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  • Ukrainian Regime Led by Media Darling Volodymyr Zelensky Kidnaps Student Dissidents, Bans Opposition Parties, Shuts Down Independent Media | TheRevolutionReport

    < Back Ukrainian Regime Led by Media Darling Volodymyr Zelensky Kidnaps Student Dissidents, Bans Opposition Parties, Shuts Down Independent Media Dmitri Kovalevich Aug 28, 2022 More Ukrainian Soldiers Continue to Defect as Eastern Ukrainians See Better Future with Russian Federation Or more than five months, full-scale hostilities have taken place on the territory of Ukraine. The number of victims is growing every day on both sides of the front line. From the signing of the “Minsk 2” peace agreement in February 2015 until February 2022—seven long years—hostilities in the Donbas region raged with regular shelling and small arms attacks by the Ukrainian military and paramilitaries against the towns and cities of the region. Ukrainians throughout the country have become accustomed to this routinized, “low intensity” warfare. However, the entry of the Russian Federation into the conflict on the side of the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics more than five months ago has upset the routine, causing much confusion and bewilderment among Ukrainians. They are asking themselves, how can it be that Kyiv could also be shelled in response to the shellings of Donetsk? “Isn’t the strongest military power in the world on our side? Why can’t it stop this war that has broken out?” Western propaganda (and since 2014, Ukrainian propaganda, too), deeply corrupts a person’s understanding. It encourages the idea that a country like Ukraine, subordinated to the West, can do whatever it wishes so long as it supports the goals of the large Western countries. In this context, liberal-minded views in favor of peace do not count. Non-Western countries are, by default, considered inferior and local opponents of Western imperialism are suspect, be they governments or simple political movements. Internal Dissent in Ukraine To combat internal dissent, the Ukrainian state encourages its citizens to speak up against those it labels as “traitors” and “collaborators.” People who behave “suspiciously” by criticizing the actions of the authorities or even daring to declare responsibility of the Ukrainian authorities for the military intervention by the Russian Federation are considered traitors by default. Ukraine is more and more of a police state under Zelensky. The size of its intelligence service (SBU), which has been supported by the CIA since the 2014 Maidan coup, is equivalent to that of the FBI when Ukraine is much smaller than the U.S. Here the SBU is arresting Crimea’s former SBU department chief, Oleh Kulinich, who has been charged with treason and faces 15 years in prison. [Source: news.yahoo.com] Of late, the news reporting of “criminal conduct” in Ukraine is telling the stories of the woman convicted by a court for the crime of reading Russian Telegram channels while using public transport; the man who was found in possession of the flag of the Soviet Ukrainian Republic; and the teenager who photographed an airport building. A Ministry of Digital Transformation was established in Ukraine in 2019 with the help of the European Union and the U.S. It is part of implementing a strategy of silencing dissent. The ministry goes so far as to offer guidelines on how to correctly fill out a “collaborator report” to finger suspect acquaintances of “the enemy.” [1] The ministry cites a typical letter sent to the chatbot єВорог : “His sister is the wife of a separatist who is fighting for Russia. They keep in touch and exchange information about the location of our army in the city.” Vice Prime Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov speaks at conference announcing new ministry. [Source: ukrinform.net] Often such denunciations become simply a method of settling old personal scores. These raise uncomfortable memories of the pogroms against Jews which marked Ukraine during the years of Nazi German occupation. For example, one of the examples of denunciations sent to the Ministry of Digital Transformation has been highlighted by Maksim Buzhansky, deputy leader of President Zelensky’s political party. He writes of a woman being targeted for the crime of collaboration: “She is pregnant by a Russian and considers herself to be something of a first lady of the village.” [2] This is how simple envy or personal dislike can become a pretext for a witch-hunt under the guise of a political agenda. One of the most egregious recent cases was the expulsion of Elvira Khomenko, a student from a university in the city of Bila Tserkva, 80 km south of Kyiv. Elvira was a student in the veterinary department. She wrote that enemies should be treated with kindness, that she does not eat meat, does not support the Ukrainian army, and does not support the killing of people. [3] She is described as something of a hippie and peacenik who strongly maintains her beliefs and opinions. At the end of July, she was expelled from the university and denounced to the SBU, Ukraine’s political police service. Elvira has since disappeared without a trace. Police are refusing to accept her mother’s statement in defense of her daughter, treating the mother with contempt. [As of August 1, 2022, the whereabouts of Elvira Khomenko are known only to Ukrainian authorities.] Elvira Khomenko [Source: twitter.com] In order to carry out its widespread, anti-Russia brainwashing in Ukraine, the Zelensky-led government has banned all opposition political parties and closed critical media. Over the past two years, half of the television channels in Ukraine have gone off the air, accused of pro-Russia sympathies. Since February 2022, all remaining media are obliged to relay only the point of view of the Office of the President, under threat of being accused of treason. During this period, the opposition parties Platform for Life (social democratic), the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, the “Socialists,” the Union of Left Forces, the Sharij Party, the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine and the Labor Party of Ukraine have been banned and their property seized. Earlier, only party activity was suspended; the seizure of party properties is a new escalation. As the list of banned parties makes clear, they are left-wing for the most part. Their “fault” is their disapproval of the eight-year-old conflict waged against Donbas (which became the reason for the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine). In July 2022, the wealthiest Ukrainian, billionaire Rinat Akhmetov (number one on Forbes-Ukraine’s list of wealthiest people in the country) gave up control of his media holdings, although he and his media have been quite loyal to Zelensky’s office. Hundreds of employees lost their jobs. The “logic” of this business decision by Ahkmetov is that a Ukrainian billionaire has no need to own costly media if it cannot be used to advance his or her personal interests and “merely” serves to relay the point of view of the authorities. Rinat Akhmetov [Source: businessinsider.com] Worker and trade union rights under attack Under the pretext of the war in Ukraine, authorities have begun to actively attack worker and trade union rights. They are promoting regressive “reform” of existing labor legislation. This had failed earlier due to pressure by international trade unions. In early July, the parliament sent to Zelensky for his signature Bill No. 7251 , which regulates the “optimization of labor relations” under martial law. [Source: links.org.au] This legislative innovation significantly curtails the rights of Ukrainian employees and nullifies the main historical gains of the working class, rolling them back to the situation of the 19th century. Among the provisions of the new law is that Ukrainian employers are no longer required to limit the working day to eight hours and the working week can stretch up to 60 hours. That could mean a ten-hour working day with one day off per week, a twelve-hour working day with two days off, or seven days of eight and a half hours each with no day off! Thus will Ukrainian employers be able to save on overtime pay. [4] Back in 1810, the British educator and social philosopher Robert Owen advocated for a reduced work day; by 1817, he had formulated the slogan: “Eight hours’ labor, eight hours’ recreation, eight hours’ rest.” Oh, how the world of the 21st century is evolving—backwards! Robert Owen [Source: heritage.humanists.uk] In addition, from now on, Ukrainian workers can be fired on vague pretexts of no available work. Employers themselves will determine how this applies, depending on their interests. A second regressive labor law In July the Ukraine legislature ( Verkhovna Rada ) also adopted Bill No. 5371, on simplified termination of employment contracts during martial law. It regulates labor contracts for businesses of fewer than 250 employees, essentially canceling the provisions of the Labor Code for them. This amounts to some 80% of all companies in Ukraine. Working conditions, working hours, holidays and wages will now be regulated not by law but by the terms of contracts drawn up by the employer. “Anything can be written in the contract, especially in conditions of unemployment. In fact, this means that Ukrainians will have to work on the conditions that employers will impose on them,” says Ukrainian lawyer Rostyslav Kravets. [5] The governing regime in Kyiv pushed through the bill, citing a familiar theme: “Russian aggression.” But the bill was originally registered in April 2021, nearly one year prior to Russia’s military intervention. Formally, the bill was submitted on behalf of the head of the parliamentary committee