One of those arrested at Wormwood Scrubs was Canary videographer Ibrahim Abul-Essad - who was documenting the protest for Umer KhalidSkwawkbox (Canary)
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Police said group breached HMP Wormwood Scrubs ground where Umar Khalid is being heldGuardian staff reporter (the Guardian)
"Long live Rojava, Long live Palestine"
"International Solidarity"
"Neither Assad or Al Shara"
"Down with Turkish Imperialism"
Graffiti seen around Université de Lyon
"Fuck Capitalism, Fuck ICE, Long live the working class struggle!"
Train graffiti seen in Barcelona
A photo of my back yard after the snow stopped falling for the night; the entire place is covered in snow for the first time in four years and I love it!
This was photographed through an EOS Rebel T3i with a Vivitar Series 1 19-35mm f3.5-4.5 FD-mount zoom lens mounted on it, and I applied a Polaroid PX-680 Cold 5++ film sim to it, because Polaroid cold sims look cool for stuff like this.
#snow #winterweather #eosrebelt3i #canonfd #vivitarseries1 #vintagelenses
@belkisibefilm 🚨 EMERGENCY GLOBAL PREMIERE 🚨
In response to the general mobilization in Northeast Syria, we are launching Belki Sibe early. Join us this Sunday at 1:00 PM EST on YouTube for the global premiere. We are calling on all supporters to organize local screenings in your cities to build morale and stand in solidarity with the Kurdish liberation movement.
In case of any technical interruptions or link takedowns, please check the link in our bio immediately for a secure mirror. Let’s gather, organize, and show the world that Rojava does not stand alone. ☀️✌️
instagram.com/p/DT5mvSpDdTh/?i…
221 likes, 6 comments - belkisibefilm on January 24, 2026: "🚨 EMERGENCY GLOBAL PREMIERE 🚨 In response to the general mobilization in Northeast Syria, we are launching Belki Sibe early.Instagram
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In the search for stability, some western nations are turning to a country that many in Washington see as an existential threatAmy Hawkins (the Guardian)
Josh Paul, co-founder of A New Policy, breaks down the UN’s finding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and highlights the role of US weapons and supp...Al Jazeera English (YouTube)
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The global left is mourning the death of Michael Parenti, the influential Marxist scholar, historian, and public intellectual whose work exposed the mechanics of capitalism, imperialism, and ideological power with unmatched clarity. Parenti passed away on January 24 at the age of 92, leaving behind a body of work that shaped generations of scholars, organizers, and anti-imperialist movements across the world.
For decades, Parenti stood apart from mainstream academia and political life, refusing to dilute his analysis or bend his language to liberal respectability. He wrote not to impress institutions, but to arm people with understanding.
Born in 1933 in New York City to a working-class Italian American family, Parenti often said that his political commitments were grounded not in abstraction, but in lived experience. Class was not something he discovered in theory; it was something he grew up inside.
He earned a PhD and taught political science and history, but his outspoken Marxism and anti-imperialism meant he was steadily pushed to the margins of elite academia. Rather than retreat or conform, Parenti chose independence: lecturing widely, writing prolifically, and speaking directly to union halls, community centers, activist spaces, and international audiences.
He lived modestly, avoided think-tank careers and corporate funding, and kept his private life largely out of the public eye. He was a husband and a father, including to journalist and political analyst Christian Parenti, but he never cultivated a public persona rooted in biography. What mattered to him was the work.
Parenti’s most enduring academic contribution was his systematic critique of liberal democracy under capitalism. In his landmark book Democracy for the Few, first published in 1974, he argued that capitalist democracies are not neutral systems open equally to all, but class-structured states in which economic power overwhelmingly determines political outcomes.
He showed how elections, courts, media, and state institutions consistently serve the interests of capital, while popular demands are managed, diluted, or suppressed. Democracy, he argued, is tolerated only so long as it does not threaten property relations.
“Power is not evenly distributed in society,” Parenti wrote. “Those who own and control the productive wealth tend to dominate the political life of the nation.”
The book became a formative text for students and activists worldwide, prized for its clarity and refusal of liberal illusion.
Parenti was equally influential for his work on imperialism and US foreign policy. In books such as Against Empire and To Kill a Nation, he dismantled the idea that Western wars are motivated by humanitarian concern or democratic ideals.
