Archive for the ‘USA’ Category
The U.S. & Israeli War with Iran: What Should Be the Approach of a Principled Socialist Left? – Frieda Afary
Below is the revised text of a presentation by Frieda Afary to the South African organization, Zabalaza for Socialism on March 15, 2026.
Link :
These are key passages :
Globally, the Russian government has gained from this war because the price of oil has increased, and the Trump administration has lifted sanctions on Russia’s sale of oil. Russia has also gained because the anti-missile systems that Ukraine and Europe were buying from the U.S. to help defend Ukraine against Russia’s brutal imperialist invasion of that country are now going to the Middle East. Russia is also helping the Iranian government by sharing secret information about U.S. targets.
Frieda Afary, ESSF, March 15 2026
The Chinese government has also gained from this war, because the U.S. government will pay less attention to the Pacific Region and might even allow China to proceed with its plans to take over Taiwan.
IV. What Can International Progressives Do Now?
Frieda Afary, ESSF, March 15 2026
First: Do anything you can to stop this war. Educate, speak out, protest, put pressure on your government representatives and independent intellectuals. In the case of the United States, public opinion is currently 60% against this war. Most people don’t want to send their children to fight in the Middle East. Half the adult population is opposed to the Trump administration’s attacks on and detention/deportation of innocent immigrants. There is also a great deal of anger about the ways in which mostly wealthy men including Trump, other politicians and even academics have collaborated with and benefited from the late Jeffrey Epstein’s network for trafficking of women and girls for rape and sexual abuse. All of these questions need to be addressed in articulating an anti-war message.
Second: Reach out to progressives in the Middle East or Middle Eastern progressives abroad. Do not limit yourself to talking only about one struggle or one country in the Middle East.
Third: Oppose campism, take a clear stand against all global and regional capitalist-imperialist powers and defend the rights and humanity of the peoples that these powers are oppressing.
Fourth: Address key issues that are holding back our struggles: racial and ethnic discrimination, patriarchy, capitalist exploitation, and capitalist alienation.
The fall of Peter Mandelson and the many questions the British government must now answer
The Keir Starmer Labour government in Britain is in serious trouble despite having a huge parliamentary majority of around 170 seats.
Link :
The fall of Peter Mandelson and the many questions the British government must answer
No accident waiting to happen can ever have delivered on its promise so spectacularly as Lord Mandelson, with the continuous revelations of his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The decision by the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, to appoint Mandelson as ambassador in Washington DC always appeared a high-risk, high-reward strategy. But no reward could ever have repaid such risk.
There is a grim fascination in seeing a prominent public figure’s reputation incinerated in real time. Mandelson’s entreating emails to a convicted abuser and trafficker of minors were still quite recently sufficient of an embarrassment before he was then photographed urinating in public.
The new normal is to appear on front pages in his underpants. Next will come questions about the meaning of emails that appear to show him betraying the most cardinal principles of public office, for monetary gain, from a criminal.
Mandelson had clearly started 2026 with the intention of rehabilitating himself and re-entering public life: a Sunday morning BBC interview, columns in the Spectator, an interview in the Times. Journalists’ requests for comment were replied to. No longer.
What was striking across these appearances – given Mandelson’s talents – was his maladroitness. Not to have apologised to the victims of trafficking when pressed in that initial high-profile interview, only to realise his error and concede the following day did not bear the hallmark of a master of public relations.
Read the rest of this entry »Patrick’s Day 2026 in the Washington DC White House – Social Democrats Leader Holly Cairns TD Makes a Terrible Mistake – She should join the boycott
Boycotting the Trump White House’s Patrick’s Day Event in 2026 is a no-brainer for everybody on the left – but Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns TD thinks differently.
Her justification :
Speaking to reporters in Cork this morning ahead of the second day of the Social Democrat’s National Conference, Cairns said “given the height of contentious things coming from the White House at the moment it is perhaps more important than ever to use this unique platform that Ireland has”.
She said Ireland is a small country, but it can be a very influential one.
“We can be a really strong voice for peace. We think Micheál Martin should use this opportunity to use that strong voice to express the will of the Irish people,” said the SocDems leader.
Source – Journal.ie
Most political parties on the Irish left support a boycott of this nauseating event, with good reason.
