Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Strange Color Revolution: More ‘Gay Protests’ at Russia’s Sochi Olympics, but on what basis?

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, February 14, 2014

Strange Color Revolution: More ‘Gay Protests’ at Russia’s Sochi Olympics, but on what basis?

Click here to access article by Patrick Henningsen from 21st Century Wire.

Western media, LGBT activists and celebrities have also been egged-on by Obama’s White House and others – for the simple reason that their efforts dovetail with US foreign policy and European Union foreign policy to both undermine and contain Russia’s influence, particularly in relation to the Ukraine and Syria.

The author rightfully objects to the use of human rights issues to attack Russia while they are hosting the Olympics. However, his effort to explain why this is occurring includes so many explanations that the crucial one, the anti-Russian stance of the Empire, gets nearly lost in the forest of explanations. Nearly lost, but it's there in the document which he provided a link to from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a ruling class "think" tank.

If you read it and are able to get beyond the simple-minded denials about their motivations for monitoring the 2004 election in Ukraine, you will recognize the fingerprints of a counter intelligence operation similar to the CONINTELPRO operations (although not as extreme) made famous by the FBI in the 1970s and '80s that targeted domestic groups that our ruling class masters did not like. The fact that Empire engages in subversion of governments and the engineering of protest movements (think color revolutions) around the world in pursuit of power and profit is a well established fact. (See this, this, this, this, and the resources on this website.) By attempting to explain all the motivations of the various actors in this drama, the author served to lose the essential factor at play--a propaganda campaign aimed against Russia.

You see, the end of the stunted versions of socialism (more like state capitalism) in the Soviet Union and China ended the competition of ruling class systems in favor of capitalism. However, it created another form of competition with Russian and Chinese capitalists: control of global resources, cheap labor, and markets. The demise of the non-authentic versions of socialism only resulted in putting their nations under the control of their national capitalists who refuse to defer to the diktats of the Empire. Think of street gangs who compete for dominance over petty crime operations in the neighborhoods of many US cities and you come close to understanding what occurs on the world stage.

Of course, Empire propaganda directors are not attempting to overthrow the Russia government, but rather trying to inflict economic damage on its Olympics and to promote the discrediting of the Russian government in the eyes of Westerners. Such propaganda campaigns are a new version of the old campaigns in the Cold War--but arguably not as deadly. As a capitalist competitor, Russia is now a target for Empire propaganda to undermine its influence in the world to the advantage of the Empire's capitalist classes.