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tikkunolamresistance · 3 months

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27th January marks Holocaust Remembrance Day. When we think of the millions of lives taken by the Nazi regime. A regime that spurred a systemic white supremacist, ethnonationalist manifesto. A sepratist ideology of a supreme ethnicity, a supreme race, that had been festering across Europe for centuries. Millions of sacred lives, Jewish lives, taken in the name of supremacy. Of hatred and violence.

Millions of Jewish people, Soviet and Polish Citizens, communists, Rromani people, disabled people, Soviet prisoners of War and Queer people were murdered during the Nazi regime. Millions of lives were brutally taken whilst the Nazi regime convinced Germany, through a copious force of propaganda, that those lives were the real threat. That it were those lives who were inhumanely violent, were not just, they were deemed a threat to Nazi society.

Hitler and the Nazis promoted the idea of a master race— an Aryan, German race that needed to be protected as they thought that was the product of “racial purity”. And to Nazism, the Jewish people were the biggest threat to their sepratist, extremist ideology of racial purity. Initially, the Nazi leadership tried to force Jews out of Germany completely, with propaganda encouraging the dehumanisation of Jews to facilitate exile and the subsequent Holocaust of Jewish people in Europe.

“Rats, lice, cockroaches, foxes, vultures – these are just some of the animals the Nazis used to deride and dehumanize Jews. They used words too. In a new linguistic analysis of dozens of Nazi speeches, articles, pamphlets and posters, researchers show how this process of anti-Semetic dehumanization, which began before the Nazis took power and helped fuel the party’s popularity, was modulated to justify atrocity: in the years before the Holocaust.”

These lives, for purely existing, posed as a threat to the Nazis violently sepratist ideology. Propaganda subjugated German citizens with the power of deception; indoctrinating a people with the belief of superiority, purity and organic virtue. Simplifying the regimes ideological complexities to be palatable, unquestionable and targeting individualism. The ideological sepratism had indoctrinated millions into following the belief that Jewish people were sub-human— an undoubted threat to German people, values and society— and this was only achievable through the already pre-established rampant antisemitism that festered through out Medieval Europe, from Christian accusations of “killing Jesus”, to blood libel, the accusation of poisoned wells, and forcing Jews to chose either baptism or death.

“The mood changed markedly in around the year 1100, at the time of the First Crusade. Hordes of religious fanatics from all social classes, driven by a longing for redemption, set forth to kill infidels in the Middle East and to liberate holy Jerusalem. It stood to reason that they should also combat perceived enemies of Christ at home. Jews were hounded and forced to choose between baptism or death.”

The Holocaust happened because for generations, Europe failed to crack down on antisemitism. Christianisation spread through colonialism and with it, they carried antisemitism to new lands. The Holocaust happened because the Nazi party could convince millions of people of racial supremacy and purity. Far-Right ideology holds onto sepratist endorsement when they enforce anti-immigration laws, Islamophobic policies in France and the desperation of English nationalism. The Holocaust happened because Western superpowers only saw the Nazi imperial expansion as a threat to the Western hegemony.

The Holocaust of millions of Jewish people happened, and the effects of which are felt to this day. Every single day. The pain is carried through generations, for now there is a hole in every Jewish soul. We still feel the anguish, the pain. The frustration that this feels so never-ending.

And it is that pain, that fear, that drives us to say that with every last fighting breath, like the Maccabees who faught for our liberation, like King David who defeated a giant with a slingshot and stone and unbridled courage — Never again, for anybody. We will fight with all that we have. For such a magnitude of slaughter and pain should never touch this Earth for as long as we stand. We cannot carry forth our pain like a baton, we must hold it, a sword, to the enemy and ensure liberation of all feet that touch this Earth. They will not make our people, the Jewish people, into a proxy for their imperial expansion and sepratist Western values.

Never again, for anybody, for all life is sacred.

Never again, for anybody, and certainly not in our name.

Never again, for anybody, and that means Palestine.

#holocaust #history #statement #free palestine #palestine #anti capitalism #anti imperialism #jumblr #judaism #jewish thought #jewish #jewish socialism #jewish communists #anti zionist jews for palestine #anti zionism

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amerasdreams · 2 years

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Lol how almost everyone in Muldavia knows about Jason's mission but almost no one knows about Whit's mission

#as it should be #i mean-- communist rule is over so no need for secrecy #but the monarchy isnt over yet so #legitimacy #must be maintained #not for long tho if Roderick has anything to say about it #for his country but also for him #the crown weighs heavily on him #jason didnt want it known either but #it spread after the regime fell #as it happened about the same time #he became a legend #hero of muldavia #just a small circle know about his father #spies

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ghelgheli · 11 months

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To understand the full context of the American-led ‘53 coup against Mosaddegh in Iran it is imo critical to recognize anti-communism as a proximate cause. Write-up below:

It is commonly understood that the early decades of the 20th century in Iran are characterized by British colonial extortion of material resources (mostly oil) within the boundaries of “Persia” (pre-1935) / “Iran” (post). The penultimate monarchical dynasty, the Qajars, were ousted in 1925—but the exile of the last Qajar Ahmad Shah was the direct result of the 1921 military coup led by then-Reza Khan (later the first “Pahlavi”, Reza Shah) which was directed by Britain. And at this time, British anxieties heavily featured concerns about Bolshevik encroachment from the Caucuses (not just through the newly-formed Azerbaijan SSR, but also through domestic sympathizers that fueled such projects as large as the transient Persian SSR, put down by Reza Khan after Soviet withdrawal).

