Helmut-Harry Loewen

Newly declassified documents obtained by CBC Indigenous confirm that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police infiltrated and sought to disrupt Indigenous organizations in the 1970s in an extensive counterinsurgency program of covert surveillance, informants and countersubversion. How RCMP spies infiltrated the Indigenous rights movement. youtu.be/4MvUim-Oqxk?si… @GabrielRockhill

It is a great honor that Marxlenin Pérez Valdés interviewed me for @cubadebatecu We talked about how important it is to support Cuba and learn from its revolutionary process. We also discussed my latest book, which is currently being translated into Spanish. ~ Es un gran honor que Marxlenin Pérez Valdés me haya entrevistado para @cubadebatecu Hablamos de lo importante que es apoyar a Cuba y aprender de su proceso revolucionario. También hablamos de mi último libro, que se está traduciendo al español. - Gabriel Rockhill cubadebate.cu/especiales/202… @cubadebatecu

Peter Jehle, Lukas Meisner, and Jan Rehmann: “The research projects initiated by WFH, who had been appointed professor of philosophy in 1979 … include the “Projekt Ideologie-Theorie,” whose achievement lies, among other things, in reuniting the divergent approaches to theories of ideology and ideology critique; ongoing development of Marxist theories of fascism beyond the “ineffective antifascism” of the liberals (WFH’s 1967 “hilfloser Antifaschismus”); the Berlin People’s University (Berliner Volksuni) which for decades succeeded in bringing the often-divided factions of the Left and social movements into a productive dialogue; the translation of Gramsci’s “Prison Notebooks” into German; and finally, the monumental “Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism” (HKWM), which has now reached the letter N, recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, and is now also being published in Chinese and in partial editions in English and Spanish. WFH himself, who initiated, accompanied, and moderated all these projects, is a tireless producer—he translated Volume 6 of the “Prison Notebooks,” for example, single-handedly.” ~ For the Marxist philosopher and longtime editor of Das Argument, Wolfgang Fritz Haug, on his 90th birthday (translated excerpt) Handwerker des Geistes (junge Welt). jungewelt.de/artikel/519653…

"After World War Two, US authorities changed the name of the Department of War to the Department of Defense. In September 2025, the Donald Trump administration changed it back. As elsewhere, President Trump abandoned propaganda niceties as he made brute realities explicit. The US state is a war machine, ruthlessly enforcing global capitalism while leaving endless death and destruction in its wake. At the helm sits FOX host-turned-Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, an unrepentant bigot adorned with far-right Crusader tattoos and notorious for his chants to “Kill All Muslims.” Hegseth was recruited to the military back when Matt Kennard was first warning about the radicalization of enlisted privates. That such a character now commands the world’s most powerful military is neither a fluke nor an aberration. It shows how thoroughly Trumpism has obliterated the firewalls of acceptability and normalized the extreme. The extremist growths Kennard documented a decade ago have metastasized and taken over our governing institutions, as the likes of Hegseth and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller now occupy the highest political echelons." ~ Abby Martin, Foreword, 2026 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ “In the spring of 2014, after the anti-Semitic attack near Kansas City*, the New York Times ... printed a stinging op-ed that highlighted the problem of radicalized soldiers and veterans. Its author, Kathleen Belew, a doctoral student working on a book on Vietnam and the far right, asked: “Would [Miller] have received greater scrutiny had he been a Muslim, a foreigner, not white, not a veteran? The answer is clear, and alarming.” She was subjected to a torrent of abuse for impugning the whole veteran community—something she went to great pains to avoid. It was the standard tactic used to shut down debate on the topic and entirely predictable. American Legion National Commander Daniel Dellinger called it a “poorly researched and agenda-driven piece,” adding that “the New York Times should be above the slanderous stereotyping of the men and women that have defended us against the racist ideology that Ms. Belew and the NY Times no doubt oppose.” But further vindicating Belew’s piece just a month later was news that recruitment fliers imploring soldiers to fight for a “white nation” in the coming race war had been discovered on Fort Carson in Colorado. “Ever wonder if you are fighting for the right side?” the flier asks, urging the soldiers to help “secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.” One further report said that a surge of KKK members with military experience had allowed the Loyal White Knights to conduct combat training for the first time in its history. In this case, Allen West, a former Republican congressman and retired military officer, gave the usual line intended to shut down debate: “Why do I question this? Because I know the tactics of the liberal progressive Left, and besmirching the military to prove their long-held thesis is very important,” he wrote. I don’t think it is too strong to say that when this “blowback” hits the next innocent Americans, the people who tried to impugn the Cassandras will bear part of the responsibility. There is, in fact, barely anyone who spoke critically of the situation in the US military from the inside who has come out with his or her career or reputation intact.” (230-231) * Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. (1940-2021), leader of the White Patriot Party (formerly known as the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan), was convicted of murder, as well as weapons charges and the violation of an injunction against paramilitary activity, in the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom shooting on April 13, 2014 in Overland Park, Kansas. orbooks.com/catalog/irregu…

