alanjjohnstone
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The Labour Party conference sings God Save the King. Simply expressing what has always been their position.
Will the sing the Red Flag at the closing of the conference?Alien1, I think SPGB members made it clear that Ukraine giving up territory is necessary for any negotiated peace. That any idea of re-claiming Crimea is not feasible.
It has turned into a war of attrition and of course, Russia demographically is in the better position for a prolonged protracted conflict.
There can be no military solution for Ukraine but does Putin believe there might still be for Russia?
Some things strike me.
Why did Russia withdraw from the suburbs of Kiev? They demonstrated in previous wars such as the destruction of Grozny their ruthlessness regardless of civilian collateral casualties. Was it for humanitarian reasons? Or they know urban war is fraught with difficulties and the expected surrender never came.
The early days when mass Russian convoys moved along the highways ended with the supply of artillery and rockets to Ukraine.
Will it be a return to trench warfare?And can it overspill? I read this of the NATO base on the Polish border.
https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-war-how-to-repair-the-ukrainian-armys-modern-weapons/a-63215373
In case any missed it, an interview with Ukrainian anarchist group, Assembly
” «Big capital and its “Western” governments sat down to contemplate and even to accelerate the deterioration of the situation. Once the invasion had begun they were anxious to see whether Ukraine would resist and to calculate what they could get out of each possible outcome. Now that Ukraine is resisting they eagerly extend offers of “help” for which they will expect payment later». Western governments and the military-industrial complex have their own financial interests, and these interests are not in a quick victory for Ukraine, but in making the war protracted. Otherwise, they would have already delivered enough heavy weapons to Ukraine, and the war could have ended until this autumn. ”
We are growing accustomed to the reports of Russian and Chinese influences in the propaganda war. Less so on the West’s efforts to spread its propaganda.
Researchers from Stanford University and internet research firm, Graphika found most of the Information Operation ‘likely originated in the United States’. From there it ran a massive, interconnected web of automated ‘bot’ accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms.
The extent of this covert black-ops surprised me
Putin signed a decree toughening penalties for voluntary surrender to enemy forces, desertion and refusal to fight by up to 10 years in prison
Army General Dmitry Bulgakov has been relieved of the post of deputy minister of defence and will be replaced by Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev
Recruiting mercenaries? Russian citizenship for foreigners who enlist in the Russian army for at least a year, bypassing the normal requirement for five years of residency in the country.
The RMT union has said talks with the new transport secretary were a “good start” in attempts to solve issues that have led to crippling strikes on the railways.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan held talks with Mick Lynch and Aslef’s Mick Whelan last week, days after getting the job. It represents a change of approach from her predecessor, Grant Shapps, who refused to meet union leaders.
All smoke and mirrors
The heads of the Climate Change Committee and the National Infrastructure Commission warned in a letter to the prime minister “…our gas reserves – offshore or from shale – are too small to impact meaningfully the prices faced by UK consumers.”
UK energy companies buy gas – including from the North Sea – on the international market where prices are set by global supply and demand. The amount extra that could be extracted from the North Sea – or from fracking – is unlikely to be enough to bring down bills significantly
https://www.bbc.com/news/62878120
Prof Jonathan Stern from the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies says: “The main issue is that if you started drilling tomorrow, had success the day after and everything else went to plan, it would still be two to four years before you could produce enough gas to make a difference to UK output.”
There is still a significant amount of oil and gas under the North Sea, Prof Stern says that most of that is now in deep water, far from shore, which means it takes even longer to bring it online.
New onshore wind energy could come online faster than gas. The European Wind Energy Association says that a small wind farm can be built in as little as two months, once planning permission has been granted.
Good News
China and India have called for negotiations.
Back to the good migrant V. bad migrant days
In case nobody has already knows of it
Operation Fearless Guardian 2015https://www.academia.edu/12348267/Operation_Fearless_Guardian_2015_
TUC pushes for nationalisation
‘God, homeland, family’
>>>The far right can succeed in Italy because the left has failed, exactly as in much of the world, to offer credible visions or strategies. The left asks people to vote against the right, but it lacks a political vision or an economic alternative. The left sounds elitist when it communicates, while the right has found a hypersimplified discourse: keywords, slogans, concepts reduced to the most basic, especially on migrants, from whose violence and terrorism Italians, it seems, must be saved.<<<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/24/britain-radical-solutions-labour-1990s-strikes
>>>despite the upswell of public support for striking workers, the Labour leadership has chosen to pursue the votes of conservative, home-owning retirees who switched to the Tories in 2019.<<<
“…But, in good faith, is it not altogether an absurdity and an anachronism to make military considerations the principle by which the boundaries of nations are to be fixed?… If limits are to be fixed by military interests, there will be no end to claims, because every military line is necessarily faulty, and may be improved by annexing some more outlying territory; and, moreover, they can never be fixed finally and fairly, because they always must be imposed by the conqueror upon the conquered, and consequently carry within them the seed of fresh wars. Such is the lesson of all history…”
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1871/civil-war-france/ch02.htm
