Text of the Soviet directive “On Preventing the Mass Exodus of Peasants From Ukraine,”

'Crossection in Vinnitsya, 1939'. It shows the massacre made by Stalin when thousands of Ukrainian were killed during the Great Purge in 1937-1938. By William Kurelek (1927 -1977)

 

The following text is an English translation of a directive that lead to the deaths of over 3 million Ukrainians. In the 1930s Soviet agricultural policies combined with poor conditions for harvesting caused the collapse of agricultural production in many areas of the Soviet Union but especially in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Southern Russia. The population in the these areas went looking for food, often travelling vast distances on foot, some with their families others leaving them behind in the hope of sending food back. 

In the Russian Empire you required special papers to travel within the Empire, a sort of internal passport. This was kept by the Soviet Union, so what the starving were doing was illegal. It was also causing embarrassment and was a potential source of unrest. The document below is the official response from the Soviet authorities to this crisis. By refusing to let the starving leave they were condemned to die. This was remembered as the Holodomor, which comes from the Ukrainian for killing by starvation. Its been a mark on the legacy of Stalin and the Soviet Union for decades and is slowly being recognised internationally as a genocide.

 

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPSU (B)

COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS OF THE USSR

DIRECTIVE of January 22, 1933 No. 65/sh

IN CONNECTION WITH THE MASS EXIT OF PEASANTS OUTSIDE UKRAINE

January 22, 1933.

Rostov-Don, Kharkiv, Voronezh, Smolensk, Minsk, Stalingrad, Samara

N. 65/w

The Central Committee (b) and the Council of People's Commissars reported that a mass departure of peasants "for bread" to the Central Choir, the Volga, Moscow region, the Western region, Belarus began in Kuban and Ukraine. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR have no doubt that this departure of peasants, as well as the departure from Ukraine last year, was organized by the enemies of the Soviet power, Socialist-Revolutionaries and agents of Poland for the aim of campaigning "through peasants" in the northern regions of the USSR against collective farms and against the Soviet power in general. Last year, the party, Soviet and Chekist bodies of Ukraine missed this counter-revolutionary idea of the enemies of Soviet power. Last year there can be no repetition of last year's mistake.

The first one. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR prescribe the regional, regional executive committee and PP of the OGPU of the North Caucasus to prevent the mass departure of peasants from the North Caucasus to other regions and entry into the region from Ukraine.

Second. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of People's Commissars order the Central Committee of the CP(b)U, Balitsky and Redens to prevent the mass departure of peasants from Ukraine to other regions and entry to Ukraine from the North Caucasus.

Third. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of People's Commissars order the PP of the OGPU of the Moscow Region, the Central Emergency Committee, the Western Region, Belarus, the Lower Volga and the Middle Volga to arrest the "peasants" of Ukraine and the North Caucasus who have made their way to the north and after the counter-revolutionary elements are

Fourth. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of People's Commissars order the TO of the GPU Prokhorov to give an appropriate order under the TO system of the GPU.

Pre-Commarch of the USSR B. M. Molotov

Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) I. Stalin

(RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 11. D. 45. L. 109-109 ob.)

Directive of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in connection with the mass departure of peasants outside Ukraine

January 23, 1933.

1.     ⁠Send the following directive to all regional committees and regional executive committees (see annex).

2.     ⁠To propose an authorized drug committee (i.e. Lavrishchev) and the South ZhOKTO GPU to immediately give instructions to all railway stations to stop selling tickets outside Ukraine to peasants who do not have a certificate of the RICs of departure or industrial and construction state organizations that they have been recruited for certain works outside Ukraine.

Secretary of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U M. Khataevich

Application Regional committees, regional executive committees

Mass trips of peasants to the Moscow and Western regions began from some regions of Ukraine following the example of last year. CCHO, Belarus 'for bread'. There are cases when the whole leaves almost all individuals and part of the collective farmers. There is no doubt that such mass trips are organized by the enemies of the Soviet power, Socialist-Revolutionaries and agents of Poland for the aim of campaigning 'through peasants' in the northern regions of the USSR against collective farms, against Soviet power. Last year, the party, Soviet and Chekist bodies of Ukraine missed this counter-revolutionary idea of the enemies of Soviet power. This year, this error should not be repeated.

The Central Committee of the CP(b)U and the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR offer:

1.     ⁠Immediately take decisive measures in each district to prevent the mass departure of individual collective farmers, based on the Balitsky directive sent through the GPU.

2.     ⁠Check the work of all kinds of recruiters of the slave force for export outside Ukraine, take it under strict control with the suspension from this work and the removal of all suspicious counter-revolutionary elements.

3.     ⁠To launch extensive explanatory work among collective farmers and individuals against unauthorized departures leaving the economy and warn them that if they go to other areas, they will be arrested there.

