The Rent Strike To Bloody Friday, Part Of The Same Struggle.

 

     Friday, January, 1919, a date that we should never forget, that was the day that brought about the stationing of armed troops on Glasgow's streets, they were also stationed at entrances to the docks around the city. As is usual in these situations, it was the workers that had come up with the rational decision, To help alleviate the unemployment situation after WWI, the idea was to cut the working hours and try to soak up the unemployed. A 40 hour week was the suggestion, but the state and the employers would have none of that. By 30, January, 1919, 40,000 workers in the engineering and shipbuilding industries in Clydeside were out on strike, plus approximately 36,000 miners from the coalfields in Stirlingshire and Lanarkshire, who were also on strike. 

        On the Friday, January, 31, a demonstration, of an estimated 60,000 citizens, in support of the shorter working week took place on George Square. Unexpectedly and unannounced, the police attacked the demonstrators, an action that lead to all hell breaking out.

THE DEMONSTRATION, BLOODY FRIDAY.
On Friday 31 January 1919 upwards of 60,000 demonstrators gathered in George Square Glasgow in support of the 40-hours strike and to hear the Lord Provost's reply to the workers' request for a 40-hour week. Whilst the deputation was in the building the police mounted a vicious and unprovoked attack on the demonstrators, felling unarmed men and women with their batons. The demonstrators, including large numbers of ex-servicemen, retaliated with whatever was available, fists, iron railings and broken bottles, and forced the police to retreat. On hearing the noise from the square the strike leaders, who were meeting with the Lord Provost, rushed outside in an attempt to restore order. One of the leaders, David Kirkwood, was felled to the ground by a police baton, and along with William Gallacher was arrested.

       The situation was volatile, and the authorities were getting very nervous indeed. Our lorda and masters in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, feared what the state always fears, that the people were taking control of their own lives. Something had to be done, and the only answer the state ever has, is violent repression, and has no qualms about turning the military on its own people.

RIOTS AND ARRESTS.

After the initial confrontation between the demonstrators and the police in George Square, further fighting continued in and around the city centre streets for many hours afterwards. The Townhead area of the city and Glasgow Green, where many of the demonstrators had regrouped after the initial police charge, were the scenes of running battles between police and demonstrators. In the immediate aftermath of 'Bloody Friday', as it became known, other leaders of the Clyde Workers' Committee were arrested, including Emanuel Shinwell, Harry Hopkins and George Edbury.

TROOPS.

The strike and the events of January 31 1919 “Bloody Friday” raised the Government’s concerns about industrial militancy and revolutionary political activity in Glasgow. Considerable fears within government of a workers' revolution in Glasgow led to the deployment of troops and tanks in the city. A full battalion of Scottish soldiers stationed at Maryhill barracks in Glasgow at the time were locked down and confined to barracks, for fear they would side with the rioters, an estimated 10,000 English troops, along with Seaforth Highlanders from Aberdeen, who were first vetted to remove those with a Glasgow connection, and tanks were sent to Glasgow in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Friday. Soldiers with fixed bayonets marched with tanks through the streets of the City. There were soldiers patrolling the streets and machine guns on the roofs in George Square. No other Scottish troops were deployed, with the government fearing fellow Scots, soldiers or otherwise, would go over to the workers if a revolutionary situation developed in the area. It was the British state’s largest military mobilisation against its own people and showed they were quite prepared to shed workers’ blood in protecting the establishment.

        Of course "Bloody Friday" should not be seen in isolation, it didn't just spring up from nowhere, it was just one flashpoint along a long road of struggle by the ordinary people for a better life.

        Like all the events in political struggle it is difficult to trace the thread back to what brought it to this stage, Bloody Friday 1919 is no different. This was not just an attack on a large demonstration in Glasgow, it was the culmination of a series of radical events in Glasgow and the Clydeside area where the state showed its brutality. Perhaps we could even take it back to the 18th century and the radicals like Thomas Muir and others. However we can certainly take it back to the rent strikes of the first world war, the forming of the Labour Withholding Committee, (LWC) The Clyde Workers Committee (CWC) and the political climate of that period. 

A warehouse in the east end of Glasgow 1919.

    All of these events are lesson for us to learn from, solidarity, organisation, co-operation across our communities and our workplaces. Something we have to get to grips with in this more fragment type of society that we find ourselves living under. 

