Hello comrades. To preface my question, first let me give some brief context as to what led me here. I have been doing lots of reading of newer and older texts ranging from classic theory, history, civil rights, etc etc, in preparation for a book I intend to write in the future. However, as I have grown a bit tired of blowing through dense economic texts and academic material, I decided to try and find some communist newspapers to subscribe to and receive and read in the mail as a more of a literary appetizer and to see what said organizations have to say about modern happenings. I have become aware of Peace Land and Bread by Iskra(https://www.peacelandbread.org/journal), but the only other ones I see that aren’t digital only are two sources. That being Socialist Revolution (https://socialistrevolution.org/) and The Militant (https://themilitant.com/) However I have noticed something worrying about The Militant. I did some light googling, found they have been around a long time, and are a Trotskyist paper. While I myself am not a Trotskyist, I still value other opinions from comrades and wanted to receive as wide of range of leftist reporting as possible. However I noticed their newest publications seem VERY pro Isreal and anti Palestinian liberation. This is confusing to me for what I think are obvious reasons. However I did some googling to see what their views were when you turn back the clock. This is a source from their page published in Oct 30th, 2000. (https://www.themilitant.com/2000/6441/index.shtml) Here, they are talking about the Palestinian struggle in a way that is a stark difference from their new stuff that seems aggressively pro Isreal. My question has two parts. 1. What happened to the militant between 2000 and 2023? 2. What in the hell makes a COMMUNIST NEWSPAPER PRO ISREAL? Is there some sect of socialist thought I am unaware of that is somehow pro isreal? If so, why? What is going through their heads? What’s the thought process? I know many westerners struggle separating anti-Zionism with antisemitism in their heads, (which is a whole other mind numbing conversation) but I was under the OBVIOUSLY mistaken impression that Marxist are generally able to comprehend these kinds of socioeconomic nuances. I’m not sure how well known these papers are in the modern era, but that’s why I am reaching out and posting this as many places of relevance I can. Somewhere, is some nerd that knows much, much more about socialist print history, the people behind them, and that whole specific ‘scene’ that just hasn’t come up yet in my current state of research/education. So, if that fellow nerd is out there, I would love some in-depth explanations on this phenomenon. As for everyone else, I ask everyone to see what we can find about the MODERN people currently running the Militant, as that information is surprisingly hard to come by. I may be bad at ‘googling,’ but this seems very evasive which tends to raise my brow. I feel this could be an important problem for us to pay attention to as communist, for if this is a recent trend, or imperial propaganda is out right taking over socialist and communist outlets, which given the history of The Militant, makes me worry. They have been historically targeted by COINTELPRO and harassed, infiltrated, and so on and so on, the things we all know happened in that era. It could just be a stray string of renegade marxism, or, if it IS an intelligence operation, we need to know. With the rise of anti-isreal sentiment in America, the rise of leftism as well, it seems like something certain 3 letter agencies would be motivated to squash. I should also mention, I am not a ‘conspiratorial’ person, I find the trend of conspiracy in America to be dangerous and actively undermining our ‘democracy.’ This change in rhetoric is proof of nothing more than something, sometime, changed. It is up to us marxist to find out what, and how this happened. Thank you for your time comrades.

  • GaryLeChat@lemmygrad.ml
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    10 months ago

    I would say it’s possible that they just have bad takes and improperly applied analysis. I’m always reluctant to fed-coat something without some decent evidence.

    I can’t really add more here though as I’m not familiar with these publications.

  • qwename@lemmygrad.ml
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    10 months ago

    From The Militant’s about page: https://themilitant.com/about/

    It fought the Stalinist counterrevolution in the Soviet Union

    Their latest issue (Vol. 88/No. 1) has an article which says: Defend Israel’s right to exist! Fighting Jew-hatred is union question. Israel battles to stop new Hamas pogroms https://themilitant.com/2023/12/23/defend-israels-right-to-exist-fighting-jew-hatred-is-union-question/

    They certainly don’t ask about Hamas’ brutal dictatorship since taking over Gaza in 2006 and its arrest, torture and assassination of political opponents, crushing of union struggles and oppression of women.

    They list articles about their position here: Defend Israel’s right to exist as haven for Jews! Condemn Jew-hating pogrom! Call for cease-fire is support for Hamas (The record of the ‘Militant’ and the Socialist Workers Party) https://themilitant.com/2023/11/25/defend-israels-right-to-exist-call-for-cease-fire-is-support-for-hamas-2/

    The list includes this bizarre statement from the Socialist Workers Party, which seems counter to reality: Defend Israel’s right to exist as refuge for Jews! Oppose US rulers’ moves to force Israel to give up battle to defeat Hamas. Fight against Jew-hatred! https://themilitant.com/2023/12/02/defend-israels-right-to-exist-as-refuge-for-jewsoppose-us-rulers-moves-to-force-israel-to-give-up-battle-to-defeat-hamasfight-against-jew-hatred/

    The U.S. imperialist rulers do not share the inescapable situation of Israeli capitalist rulers, much less Israeli working people, who must crush Hamas if their country is to continue to exist as a refuge for Jews.

    London, Paris and the other democratic imperialist powers act for their capitalist rulers’ interests too, as do Beijing and Moscow. But they are much weaker than Washington. In the eyes of all these predators, the peoples of the region are bargaining chips. Workers cannot rely on these capitalist powers to protect Jews from the assaults of Tehran and Hamas, any more than to safeguard the interests of the working class.

    Washington is part of a growing chorus pressing Israel to back off its efforts to eliminate Hamas as a military and terrorist threat to the Jewish people and accept a cease-fire, sure to be violated with new brutality.

    There is a daily barrage in the liberal media about deplorable conditions in Gaza, with no explanation that this is exactly what Hamas long planned and intended in carrying out the Oct. 7 bloodbath. This coverage is aimed at ramping up pressure on Israel to end its efforts to destroy Hamas and yield to the imperialist-dominated United Nations. U.N. bodies are among Hamas’ most prominent cheerleaders.

    Basically they

    • are against Jew-hatred
    • defend the right of Israel to exist
    • view Hamas as anti-Palestinian
    • parrot the US’s pro-Israel talking points while claiming that the US is pro-Hamas
    • lump China with other “democratic imperialist powers”
    • ignore how the US vetos UN Security Council resolutions that call for cease-fires.

    As for how they ended up in this pro-Israel position, it’s not uncommon to find the position of a party changing over time, maybe you could find something if you look through their history, but I would say that it’s a waste of time to analyze this paper, opinions are a dime a dozen, lousy opinions more so.

  • TheFriendlyDickhead@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Imagine writing half a book, because one online “newspaper” said something you don’t like. Then proceed to open up a whole conspiracy about how it was undermined and end with saying you are not a conspiratorial person.

    • ComradeFromSpace@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      10 months ago

      The book I’m working on is unrelated, and yes, there has been a stark change in rhetoric from this paper. The reason I am intrigued is because it seems recent, and the behind the scenes story seems elusive. I have found some pages on the people behind this, but no, being curious as to how this change happened is not any more conspiratorial than trying to find out why a writer left a show or sold it out to another company.