Image (of a Jamaat e-Islami campaign rally) and much of the information below is sourced from here and here.
In 2024, the government of Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League, was overthrown in a student-led protest movement which was boosted by US interests. In the interim, Nobel laureate and dyed-in-the-wool neoliberal Muhammad Yunus was made president, and introduced a series of economic and political reforms (e.g. IMF packages and banking sector restructuring) which have sidelined the working class and aligned the country with US financial interests. Regardless of anybody's personal feelings towards Hasina (who did indeed make many mistakes and caused many deaths), it is now very clear that the reason why Hasina was overthrown was not due to a humanitarian, anti-authoritarian impulse, but because Bangladesh had at least some measure of sovereignty while she was in power, as she accepted Chinese infrastructure investments. Certainly, the US is perfectly comfortable with genocidal dictators if they are allied with US interests.
Last week, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party won over two thirds of parliamentary seats - the Awami League was banned from participating at all, and worker-aligned parties were either disallowed or decided to withdraw from participating due to repression. I haven't personally been able to nail down what exact economic/foreign policies they want to introduce, but because of what Yunus has set up in the interim, it might not matter that much - the economic stage has been set such that no matter what party took power, they would have to accept a fait accompli. As Vijay Prashad put it, the competition between the parties is reduced to "which faction will administer austerity"?
One of the many upsetting aspects of this election was that the student movement that helped overthrown Hasina have been forced into irrelevance, despite their legitimate grievances. The "Gen Z" protestors, displeased by the prospect of being ruled by the BNP about as much as the Awami League, found themselves with odd bedfellows, and allied with the now-opposition party (the hardline Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami). They are now in a tough bind, lacking much of the necessary left-wing organization to assert a genuine political project.
This is an instructive moment for many people who are desperate for better conditions in countries that are economically struggling, including Iran with its recent protests. If your country has sovereignty from the US, you walk a very dangerous tightrope - how do you organize for better conditions in such a way that it cannot be co-opted by the US to overthrow your government and put something even more terrible in its wake? Shortly after a jubilant revolutionary moment, you are left without influence, power, or even media representation, and now yet further under the repression of Western imperialism. This is one of the many problems that the population of the non-NATO world will need to find ways to overcome.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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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.
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.
The commander of United States Southern Command (US SOUTHCOM), the US military combatant command for the Carribean and Latin America, General Francis L. Donovan, made an unannounced visit to Caracas, Venezuela today.
Source, US SOUTHCOM Twitter/X
Yep, they betrayed Maduro.
I don't think anyone in Venezuela has much of a choice in the matter. It's either they do what the US wants, or the US will kill them. The Maduro seizure/kidnapping makes this a credible threat.
:this:
A choice between fighting and a long angonizing death, all thanks to imperialist explotation. And I'm not sure about the long part.
I wonder what el Che would have done...
Well I mean you could lay down your life for the revolution. That's a choice.
It's a choice that forces the US to keep killing. Statistically they'd probably find a lackey, someone weak, a comprador sooner than later but in theory if you have good succession order, solid discipline it would force them into a protracted engagement and deployment of forces. Not something I think the US can deal with. They'd get tired of bombing eventually and they're not going to commit to an occupation or landing tons of troops so they have to eventually give up. Sucks to be among those dying but at a certain point you start acting like irregular militants and making yourself harder to target in their drone wars and force the US to expend more resources than they want.
and the US sure hates that
All of this hinges on the social relations. If there is no change in the class relations your revolution promised, then there is nothing to reproduce the discipline and tolerance to violence that confronting imperialism demands.
The Viet Minh would've folded within months if not for the fact that they had a reason to shake off the occupiers. Hamas would have ceased existing decades ago if they weren't the gauze over the wound to Palestine's jugular. Chinese revolutionary strategy was modelled around the intersection of military and social revolution.