      Something else we should never forget, this wasn't the first time that the British establishment had brought out the military to break a strike. During the 1911 dockers strike, the military shot dead two strikers on the streets on the street in Liverpool.

Liverpool during the 1911 strike.

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The Next Stage Of The UK State's Cull Of The Poor.

 

        The British state, under the stewardship of the Oxbridge millionaire cabal, has spent considerable money, time and effort demonising the unemployed by grouping them under the banner of "benefit scroungers". It has attacked the disabled by stripping them of their benefits, under the callous guise of "helping them back to work". Now they are cranking up their attack on those who do work.

        This new element of their class war attack, will now penalise those it deems to be, not working hard enough. You might be in work and because of circumstances, you work part-time, in doing so, because of crap wages, perhaps you receive some form of benefit pittance. This will put you on their hit list, you could face sanctions, if you are deemed not to be looking hard enough for more hours to sell yourself for another pittance of crap wages. So working, but because of the slave labour wages, you get benefits to help you survive, be aware, you are in their sights, work harder, take on more hours, or be sanctioned and lose your benefits.

      This latest attack on the ordinary people of this country must surely convince the majority of people in this country that we are in the midst of a class war, and should organise and respond accordingly.

This from The Herald: 

       THE TORY government been attacked over plans to extend controversial benefit sanctions to claimants with jobs, with critics warning introducing the "shockingly harsh" penalties risks plunging workers into poverty.
      A number of pilot schemes are currently being carried out in the UK – including in Inverness – to assess a new scheme which the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) says is aimed at helping workers on low earnings take on more hours and increase their income.
       Benefits can be stopped if claimants fail to meet requirements outlined by the DWP – such as missing Jobcentre appointments or failing to show evidence of looking for more work for a certain number of hours a week, on top of their usual job. The in-work regime, which is expected to eventually apply to around one million people, is being trialled as part of Universal Credit, the new type of benefit which is being rolled out across the country.
        The DWP says its aim is “redefining the contract between claimants and the welfare state” and helping work to pay. The radical scheme - one of the first of its kind in the world - means for the first time those in part-time employment will have to meet certain conditions or risk losing support from the state.

Read the full article HERE:

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The Ceaseless March Of Corporatism.

        An appeal from Global Justice Now, or should we take this as a warning, if we don't stop the march of corporatism in its tracks. 

       Next week, the Scottish Parliament will be discussing TTIP’s little brother CETA, the Canada-EU trade deal that includes all the same worrying things that TTIP does.
       If CETA is passed it could threaten public services in Scotland, the moratorium on fracking, and some of Scotland’s most iconic produce, such as Stornoway Black Pudding and the Arbroath Smokie.
       So, we’ve teamed up with 38 Degrees to run a petition calling on the Scottish Government to oppose CETA.  Click here to sign the petition.  And if you’re in or near Edinburgh on Thursday morning, please join us at 11.15am outside the Scottish Parliament to hand in the petition.
         CETA, like TTIP, will hand power from democratically elected governments to big business.  And CETA is due to be passed this year, ahead of TTIP.  Help us stop CETA.
Many thanks,
Liz
P.S. You can read more about CETA and its impacts on Scotland here Join Global Justice Now:
Become part of the movement for a more just and equal
world by joining as a member today. Join now.

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Our mailing address is:
Global Justice Now Scotland
Thorn House, 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PR
Phone: 0131 243 2730

We used to be the World Development Movement. Find out more.

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The Political Illiterate.

         You have all heard it, you have all come up against them, the idiot that says, they are not interested in politics. The fool can't grasp that everything that happens in our modern world is the result of politics, the price of toothpaste, the homeless, how long your working day will be, how many holidays you can have, the price of bread, will there be war or peace, who your enemy will be, all of it, is shaped by politics. Sadly, in this society it is the politics of big business that shapes our world, faceless members of the financial Mafia and puppet politicians, who do take an interest in politics and make sure they control the outcome to their benefit.

       For any ordinary person, not being interested in politics, is a dereliction of duty to your fellow citizens, you are leaving them to fight your corner for you, while you strut about in your stupid arrogance, believing that you are above politics.

Bertolt Brecht sums it up nicely:

― Bertolt Brecht

       “The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.”

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Closed Supervision Centre Is Torture.

        All prisons are inhumane, some worse than others, and at the pinnacle of this barbarity is the CSC, Closed Supervision Centre.

 Closed Supervision Centre, Woodhill.