4.     ⁠Take measures to stop the sale of tickets outside Ukraine to peasants who do not have certificates of the RICs of the right to leave or industrial and construction state organizations that they have been recruited for certain work outside Ukraine. Relevant instructions are given through the IPNKPS and the transport GPU.

5.     ⁠Report no later than 6 p.m. on January 24 briefly the actual situation with the mass departure of peasants in your area.

Secretary of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U Khataevich

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR B. Chubar

 

 

Центральный Комитет ВКП(б)Совет Народных Комиссаров СССР
Директива от 22 января 1933 года № 65/ш
в связи с массовым выездом крестьян за пределы Украины

22 января 1933 г.

Ростов-Дон, Харьков, Воронеж, Смоленск,
Минск, Сталинград, Самара

N. 65/ш

До ЦКВКП(б) и СНК дошли сведения, что на Кубани и Украине начался массовый выезд крестьян «за хлебом» в ЦЧО, на Волгу, Московскую обл., Западную обл., Белоруссию. ЦК ВКП и Совнарком СССР не сомневаются, что этот выезд крестьян, как и выезд из Украины в прошлом году, организован врагами Советской власти, эсерами и агентами Польши с целью агитации «через крестьян» в северных районах СССР против колхозов и вообще против Советской власти. В прошлом году партийные, советские и чекистские органы Украины прозевали эту контрреволюционную затею врагов Советской власти. В этом году не может быть допущено повторение прошлогодней ошибки.

Первое. ЦК ВКП и Совнарком СССР предписывают крайкому, крайисполкому и ПП ОГПУ Северного Кавказа не допускать массовый выезд крестьян из Северного Кавказа в другие края и въезд в пределы края из Украины.

Второе. ЦК ВКП и Совнарком предписывают ЦК КП(б)У, Балицкому и Реденсу не допускать массовый выезд крестьян из Украины в другие края и въезд на Украину из Северного Кавказа.

Третье. ЦК ВКП и Совнарком предписывают ПП ОГПУ Московской обл., ЦЧО, Западной обл., Белоруссии, Нижней Волги и Средней Волги арестовывать пробравшихся на север «крестьян» Украины и Северного Кавказа и после того, как будут отобраны контрреволюционные элементы, водворять остальных в места их жительства.

Четвертое. ЦК ВКП и Совнарком предписывают ТО ГПУ Прохорову дать соответствующее распоряжение по системе ТО ГПУ.

	Предсовнарком СССР
	В. М. Молотов

	Секретарь ЦК ВКП(б)
	И. Сталин

(РГАСПИ. Ф. 558.Оп. 11. Д. 45. Л. 109-109об.)

Директива ЦК ВКП(б) и СНК СССР в связи с массовым выездом крестьян за пределы Украины

23 января 1933 г.

1. Послать всем обкомам и облисполкомам следующую директиву (см. приложение).

2. Предложить уполнаркомпути (т. Лаврищеву) и ЮЖОКТО ГПУ немедленно дать указания всем железнодорожным станциям о прекращении продажи билетов за пределы Украины крестьянам, не имеющим удостоверения РИКов о праве выезда или промышленных и строительных государственных организаций о том, что они завербованы на те или другие работы за пределами Украины.

	Секретарь ЦК КП(б)У
	М. Хатаевич

Приложение

Обкомам, облисполкомам

Из некоторых районов Украины начались по примеру прошлого года массовые выезды крестьян в Московскую, Западную обл. ЦЧО, Белоруссию 'за хлебом'. Имеют место случаи, когда цела покидаются почти всеми единоличниками и частью колхозников. Нет никаких сомнений, что подобные массовые выезды организуются врагами Советской власти, эсерами и агентами Польши с целью агитации 'через крестьян' в северных районах СССР против колхозов, против Советской власти. В прошлом году партийные, советские и чекистские органы Украины прозевали эту контрреволюционную затею врагов Советской власти. В этом году повторения этой ошибки не должно быть допущено.

ЦК КП(б)У и СНК УССР предлагают:

1. Немедленно принять в каждом районе решительные меры к недопущению массового выезда единоличников колхозников, исходя из разосланной по линии ГПУ директивы Балицкого.

2. Проверить работу всякого рода вербовщиков рабсилы на вывоз за пределы Украины, взять ее под строгий контроль с отстранением от этой работы и изъятием всех подозрительных контрреволюционных элементов.

3. Развернуть широкую разъяснительную работу среди колхозников и единоличников проти самовольных выездов с оставлением хозяйства и предостеречь их, что в случае выезда в другие районы, они будут там арестовываться.

4. Примите меры к прекращению продажи билетов за пределы Украины крестьянам, не имеющим удостоверений РИКов о праве выезда или промышленных и строительных государственных организаций о том, что они завербованы на те или иные работы за пределы Украины.

