There’s way too much going on right now for me to really focus on any one country this week. The aftermath of the fall of the Nepal government has, somewhat surprisingly, reverberated around the world, and not only in countries that are enemies to the West as you’d expect; for example, Morocco’s government battle fiercely with Egypt’s and Jordan’s to be first in line to lick the dogshit off the boots of Zionists, and yet Morocco is currently embroiled in a large protest wave based primarily around a youth unemployment crisis (though their population is also remarkably pro-Palestinian, which generates additional friction). We’re also seeing similar protests in Madagascar, Peru, and Paraguay, and perhaps more will come. I’m personally fairly doubtful in the potential for meaningful economic results from these protests (the current imperialist system seems too deeply embedded for a movement that isn’t explicitly communist and anti-imperialist to alter conditions), but it is quite possible for new political results at least.
Outside of the developing world, it appears that the unpopularity of western leaders, such as in the UK, France, and Italy, is creating new levels of unrest. In Britain, the political system has become so utterly moribund that even the artificial democracy of a two-party system (more-or-less; the Lib Dems do exist I suppose) no longer suffices, with both Conservatives and Labour gradually sinking. The Reform party appears like it may become the new standard-bearer of the capitalists and petit-bourgeois - that is, the historical wellspring of fascism - and the Left Party (whatever name they eventually choose) may or may not rise to meet the occasion. In France, they’re on their fifth Prime Minister in two years, after Lecornu lasted about a month, attempting the liberal classic: promising change, and then appointing the exact same people who have ruled for the last few decades. And pro-Palestinian protests and general strikes have erupted in Italy, in defiance of their rightwing government under Meloni.
While there’s plenty of other events (e.g. continuing aggression against Venezuela that might soon erupt into a war) it would be remise of me not to mention the very much ongoing events vis-a-vis Palestine and a potential peace deal there, seemingly supported to some degree by Trump. It could be legitimate, and it could be some big act (very likely the latter, IMO). Both Trump and Netanyahu seem to believe that they’re very talented political masterminds, producing manoeuvres and feints that would make Machiavelli blush. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I trust the militant organizations inside Palestine to outplay these American failsons. Hamas and similar groups are not nearly as gullible as the Iranian reformist faction - though few people are!
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.
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.
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 keep having to remind people that China is not socialist in the traditional sense, nor is it capitalist at all.
It is Socialism with Chinese characteristics. Failing to understand this is what makes both supporters and detractors to continue to miss the point.
In brief, China is trying to build Socialism using Neoliberal principles.
And keep in mind that this is not a static phase - for the first 10 years of Xi Jinping’s administration, he vowed to fight and reverse the neoliberal trend that has becoming endemic within the country. This was an ambition supported by many Marxists in China at the time (路走歪了 aka “we had deviated from the path”), until the stunning reversal from last year and more explicitly, earlier this year, when Xi vowed the CPC unambiguous support for the sanctity of private capital.
With people like Li Qiang promoted to premier (famous for bringing Tesla into Shanghai to spur the Chinese EV industries, as well as the infamous “co-existing with Covid” ideology as Shanghai emulated Western-style targeted lockdown in defiance of Zero Covid), there is no doubt at this point that the reversal of neoliberal trend is being stopped in its tracks. The Dual Circulation Strategy has failed, and Covid had disrupted many of the local government finances. I don’t think Xi has a choice at this point.
It will be very interesting to see what comes out of the 15th Five Year Plan and we should have the details very soon: will the recklessness of local governments be curbed through re-centralization of power, or the ceding of power to private capital instead?
Having said that, China can immediately gain the recognition of left wing movements worldwide as a socialist superpower, while resolving its own internal contradictions, by simply doing the following:
I will note that there is no resource constraint in China to do any of the above - there is no shortage of skilled labor, technology and resources that can achieve all of the above. It is entirely self-imposed ideological constraints due to the need to adhere to IMF principles. All it has to do is to run up the deficit - a tough indoctrination to break.
