Women And Struggle In Iran.

       To help show the extent of the material held in Spirit of Revolt Archive we have chosen, for this month's “Read of the month” a subject that we in the West don’t hear much about, women and struggle in Iran. However, like everywhere else on the planet, in Iran that spark of freedom ever seeks to burst into flames.  

       It is from our KM Collection T SOR-4-1-106 and is called Women And Struggle In Iran, enjoy:

 Women And Struggle In Iran. 

       This issue contains some poems by Forugh Farrokhzad. I particularly like this one, “I was born a girl”,

       Forugh Farrokhzad, bom in Tehran, Iran (1935) is considered the outstanding contemporary feminist poet in Iran. She was also a filmmaker and critic. At the height of her creative career and her philosophical and ideological evolution, while approaching a revolutionary and socialist path, she was killed in an automobile accident (1967)

I was born a girl

So that I’d be given a doll and a broom

To sew the hem of men’s shirts with gold lace

And to sweep the dust from the house.

My brother is playing in the street.

He takes off with his bicycle.

And I remain in the comer of our house.

A Girl

My brother, in the winding streets,

By playing with the dirt and the pebbles,

Is experiencing life.

My experience does not pass beyond these walls.

I do not know the streets.

I was born a girl.

In the chapter of questions and search

My questions are left unanswered and

My search is futile.

I was born a girl

So that in the dawn of puberty

My frightful eyes.

Like the eyes of a restless deer,

Would give away my secret.

Was born a girl.

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Hysteria From The Psychotic, Slaughter For The Innocent.

       A good number of years ago the war mongers of that imperialist power juggernaut, America, decided that Assad of Syria had to go, as he was not one of their puppets. Because of this  the American psychopathic war lords, accompanied by their subservient regimes, unleashed on the innocent people of Syria, 7 years of unimaginable hell. Cities have been totally destroyed, millions of innocent people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands have been killed. Assad is still there, so what is their answer, well the only answer they know, more slaughter and bloodshed, so they attempt to whip the hysteria among their allies and the general population, that more Syrian men, women and children must die in horrible brutal circumstances, so that they can become part of the American imperialist empire.

      This hysterical rhetoric of retaliation and punishment, by a bunch of lying psychopathic people, who will never feel the blast of a missile as it kills and mutilates family and friends, should be of concern to us all. The buddies and protectors of Assad, Russia and Iran, are not likely to sit back and take the punishment quietly. Such action will bring the slaughter in the Middle East much closer to home. I fear for my children and grandchildren as this whipped up hysteria, aided and abetted by that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, can only escalate an already extremely dangerous and bloody mess to a world wide catastrophe. 

      How much longer will we tolerate the insane ruling our world, how much longer can we allow them to, before it is too late? 

BBC: “…what should be the response to this use of chemical weapons if it’s proved?”
Ford: “The correct response is obviously–and I think a child could see this–to get inspectors on to the alleged site of the alleged offenses. In fact, in the last few hours Russia has offered to provide military escorts for inspectors from the recognized body in this field the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Warfare. …I don’t think that Assad is in the least worried that the inspectors would find out his guilt because he’s probably not guilty…
We have to engage our brains as well as our emotions here, not be stampeded by those videos which are described as being unverified but which by dint of being repeated over and over and over again come to acquire a spurious credibility.
We have to ask ourselves what what are the sources of the information on which we’re in this stampede to war. They’re two-fold, and I’m sorry but the media are falling down on the job in investigating this. The sources the Syrian American Medical Society, which is a pro-Islamist propaganda outfit based in the United States…”

Full transcript HERE: 



Thanks Loam for the links.

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How Dare They Nationalise Their Oil!!

       According to Western propaganda spewing from the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, Iran has been, and still is, the king of the world's evil empire. According to that organ of the state and the corporate juggernaut, the babbling brook of bullshit, all things nasty, all terrorism, all human rights failures, stem from that country. The West's vision of Iran is shaped by nothing more than power and wealth for that elite bunch of parasites, oil is the driving force of that hatred. Some years ago, the people of Iran had the audacity to nationalise their countries oil, and to the West, that is an unforgivable crime. All the wars of the West are for the same reason, wealth and power to that small cabal of obscenely rich moguls who control the world in which we live.

This from The Canary: 

        The US just fired at Iran. But there’s something vital that the media won’t be telling you about ongoing tensions.
On 25 July, the US Navy fired ‘warning shots’ at an Iranian patrol boat in the Persian Gulf. This isn’t the start of World War Three as some media outlets may suggest; but it is a sign of continuing US-Iranian tensions. And it comes just weeks after the release of declassified documents which highlight the issues at the very heart of these tensions. We probably won’t be hearing such historical context in the mainstream media any time soon, though.

