Image is from this article, of protestors in Mexico tearing down a steel fence.
While military, economic, and covert pressure on Venezuela and nearby countries in South America proper continues to mount, a similar process is occurring against Mexico, currently under the leadership of the very popular Sheinbaum, who has generally followed the footsteps of AMLO in terms of policies.
While figures in the Trump administration have made statements to the effect of wishing to bomb Mexican territory, internal pressure within Mexico is rather hard to generate when the government is doing generally positive things for people. As such, protests - comically denoted "Gen Z protests" despite young people being a vanishingly small proportion - have arisen in Mexico, very obviously astroturfed by pro-US and anti-Sheinbaum interests. The first protest, on November 15th, gathered less than 20,000 people, while the second, on November 20th, gathered perhaps 200. Article headlines suggesting that Mexico was "on the verge of collapse" have proven rather sensational and wishcast-y.
While it's easy to poke fun at these farces (I certainly am), it's important to keep in mind that soft coups have long been part of the American strategy in Latin America, and with unlimited money and many resources to throw at a project, even incompetent forces can eventually create enough chaos that it can make the ruling president or party feel forced to resign. Such eventualities are certainly not inevitable, and even weak states can provide enough resistance to force the US to try a hard coup instead, with outright bombing campaigns and covert military operations. Cuba has provided perhaps the best example in the western hemisphere of how such plots can be subverted with enough national support (e.g. the hundreds of times the CIA tried to kill/maim Castro, plus the Bay of Pigs debacle), but you do have to be willing to take extraordinary measures to do this - the sorts of measures figures like Chile's Allende did not take in the 1970s, and the measures Venezuela's Maduro appears to be taking right now. We shall see what path Sheinbaum takes.
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.
Is Mamdani really popular in the US? All these posts I keep seeing about him gives the impression that he’s this election cycle’s AOC. So much effort on whether or not he sucks when the guy is only the mayor of a city.
He's currently the most popular politician in the US, ahead of Bernie
Guy is one of those once in a generation talents, tbqh. I don't think he's as personally charismatic as Obama was, but he's really deft at redirecting questions and dealing with direct attacks from journalists. He'd be a contender for the presidency if he was eligible for it - and also if he wasn't mayor of New York. The issue surrounding Mamdani is that he has the actual potential and momentum to capitalize on the Democratic base's disaffections with the Schumer generation.
He would never, ever do this, but the best move he could make right now is a pact with Trump to be his running mate in 2028. They are both flagrantly barred from running, but no one would stop them. They would easily win. Trump listens to the most powerful and charismatic person in his cabinet, and if Mamdani's VP you get to actually advance a lot of good policy through that. Trump dies two years into the term. Now President Mamdani says, "The simple fact of my holding this office demonstrates that the Constitution is entirely defunct and irrelevant. I am declaring a Constituent Assembly. A mass democratic process will now take place to write a a new constitution. Welcome to the Second Republic."
He's not that based but he could honestly do it.
Wait the Vice President isn't subject to the same rule?
What the f-
No, he is, but that's the point. You run because it's illegal. Your victory demonstrates the Constitution is dead.
Oh, I get you now. Yeah I'm not gonna lie, Trump could just run for a third term and win if his presidency wasn't rocking the boat too hard the second time around. It's weird how comfortable the american state is with just about anything that happens, nothing is perceived as a threat to the state.
His behavior so far makes it more likely to get away with breaking another rule. Like any muscle you build it by lifting more weight. If he was content to sit around being a dilettante, nobody would even be considering the possibility. The whole thing is a demonstration of how free he is, thanks to the mandate of some key people.
He will be America’s Lenin. You’re seeing a lot of Hexbears coping because this place is too cynical/defeatist to take the W.
Funnily enough, I have also been accused by some of those people as a “doomer” on this site.
ok comrade cmon I know this must be a joke
I do agree that Mamdani is a W, but jumping to him being America's Lenin is silly and I expect you know that. But I'll share a little bit of info from my direct experience based on why Mamdani is such a big win for the left even if he himself is all of the bad things he's been accused of by Hexbears and others.
