Under a False Flag

Create: Sun, 03/26/2017 - 22:21

Author: Cleishbotham

"Internationalist Comrades" (Greece), their Liaison with Anti-semitic Conspiracy Loonies and their Nationalist Metamorphosis

Prologue: Crisis and Conspiracy

Times of crisis and upheaval have always provided fertile ground for conspiracy theories and fantasies. In the Middle Ages they believed in the God-given order, but also in the Devil and witchcraft. The Jews were accused of poisoning wells, destroying harvests through magic and bringing the plague. They were suspected of exercising black magic, stealing children and being spies of foreign powers. But, above all, they were accused of being usurers, even of controlling the whole money system.

Even today, the craziest notions and ways of interpreting the world are rampant, which trace the distortions of capitalist society back to the influence of secret powers, perfidious conspiracies and not least, the "dictatorship of finance markets" (Oscar Lafontaine). The crisis brings "the contradictions of bourgeois production to a scandal" (Karl Marx). But, for many, it appears "at first sight to be a credit or money crisis". Right, and supposedly "left" ideologues build on this to divide capitalism into a "money-grubbing", "finance market-driven", "parasitic" sector and a productive "creative" one. This division is not only profoundly wrong, because industry, the service sector and the world of finance mutually condition each other and stand in an indissoluble interrelationship, but is completely absurd. Why should the local factory owner be less "profit-oriented" and "greedy" than the internationally active banker? Nevertheless, this division is of inestimable propagandistic value to the apologists of this system. It prevents one from seeing that the life elixir of the capitalist system is the exploitation of human labour power, the extortion of surplus value. The production of surplus value, the pivot of exploitation and alienation is in this way withdrawn from all critical consideration and appears as a normality prescribed by nature. In contrast, the financial system, betting on tomorrow's surplus value, is declared to be the root of all evil. In this worldview, all adversity is perceived as a problem external to national production and is traced back to the "greed of international banks", "vagrant capital", "usury" and "parasitic speculators". An inexhaustible spring for nationalist resentment and anti-semitic projection opens up here. "The concept of the borrowing rate is the devilish invention of big lending capital, it alone allows the indolent drone-life of a money-powerful minority at the expense of the productive peoples and their labour power, it has led to the deep, unbridgeable contradictions and the class hatred which gave birth to civil war and war between brothers" is what the Nazi ideologue Gottfried Federer wrote in his "Manifest zur Brehung der Zinsknechtschaft und des Geldes" [1] (Manifesto for Breaking Interest-Servitude and Money). The vision of productive peoples living under the "money and interest servitude of all-Jewish high finance" (Adolf Hitler), wasn’t a source of inspiration for fascism by chance. Up until now it is the basis for the attempt to dress up reactionary thinking and nationalist resentment as "revolutionary" and "anti-capitalist".

Internationalism versus Nationalism

In a social climate marked by the mass growth of nationalism, racism and reactionary ideas, communists are faced by the challenge of swimming against the stream and defending internationalist ideas without compromise. In relation to the political development of the group "Internationalist Comrades" (Greece), we can only confirm their total failure in this regard. Their publication and distribution of texts containing the most reactionary conspiracy ideologies is, for us, a clear indication that the so-called "Internationalist Comrades" (from now on, "IC") have instead completely gone over to nationalist positions. We consider it our duty and our political responsibility as an organisation to publicly declare that this group, through its flagrant cooperation with anti-semitic forces, has become a danger to the integrity and security of the revolutionary proletarian milieu. A long process of discussion linked us with the so-called "IC", which, in retrospect, was characterised more by lows than highs. The first serious differences came to light in July 2015 when the so-called "IC" called for "critical" support for the bourgeois SYRIZA/ANEL government in the referendum. This support for the parliamentary spectacle revealed all sorts of confusion with regard to the assessment of bourgeois forces like SYRIZA and a complete lack of understanding of the Communist Left's methodological approach. In the continuing discussions, all kinds of political contradictions on the part of the so-called "IC" revealed themselves, which made their claim to be in broad political agreement with the ICT seem somewhat premature. For us in the ICT, this was not in itself a problem. It is our declared policy to compare politics, to discuss over the long term, and, if necessary, carry out polemics over practical and theoretical questions with all political forces who seriously intervene for the project of proletarian emancipation and internationalism. But, given the so-called "IC's" various U-turns, serious doubts took hold among us about their seriousness and political competency. For a start, it should be mentioned that an individual member of the "IC" produced a written "contribution to discussion” in which homosexuality was described as a "deviation". This caused us to shake our heads, particularly as it was unclear to what extent this homophobia is shared or tolerated by the whole group. The refusal by the so-called "IC" to support an ICT statement on the so-called "refugee crisis" was also alarming, as this expressed an irreconcilable rejection of the racist border regimes.

