Marxist Moments

SNIPPETS

 

          Assistant commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, Neil Nasu, has raised a stink especially among newspaper editors and politicians over his claim that publishing the contents of leaked government documents could be ‘a criminal matter’. Boris Johnson said: prosecution ‘would amount to an infringement on press freedom and have a chilling effect on public debate’. Indeed if leaks could not be disseminated without prosecution (especially if that includes social media) then surely there would be no more leaks? If no one outside the government had access to the material, why leak it?  We could have leak-free government, thus keeping the press and so on minding their manners. Anyhow it seems unfair for Julian Assange, likely to be dragged off to the United States, of which he is not a citizen, to be tried for ‘treason’ and most likely executed, while allowing those writers and editors of, for example, the Guardian in London, to be let off scott-free after having disseminated what Assange supplied them with. Is there no way we can get the large bulk of the Guardian editorial staff shipped off to America on treason charges as well? The present situation has no logic at all, let alone justice, and it seems apparent from Neil Basu’s statements that he is nothing if not logical and justice-minded.

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A celebration of the wise virtues of white racist President Trump was flourished across the Letters page of this week’s Mail on Sunday (July 14^th,2019)  which led me to look into similar letters written to the German newspapers in the 1930s, of which the following is a representative example:

Dear Sir: I am outraged by the vituperative and even obscene remarks made by irresponsible journalists and politicians around the world about our Chancellor and Fuhrer Adolf Hitler. Since he came to power with Germany First in mind, our divisive politics has been swept away, the economy is on the rise with full employment after years of unemployment misery. The future of motoring is bright as we see the construction of a whole network of autobahns, and the Fuhrer has even promised a cheap affordable People’s Car that will place motoring in the hands of millions who could never aspire to it before. The Jewish problem is all but solved and we will no longer find homosexuals able to mingle freely with us and corrupting our children. He has brought self-respect to the German nation and people with his aim to arm Germany in a manner befitting a great land but at the same time has declared ‘I have no further territorial demands to make in Europe’, so we have peace with honour. Why don’t the foreigners come to terms with Adolf Hitler’s stunning achievements?

 

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According to the Morning Star for July 13^th, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the visiting head of the Ukrainian Radical Party, Oleh Lyashko, a member of the party’s delegation to Jerusalem. In 2015 Mr Lyashko attacked Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko ‘over his apology for the actions of nazi collaborators during the Holocaust, branding it a “humiliation”.’ The party itself is openly fascist. Like Jeremy Corbyn, Mr Netanyahu has been criticised for not doing enough to tackle anti-Semitism. Hardly surprising when in 2015 Mr Netanyahu stated that Hitler had had no intention of exterminating Europe’s Jews ‘until a Palestinian persuaded him to do it’. 

Who was this mysterious Palestinian with access to the Fuhrer’s ear in Nazi Germany? A gardener at Berchtesgaden perhaps?

So why was a fascist Ukrainian party visiting Jerusalem and meeting with Mr Netanyahu at all? Why had Mr Netanyahu been at pains to exonerate Hitler? ~Why is he so friendly with the anti-Semitic President Orben of Hungary? And, for that matter, if Labour is so riddled with anti-Semites, why has no official Labour party delegation been invited to Israel? Or is Mr Netanyahu not entirely convinced of Mr Corbyn’s anti-Semitic credentials?