Big Leon Blum energy

Allow me to explain: this dork was the leader of the SFIO, which was ostensibly opposed to colonialism.

Blum sought a course of appeasement with Britain and was weak-willed about it, providing precious little support to the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War (France sharing a large border with Spain, of course).

You want to talk about who betrayed the revolution in Spain?

It’s the country which was one of the wealthiest, most developed, and with a sizeable army that was headed by a so-called socialist.

He stood by and did fuck all while Stalin sent what he was able to but as a member the coalition of the milquetoast due to circumstance (made up of Britain, France, and the USSR), the USSR alone was not capable of pushing an agenda as Britain was obstructing all efforts to prevent Italy and Germany from resupplying Franco’s forces.

If Blum had pushed back, Britain might have been dragged along by virtue of being outnumbered.

There was even an account of an Italian chargé d’affaires who literally admitted to Italian troops being deployed in Spain, in violation of the Non-Intervention Pact, to Blum’s face knowing that he wouldn’t do anything about it.

Instead of pushing Britain to enforce the terms of the pact, Britain simply held Gibraltar (making it impossible for Republican forces to blockade Franco’s navy travelling to and from Morocco) and allegedly provided Intel to Franco on movements of the Spanish and Soviet forces. They also watched idly by as Franco’s forces were transporting Moroccan regulares to the frontlines, which arguably turned the tide of war and ultimately achieving a victory for Franco.

The Spanish Republic, having a fraught relationship with Moroccan regulares due to prior military actions and due to the course of the civil war, was sued for independence by the Moroccan people, on favourable terms for the Spanish government but the Republic chose to rebuff these overtures as they clung to their colonial aspirations for Africa and because they didn’t want to upset the French government, headed by Leon Blum, by kicking off a national independence movement in North Africa thus threatening the French colonial holdings in Morocco and potentially beyond.

This would ultimately determine the course of the Spanish Civil War as the Republic not only had the opportunity to cut off a steady supply of troops to Franco’s forces but also they foreclosed upon the opportunity to be supported by Moroccan troops and potentially to have Franco’s forces split between two fronts - one in Spain and one in a newly-independent/partially independent Morocco.

All to appease the anti-colonialist Leon Blum who didn’t want to let go of the French colony in Morocco, and potentially in other parts of Africa, by kicking off a movement of decolonisation. I believe (don’t quote me on this) that Blum advised the Republican government to reject the proposal for (Spanish) Moroccan independence.

Wonderful!

I really do have a lot of loathing for people who identify themselves as leftists for this exact reason – it’s the same playbook, it’s the same crowd, it’s the same “socialists” who put on airs of being anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism but when you get down to brass tacks, they really only oppose the idea of these things as a matter of political expediency and they don’t give a fuck about putting in effort to oppose this stuff when it comes to what their own shithole countries are inflicting on the world.

Trying to get that NED money. 🤑

Leftists against Cheese expansionism

organizes a dinner

smh

I wonder how much of this meeting will be some guy from Hong Kong (born after 1997) waxing poetic about how wonderful it would be to be brutalized by British colonial cops (not colonialism) instead of being under the colonial yoke of checks notes the Chinese government living with the unbearable tyranny of not being allowed to kill your wife (colonialism)