alanjjohnstone
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With the customary caveats to be suspect of the author’s own bias this article is a useful summary of the Azov Battalion
https://countercurrents.org/2022/03/msm-cover-up-of-neo-nazis-in-ukraine/
And this is another article of a seldom mentioned pro-Russian-front organisation used as a counter-weight to NATO,
the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).https://countercurrents.org/2022/03/what-would-a-potential-csto-intervention-in-ukraine-look-like/
Australia’s defence minister said on Friday any move to establish a Chinese military base in neighbouring Solomon Islands would be a concern after a wide-ranging draft security pact was leaked online.
It would allow armed Chinese police and military to deploy at the Solomon Islands’s request to maintain “social order”.The “forces of China” would also be allowed to protect “the safety of Chinese ” and “major projects in the Solomon Islands”.
The legalities of the war debate from the pro-war Russian perspective.
A Newsweek article explaining Russia’s reticence and reluctance to exercise its full military power.
““As of the past weekend, in 24 days of conflict, Russia has flown some 1,400 strike sorties and delivered almost 1,000 missiles (by contrast, the United States flew more sorties and delivered more weapons in the first day of the 2003 Iraq war).
A proportion of those strikes have damaged and destroyed civilian structures and killed and injured innocent civilians, but the level of death and destruction is low compared to Russia’s capacity.
‘I know it’s hard … to swallow that the carnage and destruction could be much worse than it is,’ says the DIA analyst. ‘But that’s what the facts show. This suggests to me, at least, that Putin is not intentionally attacking civilians, that perhaps he is mindful that he needs to limit damage in order to leave an out for negotiations.’”And as for the chemical war scare stories
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-03-22/no-indications-of-imminent-russian-chemical-weapons-attack-in-ukraine-u-s-defense-official“The United States has not yet seen any concrete indications of an imminent Russian chemical or biological weapons attack in Ukraine but is closely monitoring streams of intelligence for them, a senior U.S. defense official said.” It quoted the Pentagon official as saying, “There’s no indication that there’s something imminent in that regard right now.”
And this article confirms that Ukraine is winning the propaganda PR war and how.
No smoke without fire?
“The Kremlin has insisted that Russia’s defence minister – who had not been seen for 13 days – has “a lot on his plate”, amid reports of whistleblower claims of the growing possibility of a coup against Vladimir Putin”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-putin-kremlin-coup-minister-b2043029.html
“the handler of an alleged whistleblower in the Russian spy agency FSB claimed that the risk of a coup against Mr Putin was growing with every week that the war in Ukraine drags on.
Vladimir Osechkin – a man on Russia’s most-wanted list for exposing abuse in prisons – has published 11 letters purportedly sent to him by an FSB insider since the war began, claiming that chaos and discontent have engulfed the Russian security service”The cost of living in Russia is surging. Official figures show price of some household staples – such as sugar – have jumped by as much as 14% over the past week. Inflation is set to keep rising.
We can expect internal unrest and growing industrial discontent. That means increased repression and perhaps growing resistance.
Can nationalist sentiments be overcome by empty pockets and empty bellies?
The Belarusian opposition
If the war spreads, so will the resistance to it
Guilty of cherry-picking the quotes but you decide if they are not the context of what he wished to say
Karl Liebknecht – Self-Determination of Nations and Self-Defense
https://www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-k/works/misc/self-determination-nations.htm
“…In the mouth of a Socialist the phrase “defending one’s fatherland” cannot mean playing the role of cannon fodder under the command of an imperialistic bourgeoisie.
Is an invasion really the horror of all horrors, before which all class conflict within the country must subside as though spellbound by some supernatural witchcraft? Has not the history of modern capitalist society shown that in the eyes of capitalist society, foreign invasion is by no means the unmitigated terror as which it is generally painted……It is true Socialism gives to every people the right of independence and freedom, of independent control of its own destinies. But it is a veritable perversion of Socialism to regard present day capitalist society as the expression of this self-determination of nations. Where is there a nation in which the people have had the right to determine the form and conditions of its national, political and social existence…
… So long as capitalist states exist, i.e., so long as imperialistic world policies determine and regulate the inner and the outer life of a nation, there can be no “national self-determination” neither in war nor in peace…
…In a discussion of the general causes of the war and of its significance, the question of the “guilty party” is completely beside the issue…”
FYI
Abiezer_Coppe wished to be deleted from the forum
Still inexperienced I ended up attributing all his posts to another user, 1stWorldview, a non-active poster who I have now blocked since i have no idea of fixing my faux pas
Apologies to Anthony and others for the confusion.
