Having set all the alarm bells ringing about a supposedly imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, US war propagandists are now finding it increasingly difficult to justify their earlier scare mongering. According to the Telegraph, Joe Biden has hired a team of meteorologists “to help predict when Vladimir Putin will make his move”, blaming the unseasonably clement weather for the “delay” in mounting the (non-existent) invasion. By this reckoning, the only thing stopping a Russian onslaught is too little ice and too much mud. With equal justification Biden might hire a team of astrologers to warn him when this (fictitious) onslaught might take place.
The “Holodomor” is still being pushed by a collection of Anglo nations and Ukrainian ultra-nationalists and fascists. The origin of this legend stems from a famine which occurred in Ukraine and parts of Russia in 1932.
Throughout the 1930s rabid anti-communists and Nazi sympathisers would try to tie the famine to the fault of the Soviet government. This would rapidly evolve to accusations of genocide and a “planned starving of Ukraine by the Soviet government”.
Why the Soviet government would starve parts of Russia, Belarus and Eastern Ukraine to “suppress Ukrainian nationalism” was never explained by the adherents of these lies.
When it was originally pushed back in the 1930s it was done so by Nazi sympathisers like William Randolph Hearst who commanded the formidable ‘Hearst Press’ renowned for it’s “yellow journalism” (or “fake news”).
The Hearst Press faked photos and pretended their journalists had spent a year in Ukraine during that period.
In reality the journalist they sent went for two weeks and never left the Moscow area.
In Douglas Tottles book, Fraud, Famine and Fascism he examined the numerous faked photographs that were first through the Hearst Press and their organs then again in the 1980s alongside Robert Conquest’s book Harvest of Sorrow.Continue reading “Still Searching For That Soviet ‘Holocaust’”→
An exhibition of art in the Berlin Gropius Bau Museum has led to two reviews in the Western media. One in the New York Times (NYT) and the other in the Forbes Magazine (FM). The exhibition is based on the theme ‘cool and cold’ and includes artworks from the cold war period both western and Soviet. We are sure that the reader has already worked out where the organisers are going with this, Western art = cool and Soviet art = cold.
The narrative of the exhibition is fairly easy to read as is that of the two reviews; that Western artforms are bold and colourful, inspiring and challenging while drab and dreary Soviet art in the officially dictated style of Socialist realism has nothing to say because the artists were not free to express themselves, at least not until the latter days of the Soviet Union when brave underground artists dared to paint in the Western styles of Pop art, abstract expressionism, etc! Continue reading “Cool or cold? – Pop Art vs Socialist Realism”→
A Bloomberg article appeared on the 14th July 2021, with the title “Cuba Protests Fanned by Worst Economic Crisis Since Fall of USSR”.
The article started: “The deepest economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a spike in Covid-19 infections, power blackouts and increased use of social media all helped fan discontent with the 62-year-old communist regime.”
“We shall fight them on the beaches” said Winston Churchill in his eulogy to Britain’s war effort against the ferocious power of Nazi Germany. We of course, did fight them on the beaches and with the power of the mighty Soviet Union and other allies, we were able to defeat the Nazi hordes and dispel the threat of the invading forces. That was indeed a proud moment for our little island.
Well, another little island has also had to fight an invading force for its right to exist. That island is Cuba. Except, unlike for us, its invader the United States of America never went away. It stayed there, breathing down its neck placing heavy sanctions, and trying with all its might to cripple it. Cuba’s moment of fighting them on the beaches took place during The Bay of Pigs invasion. Even though Cuba won that battle, it was an example of American aggression that they have never forgotten, just as we have never forgotten the Luftwaffe flying over the skies of our island. At the time of this article, the U.S.A listed Cuba as a state sponsoring terrorism. This is laughable considering it comes from a country that has sponsored ISIS, Al-Qaeda and death squads in Nicaragua. Cuba is decidedly not a state that sponsors terrorism. Continue reading “The liberal left’s knife in the back for Cuba”→
Biden the red is at the door of the White House with a manifesto similar to the 1936 Soviet Constitution! The American ruling class is shaking!