Соответствующие указания даны по линии ИпНКПС и транспортного ГПУ.

5. Сообщите не позже 6 час. вечера 24 января коротко фактическое положение с массовым выездом крестьян по вашей области.

	Секретарь ЦК КП(б)У
	Хатаевич

	Председатель СНК УССР
	В. Чубарь

Ukraine War Stories

 

 Ukraine has a large IT sector including game development. Many companies and teams have been disrupted and even destroyed by the Russian Federation's invasion in February 2022. It shouldn't be surprising that some of these game devs in Ukraine would turn to their skills and make something dealing with those events. Conflict creates an explosion in every other art form, protest music, graffiti, photography, novels and memoirs, and past conflicts do get depicted in video game form. Though its still rare for one to be made about an ongoing conflict in the early days of the fighting.

Ukraine War Stories (UWS) was released on Steam on the 18th of October by Starni Games. I was not familiar with them until last Winter, looking them up they seem to operate exclusively on the Steam platform and have previously released a series of games called Strategic Mind. Before tackling the game its best to address in the Elephant in the room. This game was made as propaganda to encourage sympathy for the people of Ukraine. Its released for free and has many language options, propaganda is a term that is loaded with negative associations, but it doesn't automatically mean its dishonest. The game is open about its intentions and point and view, and while the events and characters are fictional they all have basis in fact. On the game's start screen their is a page dedicated to showing the sources for all the events it depicts.

 Its open in its intentions, its transparent and shows the evidence it uses to inform narrative decisions. I don't have a problem with this. Ukrainians have a right to express themselves and deal with traumatic events in anyway they choose and the team working on this game have taken steps to ensure that the game is educational and stays close to accurate depictions of events. It at no point tries to present a "Russian" view of the conflict, but it doesn't have to. If a Russian game dev team wished to make such a game and they showed the same level of fact checking and transparency I wouldn't begrudge its existence.

UWS is a visual novel type of game with a simple resource and morale system, where the player progresses through three narrative scenarios set in three different parts of Ukraine, Hostomel, Bucha and Mariupol. These names should be enough to alert the player that they will be experiencing some horrific scenes, but just in case that isn't clear the game documents sexual violence, torture, psychological torture, and crimes against humanity and war. Its not a pleasant experience. I have completed all three scenarios at the time of writing this, there are multiple endings depending on choices and the management of resources but I don't want to play again, it left me feeling very raw and vulnerable.

The Russian characters unsurprisingly do not come across very well, they're all military and they're essentially brutal thugs. Unfortunately their behaviour tallies very closely with the sources and investigations into the conduct of the Russian military including in the towns and cities the game is set. I say unfortunately not because of the damage done to a nebulous concept of "honour" but because this means that while playing you are reminded that when a drunken Russian volunteer leer at a young woman, or a Kadyrovite (Chechen loyal to Chechen pro Russian leader Akhmat Kadyrov) beats a teenager for not answering a question he couldn't understand fast enough, these aren't like the zombies and mutants in a typical survival horror game, these scenes represent real events and real victims. If UWS had been made before the invasion I would've written it off as Ukrainian-ultra nationalist propaganda, but the links section and my own knowledge of the conduct of this war dispel that. 

To give just one example, in the Bucha episode of the game there is a collaborator who goes around talking to the Russian Armed Forces and was a supporter of the Russian World concept. He was based on a real person and his fate matches that of his real life counter part. If there had been no war and a game had this character I would scoff at how unbelievable it is that a person could walk through the rubble of his home town and praise and support an army that was seizing his neighbours, but it happened.

 There's an argument in games design that video games should always be enjoyable to play, UWS is an assault on that concept. I would not wish to make the acquaintance of anyone who would play this game for escapism or thrills. The characters while a little clunky at the beginning grow into human beings with complex thoughts and needs and no matter how good a player is at managing morale and resources they all go through a form of hell along with friends and loved ones. I suppose the question is why make this game? The developers of UWS use their Steam developer update system to keep their fans informed about conditions for civilians outside of the combat zone with their discussion of power cuts and having to source generators and heating for their building. The game is open about attracting support for Ukrainians, in addition to the page documenting their sources there is a `support UA` page that has links to many charities working to support refugees and other victims of the ongoing conflict. 

However, for me there is another reason why UWS deserves to be played, though I would recommend taking some precautions to prepare for it and keep in mind the extreme content it deals with. I'm fortunate enough not to know what its like to live under occupation, some of my family live in Northern Ireland during the Troubles so I have some knowledge of what that might look like, but in my own life I very rarely have to deal with the police and authorities never mind a conflict in my vicinity. This is unusual as many parts of the world are not so fortunate. In the UK and Europe we treat the people who face these horrific catastrophes very poorly. As societies we begrudgingly allow a minority of them safe harbour in our nations, donate through private and government agencies to organisations offering support closer to the battle lines, and use soft power to encourage the belligerent parties to eventually give peace a change through a drawn out process of de-escalation. 

