Homie is threatening to shut down any businesses that aren't unionized lol. Chad move
National conservative, but being conservative means something different in a post USSR country than it does in the west.
oh well I thought it did, I don't know much about post ussr countries politics ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I remember when people were saying that actually it's not that bad that they'll couping Belarus because their President is actually a dictator this time trust us bro this is good, then it came out that their opposition is being funded by the NED?
I mean Luka is still an anti-LGBT nationalist ghoul. This is good and most of his opposition are neoliberal ghouls but I’m not gonna start calling him “based” or whatever.
So are Palestinian freedom fighters and anti-imperialists in Iran and Syria. Its kinda funny that we hold people like Luka to higher standards mainly because he's white and European lol.
No, I just think it's kind of funny that people have no problem lending support to Iran, a country that executes people for homosexuality, without really talking much about the downsides but are big mad that Luka is a chauvinistic boomer (which he undoubtedly is).
Very few countries outside of the imperial core are as progressive as we are on social issues, and I think that has to do with a clinging to tradition in the face of "cultural imperialism" from the west. When the main pro-LGBT organizations in your country are literally funded by the regime change arm of the US government, the cause is harmed rather than helped. This is a contradiction neoliberals love because then it essentially means you have to support their color revolutions if you want LGBT rights.
and I think that has to do with a clinging to tradition in the face of “cultural imperialism”
It’s funny because homophobia was sometimes the result of western influence, like ancient Japan + China were somewhat chill with gay sex until Christian Euros showed up.
Yeah the Orthodox Church had planned that seed even before the USSR
I’ll take the position with Luka I take with other non leftist anti imperialists. I support them against imperialist but I’m not gonna call them “based” or some shit.
Now if you want to argue Luka is a leftist (which yeah economically he’s something of a left populist but I don’t think he personally IDs as a socialist, nor does his party) guess I would say in those contexts a lot of times the leftists in those parts of the world are the most progressive on those issues even if on a global scale they lag somewhat behind. Luka being in Europe (albeit Eastern Europe) is behind what most leftists in that region embrace, so criticizing him from that axis would be legit.
But also I don’t think anything I or you or anyone says here affects what’s happening over there so the point is kinda moot.
I mean Luka is still an anti-LGBT nationalist ghoul.
It's funny how quickly Americans forget the anti-LGBT nationalist ghouls that were running our country.
Oh, did I say "were"? I mean "are". The current US administration is rabidly anti-LGBT, as are numerous state-level administrators. Holy in the high holy fuck did America become the country that decides when you hate gays? Is this one of those "takes one to know one" situations?
I mean, I ain’t calling Trump based either.
I want Luka to “win”, I’m just not super stoked about it since an actual left opposition would be my ideal scenario but looks like that’s not happening so I’ll take what I can get.
But at the end of the day I have not effect on what happens over there, nor does anyone I know so all my opinions are just Internet posting fotter.
I get all that. I'm simply disgusted with Americans pretend they get to arbitrate who is and is not LGBT-friendly, given how low we've set the bar within our own country.
Oh yes, why I'm all for dunking on libs who think Middle Eastern countries having crap LGBT policies is a justification for bombing the fuck out of them. But yah know, can't really deny it's true that they do have crap LGBT policies and that is very much a bad thing, but Murica shoving it's imperialist dick is gonna fix fuck all with that as history has shown. Same is the case in Belarus, even if the opposition tries to act like they're more progressive on those issues we've seen how austerity in the former soviet union lead to the rise of far right reactionary groups who terrorize marginalized communities and in some cases like in poland have required actual real political power.
If Americans gave a shit about LGBT rights, their first impulse wouldn't be to bomb the shit out of everything.
even if the opposition tries to act like they’re more progressive on those issues we’ve seen how austerity in the former soviet union lead to the rise of far right reactionary groups
It leads to huge recessionary economies, mass unemployment, and a collapse in industry.
But some yahoo gets to do a victory dance with an LGBT flag, like corporate raiders gutting the interior are a blessing so long as they come in wearing correctly coded kitche.
You’re taking a weirdly hostile tone with me considering that I’m agreeing with you.
Why do you think I can't call a foreign leader anti-LGBT if my own country has anti-LGBT leaders. Its not like I support those leaders? I call them anti-LGBT too? This is like the exact same thing as can't complain about capitalism on an iPhone m'dude.
It’s whatever honestly, he is a chauvinist dick, opposition are either russia-flavored neoliberal ghouls or european-flavored neoliberal vampires. In all three cases they are fucked, unfortunately. The only functional difference is which military bases they would get.
Lukashenko's economic policies are much, much better for the people. The neoliberals will hollow out the country and pave the way for fascism.
I mean, all you had to know is that the opposition leader was the wife of a youtuber.
But, like, he sucks too. Just less. He is true neutral in my world leader alignment chart.
to me the evidence that the opposition was west funded, was the belarusian fascists having a voice in the protests
According to the CIA, NED is good, tho.