This is stage-setting. Of course, by the 50s, in tandem with Cold War thread-pulling, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company constituted a thirsty tentacle of British imperialism sucking Abadan dry and contributing pittances to the local economy. It was in the midst of decades of growing resentment against this presence that Mosaddegh became Prime Minister in 1951 as the leader of the broad National Front coalition, and we are familiar with how intensely he campaigned for nationalizing the country’s oil and how pissy this made the British (here’s one and another post on the subject if not).

Here’s the detour: you may know that it was the CIA, an American institution, that orchestrated the ‘53 coup to oust Mosaddegh. But we were just now discussing threats against British colonial power in Iran. How did things get from B to A, as it were? We can’t take this for granted.

The British in fact spent the intervening two years trying to get Mosaddegh out by mobilizing the Shah and various right-wing (often clerical and mercantile) interests in Iran (this point, and much of what follows, draws from bits of Darioush Bayandor’s Iran and the CIA and Mostafa Elm’s Oil, Power, and Principle). They spent the same two years desperately trying to get the Americans on board with their efforts. But—here it is—the Truman regime and American foreign policy was in general intensely hostile to this strain of British interventionism in Iran, going so far as to issue warnings against it.

Why? Well, as you would expect, the Americans were concerned about Soviet influence in the region. Then-U.S ambassador in Tehran Henry Grady claimed that “Mosaddegh’s National Front party is the closest thing to a moderate and stable element in the national parliament” (Wall Street Journal, June 9 1951). This summarizes the American position at the time: Mosaddegh’s nationalist movement constituted the bastion against communism, and the US was very interested in the survival of this bastion lest Iran align with the USSR.

What happened between 1951 and 1953 is that British pressure, operating through the Shah and more conservative elements of the Iranian government, jeopardized moderate support for Mosaddegh. With the right and center-right against him an entire wing of National Front coalition was falling off, and Mosaddegh found himself leaning more and more on the strengthening Tudeh Party, which had grown in numbers to militaristic significance during Mosaddegh’s tenure (including a network of at least 600 officers in the state military). Tudeh, of course, was the pro-Soviet communist party in Iran. And now the threads come together.

It was in this context of Mosaddegh, backed into a corner with almost only the communists behind him, that the CIA released a memo on November 20th, 1952 singing a very different tune:

It is of critical importance to the United States that Iran remain an independent and sovereign nation, not dominated by the USSR...

Present trends in Iran are unfavorable to the maintenance of control by a non-communist regime for an extended period of time. In wresting the political initiative from the Shah, the landlords, and other traditional holders of power, the National Front politicians now in power have at least temporarily eliminated every alternative to their own rule except the Communist Tudeh Party...

It is clear that the United Kingdom no longer possesses the capability unilaterally to assure stability in the area. If present trends continue unchecked, Iran could be effectively lost to the free world in advance of an actual Communist takeover of the Iranian Government. Failure to arrest present trends in Iran involves a serious risk to the national security of the United States.

And (!!!)

In light of the present situation the United States should adopt and pursue the following policies:...

Be prepared to take the necessary measures to help Iran to start up her oil industry and to secure markets for her oil so that Iran may benefit from substantial oil reserves...

Recognize the strength of Iranian nationalist feeling; try to direct it into constructive channels and be ready to exploit any opportunity to do so

It took two tries for the CIA to bring about a coup that removed Mosaddegh from power, but the objective of this coup was not the preservation of British control over Iranian resources; it was the maintenance of the Western sphere of influence against communist revolution (this was further prioritized by the arrival of the Eisenhower administration). In fact, after the coup the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now renamed British Petroleum) had to make room for six other companies from the US, France, and the Netherlands as part of a consortium, and this consortium would split profits with Iran 50/50. This is, to be clear, still colonialist extraction! But it constitutes a huge blow to British economic interests, because they were never the CIA’s goal. This is part of why the post-coup government is characterized far more as a US puppet than a British one.

It does remain that this was a sequence of events very much set in motion because of actions taken by the British government; by the time they managed to get shit to hit the fan, though, it was very much no longer in their control where the shit was flying.

#iran #mosaddegh #vatan

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sgiandubh · 3 months

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When you do not know a thing about the issue at stake...

...perhaps it's better to remain silent.

Some of you know, others don't - and that's fine - but my main field of expertise is labor law.

I just read this in anger and disbelief:

Look, lady. I don't care who the hell you are, what you do for a living or why you felt entitled to answer those insistent questions on your side of the fandom. I suppose you are North American and have no idea of how things work on this side of the pond. It is fine: I might know what a Congress filibuster is, for example, but I'd be severely unable to judge the finer points of competence sharing between Fed and state level.

The difference between you and me?

I keep my mouth shut and/or do my own research before opening it in public.

Have you no shame to write things like: 'It was discovered clothing factories in Bulgaria and Portugal made it and how workers were exploited, mostly women, because these factories were in special economic zones in these countries exempt from EU employee rights and regulations.'

