Morning Comrades.
In Monday’s dispatch I mentioned that all of us here that grew up in NATO’s imperial core had scores to unlearn about our history, briefly in any case. The same goes for me and I have been on a semi-relentless journey these past decades trying to figure out what is what - mostly, for no other reason other than curiosity and obviously to better understand how to change, everything. It strikes me as an amusing side observation that whilst our Capitalist Overlords allow us an education, most of which was fought for with blood and tears by scores of working class comrades before our time, that one of the side effects of learning critical thinking is realizing that our social construct and the historical narrative upon which our manipulation is based, is itself nothing but propaganda to uphold the dicatotrship of capitalism through the violence of the bourgeoisie.
To put it plainly, whatever notions of superiority we were indoctrinated with as children and adults of the Global NorthWest are predominately falsehoods. Our history was written by the Capitalists in order to morally uphold their reign, one that is solely based on violence of the highest order.
With that, I wanted to offer a little deep dive into history, specifically in regards to Nazism, Germany, the relationship between Britain and the U.S. and additionally offer an alternative perspective of our history, upon which crimes against all humanity are still being committed by the capitalists. Most of those we will never hear of - did anyone hear of the French Foreign Legion invading Yemen to steal gas last week 1 - because the narrative of the imperial core is determined by vast media empires whose interest is not of truth but profit and security of the capitalists.
Part of this deep dive was triggered of course by the continuing lie that the “west” stopped European Fascism in the 30s and 40s, that the “west” and capitalism won the Cold War and thus enjoys moral superiority over the world. Bullshit of course, but let’s strap in and go on a little journey.
Nazi Germany and the Fascist movement in Europe of the 30s should be looked at as a global bourgeois experiment in how best to apply colonial tactics to western domestic populations.
British Colonialism, which had captured at least half the Earth by the end of WW1, immediately collapsed after WW2. Replacing it was U.S. type of Neo-Colonialism, a sort of hybrid colonialism with liberal-democratic aesthetics. This did not appear out of nowhere, of course, but had been cultivated in Britain since the 1850s and was brought over to North America with scores of settler-intellectuals since then.
The Anglo-Saxon-Bourgeois had learned a lesson with the decline of the British Empire by the end of WW2 in that the old "civilizing" mission of colonizers was no longer an effective propaganda. The reality of a World War on an unprecedented scale of human loss, suffering and upheaving of felt solid social relations meant that a new rhetoric and a whole new logic for colonization had to be created. If you drew the connection to the Gramscian model of continuing cultural hegemonic domination, well done. This is exactly what this was and in this case it lead to the advent of World Bank, IMF imperialism via Bretton Woods. 2 3
The U.S. Capitalists and their government exemplifies this best by being the foremost leader in shaping how nations organize themselves post World War 2- to the victors go the spoils and such, but who really won here? For example, fascist violence and repression is largely reserved for internal colonies and those poor enough to be associated with them while the democratic veneer prevails as a moral signpost. I know that sounds awfully familiar. As an additional example, the U.S. police can kill 1000s of innocent people a year without reprisal let alone the fear of a revolution aimed against them. The U.S. government can and does have the largest prison population per capita, U.S. prisons can and do use slave labor, and historically proven and openly admitted by the agents of capitalism, aka, the government, the U.S. can and does support fascism in other nations, but so long as the bourgeois and petty bourgeois can "vote," its not explicitly a fascist nation.
Furthermore, the U.S. intelligence can mass surveil its own population and most of the world 4; it employs violent, covert tactics on civilians, the government can and does execute the innocent; harbour political prisoners 5 deliberately poison and render more vulnerable citizens destitute; yet still not be labeled "authoritarian," "dictatorial" or fascist. The same goes for the majority of their vassal states here in Europe also, especially, the U.K.
All of the above were and remain key lesson taken from the 3rd Reich in Germany: You can repress, but you can't revel in it. The repression must be a means, not an end. This is one, if not the main problem the bourgeoisie across the West has with Trump, he makes it impossible for the U.S. to continue to perpetuate its moral facade. Especially if you compare the actual politics, or specifically, the continuity of politics - the actual affect on your lives - of Presidents before and after Trump. It’s all the same, other than the optics. The Nazis and Fascists across Europe, but also the Fascist that ran the British Empire, revelled in their superiority, openly, publicly and proudly - feel free to get into the background of Colonial Britain’s favourite song, “Rule Britannia”. 6 They openly bragged about how stupid they thought democracy is. This ultimately contributed to their undoing, as the Western bourgeoisie could no longer support them and maintain its ethical posture, but I digress. Remember, the notion that we live in a democracy is the key pillar Western Capitalist utilize in order to justify the looting and destruction of the planet, instigating civil wars in opposing nations, the mass surveillance of its own population etc etc. The notion, however, that we do live in a true democracy, is of course, a bloody lie.
