Top posts of 2015

Inspired by my mate Bob From Brockley, here are my top posts from this year (or rather half year, as I only restarted blogging at the end of June).

Most of my writing or reblogging concerns Ukraine and Russia, such as my last reblog of Ukrainian leftie opinion on the, now banned, Ukrainian Communist Party, and only gets a few hundred views. This doesn't bother me as, for me, the point is to get stories from Russia and Ukraine more widely known, and I can see from retweets and other sources that those less well covered stories, such as about the left in those countries, do get an wider circulation via this blog. So is all good!

To answer a question I've been asked several times - why Ukraine? Well, I got inspired by the 'Revolution of Dignity', as it is now known, when it started in late 2013. Thanks to the internet it could be watched practically live. The participants I followed were not the 'fascists' that Russian war propaganda and its Western idiots have since tried to paint them as. Most of them were like the journalist Maxim Eristavi, who I covered last month: ordinary people horrified by the state's violent response to the protest of real grievances, in particular the theft of state resources on an almost unparalleled scale. Simply put, I found them inspirational and still do.

1. Corbyn and Ukraine: it's not pretty
   By August it had become clear that the issue of a war in Europe was not on the agenda of the Labour Party leadership campaign. Since no one was doing it I thought I must step up and explain what the leading candidates views actually were. This hit a nerve. Abuse followed but still no one has actually responded to the points in the piece. And now Corbyn's views are much more widely understood. (Also, most of the information in it was rehashed by other, well known but shall be nameless, writers.)
   
   
2. New Muslim LGBT heroes
   This was the first post from when I restarted blogging - and it went viral. It concerns the Turkish MPs who put their bodies on the line to protect Istanbul's Gay Pride march from attack by police, a story which wasn't getting any coverage. Also ran on PinkNews.
   
   
3. Deselect Stop The War Coalition
   Prompted by the defence of Stop The War by the actual Labour Party earlier this month, this uses socialist arguments to say that they're beyond the pale and should be dropped by the left.
    
4. The fascists in Russia's hybrid army
   Another 'untold story', that of the bonafide fascists in positions of power in Ukraine's eastern 'People's Republics'. Was reblogged by EuroMaidan Press and ... translated into German!
   
   
5. Have Stop The War Coalition finally jumped the shark?
   The exclusion of Syrians by STWC - detailed. This post led to some uncomfortable questions directed at Diane Abbott on TV.
   
   
6. Corbyn is wrong says Ukrainian human rights legend
   A reblog of Halya Coynash's assault on Corbyn's pretense of a 'human rights' stance, focused on Crimea. Got picked up by The Times.
    
7. Brown's right, Corbyn will 'ally' with Putin
   Gordon Brown was widely criticised for saying this, but it's true, as I explain in this post illustrated with fluffy ducklings for a reason.
   
   
8. The left's Russia naivete
   How and why Russia influences Western public opinion, based around a reblog of the American counter-intelligence expert John Schindler.
   
   
9. Corbyn's election means Ukraine's stuffed
   Written just before he was elected, a pan of the conduct of the leadership campaign, especially by the media. With a prediction that turned out worse than predicted.
   
   
10. Donbas can starve say 'rebel' leaders 
    How these 'anti-fascists' put ideology before the lives they control. More to come on this subject.


11. World awaits Greenwald/STWCUk apology: 'We woz wrong', for example 
    Worst. Headline. Ever. Prompted by the ignored peace deal in Mali, a country all the usual suspects said should not be supported when they were invaded by Islamists. Even if the people there were pleading for support, cos 'West = always bad'.
    
    
12. The night Stalin tried to destroy the Belarussian nation
    Reblog of Paul Goble's piece on the anniversary of this episode from history, a good example of how one retweet can lead to something reaching a new and much wider audience. 


13. 40% young Russia: We’ll beat America in nuclear war
    This crosspost from Little Green Footballs, the US website where I also post, digs out the buried lede from a BBC Monitoring story by the great Stephen Ellis.


14. Frankie Boyle and the Aborigines
    In which I take some casually offensive comments from Boyle's election show and run and run with it.
    
    
15. Back brave LGBT comrades in Ukraine
    My argument that "LGBT must not be sacrificed in the name of solidarity with Ukraine or in the name of national solidarity." Includes demonstration report from Ukrainian LGBT group Insight. 

Thanks for permissions to reuse content this year from Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Ukraine Solidarity Campaign,  LeftEast, John Schindler, People and Nature (Gabriel Levy), Window On Eurasia and openDemocracy.