Blogs
The death of the "Israel Lobby?"
Will the news that the US vetoed Israeli plans to strike Iran's nuclear infrastructure put to bed the myth of the "Israel lobby"? I'd like to think so, but I doubt the comfort provided to some by such a view of the world will cease its appeal.
The news that president Bush vetoed Israeli plans to attack Iranian nuclear facilities whilst visiting the country in May should, with some luck, permanently put to bed the belief shared by conservatives, liberals and leftists alike in the “Israel Lobby”, and its grip on US interests.
The peccadillos of Winston Churchill
Following a few questions and misconceptions on the man himself, I thought I'd reiterate a few of them to balance things out a bit.
The grand old man of Conservative politics, Winston Churchill has been revered for telling Britain to buck up and keep going under the bombing raids of the Luftwaffe. But outside this reasonably useful propaganda work, there's a less widely-known part of dear old Winston's personal history which is often glossed over.
Starting with Churchill's support of the Kurdish gassings. This was a dirty little war in which the British state looking to keep hold of land in what is now Iraq against a substantial and violent campaign for independence, used both gas and bombings against the populace as a sort of test run for its fast-developing weaponry.
Come the hour, come the man. From the Guardian newspaper:
Quote:
Churchill was particularly keen on chemical weapons, suggesting they be used "against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment". He dismissed objections as "unreasonable". "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes... (to) spread a lively terror" In today's terms, "the Arab" needed to be shocked and awed. A good gassing might well do the job.
This, bearing in mind, was said in 1919, shortly after the horrors of the first world war and shortly before the adoption of the Geneva ban on such weapons.
Racial supremacist
By 1937 he had gone on to explain in a little more detail his views on the worth of subject peoples in his submission to the Palestine Commission, arguing:
Quote:
I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.
Drenching the Ruhr
He was back sticking it to foreign civillians again during the second world war, 20 years on from the gas ban's ratification as Britain started to gain the upper hand and send its bombers over German cities, saying:
Quote:
If the bombardment of London became a serious nuisance and great rockets with far-reaching and devastating effect fell on many centres of Government and labour, I should be prepared to do anything that would hit the enemy in a murderous place. I may certainly have to ask you to support me in using poison gas. We could drench the cities of the Ruhr and many other cities in Germany in such a way that most of the population would be requiring constant medical attention. We could stop all work at the flying bomb starting points. I do not see why we should have the disadvantages of being the gentleman while they have all the advantages of being the cad.
Apparently, the Germans weren't the only ones considering the mass gassing of civilians in the 40s. Just as well the Germans weren't a bit faster building their doodlebugs really.
Dresden
What he did go for in the end of course wasn't exactly wonderful. In what is widely (and probably wrongly, given the other activities of the British empire over the years) regarded as one of the most shameful episodes in the UK's history, between 25,000 and 40,000 people died during the firebombing of Dresden. From the Wikipedia entry on Dresden:
Quote:
Winston Churchill pressed the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair: "I asked [last night] whether Berlin, and no doubt other large cities in east Germany, should not now be considered especially attractive targets. …Pray report to me tomorrow what is going to be done"
This is backed by the Churchill centre here, though they couch it slightly differently it is clear his cigar-stained authority lay at the heart of the action.
Meanwhile, In India
It wasn't just the unfortunates of the Axis that Churchill was happily slaughtering, he presided over some of the nastiest activities the British government has yet managed while waving his V-sign and proclaiming Britain as the beacon for All That Is Good In The World.
Quote:
When in 1942 the popular Quit India Movement threatened to disrupt the war effort, it was brutally put down with public shootings and mass whippings, torturing of protesters and burning of villages, leading even bourgeois observers to make comparisons with 'Nazi dreadfulness'. When in 1943 food shortages began as a direct result of British scorched earth policies, the War Cabinet ignored the problem, refusing to stop ordering Indian food abroad in the interests of the war effort. The resulting man-made famine in Bengal may have accounted for as many as four million deaths.
His charming response when asked about this was to castigate the Indian people for:
Quote:
Breeding like rabbits and being paid a million a day by us for doing nothing by us about the war
(Hat-tip to the ICC and a post by libcom poster cantdocartwheels there).
One war just isn't enough
Of course, his disregard for human life was not confined only to foreigners. It was Churchill, more than any other politician, who pushed for the disastrous campaign in favour of the Whites against the Bolsheviks following the great war. Taking a large British fleet and 1,600 men as Britain struggled to find the money to rebuild, he attempted to restore the Russian aristocracy to power against the wishes of the British population. After spending £100 million in money the state hadn't got, and wasting countless lives, he was only forced to admit defeat following mutinies and widespread demonstrations of discontent at home.
(For the full tale of this military debacle, try Churchill's Crusade, The British Invasion of Russia 1918-1920 by Clifford Kinvig)
Churchill's actions during the general strike:
Quote:
During the General Strike of 1926, Churchill was reported to have suggested that machine guns should be used on the striking miners. Churchill edited the Government's newspaper, the British Gazette*, and during the dispute he argued that "either the country will break the General Strike, or the General Strike will break the country." Furthermore, he was to controversially claim that the Fascism of Benito Mussolini had "rendered a service to the whole world", showing as it had "a way to combat subversive forces" - that is, he considered the regime to be a bulwark against the perceived threat of Communist revolution.*Using paper confiscated from radical publishers, it was a simple slandering machine against the strikers.
(From this)
Further to his pro-fascist tendencies, a direct quote:
Quote:
If I had been an Italian I am sure I should have been whole-heartedly with you in your triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism... (Italy) has provided the necessary antidote to the Russian poison. Hereafter no great nation will be unprovided with an ultimate means of protection against the cancerous growth of Bolshevism.
In his own words, Churchill saw fascism as the ultimate defence against communism. His antipathy to Hitler was not based on great politics or fine motives, but on a rivalry of power. On this point, Churchill also advocated a policy of appeasement to the fascist Franco in Spain (Churchill and Spain The Survival of the Franco Regime, 1940-1945 by Richard Wigg) which directly aided him in consolidating power after his butchery of the Spanish revolutionaries despite international condemnation from around the world.
So, in summary, good line in cigars and sloganeering, yes. Greatest Briton of all time? I fucking hope not...
After the break... more Freedom
The copy deadlines for the rest of the year have been set, so if you have an article to send in, you know where to check...
6916 - copy deadline 4th September
6917 - 18th September
6918 - 2nd October
6919 - 16th October
6920 - 30th October
6921 - 13th November
6922 - 27th November
6923/24 - 11th December
Jobs on the paper
We’ve had a few drop-outs in the last couple of collective issues, so Freedom is looking for more people…
Internationals editor
You need:
- An interest in international news
- A keen and enquiring mind
- To not mind about the whole ‘lack of renumeration’ thing
Your role:
All change in Angel Alley
I’ve recently been having a lot of fun with old bits of paper at Freedom Press indulging my mild archiving OCD, as preparations are made to move the building's retail arm downstairs by our tame shop-guru amid a serious change-around.
As the hordes of people who have been to Freedom know, we have for a long time had something of an eccentric setup. On the top floor, alongside a somewhat mysterious office there is the home of the Advisory Service for Squatters.
Forthcomin Attractions September - November 2008
A selection of titles being distributed in the UK by Turnaround, due to be published between September - November 2008
plus a couple of other recent releases.
Ayre, Dave et al “the Flying Pickets. The 1972 Builders' Strike and the Shrewsbury Trials” Des Warren Trust. September 2008 396pp £12.99
Catherwood, Christopher “Making War in the Name of God” Citadel. November 2008. 320pp. £9.99
Frank, Joshua and Jeffrey St Clair “Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland” (USA) AK Press. November 2008. 280pp. £13.00
Those poor soldiers
Apparently, if you compare the wages of soldiers with traffic wardens the poor old grunts come off worse, according to the head of the armed forces General Sir Richard Dannatt.
Except that’s actually a load of old bollocks. The good General and knight of the realm is being just a little misleading – I’m sure it’s unintentional, him being such a respected state figure and all - when he fails to point out that, unlike the average traffic warden, our boys in khaki also get a number of little perks.
Projectile debating
This post is coming a little later than would be usual, as I just took my first proper (non-anarchist-related) break in what seems like ages after Projectile finished and only just got back from it.
For those of you who aren’t up on what the Newcastle-based Projectile anarchist film festival does, it really provides the main northern answer to the London Anarchist Bookfair as the place for libertarians to get together (though Manchester, Bradford and Glasgow all have their own regular bookfairs, none are on quite the same scale).
Vol2 of Global Fire released
Second volume of Lucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt's monumental history of class struggle anarchism and syndicalism has been published.
Global Fire: 150 Fighting Years of International Anarchism and Syndicalism (Counter-Power Vol 2):
by Lucien Van Der Walt (Author), Michael Schmidt (Author)
RRP: £18.00
Product details
* Paperback: 500 pages
* Publisher: AK Press (1 May 2008)
* Language English
* ISBN-10: 1904859682
* ISBN-13: 978-1904859680
Against the State
new book from Crispin Sartwell
Against the State
An Introduction to Anarchist Political Theory
Crispin Sartwell - author
$49.50 Hardcover - 124 pages
Release Date: May 2008
ISBN10: N/A
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-7447-1
$14.95 Paperback - 124 pages
Release Date: May 2008
ISBN10: N/A
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-7448-8
(also available in UK from amazon etc)
Summary
New book on Herbert Read
New book from Freedom Press!
A new book on Herbert Read has just been published by the Freedom Press, London.
It is called Re-Reading Read: New Views on Herbert Read, and contains sixteen essays on Read's writings on anarchism, art, literature and general culture, by authors including Dana Ward, Allan Antliff and Jerry Zaslove. The book is edited by Michael Paraskos.
ChristieBooks Films 2008 updates and news
Latest items at the start of the thread
ChristieBooks now hangs out its digital shingle at
Please also remember that we do not carry advertising; we subsist (after a
fashion) through donations and the sale of books, prints and other media ‹
and depend, therefore, on your ongoing financial support to help maintain
and expand our multimedia library-archive project.
Citizen journalism
CNN are close to launching a new website called iReport dedicated to ‘citizen journalism’ (a media term for non-professionals who report and write the news). The citizen journalist has been a topic of heavy debate across many sections of the media, particularly in the NUJ where it is considered a threat to the standards and reputation of the industry.
This is actually a very serious accusation to level.
New site feature: edit tab for all users
Logged in users will notice a new edit tab on library, history and news articles - this allows wikipedia-style user edits to any article. To prevent abuse, edited articles go into a moderation queue to be approved. Anyone blatantly vandalising articles will be banned. Also, please be aware that we may not accept all edits, in the same way that we don't accept all article submissions.
Demanding the Impossible
New edition of the history of anarchism by Peter Marshall
Class struggle by email
Why are email campaigns over industrial disputes making an impact?
Email campaigning has been one of the surprise success stories of the last few years in labour struggle.
Anarchism and Authority
A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism
Paul McLaughlin
Anarchism and Authority
A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism
Paul McLaughlin
Series: Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Philosophy
$99.95/£55.00
Anarchism, revolution and reaction
Catalan Labor and the Crisis of the Spanish State, 1898-1923
newish book by Angel Smith
ANARCHISM, REVOLUTION AND REACTION
Catalan Labor and the Crisis of the Spanish State, 1898-1923
Angel Smith
http://www.berghahnbooks.com/covers/SmithAnarchism.jpg
418 pages, 11 tables, 5 figs, bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-84545-176-9 Hb $89.95/£55.00 Published (Summer 2007)
excellent review here (in English):
http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2007-4-192
Songkick
Scans your Winamp/Itunes music library and scans tickets for sale in your area and gives you a page of when all the music you listen to is gunna be playing live near you.