Ukraine has been held up or criticised as an exception, and while its true that the level of direct support from the USA, UK and EU has been greater than other victims of aggression around the world I wouldn't say its been without drawbacks. In the UK while a home stay policy was implemented the government refuses to wave visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees a requirement that has delayed thousands from finding safety, and the EU is constantly struggling with certain member states (mainly Hungary) delaying or weakening its initiatives and support. And in general while sympathy remains high I've noticed that the tendency to view Ukrainians as somehow different from "normal people" remains as a source of distance.

But the ordinary people who suffer most from these crises are viewed as abstract numbers and burdens to be suffered. UWS offers an opportunity to close the distance a bit and see what an ordinary Grandfather, a teenage boy and a Doctor experience when nation states resort to naked force to achieve their ends. Since I have no direct experience to compare UWS too I can't say with certainty that it gets it 100% right, but it has left me thinking a lot more about people in Ukraine and other parts of the world a lot more than I do usually. Though I do know some Ukrainians from before the war so that has also helped me move beyond national categories and numbers on charts.

 The point I'm trying to make is that war is awful, and the injuries it creates go further and run deeper than most realise. But war continues to happen and yet much art dealing with war as a subject quite often glorifies and glamourises it. Especially in video games, some of my favourite games have you single handedly take on the entire armed forces of Bad-Guyania, without qualms. So, as horrible as games like UWS are to experience I think it occupies an important position. Its closer to This War of Mine in its effects and intentions and while it feels wrong to say I'm glad This War of Mine and Ukraine War Stories exist, since they were inspired by real atrocities and trauma, I think if we're every going to seriously challenge the system that encourages and perpetuates militarism and conflict works like them will play an important part in convincing the population that its important we do.

A quick note:

Steam Russia does not allow Ukraine War Stories to be accessed despite a full Russian language version being available. This is a great shame as I've seen what Russian official media and much of its unofficial Telegram channel media says about the conflict. Ukraine War Stories could do a lot to puncture that veil and expose a Russian audience to more information.

Conquest of Synthehol - Star Trek on Anarchism

 

 I've been watching Star Trek again, Season 3 episode Allegiance surprised me. I remembered liking bits of it but I'd forgotten a good chunk of it. The plot is an mystery involving the abduction of captain Picard. He finds himself in a sort of holding cell with three other abductees, meanwhile an imposter is giving strange orders on the Enterprise. 

Two parts of the episode stood out to me as being unusual. One of them was a line of dialogue Picard throws at the culprits of the kidnappings, "Imprisonment is an injury no matter how you justify it". Seeing a common argument of prison abolition on a network TV show was quite the surprise. The second surprise was that this episode examines Anarchism. The purpose of the abductions was to conduct an experiment to observe attitudes towards authority. Picard and his fellow prisoners were chosen as representatives of differing attitudes towards the concept.

 The prisoner representing Anarchism is Esoqq a member of the Chalnoth species, his people reject authority. Usually when Anarchism gets a little exposure in the mass media its as a cautionary tale about the dangers of Anarchy. Anarchism is shown to be a chaotic dog eats dog world a primitive social darwinist playground. Allegiance is a bit different. We do get the standard lamentation over the loss of law and governance, but that view point doesn't come from Picard or Starfleet, it comes from another prisoner Kova Tholl a Mizarian. Both the Chalnoth and Mizarian peoples appear for the first time in this episode, they're depicted as the polar opposite in values and philosophy. While the Chalnoth respect fighting and reject authority the Mizarians value peace so much that they always collaborate with the established authority, including their occupiers.

"My given name is Esoqq, it means fighter."
"I bet half the names in the Chalnoth language mean fighter."
"Mizarians, your names all mean surrender!"

Esoqq and Kova Tholl

Picard is essentially occupying the role of middle ground between the two extremes. Which is fairly typical of episodes of Science fiction. Though what surprised me is that of the two Esoqq is treated more charitably. 

The Alpha Qaudrents Errico Malatesta

Esoqq in his own words concedes that he has enemies and has killed some of them, and he also wields a nasty looking knife and he growls his lines. But of the two he's the more proactive one, he works with Picard on their escape attempts and his rejection of authority isn't the typical "Fuck you! I won't do what you tell me, whatever you tell me" caricature. Its more like he's open to working with others if he thinks it makes sense. A distinction betwee working with rather than for. He doesn't obey Picard he remains suspicious of him but can be reasoned with. Meanwhile Kova Tholl advocates capitulation and defends the unseen captors and extremely reluctantly gets involved. Even Picard the view point character for the audience displays an attitude of incredulousness that borders on open contempt when Tholl explains the Mizarian philosophy. "None! in the past 300 years of Mizarian history you've been conquered six times".

