Image is of thousands of Cubans gathering in 2026 to honor José Martí.
After the Soviet Union fell, in the 1990s, Cuba entered a period (known as the Special Period) of extreme economic pressure, losing almost all of its international trade and fuel imports. Caloric intake almost halved, and electricity was mostly unavailable for much of the day. In response, Cuba undertook Option Zero, in which the country prioritized distributing resources to the most vulnerable, and rationed what little was available as fairly as possible. During this time, the threat of total collapse led to experiments and innovations, and, paradoxically to those on the outside, Cuba's population came together under pressure, rather than shattering. The collective understanding that their suffering resulted from abroad rather than from internal inefficiencies and corruption meant that Cuba's government, and thus their sovereignty, survived.
As the American Empire contracts in the wake of multipolarity and can now no longer tolerate sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere, we are seeing a return to the time of the Special Period, with the illegal blockade being dramatically worsened - among other measures, the US is preventing all fuel from entering the island, a strategy made more viable with Venezuela's fuel exports now restricted. Imperialist supporters are predicting an imminent collapse, after which American mining corporations would descend on Cuba's massive nickel and cobalt reserves.
While it's absolutely possible that this time Cuba's government could collapse, it's important to note four things: 1) as noted, Cuba has been in a situation like this before and survived; 2) the geopolitical situation is quite different to how it was in the 1990s, with China and other powers increasing in power and influence compared to the USSR's incompetent final leaders leaving the lane wide open to American exploitation; 3) there has been a concerted effort to transition to renewable energy sources recently, with solar panels being imported from China and making up an increasing amount of the energy supply; and 4) Cuba's government is taking this threat very seriously, and beginning rationing efforts immediately.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
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.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
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.
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Per NYTimes https://archive.is/yuN8Q
So looks like they're not rushing the Bush out of port and are instead turning the eye of Sauron from Venezuela and Cuba. I assume Rubio is pissed about this, because the Caribbean will be without a carrier strike group with which to raid Venezuelan oil and won't be able to prevent Russian oil from reaching Cuba. The empire has to make decisions about where to spend its resources; perhaps they feel they've gotten all they can get fron Venezuela for now? Or it's overconfidence?
Regardless, to rush the Ford over there rather than the Bush shows they must be serious about Iran, and all plans pointed to a) they need more firepower to make any real dent in Iran's war machine and b) they couldn't wait for the Bush to be ready and need to strike sooner. The question being for b, why? What are the Iranians cooking up? Related to the Netanyahu meeting yesterday around "intelligence sharing"? Maybe, but what intelligence could the Israelis share that the Americans don't already have?
I'm just spitballing here, we don't really know anything, but it's an interesting turn of events unfolding. At the very least, this is probably the most telegraphed move yet that a strike is coming. One carrier group is something, but two? Whilst all the rest are home at port? Basically going all in. Would be a real uh interesting time for some Event in the South China Sea to kick off...
Possibly they want to have a carrier on either side of Hormuz if Iran shuts it down, or both inside the Gulf.
The US doesnt need a CSG to strike any Venezuelan or Cuban targets necessary to maintain the blockade. It would certainly help if Russia or China were to escort oil shipments to Cuba, but Venezuela is out of contention for what the US appears to be focussing on in the Gulf of Mexico.
The war with Iran hasn't started yet, and it's already putting a dent in US imperialism.
US heads stay seething.
There's still plenty the US can do to blockade ships without an aircraft carrier.
True, given how close Cuba is to Florida and they still have surface vessels outside of carrier strike groups.
I wouldn't discount the possibility that this is among the reasons why they're moving the carrier. For as much as Rubio and leadership are ideologically blinkered, the pentagon itself selects for careerists and a more Realpolitik approach. Can't have an international incident between nuclear armed states if one of them isn't there to notice the other breaking their embargo.
will the ford make it this weekend? it will make a heap of US resources in the theater
inb4 the strikes sre this weekend snd the ford is just a distraction for Iranian intelligence who might be convinced strikes will be delayed until it arrives.
No chance, the Ford is a big, slow boy. It's gonna take around two weeks for them to sail there.
Well Satanyahoo was the last person to speak with Trump, so Trump must have changed his mind about the whole Cuba/Venezuela thing for now at least.