For more on the situation in Nepal, I recommend @MelianPretext@lemmygrad.ml’s comment here.
Following a “anti-corruption” protest movement spurred by a social media ban (but with much deeper roots) in which dozens of protestors were killed by state forces, the government of KP Oli has been ousted, and an interim leader is currently in power as the country prepares for elections. Notably, events have been characterized as “Gen Z protests”, and this leader was decided (at least partially) by a Discord vote. When a non-western government rapidly falls, it’s wise to at least glance in the direction of the United States, and there are almost certainly elements of color revolution here. But, as always, it’s more complicated than simple regime change - Nepal is a deeply troubled economy even as developing countries go.
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Despite winning 75% of the seats in parliament in 2017, the various communist parties have failed to unify towards forming a common agenda and solving the problems of the people. When the nominally united communist party split in 2021, infighting and opportunism eventually brought on the rightist politicians we see today.
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The Nepalese economy is not successful. Disasters are slow to be ameliorated, education and healthcare is underfunded, and poverty is fairly rampant. There have been significant developments made by the communist parties, such as electrification programs and some poverty reduction, but it has been insufficient.
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The petty bourgeois usually come from oppressed Hindu castes, and are frustrated by the domination of upper castes, and so are inspired by India’s BJP. They essentially want a return to monarchy, under the guise of anti-corruption, and despite their relatively small numbers, are powerfully organized.
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Of the countries that aren’t tiny islands, Nepal has the highest per capita rate of work migration, due to insufficient employment in Nepal. The jobs that Nepalese citizens receive overseas range from unpleasant to unbearable in both labour and wages, and this has generated rightful suspicion that the government cares more about foreign direct investors than their own citizens overseas.
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The government of KP Oli was close to the United States, and India’s Modi has promoted the BJP in Nepal. Both countries have sought to exert influence over Nepal, though Prashad speculates that, if there is indeed a foreign mastermind at work, India is more likely to be the culprit behind these recent protests, in a gambit to use the chaos to promote/install a far right monarchist government.
I agree with Prashad that it seems unlikely that mere electoral changes will result in anything terribly productive, though whatever government emerges will inevitably hoist the banner of anti-corruption to try and legitimize themselves. We have seen the same breakdown of electoralism as a meaningful pathway to solve national problems all across the world, from the superpowers to the poorest states. Until a rupture occurs, greater surveillance, policing, and repression seems guaranteed.
Last week’s thread is here.
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Israel's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
There is an interesting article by the Revolutionary Communist Party of Nepal (RCPN) with a profile of the sides involved in Nepal’s situation with some new speculation:
Machine translated with my insertions and corrections
After the Gen-Z movement became explosive, an organization called ‘Hami Nepal’ suddenly started being promoted. Those who initially led the movement, called for people to take to the streets, and applied for permission from the CDO office for the program suddenly disappeared. Suddenly, Hami Nepal, Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Sah, and Hami Nepal President Sudan Gurung came to the front, claiming to be the real organizers of the movement.
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According to the organization’s [Hami Nepal] website, he [the group’s chairman] appears to be involved in anti-China activities, namely the Free Tibet movement. He still has the logo and link of ‘Students for a Free Tibet’ on his group’s website as a supporting organization.
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Their [RAW and CIA] pre-plan was to turn the supposedly peaceful movement into violent, to create an uncontrollable situation and achieve their goal. According to a source, they mobilized schoolchildren to the front line [on the first day of the protest]. They created a situation where the police would open fire and as soon as the police opened fire, they would order sharpshooters kept on standby to open fire and shoot students in their college uniforms targetting the head and chest.
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The source claims that the protesters themselves cleaned the streets and even managed the garbage themselves, as they suspected that such bullet casings would be found.
There are other interesting things in this and another shorter article, which discusses such an event’s nurturing through continuous government failures, but it is in Nepali; it contains a concerning shenanigan of the NGO that “organized” the protests:
They actually did this btw
… within two days of the formation of the government, the same group has started demanding the resignation of the newly appointed Prime Minister Sushil Karki, saying that she has not paid due attention to the treatment and compensation of the families of the martyrs and the injured.
Things are really murky on that. I do not know where it even originates from but it could be miss-information. Not really worth going into all that anymore, he has somehow turn most people wary of him after that stated being spread on social media.
Anyway things looking fine here. The pro-US government got oustead and the new government is also ‘liberal’ but more left than the Marxist-leninist party somehow.
No left really put their hope in a spontaneous horizontal movement with no leadership but it has helped release the pressure building in Nepal I guess.
Are any of the Communist parties maneuvering to get leadership of all this or are they iced out?
not really maneuvering to get leadership but that might be the correct decision. The current interim government will be for 6-12 months so wasting energy to get inside is not really important. Juche party has put forward a press release basically condemning the old government and kind of also not supporting the new government for being unconstitutional.
Yeah, I guess I mean maneuvering for leadership of the movement as it exists, so that they can secure leadership of the post-transitonal government. Inshallah we see the Juche party rise
No any maneuvering by Juche party. Do not think they have enough credibility and authority to make any such moves.
Even they have been losing influence in their locality for few years now but now I really hope they will turn things around.
The opposition they faced from the previous federal government was pretty bad so at least one thing went well for them. But damn knew they were great but just started following them and they are based af.
This is a US-backed revolution funded by imperialist interests.
bro they use the same playbook every time and “leftists” fall for it every time man
8 day old account in here arguing it’s totally organic and spontaneous!
to be fair i reguarly delete my accounts to try and help prevent doxing and whatnot, in a small country like nepal i wouldnt blame someone for making a new account specifically talking about their experience with this to try and make sure it’s not linked to their IRL identity
i do think they’re behaving rather naive and that it’s far more important to the US for Nepal to be staunchly anti-China than to be pro-US
I try not to fed post on my new accounts and repeat NED and CIA narratives though
let’s not fedjacket* man, it creates too hostile of an environment and is unfalsifiable anyways, always better to call someone a wrecker because it accounts for both naivety/incompetence and malice/competence
*plus, fedjacketing ironically is a fed tactic right? FBI used that to help split Kwame Ture and the Black Panthers apart
we literally have an emoji for it
Free Tibet! Free Hong Kong revolution of our times!
that is specifically referring to encouraging people to adventurism and people usually use it in the same jokey way as
when some horrible news makes them mad and they feel the urge to make a comment that would get a visit from the feds if you posted it on like twitter or reddit.
again, just use wrecker idk i dont understand the insistence on not using wrecker when it totally sidesteps claims of innocence
I never said they were a fed, or resulted to personal insults. I said they were “fed posting” which they were, they were repeating CIA-talking points from pro-west NGOs. I’m not trying to insult them, i’m trying to get them to see that the narrative they are pushing is reactionary and imperialist.
Watch the Brian Berletic video on this. Without a shadow of a doubt this is a US backed color revolution
if it was a US backed color revolution then they just played themselves
It was funded by Coca-Cola and Free Tibet separatist organizations. They use Jack Dorsey’s Bluetooth app to communicate. They got mad when US social media was banned. All the pro-west NGOs were activated, and they specialize in “anti-corruption” and “activating the youth” and we get an “anti-corruption Gen Z revolution”? We have receipts of all the organizations that backed this and where the funding came from. It’s the same shit every time how do you fall for this?
They all have the same “left” sloganeering, just like the Arab Spring. You have been swept up in a misinformation social media campaign run out of the CIA. Your country has lost its sovereignty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgZXwXIVZTk
I implore you to seriously sit down and watch this video and check the sources yourself. It’s all out in the open and not particularly subtle. You are the prime demographic that this information was tailored for (young, english speaking, “left”) so I’m sorry that you were fooled by it, but you should be more careful in the future. You may have legitimate grievances, but by embracing this your country will be doomed and worse off - like all US color revolution nations.
You new government was “voted on” in Discord in a totally non-verifiable way by 0.3% of the population of your country. You’re deluding yourself if you think this is organic or legitimate.
I think we and other communist will be fighting in the street if it was really a color revolution.
Also we are not embracing the current government. It is going in better direction than before but that is in no way enough. The same old question of reform and revolution and it is the ‘reform’ government. The lack of any leadership or organization of the movement was the reason for its success but also the factor that has severely limited its effectiveness.
I have watched that video and it looks really bad but that is how things work in third world. The ineffectiveness of government forces NGOs to step up which will be entirely depended on foreign funding. ‘Hami Nepal’ has been doing good social work and it might be the first time it has been involved in politics. If you want to feel a bit better, ‘Hami Nepal’ is not the leadership of this movement. Sudan Gurung acted as the representative since no one else seem to be doing so and things went in that direction
Refusing to call the people leading you “leaders” isn’t principled, it’s naive. You are being led by the nose, by organizations, with patrons.
Yes it is actually very naive. What is the alternative do you have? Suddenly make all youth in Nepal class conscious by the power of friendship in a day?
I think you are confusing left and the movement. The interim government has been formed which has more support than the former government. You want the left to go against the more popular government and alienate more people in the coming election?
Until this government also mess things up badly, there is not much to be done except organizing and agitating the now more politically involved youth.
how so? being (overtly) pro-US is far less important to the Empire’s ambitions than ensuring Nepal is staunchly and resolutely anti-China
The former government was formed by China friendly party (CPN-UML) and US/India friendly (Nepali Congress). Anything related to China has been sabotaged and crushed by Nepali Congress.
BRI has been in a limbo for a long long time with no way forward. Only now Nepal can finally break itself from US meddling and move closer to China
They were trying to ban US social media, and the new government forced them to open back up to foreign information control. How is this “playing themselves”? This is the same shit we see in Georgia when they try to wrest any amount of control from the NGOs and American Social Media companies, despite Georgia being pro-West and anti-Russia already.
They were trying to ban
USsocial media at the wrong place and time. It was not going away, but it looked very very suspicious timing for general public.They ‘played themselves’ because it removed center right government and now probably replaced by left (liberal) government.
The influence of US was increasing in Nepal. They are the last power than wants revolution in Nepal. Also Nepal is not Georgia, just looking at similarities in movement doesn’t mean it is the same condition in both countries.
Yanukovych was a “center right government” replaced by Zelensky a “left (liberal) government”
This is not going where you think it’s going. You will be used as a battering ram against China.
Maybe after the crackdown on communist and socialist, but until then just worrying about it won’t lead to anything.
If the government tries to take any such action before they move against the left, we will be in the streets. Plus you might be looking into wrong direction. Nepal is better bartering ram against India than China. Geography is fun here.
Also Nepal is not strong enough to be used as Ukraine at all. The more I think about the comparison, the more absurd it gets
Ukraine was not strong enough to face Russia in 2014. It took 8 years of massive investments and training to build the largest military in Europe. Nepal will not be alone, but part of the ring used to encircle China (Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, etc)
Is there any actual evidence of this? I`d like to learn more in order to trust this. Was this posted here bofore? Sorry if I missed this, but this seems like a very serious accusation, organizing people who are willing to open fire opportunisticaly at a crowd that includes children is pretty heavy militia/gang warfare stuff, how would you even organize this in advance without being caught? Do people just keep high powered rifles in their backyard and nobody cares or what?
Someone willing to unironicaly claim “the police couldn’t possibly shoot peaceful protesters” doesn’t match the actual experience of the working class literaly anywhere on this god forsaken planet. I`d rather believe the simplest explanation if possible not some multi-layered conspiracy that includes the perpetrators “cleaning up” the evidence.
Like I’m willing to accept NGOs are involved but that seems like just a constant everywhere where NGOs exist, unless you can prove anything this is just copium isn’t it?
The simplest explanation is that since it’s a US backed color-revolution, they are using the same tactics as Ukraine’s Maidan and the Xinjiang separatists and tons of other rightwing extremist groups that the US funds and organizes
Not that I know of, they don’t disclose their “source” for obvious reasons. The fact that the children were kept in the front-lines is more or less true. About the cleaning, they did have a “cleaning campaign” but it was on the next day so I don’t know if it’s the same thing.
The sharpshooter thing sounds far-fetched and rather preposterous but RCPN has been trustworthy in the past so let’s see what they come up with in the next few days to support their claims.
This is a clear US-backed color revolution, we have documented receipts this is beyond dispute, and the local Communist Party is agreeing and presenting their side of the story. Why are we “waiting to see”? Why is it that these US-backed bullshit revolutions have such gravity and power among the western left that even after the hundredth time with documented sources we still have to “wait and see”? Why is the jury out?
Well when you live in said country you must wait and see, wouldn’t you say? I have a personal interest in this event’s development and hope, at the very least, that no further suffering be imparted upon the people that have long since been struggling here. It’s quite difficult to accept outright that the fervent desire for change that your compatriots showed and the still living hope that things will get better are only instruments for the gains of capitalists.
Difficult to accept, yet nonetheless indisputable fact