tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872841749228717142024-03-19T10:13:27.976+00:00Paul CanningI am a writer, journalist and researcher. Also web design.paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.comBlogger1465125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-29657387796612536252019-12-18T22:42:00.000+00:002019-12-18T22:57:59.034+00:00How Labour got off lightly: some notes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlyHRIs-g3jGwIOvNirgtqMnwaIjodFSKFbBeCojLxh6FZMW-CECrEscRORWXqT7KTK-WqmV5w7sXusjc71kXPBMdzcyl8WBlPYF6Pzfal2x4J-FbRvZuPgJaQ8gysb-bBtDPOj5-Pfxyo/s1600/morales+corbyn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlyHRIs-g3jGwIOvNirgtqMnwaIjodFSKFbBeCojLxh6FZMW-CECrEscRORWXqT7KTK-WqmV5w7sXusjc71kXPBMdzcyl8WBlPYF6Pzfal2x4J-FbRvZuPgJaQ8gysb-bBtDPOj5-Pfxyo/s640/morales+corbyn.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Here is <a href="https://capx.co/on-salisbury-and-syria-the-labour-leadership-got-off-lightly/">my piece for CapX</a> followed by some notes on issues I didn't have the space to expand on, particularly the last two of the three questions I landed on which best illustrate Corbynite foreign policy.<br />
<br />
++++++<br />
<br />
<h3>
On Salisbury and Syria, the Labour leadership got off lightly</h3>
16 December 2019<br />
<br />
It is Friday April 13 2018 and Diane Abbott is on the Today programme. In a combative appearance with Nick Robinson her refusal to say whether Labour would ever approve UK military action overseas is what creates <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/04/13/syria-crisis-diane-abbott-refuses-four-times-say-labour-would/">headlines</a>. What gets overlooked is that <a href="https://www.theredroar.com/2018/04/diane-abbott-tells-bbc-russia-a-greater-threat-to-world-peace-than-america/">she also says this</a>: “What we believe beyond reasonable doubt is its [Russia’s] role in the poison gas attacks in Salisbury.” <br />
<br />
This is just a month after the Salisbury attack. Abbott was definitive because she <a href="https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2018-09-12a.778.1">had seen</a> the same “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/salisbury-nerve-agent-attack-spy-intelligence-information-russia-a8276781.html">unprecedented levels of intelligence</a>” that led 28 countries to evict Russian diplomats. Those expulsions by so many countries, even Hungary, had spooks back-slapping with satisfaction, <a href="https://www.edwardlucas.com/?powerpress_pinw=1974-podcast">according to</a> the writer and security specialist Edward Lucas. <br />
<br />
Yet two days after Abbott’s Today Show appearance, Jeremy Corbyn <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/corbyn-wants-incontrovertible-proof-before-blaming-russia-for-salisbury-attack-11332325">told the media</a> that “if we are going to make a very, very clear assertion like that we have got to have the absolute evidence to do it”. <br />
<br />
Six months later and Corbyn was <a href="http://bit.ly/2Q9zzY0">still hedging his bets</a>. How? <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/timeline-deny-distort-novichok-russia-changing-stories-poisoning/29113561.html">His theory was</a> that either Russia or someone else could be responsible, emphasis on the latter. Maybe they lost the poison somehow? That theory was why he <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/jeremy-corbyn-under-fire-for-demanding-russia-get-chance-to-analyse-salisbury-poison-11298023">wanted the UK to send a sample to Moscow</a>. In Parliament that September, responding to Theresa May laying out what was a <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/09/of-course-russians-have-a-sense-of-humour-just-look-at-the-salisbury-tourists/">massive humiliation</a> for the Russian government, that ‘Kremlin source’ theory was still there in his speech. <br />
<br />
Throughout last summer Corbynite social media was awash with Salisbury conspiracy theories as they defended the great leader. You know who else in Summer 2018 was still questioning whether Russia was responsible for the attack in Salisbury? <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/05/trump-told-theresa-may-he-doubted-russia-was-behind-skripal-poisoning">Donald Trump</a>. <br />
<br />
‘Corbyn destroyed by media smears’ the same people say, based on their belief that what was being reported in the ‘MSM’ were lies. Yet neither the ‘MSM’ nor the ‘deep state’ nor the Tory election machine ever really nailed quite how awful Corbyn was over Salisbury. <br />
<br />
Edward Lucas says that when he gave evidence for the withheld Commons Committee Russia report he pointed out that after the initial expulsions of diplomats the UK had not countered the massive disinformation campaign well. Yet the role that the Leader of the Opposition played doesn’t figure. For some reason Corbyn’s role is not one that Lucas’ colleagues have picked up on either. <br />
<br />
Nevertheless the voters didn’t need to know the reason why Corbyn was suggesting sending samples to Moscow, they just saw him saying stuff like that and formed their overwhelmingly negative opinions. <br />
<br />
It wasn’t just on Salisbury that Labour got off lightly. A culture (which I took part in) of often gleefully panning for gold in Corbyn’s past meant that the present, what Labour were actually doing now, largely disappeared. Their apparent policy of <a href="https://twitter.com/OzKaterji/status/1192358274651308032">not supporting the Syrian Civil Defence, the White Helmets</a>, for example, was almost totally ignored. The ghastly Chris Williamson was not banished for supporting Assad’s fascist state, but, eventually for one incidence of anti-Semitism too many. The Labour take-up of the Integrity Initiative Russian disinfo Op became instead about Spanish antisemite Pedro Baños, <br />
<br />
There are two other (never asked) policy questions which illustrate how, for all the claims of media bias, Labour’s foreign policy was not properly scrutinised.<br />
<ul>
<li>Did Labour support the <a href="https://www.forces.net/news/operation-orbital-british-troops-training-ukraine-trench-warfare">UK training Ukrainian troops</a>?</li>
<li>Did Labour support <a href="https://dialogo-americas.com/european-union-urges-sanctions-against-nicaraguan-authorities/">EU sanctions on the Nicaraguan dictatorship</a>? </li>
</ul>
The answer to both questions is, of course, no. Clearly no from the evidence of the past two years since Corbyn <a href="https://twitter.com/UKLabour/status/863120744825458688">paid a visit to Chatham House</a> in the last election and said that “the ‘bomb first, talk later’ approach to security has failed”. Nine months after that speech Emily Thornberry published <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/15/war-protests-iraq-libya-syria-iran-peace-jeremy-corbyn">a piece on the Middle East,</a> that Corbyn plugged, which managed to not mention Assad. She <a href="https://twitter.com/SyriaUK/status/996738228941217792">proposed </a>that the Syrian dictator stay in power and for UK taxpayers to pay for reconstruction. She <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/world/middle-east/2018/09/kremlin-has-weaponised-doubt-syria-and-labour-helping">attacked the White Helmets</a>. <br />
<br />
One of the things which I don’t think folks understand is that a very big reason the Corbynites are clinging on to the leadership for the time being is to defend their ‘anti-imperialist’ foreign policy agenda. Foreign policy looms large for the fans of the Stop Some Wars Coalition. <br />
<br />
One of the most profound meanings of realignment internationally by Corbynism was likely exit entirely from the Socialist International and instead going with the sorts of left Latin American forces who themselves <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/librocrepusculo/status/1205678592811819008.">have failed</a> to deal with chavismo and Cuban communism. Evo Morales <a href="https://capx.co/bolivia-democracy-and-corbyn-its-not-pretty/">welcomed as a hero</a> to Downing Street? <br />
<br />
Given the sheer number of outlandish and immoral positions the Corbyn team took on foreign policy, they really did get off lightly. If Labour are to move forwards as a potential party of government, their next leader needs to ditch the ‘anti-imperialist’ schtick and rediscover the party’s true internationalist heritage.<br />
<br />
++++++<br />
<h3>
Notes</h3>
<h4>
Did Labour support the <a href="https://www.forces.net/news/operation-orbital-british-troops-training-ukraine-trench-warfare">UK training Ukrainian troops</a>?</h4>
<br />
Not much has been said by Labour about Ukraine over the past four years. At Commons committee's Labour shadow foreign ministers and Labour MPs have said all the right things during the few debates on Ukraine, in one case with Khalid Mahmood pointedly conveying John McDonnell's concerns about the Ukrainian labour movement.<br />
<br />
Corbyn has mentioned Ukraine twice in the Commons since he was elected leader. The last time was to say this after Russia seized two Ukrainian navy ships last year.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje0Rd-dF6i9qumDckZ7etKgrZig3wB63L2GN6CWFY-ILiVZcsyEtK0Yl9_SABE2230Jrn0Eqt-Sn5snUmNVtl465f_GnEc5N2NLGEpSQ3f2Z9zdAwAV413FLImoyzhUE7IxQdmJaM7b6Y1/s1600/corbyn+ukraine.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Jeremy Corbyn Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition, Leader of the Labour Party 3:43 pm, 17th December 2018 I thank the Prime Minister for the advance copy of her statement. On Ukraine, as NATO has said, we need both sides to show restraint and de-escalate, with international law adhered to, including Russia’s allowing unhindered access to Ukraine’s ports on the sea of Azov." border="0" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="685" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje0Rd-dF6i9qumDckZ7etKgrZig3wB63L2GN6CWFY-ILiVZcsyEtK0Yl9_SABE2230Jrn0Eqt-Sn5snUmNVtl465f_GnEc5N2NLGEpSQ3f2Z9zdAwAV413FLImoyzhUE7IxQdmJaM7b6Y1/s640/corbyn+ukraine.png" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Citation: HC Deb, 17 December 2018, c529)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The very same words were used 3 weeks earlier <a href="https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2018-11-27b.157.0&s=speaker%3A11087#g158.1">by Mahmood</a>, but this "both sides" line (and it was clearly the line from the party) is wrong, Nato <a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_160789.htm">never said that</a>. Why would Nato be urging "restraint" on Ukraine?<br />
<br />
So a mistake but a very telling one. It has recently been reported that when Donald Trump saw the joint Nato statement condemning the Russians for seizing these ships he didn't want to sign it and had to be persuaded.<br />
<br />
It is not hard to imagine Corbyn doing the same and that the UK would not have joined others in condemning Russia's actions. Particularly given his history, such as this statement in parliament seven months before he was elected leader.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRCU0CU_JxY5GyinLFFBp3MWHGfjGWXXbZ73-z_uLh0tCNOxd6Tnl9qr_ClFo3wEP1NvIVO72U0pIpBPQspCl_Xjeg2LhcH_3f0OfW5lqO0klIWY4sLbJohJbJNfZJ-JiAE86gi162pe5l/s1600/corbyn+ukraine+1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Jeremy Corbyn Labour, Islington North I should like to ask the Secretary of State for Defence how far the Government have really thought this thing through. Does he acknowledge that 75 trainers will be followed by 150 trainers, and that they will be followed by more and more? The gifting of weapons is being talked about, and we are now moving into a situation in which we are going to be in the conflict in Ukraine. NATO wants Ukraine as a member, contrary to everything that was agreed following the break-up of the Soviet Union on the non-alignment and independence of that country. Instead of upping the military ante, why will not the Government put huge efforts into trying to demilitarise Russian militarism and NATO expansionism, in order to bring about a longer-term sustainable peace in that area? The danger of getting involved in a hot war in central Europe has got a bit closer as a result of the Secretary of State’s statement today. Link to this speech In context Individually Tweet Share Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 25 February 2015, c328" border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="691" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRCU0CU_JxY5GyinLFFBp3MWHGfjGWXXbZ73-z_uLh0tCNOxd6Tnl9qr_ClFo3wEP1NvIVO72U0pIpBPQspCl_Xjeg2LhcH_3f0OfW5lqO0klIWY4sLbJohJbJNfZJ-JiAE86gi162pe5l/s640/corbyn+ukraine+1.png" title="" width="100%" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a class="debate-speech__meta__link" href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm150225/debtext/150225-0001.htm#150225-0001.htm_spnew129">Hansard source</a>
(Citation: HC Deb, 25 February 2015, c328) </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The thing is though<span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">, as Kyiv Post Editor</span><span class="r-18u37iz"><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" data-focusable="true" dir="ltr" href="https://mobile.twitter.com/JackLaurenson" role="link"> Jack Laurenson</a></span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"> told me before the election, Ukraine "</span>would have adapted to a Corbyn government in London and found ways to work with them." After all, Ukraine has had practice with adapting. But it would be a marked change from the present where, Laurenson said, "Britain is arguably Ukraine's best friend in Europe."<br />
<br />
"There are some concerns in Ukraine that Corbyn is a bit weak on foreign policy and defense, especially when it comes to the U.K. role in NATO, which Ukraine is trying to join. Some here worry that a Corbyn labour government may not stand with Ukraine in the same way U.K. governments have since the start of Russian aggression in 2014."<br />
<br />
"Thankfully there are people behind Trump who have continued being helpful to Ukraine, while Trump himself has not. It is not being discussed in great detail, no. And Corbyn is largely unknown to the public here, I would say."<br />
<br />
"But Ukrainians want to see hawkish foreign policy and a very strong stance on Russian aggression, especially from London, Washington, Brussels, Paris and Berlin."<br />
<br />
In my experience Corbyn was largely unknown outside the UK and this fed through to there being only <a href="https://www.hudson.org/events/1720-u-s-national-security-implications-of-a-corbyn-foreign-policy92019">one piece of analysis</a> by a think tank about possible Labour foreign policy. That report however did not mention the shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry. Her statements, particularly on Syria, say far more about what might have been than Corbyn's past does. And, as with Mahmood, her reality was that she would repeat or defend whatever came down from the Leader's office and if she didn't she'd be briefed against. Her and Nia Griffith's gymnastics after Seumas Milne's comments to the Lobby after the Salisbury attack are a good example of this dynamic. I have a feeling more will come out about how this process played out.<br />
<br />
I also spoke with Professor Alexander Clarkson, the well-known commentator on European affairs, who made a series of insightful points about the implications of a Corbyn government, most of whom were not mentioned during the election campaign.<br />
<br />
"It's an interesting question in that the core assumption of European policy towards the UK, which is European Neighbourhood Policy rather than wider European foreign policy, is entirely constructed around the idea that the challenge the UK presents to the EU system is one based on Thatcherite principles," he said.<br />
<br />
"So the core assumption on the EU level throughout has been that the UK will opt for deregulation, alignment with the US, greater dependence on the City, big talk about pressuring the EU through defence posturing but ultimately core acceptance of NATO as the foundations of UK and European security frameworks"<br />
<br />
"So though they are aware of what Corbyn is and what he stands for, the EU institutions as well as EU states have not formulated a plan B for a statist, nationalising and neutralist UK that is likely to emerge under a Labour government."<br />
<br />
"Corbyn would raise three core concerns, though he would be a relief in other ways. For the French, Italians, Spanish, Portuguese, Greeks i.e. the EU states whose military and geostrategic focus is on the Med, Maghreb, Sahel and Central Africa there would be great concern that a UK military that is beginning to play a role again in supporting key operations throughout that area for EU stabilisation and border control efforts would be pulled out again. The UK is on the cusp of contributing more helpful airlift capacity, so there would be questions about the UK's reliability whether in or out of the EU in defending collective EU borders."<br />
<br />
"Now, there are a lot of valid critiques about the neo-imperial direction EU border policy is going towards, especially in how it is absorbing the logic of Italibya and Francafrique into a wider EU approach to the South. But if the UK pulls out of these efforts, it would also not be in a position to positively influence EU member state strategy towards states in the Med and Africa which come what may will see a substantial EU military and policing efforts for decades to come."<br />
<br />
"The Baltic, Polish, Finnish, Romanian and Ukrainian nervousness about UK attitudes to Russia you are of course more aware of. A Corbyn government would effectively lead the Finns, Poles. Estonians and Ukrainians in particular to immediately write off the UK as a reliable partner in collective EU and NATO defence against Russia. A Corbyn government would have to make a big effort to visit those states and demonstrate that the UK will live up to NATO commitments to states in the alliance in the region and the blend of EU and NATO security support to Ukraine if the UK is not to see a rapid loss of trust from states across Eastern Europe whose help the Brits will need in any return to EU structures or if it is Brexit, negotiations for a treaty with the EU. Of course Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and Ankara will use every opportunity to stoke the neutralist instincts of a Corbyn government to encourage the Brits to withdraw whatever they have left across the CEE regions."<br />
<br />
"Finally, Corbyn's economic agenda will be seen with great concern by the Germans, Danes, Dutch, Austrians, Slovenians, Luxembourgers, French and Czechs. A policy focused on state and and extensive nationalisation will directly impact on major European businesses that have invested in UK infrastructure. Moreover an expansive attempt to use state aid to reshape the banking and industrial sectors if the UK leaves the EU will see enormous pressure from both corporations and state institutions in these states to ensure that this does not lead to state subsidy systems that are considered to give UK businesses an unfair boost in excluding EU competitors. This may not seem fair to the UK, but once the UK is out of the EU it would be considered fair game by EU states to put maximum pressure on London to keep it in line in terms of state aid just as it would be considered fair game to keep Tories in line over the City and deregulation."<br />
<br />
"The paradox is in terms of Labour and European policy, that if the UK stayed in the EU McDonnell could well find a lot of allies for a Green New Deal based reform of state aid policy in France, Spain, Greece, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Hungary, Bulgaria and Italy. Even in Germany's Green Party and Linkspartei, though Fine Gael, the CDU/CSU, VVD and the Finnish and Baltic governments would be infuriated by this. A UK under Corbyn willing to build partnerships within the EU and find allies for his agenda has scope to shift a lot of EU state policy in key areas when it comes to developing state aid, nationalisation of certain sectors and much greater state regulation in others. If McDonnell can get Corbyn to see has agenda as not just changing Britain but also about changing Europe."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4SZCiyko8sXqEC4Jiz7KJw8KfzOpqEOWjdjxyOk9kNGFkAEvg_hYvveK18DREoH9JO0RzuRQDwnR5mB9TAxFcy0AbGrsbgI_xzOiHKItCxCWtCoAX999YRMOjorH9ZBR5Lcqw17xohtYG/s1600/DLuK0z4W4AA4VFe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1080" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4SZCiyko8sXqEC4Jiz7KJw8KfzOpqEOWjdjxyOk9kNGFkAEvg_hYvveK18DREoH9JO0RzuRQDwnR5mB9TAxFcy0AbGrsbgI_xzOiHKItCxCWtCoAX999YRMOjorH9ZBR5Lcqw17xohtYG/s640/DLuK0z4W4AA4VFe.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unite union General Secretary Len McCluskey and Venezuelan foreign minister Jorge Arreaza</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
Did Labour support <a href="https://dialogo-americas.com/european-union-urges-sanctions-against-nicaraguan-authorities/">EU sanctions on the Nicaraguan dictatorship</a>? </h4>
<br />
When the Venezuelan crisis hit the headlines again at the beginning of the year and Corbyn and his supporters were all suddenly, furiously tweeting and frothing away after an absence of interest for some time there was one body which they never mentioned. The EU.<br />
<br />
The EU along with a slew of Latin American countries has been supporting the only dialogue game in town. It has quietly worked away but been absolutely critical to developments. If you look back at Emily Thornberry and her deputy Liz McInnes they talked about Mexico, they talked about Bolivia but they never mention the extant folks actually doing what they claim to be interested in - dialogue.<br />
<br />
McInnes even at one point told the House of Commons that sanctions on Venezuela were a "war crime". On Cuba, 2019 has been the year of repressing the LGBT community yet hundreds of folks were proudly walking around the Labour conference with Cuba lanyards.<br />
<br />
Nicaragua has had absolutely zero interest from Labour. I was one of a couple of hundred people (including some very lefty LatAm specialists) who wrote to Corbyn in December 2018 asking him to speak out for Nicaraguans and against the dictatorship. He never replied. Corbyn spoke in the House of Commons 210 times about the Sandinistas and Nicaragua. 210 times.<br />
<br />
Phil Gunson from Crisis Group, who is British and lives in Caracas, told me:<br />
<br />
"Jeremy
Corbyn's vision of Latin America is derived from a Cold War-era,
solidarity campaign way of thinking that aligns automatically with
governments and political movements that oppose the United States. The
continent is a lot more complicated than that. Corbyn's inability, for
instance, to distance himself from the chavista government in Venezuela,
despite its abysmal record on human rights and political freedoms, is
symptomatic of this blinkered approach." <br />
<br />
Some Bolivian Londoners from <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/Action4Bolivia">Action for Bolivia</a> met Corbyn at the big Climate Strike protest back in September. He was pleasant in person, <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1206659743953096706">they told me</a>, but the promised follow up never happened. This was before the Bolivian election, note, and they were telling him about the devastating fires - and the government's terrible response. Would Brazilians have had the same experience?<br />
<br />
The EU's recent sanctions on Nicaraguan officials have been long in the making and follows a series of damning reports from the OAS, UN, HRW, Amnesty and many others about the repressive regime of Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president Rosario Murillo.<br />
<br />
Those sanctions were unanimously adopted. Same goes for the Russia sanctions which get rolled over every six months, despite regular reports that they are doomed. So the question about Nicaragua carries a wider implication. It implies how the UK would vote in the UN and other bodies. Whether it would break unanimity in the EU or Nato. Whether it would side with the Russians in such decisions. Whether it would side with Labour's supposed sister social democratic parties or other, lefter, forces.<br />
<br /><h4>
See also:</h4>
<h2 class="date-header">
</h2>
<div class="date-posts">
<div class="post-outer">
<div class="post hentry" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="856509982160815671"></a><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2019/10/bolivia-democracy-and-corbyn-its-not.html">Bolivia, democracy and Corbyn: It's not pretty</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/08/corbyn-and-ukraine-its-not-pretty.html">Corbyn and Ukraine: it's not pretty</a>. </li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2019/03/labours-kremlin-friendly-foreign-policy.html">Labour's Kremlin friendly foreign policy</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2016/09/venezuela-lefts-giant-forgetting.html">Venezuela: The left's giant forgetting</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br />paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-8565099821608156712019-10-25T13:49:00.004+01:002019-10-25T15:21:33.550+01:00Bolivia, democracy and Corbyn: It's not pretty<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_R5P2nCRLEu-TMsdVSB_GELclN8dsTxxokyWs-pBErEMSAKg4ZpOlRvPH3n7tHpMuhj3oiI4pgpoPjaBVVKdRIaxf0EYxzd9oDbMBGHquv8-ft_IWq6myS0DQSBT-Wo_NxgjYOL9" /><br />
<br />
<br />
On Tuesday morning at a quarter to eleven People’s Momentum tweeted out a three raised fist emoji salute to the re-election of Evo Morales in Bolivia in the first round of the Presidential election. <br />
<br />
“Congratulations to Evo Morales who looks set to win his reelection bid outright in the first round of voting!”, they wrote.<br />
<br />
In prematurely claiming victory Momentum echoed <a href="https://twitter.com/DiazCanelB/status/1186661325906284545">Cuba </a>and <a href="https://twitter.com/maduro_en/status/1186608041183055874">Venezuela’s </a>Presidents. The Jeremy Corbyn supporters club <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-50101789?ocid=socialflow_twitter">would have known</a> that the circumstances of a supposed Morales first round win that avoids a runoff election in December is, to put it mildly, questionable. The <a href="https://twitter.com/londonoe/status/1186457478319562752">OAS</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/CINUmexico/status/1186696279159705600">United Nations</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/EdwinPynegar/status/1186651612820971520">the EU</a> are among those who’ve raised eyebrows. They would also have known that the very candidacy of Morales, rather than of someone else from his party, MAS, is outright denial of the people’s will in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/22/bolivia-evo-morales-president-national-referendum-fourth-term">a 2016 referendum on term limits</a>. <br />
<br />
Morales claimed he lost that referendum because a soapish scandal had erupted just before the vote involving a supposed girlfriend plus ‘love child’ plus corruption. He <a href="https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-42273980">said </a>that he didn’t want to run again but "I can't disappoint my people" and he had to follow his “destiny” of being president. He got a pliant Supreme Court to invent the novel idea that term limits for politicians is a breach of human rights.<br />
<br />
Momentum knew all that but they tweeted out a rote ‘solidarity’ statement with added emojis anyway. The message being that Momentum thinks that undemocratic behaviour is fine if it comes from someone waving a red flag?<br />
<br />
Reversing the referendum result in order to stand again is the big reason why Morales’ could be forced to the second round by Carlos Mesa. Despite MAS controlling <a href="https://cpj.org/blog/2014/09/critical-journalist-investigates-bolivias-silent-c.php">most of Bolivia’s media</a> what has now happened is that Morales’ support has dropped all around Bolivia, ending regional polarisations, and the left who opposed Morales over the referendum voted for his ‘neoliberal’ opponent. And this is also despite that, as Vanderbilt University Bolivia expert Carwil Bjork-James <a href="https://woborders.blog/2019/10/15/uncertain-election/">points out</a>, “right-wing politics remains a minority tendency within Bolivia”. Centre-left Mesa embraced the government’s core poverty programs and cultivated alliances with left, grassroots, and environmental dissidents. He <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/14/767967304/how-bolivias-evo-morales-could-win-a-4th-term-as-president?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social">told NPR</a> "I recognise the positive things" that Morales has brought to Bolivia. That’s liberal democracy for you at work right there. That’s the same shifting of the Overton Window leftwards that Labour achieved with the NHS.<br />
<br />
As numerous commentators have pointed out if Morales had not decided to stand again he would have bowed out a hero. An Indigenous President who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/01/05/as-socialist-venezuela-collapses-socialist-bolivia-thrives-heres-why/?utm_term=.401b31104659">did reduce poverty</a> and do other good works.<br />
<br />
Instead we have a massive propaganda operation online about <a href="https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/10/backing-evo">mythical US interference</a>, Evo talking about a coup and his Vice President, Álvaro García Linera, dangerously talking about a fight between q'aras (whites) against Indiegnous people. As journalist <a href="https://twitter.com/infocracia/status/1186708239267827712">Andrés Cañizalez has noted</a>, it is as if the survival in power of Maduro “is an example for [Nicaragua’s] Ortega and Evo, for now, to simply throw away institutionality, knowing that there will be no consequences.”<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgm0RmFJywk5iH9NTM66taWuXJgVniH-Fe3qoj4d5HDUF4uMomXrJ7I_eIm1lxJhLetHJSKO0iTyLkYRVnhJ9gJwTml64xLiynn-JoFunvX7Zx3HZ8Vo54T9N_mpNMtEQtb-UqhwZ8ERnT/s1600/DWo2-FxXUAA3B-b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgm0RmFJywk5iH9NTM66taWuXJgVniH-Fe3qoj4d5HDUF4uMomXrJ7I_eIm1lxJhLetHJSKO0iTyLkYRVnhJ9gJwTml64xLiynn-JoFunvX7Zx3HZ8Vo54T9N_mpNMtEQtb-UqhwZ8ERnT/s320/DWo2-FxXUAA3B-b.jpg" width="318" /></a></div>
But it’s not just Momentum at ease with all this, it’s Labour’s Leader as well.<br />
<br />
Corbyn met García Linera in London in February. His subsequent <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1092528471547527169">tweet </a>bizarrely claimed that Bolivia, Mexico and Uruguay “are already playing an important role in mediating a negotiated political solution in Venezuela.” This is complete nonsense (and note that Labour has never once acknowledged the EU’s role in pushing Venezuela negotiations) but it’s also uncritical support after Morales has defied the people’s will that he should retire.<br />
<br />
When he attended the inauguration of <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1068597194159206403">his friend</a> Mexican President Lopez Obrador last December he gave an interview <a href="https://www.jornada.com.mx/2018/11/06/corbyn.html"> to the left-wing conspiracist Matt Kennard </a>in which he heaped praise on Morales. They later met in Mexico -<a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1080191880971935744"> here's a picture</a> of Seumas Milne filming the encounter. Same month he <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1123731504302120960">gave Morales his backing</a> in a statement to ‘Labour Friends of Progressive Latin America.’ Not even a hint of concern about Morales’ undemocratic behaviour.<br />
<br />
Tellingly Corbyn <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21701783-labour-party-heading-split-hasta-siempre-comandante">has praised</a> “street movements” like MAS as they “consider themselves less election-fighting machines than revolutionary upswells; multitudes that primarily exercise power not through the legislature but through the charismatic influence of their leaders and by taking to the streets to give voice to popular anger”.<br />
<br />
This is not how the left wing Latin Americans who Corbyn never speaks with see it. Morales created “a vertical movement with fragile roots that are entirely dependent on a single individual and heavy subsidies” <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/bolivian-elections-another-term-for-evo-">argues </a>Democracia Abierta. “If the cases of Brazil and Venezuela are any indication, we should have learned that cult of personality, a sin so common to the Latin American left, tends to ricochet in the opposite direction.”<br />
<br />
But we already know from Venezuela that Corbyn and others never learn anything, never leave their safe space and ignore left or civic or institutional voices that counter their rose tinted view of Latin American “revolutionary upswells”. Chavez’s famed ‘gains for the poor’ were <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1126916825781026816">already reversing</a> when Corbyn (and Abbott and Jones et al) were still visiting. But they wouldn’t have known this because they never spoke to anyone outside the Potemkin Village. If they had they’d have learned that the Cuban supported health programme they all praised was <a href="https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2018/12/05/how-barrio-adentro-wrecked-venezuelas-health-system/">a complete wreck</a>. If they’d spoken to the Labour movement independent of the government they’d have known that Chavez and Maduro <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1161651356526108672">were repressing it</a>. Years later when Maduro went after a Parliament dominated by opposition MPs elected by Venezuelans, many of them elected from barrios, the <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/venezuela-proof-corbyns-no-man-of-peace.html">silence was deafening</a>.<br />
<br />
Heck, Corbyn met the socialist former Chilean President Michele Bachelet (now UN human rights chief) a year ago and rather than talk about human rights - her job - Labour <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1053616770437865472">tweeted </a>that they’d be talking about workers rights in the EU. Corbyn’s account decided to use the opportunity to tweet a boast about how Saint Jez had opposed Pinochet.<br />
<br />
Continuing the theme of existing in a 1970s bubble, back in May Corbyn <a href="https://twitter.com/paulocanning/status/1162810509831352321">gave a speech</a> to a Marxist gathering in a Welsh valley called El Sueño Existe, organised by his old friend the Marxist lecturer Dr Francisco Dominquez. In his jaw dropping speech Corbyn did talk at length about human rights and refugees - but only in the context of Trump. There was not one single mention of Venezuela, the biggest refugee crisis in Latin America’s history, or Nicaragua, which he spoke about in the House of Commons 210 times.<br />
<br />
If you wanted a crystal clear example of Corbyn’s tenuous connection to both human rights and democracy in Latin America <a href="https://youtu.be/f9EphUceBBc">that speech</a> is it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM3ymocc0Chq1Uh6hT6BlT73xFkgFYyDBXHcioy0BZECSZc9MrTdSlj3ErQYTPwSYPQwB_uIXq0VvP-i08iXSAdyC7VcBxcKWptvu2k8Df9dOo5voitNX0ykZMD7jp6e3v46RMm-6y7TfL/s1600/71201448_1254893304682387_278042889819258880_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="960" height="481" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM3ymocc0Chq1Uh6hT6BlT73xFkgFYyDBXHcioy0BZECSZc9MrTdSlj3ErQYTPwSYPQwB_uIXq0VvP-i08iXSAdyC7VcBxcKWptvu2k8Df9dOo5voitNX0ykZMD7jp6e3v46RMm-6y7TfL/s640/71201448_1254893304682387_278042889819258880_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evo Morales @ the UN: "as we say in Bolivia, the only way is unity
before adversity, today we suffer the effects of climate change
throughout the planet, the life of our mother earth is at serious risk."
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3>
Hegemony is all</h3>
<br />
In the second par of their tweet Momentum claim that:<br />
<br />
“[Morales’] programme of renationalising key natural resources whilst drastically reducing poverty rates has led to a period of great stability for millions of Bolivians.”<br />
<br />
‘Stability’ has <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/10/23/headlines/protests_erupt_in_bolivia_over_allegations_of_election_rigging">clearly ended</a> but the ignorant faith in MAS economic policy is another telling example of how waving a red flag ends any scrutiny of the smallprint for much of the left.<br />
<br />
After the referendum issue it was differences in how to grow the economy that also drove down Morales’ vote. The crisis over Bolivia’s fires has driven this to the fore.<br />
<br />
Those fires destroyed 6m hectares, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/18/761591604/bolivia-is-fighting-major-forest-fires-nearly-as-large-as-brazils?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&t=1569274430427">an area as big as Brazil’s</a> fires destroyed, a country eight times as big. They killed seven volunteer firefighters. They were ended by <a href="https://twitter.com/Opinion_Bolivia/status/1179125146738741248">joyfully received</a> rain, not Evo’s actions. The region’s Indigenous organisations (including Ecuador’s, who Western lefties have been happily plugging of late) <a href="https://www.eldia.com.bo/index.php?c=Portada&articulo=Coica-declara-personas--no-gratas--a-Evo-y-Bolsonaro-tras-incendios&cat=1&pla=3&id_articulo=285193&fbclid=IwAR3ABuDp32t7GKsKI5Ph5xGIvIofiFHkjVezP_2u0y7D1-RP9qdQxf5AkBE">blamed both Morales and Bolsonard</a>o, as have <a href="http://drive.google.com/file/d/1lQSf1N">Latin American environmental NGOs</a>. For those who think this is all a Western MSM plot protests about the government’s inaction on the fires by Indigenous Bolivians were <a href="https://twitter.com/Ruptly/status/1184806010755702785">reported by Ruptly</a>. The government's response was objectively pathetic; From making a fetish of not accepting international aid, then accepting it from France, from boosting about a ‘Supertanker’ that had been brought in by a Bolivian pilot called Jose Raul Bolivar Montalvo, not government, through <a href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bolivia-Orders-Worlds-Largest-Air-Tanker-to-Combat-Amazon-Fires-20190822-0002.html">trying to blame</a> the spread of the fires on Brazil, through <a href="https://t.co/KvNGIapygT?amp=1">attacking </a>“corporate greenwashing groups like Extinction Rebellion" who supported protests about the fires, through Bolivian-funded network TeleSUR <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1164897790977347589">running with</a> “Socialism vs Facism: The Amazon fire.”<br />
<br />
Bolivians turned all this <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/josecarlosrobs/status/1164283192897134593">into black comedy</a>: 'How bad do we have to be that we trust more on Leonardo Dicaprio saving us than in our president.'<br />
<br />
Morales’ government has <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-0893-3">passed four laws</a> on forests and land that have <a href="https://paginasiete.bo/sociedad/2019/">mostly benefited</a> big land owners. <a href="https://novaramedia.com/2019/08/26/its-not-just-brazils-forests-that-are-burning-bolivia-is-on-fire-too/">Scientists and ecologists</a> have pinned the blame for the scale of the fires on those four legal changes, particularly a Morales’ degree just before the fires started in August. Pablo Solon, the former Bolivian ambassador to the UN and now a fierce Morales’ critic, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-0893-3">says damningly</a>: “The president gives speeches at international meetings in defence of Pachamama, the Mother Earth revered by the indigenous people of the Andes, while in Bolivia the rights of Mother Earth are violated."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1tN7hGkzrGaIY5urbqnk-Kcn8QM9vuJEEgzhXpEVLjeosTtid-a6VCD-9GGAUDPL37AUVF0zzAT7OAITm04UFxHtJWakBTXF3Sd9kRUYlLBug-J4GIKua0fnDRE9xl2uTz-jhYe-wmt6/s1600/lfplm+corbyn+morales.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="499" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1tN7hGkzrGaIY5urbqnk-Kcn8QM9vuJEEgzhXpEVLjeosTtid-a6VCD-9GGAUDPL37AUVF0zzAT7OAITm04UFxHtJWakBTXF3Sd9kRUYlLBug-J4GIKua0fnDRE9xl2uTz-jhYe-wmt6/s400/lfplm+corbyn+morales.png" width="305" /></a></div>
Despite all the worthy grandiloquence nine years ago, <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/10/20/america/1571598520_735239.html">according to</a> Goldsmith’s political economist Jeffery R. Webber, MAS opted for an "agri-capital-state alliance" that "has consolidated agribusiness capital, both national and foreign, in the soy sector, integrating the rich peasants in a subordinate manner." Activists <a href="https://medium.com/@Human_Rights_Foundation/why-the-world-should-pay-attention-to-bolivias-presidential-election-842437328793">have claimed </a>that Morales also used the opening up of land to agriculture “to move members of his base to electoral districts he might otherwise lose.”<br />
<br />
What is amazing about the left’s unquestioning embrace of Morales is that Vice President García Linera <a href="http://www.eldeber.com.bo/bolivia/saquense-chip-gobierno-dar-golpe.html">said five years ago</a> that the government plan was to massively increase the land farmed by large businesses. To underscore their actual priorities, right at the height of the fires, he and Morales rubbed Bolivians faces in the environmental destruction by <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1168580915011969025">promoting</a> a massive agricultural deal with China.<br />
<br />
García Linera calls this turn to agribusiness “the embrace of the adversary”, citing Gramsci he said that that’s an essential part of maintaining hegemony.<br />
<br />
Corbyn, Momentum and the left in general by unquestioningly supporting Evo Morales are promoting the same policies in Bolivia that they shun in Brazil. And over Bolivia right now they are demonstrating in real time their conditional relationship with democracy.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
NOTES</h3>
The headline is a play on a piece I wrote in August 2015 titled <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/08/corbyn-and-ukraine-its-not-pretty.html">Corbyn and Ukraine: it's not pretty</a>. <br />
<br />
For updates on Bolivia in English follow <a href="https://twitter.com/Action4Bolivia">@Action4Bolivia</a> (Bolivian folks in the UK) and <a href="https://twitter.com/RiosDePie">@RiosDePie</a><a href="https://twitter.com/RiosDePie/status/1186674661590994946"> </a>(Bolivian civil society)<br />
<br />
This is the long version of <a href="https://capx.co/bolivia-democracy-and-corbyn-its-not-pretty/">this piece published with CapX</a>. paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-89137271010996117912019-03-24T16:08:00.000+00:002019-03-25T00:16:13.861+00:00Labour's Kremlin friendly foreign policy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ62uZjjyHsUvaYEg1cO1WQf5K4Mlwgsn9eJxM7yO0uueiDyTDSxTbopavMuNAXFTj6uRUYQMVLb6ZBWzALuyqDEiMsxNQGcaqA-NRUDF_GFz9YNK4-C6h1zFlDm-U86EB9UYlxa00XkUF/s1600/buy+corbyn+get+milne+2015.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Buy Corbyn, get Milne tweet by me 1 Dec 2015" border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="593" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ62uZjjyHsUvaYEg1cO1WQf5K4Mlwgsn9eJxM7yO0uueiDyTDSxTbopavMuNAXFTj6uRUYQMVLb6ZBWzALuyqDEiMsxNQGcaqA-NRUDF_GFz9YNK4-C6h1zFlDm-U86EB9UYlxa00XkUF/s640/buy+corbyn+get+milne+2015.png" title="Buy Corbyn, get Milne tweet by me 1 Dec 2015" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
It was just a line, from remarks in the House of Commons, but it spoke volumes about what a Corbyn foreign policy would look like.<br />
<br />
The Leader of the Opposition, responding to the Prime Minister on a meeting with European leaders about <a href="https://twitter.com/euromaidanpress/status/1066797967103991809?lang=en">the Russian attack on the Ukrainian Navy in November</a>, called for 'both sides to show restraint and de-escalate'. So far so familiar but <a href="https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2018-11-27b.157.0&s=speaker%3A11087#g158.1">as his hapless Shadow Foreign Minister Khalid Mahmood</a> had done earlier – so we know it's not just a typo – Corbyn <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1074763203832373251">went further</a> and attributed the 'both-side'ing to NATO. The defence organisation had said, according to Corbyn, that 'we need both sides to show restraint and de-escalate'.<br />
<br />
Only NATO <a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_160789.htm">had not said this</a>. The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/26/nato-calls-for-calm-after-boats-seized-in-russia-ukraine-clashes-kerch-strait">had lifted the 'both sides' comment by a NATO spokesperson out of contex</a>t. Labour repeated it. Labour hadn't bothered to check or wonder about the lack of strong pushback from the Ukrainians, and others, if NATO had indeed made such a statement. What does it say that not a single person in the chain who would have read Corbyn's speech before it was delivered had any sense that NATO could not possibly have made such a statement?<br />
<br />
The false statement about NATO went unremarked<span class="ILfuVd">, </span>even by Corbyn's Commons adversaries<span class="ILfuVd">, familiar with</span> his previous 'both sides' remarks, or those about Russia being 'provoked' by NATO 'expanding to Russia's borders'<span class="ILfuVd">. Though his opponents may be less familiar with <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/09/corbyns-election-means-ukraines-stuffed.html">Corbyn's theory</a> that </span>Putin invaded Crimea because the Russian 'military-industrial complex' forced him to do it. Or alternately Corbyn's view that the war in Ukraine is about the arms manufacturers who really run NATO <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1034794921180520448">wanting a hi-tech war with Russia</a>.<br />
<br />
What I'm saying is, I can understand why elements of Corbyn's statement about Russia might have flown over people's heads but also why some unkind souls have taken to calling him 'Magic Grandpa'. There are weeds here, some of which I will be clambering through.<br />
<br />
The Prime Minister had told the Commons that the European leaders'
meeting decided to roll over sanctions against Russia. That was
something Corbyn chose not to comment on, despite his <a href="http://www.rt.com/news/186148-eu-adopt-sanctions-russia/">previously stated aversion</a> to sanctions on Russia. Nobody pressed him on that either, though, again, I can see why.<br />
<br />
The thing is, Corbyn 'misspeaking' about NATO is not just another 'gotcha' or 'Corbyn being Corbyn' moment - the way that such incidents are usually viewed. It's yet another example of what is happening in plain sight but isn't, in my view, being understood or examined properly; namely, that Labour is quietly laying out a foreign policy that benefits the Kremlin.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
The Dawn Sturgess problem</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLwm4lcem86ZzbHnpHwwdOoSYhuHwoOF51-RlJfjYzpU-OJBC_RmQVDuiZNb1_Y_5cYuIJ7_pPsOx0H3vGYgGdo9svOeWR8yi7rUaVqBT45zawKuN6Rc1izsyuvqUhr-w-uMzv3p7RQZTF/s1600/Dawn+sturgess1.png" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Dawn Sturgess" border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="534" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLwm4lcem86ZzbHnpHwwdOoSYhuHwoOF51-RlJfjYzpU-OJBC_RmQVDuiZNb1_Y_5cYuIJ7_pPsOx0H3vGYgGdo9svOeWR8yi7rUaVqBT45zawKuN6Rc1izsyuvqUhr-w-uMzv3p7RQZTF/s320/Dawn+sturgess1.png" title="Dawn Sturgess" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Just over a year ago, March 2018, Russia carried out a chemical weapon attack on UK soil, in Salisbury, Wiltshire. The attack was on a former Russian agent but the sole fatality was an English-woman, Dawn Sturgess. Partner Charlie Rowley had picked up a perfume bottle laced with the weapon. He offered it to her and it killed her, something he now has to live with alongside the physical damage done to him and all those who survived, including a policeman.<br />
<br />
Jeremy Corbyn did not explicitly allow that the Kremlin carried out the Salisbury attack until his speech at the October 2018 Labour Party Conference. A few weeks earlier, when the UK government released a damning package of evidence that nailed the Kremlin he <a href="https://twitter.com/patrickwintour/status/978320784505606146">was still hedging his bets</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'There is clear evidence Russia has a case to answer and it has failed
to do so and therefore we can draw no other conclusion that Russia has a
direct or indirect responsibility.' </blockquote>
<div class="AdaptiveMediaOuterContainer">
'Indirect responsibility' means that the weapon used in Salisbury – Novichok – that ended up killing a British citizen, somehow found its way to another actor and Russia was only 'responsible' because they lost the Novichok. Whoops.<br />
<br />
This theory was the same one advanced by Labour Spokesperson Seumas Milne to the Commons Lobby journalists months earlier, right after the Skripals were hospitalised. Its sheer outrageousness led one wire service to break with convention and name Milne. Correctly, in my view, as people have a right to know the context – to know who is saying this. The Shadow Foreign Secretary and Shadow Defence Secretary then went on the 'mainstream media' to pretend that what Milne had just said was meaningless. But then 'Corbyn' repeated the theory in an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/15/salisbury-attack-conflict-britain-cold-war">authored comment piece in The Guardian</a>.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right; width: 300px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHwAJvjeJUyFXpZuh_p05NygFuIzcQKylvq8IYo-baTuVHpGhDuL7yErF6OJLGVgTjYQAxmpcnnMBAsVcCtna1SLOdygkwxauCUpCJ6w1YF07XKRxIJgxLUdSbR9pNId3E9XccCZDeDrf/s1600/10+facts+salisbury+novichok+meme.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHwAJvjeJUyFXpZuh_p05NygFuIzcQKylvq8IYo-baTuVHpGhDuL7yErF6OJLGVgTjYQAxmpcnnMBAsVcCtna1SLOdygkwxauCUpCJ6w1YF07XKRxIJgxLUdSbR9pNId3E9XccCZDeDrf/s400/10+facts+salisbury+novichok+meme.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An <a href="https://twitter.com/toryfibs/status/974611464651755520/">example</a> of the memes about Salisbury which circulated widely on Corbyn supporting social media</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It was one of 29 theories that the Kremlin, Kremlin-controlled media or Russian diplomats put forward. And it was <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/timeline-deny-distort-novichok-russia-changing-stories-poisoning/29113561.html">one of the first theories they advanced</a>, blaming Ukraine as the other actor; then the Czech Republic; Sweden; and finally the UK itself. <br />
<div class="TweetTextSize js-tweet-text tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="0" lang="en">
<br /></div>
</div>
It was always a ludicrous theory with dubious sources. When 28 countries joined the UK in expelling Russian diplomats in April (including neutral Ireland and supposedly pro-Kremlin Hungary) <span class="st">The Economist's defence editor</span><i> </i>Shashank Joshi <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/skripal-weight-evidence">explained</a> the reasons for their certainty:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The UK’s case is built on three other interlocking pieces of evidence. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
First is the use of a military-grade nerve agent, originally
developed by Moscow. That, as the Porton Down chief emphasised, is 'only
within the capabilities of a state actor'. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Second, and beyond Porton Down’s <a href="https://twitter.com/dstlmod/status/981220158680260613" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">remit</a>, is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/18/russia-response-to-ex-spy-poisoning-row-futile-says-boris-johnson" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">evidence</a> based
