Latest news with #NaziParty
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Peru arrests extortion gang that used Nazi symbols to sow terror
Police in Peru have captured a group of extortionists that used Nazi insignia to intimidate their victims, authorities said Tuesday. The five suspects from Colombia and Venezuela were arrested in raids on two homes, one in the capital Lima and another in the neighboring city of Huaral. In addition to weapons and explosives, police discovered around 100 stickers depicting an eagle with a swastika, an emblem of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler. Investigators found an oil painting of late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar with a wad of dollars sticking out of his shirt pocket. Police chief Juan Mundaca said the authorities were investigating whether the stickers were the same as those that appeared on the homes and cars of extortion victims. Prosecutor Jose Silva said the gang had threatened business owners in the Huaral area, as well as a judge. Peru is battling a steep surge in gang violence, characterized by a wave of killings linked to extortion rackets. Criminal gangs such as Venezuela's Tren de Aragua, which operates across Latin America, are accused of holding entire communities to ransom and of gunning down people who refuse to pay protection money. This is not the first time that criminal gangs in the Andean nation have been caught using Nazi symbols. In May 2023, police seized 58 kilograms of cocaine bricks destined for Belgium which were wrapped in a Nazi flag and stamped with Hitler's name. cm/ljc/cb
France 24
4 days ago
- France 24
Peru arrests extortion gang that used Nazi symbols to sow terror
Peruvian police on Tuesday captured a gang of Venezuelan and Colombian extortionists accused of using Nazi symbols to intimidate their victims The five suspects from Colombia and Venezuela were arrested in raids on two homes, one in the capital Lima and another in the neighboring city of Huaral. In addition to weapons and explosives, police discovered around 100 stickers depicting an eagle with a swastika, an emblem of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler. Investigators found an oil painting of late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar with a wad of dollars sticking out of his shirt pocket. Police chief Juan Mundaca said the authorities were investigating whether the stickers were the same as those that appeared on the homes and cars of extortion victims. Prosecutor Jose Silva said the gang had threatened business owners in the Huaral area, as well as a judge. Peru is battling a steep surge in gang violence, characterized by a wave of killings linked to extortion rackets. Criminal gangs such as Venezuela's Tren de Aragua, which operates across Latin America, are accused of holding entire communities to ransom and of gunning down people who refuse to pay protection money. This is not the first time that criminal gangs in the Andean nation have been caught using Nazi symbols. In May 2023, police seized 58 kilograms of cocaine bricks destined for Belgium which were wrapped in a Nazi flag and stamped with Hitler's name. © 2025 AFP
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Natural Law Does Not Lead to the Unbound Executive
In 2016, I was studying the rise of the National Socialist movement. My project was to investigate the philosophical origins of the National Socialist German Worker's Party—that is, the Nazi Party. That story is a complicated one, since National Socialism was not a cohesive philosophical movement in itself. It was constituted by a variety of different threads: the master morality of Friedrich Nietzsche, the philosophy of Otto Weininger, Darwinian population medicine, and a number of other influences. It was during this work that I encountered the work of Nazi jurist and political philosopher Carl Schmitt, famous for his legal justification of Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Back in 2016, Schmitt's work was coming again into the public eye, thanks in large part to the influential Harvard Law professor Adrian Vermeule. Schmitt's sharp critiques of liberalism and his theories of law and politics, Vermeule argued, could be separated from his Nazism, and that to ignore these insights on account of Schmitt's politics was mere 'puritanism.' More recently, Vermeule has made waves with his idea of 'common good constitutionalism,' a new theory of legal interpretation arguing the executive branch can read into the law its own determinations about what serves the common good. (This is in contrast to the traditional notion that the courts make final determinations on constitutional questions.) In making this case, Vermeule makes liberal use of classical philosophical terms like 'common good' and 'natural law.' Vermeule's theories, however, should not be taken as representative of the tradition whose language he borrows. Rather, his project is fundamentally Schmittian and should be distinguished from wider theories about natural law and the common good. The significant and serious risks in Vermeule's project are not inherent in either natural law or common good political thought themselves. It would be a shame to throw out a tradition of thought, the tradition of natural law, that has so much to offer our public life because of a certain odorous bathwater. For the past several decades, Adrian Vermeule has been making an extended case for a more powerful executive branch of government. In the wake of the Iraq War, he co-authored The Executive Unbound, which