Fifth Column

Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007)

[…] weak, demoralised and out of control – MI5 was clearly not regarded as much better. All this was positioned in the context of a history of simplistic propaganda that London had become a haven for Islamic extremists – the trite nonsense exemplified by Melanie Phillips’ too easy adoption of the French propaganda term ‘Londonistan’. […]

Notes from the underground part 3: British fascism 1983-6

Lobster Issue 25 (1993)

[…] that man must again learn to live in harmony with the forces of nature instead of waging constant war against them.’ (28) The practical (as opposed to propaganda) consequences were few, however. In 1985 one Michael Fishwick (later editor of NF News) was expelled from the Hunt Saboteurs Association. Enquiries made of the HSA […]

Who’s afraid of the KGB

Lobster Issue 6 (1984)

[…] pseudo-social science – ‘a longitudinal study’ etc, complete with graphs and diagrams – the authors repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot (feet?) by citing examples of Soviet propaganda ‘falsehoods’ which are, to anyone outside the ranks of the fruit-cake right-wing, manifestly true. For example, in the study of Soviet propaganda themes 1976-1979, they tell […]

The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations

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Lobster Issue 44 (Winter 2002/3)

[…] Calvin Coolidge. Before long, Bernays was helping Israel to lobby the US military and recasting India as a worthy recipient of $1bn-worth of aid. He became the propaganda mastermind in overthrowing Guatemala’s elected government on behalf of the United Fruit Company (who were worried that the country’s socialist regime would harm profits). Mind you, […]

Philanthropic imperialism

Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007)

[…] is easily dismissed in the NED’s closed world. The ‘report’ is a seemingly interminable expression of faux surprise at other regimes’ xenophobic resentment towards foreign spies, black propaganda, heavily funded ‘protest groups’ and media, consultants and agent provocateurs fomenting civil unrest with the overthrow of the state as their aim. The Lugar Report’s sources […]

America and the British Labour Party: The Special Relationship At Work

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Lobster Issue 35 (Summer 1998)

[…] it worth explaining how this came about and how it has been sustained. There is, therefore, no reference to US labour attachés (Joe Godson et al), Atlanticist propaganda, (the Labour Committee on Transatlantic Understanding, British Atlantic Committee, BAP et al); no reference to State Department or Labor Department-sponsored visits; no reference to the RIIA, […]

PSYOPS in the 1980s

Lobster Issue 17 (1988)

[…] (according to the blurb) how and why peace with freedom is threatened the real meaning of perestroika, glasnost, and the ‘new thinking’ in terms of the Soviet propaganda machine the role of the mainstream peace movements and the Churches in Canada the crucial role of deterrence in maintaining peace with freedom the one-sided and […]

The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue 44 (Winter 2002/3)

[…] with stories about about Saddam Hussein, Iraq, its weapons and its weapons potential. Some of these might have been true but there is so much disinformation and propaganda being generated by the US and UK intelligence services there is no way of telling with most of it. Three spectacular examples of fakery are worth […]

Outlaws of America: The Weather Undergound and the Politics of Solidarity

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Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7)

[…] American state and media. Here is one of the oddities of the group: they went from demos to bombs, almost missing out on the reading, writing and propaganda stage of the ‘normal’ left group’s development. Their major publications appeared while some of them they were on the FBI’s ‘most wanted’ list. Outlaws indeed. This […]

The covert origins of the Biafran War

Lobster Issue 25 (1993)

[…] to play a significant part in colonial life. Smith portrays MI5 working with the Colonial Office, bugging, tapping, intercepting mail — as well as producing inept anti-communist propaganda. Then as independence loomed, the Colonial Office/MI5 team were replaced by the Foreign Office/MI6 people. Smith’s encounter with colonial corruption climaxes with his discovery that among […]

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