Lessons for Today the infiltration of the Black Panther Party - Cointelpro revisited by Brother Eddie Conway

Brother Eddie Conway  describes the campaign by police agencies to destroy the Black Panthers, and how he joined the Baltimore chapter which he later found out was founded by an agent of the NSA

Brother Eddie Conway talks about the approximately 600 infiltrators, agents provocateurs in the Black Panther Party.

Today while we have the electromagnetic spectrum in addition under survelliance by the `State the basic techniques of Counterintelpro are still in use not only in USA but worldwide and a study of the counterintelpro techniques by revolutionaries is an essential requirement for today political activists.

Is the anti-ISIS Campaign an Attempt to Renew War Against Assad?

Glen Ford: The U.S.-Saudi strategy of using jihadists as proxies in their wars is collapsing before our very eyes

Ukraine's uprising against Nato, neoliberals and oligarchs - an interview with Boris Kagarlitsky by Feyzi Ismail for Counterfire

Democracy and Class Struggle publish this interview for information - we do not endorse all of Boris Kargalitskys views but we value his analysis.

We have also recently be made aware of slanderous attacks on Boris Kargalitsky by liberals especially by Anton-shekhovtsov who is smearing him as a fascist collaborator and Putin's agent for his analysis of Ukrainian crisis. 

While we have disagreements with Boris Kargalitsky we reject those outrageous smears on Kargalitsky from this man Anton-shekhovtsov who basically is funded by George Soros and peddles the philosophy of Michael J Sandel a receipient of Goldman Sachs award.

Kargalitsky is with the people Anton - Shetkhovtsov is with the enemy ! 

 

If in doubt look at Anton - shekhovtstov's facebook and you see him providing a link praising the Azov Battalion of the Social National Assembly of Ukraine which even mainstream publications call this battalion Nazis - so much for George Soros and the bought and paid for Anti Fascism of fools. Smash Ukrainian Fascism and its apologists like Anton - Shetkhovtsov the real enemy within.

Despite the ceasefire the crisis in Ukraine is far from resolved. Feyzi Ismail talks to Russian Marxist and dissident Boris Kagarlitsky about the background to the current situation

What are the origins of the crisis in Ukraine and why has the conflict erupted in recent months?

The origins of the crisis in Ukraine are threefold. The first thing is that Ukraine was designed by planners from Moscow as one element in a complex planned economy. The territories that form Ukraine were put together not because of any historical, cultural or ethnic reasons, but to organise complex planning – they wanted to link the industrial areas in the east with ports in the south, such as Odessa and Crimea, together with the agrarian west. That was the logic. Once this logic was destroyed with the end of the Soviet Union, this territory as an integrated unity started falling apart, and lost its raison d’être.

The end of the Soviet Union also allowed cultural divisions to flourish, which is the second source of the crisis. Differences over language, for example, became much more important than before. Nationalist policies to impose a single Ukrainian language were absurd, however, because there are far more Ukrainians who speak Russian than Ukrainian – about a third are ethnic Russians and another third identify themselves as Russian-speaking Ukrainians. There are many people who speak both languages equally, but Russian is much more widespread than Ukrainian, and was even on the rise in the post-independence period. This is because the world market favours the dominant language, the language of business, trade and production. The market system increased existing contradictions within society and created the preconditions for more cultural conflicts. The liberal media, however, presents these conflicts as purely cultural, while in fact the underlying reasons are related to the economy and institutions.

The third aspect of the crisis relates to the Ukrainian economy. In the post-Soviet period, Ukraine became an oligarchy in the same way as Russia, but with fewer resources. The quantity of resources that Russia possessed allowed Putin to create a system of permanent and self-reproducing compromise. Putin’s rule is based on permanent consensus-building, first among the elites and, once there is an elite consensus, then an attempt is made to ensure this consensus acceptable to the rest of the population through welfare measures and so on. The idea is to focus on consumption – as compensation for a lack of political activity – and everybody is more or less happy. But the Ukrainian oligarchy has never had enough financial and material resources to facilitate such compromise. Unlike Russian oil, Ukrainian steel is much more vulnerable on the world market. This has led to permanent conflict between different oligarchic clans for control over existing public resources, which was the basis of so-called Ukrainian democracy. In that sense Ukraine is a typical oligarchic republic, in that it denies access to politics for ordinary people, but at the same time generates real pluralism for the oligarchy. This system had its crises, but after every single crisis they managed to establish one or another compromise, and these were not terminal for political stability. That is, until the global economic crisis in 2008.

