...And a little bit of humility

As, probably, the main culprit that "Wonderslore" had in mind when complaining about this blog devoting itself to attacking "other" left groups ("other" than the AWL? But I'm the only AWL'er on the team), I'd just like to say that though I enjoy a good factional ding-dong as much as the next comrade, I am aware that we need to keep a sense of proportion. None of us cyber space -cadet polemicists here in the West are putting our lives on the line like - say - Anna Politkovskaya, whose last (unfinished) article about murder and torture in Russian-controlled Chechnya can be read here.

She exposed and denounced both the brutality of the Russian federal forces, and the increasing brutality of the Chechnyan rebels. She continued her work even after she had been locked in a hole in the ground by Russian troops and threatened with rape, kidnapped, and poisoned by the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service). According to the Guardian's obituary (October 9 2006): "Her husband left her. Her son pleaded with her to stop. Her neighbours, cowed by the attentions of the FSB in an upmarket street in central Moscow, shunned her".

And now she's dead, shot very professionally, in the lift of her apartment block in Moscow.

It makes us posturing bloggers look pretty small-time, doesn't it?