Forwarded from Red Rick
The social-chauvinists are our class enemies, they are bourgeois within the working-class movement. They represent a stratum, or groups, or sections of the working class which objectively have been bribed by the bourgeoisie (by better wages, positions of honour, etc.), and which help their own bourgeoisie to plunder and oppress small and weak peoples and to fight for the division of the capitalist spoils.
- Lenin,
The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution.
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Systems of control expanding. The Electoral Commission.
The government is proposing to bring the Electoral Commission, the body that regulates elections and party funding, directly under parliamentary control. That's not to say this is currently a body that disputes government overtures, but at least it currently has a level of autonomy. The move comes through the Elections Act framework that is being pushed by senior Conservatives embedded in state structures, with quiet nods from figures in Starmer’s circle who deceitful refer to this “streamlining oversight” as apparently modernisation.
The Commission currently operates semi-independently, with powers to investigate parliamentary parties, enforce spending limits, and issue sanctions.
Under this new plan idea the commissions priorities would be set by government ministers. Essentially the body that polices elections would be controlled by the very parties it supposed to investigate.
Ramifications:
Investigations into ruling party donations or breaches could be delayed, diluted, or shut down entirely on a whim.
Smaller parties and protest movements would face tighter scrutiny as the establishment tightens its grip.
It shifts Britain closer to a managed democracy. We already concede that parliament, and elections, are not vehicles for change, but hard fought reforms that workers fight for to help their current conditions become even more impossible.
Plausibility:
This isn’t simply speculative. Elements of the Elections Act 2022 already introduced a “strategy and policy statement” mechanism giving ministers power to direct the Commission in their preferred direction. What’s floated now is a full capture — a consolidation that watchdogs and constitutional lawyers are calling a breach of democratic norms.
The Electoral Commission was set up in 2000, in an attempt to keep party funding and election rules out of direct government hands. Weak and corrupted though it has often been, it at least held the space for scrutiny. Pulling it into ministerial control shreds even that minimal independence.
It is a blatant lie that this is about fixing inefficiency — it’s about consolidating class rule. When the referee belongs to one team, the game is already rigged. The ruling class doesn’t need to abolish elections, just neuter the bodies that could expose their corruption. Democracy becomes brand management while capital keeps its hold.
The Class Consciousness Project.
The government is proposing to bring the Electoral Commission, the body that regulates elections and party funding, directly under parliamentary control. That's not to say this is currently a body that disputes government overtures, but at least it currently has a level of autonomy. The move comes through the Elections Act framework that is being pushed by senior Conservatives embedded in state structures, with quiet nods from figures in Starmer’s circle who deceitful refer to this “streamlining oversight” as apparently modernisation.
The Commission currently operates semi-independently, with powers to investigate parliamentary parties, enforce spending limits, and issue sanctions.
Under this new plan idea the commissions priorities would be set by government ministers. Essentially the body that polices elections would be controlled by the very parties it supposed to investigate.
Ramifications:
Investigations into ruling party donations or breaches could be delayed, diluted, or shut down entirely on a whim.
Smaller parties and protest movements would face tighter scrutiny as the establishment tightens its grip.
It shifts Britain closer to a managed democracy. We already concede that parliament, and elections, are not vehicles for change, but hard fought reforms that workers fight for to help their current conditions become even more impossible.
Plausibility:
This isn’t simply speculative. Elements of the Elections Act 2022 already introduced a “strategy and policy statement” mechanism giving ministers power to direct the Commission in their preferred direction. What’s floated now is a full capture — a consolidation that watchdogs and constitutional lawyers are calling a breach of democratic norms.
The Electoral Commission was set up in 2000, in an attempt to keep party funding and election rules out of direct government hands. Weak and corrupted though it has often been, it at least held the space for scrutiny. Pulling it into ministerial control shreds even that minimal independence.
It is a blatant lie that this is about fixing inefficiency — it’s about consolidating class rule. When the referee belongs to one team, the game is already rigged. The ruling class doesn’t need to abolish elections, just neuter the bodies that could expose their corruption. Democracy becomes brand management while capital keeps its hold.
