Much of the preamble has been sourced from Michael Roberts' recent analysis of Mexico.
Claudia Sheinbaum, part of the left-wing and populist Morena party to which AMLO also belongs, is now the first woman to ascend to the Mexican presidency. She is also a climate/energy scientist and was previously mayor of Mexico City. Results indicate that she has won with approximately 60% of the vote, which would be the highest vote percentage in Mexican history.
AMLO's presidency has been generally successful. He campaigned on reducing violence inside Mexico, and while this has technically occurred if measured from 2018, homicides are still considerably higher than in 2010. This is largely due to warring drug cartels, which are more reflective of the United States and its rise in drug addiction and thus imports from Mexico. He also campaigned on reducing corruption, which he also kinda has, and also on reducing income inequality, which he also kinda has. The overall figures don't show massive budges in income inequality, but the minimum wage has risen by 82% and manufacturing wage have risen 27%, and this plus other social programs has lifted 9 million Mexicans out of extreme poverty - a good achievement - but not much further than that, with poverty rates still above the Latin American average. Unemployment is officially at record lows, but much of this job growth has been in the informal sector.
The Mexican economy suffered greatly during the pandemic, and while growth since then has been pretty decent, the economy is still below where it was in 2018. As Mexican capitalists do not pay much in taxes, AMLO's programs have required large budget deficits and borrowing. These capitalists are, of course, not doing many productive investments and thus there is not much productivity growth; productivity has been more-or-less stagnant for two decades. The reason why Mexican capitalists are not investing is because of the major decline in profitability since the 1990s - there is no reason to invest if your money is at major risk of not making a profit. Therefore, they have followed the trend of other national capitalists of investing in real estate and speculation, particularly in American companies.
Since NAFTA/USMCA, Mexico has become increasingly dependent on the United States for a location for its exports, while the US has exploited cheap labour in Mexico. Additionally, with the anti-Chinese sanctions increasingly put in place by the US, Mexico has become one of several conduits for China to redirect its goods so that they can still reach American markets. This has allowed Mexico to have an essentially balanced trade account and keep the peso relatively strong against the dollar.
Mexico's limited fortunes will likely decline from here as the US economy continues to slow. If Trump is elected, he may decree protectionist policies which will hit a US-reliant Mexico quite hard. Additionally, industrial production has recently declined and retail spending is also down. AMLO's presidency was genuinely beneficial for the poorest 50%, but the policies he created failed to really change the fundamentals of the economy. He relied on the private sector rather than the public sector. This is not entirely his fault - if he had tried to do anything terribly transformative, Mexico would have probably been hit hard with consequences by the US and simultaneously faced a domestic revolt by Mexican capitalists. There were and are already threats of outright invasion in response to the limited things AMLO has already done.
In an increasingly multipolar future in which America becomes weaker and weaker, it's very possible that Mexico's reliance on the US will decrease, allowing parties to be more radical without facing the possibility of facing crippling sanctions like Venezuela. However, Mexico's sheer proximity to the US means that they might be among the last countries to break free of American influence, as the US will continue to bitterly resist any attempt to break down the Monroe Doctrine long after it loses Asia, Europe, and Africa. So, it seems likely that Sheinbaum may soon find herself in a situation where she is forced by capitalists to implement fiscal austerity regardless of her intentions, which is equivalent to a declaration of war on the working class. What happens then is anybody's guess.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Mexico! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
![](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/e56ad79c-3e4d-48c6-be35-da0a3aea0263.jpeg)
At 32nd convention, CPUSA leader Joe Sims publicly solidifies direction the communist party must take once again: Voting for Biden to stop Trump.
In another dogshit article out of the CPUSA mouthpiece, People's World, the Joe Sims once again steals valor by framing the gains of the wider anti-genocide movement as gains made by the communist party that's celebrating 100 years of failures before quickly pivoting to saying the palestinian genocide isn't as bad as a trump presidency would be, therefore it is the duty of every member of CPUSA to fight redmaga fascism by voting for bluemaga fascism.
