Image is sourced from this article.
It takes very little effort to find an article from Western state propaganda decrying Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas as authoritarian and rife with human rights abuses. This is the natural reaction the US has to any successful liberation movement. This fairly long report from Jason Cohen, a socialist who travelled to Nicaragua one week ago, should quell any suspicions.
He describes a country with high political consciousness among the masses, who are working to construct critical infrastructure for the country and their communities. There is a virtual education system that is free across the entire nation, which serves the dual goal of democratizing education and ensuring that those in rural areas or without much free time for university can still achieve degrees and a quality education; and these classes cover technical skills in the production of infrastructure and agriculture, but also political and ideological education in order to counter the fascist propaganda produced by imperialist nations abroad.
While Nicaragua is deeply invested in its nationality and national figures who led to their socialist revolution, such as Sandino, they are also immensely proud of their indigneous history, recognizing it as also part of their anti-colonial history which continues to the present day. Additionally, they honour the struggles of other nations on the continent, such as the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, as well as Castro in Cuba and Allende in Chile. Countries around the world are also celebrated and admired, such as Burkina Faso; during the Reagan administration, Nicaragua and Burkina Faso were comrades in arms, and now Traore is continuing the legacy of Sankara's anti-imperialism in the present. Perhaps most relevant today is their dedication towards Palestine, involving the creation of the Parque Palestina (shown in the post image), in which the Palestinian flag flies alongside the flag of Nicaragua. In July, Leila Khaled of the PFLP gave a speech in Nicaragua, in which the solidarity of the two nations was highlighted.
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 Nicaragua! 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
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.
since 2022, there has been significant tension between the aims of the russian state and its military industry and the central bank. interest rates have been sitting at 18% since 2022 because the bank is run by neoliberal, USamerican educated economists. if the fact that russia’s central bank is serving as an obstacle or neoliberal holdout dooms the russian economy, they have never had a chance and we should have all stayed in our armchairs the whole time. you can spin anything out of anything; that same reuters article says that the current head of the russian imf, who brought russia in in ‘92, is stepping down and being replaced by someone sanctioned by the USA by name. shouldn’t a person who can’t legally enter USamerica have different personal, material interests than someone living in washington?
the US has had the complete control and buy in of every private and public bank in europe after 2009 and quantitative easing. they have been trying to get russia in since 1991. the US economy is based on formalized lying. the tried and true method is relying on powerful regulatory and legal bodies to exploit other countries. you like to point out how the USSR’s purported economic value was cut in half by the switch from gnp to gdp as some example of the awe inspiring abilities of USamerican finance. i think this misses the point that your chosen method of judging economic success grows out of the barrel of a gun. if various compradors hadn’t overthrown the government and gleefully participated in the looting, then the on paper decision to switch accounting methods would have done nothing. the existence of US-influenced economists does not represent subjugation.
the chinese banks complying with the sanctions was an L, i can’t disagree with that. but the USA has been ‘pivoting to Asia’ since 2015? 2014? it was definitely obama + hillary. the tpp fell through, and as it turns out the US has no actual interest in leaving SWANA. the idealized plan is to win and pivot and win and pivot. even the second invasion of iraq was meant to be a quick win before pivoting to war with iran. every single pivot has simply led to overextension. the war on terror has units deployed from central asia to the sahel. the nato-russia war seems set to cook at this pace for years. all of this is happening as the neoliberal hollowing out of the US starts to kill the logistical tail and manpower of the US military. every single service has missed recruiting targets for several years, and i don’t need to explain here how ‘cutting-edge’ US equipment is anything but.
it is in my view also a mistake to refer to a ‘focal point’ of imperialism. there is no oz beyond the red, white, and blue curtain. neocons and liberals and people who couldn’t articulate a view but like money all have different views of iran, china, and russia. there are also disagreements on which to get first and what order. the USA in its arrogance is convinced that it stands astride the world and will conquer all while it can’t complete freedom of navigation operations against a country without a fleet. it will continue to bluster and make announcements as if all is proceeding swimmingly. even in the last ten years, the decline of USamerican influence is palpable. even the screwing of the EU reflects this. if you can get your vassals to obey without force, they are loyal. if you have to force the point (like nordstream), that means they would not have listened otherwise.
i appreciate your perspective comrade, but we have to have hope. and there can be no hope without revolutionary optimism
yeah, I mean, ultimately, if it were impossible to overcome a hegemon from within the financial system that it creates, then half the planet would be still be singing God Save The King
every year, we've seen new crises breaking out that seem to strongly suggest that American imperial hegemony is breaking down. so I clearly have to distrust my lying eyes and believe that the US is on the verge of total world domination.
saying that "actually, the US's inability to win a war against Russia nor to provide Israel any victory as we approach one year straight of war nor to defeat Ansarallah nor to overcome Chinese tech domination nor to maintain a stranglehold on exports of gas to Europe and any number of other things - all those things don't really matter because the US's power is financial and not industrial" is like saying that it doesn't matter that you've cut my leg off and it is bleeding profusely, because I only need my arm to hold a gun. you will die of blood loss before you finish your firefight with the rest of the world, even if none of them have as big a gun or as much ammo as you.
Surely thats a rhetorical question once you look at any global temperature chart its clear the US wont collapse in 20 years isn't it?
this is just the empire signalling that its lost this round and is doing pregame setup up for the next round before lowering rates.
things will start getting interesting this next rate cycle. the empire wanted to have their cake and eat it too and so instead of volcker shock 2.0 and a corresponding return to profitability we got whatever pathetic garbage the past year or two have been. this next cycle they might actually get their shit together but consensus opinion seems to be too little too late.
the echo your sentiments: ultimately, the dollar is the result of hegemonic privilege, not the cause. the us did not invent the dollar and in so doing become the hegemon, rather it became hegemonic and only afterwards did the dollar come into being as an emergent property of hegemony. it is an expression of imperial dominance, not a basis. accordingly, excess fixation on its exorbitant privilege as a metric of imperial robustness is missing the forest for the trees.
Putin is a liberal. He has no intention of fighting anybody on the grounds of them being liberals.