note: of course there’s no need to wait till 29th June to protest the war. The way things are going they may have blown up the planet by then!
NATO is a terrorist organization that has been devastating countries for decades, ravaging entire regions, looting their resources, annihilating towns and sowing panic wherever they go.
Open Assembly> Madrid on War Footing against the NATO Summit in Madrid on June 29 and 30
The holding of this summit in Madrid was proposed with extreme enthusiasm by this rogue government, which calls itself “progressive” but, like all the previous ones, willingly licks the boot of Yankee imperialism and follows all its dictates.
This summit began to be planned in full imperialist escalation of the aggressions and tensions against Russia and China that have ended, how could it be otherwise, by provoking a war whose horrible consequences are still far from over.
Para los próximos 29 y 30 de junio está prevista la celebración en Madrid de la cumbre de la OTAN, esa organización terrorista que lleva décadas arrasando países, asolando regiones enteras, saqueando sus recursos, aniquilando pueblos y sembrando el pánico allí por donde pasa.
La celebración de esta cumbre en Madrid fue propuesta con extremo entusiasmo por este gobierno de canallas, que se hace llamar “progresista” pero, como todos los anteriores, lame gustoso la bota del imperialismo yanki y sigue todos sus dictados.
Esta cumbre empezó a planearse en plena escalada imperialista de las agresiones y tensiones contra Rusia y China que han acabado, como no podía ser de otra manera, por provocar una guerra cuyas horribles consecuencias están aún lejos de terminar.
En dicha cumbre, a parte de nombrar a un nuevo “comandante en jefe”, se trazará la nueva estrategia para los próximos años donde, entre otras importantes cuestiones, está el despliegue de armamento nuclear táctico o la posible inclusión de Finlandia y Suecia, lo cual significa echar más leña al fuego de la guerra desatada.
También se aprobarán nuevas partidas de presupuesto, que sin duda alguna pagaremos las clases populares.
Es decir, no solo seremos carne de cañón en sus guerras de rapiña, además costearemos sus expediciones con nuestros impuestos -los que tenemos más los que están por venir-, una inflación desbocada y a través de los numerosos recortes que ya estamos padeciendo.
No hay dinero para sanidad, educación, viviendas públicas… pero para destruir y asesinar con total impunidad estos “señores de la guerra” nunca tienen empacho. Pero hay más.
NATO en LIbya
La OTAN sirve también para garantizar el expolio de las clases populares dentro de los propios estados miembro.
Ayuda a reprimir cualquier intento interno de luchar por la mejora de nuestras condiciones de vida, apuntalando así al régimen autoritario que nos oprime.
Debemos oponernos con todas nuestras fuerzas. Hay que dejar muy claro que no seremos cómplices de sus crímenes.
Es nuestro deber como antifascistas y antimilitaristas organizar una respuesta contundente para que escuchen bien claro que no los queremos ni en nuestra ciudad ni en ningún sitio y que no vamos a quedarnos de brazos cruzados mientras planean la masacre y expolio de los pueblos amenazados por el imperialismo.
Editors: Becky Bowers, Megan Laws, Giulio Ongaro, and Alpa Shah
Sometimes, the dead can be more alive than the living. With David Graeber, one year on, it certainly feels this way.
The contributions to this feature pay tribute to his legacy by beginning to unravel the generous gifts of writing he left us with.
These conversations first took place at the LSE Research Seminar on Anthropological Theory, which, in the Michaelmas Term of 2021, was devoted to honouring David’s writings by bringing two leading anthropologists together each week to discuss one of his major works.
David was a hugely influential public intellectual. He not only produced work that spanned an extraordinarily wide variety of topics that mattered to people, but he also wrote in an accessible and engaging language that broke with the constraints of institutionalised academia.
David revelled in his success but, above all else, he wanted to be seen as an anthropologist and to be critically engaged as such.
This feature is designed to do just that—to cast a critical lens on some of his most compelling ideas, beginning a project of analysis that will occupy anthropologists for many years to come.
David’s work was wide-ranging, from debt to pirates, bureaucracy to bull-shit jobs, kings to rewriting the teleological assumptions of the history of humanity.
In this feature, we will discuss a few of his important works: from his ethnographic research in Madagascar, to his later writing on value, debt, anarchism, myth, bureaucracy, and bullshit jobs.
Ravens mate for life and the mated pairs are very closely bonded. Mated ravens spend most of their time associating with each other.
You may enlarge any image in this blog by clicking on it. Click again for a detailed view.
Recently, I encountered a pair of Common Ravens. I find these birds often to be wary in the presence of humans.
For that reason, they are usually very difficult to photograph. However, this pair appeared to be indifferent to my presence nearby.
I believe that the ravens’ blasé attitude about me had to do with the fact that they were perching in a suburban neighborhood and they were inured to the comings and goings of people.
I was immediately struck by the fact that one of the ravens was vocalizing and the other appeared to be listening.
The sounds that the “talking” bird was emitting were not the loud “caws” that ravens make when they are sounding the alarm, but rather, a series of soft clicking noises and honking tones. The second bird seemed to be quite interested in what the other was saying.