I don't think it's a settled score with Venezuela. As much as they collaborate, the state at least believes in advancing the communal model of social relations. Those are the sorts of apparatus that will long outlive the successors of the state itself. With luck, they may well be overthrown by the very communards they are raising today.
Agreed but I worry that they may let the US burrow in too deep. They're setting up CIA in that place and plan to try Ukraine 2.0 (soil not as fertile I admit but still).
It's like injecting yourself with cancer cells to stave off the gun pointed at your head. Sure it buys you some time but if it goes long without being treated (removed) it's going to surely cause your death. They better hope whoever replaces Trump doesn't care, is incredibly incompetent, or has their hands tied too much to react so they can kick them out in 3 years tops and even that's a risky game to play. Because otherwise it's just a matter of time.
Please read American history of warfare. The United States would never get tired of bombing my country. The only limitations might be their supply and logistical capabilities. They dropped more munitions on Vietnam and Korea than during the firebombing of Germany and Tokyo of WWII.
I ask you, why should my country be turned to ash and cinder so it can maintain a “principled communist government”. When there’s other ways to go about it.
In hindsight, Cuba should have sent 250 troops as Maduro's personal guard. The cost would have outweighed the current lack of Venezuelan oil.
Maybe you should stop talking
No hay peor ciego que aquel que no quiere ver.
Tratar de silenciar las voces dicientes no lo va a hacer menos real, no llevaron a la revolución hasta sus últimas consecuencias. Ahora no les queda otra que lustrar la bota yankee, mientras esperán que el Dorito termine su mandato en el norte. No obstante, todo materialista sabe que la burguesía yankee está más que contenta con los resultados de la medida que tomó el pedo in office.
Cuba decidió pelear, y lo sigue haciendo. Ni hablemos de los bolches. Pelearon hasta el amargo final. Estos entregaron a Maduro, su "figurehead" como les gusta decir a los anglos, en bandeja.
Si vos querés tener de aliada a una traidora, allá vos.
PD: Anglo, escuchame, lográ una revolución socialista en norteamérica o europa occidental antes de mandar a callar a un suramericano. Estos son traidores a la revolución. No te comás el cuento ;)
No es justo hacer esa evaluación sin tener evidencia adicional como los planes de Delcy Rodriguez, o Diosdado Cabello. Los cubanos aun negociaban con los Americanos, hasta cuando llego Obama. Los Coreanos del Norte se han sentando con los gringos a discutir polizas internas del país.
La negociación no es necesariamente una traición de la ideología bolivariana y el socialismo del siglo 21.
El tema es cuando tenés al presidente siendo secuestrado, súbitamente, en un instante. Mientras que el resto de la dirigencia comienza a entregarse a USA. No estamos hablando de negociaciones, estamos hablando de entregas. Cuando ya tenés establecida una "cooperación contra el narcoterrorismo" sabés que se están siguiendo el panfleto de las naciones subordinadas al imperialismo yankee.
Nuevamente, no por nada Maduro repartió armas. Sabía que la alternativa era estar a merced de los capitalistas.
Por su parte, los cubanos supieron manejar las aguas al ser conscientes que por todo Obama vas a tener un Trump. Y es inevitable, porque así funciona el capitalismo imperialista.
Viendo las medidas que están tomando, todo apunta a una entrega. Vos preguntate, "¿qué hubiese hecho el Che si los yankees secuestraban a Fidel después de Bahía?". Ahí tenés la diferencia.
Es triste, pero es real.
I don't know why this is such a controversial take. They absolutely made a deal, whether before or after the abduction, to collaborate with the empire rather than risk confronting it. It's plain-and-simple material conditions - the dominant military power has exerted its will on the subordinate one. Whether it does so willingly or not is a matter for historians to decide, but the result is the same.
Without the mechanisms to confront the imperial forces there lies only submission, and bickering over Maduro or Delcy or whoever is tangential to the fact that the US was always going to extract whatever it wanted from a country whose security relied on hoping the threats would never materialize.