film made to explore what it meant to be Gay and have AIDs in the 1980s and early 90s in America. Back when AIDs was considered an exclusive form of "gay plague" and one in four Americans believed AIDs was a divine punishment from God.

The film though very long is brilliant and the review is both touching and very informative. While it is refreshing to see that in America and Western Europe the stigma surrounding the LGBT community and AIDs suffers has improved with casual bigotry becoming as taboo as racially orientated insults and moves to equalise civil rights gaining momentum other parts of the world are embracing the hysteria. In Russia with have the major and historic St Petersburg Municipality banning "homosexual propaganda" and many nations in Africa that coincidentally just happen to have a large Evangelical/fundamentalist Christian or Muslim religious population have begun to take harsh measures.

I'm sure most will be aware of the Ugandan bill to make Homosexuality a capital offence. But thats just the tip of the iceberg, in both South Africa and Zimbabwe prisons have a policy of "corrective rape" of homosexual prisoners to "set them straight" fortunately in South Africa the abhorrant practice is being shelved

In Ghana the government empowered police to lock up all the gays and in Cameroon a Gay person can recieve a maximum sentence of Five years.
There are sadly plenty more examples of this absurd abusive behaviour but I think just one of these I've mentioned should be enough to elicit disgust and illustrate why World AIDs day is an important day for education and action.

North East Lincolnshire Public Sector Strikes

2011-12-01T12:41:00.010Z

Sorry this was a bit late Cameras fixed now so here we go.

From FSRN

"Some two million workers in the UK went on strike today, closing down approximately 60 percent of the schools in England and most schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Organizers say it could be one of the largest nationwide shut downs since the 1926 general strike halted the UK. Zoe Sullivan was in London and files this report."

I took part in the Pickets and Demonstrations in Grimsby. It was quite an impressive showing for a small town on the edge of the sea. There were around a hundred people at the main demo outside town hall, and some UNISON friends told me there was about the same number at the local Hospital, and there were many smaller pickets and gatherings throughout the town and in neighbouring Cleethorpes. In addition to the local Trade Unionists (UNISON, UNITE, GMB, NAPO, FBU etc.) I saw members from the local Labour party and some of there sitting Councillors. I also believe I saw a couple of Socialist Party members, I say believe because the only one I recognise personally has a habit of changing parties and they didn't carry any identifiers.

All in all I would say it was quite impressive and should hopefully put pressure on the ConDems to rethink there Pension "reforms", and build links between working peoples organisations to make further action easier should it be required.

India's Growing Maoist Rebellion

2011-11-25T09:35:00.010Z

From FSRN

In India’s rural forests, mining corporations and state militias have launched a violent assault on the Maoist guerillas and landless tribal communities.

Activist and author Arundhati Roy spent weeks with the Maoist fighters in the conflict zone and her time there is the subject of a new book called Walking with the Comrades.

It’s a first-hand account of the hidden side of the global economy and an analysis of a long-running and often misunderstood armed movement. She joins us from New York.

The above interview is about a conflict that is as important as it is ignored by the mainstream media, the Naxalite (Maoist) rebellion in India. The lack of interest in this story confuses me, its not a new story there has been a Naxalite movement in some form since 1967 with a Peasants Revolt in the village of Naxalbari (where they get there name). It also can't be that India is one of those far off and strange nations we know nothing about, India was the Crown Jewel of the British Empire until 1947 and has been a very prominent member of the Commonwealth ever since. And even if they weren't India is a fast growing economy and soon to overtake China as the most populated nation on the planet. Maybe is because the internal conflicts of India are blacked out? again no we see news reports from Kashmir and the Pakistan border with India all the time when violence flares up. Then there was the tragic Mumbai attacks which opened the door to reporting on India's religiously motivated violence a legacy not restricted to its Muslim population.

But when was the last time you saw a Maoist or any kind of "Red" news story? I can remember a couple about Nepal when they successfully entered Kathmandu and forced the government to flee but that is it. And while I don't wish to insult Nepal not all nations are equals and India is in a bigger league then Nepal so I don't see why they broke the blackout.

Maybe its because the Nepalese Maoists are a serious threat while the Indian Naxals aren't? well no because again the Naxalite movement represent a very serious threat to the Indian State just look at the below map of there strengths

Looks pretty serious to me, I wouldn't want to see that if I was in charge of India.

I think the answer is cultural. Since the end of the Cold War all those on the side of Liberal Capitalism were quite jubilant they saw not only the end of the Eastern bloc and the USSR but also all forms of organisation differing from the Western norm. They had some evidence for this, Cuba was on the verge of collapse due to losing all its main trading partners, China was of course advancing "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics"* North Korea was suffering a similar collapse to Cuba only with the added bonus of a famine. Vietnam adopted Market Socialism or "Socialism with Vietnamese characteristics" with neighbouring and oft forgotten Laos following suit. And all those nasty third world Guerilla armies where facing severe equipment shortages without there big friends support or attention, is it any wonder that Francis Fukuyama chose this period to release his most famous work "The End of History and The Last Man"?

What I'm trying to say is that after all that reassurance that Communism was dying any evidence to the contrary like a large and resilient Guerilla movement in one of the richest and most developed third world nation seems embarrassing. A News outlet is only as good as its reputation after all. I can remember watching a Channel Four news report about some developments in Zimbabwe with the on location reporter telling Mr Snow that they were awaiting Mugabe's Politburo meeting to end, Mr Snow said words to the effect of " A Politburo hey? Not to many of them around these days is there" and then they both chuckled a little. This is the same reason Communist parties in the former USSR and Eastern Bloc are constantly referred to as Pensioner social groups because those currently in power even in Russia want there past to remain in the past while they build there own new national projects.

Still I find that highly illogical, even if your some right wing Cold Warrior nut you should be very interested in the Naxalite conflict, if only to lament those damn bleeding heart Democrats in the White House.

If you do want to know more about the Naxalites and this secretive war in India I can add my personal recommendation to Arundhati Roy's Walking With the Comrades, and the Blog Naxal Revolution ran by Indian Maoists and has many updates on the struggle as well as reviews and analysis of the other books and research done on the Naxalite Movement.

* Though its a little strange that that policy involves greater market liberalisation, since modern capitalism was forced on China by European powers hoping to increase exploitation of its resources.

Tommy Robinson Quitting the EDL

2011-11-19T12:34:00.008Z

From Libcom.org

"It has been a badly kept secret, but Tommy Robinson is about to announce he is leaving the EDL to join a group of fascist cranks, the British Freedom Party.

Rumour has it that on Saturday 19th December at a meeting in Birmingham, Tommy Robinson the leader of the EDL is to announce that he is leaving the EDL to join the British Freedom Party. This has generally been a poorly kept secret and has been widely discussed EDL circles."

Yep it looks like not only is the BNP circling the drain but now the EDL is also in dire straits, with its leader one Tommy Robinson AKA Stephen Yaxley Lennon AKA Unpronounceable Symbol AKA Prince, deciding its time for early retirement.

Or has he?

"After several years of denying being a fascist, he has gone and joined a party of fascist cranks, with a logo that Oswald Moseley would be proud of. Great stuff, he will fit into the political establishment perfectly as he is a bare faced liar."

While I'm surprised to hear that the leader of EDL is quitting I'm not surprised to hear that the problems with the group have gotten so bad, its been going that way for a while. Nearly every march (every march the group put a lot of stock into anyway) has been met with counter demonstrations outnumbering them with the bulk of the representations being from the local communities were the march was to take place. Membership has been haemorrhaging for a while compounded by several "regional" groups splitting off altogether perhaps most (in)famous of these are the North West Infidels but there far from the only ones.

The reasons for the splitting are actually quite varied, some have accused him and the rest of the "leadership" of siphoning funds from the group I don't know how true that allegation is but it certainly wouldn't surprise me given the EDL's confirmed fraudulent actions in regards to fund-raising (see below).

A few others are fed up with the duel nature of the group,
"Large sections of the EDL’s membership are also angry with the Leaders’ ‘softly-softly’ approach. They don’t want a group which claims to be pro-multicultural, anti-racist, and pro-Israel. They don’t want a series of big demos with police kettles. They want to do what they did before they got ‘respectable’ after mainstream TV coverage – i.e. bricking Asian shops (Luton) and knifing them in alleys (Bolton)."

Still others are annoyed by Robinson's Irish ancestry, yes really. When the EDL was a new organisation he deflected allegations of racism and that they had links to rump Unionist terror groups in Ulster by telling everyone he was of Irish descent. This did not go over very well with British Nationalists since the Irish are seen by British Nationalists to be like Palestinians from the point of view of the IDF(a bunch of weak sneaky terrorist barbarians) so he has been denying that his Irish ever since, unfortunately he was stupid enough to film himself saying he was of Irish descent as you can see below.

Warning though this video is by an actual disaffected EDL member so its a bit different from the other vids I post.

As an aside while I do think its worth pointing out that Tommy is Irish descended given that he is obviously lying now in a pathetic attempt at damage control its a bit a stupid to keep refereeing back to it, hell it isn't even the worse charge against Tommy in the video.

But then its not really surprising that a group spawned out of a network of old firms* is splintering I mean if they have no problems physically fighting one another because there 2 nil down at half time why not have a go when the boss fails to deliver?

Still it could be worse at least the EDL are still around unlike there brothers in the "Welsh" Defence League see below.

* Slang term for groups of football hooligans.
Photo source.

Read the Morning Star (Lyrical Version)

2011-11-17T17:49:00.002Z

Been awhile since we had a good song to listen to. Tommy Reckless has been could enough to record a short song about why the Morning Star is great and all the other British papers are anything but.

Enjoy it, and I'll just live this link to the Morning Star website here.

Thai officials fiddle while Bangkok Drowns

2011-11-11T16:30:00.000Z

As is probably well known Thailand is suffering under very severe flooding with the capital itself is under threat. The banks have been bursting for over three months now with no sign that they'll be dissipating any time soon. The death toll has been placed at around 530 and Thai industries (including hard drive manufacture) and agriculture have been gutted.

However despite this quite severe crisis Thailand's Administration have some how managed to schedule some time for the important work of tightening up its anti-criticism (read pro-censorship laws) to protect its beloved Monarch (and the system he props up) from hearing negative words, by trying an independent journalist and blogger Chiranuch Premchaiporn for a maximum sentence of 20 years because someone left a comment on one of her web site that prosecutors believed to be critical of the Monarchy.

Yes you read that right at a time of national disaster Thai authorities are wasting time trying a women for something someone else did. Sadly this kind of asinine censorship exists even in this country as these two posts make clear. But in the British examples the worst punishment possible was a fine and a mandated grovelling apology, still stupid and out of line and a graphic illustration of why the UK needs to reform are Libel laws.

But any jail time at all because someone else posted something on your site, that is ridiculous. Its bad enough Thailand has a law against criticising anyone in power but to enforce that with a hefty prison sentence is just overkill. It also brings into question the claim that the King is universally popular in Thailand (I have no doubt he is popular with large sections of the population as it isn't hard to have a positive image when every time your mentioned in the media its to get credit) but if his as beloved as the government would have you believe then surely the law is a complete waste of ink and paper.

Putin versus the Communist Party

2011-11-10T11:21:00.000Z

From Mondays Morning Star

"Russian police seized a lorry in Moscow on Saturday containing Communist Party election material to an industrial region as part of its parliamentary election campaign.

A month-long campaign season for the December 4 poll officially began on Saturday.

A local representative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) said that police had swooped on the lorry as it set off for Tula loaded with 84,000 copies of a newspaper outlining the party's electoral platform.

"I think they are looking for an excuse to exclude us from these elections," the activist said.
Tula police official Andrei Yartsev said that the incident may have had something to do with allegations that the CPRF has made false accusations against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia.
Another official who declined to give his name suggested that the CPRF may have committed a crime by seeking to deliver election material to Tula.
"We are now studying whether the Communists had the right to bring in this literature," the unnamed local official declared.
On the same day that the lorry was seized a squad of policemen toting machine guns broke up an impromptu CPRF open-air public meeting in central Moscow.
Security personnel barged in minutes after CPRF first secretary Gennady Zyuganov had begun addressing hundreds of citizens.
"They accused us of staging a demonstration," Mr Zyuganov said afterwards.
"This was no demonstration - we were handing out literature and material to all our country's citizens."
Russia's seven registered political parties - including the ruling United Russia, the Communist Party and Liberal Democratic Party - will be granted free air time on each of the main television channels and radio stations as part of the official campaign season.

However United Russia is expected to triumph in the State Duma elections for the third time running.

Polls suggest that the Communist Party is on track to gain about 13-17 per cent of the vote, cementing its position as the main opposition party.

Its campaign platform includes improved welfare services, intensified industrialisation efforts and a progressive revision of the tax system.

It is standing 595 candidates, 116 of whom are women. Sixty-nine of them are under 30 years old."*

I'm reposting this article as I think this story best illustrates a point I've been wanting to make for a long time. A lot of people on the left mostly but not exclusively younger progressives seem to have forgotten what the word Imperialism mean. If you follow a few blogs, BBS and comment threads you'll often see someone criticising western usually American (though to be fair other Western nations flex there muscle from time to time) domination and then equate that with all forms of Imperialism to the point where any nation group or political entity that opposes the west must be "Anti-Imperialist".

That is of course nonsense Empires often squabble with each other over access to client states all the time just look at the period of 1870-1918 in Europe if you need a graphic illustration. Anti Imperialism means you oppose all forms of Imperialism not just Imperialism from one nation or nations, thats actually closer to a form of intellectual racism, "its ok for x and y to do something so long as it stops z from taking part". Nations that I've seen time and again given the "anti-imperialist" title include Iran( lets forget the sponsorship of all those paramilitaries/Terrorist groups in Arab states that are hostile to it) China (because they ain't bullying there smaller Asian neighbours at all and have never invaded another nation purely to get what they want) and the Russian Federation (lets ignore the bloody war in Chechnya, or the repression in Dagestan to give two examples) What makes this even more stupid is that the Russian Federation justifies its hard line to rebellion as a crusade against Muslim flavoured terrorism, now where have we heard that before? try G.W. Bush the "arch Imperialist". Why is it when Americans invade territories and kill people including civilians in the War on Terror its ok and principled to jump down there throats for it but no one seems that interested in calling out Moscow for the same behaviour which is arguably worse?

The answer is it isn't ok its thoroughly reprehensible and is the kind of double think acceptable to "race realist" loonies. If you've ever praised Putin the RF China or any other nation for resisting Western interests solely because they wish to advance there own interests instead then unless your some sort of anti Yankee racist your extremely confused and need to get better heroes.

* You might be wondering why the paper chose to end the article on that little statistical titbit, well its because the Russian government and many former Soviet governments main attempts to dismiss or deride Communist parties in there nations is to claim there historical artefacts of little relevance to the new generation of nationals. Just watch a story on Russia Today that features the CPRF someone who smugly assert that its an old mans club.

Galloway on the UNESCO Controversy

2011-11-07T15:50:00.007Z

If you read this blog you might be wondering if my sense of priorities are a bit unorthodox, for example why would a man who supports justice for the Palestinians at the time of an historic milestone on that journey (UNESCO membership) would I instead make a post about an infamous but no longer relevant Paramilitary group that arguably set back the Palestine Liberation movement? well two reasons really first I was genuinely pleasantly surprised at how good that documentary was in investigation and explanation, and I know that there are a lot of other bloggers out there whom can give a more informed or passionate account then I can and I don't really want to be repetitive.

Anyway George is one of those people whom has done a better job of explaining the UNESCO situation and since I like his radio show (a lot hence his own tag) and its been a while I thought this would be good opportunity to share.