This from 325:

JOIN THE PROTEST in support of Kevan Thakrar:

Thursday Feb 18, 12:30-2:30 pm
HM Prison Service Headquarters
Clive House, 70 Petty France London SW1H 9EX

Directions:
- Nearest Station: St James’s Park underground station, a 5 minute walk to Clive house.
- Buses: Any buses stopping at New Scotland Yard then continue along Victoria Street then turn left on to Caxton Street then turn right on to Palmer Street, continue until you will reach Petty France.

Kevan Thakrar Needs Your Support!
Kevan Thakrar was found not guilty of attacking three prison officers and vindicated by evidence that showed he acted in self-defence after months of racial, physical and psychological abuse. Any court ruling that goes against prison officers is VERY unusual. Kevan continues to be held in isolation in the prison services ‘Close Supervision Centres’ more than six years later, no doubt as retribution for his court victory. See here for more info about Kevan’s wrongful conviction and fight for a new trial:

www.justiceforkevan.com
www.facebook.com/JusticeForKev
Please sign the petition: www.change.org/p/justice-for-kevan

Read the full article on the racist abuse inside Wakefield Prison.

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A Home, A Money Making Commodity, Or A Right??

        Homelessness is part and parcel of this system of exploitation that we live under, a home is not seen as a basic right, but as a source of wealth creation for a handful of greedy individuals. Nor will the powers that be ever resolve the “housing crisis”, as that would interfere with the profitability of house building companies and developers. As long as there is a “scarcity” of houses, the price of buying and renting, will continue their upward surge, more profit for that brand of business. The so called housing problem is not a problem, it is a policy. Are our learned politicians sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, telling us that there is not enough raw materials in the country to build enough houses, or are they saying we don't have the skills? We can build expensive abodes for those with deep pockets, we certainly can create opulence for the few, but are deemed incapable of creating decent houses for the many? Without the building of more homes for the ordinary people, people will obviously look to solve the “problem" by themselves. Our cities and towns are awash with empty premises, people are without homes, put the two together and we have a temporary solution, until we can take control of our own society, and create that basic right of all, a decent place to lay your head. 

      Squatters of London Action Paper (SLAP!) is a new London freesheet for squat news, actions, history and events. Paper copies soon available at Freedom Bookshop in Whitechapel and 56a Infoshop in Elephant and Castle. (Read Slap! First issue pdf)

     At worst, homelessness can mean sleeping rough on the streets.
Government statistics show 2,744 people slept rough in England on any one night during 2014 - a 55 per cent rise on 2010
Local agencies report 7,581 people slept rough in London alone throughout 2014/15 - A 16 per cent rise on the previous year, and more than double the figure of 3,673 in 2009/10 However, the problem of homelessness is much bigger than that of rough sleeping.
More on rough sleeping
In England:
     112,330 households applied to their local authority for homelessness assistance in 2014/15, a 26 per cent rise since 2009/10.
        The vast majority of single homeless people who are not entitled to housing, as well as those who, for a variety of reasons do not even apply for homelessness assistance, end up surviving out of sight.
       Many stay in hostels and there are just over 38,500 be spaces in hostels for single homeless people in England but there are other ways to get by. This might mean staying in squats or B&Bs, in overcrowded accommodation or ‘concealed' housing, such as the floors or sofas of friends and family.
        If you do not qualify for local authority housing assistance, if you are sleeping rough, staying in a hostel, a squat or some other form of unsatisfactory or insecure accommodation, then you are one of the countless thousands of hidden homeless people.
More on hidden homelessness More on hostel accommodation More on squatting

 

 

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Shopiate Of The Masses.

       I like this slightly altered quote from Not Buying Anything site, it does ring rather true of today, or am I being too pessimistic?

Slightly altering one of Huxley's quotes about pharmaceuticals, it can be seen that consumerism is a drug. It is the ultimate shopiate of the masses.

“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method consumer economic model of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. shopping. 

And this seems to be the final revolution.”

- Aldous Huxley

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There's Healthy Fun In Mud.