This crisis not only undermined the capacity of the Ukrainian elite to achieve compromise but it also brought in new players such as the EU, the US and Nato. Given the level of crisis in the West, the important factor for stabilising the system became its expansion. And the EU is very much in trouble, especially in the south – the capacity of these societies to reproduce themselves is so undermined by neoliberal policies – that you can hardly say how to keep these societies functioning without moving away from neoliberalism. But this is precisely what the neoliberal elites are not going to allow. The only chance to escape or solve these contradictions is to expand the system, and shift more resources into the system.

Is there a Scottish Road to Socialism ? A Debate with SSP, Labour and Communist Parties of Scotland and Britain

This debate reflects the variety of views on the Left in Scotland about the question of independence and  Democracy and Class Struggle does not endorse any of the speakers views.

We publish this old debate to provide background to the current Scottish Referendum from a reformist socialist and revisionist communist view and we express our own revolutionary Maoist communist view in opposition to these views.

We think that the speaker from the Communist Party of Scotland Eric Canning comes nearest to the central question, that should be addressed by those interested in a Scottish Socialist Republic namely that of the British State and its smashing which we have addressed here.

The spokesperson for the Communist Party of Britain Professor John Foster has still not reputured from the revisionist Parliamentary British Road to Socialism that emerged in the 1950's which is why they have become increasingly irrevelvant over time not only in Scotland but Britain has an organisation.

Democracy and Class Struggle says that it is delusional if the Scottish Left think that an Independent Scottish Socialist Republic can be legislated through the Scottish Parliament or any other bourgeois institution .

The Scottish people will have to create new Scottish institutions of direct democracy like a Scottish Republican Congress if they want to challenge the British State.

The Scottish Road to Socialism discussed by the speakers above sounds like another version of the Parliamentarism of the British Road to Socialism also known as the revisionists road to obilivion.

If we look at Norwegian or Irish Independence in the 20th century in Western Europe Scottish Socialists and Communists will need at minimum to create a Scottish Citizens Army to support the Scottish Republican Congress if they truely want to introduce independence and Socialism in Scotland.

Socialism in Scotland will be opposed by the British State with all the perfidiousness it can muster which has been on display to the world for centuries and no one should be ignorant of it least of all socialists and communists.

John Maclean Scotland's great son and inspirer of the idea of an Independent Scottish Socialist Republic was a victim of that perfidy.

NATO Summit : 4000 more NATO troops in Eastern Europe : 15 million Euros for Ukraine Military : New NATO Spearhead Forces

This NATO Summit of flipping the script is an old story has  the Roman writer Tacitus reminds us

"They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace"

Flipping the Script

Commonly used in rap battles, it means to take what somebody said against you and to use it against them

Second Report : RED BLOCK at Anti NATO protest march in Wales : The March to Celtic Manor on September 4th 2014

The Role of Russia and NATO in Ukraine's Civil War

Democracy and Class Struggle agrees with David Mandel's emphasis on the internal contradictions in the Ukraine and their exploitation by external forces like US and Russia.

This interview expresses the personal opinions of David Mandel, and Democracy and Class Struggle like him have been advocates of a Federal solution to Ukraine's National and Regional Questions.

However we have seen no serious movement in this direction from Kiev or  even from Donetsk and Lugansk and a rejection of both of the Federal solution.

The Time for Federalism may have already passed

Politics is not determined by wishful thinking but by class and national struggle and that clearly indicates the existence has a result of Kiev's War on the People of the Donbass of separate Republics in Donetsk and Lugansk.

