Image is of a flag ceremony to commemorate the launch of Operation Barkhane, which has since officially been terminated after its failure.

Chad, a country in north-central Africa, borders a lot of active geopolitical areas - Niger to the West, Libya to the North, Sudan to the East - but is scarcely discussed itself. I'm not really knowledgable enough to give anything like a decent history, but the recent gist is that the country was ruled for three decades by Idriss Déby until he was killed in battle in 2021 while fighting northern rebels. Idriss was part of a few wars - such as the one against Gaddafi in Libya, and also the Second Congo War. While he was initially elected democratically in 1996 and 2001, he then eliminated term limits and just kept on going.

After his death, Chad has been ruled by his son, Mahamat Idriss Déby. In early May 2024, elections began which were meant to result in the transition from a military-ruled goverment to a civilian-ruled one. Needless to say, Mahamat won the election - with 61% of the vote. Both father and son have been on the side of the French and the US, whereas the opposition is against foreign colonizers and has attempted to put pressure on the government in numerous ways to achieve a more substantial independence. France maintains a troop presence in Chad, and it's something of a stronghold for them - when French troops were forced out of Niger, they retreated to Chad. However, it's not clear even to the people inside Chad what precisely the French are doing there. I mean, we know what their presence is really for - imperialism and election rigging - but in an official sense, they don't seem to be doing much to help the country materially. What is clear is that they like to intervene on behalf of the ruling regime and against rebels a whole lot - the most interventions by France in any African country, in fact.

The United States, so keen on human rights and democracy in so many places around the world like Russia, Iran, and China, have - for some strange reason! - decided for the last 30 years that they can live with a couple dictators and wars in the case of Chad. In fact, various American state propaganda firms like the ISW and Washington Post have warned the current government about the Wagner Group interfering with the country and spreading anti-Western sentiments as in the rest of the Sahel.

Things are very tough for Chad. They are among the poorest countries in Africa and host about one million people fleeing from nearby conflicts, which is a pretty large number when Chad has a population of about 17 million.

With the French Empire fading, they are beginning to run out of places to retreat to in Africa. Macron, in January, said that his defense council had decided to reduce troop presence in Gabon, Senegal, and the Côte d'Ivoire, though has maintained troop levels in Chad and Djibouti. Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet from France, anti-empire sentiments are boiling to the surface in New Caledonia/Kanaky, which is unfortunate for the French military as they really need that island, both for the massive nickel reserves, but also as an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Pacific just in case a conflict with China pops off.


The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Chad! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

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.


  • jackmarxist [any]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Yeah there is zero hope for India. I will try to escape as soon as possible because this country is totally fucked in the head. And considering how much the temperature is rising every year, crop failures will start soon and may actually lead to famines.

    • thethirdgracchi [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      7 months ago

      The temperature in Delhi the other day was insane, glad it wasn't humid since it's only a matter of time before north India starts hitting wet bulb temps and thousands drop dead in the streets. Hope you can get out soon friend, it's such a shame it never took the Chinese path. Such a vibrant place.

      • jackmarxist [any]
        ·
        7 months ago

        China had Mao who totally modernized Chinese culture and eradicated old hierarchical systems that kept the workers down. In India, the Liberals did practically nothing of that and also allowed fascists to operate with no repercussions who then brainwashed the uneducated poor masses when the internet became mainstream basically giving a very powerful voice to the worst aspects of the country. Now people care more about religions than their own lives.

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

          Don't great man history, there are literally thousands of individuals responsible for modernizing Chinese Culture.

          • Droplet
            ·
            edit-2
            6 months ago

            deleted by creator

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

              Perhaps, but it takes more than just Mao for that reform to be completed and to be done well. Even though land reform was Mao's obsession, to execute it requires the labor of thousands of individuals and councils dealing with the day-to-day. An individual may see a path, but the way is only beaten with a thousand trips.

              • emizeko [they/them]
                ·
                7 months ago

                your comment made me think of Water Droplets Drilling Through Rock

                When dripping water takes aim at a rock, each droplet zeroes in on the same target and stays the course until its mission is complete. The drops of water fall day after day, year after year. This is the magic that enables dripping water to drill through rock! How can it be that our economic development work is any different? Just look at areas where the economy is lagging. Historical, environmental, and geographical factors have all played a part in holding back development. There are no shortcuts. Nothing can change overnight. Instead, we need to focus on the long haul by turning quantitative changes into qualitative changes. We need to be the dripping water that drills through rock.

              • Droplet
                ·
                edit-2
                6 months ago

                deleted by creator

          • jackmarxist [any]
            ·
            7 months ago

            I agree but Mao was the face of the Chinese revolution. Millions of peasants rallied under him and chose him as their leader. The revolution would've been wildly different if Mao was not at its core.

    • CyborgMarx [any, any]
      ·
      7 months ago

      There's still that Maoist army hiding in the forests of eastern India, hopefully they can make something of the collapse conditions

      • HarryLime [any]
        ·
        7 months ago

        Everyone in India hates them because they suck.

        • CyborgMarx [any, any]
          ·
          7 months ago

          It's hard to compete with state and corporate propaganda when hiding in forests like Robin Wood, even the Sheriff of Nottingham would get good polling under modern conditions

          • HarryLime [any]
            ·
            7 months ago

            No, they're just bad. I don't understand why any westerner supports the Naxalites, who are nothing more than a criminal death cult, when India has multiple better Communist parties with millions of members.

