The Great Housing Mission of Venezuela, launched in 2011 by Hugo Chavez, is the most ambitious housing project in the country's history. This week, the 4,600,000th house was built, with a goal for 5 million homes by 2024 and beyond. The program has built 1,255 residential complexes on a total of 9,837 hectares, an area equivalent to six times the Swiss city of Geneva.

The program additionally provides social infrastructure like schools, subsidized food markets, and recreational and green spaces. Over 70% of constructions are self-managed by communities, with financial and logistics support from the government. Communities also provide each other with materials - from each according to their supplies, to each according to their needs. Russian, Chinese, and Belarusian companies have helped supply the program over the years.

In Antímano Parish in southwestern Caracas, a group of predominantly women came together in 2015 and trained in construction, cleared land, and then built apartments while under the pressure of food and materials shortages and electricity blackouts due to the United States' sanctions campaign.

Claudia Tisoy, a mother and self-trained plumber, said “This goes beyond building homes for our families, we are also building the future of our country, with women leading the way. This is what the socialist horizon is all about.”VA

Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.

This week's first update is here in the comments.

This week's second update is here in the comments.

This week's third update is here in the comments.

Links and Stuff

The bulletins site is down.

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists

Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can.

Resources For Understanding The War

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.

Telegram Channels

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

Pro-Russian

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

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.

Last week's discussion post.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]M
    ·
    1 year ago
    expand

    Africa

    Is the end of Western financial dominance in Africa on the horizon or will the history of Libya repeat itself?MR

    There might be an economic collapse on the horizon in Tunisia, which is heavily indebted to the West and has been badly hit by inflation, and the IMF will likely refuse to give them a loan because the president refuses to phase out subsidies on fuel and electricity because he doesn't want to increase poverty.Euractiv The EU seems mostly concerned about refugee outflows in the event of a collapse, and so has given the country 900 million euros in exchange for preventing refugees from crossing to Europe.WSWS

    In Kenya, the main example that people point to for the China "debt trap" accusation, policymakers instead blame corruption, incompetence, and mismanagement.CGS

    Northern African countries have been constructing desalination and water treatment plants as a solution to current and future droughts. Tunisia has 3 more under construction and Morocco has 7 more. Algeria plans for 14 more. Libya is too busy being a shining example of what Western military involvement can do to a country to be building new desalination plants, though Gaddafi's Great Man-Made River has kept things going when NATO wasn't bombing it.AN

    Ghana has voted to abolish the death penalty, with 176 people were on death row (though nobody has been executed since 1993).AN

    Niger's government has been overthrown by a coup, suspending all institutions, imposing curfews, and closing the border.AN The UN has condemned this.TS

    Doctors in Nigeria are on indefinite strike.AN

    Responsible Statecraft questions whether sanctioning Mali over Wagner involvement will achieve anything, or even what it's actually trying to accomplish in the first place (punish Wagner? punish Russia? punish the government? try and restore democracy?)RS

    North America

    The Fed has indeed raised interest rates by 0.25%, to a 22-year high.DW

    Students from wealthy families are overrepresented in US elite private colleges. Is this news? Why is this news?PD

    The Canadian dockworkers strike has been declared illegal because it didn't provide 72 hours notice, and then the leadership of the union pretty much instantly caved and accepted a deal that they themselves rejected, let alone the union membership.GL

    Latin America

    Things continue to not go so well for Haitian protestors.HL

    Nicaragua and China have completed negotiations for a free trade agreementBilaterals The UN climate fund has suspended a project in Nicaragua over human rights concerns between settlers and indigenous people.CCN Nicaragua is celebrating the 44th anniversary of their revolution.Resumen

    Bolivia is whistling nonchalantly after signing a scientific and military agreement with Iran, which includes wanting Iran's drones.MP Bolivia's gas production and exports are expected to drop dramatically over the coming decade due to aging production fields and a lack of new discoveries.MP