As far as popular programming goes this episode, once you get past the needle teeth and jagged dagger is a more nuanced look at Anarchism than most media even media that is consciously exploring political themese would do. It isn't perfect, Esoqq comes from what appears to be an extreme individualistic and violent place, but they have managed to develop space travel and have at least some knowledge and connections to the rest of the galaxy. Trek has a spotty record when dealing with politics in more substantial ways then moral criticism, I would put Alliegiance with its commentary on imprisonment, ethics and authority in the better half of the mix.

War on Christmas, the Agacher strip clash

 

President Sankara in front with beret visits Agacher during conflict in December 1985

 

On Christmas day 1985 the West African nations of Mali and Burkina Faso found themselves in a military conflict. The dispute was called by some African leaders as "the war of the poor" due to the economic conditions within both countries and became known commonly as the Agacher strip War. The Agacher strip was a territory bordering both nations, in the furthest north of Burkina Faso and as part of Mali's southern border. The clashes lasted five days before the International Court of Justice arbitrated. Casualties are had to accurately but are estimated as high as 300 including civilians and military. 

The situation was essentially powder keg next to an open flame. Agacher was a porous border, people living their often crossed what was suppsoed to be the recognised border. Cattle farmers would trespass to graze their cattle on the best lands in the area. And the territory was beleived to be rich in natural resources. Both nations had been pursuing their claims to the territory for many  years with sporadic shooting in 1974. But relations between Mali and Burkina Faso were especially poor by 1985. Burkina Faso's leader Thomas Sankara had publicly urged on revolution in Mali during a period of unrest 

“The other peoples who are on our borders also need a revolution […] I want to talk about Mali. […] The revolution of the people of Burkina Faso is available to the people of Mali who need it. Because he alone will allow him to fight against hunger, thirst, ignorance; and to fight above all against the forces of neocolonial and imperialist domination”.

Speech from September 1985, machine translated from French

Meanwhile Sankara suspected Mali's leader Moussa Traore of working with Burkinabe exiles and the Ivory Coast against him. Further aggravating the situation was the Burkina Faso census being conducted at the time which included the communities in Agacher and border settlements claimed by Mali. Burkina Faso also deployed soldiers to the area without notification resulting in confrontation with Mali authorities. Burkina Faso announced it would withdraw its soldiers but had not done so by the time the conflict had started.

On the 25th of December Mali launched its offensive, over five days its forces successfully occupied a large part of the strip with the Burkinabe forces lead by Blaise Compaore forced to disperse and resort to ambush and delaying tactics. On December 30th a truce sponsored by African leaders was struck and held. In January 1986 the two countries began desecalting, prisoners were exchanged and eventually a time table for withdrawing forces was agreed. Both governments accused each other, Burkina Faso stated it was the victim of aggression while Mali maintained that its operation was to protect its territorial integrity. By that December the International Court of Justice had decided to split the territory roughly in half with Mali taking the West and Burkina Faso the east. Both nations accepted this proposal and that was the end of hostilities between the two countries.

The reason I'm outlining this short conflict is the connection to Thomas Sankara. Thomas Sankara was Marxist revolutionary and statesmen who came to power through a coup d'etat in the former French colony of Upper Volta in 1983. In 1984 as part of Sankara's reforms the country was renamed to Burkina Faso. Sankara's charisma, interventionist policies and lack of readily available information about him or his time in government (in English anyway) and his tragic end, deposed and killed in 1987 in another coup d'etat by his close colleague and fellow band member Blaise Compaore, created the perfect conditions for a posthoumous cult of personality. Sankara is extremely popular today amongst certain left-wing circles and while its difficult to find information about in English, its almost possible to find even mild criticism.

So, I think the Agacher Strip, both the long running dispute and the conflict it birthed are an excellent demonstration of reality. It is possible that Thomas Sankara was truly as selfless and brilliant as he is presented by his admirers. But he was also the leader of a government and a nation state and an active participant in the international community. This means that ultimately his personal qualities aren't of much importance because both he and the Burkinabe revolution he promoted had to work within a system that constrained and limited them. 

As seen by the dispute over territory in Agacher. Two nations wanted to augment their security and natural wealth fought over a territory both had claimed. While Sankara had encouraged Malians to oust Muossa Traore in speeches and print there was no serious attempt to link the struggle for control of Agacher to a revolution in Mali. And Mali despite gaining the upper hand against the armed forces of Burkina Faso made no attempt to deliver a serious blow to Burkina Faso, its forces remained within the territory that was disputed. And after the International Court of Justice recommended splitting the territory both sides agreed and scaled back their aggressive measures. Both governments came to an agreement they could live with at the cost of a few hundred of their citizens. 