           The North Kelvin Meadow's struggle is still very much on, in spite of the last two rallies for support being hit by Scotland's unpredictable weather.  There was a call out for support on Saturday 16th. January, as luck would have it, that was the Saturday that we had the worst snowfall of the year. In spite of dreadful weather the rally was well supported, showing the strength of feeling in support for this struggle. The next rallying call went out for Tuesday January 26th., the day the cabal from the Kremlin in George Square were coming to cast their cash register eyes over the meadow, to see if it should become a tarmac property developers cash machine, or remain a wonderful community asset for the local community, and further afield. Again the Scottish weather hit them, that Tuesday it was torrential rain, but still the crowds came. The kids proved once and for all, that there is fun in mud, it was a tremendous turn out, proving that the Kelvin Meadow is not just a summer picnic place, but wonderful magical place where kids and adults alike can come together and enrich our communities. This must remain a slice of wonderful natural countryside in the midst of our city, a rich community asset, where our kids can learn and grow, in a healthy and fun atmosphere. Far from thinking of destroying this gem, our paid servants sitting in the Kremlin in George Square should be looking at ways to increase this sort of environment within our city.

 Thanks Bob for the video:

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The Strangling Grip Of The State.

 

        Across the globe, states are moving towards the right, albeit at different paces, but the direction doesn't alter. The bogey man is always held up as the need for tighter legislation. That bogey man could be, war on drugs, a clamp down on the violent criminal element, the big global bogey man at the moment, is the war on terrorism. This particular big bogey man has fringe aspects such as, undeserving refugees endangering our wonderful way of life, and that other one, "radicalising", these engender an atmosphere of fear and anger, which helps keep the populace in quiet acquiescence of the state's ever tightening grip, a grip that if unchallenged, will eventually strangle any semblance of civil rights we may still have.

 Spain:

      The so-called Ley Mordaza, or Gag Law, imposes heavy fines for “administrative infractions” and maintains a registry of the citizens who commit those infractions.
      Though the expansive legislation threatens a variety of uses of public space and legalises prohibited border control practices such as summary expulsions, it is its aggressive attack on the right of citizens to protest that has attracted the most attention from media and human rights organisations.
    The legislation especially targets the types of protest and disobedience favoured by the indignados movement, such as unauthorised protests, blocking evictions or surrounding high institutions of the state.
     It also affects trade union protest by essentially prohibiting picketing and any disruption of services. Maria José Saura of the leading CCOO trade union told Equal Times that “the Gag Law turns conflicts over labour into an issue of public order. With no room for unauthorised actions, what we’re left with is protest as a farce.”
       The Gag Law also works in tandem with a new reform of Spain’s penal code, which classifies transgressive actions in public space as administrative sanctions, thus leaving them to the discretion of police officers through the application of fines on the spot.

Mexico and Costa Rica:

        President Peña Nieto of Mexico brags about his neoliberal policies to privatize public resources, cut social services, and force anti-union education “reforms.” His government has also been exposed for its ties to drug cartels and the killing and jailing of political activists. There’s a connection. Increasingly, Peña Nieto’s economic plans hinge on crushing all opposition — by effectively making protest illegal.
          To the south, Costa Rica does the same. Both countries are part of an international campaign to repress dissidents. They are backed by the USA, which launches offensives to hound its own movement leaders.
        Among the most militant opponents of this strategy is Heriberto Magariño Lopez, a leader of the teachers union in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. He is also a national leader of the Partido Obrero Socialista (POS), which has been active in defending and uniting all those fighting the regime’s attacks.

France:

      In the wake of the deadly attacks in Paris earlier this month, France declared a state of emergency and implemented sweeping anti-terrorism measures.
      When lawmakers extended that state of emergency (and its security provisions) for three months, some eyebrows arched over the potential cost to French civil liberties. In an interview with NPR, Jean-Pierre Dubois, the president of France’s Human Rights League, raised the issue of how French authorities could overreach into matters beyond terrorism.

But when you come to the articles of the bill, it’s not at all terrorism. It’s everything about security and public order. That means the exceptional extension of the police powers and the exceptional restraints of civil liberties is not at all only for the purposes of fighting terrorism but for anything during three months. And we don’t understand that because it’s not really very fair to tell people it’s about terrorism and to extend so much the exceptional law field in a way.

        On Sunday, demonstrators gathering in Paris to protest the global climate conference learned firsthand about France’s new security measures when they encountered riot police with pepper spray and stun grenades. According to reports, the vast majority of the roughly 200 people arrested after clashing with security forces were held in detention.

