Thanks to Wilding Gyres for bringing this site to my attention! https://x.com/wilding_gyres/status/2118231924040962198

This Firefox extension is handy when you click through to read full articles https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/traduzir-paginas-web/

Despite the strong winds and imperial tides that are affecting us, the real fact is that Venezuela is moving day by day in the construction of the communal State, to call it in some way what we glimpse in a future within reach. This is one of the great strategic tasks that give meaning to the Bolivarian Revolution. We are moving towards it as if towards a red dot on the horizon.

In truth, Chávez did not emphasize this name of communal State as a precise concept, probably because it was not contemplated in the Constitution. He sometimes drew it, I think, in what could be interpreted as a generic idea, as a summary of the possible, in his interventions referring to the great task of the people to organize themselves in Communes.

See for example what he says in a call from Havana to the television program "Dando e Dando", on May 7, 2012. "Continue training yourselves in the fight, kicking the hills, the streets, the towns; organizing yourselves, and so that you can join in the construction of the communes. To the communes! All of you, all of you, must become communal fighters, in the construction of communal spaces, the communal State, the social State of law and justice."

But the idea of ​​popular power organized in Communes had been in the works for some time. All that effort of thought and implementation with legal backing was reflected in a set of laws known as the Laws of Popular Power. The first was the Law of Communal Councils, in 2006, and by the end of 2010 there were already, among others, the Organic Law of Popular Power, the Organic Law of Communes, the Organic Law of Public and Popular Planning, the Organic Law of the Communal Economic System. Their names themselves indicate where the shots were going.

Already in 2007, in his proposal for the Constitutional Reform, he had well defined the commune: "The primary political unit of the national territorial organization will be the city, understood as any population settlement within the municipality and integrated by areas or geographical extensions called communes. The communes will be the social cells of the territory and will be made up of the communities, each of which will constitute the basic and indivisible territorial nucleus of the Venezuelan Socialist State, where citizens will have the power to build their own geography and their own history, respecting and promoting the preservation, conservation and sustainability in the use of resources and other environmental legal assets."

In 2009, he created the Ministry of Popular Power for the Communes. So when Chávez, in his Council of Ministers of October 20, 2012, known as the 'Temón Coup', spoke in detail about the communes and uttered the famous phrase: "Nicolás: commune or nothing", no one could have been surprised.

Active Chavismo

I considered it necessary to briefly explain these things so that it is understood that this mandate of the Commander is an unwavering commitment of the Venezuelan people, which is expressed particularly through active Chavismo in any of its expressions.

The Commander passed away in 2013, what followed is known up to the current situation.

Thus, within the immense aggressions that we have suffered and their consequences, the real fact is that the idea of ​​communes, established and practiced, has remained the soul of socialist construction.

Delcy Rodríguez herself, a few days ago, on the anniversary of the Temón Coup, expressed that "14 years after the Temón Coup by Commander Hugo Chávez, we maintain a conviction intact: power resides in the organized people". "With the strength of our communities, the communes advance and Venezuela is transformed".

President Maduro, a prisoner in a New York prison, also considered it important to publicly remember that date: "We remember October 20, 2012, when President Hugo Chávez carried out the so-called 'Temón Coup', drawing lines of progress towards a participatory society, with the people as the protagonist of power in all its dimensions."

So that regardless of the different responsibilities that each of the major organic actors corresponds specifically to and in which they concentrate their efforts, let's say the Government, the working people, the armed forces, and Bolivarian parties (PSUV and the others of the Patriotic Pole), the fact is that the great task that summons and unifies all of them, in addition to the preservation of peace, is the intense, constant and progressive construction of communal society, with a view to reaching that horizon that we have discussed.

Regarding Venezuela's DOTP project, please check this post that I translated from Pueblos.gob.ve -> https://lemmygrad.ml/post/9072469

Hello. I will be running two reading groups, one for Cowbee's Marxism-Leninism Study Guide: Basic Course, and another for Soviet Democracy, and am looking for participants. If you would like to join make a comment stating which you would like to join and I will add you to the list.

We will start reading each book on monday, see the programs down below for what we will read each week.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/13211293

When you expose the truth about China, the propaganda machine comes for you.

Recently, a network of Western "China Experts" and anti-China propagandists, led by Bill Bishop (Sinocism), tried to launch a coordinated smear campaign against my friend Arnaud Bertrand and me. Their claim? That our family RV road trips through Xinjiang this summer were actually covert, all-expenses-paid operations sponsored by the Chinese government.

There’s just one massive problem: They made the whole thing up.

In this video, I’m bringing the receipts. We’re doing a forensic deep dive into exactly how these Beltway insiders manufacture consent and build their hit pieces. I will show you the exact logical fallacies, the fabricated timelines, the heavily doctored back-translations, and the categorical lies they use to smear anyone who challenges their narrative.

From paying out of my own pocket for 13,000 kilometers of diesel, to arguing with state-owned canyon managers over cable car refunds in the rain, to the ultimate irony of who is actually getting paid to sell a geopolitical "product"—this is what happens when you pull back the curtain on the anti-China grift.

