alanjjohnstone
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Anarchist report from New Zealand protest
Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle believes the UK’s exit from the EU will lead to a referendum on reunification.
She said: “Well I certainly think we’re closer than we’ve ever been previously and I think now is the time to plan and that’s why we’re saying to the Irish government, now is the time for them to make the preparation…If that last couple of years of Brexit has taught us anything, it’s that the Tories will never prioritise the interests of people here, whether you be Unionist, Nationalist, or other.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/sinn-fein-deputy-leader-michelle-111600247.html
The view of Scott Ritter
“the bottom line is that unless Russia is given the security guarantees it is demanding, war might be inevitable.
Biden and Blinken will once again cry “wolf.” But it won’t matter; the die will have already been cast, and everyone involved will have to deal with the consequences of human folly.”
While agreeing that in all probability that full-scale war is not likely, I do not possess the same degree of confidence that it is not a real possibility.
If capitalist politics were as rational and as planned as being assumed, there would never have been any wars in the past.
Having read the American opinion polls that MS linked to, one pleasing aspect is that the hysterical scare-mongering of some politicians is not entirely shared by working people.
In my own defence, I have already made a similar statement in message #226693
“no patch of ground, whether it is the Ukrainian nation or the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, is worth the sacrifice of fellow workers’ lives.”
I merely refer to the lack of any sense of irony on behalf of diplomats in choosing Munich as the place to discuss carving up a nation in 1938 it was Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia, and in message #226308 I cited the SPGB responses to Chamberlain-Hitler agreement.
“What does it matter to the British capitalist class whether the Czechs are independent or incorporated in Germany?”
“The attitude of the Labour Party, the Communist Party, and others of like views, relating to the position of the Czechs, is due partly to fright, which has developed an acute attack of anti-Fascitus. They are prepared to see cities littered with the corpses of hundreds of thousands of working men, women and children, for what? To prevent what would be in the main merely a change of rulers.”
I then added
Unlike others, we are more than willing to conceive of Ukraine losing its “independence” if it means that our Ukrainian fellow-workers and Rissian Donbas fellow-workers are not sacrificed for such spurious concepts as “democracy” and “freedom”.
But I’m sure the media won’t forget the history if the Russian’s march in ignoring whatever Munich statement is finalised.
I’m curious about who is winning the propaganda war.
They can hold opinion polls about anything very quickly, but I’ve not seen anything produced about the British public, or European or American attitudes to the Ukraine stand-off.
Has anybody seen anything to show what people are thinking?
Who picks these negotiation locations?
Munich !!!
Hasn’t it got a bad enough reputation for appeasement already?
Biden was asked his reaction to the fact Putin was reportedly planning to spend the weekend overseeing nuclear drills.
“How do you see that happening? What’s your reaction to that sir,”
“Well, I don’t think he is remotely contemplating using nuclear weapons,” said Biden.
While Blinken suggests Putin could contemplate the use of chemical weapons. He claimed Russia could begin by implementing plans to “manufacture a pretext for its attack”.
“It could be a fabricated so-called terrorist bombing inside Russia, the invented discovery of a mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians, or a fake — even a real attack — using chemical weapons”.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/biden-putin-ukraine-nuclear-chemical-b2018629.html
Rees-Mogg may extol the virtues of Brexit but British businesses hold a differing opinion.
Seven in 10 UK firms say the government’s Brexit trade deal with the EU has been bad for business and held back growth, with a majority reporting it has pushed up costs and increased paperwork.
A majority of the 1,000 companies polled by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) also said the deal had put Britain at a competitive disadvantage.
Just one in eight firms think the hard Brexit deal secured by Boris Johnson has had a positive impact on them,
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/brexit-uk-businesses-exports-bcc-b2016926.html
If war does come and we do not know for certain it will or the scale of the war, the WSM will issue its customary declaration of peace, that no patch of ground, whether it is the Ukrainian nation or the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, is worth the sacrifice of fellow workers’ lives.
I believe we have members who can translate our statement into both Russian and Ukrainian.
But the sad reality means that there are very few who take notice of our view.
Nationalism remains a dominant ideological belief for many and the Great Powers continue to contest with one another for global power.
Russia announced massive drills of its nuclear forces…the Russian military announced that President Vladimir Putin will monitor a sweeping exercise of the country’s nuclear forces Saturday that will involve multiple practice missile launches — a stark reminder of the country’s nuclear might amid the showdown with the West.
False flag ops are confusing.
They are still trying to definitively determine those responsible for the Syrian chemical gas attacks and it has been years.
The UK’s low-carbon and renewable energy economy has failed to grow since 2014, according to official data showing a fall in the number of green jobs.
In a blow to the government’s pledge to boost net-zero employment opportunities, the Office for National Statistics said its latest figures, covering 2020, showed “no significant change” in turnover and job numbers in the sector compared with six years earlier.
UBI defended but with caveats
An extra pittance for everyone regardless of need – which is what every economically realistic proposal for UBI I’ve ever seen ends up apologetically boiling down to, given the exorbitant cost – is the worst of all worlds; not quite enough to be meaningful to those who could really benefit, but still too expensive to be politically plausible. Better to start by funding the existing welfare system properly
Labour – the Party of Law and Order
Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, has been criticised after saying she wants police to “shoot your terrorists and ask questions second.”
Speaking to Matt Forde’s Political Party podcast, Rayner said she was “quite hardline” on law and order and suggested police should “antagonise” criminals.
“On things like law and order I am quite hardline. I am like, shoot your terrorists and ask questions second, “On law and order, I think if you are being terrorised by the local thug, I want a copper to come and sort them out,” she said. “You should be hardline on things like that. I want you to beat down the door of the criminals and sort them out and antagonise them. That’s what I say to my local police … three o’clock in the morning and antagonise them.”