In 2025, Donald Trump brutally humiliated Dublin government ministers by accepting his bowl of shamrock a few days before March 17 – which was reserved for the far-right racist, the kick-boxer Conor McGregor. See full reports here, and an excellent Dáil statement by Ruth Coppinger TD.
For many years Sinn Féin mistakenly attended White House Patrick’s Day events, but joined the boycott in 2025.
The SDLP leader Colum Eastwood issued this message in 2024
Labour Party Leader Ivana Bacik TD states :
Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik has said that if US president Donald Trump continues to threaten Europe, then it would not be appropriate for the Taoiseach to visit the White House for St Patrick’s Day.
“If diplomacy this week in Davos, if diplomacy over the coming weeks doesn’t succeed in addressing the appalling threats being made by Trump, then of course Ireland must take its place in solidarity with European leaders who are now calling Trump a bully,” she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
“And we cannot go to Washington with shamrocks certainly in that context, and we cannot allow US planes to use Shannon and, indeed, other European countries which have US bases I am sure are having this very same conversation.
“Because it is unthinkable that a US which is militarily threatening a sovereign state in Europe could be allowed to use European countries as military bases for that.”
Bacik said the US president has “succeeded in normalising the utterly unacceptable”.
“What we’ve seen in the just a year since he took office, we’ve seen a sort of really creeping fascism taking over in the US.”
The Social Democrats need to change tack, and boycott the 2026 Patrick’s Day Trump event in the Washington DC White House.
John Meehan February 8 2026
Petition Link :
Petition – No Shamrocks for Trump – Boycott White House Patrick’s Day 2026
To: All politicians & political parties on the Island of Ireland
No Shamrocks for Trump – Boycott the White House 2026
We are asking politicians & political parties on the Island of Ireland – to boycott The White House on St. Patrick’s Day.
Why is this important?
The genocide in Gaza continues despite a supposed “ceasefire”. International journalists are still not allowed into Gaza or the West Bank because Israel does not want the world to know what it is doing as it tries to exterminate Palestinians.
While the genocide has been livestreamed to the world since October 7 2023, we still do not know how many people have died as a result. We know that at least 70,000 people have been killed by the Israeli army but have no figures for the number who have died because of lack of medicine for chronic conditions like diabetes, epilepsy, heart conditions etc. Nor do we know how many have died of cancer or other curable conditions. Every step of this genocide has been funded and supported by the United States.
Now Trump has launched his Gaza “Board of Peace” and his son-in-law Jared Kushner shared slides at the launch of the “Board of Peace” showing high rise buildings and fancy hotels built on the bones of those killed in the genocide. Netanyahu, who is on this “Board of Peace” was unable to attend the launch as it was in Switzerland where he would be arrested under the International Arrest Warrant issued because of the genocide.
The reasons why Irish politicians and political parties should not pay homage to Trump have multiplied since the start of this year – the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro is just one example.
We call on all political parties on the island of Ireland to listen to the people and not go to Washington on St. Patrick’s Day to shake hands soaked with the blood of Palestinians.
“Staggering Range of Jeffrey Epstein’s Social Network – A self-help group for the 0.01 per cent”
The Financial Times has published a very thorough and well-researched summary of Jeffrey Epstein’s activities.
Concerning the campist leftist Noam Chomsky See also :
Sometimes a table can tell a whole story. Against a wall in Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, an antique console table boasted more than a dozen framed photographs, including some of the world’s most recognisable people. There is a Democratic president and a Republican president, a leftwing intellectual and a rightwing activist firebrand. There are figures from Wall Street, from Silicon Valley and from the British royal family. The pictures even include Mick Jagger, Fidel Castro and Pope John Paul II.
Jeffrey Epstein’s Gallery 
Noam Chomsky, Left-Wing Campiist Intellectual, and Jeffrey Epstein 
Peter Mandelson, Sacked British Ambassador to the USA, investigated by Brit Cops 
Andrew Mountbatter Windsor, Ex-Brit Prince, with a wealthy Saudi Arabia strongman 
US far-right activist Steve Bannon with Jeffrey Epstein
While the core of the Epstein saga will always be his web of sexual abusers and the women and girls they preyed on, every new set of messages released by the US justice department reveals the staggering range of his social network and the relationships he was able to sustain. Epstein’s emails read like a self-help group for the 0.01 per cent. How did a college dropout from a working-class family in Brooklyn manage to do it?