Some people will argue “but what about poverty eradication??” - I will remind you that this was exactly the same path taken by other Asian capitalist countries including Japan and South Korea. Through industrial policy and export-led growth strategy, these countries/economies before China (remember the Four Asian Dragons?) were able to turn themselves into advanced economies through exporting huge amount of surplus values to Western countries before they are allowed to invest domestically to raise their own living standards - exactly as intended by IMF-led neoliberal free trade ideology.
So, in the end, it’s an ideological battle. We will see how the material conditions will force a change in policy by the Chinese leadership, who is now frantically battling low consumption, plunging property sector and an export sector vulnerable to tariff shocks. The 15th Five Year Plan will be very interesting indeed…
I think this is a non starter rethorically because you’re making a rather subtle point. You’re not arguing that there are no things in China which a normie would identify with western capitalism, you’re the biggest accuser of Chinese neoliberalism. Nor are you arguing the reverse. You’re saying, if I’m not mistaken, that the government is still at the top of things and is at a crossroads when it comes to dealing with the ongoing characteristics: re-centralize development, cede power to the privates or, more likely, some combination of the two.
I say this is a non-starter rethorically because ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ is a phrase used in the west with a bit a smirk, its the Chinese pretending they are still socialist.
Yes, the phrase “socialism with Chinese characteristics” came from the CPC itself, how foreigners define it is irrelevant.
Although, its definition is somewhat flexible in itself, and will be bent to suit the ruling ideology of the particular time for political legitimacy purpose. However, it is not hard to see how much it is entangled with the introduction of neoliberal ideas into the country.
I will maintain my point that neoliberalism is a phase in Chinese socialism, just like how NEP was a phase under USSR pertinent to a particular time period and its specific context. My argument has always been that transitioning beyond this phase should have been done at least 10 years ago. It probably isn’t easy given how entrenched it is at this point, which is probably why we see little progress, but it is ultimately necessary to move beyond that.
I do not subscribe to the idea that the so-called “reform and open up” ideology can be positively sustained at this stage of economic development in China. We need to resolve the wealth inequality issue as soon as possible to allow the domestic economy to stimulate and sustain itself, especially with the unwinding of property/infrastructure building era and the slowing export sector.
At this point, I don’t think it’s Socialism with Chinese Characteristics that have to be emphasized as an ideology
I feel like it’s more like Asian Tiger model with Communist Party of China characteristics - because frankly, while I’m let down by the lack of socialism, I’m nonetheless interested in its technological and social progress.
Well, good luck!
I will argue that it is still socialist in the sense that it remains the committed goal of the CPC.
One might as well argue that the USSR was not socialist because it had 7-8 years of NEP, which anti-communists love to claim as evidence of “socialism doesn’t work!” or it was nothing more than “state capitalism”.
The question is in what specific path should one take to reach Socialism? And bear in mind that the developmental path is always dynamic. We’ve had Mao’s planning era, we’ve had Deng’s reform and open up era, we’ve had the Hu/Wen’s neoliberal era, and we are now in Xi’s “attempt to reverse neoliberalism” era. The specific policies are always changing. (It is always funny to see people say China is still in Dengist reform stage, when we have moved so far beyond that. It’s like saying Obama’s or even Trump’s America is Reaganism - technically true, but Reagan himself would be shocked to see the hyper-financialization of America in its current form)
What lies ahead remains undetermined, although I am obviously concerned about the hold of Western neoclassical theories (or more specifically, the localized version in the form of New Structural Economics by Justin Lin Yifu) on Chinese economic policy.
I think even “attempt to reverse neoliberalism” is not wholly accurate - I get the impression it’s more about better controlling, regulating and directing neoliberalism - which also entails continued opening up but trying to do in a way that balances the harms of neoliberalism with the potential benefits of the private market approach
I agree entirely that a deeper and accelerated transition to the next step on a the socialist developmental path would overwhelmingly address China’s current contradictions
did the Three Red Lines/三条红线 help with this in practice? i remember xi jinping’s slogan when he announced this being “houses are for living, not for speculation.” did it succeed or fail or was it a compromise or what?