Furthermore, despite Sankara being an open Marxist with close co-operation with Cuba the Cold War dynamics of East vs West played no role in this conflict. Moussa Traore had taken steps to improve relations with France but his regime and especially its military relied heavily on the Soviet Union. The air force that bombed Burkinabe positions and villages flew Mig-21s and its tanks and equipment were also from the Soviet military. There were at least 50 Soviet military advisers present in the country at the time of the conflict offering support as well.

MiG-21 in the service of the Malian air force

Ultimately it didn't matter that Sankara was in power at all. The tensions between the two nations predated him and they were fought by means that trump ideological postures and by diplomacy and force, the tools available to all states and endorsed by the international authorities so long as they occurr in the proper manner.

On Change and ballots

 “If voting did anything, they’d make it illegal.”

This often repeated and attributed quote has caused a great deal of argument for many years. Its often attributed to Emma Goldman though attempts to find the source haven't succeeded and sometimes the quote is attributted to other thinkers like Mark Twain. But while its not clear that Goldman said those words I doubt she'd disagree with it. 

A common line of criticism especially from people who live in the United States of America is "but they are making it illegal". The USA and many other countries do have restrictions on eliigibility for voting. In the segregationist South Black Americans were barred by poll tax requirements and ridiculous and rigged tests they had to pass before being allowed to cast a ballot. And to this day in many states the act of gerrymandering of electoral districts continues and multiple states have passed increasingly stringent laws on the need for identification and restrictive lists for what counts as identification. 

This was just one of hundreds of such tests used in the US South.

And its not just the United States. The presidential elections in Brazil this year saw Federal police intervene to close polling stations early and turn buses full of voters away on one flimsy pretext or another. So it does seem like voting is increasingly becoming illegal or at least blunted by heavy restrictions.

So, does this mean the qoutation is incorrect? I would think no, and although we don't know if Emma Goldman said this phrase I think she is still a good example of the phrase's meaning. Emma Goldman was a committed Anarchist-Communist and advocate for social revolution. To her, changing things meant systemic change, the kind of change that rebuilds society from the ground up. To date, while elections and referendums have brought about changes they haven't brought about the systemic change that Goldman advocated. 

For example, let's look at some passages from her essay on Woman Suffrage. 

Woman’s demand for equal suffrage is based largely on the contention that woman must have the equal right in all affairs of society. No one could, possibly, refute that, if suffrage were a right. Alas, for the ignorance of the human mind, which can see a right in an imposition. Or is it not the most brutal imposition for one set of people to make laws that another set is coerced by force to obey? Yet woman clamors for that “golden opportunity” that has wrought so much misery in the world, and robbed man of his integrity and self-reliance; an imposition which has thoroughly corrupted the people, and made them absolute prey in the hands of unscrupulous politicians.

...

 As to our own States where women vote, and which are constantly being pointed out as examples of marvels, what has been accomplished there through the ballot that women do not to a large extent enjoy in other States; or that they could not achieve through energetic efforts without the ballot?

Bolding my own.

For Goldman economic and social conditions and power relationships between classes and individuals were the important thing. And for her there were many ways to available to achieving gains along those ends, while expanding the franchise to women didn't automatically lead to any progress as far as she could see in the United States of America. 

But, nevertheless, the right to vote or to be more accurate acess to the vote is being restricted in many parts of the world. So, why? Well I think we can answer this question by looking at who is trying to make it harder for people to vote. In the United States currently much of the hostile legislation and policies enacted by state governments towards voting have been carried out by the Republican party*. In Brazil the Federal police are known to overwhelmingly support former President Bolsonaro and most of the reports of their inttereference were carried out in parts of Brazil were his opponent Lula had a strong lead.

They aren't trying to prevent the coming revolution, these are members of specific political factions targeting the voting blocks of their opponents to suppress their electoral opposition and secure their positions in power. Passing a law that requires identification while voting and at the sametime restricts what forms of ID are acceptable to types that are less common amongst the demographics that vote for other parties helps one party in particular win elections. 

Revolutions and even major reforms are often driven by non elective means. The Voting Rights Act that abolished the restrictions on Black americans from voting in the South was passed in 1965 after the civil rights movement had sucessfully used direct action to desegerate many businesses, services and schools. And the passage of the act did not end the struggles for racial equality and justice in the United States. The African National Congress formed a government in 1994 by being the largest party in the South African parliament, but that was only possible through decades of mass disobediance campaigns, boycotts and armed struggle. Meanwhile the dictator Napoleon III passed male suffrage, the Brazilian dictatorship maintained a congress with political parties that stood for elections. And in Australia its a crime to not vote in elections.