HOW DARE YOU? What strange form of illiterate entitlement possessed you to utter such things with confidence, comfortably hidden behind a passive voice ('it was discovered')?

Portugal joined the EU in 1986. Bulgaria (and my country) joined the EU in 2007. I have given 5 relentless years of my life to make this collective political project a reality, along with hundreds of other people my age who chose to come back home from the West and put their skills to good use for their country. In doing so, I rejected more than 10 excellent corporate job offers in France and China. To see you come along and write such enormities is like having you spit in my face.

Article 4 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (aka The Treaty of Rome) is formal and clear, as far as competence sharing between the EU and its Member States goes (the UK was still, back then, a full member of the EU - it quit on February 1st 2020):

That means that ALL the EU regulations are being integrated into the national legislation of the Member States. This is not a copy/paste process, however. And because it is a shared competence area, the Member States have a larger margin of appreciation into making the EU rules a part of their own. While exceptions or delays in this process can be and are negotiated, the core principles are NEVER touched.

Read it one hundred times, madam, maybe you'll learn something today:

THERE ARE NO SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION. THE WHOLE FUCKING EUROPEAN UNION IS A SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE, THIS IS WHY IT IS CALLED THE SINGLE MARKET.

What the fuck do you think we are, Guangzhou? We'd wish, seeing the growth statistics!

Now, for the textile industry sector and particularly with regard to the Bulgarian market, a case very similar to my own country. Starting around 1965, many big European textile players realized the competitive advantage of using the lower paid, readily available Eastern European workforce. In order to be able to do business with all those dour Communist regimes, the solution was simple and easy to find: toll manufacturing.

It worked (and still does!) like this:

The foreign partner brings its own designs, textiles and know-how into the mix - or more simply put, it outsources all these activities. The locals transform it into the finished product, using their own workforce. The result is then re-exported to the foreign partner, who labels it and sells it. In doing so, he has the legal obligation to include provenance on the label ('made in Romania', 'made in Indonesia', 'made in Bulgaria' - you name it).

The reason you might find less and less of those 'made in ' labels nowadays at Primark and more and more at Barbour, Moncler and the such is the constant raise of the workers' wages in Eastern Europe since 1990 (things happened there, in 1989, maybe you remember?). We are not competitive anymore for midrange prêt-à-porter - China (Shein, anyone?), Cambodia and Mexico do come to mind as better suppliers. To speak about 'exploited female labourers in rickety old factories' is an insult and a lie. They weren't exploited back in the Eighties, as they are not now (workers in those factories were and still are easily paid about 50% more than all the rest) and the factories being modernized and constantly updated was always a mandatory clause in any contract of the sort. Normal people in our countries rarely or ever saw those clothes. You had to either be lucky enough for a semi-confidential store release or bribe someone working there and willing to take the risk, in order to be able to buy the rejected models on the local market.

If I understood correctly, you place this critical episode at the launch of the limited SRH & Barbour collection, for the fall of 2018. How convenient for you, who (I am told by trusted people) were one of the most vocal critics of S during Hawaii 2.0!

And as far as Barbour goes, it never pretended to manufacture everything in the UK only:

This information is absolutely true. You can read the whole statement, signed in October 2017 by one of their Directors, Ian Sime, here: https://www.barbour.com/us/media/wysiwyg/PDF/Ethical_Statement_October_2017.pdf

And a snapshot for you:

Oh, and: SEDEX is a behemoth in its world, with more than 75.000 companies joining as a member (https://www.sedex.com/become-a-member/meet-our-customers/). Big corporations like TESCO, Dupont, Nestle, Sainsbury's or Unilever included.

I am not Bulgarian, but I know all of this way better than you'll probably ever do. The same type of contracts were common all over Eastern Europe: Romania, Poland, the GDR (that's East Berlin and co, for you) and even the Soviet Union. I am also sure your Portuguese readers will be thrilled to see themselves qualified by a patronizing North American as labor exploiters living in a third-world country with rickety factories.

You people have no shame and never did. But you just proved with trooping colors you also have no culture and no integrity. More reasons to not regret my unapologetic fandom choice.

I expect an angry and very, very vulgar answer to this, even if I chose to not include your name/handle. The stench of your irrelevance crossed an ocean.

#fandom #shitshow

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lilithism1848 · 7 months

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Atrocities US committed against AFRICA

In early 2017, the US began conducting drone strikes in Somalia against Al Shabab militants. An attack on July 16th killed 8 people.

In 1998, the US bombed the Al Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan, killing one employee and wounding 11. It was the largest pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, producing medicine both for human and veterinary use. The US had acted on false evidence of a VX nerve agent from a single soil sample, and later used a false witness to cover for the attack. It was the only pharmaceutical factory in Africa not under US control.