on secret intelligence that Russia has manufactured and stockpiled
small quantities of Novichok within the past decade, and investigated
its use for assassination. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Third is the assessment, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/7cb3440c-31d2-11e8-b5bf-23cb17fd1498" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">also informed by intelligence</a>,
that Russia has an active program of state-backed assassinations, views
defectors as legitimate targets, and has passed laws to enable such
action. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
All of this constitutes evidence, some of which can be confirmed by
independent third parties, such as the Organisation for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), at the UK’s invitation. (Regrettably, Russia
itself has openly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-chemicalweapons/after-u-n-veto-russia-moves-against-chemical-weapons-watchdog-idUSKBN1DL1UF" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">undermined</a> the OPCW’s work in Syria, and has <a href="https://twitter.com/shashj/status/976807062532390912" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">pre-emptively dismissed</a> its work in Salisbury). Other elements, based on human sources or signals intelligence, cannot. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But the unprecedented international rejoinder to Russia – the largest
collective expulsion of intelligence officers in history – demonstrates
the strength of British claims. EU diplomats <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russia-nation-split-over-world-cup-football-boycott-hg0xwkrmx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">noted</a> that
Britain’s briefings, “including much that is not in the public domain”,
were “extremely convincing” on Russian responsibility. It is <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/salisbury-nerve-agent-attack-spy-intelligence-information-russia-a8276781.html?amp&__twitter_impression=true" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a> that the UK divulged “unprecedented levels of intelligence”.</blockquote>
Labour had been briefed throughout on the progress of the Salisbury investigation. Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott had <a href="https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2018-09-12a.778.1">full security briefings</a>. Prior to those Commons comments in September the Head of MI5 had reportedly offered a personal briefing to Corbyn and Milne, which they refused.<br />
<br />
<div class="stream-item-header">
<div class="ProfileTweet-action ProfileTweet-action--more js-more-ProfileTweet-actions">
<div class="dropdown">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
<div class="TweetTextSize js-tweet-text tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="0" lang="en">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2NCY8gS9XUwZsO8YhMQf_hNCqbayC6aBxTbjmBiPnLc9ZCW0pK75PFu3juZOPl5x51Oa4R96GkbSW4mE2H_WlzloIqsJ-rMCySm8yJ3tOEJGTEGrbRg8PKyUGodV-cjCz9Y9odmT0vV1U/s1600/russian+tourists+deny+salisbury+attack+%2540Pixieribs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="russian tourists deny salisbury attack @Pixieribs" border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="634" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2NCY8gS9XUwZsO8YhMQf_hNCqbayC6aBxTbjmBiPnLc9ZCW0pK75PFu3juZOPl5x51Oa4R96GkbSW4mE2H_WlzloIqsJ-rMCySm8yJ3tOEJGTEGrbRg8PKyUGodV-cjCz9Y9odmT0vV1U/s400/russian+tourists+deny+salisbury+attack+%2540Pixieribs.jpg" title="russian tourists deny salisbury attack @Pixieribs" width="400" /></a></div>
The idea that they 'just waited for the evidence' is a tidy myth. They were too busy putting up other lines of argument, such as Corbyn's demand that Russia <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/jeremy-corbyn-under-fire-for-demanding-russia-get-chance-to-analyse-salisbury-poison-11298023">receive a sample of the substance</a> so Moscow could 'say categorically' if it was behind the attack.<br />
<br />
After that mass expulsion of diplomats in April <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/corbyn-wants-incontrovertible-proof-before-blaming-russia-for-salisbury-attack-11332325">Corbyn said</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'If we are going to make a
very, very clear assertion like that we have got to have the absolute
evidence to do it.'</blockquote>
But they knew well before September that the evidence was in. The reality is that they gave up obfuscating only when <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulaChertok/status/1049724804507398144">it no longer became a defensible position</a> and the whole thing became <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/09/of-course-russians-have-a-sense-of-humour-just-look-at-the-salisbury-tourists/">a massive joke</a>.<br />
<br />
Milne did brief the Lobby last September that it was definitely the Kremlin wot dunnit, but it was obvious to those closely following the process that this was solely because the British state had painted him, Seumas Milne, into a corner. And not for the first time. I've been told that when the Inquiry into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko <a href="https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/seumas-milne-breaks-the-first-rule-of-spin-never-become-the-story/">came out in 2016</a> which effectively blamed Vladimir Putin, Milne had to be talked down from putting out a response which questioned the verdict.</div>
<br />
No, the default position is to defend or make excuses for Russia. And the British people notice. Corbyn's personal ratings markedly dropped in April 2018 and have plummeted since. Some of this is to do with Brexit but <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/corbyn-never-regained-ground-after-botched-handling-of-salisbury-poisoning-fqfzkhx2z">some of it is also Salisbury</a> and Russia's murder of Dawn Sturgess.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.populus.co.uk/insights/2019/01/revealed-the-most-noticed-stories-of-2018/"><img alt="https://www.populus.co.uk/insights/2019/01/revealed-the-most-noticed-stories-of-2018/" border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="721" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlaMrnrlD9nKpwka1RHr4QJq_ijz0LqbE4lYDCypICF5QdfbLh94g7SYBtLt3IJ18xJnAfIjoLtdInHVc46y-K3IoG7id8xH5UF_i-hamCwn2kRS30min2VMxH-gMBV6q1jV2zi0XUgqNr/s400/The+Most+Noticed+News+Stories+of+2018+Populus.png" title="ost noticed news stories 2018, top is Brexit followed by Salisbury" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<h3>
The promoting Russian propaganda problem</h3>
</div>
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDeEUufDLqQajOiCPhyphenhyphen1GiwTWJvw83JgyRckPuEwPbRgf0CDUuunETT1Io0CEuiAdsIGKHyGpXJl6jwKsNAyo7DdbJPHc-qGspfGNfNyU4F9Cdnu7H5g3nyPbhkI5UU2_Y00usw81bqFuJ/s1600/thornberry+russia+today+white+helmets.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt=" RT UK Verified account @RTUKnews 12 Sep 2018 'These are the heroes @EmilyThornberry smeared in @UKParliament today. She's a disgrace' 7 replies 11 retweets 13 likes RT UK Verified account @RTUKnews 11 Sep 2018 .@EmilyThornberry tweeted; "The government must ensure the reports are independently verified and that @UKParliament has given its approval"" border="0" data-original-height="686" data-original-width="582" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDeEUufDLqQajOiCPhyphenhyphen1GiwTWJvw83JgyRckPuEwPbRgf0CDUuunETT1Io0CEuiAdsIGKHyGpXJl6jwKsNAyo7DdbJPHc-qGspfGNfNyU4F9Cdnu7H5g3nyPbhkI5UU2_Y00usw81bqFuJ/s400/thornberry+russia+today+white+helmets.png" title=" RT UK Verified account @RTUKnews 12 Sep 2018 'These are the heroes @EmilyThornberry smeared in @UKParliament today. She's a disgrace' 7 replies 11 retweets 13 likes RT UK Verified account @RTUKnews 11 Sep 2018 .@EmilyThornberry tweeted; "The government must ensure the reports are independently verified and that @UKParliament has given its approval"" width="337" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Emily Thornberry, is not from Corbyn's wing of the Labour Party, but she has every interest in making like she is. The favourite of the bookies to succeed Corbyn, she's made a series of statements, such as this crass one<a href="https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/news/100781/emily-thornberry-says-jeremy-corbyn-was-too-"> about Corbyn and antisemitism</a>, that play to the sensibilities of his most ardent supporters. Among them are a couple I'm going to highlight, which have perhaps coincidentally received an enthusiastic thumbs-up from the Kremlin's disinfo machine. <br />
<br />
Thornberry promoted a conspiracist <a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/448393-chris-williamson-integrity-initiative-rt/">campaign led in the UK by Chris Williamson MP</a>, furthered with the help of people like the <a href="https://usefulstooges.com/tag/max-blumenthal/">notorious Kremlinophile</a> American writer Max Blumenthal, about an organisation called the <a href="https://twitter.com/initintegrity?lang=en">Integrity Initiative</a>.<br />
<br />
Thornberry's claim was that Integrity Initiative was set up to 'attack Corbyn'. It was based on three tweets by the Initiative to its 2000 followers – one of which was only retweeted because I did it. The <a href="https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/the-integrity-initiative-and-me-and-jeremy-corbyn/">claims were ludicrous</a> but they would have pleased the conspiracist wing of Labour headed by Williamson, whose outlets include Novara Media, The Canary & The Sqwawkbox as well as large social media accounts such as Rachael Swindon. Although you could argue that Thornberry's comments in the Commons were normal knockabout politics – that was certainly how the Lobby seemed to receive them, including her nod to countering Russian disinformation – they did not suggest how Labour would do so better than the government. Nor did they – and this is what really showed up the reality of what she was doing – pick up on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/09/free-societies-russia-misinformation-integrity-initiative">many criticisms</a> of the Initiative from those actively engaged in countering Russian disinfo. Instead they played to the crowd.</div>
<br />
The campaign against the Initiative is based on <a href="http://euromaidanpress.com/2019/01/17/russian-attack-on-the-integrity-initiative-what-makes-the-mafia-different-from-the-police/">an obvious attack</a>
by Russia which aims to establish a counter, '<a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=I%27m%20rubber%20you%27re%20glue">I'm rubber you're glue</a>', narrative that it's actually the West that's promoting disinformation. The subject of the attack is an organisation funded by government precisely to counter Russian disinformation. Something which a Labour government would supposedly support, surely?<br />
<br />
Those central to the online promotion of the 'conspiracy' narrative, most of whom are also coincidentally truthers on Syria and on Salisbury, said that their
real objection was <a href="http://syriapropagandamedia.org/working-papers/briefing-note-on-the-integrity-initiative">that Integrity Initiative had</a> 'contributed to narrowing the range of public discourse so as to
marginalize reality-based evaluation of policy options for relations
with Russia and evidence-based assessment of events in which Russian
involvement is alleged.' In other words, 'why isn't <a href="https://medium.com/@Brian_Whit/how-police-photos-of-novichok-suspects-triggered-a-new-conspiracy-theory-2ed8150fec59">Craig Murray</a> on BBC Newsnight!'<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwNBRt-TuOojIj-JPSjqAcklTXj0-ivnNjyTaBrc6nRly2RY1ljYWHt13qaMEi1SFD7tcM4H3_5tNDt94ODe5hcZLoYKANiKfW3ulJI6SHGEHM7eeyfR9Zioj7gCZajIuA5wlHTDxC7zIE/s1600/integrity+initiative+russian+embassy.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="590" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwNBRt-TuOojIj-JPSjqAcklTXj0-ivnNjyTaBrc6nRly2RY1ljYWHt13qaMEi1SFD7tcM4H3_5tNDt94ODe5hcZLoYKANiKfW3ulJI6SHGEHM7eeyfR9Zioj7gCZajIuA5wlHTDxC7zIE/s320/integrity+initiative+russian+embassy.png" width="280" /></a>The 'scandal' has been heavily promoted by Kremlin media and Russian diplomats. It's also circulated by <a href="https://twitter.com/OliverKamm/status/1038029618048114688">people like Craig Murray</a>, who promoted conspiracies about the Salisbury attack. It's still going.** None of this is a coincidence and it speaks volumes about Labour that Thornberry would lend weight to it.<br />
<br />
Example two. Earlier Thornberry promotes another <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/10/16/why-assad-and-russia-target-the-white-helmets/">major Russian propaganda favourite</a>.<br />
<br />
In a statement about Syria to Parliament last September Thornberry
<a href="https://twitter.com/EmilyThornberry/status/1039192457429348354"> said</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'Relying on so-called open-source intelligence provided by
proscribed terrorist groups is not an acceptable alternative.'</blockquote>
Yet it is Syrian rescue workers, medics, human
rights activists, and journalists<span class="ILfuVd"> - not terrorists</span><span class="ILfuVd"> - </span>who have documented Assad regime
atrocities, often at great personal risk. <a href="https://twitter.com/SyriaUK/status/1039179436531351552">As Syria Solidarity UK</a> pointed out.:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Today Labour’s Shadow Foreign
Secretary <a href="https://twitter.com/EmilyThornberry">@EmilyThornberry</a> smeared them all as terrorists: “so-called open source intelligence provided by proscribed terrorist groups”</blockquote>
Among those smeared by Thornberry were the same <a href="http://syriacivildefense.org/">White Helmets</a> Syrian rescue workers who had been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/12/jo-cox-white-helmets-peace-prize-coventry">championed</a> by the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/987030853413953538" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="@JuliaDavisNews Not earth-shattering to most, but today’s #Russia state TV program 60 Minutes discussed info-wars in decent detail, incl convincing influencers, celebrities & Western populace of Russia’s talking points, ultimately leading to election of politicians w/ views beneficial to Russia." border="0" data-original-height="673" data-original-width="597" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZg2Hw3T-3m4Km8vUT7OIo6sv7l0agZfTZ8y-8Tt1fBoSgtmVVdzfeTU1EbMOUgEPww7MsplYNbROzulvX9a3y-uhx-TDYfwnzyJ3ylF597HVLUeYsNXVrYqgHdAblJubgYbYhIFjzkyL/s320/julia+davis+russia+state+tv.png" title="@JuliaDavisNews Not earth-shattering to most, but today’s #Russia state TV program 60 Minutes discussed info-wars in decent detail, incl convincing influencers, celebrities & Western populace of Russia’s talking points, ultimately leading to election of politicians w/ views beneficial to Russia." width="283" /></a>Bellingcat, the widely respected organisation who are most famous for using open source intelligence to <a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/09/14/skripal-poisoning-suspects-passport-data-shows-link-security-services/comment-page-12/">name the Russian FSB attackers</a> of Salisbury, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/25/google-maps-is-a-better-spy-than-james-bond/">offered to show Thornberry</a> why 'it is one of the
most powerful tools we have for investigating conflicts and abuses of
power.' They didn't get a response.<br />
<br />
As the writer <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/world/middle-east/2018/09/kremlin-has-weaponised-doubt-syria-and-labour-helping">Oz Katerji explained</a>: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'Thornberry’s statement sends the message that our eyes and our ears are
not to be trusted. That witnesses are not to be trusted. Putin’s
propaganda has succeeded beyond expectations, to the extent that the
shadow foreign secretary is putting out an official statement stating
that the NGOs, medics, journalists, and human rights activists
responsible for documenting the vast majority of open-source evidence
are terrorists and are not to be trusted <span class="st">…</span>The Kremlin has weaponised doubt, and by doing so it dehumanises the
victims by treating them with contempt and suspicion, and it leads to
the paralyses of any political, diplomatic or military response to the
crisis <span class="st">…</span> Labour’s foreign policy has a deep and troubling Russian propaganda problem.'</blockquote>
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt reportedly <a href="https://twitter.com/louiseelisabet/status/1077142652427137024">had to spell out to Donald Trump</a> that in Syria it's the White Helmets that are the good guys, as 45 had 'heard otherwise'. In other words, the massive Russian infowar attack on Syrian civil rescuers had reached Trump. What do you think Emily Thornberry would have told 45 in this scenario?<br />
<br />
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
<br />
<h3>
The Milne and Murray problem</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/seumas-milne-labour-spin-doctor-jeremy-corbyn"><img alt="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/seumas-milne-labour-spin-doctor-jeremy-corbyn" border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="796" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZb9qiNHZqRFEnBY2CiBv3TJN6wxLvKL3DkOLpWE8GO-pVxq7FqQiFNsHHo0wbjaOU0a5rkd4FuybGAx-9RodzlhsrZ6rdrhLlktrdyrSxJoos2UF2MQTc1bBiIOg3HjO0WWsS2LavG14/s400/milne+cartoon.png" title="Has Jeremy Corbyn's spin doctor Seumas Milne gone rogue? Alex Wickham" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Acres of <a href="https://leftfootforward.org/2015/03/projecting-the-kremlin-line/">words </a><a href="https://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/stalinist-seumass-failed-attempt-to-take-on-conquest/">have</a> <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/media/2015/10/i-wanted-believe-jeremy-corbyn-i-cant-believe-seumas-milne">been</a> <a href="http://brockley.blogspot.com/2015/10/three-reasons-why-milnes-appointment.html">printed about</a> <a href="https://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/seumas-milne-enemy-of-the-north-african-left-and-secularists/">Seumas Milne</a>, yet still no audio of his alleged "comedy Arabic accent" :(<br />
<br />
I don't intend to add to all that save to point out <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/12/deselect-stop-war-coalition.html">one nugget</a>, from winter 2015, missed at the time, which I think captures what we've known – oh boy have we known – since the very beginning. Namely that electing Corbyn, followed by Milne's subsequent appointment as Labour's Executive Director of Strategy and Communications, meant that the <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/search/label/stop%20the%20war%20coalition">Stop The War Coalition</a> (STWC) and their cheerleaders were now running the Labour Party, particularly its foreign policy.<br />
<br />
Back then folks were busy establishing what's since become a <a href="https://twitter.com/timescorbyn">veritable cottage industry</a> of ploughing through the rich seam of history, recent and ancient, by, about or linked to Corbyn. Some of them <a href="https://therealstopthewar.wordpress.com/">went through the STWC archives</a>. They found pieces such as an opus by Matt Carr which <a href="https://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2015/12/05/jihadist-movement-has-spirit-of-internationalism-of-international-brigades-says-stop-the-war-coalition-stalwart/#comment-30671">compared the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War to ISIS</a>. Panic ensued, the gentlefolk of STWC were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/06/jeremy-corbyn-urged-to-pull-out-of-stop-the-war-christmas-fundraiser">papped at the 2015 Xmas do</a> and website cleansing followed (first of STWC's then of Corbyn's own website). <br />
<br />
Here's <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/12/deselect-stop-war-coalition.html">what I wrote</a> at the time:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
An anonymous spokesperson for the Labour Party was quoted in several media articles<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/06/corbyn-stop-the-war-fundraiser"> saying that </a>the
piece "had been taken down because it did not reflect the
organisation’s [STWC] views." That person then went on to defend STWC
and claim that during the group's existence they had "repeatedly called
it right."<br />
<br />
Paul Waugh <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/12/06/jeremy-corbyn-will-attend_n_8732814.html">quoted a source</a>,
not named as such but presumably the same Labour one, saying about the
Carr post: "This is the second time this has happened, it won't be
happening again." (The 'first' time was their also taken down response
to the Paris attacks that the French were “reaping the whirlwind of
western support for extremist violence.”)<br />
<br />
How the heck would that Labour source know that? STWC is not an
affiliate of the party, by what possible method could the party enforce
its will and hence make that promise?</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNZkCB9JUIAgTkQvGg_axCKT6-oyPN93D1Ol8csuSJkdY8aDoDaarDlkqYLrLn6JzBpduUIYT9emjG0cmHzw4TpEtqor7cRUJ6lD9N2hOIywNZ8Xd4AuRFL7SC-RgZjc7MOStXYK0v_4A/s1600/seumas+milne+demonisation+russia.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="seumas milne demonisation russia" border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="932" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNZkCB9JUIAgTkQvGg_axCKT6-oyPN93D1Ol8csuSJkdY8aDoDaarDlkqYLrLn6JzBpduUIYT9emjG0cmHzw4TpEtqor7cRUJ6lD9N2hOIywNZ8Xd4AuRFL7SC-RgZjc7MOStXYK0v_4A/s320/seumas+milne+demonisation+russia.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a>Just before those frantic website deletions and promise making about what STWC would do Milne, a prominent
ally of STWC working for a party leader who used to chair STWC, had <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/11/have-stop-war-coalition-finally-jumped.html">contradicted a statement</a> by then Labour Foreign Affairs Shadow Minister Catherine West about Labour consulting with Syrians (meaning British-Syrians opposed to Assad).<br />
<br />
Milne said that yes, of course we will be consulting outside the party about Syria - <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11971750/Former-minister-threatens-to-quit-Labour-over-plan-to-consult-Stop-The-War-on-Syria-bombing.html">with the STWC</a>.</div>
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
</div>
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_-QWDbexKbj0HJiF79TXr9jP1XCOrdBALv6u6Oz1HLuZI-mrMufBnQeM27RGsPudt_nqfR_yR-Qt0iu2sQI9uX9LCJmiK4M-7ymRoN4hFQ0hId26YNZMS_38NnDrVvGK22goJkS9tgB7/s1600/milne+guardian+russia+opinion.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="722" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_-QWDbexKbj0HJiF79TXr9jP1XCOrdBALv6u6Oz1HLuZI-mrMufBnQeM27RGsPudt_nqfR_yR-Qt0iu2sQI9uX9LCJmiK4M-7ymRoN4hFQ0hId26YNZMS_38NnDrVvGK22goJkS9tgB7/s320/milne+guardian+russia+opinion.png" width="320" /></a></div>
A year after bigging up STWC, in October 2016, as public concern about the plight of civilians in Syria mounted, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jeremy-corbyn-russia-syria-us-atrocities-diverts-attention_uk_57fe2e9fe4b08e08b93d5f5e">Milne declared</a> that “the focus on Russian atrocities or Syrian army atrocities I think
sometimes diverts attention from other atrocities that are taking
place.” That's typical arch sophist Milne as its technically true but that's not why he said it, especially not when he said it. He was deflecting attention from Russia. Again.<br />
<br />
<div class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--jumbo js-tweet-text tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="0" lang="en">
To quote the wonderful <a href="https://twitter.com/DarthPutinKGB">@DarthPutinKGB</a>:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, denies it’s a duck, demands you prove it's a duck, accuses you of being a duck, says your dog is a duck, that your friend's cat is a duck and that all 3 aforementioned 'ducks' are Russophobic ducks, it’s a Kremlin duck </blockquote>
My main point though is about another aspect to the in-plain-sight nature of what's going on, with both Milne and Andrew Murray and others.<br />
<br />
Let's look at Murray, who was <a href="https://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2018/11/01/andrew-murray-defining-labours-brexit-strategy/">once defended</a> with claims that he was a marginal figure. Remember that?<br />
<br />
In 2014, with a promotional assist from STWC, he established a group called
Solidarity with the Anti-fascist Resistance in Ukraine (SARU). SARU supported the so-called 'People's Republics' in Eastern Ukraine, where open <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-fascists-in-russias-hybrid-army.html">fascists operated unmolested</a>, homosexuality was at that time illegal, <a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/german-tv-report-russian-separatists-use-child-soldiers-in-front-line-combat-401845.html">child soldiers were deployed</a> and <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/donbas-can-starve-say-rebel-leaders.html">aid agencies banned</a> for ideological reasons. Whatayaknow but the 'antifascist' communist
nirvanas sold by Murray turned out to be totally,
provably <a href="http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/ten-things-you-should-know-about-russian-involvement-in-ukraine">controlled by Russia</a>.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right; width: 200px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d7eedMXYccs/VflvQcuvwKI/AAAAAAAAJAM/Sb9oNHxcNZA/s640/odesa2.jpg" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Euromaidan activists helping rescue people from fire at Trade Union House in Odessa, May 2 2014. Pic <a href="http://vasaphotography.com/">vasaphotography.com</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Murray promoted the '<a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2016/01/ukraine-please-kill-odessa-massacre.html">Odessa Massacre</a>' conspiracism, essentially that Ukrainian Eurofascists had murdered 44 people and the BBC won't tell you about it, over which Russia ran <a href="http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1415072123">a massive international disinformation campaign</a>. They toured an exhibition about it around the EU. He put the Kremlin's then prime propaganda theme on <a href="https://therealstopthewar.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/stop-the-war-and-kids-who-go-to-war/">the cover of his book</a>. And he <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6f9e78fa-b674-11e8-b3ef-799c8613f4a1">defended Moscow</a> from accusations that they were responsible for shooting down the Malaysian airliner MH17 over his 'People's Republics'. Murray's little group went on to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160915021902/http://num.org.uk/page/News-NUMNews/moreinfo/2315">smear the National Union of Mineworkers</a> (yes, that NUM, this actually happened) as being 'pro-fascist' because of their solidarity work with their mining comrades in Ukraine. <br />
<br />
Not only was Murray busy promoting Russian talking points he also <a href="https://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/borotba-and-its-cheer-leaders-putins-useful-idiots/">promoted</a>, despite <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140605182350/http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/blogs/searchlight-blog/warning-to-anti-fascists-invited-to-meeting-at-soas">warnings</a> from the small Ukrainian left and some British lefties, a supposed Ukrainian leftist group called <a href="https://ukraineantifascistsolidarity.wordpress.com/tag/borotba/">Borotba</a>. The Morning Star <a href="http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-b50b-Anti-fascist-activist-released-after-kidnap-by-Ukrainian-secret-services#.WF15KLtijwo">hailed them</a> as part of the “left-wing forces” fighting back against “the neo-Nazi juggernaut” and the “fascist-coup-installed President Poroshenko”. Whatayaknow but Borotba <a href="https://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/borotba-and-its-cheer-leaders-putins-useful-idiots/">turned out to be fake communists</a> working for Vladislav Surkov, aka the '<span class="st"><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/68fa5a86-4f3c-35b1-87b1-b6cf684842b6">gray cardinal</a>', aka </span>'Putin’s Rasputin', as Peter Pomerantsev <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n20/peter-pomerantsev/putins-rasputin">called him</a>.<br />
<br />
A fake left party set up specifically to fool the rubes, and it worked.<br />
<br />
Then there was the time he defended a <a href="https://piraniarchive.wordpress.com/investigations-campaigns-and-other-stuff/stop-calling-warmongers-anti-war-activists/">far-right, Kremlin funded academic called Boris Kagarlitsky</a> who STWC had given a platform to. Because he told them things they wanted to hear. In 2016 this man who Murray had <a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/united-kingdom/2227-how-a-sycophantic-media-ignored-the-hypocrisy-of-david-camerons-qa-better-africaq-tour">called a "Russian socialist</a>" <a href="http://archive.is/2016.10.21-153853/http://platypus1917.org/2016/07/11/afraid-donald-trump/">backed Donald Trump</a>.</div>
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
<br />
Then there's this tweet by Andrew Murray to <a href="https://russia-insider.com/en/roman-nosikov">Roman Noviskov</a>, one of the former leaders of the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) in occupied Ukraine. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCqIVOnqY9KGL-HBBJbeA2h3mc_33UJz91Po73fc5vnE0xW2ghaABevll6Dx6KszQd6fSKLS6ah4O71cn4Q3oPPWP5NVS1Zas106Na2dXBb5uF7M0OL-9LFJsaxCZ5Vl20ZhB80StHXo7I/s1600/Andrew+murray+dnr1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="675" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCqIVOnqY9KGL-HBBJbeA2h3mc_33UJz91Po73fc5vnE0xW2ghaABevll6Dx6KszQd6fSKLS6ah4O71cn4Q3oPPWP5NVS1Zas106Na2dXBb5uF7M0OL-9LFJsaxCZ5Vl20ZhB80StHXo7I/s320/Andrew+murray+dnr1.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
Murray has deleted his tweet.<br />
<br />
Siri, define 'useful idiot'. <br />
<br />
Remember <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180225023107/http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/plain-sight-kremlin%E2%80%99s-london-lobby">Conservative Friends of Russia</a>?
It was a Russian influence operation a decade ago targeting the Tory
Party that was exposed by reporting that led to the lobby group being
closed down. George Osborne's involvement almost ended up losing him his job.<br />
<br />
Russian influence operations in the UK are not just aimed at Tories. Obviously. Why would they be? From their perspective Corbyn could conceivably be in Number 10. Labour is currently providing Russia with rich potential ground in which to work. Of course it is. Murray and Milne demonstrably bring their milkshake to the yard whenever Moscow plays its music. There are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/11/17/the-european-parties-accused-of-being-influenced-by-russia/?">numerous examples</a> of <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2018/05/23/russian-election-interference-europe-s-counter-to-fake-news-and-cyber-attacks-pub-76435">how Russia's done it elsewhere</a>, how it's got the left to do its bidding, and never mind that - cough - recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/17/why-isnt-there-greater-outrage-about-russian-involvement-in-brexit">example closer to home</a>. The idea that the UK Labour Party is somehow exempt is fanciful.<br />
<br />
Corbyn told a Czechoslovakian 'diplomat' that he'd happily point out those in his circle who might be talking to MI5. Allegedly.<br />
<br />
I know how even raising this 'rich potential ground', that a Kremlin friendly Labour foreign policy might be of active interest to the Kremlin, plays out. After all we live in a world where supposed Israeli influence on the UK Labour party is a thing and pretty damn likely Russian influence isn't even spoken of.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
The Nicaragua and Venezuela problem</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Great piece on where the 2019 revolution was born, the w/class barrio of San José de Cotiza in Caracas, home to the families of National Guard soldiers who rebelled on Monday, followed by their neighbours, followed by other barrios.<a href="https://t.co/ZRXd7zhwHq">https://t.co/ZRXd7zhwHq</a> <a href="https://t.co/bK8ezFEiaU">pic.twitter.com/bK8ezFEiaU</a></div>
— Paul Canning (@pauloCanning) <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1088448734915059717?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
<div class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--jumbo js-tweet-text tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="4" lang="en">
Venezuela and Nicaragua is not so much about Russia, though what Labour says or rather does not say about those two countries, whatayaknow, alarmingly echoes Russia. It's more about what I wrote about in 2017, '<a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/what-venezuela-says-about-labour-party-foreign-policy/">what Venezuela tells us about Labour Party foreign policy</a>', a piece that somehow managed to induce a word salad response from the London Venezuelan Embassy. That actually happened.<br />
<br />
I explained how Labour was charting a policy course independent of what Latin American social democrats, Labour's supposed sister parties, were saying. For example how the <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2017/08/venezuela-in-every-way-terrible-week.html">statement put out </a> in August 2017 by Shadow Foreign Minister Liz McInnes, presumably Milne's handiwork, did not question the legitimacy of Maduro's new replacement Constituent Assembly for Venezuela's opposition controlled Parliament, the National Assembly. A very basic division between Labour and social democrats, globally. This point was different to what, especially in August 2017, both the media and Corbyn's opponents were <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v7LHgxvCnY">banging on about</a>. They didn't examine Labour's official statements or what they said in Parliament, or even call for Corbyn to do something like <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/989162185283825665">ask Maduro to admit humanitarian aid</a>,. They just wanted Corbyn to say 'I woz wrong'. They collectively missed what was actually happening.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LalUv-i-u-K5CQXCgHw5H7B2f8oCQX2LYMQPQZ9xjf-0Yf4dHfQqB2hJGEYeIJg577nXUc1obhJPqgUNBo-x0PBwWuXmD70SaGHPnJSdIJeqer6UTr0J2hsR8CmlRHi8ZbUHGOJwZEBB/s1600/thornberry+arreaza2.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LalUv-i-u-K5CQXCgHw5H7B2f8oCQX2LYMQPQZ9xjf-0Yf4dHfQqB2hJGEYeIJg577nXUc1obhJPqgUNBo-x0PBwWuXmD70SaGHPnJSdIJeqer6UTr0J2hsR8CmlRHi8ZbUHGOJwZEBB/s320/thornberry+arreaza2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thornberry with Arreaza (centre)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Right after that, in November, Emily Thornberry had a meeting with the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza. She didn't promote it. Interesting choice. I only found out because Chavista accounts in Venezuela were tweeting it.<br />
<br />
Last month disputatious barrister Thornberry <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1091304261202468865">told Parliament</a> that the real issue on Venezuela was Tory hypocrisy over Honduras. What she did not say in Parliament, nor in <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1093124314717667329">a speech in Belfast</a>, was more important. She did not say that Labour supported <a href="https://www.wola.org/analysis/international-contact-group-venezuela-can-advance-path-crisis/">the EU initiative on Venezuela</a> created with the support of Latin American countries including Uruguay and Ecuador (both run by socialists). This aims to create the conditions for truly free and fair elections, it is not about false 'dialogue'. Thornberry, echoing the Morning Star and the letter to The Guardian signed by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and Shadow Home Secretary DianeAbbott, nevertheless called for 'dialogue', presumably conjured up by the new hope, Mexico's AMLO. Only there has been nothing from any efforts by Mexico, or Bolivia for that matter. Zip, nada. Raising it is chaff based on no realistic, expert assessment of the situation. It is what the international Maduro defence team, Russia playing in right, do: talk meaningless words about 'dialogue'. Failing to even mention the EU on Venezuela is not just an error, it's a major policy alignment.<br />
<br />
Thornberry's Deputy Liz McInnes <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1093576573851262977">followed this up</a> with a speech to Parliament repeating Emily's main themes, minus Honduras but plus de Zayas.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://twitter.com/Corbynator2/status/1089934063400599552" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The Venezuelan economy has been cripped by US sanctions, and the UN rapporteur said that UN sanctions are illegal and could amount to a war crime any intervention from the US could precipitate a civil war & lead to a humanitarian catastrophe @DerbyChrisW" border="0" data-original-height="819" data-original-width="541" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv37VkVKB_pgVK10Y1nBw9dWDJqdSmG3swj6mKBuCEADVTCoDw2h1vO-xxldYT1uWlCwMMajcU5tIDZ2zcpYwZY4WlGaLqwftaJcJaP_zwwD3jbOO3IMl5WG6RwvuIzTEYS457KtwNBAYz/s320/corbynater+williamson+venezuela.png" title="The Venezuelan economy has been cripped by US sanctions, and the UN rapporteur said that UN sanctions are illegal and could amount to a war crime any intervention from the US could precipitate a civil war & lead to a humanitarian catastrophe @DerbyChrisW" width="211" /></a></div>
de Zayas is the former UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order. McInnes told the Commons that this 'UN expert' had called sanctions on Venezuela a 'war crime', a statement which drew an audible response. de Zayas and his 'war crimes' claim is <a href="https://twitter.com/DerbyChrisW/status/1099198866019270657">a major theme</a> of Chris Williamson's routine, whose Commons outing on Venezuela featuring de Zayas has been heavily promoted by Corbynite social media in marked contrast to Thornberry's effort in the very same Parliamentary session. Williamson appeared on TV numerous times <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1092090703612727298">spouting falsehoods</a> about Venezuela. He's off the TV now because the party finally rebuked him, which kinda goes to show that they could have told him to stop earlier but chose not to.<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2018/02/23/ideological-blindness-un-expert-triumph-venezuelan-state-propaganda/">visit by 'UN expert' de Zayas to Caracas</a>, on the basis on which he made his 'war crime' pronouncement, was the only one until this month that the Maduro regime had let in. Funny, that. de Zayas never visited any hospitals and instead put pictures, later deleted, on social media supposedly showing plenty, decrying the 'MSM narrative' of famine, and then held a press conference with the regime.<br />
<br />
Contrast that with <a href="https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2019/03/20/michelle-bachelet-offers-strongly-worded-update-on-venezuela/">what's happening now</a> to the technical mission sent by the UN High Commissioner for human rights, former socialist Chilean President Michele Bachelet:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This
statement comes as the technical mission sent by the High Commissioner
continues its work in the country since earlier this month, which has
been marked by official efforts to limit access and cosmetically
minimizing the problems, like the <a href="https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2019/03/19/how-the-maduro-regime-hides-the-collapse-of-healthcare-from-a-un-mission/">case </a>of their visit to the Barquisimeto’s main hospital. <br />
<br />
Bachelet
addressed this issue right from the start: “It’s important that the
team have completely unhindered access, with no reprisals against any
person who has met, or sought to meet, with them.“</blockquote>
de Zayas is a Holocaust denier and <a href="https://twitter.com/SoellerPower/status/1108421617800151040">is a 'huge fan' of the German far-right party the AfD</a>. He's reportedly worn<a href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1712/S00023/un-rights-official-in-blackface-is-racist-offensive.htm"> blackface</a>. He's currently saying that Venezuela's electricity blackouts are because of the gringos.<br />
<br />
He's also being mentioned in a Parliamentary statement by the Labour Party. <br />
<br />
Back in December Corbyn went to AMLO's inauguration in Mexico City and <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1068597194159206403">he was in heaven</a>. He gave an interview, published <a href="https://www.jornada.com.mx/2018/11/06/corbyn.html">by a left-wing Mexican newspaper</a>, to someone I'm familiar with from Twitter interactions, Matt Kennard, someone whose TL is full of Charles Shoebridge, Craig Murray, Assange, and Greenwald.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkvq0YlJDV2CE5LclxZs7dVLb9m9QLQtWkKHniBOSFhlFuMRq2itW2MU0o3j0VWK7tEQLu9bj7WtZJTd6rEf5V1d4_kYY8FyDJL1F64sTTsx0QaRWKO9bh6HFqofhKU57vs7rx5p6GHrdb/s1600/morales+corbyn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkvq0YlJDV2CE5LclxZs7dVLb9m9QLQtWkKHniBOSFhlFuMRq2itW2MU0o3j0VWK7tEQLu9bj7WtZJTd6rEf5V1d4_kYY8FyDJL1F64sTTsx0QaRWKO9bh6HFqofhKU57vs7rx5p6GHrdb/s320/morales+corbyn.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Corbyn and Milne meet Evo Morales</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A couple of things from the interview. There's no mention of Venezuela, this is pre-Guaido, when the <a href="https://historyjack.com/2017/01/03/starvation-and-silence-the-british-left-and-moral-accountability-for-venezuela/">Chavez supporting left's omerta</a> still held, but much praise for President Evo Morales of Bolivia, who both Corbyn and Milne met with in Mexico - <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1072602458629791746">here's a picture</a> of Milne filming the encounter. </div>
</div>
<br />
Morales has never been touted by the Western left in the way that Chavez was, possibly because his 'socialism' was way <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/01/05/as-socialist-venezuela-collapses-socialist-bolivia-thrives-heres-why/?utm_term=.401b31104659">too 'neoliberal'</a>. It's always amused me how lefties grasping to defend Bolivarian socialism almost never mention Bolivia.<br />
<br />
But Morales has taken <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/world/americas/bolivia-evo-reelection.html">a distinct turn against democracy</a> in order to extend his rule. This appears not to bother Corbyn. Not in the slightest.<br />
<br />
Somewhere else which Corbyn failed to mention to Kennard is Nicaragua. The country which Corbyn <a href="https://twitter.com/Hilarita_F/status/1061901585347952640">spoke about in the UK Parliament 210 times</a> and has had not much to say about of late. One of the reasons for the rebellion in Nicaragua that started last April was austerity measures. Pensioners protested and pensioners got beaten for protesting. Then the people marched with the pensioners. Remember that when you hear people on the left talking about 'regime change'. People like Shadow Minister <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1057583802447466496">Dan Carden</a>.<br />
<br />
But <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1069235241733238786">mostly</a> there's the silence. A couple of times I've heard Thornberry speak in Parliament and had occasion to yell 'but what about Nicaragua?!' as it somehow fails to elicit a mention in her roll call of countries of concern. Again.<br />
<br />
This is policy happening here, in plain sight. How would a Corbyn government <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article217669085.html">vote in the UN</a> on Nicaragua? Alongside Russia?<br />
<br />
We can make an informed guess because of the detail both of what's said and what isn't said. What's done and, as Chris Leslie MP <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2019-02-07/debates/4760F00D-51D9-41DA-8515-8B3A498C9106/Venezuela#contribution-3394283A-A785-4A99-922D-0F72DA5B6BEC">said in Parliament,</a> what's not done:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What can we do to influence and put pressure on the regime? Can we get
the Russian Administration to do more, or the Chinese or the Cubans? Are
there individuals who have a close relationship with Maduro, perhaps
even the leader of the Labour party, who could at this stage pick up the
telephone and implore him—beg him—to stop this appalling approach and
to leave government immediately?</blockquote>
Francisco Toro <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/22/time-left-join-michelle-bachelet-condemning-venezuelas-abuses/?utm_term=.7cf5205d3ebb&noredirect=on">makes much the same point</a> about the power of criticism of Maduro coming from the left, citing this weeks' denunciation of Maduro by Michele Bachelet.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When criticism comes from the left, though, it’s different. It’s far
harder for the regime to deny and obfuscate the words of Bachelet than
those of Mike Pompeo. When someone with the democratic and leftist
credentials of Bachelet speaks up against the now obvious human rights
disaster unfolding in Venezuela, it matters. It matters to the regime, which is no longer able to hide behind generic allegations of a far-right conspiracy against it.</blockquote>
What this silence, absent issues and apparent alignment amounts to is policy, a distinct policy which places Labour alongside the remains of Podemos, Mélenchon and Syriza. Not alongside its <a href="https://en.mercopress.com/2019/01/30/venezuela-socialist-international-recognizes-guaido-and-calls-maduro-illegitimate">sister social democrat parties</a> in Spain or Portugal, or actually those in Venezuela itself for that matter. A clear signal that Labour in power would not be <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/jeremy-corbyn-mainstream-scandinavian-social-democrat/">Scandi</a> but would be far more aligned to Chris Williamson than whatever waffle it might write in any manifesto.</div>
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DniF1lPXoAAkj3o.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
Here's <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/the-londoner-jeremy-corbyn-freezes-out-emily-thornberry-a4064426.html">a chaser</a> on Thornberry's rote remarks about Maduro and human rights. Don't laugh.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A senior [Labour] source believes Thornberry <span class="st">…</span> is not seen as a “team
player” and this was “exacerbated” by her comments on Venezuela. </blockquote>
And a footnote. <a href="https://venezuelablog.org/peaceful-democratic-solution-venezuelas-crisis-requires-fact-based-analysis-advocacy-response-open-letter-wola/">This rebuttal</a> of criticism from the <a href="https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign">Hands Off Venezuela!</a> crowd, who Labour are apparently on the side of, by the widely respected progressive organisation the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) is excellent.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We believe that flattening out Venezuela’s complex reality and
instrumentalizing it as a chess piece in a political struggle against
the Trump administration risks dehumanizing Venezuelans and
desensitizing everyone to their situation.</blockquote>
<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
Buy Corbyn, get Milne</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4xWRk_si4_8zSyDWvFgB8dz2lZVmUvpSj_FVigiFlBrkx49X_jAfCDHQR05USJ8KY2Q8MGGfdX5BowDvKmykOKTSduuZ5uzpx9VkKkyag3CXDU2GACyDJqydsJauA8kV7vT8LKocqkLPG/s1600/%2540carlgardner+brexit+march.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Putin heart Brexit" border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4xWRk_si4_8zSyDWvFgB8dz2lZVmUvpSj_FVigiFlBrkx49X_jAfCDHQR05USJ8KY2Q8MGGfdX5BowDvKmykOKTSduuZ5uzpx9VkKkyag3CXDU2GACyDJqydsJauA8kV7vT8LKocqkLPG/s400/%2540carlgardner+brexit+march.jpg" title="Putin heart Brexit" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pic from 23 March People's Vote March by <a href="https://twitter.com/carlgardner/status/1109524582799732736">Carl Gardner</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
There's a reason why I haven't put a question mark after my title for this post. Because it's a statement of fact. I've not gone into Brexit and <a href="https://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2017/01/10/we-may-never-find-out-what-corbyn-s-position-on-brexit-is">Labour's chimeric</a>, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3614553/Criticism-Putin-censored-Corbyn-aide-Seumas-Milne-blocks-anti-Russia-briefing-note-Labour-MPs.html">Lexiteering, don't mention Russia behaviour</a>. Nor how Thornberry <a href="http://www.syriauk.org/2017/12/call-to-clarify-labours-position-on.html">somehow managed</a> to promote Russia's Syria 'peace initiative' over the UN's before the Russians did. Nor the role of <a href="https://euvsdisinfo.eu/antisemitism-and-pro-kremlin-propaganda/">Russia in promoting antisemitism</a>. Nor how the Corbyn team almost signed a Kremlin fan who makes George Galloway look tame but were scared off after pix surfaced of him repeatedly meeting Corbyn. I'm well aware I'm scraping the surface.<br />
<br />
For some, such as those of us on the <a href="https://twitter.com/paulmasonnews/status/1108460589398016000">cheese and biscuit circuit</a>, none of what I've written would come as much of a surprise. <span id="docs-internal-guid-fbff3313-258b-1806-96b8-2f32d00b3640">Heck, Chris Bryant reportedly <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/03/jeremy-corbyns-russia-stance-has-reopened-labours-wounds">once refused</a> to become Shadow Defence Secretary over Corbyn’s stance on Russia.</span> Remember that? People are well aware and working inside, folks! Don't panic! Milne's just one person!<br />
<br />
When I raised issues with Corbyn and Ukraine in 2015 I got told not to worry, that McDonnell would sort it out. True story. This seems to be what many Corbynites still think about Labour foreign policy, it'll get sorted. But here's the thing, I just saw <a href="https://unherd.com/2019/03/the-dark-side-of-socialism/?=sideshare">James Bloodworth refer</a> to Labour having "a tepid social democratic agenda (see Labour’s 2017 manifesto)." Now I'm Twitter mates with James (for now) but I think him typing that is reflective of how much of what I call Tweetminster thinks, that Labour policy is actually pretty milquetoast. That the Russian stuff is just joke-worthy.<br />
<br />
A few months back <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/andrew-murray-banned-from-entering-ukraine-has-long-sympathized-with-kremlin.html">Ukraine announced</a> that they would deny Andrew Murray a visa. They so had cause but on the BBC veteran comedy show Mock The Week the joke which channeled the zeitgeist was the fact that Murray had never visited Ukraine but they'd banned him! The joke was on Ukraine, not Labour. This followed all those jokes about Corbyn and the Czech spy and some stuff about a hat. <br />
<br />
It suits some people to keep it as a joke and there seems to be an extreme reluctance to call a cigar/duck a cigar/duck.<br />
<br />
