En Afriko la ĝendarmo foriras - The Policeman of Africa Retires

 

French Military Instructors in Chad, photo sourced from the French Ministry of the Army, 25/01/2024

 

Translated from Le Monde Diplomatique

 While Emmanuel Macron's special envoy, former Minister Jean-Marie Bockel gave his report on the reorganisation of the French military disposition at the end of November, Paris was shocked to learn of Senegal and Chad's decision to end their security agreements with the former Colonial power. This new failure marks a turning point for France.

And so there were two less, leaving just three in total. By the 28th of November, in just a few hours France had lost two more positions on the African continent: Senegal, where France has been present for over 200 years, with a current garrison strength of 350 soldiers, and Chad a nation where France established a military presence more than 40 years ago and which stations a thousand soldiers and was until recently the base from which France launched the majority of its international interventions within Africa (six since 1968). Once those, 1350 soldiers withdraw from the region France will have just three bases in Africa - Djibouti, Ivory Coast and Gabon, with a combined force of fewer than 2000 personnel compared to 8500 in 2022.

This is a severe blow for France, whose military and political establishment has already been suffering over the past 3 years. This time the French were not expelled by mass protests, boos and the burning of the blue-white-red flags as happened in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in 2022 and 2023. The retreat was imposed from above. Paris learnt of the new reality in Senegal through newspaper interviews, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye gave to the French media. Although the matter of the withdrawal of the French army was one of the most important demands of his party, the party o African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF), the French optimists hoped he would stall on the question. 

In Chad, the decision announced via an ordinary press statement caused a bombshell, because the French Minister for Foreign Affairs had just left N'Dajemena. At first no one could believe it, because this country was considered as the most important strategic location on the African Continent, a "perfect Aircraft carrier" as one high ranked officer described it, and it was also considered a trusted alliance partner, whose ruling Déby dynasty had many reasons to be grateful to France over the decades due to the support of the French secret services and air force in saving them from being overthrown by military mutinies on multiple occasions. 

For the French Army which has for decades viewed itself as the "Gendarme of Africa" and used the nation since independence in 1960 as a base of operations to launch nearly 40 foreign operations (OPEX) this loss is an historical turning point. It has lost the means and infrastructure to mobilise operations in the region within a few hours notice, as was the case during operation "Serval" in Mali in 2013, launched urgently to prevent an offensive by Jihadist groups.

France Intends to remain "In another form"

In February 2023 President Macron declared his intention not to end the national military presence in Africa but to fundamentally reorganise it. "The logic is that our model is that there should no longer be military bases there as they currently exist" he declared in a speech concerning "Franco-African relations". He announced a major reduction in the number of troops and increased participation with local partners. France had just been driven out of Mali and Burkina Faso by military coups which it had not foreseen. Demonstrations against French influence spread everywhere throughout West Africa. The military and political establishment were (finally!) understanding that a change in relationship was necessary concerning the populations and militaries of the nations concerned, who could no longer tolerate French intrusions. 

After Macron's speech, the military high command and the parliamentary deputies in Macron's camp promised greater "discretion" "a lighter tread" and even a "paradigm shift".... "Now, we have flipped the relationship on its head, now the one who calls the shots is the [African] partner". Said Thierry Buckhard, Army Chief of Staff, speaking to the French parliament in January 2024. Over the following months, the chief of staff worked on new provisions with two necessities; respond to the wishes of the local regimes presented as "partners" and conserve and maintain influence, a difficult balancing act. Under these plans every base except for Djibouti - which has a special status in French strategy and with its 1500 strong garrison is considered indispensable- will drastically reduce its personnel, between 150 and 300 soldiers depending on the base and instead of being given to the host nation will be co-administered by them. "These bases are key to guarding our capability to intervene militarily" explained Deputy Jean-Michael Jacques, Macron supporter and president of the commission for national defence. The remarks come from a report in May 2023. "The strategy presented by the head of state prevents the growing rift that would nullify our military presence in Africa and consequently our influence on the continent"1. 

In a report on French Defence policy by another Deputy, Thomas Gassilloud, repeats the thinking that reigns in Paris "Remain, in another form". According to Gassilloud who is close to the Presidential Palace and served in the army before entering politics, the destiny of France is linked to Africa. That is why it is vital to rebuild "strategic intimacy". "Without a strong reaction, we will face the risk of the degradation of our influence in French-speaking Africa". He underlines 2. When ill winds blow, continued Buckhard, it is necessary to know when to bend, but always with the aim of standing tall again. "We must be capable of quickly shrinking our presence and disappear from the landscape to then restore our presence as needed... [This last] must include the ability to liaise with local militaries and secure strategic access by sea and air".

France can continue to influence the destiny of Africa. It must not "let its hands drop" in the words of General Jerome Pellistrandi in a May 2023 edition of National Defence dedicated to "new relations" between France and Africa. "Quite the opposite" says this senior figure and seasoned debater who regularly appears on television, "more than ever it is necessary to act, but differently... An influence strategy is more necessary now than ever"3. In that same publication another eminent General, Bruno Clement-Bollee, asserted that "it is imperative to react and decide on an ambitious, robust and realistic strategy that will restore to France the status of great nation"4. This is where its international standing lies, above all in its permanent presence on the United Nations Security Council, partly justified by its influence in French-speaking Africa.

The subject of Africa is not solely a question of influence. The French military views the continent as ideal terrain to test its soldiers and equipment, especially in deserts and near desert like environments, offering fringe benefits, career advancement opportunities, shared experiences and adventure. "Our martial culture contains a strong African flavour, affecting our tastes and nostalgia. How will [the new provisions] change the appeal of a military career?" asked right wing Deputy Jean-Louis Thieriot (Republicans) during a discussion by Buckhard inside the National Assembly. It is therefore necessary to reshape the offer of military co-operation, so that what is lost on the one hand is regained through intensive collaboration. That is the indispensable "corollary" according to another of Macron's deputies (and former soldier) Ms. Laetitia Saint-Paul. 

Collaboration was the core of French strategy in the period immediately following independence of the African colonies. It was only from 1970 onwards that direct foreign intervention became the preffered tool of French rulers in resolving political crisis through military means. This period became known as "Jaguar diplomacy" named after the fighter jet that ended service in 1972. This latter period probably ended in 2022 after the disastrous Operation "Barkhane".

