• jlyws123@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    7 months ago

    When Venezuela was a puppet of the United States, the United States supported its territorial claims.

  • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    7 months ago

    Drew Pavlou is a chronic weirdo on Twitter. His recent crusade has been harassing a comrade on Twitter because she’s hot. I’m not joking. Lots of sexual harassment is being sent her way but she’s handling it well.

    I think this might be the same guy who sat outside the Chinese embassy in Australia (New Zealand?) for hours harassing them. When he got in trouble for it he blamed censorship and communism or whatever. He is deeply troubled…

    • comhelio@lemmygrad.ml
      hexagon
      ·
      7 months ago

      He punched a Chinese guy during his "anti CCP activism" then went to numerous places and threatened the Chinese embassy by bombs and shi* , also he thinks he is a savior of Peng Shui . Just imagine a nobody from 1.5 Indians went to US to propagate free "Serena williams " or any other drug user celebrity in felony and cry out Free this .... Will US media give any attention to it ? but because he is a white joker and have connections with ASPI , he met Dalai Lama and what not.

      • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        7 months ago

        I don’t know who Peng Shui (Shuai) is but a brief search shows that she is a tennis player that disappeared? How the hell is he her saviour (also that feels really weird to say)? But yeah, his crimes were a lot more than “harassment,” I just couldn’t remember all that he did. He met the Dalai Lama? This world is not okay…

        • comhelio@lemmygrad.ml
          hexagon
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          not disappeared but got in a scandal with high official whom she accused of sexually exploiting her. Its not very clear the relationship between the two. Because in her original weibo she accused the official taking advantage of her romantic feelings. Nevertheless due to these high profile accusations and western demonization of the whole "CCP is against women" took China by storm. Now this guy (Drew) went to every tennis tournament and waved the "Where is Peng Shuai T-shirt ?" , Also met Dalai and others . just imagine being an white Australian who has no other job than to question where is Peng Shui in China . With all these commotion and his activism Peng was forced to retire , she was lastly seen with Eileen Gu in Beijing Winter olympics.

          • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            7 months ago

            Why is the internet acting like she died, more specifically that she was murdered by the government? And it was due to his actions that she retired, what a legacy to have…

        • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          7 months ago

          It makes sense that an apparently notable Australian reactionary troll would meet the Dalai Lama, a CIA asset who pines for the days he had hundreds of slaves.

          • Venus [she/her]
            ·
            7 months ago

            Tbf and I'm not very knowledgeable about the history of this or anything, but I'm not certain the current dalai lama ever had "hundreds of slaves" at least as an adult. He was born in 1935 lol

            • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              7 months ago

              He was 5 when he was named Dalai Lama and 25 when he fled to India after the Tibetan and Chinese people said enough to Tibetan serfdom. He was an adult, he was the leader of a nation, and he certainly had slaves at his disposal. Whether they were his personally or the property of the "crown," as it were, is immaterial. What is true is that only 5% of the inhabitants of Tibet were free people during its time as a religious theocracy, the rest serfs and slaves.

              Here is an intro to the topic of Tibetan feudalism, although the author goes off onto a weird tirade against China at the end, the facts on Tibet are well sourced.

              https://redsails.org/friendly-feudalism/

              • CannotSleep420@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                7 months ago

                ...although the author goes off onto a weird tirade against China at the end, the facts on Tibet are well sourced.

                TBF China circa 2003 is a lot easier to call capitalist roaders than China now.

                • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  That's a fair point.

                  It's just interesting and a bit disappointing that Parenti could see the good of past revolutionary movements but was never able to see the good of current revolutionary movements, flawed and works in progress as they are.

              • Venus [she/her]
                ·
                7 months ago

                Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Tibet, I know how bad it was. I'm just saying that the current Dalai Lama didn't really have much agency in the matter and, at 88 years old, probably has almost no memory of the time when that system existed.

  • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    As an American I look forward in the coming weeks and months to the geography and history lessons I wouldn't have learned any other way

  • Sinister [none/use name, comrade/them]B
    ·
    7 months ago

    Guyana is a petro-state controlled by Anglo-American interests. They have long abandoned left wing politics. The west will use this to further attack Venezuela and eventually Brazil. So I support Venezuela, the western diktat of sanctimonious borders must fall.

