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submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

Image is of the Te Pati Maori (Maori Party) cofounders, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. They have 6 of the 123 seats in the New Zealand parliament.


Officially confirming that the Republican primaries were a gigantic waste of time for everybody involved, Trump has massively beat everybody else in Iowa, and will very obviously be the Republican candidate for 2024. Given the abysmal state of the US economy (for everybody who isn't in the top 1-10%, which is mainly what national statistics reflect when they aren't telling blatant falsehoods), it's more plausible than ever that Trump may indeed once again become President - though I personally refuse to predict one way or another due to how volatile politics and geopolitics currently are. Project 2025 is coming, folks - either as the official Republican governance program, or as what the Democrats will do in 2026 after the midterms, stating that they have no other choice and have to reach across the aisle as they are the Adults In The Room™.

In other news...

Late last year, New Zealand voted in a new and very right-wing government, composed of the center-right National Party, the libertarian ACT Party (ACT stands for the "Association of Consumers and Taxpayers", good lord), and the fascist New Zealand First party. By what I can tell, this was the well-trodden path of "Vaguely center-left party does neoliberal austerity and causes a recession and workers fucking hated it and voted in a different party out of desperation," though the flooding and cyclones did add challenges to Chris Hipkins' short reign after Jacinda Ardern resigned.

It's worth noting that Hipkins was at least fairly China-friendly, meeting up with Xi Jinping on a five-day visit in the summer. They still do the whole "We have concerns about human rights" thing, but of all the countries of the imperial core, New Zealand is - or, perhaps, was - one of the most amicable. In 2021, China was New Zealand's single largest trading partner, with a third of exports going to China (more than Australia, the US, Japan, and South Korea combined), and they receive 22% of their imports from China too, more than any other single country.

Christopher Luxon, the new Prime Minister and sentient thumb, has said that he is exploring a closer relationship with AUKUS:

Luxon said New Zealand was interested in becoming involved in AUKUS Pillar 2: a commitment between the three partners to develop and share advanced military capabilities, including artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and hypersonics.

“We’ll work our way through that over the course of next year as we understand it more and think about what the opportunities may be for us,” Luxon said. “AUKUS is a very important element in ensuring we’ve got stability and peace in the region.”

This is not to say that Hipkins wanted nothing to do with AUKUS or Western organizations aimed generally against China - in fact, pre election, "he was open to conversations about joining Pillar II of AUKUS". But the current government is pushing down on the accelerator pedal.

The left-wing Maori party, Te Pati Maori, has stated that they want New Zealand to remain non-aligned, as joining AUKUS would erode the sovereignty of the country:

As Maori we cannot allow our sovereignty to be determined by others, whether they are in Canberra or Washington. Aotearoa should not act as Pacific spy base in the wars of imperial powers. Joining AUKUS will severely undermine our country’s sovereignty, constitution, and ability to remain nuclear free. There is too much at stake for our government to make a commitment of this magnitude without a democratic process.

In general, the party leaders of Te Pati Maori want New Zealand to be the "Switzerland of the Pacific", which is perhaps not the greatest analogy given all the problems Switzerland had and has, but we understand the intended meaning of desiring neutrality.


The Country of the Week is New Zealand! 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

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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.


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[-] Al_Sham@hexbear.net 69 points 9 months ago

Seyyed Khamenei has better materialist analysis than the "geopolitics analysts" and the Marxists.

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei Speech on October 17th 2023:

When the officials of some countries spoke with Iranian officials, they defended the usurping Zionist regime, saying in protest, “Why have the Palestinians killed civilians?” First of all, this statement is not true. Those who are in the settlements are not civilians at all. They are all armed settlers.

...