made the case that legal constraints on the executive are really a fiction, and that American legal thinkers have overblown the need for separation of powers and the rule of law. In the modern era, given how quickly technology, markets, and foreign policy dynamics shift and how complex governance is, the legislature and courts are increasingly irrelevant. The executive is, or at least ought to be, 'legally unconstrained,' he wrote. Vermeule draws this line of thinking from Schmitt, a legal academic in early 20th century Germany and the 'crown jurist' of the Nazi Party. Schmitt played an important role in the early days of the Reich as chief legal counsel in party meetings. He wrote legal opinions for the party, drawing on his theories about the executive and the state of emergency, in order to justify Hitler's rise to dictatorial power and the extra-legal murders during the Night of the Long Knives. As the executive, sole power for determination with regard to the state of emergency—when to declare it, what it meant, and how long it would last—rested with the fuhrer. In this historical case, one element of the emergency was the existence of enemies of the party in important public positions. The fuhrer was, therefore, according to Schmitt, well within his proper role in ordering their killing or removal. Just as Vermeule claims that the executive's power rests not on what is granted to him by law but on the support of the people, so Schmitt claimed that Hitler's acts were justified because he had a special 'affinity' with what was popular among the German citizenry. Vermeule and his coauthor, Eric Posner, argue in The Executive Unbound that it is unreasonable to be afraid of tyranny on the part of an executive who is legally unconstrained, because public opinion itself will limit the administration's power (they have to worry about being ousted or about a lack of political will among the people). This, however, is precisely why Schmitt thought Hitler was justified in his policies: namely, because the German people wanted them. In the ensuing years, Vermeule has applied a Schmittian analysis to the administrative state—that is, to federal agencies acting under the executive. In articles like 'Our Schmittian Administrative Law,' and books like Law's Abnegation, he has argued that, inevitably, legislatures leave gray areas and gaps in the law, within which agency officials would have an unlimited breadth of action and judgment. The rise of the administrative state has long been a concern for originalists, who bemoaned the legal doctrine known as Chevron deference (overturned last year by the Supreme Court) which held that courts should defer to agency judgments in matters of the agency's own expertise. Many originalists regarded the legal doctrine as a problematic violation of the separation of powers since it gave unelected members of the executive wide latitude to exercise lawmaking power via regulations, unchecked by the courts or by Congress. Such a vast expansion of executive power opens the door to abuses of power, they maintained. But for Vermeule, this is a feature of the administrative state, rather than a bug. It is precisely with the executive, unfettered by law, that this kind of power should rest. 'As for the structure and distribution of authority within government,' Vermeule writes, 'common-good constitutionalism will favor a powerful presidency ruling over a powerful bureaucracy, the latter acting through principles of administrative law's inner morality with a view to promoting solidarity and subsidiarity. The bureaucracy will be seen not as an enemy, but as the strong hand of legitimate rule.' Finally, in Common Good Constitutionalism, his most recent book, Vermeule argues that it is within the executive's prerogative to read into the text of the law its own judgments on what serves the common good. This prerogative, further, ought not be limited by ideas about the original public meaning of the Constitution or later statutes. Originalists have long argued for their position on the basis that straying from the original public meaning of the text in favor of 'reading into' the text the policy priorities of a given judge effectively untethers judicial and executive action from the law altogether. It provides no principled limit to a judge's ability to disregard the actual meaning of a law in favor of his or her preferred policy objectives. Here again, this kind of wiggle room is what Vermeule likes, and he likes it not just for judges but for administration officials. In Common Good Constitutionalism, as legal scholars William Baude and Stephen Sachs note, Vermeule's motivation for attacking originalism seems to be that it has failed to achieve his preferred policy ends (among these are a stricter public health regime, the curbing of elite liberal wealth, and forming 'better beliefs' among the public). For Vermeule, the limitations of original public meaning are too constraining. Despite the introduction of natural law and common good language in his most recent book (following on Vermeule's recent conversion, in 2016, to Catholicism), that work's project is the same Schmittian one that Vermeule has been on for decades. Additionally, the elements of Schmitt's thinking that Vermeule affirms were not incidental to Schmitt's support for Hitler, but constitutive of it. It was on the basis of the very theories that Vermeule affirms that Schmitt gave to the Nazi party the justifications it needed for dictatorship and political murder. I do not think this is the outcome Vermeule wants. But it is a grave misjudgment to think there's a nugget of gold hiding within the mottled stone of Nazi jurisprudence. Again, Vermuele's latest work has a distinct flavor from his earlier writing, in that it makes liberal use of 'the common good' and 'natural law' and of quotations from Thomas Aquinas. The term 'natural law' refers chiefly to a tradition of ethical, not legal, thought. It is a tradition as broad as it is deep, and includes ancients like Aristotle and the stoics, medievals like Aquinas and Ibn Sina, and moderns like Hugo Grotius and Jean-Jaques Burlamaqui. On the other side of the world, it includes also the epochal philosophers Mengzi and Zhu Xi. These thinkers are united by the idea that ethical truths can be drawn from facts about human nature. Within the natural law legal tradition in America today, Vermeule is decidedly on the outskirts. The leading thinkers in this world are people like Jeff Pojanowski, Kevin Walsh, and Robert P. George, none of whom would agree with Vermeule's particular application of classical or natural law terms and traditions. Where Vermeule sees the meaning of law as open to the unconstrained interpretation of the executive, Pojanowski and Walsh ably argue that the classical tradition has more to say in favor of faithfulness to the original public meaning of duly promulgated law. The differences between these thinkers is enough to show that Vermeule's line of thought should not be taken as representative of the natural law legal theorists at large. The strength of natural law theory is that it holds that ethical and political debates may be grounded in facts about human nature that are accessible to all. This does not mean that the answers to moral and political questions are obvious or easy. It simply means that it is possible for us to argue, disagree, deliberate, and reason together constructively, because we all have access to some degree of common ground upon which to argue. To understand natural law in the American tradition, you might turn to Hugo Grotius, the Dutch natural law legal theorist of the Early Modern era and an influential figure in the legal landscape that shaped America. Working mostly in the early 17th century, Grotius was facing a newly diverse, pluralistic, and interconnected world, one in which the dictates of particular religious traditions would not have universal sway. Was it ever possible to come to any kind of agreement about moral life and the law? Grotius thought so, because essential facts about our human nature, like the fact that we are rational and social animals, are universal, and can ground our deliberation about what constitutes the human good. In his great work, De Jure Belli, Grotius argued that natural law is 'a dictate of right reason' based upon human nature, one which could ground the laws of engagement between diverse nations. We still find ourselves in the same situation: a pluralistic and diverse society. Natural law allows us to govern together based on certain fundamental facts about human nature. We will all bring our own biases and interests to the table, but—unlike the executive branch Vermeule would make all powerful—the legislature is specifically designed for bargaining, reasoning, deliberating, and accommodating in order to achieve stable, moderate, and reformable governance through law. Natural law theory supports the idea that this kind of deliberation is possible, and that politics can be something more than raw expression of preference and power. In a legislative body, members will bring many resources to bear in making judgments about what is and is not good law. For deliberation to be possible, however, there must be some common ground, some public set of reasons accessible to all. Otherwise the parties are at an impasse. Natural law holds that this realm of public reason really is accessible to us through observation of human nature. In the rationality and freedom of the human person, for instance, we might be able to ground arguments about rights; in the sociality and fellow-feeling of human nature, we might be able to ground arguments about duties. This does not mean everyone will come to the same easy conclusions, it just means that there is a common, non-sectarian discourse within which reasons can be exchanged. Natural law holds that there really are objective claims we can make about what is good and bad for the human person. Aristotle, in the Nicomachean Ethics, makes his famous 'function argument' to express how this works. In looking at any natural thing, we determine what is good or bad for it based on its characteristic functions. Thus, we know that it is better for a dog to be able to run and play and be with other dogs than to be legless, caged up, and alone. This is because we can observe the nature of the dog is to run, to play, to be social. So it is with human beings. Our characteristic functions include our health, security, but they also include distinctly human things, like our freedom, sociality, and rationality. Early Americans thought that the law should protect certain liberties, like freedom of speech, worship, and expression, because these were conducive to the characteristic functions of free and rational creatures. But this exchange of reasons, this deliberative practice where, as a group, we try to come to practical arrangements in accordance with human flourishing and the common good, does not satisfy Vermeule. He would like government to instantiate his own conception of the common good without compromise and deliberation. In his picture, the executive will be in the best position