CULTURE & CRITICISM

PAUL EDWARDS—The third man, alive in spite of The Empire is, without any close rival, the greatest journalist in this world since Tom Paine.  Julian Assange, besides being everything the American press is not—a journalist who goes after truth no matter whose ox is gored, or what the cost to himself—is a monumental hero.

Founder of Wikileaks, he was first targeted by The Empire for release of the notorious “Collateral Murder” video, made by an America helicopter as it strafed and killed unarmed Iraqi civilians and children and two Reuters journalists while the pilot joked on audio about his murders.  This one video—though he released much more on American barbarity in Iraq— did more to sicken the world at U.S. brutality and atrocity, than any other piece of information in the entire course of that hideous, criminal war.

BRUCE LERRO—Nationalism is one of those words that people immediately think they understand, but upon further questioning we find a riot of conflicting elements. There are three other words that are commonly associated with nationalism that are used interchangeably with it: nation, state, and ethnicity. But these terms raise the following questions:

What is the relationship between nationalism and nations? Were there nations before nationalism? Did they come about at the same time or do they have separate histories? Can a nation exist without nationalism? Can nationalism exist without a nation? Ernest Gellner (Nations and Nationalism) thinks so.

HELEN SANTORO—From 2018 to 2022, out-of-pocket costs for Medicare enrollees climbed for nine of the 10 drugs. The average annual out-of-pocket cost for Stelara, an injectable drug that treats autoimmune conditions, rose the most from $709 per enrollee to $2,058. For non-Medicare U.S. patients, Stelara can be considerably more expensive, especially since drugmakers charge far higher prices in the US than they do elsewhere. A 2019 report found that the regular price for Stelara was $16,600 per dose in the United States, compared to $2,900 per dose in the United Kingdom. 

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—If you don’t interact with many Zionists in your day-to-day life or don’t have a large enough profile to be constantly swarmed by Israel apologists you might be unaware that this is happening, but the vitriol I’ve been seeing from Israel supporters on social media platforms since October 7 has been one of the most shocking and disturbing things I’ve ever witnessed.

Every single day these last four and a half months I’ve been inundated with comments from Israel supporters excusing the most monstrous acts imaginable in the most monstrous ways imaginable. People calling for the total destruction of Gaza. People saying the Gazans deserve what is happening to them. Saying the sickest shit you can possibly think of in response to news of terrible things happening to innocent children.

EDITOR—Interested in an “unapologetic Black, leftist, working-class” perspective on current sociopolitical events? If so, join us as we speak with Nick Cruse, citizen journalist and co-founder of Revolutionary Blackout Network (RBN). We discuss a variety of topics, including the importance of independent Black, working-class commentary in an age of corporatized journalism, the leftist failures of electoral politics in the US, the absence of an established leftist perspective in mainstream media, the challenges of social media activism (particularly the “BreadTube” effect), as well as the potential to change the current status quo through ground-up, working class solidarity.