From...
From below the line: First, this post from the start of the month seems to have developed an interesting comment thread, on friends, allies, enemies, and enemies of enemies in the pro-/anti-Israel camps. Read this for reference.
Over at Bob's Beats, my “first and last”series, on the first and last purchase of different recorded music formats started this week with the seven inch single. I posted mine here, and rustyfruitjuice did his here, and Martin’s is here. Next week, we’re moving on to the EP – again, contributions welcome – and the following week we’ll do the twelve inch. Rustyfruitjuice tweets here, and Martin tweets here and blogs here.
From the archive: Wildcat: "SWP - the Party of God" (1988). This is from the first Gulf war, between Iran and Iraq, in which the SWP supported the Iranian theocracy because it was fighting American "imperialism". It shows how corrupt the SWP was even then. While I don't go along with the full No War But The Class War line Wildcat took, the critique of revolutionary defeatism and Leninist pseudo-anti-imperialism is sharp. (H/t Entdinglichung.)
From the blogs: Paul on the perversion of science and the chavification of Scotland’s alcohol laws; Marko on Bosnian Muslims in WWII. Some important CST posts on antisemitism today: Boycott Israel: Zionists are “the most hateful people imaginable”; Iran: how Zionist Jewish money runs Western media; BBC HARDtalk: any qualms that you could be feeding antisemitism?; Greek neo-Nazis & Egyptian Islamists: Signs of the Times.
From the left: interview with Syrian leftists; a Trotskyist analysis of the Arab left; Yassamine Mather on Hands Off the People of Iran; a new pamphlet from the AWL on the Perdition affair.
From the magazines: Dave Rich reflects on Ken and the Jews. On Jews and the Left: The Tablet, American Thinker, Commentary, Forward. Ralph Seliger on Did the kibbutz really fail, responding to Michael Lerner.
Over at Bob's Beats, my “first and last”series, on the first and last purchase of different recorded music formats started this week with the seven inch single. I posted mine here, and rustyfruitjuice did his here, and Martin’s is here. Next week, we’re moving on to the EP – again, contributions welcome – and the following week we’ll do the twelve inch. Rustyfruitjuice tweets here, and Martin tweets here and blogs here.
From the archive: Wildcat: "SWP - the Party of God" (1988). This is from the first Gulf war, between Iran and Iraq, in which the SWP supported the Iranian theocracy because it was fighting American "imperialism". It shows how corrupt the SWP was even then. While I don't go along with the full No War But The Class War line Wildcat took, the critique of revolutionary defeatism and Leninist pseudo-anti-imperialism is sharp. (H/t Entdinglichung.)
From the blogs: Paul on the perversion of science and the chavification of Scotland’s alcohol laws; Marko on Bosnian Muslims in WWII. Some important CST posts on antisemitism today: Boycott Israel: Zionists are “the most hateful people imaginable”; Iran: how Zionist Jewish money runs Western media; BBC HARDtalk: any qualms that you could be feeding antisemitism?; Greek neo-Nazis & Egyptian Islamists: Signs of the Times.
From the left: interview with Syrian leftists; a Trotskyist analysis of the Arab left; Yassamine Mather on Hands Off the People of Iran; a new pamphlet from the AWL on the Perdition affair.
From the magazines: Dave Rich reflects on Ken and the Jews. On Jews and the Left: The Tablet, American Thinker, Commentary, Forward. Ralph Seliger on Did the kibbutz really fail, responding to Michael Lerner.
Comments
http://www.bigsmoke.org.uk/?p=85101
I point to it because the two videos might be of interest. One is of Natalie Bennett of the Greens who described the Iranian regime as, something like, misogynist, homophobic undemocratic regime - and then you can hear people heckling from the back (not massively clear on video because of directional mic but you can make it out).
The other is from a Labour Assembly member giving an extraordinary speech (in a really bad way)
By the way, any idea what the red and white flags flying in the first video are? It looks like Bahrain's. Does that mean solidarity with the protestors there (I think they march with the national flag) or with the government.
For instance he said that Israel was the only threat to peace in the region which, I think, given the state of the region is entirely unsupportable.
Bob: not sure on the flags, didn't think to ask. You may be right that it's Bahrain although what that might mean is anyone's guess. There was one man with a picture of assad on a placard saying "victory to assad" - extraordinary.