Read the rest of this entry »“Don’t you dare call Epstein a paedophile” – Feared Irish lawyer from Belfast, Paul Tweed, threatened media on behalf of the late convicted criminal Jeffrey Epstein
Individuals operating within the network created by the late Jeffrey Epstein hired numerous people who threatened media organisations which were investigating a vast child abuse and financial corruption racket. One such individual was the Belfast Lawyer Paul Tweed (see below, a devastating story written by the Belfast Telegraph’s Sam McBride).
Jeffrey Epstein became a convicted criminal in 2008.
Don’t you dare call Epstein a paedophile:
Inside story of leading NI lawyer’s work to clean up vile billionaire’s image… threatening the media on his behalf
Read the rest of this entry »Senator George Mitchell’s Links to Convicted Criminals Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein – Belfast University Removes a Bust
Organisations linked to former USA Senator George Mitchell are removing the man’s name from their projects :
US-IRELAND ALLIANCE TO REMOVE NAME OF SENATOR GEORGE J. MITCHELL FROM ITS PRESTIGIOUS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
February 1, 2026. The board of directors of the US-Ireland Alliance has unanimously agreed that its George J. Michell Scholarship program should no longer bear the former Senator’s name. The decision was made due to new information that has come to light as part of the release of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein by the Department of Justice on Friday, according to Trina Vargo, founder and president of the US-Ireland Alliance.
A bust of Mitchell on the grounds of Queen’s University Belfast is gone – from February 2 2026.
Credible accusations detailing Mitchell’s alleged Epstein links have been on the public record for more than four years – but the former Senator’s Irish establishment supporters took no action.
Here is an extract from a story published on this blog in January 2022.
John Meehan February 3 2026
Read the rest of this entry »“Puppets on a Kremlin String” – The Marsh Family
The Marsh Family have released many left-wing songs – this one expresses solidarity with Ukraine.
Link :
Marsh Family
On 1 March 2025, the family uploaded “Puppets on a Kremlin String,” about the betrayal of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy by Donald Trump and JD Vance to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, to the tune of Coldplay’s song “Viva La Vida“. The Marshes write, “Our version takes the sense of history, the pain, the trauma, and the notion of world rule, and applies it to the most disgusting media spectacle to date – with already several to choose from – of the new US administration. Like many around the world, as well as disheartened friends in the US, we watched the undignified ambush of Zelensky’s trip to the White House with dismay and pity. It was a very unbecoming sight – just at a human level – even without all the higher stakes, deals, implications, and nightmares unfolding as another win is handed to Putin, and more pressure placed on Ukraine. Like many we are hoping for a miraculous path forward that can somehow turn Trump’s intensity into an outcome that can transform into a lasting peace – but given how misdirected the fury and energy and narrative is at the moment, it’s quite hard to see it turning out other than a quickfire US withdrawal of support. If that happens, we’re in a cowardly new world.”
“Desperate for the Limelight” – in Britain Far Right Reform Recruits Dodgy Conservatives – bilious stomach cramps predicted
Dirty personalized politics are ugly.
A British Tory statement about their former colleague Suella Braverman (and recent government minister) stated she had mental health problems. Some trusting souls may believe party leader Kemi Badenoch and her colleagues sincerely regret that low blow. Possibly, if bad publicity becomes a serious difficulty, a very junior staffer will be blamed and sacrificed. But don’t hold your breath.
Let’s remind ourselves of a similar, and famous, Lyndon Baines Johnson dirty trick which allegedly crushed an election opponent in 1950’s Texas.
“Christ, we can’t get away with calling him a pig-fucker,” the campaign manager protested.
“Nobody’s going to believe a thing like that”. “I know,” Johnson replied. “But let’s make the son of a bitch deny it.”
LBJ let the son of a bitch deny it dirty trick hoax
LBJ went on to greater things and became President of the USA in 1963 after John F Kennedy was assassinated.
Very little political substance divides the Badenoch tories and the Nigel Farage reformites.
A correspondent notes “Suella Braverman is clearly a bloody awful figure but (it is) a low blow for the Tory leadership to comment on her mental health.” “The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health” is all a bit “she looks tired.” Braverman is a careerist racist. That’s more than enough to criticise.”
Mainstream British politics is in deep sewers.
This sludge has dangerous implications for Ireland. As things stand now Reform is on course to win the next British general election in 2029.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 