If you want to know what Xinjiang is actually like—and why the people selling you the "open-air prison" narrative are terrified of you finding out—hit play.

it seems there's an independent candidate called dan sullivan, but there's a republican called the same way. trump asked his buddy elon to fix that, and elon proceed to delete the profile of that dastardly "woke" politician...

but in a movement typical of our nazi genius, he deleted the wrong profile

I want to ask some opinions about Counter Hegemony and the so called positional war by Gramsci. How in modern times can positional war and counter hegemony be pursued, Gramsci formulated his theory in times were newspaper were the main form of information and people needed to actually be out there to get informed they would need to frequent public spaces my doubt is how can his theory fully apply to the current state of things? We live in an era were communication and information travels and gets read nearly totally on-line were the algorithms makes everyone live in their echo chamber and get the information of their echo chamber and do not get alternative information if not in times of crisis were they are actively searching for responses, how can counter hegemony of the organic intellectuals be organized if the main and nearly total form of information is managed by the same men who seek to destroy that ideas and get that ideas themselves become another echo chamber were you reach always the same restricted number people or get straight up censored. Is counter hegemony in a world were nearly no one gets informed through paper or by actually searching sources possible or is it possible only during times of crisis were people start to actively search for responses out of the system and so the positional war of slowly getting the revolutionary ideas into common sense for preparing for revolution no longer possible and we should search other paths in the west. What alternatives I have missed?, What am I not considering?, Is Gramsci theory just surpassed? What are the alternatives if there are?

This article is from earlier this year, in march, but I felt it was worth posting in coordination with my last post.

Note: The audio is messed up for headphones, only coming out of one ear.

On 25 October 2026, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and Wenhua Zongheng jointly convened in Beijing to discuss 'China's Socialist Modernisation and Perspectives from the Global South'.

The event marked the launch of two major publications: Volume 4, Issue 1 of the international edition of Wenhua Zongheng, Building a New Development Theory from the Global South, and the Tricontinental dossier, Walking on Two Legs: The Socialism of Chinese Modernisation.

The discussion explored how China's path of socialist modernisation resonates with the developmental aspirations of the Global South.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/13151282

CodePink's co-founder Medea Benjamin is in China for the first time in over three decades. Back then she came to investigate China's sweatshops and the terrible conditions workers faced as the country embarked on its massive journey which ultimately saw 800 million lifted from extreme poverty.

Today, the China she sees is worlds apart. Modern, clean, safe, and not at all concerned with war with the United States. Or anyone else, for that matter.

Medea joined me in the Reports on China studio for a one-on-one chat about being arrested multiple times on Capitol Hill, Western media lies, racism in America, trying to teach ordinary Americans that China is not an enemy, and so much more.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/13151073

The Pentagon just declared war on... Chinese flashcards? 🇨🇳🇺🇸

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently puffed out his chest to announce the dismantling of 80 "propaganda cells" across U.S. universities. But what high-tech espionage ring did they actually bust? Subsidized language lessons, cultural exchanges, and free dictionaries.

In this video, we break down the massive evidence gap behind the Confucius Institute hoax. After years of DOJ investigations and a grueling 8-month Senate probe, how many language teachers were indicted for espionage? Zero.

So, what is Washington actually afraid of? We expose the true motive behind the ban (hint: it's the exact same reason they panicked over TikTok and Red Note), the blatant hypocrisy of U.S. regime-change operations overseas like the NED and USAID, and how this entire "national security" panic is really just a cover to protect domestic corporate monopolies from affordable foreign innovation.

The U.S. brings colour revolutions; China brings dictionaries. Don't fall for the geopolitical hype.

Notions of fairness as pushed by the exploiting classes are based in falsehood, fancy, and fakery. Whether it is explicit caste saying an entire group deserves their "lesser" position or more fluid notions of what one deserves, such as through individualist narratives to do with personal responsibility, the capitalists, the imperialists, the colonizers: they all look for ways to justify their exploitation as fair and just.

Sometimes they use religion as a means of validating, laundering, and sanctifying these narratives, teaching people that they will get what they want by being "good" and not get what they want by being "bad". These notions of "good" and "bad" are, for the exploiting classes, defined in the manner which is most convenient to continuing their exploitation. Violence is presented as bad when it challenges exploitation and presented as good, as self defense when it protects systems of exploitation.

This produces people who suffer all the more when, upon experiencing hardship in life, they struggle to understand "why me." I, they think, "did everything right." I "did what they said I should do yet still I suffer." It can bring on a sort of nihilist defeatism. "If I did everything I was supposed to and still suffer, then what was the point of all this?"

Revolutionary fairness, or we could call it liberation fairness or communist fairness, is different. This kind of fairness is rooted in human need and logistical efforts toward getting needs consistently met. Revolutionary fairness may sometimes mean rationing few resources among many, but it is not inherently about impoverishment or scarcity.

A revolutionary entity that has advanced resources can produce more advanced outcomes for people. Rationing can transform into dramatic gains in quality of life.

