/leftypol_archive/ - Leftypol archive

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Finland’s right-wing government announced last week the indefinite closure of its 1,300-kilometre border with Russia. An initial decision had been taken last November by the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP)-led government to temporarily close border crossings after a small number of asylum seekers crossed into Finland from Russia.

The four-party coalition government, which includes the far-right Finns Party, is seeking with the move to provoke Russia and demonstrate its determination to clamp down on refugees. After Finland joined NATO last April, becoming the military alliance’s 31st member, its long land border with Russia and close proximity to St. Petersburg transformed Finland into a frontline state in the US-NATO imperialist war on Russia.

Finland’s entry into NATO, following the US-provoked Russian invasion of Ukraine, was overseen by a Social Democrat-led government. Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s coalition lost support due to sweeping attacks on the working class and embrace of pro-war policies, and was defeated in parliamentary elections also held in April 2023. When the NCP unveiled what is widely described as Finland’s most right-wing government since World War II, a central plank of the program was a clampdown on asylum seekers and refugees.

The Finns Party, which has ties to outright fascist forces, has long scapegoated foreigners for the country’s problems.

NCP Prime Minister Petteri Orpo placed the Interior Ministry under the control of the Finns Party. Finns leader Riikka Purra enthused, “I am delighted that together with our negotiating partners we have agreed on an immigration package that can rightly be called a paradigm shift.” Among the measures proposed was a halving of the refugees accepted by Finland from the UN refugee agency from 1,050 to 500 per year, and the creation of lower rates of social welfare for refugees and immigrants. Purra boasted that temporary residency permits for refugees would be “withdrawn if the person is on holiday in their country of origin.”

In the months following the coming to power of the new coalition, from August to December 2023, approximately 1,300 asylum seekers crossed the border from Russia, an increase from an average of one per day before then. Interviews conducted with asylum seekers who successfully made the trek after paying hefty fees to smugglers underscore that they chose the route because it was the easiest way into “fortress Europe,” Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

What made old /leftypol/ good?

Pull examples from the archives, the booru, wherever and whatever. Hell, even just tell a story.

Was it the PDFs? Was it the artists making memes? Was it people's willingness to repost them? Was it the raids and antics? Was it the people who brought esoteric niche history and theory to light? Was it the crazy Trump election drama and racial uprisings in the US? Was it the proximity to all kinds of communities, with all of 8ch coming in to give their shit opinions and getting dogpilled into submission?

The United States has positioned troops on a tiny island chain less than 6km from the Chinese coast, Taiwan has admitted.

In an apparent escalation of the American military presence in Taiwan, a Taiwanese defence minister told reporters the country was running an “exchange” with the US to “figure out how to improve” its military.

Although the US has announced it was training Taiwanese forces on the country’s main island, Formosa, the Pentagon has never acknowledged the presence of American troops on the Kinmen Islands, which lie 6km from the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen.

In response to reports that US special forces were operating on the islands, Chiu Kuo-cheng, the minister, admitted on Tuesday that his country’s military was learning from American forces there.

“This exchange is for mutual observation, to identify the problems we have, figure out how to improve and to recognise their strengths so we can learn from them,” he said.

“We can learn from each other to see what strengths we have. This is a fixed thing.”

The Kinmen Islands sit on the far side of the Taiwan Strait, the 177-km body of water that separates Taiwan and China. They are around 160km from Taiwan, but easily visible from the Chinese mainland.

Taiwan has stationed its own amphibious soldiers, known as “frogmen”, on both the Kinmen Islands and other outlying islands, amid concerns about a Chinese invasion that US officials have said could take place by 2027.
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Dozens dead after gunmen open fire at Moscow concert hall, building set on fire

News reports say assailants attacked venue with automatic weapons, explosives

The Federal Security Service, Russia's top security agency, said there are dozens dead or wounded in a Moscow concert hall attack, Russian state news agencies reported Friday night, after several gunmen in combat fatigues burst into the venue and fired automatic weapons at the crowd.

Russian media outlets reported that between two to five assailants were involved in the attack and also used explosives, causing a massive blaze at the Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow.

The attack took place as crowds gathered for a concert by Picnic, a famed Russian rock band, at the hall, which can accommodate over 6,000 people.

Russian news reports said visitors were being evacuated, but some said an unspecified number of people could have been trapped by the blaze.

Fire engulfed a third of the venue building, and its roof is almost completely engulfed in flames, state news agency TASS reported, adding that helicopters had been called in to help.

Shortly before 11:00 p.m. local time, Russia's Interfax news agency reported firefighting crews had contained the fire.
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Continued from >>477700

Updates since the start of the last thread:
The (largely civilian) Palestinian death toll has now passed 31,000.

The US Senate, with Biden's support, passed a bill to authorize more than $14,000,000,000 in military aid to Israel.

The International Court of Justice made an interim ruling in South Africa's favor in their case accusing Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza, deeming it plausible, Nicaragua signed on to the case.

Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked cargo ships in the Red Sea in an attempt to disrupt the supply line of Israel's ongoing carpet bombing campaign against Gaza, resulting in the sinking of the Rubymar. The Biden admin has responded to the Houthis with a retaliatory bombing campaign, killing multiple fighters and at least one civilian. An attack on the True Confidence in March then yielded the first 3 civilian casualties of Houthi attacks.

Trade unionists in Scotland and England have blockaded major UK arms factories.

Canada, Australia, and the EU have started to resume funding to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugee aid. Members of the agency have stated that Israel employed torture when interrogating them.

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https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/03/12/degd-m12.html

Latin America
<Argentine strike wave continues

>In recent weeks, Argentine unions have called strikes by teachers, aeronautical workers, railway workers and others to put forward salary demands due to high inflation and economic policies promoted by President Javier Milei.

< River-boat operators and crews in Buenos Aires Province struck following a legally mandated cooling-off period. The struggle is over wages. They may be joined by river workers in Santa Fe province, which borders Buenos Aires, along the Parana River, whose cooling-off period expires on March 15. Ships that are still sailing will dock at their destination, download their cargo, with the strikers remaining on board during the duration of the work-stoppage.
< On March 7 transit workers in metropolitan Buenos Aires carried out their second strike this month. The strike is over unpaid wages and wage increases. The trade unions that represent transit workers defined the underlying wage issue as the protection of workers’ buying power.

<Women protest against gig work in Quito, Ecuador

>Thousands of women marched in Quito on March 8 (International Women’s Day). The demonstrators denounced the rise of contingent employment, due to the economic policies of current president Daniel Noboa. The demonstrators also carried signs condemning the ongoing Gaza genocide.

>The demonstrators rallied in Quito’s historic San Francisco Square. At the rally, women read manifestos denouncing Noboa’s policies, the war and conditions of increasing misery and poverty.
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>The appeal for the commercial enterprises that are bankrolling the research into the Familiar is indeed the unprecedented penetration into consumers' habitats and unconscious minds that it offers: this kind of AI can operate as a walking, live-in, always-on 'advertisement' for their products. 'It goes far further than that,' Bryant enthuses. 'The Familiar is the ultimate product: a product that collapses commodity, market research and promotion into one another. It's a product that sells you more products.'

http://ccru.net/archive/Commodities.htm

They have predicted so much.

Your bravery and sacrifice will never be forgotten. The left needs more men and women with the amount of dedication and courage that Bushnell had.

What american historical figures were leftists and did something major? First people that come to mind are Oppenheimer and Helen Keller. Anyone else?