Instead, he traced intervention, sanctions, and regime change to material interests: control over resources, labor, strategic territory, and global markets. He showed how human rights discourse is selectively deployed, how compliant client states are shielded from scrutiny, and how resistance is pathologized as extremism.
One of Parenti’s most quoted observations remains painfully current: “The essential function of imperialism is not to civilize or democratize, but to maintain a global system of inequality.”
His analysis helped anti-war and anti-imperialist movements reject moral distraction and focus on structure rather than spectacle.
In Blackshirts and Reds, Parenti confronted Cold War anticommunism as an ideology rather than an analysis. He did not deny repression or failure in socialist states, but he exposed how capitalist violence is normalized while socialist experiments are judged by impossible moral standards.
He insisted on historical comparison: asking why fascism is treated as an aberration while capitalism’s own mass violence, including colonialism, slavery, sanctions, structural deprivation, is rendered invisible or inevitable.
The book reopened serious discussion of socialism’s achievements in literacy, healthcare, women’s participation, and social welfare, at a time when such discussions were considered politically taboo.
Long before “media literacy” became fashionable, Parenti laid bare the structural bias of corporate media. In Inventing Reality, he explained how ownership, advertising, sourcing, and elite consensus shape what is reported, how it is framed, and which voices are excluded.
He stressed that propaganda does not require overt censorship. It works through repetition, omission, ridicule, and selective outrage, teaching audiences what to ignore as much as what to believe.
This work made Parenti a cornerstone of critical media studies, especially among activists seeking to challenge war narratives and economic myths.
What distinguished Parenti was not only what he argued, but how he lived. He never treated radical politics as a career ladder. He accepted marginalization rather than compromise and continued to speak plainly when euphemism was rewarded.
His lectures, many of which circulated widely online, are remembered for their warmth, humor, and devastating precision. He trusted ordinary people to grasp complex ideas without academic gatekeeping.
In doing so, Parenti helped bridge the divide between scholarship and struggle, restoring confidence in class analysis at a time when it was being hollowed out or replaced by moral abstraction.
Michael Parenti did not found a school or cultivate disciples. His influence traveled differently: through dog-eared books, shared lectures, study circles, movement spaces, and quiet moments of recognition when the world suddenly made sense.
At a time of renewed imperial violence, deepening inequality, and ideological confusion, his work remains unsettlingly relevant.
He once wrote: “The first step in the struggle for social justice is to understand the nature of the system we are up against.”
For generations of working-class intellectuals, organizers, and scholars across the world, Michael Parenti helped make that understanding possible.
His voice is gone. His clarity remains.
source: Al Mayadeen
abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=…#communism #michaelParenti #northAmerica #rip #socialism
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Orlando marches hours after 2nd murder in Minneapolis by ICE
On the 24th of January, ICE murderers opened fire again in Minneapolis. This time they murdered registered nurse (RN) Alex Jeffrey Pretti. Within hours, streets in Minneapolis were barricaded first with flaming dumpsters by protesters, then by cops and National Guard attempting to restrict car entry to a large area including people's homes.
Solidarity protests erupted everywhere, including both Tampa and Orlando in Central Florida. The Orlando march took over sidewalks and stretched for blocks. This was similar to but larger than the Friday night aftermarch that cops attacked and arrested one person from. This time around, facing greater numbers, the cops kept their hands to themselves
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New AccessiWeather nightly out. Changes include a new warning sound for the default soundpack that is purposefully loud because a user pointed out that the previous sound could be slept through, so do be aware of that. And a setting to change how you get your alerts, should you wish to change it. You can either get a broader area or your whole state, not recommended. The alert setting is primarily for NWS. Visual Crossing doesn't seem to give a whole lot of wiggle room where customization is concerned.
accessiweather.orinks.net is the best place to get builds that work. Going to do some digging as to why certain users can't build from source.
Oh yeah, and not necessarily a user-facing change, but a change nonetheless that's awesome. I got sound_lib working.
It snowed here in east TN, and now it's raining.
We'll see what happens Monday night when single digit temps are on the menu
leave the water running a little to keep the pipes from freezing.
advice from New England.