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Stop posting this jackass. He loves this kind of engagement with his bs.

    As for Guyana, fingers crossed that Maduro doesn't try anything. He's opening himself for military action and Venezuela suffering for it.

      • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
        ·
        7 months ago

        I meant to say he's opening himself up to it if he tries anything.

        Sorry if I sounded harsh. Drew just seems like another annoying person who acts annoying for attention. There are other people like that getting posted a lot on here. Their letters of their first names spell out VDK.

  • DankZedong @lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    7 months ago

    Another front the West can pour seemingly unlimited money into. Though I think the US would just invade if one of their oil puppets were to be invaded.

  • Mzuark@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    7 months ago

    I just can't help but laugh at this point. How many fucking wars are we planning to support under the same premise as China/Taiwan?

    • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      This isn’t even in the same realm. China Taiwan is an obvious nationalist government escaping to recognized Chinese territory and setting up an illegitimate state that isn’t internationally recognized and STILL claims all of mainland China.

      This is a region of a sovereign country they has been under its control for over 120 years, has no desire to be apart of Venezuela, and is only cared about because of its natural resources.

      It’s shameful to compare this to China’s claim. We should not beg supporting endless wars.

  • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Fucking bloodthirsty psychos

    I do wonder what the plan is here though since I am sure the state department is salivating at the opportunity to fuck Venezuela up

    • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      He has, specifically it is him claiming an oil rich area of Guyana, which Venezuela taking would violate Guyana’s sovereignty and international law.

      https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/world/americas/maduro-vote-essequibo-guyana.html

      https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-guyana-essequibo-territory-dispute-maduro-referendum-90a4f0f962a83620903987a68a7d39b0

      The UN Courts and security council (so China and Russia included) have told Venezuela to back down. So we have to wait and see if Maduro goes through with this. Guyana has already started mobilizing their small military and looking for guarantees.

      https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-guyana-maduro-referendum-essequibo-c031c2e6264392183503d988d6346e8e

        • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          True, but that still doesn’t give Maduro free reign to go “Hehe mine now :3”, especially seeing as this is a pretty obvious “Argentinian-Falklands”-esque gambit designed to distract the Venezuelan people from their conditions.

          Plus while the claim is old, it’s very convenient that this random unremarkable region has some of the largest mineral and oil deposits in the world.

          • TheLastHero [none/use name]
            ·
            7 months ago

            but Guyana is cringe and Venezuela is based so I'm still supporting their claim to the territory

          • SovereignState@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            7 months ago

            True, but that still doesn’t give Maduro free reign to go “Hehe mine now :3”

            I'm kind of bewildered by the great manning going on ITT.

            distract the Venezuelan people from their conditions

            random unremarkable region has some of the largest mineral and oil deposits in the world

            Does one not obviously feed into the other, here? Venezuelan access to those deposits obviously implies a healthier, stronger economy.

            I think blowing this up into something it is not is a dangerous game. Venezuela is not an empire, nor does it aspire to be. It is a nation in the global south that should maintain the sovereignty to define its own borders, especially when those borders have been encroached upon by comprador / puppet regimes funneling wealth back to the ACTUAL empire. Especially when those borders only exist the way they do because of ACTUAL empires!

            • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              edit-2
              7 months ago

              So Venezuela should be able to annex it’s neighbors? Really? That’s the take you’re defending? Why doesn’t China annex Mongolia, Korea, and large parts of Southeast Asia? They also have historical claims to those regions, and they can use their resources to further their aims. Is that your take?

              Also great manning? He’s the one pushing for this claim, the one who introduced the referendum, and the one who seems really eager for the results.

              The entire reason Hugo Chavez rescinded this claim is because Castro asked him to calm tensions and give up a capital motivated claim. I’m sorry; but I’m sure Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez are wrong here too in your view.

              “Access to a healthier, stronger economy”

              Ok, the same can be said for every country, that doesn’t make it right in any sense.

              • SovereignState@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                7 months ago

                I didn't say it was right or correct. I said it was a Venezuelan national issue.

                You've quite a penchant for putting words in others' mouths. I am only saying that chalking this all up to imperial ambition or the whims of a single political figure is myopic and betrays a lack of historical context. The borders exist as they do today because of the British empire. Guyana was a British colony until 1966.

