IPOS and SCUM, what he get's wrong about Anarchism

 

Content Warning: Includes discussion of sexual violence. 

A video essay by the YouTuber In Praise of Shadows (IPOS) popped into my recommended list yesterday. It's about the SCUM manifesto and its author Valerie Solanas. The link to the video is here. As a quick summary Valerie Solanas rose to fame in 1968 for the attempted murder of Andy Warhol, the manifesto she wrote was published to capitalise on the notoriety of her attempted assassination. It has since gained a reputation as an extremely radical feminist call to arms for the extermination of all men, and that reputation is earned SCUM is nothing if not explicit. SCUM the quasi movement of the text stands for Society for Cutting Up Men. 

I was intrigued as IPOS normally covers horror content. I had previously read SCUM many years ago while exploring the depths of 60s-70s radicalism. The video covers the text and the life of Solanas in great detail, I suggest watching it for more insight. 

Overall I was surprised that IPOS was willing to look beyond the popular stereotype of a "Crazy bitch" and investigate the ideas of SCUM. It is a hard text to take seriously, leaving aside the attempted murders (she also shot and wounded art critic Armando Amaya) the language is not only blunt and ugly but has a strange habit of sliding into the comical. e.g. "The male has a negative Midas touch--everything he touches turns to shit." It also uses ugly slurs which while more common in the 1960s were still considered vulgar for printing in a serious political essay. 

Despite SCUM's many flaws, its arguably got worse with age as passages read in the current year read clearly as forerunners to many anti-trans and anti-queer arguments that can be found easily in every unmoderated comment section today, there are some interesting bits of critique and commentary to be found, though as IPOS notes they usually miss the mark or shift into the wrong lessons. 

Sadly, at around the 01:02 mark  (citing YT vids is a pain) IPOS ruins the positive impression by attempting to critique Solanas's "Anarchistic themes". In doing so he retreats into a very common superficial rant about human nature we've all heard before mixed with misanthropy and American centrism, that I find genuinely baffling in how common it is to find amongst politicos in the USA. 

For the most part its fairly standard fare, humans are terrible people who can't be trusted, society becomes a "wasteland" without a government. It's quite disappointing, but as I was just going to roll my eyes and let the segment pass. However, as the segment wore on it shifts gears into a deeply misanthropic or perhaps misAmercathropic series of comments about how the US and its populations are irrevocably tainted*. That seemed a bit of a logical leap at first, but then as the moment worked through the personal beliefs of IPOS that it clicked for me. The parts of SCUM that IPOS found interesting seemed to tally with his own beliefs and criticisms to a degree, so when we get to the "anarchistic" parts of SCUM which IPOS rejects it is treated in much the same way as the overt bigotry and calls for mass murder.

So, with that in mind I think its worth poking a bit deeper to explore the weaknesses of this argument and IPOS's weakness as an essayist. 

But first to clear the air, this is not motivated by anger, disagreement is not a failing in my book. I don't agree with much of SCUM either to pick a relevant example, I like IPOS's content just fine, and have diasgreed before and will no doubt do again. I'm just interested in probing further and a great case study fell into my lap. No personal animosity is intended.  

I'm also not really interested in defending the "anarchist vision" of SCUM, while I can see anarchist influences within SCUM as well as many other radical political and cultural and scientific movements that were in vogue at the time, I don't think it is at its source and anarchist text for reasons that will probably come up. Though I do think there are times when IPOS misrepresents these ideas and will be pointing them out.  

The core of the issue

So, you don't think human's can be trusted with freedom, why on earth do you want to trust them with power? 

The core of this argument is that human's are greedy and selfish and wicked, I was initially confused why so many people including IPOS act like this is some kind of trump card. I can only infer that they believe anarchism is an idea based on optimism and unicorns. There certainly are many anarchist arguments that emphasise positive aspects of humanity but to pretend that's all there is to it is just showing ignorance. One of the key texts arguing in favour of Anarchism is Kropotkin's Mutual Aid a factor of evolution.  Which is an examination of mutual aid within animal and human societies. It's a scientific text with empirical data and observations. And importantly while it emphasises examples of working together independently for mutual benefit it does not ever deny the negative associations with behaviour and nature. Furthermore, there are anarchists who have embraced greed and shown how it makes anarchism a more viable method of social organisation. 

To be more blunt even if your misanthropic view of humanity is completely accurate, you're making an argument for anarchism and not one against anarchism. To believe that humanity is fundamentally threatening and to then advocate a society where human's have power over others is simple put stupid. Why on earth would you want these same nasty goblins to have direct power over you backed up with institutional force? IPOS like every ideologue who presents this argument has no answer to this contradiction. The best IPOS can manage is a very weak acknowledgement that this isn't ideal and that "restructuring" of society. But restructuring class society in a way that preserves classes and power dynamics via states and government is ultimately pointless, some humans will still have power over others to enact their vices at the expense of others. 

At one point later in the video IPOS brings up Trump and the MAGA movement, the reason is to use them as an example of a dangerous minority capturing a nation. I think that's an interesting example but works even better illustrating the weaknesses of IPOS's wider argument. Much of the opposition to Trump focuses on how his abnormal and different from the other President's of the USA. And yes Trump is certainly different, but the difference is in degree not in kind. Trump is killing US civilians in his brutal ICE raids, but ICE has always killed people including US citizens, as did the border agencies that predate ICE, just as the cops have killed people in the US regardless of whose in the White House. If you can't trust a Trump to be in charge of police, borders or nuclear warheads you cannot trust anyone with them.

 "We are selfish. We are dangerous. Even the most mildmannerd and empathetic of us can still easily be pushed over the edge in the right circumstances. The most moral of us can still make bad judgement calls and act in selfish ways, no one is a saint". IPOS.

Anarchism is a materialist criticism of the failings of human beings. It advocates for the dismantling of the material power relationships and the institutions that uphold them. What's more harmful a bully or a bully with a badge? a bigot or bigot with a church? a control freak or a control freak with the power to evict you or fire you? All of these are bad and anti-social and should ideally be dealt with where possible. However the negative impulses of the latter are magnified by their positions of power. Just restructure things so only good people occupy positions of power is utopian nonsence. Even IPOS does not believe it is possible, his argument is founded on the belief that anyone can become the later. Which is itself a core anarchist belief hence the solution of getting rid of the mechanisms for domination. Anarchism is not abolish the state and perfection reigns. Its well aware that people are still flawed and complex social creatures capable of many things some positive, some negative. The Defence Councils of Aragon and the insurgent territories of Ukraine to pick two examples of anarchism on a mass scale were not perfect, but they do not reflect the lazy and ugly caricature that IPOS and others associate with them. 

I get a sense that IPOS hasn't read much or any anarchist statements which if true is very poor form for an essayist commenting on the subject. I went ahead and re-read SCUM in preparation for this rather than rely on half remembered phrases, doing so confirmed to me that much of what IPOS was saying her is effectively meaningless. 

 But even stranger, while I don't consider SCUM an anarchist text I must on re-reading it concede that SCUM itself goes beyond IPOS's characteture in its criticisms of state or Man's as SCUM puts it society which exposes IPOS's superficial commentary even when read narrowly as an attempted rebuttal of Solanas. 

"But she very much disagrees with me, and again to me showcases a bit of a pie in the sky mentality of how people function in reality". Immediately after saying this IPOS quotes the following section.

 There's no reason why a society consisting of rational beings capable of empathizing with each other, complete and having no natural reason to compete, should have a government, laws or leaders.

