politics

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1161

cooked

help me out, where does political power grow from?

South Africa’s Expropriation Act has provoked debate within the country over the enduring racist land tenure model in the country, and has also sparked a diplomatic row with the United States.

On January 23, 2025, South Africa enacted an Expropriation Act, updating the methods for land expropriation for the first time in fifty years.

The new Act allows for land expropriation for public purposes and interests whilst introducing the possibility of zero compensation for expropriated land. Consequently, the Act’s scope has been broadened since its 1975 version. Land can still be expropriated for public purposes, such as constructing roads, an uncontroversial and universally accepted practice.

The expansion of the scope to include public interest, however, also enables the Act to address a long-standing issue of land reform. In all cases, the “nill compensation” option is available as a last resort. This is unsurprising, considering that 72% of farms and agricultural holdings are owned by white individuals, who make up 7.3% of the population, while black Africans, constituting 81.4% of the population, own only 4% of the land.

This imbalance is a direct consequence of colonialism, apartheid, and a failed land reform process following the democratic breakthrough of 1994. Coupled with the fact that South Africa remains the most unequal country in the world and that the distribution of wealth and opportunities is racially biased – with disproportionate favor extended to the white population – there should be nothing improper or illogical about the decision to remove legal obstacles in the land reform process.

The passing of the Act has also catalyzed tremendous public debate and even a diplomatic row between South Africa and the world’s leading imperialist power: the United States. After years of unsubstantiated claims of “white genocide” made by right-wing Afrikaners, the new Trump administration in the US has lashed out against the South African government.

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My leftist reading group at uni is reading Imperialism in the 21st Century by John Smith. Is my diagram that i quickly drew up a good supplement for it? Also I know in other spaces shit flinging occurs about value created through labor in the west being "more productive," so more value is created than "unproductive third world labor" vs the inverse of that position; the length of the values in the diagram is arbitrary and constrained for space reasons, not because i think one way or another; but feel free to argue ig. I mean, has anyone read the polemics of Harvey and Smith? They are sassy as fuck and hilarious. Disappointing though to see Harvey to take such a vague and stance on modern imperialism, as well as the dissavowment of China by Smith because of alleged "Stalinism" (lol). I'll link the first video and four polemics they directed at eachother: "Imperialism: Is it still a relevant concept?"-Harvey "A critique of David Harveys analysis of imperialism"-Smith "David Harvey denies imperialism"-Smith "Realities on the Ground: David Harvey replies to John Smith"-Harvey "Imperialist Realities vs. the Myths of David Harvey"- Smith

Also in the leftist reading club we're using these as additional sources:

https://monthlyreview.org/2019/03/01/global-commodity-chains-and-the-new-imperialism/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49687-y https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937802200005X?via=ihub

Secondly, and more broadly, is the view of stock market bubbles forming due to speculation and the discontinuity between stock price and actual value an accurate assessment? Because of massive price gauging and speculation for textiles, garments, tech, housing, coffee, etc it seems to me like a large portion of many western economies or at least the US economy is sitting on a large bubble across almost all industries, and i've heard talks of an oncoming economic disaster from people of all flavors. Could mass tariffs and import restrictions on the global commodity chain bring about the popping of these bubbles?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI14kcVT3vU

Good thing I'm not deepseek: here is an accessible and brief breakdown of that dangerous historical moment which in many ways decided the future for the entire world.

Follow and share this new substack!!! (My medium account was taken down without explanation by the imperialist censorship machine)

https://goodsresearch.substack.com/p/tiananmen-1989-anatomy-of-a-colour

And maybe this is the calculation of CPC behind Deepseek's avoidance of pilitical topics:

1. Facts don't matter, and reason is useless against Western chauvinism, because for those who grew up with a supremacist world view for 20 generations it is a matter of pure emotion.

2. It is better to enable Westerners to preserve their illusions of "Chinese authoritarianism" and "Western freedom", to stoke Western hubris, for as long as possible before they become totally untennable; because illusions and hubris are sedatives.

3. The opinions of citizens of the imperialist sphere are not important.

4. The highest priority in this era is to prevent war, in which case multipolarity, anti-imperialism, and the global South wins. If prevention fails, war will likely lead to devastating defeat for both sides, for all of humanity.

5. Thus the optimum, least risk-prone procedure is not to inflame anti-communist emotions and provoke imperialist passions with Chinese AI giving factual perspectives which will cause heated online debates between East and West

The East knows the truth, and that's enough for now.

In Detroit, a “People’s Assembly” of a couple hundred people has formed to debate and act on strategies to counter ICE and the Trump administration. Their example of democratic, independent self-organization is a useful model that can be followed in other cities.

As the Trump administration ramps up its assault on the immigrant community, people across the country are asking how they can keep their neighbors safe and how to defend against ICE raids. Teachers, nurses, and neighborhoods are forming committees to discuss how to respond when ICE shows up at their door. Students are sharing Know Your Rights flyers and attending anti-ICE rallies. In Chicago, when teachers thought ICE was trying to get in, they denied them access. Likewise, the Chicago Teachers Union has been forming “sanctuary teams” and has called for a “walk-in” to protect their students. Large anti-ICE rallies have taken place from St Louis and Indianapolis to Dallas and LA. These acts of resistance and protest are important because they are clear signs that the country is not being swallowed whole by reactionary politics. As Trump tries to overwhelm us with constant actions, regular people are finding ways to get organized and push back.

In Detroit, hundreds of people have come together to form a “People’s Assembly” to discuss how to defend against ICE. In attendance were immigrants, teachers, students, workers of all stripes, and different groups on the left. During the assembly, the whole collective debated several strategies of how to push back on ICE, and then made decisions to take action. Since then, these hundreds of people have been meeting and continuing to democratically carry out the strategies and tactics. This united front assembly is an important example of self-organization in motion.

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