And in much of the democratic world change through ballots alone are usually limited by a political orthodoxy established by two or more large political parties that compete to form a government. Yes, we have the right to vote for any candidate we wish, but that doesn't lead to more radical change. You vote for the incumbent and thus more of the same or you thought for the largest opposition which will implement a few changes along their manifesto plan. Some nations have tried to address this issue by switching electoral systems and changing thresholds for representatives or implementing recall mechanisms but these haven't widened the scope for change much.

So, I suppose if we had to criticise the qoutation it would be that "voting on its own doesn't change anything substantial, which is why politicians who fear growing unpopularity but barriers in place to make it as difficult as possible to do".

* I have on occasion seen allegations of similar behaviour leveled at Democratic party administrations but the overwhelming number of cases involve the Republicans.

Strike Season

 

The news has started calling 2022 the year of the strike, which is a good indicator of the decline of industrial action in a country that used to be famous for it. I honestly could not keep up with the number of strike ballots that have passed. The transport unions on the bus and railways across the country have been picketing since the summer, the Royal Mail have started a series of strike days, and the dockers at one of my former workplaces also came out on strike after years of building grievances. 

Now nurses are striking and ambulance drivers are preparing to take action as well. The union branches in my area didn't vote to strike, well they didn't vote at a high enough margin stipulated by the industrial relations legislation, but it is a national health service so it is still having an effect. 

Overall its quite a turn around from the slow decline of industrial action and unionisation that's dominated the UK economy. I'm not surprised we've reached boiling point, I broke my ankle in a road accident in late June. I don't have a bad word to say about the treatment I recieved both the ambulance crew who got me within minutes of being called and the trauma team and the nurse who oversaw my discharge were professional and quick and kind. They were also extremely hardworking, I spent roughly 8-9 hours in A&E before being discharged and hobbling out of there on a pair of cructches a walking boot and a syringe of morphine. During those hours everyone who was present when I went in was still working when I left and they were working. After checking me they went straight to another patient and then another and another before back to me. Once it became clear from my CT scan that there was no neck or back injury they wheeled my bed into different arrangments to make room for others. It never stopped, for everyone patient discharged three or four took their place.

The CT scan was a bit like the lines at the factory I was working at, as soon as one scan was done out you go and in goes the next person, the demand was incredible high, I was extremely lucky that I was second in the queue. My parents were waiting for me in the discharge room, the line was outside the hospital, and they were doing triage in the line to find the most serious cases. When I left at 9pm the line was still stretching outside. The official capacity for the Accident & Emergency ward at my local hospital was 30, on that day they had managed to squeeze in over 60 at its busiest, and that left a lot of people outside or stuck on a chair for hours. 

And this may be a minor point but I include it anyway for completeness sake, I spent 8 hours staring at the ceiling that day. I wasn't allowed to move until the all clear from the scan. Every single ceiling I saw in that building had large holes in it, and when I went back for physiotherapy I noticed that all the floors at bits that had given way and had been patched up, you feel it when your still trying to bend your leg and lift your foot properly.

Both myself and my parents left feeling relieved the injury wasn't worse but extremely dismayed and angry at what we saw. My sympathies are always with fellow working people when struggling against exploitation and the powerful, but I especially support all the health care workers including the social care workers in these struggles. These people are dedicated and are worked relentlessly, meanwhile their service has been strangled and allowed to degrade and stagnate into this present crisis. And they've been doing this for decades. For years Health Ministers have claimed to have increased spending and ring fenced health care and so on. And yet during that time the service has declined, and Doctors, nurses have been vocal about how the government has kept staffing levels and new applications at the same level year after year, and hasn't approved infrastructure expansion or equipment modernisations so procedures take longer and some of the latest treatments simply aren't available. And the influx of private companies and service providers have meant even more bureacracy, and a further decline in the services as cost cuts and profit incentives are introduced. The fees for using the hospital car park are very high, the revenue goes to a private company and not the hospital. When my mother was in hospital for an operation all the beds in the ward had an overhead monitor with a TV built in. No-one was watching them because they charge for them now, they were free when they were introduced. And insult to injury the monitors are owned by another private firm who collects the money. As bad as parking and tv rental fees are that they don't even raise revenue for the improvement of the health service is just spit in the eye.

The government wish to frame the conflict as just another pay dispute with the unions being greedy with the typical argumentative soundbites "not an unlimited pot of money" and "they're already paid more than x" but if they lose this fight the health system will collapse and the public will be in a crisis. My injury wasn't life threatening but it very easily could've been, it could've been a veterbrae that snapped instead of an ankle joint, and even with an ankle fractue without prompt attention and ongoing support I could've damaged the leg permantly and lost the ability to walk. 

I still have to do regular exercise and walk with a cane for support half a year later. There's no way I could afford this under the private model pushed by the government. So I wish to support them and all other striking workers as much as I can. I decided to share some details to show my appreciation. 

