J Surman
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I refer back to my post on this thread on July 22nd, as I have just read (link below) Engel’s commentary on the British ‘war’in Afghanistan in the 1830-40s mentioning Alexander Burns, the main character of the book written by Craig Murray full of details of that time. What would Engels be writing about the current situation I wonder!
Absolutely – current methods of meat production, and in fact all industrial farming methods are harmful to both planet and those who eat the food produced.
Read a good quote from Marx today – ‘a rational agriculture is incompatible with the capitalist system’
Must get outside again and pick more tomatoes for sun-drying!Just finished a fascinating book – ‘Sikunder Burnes, master of the great game’ published 2015 by Craig Murray. Incredibly detailed history of GB, the East India Company and central character Alexander Burnes. c.1820-1840. True story of GB’s attempts to take over Afghanistan and block any Russian attempts to beat them. Massive troop numbers, incredible numbers of people required for support, 1000s of animals, all in the most difficult conditions. Plus the intrigue, spies, double agents, waiting for messages back and forth from India and GB (a 5 month’s journey) – and all ending in abject failure. Those who know of C Murray will know of his background in the diplomatic service – he notes a number of examples and politicians’ statements in very recent times which bear a startling resemblance to some of those nearly 2 centuries old mistakes. Recommended.
I recommend Jonathan Cook, long-time resident of Nazareth, again for his view from inside Palestine. He comments regularly on the situation and also points out the various biases shown by mainstream media (including the BBC) in the links he posts with his articles.
Palestinians in Israel now face far-right mob violence backed by the state
An excellent piece by Craig Murray on the newly released Human Rights Watch statement about Israel as an apartheid state:
Support the Struggle of the Farmers. It Is Our Struggle Too! – Part 3
This article gives more details of what the govt wants to achieve, against the will of the people. As I think Alan suggested earlier it’s all about turning the country over to the big corporations – never mind about what happens to millions of citizens, and what workers have achieved over the years through their struggles.
20 minute video:
> https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-27/British-researcher-exposes-Western-propaganda-against-China-YWOT0TEG2I/index.html
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> British researcher exposes Western propaganda against China
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> “We don’t have to look back very far in history to see that there’s this pattern where the media pushes forward a particular narrative around a specific piece of foreign policy, in those cases of full-scale wars in Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya, or Syria or Yugoslavia,” said Carlos Martinez in an interview with CGTN.
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> Martinez is a researcher, anti-war activist and co-founder of the No Cold War campaign based in London.
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> He said the currently escalating negative portrayal of China and baseless accusations toward Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Western mainstream media is the same process that had people believing Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that it could use against London or Washington 18 years ago.
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> “These established methods of building a public consensus to build public support for an attack. In this case, in terms of all the kind of basically pretty hysterical propaganda around Xinjiang and around Taiwan and around the South China Sea and around Hong Kong, it’s about building support for the new Cold War,” he added.
> A resident asks about the price of goods in Kashgar, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, April 12, 2019. /VCG
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> In 2019, Martinez toured across China, visiting places including Beijing, Gansu Province and Xinjiang. Not only did he not see any oppression on Muslims or Uygurs in Xinjiang, but also the “backward, authoritarian state” that Western media tend to portray China as was nonexistent.
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> However, the contrast with what he saw in New York, where he traveled to the same year, is particularly interesting.
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> It would not take too much effort for him to see countless homeless people in big cites like New York or his hometown London, yet he failed to see any homeless people in any cities of China.
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> “The U.S. considers itself as being the quintessential, successful, advance capitalist democracy. Yet there’s a huge proportion, literally tens of millions of people, who live in abject poverty, who don’t know where the next meal is coming from,” Martinez said.
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> He also pointed out racism, treatment of indigenous people and incarceration are also huge problems that exist in the American society.
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> “The U.S. has more than 2 million people in prison, which is by far the highest incarceration rate in the world. They are actual incarceration rate, the number of people per capita in prison is six or seven times higher than it is in China,” Martinez said after comparing data.
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> Although accounted less in the overall population in the U.S., the African American, Native American and hispanic community accounted the majority of people live in poverty or in incarceration.
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> “But the media portrays China as a prison nation, and they portray the U.S. as the land of the free,” Martinez laughed.
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> After his research and trip into those countries, he together with other activists from around the world decided to found the No Cold War campaign in order to stop the American and British governments from escalating aggressive actions toward China.
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> “As a campaign, we really believe that those major problems we face in the world have to be solved on a global level. And any kind of Cold War stands in the way of that when we stand for global cooperation, mutual understanding, and against decoupling against Cold War,” Martinez said.You could take a look at this:
Genocide in Xinjiang? A Discovery Zoom Panelhttp://hamiltoncoalitiontostopthewar.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Updated-Poster.png
or here:
An evidence-based approach.
I second that Alan – I’ve also been reading them for some time and find they are straight to the point and always polite and measured in their wording when challenging anyone and everyone.
Thanks for the above Alan.
“The court in its decision impairs the right of democratic countries to defend themselves,” Mr Netanyahu said.
Dare we suggest a discussion of what ‘democracy’ may be?
Like you said, don’t hold your breath.In response to B’Tselem’s recent statement Ramsy Baroud has written an article commenting on the Israeli State’response. Quote”
“However, Israeli government actions of recent years are pointing to an unmistakable paradigm shift where Israeli civil society organizations are increasingly perceived to be the enemy, targeted in myriad ways, including defamation, financial restrictions and severing of access to the Israeli public.
The latter point was put on full display on January 17, when Israeli Education Minister, Yoav Galant, tweeted that he had instructed his ministry to “prevent the entry of organizations calling Israel ‘an apartheid state’ or demeaning Israeli soldiers, from lecturing at schools”.”
re Matt’s link to the Guardian piece, it’s interesting how much emphasis there is in the article on negative aspects of population reduction just as it always was when addressing increasing numbers. We had to rid ourselves of too many but now it seems there won’t be enough! Nothing to do with the profit motive and how to reorganise state coffers etc – – –
From Media Lens:
“BBC Silence Over Israel As An Apartheid StateOne of the most egregious recent omissions by BBC News was last week’s groundbreaking report by leading Israeli human rights group B’Tselem naming Israel as ‘an apartheid state’ and ‘a regime of Jewish supremacy’:
‘In the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the Israeli regime implements laws, practices and state violence designed to cement the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians.’”
The article is not soley about antisemitism and Israel – these are covered too:
Israeli Apartheid, Biden, Starmer, Assange And Mass ExtinctionYMS ‘encouraging 400 million to move out of agriculture and into cities is probably a good thing’
What is your rationale for this statement? Urbanisation is certainly not part of what the farmers are protesting about. They are not being given a voice on how agriculture should be organised, being largely shut out of any discussion, knowing that mega corporations are chomping at the bit for more profit.
I can’t imagine that the majority of those looking ahead with some idea of dismantling capitalism would not wish to support diversity in every area and that means having a voice and expectation of being listened to. Colin Todhunter is one of the best writers on the Indian farmers topic, but Countercurrents has a daily selection of writers from different states.
