this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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There were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.


If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.


Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.

Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.


The Country of the Week is Palestine! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.


Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The weekly update is here.

Links and Stuff


The bulletins site is down.

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists

Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can.


Resources For Understanding The War


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.

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.


Telegram Channels

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

Pro-Russian

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

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.


Last week's discussion post.


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[–] [email protected] 75 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Breaking 🚨- Mali 🇲🇱 signed a nuclear ☢️ deal with Russia

On Friday October 13th, 2023, on national television, the government announced that they signed two memoranda of understanding with the Russian federation. Here’s what the journalist was reading,

The high-level Malian delegation led by the Minister of Economy and Finance continues his mission in Moscow. Two memoranda of understanding have been signed today, they are about in particular geological research, but also and above all civil nuclear power. Thanks to these memoranda of understanding, Mali will very soon take its first steps in civil nuclear power, with the key being the construction of four 57 megawatt nuclear power plants.

Our country will also be able to have an extra-mining case which will list all the mining substances which exist throughout the entire national territory. During this day, the country's supply of fertilizers for the next agricultural season from Russia was also discussed. The Russian company responsible for the distribution of fertilizers is ready to supply Mali with the full quantities that the country needs as quickly as possible, and to continue our country's supply of wheat. We will come back to this later in full details with our special envoys.”

Alright, folks, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Burkina Faso 🇧🇫, and Mali 🇲🇱 both embark on nuclear energy on the same day. Remember, @CapitaineIb226 said that the federation between our two countries is well in progress and that any state is welcome to join. Now we have Niger on board. It’s important that you know that we have uranium, it’s that we haven’t started mining them yet. I guess those who thought they would control our raw materials ad vitam aeternam are in for a big surprise. We know they are hitting us with terrorism because we said no to them. But that’s not a problem. We’ll settle the score with the terrorists.

Anyway, if uranium is good for Mr colonizer or Mr imperialist, then it’s also good enough for us. The Alliance of Sahel states (AES) are going to work wonders. This is not the generation of our forefathers or our parents, this is our generation. Frantz Fanon said, “Each generation must in a relative opacity discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it.” We have discovered our mission, which is to liberate ourselves from bondage, we will, and we will not betray it. Long live Burkina Faso 🇧🇫- Mali 🇲🇱- Niger 🇳🇪 and long live Africa! A luta continua!

lets-fucking-go lets-fucking-go lets-fucking-go LIBS ONCE AGAIN HAS THE WEST EVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS FOR THEM? NO? THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT RUSSIA BEING "IMPERIALIST"

https://twitter.com/marcus_herve/status/1713341315050512730 https://nitter.net/marcus_herve/status/1713341315050512730

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago

nuclear energy lets-fucking-go

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago

this is unfathomably based

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago

Anyway, if uranium is good for Mr colonizer or Mr imperialist, then it’s also good enough for us. The Alliance of Sahel states (AES) are going to work wonders. This is not the generation of our forefathers or our parents, this is our generation. Frantz Fanon said, “Each generation must in a relative opacity discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it.” We have discovered our mission, which is to liberate ourselves from bondage, we will, and we will not betray it. Long live Burkina Faso 🇧🇫- Mali 🇲🇱- Niger 🇳🇪 and long live Africa! A luta continua!

Very cool. Good luck to them.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Alliance of Sahel states (AES)

sorry fam the acronym is ASS and i am an ass woman 😎

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

LIBS ONCE AGAIN HAS THE WEST EVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS FOR THEM? NO? THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT RUSSIA BEING "IMPERIALIST"

look, it's obviously better for the people of Mali and Burkina Faso that they have more independent governments capable of dealing with whoever they want and not just being French client states, and this is a huge positive step for those countries and peoples, but capital export is literally the biggest and clearest sign of imperialism. this is not any kind of proof that Russian society, which clearly displays a high degree of monopoly capitalisation, is not acting in an imperialist manner towards parts of the world. can you stop with the campism and please just engage seriously? this is like saying "OH MY GOD THE USA IS ANTI-IMPERIALIST GUYS" regarding their demand that the British Empire dismantle its African colonies after WW2.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

