Bulletins and News Discussion from July 15th to July 21st, 2024 - The Victims of Political Violence - COTW: Algeria
Bulletins and News Discussion from July 15th to July 21st, 2024 - The Victims of Political Violence - COTW: Algeria
Image is of the National Liberation Front in Algeria, who battled the French for independence.
In the aftermath of Trump surviving an assassination attempt, many professional opinion-havers are now talking about the scourge of "political violence" that has overtaken, or will soon overtake America, and how we must not let chaos rule. This is, of course, patently absurd. The American government and its allies have been the greatest force of political violence on the planet since the beginning of colonialism, and the foundations of the country are made of corpses. Today, America commits political violence by forcing Ukrainians into the maw of Russian artillery instead of trying to reach a peaceful settlement, which Russia has repeatedly expressed interest in and offered Ukraine relatively favourable terms. They supply Israel with endless weaponry to destroy entire cities and populations, while Biden supporters insist that somehow things could be worse than daily massacres and mass starvation.
In May 1945, French police fired on protestors, causing retaliatory attacks on French settlers, killing about a hundred. In response, the French murdered 45,000 Algerians in a little under two months, in a frenzy of political violence called the Sétif and Guelma massacre. As the massacre was being completed, the International Court of Justice was established. It goes without saying that Algeria never benefited from the ICJ, and the War of Independence from 1954 to 1962 was made inevitable. Over a million Algerians were killed before France could bear the fighting no longer and gave up, and Algeria won itself a state. Comparisons to the ongoing war of independence and genocide in Palestine are obvious.
While the means of colonial violence have evolved over the centuries, the basic structure of it has not. As in Algeria, Vietnam, and Cuba, resistance groups in and around Palestine are fighting for a world with less political violence. The American government would drown every city in the developing world in blood to prevent peace.
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 Algeria! 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.
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The Country of the Week is Algeria!
Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to Algeria.
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 Algeria:
- A Dying Colonialism by Frantz Fanon (1959).
- The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (1961).
- A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954–1962 by Alistair Horne (1977).
Full name, the People's Democratic Repbulic of Algeria, الجمهورية الجزائرية الدمقراطية الشعبية
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?
From independence the country was a one party state ruled by the FLN party, Arab socialism similar to Gamal Abdelnasser's Egypt and such, but after the illegal dissolution of the USSR and every socialist country falling the country became a "free market economy", is extremely protectionist especially for the past few years, the country's leaders aren't compradors.
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?
Recovering from Colonialism, Water availability, nuclear waste from France dropping nukes, most of the country being a desert and most of the people living in the northern side, brain drain, young people trying to immigrate using boats to Europe, Unemployment, economic dependency on crude oils, but the biggest problem Algeria faces is the issue of corruption.
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?
There were massive peaceful protests that lasted 9 months back in 2019 and ended with Covid, the country faced a 10 year long deadly civil war with Takfiris straight from Afghanistan, but today everything seems stable.
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?
Fr*nce, extremely bad relations, not only did they colonize Algeria for 132 years, but they haven't apologized or even recognized the crimes at some part, they still hold to a lot of Algerian artifacts in French museums and a lot of dead Algerian corpses as trophies.
What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
The Major ones are the, FLN: Algerian nationalist social democrats, popular among older people.🔴
Future Front basically the FLN but off brand (the weird color)
RND pro-privatization, popular among older people.🔵
HAMAS/MSP Islamists and I think parts of the Islamic brotherhood, they believe in Islamic democracy.🟢
National Construction Movements basically Hamas/MSP but off brand🟡
People's National Assembly:
Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
There's the FFS party, opposition and popular among Kabyle people. There's the MAK separatist movement, labeled as a terrorist movement by the government and its leader is a known Zionist, supported mainly by online diaspora Kabyles living in Fr-nce.
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?
The country is more conservative, and lacks behind in Women rights, mainly abortion and divorce, there's many feminist activists and there's three female politicians in this year's election. LGBTQIA+ rights are nonexistent, Homosexual acts are illegal and are faced by fines and jail time, but generally never applied, the biggest threat to both women and Queer people is family and hate crime.
If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?
There has been Numidian kindom which was founded in 202 BC and multiple kingdoms after the Ummayads, the the independent middle Maghreb ones were the Rustumyyids, the Zirids and Algiers which was part of the Ottoman empire until colonialism, other times it was part of bigger kingdoms like Almohads and Almuravid dynasty.
You almost forgot the most important movie of our times