The Class Consciousness Project.
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Forwarded from Beorn and The Shieldmaiden
Brecht on Liberalism and Fascism
“The intellectuals cast a veil over the dictatorial character of bourgeois democracy not least by presenting democracy as the absolute opposite of fascism, not as just another natural phase of it where the bourgeois dictatorship is revealed in a more open form.”
~ Bertolt Brecht
Kudos to RussianBaZa channel for inspiration and the quote!
#Brecht
@BeornAndTheShieldmaiden
🚀 Boost🚀
“The intellectuals cast a veil over the dictatorial character of bourgeois democracy not least by presenting democracy as the absolute opposite of fascism, not as just another natural phase of it where the bourgeois dictatorship is revealed in a more open form.”
~ Bertolt Brecht
Kudos to RussianBaZa channel for inspiration and the quote!
#Brecht
@BeornAndTheShieldmaiden
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From the golden age of football. Before the premier league and the sky money. Before all seater stadiums and concourses with hot dogs, nachos, all manner of different vendors.
These days the football mattered and it was rooted in the local community. You'd be standing next to your school friends and work colleagues. No tickets sold on the internet for hundreds of pounds, pricing our local supporters.
Good times.
These days the football mattered and it was rooted in the local community. You'd be standing next to your school friends and work colleagues. No tickets sold on the internet for hundreds of pounds, pricing our local supporters.
Good times.
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Reading FC: A Club Bled Dry
Reading FC, once a stable Championship side, has been pushed to the brink under owner Dai Yongge. Years of mismanagement, mounting debts, and even late wage payments have left the club in freefall. Players and staff have gone unpaid, the training ground was temporarily closed, and the club faces repeated EFL sanctions. Fans now rally under the banner: Sell Before We Dai.
This isn’t just the bad luck some clubs can succumb too. Yongge bought the club in 2017, loaded it with debt, and failed to meet financial fair play requirements. Instead of investment that supporters of clubs like Reading dream of when a new owner takes over, its supporters have suffered from deductions and transfer bans with administration close by.
Reading’s collapse exposes the wider rot in English football: owners treat clubs as private assets to be stripped, while regulators only step in when it’s too late. The supporters who built the identity of the club are left powerless.
These capitalist investers don't understand, or care, that football clubs are not businesses like any other. They are community institutions. Left in the hands of speculators, they can be destroyed overnight.
Reading FC, once a stable Championship side, has been pushed to the brink under owner Dai Yongge. Years of mismanagement, mounting debts, and even late wage payments have left the club in freefall. Players and staff have gone unpaid, the training ground was temporarily closed, and the club faces repeated EFL sanctions. Fans now rally under the banner: Sell Before We Dai.
This isn’t just the bad luck some clubs can succumb too. Yongge bought the club in 2017, loaded it with debt, and failed to meet financial fair play requirements. Instead of investment that supporters of clubs like Reading dream of when a new owner takes over, its supporters have suffered from deductions and transfer bans with administration close by.
Reading’s collapse exposes the wider rot in English football: owners treat clubs as private assets to be stripped, while regulators only step in when it’s too late. The supporters who built the identity of the club are left powerless.
These capitalist investers don't understand, or care, that football clubs are not businesses like any other. They are community institutions. Left in the hands of speculators, they can be destroyed overnight.
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Forwarded from Marx Engels Lenin Institute
One of the very worst mistakes made by the old Communist Party in Britain was to propagate the idea that Britain had become merely a tool of the US imperialists and had "lost sovereignty" as a result. This was a mistake that the Soviet leadership was more than prepared to go along with in the mistaken belief that some kind of united front against US imperialism could be forged in Britain. This was a mistake because, for all the Brit ruling class had to make concessions to the US they retained their ability to exploit the neo-colonial world for many decades as part of their alliance with the US. And it is an alliance which was chosen to retain the power of the Brit ruling class, not an occupation. The brit ruling class constantly haggle with and try to influence the US and have been very successful in allying with the most reactionary factions in the US itself.
