Carlos
@agent_of_change • 91,740 subscribers
Writer, reader, musician, Marxist, anti-imperialist. Author, 'The East is Still Red – Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century' Co-editor @socialist_china
Videos
Chinese academic and foreign policy expert Victor Gao: “The war launched by Israel and the United States against Iran is a war of aggression and a war of injustice. Iran is being attacked, and I would say Iran has the full right to exercise self-defense. “Iran, in my view, has the full right to strike at any military bases, facilities, installations, or military personnel of the United States in other regions in that part of the world—including, for example, in Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, and so on. “Otherwise, it would be completely odd for Iran to be attacked in such an aggressive manner by the United States and Israel, and yet be expected to sit like a sitting duck under such military attacks—attempts to overthrow its government, probably also to destroy its civilization—while being bound by the futility of not striking at the military facilities and installations in its neighborhood, which most likely have been used one way or another in launching this ongoing attack against Iran.”
Carlos194,688 просмотров • 5 месяцев назад
Very important from Jeffrey Sachs, interviewed by Glenn Diesen. A number of people have made the facile point that Trump's actions in Venezuela mirror Putin's actions in Ukraine, and that people should be consistent and condemn both. This ignores the basic class content of global politics. Sachs points out that both Venezuela and Ukraine are cases of the US attempting to impose its domination; both are instances of McDonalds not being able to flourish without McDonnell Douglas (to use Thomas Friedman's memorable expression); both are microcosms of a global struggle between imperialism and an emerging multipolarity. "In the case of Ukraine, it was a 30-year project to bring Ukraine into the American military orbit... One should not glibly say that the US is doing in Venezuela what Putin did in Ukraine. It's actually that the US is doing in Venezuela what the US did in Ukraine. Both are US-provoked. These are both projects of the US and I hope people can come to understand how US foreign policy works and what a military-industrial state really means. What a military-industrial complex without constitutional bounds means. What the CIA means in such operations. If they did, they would understand that when we view Ukraine and Venezuela, we're viewing the same phenomenon as long-term projects of the would-be global hegemon carried out in different ways." The full interview is well worth watching:
Carlos144,923 просмотров • 7 месяцев назад
The Filipino people gain nothing from serving as extras in Washington’s theatre. On the morning of Monday 20 July, near Ren’ai Jiao (Second Thomas Shoal), two rubber boats launched from the BRP Sierra Madre – the WWII-era warship the Philippines deliberately grounded on the reef in 1999 and has kept a garrison aboard ever since – approached a China Coast Guard patrol boat in a dangerous manner and rammed it, despite repeated clear warnings. The Chinese side took appropriate counter-measures to stabilise the situation on the ground. Yet bizarrely, Manila has accused China of initiating the aggression. As China’s ambassador to the Philippines commented, “pictures and videos are the best evidence”. The footage clearly shows personnel from the Sierra Madre ramming the Chinese patrol boat with rubber dinghies and striking its officers with oars and poles. The confrontation was staged on the eve of both the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting – with Marco Rubio in attendance – and the China-ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting, at which Beijing is working to conclude a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea. As China’s foreign ministry observed, every time Beijing and Manila edge towards dialogue, “some forces use maritime-related issues to provoke”. And, by remarkable coincidence, Rubio’s agenda for the meeting includes “China’s actions in the disputed South China Sea”. For the pro-US faction within the Philippine military, trained and funded by the Pentagon, an unresolved dispute is not a problem but an asset. Its objectives are transparent: to torpedo the Code of Conduct negotiations and any bilateral settlement; to manufacture a victim narrative that justifies ever more US bases, weapons and money; and to weld the Philippines permanently into Washington’s strategy of containment. The US has been directing this performance for many decades, doing everything in its power to prevent a bilateral settlement and to provoke confrontation. A settled South China Sea is a nightmare for those pursuing a strategy of containment and encirclement of the People’s Republic of China. What happened after the collision is instructive. China permitted the evacuation of the injured Filipino personnel on humanitarian grounds, and on 21 July President Marcos received the Chinese Ambassador for what both sides described as an in-depth and thorough exchange of views. The task now, the ambassador said, is “to stabilise the relationship between the two countries and restore it to a normal track, rather than being led down the wrong path by forces with ulterior motives”. The door to diplomacy remains open. The Filipino people gain nothing from serving as extras in Washington’s theatre. Peace in the South China Sea can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiation, not through the interference of a foreign power that has no interest in the welfare of either the Chinese or the Filipino people.
Carlos13,792 просмотров • 1 месяц назад
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