American political life can easily be summed up by this maxim: to the right, always further to the right. When a politician like Sanders tries to move the cursor slightly to the center to respond to the ever-increasing demands for equality of an American population asphyxiated by an establishment of unparalleled voracity, he is immediately labeled a bloodthirsty communist. Continue reading “The political illiteracy of the US election campaigns”→
In February of 2020 a video titled ‘Everything You’ve Ever Seen About Cuba Is A Lie’ was posted to YouTube and made the rounds on various social media platforms. Across these platforms, it has been viewed -at the time of writing this article- around 703,625 times in total. The description of the video outlines its basic premise, in which there is no attempt whatsoever of hiding its obvious bias: Continue reading “Everything Turning Point USA Tells You About Cuba Is A Lie”→
The targeted assassination of Iran’s ‘indispensable’ Major General, Qasem Soleimani has been the most reckless imperialist act of war since the bombing of Syrian air bases.
Imperialism’s failure to subdue Syria’s legitimate government led by President Bashar al-Assad has greatly hindered the ruling class’s drive to war against Russia and China.
Such a drive to war entails bringing down defiant governments on the periphery of the two superpowers one by one. However the imperialists’ loss of the Syrian theatre quickly became a fatal setback to their grand strategy, leading them to acts of desperation.
The assassination of General Soleimani is a significant example of such an act of desperation. So desperate that the imperialist ruling class is willing to engage in acts of blatant and illegal aggression against Iran. It is by no means illogical or hyperbolic to suggest that the US is now in a state of de facto war with the country.
The loss of Soleimani is a tragic setback for the anti-imperialist united front, for it was Soleimani’s guidance that helped Syria and Iraq fight off the jihadist mercenaries of Isis and al-Nusra; it was Soleimani’s guidance that helped keep militant anti-imperialism alive and vibrant in Lebanon; it was Soleimani’s guidance that helped the Iraqi resistance do what they could to defend their country from the Nato occupiers.
Soleimani was a true veteran of the anti-imperialist fightback and an Iranian patriot of the highest order. The scale of the mourning across the region shows how much he was loved and valued by the people there. The best and only true way to honour his legacy is to bring the fight to our common oppressor here on the streets of Britain.
It is our humanitarian duty to hinder and harass our imperialist ruling class’s efforts in waging war upon any and all governments that defy imperialist rule. Former FBI agent Ali Soufan remembered Soleimani as being “responsible for the creation of an arc of influence – which Iran terms its ‘Axis of Resistance’ – extending from the Gulf of Oman through Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea”.
US president Donald Trump did not just kill an Iranian general, he martyred a widely-loved man in the middle east; a symbol of anti-imperialist resistance. On hearing the news, Iranian demonstrators held up his portrait with the words “Suleimani may have, with his death, already have achieved the greatest revenge of all.” Let his fine example inspire us to strengthen and temper ourselves to wage a real war against terrorism and imperialism.
Iran vows retaliation for the murder, and it is our vital duty in response to support Iran in its defensive war against imperialism, no matter how loud our bourgeois imperialist media beats the drums of war.
Though we oppose war, we stand by Iran’s right to defend itself by any means necessary. It is our duty to organise in our communities with those who are serious about taking grassroots anti-war action, especially now that the Labour party will return to the clutches of Blairism.
Join us at this public meeting on Friday to discuss the building of a serious anti-war movement in Britain.
Red Youth adds our signature to the following statement in support of the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela and President Nicolás Maduro:
On Monday 5 August US President Trump signed an executive order placing an embargo on the government of Venezuela, in effect placing an embargo on the whole of Venezuela. After the failed attempted coup of Juan Guaidó earlier this year, which was backed by the US, Venezuela now joins the likes of Cuba, Iran, Korea, and Syria as a recipient of the most extreme and damaging economic warfare.
Despite the abject failure of the coup, thanks to the steadfast determination of the Venezuelan people and their military to resist US imperialism, the US regime is still desperate to find some alleviation from the global crisis of capitalism, whether through economic or military methods.
John Bolton, the US’s national security advisor and one of the key war hawks of the Trump administration, also took the opportunity to threaten Russia and China when speaking in Lima, telling them that supporting Venezuela “could affect repayment of their debt after Maduro falls.”
Unable to learn a lesson from their bloody nose in Syria, where US-backed terrorists have been largely defeated by the Syrian Arab Army and their allies (including Russia and Iran), the US is continuing to support the farcical claim that Juan Guaidó is the president of Venezuela, the flimsiest of pretences under which to turn the economic screws and threaten military action.
Even the UN Human Rights office, which is no friend of Venezuela, has released a statement expressing deep concern that the sanctions could exacerbate the crisis Venezuela is already experiencing due to sanctions and sabotage, leading to life-threatening shortages of food and medicine.
