Last night, NATO's global propaganda machine went into overdrive to claim that Russian missiles had landed in Poland, killing several people, only tempering its claims, in order to ensure wiggle room, with the caveat that Russia probably had not deliberately launched these missiles at Poland. In Britain, the state controlled media of the BBC, rushed to put out headlines, continually repeated on the scrolling ticker on its 24 hour propaganda channel, that Russian missiles had killed Polish civilians, but in mass societies where the bourgeois mass media goes mostly unchallenged, as it screams out one sensationalist, headline grabber after another, in the absence of any democratic control over it, or any mass worker owned and controlled media, this same wall of propaganda was thrown at public opinion from all directions, as though it were an absolute truth. Trouble is, it quickly was shown not to be true at all!
The TV Press Previews showed that all of the UK newspapers had also claimed, in their headlines, that Russia had either fired missiles at Poland deliberately, to attack Polish supply lines into Ukraine, or else one of its missiles had gone off course to hit Poland. Again, neither were true, and a little thought and investigation of the facts would have shown it not to be true.
Of course, the BBC, as one of the state controlled propaganda arms of the British state, and its NATO masters, would claim that responsibility lay with Russia, because a war is taking place, and, in war, that is what the mass media do, they present the interests of their respective ruling class. The mass media in Russia, and China, of course, do the same. A sensible working-class, and labour movement have no reason to believe a word that any of these propaganda machines on either side have to say, and it again shows why we need our own labour movement controlled mass media, as an alternative to them. The main enemy is at home, whether in Britain, Ukraine, Russia, the US, or China, and we should focus our actions against them, not against our enemy's enemy.
In the 1970's, even though we did not have labour movement controlled mass media, the labour movement, and individual groups of workers in the mass media, were at least advanced enough to exert a negative control over the bourgeois media and its more overt propaganda. When newspapers intended to carry stories attacking workers on strike, or other such reactionary stories, print workers simply stopped production, or left those parts of newspapers blank. Today, we do not even have that level of class consciousness, and labour movement control over the imperialist bourgeoisie and its propaganda machine. Quite the contrary, it is former journalists and labour movement activists, like Paul Mason, that have, now, become mouthpieces of NATO propaganda, and sections of the Left, as they have become ardent proponents of “democratic imperialism”, have been at the forefront in demanding that NATO take more action against Russia, provide even more, and more deadly, weapons to the reactionary regime of Zelensky in Ukraine, as they have sought to demonstrate their supplication to their bourgeois allies, and undoubtedly, in some cases, financiers.
Yet, even as the BBC was claiming, without question, in its rolling ticker, that Russian missiles had killed Polish civilians, one of its journalists, Mark Urban, on Newsnight, had stated that one of his trusted sources, had already noted, on Twitter, that, from the evidence of the wreckage he had seen, the missile was, in fact, not Russian, but a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile of a type only used by Ukraine. In other words, it was already clear, and must have been clear to those actually on the ground, at the time, with up close evidence of the actual missile, that it was not a Russian missile fired at Poland, deliberately or otherwise, but a Ukrainian missile fired either deliberately at Poland in a crude attempt at a false flag operation, designed to increase the drum beat to World War III further, or else fired at an incoming Russian plane or missile with scant regard for where that missile might end up.
Russia, had, of course, said it had not fired the missile, but even some US and other military analysts had said there was every reason to believe that Russia had not done so. For one thing, one US analyst said, the Russian missiles are not cheap, and they do not have an endless supply of them – though clearly far more than was being claimed by some NATO supporters a few weeks ago, who said that Russia was imminently going to run out of war materials – so they would have targeted Ukrainian command and control, and energy and communications infrastructure, not a farmer's field in Poland!
Even a cursory examination must have shown, quickly, that this missile was fired by Ukraine, not Russia, yet Zelensky, as he always has, was quick to also claim that it was a Russian missile, and not one fired by his own military, which adds to the idea that this might have been another botched attempt at a false flag operation by the corrupt and reactionary regime in Kyiv, as he shows a willingness to drive the world into nuclear Armageddon, as the cost of obtaining support for his government, even as it launches wave after wave of its own attacks on Ukrainian workers and their organisations. A similar, but toned down message came out of other NATO imperialist spokespeople. I'm not on Twitter, or Facebook, but I have no doubt that many of the social-imperialists would have been on their also, right away, echoing the false claims of Zelensky, and his NATO masters, as they have done in similar cases in the past.
Take the example of the car bomb attack in Moscow assassinating Darya Dugina, back in August. NATO media outlets, immediately claimed that it must be the work of Russia, either of Russian state agents bumping off an opponent of Putin, or else, some other non-state actor, doing so, for its own political reasons. This message was promoted in a wave of blanket propaganda of the type seen throughout this war, just as it was seen in the propaganda put out ahead of the Iraq War, in relation to WMD and so on. And, of course, the social-imperialists, keen to show their subservience to their NATO allies chimed in too. The social-imperialists of the AWL, also claimed that the assassination was not the work of Ukraine, and given their policy of “idiot anti-imperialism” in support of the fascistic regime in Kiev, its no wonder they would not want to lend support to the idea that it was, just as, in the past, they tried even to whitewash the role of the clerical fascists, and jihadists in Libya they had supported.
