So many socialists & anti-imperialists of my generation owe a big part of our radicalization to #JulianAssange. In the name of the war on terror, US launched wars based on lies killing millions. Noxious jingoism, xenophobia, the emerging police state & it was all bipartisan... 1/
He was tormented and tortured by three administrations, spied on by the CIA, separated from his children, his wife, his friends. Driven into a deep depression that is hard to fathom, rotting in a dungeon for so many years...
2/7
He has been maligned, slandered & betrayed by so many:The Guardian, The New York Times, the Swedish Social Democracy, the Labour Party of Britain, the Labor Party of Australia, the Pink Tide government of Lenin Moreno. Cynically ignored by so many more, Corbyn, Sanders, AOC.
3/7
Now the audience laughs at Bush's freudian slip--the “unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq" by "one man." He meant to parrot the hysterical war propaganda against Russia & Putin, the next "bad man" on US Imperialism's Most Wanted List, this time with nuclear weapons. 4/7
But Bush got to go home to his mansion and paint his toes in the bath while Julian Assange rots in a prison cell for exposing Bush's crimes, and Obama's crimes. They kept him locked up so he couldn't expose the horrific crimes of Trump, of Biden, of whoever comes next...
5/7
And now these same criminals present themselves as the heroes of world democracy, giving arms to the "poor defenseless" neo-Nazis in the Azov Battalion who wish they were alive in the 1940s to help Hitler kill Jews. How much more would we know if Assange were able to tell us. 6/
All pleas to capitalist politicians, from pseudo-left to Trumpian right, will fail. The working class is the only social force that can free him. Media tells nothing but lies, how else but through our actions can we inform workers that they must fight for Assange's freedom! 7/7
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What do @jacobin & the CIA's National Endowment for Democracy have in common?
They both promote Volodymyr Ishchenko, pictured at Jacobin event in Berlin last week (w/ @jeremycorbyn at right). Ishchenko's work has long been funded by NED & Soros foundation.
A 🧵 w/ receipts:
Ishchenko is no opponent of imperialism. In 2014, he led the Center for Social & Labor Research, which received NED grants to "monitor protests."
His CV states this work was "supported by the National Endowment for Democracy & Int'l Renaissance Foundation" (which is Soros). 2/
One NED grant to CSLR says “as part of a larger national advocacy campaign, the Center will monitor protest activity throughout the country, share the data with campaign activists, distribute them through social media, and produce 12 reports.”
Here's Ishchenko's CV, which is available online. Also funded by George Soros' Open Society Foundation. 2/
Here's the NED grant to the Center for Social and Labor Research's project on protest data. Says "the Center will monitor protest activity throughout the country, share the data with campaign activists, distribute them through social media, and produce 12 reports.” 3/
A 🧵: Here's how the US government built a fake Ukrainian "resistance" funded thru the Nat'l Endowment for Democracy, Solidarity Ctr & other CIA-linked orgs, & here's why DSA members are promoting this "resistance" to justify imperialist war vs Russia.
On 6/3, DSA member Ashley Smith published an article in @tempest_mag titled “Solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance!” Smith writes:
“Now more than ever we should build solidarity with Ukraine’s resistance and defend its right to secure arms including from the US and NATO." 2/
In recent weeks, DSA-aligned Tempest Mag, @JournalSpectre & other pseudo-left publications have elevated a group called Sotsialnyi Rukh, or "Social Movement" as the main example of the "resistance."
Sotsialnyi Rukh leaders have spoken at events calling for US arms to Ukraine. 3/
Today, May 9, is the day the working class of the Soviet Union defeated Hitler at the cost of 30 million lives. Thirty million—120 times more than US soldiers who died in the war.
1/
Will the NATO powers, corporate media & complacent cultural institutions stop the Russo-phobic hysteria for 24 hours to remember the incredible sacrifices and courage of the people of Russia in the fight against fascism? Of course not.
2/
Many of the Russian musicians and athletes who have been banned from performances & competitions are themselves the relatives of those who fought & died in the rubble of Stalingrad, who starved and froze in besieged Leningrad, who were exterminated in Hitler's camps.
3/
DSA (@DemSocialists) shift to the right amid worries from leadership of "left-wing criticism."
Shut out from power by Dem admin they presented as paving way for a "meaningful Left," they now praise Schumer/Hochul in bid to please Dem establishment.🧵
The reality of Biden & Dem congress in power (war, no social reform, appeals to unity with GOP) explodes DSA’s claims that its influence has encouraged the 200-year-old party of imperialist reaction to transform itself into a left-wing party of progress. Opposite is true.
2/
.@nataliesurely warns of disillusionment of DSA, writing that “large parts of the post-Bernie vacuum are losing faith” in the DSA’s political leaders. This gets to heart of the DSA’s raison d’être. It exists to trap social opposition and to channel it back into the Dem Party.
3/
Yes, a coup almost succeeded on J6. Powerful faction of the ruling class led by Trump believes dictatorship is best way to oversee massive inequality/exploitation. Dems did nothing to stop it. And Wolff downplays threat of dictatorship! 1/
Prof. Wolff's argument relies on major contradiction. Yes, a tiny oligarchy controls the productive forces & oversees dictatorship on the shop floor. Yes, extreme inequality & exploitation are incompatible with democracy. But this is exactly why January 6 is an urgent danger!
2/
Trump planned to establish a dictatorship. We now know he drafted an exec order demanding pentagon seize ballots, overturn election, & impose martial law. Wolff responds: so what, US was never democratic. What complacency! Indifference at the prospect of fascist dictatorship. 3/