Image is a map of the Western Sahara, sourced from this article in the Middle East Eye. Much of the information in the preamble also came from there, as well as this article.
November 6th marked the 50th anniversary of Morocco, under King Hassan II, beginning the invasion and occupation of much of the territory of the Western Sahara. Today, approximately 80% of the territory of the Western Sahara is controlled by Morocco, with the Polisario Front - the government of the Sahrawis - controlling the rest, hugging the border of Mauritania. Between them lies one of the longest walls and one of the largest minefields on the planet, of which construction began in the 1980s.
The legitimacy of Morocco’s control over the Western Sahara is one of those long-lasting diplomatic issues which ultimately doesn’t seem to matter very much in terms of on-the-ground realities, and reveals the eternal uselessness of the United Nations especially in regard to actually helping oppressed people. Up until about 2020, the US and certain other Western countries did not formally recognize Morocco as having sovereignty over the whole territory, but in terms of providing genuine opposition to Morocco, it seems that Algeria is the major player in the region. While American, European, and Moroccan corporations exploit the fisheries and phosphate minerals of the region, protected by their minefields (and claims of merely advancing the cause of renewable energy development, AKA greenwashing), Algeria provides what aid they can to support the displaced Sahrawi people, many of whom have been forced to live in refugee camps.
On October 31st, the US put forward a resolution in the UN Security Council which was adopted (Russia and China abstained) and provided major support to Morocco, urging the Polisario Front to adopt the 2007 “autonomy plan”, which would, despite its name, be synonymous with an end to their independence movement. Such a plan was met with much jubilation in Morocco, with King Mohammed VI remarking "From now on, there will be a before and an after October 31, 2025.” Such a date was also the catalyst for the PF intensifying their guerilla struggle against Morocco, as legal avenues for autonomy and basic human rights are running out as the imperialists grow more desperate.
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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.
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.
Russia and China abstained. They said the US rushed the whole thing through without giving anyone time to even properly discuss it.
The problem is that this was supported by the Palestinian Authority, the Arab states, and Turkey. We here all know that these are compradors doing the US’s bidding in the Middle East, but to the broader world this looks like Muslims are united in supporting it.
It would be a very bad look for Russia and China to openly oppose something that apparently (this is how the media presents it) Muslims themselves don’t. The West’s propaganda would immediately spin it as Russia and China standing in the way of peace for their own geopolitical reasons.
They would blame Russia and China for any further war and Palestinian deaths, and a lot of Muslims internationally would believe it which would seriously damage what Russia and China are trying to do with the multipolar world. From their point of view it is better to let the US and the Arab states “own” this, especially since it is likely to be yet another failure.
I’m not saying they were right to not veto. I’m angry and disappointed too. I’m just saying that this is how the Russians and the Chinese are looking at this in the broader global context.
Their veto would just paint Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian resistance as Russian/Chinese proxies since Hamas have spoken out against the deal while the rest of the Sunni Muslim world is apparently on board. This will have unforeseen ramifications if you have almost all (Sunni) Muslim countries and the PA support the deal while Russia/China/Iran, Iranian “proxies” like Hezbollah and Ansarallah, and Hamas oppose the deal. They did try painting Hamas as Iranian proxies, but that largely floundered because Hamas is Sunni while Iran is Shia. But selling Hamas as a Russian/Chinese proxy could work by delegitimizing their Muslim/Sunni credentials. After all, haven’t the rest of the Sunni world, including the custodian of Mecca and Medina and the internationally recognized government of Palestine, support the deal?
The Zionists have placed a political trap where China and Russia lose out either way, so China and Russia is choosing the path of least resistance.
That’s a great analysis. I don’t mean to give into the hopes that “China/Russia must save us” because I know that can’t happen. This just illustrated how the UNSC and global geopolitics are not the fair game with rational politics, but actually a smokescreen for our imperialism. The fact that you describe why they can’t stop it so well, but this is so clearly an evil act by American empire to those with eyes to see, it’s very frustrating.
At the end of the day, we did the genocide, now our capitalists will make even more money and we will get another base built on the rubble is just…so disgusting
after the fall of Syria they have basically no pull in the region anyway, its very hard to imagine abstention benefitting them more than denying UN legitimacy to the “ISF”. UN shit is greatly undervalued by the second world
The fall of Syria doesn’t change the fact that Russia is a global player and maintains important relations with Muslim countries.
And they maintain close relationship with israhell as well, given its massive russophone minority. As long as the Ukraine war rages on, there just isnt enough capital to invest in changing the status quo in the region. It seems most of the muslim countries prefer the gulf anyways, so trying to do anti-imperialist actions in the region would be micromanaging and triaging a hostile environment which sees anti-imperialism as sectarianism or shia supremacy. I mean Iran didnt even purge its liberals, this just shows how unwilling they are to confront. It is analogous to trying to do communism again 1990s eastern europe.