On the Barricades

As the war continues in Ukraine, more and more people, intellectuals, journalists, and artists are drawn into the pro-war narrative. The slightest deviation from the official line is deemed to be “pro-Putinist Russian propaganda.” There is no place for debate, for analysis. In this edition of the Thumbs Down Thumbs Up of our show Boyan Stanislavski, Maria Cernat and Youri Smouter discussed the vil...

As the war continues in Ukraine, more and more people, intellectuals, journalists, and artists are drawn into the pro-war narrative. The slightest deviation from the official line is deemed to be “pro-Putinist Russian propaganda”. There is no place for debate, for analysis. In this edition of the Thumbs Down Thumbs Up” of our show Boyan Stanislavski, Maria Cernat and Youri Smouter discussed the vi...

Another contribution from our editor, Boyan Stanislavski, who is currently in Sofia, Bulgaria. He is making some spontaneous observations and comments on Russia's rather obvious weakness in communicating their objectives in Ukraine, as well as the advances of their army and the mistakes they have made. The Russian narrative is rigid and delivered in an irritating manner, which is a huge mistake on...

A rational politician would want to protect their country from war and other heinous events. But not the current Polish government! Not the Catholic fundamentalist ideologues who seized control of Polish society in 2015 and have remained in power ever since. Those individuals appear to be attempting to escalate the crisis in such a way that the war in neighboring Ukraine spills over into Poland in...

It's a bit odd to see leftist analysts, journalists, and commentators publicly debating whether Joe Biden's strange utterances in Poland last weekend were scripted, off-the-cuff nonsense that this man frequently produces, or some other unintentional occurrence. Why not make some important points based on what he said, whether it was scripted or not? What does it matter? Also, it's surprising to se...

This is an experimental episode in which we try to introduce spontaneous solo comments, delivered in this case by Boyan Stanislavski, one of the show's co-hosts. Boyan, who lives in Poland, decided to make a short video summarizing Joe Biden's recent visit to the country. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebarric...

No war can be fought today without powerful narratives based on persuasive discourses. The war in Ukraine is no exception to this rule. In an era when we have the most formidable tools of communication, there is so little information! While analyzing the public discourses, so little attention is paid to the logical structure of the arguments put forward by our elites that one comes to wonder why a...

No war can be fought today without powerful narratives based on persuasive discourses. The war in Ukraine is no exception to this rule. In an era when we have the most formidable tools of communication, there is so little information! While analyzing the public discourses, so little attention is paid to the logical structure of the arguments put forward by our elites that one comes to wonder why a...

The diplomatic front of the war is discussed in the second part of the discussion with ex-US military man and scholar Mark Sleboda on the war in Ukraine. Some commentators argue that the Russians are implementing a strategy that Western politicians and even military personnel do not fully comprehend. Russians, for example, are mocked for suffering far more casualties than the US Army did in Iraq d...

"If wars were won by spreading memes, the Russians would have lost many times over," says the special guest on this episode of On the Barricades , Mark Sleboda. He is a former US Navy specialist, a military expert, and an academic who attended the London School of Economics before becoming a senior lecturer at Moscow State University. He is still in Moscow, and he provides a very serious, sober, a...

The second part of this conversation with Pat Byrne, a political analyst, author, and historian of the European left, is about the leftist media and their coverage of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Since Russia's invasion on February 24th, only a few leftist outlets with large audiences have been able to defend themselves against an unprecedented avalanche of Western propaganda, which is clearly...

Of course, this edition of the program is dedicated to the war in Ukraine, as have nearly all of our programs over the last three weeks. And this time, we'll focus on the media war, also known as the information war or, to put it bluntly, propaganda. We'll look at how Russia and Ukraine have used propaganda, as well as how the international media has reacted to it or has been complicit in it. Pat...

When we first tried to record this interview, the Kyiv-based sociologist and activist Oksana Dutchak had to quickly exit her home because of an air raid alarm. The ongoing war in her country had a dramatic effect on her life since she was forced to flee Kyiv with her family and move to the Western part of the country. Despite these dire circumstances, Oksana Dutchak sat down with Maria Cernat and...