            • CyborgMarx [any, any]
              ·
              7 months ago

              Yeah no, I'm not taking that at face value whatsoever, so I'll just leave this great write-up by user please_dont that contradicts your assertion cause he knows more about it than me, check your sources there bud to make sure you're not pollinating any anti-commie agitprop

              Seems like the Indian government reports about the ereas the Naxalites are operating disagree with the "no popular support/just shoot and blow up stuff and demand changes" https://tribal.nic.in/writereaddata/AnnualReport/DevelopmentChallengesinExtremistAffectedAreas.pdf .You really shouldnt minimize or look down on their struggle and praxis

              Land redistribution

              Though no precise estimates are available, it is a fact that in some cases the Naxalite movement has succeeded in helping the landless to occupy a substantial extent of government land, whether for homesteads or for cultivation. In Bihar all the Naxalite parties have attempted to assist, in their respective areas of influence, the landless Musahars, the lowest among the dalits, to take possession of a sizable extent of such land.

              labor organizing and labour rights:

              Naxalites have secured increases in the rate of payment for the picking of tendu leaf which is used for rolling beedies, in the forest areas of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand. This was a very major source of exploitation of adivasi labor, and while the Government knowingly ignored it, the Naxalites put an effective end to it. The exploitation was so severe that the rates have over the years increased up to fifty times what the tendu patta contractors used to pay before the Naxalites stepped in.

              The Minimum Wages Act remains an act on paper in much of rural India… In the areas of their activity, it is reported that Naxalites have ensured payment of decent wage rates, though they have not usually gone by the statutory minimum wage rates. The rates they have ensured are sometimes higher and sometimes lower than the statutory rate. Their orientation to rights is in general not governed by statutory entitlement but what they regard as just and fair, taking all factors that they believe to be relevant into consideration.

              There are also large areas of labor not governed by the Minimum Wages Act... Since the Naxalites are in any case not bothered whether or not there is a law governing the right they are espousing, they have intervened and determined fair wage rates in their perception in all labor processes in their areas of influence. This includes wages for washing clothes, making pots, tending cattle, repairing implements, etc.

              Public property protection

              Enjoyment of common property resources as a traditional right by cattle-herds, fishing communities, toddy toppers, stone workers, has become vulnerable due to the appropriation of these resources by the dominant sections of society or by the others with their support. The Naxalites have tried to ensure the protection of this right wherever they are active.

              Pressure from their activities forced the state to actualy care welfare state wise

              On some occasions the Naxalites have been able to put pressure upon lower level administrators to perform their job effectively. The pressure exerted by the Naxalite movement has had some effect in ensuring proper attendance of teachers, doctors etc.

              Rahul Pandita (winner of the International Red Cross Award) also writes about their activity:

              In the field of health as well, the Maoists often fill in large gaps left by the state. Their mobile medical units cover large distances to offer primary health care to tribals... Various training camps are held regularly on preventive measures against diseases such as diarrhea or malaria. The grass-root doctors in the medical squads can administer vaccines, identify a number of diseases through symptoms, and treat injuries that are not severe. Some can even conduct simple blood tests to arrive at a diagnosis. This is a significant advantage in such areas.

              Social Issues (Race, Gender, Forced Labor, etc.)

              The Naxalites have fought discrimination against adivasis (indigenous people). From the report:

              Wherever there is a basis for discretion on the part of government officials, forest personnel have had to be appeased in different ways to avoid harassment. It was only after the Naxalites entered the picture that the adivasis got protection from this harassment, which was well known to the administration but was normally ignored.

              Against caste and gender oppression, which remains a major issue in India and their activity includes putting an end to sexual exploitation of working-class women by upper-caste men:

              Impolite forms of address that the dalits were subjected to, and the prohibition in the matter of wearing clean clothes and footwear in the presence of upper castes, or while passing through their localities, and the compulsion to address them as dora or malik and other such oppressive practices, have by and large been brought to an end in their areas of work. The everyday humiliation and sexual exploitation of laboring women of dalit communities by upper caste men is another form of oppression that has been successfully fought. In Bihar there have been many instances where dalits suffering social oppression, and in recent times victims of the massacres perpetrated by the caste senas such as Ranbir Sena. The victims have received that help from the Naxalites.

              Putting an end to forced labor in rural communities:

              There is no law penalizing forced labor in other forms. Therefore it flourished in the most medieval forms in the Telangana district in Karimnagar, and it took a major upsurge led by the Naxalites in the late seventies and early eighties of the last century to put an end to it.

              deterring forced eviction and seizure of natural resources by the Indian government, as well as private corporations:

              The forest dwellers (were) perpetually on the brink of eviction from their own habitat... The fear of Naxalite armed resistance deterred the repressive and depredatory moves of the authorities.

              Perhaps the most inspiring of all these achievements is the sense of pride, humanity, and empowerment which the Naxalites have instilled in the people. This is acknowledged even by the Indian government:

              Apart from the concrete issues undertaken by the Naxalites against social oppression, the fact that the cadre and also most of local leaders of the Naxalite organisations consist of poor villagers of castes looked upon as lowly has endowed the oppressed with much strength. A sense of powerlessness is a characteristic of the psychological make up of oppressed classes. The typical Naxalite cadre, however, is a confident (most probably gun-wielding) teenager from those very classes. To see young boys and girls of their own villages and their own class/caste active in the Naxalite movement, and wielding power over the ‘big’ men of the village and the high and mighty tahsildar has given a sense of empowerment to the oppressed that has inestimable value

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

                Tbf this is an 2008 report. Most of this may have been true or remain true in some capacity but 16 years are a lot for a movement and country, enough for things to take turns for the worse,public attitudes and priorities to shift, successes to be replaced and overshadowed by failures or absence. Not a great analogy but even the Shinning Path at some point enjoyed relativelywide public support and successfuly organized for the betterment of local and overlooked communities all over Peru

                • CyborgMarx [any, any]
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  Again, not taking that at face value, if y'all have credible sources to prove the Naxalites are nothing more than a "criminal death cult" than by all means post them