But people putting 'Labour' into their trolley surely have a right to know they are buying a Kremlin duck. And do they?<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right; width: 200px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DniF1lPXoAAkj3o.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="800" height="217" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DniF1lPXoAAkj3o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Multiply and ochestrate this sort of thing times many thousands across social media once Labour's in actual power.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
To all those now about to tweet 'but austerity', the people now running Labour have spent most of their lives focused on foreign policy. Especially those like Milne and Murray, who I know are widely despised on the left. Think on. I've joked about this but I can easily picture a very happy Milne swanning around the UN Security Council happily wielding his new power. I can also picture the effect of the alt-left and Corbynite social media policing a Corbyn led government's foreign policy. And I can also picture, in the shadows, the Kremlin itself, working away.<br />
<br />
One of the first things any possible Corbyn government would do, from the evidence of the last four years, is realign the UK. Think of the Security Council votes on Venezuela or Crimea. Think of how our allies would react. Would people be voting for that? My sense is that the combined effect of Milne's sophistry and MSM bleurgh and opponents incompetence would make people think, if they thought anything, that they're voting for 'no more wars', not voting for being in Putin's pocket. Very quickly, an actual Corbyn government under the spotlight would be dominated by foreign policy. It just would. And some would love it. Surely all the Lexiteering has alerted people that maybe there are other priorities than austerity for some people? You'd think.</div>
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
<br />
And I can practically hear the critics already, who will huff about All Those Times <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/973286324441624577">bad things were said</a>
from the top of the party about Russia. This is the coming rebuttal. I can sense it coming in my water.<br />
<br />
Some of them will cry
'Magnitsky Act!', but oh that's such a good example that just ends up underlining my point further. It
wasn't a front bench operation, it was backbench 'melt' Labour MPs operating
cross party who drove its passage. Same as with the passage of controls
on offshore banking in British overseas territories, which was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-parliaments-47445153">led by Margaret Hodge</a>. You can guess how much PR Labour and their social media A team gave Hodge for that. None of the Russian money connected issues have ever been a Labour PR
priority save when they <a href="https://twitter.com/pplswar/status/973273180185026561">can be turned into</a> either 'Labour's Magnitsky Act' or 'Russian Tory party donations' deflections, as happened (as I pointed out above) over Salisbury and will likely be the reaction of some to this piece.<br />
<br />
In January I had <a href="https://twitter.com/marcusbarnett_/status/1088920546706944000">an interesting interaction</a> with Marcus Barnett, international officer of Young Labour and a Morning Star columnist. It was about Venezuela and those social democrats I mentioned earlier. Barnett said that he approved of "the NEC's [the Labour Party national executive body] current stance
towards reviewing our relationship with non-SI [Socialist International] parties across the
world, such as Podemos." (Podemos is the major Spanish leftist party.)<br />
<br />
I responded:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Pleased to see you stating
that Labour should align with Podemos, which means different EU Parl
Group and all that means. Big proposal that, Marcus.</blockquote>
Barnett's thinking is the logical outcome for '<a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2016/08/labour-isnt-europes-biggest-party.html">Europes biggest party</a>', the jingoistic slogan Corbynite Labour quickly birthed back in 2016 that does a lot of bad things, including disappearing supposedly sister European parties with far bigger per capita memberships, and is still going, in one tweaked form or another. That outcome which Barnett wants and seems to have got is a UK Labour Party fundamentally realigned on foreign policy with consequences very few are even considering. But we live in a First-Past-The-Post system where a UK Podemos would normally not be an electoral winner. Anywhere else and a Podemos or a Syriza or a Die Linke would have to stand alongside a social democrat party asking for votes.<br />
<br />
Here's the deal. We deserve to be better informed on actual Labour foreign policy, a, it's a fact, Kremlin friendly foreign policy, before we're asked to vote for it. I don't think people are informed, at all, though Salisbury certainly has made them wide open to considering the possibility. They're just not. I can see why - it's boring, no one cares, look at who's talking about it, that's a reach - but the idea that it's of no consequence is just plain wrong.<br />
<br />
As Gordon Brown <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33950405">put it</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I have to say that if our [Labour's] global alliances are going to be alliances
with Hezbollah and Hamas and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and Vladimir
Putin’s Russia, there is absolutely no chance of building a world-wide
alliance that can deal with poverty and inequality and climate change
and financial instability, and we’ve got to face up to that fact.</blockquote>
Only in Brexit Britain would we end up possibly electing a UK Podemos called 'Labour' and then cry afterwards that this wasn't what we voted for. But that's exactly where we're heading.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
<div class="TweetTextSize js-tweet-text tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="0" lang="en">
<br />
<h3>
Notes</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-fbff3313-258b-1806-96b8-2f32d00b3640">** Disclosure: I am named in Integrity Initiative docs! And I am quote ready.</span><br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Here you go Tim, quote away. "To be named an 'influencer' by Integrity Initiative is truly a career highlight. If I'd gone back and told 11yo me that these many years later that something like this would have happened I would have scarce believed it." Got that? <a href="https://t.co/ZYwxNqBiqw">https://t.co/ZYwxNqBiqw</a></div>
— Paul Canning (@pauloCanning) <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1076178567275466753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
It was me that first spotted that Corbyn had spoken to a Lyndon LaRouche group when I first wrote about Corbyn and Ukraine/Russia in August 2015. And that was when the MI5 Soros <a href="https://twitter.com/InitIntegrity?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@InitIntegrity</a> scouts first recruited me ... <a href="https://t.co/Ru2zwvXsFE">https://t.co/Ru2zwvXsFE</a></div>
— Paul Canning (@pauloCanning) <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1095675543297638400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
See also: </h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/08/corbyn-and-ukraine-its-not-pretty.html">Corbyn and Ukraine: it's not pretty</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/09/corbyns-election-means-ukraines-stuffed.html">Corbyn's election means Ukraine's stuffed</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/08/browns-right-corbyn-will-ally-with-putin.html">Brown's right, Corbyn will 'ally' with Putin</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2016/12/does-corbyn-back-aid-drops-to-starving.html">Does Corbyn back aid drops to starving Syrians?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/stalinist-seumass-failed-attempt-to-take-on-conquest/">How Labour trashed Tatc</a><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2016/12/how-labour-trashed-tatchell-not-assad.html">hell, not Assad</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2016/12/lindsey-german-is-thug-accomplice.html">Lindsey German is a thug, an accomplice</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/12/deselect-stop-war-coalition.html">Deselect Stop The War Coalition</a></li>
</ul>
<br /></div>
</div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/04/if-jeremy-corbyn-opposes-intervention-syria-he-should-have-more-say-about-russia">The Kremlin has weaponised doubt in Syria – and Labour is helping</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.syriauk.org/2018/02/labour-and-assad.html">Labour and Assad</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.syriauk.org/2017/12/call-to-clarify-labours-position-on.html">Call to clarify Labour’s position on the Assad regime </a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/blog/2018/3/22/syria-activists-hijack-labour-party-fundraiser-at-swanky-restaurant">Just desserts: Syria activists hijack Labour Party fundraiser at swanky London restaurant with guerrilla protest</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/stalinist-seumass-failed-attempt-to-take-on-conquest/"></a><a href="http://brockley.blogspot.com/2015/10/three-reasons-why-milnes-appointment.html">Three reasons why Milne's appointment was wrong, wrong, wrong</a></li>
<li><a href="https://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/stalinist-seumass-failed-attempt-to-take-on-conquest/">Stalinist Seumas’s (faile</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">d) attempt to take on Conquest </a></li>
<li><a href="https://leftfootforward.org/2015/03/projecting-the-kremlin-line/">Seumas Milne: Enemy of t</a><a href="https://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/seumas-milne-enemy-of-the-north-african-left-and-secularists/">he North African Left and Secularists</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/media/2015/10/i-wanted-believe-jeremy-corbyn-i-cant-believe-seumas-milne">I wanted to believe in Jeremy Corbyn. But I can't belie</a><a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/media/2015/10/i-wanted-believe-jeremy-corbyn-i-cant-believe-seumas-milne">ve in Seumas Milne</a></li>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/@JRogan3000/andrew-murray-some-background-information-97fa92420f6c">Andrew Murray — Some Background Information</a></li>
<li><a href="https://historyjack.com/2017/01/03/starvation-and-silence-the-british-left-and-moral-accountability-for-venezuela/">Starvation and Silence: The British Left and Moral Accountability for Venezuela</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2017/01/10/we-may-never-find-out-what-corbyn-s-position-on-brexit-is">We may never find out what Corbyn's position on Brexit is</a></li>
<li><a href="https://leftfootforward.org/2015/03/projecting-the-kremlin-line/">Projecting the Kremlin line</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/17/why-isnt-there-greater-outrage-about-russian-involvement-in-brexit">Why isn’t there greater outrage about Russia’s involvement in Brexit? </a></li>
<li><a href="https://therealstopthewar.wordpress.com/">The real Stop the War</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/22/time-left-join-michelle-bachelet-condemning-venezuelas-abuses/?utm_term=.7cf5205d3ebb&noredirect=on">Time for the left to join Michelle Bachelet in condemning Venezuela’s abuses</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/11/17/the-european-parties-accused-of-being-influenced-by-russia/?">The European parties accused of being influenced by Russia</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unherd.com/2019/03/the-dark-side-of-socialism/">The dark side of 'socialism' </a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<br />
Many thanks to Susan Greenberg for her editing help. And for funding from George Soros and the international Zionist conspiracy <span id="docs-internal-guid-da02752a-7fff-e224-80c8-15a914758362" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">👍</span></div>
</div>
paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-69216514233341834332018-03-04T18:52:00.001+00:002018-03-04T22:03:00.129+00:00A few words on Munroe Bergdorf and Labour<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8_b6m1x7-zaNyNLChJfDc5Q92eY9ufAwv7LIp5xf9gLkhTDDcV683DlaF8yPy2RR-CjhD-crhWnGLisa67UgznMeQVYPtiw5XZEcQW6HKhjmqicifFQfHF5mFCYfZwL5f8dZiLSPMa27A/s1600/corbyn+bergdorf.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="463" data-original-width="483" height="612" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8_b6m1x7-zaNyNLChJfDc5Q92eY9ufAwv7LIp5xf9gLkhTDDcV683DlaF8yPy2RR-CjhD-crhWnGLisa67UgznMeQVYPtiw5XZEcQW6HKhjmqicifFQfHF5mFCYfZwL5f8dZiLSPMa27A/s640/corbyn+bergdorf.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Last November there was a <span class="me">stoush about a young guy called Josh Rivers. You may remember.</span><br />
<span class="me"><br /></span>
<span class="me">He was the first black man to be appointed Editor of the magazine Gay Times. But he had a past on Twitter and </span><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/the-editor-of-gay-times-posted-dozens-of-offensive-tweets?utm_term=.ysW8xGEdQ#.loDaeyDd7">Patrick Strudwick at Buzzfeed</a><span class="me"><span class="st"> had either found it or someone had pointed Strudwick at it. He had found tweets that were horrific, just the worst. Here's one of them.</span></span><br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs9A3WKdbjusOJJWftUurAIViMKl_jd5R7zduQ2Gp-5KHdas0CnS-6N0nu_E8Ws8YxCdwxjeQMIGrXVRrwUoFu1pOm0XRxuNjaTLBzgx7I7zLYqS8ofSRbewEnAdnWtIuuerc1-kQb0DRu/s1600/josh+rivers+tweet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="611" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs9A3WKdbjusOJJWftUurAIViMKl_jd5R7zduQ2Gp-5KHdas0CnS-6N0nu_E8Ws8YxCdwxjeQMIGrXVRrwUoFu1pOm0XRxuNjaTLBzgx7I7zLYqS8ofSRbewEnAdnWtIuuerc1-kQb0DRu/s320/josh+rivers+tweet.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="me"><span class="st">Now Strudwick read that tweet one way but I read that another, as Rivers seeing whatever TV show or film he's talking about as promoting a stereotype. Maybe I looked at it that way because I went and looked at the sort of stuff that Rivers was tweeting at this time in 2011.</span></span><br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQVFmiH8u8L9CzDJVsXnda_EhH1s-TZKJJRm7GQeW87r7uJH0HuSZQeDo4G2YPTFAs9RZHsxG_p7h-hV9YsmO-7SCo5lgnRY71MIvb9xCWpv8mG7Is7WMjEaFYTlq0wGncsDOHNrOZqLWn/s1600/josh+rivers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="579" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQVFmiH8u8L9CzDJVsXnda_EhH1s-TZKJJRm7GQeW87r7uJH0HuSZQeDo4G2YPTFAs9RZHsxG_p7h-hV9YsmO-7SCo5lgnRY71MIvb9xCWpv8mG7Is7WMjEaFYTlq0wGncsDOHNrOZqLWn/s400/josh+rivers.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
I've underlined his raging sexism.<br />
<br />
Having looked at his old Twitter and then at his most recent Twitter what I saw was a working class black gay London lad, with an activist single mother, who was learning the refined ways of Diversityville. The codes, the lingo, the genuflections. That was all there in his recent Twitter. And for whatever reason someone hated him enough to go trawl through his history.<br />
<br />
(<span class="me"><span class="st">Rivers has deleted his Twitter account so it's not now possible to go look.</span></span>)<br />
<br />
Rivers was trashed across all media, even Radio Four did him in. Buzzfeed got their man and now it's immortalised forever on Wikipedia.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEhgBgUnyGiuzwV-RpLpJE2s_WHvbW8TN-TI8QXE7fD3RHjdXrogKcnuMax77bLEYUFqaULZ89NOcwceyt4XPXrDjisnzSGG9OQRxRCcT-vY2mWAGC-6G2tHpiueRENBDreFN46Po1g7me/s1600/josh+rivers+wikipedia+buzzfeed.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="128" data-original-width="605" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEhgBgUnyGiuzwV-RpLpJE2s_WHvbW8TN-TI8QXE7fD3RHjdXrogKcnuMax77bLEYUFqaULZ89NOcwceyt4XPXrDjisnzSGG9OQRxRCcT-vY2mWAGC-6G2tHpiueRENBDreFN46Po1g7me/s640/josh+rivers+wikipedia+buzzfeed.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The pile on was compete. All his friends abandoned him, nobody spoke in his defence and to my shame I was one of those who said little.<br />
<br />
This was a rare comment defending Rivers that was made at that time, one I have a lot of sympathy with. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj_o4UrnnnMC_ULdP5peTLH8Sv-fNSWgj4WP5G0q_OMx7-FfSVJgmEYo8mSUoTRbXZErfQWJC7eEqEvWfEnQKRelU9FVwPv3HyGgSVSBN8NJmg1JOV3LIEX0g0y2-tnymqc3YAJd2MX2jp/s1600/josh+rivers+defence.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="595" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj_o4UrnnnMC_ULdP5peTLH8Sv-fNSWgj4WP5G0q_OMx7-FfSVJgmEYo8mSUoTRbXZErfQWJC7eEqEvWfEnQKRelU9FVwPv3HyGgSVSBN8NJmg1JOV3LIEX0g0y2-tnymqc3YAJd2MX2jp/s400/josh+rivers+defence.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Both Rivers and today's outrage-du-jour Munroe Bergdorf have
said things on Twitter which they later publicly regretted. I have said
things I regretted. I bet you, the reader, have too. Yet we seem to have
all gone along with a culture where some people are selected to be hung out to
dry, to be firmly excluded from the group, for things we know we might
have either also done or which could be painted as horrible by a determined adversary. That's not really new but perhaps what is is the sheer amount of piety and righteousness it gets wrapped up in. If there is a line to be crossed that line is dependent
on who you are and who's in your team.<br />
<br />
Which leads me to this ...<br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span class="me"><span class="st">The obvious point</span></span></h3>
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<span class="me"><span class="st">The obvious point is that </span></span><span class="me"><span class="st">Rivers got completely different treatment to what we're seeing now with Munroe Bergdorf. </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMB9qbMK6MH0BEs-bYck_h74x7OItgu5EmTAOQuf_AotT00co1vz0IVwfc3OiT1Eh8Ilr5We1zgsymtE-XIKt4Mm7lbYwg8__JShifImFlC30FJBXEIHkAU5raNNRDta2glAfw4krI6Uee/s1600/pink+news+bergdorf.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="1001" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMB9qbMK6MH0BEs-bYck_h74x7OItgu5EmTAOQuf_AotT00co1vz0IVwfc3OiT1Eh8Ilr5We1zgsymtE-XIKt4Mm7lbYwg8__JShifImFlC30FJBXEIHkAU5raNNRDta2glAfw4krI6Uee/s640/pink+news+bergdorf.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span class="me"><span class="st">The other obvious point is that there's a reason why we're even talking about Bergdorf, why she's a thing and why she's defended when </span></span><span class="me"><span class="st">Rivers wasn't, and it is linked to what happened to </span></span><span class="me"><span class="st">Rivers .</span></span><br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<span class="me"><span class="st">It's the same crowd that generated both of them as stories.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="me"><span class="st">Bergdorf is a thing because Labour's Dawn Butler MP <a href="https://twitter.com/DawnButlerBrent/status/968221794183319558">took it upon herself </a>to appoint an 'LGBT Advisory Group'. Hence the photo op with Corbyn. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="me"><span class="st">Bergdorf's appointment to that group sucked all the air out of the room so there was little left for either why Butler had done this - was it all her idea or her staff's or who came up with this? - or who were these other people in this group? And how on earth had she not spoken to Labour LGBT, the party's affiliated, representative, long-standing, democratic (you get the picture) LGBT group?</span></span><br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<span class="me"><span class="st">When<a href="https://twitter.com/tomcopley/status/968769094861324288"> Labour LGBT sounded off</a> about what Butler had done she<a href="https://twitter.com/LGBTLabour/status/968811965236809728"> quickly apologised</a> and made Labour LGBT the 'secretariat' (no idea either what that means) to this Advisory Group and their complaints stopped. </span></span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span class="me"><span class="st">Labour lovin' entrepreneurs </span></span></h3>
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<span class="me"><span class="st">Butler's group appears to have been the idea of Linda Riley and Anthony Watson. Riley <a href="https://talesfromthesouthbank.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/ripper-museum-diversity-champion-purged/">has enough history</a> for a determined, Strudwick-like, journalist to get their teeth into. This is Watson.</span></span><br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtk6Wya996YkoCfJzzGSTMM74U_Ka6IyhFhk4MPYN5ey8OszzXDj8iZcnNuU7n3Hcwd1TGW2loWa1mdM3DntHclDQtVvnsorVe4LTyd4vw-GarNhiwtrg5POViu0wnA13gVANsudvvQU04/s1600/anthony+watson.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="297" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtk6Wya996YkoCfJzzGSTMM74U_Ka6IyhFhk4MPYN5ey8OszzXDj8iZcnNuU7n3Hcwd1TGW2loWa1mdM3DntHclDQtVvnsorVe4LTyd4vw-GarNhiwtrg5POViu0wnA13gVANsudvvQU04/s400/anthony+watson.png" width="305" /></a></div>
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<span class="me"><span class="st">'<i>Lead </i>LGBT Advisor to UK Labour'? Really?</span></span><br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<span class="me"><span class="st">I don't see either Riley or Watson having their histories investigated. (Mind you, Watson's Twitter TL is a deadend, folks. It strongly reminded me of the characters <a href="http://duckman.wikia.com/wiki/Fluffy_and_Uranus">Fluffy and Uranus</a> from the 90s cartoon Duckman. Not a hair out of place.) </span></span><br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<span class="me"><span class="st">What I do see is this same crowd of professional 'diversity champions' all failing to apply the 'standards' they applied to </span></span><span class="me"><span class="st">Rivers to their pick for the in-crowd - Bergdorf. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCCLinVYuslBC1y2mhLUWk15TBZKzxOSR5f_faAHolDWy5Whu9X8flo7f_lm3i48twYqk6rEREjqn1VZXlIh4tcRajKAkLN9v-YmH6QDr9UOOpWMrSVqiPXXVwqVn8MD84qPno-d0p2TLy/s1600/pink+news+charles+monroe.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="1331" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCCLinVYuslBC1y2mhLUWk15TBZKzxOSR5f_faAHolDWy5Whu9X8flo7f_lm3i48twYqk6rEREjqn1VZXlIh4tcRajKAkLN9v-YmH6QDr9UOOpWMrSVqiPXXVwqVn8MD84qPno-d0p2TLy/s640/pink+news+charles+monroe.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><span class="me"><span class="st">And the sole reason we're even aware
of Bergdorf's existence is that this crowd got the ear of Dawn Butler
and deliberately snubbed LGBT Labour in order to promote themselves.
(They're 'entrepreneurs', remember. Bergdorf's Twitter profile is links
to her management and her press contact.)</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><span class="me"><span class="st">Helen Lewis made the point today that Ber</span></span></span></span>gdorf is in there, in this Advisory Group, just because of her identity but I think she's there because Butler got captured by this professional 'diversity' crowd and what Bergdorf really adds for these people is a little stardust. Both Riley and Watson are Directors of GLAAD, the Hollywood focused diversity organisation whose brand is all about <a href="https://www.looktothestars.org/charity/glaad">leveraging stardust</a> for the cause.<span class="me"><span class="st"><span class="me"><span class="st"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
The story should be why we're even talking about Bergdorf, but that's not the story.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span class="me"><span class="st"><span class="me"><span class="st">La Strudwick </span></span></span></span></h3>
<br />
<span class="me"><span class="st">Final word: Can I just remind you of <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/the-editor-of-gay-times-posted-dozens-of-offensive-tweets?utm_term=.ucE0PjnB4#.wfNagBz6o">something Patrick Strudwick wrote</a> about Rivers?</span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZNjxhFHNC8XvzXLbXUkrT5-RFyxpbG4-XHhWQqQpmb6MaAPCPcvGE5SKy2SfewFp6J_ugZBKt3XPSOLXiJBGfGvXypVkRdh921xVjtYN4g5H-VpRe5PXOT_7ERuxC960Amf_scntemM83/s1600/strudwick.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="91" data-original-width="694" height="82" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZNjxhFHNC8XvzXLbXUkrT5-RFyxpbG4-XHhWQqQpmb6MaAPCPcvGE5SKy2SfewFp6J_ugZBKt3XPSOLXiJBGfGvXypVkRdh921xVjtYN4g5H-VpRe5PXOT_7ERuxC960Amf_scntemM83/s640/strudwick.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span class="me"><span class="st">This is directed at a black, gay working-class Londoner who Strudwick and his ilk decided to collectively take against. It is beyond patronising and yet he got away with it. In fact he's doing fine.</span></span><br />
<span class="me"><span class="st"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsFpiMfuBxSV9zatbg_ksDxufkAVH9fr2crdoN-Xij-tvoEQDIO7Z4wFjBT_JI_ezmy1K9VDE4gdvspD_x7lCo-gnh0CPpOk0aas0UQNpjGyELh9L4XvJ46Ml5HDUIYdfikLY4eiOno1Tr/s1600/strudwick+versace.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="593" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsFpiMfuBxSV9zatbg_ksDxufkAVH9fr2crdoN-Xij-tvoEQDIO7Z4wFjBT_JI_ezmy1K9VDE4gdvspD_x7lCo-gnh0CPpOk0aas0UQNpjGyELh9L4XvJ46Ml5HDUIYdfikLY4eiOno1Tr/s320/strudwick+versace.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="me"><span class="st"><span class="me">If you're wondering whether </span><a href="https://twitter.com/patrickstrud">Strudwick</a> has had anything to say on the Bergdorf kerfuffle - Not a peep.</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-36747180304018732632017-08-07T19:15:00.000+01:002017-08-08T14:45:21.842+01:00Venezuela: In every way a terrible week<div class="tr_bq">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn-vCEg-y9XPwaWOVtXyrgQ_K0r7nBesw7N-hmV0yXQfTy1wMOrgTEHyqBRwEEoviWP_lfF5tIlaZ_9KgTwCkcxkdb6jkSaYJ1UJ0C575ewW27wZWwSfOhDMi9wR-SOsVLVS1l5VtTG6lE/s1600/DGPciKzWsAEYR3s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="560" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn-vCEg-y9XPwaWOVtXyrgQ_K0r7nBesw7N-hmV0yXQfTy1wMOrgTEHyqBRwEEoviWP_lfF5tIlaZ_9KgTwCkcxkdb6jkSaYJ1UJ0C575ewW27wZWwSfOhDMi9wR-SOsVLVS1l5VtTG6lE/s640/DGPciKzWsAEYR3s.jpg" width="534" /></a></div>
<br />
Tomorrow in Lima, Peru nine Latin American states (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Paraguay) plus Canada will meet with the aim of establishing a “contact group” that they hope can be the best way of pressuring Venezuela to
return to democracy.</div>
<br />
That Venezuela has left democracy trailing behind in the dust is beyond dispute but for those still with doubts <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/07/29/translating-venezuelas-political-crisis-into-american-terms/?utm_term=.b9587d9a6d4c">this piece by Francisco Toro</a> helpfully explained the process whereby Venezuela has arrived at this point by putting it into American terms: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Using the FBI to threaten and intimidate them, the president forces three Supreme Court justices to resign. After Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor leave, a lame-duck session of Congress rushes through the appointment of Roger Stone, Kellyanne Conway and Anthony Scaramucci to the court. The liberals kick and scream, but there’s nothing they can do. Scaramucci becomes chief justice. </blockquote>
It has taken the crisis to reach this point for Latin America to finally address the problem of Venezuela - because they see how it will effect them.<br />
<br />
As Wall Street Journal reporter Anatoly Kurmanaev <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/episode-349-venezuelan-crisis-baroness-von-sketch-show-horseshoe-crabs-at-risk-dylan-marron-and-more-1.4230571/venezuela-s-downward-spiral-who-in-the-world-can-help-1.4230584">told Canadian public radio</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It has had a major impact. Columbia is talking about a looming refugee crisis. That's a country [with one of the] biggest refugee populations in the world itself because of decades of civil war. So this crisis has put a real strain on its limited resources already. </blockquote>
The treatment of the refugees, by the way, by the region <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/05/here-there-is-a-chance-venezuela-crisis-triggers-exodus-to-colombia">has been incredible</a>. They have not been turned back - instead they have been made welcome. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hundreds of Indigenous people live in abject poverty on the border of Brazil. And we're seeing them crossing into the tiny island of Trinidad that Venezuela borders by sea, trying to find food and trying to escape.</blockquote>
That's Commonwealth member Trinidad, which already hosts 40,000 refugees, 5% of its population. The neighbouring tiny island of Curaçao, which because it's part of, or rather one of, The Netherlands is also part of the European Union, already hosts 10,000.<br />
<br />
The Venezuelan crisis is happening 11km from the EU.<br />
<br />
Javier Lafuente and Carlos E. Cué <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2017/08/05/america/1501944884_122197.html">in El Pais</a> quote a Colombian Official:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There
is no coordination between the Venezuelan military and the Colombians,
there is absolute distrust, it is as if one spoke in Chinese and the
other responded in Quechua.</blockquote>
"It is a chaos and a permanent
anarchy," Joaquin Villalobos, the Salvadoran ex-guerrilla turned
consultant for conflict resolution, told them. "In the midst of chaos, the power acquired by criminal
platforms is incredible."<br />
<br />
The move to create a 'contact group' is because the Organisation of American States, whose General Secretary is the socialist former Foreign Minister of Uruguay, has been blocked from taking collective actions because of countries like Cuba as well as Nicaragua and some Caribbean islands which rely on Venezuelan financing and Venezuelan oil. As well the Vatican has been working behind the scenes to promote the idea of a 'contact group'.<br />
<br />
[Listen to the powerful statement by OAS General Secretary Luis Almagro] <br />
<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="und">
This is leftist Uruguayan President José "Pepe" Mujica's ex-Foreign Minister. <a href="https://t.co/Ra8X26YlUS">pic.twitter.com/Ra8X26YlUS</a></div>
— pplswar (@pplswar) <a href="https://twitter.com/pplswar/status/892882724792537092">August 2, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>The strategists who are trying to put together a regional agreement to
corner Maduro, report Lafuente and Cué, believe that, despite the opposition of some countries
like Bolivia, that a consensus is
being established in which the crisis is deep, with enormous risk for
all Countries, and the region can not stand still.<br />
<br />
Says Kurmanaev:<br />
<blockquote>
Few countries are prepared to tolerate [Maduro's authoritarian rule] and stay quiet about it, which reduces the number of countries that might be able to mediate.</blockquote>
He explained that it is hoped that the Dominican Republic and Uruguay might be among the few potential Latin American countries left who could open the door for dialogue with Maduro.<br />
<br />
Uruguay may no longer be a candidate after it <a href="https://www.blogger.com/Uruguay%20Mercosor%20suspension%20http://prodavinci.com/2017/08/05/actualidad/las-implicaciones-de-la-suspension-de-venezuela-del-mercosur-por-mariano-de-alba/?platform=hootsuite">agreed to Venezuela's suspension from the regional trade body Mercosur</a>. (Though Venezuela had already lost its rights as a State Party as of last December because it had not incorporated required regulations into its legal system.) <br />
<br />
Countries like Canada may be able to quietly exert some pressure on its neighbours to the south to push for a regional solution, he said.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I think the bigger, more powerful countries like the U.S. and Canada should focus on trying to provide incentives for the smaller countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to take a united stance — for them to say, 'Enough is enough and you have to change.'<br />
<br />
This requires offering some sort of financial incentives, or maybe [tightening] immigration and remittances rules … It's in everyone's interest to have a stable Venezuela on their doorstep.</blockquote>
<br />
Although the UK has condemned the establishment of the Constituent Assembly and the sidelining of the Parliament (as have 42 other countries, including Switzerland), moves by the EU maybe made difficult<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/87430578-2deb-337f-a676-178b563d6908"> because of the blocking of joint efforts by the Syriza government in Greece</a>.<br />
<br />
Comparing the situation to a game of Jenga with so many pieces already removed, Kurmanaev says "it's very difficult to see how it will end, but it could certainly come crashing down at any moment."<br />
<br />
********<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxqUjVbFBcDb57nGdMTaCkAj7JJaGjiTv-gGQy7zW3OgAF7xHbzF6Ue8bbn1AX2mn5nfoCEJMLRiXZyzOKIj3eOQeQOBSDxJeKRna3hHh19eDv3Qx3rfWq7NiSAtg8nuOpF-LDwwbM_UTY/s1600/venezuela-socialism-starvation-economic-collapse-enslavement+%2528venezuela-socialism-starvation-economic-collapse-enslavement.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+920%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529+%2528venezuela-socialism-starvation-economic-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="234" data-original-width="400" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxqUjVbFBcDb57nGdMTaCkAj7JJaGjiTv-gGQy7zW3OgAF7xHbzF6Ue8bbn1AX2mn5nfoCEJMLRiXZyzOKIj3eOQeQOBSDxJeKRna3hHh19eDv3Qx3rfWq7NiSAtg8nuOpF-LDwwbM_UTY/s640/venezuela-socialism-starvation-economic-collapse-enslavement+%2528venezuela-socialism-starvation-economic-collapse-enslavement.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+920%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529+%2528venezuela-socialism-starvation-economic-.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
You might not know about any of this if you're a casual news consumer let alone one of the many who gets their news via social media. In the UK the past eight days has been one long shitfight between right and left over Venezuela.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/dogmatic-political-allegiances-are-clouding-our-judgement-on-venezuela-we-must-resist-them">This piece</a> by Ian Dunt, repenting his past support for 'Chavismo', is very good and one of several lamenting the 'gotcha!' coverage. <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/world/2017/08/jeremy-corbyn-will-be-right-side-history-if-he-condemns-venezuelas-left-wing-leaders">Writing for the New Statesman</a> James Bloodsworth bemoaned a "point scoring exercise" and pointed out that Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn could do some practical good over getting political prisoners freed. (President Maduro is well aware of who Corbyn is and would undoubtedly take his call.)<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
On seemingly good terms with the government of Nicolás Maduro, Corbyn’s words may actually carry weight in Venezuela. This is a matter of some importance when the country appears to be marching toward full-blown dictatorship.</blockquote>
This was the point <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/venezuela-proof-corbyns-no-man-of-peace.html">I argued in May</a> when I wrote that Corbyn had a chance to be a Man of Peace, not just play one on TV:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When his visit to the region he professes to love was reported by Telesur at the beginning of this year Corbyn could have spoken out on Venezuela. When he spoke to the Cuban Solidarity crowd last June he could have spoken out.<br />
<br />
He could have demanded:<br />
<ul>
<li> That the Venezuelan government rejoin the peace process</li>
<li> That the Venezuelan government declare a food crisis</li>
<li> That the Venezuelan government allow humanitarian aid agencies and NGOs to freely operate and to bring in aid</li>
</ul>
He could have repeated the words, practically word-for-word, <a href="http://www.pagadiandiocese.org/2017/05/25/venezuelan-activists-call-for-help-in-vatican-and-pope-francis-calls-for-end-to-violence/">of the Pope</a>.</blockquote>
Mostly though what we've had is Gotcha! reporting, highlighted by a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40810341">set-to setup on BBC's Newsnight</a> between the "strongman of Corbynism" (as <a href="http://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2017/08/06/5985eb6f268e3e02128b457f.html">a Spanish newspaper described him</a>) Chris Williamson MP and the Blairite former Minister Tom Harris.<br />
<br />
Then we had the breaking-of-the-omerta by Owen Jones, the well known writer and man bouncing on Oprah's sofa, <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=EqRi2Qips0Y">on Sky News' Paper Review</a>. Goaded by the IEA's Kate Andrews that 'Corbyn should apologise!' this event was gleefully reported by the right-wing blogger Guido as where Jones finally called the Maduro regime 'authoritarian'.<br />
<br />
But here's the thing. Jones was actually referring to <a href="https://t.co/PNdt8EUD4s">a Labour Party statement</a>, one which has had precious little analysis during this melee but which represents a truly terrible policy on Venezuela. One which concerns me as a Party member and should concern others too.<br />
<br />
This statement was issued a week ago but not emailed to journalists or announced on Twitter.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We mourn all those who have been killed and injured in the protests leading up to this election, and we urge everyone in Venezuela, on all sides, to end the bloodshed immediately.<br />
<br />
In particular, we urge the government of Venezuela to recognise its responsibilities to protect human rights, free speech and the rule of law. The outcome of this election cannot be treated as a mandate for a further escalation of repression, division, and violence.<br />
<br />
President Maduro must also respond personally to the legitimate concerns of the international community about the increasingly authoritarian nature of his rule and the growing hardship facing his people.<br />
<br />
If he believes those concerns are misplaced, it is up to him to prove them wrong, not through his words, but through his deeds. </blockquote>
After two days of attacks on Corbyn, including a Times Editorial, on Wednesday a social media meme was created.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGDbrduqnv2qsbU4FZ8tS5eaSTgaferf3ySrfquyl9wYWtQxKiz1HHE9_kvhvOmf-61U2bUMSlrAZyHrPuWg-YLIDKCOzNs0vWfLbzFogZ-7qV0S5zqrComwlOswKF7P-6YIX3LIanviC/s1600/DGSyKIAV0AAhQf0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="1024" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGDbrduqnv2qsbU4FZ8tS5eaSTgaferf3ySrfquyl9wYWtQxKiz1HHE9_kvhvOmf-61U2bUMSlrAZyHrPuWg-YLIDKCOzNs0vWfLbzFogZ-7qV0S5zqrComwlOswKF7P-6YIX3LIanviC/s400/DGSyKIAV0AAhQf0.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
This vague, who-can-disagree, policy-free waffle showed no connection to anyone or anything. It should be judged on what it did not say and whose influence it obviously did not reflect.<br />
<br />
Take for example <a href="http://mailchi.mp/socialistinternational/venezuelan-government-deepens-break-with-democracy-and-increases-repression-and-violence-698621?e=a801418b68">the strong statement</a> issued by the Socialist International, the grouping which Labour is an observer to and which has four parties who are members in Venezuela.<br />
<blockquote>
Given the lack of legitimacy of the path taken by the Venezuelan government, the Socialist International, along with condemning this serious breakdown of democratic order, today reiterates its deep solidarity with every citizen who has been suffering from the consequences of the serious political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis to which the country has been subject for a long time; a crisis that is deepening and worsening the further Venezuela moves away from good governance, and respect and recognition of the institutions of democracy.</blockquote>
That statement, unlike Labour's, did not accept the legitimacy of the Constituent Assembly. It also did not talk about "both sides".<br />
<br />
Labour MP Angela Smith, by contrast, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5e92479c-76fd-11e7-b874-f49df312558b">has condemned </a>the “wilful destruction of democratic structures” in Venezuela. <br />
<br />
They go on to say:<br />
<blockquote>
Venezuela, which has always been an ally in the struggles for democracy and freedom in the face of past dictatorships in Latin America, does not deserve this fate.<br />
<br />
The government of Venezuela must respect the life, liberty and rights of all of its citizens and must release immediately all political prisoners. The government should listen to those who have an opinion to contribute to democratic coexistence, beginning with those who have been duly elected to do so, the members of the National Assembly, elected in December 2015 for a tenure lasting until 2021. The government must respect and recognise the mandate given by the people to the National Assembly and the powers of this institution in line with the country’s constitutional system.</blockquote>
Labour does not mention political prisoners. It has not called for the release of Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma. The meme was put out after their arrest and after it was established with overwhelming evidence that the results of an election it does not condemn were rigged, the turnout inflated by at least double.<br />
<br />
The statement gives no solidarity to those from Labour's sister parties in the region trying for a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Perhaps most depressingly it does not call on the regime to do something absolutely minimal: declare a 'food crisis'. This <a href="https://t.co/hN1bVWF3pb">technical requirement</a> would immediately trigger international humanitarian aid - food and medicines - for a desperate, starving, dying population.<br />
<br />
Instead the statement is a solipsistic, too clever by half concoction produced on the quiet and simply intended to deflect, to have something that can be waved around to say, as Jones did, 'see, we did do something'.<br />
<br />
*******<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD9iQo3xBfuEhvWwtV95-oFLTkeu8Sww8ErH8QutfS1MIhs0guJEkj6ZpM3iJ1ckDuqEbApe2oizpk5OXnE045lPbmOF7_t24Riv8LWKGnctvy7aS8-WcQVK1yRwY7d48m6VMMmDvb8L17/s1600/ven+corruption.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="457" data-original-width="718" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD9iQo3xBfuEhvWwtV95-oFLTkeu8Sww8ErH8QutfS1MIhs0guJEkj6ZpM3iJ1ckDuqEbApe2oizpk5OXnE045lPbmOF7_t24Riv8LWKGnctvy7aS8-WcQVK1yRwY7d48m6VMMmDvb8L17/s640/ven+corruption.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
Jones, Williamson and many others have also defaulted to 'whataboutistry' by pointing at the UK's corrupt relationship with Saudi Arabia.<br />
<br />
Apart from the pedestrian lack of nous shown in not, instead, pointing at Conservative support for the Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame, as the former Minister Denis McShane <a href="https://twitter.com/DenisMacShane/status/894231050444042242">has been saying</a> for the past few days, this completely ignores the UK's corrupt relationship with Venezuela.<br />
<br />
The truly astonishing levels of corruption by the 'Bolivarian bourgeoisie’ is enabled by the UK's famously lax financial regulation and our possession of tax havens like the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Read anything about the characters pouring billions into Miami real estate and the use of shell companies in the BVI will invariably come up.<br />
<br />
And that corruption kills people as surely as a bomb sold to the Saudi armed forces does. “Malnutrition in Venezuela is a problem of corruption, not a lack of money,” Maritza Landaeta, a director of the Bengoa Foundation, a Caracas-based health and nutrition charity, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/25055a2a-6332-11e7-91a7-502f7ee26895">told the Financial Times</a>.<br />
<br />
Recognition of our role here is not a failing, though, solely of left figures like Jones. Those on the right who have cited the gobsmacking wealth of Chavez' billionaire daughter also seem to be unaware of our part in that.<br />
<br />
<br />
*******<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe04pRPI6Wk6VZ6RS7mkqEqTPf0As7LSQqcBDf5cCATYyLbspsugvAKi8QlSopq3hteD9O0CpIV-etRaKtHtUEtlCFO1wJ2KbsfVxymJVrWCyApRyfCrd0Mg4c8pj0spcE7gN7rNc6XFmB/s1600/lopez1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="263" data-original-width="446" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe04pRPI6Wk6VZ6RS7mkqEqTPf0As7LSQqcBDf5cCATYyLbspsugvAKi8QlSopq3hteD9O0CpIV-etRaKtHtUEtlCFO1wJ2KbsfVxymJVrWCyApRyfCrd0Mg4c8pj0spcE7gN7rNc6XFmB/s400/lopez1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Nobody seems to know what will happen next though it is clear that the opposition is exhausted and divided on what to do. It is not even clear if the street protests will return to the level they have been. I was struck by this observation from <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-protesters-idUSKBN19K26V">a Reuters piece</a> about the connections between Venezuela's protesters and those in Ukraine:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
While Ukraine's protesters endured freezing conditions day and night, Venezuela's thin out quickly when rain starts, and they go home in the evening and enjoy balmy Caribbean weather. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Venezuelans point out that criminal gangs make the streets dangerous at night. And with their economy in meltdown, they are often short of medicine, food and other needs, whereas the Ukrainians had a good supply line.</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9WdrNEkLqClvBIVmiC6pVP-2UOA-OuFHAejfgU_6y-ZAL1HIbu02cYYDNa4rFWTi4lNC9X47FbNFgW-1L5ci1f_BuU7LQo1_ZLVRI7lg9_GFUYbo8VSQ0xRyQcY7Muhcl7DU0EAkRm2MC/s1600/ucrania-17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="500" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9WdrNEkLqClvBIVmiC6pVP-2UOA-OuFHAejfgU_6y-ZAL1HIbu02cYYDNa4rFWTi4lNC9X47FbNFgW-1L5ci1f_BuU7LQo1_ZLVRI7lg9_GFUYbo8VSQ0xRyQcY7Muhcl7DU0EAkRm2MC/s320/ucrania-17.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Apparently the 'Revolution of Dignity' or 'Maidan' in Ukraine has been inspiring Venezuealan protesters and the film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RibAQHeDia8">Winter on Fire</a> has been sought out and has been shown on the street, in cafes, in halls, everywhere.<br />
<br />
There is also the possibility that the crisis could resolve itself within Venezuela, without any outside pressure.<br />
<br />
Yesterday's supposed military insurrection, which lit up social media for a few hours, may be a nothingburger or may not be. As Guillermo Tell Aveledo <a href="https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2017/07/25/union-civico-militar-is-the-venezuelan-way/">points out</a> the civilian-military alliance that runs Venezuela may fray because the military, or parts of it, thinks that that Maduro's gone too far and he has become an obstacle to their personal (read financial) best interests.<br />
<br />
Phil Gunson, International Crisis Group's Senior Analyst for the Andes, <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/andes/venezuela/venezuelas-last-flickers-democracy">says</a>: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
While the Constituent Assembly inevitably will alter relations between the government and opposition, it could also bring to light splits within the government camp itself. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The most important question the Assembly will face once installed is who will become its president. The outcome will depend on which faction from the ruling party is deemed to have won most seats. If Maduro’s main rival, Diosdado Cabello – Vice President of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) – were to prevail, this would represent at least a change of style, and could presage a split in the government. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Maduro, a former trade union leader who received ideological training in Cuba, represents the hardline, civilian left of the movement. Cabello, an army captain who took part in Hugo Chávez’ 1992 coup, belongs to its military wing, and tends to be more hawkish in public than Maduro. His comrades from the military academy are now well-placed generals. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Friction between the two camps, each of which controls distinct state institutions and sources of revenue, has occasionally surfaced despite largely successful efforts to date to maintain a unified front against the opposition. Cabello is seen by some as hostile to Cuban influence in Venezuela, but whether one of the two is more likely to negotiate remains a matter for speculation.</blockquote>
<br />
A whole series of 'Chavistas' <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-venezuela-maduro-opposition/">have already split with Maduro</a>, most visibly the former Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Venezuela?src=hash">#Venezuela</a>'s independent atty-gen forced out, flees on motorcycle.<br />
Her safety should be foreign embs' top priority. <a href="https://t.co/7BrLvZurUh">https://t.co/7BrLvZurUh</a></div>
— Adam Isacson (@adam_wola) <a href="https://twitter.com/adam_wola/status/893892938442436608">August 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>But Gunson says the regime may also hit a financial wall:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
The regime’s Achilles heel is its economic and financial crisis, and in particular its crushing foreign debt. Some US$5 billion in debt service payments must be disbursed before the end of this year. A chaotic default would transform the country’s economic landscape and further weaken the government’s international and domestic position. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Much will depend on the posture taken by Venezuela’s key international backers, Russia and China. As a major oil producer, Russia could step in to reduce the impact of future U.S. oil sanctions, while China could increase its financial support for Caracas by extending the debt repayment period, affording the Maduro regime some breathing space. So far, Moscow has reiterated its public stance condemning what it sees as “outside interference”, while Beijing has remained silent.</blockquote>
All sorts of fractures already visible could become wider and civil war is not a hysterical suggestion. Says Gunson, everybody, in particular the Opposition, faces an unpalatable but best option for an end game:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The best outcome would be for the international community to offer members of the regime a safe exit for themselves and for the country as a whole, in exchange for a credible negotiations process that reverses recent governmental decisions. ... Credible assurances should be conveyed to the government’s core leadership that a negotiated exit can include guarantees for their personal safety, and to mid-ranking officials that a transitional justice system can be put in place to prevent witch-hunts.</blockquote>
<br />
*******<br />
<br />
To cap off what was a terrible week yesterday The Observer published <a href="https://t.co/8svCjjibzX">a surreal Editoria</a>l which pretty much told regional leaders that they had no right to lecture Venezuela because 'neoliberal'.<br />
<br />
What it suggested anyone actually does was a complete mystery because it's final pretentious line - "Stop harrumphing. Start helping." - led to a review of a book about Chavez<a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n13/greg-grandin/down-from-the-mountain"> in the London Review of Books</a> whose proposed 'solution' appeared to me to be 'bring back Chavez from the dead'.<br />
<br />
