So the German state continues to up the ante in its apparent desire to enter into a direct war with Russia. Not alone but with the help of its NATO mates.

We could speculate that the time specified, 2029, when the ‘potential threat’ from Russia is anticipated is one when there may be a new President in the USA who is far more amenable than the current holder to throwing America’s military might into the mix too.

However, a week is a long time in politics as they say and with the decision to provide Ukraine with longer range missiles capable of hitting Moscow the German state might very well discover it has bitten off more than it can chew.

What of the German majority class, and that of other western European countries, including the UK, what say do they get in all of this warmongering and potentially devastating consequences?

Peace rallies and CND protests are unlikely to prevent the actions which so called ‘leaders’ have embarked upon. The support for war determined states by the various military-industrial complexes is obviously a given.

The Legacy Media is already drip drip feeding of propaganda designed to put fear into the hearts of its various populaces. Is it likely or unlikely that we may see compulsory two minute hatred with venom being directed at Putin or whoever might be the Russian leader after him?

Even if a resolution to the current conflict is achieved, and a European security architecture is agreed, what guarantee is there that a threat to world safety won’t break out again?

The majority class should not let any more time pass before it says enough is enough. There is only one solution to this and many other existing problems and that is the replacement of capitalism with the only sane alternative, socialism.

‘The German military must significantly increase its weapons stockpile by 2029, the year the current government anticipates a potential threat from Russia, according to a directive issued by the country’s defence chief, obtained by Reuters.

The order, titled ‘Directive Priorities for the Bolstering of Readiness’, was signed on May 19 by Carsten Breuer, the inspector general of the Bundeswehr, the news agency reported.

Breuer’s order emphasises the procurement of advanced air defence systems and long-range precision strike capabilities effective at ranges exceeding 500km. He has also reportedly directed the military to increase the stockpiling of various types of ammunition and to develop new capacities in electronic warfare, as well as space-based systems for both defensive and offensive missions.

In March, the German parliament amended the nation’s law to exempt military spending from the ‘debt brake’, a measure that limits government borrowing. Merz has proposed allocating up to 5% of the nation’s GDP to security-related projects by 2032, a significant increase from the current level of around 2%. He claimed that this expenditure would transform the Bundeswehr into Europe’s most formidable military force.

The rearmament plans necessitate a corresponding increase in personnel. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius indicated in a recent interview that the ruling coalition aims to introduce a recruitment model similar to Sweden’s, potentially ending the current volunteer-only system as early as next year.’

So the German state continues to up the ante in its apparent desire to enter into a direct war with Russia. Not alone but with the help of its NATO mates.

We could speculate that the time specified, 2029, when the ‘potential threat’ from Russia is anticipated is one when there may be a new President in the USA who is far more amenable than the current holder to throwing America’s military might into the mix too.

However, a week is a long time in politics as they say and with the decision to provide Ukraine with longer range missiles capable of hitting Moscow the German state might very well discover it has bitten off more than it can chew.

What of the German majority class, and that of other western European countries, including the UK, what say do they get in all of this warmongering and potentially devastating consequences?

Peace rallies and CND protests are unlikely to prevent the actions which so called ‘leaders’ have embarked upon. The support for war determined states by the various military-industrial complexes is obviously a given.

The Legacy Media is already drip drip feeding of propaganda designed to put fear into the hearts of its various populaces. Is it likely or unlikely that we may see compulsory two minute hatred with venom being directed at Putin or whoever might be the Russian leader after him?

Even if a resolution to the current conflict is achieved, and a European security architecture is agreed, what guarantee is there that a threat to world safety won’t break out again?

The majority class should not let any more time pass before it says enough is enough. There is only one solution to this and many other existing problems and that is the replacement of capitalism with the only sane alternative, socialism.

‘The German military must significantly increase its weapons stockpile by 2029, the year the current government anticipates a potential threat from Russia, according to a directive issued by the country’s defence chief, obtained by Reuters.

The order, titled ‘Directive Priorities for the Bolstering of Readiness’, was signed on May 19 by Carsten Breuer, the inspector general of the Bundeswehr, the news agency reported.