It is worth noting that an exploitative entity can have an abundance of resources and still engineer scarce conditions for the masses, under which they experience avoidable hardship simply because the exploitative dynamic demands that they do. This is sometimes the case under modern capitalism, such as when grocery stores are full of more food than people can buy and eat before it expires, while some are going hungry. Or when housing infrastructure is there to house the people, but due to the exploitative mandates of private property and the landlord, some are homeless.

So, the difference between bourgeois fairness and revolutionary fairness is not "how much resources they have." The difference is in how they use those resources. Revolutionary fairness going through famine will do its best to ration fairly and work hard to overcome the problem. Bourgeois fairness sitting on prosperity will make some suffer and blame them for their position of suffering. Revolutionary fairness with prosperity will uplift millions in quality of life. Bourgeois fairness going through famine will hoard resources for the wealthy and seek to use military force to crush unrest.

In other words, bourgeois prosperity is prosperity for the exploiting classes. Revolutionary prosperity is prosperity for the masses. So, bourgeois fairness isn't fair at all. It is only through revolutionary fairness that we can actualize fairness for the masses.

Is the West facing a deeper crisis of capitalism, militarism and imperial power?

In Episode 6 of The Southern Question, Ammar Ali Jan, Ameem Lutfi and Adeem Suhail examine the structural forces behind the growing global crisis, from unrest in France and Europe’s austerity policies to escalating conflicts in West Asia, the war in Ukraine, and the changing balance of global power.

Moving beyond explanations centred on immigration, political extremism or the crisis of liberal democracy, this conversation explores how militarism, imperialism and economic inequality are connected—and why the consequences are especially significant for countries across the Global South.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Crisis of the West: What do protests, political instability and social unrest reveal about the condition of Western societies?

• Militarism and Austerity: How can governments justify expanding military budgets while public services, schools and welfare systems face mounting pressure?

• War and Capitalism: How do military spending, arms industries and defence contracts shape modern economies?

• France and the Crisis of Democracy: The relationship between colonial history, state power, labour protests and the rise of the far right.

• Ukraine and West Asia: How do contemporary conflicts expose the connections between military power, economic interests and global politics?

• The Global South and Sovereignty: Why do industrial capacity, technological development, financial autonomy and national defence matter for countries facing external pressure?

• Imperialism and Development: Can countries build an independent developmental path amid global economic and military competition?

• The Future of Global Power: What can countries such as China, Cuba and Vietnam teach us about development, sovereignty and long-term strategy?

The discussion also examines the relationship between artificial intelligence, technology companies, military contracts and the changing political economy of war.

Rather than treating these crises as isolated events, this episode asks a larger question: Are militarism and war becoming central to the way the global economic order sustains itself?

Israel's election has produced a political deadlock, with Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot struggling to secure a governing majority as votes continue to be counted. But would a change of government actually change Israel's policies toward Palestine, Iran, and the wider Middle East? Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that Washington has warned Gulf Arab governments to prepare for a possible short but intense military campaign against Iran following the U.S. midterm elections. As the region braces for another potential confrontation, could Israel's political uncertainty coincide with a dangerous new escalation?

In this interview, Kevork Almassian is joined by independent journalist Sulaiman Ahmed of ‪@MoralResistance‬​ to examine Israel's election results, the role of Palestinian Arab voters, the country's anti-war movement, and the debate over apartheid and political representation. They also discuss American military preparations against Iran, a Drop Site News investigation alleging covert UAE assistance to Ansar Allah against Saudi-backed forces in Yemen, Jordan's deadly airstrikes in southern Syria, and the Mecca Pact negotiations between Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan. Are regional alliances beginning to shift as another major confrontation approaches?

The GZD matrix server is down because my oldest server (running smoothly without a break since 2012) has finally given up. I am now diagnosing the issue and I will edit this post as I know more. This may take a few days to resolve.

🫡 RIP 2012 Mac Mini A1347, you will be missed (unless I can get those juche necromancy machines working).

When Starbucks recently opened locations in Xinjiang, the "professional" China-watching community went into a complete meltdown. Why? Because the reality of what is actually happening on the ground in China is actively destroying their carefully crafted, multi-million dollar propaganda narratives.

In this video, I break down the absolute hypocrisy of western media outlets like the BBC, who celebrate Uyghur culture abroad while claiming it’s being erased in China—only to panic when you show them footage of Uyghurs proudly expressing that exact same culture in Xinjiang today. We look at the ridiculous claims from think-tank "experts," the inconvenient truth about who actually secured UNESCO heritage status for Uyghur Muqam, and why the US government is so desperate to stop Americans from seeing Xinjiang with their own eyes.

Finally, we discuss why this lazy, low-effort Xinjiang propaganda is suddenly crawling out of hibernation, and how the world is waking up to the blatant hypocrisy of those demanding outrage over China while cheering on actual, live-streamed atrocities in Gaza.

sorry, flavio...bolsonaros clan won't escape their crimes this time, or...as the cariocas would say: "A mentira tem perna curta" (Lies have short legs)

Welcome again to everybody. Make yourselves at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.

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☭ Find theory on ProleWiki, marxists.org, Anna's Archive