Friendly reminder that Signal—while maybe not perfect—is a much better choice for communication than RCS, especially if you are communicating anything sensitive. Doubly true if you are on iOS or communicating with anyone who is, as Apple still does not even use end-to-end encryption for RCS like Google does on Android.
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i wonder what the features and design of lilly language will be
cargo Just Works™ & using rust is temporary until lily language
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Researchers at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology have reportedly found a way to synthesize starch directly from carbon dioxide. Achieved using only enzymes and raw materials, this new process, they report, is 10 times more productive than previous attempts.
interestingengineering.com/inn…
Chinese scientists have developed a way to convert carbon dioxide directly into starch, bypassing crops and farmland.Christopher McFadden (Interesting Engineering)
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🎶 Ahora en Fedi Drama Radio:
Is It Real? — Zeropage
💿 Ambient Pills Update
📻 Bloque: Mañanas Rockeras y Enérgicas
🔊 Escucha: radio.tuiter.rocks
📅 Programación: radio.tuiter.rocks/parrilla
#dramaradio #radio #music
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its caturday i want pictures of everyone's pussy NOW
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Having Flight Simulator 2004 installed with my customized planes and airline liveries from the early 2000s is like time travel.
And it’s very relaxing to do a little flight before bedtime - just a little loop over some town and get the plane down in one piece. I had missed that.
I wrote the fifth part of my #blog series “Implementing Co, a small programming language with #coroutines”. This time, we add support for sleep in #Co for time-based executions. abhinavsarkar.net/posts/implem…
#Programming #PLT #ProgrammingLanguages #Compilers #Haskell #concurrency
We implement Co, a small language with coroutines and channels.abhinavsarkar.net
RE: scicomm.xyz/@JohnBarentine/115…
the very first planet we discovered using the 🔭 and subsequently the one we reconnoitre during our planetary Grand Tour
Attached: 4 images 40 years ago today: the @NSFVoyager2@techhub.social Uranus encounter.Dr. John Barentine FRAS (A community for scientists and science communicators.)
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Big news: Canada changed their citizenship rules and now if you've ever had a direct ancestor who was a citizen, you are now automatically a citizen too! canada.ca/en/immigration-refug…
I've been sharing this around, and I know a few people who've discovered they're now Canadian citizens!
Bill C-3 changes the first-generation limit for Canadian citizenship by descent. Find out who is affected and how the law impacts citizenship eligibility.www.canada.ca
Found 39 new servers and 67 servers died off since 10 hours ago
27,742 servers checked today. 1,026,396 Monthly Active Users as of today
Check out the #fediverse stats
History of servers found and deleted
Help others find a home, send them to fediverse.observer
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A man has been summarily executred by US federal immigration officers in Minneapolis during ongoing enforcement operations sparking protests and renewed calls from local leaders to end the federal deployment.
The incident occurred around 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue Saturday morning as federal agents, part of a broader immigration crackdown known as Operation Metro Surge, confronted a man on a snow-covered street. Video circulating on social media shows people wearing masks and tactical gear wrestling with the man before multiple gunshots are heard, and he falls to the ground.
The Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said the man was shot by a federal agent and later died at a hospital.
Other videos showing the beginning of the confrontation demonstrate that the man was standing by, recording the ICE agents in the middle of what is presumed to be an arrest, and he did not appear to be doing anything unusual.
An ICE agent came up to the man and started shoving him before the remaining agents joined in and started brutally assaulting the man, kicking him as he fell on the ground, before at least two agents pulled out their handguns and fired over six shots at the victim.
There were claims that the victim was armed, though there is no evidence that he pulled out his gun or pointed it toward any of the officers. There was a brawl in which the man was repeatedly pepper-sprayed, and even then, the squad, upwards of six agents, did not successfully subdue him, pointing to inefficient training.
The footage shared widely online and aired on cable TV shows agents grappling with the man in the snow before gunfire begins. Shortly after shots are heard, the individual falls to the ground. Another angle in a video obtained by Drop Site News shows that the man was instigated and illegally approached by the ICE agents before he was shot and killed.
