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.
https://www.ft.com/content/62e17b29-0061-4907-b7be-bce5b257dd8b
UK to curb ‘repeat protests’ in wake of pro-Palestine demonstrations
Home secretary to give police additional powers to act over ‘cumulative impact’ of previous protests
spoiler
Mahmood argued the powers were needed because of the “fear” that such repeat protests could cause. The move follows curbs on demonstrations introduced by the last Conservative government.
The home secretary’s announcement came after ministers pleaded with organisers of Saturday’s Palestine Action protest to postpone the event in respect for Britain’s Jewish community, following the deadly attack on worshippers at a synagogue in Manchester this week.
Mahmood said on Sunday: “Large, repeated protests can leave sections of our country, particularly religious communities, feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes.
“This has been particularly evident in relation to the considerable fear within the Jewish community, which has been expressed to me on many occasions in these recent difficult days.”
The UK, like other western countries, has seen repeated pro-Palestine demonstrations during Israel’s two-year offensive in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ October 7 attack.
The new powers would allow police officers to consider the “cumulative impact” of previous protests and instruct organisers to hold events elsewhere. The Home Office said it was still working on the details.
Anyone who breached these conditions would risk arrest and prosecution, the Home Office said. Mahmood said the new powers would be brought forward as soon as possible.
The Home Office said the police could act, for example, if a protest had happened repeatedly at the same site and had caused repeated disorder.
Mahmood told the BBC on Sunday that she would respect Briton’s “ancient freedom” to protest, but wanted to strike a balance to protect the interests of others in the community.
“This is not about a ban, it’s about restrictions and conditions,” she said.
The last Tory government also imposed restrictions on protests in the UK, provoking claims at the time that it was stifling civil liberties.
That crackdown included establishing a statutory offence of public nuisance, broadening the circumstances under which the police can impose conditions on protests, and introducing several new criminal offences, including “locking on” to property to cause disruption.
On Saturday the Metropolitan Police said there were 488 arrests of people supporting a proscribed organisation in demonstrations around Trafalgar Square.
Organisers of the demonstration, Defend Our Juries, said around 1,000 took part in demonstrations against the government’s designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group in July.
The Home Office said police forces in England and Wales were working with the Community Security Trust, a charity to set up to protect British Jews, to reassure and offer additional support to the 538 different synagogues and Jewish community sites across the country.
So they are wanting to legally mandate snake marches. And specifically dissuade people from congregating in squares, which are purpose-built environmental crowd control. Rather than having everyone contained in known, constrained area, they are preferring to have them roam randomly around town. Never in the same place twice. And strongly disincentivizing the kind of collaborative liberal model where the organizers tell the cops their whole plan ahead of time and take personal responsibility then use moral/social pressure to moderate rebellious activity. Now organizing will be anonymous with the gloss of spontaneity.
My understanding is that Israel has provided a lot of support and training to other states about how to do internal suppression over the past few decades. I guess now that they are otherwise occupied, the UK government is being left to its own devices.
The state will adapt to the new problems it has made for itself, but so will we