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Joe Stalin was a mighty man, a mighty man was he, He led the Soviet people on the road to victory. All through the revolution he fought at Lenin's side, And they made a combination till the day that Lenin died.

He said, "Come all you people, we will work with brain and hand." And then one day the Nazis came into the Soviet land, They plundered to the Volga, to Stalingrad, and then Joe Stalin said, Come on, me boys!" and he kicked them out again.

Joe Stalin was a southerner, in Georgia he was born Where the oranges grow thick and fast and fields of waving corn; And Joe he was a farmer, his fingers they were green And he has planted the biggest crop the world has ever seen.

One day he looked upon his map and frowned and shook his head, "There's too much brown and not enough green," these are the words he said; "We'll have to change the weather, boys," he said and then he smiled, "So let's begin by planting trees along three thousand miles."

Joe Stalin rolled his sleeves up and he said, "Come on, let's start! The Volga river and the Don they are too far apart. I think we'd better join them, so come and help me, pal, And we'll build a mighty waterway, the Volga-Don Canal."

One day he went into the North and there saw rivers three All emptying their waters into the Polar Sea; "Now that's not right," Joe Stalin said, "these rivers they are ours, We'll turn 'em 'round and make 'em work to give electric power."

There was a range of mountains that was standing in the way So Stalin put his hand out and he smoothed them all away; For Joe he was determined to make the land all green And that's the biggest project that the world has ever seen.

Joe Stalin was a mighty man and he made a mighty plan; He harnessed nature to the plough to work for the good of man; He's hammered out the future, the forgeman he has been And he's made the workers' state the best the world has ever seen.

"The success achieved by removing the basis for radicalisation of poor workers shows the wisdom of China’s policy in Xinjiang."

Just some wholesome, light hearted content for when you need a little break from the heavy political stuff.

Summary by Arnaud Bertrand on Twitter:

"China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released quite the explosive report on the US's National Endowment for Democracy (NED), explaining how under the cover of "promoting democracy", it has "long engaged in subverting state power in other countries, meddling in other countries’ internal affairs, inciting division and confrontation, misleading public opinion, and conducting ideological infiltration".

In short, it's subverting democracy, the exact contrary of what it says it's doing...

The NED has long been infamous for doing this kind of stuff but there are a few things in the report that are really explosive:

1) Meddling on an enormous scale in Ukraine The report claims that the NED "provided $65 million to the Ukrainian opposition during the 2004 Orange Revolution". They also write that "during the 2013-2014 Euromaidan, NED financed the Mass Media Institute to spread inflammatory information. NED also spent tens of millions of dollars in the use of such social media platforms as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram to spread disinformation, heighten ethnic tensions in Ukraine, and stir up ethnic antagonism in eastern Ukraine."

2) "Taking Mexico as a major target country for infiltration" As the report details, the NED has financially supported numerous organizations like "Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) and the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), and obstructed the electricity reform in Mexico". They also write that "in 2021, the Mexican government sent a note to the US government condemning NED’s funding of anti-government organizations in Mexico as 'an act of interventionism' 'promoting a coup.'"

3) Interference in Serbia's elections They write that "in April 2022 and December 2023, Serbia held its presidential, National Assembly and local elections. NED interfered in the entire election process, and went all out to root for pro-US opposition candidates in the run-up to the elections. In May 2023, after two consecutive shooting incidents in Serbia, NED-sponsored human rights groups and pro-US opposition organizations staged mass demonstrations to demand the resignation of the Serbian government."

4) Instigating the recent protests in Georgia against the government for its foreign agents bill They write that the "NED funded the establishment of three local NGO groupings in Georgia at the beginning of the 21st century to organize demonstrations in capital Tbilisi. In May 2024, NED rallied support for and instigated protests in Georgia against the foreign agents bill."

5) Supporting "Taiwan independence" separatist forces They write that the NED co-hosted events with Taiwan's separatist Democratic Progressive Party, "tried to mobilize 'democratic forces' to open up the 'frontline of democratic struggle in the East' and hype up the false narrative of 'Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow'".