In the videos, one agent says, “he’s got a gun,” but the footage shows that the gun was on the victim’s waistband and was not drawn. Only one agent saw the gun as the man was being assaulted, then the man was shot several times by several agents, even after he died.
abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=…#execution #fascism #ICE #northAmerica #repression #us
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When the Israeli spy agency Mossad called for riots in Iran on its Farsi-language social media on January 1, almost no one in the West took notice.
Yet the very next day, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made his famous intervention, openly calling for riots in Iranian cities and wishing a Happy New Year to “every Iranian in the streets – and “also to every Mossad agent walking beside them.”
After that, there was little justification for critics of Western foreign policy to ignore the role of foreign intelligence agencies and terrorist elements in the events that followed.
Nevertheless, a widespread reluctance persists to confront the involvement of Mossad – and indeed the CIA and MI6 – in the two days of riots between January 8 and 9.
The Western left has largely failed to understand the “regime-change” alliance linking Mossad, Pahlavist monarchists, the cult-like terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq, and a wide array of CIA-backed “opposition” groups – almost all based in the US, with a smaller presence in the UK and across Europe.
Few have grasped that Britain’s MI6 has also played a role in this sinister “regime-change” project targeting Iran. Instead, many on the Western left tend to interpret these attempts as a “freedom struggle,” viewing them as expressions of popular agency or even as a working-class or trade-union uprising. They are not.
What follows is an examination of the multifaceted errors, misunderstandings, and intellectual degradation displayed by far too many leftists – from the liberal and secular left to the revolutionary left, including those who claim to be anti-Zionist or supporters of the Palestinian liberation movement.
Before proceeding, however, it is necessary to briefly outline the correct framework for understanding the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
It is the world’s leading anti-imperialist state and the tip of the spear in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. One need not take my word for this, nor even that of Sayyed Ali Khamenei or General Qasem Soleimani.
Instead, one should listen to the words of the leaders of the Palestinian Resistance themselves.
Here is the martyr Yahya Sinwar in 2019: “If not for Iran’s support for the resistance in Palestine, we would not have obtained these capabilities [rockets and the technical means to produce homegrown rockets]. Indeed, our [Arab] nation has deserted us in our difficult moments, while Iran has supported us with weapons, equipment and expertise.”
And here is the former Hamas chief, Martyr Ismail Haniyeh, on International Quds Day in 2020
“The essence of [our] strategy is the resistance project. Complete resistance, including the armed military resistance at the top. From here, I salute all the components of the nation that embrace and support the choice of resistance on the ground in Palestine… I am particularly specifying the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has not faltered in supporting and funding the resistance financially, militarily, and technically. This is an example of the Republic’s strategy that was established by Imam Khomeini, may God have mercy on his soul.”
Against the Islamic Republic (and the Palestinian Resistance) are, first and foremost, the Zionist colonists in Palestine and their main supporters, the US and the UK.
We also need to note the Iranian self-styled “opposition,” which takes the form of the monarchist supporters of the former Shah who want to install his son as the new king. Then there is the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO, aka People’s Mujahedin of Iran/National Council of Resistance of Iran)
The MKO is a designated terrorist group based in Albania, a NATO member state, where it maintains a troll farm alongside other operational infrastructure.
It was removed from the US list of terrorist organizations in 2012 following an extensive lobbying campaign supported by Zionist lobby networks.
In June 2023, Albanian police raided the group’s premises, seizing around 150 computer devices. The raid followed the China-brokered rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, after which Riyadh, having long denied any connection to the MKO, was forced to withdraw its backing.
The Saudis had also denied funding the anti-Islamic Republic media outlet Iran International, but once the agreement mediated by China was signed, financial support was abruptly cut and the channel’s London office was closed.
Several months later, however, a new London office was opened after fresh funding was secured from the Zionist entity, which continues to bankroll the propaganda outlet to this day.
The case of Iran International highlights the broader ecosystem of external opposition groups targeting Iran. Many of these are financed through deniable intermediaries such as the National Endowment for Democracy and its network of affiliated agencies.
Journalist Alan MacLeod has recently documented several of these organizations in MintPress, including Human Rights Activists in Iran / Human Rights Activists News Agency, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, and the Center for Human Rights in Iran. There are, however, many more such entities operating within this parallel infrastructure.
Leftist take on Iran
We should begin with those “leftists” who have historically held deeply flawed positions on “regime change” and the roles of the CIA, MI6, and Mossad.
