The Revolution Continues blog is news, views, opinion and other expressions of hope from a leftist point-of-view. (We are not affiliated with any candidate, political party or organization. All are welcome.)
At the end of the year, most bloggers/columnists compile a round-up of worldwide events that stood out to them as making a significant impact on human society. This year the detrimental events came at us all so fast and furious, one right after another, that there’s almost no way to rank them in order of horridness because they were all so… well, horrid. Where to start?
I tried to find a common thread among the happenings which sums up what the year 2025 was all about. An idea grabbed me as I read one astute observer’s comment on the recent arrest of activist Greta Thunberg. Greta was arrested in London for holding a sign pleading for the release of the Palestine Action hunger strikers. This comment has become the theme of this year's round-up: Truth has become hate speech.
In the year 2025, this theme was present in most earth-shattering events. It can be summed up in a formula reminiscent of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity: Truth = Hate Speech. (Or possibly Hate Speech squared.) And just as revolutionary as Einstein’s breakthrough in physics, this Truth = Hate Speech axiom opens up a whole new way of understanding how our lords and masters (a.k.a. the billionaires/oligarchy and their henchpersons/political puppets) want to manipulate and use us from here on out—that is, if we let them.
Let’s start with Greta’s and thousands of other British protesters’ example...
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This week I planned on introducing a documentary film, To Kill A War Machine, to the general public at our main library branch downtown. After doing some research on the group the film is about, Palestine Action, it got me to thinking: What is activism? Is what most of us engage in activism or is it just so much showing off? Can we become real activists? What’s holding us back?
I’m not going to dissect the “No Kings” event that happened recently since so many others have already done so. Caitlin Johnstone and Lee Camp both wrote excellent pieces about it. What I am going to say here for the record is that I agree with their takes on it.
No Kings wasn’t a “protest” as much as it was a “rally” or a “parade” (if people marched along a parade route). There’s nothing wrong with rallies or parades, but when circumstances are as dire as many of us think they are, then we simply don’t have time to waste on fun things like rallies or parades. We need to get down to business. Things are happening in our world that are deadly serious and need addressing. Now.
This is the way I saw the No Kings event I attended: It was like an adult spying a house on fire and then deciding to dress up in an inflatable dinosaur costume and prance about in front of the burning house holding a Trump is a DICKtator sign instead of organizing a water bucket brigade to put the fire out. Cute costume and clever sign but a juvenile reaction. It’s neither helpful nor appropriate to the occasion...
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The graffiti artist Banksy honored the Royal Courts of Justice in London recently with a great original artwork. Its subject caught the public’s eye immediately. The spray-painted scene showed a judge, complete in black gown and white wig, using his gavel to pummel a protester to the ground. The protester is attempting to hold up a protest sign splattered in his own blood. After the recent “I support Palestine Action” protests and massive arrests of people of all ages and conditions, what image of violent censorship by the state could be more appropriate?
The arrests included Steve, a disabled RAF veteran using a walker, Mike Higgins, a 62-year-old blind and disabled man who was previously arrested on 9 August, an NHS midwife, a retired doctor in her 80s, two mental health nurses and 83-year-old Anglican priest Reverend Sue Parfitt.
Of course, this was to be the only Banksy artwork that couldn’t remain so the British people could enjoy its message for years to come. (There’s actually an earlier Banksy decorating a London police box, so his paintings are usually left alone.) The court had the image of the abusive judge and the downtrodden protester scrubbed from the wall outside the courthouse’s entrance within days. Only an ominous dark shadow of the aggressive judge and the beaten protester remains.
If this dark shadow doesn’t tell the story of our times, I don’t know what does. As someone said after the artwork was washed off the courts’ wall: The stain remains.
The powers-that-be can scrub away a Banksy image, censor and arrest us all they like for protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people, but the stain of the colonizers’ actions toward the ordinary people will never fade away. As the Irish-speaking group Kneecap said in an X post: “You can’t wash away genocide… Your complicity will always remain.”