Nicaragua vs Honduras

2011-11-06T17:06:00.007Z

Nicaragua's Elections expected to grant the Sandinista party Leader Daniel Ortega a renewed mandate to Govern.

FSRN's coverage of the upcoming elections and the parties election platforms.

Yes Nicaragua has come along way since the 1980's. Though defying the powerful alliance of the United States Honduras and Iran(!) assorted drug cartels and random mercenary groups coalescing into the "Contra's" (No relation to the video game) was no easy task. But now in the aftermath of the Cold War and new spirit of independence sweeping Latin America Nicaragua has prospered by electing the Sandinista's back into power.

Meanwhile over the border in neighbouring "democratic" Honduras that enjoys a very close relationship to United States things aren't quite so inspiring.

Corruption and violence have boomed, Peasants are once again being driven off there lands and the suppression of independent media are common place. And this all started when former President Zelaya simply suggested the possibility of a referendum reforming Presidential term limits. A constitution I should add that was drafted by the countries old military Junta whom like many of there counterparts in the Continent saw that there time was fast running out and tried to ensure as much of the old ways of business were entrenched as possible. One Term Presidents in the long run benefit the wealthy whom can afford to bankroll several candidates and sustain a long term campaign strategy more then the urban poor and rural Campesinos.

Haitian Cholera Epidemic Worsens

2011-11-04T11:52:00.007Z

Sadly despite it being nearly two years since the devastating earthquake collapsed what passed for infrastructure in Haiti -after decades of Dictatorial nepotism under Papa Doc and Baby Doc and Western friendly economic "restructuring" gutted everything-, and yet sadly Haitians are still suffering one calamity after another. Cholera a water-borne infection has been plaguing the survivors since the tremors subsided, and has occasionally flared up over the year but since late October it seems to have flared to epidemic proportions.

From Medicins Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders)

"Since the first cases of cholera were identified in October 2010, more than 465,000 Haitians have fallen ill and more than 6,500 people have died, according to Haiti’s Ministry of Health. While the ongoing rainy season is facilitating the further spread of the disease, international organizations involved in health care, water provision, and sanitation services are withdrawing from the fight against cholera in Haiti, despite the significant and urgent needs."

Part of the reason why international aid organisations despite undertaking a serious commitment to Haiti in terms of money resources and manpower is that once again due to the downtrodden relationship Haiti has with its rich neighbours (USA, and Canada) and old "friend" France means that very little has been done to build a more robust state on the ruins of the old regime capable of looking after its own citizens.

"While ensuring that Haitians’ urgent needs for cholera care are adequately met, international aid agencies should do more to assist the Haitian government in rapidly integrating proper cholera treatment into healthcare facilities and in implementing prevention plans. MSF has been working to transfer management of the healthcare facilities it has been supporting back to the Ministry of Health."

MSF donation page https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/?t=o

A History of Black September and Palestinian Paramilitary groups

2011-11-02T14:44:00.006Z

The Film Archive has posted up another excellent documentary from the 1970's this time detailing the history of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, its foundation its structure its aims (if it has any) and its relations with other Palestinian liberation groups. Despite the emotive issue being discussed and the graphic nature of some of the imagery the reporter keeps a cool head and does his best to investigate the flesh and bones of the group and the issue that it spawned.

It starts off discussing the 1970 plane hijackings by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Dawson's field Jordan and how that act despite being bloodless proved to be one challenge to many to the Jordanian Monarchy. In response Martial law was declared and bloody campaign against not just the PFLP but all Palestinians living in Jordan gave rise to an even more radicalised group of Palestinians which eventually coalesced into Black September.

Then of course it recaps all the attacks which Black September claimed responsibility for including the infamous Munich Olympics siege in 1974 and its bloody aftermath. What I found very interesting is rather then just stick with visceral scenes of blood and explosions the program expands the topic. At the 11 minute mark It asks Palestinians themselves what they think groups like Black September mean to them and what they will accomplish, and he gets a varied and interesting response.

One of the scholars interviewed makes the point that the reason why terrorism is perceived as an attractive option for Palestinians is that back when Palestine was still a British mandate Jewish liberation groups such as the "Lehi" or Stern gang and developed terrorist tactics and too great effect. What does the reporter do when he hears this? instead of dismissing it like I think many reporters would do today, he investigates it gets in touch with former members of the Jewish terrorist groups and at 13 minutes in asks them questions. At first I assumed the interview would be the usual journalist asks questions that imply hypocrisy and the interviewee gets emotional and believes its different when "they" do it. But no the first speaker a former Leader of Stern fully admits what he did was terrorism, that the nature of the conflict between Palestine and Israel is the same as the one he fought against the British, and that yes Palestinian terrorist groups lead at least a few of there tactics from copying earlier Jewish terror groups. He also says that Golda Meier at the time Israel's Prime Minister is wrong in her assertions that there is no such thing as a Palestinian, because the British said the same thing about the Israeli's when the issue of the Palestinian mandate was debated. He is however very keen to stress that he doesn't approve of terrorism against civilians, but we should ask why was he part of a group that among other things blew up hotels and train stations. The second Israeli talked sadly is very much in the typical "it isn't comparable, we were right they are wrong" mould.

It then wraps up describing the then current rocky situation in neighbouring Lebanon where many Palestinians found sanctuary after being expelled from Jordan. All in all this 20 minute documentary is a high watermark in journalism and is a fascinating insight into a turbulent chapter in this sadly ongoing struggle between two entrenched peoples.

The above is a wanted poster given out by British police in the 1940's for Jewish terrorists guilty of murder.

Afghanistan in the 1970's

2011-10-30T14:13:00.003Z

I thought this old documentary though blatantly biased and short would be of interest to some who have been appalled by Afghanistan's bloody recent history. Its from 1973 and aside from an outdated pronunciation of the Pashtun Tribes is an interesting look into a time when Afghanistan was relatively speaking at peace* and was slowly building its way to modernity.

Prince Daoud the establisher of Afghanistan's Republican days came to power in a coup aided the Afghan Army Officer Corps and by the Pro-Soviet Communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) specifically the Parcham faction. And whilst officially improving Soviet-Afghan relations Daoud was not above getting funding from other quarters. Afghanistan had since the establishment of the USSR been considered like Eastern Europe to be client state of Moscow by the West, since it shared a direct land border with the USSR trying to force the issue wasn't really an option if the West wished the Cold War to remain Cold. However Daoud soon lost interest in his Parcham friends and isolated them from government, he also allowed himself to be courted by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan perhaps the most Anti Soviet nations in the Middle East at the time. Indicating to Moscow that he wished to break from the Soviet Union and embrace other hostile powers.

Happily for the Soviet Union the issue resolved itself in April 78 when Daoud tried to mobilise the Army to destroy the PDPA and secure the home front. This backfired for two reasons, 1) the PDPA's other faction Khalq lead by future Presidents Taraki and Amin had been hard at work recruiting military units to there cause as they'd been expecting a crackdown for sometime.
2) Even the Military Officers and units who hadn't been recruited by Khalq were as the documentary makes clear trained in the Soviet Union meaning they either where sympathetic to the PDPA or thought a close alliance to the USSR must be maintained so rebelled and by the 27th of April stormed the Presidential palace and killed him.

That event became known as the Saur Revolution and heralded the rise of the PDPA and the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Afghanistan. A year later Islamist groups threatened by the DRA's modernisation drives (the first time Soviet forces engaged the "Mujihadeen" once in retaliation for a riot in Herat that involved the butchering of two hundred civilian technical advisers and was sparked by the governments announcement that females were to be taught in schools too) would cause so much trouble for the DRA that the Soviet Union believed the only way to prevent its total disintegration and threaten its own Asian Soviet Socialist Republics was to intervene directly in December of 79.

The rest as they say is history.

* Afghanistan has never really enjoyed complete peace, due to both the broken up terrain lack of roads and vibrant and diverse ethnic framework ensured even during the times free of major military campaigns there were always banditry, and clashes with remote tribes.

Miss K!m

2011-10-23T07:07:00.006+01:00

Good day everyone, you remember an earlier blog post about a documentary about the Occupy movement needing funding? well good news it reached its target and filming has begun you can see a few snippets of there activities here.

Anyway I've found another project that I think is worthy of contributing towards and thought I'd try and spread the word a little. And even better news this time its a play! and an autobiographical one too. The video above was produced to explain the project in detail and the projects page. In short its the very.... disquieting retelling of the plays Korean American creator and star Gina Kim's sad history of sexual abuse, by her Uncle no less. To make the matter worse her family were aware and dismissed and covered up the whole thing. The play has been created with the intention of not only letting Miss Kim come to terms with her past but also explore the complexities of the issue and raise awareness of the unpleasant reality of familial sexual abuse.

The sites project page lists of the following disturbing fact.

"FACT: 90% cases of sexual abuse are committed by someone the survivor knows personally."

Of course most people and children are aware of the danger of trusting dodgy strangers, (though in school they never bothered to tell us perhaps wisely what a stranger would want with a kid leaving us with the idea they wanted to kidnap us for money) but the disturbing issue of abuse within the family or at least from people close to the family is often left unspoken. Of course no one with a family wants to think about it since you would be holding those you love and trust but we should at least be capable of keeping an open mind should the possibility occur and not just keep silent.

That is why I've pledged money towards the project and why I think its important others do. I know there has been a long standing con routine involving fake projects ; we just have to watch the original Producers film to et an idea of just how old. But thanks to Kickstarters rather smart set up the risk of funding a project are small, you contribute as much or as little as you wish, the transfer doesn't activate until the deadline is reached and the project has reached its estimate and most projects over a number of rewards (usually credits) for those willing to give the project ago.

RIP Ka Roger

2011-10-18T06:23:00.001+01:00

Committed Revolutionary Gregorio "Ka Roger"* Rosal died aged 64 after a series of heart attacks.

It was announced a few days ago (October 15th) in the Philippines that spokesman and senior member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)and its armed wing the New Peoples Army (NPA) Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal had passed away aftering a series of Heart attacks. The announcement was itself delayed (He died on 22 June 2011) to allow time for the CPP (an outlawed political party) to contact his daughters and break the news to them before public announcements.

Ka Rogers demise has received outpourings of grieve from many in the Philippines. The National Democratic Front of the Philippines(a coalition of left wing parties, unions, progressive churches and civil rights groups) released a statement which can be read in full here.

"The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) renders the highest tribute to Ka Roger, who loved and served the masses for more than forty years. The NDFP conveys its most heartfelt condolences to his children, his siblings, and other members of his family, and to his many comrades and friends."

Ka was imprisoned by the hated Marcos Dictatorship in 1973, and was after he and nine other prisoners escaped from prison that he made his way to the countryside to join up with the Guerrilla army of the NPA (established in 1969) which following the Sino-Soviet split had broken from the old Moscow aligned Communist party and had begun implementing Maoist ideology** whilst at the same time building a Peoples Army against the oppressions of the pro Washington government in Manila

"After his incarceration under the Marcos dictatorship in 1973 and his daring escape together with nine other comrades later that year, Ka Roger joined the revolutionary armed struggle and became an organizer of various guerilla fronts in the Southern Tagalog Region and also part of the Bicol region."

In 1993 he became the official Spokesperson of the CPP essentially making him the parties foreign affairs correspondent as well. There were several quite important shifts in position during his time as spokesman, in 1995 the CPP publicly supported same sex relationships and in 2002 the NPA had its first same sex marriage between members. Beating the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell in America by Six years.

Though the NPA peaked in the 1980s both it, the CPP and the NDFP continue to be a large thorn in the side of the government (regardless who gets to be its official "leader") and as a result like all threats to Washington aligned governments have been added to the dreaded list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations (currently number 9 below ETA but above Continuity IRA) this is despite two quite important factors; one the NDFP of which the CPP and NPA are members implements the Geneva convention. And two as that article states the government of Philippines is guilty of gross human rights abuses and war crimes.

"The International Committee of the Red Cross, the Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists and other respected international human rights organizations have extensively documented since the 1970s the gross human rights violations perpetrated by the military, police and paramilitary forces of the GRP and involving the forced displacement of millions of people, ethnocide against minorities, indiscriminate bombardments and strafing, massacres, assassinations, summary executions, torture, illegal detention of tens of thousands of people and wanton destruction of property and the people's livelihood. In the human rights class suit against the Marcos estate in the US Federal District Court in Hawaii, there is the documentation of at least 10,000 victims of torture, murder and involuntary disappearance."

And then there was the recent use of IED's by the Philippine military.

Its a shame Georgio Rosal passed away before he got to see the Philippines he fought so hard for but in the end I'm sure he could take solace in the knowledge that through his efforts and the hard work of the CPP and New Peoples Army prevented the corrupt government of the Philippines from having its way, and just maybe there sacrifices will pay off in the near future.

* Sometimes spelt Ka Rodger.
** For the uninitiated Maoist parties differed from the Soviet Communists in that they were more interested in the rural peasantry, more open to Guerilla warfare and completely against any relations with the West.

Time to Turn up the Pressure

2011-10-12T22:05:00.003+01:00

You've probably heard about the impending implosion of the Master races vanguard party in Britain,what with there impending bankruptcy*. And the problem with creditors has now been exacerbated with allegations form former Party members (some of which where higher ups) revealing that the party was illegally siphoning funds from there elected positions into the party coffers, and erroneously claiming to have paid off some of there debts.

The allegations are being investigated by both the Met and the European Union (looks like the cash cow still has horns), however there is one other appropriate overseeing body that has not yet begun an investigation, and that's the electoral commission. Of course my personal views on the matter mean I'd gladly cheer on more investigations into the BNP's rotten internal workings, but from a purely objective view given that the allegations are substantive enough to provoke two separate investigations and that some of the alleged illegal practices relate to the parties dealings with the Electoral Commission itself it would be a very good idea for the organisation to conduct its own investigation in conjunction with the other two groups. Hope not Hate an anti right wing extremist pressure groups is currently running a campaign to encourage the Electoral Commission to do just that.

As someone who has been apart of local election campaigns I know that failure to comply with the Electoral Commission's guidelines are very serious, as it should be since it is the Commission that safeguards our democratic process (flawed though it maybe) from abuse by private interests. So in short, if you care about democracy and wish to see parties (any party) held to account for failing to comply with electoral law then please take a few minutes out to back the campaign.

* Of particular joy for me was seeing that the stupid "spoof" of Marmite cost them £170,000

Generals and Labourers

2011-10-04T13:36:00.007+01:00

Since Mubarak was toppled the Egyptian Militaries Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has been in difficult balancing act, on the one hand it wants to maintain as much of the old regime as possible (since you know it the days of corruption and Dictatorship where good for them) whilst giving the protesters, activists and Revolutionaries just enough reform to placate them enough to peel away there support and let fatigue take care of the more motivated rump.

Fortunately that plan seems to have come a cropper as they say recently. Protests have not only continued but increase and have in fact widened in scope I'm sure we all remember the recent diplomatic embarrassment for SCAF as it was forced to strain its ties with Israel and by extension Washington, but even that concession wasn't strong enough to prevent the Egyptian populations long simmering anger over the alliance of convenience between Cairo Tel-Aviv and Washington and their actions have forced the situation to deteriorate even further. The deal started by Sadat and strengthened under his successor Mubarak has not only meant that the noose was tightened on the Palestinian people, it also meant that Egypt formally an independent regional power became subservient to the United States global strategies.

Elsewhere in Egypt opposition to the Junta's domestic polices remain strong. Currnetly Egypts trade unions whom still face discrimination and oppression from the security services have kicked off a wave of strikes to force to the government to recognise there organisations and address there grievances. Labour Start (a partner of the Industrial Workers World)has a campaign on to pressure the Egyptian government -whom lets remember are desperate for some good press to encourage tourism and trade- to create a law(s) to acknowledge and protect workers rights. It can be found here.