In June 1982, with the help of CIA money and arms, Hissene Habre , dubbed Africa’s Pinochet, takes power in Chad. His secret police, use methods of torture including the burning the body of the detainee with incandescent objects, spraying gas into their eyes, ears and nose, forced swallowing of water, and forcing the mouths of detainees around the exhaust pipes of running cars. Habré’s government also periodically engaged in ethnic cleansing against groups such as the Sara, Hadjerai and the Zaghawa, killing and arresting group members en masse when it was perceived that their leaders posed a threat to the regime. Human Rights Watch claimed that Habre was responsible for thousands of killings. In 2001, while living in Senegal, he was almost tried for crimes committed by him in Chad. However, a court there blocked these proceedings. Then human rights people decided to pursue the case in Belgium, because some of Habre’s torture victims lived there. The U.S., in June 2003, told Belgium that it risked losing its status as host to NATO’s headquarters if it allowed such a legal proceeding to happen. So the result was that the law that allowed victims to file complaints in Belgium for atrocities committed abroad was repealed. However, two months later a new law was passed which made special provision for the continuation of the case against Habre. In May 2016 he was found guilty of human-rights abuses, including rape, sexual slavery and ordering the killing of 40,000 people, and sentenced to life in prison.

In the 1980s, Reagan maintains a close relationship with the Apartheid South african government, called constructive engagement, while secretly funding it in the hopes of creating a bulwark of anti-communism and preventing a marxist party from taking power, as happened in angola. Later on, in the wars against Apartheid in South Africa and Angola, in which cuban and anti-apartheid forces fought the white south african government, the US supplied south africa with nuclear weapons via Israel.

In 1975, Henry Kissinger launches a CIA-backed war in Angola, backing the brutal anti-communist leader of UNITAS, Jonas Savimbi, against Agostinho Neto and his Marxist-Leninst MPLA party, creating a civil war lasting for 30 years. The CIA financed a covert invasion via neighboring Zaire and a drive on the Angolan capital by the U.S. ally, South Africa. Congress continues to fund UNITAS, and their south-african apartheid allies until the late 1980s. By the end of the war, more than 500,000 people had died and over one million had been internally displaced.

In 1966, a CIA-backed military coup overthrows he widely popular Pan-Africanist and Marxist leader Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, inviting the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to take a lead role in managing the economy. With this reversal, accentuated by the expulsion of immigrants and a new willingness to negotiate with apartheid South Africa, Ghana lost a good deal of its stature in the eyes of African nationalists.

In 1965, a CIA-backed military coup installs Mobutu Sese Seko, described as the “archetypal African dictator” in Congo. The hated and repressive Mobutu exploits his desperately poor country for billions.

In 1962, a tip from a CIA spy in South Africa lead to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, due to his pro-USSR leanings. This began his 27-year-long imprisonment.

In 1961, the CIA assists in the assassination of the democratically elected congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, throwing the country into years of turmoil. Before his assassination the CIA sent one of its scientists, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, to the Congo carrying “lethal biological material” intended for use in Lumumba’s assassination. This virus would have been able to produce a fatal disease indigenous to the Congo area of Africa and was transported in a diplomatic pouch.

In 1801, and again in 1815, the US aided Sweden in subjugating a series of coastal towns in North Africa, in the Barbary Wars. The stated reason was to crack down on pirates, but the wars destroyed the navies of Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, and secured European and US shipping routes for goods and slaves in North Africa. US Representatives stated: “When we can appear in the Ports of the various Powers, or on the Coast, of Barbary, with Ships of such force as to convince those nations that We are able to protect our trade, and to compel them if necessary to keep faith with Us, then, and not before, We may probably secure a large share of the Meditn trade, which would largely and speedily compensate the U. S. for the Cost of a maritime force amply sufficient to keep all those Pirates in Awe, and also make it their interest to keep faith.” Thomas Jefferson echoed and carried out the war, saying that war was essential to securing markets along the Barbary Coast.

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contemplatingoutlander · 8 months

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DECODING FOX NEWS

The propaganda in this one Fox News segment is astounding, and succinctly sums up the alternate reality that right-wing media have constructed regarding Biden and Trump.

Mollie Hemingway, the editor-in-chief of the right-wing media outlet The Federalist, does four things in this video:

She ignores the history of the Trump family's financial corruption, both during his administration and shortly afterward (when Jared was given control of investing $2 billion by the Saudis).

She implies that the repeatedly debunked Burisma claim against the Bidens is true.

She implies that all the indictments against Trump are due to the Biden administration's attempts to "persecute" Trump for standing up "for the people" to the "corrupt" Biden regime.

She likens the indictments to what happened in the past in communist regimes, where people like the Czech Republic's Václav Havel had been persecuted but later became presidents.

Below is a breakdown of the video:

HEMINGWAY: Also does, though, is it shows us what we're dealing with as our country. We've had a lot of people who have become political leaders and become incredibly wealthy.

HEMINGWAY: Joe Biden spent 50 years in public service and his family all has bank accounts where they take money from foreign people. They go to public service, and they come out much better.

HEMINGWAY: You have with President Trump one of the first and only people to actually stand up against that corrupt regime.

HEMINGWAY: Seeing the persecution that comes associated with it, which also kind of makes the case for him, because people see that if you go along with the regime, good things happen to you. If you stand on behalf of the people, they will try to destroy you.

HEMINGWAY: So there's like a weakness that's shown here in the same way you think of like the... what the communists used do to their political opponents. They would imprison them.

HEMINGWAY: After communism ended, some of those people became presidents and leaders like Václav Havel in Czech Republic because people knew they were persecuted and imprisoned because they were they were opposing a corrupt regime.

