Image is from this SCMP article.
Much of the analysis below is sourced from Michael Roberts' great website.
Japan's ruling parliamentary coalition, consisting of the LDP (purple) and it's junior coalition partner Komeito (in light pink) have lost their ruling majority. They have ruled post-war Japan for almost its entire history. The LDP is currently led by Shigeru Ishiba after Kishida stood down due to a corruption scandal, and ties to the Unification Church.
While geopolitical factors (over the cold war between the US and China, etc) may have played a role, by far the biggest reason for this result in the poor economic conditions over the past few years. Inflation has risen and real wages have fallen, with little relief for the working class via things like tax reductions. While inequality in Japan is not as extreme as in America, it is still profound, with the top 10% possessing 60% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% possess just 5%.
Shinzo Abe previously tried to boost economic performance through monetary easing and fiscal deficits, while Kishida ran on a "new capitalism" which rejected Abe's neoliberalism and promised to reduce inequality. Nothing substantial has resulted from all this, however, other than increasing corporate wealth. Innovation continues to fall, and domestic profitability is low, resulting in decreasing investment at home by Japanese corporations. Labour productivity growth has only slightly picked up since the mid-2000s and is falling again. The rate of profit has fallen by half since the 1960s, and Japan has been in a manufacturing recession - or very close to it - since late 2022. In essence: there is no choice but between stagnation or decline.
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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 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.
the correct Marxist position is to withhold a position until you are properly informed. not asking what the 'Marxist position" is. also that shitty feeling is your humanity. follow it. do more research instead of asking for your predigested take. dont have the time? cool then you dont get to have a position on this until you do, dont worry millions of people will still beremovedd, starved and massacred when you get around to it. the only think you CANT do is to parrot an opinion on an issue youve done no research on becasue someone on a forum with 95% white people on it (white people who already have many racist brain worms) told you to. this shit is actually offensive the apathy of white "leftist" is actually offensive. if you REALLY cared you WOULD NOT ask someone that, god please never do that in real life unless you want to look like a ignorant yankie.
sometime the "correct Marxist position" (TM) feels like some Manichaeist\game brain rotting thinking packaged into geopolitics or current event.
This is extremely unsettling because it is basically converting human into data to support a certain position
exactly!!!!! you get it.
Party line
Trying to self-crit right now, is the problem that I'm wanting a position to just adopt? Because that's not my intention, I was hoping to get some links to good Marxist critiques/party positions to learn more.
the issue is that you are jumping the gun. you dont even know the questions to ask, you wanna get to chapter 5 when you haven't even read the prologue. do you know the history of socialist Sudan? do you know what faction are involved even the names? do you know any basic knowledge about this country? start there,, maybe a decade before that and do your OWN analysis first, thats how you actually become a good Marxist, THEN you read what other Marxists have written. im logging off now becasue im am scrolling Hexbear instead of my stupid chores. also last point
'"do your own Marxist analysis" then read Marxists? My question is, why would I do that instead of reading and critiquing Marxist analyses? Not everyone has to reinvent every wheel. I can look critically, it's not like this is my first Marxist analysis. I'm gonna read and put more trust in the PFLP than anyone on Palestine, too.
If there is no good analysis, then of course. That's the information I hoped someone would give: is there a good analysis somewhere? I'd rather learn and apply than have to create my own position on Sudan. It's the purpose of parties really. But no party I affiliate with has said anything, and maybe, as you insinuate, there is no good analysis.
I'll read some on socialist Sudan; I know little outside of what I already mentioned and the writings of the Communist Party of Kenya. You seem to disagree with them, if I'm understanding right.
You're thinking like old school commies waiting for the party line. Now of course this isn't your fault, people are asked to not comment on assassinations or retreats until it is admitted by the organizations being targetted.
What's the point of having a group of like-minded people except to not learn everything on your own? Maybe my question is not worded well, and I will also take your critique seriously, in that I should investigate further.
But why would I begin by nothing? This is my first real moment of thinking I maybe have some time to learn something about it. I'm going to begin with a basis among comrades, look for resources from communists (and look, another comrade gave that knowledge about a communist party, though I will have to search further on my own).
Maybe it does show some "white leftist" attitude that I should critique, but don't act like there's not enough that I've been trying to learn and apply these past years. I didn't want a fully digested take, I wanted to know what Marxists has said about the positions.
ok well the communist party of sudan is a captured party and a shell of its former self, soooo if you went based on the uninformed comment you would have been misled. which is exactly why asking for the "Marxist position" is a thought-terminating cliche, not everyone who calls themselves a communist/Marxist/ socialist has the correct universal "marxist take" such a thing doesn not exist. and heres the thing YOU WILL NOT be able to shift the real stuff from the bullshit until you have a basic history of the country. there is NO SHORTCUT you can take here without coming off as a chauvinist whos not truly invested. ALSO like i said this is a 95% white website, where most people have not done ANY work to combat racist brain worms. getting all your points on black issues from HEXBEAR is a huge mistake!! no investigation no right to speak never seems to matter here when it comes to african countries.
Would you then like to set me on a correct path? What can I read? Everything I look into seems to be shitty analyses every time, lacking any materialist bases, which gets me nowhere. That frustration was the start of this, though I didn't communicate it well.
My best bases is reading Nkrumah and Rodney, but I feel like those don't help too much with the current conflict