As everybody knows, I'm a very active
member. Last year, I had a prominent role in Ohio's PSL presidential campaign. In the end, that was a huge success for the party, roughly doubling our membership nationwide and significantly increasing our public profile while building up the skills of a lot of cadre at doing direct political outreach. However, one low point locally was volunteer engagement. Over the whole course of the campaign, my city only managed about three volunteers. We put a huge amount of effort in the early months of the campaign to turn the high interest into active volunteers, but that attempt was absolutely a failure (only speaking locally, can't say how it was in other states and I know another Ohio city managed a core of 10 or so consistent volunteers).
A month ago, we launched our campaign for Senate in Ohio. Obviously not as high profile as a presidential race, but we have reason to believe that it's the right strategy for the moment based on where the party's at and what the political mood in the state and country is. And this weekend we held our first volunteer event, inviting people who've been interested to join us in putting up flyers all around the city. How many people showed up?
All in all, in our first day of actual volunteer activity, we garnered about 45 people who showed up and put in hours of their day to promoting our campaign. Not just that, but this is no Dem primary - we are explicitly and firmly running as a revolutionary socialist third party with the intent of defeating the duopoly and turning these volunteers into a mass movement. And about 90% of these people cited Mamdani as a primary reason they wanted to get involved. He didn't sheepdog them into the Democrats; he pulled them away from it, whatever his intent was. In a single day, more than 10x the volunteer engagement of an entire year - and that campaign was a wild success by every metric! Mamdani's win, if we capitalize on it effectively, could easily triple or quadruple the size of the party in one of the country's most politically significant states.
The Mamdani effect is much bigger than who he is as a person, the organizaiton he's involved in, or the city where he ran.
Thanks for sharing, you are doing great work!
Yeah Mamdani’s win is more significant than many people think. It shows that left wing ideas are still popular in America, and not at all as portrayed by the more cynical here that America is a total lost cause and completely irredeemable.
This is not to say the American left organizing is heading in the right direction (I have said before that the American left is not even at step one yet, they’re at step zero, with a lot of things still being figured out), but what is undeniable is that this is a clear referendum that left wing populism is still very much relevant.
left wing ideas have been popular in America for a long time. the reason they aren't enacted isn't because there is a dearth of popularity, it's because capital controls the commanding heights of the economy and isn't beholden to popularity. there is no popular organization/coalition that has the material power to force politicians to realize popular ideas. concepts like main street before wall street, massive health care reform, stopping bullshit wars have been broadly popular with the american electorate since at least 2008 (that's the wave obama rode) and yet all of those things have gotten materially worse since then.
I am cynical about American electoral politics because capital has a demonstrated history of either co-opting or defanging left wing politicians and movements when they arise. See Obama/Acorn, Bernie, AOC, Jesse Jackson & the rainbow coalition, McGovern.
No disagreement there, and I agree criticism and even some level of cynicism against American social democracy (lol) is very much warranted, but I am still ready to give them the win here.
It dispels the myth that I see being perpetuated in many radical left spaces that Americans would rather support fascism than a brown Muslim immigrant socialist. In fact, as I pointed out in another comment, white men (often deemed the most reactionary) turned out to be the ones that went the furthest for Mamdani than any other demographic, again dispelling the myth that white American men are all crypto-Nazis who want to turn the country into the Fourth Reich.
Of course, you can say that social democracy is the moderate wing of fascism, but that’s putting the cart before the horse. The America left isn’t even close to that stage of political struggle yet. It is a nascent movement that still have a lot to learn.
left wing populism was never not irrelevant. Even the american internet pioneer libertarian or environmental phase in the 90s (which was the nadir of the american left) was based on left wing populism, then with occupy wallstreet & anti-globalization movement became more explicitly left-wing populist. Ignoring all the civil rights movements such as the Black Panthers, AIM, Puerto Rican Nationalists or Hawaii Sovereignty movement.
So Mamdani only shows use proof for things already known and obvious? I guess one can squeeze victory out of any defeat.
He is an important beacon of hope in this time of need.
