diff --git a/audiobooks.md b/audiobooks.md index 92f3974..7b53291 100644 --- a/audiobooks.md +++ b/audiobooks.md @@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ - [Jeff Brown - The Myth of Chinese Capitalism [audiobook] by dessalines](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:9e0d633037ff6feab896124a55672a7d0cc0d913&dn=Jeff%20Brown%20-%20The%20Myth%20of%20Chinese%20Capitalism%20%5Baudiobook%5D%20by%20dessalines) - [Domenico Losurdo - Western Marxism [audiobook] by dessalines](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:724294ba57ffbcd34d115f05ddd4fe67b1fb9572&dn=Domenico%20Losurdo%20-%20Western%20Marxism%20%5Baudiobook%5D%20by%20dessalines) - [Bhante Gunaratana - Loving-Kindness in Plain English [audiobook] by dessalines](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:e7ea562415a07dd591907170570a243ce7c61ac1&dn=Bhante%20Gunaratana%20-%20Loving-Kindness%20in%20Plain%20English%20%5Baudiobook%5D%20by%20dessalines) +- [Gabriel Rockhill - The US did not defeat fascism in WWII, it discreetly internationalized it [audiobook] by dessalines](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:66b3f9d7fd171e1c9e70ba8120c9f29969986007&dn=Gabriel%20Rockhill%20-%20The%20US%20did%20not%20defeat%20fascism%20in%20WWII%2C%20it%20discreetly%20internationalized%20it%20%5Baudiobook%5D%20by%20dessalines&xl=42364281) ## Read by others @@ -132,3 +133,5 @@ - [William Blum - Killing Hope [audiobook] by hablini](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:386a3416b92a2c48adf0a2f547a4be3c841ded09&dn=William%20Blum%20-%20Killing%20Hope%20%5Baudiobook%5D%20by%20hablini) - [Malcolm Harris - Palo Alto](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:99856fbbe2662a1a8a3c149d4d8dd1d5a3f375d8&dn=Malcolm%20Harris%20-%20Palo%20Alto%20-%20mp3) - [Bhikkhu Bodhi - The Buddhas Teaching As It Is [audiobook]](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:b5a4037840def073c7b05dfbf6e47b05b5d991af&dn=Bhikkhu%20Bodhi%20-%20The%20Buddhas%20Teaching%20As%20It%20Is%20%5Baudiobook%5D) +- [Margaret Kimberley - Prejudential - Black America and the Presidents](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:51d1ac6cba2a13d71030545f80a91db9ff179522&dn=Margaret%20Kimberley%20-%20Prejudential%20-%20Black%20America%20and%20the%20Presidents%20%5Baudible%5D&xl=307497410) +- [Paul L. Williams - Operation Gladio [audible]](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:e92370d9f51043cfda1efa2cba0933bba6fdeed0&dn=Paul%20L.%20Williams%20-%20Operation%20Gladio%20%5Baudible%5D&xl=341764705) diff --git a/capitalism_doesnt_work.md b/capitalism_doesnt_work.md index 66dc945..8a14ce8 100644 --- a/capitalism_doesnt_work.md +++ b/capitalism_doesnt_work.md @@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ Lets unpack the idea that "Capitalism works". In the US, the most developed Capi - [Empty homes outnumber the homeless by 6 to 1](http://archive.today/2014.05.23-032153/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-skip-bronson/post_733_b_692546.html). Bank foreclosures and housing speculators have left 18.9 million empty homes. [2.5 million **homeless children**, or ~1 / 30](https://www.newsweek.com/child-homelessness-us-reaches-historic-high-report-says-285052). In the UK, [there are 10x more empty houses than homeless families](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/ampp3d/housing-crisis-10-empty-homes-5008151). In [Christmas, 2019, more than half a million homeless people across the US.](https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/24/pers-d24.html) [In 2019 in Los Angeles, ~60k people are homeless on any given night.](http://www.laalmanac.com/social/so14.php) - Rising Housing prices from real estate speculation have skyrocketed to the point that an epidemic of [hidden homeless](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/los-angeles-hidden-homeless-priced-out-cbsn-originals/) has arisen: families who live in their cars, or on the street, but who still work. In most US cities, such as LA, it's illegal to sleep in your car overnight. 1/3rd of all renters pay half their income towards landlords. Even mid-size cities like Boise Idaho are experiencing a [surge of homelessness as of 2019](https://www.kivitv.com/news/state-of-208/affordable-housing-crisis-leading-to-rise-in-first-time-homelessness-in-boise). - [80% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/29/us-economy-workers-paycheck-robert-reich), 40% cannot cover a [$400 emergency.](http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/federal-reserve-more-than-4-out-of-10-americans-do-not-even-have-enough-money-to-cover-an-unexpected-400-expense) +- - [US millenials are dying at alarming rates](https://slate.com/technology/2025/08/millennials-gen-z-death-rates-america-high.html). - [Low-income