If such a War had not been waged by Kiev, a Federal Solution may have been possible but that is wishful thinking now - it has been waged and the dead are much higher than offical figures and is possibily in tens of thousands and marks the reason why the Republics of Lugansk and Donetsk exist in the first place.

While nothing is impossible, it is highly unlikely they will ever be re-incoporated into a Kiev based unitary State again has their wish has far back as 1994 for Federalisation was also completely ignored following the foundation of the Ukrainian State in 1991.

The blood and sacrifice of the people of Donetsk and Lugansk have earned them the right on the political stage to this time have their rights asserted and not ignored has in the past.

It has also at last produced for them local leaders like Aleksandr Vladimirovich Zakharchenko and not strange right wing politicos from Russia who are better off doing ceremonial Tsarist battles than fighting in the trenches of class and national war has the recent victories against Kiev have shown.

A poll by YouGov for the Sunday Times sent shockwaves through the British political establishment north and south of the border as it showed the yes camp had 51% to 49% for no, excluding the don't knows

"The people of Scotland are to be offered a historic opportunity to devise a federal future for their country before next year's general election, it emerged on Saturday night, as a shock new poll gave the campaign for independence a narrow lead for the first time.

Amid signs of panic and recrimination among unionist ranks about the prospects of a yes vote on 18 September, the Observer has learned that a devolution announcement designed to halt the nationalist bandwagon is due to be made within days by the anti-independence camp.

The plan, in the event of a no vote, is that people from all parts of Scottish society – rather than just politicians – would be invited to take part in a Scottish conference or convention that would decide on further large-scale transfers of power from London to Holyrood.

A poll by YouGov for the Sunday Times sent shockwaves through the political establishment north and south of the border as it showed the yes camp had 51% to 49% for no, excluding the don't knows. Better Together leader Alistair Darling said: "These polls can and must now serve as a wake-up call to anyone who thought the referendum was a foregone conclusion."

Interesting Speculation from consitutional experts of the British Queen appointing a Governor General for Scotland.

John Maclean

                                                       
Democracy and Class Struggle  says the fighting Spirit of John Maclean returns has the British State enters into an historic Crisis - the ideas of the most dangerous man in Britain according to Basil Thompson head of British Military Intelligence are in the process of revival.

The idea of a Independent Scottish Socialist Republic

The referendum Yes vote will open the road to future class struggle for a Scottish Republic and Socialism and the re building of a revolutionary Left and Communist Movement in Scotland.

We are under no illusions the class struggle in Scotland is just beginning and the road to national and social liberation for Scotland will be a rough and tough one given the perfidiousness of the British Ruling Class.

The British State has been a dead end for the working class in Scotland, England and Wales and Kernow and its demise or weakening is a prerequisite for opening up the road to class struggle for socialism in the British Isles has a whole.

Lenin was one of those few communists or socialists who saw the opportunity that a national question and national referendums posed in the struggle for democracy to advance the class struggle and defended the Irish Easter Rising against the "pure socialists" which called it a Nationalist putsch in 1916.

Lenin himself in 1913 has written some "pure socialist" words but the practice of 1916 in Ireland informed his thinking and developed his thought on the dialectic of national and class struggle

Today we have the "pure socialists" like George Galloway and psudeo marxists of all hues defending the integrity of the British State has an achievement of the working class (like its declining Welfare State)  - it is like praising the prison governor for letting you have prison privileges.

The British State and the British Ruling Class is an enemy of the struggle of the working class in Scotland, England, Wales and Kernow and historic enemy of the Irish People - its crisis, and its destruction, its potential smashing opens up new possibilities in our struggle in British Isles.

Seize the time and the opportunties to advance the class struggle for socialism - reject the Gallow Ways of the British State for the building of bases for socialism in Scotland or Wales or Kernow to help the final liberation of the English Working Class from its British Ruling Class.

Long Live Marxism Leninism Maoism - For National and Social Liberation in the British Isles

British authorities have been accused of funding a four-year intelligence operation in Nepal that led to Maoist rebels being arrested, tortured and killed during the country’s civil war.

Thomas Bell, the author of a new book on the conflict, says MI6 funded safe houses and provided training in surveillance and counter-insurgency tactics to Nepal’s army and spy agency, the National Investigation Department (NID) under “Operation Mustang”, launched in 2002.

Nepal’s decade-long civil war left more than 16,000 dead, with rebels and security forces accused of serious human rights violations including killings, rapes, torture and disappearances.

“According to senior Nepalese intelligence and army officials involved in the operation, British aid greatly strengthened their performance and led to about 100 arrests,” said Bell, whose book Kathmandu is released in south Asia on Thursday.

“It’s difficult to put an exact number on it, but certainly some of those who were arrested were tortured and disappeared,” he said.

Maoist commander Sadhuram Devkota, known by his nom-de-guerre Prashant, was among those captured during Operation Mustang, in November 2004. Six weeks later, he was found hanging from a low window in his cell. Officials said he had committed suicide.

Despite protests, no independent investigation was ever carried out.

British authorities helped construct a bug-proof building in the NID headquarters, created a secure radio network for communications and supplied everything from cameras to computers to mobile phones and night vision binoculars, according to Bell’s sources in the Nepalese security establishment.

“The agency also sent a small number of British officers to Nepal, around four or five – some tied to the embassy, others operating separately,” Bell said.

The officers gave the Nepalese training in how to place bugs, how to penetrate rebel networks and how to groom informers.

Bell spent about a year interviewing some 20 highly-placed sources to corroborate the details of the operation, and said a senior western official told him the operation was cleared by Britain’s Foreign Office.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman told AFP: “We do not comment on intelligence matters but, as we have repeatedly made clear, the UK does not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.

“In no circumstances will UK personnel ever be authorised to take such action; we neither condone such activity, nor do we ask others to do it on our behalf.

“We would never authorise any action in the knowledge or belief that torture would take place at the hands of a third party.”

A Nepalese general with close knowledge of the operation told Bell there was no doubt British authorities realised that some of the arrested suspects would be tortured and killed.

“Being British they must have thought about human rights also, but they knew exactly what was happening to them,” the general said. “The thing must have been approved at a high level.”

Bell said it was “a peculiar contradiction that while calling for an end to abuses ... the British were secretly giving very significant help in arresting targets whom they knew were very likely to be tortured”.

Bell covered Nepal’s civil war from 2002 to 2007, reporting for the Economist and the South China Morning Post.

Tejshree Thapa, senior researcher at the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, told AFP: “Nepal’s army was known by 2002 to be an abusive force, responsible for ... summary executions, torture, custodial detentions.

“To support such an army is tantamount to entrenching and encouraging abuse and impunity.”

Nepal army spokesman Jagdish Chandra Pokharel denied all knowledge of the operation, which apparently continued even after then-king Gyanendra seized direct control in February 2005, prompting the British to publicly suspend all military aid to the country.

“I have no idea about MI6 training the Nepal army or any Operation Mustang,” Pokharel told AFP.

Nepal is in the (never-ending) process of drafting a new constitution, a key step in a stalled peace process begun after the end of the civil war in 2006.

First Report : Red Block Anti NATO Protest - The March to Celtic Manor Newport - Wales

The Maoist Red Block at the march to Celtic Manor Newport the first demonstration in many years when Maoists have outnumbered Trotskyists on a march in British Isles.

The RED BLOCK consists of Maoist  comrades from Norway and Germany, England and Wales

More Reports to follow on the Anti NATO Maoist Camp and the RED BLOCK participation in the March to the NATO war planning meeting at Celtic Manor Newport in Wales

Democracy and Class Struggle is now back on social media after having closed down all our social media activity during the NATO Summit due to the extraordinary level of survelliance including a drone over our Maoist Camp on Tuesday 2nd September 2014.