EXTREME POLITICS

For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument — that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. — very seriously.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces — with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

The professor says he began his career in the KGB in 1976. In post-Soviet Russia, he got a doctorate in political science, studied U.S. economics, and worked for FAPSI, then the Russian equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency.

He cites French political scientist Emmanuel Todd. Mr. Todd is famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union — 15 years beforehand. “When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him,” says Prof. Panarin.

WSJ

We have covered the potential secession of US states before, but never the idea that the USA would break up. Panarin is interesting because he offers us both right-wing and left wing ideas; immigration and moral corruption stand beside economic collapse and tyrannical governments in his schema.

“Texas will again lift its head and stand among the nations. It ought to do so, for no country upon the globe can compare with it in natural advantages.” – Sam Houston

The man who led Texas to victory in its war of independence from Mexico knew that Texas was special. He knew that Texas was a land of promise, hope and opportunity. He also knew that Texas was a place where freedom could be maintained and preserved for future generations.

Today we find ourselves at a crossroads. Down one path we find the erosion of our freedom, our economy and the very fabric of our society. Down this path we are still tethered to the United States. Down the other path we find the legacy of our forebears. It’s a legacy of freedom, justice, security and hope. It’s a legacy of independence.

We ask you to visit our site and join with us as Sam Houston’s prophetic words are coming to pass. Texas will stand as a nation among nations again. And it’s happening now. Come be a witness to history.

Come witness the rebirth of Texas independence.

http://www.texasnationalist.com

Very interesting statement, based on an old post-French Revolution theme: there’s more freedom this way.

As a skeptical observer of politics, I think that terms like “freedom” and “independence” need careful defining, and that the Texas Nationalists should be very careful about offering another version of what people already claim they have.

As things spiral out of control for downward-moving nations, which the USA has been — independent of the current economic crisis — as its population gets more and more divided from consensus, it’s not wise to offer another divisive philosophy.

Freedom, after all, means independence from collectivity, but in bad times, people want functional collectivity instead. It will be interesting to see how the Texas Nationalists target this issue.

World Socialist may get a lot of flak for being a dogmatic propaganda rag, but the quality of articles — and insight — is high. Even if you’re a right-winger, you can derive useful knowledge from the pulse of their analysis, because they take a larger perspective on history and so show us trends beyond the immediate through the immediate.

Case in point:

We are, in fact, holding this congress in the midst of a major turning point in world history. The collapse of the US housing and credit bubble has rapidly developed into what is widely acknowledged to be the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Governments, central banks and economists can only guess how cataclysmic the consequences of the US financial meltdown will be. But they are forced to recognize that, in the best-case scenario, the world is in for a protracted period of economic stagnation and financial volatility. Whatever the short-term outcome-which must include as a real possibility a financial panic that plunges the world into a new Depression-the current crisis has dealt a massive blow to the credibility of American capitalism, both internationally and, above all, within the United States itself.

The events of the past year have revealed in the starkest manner the vast decline of the United States. Suddenly, before the eyes of the world, the outcome of a decades-long process of internal decay has broken through the surface and revealed a level of financial parasitism and criminality with no historical precedent. Such events deeply penetrate the consciousness of the masses and inevitably lead to profound changes in their political orientation. The rapidity and violence of such changes must have a proportional relationship to the scale of the myths that are being shattered and the scope of old illusions. As the ruling class that most persistently preached the gospel of free markets, private enterprise and individual self-reliance scrambles to bail out Wall Street giants to the tune of trillions of dollars-while millions lose their homes and poverty, unemployment, ill health and illiteracy increase-it becomes impossible to conceal the class divisions that dominate American society.

The ruling class and its ossified two-party system lack any perspective for addressing these problems in a rational and progressive way. Their central concern remains the ever-greater enrichment of a wealthy elite. Elections have been reduced to ritualized and demagogic contests between two right-wing parties of big business, in which the masses of people are effectively disenfranchised. The ruling class does have a response to the crisis of American capitalism: an unending series of wars of conquest and plunder.

World Socialist

While I think the bloviation on the current recession is overblown — it’s a transient issue, brought on by the policies of the 1990s and the consequent over-valuation of America’s “knowledge industry,” and the market is going to undertake a correction for a few years — they have a point: people who thought technology and industry were a firm footing are now opening their eyes to other possibilities.

Between January and October this year 113 people were killed in racist attacks in Russia and 340 were wounded, according to the Moscow Human Rights Bureau.

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Prosecutors said the defendants – most of whom were minors at the time of the attacks – had formed a gang to target non-Slavic migrants in the city.

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In other words, they targeted people who did not look white, or Slavic, the BBC’s James Rodgers in Moscow reports.

BBC

Interesting to see some figures on the far-right activity in Russia, since we haven’t seen any for a while. Most importantly, is the focus on “Slavic” appearance here: they are apparently targeting white foreigners as well, and only tolerating people who appear Slavic like Russian natives.

As with figures cited for rape, the rule is: multiply by ten and divide by two. For every one victim who reports a crime, nine don’t, roughly; about half of these unreported crimes are fabrications, often used to manipulate others into pitying the “victim.”

From my experience, the far-right in Russia doesn’t stand a chance. They have an autocratic leadership dynasty that is well-liked, and an economy that while stagnant is making the right moves toward health. Extreme political options are only palatable when normal options fail.

Looks like the nationalists have improved their behavior — and, as a result, their public image:

Despite the violence, there were no reports of any serious injuries during the November 30th marches held annually by Swedish right-wing groups to honour the Swedish king who died in 1718.

Violence erupted when members of several anti-racist groups staged a counter demonstration to force the right-wing marchers to change their route and keep them out of central Lund.

“We’re satisfied that the right-wing demonstrators were able to carry out their march, even if the route had to be changed. We are, however, very dissatisfied that the left-wind demonstrators attacked police,” said the police’s HÃ¥kan Jarborg Eriksson to the TT news agency.

Jarborg Eriksson commanded the roughly 150 officers drawn from all over SkÃ¥ne county who arrived in Lund to patrol Sunday’s demonstrations.

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Suddenly the counter-demonstrators began throwing paving stones and bottles, and launched a number of fireworks, resulting in the thick smoke covering the area.

The Local

Looks like the Swedish nationalists have been “upping their image”:

“On Saturday, November 22nd, the National Socialist Front (NSF) decided to transfer all of its assets to the newly started People’s Front party as we feel this party has the ability to rebuild a Swedish Sweden. This also means a closing of the books for the National Socialist Front,” the group writes on its website.

According to the magazine Expo, the group has done away with all references to Hilter, but continues to fight for an ethnically homogeneous Sweden.

According to the party’s platform, ethnic Swedes own the right to the country because they share the “same genes and same blood” which belonged to people who “for thousands of years have worked the same earth”.

The party’s aim, therefore, is to “return to the Swedes their power and their rights”.

The Local

It will be interesting to see how this develops in Sweden — a country that has been very open to liberal reforms, but has maintained a strong right-wing presence, since WWII.