Italy:

      Torture is not currently a crime under Italian law. The legal shortfall is blamed for the acquittal of the most serious charges against baton-wielding policemen involved in the night time raid on the Armando Diaz school in Genoa.
      In 2012, 25 officers were found guilty of falsifying evidence concerning the raid, in which some 200 masked anti-riot police swooped down on sleeping activists, breaking bones, chasing those trying to flee and beating many senseless.
       The police planted two Molotov cocktails in the building to justify the raid and repeatedly lied about what happened.
       The more serious charges of grievous bodily harm and libel fell by the wayside because the statute of limitations expired, and none of the convicted served time behind bars.

 And elsewhere:

       In a number of recent front lines of popular protest, state capacities have been reconfigured to meet the challenge. In some instances, as in Greece, this has meant periods of emergency government. In Chicago, in Quebec and now in Spain, it has meant the expansion of anti-protest laws. The Spanish government’s punitive anti-protest draft laws are, critics say, an attack on democracy.
       Another example emerged in 2011, when Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, requested that the city council pass “temporary” anti-protest measures in response to the planned protests around the Nato and G8 summits. By early 2012, the legislation had been made permanent. Later that same year, tumultuous uprising of students against increased tuition fees led to emergency legislation named Bill 78. With the support of the state’s employers, it imposed severe restrictions on the ability to protest. The “public safety” legislation proposed in Spain has an essentially similar basis. Demonstrating near parliament without permission will result in steep fines, while participation in “violent” protests can result in a minimum two-year jail sentence. In each case, the logic is to put a chill on protest. It is not just that it is a protest deterrent; it has a domesticating effect on such protests as do occur. To understand why this is happening, it is necessary to grasp the relationship between neoliberal austerity and popular democracy.

 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Workers' Rights.

Thought some of you may be interested in this: 

      You are invited to join the online course entitled "Workers' Rights in a Global Economy" which starts on 3 March 2016.
        This is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), offered as cost-free and as a certificate course, by the Global Labour University.  It aims to connect union members and labour activists around the world.
      Learn and debate about strategies for implementing workers' rights nationally and along global supply chains.
Click here to learn more and sign up.
Please spread the word in your unions.
Thanks very much. Eric Lee

Labourstart.org

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Brick Has Fallen From Our Wall.

        It is always sad when an old warrior for the people passes away. It is as if a strong brick has fallen out of our wall of resistance and we hope we can find one just as strong to fill the gap. Such a brick fell from our wall last Monday evening, 25th January, when Les Foster died in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, aged 96. He lead a life of struggle for the ordinary people of Glasgow and further afield. Needless to say, he will be sadly missed. 

Received this from Les's friend James Kelman:

Maybe Euan mentioned it. Just letting you know that old Leslie Forster died Monday evening, at the age of 96.  He's an important figure although perhaps little known. He was a close friend of Hugh Savage and Harry McShane, personally acquainted with Guy Aldred, knew Helen Crawfurd, Matt McGinn and so many others during a lifetime’s commitment. He led the Merrylee Housing struggle in 1951 [Guy Aldred printed 30,000 leaflets for them and when the committee went skint Guy said Ach well it's a good cause, and wrote it off.]  and was involved in various other stuff, helped produce works on the 1911 Clydebank Singer Strike, a history of the NUR. He wrote the Introduction for the reprinted 3 Days that Shook Edinburgh!  Harry McShane's pamphlet]. He wrote [with Hugh Savage] a life of Willie Nairn from Brechin [All for the Cause] who was an influence on John Maclean. His own autobiography was Rocking the Boat. He was one of the wee group who caused ructions in the early 1950s when they resigned the CP and went ahead in their own way. He was talking football, books, art, politics, music, gossip, memories and whatever else, right up until the last.  He was 96 years old, into his 97th. A Maryhill Juniors regular when fit, you saw him there with me!
His funeral is this Monday coming [ist Feb]  10.30am at  Maryhill Crematorium. I'd appreciate it if you could share this information.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Is It Too Late?

        I'm getting on a bit, and when I look at young kids, I sometimes find it very depressing when I consider the world that we will leave them, Our legacy to future generations could be a very inhospitable and dangerous place. A planet that we plundered, pillaged and polluted, all to pamper a small army of pampered parasites. It could be too late, we just don't know, but there is a chance, a possibility, that we could just about turn things around, to dismiss that possible opportunity would indeed be a crime against our grand kids and all future generations.

     It is obvious that if we do grasp this chance it will require the active and positive destruction of the present system. A total rethink of how we interact with each other, it will demand a society based on mutual aid, co-operation, and sustainability, at its heart must be that the guaranteed duty to see to the needs of all our people. Capitalism and the greed for profit, must rot into oblivion in the mists of the distant past, only to be remembered as man's darkest hour.