Reinvent collaboration or disappear

Now, we arrive at the subject of how to rebuild collaboration and conserving links between the French and local armies; instead of returning sovereignty over the military bases, the idea is to transform them into academies, national schools with a regional objective (ENVR) with the goal of being co-managed by France and the host nation. This project is not new, it dates back to the 1990s. At present nineteen such institutions exist throughout the continent in Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Benin, Gabon and in Cameroon. Combined they are capable of instructing 3000 Non-Commissioned Officers and Cadets annually, and thus foster "intimacy".

Now France plans to rapidly multiply them. That is the task of the Directorate of Security and Defence Co-operation (DCSD), a section under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by an officer and dealing almost exclusively with Africa. Of the 313 collaborators sent abroad most went to Africa, and mainly to the former colonies. On the previous 9th of July the director of the DCSD General Colcombet visited Gabon to inaugarate the opening of School for the administration of Defence Forces in Libreville (EAFDL). This French base also hosts an Academy for environmental protection and natural resources. In his speech Colcombet aluded to "historical evolution" and an "important turning point" in the history of Franco-Gabonese relations. But the goal of these schools is not just to train African militaries; they also must "preserve logistical, human and equipment links to those nations." Jean-Marie Bockel stressed at a meeting with members of the Senate in May 2024. In short, to maintain a foothold abroad in case of need...

A former Minister under Nicholas Sarkozy, who famously declared his willingness "to sign the death warrant of French Africa"5 in 2007, which prompted his dismissal, Mr. Bockel has been interested in these matters for some time. His son, a soldier, was killed in Mali in 2019. In 2024 Macron appointed him "special envoy" tasked with study the reorganisation of the disposition of the French Army in Africa. His task was to liaise with the concerned heads of state and draft a list of proposals which he submitted just three days before the announcements of Senegal and Chad. The choice of appointment of Mr. Bockel followed a certain kind of logic; in 2013 while a Senator he and his colleague Jeanny Lorgeaux wrote a report "on France's presence in coveted Africa" which summarised the current priorities well. "It is our duty to be there" the report says, "because we are betting a part of our future growth in Africa" While they advised "giving an African meaning to the French presence in Africa" both Senators concluded that the remaining 8 military bases "should be maintained"6.

It was a different era then. France had just launched Operation "Serval" in Mali, with military success and the support of the majority of the African states, and was preparing to launch Operation "Sangaris" in Central Africa. France had a certain grand reputation then. Eleven years later and it looks like a relic of the past. By trying to "re-invent military partnerships instead of demilitarising Franco-Africa realtions" researcher Thierry Vircoloun explains, "the government attempted to carry out half measures which pleased no one"7. Its military presence may become an important issue during the Presidential elections in Gabon, where the Bongo family were ousted in a Coup in 2023, and in the Ivory Coast, both elections are schedule for 2025, it is possible that the French Army will be expelled from both countries as well.

Remi Carayol

___________________________________________________________

1: Jean-Michel Jacques, Report made on behalf of the committee on national defense and the armed forces on the draft law relating to the military budget for the years 2024 to 2030, and containing various decisions on national defense, n°1234, National Assembly, May 12, 2023.

 2: Thomas Gassilloud, Information report on the hearings of the committee on French defense policy in Africa, n°2461, National Assembly, April 10, 2024.

3: Jérôme Pellistrandi, «A falling tree makes more noise than a growing forest,” Revue Défense nationale, n° 860, Paris, May 2023.

 4: Bruno Clément-Bollée, “France, becoming a true balancing power again”, Revue Défense nationale, n° 860, Parizo, majo 2023.

 5: A term that defines France's neocolonial relations with Africa. (TT)

6: Jeanny Lorgeoux and Jean-marie Bockel, report made on behalf of the committee on foreign affairs, defense and the armed forces on France's presence in coveted Africa, n°104, French Senate, Paris, October 29, 2013.

 7: Thierry Vircoulon, "The dilemma of the Franco-African military relationship: reinvent or turn the page?", French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), November 18, 2024.

Section 31 and Star Trek

There's a brand new Star Trek movie out, it's called Section 31 and stars Michelle Yeoh. And I have not seen it and probably will not. This isn't an outraged fan boycott, I didn't have much interest in the project when it was announced, and nothing I've seen since has grabbed my attention and made me reconsider. Many people don't like it, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't, I just have more things to occupy my free time.

Instead of talking about the movie, I am interested in discussing the focus (I assume it's the focus, since it's the title) of the movie, the titular Section 31. Section 31 is a shadowy and unethical intelligence service affiliated with the Federation and is quite old. It first appeared in Deep Space Nine, and there's a subplot in Enterprise that places them or a precursor were running in the days before the Federation was officially founded.

I liked the idea and execution of them in Deep Space Nine, so I'm not opposed to them getting a movie/show focused on them. Though I have seen the quote by Alex Kurtzman who is essentially running the modern Star Trek franchise and I find it depressing and alarming. 

In order for that vision to exist, in order for the light to exist, you need people who operate in the shadows. And it's a yin and yang. You can't have one without the other.

I'm struggling to figure out where to start with what's wrong with this view of the show and frankly in general.  I don't agree that the Federation of Star Trek is a Utopia, I know it feels like one compared to our quite troubled lives and world, but they're not the same thing. The people of the Federation and the crews of the ships we watch on TV have struggles and imperfections and flaws, both as individuals and as societies. They accomplished much and made significant progress in many areas that our real societies are in danger of backsliding on. But, importantly, that progress was shown to have taken years of hard work and sacrifice, and in a number of episodes is challenged and shown to be not as advanced or as secure as first thought.

I agree that Rodenberry and Fontana et al. created a franchise and world that is optimistic, but its optimism isn't founded just on good feelings and naivety, as Kurtzman suggests with his views on the show. In the days of Kirk and Spock, the Klingons are an enemy and possibly existential threat to the Federation. By the end of the old period of Trek some 40 years later, the Klingons and Federation are allies and are working towards a stable and lasting peace and building a better relationship. That progress was shown throughout the movies, The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Those stories involved sacrifices, resources, ships and quick thinking. And it wasn't a path of uninterrupted progress, the path to peace was met with stiff opposition from both societies, and animosities and cultural misunderstandings would on occasion cause rifts and opportunities to exploit into renewed conflict.