Egyptian workers campaign for change in minimum wage.

Students demonstrate to dissolve appointed student bodies and an end to government informants spying on young activists and free debate.

It needed to be said (summary of the Libyan situation)

2011-09-22T12:19:00.002+01:00

A very good summary of the conflict by Paul Jay of TRN.

The commentary on Libya is rather interesting to watch. In the first days of the uprising many on the "left" where all championing the people's movement and counting down the days to another dictators fall. Then a month and half into the conflict the defections within the military stemmed off the two sides constituencies where drawn up and the Libyan armed forces where free to bring there big guns to bare, (a lot of people who like to point out the superiority of NATO's armaments tend to forget that Gaddafi had most of his militaries equipment from NATO countries like the Mirage jet, or used there companies as a proxy to buy third party arms*) then of course we saw bombardments near and in settlements as the government forces try to regain control. Since most of the rebels where defectors and volunteers there arsenal was made up of what they took with them and what they could loot from the stores of bases and towns in there control, so pick up trucks and Kalashnikov's for the most part.

Those of you whom have read Ernesto "Che" Guevara or Mao Ze Dong, or Ho Chi Minh and Nguyen Vo Giap's writings on insurgency people's war will know that is a very dangerous position to be in at the start of the conflict. For those who haven't read any of there works I'll explain they all say in one way or another that if your army is weaker in terms of conventional fighting then dig in or go to ground, and play the long game of wearing down the opposing force. That is difficult to do in the terrain of a North African nation like Libya and would leave many people who openly supported them defenceless, so instead we had clash after clash and retreat after retreat.

This is were NATO comes in. At the start of the conflict Western governments where quite worried because they had a very good deal going with the "anti imperialist" Gaddafi. In addition to buying arms he was oil and gas to the Western nations and companies, in addition he collaborated with Italy and the EU to clampdown on migration from Africa and locked up refugees in his prisons before shipping them off somewhere. In fact Libya was also a key ally in the "war on terror" you know that thing that is often derided by lefties as the 21st centuries Red scare, or an Imperialist smoke screen.

Who remembers this lovely photo-op?

In fact Gaddafi enjoyed such a close relationship with the West prior to the uprising that many rebels publicly criticised Western governments of collaborating in there misery; and vociferously derided any possibility of foreign intervention, worrying businessmen everywhere that Libya would be closed to them if Gaddafi toppled. The setbacks however allowed NATO to a way back into the house, the mauling they were taking forced the Rebels to change there message somewhat, no NATO became yes no fly zone no NATO ground troops and so on, as Paul Jay says when your backs to the wall you grasp for whatever out you can get. Anyone who ever criticises any group in an armed struggle who tries to get some help -and believe there are quite a few check the comments sections of the more popular (any other) left of centre blog or forum when the L word is mentioned-has there head in the clouds and should give up there dream of revolution and stick to raffles and pub debates.

Know that NATO is here though suddenly every thing's changed, the rebels are CIA employees, or Al-Qaeda. The proof? there isn't any, the only "proof" that there AL-Qaeda a claim Gaddafi made to justify bringing in military force, is that the rebels are Muslims and fundamentalists, there's no proof that they are particularly fundamentalist really either but even if it where true that does not make them Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is by choice a group of very small and secretive cells, they do not work in the open on big campaigns nor muster thousands of men to fight pitched battles. Since 9/11 the USA and others have used Al-Qaeda as a scapegoat to justify any act of repression against anyone who happens to be Muslim. just look at Iraq and Afghanistan the insurgents were almost always called or assumed to be Al-Qaeda affiliates, when was the last time Shia paramilitaries (Al-Qaeda is a Sunni Muslim movement) fighting coalition forces in Southern Iraq where correctly identified in the mainstream press? when was the group Liberation army of Iraq name dropped? the only exception in Afghanistan is the Taliban whom we are constantly reminded where and are allies of Osama's crew. For any intelligent thinking person to just make assumption on a people they know nothing about is lazy and absurd, for someone whose political colours are supposedly Red to do so is extremely pathetic, it is the exact same trick they used to justify the murder and suppression of every Peasants Revolt during the Cold War.

Let me ask a question to those who think NATO's involvement de-legitimises the rebels, where do you draw the line? The Germans attempted to give money and guns to Irish Republicans during WWI if they were successful would that have made the cause of Irish liberation fraudulent? Hell Lenin probably would have never even made it back to the Russian Empire without the Kaisers help but it would be a strange and Loonie lefty who'd suggest the October Revolt was a tool of German Imperialism. And the Indian National Congress movement and more radical groups fighting to liberate India (Including Pakistan and Bangladesh) from the yoke of the British Empire enjoyed quite a lot of support from the Axis powers in particular Japan but does that uncomfortable episode make all those who campaigned and fought for there nations freedom Counter Revolutionaries? And what about Castro, during his fight to liberate Cuba from Batista the US actually gave his July 26 movement support "The embassy even harbored an American pilot who was illegally supplying arms to Castro but whose plane had crashed on its 20th mission." When it was clear that Batista was a lame duck, and look how that turned out.

Now look I admit the situation in Libya hasn't developed along the lines that I would like, however I am not Libyan and not in Libya and my life is not at risk from the situation. However I will not hold a grudge against the people of Libya (on both sides of this conflict) who are faced with this situation and do take serious risks for coming to decisions that go against my idealistic and purely theoretical strategy. I have no idea what the new Libya will be like revolutions can go astray that is the whole reason Trotsky gets his own ism. And Iran which went from a populist overthrow of a corrupt monarch to a Theocratic movement which turned on many of its earlier allies is a good example. But I actually do consider myself to be an opponent to Imperialism and so will leave the future of Libya to the Libyans.

Oh and while were on the subject I also noticed another disturbing trend amongst some commentators, that is re-branding the conflict in Libya from a revolution into a civil war. The problem here? revolutions are conflicts between proponents of the established order and radicals who promote new political ideas within the same state some times overlapping into other states like for example in Indo-China where all three new nations (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) had a struggle between Communist Guerilla's and West friendly governments. Meaning all revolutions are de facto civil wars. The 1917 Russian revolution that put Lenin in power took a lengthy civil war to complete. The American Revolutionaries often fought against armies comprised of fellow Colonialists, etc.

* Since the establishment of the EU it has become commonplace for non European states to use EU companies as a front to purchase weapons and other attention drawing goods in Europe because its harder to restrict trade with a member nation, even for non EU member nations.

The Founding of a Republic

2011-09-09T09:45:00.009+01:00

A tale of Two covers

The Original Chinese cover depicting both the actual "stars" of our period piece, and name checking the most prominent actors.

The English Language cover "starring" the only three Chinese actors most English speakers will be able to recognise, even though they have no role beyond cameo's and use stock martial arts promotional imagery to trick the martial arts crowd to part with there money, even though if it works they'll probably feel cheated when there "Warlords" turns out to be a Chinese Citizen Kane-esque story about the political ramifications of civil strife and internal political conflicts.

Anyway the Chinese film The Founding of a Republic has finally made its way to the Anglosphere (it was made to coincide with the PRC's 60th Anniversary celebrations in 2009). In short it is very good and anyone whose interesting in modern China should check it out. However if you wish to watch the film because Jackie Chan, Jet Lee or Donnie Yen is in it -so is John Woo but apparently he doesn't warrant top billing- don't bother your going to be disappointed. Jet Lee appears very early on as a Nationalist Admiral says three or four lines then leaves. Jackie Chan appears about mid way through as a Reporter interviewing a dissident KMT leader says all of three lines and is not seen again, Donnie yen appears very near the end and is the lyricist of the March of the Volunteers says all of three lines (see a pattern?) John Woo? I recognised him but on reflection can't remember what his character was.

Instead the film gives its lead roles to Chinese actors more accustomed to serious drama then "wire-fu" martial arts like Tang Guoqiang (Mao) and Zhang Gouli (Chiang Kai-Shek). Though to be fair most non Chinese will not have heard of them or seen them in any popular work so it is understandable that the film's advertisers highlighting the most recognisable actors. However using pictures of them from completely different films is still a bit off. The film starts at the end of WW2 just before Japan surrenders, the Japanese have been driven out of China by the Soviet Union after years of brutal occupation and unrelenting resistance by both the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Nationalist Party/de facto government (KMT) the mood in Nanjing where China is currently governed is optimistic, the Soviet Union has agreed to return all territory its occupying to the Chinese and both Mao and Chiang seem willing to give both a ceasefire and a coalition government a go. Tensions between the CPC and KMT where high since the last time the two where in an alliance under the guidance of the Soviet Union who was a close ally to both the KMT betrayed them and massacred many of the CPC supporters.

And it looks like history is about to repeat itself as despite the CPC making a number of territorial concessions (they had successfully liberated a number of territories in the North East of the country during the turbulence of war) and power sharing agreements between the KMT and other parties being signed -in particular the CPC and Chinese Democratic League (CDL) whom often found itself a neutral observer/negotiator for the other parties back room politics- its not too long before the KMT launches renewed offensive into "red areas" kick starting another civil war.

Now despite taking place during they yearslong conflict theres very little in the way of action scenes, if you are interested in seeing the military side of the conflict then you should probably check out Assembly
the focus is on the political arguments (the diplomacy, the positioning the backstabbing etc.) inherent to the conflict and how a united Communist Party led by Mao was able to not only maintain a war effort against a larger and better equipped military whilst practising a lengthy process of transformation of Chinese society in the villages and towns. This is contrasted with the KMT's fractious nature, there where constant power struggles within the party and its military in fact a portion of it split away altogether to become the Revolutionary Wing of the KMT and Ciang had to remain constantly vigilant against an internal revolt as his popularity declined and his dependence on foreign aid grew.

One particular problem Chiang had which showed how divisive the KMT were was the state of the Chinese economy. As is usual in time of war black markets exploded in size however what was unusual was that very little of the economic instability was directly related to the war with the CPC which operated mostly in the North. There were active CPC supporters all over the country of course but the PLA such as it was, was busy marching on Beiping and the banks of the Yangtze river. Yet virtually every economic hub of China was in chaos, especially Shanghai the keystone of the Chinese economy which is located in the Eastern coast many miles south of the fighting. The reason was that what few Capitalist entrepreneurs existed in China at this point (remember China was less developed then Pre 1917 Russia) where using the war as an excuse to hoard goods to raise prices. Incidentally all of these businessmen where supporters and financial backers of the KMT. Also one of the biggest hoarders in Shanghai were relatives of Chiang Kai-Shek. The KMT couldn't control the loyalty of its own ruling family.

Anyway there isn't much point getting into the plot as this is a historical piece and we all know how it turns out. And even if we didn't the title gives it away, I'll finish by saying this, despite being a 2 hour film involving groups of Chinese talking and arguing it does manage to keep the viewers interest in part due to the inherently interesting times and events it depicts, and the actors ability to emote and transcend the language barrier. A must see for anyone wishing to understand modern China, and to a lesser extent Taiwan.

In Soviet Russia, animation is unique in style and criminally under appreciated

2011-09-04T20:53:00.002+01:00

Hello all, Internet still abysmal but I was able to stumble upon an extensive list of animation made by are old Eastern adversaries . Its well worth a look for both fans of animation and Russophiles (even though a number of Soviet made animations were created throughout the SSR's and involved multi-ethnic teams from all over the Union). Of course for most young people the closest to Eastern animation they got to look at was that quite funny simpsons joke "Worker and Parasite" viewable above.

But seriously speaking while there budgets where much smaller then in America or Japan and they had to cut a number of corners -for example backgrounds remain mostly static- given productions made as late as the 1980's looking a bit dated, but there not without there strengths or charms. And many of which have been translated (subtitled) into English by fans from both sides of the old wall.

For example we have About Sidrov Vova (1985) a quite funny tale about a young man joining the Soviet Armed Forces.

Or the educational "I shall give you a star" a exploration of gender roles throughout the ages, told in four different vignettes of a man and woman falling in love at different points in time and seeing how married life turnout (spoiler alert, not great for the wife).

Then of course there is the famous 1982 Once upon a Dog often described as the best Soviet made animation ever and one that is still regularly re run on Russian television based on a Ukrainian folk tale, the director Eduard Nazarov was not himself Ukrainian but he did spend a few years studying rural life in the SSR as preparation for making Once Upon a Dog.

Though to be honest my personal favourite Soviet animation is the chilling 1984 adaptation of Ray Bradbury's There will Come Soft Rains, a story about an abandoned house after a Nuclear War. The excellent short story can be read here.

There will fall soft rains

This one was made by a studio in Uzbekistan and it is simply haunting, though the voice doesn't help. Though I think they probably should of changed the names of the former owners of the house "time for your prayers Mrs. Maclellen" just sounds clumsy in that voice.

Are you a Backer?

2011-08-31T17:59:00.004+01:00

Hello everyone, I'll be a bit quieter then my average for a while as for the past several weeks the internet in my area has been poor to terrible, for those who don't know Northern Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire are one of the worst regions in the country for internet connection speeds and stability. Recently the government greenlit an "improvement" drive for internet in a pale imitation of Gordon Browns proposed cyber "revolution". But just because I am cursed doesn't mean I can't still spread some love. The above vid is by Activist Dennis Trainer and his group No Cure For That a campaign group fighting against the domination of corporate groups in government, unjust wars and the rise of the military industrial complex. Dennis is raising funds for a new documentary about an upcoming protest in Washington DC's Freedom Plaza based on the occupation of Tahrir square in Egypt. At the time of writing they have received the minimum number of pledges with 10 hours to spare so if you'd like to contribute you still can here.

You might also like to check out the last Documentary the group made clocking in about hour and a half documentary detailing the long history of the cult of Manifest Destiny in America the above is a "teaser" Music video feature the documentaries footage and music.

Also supporters of independent films should take a few moments to check out kickstarters homepage and browse a few of other projects requesting funding to see if any take your fancy

My fellow Americans (sort of)

2011-08-14T16:31:00.006+01:00

Hello all, in response to my post about the criminal actions of Anders Breivik in particular the absurd and shameful knee jerk assumptions that the Oslo attacks where carried out by Muslims with no proof, I suppose that might be forgiveable from Americans as there experiences of terrorism have been overshadowed by the Islamic variety, though it was sort of strange to see the actual culprit resembled America's most well known non Muslim terrorist McVey the Oklahoma Bomber. But for Europeans with practically each nation having along list of terrorist groups and actions -an exception to that was sadly Norway-it was inexcusable. Anyway in response a reader got in touch with me through the email and let me know about the above video and the website that produced it My fellow American, asking if I would be kind enough to help promote it and them on the internet. I'm quite touched that anyone thinks this little blog can be of help in that regard and naturally agreed.

I think the video is very well made and the juxtaposition of sound bites from the paranoid ramblings of right wing radio jockeys with scenes of some normal Americans whom happen to be Muslims living normal non sharia conforming lives, clearly http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnot enacting on a plot of any kind to undermine the American way is quite a powerful if subtle reminder that Islam is not some sort of monolithic unchangeable entity with one vision and one purpose. It is rather a religion and as such has a broad base of interpretation with numerous levels of commitment, with followers capable of making rational choices without constantly scanning for a relevant Koran verse. My favourite part has to be around 1:17 mins into the video, where Radio starts ranting about Islam being the religion of hate, and you can actually hear some spittle hitting his microphone his so angry about its existence.

