The Communist BlocBoard

A Polish commando serving in the British army during WWII travels through Africa, fighting Axis troops, uncovering dastardly intrigues, and meeting all sorts of interesting people.

This is, in short, the plot of "The Scorpions of the Desert" - a series of graphic novels written and drawn by Hugo Pratt.

The story might seem, at first, like that of a B-tier Hollywood action movie. And if I'm being honest here - I too was put off by the setting when I first got this graphic novel as a gift. It seemed to me like just one example of a certain type of Eurocentric adventurist literature about Africa that was so widespread in the 19th and 20th centuries.

I was gravely mistaken.

In many ways "The Scorpions of the Desert" are a story that cannot be understood fully without knowing the life story of its author. Pratt spent a large chunk of his teenage years in Abyssinia, where his father served as a colonial officer in the Italian army. Though undoubtedly a part of the white Italian colonial elite - Pratt, unlike many of his peers, was far from unacquainted with the local people - he quickly learned Amharic and spent most of his free time fraternizing with the local Ethiopian youth. With the Second World War smouldering in the background, Pratt was able to meet, and learn from, a wide variety of people: Ethiopian revolutionaries, officers from Vichy France, and Free French Senegalese Tirailleurs, smugglers, Italian dissidents fleeing from the mainland...

It is this personal experience that enabled Hugo Pratt to craft a veritable cornucopia of amazing and authentic characters:

Ghula - A female Danakil warrior determined to get her sisters out of a local prince's harem; Guerrino Bosegheta Modena, the chicken soldier - An Italian Jew obsessed with his armoured car and a man unwilling to admit the fact that his beloved homeland is committing genocide against his people; Cush, a self-proclaimed revolutionary who is convinced that the Ethiopians should be fighting without the help of the English...

These characters, and so many others, are a major reason why this graphic novel series is so brilliant.

This odd grouping of people, very few of whom have any real reasons to fight in the war, are brought together by the chaotic and brutal experience that was the Second World War.

If there's one word you could use to describe the collective experiences they go through in the graphic novel - that word is unexpected. Without spoiling much, I found myself surprised many times throughout the entire series. Whether it's a stray bullet killing a fairly important side character, the unit's mole being someone I personally least expected, or ████ killing ████ just as they found the hidden gold - the series definitely has its fair share of surprises.

In a world that's increasingly becoming unpredictable, we can all benefit from a work of fiction that reminds us of how random life actually is.

4/5

Hello dear readers, Eriadni here! Today we shall be taking a look at the next section of Principles of Communism. This section is quite long, and I won’t quote Engels’ answer in its entirety but instead make some general comments and pick out a few extracts to take a look at and consider

Question: How did the proletariat originate?

As the question suggests, Engels takes a look at the means by which the proletariat actually came into existence. If you remember from last time, the proletariat is the economic class that relies on selling their labour for a living, and whose labour is utilized to produce commodities. The summary provided by Engels here applies particularly closely to the history of Britain, where industrial capitalism began to form during the Industrial Revolution, before spreading across Europe.

“The Proletariat originated in the industrial revolution, which took place in England in the last half of the last (18th) century, and which has since then been repeated in all the civilized countries of the world.”

Note that by “civilized countries,” Engels means Europe. Whilst the use of “civilized” and “uncivilized” would rightfully be seen as reflecting imperialist attitudes today, this kind of language was an accepted element of European political writing in the 19th century.

“This industrial revolution was precipitated by the discovery of the steam engine, various spinning machines, the mechanical loom, and a whole series of other mechanical devices.”

Another major contributing factor was the influx of raw materials and wealth from European colonial empires which enriched the merchant classes and enabled investment in industrial enterprises.

“In this way, all these industries fell, one after another, under the dominance of steam, machinery, and the factory system, just as spinning and weaving had already done.”

Engels is writing specifically of the industrial proletariat, who were the focus of Marx and Engels’ analyses of political economy. However rural and agricultural workers may also be proletarianized, and this remains the case across the global South today. The means of production in the industrial sense are the factories and workshops, whereas in the rural context, the means of production are land and farming equipment.

“(ii) The class of the wholly propertyless, who are obliged to sell their labor to the bourgeoisie in order to get, in exchange, the means of subsistence for their support. This is called the class of proletarians, or the proletariat.”

This is a neat definition of the proletariat, and a great starting point for further analysis.

Jovan sat down on his couch and turned on the HoloFeed 5. Automatically switching between short funny videos, serious political commentary, and carefully curated movie excerpts - it showed everything Jovan wanted to watch at any particular moment - before he even knew he wanted to watch it.

He fondly remembered the first time he plugged in his first-generation HoloFeed and marveled at the algorithm the engineers at Alphabet created. The user experience had improved a lot over the past decade - but no one knew quite how and why - after a while, no single Alphabet employee could understand the algorithm they had created.

"I swear to God I don't know how we're still in business with this thing around" Jovan wondered "it's a goddamn miracle some people still watch cable!"

Being the executive music director for RTP - the official television network of Pan Kath - was exhausting, and Jovan felt like he desperately needed a break. For the past week, he'd been organizing the internal selection for Pan Kath's representative in the 127th Blocvision Song Contest. He remembered how, when he first got a job in RTP, they organized an official National Selection show - with the contestant being selected by both the public and a jury.

He also recalled how that year's chosen representative, seen by many as a Vršnjac nationalist, was immediately assassinated by the Dalmato Liberation Front.

Pan Kath, though it had grown more stable in the time since, was still a deeply divided country. The question of who was to represent Pan Kath in Blocvision was simply too political - it couldn't be left to the general public.

"A tiring dance of negotiations with every single political, ethnic and business group in the country"

That's how Jovan's predecessor and mentor, Ivan Janjić, described the internal selection procedure for Blocvision in Pan Kath.

This year, Pan Kath was to be represented by an indie rock band. Its members had met while fighting on opposing sides of the Civil War of 47' - the drummer and the bassist were guards in a PoW camp, while the lead vocal and the keyboard player were inmates. They bonded over a shared love of music - a bond that culminated in all of them escaping from the camp as deserters.

He'd done it. He'd managed, once again, to find a narrative that would be acceptable to everyone! He was the perfect man for the job, being tolerable was an essential part of his personality - Jovan had very few close friends and allies, but no enemies.

Jovan's gaze slowly drifted towards the digital clock in the corner of his HoloFeed display. It was 4 AM already, he had to start packing if he wanted to have any chance of making it to the chartered flight at 7.

He was going to Blocvision.

Politics:

• If you’re not endorsing our delegate Kethania, you should do that straight away! Every endorsement on our delegate protects our regional security as well as amplifies our voice on WA resolutions. If you are not, you are limited to 10 endorsements yourself. You should also endorse our vice delegates, Marxmeans, Shamian, and The Workers Union of Habsburg-Lorraine!

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NationStates:

• Want some endorsements? Run the Revolutionary Endorsement Program! It's simple and doesn't take very much time. Endorse comrades, get endorsed back. Alternatively, post the following to the RMB:

  [nation]ink_cloud[/nation], rep

  Our RMB bot, created by Kethania, will give you a list of nations to endorse.

• We have published the Master Dispatch. This should be the first place you go if you are looking for information on TCB or NationStates. It contains links to every major resource, and it is pinned under the WFE.

• We're always interested in having residents of TCB participate in the region. If you have an idea for a fun cultural event, an interesting news article, or any other way you'd like to contribute to the region, telegram a Minister to make your suggestion!

Other:

• We have created a list of leftist resources! This is an ongoing project, and if you think there is something missing from this list, please telegram or DM me. I am Pan Kath here and kole#2926 on Discord.