No, rather than taking the opportunity to bash 'neoliberals', 'socialists' or even (despite the oh-so-strong temptations) Owen Jones what we should all be doing first and foremost is hoping that those Foreign Ministers meeting in Lima tomorrow are successful and from that they can talk, cajole, whatever Maduro down off the cliff edge.<br />
<br />
<b>Note</b>:<br />
<br />
As I was writing this <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGomzzcXsAE76Le.jpg">a statement signed by Corbyn</a> was issued. Apart from the 'both sides' rhetoric and the rote calls to end violence. A couple of things leapt out. Firstly that he was calling for a dialogue which regional leaders are attempting (as I explain) to which he appears completely, blithely unaware of and secondly that he references Macron calling for this rather than, say, an actual Latin American. Corbyn has a very good friend in the Mexican left-wing Presidential candidate Lopez Obrador. What I got a strong whiff off with this statement is that he hasn't called up Obrador to ask 'so what can I do to help?' Solidarity my arse.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b> See also</b>:<br />
<ul>
<li>Ian Dunt: <a href="https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/dogmatic-political-allegiances-are-clouding-our-judgement-on-venezuela-we-must-resist-them">Dogmatic political allegiances are clouding our judgement on Venezuela — we must resist them</a></li>
<li>James Bloodworth: <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/world/2017/08/jeremy-corbyn-will-be-right-side-history-if-he-condemns-venezuelas-left-wing-leaders">Jeremy Corbyn will be on the right side of history - if he condemns Venezuela's left-wing leaders</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-protesters-idUSKBN19K26V">Venezuela's shield-bearing protesters inspired by Ukraine </a></li>
<li><a href="https://storify.com/pauloCanning/25-questions-to-owen-jones-about-venezuela">25 questions to Owen Jones about Venezuela</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/venezuela-proof-corbyns-no-man-of-peace.html">Venezuela: Proof Corbyn's no 'Man of Peace'</a></li>
<li><a href="https://translate.google.com/translate?ie=UTF-8&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.derechos.org.ve%2Factualidad%2Fcarta-abierta-de-organizaciones-sociales-y-de-ddhh-de-venezuela-a-la-reunion-de-cancilleres-a-realizarse-en-peru-el-8-de-agosto-2017">Open letter of Human Rights and social organisations of Venezuela to the meeting of Foreign Ministers to be held in Peru on August 8, 2017</a> </li>
</ul>
paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-66317293448196225062017-07-17T16:25:00.000+01:002017-07-17T17:01:23.533+01:00That time Putin walked out on a speech - in Hamburg<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN3xElsPQX5ktV_MNOD5QLnb5Qhg76Eb5LCbnmXpISlGWTRa4CyHqHAsy12bpqcJWrfoYBt1nov7b2Rj3mwqlpiX2syuwf_3-AFo5CpEIFc3x4OGavcBckOFXRZnaENaLJoV3LbLjok1Hv/s1600/tallinn.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN3xElsPQX5ktV_MNOD5QLnb5Qhg76Eb5LCbnmXpISlGWTRa4CyHqHAsy12bpqcJWrfoYBt1nov7b2Rj3mwqlpiX2syuwf_3-AFo5CpEIFc3x4OGavcBckOFXRZnaENaLJoV3LbLjok1Hv/s640/tallinn.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tallinn, Estonia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This speech that Paul Goble has dug out retains all of its power and all of its relevance - a quarter of a century on - it's just astonishing.<br />
<br />
Reblogged <a href="http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.co.uk/">with permission</a>.<br />
<br />
====== <br />
<br />
By Paul Goble<br />
<br />
Even Western leaders who are distinguished by the boldness of their statements on other issues appear reluctant to speak directly to Vladimir Putin about his lies and crimes, apparently fearful that he will turn the tables on them, use their words to reinforce his power at home, and attack them for undermining the possibility of reasonable relations.<br />
<br />
But there have been some happy exceptions when Western leaders have not been afraid to speak the truth to Putin directly even though the Russian’s bad behavior only underscores how right they are to do so. One such event is now attracting a great deal of attention in both Russia and Germany. It deserves to be known even more widely.<br />
<br />
Because the G-20 summit took place in Hamburg this year and because it featured a meeting between Putin and Donald Trump, German and Russian commentators have recalled an earlier meeting in Hamburg, in 1994, when Estonian President Lennart Meri delivered a remarkable address that caused Vladimir Putin to stomp out of the hall.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO3dAPmU83_aLEAiXg49YGvozV78j8Y3v3DFwwGjEpBLuh7Ckd4ds4_7keYN6c02OrJy6bWkHyLo8Yc6XLIQTH0VPLRD89LpzF0cdBh_4qer5g2xcbOfHrAaR6PbgjlEGmIqbo8vWLFlC_/s1600/File_Kaart+Hanzesteden+en+handelsroutes.jpg+-+Wikimedia+Commons.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="800" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO3dAPmU83_aLEAiXg49YGvozV78j8Y3v3DFwwGjEpBLuh7Ckd4ds4_7keYN6c02OrJy6bWkHyLo8Yc6XLIQTH0VPLRD89LpzF0cdBh_4qer5g2xcbOfHrAaR6PbgjlEGmIqbo8vWLFlC_/s320/File_Kaart+Hanzesteden+en+handelsroutes.jpg+-+Wikimedia+Commons.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hanseatic Leage cities and trade routes.<br />
Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Doc_Brown">Doc Brown</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That action, <a href="http://zeit.de/2016/08/wladimir-putin-buergermeister-matthiae-mahl-hamburg-1994">as German officials have pointed out</a>, was unprecedented in the centuries during which this dinner has been held and raises questions to this day about Putin and more generally about Russia and its relationship to Europe. <br />
<br />
That event occurred on February 25, 1994, at the Mathia-Dinner of Hansa cities and their representatives. Among the honored guests that day were Meri and a relatively junior Russian official, the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin, who shocked those in attendance by his boorish behavior.<br />
<br />
Russian outlets have published excerpts from Lennart Meri’s speech, which are remarkable not only in their description of what was taking place in Europe and Eurasia in the mid-1990s but also in their predictions about the ways in which Moscow even then was threatening the West (<a href="http://echo.msk.ru/blog/currenttime/2015216-echo/">echo.msk.ru/blog/currenttime/2015216-echo/</a>, <a href="http://svoboda.org/a/28605684.html">svoboda.org/a/28605684.html</a>, and <a href="http://currenttime.tv/a/28598781.html">currenttime.tv/a/28598781.html</a>).<br />
<br />
Below is the full text of President Meri’s remarks <a href="http://vp1992-2001.president.ee/eng/k6ned/K6ne.asp?ID=9401">from the portal of the Office of the Estonian President</a>. They merit the closest attention both for their analysis of the situation and for the guidance they should be providing other leaders who have to interact with Putin now and in the future.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Address by H.E. Lennart Meri, President of the Republic of Estonia, at the Matthiae-Supper in Hamburg on February 25, 1994</h3>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
Dear Mayor, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixVdx4KDCAoVFYCijsDRIWhpk04pXtjtKPxgT0sOJ_hbcqg4I5T3b1BQQV4U59sO7bH4XgubBUm6BcoleltughngtWqJXAFoEoPsxrBlnUD45UZm8Cu2dBCYd87jRDbzWicAetb4yaAgPt/s1600/lennart-meri-2.png+%2528PNG+Image%252C+600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0500+pixels%2529.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixVdx4KDCAoVFYCijsDRIWhpk04pXtjtKPxgT0sOJ_hbcqg4I5T3b1BQQV4U59sO7bH4XgubBUm6BcoleltughngtWqJXAFoEoPsxrBlnUD45UZm8Cu2dBCYd87jRDbzWicAetb4yaAgPt/s320/lennart-meri-2.png+%2528PNG+Image%252C+600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0500+pixels%2529.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Lennart Meri</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I am the President of the Republic of Estonia. When I see before me the pointed steeples of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg, I might as well think I am at home, in the old Hanseatic city of Reval/Tallinn on the Gulf of Finland. However, I have an honourable duty to fulfil here today - a duty which I consider particularly important: I have to give you a message from my country which is situated quite near to Hamburg.<br />
<br />
The Hanseatic spirit, with which even today, a number of towns in Estonia, besides Tallinn, still feel a rapport, has always been an open-minded spirit. Yet it has also been an enterprising spirit, even a combative one, when freedom and its protection has been at stake.<br />
<br />
Back home, on the Tallinn Town Hall there is a sentence in German which illustrates this Hanseatic spirit:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Fürchte Gott, rede die Wahrheit, tue Recht und scheue niemand" /Fear God, tell the truth, do justice, and be afraid of nobody/ </blockquote>
I would like to abide by this centuries-old command and openly tell you the truth as it currently appears to my people and myself.<br />
<br />
The freedom of every individual, the freedom of the economy and trade, as well as the freedom of the mind, of culture and science are inseparably interconnected.<br />
<br />
They form the prerequisite of a viable democracy.<br />
<br />
The Estonian people never abandoned their faith in this freedom during the decades of totalitarian oppression. This freedom, the notion of freedom has developed in our country over many centuries, from the relations that we have had and cultivated with the rest of Europe. Without being immodest, I dare say there is hardly any other nation in the eastern part of Central Europe that was, and is, more closely connected with Europe than the Estonian people. Today one can still behold it in the lifestyle of even the most unpretentious of my fellow countrymen.<br />
<br />
Because we are a people belonging to Western European society and since, unfortunately, we live in a land which is geostrategically very vulnerable, we have developed a stronger instinct than many a European for discerning the problems and threats that loom in our vicinity. This discernment has been largely lost in our modern world. To illustrate it graphically, it is much like with epidemic germs: they know man all right, whereas the ordinary man cannot recognize them, he is just afraid of them.<br />
<br />
Who was it, but the small Baltic nations whom the world had already forgotten, that actually caused the big and mighty Soviet State to collapse -- and peacefully, mind you, without a single shot fired or a single drop of blood shed. We acted according to our sound common sense -- indeed oftentimes in defiance of not quite selfless, conformist warnings.<br />
<br />
I would like to tell you quite openly, as the old maxim on our Town Hall requires me to do, that my people and I watch with a certain concern how little the West realizes what is currently brewing in the expanses of Russia.<br />
<br />
From a subjective point of view it is understandable that the breakdown of the Soviet Union caused the West to feel a kind of triumph; it is also understandable, subjectively, that the West concentrated all its hopes and empathies on the true or ostensible forces of reform in Russia. This attitude, however, has brought the West to a risk of wishful thinking.<br />
<br />
All of us, including the Estonian people and other peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, wish as much as the West economically and socially stable Russia. Yet when we track the achievements of the latter years, we should be overtaken by an uneasy feeling that we have been moving farther away from our goal.<br />
<br />
What is it that worries Estonians, and not only them, in the present development of Europe? We were astounded to see that the West invited Russian troops and tanks to Sarajevo. Ever since Bismarck and the 1878 Berlin Congress, it has been the West's policy, for the sake of peace, to keep Russians as far away from the Balkans as possible. Since World War II the United States and the West have invested over $80 billion to keep Titoism alive and the Soviets away from the Adriatic.<br />
<br />
Let us ask ourselves: Is it possible, that a state, which itself is grappling with the hardest unsettled ethnic and ethical problems should be trusted to act as an arbitrator and peacemaker in other states that also have ethnic problems? The unease will be growing when one examines one of the recent documents issued by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It states there that the problem of ethnic Russian groups in the neighbouring countries cannot be solved by Russia by diplomatic means alone. Those ethnic Russian groups, however, have oftentimes settled down in the wake of occupants and mass deportations of the native population.<br />
<br />
One can only conclude from this Moscow memorandum that, if necessary, other measures may also be taken. As to what these measures could be, we Estonians - along with other smaller nations - have had bitter experiences in our recent history.<br />
<br />
So I am worried that once again irrationalism is getting out of hand in Russian foreign policy and Russian political philosophy. Years ago Solzhenitsyn called on Russians to bid farewell to the empire and instead concentrate on themselves. He used the word "self-restriction" and demanded that the Russians should solve their own economic, social, and also intellectual problems. Neglecting this imperative of their great compatriot's, responsible Russian politicians have suddenly, once again, begun to speak openly about the purported "special role" of Russia, about a "peacekeeper" function that the new Russia has to fulfil throughout the whole territory of the former USSR. Mr Karaganov, one of President Yeltsin's closest advisors, recently expressed this in seemingly unobtrusive form but, in fact quite harshly, when he said that Russia was to play the role of "primus inter pares" - the first among equals - in the entire area of the former Soviet empire. This reminds me of a phrase once coined by George Orwell about Soviet communism:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"All are equal, but some are more equal than others!"</blockquote>
Why does the new, post-communist Russia, which claims to have broken with the evil traditions of the USSR, stubbornly refuse to admit that the Baltic nations - Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians - were occupied and annexed against their will and contrary to international law, in 1940, and once again in 1944, and subsequently brought to the limit of their national existence through five decades of sovietization and russification?<br />
<br />
Even today a deputy Moscow foreign minister, Mr Krylov, officially declared in his reply to the Baltic states that, in 1940, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had joined the Soviet Union "voluntarily". This is little short of the statement that tens of thousands of Estonians, including my family and myself, had "voluntarily" let themselves be deported to Siberia by the Soviets.<br />
<br />
Ladies and gentlemen, how do we fathom all of this calmly and earnestly?<br />
<br />
Naturally, it is the more or less familiar kind of irrationalism that is born in Russia and that makes Russian politics look unpredictable. However, there is also another equally alarming tendency, which out of convenience is passed off as Realpolitik in the democratic West. That is a proclivity for an approach that can be labelled as "appeasement". With this approach, one unwittingly becomes an accomplice of imperialist forces in Russia who believe that they can solve their country's immense problems by outward expansion and by threatening their neighbours.<br />
<br />
All of the free West is outraged and appalled at the well-known statements made by Zhirinovski. But, astonishingly, hardly anyone has taken note of, and no one has protested against, what the Russian foreign minister Kozyrev declared the other day: the government in Moscow regards the continued presence of Russian troops in the former Soviet republics as desirable.<br />
<br />
Our consistent approach to the issue of the actual political situation in Europe proceeds from our historical experience and our sense of responsibility: behind our back there is no barren fallow land, there are other free European states.<br />
<br />
The social-political or economic processes in Russia, which even today is still more like a supercontinent than a state, cannot be controlled from the outside, as much as one would like to do so. This has been clearly demonstrated by the experience of the recent years: the wide-spread inclination of the free West to regard any leader who happens to be in office in Moscow -be it Khrushchov, Brezhnev, Gorbachov or Yeltsin - as irreplaceable has lead to tremendously bad investments and misjudgements.<br />
<br />
Whoever really wants to help Russia and the Russian people today must make it emphatically clear to the Russian leadership that another imperialist expansion will not stand a chance. Whoever fails to do so will actually help the enemies of democracy in Russia and other post-communist states.<br />
<br />
As I said, ladies and gentlemen: Estonia is situated very near to Germany and Hamburg. Western, and above all German policy, has to make a fateful choice. Either the neo-imperialist policy of a great eastern power will be tolerated, financed, and in the short term, possibly even profited from; that, dear listeners, would be a policy unable to see an inch further than one's nose. Or the notions of democracy, feedom, responsibility and peace will be helped on the road to success across the whole gigantic area between the Baltic Sea and the Pacific Ocean; if one wants to do that, the democratic West should resolutely contribute to the stability and security of the medium and smaller-sized states to the east of the German border. Here I mean the whole area of Central Europe, which in my view reaches from the Estonian border town of Narva, on the Baltic Sea, to the Adriatic, also including Ukraine.<br />
<br />
If we manage to integrate this zone of states into the democratic world, then the model effect of these countries will be felt in the Russian area. We want to, I should say we have to, be safely anchored in the West. From such a safe position, rather than from some kind of twilight zone, we will be able to assume our function of as a bridge between East and West and, at the same time, assist the democratic forces of Russia. Then it will be possible, progressing from west to east, to help democracy, free enterprise, private property, and not least of all the rule of law, on the road to success.<br />
<br />
If, however, those states, including Estonia, are left to their own devices and exposed to the potential neo-imperialist appetites of Moscow, the price for it would be too high, even for all Europe, to pay.<br />
<br />
Ladies and gentlemen, I have told you about some of the gravest concerns from which it follows that the Baltic states have in fact become the touchstone of the European idea. But if we unite our wills to do away with the reasons for these concerns, we shall have a promising vision of a peaceful future before us.<br />
<br />
This is based on convincing facts. We can see common interests between Estonia, Northwestern Russia and the entire Baltic and North Sea area. We shall then be able to speak of a natural gas pipeline which will convey Norwegian gas through the Kola Peninsula and the free Baltic states up to Hamburg. We can see a motorway running all the way from St. Petersburg through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to Berlin and further - the "Via Baltica". We can see quite a few free trade zones and development areas for new initiatives. Much like in the past, Reval/Tallinn would then act as an agent between Hamburg and other Hansa cities in the West on the one hand, and Novgorod, that is the Russian area, on the other. Hansa-like cooperation is a natural outlook for the future for all the states lying on the Baltic and the neighbouring North Sea.<br />
<br />
The Republic of Estonia, which for its domestic, economic and social policies is among the most stable states of the region, could offer you, ladies and gentlemen, good services, solidarity and friendship.<br />
<br />
We try hard to understand your situation. My request is: please try to understand our situation too. It is in the interests of all of Europe and hence, in your interests here in Germany and in Hamburg, that Estonia should remain democratic and free.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
See also:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/worlds-main-security-issue-today-is.html">World’s main security issue today is Russian poisoned public opinion</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/there-is-no-civil-war-in-ukraine.html">There is no "civil war" in Ukraine</a></li>
</ul>
<br />paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-9641468509214336372017-06-05T12:52:00.001+01:002017-06-06T22:43:19.696+01:00Venezuela: Proof Corbyn's no 'Man of Peace'<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5LVOS1g8nVYnKMfLg4HQH9J8_ofJO0fNvpdhRxHzT5bkfiKGMOyp1I1RzzuI1-W6Kp_4Fvyl-WSakYLt7ymAtBAFfnZtkOBr4Ltdg_oG3M0HxZR5cSZYIXtStesoOJUW3w_EeZvIKHgMx/s1600/longform-original-8956-1496158829-15+%2528longform-original-8956-1496158829-15.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+1600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A01067+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252861%2525%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1058" data-original-width="969" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5LVOS1g8nVYnKMfLg4HQH9J8_ofJO0fNvpdhRxHzT5bkfiKGMOyp1I1RzzuI1-W6Kp_4Fvyl-WSakYLt7ymAtBAFfnZtkOBr4Ltdg_oG3M0HxZR5cSZYIXtStesoOJUW3w_EeZvIKHgMx/s640/longform-original-8956-1496158829-15+%2528longform-original-8956-1496158829-15.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+1600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A01067+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252861%2525%2529%2529.jpg" width="586" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture of Maikol Mendoza by Cristian Hernandez</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Maikol Mendoza is a 17 year old Venezuelan who finally got a chance of life with a rare kidney transplant. The rat infested, medicine deprived state of his country's health care system has now deprived him of that second chance.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Then, Maikol became infected with a highly resistant bacteria borne out of the hospital’s poorly maintained water pipes. </blockquote>
<a class="bold" href="https://twitter.com/karlazabs" title="Karla Zabludovsky">Karla Zabludovsky</a> piece <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/karlazabludovsky/these-people-had-a-second-chance-at-life-venezuela-is?bfsource=bbf_enus&utm_term=.iwD5d0lPr#.uhY4Qg05O">for Buzzfeed on Mendoza and others</a> suffering under a collapsing health care system is but one of many.
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Stories like Maikol's are everywhere in Venezuela, where the health care system is on the brink of total collapse and patients who thought they were in the clear are back to fighting a harsh reality. Hospitals have left patients’ families to fend for themselves, scurrying to purchase everything from syringes to anesthesia, often at exuberant black market rates, and forcing doctors to perform surgery with antiquated equipment in operating rooms cleaned with dirty water.
</blockquote>
<div>
Many of those reading this will have read similar reporting from Venezuela. What escapes me is why the leadership of the UK Labour party, who have so publicly identified themselves with the 'Bolivarian revolution', has not been asked about it.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<h3>
The great cut off</h3>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
June 2015 is that last time Jeremy Corbyn said anything on the record about Venezuela. Eight months later he <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/venezuela-lefts-giant-forgetting.html">scrubbed his website</a> of any mention of the country.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To my knowledge Diane Abbott, Ken Livingstone, Richard Burgon, Owen Jones, Neil Findlay, and Seumas Milne have also all said nothing since this time. Bar a single reference discovered <a href="https://historyjack.com/2017/01/03/starvation-and-silence-the-british-left-and-moral-accountability-for-venezuela/">by Jack Staples-Butler</a>:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
As of this writing, Owen Jones has not used the word ‘Venezuela’ in
print or online in the English language since 31st May 2015, over 580
days, mentioning it only when interviewed for a Spanish newspaper in
June 2016, admitting “Venezuela is in a horrible state”<a href="https://historyjack.com/2017/01/03/starvation-and-silence-the-british-left-and-moral-accountability-for-venezuela/#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17">[17]</a> while making no reference to Chávez, socialism or his own involvement.</div>
</blockquote>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Since Corbyn's election as the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition the Venezuelan Solidarity Campaign most prominent public backer has been <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/venezuela-lefts-giant-forgetting.html">a Gandalf impersonator from a rail union</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<h3>
Venezuela? Where's that?</h3>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
This January<a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Rising-Leftists-Jeremy-Corbyn-and-Lopez-Obrador-Meet-in-Mexico-20170101-0014.html"> Corbyn was in Mexico</a>, on holiday, discussing his "dream of realizing a world government based on justice and fraternity,” with Mexico's Lopez Obrador, Venezuelan state TV channel Telesur reported.<br />
<br />
The same month I imagine that Maikol Mendoza was wondering whether his transplant was happening.</div>
<div>
<br />
<div>
A year ago <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jeremy-corbyn-responds-to-leadership-challenge-and-theresa-mays-coronation-as-pm-by-going-to-cuban-solidarity-event_uk_5783d4b1e4b07a99eadd0fcd">on the day of Theresa May's election</a> and to, presumably, cock a snoot at the Parliamentary Labour Party's meeting, Corbyn instead chose to not comment on May and to attend a Cuba Solidarity event in Parliament.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In the time since he stopped talking about Venezuela the Organisation of American States, Spain and the Vatican have all ramped up their efforts at a peace process President Maduro has trashed.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
At the end of April the Pope, in his weekly address, <a href="http://www.pagadiandiocese.org/2017/05/25/venezuelan-activists-call-for-help-in-vatican-and-pope-francis-calls-for-end-to-violence/">said</a>: "I make a heartfelt appeal to the government and all components of Venezuelan society to avoid any more forms of violence, respect human rights and seek a negotiated solution."<br />
<br />
<h3>
People are starving</h3>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf8__UWLa3vzE98cLbUqn6El-4HZ4-qRmb_1aRKmlwByUytcIi4rfbz-lYuXQ-poMH68mnqxJ-7UxpI9J5UuBuU3aFPwkETphxlntg4UuwGi3UwBF58G3AiFTfN0cWN2IveQRXqNUagWFo/s1600/bbc+venezuela.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="892" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf8__UWLa3vzE98cLbUqn6El-4HZ4-qRmb_1aRKmlwByUytcIi4rfbz-lYuXQ-poMH68mnqxJ-7UxpI9J5UuBuU3aFPwkETphxlntg4UuwGi3UwBF58G3AiFTfN0cWN2IveQRXqNUagWFo/s400/bbc+venezuela.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Francisco Toro, executive editor of the excellent English language website <a href="https://www.caracaschronicles.com/">Caracas Chronicles</a>,<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/06/01/venezuelas-hunger-crisis-is-for-real/?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.0dd697e7ca33"> spoke to</a> a worker for the Catholic charity Caritas last week:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Caritas constructed a sample of more than two dozen at-risk areas in the poorest parishes of four Venezuelan states and started weighing children under 5 years old. This allows Caritas to measure “global acute malnutrition” — the key mechanism humanitarians use to assign numbers to the severity of hunger. In October, 8.9 percent of the children they measured faced either moderate or severe acute malnutrition. The number was high, and it has kept rising. By April, 11.4 percent of of children in vulnerable areas were experiencing acute malnutrition — well above the 10 percent threshold humanitarian agencies use to declare a food crisis.</blockquote>
Maduro refuses to declare a food crisis, which would trigger international support, and refuses to allow humanitarian aid agencies<a href="https://www.irinnews.org/feature/2016/11/22/venezuelans-forced-live-scraps-aid-shut-out"> to properly do their work</a> or to bring in food and medicines. Instead he has <a href="https://twitter.com/Fusion/status/776367523306450944">publicly joked</a> about starvation and putting the nation on the 'Maduro diet'. The military is now<a href="https://t.co/kj0vFq43IW"> starving the populace for profit.</a><br />
<br />
Chavistas will blame the situation on the fall in the price of oil and the sulfurous Yankees, but malnutrition in children was <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21654653-un-honours-venezuela-curbing-hungerwhich-actually-getting-worse-let-them-eat-chavismo">already reversing</a> from last decade's gains five years ago, before that price fell. The BBC World Service's 'The Inquiry' <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p051zkj8">showed </a>that Venezuela's economy has long had structural problems - and Chavista policies have only made them worse and led to today's situation.<br />
<br />
The Maduro regime <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-big-banks-keep-their-distance-from-venezuela-small-ones-get-the-deals-1496346581">is now relying</a> on financing from, amongst others, Goldman Sachs. Yes that Goldman Sachs.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Why are they doing this? Because they still believe they are creating a socialist paradise.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/08/09/its-the-marxism-stupid/">Writing for Caracas Chronicles</a> César Crespo explained how Chavez' long game "was always establishing an “alternative” to capitalism." Spanish Marxist Professor Alfredo Serrano Mancilla, the main economic advisor to the government, <a href="http://panampost.com/orlando-avendano/2016/08/16/spanish-marxist-professor-alfredo-serrano-is-the-man-behind-venezuelas-economic-messalfredo-serrano-the-man-behind-the-economic-crisis-in-venezuela/">has been described</a> by Maduro as the "Jesus Christ of the economy." His prescriptions include:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Expropriations, the seizure of businesses, “urban agriculture” on balconies, the soviet supply system and forced employment in the public agriculture sector.</blockquote>
Mancilla wants any crisis hidden and no aid allowed in. According to the Spanish newspaper El Nacional, Mancilla has "solidified the idea that the socialist economic model of the 21st century is unquestionable, and that any failure is the result of attacks from the opposition."<br />
<br />
<h3>
Corbyn could have acted - he chose not to</h3>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCdMjjDvZm-exdiBYSHzOkb_yTkz7BA25qNHelO79hyZPi6B3v9ET3iWoqmZ48OX7a99Vdl9co3Q30ln4ZdZ92gYa4-RGtTCxy8-oQGngiwgy3b0Ird7pC5RTiG-BpAKffn7ZEuRVZhAan/s1600/corbyn+venezuela3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="515" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCdMjjDvZm-exdiBYSHzOkb_yTkz7BA25qNHelO79hyZPi6B3v9ET3iWoqmZ48OX7a99Vdl9co3Q30ln4ZdZ92gYa4-RGtTCxy8-oQGngiwgy3b0Ird7pC5RTiG-BpAKffn7ZEuRVZhAan/s320/corbyn+venezuela3.png" width="320" /></a></div>
When his visit to the region he professes to love was reported by Telesur at the beginning of this year Corbyn could have spoken out on Venezuela. When he spoke to the Cuban Solidarity crowd last June he could have spoken out.<br />
<br />
He could have demanded:<br />
<ol>
<li>That the Venezuelan government rejoin the peace process</li>
<li>That the Venezuelan government declare a food crisis</li>
<li>That the Venezuelan government allow humanitarian aid agencies and NGOs to freely operate and to bring in aid</li>
</ol>
<div>
He could have repeated the words, practically word-for-word, of the Pope.<br />
<br />
Here's the thing. Even within the worldview of supporters, like him, of Chavismo the country is deemed under attack from the evil behemoth to the North - yet still Corbyn (and all the others) has stayed silent and refused to come to the aid of the 'revolution'.<br />
<br />
Never mind what happened 35 years ago or even 14 years ago (see an 'Exclusive!' piece today about Corbyn and North Korea) - what about now? <b>Right now</b>?<br />
<br />
Venezuela is Corbyn's opportunity to not just play a 'Man of Peace' but to actually be one. He failed.<br />
<br />
I have no doubt that even if I had published this weeks ago it would have had little impact, it is clear that such issues are largely irrelevant in this election. But it remains important that people know - Venezuela is the proof everyone has missed in this election, that Corbyn is no 'Man of Peace'.<br />
<br />
<b>Edited to add</b>: Corbyn could have taken a lead from Spain's left wing party Podemos. They realised back in 2014 that they had to distance themselves from Chavismo, something they had previously been entwined with. This has caused the Maduro regime a lot of pain and demonstrates how someone like Corbyn similarly reversing could have a positive impact. See <a href="https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/05/23/53898/">Caracas Chronicles from last May</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
Do also read:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/venezuela-lefts-giant-forgetting.html">Venezuela: The left's giant forgetting</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/venezuela-corbyvista-warning.html">Venezuela: A Corbynvista warning</a> </li>
<li>James Bloodworth, '<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-left-has-a-blind-spot-on-venezuela-when-will-it-acknowledge-that-chavezs-socialist-dream-has-9138930.html">The left has a blind spot on Venezuela. When will it acknowledge that Chavez's socialist dream has turned into a nightmare?</a>'</li>
<li>Jack Staples-Butler: <a href="https://historyjack.com/2017/01/03/starvation-and-silence-the-british-left-and-moral-accountability-for-venezuela/">Starvation and Silence: The British Left and Moral Accountability for Venezuela</a> </li>
<li>Francisco Toro: <a href="http://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/05/23/treatment-chavismos-fellow-travellers-deserve/">The Treatment Chavismo’s Fellow Travellers Deserve </a></li>
<li>Clifton Ross: <a href="https://libcom.org/blog/turning-point-open-letter-my-chavista-friends-03062017">At the Turning Point: An Open Letter to my Chavista Friends</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://www.irinnews.org/feature/2016/11/22/venezuelans-forced-live-scraps-aid-shut-out">Venezuelans forced to live off scraps, but aid shut out </a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/06/01/venezuelas-hunger-crisis-is-for-real/?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.0dd697e7ca33">Venezuela’s hunger crisis is for real </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p051zkj8">How Did Venezuela Go From So Rich To So Poor?</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/01/06/meet-the-undertakers/">Meet the Undertakers: Venezuela’s Terrifying New Economics Tsar and the People He Hangs Out With </a></li>
</ul>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h3>
</div>
paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-53301502797374152452017-05-25T16:36:00.001+01:002017-05-25T18:31:29.078+01:00The left and Manchester: Some good news<div class="separator tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WtvY9bz74KQyYwNi5_wSKozYuS0GZT8p2d-E3Wh1bmdFwNRqtgWfPG50_BqZ1gs5zjhemkIdD_SL_lbDYBsmb_FhyoTC53ZNSphwS7hK75vHr7KV6SgRY4Nnkr44qiDMcDcZBkEybFko/s1600/DAniPgZXkAAs11H+%2528DAniPgZXkAAs11H.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+1200%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0632+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252896%2525%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="1200" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WtvY9bz74KQyYwNi5_wSKozYuS0GZT8p2d-E3Wh1bmdFwNRqtgWfPG50_BqZ1gs5zjhemkIdD_SL_lbDYBsmb_FhyoTC53ZNSphwS7hK75vHr7KV6SgRY4Nnkr44qiDMcDcZBkEybFko/s640/DAniPgZXkAAs11H+%2528DAniPgZXkAAs11H.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+1200%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0632+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252896%2525%2529%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">British comedian Rufus Hound* toying with conspiracy theories</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Since the Manchester bombings there has been an understandable need to point and either laugh or yell at some of the 'hot takes' circulating online.<br />
<br />
Whether they're coming from a comedian or some <a href="https://twitter.com/wallaceme/status/867371109896916993">random woman with a Corbyn backback</a> yelling 'conspiracy!' at soldiers outside Downing Street. Whether its <a href="https://twitter.com/Welshbeard/status/867680355297492993">some Texas redneck Sheriff</a> seemingly arguing that British teenage girls should be armed or, in the case of a <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/866842157033947136">tweet of mine which went viral</a>, some FoxNews commentator ignorant of the IRA bombing of Manchester 21 years ago.<br />
<br />
There's mountains of them and they're nigh-on impossible to resist (I should know). They're especially difficult to resist if you can use them to make a bigger political point, as <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/24/left-has-lost-plot-thinks-manchester-attack-tory-conspiracy/">Tom Harris did in a Telegraph piece</a> headlined 'The Left has lost the plot if it thinks the Manchester attack was a Tory conspiracy'.<br />
<br />
The thing is that 'the Left' is not, enmasse, conspiracising over Manchester, and that's significant.<br />
<br />
The well respected Canadian writer Terry Glavin has noticed this too. <a href="http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/glavin-were-shedding-idiotic-talk-about-terrorism">He says</a> that "a tectonic shift in the way the “debates” around terrorism [has] lately evolved."<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the NATO capitals, something has finally shifted in the way Islamist terror is understood. It is as though the public tolerance for claptrap and prevarication of both the leftish and rightist type has at last been reached, and a new consensus, of the kind expressed so beautifully by Mancunians this week – Muslim and otherwise – is beginning to take hold.</blockquote>
.......<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
At the time of the London bombings, Jeremy Corbyn, then just a boring, offside Labour MP, joined with London Mayor Ken Livingstone (recently suspended from the Labur Party for his dalliances with anti-Semitism) and the disgraced former Labour MP George Galloway (a fancier of Syrian genocidaire Bashar Assad and a Hezbollah enthusiast) in blaming the London attack on Western foreign policy.<br />
<br />
Corbyn is now the leader of a bitterly divided and vastly diminished Labour Party that is expected to be trounced by Prime Minister Theresa May in the June 8 parliamentary elections. You won’t hear Corbyn blaming the wicked former U.S. president George W. Bush for Monday night’s outrage in Manchester. It would be suicidal. Things have changed.<br />
<br />
The Manchester massacre occurred four years to the day after Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was butchered by “lone wolf” jihadists in the streets of Woolwich. Rigby’s throat was opened with a crude knife and he was nearly decapitated, with a meat cleaver. As recently as 2013, it was still fashionable to utter imbecilities lightening such murderers’ burden of guilt by resort to the “blowback” defence.<br />
<br />
At the time, the famous American fantasist/documentarian Michael Moore declared that Rigby’s slaughter was understandable, because Westerners “kill people in other countries.”<br />
<br />
This sort of vulgar “analysis” has been largely excised from respectable conversation and appears now to be confined to the sewers of public debate, where it belongs. On Tuesday, the Kremlin propaganda channel RT News found some “experts” who took up the line. So did the viciously homophobic and anti-Semitic British Hizb ut-Tahrir group, which is about as popular among British Muslims as Galloway is among Britain’s Labour Party MPs.</blockquote>
The leading proponents of blowback, Tariq Ali and John Pilger, have, post-Manchester, been confined to, respectively, Democracy Now! and Russia Today with their micro-audiences. It also seems that Stop The War Coalition (StWC) have STFU. They must be chafing at the bit.<br />
<br />
Of course there are people online connecting Corbyn's Iraq War opposition to somehow being 'prescient' because that War caused ISIS or something (and here is a brilliant meme <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewspoooner/status/867630095791517697">from Andrew Spooner</a> which nails down that canard).<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSab84SFTI_artUdC-ytqOEWG4aqtBRKUO4JW46ADClDWYbdvuAlen6rVjl5QFBq8WO-1n62I_mROrZ_XkhqCRN5Zfe_CgLoVVBlReeSViFdrUGk1U4_vgIhfhCsTbLF08l4Py1tLG2Uax/s1600/DApw8OKXkAAq0-r+%2528DApw8OKXkAAq0-r.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+790%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A01156+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252859%2525%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1156" data-original-width="790" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSab84SFTI_artUdC-ytqOEWG4aqtBRKUO4JW46ADClDWYbdvuAlen6rVjl5QFBq8WO-1n62I_mROrZ_XkhqCRN5Zfe_CgLoVVBlReeSViFdrUGk1U4_vgIhfhCsTbLF08l4Py1tLG2Uax/s640/DApw8OKXkAAq0-r+%2528DApw8OKXkAAq0-r.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+790%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A01156+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252859%2525%2529%2529.jpg" width="435" /></a></div>
<br />
But these are fringe voices.<br />
<br />
As I write what 'blowback' argument there is is coming not just from the left but from everywhere on the political spectrum and it's about Theresa May's stint as Home Secretary and <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/theresa-may-warned-by-manchester-police-that-cuts-risked-terror-attack-2017-5">her cuts to the police</a>.<br />
<br />
As Glavin notes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The people of Manchester are not unfamiliar with the horrible implications of “radicalization” among young Muslim men. The Muslim leadership in that city has been acutely concerned with the implications of jihadist recruitment and grooming for some long while.</blockquote>
As is so often the case, it seems the bomber was indeed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/24/libyans-in-uk-warned-about-manchester-radicalisation-for-years">reported to authorities</a>. Whether police cuts really did play a role, given how expanded the security services have been, I don't know, but citing them is entirely legitimate and that's what the Corbynistas are doing along with a whole lot of other people.<br />
<br />
What the biggest (with one exception) Corbyn supporting websites are <b>not </b>doing is indulging conspiracy theories, such as that the bombing was a false flag connected to the election or that the army deployment is to somehow win the election.<br />
<br />
These websites, as Jim Waterson <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/the-rise-of-the-alt-left?utm_term=.wa6BR1RQrk#.dmlZOyOA1P">documented for Buzzfeed</a>, have truly huge audiences and are consequently extremely influential but fly pretty much under the radar of Tweetminster.<br />
<br />
Thomas G Clark (Another Angry Voice (AAV)), writes Waterson, is "measured by Facebook shares per article in the first week of the election campaign, the most viral political journalist in the entire country. "<br />
<br />
None of AAV, The Canary, Evolve Politics, and Skwawkbox have indulged conspiracism. (The Canary even had, I swear this is true, an editorial the day after the bombing that would not have been out of place in The Guardian)<br />
<br />
The exception<a href="https://t.co/Pwxi32geMg"> is Mike Sivier's hysterical VoxPolitical</a>, with Sivier writing that "Mrs May’s deployment of the army indicates she is quite happy to use terror tactics on her own people."<br />
<br />
I wrote a comment to Sivier, which of course he won't publish:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhowSC3Yw-5XK66KgNFPTMBYg1CwdRzaqkJ1C4H0FZb31lvxDt-JbgyhLnl6s6IB9Hna-p841-cohlkQ02MBxqAyillOtevC96tGci7kPmNq-gevb6QIdWU0irhLGWLST_dycovaAqjg8Xv/s1600/sivier.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="564" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhowSC3Yw-5XK66KgNFPTMBYg1CwdRzaqkJ1C4H0FZb31lvxDt-JbgyhLnl6s6IB9Hna-p841-cohlkQ02MBxqAyillOtevC96tGci7kPmNq-gevb6QIdWU0irhLGWLST_dycovaAqjg8Xv/s400/sivier.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Clark <a href="http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/was-manchester-atrocity-false-flag.html">for AAV wrote last night</a> <i>against </i>the conspiracy theorists, saying that "conspiracy theorising about "false flags" is deeply unhelpful".<br />
<blockquote>
The evidence-free assertions that the Tories plotted this attack themselves are damaging to the fabric of British political debate. The Tories might well be an incredibly callous party, but in my view they're also far too incompetent to pull something like that off without leaving incriminating evidence all over the place.<br />
<br />
The important issues at the moment are that they deserve intense scrutiny about the extreme cuts they imposed on the armed forces, police, emergency services, hospitals and border agency. Also serious questions need to be asked about the emerging accusations that the bomber had been shopped to the police several times for having links to Islamist extremism.</blockquote>
<br />
Of course they have sailed right up to the line and there's a lot of stuff here I think is idiotic, particularly the stuff around the bombing halting a 'Corbyn surge' when its clear May's time as Home Secretary is coming back to haunt her over the issue of, of all things, security. Daniel Sugarman pointed me at this from Skwawkbox's Steve Walker, but I don't think its conspiracism because Walker's not saying the troop deployment was in order to win the election (i.e. there's a conspiracy).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6eLMRi91-MS3wDlo1UEU7q8QOoUEdrnYzJheolf2nqeO9yPRx19t57IivhSTcu9tzBnwkiw7QdNKWNgkt8IK9PDRLgYCxblsnnAvkslprKGLLjO4kgLikQkTDao6XI_FE-B7zAkrpGpf/s1600/DAmMfXkXoAEN8Zg+%2528DAmMfXkXoAEN8Zg.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+483%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0225+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="226" data-original-width="483" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6eLMRi91-MS3wDlo1UEU7q8QOoUEdrnYzJheolf2nqeO9yPRx19t57IivhSTcu9tzBnwkiw7QdNKWNgkt8IK9PDRLgYCxblsnnAvkslprKGLLjO4kgLikQkTDao6XI_FE-B7zAkrpGpf/s400/DAmMfXkXoAEN8Zg+%2528DAmMfXkXoAEN8Zg.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+483%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0225+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
And of course they have all sailed right over the line into conspiracism elsewhere. The Canary is right now doing that over the 'Evil Hillary murdered Seth Rich who dun the Wikileaks not the Russkies' conspiracy theory, as promoted by Fox New's Shaun Hannity. All of them have done it over antisemitism, with Sivier being<a href="https://medium.com/@AntiNazisUnited/welsh-labour-racism-and-mike-sivier-eccb483df23a"> a particularly stupid example</a>. Also, as <a href="https://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2016/01/14/political-confusion-in-europe-from-the-anti-imperialism-of-fools-to-racism/">Andrew Coates has documented</a>, conspiracism is growing within the European left. And, <a href="https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/05/manchester-attack-will-knitted-lefts-explanation-election-defeat/">as Nick Cohen</a> and others have suggested, they may well blame the Manchester bombings June 9 for Corbyn's defeat.<br />
<br />
But over the Manchester bombing, as of now, most of them aren't pushing conspiracies, and it was also notable to see Corbyn sidekick Baroness Chakrabati, the bete-noire of many reading this regarding her role around Labour and antisemitism, going out of her way to speak out against conspiracism <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/867141070366179328">on BBC Newnight</a>.<br />
<br />
Terry Glavin thinks Manchester signals that something might have changed for the better and I think the evidence suggests that it has.<br />
<br />
What if the non-Corbynistas, the 'sensible left', the fans of Nick Cohen - us - have actually had an impact?<br />
<br />
What if we were so caught up in our own bubble that we failed to notice when we've actually won ourselves a little victory?<br />
<br />
<br />
~~~~<br />
<br />
*Before someone cites Rufus Hound having 1.2 million followers on Twitter the way that works is that only a tiny fraction of that number will have actually seen the Tweet. Far more will have now, of course, because it's been amplified by the outrage to it.<br />
<br />
~~~~<br />
<br />
Also by me, for Little Green Footballs, '<a href="http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/323884_Manchester-_Defiant_and_Proud">Manchester: Defiant and Proud</a>' paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-50486402533901786012017-01-21T04:59:00.000+00:002019-10-01T12:09:58.306+01:00Two inaugurations: Two realities: Dakar vs DC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEojX3sajQBp-Tp9vM7AX72m7uB0gKwx8kBXl0wAOqk_fiTeNfFd67MjVQ94Q16rtvs9fHn6R9V5REwAzTJRU5gy61Xk5gMaDlB1cEWJvNDWnwJqmZfS958608k-MmciReu8LUxVg6Dlp-/s1600/The+true+size+of+Africa+%25E2%2580%2593+it%25E2%2580%2599s+bigger+than+you+think+%2528The+true+size+of+Africa+%25E2%2580%2593+it%25E2%2580%2599s+bigger+than+you+think.gif+%2528GIF+Image%252C+620%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0693+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252894%2525%2529%2529.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEojX3sajQBp-Tp9vM7AX72m7uB0gKwx8kBXl0wAOqk_fiTeNfFd67MjVQ94Q16rtvs9fHn6R9V5REwAzTJRU5gy61Xk5gMaDlB1cEWJvNDWnwJqmZfS958608k-MmciReu8LUxVg6Dlp-/s640/The+true+size+of+Africa+%25E2%2580%2593+it%25E2%2580%2599s+bigger+than+you+think+%2528The+true+size+of+Africa+%25E2%2580%2593+it%25E2%2580%2599s+bigger+than+you+think.gif+%2528GIF+Image%252C+620%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0693+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252894%2525%2529%2529.gif" width="572" /></a></div>
<br />
America does not take kindly to the world telling it stuff but there is an opera in this.<br />
<br />
As the world watched - same time, same planet - its greatest power crowned a man who lost the vote to a woman. Same time, same planet, Africa peacefully forced out a man who lost power by the same majority vote to another man. <a href="https://twitter.com/ruthmaclean">Peacefully</a>.<br />
<br />
As the West hands nuclear codes to a man who lost the vote to a woman West Africa peacefully removes a man voted out by a majority.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Where? </h4>
<br />