If you only spend time on Hexbear or similar leftist online space, you’d think that Americans are total lost cause with no redeemable quality, and that socialism can never be achieved in the country.
Mamdani’s win breaks this extreme cynicism that has infested many so-called Marxist-Leninist revolutionary online spaces that have cultivated a defeatist attitude because they once supported Bernie/AOC.
The extra irony here is that white men (often deemed the most reactionary) went the furthest for Mamdani than any other demographic, which really shows why you should always take the online Western left commentary with a huge grain of salt.
I want whatever you're having.
He's Bernie Sanders 2. One that hopefully teaches the American left the necessity of ground level proletarian organization and that demsocs will be inevitably neutralized under a bourgeois system.
this is babe calling his shot over the wall. generational take. let's fucking go.
Even taking the most optimistic view of mamdani, it's a lot of personality + right place right time. Opponents being disorganized, doomed losers hated by all. Do we even know what his actual political goals and motivations are? Everything I have seen is directed at an audience who is primarily less left than he is. It is a lot of gently explaining why free buses are OK and such.
Is there any reason to think there is some sort of plan here? A theory of change? Or is he just less of a coward and more competent than other grumbling leftlibs? Is there a plan to build power? Volunteers to doorknock are nice but only powerful in so much as they can make decisions collectively and enforce them against resistance. And hate to say it but he is extremely vulnerable to getting knocked off. If that happens before he has sufficiently built up replacement leadership then it'll all be a sad memory of what couldv'e been.
All of what you’re saying is true, but that doesn’t take away the significance of Mamdani, who has become a beacon of hope upon whom the rest of the movement in the US could rally around, as another poster has commented that their campaign saw a huge surge of support because of Mamdani.
It is an important victory and milestone for the American left. This doesn’t mean they are on the right track (as I’ve always said, they’re not even at step one yet, they are still at step zero) but we cannot deny them the win.
idk sounds like how people talked about blm, dapl, migrant worker strike, revolutionary labor, occupy, barak obama, anti war, anti globalization (battle of seattle anyone?)... various other intervening episodes I can't even remember off the top of my head. if i really thought about it, i could make a list 5x as long staying in the 20th c.
i hope you're right but ime these things come around every couple years. it's part of the rhythm and sustenance of capitalism. everytime we get a few people. people who are attracted to the tactic being employed. why do you think this is better than the above? and if it is, what is the plan if buddy gets knocked off?
You really can't say that the US left isn't even at step 0 (true) and say that he's the US's Lenin. The US Lenin either hasn't been born yet or is just a toddler at best. And Mamdani isn't particularly young either. At his age, Mao was already in command of what would become the PLA and Castro had already overthrown Batista. Lenin himself was around Mamdani's age right now when the 1905 Revolution happened. Mamdani's a bit too old to have any serious political development outside of gradual shift over decades. What you see is what you get.
Currently, there's no US equivalent of Lenin or the Bolsheviks. There's no real US equivalent of the Narodniks either, which can't be ignored either in understanding the Bolsheviks. The Narodniks failed so the Bolsheviks can succeed after all. People talk shit about the Narodniks for being adventurists, but the US left wishes they were half as effective as the Narodniks. Forget the Bolsheviks, the US left can't even rise to the level of the Narodniks.
I think Palestine Action US and Lugi (allegedly) liquidating that CEO, while not being the US equivalent of Narodniks themselves, are glimmers of what US Narodniks would look like. There's a difference between cowardly nerds who get social anxiety talking to strangers saying adventurism doesn't work and ex-adventurists realizing after doing adventurism that adventurism doesn't work. Direct political experience is needed to weed out the hacks and cowards from the principled and brave. With this crop of revolutionaries, a further crucible is needed to weed out people with terrible ideas ("Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement."). It's from this crucible that a US Lenin would emerge from.
I will never forgive the Yankee left for their role in rehabilitating the image of america in the Arab and Islamic world.
The people of the middle east are just too culturally dependent on the western empire via the large diaspora, Europeanized elite and the gulf state which all peddle western influence into their minds. The western empire puts men like Mamdani, Saint Levant, Hassan Picker, the bazillion comedians of middle eastern descent as their heralds and suddenly "death to america" rings quite hollow.