Many are already familiar with the limitations of figures such as Bernie Sanders, who spoke of an “abhorrent regime” and praised the “incredible courage” of Mossad-directed “protesters”; or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, often scathingly referred to by critics as “AOCIA”; or Jeremy Corbyn, who stated that he was “appalled by the killing of protesters”; or Zarah Sultana, who declared, “The images of body bags leave no doubt about the brutality of Iran’s repression, and a communications blackout is indefensible.”
In the UK, Owen Jones, Michael Walker of Novara Media, and many others followed the same pattern. For those who remain unconvinced on these points, I suggest consulting the sources linked in the preceding statements.
The “Mullahs”, the “Ayatollahs” and the “Islamists”
Part of the problem is that Islamophobia runs deep within the left. Often disguised as morally upright secularism, a closer look reveals much more beneath the surface.
Back in 2017, I co-edited a book on Islamophobia, which proposed a theory identifying five pillars of Islamophobia. Alongside Western states, neoconservatives, the Zionist movement, and the far-right, we argued that a fifth pillar was found within certain elements of leftist, secular, and feminist movements.
In the book, we examined the so-called pro-war left, the New Atheists, feminist groups, and strands of secularism. Back then, we concluded that:
It is clear that while some within these groups did not initially set out to campaign against the oppressive conditions faced by Muslims in the West, many have ultimately ended up there.
In this sense, we describe these movements as “social movements from above,” whose trajectories have effectively aligned them with other Islamophobic currents – whether intentionally or not.
However, the problem on the Western left runs much deeper. It permeates the core of anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist movements and is evident across the so-called ‘revolutionary’ left.
Thus, beyond the “pro-war left,” when it comes to Iran, we must also critically examine the anti-war and pro-Palestine left.
Many on the left hold anti-theist and anti-Islamic views. Perhaps tentatively at first, they eventually adopt the racist language commonly used to describe Muslims and Muslim societies.
Terms like “Mullahs,” “Ayatollahs,” and “Islamists” – the latter, as I have argued elsewhere, being popularized by Zionist ideologues and curated by none other than Benjamin Netanyahu – come to be accepted as natural descriptors.
“Islamic fundamentalism”
Another key term in left-wing Islamophobia is “fundamentalism.” In the UK, a certain current of feminists formed a group called Women Against Fundamentalism in the late 1980s.
They did not adopt a nuanced or narrow definition of “fundamentalism” limited to a small subset within religious movements. Rather, they explicitly stated (1994, p. 7) that they were referring to movements that “use religion as a basis” for political strategies.
This description covers nearly all Muslim political movements, with the exception of a handful of Westernized secular groups—almost all of which are funded by state-related interests.
By their definition, Christian liberation theology and even the Quakers, a well-known liberal Christian group, would also qualify.
It is remarkable that this Islamophobic term was deemed appropriate for an organization claiming to be progressive, but there it is. One of the key activists was Julia Bard, a member of the Jewish Socialists’ Group, raising several questions about that organization.
Others involved included Nira Yuval-Davis, who describes herself as “an anti-Zionist diasporic Israeli Jew,” a phrase that appears to legitimize the false Zionist notion that Jews outside Israel constitute a diaspora and lends political legitimacy to the concept of “Israel.”
Perhaps the best-known figurehead of Women Against Fundamentalism was Gita Sahgal, infamous for labeling the civil rights group Cage as “Jihadi,” a subject I have explored in depth elsewhere. The term “Jihadi” is yet another Islamophobic label used to demonize Muslims engaged in political life.
Maryam Namazie and the secular/feminist/communist alliance with Mossad
Gita Sahgal has also been closely associated with the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB). For example, she appeared for “evening drinks” at a 2013 meeting alongside Maryam Namazie, the spokesperson for CEMB.
Founded in 2007, CEMB is an anti-Muslim organization. Namazie, who is Iranian, was prominent in the early October 2022 demonstrations against the Islamic Republic in Trafalgar Square on behalf of CEMB.
Images of her topless protest were subsequently removed by Instagram and Twitter.
That day, she joined forces with Islamophobic monarchists and other anti-government factions. Namazie is a former leading member of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran, though as of 2017 she still identified as a “communist.”
