Chad, a country in north-central Africa, borders a lot of active geopolitical areas - Niger to the West, Libya to the North, Sudan to the East - but is scarcely discussed itself. I’m not really knowledgable enough to give anything like a decent history, but the recent gist is that the country was ruled for three decades by Idriss Déby until he was killed in battle in 2021 while fighting northern rebels. Idriss was part of a few wars - such as the one against Gaddafi in Libya, and also the Second Congo War. While he was initially elected democratically in 1996 and 2001, he then eliminated term limits and just kept on going.
After his death, Chad has been ruled by his son, Mahamat Idriss Déby. In early May 2024, elections began which were meant to result in the transition from a military-ruled goverment to a civilian-ruled one. Needless to say, Mahamat won the election - with 61% of the vote. Both father and son have been on the side of the French and the US, whereas the opposition is against foreign colonizers and has attempted to put pressure on the government in numerous ways to achieve a more substantial independence. France maintains a troop presence in Chad, and it’s something of a stronghold for them - when French troops were forced out of Niger, they retreated to Chad. However, it’s not clear even to the people inside Chad what precisely the French are doing there. I mean, we know what their presence is really for - imperialism and election rigging - but in an official sense, they don’t seem to be doing much to help the country materially. What is clear is that they like to intervene on behalf of the ruling regime and against rebels a whole lot - the most interventions by France in any African country, in fact.
The United States, so keen on human rights and democracy in so many places around the world like Russia, Iran, and China, have - for some strange reason! - decided for the last 30 years that they can live with a couple dictators and wars in the case of Chad. In fact, various American state propaganda firms like the ISW and Washington Post have warned the current government about the Wagner Group interfering with the country and spreading anti-Western sentiments as in the rest of the Sahel.
Things are very tough for Chad. They are among the poorest countries in Africa and host about one million people fleeing from nearby conflicts, which is a pretty large number when Chad has a population of about 17 million.
With the French Empire fading, they are beginning to run out of places to retreat to in Africa. Macron, in January, said that his defense council had decided to reduce troop presence in Gabon, Senegal, and the Côte d’Ivoire, though has maintained troop levels in Chad and Djibouti. Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet from France, anti-empire sentiments are boiling to the surface in New Caledonia/Kanaky, which is unfortunate for the French military as they really need that island, both for the massive nickel reserves, but also as an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Pacific just in case a conflict with China pops off.
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 Chad! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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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.
you know, I realize that I might have gotten something very wrong.
I used to think that fascism would come from Trump, and even defended voting for Biden as a mitigation strategy.
But what if Biden is the one who brings America toward fully mask-off fascism? The signs are lining up for sure. If so, then we’ve been played. Trump might have been the red herring all along.
And if this is the case, I don’t think Trump is going to be able to feasibly challenge Biden electorally. At least the system will make it exceedingly difficult to do so. Trump tried to fuck with Project Ukraine, and now he’s paying for it.
Biden’s polling numbers may be in the gutters, but the entire bourgeois establishment is behind him and even helped him punish Trump. Biden will win in November.
Trump was never the guy who would bring fascism to the USA, and i dont think Biden will be either, like take the old european empires for example, they did huge massacres outside (India’s famines, Algerian War, etc) and had a long history of putting down worker strikes and protests violently, and it wasnt until the dissolution of the german empire and Austria-Hungary that fascism took over, or collapse of the kingdom of spain that eventually fascism also rise there.
like the USA doing the terrible things its doing right now its just normal imperialism, it would do fascism when the empire finally collapses
Fascism was a direct response to the Bolshevik Revolution and the communist movements that were on the verge of sweeping across Italy and then inevitably through the whole of Europe. It actually worked and saved liberal capitalism, at the cost of tens of millions of lives.
The US is now undergoing through an unprecedented crisis as the contradictions of capital continue to unfold, while being challenged by the rise of China and BRICS. Going full fascism is only a matter of time. Biden is the leader that will build the Fourth Reich in America. The bourgeois establishment has placed all their hopes in Biden now, for they know Trump is too incompetent for the job.
I dont think they could care less who wins, so long as they keep the sistem going they are fine with either and both have should its business as usual during their presidency.
Both made sure to continue US interest in the global south, escalate the conflict with China, keep the EU down, ensure influence in the middle east, both send weapons to ukraine.
If they really wanted to keep Biden in, Trump wouldnt be the republican nominee or he would be dead.
Also there is not really a big worker/communist movement at the moment in the west that could threathen capital so why would they fall to fascism
I get what you’re saying, and we’ll see how this continues to develop, but I think this is the early signs that the bourgeois establishment and the deep state have chosen a side and made clear their loss of confidence in Trump.
Trump simply couldn’t deliver, while Biden is out there intensifying the control of capital flow for the American imperialist project.
America is currently in a deep crisis fighting against History and material forces that according to our understanding of Marx, they simply cannot win.
And the bourgeoisie have placed their entire faith in Biden as the Antimarx to subvert the forces of materialism. If he succeeds, Biden will become the first in history to have defeated Historical Materialism - the true ideological defeat of Marxism and the beginning of a thousand-year Reich where the flow of Capital can be freely wielded at the whim of the American Empire. Biden will have become the Antimarx who has defeated History itself.
you’re very dramatic
If he succeeds Biden will say «Where am I?»
Kwisatz Brandonrach’s terrible purpose
I agree with this. I don’t think we are there yet. I think we are most likely to see the rise of fascism in America as the conflict with China heightens. Productively, America can’t compete with China because the American economy is financially-focused instead of productively-focused. As that contradiction heights, America is going to be faced with some hard choices about restructuring the economy. That’s when I think fascism will come.
“Bring Faschism”
you live on “Lebenraum” that you murdered the Natives for …
In A Oligarchy founded by Slaveowners
You Citizens Life is Considered Less Valuable then the Medicine that could save them
You have the higest per Captia and Absolut amount of Prisoners
Your Citizens have to specifiy their Race in offical documents …
There are multiple racialized economic underclasses.
There is a nationalist military death cult pervading society.
Every power structure is anticommunist and anticommunism has been refined to a science, beginning with the indoctrination of children with false histories and definitions.
america has always been mask off empire, just had a better pr. Nothing to do with fascism, but in fascist pursuit the most dangerous man is
.
republicans might swerve to him still, if they bribe trump btw.
That dude can’t get anyone to watch his twitter show
the failing ratings of apprentice? he is young, relatively charismatic (thats not in any way endorsement), relatively con theory educated, acceptable to cia, acceptable to hogs, acceptable to the independents (not old, not completely drowned in scandals)
Ok now I know you’re not being serious
do you think he is less acceptable to them, than say trump or biden? they both sit at the approval rating of their base (35 percent, with 65 percent disliking them), yet come election day they’ll get half of those 30% “independents” now hating them (im talking about voters, not all people)
Pretty sure he’s just CIA asset. Like, he was literally a host on MSNBC with Rachel Maddow before being re-tasked to Fox as his next assignment.
He applied and was allegedly rejected.
Each agent say that they decide not to
It does not tell us either way
Agreed, just saying it’s a matter of record that he tried if nothing else.
Yeah, I also think Biden is going to win. It would be pretty funny to see Trump win and have him govern from inside a prison cell tho
Couldn’t he just pardon himself?
I think it depends on the type of crime he committed. The federal ones, yes. But in some state crimes, only the governor can do that. I mean, there’s nothing to stop Donald Trump from sending the National Guard, like Boris Yeltsin, into a state and removing the governor.
He could also just cut off some funding from said state.
Yes, but I think you need congress to do that in the US (?)
Biden is going to be president, and he’s going to do it through faithless electors. The gameplan is:
Have Trump be found guilty of multiple felonies.
Convince electors in swing states, either by appealing to their civic duty or threatening them by showing footage of the JFK assassination from the grassy knoll, to vote for Biden with the excuse, “I cannot in good conscience vote for a FELON to occupy the highest office of the land, so I have no choice but to vote for Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. for President of the United States of America.”
Yes, just like the Parliamentarian nonsense, they will make it work somehow, even if it means inventing new rules and the libs will totally buy the excuses.
This whole thread is very disappointing to me, I don’t think anyone here has presented a coherent idea of what fascism is. I’ve said it many time on hexbear, the US is the perfect example of fascism having already won long ago. Fascism is the expropriation at the edges of the empire, where exchange is unequal due to expropriation. The US was fascist, stayed fascist, and is now fascist. https://redsails.org/really-existing-fascism/
Biden is just the specific face of it today, the slight flavor. A flavor that’s slightly nicer to the queer community (not seeing the queer community as a space/group to expropriate from specifically) and nothing else. Trump wanted to expand some internal expropriation and apply fascism more internally and closer to home (and maybe at China, but I think he’s just racist not actually wanting war). Nothing else.
All we have to do when asking when Fascism started in the US is talk to Native Americans.
when did they put lazerpig in charge of US foreign policy