renters can't afford rent in nearly 45% of America's largest metro areas](https://phys.org/news/2022-06-low-income-renters-rent-america-largest.html) - [The bottom half of US citizens have a combined negative net worth.](https://www.timesunion.com/technology/businessinsider/article/One-brutal-sentence-captures-what-a-disaster-13882763.php) [Average US household carries ~$140k in debt. Median household income only $60k](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2017/11/18/a-foolish-take-heres-how-much-debt-the-average-us-household-owes/107651700/). - [52% of young adults live with their parents, for the first time since the great depression.](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/04/a-majority-of-young-adults-in-the-u-s-live-with-their-parents-for-the-first-time-since-the-great-depression/), [1](http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/goodbye-american-dream-the-average-u-s-household-is-137063-in-debt-and-38-4-of-millennials-live-with-their-parents) Younger generations, with dwindling opportunities, feeling disposable and unwanted under late capitalism, suffer from a [burnout epidemic](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work). Many have [stopped pursuing romantic relationships](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex), and [having children.](https://www.curbed.com/2019/7/19/20700379/raising-kids-cities-family-friendly) [Deaths of despair have skyrocketed, especially among those who never went to college.](https://archive.is/XSvWD) [2](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/hikikomori-japan). [12% of americans in 2021 say they have no close friends, up from 3% in 1991](https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/the-state-of-american-friendship-change-challenges-and-loss/) diff --git a/dessalines_marxism_study_plan.md b/dessalines_marxism_study_plan.md index a5d48b3..1469895 100644 --- a/dessalines_marxism_study_plan.md +++ b/dessalines_marxism_study_plan.md @@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ It alternates between theory, history, and psychology. - [Rosa Luxemburg - Reform or Revolution](http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/index.htm) . [Audiobook](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YhzmaUofLS8&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoYqO_Yec4sWzPeeFXMOkPWs). Why electoralism will not save us, and revolution is the only way forward. - [Red Phoenix - Pacifism - How to do the enemy's job for them.](https://theredphoenixapl.org/2011/08/11/pacifism-how-to-do-the-enemys-job-for-them/), [audiobook](https://youtube.com/watch?v=GxrO7p-6w_k&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZ5IIhnzFBOImzySh827FyK) A great essay to go with the previous book. - [Kwame Nkrumah - The Mechanisms of Neo-colonialism.](https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/neo-colonialism/ch01.htm) Essay describing how neocolonialism and US "aid" impoverishes Africa. +- Paul L. Williams - Operation Gladio. [Audiobook](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:e92370d9f51043cfda1efa2cba0933bba6fdeed0&dn=Paul%20L.%20Williams%20-%20Operation%20Gladio%20%5Baudible%5D&xl=341764705). An expansive history of Operation Gladio - A CIA / NATO program beginning after WW2 by Allen Dulles, which united former Nazis (such as Gehlen and Barbie), Fascist organizations (like P2), international financial instutions, druglords, mafiosi, right-wing military commander and politicians, and the Catholic Church in a Eurasian anti-communist crusade. Gladio agents initiated acts of terrorism in Italy, Turkey, France, killing many thousands of civilians (while blaming the acts on communists), crushed leftist political movements, uniting latin american right-wing movements with european fascists and former nazis, and carrying out uncounted numbers of atrocities. To fund these groups, the CIA took over the international drug trade (particularly heroin and opium, via the Helliwell plan), and the catholic church helped them launder the money using the vatican bank. Many journalists, whistleblowers, prosecutors... even a pope and a few prime ministers, who threatened to expose the program, were killed by gladio operatives. Neither the US, NATO, or the Vatican, has admitted its role in these atrocities. - [Ward Wilson - The bomb didn't beat Japan, Stalin did.](http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/30/the-bomb-didnt-beat-japan-stalin-did/) [Audiobook](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-IkmzWbjoaLP3G2HGj-O5JTepm0Kjt-). Essay on the mythology around the US use of atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. - (Optional) [Zinn - A people's history of the US.](https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States/dp/0060838655) A