The use of covert action by the ruling classes, be it active through the means of the police or subversively through culture wars against "subversives", for example bringing Phoenix Program tactics to Los Angeles from Vietnam 7 8 is another colonial logic turned neo-colonial that ended up becoming domestic policy as well. The Phoenix Program itself seemed to be inspired by certain British acts of colonial repression. Evidence points to Phoenix borrowing from the British "Malaya Emergency" 9 as well as their response to the Kenyan Mau Mau Rebellion 10. The lessons learned from these three seemingly unconnected events in the West's colonial history would then be infamously used to subvert the Black Power Movement.
This FBI memo from 1968 directly mentions the Mau Mau in relation to a potential black nationalist uprising in the US. Reminder that COINTELPRO had just been reinstated by Hoover in 1967 and that this coincided with the CIAs Operation CHAOS.11
Again, none of these developments happened in a vacuum and it has been long established that U.S. and Nazi German "reference groups" or "linkage groups" shared a common conviction, especially after the destruction of the 3rd Reich: the central importance of maintaining capitalism as a national and world economic system and the key role of US - German productive capacity and markets. Prominent Nazi and U.S. business interests saw it necessary for there to be a "bulwark against Soviet Bolshevism," which they saw is constantly encroaching. The Nazis fulfilled this need. This from "The Splendid Blonde Beast"12
At the time, the international fascist organizations were, for lack of a better phrase, trailblazers in repression of "subversives" and minorities. A precedent was set here and one that during the Cold War would become a very sought after skill in far-right circles, or rather all Capitalist Western governments. I am sure I don’t have to footnote Operation Paperclip here. After the war, the West and the U.S. specifically would pursue "escaped" Nazi war criminals, like Reinhard Gehlen 13 and employ them to continue their actions against the USSR and, going forward, any leftwing groups.
The World Anti-Communist League (WACL)14 , now in true Orwellian nature called "World League for Freedom and Democracy" ( and yes it still operates, freely and openly ) was the foremost organization in spreading Nazi "unconventional warfare" to nations with budding leftwing movements. The WACL was led by a Nazi collaborator named Yaroslav Stetsko 15, Stepan Bandera's 16 chosen second in command. I am sure that over the last few months during the war between Russia and Ukraine you may have heard the laters name more than once. From "Inside the League“ the WACL eventually got recognized by President Ronald Reagan. By then, WACL had spread these "unconventional warfare" techniques as far as Nicaragua, Chile and El Salvador. WACL member John Singlaub was pivotal in raising funds for the Contras.
The rest is modern history, or rather our times. Certainly mine, most people my age will remember the sinister reality of the U.S. empire post Reagan and there will be another time to dig into the actual reality of what transpired from the mid 80s onwards. The point of this little deep dive, and it truly only scratches the surface, again is to offer a different narrative about who our kings and queens of capitalism actually are. In order for us to move past their destructive, fascist control over every aspect of lives we have to reckon with our past and I hope this helps a little for anyone interested in doing so.
Thank you for your time, attention and support.
Yours, warmly,
V.
https://braveneweurope.com/the-cradle-french-foreign-legion-arrives-in-yemen-to-secure-gas-facility
This hybridizing of colonialism has reflected a similar evolution of western domestic policy. Western nations now regularly employ colonial and neo-colonial tactics on their own populations, but with a consistent liberal-democratic veneer, couched in the logic of the "free market.“
This hybridizing of colonialism has reflected a similar evolution of western domestic policy. Western nations now regularly employ colonial and neo-colonial tactics on their own populations, but with a consistent liberal-democratic veneer, couched in the logic of the "free market.“
https://fortune.com/2022/02/11/cia-mass-surveillance-wyden-privacy-shield-meta/
https://abolitionnotes.org/political-prisoners
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule,_Britannia!#Symbolism
https://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/OP258.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayan_Emergency
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_rebellion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_CHAOS
https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Splendid_Blond_Beast.html?id=gTwTDgAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Gehlen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_League_for_Freedom_and_Democracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaroslav_Stetsko
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera