Tomás Ó Flatharta

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Archive for the ‘Ukraine Russia War 2022’ Category

Bizarre Things that American Con Artists and Clare Daly MEP Believe or Don’t Believe

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Joan McKiernan, who has been a socialist activist in both the United States and Ireland, reports. Joan also writes for Against the Current https://againstthecurrent.org/joan-mckiernan/

When I was teaching college sociology, I used to do a session on the bizarre things that Americans believe or don’t believe. Like, only 60% of Americans believe in evolution. 10% believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, to mention a few notable examples. Long ago, Mark Twain remarked, “It is easier to trick the average person, than it is to convince them that they have been tricked.”  

I should not have been surprised then during the Trump era and the pandemic, we saw so many Americans accepting untruths, refusing masks and vaccines, refusing to believe that Covid was real, even as they went to their deaths. And during these years after Trump’s defeat, so many still refuse to accept facts, electoral counts, data. We are told there are alternative versions of facts! 

So now we have the same lack of truth applied to support for Ukrainians resistance against the Russian invasion and destruction of their country. Recently, this was seen in this article, The Con Artists Who Blame Ukraine Aid for America’s Social Problems, in which independent presidential candidate and anti-vaxxer, RFK Jr., Green Party candidate Cornel West, Glenn Greenwald, and other Putin apologists are making disingenuous, pseudo-populist arguments against U.S. support for Ukraine. Rather than looking at capitalist exploitation, the Trump tax cuts, unemployment and low wages for the majority, they are blaming the Ukrainian support for all of the US social problems.  
https://newrepublic.com/article/173902/ukraine-war-cost-russian-propaganda-rfk-jr-greenwald  

The Con Artists Who Blame Ukraine Aid for America’s Social Problems

The reliance on untruths, twisted thinking and re-writing of history is no longer just an American characteristic. This week Irish member of the European Parliament, Clare Daly, came out with her own bizarre explanation of how to deal with the Ukraine war. She says, “The US sat down with the Taliban.” praised the role of United States in the Irish Good Friday Peace Agreement and said the international community should try and do something similar in Ukraine.  She accuses the West of giving arms in order to keep the war in Ukraine going! 

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The Con Artists Who Blame Ukraine Aid for America’s Social Problems

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We thank Joan McKiernan for drawing our attention to a very useful article. The issues it raises also affect political dialogue in other parts of the world, including Ireland. Sections of the left repeat, in many cases unwittingly, pro-Putin populist propaganda currently promoted by North American celebrities who sometimes dress in left-wing clothes. The author (Alaric DeArment) demolishes the apparently plausible claim below :

A scene of squalor unfolds as the camera moves along a city street lined with apparent drug addicts to the soundtrack of Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” A caption reads, “While American citizens live on the streets and take drugs not to feel the pain, the United States would rather finance a proxy war against Russia,” while a bar graph says the U.S. has sent $46.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

Read on, to see what is fundamentally wrong with the above approach. Article Source :

https://newrepublic.com/article/173902/ukraine-war-cost-russian-propaganda-rfk-jr-greenwald

Howie Hawkins writes a very useful introduction :

The article below highlights a big problem the Ukraine solidarity movement faces. These influencers who are pitting Ukrainians against Americans have far more reach than we do. Glenn Greenwald has 300,000 substack subscribers. Jimmy Dore has 1.2 million YouTube subscribers. RFK Jr’ s celebrity status reaches millions.

Dore and these anti-Left influencers give expression to a conspiracist-minded populism that explains social problems as caused primarily by evil elite cabals rather than social structures. Their audiences are very susceptible to the conspiracist themes in Russian propaganda that these influencers amplify. 

The anti-Left “populist” influencers are also proudly “anti-woke,” which is to say hostile to anti-racist, feminist, and LGBTQ movements, saying that they divide the working class, which in their mind is white male when in fact it is majority women and people of color. It is their anti-woke rants that divide workers by race, gender, and sexual orientation. For example, see this ignorant denigration of Juneteenth by Jimmy Dore and his sidekick.

I don’t have any easy recommendations for us to deal with this phenomenon other than to keep organizing, speaking up, and building our own media.


Find out more about Howie Hawkins here : https://tomasoflatharta.com/2020/03/05/every-state-is-a-battleground-howie-hawkins-green-party-usa-presidential-candidate-in-2020-standing-on-the-ecosocialist-left-against-the-democrats-and-republicans/

The Con Artists Who Blame Ukraine Aid for America’s Social Problems

RFK Jr., Glenn Greenwald, and other Putin apologists are making disingenuous, pseudo-populist arguments against U.S. support for Ukraine.

A scene of squalor unfolds as the camera moves along a city street lined with apparent drug addicts to the soundtrack of Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” A caption reads, “While American citizens live on the streets and take drugs not to feel the pain, the United States would rather finance a proxy war against Russia,” while a bar graph says the U.S. has sent $46.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

The video , on TikTok, is but one of the countless posts across social media that convey the same underlying message: By helping Ukraine defend itself from bloody subjugation by Russia, the U.S. is depriving its own citizens of critical aid. This pernicious narrative has spread in part thanks to fringe yet popular media and political figures who already had a history of littering the discourse with Kremlinesque talking points, and who now have weaponized and monetized the perception that the U.S. has been too generous to Ukraine and too stingy to its own people.