Breuer’s order emphasises the procurement of advanced air defence systems and long-range precision strike capabilities effective at ranges exceeding 500km. He has also reportedly directed the military to increase the stockpiling of various types of ammunition and to develop new capacities in electronic warfare, as well as space-based systems for both defensive and offensive missions.

In March, the German parliament amended the nation’s law to exempt military spending from the ‘debt brake’, a measure that limits government borrowing. Merz has proposed allocating up to 5% of the nation’s GDP to security-related projects by 2032, a significant increase from the current level of around 2%. He claimed that this expenditure would transform the Bundeswehr into Europe’s most formidable military force.

The rearmament plans necessitate a corresponding increase in personnel. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius indicated in a recent interview that the ruling coalition aims to introduce a recruitment model similar to Sweden’s, potentially ending the current volunteer-only system as early as next year.’

RECENT PARTY ACTIVITY (ZOOM)

Tarnished Idols

It used to be mardy gods unleashing

Thunderbolts from the skies, but they have been

Superseded by those who are between

Demagogues and demiurges, ceasing

To regard common humanity

As other than expendable. They see

Themselves as supreme dealers of destiny,

Prime moulders of nationalist vanity.

Drones and missiles are their bolts from the blue,

Striking schools, hospitals, apartment blocks,

Rendered to ruin by reasoning that mocks

Reason, by insisting the lie is true.

Not by sanction, reprisal nor moral force

Can leaders be led to a change of course.

D. A.

Shock horror, a politician tells the honest unadulterated truth! Irish republican James Connolly said that “governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class.” Donald Tusk, leader of the Polish committee for the same has unequivocally laid out the intention of the Polish capitalist class to grab a slice of the pie, as big a slice as possible, from the reconstruction of war devastated Ukraine. He recognises that Poland won’t be the only capitalist state fighting over the profit creating opportunities this would provide. In capitalist system and under capitalist psychology of cause it isn’t wrong to want to earn big money wherever and whenever possible. It’s the nature of the system. You might as well try to dissuade a pack of spotted hyenas from dismembering their prey. If an analogy between hyenas and capitalism is inferred we may perhaps owe hyenas an apology.

Poland intends to profit from Ukraine’s post-conflict reconstruction, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said.

During a visit to the Euroterminal Slawkow railway facility Tusk pitched the expansion of the site into a key hub for materials bound for Ukraine.

“It is not wrong to say: we want to earn big money for Poland on the reconstruction of Ukraine,” he told reporters. “We want to help, but we also want to earn money on it, and this special hub is needed for this purpose.”

Poland has been one of Ukraine’s top donors since the conflict with Russia escalated in 2022, providing over €5.1 billion ($5.7 billion) in aid – more than 70% of it military – according to Germany’s Kiel Institute. Warsaw is also part of the so-called “coalition of the willing,” a group of European nations advocating continued military aid for Kiev. Polish officials have repeatedly urged EU-wide militarisation in response to what they describe as a growing threat from Russia – claims that Moscow has repeatedly dismissed as “nonsense” and “fearmongering.”

The Euroterminal Slawkow, established in 2010, lies near the intersection of Pan-European Transport Corridors III and VI. It currently supports regular connections within Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Italy, and several Ukrainian locations. According to Tusk, the terminal has the potential to become a major transshipment centre, thanks to its location at the junction of rail lines linking Western Europe with Ukraine and Asia.

Tusk complained about Poland’s minimal role in reconstruction efforts after the Iraq War, insisting that the country will not be sidelined again.

“It cannot be like it used to be… where everyone got involved, including Poland, and then the bigger players made money on the reconstruction, and Poland was left out in the cold,” he said.

“If we are talking about tens, hundreds of billions of zloty that the world, Europe, Poland, Ukraine will spend on the reconstruction, then among other things we are expanding this logistics hub… so that Poland can make money on it,” he concluded.

The World Bank estimates that Ukraine’s recovery could cost more than $500 billion over the next decade.’

