Mick Hartley

Well now. From the Times (£) – Far left falls for slick anti-UK videos:

The documentaries paint Britain on the brink of collapse, crippled by austerity, NHS cuts and racial division.

Viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube, the slick films, fronted by British presenters, appear to be the work of grassroots campaigners seeking to raise awareness of social ills. They feature interviews with trade union leaders, Labour politicians and prominent left-wing activists.

What viewers may not realise is that the documentaries are the work of an enigmatic new media organisation funded by the Russian state.

The organisation, Redfish, is based in Berlin and specialises in creating youth-friendly films highlighting political and social instability in western European democracies.

Last year The Times reported that Redfish, a subsidiary of RT, the television network controlled by the Kremlin, was behind a YouTube series blaming the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 on government failings.

Since then it has expanded its UK output, making films entitled Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Great NHS Sell-Off, which has been viewed 230,000 times, Children of Austerity: Poverty in 21st Century Britain and Right Britannia, Race Hate in the UK.

The goal is to strengthen Moscow’s power by spreading discontent in Britain and portraying the West as a basket case, experts in disinformation say.

“A nationalistic rage has swept over Britain and Islamophobia is rampant,” is the introduction to one video. In another the presenter says: “We are living in an increasingly divided and unequal society.”

Despite the revelation of Redfish’s ties to the Russian state the company has not struggled to attract contributors from the left of British politics. Kiri Tunks, president of the NUT section of the National Education Union, spoke about child poverty and school cuts. “How is it that such a rich country cannot afford to feed its children?” she asks.

Steve Hedley, senior assistant general secretary of the RMT union, co-operated with a Redfish film about the rise of the far right, blaming politicians for helping to create the problem. “For the last 30 years in Britain there’s been no mainstream party representing the interests of the working class,” he says.

Gohar Almass, a Labour councillor from Leeds, says that deprivation is the “mother of all evils” in fostering racial divisions.

The author and Guardian columnist Owen Jones is also briefly interviewed at an anti-fascist march. Other films feature doctors, nurses and healthcare academics.

It is clear that many people who were interviewed did not know of Redfish’s background when they agreed to contribute. “Neither the NUT nor the NUT president was aware of any connection or funding from the Russian state,” the union said. “The issue of poverty in the UK, however, remains an important matter that needs to be addressed by government.”

Jones said he had no idea of the film crew’s connections and that he had a policy of not appearing on RT.

This is not news, mind. A Daily Beast report from last February exposed the true nature of Redfish after their Grenfell Tower programme – a point picked up by the Times a few days later. So claims by participants that they were unaware of Russian involvement suggests a certain naivete at best. Perhaps, as long as it fits their ideological convictions, they don't really care.