The Gambia ('the' <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38675804">because of the river</a>) is a tiny, tiny country in West Africa you have probably never heard of. Its <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/05/12/gambias-president-threatens-to-slit-the-throats-of-gay-men/">gay hating</a> (a thing) dictator, Jammeh, won a coup. He lost 22 years later to someone, Adam Barrow, who <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/02/gambian-president-yahya-jammeh-concedes-defeat-22-years-rule/">once worked in a UK big box</a>.<br />
<br />
Jammeh conceded then he retracted. The region - <a href="http://www.ecowas.int/">ECOWAS </a>- told Jammeh to give in. They had done this before, told losers to concede. This is what they do.<br />
<br />
West Africa, ECOWAS, is bigger than the United States mainland. <span id="goog_587901711"></span><span id="goog_587901712"></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_projection">Thanks to a Belgian</a> this rarely crosses our collective mind.<br />
<br />
The UK big box guy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/19/new-gambian-leader-adama-barrow-sworn-in-at-ceremony-in-senegal">was inaugurated</a> in the neighboring state. All the neighbors said we will back you, with force.<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.roguechiefs.com/2017/01/20/democracy-gambia-crisis-west-africa-eager-intervene-regional-groups-soft-rogue-leaders/#.WIH7mlipZiE.twitter">contrast to the rest of Africa</a> this region had stood up for democracy. The dictator was forced from power. The same time as you inaugurated Trump.<br />
<br />
Same time as the Trump inaugural was happening this was happening.<br />
<br />
An African region was telling a member to uphold democracy. It rolled out troops.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYl9Gt-Uwahc5OecKfayQXfTmF_SVsBQnwY0utScApyAwd1DQT4TR5RJGmlCNWghxf2dXKNlTFMCP1Hzng2o36oCAWuCP2YeUKUMr99Pq2ybqK-yTgkvbgEevOx7Myd6rIojEL9gl38p8b/s1600/dikembe.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYl9Gt-Uwahc5OecKfayQXfTmF_SVsBQnwY0utScApyAwd1DQT4TR5RJGmlCNWghxf2dXKNlTFMCP1Hzng2o36oCAWuCP2YeUKUMr99Pq2ybqK-yTgkvbgEevOx7Myd6rIojEL9gl38p8b/s400/dikembe.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4>
Another contrast</h4>
<br />
The US has a President who has a minority of votes. His election is predicated on a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_college">200yr+ system</a> designed to boost states with small populations in a system that this country has never tried to change. There is V strong evidence<a href="http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/1/11/14215930/comey-email-election-clinton-campaign?utm_campaign=vox&utm_content=entry&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter"> he was elected</a> because of the intervention of a police chief, never mind the foreigners alleged to have interfered. There are electors calling him <a href="http://www.newsquench.com/article.php?n=john-lewis-calls-trumps-presidency-illegitimate&id=120685">illegitimate</a>.<br />
<br />
How hard is it for this white Londoner to see this through African eyes? Not very.<br />
<br />
As I mentioned, opera. Western tourists <a href="https://twitter.com/ruthmaclean/status/822488594459852801">watched Trump's speech in The Gambia's capital's, Banjuy, airport</a> as this all happened. Include that.<br />
<br />
Make art from this.paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-51696399639882235242017-01-04T05:05:00.000+00:002017-01-04T05:58:57.683+00:00Venezuela: A Corbynvista warning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCiadE-RLVX-c-yj1-4BtpClK5mHiLtey_Mu08a6UdwOlJFrdLLlT1IIx3VdJU1hyphenhyphen-mVcWff4f2ukvEwIstYWyg9fJ6_0SIB2GtxcBY2djMxwBAK8Xyr01QOevi05uvjFAlESAw-7viiK2/s1600/corbyn+venezuela14.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCiadE-RLVX-c-yj1-4BtpClK5mHiLtey_Mu08a6UdwOlJFrdLLlT1IIx3VdJU1hyphenhyphen-mVcWff4f2ukvEwIstYWyg9fJ6_0SIB2GtxcBY2djMxwBAK8Xyr01QOevi05uvjFAlESAw-7viiK2/s640/corbyn+venezuela14.png" width="494" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
“Negative campaigning works against other candidates but not against
Corbyn,” one Smith aide said. “For a lot of people he embodies something
about themselves. It’s a statement of intent about your personal
identity, a personality marker to like Corbyn. So attack that and people
take it personally.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/the-corbyn-supremacy?utm_term=.hykQyEpJZ1#.hykQyEpJZ1">Jim Waterson signalling</a> how a Corbyn identifying left will gladly sell out the likes of Venezuela's starving. Watch them - If/and you help this go viral.</blockquote>
<br />
<b>Even before they <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/venezuela-lefts-giant-forgetting.html">fell silent on Venezuela's food crisis</a> Jeremy Corbyn and others had failed to support Labour's cousins in that country. </b><br />
<br />
<b>They cheered Chavismo but run away like cowards as it falls. And their acolytes say nothing. </b><br />
<br />
In Venezuela there are four political parties that are sister parties to the UK's Labour Party, fellow members of <a href="http://www.socialistinternational.org/">the Socialist International</a> (the "<a href="http://www.socialistinternational.org/about.cfm">worldwide organisation of social democratic, socialist and labour parties</a>."):<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Era" title="A New Era">A New Era</a></li>
<li><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Action" title="Democratic Action">Democratic Action</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_for_Socialism_%28Venezuela%29" title="Movement for Socialism (Venezuela)">Movement for Socialism</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Will" title="Popular Will">Popular Will</a> </li>
</ul>
A member of the Democratic Action party and past vice president of the Socialist International, Henry Ramos Allup, was elected Speaker of the opposition controlled Venezuelan National Assembly in January this year.<br />
<br />
The Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, which Corbyn and others are aligned with, have <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=groowe&ie=UTF-8&q=site:www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk+opposition&gws_rd=cr,ssl&ei=zEPhV6mYEYSvgAaG35m4CA#q=site:www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk+right+wing">repeatedly said</a> that these Social Democrats are 'right wing'. <a href="http://www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk/right-wing-majority-in-venezuelas-national-assembly-the-constitutional-and-political-stakes/">Here's them</a> describing Ramos Allup as 'right wing'.<br />
<br />
They are no more 'right wing' than Owen Smith, Harriet Harman or Wes Streeting is but in Venezuela this label dumped on them by the Western likes of the VSC carries far more serious weight.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Herein lies a Lenin-echo tale</h3>
<br />
All four parties have been persecuted under, first, Hugo Chavez and now Nicholas Maduro. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4s_rlNC-6LeTaVdT3LRkjO4miSm0BJ5tMo6SVzdqT3Rr1I8Z1QMiJHEAAm9MI-W_ZaJ38QEcjbKr-cltUynQcZuT9zNsYDbGcY7hBonpUEB9DWvhh2Tpyk-bZXoMD35hXMCmmgyVO-Jip/s1600/_85483516_028966124-1+%252885483516_028966124-1.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+660%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0371+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4s_rlNC-6LeTaVdT3LRkjO4miSm0BJ5tMo6SVzdqT3Rr1I8Z1QMiJHEAAm9MI-W_ZaJ38QEcjbKr-cltUynQcZuT9zNsYDbGcY7hBonpUEB9DWvhh2Tpyk-bZXoMD35hXMCmmgyVO-Jip/s400/_85483516_028966124-1+%252885483516_028966124-1.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+660%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0371+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Leopoldo López, of Popular Will, is the most well known persecution subject. He was jailed in February 2014 on charges of public incitement to violence through supposed subliminal messages and criminal association. He had previously been subjected to corruption charges, and banned from running for office. Those charges were <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9851129">declared false by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights</a>.<br />
<br />
Chilean José Antonio Viera-Gallo tried to visit López in 2014 in a mission from the Socialist International and <a href="http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/141117/socialist-international-rejects-detention-of-dissenter-leopoldo-lopez">was denied access</a>. Viera-Gallo said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In a dictatorship, there are no rights whatsoever, and one is left at the mercy of power. Yesterday, we confirmed human right violations against a political leader.</blockquote>
In June this year <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2016-06-04/spains-ex-pm-meets-with-jailed-venezuelan-opposition-leader">the socialist former Spanish Prime minister Zapatero finally met López</a>. <br />
<br />
Amnesty International have <a href="http://amnistiaonline.org/Venezuela/Leopoldo_Lopez/">deemed López a Prisoner of Conscience</a> and <a href="http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/news-item/venezuela-trial-of-opposition-leader-an-affront-to-justice-and-free-assembly">have said that</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The charges brought against Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López," was a “smack of a politically motivated attempt to silence dissent in the country.”</blockquote>
Guadalupe Marengo, Amnesty International Americas Program Deputy Director, called on Venezuelan authorities to:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Either present solid evidence to substantiate the charges against López or release him immediately and unconditionally ... Amnesty International has not seen evidence to substantiate these charges. This is an affront to justice and free assembly.</blockquote>
The (UK) Venezuela Solidarity Campaign (VSC, whose prominent left-wing British supporters <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/venezuela-lefts-giant-forgetting.html">I called out</a>) have <a href="http://www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk/stand-up-and-be-counted-for-venezuela/">called López "right wing"</a> - have called <b>any </b>opposition 'right wing' - and has disseminated Venezuelan government propaganda against him.<br />
<br />
The group <a href="http://www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk/right-wing-opposition-provokes-violent-destabilization-efforts/">have said</a> about protests against food shortages and repression:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The calls for street action from the opposition, [amounts] to destabilizing the country. </blockquote>
This is the language of Putin, of Lukashenko. This is Stalinism. To underline that Kremlinesque 2013 post, the VSC specifically tied the social democrat López to "fascists".<br />
<br />
In this they echo the Venezuela government <a href="http://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/09/21/defenseless/">who just called</a> the Chilean Foreign Minister, who served under Allende, a 'Pinochetista' for daring to inquire about the arrest of one of its citizens, the lawyer Braulio Jatar.<br />
<br />
Jatar's imprisonment brings the number of political prisoners in Venezuela to 95.<br />
<br />
<h3>
'Man of peace'</h3>
<br />
I have looked and cannot find any contacts between Corbyn, or Ken Livingstone (for that matter), with Social Democrats in Venezuela.<br />
<br />
Corbyn has never, no instance I can find, defended López.<br />
<br />
Nor Manuel Rosales, another prominent (ran for President, exiled) Social Democrat persecuted by Chavismo. <br />
<br />
Neither had he any comment on the massive corruption <a href="http://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/04/18/dilma-jesus/">called out by Chavistas themselves</a>.<br />
<br />
Jack Staples-Butler's masterful, long-form c<a href="https://historyjack.com/2017/01/03/starvation-and-silence-the-british-left-and-moral-accountability-for-venezuela/">omplete demolition of Corbyn et al</a> demonstrates how none of them - Corbyn, Jones et al - payed any heed, none. to even Venezuelan civil society, NGOs or trade unionists.<br />
<br />
All of them were so bewitched, and, as Jack demonstrates, the 1930s, Orwell-Spain, parallels are so exact.<br />
<br />
¯\_(ツ)_/¯<br />
<br />
<h3>
That they did not know is impossible</h3>
<br />
In a 2013 <a href="https://youtu.be/5FEvh83_dc4">encounter on Al-Jazeera</a> Corbyn was called out on his Chavismo support with critics citing corruption, manipulation of elections, and alliances with dictatorships like Iran and Syria.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEi6kihaPjkmAfK4ldMiVlNAaOJMRbQ7GJRXz7xjt7MbwcY5fz2DE0pFsBaL2J-6WSvzdL1x6S9b13R-lI47s1JCS2mNpjSV090_jpZ5IP664eMjcvfgWPZ9OIAIVU61XamVu8_TN8f4XB/s1600/aljazeera.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEi6kihaPjkmAfK4ldMiVlNAaOJMRbQ7GJRXz7xjt7MbwcY5fz2DE0pFsBaL2J-6WSvzdL1x6S9b13R-lI47s1JCS2mNpjSV090_jpZ5IP664eMjcvfgWPZ9OIAIVU61XamVu8_TN8f4XB/s320/aljazeera.png" width="320" /></a>His answer - noteworthy angry - was to point to 'what Venezuela was like before Chavez' and the fact that Chavez had won elections. He denied that Chavez has clamped down on the media and described opposition criticism of Chavez in the media as "libelous"<br />
<br />
Since 2003, Freedom House <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FOTP%202003%20Full%20Report.pdf">has ranked Venezuela as "not free"</a> concerning press freedom. Concerns about freedom of the press in Venezuela have been raised by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Inter American Press Association, the International Press Institute, Reporters without Borders, representatives of the Catholic Church, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and others.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"[Chavez] was not a very efficient dictator because he allowed so much opposition to carry on," Corbyn said.</blockquote>
I refer you again to <a href="https://historyjack.com/2017/01/03/starvation-and-silence-the-british-left-and-moral-accountability-for-venezuela/">Jack Staples-Butler's surgical demolition</a> of Corbyn et al on this point. Jack takes apart every talking point from Corbyn, Owen Jones etc from this period and shines sunlight on it.<br />
<br />
Corbyn knew. Of course he knew. He knows now. Ask him and watch the 'man of peace' dissolve before your eyes. Ask.<br />
<br />
In his <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/British-MP-Jeremy-Corbyn-Speaks-Out-For-Venezuela-20150605-0033.html">last recorded comments</a> on Venezuela in June 2015 Corbyn did not include anything - not one word - on the grim situation with <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article93889342.html">hunger in Venezuela</a>, never mind the international outcry from fellow Social Democrats over the imprisonment of López. Almost the entire focus was on supposed American imperialism.<br />
<br />
Now he deletes all comment on Venezuela from his website.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRA8ACeJQ4QfbU6TpqQ7C8rWS6wWtwYmg2wmR3ydkp42dVZFAIgMlLMeQDd2RGMcnxdHYec48IuX5JVseNuL8-YrBy0UkRzBzTeD857U_sLHfSQeEnUCTVzsAAR5PPZ_l2Adou47SGS1S/s1600/screenshot-jeremycorbyn-org-uk-2016-11-13-21-29-32+%2528Starvation+and+Silence_+The+British+Left+and+Moral+Accountability+for+Venezuela+_+The+HistoryJack+Blog%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRA8ACeJQ4QfbU6TpqQ7C8rWS6wWtwYmg2wmR3ydkp42dVZFAIgMlLMeQDd2RGMcnxdHYec48IuX5JVseNuL8-YrBy0UkRzBzTeD857U_sLHfSQeEnUCTVzsAAR5PPZ_l2Adou47SGS1S/s320/screenshot-jeremycorbyn-org-uk-2016-11-13-21-29-32+%2528Starvation+and+Silence_+The+British+Left+and+Moral+Accountability+for+Venezuela+_+The+HistoryJack+Blog%2529.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Do not tell me they did not know. Owen Jones, Burgon, Abbott - FFS Milne. They all knew.<br />
<br />
Damn any unheard Venezuelan Social Democrat who complained. <a href="https://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/chavez-death-of-a-bonapart/">Shiraz Socialist</a>: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Essential to any Bonapartist regime is the role of the army. Chávez was a career soldier and this conditions his outlook and politics. This is not simply because he tried to seize power in 1992 through a military coup. It is widely recognised that Chávez militarised politics in Venezuela.<br />
<br />
Chávezs made it clear in interviews with sympathetic journalists such as Marta Harnecker and the hero-worshipping Richard Gott that a reconstructed “civilian-military alliance” was the key to his politics. His organisation, the MBR-200, formed in the early 1980s, was made up largely of middle level officers, with others in a secondary role.<br />
<br />
The armed forces have been central from the beginning of Chávez’s rule.</blockquote>
The military in now <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/15/venezuela-maduro-turns-to-military-in-struggle-to-retain-power.html">running the economy.</a> The military is now<a href="https://t.co/kj0vFq43IW"> starving the populace for profit.</a><br />
<br />
Let me underline that again. Maduro has let the military run food and they are profiting from it while people starve. <br />
<br />
One assumes this is fine by Corbyn et al but who knows? <b>No journalist has asked them about it.</b><br />
<br />
Serious people say<a href="https://twitter.com/anders_aslund/status/816411530581442560"> this will come to a financial head </a>in April. <a href="https://historyjack.com/2017/01/03/starvation-and-silence-the-british-left-and-moral-accountability-for-venezuela/">Jack Staples-Butler has ideas on who the Chavista apologists' fall guy will be</a><br />
<br />
<h3>
Will they get away with this?</h3>
<br />
As <a href="http://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/05/23/treatment-chavismos-fellow-travellers-deserve/">Caracas Chronicles noted</a> when Nick Cohen demolished the remaining left support for Chavismo earlier this year:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It’s been years since there was a serious argument to be had about the Bolivarian Revolution. The symbolic bookend to the debate, for me, came when <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/21/chomsky-chavez-free-judge-letter">Noam Chomsky broke with Chávez over his treatment of judge Afiuni</a>. </blockquote>
This is true except in the deaf/dumb left organised by the VSC in the UK, and exemplified by the Labour leader and still <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/venezuela-lefts-giant-forgetting.html">backed by big unions</a> and still left alone by UK media, even unto the Mail ...<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRqS0EIlBRGvT-NIxt7WaKtx15K__0hl7lCyn2N-6RHFoRrY8VCJt-mWg0-nnglSYhEDXfKmSFuWKl1NDOIzyvcjbOv8VqBWcAFB1qYqsBLcLID-tU_AHIyKBALQ3we-SnUlboAQ8EKmKd/s1600/unite.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRqS0EIlBRGvT-NIxt7WaKtx15K__0hl7lCyn2N-6RHFoRrY8VCJt-mWg0-nnglSYhEDXfKmSFuWKl1NDOIzyvcjbOv8VqBWcAFB1qYqsBLcLID-tU_AHIyKBALQ3we-SnUlboAQ8EKmKd/s320/unite.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is from last August.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
They sold out fellow Venezuelan socialists. Corbyn stood by and watched. Let this be a lesson to UK Labour.<br />
<br />
He failed to defend Social Democrats in the face of kleptocratic so-called Leninists. They cheered an experiment that failed.<br />
<br />
You got the point from all this?<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>See also</b>: <br />
<ul>
<li>Roger McCarthy: <a href="http://platypus1917.org/2010/07/09/the-dead-left-chavez-and-the-bolivarian-revolution/">Cheering for team Chavez is a way for such post-mortem leftists to hold on to dear life. </a></li>
<li>Venezuela: <a href="https://medium.com/crisis-group/venezuela-unnatural-disaster-df919f309631#.5pdybhzis">Any gains for poor under Chavez *have been reversed*</a></li>
<li>Francisco Toro: <a href="http://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/05/23/treatment-chavismos-fellow-travellers-deserve/">The Treatment Chavismo’s Fellow Travellers Deserve </a></li>
<li>Jack Staples-Butler: <a href="https://historyjack.com/2017/01/03/starvation-and-silence-the-british-left-and-moral-accountability-for-venezuela/">Starvation and Silence: The British Left and Moral Accountability for Venezuela </a> </li>
</ul>
paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-22449130315372770282016-12-18T14:33:00.000+00:002016-12-18T17:12:03.792+00:00In Jo Cox's memory: Expel those who defame the White Helmets<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge5SjFAbl6aQW-j4i2ovYbXN0R54riw78vybMzE67UOYaDhcjvejCh8eHxwoFWgIpUDMtFCwwNZEz6Kc7hT-RyqQgSvxZG7Ljprhm8rQhCfUbQqDoHqa7_HFQ7HjGw8ZprnP2bJ9oyJbpy/s1600/The-White-Helmets-1+%2528The-White-Helmets-1.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+640%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0439+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge5SjFAbl6aQW-j4i2ovYbXN0R54riw78vybMzE67UOYaDhcjvejCh8eHxwoFWgIpUDMtFCwwNZEz6Kc7hT-RyqQgSvxZG7Ljprhm8rQhCfUbQqDoHqa7_HFQ7HjGw8ZprnP2bJ9oyJbpy/s640/The-White-Helmets-1+%2528The-White-Helmets-1.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+640%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0439+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I have a question for John Prescott.<br />
<br />
If you are a Labour Party member who defames the White Helmets should you be expelled?<br />
<br />
On Friday my friend the Times columnist Oliver Kamm <a href="https://twitter.com/OliverKamm/status/809850598585729025">retweeted </a>my throw to him of the Snopes post debunking Eva Bartlett.<br />
<br />
She is a Russia Today promoted woman whose shtick is that media reports of atrocities in Syria are staged.<br />
<br />
Her shtick has been as widely distributed as the <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2016/01/ukraine-please-kill-odessa-massacre.html">one about the Odessa Massacre</a>, and by the same people.<br />
<br />
Her shtick has been distributed in the same way - and often from the same sources - as was the notion that the Sandy Hook massacre of Connecticut small school children <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Hook_Elementary_School_shooting_conspiracy_theories">was staged. </a><br />
<br />
The lunacy, the internal contradictions, of this shtick has not been better mocked <a href="http://nobsrussia.com/2016/12/16/the-interview/">than by Jim Kovpak</a>.<br />
<br />
My timeline since Oliver's RT has been bloated with conspiracists. I have hit 'mute' a <b>lot</b>. <br />
<br />
<h3>
Flying Monkeys.. descend!</h3>
<br />
I am way far from alone in being assailed by such Flying Monkeys. <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/810129487266455552">Someone </a>still obsessed with complaining about Hilary Benn* thinks the RAF is bombing Aleppo. Someone who has a ton of followers. Many of those same people are busy defaming the White Helmets.<br />
<br />
It is all the same to them - Syrians are lying, a white person knows better than a brown one.<br />
<br />
This is the truth they keep yelling about. The I Know Better truth.<br />
<br />
The White Helmets are the civilians busy pulling Syrian people from the rubble. Their reality is <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=should+be+a+jouke&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&ei=X41WWK3FHsistgfh3J6QDw#q=white+helmets">documented </a>times over but their treatment by sections of the supposed liberal/left, emblematic of the defamation in general heaped on Syrians, including our comrades, trying to do something against fascism, is not featured by liberal media. For four years we have had this. Liberal media failing to expose these people.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right; width: 270px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-qiSlTTG9obcnlj8s8TILrp6WEUpuc1kQyQgFLorBdavkrE8AUU3qIpzbQI-DBX328WAvjbqPKYC9nmZhKWSodxlnC3EPx2VSW-30PH_PyTarE6p9RicORFQVZM6wflFWpw5ixE_ANGf-/s1600/Untitled-3-2+%2528Untitled-3-2.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+911%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0768+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252889%2525%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-qiSlTTG9obcnlj8s8TILrp6WEUpuc1kQyQgFLorBdavkrE8AUU3qIpzbQI-DBX328WAvjbqPKYC9nmZhKWSodxlnC3EPx2VSW-30PH_PyTarE6p9RicORFQVZM6wflFWpw5ixE_ANGf-/s320/Untitled-3-2+%2528Untitled-3-2.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+911%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0768+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252889%2525%2529%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is from the David Icke website. All Civilian protectors in Syria must be in service to the great lizard.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
According to the Internet the White Helmets are part of a false flag operation. Or they are AL-Queda. You can find it all endlessly repeated online. <br />
<br />
The campaign against the White Helmets went quiet after Jo Cox, the British MP who was a great friend to Syrians, was assasinated. It has ramped up since. That their selfless acts are questioned, by anyone, should - should - be incredible. Yet those who distort are seemingly allowed to get away with it.<br />
<br />
My response to all this earlier was:<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
a/ conspiracists gonna conspiracy<br />
b/ some need excuse to ignore suffering<br />
c/ some deliberately promote (Russia)<br />
d/ fuel for some politics <a href="https://t.co/dJMx7We74P">https://t.co/dJMx7We74P</a></div>
— Paul Canning (@pauloCanning) <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/810133344512045056">December 17, 2016</a></blockquote>
<h3>
All this is not 'Labour'</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016/12/14/bana-alabed-verification-using-open-source-information/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016/12/14/bana-alabed-verification-using-open-source-information/" border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYetoe2mhuIriqyumwwcnOzE5oBUgjPPhJc0fWDaM94fB1ZyQxcXBmL1tMic9QM0CBBdtlJyTmYe9F_F2j8XKzgHvixMDpFGDx9KGvczU1Daq26hUeBmgeGDcIMk3_X5jIKrkXE0hJwKG/s320/bana.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>A timeline telling me that a Tweeting seven year old Aleppine is a CIA invention <a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016/12/14/bana-alabed-verification-using-open-source-information/">should be a joke</a> - F'yes - but when it comes to the Syrian civil defence organisation the White Helmets it should be different, for anyone in the Party. As far as Labour is concerned you should - should - never dare touch the White Helmets.<br />
<br />
The White Helmets were joint recipients of the <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/jocox">Jo Cox memorial fund</a>. When you hurt that you hurt Labour.<br />
<br />
They are as 'Labour' as the Welsh Dulais Valley miners and families I visited in 1984. Labour is Internationalist and Jo Cox embraced that meaning.<br />
<br />
Social media is flooded with defamation against the likes of the White Helmets. Labour has seen this before. Jo got this. We should too.<br />
<br />
If Jo Cox's life meant anything it was that we enfolded these Syrians within Us. If we respect Jo we listen to those she listened to.<br />
<br />
But, is there is a block between Us embracing the likes of the White Helmets?<br />
<br />
<h3>
Are We the White Helmets or Not? </h3>
<br />
All that keeps us from this is conspiracism. Or straight up <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/lindsey-german-is-thug-accomplice.html">silencing </a>of Syrians, as Stop The War Coalition does.<br />
<br />
One or the other Labour has to reject both. It is not who we are.<br />
<br />
How many of those who I just engaged with, via Oliver Kamm, are Labour? Who else are here in Labour who would reject those who Jo embraced? <br />
<br />
The point is, Mr Prescott and everyone else, whether we heard Jo or not, whether she represents us or not, Labour must decide. Who Are We.<br />
<br />
Jo Cox's embrace of the White Helmets faces Labour with a stark choice. Whether Labour likes it or not.<br />
<br />
Are we those who defame the White Helmets - or are we not? John? Others?<br />
<br />
So do we expel those who defame the White Helmets?<br />
<br />
<br />
~~~~ <br />
<br />
*Hilary Benn is the Labour MP who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2015/dec/03/hilary-benn-airstrikes-vote-speech-full-must-confront-isis-evil-video">stood up for Labour's internationalist tradition</a> a year ago in the House of Commons in a widely applauded speech. For this the Flying Monkeys descended and he now faces being forced out of Parliament.paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-86433695633183319772016-12-16T06:04:00.001+00:002016-12-16T12:12:58.922+00:00Lindsey German is a thug, an accomplice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjInjSqNO1_thv662OFdLEQcoSVDucgbiMMv7VXK-MEdT4QcLA9NGDYuLrWllOGWNak9uAxthycDfc-ctTtsX1PoUtOprHc_ZgK6TtdMeVUsA-L4C3BIoQLNSTQLrxuqrupeZn5zYCL_8nO/s1600/taub.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjInjSqNO1_thv662OFdLEQcoSVDucgbiMMv7VXK-MEdT4QcLA9NGDYuLrWllOGWNak9uAxthycDfc-ctTtsX1PoUtOprHc_ZgK6TtdMeVUsA-L4C3BIoQLNSTQLrxuqrupeZn5zYCL_8nO/s640/taub.png" width="640" /></a></div>
This week as the massacre of men, women and children has been live on the Internet UK MPs from all parties bar UKIP have urged aid for civilian protection on the British government.<br />
<br />
Many of those MPs have payed close attention to what Syrian civil society has been urging. In an impassioned post Kellie Strom for Syria Solidarity UK (SyriaUK), the organisation which channels those demands here in Britain, <a href="http://www.syriauk.org/2016/12/todays-emergency-debate-on-aleppo-what_13.html">outlined </a>what the UK could be doing. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>There are still people alive to be saved</b>: on the run in Aleppo, under siege in Madaya and the suburbs of Damascus, in prisons across Syria. There are many possible actions that we and others have proposed that haven’t been attempted by our Government.<br />
<br />
We haven’t seen UK airdrops, even to areas away from the Russian focus of operations such as Madaya which is only minutes from Syria’s border.<br />
<br />
We haven’t seen RAF surveillance drones make their presence felt over hospitals and other civilian targets to deter war crimes.<br />
<br />
We haven’t seen the UK track and publicly identify aircraft committing war crimes and publicly identify officers and officials with command responsibility.<br />
<br />
We haven’t seen any sanctions against Russian individuals implicated in war crimes.<br />
<br />
We haven’t seen any sanctions against Iranian airlines resupplying Assad.<br />
<br />
We haven’t allowed our much discussed prospective allies against ISIS, the Free Syrian Army, to have the means to defend themselves and their fellow Syrians against Assad’s and Putin’s air attacks.<br />
<br />
We haven’t dared do anything to constrain or deter Assad’s ongoing chemical attacks, at the same time as Israel has regularly enforced its own red lines by carrying out air strikes against Assad and Hezbollah forces.<br />
<br />
Assad and Putin’s mode of operation is to attack the weakest: to attack hospitals, schools, and aid workers. They are free to attack the weak because we are afraid to be strong.<br />
<br />
This is a war against humanity, a war against every law and convention that keeps us secure. We must defend ourselves now and end Assad’s and Putin’s slaughter.</blockquote>
In <a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news-comment/2326-aleppo-debate-mps-in-denial-once-again">response </a>to Parliament one of the loudest leaders of the Stop The War Coalition (StWC), Lindsey German, said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Every time they get the chance, MPs rush to promote further intervention and to justify past ones.</blockquote>
To her organisation the use of the UK's armed forces to meet the requests of Syrians, such as those articulated by SyriaUK, is 'intervention'. This is the group which also <a href="http://www.markpack.org.uk/136129/stop-the-war-mount-sinjar/">opposed </a>the use of those UK armed forces to defend Yazidis under genocidal threat from ISIS. This is the group which <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/07/world-awaits-greenwaldstwcuk-apology-we.html">opposed any aid to Mali </a>when is was faced with occupation by the same sort of Islamists.<br />
<br />
Defending Yazidis = 'war'. Defending Malians = 'war'.<br />
<br />
Their 'hearts' are not in the 'right place'. Someone tell Eno.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2016/10/25/wear-the-white-poppy-for-all-victims-of-all-wars/">Socialist Gabriel Levy</a>: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I have gone through the last six months of statements on Syria by the “Stop the War” coalition, looking in vain for any mention that the main responsibility for the assault on civilians this year is borne by the Syrian and Russian forces. If anyone’s seen one, please let me know. There are repeated calls for “all” intervening forces to withdraw and underlining the role of US, British and other forces (but not Russian ones). </blockquote>
They write of the need for 'aid' but refuse to outline by what mechanism it can be delivered.<br />
<br />
They write of the need for 'peace' as if they are the only ones demanding it. They talk of the need for negotiations as if no one else had thought of it.<br />
<br />
They back their posture with thuggery that descends into outright racism.<br />
<br />
<h4>
<b>Syrians are pawns to them, nothing more </b></h4>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKchKOzYdKlYW7GSPrLNKyYbvBzmx1rW43Cd8lEKWHAPOKny-qCv0jfpuR7o6E4k2YSmAf4lrG1XbsWSvas-nWI82Otu40rD5cECuBBzpey3Q8ijg4FsZjraCULeKQ3pYIDa94fNa_1LJV/s1600/syria%252Bsolidarity3%255B1%255D.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKchKOzYdKlYW7GSPrLNKyYbvBzmx1rW43Cd8lEKWHAPOKny-qCv0jfpuR7o6E4k2YSmAf4lrG1XbsWSvas-nWI82Otu40rD5cECuBBzpey3Q8ijg4FsZjraCULeKQ3pYIDa94fNa_1LJV/s400/syria%252Bsolidarity3%255B1%255D.png" width="400" /></a></div>
One year ago <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/11/have-stop-war-coalition-finally-jumped.html">an event happened</a> which exposed StWC to a wider world than the one they usually inhabit. Again the focus was in Parliament.<br />
<br />
They held a meeting in a Parliament room where UK Syrians attempted to get their voices heard. The police were called on those Syrians.<br />
<br />
Later, German told lies on Twitter about what had happened. She behaved, as one of those who was there observed of her co-silencer Dianne Abbott MP, in the manner of the Harry Potter villain Dolores Umbridge. It was notable that she did not engage, furiously. with those Syrians at that meeting, she did it instead with one of their supporters, Peter Tatchell, who is a famous, white UK leftie.<br />
<br />
It was almost as if they do indeed have a soft spot, which other white Westeners can poke.<br />
<br />
She avoids Twitter wars with brown Syrians or their UK supporters. It, their edifice, cannot stand giving an inch to Syrians. They will stop any branch giving that inch. Their politics means that such Syrians must not be heard - ever - and sometimes they must behave as thugs.<br />
<br />
What does this amount to?<br />
<br />
Imagine how their behaviour towards Syrian refugees would have been treated in any other circumstances. Imagine women in hijabi yelling at white lefties that they are wrong (and what ensued) in any other circumstance but this.<br />
<br />
The refusal to listen to Syrians and to the presentation of Syrian's views (even when they outline a civilian protection agenda as articulated by SyriaUK and others) as fitting a US agenda is racist. The argument of the overwhelming older, white British StWC, shown by their actions, amounts to 'we know better than brown people.'<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/OzKaterji/status/794677615571456000"></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjrGgtSWLhA-yCpN9qk1JYY63QJ7vn6EHJ_MW6xN2Wgfh7aaWvnQMrGjp9XKcIBeD5WCM54cz1cQbFk8eNISqdkpJzSXsMtg7OjiNeDh7P-lVQhvzw29cN807cm4ONFC6A4y4Mh_CUHYcK/s1600/blumenthal.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjrGgtSWLhA-yCpN9qk1JYY63QJ7vn6EHJ_MW6xN2Wgfh7aaWvnQMrGjp9XKcIBeD5WCM54cz1cQbFk8eNISqdkpJzSXsMtg7OjiNeDh7P-lVQhvzw29cN807cm4ONFC6A4y4Mh_CUHYcK/s320/blumenthal.png" width="320" /></a></div>
More widely this is seen in the reception of white 'explainers' such as Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton and the wide circulation of conspiracist theories about the Syrian civil protection organisation (supported by Jo Cox) the White Helmets.<br />
<br />
Assad and Russian propaganda is everywhere online. Circulated by the right <i>and </i>the left.<br />
<br />
It all comes down to 'we know better than brown people'. All of it. On the left, none of them* even pretend to genuflect. This does not occur in other situations. There is no reflection. None. By white Westeners.<br />
<br />
This is racist. Imagine this about Trinidadian or Ghanaian politics. Imagine this refusal to listen about that.<br />
<br />
Syrians disagree amongst themselves. Obviously. Those opposed to the fascist regime have different arguments. Some more thinking lefties have said that aid drops are not technically feasible. Some engage on such a useful, practical basis - The basis of listening, real listening. because they want to help. But none of this exists according to StWC. None.<br />
<br />
StWc oppose any engagement. Any. Never listen and never support 'intervention'. All who do not support their line are in service to 'empire'. They have demonstrated this. 'Foreign' people are to be collectively judged. (And those who listen to them.)<br />
<br />
There is a name for this. <br />
<br />
To many this is crystal clear when the same arguments promoted by StWC are advanced by the likes of Nigel Farage. Yet the simple, smart branding of 'Stop The War' deflates all questioning for a section of opinion.<br />
<br />
This must end. StWC must become toxic. StWC must become branded as excusers of war, excusers of massacres, excusers of genocide.<br />
<br />
<h4>
<b>Branded</b></h4>
<br />
This exercise is essential for the left. The defeat of StWC is essential, has always been essential, to aid Syrians.<br />
<br />
Many are woke. In October<a href="https://speakoutonsyria.wordpress.com/"> an open letter was published</a> saying:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Dear Jeremy,<br />
<br />
We write as members of the Labour Party and Momentum, as socialist
activists, or as other supporters of your leadership of the Labour
Party. We agree wholeheartedly with your opposition to militarism and
nuclear weapons, and your call for an end to British arms exports to
countries such as Saudi Arabia. Yet we are concerned by your silence –
thus far – on the ongoing slaughter of civilians by Russian and
Assad-regime forces in Syria.</blockquote>
<br />
If it is not clear who these people oppose, one year on we have a StWC treasurer <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/808059417442783234">defaming </a>Syrians using Russian propaganda.<br />
<br />
This is what they do. Who they are. Jo Cox's friends defamed. <br />
<br />
A few weeks earlier we had a spokesperson for the Labour leader* <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jeremy-corbyn-russia-syria-us-atrocities-diverts-attention_uk_57fe2e9fe4b08e08b93d5f5e">deflecting from Russia</a> hitting an aid convoy to Blame America. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqvX9Uf52xcQIAVpthidxcswLBG_7JlrQZVn3ZdfIXEwVrRFhmr3VGdQcW2NWRiQtVBAuGRXA-EsGyIulSnAzB4-ZMPQSFBm239JxTnakHHSt0BKT5cam0aZv7GROEGnpVnb6YOkW15l3P/s1600/3027+%25283027.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+620%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0372+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqvX9Uf52xcQIAVpthidxcswLBG_7JlrQZVn3ZdfIXEwVrRFhmr3VGdQcW2NWRiQtVBAuGRXA-EsGyIulSnAzB4-ZMPQSFBm239JxTnakHHSt0BKT5cam0aZv7GROEGnpVnb6YOkW15l3P/s320/3027+%25283027.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+620%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0372+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h4>
<b>The Labour angle</b></h4>
<br />
At the time of that Parliament meeting one year ago the Labour leader, the former StWC leader, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/11/stop-the-war-chief-corbyn-christmas-party-row-is-absurd">was besieged</a> over his StWC history.<br />
<br />
News crews attendance meant he had to enter the StWC Christmas party by the back door.<br />
<br />
Major media had picked up on left critics and the more outrageous content of the StWC website had been exposed to wide scrutiny. Myself and many others <a href="https://therealstopthewar.wordpress.com/">had picked through</a> the detritus of what StWC was frantically deleting.<br />
<br />
One year on and we have defenders of the Labour leader again <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/how-labour-trashed-tatchell-not-assad.html">focusing on Tatchell</a> over Syrian voices.<br />
<br />
Again they chose Lindsey German's tactic, focus on the white leftie (Tatchell), ignore the Syrians.<br />
<br />
What got drowned out again was what drowned out a year ago: #ListenToSyrians<br />
<br />
The Labour leader, as some have pointed out, has become the focus. Acting becomes dependent on internal Labour politics. Instead, Syrians must be. <br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<h4>
<b>What must be done</b></h4>
<br />
As SyriaUK outlines, the actions we can take are many.<br />
<br />
There are practical actions outlined by them which you can lobby your MP about - but the main one I urge to readers is to listen to Syrians. All flows for that.<br />
<br />
Many of them are silenced because of Assad. The terror is beyond anything and this bleeds into their visibility. Literally bleeds.<br />
<ul>
<li>Contact <a href="http://www.syriauk.org/">SyriaUK </a>to ask how you can support them.</li>
<li>Support refugees and amplify the voices of Syrian ones.</li>
<li>If you are a socialist argue, everywhere, against StWC and its influence.</li>
<li>If you are a union member demand they stop supporting StWC. </li>
<li>Ask your MP to carry on pressing the government to support the sort of civilian protection measures outlined by SyriaUK.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Note</b>:<br />
<br />
It is really important to note that StWC has many, many left critics. At the Downing Street demonstration over Aleppo left-wing groups were unrepresented<a href="https://twitter.com/workersliberty/status/809039167145541632"> save one</a>. There are many other voices. Tendance Coatsey has an overview of left critics <a href="https://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2016/12/15/left-solidarity-with-the-syrian-people/">here</a>. This is the resistance.<br />
<br />
*I have picked up here on an idea advanced by Michelle Obama of not naming 'him'. Yes I know it may not work but worth a try. I have done this because my last post was understood by some as critiquing all of Labour when many have done good work over Syria. Yes, but, your leader. Nail him to the trucking wall. You have not nailed him. This is the question of our time. You must do more.<br />
<br />
*'Them' covers a lot. From those who have a job who have decided to, or were inclined to, ignore Syrians to those who think they're on the left who have done the same.<br />
<br />
<b>See also</b>:<br />
<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2016/10/25/wear-the-white-poppy-for-all-victims-of-all-wars/">What Syrian revolutionaries and activists say</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://on.planetsyria.org/stop-the-war-coalition-please-include-a-syrian-on-your-panel-on-syria/">Planet Syria’s open letter to Stop The War Coalition</a></li>
<li>Syria Freedom Forever: <a href="https://syriafreedomforever.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/open-letter-to-the-stop-the-war-coalition-stwc-or-real-solidarity-is-needed/">Open letter to the Stop the War Coalition (STWC), or real solidarity is needed!</a> (2012)</li>
<li><a href="http://brockley.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/seven-reasons-stop-war-are-wrong-about.html">Seven reasons Stop the War are wrong about Syria </a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/07/world-awaits-greenwaldstwcuk-apology-we.html">That time STWC got intervention in Mali completely wrong </a> </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/11/british-forces-ethical-solution-syria-humanitarian-crisis">British forces could help achieve an ethical solution in Syria</a>, by Andrew Mitchell MP and Jo Cox MP</li>
<li><a href="http://www.globaldashboard.org/2015/10/11/what-diane-abbott-gets-wrong-about-jo-coxs-proposals-on-syria/">What Diane Abbott gets wrong about Jo Cox’s proposals on Syria</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.nfz-debate.org/">The No-Fly Zone Debate</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.syriauk.org/2015/09/until-assad-regimes-murderous-tyranny.html">Until the Assad regime’s murderous tyranny is halted, the refugee crisis facing Europe will continue to worsen</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/how-labour-trashed-tatchell-not-assad.html">How Labour trashed Tatchell, not Assad</a></li>
</ul>
paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-23040564443734256462016-12-13T07:43:00.001+00:002016-12-13T16:12:29.803+00:00How Labour trashed Tatchell, not Assad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUHYvx68dnVDEkPtYFsDv-IPd9pAcJ2JJMGNuf1iCzef1fr3tqipOLW7NEJEE_QzXS7c4o6c70W65Jv_xU9xCoohNQlOfKgvNgj-rnaG6sCFckiSmnurhI28TuCCeawtrTPpE1mXhV5ctn/s1600/taub.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUHYvx68dnVDEkPtYFsDv-IPd9pAcJ2JJMGNuf1iCzef1fr3tqipOLW7NEJEE_QzXS7c4o6c70W65Jv_xU9xCoohNQlOfKgvNgj-rnaG6sCFckiSmnurhI28TuCCeawtrTPpE1mXhV5ctn/s640/taub.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
As the people of Aleppo were being burned alive in the street, hospital staff massacred and men and boys led to deaths which evoke Srebrenica the Labour Party's High Command's trashed Peter Tatchell.<br />
<br />
For days after a speech by leader Jeremy Corbyn protested by activists demanding action to support those Aleppines his supporters raged against Tatchell on the basis of - women's rights.<br />
<br />
Yet Corbyn's Human Rights Day speech had been promoted to the media as about Saudi Arabia and Bahrain - not women's rights.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9SNZ_u229rQ9UXT7qxbgH_XYSgtUv8kxsttbta-65Z8YuwNWrx3L5Ite7w3fVHUoPR26IkRzhhzolBuTIFkpT8aV-vs-ioSsoOh4LhTasfHgcWznV6c-tmxrtEnPpQ-5qudFYytNZtrvc/s1600/tamara+cohen.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9SNZ_u229rQ9UXT7qxbgH_XYSgtUv8kxsttbta-65Z8YuwNWrx3L5Ite7w3fVHUoPR26IkRzhhzolBuTIFkpT8aV-vs-ioSsoOh4LhTasfHgcWznV6c-tmxrtEnPpQ-5qudFYytNZtrvc/s320/tamara+cohen.png" width="320" /></a>Four days later and a prime vehicle for the spin by the Labour Party proclaimed the 'victory' of fascist Assad's forces in Aleppo.<br />
<br />
<h4>
<b>It wasn't about women</b></h4>
<br />
Thanks to one of those who protested last Saturday I tracked down that BBC and Sky News reporters at the Labour leader's speech had been briefed by Labour to focus on Saudi Arabia. Reporting by the Huffington Post and the placement of a piece by Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry confirms this.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Labour's aim for the speech was to attack UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who had made Trumpesque comments about Saudi Arabia, a bete noir country for the sections of the left who now run the Labour Party Command.<br />
<br />
Saudi Arabia and its role in Yemen is a constant 'whatabout' reference for left wing Twitter. Labour's media manager is Seumas Milne, whose entire history is to blame everything on the US.<br />
<br />
Of course their aim was to use an event on the day of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to slag off America. Doh.<br />
<br />
<h4>
<b>Aleppo, whatever</b></h4>
<br />
The grassroot activist intervention in the Corbyn speech was allied to the desperate Aleppines because they are personally connected to them because it was <a href="http://www.syriauk.org/2016/12/labour-urged-on-international-human.html">organised by Syria Solidarity UK</a> who are led by Syrian civil society. Their focus in the protest was aid drops of food and medicine. a method of civilian protection which was pushed in the House of Commons a few days later - by Labour MPs.<br />
<br />
The presence of Tatchell was a lighting rod, which<a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2016/12/does-corbyn-back-aid-drops-to-starving.html"> I wrote about </a>after the protest and which has since played out. I said that the problem is journalists should ask Corbyn's office if he supports air drops - this has still not happened.<br />
<br />
The protest resulted in a forced statement by Corbyn, live at the event, in which he did not say he supported air drops.<br />
<br />
This did not result in headlines that Corbyn does not support airdrops despite journalists knowing full well that Corbyn's 'anti-intervention' in any sense stance means zero action for Syrian civilians.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishwLYi22fw3ztFwQaFu4xontf34_ktkAHCZ3hLCTdhCdYrSHPNAcLYk_SJG2Y_oxRXm1QjezD0cY7GcEDEVNr1zmZk8i9lO496aueI5cXOjLKHUWuAvzJjTMnkXP3qrnsLvW13c-8SL-l/s1600/aleppo+tatchell.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishwLYi22fw3ztFwQaFu4xontf34_ktkAHCZ3hLCTdhCdYrSHPNAcLYk_SJG2Y_oxRXm1QjezD0cY7GcEDEVNr1zmZk8i9lO496aueI5cXOjLKHUWuAvzJjTMnkXP3qrnsLvW13c-8SL-l/s400/aleppo+tatchell.png" width="365" /></a></div>
Despite the hostility against them, once again journalists let him off the hook. Nothing appeared saying Corbyn refused support to aid Syrian civilians.<br />
<br />
Labour's position on Syria is coming from everyone else but the leader. The supporters default to that, which tells you a lot. They imagine a Syria position by the leader which does not exist.<br />
<br />
<h4>
<b>To the barricades! Attack Tatchell!</b></h4>
<br />
Despite the Party selling the speech as about Saudi Arabia and Bahrain almost immediately the leader's fanclub decided what their leader had talked about was, in fact, women's rights.<br />
<br />
This line was promoted by the Party's Campaign Director. The leader's personal army, Momentum, proclaimed it within a few hours.<br />
<br />
As always in these things it was based on some truth. 'Women' were mentioned in the speech a lot. Great victory. Yet hours earlier the Party machine was selling another story. <br />
<br />
It was even claimed that the event was not about human rights in general but was about domestic violence (DV) in particular , despite the absence of Jess Phillips MP, the party's main champion on this issue and another bete noir of the leader's fanclub. And also despite the leader's failure to whip MPs (make their vote near-mandatory) on a international domestic violence measure pushed in Parliament by the Scottish Nationals. That same measure in post-speech accounts was cited to attack Tatchell, as if he had single-handily destroyed it.<br />
<br />
Corbyn fans even suggested HM Opposition could have no impact, despite the earlier Dubs amendment victory over child refugees practically cited by George Osborne in his valediction of Jo Cox. <br />
<br />
Focusing on Tatchell - despite the obvious protest women and the Syrian women they were representing - a Blitzkrieg was launched. It resulted in hundreds of personal online attacks on Tatchell and a front page in the Stalinist newspaper The Morning Star, which was happily shared widely.<br />
<br />
The Morning Star has been praised by the leader as the only newspaper he will allow in his presence. <br />
<br />
On and on it went with the wide circulation amongst fans of Corbyn of denunciations of the Nobel nominated Syrian rescue organisation the White Helmets included. Shameful conspiracism, whose source is Russian propaganda and comparable to the online experience of Trumpism.<br />
<br />
All while Aleppines were being massacred.<br />
<br />
<h4>
