Scottish journalist and blogger living in Dublin, Ireland. Postgraduate in Sociology, Academic Fellowship (History of World War I) and lecturer in Biblical Studies.
At the heart of the far-right Maidan agenda — the 2014 coup d’état supported by openly Nazi paramilitary groups and political organisations — is the Ukrainian ultra-nationalist Kulturkampf against the Orthodox Church; a struggle with its roots in the country’s Nazi era past. … More Ukraine’s Unholy War
In this episode of The Holocaust Podcast we journey with Primo Levi to a place he describes as ‘the bottom,’ a place where a human being can fall no further – into the depths of the Auschwitz labour camp of Monowitz. Levi explores what it means to be robbed of one’s humanity, to be humiliated, to be emptied. … More Auschwitz: On the Bottom
Many on the political left — and I say this as a socialist — quite enjoy the illusion that antisemitism is a disease of the political right, and it is popularly assumed that Jewish people themselves cannot be anti-Semitic. But nothing could be further from the truth. Antisemitism — or ‘Jew hatred’ — is a deep-seated form of racism which permeates European and North American, Western, culture and society, and one that can be and often has been internalised and reproduced by Jews in the West. Even today, 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, we encounter antisemitism everywhere. … More European Antisemitism
Not only is this about history — about something that happened in the past, the Holocaust is a warning for our future. With right-wing racism on the rise, with racist and intolerant parties and personalities again entering the mainstream of European and American politics, the Holocaust stands as a terrible reminder of what happens when we use hatred and intolerance as instruments to achieve our own patriotic and nationalistic political ends. The Holocaust remains the most important lesson of the twentieth century — and Trump, Brexit, and the war in Ukraine only serve to remind us that this is a lesson we need. … More The Origins of Genocide
Over the past six months Socialists in every part of the EU have united with anti-war groups, dissenters, and the growing number of ordinary people who are becoming increasingly alarmed by the effects this war and the sanctions against Russia are having on their lives. The limitation of oil and gas in the global economy has driven costs up, accelerating an already developing cost of living crisis; threatening less-well-off people with a bitter winter in which they will be unable to afford the basics of food, heating, and rent. … More Is Europe Losing Patience with Zelenskyy?
It is an undeniable fact that Ukrainian forces are responsible for the artillery bombardment of the Zaporozhye NPP, and there are two reasons for this; one ideological and the other practical. The prevailing ideology of the Ukrainian forces on the southern front is, as has been well-documented even in the western media, National Socialist — or Nazi — in nature; a profoundly nihilistic and apocalyptic brand of palingenetic ultranationalism. … More Impending Nuclear Disaster at the Zaporozhye NPP
On Wednesday (27 July 2022), The Irish Times published a letter penned to the letters section of the newspaper by Sabina Coyne Higgins, the wife of the President of Ireland (Michael D. Higgins), in which she wrote: ‘Until the world persuades President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations, the long haul of terrible war will go on.’ She was perfectly correct. Without an end to the fighting and without peace talks, the war in Ukraine will continue and many more thousands of people will suffer and die. … More The Sabina Coyne Higgins Affair
Žižek’s recent comments on Ukraine have quite understandably bewildered and divided socialists around the world. Ukraine, he says, ‘risked the impossible, defying pragmatic calculations, and the least we owe them is full support, and to do this, we need a stronger Nato.’ But wait! Supporting Ukraine is to support a Nazi-captured state, post-Maidan, and to seek a stronger NATO is to desire a reinforced US unipolarity and the furtherance of American liberal and capitalist hegemony. To the socialist (qua a leftist who reads) this is simply anathema. … More Žižek on the War in Ukraine
And so as Russian soldiers closed in on the Azov Regiment in Mariupol, it can be seen that the Azov commanders and troops were truly important to the regime in Kyiv. They functioned as a paramilitary structure able to enforce the diktats of the regime in Kyiv with more fervor than those taking orders from regular Ukrainian general officers. … More The Azov Regiment, Mariupol, and Ideology
Without doubt, this was Mr Putin’s greatest public relations victory so far in this conflict. Not only were western audiences presented with Russia’s case for war, they were given it from the mouth of Vladimir Putin himself. In explaining why Russian soldiers were fighting in Ukraine… … More Putin’s Victory Day Parade
Standpoint Zero 