I don’t speak raven, so I can’t translate the conversation. But I do know this: ravens definitely speak to each other.
They are masters of vocalization, emitting an enormous array of tones and calls. They are also excellent mimics, being able to replicate noises that range from car horns to phrases of human speech.
Scientists studying ravens have concluded that local populations of these birds develop a language consisting of many sounds. So it isn’t far-fetched to say that the two in this image were communicating with each other.
The image illustrates something else about ravens besides their propensity to speak to each other. It’s likely that the ravens in this image are a mated pair.
Ravens mate for life and the mated pairs are very closely bonded. Mated ravens spend most of their time associating with each other.
When I’m out searching for wildlife, I’ll often spot what I think at first glance is a solitary raven. In the majority of instances I will spot a second raven perching or flying very close to the first bird.
Image made with a Canon R5, Canon EF 400mm f4 DO II lens+Canon EF 1.4x telextender, M setting (auto ISO), ISO 2000, f7.1 @ 1/3200, +1 1/3 stops exposure compensation.
The arrest of Canadian general Trevor John Cadieu on May 1 by Russian troops while trying to escape from Azovstal in Mariupol can serve as a piece of evidence that official evidence of the “collective West” has unleashed a war against Russia in Ukraine.
Seven months ago he was considered a prime candidate for the position of the Canadian Army commander and had already become “famous” for a sex scandal among his fellow officers.
It is alleged that it was for the “evacuation” of the Canadian general that the Kiev authorities and the West came up with the whole idea of humanitarian corridors for civilians from Azovstal, involving French President Macron and his Turkish counterpart Erdogan, as well as the UN Secretary-General.
The idea was that under the guise of “refugees” he, with a number of other senior NATO officials remaining there, could leave the Russian-controlled war zone in Donbass and avoid not only shameful captivity, but also a show trial by Moscow.
It is noticeable that, according to reports circulating, General Cadieu was in charge of Azovstal’s underground bunkers, including biological laboratory No. 1, where 18 people worked with deadly viruses.
He will therefore clearly have something to tell not only to the investigators in Moscow, but also at the open trial, where, by analogy with the Nuremberg Trials, there will certainly be strong charges brought against the US and its Western cronies for unleashing war in Ukraine, strengthening and protecting Nazi criminals in that country for this purpose, creating biological weapons in US secret laboratories in Ukraine, testing them on Ukrainian citizens in violation of all rules of international law.
Although, of course, these facts are no secret to anyone today. After all, the US claims to be a “democracy” for no reason, having long ago transformed itself from a republican to an imperial power, as the US media openly point out today.
Americans have already paid dearly for this, but an even heavier moral reckoning lies ahead. After all, Biden and his administration are doing what they please in Ukraine, not only blatantly boosting the wealth of their families at Ukraine’s expense, but also plundering the country, burdening it with US and international financial debts that will take decades to be paid off by the Ukrainian people.
US officials are increasingly determined to cast aside international doubts about US direct involvement in the military conflict with Russia, they are expanding the supply of lethal weapons to the current Kiev authorities, and are doing so without hiding.
Two weeks after the conflict had begun, President Joe Biden assured that “a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is World War III. And something we must strive to prevent.”
Sweden’s ruling political party is reportedly divided on whether to join NATO, as the women’s wing of the Social Democrats has called for keeping the country militarily neutral.
Annika Strandhall, the country’s climate and environment minister, told Stockholm newspaper Svenska Dagbladet that the women’s faction of the party opposes joining NATO. The faction has “a long history and struggle in matters concerning peace, disarmament, détente and military freedom of alliance,” said Strandhall, who is federal board chair of the women’s wing.
We in the federal board have decided to remain in line with our congressional decisions that Sweden should be militarily non-aligned and stand outside NATO.
Strandhall’s comments mark the first major political pushback against a proposal for Sweden to apply for membership of NATO and they come shortly before an assessment on the country’s security policy that is due out by May 13. The coalition government is scheduled to decide on the issue by May 24, following issuance of a position paper by the foreign ministry.
Another key figure in the Riksdag, Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson, said last month that he will recommend that his right-wing opposition party advocate joining NATO if neighboring Finland applies for membership of the alliance.
Akesson has long opposed giving up Sweden’s military independence, as have most Swedes, but public opinion began to shift sharply after Russia launched its military offensive against Ukraine in February.
Riding on meddia hysteria over Russia’s defense by attack of ethnic Russians in Donbass, Finland is set to ram through agreement to join NATO next week.
The plan is to avoid even a parliamentary vote on Finnish NATO membership, never mind a referendum. Finland has an 800km border with Russia, a goldmine for the US military industrial complex. .
NATO membership will allow the US to set up its military bases, mount nuclear weapons on Finnish owned US jets, and install nuclear missiles, counter missiles, Rapid Response Forces, etc. to further threaten Russia.
Swedish and Finnish NATO membership will make them of necessity targets for a desperate preemptive nuclear Russian first strike..