The site behind the video www.myfellowamerican.us/ is a sort of Islamophobia watch site and invites viewers to send in pictures and share stories whether Muslim or not that show Muslim Americans being normal Americans and highlighting the importance of "interfaith" dialogue and stopping the spread of prejudice and discrimination based on religion and ethnicity. It also has a pledge you can take unfortunately since you have register the state you live in and terrible isn't on the list(I checked) that part is for Americans only. But according to every stat counter I have people from the US make up over 80% of my reading base so if your reading this that shouldn't be too much trouble. I wish My fellow American and initiatives like every possible success in checking the progress of bigotry of this nature.

Sadly anti Arab hysteria and suspicion of any and all "Mohammedans" is not a uniquely American trait, as the actions of Anders in Oslo proved when carried out his punitive strike on the "traitors" who have brought about the "Islamisation" of "Eurabia" (fun fact, Muslims struggle to make up 5% of the population in any country in Europe north or west of Turkey) have made abundantly clear. Which is why I'm trying to help get this video across to a wider audience.

London's Burning (Again)

2011-08-13T18:52:00.005+01:00

Given the divisive nature of this topic I think a quick disclaimer might be in order to let everyone know where exactly I stand and to pre-emptively answer any questions that may arise. I am not a pacifist, I'm actually an Amateur boxer, I do belief that violence especially politically motivated violence can be justified but that this very much depends on the circumstances around the act. That said I do not agree with rioting unless it has specific targets (you know where the politics comes in) I think rioting in your own town and city and by extension damaging it and its services is a bit like throwing your own television through your front window because you have a problem with the neighbours, in the end you only hurt yourselves and your family and friends. But I am aware that these situations are highly emotionally charged and are not planned out beforehand and so don't usually follow a rational strategy. I am also fortunate to have never been in a situation where I felt so victimised and abused that the prospect of lashing out at any and all I believed responsible became a burning need so I'll thank my lucky stars and will not criticise those not as fortunate, after all I'm not a Liberal.

Good to see the BBC maintain its high standards of journalism by accusing guests who give a viewpoint not lock step with the top brass of being criminally subversive once again, still they could of accused Darcus of orchestrating the riots himself as part of some Caribbean Communist Immigrant plot to lower house prices. But then I suppose that would bring them into competition with the Express and the Mail.

Anyway I'm not going to get in depth with the riots, because I didn't take part in them and my area had absolutely no problems with them at all. I was actually a bit surprised given how most of the towns from Caistor to Hull are job blackspots with large estates that have seen years of neglect and decay. Plus there's the local police force (Humberside) having little to no popularity with anyone in area rich or poor, black or white. Oh well luck of Irish I suppose.

Anyway what I found really odd was how few people in the "elite" by which I mean senior members of government the media and political system seem to have even considered something like this could happen. Why were they so clueless? its not like we're any strangers to riots, that is especially true in London the city that appears to occupy all of are nations leaders time and attention so why so clueless? It should be obvious that when parts of a society get systematic shut off and deprived from the opportunities available to the privileged, they tend not to respect the social mores and laws of the society that has given them little.

Even Disraeli a 19th Century Conservative politician and Prime Minister figured that one out "Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets: the rich and the poor." This thought was the foundation of his One Nation Conservative school of thought which was a very influential wing of the Conservative party until the rise of Thatcher to Party Leader, and even then senior members of the Tory Party and there associated social clubs continued to belong too and espouse Disraeli's views to the present day.

If a dead Tory from the days of Dickens for saw that soaring gaps in wealth status and opportunity get a nations shop fronts smashed and cars burnt out then why haven't his modern day "heirs" at least accounted for it? And the media is just as guilty, the last few months they have been obsessed with covering the events of the "Arab Spring" leap frogging from country to country reporting on every riot, uprising, sit in and march from Tripoli to Tehran to ensure are papers and news channels are full of tanks rolling down streets, and Arabs chanting and shaking there fists. And they had been covering the cuts and job losses pretty comprehensively, and noting the people affected where angry and disheartened. Surely the news controllers could pick up a warning sign or two before the shooting of Mark Duggin. Tension takes awhile to build up you can't just flip it on and off like a switch.

Just look at the in/famous riots in Brixton in 1981 that Darcus alludes too did happen overnight either they were a response to years of constant victimisation by the police (the infamous sus law more commonly known as the stop and search procedures, which were carried out with little to no justification) the confrontations during community events and parades and the lack of interest in the area and its residents shown by government, the area had very high unemployment and much of the housing was inadequate and crowded. The incident that sparked the riot was born out of this environment of distrust for between the police and the people of Brixton, a crowd had seen the police do an inadequate job of getting medical attention for a wounded youth and tried to intervene, the police resisted and spirited the injured man to a hospital however it was believed that the police just withdrew from the scene and left the victim to die somewhere, by this point few people believed official police explanations as these where usually pleasant sounded fob-offs to justify heavy handed policing, this widely believed of police brutality proved to be the straw that broke the camels back and a series of large and devastating riots followed.

Once the dust settled there was an investigation into the riot, crimes occurring, its policing and the causes etc. This was called the Scarman report which proved beyond doubt that a lot of the claims made by the rioters and people of Brixton was true and that the community had been the victim of systematic abuse and neglect by the state.

It will be interesting to see what a similar report into this months riots finds if they even bother to have one, or the government could just gesticulate from the pulpit on 24 hour news for a few days while the men in wigs reaffirm there masculinity by handing out heavy sentences which have almost zero use as deterrence-Brixton did have another quite large riot in 1985 after all and Northern Ireland actually has marching and rioting as an Honorary Fifth season- but will be vindictive enough to please the tabloid front page editors.

Anders links with European far right

2011-07-23T20:20:00.003+01:00

It seems Anders Behring, was quite active amongst far right circles, including our very English Defence League, he also appears to have had a grudge against Labour parties throughout Europe as he claims the UK intelligence services are run by the Labour party (I assume he means controlled and directed by the Party itself rather just ran by its Ministers during its time in government) "Second, Labour governs intelligence service. They had never in his life supported the EDL as these create a lot of positive attention for the cultural conservative movement in the UK." Source which does seem to support the view that he believed the Norwegian Labour party was directly responsible for what he called "Eurabia" and the Islamisation of Europe" hmm those two terms sound familiar to anyone?

He also viewed the Norway's mainstream media as part of a Marxist plot " It would be a pity if you ignored the suggestions and decided to squandered all the money in a potentially "politically correct" person with a background in the Marxist boot camp: Volda University College or any other journalist (Marxist) camps, etc." source number 13 He goes on like that for a while rambling throughout the document about all sorts of topics, though Marxists and Muslims keep cropping up. Anyone familiar with the thinking and propaganda of groups such as the EDL BNP or there continental equivalents will find a lot of it sounds very familiar. All in all quite a paranoid and warped view of the world. Lets hope the appalling nature of Anders actions in Norway will wake at least a few of the flag waving crusader up before there frustrations cause them to try something like this. Well I hope they will but I won't hold my breath.

Take care.

Oslo attacks kill over 80

2011-07-23T13:21:00.009+01:00

Yesterday Norway was rudely acquainted with the brutal affects of Terrorism, when a dual attack rocked the capital and brought bloodshed to the idyllic nearby island of Utoey. Fortunately the Oslo car bomb despite being place close to pack government and press offices had a relatively low death toll, unfortunately the attack on Utoeya seems to have been exceptionally bloody. Originally as the below report shows it was fought that most of the young people on the island had thankfully escaped death, but after police where able to mount a proper search of the island they uncovered many more victims.

Friday's coverage

Since we apparently live in the age of false memory syndrome, the attacks where quickly seized upon by crusader fanatics as evidence of the global Jihad (just put Muslim and Oslo into Google like this to see a few examples). Most of the ones I've seen though where by American authors though, so I'm guessing they know nothing of European history, especially its long experience with politically motivated violence from a number of different groups for variou reasons (Marxist politics, National Liberation, Chauvinism etc.). Hell evenf neighbouring Sweden has something of a Terrorist tradition, In 1975 the Red Army Faction took over the West German Embassy then in the following year there was the botched operation Leo and of course we have the term "Stockholm syndrome" though that term was coined after a Bank-heist. The only European sources I could find jumping on the Muslim bomber bandwagon identify themselves with the Far Right, and they have a very cold and fractious relationship with logic and reality anyway.

No it looks like the culprit Anders Behring Breivik (pictured) has been apprehended and is as white as the virgin snow. He also identifies himself as a Christian and a Conservative, which may also explain why so many of the right wing commentators whom called Jihad early on are refusing to retract there statements. It is also suspected that he had links to radical far right groups and had overtly anti-Muslim views. This would also explain why the Labour party was explicitly targeted rather then focusing on state infrastructure. Scandinavia like much of Europe has had some tensions over the immigration specifically Muslim migrants as they are both foreign in appearance culture and religion they top all three categories on right wing "bad" lists. And much of the anger these groups have is directed just as much at the governing party (or parties if changes in government haven't change immigration numbers) as they are the immigrant communities. They view the government as a fifth column allowing the contamination and transformation of are pure and near perfect societies. Deliberately targeting and killing young people (some just 15 years old)is an extremely cold blooded thing to do, and doesn't offer much tactically speaking unless you viewed the organisation they are affiliated too as the enemy in which case your pre-emptively striking against the next generation of the adversary.

Now Anders represents something of a continent wide phenomenon a right wing radical who doesn't fit into the neat mould of a Jackbooted skinhead. In fact in recent years the demographics of far right groups in Europe have shifted away from hard-line Mein Kampf reading Neo-Nazi's. A large number seem to be drawn from radical nationals and Christians. This is for a number of reasons, one of which is that the Parties and gangs on the far right have deliberately positioned themselves away from there roots to appear in a more "defensive role". In fact its debatable if there are any real Fascist groups of prominence left in Europe.Kevin Passmore in his Fascism a very short introduction notes that there are a number of differences the likes of Mussolini and Hitler, and are modern Aryan vanguard Fuhrer's Nick Griffin and Geert Wilders, he argues that a more accurate term would National Populism, since there platforms are essentially define parts of are nations culture we find agreeable define groups and ideas we find irreconcilable with them (Communism, immigrants, Islam etc.) and pledge to vigorously defend it from the "others", this means that modern far right organisations are and will become much more rooted in folk culture and Christianity because those are the pillars of European society, religion and tradition are nothing if not the first examples of ideology and have come to shape how we (even atheists) view things such as property, marriage, gender roles, the layout of the year, and morality. The EDL and BNP, even the old NF all chose to clothe themselves in the symbols of Britain (in particular English Britain)and constantly tell everyone who will listen that they are the ultimate force of Patriotism.

This means that as time goes on we probably see less of the Swastika and Deustchland Deustchland Uber Alles and more crucifixes and national anthems played at the sites of similar atrocities. Take care people of Norway, hope the rebuilding goes as smoothly as possible and that the injured make full recoveries and that the families of the deceased can someday come to terms with there loss.

Your replacement weekend paper

2011-07-10T12:51:00.006+01:00

Now that the News of the World has closed down a lot of people will probably have a paper shaped hole on Sunday. If your one of those people don't worry Uncle Michael's got you covered. Now is the perfect opportunity to try out the weekend edition of the MorningStar.
For just £1 you get two days worth of information with almost no adverts (thanks to the ban by the advertising council)with unprecedented coverage of both the labour movement -as opposed to merely regurgitating stock prices like other papers- and the various campaigns to improve are society and the world. It also feature thorough and under appreciated sports sections complete with tips, interviews and analysis of the shady goings on at the managing level that sadly plague many sports at the professional level, without falling victim to blind "my country tis for thee" jingoism that is so prevalent in every other sports coverage that I'm aware of.

Now you can pick up a copy from the shelves in your local Co-op/ Somerfield, or Mcoll's newsagent, as well as a few other chains, or you can ask your local newsagent to order them in for you, (usually they order extra in case other customers are interested). Read a few articles on the website if your a bit unsure, like for example this one. As far as I'm concerned the Morning Star is the only paper where principled journalism is still practised, well the Mirror does have its moments, and the Liberal rags (Independent, and Guardian) are definitely on a level above right wing gutter floaters, but you do have to put up with a ridiculously condescending and self congratulating tone, and for all the protestations about morals and green living won't hesitate to take big payouts from the same companies and individuals they railed against a couple of issues in.

Anyway just a thought.

Rupert the Barefaced Liar

2011-07-08T12:56:00.002+01:00

Thought a quick post to celebrate this hilarious song by the folks at Dailyreckless about the on going storm at News International was in order.

Read all about it! Read all about it!

2011-07-07T15:23:00.005+01:00

Oh the tide she is a turning. It looks like finally after literally decades of encroachment on the mass media market and body politic of many nations, the Murdoch Empire has over extended itself. Those phone hacking revelations keep getting worse and worse. It seems that Glenn Mulcaire was not just being paid handsomely for hacking into minor celebs and "photogenic" politicians, it looks like the News of the World head private Dick* has been causing gathering info on wounded and killed servicemen and there families, coupled with allegations that the paper may have had very friendly ties to a number of police officers this could very well turn out to be the perfect storm of bad news for News International in regards to there UK holdings. This story has already cost the PM his favoured PR man Andy Coulson when the links between him and Mr Mulcaire were made known, now many companies have followed the lead of the British legion and dropped contracts with the "Newspaper". And Cameron is even considering an independent inquiry into the whole affair not good news for the share holders as long time readers of Private Eye will know . That is the problem with buying up Politicians they have to maintain at least bare minimum of popularity otherwise they get chucked out of office, and then will be of no use to the boys with money and will kiss most of there "gifts" goodbye.

But News of the World and Murdoch are nothing if not tenacious, it is possible given the resources and assets they've accrued over the years that they will be able to weather the storm, no doubt heaping all the blame on a publicly known minor figure, so we need to keep the pressure up.

And here are two handy ways to help out:

38 degrees long-standing campaign to halt News Internationals complete takeover bid of BSKYB is still ongoing here.

And Avaaz is running a similar campaign here.

And as in life I like to finish with a song, and usually like that song to be by the Jam so here we go.

* short for detective

The political currency of Tetris

2011-06-23T17:31:00.009+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, as penance I offer what I hope will be a convergence of multiple themes (for lack of a better word)that I've previously talked about, namely the history of the Soviet Union, and video games. I recently discovered the above very catchy music video detailing a brief yet surprisingly accurate and lyrical history of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and modern Russia. The only real criticism I'd make is the endings optimism about Russia's political leanings, its often forgotten that United Russia the Russian Federations governing and most popular party is a Conservative party not a left leaning one. The confusion on this front often stems from two things, first every western Conservative party has since the 1980's completely embraced 19th century liberal economics (hence why its called Neo-Liberal) all Milton Friedman (he bloke who gets the credit) did was update the terminology of Gladstone's speeches. And the seeming refusal of Putin and Medvedev to completely denounce the Soviet Union in its entirety, "Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains."

Anyway after hitting the replay button a dozen times I was reminded of a documentary I watched on BBC Four(first part viewable below*) about the actual Tetris game and how a simple puzzle game about oddly shaped blocks actually raised a few problems for International Relations because of its popularity.

During the Cold War there were periods of "thawing" between the West and the USSR, at this time trade did occur and were expanded. The most significant period of trade occurred in the 1970's after Nixon and Kissinger successfully achieved what became known as Great Power Detente. This period ended in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The then President Carter who was suffering a severe lack of popularity as throughout the third world especially in Angola, Nicaragua and Iran the "red menace" appeared to be gaining ground toppling friendly autocrats while the United States seem to do nothing, (actually Carter approved funding and military assistance to practically every trouble spot including the Mujahedeen) so to make a big show for the American public Carter suspended all trade agreements and boycotted the Moscow Olympics, unfortunately this was not enough to save President "Peanut" though it did give Reagan the opening he needed to expand aide to the mujahedeen, and the Contra's, and the government of El Salvador amongst others.