on social policy, Galina Tretyakova, and a number of other deputies from the ruling Servant of the People party. Ukrainian trade unions had demanded Tretyakova’s resignation following a sickening speech in which she said that poor people should be sterilized to reduce the country’s welfare bill. Galina Tretyakova [Source: peoplesworld.org] Bill 5371 was developed by the Ukrainian public organization “Office of Simple Solutions,” which was originally created by the former president of Georgia, [a corrupt US puppet] Mikheil Saakashvili (2008-13), together with the associations of Ukrainian employers and the USAID program. In other words, the deprivation of Ukrainian labor rights has been financed by a U.S. government agency. (As for Saakashvili, he is awaiting trial in Georgia under charges of violence against his political opponents as well as harsh restrictions against media outlets before and during his presidency. He is also charged with entering the country illegally, in October 2021, when he was first arrested and detained.) Former Georgia's leader Mikheil Saakashvili —literally a gangster. [Source: neweasterneurope.eu]. George Sandul, a lawyer at the Kyiv public organization “Labor Initiatives,” commenting on Bill 5371, noted that the employee always has less power than the employer, and at the international level, numerous conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) are devoted to this issue. “De facto, this regime assumes that literally anything can be entered into an employee’s employment contract, without reference to Ukrainian labor laws. For example, additional grounds for dismissal, liability, or even a 100-hour week,” explains Sandul. [6] In June, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) appealed to Ukrainian authorities to remove the scandalous bill No. 5371 from consideration, as it contradicts the ILO conventions ratified by Ukraine’s “association agreement” with the EU (entered into force in September 2017) and European legislation. Ukraine has in recent years served as a testing ground for anti-social reforms and cuts, which are then carried out in other European countries. These are all the more misplaced considering that Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe and over the past eight years, there has been a massive outflow of Ukrainian workers westward in Europe or eastward to Russia. Resisting military service in wartime Since the beginning of Russia’s military operation, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men have been drafted into the army and thousands have illegally fled across the border to dodge military service. Millions of women, too, have left the country, leaving many manufacturing facilities at a standstill. Even regular public utilities are understaffed, while many restaurants in the capital city Kyiv have closed as their chefs and other staff have left. In July, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reported on the elimination of 45 escape routes used by men of military age. Those caught were traveling by foot, car or boat. One enterprising draft dodger tried to leave the country by swimming across a river in a diving suit. [7] Fines charged by those guiding the escapees range from the equivalent of US$1,000 to US$20,000. Forced conscription was brought on and has been intensified due to huge combat losses. David Arakhamia, the head of the Zelensky-led party’s parliamentary faction, has stated that losses amount to about 1,000 killed and wounded per day. [8] The British Daily Mail reported in July that the death toll was around 20,000 a month. [9] But official statistics of Ukraine’s losses are treated as classified information by the Ministry of Defense. Funeral for one of many Ukrainian war dead. [Source: voanews.com] “The numbers of dead are a state secret during martial law. This is due to military expediency and the fact that the enemy should not know these numbers and use it for their own opportunities,” Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said on July 14. [10] Economically, Ukraine survives almost exclusively on loans from Western partner governments and international banks. It finances its public budget expenditures only by some 30%. [11] The main sphere of government expenses is, to no surprise, military. To a certain extent, the Ukrainian military can be described as a mercenary force of the United States, Great Britain and other NATO countries. Ideologically, Ukrainian authorities openly position themselves as part of a “civilized West” waging war with a “barbaric East.” “We are the European army of a European country. The enemy will be destroyed consistently, systematically and as planned and expected, by a decent army of the good old West,” Aleksey Arestovych, an adviser to the head of the President’s Office, recently stated. [12] Aleksey Arestovych [Source: opendemocracy.net] However, for this army, a significant part of its recruits must be snatched off the streets or from parks and workplaces. Since February, Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 have been barred from leaving the country. Starting October 1, this ban will also apply to women, who are being made liable for military service under the cunning theme of “combatting gender discrimination.” But this “fight against discrimination” is far from being an extension of rights; it is an extension of duties as defined by an increasingly unpopular and isolated governing regime. Russian-controlled southern Ukraine The populations of the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine oppose the regime in Kyiv for the most part, but since 2014 they have been forced to hide this. Soldiers of Ukraine’s armed forces continue to complain that, since the start of the Russian military operation, local residents are betraying their positions to Russian forces and to the forces of Luhansk and Donetsk, allowing these to more accurately target their military operations. In one video from the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, still held by Kyiv, a soldier of the Ukrainian army complains that the locals do not like them and do not want war against the Russian Federation. He explains, “There are a lot of people here who are not being called up by the military registration and enlistment offices. We are brought here from all over Ukraine, but no one will involve the locals. The recent scenarios in Lysychansk [small city in the Lugansk region] and other territories showed that residents were willing to go to war, but against Ukraine.” [13] In fact, many Ukrainian soldiers are telling the truth of what is happening in the territories controlled by the Russian Federation and the Lugansk and Donetsk republics. However, “control” by Russia or the Donbas republics does not mean peace. Deliveries of heavy artillery from the U.S. and other large NATO powers now allow Ukrainian forces to shell more heavily their former territories in the east, sometimes reaching deep behind Russian/Donbas republic lines. The shelling of the territories controlled by Kyiv receives wide coverage in the Western press, but the shelling of uncontrolled territory by the Ukrainian army is completely ignored, underlining once again the prevailing system of a double standard in Western media. In July, three Ukrainian drones with explosives attacked the nuclear energy complex (the largest in Europe) near the city of Zaporozhye located on the Dnieper River, the fourth largest river in Europe. [14] The purpose was to disrupt the operation of the station, which supplies electricity to several nearby regions. Luckily, the [Soviet-built] concrete ceilings of the complex withstood the attacks by what was light munitions. The complex was designed and built in Soviet times to operate during wartime. Russian forces control the complex and are working with its Ukrainian engineers and other specialists to keep it operating. At the same time, the Ukrainian special services, in conjunction with Western intelligence services, wage regular terror attacks in uncontrolled territories, threatening those citizens of Ukraine who cooperate with the Russian Federation or the Donbas republics. Many leaders of the Donbas rebels have been assassinated since 2014, notably the revered, former head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, assassinated in 2018. A banner with a portrait of Alexander Zakharchenko, Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, is seen during the funeral in Donetsk, Ukraine, September 2, 2018. [Source: businessinsider.com] Terror tactics are being used to prevent a return to peaceful life. These are prompting even former Ukrainian ultra-nationalists to reconsider their views on the conflict. In June, for example, Dmitry Kuzmenko, the head of a Ukrainian “territorial defense” (ultra-nationalist) paramilitary unit, and many of his former fighters decided to adopt Russian citizenship. [15] Meanwhile, deliveries of American “HIMARS” precision multiple rocket launchers and the shelling of Kherson led even the former leader of the Kherson cell of the Ukrainian fascist party Svoboda (“Freedom”), Eduard Bekharsky, to reconsider his views. “Today’s shelling of my hometown by the Armed Forces of Ukraine using American HIMARS put a bullet in my relations with Ukraine. My father was an officer in the Soviet army. I remember my childhood in the garrisons in the Urals. I am more Soviet than Ukrainian. And now I’m finished with Ukraine,” he wrote. [16] Since Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in July on simplified admission of Ukrainian citizens to Russian citizenship, residents of other regions have been moving to Russian-controlled Kherson. However, their route, according to eyewitnesses, is quite difficult since it is necessary to pass through front lines and