US cultural hegemony is one of the most powerful weapons in the empire's arsenal as it wages comprehensive war on the planet.
The slogan "death to america" is important but you're right its not adequate alone. Sayed Ali Khamenei says death to america must be more than a slogan but also a policy.
I think the holes in Mamdani's socialism and potential are discussed enough here, and the broader popular perception is of course not a marxist analysis of his campaign. So I won't rehash either, but I do hope to make clear what I think is often missing in online discourse, which is the potential it has for comrades organizing in the US.
Conditions are different from AOC's start, and the political ramifications are less about the position and more about popular perceptions. Back then the zeitgeist was "Trump Bad", liberal Dems enjoyed a big swing off of Trumps first term. But it was a swing and a miss: since then dems had a senile Biden, a flop Kamala, a genocide, nothing to show and fumbled things back to Trump and the right-wing, then said "time to fight" but steadily handing them project 2025 objectives. Add to that many Trump voters are disillusioned seeing jobs and the economy sink, the few safety nets many rely on - or may soon need - getting scrapped for cash by billionaires. I know plenty Trump voters who have completely flipped and are beginning to sound like stronger socialists in rhetoric than Mamdani's fans without realizing it.
People who have voted dem their whole lives are disillusioned, people who voted with Trump are disillusioned, both sides have incredibly low approval and a spotlight has been cast on a socialist who beat establishment Dems and Republicans united against him.
In effect Mamdani caught the public eye at a critical moment and expanded the perception of socialism and socialist candidates along with their potential to be viable and win. Now people will go looking for this in their localities as @jack mentioned his firsthand experience.
Instead of that energy being directed toward similarly fraught reformism (as an ends) - they can instead be shown the power and potential of principled revolutionary organization and strategy, and we can potentially gain many new cadre. Of course this window of opportunity is clearly attached to Mamdani, and can fall if he falls and it's our duty to use this opportunity while it's available to the best of our ability. The tactics look different as well if you're in NYC, a progressive metro area, or a rural town. But nonetheless the popularity of the situation and discussion provide an opportunity for comrades across the country.
This is also a common refrain among volunteers at both the flyering day and an extremely packed (100+) volunteer meeting a week before. They said party members were knowledgeable, professional, competent, and skilled. They said PSL demonstrated strategic and organizational capacity. They reiterated over and over how impressed they were by our party and our cadre and how distinctly different we were from what they though activist and political organization looked like.
Americans when confronted with a basic functional proletarian party structure (this sounds great, big W for you guys).
Yeah same experience where I'm at and to such an extent that our work has raised the general baseline for a handful of adjacent local orgs and coalition partners. Previously soft non-profits have become more serious and agitational, expanded their scope, and adopted parts of our tactics. It's pretty cool to see how quickly the Party's gone from not even existing in my area, to becoming a seriously influential material force.
luv me Party, simple as
Who is "they" in this instance?
The people volunteering for PSL's Ohio Senate campaign. Building off my other comment in this thread @dylan_g@hexbear.net referenced above.
His wife was doing propaganda for isis. I don't understand why anybody here would like him.
And he is currently planning on banning protests outside of synagogues because somebody said “death to the IDF”
https://archive.is/2025.11.25-065544/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/nyregion/mamdani-synagogue-protest.html
But yeah, he’s American Lenin, if you don’t support this you’re a doomer defeatist
citation please
It's imposible to find anything on the internet any more, most of the links are deleted, I could go and look into thousands of middle east spectators posts which is were I found out, but I'm not, this is the best I can do
Thanks
I don't believe you
You don’t believe she did propaganda against Assad and hasn’t said a word about the massacres since last December? Because that’s just true.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDcPxZFxtVr/
You would think she would have something to say given the recent mass protests against targeted sectarian killings/kidnappings/violence, but nope
https://t.me/syriajusticearchive/8075
context
🔴Detailed Report: 42 Protests Held Yesterday Calling for Federalism and an End to Killings and Forced Detention
🔹 Thousands of Alawites took to the streets in cities and villages across central and western Syria on November 25, holding protests in 42 different locations. The demonstrations called for a federal system, political decentralization, an end to killings, kidnappings, and forced detention, the release of detainees, and expressed support for Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, the head of the Alawite Council, as their representative.
