With the introduction of the RESTRICT bill, the element of the ruling elite that’s most committed to advancing imperialism has made its intentions clear: to criminalize anti-imperialist activities and sentiments, starting with efforts to build solidarity with anti-imperialist countries. Should it pass, it will make the organizers I know whose job is to cultivate relationships with foreign communist parties targets for criminal charges, and will potentially even make me a target should the act’s standards become loose enough. The point of RESTRICT’s banning the use of communications technologies from Washington’s adversaries is to create a loophole for prosecuting this kind of international organizing outreach work. Which creates the precedent for also going after those who merely speak out against the State Department’s narratives.
I am interested in your definition of "New Left." I have been disgusted by the "let's-arm-Ukraine 'left'" and I think it's the same thing. I actually stopped writing for Counterpunch over that issue (100+ articles from 2015-2023). Not all the writers there feel that way certainly, but one of the editors and several prominent writers do. The last straw for me was when they published a "review" of the book on Ukraine by Medea Benjamin and Nicholas JS Davies which wasn't a review at all, but just an excuse for the author (Eric Draitser) to vomit all over the authors and on peace activists in general. Now, I'm sure you don't totally agree with Benjamin and Davies, but they are dedicated antiwar activists who have worked hard and taken a lot of risks and the "review" was just slander. Counterpunch refused to publish my critique of the review, which I found incredibly cowardly of them. Like, newspapers publish letters-to-the-editor all the time that are far more pointed than what I wrote, but whatever.
Anyway, I'm staunchly opposed to all US interventions: military, economic, clandestine or otherwise, and I hope that the hostilities in Ukraine are brought to an end as soon as possible, given the current suffering and the potential dangers.
More to the point of your article, I entirely oppose the RESTRICT act and all internet censorship. I've been following those issues closely for years and the elite have been squeezing out speech that doesn't toe the line more and more effectively all the time. It feels like we are entering an information dark age, tbh.
Keep up the writing. I always appreciate your perspectives, even when we're not on the same page.
My definition of the New Left is the types of leftists who came to dominate popular movements after McCarthyism suppressed communism in America, and then replaced the Marxist analysis with an ideology that’s fundamentally unserious about workers revolution.
I am interested in your definition of "New Left." I have been disgusted by the "let's-arm-Ukraine 'left'" and I think it's the same thing. I actually stopped writing for Counterpunch over that issue (100+ articles from 2015-2023). Not all the writers there feel that way certainly, but one of the editors and several prominent writers do. The last straw for me was when they published a "review" of the book on Ukraine by Medea Benjamin and Nicholas JS Davies which wasn't a review at all, but just an excuse for the author (Eric Draitser) to vomit all over the authors and on peace activists in general. Now, I'm sure you don't totally agree with Benjamin and Davies, but they are dedicated antiwar activists who have worked hard and taken a lot of risks and the "review" was just slander. Counterpunch refused to publish my critique of the review, which I found incredibly cowardly of them. Like, newspapers publish letters-to-the-editor all the time that are far more pointed than what I wrote, but whatever.
Anyway, I'm staunchly opposed to all US interventions: military, economic, clandestine or otherwise, and I hope that the hostilities in Ukraine are brought to an end as soon as possible, given the current suffering and the potential dangers.
More to the point of your article, I entirely oppose the RESTRICT act and all internet censorship. I've been following those issues closely for years and the elite have been squeezing out speech that doesn't toe the line more and more effectively all the time. It feels like we are entering an information dark age, tbh.
Keep up the writing. I always appreciate your perspectives, even when we're not on the same page.
My definition of the New Left is the types of leftists who came to dominate popular movements after McCarthyism suppressed communism in America, and then replaced the Marxist analysis with an ideology that’s fundamentally unserious about workers revolution.