There's way too much going on right now for me to really focus on any one country this week. The aftermath of the fall of the Nepal government has, somewhat surprisingly, reverberated around the world, and not only in countries that are enemies to the West as you'd expect; for example, Morocco's government battle fiercely with Egypt's and Jordan's to be first in line to lick the dogshit off the boots of Zionists, and yet Morocco is currently embroiled in a large protest wave based primarily around a youth unemployment crisis (though their population is also remarkably pro-Palestinian, which generates additional friction). We're also seeing similar protests in Madagascar, Peru, and Paraguay, and perhaps more will come. I'm personally fairly doubtful in the potential for meaningful economic results from these protests (the current imperialist system seems too deeply embedded for a movement that isn't explicitly communist and anti-imperialist to alter conditions), but it is quite possible for new political results at least.
Outside of the developing world, it appears that the unpopularity of western leaders, such as in the UK, France, and Italy, is creating new levels of unrest. In Britain, the political system has become so utterly moribund that even the artificial democracy of a two-party system (more-or-less; the Lib Dems do exist I suppose) no longer suffices, with both Conservatives and Labour gradually sinking. The Reform party appears like it may become the new standard-bearer of the capitalists and petit-bourgeois - that is, the historical wellspring of fascism - and the Left Party (whatever name they eventually choose) may or may not rise to meet the occasion. In France, they're on their fifth Prime Minister in two years, after Lecornu lasted about a month, attempting the liberal classic: promising change, and then appointing the exact same people who have ruled for the last few decades. And pro-Palestinian protests and general strikes have erupted in Italy, in defiance of their rightwing government under Meloni.
While there's plenty of other events (e.g. continuing aggression against Venezuela that might soon erupt into a war) it would be remise of me not to mention the very much ongoing events vis-a-vis Palestine and a potential peace deal there, seemingly supported to some degree by Trump. It could be legitimate, and it could be some big act (very likely the latter, IMO). Both Trump and Netanyahu seem to believe that they're very talented political masterminds, producing manoeuvres and feints that would make Machiavelli blush. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I trust the militant organizations inside Palestine to outplay these American failsons. Hamas and similar groups are not nearly as gullible as the Iranian reformist faction - though few people are!
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.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
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.
Russia has apparently being destroying Ukrainian Rail Locomotives now. This is a pretty good strategy because Ukraine's rails are the Soviet Gauge and they can't manufacture or even get more locomotives from their allies.
This is ridiculous. Re-gauging rail vehicles and applying Soviet SA-3 couples is easy if not trivial, not to talk about the fact that the Baltics have the exact same Soviet standard in regards to everything and several European countries, including Germany, Poland and Hungary also having tons of Soviet equipment laying around, mainly VZOR/Luganskteplovoz production.
Edit: Also, post-Soviet countries have quite a lot of experience with such things. Not only was all was all export production first tested in the USSR before being shipped, the Red Army was frequently reimporting used M62-type locomotives from eastern Europe, with some of those then being "demobilized" for ordinary use. Several export locomotives also "returned home" during the 90s and 00s due to being discarded by western rail operators
I think the most probable reason for Russia bombing locamotives and railways recently is to disrupt the Ukrainian supply lines to Sumy. Lots of focus there.
I mean it's no use when their production capacity is a shell of it's Soviet self. Locos are not as abundant as rail or carriages so blowing them up can create supply issues. It'll also be easier to track locos coming in from the west since there are limited rail lines outside of the core Soviet borders.
I don't see how production capacity plays a role here. We're talking about simply importing shit from the Baltics or retrofitting things originally built for European use. Plus, I was only focusing on Soviet built equipment due to it's familiarity to Ukrainian engineers. Unlike vice-versa, European-built locomotives could perhaps be modified to serve on Soviet-type networks, though the cab windows may be set too low for signals to be seen if the driver is standing, so idk.
True.
if the baltic train building industry is anything like the rest of the west, then even if they still have the productive capacity, it's probably booked way out or otherwise not fast. I suspect that compatible locomotives are not cheap or fast to replace even if they are somewhat commoditized.
There is no "baltic train building industry". Such a thing does not exist. They are talking about importing from stocks held by the Baltics, as if these countries somehow just had a gigantic stockpile of Soviet locomotives and other railway materials sitting around, as if 35 years of corruption, graft, decay and lack of maintenance had not long since exhausted whatever they had left from what the Soviet Union so generously gave them and for which they are so ungrateful today.
The Baltics still run on the Soviet gauge but they're so small that they barely have a rail industry. They can't sustain Ukraine even if they could pump out like 10 locos a month using all their manpower.
Also I think that Soviet shit could probably be restored somewhat easily if parts were available since their heavy machinery was very well built. Although knowing eastern Europe, they probably won't touch any of their remaining Soviet locos because "Evil Gommusim train" or whatever.
Also adding to this, the Soviet gauge is rarely used outside of the core Soviet Union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_ft_and_1520_mm_gauge_railways
I also vaguely remember reading about Finland type countries replacing this gauge with European ones.
They’ll try to replace them with highways