mined territories. Taxi drivers in the Kyiv-controlled city of Zaporozhye charge up to US$1,000 for such a dangerous trip. There is also a legal option, but it costs $400 and up. To make such a trip legally, the traveler must submit an application to Ukrainian authorities and then pass a verification procedure by the SBU. Men do not use this option since they would immediately receive a summons to military service. The coming social and political transformations in southern Ukraine In July, the local authorities of the southern regions of Ukraine controlled by the Russian Federation–Kherson and Zaporozhye—announced the preparation of a referendum on joining the Russian Federation. [17] Preliminary plans call for the votes to take place in mid-September. This will severely curtail stated plans of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to return these regions under their control, since a vote to join the Russian Federation formally places the regions under the military umbrella of Russia and, perhaps, opens the way for entry of international peacekeeping forces from the Collective Security Treaty Organization , in which Russia is a leading member. In Russian-controlled cities and towns in southern Ukraine, the interim administrations are distributing one-time social payments of 10,000 rubles (app. US$165) to residents, which is equal to the minimum monthly Ukrainian pension for elderly. [18] In June, internet service began to be provided from Crimea to these regions and mobile communications were established through Russian operators. Unlike Kherson, many larger cities of Donbas have been heavily damaged due to the frequently used tactics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to use schools, hospitals and residential buildings as shields. Reconstruction in the heavily damaged city of Mariupol began in June. Russia is mounting an ambitious program of reconstruction assistance throughout Donbas. Large teams of building workers are being mobilized in Russia, including a clever program in which Russian cities partner with a selected city in Donbas and provide technical as well as material assistance. [Source: youtube.com] Following the recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, brigades of workers from there are helping in the restoration. “They will provide serious help in solving the problems of restoring destroyed social, infrastructural and industrial facilities,” said Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora. He also said the DPRK already uses building equipment manufactured by enterprises in Donbas. “Our Korean partners are therefore very interested in acquiring spare parts and units manufactured in Donbas in order to update their own production base.” [19] Kyiv has severed diplomatic relations with North Korea and Syria in response to their respective recognitions of the independence of the Luhansk and Donetsk republics. Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. [Source: telegraph.co.uk] In the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporozhye region, the roads damaged or destroyed in the fighting are being restored. A resident of the DPR, author of the left-wing Telegram channel “Concretely,” describes the process as follows: “Yesterday, I watched a road being repaired in the liberated territory. Repairs are being done more substantially than Ukraine ever did. Not only is the roadbed completely removed and restored, its support bedding (so-called pillow) is one and a half meters deeper. From the original road dating from Soviet times and ‘killed’ by Ukraine through neglect, only its direction will remain. A completely new road is being built, 100 kilometers long. The locals, I think, have never seen such a miracle; modern civilization has come to our steppes.” [20] In Ukrainian media, this news was presented as a case of Russians “stealing” the old asphalt from the roads because they themselves do not have such roads. In the Russian-controlled parts of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, new tariffs for utilities were approved in July. Utilities in those regions are much less expensive than in the rest of Ukraine: Natural gas is less than one-fifth the price in the Russian-controlled areas; hot water is almost 60% less; heating is more than 60% less; and electricity is 45% less. Such are the economic benefits brought by Russia and which are very appealing to local populations. [21] Previously, Russian authorities announced the cancellation of all the debts of Ukrainian citizens owed for gas, electricity and water utilities, as well as bank debts. As a result, thousands of households in Kyiv-controlled territories have stopped paying their bills, expecting that Russia may someday arrive and write off their debts as well. This is one of the reasons why the regime of Zelensky is obliged to step up requests to the Western powers for additional financial assistance. Crimea Apparently, the regions of Donbas and southern Ukraine will follow the path of rebuilding and restoration taken earlier in the Chechen Republic and Crimea. Crimea and most of what became Ukraine following 1991 lived off the infrastructure legacy of the Soviet Union without repairing or updating it. After the 2014 referendum in Crimea (March 15 of that year), the Russians involved in restoring the infrastructure of Crimea were shocked by the degree of deterioration of buildings, pipes and roads. In 2014, average wages and pensions almost tripled for Crimeans as a result of their vote to join Russia. Naturally, this only strengthened their loyalty to Moscow. Now Crimea and Chechnya are the most loyal regions to the Russian central government, not least due to the substantial financial injections into the economies of these regions. These are much higher, proportionately, than in other regions of the Russian Federation. The volume of infrastructure investments per capita in Crimea, for example, is 29% ahead of the Russian average. [22] In 2013, by comparison, the per capita GRP (gross regional product) of Crimea was 25% of that in Russia, the average salary was less than 40% of that in Russia, and investments were 30% of that in Russia. Because of Western sanctions, tourism in Crimea has suffered heavily. As well, the blockade of water supply imposed by Kyiv did not allow the development of agriculture in the arid northern regions of Crimea. Ukrainian authorities blockaded the Northern Crimea Canal in 2015, which provided most drinking and agricultural water to Crimea from the Dnieper River to the north. The canal was built during the 1950s. In place of tourism, the Crimean economy is now shifting toward industrial production, in particular, shipbuilding and engineering at Soviet factories that were virtually abandoned or on the verge of bankruptcy under Ukraine’s rule. Ukraine has allowed much of its industrial production capacity to degrade since 1991, saying it can instead buy superior equipment from Western corporations. Among the largest projects in Crimea since 2014 have been extensive water supply and pipeline infrastructure ; a new airport in the capital city of Simferopol; and the historic Kerch Strait Bridge, 19 km long and carrying trucks and autos as well as a two-track railway to and from Crimea and the Russian mainland. Kerch Strait Bridge—an example of economic development that has restored Crimea as a part of the Russian Federation. [Source: newyorker.com] Ukraine is today threatening to strike the bridge with missiles. Perhaps it is too much of an embarrassment to Ukrainian officials. Since 1992, several plans to build a Podolsky Bridge, four kilometers long, in the Kyiv region across the Dnieper River have failed due to bad planning or escalating costs. [23] In 2015, Ukrainian nationalists organized, in addition to the water blockade, an energy blockade of Crimea, blowing up power lines in the Kherson region. The destroyed power lines were finally restored at the end of July 2022. “Crimea has overcome the water, food, and transport blockades set up by the Kyiv regime, and now the latest energy blockade,” Oleg Kryuchkov recently announced. He is an information officer for the head of Crimea. “Crimea receives water through the unblocked North Crimean Canal, trade and transport links with the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions have been restored, and the energy system has been fully restored. Everything is returning to normal.” [24] Drying of Crimean Canal as a result of Ukrainian water blockade that has now ended because Russia has reclaimed much of the territory around Crimea. [Source: aljazeera.com] All this said, there remain conflicting loyalties among business people in Crimea toward Moscow or Kyiv. Due to policies deregulating business in Ukraine, in accordance with the loan requirements of the IMF, private businesses in Crimea often lean in favor of Ukraine. Such businesses are more prone to evade taxes and not comply with sanitary and labor standards. The Russian state tightly regulates private businesses, in contrast to Ukraine, causing dissatisfaction with private taxi drivers who worked in Ukraine, at times without licenses and without paying any taxes. Some hotel owners—those who built their hotels in protected areas prior to 2014—are also dissatisfied, thanks to bribery and corruption. Behind the scenes in Ukraine and its former territories, there is also competition between state-planned and private, neoliberal economies. In the Russian Federation, workers and technicians employed in state-run enterprises receive higher salaries and benefits. Similar trends should be expected in the Russian-controlled territories of southern Ukraine and Donbas as soon as peace comes to them. This article was originally published in the Greanville Post . Previous Next

  • VOTERS OF ARGENTINA TURN OUT AGAINST FASCISM! MASSA 37%, MILEI 29% | TheRevolutionReport

    < Back VOTERS OF ARGENTINA TURN OUT AGAINST FASCISM! MASSA 37%, MILEI 29% Alvaro Enrique Saldivia Lopez Oct 25, 2023 Argentines Reject Fascism In a historic turn of events, the Argentinians have firmly stood up to a looming fascist threat in Javier Milei, rejecting his sickening nostalgia for the '73 dictatorship, Atlas Network backers, and other far-right Anglo-Zionist scoundrels. In just one month, Unión por la Patria has surged by 10 points, moving from 27% in the las PASO to 37% this Sunday, October 22. As economy minister, Massa has made inroads on public measures to shield the working class from this crisis induced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He has introduced various changes including a tax on workers' income that have garnered him greater public confidence and support. Meanwhile, Milei--the maniacal rabid dog candidate supported by Washington, London, and the entire Anglo-Zionist Imperial structure--has been growing increasingly unhinged, as was made clear by his promise to open an embassy in Jerusalem on his first day as President, quibbling over the number of disappeared during Argentina's last dictatorship, and vow to annihilate socialists and Peronists. After FIrst Election, Who Stands Where? The results of the elections were as follows: Massa 37% Unión por la Patria Milei 29% La libertad avanza Bullrich 23% Juntos por el Cambio Schiaretti 6.8% Hacemos por Nuestro Pais Bregman 2.7% Frente de Izquierda We can assume in the runoff contest that both Schiaretti and Bregman support Massa due to ideological overlap, forming a broad front against fascism. This would bring their support to 46.5%. However, we must also account for those who voted blank or did not attend the elections. Not everyone in Juntos por el Cambio is expected support Milei. Bullrich's voters consist in two main factions: the Pigeons and the Hawks. The Hawks are fascists most likely to join Milei's fascist circus of freaks, while the Pigeons are more inclined to vote for Unión por la Patria to prevent another Operation Condor Dictatorship. Perhaps another percentage simply won't vote at all. From now until November 19, Unión por la Patria has the task of persuading and uniting the majority of citizens to reject the puppet dangled by an Old and Dying World Order and backed by the IMF, which has injected into the race so much corrupt and blood-soaked cash. This is a great task but with the momentum that Massa has it is accomplishable. The Chinese Government has supported Argentina Economy with the Swap mecanism to avoid more inflation from the IMF. Massa may not be a Socialist but he is a Patriota. Milei is a Fascist that wants Argentina to be a Colony and although Argentineans aren't Socialists yet, they are patriotic. Sergio Massa's Roadmap From Austerity to Prosperity This is a significant undertaking but also an achievable one, given the momentum that Massa has built. The Chinese Government has supported Argentina's economy with the Swap mechanism to mitigate further inflation caused by the IMF. Massa may not be a socialist, but he is a patriot. Milei, on the other hand, works hand in glove with US imperialism and wants Argentina to become the world's most obedient vassal. Argentinians may not yet be socialists, they are at least patriotic and seek to recover their sovereignty. This author's predicts that in a runoff election, Massa should secure 64% and Milei just 36%. Massa will then assume the presidency of Argentina, and on January 1st, 2024, the country will officially join BRICS. Over the course of these four years under Unión por la Patria's leadership, Argentina will emerge from the sink pit of fraudulent IMF loans and become a competitive, thriving nation with a high standard of living. It's worth remembering that in 2015, during Kirchner's final days as President, the salary was the highest in Latin America, exceeding 500 dollars, and the exchange rate was 8 pesos to the dollar, as opposed to 350 as of the time of publication. With the process of de-dollarization accelerating, the peso will strengthen, and regional sustainability projects will thrive with the influx of Yuans and Rubles. The proposed South currency, the Sur, may become a reality next year. With the new gas pipeline, Argentina can reduce heating costs during winter and export substantial quantities of gas, resulting in a substantial increase in GDP and GDP per capita. There are strong possibilities of nationalizing lithium under a Unión por la Patria government, allowing them to finance their project of providing 1,500,000 land lots of 250m2 for families to have homes, as well as other lands for productive but sustainable socialist projects that are part of the TIERRA, TECHO Y TRABAJO agenda of Frente de Patria Grande, endorsed by Massa's campaign. Budgets will be allocated to revitalize the public health system and other areas that were decimated by Macri's administration and its consequences, including the impact of COVID. Argentina faces a critical decision on November 19th between a one-way ticket to colonialism or sovereignty, a path to unity, and the reconstruction of a high-quality life with wealth and land redistribution, as well as a prominent role in the New Multipolar World and the New Epoch that promises prosperity for all workers of the world, including those in Latin América and the Caribbean. This writer is confident that we will succeed, and the decolonization of every inch of the world will soon become a reality, starting with Venezuela's Guayana Esequiba, Argentinean Malvinas and other South Atlantic Islands, Argentinean Antarctica, Africa, and Palestine. Building Argentina's Dream: Unity, Security, and Prosperity From a secure location where he celebrated victory in these elections, Massa extended his gratitude to all the Argentines who cast their votes. He thanked those who, with their votes, "allowed us to grow by almost 15 points since the PASO, and for that, I also want to thank the Argentines who today placed their trust in us and chose us as the option for December 10," he said. Massa went on to address those who voted blank or stayed home out of cynicism, despair, or anger, as well as thousands of radicals across Argentina who share democratic values such as public education and the independence of powers. He expressed his commitment to earning their trust in the coming days. "I want to be the president of labor and security. That is my greatest commitment," he affirmed. “I want to tell you that my commitment is to build more Argentina and Argentineness. My commitment is to build more order, more security and not improvisation. I want to build clear rules. My commitment is to build a country in which we have the ability where our children can choose to go to school with a computer and not with a gun in their backpack. "I want to reiterate something that I have been saying since the first day I decided to be a candidate. I am going to convene a government of national unity starting December 10, a government of national unity built on the basis of convening the best, regardless of their political strength, and not on the basis of simply partisan agreements. It is important that we have the capacity to open a new institutional stage in Argentina. It is important to establish the pillars of state policy. We are going to convene a government of national unity to build a strong Argentine industry." Candidate for president of Unión por la Patria Massa made an urgent appeal to voters who supported Myriam Bregman (FIT), Governor Juan Schiaretti (We Do for Our Country), and the radicals who backed Patricia Bullrich (Together for Change) in preparation for the upcoming runoff on Sunday, November 19. Hasta la Victoria Siempre! Venceremos! We march forward with Argentina, mustering all our strength and determination! Previous Next

  • Ukrainian Saboteurs Kill Civilians On Russian Territory - Neo-Nazis Lead the Charge | TheRevolutionReport