There is bright red blood splatter on the protester’s placard in the original image, the protester’s own blood shed because of the judge’s evil actions. In the same manner, no matter how hard the Royal Courts of Justice (Ha!) tries to cover for the UK’s support of genocide, blood stains from the ethnically cleansed victims of Gaza will remain on their hands. No amount of “scrubbing” (censoring) or “whitewashing” (using propaganda/hasbara to cover up lies) will ever wipe away the people’s memory of how red those blood stains were.
It’s time for us all in the West to give up trying to lie our way out of our war crimes. The stain remains no matter how violently a country acts toward their own people who courageously keep pointing out the stain of genocide. Trying to shut down mass protests by censoring an organization such as Palestine Action and proscribing it as a “terrorist group” does nothing to hide the UK government’s past or present war crimes. In fact, it only adds to the government’s growing list of crimes against humanity...
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Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. (Happy Black History Month, too.)
It does seem funny wishing a good day in honor of a late great American (assassinated by our own security state), but what else can I say?
I suppose I could say “Happy Inauguration Day!” but some folks would have a complete and utter meltdown if I dare mention Donald Trump being sworn in as president for a second time. So, I won’t say that, but what could I say instead? Maybe: “Trump is living in the White House again. Get use to it”?
I find it interesting how most of the individuals I know who have constantly worried and fretted over or made fun of the “Orange Man” won’t live any differently whether Trump is president or not. They still have their white privilege. They still live solidly middle- to upper-class lives. They will keep their jobs or be able to retire as planned. This is in complete contrast to the poor people that Dr. King spoke about frequently who struggled to pay their bills and never once considered retirement to be possible...
And now a short excerpt from our guest blogger's piece:
Swords Into Plowshares
by Coast Watcher
...Instead of scrapping one or both of the huge and expensive super-carriers Britain could instead donate them to the United Nations for use as disaster relief ships. Able to travel quickly to wherever they’re needed, each carrier could house dozens of search-and-rescue helicopters and other aircraft. Current hangar space below decks can be repurposed as hospitals equipped for emergency surgery, storage space for medical supplies, food, water, disaster relief equipment, tents and anything else required in a disaster relief operation. The ship’s nuclear power plant can be hooked up to shoreside facilities to provide electricity wherever local power generation has been damaged or destroyed...
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Our resident historian and all-around sharp and savvy person, Coast Watcher, returns to the blog with an in-depth look at the recent going-ons in Africa, particularly between Niger and their former colonizer, France. Once again, the more things change...the more history repeats itself?
Shades of Suez: How the situation in Niger reflects that of Egypt in 1956
by Coast Watcher
Egypt
The British and French Empires had a long history of involvement in Egyptian affairs, mostly rooted in the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
The 19th century rulers of Egypt were ambitious men. Although nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt’s rulers had practiced autonomy for centuries. Beginning with the rule of Ottoman Viceroy Muḥammad ʿAlī, Egypt’s borders expanded into Syria and the Sudan, Arabia and Yemen. This expansionism by Muhammad and his successors came at a cost. By 1876 Egypt’s national debt owed to European powers exceeded its means to pay.
Egypt’s ruler, Khedive Ismāʿīl Pasha, tried to stave off bankruptcy by selling the national shares in the Suez Canal to Britain. The measure failed, and both countries established the Dual Control, a means by which Egyptian revenue and expenditure were directly supervised by French and British officials. Needless to say this imposition rankled with the ordinary Egyptians and their ruler. Exploiting popular unrest, Ismāʿīl ousted the Dual Control, but Britain and France persuaded the Ottoman Sultan—still nominal ruler of Egypt—to depose Ismāʿīl in favor of his son, Muhammad Tawfik.
A rising nationalist movement in the officer caste of the Egyptian military led to war with the British in 1882, but the movement failed in the face of superior force. Egypt remained a virtual British colony. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War 1, it became a kingdom under British control from 1922 to 1952, with a promise of independence given by Britain in a treaty of 1936. After World War 2, the Egyptian drive to independence gave rise to a guerilla war that ousted the king in July of 1952. Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser became president.
