“But Hamas! ” The following is an excerpt from The New York Times’ bestseller, Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation, by Sim Kern.When you say “Genocide bad,” Zionists will counter, “But Hamas [did something terrible].” “But Hamas” comments try to derail you from talking about Israeli violence by asking you to first address the violence of the Palestinian resistance. Comments might sound like, “Do you condemn Hamas?” or “But Hamas started this!” They may share facts, such as, “Hamas abducted children,” lies such as, “Hamas beheaded babies,” or—trickiest of all—partial truths, like, “Hamas calls for a genocide of Jews in its charter.” As I’m writing this chapter, Israel has just invaded Lebanon, and this familiar refrain on cable news networks has shifted to, “But Hezbollah!” If Israel continues expanding its regional war, Hasbarists will continue responding to any criticism of Israel by asking you to first condemn any local populations daring to take up arms and resist their own extermination. It’s up to you whether you want to get derailed here. Because sometimes we do need to talk about Hamas. We need to talk about the important distinction between violence that comes from imperial colonizers versus violence that comes from Indigenous people defending their homes. Though if you start down that road, you’re going to have to define what you mean by “colonizers” and “Indigenous,” and you’ll get drawn into debating the meaning of Indigeneity.[1] But notice—you were trying to say “Genocide bad,” and now they’ve got you arguing semantics! We also need to contradict blatant lies about the Palestinian resistance, like the “Hamas beheaded babies” story. It’s important to clarify that, no, they did not. That story proved to be false. Israelis are the only military force that have actually beheaded babies over the past year, babies like Ahmad Al-Najr, eighteen months old, whose head was severed from his body in the bombing of a Rafah tent encampment on May 26, 2024. The video of Ahmad’s father, shaking his headless child’s body, wailing in agony as people burned alive in the holocaust of tents behind him, was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, even after a year of this digitally broadcasted genocide.
So Israel beheads babies, not Hamas. Remember: every accusation, a confession.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/30/but-hamas/Pakistan’s Military Is Using War Fever to Boost Its PowerOn May 17, the Pakistan Super League (PSL) — the country’s premier cricket tournament, and a national cultural fixture — resumed after a brief suspension due to the conflict with India. But it wasn’t the cricket that took center stage. During the innings break, audiences were subjected to a surreal, thirty-minute mini-concert: a grandiose tribute to the Pakistan Armed Forces. Military anthems blared from the speakers and fireworks lit up the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, just a stone’s throw from the Army’s General Headquarters. Performers, draped in green, waved enormous Pakistani flags. It was, by any measure, bizarre. But it was also effective. This spectacle, brazen and unabashed, was widely celebrated. Working-class cricket fans were being co-opted into nationalism against their material interests in real time. The following night, another tribute interrupted play, pushing the game well past midnight. The symbolism was unmistakable: cricket, often seen as Pakistan’s great unifier, was conscripted into the military’s propaganda machine. All this unfolded while the country’s most successful cricketer and its former prime minister, Imran Khan, languishes in solitary confinement — punished for his falling out with the military. Much like the National Football League’s post-9/11 co-branding with the Pentagon, when players saluted troops and fighter jets soared over stadiums, these PSL concerts were not spontaneous expressions of national pride. They were carefully orchestrated displays designed to conflate sport with national security. The message was clear: the military is your savior. As a famous Pakistani adage goes: “You sleep at night because the soldier stays up.” The army downs Indian planes; it protects your games. So stop asking questions — about missing persons, political prisoners, stolen elections.
https://jacobin.com/2025/05/pakistan-military-authoritarianism-khan-dissent A historical background for the party building debate – Workers’ autonomy in Milan We translated this article as a background text for our contribution to the party building debate. For us the situation in Italy in the 1970s is a suitable historical context in order to discuss the role of political organisations and their relation to class struggle. The following text is limited to the situation in Milan, which is a weakness, but it demonstrates the complexity of the movement at the time. For a deeper involvement with the period we suggest reading our summaries on the political committee at Magneti Marelli and on the political organisation Senza Tregua. The historical account clearly shows the problematic role that the ‘mass party’ PCI played during these tumultuous times and the limitations of attempts to create an electoral alternative to the left. It also shows the insufficiency of a ‘network of autonomous initiatives’ when confronted with a coordinated attack of restructuring, launched by the state and its various institutions. For us the organisational efforts of the Communist Committees for Workers’ Power expressed the most advanced point at the time, as they were based in significant industries and developed a political practice that went beyond the factory walls. With Senza Tragua they developed a political platform that discussed revolutionary and ‘military’ strategy in close relation to the actual struggles. It will be a future task to discuss why the effort to re-create a wider political organisation failed and why necessary armed actions degenerated into adventurism.
https://www.angryworkers.org/2025/04/28/a-historical-background-for-the-party-building-debate-workers-autonomy-in-milan/