A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like “in Minecraft”) and comments containing it will be removed.

Image is of Donald Trump, Paul Kagame, and Felix Tshisekedi signing a peace deal in Washington DC on December 4th.

On December 4th, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and the DRC’s Felix Tshisekedi signed the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity (pictured above). Trump boasted that he was settling a war that had gone on for decades, and remarked, idiosyncratically, “[…] and now they’re going to spend a lot of time hugging, holding hands […]”

A few days later, the M23 militia (backed by Rwanda) advanced into Uvira, a city near the DRC’s eastern border with Burundi and a major commercial and strategic location in the region. Burundi, although a small country, is a significant ally to the DRC and has sent thousands of soldiers to aid them during conflicts; this offensive by M23 aims to cut off a direct route between the two, though they do still share quite a long border over Lake Tanganyika. Tens of thousands of civilians (possibly up to 200,000) fled as M23 approached.

Signed almost simultaneously with the Accords was a Strategic Partnership Agreement between the DRC and the United States, which effectively threw open its critical minerals in the east to American exploitation. These minerals include tin, tungsten, and tantalum, which is vital for many industries. The irony is that M23 has been taking territory in the eastern DRC in order to transport these very minerals to Rwanda and onwards to global supply chains. Signing the Accord was, therefore, a remarkably pointless endeavour for everybody involved. Burundi and the DRC have complained, calling for sanctions on Rwanda, and appeasing to Trump’s pride, calling this a “slap in the face to the United States”, though I doubt the US is ultimately all that bothered about it one way or another.

Last week’s thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist 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 the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA 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.
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.

Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.

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.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
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.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    47·
    6 days ago

    Bolivia Declares Economic Emergency and Hikes Diesel 160% - Bloomberg

    Bolivia’s new government declared an economic emergency and issued a series of radical measures, including scrapping fuel subsidies and loosening the exchange rate regime. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed US support for the policies, and said in a statement that US officials are currently in Bolivia seeking to facilitate investments.

    Article

    The move triggered an 86% jump in the price of gasoline and more than 160% for diesel, the most abrupt energy price adjustments in the nation’s recent history.

    The reforms announced Wednesday night by President Rodrigo Paz represent a decisive break from two decades of socialist economic policy and aim to rein in one of the world’s largest fiscal deficits and an inflation rate of 21%.

    “Eliminating poorly-designed subsidies does not mean abandonment, but order, justice and real, transparent redistribution,” Paz said in a broadcast with his cabinet. “This will allow the generation of additional fiscal resources to be shared between the central and regional governments.”

    Some fuel stations La Paz suspended sales as drivers rushed to fill their tanks ahead of the price rises, according to local media reports. The new prices will remain in place for six months before being reassessed.

    Some of the region’s most-heavily subsidized fuel, as well as declining natural gas output, has drained Bolivia’s foreign reserves, causing shortages of both fuel and dollars and creating a drag on the economy.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed US support for the policies, and said in a statement that US officials are currently in Bolivia seeking to facilitate investments.

    The cuts were accompanied by social protection measures, Paz said, including a 20% increase in the minimum wage next year to 3,300 bolivianos ($479).

    Renta Dignidad — a benefit for elderly citizens without a pension — will rise by 150 bolivianos ($22), while a school bonus for students in public schools will increase by 100 bolivianos ($15). Both are increases of 50%.

    The government, which took office last month, also announced an extraordinary cash-transfer program for the most vulnerable families.

    “From a political standpoint, we expect some pushback down the road because the new measures will lead to a large pickup in inflation,” said Ramiro Blazquez, a strategist at StoneX Securities, in response to written questions. “On the positive side polls show that President Paz remains one of the most popular politicians in the region. Hence, we think that the government, at least at this stage, has the political capital to carry out the reforms.”

    The decree also authorizes the central bank to secure liquidity financing lines, amend internal regulations, issue external financial instruments, conduct foreign-exchange hedging operations, and carry out currency swaps to stabilize the balance of payments — an option recently discussed with US officials in Washington.

    Paz also announced a program to promote and protect domestic and foreign investments to ensure legal and tax stability for up to 15 years. That includes guarantees that future regulatory changes will not apply to protected investments without explicit investor consent.

    The decree further instructs the central bank to transition to a “new exchange-rate regime,” potentially ending the fixed exchange rate in place since 2011, which set the boliviano at 6.96 per dollar, compared with nearly 10 bolivianos in the parallel market.

    • FuckyWucky [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      26·
      6 days ago

      160% is ridiculous, they should taper up. unfortunately, they have a very real USD shortage and subsidized fuel does create excess demand. by cutting subsidies they are compressing imports and lowering purchasing power.

      is this good? no, but they have limited choices regardless of gov. but given the neoliberal regime, workers will be screwed over, capitalists will make money and economy doesn’t improve much.

      loosening the exchange rate regime.

      i don’t think this is necessarily bad, fixed (heavily managed) exchange rate results in excess imports, capital controls can limit it but unless its really tight there will be wasteful leakages, you are basically subsidizing non-essential imports with a fixed rate regime. with the economy having a current/trade deficit, they are forced to borrow from abroad (likely in foreign currencies) to maintain the fixed rate.