In 2007, Leslie Feinberg was invited by ASWAT (Palestinian Gay Women) to talk in Haifa. Feinberg opened in Arabic:

I know where I stand: in historic Palestine. So my first words must be in Arabic. Thank you for inviting me here. It is the largest honor in my life. I salute Aswat "I will be with you on the day that we tear down the colonial garrison state of Israel and Palestine is free from this racist, theocratic, apartheid imperialist occupation—the day when all those who planted the olive trees will taste the fruit of freedom."

The Israel lobby only has "influence" to the extent that it serves western (primarily US) strategic goals. It does not control western powers, in fact it is wholly reliant on them militarily. The tail does not wag the dog. This is approaching elders of zion nonsense.

https://twitter.com/Kahlissee/status/1766272696667570466

In this sense, Israel is also not somehow corrupting western liberal regimes. Western democracies are the latest evolution of centuries of colonialism, they didn't need corrupting. And they will not somehow be saved just by ridding them of the Israel lobby...

Following the funding of 'Solutions Not Sides', a key DfE resource for "understanding" israel and Palestine in schools, is enough to outright reject its conclusions. But I've explored its actual teacher resources too; Sides Not Solutions is more apt. Short🧵of my findings

https://twitter.com/Lowkey0nline/status/1725624376735805939

To them, saying israel is the "long arm of USA" is conspiracy, a one state solution is automatically deplorable, zionism is simply a belief in Jewish self-determination (yet conflating israel and Judaism is also problematic), and "from the river to the sea" is hate speech

When researching El Salvador I found that the gratuitous torture, rape, and extra judicial murders of Salvadorans were taught to the army by both the US and Israeli special forces. In fact, wherever we see heinous CIA operations, we will also find Israeli support. A short🧵 In Central and South America, Israel supplied significant arms to the Somoza regime, provided surveillance and arms to Pinochet, trained death squads across Central America, gave technical plans for 'scorched earth' policies, and trained Colombian cartels

1920s Soviet pedagogy (these things did come back after) was one of the most profound interventions in education in history

https://twitter.com/NEPenjoyer/status/1507074234945884171

The turn away from experimental labour schools is usually considered in the negative. The problem is the USSR had to industrialise, which required an unprecedented uptick in specialists. It is unlikely they could have fended of the Nazis had this not happened.

Biden in 1997 saying that the only thing that could provoke a "vigorous and hostile" Russian response would be if NATO expanded as far as the Baltic states Also an interesting side point, when told by the Russians that they may have to look to China as an alternative if NATO keeps expanding, Biden joked with them by saying "good luck". How things have changed.

Samir Amin on the 2014 Euro-Nazi putsch in Ukraine and the sanitisation of outright fascists as "nationalist democrats" It's very frustrating seeing any mention of the overt fascism on show in Ukraine (regular soldiers with nazi insignia not just Azov), institutional support for people like Bandera, and the violent repression of socialist opposition being dismissed as "Putin propaganda"

The child's school day is structured exactly like an adults work day. 8 hour day, 15 minute break at 10.30 and, 45 minutes for lunch. In the class they must remain focused, still, and "productive" for nothing in particular outside of arbitrary exams and "age range" goals Based on these arbritrary assessments, Children are categorised and segregated along multiple intersections (ableism, classism, sexism, and racism). This marks them as capable or not, productive or not

On the Revolutionary Defence Committees (CDR) of Burkina Faso:

"the institutional expression of the people's revolutionary power... forged by the people in order to become truly sovereign and masters of their own destinies... to extend their control over every facet of society"

An explanation of their structure:

"through their structure and functioning, the CDRs are meant to be a genuine mass organization which should be in a position to fully and efficiently translate popular aspirations into immediate and concrete political decisions."

Thread on Cuba's Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) which built community and consolidated the revolution:

"We are going to establish a system of collective vigilance and we shall see how the lackeys of imperialism are going to get around this." - Fidel Castro "Fidel Castro described them as the foundation of Cuba’s democratic superstructure, where people participate directly in resolving their problems... Today there are over 133,000 local CDR units throughout Cuba with more than 8,300,000 members"

Fidel Castro on the Cuban prison system:

"If a man is in prison for whatever cause, even for conspiring against the state, the Revolution has to try, in all opportunity, some possibility of integrating himself into society so that he can work and live a decent life." the aim of the rehabilitation program "is to neutralize them (Campesinos) politically and convince these men that the Revolution is really working to ameliorate social conditions for all Cubans; to demonstrate that in opposing the revolution they erred out of ignorance"

"It is likely that the Progressive international is an attempt to corral those who identify as left-wing back into supporting the very institutions and ideologies that are pushing the planet ever closer to the point of no return." 👌👌

ebb-magazine.com/essays/progres… "Much like the original New Deal in the 1930s was a means to salvage capitalism in the US and forestall the growth of a popular revolutionary communist movement at a time of crisis and mass unemployment, it appears that this is a comparable effort on a global scale"