We wrote: "By contrast it is true that most representatives of the capitalist left appear cosmopolitan and humanitarian, but this is more than dishonest and hypocritical. So, for example, the SYRIZA government in Greece does nothing to help the refugees, but actively supports Frontex policies. Tsipras personally took part in the annual manoeuvres at the Turkish border to loudly proclaim that Europe's borders are secure. At the same time, the anti-racist and refugee support movement has failed many times.[...] If the much-touted slogan "Refugees are welcome" is not intended to become a completely hollow phrase, they should think about what we are actually “welcoming” people to: a society in which wage cuts, welfare cuts and precarious employment dictate everyday life. Some well-trained people might be able to get a job, but most will be cooped up in camps for a long time and end up facing unemployment and misery. In fact, for capital they represent a welcome reservoir of labour, mostly without any rights, who can be played off against other sectors of the class at any time [...] Those who caused the problem through austerity, raising rents and cutting wages are blaming the refugees in order to increase the pressure of exploitation. In fact all factions of the ruling class are doing this. Their debate is only about how best to select the migrants. They also have good reason to highlight the lack of “the necessaries” they themselves have created. After all those who fight their colleagues cannot struggle alongside them. As long as workers see each other as competitors for jobs, housing, etc., as long as they buy into nationalist and racist ideologies, as long as capitalism is not called into question, then the floodgates are open to more exploitation and impoverishment. But precarious working and living conditions are, just like the plight of the refugees, products of capitalism. We are one world class. An internationalist perspective against racial division and exploitation can only lie in the unconditional political struggle: not just for the complete abolition of all exceptional laws, regulations and bureaucratic practices directed against foreigners such as deportations and expulsions, but in the destruction of the system that produces them." [2] That was obviously too much internationalism for the so-called "IC", which thenceforth used all sorts of phraseology to reprimand our position as "No-borders" politics and the "neo-liberal" mystification of human rights. For communists' the chief subject of attention is always the starting conditions for the struggle of the international proletariat. For proletarian internationalists, unconditional solidarity with the oppressed parts of the proletariat, and, as is relevant here, this includes migrants, is an essential basic condition for the production of class unity. The ICT's basic programmatic positions leave no room for doubt: "The maintenance of the structure of the capitalist economy demands that workers regard other workers as competitors for employment, accommodation, entry to educational institutions, etc. This is an important trapdoor for nationalist and racist ideas, whose effects Karl Marx was already observing in the 19th century:

“Every industrial and commercial centre in England now possesses a working class divided into two hostile camps, English proletarians and Irish proletarians. The ordinary English worker hates the Irish worker as a competitor who lowers his standard of life. In relation to the Irish worker he regards himself as a member of the ruling nation and consequently he becomes a tool of the English aristocrats and capitalists against Ireland, thus strengthening their domination over himself. He cherishes religious, social, and national prejudices against the Irish worker. His attitude towards him is much the same as that of the “poor whites” to the Negroes in the former slave states of the U.S.A.. The Irishman pays him back with interest in his own money. He sees in the English worker both the accomplice and the stupid tool of the English rulers in Ireland. This antagonism is artificially kept alive and intensified by the press, the pulpit, the comic papers, in short, by all the means at the disposal of the ruling classes. This antagonism is the secret of the impotence of the English working class, despite its organisation. It is the secret by which the capitalist class maintains its power.”

