The Battleground

Sonic Warfare Anti-Corruption Protest in Serbia

thebattleground.eu/2025/04/09/s...

"While Serbian protestors are not marching or holding vigils for anyone other than themselves, their example should inspire people around the world who are trying to figure out how to mount resistance to authoritarian regimes in our high-tech era."

@cbertsch.bsky.social

“We're on autopilot. We're all very close personally as well as professionally...I literally just have to check in with the team every week and see what they are planning on doing.”
#TheBattleground
@jschalit.bsky.social
Check out the full video on YouTube 👉 www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSa8...

Cult of Personality The Nigel Farage Party

"Lowe built his reputation hyping Muslim rape gangs and promoting the mass deportation of migrants."

In this episode of Left To Burn, @jtwhitenoise.bsky.social dissects the split. The crisis could determine the future of the UK right.

thebattleground.eu/podcast/cult...

Marine's Bad Day The Le Pen Conviction Frenzy

"Too few analyses affirm that Le Pen had to bow to the law, which she clearly and massively broke, whereas Donald Trump did not. Progressives need to do more to promote and legitimise the rule of law."
thebattleground.eu/2025/04/04/m...

A Populist for Progressives Jesse Welles Finds New Life in Folk Songs

"Although the past may inspire us in our struggle to move forward, as the example of Bob Dylan clearly does for Jesse Welles, making real progress requires that we stop believing in the magic of repetition."
@cbertsch.bsky.social
thebattleground.eu/2025/04/02/a...

“I eventually developed an aesthetic out of that for my own work which is the guiding aesthetic for the photos that we publish”
#Photography #StreetPolitics #TheBattleground
Watch the full video here 📸 www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSa8...
@jschalit.bsky.social

Warfare Not Welfare Starmer’s War on the Poor

"Labour is set to unleash a new level of hellish welfare cuts. And the most vulnerable people in the country are up against it."

"This system degrades more than it raises anyone up, but Labour wants to make it even worse."
@jtwhitenoise.bsky.social
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/31/w...

Daddy's Back Liberalism Without Liberals

thebattleground.eu/2025/03/28/d...

"It’s hard to know which is more alarming: the explicit assumption that the collective father figure is always going to be pale, male, and stale, or the fixation on corporal abuse of children by the people who profess to be the defenders par excellence of children and childhood."

The Russian Shadow Trump and the Far Right

"Anti-imperialism used to be a good political name. If it has not become yet another victim of the post-truth era, the truth of post-democracy seems likely to follow."
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/21/t...

When Governance Falters A Greek Tragedy: One Day, a Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis, by Jeanne Carstensen

It’s about solidarity. The message of Jeanne Carstensen’s Greek Tragedy is that when governance falters, rescue will depend on holding on to what we have in common. Gary Isaac Wolf, on the best new book about the refugee crisis.

thebattleground.eu/2025/03/20/w...

Silencing the Opposition Giorgia Meloni vs. Placebo

The more people speak out, the more likely they’ll become targets. Charlie Bertsch, on Giorgia Meloni’s lawsuit against Placebo’s Brian Molko, and mounting pressures on freedom of speech in Italy.
@cbertsch.bsky.social
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/19/s...

American Democracy is Dead The History of a Crisis

The post-liberal era that Trump has ushered in isn’t simply the final deterioration of democratic government. According to Ari Paul, it’s a rejection of the democratic ideal as a whole.

thebattleground.eu/2025/03/18/a...

Borrowing Against War Debt Brake Militarisation

Germany’s decision to dispense with its debt brake is a sobering reminder of the costs that militarisation brings and, according to Josh Foster, why its political effects must be reigned in.

thebattleground.eu/2025/03/14/b...

Father Knows Best The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof

"Like Jack Torrance, Iman is a man possessed. And like Jack Torrance, his possession eventually turns him against his family."

"It’s a deeply upsetting tale, with disturbing implications for a world in which freedom is under attack around the world."
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/12/f...