Take away the make-up and costumes and turn the starships into naval vessels, and you have a fairly grounded show about tense situations and diplomacy. The message of Star Trek is essentially, these wonderful things can be ours too, if we try and commit to the undertaking.

So, then, where does Section 31 (S31) fit into this optimistic future of hard work and risk paying off in the long-term? Well, in the old Trek shows S31 was ultimately an antagonistic force, their first appearance is an episode where they subject a main character Doctor Bashir to interrogation, accusing him of being a traitor, which is revealed to be a form of job interview to recruit him into their operations. Bashir and the main cast are appalled at their methods and existence. 

They remain antagonistic and unscrupulous, another highlight of theirs was manipulating a rival power in the Romulans, in the process framing a Senator and getting her killed. They also engineered a bioweapon that infected the entirety of the Changelings, the leaders of the Dominion, another rival power. Their justification for existing is that they wish to protect the Federation and will do "whatever it takes" to get the job done. S31 is ultimately destroyed in Deep Space Nine, and peace between the Dominion and the Federation is reached when a cure for the disease S31 created and is given to the Dominion.

I'm glossing over many things in this short recap, the important thing to understand is that S31 despite their justifications are not a Yang to the Federation's Yin, they're out of control and needed to be destroyed and its existence and relationship to the Federation was a stain on the latter. Some fans make excuses for the disease that infects and will kill an entire species because of the actions of the Founders and the Dominion, which to be clear were horrific. No sympathy or tears for them, but, but, the reason they're so horrifically awful is because of a history of them being on the receiving end of actions like S31's. Their actions are justified on the assumption that someone will poison them all if given the chance, so they make sure they never give anyone a chance. And what stops the war in the end ultimately isn't the cure itself, it's being given the means to save themselves and finally being convinced that some aliens might be trustworthy to a degree after all.

Again, achieving that result took multiple seasons and an intergalactic war. S31 did nothing to prevent the conflict nor did their weapon actively stop it once it started, it'd just increased the body count. And to give new Star Trek its due, this lead to what's known as "blowback". In the third season of Star Trek Picard, the antagonists are a small group of Founders who were experimented on by S31 to develop that weapon. They did not forgive nor forget, and embarked on a plot that nearly wiped out the entirety of the Federation. 

Apart from being good television, this plot line reveals something about S31, like groups in fiction and reality. The "dirty but necessary" and "pragmatic" option often creates more problems than it solves. If you believe that S31s actions during the war with the Dominion were necessary, then at best they traded one existential threat for another down the line. Or like how the CIA and MI6 leant support to the movement to overthrow Prime Minister Mossaddegh in Iran in 1953 which kept the Shah in power and the oil flowing, and also cemented the West as hostile powers for Iran's reformers and strengthened the reactionary clergy (who also supported the downfall of Mossaddegh) contributing heavily to the rise of the Islamic Republic which is still a headache for Washington to this day.

Or how the Russian security services in the 1990s targetted and killed Chechen and other nationalist leaders in the Caucuses while provided support to Islamist rivals to split their opposition has now led to a large and very dangerous current of Islamic terrorist movements including affiliates of Islamic State. Or how the Russian Federation intervened in Syria to assist the Assad dictatorship in the brutal destruction of democratic opposition forces and brutalise the wider population into submission, only to galvanise the majority of Syrians into supporting an offensive that toppled Assad and expelled Russian forces from the country, led by a group that was previously affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

Again, I have not watched the S31 movie, and perhaps it is unfair to have written this without doing so, but I don't see how someone who thinks S31 as it existed in both old and new trek is necessary for the good things in Star Trek to exist would produce something that would add to this subject in a way that's meaningful and in keeping with the wider Star Trek vision.

I will say I like this poster, does it fit Star Trek? No. Does it suit a hypothetical Section 31 movie that does the topic justice? Also, no. Does Michelle Yeoh look cool as hell? Yes.

Looking at an Old Lie

 

The Company Sign, by Jacobus Belsen

 

One annoying thing about historical research on Hitler and the Nazi party is, the never ending game of hot potato. This week, one Elon Musk hosted a discussion with the leader of the political party Alternative for Germany (AfD). It provided a platform for the AfD's controversial views and rhetoric, which puts the party firmly in the far right of the Bundestag. In addition to lamentations over immigrants, Musk and the leader of the AfD declared that that Hitler bloke was a Commie.

On Thursday, Elon Musk agreed with the leader of a far-right German political party that Adolf Hitler was a communist and that left-wing groups who support Palestinian causes have more in common with Nazis than with her own party.

The deeply weird and disinformation-filled conversation between Musk and Alice Weidel, the leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD), took place on X. It came after weeks of Musk’s efforts to boost the far-right party, which has deep links to neo-Nazism and has been surveilled for suspected extremism by Germany’s own intelligence services.

“The biggest success after that terrible era in our history was to label Adolf Hitler as right[-wing] and conservative, he was exactly the opposite,” Weidel said. “He wasn't a conservative, he wasn't a libertarian, he was a communist, socialist guy, and we are the opposite.”

“Right,” Musk responded.

These quotes come from Wired, who have done an excellent job of debunking this absurdity. 

This is not an isolated incident there is a vocal minority out there who hate Hitler and the Nazis, not out of disgust for his views and policies but because Hitler and the World War II Fascists have given them the mother of all PR disasters. They know they're lying and to an absurd degree, they also know many people will be appalled at such flagrant disregard for historical fact, including Hitler's own words, but this is aimed at their own base of support and the members of the public who aren't engaged and forgotten what they were taught in schools.

If you're an AfD member or voter, you know have an authority figure to appeal to when you repeat such nonsense. If enough people repeat this nonsense, eventually it will have an impact on some other people and serve to shift blame from groups like the AfD to the opposition. Is this a key plank of their propaganda? No, but it's part of it and if it's left unchecked it will take root in some soil like a weed.