🔹 In contrast to claims made by the regime’s media outlets that the protests happened because “security” was available for demonstrators, the truth is that the protests broke out due to a lack of security. This was clearly reflected in the slogan chanted across all demonstrations: “No to killing.” Christian, Ismaili, and Murshidi protesters joined Alawite demonstrators in several areas.
🔹 The protests were met with assaults, beatings, and attempted vehicular attacks by regime loyalists in Latakia, Jableh, and Tartous. In Homs, protests were dispersed with live gunfire by the so-called “General Security” militias, and several demonstrators were arrested. Alawite villages and towns in western Homs countryside saw a heavy security presence that prevented people from gathering. At least two protesters were killed, and many others were injured in various locations.
🔹 Sectarian pro-regime rallies were also held, calling for the killing and displacement of Alawites in Homs, Baniyas, Hama, and Latakia. Sectarian mobs marched through Alawite neighborhoods in Latakia, vandalizing cars and shops.
🔹 List of documented protest locations (verified through videos and photos on social media):
Latakia Governorate: Latakia City: Al-Azhar Roundabout / Agriculture Roundabout / Al-Hammam Square Jableh Qardaha Beit Yashout Zama Ain Shiqaq Al-Qutailbiya Damserkho Bsanada Brabshbo Al-Daliah
Tartous Governorate: Tartous City: Al-Areed / Al-Saadi Roundabout Dreikish Safita Baniyas Sheikh Badr Al-Khirbeh
Homs City: Wadi al-Dahab / Al-Zahraa / Akrama Fahil Khirbet al-Teen
Hama Countryside | Al-Ghab Plain: Masyaf Salhab Wadi al-Uyoun Al-Mahrousa Al-Safasfeh Ain al-Karoum Nahr al-Bared Deir Shmiel Annab Mardash Shathah
Anti-Assad propagandist have significant overlap with pro-daesh propagandist but saying their one and the same is hyperbolic and you know it, her supporting sectarianism is enough to condemn her you don't have to invent stuff on top
"i'm not a neo nazi I'm a post nazi"
'The Muslim major of New York's wife is ISIS'
Yes exactly, really shows the close ties between American elites and terrorism.
Just as I don't care about the difference between a neo nazi and a post nazi, I don't think there is any meaningful difference between alqaeda, or whoever is running Syria now, or isis, or israel, or etc. they all masacre villages, do kidnappings, and ultimately are funded, whitewashed and supported by American elites, like this guy's wife, because their existence furthers the interests of empire.
So yhea; she is isis for all practical purposes.
I didn’t say that and I agree it’s hyperbolic. I’m saying precisely what she has done to anyone who isn’t aware. A blind eye to Al-qaeda is more accurate
My b I assumed you were Formerlyfarman replying to me
No worries
He is really popular. There is a certain amount of people know that he actually believes something, even if they disagree, and he is loud about trying something, rather than the classic nothing can ever change mantra.
I think a lot of the flack he gets from the left is bc nyc dsa and his cadre don't realize the political power they have and are much to timid and willing to acquiesce on points that they think matter. I don't think keeping tisch was at all needed, i think it was a bad decision. It makes me much more skeptical but I'm not sure I'm fully onboard that he was a secret zionist the whole time. I think he and his advisors have convinced themselves its a concession they need to make/work around. I think they are wrong.
On the nyc dsa thing, If you have an org with 12k members in any municipality you can flip any house seat in the us if you actually mobilize. They should be aiming to have a majority of nyc house seats be dsa backed, like aim higher. idk a little rant
How many of them are just on paper? How many of them are in caucuses with diametrically opposed political objectives and strategies? How many can actually be rallied to a specific political task?
I was under the impression they had about 1500. Im a paper member elsewhere bc I spend my time w another advocacy group and dont live in ny so idk