Image is from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists' recent article on Kashmir.
It looks like the spat between India and Pakistan could be dying down, due to a new ceasefire. As of the time of me writing this paragraph, it seems both sides want to maintain it (despite some reports of violations here and there).
Both sides have declared victory, which is completely expected given their mutual political parties and nationalist histories. It's a little harder to say which side has actually won, as both sides seem to have managed to shoot down aircraft and hit military bases. India has, in my opinion, had the more embarrassing moments, but international conflicts aren't cringe compilations. I feel no good-will towards Pakistan's comprador government, but it is at least nice to see Modi knocked down a few pegs. Regardless of the final technical victor, it's obvious that - if the ceasefire is maintained - who won are the hundreds of millions of people who won't have to live in fear of dying in nuclear hellfire.
This conflict is a good example of what multipolarity will truly entail. Countries that have been previously limited in their nationalist ambitions by American pressure will now take opportunities to revolt, sometimes against America itself, and sometimes against other countries in their regional neighbourhood. It's also why, as communists, our goals do not stop at multipolarity; it is merely the establishing act of a new era of agitation against peripheral and semi-peripheral capitalist countries that are forming powerful national bourgeoisie classes as the international American capitalists are forced away.
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.
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.
1 lmao zizek 2 agreed. Imo sachs et al can be right on the facts here, but the context of their careers must be taken into account as well
His past is actually the reason why he’s useful. He can go and talk at big respectable conferences and get the ear of powerful people whereas people who have been principled anti-imperialists all of their lives cannot.
His role is not convince principled leftists of the facts of the situation. We are already well convinced. His role is to convince the masses of conservative normies, people who believe in credentials, powerful lobbyists and politicians, etc.
He's vastly more useful than the hordes of "I used to be a fascist until I got radicalized by radlib memes" Breadtubers.
Many of those are still fascists but have slipped the mask on, too. Fuck 'em. I'm trying to keep them out of /r/BreadTube, at least, though
is probably very much a lost cause. LOL.
Indeed, same with mearsh. It is unfair to directly compare the two since sachs doesn’t seem to have the same viciousness for china
To be fair, Mearsheimer seems to take the stance that he thinks it's in the U.S.'s (state) interests to go after China, but doesn't seem to personally like that fact or anything. Though he tends not to talk about the latter as much as the former.
He's a weird dude. I don't blame anyone for being skeptical of his motives, and subscribe to that skepticism quite a bit myself, too.
He’s also said he’s invested in US interests because he’s an American, no?
Yes. Tha was his posture in the interview with IGL. He basically is a chauvinist because he is a yank
Dunno. Maybe.
I think that on some level people sorta assume that someone like Jeffrey Sachs - neoliberal economist at the vanguard of pillaging the USSR - had the perfect redemption arc. You can easily imagine a true believer in neoliberal economics, but also politically reasonable in a way that he'd make suggestions that the dismantling of the USSR would never abide. It makes sense to, because that's kinda like how Jeffrey memorializes himself. Then that person lived long enough to see China's ascension and the US' insanity disprove all of their fundamental beliefs in life.
The cherry on top is that same Jeffrey Sachs goes onto debate against someone like Mearsheimer on the notion that China is inevitably going to behave in the same pattern as the US and the European empires did, fundamentally on the belief that current China treasures peace more than any western elite group ever did.
You’re right, this reminded me that they differ on that point. Hopefully this leopard can change his spots