                My view? I never said anyone was wrong. I never said anyone was right. I'm examining the reality of the situation. In the real world, calling Venezuela an empire is silly as fuck, as is insinuating that Maduro is making all of these decisions single-handedly.

                Russia and China regularly and correctly call out the U.S. for trying to be the world police. I don't think that they should police Venezuela in the U.S.'s stead. This is a Venezuelan and Guyanese issue. An issue whose blame falls squarely at the feet of empire.

              • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                7 months ago

                Why doesn’t China annex Mongolia, Korea, and large parts of Southeast Asia? They also have historical claims to those regions, and they can use their resources to further their aims.

                I don't think any country "should" annex any country unless a) it's necessary to stop atrocities and/or prevent future ones (e.g. the Soviets annexing/taking control/whatever you want to call it Eastern Europe up to Berlin), or b) the people there actually want to be part of the country that is doing the annexing (e.g. Crimea, Donbass). But I can't personally assign anything other than a moral claim on the word "should", in the same way that you "should" help a stranger if you have the ability to do so (with various qualifications about your own safety etc). It's all just authority and violence and military power at the end of the day.

                Cuba "should" be able to get Guantánamo Bay back by force - but they obviously cannot, or the US would destroy them. If a large majority of people in the Essequibo want to join Venezuela - keeping in mind that relatively few people actually live there compared to eastern Guyana - then sure, I guess, Venezuela "should" be able to annex it. But unless Maduro is confident about his abilities to withstand US pressure and potential military bombardments, I don't think it's a war we have to worry about actually happening.

                "Should" countries be able to attack Western-aligned countries? I don't know, maybe. If China started raining down missiles on Japan tomorrow, or the DPRK attacked South Korea tomorrow, or Cuba attacked Guantánamo Bay tomorrow, or, indeed, if Venezuela attacked Guyana tomorrow, would my reaction be "Oh no! Those poor places being invaded! This is strongly against international law, and we must condemn this attempts at annexation!" It probably wouldn't, I would support China/DPRK/Cuba/Venezuela, because I don't give a shit about international law if it benefits imperialists. People who jerk off about how important international law is (like most Western politicians) have the exact same perspective as me but in reverse - they don't give a shit about it if it benefits countries/areas being exploited (comparing their reactions to Ukraine being invaded and the Gaza Genocide is a good case in point for this). I just don't pretend to support international law, while those people do pretend to.

              • Venus [she/her]
                ·
                7 months ago

                Why doesn’t China annex ... Korea

                Because the North is cool and good and thus annexing it would be kinda shitty, and the south is backed by the US so annexing it would mean a way more involved war than anyone should advocate for

                Idk anything about Mongolia but my ignorant american impression is that it's mostly just empty steppes and mountains and stuff with nobody living in it which I'm sure could be put to use for a wide variety of things but like why would they lol

                • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  7 months ago

                  So your first point is that countries can be freely invaded if you have a claim on them, as long as they aren’t AES or defended by a larger nuclear power?

                  That’s just the American “Might makes right” insane justification for their imperialism.

                  Mongolia is filled with extremely valuable heavy metals and elements, such as Uranium, under those steppes. Along with gold, silver, copper, and coal.

                  There is a lot of wealth to extract from Mongolia, and I’m using it as an example to say that if Venezuela can do this, why can China not use its historical claim on Mongolia to annex those resources. It would be absurd, which is exactly my point.

                  • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]
                    ·
                    7 months ago

                    The topic is about Guyana. A 21st century British colony that essentially had a form of plantation slavery in 1970. Almost all its trade still goes to England as it did in the 17th century. This is not a sovereign nation. Does British Petroleum have the right to rule wherever they want?

                    • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
                      ·
                      edit-2
                      7 months ago

                      What? Thats just blatantly false, Guyana's top trade partners are 1.7 billion with the US, 700m to Singapore, and 250m to the UAE. The UK is in fourth place with only 6 percent of the market trade share. How is that "most of the trade still goes to the UK?" They trade with dozens of countries.

                      https://wits.worldbank.org/CountrySnapshot/en/GUY/textview#:~:text=Guyana%20exports%20to%20United%20States,partner%20share%20of%206.90%20percent.

