Due to American cluster bombing campaigns advised by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to damage supply lines, over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over about a decade, averaging a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes. Laos is thus the most bombed country on the planet up to this point. 80 million bombs failed to explode - the cleanup operation is expected to take centuries, and 25,000 people have been killed and injured by bombs in the last 50 years. About 50 people are killed or injured every year to this day.
After the United States withdrew from Laos, the Pathet Lao took power and abolished the monarchy. Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in Laotian politics, keeping the course on Marxism-Leninism and implementing the first Five Year Plan in 1981. The second Five Year Plan in 1986 was modelled on Lenin's NEP, and this doubled rice production and significantly increased sugar production. After the fall of the USSR, Laos allowed a small capitalist class to exist, with similar control over them as in China. Laos maintains a 48-hour work week with paid sick leave, vacation time, and maternity leave, and workers are well-represented in trade unions. They faired relatively well during coronavirus from a social standpoint due to quick and efficient action to lock down the country, experiencing ~750 deaths out of a population of over 7 million.
There is hope even after utter destruction by genocidal oppressors.
The weekly update is here on the website.
Your Tuesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Wednesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Thursday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Friday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
The Country of the Week is Laos! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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.
Lots of second guessing of actually existing socialist states. 🤔
we're gonna go through the same process we went through with the Ukraine War
"fuck Maduro for being an imperialist, this is just totally cynical to distract from internal problems. the US is bad but this is worse, invading other countries is never justified"
"well, actually, I think it's more accurate to say that both sides are about as bad as each other here. sure, Maduro isn't motivated by the best reasoning but it's more complicated than I thought"
"actually, fuck the US and ExxonMobil for deliberately shaping the conditions for this war to start, it seems like Maduro could actually win this and it would be a solid blow against the empire, Guyana is just a puppet"
"I demand the unbanning of V_Poster365"
I'm already at stage 4, demanding the unbanning of a poster who doesn't even exist yet
Unban V_Poster365 now! They are vindicated by history! (No relations to one Z_Poster)
V_Poster365 is just @NicolasMaduro@hexbear.net
Mmmhmm the ultraleftism is so terrible.
When Mao said "no investigation no right to speak", I swear that anglophone leftists took that as a challenge.
See, I’ve had some personal stuff going on this last week or so and have not really had the time to understand what’s going on with Venezuela/Guyana. But, instead of firing off ignorant opinions, I’m just sorta in the position of not having any firm opinions on it at the moment.
👍A healthy way to engage.
The primary reason I know about this dispute is because my friends in Caracas have been talking about it nonstop for months
Are you going to call Castro an ultra for advising Chavez against trying to retake it in 2004?
It is no longer 2004 situations change over time as such so must the positions of the relative parties.
Right, but the argument for calling people ultras seems to be in accusing people of believing that Venezuela doesn't have a legitimate/rightful claim to the Esequibo. Which if you are going to do that, then you have to call Castro one, also. Otherwise, it's people talking about whether or not it's "worth it" for Venezuela to push the issue and in which ways they should do that, which is an entirely different discussion (and the basis on which Castro advised Chavez). I've been kinda busy lately, so I haven't been reading the news mega as much, but I really haven't seen many if any people saying Venezuela doesn't have a legitmage claim as much as they are worried that the consequences of a hot war could have serious blowback and maybe even take down the current order in Venezuela.
I mean they have a "legitimate claim" but we should not really care about legal international law wank and instead focus on the material reality. The only way war breaks out is if the US wants it too on that count I think they have already bitten off a bit too much with their commitments around the world. I am sure the government of Venezuela is aware of their position and potential response let us not forget this started because of Exxonmobil and Guyana attempting to start resource extraction in the disputed area and Exxonmobil is an arm of the US state. Venezuela is not looking for a military occupation instead they will grant citizenship start public works and perhaps collecting taxes and other administrative duties would be my guess based off what they are saying. All I am saying is they have safeguarded there revolution against the US and their allies in the country and Latin America to this day. I feel like a bit of optimism about the situation is not out of the question.