Casting Hitler as a socialist is already popular amongst the US far right and Republican fringe, so it can gain traction elsewhere. 

The Wired article dissects this specific example better than I could, so check that out if you're curious. https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-far-right-german-leader-weidel-hitler-communist/

What I will do instead is comment on the general thrust of this tactic historically. It's a terrible argument to bury, since there really isn't anything to it beside the name. The name of course is National Socialist German Workers Party NSDAP or Nazi for short. Now aside from the name containing the word Socialist, there's nothing more to pin the label on. 

 Argument 1, It's on the Tin!

The usual rebuttal to this is to sarcastically ask if North Korea is a Democracy, since its official title in English is The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). But we don't need to go outside Germany to find a similar corner example. At the same time the Nazis were knocking about you had the KPD which stood for Communist Party of Germany, and you also had the KAPD the Communist Worker's Party of Germany. Does that mean that the KAPD was the party for workers who were Communists and the membership of the KPD solely made up of non-working Communists? Sticking with this for a bit longer, the A in KAPD and NSDAP was the same, it stood for Arbeiter which is German for worker. If the S means they were Socialists, then the A must mean the Nazis were workers, so how do we explain the factory owners who members like the famous Oskar Schindler? 

And to take yet just one more example of the name game being deficient, we have the SPD. The SPD was the largest of the German Socialist parties, and yet the name didn't include Socialism it used Social, Socialist for the Nazis comes from Sozialistiche, but the SPD used and still uses Sozial for Sozialdemokratische Partei Deustchlands. So I guess the SPD the party which included Kautsky, Liebknecht, Luxemburg, Bebel, Engels and Marx amongst its membership wasn't socialist at all, they were the Socials. 

Let's move on in time to modern Germany, we currently have two curiously named parties in the Bundestag, the CDU and the Greens. The CDU are the Christian Democratic Union, a conservative party, based on their name we could expect them to discriminate and only allow Christians to join them but this is not the case. The name comes from when they were founded by socially Conservative groups attached to Germany's Protestant Christianity. The Greens are widely understood to be a party representing people concerned about the environment, but they aren't called the Ecology/Environment party they're called the Greens. Which should mean that they should militant colourists campaigning to pass legislation at the state and federal level to promote Green and ban other colours.

The past three paragraphs are confused nonsense because they're addressing a confused argument on its own merits and applying to other examples. The point is to demonstrate that the name or title aren't enough to prove anything.

Argument 2, they said they were for workers X speech and Y pamphlet

"German socialism is not an economic doctrine but a profound Weltanschauung [worldview] that is adhered to almost religiously, a spiritual movement which also catches hold of our thoughts and feelings and renews us, and will make better men."  Carl Riedahl 1921, published in the Völkischer Beobachter

Yeah, that's the point of political propaganda, to appeal to an audience. One important caveat though, they never actually appealed to workers for support, they always appealed exclusively to German workers, and by German workers I do not mean workers living and working in the borders of Germany, I mean the specific narrow and racially defined group of workers. Jewish, Polish, Czech minorities within Germany were not appealed to, they were often targetted within the same appeals to the "Pure" German workers. They never once abandoned their nationalist views, even rhetorically. This predates Hitler joining the party, the founder of NSDAP, back when it was just called DAP its founder Anton Drexler declared that his party was the true champion of the workers in Germany because he believed the SPD was controlled by Jewish and other foreign interests. So, from the start, the appeals to workers were rooted in a nationalist world view. Here's what Hitler thought of Drexler's work

"In his (Feder's) little book he described how his mind had thrown off the shackles of the Marxist and trades-union phraseology, and that he had come back to the nationalist ideals."

 As Jacobus Belsen pointed out at the time, Nazi propaganda was crafted for specific audiences, so it isn't strange to see Nazi party spokesman and news-sheets aimed at working class districts to play up ideas and policies that appeal more to that demographic. If you're curious, the cartoon says "for the proletarians" in the top and "for the affluent circles" with the name of the party emphasised differently for each audience. That's what you do when you want to win support. The UK's Labour Party has been doing something very similar, it talks to the Trade Unions about plans to end zero hours contracts, improve workers rights and make it easier for Trade Unions to operate, it then goes to the heads of British Trade and Industry groups and talks about its plans to stimulate growth of the economy and how it won't be increasing taxes on the rich. It's a common tactic, political parties can't build a path to power in a nation solely by appealing to one or two parts of society, they have to draw from many, often competing groups. 

So, if we can't trust what they say, how then can we know what they actually stand for? Well, by looking at what they did and do. Hitler allowed industrialists to be party members, and build alliances with them and conservative institutions and parties, e.g. the Catholic Church and the DNVP (German National People's Party). Did he do the same with the workers associations and political parties? No, in May 1933 Trade Unions were outlawed by his government, the KPD and SPD weren't banned yet but their leading members were being arrested, the bans came in July. The bans applied to all parties that weren't the Nazi party including his friends in the DNVP, but their leaders were allowed to join the Nazis and its paramilitary wing, members of the left wing parties were not allowed to join and were often arrested. 

So, we have a political party that talks to both sides while touting for votes and members, but then once in power firmly leans to the big business and conservative right once in power, and even sweeping policies that affect all of Germany make exemptions for these groups so long as they're willing to collaborate.

Experience of sharing this image has taught me I need to translate this banner, it reads "Death to Marxism" and its carriers are members of the Nazi Party SA paramilitary

Argument 3, okay he wasn't a Marxist, but he was still a lefty!

 Well I agree he wasn't a Marxist, aside from a tiny circle of fundamentalist Christians in the United States I don't think anyone would claim Hitler was a Marxist. It's easy to find passages in Mein Kampf disparaging Marx and Marxism, and also Communism and even Socialism. So, where do we go from here? If we accept the argument that the Nazis were socialists (and to be clear I do not accept that) then that would mean that the Germany of the 1920s-30s was the most socialist nation on the earth. In addition to the Nazis we also have the KPD, KAPD, SPD and other smaller groups not previously discussed, but just sticking with the KPD, SPD and NSDAP that gives us a combined population in the tens of millions all clambering for the same thing.

