ANTI-NEOLIBERALISM

NICK CRUSE—The video’s core argument revolves around the inadequacy of current U.S. leftist leadership, particularly social democrats, in confronting imperialism and capitalism effectively. Zhoran Mamdani’s campaign and statements serve as a case study for this critique, illustrating how social democrats often adopt imperialist talking points, sanitize settler colonial violence, and condemn resistance movements, thereby aligning themselves with ruling class interests. Nick Cruse dissects Mamani’s statements on the Palestinian resistance following the October 7 attacks and highlights how these statements reinforce Zionist narratives by centering Israeli suffering and ignoring the decades-long occupation and systemic violence Palestinians face.

Nick Cruse contrasts this with Kshama Sawant’s unapologetic anti-imperialist stance, which calls for an end to funding Israel, the occupation, and apartheid, while supporting Palestinian resistance and broader working-class struggles globally. This comparison reveals a sharp ideological divide within the U.S. left, between those who seek to reform capitalism from within and those who aim to dismantle it entirely.

EAB—Why is the USA threatening to bomb/invade Venezuela in 2025?

It’s the oilconomy, stupid.

Note: all of the above are or were regime-change attempts by the USA, either successful or unsuccessful, using economic or military violence, to overthrow foreign leaders and install puppets complicit with the US agenda to loot their oil.

Although I use the term “oilconomy” to echo a famous quote from a Clinton apparatchik, the matters to be discussed are more accurately described by a wider term, “oilgasconomy”, which is an awkward neologism that does not roll off the tongue as smoothly, hence, I will tend to use the former term, which will also encompass the latter.

IGL–In this episode of India & Global Left, Laith Marouf joins us to discuss what the Gaza ceasefire really means for the future of Palestinian resistance. We explore how the ceasefire and prisoner exchange are reshaping the balance of power in Palestine, their ripple effects across Lebanon and the wider West Asian region, and what they reveal about the limits of Israeli power. The conversation also examines how Gaza has exposed the deep contradictions of Western imperialism and the global order that sustains it.

ERIC ZUESSE—Many experts on international affairs are expecting Trump soon to launch an outright military invasion of Venezuela that’s based on his Administration’s lies that Venezuela is more of a source of illegal drugs into America than Colombia and Mexico are.

On 26 January 2018, the UN independent expert Alfred de Zayas was headlined “UN Independent Expert: Sanctions Must be Terminated and Economic War Must End”. He said that America’s economic blockade and sanctions against Venezuela are what has impoverished its people — not Venezuela’s Government. And now the Nobel Committee, which gave their 2009 Peace Prize to U.S. President Obama, is giving this year’s to Machado in order to help Trump get Machado to become Venezuela’s President. Perhaps that Committee figured that giving it to Trump would be too blatant, because his fascism is widely known, whereas Machado is very little known outside of Veneuela and the Washington Beltway. Giving that Prize to Trump would have crashed the Nobels altogether.

INDRAJIT—A gentleman could challenge a gentleman to a duel, a grunt a grunt, but a lesser could not challenge a better, and certainly not a savage. But that is precisely what Hamas did on October 7th, with the operation Al Aqsa Flood. They attacked ‘Israel’s’ military sites around their concentration camp and took prisoners of war to exchange for their own. They parlayed with the enemy on equal terms, a class violation which infuriated them with its impertinence.

This is what makes the current native rebellion in occupied Palestine different from those in occupied America. The natives are able to reproach White Empire on its own terms, using relatively equivalent (and in some cases superior) technology, and in front of a society that has diversified dramatically. A duel is a fight, really, for honour in front of society, and Hamas et al have shown it, while White Empire (America, ‘Israel’) same thing, have violated every possible sanctity. And still had to negotiate with Hamas directly in the end (not quite the end), to add humiliation to their debasement.