Image is of the Freedom Band performing at the end of the Second National Congress of the Socialist Movement of Ghana, sourced from this article. The same article contains most of the information used in the preamble below.
A little over a week ago, the Socialist Movement of Ghana concluded its second National Delegates Congress in Aburi, gathering 300 delegates from across the country. There, they deepened their commitment to the working class of Ghana and committed to intensifying political education and organization at the grassroots. The SMG itself decided to not electorally contest the 2024 elections in Ghana, but still presented a manifesto, and nonetheless managed to get two SMG members parliamentary seats in the National Democratic Congress.
Anyway, back to the National Delegates Congress: the delegates agreed that the Western imperialist system is now under a profound crisis, in which the likely future is a heightening of brutality, chaos, and resource plundering - a future which must be resisted and organized against.
To summarize their various statements and condemnations:
- Inside Ghana: a commitment to women’s rights, youth empowerment, and environmental protection.
- A condemnation of the resource plundering of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by imperialist powers.
- A salute to the people of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, in their campaign against outside imperial control in the Sahel.
- A condemnation of Morocco’s illegal occupation of the Western Sahara, and a call for the UN to identify the independence of the Sahwari people.
- A strong condemnation of Israel’s genocidal atrocities and massive terrorist operations against nearby countries, and support for Palestinian independence.
- Support for the people of Haiti against outside imperial domination.
- A call for the end of the blockade on Cuba and their removal from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
- Solidarity with Maduro and the people of Venezuela against the United States.
- A rejection of all imperialist aggression and sanctions against Iran.
- A condemnation of NATO’s decades-long military expansion eastwards towards Russia, especially as it has now resulted in massive devastation and risks a third world war.
- And finally, a commitment to Pan Africanism and international solidarity with all oppressed peoples around the world.
A platform I think we all can agree to!
Last week’s thread is here.
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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.
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.
Or… and this is a RADICAL idea that’s going to shock you:
The Chinese government simply stops trying to balance the budget and runs up the deficit to provide jobs guarantee to the unemployed, especially when we have high youth unemployment where talents are going to waste. This will immediately increasing the spending capacity of the people.
Remember, jobs guarantee is a price anchor, which means that the government directly determines the prices through setting employment wages (and since prices are relative to wages, inflation can be easily controlled). With this simple step, the government forces the private companies to either keep up with the government-set minimum wages, or people will simply leave those companies and work for the government. (This is the true genius of MMT btw, except that Stalin already did a similar version nearly a hundred years before but it’s good to see how it’s formalized into theory by modern heterodox economists)
This will allow the transition into a domestic consumption economy while reducing reliance on the export sector, and without the need to export the surplus value of Chinese labor and resources overseas in exchange for foreign IOUs (financial assets), the Chinese workers will be able to receive in real terms much closer to their fruits of labor.
There is no need for China to deal with foreign assets when it comes to domestic spending, since there is no critical shortage of technology, labor and resource in China for the domestic provision of goods and services. Nor does China has external debt denominated in foreign currencies that it has to pay off (if anything, China has TOO MUCH of foreign currencies from exporting its surplus values over the years lol).
The Chinese-style Marshall Plan I have always proposed is a BONUS. It’s what China can do if it really wants to assert its internationalist position as a socialist superpower. And this is possible because China has nearly $4.5 trillion accumulated foreign reserves ($3.3T in the PBoC) that it never needs as long as it stops adhering to neoliberal policies since there is no longer a need to balance the budget (OK we can keep maybe $500 billion as reserve but that’s about it).
Are you telling me that China cannot use $800 billion of its foreign reserve to pay off the entirety of Africa’s external debt?
I’m always willing to engage and discuss, and even educate, but when it comes to people spreading obvious misinformation, there’s not much you can do except to press them on the concrete details.
i too can spend 15 minutes on an llm and refocus the conversation back on my original points without having to meaningfully engage with any of your ideas but most people would accuse me of bad faith in that scenario. fortunately for everyone i am no longer online enough to effortquote bevins or whomever and then spend 4 paragraphs talking about how this definitively proves THE MARSHALL PLAN DOESNT WORK and then end with a concern trollesque ‘i just want to educate people’
you asked for external pressures, i gave you reasons as to why the rmb cant be internationalized, and you responded with ‘just print the money and give it to people’
i understand the sentiment but it is hilarious that you are confused as to why people feel like engaging with you is a waste of time when all you do is turn their engagement into a personal soapbox
There is no need to internationalize the RMB if it is for domestic spending. Why would you need to internationalize it in the first place if the goal is to provide employment? Your entire point is moot because there is no need to do so.
China only needs to do it IF it wants to play a key role in supporting the Global South on the international stage and subvert Western imperialism. You still haven’t answered the question of how China cannot simply use its $800 billion reserve to pay off the entire Africa’s external debt? And once again, nobody can answer the very simple question I posed.
If only for domestic spending to sustain full employment without regards for the Global South economies, the Chinese government can simply run up the deficit. As I made clear in my post above, there is no need to do so because there is no critical shortage of technology, labor and resource in China to implement what I just said.
China is not doing that because they need to balance their budget per IMF recommendation, and this requires accumulation of foreign currencies.
You are mistaking monetary sovereignty on what it means for domestic spending versus international trade - very different circuits here.