                      Also yes... Guyana was a British colony that utilized plantation slavery. Same as in a lot of British colonies. Its a shame that the indigenous leadership that arose afterwards nationalized all of those assets and tore down the plantation system.

                      Why lie? Really? "They aren't a sovereign nation?" If this was any other western country encroaching their neighbor for resources you would be frothing at the mouth in defense, but because its Venezuela you're perfectly alright with resource annexation?

                      If you're going to try and defend this, at least try to not make random facts up.

                      • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]
                        ·
                        edit-2
                        7 months ago

                        My bad, let’s switch BP with Exxon Mobil. As is, The country is dominated by imperial powers. I genuinely do not care what Venezuela is doing there because I am aware that the US and Britain have been meddling there in a far greater capacity. I also live in the west, so my countries leader probably has diplomatic ties to England or the US and is currently sanctioning Venezuela. I’d say my voice would go a lot further discussing the west ties to these nation rather than a nation like Venezuela where the only course left for the west is military engagement. It’s almost like you are rooting for western military intervention, and that comes across as an odd place to be on an anti imperialist forum.

                        (Yea They Nationalized things but we’re then overthrown in well documented election interference campaigns to elect neoliberal. Look at a map and see who is drilling for these resources, it’s Exxon Mobil.)

                      • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
                        ·
                        7 months ago

                        Entire nation is CIA when they sell 6% of their off-shore oil share to a company.

                        I guess Venezuela is also a puppet state because they sold a large market share to China's state oil company upfront, and they don't see another dime throughout the extraction.

                  • Venus [she/her]
                    ·
                    7 months ago

                    So your first point is that countries can be freely invaded if you have a claim on them, as long as they aren’t AES or defended by a larger nuclear power?

                    Yeah basically. I mean I don't even care about "claims" or law or whatever. If socialists attack and defeat reactionary forces and wrest control of resources away from them, I'm in favor of that, end of story.

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        7 months ago

        I really wish Venezuela would violate international sovereignty and annex my country of the US and A

        • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          I’m just attaching relevant sources. There are plenty of news agencies talking about this. The New York Times is a lib source of course.

          Is Al-Jezera better? There you go:

          https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/4/venezuela-approves-referendum-on-oil-rich-guyana-territory

            • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              edit-2
              7 months ago

              You’re right 😂

              Imperialism and annexation is good when Venezuela does it!

              Also your sources are god awful. They exclude a massive amount of information and hyperfocus on bizarre tangents.

              Again, the security council unanimously gave their response. Are you saying China and Russia are wrong?

              • SovereignState@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                7 months ago

                Imperialism and annexation is good when Venezuela does it!

                Don't make me tap the sign.

                Show

                Are you saying China and Russia are wrong?

                They've been wrong before. They've been wrong recently. This is a national question regarding Venezuelan sovereignty. It is not China or Russia or any other global power's business. The UNSC sanctions the shit out of the DPRK for having the audacity to protect themselves, for one example.

                • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  7 months ago

                  Are Castro and Chavez also wrong in this case? I’m taking the same stance that Chavez took when he rescinded the claim. I’m sure you’re right though; Venezuela annexing it’s neighbor for money and resources is a wonderful idea.

                  Are you also saying that countries cannot be locally imperialist to their neighbors through expansionary polices? You don’t have to the the second coming of the British Empire.

                  • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
                    ·
                    7 months ago

                    Tell me with the straight face that the motivation for this is not money, resources, and capital. Through the means of militarily annexing a neighboring country.

                    You can still be a local imperialist if you yourself are oppressed. Is Venezuela not taking an expansionary stance through economic and military means to increase their regional power and resource control?

                    • Rafidhi [her/هي]@lemmygrad.ml
                      ·
                      edit-2
                      7 months ago

                      Guyana is the aggressor because it is being used as an instrument of the United States and US capital to attack Venezuela. (edit I originally wrote Guyana twice)

                      ExxonMobil is paying their bills

                      US SOUTHCOM cooperating closely with fake Guyanaese president comprador sellout

                      So do me a favor

                      Read an article about how imperialism actually works maybe.

                      Or learn about the actual history of Essequibo maybe.

                      Or just follow the guidance of Mao Zedong that those who have done no investigation have no right to speak.

                      • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
                        ·
                        edit-2
                        7 months ago

                        “Exxon is paying their bills?”

