FAKE LEFT

MARK TAYLOR—Israelis are learning no matter how racist and entitled one may be, you cannot create a safe haven by creating a catastrophe for other people. • One thing the US/Israeli genocide in Gaza — and now the West Bank — has shown is just how lied to we have been about the true fascistic nature of Israel and the death grip the big money Zionist lobby has on the government we finance. It’s time for Americans to step up and learn the true history about the truly evil nature of the foreign fascist government that now runs the White House, Congress, State and War departments.

RAMIN MAZAHERI—More accurate, however, is celebrating the fact that the French left has once again proven to be the most leftist in the pre-1991 West. Yes, Labor won power in the UK just a few days ago, but nobody can compare Labor’s platform with that of La France Insoumise (France Unbowed).

Facing a far-right threat – and Macron is, I must remind you, far-right in terms of economics, democracy, foreign policy, etc – the French people stood up to the would-be dictators and bullies.

GARLAND NIXON—Using their immense media/cultural power, the liberal establishment in the US, Britain and other “developed countries” in the West, have redefined the meaning of “the Left”. The upshot is a huge cultural and political theft. The “left” nowadays does not resemble the real, historical, Marxist or even liberal left at all. Today’s fake left is packed with zealous warmongers, compulsive free speech witch-hunters, it hates socialism, despises trade unions, can’t tell what a man or a woman is, and embraces all the core tenets of libertarianism, a form of latter-day Calvinism on steroids. The upshot is the disaster we witness today: society is disintegrating, war—including nuclear war—looms in every corner, the culture is desiccated and mostly uncreative, controlled by Wall Street bean-counters; artists, instead of rebels are cowards, sellouts, and conformists; and the political class is rotten to the core.

EDITOR—The panel discusses the delicate situation engulfing the EU and the United States, where the anti-immigrant issue has gathered considerable momentum, presenting difficult problems (and opportunities) for the reigning oligarchy. It’s noteworthy, says Dust James, that in both the US (capital/imperial core) and Europe (the periphery, where a “labor aristocracy” developed) the capitalists are drifting toward fascism. In America, where the economy continues to worsen for the working class, and the immigration issue (exploited mercilessly by Trump), adds fuel to the flames, such situation could easily drive some sort of fascistic movement forward, even if Trump himself may not be fully aware (or concerned) about the chaotic consequences of his careless opportunism. Mass immigration is an issue with no easy answers, notes Billy Bob; socialists could arguably defend or oppose either side of the equation. There is no doubt, however, that lowly paid Americans—including many Latinos—are fiercely hostile to “illegal immigration”, since any mass influx of undocumented workers will inexorably depress wages.

PHILIP GIRALDI—Ritter, to be sure, has been a powerful voice critiquing the Iraq War, where his inspections turned up no WMD and he declared, in August 2002, that a case had not been made for attacking Saddam Hussein. If George W. Bush and his gang of neocons plus Congress had only paid attention to Scott Ritter, the US would have been spared the loss of thousands of soldiers and the utter waste of trillions of tax dollars. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis also died as a result of the US attack on their country.

Since that time, Ritter has been an activist who calls for dialogue, negotiation and diplomacy to avoid wars, particularly in the current context where the United States is supplying tens of billions of dollars in arms to expand the war with Russia, sustain the attacks on Gazans and establish a pretext for a war with China over Taiwan.