1021 - Illusion USA (3/23/26) (Chapo Trap House)The fight in the gas station parking lot continues to escalate; luckily, Will, Felix, and Chris are all together in person to walk you through it. We talk about Israel attacking South Pars Gas Field without telling us, more planes crashing both abroad and at home, and the potential of a disastrous ground operation on Kharg Island looming. Plus: Elon Musk’s based son, Zohran and “left-wing antisemitism,” and a eulogy for Chuck Norris,
https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/1021-illusion-usa-3-23-26RIZOSPASTIS: World Anti-Imperialist Platform Whitewashing of US imperialism Until now, its was clear that through their analyses they sought to whitewash the principal forces of the emerging Eurasian imperialist axis (China, Russia). Now, however, the WAP’s “interpretation” of international developments goes so far as to make room even for Trump. Such views stem from a complete detachment from the struggles of the working class, from erroneous opportunist theories about the imperialist system, and from the refusal to fulfil the duty of the working class and the peoples to develop an independent strategy against the bourgeois classes and imperialist alliances. Based on their crude and unscientific analysis, according to which bourgeois forces worldwide are divided into supporters of “globalization” (see Kamala Harris) and “chauvinists” (see Donald Trump, etc.), communists are urged to side with the latter and even establish forms of tactical cooperation with them. Thus, in a recent article —a monument to shameless opportunism— the “organizer” of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform, writing under the pseudonym Stephen Cho, claims, among other things, that: “The fact that the Republican Party appeals to the founding ideals of the United States, which include a spirit of independence, cannot be ignored” and similarly that “meanwhile, chauvinists do not oppose war in principle; rather, they avoid and refrain from wars they do not desire”. The culmination, of course, is his call that: “Anti-imperialist forces including the communist forces can’t form a tactical joint front with chauvinist and conservative forces, but they can engage in tactical cooperation with them”. He further adds: “Tactical cooperation, in the sense of acting in step tactically, refers to a situation in which anti-imperialist forces and conservative chauvinists, for the purpose of isolating and striking more forcefully at their common enemy —the globalists— each direct the spearhead of their attacks toward the globalists, while restraining mutual attacks between the two forces”1. In other words, by chauvinist and conservative forces he clearly refers to the Donald Trump administration and its allies.
https://inter.kke.gr/en/m-article/A-World-Anti-Imperialist-Whitewashing-of-US-imperialism/Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed Chapter XI: The Conquest of Power …The first Congress of Soviets, in June of this year, proclaimed the right of the peoples of Russia to self-determination. The second Congress of Soviets, in November last, confirmed this inalienable right of the peoples of Russia more decisively and definitely. Executing the will of these Congresses, the Council of People’s Commissars has resolved to establish as a basis for its activity in the question of Nationalities, the following principles: (1) The equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia. (2) The right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination, even to the point of separation and the formation of an independent state. (3) The abolition of any and all national and national religious privileges and disabilities. (4) The free development of national minorities and ethnographic groups inhabiting the territory of Russia. Decrees will be prepared immediately upon the formation of a Commission on Nationalities.
In the name of the Russian Republic, People’s Commissar for Nationalities Yussov Djugashvili-Stalin President of the Council of People’s Commissars V. Ulianov (Lenin)
The Central Rada at Kiev immediately declared Ukraine an independent Republic, as did the Government of Finland, through the Senate at Helsingfors. Independent “Governments” spring up in Siberia and the Caucasus. The Polish Chief Military Committee swiftly gathered together the Polish troops in the Russian army, abolished their Committees and established an iron discipline…. All these “Governments” and “movements” had two characteristics in common; they were controlled by the propertied classes, and they feared and detested Bolshevism…. Steadily, amid the chaos of shocking change, the Council of People’s Commissars hammered at the scaffolding of the Socialist order. Decree on Social Insurance, on Workers’ Control, Regulations for Volost Land Committees, Abolition of Ranks and Titles, Abolition of Courts and the Creation of People’s Tribunals…. [3] Army after army, fleet after fleet, sent deputations, “joyfully to greet the new Government of the People.” In front of Smolny, one day, I saw a ragged regiment just come from the trenches. The soldiers were drawn up before the great gates, thin and grey-faced, looking up at the building as if God were in it. Some pointed out the Imperial eagles over the door, laughing…. Red Guards came to mount guard. All the soldiers turned to look, curiously, as if they had heard of them but never seen them. They laughed good-naturedly and pressed out of line to slap the Red Guards on the back, with half-joking, half-admiring remarks…. The Provisional Government was no more. On November 15th, in all the churches of the capital, the priests stopped praying for it. But as Lenin himself told the Tsay-ee-kah, that was “only the beginning of the conquest of power.” Deprived of arms, the opposition, which still controlled the economic life of the country, settled down to organise disorganisation, with all the Russian genius for cooperative action—to obstruct, cripple and discredit the Soviets.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/reed/1919/10days/10days/ch11.htm#1n