Transcribing the Past

   The original letter can be found on Scribd.com  Disclaimer: This transcription was not produced by me, though given the nature of the blog hosting, a copy here seemed appropriate. In addition, hosting does not mean endorsement etc. From Chloë Deakin E3 Albany Piccadilly W1V 9RH 01-734 1717 and 1718 4th June 1981 Dear Master, I am happy to say that I am not acquainted with N. P. Farage, or happy, because judging from the reports I have received he is not someone with whom I would wish to be acquainted; and because I am, therefore, able to write on the ground of no personal prejudice, but on that concerning principle. You will recall that at the recent, and lengthy, meeting about the selection of prefects, the remark by a colleague that Farage was “a fascist, but that was no reason why he would not make a good prefect” invoked considerable reaction from members of the Common Room. Another colleague, who teaches t...

 This poster was circulated throughout the 1980s and called on the UK government to renounce official support for the government in exile ran by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. That the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the People's Republic of China and most of the rest of the world supported Pol Pot even after the news of the massacres and mass starvation became well known often surprises many.  The reason is geopolitics, all these powers including Thailand who allowed Pol Pot and his fellow ringleaders to rule refugee camps and continue their civil war in a devastated and exhausted Cambodia were concerned with checking the power of a triumphant Vietnam, which was expanded its influence in neighbouring Laos and its close relationship with the Soviet Union was seen as an existential threat towards the People's Republic. Simply put, no one in power cared about the average Cambodian, they were expendable.  After the 1979 declaration of war on Vietnam backfir...

      The Fifth Issue of the Al Amal (Hope) newsletter, produced by the Anarchist Gathering of Sudan.   Hosted by the French section of the CNT-AIT.       Sudan: The Khartoum Crisis or the Crisis of Khartoum? We notice that the proxy war ongoing in Sudan for the past 50 years has largely focused on controlling Khartoum. The city has appeared as a dream for armed movements seeking to hold the regime accountable and bring an end to power. However, the crisis is not about Khartoum as a capital housing armies and looters, but rather as a state that complicates the humanitarian situation in Sudan. This is due to more than half the population crowding into one place to access basic services such as water, electricity, education, and healthcare. The result has been the inability to provide these services to such a large population in one spot, which in turn led to the marginalization of all other regions. These areas, by default, became self-reliant and...

   This is a double issue of the Al Amal (Hope) newsletter, produced by the Sudanese Anarchist Gathering. Taken from the website of the French CNT-AIT .      JUNE 30 AND THE SUDANESE REVOLUTION: A PHILOSOPHICAL ANARCHIST REFLECTION ON THE REVOLUTION'S DILEMMA AND THE CONFLICT WITH ISLAMISTS On June 30, the Sudanese street returns to movement and turmoil. This date is no longer just a number on a calendar; it has become a mirror of the rebellious collective consciousness and a cry against renewed tyranny under new guises. From an anarchist perspective, this day cannot be viewed merely as a celebration of struggle, but rather as a manifestation of a profound struggle between the masses seeking complete liberation and the forces of the regime— whatever its form—that are reproducing control. 1. The revolution failed to dismantle the old regime: The Sudanese revolution was a spark of true freedom, but it fell into the trap of a "peaceful transition" engineered b...

    Through a Glass Rosily by George Orwell, Tribune , 23 November 1945 The recent article by Tribune’s Vienna correspondent[1] provoked a spate of angry letters which, besides calling him a fool and a liar and making other charges of what one might call a routine nature, also carried the very serious implication that he ought to have kept silent even if he knew that he was speaking the truth. He himself made a brief answer in Tribune, but the question involved is so important that it is worth discussing it at greater length. Whenever A and B are in opposition to one another, anyone who attacks or criticises A is accused of aiding and abetting B. And it is often true, objectively and on a short-term analysis, that he is making things easier for B. Therefore, say the supporters of A, shut up and don’t criticise: or at least criticise “constructively”, which in practice always means favourably. And from this it is only a short step to arguing that the suppression and disto...

Text of a leaflet distributed in Moscow by supporters of the Committee of 100 AGAINST ALL BOMBS The campaign in Britain against nuclear weapons is beginning to turn towards the working class. As it does so, it will create an increasing challenge to the capitalist state. This marks a development both in the activities and in the consciousness of the Campaign. It is a genuine turn to the masses of ordinary workers, not the bureaucracies of the Labour and Trade Union movements. Already, as a result of this emphasis, we have seen the beginnings of industrial action against the bomb. Workers directly involved have refused to handle nuclear cargoes. Others have held token strikes. THE BOMB IN CLASS SOCIETY More and more people in the campaign are seeing the deeper implications of working class action against the bomb. The class which dominates production controls society. It decides policy and, despite the democratic facade, enforces it through its state apparatus. U...

    Vadimas his friends would like to remember him  El Libera Folio English Version Vadim Bikov was killed in the last days of May while serving at the front in Ukraine, he was 54 years old. He voluntarily joined the Ukrainian army immediately after the start of the war, and for over two years served in several dangerous hotspots along the frontline. He is mourned by his Esperantist wife, Julia Dmitrieva. Vadim Bikov was born on the 30th of November 1969 in Soviet Qazaqstan, and spent his childhood in Uzbekistan. He grew up with Russian language media and completed his education in Donbas in the east of Ukraine, and settled there.  When conflict erupted in Donbas in 2014 Vadim fled to unoccupied territory and joined the Ukrainian army to defend the country whose citizenship he had obtained after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  In February 2022 after Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine, Vadim joined the Territorial Defence and spent...

    Shifu's gravestone. Photos courtesy of the Chinese Anarchist Front .   This notice first appeared in the Esperanto language journal La Ondo de Esperanto (The Esperanto Wave) in July 1915 and can be viewed online here .  Shifu was an influential Chinese pioneer of Anarchism. He changed his name on several occasions and was known as Shifu at the end of his life, though in English he's remembered under the name Liu Shifu. He was also an active Esperantist and used the pen name Sifo for Esperanto writings. I translated a short biography of his life earlier, which may help explain some points.  Sifo Shifu (Liu Shifu) the editor of the Esperanto and Chinese language weekly newspaper The Voice of the People, died in Shanghai from tuberculosis. We take some biographical details about Shifu from his publication's 23rd issue. Sifo was born in 1884 in Hongsang* in the province of Canton. He was an extraordinarily talented boy in his youth. At the age of fifteen, he ...