Image, sourced from this article, is of George Bush in 2002 meeting with María Corina Machado, who was even then being trained as a figure to oppose Venezuelan socialism, and very briefly succeeded with the Carmona Decree. Now the latest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, she has begged the Zionist entity to drop bombs on the Venezuelan people.
As of me writing these sentences, it appears that the ceasefire in Gaza is underway. Zionist ceasefires are, of course, an oxymoron - not only in the grand sense that their work to continue genocidal atrocities against others locally and regionally will not cease until the Zionist entity’s occupation of Palestine is overthrown and Palestinians can resume the governance of their territory - but also in the literal sense; that bombings and shootings are often only merely reduced, and rarely cease entirely (as was/is the case on their northern border with Lebanon). Nonetheless, hopefully the population can receive some aid, and the long process of rebuilding can begin.
On the other side of the world, it seems increasingly likely that a new war is set to begin. Because the US is eschewing the usual process of generating pro-war propaganda and casus bellis (aside from a laughably transparent Nobel Peace Prize award) and seems content to just skip straight to the “bomb and depose” step, it’s quite hard to predict what precisely they want to do. Anything seems to be on the table - from freely striking Venezuelan territory where “drug dealers” are to try and prompt a Venezuelan response, to assassinating Maduro and/or his generals and hoping a power vacuum can be filled with compradors, to attempting to outright invade Venezuela and establish direct American control over important government sites. All appear to be possibilities, though as of right now, the most drastic measures seem unlikely due to their difficulty.
We know that the US has almost totally abandoned diplomatic communication with Venezuela, and that the US has deployed warships, a nuclear submarine, F-35s, surveillance planes, and at least 4,000 military personnel to the Caribbean, with some sources putting the numbers higher. Some people have suggested that the point is to try and force Maduro into a situation where he must begin hostilities, or be seen as weak and perhaps overthrown from within. It is at least encouraging that Maduro is not like Allende in Chile, and is taking this situation extraordinarily seriously; the masses are being trained and mobilized in the event of an invasion, and military drills are ongoing. Venezuela has no real capacity to stop the US from attacking and bombing them, but it is much more possible to prevent a West-friendly puppet from gaining meaningful control of the country. A comprador might be able to make a brief statement or decree in a Venezuelan city saying that Chavismo is over, but actual power will hopefully prove very elusive.
2020, and particularly 2022, has clearly become a turning point for the Western imperial system, in which increasingly aggressive and reckless moves are required to keep the system functional (stability is, at this point, out of the question). Unfortunately, this has also resulted in the deaths of many long-lasting, inspiring figures, such as Nasrallah, and many more will certainly die before the empire collapses. If Maduro is assassinated - and I’m having trouble imagining how he won’t be doggedly pursued in the days. weeks, and months to come - I have hope that a successor will rise to continue to lead the Bolivarian Revolution.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity'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.
Syriza’s failure was the last straw that radicalised me from “democratic socialism”. Class war is war. No more half measures,
TsiprasWalterlink
like population of greece would be 5 millions, 50 pedophiles on islands and troops
This is absolutely insane really. 13h work, 1h commute (at best), 8h sleep (ideally), and you have two fucking hours to actually live your life
Humans have basic needs, so what these companies will find is that productivity drops off a cliff around 10 hours in. There’s a reason almost no corporation does this, because study after study has shown that workers hit a brick wall at a certain point and start slowing down and making mistakes.
The commute after the job is what kills me.
Yeah Syriza did everything “right” and are about the most principled and competent dem socs you could ask for, and it ended in disaster. If they didn’t work, it won’t work.
I mean they didnt do everything right. They did very little right even from a demsoc prespective. They were principled and competent demsocs while campaigning and in power the principled wings in time split and the competency turned into them being competent executors of EU directives and neoliberal policy
One can lament and cry all day long about how they got into power at the worst possible momment and they had insurmountable dept and economy related problems to negotiate and resolve and the pressure was immense blah blah. But at the end of the day they caved to austerity and neoliberalism quickly and became obedient and effective enforcers of the EU, Troika etc anti-worker, anti-human even memorandum policies. Indistinguisable in most ways from PASOK and New Democracy governments.
Maybe it was naivity and idealism. Maybe they were unprepared of the relentlessness of international capital against them. But alas
Yes, that’s exactly the point. It doesn’t matter how principled or how competent you are, if the EU and capital wants to fuck you over through media ownership and smear campaigns and the threat of removing you currency sovereignty against referendum demands, there is absolutely nothing you can do.
Because this is inevitably what happens when you play into the system, that’s the entire point IMO. Either die Allende’d or that
My aha moment was when the “Leninist” KKE said
… and it turns out they were 100% right about this! I don’t know much about them, but both the liberals and the demsocs were demonstrably wrong.
KKE got a lot of hate and short term political consequences for refusing a chance to form a coalition with Syriza in the wake of the latter’s rise. In the peak of political and economic crisis, with the far right quickly rising, being offered to be junior partner in government to a relatively radical in rhetoric Demsoc party that had its roots in communist movements, that had popular support to enact stuff and even break with the EU. One that just shattered a long standing PASOK-ND two party system.
Quite a deal right? You push the left government even further left. Have a chance at power and to lead a channel a popular movement. Get ministries etc. Most communist parties and a lot of people here even would probably think that as a good idea. The old CTH community surely thought so.
But the monolithic crank Stalinists in KKE said no way. That Syriza would enact neoliberalism and austerity just as obediently as any other bourgeois government. . That the “good intentions” without a guiding ideology and revolutionary theory and hold among the people would evaporate under the pressure of US and international capital and that in the end both Syriza, democratic socialism and the YES/NO referendum (for the EU deal/memorandum) Syriza paraded was false choice and an illusion and the result would be exactly the same. That Syriza and that movement cant stop and wont stop the rise of the far right. That KKE could never partake in such a farce, lose itself and its integrity in trying to navigate reformist incrementalism through power sharing under a capitalist government and then be punished for it. That they would be in the streets and in parliament against Syriza and their anti-worker policies just as they were against any other face capital puts.
Look i dont want to lionize the KKE that much. I wish they were better in a bunch of issues. But these are in hindsight obvious marxist and leninist analysis and strategy that people then and the left worldwide even now still cant get right and follow it up with a coherent strategy and message. KKE did because it is party with 100 year history that fought fascism, dictatorships, illegality, bled and was persecuted, ate shit in informing past popular fronts or coalitions, split and reformed. There is institutional experience, historical consiousness and deep theoretical vetting and programs from the lower to the highest tiers of party membership.
They were willing to stomach the pushback. Their numbers drop to their lowest just as Syriza was elected. They were hunted (and still are) by “you never want to govern, you only want to scream at the streets, you dont want power or have a plan for it” narratives . But just 10 years after they are in their strongest position in a while. And their own mistaken stances in some issues hold them back more. Sure they have some dumbass almost Maoist-Trot foreign policiy stances and they arent good in LGBT issues (though to be fair not in British communist tier) . But in a country where communists lost the civil war and were persecuted and illegal for decades, in a europe were anti-communism is going into another gear…a hard Marxist-Lennist party being at ~10% polling wise and having the more thorough and solid grassroots, neighbour and workplace organizing in the country is something that indicates that they have done a lot of things right. Things that communist parties in most of the west failed to do and that results in their current state or nonexistance. There are things to learn here for sure
Those policies aren’t even “radical tankie socialism”, but literally the basic of socialism. What the fuck even is socialism if you don’t nationalise your industries and leave capitalist
vassalagealliances?Exactly my thought process back then. The case proved that even “mild” socialism is impossible inside the EU, so the EU is the enemy of all principled socialists no matter the tendency.
Imagine coming home after a 13 hour workday in the slob factory/hotel/cafe or restaurant, work to repay your nations debt (to the IMF?). Your head and body hurts.
I remember every magazine slandering them and detailing how dangerous they were