SCUM but quoted by IPOS,

Which seems to be a fair reading of SCUM, however, if you have read SCUM or have it open for reference you will notice something odd. Many passages of the text explicitly reject "pie in the sky**" reading of humanity including this section

     Authority and Government: Having no sense of right or wrong, no conscience, which can only stem from an ability to empathize with others...having no faith in his non-existent self, being necessarily competitive and, by nature, unable to co-operate, the male feels a need for external guidance and control. So he created authorities--priests, experts, bosses, leaders, etc. --and government. Wanting the female (Mama) to guide him, but unable to accept this fact (he is, after all, a MAN), wanting to play Woman, to usurp her function as Guider and Protector, he sees to it that all authorities are male.

 SCUM

Which precedes the section IPOS quotes so he must have been aware of it. And even if he missed that part it is not an isolated passage, there are multiple criticisms of communal living throughout SCUM. 

     The "hippie" babbles on about individuality, but has no more conception of it than any other man. He desires to get back to Nature, back to the wilderness, back to the home of the furry animals that he's one of, away from the city, where there is at least a trace, a bare beginning of civilization, to live at the species level, his time taken up with simple, non-intellectual activities--farming, fucking, bead stringing. The most important activity of the commune, the one on which it is based, is gangbanging. The "hippie" is enticed to the commune mainly by the prospect of all the free pussy--the main commodity to be shared, to be had just for the asking but, blinded by greed, he fails to anticipate all the other men he has to share with, or the jealousies and possessiveness of the pussies themselves.

SCUM 

Ironically, IPOS and Solanas's views on humanity are very similar, the real separation isn't some professed support for anarchist optimism, but that Solanas places the source of the rot on Man's nature while IPOS places it on Human nature. Miasndry vs misanthropy if you will.

IPOS tries to dismantle his strawman about a world where everyone is good and rational by asking the rhetorical question as to what even is a good and rational society? This pushed me off the fence into the side that IPOS is just using SCUM as an opportunity for personal soapboxing, and has little appetite for self reflection. The solution offered by Solanas is to kill all men and the women who are too tainted by the ideas of Men. That's a terrible solution, but it is obviously what Solanas considers as a "society consisting of rational beings capable of empathizing with each other, complete and having no natural reason to compete, should have a government, laws or leaders."

You do not have to agree with SCUM and I sincerely hope you do not, but that is for Solanas what a better society looks like. If the object was to sift and probe into SCUM IPOS should have a response to that, playing coy as he does is essentially useless. If however IPOS meant to move beyond SCUM and to explore anarchism generally and just fumbled the transition than the answer to the question is to look at anarchist alternatives to our present day. IPOS doesn't do that either, the only references made are to SCUM and his own personal beliefs with very little of substance or elaboration. 

IPOS's solution is less murderous but even flimsier, "restructure" society. The hows and the whys of such a restructuring are left undexamined. Meanwhile SCUM's androcidal views did also realise that for this perfect lesbian commune to survive dismantling of the power relationships goes beyond simple murder.

     Philosophy, Religion and Morality Based on Sex: The male's inability to relate to anybody or anything makes his life pointless and meaningless (the ultimate male insight is that life is absurd), so he invented philosophy and religion. Being empty, he looks outward, not only for guidance and control, but for salvation and for the meaning of life. Happiness being for him impossible on this earth, he invented Heaven.

SCUM

 "Without a government even if you did kill every man on the planet, widespread pillaging and sexual assault would still happen".  IPOS says with a smirk.

This may seem like I'm repeating myself but I was stunned that IPOS admission that his views are incoherent slip out while grinning as if he delivered a master stroke. The first part suggests that government's prevent pillage and sexual assault a ludicrous statement destroyed by just accesing a newsfeed, but then follows it up with an admission that no it actually does happen with governments. This effectively raises some questions, if government (which by the by is not the state in totality) does not actually prevent this man eat man world than what exactly is the point of keeping it around at great cost to the population and the world? Surely this is an admission that government et al is irrelevant in preventing violence. 

 After this odd bit of rhetorical flubbing IPOS proceeds to talk about sexaul assault, violence and rape happening right now, only to declare that the answer is "restructuring". This is an admission that IPOS has a limited grasp on societal violence. Many women are in prison because they defended themselves from their abusers.  The state and its version of justice is complicit in punishing victims, that's what hierachies do, they build links with the upper levels and exploit the lower levels. You can wish for a better exploitation, rejig the edges but as long as the system is in place someone will have to be on the recieving end. To think you can "reform" or "restructure" an fundamentally violent system so that it only does good things but still somehow has the capacity to order others to comply is simply "pie in the sky thinking" it has no basis in facts and is just wish fulfilment. 

"rape would happen in a wasteland, ten more times than it does now if the average man did not fear death or imprisonment at the hands of the state" IPOS

No, IPOS doesn't back any of these assumptions up beyond gut feelings. I notice that IPOS keeps referring to a strange choice between the state and a "wasteland" which does goes to show the ignorance of IPOS and his confidence in regugitating hunches as cast iron facts. This is a very common argument against police and prison abolition, usually by right wing groups that favour more criminalisation and more use of the death penalty. So, it is interesting when a self described "leftist" makes it as it is the same logic and justification that religious fundamentalists make in regards to the "wasteland" of atheist society. If fear of the state is sufficient to prevent 10x the number of rapes ocurring in the world thant surely faith or fear of a deity will stop even more? There is no difference here, its a swapping of a religious diety for a secular one. Perhaps Bakunin was on to something when he wrote God and the State.

Is it even worth addressing this "argument"? its just baseless speculation, why settle for 10 times and not a 100 times more rape? I'll be honest I find it in extreme poor taste that IPOS would attempt to use rape for cheap rhetorical points, anyone aware of the seriousness of this issue would put more effort into interrogating their views and see if its supported by something before speaking so glibly about it. 

But as IPOS rambles on without any anchor he again makes an odd admission "the inherent sexual violence that has been baked into the core functioning of our society". If IPOS really believes this and is not just confused or trying to pre-empt criticism with a figleaf, then we can ignore what he said before this. If rape is due to the baked in core functioning of our society (The USA for him) then his objections to any different society melt away. They cannot by definition have the same outcomes if their core functioning differs from ours. The only way you could consciously claim that sexual violence would go up by a factor of 10 in some other society is if the soceity in question reflected the same core functions as this one but by a factor of 10. You can't claim in one sentence the state is preventative of sexual violence and then argue sexual violence is baked into the core functions of this soceity, what is the state if not a core function? They are in mutual conflict which each other. Its like claiming a strong military keeps a nation secure and then admitted you're a believer in the security dilemma. Which is it then?

 Speaking of facts, Cheran a town in Mexico was overwhelmed by cartel violence, the police and government did nothing to stop it and often were complicit. The town as a community rose up, expelled both the police and the mayor and then drove the cartel out of their territory on their own. Since 2011 they have administered their own affairs, communally. Crime or anti-social behaviour still occurs, mostly by cartels trying to get a foothold in the town again, but overall rates for all crimes have fallen drastically. Is this anarchism in action? Not quite, though it is close to what anarchists in Mexico and globally advocate in building new communities.   

 This might work for a village but not the world

This also comes up often in this style of argument and IPOS does not dissapoint.  

 "It may work on a community level, but globally it would never" what is a globe if not made up of communities? Even in the current world of power blocks and nation states each constituent player on the world stage is built of communities. The populations of the world are alienated from their government's but they still take part in their societies. Taxes fund armies, labour produces commodities for internal and international markets, without communities the global system would collapse. So, how could something work on a community level and not be scalable to a higher level? What exactly is the stumbling block? If you can't even name it how do you know its there?

Anarchism has scaled up on several occasions, Anarchist collectives in Aragon assembled on the village community level, then built up to regional level, eventually organising a population of 7 million at its peak. They organised schools, fields, workshops, shops, communal areas, defence and security, and trade and were in the process of building a hydroelectric dam.  

 It's also worth considering The Conquest of Bread by Kropotkin. Which is a how to build anarchist relationships in an isolated community up to a city the size of Paris. You start small and then scale up as and when you can and need to. 

