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

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.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Venezuelan Govt. Congratulates Citizens on Referendum Results

    The consultative referendum constituted "a great victory of national unity, in which there are no winners or losers, but an extraordinary triumph of Venezuela," said the Venezuelan Public Prosecutor's Office in a statement.

    The All Venezuela campaign command congratulated on Monday the Venezuelan people for the results achieved in Sunday's consultative referendum, in a day it considered extraordinary, different and atypical.

    Héctor Rodríguez, responsible for broad alliances and micro-campaigns of the group, highlighted in a press conference that the popular consultation culminated yesterday in "an extraordinary day of national unity" and thanked the more than 10 million 500 thousand Venezuelans who turned out to vote.

    The sovereignty of the country won because we gave "a clear message of national unity for the defense of integrity" and remarked that the campaign taught "much more about our history, rights, geography, territory and integrity."

    The governor of the state of Miranda pointed out that now the obligation of all citizens and institutions is to "absolutely obey" the mandate given by the Venezuelan people yesterday.

    Furthermore, the secretary of spokesperson and social networks of the Venezuela Toda campaign command, Génesis Garvett, signified the message of "unity and peace" given to the world with the results of the referendum, the seventh since the arrival of the Revolution.

    A statement issued by the Public Ministry, read on Monday by the Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, pointed out that the consultative referendum constituted "a great victory of national unity, in which there are no winners or losers, but an extraordinary triumph of Venezuela."

    He stressed that this Sunday's electoral act "opens a new era" and constitutes a transcendental event for the western hemisphere, and also highlighted its "civility and neatness."

    Moreover, in an official statement last night before a crowd at the National Stadium in Providence, the President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, said that no propaganda or "lie will put fear in my heart or the hearts of Guyanese" and assured that the people "will not allow themselves to be trampled."

    The President urged to "honor the order" of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of last week, in which the UN tribunal asked both parties to refrain from any action that could "aggravate or widen the territorial dispute" over Essequiba Guyana.

    In its resolution, approved unanimously by the judges, the ICJ also notified that Caracas "shall refrain from taking any action that could modify the situation currently prevailing in the disputed territory" and that "Guyana administers and exercises control over that area."

    Venezuela reiterated in a communiqué that it will firmly maintain its unwavering defense of international legality and of the Geneva Agreement as "the only legal instrument" that allows for reaching a practical and satisfactory solution for both parties, through friendly, political and peaceful negotiations.