Prolonged negotiations with Britain led to the 1954 Anglo-Egyptian Agreement, under which British troops were to be evacuated gradually from the canal zone. Nasser put in place an ambitious plan to construct a dam across the Nile at Aswan to regulate the annual flow that powers Egypt’s agriculture. He gained a promise from the United States to fund the project, but the US reneged on the deal. In turn Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, intending that tolls and tariffs imposed on shipping using the Canal would pay for the project. Nasser was backed by the Soviet Union, who provided arms, equipment, and advisors to the Egyptian military.
This move promptly brought Egypt into conflict with Britain, France, and the new state of Israel. France was infuriated by intelligence suggesting Egypt was funding anti-colonial rebels in its colony of Algeria. Since Nasser had no time for the new state of Israel, their military had already skirmished with Egyptian forces along their shared frontier. Israel led the invasion of Egypt on October 29, 1956, followed two days later by Britain and France.
The allied forces took control of the canal zone, but the Anglo-French deployment delay gave time for the Soviet Union to react. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was keen to exploit the moves toward Arab independence throughout the Middle East. He saw the invasion by the reactionary powers as a direct threat. Khrushchev in turn threatened to use nuclear weapons in Europe if the allied coalition did not withdraw.
Alarmed by this, US President Eisenhower warned the Soviets that threats of nuclear war were only exacerbating the situation. He and Secretary of State John F. Dulles told the coalition in turn that they had to withdraw from Egyptian territory or face economic sanctions. Since their economies were still suffering the after-effects of World War 2, Britain and France had to comply with American demands. All forces withdrew from Egypt by December 1956.
This established the United States and the Soviet Union as the dominant players on the world stage—a prestige the US, in particular, has trouble relinquishing.
Niger
Fast forward to the year 2023. A recent coup in the African country of Niger has caused uproar in the West.
France moved in to what is now Niger in the late 19th century, formalizing control of the region in the following decade. This was conducted mainly to counter British and Italian imperial ambitions in the area of western Africa. In World War 2, the Niger colonial administration remained loyal to the French Vichy government, but following the war a small measure of self-governance was given to them. In 1960, Niger along with many other former French colonies attained full independence. French influence in Niger and elsewhere in its former African territories remains strong—but it is declining.
French military and local forces based in Chad and Burkina Faso were active in the past ten years during Operation Barkhane. This is an attempt to contain and eliminate the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda jihadist groups operating in the Maghreb and the Sahel, and also to counter growing Chinese and Russian influence on the continent. Needless to say, this aspect of French colonialism has the approval of the United States.
Some 5,650 French troops are deployed across the continent. Between 1,000 and 1,500 are stationed in Niger, mainly at the Niamey Airbase to control access to Niger's substantial gold and uranium deposits. France is rumored to be concentrating its African forces, possibly in preparation for an attack on Niger should the situation demand it.
Niger has played the part of a bulwark against instability and jihadist influence in the region. It’s also the location of the Americans' Airbase 201, a drone base staffed by 1,000 personnel. It is said to be the largest drone base in the world and key to the US operations across the Sahel. The recent coup by President General Abdourhamane Tchiani, that overthrew the unpopular President Bazoum, has put Western control of Niger's natural resources under threat. This has not gone unnoticed by the United States.
Indian historian and journalist Vijay Prashad observes:
Hours after the coup was stabilized, the main Western states—especially France and the United States—condemned
the coup and asked for the reinstatement of Bazoum, who was immediately
detained by the new government. But neither France nor the United
States appeared to want to lead the response to the coup. Earlier this
year, the French and US governments worried about an insurgency in
northern Mozambique that impacted the assets of the Total-Exxon natural
gas field off the coastline of Cabo Delgado. Rather than send in French
and US troops, which would have polarized the population and increased
anti-Western sentiment, the French and the United States made a deal
for Rwanda to send its troops into Mozambique. Rwandan troops entered
the northern province of Mozambique and shut down the insurgency. Both
Western powers seem to favor a “Rwanda” type solution to the coup in
Niger, but rather than have Rwanda enter Niger the hope was for
ECOWAS—the Economic Community of West African States—to send in its
force to restore Bazoum. --What's Happening in Niger is Far From a Typical Coup
Both France and the US are putting pressure on the African nations they still have a measure of control over. These nations are known collectively as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ECOWAS is said to be amassing troops ready to intervene in Niger. Opposing them are suspended member nations of ECOWAS, backed by Russia. All the suspended members are ruled by military governments, and they were suspended for being in violation of ECOWAS rules on democracy and good government.