Would our Polish or East European readers educate us on the importance of the cucumber in Polish food recipes? The cucumber is a fruit, grown from flowers of plant and has seeds, but is commonly called a vegetable because of its use in food, Whether the cucumber is a ‘marmite’ type of food or not is down to individual taste.

It has now become the centre of a furore between Poles and Russians. Polish farmers want to see Russian cucumbers sanctioned. Not for the reasons that many sanctions already exist on all kinds of Russian commodities and services because it is a ‘punishment’ on the Russians for the conflict between it and Ukraine. The uproar on the part of the Poles is based upon a good old capitalist reason – unfair competition. Presumably, those Polish consumers who love to use cucumbers in their culinary endeavours don’t care where the fruit comes from if it saves them money when purchased.

Polish capitalist cucumber farmers care greatly about their profits and that concern overrides any benefit to consumers when it comes to cheaper food.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, in 1855, ‘If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.’ The reaction of Poles to more expensive cucumbers, should Polish producers get their way, will be interesting to observe.

Being capitalism someone should inform Polish producers that instead of bitching they should be looking to produce cucumbers on a par with, or cheaper than, the Russian ones. Poles gripe that Russians benefit from cheaper energy, and thus reduced production costs .It was their ‘leaders’, along with many others in Western Europe, who brought about this situation through the sanctioning of Russia energy. Faff around, find out as the saying goes.

We, of course, hold no torch for any of the participants in this spat. Whether it’s cucumbers or any other commodity w,hich is produced to be sold and realise the surplus value involved in the production, profit is the name of the game. So whether the capitalists are Poles, Russians, or whoever, we say a plague on your houses and look forward to the time when, with a free access society, such squabbles are no longer undertaken.

‘Polish cucumber producers have called for a ban on Russian imports after data revealed that Russia became the nation’s leading supplier in March, according to local media reports. Polish farmers claim that Russian producers benefit from lower energy costs, allowing them to sell products at cheaper prices.

While overall Russian agricultural exports to the EU fell by 79% year-on-year in January 2025, shipments of fresh cucumbers from Russia rose sharply, according to Eurostat data. In Poland in particular, deliveries reached a four-year high in the spring.

Lukasz Gwizdala, the operations director of the Polish Association of Tomato and Cucumber Producers, claimed last week that the influx of Russian cucumbers has disrupted the domestic market. He stated that Polish farmers have urged the government to ban imports of the vegetable amid record supply levels.

Over 2,000 tons, worth €2.7 million ($3.07 million), entered Poland in March – 2.5 times more than in February and 25% higher than in March 2024, RIA Novosti reported last week, citing Eurostat data. The export value was the highest since March 2021, when sales reached €3.1 million. Of the €3.25 million Poland spent on cucumber imports in March, 83% came from Russia, making Poland the leading EU importer of Russian cucumbers, the figures showed.

Polish farmers argue they are facing unfair competition from Russian producers, as heating greenhouses to grow tomatoes and cucumbers requires fuel, which has become significantly more expensive over the past three years.

“The Russians have access to their own energy resources, and as a result, lower production costs,” Gwizdala told the outlet. “When they sell their products in Poland, we are dealing with unfair competition because we have limited access to cheap energy.”

The EU has imposed multiple sanctions targeting Russian energy exports since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The restrictions have led to a rapid rise in energy prices and production costs for energy-intensive industries within the bloc, hitting various sectors including greenhouse agriculture.

Gwizdala said his association is now in talks with the agriculture and environment ministries, pushing for an EU-wide embargo on cucumber and tomato imports from Russia and Belarus, with a decision possible within the next two months.

Last year, Sergey Dankvert, head of Russian agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor, told RBK that lower gas prices make Russian greenhouse vegetables cheaper than those in the EU. He predicted that with costly US LNG, European products risk losing their competitiveness while Russian exports gain market share.’

‘Microsoft is reportedly under fire from employees following claims that its internal email system blocks messages containing terms such as “Gaza,” “Palestine,” and “Genocide.” The restrictions, reported by The Verge, have sparked accusations of censorship and discrimination, particularly amid mounting criticism of the company’s ties to Israel.

The claims come from No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA), a protest group of current and former Microsoft workers. The group says “dozens of employees” have been unable to send emails internally or externally if these words appear in subject lines or message bodies.