What the old CPGB ended up doing was effectively pretending that British imperialism no longer existed, this edition to very eccentric and reactionary turns from the British maoists later when they started to claim that Britain was an oppressed nation, this led aome in the direction of fascism.
The consistent failure though in Britain by most "marxists" is their blindness to the nature of British imperialism and this remains the case to this day.
What the old CPGB ended up doing was effectively pretending that British imperialism no longer existed, this edition to very eccentric and reactionary turns from the British maoists later when they started to claim that Britain was an oppressed nation, this led aome in the direction of fascism.
The consistent failure though in Britain by most "marxists" is their blindness to the nature of British imperialism and this remains the case to this day.
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An aid flotilla in international waters, carrying food and medicine for the suffering people of Gaza, was seized by Israeli forces. The crew have been arrested, including Greta Thunberg and Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla, and Israel has said they will be deported back to Europe. Greta was arrested earlier this year in another flotilla attempting to deliver aid.
Flotillas carrying activists have tried this before with deadly repercussions. The Mavi Marmara in 2010 saw activists gunned down by Israeli commandos.
Fortunately this time no one was killed. Israel can't to afford murder these activists in cold blood due to the surge in anti-israel sentiments around the world and this time the world is watching.
Flotillas carrying activists have tried this before with deadly repercussions. The Mavi Marmara in 2010 saw activists gunned down by Israeli commandos.
Fortunately this time no one was killed. Israel can't to afford murder these activists in cold blood due to the surge in anti-israel sentiments around the world and this time the world is watching.
Forwarded from Marx Engels Lenin Institute
87 years ago, on the night of September 29 to 30, 1938, in Munich, the heads of government of Great Britain (N. Chamberlain), France (E. Daladier), fascist Germany (A. Hitler), and fascist Italy (B. Mussolini), with behind-the-scenes support from the USA, signed an agreement on the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany (the "Munich Agreement").
Also, on September 30, 1938, a declaration of mutual non-aggression was signed between Great Britain and Germany; a similar declaration was signed later, on December 6, between Germany and France.
The key elements in the immediate preparation of the Munich Agreement included: the demands put forward by the fascist Sudeten German party Henlein under Hitler's instructions, which essentially implied Czechoslovakia's renunciation of sovereignty over the Sudetenland (April 24); maneuvers by Anglo-French diplomacy aimed at justifying the forthcoming deal with the aggressor to public opinion and persuading Czechoslovakia to capitulate (the Rensimen mission); the Sudeten fascists' rebellion on September 13, suppressed by Czechoslovak armed forces; the Berchtesgaden meeting, during which Chamberlain basically agreed to Hitler's demand to transfer the border Czechoslovak territories to Germany (September 15); the Anglo-French ultimatum demanding the transfer of part of Czechoslovak territory to Germany (September 18), accepted on September 21 by Czechoslovak President E. Benes; Chamberlain's meeting with Hitler in Bad Godesberg to discuss new, even harsher demands from the German government on Czechoslovakia (September 22).
The Munich Agreement provided for the transfer of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany with all facilities and fortifications, factories, plants, raw material stocks, communication routes, etc. (on October 1, 1938, the German Wehrmacht invaded Czechoslovakia and occupied the Sudetenland), satisfaction of Poland's territorial claims at Czechoslovakia's expense (on October 2, the Teschen region was occupied by Poland) and Hungary's (on November 2, 1938, Hungary received the southern districts of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus' (modern Zakarpattia region of Ukraine) with the cities of Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, and Berehove), and a "guarantee" by the agreement participants of the new borders of Czechoslovakia against unprovoked aggression (the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 revealed the false nature of these "guarantees").
The agreement signed in Munich became one of the most striking manifestations of the "appeasement" policy pursued on the eve of World War II by the governments of Great Britain and France, aiming to reach a pact with fascist Germany, divert fascist aggression away from Great Britain and France at the expense of Central and Southeastern European countries, and direct it eastward, against the Soviet Union.
The Munich Agreement became an important milestone in the unleashing of World War II.
