Due to American cluster bombing campaigns advised by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to damage supply lines, over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over about a decade, averaging a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes. Laos is thus the most bombed country on the planet up to this point. 80 million bombs failed to explode - the cleanup operation is expected to take centuries, and 25,000 people have been killed and injured by bombs in the last 50 years. About 50 people are killed or injured every year to this day.
After the United States withdrew from Laos, the Pathet Lao took power and abolished the monarchy. Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in Laotian politics, keeping the course on Marxism-Leninism and implementing the first Five Year Plan in 1981. The second Five Year Plan in 1986 was modelled on Lenin's NEP, and this doubled rice production and significantly increased sugar production. After the fall of the USSR, Laos allowed a small capitalist class to exist, with similar control over them as in China. Laos maintains a 48-hour work week with paid sick leave, vacation time, and maternity leave, and workers are well-represented in trade unions. They faired relatively well during coronavirus from a social standpoint due to quick and efficient action to lock down the country, experiencing ~750 deaths out of a population of over 7 million.
There is hope even after utter destruction by genocidal oppressors.
The weekly update is here on the website.
Your Tuesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Wednesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Thursday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Friday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
The Country of the Week is Laos! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish 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 (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. - 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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
I'm starting to lean towards thinking Maduro is acting in his own political self interests.
Maybe in the short term it is preferable for the people of Venezuela that Maduro and his left neo-liberals stay in power because the alternative is the right wing neo-liberals. Its just as possible though that because he is being a neo-liberal and not a communist that eventually the right wing will take over and they will be past neo-liberalism, straight into fascism and the purges will be long and bloody.
I'm convinced of it now as I write this. Maduro is a dem-soc and because he isn't putting the fascists to the wall the fascists will eventually coup him and kill a shit ton of people like they have a dozen times before.
The war he is starting will go horribly because he thinks he has gotten the OK from USA and they will spin around and fuck him. Guyana will be a US proxy war and nobody will help Venezuela as much as they will need. Maduro will become deeply unpopular and the Fascists will coup him and socialist blood will run in the streets.
Venezuela has got to be one of the least coup-able states out there. The military has already been purged, and the citizenry is full of armed, militant supporters of the government.
I also don't think there will be a war, at least in the immediate future. Venezuela is going to try to muddy the waters as much as possible about who is really in control of Esequiba. They have already started issuing ID cards. The next steps are possibly building roads and providing aid to the people living there.
A dual-power takeover would take a very long time. While the US and other powers are currently unable to respond I think it's fairly important to Venezuela that it is finished before they're able to get their ammo stockpile situation sorted out in 3-5 years time. If they're still in the process of competing for power by the time certain powers solve their problems they'll have a huge problem later.
The long rule of Chavismo has terminally weakened the power base of the right in Venezuela. Their social base was already too small to effectively maintain power, and it has only shrunk in recent years with the mass emigration of any Venezuelans with a bit of money. You're far more likely to see the current ruling party take a more authoritarian turn while intensifying its neoliberal tendencies than you are to see the old-school reactionaries come to power.
Venezuela is just going to start giving people citizenship and award contracts for oil extraction. The US might want a military response or maybe they don't since that would mean american boots on the ground cause Colombia is not going to invade for them anymore , Brazil is just posturing and Guyana's military could not fight by themselves they are helplessly outmatched militarily. It all depends on what the US wants to do here. We are not in the presidential palace I can't for sure tell you what Maduro and co's plans are but I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt they know the US is the enemy of the revolution at the very least of that I am sure.
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