ALEX LANTIER—In warning the Greek workers about Syriza, the ICFI fought for the building of a revolutionary alternative. The experience of Syriza has underscored that only a return to the traditions of the Bolshevik Party and the October 1917 revolution can provide a viable strategy for the working class. In its statement “ The Political Lessons of Syriza’s Betrayal in Greece ,” the ICFI stressed: … the working class cannot defend itself by electing new, ‘left’ capitalist governments. The only way forward is through a genuinely revolutionary policy, mobilizing the working class in Greece and internationally in struggle. It requires a direct assault on the capitalist class, the confiscation of their wealth, the seizure of the major banks and productive forces, in order to place them under the democratic control of working people, and the creation of workers states across Europe and the world. Such struggles require the building of Marxist parties to offer political leadership to the working class, in ruthless struggle against parties like Syriza.
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BOOKS THAT MATTER—The Russian Peace Threat examines Russophobia, American Exceptionalism and other urgent topics
Punto Press, a publishing house affiliated with The Greanville Post, has just published a much awaited history/memoir by Ron Ridenour, an anti-imperialist fighter, radical journalist, and author whose uncompromising trajectory spans six decades and three continents, with first-hand experiences in Cuba, Nicaragua, Europe and naturally the country of his birth, the United States. A life spent struggling for justice and peace is a life morally well lived. In The Russian Peace Threat—Pentagon on Alert, whose focus is the century-old tug of war between two deeply antithetical societies, the US and Russia, Ridenour has not only provided activists and the public at large a dependable and compelling history that is aimed at dissolving the thick layers of disinformation and ignorance still keeping the two nations apart, but a wealth of details and insights seldom found in comparable works, written by a man who does not pretend to a non-existent “objectivity” but simple, liberating truth. MUST READ for people of the real left.
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6 US “Allies” That Are Russia’s Newest Partners
ADAM GARRIE—Russia’s ability to build new partnerships is objectively an impressive diplomatic feat. Crucially though, it must be remembered that during this same period, Russia has remained close to traditional Cold War allies while mending fences with partnerships that were lost in the midst of or just after the Cold War. Russia is a country that is a partner with both Vietnam and China, Egypt and Turkey, Syria, Israel and Palestine, Iran and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and to a more limited degree than in the Cold War, with India, The Philippines and Cambodia, Mozambique and South Africa and many others.
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VIEWPOINTS: Three Cheers for Trump’s Peace Trifecta
JOHN WALSH—It is no exaggeration to say that the Singapore Summit is the biggest step toward peace on the Korean Peninsula since President Dwight Eisenhower lived up to his 1952 campaign promise to “go to Korea” and end Truman’s deeply unpopular war, which had claimed millions of Korean lives, 1 million Chinese lives and tens of thousands of American ones. Ike ended that genocidal war, which had slaughtered 20% of the population of North Korea primarily due to bombing and chemical weapons. An armistice was negotiated quickly and so the killing stopped, but a formal treaty of peace proved politically impossible. (Ike, the peacemaker, was criticized by the media for being inarticulate and stupid and for spending too much time on the golf course. And he had a mistress. Sound familiar? But he brought peace.)
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Sabre-Rattling With Russia
BRIAN CLOUGHLEY—The Western media’s reporting of President Putin’s speech to Russia’s Federal Assembly on March 1 was intriguing. It concentrated almost entirely on Russian weapons’ developments, with the New York Times, for example, reporting that the President “used the speech to reassure Russians that the military buildup was taking place.” The 1500 words of the NYT report were almost entirely devoted to Putin’s description of Russian weapons designed to deter US-NATO adventurism, and a mere 65 words covered the social improvement programs he described.
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U.S.-Saudi Pressure On Jordan Opens The Way For Iran
MOON OF ALABAMA—The King of Saudi Arabia derives legitimacy from his title as “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” in Mecca and Medina. The King of Jordan springs from the thousand year old great Hashemite dynasty. He heads the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf (Foundation) and is the custodian of the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. This responsibility is the only prominent function left for the Hashemite family. It is the source of King Abdullah’s legitimacy. The changes in Saudi Arabia’s policy towards Israel and the Zionist ‘peace plan’ the Trump administration develops create a new situation for Jordan. It is put under immense economic pressure to agree to these plans.
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America’s Fifth Column Will Destroy Russia
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS—Indeed, it is the Russian government’s mistaken belief that Russian economic development is dependent on Russia being included as part of the West that has caused Putin to accept the provocations and humiliations that the West has heaped upon Russia. The lack of response to these provocations will eventually cause the Russian government to lose the support of the nationalist elements in Russia.
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