However entertainment was exempted since it had no tactical applications or aided Soviet Foreign policy in any meaningful way. However there was still one critical problem with East West trading of electronic products. Officially the Soviet Union did not belief in individual ownership of property so who exactly would the Western game makers (in the 80's there were literally dozens of competing computer systems) acquire the rights from? The games maker Alexey Pajitnov no unless he defects as the game was developed at a Soviet Research and Development lab and he doesn't have the necessary authority. Fortunately for Nintendo and there new Gameboy good old General Secretary Gorbachev would smooth the process. As part of his economic restructuring (Perestroika) Gorbachev was very keen to increase exports to the west so created a number of export institutions such as ELORG for software exports, whose remit Tetris obviously fell under. There was however still a problem in that these export ministries had absolutely no precedent to draw experience from and a lot of pressure to deliver results, much of Perestroika and the future of the USSR depended on there performance. So in practice they operated like a cross between the Soviet foreign office and the KGB, extremely paranoid.

All of this makes for fascinating viewing.

*Torrent of the full documentary can be found with seeds here.

Correcting a Revisionist theory about Star Trek

2011-05-15T13:03:00.006+01:00

This ones only half serious. Now we all know what about Star Trek, its one of those "franchises" that became so popular and omnipresent that even if you've never watched a show, you'll know about the Enterprise, Captain Kirk, Spock, Picard (pictured) and maybe Worf and Data (a Klingon and Android respectively). The show is also well remember for its positive political messages, especially the first serious that despite airing in 1966 a time when racism sexism and homophobia were very common to the point of normality even in liberal commie Hollywood. So to make a show with a diverse cast of ethnics and mixed gender was quite ground breaking stuff. Though of course there were limits placed on it, the The three mains Kirk Spock and McCoy where white, and the female characters Uhura and Chapel where essentially a receptionist and a Nurse, and the female uniform was a lot more revealing then the male one so yeah. You might also have heard the story that Star Trek was the first show in America and probably the world to show an interracial kiss, thats true however again there was a bit of a cop out, you see that famous civil rights milestone takes place in the episode Plato's stepchildren, where a race of mentally powerful aliens force Uhura and Kirk to kiss for there amusement while both actors kick and scream and make it clear that they ain't consenting, essentially making the message be less, love is colour blind and more only a depraved alien intelligence would be pleased by "race treason". But to be fair most of these qualifiers where studio mandates, Gene Roddenberry the original idea man for the show stated that he wanted to go further, saying if he could of got away with it he would have made Kirk and Spock gay lovers, (which might explain how this video was made).

However in the States the shows political message has also garnered some criticism, more then a few have come to believe that the USS in Enterprise stands for United Socialist Soviets and that this great new world state is run on the principals of Marx and dear old Lenin. For example the above review, where the reviewer(Chuck also known as SFDebris) spends a could chunk of time railing against the hypocrisy of the "Marxist" writers. Now I happen to like Chuck also known as SFDebris reviews a lot I think he's very clever and witty, and his jokes often hit the mark and are very dark and cynical much like my own sense of humour. And if you like Star trek or any televised science fiction you should check his reviews out and can do so here.

However on this issue Chuck, and anyone who genuinely thinks that Star Trek represents a Marxist or even a socialist future show that they really don't know what those words mean. The main evidence for the Federation are a bunch of Bolsheviks is the absence of money first explicitly stated in the reviewed episode the Neutral zone. Again this just shows a glaring lack of knowledge of Left wing ideology. Socialists and Communists, do not hate money as a concept, they argue against making the private accumulation of money as a overriding goal, and against what are called artificial or surplus profits, which are the portion of sales that go to the Capitalist (the boss/owner). If anything Socialist accept money as a necessary and efficient method of standardising exchanges of goods and services. In the 1900's and early 20th century there was a debate in many nations as to whether to make paper currency the norm rather then metal coins, some of the most vocal advocates of this position where members of communist and socialist groups, Owen in the Ragged Trousered Philanthropist makes a similar argument in an early chapter, as does Ernest in Iron Heel, if I remember correctly. The reason for this is simply paper is extremely cheap and renewable therefore no risk of running out, or scarcity driving up the value of the currency and thus every commodity.

Some Anarchist do want to abolish money, however they are mostly of the Natural or primitivism school of thought and advocate scrapping industry and returning to a more "natural" agrarian existence complete with the barter system of economics. So does that mean the Federation is an Anarchist Federation? no thankfully. Star Trek is not really any form of political radicalism at all. It is in fact an example of Liberal Utopianism, more closely linked to the works of Rousseau.

Now I'm going to simplify here, the basic crux of Liberal Utopianism is this, humanity is at heart "good" and strive to be better. Our "flaws" are the result of living in an imperfect environment and having incorrect education. Therefore as humanity continues to develop better technology and education we as a whole will advance until finally reaching a point where all worldly vices are controlled and then eliminated. What was the biggest impediment to enlightenment facing an American audience when Star Trek was first made? discrimination, hence why Roddenberry made the cast as diverse as possible to both show that prejudice was stupid and show that a future where we've overcome these roadblocks is possible and desirable.

Fast forward to the 1980's and we have the next generation (the one with Sir Patrick Stewart) and the Neutral Zone, I should point out that I'm not defending the episode, I hated it myself but I feel some of the criticism is misplaced and it fuels the mistaken beliefs about the shows political orientations. A big complaint about this episode is that its odd how 20th century man is not only looked down upon as primitive barbarians but where essentially only guilty of avarice. Where not even given the excuse that the Stock broker's greed caused misery and suffering to others, he likes money (a lot) and should be sneered at. Well the answer to this seemingly bizarre choice of villain? lies in its Liberal subtext, since day one the Star Trek creative team saw it as an educating tool as well as entertainment hence all the social commentary, and like all good social commentary it should be relevant to the audience which in this case where Reagan era Americans. Which is why the object of scorn for this episode is essentially a Yuppie, rather then a warlord, terrorist, bigot or religious fundamentalist, the writers probably believed that America had at least progressed past those vulgarities, and was just having problems getting of its money obsessions. This is also probably why the Next Generation shows started explicitly stating money is gone and we all work to better are selves, to once again show the humanity is with a little patience capable of "evolving" beyond this flaw just like all others before it to show the audience that life is not purely a pursuit of monetary wealth, and that the alternative may well be desirable.

TL:DR Star Trek is not Socialist or anything of the sort, get over the Red scare and next time actually read a political ideology before you start slagging it off, otherwise the only one who looks bad is you.

Forget me Knot

2011-04-28T17:16:00.006+01:00

Just got back from the Cleethorpes Memorial service for workers on International workers Memorial Day. Despite the melancholy nature of the event I think it went pretty well. The weather was good, nice and sunny with a cooling sea breeze, and there was a big turnout, with delegates and speakers from the local Labour group both Council and party, every Trade Union operating in our region (North East Lincolnshire, and North Lincolnshire there's a bit of an overlap) relatives of some of those killed in work related accidents in our area Unfortunately Northern Lincolnshire, is above the national average in this regard due to the towns Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Immingham and the surrounding villages are home to a large number of refineries and chemical plants, which contribute to the injuries and deaths from warehouse and factory accidents. There was even a delegation from the local Liberals ,well only two of them, but to there credit these two had supporting the event and the campaign for recognition before that, and kept the speech non-partisan so I have no objections to there attendance. Strangely though no local Tories turned up, maybe they collectively had a scheduling mishap, perhaps something had gone awry with the royal wedding preparations? or they didn't fancy having to answer for the ConDems "Easing business regulation" plans that will gut Health and Safety measures on our docks, airports and transport hubs? who can say if they won't.

Unfortunately since this was a memorial service it wasn't long before the content started to but dampen the mood. 151 killed in work related deaths in UK last year, and that figure does not include those killed while driving, or those whom have succumb from a work related injury or illness contracted several years prior. And an estimate of 2 million killed on the job globally. The speakers made a very good point, if every work related death received an eighth of the media attention that are service men receive when then sadly are killed in relation to there work (funny since the army used to a few years ago advertise the statistics that your more likely to be killed in a civilian occupation then as a front-line servicemen)then there would be a lot more pressure on government and employers to clean up there act.

If a country lost two million in a year due to war, there would be a lot of questions being asked to why, are the Generals incompetent? is the equipment or training inadequate? and what solutions are being offered to prevent next years 2 million casualties. But alas work related injury and deaths do not receive much attention, outside of the Morning Star. I couldn't even find details about today's service in the local paper I had to ring up a friend and double check the starting time.

Even big global disasters that are guaranteed to sell copies and get viewers usually ignore the human costs, like the Oil rig of the coast of the US, how much time was spent on the 11 workers killed in the explosion before the "mainstream" newsreaders started discussing things like stock hits and loss of confidence? not much. They didn't even bother covering the environmental impact in detail until heartbreaking pictures of oil covered animals started coming in. Nor did they show much interest in the loss of livelihoods suffered by the small fishermen and local business until people started getting angry and the issue of compensation numbering in the hundred millions started to turn a few heads.

In short we must as this memorial day implores us, remember the dead and continue to fight for the living.

Another Day of Life

2011-04-24T13:05:00.007+01:00

Sorry for the quiet time, after attending the Union march on the 26th I had to work to get a lot of assignments finished. Anyway in between them I managed to find time to read Another Day of Life by Ryszard Kapuscinski Cold War journalist of much acclaim and controversy. The book is his account of both the last days of Portuguese colonialism, and the early months of the Civil War that followed.

One thing that has annoyed me greatly is the almost universal (in the west at least, maybe other regions and countries are better at this) "whitewashing" if you'll forgive the term of African history. Africa has a wealth of experience of conflict, liberation, subjugation, peace, compromise, mediation, Socialism, Marxism, Nationalism, Pan-Nationalism, Capitalism, formal and informal trade, cultural exchange, regional entities etc. Yet at best it is either depicted as a continent of passive victims, genuine lessons about the evils of imperialism and warnings of continued exploitation by the industrialised North and East are watered down by this perception that it is up to the benevolent Liberal sensibility of those nations to save the day usually ignoring the knowledge and resistance to those forces done on the ground and at high risk. Or even worse problems on the continent are seen as evidenced of native inferiority, words like "Tribal" and "Warlord" are thrown about without proper context or explanation. You could actually see a bit of this in the reporting of the earthquake in Haiti which of course is not in Africa it just shares ethnic and cultural links to it.

The most well known events of modern Africa are of course the fall of Apartheid in the South Africa, but again in the west there are some problems with the retelling of the tale. Most of the thanks goes not to the internal resistance to the regime of "Boer" supremacists or the Cubans dying to check South Africa's military expansion,but to the boycott movement, its true that the boycotting of South Africa helped and those who took part in it should rightly be proud. However as North Korea has shown an regime can survive no matter how marginalised globally so long as internal dissent is contained or non existent, also if it wasn't for the brutal repression of civil rights activists black and white like that ugly joke went "how many South African police does it take to crack an egg? none it fell down the stars" would enough people in the West care enough to say no to South African orange? I'm guessing no.

This is why I find Another Day so refreshing it like the documentary on Burkina Faso's Martyred revolutionary Thomas Sankara, seen here on Youtube and a few others get past the cultural blinkers and show us at least a glimpse of Africans acting on their own, responding to the great challenges that push down on them, sometimes successful sometimes not, but always acting like real proactive human beings.

The Civil war that forms both the "setting" and "narrative" of the book is perhaps most famous for two things first its length (late 1975-2002) and a battle outside a small southern town involving Cubans and Afrikaners , but despite that being in the 80's the events of Angola's turbulent birth as an independent nation can be seen as a dry run for South Africa's later invasion of its northern neighbour (Namibia was of coursed occupied by South Africa at this time giving it a direct land border with Angola's southern region.

The first section of this 144 page book describes the evacuation of the Portuguese from the Capital Luanda, how they stripped everything of value they could physically drag to the Airport and docks, there fears about "black primitives" coming out of there mud huts in the African quarters (a universal feature of colonialism in Africa was that the natives didn't even enjoy freedom of movement in the cities that were built by them on their own land) with sharpened knives, and their resentment at having wasted 40 or more years trying to tame these savage lands and build a new life for themselves. Many Portuguese colonists where relatively new as the then recently deposed Dictatorship of Salazar's cronies used the colonies as a dumping ground for the poor and restless. And the physical decay of Luanda as the infrastructure and services of the city one by one breakdown or leave, this was before the agreed official hand over of power to Angola in November 1975 which meant that all official state functions and property like the fire service and police where still under Portuguese control which meant that the Angolans couldn't legally replace them without violating the agreement leaving the few citizens left in the cities with a rough few weeks in the Autumn run up while the Faction (there where three) in control cobbled together its own replacements. Water pumping stations for example where kept running until fighting damaged them as an accepting feature of the war was those without water surrender or day quickly. But in the case of Luanda the Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola (MPLA) was usually able to repair them after a counter attack.

The second section is about Ryszard's travels to the "front" unlike in Europe, the geographical features of Angola and much of Africa mean there exist a different form of warfare. Things like heat, and water scarcity meant that long lines of trenches and fortifications with clear statements of who controls what where infeasible. So a front was where ever a isolated unit happened to be stationed and territory was divided up based on who was the last faction to enter the village or town. To get to a front often meant passing through a number of checkpoints with almost no way to tell which faction held what ahead of time, since uniforms helmets and flags where pretty scarce. Given that the Civil War was from its start tied up in both African regional ambitions between Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in the North and South Africa in the... well South and the global Cold War meant that foreigners like Ryszard from Warsaw where by default considered supporter of one Faction or another. In Ryszard's case he was sided with the MPLA due to the Soviet Union's support for that movement, in fact early anti-MPLA propaganda incited the murder of any East European in the country because of this. The trick was to call the guards either Camrada (comrade, for MPLA) or Irmao (brother for other factions) in a way that couldn't be heard properly so the guards would identify themselves asking for a repeating.

After a cross country tour of all the fronts, Ryszard while at the MPLA's most southern front hears rumours from a friendly Portuguese who initially fled to Namibia before returning after the massacres and looting long feared didn't materialise and his mother ended up baking bread for an MPLA unit, that the South Africans have been amassing across the border and have been recruiting local mercenaries, Portuguese exiles and UNITA troops for what can only be a big push straight up for Luanda and the MPLA national headquarters. The third faction the FLNA in North has an understanding with UNITA and the support of Zaire and will also be making a push down South in a coordinated attack on the MPLA. This means that Ryszard is in a unique position as one of the few journalists in Angola (the Portuguese media is more concerned with the turbulent domestic situation at the present) and who is friendly to the MPLA and has contacts with Poland which I'm sure we all know who else he has contact with by association (hint they drink Vodka) all of which add up to an immediate race by Car back to the Capital through no mans land and past several battles in a scene that would look great in a film adaptation to inform the Polish Press Agency whom will no doubt inform Moscow.

After passing on the message unaware if he is too late, remember the borders are confused and there little in the way of national communications, he is contacted by two Cuban military advisers for a chat. The airport and ports are still at this point in the hands of the Portuguese as the deadline for independence 11th November is a week or to off, which is probably why the South Africans where desperate to invade right away and finish off the MPLA before the gates where opened to economic and military assistance, after all even though Portugal is still Officially in control of the country its clearly in capable of resisting or punishing South Africa if it took offence to this technical invasion. And since the MPLA is nominally Communist the Western powers wouldn't shed more then Crocodile tears over there demise especially if South Africa generously gave power back to a FNLA-UNITA alliance, neither faction posed much threat to its regime.