<b>While Aleppines were being massacred</b></h4>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsAS18_fX4GR2bUBReE4qqLv7bVWY7Uo7YBhlYiGIcodov2LCvhaO6s4lb9LNT6FVV9qhJs5C3UFNXCphPKMNCJww6nHt0En1RxFHzMUgsLZTXFVgKDmzPBrDuriySFt36hKrFyk1YFHhz/s1600/morning+star.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsAS18_fX4GR2bUBReE4qqLv7bVWY7Uo7YBhlYiGIcodov2LCvhaO6s4lb9LNT6FVV9qhJs5C3UFNXCphPKMNCJww6nHt0En1RxFHzMUgsLZTXFVgKDmzPBrDuriySFt36hKrFyk1YFHhz/s400/morning+star.png" width="400" /></a>Today we have a Stalinist Newspaper Corbyn professes to like, on its front page, saying that Aleppo has been 'liberated'. The same newspaper carries - highlights - a denunciation of Tatchell.<br />
<br />
Are the people who did this proud of what they did? Will this be something they will want to tell their grandchildren?<br />
<br />
Not the CPGB, we know who they are. They cheer Stalin. Nope. Am thinking of those 'social democrat' others who got us to this point.<br />
<br />
Those who half listened to Allepines and half listened, for (guilty) shame to something more enticing. <br />
<br />
Peter is someone I know and someone who is flawed. F'yeah and yourself? This is not the point. Your focus on Peter is offensive on several levels, not the least because actual people in Syria (Aleppo! May I weep) heard what happened and <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/807967568673865729">reacted far differently than you </a>and you ignored what they said.<br />
<br />
He was not the protest - and you know that. <br />
<br />
A huge part of the left's problem with Syria is a failure to listen to Syrians. Just STFU and listen.<br />
<br />
Otherwise? Endless 'we/I know better'. This is why the Stop The War Coalition has trolled you in <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/12/deselect-stop-war-coalition.htm">systematically excluding Syrians who disagree with them</a>. And told you this brown face is an agent, with a neocon agenda.<br />
<br />
In another world this would be immediately understood as orientalism and this would be obvious.<br />
<br />
These are Jeremy and Seumas's people. Of course they did what they did. They have history, or for the brand makers - legend.<br />
<br />
<h4>
<b>Own it</b></h4>
<br />
The 'man of peace' and his coterie wanted to use the Declaration of Human Rights anniversary to attack the Yanks. Agin.<br />
<br />
Some people representing Syrians showed up but, thank dafunk, force multiplier, Tatchell did too. So they deflected. We saw what Corbynistas said and we picked up on that and used every muscle to pile onto that. And all we cared about was defending the leader.<br />
<br />
We saw what you did but... <br />
<br />
The issue is Syria and if you are fine with fascists massacring people, for whatever reason you have invented in your head, have the guts to say it.<br />
<br />
Own it. Galloway does. Some call Assad the mass murderer a socialist/secular revelation. That you? Assad opposes the Yanks! You're taking a side and it's with Assad!<br />
<br />
Own it.<br />
<br />
UK Labour has no such guts, it goes after Tatchell. UK Labour circled the wagons to defend the leader and did not have the guts to fight fascism when it counted. Some members, some MPs did. Hooray. Gold Star. No. really. But this exercise tells me that the Party failed at this moment.<br />
<br />
That is the trucking truth. That is what happened.<br />
<br />
If you will not yell this now when will you?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-22665538069083445162016-12-10T17:04:00.000+00:002016-12-10T20:41:40.742+00:00Does Corbyn back aid drops to starving Syrians?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhacgPsGigGV489dG_9jDwYBbTTjs3jmWeZeybqIWaj4wyYckHK_GErFltXWhw0XPyg0VtvKLWhCtjiXJTzZ-0j4myCefWuC4S44YR-X1iFN1gVi4KHbsl5Su3Po7gDqDlD7y_jdJ3wiij3/s1600/action_not_words_470+%2528action_not_words_470.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+470%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0274+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhacgPsGigGV489dG_9jDwYBbTTjs3jmWeZeybqIWaj4wyYckHK_GErFltXWhw0XPyg0VtvKLWhCtjiXJTzZ-0j4myCefWuC4S44YR-X1iFN1gVi4KHbsl5Su3Po7gDqDlD7y_jdJ3wiij3/s640/action_not_words_470+%2528action_not_words_470.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+470%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0274+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Today's protest of Jeremy Corbyn over Syria has drawn a lot of attention because of the presence of Peter Tatchell. This is a good thing when it highlights the issue - aid drops to civilians - but also a bad thing when Peter becomes the focus and not Syria. It is a good thing when Peter's presence draws more attention than one just by the organisers, the pressure group Syria Solidarity UK, would have done but a bad thing when reporting focuses on Peter and not the issue, which is Corbyn's failure over humanitarian protection and, most desperately now, aid drops.<br />
<br />
It is also a problem when there is no context given to the coverage, which is the disquiet over Corbyn's leadership failure on Syria, particularly the breadth of that disquiet.<br />
<br />
Members of the party who otherwise support Corbyn have been calling on him to speak out on protection of civilians in Syria for some time.<br />
<br />
In October<a href="https://speakoutonsyria.wordpress.com/"> an open letter was published</a> saying:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Dear Jeremy,<br />
<br />
We write as members of the Labour Party and Momentum, as socialist activists, or as other supporters of your leadership of the Labour Party. We agree wholeheartedly with your opposition to militarism and nuclear weapons, and your call for an end to British arms exports to countries such as Saudi Arabia. Yet we are concerned by your silence – thus far – on the ongoing slaughter of civilians by Russian and Assad-regime forces in Syria.</blockquote>
Also in October Corbyn was protested over Syria, by Syrians, at a meeting of the Stop The War Coalition.<br />
<br />
Protestor Oz Katerji <a href="http://littleatoms.com/news-society/why-i-confronted-corbyn-over-syria">wrote</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The late MP Jo Cox called for the Labour Party to support civilian protection measures in Syria; I call on Jeremy to listen to Jo and stop ignoring Syrian activists. The bloodshed in Syria cannot be stopped while continuing to refuse to hold Assad accountable for his crimes. We must act to protect civilians now, a sea-enforced deter and retaliate no-bombing zone would be a good place to start, as would aid drops to civilians starving under Assad’s brutal ‘submit or starve’ sieges.<br />
<br />
Enough of the silence, enough of the complicity, it is time to act now to protect Syrian lives. </blockquote>
The response from Corbyn's spokesperson (almost certainly Seumas Milne) <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-aide-russia-syria-us-air-strikes-distraction-brendan-cox-jo-mp-a7357796.html">was</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The focus on Russian atrocities, or Syrian army atrocities, which is absolutely correct, I think sometimes diverts attention from other atrocities that have taken place.<br />
<br />
Independent assessments are that there have been very large scale civilian casualties as a result of US-led coalition bombing and there are several cases of large numbers of civilian deaths in single attacks and there hasn’t been so much attention on those atrocities or those casualties.<br />
<br />
Both the United States and Britain, the British Government, have been reluctant to accept any independent assessment of those.</blockquote>
That drew this comment from the husband of assassinated MP Jo Cox, who had chaired the all party parliamentary friends of Syria group:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This isn't just wrong, it's absolutely disgraceful.</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSiHo2g-8lZYg36T2aVOkF-q6ygI_Jpz53-7Oi69X0lr3RjIX_4WhEtbc2VvcwQd56N5In7x4ptOpS4k80-MU0m0tTev65OYJ4Wa1pNJC-d2SsXhX5G2o9Q3L8DSGVHZT0kwUZCpm-hu4E/s1600/corbyn+syria1.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSiHo2g-8lZYg36T2aVOkF-q6ygI_Jpz53-7Oi69X0lr3RjIX_4WhEtbc2VvcwQd56N5In7x4ptOpS4k80-MU0m0tTev65OYJ4Wa1pNJC-d2SsXhX5G2o9Q3L8DSGVHZT0kwUZCpm-hu4E/s320/corbyn+syria1.png" width="289" /></a>Corbyn's Twitter feed has made <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=syria%20from%3Ajeremycorbyn&src=typd">no comment on Syria</a> since a series of tweets around the parliamentary vote a year ago. Today's tweets about Human Rights Day mention Bahrain but not Syria.<br />
<br />
Tatchell <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/dec/10/peter-tatchell-disrupts-jeremy-corbyn-speech-with-syria-protest">said </a>today:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He’s made no statements as far as we know in solidarity with civil societies in Syria. He’s not listening to their demands, he’s not promoting their demands, which are very simple – a UN-supervised ceasefire, for the UN to supervise the evacuation of civilians to safe havens, and, most importantly right now, the airdrop of aid and medicine to besieged civilian populations.</blockquote>
Labour MPs, including the Shadow Foreign Secretary, <a href="https://lcid.org.uk/2016/11/28/we-must-act-now-and-air-drop-life-saving-aid-into-the-starving-cities-in-syria/">have backed aid drops to civilians</a>. But Corbyn has said nothing and<a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyn-makes-embarrassing-mic-9428975"> his response to the protest today</a> did not clarify whether he backs aid drops either.<br />
<br />
He said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Just to be absolutely clear, in response to the point that Peter made, Emily Thornberry on our behalf during foreign office questions and on many other occasions has made it absolutely clear that we do think that aid should be given to people in Aleppo, we do think that bombing should end, we do think there should be a ceasefire, we do think there should be a political solution, we do think the war should end in Syria, we are absolutely supporting the people.</blockquote>
The <a href="http://www.syriauk.org/2016/12/labour-urged-on-international-human.html">specific demands made to Corbyn today</a> were:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<ul>
<li>Support calls for humanitarian access to besieged areas in Syria. </li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<ul>
<li>Push for a parliamentary vote on unilateral UK aid drops. </li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<ul>
<li>Demand the suspension of Syria from the UN until it agrees to a ceasefire, and stops blocking aid to besieged areas. </li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<ul>
<li>Request UN supervised evacuations of the White Helmets and the civilian population.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
Despite the <a href="https://twitter.com/PeoplesMomentum/status/807591443573317634">claims by Momentum</a> we are no clearer now as to whether he supports those specific proposals - and a journalist who can get a response from Corbyn's office should ask.<br />
<br />
Given the response from his office in October and given the attitude of the Stop The War Coalition to aid drops then I can guess what they will say. But I want to see a headline saying <b>'Corbyn refuses to back food drops to starving Syrians'</b> not multiple versions of 'Peter Tatchell disrupts Jeremy Corbyn speech with Syria protest'.<br />
<br />
Someone needs to pin him down with specific questions that demand a specific answer. In other words, the next journalist up needs to do a version of "Did you threaten to overrule him?"<br />
<br />
<b>Edited to add</b>: In case it is not clear why pinning Corbyn down on these specific four points from responses and Twitter conversations today it appears that some genuinely believe that Corbyn has supported aid drops. Or must have. Until a journalist gets his office on record rejecting these demands (and others, such as sanctions on Russia, as has also been pointed out) then he will continue to get away with waffle. Myself, Peter Tatchell, Syria Solidarity UK, we cannot get a comment from the Opposition Leader's Office - journalist's can.<br />
<br />
<br />
See also:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/12/deselect-stop-war-coalition.html">Deselect Stop The War Coalition</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/11/have-stop-war-coalition-finally-jumped.html">Have Stop The War Coalition finally jumped the shark?</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-25154788872831807482016-10-28T17:54:00.000+01:002016-10-28T19:59:08.585+01:00Red/brown unite shocker - over damn foreigners<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJFMRHQcc3X7MttyotBIwIktZyRm0GfkVKdsiayRVVKh00QbaxPGU-7205fDRAm6ZyjESHnCPwlps8ji6sbQhj_2LdupYqvXKVS-VF8nwlSobh7iB80_-xd-0x75HFGtKNTVHRdOfkH4w/s1600/Cvr9e_IXEAAVX5N+%2528Cvr9e_IXEAAVX5N.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+864%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJFMRHQcc3X7MttyotBIwIktZyRm0GfkVKdsiayRVVKh00QbaxPGU-7205fDRAm6ZyjESHnCPwlps8ji6sbQhj_2LdupYqvXKVS-VF8nwlSobh7iB80_-xd-0x75HFGtKNTVHRdOfkH4w/s640/Cvr9e_IXEAAVX5N+%2528Cvr9e_IXEAAVX5N.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+864%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Attitudes to Jewish immigration by political identifier.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
The Canadian journalist <a href="https://michaelcolborne.com/about/">Michael Colborne</a> likes nothing better than to crunch some numbers. So there he was, as you do, rooting round the details of the of the European Social Survey (ESS) - an enormous project which you can see more about on its <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Social_Survey">own Wikipedia page</a>.<br />
<br />
And lo, this is <a href="https://michaelcolborne.com/2016/10/20/the-british-far-left-and-attitudes-towards-jews-by-some-numbers/">what he found</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The vast majority (94%) of respondents said that either many, some or a few Jews should be allowed to come live in Britain, with only 6% saying no Jews should be allowed at all.<br />
<br />
But…regardless of how you slice up the left/right scale, British people who identify as furthest to the left or right seem a lot less keen on Jews than those in the relative middle on the spectrum.</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX46ROMxnh9wQ66TaW9YNRjWXQk9s6eIGYzzq0cn3pu7FXaSjo43cap5WVBYQE6bo4BMAWjN7LIN7qfi6UxZFSXxzZq06gwJpIg1qkITL5ityFQk1BnXn76qEx7F_2Pcj6haSJY4xebZeD/s1600/image-17+%2528The+British+far+left+and+attitudes+towards+Jews%252C+by+some+numbers+%25E2%2580%2593+Michael+Colborne%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX46ROMxnh9wQ66TaW9YNRjWXQk9s6eIGYzzq0cn3pu7FXaSjo43cap5WVBYQE6bo4BMAWjN7LIN7qfi6UxZFSXxzZq06gwJpIg1qkITL5ityFQk1BnXn76qEx7F_2Pcj6haSJY4xebZeD/s640/image-17+%2528The+British+far+left+and+attitudes+towards+Jews%252C+by+some+numbers+%25E2%2580%2593+Michael+Colborne%2529.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
Drilling down some more he found that fully a fifth of those who identified as furthest left would permit no Jewish immigration to the UK, just shy of the 22.5% of the furthest-right who wouldn't either (image at top of page). Colborne (who I follow on Twitter) confirmed to me that the samples are statistically significant.<br />
<br />
<h4>
It gets worse</h4>
<br />
Today Colborne did some more number crunching and found that far-left attitudes to Jews come in a context - hostility to immigration full-stop. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil_xzhvZR66Sazi4WR-s7eir6l5tew5sKBFKdddVERFtd_1_l7Wx9B6IgiuIp8yg_oXg0vGtvF7J-bu-zMdhqb7A2q96FxmLVN_CdomyHy_xWW8gcO_GJcs3hojEcwTcnsMSKdgv_cUOfl/s1600/Cv3YnHKVMAAvRw_+%2528Cv3YnHKVMAAvRw_.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+864%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil_xzhvZR66Sazi4WR-s7eir6l5tew5sKBFKdddVERFtd_1_l7Wx9B6IgiuIp8yg_oXg0vGtvF7J-bu-zMdhqb7A2q96FxmLVN_CdomyHy_xWW8gcO_GJcs3hojEcwTcnsMSKdgv_cUOfl/s640/Cv3YnHKVMAAvRw_+%2528Cv3YnHKVMAAvRw_.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+864%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljwYVucV5m2HiZbajDOVmPGdOjWWK1nxcR8nalbGU_DJgWgebEywXkrfidIfCkreBmA905bmwvLMnECDmiLuIe_5YeMg3NbQr6kBb-U3u-DxEa5jvulJVtNIJ6NIKU-3JkfFhEo3X6W9G/s1600/Cv3Y9-0VIAER48O+%2528Cv3Y9-0VIAER48O.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+864%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljwYVucV5m2HiZbajDOVmPGdOjWWK1nxcR8nalbGU_DJgWgebEywXkrfidIfCkreBmA905bmwvLMnECDmiLuIe_5YeMg3NbQr6kBb-U3u-DxEa5jvulJVtNIJ6NIKU-3JkfFhEo3X6W9G/s640/Cv3Y9-0VIAER48O+%2528Cv3Y9-0VIAER48O.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+864%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTNvQ3W5v9vbkG2Pxtft6gdYR4z7zXGT2oA8VqQnEAuh8Hd9_rd_02pNT-XUSvR2SEFn51sXefMuwPaAO3B6XiEea_LSK_CSdqHyW9IfOpf1uGOb5U8wc2b60iqZ73YjPHeiL84wUBzf3C/s1600/Cv3Y-rVVUAAByD7+%2528Cv3Y-rVVUAAByD7.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+864%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTNvQ3W5v9vbkG2Pxtft6gdYR4z7zXGT2oA8VqQnEAuh8Hd9_rd_02pNT-XUSvR2SEFn51sXefMuwPaAO3B6XiEea_LSK_CSdqHyW9IfOpf1uGOb5U8wc2b60iqZ73YjPHeiL84wUBzf3C/s640/Cv3Y-rVVUAAByD7+%2528Cv3Y-rVVUAAByD7.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+864%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdaP48wJ30jnm-E6qPvRWIbfPsAL534TbtHbB18QK2UAkWZB8yGBpJMq1krnMpQyajICXK6aqoLwt4b1UPYWIp5JfNTFjhIY-4frG0k4c7bCku-EOp1yFYYGr3VEB8VCfC1-CYcwb9fRld/s1600/Cv3Y_TLVUAEvzhl+%2528Cv3Y_TLVUAEvzhl.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+864%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdaP48wJ30jnm-E6qPvRWIbfPsAL534TbtHbB18QK2UAkWZB8yGBpJMq1krnMpQyajICXK6aqoLwt4b1UPYWIp5JfNTFjhIY-4frG0k4c7bCku-EOp1yFYYGr3VEB8VCfC1-CYcwb9fRld/s640/Cv3Y_TLVUAEvzhl+%2528Cv3Y_TLVUAEvzhl.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+864%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
This is - in cold, hard numbers - a big minority of the Corbyn supporting, Momentum supporting far-left having the same views as a similar sized minority of the far-right.<br />
<br />
Here some comparisons from the same source across Europe (Courtesy Colborne):<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYID6Tl7P4WQeldHOAPcsP_2yYX8GB_JHGofvULjYKDZ1iT5eb7PGaNN2hzpDTz71Syow5KF9-k0YvOgFfda0e3aJ-7F_A_YPAQ1JKoJaw6Nr07H7ZZjPlf-DZuWr8AynGRWZkZQo7BLl1/s1600/Cv3loXAUEAE_wIe+%2528Cv3loXAUEAE_wIe.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+982%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0325+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYID6Tl7P4WQeldHOAPcsP_2yYX8GB_JHGofvULjYKDZ1iT5eb7PGaNN2hzpDTz71Syow5KF9-k0YvOgFfda0e3aJ-7F_A_YPAQ1JKoJaw6Nr07H7ZZjPlf-DZuWr8AynGRWZkZQo7BLl1/s640/Cv3loXAUEAE_wIe+%2528Cv3loXAUEAE_wIe.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+982%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0325+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
All great stuff for the proponents of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory">horseshoe theory</a>, as well as those also on the left who have been pointing out that the left has some fucking serious issues for years (thinking of you, Nick Cohen).<br />
<br />
Oh and Michael has set off to plow through other surveys to find other samples demonstrating the same phenomenon ..paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-56359212307644873202016-10-12T17:46:00.000+01:002016-11-01T13:06:28.747+00:00Most Libyans welcomed intervention<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh672A6rp_kA5WN9nnGNBo6lYVqSXVQ6KOzvW0p0m-CmzxaYmncCwevMdOW9qNG7deT9dFNOWIgp8QVrbaduF8q-VxjSB1CTEcwyAa_f7lP5EcXMj4QZEdSDCQBT3dVjblzXC9n9o_kPhuo/s1600/_benghazi_+%25281_u6zHWednFVpkleA7QBjNoA.jpeg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+636%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0440+pixels%2529%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh672A6rp_kA5WN9nnGNBo6lYVqSXVQ6KOzvW0p0m-CmzxaYmncCwevMdOW9qNG7deT9dFNOWIgp8QVrbaduF8q-VxjSB1CTEcwyAa_f7lP5EcXMj4QZEdSDCQBT3dVjblzXC9n9o_kPhuo/s640/_benghazi_+%25281_u6zHWednFVpkleA7QBjNoA.jpeg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+636%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0440+pixels%2529%2529.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Benghazi, Libya, 2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Last week the Guardian writer Patrick Kingsley published a series of tweets regarding the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee's (FASC) report on the 2011 Libyan intervention.<br />
<br />
Kingsley showed that the conclusion <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37356873">widely reported in the media</a> that the intervention was based on false information, that Gaddafi wasn’t a major threat to civilians in Benghazi, was itself false. Information supposedly from Amnesty International did not exist.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
>Anyway, <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning">@pauloCanning</a> has kindly Storified <a href="https://twitter.com/PatrickKingsley">@PatrickKingsley</a>'s tweets on the FAC Libya report. Read em: <a href="https://t.co/uZLnV0uzfl">https://t.co/uZLnV0uzfl</a></div>
— Bob From Brockley (@bobfrombrockley) <a href="https://twitter.com/bobfrombrockley/status/776780822527483905">September 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
Idress Ahmed <a href="https://twitter.com/im_PULSE/status/776743676026425345">added</a> that information supposedly from Human Rights Watch in the FASC report was also misrepresented.<br />
<br />
The blogger Bob from Brockley pointed out that the Committee talked to no Libyans and that this is <a href="https://twitter.com/bobfrombrockley/status/776780151204024320">consistent behaviour by them</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The MPs quoted a non-existent AI report second hand (via Patrick Cockburn) & pretended they were citing the original! Shameless," <a href="https://twitter.com/bobfrombrockley/status/776772339413487616">he tweeted</a>.</blockquote>
Bob noted that "Cockburn has a track record of bring economical with the truth."<br />
<br />
This is consistent with Stop the War Coalition (StWC), whose chief selling point <a href="http://littleatoms.com/society/if-you-want-help-victims-war-dont-support-stop-war-coalition">has been its brand</a> (who disagrees with 'stopping wars'?) - Never mind what that means.<br />
<br />
We see this in patently ridiculous memes which blame Hilary Benn MP for the bombing of Aleppo.<br />
<br />
Not talking to or allowing Syrians to speak is also consistent behaviour from the StWC, as <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/11/have-stop-war-coalition-finally-jumped.html">I wrote about last year</a> (and same applies with the FASC). This followed a StWC event at which Syrians were stopped from speaking but at which the FASC chair, the Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, who <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/mps-are-divided-over-whether-britain-should-stop-selling-wea?utm_term=.jhByjG1x4#.nab7x5jK2">strongly supports the arms industry</a> was an invited speaker.<br />
<br />
One can understand, perhaps, why both Tories like Blunt and 'anti-imperialist' lefties want to shut out voices from those countries they claim to care about - because they won't like what they hear, as this post by <a class="link link link--darken link--darker u-baseColor--link is-touched" data-action-source="post_header_lockup" data-action-type="hover" data-action="show-user-card" data-user-id="67f869682548" dir="auto" href="https://medium.com/@_alhamra?source=post_header_lockup">al-Hamra</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/@_alhamra/majority-of-libyans-supported-natos-war-6380e62f539a#.e02ufq811">reblogged</a> here, demonstrates. <br />
<br />
======<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxcDXlgjBp-8Ey1HfiTMEpxZl3UvWLQcMv0DilWvuFTZHac3SGVbzIpX8c0r0IDR0kUOdUVB6JdpU2NEpy3BFCk1aeqN230s2HwRCq2-MCSkH_18ifpVNI6ZdQwexUlXOBx4LTDt7W-Se3/s1600/libya1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxcDXlgjBp-8Ey1HfiTMEpxZl3UvWLQcMv0DilWvuFTZHac3SGVbzIpX8c0r0IDR0kUOdUVB6JdpU2NEpy3BFCk1aeqN230s2HwRCq2-MCSkH_18ifpVNI6ZdQwexUlXOBx4LTDt7W-Se3/s320/libya1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Anti-interventionists often cite the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) 2011 air war in Libya in arguments over the <a href="https://notgeorgesabraarchive.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/the-syrian-revolution-is-a-class-war/">Syrian civil war</a>. What these opinionated partisans never mention is that NATO’s military action against the forces of dictator Moammar Ghadafi’s regime was not only popular with Libyans but overwhelmingly so.<br />
<br />
A <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/156539/opinion-briefing-libyans-eye-new-relations-west.aspx">Gallup poll</a> taken in 2012 found the following: <br />
<ul>
<li>75% favored NATO’s actions in their country. </li>
<li>54% approved of U.S. leadership, which according to Gallup is the highest approval rating “ever recorded in the Middle East and North Africa region, outside of Israel.” </li>
<li>19% approved of Russia’s leadership (which opposed NATO’s attacks on Ghadafi’s forces). </li>
<li>22% approved of China’s leadership (which opposed NATO’s attacks on Ghadafi’s forces). </li>
<li>61% considered members of Ghadafi’s regime to be a major security threat. </li>
<li>62% considered Al-Qaeda and other Islamic militants to be a major security threat. </li>
<li>48% considered Western military forces to be a major threat. </li>
<li>77% favored Western military aid to their fledgling armed forces. </li>
<li>68% supported Western military trainers being sent to their country. </li>
<li>77% favored Western governance experts being sent to assist their new government. </li>
<li>56% opposed Western aid for Libyan political groups.</li>
</ul>
Gallup is a reputable polling organization and the sample size of 1,000 is the industry standard because sample sizes that large yield a <a href="http://www.janda.org/c10/Lectures/topic05/GallupFAQ.htm">low margin of error</a> (for the math behind why that is the case, see <a href="https://onlinecourses.science.psu.edu/stat100/node/16">this</a>).<br />
<br />
A <a href="https://www.orb-international.com/article.php?s=4-in-5-libyans-agree-country-heading-in-right-direction-according-to-post-revolution-citizen-poll">second poll</a> done by a similarly reputable British polling organization, Orb International, yielded similar results: <br />
<ul>
<li>85% strongly supported NATO military action against Ghadafi. </li>
<li>89% expressed a favorable or very favorable view of the United Kingdom. </li>
<li>58% agreed that Libya and Britain should keep strong and close links with one another. </li>
<li>83% viewed then-Prime Minister David Cameron favorably. </li>
<li>76% agreed the country’s government should be chosen by the people in free, competitive elections. </li>
<li>68% considered the post-Ghadafi government — the National Transition Council — effective in helping to improve life Libya. </li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM76ylrRIkat3GB_zNa8D0dWAfD4C3krtdPPo9c9Kgke6JDns2Id1t-mBnWZ867H7pZrFTsGIHnngGKGorMMdOSWnRseNdz-8yEAgJ3BDZcRtT67rlkk7NTP4ewKimWtMWuLeoYu-8tQhJ/s1600/katerji.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM76ylrRIkat3GB_zNa8D0dWAfD4C3krtdPPo9c9Kgke6JDns2Id1t-mBnWZ867H7pZrFTsGIHnngGKGorMMdOSWnRseNdz-8yEAgJ3BDZcRtT67rlkk7NTP4ewKimWtMWuLeoYu-8tQhJ/s320/katerji.png" width="320" /></a></div>
What becomes clear from these two polls is that not only was NATO’s military assistance in toppling Ghadafi overwhelmingly popular among Libyans, Libyans wanted continued intervention to help restore law and order after the chaos and upheaval brought about by the 2011 revolution. Although a near majority worried about unwanted Western military action in their country, more Libyans wanted closer and more harmonious economic, political, diplomatic, and military relations with Western governments.<br />
<br />
This is not to suggest that everyone in Libya supported NATO’s intervention. The Ghadafi regime was opposed and <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/7/19/996082/-">organized rallies</a> denouncing NATO’s interference with their counter-revolution. But after the regime was overthrown in 2011, these anti-NATO protests stopped.<br />
<br />
No anti-intervention political parties formed after 2011 with enough popular support to win any elections. Pushed to the margins of Libyan politics by their unpopularity, Ghadafi loyalist tribes in Sirte <a href="http://time.com/4003049/isis-sirte-rebellion/">joined</a> Islamic State (ISIS) to continue their struggle against the new government and against Western intervention.<br />
<br />
Openly acknowledging what Libyans thought about NATO’s intervention would put anti-interventionists in the awkward and arrogant position of asserting that they (non-Libyans) knew better than Libyans what was good for Libya in 2011.<br />
<br />
Students of history will recognize this contradiction for what it is — the racist, colonialist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man%27s_Burden">White Man’s Burden,</a> although couched in fiercely <a href="https://hummusforthought.com/2016/08/30/the-lefts-hollow-anti-imperialism-over-syria/">‘anti-imperialist’</a> rhetoric. To avoid touching on this contradiction, anti-interventionists are forced to regard Libyans as passive <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/30/libya-spectacular-revolution-disgraced-racism">victims</a> to be pitied rather than politically active participants to be supported or <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/9/12/1015087/-">engaged</a>. For them, what matters in Libya is the West’s iniquity, not Libyan <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/shades-of-tahrir-square-in-benghazi/article1531474.ece">aspirations</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Hat tip</b> <a href="https://twitter.com/clayclai">Clay Claiborne</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>See also</b>:<br />
<ul>
<li>Bob from Brockley: <a href="http://brockley.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/assad-v-isis-patrick-cockburns-economy.html">Assad v ISIS? Patrick Cockburn's economy with the truth</a></li>
<li>Muhammad Idrees Ahmad: <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/27/who-s-lying-about-syria-s-christian-massacre.html">Who’s Lying About Syria’s Christian Massacre? </a></li>
<li>al-Hamra: <a href="https://medium.com/@_alhamra/anti-war-in-form-pro-war-in-essence-621abfd04f4e#.msfp7qp0k">Anti-War in Form, Pro-War in Essence </a></li>
<li>Bernard-Henri Lévy: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/21/we-failed-in-libya-but-going-in-right-thing-to-do">Intervening in Libya in 2011 was the right thing to do</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/12/deselect-stop-war-coalition.html">Deselect Stop The War Coalition</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/11/have-stop-war-coalition-finally-jumped.html">Have Stop The War Coalition finally jumped the shark?</a></li>
</ul>
paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-27627273384058722592016-09-18T18:27:00.004+01:002016-09-21T16:06:51.983+01:00Venezuela: The left's giant forgetting<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFjY-4WGITKOrlawk8FaNY9nDTkHJJuiwOqwfBR-8W6k45bbzUX5zrK6RWkLUFhEOX6HY7HUA_SKNiuq5J6v3qS-7YvzPPyUteeBFHGPWfGtSB-QutWCb6B39KM27xmQw-Q23OKhu_p8o/s1600/corbyn+venezuela12.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFjY-4WGITKOrlawk8FaNY9nDTkHJJuiwOqwfBR-8W6k45bbzUX5zrK6RWkLUFhEOX6HY7HUA_SKNiuq5J6v3qS-7YvzPPyUteeBFHGPWfGtSB-QutWCb6B39KM27xmQw-Q23OKhu_p8o/s640/corbyn+venezuela12.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earlier this year Jeremy Corbyn <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/Jeremy_Corbyn/12184405/Jeremy-Corbyn-accused-of-rewriting-history-after-deleting-hundreds-of-outspoken-articles-and-speeches-from-his-website.html">deleted a lot of content </a>from his website. Right, malnourished child in Maracaibo hospital.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Malnourished children who faint in class. Children who, in the worst cases, die from hunger, their bodies nothing but skin and bones, the outlines of their ribs visible.<br />
<br />
Images like those have become common in Venezuela, where critical food shortages are pushing hundreds of thousands of children under a blanket of misery and hunger more often seen in the poorest countries in Africa."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article93889342.html">Hunger haunts Venezuela, especially its children</a>, Miami Herald, August 5, 2016.</blockquote>
<br />
For months images of starving Venezuelan children, reports of food riots, of the very poorest banging pots on the streets demanding food and desperate parents hunting for medicine for their children have appeared in Western media.<br />
<br />
Ordinary people are now being <a href="http://glykosymoritis.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/in-hungry-venezuela-buying-too-much.html">randomly snatched out of the huge food lines</a>, arrested and labelled saboteurs by a government desperate to blame anyone else but themselves. <br />
<br />
President Maduro has joked about the food crisis.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
As the country suffers food shortages, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro apparently thinks starvation is funny. <a href="https://t.co/a4163cy6LS">pic.twitter.com/a4163cy6LS</a></div>
— Fusion (@Fusion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Fusion/status/776367523306450944">September 15, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
<h3>
Nothing new</h3>
<br />
These images of starvation are not new, although the media attention is. Last June <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21654653-un-honours-venezuela-curbing-hungerwhich-actually-getting-worse-let-them-eat-chavismo">The Economist reported</a> evidence that Chavismo's vaunted alleviation of poverty and food insecurity had reversed.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Marianella Herrera, a nutritionist at the Fundación Bengoa, a private foundation, calls official data partial and inconsistent. “Other studies show an increase in malnutrition,” she says. “Children are showing up in hospital emergency wards with severe malnutrition, and some are dying because of a lack of basic supplies.” The government’s own figures, which show it reached the UN target for reducing malnutrition in children by 2008, indicate that by 2013 Venezuela was close to crossing the line again, in the opposite direction.</blockquote>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglFTHpE7FMykSFqFOl0BNAO6Sz5mCGhm4mukk5xQ_Nbvz2wQsRLwYLBUicpbpfGeRgoWBoNZwM9MexsgwtLQ2DsWX6iZqyGTmEH4JgaYtvJk8JMTZ4ysvEzq4q_4UDiyOmmEuLqkpP0lzx/s1600/ven20150620_AMC642_0+%252820150620_AMC642_0.png+%2528PNG+Image%252C+1190%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0660+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252896%2525%2529%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglFTHpE7FMykSFqFOl0BNAO6Sz5mCGhm4mukk5xQ_Nbvz2wQsRLwYLBUicpbpfGeRgoWBoNZwM9MexsgwtLQ2DsWX6iZqyGTmEH4JgaYtvJk8JMTZ4ysvEzq4q_4UDiyOmmEuLqkpP0lzx/s640/ven20150620_AMC642_0+%252820150620_AMC642_0.png+%2528PNG+Image%252C+1190%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0660+pixels%2529+-+Scaled+%252896%2525%2529%2529.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From The Economist, June 2015.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
June 2015 was also the time of<a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/British-MP-Jeremy-Corbyn-Speaks-Out-For-Venezuela-20150605-0033.html"> the last recorded comment </a>(that I am aware of) by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Venezuela, at a rally organised by the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign (VSC). In March 2016 he deleted a slew of content from his website including this<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150727072253/http://jeremycorbyn.org.uk/articles/venezuela/"> pro-Chavismo article</a>.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfiAlFNpxUN1ixVkNP6SWkdhDX0IIJ2nsJm5Y1Ulhx1YF3nBrGuFVCvqZrmp9B3EcsLpyueN2ruERcSeXztcUTzur29wxTdcyGnCohWQ6fPeQuGbAdYRprWIymdhH_C_hLNPvYbcJzSwDG/s1600/ven-RWIAAizNV+%2528CGAZZ-RWIAAizNV.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0400+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfiAlFNpxUN1ixVkNP6SWkdhDX0IIJ2nsJm5Y1Ulhx1YF3nBrGuFVCvqZrmp9B3EcsLpyueN2ruERcSeXztcUTzur29wxTdcyGnCohWQ6fPeQuGbAdYRprWIymdhH_C_hLNPvYbcJzSwDG/s320/ven-RWIAAizNV+%2528CGAZZ-RWIAAizNV.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0400+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Circulated by VSC prior to June2015 rally.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
His speech in June 2015 did not include anything - <b>not one word</b> - on the situation with hunger in Venezuela. Almost the entire focus was on supposed American imperialism.<br />
<br />
Yet not only was there reporting on starving Venezuelans in June 2015 there were many earlier reports, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/09/venezuela-protest-food-shortages">this one from March 2014</a> about riot police preventing a 'empty pots march' on the Food Ministry.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
More than 5,000 protesters banged pots, blew horns and whistles and carried banners in the capital to decry crippling inflation and shortages of basics including flour, milk and toilet paper. Similar protests were held in at least five other cities.<br />
<br />
All over Venezuela, people spend hours every week queuing at supermarkets, often before dawn, without even knowing what may arrive.<br />
<br />
“There’s nothing to buy. You can only buy what the government lets enter the country because everything is imported. There’s no beef. There’s no chicken,” said Zoraida Carrillo, a 50-year-old marcher in Caracas. </blockquote>
<h3>
Silent witness</h3>
<br />
Also at <a href="https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-c7f9-Hundreds-rally-to-mark-10-years-of-backing-Venezuela">that June 2015 rally</a> were Labour MPs Richard Burgon and Grahame Morris and Labour MSP Neil Findlay.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHFbMekWOS2OAghDF-247tEkTx4uhzPgqwrKe7LJUrWTCCKsBQtonR5GLCA0i7gppvF6BsEHmfWzqZcfR3IkfhnMH6VCByPP6snWmpSRwIXqHCBi1ABHDNVYZt-00cYQuWH7F4Dvl6bb4/s1600/vengAAVaWW+%2528CGAkcg2WgAAVaWW.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0450+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHFbMekWOS2OAghDF-247tEkTx4uhzPgqwrKe7LJUrWTCCKsBQtonR5GLCA0i7gppvF6BsEHmfWzqZcfR3IkfhnMH6VCByPP6snWmpSRwIXqHCBi1ABHDNVYZt-00cYQuWH7F4Dvl6bb4/s320/vengAAVaWW+%2528CGAkcg2WgAAVaWW.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0450+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiotFCXedJQU5jDQFm2KVuquZvO1SZexJnl_RXD2zdaDO7dJKlVubmoOR0WVD4rqHayTc8A9Y9Qr5iCM2jgJvsZ3eldvzuETPcEOul8XGR8n9GeuTDAOGC4Lz2HdIp8PLvtlgazqPeL7d3l/s1600/venWoAAzkrS+%2528CGAfbjcWoAAzkrS.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0450+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiotFCXedJQU5jDQFm2KVuquZvO1SZexJnl_RXD2zdaDO7dJKlVubmoOR0WVD4rqHayTc8A9Y9Qr5iCM2jgJvsZ3eldvzuETPcEOul8XGR8n9GeuTDAOGC4Lz2HdIp8PLvtlgazqPeL7d3l/s320/venWoAAzkrS+%2528CGAfbjcWoAAzkrS.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0450+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVWiZUEZzf-FWuQHR4bUwPoXmMH5IGNgHRX3g03_Rxu98jQNObM48VnUl8emwTvL7SI8CJhoA5zGsK0HbWFwsjgJ44MVGaOULkWc5StSd_RbkyouZPWnpDJG93O37WXh70Z4vfpaEi7aWl/s1600/venWoAE1yUv+%2528CGAhXYZWoAE1yUv.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0450+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVWiZUEZzf-FWuQHR4bUwPoXmMH5IGNgHRX3g03_Rxu98jQNObM48VnUl8emwTvL7SI8CJhoA5zGsK0HbWFwsjgJ44MVGaOULkWc5StSd_RbkyouZPWnpDJG93O37WXh70Z4vfpaEi7aWl/s320/venWoAE1yUv+%2528CGAhXYZWoAE1yUv.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+600%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0450+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I cannot find any comment on Venezuela by any of those three since last June.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJaWQVxu9slegK83cdxjg6c66OukK1Ipznh1n3hEPzbEmx-IZdVlQvXUvP4iam5mbAyktrhOZA5rxgxJTBxKPtgrJ0OYjJhcMGLbvsCBCWGAFS_UKLDVaWjAgodoB8wReu2EEOLVmasmXn/s1600/corbyn+venezuela7.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJaWQVxu9slegK83cdxjg6c66OukK1Ipznh1n3hEPzbEmx-IZdVlQvXUvP4iam5mbAyktrhOZA5rxgxJTBxKPtgrJ0OYjJhcMGLbvsCBCWGAFS_UKLDVaWjAgodoB8wReu2EEOLVmasmXn/s320/corbyn+venezuela7.png" width="320" /></a>This is symptomatic of a silence which has descended over the left on Venezuela from those who have <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10430">previously and loudly cheered Chavismo</a>. Symptomatic of that silence is the prominent British journalist and activist Owen Jones. Jones is very active on social media and he has been asked numerous times to explain his silence. He has not responded.<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://twitter.com/VenSolidarity">timeline of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign</a> since last June demonstrates this sudden poverty of interest. It is like Venezuela has become kryptonite to a certain section of the left. Something which is no longer talked about in certain circles.<br />
<br />
The group <a class="_hli" data-ft="{"tn":"k"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=1601975316780346" href="https://www.facebook.com/Labour-Friends-of-Progressive-Latin-America-1601975316780346/" id="js_12" role="null">Labour Friends of Progressive Latin America</a>, formed in May, also has nothing to say about Venezuela.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Rabbit! </h3>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkHB9zTdQlt8c1-52ez-1g2u2bjwvJWOJU5kP06dzUUtMH7p-wXV1I9Gg6Nya9Fxe1uaLJtt74GM0Yw9IE_2hF29pxmVNcuv8zU0H4nrTIP8tCIt_V8EWXY9KpPLbaLhPDFS6_3rOtlS8/s1600/corbyn+venezuela5.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkHB9zTdQlt8c1-52ez-1g2u2bjwvJWOJU5kP06dzUUtMH7p-wXV1I9Gg6Nya9Fxe1uaLJtt74GM0Yw9IE_2hF29pxmVNcuv8zU0H4nrTIP8tCIt_V8EWXY9KpPLbaLhPDFS6_3rOtlS8/s320/corbyn+venezuela5.png" width="320" /></a></div>
What has occupied these people, and others such as MP Diane Abbott, since they decided to forget about Venezuela and its starving children, is a so-called 'coup' in Brazil. That country - <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/corruption-index">like Venezuela</a> - has suffered from <a href="https://usefulstooges.com/2016/01/25/dilma-rousseff-decline-and-fall/">enormous levels of corruption</a> which has involved politicians from all parties. Are you sensing a theme?<br />
<br />
<h3>
Whither the 'socialist economic model'? </h3>
<br />
What the Maduro government is doing is entrenching the political philosophy which created the food crisis in the first place. The same economic policies which these British left-wingers had previously cheered on.<br />
<br />
Key to the entrenchment is a Spanish Marxist Professor called Alfredo Serrano Mancilla. <a href="http://panampost.com/orlando-avendano/2016/08/16/spanish-marxist-professor-alfredo-serrano-is-the-man-behind-venezuelas-economic-messalfredo-serrano-the-man-behind-the-economic-crisis-in-venezuela/">Those policies include</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Expropriations, the seizure of businesses, “urban agriculture” on balconies, the soviet supply system and forced employment in the public agriculture sector are all a result of Serrano’s influence.</blockquote>
He is the coordinator of the Center for Political and Social Studies (CEPS), a Spanish anti-capitalist organization that provides political consulting and is closely associated with the left-wing party Podemos.<br />
<br />
Mancilla is described as "a kind of ideologue of Chavismo." Maduro has called him "the Jesus Christ of the economy."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_DL8a3Ed9z39Z3gtYHizNDEBGt_qPGVhtkEbQdM8gKeqYwPswzNq91uD9_rhUwW22JCBzIuUxo4kTvKtNG1BRdje08Ix5-WMLzxVGCgpMClAQepltWplEaMe8L3tAw4AZKqVg4KSOYiuU/s1600/corbyn+venezuela13.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_DL8a3Ed9z39Z3gtYHizNDEBGt_qPGVhtkEbQdM8gKeqYwPswzNq91uD9_rhUwW22JCBzIuUxo4kTvKtNG1BRdje08Ix5-WMLzxVGCgpMClAQepltWplEaMe8L3tAw4AZKqVg4KSOYiuU/s320/corbyn+venezuela13.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Mancilla, according to the Spanish newspaper El Nacional, has solidified the idea that <b>the socialist economic model</b> of the 21st century is unquestionable, and that any failure is the result of attacks from the opposition.<br />
<br />
Does this sound familiar? Ring any bells?<br />
<br />
Mancilla has said he wants to hide the crisis and not allow the entry of
humanitarian aid. NGOs like Doctors Without Borders cannot act in
Venezuela without asking permission from authorities.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/08/09/its-the-marxism-stupid/">Writing last month</a> César Crespo noted that 'Chavismo' was always built around an uneasy alliance between heterogenous political groups, but "his long game was always establishing an “alternative” to capitalism." (This is what Western lefties fell in love with.)<br />
<blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrGnCSOwo97L1VC_v0RdRMEMqG5q1UN8deUrzDS2Nn_VArEYGZxi9eG-FA67mrEDfNNZ5SG2nTDUiiHN79vC5nNKnCulGYSMka9ZpxOxpg8nL9-E4ZNyZhg38LuVfomanbipEqPUddes8P/s1600/corbyn+venezuela3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrGnCSOwo97L1VC_v0RdRMEMqG5q1UN8deUrzDS2Nn_VArEYGZxi9eG-FA67mrEDfNNZ5SG2nTDUiiHN79vC5nNKnCulGYSMka9ZpxOxpg8nL9-E4ZNyZhg38LuVfomanbipEqPUddes8P/s320/corbyn+venezuela3.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Let’s not forget that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prgMchJWD90">even though initially Chavez vehemently denied being a Marxist </a>and ran in 1998 as a third-way Caribbean Tony Blair, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/mundo/america_latina/2010/01/100123_chavez_marx_amab.shtml">he openly embraced marxism soon afterwards</a>, <a href="http://patriaurgente.com/?p=15583">he had ties from the beginning with Venezuelan radical marxist groups who had even trained his handpicked heir</a>, <a href="http://www.superintendenciadepreciosjustos.gob.ve/?q=noticias/ley-de-precios-justos-fortalecera-bases-para-una-economia-socialista">his economic guru was an ideological Marxist dinosaur</a>, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323884304578328252463429328">counted Fidel Castro as a mentor</a> and <a href="http://www.nacion.com/mundo/famosas-polemicas-frases-Hugo-Chavez_0_1327467377.html">considered Cuba a “sea of happiness”</a>, and even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwbuyvNdEcM">had a soft spot for North Korea</a>. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
His most important economic policies were <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2010/10/expropriations_venezuela">the expropriation of the type of companies that no sane government on the planet runs</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/apr/16/venezuela-economy-black-market-milk-and-toilet-paper">the establishment of draconian price controls</a>, <a href="http://www.noticias24.com/venezuela/noticia/247521/la-inamovilidad-laboral-un-debate-que-sigue-entre-lo-productivo-y-lo-social/">irrational labor regulations</a>, and <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2013/02/venezuela%E2%80%99s-currency">useless foreign currency controls</a>. Chávez was a media savvy politician who knew how to pander to hip antiestablishment ideologies, but deep down the difference between 21st century socialism and the 20th century variant was always paper-thin. <br />
<br />
.....<br />
<br />
Failing to mention that the worst legacy of Chávez (the destruction of the Venezuelan economy) is tied to his faith in discredited economic ideas is doing a favor to people like Alfredo Serrano, Pablo Iglesias or Jeremy Corbyn. Chávez is not just a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of populist institution-busting, he’s a cautionary tale for re-branding of Marxism as hip, anti-establishment ideology.<br />
<br /></blockquote>
<h3>
Question more</h3>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgN2rnOqmm6Tr0v0-CfBkFjrorUdGZWv3hXz1FZQEMoIXvEonwnG5ocVbFWQrWdZayBKXP3jArlKHPxtjqYKFFg_A63CgOLMprCyPfGylHdWlYIVBCRIKEeLvbe1TKPQt6xEGPwx8iNuex/s1600/venezuela-socialism-starvation-economic-collapse-enslavement+%2528venezuela-socialism-starvation-economic-collapse-enslavement.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+920%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgN2rnOqmm6Tr0v0-CfBkFjrorUdGZWv3hXz1FZQEMoIXvEonwnG5ocVbFWQrWdZayBKXP3jArlKHPxtjqYKFFg_A63CgOLMprCyPfGylHdWlYIVBCRIKEeLvbe1TKPQt6xEGPwx8iNuex/s400/venezuela-socialism-starvation-economic-collapse-enslavement+%2528venezuela-socialism-starvation-economic-collapse-enslavement.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+920%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0537+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The unheard.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Yet that cautionary tale is no caution if it is unheard.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/22/radical-leftwing-tourists-pimps-dictatorship-hugo-chavez-venezuela-sex-tourism">Writing in May</a> the British author Nick Cohen railed against those who had backed Chavismo and were now silent. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The show is over now. Their fantasies fulfilled, the western tourists have left a ruined country behind without a guilty glance over their shoulder. Venezuela looks as if it has been pillaged by a hostile army, though there has been no war.</blockquote>
Yet during the Labour leadership campaign Corbyn has faced no questioning over Venezuela, not from his opponent or from any journalist in any of his many interviews. No one has waved pictures of starving children in front of his face demanding answers.<br />
<br />
Neither is anyone demanding answers from those trade unions who continue - even now - to support the Venezuelan regime.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfyVszy5S3Xu3kX6A1n0dqEyXyAU45TvvbRXVzvNbYswgbtj4tUAUNV-VUSfGqCxZMC7XZd9l_h9yK1gLVKoXaoBA-P5bzd0tbo6Pc6EYnufz7Be32y4zjCUWnPYR_3Uc6DHtDcZ0HYJvm/s1600/corbyn+venezuela15.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfyVszy5S3Xu3kX6A1n0dqEyXyAU45TvvbRXVzvNbYswgbtj4tUAUNV-VUSfGqCxZMC7XZd9l_h9yK1gLVKoXaoBA-P5bzd0tbo6Pc6EYnufz7Be32y4zjCUWnPYR_3Uc6DHtDcZ0HYJvm/s400/corbyn+venezuela15.png" width="400" /> </a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZScnyNBNOm9bePB9tpaHpYiMTspcofqa2rO4l8FhGSSYPziPMpM92h0K8I7pivuPcPJ6j4e_gpsXkb4CatVHu0nw0riqFYmNNPRlo3JHgvmn5INKL1QCBlelPrvQq3CtYoFUSuCnM1Oy2/s1600/vennlUXEAAOdsY+%2528CoyqnlUXEAAOdsY.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+557%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0379+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZScnyNBNOm9bePB9tpaHpYiMTspcofqa2rO4l8FhGSSYPziPMpM92h0K8I7pivuPcPJ6j4e_gpsXkb4CatVHu0nw0riqFYmNNPRlo3JHgvmn5INKL1QCBlelPrvQq3CtYoFUSuCnM1Oy2/s320/vennlUXEAAOdsY+%2528CoyqnlUXEAAOdsY.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+557%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0379+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinfciwYzvy-5WjH7nMMlU38J_vsn3ZQnwSkpZG1h4GK8abOe_Fp-DHhJV0cW4H8-KdN0CDn72JT5KPr-QCfuT6DFJPAwfoBUUVzq4_IHqco6DCKEP7gecr8s7lByqqz-nMK6b4X111vcqp/s1600/ven%2528Coyql68XEAEoXD7.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+569%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0381+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinfciwYzvy-5WjH7nMMlU38J_vsn3ZQnwSkpZG1h4GK8abOe_Fp-DHhJV0cW4H8-KdN0CDn72JT5KPr-QCfuT6DFJPAwfoBUUVzq4_IHqco6DCKEP7gecr8s7lByqqz-nMK6b4X111vcqp/s320/ven%2528Coyql68XEAEoXD7.jpg+%2528JPEG+Image%252C+569%25C2%25A0%25C3%2597%25C2%25A0381+pixels%2529%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ads in current VSC Bulletin.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Some Western lefties have looked inward at their previous support for Chavismo - <a href="https://usefulstooges.com/2016/07/29/a-bouquet-of-norwegian-chavez-groupies/">here</a> Useful Stooges covers the turn-around by some Norwegians.
<br />
<br />
It is cowardly of others, like Corbyn and the rest, to not follow suit and it is appalling that they <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/16/jeremy-corbyn-leadership-david-cameron-libya-labour">are allowed to get away with it</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Edited to add</b> (this is from a Corbyn rally and refers to a popular BBC show sold to a semi-commercial rival.):<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Everyone at this rally are chanting "nationalise bake off"</div>
— chris (@gl4sses) <a href="https://twitter.com/gl4sses/status/777177921844805632">September 17, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
<br />
<b>See also</b>:<br />
<ul>
<li>Rob Marchant '<a href="http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2016/05/25/the-corbynite-take-on-venezuela-tells-you-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-leaderships-judgement/">The Corbynite take on Venezuela tells you all you need to know about the leadership’s judgement</a>'</li>
<li>James Bloodworth, '<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-left-has-a-blind-spot-on-venezuela-when-will-it-acknowledge-that-chavezs-socialist-dream-has-9138930.html">The left has a blind spot on Venezuela. When will it acknowledge that Chavez's socialist dream has turned into a nightmare?</a>'</li>
<li>Geoffrey M. Hodgson, '<a href="http://newpolitics.apps-1and1.net/the-perils-of-corbynista-populism">The Perils of Corbynista Populism</a>' (discusses Venezuela)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/strange-tale-hugo-chavez-swansea-1878784">The strange tale of Hugo Chavez and the Swansea Marxist</a> (HT John Rogan) </li>
</ul>
paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-58038246498551555042016-09-08T18:10:00.000+01:002016-09-08T18:10:16.798+01:00Defend brave imprisoned Crimean Muslims!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgflz1rleSAdlMsqBcuvbCzSpKOGApJqBH3WDP-KSfhiMvl7f1MUC9mKLMfkeRXH1xqW0t83bV8Ye6jbZjwqzstz-ddrJbfN6iMph-vUWMU16keRV84NR8xfEVgjgwSnVINFBWhGwTZT8Dn/s1600/1473255671+%2528Crimean+Tatars+sentenced+for+kitchen+chat+in+Russian-occupied+Crimean+%25E2%2580%2598conveyor+belt+trial%25E2%2580%2599+__+khpg.org%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgflz1rleSAdlMsqBcuvbCzSpKOGApJqBH3WDP-KSfhiMvl7f1MUC9mKLMfkeRXH1xqW0t83bV8Ye6jbZjwqzstz-ddrJbfN6iMph-vUWMU16keRV84NR8xfEVgjgwSnVINFBWhGwTZT8Dn/s640/1473255671+%2528Crimean+Tatars+sentenced+for+kitchen+chat+in+Russian-occupied+Crimean+%25E2%2580%2598conveyor+belt+trial%25E2%2580%2599+__+khpg.org%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left to right: Ferat Saifullyayev [with a T-shirt reading: ’Banned
again’]; Rustem Vaitov [’Crimean Tatars’]; Nuri Primov [Order carried
out as commisioned]; Ruslan Zeitullayev [’The show is over’] Photo: Yana
Goncharova</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><br />Reblogged <a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1473245559">with permission</a>.<br /><br /><br />=====<br /><br /><br />By Halya Coynash<br /><br />The first sentences have been passed in Russia’s mounting offensive against Crimean Muslims, with the four Crimean Tatars all sentenced to real terms of imprisonment. The trial was critical since Russia is already holding 14 Crimeans, almost all Crimean Tatars, in indefinite custody on identical charges. The sentences could have been much worse, which is the only positive thing to say since the men were convicted, without any evidence, of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organization which is legal in Ukraine. <br /><br />The verdict will, of course, be appealed, however the convictions had been anticipated. The ‘trial’ was, after all, taking place in the same Rostov military court which in August 2015 <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/08/sanctions-response-needed-to-sentsov.html">sentenced Crimean political prisoners Oleg Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko to huge sentences</a>, and the prosecutor had demanded long sentences in this case also.<br /><br />The men were accused of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a totally peaceful pan-Islamist organization which back in 2003 Russia’s Supreme Court declared ‘terrorist’, together with 14 other organizations. No grounds were given and the ruling was effectively concealed until it was too late for the organization itself, and human rights NGOs to appeal against. <br /><br />There is nothing incriminating against Hizb ut-Tahrir, but there is also no proof that the four men are in fact members. All four men deny such involvement. Almost all the prosecution’s ‘witnesses’ testified essentially in the men’s favour. Russia then resorted to the <a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1465946482">testimony of a secret witness</a>, who could not even be cross-examined properly. There were long delays while the man was clearly being told what to say. Even then he came up with totally contradictory statements. He could not remember the place or time, for example, but did remember every incriminating word that they were supposed to have spoken.<br /><br />There was also the testimony of a former Ukrainian SBU officer who betrayed his oath and now works for the FSB. There is considerable evidence that he had long been waging a personal vendetta over two of the men, who had lodged a complaint back in 2012. <br /><br />These trials are always cynical, since Russia, having never explained why it considers Hizb ut-Tahrir to be terrorist when no other country does, uses secret witnesses to convict people merely of involvement in it. They were especially lawless in Crimea, and not only because the organization is legal in Ukraine. The prosecution kept on referring to events from long before Russia had invaded and annexed Crimea and also concentrated on the men’s negative attitude to Russian occupation. <br /><br />Aside from highly dubious ‘testimony’, there was evidence only of a ‘kitchen chat’, on the level of what kind of world order would be desirable. <br /><br />While any conviction of four recognized political prisoners is to be condemned, the sentences could have been worse. Ruslan Zeitullayev had been charged with ‘organizing’ a terrorist organization (Article 205.1 § 1 of the Russian criminal code) with the minimum sentence for this 15 years. Nuri Primov, Rustem Vaitov and Ferat Saifullayev were accused of taking part in it (Article 205.1 § 2), with this carrying a minimum 5-year sentence. The prosecutor last week asked for a 17-year sentence for Zeitullayev, and 7 or 8 years for the other three men.<br /><br />The court instead changed the charges against Zeitullayev from ‘organizing’ to ‘involvement’ and sentenced him to 7 years, while the other three men received the minimum 5-year sentences. Unfortunately, no Russian judges would have the courage to acquit people of politically motivated charges, but the minimum sentences in this case are effective confirmation of the lack of any grounds for criminal prosecution at all. <br /><br />The men arrived in court for the sentences defiant and unbroken. Each had a different sign on their T-shirt: “Crimean Tatars”; “Yet again banned”; “The show is over” and “The order carried out [as commissioned]”. As they entered the glass cage, each man put tape over his mouth. <br /><br />All four men are from Sevastopol and three of them have been in custody since January 2015. Saifullyaev was arrested slightly later, in April 2015. <br /><br />It seems likely that Russia was waiting to see what the reaction would be to these arrests. There was unfortunately next to no reaction internationally and in February 2016, a further four men were arrested and remain in custody. The armed searches and arrests have now gained pace with 14 men in all held in appalling conditions and facing the same grotesque charges. At least one of the men – Emir-Huseyn Kuku is a human rights activist, almost certainly imprisoned for his monitoring of rights abuses.<br /><br />Russia has finally come up against resistance to monstrous conveyor-belt ‘trials’ and sentences which it has been carrying out, wholesale, for the last 10 years. It was typical that the indictment in this case had been copied from a 2013 prosecution in the Russian Federation. Challenged by real lawyers who genuinely represent the men’s interests, the ‘case’ was seen in all its squalor. <br /><br />The Memorial Human Rights Centre has, from the outset, followed such cases in the Russian Federation. It considers all men sentenced purely on the grounds of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir to be political prisoners. Given the scale of the repression in Russia, it is frustrating that international rights organizations have long been silent.<br /><br />That silence has continued since Russia began applying this repressive practice in occupied Crimea, with the armed searches and arrests clearly aimed at intimidating and silencing Crimean Tatars and deterring any other Ukrainian Muslims. Their treatment is appalling and <a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1469821755">often openly aimed at humiliating them</a>.<br /><br />As reported, Memorial HRC <a href="http://memohrc.org/news/memorial-priznal-politzaklyuchennymi-chetveryh-obvinyaemyh-iz-sevastopolya-po-delu-hizb-ut">recognized</a> Primov; Saifullayev Vaitov and Zeitullayev as political prisoners. In its statement it stressed that Crimea was territory which Russia was occupying and that it was accusing the men of involvement in an organization that is legal in Ukraine.<br /><br />
<h4>
PLEASE WRITE TO ALL FOUR MEN</h4>
<br />It is vital for them to feel that they are not forgotten, but it is also critical that Russia understands that it is being followed. Letters or postcards need to be in Russian, and should not contain any discussion of the cases or politics generally. If it is a problem to write in Russian, just copy-pasting the following will be fine.<br /><br />Добрый день, <br /><br />Желаю Вам здоровья, мужества и терпения, надеюсь на скорое освобождение.<br /><br />Мы о Вас помним.<br /><br />[Hello, I wish you good health, courage and patience and hope that you will soon be released. You are not forgotten.<br /><br />Address (just copy-paste the address, with the name and year of birth of the person you are writing to).<br /><br />Ruslan Zeitullayev<br /><br />344010, Россия, Ростов-на-Дону, ул. Максима Горького, 219 СИЗО-1.<br /><br />Зейтуллаеву, Руслану Борисовичу, 1985 г.р.<br /><br />Rustem Vaitov<br /><br />344010, Россия, г. Ростов-на-Дону, ул. Максима Горького, 219 СИЗО-1<br /><br />Ваитову Рустему Мамутовичу, 1986 г. р.<br /><br />Ferat Saifullayev<br /><br />344010, Россия, Ростов-на-Дону, ул. Максима Горького, 219 СИЗО-1.<br /><br />Сайфуллаеву, Ферату Рефатовичу, 1983 г. р.<br /><br />Nuri Primov<br /><br />344010, Россия, Ростов-на-Дону, ул. Максима Горького, 219 СИЗО-1.<br /><br />Примову, Нури Владимировичу<br /><br /> <br />
<h4>
The 14 Crimean Muslims arrested so far</h4>
<br /><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1469821755">Ruslan Zeitullayev</a><br /><br /><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1469874617">Ferat Saifullayev</a><br /><br /><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1469797282">Rustem Vaitov</a><br /><br /><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1469877994">Nuri Primov</a><br /><br />Arrested in February 2016<br /><br /><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1471962781">Emir-Huseyn Kuku</a><br /><br /><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1458518926">Muslim Aliev; Envir Bekirov and Vadim Siruk</a><br /><br />April 2016 <a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1460977788">Arsen Dzhepparov and Refat Alimov</a><br /><br />May 2016 <a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1463054237">Enver Mamutov, Rustem Abiltarov, Remzi Memetov and Zevri Abseitov</a><br />
<br />
<br />
See also:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/08/sanctions-response-needed-to-sentsov.html">Sanctions response needed to Sentsov, Kolchenko case</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/10/russias-eight-crimea-myths.html">Russia's eight Crimea myths</a></li>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2016/02/russia-punishment-psychiatry-back-in.html">Russia: punishment psychiatry back in vogue</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1472932899">Silence on Critical Verdict Will Free Kremlin Hand for More Repression in Crimea</a></li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1469793231">Terror on a Conveyor Belt in Russian-occupied Crimea</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1466634017">Russian FSB jails Crimean Muslims, then terrorizes their children</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1464528623">Crimea is not a closed subject, Putin. It’s an open wound.</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1464605793">Russia’s Conveyor Belt of Repression in Occupied Crimea</a></li>
</ul>
paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-65734107307864338372016-09-02T10:52:00.000+01:002016-09-02T15:26:27.885+01:00Chi Onwurah + Labour's race f'up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihZ7fs89TgzllqCW8Chmk1vWUXOp0f6e24tzrm6ImB3DOL4aEobXC9Zxzl6a935G05rA1LsalvNZ-GM_S5uwqy9XCxdYQknkq11wSMkd5Rf5CU4iV-r1pRKWImsmVn0-OLRjeXvmd82Rlo/s1600/chi-onwurah-labour-MP-image-by-Peter-Judge-1+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihZ7fs89TgzllqCW8Chmk1vWUXOp0f6e24tzrm6ImB3DOL4aEobXC9Zxzl6a935G05rA1LsalvNZ-GM_S5uwqy9XCxdYQknkq11wSMkd5Rf5CU4iV-r1pRKWImsmVn0-OLRjeXvmd82Rlo/s640/chi-onwurah-labour-MP-image-by-Peter-Judge-1+%2528%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Last year I posted on how Diane Abbott must be defended. She had just been discovered by the Daily Mail as having had a relationship in the past with Jeremy Corbyn.<br />
<br />
Twitter was flooded with vile, disgusting, debased racist attacks on her. I wrote a post because nobody seemed to be paying any attention to this and I thought someone should.<br />
<br />
Who noticed? Practically no one. Outrage was there none. Passed The Twittersphere by. F'all on Comment Is Free.<br />
<br />
The whole experience was surreal. Look it up. Yes that actually happened and yes most ignored it / had no clue it was going on.<br />
<br />
¯\_(ツ)_/¯<br />
<br />
A year on and another black Labour MP is subjected to vile, disgusting, racist attacks. She is accused of 'playing the race card', an idea whose origins lie in the racist 'Southern Strategy' of the Reagan-era American Republican Party, by a website much of Labour links to.<br />
<br />
She does not receive the same sexualised abuse as Abbott but the assault on her is similarly determined to silence a black voice.<br />
<br />
Only this time Abbott and other left black voices are silent on her treatment, plus others, not of the far-left, also chime in, trashing her.<br />
<br />
One of those black voices is Ahmed Sule. who wrote a fantastic piece about 'playing the race card' last year for Media Diversified, a website/group linked to a key website backing Jeremy Corbyn, The Canary.<br />
<br />
Strangely (I jest) he has been silent on Chi Onwurah. In fact if you know of any 'radical' black voices speaking up for Onwurah let me know - they appear absent.<br />
<br />
<h4>
The assault on Onwurah</h4>
<br />
Onwurah is the black, Northern Labour MP whose criticism of Corbyn has been met with a racist assault - a reality, as with Abbott's, that has gone uncommented upon - as well as a dismissal as somehow her views are imposed upon her. Like this black woman is a puppet.<br />
<br />
For the Corbynites that must-read Canary website hosted <a href="http://www.thecanary.co/2016/08/24/corbyn-looks-set-win-labour-coup-launches-desperate-smear-campaign/">an assault </a>by white author James Wright on Onwurah. Tl/DR: the black MP lies.<br />
<br />
It cited another white author on Corbyn's history of opposing Apartheid. This has been widely circulated. The reality is that the entire Labour community opposed Apartheid, not just Corbyn. For his work the 'Blairite' Minister Peter Hain was given a medal by the South African government (Corbyn has no such medal). The image circulated of Corbyn comes from a protest organised by a Trotskyist sect, the RCP. that the African National Congress (ANC) in exile opposed.<br />
<br />
To shame a black Labour MP Corbyn supporters circulate an image of Corbyn, pretty much, defying the ANC.<br />
<br />
¯\_(ツ)_/¯<br />
<br />
I can understand defying the ANC but that wasn't what was happening for those circulating that image to trash Onwurah. They were deifying Corbyn. And in sharp and illuminating contrast to a black MP.<br />
<br />
The apogee of the reaction to Onwurah criticising Corbyn must be a black Corbyn supporter tweeting that Corbyn is <b>the </b>anti-racist hero. Never mind all those, like Abbott, who fought for representation.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cqe32IvWAAM9e1A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cqe32IvWAAM9e1A.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Racial discrimination and racism</h4>
<br />
At the core of the very serious issue with Labour reaction to Onwurah is her stated concern about racial discrimination.<br />
<br />
She says that the treatment of her and another black woman MP could constitute racial discrimination. This is based on how when you have low representation your actions could diminish that even more. Hence you end up discriminating.<br />
<br />
It's almost two decades since the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. That explained how institutions can be subject to racial discrimination in how they practice. That also said that a claim of racial discrimination should be taken at face value and not automatically dismissed.<br />
<br />
Understanding how racial discrimination works in practice is something muggins thought we'd got from all that history. More fool me.<br />
<br />
Cos British media headlines said Onwurah'd accused Corbyn of <b>racism</b>. (This line was swallowed whole by Smith supporter Kevin Meagher, who blogged, against her, at Labour Uncut.)<br />
<br />
This is not true. Racism and racial discrimination are not the same issue - and seeing how little this was understood vis Chi made me feel as if nothing had been learnt from the Stephen Lawrence experience or what has followed since. And I was truly shocked to see she got little support - including from her fellow MPs.<br />
<br />
So we end up, in 2016, having a black female Labour MP being told her experience is not valid by vast swathes of the party. And how dare you raise your experience as a black woman. And being left to fend for herself by the <b>entire</b> party. Not silenced - ignored. It appears so.<br />
<br />
Am back to Abbott and what happened a year ago...<br />
<br />
G&d this is truly pathetic ...<br />
<br />
<h4>
Yes discrimination</h4>
<br />
In her <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/01/corbyn-supporters-claimed-race-card-silence-minorities">piece today for The Guardian</a> Onwurah underlines that:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Conflating issues of representation with accusations of racism is one of the ways in which minority voices are silenced."</blockquote>
Corbyn needed to take care in how he treated Labour's few black female representatives. To do otherwise is not 'racism' but 'racial discrimination'. Because Labour has representation problems. Because meaning outcomes. Forgetting who 'they' are. Forgetting what 'they' represent. Forgetting what got 'them' where they are.<br />
<br />
Forgetting who 'we' are. Forgetting who he is. Or who he is supposed to be.<br />
<br />
Forgetting. <br />
<br />
Neglect - competence! - amounts to discrimination. That's her point, as I get it.<br />
<br />
It ain't hard to understand yet we have a party which yells at her to STFU. <br />
<br />
If Labour 2016 does not understand this, Chi's, basic point then WTF is Labour? And can someone else do some lifting on this than this old queen?<br />
<br />
The Corbynite leadership is white male heterosexuals.<br />
<br />
If you aint demanding of them cos that you aint nothing. Chi just did. She is something. F'yeah she is.<br />
<br />
We can do better. We can do more.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>For more on Jeremy Corbyn's history on Anti-Apartheid see Twll Dun '<a href="https://medium.com/@twlldun/the-right-side-of-history-de2228da346f#.ut86imouq">The right side of history</a>'</li>
</ul>
<br />paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-89153880492088125742016-08-29T12:39:00.000+01:002016-09-02T11:46:20.207+01:00An Ode to Poland, and a brief reflection of the Polish contribution to the UK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiiqFjubt3WsJE5GDAeYeXpTyMAzxOxv-p0rIll2iXu3bJXEGBUg79ro_ROjiv6DuVj7eIoFSrPwbLz-PKuF2VfBY9aioypaZ1F85Aujjew0RuCFNBJeN4vb4QpvDjXGUXrlkENi6NViFO/s1600/%2523polesinuk.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiiqFjubt3WsJE5GDAeYeXpTyMAzxOxv-p0rIll2iXu3bJXEGBUg79ro_ROjiv6DuVj7eIoFSrPwbLz-PKuF2VfBY9aioypaZ1F85Aujjew0RuCFNBJeN4vb4QpvDjXGUXrlkENi6NViFO/s640/%2523polesinuk.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
This is a guest blog by friend <a href="https://twitter.com/historyboy77">James Oliver</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
====<br />
<br />
Towards the end of the EU referendum campaign I had a most peculiar experience when a self-identified “ex-serviceman” came up to a Stronger IN stall i was helping to staff. In a provocative tone he asked us what the benefits of staying in the EU were because, according to him, we have to quote the words he used about immigrants "raping" and "slaughtering" this country.<br />
<br />
This tone of rhetoric about immigration has been very typical in British discourse, not just through the referendum campaign but for as long as I have been reading newspapers. One only needs to search the archives of the Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Express for proof of that.<br />
<br />
In this context I suspect very few of those who tried to use the sticking point of immigration against me expected an equally passionate defense of immigration as a reply. Certainly the “ex-serviceman” didn’t when I took him to task over his poor choice of words. What made our exchange peculiar was his revelation that he had a Polish wife who had been subject to racial abuse by a vote leave campaigner. Relating that to some of the experiences that I and my fellow campaigners have had helped us to persuade him to tick the remain box.<br />
<br />
For approaching 10 years of my life now I have counted Poles as friends, work colleagues and much more. I’ve had a long interest in Polish history began with a school trip to Kraków in 2007. There I was given a city tour by a wonderful guide whose name I sadly cannot no-longer recall but she opened my eyes to historical perspectives not well taught here. <br />
<br />
As we know Poland joined the European Union in 2004 and although it was this that produced the largest influx of Polish migrants to this country, what is less known or less appreciated is that the contribution of Poles long predates this date.<br />
<br />
Those of us who shop in Tesco or Marks & Spencer might not know that both were founded, in part, by Polish immigrants. Many of us who have taken the time to enjoy “The Secret Agent” on TV of late perhaps might not realise that the author of the original novel, Joseph Conrad, was fiercely proud of his Polish roots. He was born near the city of Berdychiv (in what is now Ukraine) and came to this county unable to speak English. He would go on to write some of the finest English language literature of his age. Joseph Conrad, Jack Cohen and Michael Marks are but a handful of examples.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Our ancestral connections </h4>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzYVpNbARtgELg7xMgfGDzSU76SGc_FI4PPxnVX1XsuOl1Iby_sWp8WEF-ohLjfaxQV0higlBLAUF51GSH2a_fcmALBiyveWSbd5l2cv6Qn58VnJJV_KUE9NcAMjjm1u6U3EombqTgBmAy/s1600/bd37a0838648e16e86054880f3d88ea6+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzYVpNbARtgELg7xMgfGDzSU76SGc_FI4PPxnVX1XsuOl1Iby_sWp8WEF-ohLjfaxQV0higlBLAUF51GSH2a_fcmALBiyveWSbd5l2cv6Qn58VnJJV_KUE9NcAMjjm1u6U3EombqTgBmAy/s320/bd37a0838648e16e86054880f3d88ea6+%2528%2529.jpg" width="158" /></a></div>
In the heart of the city of Westminster lies a small road called "Poland Street." At its heart, a pub known as "The Kings Arms." It’s a reference to a preexisting pub called “The King of Poland” from which the street takes its name from. It was erected as a token of the English appreciation of the victory of King John III Sobieski over the Ottomans besieging Vienna in 1689.<br />
<br />
For those Poles who have suffered the nasty consequences of racism in Britain today It may be difficult to ever imagine that there was a time when this land appreciated Poland simply for what it is. <br />
<br />
Back then, our cities such as London stood at the western end of the Hanseatic League. Poland was at its heart and the handfuls of Polish merchants who worked here buying and selling goods formed the heart of our first Polish communities.<br />
<br />
There is no doubting that we prospered from the trade, at the time most of our grain came from Poland but the migration worked the other way too. Records from 1601 for example detail much adored English actors performing Shakespeare plays in Gdańsk. Through that century Poland became to religious Scotsmen and Scottish merchants a “Scottish America” and some 40,000 of their number settled there.<br />
<br />
Poland was, as far as the 1600s were concerned, a beacon of religious tolerance. England and Scotland were mired in the bloody consequences of the reformation. Yet Poland was far more progressive than us in other matters too.<br />
<br />
In an era of absolute monarchy the thought of a country “electing” its “king” might seem jarring, after all we have yet to get around to doing anything akin to it. The “Nihil novi nisi commune consensu” decree signed on May 5th 1505 made the Polish King dependent upon the political citizenry. "Nic o nas bez nas" was the political slogan of the day and this was long before the USA adopted "No Taxation without Representation." <br />
<br />
To be sure the Polish “nobles democracy” wasn’t a democracy in the modern sense of the term but consider where we were in 1505 when Parliament was little more than an echo chamber of our King's wishes. The “nobles democracy” was markedly better than a system that took a bloody civil war in the 1640s in order for it to change.<br />
<br />
Poland historically had a far wider enfranchisement than England and yet through the referendum campaign we were told by the former Conservative Minister and Leave campaigner Michael Gove and others that we have always been the democratic moral exemplars. When Poland was eventually torn up in a series of partitions by its neighbours, for being in essence too democratic, few here (with honourable exceptions such as Edmund Burke) raised their voices to protest.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Poland's unhappy recent history </h4>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGU-JRdnEoOUtVE7tjBX_VhBNkO0KEDLIPb8Zm52YGwa6MdB1Si7q2RSj4WAofNg7GICUmj8Ce5InJi58x5GMnHzlkCq722Lk6riPp4quMPMAGwsiBN2xIx-u0x7Hp8iV9yDZCJJAIXvWK/s1600/86px-jastrzebiec_herb_medium+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGU-JRdnEoOUtVE7tjBX_VhBNkO0KEDLIPb8Zm52YGwa6MdB1Si7q2RSj4WAofNg7GICUmj8Ce5InJi58x5GMnHzlkCq722Lk6riPp4quMPMAGwsiBN2xIx-u0x7Hp8iV9yDZCJJAIXvWK/s200/86px-jastrzebiec_herb_medium+%2528%2529.jpg" width="143" /></a></div>
The course of Polish history over much of the 19th and 20th centuries save for brief interludes has not been a happy one. After the Third Partition of 1795 many Poles looked to revolutionary France as an antidote to the partitioning Black Eagle regimes of Prussia, Austria and Russia. Napoleon Bonaparte was happy to milk the Polish cause for so long as it provided him with willing men for his army.<br />
<br />
During the referendum campaign we were told by Boris Johnson that the EU was akin to the whims of Napoleon and Hitler. Józef Kajetan Skrzetuski’s 1773 pamphlet "Projekt nieprzerwanego w Europie pokoju" wasn’t discussed. Of course it is easy to point out here that a league of democracies is not the same thing as one-man-rule. In 1808 Napoleon’s puppet Polish state the “Duchy of Warsaw” oversaw decrees restricting civil rights for Polish Jews, something that would contravene EU democratic standards today. <br />
<br />
The final crushing of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 ushered in a new era of politics which stood for conservative absolutism and general lack of change insofar as the clock was set not before 1795. Europe's rulers had accused the cry for liberty for bringing about Napoleon so for that reason ideas of liberalism, representation and national self-determination for countries like Poland were ignored more than addressed.<br />
<br />
This “conservative order” was accompanied by the concept of restraining countries from changing borders against one another without full consent - the Concert of Europe, which we helped found. Although it lacked any real teeth owing to the general disinterest of the major European powers, particularly Britain, it did set out the notion that potential conflicts should be at least discussed before the signal of war was given, though it must be stressed that this did not stop conflicts such as World War One (WW1) from breaking out.<br />
<br />
The fact that Poland wasn’t on the map between 1795 and 1918 ensured that a large proportion of those Polish immigrants that came to our shores during the 19th century were of the most part political. Revolutionary socialist and nationalist ideals routinely mixed in such clubs like the “Gromada Rewolucyjna Londyn.” Although we sometimes pride ourselves for being a relative safe haven for Europe’s most radical thinkers and writers including Voltaire or Victor Hugo (who was also a Pan-Europeanist) or Karl Marx, it must be said though that at this time Polish immigration to these islands was limited in number, many who were able to flee from the Russian and Prussian oppression of their homeland fled to France or the Americas. <br />
<br />
The Polish cause in the 1800s made little impact on British politics, serving only as a sticking point to be occasionally raised whenever (usually) Russia did anything wrong. The re-emergence of Poland in 1918 saw a temporary stem to the flow though among the immigrants to come to our shores in the 1920s was Jacob Bronowski whose contribution to popular science education is indelible. It was only in the wake of World War Two (WW2) did large numbers of Poles come here, many attached to the Polish Army and Government.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Poland and WW2 </h4>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl-yYle6qOp3Z_tyZcx6e74dyuU8C03EstQci5EYqsZ7rFWNUZC92BwoVbap_NHE2DAosyd1DPfTTX7vlTXyqESlpaDXpHnow717fU1b9o4YiQTiBs38dtJHXUwmDqMRDGDsqzK89Vqva8/s1600/%2523polesinuk1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl-yYle6qOp3Z_tyZcx6e74dyuU8C03EstQci5EYqsZ7rFWNUZC92BwoVbap_NHE2DAosyd1DPfTTX7vlTXyqESlpaDXpHnow717fU1b9o4YiQTiBs38dtJHXUwmDqMRDGDsqzK89Vqva8/s320/%2523polesinuk1.png" width="238" /></a></div>
When I did my A level in history I recalled being taught certain things in an over simplistic manner about WW2. Whilst we were certainly taught that WW2 began with the German invasion of Poland and that we entered the war for the Polish cause, little was mentioned of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (between Hitler's Germany and Stalin’s Russia) except the highly glossed excuse that the Soviet invasion of Poland was simply for them to set up a buffer zone for the inevitable German onslaught.<br />
<br />
I recall no lessons at that time about any of the mass deportations carried out by Stalin, or other Soviet war-crimes such as the Katyń massacre or how close the Nazi-Soviet friendship really was, from the Gestapo-NKVD conferences to the willingness of Stalin to trade Jews to the Germans without sympathy in exchange for political prisoners. Everything I have learned about all of this I have learned since and much more besides. <br />
<br />
We declared war on Germany on September 3rd 1939 because of their invasion of Poland. We had a guarantee signed on August 25th that we would come to their aid in such an event. The Poles expected that we would fulfill our commitments by attacking Germany from the west and by sending munitions through Romania via the port of Constanta and indeed they based their military strategy in September 1939 around keeping alive the “Romanian Bridgehead”. But we never took any meaningful action nor did we supply the Poles. Instead we dawdled around in a “phoney war” until the Germans turned their guns on France and the Low Countries. <br />
<br />
Whilst the partition of Poland by German and Soviet hands was underway the Polish government moved as an “Govt in Exile” to France. After the disaster of the Battle of France, the Polish “Govt in Exile” moved to London along with thousands of Polish troops and airmen.<br />
<br />
At the end of WW2 more than 200,000 men, many who had served in the II Korps Polski, moved from the European battlefields where they had fought alongside and under the British to settle here. It was these more than any previous generation of Polish immigrants that helped to lay the foundations of the modern British-Polish community as we know it today, and London became the main political hub of the Polish diaspora until the re-emergence of Poland as a democratic state.<br />
<br />
Much has been written about the suffering that the Poles had to endure in WW2. At least 11 million of the estimated 18 million civilian victims of all nationalities killed by the Germans were killed in the lands of occupied Poland, including the overwhelming majority of the 6m+ Jews who perished in the “final solution.” The eye watering statistics of the Holocaust speak for themselves.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Remember Polish airmen </h4>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5zEj9o-QA2Way-61djxuTvlCm76FNFTg_qE38KoEB8nPj_LmP8yEqnwMCnliRHeeQYaqY-jvie2a7j-30W-w6OMTGEVQbVZhb5Q5r-XC2NDrBIphcRRd16Y2TsWeEdJzatXebsMGfx6ao/s1600/polish+vermin.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5zEj9o-QA2Way-61djxuTvlCm76FNFTg_qE38KoEB8nPj_LmP8yEqnwMCnliRHeeQYaqY-jvie2a7j-30W-w6OMTGEVQbVZhb5Q5r-XC2NDrBIphcRRd16Y2TsWeEdJzatXebsMGfx6ao/s400/polish+vermin.png" width="350" /></a></div>
The Polish contribution to our war effort on the other hand has stood on the brink of almost being forgotten. How many know that during the Battle of Britain the Polish 303 squadron with its 126 kills outscored any other squadron?<br />
<br />
Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding is on record for saying: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Had it not been for the magnificent work of the Polish squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry, I hesitate to say that the outcome of battle would have been the same”. </blockquote>
</blockquote>
That quote gives an irony to the attempts by UKIP and the BNP to use “Polish Spitfires” in order to evoke a vague sense of “Britishness”, however they define it. Throughout WW2 at least 17,000 airmen (listed on <a href="http://listakrzystka.pl/en/?s=Ukraine">http://listakrzystka.pl</a>) served in the Polish air force.<br />
<br />
On the ground Poles repeatedly distinguished themselves under the wings of our armed forces in battles from Narvik to the Africa Campaign, from the Italian campaign to D-Day and the liberation of France. In intelligence we have the Poles to thank for cracking the Enigma codes which helped us to decipher German war plans (something now commemorated at Bletchley Park). If I was to list everything the Poles did for us during WW2, this would be a much longer letter.<br />
<br />
One of the saddest aspects of the Polish war effort was its lack of reward. In political terms the conquest of Poland by Stalin’s Red Army represented the replacement of one genocidal regime by another and British foreign policy, as reflected in the Tehran and Yalta conferences, took to appeasing Stalin as a leverage against Hitler.<br />
<br />
Domestically, the continued presence of Poles here after WW2 generated a backlash - much as the presence of Poles have done today. This was reflected in a parliamentary debate on March 20th 1946 when Ernest Bevin told the House of Commons:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I have never disguised our firm conviction that, in our view, they ought to go back in order to play their part in the reconstruction of their stricken country." </blockquote>
</blockquote>
Except there was no country for go back to. The Poles that relocated back to the USSR were condemned as “fascists” and promptly deported to Gulags for collaborating with a Western government (ours). <br />
<br />
The Pro-Soviet British left also echoed these sentiments and helped ensure that those who had heroically fought for Britain were made not to feel welcome. In addition the British government promoted denial of the realities of Soviet brutality and ethnic cleansing against the Poles, such as the Katyń massacre of 1940 which saw 22,000+ Polish POWs executed.<br />
<br />
Our government also prohibited Poles from marching in the June 8th 1946 Victory Parade in London to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany on the basis of not offending Stalin. Yet despite British hostility, many Poles stayed. British racism and hostility was still preferable to death at the hands of the Soviets.<br />
<br />
The feeling that the Polish war effort is not appreciated along with our failure to uphold our legal and moral commitments made before WW2 has given many Poles the sense that we have “betrayed” them. You will still hear Poles complain about this and perhaps it’s time for us to recognise that this is not too unreasonable a complaint to make.<br />
<br />
<h4>
The Polish contribution </h4>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFd1lacHAPdAMSRK_hkyGBJ0HPfHTkVaqfLLmFtUDfOs2P8R4TpZRzR_bLH9JuIbszNPZloBLY0qGa6YVhXgJys2rM1aLq7Y1HvykP2bTDfRZh5k_EmKk_js1sNh56BijtYCycj9c1fHsU/s1600/6a011570c131b2970c0133f320db6d970b+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFd1lacHAPdAMSRK_hkyGBJ0HPfHTkVaqfLLmFtUDfOs2P8R4TpZRzR_bLH9JuIbszNPZloBLY0qGa6YVhXgJys2rM1aLq7Y1HvykP2bTDfRZh5k_EmKk_js1sNh56BijtYCycj9c1fHsU/s320/6a011570c131b2970c0133f320db6d970b+%2528%2529.jpg" width="277" /></a></div>
Although 2004 seems to have defined how we see Poles in the UK, it is important to understand that their contribution to this country long predates Poland's accession to the EU. Generations of Poles have already made their mark in the media and public life and are continuing to do so.<br />
<br />
On TV you could see Waldemar Januszczak with his quirky arts documentaries or Helen Czerski with her science programmes. There is Mel Giedroyc and her comedic talents to Kasia Madera who will tell us the world news and more recently there is Tomasz Schafernaker to tell us it is probably going to rain tomorrow, and many others.<br />
<br />
Recently we have been told that Poles have become the largest foreign-born group in the UK for the first time. Who knows now what future scientists, business leaders, sports stars, celebrities or even politicians this will bring?<br />
<br />
Far from “Raping” and “Slaughtering” us, those who have decided to lay their roots down in this country ought to be able to continue to contribute economically and socially if we let them.<br />
<br />
<br />paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-24560881100296974462016-08-21T17:37:00.001+01:002016-08-22T22:55:43.967+01:00Labour isn't Europe's biggest party<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4bLfsyLnmprnNE4w-IQvYfZTXkMt-pNhL4cEdRBmoxFii-r-nTtuDc4cg5JEAZQa6XXKhhXVGx2Vq6sWmLE1yP822VBEpz7C_SzTGtqEfVltCnrF6cCPdgE7_Ade37V4wvF6h_Ji0ajk/s1600/labour+europe.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4bLfsyLnmprnNE4w-IQvYfZTXkMt-pNhL4cEdRBmoxFii-r-nTtuDc4cg5JEAZQa6XXKhhXVGx2Vq6sWmLE1yP822VBEpz7C_SzTGtqEfVltCnrF6cCPdgE7_Ade37V4wvF6h_Ji0ajk/s640/labour+europe.png" width="554" /></a></div>
<br />
It is one of those little things that illustrates something bigger. For some time I have seen Twitter posts on Labour's membership numbers claiming it is now the biggest political party in Europe.<br />
<br />
The oldest tweet saying this which I could find came from a nasty antisemitic account in January:<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Wrong ... labour NOW is the biggest political party in europe .. blairit traitors r finished <a href="https://t.co/nd0w0HI4kH">https://t.co/nd0w0HI4kH</a></div>
— CaptS (@accouder) <a href="https://twitter.com/accouder/status/684836992677457920">January 6, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
Some of these tweets, most notably from Momentum's James Schnider, have described it as 'biggest left of centre party'. Others have described it as 'biggest party in Western Europe. But now this has progressed to a meme and I've had enough.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidMHTiT5PeH5pcHhaGwcBQ3YURnWqd4OgVUOqnkaWjp3TD_AhXHOY04i_cV68x_15Ug4Y4R90rh3yjefyLjdP34vSn0WgDSHzwxkE8KDQUFeXzO91GV2uQ9-4abKYA_PbvHWqVG6V85IlW/s1600/CqVXLYSWcAA3V2M+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidMHTiT5PeH5pcHhaGwcBQ3YURnWqd4OgVUOqnkaWjp3TD_AhXHOY04i_cV68x_15Ug4Y4R90rh3yjefyLjdP34vSn0WgDSHzwxkE8KDQUFeXzO91GV2uQ9-4abKYA_PbvHWqVG6V85IlW/s320/CqVXLYSWcAA3V2M+%2528%2529.jpg" width="292" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
This is not true, on several levels.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Wrong, spin, ignorant</h3>
<br />
The biggest political party in Europe is United Russia**, the ruling party in the Russian Federation, set up by Vladimir Putin in 2001. It's membership (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121025025351/http://www.minjust.ru/common/img/uploaded/docs/2011.02.01_Edinaya_Rossiya_perechen.doc">2013 figures</a>)
is over two million.<br />
<br />
It is spin because in a first past the post (FPTP) system almost all left members of political parties are in one party, rather than in several. In the rest of Europe, the spectrum of views represented in UK Labour are covered by more than one party because they have various forms of proportional representation. So the Social Democratic Party of Germany has around 450k members and Die Linke 60k and Alliance '90/The Greens another 60k. Plus there are other smaller left parties.<br />
<br />
I am not suggesting that all those members of other parties than Germany's Social Democrats would join them under FPTP but that those numbers point to another problem with the 'Europe's largest party' claim: the UK is coming off a very low base; proportionally most other European countries have higher memberships in general of political parties.<br />
<br />
These are the most recent figures I could find (<a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/05/06/decline-in-party-membership-europe-ingrid-van-biezen/">from 2013</a>)*. As you can see, even with Labour's membership growth the UK still has much lower numbers than most other countries. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbgd4FfTjakWaAWUJZU50fF_s2FGSKf7k8w15T6h7UJJHU5lbT8pp875aqg3myfviHfy5X6JKJRP0eRGpTHv6BU5Zj8z39c8Crk-Un-_lzmfI52E7CKs8QQho6hY4DxCCL5e4frsogeoYr/s1600/Figure1Biezen+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbgd4FfTjakWaAWUJZU50fF_s2FGSKf7k8w15T6h7UJJHU5lbT8pp875aqg3myfviHfy5X6JKJRP0eRGpTHv6BU5Zj8z39c8Crk-Un-_lzmfI52E7CKs8QQho6hY4DxCCL5e4frsogeoYr/s640/Figure1Biezen+%2528%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I could not find membership numbers for parties such as Greece's Syriza but this graph suggests it would be high. Parties of the left in Italy have a membership total over half a million. Spain's Podemos has around 450k members in a country 70% the size of the UK. Proportionally Podemos is as big as UK Labour and there are another 190,000 Social Democrats.<br />
<br />
The election for UK's Labour's Leader also has a paltry participation rate compared to elsewhere. In <a href="https://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/labour-party-leader-election-and-french-socialist-party-primary/">the 2011 French Socialist Party presidential primary</a> around 2,700,000 voters participated in the first round, and 2,900,000 voters in the second - a fact which beggars the question what the outcome would be if a similar democratic event were to happen in UK Labour.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Wake up call </h3>
<br />
What these facts highlight the most - and this is how a little thing can illustrate something bigger - is the con job behind this spin from Corbyn supporters, led by Momentum. Namely that even if you are 'Europe's biggest party' it does not matter how many members your party has, what matters is how many people will vote for you. The experience of other European parties tells us this. As they dare cite Europe they simultaneously ignore Europe.<br />
<br />
One could add (because rally size is often cited alongside membership by Corbyn supporters) that it does not matter how many people you get to your rallies either - have you seen the scale of some of the rallies for European left wing parties?<br />
<br />