The neighboring countries of Guinea, Chad, the Central African Republic, and Algeria all want to see the situation resolved peacefully, but they oppose an invasion of Niger through fear the situation could escalate to a war that will engulf the entire west of Africa. As of this date, it looks like military intervention by ECOWAS forces is unlikely. There’s a great deal of push-back against the West from African nations, who rightly perceive the whole action against Niger to be nothing more than a colonial power’s attempt to hang on to the assets and a resource grab practiced—in France’s case—for centuries.
Jihadists are already exploiting the situation. Seventeen troops were killed in an ambush in the Tillaberi region near Burkina Faso recently. ECOWAS is fully aware of the threat Islamist extremism poses against their own order.
The United States announced last week that a new ambassador would soon head to Niger to help lead diplomacy aimed at reversing the coup. ECOWAS has already applied trade and financial sanctions, while France, Germany, and the United States have suspended their aid programs to Niger. The measures are being applied to one of the poorest countries in the world. Niger regularly ranks bottom of the United Nation’s Human Development Index.
It should be noted that France has substantial gold reserves. But Niger—possessing sizable gold deposits—has none. Niger possesses uranium deposits as well, uranium that is mined by French corporations to fuel France's nuclear power plants. President Macron of France is taking a harder line against Niger’s new government than the United States, but given America’s history of armed intervention, it is by no means given that the softly-softly approach will last for long.
And so it goes with history. Where once the US warned off another power (France) from exploiting an African country (Egypt), now it’s joining that power in opposing another, Niger.
What has really changed in these last seven decades? Could it be that simply the hegemony of the West (particularly in the mind of the US government) is being threatened? Does the West fear that once they're kicked off the continent the BRICS nations will take their place, exercising control over Africa's vast natural resources? Possibly. But wouldn't it be better if Africa could be ruled, and its resources controlled, by Africans instead?
BIO: Coast Watcher is an armchair historian with a vast knowledge of the West's plundering of other countries' mineral wealth, land, and people. When will this plundering end? Could the fall of the petrodollar and the rising multi-polar world of BRICS bring hope to the beleaguered African continent? Only time will tell.
The Western puppet govts in West Africa are playing a very dangerous game. Armed intervention with logistical support from the U.S. & NATO will light the entire region on fire. I guess they don't understand what is unfolding in Europe as a result of Biden's war in Ukraine. https://t.co/84H61CFnPt
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In these weird times, sometimes it's good to take a break and look back into our past and see what all we can learn from those who came before us. Sometimes, it's just good to take a look back and see where we went wrong and do our best not to take the same or similar path again.
This week, during the big wind up to the coronation of King Charles III, I had a conversation with our resident historian and British person, Coast Watcher, about who's really the power behind the throne. We both agreed that Charles has no real power outside of his billions in the bank and his ability to boss around (and fire) his household staff. But is the power in the UK really in the hands of the so-called Prime Minister, either?
The same could be argued about who is the power behind the American presidency in the twenty-first century. Who really manipulates and control the president's agenda? Nowadays no matter who is in office, no matter what part of the "uni-party" the president claims to be a member of, it seems that the same ol' things occur.
Wars are started on the flimsiest of excuses in order to take resources (oil, natural gas, lithium, etc.) from other countries. This is particularly true of nations that try to disengage from doing international trade using the petrodollar, such as Libya and Iran. These countries eventually wind up being either bombed and/or economically sanctioned. Millions die. US banks and big corporations are bailed out of debt, but the working classes aren't.
The Princeton Study clearly shows how corporations own everyone and everything in the US, but who exactly pulls the strings on a daily basis? Who are those "men behind the curtains" worldwide? Let's take a peek...
Behind the Curtain by Coast Watcher
Back in the 1980s there was a hugely popular BBC TV comedy series called Yes, Minister. It portrayed the bumbling antics of Jim Hacker (played by Paul Eddington), Minister for Administrative Affairs, as he negotiated the labyrinthine pathways of British government. Working behind the scenes was the Machiavellian Sir Humphrey Appleby (played by Nigel Hawthorne), the Permanent Secretary attached to the ministry.