In contrast, words such as “Israel” or alternate spellings like “P4lestine” are reportedly not filtered. “This is an attempt to silence worker free speech,” said NOAA organizer Hossam Nasr, who accused Microsoft’s leadership of discriminating against Palestinian employees and their supporters.

Microsoft confirmed that it had made email-related changes aimed at reducing internal political messaging. A company spokesperson said the measures were taken to limit mass political emails, noting that “emailing large numbers of employees about non-work topics is not appropriate” and that such communication should go through opt-in forums.

The controversy comes amid ongoing protests over Microsoft’s cloud and AI contracts with Israel, which media reports say support military operations in Gaza. While the US company has acknowledged working with the Israeli government, it claimed in a May 16 statement that “no evidence” has emerged showing its tools have been used to cause harm—though it also admitted it lacks visibility into how its software is deployed on private systems.

The internal dissent has played out publicly in recent weeks. At the Microsoft Build developer conference, employee Joe Lopez interrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote speech, accusing the company of enabling war crimes. Lopez was later fired after sending a mass email to thousands of staff members calling for action.’

‘The chance of an Israeli military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities “has gone up significantly” in recent months, CNN reported citing multiple US officials familiar with new intelligence assessments.

While Israeli leadership has not made a final decision, recently intercepted communications suggest that planning is actively underway, unnamed sources have told the network.

US intelligence has also noted Israeli military activities, including the movement of air munitions and the completion of air exercises, which could indicate preparations for an “imminent strike.”

Several officials acknowledged that these actions might serve as a strategic signal to Iran, aiming to pressure Tehran into concessions during ongoing negotiations with Washington. However, one source cited by CNN warned that “the prospect of a Trump-negotiated US-Iran deal that doesn’t remove all of Iran’s uranium makes the chance of a strike more likely.”

US President Donald Trump tore up the 2015 UN-backed agreement on Iran’s nuclear program during his first term in office. He accused Tehran of secretly violating the deal and reimposed sanctions.

Iran responded by rolling back its own compliance with the accord and accelerated its enrichment of uranium. Since returning to the White House, Trump has been pressuring Tehran into a new agreement and has even threatened to bomb the country if a deal isn’t reached.

Iran and Israel exchanged strikes in April and October of last year, marking the most dramatic escalation between the regional rivals.

Earlier this year, Israel reportedly proposed “an extensive bombing campaign” to knock out Iranian nuclear facilities, according to the New York Times, but Trump refused to back it, opting instead to pursue diplomacy. Since then, according to Reuters, West Jerusalem has been considering a more “limited strike” that would require minimal US support.

Despite the belligerent rhetoric, the US and Iran have held several rounds of talks in Oman in recent months, which have been described by both sides as constructive and productive. However, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, stated that while Washington wants to resolve the standoff with Tehran diplomatically, it has “one very, very clear red line… We cannot allow even 1% of an enrichment capability.”

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60% purity, far above the 3.67% cap set under the now-defunct nuclear deal and close to the 90% needed for weapons-grade material. While US and Israeli officials have for years warned that Tehran is just weeks away from a nuclear breakthrough, the Islamic Republic insists that its nuclear program is peaceful and not aimed at producing a bomb.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the US demand to fully dismantle its nuclear facilities as “unrealistic,” saying Tehran would continue enriching uranium with or without a deal. He also suggested that some statements by US officials are “completely detached from the reality of negotiations.” ‘

WHO IS WORKING CLASS ?

Class Consciousness

In the reign of King Coal and Queen cotton

Class seemed clear, the sons and daughters of toil,

Drawn to industrial towns from the soil,

Knew precisely where all the ill-gotten

Gains from their labours went. To the mansion

Up on the hill, wherein dwelt the owner

Of all gathered below him, the loner

Being driven by capital’s expansion.

That dual monarchy has abdicated,

The mansion’s now a care home. Workers pass,

Too many are convinced, as middle class,

Though capital’s craving must still be sated.

Commodity dealers remain takers

Of profit, from commodity makers.

D. A.