If any of Trump's indictments end in conviction, dangerous civil unrest may very well occur--likely in part because of the kinds of false, wreckless statements that Fox News contributors like Mollie Hemingway have made repeatedly.

#fox news #right-wing propaganda #mollie hemingway #donald trump #indictments #joe biden #juliet jeske #decoding trump news #video #my gifs

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theroguefeminist · 2 years

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In hindsight, it's interesting that liberals decided to use the term "fake news" to describe what was happening during Trump's presidency, instead of the word propaganda. Trump and conservative media claiming the 2020 election was rigged isn't just inaccurate fake news, it's propaganda with the specific purpose to keep conservatives in power. Conservatives trying to blame a trans woman for the shooting in Uvalde isn't just misinformation, it's propaganda to distract from right wing terrorism in this country and vilify trans people. Fake news is random, politically neutral, possibly unintentional. Propaganda is a sustained political campaign to brainwash people into a particular ideology. What Fox News, Trump and the conservative establishment have been doing for years is not fake news. So it was easy for Trump to co-opt such a neutral term himself & use it against everyone else.

But in the US, propaganda is a word for history books, for Nazis and communist regimes. It's never applied to Americans. I think that when "fake news" took the place of the word "propaganda" it was a step toward normalizing fascism in this country.

#trump #fake news #politics #social justice

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zvaigzdelasas · 1 year

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Protesters disrupted the first hearing of a House select committee investigating potential threats that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to the country and U.S.-China competition on Tuesday, arguing that the country should cooperate with China instead of competing with it.

“China is not our enemy,” read a sign held by Olivia DiNucci, an organizer for CODEPINK: Women for Peace, which advocates against the United States engaging in wars and “regime change efforts.” A CODEPINK release states that DiNucci delivered a message that “The American people need cooperation, not competition with China” before she was taken out of the chamber where the meeting was happening. After DiNucci was escorted out, a man that CODEPINK identified as a Washington, D.C. resident named “Hector M.” stood up with a sign saying “Stop Asian hate” and yelled “This committee is about saber-rattling; it is not about peace.”

28 Feb 23

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icarusxxrising · 8 months

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// long ramble TLDR just me discussing how I found my politics at the beginning

When I was a baby leftist the final push for me into anarchism wasn't when I learned what anarchy actually was, it was 1 event leading to a culmination of recognizing one of the biggest problems in social and economic systems was people having power over each other.

When I first got into leftism there was nothing on Anarchism when I tried to lookup "beginner leftist books". It was The Communist Manifesto, State and Revolution, The ABCs of Socialism, etc. Nothing about Anarchism though.

I tried to connect to Communism through reading and content creators but it couldn't stick for me. Not to say I'm not a communist now but my communism is different, and more inherent to my Anarchism. A lot of communist creators I watched talk were very intelligent on the system and helped me realize some positives, but they never could talk about the negatives of past communist ideologies.

When people addressed genuinely negative things that communist regimes did, like their treatment of disabled people or the genocide campaigns, they responded with facts about literacy rates going up. Obviously something like literacy rates going up IS a positive that should be addressed, but they could never just say "Yeah that was fucked up, we don't condone that bullshit, here's how we are going to stop that from happening". (Hell a ton of communists idolize and have pfps of some of the dudes that did horrible shit).

Even if I disagree I'll respect a communist who will say "These regimes did xyz fucked up shit, We can do better and learn from this fucked up shit tho", and I have met some that do that, but I couldn't click into the communism being fed to me because it once again felt like blind worship and just redoing the past rather than striving for something that would fit our modern society.

Ironically the first time I thought "Power corrupts people always" was when I found out TST founders were gross and Fascistic. I was getting into Satanism and was excited by the idea of TST fighting for religious freedoms within the system (lib moment), and how they were gay friendly and had posts about respecting lgbt ppl unlike COS who just said summarized "who cares what you feel about them as long as no one tells you you can't do that :)".

But when I found out about Queer Satanic and actually dove into the history of TST it was kinda this Camel Straw moment. I was angry I had supported a shitty organization and I was angry that something that could be good was controlled by shitty people who could just do fuck all bc they had power. It made me realize that as long as there was a person in power over others that there would be problems. It made me think of my childhood and how when parents have complete authority over their children it causes harm more often than not just by the nature of Exploitation that comes with holding power.

I didn't know what Anarchism was yet or that it was a real leftist ideology, I just thought it meant Chaos and Warmonger, but I took the steps into it without knowing just from the realization I had.

When I did find out about Anarchism it clicked for me. A style of communism and workers unions that won't hold power over individuals. And then I just began to learn more and it makes sense for me. It doesn't matter how many times other people told me it was unrealistic, my brain can conceive Anarchism better than systems that call for few people to hold power over entire populations.

Too be fair, I've always had anarchistic tendencies growing up, but once I found it the pieces just fell into place.

* This isn't for debating if you come into my comments with some USSR bullshit I'll just tell you to walk somewhere dangerous and block you *

#leftist #anarchy #leftism #anarchism #anarchist #socialism #socialist #communist #communism #theory #satanism #tst #queer satanic

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aftabkaran · 2 years

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The way some “leftists” on tumblr are doing everything they can to expose Iranian protesters… why are you like this?!

