THOMAS FAZI—[The intent behind Galloway’s persecution] is clear: to criminalise people’s right to protest — or even to vote for candidates who oppose the uniparty’s policies on key domestic and/or foreign policy issues. All in the name of the “fight against extremism” (Sunak mentioned the term 13 times throughout his speech). In this sense, Sunak’s speech heralds a dangerous turning point in the authoritarian and anti-democratic regression of British society — and Western societies more in general — which has been unfolding for various years now.
BRITISH DEVIOUSNESS
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ROGER BOYD—Thatcher destroyed the strongest trade union and went on to cow and reduce the rest as she created a thoroughly neoliberal UK. Her legacy was also the Conservative leaders of the Labour Party, Blair and now Starmer.
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JOHN VAROLI—What’s most shocking and perplexing, however, are those colleagues who don’t merely remain silent, but rather, vigorously join in the persecution of dissenters. I suspect this is because we are reminders of their own cowardice and betrayal.
And so it transpired last week that an old journalist friend reached out to me. His goal was to shame me for being skeptical of Big Brother’s narrative on Russia. Even though I have a university degree in the study of Russia and Ukraine, as well as 30 years work experience with both countries, my research and opinions make him uneasy.
I thought long and hard about doing this, and then decided to do it. Below you’ll find our correspondence. I take privacy very seriously and always protect the identity of my sources and companions. So, to protect his privacy, let’s call him “S”. -
EDITOR—The panel discusses the personality of Trotsky, his political posture, his opportunistic tendencies, and why the bourgeoisie has traditionally seen Trotsky and his movement as a tool to divide and defeat the unity of world Bolshevists, and thereby world revolution. In 1903 Lenin formed a party “of a new type”, Bolshevism, to effect real revolution, separating his group from social democracy. Trotsky, on the other hand, a ferocious egotist, was content with the drift of social democracy, and opposed Lenin on all major points endorsed by the Leninist tendency, acting in effect, like a bourgeois revolutionist, a “Menchevik”. There were also fundamental differences regarding tactics and strategies.
As early as 1903, in making revolution, there was the question of class alliances. Lenin favoured an alliance with the peasantry, the Mensheviks, and Trotsky, favoured the bourgeoisie. Had he emerged victorious in that contest, the Bolshevik revolution would have been doomed.
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BRIAN BERLETIC—US policymakers have sought to use Israel as a proxy to provoke a full-scale war with Iran for years. While the US attempts to distance itself from Israeli provocations and atrocities including attacks on embassies and the killing of aid workers, the US is chief in enabling Israeli in continuing to carry out such attacks. – Just as the US created a large-scale conflict in Ukraine to reassert itself over Europe, it is attempting to use conflict to reassert itself in the Middle East and at a minimum prevent the region from uniting and moving out from under Western hegemony. – The window of opportunity for the US and proxies like Israel to fight and win a military conflict against Iran and its allies in the region is quickly closing, thus efforts are being made to provoke such a conflict sooner rather than later.