You might be wondering what made Angola such a special interest for Cuba, since the 1970's where a decade of Insurgency with many Guerilla armies existing in Africa and South America why focus on Angola? well apart from first getting into contact with the MPLA during their ill fated Congo mission Angola and Cuba have an intertwined history. Angola was the capital of the slave trade, many Africans where captured and shipped over sea's when the Portuguese figured out how to exploit the inter tribal rivalries to negotiate "contracts" for captured prisoners. In fact the majority of Blacks living in Cuba, Brazil and the Dominican Republic ancestors where shipped from Angolan ports. So interlinked where these states that when the People's Republic of Angola was announced by the MPLA leader and first Native President Agostinho Neto the first country to recognise them was actually Brazil despite the vast political differences between them.

So when the MPLA began there Revolution it was the Cubans rather then the Soviets who first stepped up to the plate, in Solidarity and provided assistance. When the Airport in Luanda was relinquished to Angola the first planes to land where Cuban Airliners carrying troops and supplies.

Needless to say despite a close call the assault is repulsed and by March 76 the South Africans withdraw. They would return for a visit on occasion, officially they went into Angola the first time to protect the dam systems on the Cunene river that forms a natural border between Angola and Namibia. On aside note the South African "Defence" Minister at the time was Pieter Willem Botha who go on to lesser things in human terms. The final section of the book is an appendix for those unfamiliar with Angola and the conflict, it includes a history of the Portuguese colony and the new nation, as well as a time line of important events in regards to the forming of the three major factions, what they believed and who supported them. In fact it might be worth reading the final section first to acquaint yourself with some background information and key terms.

This book is a short and concise summary of the beginnings of Angola and the civil war and the MPLA, and I highly recommend it as a starting point for those interested in them and Africa as a whole.

The kind of Socialism Sinatra would enjoy

2011-03-19T19:42:00.004Z

I first heard this "swing" version of the internationale on the end credits of Michael (no relation)Moore's Capitalism a Love story , and spent a few hours trying to track it down, however since I mistakenly thought it was by Richard Cheese perhaps most well known for his cover of "Get down with the sickness" in the actually not quite bad Dawn of the Dead remake(shame about the remake of the sequel), and not Tony Babino my searches where fruitless until recently.

Despite the odd marriage, the emancipation of the global Proletariat, the overthrow selfish tyrants and all artificial divisions (looking at you nationalism) and quite rich Sinatra inspired vocals by Tony B do make for a good song, I found this vid this morning and have been singing it all day.

Metro 2033

2011-03-14T19:20:00.006Z

"Fear the Future"

A quick disclaimer, this a rveiw of the novel Metro 2033 and not the video game which I have not played, though a friend who has tells me the plot is fundamentally the same, so this may get into spoiler territory for both.

Metro 2033 by Dimitry Glukovsky is on one level the standard fiction tale of a young man growing up in a back water being a “chosen one” who must journey to the far corners of his world in order to save his home and by extension the rest of the world from a great external threat. That we've all seen in dozens of works for years. While on another level it is a complex, at times darkly comedic satire of Russia’s political history. Some stations are the run by Communists on the “red line” in clear reference to the Soviet Union, there’s also a Trotskyist station and a run in with some funny extremely dedicated but weird Trots. Three stations have been overrun by Fascists in a clear comment on the depressingly large “national Bolshevist” movement and the trend of Ultra nationalism in current Russian politics. The dominant faction in terms of stations under its control are the Hansa (short for Hanseatic league) a cabal of merchants who have embraced market capitalism, another critique of the rise in neo-liberalism in the 90’s. Some stations are run overtly by Mafiya’s and Caucasian gangs again a transparent comment on the rise of organised crime throughout the Russian Federation. Smaller factions include Jehovah witnesses again a group that has caused a bit of a stir in contemporary Russia.

The setting is of course the Moscow underground after a nuclear war in the near future hence the title, we never find out why the war was started and who exactly was involved, but we do know that humans cannot survive on the surface without environment suits and shielding without suffering extreme mutation. The Metro survivors subsist on a diet of moss, mushrooms and chicken, pig and rat, the only stable currency is ammunition meaning that you literally shoot money in a fight, which might explain why there have been so few overt takeover attempts between the factions, with the only one of note being a war between the reds and the Hansa that was resolved before the events of novel start.

Artyom our protagonist accidently opened a route to the surface as a child and now in his twenties it appears that large numbers of psychic mutants “the dark ones” have been entering the Metro and have begun encroaching on his home station VDNKH. Hunter a stalker embarked on a mission to seal the doors Artyom opened but presumably did not succeed. This means that Artyom via Hunter’s last request must journey throughout the Metro to Polis the closest thing to a city left underground and seek aide from the government there. Though initially a simple task the politics of the Metro force Artyom to take a painfully long and circuitous route to Polis frequently getting side tracked with some travelling companions. He frequently comes close to death particularly when being hung for shooting a Fascist officer only to be rescued by the aforementioned Trots. After finally making to Polis Artyom is forced to agree to a scheme by the cities scholars whom suspect him of being a prophet who can find them a sacred tome. This tome is located on the surface within the Moscow library a place infested with a type of mutant known only as the “librarians”.

After surviving the journey to the surface Artyom is given the information he seeks. It seems the key to his salvation is the location of a missile silo that was spared in the Great War, however getting there will require both a “rocket man” (a missile commander) and the location of a secret entrance to that Silo’s bunker found only on the hidden government underground Metro-2.

After a run in with a cult of cannibals Artyom and a group of Stalkers in the company of one of the few remaining “rocket men” discover Metro-2 and get to work on setting up the Missile launchers. Artyom is then tasked with aiding the missile targeting and must journey back on to the surface to a lookout post in order radio in coordinates. And the novel ends shortly after.

Before I get much further I should point out that there is a sequel cleverly named Metro 2034 however as far as I am aware that one has not yet been translated into English, it has however been translated into German so those who speak it or its original Russian might want to give it a try.

I have also omitted quite abit from the above synopsis because despite having the standard overall adventure plot Metro 2033 does have quite a few twists on the established tropes that would be ruined when spoiled. Also the first two chapters are easily the worst, the book has a lot of back story to establish and does so in the worst way, the first 40 pages out of a total of 459 are almost all flashbacks triggered by snippets Artyom hears whilst by the camp fire. Fortunately by the final half of the second chapter the writing gets immeasurable better, there are still frequent cases of exposition and background info being given to Artyom and by extension the reader but in those instances you not only have an established feel for the world of the Metro and have to come to grips with much of the establishing back story, and the fact that they take place in a more organic way in settings that make more sense given Artyom has never left his station before and needs information on the changing nature of the Metro particular its politics an area where the young man is especially clueless.

The tone of the book is very similar to Roadside picnic by the famous (to Russians anyway) Strugatsky brothers(they even have characters called stalkers) and of course the film it inspired though perhaps the comparison most well known to a Western audience would be the Ukrainian video games series S.T.A.L.K.E.R. not unsurprising given that both they and the game Metro 2033 share some of the development team.

I would definately recommend Metro 2033 to anyone intersted in the dystopian after the end style survival genre, as well as those who have an interest in Russian history and politics as well as Sci-Fi fans in general as aside from those first chapters and some translation hiccups it is an highly intelligent and enjoyable read.

Revolutionary roadblocks

2011-03-11T13:38:00.006Z

Unfortunately the present situation in Libya is a graphic demonstration of how Revolutions are in a constant state of motion (hence the name) and do not always move forward. Earlier in the week things looked very good for the Revolution, though Gaddafi was able to retake parts of the West, while unfortunate it was quite likely given that Tripoli is in the Western part of the nation and the government had built up a high concentration of loyal forces there, The Eastern revolt had got its act together and began march on Tripoli, major battles took place in both Brega and Ras Lanuf as the below video's show,

Brega

Ras Lanuf

Unfortunately as has been widely reported Gaddafi now feels secure enough to began bringing the full might of his forces to bear against the revolution,. Air strikes and artillery bombardments have become common and have been enough to force the Revolutionaries to withdraw from the city of Ras Lanuf

Government counter attack

However despite the grim news I remain confident that the Revolt will prove in the end to be sucesfull, you will I'm sure notice that the government has only been able to win in clashes where the odds are heavily in there favour such as in the West and when they aren't bogged down in extended fighting like when using Air and artillery this suggests that Gaddafi believes his troops are loyal enough to kill for him but not as he repeatedly claims to die for him. This will probably mean the conflict will take the form of bloody air strikes against population centres in order to break the will of the Revolution. Fortunately at present that will seems to still be very strong as the demonstration by the free women of Benghazi shows.

This is where the issue of a "no fly zone" comes into it. The US,UK and EU nations have been caught in an embarrassing situation, on the one hand Africa and the Middle East have seen an upsurge in mass mostly peaceful demonstrations demanding Democracy and an end to corruption and state brutality, the very ideas the Liberal West prides itself on and has been lecturing those very regions on how they should adopt them. On the other hand every single regime with the exception of Syria and Iran that has been threatened by has been a key ally of the West both in terms of resource acquisitions primarily energy products like oil and gas but also geo-strategically by ensuring other competitors like Russia and China can't get make a claim.

For example guess who makes those Mirage jets that are carrying out bombing runs on the Libyan people? thats right the French Dassault company. This is why the reactions from government on both Tunisia and Egypt have been so pathetic and why they are now bringing up the issue of a no fly zone over Libya since there own "bosses" (Yeah right) the western population is getting pretty annoyed that there governments aren't living up to there ideals.

The issue of a no fly zone is a little contentious with some citing the spectre of renewed imperialism, my problem with this argument is that it seems to ignore the wishes of the Libyan Revolutionaries who lets face it are the most qualified to make statements regarding the situation in Libya. It also seems to imply that the dedicated men and women of the Revolution who have time and again clearly stated that they don't want an armed intervention or military aide, and that they correctly see the governments of the West as opportunists who collaborated in there oppression as soon as the heat from Lockerbie and the IRA arms sales cooled down and the extent of oil supplies were confirmed. Would then just switch off and get back on their knees and welcome business as usual. Furthermore the sooner Gaddafi's air-power is neutralised the sooner he'll be overthrown and the stronger and more energetic the Revolution will be to resist foreign intervention, as they'll have less damage to repair and wounded to treat.

Avaaz a sort of global 38degrees is running a petition to but pressure on the UN to honour the wishes of the Libyan people, I've signed it and I hope anyone reading this will too.

Happy International Womens Day!

2011-03-08T21:06:00.004Z

Sorry its a bit late (it should still be women's day for those of you to the West of me) I was celebrating Shrove Tuesday (pancake day) with my relatives to mark the annual fast where not really religious though they are Catholic Irish so a lot of the customs rubbed off, this year I am giving up lager.

Anyway heres a quick post to celebrate the centenary of international womens day. To clarify in case the video confuses, I agree with the sentiment and it is a good thing that we have at least one day where the issue and discrimination affecting women past and present is guaranteed attention and discussion, I just don't see why it should stop at 00:00 the next morning. I mean I think its good that Daniel Craig is prepared to risk even more ridicule from fringe arseholes by coming out in support of women's rights, but is 007 in drag really the best way to get across a reminder that despite the hard work of Feminists and Socialists ( Keir Hardie and The Labour party was the first British political party to back universal suffrage rather then the Sexist and classist policies of their Liberal and Conservative counterparts including a number of women's suffrage groups tied to them) women even in the "civilised" liberal west still face a lot of abuse both personal and systematic?

Anyway hope everyone had a good womens/pancake day and that Daniel Craig was at least able to raise a bit of awareness whilst giving the internet loonies a bit of a chuckle.

Shame on You

2011-03-01T19:32:00.002Z

Just a quick post to break in the new month. Captain SKA the group behind the excellent Liar Liar have released another musical rebuttal to the ConDems dishonest preaching of fiscal responsibility. For me the song isn't as good musically as Liar Liar but then my musical tastes are extremely random as clicking on the Music tag below will show. As such I'm not the best judge of musical quality, however I will say this I can listen to it from start to finish it isn't bad and it clearly gets its points across, and that is after all the most important thing a political oriented musician(s) can hope to achieve, and on that front Shame on you is a big success, I hope it and many other songs like it do well.

West up to its old tricks in Haiti

2011-02-27T12:14:00.002Z

Well its been over a year since that terrible Earthquake wrecked the most vulnerable nation in the Caribbean and sadly it appears that despite shaking the foundations of the nations houses the countries just as rotten political house seems to have been untouched and is set to receive a fresh coat of paint in the form of a sham election. Now the North American members of the organisation of American States (plus France for some reason) interfering in the internal politics of Haiti is not surprising to those who've studied its almost non stop history of abuse at the hands of the dominant colonial/imperial powers at the given time. What makes this latest development so galling is that its happening at a time when much more attention is being directed at the nation, before shady business deals and exploitation could be carried out with impunity as few were paying attention and the Caribbean nations were to poor to get there plight across to the world community effectively.

Ultimately though it does not matter who wins the elections in Haiti, ever since Aristide was kicked out and his party Fanmi Lavalas was banned the electoral process in Haiti has become a sham. Fanmi Lavalas is the largest party in Haiti and its deposed President(who might be coming back) the only one with genuine popular support of a kind different from the lesser evil, or better the devil you know school of thought.
Banning the largest political party from standing for election is in effect an affront to the democratic ideal which lets remind ourselves is the power of the people to decide there fates, and an blatant admittance of systematic fraud.

Walker gets caught short

2011-02-24T11:02:00.002Z

This is amazing, Governor Walker the man at the forefront of the attacks on the working class in America was caught out actually admitting that his bill to take away certain Unions collective bargaining was not ideological in nature, but that it is very much the first in a series of attacks on organised labour lined up by a number of Republicans across the states. He was having a phone conversation with what he thought was the older Koch brother a pair of billionaire's (inherited naturally) whom have spent decades funding right wing pro business groups in America including the Tea Party and one Governor Scott Walkers election campaign. Maybe now people will finally realise that capital is not a friend of freedom or progress, it is a friend of well just capital.

People power from the plains of Wisconsin to the shores of Tripoli

2011-02-23T20:21:00.003Z

This post is an addendum to the two recent stories about the crumbling of the regime in Libya and the ongoing assault on workers rights in America.

Opposition to Governor Walkers bill to take away workers rights to collectively bargain continues to grow with the state's Unions showing good workers solidarity. Particularly the Fire Brigade which was exempt from the ban in a shameless attempt to divide and conquer the working men and women of the dairy state and have gone on to be a driving force in the protests.

Meanwhile in Libya theres good news and bad news, the good news is the revolt has taken the East and has spread to the West, the bad news is that the Colonel is still in charge and has cracked down even harder. He has also made a quite violent speech putting the rumours that he's fled to Venezuela (as if, keep wishing US state department). Things are still very much hanging in the balance but it does look like his regime has disintegrated beyond the point of repair, hell even the interior minister has defected and he's usually in charge of the detention centre's spies and secret police.Unfortunately if he realises that he might decide to go out in even more bloodshed if only to secure his name in the history of his nation.

Reports on the situation in Libya are understandably sporadic but a group of Libyan dissidents have banded together to create a youtube channel (Save Libya) dedicated to publishing as much video footage of the chaotic scene as possible, including the most complete broadcasts from state TV and Gaddafi's increasingly unhinged demagoguery, particularly strange is this short speech below where he says he wished to sleep with the young protesters but decided not to because it was raining.

Good luck to the people of Wisconsin and Libya and to all people who are fighting against aggression and tyranny no matter is colour or cloak.

Libya is next?

