Author Archives: c21styork

Liberation in Syria Is a Victory Worth Embracing

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The country is now free, yet some remain trapped in the past

This is a 9 minute read – the best I’ve come across regarding the Syrian uprising. I have requested permission from New Lines magazine to reprint it here, but have not yet heard back. It’s such an important and excellent article that I’ve decided to run it on the assumption that permission will be granted or, at least, they won’t object to me sharing it. The article – by Layla Maghribi – was published at New Lines magazine on 10 December 2024.

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The revolution will be televised! Rejoice in the overthrow of fascist Assad regime!

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(via Radio Free Syria)

The revolution has been (and is being) televised – by the revolutionaries.

American Gil Scott-Heron famously sang that ‘The revolution will not be televised’. But Syrians’ historic, world-changing revolution has been and is still being televised, broadcast, reported since 2011 by the revolutionaries themselves.

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A CALL FOR AN INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT AGAINST AUTHORITARIANISM AND NEO-FASCISM

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(An anti-fascist ‘international democratic movement’ is the order of the day and I’m happy to share this statement signed by David Mackenzie and Ken Mansell who were activists in solidarity with the Vietnamese during the American war in Vietnam. I don’t know why the term ‘Left’ is applied to the individuals/groups critiqued in the statement. It is not possible to be an apologist for and/or supporter of Putin and also be left-wing. The need to popularize the concept ‘pseudo-left’ cannot be separated from the building of an international anti-fascist movement in solidarity with people fighting for democracy).

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LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN – Langston Hughes

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This poem, written in 1935 by black American jazz poet, communist, civil rights activist, novelist and playwright, Langston Hughes (1901-1967), is pertinent to our present time.

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Ecosocialism and degrowth are great ways to become irrelevant

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David McMullen

This essay originally appeared in Platypus Review 167 | June 2024

ECOSOCIALISM IS NOW well entrenched in the “Left,” and is endorsed by many long-established sects. Proponents believe the deteriorating natural environment has created an urgent need to cast off capitalism and adopt this new green and crunchy variety of socialism. We will then be able to cease growing the world economy and start degrowing to a lower, steady state. Only in this way can we remain within “planetary boundaries”; for the present system cannot do this, with capitalist competition dictating both growth through the treadmill of accumulation and an indifference to environmental costs that do not show up on company balance sheets. Their slogan is “system change not climate change.”

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A response to “The legacy of 1968”

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Platypus Review 165 | April 2024

On June 24, 2023 at Trades Hall in Melbourne, Australia, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel on the legacy of 1968.[1] The speakers included Andy Blunden, Alison Thorne, and Arthur Dent. Barry York provides his response to the panel.

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Tunnels under hospitals

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I had an interesting encounter two days ago with a bloke who had worked for 37 years in hospital administration at a major hospital in an Australian city. He said he was puzzled by all the fuss about the tunnels under the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. 

He explained that all major hospitals in Australia have elaborate and extensive tunnel systems and networks under their buildings. I asked him why they had these tunnels and he explained in some detail the various roles they played that were essential to a large hospital’s functioning. You can hear his explanation in the ten minute audio clip below.

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Lessons from 3CR – Jews Against Zionism and Anti-Semitism, late 1970s

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I’m reproducing the first few sections of an important document called Nazi-Zionist Collaboration from the late 1970s in Melbourne as it is relevant to, and has lessons for, the current Palestinian solidarity campaign. The document was a submission to the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal. It was first republished in 1981.

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