good beginner US history book, looks at US history from the lens of its most oppressed populations. The chapters on the US constitution and civil wars are excellent. - [Fidel Castro - My Life]() (Audiobook on torrents). This book will get you into the mindset of what it means to be a socialist: to rebel, to teach, to be a good comrade, and to fight for the betterment of humanity. Castro was an active part of many of the most important events of the 20th century; but not only is his wisdom on these events invaluable, his life was truly extraordinary. You will learn hundreds of lessons from communist grandpa reading this book. @@ -53,3 +54,4 @@ It alternates between theory, history, and psychology. - [Assata Shakur - autobiography](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:025372fdb0eca162348dc9d9185f7cd8820945bb&xt=urn:btmh:12200a14d2408e951b8f15a7219478e23899cd10bb1d89c50fe0c89c36d9180fead3&dn=Assata%20Shakur%20-%20Assata%20%5baudible%5d) . An enthralling story told by one of the most persecuted black revolutionaries in the US. - [Domenico Losurdo - Liberalism - A Counter-History](https://www.amazon.com/Liberalism-Counter-History-Domenico-Losurdo/dp/178168166X) . [Audiobook](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:c11fa136c28b993bcb86404b725dc38f2ec7c332&dn=Domenico%20Losurdo%20-%20Liberalism%20-%20A%20Counter-History%20%5baudiobook%5d%20by%20dessalines). An in-depth look at the history of liberalism and its founders, focusing on the English, American, Dutch, and French revolutions, and their support for colonialism, slavery, and genocide of those they considered not belonging to the "community of the free." Rather than focusing on the individualism supposed to be the defining characteristic of liberalism, Losurdo focuses on the master/slave or owner/servile dialectic as its core tenet. - [Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - Loaded - A Disarming History of the Second Amendment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded:_A_Disarming_History_of_the_Second_Amendment) [audible](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:162963ae3b655a8259decfbf2d0f85078bcebb32&dn=Roxanne%20Dunbar-Ortiz%20-%20Loaded%20-%20A%20Disarming%20History%20of%20the%20Second%20Amendment%20%5baudible%5d). A companion book to "a people's history of the US", focusing on firearms ownership in the US. It deconstructs the two "noble myths" of the US 2nd-amendment: its bases of a "well-regulated militia", as well as "the citizens right to bear arms", as both serving (and continuing) the primary US goals of genocide and appropriation of native lands. +- Margaret Kimberly - Black America and the Presidents. [Audiobook](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:51d1ac6cba2a13d71030545f80a91db9ff179522&dn=Margaret%20Kimberley%20-%20Prejudential%20-%20Black%20America%20and%20the%20Presidents%20%5Baudible%5D&xl=307497410). A history of each US president's dealings with the black colony within the US's borders. diff --git a/socialism_faq.md b/socialism_faq.md index 5357d57..4a2eb72 100644 --- a/socialism_faq.md +++ b/socialism_faq.md @@ -559,7 +559,7 @@ - [Deng on why Mao's legacy must be upheld.](https://redsails.org/deng-and-fallaci/) - [Deng Xiaoping - a visionary marxist-leninist.](https://twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1353776771573948418?s=20) - [Deng - We will always side with the third world.](https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZedong/comments/p9d2zy/117_years_ago_a_national_hero_was_born/h9wxz32/) -- [What about Tibet? (95% of the population were slaves or feudal serfs before China invaded in 1959)](http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html) [audiobook](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZjKom_Qj0jcDReaMb_r52z) +- [What about Tibet? (95% of the population were slaves or feudal serfs before China invaded in 1959)](https://redsails.org/friendly-feudalism/) [audiobook](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZjKom_Qj0jcDReaMb_r52z) - [Tibet, China, and the Violent reaction of a wealthy elite.](https://historicly.substack.com/p/tibet-china-and-the-violent-reaction) - [Mao's liberation of Tibet](https://stalinsmoustache.org/2018/09/19/maos-liberation-of-tibet/) - [Dalai Lama - Forgive Pinochet](https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/forgive-pinochet-says-dalai-lama-1.187150) @@ -616,6 +616,7 @@ - [What kind of democracy does China have, and how is it different from the west?](https://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-democracy-does-the-China-have/answers/81676052?share=0ac8c628&srid=JMzz) - In contrast to low US political approval ratings, 96% of Chinese are satisfied with the national government (Edelmans 2016). World Values Surveys says that 83% think the country is run for their benefit rather than for the benefit of special groups. [A Harvard research center study of long-term public opinion survey finds that > 95% of Chinese citizens approved their government.](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/) [How is this possible in a one-party state? (TED talk by Eric X Li)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=s0YjL9rZyR0) - [How does China’s political system work?