Macron has recently called a snap parliamentary election in the aftermath of the far-right getting a large proportion of the votes in the EU elections. Why exactly he called an election at a point of profound weakness is a little beyond me. Explanations that I’ve seen range from “He thinks the element of surprise will benefit his party and not others,” to “WW3 is about to start and he doesn’t want to be leader for it,” (which, like, isn’t true - Macron is the President of France, not Prime Minister, he won’t be unseated by this election and he has said he will not stand down regardless of result), to “He doesn’t want to swim in the shit-filled Seine.”
While we still have a couple weeks to go, the polling I’ve seen generally puts the far-right in first place with the left-wing coalition slightly behind, with Macron’s party all the way back in third place. Anybody who knows anything about French politics knows that while France does actually have something of a left opposition in aggregate (in contrast to the two wings of the Capitalist Party in the UK and the US, for example), French left coalitions are profoundly unstable and this one will inevitably split - perhaps even before the voting begins - meaning they aren’t nearly as useful as they otherwise could be.
Living in a France governed by far right parties would be awful, but maybe they might at least be against the carnage in Ukraine, and sue for peace with Russia? Well, possibly not, if the example of Meloni in Italy is anything to go by. It seems that the differences between the “centrist” parties and the fascist ones truly are not that great, beholden to the exact same set of capitalists regardless of which party wins, and will likely bend the knee to NATO, though they may grumble a lot. Would a left coalition be better on Russia/NATO? They have already helpfully told us that they won’t (only opposing sending French troops to Ukraine but otherwise being full steam ahead), and additionally are genocidal Zionists. Western leftists have long been hampered by a dramatically faulty misunderstanding of how geopolitics works, with many seemingly believing “imperialism is when countries interact with other countries” and “democracy is when you can vote between two parties even if widely popular policies aren’t at all represented by either of them, and if those popular policies are enacted but it’s by a one-party state then that’s authoritarian evil” and other such strange ideas, making them terminally useless on foreign issues and pretty unremarkable on domestic issues too. France is no exception.
And just to top it all off, this is coming in a period of further imperial decline for the tattered remains of the French empire, with West Africa rebelling and Kanaky (New Caledonia) deeply unhappy with recent French decisions.
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 France! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is here.
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.
Lmao the Israeli foreign minister is called “Israel Katz”
Zero Wing ass name, embarrassing “nation”
Denmark’s succdem-led right-wing regime is going to lower the inheritance tax for family-owned businesses from 15 to 10 percent. This follows a long period of austerity with abolishment of public holidays, cuts in higher education and chronic underfunding of healthcare, public schools and and other social services. We all had to make sacrifices to fund rapid agressive military buildup or else Putin’s Asiatic hordes would run us over, or at least that is what we were told. The royal family was given a generous raise as well.
But now there’s money to give tax cuts to rich people. The tracking cuts are funded by “the fiscal space”, ie. savings on public services.
The gilding of small business tyrants is a victory for the two right-liberal parties that makes up two thirds of the ruling junta. It is deeply unpopular among succdem voters who, despite their party being a bunch of low-effort strasserite chuds, still support the welfare state and hate to see it picked apart.
In the recent EU elections the succdems suffered a humiliating defeat, being outperformed by the “Socialist People’s Party”, a more left-ish succdem with greener and less chuddy vibes. By showering the rich with money in a time of alleged fiscal crisis is only going to make succdem voters more eager to look for alternatives.
The regime is deeply unpopular and the parties behind the regime only stand to get 33.7 percent of the vote compared to getting half the vote at the general election a few years ago.
Drone boats are crazy, black ops 2 was so right, the millenium challenge could have never predicted this
Cw: birds on the Tutor being blown to shit https://t.me/PalCommie/958
Damn this appears to be a test? I’ve lied to you all and spread misinformation, see emizeko for the real shit
Lmaooo
🟢 Hamas Political Bureau member Izzat Al-Rishq: — Netanyahu’s request from America for “tools to finish the mission quickly” is an explicit admission of his failure to achieve anything so far.
After tens of thousands of tons of explosives, ammunition, and American spy planes, Biden has only one tool left to offer Netanyahu, known for his stinginess and corruption: the price of a plane ticket back to Poland.
Holy shit Hitler youth is back in Germany
This is Germany: #HitlerYouth Reloaded
Last Saturday, the neo-Nazis #JungenNationalisten held a #Solstice celebration in a small Village in Northern Saxony. Even small children were allowed to march along with torches, an #NS rune was set on fire.
https://nitter.poast.org/recherchenorth/status/1804009303482695897#m
US federal interest payments have now exceeded its defense spending
Neoclassical model debunked in a single chart.
Raising interest rates because the government has “printed too much money” led to more money being printed as a result of interest payout, simply by virtue of the gigantic volume of the US treasuries, something that I have been saying for more than a year now.
