When I met my former coworker for the first time, she said material conditions and that's when I knew.
Iraqi Ba'athists self crit of their first 5 years in power: https://www.marxists.org/history/iraq/baath/index.htm
It's a good outline of their views and their description of the region and country's role.
Ba'athists are not chauvinists they are Arab nationalists, wanting to unite the Arabic speaking peoples against colonialism. However, they live in diverse countries with significant numbers of non-Arabic cultures. Previous iterations of the Arab Nationlist movement like the Nasserists wanted to immediately unite Arab majority countries while the Ba'athists realized they need to first unite the cultures within their countries and then building a greater indigenous state in the region to fight European (and Turk) colonialism. So the Ba'ath in Iraq started a popular front with the Kurdish communities, but the tensions with Kurds, Arabs, and Persians in the Levant was already strained by Imperialist strategy before the Ba'ath seized power. The popular front was in the right direction of peace and unity until the war with a Iran, who's new government hated the Arab socialists.
Now, on the gas attacks, we have to know a few things. The US only blamed Iraq for the attacks retroactively, and in fact initially blamed Iran. The only witnesses of the attacks from the outside were Iranian journalists, working alongside British "journalists". When the US switched to blame Iraq, in preparation for the sanctions they would lay on Iraq in the 90s to choke out the Ba'ath, they claimed that they knew it was Iraq the whole time and only blamed Iran because Iraq was their "ally". Neither Iraq nor Iran ever claimed the US to be an ally. Iraq had been fighting Kurdish insurgents who were being organized by US/UK and Iranian intelligence, Iraq had real reasons to be fighting in Kurdish territory in the north. The Iranians had been occupying the village up until the day of the attack, where they quietly retreated in the morning before the attack. Now we also have the false flag accusations against Syria and Libya, where British intelligence worked with the so-called White Helmets to fabricate a chemical attack to justify the American occupation in the Kurdish region of Syria as well as NATO funding for ISIS, I mean the "moderate rebels".
A lot of these attacks towards the Ba'aths come retroactively. To me, an obvious attempt to discredit the Ba'ath based on inflating the "relationship" between the US and Iraq. By pretending to be an ally of Iraq, and acknowledging some of the US's bad history of intervention, they were able to divide the left on Iraq and later Libya and Syria. "We were bad but now we are good and we gotta get rid of the monsters we've accidentally created while doing realpolitik". I think even people like Parenti fell for this. Meanwhile the only real theme in these events is that the US and British supported rebels against anti-Imperialists governments wherever they could.
Ba'athists were originally Marxists and scientific socialists (they have since grown into "big tents"). They split with the Comintern communists in West Asia due to those parties being weak on French and British Imperialism as well as the early Comintern lines on Israel. They are primarily focused on building socialist states in the region to eventually merge into an Arab Socialist nation. It's a decolonization movement. However, Bashar's father was a revisionist who caused MLs to leave the Ba'ath in Syria. The Iraqi Ba'athists held the original lines up until they were ousted in 2003. Overall they are very watered down on the ML side and more-so focused on the NatLib side of things.
One more thing that made them keep a distance from other Socialist movements was the religion question. Iraq and Syria are very diverse countries and have communities practicing some of the oldest religions in the world. They were secular but did not have an anti-religious line and in fact believed religions in the region could play a revolutionary role against colonialism.
Also check out journalist Moss Robeson: https://linktr.ee/mossrobeson
He writes on the role of fascist escapees and their role in the Ukrainian diaspora in the US, CA, and AU. As well as the US contacts with the far right in Ukraine.
There is also the Plast scouting organization. They have existed since before WW1 and created Bandera and he would later recruit from the scouts to the OUN-B which would field the members of the SS Galicia Division with the sponsorship of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which also funded Plast and continues to do so in Ukraine, the US, CA, and AU. Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland went through the Plast program as her grandfather helped found the Canadian chapters. She also helped her uncle [iirc] write her grandfather's memoirs, he ran a pro-Nazi rag in Nazi occupied Poland.
