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… read about one socialist’s case for arming Ukraine.

World War I holds a special place in the history of international socialism because it was the conflict that first saw visions of class transcending nation collapse into parochial defenses of country. It’s a question that looms over the head of socialists in the face of any outbreak of war, which pits laborers against one another in the violent work on the battlefield. John McDonnell, former Labour Shadow Chancellor of the United Kingdom, reflects on what is asked of socialists in the face of imperialism. This week marks the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and McDonnell writes [[link removed]]: “Defense to stem the tide of violent aggression was judged to be the only option for members of the Social Movement and Free Trade Unions to save themselves, their families and their country.” McDonnell is not naive to the role of power and emphasizes that President Vladimir Putin’s continued pursuit of the war, as well as any disinterest in peace talks, means that negotiations are dependent on the realities of the battlefield. While wartime calls for solidarity have masked attacks on labor rights in Ukraine, McDonnell notes that the “aim of the trade unions and the socialists of the Social Movement is to ensure that a peace is created based upon trade union rights, workers’ control and public ownership.”

Drawing lines

AI-generated images, often powered by scrapes of public but copyrighted works, exploded online in a big way in the past year, as generative tools like DALL-E let users input phrases, including artist names, to create machine-generated stylistic renderings. In Japan, manga artist Ken Akamastsu is the first of his profession elected to the legislature and has called for national guidelines on such generative AI.

“Animators, manga illustrators, and industry labor organizations told Rest of World they are grateful for these efforts, but not sure how much to expect from them. It remains unclear how the rhetoric will translate into tangible changes, and whether the Japanese government can address the underlying issues troubling anime and manga workers,” writes Andrew Deck [[link removed]].

While AI-generated images may pose a challenge to established creators, the labor concerns of illustrators, especially those who are starting out and those dependent on contracts, can likely be addressed through more traditional wage and work protections.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] what's the buzz

One year on, Ukraine has become a kind of proving ground for a range of weapons, from long-range artillery to hodge-podge assemblies of tanks and transports. One of the more striking features of the war, which was long previewed in the smaller-scale conflict over Donbas before the February 2022 invasion, is the use of commercial drones for combat. Both countries, while flying military-model drones, are also deeply reliant on hobbyist quadcopters, largely made by China’s Dà Jiāng Chuàngxīn (DJI), a giant of the commercial drone world.

“Per my database, DJI drones are by far the most popular drones in the Ukraine war, used (and demanded) by fighters far more than any other drone type: Out of the 463 drone incident entries in which I could positively identify the drone being used, it was a DJI product 59 percent of the time,” reports Faine Greenwood [[link removed]].

Tracking the role of hobbyist drones, as well as evidence seen in videos and photos shared from combat, offers some insight into what soldiers in the field actually do when handed such a tool. The trenches of Ukraine may feel like World War I throwbacks, but the flying cameras buzzing overhead and spotting for artillery are all modern.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] DEEP DIVE HOME FRONT: Part I

When President Vladimir Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he did so by receding tropes that would be common across a Fox News broadcast or in the pages of the New York Post. His speech devoted a whole paragraph to the West’s assault on traditional values, saying [[link removed]], “they … force on us their false values that would erode us, our people from within, the attitudes they have been aggressively imposing on their countries, attitudes that are directly leading to degradation and degeneration, because they are contrary to human nature.”

There is no definition of global elite that does not meaningfully include Putin, but the familiar language of reaction he employed is part of a transnational strategy by conservatives — and those opposed to gender and reproductive freedoms. Thanks to the work of diligent reactionaries, there is a regressive international working to force people to live under an explicitly patriarchal order, one that punishes reproductive choice and gender expression.

In “ Transcalar Activism Contesting the Liberal International Order: The Case of the World Congress of Families [[link removed]],” authors Sara Kalm and Anna Meeuwisse examine how one specific international organization was able to make the language of reaction transcend borders, despite so much of reactionary thought being linked to narrow expressions of local rule.

