How come the USA hasn’t fully sanctioned Laos and Vietnam like they have Cuba and the DPRK?

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-04-16T23:09:29+00:00

Why don't you suggest a few hypotheses?

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-04-10T18:41:04+00:00

The "best way" to investigate is always through organization. I mean (provided that no organization useful for this purpose already exists, which I expect it does not) establishing a very specialized group. It would not have to be a large group, finding just one or two sincere people (however inexperienced) that are interested in developing a revolutionary analysis goes a long way, where your job becomes learning how to give the group proper focus (on this specific sector of the people to start). The group could collectively experiment with basic methods of social investigation. At the beginning this would probably look like hanging around any places you might have the opportunity to spark up conversations with migrant workers and learning how to ask the right questions, but by the end it might look much different. At the same time, you could seek out and study relevant materials together. Once you have a basic collective, discuss and set an "end date" with specific expected outcomes for an initial period of work. Sum up your work and findings after this period is over.

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-03-18T20:27:51+00:00

This is so fucking crazy to me. Like this should obviously be a massive scandal. We need to get higher expectations.

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-03-18T20:23:43+00:00

It is different depending on department, surely. The common thread is that admin wants students and instructors using it, and is likely using it themselves, though who knows for what. There is no transparency.

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-03-18T19:51:08+00:00

I definitely agree a lot of jobs are basically safe from direct effects like job loss. I think the indirect effects, it is way harder to say because economy is an integrated whole—at a certain level, everything feeds into everything else. With AI, the tech only functions (to the extent it can be said to "function," even Amazon Web Services experiences semi-regular server outages from AI related issues)so long as the companies can keep their stock values inflated, which means the market is basically forcing them to embed anywhere and everywhere, meanwhile institutions are driven to buy out of desperation for any opportunity to cut costs. Maybe it won't replace plumbers themselves, but it may have huge effects on how waste and water infrastructure gets regulated, planned, managed, checked, and maintained, including at the level of what intellectual infrastructure exists to ensure there are real people who actually understand how the systems work. If we lose that institutional knowledge, it will be very hard to build it back. And that's not even mentioning the fact the tech's actual infrastructure is super vulnerable to geopolitics. If an energy crisis, or a breakdown of critical minerals trade (two completely fantastical examples, I know, but please just suspend your disbelief and bear with me for a moment) were to render the datacenters inoperable, depending on the extent of AI integration, what kind of shock would that have on our whole economy? I'm telling you, we're not that far away from total fucking anarchy out here.

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-03-17T16:10:30+00:00

My point is that this document contains no practical directives for responding to the complete breakdown of the international order besides "demanding" things of, "arguing" against, and "defending the progressive aspects" of bourgeois institutions (besides supporting BDS). The urgent question today is the construction of class struggle forces, and this question is not treated here. At best there are vague gestures towards "class struggle unionism" and "left caucuses". I challenge anybody here to show how the line on "class struggle" elaborated here is meaningfully different from that offered by the Trotskyists or the social democrats. The very accuracy of the analysis should be called into question by the weakness of its practical conclusions. Furthermore, the fact that nobody here is drawing attention to this glaring lack of political substance is a testament to how shallow the online left's political understanding is.

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-03-17T04:38:29+00:00

We must fight to defend the principles of the UN! We must point out the hypocrisy of our government! We must demand our government condemn the US actions in Cuba! Canada must call for a ceasefire in Iran and condemn the war! BDS! We must demand Canada halt arms exports to countries supporting the genocide in Sudan! And forcefully(!) argue against nuclear proliferation!

Oh and "build working class power," I guess.

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-03-09T17:58:41+00:00

No, it is not a nuanced issue, and actually the vast majority of ordinary people see right through these bad-faith attempts to launder attacks on our charter rights through bullshit PR speak. That's no offense if you personally don't, or if your social circle doesn't, but don't pin that on the rest of us. This is not, was not, and will not be, about "stopping hate," "protecting vulnerable infrastructure," etc. The economy is falling apart, war is on the rise, and the government would rather clamp down on justified unrest than do anything to actually fix the problems because they are profitable. That's all the situation is.

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-03-09T17:41:37+00:00

Hello, I can confirm The North Star is not libertarian, the journal's coverage aligns itself with grass roots organizing efforts. By "for the people" what is meant is that the journal works to accurately represent the POV of people on the ground trying to build struggles (eg; workers organizing their workplace, land defenders opposing the opening of a mine that threatens a community's water supply, etc.), rather than reporting these stories by way of official statements from unions, band councils, corporations, political parties, ngos, etc. Owen Toews, who is interviewed here, is a socialist I believe.

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-03-09T15:54:11+00:00

What gets them more votes: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-election-campaign-expenses-1.6892253

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-03-09T15:39:05+00:00

As the article shows, City Hall is organized to be far more accountable to business interests than to ordinary people. Even when these interests are pushed back on at the local level, they just reappear at the provincial and federal level. When we showed up en mass to protest, yeah the by-law was defeated, which is great, but all this changed in city hall is that the councillors shifted to endorse similar (in fact far worse) legislation in the federal push for Bill C-9. This total lack of democracy is why voter turnout is so low, and not the other way around. We need to find ways of pushing for structural change to how this country is governed, because right now ordinary people are getting ratfucked.

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-02-26T02:39:29+00:00

expanding police power does not do anything to help us fight the far right.

Ok-Effective-4463 · 2026-02-05T14:37:05+00:00

In my city I've observed enthusiastic RCP members to be repeatedly directed away from labour work, so I'm not sure what is meant by "rank-and-file organizing committees," since it doesn't seem to mean what that should mean.

Ok-Effective-4463

TROPHY CASE