 Conclusion

While watching the video I grew increasingly certain that IPOS's familiarity with anarchism was limited at best. I assumed though that much of this was coming from exposure to SCUM and its extremism. But on re-reading I don't think that's true either. I'm still a sceptic of SCUM but I don't think IPOS's rebuttals work as good faith criticisms of that. Which I think is damning.

 If IPOS reads this I would urge him to not take this as an attack on the person but on the ideas and negative impulses associated with them. By all means, reject anarchism all you want, just take sometime to figure out what anarchism actually is first. Opposition keeps the wits sharp, you made through SCUM, there are many far more pleasant anarchist texts out there.

 

 *The cult of American exceptionalism has sunk such deep roots that the US citizen has to centre themselves and present as unique even while supposedly lamenting their own short comings.

 

** Interesting bit of trivia, "Pie in the sky" was popularised by the Industrial Worker's of the World (IWW) a radical labour Union with heavy anarchist involvement, who used the term to criticise defenders of work and hierarchy, as seen in their song the Preacher and the Slave, "You'll have pie in the sky when you die". Its modern usage flipping the script to be a criticism of political radicals seems to be an excellent example of the smothering nature of capitalism and hierachy over modern society. 

Some Comments on Plagiarism

 

Found the image on this page, the credits for the image are as follows "Paper Trident / iStock / Getty Images Plus"

Big news on YouTube (YT), drama has ocurred that has effected several channels that I've watched on occasion. The main actors are Hbomberguy (Hbomb), with an important follow-up video by Todd in the Shadows (Todd), the main topic is misinformation and plagiarism and the main target of the criticism is another YT I've watched headed by James Somerton, the channel has the same name as its owner. I haven't James's video because the channel has taken down every video. 

If you spend a lot of time on YT then chances are good you'll know the gist of this already, but if not I'll briefly explain. Todd has a channel on YouTube that reviews music, while James Somerton and Hbomberguy are what's called video essayists, which is just what it sounds like, essays in video format. 

Both videos are quite long Hbomb's is just under four hours, though James becomes the focus in the back half, the first part is a collection of other YT channels that muddy the information waters. I previously saw a rough draft of the first part some months ago, so I skipped that part in the finished video. They are both thorough and there isn't much in the way of padding, there is some minor griping in both videos, but they mostly document serious acts of foul play, and it's clear that the minor complaints are brought up out of personal frustration and anger and not out of malice for malice’s sake. I do recommend watching them not just for context on this blog but for general viewing. 

Since both do such a good job of documenting James's many misdeeds I'm not writing this to add to them, the case is pretty well solved, I am writing this for a couple of reasons that are somewhat related. I'm a little saddened to learn about James actions, I watched his videos and was a bit of a fan. I'm openly Queer and have been looking for more queer information and content, Queer stuff isn't exactly obscure, but it is niche, gay media that isn't pornography isn't banned exactly, but it often gets stuck in a grey area where it is accessible if you put in some work to find it and can pay more, and books tend to be harder to find online, and you have to resort to out of print second or third hand copies or blogs that quote heavily from them or upload scanned pages. There's been more progress in giving queer material more mainstream exposure, but it can still be quite tricky. 

I've turned to podcasts and blogs and YT video creators. James was a big fish in a small pond, his channel was doing very well with 200,000+ subscribers and videos often in the 100,000s to a million views range. You could avoid him, but you'd have to use a plugin that lets you block certain channels. The videos had a slick look to them, they came out regularly and in large quantities, and often related to topics I had at least some interest in. I wasn't a hardcore fanatic, though I was paying just enough attention to his channel that I can confirm that parts of Hbomb's video about James deliberately trying to fire up his fan base to side with him in his feuds with others was a thing. I saw the comments and community posts where he claimed he was being attacked, didn't know the context of them at the time, I just thought it was another example of toxic interactions with others that online platforms encourage. Which, with hindsight, was correct, just not in the way I thought at the time. Another thing that James used to do that was overlooked by the two big videos is that James wasn't shy of emotional statements of vulnerability that may or may not have been true, I have no grounds or place to comment on his personal life, but, in the aftermath of the revelations I suspect were used to further manipulate his audience. I certainly felt sorry for the guy.

I can also confirm that James was very sloppy at citing sources, his videos gave the strong impression that everything he was saying in them were his own ideas or the results of his own investigations, or of someone he was collaborating with. And I can tell you first hand that he was effective at spreading misinformation, I found Todd's video harder to watch of the two because there are several points where he fact checks bits of the videos that I believed from watching those videos. I did not believe James's Gay Nazi comments which shocked me when I saw them in Todd's video because I'm already quite knowledgable on that subject, and because I was intimately familiar with the source for that video, Richard Plant's The Pink Triangle. I transcribed the damn thing as a way to help more people find out about as at the time I could only get a second hand book and the web was full of Christian right wing sites promoting the Pink Swastika, a tract of propaganda that tries to paint the Nazis as a homosexual movement. Furthermore, I can't be certain, but the part where James says the SS was full of homosexuals probably comes from the Pink Swastika, I know the Pink Swastika makes that claim and Pink Triangle does not, and I can't think of a creditable source that also makes that claim. 

I said I wouldn't join in the pile on, but that did, well, provoked some feelings. If you're curious why I didn't pick up on it at the time, I watched that video once and when I tried to watch it again to pay attention it had been removed.

Anyway, I'm going to borrow Hbomb's trick and now pivot entirely to a different subject, and that is plagiarism and the Situationist International.

 

 

Ideas improve. The meaning of words participates in the improvement. Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. It embraces an author’s phrase, makes use of his expressions, erases a false idea, and replaces it with the right idea.

The above text is thesis 207 of the Society of the Spectacle, by Guy Debord and the Situationists.  It was plagiarised from Isidore Ducasse, according to the English translator of this Situationist text. Debord has committed plagiarism, and it's sort of amusing that he plagiarised a thought on plagiarism. But, to me, the interesting part is that neither Debord nor Ducasse are talking about plagiarism. It's a statement about building off of the work of others and a rejection of the auteur and the belief that ideas are the property of one individual alone. If the thesis an advocacy of anything, it's the necessity of copyright infringement and a damning criticism of intellectual property as an obstacle to human expression and progress. 

I'm going to take that thesis again and bold the parts that point to my interpretation.

Ideas improve. The meaning of words participates in the improvement. Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. It embraces an author’s phrase, makes use of his expressions, erases a false idea, and replaces it with the right idea.

This is the act of adaptation and experimentation, by changing it and removing falsehoods and substituting a new "right" idea you have added your own work and altered it. Technically, plagiarism could still be present if you took credit for the whole thing including the original idea, but that isn't represented in the thesis. Going back to James Somerton and applying this thesis, we see that James does embrace many an author's phrase and makes use of their expressions, but I don't think he erases false ideas and replaces them with better ones. As Todd and Hbomb have shown, the opposite is usually true when he makes changes and inserts his own ideas. So, oddly, I think we've discovered a definition of plagiarism that James Somerton's work doesn't fall under. Perhaps a rebranding to 1950s French inspired anti-art is in store for James Somerton's future?

Generally speaking Debord and the Situationists were guilty of actual plagiarism on occasion, the thesis itself is an obvious example though there is a brief and opaque acknowledgement of where Debord got the idea within the User's Guide. As a group, they were openly contemptuous of art as a concept within capitalist society.

It is in fact necessary to eliminate all remnants of the notion of personal property in this area. The appearance of new necessities outmodes previous “inspired” works. They become obstacles, dangerous habits. The point is not whether we like them or not. We have to go beyond them.

A User's guide to Detournement 

 

But, most of the criticism and evaluations of this that I've seen associate the concept of detournement. Detournement is not just a pain to spell (I find saying it out loud helps) it's the official name for the Situationists most famous activity. The films, paintings and photographs that they altered are all examples of this. It's arguably the Situationists lasting contribution, there are still small groups and individual artists experimenting with the style and there are faint echoes of it in current internet meme culture. Yes, most examples of Detournement I am familiar with take pre-existing imagery and then change them to alter the meaning of the image. But they aren't passing themselves off as the owners of the original works, and I'm of the opinion that many of them don't work unless you are somewhat familiar with the original work and so not likely to think that Debord et al. were the original photographers. If you're not familiar with the original work, or it's one of the materials made by Situationists that were mostly or entirely original, then they often just come across as weird imagery.

Plagiarism is taking others work and passing it off as your own, that's largely not what the Situationists were doing, and when they did that it reads to me as a part of their attempt to reject art and its conventions in totality, a task in which they failed, "Situationist art" and the "Situ style" is quite recognisable, the production of the User guide itself helped codify Situationist art styles and conventions. 

For example

As soon as I saw this on an image search I knew it was an original work by one of the British Situationists, and the link took me to the John McCready archive, which is a collection of British Situationist material. You can definitely plagiarise the Situationists, I wouldn't recommend it as you'd be caught pretty quickly, but it is definitely something that can be ripped off. And they are often parodied and given homage in mainstream works that aren't remotely interested in breaking the depoliticised working class out of their prisons of everyday life. Oh, and you may have noticed that this image has watermarks on it, in addition the search engine warned me that this image may be copyrighted. 

To add to the misery, detournement have also become commodities. The Situationists were a deeply flawed bunch, they were very astute in criticising much of the apparently revolutionary microgroups and reformist tendencies, but they reflected much of what they criticised and while extremely knowledge about art and its conventions often fell into the same traps, if you look up the Situationist International now many of the admirers view them as a clever curiosity, what revolutionary potential they had is just gone.

Going back to that thesis for the third and final time.

Ideas improve. The meaning of words participates in the improvement. Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. It embraces an author’s phrase, makes use of his expressions, erases a false idea, and replaces it with the right idea.

I disagree that this is plaigarism, but I fully agree with its intent. Progress does demand working with ideas that are not your own and allowing others to work with those that are. Copyright and the treatment of art and information as property that can be withheld dictated and traded is not only a personal failing of individual bad actors, its a direct attack on human interaction and intellectual and cultural development. This is what I get from thesis 207, Society of the Spectacle and much of the Situationist legacy is difficult to pin down into unambiguous statements of intent so I wan't say that my reading is the reading of it. I have read many of the works of the Situationists, mostly the French and British ones, but I have not digested everything they put out so these statements on the Debord and his small circle of friends are not to be taken as set in stone, they're what I think based on my experiences.

To tie these two threads Situationism and James Somerton together I will finish up with this thought. Plagairism and copyright infringement are not the same thing, but they are related. James Somerton wasn't just ripping off other writers for giggles, he was monetising them as well, the work of others became "his" and so he was entitled to exploit it for money and influence. So, yes, capitalism should be abolished and while we're at it let's through social hierarchies in the bin too, and create a perfect and harmonious communal society were labours are shared, and we'll never have to worry about the scourge of plagiraism again.

Passive Income and digital sweatshops

 Dan Olsen released a video investigating a niche internet grift revolving around the appeal of passive income. 

I had never heard of the Mikkelsen twins or Urban Writers, the principal villains of this particular scam method. But I had to keep pausing the video because much of it felt so familiar. As amateurish as a lot of the Mikkelsen twins pitch comes across the appeal is obvious, passive income is great. Everyone who isn't a lifestyle coach scam artist will admit working hard for low pay isn't great. Aside from physical and mental tiring you also have to wrestle with feelings of inadequacy and wastefulness. So getting money for a long time after you've stopped putting effort into it has its advantages.

So, while I was surprised watching the pitch get elaborated on reflection a scam that offers you the reward of passive income with zero effort, completely passive income if you will, well that's bound to attract a few individuals. It's pretty maddening to watch, but I can say from experience that this method is unlikely to work, especially now that a very big platform has publicly exposed them. 

I have some experience with working in the internet gig economy freelancing for anonymous clients using job boards that operate very similarly to Urban Writers. There were sections of the video, the part outlining the pay and conditions for the ghost writer and what it feels like to write a book yourself were unpleasant to sit through because they were very accurate to what I went through.

The response so far has been very positive, though I've seen some questions and reluctance to believe that parts of pipeline can be realistic. Artificial Intelligence programs have been getting a lot of buzz lately especially the bots that make digital artworks from prompts, some have suggested that this could explain how the writers are able to live and work on such terms. Which simply isn't feasible for a number of reasons. We're still a long way off from AI created books that are coherent much less passable, the market sites like Amazon and Apple don't care about sloppy prose and run on sentences but they do have some standards for publishing. Furthermore the intellectual sweatshops like Urban Writers couldn't survive without a large pool of desperate writers to churn out the goods. If AI could provide product to the standards a client desires then there wouldn't be much need for middlemen groups like Urban Writers, just buy or license the software and make as many low content Search Engine Optimised trash you want.

The reason these intellectual sweat shops work is simply because there's a large pool of eager or desperate people who are vulnerable enough to be open to the few crumbs thrown their way. Writing, even technical and copy writing require passion as careers. It may seem like light work if you only take into account the time spent physically using a pen, keyboard or typewriter, and assume a payment equivalent or better than average salary at the end. But as Dan's video makes clear, this is not the case, there is research time, editing, planning, and for many writers myself included time spent in a sort of mental stalling phase where you cannot easily move into any of the phases. And I can attest that Dan is correct when he states that even much of the time that's not supposed to be devoted to the writing task, breaks, other chores etc, is often time still spent obsessing over the book or dealing with anxiety or frustration over the work. I'll add that even when I've finished a project and it's been submitted, I often spend a few days in a sort of limbo where the lack of a project makes me feel restless. So it requires a lot from you, and this is probably why writers in fiction are often presented as high strung, self absorbed, fragile, and erratic individuals as that can be what's visible from the outside.

As to why this makes writers so vulnerable to these types of content farm outfits, well that's more structural. Publishing is a small world and thanks to monopolies its becoming even smaller. At the time of writing Penguin and Random House are battling in the courts for the right to merge with many celebrated authors giving evidence to the opposition as they fear the merger will severely impede their abilities to make a living and pursue a career. Just imagine what its like for someone starting out or on a much lower rung. And that's in fiction, novels are the main money and fame making area of publishing, if you're a poet, a short story writer or a non-fiction writer there are even fewer options to take. I remember when I left university I was told that a non-fiction book selling over 3,000 copies would be placed in the best seller category.

If you're not already a big name you need to build up a body of work, this is very difficult in non-fiction publishing. From personal experience the few publishers for that aren't very hospitable to original research that isn't attached to an author who's already established in a relevant field. It can even be frosty to authors who have been published but there has been a long gap between the last accepted submission and the present. Feast or famine was the advise I was given about publication, if you want to make a viable go at it you have to publish early and regularly.

These attitudes freeze out a lot of graduates and passionate amateurs. If your desperate for work, any work these shady companies can be the only game in town at least at the start. I tried to support myself in this field after graduation and my applications met with silence. I managed to get several gigs as a freelancer for several websites that were just a bit above modern clickbait mills, and some contracts on job board sites very similar to how Dan described Urban Writers system. Dan's assumptions on the emotional state of someone having to depend on such a system were spot on. I spent all day and chunks of the night grinding out assignments with limited research, and I was still making the equivalent of welfare. And that was when every other part of the arrangement was working fine, which it rarely did.

After walking away from it I wrote about the experience, looking back on that piece now I think its the most pessimistic bit of writing I've ever published. Since that time there have been some changes, the level of oversight on the self publishing market has improved a little, and some of the worst offenders have gone bust, though a few have rebranded, and overall the market has become dominated by a few big players. I still could not in good conscience recommend this system to anyone wishing to start out or make a living out of it.

Behold! Tis lord Odesk, benevolently giving labour to
the grateful scribe

In more positive news, there is now a union for freelancers which back when I wrote digital economy was something I didn't think was possible. Its international though currently its main presence is in the USA and Canada, expansion has been slow but is happening. It has also been relatively successful in two areas, its become a method for freelancers to share experiences and information about conditions in the industry which is vital to stopping the most egregious examples of exploitation which rely on a company interacting directly with an inexperienced individual, and has had some success with campaigns targeting specific employers. 

I still freelance occasionally when time permits me, but now I mostly stick to submissions for magazines, journals and websites I've had previous dealings with. I've also started using platforms like amazon to host some translation and non fiction work. These platforms offer an alternative for authors of niche material, but a path to riches they aren't for most. Passive income is pretty good so long as you put some effort in and don't cook up a scheme that exploits others. Personally, I think the major bottleneck comes after creation. If you've worked on a book, collection of poems, audiobook, song, art, video etc. then these platforms will make your work more available to a potential audience. But it's the promotion or the lack of it that gets in the way of pivoting to this as a viable career. I was not surprised to learn that Dan's book sold one copy in its lifespan as he didn't do any promotion and because of the pseudonym kept a lot of distance from it. I wish he had kept it up after publishing the video so we could see how much even that limited and deprecating plug thirty minutes into a video did for it. 

You either have to buy advertising, which takes a low/no cost option and turns it into a high cost one, and a high cost for a gamble. Or word of mouth, and the issue with word of mouth I find is that getting people to buy something is the easy part, and I find that quite hard, its getting those customers to rate, review or even mention what they've purchased that is the truly difficult task. My sales to date across all formats, including discounts is around 400, my ratings and reviews have been less than ten. Haven't had any refunds or e-mailed complaints and the few ratings and reviews are positive, but that isn't a firm foundation for a retirement plan.

And I'm not alone here. A common question in forums for authors is "how do I get more reviews?" and I've none more than one talented artist who put a lot into a project that was selling relatively well, that burnt out because of a lack of response from the audience. It goes back to passion really, earning a living is a necessity in our times, but the feelings of failure and lack of impact can eat away at a creative type. So, if you enjoy something letting the people who made it know goes a long way.

In conclusion, well done Dan, support artists and of course

Buy my book!

The Funeral of Peter Kropotkin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video link 

 

 Pyotr Kropotkin's funeral took place from 10th to 13th of February 1921, and it was documented by "Section of social chronicles of all-Russian cinema and photo publishing". English translation: ABC-Belarus

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpGu...

 

 

Oops! I have ADHD!

 

 video Link 

 

 

Popular youtube personality Thought Slime made a video on the subject of ADHD, and it had some special guests, including a very late just on time and just in keeping with the requirements segment by me. I think its one of the best visual depictions of living with ADD/ADHD*, multiple little bits and jokes are about things I go through every single day, and while on their own can seem small in combination which often happens and several times a day, which can often happen, on bad days these issues and tics can plague me multiple times an hour. I really appreciate TS's platform being used to give some frankly much needed awareness of this frankly constant struggle. That seem a little melodramatic and for me I have good days and bad days, but the bad days can be brutal. I meant to write this up immediately after watching the video because I mean what I say, I think it's a really, really good demonstration of some of the more common problems of life with ADHD. And by the comments of other suffers, this opinion is shared. But just didn't get around to starting it, as many things just cropped up. I don't even know if I'll finish it, I can easily see other things jumping ahead of the queue or embarrassment over fears of oversharing getting to me so that this stays in my drafts folder for years/forever. 

 I've also reached another problem, I'm not sure how to continue, I planned to write this on the 3rd, and had an entire outline worked out in my head, and could still remember it when I started working on this, but now that information is gone. Well, I guess it's time for improvisation, hopefully if you're reading this far you have watched the video, it details many of the common symptoms of ADHD and how they effect TS, though I guess it's important to make clear that these are not the only issues nor do they affect everyone equally or at all. I think in retrospect this was what drove the ADD/ADHD division in the past, since patients clearly demonstrated some but not others. The popular conception of someone with ADHD is essentially a looney tunes character who is incapable of sitting still and talks ridiculously fast. There are people who are like that sometimes, I myself am usually more physically sedate, but I've chewed my way through thousands of pen lids and pens, and worn holes in hundreds of shirts, snapped pens and pencils in half, rubbed the skin off my wrists and fingers and had been biting my nails till they bleed for years, though I've managed to stop that one three years ago. 

There are other manifestations of this nervous energy I wasn't aware of, I was once interrogated by a policeman on the street who assumed I was a recovering addict because I keep brushing my face, and apparently that's a tell. And several school and work colleagues thought I was quitting smoking (never started) because my movements are quite similar (apparently) to someone trying to kick nicotine.

But these are relatively minor issues for me, the internal issues can be much more challenging. Many of the contributors talked about executive dysfunction and how attention deficit often comes with its opposite, extreme abundance of attention. Difficulty making choices and committing to them even on minor choices can derail an entire and throw a schedule off permanently. Focus on one task no matter how random can have the same effect, there have been many times where I have spent most of a day on a project to the point where no other task is done, to the point where I've gone days without eating, I'm aware that my body is hungry, or that it's getting late, or I have something else that should be really important to do, but that awareness is still somehow distant and not really important at the time, whatever I'm focussing on must take priority. The kicker is that the only times I've seen this behaviour discussed it's either in anecdotes from other people's ADHD struggles or in horror fiction where it's used as an early warning that possession or dangerous obsession is developing. 

The guidelines for submission whereas follows 

 

 - Please email me (thoughtslimeeditor@gmail.com) a <=10 second video of you telling me something you wish more people knew about adhd - Please pretend you are speaking to me on the phone - Please use the subject line "ADHD video" - Please give me links to use in the description.
-Please introduce yourself and what you do in the video. -Feel free to do whatever jokes you want, or put your own spin on things.

Didn't feel comfortable recording myself for a video so went with a tape cassette as a sort of mock answer machine as that sort of fit in with the fake call remit. The difficulty for me was the time length, given that I'm supposed to introduce myself and what I do creatively and maybe tell a joke and my main gripe all in ten seconds seemed impossible. I guessed it was a soft limit but still the time was a bit of a barrier, so I boiled it down to "I wish people would listen to me, instead of immediately substituting what they think ADHD is and then interrogating me when that doesn't fit" but that was still to long, so I abbreviated it. 

With a longer window, there's a lot more I would've said, and I'm kinda doing some of this here. If I was making the video and had all the time in the world the video would never get done I'd probably talk about just how non-stop hostile "Normal" society is to people who think and act like myself. And how modern technology has made some of this more manageable while at the same time greatly exacerbating other issues. Virtually everything from strict behavioural standards, deadlines, services offers some challenge or potential stumbling block. The pressure just keeps building, and the really horrible thing is that much of that pressure comes from everyone else living what is for them perfectly normal lives. I do my best to cope** but there are times when I just need to drop out for a while and do something else and get away from interactions and obligations. But there aren't many jobs where you can do that and make enough to support your basic needs.

 This is why I'm constantly shifting from project, to hobby, to interest, making some headway then seemingly dropping them only to pick it back up at some point down the line. It's also the reason why I haven't let this blog die despite its clear shifts in focus, I've somehow managed to keep it going for over ten years, and it's become something of an anchor, but it's also become a bit of a map to my state, in addition to the content showing what I've been experiencing and the pace of my intellectual development like any other blogger, the topics it focuses on and the incredibly erratic pace of updates also show how well I'm keeping all these plates spinning in the air. And if you've read my stuff and were wondering, yes this is largely why they often have a strange and inconsistent style and switch from voices or jump back and forth, its also largely why I keep editing posts weeks after publishing.

The problems with my limited ability to put things into words and this tendency a lot of people have to just latch on to their, well, best guesses, has been a major issue for me for a good number of years. There has been some change though, back in the day when I said the scary combination of letters to explain something most people asked "what's that?" and then started jumping in once I started clumsily explaining. More recently, I usually get some variation on "how's that relevant?" or "you don't act like it, are you sure?" I don't know if that counts as progress. Although none of the other submitters matched mine in words (unless I missed one) I noticed a few of them were expressing similar issues. Most of them were essentially regrets that wider society only seem to have one mental picture of a person with ADHD and are completely ignorant of virtually every other issue it causes and way it manifests, even if they're incredibly serious.

I do sort of get it, as frustrating as it is, since many of these issues are internal, it can be incredibly difficult to explain to people who don't have these issues. The joke about not being able to see a water bottle when it's right in front of your face, is an example of a very common issue many, including myself, have with perception. And yet from personal experience trying to get people to understand that this is an issue is completely miserable. I can't speak for others, but for myself my eyes are fine, I can physically see the object, but I'm not registering that I'm seeing it, or in some cases I do register that I see the object, but my mind does not acknowledge that it is the object that I am looking for. I'm sure everyone can agree that this can be quite annoying, especially when you're in a hurry, and you've already spent a lot of time getting ready and have in fact double-checked. But it can be even worse, when this problem is noticed, usually, the assumption is that I have visual impairments or that I don't have a functional mind. Really not pleasant, and that's only one of the perception differences I have to neurotypicals, and they all have caused me no end of grief.

In fact, there's another fantastic video made by someone with ADHD that uses animation to try and better express what some of this is like.

video link

I think these two videos pair well, they show some similarities but a lot of differences of degree and kind. I was surprised how much of what TS's skateboard journey reminded me of my own life, I didn't find the jokes funny though, I found them clever, but they were often tied to some unhappy memories. Abigail's video is also very clever and also brings up some unpleasant memories. I was struck by the part about being a pilot of a plane but then realising you weren't even in the cockpit. I've had that feeling several times and I do not want to feel that way ever again but I'm sure its only a matter of time. I also thought the near constant background hum and tap, tap, tapping was inspired. Sometimes for me that's litteral even tiny disturbances can wreck my concentration, but there are times when absolute silence can be just as bad, exam conditions were a nightmare even when the school agreed there was an issue and allowed me to take them in rooms on my own. Solitary confinement is considered a form of torture for a reason.

This may seem depressing, but writing it feels really cathartic, I'll try to end on a sort of positive note. I was diagnosed when I was 16, it was a surprisingly pleasant experience and in addition to the diagnosis I got a recommendation letter for treatment and support. There was however a problem, this was 2006 in the UK. At that time not only was their a divide about ADD vs ADHD there was little to no understanding of either. In order to pursue treatment options (which barely existed) I had to go to a mental health professional, there were no ADD/ADHD specialists, and the only mental health institution in my area was the staff at a confinement ward. When I went to the appointment and explained my issue and showed the documents and GP referral, the Doctor didn't know what I was talking about, she not heard of this disorder. I attempted to explain and she started taking notes. The questions very quickly started to focus on violent delusions, and I noticed that she wasn't actually taking notes, she was checking off a list. She was determining whether I was a risk to myself or others, if I continued with this line of questioning and failed she could've sectioned me. So I ended the interview and essentially gave up trying to seek treatment or extra support. You might think I was overreacting, but at the same time in a neighbouring area a boy my age went to his mental health team in a similar institution for support for his Autism. Autism was also not widely understood at this time, he was sectioned and he has remained in that ward ever since, I know this because the campaign his family has been fighting to try to get him out has become notable as an example of how horrible are system is to people who aren't neurotypical.

Since then I've been getting by with stimming (behaviour that eases the pressures).  However the good news, there has been some increase in awareness in the public and the health system, there are more treatments available, and there are now some, but not many, ADHD specialists. And I'm now once again seeking some assistance. Unfortunately its still a low priority, there aren't that many specialists, and its well known amongst ADHD circles to be a lengthy and difficult process, oh and also COVID happened. 

So yeah, don't really have a way of ending this, I did remember what my first plan for this was three paragraphs ago, but just kept on going. The ending for that wasn't very good either though. So here's a final appeal to watch the two videos I've shared if you haven't already.

*The distinction between Attention Deficit Disorder ADD and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD has changed over the years and where you are, and the attitudes of health professionals in your country or region. When I was first diagnosed ADHD was more commonly associated with North America with the UK favouring ADD and as far as the learning difficulties and disability support assessors were concerned the two were quite different. Nowadays, the consensus is more that they are the same thing really, so if a person is diagnosed or uses one label, the other applies too.

 

** After writing this, I've just realised that the increasingly common internet joke about cope and coping probably shows some lingering and unconscious hostility towards people with anxiety and emotional and behavioural struggles.  

An Introduction and Some Thoughts on Kolektiva and Alternative Video Platforms

 

Why Youtube?

Youtube is so ubiquitous that my spell checker keeps reminding me every time I don't capitalise the t, I don't really think I need to explain the company and its services to anyone who regularly uses the internet its become so big and omnipresent. The problems with youtube are also quite well known, shady companies exploiting the copyright system to the fullest, extremist groups and paedophiles exploiting loopholes to network, advertise and groom, intrusive advertising (I've turned off all data personalisation and I regularly get bombarded with adverts for cults) abusive and toxic comment sections, targeted abuse and harassment etc. There are also other issues with the platform that are less well known because they're much harder to prove unless you're on the receiving end. Channels and videos locked into private for violating somekind of community guideline, but the system won't tell you what guideline or what exactly was causing the issue, blacklisting from the powerful algorithms that account for over 90% of audience exposure, removal of features that certain niche channels like content for disabled viewers depend on, or marking LGBTQ content across the board as adult only regardless of what the actual content of the video is. The constant headaches and bottle necking and threats of takedowns, strikes and bans has caused many to lament that there is no alternative to the behemoth. 

Alternatives  

Of course there are alternatives, thousands of them, the problem is many of them have their own drawbacks or are actively trying to ape youtube and replace it. One of the alternatives I've been interested in for a few years which I feel has promise is Peertube. Peertube is a bit hard for me to explain but they have helpfully made several easy to understand videos explaining it in many languages.

  

https://kolektiva.media/videos/watch/9c9de5e8-0a1e-484a-b099-e80766180a6d

Most of it is beyond comprehension honestly, but that's mostly for people wishing to set up their own server, if like me you just want to watch videos and maybe set up an account and upload and share than its pretty straight forward, just find a server you like and go through the sign up process. Over several years I've been on a few servers and some have died or become abandoned, but overall the indications are healthy, its regularly updated, more features have been added, its more stable and the number of servers being setup, the number of videos and the number of views are also going up as the service grows in popularity. When I first started using Peertube even the introduction video on the web page of the team that developed it had just over 10,000 views, now I've encountered videos with just under a million. Its also open source and decentralised so more tech savvy types can customise and network a lot more effectively. It also has the ability to download videos and torrent them built into the webplayer which greatly helps preserving material. Its proved an attractive model for two groups of Anarchists that have years of experience making video content to educate and propagandise online. 

Presenting Kolektiva 

https://kolektiva.media/videos/watch/bcb4bbfa-c39d-4fd2-96cf-bc4747d2d9d9 

Welcome to Kolektiva, an open-source platform for hosting anarchist videos from around the world. Our goal with Kolektiva is to help increase communication and material solidarity across borders and linguistic divides. If you are interested in getting involved - whether through hosting your content with us, or helping out with translation - please contact us at kolektivamedia@riseup.net.

 Kolektiva went public four months ago and was setup by two groups Sub.Media and Antimidia, both of whom have been around for a long time and have video content of extremely high production value. Curiously both have very little traction on youtube. You might think this is because there's not much appetite amongst a mainstream audience for anarchist videos and investigative reporting on Canadian military and police attacks on indigenous communities, but the recent explosion in popularity of the "Breadtube" a collection of amateur leftist youtube personalities shows that isn't the case. I've also been subscribed to Sub.media for years and have done all of the algorithim pleasing things, liking, faving, sharing etc, but they've never popped up in my recommendation feeds. And looking at the viewing figures for new releases on their Kolektiva and youtube channels they tend to get about a tenth of the views on Kolektiva, keep in mind this is on a new platform that most people including the core intended audience don't know exists. I also thought it was strange how most of Sub's videos ended with requests for viewers to subscribe to an e-mail list to ensure they were notified of new releases. So it does seem like the group's misgivings about youtube and the other big social media companies are well founded. 

Our goal with Kolektiva is to provide a new digital platform for anarchist and anti-colonial filmmakers, collectives, and movements around the world. To share action reports, news, analysis, short films, documentaries, and other video content, with a global audience. In a time when far too much radical media content is held hostage to the algorithms of tech capitalists like facebook, google and twitter, Kolektiva will be a free, open-source alternative built on the PeerTube framework and hosted on secure servers, run and maintained by anarchists. Another important goal of this project will be to help facilitate the translation of videos into multiple languages as a way of sharing our different perspectives, stimulating increased interaction and cooperation, and breaking down the divisions caused by state-imposed borders, travel restrictions, colonial occupations, and the poison of nationalism.

 I've been using Kolektiva for about two months, and so far I've seen positive signs of growth and progress on all of these goals. There is already a lot of diverse content on their from short films, punk music, lectures and documentaries, to animations and footage of street battles and protest successes. Much is either not available on other sites or is buried. Its features also make it easier to translate content, two of my uploads now have French subtitles and I've seen groups like Antimidia release more content with subtitles and narration in other languages. And as the server federates with more servers and the word is spread increasing the userbase and viewership views and sharing of content has been steadily increasing. Hopefully this will continue, and I enthusiastically recommend them to any casual reader of libcom.org and sites like it. https://kolektiva.media/ 

 Its not a Youtube replacement, and I doubt it ever will be, even Antimidia and Sub.media the two groups most responsible for its creation still maintain youtube channels, and I do as well, but I'm finding it to be a viable way to back up content and share it with an audience. I don't think I'll have to mute comment notification there anytime soon. So yes this may be a bit optimistic and dangerously close to advertising (though alas unpaid), but I've been on youtube for over 10 years and it has steadily grown more and more hostile an environment and a business as its gone on and the recent changes to American users, which means that it will now be putting even more adverts on the platform and essentially declaring user autonomy to be dead, its only going to get worse. 

 Oh and a quick note on adblockers, they're great I use them all the time, but they're not infallible platforms like Twitch and youtube are putting more resources into countering them, and sadly a growing number of adblock plugin developers are essentially selling out and deactivating them on sites that cut them a deal. By all means keep using ones that still work, and consider switching to an open source one for greater longevity and effectiveness, but ads are only a fraction of the problems using the modern internet and the services provided by big tech and software corporations.

Josef Schultz - The Man Who Wouldn't Shoot

Map showing partisan areas of operation in 1943

Despite the staggering amount of media made about World War II we barely scratch the surface. Entire fronts of the war and its darker sides particularly those carried out by Allied powers are often overlooked with one or two exceptions. For example the Yugoslav front, while the war in Greece has received some attention, probably due to the presence of British divisions there before the country was occupied by the German army, almost nothing about what went on across the border in neighbouring Albania and Yugoslavia gets popular attention.

In the case of Albania its early annexation by Italy is brought up as an example of a missed warning sign, and the SS recruiting Albanians is brought up as footnote, often by Reich apologists to try and dispute the popular and correct impression that Nazi Germany was a nation obsessed with racial purity.

Yugoslavia tends to get much less, aside from Force 10 from Navarrone the cheaper more action pulp sequel to the famous Guns of Navarrone, it doesn't get much attention outside of Yugoslav and former Yugoslav made documentaries and books. In a way this is understandable if disappointing, the Balkans were extremely complex. Initially Kingdom of Yugoslavia joined the Axis before popular protests and a coup by officers in the armed forces installed a pro Allied one instead. A combined German and Italian force (mostly German, since Italy's failed invasion of Greece had cost it entire armies) quickly overran the country.

But instead of a quick and fairly easy occupation the region erupted into even more mass violence once the Wehrmacht had established itself. Croatian Fascists in the Ustashe movement set up an independent pro Nazi region, ran their own paramilitary and extermination camp system targeting Serbs and the Balkan Jewish community. A puppet government, Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation zones and bands of Chetniks, majority Serb armed bands that sometimes supported the Axis but over times worked independently. And then finally there were the partisans, of which Tito's Communist forces are the most well known and active.

This made for a vicious mix, with the armies of occupation and their allies often resorting to the destruction of entire villages, collective punishments and ethnic cleansing campaigns. Out of all of this confusion and terror and mythic hero was created. Private Josef Schultz, soldier of the 714th Infantry division.

Shultz is something of a folk hero in the region as a soldier who refused to take part in executions of prisoners, and according to legend was made to stand in line with those prisoners and die along side them. The existence of Josef Schultz and his deployment to Yugoslavia are confirmed, but West German investigations believe the stories around his death are fictious. Nevertheless he remains a popular folk hero.

In 1973 Zastava films made a short film about Josef Schultz, and at only 13 minutes long its one of the most moving anti-war films I've ever seen.



https://youtu.be/REkZ1gcqzL8

Short film about the life and death of Joseph Schultz, made in 1973 in Yugoslavia.

Download https://archive.org/details/josephschultz_201702

This photo often attributes the soldier without a helmet as being the last photo of Josef Schultz, sadly while this is disputed the photo is otherwise genuine. This is a real photo of a mass execution carried out by the German army.

Tiananmen Square 30 Years on

Link https://youtu.be/cQqi_FA--ko

Video info

Even after 30 years...

When you're ordered to forget, to remember becomes an act of defiance.

Audio is from the History of China Podcast https://thehistoryofchina.wordpress.com/
The cable being read https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/UK_cable_on_Tiananmen_Square_Massacre

Footage comes from
In Remembrance of Tiananmen Square China 1989  https://archive.org/details/714698flower

And Arthur Kent's Tiananmen Square Massacre: Black Night In June (2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA4iKSeijZI

Text of the cable from https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/UK_cable_on_Tiananmen_Square_Massacre
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/UK_cable_on_Tiananmen_Square_Massacre

SECRET

D E D I P

UK COMMS ONLY

FM PEKING

TO DESKBY 051600Z FCO

TELNO 1039

OF 051421Z JUNE 89

AND TO DESKBY 051600Z HONG KONG, JSIS HONG KONG, MODUK

SIC U2b

DESKBY 051600Z MODUK AND JSIS⁠HONG KONG.

HONG KONG PERSONAL FOR GOVERNOR.

CHINA: BACKGROUND TO MILITARY SITUATION.

1.   HE HAS PASSING ON INFORMATION GIVEN HIM BY A CLOSE FRIEND WHO IS CURRENTLY A MEMBER OF THE STATE COUNCIL. THIS SOURCE HAS PREVIOUSLY PROVED RELIABLE AND WAS CAREFUL TO SEPARATE FACT FROM SPECULATION AND RUMOUR.

