After 15 months of genocide - and resistance to it - the Israeli regime realized that they could not win a military victory against Hamas, and were forced to sign a humiliating ceasefire in order to get their hostages returned.
With much of Syria under the control of Al-Qaeda, and an increasing level of covert infiltration into Lebanon, the crisis in the Middle East is not over, and we may still be in its beginning stages, as the center of hegemony continues its gradual shift away from the United States. Their navy, once considered the best in the world, is likely also not very happy about their ships and aircraft carriers being forced to retreat by Yemen, one of the poorest countries; and all eyes are on Iran, who has, over the last year and a half, demonstrated a newfound confidence and strength to directly strike Israel.
The recovery for Gaza will take, at a minimum, decades; it could indeed never fully recovery to even how it was before, considering it is not in Israel's interests to see their concentration camps recover. But Hamas has proven to be steadfast and the tunnel network has proven its resilience, despite facing some of the most powerful conventional bombing in history. This shows that Palestine's liberation is a when, not an if; and hopefully a much sooner "when" than expected before October 7th.
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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.
The opportunity came and went during 2022, and wasn't taken, this was made clear during the BRICS summit. For whatever reason, it was decided that de-dollarisation was not to be pursued then. That means that this is the future until the next opportunity presents itself, and then the question will again remain if the opportunity will be taken.
The big reason why I believe it wasn't taken is the failure to get Europe onboard and break them away from the US security and economic system. Europe appears to be the key, without some kind of Brussels - Moscow - Beijing alliance, it seems that we are stuck. As long as Europe remains in the US fold, this is the way it will be. Samir Amin wrote about how the key to achieving the start of a true multipolar/polycentric world is such an alliance.
Honestly I don’t see how Europe can even be considered as part of the equation given their fervent support for Ukraine i.e. wanting to carve Russia out for themselves and further their colonialist expansion into the periphery.
So giving Europe a major say in the alternative bloc will simply perpetuate the same neocolonial exploitation of the Global South except without the US, and not to mention that the EU/eurozone model is fundamentally a neoliberal conception that would be incompatible with a socialist bloc of the Global Majority that seeks to emancipate themselves from Western imperialism.
More than that, I don’t see the necessity of Europe in this except as a big consumer base to take in the exports of the Global South (and maybe some of their patented technology), but China can easily fill that role if they ever decide to give up on their super-exporter status and run a more balanced trade.
It won’t be the first time I said it but only China’s economy is large enough to take on that transformative role.
It’s as you have said elsewhere: de-dollarization will happen if and when China wants it to happen, and not before. Going against the USD requires a fully baked, comprehensive alternative (an alternative structure, not necessarily an alternative currency but the RMB will likely need to play a major role). There is only one nation that has the capacity to provide that alternative, and that’s China (I don’t think groups of smaller countries can pull this off in the same way the EU cannot truly act as a single unit). And China can only de-dollarize in concert with an economy that no longer relies on exports to the US (and practically speaking, less reliance on exports anywhere since we are talking about de-dollarization). And from your information it doesn’t sound like the CPC will even consider this until the current financial crises are weathered.
That said, if I want to be optimistic, there is perhaps a silver lining to delaying de-dollarization. It does give China time to plan and map out a de-dollarization strategy (and prepare the ground) for when another opportunity presents itself. A decade ago I don’t know if China was even planning for a future de-dollarization. But from the late Obama period with the failed TPP until now, I don’t see how the CPC cannot see that there is ultimately an expiration date on the so far mutually beneficial relationship with the US.
The problem here is that China is entrenching itself further into the dollar regime, not away from it.
And they’re probably more than happy to keep it that way - way too many people have accumulated their wealth and stored away in dollar assets. Hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars. And now the government wants to tell me they want to retake control of their own currencies and all the dollars I have earned over the past few decades are going to be turned into worthless pile of junk? No way in hell I’m going to comply with that!
But further than that, much of the problems China is facing today can be attributed to such entrenchment to the neoliberal order set by Washington. The $1 trillion trade surplus this year says as much - the message is loud and clear.
The economy is stifling? Because the working class is running out of money to spend.
Workers not being paid enough? Because wages have to be low to be export competitive.
Too heavy reliance on export? Because of a superstitious-like adherence to neoliberal dogma that you have to earn before you can spend.
Don’t get me wrong, China is doing impressively well given its conditions, but none of these indicates that the leadership is trending toward reclaiming its monetary sovereignty.
Let me end with a parable to illustrate the problem here:
The Apprentice learns from his Master, the renowned Champion in the game of Chinese checker. The Apprentice vows to best his master in ten years. And for ten years the Apprentice studied hard and practiced harder - all the possible permutations of the moves in the game, the Apprentice has learned it all.
One day, the Apprentice re-emerged in front of the Master, and challenged his former Master to a match and the title of the Champion itself. Demonstrating an impressive feat of skills not even the Master had anticipated, the former Apprentice appears to be gaining the upper hand. The defeat of the unbeaten Champion seems certain.
Suddenly, the Master started making strange moves, moves that are completely alien to the Apprentice. “But… that’s illegal. You’re not allowed to make such moves.”
The Master smirked, “Illegal? According to whom? I never told you this, but I was the one who made the rules in the first place, and I also deliberately taught you and every one of my students wrong, so you will never be able to best me.”
As long as the Apprentice plays by the rules set by the Master, he will never win another game again from the Master.
The the real whopper is, Chinese Checkers wasn't even invented in China
I wanted to say xiangqi aka Chinese chess. I didn’t even know Chinese checker is a completely different thing lol!
Relying on Europe is a fools errand. I know that many BRICS+ still believe that the pro-Gaullist stream has influence over european policy but the presence of america is too entrenched.