First prisoner transport at the front gate of the site of the former factory which became the Dachau Concentration Camp. Photo: Municipal Archive, Munich.

On March 22, 1933, shortly after the Nazis came to power, the first prisoner transports arrived at the Dachau concentration camp near Munich. The first concentration camp for political opponents — communists and socialists — was built on the site of a disused gunpowder and ammunition factory. Dachau was the longest-running concentration camp in the Nazi system and enlarged to encompass some one hundred subcamps, mostly forced labour camps or Arbeitskommandos, which were located throughout southern Germany and Austria. Photo: Inmates on their way to a meal in the first camp. Propaganda photo of the SS (Federal German Archive).

Cuba is facing the gravest crisis in the history of its revolution. The US economic blockade, now in its seventh decade, has been systematically tightened to the point where the island faces blackouts of up to twenty hours a day, acute fuel shortages, and disruption to food supplies. The blockade has been in place since 1962 – the longest-running embargo in modern history – and has cost Cuba an estimated 2 trillion USD, adjusted to today's prices. The 1996 Helms-Burton Act extended its reach extraterritorially, penalising companies in third countries for doing business with Cuba in a manner that is flagrantly illegal and unprecedented in modern economic warfare. Cuba's listing on the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list is designed to choke off Cuba's access to international banking and finance, making even routine trade almost impossibly difficult. The immediate trigger for the current energy crisis is the collapse of oil supplies. Cuba had developed a close and mutually beneficial relationship with Venezuela since the start of the Bolivarian Revolution, and Venezuela had been supplying up to 100,000 barrels of oil per day, in exchange for the services of vast numbers of Cuban doctors, teachers and other experts. The Trump administration's invasion of Venezuela in January and the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro was motivated by multiple strategic objectives, but strangling Cuba was almost certainly among them. The result has been devastating. As one Cuban hairdresser told CodePink's Medea Benjamin: "With no gasoline, buses don't run, so we can't get to work. We have electricity only three to six hours a day. There's no gas for cooking, so we're burning wood and charcoal in our apartments. It's like going back 100 years." Trump has been explicit about his goal: regime change in Cuba by the end of the year. Marco Rubio – the ideological driving force behind the Cuba policy – has openly threatened the Cuban government. The US is reportedly searching for government insiders willing to cooperate in a soft coup. Cuba's response has been unambiguous. President Díaz-Canel: "Cuba is a free, independent and sovereign nation. No one tells us what to do. Cubans are ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood." Why such a ferocious campaign against a small Caribbean island? The answer is largely ideological. Cuba represents the threat of a good example – a formerly colonised country, ninety miles from the US, that dares to assert that another world is possible: to control its own resources, follow its own development model, and align itself with the forces of progress globally. The US response is designed to demonstrate what happens to countries that make that choice. Yet Cuba's achievements under sixty-seven years of revolution, blockade and constant pressure are extraordinary. Literacy has risen from 70 percent at the time of the revolution to 99.8 percent – higher than both Britain and the US. Healthcare is free, universal and world-class: Cuba has one doctor for every 220 people, a life expectancy of 79 years, and an infant mortality rate of 4.83 per thousand live births. Cuba developed the world's first meningitis B vaccine, and during the Covid pandemic produced its own vaccines indigenously, despite the blockade, achieving