    < Back Ukrainian Saboteurs Kill Civilians On Russian Territory - Neo-Nazis Lead the Charge The Revolution Report Mar 3, 2023 Please support TheRevolutionReport on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheRevolutionReport Check out TheRevolutionReport's Newsletter and political analyses there: https://www.the-revolution-report.com/ Follow TheRevolutionReport on Telegram! https://t.me/therevolutionreport We are also on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therevolutionreport_/ https://www.instagram.com/donnunism Follow Donald and TheRevolutionReport on Twitter: @DonaldCourter @TheRevolutionR1 #Russia #Ukraine #Nazis Previous Next

  • UNCLE SAM HEADS FOR THE EXIT IN UKRAINE LEAVING EUROPE IN A PANIC | TheRevolutionReport

    < Back UNCLE SAM HEADS FOR THE EXIT IN UKRAINE LEAVING EUROPE IN A PANIC Proletarian writers Mar 29, 2024 French president Emmanuel Macron ’s showy diplomatic efforts to whip the rest of Europe into line against Russia have so far only succeeded in emphasising the divisions within the western camp and by contrast the steady progress Russian forces are making towards their stated objectives in Ukraine. The French president’s complaints about other (non-specific) European Union members being “cowards” for being lukewarm in their support for the US-backed junta in Kiev, coupled with broad hints that French troops could end up with their boots on the ground in Ukraine, have succeeded only in annoying France’s allies and revealing President Macron’s vaunted policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ to be so much hot air. Macron went on French television to claim that France was a “force for peace” standing behind Ukraine, and to warn: “If we let Ukraine lose this war, then for sure Russia will threaten Moldova, Romania and Poland.” Invited by a French newspaper to explain his Ukraine policy, Macron wound up contradicting himself, by turns threatening and placating Russia and finally lapsing into complete incoherence. “Maybe at some point – I don’t want it, I won’t take the initiative – we will have to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces. France’s strength is that we can do it.” So that’s clear then: he doesn’t want to send French troops into Ukraine, but there will have to be operations on the ground at some point, but Macron won’t take the initiative, but France is strong enough to send troops, or maybe not … Moscow’s response to this tedious rigmarole is unambiguous: if French troops enter Ukraine, under whatever pretext, they will be recognised as invaders and destroyed. German generals spill the beans Meanwhile, whilst Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz may bridle at the suggestion of French boots on the ground, fearing that this will bounce the rest of Europe into an unwelcome face-off with Russia, it turns out that his own generals are merrily chatting on an insecure line about how many missiles it would take to blow up the Kerch bridge to Crimea and how many British troops are already on the ground in Ukraine. “Released on Friday by the editor of the Kremlin-controlled news channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, the audio recording – confirmed as authentic by Germany – captures Luftwaffe officers discussing how Berlin’s Taurus missiles could be used to try to blow up the Kerch Bridge connecting Russia with occupied Crimea . “During the conversation, Lt Gen Ingo Gerhartz, the head of the Luftwaffe, describes how Britain works with Ukraine on deploying Storm Shadow missiles against targets up to 150 miles behind Russian lines. “‘When it comes to mission planning,’ the German commander says, ‘I know how the English do it, they do it completely in reachback. They also have a few people on the ground, they do that, the French don’t.’ “Reachback is a military term to describe how intelligence, equipment and support from the rear is brought forward to units deployed on the front, but Gerhartz suggests the British approach is deeper, involving support on site.” British soldiers ‘on the ground’ in Ukraine, says German military leak by Dan Sabbagh and Kate Connolly, The Guardian, 4 March 2024) Chancellor Scholz has excused his reluctance to furnish Kiev with long-range German-made Taurus missiles by arguing that this cannot happen without German boots on the ground, which is a red line that cannot be breached. But the garrulous Luftwaffe know different: “the French don’t” have people on the ground. Europe in a panic as the USA heads for the exit The EU accomplices in this American war were happy to swear allegiance to Ukraine so long as the USA had their backs and the dollars and the weapons kept on flowing. Even when the sanctions war against Russia blew up in their faces, the gutless EU still kowtowed to Washington, preferring to empty their arsenals of weapons and deindustrialise their economies sooner than consult their own national interests. But now that it becomes clear that the USA is racing ahead of Europe when it comes to disengaging from the Ukraine war , Europe is beginning to wake up to the catastrophic mess it has helped to create. US president Joe Biden may still believe that Ukraine is winning the war and the moon is made of green cheese, but far better indices of the national mood in the USA are the blocking by Congress of the $60bn US military aid package for Ukraine and the sacking of the foremost architect of the failed Ukraine war, Victoria Nuland. Her last job was as acting deputy secretary of state covering the recently retired Wendy Sherman. Nuland looked set to take on the post permanently, but was pipped at the post by Kurt Campbell. Campbell, who was the architect of President Barack Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia’ is still dining out on the book he wrote about the rationale for that shift back in 2016. The message coming from Washington to its European allies is clear: you sort out the mess on your continent whilst we pursue our interests elsewhere. Russia’s plain-speaking foreign office spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was in no doubt as to the significance of Ms Nuland’s departure. “It is simple – the failure of the anti-Russian course of the Biden administration. Russophobia, proposed by Victoria Nuland as the main foreign policy concept of the United States, is dragging the Democrats to the bottom like a stone.” And it is not only the russophobe administration of Joe Biden that is sinking like a stone, but the whole prestige of the USA is sinking with them, as the world looks on aghast at the barbarism of America’s proxy war, fought indeed to the last drop of Ukrainian blood. Desperation in Kiev Reports coming out of Ukraine reveal the blind panic of the Kiev junta as the realisation dawns that they are simply running out of bodies and are reduced to sending press gangs on to the street to snatch reluctant recruits. According to the Washington Post: “President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top military commanders have failed so far to come up with a clear plan to conscript or recruit many thousands of new soldiers critically needed to defend against Russia’s continuing attacks. “Zelensky’s inability to forge a political consensus on a mobilisation strategy – despite months of warnings about a severe shortage of qualified troops on the front – has fuelled deep divisions in Ukraine’s parliament and more broadly in Ukrainian society. “It has left the military relying on a hodgepodge of recruiting efforts and sown panic among fighting-age men, some of whom have gone into hiding, worried that they will be drafted into an ill-equipped army and sent to certain death given that aid for Ukraine remains stalled in Washington. “The quandary over how to fill the ranks has confronted Zelensky with perhaps the greatest challenge to his leadership since the start of the February 2022 invasion. The lack of a clear mobilisation strategy – or even agreement on how many more troops Ukraine needs – factored into Zelensky’s dismissal of his top general in February, but the new commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, so far has brought no new clarity. “Syrskyi has been tasked with auditing the existing armed forces to find more combat-eligible troops, after Zelensky’s office recently announced that of the one million people who have been mobilised, only about 300,000 have fought at the front lines. “But nearly a month after his promotion, no one in the military leadership or the presidential administration has explained where those 700,000 are – or what they have been doing.” Zelensky in bind over how to draft more troops as Russian forces advance by Siobhán O’Grady and Serhii Korolchuk, 4 March 2024) And while the Ukrainians count the cost in lives, German workers count the cost in redundancies and lay-offs. According to Bloomberg, Germany is in recession and the Bundesbank says Germany is in a six-month slump. ( Germany is in recession due to first-quarter slump, survey shows , Bloomberg, 18 March 2024) Other Bloomberg headlines are uncompromising: “German factory orders slump in new sign of economic slowdown” and “Germany’s days as an industrial superpower are coming to an end”. As Germany waves farewell to cheap gas from Russia and easy access to an expanding Chinese market, the full damage done to the economy by setting Germany’s national interest in second place to her shield duty for Uncle Sam is becoming clear. Republished from TheCommunists.org with thanks Previous Next