Postcolonial Heavy Lifting The Massive Attack Legacy

Massive Attack didn’t just change music — they exposed Britain’s blind spots. "Listening to Massive Attack today is a great way to remember that translational labour." Maybe if we’d been paying attention, we wouldn’t be where we are now.
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/19/p...

Learning From the Black Panthers The Black Power Mixtape, Directed by Göran Hugo Olsson

Angela Davis in The Black Power Mixtape on violence: “That was a different time,” but was it? Her words remind us that the state has always crushed resistance, from Black Panthers to today’s Gaza protests.
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/12/l...

In Fascism’s Shadow The Trump Effect

“America is in a fraught condition.” John Foster argues that Trumpism is a form of fascism, but not in the traditional sense. Unlike Mussolini and Hitler, Trump’s crisis is manufactured. But can we afford to downplay the rise of such fear-based politics?
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/21/i...

Perfection Means Death The Return of Eugenics

Nazism should have killed eugenics. Instead, it’s quietly returning - this time named natalism. Behind talk of saving civilisation is the same obsession with controlling who gets to be born. The far right is back in the business of "fixing" humanity. #FarRight
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/07/p...

News for British Muslims 5Pillars and the Far Right

5Pillars claims to represent British Muslims, but when you platform far-right extremists like Griffin and Collett, the lines blur. Is this a defence of free speech or something darker? #5Pillars #FarRight #FreeSpeech
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/24/n...

Starmer's War The Ukraine Gamble

The US may be a declining hegemon, but the old days of Great Power politics are back. Josh White, on Keir Starmer’s attempt to lead on Ukraine, and remilitarise the UK.
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/10/s...

Drugs Will Tear Us Apart 24 Hour Party People, Directed by Michael Winterbottom

"Print the legend." Tony Wilson's words in 24 Hour Party People make us question: how far should we trust the stories we hear, especially when they’re told so well? Do we crave the myth more than the truth? #24HourPartyPeople #Film #ManchesterScene #FactVsFiction
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/26/d...

Protest in Code Natalie Beridze’s Street Life

At a time when surveillance has never been more exhaustive, producing records like Natalie Berdizes’ Street Life may turn out to be the best way of doing politics. Charlie Bertsch, on the art of disguising protestors, not protests.

@cbertsch.bsky.social

thebattleground.eu/2025/02/05/p...

New Politics Needed Germany After the Election

Technocracy has failed. Without something new, the parties that pursued it will soon follow. John Foster on the German election, and why the new government will usher in the far right.
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/28/n...

The Italian Job Rush Limbaugh on Antonio Gramsci

The far right wants to destroy every institution “infected” by the left. Charlie Bertsch, on Antonio Gramsci, and his influence on the Reactionary International.

@cbertsch.bsky.social

thebattleground.eu/2025/03/05/t...

On the Border Aperture Priorities Contact Sheet #27

Europe borders the Middle East, and its politics reflect that. Joel Schalit, on projecting the Arab-Israeli conflict abroad, and why journalists get it wrong.

@jschalit.bsky.social

thebattleground.eu/2025/03/03/o...

Drugs Will Tear Us Apart 24 Hour Party People, Directed by Michael Winterbottom

"Wonderfully rendered by Steve Coogan, Wilson is a confidence man who persuades himself as well as the people he is trying to con."

"It’s his voiceover narration that makes 24 Hour Party People special."

@cbertsch.bsky.social

thebattleground.eu/2025/02/26/d...

"Michael Winterbottom’s film does such a great job of illustrating the power of storytelling that mixes fact with fiction and staged scenes with documentary footage that it demands to be seen again now."

News for British Muslims 5Pillars and the Far Right

"Even the interviews with the far-right were Hussain’s attempt to de-mystify the men and women who demonised his community. Perhaps this endeavour revealed more about those individuals than 5Pillars."

@jtwhitenoise.bsky.social

thebattleground.eu/2025/02/24/n...