Needless to say, all of this is a complete violation of the UN Charter: they violate both the principle of sovereign equality that guarantees each state's right to freely choose and develop its own political, social, economic, and cultural systems; as well as the principle of non-intervention in the domestic matters of other states. And I'm not even mentioning the violation of the victim states' domestic jurisdictions"

"The third socialist movement began with the First World War. The mainstream socialist parties abandoned internationalism and lined up behind their respective capitalist classes in support of the inter-imperialist mass slaughter.

Lenin and the Bolsheviks broke completely from the main socialist trend, denounced the Second International as traitors to socialism, and founded a new Communist International known as the Comintern, headquartered in Moscow, in 1918.

Marxism-Leninism, the official ideology of the Soviet state founded by the Bolsheviks, expanded the appeal of Marxism to the non-European world. Lenin stated that capitalism would only be defeated if the working class of the West united with the national liberation struggles of the colonized masses of Asia and Africa.

The kind of socialism built in the Soviet Union consisted of top-to-bottom nationalization and complete state control of all economic life, led by a tightly disciplined Communist Party. In the course of the 20th century, this economic model first built in Russia was replicated in half of Europe and large parts of Asia, as well as some countries in Africa and Latin America. For much of the 20th century, one-third of the human race lived under Marxist-Leninist governments.

In the 1960s and 70s, this third socialist movement entered a serious crisis. The total command economy practiced in the USSR, Eastern Europe, and Mao-era China began to stagnate. Such a model was effective for industrializing semi-feudal agrarian societies, eliminating poverty, spurring urbanization, mobilizing for war, and large-scale scientific/technological projects. But they were terrible at effectively producing consumer goods and also suffered deficiencies in efficiency and innovation.

While this model lifted people out of destitution, their material existence was still humble compared to First World capitalist countries. Discontent grew among populations in the Communist bloc who wanted the comforts and consumer lifestyle enjoyed by the Western middle classes.

In addition, by the 1960s the global Communist movement split between the USSR and China, for reasons too complicated to get into here. Suffice it to say that an enormous amount of time, weaponry, and resources were wasted by Moscow and Beijing fighting and undermining each other, sapping their strength and contributing to the victory of US imperialism in the Cold War. The Marxist-Leninist movement fractured, split, and almost completely collapsed.

The fall of the USSR devastated and crippled the global movement. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the most reactionary, pro-free-market, and imperialist forces advanced nearly everywhere on Earth.

This brings us to the fourth global socialist movement that exists today. After the USSR fell, China begrudgingly had to shoulder the burden of leading what remained of the socialist and anti-imperialist camp.

Starting in the 1980s, China engaged in market reforms that allowed for private enterprise to grow, in order to build its productive forces through attracting foreign investment in a largely capitalist world. Vietnam, Cuba, and other countries followed suit.

The fourth global socialist movement, while emphasizing that the state should still dominate the economy, allows for markets and lower-level private enterprise. It does not discourage entrepreneurship as long as such endeavors do not harm the broader society.

The fourth socialist movement is more ideologically diverse than the third; while the Communist Party of China commands the single most powerful state, there are also non-Marxist socialist forces such as the Bolivarian movement in South America, and Islamic socialists in Iran in this broad alliance. Shared ideology is not as important as shared opposition to neoliberalism, imperialism, and financial parasitism.

The fourth global socialist movement does not exclusively appeal to the working class either. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is meant to attract professionals and middle-class forces in Global South nations of a progressive outlook. People who want their respective countries to develop their own manufacturing and infrastructure, so that the most promising minds of their nations won’t be lost to a brain drain towards the Western imperial core.

Like the utopian socialists, many of the anti-imperialist Muslims and Christians in the fourth socialist movement are motivated by a strong moral opposition to capitalism. Unlike secular Marxist-Leninists, they see the struggle against capitalism as a spiritual struggle and not exclusively a class one.

In conclusion, the task of communist and socialist parties in the 21st century is to make themselves relevant players in this new movement of history.