Iran’s COMMUNIST party supports the protest but you choose to side with an islamic fundamentalist regime?! All it takes for you to support someone is them saying “death to America” and you accuse others of simplistic political philosophy?!

not one of you is iranian either and you don’t even bother asking us any questions because god forbid you get educated on something.

If you need information on what is happening in Iran please, PLEASE, rely on Iranians for that and not some western internet activist.

#iran #mahsa amini

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useless-catalanfacts · 1 year

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I assume you heard of what the Real Madrid twitter account posted, how Franco was a supported of Barça? Amazing historical revisionism, as if Catalans weren't tortured or murdered for daring to speak their language, or how even one of the directors of Barça was murdered after being accused of defending the independence of Catalonia.

I'm sure they are aware they're lying, I don't believe someone would be so ignorant to make up something like that and somehow convince themselves of it.

Basically, if someone's not aware of what happened, Real Madrid published a video saying that FC Barcelona (Barça) was favoured by the Spanish fascist dictator Franco, which is false. The team that has always been associated with Francoist beliefs is Real Madrid, so I assume they want to distance themselves from that by accusing their main rival (Barça), who also happens to be a symbol of a minority (Catalans) that was one of the main groups targeted by Spanish fascism.

Some actual historical information about Franco and Barça:

1. In 1939, all football clubs that were federated in the Catalan Federation were banned from playing. All the players' contracts were cancelled. That includes Barça. Some months later, they were reformed and could continue existing with a completely different directors/administration board accepted by the regime. (Women are banned from this position, when Barça had la Sagi.) Copying the model of Mussolini's Italy, the Francoist dictatorship gave control of sports to the Falange (the fascist party, the only party allowed) who controlled everything from the Delegación Nacional de Deportes (National Sports Delegation).

2. For the previous resolution, all of Barça's administratives are ceases and their names and files are given to the military police to control them. The board and administration of all the club was purged.

3. The regime sentenced to death and killed the president of Barça at the time (Josep Sunyol i Garriga) for being pro-Catalan.

The president of Real Madrid (Antonio Ortega) was also killed for being a communist. The difference is that nowadays, since the end of the dictatorship, Barça honours Josep Sunyol, while Madrid acts as if Antonio Ortega had never existed and doesn't have any space dedicated to him. Not only that, but if you look at Real Madrid's website, they leave an empty spot during the years that Antonio Ortega was president (1936-1939), pretending he never was and there simply was no president during those years.

All the opposite, Real Madrid honours Santiago Bernabéu (the team's stadium is named after him), who worked to bring Real Madrid closer to the dictatorship. Even before Franco gained power, in the 1920s, he said that Real Madrid defends "the Spanish pride and cause". He later enlisted in the Spanish army and joined the fascists in their coup d'etat that led to the Spanish Civil War.

4. Barça had to change their entrance tickets and their name to Spanish following Franco's illegalization of the Catalan language. It stoped being called "Futbol Club Barcelona" (Catalan) and had to be called "Club de Fútbol Barcelona" (Spanish). Consequently, the letters in the club's shield were consequently changed from F.C.B. to C.F.B. The club wouldn't get their original Catalan name back until 1973.

5. Removed the Catalan flag from Barça's shield. They had to have 2 red bars instead of the 4 bars of the Catalan flag. Later they could get it back because Barça's shield is based on the shield of the city of Barcelona, so they alleged it's just a symbol of the city.

6. Instrumentalized Barça and Athletic de Bilbao against Catalan and Basque people, since the regime identified Barça and Athletic de Bilbao as the teams that symbolise these two minority nations and their independentism. Their first match after the war was scheduled by the regime, a Barça vs Athletic de Bilbao where the whole stadium was wrapped in huge Spanish flags and were various fascist gave speeches in favour of Franco and Spanish unity, including the general Álvarez-Arenas who talked about the purges by saying he praised Barça for "having thrown away forever the anti-Spanish seed, exposing their idea of what sport entities must be patriotically, the true healthy sport to educate the masses" ("que ha sabido arrojar para siempre la semilla de los antiespañoles, exponiendo su idea de lo que patrióticamente han de ser las entidades deportivas, el verdadero n del deporte sano y educativo de multitudes").

7. The regime abolished the Catalonia League, where Barça played.

8. More purges in Barça followed after that first one. The dictatorship carried out in-depth investigations into Barça's directives and members to find people who fought for Catalan rights. Some people were accused for being in the Barça directive. Here's some extracts from the letter where the leader of the fascist police in Barcelona, Luis Martí Olivares, sent to order the arrest of some Barça directives and to order them to be taken to Madrid for trial:

In front of the statue of Casanovas, they used to celebrate acts of separatist affirmation [...]. All the directives, players and members [of Futbol Club Barcelona] have always attended it with flower crowns, offerings with the shield of the "F.C. BARCELONA"

Another one by him:

It's publicly known that the "F.C. BARCELONA" has always been political, at the beginning pro-Catalan and since a long time ago frankly separatist and for this reason they have exploited their rivalry with R.C.D. ESPAÑOL, which has been precisely the only Football Club in Catalonia that has signified themselves as a true pro-Spanish. In the matches between these two Clubs, the Barcelona fans considered the Spanishists to be foreigners, because they spoke in Spanish.