What numerous intelligence reports show us is that current policy these days — that is, the Zionist regime’s policy during the past week — is being formulated by the US. They are the ones making the policies. What they [Zionists] are doing is based on US policy. The Americans should pay attention that they are responsible for this. They’re responsible.

https://english.khamenei.ir/news/10210/The-usurper-Zionist-regime-must-be-prosecuted

[-] Xx_Aru_xX@hexbear.net 49 points 9 months ago

baby leftists are this close to feeling bad about IOF members dying

[-] Al_Sham@hexbear.net 51 points 9 months ago

"What about the Israeli workers???☹️☹️"

[-] Xx_Aru_xX@hexbear.net 55 points 9 months ago

"Israeli proletariat and Palestinian proletariat should work together to topple Hamas and Israel"

oooaaaaaaauhhh

[-] Moonworm@hexbear.net 8 points 9 months ago

I mean, yes, in an ideal situation?

[-] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 34 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

even assuming totally rational actors, the Israeli and Palestinian proletariat would be unwilling to work together because imperialism is the primary contradiction here, not the contradiction between the classes

it's honestly a really good distillation of that concept. if you hear a communist say something like "Iran deserves critical support despite being a capitalist country with a bourgeoisie that exerts political control, as it opposes the United States and its empire" then certain stripes of left-wingers get uneasy because it (outwardly) seems to fly in the face of supporting the working class and opposing the capitalists of any and all countries, but with a very tangible example of Israel and Palestine, it's much easier to understand that opposing the Israeli government and opposing Hamas and the Palestinian authorities inside Gaza is totally nonsensical and if you hold that position, you deserve to be forced into a clown outfit for the rest of your life

[-] MarxGuns@hexbear.net 24 points 9 months ago

Kinda reminds me of Chinese Marxist of old wanting to join together the proletariat, peasantry, and national bourgeoisie against international bourgeoisie and their compradors. Until a time comes that the problem is between national bourgeoisie and proletariat, they are useful for pushing out imperialism. So I guess the priority is ending oppression then doing revolution.

[-] ziggurter@hexbear.net 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Personally (and generally in line with my anarchist philosophy, I suppose) the use of the term "critical support" always makes me a bit uncomfortable, much as I'm not going to donate to some liberal's election fund (or defend them when they turn around and call the cops on Black or unhoused people...) even if they're willing to stand in the street with me and take parallel actions in support of e.g. reproductive rights or anti-fascism. But IDK; I may not be one of the leftists (or "leftists") you are talking about who interprets the term so selectively. Countries are a spook, as Stirner said, and I see no reason for the mere idea of them to have power over me (i.e. to bind me to some binary choice of either supporting them or not) when I can instead choose particular actions and consequences to align myself with and against, no matter their origin.

In this sense, I really, really appreciate the fact that there is multi-ideology, multi-belief, multi-national, multi-ethnic cooperation among the resistance groups fighting Zionist fascism. It's not simply "we're going to throw all our political and financial and material support purely behind Hamas and subject ourselves to however they choose to do things," but, "we're all contributing to the struggle, and to some extent using our own philosophies to inform how we follow Palestinian (including to an extent Hamas) goals and leadership". And to me that's a significant difference. It probably contributes to Hamas making statements like they have about distinguishing Judaism and Zionism, for example, and I bet (though I have no real visibility into it) acting in concert with those statements.

[-] voight@hexbear.net 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

countries are a spook, as Stirner says

well at least countries are things that exist or have existed unlike Stirner who may in fact be a doodle

[-] ziggurter@hexbear.net 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

LOL. Again and similarly, I have no particular love of Stirner, but for this idea that was expressed with his name tagged onto it (and in other ways by other philosophers...).

No, countries aren't real. Like their borders. They are an abstraction behind which a lot of power is exercised by people. But abstractions have their limits, and should be used only when they are useful to us. A cow might be essentially spherical for purposes of calculating air resistance and critical velocity during a fall, but that doesn't mean that you should simply roll them like you would a ball (or that you should drop them for that matter, even though you understand to a reasonable degree how natural laws might act of them in such a circumstance).

[-] voight@hexbear.net 4 points 9 months ago

Large wooden rods will be fastened to the cows. The cows WILL roll.

