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New US Measures to Target China – CGTN (2023)
This news coverage from China really shows how they aren’t playing the same game we are. They don’t point fingers or call people to arms but show the historical context and remain diplomatic and levelheaded about international affairs.
Democracy in China (2022)
My latest TikTok video on China’s economy got an outpouring of critical comments about “worker ownership” in China. People are very concerned that state owned enterprises are not a form of socialism but rather something called “state capitalism.”
But I think we can all agree that if the state is actually representative of the workers, then state ownership is worker ownership.
Here is a video describing the recent history of China’s emerging “consultative democracy,” showing ways the central leadership is embracing the power of democracy.
Please keep an open mind as I tell you now that China has the best “Democracy Perception Index” of all countries surveyed. This index is found by polling citizens of how democratic they feel their society is and subtracting that from how important they feel democracy is to their future.
Their 2022 report can be downloaded here.
Context on Iran
For some context on Iran, the US (with Britain on behalf of what would later become part of British Petroleum) violently overthrew and imprisoned a democratically elected PM in Iran in 1953, reverting the country to a brutal anti-communist monarchy.
The reason for the coup was because BP was unfairly extracting Iranian oil, leaving the Prime Minister no choice but to nationalize (☭) their oil. That would be too economically liberating and socialist, so Britain and the US had to intervene.
The brutal rule of the Shah eventually led to The Iranian Revolution where leftists and right-wing Islamic nationalists worked to overthrow the Shah. As we know, the Islamic nationalists took power.
Now, under crippling US sanctions, Iran is going to be part of a major trade route in China’s Belt & Road initiative.
Iran has also applied to join BRICS, a trade alliance specifically for developing countries. It started with Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa as a response to the 2008 financial crisis. These countries want to have their economies be less reliant on the US economy. These moves are a threat to US economic hegemony.
With all of the exaggerations and fake news swirling around the protests in Iran, our neoliberal media want us to hate the regime so much that we don’t care what neoliberal might take power after. That, or they want us to welcome indefinite instability, which would be a wrench in China’s plans to unify the developing world with mutually beneficial trade agreements.
References:
Sweet Honey in the Rock – Ella’s Song (1980)
In this performance, Sweet Honey in the Rock were supporting the international labor movement and pan-Africanism. They were an acapella group that were using only their bodies to create beauty, cooperatively and with humanity. By embracing the pan-African movement, they show their support for the de-colonial struggle.
F. William Engdahl on “The Lost Hegemon” (2016)
I recently came across F. William Engdahl while watching a CGTN (Chinese state news) program he was a guest on. His analysis was refreshingly factual, so I went to his website that has really great pieces he’s written despite its old-school, not compatible with mobile design layout.
Here’s a now 6-year-old interview promoting his book “The Lost Hegemon.” I have yet to read any of his books, but in this interview alone, I felt parts of the un-compelling Western narrative being peeled off from my lens. Simply moralizing the enemies of the US as bad, hateful, and terroristic because of blindly destructive motives never satisfied me. In this interview, we can start to investigate the origins of conflicts of power and see them as ongoing, not sporadic outburst events floating in history.
I am only beginning to form my own historical analysis of the middle east, understanding how powers like Nazi Germany, The US, and Saudi Arabia propping up the far-right anti-communist groups. And Engdahl has been helping me to navigate the region’s confusing, conflicting history.
Last, I want to point out the spot-on analysis of the conflict in Ukraine here. Coming from 2016, to criticize Obama for having no plan for Russia other than to demonize its president is prescient to say the least. When Henry f—-ing Kissinger says you’re being reckless, you know it’s bad.
Wage Theft
Here is more information on (and the source of) the stats and graphic I shared in my video highlighting wage theft in the US as well as the graphic for you to share:
This graphic was created for the dataisbeautiful SubReddit and posted here. The author’s sources are cited here. For wage theft, they used this study of wage theft that surveyed over 4,000 workers in LA, Chicago, and NYC. For the other crimes, they used data from the FBI.
Thank you all for expressing your interest in this important issue that our corporate-owned media hides from us. It’s also important to understand that the ruling class allows this rampant illegal plundering of the working class because it serves their interests.
This is a measurable act of class war. The rich owning class keeps the working class poor and desperate while enriching themselves and buying up our media to control the narrative.
George Galloway on Hugo Chavez, Gay Rights, and Venezuelan Democracy (2012)
The Myth of Chinese Debt Trap in Africa (2022)
The west loves to project that our own predatory model of neocolonial debt-trapping is the only reason why China would want to do business in Africa. While we make them dependent on aid, China sets them up for independence.