to decide difficult questions of politics and morality. But how can we be sure the executive will use this awesome power well? On the one hand, in The Executive Unbound, he says that public opinion will constrain the executive, but in Common Good Constitutionalism, Vermeule claims that the executive will do what's best for the people whether they like it or not. How we guarantee that the executive will be so wise, restraining itself from using its unchecked power tyrannically, remains a mystery. Vermeulism also should not be taken as 'the Catholic position.' Although Vermeule quotes St. Thomas Aquinas—a towering figure in the natural law tradition—in support of his legal theory, whether Vermeule's view represents Aquinas's, let alone the actual teaching of the Catholic Church, is debatable. Pope John Paul II, in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus annus, affirmed that there should be a balance of power between executive, legislative, and judicial, with the law reigning over all. 'This is the principle of the 'rule of law',' John Paul II wrote, 'in which the law is sovereign, and not the arbitrary will of individuals. … Authentic democracy is possible only in a State ruled by law.' What is more, Vermeule bases his thinking on the political theology of Carl Schmitt. But no less an authority than Joseph Ratzinger, who would later become Pope Benedict XVI, wrote in 1970 that it was 'impossible' for a Catholic to adhere, as Vermeule seems to, to Schmitt's 'political theology.' Our constitutional system, inspired by the writing of Aristotle among others, is designed with human weakness in mind. An unbound executive was precisely what it meant to avoid because the Founding Fathers recognized, as Aristotle did, that an executive unconstrained by law is a tyranny, and that those in whom such power was concentrated were likely to be corrupted by power. Aristotle thought that it would be lovely to have a perfectly wise and just monarch, but recognized that, human nature being what it is, a tyrant was much more likely. The solution of our founders was the elaborate system of separation of powers and of checks and balances. And even further, the founders, as expressed in The Federalist and elsewhere, did not believe that their system was self-enforcing or self-constraining. They understood that it could devolve into tyranny in various ways. As John Adams said, our Constitution is only fit for a moral and religious people, and any other would 'go through it like a whale goes through a net.' The founders also believed that, fallen as human nature is, it could still rise to virtue under the right cultural influences and within a well-designed constitutional system. The Constitution is designed for people who have the virtue to adhere to, rather than violate, its limits. As administrative law scholar Adam White argued in his review of Law's Abnegation, the rise of a more imperial presidency is not a historical inevitability, but a consequence of a lack of public virtue. The loss of the rule of law is, in some respects, a matter of choice. Today, perhaps, we face a choice. Do we still believe in the Constitution handed down to us, or do we want to slide toward Schmitt's authoritarian vision? It is a vision that could be embodied on the right or the left theory and that of the founders both made use of the idea of natural law. If we accept Vermeulism, let us at least not say that natural law made us do it.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Amrum' Review: Fatih Akin's German Coming-Of-Age Tale Set During Final Days Of WWII Is ‘Stand By Me' In Shadow Of Fading Nazi Regime
An official selection of the Cannes Film Festival in the Cannes Premieres section, Fatih Akin's poignant coming-of-age tale of a 12-year-old boy on a remote German island in the waning days of World War II and the defeat of his homeland's Nazi Party and Hitler, is a side of the war rarely seen in movies. Although the German competition entry in the main competition, Sound of Falling, has gotten all the attention and the hype for the country at this year's festival (it was just picked up by Mubi today), I would say this modest film is far more impressive and moving and should be taken seriously by the Germans when it comes time for a submission into the Oscar International Film race. Among others, Akin made the terrific arthouse hit In the Fade in 2017 and that is where I really took notice of his filmmaking acumen. However, this one is billed as a Hank Bohm Film Directed By Fatih Akin, a tip of the hat to the veteran director Bohm now in his 80s who had planned to make this film but had to drop out after completing his screenplay. His friend Akin came to the rescue, rewrote the script (they both share credit) and ended up directing. It is based somewhat on Bohm's own experience growing up on the remote North Sea German island Amrum, but is a fictional tale centered on Nanning (newcomer Jasper Billlerbeck), who lives with his pregnant mother Hiller (Laura Tonke), his siblings and aunt (Lisa Hagmeister) in a small house that seems to be the only one still flying the Nazi flag. More from Deadline Cannes Film Festival 2025: Read All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews Richard Linklater's 'Breathless' Homage 'Nouvelle Vague' Being Pursued By Multiple Buyers For Domestic 'Big Rock Burning,' Documentary On Devasting L.A. Wildfires, Being Shopped In Cannes It is nearing the end of World War II and Nazi Germany's quest to rule the world. Hitler is dead but these residents don't really get the actual truth of what