[-] voight@hexbear.net 24 points 9 months ago

The 300 Zionists with a conscience are not much to ally with

[-] Al_Sham@hexbear.net 22 points 9 months ago

https://orinocotribune.com/special-interview-with-khaled-barakat-no-one-in-gaza-demands-ceasefire/

From an interview with a Palestinian communist in November 2023:

“Today the PLO and the Palestinian Authority leadership are traitors and tools in the hands of Israel,” he continued. “And Hamas is leading the Palestinian resistance, but not just the armed resistance. If you look at elections, let’s say the student movement elections or labor elections or any kind of really popular assembly elections, Hamas will win with majority. Palestinian people are voting for Hamas in the most prestigious Palestinian liberal universities, like Birzeit University, Hamas will win student council elections. Even in Christian universities, Hamas will win by Christian votes. Does that mean that the Palestinian people don’t understand Hamas? And these Western liberals understand the situation more than we do?… I do not think it is naive or ignorant when they repeat this, it is a calculated distortion. The idea behind these allegations is to say that Palestinians are not capable of creating their movement, someone else must have done this for them.”

Barakat emphasized that Hamas is a national liberation movement of the Palestinian people. He recalled that Western media never mentions that Hamas was actually elected by Palestinians. “They say things like Hamas controls Gaza or Hamas did a coup, as if an elected government is going to do a coup against itself,” he said. “It’s just garbage that Western media put out to mislead people.”

When consulted about the rejection expressed by some sections of the Western left towards anti-imperialist movements that have a religious base, such as Hamas, Barakat called it “an extension of a colonialist mindset.” “They want a Palestinian resistance that fits their image and their criteria, and not how reality is and how Palestinians are,” he said. He added that the same sectors used to criticize the Marxist-Leninist PFLP when it lead the armed struggle during the 1960s-70s, calling the organization “too extreme.”

In this regard, he traced the history of the origin of Islamist anti-imperialist trends in the region. “In the 50s our people were shouting slogans for socialism,” he commented. “They supported Nasser in Egypt… And there were no religious groups anywhere in the movement carrying out any kind of national liberation tasks. Being affected by the situation worldwide—Vietnam, Cuba, Algeria, national liberation movements across Asia and Africa, Palestinians founded the PFLP, the DFLP, and other progressive forces. But that changed. And the reason that things change is not because people are wrong, but because these political parties or these political entities haven’t delivered what they were supposed to deliver. Whether it’s Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Arab national movements that were defeated in 1967, or whether the socialist organizations and political parties retreated in 1990 with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc.”

“The popular classes and the working classes are not going to rest until the left rebuilds itself,” Barakat stressed. “They’re going to support the forces that are still fighting. And when there is a vacuum, someone needs to fulfill the vacuum. In that atmosphere, with the 1979 Great Revolution of Iran, a new era began in the region,” and religious movements took up the task of the Palestinian resistance.

He called out the inherent Islamophobia in the “anyone but Hamas” view, and stated, “We are part of the discourse of Liberation Theology. It’s not just churches, mosques can be revolutionary too… If a mosque is calling for the liberation of Palestine and for equality and for supporting the marginalized and the workers, then this mosque is playing a good role, a positive role. But if a mosque is calling for supporting the Saudi prince and extend the life of bin-Salman of Saudi Arabia, that’s a reactionary mosque and a reactionary imam. The way we look at churches, we should look at mosques with the same objectivity and the same way.”

“Those who want to see the left rising and having military capabilities, they should go and support the left instead of saying they don’t like Hamas,” he advised. “It’s just a very bad position and not one Palestinian would respect that position, including any revolutionary leftist.”

[-] emizeko@hexbear.net 23 points 9 months ago

:sakai-shining:

[-] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 30 points 9 months ago

Fuck the adults that choose to settle but I feel for kids in those communities.

this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
128 points (100.0% liked)

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