Tomorrow’s World!

See the fat cat’s grinning smile

as Corporate Capitalism runs amok,

Chasing profit as it goes

firing millions of ordinary folk.

Raping and polluting land after land,

starting bloody wars.

Toxic waste, sweat shop wages

and oil covered sea shores.

Where have all the flowers gone

beneath this ozone free sky?

To join the birds, to join the fox

on yonder plutonium field to die.

Mercury fish, strontium lamb

trees that never show a leaf,

radio active beaches, toxic streams

good lean BSE-antibiotic beef.

In a world of epidemic, plague and famine

it’s bottled water and chemical food.

Of course, it’s all tested on rats and mice

so you know its got to be good.

Beneath a sky that’s always black,

hurricane winds and endless drought,

its oxygen masks for the toxic air,

corporate profit’s what its all about.

Can we turn it round?

       Evolution of global warming of the planet in 30 seconds. It is paramount to implement measures such as the national plan of energy transition, to improve the energy efficiency and opt for an economy based on the use of renewable energy.

Translated from Spanish

Video from Podemos:   Is it too late!!

NASA muestra cambio climático
Evolución del calentamiento global del planeta en 30 segundos. Es primordial aplicar medidas como el Plan Nacional de Transición Energética, para mejorar la eficiencia energética y apostar por una economía basada en el uso de energías renovables.
Posted by Podemos on Monday, 25 January 2016

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What The US Really Wants.

        I'm always looking for ways to sum up, simply and briefly, the way this modern world functions and the reasons for the poverty, inequality, barbarism and the perpetual war that we live under. You can try to explain it in economic terms, imperialism, power blocks, and/or corrupt liaisons of rich and powerful people/organisations/states, and you could fill a very large book. This video does a very good job in approximately 8 minutes. Well worth watching.

      Current US military space policy is primarily geared toward two countries, China and Russia.
      In May 2000 the Washington Post published an article called “For Pentagon, Asia Moving to Forefront.” The article stated that, “The Pentagon is looking at Asia as the most likely arena for future military conflict, or at least competition.” The article said the US would double its military presence in the region and essentially attempt to manage China.

By William Blum
March 08, 2014 "Information Clearing House -  When it gets complicated and confusing, when you’re overwhelmed with too much information, changing daily; too many explanations, some contradictory … try putting it into some kind of context by stepping back and looking at the larger, long-term picture.
       The United States strives for world domination, hegemony wherever possible, their main occupation for over a century, it’s what they do for a living. The United States, NATO and the European Union form The Holy Triumvirate. The Holy Triumvirate has subsidiaries, chiefly The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organization, International Criminal Court … all help to keep in line those governments lacking the Holy Triumvirate Seal Of Approval: the IMF, WB, and WTO impose market fundamentalism, while foreign leaders who act too independent are threatened with being handed over to the ICC for heavy punishment, as the United States imposes sanctions on governments and their leaders as only the King of Sanctions can, lacking any sense of hypocrisy or irony.
       And who threatens United States domination? Who can challenge The Holy Triumvirate’s hegemony? Only Russia and China, if they were as imperialistic as the Western powers. (No, the Soviet Union wasn’t imperialistic; that was self-defense; Eastern Europe was a highway twice used by the West to invade; tens of millions of Russians killed or wounded.) 

I received the video link from from Comrade Loam at arrezafe:

Published on July 28, 2015

CN: This video will discuss and contain some images you might find upsetting or disturbing - genocide, racism and extreme poverty...
        This analysis of US foreign policy is essentially a summary of the arguments made in Volume I of Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman's Political Economy of Human Rights, 'The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism'. Although it's a harrowing read, it is very informative and provides a devastating account of US-backed atrocities across the globe, and I would highly recommend it.
         With regard to North Vietnam, in case people are wondering, I am not saying that the bloodbath during the land reform programme was acceptable or permissible - rather I included this point to highlight the hypocrisy of the US media which openly condemns bloodbaths such as this one but turns a blind eye to bloodbaths carried out by the United States and its allies.
           My own position is that action against these kinds of atrocities ought to be strategic. It is the responsibility of populations to criticise and take action against their own state rather than other states, as this is arguably the most effective means of preventing atrocities and protecting human rights.

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