this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Image is of thousands of Cubans gathering in 2026 to honor José Martí.
After the Soviet Union fell, in the 1990s, Cuba entered a period (known as the Special Period) of extreme economic pressure, losing almost all of its international trade and fuel imports. Caloric intake almost halved, and electricity was mostly unavailable for much of the day. In response, Cuba undertook Option Zero, in which the country prioritized distributing resources to the most vulnerable, and rationed what little was available as fairly as possible. During this time, the threat of total collapse led to experiments and innovations, and, paradoxically to those on the outside, Cuba's population came together under pressure, rather than shattering. The collective understanding that their suffering resulted from abroad rather than from internal inefficiencies and corruption meant that Cuba's government, and thus their sovereignty, survived.
As the American Empire contracts in the wake of multipolarity and can now no longer tolerate sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere, we are seeing a return to the time of the Special Period, with the illegal blockade being dramatically worsened - among other measures, the US is preventing all fuel from entering the island, a strategy made more viable with Venezuela's fuel exports now restricted. Imperialist supporters are predicting an imminent collapse, after which American mining corporations would descend on Cuba's massive nickel and cobalt reserves.
While it's absolutely possible that this time Cuba's government could collapse, it's important to note four things: 1) as noted, Cuba has been in a situation like this before and survived; 2) the geopolitical situation is quite different to how it was in the 1990s, with China and other powers increasing in power and influence compared to the USSR's incompetent final leaders leaving the lane wide open to American exploitation; 3) there has been a concerted effort to transition to renewable energy sources recently, with solar panels being imported from China and making up an increasing amount of the energy supply; and 4) Cuba's government is taking this threat very seriously, and beginning rationing efforts immediately.
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.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. 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.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
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.
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i'm embracing my inner nihilist to try to see what can be done going forward, and situation on the ground should be analyzed cynically, on lower bounds what is available, which is even lower than i expected. you say look at reservations, so why exclude casinos, for fuller picture? how did they support dapl protests? or any other mining shit?
wall of text about what I would say is a cynical analysis
It is essential to center material conditions in your analysis and you are correct that the hyper-alienation which kills collective identity in favor of rugged individualism is a critical pillar in maintaining the ruling class. As with all contradictions, it carries the seeds of it's own demise; it is inherently unstable and will inevitably crumble. This is why revolutionary organizing in the imperial core can not be focused on organizing workers or laborers of the US nation, electoral campaigns or protests, instead focusing on organizing decolonization programs among the dozens of colonized nations within the US, including diasporas of colonized groups abroad.
prepare for the rising tide of fascism which will bring immense hardship on the most marginalized and oppressed people, especially within the context of environmental devastation. By organizing decolonization programs now, we will be better prepared to scale up our organizing as the contradictions sharpen and the depoliticized masses become radicalized. We will accelerate the crumbling of hyper alienation and rebuild a new pillar as a spoke in the wheel of social progress.
This is the only strategy for the US that will lessen the oncoming death and destruction, no electoral campaign or protest or imperialist labor union can build the infrastructure required to keep people fed, housed, safe and with access to healthcare.
This is the cynical analysis, no doomerism or denial of reality. The rulers will continue to kill and torture people, things are going to get even worse, many nations will crumble into chaos and if any of us did our jobs correctly, some places will have enough of a movement built to push through and keep people alive and organized to scale up and eliminate fascism once and for all. You can't focus on how people are currently subsumed in capitalist brain rot, you have to focus on what you are building that they can plug into once they are ripped out of their trance. It is our job to give them a way to take their political power back, without someone to offer the option it is unlikely to appear out of the blue.
impossible, really.
GOOD post!
I can tell you don't know shit about Indigenous people on Turtle Island, because now you're saying Indigenous people haven't supported protests against mining interests, and also, what, painting them as predatory gambling profiteers? Like as a whole? All Indigenous people? This is why nihilists make very shit leftists.
of course not as a whole jesus christ, i'm saying there is no inbuilt defense against becoming porky. those who became porkies are suddenly not so interested in affairs of other tribes, those who don't - suffer and fight, as well as unrecognized tribes or poisoned by uranium/zinc/copper mining.
I'm sorry, you don't get to act all put-upon when you get called out for your reactionary positions
But what does that have to do with you putting colonized people into scare quotes and then deflecting and bringing up casinos when I point out that colonized people will be the prime victims of suffering in your dismissal of the harm caused by anti--vaxxers and poison development?
the quotes were bad in that i do believe they are colonized, but i don't believe they have capacity to unite or act as one, never mind uniting or helping with out of country struggles from the yoke of empire. antivaxxers harm is primarily to themselves as paranoid petit bougies
This is categorically untrue. But I guess, much like Indigenous people, disabled people are an acceptable sacrifice because they "don't have the capacity to unite or act as one," thank you for your very riveting analysis.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/05/measles-outbreak-texas-ice-immigration-detention
Good thing those children in the ICE detention centre with measles are all "paranoid petit bougies"
do you not understand how diseases work?