this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
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Image is from this Black Agenda Report article by the Communist Party of Kenya.


In June, large anti-government protests shook Kenya. President Ruto and his parliament were attempting to pass the new Finance Bill 2024, which, among other things, would have hiked taxes on the population, with a 16% sales tax on bread and a 25% duty on cooking oil, as well as new taxes on financial transanctions and vehicle ownership. There would also have been levies on women's sanitary products and digital goods such as phones, among other measures affecting hospitals.

Hundreds of protestors stormed the parliament building and began to tear the place apart. Shortly afterwards, on June 26th, Ruto announced that he was withdrawing the bill, calling the tens of deaths and hundreds of injuries "unfortunate". A couple weeks later, Ruto then fired his entire cabinet (aside from his foreign minister) and communicated his wish to the nation to form a "broad-based government". Funnily enough, in July, it was announced that the majority of positions were to be filled by members of the old cabinet, while other positions were taken by members of the opposition. This has prompted scepticism among the population, including calls to resign, but there haven't (yet) been any major anti-government events to pressure this outcome. The Communist Party of Kenya has been working to get some of their comrades back after they were abducted by the police during the protest period, and have otherwise supported the protests against Ruto.

The measures in the bill were strongly encouraged by the IMF. Kenya's debt is currently around $80 billion, of which about 10% is owed to China for infrastructure projects (such as a railway linking the capital, Nairobi, to the port city of Mombasa, as well as 11,000 kilometers of road throughout the country). The rest is owed to a combination of the US, IMF, World Bank, and Saudi Arabia. More than half of government revenue is going towards repaying the debt - but despite these massive payments, it has only grown. The most recent round of IMF plundering (and the impetus for current events) began in 2021, when they offered a 38-month programme to "help" Kenya, which would involve the usual warfare on the poor and the dismemberment of any useful societal institutions.


The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Kenya! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli 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 Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.

Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.

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.
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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[–] trompete@hexbear.net 36 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There were elections in Thuringia and in Saxony. The CDU probably has to form coalitions including the BSW (Wagenknecht), who wants concessions regarding military aid for Ukraine.

So the atlanticists at Die Zeit are worried (archive) this will break the transatlantic consensus inside the CDU/CSU and torpedo future coalitions with the Greens (CDU/Greens would be the dream team of US bootlickers).

I'll believe it when I see it. These people have such a grip on all the things, they'll figure something out. Probably Wagenknecht will cave.

Anyway, I have some great quotes:

Support for Ukraine does not come from the party's gut or genes, but requires a permanent political effort on the part of the leadership. Western ties are not a state, but a process: someone has to bind. Solidarity with Ukraine does not just happen, it has to be generated.

Yeah no shit.

In the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, the CDU has always been a guarantor of value-driven foreign policy, at least when it came to the foundations: Western ties, Europe, Israel.

Driven by value alright, shareholder value. Also I love the "at least" in there, I guess even the author felt too embarrassed saying this with a straight face. They took briefcases full of cash from arms dealers lol.

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[–] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 36 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 35 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The Country of the Week is Kenya!

Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to Kenya.

If you know a lot about the country and want to share your knowledge and opinions, here are some questions to get you started if you wish:

spoiler

  • What is the general ideology of the political elite? Do they tend to be protectionist nationalists, or are they more free trade globalists? Are they compradors put there by foreign powers? Are they socialists with wide support by the population?
  • What are the most important domestic political issues that make the country different from other places in the region or world? Are there any peculiar problems that have continued existing despite years or decades with different parties?
  • Is the country generally stable? Are there large daily protests or are things calm on average? Is the ruling party/coalition generally harmonious or are there frequent arguments or even threats?
  • Is there a particular country to which this country has a very impactful relationship over the years, for good or bad reasons? Which one, and why?
  • What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
  • Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
  • How socially progressive or conservative is the country generally? To what degree is there equality between men and women, as well as different races and ethnic groups? Are LGBTQIA+ rights protected?
  • Give a basic overview of the last 50 or 100 years. What's the historical trend of politics, the economy, social issues, etc - rise or decline? Were they always independent or were they once occupied, and how have things been since independence if applicable?
  • If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?

Check out the reading list.

  • Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins (2005).
  • Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire by David Anderson (2005).
  • The Building of the Communist Party of Kenya by the Communist Party of Kenya (2023).
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[–] PointAndClique@hexbear.net 35 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I appreciate the effort to get to the acab number but we're not gunna beat the trans mega if we keep losing comments :(

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[–] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 35 points 3 months ago

Venezuelan Prosecutor Summons Former Candidate Gonzalez for the Second Time - Telesur

Article

He will have to answer for the publication of fake information regarding the results of the presidential elections.

On Monday, Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab summoned former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez for the second time to appear and testify in an investigation against him.

He is required to appear on Tuesday to answer questions regarding the publication and maintenance of a website through which the far-right Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) attempted to promote narratives about an alleged electoral fraud, claiming that 83.5 percent of the voting records from the July 28 presidential election had been uploaded in its website.

The dissemination of false information occurred before the National Electoral Council (CNE) released the first official election results, in which President Nicolas Maduro won by a wide margin over Gonzalez.

As a result, the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office summoned the PUD leader to testify in a case for the “alleged commission of crimes including usurpation of functions, forgery of public documents, incitement to disobey the law, computer crimes, association to commit a crime, and conspiracy.”

On Sunday, the far-right politician posted a video on social media criticizing the summons issued by Attorney General Saab but did not confirm whether he would attend the first hearing, which was scheduled for the morning of Monday. If found guilty, Gonzalez could face up to 16 years in prison.

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 34 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-harris-doctrine/

to me it reads like "lol no"

*"but with sad face"

[–] FuckyWucky@hexbear.net 34 points 3 months ago (1 children)
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[–] FuckyWucky@hexbear.net 34 points 2 months ago
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