mass vaccination ahead of far wealthier nations. The 2022 Family Code, developed through an extensive popular consultation process and passed by referendum with a 74 percent turnout, is one of the most progressive family law frameworks in the world. Women hold 43 percent of parliamentary seats. The World Wildlife Federation has declared Cuba the only country on earth to have achieved sustainable development by the dual measure of human development and environmental sustainability. Cuba's internationalism is perhaps its most extraordinary dimension. Over 400,000 Cuban medical personnel have served in 164 countries. Cuba deployed 375,000 troops to Angola between 1975 and 1991, playing a decisive role in protecting Angola's independence, defeating South African apartheid forces and helping liberate Namibia — prompting Nelson Mandela to describe Cuba's contribution as "unparalleled in African history". Cuba provided crucial support to liberation movements across Africa, Asia and Latin America, sent doctors to Vietnam while the US was bombing it, and has offered free medical training to students from across the Global South through the Latin American School of Medicine. Cuba is now responding to the energy siege not with surrender but with transformation. Solar power has tripled in a single year, from 5.8 percent to over 20 percent of electricity generation. Forty-nine new solar parks have been connected to the grid. China has been Cuba's most important partner in this effort: 92 solar parks are being built with Chinese equipment, financing and expertise, with a combined capacity matching Cuba's entire current fossil fuel output. President Xi Jinping personally approved $80 million in emergency financial aid for electrical equipment. Russia has reaffirmed that oil supplies will continue. But Cuba urgently needs international solidarity. As Fidel Castro said in 1994, "we understand what it would mean for all the progressive forces, for all the revolutionary forces, for all the lovers of peace and justice in the world, if the United States succeeded in crushing the Cuban Revolution". The defeat of the Cuban Revolution would embolden imperial aggression everywhere – a signal that no country, however principled, can defy global capital and survive. We should all be countering the blockade in our unions and communities, challenging anti-Cuba propaganda – including on the left – and connecting the dots: the same ruling class suffocating Cuba is bombing Iran, backing genocide in Gaza and imposing austerity at home. Defending Cuba is defending the proposition that humanity can build a world based on solidarity, justice and human dignity rather than profit and empire. youtu.be/kHAEqkl5ZBc

“There is hardly a notion as prevalent in the everyday life of Western liberal societies as the equation of communism with fascism. … The subject of Domenico Losurdo’s book *Il revisionismo storico. Problemi e miti* (published in Italy in 1996; the German edition appeared in 2007 under the title *Kampf um die Geschichte*) is, as the subtitle of the German edition states, “historical revisionism and its myths—Nolte, Furet, and the others.” These “others” include Carl Schmitt, Andreas Hillgruber, and also American historians. Losurdo thus took up a debate that was conducted in Germany in the 1980s under the heading ‘Historikerstreit.’” „Kaum eine Vorstellung ist im Alltag der westlichen liberalen Gesellschaften so präsent wie die der Gleichsetzung von Kommunismus und Faschismus. (…) Gegenstand des 1996 in Italien veröffentlichten Buches „Il revisionismo storico. Problemi e miti“ von Domenico Losurdo (auf Deutsch erschien es 2007 unter dem Titel „Kampf um die Geschichte“) [1] ist, wie es im Untertitel der deutschen Ausgabe heißt, „der historische Revisionismus und seine Mythen - Nolte, Furet und die anderen“. Bei jenen „anderen“ handelt es sich um Carl Schmitt, Andreas Hillgruber aber auch um US-amerikanische Historiker. Losurdo griff damit eine Debatte auf, die im Deutschland der achtziger Jahre unter der Überschrift Historikerstreit geführt wurde.” mez-berlin.de/positionen-det…