And the CIA has never lied to us before now. Just ask Human Rights Watch.
and Human Rights Watch never lies ask
Hampton's snitchesAmnesty International
In all honesty this is because he realizes that the protests were staged by the petit bourgeois and the proletariat, which was generally on the side of the government, wasn't organized enough to fight back against them. In the event that the west stages a coup against him, the unionized workforce could stage a massive general strike.
the proletariat, which was generally on the side of the government, wasn’t organized enough to fight back against them.
They weren't fighting back against the "staged" protests, because the protests literally began with a general strike against Lukashenko's government, which is absolutely guilty of advancing austerity policies (raising the retirement age, privatization policies, cutting benefits) and losing the support of a layer of the working class.
From an article outlining the situation in August:
"Grodno-Azot (chemical fertilisers), Belmedpreparaty (pharmaceutical), JSC “Grodnozhilstroy” (construction), Terrazit (PVC and aluminium), Minsk Electromechanical Plant (MEZ) and the Zhabinka sugar plant have joined the strike movement. Strikes and protests have also taken place at Agat Electromechanical Plant, and factories operated by the “Keramin” ceramics manufacturer. At the same time, the Philharmonic went on strike. And a number of small businesses too. Even employees of the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences are involved in the strikes.
As we are writing these lines, news arrives that taxi drivers at Uber and Yandex have also announced they are joining the general strike.
Most importantly, a strike started at the Belarusian Automobile Plant BelAZ. Today, thousands of BelAZ workers in the city of Zhodino were chanting: “[Lukasheno] Leave!"
Earlier, enterprises such as Belarussian Steel Works BMZ, VIPRIL Control (flight controllers) and many others went on an indefinite political strike."
The workers of the Minsk Tractor Works plant went on strike the day after that, and when Lukashenko showed up to talk to the workers, they shouted him down.
Working class uprisings aren't especially likely to generate, and stick to, demands that go outside the bounds of capitalism without access to a revolutionary political leadership, and thats exactly what you see in Belarus. That doesn't mean the class composition of the general strikes was "petite bourgeois."
Like the fact that there are competing forces at play, and that the liberal opposition is winning out in the absence of an organized working class leadership, doesn't retroactively transform the whole thing into a staged petite bourgeois "color revolution."
Some of you have such an obsession with boiling down complexity and contradiction into black and white categories, good or bad, that you lose sight of the class struggle perspective in a situation where the working class struggle is erupting.
Most of the ppl that post here are morons. They will blindly stan anyone the west is against, unless that entity is middle eastern
In the event that the west stages a coup against him, the unionized workforce could stage a massive general strike.
And he can do the same when the left gets stronger.
The left in Belarus is pro-government, mostly represented by the Communist Party. It certainly doesn't look anything like the western left but nothing like that exists there. There are pro-Russia conservatives, pro-western neoliberals, the Communists and independent conservatives (majority of government). The trade unions favor the government because they don't want their factories sold to western capital. It will be a while before they are antagonistic to the National Bourgeoisie.
Are they pro government because anti-imperialism or because they genuinely support the governments policies?
A bit of both. Some of the policies are maintaining relatively strong state-owned enterprises and government services. The anti-imperialism mainly stems from a fear that the government could open up to western capital which would gut the state enterprises and sell them for parts. If I had to guess, the Communists see anti-imperialism and domestic policy as being in a dialectical relationship. Moderation of Communist parties and engaging in a United Front with the National Bourgeoisie is a common phenomenon in places that are either under the imperial boot, or are threatened by it. It's a shitty situation but they know they can't start a revolution or stage a Communist coup while the west is banging on their front door.
Moderation of Communist parties and engaging in a United Front with the National Bourgeoisie is a common phenomenon in places that are either under the imperial boot, or are threatened by it
Well it's definitely a thing where i live but here a lot of communists broke with the party for the exact same reason, most younger communists think they're out of touch clowns, so the party is basically dying and there are lots of fragmented smaller organizations.
I mean it surely doesn't help that - at least here - the state owned businesses are just as gutted as the private ones.
Are you saying you live in Belarus or another Euro country with Communists in Parliament? Just curious because I haven't spoken to anyone from there about this, just commies from Poland and Greece who have a better perspective than most in the US have. Still not as good of a perspective as someone actually in Belarus though.
I live in Hungary. No commies in the parliament and they won't be allowed to get in until Orbán croaks at best. The situation is kinda similar tho because he's also playing this waltz between the west and the Russia-China axis (probably gonna move to the latter in the next years heavily) and he also has a national bourgeoisie built up of his friends who are basically used to get privatised enterprises back to the orbit of the government. What i wrote originally - that government mandated unions can be used against a leftist movement as well - is based on my perceived similarities between the two systems and seeing how Fidesz has put their own cadres into unions so it's nearly impossible to get any strikes to be organized which might be useful in an anti-imperialist struggle, but if we're looking at the bigger picture, it only harms working class movements.
If the amount of press that a ruler the west doesn't like gets in the west is an indicator for how likely he is to be overthrown (just think about how big the upcoming election was in the media even though there were no protests then), Lukashenko's position has solidified for now. But they surely aren't giving up.
Yeah he has won for now but the west seems to be done playing nice with him. He used to play the west and Russia off of each other to get the most favorable outcome possible but he will probably now be more firmly Russia-aligned.