Low key you can even search my profile for Ukraine, I've written some summaries about the situation generally.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/12/29/on-the-influence-of-neo-nazism-in-ukraine/
Roses Have Thorns documentary: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPXDAOv6gXa3Xsx-rKLYd0W1LvhjlwCTk&si=pu8SL7VITE__sZH9
Interview with Right Sector Leader (later leader of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army and now a leader of national defense): https://archive.ph/XeOKH
Explaining the UVA/Right Sector and why it hasn't been absorbed into the state and "denazified" like Azov Battalion: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1057610X.2021.2009633
Far right violence keeps getting away with it: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/7/26/after-series-of-attacks-why-is-the-far-right-granted-impunity
British journal investigates "Neo-Nazi Hooligan culture" in Ukraine: https://web.archive.org/web/20120428054011/http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4284461/The-Sun-investigates-anarchy-in-Ukraine-Euro-2012-hate-camps.html
History of Fascism in Ukraine: https://mronline.org/2022/10/21/ukrainian-nationalists-have-long-history-of-anti-semitism-which-the-soviet-union-tried-to-combat/
Far Right MP beats up news station head for broadcasting news of the Crimean referendum: https://youtu.be/JYEneaA9nLA
Quality of materials only matters when taken broadly in the economy. When Capitalists find cheaper materials, they can sell the commodity for more than it's worth for a short time before others find cheaper sources and undercut the price. Eventually the prices will balance and so will the sourcing of materials.
However, materials are also commodities, and their price is tied to the price of labor. What Capitalists can do in the real world is find a place or a people where labor is cheaper. They can pay nationally oppressed workers cheaper (i.e. Black American pay gap) and lower their cost of living which translates to wage. They can pay workers from another country much cheaper wages as their cost of living is lower from underdevelopment, i.e. Imperialism. They can even import workers but maintain a state machine that allows imported workers to be paid less than the national standard (i.e. undocumented and slave work).
The employee actually puts in 3 LH to build the chair but is only paid by the Capitalist for 1 of them leaving a 2 LH profit for the Capitalist. The sale price of the commodity when supply matches demand is the real value of the commodity.
The "trick" the Capitalist does is to negotiate a wage smaller per unit of time than the value a worker can produce in that time, but it must be at least equal to the cost of reproducing the worker.
The man he shot is in the hospital and has a recovery fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-jacob-johns-recover-from-terrorist-shooting
POV: you're protesting against the 4 resource corps in a trench coat pretending to be a nation
The European Convention on Nationality defines nationality as the legal bond between a person and a State and does not indicate the person’s ethnic origin. It is a person owing loyalty to and…
The Nation of Hawaii details their plan for citizenship for when the American occupation leaves the territory.
For those who don't know, the Nation of Hawaii is the reformation of the deposed state occupied by the US in 1898. They are fighting for the complete independence of Hawaii and an end to the illegal US annexation.
Frankly if we're talking about the western continents, it's because nobody has seriously studied the history and conditions of the land underneath their feet. PatSocs are superficially "close" to the Communists here because they do zero investigation of the internal structures of the continent, and view outward facing Imperialism from the Americans as an obstacle to "American Socialism". So like many of the other parties in the US, they focus on protesting foreign intervention.
Hot take, the other parties are pretty much the same. Where they differ is that PatSocs dream of a great assimilation into American so-called culture, so subjugation of Black and Indigenous peoples is a focal point, and it's why they are willing to work with the right opportunistically. The other parties expect to take full control of the leftovers of America, but with "respecting treaties" and giving "self-determination" and the ability to "secede", secede from what tho? If the PatSocs are settler-chauvinists then this is settler-blindness. PatSocs succeed in grifting because the other parties have yet to put out real theories on how to destroy the empire from within, so they just appeal to the American (or Canadian, Mexican) chauvinist extremes.
In ML terms the settlers are not the subject of revolution. National Liberation for the prisons of nations beneath the Empire is primary. Policing, enclosure, ecological exploitation. Spontaneity from the colonized masses and even Anarchists is focused at the symptoms of settler-colonialism, and until Communists study their conditions and give direction to these people we can only alienate and frustrate them when telling them to vote or show up to a protest at city hall. It's extremely frustrating for Natives when they ask for solidarity from settlers against megacorps looting their lands only for the unions to back the corps for jobs and then for Communists to only talk about unionization and maybe a "land acknowledgement".
