Poumista annual report for 2012

2012 was a slow year here. However, I wanted to thank my referrers and look back on a couple of the highlights.

My top referrers were:

1. rooieravotr Jouwpagina.nl
2. Tendance Coatesy (especially, although I’m not sure why, this post on Respect antisemitism)
3. Shiraz Socialist
4. Entdinglichung
5. Ούτε Θεός – Ούτε Αφέντης
6. Newsnet Scotland (thanks to a single comment linking to an amusing picture here)
7. La Bataille Socialiste
8. BobFromBrockley
9. David Osler
10. Inveresk Street Ingrate
11. Sketchy Thoughts
12. Espace contre Ciment
13. Boffy’s Blog
14. Normblog
15. Obliged to Offend
16. Luxemburger Anarchist
17. Memex 1.1 (because of a single post with the same amusing picture)
18. Libcom (from three forum pages: on Marxist websites, on left archives, on Marxism and anarchism)
19. Pinterest (the same amusing picture)
20. But I am a Liberal

Thanks comrades! Thanks, of course, to readers and commenters as well, in particular Petey, Mikey and TNC. (Two thirds of my readers were in the US, the UK was the second most visiting country, followed by Spain, France, Canada, Australia, Germany and Italy. I am pleased to note I have a reader in Syria.)

My main referrers, however, by a huge margin were search engines rather than blogs etc. Google images sent me more readers (27,000) than google proper (8000). I think the lesson for bloggers is that image metatext gets google image juice. Non-google search engines lagged way behind. Top search terms were as follows, hyperlinked to the most appropriate material to keep that google juice flowing:

1. poumista            
2. spanish civil war   
3. dirlewanger
4. carnation revolution
5. george orwell   
6. poum   
7. eileen o’shaughnessy   
8. partisans             
9. dirlewanger brigade
10. leon trotsky death
11. andres nin
12. marxist theory
13. frederick douglass
14. happy workers day
15. spanish civil war posters
16. leon trotsky
17. spanish revolution
18. victor serge
19. vietnam war protest songs
20. sean matgamna

Most are predictable, but Dirlewanger and the Dirlewanger Brigade were quite a surprise, and Frederick Douglass too. Oskar Dirlewanger was a psychotic paedophile Nazi who fought in the Condor Legion of German fascists in the Spanish Civil War before going on to command his own exceptionally brutal SS brigade on the Eastern front in WWII, specialising in fighting partisans in Poland and Belorus. I have never written about him or his brigade here, so have no idea why it generates search engine traffic.

With only three posts actually written in 2012 featuring (highlighted in bold), the most popular posts (or at least the most visited ones)

1. Orwell turning in his grave?
2. On this day, 1945: Eileen O’Shaughnessy died
3. Music Monday 1: Carnation revolution
4. The [American] Civil War in 3D
5. Spanish Revolution and Civil War gallery
6. Books
7. Jews versus Stalinists in the Spanish Civil War
8. Amidah: Defiance
9. Photography: Sergio Larrain/Lewis Hine
10. Happy Workers’ Day
11. On this day: 22 June 1937 – Andres Nin murdered
12. Uses and abuses: George Orwell and Norman Thomas
13. From the archive of struggle: student activism in the 1930s
14. From the archive of struggle no.43
15. 25 April 1974
16. Christopher Hitchens and Robert Service talk Trotsky
17. Vietnam War Protest Songs
18. Mika Etchebéhère, POUM Militia Captain
19. From the archive of struggle no.47
20. Shoot them like partridges

My favourite 2012 posts, however, were:

1. No Direction Home
2. Is the conflict in Syria the new Spanish civil war?
3. Bayard Rustin at 100