this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Image is of thousands of Cubans gathering in 2026 to honor José Martí.


After the Soviet Union fell, in the 1990s, Cuba entered a period (known as the Special Period) of extreme economic pressure, losing almost all of its international trade and fuel imports. Caloric intake almost halved, and electricity was mostly unavailable for much of the day. In response, Cuba undertook Option Zero, in which the country prioritized distributing resources to the most vulnerable, and rationed what little was available as fairly as possible. During this time, the threat of total collapse led to experiments and innovations, and, paradoxically to those on the outside, Cuba's population came together under pressure, rather than shattering. The collective understanding that their suffering resulted from abroad rather than from internal inefficiencies and corruption meant that Cuba's government, and thus their sovereignty, survived.

As the American Empire contracts in the wake of multipolarity and can now no longer tolerate sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere, we are seeing a return to the time of the Special Period, with the illegal blockade being dramatically worsened - among other measures, the US is preventing all fuel from entering the island, a strategy made more viable with Venezuela's fuel exports now restricted. Imperialist supporters are predicting an imminent collapse, after which American mining corporations would descend on Cuba's massive nickel and cobalt reserves.

While it's absolutely possible that this time Cuba's government could collapse, it's important to note four things: 1) as noted, Cuba has been in a situation like this before and survived; 2) the geopolitical situation is quite different to how it was in the 1990s, with China and other powers increasing in power and influence compared to the USSR's incompetent final leaders leaving the lane wide open to American exploitation; 3) there has been a concerted effort to transition to renewable energy sources recently, with solar panels being imported from China and making up an increasing amount of the energy supply; and 4) Cuba's government is taking this threat very seriously, and beginning rationing efforts immediately.


Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

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The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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.

Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.

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.


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[–] coolusername@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

A lot of this isn't true. There's no cultural confusion. The CPC purposefully misinterpreted a poll for national propaganda reasons. There are no Taiwanese from a Chinese background that believe they aren't from a Chinese background.

"Why is the PLA in X country instead of liberating our compatriots in Taiwan?"

From who, the KMT? They should have done that a LONG time ago!! The CPC would have full legitimacy if they took out the KMT before they could oppress the people living in Taiwan at the time. Way too much time has passed. The people of Taiwan really have zero relation to the CPC. All the CPC arguments for why Taiwan is theirs doesn't hold up. "Taiwanese are Chinese" - I guess they own Vancouver now? Or wherever there are Chinese people.
"The war never ended" ok, might is right but your war was against the KMT, who are from China. That's great, continue the war against them. They're all over 80 years old now. What's the point?
"Taiwanese are closer to the evil Japanese (who committed countless war crimes) than us so they are bad" I guess?
"Taiwan has always been a part of China" no it hasn't. Throughout imperial Chinese history Taiwan was seen as a land of disease and barbarians and of zero use to anyone.

I am all for the returning of the stuff that the KMT stole from China AND the people of Taiwan. No I don't like the DPP and how they go along with US propaganda but the alternative is to go full Yemeni and Taiwanese are way way way too comfortable for that.

[–] QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml 41 points 3 days ago (1 children)

“Taiwan” in its current political form is the unresolved remnant of a defeated reactionary regime, preserved by imperialist intervention. It is not a neutral “society that drifted away,” but a Cold War client structure built to block the completion of the Chinese revolution. Most of your arguments quietly erase that history.

“The CPC would have full legitimacy if they took out the KMT before they could oppress the people living in Taiwan at the time.”

This ignores a central fact: the CPC did not “choose” to stop at the strait. In 1950, the PLA was preparing for Taiwan operations when the US intervened directly via the Seventh Fleet after the outbreak of the Korean War. That intervention froze the civil war and militarily guaranteed the survival of the KMT regime. This is not speculation; it is openly acknowledged US policy. Without that intervention, the ROC state on Taiwan would not exist. Blaming the CPC for not completing reunification while ignoring US naval containment is ahistorical.

“The people of Taiwan really have zero relation to the CPC.”

The CPC is not a bloodline or a cultural club. It is the ruling party of the Chinese state that emerged from a popular revolution. “Relation” here is political and historical, not sentimental. The majority population of Taiwan is Han Chinese (with roots generally in Fujian) whose families largely arrived during Ming–Qing settlement or with the KMT retreat. Their language, kinship networks, religious practices, and economic ties are overwhelmingly Chinese. That does not obligate them to “like” the CPC, but it does make the claim of “zero relation” incoherent.

More importantly, this argument quietly treats the KMT state and it's successors as the natural representative of Taiwan’s people, when in reality it was a settler regime imposed under martial law for nearly four decades, during which Taiwanese political identity was violently suppressed. The DPP did not emerge from some ancient Taiwanese nation; it emerged from contradictions within that ROC structure.

“‘Taiwanese are Chinese’ I guess they own Vancouver now?”

This is a category error. No serious CPC argument claims sovereignty based on ethnicity alone. The PRC’s claim is based on state succession and territorial continuity: Taiwan was returned to China after Japan’s defeat (Cairo and Potsdam Declarations), and the ROC lost the civil war. Vancouver was never part of the Chinese state. Taiwan was. Equating diaspora communities under capitalism with a disputed postwar territory is either ignorance or bad faith.

“‘The war never ended’ your war was against the KMT, who are all over 80 now. What’s the point?”

Wars are not annulled by age. The Chinese Civil War ended militarily on the mainland but was frozen internationally, not resolved. The ROC continued to claim sovereignty over all of China for decades, occupied China’s UN seat until 1971, and functioned as a forward base of US military power. The “point” is not personal vengeance against old men; it is the unresolved question of sovereignty created by imperialist containment.

“‘Taiwan has always been part of China’ no it hasn’t.”

This is half-true and therefore misleading. Taiwan was not always tightly administered, just as many frontier regions in premodern states were loosely governed. That does not mean it was “outside China” in the modern sense. Qing sovereignty was real, if uneven. More importantly, modern sovereignty does not rest on how much an island was romanticized by imperial officials centuries ago. In the modern age it rests on post World War II settlements and state succession. After 1945, Taiwan was returned to China. The dispute since then is not ancient history; it is Cold War geopolitics.

“Taiwanese are closer to the evil Japanese than us so they are bad.”

This is a strawman. The serious critique is not cultural affinity but colonial legacy. Japanese rule materially reshaped Taiwan in ways that the KMT later exploited, while suppressing indigenous and working-class agency. Pointing that out is not moralizing about “bad people”; it is analyzing how colonial layers produced today’s contradictions.

[–] built_on_hope@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Good post thank you comrade. I was surprised to see so much made up speculation on the bear site

[–] QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Unfortunately not unusual for people to have warped views of China and Chinese matters even in leftist spaces often due to personal or environmental reasons.

[–] Boise_Idaho@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Coolusername lives in Taiwan and has understandingly ingested too much green media.

[–] QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago

That makes sense so in this case it was a mix of the environment and personal connection leading to a twisted understanding

[–] Coolkidbozzy@hexbear.net 15 points 3 days ago

Don't the KMT want reunification too? Xi is possibly meeting with the leader of the KMT next month after a successful CPC-KMT think tank a few days ago. We will have to wait and see if developments come out of it

[–] IsThisLoss@hexbear.net 15 points 3 days ago

I guess they own Vancouver now

sicko-wistful

[–] Boise_Idaho@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago

I think you need to stop watching green media.