Comradely greetings

I've downloaded Verso's 2014 Mixtape. Well worth doing; get it here.

I was particularly struck by a letter from Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, written as part of a correspondence with Slavoj Žižek. I'm going to order the book. From what I've seen, it ought to - but probably won't - provide food for thought on those sections of the left who are reluctant to criticise the Putin regime for fear of giving comfort to the West. On Edward Snowden, for example, Tolokonnikova writes:

Slavoj, it wasn’t too long ago that you suggested it might be a good idea for Masha and me to speak our minds about Edward Snowden. This is no simple thing to do when Snowden is living in your country under the protection of the same intelligence services that have ordered and overseen physical violence against you and your friends. At the same moment that we two were in prison, Edward Snowden was finding himself in quite an awkward situation—a fighter for the free dissemination of information, he found himself in Russia, where, like it or not, his presence inevitably conferred legitimacy on the Kremlin’s information policy. The same Kremlin that was directing an aggressive propaganda campaign on TV, destroying all independent channels, condoning the murder of independent journalists—professionals, heroes like Anna Politkovskaya. Snowden, however, had been cornered into a dismal position from which he could not expose any of this. He now lives in Russia, but he can’t tell the truth about how information is collected and disseminated here. He has no choice but to keep his mouth shut. Russia’s intelligence and propaganda sectors have used Snowden for their own grubby games. And for me, as one of Russia’s activists, it’s horrible to watch. There’s no doubt that his persecution is a drastic misstep by the US, which is keeping far too busy destroying the possibilities for true democracy around the world. This error is made visible by Russia’s cynical use of the whistleblower to stabilize the Kremlin’s own reactionary information policy.

Stop it, again

Right, here's the thing. The Russian government is really quite shit. To be specific, it is a homophobic shower of authoritarians serving a particularly brutal and oligarchic imposition of neoliberalism combined with an expansionist imperialism. This is Not Good.

It is not the kind of thing socialists should support. Really.

Said government is up to its neck in support for separatists in Ukraine, who almost certainly shot down an airliner causing massive loss of innocent life.

All of this is true. It is not some kind of imperialist lie. And, really, the combination of residual Stalinism and conspiracy theory wingnuttery on elements of the British Left that makes people claim otherwise both impedes our ability to understand the world properly and makes all of us look bonkers.

Stop it. Now.

(If you want more productive politics from the region, please do look at Ukrainian Socialist Solidarity).
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And here's another thing. Yes, obviously, Palestinians have a right to armed struggle. Tonnes of people have said that. But David Ward:

(a) is a Liberal Democrat MP. Enough said.
(b) has said clearly anti-Semitic things in the past. This provides the context to some of the reaction to him today.

Palestine needs friends. But it really doesn't need every friend that offers themself. Beware the thought that my enemy's enemy is my friend. Sometimes my enemy's enemy is simply a muppet