2. FACT. THE ARMY THAT HAS COMMITTED THE ATROCITIES IN BEIJING IS 27 ARMY WHO ARE TROOPS FROM SHANXI PROVINCE (?), ARE 60 PERCENT ILLITERATE AND ARE CALLED PRIMITIVES. THE COMMANDER OF 27 ARMY WAS YANG ZHENHUA, SON OF YANG BAIDING BROTHER OF YANG SHANGKUN. THEY WERE KEPT WITHOUT NEWS FOR TEN DAYS AND TOLD THEY WERE TO TAKE PART IN AN EXERCISE. A TV FILM WOULD BE MADE OF THE EXERCISE WHICH PLEASED THEM. THEY WERE INFORMED OF MARTIAL LAW ON MAY 20. FOR THE FIRST 4 DAYS AFTER ARRIVAL THEY WERE DRIVEN AROUND BEIJING CITY TO FAMILIARISE THEM WITH THE AREA. 27 ARMY ARE AT FULL STRENGTH WITH THEIR OWN TANKS AND APCS AND A FULL OUTFIT OF AMMUNITION, TEAR GAS AND FLAMETHROWERS. OTHER ARMIES ARE ONLY AT 1 DIVISION STRENGTH. THE LEADERSHIP KEEPS 27 ARMY ON THE MOVE SO THAT IT CAN ATTACK FROM A DIFFERENT DIRECTION EACH TIME.

3. FACT. ON THE NIGHT OF 3/4 JUNE 27 ARMY WAS TO ATTACK FROM THE WEST WITH OTHER UNITS FROM SHENYANG MR. THE PLAN WAS THAT THE FIRST WAVE (SMR) WOULD ATTACK WITH NO WEAPONS. THE SECOND WAVE (SMR) WOULD ATTACK WITH WEAPONS BUT NO AMMUNITION. THE THIRD WAVE (SMR) WOULD ATTACK AS FOR SECOND WAVE BUT OFFICERS WOULD HAVE LOADED SIDE ARMS TO FRIGHTEN THE CROWD. THE FOURTH WAVE WOULD BE 27 ARMY WITH FULL EQUIPMENT AND AMMUNITION. THE FIRST ATTACKS OCCURRED AT MUCIDI AND SHILIPU. THE FIRST THREE WAVES WERE HELD BY THE DEMONSTRATORS AND SMR TROOPS TRIED TO PUSH BACK THE CROWDS TO LET 27 ARMY THROUGH. THEY FAILED AND 27 ARMY APCS OPENED FIRE ON THE CROWD (BOTH CIVILIANS AND SOLDIERS) BEFORE RUNNING OVER THEM IN THEIR APCS.

4. FACT. THE ENRAGED MASSES FOLLOWED IGNORING M/G FIRE TO NEXT BATTLE AT LIUBUKOU. APCS RAN OVER TROOPS AND CIVILIANS AT 65KPH IN SAME MANNER. ONE APC CRASHED AND DRIVER (A CAPTAIN) GOT OUT AND WAS TAKEN BY CROWD TO HOSPITAL. HE IS NOT DERANGED AND DEMANDS DEATH FOR HIS ATROCITIES.

5. FACT. ON ARRIVAL AT TIANANMEN TROOPS FROM SMR HAD SEPARATED STUDENTS AND RESIDENTS. STUDENTS UNDERSTOOD THEY WERE GIVEN ONE HOUR TO LEAVE SQUARE BUT AFTER FIVE MINUTES APCS ATTACKED. STUDENTS LINKED ARMS BUT WERE MOWN DOWN INCLUDING SOLDIERS. APCS THEN RAN OVER BODIES TIME AND TIME AGAIN TO MAKE QUOTE PIE UNQUOTE AND REMAINS COLLECTED BY BULLDOZER. REMAINS INCINERATED AND THEN HOSED DOWN DRAINS.

6. 27 ARMY ORDERED TO SPARE NOONE AND SHOT WOUNDED SMR SOLDIERS. 4 WOUNDED GIRL STUDENTS BEGGED FOR THEIR LIVES BUT WERE BAYONETED. A 3 YEAR OLD GIRL WAS INJURED BUT HER MOTHER WAS SHOT AS SHE WENT TO HER AID AS WERE SIX OTHERS WHO TRIED. 1000 SURVIVORS WERE TOLD THEY COULD ESCAPE VIA ZHENGYI LU BUT WERE THEN MOWN DOWN BY SPECIALLY PREPARED M/G POSITIONS. ARMY AMBULANCES WHO ATTEMPTED TO GIVE AID WERE SHOT UP AS WAS A SINO-JAPANESE HOSPITAL AMBULANCE. WITH MEDICAL CREW DEAD WOUNDED DRIVER ATTEMPTED TO RAM ATTACKERS BUT WAS BLOWN TO PIECES BY ANTI TANK WEAPON. IN FURTHER ATTACK APCS CAUGHT UP WITH SMR STRAGGLER TRUCKS, RAMMED AND OVERTURNED THEM AND RAN OVER TROOPS. DURING ATTACK 27 ARMY OFFICER SHOT DEAD BY OWN TROOPS APPARENTLY BECAUSE HE FALTERED. TROOPS EXPLAINED THEY WOULD BE SHOT IF THEY HADN'T SHOT OFFICER.

7. SPECULATION. 27 ARMY USED BECAUSE MOST RELIABLE AND OBEDIENT. SOME CONSIDERED OTHER ARMIES WOULD ATTACK 27 ARMY BUT THEY HAD NO AMMUNITION. ZHONGZHAI WAS PROTECTED BY 2 RINGS OF TANKS/APCS ONE INSIDE THE WALL, ONE WITHOUT.

8. RUMOUR. SOME SMR HAD RETURNED TO HOME BASES FOR AMMUNITION. ARMIES FROM SHANDONG, JIANGSI AND XINJIANG HAD LEFT BASES WITHOUT ORDERS FROM BEIJING TO DESTROY 27 ARMY. THE MR COMMANDERS FROM GUANZHOU, BEIJING AND SHENYANG HAS REFUSED TO ATTEND A RECENT MEETING OF MR COMMANDERS CALLED BY YANG SHANGKUN.

9. FACT. BEIJING MR COMMANDER HAD REFUSED TO SUPPLY OUTSIDE ARMIES WITH FOOD, WATER OR BARRACKS. SOURCE SAID MANY BARRACKS IN BEIJING BUT NOTE TV PICTURES OF TENTS. 27 ARMY WERE USING DUM-DUM BULLETS. 27 ARMY SNIPERS SHOT MANY CIVILIANS ON BALCONIES, STREETSWEEPERS ETC FOR TARGET PRACTICE. BEIJING HOSPITALS HAD BEEN ORDERED TO ACCEPT ONLY SECURITY FORCE CASULTIES. SO FAR 6 FOREIGN STUDENTS AND 23 FOREIGN JOURNALISTS HAD BEEN KILLED IN THE FIGHTING (NOTE: WE HAVE NO EVIDENCE OF THIS).

10. FACT. THE FIRST PHASE OF THE OPERATION WAS TO SECURE TIANANMEN. THE NEXT PHASE WOULD BE TO CONTROL MAJOR ROADS AND INTERSECTIONS AND MOVE OUTWARDS FROM CENTRE. THIS WOULD START WITHIN 2 DAYS.

11. FACT. YANG SHANGKUN AND DENG XIAOPING WERE VERY CLOSE FRIENDS. SOME MEMBERS OF THE STATE COUNCIL THAT CIVIL WAR IS IMMINENT. QIN JIWEI WAS FORCED UNWILLINGLY TO APPEAR IN BACKGROUND IN TV PROGRAMME ON 20 MAY TO GIVE AURA OF UNITY. MINIMUM ESTIMATE OF CIVILIAN DEAD 10,000.

DONALD