                        The entire source is the Venezuelan Interior Minister. I wonder why he would an incentive to claim that? Why was that claim thrown out by the UN court? That is currently headed by judges from Brazil, China, Russia, Uganda, Morocco, Jamaica, Lebanon, Japan, Germany, and Australia.

                        Are you saying that those judges from countries aligned against the US are all biased against Venezuela?

                        “SouthCOM cooperating closely”

                        You’re serious right? 😭 The Guyanese ambassador met with them… once. They didn’t even come to any agreements or announcements. It was a formality. That’s the entire point of diplomacy.

                        You’re stretching hard to try and justify this; and every lie takes 10 times the effort to disprove. Keep trying to justify annexing a sovereign nation.

                        I to can also link random articles to local imperialism, would you like me too?

                        No investigation, no right to speak? How about you keep lying out of your teeth. I think Mao was quite against that too.

                          • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
                            ·
                            edit-2
                            7 months ago

                            You’re the one who commented to me initially. Why did you if you don’t want to argue? Your first comment was pretty confrontational on top of that, what did you expect would happen?

                            So I think I’ll pass. Thanks for the offer.

      • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
        ·
        7 months ago

        Maduro going in would be an insanely boneheaded move

        • SovereignState@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          7 months ago

          It is not "Maduro going in".

          Referendums, not too dissimilar from those held in Donetsk and Luhansk, have shown overwhelming support. Millions of people are saying yes to re-incorporating this territory.

          Unless we have suddenly decided that the Venezuelan voting process is in fact fraudulent, this is something that needs to be properly grappled with and not simply an issue delegated to the maniacal whims of an all-powerful despot. Remain cognizant of this. Venezuela has democratic processes for these kinds of decisions.

          • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            edit-2
            7 months ago

            Yes, a having referendum into launching an invasion of a sovereign nation makes it perfectly alright! My mistake.

            How does the democratic process come into play into this situation? This policy doesn’t just affect Venezuelans, it affects the citizens of an entirely different nation. Through war…. for resources

          • CrushKillDestroySwag
            ·
            7 months ago

            AFAIK the referendums were held in Venezuela. If there was one from the region in question showing that the people living there yearn for liberation, that would be different.

            • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              7 months ago

              There are very few people in the region, and every time the issue was raised in the past 60 years, they have wanted to remain with Guyana.

              This is solely motivated by resource extraction.

  • ButtigiegMineralMap@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    7 months ago

    No lie, we already have 2 major wars going on, can this one wait a lil bit longer? Like I’m not saying this will start WW3 but another war is not what humanity needs rn

    • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      If anyone has issues with the "international rules based order" they are going to have better chances if they all act at the same time. The 2 wars going on are proving the USA and its vassals are paper tigers with no industrial base so if anyone wants to do anything the US disapproves of now is the time.

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      yeah war doesn't have to reach us in the imperial core to be bad.

      No one has listened to me so far but I think there is a serious risk war could result in someone getting quite seriously hurt

    • SovereignState@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      7 months ago

      Show

      (source: Telesur)

      This doesn't exactly sound like Venezuela is beating the wardrums, at least yet. Sounds more like an international legal battle will be fought, at least at first.

      Just more anti-Maduro and anti-Bolivarian propaganda and scaremongering, I think.

  • ReaZ@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Here are a couple of Tele-sur articles on this issue:

    Guayana Esequiba: Geo-Economics of an Occupation https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Guayana-Esequiba-Geo-Economics-of-an-Occupation-20231203-0005.html

    President Maduro: Venezuela Starts a Powerful Historical Stage https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/President-Maduro-Venezuela-Starts-a-Powerful-Historical-Stage-20231204-0006.html

    Venezuelan Authority Presents Essequibo Referendum Results https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuelan-Authority-Presents-Essequibo-Referendum-Results-20231204-0009.html

    • Rafidhi [her/هي]@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      7 months ago

      This whole event reminds me so much of 2/24/2022. Everyone from different ideologies are talking about "Venezuelan aggression" and ignoring the US provocation while conflating Guyana which is a NATO Chevron outpost with Venezuela a sovereign nation under genocidal siege by the US.

      3-18 months from now you will see how absurd this is.

  • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Full, uncritical, support to President Maduro reminding the Kangaroo Imperialists what Gallipoli felt like.