Image is of German farmers blocking the road near the Brandenburg Gate in early January 2024.
The ruling German coalition - the FDP, the SPD, and the Greens - has been in dire straits since the war in Ukraine began due to their steadfast commitment to destroying their country as much as possible in solidarity with Ukraine destroying themselves too. Scholz is deeply unpopular, with a record low approval of 20%, and his party's approval is even lower.
The German left has been entirely unable to take advantage of this situation, with Die Linke fragmenting due to split opinions on what position they should hold on Ukraine, among other issues. As a result, the major conservative party, the CDU, has gained a lot of voters over the past couple years. Most worrying, however, is the gains that the fascist party, the AfD, has made - from 10% in 2021 all the way to ~20% today. A significant chunk of the vote is likely protest votes due to the lack of an alternative, but a vote for fascists makes you a fascist nonetheless.
Recent controversies with the AfD - including an allegation that they held a secret meeting discussing a plan to mass-deport millions of migrants in an obvious parallel to Nazi meetings planning to remove all Jews from the country - has recently slightly damped approval for the AfD. This meeting generated counter-protests and condemnation from many Germans. It was later revealed that the meeting might not really have happened as alleged, but it doesn't actually matter, because the AfD's stance is being increasingly reflected by the ruling coalition, who recently introduced a bill allowing faster deportations of rejected asylum seekers and significant new powers for authorities in that regard, including potentially the criminalization of sea rescue organizations and imprisonment for aid workers.
The German government is increasingly considering banning the AfD, with their anxiety and motivation to do so rising as the AfD maintains and improves its position as Germany heads towards elections in late 2025. There are intermediate steps that could be done, such as revoking state funding, but if that doesn't work, then the party might well be banned. While I will never argue with fascist parties being banned, this probably won't fix anything, as the underlying economic and social conditions that are fueling these electoral shifts in the first place are not improving. Germany, the largest industrial power in Europe, is mired in a recession, particularly a manufacturing recession, from which there appears to be no escape. It has so far carefully shepherded its natural gas resources to keep the population as mollified as possible, but this has come at the expense of industry. In a trend starting from July 2022, manufacturing PMIs are still well below 50, reaching 45.5 in January 2024, which indicates decline. I suppose if you wanted to look on the bright side, it's better than it was in July 2023, where it was a whopping 38.8, so the rate of decline is becoming a little slower.
And this is just the domestic stuff. Germany has also famously sided with Israel to support them during the ICJ genocide case, has kowtowed to Netanyahu as they bond over being Genocide Experts, and maintains its support of Ukraine, continuing to send military gear and money to be converted to scrap metal by Russian artillery - rather than spending money on doing anything about the cost of living. In the face of a historic economic downturn, it has only more fervently stated its desire to remain militarily opposed to Russia for decades.
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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.
Realistically, what do you think the American left can actually do (in its present state) to stop Biden from continuing the genocide?
Folks have been shutting down ports and the like. Get out, organize, and increase the scale, length, and effectiveness of that shit.
I know but the question then is why have they not been doing that to the extent that it becomes a national issue that Biden is forced to act on?
There isn't any organized left to do it, America is a very diseased nation
I think its too much focus on Organization and not enough on Agitation.
Could you expand on this? I’ve seen organization as a prerequisite for effective agitation, but I’m open to other perspectives
A individual can agitate on their own just fine it requires no organization. Agitation is riling people up against the status quo. It is making people aware of the flaws in the system and the need for change. In a setting like a workplace, family get together, or hobby group this can be custom tailored conversation. If its with strangers in public its noticing a gripe and picking at it. Like if the bus is late you talk about austerity and how the poor have to make sacrifices and the rich don't. If you start with commiseration it doesn't feel like politics just empathy.
An organization agitating is usually done as a protest and that is easily dismissed as it is obviously political. In many people's mind a protest is done because the protestors want something for themselves and want to force it on everyone else. they see a protest as a selfish thing.
Organizations are important but they are also easily targeted by police, wreckers, and co-opters. Look at CPUSA's stance on the election. Vote biden? There is no way that a real communist party that isn't 99% controlled by the feds says that shit. Look at how often orgs split over ideological differences that really don't matter and how many people get demoralized by the split and slip back into liberalism.
The problem is that the call for organization becomes "join an organization" not "organize with your local comrades" and this that funnels people into groups like CPUSA. Small organizations of comrades are important but they need to be built from the ground up and that means starting with agitation.
This is all just my feelings on the matter. I should probably reread What is to be Done to see if my thoughts are on point.
We've had a few years of unionizing, heavy organizing, and strikes. It takes a hell of a lot longer than that. We're not ready. The genocide is burning on our doorstep, it's time, and we're not ready. Only a few of us have felt the burning urgency to do it yesterday. Everyone else has been content to wait until it's time to make serious use of it, just to realize they needed to be preparing for dacades ahead of time.
I mean, in the face of acute genocide, my first reply up there should've just said "general strike" (well, okay, maybe not just; sabotage and other forms of direct action are good too). But while that's ultimately the required answer, it's a non-solution without all that build-up and preparation of the movement, and dumbasses on the Internet who have typically called for it anually or whatever just because have made it more difficult to actually get there (even if it's not a bad idea to keep the goal of general strikes in people's consciousness).
I don't think there's an answer to this that isn't
We're so weak and disorganized and chauvinistic I don't know that anything can be done. Half of the Democrats think Israel is doing a genocide, but like 80% of Democrats support bombing Yemen - so no help is coming from inside the party they're incoherent. We can and should continue disrupting and antagonizing, but I think they will continue their genocide.
Hamas urged us to not vote for Biden in an official statement. Obviously that is insufficient but it is a start
Elect Dj Khaled, he's useless enough to be a president
To stop the genocide either Israel must be defeated decisively on the battlefield to the point of it's collapse thus rendering it useless to American power projection policy in the middle east or a revolution in America that brings an anti Israeli government to power resulting in a collapse of support for the genocide. Now as to what realistically can be done to have any kind of mass blocking of ports or strike actions across the country to cripple support to the Zionist entity would require a level of coordination from a Vanguard Party that has roots in all facets of society. Baring that limited and uncoordinated local strikes can only have a barely perceptible impact on the delivery of arms. Perhaps sabotaging/blocking weapons manufacturing across the county as part of a broad anti-war anti-genocide sentiment could have an effect on the delivery of arms but as to stopping the genocide I believe more realistically it is in the hands of the Palestinian people themselves and the Axis of Resistance.
absolutely nothing. the American left doesn't exist and the leftists that do exist are chauvinist losers
We could do Jonestown again.
Dunno, but i'm pr sure it has something to do with
Jk that wouldn't actually meaningfully change anything in this satanically evil country
Of course that'll just mean it's Kamala continuing the genocide
Not an answer but an article I read awhile ago your question reminded me.
Al-Aqsa Flood: Imperialism, Zionism and Reactionism in the 21st Century