Minister Hacker was frequently left in the dark by his supposed civil service underling, Sir Humphrey, who always had an eye for maintaining the hegemony of the British Civil Service while enhancing his own position and prestige wherever possible. As the character of Sir Humphrey says, "Ministers may come and go, but the Civil Service goes on forever."
And so it is with most Western governments. Like that of the UK there’s always a solid core of apparatchiks determined to advance their own cause and feather their nests, often at the expense of government transparency and efficiency. Like Sir Humphrey these people may be permanent fixtures in the civil service, but there are always some who come and go over the course of years, taking advantage of the revolving door between government and industry.
The elected politicians are not really of any consequence to these non-elected career civil servants. Many politicos don’t last the course, either losing voter support or doing just enough for long enough to earn all those lovely benefits that come with holding public office. Sir Humphrey definitely knew of what he spoke of.
Such an environment is fertile ground for deep conspiracies which are seldom in the best interest of the public. Of course, the elected ones can always proclaim they had no idea what was happening behind the curtain after these heinous deeds are exposed to the world by a whistleblower like Julian Assange, whether or not their professed ignorance is real.
For instance, it was revealed recently that the CIA had recruited and operated two of the 9/11 conspirators. Whatever the reasoning behind this spectacular self-centered goal, there’s no denying it was certainly not in the interests of the American public—nor that of the citizens of Iraq, whose country the Western coalition invaded by using 9/11 as a pretext under the false flag that it held WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction).
It’s no secret, either, that the intelligence services have their hooks deep into the body public. The CIA began as the OSS—Office of Strategic Services. Drawing many valuable lessons from the British Special Operations Executive, the OSS morphed into a powerhouse organization with virtually unlimited budget and almost zero accountability to the public.
The first head of the Central Intelligence Agency was John F. Dulles. A personal friend of President Eisenhower, Dulles’ influence enabled the CIA to set almost all elements of US policy toward the Soviet Union and Communist China. Such influence is still apparent today, with the operations against Russia in the current conflict in Ukraine and the wind up to start a war with China over Taiwan independence.
There’s no denying the woeful impact the manufactured war in Ukraine has had on the peoples of the European Union. They are paying through the nose for natural gas to heat their homes after US Navy divers sabotaged the NordStream II pipeline. In many ways, it’s turning into a defeat for America, as the supposed stringent sanctions against Russia are backfiring in spectacular fashion following the creation of the BRICS initiative set to sideline the petrodollar. And one can't deny that China's diplomatic initiatives to bring about a peaceful resolution to several disputes--including the one between Ukraine/NATO and Russia--makes the United States look even more hawkish than usual.
Of course, as with any Western government, capitalism can’t be ignored. Capitalists must be served! The UK saw the Industrial Intelligence Bureau created in the early 1920s by British businesses to "acquire intelligence on industrial unrest arising from the activities of Communists, Anarchists, various secret societies in the UK and overseas, the Irish Republican Army and other 'subversive' organizations.'" Its founder, Sir George Makgill, was close friends with Desmond Morton, Head of the Special Intelligence Service.
Another revolving door between government and private industry existed between the Industrial Intelligence Bureau and MI5. Agents from one would work for a time in the other organization. No conflict of interest there! The British Fascist movement had its own followers and fellow-travelers inside the intelligence agencies of state and industry, a state of affairs that lasted well into World War II.
With America and, to some extent, the UK sliding ever closer toward fascism, I’ll end this article with some pertinent words from that granddaddy of all fascists:
Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day.
Democratic regimes may be defined as those in which, every now and then, the people are given the illusion of being sovereign, while the true sovereignty in actual fact resides in other forces which are sometimes irresponsible and secret. ~ Benito Mussolini
BIO: Coast Watcher uses the power of history to see the patterns of what's happening in the present to predict the future. What could possibly go wrong with intelligence agencies dictating foreign policy and domestic surveillance? Nothing to see here... Move along now.
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