this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2025
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Image, and a considerable amount of the preamble's analysis, comes from this article in People's Dispatch.


A week ago, the Bolivian left-wing party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), currently led by Luis Arce, decisively lost the round of elections against the right-wing. This comes after a prolonged period of "infighting" between Arce, and Morales, who previously led the MAS prior to the 2019 coup which briefly installed Jeanine Anez.

I put infighting in quotes because despite the nominal similarities between Arce and Morales, it is clear that this is not merely a counterproductive battle between two men - instead, the Bolivian left has arrived at a time of unavoidable conflict between two competing strategies. The electoral strategy is represented by Arce, who has aligned himself with a more middle-class-oriented campaign that is more economically liberal, whereas Morales represents a more working-class-oriented campaign that seeks to go further than tepid reform.

Such a conflict between electoralism and revolutionary action is inevitable in any and every developing country that 1) possesses a functioning left-wing party or organization, and 2) is under internal and/or external pressure by capitalists. This crisis must be resolved eventually - and this electoral failure is how such a crisis is manifesting right now. So while the Bolivian left has indeed lost the election, it is not yet defeated. The revolutionary campaign can, if it is willing, still ultimately stand triumphant. But what must be done is a real movement towards socialism, which goes beyond technocrats reforming from above, and instead transforms the state into a full political project of the working class, in which their movements, organizations, and protests are genuinely empowered. Such a project will involve repression by the forces of reaction, not least by the United States, but it is the only road left to take.


Last week's thread is here.
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Israel's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA 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.
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.

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.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
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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[–] RaspberryTuba@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where’s the beef? It sounds like they’ll just stick with the f-35 program which is in proper production?

[–] Tervell@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Second, Switzerland has been hit by the 39% additional tariffs on Swiss exports introduced by Trump. The blow to watches and coffee has become a major catalyst for the growing calls to cancel the deal. Yet whatever option Switzerland takes will mean losses of both money and time.

Another article focusing on that specifically: https://archive.ph/WB6xN

Swiss politicians across parties are seeking to cancel an order of three dozen F-35A fighter jets from US defense conglomerate Lockheed Martin Corp after President Donald Trump imposed some of the world’s harshest levies on the country. Voices that demand the Swiss withdraw or at least reconsider their planned purchase, which could cost as much as 7.3 billion Swiss francs ($9.1 billion), have gained traction in Bern after Trump followed through with imposing a 39% tariff rate on the European country. The procurement project has been a contentious topic in Switzerland for weeks, after government officials admitted a “misunderstanding” with Washington on how much the planes will cost.

...

Cedric Wermuth, co-president of the Swiss Social Democrats, demanded a renewed plebiscite, “so that the population can stop the procurement,” he told Bloomberg in an emailed statement. The leftist proposals are set to garner support beyond their own ranks, as the tariff chaos of last week has broadened the front of politicians that question whether buying from Lockheed Martin would be the right choice as geopolitical realities shift.

...

“I don’t know how our people will accept the purchase of F-35 fighter jets at prices higher than originally assumed — especially after the American tariff shock,” said Hans-Peter Portmann, a Liberal lawmaker and fellow party member of Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter. Portmann said the government should consider “an entire or partial stop of the contract and just swallow potential losses.” Then it should examine what gaps in the country’s defense could be closed through a closer collaboration with European partners, he said.


And the original article is essentially arguing that if the Swiss were to cancel, they'd be stuck with not a lot of options - the whole Western MIC has barely 3 competitor options to offer, and one of those is still reliant on American engines and thus requires permission from the US to export. So basically, European countries can talk a big game, but at the end of the day, the decline of their own industry means they have no choice but to bow to the US and pay whatever exorbitant sum the Americans charge them, since they're the only ones (other than China xi-lib-tears) who can produce modern equipment at a reasonable speed (which is still not all that fast: https://hexbear.net/comment/6452298)