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Richard Fidler - Historical analogies can indeed be useful in assessing the issues posed in contemporary events, provided of course that careful attention is paid to the particular circumstances and to what degree the differing situations and protagonists are comparable.
Ernest Mandel - If we look at the problem of World War II from a more dialectical, more correct Leninist point of view, we have to say that it was in reality a combination of five different wars.
War-torn France 1943, occupied by the German army and administered by the Vichy regime: the tide had begun to turn against the Nazis, but they still ruled most of Europe. The extermination of Jewish people proceeded relentlessly. Within France, the resistance was dominated by Gaullists and the Communist Party (PCF). Both expressed virulent nationalism, summed up by the slogan: “à chacun son boche” (let everyone kill a Hun).
In response to the refugee crisis created by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Poland opened its borders, just a few months after violently deporting refugees from Africa and the Middle East. Bruno Magalhães looks at why, and examines the country's history of reaction and revolt.
We distrust NATO because we know the big capitalist powers will always give their own interests priority over the rights of less powerful nations. The NATO powers want to push back Putin, but only to restore stable investment and trade conditions, and stall new disruptions. They pushed Ukraine into signing a pro-Putin deal in 2015 (the now-defunct Minsk 2: see centre pages) and they would do the same again. The US wanted to bring some (compliant) form of democracy to Iraq by their sanctions and then war there, but the outcome was chaos and deaths.