    Protests in Peru continue.GL

    The Falkland Islands has awarded a license for gold and mineral exploration by a (I think?) UK-based company. We shall see how this impacts the next struggle session.MP

    The War Against The West

    The EU has failed to convince Latin American countries to denounce Russia, let alone sanction it, at the EU-CELAC summit. The end statement that was agreed on notes the suffering in Ukraine but does not mention Russia (and Nicaragua actually objected to even this). Nonetheless, funding for the region through the Global Gateway program continues as the EU really needs those minerals.CD

    Russia has increased its age of conscription to 30 as of 2024, likely due to demographic problems with obtaining the planned number of reserves and not because Ukraine has killed every Russian soldier, though I imagine that's what the MSM is talking about.BNE Lithuania says that their army is prepared for Wagner's move to Belarus, with reportedly their 10-man army fully prepared for Prigozhin's antics.

    The EU has said that they're ready to export all Ukrainian grain after the Black Sea route closedEuractiv; right on cue, Russia has attacked Ukrainian inland grain ports on the Danube with drones, very close to the border.MP

    The US is accusing China of supplying technology for the Russian military, through "dual-use" items (which can be literally fucking anything).SCMP China supports the UN's efforts to bring the grain deal back.CGTN Turns out China's not happy about the CIA saying they're rebuilding spy networks; who'd have thunk it.SP

    China and Japan have agreed to resume high-level talks with South Korea at the end of this year, the first time in four years; China urges the two US vassals to show sincerity and expel "extraterritorial influence" (this won't happen).GT

    Retrospectives, Analysis, History, Theory, and Technology

    Global Economic History in 2.5 HoursMichaelHudson

    150 minutes of Michael Hudson? What a dream.

    Poverty in Britain: From feudalism to neoliberal capitalism: A review of Jim Silver’s new book examining the relationship between capitalism and poverty in England since the 12th centuryCD

    NYS Regulator Fined Deutsche Bank $150 Million Over Ties to Jeffrey Epstein but Says It Doesn’t Have a Scrap of Paper on JPMorgan and the Sex TraffickerWSoP

    China's gigantic telescope identifies over 800 pulsarsCGTN

    China sends new remote sensing satellites into orbitCGTN

    ‘We Need a Gender-Inclusive Understanding of Police Violence’FAIR

    On how the police murders of black women are generally less well known than those of black men.

    LGBTQIA+

    The Malaysian LGBT community is in dismay at Matt Healy's public kiss during a concert, which got that concert stopped (affecting other artists) and The 1975 has additionally cancelled concerts in Indonesia and Taiwan.Advocate

    Michigan's governor has outlawed conversion therapy on minors, becoming the 22nd state to do so.Advocate

    Rainbow activists call for community solidarity to defend trans rightsGL

    Climate and the Environment

    Scientists detect signs that a crucial ocean current is near collapseAM

    Atlantic Ocean: AMOC to collapse by mid-century?MP

    On the Coast of Greenland, Early Arctic Spring Has Been Replaced by Seasonal Extremes, New Research ShowsICN

    EV Sales Continue to Soar, But a Surge in Production Could Lead to a Glut for Some ModelsICN

    ‘Painfully slow’ grid holding up UK electric car shift, says trade bodyFT

    Climate Litigation Has Exploded, but Is it Making a Difference?[ICN]((https://archive.ph/iGJCX)

    World nations debate future of deep-sea mining in JamaicaEuractiv

    How climate change is redrawing the border between Switzerland and ItalyEuractiv

    Germany plans to support new gas projects overseas until 2025, a breach of its commitment to end international fossil fuel financing.CCN

    A landfill in Brazil has been restored to mangroves, with 60 hectares planted.AN

    Canadian wildfires have caused astonishing global damage, Chinese scientists warnGT Canada's wildfires have emitted 1 billion tonnes of CO2.TS

    I Love My Trans Comrades!