Newly released documents show tensions exist for a reason

As Noam Chomsky pointed out in 2013:

-----for the past 60 years, not a day has passed in which the U.S. has not been torturing Iranians… [It] began with a military coup, which overthrew the parliamentary regime in 1953, installed the Shah, a brutal dictator… When he was overthrown in 1979, the U.S. almost immediately turned to supporting Saddam Hussein in an assault against Iran, which killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians, used extensive use of chemical weapons… Right after that, Iran was subjected to harsh sanctions. And it continues right until the moment.

      And in June 2017, newly released documents showed exactly what was at the heart of CIA involvement in the 1953 coup. As Foreign Policy reported:

------the CIA plot was ultimately about oil. Western firms had for decades controlled the region’s oil wealth… [Then, Iranian Prime Minister Muhammad] Mossadegh nationalized Iran’s oil industry. A fuming United Kingdom began conspiring with U.S. intelligence services to overthrow Mossadegh and restore the monarchy under the shah… [Eventually,] Iran’s nationalist hero was jailed, [and] the monarchy [was] restored under the Western-friendly shah…

        The US long denied its involvement in the coup. And Washington only drip-fed documents to the public over the years. But even the 2017 release was incomplete; with a number of original CIA telegrams having either ‘disappeared’ or been destroyed long before. And retired history professor Ervand Abrahamian believes the US was so reluctant to publish this information partly because it “shows how involved the U.S. Embassy was… in internal Iranian affairs”.
As Noam Chomsky highlights, Amnesty International regularly described the shah as “one of the worst, most extreme torturers in the world”. And Foreign Policy stresses that the 1953 coup fueled “a surge of nationalism which culminated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution and [poisoned] U.S.-Iran relations into the 21st century”. In 1979, Chomsky says, Iranians “overthrew a tyrant that the United States had imposed and supported, and moved on an independent path”; and as a result, the US has punished them ever since.

      US hypocrisy and self-interest still at play in Iran

      In 2017, current US President Donald Trump is ramping up tensions with Iran. But not because of democracy or human rights. Instead, his hostility is largely because Iran’s regional enemies, Saudi Arabia and Israel, are US allies; because there’s a barely reported conflict occurring over oil pipelines in the Middle East; and because Iran does not bend easily to America’s will.
Indeed, Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia back in May contained no talk of freedom, democracy, or human rights. But it was full of talk about terrorism; full of talk about deals with America’s “magnificent” Saudi “friends”; and full of verbal attacks on Iran. Trump said:

Continue Reading: 

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As The Oil Flows, So Does The Blood.

       We all know that wars are fought not for principles of morality, defending democracy, or freeing "the people", but for the gain of those in power, the controlling of resources for big corporations, and dominance in resource rich territory. Anybody who can't see this, just isn't paying attention. Sometimes the manoeuvring remains shrouded in illusion and the fog of lies, sometimes it comes out quite quickly, but it is always a struggle to get the facts accepted.

       The Saudi lead massacre in the Yemen is one of those charades that the light of truth falls on while it is still in operation. The whole Yemeni slaughter is no more than bombing a clear path for a Western/Saudi backed oil pipeline to by-pass the Strait of Hormuz, and be free from Iranian influence. 

        We will support organisations like al-Qaeda, one day, then bomb them the next, depending how the powerful can use them.

        The following is an extract from a very interesting article on that Western backed Yemeni slaughter, taken from The Canary:

Massive attack

         In an official statement after the April operation, the Saudi-led coalition said that “more than 800 al-Qaeda elements” had been killed in the military confrontation. Mainstream media outlets parroted the coalition claim. The Wall Street Journal referred to a successful “offensive” marking a “new direction for the coalition.” And Reuters described the operation as a “lighting advance” that “routed the militants” from their stronghold. In the official narrative, on the day Saudi-led Yemeni and UAE troops moved to the outskirts of Mukalla, local Islamic clerics and tribesmen were enrolled to mediate al-Qaeda’s withdrawal. AQAP subsequently “fled westwards” in the wake of the frightening military advance.
        A statement from the Saudi embassy in Washington said: Saudi forces are also on the ground alongside the UAE forces in Mukalla… it is a Saudi-led Arab Coalition that is fighting AQAP alongside the US military contingent on the ground. New details about the alleged US and UK-backed assault emerged on Wednesday from an interview with the Commander of the Saudi-led Yemeni forces behind the Mukalla operation.
         In the Al Jazeera interview, Major General Faraj Salmeen al-Bahsini painted a Hollywood-esque picture of a: big number of [AQAP] fighters… destroyed first by the coalition’s warplanes and then by [our] forces on the ground. None of the al-Qaeda fighters was able to flee these camps.
       Al-Bahsini said that the total number of AQAP fighters killed was “probably” much higher than the 800 originally claimed. The general described: precise air strikes by the coalition’s warplanes on [AQAP’s] key positions, gatherings, ammunition depots and centres-of-command rooms.
         There were also, he said, bold coalition navy attacks on hundreds of fighters who were fleeing the city on boats and vessels bound for the Horn of Africa.
Not to mention: special commandos who attacked al-Qaeda from the sea The commandos bravely secured the Dhabah oil terminal from the AQAP barbarians, before rapidly defusing hundreds of landmines.

Except they didn’t.

Attack? What Attack?
        Independent on-the-ground sources have denied there was any such attack. Veteran BBC journalist Iona Craig, who has reported extensively from Yemen, said that the coalition statement was “ridiculous”, as AQAP had already deserted the city before the alleged military ‘rout’: There weren’t even 800 fighters left there. There was no fighting inside the city because al-Qaeda had already left. She described the 800 figure as “a lie that’s not even plausible.” Craig had been in Mukalla a month before the military operation. She said that Saudi-led forces had been secretly negotiating with AQAP for the previous two weeks “to let fighters leave”. Far from being ‘routed’, al-Qaeda “had been given free passage out of the city” by their Saudi benefactors.
         There were sporadic clashes on roads leading into Mukalla, but none within the city itself. She also said that coalition airstrikes were hitting targets that had already been repeatedly bombed.
        Mohammed al-Yazidi, a Mukalla-based writer, said during the operation that locals were surprised at the “prompt and bloodless exit” of AQAP from the city.
         Hisham al-Omeisy, a Yemeni political analyst, similarly reported that there was “no real battle” as AQAP fighters had left the city within twelve hours. Yet, he said: Coalition capitalise, claim huge battle killed 800. In other words, the Saudi ‘victory’ against AQAP in Mukalla was achieved without a single fire-fight in the city.

The US and UK collude in Saudi pipeline plan        While under al-Qaeda’s control, Hadramawt had remained curiously free from Saudi aerial bombardment since the beginning of the war. The province is central to a long standing Saudi plan, supported by the US and UK, to install an oil and gas pipeline route through Yemen to the Gulf of Aden. The idea is to bypass Iranian influence via the Strait of Hormuz. Regional oil supplies must currently pass through the Strait to reach world oil markets.
       The pipeline plan is mentioned in a top secret 2008 State Department cable from the US embassy in Yemen to the Secretary of State: A British diplomat based in Yemen told PolOff [US embassy political officer] that Saudi Arabia had an interest to build a pipeline, wholly owned, operated and protected by Saudi Arabia, through Hadramawt to a port on the Gulf of Aden, thereby bypassing the Arabian Gulf/Persian Gulf and the straits of Hormuz.
        Ousted Yemeni President Abdullah Saleh had originally supported the project, but eventually became its chief opponent.

The full article is a must read HERE:

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More On The "Who Dunnit" In Syria.

      The longer the American "clinical" cruise missile strikes are delayed the more information that comes out pointing the finger at the members of the "Syrian Free Army" as being the perpetrators of the chemical attack in Damascus. This report from Counter Currents again throws the spotlight on that ratbag of fundamentalists, Jihadists, militia and power mongers, called the "rebels".

 

        More than a year ago, Iran warned the US: The Syrian interventionists possess chemical weapons. [1] And, there is report that the interventionists plan chemical attack on Israel. [2]

Citing leaked diplomatic correspondence a Christian Science Monitor report said:

     Iran has been warning Washington since July 2012 that Sunni rebel fighters have acquired chemical weapons, and called on the US to send “an immediate and serious warning” to rebel groups not to use them.

       The report headlined “Leaked Iranian letter warned US that Syrian rebels have chemical weapons” said: Iran said it has warned the US about chemical weapons in rebel hands for more than a year.

     The report by Scott Peterson, Staff writer, said:

     In a letter acquired by The Christian Science Monitor that was sent sometime in the spring, Iran told American officials that, as a "supporter" of the rebels, the US would be held responsible for any rebel use of chemical weapons.

The September 9, 2013, Istanbul datelined report said:

    Iran amplified those year-old warnings over the weekend in its strongest public comments to date linking the rebels with chemical weapons.

Read the full report HERE:

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Blood Money.

      The UK state, like all states, works not so much with double standards but with multiple standards. As the UK state sits on its throne built by past colonialism and brutal exploitation and corruption, it passes judgment on other states criticising their human rights record and their civil rights abuses. While at the same time selling them weapons with which to repress the local population. According to The Independent, the UK state has issued more than 3,000 export licences for intelligence and military equipment to countries which it has put on its official list of, guilty of human rights abuses.

      Of course this shouldn't surprise us as the present system has nothing to do with human rights or civil rights, it's all about capitalism. Profit for the corporations overrides all other human concerns. In our greed driven thirst for profit we deliberately turned Libya into a land of warlords, factions and militia, but still manage to sell them more than £54 million worth of military equipment. Our "Honourable Gentlemen" in those Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, are always banging on about those evil countries of Zimbabwe and Iran, but we still managed to sell the former £3 million worth of military equipment, while selling Iran a whopping £803+ million of military equipment, which if our lords and masters have their way will be used against UK troops when we decide to attack that country for its oil and gas.

       Then there is that bastion of democracy and equal rights for women, Saudi Arabia, our UK purveyors of death managed to sell them a staggering £1,863+ million of weapons and equipment. If we turn our eyes to that land of genocide and apartheid, Israel, well you need a lot of military muscle to maintain such a brutal system, so we were able to sell them an eye watering £7,879+ million of military equipment, which the Zionists and settlers, (stealers of Palestinian land) will be truly grateful. 

      Weapons may seem alright in self defence, but only an insane system of greed would make money from arming yourselves and then selling arms to those you are supposed to be arming yourself against. That's the crazy, greedy, brutal and destructive system that we tolerate today.

       The state is the enemy, the state creates wars, the state needs the arms industry. We the people don't need the state, we don't want wars, we don't need the arms industry. We can create a world of co-operation, mutual aid, and sustainability, free from the corrupting influence of power and profit.

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The Poison Chalice Of Western Aid.

      It appears that the “Arab Spring” in Egypt is heading for a military government. The Egyptian Military has said it might step in to maintain peace in the country. It may have been a people's uprising in Egypt, but the reins of power were never to be put in the hands of the people. Whenever the West steps in to support a “people's uprising”, you can rest assured that support will go to the right-wing, pro-Western capitalism groups and/or the religious fundamentalists.  

      So if there is a “people's uprising” it is sure to be met with reactionary forces from inside and outside their country. Libya is a prime example of Western aid and support flowing into a country, mooted as bring democracy, but in actual fact producing chaos and a quagmire of bloodshed that will last for decades, while at the same time getting rid of a regime that Western capitalism wasn't happy with.

       Western support for any uprising will never be for the benefit of the people of that country. It will either be to help to bring down a regime that Western capitalism doesn't like, or to prevent a true people's democracy from forming. This policy has resulted in millions of people suffering and dying and decades of chaos and faction fighting in countries across the globe. In recent years we have had Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and Iran is always on their agenda. 

      Only the people of a country can sort out the type of country they want, and they will have to do it by themselves. We in the West can show solidarity with any uprising by doing everything in our power to prevent our Western military juggernaut from running in waving the flag of "Western type" democracy. When and if, it happens here, we would most certainly not want any foreign military power from abroad pouring in to our "aid".

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The Kilt And The Black Flag.

       With Scottish independence on the agenda it is good to hear the various points of view being put forward. I for one have never quite got my head round "what is a nation". Having been born in "Scotland" and lived there for most of my life I have often wrestled with the question, "what is Scottish", after all the border between Scotland and England has moved several times in history. It is a geographical location where at least three languages have struggled for survival, and with languages comes as many cultures. As a citizen of Glasgow, a post industrial city, I feel I have more in common with the people of Liverpool than I have with the people of the highlands and islands. I am also loathed to get involved in a debate between the various party political clans as how best to carve up a capitalist entity, so that, that capitalist entity can best serve a particular section of the population. I would rather debate how do we get rid of that capitalist entity and best serve the interest of the people. To me, nationalism and capitalism belong in the same bed, and it is a bed soaked in the blood of the ordinary people. Would it not be better if the debate was about what is happening in Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus, Ireland, Turkey, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and find the connection to what is happening here?

       To add to the debate here is an extract from an interesting article in The Commune:

 

  "--------In Britain today, the mainstream socialist left, in defiance of history,  still regards internationalism as abstract propaganda and is campaigning for a yes vote for Scottish nationalism and independence for Scotland, which is not an oppressed nation.  In a globally integrated world economy, dominated by transnational corporations and world financial organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund, the entire question of national independence becomes hollowed out as in Greece.  And how can the creation of another capitalist state, based on cutting business rates and corporation tax,  and other measures to attract capitalist investment,  benefit the working class ?  Loyalty to a new Capitalist State would renew nationalism and class collaboration and blunt any class struggle for a post Capitalist alternative.
       Independence lite, the programme of the SNP, sharing the Bank of England, the army, the Monarchy  and a currency will not represent the break up of the British State.   But the left in Scotland is putting its hopes on steering the state left .  The Radical Independence Campaign is  ”a coalition that does not even pretend to be based on the goal of Socialism.  Indeed, this emerging coalition is very much in the tradition of welfare provision in Scotland and England for a century ”  (18)  Nationalism given a Social Democratic gloss to attract the working class.  ”The only way in which the grip of a capitalist world system on individual countries, can be broken, is that if the system itself is destroyed. And no national struggle can achieve this, only the international working class” (19) Working class self emancipation from below  cannot be built on a nation, utilize the nation-state, or be confined to the nation-state.

Read the full article HERE:

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PATRIOTISM.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ‘tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

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Hands Off Syria.

 

   

    The West is hell bent in turning the entire Middle East into a stone age area awash with sectarian violence, Iraq, Libya, now Syria with Iran still in their sights. All this misery heaped on the people of the area, to open up its rich resources to the dollar driven corporate greed machine. This is not about compassion for the ordinary people, it's not about democracy. The Western corporate juggernaut doesn't give a shit about the people of any area, but it does care about oil and gas and the control of these resources. When the corporate world speaks the political puppets obey, this is not Western politicians concerned about the well being of people in the Middle East, it is simply a plunder of another countries natural resources, control and profit, plain and simple.

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Stop the War bulletin | June 2013 | stopwar.org.uk

Tomorrow: demonstrate against US sending arms to Syria

Stop Western Intervention in Syria

US Embassy Grosvenor Square London W1A 2LQ
Saturday 15 June 2013 1pm

     Earlier today the US approved sending arms to Syrian rebel groups, a policy that has been pushed by Britain and France for months and one that threatens to escalate violence in Syria.

      The possibility of a no fly zone - the prelude to the horrific bombing campaign carried about by Britain and France in Libya - now looks more likely as the West seeks to intensify an already difficult conflict with devastating humanitarian consequences.

Join us tomorrow to Stop Western Intervention in Syria: US Embassy, 1pm Saturday June 15.

Please make sure you attend and spread the word.

Take action

• Join our protest at the US Embassy on 15th June at 1pm.
• Share the event with your Facebook contacts.
  

Read more on Syria:

• Shamus Cooke: The real reason Obama is going to war with Syria has nothing to do with chemical weapons

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The "Shock and Awe" System.

     France and the UK, we know have special forces in Syria helping the "Free Syrian Army", the same two countries are puffing themselves up to start shipping arms into the cauldron of slaughter that is Syria today. This would be shipping Western aid to AL-Qaeda, as anybody with half an eye knows that is who the real fighting force is that is taking on the Assad regime. Assad, like all state rulers, is no democrat, but he did tolerate other religions in the country. It is  said that come Easter in the Syrian city Aleppo the streets of the city are alive to the clatter of wooden crosses being dragged across the cobbles as the Christian community openly celebrate that particular festival. With France and the UK's help that tradition will in all probability be wiped out, if the "Free Syrian Army" win this slaughter, and the Syrian Christians, like the Iraqi Christians of the last decade, will have to flee across some other border.

      Western hypocrisy is no shrinking violet, it is blatant, callous and brutal, from aiding and training the Taliban in Afghanistan, to fighting and killing the Taliban in Afghanistan, from fighting Al-qaeda, to supporting and arming Al-qaeda.  All this to further the power of the Western (dollar) Empire. Sadly it is the ordinary people that are killed in their millions to further that power. Ordinary people from the West sent to slaughter innocent people who are just like them, drivers, teachers, engineers, office workers, factory workers, etc.. Nowhere in the ranks sent to do the dirty work of killing will you fund the real beneficiaries of all this slaughter, the corporate millionaires.

    Listening to Tony Blair talking about removing Saddam from Iraq and watching the video of Baghdad, a large modern city, at the receiving end of "Shock and Awe", watching a city being pulverised and then a country's infrastructure being totally destroyed, on the pretext of removing a dictator, leaves you with a sick feeling in your stomach. Looking at Iraq today it is obvious that the medicine was worse than the disease.

      Western capitalism is totally and completely ruthless, countries can be bombed and blasted back to the stone age, as we do in the Middle East, or they can be destroyed by the financial Mafia wing of the same system, as in Greece, with others to follow. There is no golden horizon in capitalism for the ordinary people of this world, they will always be the foot soldiers of the millionaire class as it continues its quest for ever greater power and wealth. In their book, death and destruction is a price worth paying, if it protects and furthers their hold on the world's resources.

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The Brutal Defence of The Dollar.

        All in the public domain, but not tied up in a proper narrative. The rule of the mighty dollar has been a very brutal epoch in human history, a history that is mired in blood for wealth and power. Its end would surely be a welcome relief to all humanity. The questions are, when and how.

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A Smothered Arab Spring.

      In that babbling brook of bullshit, the media, there is lots of coverage of the bloodshed in Syria and lots of talk about helping the elements that are attempting to bring down the Assad regime. They spout support for democracy as why they are supporting the "Free Syrian Army", yet hardly a CS gas canister's throw away, there is another uprising which gets little or no coverage from that same babbling brook of bullshit, the uprising by the people of Bahrain. The people of Bahrain have been involved in mass protests to demand a new constitution and removal of the autocratic family that rules their country. These protests started around 2011 and are still continuing, and to date it is estimated that 114 people have been killed and approximately 2700 injured, there have been 43 deaths from excessive use of CS gas. This is an uprising by the majority of the people of Bahrain who are attempting to create a more democratic society, it has been going on as long as the Syrian bloodshed, why the difference in coverage by the babbling brook of bullshit? The main difference is that in Syria, the Assad regime doesn't let the Western corporate world get its hands on the countries resources, that really pisses off our corporate greed merchants, So he has to go, just as Saddam had to go for the same reason and why Iran is being measured up for destruction. On the other hand, the Bahrain autocratic despot family that rules that country with an iron fist, is friendly to the West and allows the Americans a free hand in keeping their massive Middle East naval killing machine based there, so that it can keep an eye on those nasty regimes that want to keep hold of their own natural resources.

       That is why our babbling brook of bullshit will always support any ragbag of armed groups as long as they get rid of any regime that doesn't play ball with the Western corporate greed machine, but will support any brutal despot dictator, family, monarch etc. as long as the allow our corporate lords and masters to profit from their existence. The people of these countries, or their conditions, are of no interest what so ever to our Western imperialists.

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February 28 - A Pointless Anniversary.

         Today 28 February 1856 the protagonists of the Crimean War, after three years of slaughter, came together in Paris and through hours of huffing and puffing, signed an armistice, which was to end on the 31 March 1856. However both sides continued the build up their defences, but they did managed to calm their blood lusts, and on March the 30 1856 the Treaty of Paris was signed, and the blood soaked land got a little respite.

      Since then right up to the present hour, the imperialists and nation states have continued to slaughter the lives of ordinary people. Treaties have come and treaties have gone but the power lust remains. Borders are crossed, borders are eliminated, power structures are destroyed and new power structures built in their place. None of this is for the benefit of those who stand in the front line, none of this carnage is for the benefit of the ordinary people. Through the years all that has changed is, why the slaughter. It used to be to further or defend the power of monarchs and imperial empires, today it is to further or defend corporate empires, resources and markets. But the pattern is still the same, we do the dying and the killing, they reap the rewards.

         Here we are in 2013 and they are still legitimising the destruction, while they make arrangements to take their killing machine out of Afghanistan, they are entering a new adventure in Mali, with warring glances at Iran. In all the recent carnage and misery, who have been the beneficiaries? An honest assessment would probably say, the arms industries and the oil and gas industry of the Western corporate empire. 

 

       The madness and killing will continue as long as we keep this greed driven system of capitalism, a system the seeks to build and defend the personal fortunes for the few. Of course there are alternatives, we could, as ordinary people, take control of our own lives and build structures that see to the needs of all our people, the type of society that we want, based on co-operation, justice, mutual aid and freedom. That means of course that capitalism must be destroyed.

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THE USUAL CORPORATE IMPERIALIST HYPOCRISY.

      Once again we see the West talk with forked tongue. It preaches democracy in the Middle East while backing the Muslim Brotherhood in both Syria and Egypt, of course, hypocrisy is standard for imperialism. In recognising the "rebels" in Syria it will see the demise of the Assad regime, another regime that wouldn't play ball with the Western corporate world. Any nation that doesn't allow the mighty dollar to dominate their country is demonised and enters the "axis of evil", marking them out as "to be sorted".  Iraq and Libya have been sorted, Syria is almost sorted, that leaves Iran and North Korea to be brought to chaos, allowing the mighty dollar to walk in and make a killing. (literally and figuratively). What probably saves North Korea, for the time being, is its big pal, China, though as the West becomes more desperate, that may not put them off forever. The Western corporate world can gain from war and chaos.

From CounterPunch, a little more detail on the West's relations with the Muslim Brotherhood.

     The complexities of the Arab Spring and the struggle for political freedom throughout the Arab world should not obscure what has now become an absolutely essential understanding for all anti-imperialists: the Muslim Brotherhood is one of the most powerful weapons of the Western ruling class in the Muslim world. While that may be a difficult pill for some to swallow for emotional or psychological reasons, one need look no further than the insidious role the organization is playing in Syria and the abuses of power and human rights of the government of Egypt. In the US-NATO sponsored war against the Assad government, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the leading western-sanctioned force, the avant-garde of the imperialist assault. While, in Egypt, President Morsi and the Brotherhood government seek to destroy what had been, little more than a year ago, the promise of the revolution.

Read the full article HERE:

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KILL THE POETS -- THEY MAY INSPIRE.

      As we are all told, the West will not tolerate dictators and repressive regimes, we in the West nurture "democracy" we choose our friends carefully. We sorted out bad bad Saddam in Iraq, we were the power behind the demise of cruel ruthless Qaddafi in Libya, we are 100% behind the overthrow of Assad in Syria, and we are keeping a watchful eye on evil Iran. We befriend such democratic countries like Saudi Arabia, where women are mere chattels, stoning and beheading are part and parcel of daily life. Another of our democratic friends is that beacon of freedom and self expression Qatar, ruled by a "democratic" despot, who recently sentenced a poet to life in prison for reading aloud one of his poems. It seems it appeared to be critical of despot rulers. 

This article from Panther Productions gives a detailed account:

    Life in prison may seem a harsh sentence for reciting a poem out loud, but it’s apparently what state security demands in Doha, Qatar, where a secret court delivered this sentence at the end of a short, secret trial in a state security case tried there in November.

      Muhammed ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, 37, a Qatari poet with a wife and child, was studying literature at Cairo University when the Tunisian revolution broke out in December 2010. Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt, al-Ajami wrote a short poem, “Tunisian Jasmine” [see below], celebrating the overthrow of repressive elites. He recited the poem to private audiences and the audio of at least one such performance appeared on YouTube, but al-Ajami says he didn’t post it, and doesn’t know who did.
     Qatari authorities took notice of the performance and, some months later, in November 2011, they arrested al-Ajami and held him in solitary confinement for most of a year before bringing him to trial. There is no allegation that he was otherwise tortured. The state charged the poet with “insulting” Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, as well as “inciting to overthrow the ruling system,” an offense that carries the death penalty.

Read the full article HERE:

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NATURAL GAS, OIL, MINERALS = WAR.

       It is sickening to think, that here we are in the West, shouting peace and democracy and yet have been fighting in wars more or less continuously since the end of WW2. We in the UK came out of that war and then continued for years, fighting numerous wars across the globe, in an attempt to hold on to “our colonies” as one by one the people of those “colonies”, done their best to kick our arse out of their homelands. Then there was, in no particular order, the Suez disaster, the Korean war, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. Not content with that little catalogue of death and destruction, we are ready to hold hands with that great liberator, the USA, and have a totally unequal go at Syria. It is the same old formula, there is this dreadful dictator, a real bad man, he has horrible weapons and he might use them, so we have to go in and sort it out. Remember Saddam and those Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, that never were? Of course although Syria has such natural resources as, petroleum, phosphates, chrome, manganese ores, asphalt, iron ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum and hydropower, that doesn't influence the West, Assad's biggest crime is, like Saddam, he won't play ball with the Western corporate big boys. So they call on their minders, the Western States and their military arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. The West will not stop its spread of death and destruction until the entire resource rich Middle East is in turmoil, making it so much easier to exploit all those rich natural resources. You either play ball with the Western corporate world, or the big bully boys will kick the shit out of you. Iran, beware, another bad, bad man, with weapons of mass destruction, who won't play ball with the Wester corporate world, the fact that Iran is sitting on such natural resources as, petroleum, natural gas, coal, chromium, copper, iron ore, lead, manganese, zinc and sulfur, will not influence the West one little bit, the death and destruction will be for the benefit of those getting the shit kicked out of them.

This from Russia Today:

     The arrival of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of the 11 US Navy aircraft carriers that has the capacity to hold thousands of men, is now stationed at the coast of Syria, DEBKAfile reports. The aircraft carrier joined the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which holds about 2,500 Marines.

      “We have (US) special operations forces at the right posture, they don’t have to be sent,” an unnamed US official told The Australian, which suggested that US military troops are already near Syria and ready to intervene in the conflict, if necessary.

     If the US decides to intervene militarily in Syria, it now has at its disposal 10,000 fighting men, 17 warships, 70 fighter-bombers, 10 destroyers and frigates and a guided military cruises. Some of the vessels are also equipped with Aegis missile interceptors to shoot down any missiles Syria might have at hand, according to DEBKAfile.

Read the full article HERE:

This from ZEROHEDGE:

     France is preparing its special forces for a mission in war-torn Syria, French weekly magazine Le Point reports.

     The mission would only involve a relatively small amount of special forces, and a number of NATO countries — including the UK and the US — would be involved. The mission would be modelled on the Western intervention in Libya, the magazine reports.The action appears to be in response to fears that the regime is planning on using chemical weapons in the conflict. Earlier this week one US official told reporters that it was believed Bashar al-Assad's forces had moved two key components of a deadly nerve gas in preparation for an attack (a later report refuted this, however).

     Le Point says a large ground operation "is out of the question" and that a smaller action aimed largely at securing chemical weapon stockpiles. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today vowed a swift response if Assad's regime used chemical weapons.

Read the full article HERE:

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FANTASY OR FUTURE?

       In a world controlled by "the markets" what happens when "the markets" go crazy? What is likely to happen when a bunch of massively armed Zionist fanatics attack a bunch of heavily armed Islamic fanatics? The innocents stand to suffer immeasurably, that's the nature of the beast we have allowed to grow and allowed to control our world. Fantasy or future?

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THE BEAST LIVES ON.

       Officially the Iraq war is over, though the Americans are still in that country, so this video may seem dated, but we are still doing the same in Afghanistan, recently 200 Marines have been sent to Guatamala to fight in the "war against drugs" and we are looking at ways to bring down Iran. The beast lives and continues to devour innocent lives and will do so until the people say no and demolish this corporate/military fascist reign of blood for money.

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STOP THE WAR.

An appeal from Stop the War Coalition.

1) HOW YOU CAN HELP MAKE THE WORLD A SAFER PLACE
        The astonishing comments by two UK army majors serving in Afghanistan, that the war is lost and politicians are "trading soldiers' lives for votes", only reflects the views of most people in this country (SEE: http://bit.ly/Ifl4L1).
        The government is continuing to wage the war knowing that the overwhelming majority of people in Britain want the troops brought home now. In addition, the government is pressing for increased Western intervention in Syria -- almost certainly as a stepping stone to a military attack on Iran.
       David Cameron is clearly no different from Tony Blair in his slavish support for America's wars without end. These war policies are making the world ever more insecure and unstable. It is more necessary than ever for the anti-war movement to mobilise the widest possible active opposition to the warmongering of our political leaders.
       We have much work to do,

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STOP THE DOGS OF WAR.

         As the dogs of war start to bay louder and louder at the gates of Iran, with the leaders of the pack, the US, UK and Israel snarling the most viciously, we have to keep the pressure on our "elected" governments to keep the dogs of war on a tight leash. Or better still have them put down.

This from Stop the War Coalition:

MAKE YOUR MP WORK TO STOP IRAN WAR.
       We are asking all our supporters to lobby MPs to help stop another war. Today talks start between UN security Council members plus Germany and Iran over Iran's nuclear programme.
        The US, Britain and Israel are set to take a hard line, demanding the closure of Fordo, one of Iran's main enrichment plants, and an end to uranium enrichment to 20% levels, demands likely to be unacceptable to Iran.
         President Obama has called these talks the 'last chance' to resolve the issue peacefully, signalling that a breakdown in the talks may be used to justify moves to war. (SEE NOAM CHOMSKY on threats to Iran: http://bit.ly/HCXp8s)
         We are asking you to take this chance to lobby your MP to back an early day motion in Parliament against military attack on Iran. We have a highly effective online lobbying system that allows you to email your MP at the click of a mouse. Please put the pressure on now by going to: http://bit.ly/HCX59F

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