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qu4QTxl9GVw) +- [Interview with Zhang WeiWei on China's political system, and its differences from the US](https://www.geopoliticaleconomy.report/p/china-model-zhang-weiwei-interview) - [How are Chinese leaders elected / chosen? How meristocratic is the system? How do elections differ from those in western bourgeois democracies?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=TgpQxVCekgw) - [Who runs China? Makeup of the national people's congress.](https://news.cgtn.com/event/2019/whorunschina/index.html) - [US policy-makers are misjudging popular support China's Government.](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-numbers-show-just-how-much-the-lives-of-everyday-chinese-have-improved-in-recent-decades-2019-10-02) @@ -713,7 +714,7 @@ - The US's credit score system is vastly more influential and detrimental to a majority of its population than China's social credit system, [which largely doesn't even exist](https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/), and where it does exist it is [only used to target businesses](https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/15/china-social-credit-system-authoritarian/). - [numuves - How the US dominates tech](https://youtube.com/watch?v=EgzB4_Zw3RE) - [What about the "great firewall", isn't it repressive?](https://youtu.be/LAEwoYIYgJA) -- [On the great firewall, and china not allowing US taech companies. ](https://mobile.twitter.com/Mango_Press_/status/1423263749302067202) +- [On the great firewall, and china not allowing US tech companies. ](https://mobile.twitter.com/Mango_Press_/status/1423263749302067202) ### What's going on with the Uyghurs? diff --git a/us_atrocities.md b/us_atrocities.md index fa2677d..b8b7d4c 100644 --- a/us_atrocities.md +++ b/us_atrocities.md @@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ Notes : - From March to June of 1999, After Serbs refused to acquiesce in the break-up of their republic, the US and NATO began [bombing Yugoslavia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia) killing ~500 civilians, leaving thousands homeless, destroying bridges, industrial plants, public buildings, private businesses, as well as barracks and military installations. [1](https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/18/breaking-yugoslavia-how-the-us-used-nato-as-its-battering-ram/), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia) - In February, 1998, A US marine core plane flying wrecklessly below regulations, cut a cable supporting aerial cable cars at a ski resort near Cavalese, Italy, killing 20 people, in the [Cavalese Cable Car Disaster / Massacre of Cermis.]() The pilots destroyed the plane's tape, and were found not guilty. Italian prosecutors were outraged that the US refused to forgoe the NATO treaty that gives all jurisduction to US military courts. By February 1999, the victims' families had received USD $65,000 per victim as immediate help by the Italian government, which was reimbursed by the U.S. government. In May 1999, the U.S. Congress rejected a bill that would have set up a $40 million compensation fund for the victims. In December 1999, the Italian legislature approved a monetary compensation plan for the families ($1.9 million per victim). NATO treaties obligated the U.S. government to pay 75% of this compensation, which it did. - In 1995, the US conducted a campaign of airstrikes called [Operation Deliberate Force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deliberate_Force), as part of an intervention in the [Bosnian civil war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_War). [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deliberate_Force) -- From the 1950s-90s, the CIA and NATO ran a series of clandestine networks, headquartered in Rome, Italy called [Operation Gladio.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio) Its purpose was supplying aid (primarily money and weaponry) to right wing paramilitaries to attack left-wing movements, and carry out assassinations and bombings, as well as funnel money to centrist political parties. It had operations in Belgium, Finland, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Turkey, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Austria. In Italy, the group had 600+ members, and carried out car bombings during Italy's [years of lead.