Right, but the internal material reality is also that there is also a non-trivial possibility that Venezuela receives a lot of blowback that it can't handle, and to ignore that is just as much ultra-leftist as to ignore the national liberation or anti-imperialist arguments for why Venezuela should press it's claim. That's how the whole concept of ultra-leftism even arose in the first place: ML critique of leftists calling for actions that were not realisitc based on tbe material conditions. It is both true that Venezuela has a right to the land and it's resources, that the US and Guyana are not following international law, and that attempting to assert it's territorial claims could lead Venezuela into doom. All of that needs to be considered.
War isn't solely in the hands of the US, Venezuela can start it, as well. And to that point, things like tax collection only works if you have the force of the state to back up your tax collectors. No one is going to pay taxes or duties if there are no consequences for not paying them. That fundamentally means there must be a Venezuelan police and/or military presence in the Esequibo.
My only real point/argument here is that an ultra-leftist position is this case is "Venezuela should stop worrying about the Esequibo and instead be focused on arming an international communist revolution" or "Venezuela should invade the Esequibo regardless of the potential consequences". Disagreements over the current material conditions and how Venezuela should act based on them are not ultra-leftist, they are natural debates that take place in any healthy Marxist group.
I agree with you that there is a possibility for blowback I am not dismissing it out of hand I am just of the belief that this was a calculated decision by Venezuela and officials who have much more intelligence and experience then us regarding the direction to take. However in this situation war is entirely in the hands of the US. Guyana hardly has a military to speak of they will never attack without the say so of the US and people of the region are not at all loyal to Georgetown since their interests and concerns are not represented by the government. The taxes thing I am just guessing at they have not said they are going to collect however the idea that only violence can compel one to pay taxes is not true as the benefits of Venezuelan citizenship might far out-way the reluctance to pay such taxes to Caracas instead. Benefits such as Social programs, infrastructure projects new job opportunities in resource extraction etc. This is all just guess work I cannot say with 100 percent certainty this is what is going to happen all I am saying is I believe that the situation will most likely resolve peacefully and with an agreement that favors Venezuela perhaps some kind of profit sharing agreement for the resources since that is all Exxon cares about. I appreciate that you are concerned with the situation and to be clear I am not accusing you of being an ultra I just think some people are being too quick to take the line that Venezuela is acting irrationally or is somehow now a imperialist power. If I am wrong I am more than willing to apologize but I truly hope I am not.
What a cop out answer. Has the situation improved since 2004? What exactly has changed so much that it’s not the time? Will it ever be the time? It’s okay to be anti war, but at least make that your stance if you don’t like the situation.
Venezuela position has improved yes both in the region and even with the US due to the Ukraine war and the attempt to no longer import Russian oil. Colombia is no longer a potential staging ground for a invasion and Brazil is no longer a US lapdog under Lula. This combined with Exxon and Guyana's recent move to begin resource extraction in the waters of the disputed region caused the reaction from Venezuela you are seeing now or it is at the very least a major drive of it I am sure there is other reasons.
I’m aware of the situation at hand, I just don’t like seeing “MATERIAL CONDITIONS” parroted with no thought because objectively speaking this is Venezuelas best shot at doing something like this as you just laid out.
It sounds like we totally agree
I pursue esoteric leftism. My theory is handed down by the vibrations of the universe, and the universe tells me to just believe whatever the State Department says.
Welp, Mr Blinken and reddit have put their flags in the sand for Guyana, so that saves me a lot of time and energy --no need to read your what very well could be very thoughtful/nuanced posts, it's yet another easy case!
Death to the AmeriKKKan empire, and so on and so forth
dont recall who said it but it went something like: "If Satan and the USA get into a war, I'll side with Satan because the USA is the bigger Satan."
and that's basically how i live my life
Iblis is a dickhead but the Djinn, even the shithead ones, have free will and a conscience, unlike Americans with their unrelenting, Morgoth-like love of evil. /joking but only a little.
Precisely
guyana is AES. ultras will deny this
Didn't realize they were above criticism.
I guess that's what Marx said: "if you're socialist (and I mean actually socialist), every decision you make is the best one cause you're always right.".