I’ve met a lot of people by getting active in my party. The more I take on, the more I meet.

Step 1: Get off the internet

From what I can tell a likely scenario is:-

1. ICJ correctly rules on genocide, provisional measures are supposed to then come into effect
2. Israel flouts the rules, withdraws from ICJ
3. Issue is forwarded to the UN security council
4. America uses its veto against any security council measure against Israel.

Whose argument is that?

They are more akin to petite bourgeoisie

And yet so long as they aren’t petty proprietors themselves their relationship to production is proletarian, just as it would be if they were a doctor or an engineer.

If it just disappeared in a puff of smoke? I’d be inconsolable as I’ve lived here my entire life. Everyone that’s important to me, from my friends, to my partner, to my family, all live here. My dad’s ashes have been scattered here. If England disappeared tomorrow, myself and my loved ones would immediately lose our homes and our history and immediately become stateless refugees, along with the 55.9 million other people that live here.

If you mean in the sense of some kind of Balkanisation, I’d still be extremely upset. At no point in modern history has a country ever benefited from being Balkanised; from Yugoslavia, to the collapse of the USSR, to the partition of India and the colonial carve up of China, none of these countries have materially benefitted from being divided up in this way. The people living in all of the examples cited experienced incredible suffering and instability as a direct result of Balkanisation. In England’s (and more widely, the UK’s) case, it would almost certainly be preyed upon by the US and the EU. Its hard enough for the British establishment to compete on a level playing field with the other imperialist powers as it is with Great Britain unified, let alone if it was split apart into several smaller and poorer independent states.

Does this mean England should exist as it does today? I don’t think so, personally. I believe the UK’s best future (beyond the scope of a socialist revolution, of course) is in forming a federative republic, within which England would need to be legislatively split into smaller administrative units so that it doesn’t perpetuate the existing relationship between England and the rest of the UK. A federal division of the UK should be weighted primarily by population, with the aim being to ensure that each administrative unit is a similar size to Wales or Scotland, meaning a range of 3-5 million people. This means some regions of England, such as Yorkshire, the South West or the East Midlands, would translate well into such a federative system. Others would need to be redesignated, such as the North West or the South East.

I still maintain that enormous bungs to the military industrial complex like the F-35 programme would be immediately scrapped after the initial phase of conflict if there was ever a conventional war between the US and a peer adversary. Even if they’re reasonably effective, attrition would make it functionally impossible to keep up with the enemy after a few years, due to the sheer man hours involved in getting these things built and serviced, not to mention the enormous amount of training that has to go into their crews. Given a protracted conflict, the US army would be forced to revert to relatively more simple designs that can be much more rapidly produced and deployed. Of course, it probably wouldn’t ever get to this point in practice as the escalating scope of the conflict would drastically increase the likelihood of a nuclear exchange.

National organiser for a communist ran socialist party here. The fact of the matter is that I don’t. The party comes first. Always.

In my experience, the lines between social life and party blurred once I crossed a certain threshold of commitment and time invested; party socials become your down time and your fellow party members become your closest friends. You might even meet your life partner in the party as several of my comrades have. Some have even started families together.

For context, my position with the party is now effectively my full time work. I have no fixed hours, but I’m effectively on call 24/7 and can be called on to travel across the country at a moment’s notice for party work. So long as I deliver on my responsibilities I’m given complete flexibility in how I carry out my work. In that regard, I’ve never been more free in my entire life. However, this does mean that when times are hectic I simply cannot stop working until all my tasks are complete, which has sometimes meant taking on 12-14 hour work days.

“The transition from capitalism to communism is an entire historical epoch. Until it is over, exploiters inevitably have hope for restoration, and this hope turns into attempts at restoration. The overthrown exploiters, who did not expect to be overthrown, did not believe in it, did not allow the thought of it, with tenfold energy, with mad passion, with hatred increased 100 times, rush into battle for the return of the “paradise lost”.”

• V.I. Lenin

Someone woke up on the wrong side of his body pillow this morning…

F I R S T T H O U G H T

“Putler” springs to mind

That Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler were the same person.

Hidden microphones and transmitters have been a standard thing on all cars sold in the EU since 2018. It’s been set up as a safety feature…

It looks like there’s no better time than now to be getting into production though tbh. You can get cheap equipment now that perfectly recreates the effects of stuff that would literally burn a £5000 hole in your wallet before.

Please clarify what you mean by this. Are you suggesting that it’s imperialist to be gay?

No, what you don’t have time for is confronting inconvenient truths that fly in the face of your political agenda.

Again, as previously stated I am not downplaying this incident. It happened and it was terrible. If you’re not really just a coward ducking my point (Which I think you are) and you actually think that’s the case then I challenge you to point out how I’m doing so. This was a serious incident and many people died; don’t you think that the people who actively provoked the confrontation between students and soldiers should face up to what they’ve done?

If you’re asking for my personal opinion then I’d say the US is a great deal worse than anything China has done since they took their country back, actually. It’s not even remotely close.

What’s “telling” is the way people such as yourself latch onto anything the western media has to say about America’s geopolitical rivals, in spite of any and all the evidence to the contrary; regardless of the credibility of any of the sources. I mean, are you honestly just going to lap up whatever western media outlets tell you? The guys that told you Iraq undeniably had WMDs? The cynical scum bags who banged the drum about Gaddafi and have subsequently shrugged their shoulders while Libya now wallows with open air slave markets? Those are your respectable sources? You’re going to hang off of every word from weirdo crooks like Adrian Zenz, born-again Christian “China experts” who publicly declare they’re on a mission from God to defeat communism in China? That’s the sort of “impartial” source you’re prepared to die on a hill for? Or maybe its teenagers speculating over satellite photography they pulled up from Google maps?

Here’s something I find telling; that you won’t engage whatsoever with the point I raised in response to you trying to grandstand over the Tiananmen incident; that you swivelled on a dime from gleefully using a massacre as a political football to clutching your pearls that someone dared to bring information to the table that contextualises that event into something more than the simplistic good vs evil narrative you were going for. Do yourself a favour and actually listen to what Chai Ling has to say; it’s been independently verified and held up in a libel case she brought against the journalists when it came to light, so you can rest assured its legitimate. Stop and think about what it really means for the student leader of those killed at Tiananmen to outright admit they were trying to get their supporters massacred after actively blocking attempts to disperse peacefully. Consider the potential significance that she was literally extracted out of her country by the intelligence services of China’s biggest geopolitical rivals. If you’re genuinely appalled with all the death from this event, don’t you think she and her benefactors have something to answer for? Or do you suppose its the place of the United States or Great Britain to stir up trouble in other countries, to dictate who should be in charge there and how their countries should be run?

I haven’t stated an opinion either way. I’ve simply provided additional context to a historical event you chose to bring up. Why do you feel the need to respond to it in such a kneejerk manner and ascribe my motives? Does the context I’ve provided make you feel uncomfortable in some way?

I have neither dismissed nor denied that a terrible incident happened at Tiananman square on the late hours of June 3rd 1989. I wish for those responsible for plotting and catalysing the incident to face justice for their crimes.

The troops advanced into central parts of Beijing on the city’s major thoroughfares in the early morning hours of 4 June and engaged in bloody clashes with demonstrators attempting to block them, in which many people – demonstrators, bystanders, and soldiers – were killed.

Here’s a video of an interview with Chai Ling recorded on May 28, 1989 with reporter Philip Cunningham. Chai Ling was arguably the most influential leader of the student protesters at Tiananmen Square. In the interview she openly wishes for the soldiers to massacre the students after her instrumental role in blocking attempts by other activists to move the protest back to campuses, all while refusing to sacrifice herself.

Notable quotes from this interview include:-

“You, the Chinese are not worth my struggle. You are not worth my sacrifice”

“The students keep asking what shall we do next? What can we accomplish? I feel so sad, because how can I tell them what we’re actually hoping for is bloodshed - for the moment when the government has no choice but to brazenly butcher the people?”

“Only when the square is awash with blood will the people of China open their eyes. Only then will they really be united”

“If we allow the [protesters] movement to collapse on its own, then the government will be able to wipe out all the leaders of the movement”

Upon being asked if she will stay in the square herself after urging the students to stay she simply responded, “No, I won’t”.

When the Tiananmen Square incident erupted in violence on June 3rd, Chai Ling escaped from Beijing by train. She was eventually smuggled to Hong Kong via Operation Yellowbird, an MI6/CIA led initiative to extract dissidents who they hoped would form the nucleus of a “Chinese democracy movement in exile”. To my knowledge, no details exist about how and when she made contact with them. She was subsequently invited to study at Princeton on a full scholarship due to her pivotal role in the Tiananmen protests. She studied Politics and International Relations there, eventually picking up an MBA from Harvard. Today, she runs an internet company called Jenzabar that she founded with her husband, the lawyer Robert Maginn, a long time associate of the Republican party, having even served as the chairman of the Massachusetts Republican party between 2011 and 2013. Their company serves more than 1300 higher education institutions worldwide, whom they provide with ERP software.