happened, and at this point it doesn't matter as much as simply trying to survive with need for bread, food and other necessities. The main industry is growing potatoes and fishing, two things young Nanning helps with at the neighboring farm run by Tessa (Akin regular Diane Kruger in a small role) and with his grandpa Arjan (Lars Jessen) and uncles. We see him learning how to skin a rabbit and lure an unsuspecting seal to his death among other unsavory duties. He runs errands to try and get his mother, a Hitler apologist, bread, butter, sugar and other necessities all the while still wearing his Hitler Youth uniform, but not really engaged in the political aspects. We never see him project hate or toe the Nazi line. It is just something young boys were expected to wear. Actually, Nanning is a good kid, one who is bullied by older kids on Amrum and accused of not being a 'true Amrumer' since he was born elsewhere. His father, captured as a prisoner of war, is not around, and he has to take care of his mother expecting any day, and then later in the film with a new baby boy. She is typical of these Germans who were simply guided by their leader, and became gullible to the party line, and also bitter about the capture of her husband. Here is a teaser trailer: The film's focus is on these people who live far from the action, basically clueless to the Holocaust and other atrocities by Germany during the war that will now cast shame on the country. There are powerful scenes nonetheless such as when Nanning tries to get the local baker (Marek Harloff), a veteran, to give him what little sugar he still has left, but before he does he makes Nanning recite the Nazi Youth pledge, something Nanning only does when the baker refuses to give him the sugar. Another scene has Hillie with her two sons and the new baby begging the butcher (Dirk Bohling) to accept her German cash, but now with the official surrender of Germany, he will only accept American dollars and turns her away. Through it all Akin's cameras are capturning everything through Nanning's eyes, and the director says his influences are more along the lines of De Sica's The Bicycle Thief and Rob Reiner's Stand By Me. The war may have been very ugly, but Amrum is a beautiful place to grow up, seemingly a million miles away as life goes on, the future unsure, its inhabitants searching for some sort of happiness, and Nanning on the cusp of adolescence. Billerbeck has never acted before and won a blind audition, and you can see why he was chosen. This kid is a natural and his performance never hits a false note. Veteran German actress Tonke perfectly portrays the bitterness of the Third Reich defeat as she reluctantly burns Hitler's photo and takes down the flag. She was a stout supporter but it has all gone away. Cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub captures the beauty of a place out of time. There is some similarity to the Oscar-winning The Zone of Interest which also focused on 'everyday' German life, but that one was set with Auschwitz in the background, smoke rising. In Amrum, the horror seems far far away. Considering the far right extremist Nazi party managed to get 12 million votes in the recent German elections, a film like Amrum serves as a reminder that this could happen again. The final shot is of an old man peacefully looking at the beautiful Amrum ocean, perhaps showing the calm before a new storm. Producers of the film distributed by Warner Bros Germany are Akin and Herman Weigel. Title: AmrumFestival: Cannes (Premiere)Director: Fatih AkinScreenwriters: Fatih Akin and Hank BohmCast: Jasper Billerbeck, Laura Tonke, Lise Hagmeister, Kian Koppke, Diane Kruger, Lars Jessen, Deflev Buck, Jan Georg Schutte, Matthias Schweighofer, Tjard Nissen, Dirk Bohling, Marek HarloffSales agent: Beta CinemaRunning time: 1 hr 33 mins Best of Deadline Every 'The Voice' Winner Since Season 1, Including 9 Team Blake Champions Everything We Know About 'Jurassic World: Rebirth' So Far 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
Tatler Asia
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Tatler Asia
5 times Star Wars' ‘Andor' mirrors real-world history in the most visceral way
We're not referencing any particular moment; we're referencing the human condition. It's about the fact that human beings are always the same. The circumstances change, but the behaviour doesn't. - Tony Gilroy, 'Andor' showrunner and screenwriter - Although Gilroy has dismissed speculation that he drew direct parallels to current world events, he has acknowledged that ' Andor is like a catalogue of a couple of thousand years of repetitive cruelty and oppression.' 'If you look at history, every 50 or 100 years, the same things happen. People rise up, people are oppressed, and the cycle continues,' he told Variety , noting that he drew inspiration from various historical events and figures while also referencing films like The Battle of Algiers and This Land is Mine for visual and thematic influence. Don't miss: 10 most expensive Lego Star Wars sets to bring home on Star Wars Day We unpack some of the thematic connections that make the series feel urgent, relevant, and deeply human–demonstrating that even in a galaxy far, far away, everything remains painfully familiar. Authoritarianism and fascism Above 'Star Wars' creator George Lucas has acknowledged how historical events like the rise of the Third Reich shaped the Empire (Photo: WikiCommons) Above Imperial uniforms and Darth Vader's imposing black attire deliberately echo those of the Nazi Schutzstaffel (Photo: Pinterest) Originally conceived during the Richard Nixon administration in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Star Wars creator George Lucas has consistently acknowledged how fascism, authoritarianism, and real-world historical events–particularly the rise of the Third Reich–shaped his vision of the Empire. In fact, this historical grounding was embedded in the franchise's visual DNA from the beginning. Clear examples include the Empire's stormtroopers, whose name derives from Hitler's Sturmabteilung (SA), the original paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party of Germany. Similarly, Imperial uniforms and Darth Vader's imposing black attire deliberately echo those of the Schutzstaffel (SS), the 'political soldiers' of the Nazi Party. Photo 1 of 2 The Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) represents an amalgamation of the Gestapo, the Stasi and KGB (Photo: Lucasfilm) Photo 2 of 2 The ISB monitors populations, and suppress dissent through propaganda and brute force (Photo: Lucasfilm) Above Denise Gough portrays the ambitious ISB agent Dedra Meero (Photo: Instagram / @andorofficial) Above Ben Mendelsohn reprises his 'Rogue One' role as Orson Krennic (Photo: Instagram / @mandoade_77) These parallels, of course, persist in the Andor series, which is set during the height of Imperial control in the canonical timeline. While iconic characters like Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker are notably absent, the series deepens these established connections, providing richer insights into the mechanisms of authoritarian rule through its portrayal of the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB). Read more: From 'The Last of Us' to 'The Fantastic Four': First Steps': Pedro Pascal is dominating the spotlight As the Empire's internal intelligence, surveillance, and secret police apparatus, the ISB represents a chilling amalgamation of real-world organisations such as the Gestapo (Nazi Germany), the Stasi (East Germany), and the KGB (Soviet Union). Highly bureaucratic, deeply paranoid, and ruthlessly efficient, the ISB employs advanced technology and intricate administrative systems to monitor populations, and suppress dissent through propaganda and brute force–in an effort to maintain the Emperor's iron grip across the galaxy. A revolutionary heist Above The guerilla-style operation to seize the Imperial payroll from a heavily fortified garrison (Photo: Instagram / @andorofficial) In season one, the pivotal Aldhani Heist marks a watershed moment not only for Andor but for the entire Star Wars saga–representing the first coordinated strike by what would eventually evolve into the Rebel Alliance. The story arc saw Andor join Vel Sartha (portrayed by Faye Marsay) and her ragtag rebel crew embedded on Aldhani–consisting of Cinta Kaz (Varada Sethu), Taramyn Barcona (Gershwyn Eustache Jr), Arvel Skeen (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Karis Nemik (Alex Lawther) and their Imperial insider Lieutenant Gorn (Sule Rimi)–for a covert but audacious operation to seize the Imperial payroll from a heavily fortified garrison. See also: Doing the impossible: How the Rural Doctors Movement started a healthcare revolution in Thailand A heist designed to shock the Empire, provoke a response, and show the galaxy that resistance is possible, it is inspired by the infamous 1907 Tiflis bank robbery orchestrated by Joseph Stalin–whom Gilroy quipped Luna's Andor looks like–and his Bolshevik comrades against Tsarist Russia. Above Yeveran Square, where the Tiflis robbery took place in 1907 (Photo: WikiCommons) The historical robbery in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia) aimed to finance revolutionary activities against the Russian Empire. The Bolsheviks successfully seized approximately 300,000 rubles–equivalent to roughly US$1 million at the time–by launching a precisely timed attack on a bank transport using explosives and firearms, resulting in numerous casualties. Furthermore, both operations feature small, determined groups executing calculated, high-risk missions against seemingly invincible imperial powers; reflecting tactics employed by various 20th-century revolutionary movements, particularly leftist guerrilla organisations that utilised asymmetric warfare and strategic strikes to destabilise established regimes. Don't miss: Netflix: The best true crime shows you need to watch Labour and immigration Above Narkina 5 inmates were labour prisoners exploited for industrial production (Photo: Lucasfilm) Following the events on Aldhani in season one, Andor is abruptly apprehended–quite literally–by a KX-series security droid, one of which will eventually become his trusted companion in Rogue One . While hiding out on Niamos, he is falsely convicted and sent to serve time in the Imperial prison complex on Narkina 5, the sterile, electrically enforced Imperial prison complex, where inmates are reduced to little more than production units, forced to work twelve-hour shifts to assemble mysterious mechanical components (for the Death Star) under the constant threat of electrocution for failing to meet quotas. Read more: Professor Dato' Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman weighs in on drug policy reform, higher education and overcoming challenges The prison's hyper-regimented environment and systematic dehumanisation present an unflinching depiction of forced labour systems–not as aberrations, but as deliberate tools of Imperial control, while prisoners are psychologically manipulated into monitoring one another, clinging to the false hope of eventual 'release.' Above Uncomfortable parallels in Soviet gulags and Nazi conentration camps (Photo: WikiCommons) Narkina 5's meticulous efficiency and disregard for human dignity finds uncomfortable parallels in Soviet gulags–established in 1918 after the Russian Revolution, where hope was weaponised as control, and labour prisoners exploited for industrial production; before they were systematically exterminated, much like the prisoners in Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. Andor echoes this grim historical reality through the off-screen mass execution of inmates on another level, following an accidental readmission that revealed the facility's 'recycling' system of transferring prisoners between levels instead of releasing them. See also: Behind Anora: The Oscar-winning story of love, chaos and Sean Baker's bold vision Above Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona), Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Bhaier), and Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) end up as undocumented labourers in Mina-Rau (Photo: Lucasfilm) Later, when Andor's allies from Ferrix–Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona), Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Bhaier), and Brasso (Joplin Sibtain)–end up as undocumented labourers in Mina-Rau in season two, the show draws a clear parallel to the modern-day plight of migrant workers. Performing essential labour while living in constant precarity, these characters mirror real-world migrants who face the threat of deportation, lack of legal protections, and limited recourse against exploitation. Above Migrant labourers routinely endure wage theft, hazardous working conditions, and systemic exploitation (Photo: WikiCommons) Much like the Empire's approach to maintaining control and suppressing dissent, these conditions reflect the lived experiences of undocumented workers in countries, such as the United States, and the Middle East–particularly in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where Amnesty International reports have recently revealed migrant workers facing serious abuses. Despite forming the backbone of key industries such as agriculture, construction, and food service, migrant labourers routinely endure wage theft, hazardous working conditions, and systemic exploitation–vulnerabilities that are magnified by their immigration status, which dramatically restricts their ability to advocate for fair treatment or improved conditions. Don't miss: Malaysian social enterprise Pinkcollar is driving ethical recruitment for migrant workers forward Protests and massacres Photo 1 of 2 Maarva Andor (Fiona Shaw) galvanising the people of Ferrix against the Empire (Photo: Lucasfilm) Photo 2 of 2 The Imperial forces were caught off guard in Ferrix's seemingly unassuming uprising (Photo: Lucasfilm) When push comes to shove for the meek and powerless, something is bound to break; and this nuanced exploration of the cycle of oppression and resistance in Andor reaches its crescendo during the finale episode of season one, when the people of Ferrix gather for Andor's surrogate mother Maarva's (Fiona Shaw) funeral. Long suffering under Imperial occupation, Ferrix citizens use the ritual of mourning as an act of defiance, catching Imperial forces completely off guard in their uprising. While the Ferrix funeral riot bears particular resemblance to the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in East Jerusalem in 2022–when Israeli forces attacked mourners carrying her coffin–this climactic sequence in the season finale resembles large-scale civil unrest, akin to crackdowns like the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. Demonstrators in Beijing, who gathered initially with hopes for dialogue and reform, discovered that authoritarian regimes ultimately resort to overwhelming force when their authority is challenged. The Chinese government deployed tanks against unarmed students, killing hundreds to thousands of civilians–a complete death toll that remains unknown to this day. Read more: From frustration to force: activist and ecofeminist Ili Nadiah Dzulfakar on redefining climate justice in Malaysia Photo 1 of 2 Tension between the Empire and the local population escalate dramatically, culminating in the tragic and pivotal Ghorman Massacre (Photo: Lucasfilm) Photo 2 of 2 The Ghorman resistance party portrayed by predominantly French-speaking actors, evoking parallels to the French Resistance, and emphasising their role as a passionate but ultimately doomed insurgent community (Photo: Lucasfilm) Throughout season two, audiences sense the proverbial penny in the air that is bound to drop in the most brutal way when Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn, who reprises his role from Rogue One ) focuses on Ghorman–a culturally rich but politically volatile planet reminiscent of historic textile cities like Milan and Turin–due to the city-planet's abundance of kalkite, a resource tied to the construction of the Death Star. Tension between the Empire and the local population escalates dramatically over the next few episodes, culminating in the tragic and pivotal Ghorman Massacre–a dark turning point that establishes Ghorman as a symbol of sacrifice and resistance that 'will burn, very brightly,' just as Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) anticipated. This fictional massacre evokes unmistakable parallels to South Africa's Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, during a peaceful demonstration organised by