Paul Foley

[East German Visuals @GDRvisuals]

Rally to mark the 30th anniversary of the liberation from fascism at the Soviet war memorial in Treptower Park, East Berlin, 1975.

[Paul Foley @Vivafoleys]

Nor that two invading soldiers shot by defenders trying to protect their homeland

[Donahue Rogers @DonahueRogers]

BBC news leading with the two Israeli soldiers shot on West Bank

No mention of the 25 Palestinians murdered in Gaza just this week

[East German Visuals @GDRvisuals]

Soviet stamp celebrating 40 years of the GDR, 1989.

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

The warmongering techno-fascist oligarchy that has hijacked the continent, and whose interests The Economist represents — aka “liberal Europe” — is doing just fine. It’s the people of Europe who are agonising.

[USSR Pictures @PicturesUssr]

"Raising the Victory Banner over Berlin", Painting by Valentin Demyanovich Bozhko, 1952

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

The “Russia is waging a hybrid war on Europe” narrative clearly serves a variety of interests. For starters, it helps governments maintain support for an increasingly unpopular war in Ukraine and for a continental rearmament campaign that will require painful cuts to spending on other sectors. As a report by the Latvian Institute of International Affairs put it, the “nebulous tagline” of hybrid warfare would appear to be driven “by the need to goose flagging defense budgets and waning NATO cohesion.” It has worked: the drone panic has led to increased counter-drone spending at both the EU and NATO levels. Meanwhile, intelligence services have invoked the threat of sabotage to gain broader powers.

The specter of “Russian interference” also offers a broader authoritarian dividend, justifying everything from online censorship to the repression of dissent to election management — most egregiously in Romania, where an entire election was annulled because of an alleged Russian disinformation campaign for which no evidence of Russian involvement was ever provided. More recently, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, amid a push for greater EU ties, said it was “clear” that Russia interfered in the Brexit referendum, without providing any evidence, even though several investigations have found little or no evidence to support this claim.

One may conclude that, to the extent that a “hybrid war” is being waged against Europe, it is being waged by the EU-NATO establishment itself against its own population, in the form of a prolonged campaign of psychological warfare aimed at inflating the Russian threat.

Read the article here: https://t.co/mMtUxVxofY

[Kevan Nelson🇵🇸 @NelsonKevan]

Lessons on the French rebellion must not be lost on the British labour movement https://t.co/1fjdiMrGAI

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

Meanwhile, in the real world, the US just took over Greenland without a peep from this lady 🤡

[PCF @PCF]

🔴 Soutien à notre camarade Bernard Baudoux !

Maire communiste d’Aulnoye-Aymeries, il a été violemment agressé par des colons israéliens en Cisjordanie occupée, alors qu’il participait à une mission de solidarité auprès du peuple palestinien.

Le PCF condamne fermement cette agression et réaffirme son engagement pour la fin de la colonisation, le respect du droit international et une paix juste et durable entre Israéliens et Palestiniens.

La solidarité et la paix ne se feront pas taire ! 🕊️

[Paul Foley @Vivafoleys]

Always be heroes

[USSR Pictures @PicturesUssr]

"They Stormed the Winter Palace." A gathering of veterans of the storming of the Winter Palace on the 40th anniversary of the event. (Leningrad, Palace Square, 1957)

[liam cunningham @liamcunningham1]

Just been to see NAZA.
For those of you who are of the opinion that ‘it’s complicated’ you’ll find out that it isn’t. It’s Genocide. The intent is blatant.
Go see it.

[Perspective communiste ☭🔻 @PerspCommuniste]

🇿🇦🚩 Le Parti communiste sud-africain double ses effectifs par rapport à 2020 et approche les 400 000 membres.

Une croissance qui s'explique par sa volonté de relancer la révolution nationale démocratique, sans l'ANC.

Le SACP est en ordre de bataille pour les élections locales.

[East German Visuals @GDRvisuals]

"25 Years of the Anti-Fascist Protective Wall" celebrations on Karl-Marx-Allee, East Berlin, 1986.

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

Europe, a continent under occupation.

My speech at first edition of the East-West Forum in Istanbul on September 26.

“In the simplest terms, Europe — by which I mean virtually all EU countries and the entire Brussels establishment — has been hijacked by a transnationalised transatlantic elite that doesn’t care in the slightest about the concrete interests of their own countries and is in fact beholden to completely different interests: private interest, i.e., the interests of a narrow oligarchy — today, mainly the interests of transnational financial circles and military-industrial structures — and foreign interests, namely those of Washington’s imperial core (and, as a by-product, of Israel)”.

[KNEECAP @KNEECAPCEOL]

A little reminder.

Solidarity with Sally Rooney.

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

This is likely to be one of the most surreal trials in history, as the German-NATO establishment tries to preserve some sense of legal-institutional normalcy — like, you know, actually having a trial for the worst act of industrial terrorism in Germany’s history, despite a concerted effort to sweep the whole episode under the carpet — while trying to pin it all on some rogue Ukrainians and conceal the role (or at the very least foreknowledge) of the US, NATO and the German authorities.

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

I’ve written about perhaps the most absurd Russiagate yet: Andy Burnham’s claim that Russia was behind Brexit.

For the past decade, the British establishment — and Labour in particular — has been trying to neuter and, ideally, reverse Brexit. Under Andy Burnham, the project has acquired unprecedented momentum. In his first conference speech as Labour leader a few weeks ago, Burnham became the first prime minister to open the door to rejoining the European Union. On Monday, he told the Commons it would be a “dereliction of duty” to turn down a closer relationship with Brussels.

It is in this context that Burnham’s latest Brexit “bombshell” needs to be read. Speaking on Rory Stewart’s and Alastair Campbell’s podcast, The Rest Is Politics, Burnham claimed to have “clear” evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 referendum — implying that Moscow had successfully tilted the vote towards Leave — while offering no details, let alone evidence. If anything is clear here, it is Burnham’s goal: to delegitimise the referendum result once and for all, and so pave the way for its reversal. And what better pretext than the Russian bogeyman?

This fits a wider pattern. Since the 2016 Russiagate hoax, it has become standard practice among Western elites, especially in Europe, to blame every unwelcome election result — and above all every “populist” rebuke to their rule — on Russian “disinformation” and “interference”. The campaign has escalated dramatically since 2022. We are told that Russia has for years been running a vast influence operation aimed at manipulating helpless European voters, yet the evidence is scant or non-existent.

The consequences, however, are not. In the EU, the permanent spectre of the Russian threat is being used to justify a rolling assault on democratic norms, from online censorship to the repression of dissent and interference in national elections. It is hardly surprising, then, that Burnham, Europhile that he is, should borrow a page — or rather a chapter — from the Brussels playbook. As is customary with sweeping claims against Russia, he offered no evidence. His statement was nonetheless amplified across the mainstream media, an allegation hardening into “fact” through sheer repetition. Indeed, pro-EU groups have duly called for Britain to rejoin in light of the “revelation”.

But the reality is that over the years several investigations have looked at the issue of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum — and found nothing.

It is of course possible that Burnham has been shown damning evidence buried for a decade. But how likely is that? Or is it more likely that he, like his European peers, is playing fast and loose with the facts — otherwise known as disinformation — for political gain? That he chose to make the claim on Alastair Campbell’s podcast, of all places, is itself a red flag. In September 2002, as Tony Blair sought to build support for war with Iraq, Downing Street published a dossier on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. Citing a senior source, the BBC’s Andrew Gilligan later reported that Campbell, then Blair’s director of communications, had “sexed up” the dossier to frighten the public into backing the war. Its most notorious claim, repeated four times, was that Iraq could deploy WMDs within 45 minutes — wording that implied Britain or British forces were 45 minutes from attack, which is exactly how much of the press reported it. The intelligence in fact referred to battlefield munitions. Gilligan’s source turned out to be the weapons expert David Kelly, who died in disputed circumstances in July 2003 after being exposed.

Burnham, it is worth recalling, voted for that war — one built on claims that could easily have been disproved at the time, and indeed were by many — and defended his vote for years afterwards. Given that record, some scepticism is in order, especially since his latest claim is, so far, equally unsupported.

Read the article here: https://t.co/LgyzKOEpI4

[In Defense of Communism © @id_communism]

🚩 Communist flag over Paris. Even symbolism matters. Solidarity with the students of #France in their just struggle!

[In Defense of Communism © @id_communism]

Tudeh Party warns of renewed imperialist aggression and economic collapse in Iran https://t.co/mueno6V8SH