  • USAID, STATE DEPARTMENT BUREAU SAY ISRAEL DELIBERATELY BLOCKED GAZA AID | TheRevolutionReport

    < Back USAID, STATE DEPARTMENT BUREAU SAY ISRAEL DELIBERATELY BLOCKED GAZA AID PressTV Sep 25, 2024 Palestinians line up for a meal in Rafah. (File photo by AP) Two major bodies in charge of humanitarian assistance in the US administration have revealed that Israel deliberately blocks deliveries of food and medicine for Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said in a 17-page memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in April that the body had documented several examples of Israel blocking aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, including Israel's killing of aid workers, destroying agricultural structures, bombing ambulances and hospitals, and turning away trucks filled with food and medicine. USAID, an independent US government agency responsible for developmental and humanitarian work, receives its foreign policy guidance from the State Department. According to the memo, Israel was using “arbitrary denial, restriction, and impediments” to prevent US assistance from entering Gaza. The head of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration also said at the same time that Israel was blocking aid into Gaza and argued that its actions should trigger the Foreign Assistance Act, which bars military support from going to any area that restricts the delivery of assistance. The USAID memo was released after the body’s chief, Samantha Power, warned of imminent famine in Gaza following the Israeli regime’s months-long onslaught on the besieged Palestinian territory. The memo and assessment from other State Department officials regrading Gaza were refuted by the US ambassador to Israel. The 17-page report was also dismissed by Blinken who claimed in Congress a month later that the US did not assess Israel was blocking US aid shipments to Gaza. Stacy Gilbert, a former senior civil-military advisor in the refugees bureau, resigned over Blinken’s report to Congress, saying in a public statement that there is "abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid.” A UN expert says Israel is carrying out a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians during its war on Gaza. In a report to the UN General Assembly earlier in the month, Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, said Israel is carrying out a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, adding that the regime is using humanitarian aid as a weapon of war to kill people in the besieged strip. Fakhri noted that Israel has been deploying “the full range of techniques of hunger and starvation against the Palestinians, perfecting the degree of control, suffering and death that it can cause through food systems." Israel has repeatedly closed the tightly controlled crossings in a deliberate attempt to block the flow of food, medicines and basic supplies into Gaza, using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. Israel is also the top recipient of US military aid and the US administration has funneled weapons and munitions to the regime since October last year despite outcry from human rights groups over the Tel Aviv regime's war on Gaza, which has so far killed more than 41,000 Palestinians. Previous Next

  • IN WASHINGTON D.C., DAN KOVALIK SPEAKS OUT AGAINST US-ISRAELI GENOCIDE

    Dan Kovalik Speaks Out Against US-Israeli Genocide in Washington D.C. < Back IN WASHINGTON D.C., DAN KOVALIK SPEAKS OUT AGAINST US-ISRAELI GENOCIDE The Revolution Report Jun 12, 2024 Tens of thousands of protestors surrounded the White House on June 8th against the Biden administration's support for Israel amid its invasion of Rafah and ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, demanding that Biden observe his own "red line." The demonstration was organized by various Palestinian and anti-imperialist groups, demanding an immediate end to U.S. aid to Israel and a halt to the massacres of civilians. Dan Kovalik spoke to The Revolution Report about his new book, the weaponization of anti-semitism to silence dissent, the shared struggle of Palestine and Donbass, and why the US has struggled to shape the narrative and whitewash its complicity in Israel's war crimes. Follow The Revolution Report on: Website http://Therevolutionreport.org Telegram https://t.me/therevolutionreport…… Vero http://vero.co/therevolutionreport… Rumble http://rumble.com/therevolutionreport… Instagram http://instagram.com/therevolutionreport Twitter https://twitter.com/TheRevolutionR1 Tiktok http://tiktok.com/@therevolutionreport_ Previous Next 2022-2024 The Revolution Report

  • WHY FULFILLING ANY DESIRE SAPS REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL | TheRevolutionReport

    < Back WHY FULFILLING ANY DESIRE SAPS REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL Elizabeth P Jan 29, 2023 There is growing awareness amongst Americans that our society is in decline. Faced with debt, inflation, unemployment or underemployment, worsening standards of living, as well as moral decay, people increasingly realize that something has gone horribly wrong. How do we respond to this realization? Many of us become inured to worsening living standards but do not act to change the world. Convinced we will never accomplish anything meaningful, we seek temporary escape by resorting to pointless vices that fulfill our desires in the short term and require the least effort. Benzos and Circuses Our ruling class in this late stage of American Empire appears to have taken inspiration from the Roman Empire in several ways, including how Rome maintained its own power. Despite our leaders' widespread unpopularity, they keep us hypnotized with “bread and circuses”, i.e. just enough sustenance and the right distractions to keep people fighting each other so as to prevent a general revolt. Just as in Rome, our rulers still provide us with approved entertainment; indeed, today’s Marvel movies are far more effective propaganda than Roman circuses could ever have been. However, with bread quite expensive nowadays due to the west's economic and proxy war on Russia, to stave off the revolutions our ruling class has instead turned to new numbing substances and activities. We no longer need limit ourselves to the liquor store or the pharmacy, after a psychiatrist provides us our drugs of choice, a routine society has learned not to question. Now, we can also check out that new cannabis dispensary that recently opened or even go to that ketamine clinic in a nearby strip mall. The expanded variety of legal drugs may be new, but this tactic to sedate the masses is tried and tested. Why, for example, was Prohibition repealed early on during Great Depression, in 1933? Bringing back legal alcohol was another way to keep the working class divided and weakened by permitting widespread drunkenness that hampered efforts to organize. Would you rather avoid intoxicating substances altogether? Not to worry, there are myriad ways to keep you compliant- I mean relaxed! Why not binge-watch another Netflix series, loaded with bourgeois propaganda, gratuitous violence, and pornography? No attention span? Try social media. You will still worry about your problems, but the algorithms will at least guide you into a gentle trance-like state of scrolling, liking, and sharing without any stopping cues. And if the above options sound too lonely, not a problem! Simply download more dating apps and find that next stranger to hook up with. Just don’t come off as the sort of quixotic, boring prude who expects love in return. Combat Hedonism! Western corporate propagandists want us to believe that it is perfectly healthy and normal to cope with life's setbacks by escaping into a virtual reality (VR) orgy while doing hard drugs. But this couldn't be further from the truth. Just as capitalism has alienated workers from production, hedonism and escapism work in tandem to alienate us from ourselves and the natural world. When we seek refuge from painful emotions to feel better in the short term, this dissociation prevents us from all working together to substantively improve the material conditions that compel so many of us to numb ourselves with mindless media and addictive drugs in the first place. As healthy coping mechanisms become a thing of the past, conservative ideologues like Jordan Peterson have filled a gap in the market by reviving the forgotten art. As a result, many leftists have mistakenly spurned regular exercise and a healthy diet for being part of some “right-wing” ideology. Rather than offer a coherent antithesis to the individualistic myth that self-help can solve all our problems, the western Left seems to have abandoned personal responsibility altogether. Now more than ever, it is imperative that Communists correct this error by promoting a healthy and disciplined lifestyle. Not only must we fight back against our destructive vices, but we must replace them with constructive ways to bring us happiness. There are many different constructive ways to enjoy your free time: spending time with friends and family, playing sports, cooking, learning a language, gardening, painting. All of these activities help strengthen the mind, body, and spirit. Can anyone honestly list these as benefits of watching pornography or gaming all night long? Not without first performing some impressive mental gymnastics. The Importance of Work-Life Balance Left: “Don’t waste any free minutes. Keep your leisure time busy with sport. It is the best rest and a reliable friend in work!” Right: “Know how to rest”. Personal discipline does not entail working constantly and renouncing any sources of pleasure. In fact, we must live a balanced life in order to avoid burnout, as this author learned after I repeatedly burned myself out while neglecting self-care. Recently, I noticed that my tendency to put aside hobbies or personal relationships has impacted my efforts in writing and educating. Since I genuinely loved the work I was doing, I felt no need to pursue other things in my free time. I have since learned the importance of making time to take breaks and do something else, but I still have a long way to go. For the longest time I had trouble coming up with an answer whenever someone asked me, “What do you do for fun?” I will admit that I am a “boring” person – these days I hardly watch any TV or movies, and I do not remember the last time I played a video game. Not because I think there is something inherently bad about these forms of media, but because my mind is always running and cannot shut out everything else for me to focus on a screen for extended periods of time. In order to completely relax and take my mind off work, I require doing something to exercise both my brain and body. One activity which meets these requirements is lifting weights. Not only does it relieve my stress instantly, but it has also significantly improved multiple aspects of my health and brings me long-term satisfaction, as I can make gains lifting heavier weights over time. Today it is easier than ever to engage in hedonism ad libitum . Learning how to live a more balanced and meaningful life can difficult, especially at first, worth it is well worth it. By cutting out the many distractions, we can focus our best effort doing what is most important to us, rather than frittering away our days on what won't nurture us or empower us to help others. Our time and energy are limited and we must put them to good use if we are to reach our full potential as human beings. Think of it this way: today an imperialist practiced a new language, and a fascist pumped iron at the gym. How did you spend today? Previous Next

  • GRAND THEFT AIRCRAFT BOEING 747: ANOTHER IMPERIAL CRIME AGAINST VENEZUELA | TheRevolutionReport

    < Back GRAND THEFT AIRCRAFT BOEING 747: ANOTHER IMPERIAL CRIME AGAINST VENEZUELA Alvaro Enrique Saldivia Lopez Mar 22, 2024 Apparently, nothing infuriates Uncle Sam more than collective property used for humanitarian purposes. Recently, images were published corroborating that the plane belonging to the Venezuelan company Emtrasur (Aerocargo del Sur Transport Company), which was seized by Argentina and confiscated by the United States in mid-February, then destroyed at an airport in Florida. This concludes one of the most blatant violations of international law in recent memory, which involved kidnapping, theft, and destruction. The episode also exposes the subservience of certain governments in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Washington's capricious approach to international relations. The aircraft, registered as YV3531, departed from Ezeiza to Florida on February 12, 2024. This crucial aircraft played a vital role in humanitarian missions, delivering essential supplies such as medicine, food, and other life-sustaining elements to those in need both within and outside of Venezuela. It conducted many missions to various African nations as well as Haiti and other countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. How did it all begin? It began on June 5, 2022, when the Boeing 747-300M took off from Querétaro, Mexico, with full authorization from the Federal Civil Aviation Agency and National Institute of Migration. It was carrying spare parts upon the request of Volkswagen. The following day, after stopping in Córdoba, the aircraft landed in Buenos Aires. However, when attempting to refuel, the company Shell declined to honor the prepaid contract for refueling the aircraft at Ezeiza International Airport. As a result, on June 8th, the crew attempted to reach Uruguay to refuel. However, Montevideo revoked the permit allowing the plane to fly over Uruguayan airspace due to US sanctions. The aircraft was forced to return to Ezeiza. The Argentine authorities, under the Fernández administration, then detained the Venezuelan plane. This marked the beginning of a protracted struggle to free the Venezuelan-Iranian crew, who were detained without cause, and to rescue a national asset used for transporting supplies to a nation facing over 960 illegal coercive measures against its economy, assets, and population. According to the Argentine journalist, Stella Calloni ,"from the Ministry of the Interior of Paraguay (...) had informed his Uruguayan counterpart that this plane could have 'terrorists' on board. Investigating later, several investigators learned that this report came from Israeli intelligence , whose presence in Paraguayan territory is becoming increasingly important.” The mega-operation was covered by the hegemonic media, which initiated a campaign linking the aircraft to an alleged international terrorist plan. In parallel, the Delegation of Israeli-Argentine Associations (DAIA), and the ultra-right leaders, Gerardo Milman and Ricardo López Murphy, appeared in court arguing that the flight could be hiding a terrorist operation. No crimes to be found Meanwhile, Fernández himself would tell the press on June 17 that after an inspection of the cargo and the plane in general, the authorities found nothing suspicious. In turn, Federal Judge Federico Villena, responsible for the investigation, found no evidence linking the crew to acts of Islamic terrorism or illegal espionage. This conclusion was drawn from the examination of the contents of the phones and documents seized during the raid ordered on June 14th. Specifically, it was shown that the Emtrasur plane was not hired by a terrorist organization but by Faurecia, a supplier of Volkswagen, through an intermediary, Forwarder Fracht USA. For a year and a half, the world witnessed numerous crimes being committed, with no regard for international law, international laws concerning international civil aeronautics, or even respect for human rights. Despite these violations, there was no intervention to restrain the criminal actions of the United States government. After several months of being kidnapped, the 19 crew members were released for lack of evidence. Javier Chainsaw Milei However, under the new far-right government led by Javier Milei in Argentina, local judicial permits were expedited so as to extradite the aircraft to the United States. This move was unsurprising, given that the president had pledged to be a compliant stooge of Washington and Tel Aviv even before his election. The installation of puppet regimes highlights how US laws operate extraterritorially as universal mandates. However, these injustices would be impossible without the servility and complicity of governments irrationally aligned with the United States. Imperialist criminal plunder The US government has a long history of criminal activities, but what stands out most in the entire process of looting involving the Emtrasur plane was the petty "theft" it executed. The facts of the case are as follows: The plane departed from Ezeiza in the early morning, using a different license plate to conceal its identity as the Emtrasur plane. While passing through Tucumán towards the Pacific, they deactivated the transponder, a crucial communications system. When the aircraft flew over Colombia and authorities were notified that it couldn't pass Colombian airspace, the perpetrators claimed it was a military plane and deactivated the transponder, radars, and other signals. They followed the drug trafficking route through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, heading north through the Bahamas, where significant quantities of drugs bound for the United States are trafficked. The plane landed in the United States at Dade-Collier, a training airport in Florida, before noon on Monday. They then flaunted their triumph over the seized loot: "Mahan Air (the Iranian company that sold the plane to Venezuela) violated our export restrictions. It is now the property of the United States government," said Matthew Axelrod, undersecretary for Export Control, during the act of piracy. The Venezuelan plane's final destination was the scrapyard at Dade-Collier Transition and Training Airport (TNT), situated 58 kilometers from Miami and managed by the state government. Since February 28th, videos have emerged showing its destruction. Beyond the act of plunder, the destruction of a fully operational plane carries a symbolic weight and a clear narrative for those striving from a sovereign perspective to overcome the obstacles imposed by the coercive aggression of the United States. Surely, sooner or later, aircraft will be added to the Emtrasur fleet that will strengthen its commercial and humanitarian operations. However, what cannot be erased is the capriciousness of US behavior, which further undermines its legitimacy around the world. Previous Next