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The war unleashed by Putin’s regime threatens its stability. Why? Because of Ukrainian Resistance

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Andrew Murray, a leading spokesperson of the British Stop the War Campaign, has attempted to write an explanation of the Prigozhin Coup.

A Ceasefire is more important than ever

A schoolchild can demolish this writer’s approach :

My comments are in bold italics and red.

John Meehan (JM)

I deploy a technique well known to effective teachers. One of those teachers explained that, even when you are dealing with the brightest pupils, you need to repeatedly state necessary concrete practical action and analysis so it gets through to the listeners and readers.

Andrew Murray (AM) :

“The case for a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict is made all the more compelling by the events in Russia.”

John Meehan (JM)

The “events in Russia” have been caused by Ukrainian resistance. There is a “compelling” case to continue and deepen this resistance.

AM :

“The mercenary Wagner group launched an armed insurrection to depose the leadership of the Russian military. Had it been successful, Russia’s military, including its vast nuclear arsenal, could have fallen into the hands of an enraged oligarch.”

JM:

Russia’s “vast nuclear arsenal” is already in the hands of an enraged oligarch – Vladimir Putin.


“The adventure is a product of the failure of Russia’s war to achieve its objectives in Ukraine. Indeed, Wagner boss Prigozhin has belatedly declared that the whole invasion last year was unnecessary and predicated on lies.”

JM:

Precisely. The co-leader of the invasion has declared – unlike Stop The War (Britain) – that there was no threat to Russia from NATO, and no plans by Ukraine to invade Russia.

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Will Unite the Union stand with Ukraine?

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This post comes from our comrades in the British Ukraine Solidarity Campaign. The author is Sacha Ismail. Source : https://ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org/2023/06/25/will-unite-the-union-stand-with-ukraine/

Will Unite the Union stand with Ukraine?

By Sacha Ismail

Sharon Graham UNITE General Secretary speakng at a picket – the refuse workers strike in Coventry – strikers had raised Ukrainian flags.

If delegates to Unite the Union’s upcoming biennial policy conference (11-14 July, Brighton) want to support

• withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine
• Ukraine’s right to self-determination
• strong links with Ukrainian trade unions and socialists
• clear demands for strong rights for all refugees

they must support the text submitted by my branch, London and Eastern 524.

Delegates to the first Unite policy conference since Russia invaded Ukraine should vote to push for the UK’s largest private sector union, involved in many of the most successful industrial disputes of the last year, to stand in clear solidarity with Ukraine and its labour movement.

Only one motion on Ukraine has been submitted to the conference (from the Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Process and Textiles ‘Regional Industrial Sector Committee’/RISC for North East, Yorkshire and Humberside). It seems to me, at best, highly politically ambiguous. The substantial amendment submitted by London and Eastern 524 (Central London Voluntary Sector branch) seeks to ensure a strong pro-Ukraine stance. (You can read the text of both below; document with all motions and amendments here.)

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Ukraine excommunication. Brokenhearted . Not

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Guest post by Des Derwin

The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB, ) have the merit of consistently applying the ‘proxy inter-imperialist war’ position. If only for that there is value in reading this, Social imperialism is betrayal (Weekly Worker, Issue 1428, 2nd February 2023).

But even they, for all their bold declaration of ‘revolutionary defeatism’, can’t bring themselves to say they want Ukraine defeated, Russia to occupy Kyiv ‘this time’ and the Russian occupation regime to be extended to the whole of Ukraine, crushing the labour movement in Ukraine and the democratic and civil rights still surviving there.

Who cares that they have irrevocably broken with us and the likes of us. We should break with them and the likes of them. If socialism still has two souls ours is not theirs. 

Written by siptuactivist

May 30, 2023 at 9:15 pm

Mick Lynch – Rail Marine and Transport Union (Britain) – participates in solidarity with Ukraine

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Recently Mick Lynch visited Ireland, speaking at a well attended Robert Tressell commemoration in Liberty Hall, headquarters of Lynch’s political hero, the Easter 1916 Rising rebel James Connolly.

Mick Lynch understands that all on the left must stand with Ukraine.

Who on the Irish left comes anywhere close to this internationalist and revolutionary policy?

