Image is from this Washington Post article, which shows the Shabara artisanal mine, where cobalt and copper are dug out by hand.
This preamble got much of its information from this article in ROAPE, and this article in People’s World.
Countries in the imperial core have increasingly advocated for Green New Deals, whose primary goal is to re-attract manufacturing capability to somewhat counter deindustrialization, and then export some of this renewable energy generation to other countries to gain profit. Just as the initial wave of industrialization was built on massive resource exploitation of coal and iron and then oil, this wave is being built on exploiting metals like lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements. The DRC is one of the best case studies on the planet for understanding the new dynamic.
The DRC is, to your average Western country, a resource bonanza. It is the 11th largest country by land area, and contains lithium, copper, and cobalt in massive quantities, famously containing two thirds of the world’s known cobalt supplies. The Western world and their institutions swarmed the DRC like piranhas, dismantling the Congo’s sovereignty over its natural resources. China was not terribly involved in the privatisation process, but has stepped in to benefit from the West’s work - Chinese corporations account for 40% of the production of major Congo cobalt projects (and 15 out of 19 cobalt mines), with Switzerland at 30% via Glencore, and Kazakhstan at 22%. The US, for whatever reason, withdrew from majority ownership of some projects in the mid-2010s, but is now anxious about China’s position in the cobalt markets. Western countries in general have spent their time lately drawing up critical minerals strategies both to keep capitalism chugging along in their own countries, and attempt to weaken China, which invariably involves the Congo.
The Congo has attempted to resist imperialist encroachment. In 2018, the Kaliba administration asserted a new Mining Code which raised tax and royalty rates and increased state ownership in mining firms from 5% to 10%, and these changes were bitterly resisted by the West right to the end. Since 2019, under the Tshisekedi administration, the government established the state-owned EGC, which sought to take control over the processing and export of artisanal and small-scale cobalt production, which comprises 5-15% of cobalt production in the Congo. More recently, Tshisekedi is planning to move up the manufacturing chain - instead of merely mining cobalt, they want to refine it there and then make electric vehicle batteries and other such products with it, which would be an industry worth trillions of dollars. But so far, there hasn’t been much movement away from having mining exports as the backbone of the economy, and it’s doubtful that plans to just keep doing this until they get rich enough to build refineries and factories will work. The profits mostly go to Western countries and have failed to produce significant benefits for Congolese workers, nor resulted in the emergence of domestic industries so far. Reforms will help a little, but only a little, and they remain fundamentally constrained by the markets and the whims of the West.
Meanwhile, war and mass displacements have put immense stress on the country. There are 7.1 million displaced people in the DRC due to various conflicts and mass displacements - most recently, the war between the Congolese army and M23. Hundreds of thousands of people continue to be displaced every few months, and across the whole country, over 26 million require humanitarian aid. 6 million people have died in the eastern DRC in the last three decades, with hundreds of armed groups, both domestic and foreign, battling for resources and territory.
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 the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
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.
Biden admin to allow trans healthcare bans, anti-trans discrimination
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein got arrested at Washington University a few hours ago.
Anecdote on the Only Israeli Astronaut.
Abdulmalik Alejri, senior member of the Ansarallah Politburo:
"The death of Sheikh Abdul Majid al-Zindani brings to mind the era of global jihad led by Salafi Jihadism and the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s against what was then termed the communist threat. The result was that they handed America and the capitalist West a victory without war, as then-US President Reagan borrowed a phrase from his predecessor Nixon. In the context of the Cold War, Afghanistan, that distant corner of Central Asia, transformed into a hub of Islam, and Kabul became a destination for Arab mujahideen, while Palestine, with Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Prophet’s Ascension, was within arm’s reach, yet failed to attract Arab mujahideen to jihad or to the allure of the virgins. Ironically, when America occupied Afghanistan, Kabul ceased to be a hub of Islam and a destination for jihad.
At that time, Western capitalist intelligence agencies and their Arab allies succeeded in portraying Marx and socialism as a threat to religions, whereas the truth was that they posed a threat to exploitative capitalism, and Marx’s battle was fundamentally against capitalist exploitation. Marx’s legacy fundamentally did not prioritize religions, and all he wrote about them was few and scattered texts. His most important work, “Capital,” in which his genius shines, explained the structure of capitalism, analyzed its internal mechanisms and contradictions, its capacity for expansion, crisis generation, and self-renewal. Even according to his adversaries, Marx’s legacy remained the primary reference for analyzing capitalist crises, with his ideas resurfacing with each historical cycle of capitalist crises.
Marx believed that the Enlightenment had overthrown the exploitation of the church and that the real looming danger was capitalist exploitation, even suggesting that religion could play a positive role in mobilizing against capitalist exploitation. I don’t understand how some perceive Marxism and communism as a threat to religion while finding no risks in liberal capitalism, even though the Enlightenment movement with its liberal tendencies was the one that battled the church, and the French Revolution raised the slogan “Hang the last king with the intestines of the last priest,” while the slogans of the Bolshevik revolution called for overthrowing the bourgeois government. Naturally, this is just a question of amazement, as the issue as a whole is not as simple, and civilization cannot be reduced or approached solely from the angle of combating religion.
The real danger to religion is such exploitation of religion to serve the battles and projects of America and the imperial West in the region, and those involved should take heed from the dramatic end of the Afghan jihad."
Economics professor Caroline Fohlin gets head smashed off the ground by a cop during takedown.
Given this is an economics professor this woman is probably a turbo liberal experiencing the system she defends and upholds for the first time.
I hope those student protestors can reach out to the university workers. And I’m not talking about professors and TAs, but the cafeteria workers, janitors, landscapers, electricians, construction workers, and the like. Basically, the people who make the universities be a place that’s actually livable.
The university protests need to either become more militant or involve university workers. Regular university operations need to be ground to a halt.
n-tv: Military economist: Putin has already strategically lost the war (Article in German)
An article from July 2022, you think? Nope, 26th April of 2024.
Russia has been leading an offensive war against Ukraine for over two years now. Despite Moscow’s current progress at the front, military economist Keupp sees the Kremlin as the imminent losers. In the long term, he thinks, Russia stands no chance against the industrial capabilities of the West.
The article talks about how Ukraine is fighting a war of attrition and how that is actually a very good thing.
“Let’s not forget that Ukraine has an active reserve of a million men.”
Ah, good to know there’s still a lot of fuel left for the meat grinder
deleted by creator
In Tight Presidential Race, Voters Are Broadly Critical of Both Biden and Trump
About half of voters say that, if given the chance, they would replace both candidates on the ballot
Looking at these charts, it’s actually incredibly easy to see how manipulation of information keeps a minority of voices in control of the voter base. Very few of them seem to wholeheartedly believe in the system. But hating the other side still captures those critical of their own party.
The companies invoked provisions of the U.S. blockade to not supply the Cuban aircraft.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Cubana de Aviacion flights to Buenos Aires were canceled because fuel suppliers in Argentina refused to serve the airline.
The companies have invoked “provisions of the United States blockade against Cuba” to not supply the aircraft of the Cuban state airline.
Additionally, this measure has affected other airlines contracted by Cubana de Aviacion, preventing them from fulfilling commitments to passengers.
This surprising decision took place despite the Cuban flights being approved by the Argentina’s National Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC).
In response to this situation, the airline has decided to assist affected passengers in Cuba by sending them back on flights operated by other airlines connecting to Argentina. Other passengers will be eligible for a full refund of their airfare.
Cubana de Aviacion resumed its flights between Havana and Buenos Aires in May 2023, after a period of suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also resumed flights from Argentina with a stopover in Cayo Coco and a final destination in Havana using a leased aircraft.
Usually, Cubana de Aviacion operates a weekly flight between Buenos Aires/Ezeiza (EZE), Cayo Coco (CCC), and Havana (HAV) using an Airbus A330-200 operated by the Spanish airline Plus Ultra Airlines.
During the first quarter of 2024, the Cuban airline transported 3,221 passengers with an occupancy rate of 61 percent. The number of Argentine travelers to Cuba increased by 44 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching 12,753 people.
WSJ - Putin Didn’t Directly Order Alexei Navalny’s February Death, U.S. Spy Agencies Find
U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Putin likely didn’t order Navalny to be killed at the notoriously brutal prison camp in February, people familiar with the matter said, a finding that deepens the mystery about the circumstances of his death.
Holy crap. Now this is a masterful handling of the press. Just call them on their bullshit immediately and don’t give them a fucking millimeter. Not a “civil war”. Not a “conflict”. “Talk” about what, exactly? Respect.
“What starts here changes the world”
Medics across the U.S. have been quietly injecting sedatives to subdue people detained by police:
https://twitter.com/AP/status/1783937850880245998