Well, this argument acknowledges that there are degrees of socialism, but that just raises the spectre of what actually is socialism? What is the germ or seed of socialism? Depending on the dictionary you bought, you may get a definition along the lines of state involvement in the economy, but that definition makes every political leader of a nation a socialist to a degree as they all direct some form of state/gvoernment entity, and would in the case of the Nazis make them less socialist than the Weimar Republican governments as they privatised large parts of the economy. 

A better definition involves the phrase workplaces/industry/economy operated by the workers themselves with an added descriptor of self-organisation. Some argue that this alone is not enough to make a socialist society and I agree but without something close to this as a foundation there's nothing to build from. A loose version of this definition includes the German Council movement, the early Soviets in the Russian Empire, the Wobblies strategy of "Building the new society from within the shell of the old" the collectives in Spain during the revolution and civil war etc. 

There isn't an equivalent to point to for Nazi Germany. In addition to selling stocks and stakes in previously government owned companies to wealthy individuals they also banned independent workers associations. The only legal representation a worker in Germany had (reminder, these are the "pure" German workers) was the Germand Workers Front DAF. The DAF was a Nazi party organisation whose loyalty was the the Nazi party and not the workers. A lot is made of the DAFs luxuries and gifts to German workers, package holidays, medals for productivity, credit schemes, radios etc. All these good things were run by the Nazi party and came with other changes, the restoration of piece rate work where pay was based on how much work you did per day, observation and monitoring, and the radios were set to recieve only authorised channels with unauthorised usage punished severly. 

I'm not seeing any socialism here, I certainly see nationalism, and I see paternalism, a system where the workers of Germany are brought under the benevolent tutelage of their rulers. Its certainly different to the laissez-faire style of capitalism popular in our current climate where the worker is free on their time off but also completly unsupported, but is socialism really holidays, radios and medals for achieving targets?

Of course not, we're only supposed to think of the "good" things the Nazis did once the political atmosphere has changed enough that comparisions to the goose-steppers is no longer taboo. For now we must think the Nazis are scarier because they are allegedly an example of the  Red Terrorists. So, labour camps and secret police.

Well, forced labour and powerful police forces were certainly a feature of the Nazi society. Just like they are for many societies some of which are led by declared socialists and most are not. No, this isn't whattaboutery I acknowledge and oppose the repressions of working people in all countries regardless of the colour of the flag or party name and logo. My point is that if like the "government doing stuff" repression is the defining standard of socialism than we must conclude that all nations on the planet are socialist to one degree or another, they all have institutions for coercion and control, they all used coerced labour. No, I'm not equating my employment to prevent homelessness to building the White Sea Canal or an Autobahn towards the Polish border, but that's the underlying social relationships, the workers do not have control of their own economic or social lives.

Its why the only definition of socialism that makes sense is the one I stick to above.

TL:DR

Hitler and the Nazis are socialists when the word has lost all meaning.

WOMEN ANARCHISTS HAVE BECOME THE TERROR OF WORLD'S POLICE

 

1908 New York newspaper clipping, text reads:

WOMEN ANARCHISTS HAVE BECOME THE TERROR OF WORLD'S POLICE

Their Daring Crimes Are Said to Have Outstripped the Deeds of Brothers of the Red

Search for the Woman is Becoming a Safe Rule in Crimes Proceeding From Anarchistic Violence - The Guardians of the World Nearly Always Find a Woman Implicated When a Ruler is Stricken Down - Emotional Women Lose Sense of Fear.

Letter to President Carter on Aid to Military in El Salvador, February 17, 1980

 Here is the text of the letter written by Archbishop Oscar Romero to then US President Jimmy Carter urging him to cease supporting military and police death squads in El Salvador and to reaffirm his stated commitments to human rights. A month after writing this letter, Oscar Romero was gunned down by agents of the Junta on the 24th of March 1980.

In the last few days, news has appeared in the national press that worries me greatly. According to the reports your government is studying the possibility of economic and military support and assistance to the present junta government.

Because you are a Christian and because you have shown that you want to defend human rights, I venture to set forth for you my pastoral point of view concerning this news and to make a request.

I am very worried by the news that the government of the United States is studying a form of abetting the arming of EI Salvador by sending military teams and advisors to "train three Salvadoran batallions in logistics, communications and intelligence." If this information from the newspapers is correct, the contribution of your government, instead of promoting greater justice and peace in EI Salvador, will without doubt sharpen the injustice and repression against the organizations of the people who repeatedly have been struggling to gain respect for their most fundamental human rights.

The present junta government and above all the armed forces and security forces unfortunately have not demonstrated their capacity to resolve, in political and structural practice, the grave national problems. In general they have only reverted to repressive violence, producing a total of deaths and injuries much greater than in the recent military regimes whose systematic violation of human rights was denounced by the Inter-American Committee on Human Rights.

The brutal form in which the security forces recently attacked and assassinated the occupiers of the headquarters of the Christian Democratic party in spite of what appears to be the lack of authorization for this operation from the junta government and the party is an indication that the junta and the party do not govern the country, but that political power is in the hands of the unscrupulous military who only know how to repress the people and promote the interests of the Salvadoran oligarchy.

"As archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador I have an obligation to see that faith and justice reign in my country, (so) I ask you, if you truly want to defend human rights, to prohibit the giving of this military aid to the Salvadoran government."

If it is true that last November "a group of six Americans were in EI Salvador...providing$200,000 in gasmasks and flak jackets and instructing about their use against demonstrators," you yourself should be informed that it is evident since then that the security forces, with better personal protection and efficiency, have repressed the people even more violently using lethal weapons.

For this reason, given that as a Salvadoran and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador I have an obligation to see that faith and justice reign in my country, I ask you, if you truly want to defend human rights, to prohibit the giving of this military aid to the Salvadoran government Guarantee that your government will not intervene directly or indirectly with military, economic, diplomatic or other pressures to determine the destiny of the Salvadoran people.

In these moments we are living through a grave economic and political crisis in our country, but it is certain that it is increasingly the people who are awakening and organizing and have begun to prepare themselves to manage and be responsible for the future of EI Salvador. Only they are capable of overcoming the crisis.