  • LEGENDARY MARATHON DEBATE STREAM WITH HAZ AL-DIN & EDDIE LIGER

    LEGENDARY MARATHON DEBATE STREAM WITH HAZ AL-DIN & EDDIE LIGER < Back LEGENDARY MARATHON DEBATE STREAM WITH HAZ AL-DIN & EDDIE LIGER Midwestern Marx Dec 2, 2024 Previous Next 2022-2024 The Revolution Report

  • US EXTRADITES PRO-UKRAINE WAR CRIMINAL | TheRevolutionReport

    < Back US EXTRADITES PRO-UKRAINE WAR CRIMINAL ACTIVEMEASURES Jun 6, 2024 The United States has extradited Craig Lang from Ukraine. The country harbored him for years following an international crime spree that included everything from a double murder in Florida, a failed regime change plot in Venezuela, and war crimes in Donbas. Follow ACTIVEMEASURES on its other platforms. Twitter/X: https://x.com/activemeasures8 Substack: https://activemeasures.substack.com/ Patreon: / activemeasures8 Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/ActiveMeasures8 Previous Next

  • WORLD OUTRAGED: ISRAEL DEFIES GLOBAL PLEAS, ATTACKS RAFAH FEAT. SCOTT RITTER | TheRevolutionReport

    < Back WORLD OUTRAGED: ISRAEL DEFIES GLOBAL PLEAS, ATTACKS RAFAH FEAT. SCOTT RITTER DDGeopolitics with Scott Ritter May 11, 2024 Former US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer and UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter joins Sarah of DDGeopolitics to discuss Israel's attacks on Rafah amid ceasefire negotiations, the global outcry against Israel's actions, the blind eye turned by Arab states, the situation with terrorists in Syria, and much more. #livestream #news #gaza #palestine #israel #middleeast #war #scottritter #ceasefire Please consider supporting DD Geopolitics. You can do so by visiting our website ddgeopolitics.com , by subscribing to our X or becoming a member on our YouTube channel. Previous Next

  • A New Leader’s Big Banking Opportunity to Improve Global Development

    The BRICS New Development Bank offers an alternative to the World Bank, without dollar hegemony < Back A New Leader’s Big Banking Opportunity to Improve Global Development Marco Fernandes Apr 20, 2023 Will the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement be able to fulfill their original mission with the arrival of the new bank president Dilma Rousseff? The first event of President Lula da Silva’s long-awaited visit to China in mid-April 2023 is the official swearing-in ceremony of Dilma Rousseff as president of the New Development Bank (popularly known as the BRICS Bank) on April 13. The appointment of the former president of Brazil to the post demonstrates the priority that Lula will give to the BRICS countries (Brazil, China, India, Russia, and South Africa) in his government. In recent years, BRICS has been losing some of its dynamism. One of the reasons was the retreat of Brazil—which had always been one of the engines of the group—in a choice made by its right-wing and far-right governments (2016-2022) to align with the United States. A New Momentum for BRICS? After the last summit meeting in 2022, hosted by Beijing and held online, the idea of expanding the group was strengthened and more countries are expected to join BRICS this year. Three countries have already officially applied to join the group (Argentina, Algeria, and Iran), and several others are already publicly considering doing so, including Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria, and Mexico . The BRICS countries occupy an increasingly important place in the world economy. In GDP PPP, China is the largest economy, India is third, Russia sixth, and Brazil eighth. BRICS now represents 31.5 percent of the global GDP PPP, while the G7 share has fallen to 30 percent. They are expected to contribute over 50 percent of global GDP by 2030, with the proposed enlargement almost certainly bringing that forward. Bilateral trade between BRICS countries has also grown robustly: trade between Brazil and China has been breaking records every year and reached $150 billion in 2022; between Brazil and India , there was a 63 percent increase from 2020 to 2021, reaching more than $11 billion; Russia tripled exports to India from April to December 2022 compared to the same period the preceding year, expanding to $32.8 billion; while trade between China and Russia jumped from $147 billion in 2021 to $190 billion in 2022, an increase of about 30 percent. The conflict in Ukraine has brought them closer together politically. China and Russia have never been more aligned, with a “no limits partnership,” as visible from President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Moscow . South Africa and India have not only refused to yield to NATO pressure to condemn Russia for the conflict or impose sanctions on it, but they have moved even closer to Moscow. India, which in recent years has been closer to the United States, seems to be increasingly committed to the Global South’s strategy of cooperation. The NDB, the CRA, and the Alternatives to the Dollar The two most important instruments created by BRICS are the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). The first has the objective of financing several development projects—with an emphasis on sustainability—and is regarded as a possible alternative to the World Bank. The second could become an alternative fund to the IMF, but the lack of strong leadership since its inauguration in 2015 and the absence of a solid strategy from the five member countries has prevented the CRA from taking off. Currently, one of the major strategic battles for the Global South is the creation of alternatives to the hegemony of the dollar. As the Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio confessed in late March, the United States will increasingly lose its ability to sanction countries if they decrease their use of dollars. Almost once every week, there is a new agreement between countries to bypass the dollar, like the one recently announced by Brazil and China. The latter already has similar deals with 25 countries and regions . Right now, there is a working group within BRICS whose task it is to propose its own reserve currency for the five countries that could be based on gold and other commodities. The project is called R5 due to the coincidence that all the currencies of BRICS countries start with R: renminbi, rubles, reais, rupees, and rands. This would allow these countries to slowly increase their growing mutual trade without using the dollar and also decrease the share of their international dollar reserves. Another untapped potential so far is the use of the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (totaling $100 billion) to rescue insolvent countries. When a country’s international reserves run out of dollars (and it can no longer trade abroad or pay its foreign debts), it is forced to ask for a bailout from the IMF, which takes advantage of the country’s desperation and lack of options to impose austerity packages with cuts in state budgets and public services, privatizations, and other neoliberal austerity measures. For decades, this has been one of the weapons of the United States and the EU to ensure the implementation of neoliberalism in the countries of the Global South. Right now, the five BRICS members have no issues at all with international reserves, but countries like Argentina , Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ghana , and Bangladesh find themselves in a bad situation . If they could access the CRA, with better conditions for repaying the loans, this would mean a political breakthrough for BRICS, which would begin to demonstrate their ability to build alternatives to the financial hegemony of Washington and Brussels. The NDB would also need to start de-dollarizing itself, having more operations with the currencies of its five members. For instance, from the $32.8 billion of projects approved so far at NDB, around $20 billion was in dollars, and around the equivalent of $3 billion was in Euros. Only $5 billion was in RMB and very little was in other currencies. To reorganize and expand the NDB and the CRA will be a huge challenge. The leaderships of the five countries will need to be aligned on a common strategy that ensures that both instruments fulfill their original missions, which won’t be easy. Dilma Rousseff, an experienced and globally respected leader, brings hope for a new beginning. Rousseff fought against Brazil’s civil-military dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s and spent three years in prison for it. She became one of President Lula’s key ministers in the 2000s, and she was elected Brazil’s first female president and then won reelection (2010 and 2014). She was in office until she was overthrown by a coup based on fraudulent grounds by Congress (2016)—which has already admitted the fraud. She just returned to political life to run one of the most promising institutions in the Global South. After all, President Dilma Rousseff has never shied away from huge challenges. Author Marco Fernandes is a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research . He is the co-editor of Dongsheng . He is a member of the No Cold War collective. He lives in Beijing. This article was produced by Globetrotter . Previous Next 2022-2024 The Revolution Report

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