Image is of a crowd protesting in Athens.
Last week, on Friday, hundreds of thousands of Greeks poured into the streets to strike and protest on the second anniversary of the deadliest train crash in Greek history, in which 57 people died when a passenger train collided with a freight train. On this February 28th, public transportation was virtually halted, with train drivers, air traffic controllers, and seafarers taking part in a 24 hour strike - alongside other professions like lawyers, teachers, and doctors.
The train crash is emblematic of the decay of state institutions brought about from austerity being forced on Greece in the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession, in which the IMF and the EU (particularly Germany) plundered the country and forced privatization. While Greece has somewhat recovered from the dire straits it was in during the early 2010s, the consequences of neoliberalism are very clearly ongoing. Mitsotakis’ right-wing government has still not even successfully implemented the necessary safety procedures two years on, and so far, nobody has been convicted nor punished for their role in the accident. The austerity measures were deeply unpopular inside Greece and yet the government did not respond to, or ignored, democratic outcry.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
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.
South Korea air force jets accidentally drop bombs on homes, injuring 15
(The number right now is 29)
Normal country.
Graphic design is my passion
I’ll repost this when the new thread drops, but the Syrian terror regime has started a cleanup operation in advance of any international visitors, specifically the UN delegation. From planting weapons and stripping bodies to put on military gear to straight-up dumping bodies in the ocean, maximum effort is being put in to obscure what really has occurred. They haven’t stopped the killing (despite the announcement of the “military operation’s” end), they’re simply trying to minimize what has already happened.
Hilarious beyond belief, the new prime minister of Canada saying they “must protect our way of life, and our country” against the threat of American trade war and the threat of invasion
The Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum is a forum founded by Ukrainian restaurant business owner Oleg Magaletsky, exiled Russian separatists, as well as foreign sympathizers, which advocates for the disintegration of Russia. It was registered in Poland. On 17 March 2023, the forum was designated an “undesirable organization” in Russia.
The forum participants set as their goal the separation of the Russian Federation into independent constituent states. At the second forum, the topics for discussion included the deimperialization, decolonization, de-Putinization, denazification, demilitarization, and denuclearization of Russia. The forum participants also appealed to the national and regional elites of United Nations member countries, urging them to begin creating national provisional governments-in-exile.
According to French historian and sociologist Marlene Laruelle, the calls of the forum participants for the “liberation of enslaved peoples” refer to the slogan “prison of peoples” from the times of the Russian Empire and to the CIA-sponsored Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations during the Cold War. On 25 July 2022, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, ridiculed the Free Nations of Russia Forum held in Prague. He thanked the “pseudo-liberals” for confirming the words of the Russian leadership about attempts to disintegrate the country.
WTF is this? Micronations LARPing but with CIA backing?
A US Flagged Oil Tanker , Loaded with Jet Fuel collided with a Portugese Ship in the North Sea & Currently both ships are Burning
oh and Twitter is down ?
EDIT: and Tesla Stock is down …(some 10 % - 8 % )
Romanian shenanigans continue:
fascist isolationist guy is not registered for elections after getting first round (which he won) annulled.
On one hand, whatever, he is a fascist dimwit, on the other - shining illustration how well leftist parties can win elections without the power of a strike behind them.
Elon Musk calls Poland’s foreign minister a “little man” and tells him to be quiet after Radoslaw Skorski claims that the Polish government pays for the use of Starlink in Ukraine and that it may be necessary to look for another alternative.
Elon Musk says it “makes no sense” for the United States to be part of NATO to “pay for Europe’s security”. The Wall Street Journal says that many European leaders regret making their security dependent on the US.
- Telegram
Canadian oil is partially exempt from the US tariffs, will be tariffed at 10% (current tariff is 0%), instead of at 25% like everything else.
All Canadian energy is going to be 10%. I can only hope that in New England this is going to be the year where we
regional energy conglomerate CEOs. Our prices are a cluster fuck because of inept government management (thanks “transition” fuel and “free market” energy) and the fact that our regional energy conglomerates are monopolies that have captured all regulation, to the point where they are freely admitting they haven’t done proper maintenance and also that money is gone so they need to raise the rates to do maintenance. Obviously the YoY profit keeps coming.
Apparently lots of pigs out protecting Tesla dealerships today in Chicago and New York
Nationalists celebrating Roman Shukhevich. I mean this with all sincerity Ukraine needs better heroes to look up to
Pipe/tunnel guys, we are so back.
Photo is supposedly of a Russian soldier infiltrating Sudzha (Kursk region) through a gas pipeline.
It sounds like the operation might have been a failure, but we’ll have to wait for more info. I would not be surprised, because it’s likely Ukraine expected this and planned for it due to previous events.
You can tell Jolani was trained by the west by the public face. Interim government, respecting communities, independent investigation
Also I was right, gag order is back after the initial wave of evidence. There appear to have been more concerted efforts to get rid of bodies/obscure the number of dead, as well as the use of artillery instead of small arms to kill and intimidate coastal residents into flight
Hey so something interesting (or perhaps a nothingburger) is happening WRT Puerto Rico. According to the Daily Mail (archived link) some lobbyists are pushing for Trump to sign an executive order to give Puerto Rico independence. Those born in the island after 2026 would cease to have US citizenship, and all federal funding would be cut. I’m unsure about how they would deal with all the federal property in the island, or the military bases.
The lobbyists’ argument is that the island is costing the federal government $657B so it would be better to just let it go. Now, this is obviously pretty concerning because Trump is a neoliberal who easily could fall for that argument, and obviously they are very racist against Puerto Ricans so they are not concerned at all about the damage this would cause to the island. Now, keep in mind that while there is support for independence within PR, most who are pro-independence want to first create a self-sufficient economy in the island, which is far from the present situation. Apparently one of the lobbyists behind this draft executive order is a bourgeois Puerto Rican living in the US; presumably this is someone who would benefit from Puerto Rico becoming a neoliberal “sovereign” client state, as opposed to a colony.
My personal take is that I still doubt anything will come of this. Resident commissioner (non-voting congressman elected by PR) Pablo José Hernández spent yesterday putting out fires claiming that no one in congress actually supports this draft. Whether or not that’s true, it definitely seems that no one wants to be up-front about supporting this. Trump himself hasn’t said anything about Puerto Rican independence at any point, he has only ever stated his opposition to statehood for the island. I think Rubio certainly doesn’t want to let this go through, since the US bases and military equipment in Puerto Rico are a relatively important part of power projection against Cuba and Venezuela. Also, the dumbest possible reason, Puerto Rican independence is mostly something supported by liberals and leftists in the island, so it’d be kind of a culture war L for Trump to be the one to grant it.
Also, in theory Trump doesn’t have the power to make the decision to drop a US territory like that, it’d have to go through Congress, but obviously that’s not stopping him.