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_of_Lead) In Germany, it included former Nazi SS members—Staff Sgt. Heinrich Hoffman, Lt. Col. Hans Rues, and Lt. Col. Walter Kopp. CIA weapons caches are still being discovered in all the countries above. +- From the 1950s up to the present day, the CIA and NATO runs Operation Gladio - a program beginning after WW2 by Allen Dulles, which united former Nazis (such as Gehlen and Barbie), Fascist organizations (like P2), international financial instutions, druglords, mafiosi, right-wing military commander and politicians, and the Catholic Church in a Eurasian anti-communist crusade. Gladio agents initiated acts of terrorism in Italy, Turkey, France, killing many thousands of civilians (while blaming the acts on communists), crushed leftist political movements, uniting latin american right-wing movements with european fascists and former nazis, and carrying out uncounted numbers of atrocities. To fund these groups, the CIA took over the international drug trade (particularly heroin and opium, via the Helliwell plan), and the catholic church helped them launder the money using the vatican bank. Many journalists, whistleblowers, prosecutors... even a pope and a few prime ministers, who threatened to expose the program, were killed by gladio operatives. Neither the US, NATO, or the Vatican, has admitted its role in these atrocities. You can read more in [Paul L. Williams - Operation Gladio. Audiobook](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:e92370d9f51043cfda1efa2cba0933bba6fdeed0&dn=Paul%20L.%20Williams%20-%20Operation%20Gladio%20%5Baudible%5D&xl=341764705). - Throughout the 1980-90s, the US, with the aid of the IMF and NATO, [actively destabilized and aided](https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/18/breaking-yugoslavia-how-the-us-used-nato-as-its-battering-ram/) in the [breakup of Yugoslavia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_Yugoslavia), with the goal of weakening and destroying the last surviving socialist bloc in Europe. These include stirring up ethnic tensions between the member countries, economic warfare, and military intervention. The Reagan administration in a 1982 secret memo, advocated "expanded efforts to promote a 'quiet revolution' to overthrow Communist governments and parties," while reintegrating the countries of Eastern Europe into a market-oriented economy. In November 1990, the Bush administration pressured Congress into passing the [1991 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act](https://archive.org/details/TheUSLawThatPushedTheBreakUpOfYugoslaviaPublicLaw101513Nov51990MultilateralEconomicAssistance), which provided that any part of Yugoslavia failing to declare independence within six months would lose U.S. financial support, demanded separate elections in each of the six Yugoslav republics, and mandated U.S. State Department approval of both election procedures and results as a condition for any future aid. In 1991, Yugoslav Army chief [Veljko Kadijević](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veljko_Kadijevi%C4%87) stated: "An insidious plan has been drawn up to destroy Yugoslavia. Stage one is civil war. Stage two is foreign intervention. Then puppet regimes will be set up throughout Yugoslavia." [1](https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/18/breaking-yugoslavia-how-the-us-used-nato-as-its-battering-ram/), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_Yugoslavia), [3](https://archive.org/details/TheUSLawThatPushedTheBreakUpOfYugoslaviaPublicLaw101513Nov51990MultilateralEconomicAssistance) - In 1967 in Greece, the CIA installed [Georgios Papadopoulos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgios_Papadopoulos) in a military coup, a CIA agent and former nazi collaborator, as the military ruler of Greece. He's seen today as an relic of authoritarianism , xenophobia, and anti-communism. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgios_Papadopoulos) Phillips Talbot, the US ambassador in Athens, disapproved of the military coup which established the "Regime of the Colonels" (1967–1974), complaining that it represented "a rape of democracy"—to which Jack Maury, the CIA chief of station in Athens, answered, "How can you rape a whore? - From the 1940s - 60s, the [CIA provided an average of $5 million annually](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Italy) in covert aid towards financially supporting centrist Italian governments and using the awarding of contracts to weaken the Italian Communist Party's hold on labor unions. It was also involved in bombings and assassinations as a part of [Operation Gladio.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio)