Roger Markwick

Hon Prof. of Modern European History, Univ of Newcastle. research interests: Soviet & Russian history, historiography, fascism, violence, colonial settlerism.

[Daniel Mayakovski @DaniMayakovski]

Así es la esclavitud en las minas en el este del Congo, de donde sale más del 70% del cobalto del mundo, miles de esclavos diariamente extraen el mineral por apenas 2$ al dia para llenar los bolsillos a las multinacionales capitalistas.

El capitalismo que no te enseñan, así es como se sostiene el nivel de vida y de consumo en Occidente, en estas minas al menos hay 40.000 niños esclavizados que pican piedra para que Apple saque 4 modelos de Iphone cada año.

[Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen]

NATO's fight to the last Ukrainian...
Political leaders in NATO countries are so "pro-Ukrainian" that they toppled the democratically elected government in Kiev in 2014 without majority support in Ukraine; they supported purging Ukraine's political system, media, and society of "pro-Russian" elements; they backed the killing of thousands of Ukrainians in Donbas from 2014 onward who did not recognise the legitimacy of the new authorities; they pressured Zelensky to reverse the peace platform that 73% of Ukrainians voted for in 2019 because NATO viewed peace as "capitulation"; they torpedoed the peace negotiations in Istanbul in 2022 after Russia invaded; they boycotted diplomacy and negotiations for more than four years and declared that "weapons are the path to peace," even as a large majority of Ukrainians wanted immediate peace talks; they maintained public support in the West for fuelling the war by ensuring that the brutal "recruitment" of Ukrainian men to the front lines and other uncomfortable realities were not debated in the media; and now, leaders in NATO countries are pressuring the authorities in Ukraine to lower the conscription age, while the EU will also "help" Ukraine by sending Ukrainian refugees back home to die in NATO's proxy war.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

Australian activist Gemma O’Toole has strongly condemned her government’s handling of her treatment after Israel intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla aid mission.

O’Toole, who along with fellow activists has staged sit-in demonstrations inside Australia’s Parliament House to force a reckoning over the nation’s foreign policy, says she was subjected to physical abuse, torture, and sexual assault in Israeli custody.

(More details in linked post.)
Video via @GFFAusGroup

[Chris Hedges @ChrisLynnHedges]

An audience member at a Q&A recently asked me why I'm so apocalyptic. The genocide in Gaza, beyond being a tragedy, marks an irreversible shift in the global world order. Before the genocide, the imperialist ambitions of the Western oligarchic class were partially constrained by the utopian ideal of the rules-based order. Now that ideal is gone, and unrestrained barbarity will characterize the methodology of the war-making ruling class. In other words — our future is an apocalyptic one.

[stranger @strangerous10]

Mehreen Faruqi lists some of the abuses endured by Australian women detained off the flotilla
“sexually assaulted, cabled tied & beaten”
“Raped”
“Syringed with an unknown substance”
“Guns inserted inside them”
“Repeatedly kneed”
“Stripped of clothes”

Absolutely reprehensible.

[stranger @strangerous10]

Pocock presses Wong who says we all ‘prefer' an independent inquiry into abuse of Aussies off a flotilla but will instead push for a ‘swift’ & ‘transparent’-internal Israel led investigation🙄

Pocock ‘if we prefer an independent one, why has the govt not asked Israel?’🔥#auspol

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

It's easy to point at Jillian Segal and make fun of how crazy and stupid she is, but the Albanese government is the only reason her craziness and stupidity is a problem.

The thing about Segal and all these "antisemitism advisors" they're setting up in western governments is that they're just random people with strong political opinions who are being elevated to ridiculous levels of influence. They're not experts, they're just people who happen to hold the political opinion that it should be illegal to criticize the state of Israel.

Which wouldn't normally be an issue; our society is full of individuals with terrible political opinions. The problem is that our government has selected these cartoonishly ridiculous Zionists to help shape policy in immensely consequential ways that erode the civil liberties of our nation. Our leaders are the ones to blame for these inept lunatics wielding absurd levels of influence; left to their own devices they'd just be harmless idiots. They're only harmful because they're being given the power to do harm.

[Global Sumud Flotilla @gbsumudflotilla]

URGENT UPDATE: Illegally detained Sumud volunteers are now on their 4th day of a dry hunger strike (no food, no water) and their condition is critical.

Since Monday, ten people detained in Benghazi have been refusing food, with many also refusing water, in protest of prolonged illegal detention, mistreatment, and being denied legal counsel. Some have been forced to break the strike, but many continue as their health deteriorates.

Their lives are at risk. They’ve received no medical care and are being held in “black sites" (unknown areas).
We demand their immediate release and we need you to act now.

Call. Post. Pressure the authorities. Share this update widely.

Email the foreign ministries of those detained at https://t.co/jixZ6iF35U

[Abubaker Abed @AbubakerAbedW]

Israel yesterday kidnapped four women. Two are footballers in the Palestinian National Team.

Their names are: Natali Abu Dia and Rand Halwani.

Is it normal to kidnap footballers, @FIFAcom? Where are sports media organisations? This story should be the headline everywhere.

[Ounka @OunkaOnX]

The Shot just exposed Australia is manufacturing nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose & RDX for Israel's bombs.

These explosives are made in govt-owned plants, leased to Thales, trucked at night to ports, sent via US/Singapore - straight to Gaza & Lebanon.

[APAN @APAN4Palestine]

TONIGHT.
Australians aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla have taken evidence to the International Criminal Court after reporting abuse and torture following their detention by Israeli forces.
Now hear directly from those who were there.
Join Violet Coco and Surya McEwen for a live online briefing as they share what happened aboard the flotilla, why they took evidence to The Hague, and what comes next in the fight for justice and accountability.
While Palestinians continue to endure siege, imprisonment and violence, the Australian Government is still refusing to take meaningful action.
Join us tonight to help change that.
Tonight
6:30pm AEST
Register via the link in bio
Bring a friend. Share widely. The flotilla fight continues.

[APAN @APAN4Palestine]

Sanctions are welcome.

Yesterday’s sanctions by the Australian government recognise that settler violence is being used to force Palestinians from their land and expand illegal settlements.

But accountability cannot stop with a handful of settlers.

Behind every illegal outpost is a system that funds, facilitates and protects settlement expansion.
Australia must now examine those driving and profiting from the dispossession of Palestinians.

Sanction the system behind the settlements.

[Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen]

Today is the opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), which was met with a Ukrainian drone attack. Everyone knows the Baltic States participate in these attacks, thus the line between proxy war and direct war has been crossed. This will end in disaster.

[comra @comrawire]

Watch a Mau Mau revolutionary explain how he resisted British colonialism, and why the fight isn't over.

Maina wa Murigu took up arms against British colonial rule and is still waiting for his land back, more than six decades after independence.

Speaking from Nairobi on Kenya's 63rd Madaraka Day, he described fighting British soldiers with machetes, seizing their weapons and retreating into the forests. Madaraka Day, marked every June 1, commemorates the day Kenya achieved self-rule from Britain in 1963.

"Our parents died without ever getting justice," he said. "We are soon following them."

Britain's response to the uprising was a state of emergency lasting from 1952 to 1959. The Kenya Human Rights Commission estimates 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed. 160,000 were detained. Nazi-style concentration camps held over 1.5 million more.

Documents recording the atrocities were later destroyed or hidden by British authorities.

[Dr Rhonda Garad Difficult by Design @RhondaGarad]

Jullian Segal's plant, Peter Shergold, will develop funding guidelines aligned with Australia's new hate speech laws. Good luck getting a grant if you're not a genocide supporter! Academic freedom/independent research in Australia are a thing of the past. @deepcutnews https://t.co/pdD8PJyOKP

[Peter Cronau @PeterCronau]

AUKUS was decided in secret — to prevent Australians deciding against it.

“The AUKUS deal was conceived in secret and with deception — and continues to be shrouded in secrecy despite the incredibly high stakes and massive cost.”

A Public Inquiry coming.. https://t.co/vyk4a5DPmY

[Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis]

Now that Gaza lies in ruins—shattered, like a beloved face after a long brutality—Israel moves with a terrible confidence to the next act: The act of leaving every soul there not merely wounded, but permanently disabled. Injured, sick, hungry, homeless, without work, without hope. This is not war’s collateral damage. This is design.

As my friend Gideon Levy writes—and he knows, he knows—this is the prelude to expulsion. Think of it: a society without teachers, without doctors, without social workers, without engineers, without clerks. That is not a society. That is a holding pen. A slow erasure. And when nothing functions—no school, no hospital, no office, no heart—then it becomes ‘easy,’ they tell themselves, to scatter the people to the four corners of the earth. Like seeds from a broken pod, except no soil will take them.

We must name this. Not with rage alone, though rage is honest. But with the cold, clear tears of recognition: they are making life impossible so that departure becomes the only ‘choice.’ And the world watches, adjusts its spectacles, and calls for restraint. Restraint! There is no restraint in a slow drowning.

[Barbara Pocock @BarbaraPocock]

3 yrs on & Yates finally takes the fall. For gross, systemic failures, clumsy coverups & attacks on whistleblowers. These guys laugh at Parliament. Time to change the rules. Time for Labor to act on unregulated massive partnerships - who laugh all the way to the bank 🏦💸💵

[Jeanette-End the Zionist Genocide @WSWS_Udates @JaniceB72627796]

Australian Law Firm Files Case Against Anthony Albanese, PM for Complicity in Gaza Genocide https://t.co/EF75Khn1fM
The claim has been brought by Australian law firm Birchgrove Legal, and it is led by barrister Sheryn Omeri KC. Over 100 lawyers are in support of it, and a collective sigh of relief was uttered amongst the local antiwar movement as the case was announced on ABC News Breakfast early Tuesday morning. The claim charges Albanese, FM Penny Wong and others with aiding genocide via the cutting of funding to UNRWA, the main aid channel into Gaza, while ambiguously deploying a military contingent, permitting Australians to fight for Israel and providing unequivocal support to it.

[David Shoebridge @DavidShoebridge]

Israel continues its attacks on Lebanon and Palestine because the US and its allies like the Labor Government are allowing them to.

Israeli fighter jets require Australian made parts to drop its bombs. As long as the Albanese Government allows these exports it is part of the war