Joe Biden has succeeded in creating more wealth for the rich than any of his predecessors has ever managed, and this is why he, not Trump, will have the full backing of the bourgeois class.
today is the national day of Iceland, it is celebrated on the birthday of the most prominent leader of the nationalist independence movement, Jón Sigurðsson, who married his niece, as was the style of the time. He may also have died from syphilis.
Jón showed little interest in politics prior to his bout with syphilis.
Many such cases.
It’s true, folks. A lot of people are saying it.
The Country of the Week is France!
Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to France.
If you know a lot about the country and want to share your knowledge and opinions, here are some questions to get you started if you wish:
spoiler
- What is the general ideology of the political elite? Do they tend to be protectionist nationalists, or are they more free trade globalists? Are they compradors put there by foreign powers? Are they socialists with wide support by the population?
- What are the most important domestic political issues that make the country different from other places in the region or world? Are there any peculiar problems that have continued existing despite years or decades with different parties?
- Is the country generally stable? Are there large daily protests or are things calm on average? Is the ruling party/coalition generally harmonious or are there frequent arguments or even threats?
- Is there a particular country to which this country has a very impactful relationship over the years, for good or bad reasons? Which one, and why?
- What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
- Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
- How socially progressive or conservative is the country generally? To what degree is there equality between men and women, as well as different races and ethnic groups? Are LGBTQIA+ rights protected?
- Give a basic overview of the last 50 or 100 years. What’s the historical trend of politics, the economy, social issues, etc - rise or decline? Were they always independent or were they once occupied, and how have things been since independence if applicable?
- If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?
Check out the reading list. Our books on France:
These books focus on the French Revolution:
- Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of Terror in the French Revolution by Robert Roswell Palmer (1941).
- A People’s History of the French Revolution by Eric Hazan (2014).
These books focus on 19th century French history:
- The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx (1852).
- The Paris Commune: A Brief History by Carolyn J. Eichner (2022).
- Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914 by Eugen Weber (1976).
These books focus on 20th and 21st French history:
- France’s Yellow Vests: Western Repression of the West’s Best Values by Ramin Mazaheri (2022).
Taking up the mantle.
#Death to Israel #Tradle #834 1/6
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
https://oec.world/en/games/tradlespoiler
Got lucky, the gold and cocoa made me start with Africa. Due to Mark Thatcher’s attempted coup, I always think of Equatorial Guinea as the African petrostate. But Equatorial Guinea was an answer last week, so I guess a coastal neighbor and got it.
#Tradle #834 2/6
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
https://oec.world/en/games/tradle
DNC shenanigans inaugural meeting question: who will replace genocide joe?michelle “i love serial killer” obama (inoffensive to yasqueen libs, has institutional support, but allegedly doesn’t want to)
gavin “gruesome” newsome (quintessential california lib, also institutional support)
kamala “coconut tree” harris (hand-picked successor, is zoned out half of the time)
kathy “some black kids dont know what a computer is” hochul (team player, but got kamala foot-in-the-mouth disease)
hillary “bomb them all” clinton (sore loser, but has hangers on)
pete “haven’t heard my name in a while, have you” buttigieg (blank space for mckinsey)
“retvrn to rockafeller” pritzker (forgot his name, too radical)
*changed ranking there is also whitmer, dunno where to fit her. Can kinda work for libs like obama, no big scandals directly attached to her, being target of maga/fbi plot (basically mlk jr)
The Guardian continues to be on their state department propaganda bullshit:
Fucking finally! I can’t believe we had to wait this long to dramatically escalate a bullshit war that should have ended two years ago.
How could Putin do this when the west has been so reserved and cautious?
While most were busy arguing to shorten the work week to 4 days, conservatives in Greece have legally extended the work week to 6 days along with a bunch of other anti-worker legislation.
Did they put a baby in a jar? did that happen fr?
BREAKING: Kendrick Lamar has been elected to the chair of the West Coast Supreme Soviet
⚡️Sayyed Nasrallah speech SUMMARY:
The party that should be in fear now is the enemy [not us].
Hezbollah will continue its operations in support of Gaza and at the same time is ready for all scenarios
We have a very, very, very large amount of information, and [the drone footage] published yesterday is a small part of many hours that were filmed in Haifa.
We have info that Israelis are conducting drills in Cyprus & its airports, which the enemy plans to use in case its airports/facilities were struck
We warn Cyprus against opening its facilities to “Israel”- If it does, we will treat it as part of the war
All the weapons that were supposed to reach Lebanon have already arrived
The weapons will be revealed when needed, and we have new weapons to introduce
We produce some of the rockets we need
We have a large amount of drones because we produce them
Hezbollah has a FULL and real target bank inside the Israeli occupation entity, and has the capability to reach its targets
The enemy must await us from land, air and sea, and we will fight with no constraints nor a ceiling
The [Israeli] enemy knows that what awaits it in the Mediterranean Sea is very massive
He could be also including the US in this threat