Communists need to connect with the workers being gentrified out of their homes, connect with the Natives of their locales, unite these struggles, that's the unity. What we think about China is a discussion to be had in a party that comes together to liberate the colonized nations. Settler-chauvinism, and setter-blindness (I also like "Left-PatSoc") are the deal-breakers for unity.
EFF is basically setting up for a collapse of the ANC government and either taking power electorally as the failing ANC capitulates to their popular front or by guiding the next crisis into a revolution.
The KPRF has no crisis to leverage for themselves as both URP and the KPRF are looking good for their support of the SMO. If the URP starts fucking up the SMO you can expect the KPRF to gain more traction especially in the new republics and the borderlands. I'm not kidding when I say that Russia could electorally come back into Socialism since it has such a weak bourgeoisie that's totally reliant on state intervention and the international trade system. Having already been a workers' state the nation has the muscle memory for it. They just need a vanguard to awaken it.
Actually Existing Cultural Genocide
Hello comrades, it looks like the Chunka Luta Network (Red Road) lemmyverse account has been created. Chunka Luta is working from the Pine Ridge Reservation to build dual power in an ML direction. If you can spare some cash, there's a fundraiser for a construction drive that's 4k away from the goal, spread the word. They are building a meeting hall for the traditional government (as opposed to the Neo-Colonial IRA council) and a home. The fundraiser has already gathered 16k and with that they're buying 140 acres of Rez land that's currently growing hemp. For some history, hemp was a major component of the Lakotas' booming economy until it was targeted by the hemp and cannabis outlaw by the Federal government. Further funds beyond the 4k left in the construction goal are going to a member's wheelchair fund.
This project started last winter with a fundraiser for firewood and coat drive. Note that a significant portion of the population on Pine Ridge lives without electricity; warm clothing and wood are extremely important in the Dakotas.
In the future Chunka Luta wants to build a reverse osmosis water filtration system and buyback nearby farmland from American settlers to clean up a creek that runs through the Reservation. They also want to build a buffalo pasture for conservation.
Lots of promise coming from Chunka Luta, if you can spread the word it can go a long way. We are traveling the Red Road, we hope you can join us!
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/56629 https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1744683
Resisting Internal Neo-Colonialism and Fascist Dictatorships inside the United States | Wounded Knee Occupation
One of the most important examples of Native Americans' determination to resist oppression began 40 years ago.
One aspect of the Reservation system within the United States skipped over by common Marxists (and the American public in general) is that of the Neo-Colonial relationships between the US and Indigenous nations. In the 1970s on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the poorest community in the United States and home of the Oglala Lakota people, ruled a dictator by the name of Dick Wilson. Wilson funneled federal funds into his own wealth and to pay for a paramilitary to hunt down members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a party of Indigenous radicals keen on fighting American encroachment and occupation of their lands and communities. The struggle between AIM and Wilson and his Fed backers, peaked in tension in the Wounded Knee Occupation. The occupation by AIM was called off after Wilson's army with the US special forces (disputed by the US government) and AIM reached a gun battle. Wilson remained in power even having been caught rigging an election, but a Federal judge interfered on his behalf, and many of his Lakota opponents died violently over the following years until his defeat in another election. Since Wilson's departure, the Pine Ridge Indian Reorganization Act (forced American governance) leadership has been centrist/liberal as the main radicals of the Reservation had been killed violently and many more imprisoned. Pine Ridge remains the poorest community in the country.
The Donbas is actually the least agriculture intensive region of Ukraine, iirc about 10% of production. Ukraine is using DU because they know they are going to lose and wish to simply punish the Donbas for an eternity.
The infected soils won't just stay in Donbas, but the Westerly wind will generally take these soils further EAST into Russia and the steppe.
You'll have to be more specific, all revolutionary theory is "books on how to destroy capitalism".
These land protectors are objectively doing more for anti-Imperialism than RAWM
Hello relatives, comrades, and allies. My name is Sungmanitu. I fo… Sungmanitu Bluebird needs your support for Red Road Construction Drive and Wheelchair Pls
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/379642
> >Hello relatives, comrades, and allies. My name is Sungmanitu. I formed this collective of activists last winter in order to fundraise and bring out wood to keep elderly alive during the winter. This was a great accomplishment for us, and so this summer we helped put on a traditional ceremony known as Sundance that is historically one of the longest standing Sundances that was continued in the Badlands during the period of history they were outlawed. > > > >The way of life the Sundance helps preserve is called “the Red Road” or Chunka Luta which is where our name comes from. It is a message of hope and an offer of direction to those who lack direction, but know it is time to do something to build the world we want to see for the next generation. This traditional seat of power has withstood the test of time against US Imperialism, and therefore I think is worth investing our time and energy in. So we hope to raise a grand total of 30k-35k USD, based on costs incurred at Sundance and the multiplication of available hands, and skilled trades people with tools for their use building the house before winter, moving the roof, feeding people etc. > > > >We also wanted to try and raise money for a comrades wheelchair (10k), and help with a down payment on a car and a cheap trailer to cheapen rental costs of moving trucks (2.5-3k). We are set to launch our website after the webmaster is out of the hospital, and there we will be posting the receipts from the projects, and various updates and newsletter, as well as paying a professional camera person to help us film quality videos of the land and showcase just how much we accomplished in less than a year, with all extra fund we would buy wood to haul and chop there, as well as lay the foundations of the steel distribution center which will also serve as a meeting hall for the Oceti Sakowin traditional headsmen. Along with this will be finishing a four day interview process with my Uncle David Swallow Jr to write his memoir before he dies, and preserve the wisdom and stories that helped me grow, and helped inform the movement we carry forward. > > > >But our goal is so large for this fundraising cycle due to the unique opportunities presented to us; namely the purchasing of 150+ acres of land that has hosted the longest continuing Sundance at these grounds since 82. This is when my uncle took it over from Fools Crow, who continued it from his teacher even while it was illegal to Sundance, and thus it remains a center of power and community, as well as a symbol of resilience. My uncle being the headsmen of the Oceti Sakowin places the cadre in a unique position in the community, where other Indigenous nations like the Crow and Ponca come to us to reclaim their traditions. > > > >The Crow do not hold their national flag, and so when doing ceremony they come to us to retrieve their national flag in shame, for the crimes committed on behalf of the US against us. The Ponca use our Sundance grounds for the Sundance now, and so it is even more important to use this place of international unity to its fullest. To place the movement in the nexus of so many peoples from around the globe who come there to pray, will only legitimize and strengthen our ties to my community there. Not only are we reclaiming sovereignty, but we are preserving dignity, dignity we gain by the land. It is not only construction, but preserving what has withstood the test of time.
Gentrification is often described metaphorically as a form of ‘colonization,’ however in this paper I argue that gentrification comprises one strategy in the continued historical colonization of Indigenous peoples in the Canadian context, and more specifically in the settler city of Toronto. I propo...
Link is downloadable for free, but lmk if you can't get a copy through this portal.
I thought this paper was a fascinating read on the colonial ignorance and euro-centrism found in not only Liberal theories of Gentrification, but Marxist Geography as well. This paper seeks to expose the gap between Marxist Geography and struggles against gentrification from the perspective of Indigenous communities while using a Toronto neighborhood as a case study. I'll try to post some good blurbs out of this but I read and post it on the go so I'll have to come back.
While approaching from the perspective of dissecting Gentrification, this paper ends up attacking the heart of Settler Colonialism through criticizing the Bourgeois/Settler production of space.
The Fish Wars
Video covering the (very recent) colonization and enclosure of the waterways of the PNW, specifically Washington. The Indigenous struggle over fishing rights and environmentalism culminated into "The Fish Wars" of the 60s-70s. It also covers the settler State governments seeking to redefine indigenous such that none to very few indigenous people were "actually indigenous" and therefore unprotected by treaties. This comes after decades of boarding schools and institutions like the Child Protective Services and fostering (modern boarding schools) seeking to force assimilate the indigenous population.