‘”The general secretary of the RMT rail union, Mick Lynch, refuted the government official’s accusations towards Ukraine: “I was in Ukraine when the Russian tanks invaded, and ASLEF deputy general secretary Simon Weller was also there to talk to the railway workers when the Russian bombs fell on Ukraine. And we are involved in the solidarity campaign with Ukraine.”‘

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Bakhmut Town; a tribute to Finbar, Cooper, and Dmitry – A ballad honours Finbar Cafferkey of Achill Island Co. Mayo

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In Bakhmut Town
To the tune of Roddy McCorley

Finbar Cafferkey from Achill Island County Mayo fought for the freedom of Ukraine and died in the streets of Bakhmut town.

https://soundcloud.com/user-310458959/bakhmut-town-a-tribute-to-finbar-cooper-and-dmitry

Oh come you who love freedom and a tale I’ll have you hear
Of comrades who came to Ukraine, as foreign volunteers
From Russia and America, Ireland and all around-
And side by side, they fought and died, on the streets of Bakhmut town

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Finbar Cafferkey – “Achill Island Man killed fighting Russian forces in Ukraine” – Russian Embassy in Dublin Threatens Irish Government

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Finbar Cafferkey’s death was front page headline news in one of the leading Irish daily newspapers, the Irish Times. The newspaper also reports :

Council of Europe says deportation of children from Ukraine is “genocide”

Irish Times, Friday April 28 2023, Front Page

Vladyslav Starodubtsev, a member of the Ukrainian organisation Sotsialnyi Rukh (Social Movement) issued the following tweet :

Vladyslav Starodubtsev (@VlStarodubtsev) tweeted at 8:36 pm on Thu, Apr 27, 2023:
Irish freedom fighter, who fought for Kurdish YPG and then in Armed forces of Ukraine (ZSU) died today. Glory to such persons, who are ready to defend a just cause and die for it. Glory to heroes
(https://twitter.com/VlStarodubtsev/status/1651656479089238037?t=hg_o8jGfkv05IuMtjkP_yw&s=03)

Finbar Cafferkey served with the same unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and died in the same battle as did his comrade, fellow internationalist, anarchist and revolutionary, Dmitry Petrov from Russia.

Taras Bilous – Sotsialnyi Rukh – wrote a long thread about Dmitry’s life.

Taras Bilous (@ahatanhel) tweeted at 7:19 am on Fri, Apr 28, 2023:
Dmitry was a co-founder of the Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists (BOAK), which sabotaged railway infrastructure in Russia since the start of the invasion.

He send his last word to them for publication in case he died. 9/9
https://t.co/3fzN82woaO https://t.co/dZlDhMsQmr
(https://twitter.com/ahatanhel/status/1651833602705969152?t=kRxCMOkigOV2psgr7F47Yg&s=03)

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A Russian Disinformation Empire in Oak Harbor, Washington – Donbas Devushka Sting takes campists and left-evasionists for a ride

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A Russian Disinformation Empire in Oak Harbor, Washington

James Doyle, an Irish correspondent based in Germany, describes a far-right pro Putin sting.

Donbass Devushka claims she’s from Luhansk, Ukraine. In reality she’s a Navy vet born in New Jersey.

Donbas Devushka Equals Sarah Bils : USA Navy Clerk and tropical fish fan.

The Donbas Devushka Sting : tankies and left-evasionists taken for a ride

James Doyle writes :

Just thought I’d share an interesting development arising from the recent “Pentagon Leaks” that seems to have escaped attention, or (as is more likely) has been ignored by large sections of the western left…

“Donbas Devushka”, one of the Campist/tankie/pro-Putinist “left”‘s favourite sources of “information” and Kremlinist propaganda from inside Ukraine, was a couple of days ago revealed to actually be an American ex-navy Servicewoman (discharged in 2021) and tropical fish shop owner from New Jersey named Sarah Bils. If you’ve been active at all in trying to combat disinformation over the course of this war you’ve no doubt come across this woman or at least people sharing her posts/podcasts and the claims she made on them.

She had been operating a major disinformation network – by her own admission with a staff of at least 15 – across various social media platforms since the Russian invasion began last February, becoming one of the top handful of pro Russian Propagandists across these platforms, all the while posing as a Russian-speaking pro-Palestinian Jewish woman (“Mila Medvedev”) from Lukhansk (she’s never been anywhere near Ukraine or Russia in reality).

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Delegates Give Standing Ovation to Speakers from the Trade Union of Education and Science Workers of Ukraine – Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) Conference 2023

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Gregor Kerr reports : “Very powerful address to INTO Congress by 2 reps of TU of Education and Science Workers of Ukraine. 2 standing ovations.”. Well done Kateryna Maliuta-Osaulova and Olga Chabaniuk.

Delegates at #INTOCongress23 were moved by the addresses of Kateryna Maliuta-Osaulova and Olha Chabaniuk of the Trade Union of Education and Science Workers of Ukraine this afternoon, giving them a standing ovation. Delegates heard there is no person in Ukraine who hasn’t felt the effects of war. In education, 3,120 educational institutions have been damaged.

One of the most painful consequences of teaching in the war is seeing the psychological breakdown of children and students, Congress heard.

After the speech, Ukrainian pupils from St Oliver’s NS Killarney, joined INTO President John Driscoll on stage, while guest speakers, Kateryna and Olha displayed the Ukrainian flag. #StandwithUkraine

Link Here : https://www.facebook.com/INTOnews