This has not prevented her from collaborating with far-right groups through her “anti-Shariah” campaign organization, One Law for All. Among its supporters from Islamophobic networks are prominent neoconservatives like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Caroline Fourest, as well as Zionists such as Alan Johnson, who works for the Israeli lobby group BICOM.
Additionally, various UK anti-Muslim civil society groups, including the Lawyers’ Secular Society, the National Secular Society, Women Against Fundamentalism (mentioned earlier), and British Muslims for Secular Democracy, have been involved.
One Law for All has also worked closely with far-right figure Baroness Cox, who is known for inviting Dutch Islamophobe Geert Wilders to the UK.
On January 16 of this year, Namazie published a piece on the website of the Islamophobic UK NGO, the National Secular Society, titled Iran: The Generation That Broke Faith with Theocracy.
The article echoed many of the main falsehoods circulated by Mossad and CIA-linked actors, including blaming deaths caused by foreign-backed terrorists on the police and Basij, claiming that families must pay for the bullets that killed their loved ones in order to reclaim their bodies, and more.
Left opposition and ‘workerism’
There is also a tendency to seize upon any criticism of governments in Western-designated enemy states. Liberal opposition suffices, but it’s often preferable if it can be framed as left-wing or ‘progressive’ criticism or revolt. Thus, Owen Jones has made himself appear misguided by citing Tudeh, the marginal, counter-revolutionary, and Islamophobic Iranian “Communist” party.
The naive “workerism” prevalent among large sections of the left is also noteworthy. Consequently, many leftists have circulated statements from unions in Tehran and elsewhere, attempting to leverage these as proof of genuine grassroots dissent, thereby obscuring the cover they provide to acts of terror.
One of the more sophisticated examples of this approach appeared in a piece published by Progressive International, the think tank funded in part by proceeds from the Sanders Institute, established by Bernie Sanders.
While the article offered an otherwise nuanced analysis of the forces arrayed against the Islamic Republic, it slipped into imagining that workers’ struggles in Iran might be free from foreign intervention. However, as British writer Phil Bevin demonstrates, the backing of such actions by the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO) terror cult seriously undermines these arguments.
It comes as no surprise that Progressive International, with its star-studded roster of intellectuals including Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn, and Yanis Varoufakis, is also a strong supporter of the recently collapsed CIA operation in northeast Syria, commonly known as Rojava.
Those involved in running Rojava are closely linked to the Sanders-Corbyn political current. Its director, David Adler, came from the Sanders Institute, and communications director James Schneider is the highly controversial former spin doctor for Corbyn. Their involvement in the “Justice for Kurds” campaign aligns seamlessly with their effective cover for CIA and Mossad-backed terror in Iran.
Anti-zionists against Islam
Here are some words from a self-proclaimed anti-Zionist and supporter of Palestinian liberation, spoken within the last fortnight.
To be clear, this is not someone who is a “watermelon” supporter of Palestinian “rights,” but a genuine supporter of the resistance and the liberation of Palestine, at least according to their public statements.
It is truly breathtaking to hear these racist beliefs spill from the mouths of self-proclaimed anti-racists and anti-Zionists. Every term from the Islamophobic bingo card is there: “regime,” “theocratic,” “mullahs,” “repressive,” and, of course, “fascism.”
This example is just one of many that reveal how deeply Islamophobic ideas run on the left—including within anti-Zionist circles, Jewish anti-Zionist groups included.
Revolutionary socialists for Mossad terror
Here is a ‘revolutionary socialist’ posting on Facebook, a post that received 172 likes from prominent British and international leftists, including many members of Trotskyist groups such as Counterfire and the Socialist Workers Party.
The author, John Clarke, a Canadian academic and socialist activist, opened his brief piece by stating that “the struggle in Iran should be supported but, at the same time, we must speak out against US and Israeli interference and intervention.”
There seems to be no recognition that this amounts to simultaneously supporting Mossad and condemning it. Clarke goes on to acknowledge that “there is no doubt that Western and Israeli intelligence agencies are seeking to influence the movement in Iran.
Doubtless, there are also reactionary and monarchist elements on the ground who are doing all they can to ensure the struggle serves US interests.”
