Image is of Brazilian chuds storming the National Congress building in opposition to Lula winning the election, on January 8th, 2023, in their remarkably even shittier version of the January 6th events in America.

Bolsonaro, who is in the tragic category of pro-US South American leaders who are so awful and uncharismatic that even they can't get the US to help them overthrow a democratically elected left-ish government, has recently been facing that most elusive of things in this current world order: consequences for his actions. Bolsonaro and his friends have been under investigation by the police, and his passport has now been seized, meaning he is unable to leave the country. Alongside the man himself, the leader of the Liberal Party, Valdemar Costa Neto, has been caught up in searches and investigations. Brazilian Army Colonel Bernardo Correa Neto, a former aide to Bolsonaro, was very recently arrested upon his return to Brazil from the US, as well as another colonel.

From the Hexbear South American correspondent (a position I just made up), @Redcuban1959@hexbear.net:

Lol, they are really fucked. Iirc, this is a municipal election year in Brazil, Bolsonaro can't campaign publicly, he can't promote his candidates. The leader of his party is currently in prison. And even if he is released from prison, they are forbidden to communicate with each other. The high-ranking members of the Liberal Party are pretty much fucked because they can't communicate with each other and getting support from Bolsonaro could be very bad, as left-wing candidates will exploit the fact that Bolsonaro will probably be imprisoned for planning a coup.

The FBI seems to have concluded its investigation into Bolsonaro's money laundering scheme in the US and handed over its findings to the Brazilian Federal Police, I don't think Bolsonaro can even go to the US anymore, or any other country. And it could get even funnier, there is a very small chance of the Liberal Party being banned and all its seats in congress and the senate being transferred to other politicians, many of whom, even if they are conservative, will be much more favorable to Lula's social and economic reforms, as it has been proven that Bolsonaro used the party to finance the coup.

The Country of the Week is Brazil! 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

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:

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.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
    ·
    10 months ago

    The Country of the Week is Brazil!

    As mentioned in the preamble, feel free to post or recommend any material related to Brazil, whether from a thousand years ago or yesterday. You can post it anywhere in the thread, but you can also reply to this comment if you wish.

    If you're feeling particularly ambitious and want homework, you could take on any or all of these questions (no reward, but I'll be very proud of you):

    • Who are the main political actors? Are they compradors, nationalists, international socialists, something else?
    • What are the most salient domestic political issues; those issues that repeatedly shape elections over the last 10, 20 years. Every country has its quirks that complicate analysis - for example, Brexit in the UK.
    • What is the country's history? You don't have to go back a thousand years if that's not relevant, and I'm counting "history" as basically anything that has happened over a year ago.
    • What factions exist, historically and currently? If there is an electoral system, what are the major parties and their demographic bases? Are there any minor parties with large amounts of influence? Independence movements? Religious groups?
    • How socially progressive or conservative are they? Is there equality for different ethnic groups, or are some persecuted? Do they have LGBTQIA+ rights? Have they improved over time, or gotten worse?
    • What role do foreign powers play in the country’s politics and economy? Is there a particular country nearby or far away that is nearly inseparable from them, for good or bad reasons? Is their trade dominated by exports/imports to one place? Are they exploited, exploiters, or something in between?
    • If applicable, what is the influence of former colonial relationships on the modern economy and politics?
    • Is the country generally stable? Do you think there will be a coup at some point in the future, and if so, what faction might replace them?

    The previous country was Germany.

    The Geopolitical Reading List is evolving...

    • Redcuban1959 [any]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Who are the main political actors? Are they compradors, nationalists, international socialists, something else?

      I think currently the main political actors in Brazil are:

      Left:

      • Lula (President, Socdem. Lula currently has a minority government and was elected with the support of centrist and liberal/conservative parties).

      • Marina Silva (Environmentalist, I believe she was part of Lula's party, but was expelled and, after 15 years, Lula and she made up. She seems to care about the rainforest and doesn't seem to like the US or foreign intervention in the country)

      • Guillermo Boulos (A radical young politician, he's the leader of the homeless movement in Brazil, from what I've read. Lula seems to like him and I think he could be Lula's successor in the future, as Lula seems to be helping him get elected mayor of Sao Paulo)

      Center:

      • Alckimin (vice-president, neoliberal, but joined a social democrat/socialist party, which I think is the same party as Lula's successor who died in a plane crash. He's a doctor, currently organizing the infrastructure program in Brazil, posts cringe memes on Twitter)

      • Lula's current economy minister (Member of the Workers' Party. Promotes neoliberal policies, seems to be somewhat close to the Brazilian bourgeoisie. At least it seems that his foreign and social policies are the same as Lula's. Someone told me Lula really likes him and he was the Workers' Party candidate in 2018 who lost to Bolsonaro, later it seems he said it was a mistake and they should have supported the other left candidate or something like that)

      • Supreme Court judges (All but two of them really hate Bolsonaro and his allies. Bolsonaro attacked them for 4 years. Considering that the legislature is under the control of the right, they can help Lula by ruling some things congress approves as unconstitutional, ordering investigations against corrupt politicians and judging cases that can help minorities, such as indigenous land rights)

      Right:

      • Military (planned a coup against Lula, used to be supported by the US during the Obama and Trump administrations, took part in the indigenous genocide during the Bolsonaro administration).

      • Legislative (Both Congress and the Senate are under right-wing control. They keep asking the government for money to pass laws and reforms. I believe that the leader of Congress is very close to Bolsonaro).

      • Bolsonaro (He is currently banned from running for public office for 8 years, I believe, and will only be able to run in the 2032 elections. That's if he doesn't go to jail or choke on his own shit, which will probably happen soon. There are more cases against him, so he'll probably never get his political rights back. It seems that they want to put his wife or one of his children to run in his place, but their popularity is basically 3%)

      • Liberal Party (used to be a normal neoliberal party that supported Lula in the 2000s, has become a totally facist party with a minority of neoliberals inside. It seems that every kind of Gusano is inside this party, but despite being the largest party in Congress, it seems to be so disorganized that it couldn't stop Lula from governing and approve his choices for the Supreme Court).

    • Redcuban1959 [any]
      ·
      10 months ago

      What is the country's history? You don't have to go back a thousand years if that's not relevant, and I'm counting "history" as basically anything that has happened over a year ago.

      What role do foreign powers play in the country’s politics and economy?

      I think the Bademapanda has a video on the entire coup against Dilma, Lula's arrest, Bolsonaro's election and Lula's return, and how the US influenced all of that. Besides that you can follow Brianmar and Brazilwire on Twitter, they are usually talking about stuff in Brazil.

      Do they have LGBTQIA+ rights? Have they improved over time, or gotten worse?

      No idea, but they did elect some LGBTQIA+ in the last election, they elected the two trans people to be members of congress and the senate. I remember some people told me that.

    • BynarsAreOk [none/use name]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Brazil is not doing well, at all. Comrade Jones Manuel is consistently writing and making videos on the catastrophic neoliberal Lula 3 government.

      Like this A contrarreforma neoliberal do Estado. For example currently the Lula government was about to privatize the prison system, yes literaly copying the American model. Yes this is your supposedly leftist government. This isn't feamongering, the privatization package is one of(the?) biggest in Brazilian history.

      I would put effort into transcribing it here, maybe some other comrades that know Portuguese enough would do it or maybe you can use some transcript plugin and then ML translate, but it is depressing, far too depressing. @14:00 they talk specificaly about the prison privatizations. There are other videos, his channel is great, possibly relatively speaking one of the better western socialist channels on YT in general, sadly the language barrier means he doesn't get recognition, yes he is that good.

      If I could say something is that western Anglo audiences pay far too much tribute and importance on Lula's as a character and the small amount of "wins" he manages to achieve and subsequently gets broadcasted abroad.

      As a politician, actualy in power, Lula's governments both times will be remembered as historically significant missed opportunities at best and the current Lula 3 will be remembered as nothing but a pink faced neoliberal hell.

      This is why I recommend Jones on YT, is making extremely important content about this, it is a sad fact about the language barrier. Yes this is the same Jones that writer of this great article from a few years back

      Western Marxism, the Fetish for Defeat, and Christian Culture (2020) and

      Sim, eu apoio a Coreia do Norte! Notas sobre anticolonialismo, imperialismo e hegemonia("Yes I support the DPRK! Some notes on anticolonialism, imperialism and hegemony"). Yes it is a sound defence of the DPRK exactly from the western leftist perspective we need, sadly no human translation but it is that good.

      TL;DR if you want to actualy understand modern Brazil as the modern capitalist neoliberal hell then Jones Manoel should be your primary source.