This is a rally of tens of thousands for Spain's Podemos two months ago. They went on to lose the election to Spain's conservatives and got 21% of the vote.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYmcWDOb7r_SNbYGwaOR2gu2p-T8CDLSqh5Xumx-Bs2Fd04X6rhaioWpPUmPL-Nr3Edn46tGQ0xvAz00ULHCGXnPUE_096TN3kUY5lXi_ZQU2pQsRijrx1wtpi3-mkEctqbK0LZV0PJ8aC/s1600/podemos-rally-madrid+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYmcWDOb7r_SNbYGwaOR2gu2p-T8CDLSqh5Xumx-Bs2Fd04X6rhaioWpPUmPL-Nr3Edn46tGQ0xvAz00ULHCGXnPUE_096TN3kUY5lXi_ZQU2pQsRijrx1wtpi3-mkEctqbK0LZV0PJ8aC/s640/podemos-rally-madrid+%2528%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
*<a href="https://ecpr.eu/Filestore/PaperProposal/4c06c15b-b216-49c8-a426-efc80e2fed3d.pdf">Another paper</a> showing figures up to 2008 from across Europe.<br />
<br />
** It has been pointed out to me (cheers Roger McCarthy) that Turkey is also in Europe, including a huge amount of its largest city, Istanbul. As of May 2008, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=1135214921">reportedly had</a> 3,688,761 members. paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-89268856630736023072016-07-22T10:57:00.001+01:002016-07-22T15:56:52.689+01:00Corbyn is *dangerous* on health<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ3MRqdtsg5EzeICzHgqBws1f3tl1UWtkClHNcUgKS2TIzVBtmV55mwfoK1xx17v1ggudpIW8rAvzJ89HXRvO0eE02vaKnxdk87SdDwu02OVBz2VazIUP1KQh-QxkC1Me_L8LptXQcTMFu/s1600/homeopathy+corbyn1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ3MRqdtsg5EzeICzHgqBws1f3tl1UWtkClHNcUgKS2TIzVBtmV55mwfoK1xx17v1ggudpIW8rAvzJ89HXRvO0eE02vaKnxdk87SdDwu02OVBz2VazIUP1KQh-QxkC1Me_L8LptXQcTMFu/s640/homeopathy+corbyn1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Some two decades ago, in Sydney, Australia, I ran a campaign. Many of my friends who were living with HIV/Aids were living in dire poverty. One of my friends was surviving in part on what he could grow in his back garden. So myself and the founding Editor of Sydney's gay newspaper (who sadly died before the campaign wound down) started a campaign to draw attention to their plight and demand that people lobbying around HIV/Aids take the issue of poverty more seriously.<br />
<br />
We were successful and I ended up getting an award. What we also got was a hell of a lot of grief from those running HIV/Aids lobbying because, to describe their comments broadly, we were distracting from the big picture. And that big picture was making sure that new drugs could get trialed quickly, that promising drugs were properly supported and that as many as possible could get into trials (this was a time when candidates would be excluded for reasons such as that they might get pregnant).<br />
<br />
Although I'm proud of that campaign, looking back I'm not proud of how those leaders were portrayed. This was a time before HIV drugs that really worked became widely available. Some of the hopeful ones were prolonging lives but many, many people were still dying. I am not unusual in having 50 people, including many good friends, die. My generation of gay men fought like rats in a sack over how best to fight this. There were a couple of other policy ideas which I supported which I got seriously thrashed over, as well as my being involved in a clinical trial of herbal medicine.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwA3QVOV25ewM0DgP6bduHxjpn30w2l7-jHofu3zoTsu698RN4XpOU4_QsvIZIdCUeucotzUyRt8AAIeFG4xxNJB4HOxBq5pM7bELMfV8qQsHCriWLQe0E1bHOFp9ieb6DUd04eaUBpxyn/s1600/lop-buri-temple-converted-into-treatment-center-for-hiv-patients+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwA3QVOV25ewM0DgP6bduHxjpn30w2l7-jHofu3zoTsu698RN4XpOU4_QsvIZIdCUeucotzUyRt8AAIeFG4xxNJB4HOxBq5pM7bELMfV8qQsHCriWLQe0E1bHOFp9ieb6DUd04eaUBpxyn/s320/lop-buri-temple-converted-into-treatment-center-for-hiv-patients+%2528%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
When you're in that sack it can be hard to see any big picture, and this is what I and many others missed. What those leaders were doing was literally fighting for our lives and, in many cases, their own. Nothing could stand in the way of getting drugs out which could prolong or save people's lives, including theirs.<br />
<br />
That job involved making compromises and it meant working with government and it meant working with the pharmaceutical companies. Yes, sometimes lobbying them including running campaigns on certain issues against them, but mostly it was about putting on a suit and tie and attending endless meetings and reviewing a vast amount of documents. Many of those activists ended up become so skilled they could probably have qualified as pharmacists.<br />
<br />
Who would they have sat opposite? People like the Head of Policy and Government Relations (the former job of contender for Labour Party Leader Owen Smith MP) for a company like Pfizer. They would work with them and - I know this for a fact - most of the people sat opposite would work in good faith back with the activists.<br />
<br />
Standing outside with a placard only got you so far. This is a hard lesson gay activists learned very early on over HIV/Aids. Knowing when to invade a Cathedral and when to sit on a Committee with so-called 'Big Pharma'. That was the sort of practicality required in order to save as many as could be saved.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Gobsmacking stupid Corbyn comments </h3>
<br />
Launching his bid to retain the Labour leadership, Corbyn said this week:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I hope Owen will fully agree with me that our NHS should be free at the point of use, should be run by publicly employed workers working for the NHS not for private contractors, and <b>medical research shouldn’t be farmed out to big pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer</b> and others but should be funded through the Medical Research Council.</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR42KT7URsrTUfJXAGvV23BpT3rXJLXGlSXpgHAmGi82y7BcxNHd5HlHkTmug31pdRnHCMEnEXLEXvg8yQ61NDca8p-ywHwWQPo2GRb4g8WnX9cqQcxpOPIlAqSJmdqVa1kN9QCqoSNRP0/s1600/Cn6dmHLVUAAsoJ_+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR42KT7URsrTUfJXAGvV23BpT3rXJLXGlSXpgHAmGi82y7BcxNHd5HlHkTmug31pdRnHCMEnEXLEXvg8yQ61NDca8p-ywHwWQPo2GRb4g8WnX9cqQcxpOPIlAqSJmdqVa1kN9QCqoSNRP0/s200/Cn6dmHLVUAAsoJ_+%2528%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Isabel Hardman of The Spectator <a href="http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/07/matters-labours-leadership-contest-works/">explained </a>that the reason he made this stupid comment was:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It plays into the suspicion of many
of his supporters that big business is always bad and doesn’t help
society, whether that be by employing a lot of people, or, in the case
for big pharma, responding to demand for drugs by researching and
producing drugs. Big pharma is one of those dirty bogeymen that it is
easy to set up as The Enemy, without really thinking through what the
implications of taking out that Enemy might be.</blockquote>
The Medical Research Council (MRC) last year spent £506 million on research grants. Pfizer spent $6.6 billion (£4.8 billion). The world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies between them spent just under £50 billion – 100 times as much as the MRC.<br />
<br />
When I heard Corbyn's remarks I immediately thought of my dead friends and yelled very loudly on Twitter, for which I got a mostly positive response. How fucking dare he play politics with something as serious as this?<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXe5Zr3mOYXRDlF_n-S68-J7-t9xqs0wNPh7MvkFKl-SADkUjPcbPCnYPnzo9FkgJdBxrQTEyCQ166tvVrAOq_3KTU27l-FOIDiaDT4pfm3RgbCizB3LH-WTADQYjnShOczcBWAo4r4CYQ/s1600/corbynjokes.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXe5Zr3mOYXRDlF_n-S68-J7-t9xqs0wNPh7MvkFKl-SADkUjPcbPCnYPnzo9FkgJdBxrQTEyCQ166tvVrAOq_3KTU27l-FOIDiaDT4pfm3RgbCizB3LH-WTADQYjnShOczcBWAo4r4CYQ/s320/corbynjokes.png" width="320" /></a><br />
Let me just go back to what happened in Australia. Activists then would have positively wanted someone like an Owen Smith as the Head of Policy and Government Relations for a company like Pfizer. Anyone who thinks otherwise wasn't there and should just butt out.<br />
<br />
Corbyn's policy suggestion would be an absolute disaster for health (not that he's ever going to be PM, of course). This should disqualify him but as Isabel suggested it's the opposite because his base has stupidly forgotten the lessons from something like HIV/Aids and prefer pious posturing to actual policies which help actual people. Anyone can dig up or even tell personal stories about some awful thing 'Big Pharma' has done. Harder is coming up with ways you can make sure those who produce most of the drugs that real people need do that essential job.<br />
<br />
Instead we get jawdroppingly stupid memes like this circulating alongside endless crap - led by Corbyn, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36854214">Diane Abbott</a> et al - that working for drug companies means you can't be a socialist and that therefore disqualifies Smith.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7tvnW5V3cfBFkobGi06ipwRbIr3-o5wMPLpG9VWT0vLq_8a3zRe8doBcErDWe_wzON8zIv37gbaKA5HgTrRV4oS5JDgcMMVI0n3kHdC-aeiG7Bo6ECLBTG0mrudKDG3j-vHYP_1MKVn5x/s1600/Cn04ILmXYAAAbDR+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7tvnW5V3cfBFkobGi06ipwRbIr3-o5wMPLpG9VWT0vLq_8a3zRe8doBcErDWe_wzON8zIv37gbaKA5HgTrRV4oS5JDgcMMVI0n3kHdC-aeiG7Bo6ECLBTG0mrudKDG3j-vHYP_1MKVn5x/s320/Cn04ILmXYAAAbDR+%2528%2529.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>
<br />
Or ones like these that demonise pharmaceutical companies (none of the below is true):<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif7KWrAg_J5uKiVkgb8x6GXkfK6P_xTAhbWcujiTh9fif87HftAtLTkQnHMLCJNLbwaOpohEJsAlmMKSBeGbSJZlizGJWCfqqLFM8QWF5x2yTJQ6BvY61jcAZTYjQpHeNHJYwG_FCjZ-lW/s1600/Cn1sQyWXEAAlavu+%2528%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif7KWrAg_J5uKiVkgb8x6GXkfK6P_xTAhbWcujiTh9fif87HftAtLTkQnHMLCJNLbwaOpohEJsAlmMKSBeGbSJZlizGJWCfqqLFM8QWF5x2yTJQ6BvY61jcAZTYjQpHeNHJYwG_FCjZ-lW/s320/Cn1sQyWXEAAlavu+%2528%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
A diluted scientific nerve</h3>
<br />
Corbyn is also a big, big fan of the con job known as homeopathy having signed a number of motions in Parliament backing it including one wanting NHS homeopathic hospitals and another which not only criticised the House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee investigation into homeopathy but, as the science writer Ben Goldacre <a href="https://twitter.com/bengoldacre/status/621608296898777088">puts it</a>, its language included "vindictive" attacks on him including "ad homs against me personally."<br />
<br />
Asked to defend his signature on one motion here is what Corbyn wrote:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg8YDQHh2LzMLnrqz-LoC2HmFegxm2AzvyHW7sndmaxvjCOyT3iOC4dmlf2I5ZeKmtODNcgXe3TO0iKb7RK3JPye-rF6YMCC_Sdo9rSQUNE2FXF6tS1KaXg_CYJn5I80ORtSIxQBqY6Sr7/s1600/Cn1WlV0WYAA6Bjo+%2528%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg8YDQHh2LzMLnrqz-LoC2HmFegxm2AzvyHW7sndmaxvjCOyT3iOC4dmlf2I5ZeKmtODNcgXe3TO0iKb7RK3JPye-rF6YMCC_Sdo9rSQUNE2FXF6tS1KaXg_CYJn5I80ORtSIxQBqY6Sr7/s320/Cn1WlV0WYAA6Bjo+%2528%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<h3>
Junior doctor: Corbyn "b******s"</h3>
<br />
During his reign Corbyn has been criticised for mouthing platitudes on health but failing to support his Shadow Health Minister, failing to support striking junior doctors and failing to stop his Shadow Chancellor from trying to corner health policy for himself.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Will Turner, a junior doctor picketing St Thomas' Hospital - just a few hundred yards from where Prime Ministers Questions was taking place in the Commons - criticised Corbyn for not mentioning their strike at PMQs.<br />
<br />
Dr Turner said: "It should be big news. It should be talked about on the biggest platform of political discussion we have got. We are unsure of the Labour agenda. They seem to be very vocal about Jeremy Hunt, very vocally pro the NHS, but not very vocal about junior doctors.<br />
<br />
"One hundred per cent, Corbyn should have raised it. They are the Labour movement, it's a huge mobilisation of a massive work force. It's a missed opportunity."<br />
<br />
Mr Corbyn raised education, child poverty and the economy but did not criticise the Prime Minister over the Government’s handling of the strikes.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUnC3rN3zTqFgRjo2VJz-hXlDvgaQZCUlrWRfJjs68SSWl1wb6abnbt3a87WoukQ8C9buWOzLmDjMhDp5YBUGhT82S457b0ICL2doL3yfsNVvlsMOf3lONW_-jwbwgzYgPbAm9ufATsERn/s1600/kate+godfrey1.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUnC3rN3zTqFgRjo2VJz-hXlDvgaQZCUlrWRfJjs68SSWl1wb6abnbt3a87WoukQ8C9buWOzLmDjMhDp5YBUGhT82S457b0ICL2doL3yfsNVvlsMOf3lONW_-jwbwgzYgPbAm9ufATsERn/s320/kate+godfrey1.png" width="320" /></a>Joe Lipton, a 32-year-old junior doctor also picketing at St Thomas', said Mr Corbyn had disappointed him.<br />
<br />
Dr Lipton, of Beckenham, south east London, said: "I don't feel surprised. It's a familiar sense of anger that this is slipping down the political and public agenda when all of us have so much strength of feeling. I'm disappointed there isn't a vocal opposing speaking on our behalf.<br />
<br />
"Jeremy Corbyn has spoken about the NHS in general but it is the fact he hasn't raised it today in parliament, when we are on strike for a record 48 hours, that I am disappointed about."<br />
<br />
A consultant, who refused to give his name, described the Labour leader's silence as "b******s".</blockquote>
(<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/12189258/Striking-junior-doctors-accuse-Jeremy-Corbyn-of-ignoring-their-fight.html">Source</a>)<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The shadow health secretary, Heidi Alexander, had to stage a physical sit-in outside Corbyn’s office in order to get a decision from him on Labour party policy on the NHS.</blockquote>
(<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/17/owen-smith-labour-leadership-interview">Source</a>)<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTsmO7HLjS57tslL-5G0pJpm4O_6sT8GAFbaVfH08H7X7reOudpO9GZ-aJSSqUp4z1AF1MFDbMj5bdTB_12eMxoJhbc2L7sxxru5-GHHQLtFeQxR-tRdoitjKgonJmh5uVdWBAbGpL7afQ/s1600/andrew+miller.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTsmO7HLjS57tslL-5G0pJpm4O_6sT8GAFbaVfH08H7X7reOudpO9GZ-aJSSqUp4z1AF1MFDbMj5bdTB_12eMxoJhbc2L7sxxru5-GHHQLtFeQxR-tRdoitjKgonJmh5uVdWBAbGpL7afQ/s320/andrew+miller.png" width="320" /></a>Heidi Alexander, who quit as shadow health secretary last weekend, has criticised John McDonnell’s “totally unacceptable” conduct in setting up a team of NHS policy advisers without telling her.<br />
<br />
The Guardian reported earlier on Thursday that McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, had secretly created a group of advisers, bypassing Labour’s usual policymaking processes, and that two of the advisers were or until recently had been members of other political parties. McDonnell’s involvement with the group was first disclosed by Health Policy Insight, an influential source of NHS analysis.<br />
<br />
In a series of tweets on Thursday, Alexander said: “John McDonnell invited NHS campaigners to a meeting in the Commons but didn’t invite me. I challenged him about it. I was then invited and I was shouted at by some of the attendees.”<br />
<br />
After that meeting on 13 April, she said, “John McDonnell then invited them to form an advisory group (again not telling me). I found out about this, said it was totally unacceptable and it must not be an advisory group.”</blockquote>
<br />
(<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/30/heidi-alexander-attacks-john-mcdonnell-labour-nhs-policy">Source</a>)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDe-X7TgACe5hm0eUtOvP_GsogOEdCSwSYIFY4PpWiOlvmArgejfOSF2oJCGkqjH0n5oRk2b1Tos5OiMCq8MyDgfaoILqxCsKYNhcRZQT-XWVmTLg9lxMRGIuKe54oFxm8UbW7rIjaPerD/s1600/maomentum.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDe-X7TgACe5hm0eUtOvP_GsogOEdCSwSYIFY4PpWiOlvmArgejfOSF2oJCGkqjH0n5oRk2b1Tos5OiMCq8MyDgfaoILqxCsKYNhcRZQT-XWVmTLg9lxMRGIuKe54oFxm8UbW7rIjaPerD/s320/maomentum.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
If it isn't clear by now that Jeremy Corbyn on health is not just incompetent but positively dangerous then I don't know what evidence will convince. But then the Dear Leader has made clear he's not a huge fan of 'evidence based' solutions now hasn't he?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
======<br />
<br />
<br />
MRC/drug research info<a href="http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/07/nhs-crippled-without-support-big-pharma/"> via Ross Clark</a>.<br />
<br />
Corbyn screengrab credit <a href="https://twitter.com/twlldun">@twlldun</a><br />
<br />
UK medical research funding breakdown image via <a href="https://twitter.com/josephclift">@josephclift</a><small class="time">
</small> <br />
<br />
Thanks to Glyn for prodding me into writing this. <br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifF7SlZ6hQEHf9NZQmlVFt7I55AXrStO8jVJftsgGdeBo7jM7-dgfR-CySs5_LnZyZ09J7mTVTgBf9GOnfjsfU26kpBoHG-JrZdVePZUhfx9URBoK64lu39EasgKUhSakY8gaezXLs_-QF/s1600/Cn44g46XEAA29Vq+%2528%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifF7SlZ6hQEHf9NZQmlVFt7I55AXrStO8jVJftsgGdeBo7jM7-dgfR-CySs5_LnZyZ09J7mTVTgBf9GOnfjsfU26kpBoHG-JrZdVePZUhfx9URBoK64lu39EasgKUhSakY8gaezXLs_-QF/s640/Cn44g46XEAA29Vq+%2528%2529.jpg" width="449" /></a>paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-15910593237471239202016-07-04T20:20:00.000+01:002016-07-10T16:22:43.717+01:00Leave Jez alone!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggHXkSZrnxm7MV6yV9dt6kyAw70-4f7bZGR_ZHDBtVUDKaC-mifJqcXFsT62Ij9aFSbNWlI8mmPi5V7mfwrFpIhRKsnDwVHHhfc4lj1uR4M7LYMWD7o9IFfilr4vdYINhVpitZ4oleEtf4/s1600/furious+corbyn.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggHXkSZrnxm7MV6yV9dt6kyAw70-4f7bZGR_ZHDBtVUDKaC-mifJqcXFsT62Ij9aFSbNWlI8mmPi5V7mfwrFpIhRKsnDwVHHhfc4lj1uR4M7LYMWD7o9IFfilr4vdYINhVpitZ4oleEtf4/s640/furious+corbyn.png" width="616" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jez's furious face</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Today's by all objective standards disastrous appearance by Jeremy Corbyn at the House of Commons Inquiry into antisemitism has <b>really </b>upset his fans. Chief target of their ire at time of writing is Chuka Umunna. For one precious snowflake Umunna has no right to question the Dear Leader cos Chuka likes dance music, bling and partying and therefore isn't a 'man of the people'. As we all know only people who sign their own apples can be 'the people's friend'.<br />
<br />
I was live tweeting this massive facepalm of an event, so this is a 'highlights' (shouldn't that be lowlights - Ed) package. Missed something? Tell me (nicely in the comments).<br />
<br />
Asked if he had witnessed antisemitism in the Party he had seen some thirty years ago but nothing else until very recently. And then very little, emphasis on the little.<br />
<br />
Jackie Walker comments 'inappropriate.'<br />
<br />
By question two it was clear he was going to give evasive answers and, as Jack Mendel noticed, 'process' answers:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Corbyn is completely and utterly obsessed with process. As long as the procedure is OK, everything's OK. Even if result isn't</div>
— Jack Mendel (@Mendelpol) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mendelpol/status/750005947947487233">July 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Also by question two he was getting visibly angry.<br />
<br />
Most of what Vaz put, which was taken from recent press clippings, I thought, to Corbyn is the reason why Jez has avoided proper interviews for nine months.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Lie Number One</h4>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Corbyn is lying. A lot of Steven Sizer's activism involves working with the Iranian Government, not Palestinians</div>
— Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ariehkovler/status/749986487006035968">July 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
This happened again, and again, and again ...<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
It's like s nervous twitch. Corbyn physically can't say anti-Semitism without adding 'and other forms of racism'</div>
— Jack Mendel (@Mendelpol) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mendelpol/status/749988217164816384">July 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
... and should be a meme of Dead Ringers.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Lie Number Two</h4>
<br />
Corbyn now defending Paul Flynn MP questioning whether a Jew could be UK ambassador to Israel. Also lying on what Flynn said.<br />
<br />
He then said something about meeting Israeli government and/or politicians. Has he? This day after being <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.728675">found out for having no appointment with UK Israel Ambassador when claiming he had</a>.<br />
<br />
Will you accept invite from Israel Labour Party? Angry Corbyn: 'I've been to Israel nine times!'<br />
<br />
(Via Arieh): "what will happen if people do use these [racist terms]?"
Corbyn: "what will happen is they'll be told they can't use them"<br />
<br />
<div class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--16px js-tweet-text tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="0" lang="en">
<a class="account-group js-account-group js-action-profile js-user-profile-link js-nav" data-user-id="48635466" href="https://twitter.com/rob_marchant"><b class="fullname js-action-profile-name show-popup-with-id" data-aria-label-part=""></b></a>(Via Rob Marchant): Corbyn says hopes Chakrabarti report will "create a debate". Because that's really going to solve Labour's anti-Semitism problem.</div>
<div class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--16px js-tweet-text tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="0" lang="en">
<br /></div>
<div class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--16px js-tweet-text tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="0" lang="en">
Does Corbyn not know that Marc Wadsworth has been expelled?</div>
<div class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--16px js-tweet-text tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="0" lang="en">
<br /></div>
<div class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--16px js-tweet-text tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="0" lang="en">
One of the Tory MPs to Corbyn: 'Let's just ease up on blaming the media!'<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--16px js-tweet-text tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="0" lang="en">
<h4>
Lie Number Three</h4>
</div>
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Corbyn just lied to Parliament. Said he didn't attend Paul Eisen's events since he became a Holocaust Denier. Straight lie</div>
— Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ariehkovler/status/749991699750019072">July 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
More on Corbyn and Eisen from <a href="http://brockley.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/strange-alliances-jeremy-corbyn-and.html">Bob From Brockley here</a>.<br />
<div class="js-tweet-text-container">
</div>
<br />
Corbyn told by pro-Palestinian Labour MP David Winnick 'when I attend conferences I check out who's speaking, who's organising'. No answer from Corbyn.<br />
<br />
Asked about his brother Piers' comments, missed answer but is on record saying Piers is 'not wrong'.<br />
<br />
Corbyn claims he's *just, this afternoon, left a message with MP Ruth Smeeth.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Corbyn?src=hash">#Corbyn</a> said he of course support a demo against anti-Semitism....... And any other form of racism <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpeakLikeCorbyn?src=hash">#SpeakLikeCorbyn</a></div>
— Jack Mendel (@Mendelpol) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mendelpol/status/749994956127895552">July 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<h4>
Lie Number Four</h4>
<br />
In a smirking response to questioning on his 'friends' comments about Hamas he says 'interesting was only brought to my attention years later'. Plenty complained at the time. So he's either lying or stupid.<br />
<br />
Edit to add: <a href="http://hurryupharry.org/2009/04/07/promoting-violent-extremism/">Definitely lying</a>.<br />
<br />
Corbyn now umming on whether Hamas Charter is anti-Semitic. Eventually: 'Yes, it is BUT ...'<br />
<br />
Keith Vaz complains about Corbyn being passed notes.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Shami Chakrabarti is supposed to be the chair of an independent inquiry. Why is she acting like she's Corbyn's press officer.</div>
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) <a href="https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/749996190578671616">July 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
A furious Chuka Umunna is now pulling him up for standing by when his supporters bully. Makes Corbyn angry.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4mkdFsE5cprx49JnHM3AxZpdvD7c-FG4x0fAknpqQDRJ3oNYK9xlenbQ1dPia_HXUJARM5__nP8otehbVJSOAhOmCrmFbN3rii6K0wlIbQA_251C3qtC8HNs_G7Fd_Gg8dHWPGwDpjUZl/s1600/CmifvKFWcAEjnY7+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4mkdFsE5cprx49JnHM3AxZpdvD7c-FG4x0fAknpqQDRJ3oNYK9xlenbQ1dPia_HXUJARM5__nP8otehbVJSOAhOmCrmFbN3rii6K0wlIbQA_251C3qtC8HNs_G7Fd_Gg8dHWPGwDpjUZl/s640/CmifvKFWcAEjnY7+%2528%2529.jpg" width="596" /></a></div>
<br />
Within an hour of Corbyn saying this his supporters online were ignoring him.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Hard to believe that Corbyn was “unaware” of Seamas’s outspoken support for Hamas.</div>
— Tom Harris (@MrTCHarris) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrTCHarris/status/750000514914512896">July 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmiJqpiUcAAYRWg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmiJqpiUcAAYRWg.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
When Corbyn is asked about slagging off Jonathan Freedland in the Vice documentary his snarky side comes out. *Wee glimpses of the real Corbyn*<br />
<br />
OMFG Corbyn saying we 'need someone' to monitor anti-Semitic/racist incidents! Not heard of <a href="https://twitter.com/CST_UK">@CST_UK</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TellMamaUK">@TellMamaUK</a> ?!?<br />
<br />
(Jack Mendel): Corbyn asked if it's sad when Jews think there is one rule for them and another for others? Corbyn: There isn't.
Facepalm...<br />
<br />
(Yair Rosenberg): Jeremy Corbyn just insisted that Labour is a safe place for Jews by citing as evidence a fringe Jewish group that wants to boycott Israel. If you only welcome the tiny fraction of Jews who boycott the Jewish state, your party isn't really open to Jews.<br />
<br />
(David Paxton): Corbyn's definition of antisemitism is not great. And even then he had to make it the instant equal of 'Islamophobia'. It's pathological. <br />
<br />
Angry, fuming, snarky, evasive. We definitely got to see the Real Corbyn this afternoon, which makes this meme being tweeted out furiously by Momentum particularly funny.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CminHyDWcAECF2a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CminHyDWcAECF2a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
And he lied. Which is contempt of parliament.<br />
<br />
You can <a href="http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/89a8f38d-0676-4873-b388-46666415e8bf">watch the whole thing here</a>.<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div>
paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-54795401857269000232016-05-31T15:23:00.000+01:002016-05-31T19:07:12.681+01:00The EU + Ukraine: London meeting organised<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZvcxYHG0bxTOvbhwzGEKCQSWuieZ335QIKGdP0HnDMSj4_r4sHrHcU0irQPBmKQi6oAsWj_3WN-8ViWsfXcIDahW4Gztak2O9psv1mt_rh1GU_0vt04Jtc6S27_trypz4-FbhowGYkYRr/s1600/maxresdefault+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZvcxYHG0bxTOvbhwzGEKCQSWuieZ335QIKGdP0HnDMSj4_r4sHrHcU0irQPBmKQi6oAsWj_3WN-8ViWsfXcIDahW4Gztak2O9psv1mt_rh1GU_0vt04Jtc6S27_trypz4-FbhowGYkYRr/s640/maxresdefault+%2528%2529.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
<br />
London will have an opportunity June 10 to hear and question a prominent Ukrainian journalist on the European Union and Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Co-founder of Hromadske International and and 2016 fellow at FCO's International Leaders Programme <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-case-of-maxim-eristavi.html">Maxim Eristavi</a> will be discussing if we are prepared for Ukraine’s arriving into Europe “whether Europeans want that or not.” Eristavi will debunk popular misconceptions about Ukraine and Eastern Europe and expose the shortcomings of European policy towards this region.<br />
<br />
Ukraine has become an issue in the EU Referendum campaign as a number of leading ‘Brexiters’, such as <a href="https://www.politicshome.com/news/europe/eu-policy-agenda/international-affairs/news/74771/boris-johnson-blames-eu-pretensions">Boris Johnson</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/28/nigel-farage-eu-miltarist-ukraine-nick-clegg">Nigel Farage</a>, have claimed that the Union is somehow responsible for the war in that Eastern European country. The latter is also a popular narrative used by ruling elites in Russia.<br />
<br />
When Johnson's remarks hit the headlines last month I got so angry at the rubbish I was seeing on social media about Ukraine that I did a tweet series and Storified it. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
History 101 on Ukraine 4 Brexiters <a href="https://t.co/X5sUHrxPzb">https://t.co/X5sUHrxPzb</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning">@paulocanning</a></div>
— Paul Canning (@pauloCanning) <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/729739945322156032">May 9, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
This event provides an opportunity to hear from someone who was there during Ukraine's 'Revolution of Dignity', as Eristavi documented in '<a href="https://youtu.be/LI3J4BLRCL8">What happened on the Maidan in Kiev?</a>' (video after the jump).<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNn6LDvTiZiO_5rggpEdMdSrDct66vmHLxxVOLwEScO_vE-akmghjD47AOeIEYiT1Aieu6nqBxiDVo2qCCww42CY4e1WOLZlkUkzDCGCy9vGs7t80kol6hDgC2qLjoWyBW5qVNneCMvK_G/s1600/maxim.eristavi-840x560+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNn6LDvTiZiO_5rggpEdMdSrDct66vmHLxxVOLwEScO_vE-akmghjD47AOeIEYiT1Aieu6nqBxiDVo2qCCww42CY4e1WOLZlkUkzDCGCy9vGs7t80kol6hDgC2qLjoWyBW5qVNneCMvK_G/s320/maxim.eristavi-840x560+%2528%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eristavi on the Maidan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The event is at 7pm, June 10 at the London Ukrainian Club, 154 Holland Park Ave, London W11 4UH.<br />
<br />
You don't need to register - just turn up! <br />
<br />
Google Maps: <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5059188,-0.2108675,15z">https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5059188,-0.2108675,15z</a> *NOTE* The nearest underground station, Holland Park, is closed at the moment. Use Shepherd’s Bush or Notting Hill Gate.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Maxim Eristavi biography</h3>
<br />
Civil rights advocate, media professional and writer. Co-founder of Hromadske International.<br />
<br />
One of the most famous English-speaking journalists and civil rights advocates working and based in Eastern Europe, Ukraine, He specializes in new media expertise, politics, breaking news coverage and civil rights advocacy.<br />
<br />
Featured as contributor to:<br />
<br />
BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera America, HuffPost TV, CTV, ITN News, the Daily Beast, Fusion, CJR Magazine, Reuters, Politico, The New Republic and Foreign Policy.<br />
<br />
Essential Twitter source for Ukraine, according to Mashable, Bild, CTV and The New York Times.<br />
<br />
He is the only openly gay journalist in Ukraine and has been an outspoken voice in raising civil rights issues of the region abroad. In October 2015 he was featured among 10 most prominent LGBTI people in Ukraine during the first ever queer project at the country's biggest modern art center, The Pinchuk Art Center. <br />
<br />
Eristavi is a 2015 Poynter fellow at Yale University with a focus on informational wars and pan-regional LGBTI civil rights movements. He is also a 2016 Fellow at International Leadership Program, UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office and a 2016-2017 fellow at Millennium Leadership Program, Atlantic Council.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>See also</b>:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-case-of-maxim-eristavi.html">The case of Maxim Eristavi </a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7SMOLn9oUoLhuObD_F2Ifkny91WJ9bWhCcXKcxGVogkY-K15wqAI3AFO_LDKKqi9ldMXiqHtz0sRjC_ItXteDyfnP-qvcuEp0l0h2Gr1B55JkmjuTUdxYzDfSjFIKEJYgDgoPNZbFXk9/s1600/maxim+banner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7SMOLn9oUoLhuObD_F2Ifkny91WJ9bWhCcXKcxGVogkY-K15wqAI3AFO_LDKKqi9ldMXiqHtz0sRjC_ItXteDyfnP-qvcuEp0l0h2Gr1B55JkmjuTUdxYzDfSjFIKEJYgDgoPNZbFXk9/s640/maxim+banner.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LI3J4BLRCL8" width="560"></iframe>paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387284174922871714.post-80339710897438397042016-05-15T16:32:00.005+01:002016-05-15T16:32:54.000+01:00Jamala's win must lead to support for Crimean Tatars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19KUYSeYVolfmQNfYEACKia13XEGdREk_zVYKg59f5RpcnXmdQH3jkVay086EK_HMO1M8N1TBzZauGihSd2fs4tTNMQoSkAkKA2Ak0rnSlIatYRkGO_WmY9yLKgvwEqO9QpxFuHHrtPvm/s1600/15eurovisions-master768+%2528%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19KUYSeYVolfmQNfYEACKia13XEGdREk_zVYKg59f5RpcnXmdQH3jkVay086EK_HMO1M8N1TBzZauGihSd2fs4tTNMQoSkAkKA2Ak0rnSlIatYRkGO_WmY9yLKgvwEqO9QpxFuHHrtPvm/s640/15eurovisions-master768+%2528%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
It was clear even during the semi-finals of Eurovision that the presence of Ukraine's Jamala and her song about the genocide of the Crimean Tatars by the USSR had already drawn attention to the plight of her people - I saw a number of tweets saying as much. Her stunning and unexpected victory will undoubtedly lead to much more.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
What Jamala's win will also lead to is an <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/03/18/ukraine-fear-repression-crimea">already bad situation</a> for the Tatars in Crimea getting even worse, as the lawyer for the kidnapped and imprisoned by Russia Ukrainian soldier Nadiya Savchenko, Mark Feygin, <a href="https://twitter.com/mark_feygin/status/731616027944079361">pointed out</a> - only now the world will hopefully be paying more attention. This will also hopefully include the world's Muslims, as she is the third Muslim to win - something which was noted by many on social media, if not by the press.<br />
<br />
What the repression must lead to is some concrete action rather than, as explained below, not just more weasel words. This means, as <a href="http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/persecution-of-crimean-tatars-needs.html">I have argued before</a>, targeted sanctions as (through listening to their wining) it is clear that this is the only language which the Kremlin truly understands.<br />
<br />
Reblogged <a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1462055452">with permission</a>.<br />
<br />
====<br />
<br />
By Halya Colnash.<br />
<br />
Russian pro-Kremlin channels have been in overdrive since Jamala’s victory for Ukraine in Eurovision, however their lies, including <a href="http://atr.ua/ru/news/853/ahtem-cijgoz-kategoriceski-osudil-vyskazyvania-rossijskogo-telekanala-http:/atr.ua/ru/news/853/ahtem-cijgoz-kategoriceski-osudil-vyskazyvania-rossijskogo-telekanala">the claim</a> that her song remembering the genocidal Deportation of 1944 was about people “leaving for a better life”, began much earlier. The gutter-level campaign to undermine her message and her victory was probably to be expected. Russia has a lot to conceal, and not first and foremost about the Deportation, but about its repression and terror against the Crimean Tatar people now. <br />
<br />
Imprisoned Crimean Tatar leader Akhtem Chiygoz earlier <a href="http://ru.espreso.tv/news/2016/02/26/chyygoz_dzhamale_ves_myr_uslyshyt_nashu_bol">welcomed</a> Jamala’s participation in the competition, saying that “the world will hear our pain”. Let’s hope that the world will, and that they begin directly addressing the repression, including the insane trial against Chiygoz and other Crimean Tatars. <br />
<br />
Concern has recently been expressed that Chiygoz, who is the Deputy Head of the Crimean Mejlis [representative assembly] could face further charges following Russia’s banning of the Mejlis. This would be legal nihilism at its worst, but so too are the charges under which Chiygoz, Mustafa Degermendzhy and Ali Asanov have been in detention for over a year. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1463067076">The arrest</a> on May 12 of Ilmi Umerov, another top official of the Mejlis, on ‘extremism’ charges have only exacerbated such fears. Vissarion Aseyev from the Crimean Human Rights Group, had <a href="http://ru.krymr.com/content/news/27708704.html">predicted</a> that “the ban of the Mejlis would provide the de facto authorities with a basis for a new wave of administrative and criminal prosecutions of Crimeans, and Crimean Tatars in the first instance”. This has now happened with Umerov accused of - wait for it - “public calls to action encroaching on Russia’s territorial integrity”, through statements opposing Russia’s annexation of Crimea.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CigJg3gXEAIy_Dg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right; width: 400px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://qha.com.ua/resim//2016/05/14/62f4f0f60f1f39bcd5e6486a39ad1427.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK5r-F_Gro-E30KBM6lhgfiCDyVTuKv7yfLxehinfiPSPdJ3XJ-5o3cU0c7yVmaMP4S8ZrfAjVf5iNX4-cVov7fiQitAypRcwyEZIx6EK6F2q-PzhJMoe-lL276oXXQ2BW6JJZSvrS8t6b/s320/62f4f0f60f1f39bcd5e6486a39ad1427+%2528%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Jemilev meets Jamala in Stockholm before her win</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Aseyev believes that <a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1461673479">the court ruling declaring the Mejlis ‘extremist’</a> may be used to add ‘extremism’ charges to those the men are already facing. This would mean, for example, that Chiygoz would also be accused of ‘organizing an extremist society’ under Article 282.1 § of Russia’s Criminal Code, with this carrying a sentence of up to 8 years’ imprisonment. Five other men: Ali Asanov; Mustafa Degermendzhy; Eskender Emirovaliev; Eskender Kantemirov and Arsen Yunusov could face up to 4 years for ‘taking part in an extremist organization’. Similar predictions were made recently by Nikolai Polozov, the lawyer representing Chiygoz. Both were speaking before the adoption in its first reading of a terrifyingly repressive <a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1463181898">package of laws</a> in Russia which would increase all such sentences.<br />
<br />
The criminalization of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis has so far resulted in protest from all democratic countries but no threats of further sanctions. This is presumably what Russia expected, as it might from the reaction to the criminal charges against Chiygoz and the others.<br />
<br />
A recent UNHHR monitoring mission <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/Ukraine_13th_HRMMU_Report_3March2016.pdf">report</a> confined itself to recommending only that the de facto authorities and Russia “ensure due process and fair trial rights for Crimean Tatars detained in relation to the February 2014 demonstration”. <br />
<br />
The Council of Europe’s <a href="http://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/full-news/-/asset_publisher/rfs6RdVHzAWb/content/crimea-must-be-re-opened-to-regular-council-of-europe-monitoring-to-safeguard-the-human-rights-of-2-5-million-people?inheritRedirect=false&redirect=http://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/full-news%3Fp_p_id%3D101_INSTANCE_rfs6RdVHzAWb%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_col_id%3Dcolumn-4%26p_p_col_count%3D1">report</a> by Ambassador Gérard Stoudmann was released the same day that the de facto prosecutor announced that she was ‘suspending’ the Mejlis without a court ruling. The report mentions only that they visited Chiygoz at his request, and that Chiygoz “questioned the lawfulness of his arrest”. <br />
<br />
There are undoubtedly cases where it is appropriate to await a court ruling before offering any comment. This is categorically not one of them, as the authors of the reports must have been aware. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CigJg3gXEAIy_Dg.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CigJg3gXEAIy_Dg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From a demonstration held today in Ankara, Turkey</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
They mention, after all, that the men are charged over alleged ‘mass disturbances’ on Feb 26, 2014, yet do not point out that this makes any prosecution illegal under Russia’s own legislation. Chiygoz and the other Ukrainian nationals are charged under Russian legislation over a pre-annexation demonstration in Ukrainian Crimea over which Russia has no jurisdiction. <br />
<br />
According to Russia’s Criminal Code (Article 12 § 3), a criminal prosecution can only be initiated against foreign nationals who committed an offence on the territory of another country if “the crime was directed against the interests of the Russian Federation or a citizen of the Russian Federation.”<br />
<br />
It is deeply frustrating that international observers from the UN and Council of Europe should be ignoring this. The Council of Europe also claimed that there was no evidence of any particular persecution of Crimean Tatars. Just this case alone is typical in targeting only Crimean Tatars.<br />
<br />
The reasons for questioning the lawfulness of Russia’s actions over this case are legion, and are not ignored by the Russian Memorial Human Rights Centre. In their <a href="http://memohrc.org/news/memorial-schitaet-ahtema-chiygoza-ali-asanova-i-mustafu-degermendzhi-politzaklyuchennymi">statement</a> on Feb 15, 2016, they point to the clear lack of jurisdiction and dismiss the formal excuse presented that two of the alleged ‘victims’ are Russian nationals. Neither sought medical treatment at the time, and Memorial says that in their case, as in those of over half the ‘victims’, there are doubts over whether the alleged injuries were genuinely sustained. Memorial specifically notes that the political motivation is demonstrated by the fact that only Crimean Tatars have been targeted. <br />
<br />
This prosecution is already a record-breaker in lawlessness. Novaya Gazeta <a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/inquests/67417.html">reported</a> in late February 2015, a month after Chiygoz’s arrest, that the Russian Investigative Committee had been short of ‘victims’ and witnesses, and on February 2, 4 days after Chiygoz’s arrest and 11 months after the events, invited Simferopol residents to come forward “even in the absence of bodily injuries”.<br />
<br />
If new charges are brought against the men, it can only be by backdating over two years a court ruling issued in April 2016. Western countries need to come up with more than surreal demands that the men “receive a fair trial”?<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>See also</b>:<br />
<ul>
<li>Human Rights Watch: <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/03/18/ukraine-fear-repression-crimea">Fear, Repression in Crimea</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1457915949">Surreal calls for ‘fair trial’ in Russia’s lawless terror against Crimean Tatars</a></li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1455585828">Russia’s Crimean Tatar show trial proves too shoddy even for the court</a></li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1453901079">A Crimean Kafkaesque Trial Hidden from Council of Europe Eyes</a></li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1452862387">Journalist detained & threatened at trial of Crimean Tatar leader</a></li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1451338474">Crimean Tatar Mejlis Leader on Trial for Obstructing Putin’s Plans?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1451167896">Russia’s Attack on Crimean Tatar Leader nears Lawless Conclusion</a></li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1449711908">Open Lawlessness as Terror against Crimean Tatars</a></li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1447853730">Imprisoned Crimean Tatar Leader: This is Terror against my People</a></li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1446600526">Jailed in Russian-occupied Crimea for refusing to give false testimony</a></li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1445975372">8 years for a demonstration if you’re Crimean Tatar</a></li>
<li><a href="http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1444859043">Cynical attempt to sow distrust in Russia’s illegal prosecution of Crimean Tatars</a></li>
</ul>
paulocanninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499916652508144662noreply@blogger.com0