The trouble is that it turns out that it was, indeed, Ukrainian agents that had carried out the assassination, as Russia had claimed. In a front page article on October 5th, the New York Times, which had itself, originally, claimed that it was not Ukraine that was responsible, now presented evidence that it was. It wrote,
“United States intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorised the car bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist.”
The story was quickly confirmed also by the Wall Street Journal, indicating that all of the propaganda denying the involvement of the reactionary regime in Kyiv in undertaking various such actions and false flag operations could not be believed. Of course, the social-imperialists that also promoted that NATO narrative uncritically, never got around to recanting on their own stories. It is, of course, right that we should not believe a word that comes out of the mouth of Putin and his stooges, because we have no reason to support the vile reactionary regime in Moscow, but why on Earth would a socialist, let alone a Marxist, give any more credence to the propaganda of the vile, reactionary regimes of NATO imperialism, responsible for its own heinous crimes against humanity, and slaughter of millions across the globe. It can only be explained by either total political bankruptcy, or more base remunerative causes.
As Mark Urban noted on Newsnight, NATO has not officially claimed that it was Russia that blew up its own Nordstream gas pipelines, an action that would have been inexplicable, because, not only would it cost Russia billions, in lost revenues and repair costs, but also because if it wanted to cut off gas supplies to Europe, and make a point of it, it can simply turn off the taps! Yet, the initial stories in the media that it was Russia that was responsible for this sabotage remain out there and unchallenged by the bourgeois media. The reason NATO has not officially claimed that Russia was responsible, after all this time is clearly because it wasn't, and any raising of the issue, now, in the mass media would simply highlight that fact, and directly point the finger at US imperialism, and its agents in Europe, as being actually responsible, and, in the process cutting off millions of European citizens from available cheap, Russian gas, vital as the Winter approaches.
As former UN advisor Jeffrey Sachs has pointed out, the jubilation of US agents, following the sabotage, not to mention that US journalists immediately, in private acknowledged that it was the US that had been responsible, along with other material evidence, indicate that contrary to the western media narrative, it was, indeed, the US and its agents in Europe that had carried out the attack.
NATO and its mass media outlets, along with its supporters amongst the social imperialists, use this propaganda to whip up opposition to Russia, and support for the war against it, and for support for the equally vile, and reactionary, regime of Zelensky in Ukraine. If anything, the social-imperialists are more hawkish and zealous in that than NATO itself, as they try to convince their bourgeois allies of their patriotic credentials. NATO itself tends to be more circumspect, precisely because it does not want, currently, to be dragged into the dynamic of WWIII, and inevitable nuclear annihilation. Dr. Strangelove characters in the US Military Industrial Complex may be convinced that they could win a nuclear war against Russia and/or China, but those in Europe who would be the front line in global destruction, are not so sanguine.
Yet, as every war demonstrates, these things have a dynamic and logic of their own, which, then, quickly spirals out of control. Zelensky used his military's missile attack on Poland as yet another opportunity to call on NATO to step up its attacks on Russia, presumably, now, including not just a stepping up of the economic war, and supply of yet more, and more advanced weapons, to his own reactionary regime, but actual troops on the ground, in Ukraine itself. He again raised the demand for a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine, and its surroundings. Its a demand that the social-imperialists have also supported, but which, if adopted, would be tantamount to calling for WWIII, because only NATO could enforce it meaning that, immediately, NATO forces would be brought into conflict with Russian forces, causing Article 5 of the NATO Treaty to be brought into operation.
That, of course, is what Zelensky wants, just as, in the past, it was what the insane Saakashvilli in Georgia – now active in Ukrainian politics – wanted. And, other reactionary nationalist regimes in the Baltic have raised similar demands, jumping at every opportunity to hype up anti-Russian sentiment, and encourage further militarisation of the area. NATO has tried to dampen the drive to war, whilst continuing to use propaganda to support its economic war against Russia and China, but the participation, in its ranks, of these virulent, nationalist and anti-Russian regimes, in the Baltic, means that it is constantly being pushed in the other direction, making an accident, of some kind, almost inevitable, at some point, leading to an actual conflict between NATO and Russian forces, and a spiral out of control into the destruction of humanity.
And, of course, as with all those other false flag operations, and false claims about Russian attacks, and denials of Ukrainian activities, so it turned out with this one too. By morning, the claims about it being a Russian missile strike had gone, and the media were forced to admit that it was, in fact, a Ukrainian missile that had hit Poland. Not that a simple matter of the facts stopped the media and NATO from continuing, more or less the same narrative. Rishi Rich, living it up at the G20 in Bali, appeared on TV to say that the UK would, of course, stand by Poland. But, stand by Poland against whom exactly? Was it a promise to stand by Poland against Ukraine, whose missile it was that had actually killed two Poles?
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