The US is determined to make Venezuelans suffer. Their crime? Using their natural resources to better the lives of their people, building homes and schools, redistributing land, expanding healthcare, reducing extreme poverty, ensuring jobs are available, and reducing dependency on imports for food and other necessities.
Venezuela is a clear example of the threat posed to the ruling class by simply trying to provide for the working class rather than the ultra-wealthy.
It is the billionaires who have companies spanning the globe, who sail on multi-million pound yachts to their multi-million pound houses on multi-million pound private islands, who demand that the Venezuelan working class (and the American, and the British, and the rest of the world) live in poverty and squalor, and, if needs be, are shot and bombed to remind them of their place in the world.
The global economic crisis, however, draws them into more and more precarious positions. Needing to constantly increase their profits to remain on top they rampage across the world: looting, extorting, polluting, and killing. However, they now find resistance to their global hegemony not seen since the destruction of the Soviet Union, and are as such are seriously flirting with war against China and Russia.
Venezuela will not be an easy stepping stone on the path to WWIII though. Her people are loyal, armed, organised, and educated through years of struggle, and she is supported by many nations, large and small, across the world.
The undersigned call upon all progressive people and organisations to stand in solidarity with the Venezuelan people and their government, led by President Maduro and the PSUV, against imperialist aggression, and to demand an end to the embargo and the sanctions!
Venezuela’s defeat will be our defeat, Venezuela’s victory will be our victory! Venceremos!
We invite organisations and individuals who support a free and independent Venezuela to sign this statement of solidarity by emailing info@cpgb-ml.org.
We invite organisations and individuals who support a free and independent Venezuela to sign this statement of solidarity by emailing info@cpgb-ml.org.
Signed:
Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
Indian Workers Association (GB)
Red Youth
Stalin Society
Ethera Api UK – Hendry G Wickramaratne (secretary)
Below we reproduce a statement from the government of Venezuela regarding the blockade:
The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounces to the international community a new and serious aggression by the Trump administration through arbitrary actions of economic terrorism against the people of Venezuela. Washington has issued another Executive Order that seeks to formalize the criminal economic, financial and commercial blockade already under way, which has caused severe injuries within Venezuelan society in recent years, and whose sole objective is to asphyxiate the Venezuelan people and to force an unconstitutional change of government in the country, in open violation of the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations.
This decision by the ruling elite in the United States intends to grant legal form to the blockade of all the assets and properties of the Venezuelan State, thus constituting the most grotesque and brazen looting of which there is a record in the contemporary history of international relations. As if the illegal robbery of Citgo and the Venezuelan diplomatic headquarters were not enough, the White House and its allies seek new opportunities and resources to usurp and loot what belongs to the more than 30 million Venezuelans.
The international community must take into consideration that it takes much more than a supremacist tycoon who is in the midst of an election campaign, or an out- dated warmongering hawk, obsessed and desperate not to lose his job, to undo the libertarian work initiated by the Liberator Simón Bolívar and resumed in the 21st century by Commander Hugo Chávez.
With its renewed interventionist actions, it is clearly evident that the United States government and its allies are committed to the failure of political dialogue in Venezuela. They fear its results and benefits. In this sense, the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela will not allow this biased escalation of aggressions to affect the processes of political dialogue in the country, and confirms its unwavering will to reach national agreements in different dimensions, to further strengthen our democracy and guarantee the people’s right to live in peace.
Before the imperialist attack, President Nicolás Maduro ratifies his call to unity of all Venezuelans, to confront economic and political terrorism in this new phase. The national civic military unity is essential to firmly and patriotically walk the road that irrevocably upholds the independent character of Venezuela, overcoming together any obstacle that stands in the way of defending the country and its sacred national sovereignty.
At the beginning of April, US President Trump made the startling announcement that “if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will,” arrogantly adding, “China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone.”
The USS Carl Vinson was said to be heading to Korea, before continuing to Australia
In the wake of that announcement, this week the USS Carl Vinson carrier group was announced to be travelling to Korea, later revealed to be untrue, a bit of fake news to bolster Trump’s declaration on 12 April that the US is “sending an armada” to join in with the regular provocative military excersises conducted on the Peninsula. Around 30,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea, with a further 50,000 in Japan and 3,000 in Guam.
US imperialism is known for being staunchly against any nation not firmly under its economic or military control to be capable of defending itself, and Korea is perhaps the most frustrating example of an independent nation.