This is a translation of a post that originally appeared on the Kommunisti Mir channel
Also, on September 30, 1938, a declaration of mutual non-aggression was signed between Great Britain and Germany; a similar declaration was signed later, on December 6, between Germany and France.
The key elements in the immediate preparation of the Munich Agreement included: the demands put forward by the fascist Sudeten German party Henlein under Hitler's instructions, which essentially implied Czechoslovakia's renunciation of sovereignty over the Sudetenland (April 24); maneuvers by Anglo-French diplomacy aimed at justifying the forthcoming deal with the aggressor to public opinion and persuading Czechoslovakia to capitulate (the Rensimen mission); the Sudeten fascists' rebellion on September 13, suppressed by Czechoslovak armed forces; the Berchtesgaden meeting, during which Chamberlain basically agreed to Hitler's demand to transfer the border Czechoslovak territories to Germany (September 15); the Anglo-French ultimatum demanding the transfer of part of Czechoslovak territory to Germany (September 18), accepted on September 21 by Czechoslovak President E. Benes; Chamberlain's meeting with Hitler in Bad Godesberg to discuss new, even harsher demands from the German government on Czechoslovakia (September 22).
The Munich Agreement provided for the transfer of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany with all facilities and fortifications, factories, plants, raw material stocks, communication routes, etc. (on October 1, 1938, the German Wehrmacht invaded Czechoslovakia and occupied the Sudetenland), satisfaction of Poland's territorial claims at Czechoslovakia's expense (on October 2, the Teschen region was occupied by Poland) and Hungary's (on November 2, 1938, Hungary received the southern districts of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus' (modern Zakarpattia region of Ukraine) with the cities of Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, and Berehove), and a "guarantee" by the agreement participants of the new borders of Czechoslovakia against unprovoked aggression (the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 revealed the false nature of these "guarantees").
The agreement signed in Munich became one of the most striking manifestations of the "appeasement" policy pursued on the eve of World War II by the governments of Great Britain and France, aiming to reach a pact with fascist Germany, divert fascist aggression away from Great Britain and France at the expense of Central and Southeastern European countries, and direct it eastward, against the Soviet Union.
The Munich Agreement became an important milestone in the unleashing of World War II.
This is a translation of a post that originally appeared on the Kommunisti Mir channel
When the United States, Israel or their proxies, bomb civilians, it’s always called “unfortunate but necessary.”
When any nation outside the imperial orbit dares to defend itself or act independently, it’s immediately branded a “war crime.”
This is the hypocrisy of imperialism, the so-called “rules-based international order” only applies when it serves Western interests.
The same governments that have flattened countries from Iraq to Libya, armed apartheid regimes, and sanctioned entire populations to death suddenly discover “international law” when China, Russia or Palestine are mentioned.
There are no “good bombs” or “humanitarian invasions.”
There’s only power, profit, and propaganda — and the working class of every nation pays the price for it.
The Class Consciousness Project.
When any nation outside the imperial orbit dares to defend itself or act independently, it’s immediately branded a “war crime.”
This is the hypocrisy of imperialism, the so-called “rules-based international order” only applies when it serves Western interests.
The same governments that have flattened countries from Iraq to Libya, armed apartheid regimes, and sanctioned entire populations to death suddenly discover “international law” when China, Russia or Palestine are mentioned.
There are no “good bombs” or “humanitarian invasions.”
There’s only power, profit, and propaganda — and the working class of every nation pays the price for it.
The Class Consciousness Project.
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Forwarded from The Communists
Trigger-happy police on our streets is one more repressive move by the state we can expect to see being justified by the ‘threat of islamic terrorism’ – a threat that the British imperialists themselves have created, and now use as a pretext for cracking down on all domestic dissent.
https://thecommunists.org/2025/10/05/news/manchester-synagogue-attack-serves-division/
https://thecommunists.org/2025/10/05/news/manchester-synagogue-attack-serves-division/
The Communists
The Manchester synagogue attack serves the forces of division
This attack comes at a time when the ruling class is working hard to create and deepen ethnic and religious antagonisms between workers at home and abroad.