2011-02-22T13:55:00.006Z

Well the revolt has continued to gain momentum throughout the Arab and African regions. Bahrain has seen its Shia majority demanding a fair share of there nation from there Sunni Autocrats, and its King appears to have killed any chance of a compromise when he took part in a clamp down against protesters that left several dead. Iran was also in the firing lines, though despite wishful thinking its doubtful at present that the current protests will be anything over then a repeat of the election demonstrations as the Greens unlike the revolts in Egypt, and Tunisia do not have the support of the poor, they are instead a coalition of the wealthy urban elites who are resentful of the constraints the Islamic Republic places on there personal liberties both economic and social, and are lead by on of the Republic's key strong man whom carried out one of the regimes worst atrocities in 1988. Though the continued use of armed suppression should at least take the polish off the regimes moral legitimacy.

But the big story is of course concerning the great dictator of the Mediterranean, Gaddafi of Libya. It looks like this is the end for the "Islamic Socialist" demagogue. After weeks of escalating protests and violence the Libyan government has turned to the last resort to prop up a crumbling Autocracy the bayonet. The military has been ordered to crush the protests and his son Saif Gaddafi went on television to announce a fight to the last man. "Now comes the role of the National Guard and the Army, we will not lose one inch of this land. 60 years ago they defended Libya from the colonialists, now they will defend it from drug addicts. Most of he Libyans are intelligent, they are not Baltagiya (thugs) Benghazi is a million and a half not the few thousands who are in the streets. We will flight to the last man and woman and bullet. We will not lose Libya. We will not let Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and BBC trick us.

We will live in Libya and die in Libya." And even that appears to be failing him. Two Air-force Colonels have taken there jets and scarpered over the sea to Malta, not only is the loss of two senior military officers an embarrassment but it confirmed reports that the Air Force has been ordered to bomb rebelling towns and settlements. The second city Benghazi has effectively fallen and all is far from well in the capital. Another severe embarrassment is that the Libyan diplomatic corps is also in revolt, at present the diplomatic revolt includes Malaysia, Morocco and India as well as most of the staff at the U.N. including its deputy. This perhaps even more so then the defections from the military could severely undermine the regime to the point of collapse, diplomats and ambassadors are crucial to creating to creating a favourable image of a nation and its government to the international community and given there high level access have information on at least some of the skeletons in the regimes cupboard like for example the prison massacre .

Of course had this occurred back in the 1980's or 1990's the diplomats defecting wouldn't matter to much, after all, the regime was close to pariah status after the US and UK blamed Lockerbie on the Libyan government, what few states that did support Libya where part of the anti-imperialist camp and probably would stick with Libya regardless out of a group survival instinct. However in the early 2000's that all changed, Europe particularly Berlusconi and Blair where keen to re-rehabilitate Libya in the eyes of the international community why do this for an old foe, especially since this was the war on terror and Libya had been caught arming the IRA and the aforementioned Lockerbie attack? well it had less to do with an spirit of forgiveness and more to do with the fact that Libya is a mostly untapped energy giant just sitting in Europe's doorstep. Well to fair it wasn't just oil, Italy was able to use Libya as a dumping ground for its illegal immigrants and refugees, where I'm sure they received the best in humane treatment. Despite the cynical nature of big business this does at least mean that Libya has become dependent on economic ties, which are now in danger of being severed, so overall it looks like his days are numbered.

Workers rights to be revoked

2011-02-19T11:47:00.001Z

Well it looks like we've finally come full circle. Newly elected Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker has announced a new budget for the Dairy state thats guaranteed to solve his states deficit* take state workers benefits away... And heres the kicker since the state employee's obviously don't see why they should pay for a economic hangover caused by private banks and financiers he's also going to take away there rights of collective bargaining or to campaign for wage increases above the consumer price index.

Once again we have a wealthy right wing gov demanding sacrifice from those below them who sacrifice every working day of there lives, heaven forbid the extremely wealthy should contribute a fraction, after all if they'd paid up it they would only be mega rich as opposed to Mega rich. Given that the bill effectively takes away workers rights to collectively organise I doubt this will be the last part of the enforced Austerity measures to be inflected upon the "middle"* class of Wisconsin. After all why bother de-fang a tiger if your not going to kick it a bit?

And don't think for a second it'll end there, Obama's unpopularity and weak handling of the corporations particularly Goldman Sachs lead to a surge in support for the Republicans in the midterm elections for the Federal legislature, they now control the House of Representatives and sliced the Democrats majority in the Senate. They also took a few state legislatures and governorships just like Wisconsin. The problem with this clear voicing of the people's discontent? most of the republicans elected are even chummier with private capital then the dems they kicked out.If Walker's attacks on organised labour are successful then it will spread to the "Red states" and once established across the nation it will act as a beacon to the right wing all over the globe. The Tories constant pushing for piecemeal privatisation of healthcare is justified ideologically on the American example, they obviously can't go on telly and say "I hate paying tax to keep the poor alive" or "I believe private health care is the way forward because I've got a cushy position on an insurance directors-board when I leave parliament" its thats what they have in America and America is great, never mind that the state of US health care and the many unscrupulous business practices of the insurers has been a running joke since the 1990's, to quote Homer "I'll be fine Marge, American Health care is the best in the world.... well except for Canada, Japan, England and most of Europe, but you can thank your lucky stars we don't live in Mexico".

Another disturbing trend displayed on the comments of the video above is that a lot of right wing "libertarians" mostly called "Tea party" or Teabaggers now a days who rail against the government for its tyrannical tendencies have absolutely no problem when that same state Tyrant takes rights away from the people to help big business move on in. Now the right wing being guilty of hypocrisy is of course nothing new and right wing cheer squads for industrialist profit margins pretending to care about liberties and people and to be patriotic is a very old tradition. But it is worrying to see the numbers of working class people this new movement has managed to ensnare.

* Actually these initial cuts at best will remove $300 million from the budget and thats assuming that the social policies attached to it don't increase unemployment and decrease tax revenue.
* In America the working class for some reason is called the middle class, with poor or the rare working label applied to the completely destitute.

The forests are safe for rambler and squirrel alike

2011-02-17T20:10:00.006Z

You know I've just realised a new year is upon us and I haven't really said much about 38 degrees. Allow me to remedy that right now. Even better I have good 38 degrees related news.

Checking my in box today I found out that the campaign to prevent to private selling off of are lovely woodlands has worked. For the last week the plans had been temporarily withdrawn following pressure, The ConDems where no doubt hoping the campaign would start to fizzle or one of there highly "skilled" PR drones could come up with a snappy sales pitch to con-fuddle the masses.

Well done to everyone who took part in the campaign in anyway however small. Of course this doesn't mean this attempt to corrupt nature and turn it into a commodity is gone for good an early campaign of theres to stop increased internet censorship by Mandelson kept cropping up (near the bottom) but it does mean that the population are now awake and aware of the dirty tricks that Nick and Dave are capable of.

The campaign of course was bigger then 38degrees 500,000+ petition, it involved community groups springing up across the country and had broad support from the rural community (except for the Countryside Alliance whose members and leaders stood to profit from the deal). But that to me is the most important factor, that internet groups can go beyond emails and petitions and actually help facilitate greater coordination of people in the real world this will really help it and other pressure groups like it make an impact in the closed world of UK politics.

Mission accomplished?

2011-02-15T15:16:00.009Z

Well that was a hectic few days by the pyramids wasn't it. Mubarak after the daring camel charge made up of interior ministry thugs and there mates who wanted a quick pay check failed to do much other then get a snigger out of people watching the news, and kill a few people gets the hopes of his people up that he would finally leave, after all the protesters enthusiams for the army was cooling fast and the Americans his regimes and its security apparatus biggest financial backer slowly but surely inching its way to the protesters side -incidentally readers of blogs like the polemical report will no doubt recall a similar scenario occurred in Honduras) where the US government and the Emperor of change Obama did not side with the democracy advocating people- only to make a speech saying he'd stay till September when his "democratic" term is up only to have his military the last working pillar of his regime give him the boot, but given that he's amassed a fortune estimated at $70 billion -all paid for by a grateful state and populous- no doubt, in foreign banks all over the world his retirement prospects aren't as bleak as most in this tough financial times.

But does that mean this is over and we can now move onto gawking at the next teetering middle eastern regimes attempts to protect there privilege? Well no theres still much to do in Egypt. Rather then an outright Democratic transfer of power to a constituent assembly or an equivalent, Egypt is now under the control of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) a council that has only previously been formed in times of war.

Now much of the mainstream media is talking about the Turkish model of government where the military is the Supreme power but unlike in Pakistan is fine with letting the civilian politicians do the difficult task of actually running the country. It is argued that this is what has kept Turkey an over 90% Muslim nation that has on occasion elected "Islamist" parties of varying degrees to government like the current Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party* from sliding into the evils of fundamentalism. Just why Islamic countries require a strong secular officer corps while predominantly Christian nations could develop secular governance without them is rarely explained by advocates of the Turkish model.What is also overlooked is the role the military plays in Turkey's aggressive attitudes to preserving the Unity of the Turkish state. Its hard to see the continued oppression of the Ethnic Armenian's and Kurds not being dictated by the Chiefs of staff.

And of course the main problem with the Turkish system other then the nagging thought that this was not what the people on the streets and in the squares wanted is that once established there is very little to keep the New Arabian Turkey from becoming the New Arabian Pakistan or Myanmar. Afterall that is how those nations became Stratocracies the military stepped in in times of crisis and then argued that they should keep power as they were the only ones strong enough to maintain stability. Who else but the Generals can effectively mediate between all those ethnic tribes spread out in Burmese valley's? who but the military can effectively maintain the order of Islamabad and expand it around the Federally Administered Tribal Areasfrom religious radicals? What is to stop SCAF from using Islamic terrorism or perhaps red revivals to justify there maintenance of there privilege? After all America and by extension the rest of the West where perfectly happy to support and fund the Security states of Ben Ali's Tunisia and Mubarak's Egypt (after his predecessor Sadat shifted Egypt to a Western alignment) why not rebuild the relationship with the Generals. Old habits do die hard remember.

And I have to say so far SCAF have not exactly embraced the Democratic spirit, they've agreed to look at reforms in the future but so far seems more preoccupied with some good old fashion strike breaking. Aside from the obvious need to protect production and profits to appease the moneyed classes both at home and abroad the moves to restrict and then no doubt crush Labour activism in Egypt represents a pretty much standard procedure for Dictatorships, but especially so in Egypt. Those who read the Morning Star will probably know this but the protests and revolts in Egypt where not simply copy and pasting from Tunisia, they had been going on for a long time, the most common of which was Strike actions. Striking under Mubarak was more then just highlighting a wage grievance it was also a declaration of discontent with the regime. Thanks to Mubarak's crony capitalism all major manufacturing and finance assets where either owned outright by the state or snapped up by key entrepreneurs who where close supporters of the NDP, a big player in this scheme was the very same military-heads who are now running the show, hence why no Labour organisations of any kind where tolerated. Most strikes that couldn't be just threatened back in line where routinely tear gassed and beaten, a practice which looks set to continue if the Military gets its way.

Fortunately though there are some encouraging signs that the people are not about to letup the pressure on there government no matter what hat it wears until this revolution is finished.

* The Justice and Development Party has recently shifted away from its religious base however due to its strong social conservatism can still be associated with the social trends in much the same way other European and American Conservatives draw their social code from their dominant variant of Christianity.

Egypt in Revolt

2011-01-30T11:40:00.005Z

My my things do happen fast, no sooner had I posted yesterdays errr post then the Real News released a series of updates on the state of affairs here they are from top to bottom.

The role of the army

Like Tunisia it appears that the Army is doing its best to distance itself from the excesses of Mubarak's security thugs. While it is of course good to see or rather not the see two national armies gunning down there own population there are a few more Machiavellian reasons why the Army would take this "neutral like" position. Since the Army top brass naturally have links to the NDP regime this could be part of an attempt to deflect criticism from any crimes or morally suspect actions they have committed as an institution or individuals, they could simply think that Mubarak's chances for survival even if they successfully suppress the revolts to be nil and don't wish to tie there bloody hands to a lame duck Autocrat. Then of course there is the Iranian example to be considered. When the Shah's regime was crumbling away in 1979 he did deploy his army against his people and for a brief period was able to restore some order to the streets,unfortunately for the Beacon of the Aryans his large army was made up of ordinary Iranians who shared many of the protesters grievances and it wasn't long before his proud army disintegrated leaving him and his supporters without any leverage of the situation forcing a prompt and humiliating dash to the airports for the Iranian aristocracy. In short the Egyptian generals are smart enough to realise its not worth forcing the issue and are doing there best to achieve a compromise by evoking the national allegiance.

Of course Revolutions are nothing if not constantly in motion. By tomorrow or an hour after I hit the post it button the Egyptian could decide that a compromise isn't good enough, or that they can get external support from say Saudi Arabia wich definitely does not want the spread of people power in the middle east or the EU or Egypt and its armies best friend the United States. After all Egypt is the lynch pin of their middle east strategy and is a key supporter of the Israeli Apartheid program especially its collective punishment blockade of Gaza and Hamas.

The Roots of the Egyptian Revolt

This interview is important and deserves a bigger audience as it dispels the myth cultivated by much of the lazy "mainstream" media that Egypts discontent was a strange spontaneous copy cat of Tunisia. The deposing of Ben Ali was important not because it was a Revolution in the Arab but because it was a Revolution in the Arab world that worked. Egyptian angered at the brutality and corruption of Hosni Mubarak and the National Democratic Party has been simmering away since the latter took power in 1981 and continued and expanded the Draconian Emergency Law to crush opposition and plunder national assets to benefit his supporters. Nearly every day since then there have been strikes, protests both peaceful and violent, sit ins, petitions, rallies and flash mobs against Mubarak but the only UK outlet to regularly report any of that was the Morning Star.

Interview discusses the International (USA) considerations of the Revolts.

This interview does a good job of outlining the International context of the Revolts and raises some interesting thoughts on what the US response is likely to be. It also puts to rest the notion that the Muslim Brotherhood has masterminded a successful fundamentalist overthrow of a modern Westernised regime something we'll no doubt hear parroted from the right wing press in the coming days. After all if we can't count on the Daily Mail, Fox News et all to reminds us daily that Arabs are Muslims (the large denominational and Christian minorities present in virtually every state are never mentioned) and that Muslims have only one political agenda the Koran then what can we count on them for?

The Revolution Spreads

2011-01-29T08:20:00.007Z

Fortunately the Revolt in Tunisia is not fizzling out as protesters continue to demand the removal and expulsion of all the higher ups of Ben Ali's regime, and seems even segments of the police and security forces are defecting no doubt in an attempt to focus the people's anger at their bosses, and the army appears to be slowly coming to the side of the population and giving up there neutrality. Overall its looking more promising that this revolt will successfully rid the country of its corrupt ruling class.

And we have even better as the Revolution is spreading throughout the Arab world. Egypt looks to be next as its previously demoralised and suppressed anti Mubarak and NDP movement appears to have been reinvigorated and is taking on the security apparatus despite the Egyptian governments massive numbers of police officers and 40 year attempt to siphon off discontent with a series of fraudulent elections, the last elections were more fraudulent then ever and only received 20% participation as can be seen in this report. Despite the repression it is quite clear to anyone with eyes that the people of Egypt want Mubarak and the NDP gone and an end to the 40 year emergency security law that has strangled Egyptisn freedoms ever since the death of Anwar El-Sadat at the hands of radical Islamist'sincidentally current Autarch Hosni Mubarak was wounded during the assassination. And an end to Eqypt's close ties to Washington and Tel-Aviv especially its collaboration with the strangling of Gaza.

Once again the strength of the peoples anger seems to be surprising the pundits. For those who wish to stay on top of the developments in Tunisia and Egypt then I can recommend these blogs Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle
and Egypt protests
Photo Source here and here.

