maysaloon

Doesn't matter. Banks are evil but forced on us by capitalism. There's no ethical bank afaik. They wouldn't survive competition.

What does pro-Assad mean? Are they coordinating with him? They wanna put him back in power? What's your proof?

Or you mean they simply like him?

it doesn't seem like this is just them suddenly deciding to stop the "extra judicial murders"

It's not sudden. This isn't the first act of resistance, but this is the most organized we've seen. They have been complaining for months about these killings.

There's certainly enough alawites armed or military trained to do this. They're more military trained than any other group ever since the French occupation days.

Being organized doesn't justify the falsehoods in the reporting. They've been getting murdered for 3 months now, surely they had enough time to organize.

Thanks for pasting excerpts from Wikipedia and confirming what I said, but what exactly is your point now? How does this relate to this group being an assadist group and not alawites putting an end to the daily murders of their people?

I would appreciate if you lead with your point / argument then justify it.

They want to justify killing them more. Depressing.

You're speaking about Ibrahim houija. That guy was head of air force intelligence in the 80's and 90's. Do research before believing propaganda.

They're not Assad linked. They're fighting against the almost daily extra judicial murders and violence against the alawite minority in the coast.

Assad is gone.

They're not lying. This is outdated info. Government already announced hama has fallen to HTS.

You know you're white your country has an official Twitter account for drama posting.

They chickened out and didn't carry through... For now

if a group of people were to head to a developing country

Although not essential to my point, I am not encouraging people to move anywhere. This is under the assumption that the people of that specific country gather to do this, not for people to immigrate for it.

a more concrete arrangement and place within the local economy, etc. would be more ideal (and probably necessary for survival/viability) IMO.

Can you please expand this point? I don't quite understand what this "more concrete arrangement and..." is exactly, and why it's needed.

when those with such resources to start such a thing could also genuinely create the foundations for something even more broadly-reaching and potentially, politically/etc. potent.

I don't necessarily agree with this. A capitalist state is much more likely to persecute someone doing this, but much less likely a commune. And when you're just starting out, you're quite vulnerable to the state, especially the mass surveillance and hyper militarized police states of today.

pursue a trade surplus with the wider world

I just don't see why that's needed. Capitalists trade to accumulate capital, whereas a commune is interested in growing its ability to produce in a self sufficient manner.

Why not try to create a mini-China?

That's... Actually kind of what I'm getting at. And maybe you phrased it better than I could have.

but I don't see why remaining a commune

Not intended to stay that way, which is why I called it a starting point!

Why shouldn't it compete with private industry

The goal is to produce what the members of the commune need. If that can be produced locally, I don't see a need to compete.

Why, especially in developing (ie. colonized) countries, should the focus be on a limited commune's development rather than promoting industrial and economic development in the broader region

If I understood you correctly (sorry English isn't my native), you're asking why only serve the limited number of members of the commune, and not other people in the same region not part of the commune.

If so, the commune would have a goal to expand. It would promote people to join it, participate, and then it can cover the needs of more and more. Growth is part of the plan.