"campist" really is just "tankie" for leftists, huh

I don't think any principled Marxist-Leninist would disagree that Russia is, strictly speaking, an imperialist nation according to Lenin's definition. The conversation seems to always stop there though, with the automatic assumption that therefore neither side is worth supporting. I find this, at best, an extremely lazy position for a socialist to hold. As communists, we don't get to just sit in our perfect bubble of enlightenment decrying any effort to meaningfully improve conditions because they are flawed, even seriously flawed, or because they don't immediately lead to communism. For those who denounce "campism", I do wonder what their plan is meaningfully improve conditions is. Worker/union power, and worker conditions, in the West has been in decline for at least the last couple decades, and we have never seen a revolution in a financial capitalist country. Meanwhile, countries in the developing world go from crisis to crisis without any meaningful improvements as they are so mired in debt (on purpose). Revolutions are destroyed and revolutionaries are cut down by the unchecked power of American hegemony. Russia and China disrupting this system even if purely out of selfishness leads to opportunities for the working classes.

I also think that the concept of superimperialism needs to be considered in contrast to the regular imperialism that countries like Russia exhibit, especially because modern Russia is a direct result of the United States' efforts anyway. What the United States does and what Russia/China do are both quantatively and qualitatively different. Finally, I would argue that forces and classes can be progressive in certain circumstances and reactionary in others. Capitalism was, of course, a progressive force once upon a time, but now is reactionary. I believe that Russia and China have, overall, a progressive role in the world (in the sense of "progressing between stages of development", not the social sense). In 20, 30, 40 years time, perhaps they will then be reactionary forces, but by then we should be in a new global paradigm.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

"campist" really is just "tankie" for leftists, huh

No, it's a term with a long history and a specific meaning regarding a deficiency of proper analysis of competing national bourgeoisies, and a tendency for Marxists in one country to align with an oppositional country instead of embracing a proper revolutionary-defeatist line. Nothing like "tankie" at all. Do you understand the term yourself?

I don't think you read what I wrote properly. At no point did I say we shouldn't support the development of previously dreadfully exploited regions in Africa, such as in the Sahel, via their opportunistic alignment with less advanced imperialist powers in order to get a leg up on the others. It is the right of oppressed nations to decide who they wish to deal with. What I am saying is that the kind of cheerleading you're doing for Russia is unseemly and strange if you are seriously committed to internationalist revolution - Russia is an anti-communist dictatorship of the bourgeoisie which would and has stamped out actual revolutionary movements in countries it holds a degree of influence over. Look at Kazakhstan for example, where a revolution nearly toppled the government not long ago, one which was directed against American interests and investments in the country as much as against Russian ones - but the CSTO sent in troops to massacre rebelling proletarians regardless.

You claim that no "principled Marxist-Leninist" (what does this actually mean, just MLs who agree with you?) would disagree with the notion that Russia is an imperialist nation, but you were quite literally telling people to "SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT RUSSIA BEING 'IMPERIALIST' ". Which is it? These are contradictory statements.

What is my plan for "improving material conditions"? Well, it's not really a valid argument to demand I present a fully workable theory of world revolution in the 21st century when all I am doing is criticising your position and pointing out that it's not a workable theory of world revolution, which is of course what all communists are working towards. But if I have to, my own view is that the severe and total crisis being experienced across almost every bourgeois-capitalist nation represents a truly final crisis, one which is driving us into a Third World-Imperialist War, and the eventual consequence of this war is going to be global proletarian revolution (complicated by the fact that a huge proportion of the world's industrial proletariat is concentrated in the PRC, which is not simply a bourgeois-capitalist state, but something more complex).

something something super-imperialism

Sorry, are we Kautskyites? Super-imperialism is not a phenomenon that exists, the theory was completely dismantled by Lenin, it was one of the main reasons he wrote Imperialism. There are competing imperial interests and some of them have more influence, a larger theatre of exploitation, than others. This is not what super-imperialism is.