Crocodile tears at the inquiry

2011-01-21T23:31:00.007Z

bLIAR's (couldn't resist) return performance, as that is what the Chilcott Inquiry ultimately is a platform for Blair and co to stem criticism by repeating there talking points for a while and appearing suitably chastised and besieged, seems to have been no more than a damage control exercise after realising that saying he regretted nothing while his face was plastered with that famous cheeky little grin might of come off as a bit bloody and socio-pathic.

So this time we were treated to that rarity of nature a reptile crying, unfortunately since the scaly ones are used to showing genuine emotion that routine came across as particularly sloppy and cringing " I shouldn't have said that I don't have any regrets, as you know that sounded like I didn't care about the deaths, which was..wasn't my intention I y'know deeply deeply regret the deaths of are soldiers, are allies, the civilians "helping" us in Iraq and the Iraqi's who died" which may or may not be better then child like pride at death and destruction but it's still pretty horrible, though it was amusing to clearly hear the audience murmur "too late".

We also learned that the legal case to go topple a regime just becasue you don't like them might not have been air tight,what with you know national sovereignty being the fundamental Tenant of international relations ever since a little called the Treaty of Westphalia was signed to the end the thirty years war, where otver half the population of Europe was slaughtered by mercenary forces using axes and knives becasue nearly every kingdom "republic" and Duchy collectively said to hell with everyone else's claims I want more power and influence in the world hmm.... Why does that sound so familiar?

* picture source

Tunisia North Africa's 21st century Algeria?

2011-01-19T02:42:00.008Z

Apologies for the lack of updates but my final term of uni will start up soon and I've been busy writing up my Dissertation. Its about the Soviet Afghan War for those interested.

Anyway to make up for it I offer up this quite enlightening interview by the Real News Network discussing the developments of the Tunisian Revolution and the environment in which developed and grew.

Unsurprisingly it seems the revolt was sparked after decades of corruption and false democracy supported to the hilt by the liberal democratic west (of course), including the USA, whose war on terror band wagon Tunisia like most oppressive regimes with an Islamic population jump aboard head first as it was the perfect cover for increased oppression at home without fear of any messy human rights violations inspired diplomatic incidents mucking up the waters, and with a good chance of getting discounts on weapon systems and increased financial aid.

Though of course the main accomplices to the Dictatorial regime in Tunis is France and the EU, the former has regarded North Africa like its own back garden and treated much like the US government treats Latin America with a lot of "de-weeding" and preferential use of miracle grow. With latter not batting an eye at a system it claims to find anathema so long as thousands of sun starved Euro plebs can shrug off their troubles and let off some steam by the beach on a package holiday.

Still things do look promising right now, of course given the rapid pace of Revolutionary moments that doesn't mean much. The army not defending the regime of the unlamented ex president Ben Ali is a mixed blessing. Its good that the military is refusing to attack its own citizens and become a blunt tool of the ruling clique, but on the other hand they haven't fully come over to the people's side (as an institution)as yet which does leave open the possibility that they will back another less radical "leader" against the Tunisian peoples wishes and then start to crack down on all this spontaneous organising, all in the name of stability. Still time will tell.

You know I've noticed a very disturbing trend, a hell of a lot of these tropical paradises and other holiday hotspots that seem like paradise to us Northern hemisphere folks are in actuality despotic nightmares for the people who live there. Tunisia, Egypt, Thailand, Spain first became a tourist hotspot in the 1970's during the dying days of Franco's regime, and Greece for much of the 20th century was run jointly by the military and Monarchy.

My family and I went on holiday to Egypt about 6 years ago, it was lovely, everything was sparkling and ordered..... inside the hotel once you got out into the streets amongst the beggars and security thugs (Tourist Police) and breathed in the real none plastic Egypt it wasn't long before my mood soured, I think it was when I saw six Tourist Police with Ak's strike a one legged beggar and then chuck him into the back of a van with his young child. Fortunately a few days later I saw the one legged man and his son again a few days later with only some bruising, I and my mother and father gave him all the Egyptian currency we had on us to assuage are guilt and then enjoyed the rest of are stay. But for me it was my last holiday abroad I just can't get rid of the bad feelings that I was in some small way oiling the wheels of tyranny*.

Oh, for those wondering the title alludes to a similarly turbulent chapter in the history of Tunisia's neighbour. Algeria and its struggle for independence from the yoke of French Colonial domination. Particularly the urban Guerilla movement and the street battles of the capitol Algiers, if you want a quick summary of the conflict then I strongly recommend watching The Battle of Algiers as a film it is stunning and is the most grown up and intelligent depiction of a insurgency war I've either seen it is a lot better then those Revisionist Vietnam war films the yanks came out with.

*I'm fairly certain I read that somewhere.

Assembly

2011-01-12T12:45:00.003Z

Hello all I thought it would be nice to ease into the new year with a look at one of my Christmas presents (a gift from Mike, to Mike). The English subtitled DVD of Assembly. Chinese language aside I think the main problem to this becoming a hit in the Anglo-sphere is the title, I've watched it and enjoyed it yet I still have a mental image of filing into the school hall on a wet and cold September morning to listen to a boring story that had the moral changed to be more kid friendly.

But I digress, despite being very interested in films about the Revolutionary period in China I only heard about Assembly a month ago whilst browsing the friends of China blog. And I can honestly say it is the best film about the Chinese civil war and its aftermath that I have ever seen.

It tells the tale of Captain Gu Zidi and starts in the winter of 1948 with him leading his much reduced -due to constantly fighting off enemy offensives- company in the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army and there last mission which is to hold a mine and hill by the Wen RIver which has frozen enabling the enemy to begin crossing, in a rear guard action against a KMT or nationalist army offensive allowing the rest of the Army to strategically withdraw, Captain Gu and his 46 men are only to withdraw when they hear the Assembly bugle call signalling that the rest of the army is clear, unfortunately during the battle Gu and his political officer the only surviving and combat capable officers left suffer severe damage to there hearing whilst knocking out American made tanks the KMT deployed after there infantry failed to take the positions the previous night. This means that neither heard the assembly call and despite the few survivors claiming they did Captain Gu has no choice put to obey his orders and fight on.

That night the KMT launch there final offensive, and Gu and his man mine there positions and launch what looks to be a suicide charge. We then cut to Gu in an army hospital sometime later, one very significant problem with the film is that establishing text comes out in very big Mandarin characters but has the English translation directly below it in tiny font making it very hard to keep track of where the film moves too. Anyway Captain Gu survives but is the only one and it seems his commanding officers also perished not to long after the battle and his old army was broken down and reassigned leaving the Captain the only witness to the battle on the Wen River and with no way to prove that he was actually a member of the PLA, he is however able to get reassigned to an artillery regiment just in time for the Korean war.

After his that "adventure" Gu returns to China and tries to rectify the records about his old unit, there hard fought battle is not listed, and the deceased either don't exist according the PLA records or were listed as MIA meaning there relatives were entitled to only 200 pounds of rice in compensation rather then the 700 given out to the family of martyrs. For a number of years his quest is a total failure, he can't even find the actual battle site any more since the mine they sheltered in has been reopened with the old entrances being demolished sealing in his soldiers corpses and development has changed the surrounding landscape.

He does find the wife of his political officer, but that doesn't help much since he was transferred on Captain Gu's request from the punishment details for cowardice, meaning that there'll be no official evidence linking the officer to his old unit. After fruitless searching and deteriorating eyesight from an injury he acquired in Korea when a landmine exploded in his face whilst he was saving the soldier who had stood on it, decides to go to an old friend from the artillery regiment who is now a Colonel for help accessing the official archives. He also successful marries off the widow to the Colonel and takes a job at the base.

Overall though his stay with the Colonel is mixed, he is able to access the records and prove that he was the Captain of the 9th company which vindicates him personally, and he locates the memorial for his old army and even meets one of its few survivors the Bugler who due to injuries wasn't reassigned and stayed as a grounds-keeper to the memorial, he also learns that the guilt he felt for keeping his men in combat after the Assembly was called due to his poor hearing was unfounded, the Assembly was never called as Colonel Li the commanding officer decided to sacrifice the 9th company has it was tying up a lot more KMT troops then they thought allowing the rest of the army to withdraw. While this does enrage the Captain he does see the tactical sense, less then half a company for the rest of the army, but what he can't accept is that Li never got round to making sure high command knew about there last action, and just let them slip through the cracks.

In desperation Gu moves into the Wen river mine and begins digging up the hill side looking for some evidence that his unit was there. The local miners while supremely annoyed by this mad soldier getting in there way tolerate him and let him live in a shack and share there rations with him. Eventually after a month of this they find one of the bodies and the Military decide to confirm Captain Gu's story of the events and award his deceased unit full honours, years later when an irrigation project discovers the rest of the bodies a memorial is constructed giving Gu and the 9th company full vindication.

Action was the early battle scenes where very good, quite reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan or Enemy at the gates, the crew behind Assembly clearly know how to set up complex shots, and the sets from dugouts to 1960's PLA academies have a very authentic feel, the ruined towns of the 1940's look and feel miserable and shattered while the villages and towns in the spring of the 50's and 60's are bright and vibrant. Chinese cinema has come a long way from Hong Kong made Bruce Lee knock off's, I hope the sequel (in name only) gets released here soon as well as Founding of a Republic. Though some out there will probably have an issue with the films theme's which other then the PRC is great, though to be fair much of the plot is driven by a number of flaws within the system during the 50's and 60's,the film like does have a clear obeying authority is a positive vibe to it with Captain Gu's little "rebellions" against his bureaucratic obstacles coming off as slightly unhinged and tolerated because of his war sacrifices.

Happy Birthday

2011-01-09T15:58:00.004Z

Hello all, hows the new year treating you? Things have been a bit anti climatic for me, Anyhow Long time readers ( a good twelve of you) may remember that this blog was started by me back in the 4th of January last year which makes this a bit late but I was a good 50K from the nearest computer until yesterday. Anyway I thought I'd carry on a tradition I had in the early days by copying another of Phil's features the annual blog birthday and recap.

So here we go, I started this little blog for what I think are pretty common reasons for setting up politically orientated blogs and sites, attempting to get rid of the feelings of alienation and powerlessness, as well practice my argumentative abilities and get back into the habit of writing again. Under no illusions I've aimed small where growth is concerned, My aim was about a 100+ hits a month, And I'm pleased to say the very low bar has been passed by a good margin. I even have a Twitter now to help the curious stay up to date.

My top three most popular posts according to the new google stats is:

1) The Ballad of Ho Chi Minh, thats not too surprising given that the song itself is rather memorable was you've heard it and Ewan Maccoll the singer was quite an important member of British musical protest movement. unfortunately though despite this Ewan and the Ballad haven't transferred to the web very well and have become somewhat obscure which would explain why my blog with lyrics and an actual video made by (Workergirls)being a very popular destination for his fans.

2) Is Fatah vs Hamas, This used to be number one before the Father of the Viet people knocked down, I find this one quite strange as while its good that the plight of Palestine is getting attention all the other posts relating to Palestine are extremely low down the rankings.

3) Nuclear Proliferation and 21st Century Real Politik , I should point out that the gap between this one and the other two is quite large, I think this one got a boost because the story was quite contentious and was part of an already quite divisive and scrutinised issue, Iran and nuclear weapons.

So there we go, the only thing that could make this past year better (for my blog anyway) is the news that the grain harvest has exceeded targets by 200%. Try and have a good year everyone.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T20:02:00.003Z

Apologies for the lack of updates this month, A hectic family life, coupled with some deadlines and weather complications conspired to silence me. I did make a few rough drafts but never finished them and much of what I would say was already written by more popular blogs.

So to make up for the lack of posts heres a couple of gifts from me to you.

First for those of you taking an interest in wikileaks but have had trouble accessing the site due its servers constantly buckling to us pressure here is its direct HTML http://213.251.145.96 simply copy that into your internet address bar and so long as one of the servers is still hosting you should be taken to there site.

The second is a song (no the vocals aren't by me, this is a gift not a punishment) a Christmas song thats a bit unorthodox. You see it cuts past all that stale commercialism to get at the heart of what Christmas is truly about, the building of a workers state and the purging of its reactionary Malcontent's, enjoy.

Liar Liar (Jim Carrey not appearing)

2010-12-06T15:38:00.003Z

I present to you a first, A piece of SKA style music that I can not only listen too but also like.

In all fairness to Clegg I do believe his correct, the ConDem coalition has enabled the Libdems to bring traditional Liberal values to the heart of government. The ConDems policies are so traditional there from the days of Dickens. Whats next Clegg? full axing of public pensions? after all millions of pensioners will be relying on start handouts when they turn grey rather then actively taking care of themselves with reduced incomes as part of the "Big Society" utopia of...... err free volunteer work.

Edit, Liar Liar is on sale now at

http://www.shockhound.com/
http://www.emusic.com/promo/browse.html
http://www.napster.co.uk/
http://www.thumbplay.com/

And heres the bands Twitter http://twitter.com/CaptainSKA

Afghans have no idea why we're there

2010-12-01T11:31:00.005Z

A poll conducted in the Helmand and Kandahar provinces has revealed that the majority of Afghans don't no why the Americans and ISAF are there and have never heard of 9/11. It also reveals that many believe the Taliban will rise to power after coalition forces leave and that they view the Afghan Army and police to be either incompetent or so corrupt they'll work with even the Taliban once the tide starts turning.

The results of this poll is important, Clausewitz famously stated that the point of On War was to conclusively prove that "War is the continuation of policy by other means"* therefore its absolutely vital that your policy goals are clear and well known, which is where we run into a couple of problems seeing as how the original justification was to get Al0Qaeda and Bin Laden, the war against the Taliban was because there government refused to extradite Al-Qaeda or help in his capture. Now though it looks like most of Al-Qaeda has moved across the Durand line into the Pashtoon areas of Pakistan making the first goal unfulfilled.

Furthermore when fighting a counter insurgency war its important to win the population over to your side in atleast a passive way (hence all that tired parroting of "hearts and minds" in the media a few years ago over Iraq) this is very hard to do when your technically the invader, but not necessarily impossible after all every nation is to some degree an amalgamation of several ethnic groups and tribes that were unified by another more dominant group. However it is impossible to convince a people to join your side if they don't know what your side is actually about.

The issue further complicated with the basic principles of Guerilla war. When fighting an enemy conventionally superior to you there are two overall strategies you can employ, but when fighting a foreign power like say ISAF essentially what you have to do is wait till the political will back home dissipates, whilst inflicting damage constantly to sap morale of both the military personnel and population back home eventually there will come a time when the costs or the perception of the costs clearly outweigh the potential gains and then the only thing keeping the politicians and military commanders committed to it is essentially pride. Letting your state of the art professional military get beaten by a rag tag group of farmers with rusty AK's would diminsih not only their professional pride and taint there legacies, it would also weaken their influence on the world stage.

This happened in Vietnam, by the 1970's the US war effort was floundering the war seemed no closer to victory and the death toll on both sides was mounting, not to mention the very large and still growing anti-war movement, yet even when Nixon was elected after promising to withdraw combat troops, the pull out was phased so it would maintain American dignity and wouldn't look like they were cutting and running. Of course that meant that every US casualty who died from 1970-72 truly died for nothing.

The same thing happened with the Soviet Union when they went into Afghanistan. Before deployment it was a common Cold War perception that the "Red Army"* was invincible, so why bother getting into a conventional arms race, just build more nuclear weapons. That changed after Afghanistan it was arguably that humiliation that led to increased anti Soviet demonstrations in the Eastern Bloc coupled with Gorbachev's tolerance for criticism.

* due to translation there are many slight variations depending on the edition, but the implications are the same.
* The Red Army was renamed the Soviet Army in 1946