After the purges, the new dictatorship-approved directive board of Barça was made (for the 1st time in the club's history) of people who were not even members of the club. Many of them were fervent Espanyol fans, not Barça fans.

Most of their first decisions were political, including the fact that they removed the club's founder Joan Gamper as honorary president and declared the new honorary president to be the Spanish fascist general Múgica.

They also made the players taka a flower crown to the founder of Spanish fascism José Antonio Primo de Rivera, which had the Spanish flag and the Barça flag and inscription "F.C. Barcelona to José Antonio".

One of Barça's directors during the dictatorship was actually a paying Espanyol member during his time as Barça president, another director was an army general that was appointed directed by the higher spheres of the dictatorship and who openly said he was directing Barça simply because "as soldier with discipline I'm following orders".

9. Finally, in June 1946, the members of the Barça board who were actually Barça fans and cared for the club mass resigned and pressured the director to stop being a club under direct control of the dictatorship's government. Their protest resulted in the end of the regime's direct intervention, and after 10 years Barça could go back to having a new directive board, this time mostly made up of people who had always been Barça fans, though the regime still only allowed people who were officially approved.

So while Barça was directed by people who didn't care about the club and who were very badly coordinated and later was starting to re-order itself (still only with approved people), Real Madrid had its golden age, under the director Santiago Bernabéu (who was defined as "he's what Philip II was to Spain: its best king" and as we've explained before was a fascist) and a director board that had close ties to the fascist government.

The club that was most favoured by the regime during its first years was Atlético de Madrid (at the time called Atlético Aviación) which was related to the Army. But the president of Real Madrid Santiago Bernabéu got the club closer to the dictatorship and made it become the regime's favourite from the late 1950s on. Real Madrid played a very important role in fascist Spain's public relations, because that's the historical period that ended the autarchy and when fascist Spain was accepted in the UN and kept the dictatorship with the agreement of the other countries. Real Madrid acted as a political and cultural ambassador of fascist Spain in other countries. In return it received favours from the dictatorship. For example, the regime changed the sports clubs' status so that Madrid could hire Alfredo Di Stefano instead of Barça in 1953. Barça had already closed the case and the club and the player were ready to sign, but the dictatorship's direct intervention stopped it.

10. Since speaking Catalan was banned, some Catalan traditions were banned, even some Catalan songs were banned, and everyone was forced to be Spanish and a Spanish nationalist, with the National-Catholic morale imposed in every aspect of life, Barça became the place to express Catalanity. People used to go cheer for Barça as the "allowed"/hidden way of cheering against Francoism and in favour of Catalonia. This sentiment was well represented by the song "Botifarra de pagès" by the Catalan humour band La Trinca, which they released in 1974:

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If you don't speak Catalan, the whole song is about how Catalans cheer for Barça as a representation of cheering for Catalan rights and link how well Barça is doing at the time with Catalanism ("l'any que ve no farem riure, visca Catalunya ------" = "next year we [Barça] won't be laughable, long live free Catalonia!" with a peeeeeep over where the word "free" woul have been) with cultural references. For example, they sing the tempo of sardanes with the name Cruyff, and change the famous quote "som i serem gent catalana, tant si es vol com si no es vol" (we are and we will be Catalan people, wether they want it or not) from the song La santa espina (song forbidden during Franco's dictatorship) with "som i serem socis del Barça, tan si es vol com si no es vol" (we are and we will be Barça fans, wether they want it or not).

11. Regardless of the club's significance to the population (because, let's be honest, everyone knew what Barça meant), it was still a club that existed under a fascist dictatorship. During the dictatorship, only approved or appointed people held office and had the power to take decisions. And if you were in that position were you had been approved, even if you had your secret political beliefs and actions, there was only so much you could do in public before getting fired, arrested, banned for life from your job, get you and your family on a watchlist and likely get tortured.

One of the "unwritten rules" during the dictatorship was that anyone who created a prize or medal had to give the 1st to Franco. Barça did that too, but they have later addressed it and taken it back.

12. In the semifinals of 1942-1943 season, Barça won against Real Madrid by 3-0. On the return match, the dictatorship's police went down to the dressing rooms to intimidate the Barça players so they would let Madrid win. The result was 11-1 (Madrid victory), which effectively gave victory of the league to Real Madrid.

13. Dictator Franco, personally, was a follower of Real Madrid. It's known that he used to comment the lineups with his officers.

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Since Real Madrid published that video some days ago, so many Spanish newspapers, magazines and TV channels have talked at length about how Barça actually helped Franco. They use as excuse the fact that the Barça under the dictatorship's control (because remember that the dictatorship chose who would lead the team, even when these people weren't Barça fans it only mattered that they were fascists) gave condecorations to the regime officials. This is worth remembering and worth criticizing, but this says more about the dictatorship than it says about Barça, especially if they want it to represent nowadays Barça. Because the thing is that this is no secret, and Barça has already addressed it in the past: in 2019, Barça officially withdrew all the medals given to Franco officials. Real Madrid still honours fascists and erases their antifascist director, and knows that they're a symbol of Spanish nationalism.

