Bulletins and News Discussion from August 7th to August 13th, 2023 - White Blows From A Black Hand
Image is of the American military during their occupation of Haiti at the beginning of the 20th century, taken from this NYT article from 2022: Invade Haiti, Wall Street Urged. The U.S. Obliged.
In the aftermath of the assassination of Jovenel Moïse in 2021 and his replacement by Western comprador Ariel Henry, the situation in Haiti is the most dire it has been in decades - by some metrics, even worse than the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake (CW: rape, violence including against children). Millions do not have enough food. Outbreaks of disease are rampant. The government - such that it still exists, which is becoming increasingly debatable - has only a minority control over the capital city, with some estimates putting the influence of armed groups at 80%.
America's search for somebody, anybody, to intervene in Haiti has ended, with Kenya answering the call. President Ruto has announced that he will send 1000 police officers to Haiti. Kenya's Foreign Minister has tried to sell this intervention as pan-Africanism. Other Caribbean states, like the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda, have offered to send police officers too.
I can't really say it any better than the Black Alliance for Peace's own statement:
Kenya has offered to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police, ostensibly to “restore order” in the Caribbean republic. Yet, their proposal is nothing more than military occupation by another name; an occupation of Haiti by an African country is not Pan-Africanism, but Western imperialism in Black face. By agreeing to send troops into Haiti, the Kenyan government is assisting in undermining the sovereignty and self-determination of Haitian people, while serving the neocolonial interests of the United States, the Core Group, and the United Nations.
There is an urgent need for clarity on the issue of occupation in Haiti. As described in a recent statement on Haiti and Colonialism, Haiti is under ongoing occupation. No call for foreign intervention into Haiti from the administration of appointed Prime Minister Ariel Henry can be considered legitimate, because the Henry administration itself is illegitimate. BAP has repeatedly pointed out that Haiti’s crisis is a crisis of imperialism. Haiti’s current unpopular and unelected government is propped up only by Haiti’s de facto imperial rulers: the unseemly confederacy of the Core Group countries and organizations, as well as BINUH (the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti), and a loose alliance of foreign corporations and local elites.
Henry and the UN have made a mockery of sovereignty by mouthing the slogan “Haitian solutions to Haitian problems,” yet finding the only solution in violence through foreign military intervention. After repeated failed attempts to organize an occupying force to protect their interests and impose their will on the Haitian people (including appeals to the multinational organization, the Caribbean Community [CARICOM] for troops), they have now found a willing accomplice in Kenya, an east African country with its own set of internal problems.
Indeed, what’s in it for Kenya? An opportunity to both train and enhance the salaries of local police forces and garner a patina of prestige, or at least bootlicking approval, from the West. And for Haiti? White blows from a Black hand and a further erosion of their sovereignty.
And, by the way, here's the Black Alliance for Peace's statement calling for no intervention by ECOWAS in Niger, calling the organization a Western comprador organization similar to CARICOM's role in Haiti.
Welcome to our friends throughout the Lemmyverse!
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
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/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/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.
Russia might now be the world's fifth largest economy by GDP PPP, overtaking Germany. Estimates of GDP PPP can vary between organizations and governments so it's not a sure thing yet but it's plausible given each country's trajectories. The sanctions have worked great - against Europe.
I feel bad for EU nations who all seemed to forget the US foreign policy motto about the US having no actual allies and only interests. It's always been and always will be America first.
US elites learned something after the 2016 election took them by surprise about the general discontent with worsening economic conditions among the key US car dealership and gym owner population. After the COVID economic shocks, the obvious move for US leadership was to leverage the situation in eastern Europe to jump at the opportunity to cannibalize the UK, Germany, and possibly France. It's some real craven real-poltik shit that Henry Kissinger has to be proud of and looking at the numbers is infact reindustrializing key segments of the US at northern European expense.
This is why the Biden administration doubled down on the Trump admins various tarrifs on EU imports and even restructured their China sanctions to maximize friction not just with imports to the US but Chinese trade with the EU. The White House and State Dept also seem to be gleefully watching (and even exacerbating) the situation involving France and its neo-colonies. France due to most of their energy coming from state owned nuclear has had their industry a lot more sheltered than Germany against the shocks in energy prices and shortages in LNG. Since France relied on its African colonies for both nuclear fuel and cheap fossil fuel, they may be in the process of having its own energy supply chain collapsing and ending up as fkd as Germany.
US leadership was to leverage the situation in eastern Europe to jump at the opportunity to cannibalize the UK, Germany, and possibly France.
I can't help but think it's also such a typical self-defeating neoliberal stratagem. It's that meme of finance bros stranded on an island exchanging a suitcase back and forth to generate growth so they can escape.
Ok, so you steal away industry from Germany, France and the UK. Great. The imperial core shrinks a bit here and grows some more elsewhere. At best this is zero sum, much more likely a net loss of productivity. Meanwhile, your biggest adversary is already growing faster than you are and is simultaneously making allies and helping them grow as well. But line goes up so why not.
I think EU leaders knew what was happening too. That's why when the war started, Germany was like "here, have a few helmets now fuck off". But when the US propaganda machine ramped up, actual citizens started pushing for more NATO participation and weapons shipments. It makes you understand why China has the firewall though. Talk to any European about this war and they just parrot stuff from the State department. They don't talk about how the US destroyed their critical energy infrastructure, how much money the U.S. is making off of LNG, weapons, etc... talking about that makes you an evil Russian tankie Putler propagandist or whatever.
Well, I just came back from a conversation with Borrell, and he convinced me that the only answer to this is more sanctions. The walls are closing in on Putin!