squid_slime

With lemm.ee closing doors, i have done some house keeping and will be closing this community.

I ordered a Rodina automatic and I can't wait 😍😍😍 hoping it will arrive tomorrow.

I have a working Sekonda and a fualty but both I have been practising watchmaking on and this Rodina has been serviced so I won't need to mess with it and hopefully won't have that incessant itch to take it apart.

Soviet watch appreciation thread.

Bought an early production 2209 movement, the movement itself has a 20nm gold plate and was at the time known as an ultra slim movement measuring just under 3ml and competed directly with Swiss watch makers.

As a side note, I have not seen this dial variant and have to say, its aged beautifully with a deep purple patina pushing through the midnight blue and the added sunbeam effect gives it a stunning oil slick visual.

The Great British National Strike, taking place this weekend, is set to see more than 500,000 people across the country walking out in protest of the state of the UK.”

That’s how right-wing TV channel GB News previewed Saturday’s outbreak of al fresco grumbles, few of them more than a couple of dozen strong.

It makes you wonder if GBeebies has any more idea what ‘walking out’ means than the damp squib’s organisers have of what constitutes a ‘strike’.

I’ve recently started cutting out ultra-processed foods after reading Ultra-Processed People, and today I really felt the difference while shopping.

At Waitrose (a UK supermarket, and not exactly a cheap one), I went looking for hummus. I checked the back of four different brands—every single one had rapeseed oil, stabilizers, or other additives. One even branded itself Extra Virgin Olive Oil Hummus… yet still listed rapeseed oil in the ingredients.

So I figured I’d make my own. I went to grab chickpeas, and even Waitrose’s own canned chickpeas had stabilizers. I finally found another brand—twice the price—that only had chickpeas and water.

Out of curiosity, I checked other products. I’ve been a bit obsessed with ice cream lately, since the book talks about it in detail. Not one of the five or so brands I looked at had just natural ingredients. Even the “cleanest” options had a long list of things I wouldn’t use at home.

After reading Ultra-Processed People, I felt compelled to create a space where we can collectively scream into the void—and maybe also do something more constructive.

This community is for anyone concerned about the rise of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and their impact on our health. From cancer and diabetes to obesity and even mental health, the science is becoming hard to ignore.

I hope this space helps build awareness, solidarity, and support as we navigate the modern diet and try to reclaim real food.

Join us:

Ultra Processed Food

[email protected]

These so-called "strikes" lack the backing of organised workers, socialist parties, and real trade unions. They’ve hijacked our language while pushing an agenda that doesn’t represent the working class.

We won’t let them march unchallenged into our cities, masquerading as the voice of labour. It’s time to show them what real workers' power looks like.

• Raise this in your union meetings, trades councils, and leftist orgs.
• Organise against these right-wing LARPers.

WE DEMAND:

• Fair pay for all workers
• Decent housing for the many, not profit for the few
• Fully funded public services
• Fight the bosses—not migrants!

Locations

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to expand its military offensive against Gaza, with some officials suggesting it plans to capture and occupy the whole of the strip.

The Israeli military has called up tens of thousands of reservists in preparation, claiming it is “increasing the pressure” on Hamas to hasten the return of Israeli hostages. But the father of one of the hostages has even called on soldiers “not to report for reserve duty for moral and ethical reasons”, while a hostage campaign group has accused the government of “sacrificing” them.

The immediate effect will also extremely worsen the already dire situation for Palestinians in Gaza as the plans are set to forcibly displace people by centralising aid. Even before this new offensive, the World Food Programme says it has already run out of food and the Red Cross has said the humanitarian response in Gaza was on the verge of “total collapse”. Israel even likely attacked a peace flotilla near Malta with drones which was attempting to deliver aid.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Peter Taaffe, who after a long illness died on 23 April 2025. The loss of Peter is a big blow to the working class movement and Trotskyism internationally. Since becoming active in the revolutionary movement in 1960, Peter made an indispensable contribution, both theoretically and practically in the hard graft necessary to build a revolutionary party and international. Peter was a leading member of the International Secretariat of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), Political Secretary of the Socialist Party in England & Wales, and for many years its General Secretary.

Characteristically, Peter fought a determined battle against numerous illnesses in recent years which allowed him to enjoy his final years a little longer. On behalf of the CWI throughout the world and the Socialist Party in England & Wales, we send our heartfelt condolences to Peter’s wife Linda, daughters Nancy and Katie, his grandchildren and great-grandson, and all his family and friends.

Coming from Birkenhead, and an extremely poor working class background, Peter found his way to Marxism and revolutionary politics. Never going to university, working for Liverpool City Council for a time, he educated himself through the revolutionary movement and experience. Well versed in literature as well as Marxism, he was not what is often perceived in some circles as a stereotypical theoretician coming from a petty bourgeois background. As a result, Peter was an inspiration, especially to those not from an academic or petty bourgeois background themselves – he demonstrated what those from a working class background can be capable of theoretically and culturally. One of Peter’s strengths was that he never lost touch with the working class and oppressed as a workers’ leader. He continued to feel the pain and suffering they experienced. One of the greatest public orators of his generation, with a distinctive Merseyside accent and speaking style, Peter was able to immediately connect with audiences small and large. Peter summed up the horrors of capitalism and the struggles of the working class, explaining Marxist ideas in an accessible manner.

Open link to continue reading.

James Carville, the political advisor who coined the phrase ‘it’s the economy stupid’ as a campaigning slogan for Democrat Bill Clinton to win the 1992 presidential election, was once asked what he’d like to be reincarnated as. “The bond market,” he replied, “it can intimidate anyone.” 9 April 2025 will be remembered as the day that proved that ‘anyone’ includes current US President Donald Trump.

Traditionally, when stock markets are falling, government debt or bond markets go up, as investors search for safe havens. This is particularly true of US government debt given the US’s dominance of the world financial system. In the first days after ‘Liberation Day’ that was what happened, but then the US bond markets suffered the steepest fall in four decades. Even more alarming, the price of gold – traditionally the safest haven of all – also started to fall. This was an indication that the whole global financial system was in danger of freezing up. Investors were selling whatever they could. A new global financial crisis was on the cards – probably on an even bigger scale than the one that triggered the Great Recession of 2008-09.

The article continues and gives a marxist analysis of economic and geo political power.

Written by: Hannah Sell, Socialist Party general secretary