Thread by @BRRN_Fed

THREAD. Let’s talk about something that the left should become more familiar with: “Campism.” This refers to a worldview which divides the globe up into competing “camps”: US/Western imperialism v. all opponents of US/West, the “anti-imperialist” camp.

We wanted to give some examples of how the politics of campism play out in problematic ways on the left, but let’s start w/ defining the concept. Here are links to a helpful article & panel video:

fightback.org.nz/2015/11/05/aga…

cprsj.wordpress.com/2018/09/08/imp…

One of the most notorious “campist” outlets is the "Grayzone Project," which features a constellation of “independent journalists” that carry the water for the Syrian, Russian, Nicaraguan, & Chinese states under the guise of opposing US empire.

Grayzone editor, Max Blumenthal, once supported the Syrian uprising against Bashar al-Assad. He interviewed refugees in the Za'atari camp on the Jordanian border in 2013 to learn more about the Revolution. Now, though, he co-hosts a podcast ...
medium.com/@_alhamra/docu…

… Moderate Rebels with Ben Norton. It's dedicated to pushing pro-Assad line that all Syrian rebels in the uprising=al-Qaeda/ISIS. Hence Blumenthal's take that US military was "providing al-Qaeda with air support" after its strikes vs. Assad after 4/17 sarin-gas massacre.

In a Grayzone article, Blumenthal claims that the medical relief org @sams_usa is "al-Qaeda's MASH unit."
grayzoneproject.com/2018/04/12/al-…

Short on evidence, he rests on guilt by association. He ignores presence of Free Idlib Army & the civilian opposition to Assad & extremist rebels alike. See: Popular protests that took place on past week in Idlib, the last rebel-held region of Syria:

https://twitter.com/RazanSpeaks/status/1038055387545653248

These courageous masses belie Norton’s suggestion that Idlib = al-Qaeda, as seen in this tweet by Norton going after Syrian anarchist Leila al-Shami

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1036814390044123136

Norton’s take here, echoed by Blumenthal, is especially misleading, given that Shami is co-author of what is considered to be one of the best books about the Syrian Revolution, Burning Country (

https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1036864089862090753

)

See this tweet for a response:

https://twitter.com/QuixotesHorse/status/1037099804550148097

In keeping with Grayzone’s support for any regime that claims to oppose US, Blumenthal visited Nicaragua in July & was granted an "exclusive interview" w/ Ortega. He describes April uprising as an "attempted coup,” a complete echo of Ortega’s line: grayzoneproject.com/2018/07/30/an-…

He fails to mention the deaths of protesters by police and pro-govt forces since April. Instead, Blumenthal says that "US and its allies... accuse [Ortega] of unleashing lethal violence against peaceful protesters." So what Nicaraguans say is irrelevant? reuters.com/article/us-nic…

Ortega, long criticized by former Sandinistas and many former supporters internationally, receives only positive treatment - helping to grow what critical observers call the “illusions of the Left” around a regime that long betrayed its ideals.
blackrosefed.org/nicaragua-deve…

For Blumenthal & Norton this keeps with their Orientalist erasure of suffering of Syrian people at hands of Assad, Russia, & Iran. See this footage from aftermath of Khan Sheikhoun massacre if you have doubts (CW: distressing images of death) cbsnews.com/news/what-a-ch…

Now that Assad & Putin are poised to launched the #IdlibOffensive following failed recent talks, the lives of 3 million Syrians, at least ½ of them internally displaced, are at risk. 🚨 (Map:

https://twitter.com/worldonalert/status/1038400629989953537

)

It’s possible that the Regime will use chemical weapons again soon. If it does, you can expect Grayzone to follow @RT_com’s lead in blaming the @whitehelmets. aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/i…

Other content in a similar vein is Norton's 'takedown' of recent reports that the Chinese State has forced up to 1 million indigenous Muslim Uighurs from Xinjiang region into "re-education camps."
grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/23/un-…

In this embarrassing article, Norton & co. frame the conclusions about China's mass-detention of Uighurs as little more than U.S. propaganda. Grayzone doesn't actually engage with content of allegations in any way. Only denials.
grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/23/un-…

On Thursday, @UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern over these reports & made 8 recommendations to Chinese State, including demands to release all detainees asapa & disclose # of ppl detained in Xinjiang in past 5 yrs bbc.co.uk/news/world-asi…

From the UN report, page 7: “Numerous reports of detention of large # of ethnic Uighurs & other Muslim minorities held incommunicado & often for long periods, w/o being charged or tried, under the pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism.”
tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CERD/…

Their ideological commitment to campism caused them to overlook Chinese State's own reaction 2 news getting out: @globaltimesnews reported that crackdown was necessary so that Xinjiang "avoided fate of becoming 'China's Syria' or 'China's Libya'." 🚨 aljazeera.com/news/2018/08/c…

The denials of the Chinese state’s repression of ethnic Uighurs ignores the long history of anti-Islamic repression that would be rightly denounced as Islamophobic if done by western states. See @AJENews reporting on attempts to ban Ramadan in 2014.
aljazeera.com/indepth/featur…

The Communist Party is clearly pathologizing Islam: “Anyone infected with an ideological ‘virus’ must be swiftly sent for the ‘residential care’ of transformation-through-education classes before illness arises” (Party document from Hotan, Xinjiang). nytimes.com/2018/09/08/wor…

As 1 Uighur camp survivor says “The psychological pressure is enormous, when you have to criticise yourself, denounce yr thinking – yr own ethnic group. I still think about it every night, until the sun rises." independent.co.uk/news/world/asi…

Summary: 1. Campism is an ideological approach to geopolitics that obscures our understanding of events, using a narrow and outdated worldview of imperialism where states are divided into imperialist/anti-imperialist camps.

2. This leads part of the left to side with states often fundamentally hostile to the left values that they pretend to uphold; where atrocities and repression of workers, students, ethnic minority groups are dismissed in the name of a crude, pseudo anti-imperialism.

3. As opposed to disinformation outlets like Grayzone and its writers such as Ben Norton, Max Blumenthal and others, the left should embrace a consistent approach of working-class internationalism that is willing to look critically all states- right, left or otherwise.