It would be unjust and deplorable if the intrusion of foreign powers were to frustrate the Salvadoran people, were to repress them and block their autonomous decisions about the economic and political path that our country ought to follow. It would violate a right which we Latin American bishops meeting in Puebla publicly recognized when we said: "The legitimate self-determination of our people that permits them to organize according to their own genius and the march of their history and to cooperate in a new international order." I hope that your religious sentiments and your feelings for the defense of human rights will move you to accept my petition, avoiding by this action worse bloodshed in this suffering country.

The Freelance Journalists Union Letter of Intent

 From https://freelancejournalistsunion.org/loi/

We, the members of the Industrial Workers of the World Freelance Journalists Union (also known as Industrial Union 450: Printing and Publishing Workers of New York City), hereby state our intent to form an Industrial Union Branch.

Though the unemployment rate in the United States is at its lowest since 1969, journalism has not shared in the boom. In fact, the journalism job market is at its weakest point since 2009, during the Great Recession. More than a third of large US newspapers have experienced job losses between January 2017 and April 2018, according to a Pew Research Center analysis, which estimated that the number of full-time newsroom employees dropped by 15 percent between 2014 and 2017, from 46,000 to 39,000.1 The outlook hasn’t improved in 2019. More than 7,200 journalists have lost their jobs so far this year, including staffers at BuzzFeed, CNN, Condé Nast, The Dallas Morning News, Deadspin, Digg, First Look Media, Gannett, GateHouse Media, Groupe TVA in Canada, The Huffington Post, McClatchy, New York Media, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Sports Illustrated, and Vice.2

Many of those journalists have sought to continue their careers in a freelance capacity, which means they work as independent contractors, with no employee benefits or protections as part of the collective bargaining units that represent salaried employees. Although it’s difficult to estimate the exact number of freelance writers, bloggers, and other journalists, it is clear that freelance labor is increasingly important to news media outlets as they reduce salaried employees. The growing number of freelance journalists means more competition for assignments paid out of dwindling freelance budgets—practically a prescription for exploitation. Many freelance journalists deal with long overdue payments, low rates, vast pay disparities, unfair contracts, and convoluted invoicing systems at publications throughout the industry. While nearly every news outlet relies on freelance labor, few are committed to treating workers with dignity and providing fair compensation. The IWW FJU formed in direct response to these concerns.

We, the members of the IWW FJU, believe in the efficacy of solidarity unionism and collective action in confronting unfair and illegal labor practices. By taking direct action against news media outlets that treat freelancers unfairly, we believe it is possible for freelance journalists to improve their working conditions. While the IWW Constitution requires us to charter as IU 450 NYC, the decentralized nature of freelance journalists as a workforce necessitates that we organize nationally or even internationally in order to be effective. Therefore, we see this only as the first step to chartering an Industrial Union that extends well beyond New York City. Furthermore, while our current efforts focus on freelance journalists in particular, we are committed to assisting all other workers seeking to organize throughout printing and publishing.

Signed,

The Members of the IWW Freelance Journalists Union

In the Mirror by Kon Krailat

 

 

Kon Krailat's short fiction about an alienated male sex worker.

Chiwin¹ sits quietly in a dark corner, waiting for his moment to come…

Tonight the place is packed, since it’s the beginnig of the month and people still have enough cash to go out and enjoy themselves. Chiwin lights up a cigarette and inhales listlessly. It’s very strange, but this evening he feels lonely, moody, not himself. He’s got a lot of complicated problems on his mind, among them a letter from his mother: “Win, my dear son, your father isn’t very well. The riceplanting season’s already here, but there’s no one at home. How are things going for you in Bangkok? Have you found a job yet or not? We haven’t heard from you at all…” Parts of the letters Mother wrote usually went like this. In fact, of course, she hadn’t written them at all. She was illiterate, so she must have asked someone in the neighbourhood to write them for her.

Actually, it’s only now that Chiwin takes cognizance of how long it’s been since he left home. Days turned into years before he was aware of it. In this city, where he now lives, night and day are unlike night and day anywhere else… They rush by so rapidly that he doesn’t have time to think about things as the happen…

If he does think about them, it’s only cursorily, for a moment or so…. Like a brief gust of wind which merely rustles the leaves and then vanishes without a trace….

His mother’s letter brings to his mind images of various people, but heaped up on one another in such confusion that he feels dizzy and disoriented. And Chiwin inhales cigarette smoke, puff after puff, one after the other…

It’s so dark in that corner that people can’t see each other’s faces. The customers sitting at the tables loom up only as obscure silhouettes. The waitresses move back and forth, some holding flashlights to guide new arrivals in search of empty tables. On the tiny stage a naked girl is dancing to the pounding rhythm of a song. Her name is Latda. She has two children, plus a do-nothing husband drunk day in day out. So she’s had to come and work as a go-go girl, stripping her body for people to have a look. She’d told him all about it one day, not long after they’d got to know each another… The Tale of Latda… cracked in pieces like the lives of all the women in this place, full of knots and problems. If one had a good and happy life, who would ever want to bare every inch of one’s body for any Tom, Dick, or Harry to stare at? Chiwin reflects, like someone who thinks he understands pretty well how the people working here tick.

The last strains of the song die away. Latda steps down from the stage. There’s some halfhearted clapping from a few customers, none of whom know why they clap. Utter silence for a second, as though the spectators sense that the moment they’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. The lights on the stage turn pale pink. A slow, soft melody…. Laa-laa-laa-laa-laa-laa… strikes up…. Another girl, dressed in black underwear, takes her turn on the stage. She makes her appearance slowly and silently.

And now they’re playing Chiwin’s musical cue. He stubs out his cigarette and pushes himself to his feet. He steps out of the dark corner into the pink glow, with the lithe movements of a young man of twenty-four. Some of the male spectators who remember him stare at him now, half in scorn, half wanting to do it themselves.

“You know, it’s not easy at all,” Chiwin had once told one of those who spoke to him in this tone. “It’s only when you’re on stage that you realise it’s really no piece of cake.”

No one has much of an idea about the music that’s now being played, and it seems as if no one has the slightest interest in finding out. Most of the spectators simply know that when it’s played it’s time for the house’s “special program” to begin. The words, accompanied by rhythmic sighs, most likely describe the mood of a young woman on a lonely night. The girl on the stage stretches out on her back and begins to writhe and quiver as though her flesh were burning with desire. Then slowly she removes the two little bits of clothing from her body.