The fall of the USSR, the severing of communist/socialist parties from their working-class base (especially in the West), as well as the demoralization brought about by repeated defeats, disoriented many socialists. Many parties stubbornly clung to dogmas from the old Cold War that no longer made any sense, becoming stale relics from another time. Others have capitulated to liberalism, allowing alien postmodern ideas imported from the bourgeois academy to infest our movements.

Our organizations must return to our calling of representing the independent position of the working class, and not tail after ‘progressive’ liberals or the false populism of the right. Globalist finance capitalism leads in only one direction, no matter how one votes: war, fascism, genocide, and degrowth.

We must study the lessons of socialism with Chinese characteristics and creatively apply Marxism to our own societies and present-day circumstances. From there, we can build strategic alliances with all anti-imperialist and pro-development forces."

"The Good Friday Agreement claimed to promote “a new future for our children”. Instead, we have had precisely the opposite. With the help of Stormont, MI5 and the PSNI, former Republicans have been instrumental in normalising British control over our communities. As a result, more than 20,000 members of the British Crown forces still occupy Ireland, unbeknownst to the majority of the population. It has not even given stable government here, with the Stormont administration having collapsed eight times since 1998.

This “new future” has seen miserable social conditions imposed on our people and has cemented partition for the foreseeable future, with all the inevitable consequences that come with that.

Instead of a “bright future” our young people are faced with disastrous social conditions and a drop in living standards which seems to have no end in sight. They are currently living in the shadow of a drugs epidemic fuelled by the disastrous effects of capitalism on our society. One of the most visible and alarming effects, closely linked to the outbreak of drug abuse, has been the spiralling tragedy of suicides in our communities.

We are quickly approaching the point where the current period of so-called “peace” has lasted as long as did the most recent phase of armed struggle. In this period there have been more than 5,000 deaths due to suicide. Recent statistics gathered have shown that the most deprived areas of the occupied Six Counties had a suicide rate twice that of the least deprived areas.

This shows the havoc which British imperialism in Ireland, hand in hand with capitalism, and cemented by the agreement, has produced. Nothing but social misery on the working class of Ireland who have endured a downward spiral in living standards as a result of multiple capitalist crises; Whether it be the neo-liberal program of austerity imposed after the 2008 financial crash or the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The administrations of both failed states on this island have shown no ability or inclination to properly address these issues, or the many others facing our people.

For example, more than 100,000 homes lie empty across this island because of collusion between partitionist institutions and slum landlords and vulture funds to put profits and shareholders ahead of the basic human right of all people to a home.

However, at the same time, our young people are living with the knowledge that there is a good chance, if things continue as they are, that security of tenure will never be available to them. It seems likely that future generations face a prospect where short-term contracts and never-ending rent hikes are the new normal.

This is the normality our children are told to accept as the price of ‘peace’. The state apparatus which sees fit to parade in front of children in schools and youth clubs armed to the teeth with machine guns and military clothing, is the same apparatus defending the implementation of the social destruction brought about by the Good Friday Agreement.

The almost one hundred so-called peace walls still standing to this day in some of the most deprived areas in Ireland stand as a testament to the fact that we are as divided as ever. In many ways we are growing further apart. It would not be a stretch to say this is by design. The state has a vested interest in keeping working class people divided. Communities that are kept apart are much less of a threat to the interests of the ruling class.

We have to continue asking the question. Was it worth it? Did the disbandment of our revolutionary movement improve the quality of life for our children and future generations? Was the “new future” promised to them 26 years ago delivered? In the opinion of ourselves as Socialist Republicans it’s clear that the answer to these questions is no.

We find ourselves in the midst of yet another capitalist crisis. People are having to choose between heating their homes and putting food on their table. At Lasair Dhearg, we are fighting to rebuild Irish Republicanism from the depths that former comrades left us in through their capitulation 26 years ago. There are those of us from past and current generations who are determined to continue the struggle against foreign imperialism. We are fighting not only the British state but the capitalist system as a whole.

Only through the eradication of both failed states and the establishment of a 32-county socialist republic can we hope to provide a solution to the conditions faced by people across the island. We hope to build a new future, one which the Good Friday Agreement never offered our people.

It’s time for a Socialist Republic."