However, it seems like the people who so quickly want to run to talk shit about anything that has to do with Catalonia don't usually keep the same energy to criticize the dictatorship itself and how it intervened every aspect of life, crushing dissidence and national minorities in everything, even their hobbies, nor to make the same criticisms of Real Madrid, because it's not just about Barça but a way to attack Catalan society.

#ask #anonymous #futbol #història #barça #esports #futbol club barcelona #fc barcelona #barca #football #european football #la liga #history #sports history #francoism #1940s #20th century history #spain #barcelona

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azhdakha · 4 months

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Foreign communists, socialists, marxist, anarcho-communists, tell me, why are you so ignorant, cruel and denying every time it comes to people who's oppressors aren't the west, USA and NATO? Why is it that you are so radical and so fierce to the oppressors, why do you talk about the solidarity of oppressed people, but you are ready to deny or normalize, ignore the thousands, millions of people who had their lives broken and poisoned, their homes stolen, their identity destroyed, their dear ones killed, just because those who perpetuated it called themselves communist? Are you really that dumb so you cannot fathom that there can be more than one oppressor? That just because your people suffered from USA and USA is fighting against USSR, the second one is automatically good and never done nothing wrong throughput their existence? Why is your world so binary and simplified, stupid and unrealistic? Why are you ready to support and be an apologet for someone who did terrible things, why are you ready to be cold to human beings facing atrocities just to support your damn narrative? Or just because it's not you suffering and someone else, not your people, it's fine to butcher and humiliate someone? We live through this on a daily basis. Our parents lived through this. Our grandparents live through this. This is something we keep as a family history and tell each other on family meetings. Something that your grandma will tell you while you fall asleep. Something we don't even doubt regardless of our political stances, even if you're communist yourself, because it's our reality. It doesn't happen in a far away country. It happened here. But there come you, who have never fucking been here accusing us of lying and being an America's pet. Do you think that because we don't want to be oppressed and we don't want our oppression to be silenced and denied, we are America's puppets? If we want to live freely and not undert the boot of the regime that didn't see us as humans, if we want a normal life and human rights, we are filthy reactionists? Where is your love for human rights? We are you so ready to betray us and wish us to be killed by our oppressive government because our existence doesn't align with your narrative? Where is your radical stance against oppression?

#azhdakha

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omgthatdress · 1 year

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Oh, look, another blonde hair, blue eyed doll from AG. I watched the cute little stop-motion short film AG made for Courtney, and I have to admit, it was fucking cute and her charm won me over.

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There’s *some* actual historical engagement with the popularization of video games. The biggest thing is that her mom is running for mayor of their fictional town in California (because of course Courtney has to be a Valley Girl) and faces a bunch of sexist BS on a TV interview. It covers the space shuttle era of space travel, Challenger disaster and the emotional impact that had on the United States.

In her second book, Courtney has a classmate with AIDS. I’m glad that was included, because putting AIDS and HIV-positive kids in schools was a huge fight in the 80s. Here in Tampa, the mother of Eliana Martinez, a disabled girl who had contracted HIV in a blood transfusion at birth, went to court to get her daughter into school, and a federal judge ruled she could go to school as long as she spent the day in a glass cage like an animal. It was that bad. Eventually, Eliana was able to attend school without the cage because her mother, Rosa, was amazing.

In spite of everything I like about Courtney’s story, let’s be real. AG’s 80s doll should have been Latina. A Cuban-American girl living in Miami, with at least one parent who’s an Operacíon Pedro Pan adoptee, and with relatives who came over during the Mariel Boatlift. And I’m not just saying that because my parents were living in Miami in the 80s, I’m saying it because Miami was an incredible place in the 80s.

Operacíon Pedro Pan was a program by the U.S. State Department and Catholic Church for Cuban children to be sent to America when parents feared they would lose their parental rights and their children would be sent to communist indoctrination camps. It was a chance for their kids to be raised as Catholic in free America instead of atheists under the brutal Castro regime. About 14,000 children were removed from Cuba to be mostly re-settled in Miami.

You may be familiar with the Mariel Boatlift if you’ve seen the opening scene of Scarface, which actually sums up the situation pretty well.

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Now, granted, Mariel only happened between April and October of 1980. Even after the boatlift officially ended, people seeking to flee Cuba continued to come on boats. The “wet foot, dry foot” policy meant that anyone fleeing Cuba who managed to set foot on American soil was guaranteed asylum. However, they had to face the US coastguard trying to intercept them and turn them back on the water. Refugees from Haiti fleeing the Duvalier regime also flocked to Miami, but since Duvalier was right-wing, Haitians weren’t granted the same protections as Cubans were and it was absolute bullshit.

On top of all that, Miami also had thriving African-American, Afro-Caribbean, Colombian, Jewish, and gay communities. There was just SO MUCH incredible stuff going on in Miami in the 80s, and I mean, hello, Miami Vice was a whole aesthetic!

You could include all the stuff that’s going in in Courtney’s books and STILL pack in so much more amazing history. The overall vibe I get with Coutney’s collection is that even though there’s some good stuff in her stories, it’s more about selling 80s nostalgia than actually teaching 80s history, which is a travesty. I know it’d be hard to engage with 80s politics and Ronald Reagan without pissing off a *lot* of people, but you can still engage with some serious 80s history if you just look outside of the blonde hair, blue eye box.

#1980s #American Girl #Courtney

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