I know what to do now for the next occasion
As it relates to current events, i came across this 1935 article by his father on war.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1935/war-america.htm
Australia’s militarism increases again
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-60835136
Australia has unveiled a defence agency focused on space, designed to counter Russia and China’s ambitions.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the Defence Space Command would eventually need a “Space Force in the future”
Without the Ukraine crisis, Biden’s popularity figures would be far lower than even the dismal ones showing now.
He doesn’t require a speech, merely soundbites for the Biden-friendly media to keep repeating.
Who is determining the US foreign policy? I have no idea.
For those who only scan media headlines, this example of the Guardian “live” header is an example of relaying a false impression.
“humanitarian convoy seized near Mariupol, says Zelenskiy, as US claims more than 2,000 children ‘kidnapped’ by Russian forces”
Neither assertion is at all related.
The “kidnapping” is the evacuation of children from the war zone of DPR and LPR to safety. A humanitarian act.
Nothing to do with a convoy where the drivers and escorts have been detained by Russians, perhaps being the fact that they were not civilians but Ukrainian military personnel. Who knows the reason? But no civilian evacuees were detained, it seems.
But he does demonstrate that there is a market for blueprints.
People seek an ABC on how socialism will work, no matter how broad the brush strokes of the picture of socialism is depicted.
PGB, there is a motive that you never referred to and that is sphere of influence for military reasons. Yes, despite the denials from some quarters, the NATO threat was the very reason for the invasion. A simple declaration that Ukraine would not join NATO was all that was required, with further negotiation on the status of DPR and LPR under the Minsk Talks. But we will never really know in the end, shall we? That assurance was never given to Russia.
It is all very well advocating peace during peace but opposing war when it matters, being in one, and still standing by your analysis is entirely different and not being swayed by emotion of the sights of atrocities that are fully expected in a war.
Ukraine’s decision to embrace the EU economically rather then deepen its business ties with Russia was the original reason for the 2014 Maidan coup. How history is forgotten?
All your appeals to nationalism are exactly the same as used by the Russian-speakers who are exercising their “self-determination” with breakaway republics.
Putin is parroting exactly the very same message given by Goering. Putin declared, “… the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors, and simply spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths, spit them out on the pavement.”
And in 1945, Goering said.
“Naturally the common people don’t want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”You say it is better to defend artificial borders with blood, I suggest despite the challenge in opposing the concept of nation-states, we should continue our reluctance to going down the nationalist rabbit hole of patriotism.
Ukrainians are voting with their feet to seek sanctuary and the Ukrainian government has resorted to compulsory call-up of all males of fighting age, denying them the option of fleeing. Men are being stopped at the border and interrogated and conscripted.
To the Israelis, Yerenskyy raises the spectre of Ukrainian genocidal holocaust. Do you believe that is Putin’s purpose?
Yerenskyy is using the human shield tactic, refusing surrender of Kiev and Mariupol despite the well-attested example of ruthlessness exercised by Putin in Grozny during the Chechen war. Sacrificial victims for propaganda purposes.
You indeed raise the analogy of the Palestinian people being state-less and desiring a country of their own…just as exactly as the Jewish Zionists plead.
You suggest all that self-determination means is living in a country of your choice and exercising the traditions and customs you hold dear. But is it really? Isn’t it also excluding others of those same rights. Have you read of the discrimination faced by the Ukrainian Roma, a people who have had their self-identity denied by almost every government?
3 million Vietnamese died for the “freedom” to work in sweatshops and buy McDonalds. Was it worth it? How many died to be free from colonial rule and found themselves ruled over by autocrats who spent much of their lives in Monaco or London’s west-end? Was it worth it?
The truth hurts. Facts can be painful. We are first to admit our message is not a popular one and won’t be well-received. Not by the right nor the left, not by nationalists or white supremacists. Do you think the reactionaries are not as sincere in their false beliefs and resent us, as well?
But I don’t want this to become a squabble of who is high or low in the league table of oppression.
You have chosen one side to support, just as many millions of Russians have also done who disagree with you. Our sympathies go to those few Russians who refuse to follow that nationalism and reject the need for war and are presently now in gaol.
And our sympathy also goes to the Ukrainian willing to be accused of being a coward and a traitor for believing being a martyr isn’t the way for a human being to act.
O Truth, how many falsehoods are broadcast in thy name
