bort [none/use name]

… most of what Orlov said, even under oath, or during his debriefing by the US intelligence officials, or in private discussions with his friend Gazur, has by now been established as outright invention.[7]

But again, you seem to be the only person that actually cares about this gold.

Frankly the fact that you’re arguing that you’d prefer the USSR to have not aided the Republic, and that you’d have preferred Franco to have held these gold reserves rather than the Soviets, just says a lot about you and your convictions.

You’re very odd. You were the one who brought up gold in this thread.

You were the only person to bring up gold…

Where? Hexbear takes ableism very seriously so I’m surprised to hear this.

Anarchism isn’t ‘anti-leader’.

They’re an economy dominated by the state in the interest of the people, rather than by capitalists in the interest of capitalists.

China’s imperfect but it’s the best we’ve got.

The left in general seems like it’s getting fucking owned.

Everywhere except China/Cuba/Korea yeah

Disengage

Again that’s just not how this works.

If you want a serious answer, I’d recommend looking up how the anarchist rural communes in Aragon functioned. They seemed to work really well, both in terms of equality and productivity, they just obviously couldn’t survive the war.

If I get time I’ll edit in some sources.

Why did you name this instance after yourself though, for real?

Yeah true, that’s quite different to the anarchist goal of burning down every structure and having us all live in a state of violent primitive chaos.

Oh wait, I’m not an idiot so I don’t actually believe that.

Ok, I’m just gonna disengage. You’re being really hostile, your understanding of history is bad, and you’re weirdly bitter about events you have absolutely nothing to do with. Please remember we’re just on the internet, not on opposite sides of the barricades.

FWIW: I think left unity is pretty important now, during another rise in fascism

Glad we’re on the same page on this at least

Interesting proposition, I’ll think it over.

I don’t agree with that at all. We all have fundamentally the same goals, just slightly different ways of organising and reaching them. There are far, far more things we agree on than disagree on, and on the latter we’re able to disagree on things respectfully.

You’ve also got to remember, we’re not revolutionaries or a party, we’re just people on a webforum. If a revolution was suddenly magicked out of thin air we might have a falling out, but until then what’s the problem? Most of our posting now is just criticism of our current world anyway, which is something we’re all very much aligned on.

Removed by mod

No? We’re majority ML but we have lots of anarchist members? Unless you’re saying anarchists can be tankies or something?

On: “the May Days specifically started when anarchists were fucking around with government telephone calls”

“The immediate catalyst was the Generalitat’s seizure of the CNT-controlled central telephone exchange in Barcelona on 3 May after an anarchist operator had interrupted a telephone call by the president of the republic, Manuel Azaña. In the wake of deteriorating conditions and police heavy-handedness, elements of the CNT – supported by the Poum – confronted the forces of the Generalitat and the PSUC.”

This is really lazy but I’m just gonna link a source another poster posted here. You seem well read enough on the subject to know who Paul Preston is, but if you haven’t read his books I highly recommend.

Really? Is that why all Spain’s gold reserves (the third largest in the world at the time) ended up in Moscow?

What’s the issue here? My understanding was that the Republic voluntarily sent its gold to Russia to avoid it falling into fascist hands. If you’ve got a source on the contrary I’d be genuinely interested.

And the Soviets, whether in solidarity or because they were paid in gold, sent considerable vital war materiel, and organised the International Brigades. They were the only power to support the Republican effort. Their policy, and the policy of the aligned Spanish communist parties, was supporting the Republic and the war. Again I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that this wasn’t genuinely the case.

I’m not saying that the only reason Barcelona didn’t fall to the fascists right at the start of the war was because of the anarchists… oh, wait - that’s exactly what I’m saying.

Yeah, I absolutely think the Republic would have stood a better chance of defeating Franco if the anarchists had been more committed to the war and less focussed on immediate revolution, I’m just not saying they would have definitely won. I understand their desire for revolution, and the work they did in Catalunya and Aragon was fantastic, I just think their priorities were in the wrong place if they wanted to sustain it.

Why would I want a coward as my new dad?