Racism in this way undermines the only way to successfully resist the daily impositions of the system — class solidarity. In spite of the internationalisation of capitalism, the bourgeoisie exercises its rule in the form of national states. In opposition to this, the proletariat is an international class, a class of migrants. Every split weakens its struggle and tightens the screws of exploitation. For this reason, it is an urgent task for communists to struggle without compromise against racist ideas. Our resistance against racism has nothing to do with the patronising reform projects of the so-called multiculturalist propagandists, who peddle all sorts of culturalist recipes and, in the framework of their own positive racism, only accept those “cultural differences” which they consider that the local public can digest. The division in the working class cannot be overcome by the “foreign” minority conforming to the prevailing “dominant culture”. We reject every positive evaluation of “integration” or “assimilation”. These kind of concepts are always based on the bourgeois prejudice of the higher worth of some sort of “national culture” and language. To overcome racist divisions, a conscious minority politics for the most oppressed sectors of the class is necessary. Action without compromise against all racist shenanigans, discrimination, exceptional laws and administrative practices is an essential basic condition for the production of class unity. The working class has neither countries nor national cultures to defend. The only way out of the treadmill of exploitation consists in the overcoming of the capitalist system, which gives birth to racism and reproduces it on a daily basis." [3]

As Marxists, we know that under the capitalist order every "national culture" is necessarily an expression of the domination of the bourgeoisie. Communists must be clear about this fact and carry out a resolute struggle against the repression of migrants and discrimination against them through the law of bourgeois states. Only in this way will it be possible to build bridges to this part of the proletariat and overcome the division into "home and foreign" workers. It is a consequence of the unconditional rejection of racism and oppression that it is nonsense to talk of the "reformability" of immigration law, or to demand "more human" laws for migrants and foreigners. All laws and administrative decrees aimed at migrants serve discrimination and oppression, and thus the division and exploitation of the proletariat as a whole. For proletarian internationalists there is no choice: either you fight for unconditional equal rights for migrants or you accept discrimination against them and with that nationalism, which is an essential prop of the capitalists' ideological domination of the wage-labouring class. There is only the decision between equal rights or the selection and division of society into people of first and second class, which the global apartheid of the capitalist system reproduces daily.

The balance of a discussion

Given the course of the discussion with the so-called "IC" and their arbitrary publication policy, which saw them throwing together the most diverse positions and theoretical propositions, we were anything but optimistic regarding future developments. In a letter in May 2016 we evaluated our relationship as follows: "Your refusal to sign the Statement (on the so-called 'refugee crisis') was a surprise (and a disappointment). We racked our brains for a long time over this. We ask ourselves if you are simply indifferent to the fate of those parts of the working class who have had to flee the effects of war and imperialism. [...] It is too simple to say that this question will not be solved under capitalism, which boils down to ignoring the human tragedy that is playing out before our eyes. As you correctly say, Greece finds itself here in the middle of the action, and we wonder why you, as an example, have written nothing about the events in Idomeni. In a general sense, you are right when you say that bourgeois human rights are a mystification. But this does not mean that we idly stand by as the ruling class manipulates this issue. In our propaganda, we criticise precisely complete absence of the rights that bourgeois democracy promises. That is a always a component of our denunciation of the whole system’s hypocrisy. It is just the same with the demand for open borders. Our internationalist goal is a society without nations and therefore without borders, and we able to underline once more that something like that is not possible within the framework of the capitalist system. [...] As far as concerns the content of your magazine Engymo, you are, of course, free to publish what you want. Nevertheless, you seem to have forgotten that we also offer you a forum on our website. Whereas you seem to believe that eclecticism is a source of pride and strength, we, on the other hand, are a political tendency whose roots are in the Italian Communist Left[...] This gives us a method, a political compass and a common basis for work. We are very prepared to wait and see wherever your particular Odyssey takes you, but a more intensive critical debate over the basis of our politics could perhaps give you a road map that could help you to clarify where you want to go." We received no answer to this letter. [4] The so-called "IC" preferred to keep quiet, from time to time criticising our positions behind our backs and carrying out intrigues, which once again proves their lack of political seriousness.

The New Friends of the So-called "Internationalist Comrades": Thierry Meyssan and the "Voltaire Network"

In the middle of August we were compelled to notice that strange things were happening on IC's website. One thing that should be mentioned was the publication of odd statements by bourgeois academics against the so-called "gender mainstream", containing tales about a liberal attack on the family and the "natural order of the sexes". Moreover, several articles of questionable content by a certain Thierry Meyssan from the "Voltaire Network" appeared, whose Greek translations were then published on the "Voltaire Network's" website, which, at the least, indicated political cooperation. According to their own account, the "Voltaire Network" considers itself to be a "bloc-free press network", which specialises in the "analysis of international relations". The "Voltaire Network" claims "principles" including "respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations", "the recognition of the equality of all races and all nations, irrespective of their size" as well as "respecting the rights of every nation to defend itself individually or collectively in agreement with the United Nations' Charter" [5]. The point that all these "principles" spring from conceptions which are thoroughly bourgeois probably does not need to be made more precisely. Nevertheless, the style is striking — it is no accident that it is based on the "ethnopluralism" ideology of the so-called "New Right". It is obvious that kowtowing before "national sovereignty", the uncritical adoption of the unscientific and in every respect reactionary concept of "race" and the "right of national defence" is difficult to bring into harmony with internationalist communist positions. Only a fleeting glance over the pages of the "Voltaire Network" is needed to show that the so-called "analysis of international relations" in no way aims at a serious investigation of social relations of power or the effectiveness of ideologies, but, instead, at the spreading of the conspiracy theory way of explaining things. The anti-Semitic delusions propagated by Thierry Meysan of "World domination by the USA and Israel" runs like a red thread through the contributions [6]. A pathological hatred of "the West", deeply rooted in the National Bolshevik tradition results in a clear lining up in the global imperialist confrontation with the side of Russia, Iran and the Assad regime, and the glorification of reactionary movements like Hamas and Hizbollah. In order to give this propaganda the appearance of objectivity and plausibility, Thierry Meyssan and his collaborators in the "Voltaire Network" rely on all sorts of tricks and rhetorical devices to give themselves the image of progressive and "independent" intellectuals. In fact, up until 2000, Meyssan occasionally critically engaged the "Front National" and held positions in the left-liberal "Parti Radical de Gauche", but this didn’t stop him from entering into close contact with certain antisemites. For example, Dieudonné M’bala M’bala [7], who publicly said he wanted the gas chambers back, and then immediately denied having said it, and the aristocratic fascist and misogynist, Alain Soral [8]. Meyssan became famous in his own right in 2002 with his book "L’Effroyable imposture", in which he tried to prove that there had never been an attack by Al Qa'eda on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, but everything had been faked by US services. Thierry Meyssan did not ever go to the USA to support his thesis by a thorough, on-the-spot, investigation. Instead, he claimed to have discovered the intelligence services' plot solely by investigating the pictures published by the US authorities on his home computer, which says a lot about his journalistic seriousness and, not least, the way his character is structured. But there is much left to be desired with the supposedly meticulous research work which allowed Meyssan to see through the almighty secret services. Bernhard Schmid, who knows the right-extremist scene in France inside out, reports on Thierry Meyssan’s methods and connections: "But the most explosive thing are the borrowings that Thierry Meyssan has manifestly made from other authors in the composition of his book. In a book answering Meyssan's, which also appeared in 2002, and was by two French journalists specialising in intelligence services ('L'effroyable mensonge', 'The Horrifying Lie', by Guillaume Dasquié und Jean Guisnel) it was shown that Meyssan, just after 11th September, had taken material from a radical rightist ideologue. It was to do with Emmanuel Ratier, who regularly wrote for the extreme right Front National. Emmanuel Ratier is, in his own eyes, the spiritual heir of Henry Coston, a conspiracy ideolgist who died in 2001, when he was over 90 years of age. Ratier took over Coston's archive. As early as the '30s, Coston was already one of the leading antisemitic ideologues in France, a media correspondant for National Socialist Germany and later led a 'document centre on Freemasonry’s activities' under the Vichy regime. A further informant for Meyssan was Stéphane Jah, a former military man and passionate "expert" on secret services (and secret service conspiracies of every kind), who runs a web site a great deal of information on the activities of the intelligence services. Jah confirmed to Dasquié and Guisnel that he had worked together with Meyssan and Ratier. And, in fact, in Meyssan's second book on the theme, there is a list of thanks to people who provided him with information or interpretation, and these are mostly named only by their initials. Among them, there is someone denoted 'E.R.' This is, according to Dasquié and Guisnel, the neo-fascist conspiracy fanatic Emmanuel Ratier. The former anti-fascist publicist Thierry Meyssan has never denied this." [9]

Crude fantasies and anti-Semitic fiction: the crazy world of Thierry Meyssan

Meyssan’s book found, despite (or maybe, precisely because of) its plagiarism and skewed methods of proof, approval and rapid sales among conspiracy ideologues and fascist circles. No less than the neo-fascist Pierre Krebs took care of its German edition with his "Edito de Facto"[10] publishing house. In Islamic circles too, Meyssan and his theories were well received, which got him several well-paid invitations to the UAE. For Meyssan, this was probably enough incentive. In the following years he displayed a remarkable creativity in knitting together conspiracy theories. The list of his conspiracy-theory explanations of the World is long. But, taken together, there is a system behind them. Here, we’ll give only a few examples. In 2008, he developed the theory that the then French President Sarkosy was, "in reality" a "secret agent of the United States and Israel"[11]. On 11th June 2012, Meyssan advanced a particularly interesting insight: "In a few days, perhaps even as early as Friday 15th June, Syrians who want to watch the national TV channel, will discover a screen replaced by the CIA. The studio-produced film will show massacres attributed to the government, popular demonstrations, ministers and generals announcing their resignation, President Al-Assad taking flight, rebels gathering in the big cities, and a new government installing itself in the Presidential Palace." The conspiracy hatched in Washington and Israel (where else?) would also include "_Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Fox, France 24, Future TV and MTV_[!]". But how? Quite simple! According to Meyssan, in the previous few weeks in Saudi Arabia secret TV studios had sprung up, "which reconstruct the two Syrian Presidential Palaces and the most important places in Damascus, Aleppo and Homs" [12]. As usual, Meyssan delivers no credible proof for his crude theses. But this doesn’t seem to disturb his fan community, dedicated as it is to the explanations of the World provided by conspiracy theories, any more than did the fact that Mayssan’s invented reality show never went out. The only bitter reality remained and still remains the horrendous spilling of blood in Syria, an imperialist butchery in which the self-declared "independent journalist and intellectual" Thierry Meyssan participates as a propagandist for the Assad regime. But more on that later. That Thiery Meyssan is not simply a fantasist but instead a dangerous fanner of antisemitic flames is emphatically demonstrated by his actions after the attacks on the satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo". Thiery Meyssan span security warnings by the French authorities to Jewish communities into the rumour that "The Jewish community was forewarned about the attacks" [13]. Here, Meyssan deliberately made connections with the antisemitic conspiracy theory which was already in circulation after the September 11th attacks. His antisemitic crony Alain Soral [14] went one better and gave the World the thesis that, in reality, Israel's Mossad was behind the attacks. No less crazed and loaded with resentment is Meyssan’s interpretation of the so-called "refugee crisis", in which he sees a wide-ranging Nato manoeuvre, staged by dark forces. American and Israeli "think tanks" figured out a devilish plan. The "refugee crisis" is alleged to be no result of the wars in the Near and Middle East, but a US strategy, planned long ago, to destabilise Europe and to seize power in Eurasia. Migrants are supposed to play an important role in this, as the USA is going to increase its reliance on mercenary armies, and healthy young male refugees will constitute a reservoir for recruitment [15]. The recent construction of a US military hospital in Weilerbach in the Rhineland-Pfalz is meant to be an indication that this ghost army is soon to be set on the march [16]. We will see later that such crazy ideas have also had an impact on the publishing activity of the so-called "IC".

Syrian massacres and fascist networks!

Like most conspiracy theorists, Meyssan is above all convinced of his own importance, and this usually manifests itself psychologically in pathological delusions of persecution. Out of anxiety that his trail-blazing revelations will lead to him being murdered by the American or French secret services, he has shifted his field of activity to Damascus, well-known to be a place with a low density of secret service operatives and the ideal working conditions for free, critical and independent journalism. Here the free spirit Meyssan discovered his great love for the regime of Bashar Al Assad and all its allies. Meyssan's relationship to the Lebanese Hizbollah became especially close, and he praised their "nationalism of liberation" to the skies, and to the joy of French fascists [17] and German National Bolshevists [18]. From the Assad regime’s point of view, Meyssan was someone to rely on. And so Thierry Meyssan can proudly claim to be a leading light of the Assad regime's diplomatic initiatives to erect a common alliance of the USA, Russia and the Syrian army against Islamist terror militia. Obviously, Meyssan was not completely successful in this, but, nevertheless, it got him an invitation to Berlin, and to the "Conference for Sovereignty! Freedom for Germany! For the End of the Occupation!"[19] This meeting was organised by the racist hate sheet "Compact" which operates equally as a mouthpiece and as an ideological unifier of the extreme right and the conspiracy theory scene. At the so-called "Compact Conference", the apostle of peace Thierry Meyssan found himself in illustrious company. For example, Götz Kubitschek, publisher of the Nazi rag "Sezession", a frequent speaker for PEGIDA and well embedded in the international fascist scene. Andreas von Bülow, former diplomat and notorious conspiracy theorist. We can also mention Björn Höcke, leader of Alternativ für Deutschland in Thüringia , organiser and speaker at racist demonstrations and exponent of the right nationalist wing of AfD.The list of invited "experts" could be continued [20]. Moreover, Thierry Meyssan's trips to and from Germany went mostly smoothly, despite him being hunted by the CIA and the French secret services [21]. Alongside such appearances as a speaker, Meyssan is, among other things, also active as a writer for the racist Compact magazine (advertising slgan for the October 2016 edition: "Young, male and horny: 20 million Africans on the way to Europe" [22]).There also appear to be other friendly relations between "Compact" and the „_Voltaire Network_". This is at least suggested by contributions by "Compact" chief editor Jürgen Elsässer [23] to the pages of the Voltaire Network and, not least, by Silvia Cattori's interview with _Compact_'s publisher [24]. Silvia Cattori is a regular collaborator of the "Voltaire Network". She is a fervent admirer of Islamic Hamas [25] and virtually the Grande Dame of the Holocaust-denying and anti-Semitic scene.[26]

Engymo — a racist enzyme!

These are just a few examples, which nevertheless say enough about Thierry Meyssan and the "Voltaire Network's" connections, effects and the thrust of their politics, in our estimation. It is difficult for us to imagine that a political group could translate and pub

THE INTERNATIONALISTS

Internationalist Communist Tendency