Her name is Wanphen…

Chiwin has now stepped up onto the stage. The play of spotlights moves back and forth between purple, blue, and red. Wanphen’s act is so well done that it makes some of the young men close by the stage almost forget to breathe. Chiwin slowly unbuttons his shirt, then shakes his head two or three times. His eyes are getting used to the lights, which keep changing colour like a magic-show.

A moment later and Chiwin has nothing left to himself but his bared body. It’s a handsome, well-proportioned body, full of young flesh and blood. He throws his clothes in a heap in one corner. Everything takes place with the utmost slowness, as if in this piece of life time has ceased to exist. At this moment no one can think of anything else-even if country should meanwhile collapse in ruins.

Chiwin stretches his body out alongside Wanphen and embraces her, while caressing her naked flesh with his hands. He kisses her once, and she kisses him in turn, then turns her face away and snuggles it into the hollow of his neck.

“How many times have I told you, Elder Brother Win!” he hears her whisper,
“Please don’t smoke before doing the show with me. It smells horrible. I can’t stand the stink, and I lose the mood…”

“I’m sorry,” he whispers back, as he rolls his body back and forth over hers.
“Something’s been bothering me. I’ve been in a bad mood, so I forgot…”
How many times now had he partnered this woman!….

Chiwin thinks about the man with the unremarkable face who comes to wait for her every night when the bar closes. He can’t imagine what the man’s real feelings are. He comes to wait here in silence, and he goes home in silence. He must feel something. How could one man not understand another? But the two of us don’t even know each other. And we both suffer. At least the man had once stared at Chiwin with a strange, cold gleam in his eye.

“He’s my husband.” Wanphen had once explained, “a real husband, you know; we’re properly registered and all”.
“How can he stand having you come here and do this kind of show with me?” He couldn’t put the gleam in the man’s eye of his mind.
“What can you do?” she’d answered seriously. “It’s a job. It’s a way to make a living. If you live with a woman like me, you have to be able to take it.”

She’s right. That’s what it is, a job. O.K. At least it’s a job for me too right now. Chiwin has the feeling that he won’t be able to perform well tonight. He doesn’t feel prepared at all. The young man rolls over and down. Wanphen knows the signs very well, so she presses her body tightly to him. Deploying her skills, using everything she has, she begins, with intense concentration, to arouse his desire. The play of the lights halts for a moment at pink, bathing the bodies of the couple and bringing out their beauty.

Chiwin stretches out full length and closes his eyes. The whole world darkens before his vision. The air-conditioning makes the air cold and moist, but he feels the sweat beginning to ooze from some of his pores. His ears catch the soft music… when the song comes to an end, it starts up again, in an endless, indolent cycle, making his thoughts drift far away, to the past, to broad ricefields and to days and nights long gone.

….. By now the rains must have started back home….
Sometimes one could see the grey-white rain pouring down, moving in over the ricefields from the horizon, blurring everything in sight. The nights would be chilly and damp, and filled with the loud croaking of big and little frogs. And mornings, if the sun shone at all, its beams would be soft and tender, soon to vanish as the thick rainclouds piled up once more. In the rainy season, the earth would be turned over once again with the plough. And it wouldn’t be long before the rice-plants came up green, ripening later to a brilliant yellow throughout the paddies. But this isn’t his work any more. He abandoned it a long time ago. It’s hard work, backbreakingly hard. Worse still, the harder you work, the poorer you get. He’d been so utterly, indescribably tired of that way of life that he’d struggled to get a better education, and with every ounce of will turned his face and headed towards Bangkok to find a new life…

…. And my little brother Wang…. I wonder if he’s out of the monkhood yet? Mother doesn’t mention him in her letter. He’s been in since last Lent². Does he really want to study in the temple to become a Maha?³ Doesn’t he know these days there’s no road to Nirvana any more? And what about my little sister Wan? She must be buckling down to looking after the kids she produces year in year out, giving her almost no breathing-space for anything else. She got married to a boy from another sub-district before she was even eighteen. Everyone’s left the family home. Only Father and Mother still remain, and how much can they do on their own? And now Father’s sick too…

Last night he’d had a terrible dream. It seemed that Father was in it somehow, but he couldn’t arrange the images of the dream properly in place. All he knew was that it was so horrible that when he woke up his heart was pounding with fear. And then he remembered that it was a long time since he’d dreamed at all. Every night he fell into a deep sleep, as though his body’d been picked up and laid casually down on the bed, feeling nothing, till a new day dawned and the time came for him to get up once again. And when the next night fell, he’d be picked up and laid down once again in the same old place. Dreams are the travels of one’s soul. It’s no good if one lives without dreams. It shows that there’s no soul left inside. So it’s a good thing he dreamed last night, even if the dream was a nightmare…

Chiwin feels Wanphen’s body arching up and pressing tightly to him almost all over. As she rains kisses over his chest and in the hollow of his neck, she whispers…
“What’s the matter with you tonight….huh?”
“I told you, I’m really feeling down…” Chiwin embraces her in turn mechanically, “I keep thinking about my father…..”
“You crazy? This is no time to think about your father…. If you go on like this, how can we do the show? In no time at all, the crowd’ll be booing us!”

Chiwin shakes his head once. Some sort of realization makes him push his body up from hers on outstretched arms. If only this night were over! The spectators are dead quiet, each pair of eyes glued to the stage. He puts everything of out his mind, draws Wanphen’s body onto his, and begins to go through all the acts he usually performs on this stage.

Many of the people up front move closer and closer. Some of them even poke their faces in, right close up-as though this were the single most extraordinary thing in life, something they’d never seen from the day they were born. Some of the customers who have girls sitting with them begin to grope them obscenely. His gaze meets their eyes in a flash he senses in that some things men may not understand other men at all. In their eyes glitter a thousand and one things-pleasure and desire. Some of the men pretend to be unaffected by the scene, though in fact their souls are seething through every vein.

“What have I become?” Chiwin asks himself. He feels like a male animal in the rutting season, brutishly copulating with a female animal, right before the eyes of a group of studmasters. The more powerfully he performs, and the more varied the couplings, the more they’re satisfied.

