I worked with the television documentary journalists John Sweeny on several programmes a decade or more ago, covering Russian money, Sark and the Barclay brothers and other issues. I suspect we pushed the BBC to the limits in what was said on occasion but the programmes were broadcast and I was pleased they were.
For the last 75 days I have been following John's Youtube reports from Kyiv, where he want just before the war broke out to follow the story of Putin's corruption to the point where it was obviously going to have a very real cost.
This video was posted today:
John. is now heading home for a break, but his very brief summary of what he has learned is worth watching, I think. Most especially, free speech does not come for free.
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The people who turned up at that Tory dinner where Patel was speaking come to mind as defenders of democracy for a start.
Our problem here however is that the cruelty and the war against working people is not so obvious as missiles and bullets to the head.
Pilgrim
I saw some phone video of the protestors. And the Conservative audience chanting “out, out, out’ to the protestors. No doubt of their sympathies.
I have to watch my P’s and Q’s at the moment as a public sector wage slave but when I’m free of that I will embark on a programme of public disobedience hopefully well into my dotage.
I’ve also watched all of his reporting and he is one of the best. We are lucky to have people like John along with Lyse Doucet, Lindsey Hilsum, Clive Myrie. People who put themselves in the front line and empathise with humanity.
John Sweeney has been exposing Putin’s murderous, massively corrupt dictatorship for years – his current podcast years is worth a listen. Along with Catherine Belton and her book Putin’s people. Meanwhile the further Left refuse to acknowledge that brutality and corruption, whilst wanting to deny Ukraine the tools to defend themselves. In doing so they soil Labour’s reputation and Starmer is right to clearly distance the party from them. No amount of ‘whataboutery’ justifies their position.
I am quite sickened by some on the supposed left right now
i find myself opposed to western imperialism, and opposed to russian imperialism as well.
however it would seem far too many people on the left can only find it within themselves to be opposed to western imperialism. i can’t quite get my head around it.
i can understand people being reluctant to support western leaders who they see as being warmongering liars. I can get that. but this conflict is primarily between Ukraine and Putin’s regime; it’s not about Britain or America. This is primarily about Ukraine and Europe’s collective security.
Large swathes of the left have made themselves look like absolute fools or shills in their inability to condemn Putin’s brutal invasion.
Like benz0 I have been disappointed with a number on the Left. I have been reading Consortium News for a year or so now. They include some good writers like Chris Hedges ( somewhat apocalyptic ) and they covered issues from other points of view. Readers ( mainly American ) can comment on the site. Before the war the main comment was that Russia was being treated unfairly and America saw them as a rival to be weakened. Frequent comments included the 2014 change of govt and the deposing of Yanukovych, was solely the work of the CIA, not a choice of many of the people. The separatists were victims of Ukrainian aggression. No mention of Yanulovych’s rejection of the vote to associate more with Europe. Indeed Europeans were unthinking puppets ofWashington. When the war broke out, the Ukrainian soldiers were supposedly using their own civilians as human shields and the Russians were acting responsibly and only firing on the cities as Azov Nazis were firing from schools and hospitals. I made several comments involving the range of the weapons supposedly being fired from blocks of flats and the distance of the Russian forces. Several of my comments were moderated out. But in recent weeks I have been published but I seem to be in a small minority.
Absolute truth is unobtainable but seeking truth is important . We have to able to recognise things which we might wish to be otherwise. Emotionally tempting it may be to rant one’s prejudices but ignoring huge chunks of reality is not only dishonest but has the nature of the evil.