ALB
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There speaks a military man (though probably out of turn). But then he will also understand, as “entirely legitimate” from a military point of view, Russia’s bombing of railway hubs, oil depots, storage facilities, etc (and any collateral damage to civilians) — and leave it to the Ukrainian propaganda machine to describe this as “genocide”.
As the Russian Foreign Minister has said, “war means war.” (https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2022/4/26/russia-ukraine-war-lavrov-warns-of-risk-of-nuclear-conflict)
There speaks a military man (though probably out of turn). But then he will also understand, as “entirely legitimate” from a military point of view, Russia’s bombing of railway hubs, oil depots, storages, etc (and any collateral damage to civilians) and leave it to the Ukrainian propaganda machine to describe this as “genocide”. As the Russian Foreign Minister has said, war is war.
Just heard a reporter on Al Jazeera give as an example of the “derussification” campaign in Ukraine the decision of a church in Lvov to conduct its services in Ukrainian instead of the traditional Church Slavonic. But that’s not the same as Russian. Anyway Church Slavonic will only be understood by a few obscurantist priests and will have influenced Ukrainian as well as Russian, won’t it?
From the BBC live reports:
“Lavrov: ‘Nato, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia’
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said deliveries of Western weaponry to Ukraine mean that the Nato alliance is “in essence engaged in war with Russia”.
In an interview aired on Monday, he said: “These weapons will be a legitimate target for Russia’s military acting within the context of the special operation.”
Lavrov also told state television: “Nato, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war.”Meanwhile the US minister of war, Lloyd Austin, had made NATO’s war aims clear:
“US wants to see a weakened Russia”
It leaves you wondering whether this wasn’t its aim from the start.
Following the visit today of the US Secretary of State and Minister of War to Kiev and their statements, it is now patently clear that what is going on in Ukraine is a war against Russia by the US and its allies, particularly Britain, with Ukrainian armed forces as their proxies. A war between one capitalist bloc and another capitalist state. I can’t see how anybody can deny this any more.
Yes of course. But how can you compare the usefulness of a bulb to, say, a clock or the usefulness of either of these to different people? How can you compare apples and oranges?
To close the file. When we out leafletting in Brixton yesterday for the local elections, we were given a leaflet saying that Maoist cult leader Aravindan Balakrishnan had died on 8 April.
“Murdered by the British fascist state for telling the truth! Unique proletarian internationalist fighter who loved and humbly served the people of Brixton and the world: He died a martyr in Dartmoor Prison fighting racism and fascism!”
“His legendary daring and courage in the face of fascist terror will be remembered for ever!”Evidently the cult lives on (or one of them does).
Despite our Annual Conference taking place at the same time, election activity continued in Clapham yesterday. We covered a “day of action” by local campaigning groups in Windrush square. The were half-a-dozen stalls but not many takers. After giving the stallholders a leaflet we moved on to outside Brixton tube station where (amongst the Christian and Muslim religious fanatics who are always there) we gave out leaflets to the many passers-by.
There are now only 300-400 leaflets left.
There are quite a few Latin Americans living in the area. We met two with contrasting political views. One, from Venezuela, was hostile to the word “socialism”. The other, who came to Britain as a child when Pinochet overthrew the Allende government in 1973, took a leaflet to give to her daughter who is an elector in Clapham East ward.
H. M. Hyndman, the leader of the Social Democratic Federation in Britain, gave a lecture in 1894 with expressive title of “The Final Futiity of Final Utility”:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/hyndman/1896/economics/7-futility.htm
More on the Lambeth hustings to which we were not invited. After being assured yesterday evening, concerning the statement we had submitted, that
“I’ll make sure this is read out tomorrow”
this morning we received the following email:
“A number of relevant questions have come through overnight from residents that we need to prioritise in the schedule for tonight, and so won’t be able to fit the statement in I’m afraid. Sorry about that. I hope the remainder of your campaign goes well.”
To this feeble excuse — it would only have taken a minute or so read out our 170-word statement — we replied:
“We note your undemocratic decision to no-platform us, even to the extent of not mentioning that we are standing. We would like to think that it wasn’t made behind closed doors by a small handful of selected insiders.”
We could have openly called the organisers hypocrites, as called “Lambeth Ref 2002” (www.lambethref.co.uk), they are campaigning for a referendum in Lambeth to end the present system under which a full-time cabinet runs the council and return to a previous system where committees of councillors make the decisions.
How can they tell from the long-range photos that the soldiers come from the Caucasus? Chechens perhaps?
Only Americans use the word “Caucasian” in a non-geographical context so this could be a double fake !
We have not been invited to the online hustings in Lambeth this evening. So we have sent them a statement to be read out at the meeting;
“Statement by Danny Lambert, Socialist Party candidate in Clapham East ward
I make no apology for raising the nature of the present world economic system – capitalism – in a local election. Local councils have to run things inside the framework of capitalism and that restricts what they can do. They are also restricted in that most of their money comes from central government.
The priority under capitalism is profit-making. Having to respect this priority means that what the central government can make available for local social services and amenities takes second place. That’s why they are never as good as they should be, in spite of the efforts and promises of the other parties. Capitalism simply cannot be made to work for the benefit of all. Only a society based on the common ownership and democratic control of productive resources can do that.
If you like to know more about Socialism as the alternative to capitalism, call in at our Head Office in Clapham High Street or visit spgb.net.”
Details here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lambeth-community-hustings-tickets-307494082077
Just heard on the BBC radio 4 6 o’clock news someone who voted for Mélenchon in the first round saying he was going to vote Le Pen in the second on the grounds that when there is a choice between cholera and the plague you have to vote for lesser evil. (Actually you don’t, you have to run a mile.)
It’s 16 minutes in here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0016hhq
The last time I heard this advice as to how to vote was during the 2002 second round between Chirac, the outgoing conservative president and Le Pen’s father. The Trotskyists were saying vote cholera by which they meant vote Chirac.
Now, apparently, it’s his daughter who’s the lesser evil. Times change.