In reality, the original demonstrations beginning December 28 were protests over economic grievances, not protests against the Islamic Republic itself. The left appears oblivious to the internal political dynamics at play. When Pahlavists and Mossad agents showed up, they were roundly condemned by the demonstrators.
Following the two nights of rioting and terror instigated by Mossad and its recruits, million-strong marches took place in Tehran and other cities across the country. Virtually no Western leftist has acknowledged this massive display of national unity.
Most strikingly, Clarke quotes Lenin on the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, writing that Lenin “took on those who focused on the imperfect form of the struggle and stressed the way forward that it pointed to.” While true, it is utterly fanciful to compare an anti-colonial uprising in Ireland to a Mossad-orchestrated terror attack in Iran.
The latter signals the potential end of the Islamic Republic, the balkanization of Iran, and its elimination as a threat to the so-called “Greater Israel” project and the leading global supporter of Palestinian resistance.
Clarke claims socialists should offer “winning strategies,” but Mossad and CIA subversion of the Islamic Republic is a losing strategy, both for the prospects of socialist revolution and for human civilization.
It is also a surefire way to guarantee full Zionist triumph in Palestine, expansion into Greater Israel, and even further, towards a new Jewish empire.
The New Left for “nuanced” analysis
Then there is the tendency to produce “sophisticated” and “nuanced” academic-style writing that deliberately says very little. Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, an Iranian lecturer at the University of St Andrews, writes on the New Left Review blog:
“Some cast the unrest as an imminent revolutionary rupture; others as exclusively the product of foreign destabilization; still others as the delayed reckoning of a society finally pushed beyond endurance. Each captures part of the picture, but none adequately explains the dynamics of the present conjuncture. What is unfolding is better understood as the convergence of accumulated social exhaustion, acute distributive shock and a crisis of governance which the Islamic Republic no longer possesses the ideological, bureaucratic or fiscal resources to manage.”
So far, so apparently nuanced. But there is a red flag in that phrase “present conjuncture,” which signals that this account ultimately carries water for Mossad-backed terror.
This term is a staple of poststructuralist and postmodern academic work, which often tries to maintain the appearance of a radical, even Marxist, spirit. It originates from Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci’s work, later adopted by French structuralist Marxist Louis Althusser, whose “glacial grip,” as Terry Eagleton put it, was passed on to British cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall and his followers.
The problem is that by the time Hall domesticated the concept in the 1980s, it had been stripped of any recognisable Marxist or anti-imperialist politics. Now, forty years later, the term is confined to academic debates and has no practical use whatsoever for actual movements seeking to defeat imperial power.
And so it is that only a few paragraphs later, we find this:
At the same time, there is video evidence of armed protesters confronting security forces with knives, machetes, and, in some cases, firearms, supposedly indicating how years of repression have radicalized segments of the opposition.
The evidence for this claim is, of course, nonexistent. These weapons did not arise from the radicalization of Iranian citizens but were supplied by foreign intelligence agencies.
Moreover, this narrative completely ignores the open boasting by Mossad and even Mike Pompeo’s January 2nd post on X, claiming Mossad agents were on the ground. Did Sadeghi-Boroujerdi overlook this crucial information in his research? In fact, the word “Mossad” does not appear once in his piece.
The most glaring failure of analysis is the suggestion that Mossad’s involvement only strengthened the Islamic Republic’s arguments.
“Acknowledging foreign interference does not mean endorsing the claim that the nationwide protests were purely foreign-engineered. A widespread uprising rooted in years of social and economic hardship cannot be reduced to external intelligence machinations—even if Israeli and US agencies sought to hijack it. What they chiefly achieved was to provide a convenient alibi for repression, reframing the protests as a continuation of the June war, thereby justifying a state of exception under the guise of national security.”
This is a truly awful way to describe an assault on the very foundations of the Islamic Revolution. Unsurprisingly, Sadeghi-Boroujerdi resorts to the racist label “Islamist” in his analysis of the Republic.
He closes his post by lamenting a “rapidly narrowing space for political agency.” Yet in this context, the idea of “agency” reeks of one of the key CIA talking points routinely deployed in regime change operations, an agenda tied closely to a specific intelligence agency.
In the end, there is no way around it: the international left is, at best, providing cover for and advancing Zionist efforts to destroy the Islamic Republic – and with it, the material defense of the Palestinians.
