South America

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Monthly Review: As New Cold War ramps up, Cuba and Russia fortify historic geo-political alliance

On November 22, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin and offered a defense of the Russian war in Ukraine, accusing NATO of encroaching on Russia’s borders with its actions.

The two leaders in turn pledged to deepen bilateral relations—at a time when a declining U.S. empire is threatening a hot war with Russia while tightening its embargo on Cuba.

TeleSUR: Social Organizations Reject State of Exception in El Salvador

TeleSUR: Brazil’s Economy To Face Major Hurdles in 2023, Say Experts

Brazil’s economy will face major challenges in 2023, including an uncertain global landscape, raging inflation and staggering economic recovery, while President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration grapples with its first year in office, experts have said.

TeleSUR: Bolivian President Highlights the Country’s Economic Stability

During the launching ceremony of the Storage Capacity Increase Project at the Palmasola Plant, in the department of Santa Cruz, Arce referred to the favorable standards of the Bolivian economy, stating that the country expects to break export records this year.

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The Ukraine Proxy Conflict

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Responsible Statecraft: New Ukraine aid is a go — and it’s more than most states get in a year

TeleSUR: US Spent Months Arranging Zelensky Visit to Prolong War​​​​​​​

The idea of inviting Zelensky for an in-person speech to members of the U.S. Congress had been floated by the outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as early as October at a summit in Zagreb, Croatia. Meanwhile, officials in the Biden administration have for the last several months been discussing with their Ukraine the feasibility of a White House visit by Zelensky.

GrayZone: Zelensky’s diaspora delegation led by economic hit-woman who led plunder of Ukraine

The Grayzone intercepted Volodymyr Zelensky’s Ukrainian diaspora delegation outside the US Capitol and encountered Natalie Jaresko, the corporate operative who helped guide Wall Street’s pillaging from Kiev to Puerto Rico. Jaresko indignantly justified Zelensky’s banning of his political rivals as a necessary wartime measure.

RT: Majority of Germans against sending tanks to Ukraine – poll

In its report on Sunday, media outlet Das Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND), citing a YouGov survey, said 45% of respondents opposed the shipment of Leopard 2 tanks to the eastern European country, while another 33% spoke in favor of the transfer, with the remaining 22% undecided.

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Analysis

Retrospectives, History, and Theory

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Jacobin: Many Have Tried to Kill Santa. None Have Succeeded.

…until, one fateful day in 2022…

Jacobin: Eugene V. Debs on the 1914 Christmas Truce

Jacobin: Guinea-Bissau’s Liberation Struggle Transformed the Face of World Politics

A movement led by Amílcar Cabral fought against Portuguese rule in Guinea-Bissau and won independence against seemingly overwhelming odds. It also contributed to the end of white-settler rule in Southern Africa and the democratic revolution in Portugal itself.

Jacobin: The Taiwanese Left Was Once Rooted in the Radical Labor Movement

In the 1920s, Taiwan had a radical anti-colonial movement similar to those in other parts of the colonized world — and central to it was a powerful organized labor movement. Today, with a weak and divided left, that memory needs to be recovered.

Monthly Review: Our survival depends on a world without billionaires

A recent report from Oxfam entitled “Carbon Billionaires: The Investment Emissions of the World’s Richest People” points the finger at the wealthiest individuals for causing and continuing to fuel climate change through not only their individual carbon footprints but more importantly their investments in polluting industries. The study looks at the impact of 125 of the richest billionaires globally, whose carbon emissions equal those of France, or 67 million people, and shows that just the richest 10 of those individuals own more wealth than the poorest 40% of humanity. The average billionaire in the study is responsible for carbon emissions over one million times higher than the average person in the bottom 90% of humanity.

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The Left and the Right

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Monthly Review: The moral panic around drag makes even less sense in the UK’s pantomime season

The moral panic around drag queens currently sweeping America has arrived in Britain. Conservative and homo/transphobic reactionaries are working themselves into a froth around the idea of (usually, not necessarily) a man in a dress entertaining children. The problem? It makes zero sense in a country with a proud tradition of… a man in a dress entertaining children. Of course, there’s no way a bigot would let a little cognitive dissonance stop them.

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Inside the Imperial Core

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Naked Capitalism: NATO’s Ghosts of the Past Return in Kosovo-Serbia

As Russia grinds down NATO proxy forces in Ukraine, the West is turning its ire against the one country in Europe not to join sanctions against Moscow. Washington and Brussels have had enough of Serbia playing nice with Russia and are now pushing a conflict to punish Belgrade.

The emerging conflict, coming amid the ongoing NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, brings full circle nearly a quarter century of NATO bellicosity that began with its 1999 bombing of Serbia, which confirmed to Moscow that it was an aggressive alliance determined to expand.

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Outside the Imperial Core

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Jacobin: Central Bank Capitalism Is Forcing the Global South Into a Debt Crisis

The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are withdrawing money from markets in the name of fighting inflation. But the move is aggravating the pressures of debt on the Global South — and pushing states toward ruinous austerity measures.

Monthly Review: Why Chinese ‘debt trap diplomacy’ is a lie

Generally, there are three problems with this “debt trap diplomacy” myth.

The first problem is that this myth assumes China unilaterally dictates Belt and Road Initiative projects to lure other countries into taking on these predatory loans. In reality, Chinese development financing is largely recipient-driven through bilateral interactions and deals. Infrastructure projects are determined by the recipient country, not China, based on their own economic and political interests.

The second problem with the narrative is that it relies on the assumption that it is Chinese policy to advance predatory loans with onerous terms and conditions to ensnare countries into debt. In reality, China often advances loans at fairly low interest rates, and is often willing to restructure the terms of existing loans to be more favorable to the borrowing country, or even forgive loans altogether. In fact, in August of 2022, the Chinese government announced it was forgiving 23 interest-free loans in 17 African countries. Prior to that, between 2000 and 2019, China had also restructured a total of $15 billion of debt and forgiven $3.4 billion in loans they had given to African countries.

And lastly, the third problem with this debt trap diplomacy narrative is that despite what it claims, China has never seized an asset because a country defaulted on a loan.

Monthly Review: South Africans are fighting for crumbs: A conversation with trade union Leader Irvin Jim

In mid-December, the African National Congress (ANC) held its national conference where South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa was reelected as leader of his party, which means that he will lead the ANC into the 2024 general elections. A few delegates at the Johannesburg Expo Center in Nasrec, Gauteng—where the party conference was held—shouted at Ramaphosa asking him to resign because of a scandal called Farmgate (Ramaphosa survived a parliamentary vote against his impeachment following the scandal).

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Climate Change

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Guardian: Can geoengineering fix the climate? Hundreds of scientists say not so fast

As global heating escalates, the US government has set out a plan to further study the controversial and seemingly sci-fi notion of deflecting the sun’s rays before they hit Earth. But a growing group of scientists denounces any steps towards what is known as solar geoengineering.

The White House has set into motion a five-year outline for research into “climate interventions”. Those include methods such as sending a phalanx of planes to spray reflective particles into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, in order to block incoming sunlight from adding to rising temperatures.

Inside Climate News: Why Chinese Aluminum Producers Emit So Much of Some of the World’s Most Damaging Greenhouse Gases

More than half of the aluminum in the world is produced in China, but it is responsible for 81 percent of the industry’s emissions of PFCs. Simple automation could go a long way toward cutting them.

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I Love My Trans Comrades!