23 May 1871 was the day the French army took Montmartre and Montparnasse from the Commune troops... the pink sector on the West side of the map shows their advance, black dots = major barricade fighting... 1/
2/ This contemporary plate shows the Women's Battalion defending the Place Blanche barricade very hard to defend angle at the top of Rue Fonataine...
3/ The guy on the horse is probably Dombrowski, who according to trial evidence rode past before getting killed. The woman is probably Nathalie Le Mel de facto the leader of the group, 45-year old print union activist. Here's the evidence from her trial...
Here's Dombrowski...and here's Nathalie Le Mel... she survived three years prison and 6 years deportation to New Caledonia... returning to the print after her release and living until 1921!
As night falls Elie Reclus, watching from the top of Buttes Chaumont, describes the fighting... more tomorrow, as on 24 May the insurgents get pushed back towards the line Gare de l'Est - Pantheon... #ViveLaCommune
Nathalie has a small street in Paris named after her... where the French HQ of the First International was... but I didn't realise she also has this amazing mural in Brest, her home city..
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See what's happening here? Putin's sympathisers - far left and far right - are calling Ukraine's justified demand for permission to defend itself "escalation" ... 1/ but it's not just about StormShadows for Ukraine ...
2/ The Western alliance of democratic countries is on the verge of big choices that, once taken, will lead to Russia's defeat. First off - ignoring Putin's claim that permission to strike equals direct war. If true Iran would be at war with Ukraine
3/ But 🇺🇦 doesn't just need permission to strike deep into Russia - it needs Western arms, money, aid and technical help, including targeting. & if RAF Typhoons can shoot down Iranian missiles over Jordan why can't they shoot down Russian ones over Ukraine?
Today's OBR report into the the long-term impacts of climate and ageing on UK debt is typically sobering: to follow neoliberal strictures, we would need 50 years of unremitting austerity...1/ But here's why we don't need to...🧵
2/ The OBR methodology is to project demands on spending against policies in place in March 2024. This always produces dire graphic projections... but there is good news: higher productivity wipes out the debt burden of demographic ageing and climate
3/ The report gives progressive politics some ammunition: (a) the economic costs of climate are higher if we miss the 2 degree target (b) most of the cost is not transition to Net Zero - it's lost revenue from petrol taxes and the damage from extreme events...
Last night's anti-racist demos were a moral victory over fascism - much bigger in their political impact than their local effect 👇... but it's only the start. 1/ The fact remains: hundreds of thousands of English people hate their neighbours badly enough to attack them in riots...
2/ I was at Walthamstow. It was relaxed, peaceful, confident and well policed. But one train-load of "football lads" arriving would have led to disaster because - make no mistake, the targeted communities are ready for self-defence...
3/ So why did things go so well, here and elsewhere? a) Because the "hit-list" was largely ignored by potential rioters: they're not interested in legal premises - they want to attack Mosques and hotels...plus word went out it was a "state provocation"....
About tonight's fascist hit-list. It's been widely circulated but some far-right influencers are now putting it around that it's a "state provocation", and saying don't show up... 1/ There are counter-demos planned, and strong policing/security in the most likely targets - but...
2/ the real test comes this weekend. I am monitoring far-right channels and can see no further public calls for targeting. The fascist networks are now stirring a new narrative: that it is Muslims perpetrating the violence...hence the fascists most likely COA is provocations...
3/ ... plus the Utopia of a "white strike" against Uber, delivery riders and takeaways... it is possible, because the entire wave was stimulated by weaponised info networks, that they will switch this off for a few weeks and let the culture war take over...
The latest from numbskull county... what's happening on UK far right channels today 1/ They're warning each other to ditch phones, remove exif data and mask up...might have been sensible to do this *before* committing riot and disorder but hey...
2/... known far right influencers are saying "don't target Mosques because we're not ready for that conflict... yet" - instead the emerging fantasy is of an economic boycott of taxi and food apps (because their workforce is minority) and a run on the banks...
3/ ... lots of attempts to ass-cover by saying "I'm not advocating attacking X but if I did go I would mask up, beware of provocateurs" - which still counts as incitement....
The mob vs Starmer. Why this is Britain's January 6th... 1/ The sudden upsurge of far-right violence has strong parallels with Russia 1905/Italy 1920 - plebeian far right suddenly lose the underpinnings of their political reality... theneweuropean.co.uk/the-mob-vs-sta…
2/ In this case, the violent racist right - which certainly numbers tens of thousands - suddenly lost "their" government - with no prospect of it ever returning... every incident reminding them of this maddens them... theneweuropean.co.uk/the-mob-vs-sta…
3/ And yes, it's nearly always the "dregs of society" - as the Black Hundreds of 1905 described themselves - who experience mass racist violence as a moment of elation - suddenly allowed to shout the P word in public with no comeback and torch Uber cars... theneweuropean.co.uk/the-mob-vs-sta…