“Backlash politics in the gender field is now a broad political program, fought for by activists in many different countries,” write the authors. “On the anti-gender (or ‘pro-family’; we use the terms interchangeably) agenda are issues such as banning abortion and surrogacy, prohibiting sexual education in schools, stopping legislation on domestic violence, complicating divorce procedures, and disallowing sex change as well as same-sex marriage.”

To explore the shaping and sharing of this reactionary agenda, the authors focus on the World Congress of Families [[link removed]] (WCF), which was founded in 1997, with both Americans and Russians having early prominent roles in creating and shaping the organization.

The WCF is at the center of global networking and unites different kinds of actors across most regions of the globe. These actors include evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox civil society organizations, the Holy See, religious leaders, scholars, aristocrats, and politicians, such as high-level ministers in countries like Hungary [[link removed]], Italy [[link removed]], and Brazil [[link removed]].

One major breakthrough of the WCF has been finding a common language for authoritarian leaders peripheral to the West, like former President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil or President Viktor Orban in Hungary, as well as reactionary populists of western nations, like Italian leaders of the Lega Nord [[link removed]]. In this, both groups share a framing that places reactionary politics as one that protects the natural family without having to confront different regional variations on family.

“The discourse on the natural family fits very well with the nationalist and ethnocentrist worldview of the right-wing populists who currently enjoy great success in many corners of the globe. The most obvious reason for this is the notion of a global left-liberal elite that tries to implement a radical agenda that is alien to the interests of the ‘common man/woman,’” write the authors.

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Shirin Jaafari spoke [[link removed]] with Syrians struggling to get by in the earthquake-rattled north of the country. “People [were] refugees before the earthquake. Now, they’re [living] in the roads, in hospitals, in schools,” photographer Karam Kellieh told Jaafari. Aid into the country is restricted by the government, which has only allowed one corridor for humanitarian relief, and by the difficulties of accessing people in areas not under government control. Sanctions placed on Syria, despite a temporary exemption from the US Treasury for relief aid, have prevented donations rapidly raised from being spent for the country.

Sophie Fergus defended [[link removed]] the right of journalists to report without interference by governments, a right heavily infringed in Turkey. “Sema Çağlak, a reporter for Jinnews [[link removed]], told the [Coalition for Women in Journalism] [[link removed]] that on Feb. 8, 2023, she and two of her colleagues were detained by Turkish police in Urfa [[link removed]], despite the fact that they all held valid press cards,” wrote Fergus. The police said only presidential-issued cards were valid for the press and confiscated the ones held by Çağlak and her colleagues. It’s a restriction on access and speech that makes it hard to accurately cover the news in detail, like visiting temporary morgues set up after the earthquake.

Manuel Rueda reported [[link removed]] on the Indigenous protests sweeping Peru. While the protesters initially demanded the reinstatement of Peru’s ousted former President Pedro Castillo, they have moved on to demanding constitutional reforms to meet the needs of the country’s Indigenous population. “These precious resources belong to the state, and we are not getting benefits from them,” Juvenal Gil, a Quechua-speaking miner from the region of Puno, told Rueda. Gil has been at the protests in Lima for three weeks. He continued, “If these places where the gold is being mined had nice buildings and we were moving around in subways like in Dubai, I wouldn’t be complaining.”

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] WELL PLAYED

War crimes are how Americans learn geography. [[link removed]]

This is hardly the worst-managed retreat out of Afghanistan [[link removed]], but it might be close to the most embarrassing [[link removed]].

Sure, hundreds of thousands died, but the inexorable march of technology progressed along to where everyone could have cell phones, so who can say if the war was bad or not [[link removed]].

Surveillance balloons and U-2 spy planes are Cold War tech, but cockpit selfies with smartphones? That’s all 21st century [[link removed]].

They’re not just virtual chores, they’re obligations to uphold the Geneva Conventions [[link removed]].

And the oracle said: lol. lmao [[link removed]].

We call this move the Abraham [[link removed]] Waldluigi [[link removed]].

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Critical State is written by Kelsey D. Atherton with Inkstick Media.

The World is a weekday public radio show and podcast on global issues, news and insights from PRX and GBH.

With an online magazine and podcast featuring a diversity of expert voices, Inkstick Media is “foreign policy for the rest of us.”

Critical State is made possible in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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