The Free

A series of events will remember Greenham Common Peace Camp and the legacy of feminist resistance in Bristol this weekend. 

Greenham Common events in Bristol this weekend

Two Bristolians have been charged at Westminster Magistrates’ Court for their role in a Just Stop Oil action in Holborn, London, on October 21, 2022.  One of the two charged was Reverend Sue Parfitt, 80, a veteran activist who has been arrested multiple times with Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain, Extinction Rebellion and other groups. […]

Bristol Just Stop Oil activists found guilty

Meeting convened by London Anarchist Communist Group Now that capitalism is forced to increase its attacks on the working class in order to preserve its profits, the working class is driven into struggle by necessity, necessity to preserve the old social welfare benefits that had been won through struggle in the first place, and to […]

All Out! The Current Strike Wave-London ACG Public Meeting

from thefreeonline on 11th May 2023 info from Nicolas Cinquini, Agencies, Wikipedia

As often in Ukraine, here in Kiev, women are demonstrating for news about their missing relatives, members of the 93rd mechanized brigade, which has been engaged in Bakhmut area. They are likely dead but nobody has informed the families. The authorities of Ukraine are hiding the reality of severe military casualties

Women protesting once more in Kiev, are demanding news or the bodies of their missing relatives, likely dead on the front line. For propaganda reason, the authorities are hiding that the military losses are huge. Moreover, no pension is paid for a missing service member

We don’t know how many soldiers, mercenaries and civilians have been killed so far in the Ukraine war since Russia intervened. Everyone is keeping their casualties secret, even from families of the dead, while blatantly inventing death numbers of the opposition.

In Ukraine opposition parties and media are closed down and the military is more and more dominated by fascists and their mentality. In Russia revealing death numbers is a criminal offence. In the West propaganda reigns and no reporter dares risk their job telling the truth.

Continue reading “Ukraine deaths and the Lies of War”

from thefreeonline on 9th May 2023 by ANDREW KORYBKO at Aletho News

The US-backed regime that was installed in his place refuses to hold free and fair elections since they know they’d lose after the former premier’s PTI party won multiple by-elections over the past year.

Imran Khan’s Arrest Will Bring Pakistan’s Year-Long Crisis Much Closer To Its End Game

The post-modern coup that removed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan from office last April as punishment for his multipolar foreign policy catalyzed cascading crises across the economic, judicial, political, and security spheres that have shaken this South Asian state to its core.

During that same time, the post-modern coup regime viciously cracked down on society by abducting dissidents and censoring the media out of desperation to retain power.

Far from pressuring the Pakistani people into silence and forcing them to accept what Khan calls their imported government, they continued peacefully protesting for the right to exercise their democratic will sooner than later.

Only upon resolving Pakistan’s political crisis in that manner, these patriots believe, can the other ones then be tackled.

To their credit, they remained committed to this path despite last November’s assassination attempt against Khan that he blamed on The Establishment, the raid on his home in mid-March, and the Interior Minister’s continued death threats against him.

Their red line was always that he wasn’t to be arrested on trumped-up charges as part of the post-modern coup regime’s lawfare since this scenario would pose a threat to his life due to The Establishment’s reputation and also likely doom any democratic solution.

That red line was just crossed after dozens of Ranger paramilitary forces stormed an Islamabad courthouse to abduct him on Tuesday in a move that former PTI Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari described “as if (they were) invading

an occupied land”. 

Nationwide protests were organized in response and are still occurring at the time of this analysis’ publication, but the post-modern coup regime might exploit this reaction to justify a conventional military coup in the worst-case scenario.

The Establishment’s latest power play is extremely dangerous since these stakeholders already know very well how polarized society has become over the past year. They could have responsibly exerted influence on their political proxies that replaced Khan after last April’s regime change to organize free and fair elections as early as possible in order to serve as a pressure valve. That could have averted the cascading crises that followed and just risked reaching their breaking point on Tuesday.

Some sort of pragmatic working arrangement could still have been brokered between them and the PTI in theory upon the latter returning to power as expected in that case, yet no such outcome appears possible now after The Establishment crossed the opposition’s red line as part of their power play.

They’re practically daring people to publicly defy them and thus put their lives on the line, yet a large number of them are doing precisely that out of patriotic fervor since they fear losing their country.

In their minds, a new dark age is rapidly descending upon Pakistan, which might never restore the sovereignty that it’s losing by the day as a result of the cascading crises catalyzed by last April’s regime change. They can’t in good conscience sit back and let this happen without knowing in their hearts that they tried doing something tangible to stop it. This explains why they’re literally risking their lives right now protesting against Khan’s abduction and all that it entails for their country’s democratic future.

At present, it appears unlikely that The Establishment will relent by releasing him and pressuring their political proxies to publicly agree on a date for holding free and fair elections sometime in the very near future, but that doesn’t mean that their calculations might not change.

In any case, it’s clear that Pakistan’s year-long crisis is reaching its end game since there are really only two mutually exclusive outcomes that are possible: a chance at true democracy or continuing to languish under dictatorship.