He glances down at Wanphan for a moment. He is now fully astride her body. She is sighing and groaning, twisting and writhing her body as if she’s being aroused to the limit, even though actually she experiences nothing from what she’s doing. This is the first time that Chiwin understands her life clearly, and he feels a heart-rending pity for her. He wants to ask her just one question: how much does she suffer from living this way? Having intercourse with a man she doesn’t love in front of a crowd. Pretending to experience so much pleasure to arouse all these people… in exchange for no more than a hundred baht a night. Do her children back home know what’s going on? Isn’t there a night when she goes back home, lies down and cries? After all, she still has feelings, doesn’t she?

Chiwin lifts his head and stares once again at the audience, as if searching for even one person with some understanding of the things that go on in the stories of the people working here. But he sees nothing but faces burning more hotly than ever with satisfaction and excitement. In fact, it looks like some of them have even reached a climax.

Chiwin begins to see the truth...

All of us here are simply victims… Latda… Wanphan…. Me…. Even those people sitting there watching with such satisfied expressions. All of them feel the pressure of the society outside. So they come here for emotional compensation, to build up a superiority complex. They come to eat and drink. They come to sit and watch others expose their genitals and perform every variety of sexual intercourse. This allows them to feel contempt for people they can then regard as lower than themselves. Man has a deep abiding instinct to shove his way up over his fellow men. The truth is that we’re all animals of the city, who live lives of pain and suffering in the midst of a demented society. The only difference between us is that those who have greater advantages stand on top of those who have less, and so on down the line.

“Give it to her! All the way, kid…!” comes a roaring cheer from a table to the left, mixed with delighted laughter from a group of friends. Wanphen clutches him still more tightly to her body. I wonder what she’s thinking about now. Chiwin stares at her, but can’t see her clear. In her eyes there’s an expression of entreaty. He grits his teeth, swallows his saliva down his dry throat, and gasps for breath. The sweat oozes from his forehead, back, and shoulders. A stinging drop trickles down into one eye, blurring his vision. Feeling a numb rage, Chiwin is almost at the point of jumping up and kicking out in the direction of those voices. But on fact he doesn’t dare do anything, not even respond with words.

Wanphen’s hands, still clasped around his back, give him a stealthy pinch. “Take it easy, Elder Brother Win,” her voice is barely audible. “Don’t listen to those crazy people. I’m not a cow or water-buffalo, you know…”

So that’s it! He’s turned Wanphen herself into a victim of his own oppression. He comes to himself at the nip of her nails and the sound of her voice. Suddenly the tears well up in his eyes, mixed with drops of sweat. He pushes his body up, leaning on his outstretched arms, and stares Wanphen full in the eyes. When he bends over and gives her a kiss, she’s surprised by a touch she’s never felt from him before. Just then the song ends and the stage-lights dim to darkness.

Chiwin goes into the bathroom, his shirt still unbuttoned. He turns on the tap, washes his hands, and scoops up some water to rub in the hollow of his neck. As he lifts his head, he encounters his own face reflected in the little mirror above the basin.
Indeed man encounters his real self when he stands before a mirror…

In the bare, empty bathroom the fain sound of music filters in. he leans on his hands, gripping the basin’s edge, and stares at that face for a long time, in silent questioning.

He thinks back to his mother’s letter. “How are things going for you in Bangkok? Have you found a hob yet?” How can he possibly tell his mother about the kind of work that he has found? She would faint dead away. And he himself can’t really say why he’s struggled so hard to make a living this way. The easy answer is probably because he was hungry and had reached a dead end.

When he’d set off for Bangkok, carrying his teacher’s certificate with him, who could have known that for months he’d be clutching at straws, trying to compete with tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, of others, taking test after test? And then go home, waiting to learn the results of his applications, place after place, day after day. At first his hopes had still been bright and clear. But, as time passed, they’d faded, like a candle that melts itself completely away, dimming down to his last baht. Then a friend of his, who worked as a bartender in a go-go club, had invited him along to try this line of work.

“Don’t worry… at first you feel a bit shy… but you get used to it after a while… A good-looking guy with a nice build like yours is just what these people are looking for. You get a hundred a night, two or three thousand a month. It’s far better than being a teacher. You talk yourself blue in the face for nothing but a few pennies a month.” His friend had patted him on the shoulder and said, “Okay? Give it a go, to tide you over while you wait to hear about your job applications. You want to starve? You don’t have to worry about getting picked up. The police don’t make any trouble, the people there have got connections high up.”

Is this the true image of a man who’s studied to become a teacher? Chiwin stares at his reflection with a feeling of nausea. His hair’s a mess, his eyes dry and lifeless, with a timid, evasive look. The skin on his face and lips is parched and wan with strain. Not a shred of dignity left, though he’s still young and strong. How did a man with clear, firm hopes and goals end up as someone who doesn’t have the courage to confront even his own face?

Suddenly he feels a terrible churning deep in his abdomen. It surges up through his insides to his throat. Chiwin clings tightly to the wash-basin, hiccoughs once, and then, before being conscious of it, doubles over, arches his neck, and vomits in a torrent. All the different foods he ate earlier in the evening, accumulated in his belly, spout in streams, splattering the wash-basin. Once, twice, three times. Sounds of retching follow quickly, one after the other. Each time, he spits out what he’d swallowed earlier, till he’s gasping with exhaustion. Snot and tears join together in a dirty stream. Chiwin lifts one forearm to wipe his mouth, and smells the sour stink pervading everything.

The reflection in the mirror is now a murky blur, because of the tears which well up and fill the sockets of his eyes. He feels so dizzy that he almost can not stay on his feet. Chiwin swallows his viscous saliva and hiccoughs once again. This time what he vomits up is a thick, clear liquid. It spouts out so violently that it seems to carry with it his liver, kidneys, and intestines.

1The name Chiwin, hardly chosen at random, also means “life”.

2The Buddhist “Lent,” which runs from mid-July to mid-October, is a time designated for religious retreat and for the ordination of new monks.

3Maha is a title awarded to any monk who has passed at least the lowest of the seven grades of the ecclesiastical examination-system for the study of Pali texts.