the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), a splinter group from the African National Congress (ANC). The police claimed some demonstrators began stoning officers and armoured vehicles, and opened fire with submachine guns on the crowd. The allegations were challenged when notably, many victims were shot in the back, indicating they were fleeing when fired upon. See also: The nature of resilience: Jane Goodall remains steadfast in her commitment to protecting the natural world One of the most violent and pivotal events in South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle, the shooting resulted in the deaths of 69 people, including women and children, and wounded over 180 others. While the event led to increased repression in the country, it also galvanised greater international condemnation with some activists moving towards armed resistance. Casualties and catalysts Above Complex individuals whose humanity gradually erodes through systematic indoctrination (Photo: Instagram / @andorofficial) Adding another level of nuance to Andor 's storytelling is the unyielding examination of how seemingly ordinary individuals become cogs in the machinery of oppression through a lifetime of Imperial conditioning. Rather than focusing on the Empire's highest echelons, Andor offers a glimpse into the psyches and lives of mid-level enforcers. Characters like Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) aren't merely cartoon villains but complex individuals whose humanity gradually–if it hasn't already–erodes through systematic indoctrination. Above Meero (Gough) is steeped in Imperial conditioning (Photo: Instagram / @andorofficial) Above Kyle Soller portrays Syril Karn in the 'Andor' series (Photo: Instagram / @andorofficial) Meero, who reveals in a later episode of season two that she grew up in the Imperial Kinder-block, is steeped in Imperial conditioning and justifies her actions through blind adherence to protocol. Meanwhile, Karn, when an enlightening revelation strips him of his institutional identity, he wanders purposelessly through Palmo Square in Ghorman until he fixates on Andor– the one person who gave meaning to his otherwise mundane life as a deputy inspector on Morlana One at the start of the series–desperate to restore his sense of belonging. Above Front row, left to right: Hermann Göring, Rudolf Heß, and Joachim von Ribbentrop at the Nuremberg trials (Photo: WikiCommons) Above Adolf Eichmann in the glass booth during the 1961 Eichmann trial, where he received a death sentence (Photo: WikiCommons) These characters serve as chilling illustrations of what Hannah Arendt termed 'the banality of evil' in her coverage of the Eichmann trial in the 1960s against Nazi SS officer Adolf Eichmann, who was primarily responsible for implementing the Final Solution. 'A man who drifted into the Nazi Party, in search of purpose and direction, not out of deep ideological belief,' as Arendt described Eichmann–and, by and large, the many Nazi officers who claimed they were 'simply following orders' during the Nuremberg Trials in the 1940s; the historian and philosopher noted how ordinary people can commit harmful acts simply by not questioning their actions or the situations they face. Don't miss: Justice Centre Hong Kong's Lynette Nam on navigating the legal challenges in empowering refugees Above Senator Mon Mothma's (Genevieve O'Reilly) political awakening is analogous to notable world leaders following sociopolitical calamities (Photo: Instagram / @andorofficial) Yet amid this oppression, while calamity serves as a destroyer in crushing ordinary people, it simultaneously forges extraordinary leaders from them. Following the canonical atrocity that is the Ghorman Massacre, Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) is pushed to publicly denounce Emperor Palpatine on the Senate floor in front of senators who have sworn allegiance to the Empire. Catalytically, she also helps establish the Rebel Alliance that becomes the collective protagonist of the original Star Wars trilogy. Above Nelson Mandela's (left) leadership began following the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 (Photo: WikiCommons) Mothma's political awakening is analogous to Nelson Mandela's leadership following the Sharpeville Massacre, when armed forces killed and injured protestors demonstrating against the apartheid-era passing laws to restrict their movement. Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) shifted from non-violent protest to armed resistance shortly after, recognising the limits of peaceful protest under apartheid–marking a turning point in the anti-apartheid movement. Read more: These Asian social justice champions are leading the fight for human dignity Ultimately, while Andor successfully showcases what Gilroy and many others have observed about humanity–the circadian rhythm of authoritarianism that resurfaces every few generations–it also reveals how resistance invariably emerges as part of the cyclical nature as well. Though all the bad is bound to happen again, so will all the good. That is the sliver of hope one can take away from a momentous series like Andor –and what are rebellions, if not built on hope? Both seasons of 'Andor,' 'Rogue One' and other 'Star Wars' films and series are now streaming on Disney+ NOW READ From Merdeka 118 to the Blue Mansion: Malaysia's most spectacular film locations that have captivated international cinema 8 movies that sold more toys than tickets Millennial movies: the low-key traumatic films responsible for a generation's paranoia
