We’re splitting this selection of readings into two parts. The first deals with the backstabbing from some elements on the left, the second is about our favourite theme, geopolitical analysis.

Here are two key readings. The first deals with what, with a few honourable exceptions, is the collapse of the anti-war left. It makes for depressing reading but we have to acknowledge where we are before we can move forward. The second deals with the willingness of so called leftists such as Paul Mason to willingly take on the dirty work of the state by denigrating and attempting to shut down genuinely critical anti-war journalists.

A Lemming Leading the Lemmings: Slavoj Zizek and the Terminal Collapse of the Anti-War Left – Jonathan Cook | Mint Press | June 23, 2022

Have you noticed how every major foreign policy crisis since the U.S. and U.K.’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 has peeled off another layer of the left into joining the pro-NATO, pro-war camp?

It is now hard to remember that many millions marched in the U.S. and Europe against the attack on Iraq. It sometimes feels like there is no one left who is not cheerleading the next wave of profits for the West’s military-industrial complex (usually referred to as the “defense industry” by those very same profiteers).

British “Watchdog” Journalists Unmasked as Lap Dogs for the Security State – Jonathan Cook | Mint Press | June 21, 2022

Events of the past few days suggest British journalism – the so-called Fourth Estate – is not what it purports to be: a watchdog monitoring the centers of state power. It is quite the opposite.

The pretensions of the establishment media took a severe battering this month as the defamation trial of Guardian columnist Carole Cadwalladr reached its conclusion and the hacked emails of Paul Mason, a long-time stalwart of the BBC, Channel 4 and the Guardian, were published online.

Both of these celebrated journalists have found themselves outed as recruits – in their differing ways – to a covert information war being waged by Western intelligence agencies.

How Spooks and Establishment Journalists Are Circling The Wagons – Jonathan Cook | Mint Press | June 30, 2022

Meanwhile, the intelligence services set the news agenda, including with smears that target those trying to hold them to account, but cannot be scrutinized over such claims because they can shield behind anonymity. In such cases, the so-called Fourth Estate serves as simply a stenographer for the state. It amplifies the state’s self-serving allegations but adds a veneer of legitimacy through its own supposed verification via publication.

The media’s collusion, however, is not just servile. With the advent of the internet and social media, the establishment press and the intelligence services have found their interests more in tune than ever before. Independent media of the kind that seeks to hold state power to account – such as, for example, MintPress News or the Grayzone, about which Mason was so keen to spread disinformation (again, documented in part one) – or foreign channels like RT that give a platform to independent Western journalists, are treated as a threat by both the intelligence services and the establishment media.

As we’ve written a few times previously, in order for anti-war activists to develop an effective strategy and accompanying tactics, an understanding of how conflicts start in the first place is essential. This particularly applies to the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine which is ultimately about whether we end up living in a unipolar world dominated by the USA or a more complex multi-polar one. Obviously as anarchists we detest power blocs of any kind and would dearly love to see them all swept away. However, we are where we are so that means dealing with the reality that confronts us before it destroys us. It’s in that spirit we present the following two readings…

How to Destroy Russia. 2019 Rand Corporation Report: “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia” – Manlio Dinucci | Global Research | June 25, 2022

Force the adversary to expand recklessly in order to unbalance him, and then destroy him. This is not the description of a judo hold, but a plan against Russia elaborated by the Rand Corporation, the most influential think tank in the USA. With a staff of thousands of experts, Rand presents itself as the world’s most reliable source for Intelligence and political analysis for the leaders of the United States and their allies.

The Rand Corp prides itself on having contributed to the elaboration of the long-term strategy which enabled the United States to win the Cold War, by forcing the Soviet Union to consume its own economic resources in the strategic confrontation.

Ukraine: What comes next? – Jorge Capelán | OffGuardian | June 9, 2022

Undoubtedly, as a Chinese philosopher would say, we are living in “interesting times”, that is, times of great change for all mankind.

Existentialist philosophers such as Sartre and Camus would be surprised if today they saw how references (at least in name) to the current of thought they formed almost 80 years ago are multiplying in the media.

More and more states and nations claim to face “existential” threats, and no wonder, because Russia has everything at stake, the West has everything at stake, and the world also has everything at stake.