At worst, they are direct collaborators in the Zionist assault on Iran and, by clear extension, in the genocide in the Levant. And if they are Iranian, they are traitors to their own people.
David Miller
Source: Press TV
abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=…#colonialism #imperialism #iran #palestine #repression #westAsia
The Western left fails to grasp the “regime-change alliance between Mossad, CIA, Pahlavist monarchists, MKO terror cult, wrongly interpreting orchestrated riots and terrorism as legitimate protests.PressTV
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Israël prend des mesures pour restreindre le retour des Palestiniens à Gaza et « encourager leur départ » : rapport
Samedi 24 janvier 2026 à 21h48
presstv.ir/Detail/2026/01/24/7…
Le régime israélien chercherait, selon certaines informations, à limiter le nombre de Palestiniens rentrant à Gaza par le point de passage frontalier de Rafah avec l'Égypte, afin de s'assurer qu'il y ait plus de départs que de retours dans cette étroite bande côtière.
Reuters a publié l'information vendredi, citant « trois sources », qui ont également indiqué qu'il restait difficile de savoir « comment Israël comptait faire respecter les limites imposées au nombre de Palestiniens entrant à Gaza depuis l'Égypte, ni quel ratio de sorties par rapport aux entrées il visait ».
Selon le rapport, le régime cherchait également à établir un point de contrôle militaire à l'intérieur de Gaza, près de sa frontière, par lequel tous les Palestiniens entrant ou sortant seraient tenus de passer et seraient soumis à des « contrôles de sécurité » israéliens.
« Les responsables israéliens avaient insisté pour installer un point de contrôle militaire à Gaza afin de contrôler les Palestiniens qui entraient et sortaient », ont indiqué les sources.
Des projets de contrôles aussi stricts étaient en discussion depuis l'année dernière, selon de nombreux rapports de l'époque.
Les sources ont également indiqué qu'il n'était pas clair comment « les personnes seraient traitées si elles étaient empêchées par l'armée israélienne de franchir son point de contrôle, en particulier celles entrant d'Égypte ».
Ce rapport a été publié au lendemain du lancement officiel par le président américain Donald Trump de son « Conseil de la paix » pour Gaza, lors d'une cérémonie de signature à Davos, en Suisse, en présence de dizaines de responsables qui ont signé le « plan de paix » de Washington pour ce territoire ravagé par la guerre.
Trump affirme que son plan vise à mettre fin à la guerre de génocide menée par le régime contre Gaza, qui a débuté en octobre 2023.
Un accord de cessez-le-feu a été signé début octobre entre le régime et le mouvement de résistance Hamas à Gaza en vue de la mise en œuvre de la proposition.
Le régime a cependant tué des centaines de Palestiniens depuis la conclusion de l'accord, dans ce que les observateurs qualifient de génocide continu, et a également empêché l'acheminement suffisant de l'aide humanitaire indispensable sur le territoire.
Le Hamas dénonce des « violations systématiques » d'Israël alors que le cessez-le-feu à Gaza est fragilisé https://t.co/ULAzWvnZVl
— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) 22 janvier 2026
Le régime a également récemment interdit au comité technocratique palestinien, chargé d'administrer Gaza sous l'égide du « Conseil de la paix », d'entrer dans cette étroite bande côtière.
Tel Aviv a retardé à plusieurs reprises l'ouverture du point de passage et continue d'empêcher l'acheminement d'une aide suffisante à Gaza.
En février dernier, Trump a dévoilé un plan visant à transformer Gaza en une « Riviera du Moyen-Orient » et a promis d'expulser sa population pour la « sécurité » de celle-ci. De nombreux articles ont ensuite fait état de discussions entre Washington et Tel-Aviv et des États africains en vue de relocaliser les Palestiniens.
Parmi ces pays figurait le Soudan, qui a nié tout développement de ce type. On pouvait également citer le Somaliland, région sécessionniste de la Somalie reconnue, non sans controverse, par Tel-Aviv.
Le site web de Press TV est également accessible aux adresses alternatives suivantes :
www.presstv.ir
The Israel regime is reportedly seeking to limit the number of Palestinians re-entering Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.PressTV
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