I never forgot this cartoon strip that I first encountered in my first year at La Trobe University, Melbourne, in 1969. I was pleased to recently rediscover it among my old files. Its message remains pertinent – and timeless.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Uncategorized
For: Collective security, independence, national liberation, revolution and free information
We are living through days into which 20 years are compressed
Arthur Dent at Platypus Conference
The world wants collective security, countries want independence, nations want liberation, the people want revolution, and information wants to be free.
Continue readingGoethe’s Faust: a talisman for our time
Tom G.
Faust’s transformations rely upon magic. As an artistic contrivance this is quite acceptable, but in the real world, where those lower down the pecking order live, something more is required – and that is an economic development that can transform our material existence and provide a foundation for growth. It is here, still under the assistance of Mephisto, that Goethe gives Faust his most dramatic – and for us – his most significant transformation, that of the developer.
Continue readingSkyShield – Europe growing a spine to attach a replacement brain
Initial draft for short post to attract initial interest…
This document needs to be studied carefully and spread widely.
Signatories include people who do know what they are talking about such as:
56. Richard Shirreff KCB, CBE – General (ret.); Former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, UK;
69. Philip Breedlove – 4-star General, USAF (ret.); former SACEUR NATO, USA;
70. Ben Hodges – Lt. General (ret.), US Army; former Commanding General, United States Army Europe, USA;Guardian article about the SkyShield plan:
Excerpt from Guardian: ‘A European air force of 120 fighter jets could be deployed to secure the skies from Russian attacks on Kyiv and western Ukraine without necessarily provoking a wider conflict with Moscow, according to a plan drawn up by military experts.
Continue reading
Zelenskyy tells it like it is…
Global Cooperation Davos 2025: Special Address by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of UkraineJan 21, 2025
This article is part of:World Economic Forum Annual MeetingUkraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns in his special address to Davos that Europe can’t afford to be second or third in line for its allies.
Continue readingLiberation in Syria Is a Victory Worth Embracing
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.
Continue readingThe revolution will be televised! Rejoice in the overthrow of fascist Assad regime!
(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.
Continue readingLET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN – Langston Hughes
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.
Continue readingEcosocialism and degrowth are great ways to become irrelevant
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.”
Continue reading
C21st Left 