This is the third installment of our interview with Stanislav Byshok, a Russian political scientist and Ukrainian affairs expert. Stanislav provides an interesting critical perspective from Russia, and the hosts of On the Barricades discuss with him the web of unintended consequences that emerged a few days after Moscow launched the invasion. We're talking about difficult, unexpected, and dangerou...

This is the second part of our interview with Russian political scientist Stanislav Byshok, who decided to sit down with the hosts of On the Barricades and discuss the crisis and how the Russian public perceives the situation overall, despite recent harsh measures against critical voices imposed by the authorities. In the previous segment, we discussed how, in general, the initial reactions to the...

This is part one of our conversation with Stanislav Byshok. The Barricade brings you a reasonable, balanced, and critical voice from Russia; the hosts of On the Barricades invited Stanislav Byshok, a Russian political scientist and a frequent commentator on some Russian media outlets, as well as an expert in international relations of the NGO Public Diplomacy and author of numerous books, reports,...

Mihnea Teodor Popescu is one of the most vocal members of a Romanian initiative seeking to oppose war and fight imperialism by denouncing both Russia and NATO. This initiative was formed by a group of undergraduate and graduate collegians–the Union of Militant Students–and it advances progressive ideas and values such as anti-imperialism and social justice. The members of this organization recentl...

Social media and the constant commercialization imperatives of journalistic discourse have made the public receptive to very simplistic narratives. The war is no exception. The media narrative pushed in the public arena is that of the ‘real’ man — advancing his agenda (Vladimir Putin) or bravely defending his country (Zelensky). As the violent invasion of Ukraine continues, the Romanian public sph...

This is the final segment of our current special coverage of the Ukrainian war, in which the co-host of On the Barricades spoke with Pat Byrne, a political analyst, socialist activist, and historian of the European left, on March 1. Ways forward for Ukraine are discussed in this installment. Pat and Boyan begin by asking why the conflict's resolution and next steps aren't even being discussed. Som...

In the previous segment, Boyan Stanislavski, the host of On the Barricades , and his guest Pat Byrne, a political analyst, socialist activist, and historian of the European left, discussed the goals that Putin may be pursuing by ordering the invasion of Ukraine. In this segment, Boyan and Pat discuss Russia's internal political process and the role that the current war may play in this regard. Wil...

As we have stated numerous times in previous segments, there is no doubt that any war of aggression should be condemned. All such wars are bad, and it takes a psychopath to 'like' them. Moral statements and virtue signaling, on the other hand, are insufficient. Not least in Eastern Europe, which has once again become a theater of war. We must ask questions such as what caused this war (as we did i...

In this third installment of our six-part discussion with Pat Byrne, a political analyst, socialist activist, and historian of the European left, we continue to examine the processes that led up to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as well as internal contradictions that existed in that country and the ways western imperialism attempted to exploit them in the past. We mention the 2004 colored revol...

This is the second of six parts in which Boyan Stanislavski, one of the hosts of On the Barricades , sat down with Pat Byrne, a political analyst, longtime socialist activist, and historian of the European left, to discuss the war in Ukraine and the international situation in general. Pat and Boyan provide the historical context, beginning with the dissolution of the USSR, and explain the processe...

The Russian military invaded Ukraine in the early hours of February 24, 2022. It has shocked and awed people all over the world, but especially in Ukraine, Russia, and Eastern Europe. Regardless of where one stands on the Russian president, what one thinks of the Ukrainian government, whether one considers themselves to be leftist or rightist, or any other nuances, we should all stand united in ou...

As the world enters the sixth day of the Ukraine war, the hosts of On the barricades sit down to discuss the reactions in the mainstream media as well as the public, particularly the commentariat on (anti)social media. As if the war wasn't already atrocious enough, the West is calling for more of it! There is widespread support for an all-out war with the Russian Federation. Any possibility of eve...