Farha

 

I watched Farha, as a film its very good. The sets, locations costumes and acting are very convincing, I could say I enjoyed the movie very much, but that feels wrong. Fahra is about a young Palestinian girl trapped in the nightmare that was 1948s Nakba, the massive campaign of violence that destroyed many Palestinian communities. So it feels wrong to use wordslike enjoyment and liked. The beginning of the film was pleasant enough seeing Fahra and the village children playing in the last days of the Mandate, but the conflict isn't far a way and many sequences are brutal and extremely unpleasant to watch. 

I recommend watching it, but only if you're in an appropriate mood to do so, its hard viewing. I wasn't planning on watching it, I had not heard about it until yesterday. I was browsing social media when I saw the tail end of the argument about it. Several screenshots of article titles and journalists reacting very hostilely to it. In particular I remember a screenshot of some journalist I didn't recognise making a statement that pushed to seek out the film. I've tried finding it again but that's an impossible task so from memory it went like "I have no issue with criticism of Israel. I just don't like seeing all Jews being depicted as bloodthirsty monsters" or words to that effect. 

That comment decided me for a couple of reasons, firstly I doubted that Netflix would stream a film that did depict all Jewish people as monsters, but more seriously because I understand the sentiment. I also really don't like it when communities and groups I'm connected to or feel connected to are shown to do horrible things. But, here's the issue its a film about the Nakba, and is based on the accounts of a survivor of the Nakba who ended up in a refugee camp in Syria.

From the credits of the film

After watching the film I looked up background details, and found that the director Darin J. Sallam was told of the account by her own mother. So while I can understand not liking how the Israeli soldiers are shown to be behaving, in fact I would be alarmed to encounter someone who wasn't disturbed by their behaviour. Like all films based on true accounts the film adds or changes details, unless we get a recording we'll never know for sure that the real Farha or Radiyyeh saw the murder of a family of refugees while the officer cracked jokes about it. But even if that's an embellishment, we do know the depiction of how the soldiers are behaving was accurate to the time, not only because of the testimonies of the Palestinians, 800,000 refugees is a lot of witnesses, but also the testimony of Jewish people and Isrealis. 

One of the most popular entries on this very site is a 1948 open letter to the New York Times by Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and a dozen other prominent Jewish people denouncing the campaign of terror being carried out in the villages. 

A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (The New York Times), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants—240 men, women and children— and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre', publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Dein Yassin. The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party. Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority.

Bolding my own.

And as time has gone on, more and more accounts have surfaced of similar atrocities in the other 400 villages that were attacked and pillaged.

“The Jewish soldiers who took part in the massacre also reported horrific scenes: babies whose skulls were cracked open, women raped or burned alive in houses, and men stabbed to death,” the historian Ilan Pappe wrote in his book, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,” describing accounts of a massacre that took place in the Palestinian village of Dawaymeh.

The Intercept 

So even if the Israeli militants weren't present in the original story they're conistant with the period.

And while I can't be 100% certain of every word in the reaction I did note it said Jews, and not Israelis. Which is an interesting substitution. Not every Jewish person is Israeli, and to be blunt not every Israeli citizen is Jewish, there's strong overlap but the Venn diagram isn't a circle. In Fahra there are less than a dozen onscreen Israeli characters. They're all armed and they're pretty nasty people doing horrible things, but I would argue that has more to do with them being members of a radical military organisation that's open aim was to expand its borders by driving out its neighbours, then being Jewish. I don't have to qoute the Einstein-Arendt letter again do I?

I do understand why Israelis don't like this movie and wish to belittle and minimise it. While there was an existing Israeli movement and identity, and a network of communities in the Mandate it was the military campaigns of 1948 that cemented the existence of Isreal as a nation state. This means that the campaigns of violence were integral to its establishment and its founding myth. So acknowledging the darker parts of those episodes is an attack on the nation itself.

But that's just nationalism. There is nothing unique about Israel and its national history nor its people's sensitivity to criticism. Americans venerate their war of independence and founding fathers and really don't like people talking about slavery, and wars with the natives. British nationalists take pride in the Empire but will not be pleasant if the conversation goes beyond train travel and military vigour. Irish nationalists love the 1916-22 generation of heroes but will not welcome an accurate accounting for the campaigns of terror by the Free State. Algerian nationalists are proud of their nation's hard won battles against the domination of the French, but aren't interested in discussion the legacy of independent Algeria's discrimination and forced expulsions of its minority populations that were deemed not Algerian nor loyal enough to stay.

Keep going with the nationalist group of your choice, it does not matter which one you pick it never ends. If watching Farha makes you feel targetted then the problem isn't the movie, the problem is nationalism and the divisions and misery it causes. 

Palestinians are allowed to explore and come to terms with their traumas and their history just as Israelis and everyone else is. I've seen comments by Palestinians praising the film for helping them do that which to me is the best praise it can get.

This is a perfect summary of the emotional experience of Farha.