Latin America

TeleSUR: Over Half Of Mexicans Highly Trust Amlo - Inegi

People's Daily: Mexican president accuses U.S. of "abusive, arrogant interference"

TeleSUR: Miguel Díaz-Canel Re-elected President Of The Republic Of Cuba

TeleSUR: Lavrov Arrives in Havana to Promote Russia-Cuba Cooperation

"Russia-Cuba relations are excellent since both countries give them priority. They are also based on their peoples' traditional friendship ties," the Granma newspaper commented.

High-level political dialogue "has been valuable, friendly and aimed at promoting bilateral relations in all fields of mutual interest and benefit," it added.

Currently, Russia is one of Cuba's top ten trading partners, and both governments define their partnership as "strategic."

TeleSUR: Cuba Receives Donation of Water Resources Equipment From China

The government of China has contributed equipment for the provision of water resources to the drought-afflicted nation of Cuba. This donation is a much-needed solution to the pressing water scarcity issue that has destabilized the agricultural sector and caused detrimental impacts to the livelihoods of the Cuban people.

TeleSUR: Russian Foreign Minister arrives in Nicaragua

The War Against The West

TeleSUR: President Putin Meets Military Leaders In Kherson & Lugansk

Monthly Review: Successive Governments in Ukraine have accommodated Nazis to counter Soviet nostalgia: Ukrainian Communist Dmitri Kovalevich (Interview)

Responsible Statecraft: For Russia-China, multipolarity is all about (usurping) the Benjamins

Beijing and Moscow have been very busy places lately. In the past few weeks, Putin and Xi have welcomed not just each other but representatives from France, Brazil, and more than 40 African countries. They have also been hosting negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Iran as well as Saudi Arabia and Syria.

This “unusual pace of diplomatic activity,” as CNN referred to China’s schedule, is suggestive of a new world with many poles that wants to replace the U.S.-led unipolar order. Russian and Chinese officials, including leaders Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, repeat at every opportunity that their strategic partnership and vision doesn’t hew to blocs or alignment against third countries. Rather, they call for “multipolarity,” in which many poles — large and small — have agency, starting with upending the supremacy of the U.S. dollar.

WSWS: Australian foreign minister defends commitment to US war plans against China

In a convoluted and self-contradictory speech to Australia’s National Press Club yesterday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong sought to answer opposition to the Labor government’s intensifying involvement in the escalating US war drive against China.

While claiming that a “binary choice” did not have to be made in the deepening geo-strategic conflict between the US and China, Wong nailed the Albanese government’s colours firmly to the mast of US imperialism. The United States, she declared, was an “indispensable power” in the Indo-Pacific and “our closest ally and principal strategic partner.”

Clearly conscious of mounting public alarm over a catastrophic US-triggered nuclear war with China, she ludicrously depicted the government’s $368 billion acquisition of AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines—designed to attack China—as an anti-war deterrent, provocatively accusing Beijing of aggression throughout the Indo-Pacific.

...

Even as she proposed a “balanced region,” Wong painted US imperialism as an essential source of the Indo-Pacific’s supposed “long, uninterrupted period of stability and prosperity,” and denounced “any who take self-satisfied potshots at America’s imperfections.”

Those unspecified “imperfections” presumably covered everything from the US invasion and half-century occupation of the Philippines from 1898, to the bloody US-backed military coup in Indonesia in 1965 and the murderous Vietnam War. That is not to speak of today’s US military encirclement of, and economic sanctions against, Beijing or the Biden administration’s effective junking of the 50-year-old “One China” policy in order to provoke a confrontation over Taiwan.

Valdai Club: On the Road with Trekking: How to Sanction Diamonds of Russian Origin

Having worked out the technology and mechanisms for coordinating and promoting sanctions initiatives in the information space over the course of 2022, the G7 plans to introduce a requirement for importers to confirm the non-Russian origin of diamonds appearing on the G7 markets. For a long time, even before the diamond industry was officially subject to sanctions, there was a discussion in European and American circles about how to limit the Russian diamond market without harming their own diamond processing industry.

Analysis

Retrospectives, History, Theory, and Technology

Monthly Review: Karl Marx beyond Europe

Marx’s views on historical development and his analysis of capitalism have been the subject of much debate and criticism over the years. While some critics have accused Marx of imposing a European model of historical development on the rest of the world, it is important to note that Marx himself rejected Eurocentric thinking and developed a more nuanced view of world history.

The question of whether Marx was Eurocentric or not is a complex one that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. While it can be said that some of Marx’s earlier writings, particularly those focused on the development of capitalism in Europe, may have been Eurocentric in nature, it is important to consider the totality of his work across his entire life. Over the course of his career, Marx’s views evolved and became more nuanced, as he engaged with a broader range of issues and examined the ways in which capitalism interacted with different societies and cultures. Marx’s later writings demonstrate a greater awareness of the global dimensions of capitalism and the specificities of non-European societies.

Developing Economics: Colonialism and Indian Famines: A Response

Tamoghna Halder criticized one of my writings on nineteenth-century Indian famines. Halder distorts my views and wrongly implies that I suppressed data. He misreads the very nature of the Indian famine debate, thinking it is about facts. It is not. It is about method, about how economic historians and development scholars should read the history of climatic shocks. The piece demands a response and a clarification of the issues involved.

Jacobin: “Girls, We Can’t Lose!”: In 1930s St Louis, Black Women Workers Went on Strike and Won

During the Great Depression, St Louis’s Funsten Nut Factory was racially divided. Black workers, mostly women, worked harder and made less than their white counterparts. So they went on strike — and got their white coworkers to join them on the picket line.

Gray Zone: Bombshell filing: 9/11 hijackers were CIA recruits

At least two 9/11 hijackers had been recruited into a joint CIA-Saudi intelligence operation that was covered up at the highest level, according to an explosive new court filing.

Analysis of Western Countries

Anti War: Will Crisis-Plagued Netanyahu Start a War To Save His Skin?

The PM has as much to lose as gain from hostilities. But with religious extremists dictating his agenda, he may find it hard to avoid setting the region ablaze

Responsible Statecraft: We need a better China policy. Banning TikTok isn’t it.

Analysis of Non-Western Countries

Naked Capitalism: Vzglyad – “It’s Time for Russia to Change Its Position in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”

Yves here. John Helmer’s latest piece, which includes a translated article from a major foreign policy pubilcation, explains how Russia should and probably will shift its stance towards Israel, and as a result, towards Palestine. It argues that Israel has only somewhat restrained its support of Kiev, and that is likely to change due to increased techno-military cooperation between Russian and Iran and ever rising pressure of the US on its allies. Although the post does not say so quite as bluntly, increased unity in the Arab-Persian world give Russia a chance to be more explicit in its support of that development by backing Palestine.