Hey someone remind me of the news about what Biden just did to the immigrants and assylumn seekers
Who actually built the wall Joe? Who not only helped build concentration camps at the border but is also expanding them Joe? They've been going after immigrants for decades, Jackass, you're just phrasemongering to sheepdog your cultist underlings back to backing the Blue. They won't come for you since you're never on the front lines.
"Therefore why don't you be a good communist and vote democrat?"
Lol. Lmao even. This is your titular communist party, America. Literally nothing existing would be better than it's existence because at least you can begin building from the ground-up.
Edit: Follow-up, I'm making myself angry and gotta froth a bit more at the article.
Joe Sims and the entirety of CPUSA endorses the Palestinian Genocide by saying to vote for Joe Biden.
Joe Sims and the entirety of CPUSA deny the existence of actual existing fascism that is the Ukrainian fascist state project.
Joe Sims and the entirety of CPUSA supports the expansion of NATO and the blockade of Cuba because he supports the bourgeoise rabid dogs that are building and preserving imperialism.
Joe Sims and the entirety of CPUSA wants a cold war with China because they do not stand for Communism and they do not stand with actual existing socialist states as they rally their followers to sheepdog the masses into supporting the ghouls of empire that desire to carve up China once more and plunge them into another century of humiliation.
Joe Sims and the entirety of CPUSA are enemies of the working class and must be combatted as such. Any individuals that will listen to reason must be persuaded to leave. Everyone else must be treated with the same ferocity and vitriol that's reserved for the liberals that make up the Democratic Party of the United States.
complete lack of self-reflection that CPUSA is post-McCarthyist and has been formed in the image of McCarthyism. The organization only survived because it bent the knee, became recuperated and sold out all its principles. If they were actually a principled communist party they would have gone underground or to the mountains and maintained revolutionary positions.
Joe you ARE McCarthyism incarnate
i fucking hate this guy and his subservient grunts
Their convention is happening right now, right? I haven't been following the developments at the convention. Is this reactionary bloc represented by Sims staying in power? I feel like this was basically their last shot to build any legitimacy with the younger generation by at least not left-punching against basic and valid ML thought.
Its the same faction of right-opportunists who's been in power since the days they purged the communists out of the party after the death of Gus Hall and the fall of the Soviet Union.
Oh yes they've been legit revisionist since then. Just wondering if they have held on to complete power just as before.
Prior to the Ukraine war shaking up the ideological field, CPUSA was a member of the IMCWP and used the rules of the IMCWP to block all other communist parties in the united states from entering it and becoming an internationally recognized member of the communist movement in the post-soviet era. This meant CPUSA was de jure the only internationally recognized communist party in the united states and abused that fact to maintain an larger field of pull than any other party when it came to recruitment.
As for the leadership, it comes down to careful tweaking of election rules to guarantee their continual reelection and their control over party assets. They maintain a façade of democracy but in truth hold the material wealth of the collective party in their hands. of course the latter wouldn't be a problem if they were actually communists, but that's not the case here
Sorry I think I didn't communicate well. I was mostt wondering whether the reform group, whose size I have no handle on, had achieved anything at the convention. It's looking like they probably didn't?
Thankd for the explanations!
Oh no. No they didn't. They failed just like the magacommunist dipshits that talked big game about doing the same thing.
The tail of the dog that is the DNC.
Rabid dog.
and we all know what Comrade Kim Jong Un says about them.
Sad!
Cum Party USA
Ha!![emoji seen-this-one seen-this-one](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/89911414-d2de-4d35-8bb4-2a9a4267b8c5.png)
would you consider writing a more through, more "academic" (for lack of a better word) on this for Unity-Struggle-Unity? seems like it would fit well with their current campaign against CPUSA, and I know they don't mind publishing articles from anonymous online communists because they just published an article from @CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml in their newspaper
already poking around in their networks sharing info but I havent concidered writing for them
by poking around you mean you've told them insider info or? and just out of curiosity, is there any particular reason as to why not?
I've shared some info with them, yes. And answering your question, I'm a bit busy with my own party work and commission work to add on another scoop of possible work onto my plate.
thanks!
PSL >> CPUSA
Literally anything else > CPUSA