October 10th’s update is here! TLDR? Here’s the summary.
October 11th’s update is here! TLDR? Here’s the summary.
October 12th’s update is here!. TLDR? Here’s the summary!
No updates on Thursdays.
October 15th’s update is here! TLDR? Here’s the summary.
Just an update on my situation: I’ll almost certainly be moving within the next week or two. The last update for a little while will be next Wednesday, the 19th. I’m going to then take a break to set things up, get to know my surroundings and such. I hope to be ready to start doing this again on the 28th, but I will post that week’s megathread on the 24th.
After that, I will hopefully be able to keep doing this more consistently and things will get less busy than they have in recent weeks. I strongly appreciate all the compliments I get and I’m glad to be part of such a great community! :Care-Comrade:
Links and Stuff
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists, for the “buh Zeleski is a jew?!?!” people.
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can, thank you.
Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map, who is an independent youtuber with a mostly neutral viewpoint.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have good analysis (though also a couple bad takes here and there)
Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict and, unlike most western analysts, has some degree of understanding on how war works. He is a reactionary, however.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the Ukrainian warzones.
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 ~ Gleb Bazov, banned from Twitter, referenced pretty heavily in what remains of pro-Russian Twitter.
https://t.me/asbmil ~ ASB Military News, banned from Twitter.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday Patrick Lancaster - crowd-funded U.S journalist, mostly pro-Russian, works on the ground near warzones to report news and talk to locals.
https://t.me/riafan_everywhere ~ Think it’s a government news org or Federal News Agency? Russian language.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ Front news coverage. Russian langauge.
https://t.me/rybar ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine
With the entire western media sphere being overwhelming pro-Ukraine already, you shouldn’t really need more, but:
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.
This is interesting, if a predictable mess for this kind of conflict. I mean, nobody operates on pure theory, there’s emotion, there’s a sense of identity even if you reject the state and nationalism etc. And obviously as a former anarchist sat fairly comfortably (but increasingly coldly) in the UK I don’t have to wrestle with it in the same way, but…
Wouldn’t it make more sense for Ukrainian and Russian anarchists alike to oppose both Ukrainian and Russian war efforts while pushing for peace and maybe even independence for the Donbas and places that want it? While the formation of new states isn’t exactly the anarchist ideal, wouldn’t smaller republics wanting some form of independence be more tolerable and strategically useful. There’s more potential for organising working class communities there surely than simply choosing a side in a zero-sum game between two hyper nationalist, right wing superpowers, neither of which would tolerate serious organisation by or potentially the existence of Anarchist factions?
Don’t get me wrong, that seems like a very difficult position to be in and to achieve, but it also seems like the only rational one in that framework.
Wouldn’t it make more sense for Ukrainian and Russian anarchists alike to oppose both Ukrainian and Russian war efforts
Sure, but if you live in Russia you can’t exactly spike railroad tracks leading in to Lviv. And if you actually want to stop a war from happening eight people with some thermite and tire jacks are going to have a lot more actual effect than a million people with banners and inspirational speeches.
Is Russia even pretending that denazification is the true goal of the SMO anymore? Putin spent much of his speech last week focusing on how the operation is an existential struggle against the d*generacy of the West—here are his literal words:
Do we want to have, here, in our country, in Russia, parent number one, number two, number three instead of mom and dad? Have they gone mad out there? Do we really want perversions that lead to degradation and extinction to be imposed on children in our schools from the primary grades? To be drummed into them that there are various supposed genders besides women and men, and to be offered a sex change operation? Do we want all this for our country and our children?”
Putin seems to have strayed quite far from originally justifying the invasion by seeking denazification of Ukraine! I know many users here are openly rooting for Russia to crush Ukraine—and I do believe they will ultimately achieve most if not all of their military objectives—but this isn’t such a black and white conflict. Anecdotally many of the Russians I know in my own life hate the “backwards” socially liberal norms they see as representative of NATO and the West.
I guess I’m asking in good faith whether actively hindering the Russian government at this moment is the smartest move to make? Seeing as how it’s been made apparent that people in Ukraine and the world over are A-Ok with Nazism in the country. If the current regime is not gotten rid of, domestic repression is going to go into overdrive when peace (whatever that looks like) is achieved.
It is not for the simple reason that absolutely nobody in Russia will buy the Russian anarchists’ frantic “We’re not being funded by NATO and we haven’t been coached by the CIA. The US totally didn’t supply us with explosives. We’re the real deal.” Apparently, they mostly kept a low profile until the start of the invasion, where they immediately began sabotaging the Russian war effort. Like cmon, even if they’re the real deal, do they not realize how terrible this looks? No normal person is going to want to associate with people who behave exactly like enemy saboteurs working behind enemy lines.
Assuming they’re actually legit and not useful idiots for NATO and/or saboteurs trained by the CIA, they should drop this adventurist bullshit that paints a giant target behind their backs as Ukrainian saboteurs and focus on helping people dodge military service. Why not an underground railroad style organization where people who don’t want to fight get ferried to other countries? Why not mutual aid that targets the dependents of men who got drafted?
My guess is that there’s already some low level dodging going on that’s being facilitated by actual leftists. Obviously, they’re not going to blow their cover on social media. So why are we hearing about these knuckleheads instead? Because they’re not legit.
Yeah, revolutionary defeatism isn’t adventurism and sabotage, but reorganization of brigades of the enlisted and draft dodging. The Potemkin didn’t get sunk by saboteurs, it was reorganized as a revolutionary vessel. The French National Guard wasn’t blown up and routed, it was radicalized and granted consciousness as a vessel of the working class.
I think this is very much @Alaskaball’s territory; where the position of “In a unjustified war, we must all do our effort to disrupt and destabilize our country’s role in that war, and aim for its conclusion so that we can focus on overcoming the bourgeoisie (no war but class war!)” starts butting heads with the position of “Even though our governments may be imperfect - maybe they’re even actively bad and doing bad things - it is in our interests to do all we can to destroy fascism when we are at war with it and lend our support, critical or otherwise, behind efforts to do so”
I tend to side with the latter more than the former position but I wouldn’t go out of my way to really argue those who are genuinely doing the first option (and not just talking about doing it online). I think it’s unlikely that any genuine communist movement will come out of Russia for the foreseeable future that can challenge Putin and his party, and broadly, resistance to the state appears to me to be more of a liberal thing than a socialist or communist thing, currently.
Why do they use so many catchphrases like “If not us, who? If not now, when?” that shit sets off my alarms really hard. Reminds me of “We Are Legion. Never forgive. Never Forget.” and they even use the guy fawkes masks elsewhere in the channel.
How long have they been around and do they have anything outside of Telegram?
https://i.imgur.com/h5yLdwV.png
:funny-clown-hammer:
