Image is from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ recent article on Kashmir.
It looks like the spat between India and Pakistan could be dying down, due to a new ceasefire. As of the time of me writing this paragraph, it seems both sides want to maintain it (despite some reports of violations here and there).
Both sides have declared victory, which is completely expected given their mutual political parties and nationalist histories. It’s a little harder to say which side has actually won, as both sides seem to have managed to shoot down aircraft and hit military bases. India has, in my opinion, had the more embarrassing moments, but international conflicts aren’t cringe compilations. I feel no good-will towards Pakistan’s comprador government, but it is at least nice to see Modi knocked down a few pegs. Regardless of the final technical victor, it’s obvious that - if the ceasefire is maintained - who won are the hundreds of millions of people who won’t have to live in fear of dying in nuclear hellfire.
This conflict is a good example of what multipolarity will truly entail. Countries that have been previously limited in their nationalist ambitions by American pressure will now take opportunities to revolt, sometimes against America itself, and sometimes against other countries in their regional neighbourhood. It’s also why, as communists, our goals do not stop at multipolarity; it is merely the establishing act of a new era of agitation against peripheral and semi-peripheral capitalist countries that are forming powerful national bourgeoisie classes as the international American capitalists are forced away.
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.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. 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.
I hate the way Mujica is glazed in the west. He’s portrayed as this “poor president” for living a simple life and rejecting most of his salary and benefits, and what they glaze of him isn’t his revolutionary activity but the fact that he was in jail. Spanish newspapers like El País have his death on the cover page, when they’re everything he fought against during his youth (was his presidency really that progressive economically? I know about the civil rights but it wasn’t really anticapitalist was it?).
Meanwhile, contemporary revolutionaries and anti-imperialists like Ibrahim Traoré are ignored or vilified in western media. The only article I could find about Traoré is from 2024, essentially saying “this junta dictator is likely gonna pass some really bad anti-LGBTQ policy” because of a law proposal that he later rejected. Disgusting shit.
Edit: this is related to socialism being associated to a poverty cult. Anti-consumerism is morally correct mostly because of material necessity, distribution of scarce goods, and ecology. But fuck me if I’m not gonna be happier having a washing machine and access to electricity than breaking my back washing my clothes by hand! Rejecting mindless capitalist consumerism is good, valuing politicians based on their materialist behaviours instead of their actual policy is stupid.
Mujica and Tabare Vazquez (The other leftist who was president before and after Mujica, who also died of cancer, but no one in the West talks about him bc he had public disputes with the son of the former Uruguayan Dictator, Bordaberry, and bc he was anti-abortion) were both democratic socialists, but they didn’t openly change the capitalist system, they basically reformed the social programs to grant aid and rights to trade unions and minorities.
Their goverments (the Broad Front Goverment) are more well remembered for their close relation with Brazil (under the workers’ party goverments), Argentina (under the left-wing of Justicialist party) and with Bolivarian Venezuela. Brazil and Argentina (arguable Uruguay and Paraguay are buffer/satellite states of Brazil and Argentina) granted a lot of aid and money to Uruguay during this period, which they used to develop the country and the social programs. Mujica also promoted South American unity.
It was a long time coming, but it is still very sad.
Hasta la victoria, Pepe. Buen viaje.
This is extremely saddening…
Yes, at least he saw his candidate and party win last elections against the neoliberals. And I still find it very sad how the two leftist presidents of Uruguay died of cancer, Tabaré Vázquez was also an oncologist and died of cancer in 2020.