You also muddy the waters here by bringing the PRC into the discussion, a far more complicated case than Russia in terms of whether they represent an imperialist-capitalist state. I wasn't talking about them. It is demonstrative of a lack of thoughtful analysis that you conflate the two states and their relationship to the third world.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No, it's a term with a long history and a specific meaning regarding a deficiency of proper analysis of competing national bourgeoisies, and a tendency for Marxists in one country to align with an oppositional country instead of embracing a proper revolutionary-defeatist line. Nothing like "tankie" at all. Do you understand the term yourself?

Tankie was a specific term regarding people who sided with the Soviets crushing the uprisings of 1956 and 1968. It has now morphed into "anything I don't like, which is typically people being anti-American". The same thing, though to a lesser degree, is happening with "campist".

Russia is an anti-communist dictatorship of the bourgeoisie which would and has stamped out actual revolutionary movements in countries it holds a degree of influence over.

Of course it does! It's an oligarchic nation ruled by people who the United States literally installed into power! It also happens to be at the beginning of a long period of change which none of us know the end result of but seems to be geared towards an anti-American role, even if primarily fueled by those oligarchs' selfishness.

You claim that no "principled Marxist-Leninist" (what does this actually mean, just MLs who agree with you?) would disagree with the notion that Russia is an imperialist nation, but you were quite literally telling people to "SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT RUSSIA BEING 'IMPERIALIST' ". Which is it? These are contradictory statements.

No, I didn't. That was a different person.

Super-imperialism is not a phenomenon that exists, the theory was completely dismantled by Lenin, it was one of the main reasons he wrote Imperialism. There are competing imperial interests and some of them have more influence, a larger theatre of exploitation, than others. This is not what super-imperialism is.

While Lenin's descriptions of imperialism are pretty good, the mechanism of how imperialism operates now as opposed to the 1910s and 1920s are obviously extremely different and involve different mechanisms. Superimperialism is a real enough theory that the fucking CIA bought up copies of Michael Hudson's book to better understand what the United States was doing in the world today. Call it whatever you want - hegemonic imperialism, blorglepong, whatever - the United States is the hegemon, the world virtually revolves around it, it invades and pillages other nations on a scale far beyond what non-western states are doing, and so state actors weakening that hegemon and bringing back multipolarism (which is an unstable global order and thus gives us opportunities for revolution) and strengthening industrial capitalism (which communists have a pretty good idea about how to overthrow) is meaningfully progressing us towards world revolution.

But if I have to, my own view is that the severe and total crisis being experienced across almost every bourgeois-capitalist nation represents a truly final crisis, one which is driving us into a Third World-Imperialist War, and the eventual consequence of this war is going to be global proletarian revolution

I think we're describing the same thing but from different perspectives. I unequivocally do not support multipolarism as an endstage for societal development - such a thing is incompatible with communism from the basic definitions of words. You are describing the exact same crisis that I am - I (and others) are merely making the observation that the world, in the crises facing western nations currently, is transitioning to multipolarism, which will allow communists in that relative chaos to enact a revolution. Multipolarism is thus the arena in which we can take power. If we do not act or are unsuccessful, the world will transition to unipolarism once more because that is what monopoly capitalism dictates.

You also muddy the waters here by bringing the PRC into the discussion, a far more complicated case than Russia in terms of whether they represent an imperialist-capitalist state. I wasn't talking about them. It is demonstrative of a lack of thoughtful analysis that you conflate the two states and their relationship to the third world.

Given how the two countries are becoming ever more closely interlinked, I do not think you can have a complete or even really adequate description of geopolitics by discussing one without bringing up the other most of the time.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

11 hour old account and first comment is trying to start an argument, you are for sure a good faith person!

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's an extremely hexbear thing to do tho

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I certainly didn’t try to start arguments when I first began using LG/hexbear