Instagram Censors Students, Telegram Founder Arrested, and Russia’s WWIII Warning

From campus activism to international tensions, we discuss the latest developments that are shaping global politics and international workers' struggles.

Key stories include:

• Instagram's shutdown of anti-genocide student group accounts: Censorship on the rise
• Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested in France: The charges and implications
• Vladimir Putin's stark warning: How close are we to World War III?
• Dakkota workers reject UAW's sellout attempts: A lesson in rank-and-file power
• China-Philippines collision in the South China Sea: US defense treaty on the line

Tune in for an in-depth analysis of these critical events and their impact on the working class worldwide. We'll break down the facts, connect the dots, and provide the socialist perspective you won't hear in mainstream media.

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Student Intifada

• Instagram shuts down accounts of anti-genocide student groups before start of fall classes
• Censorship - Lots incoming
• Jacksonville SDS on Instagram
• "Last Spring, UNF tried to silence us with illegal arrests, blatant violations of our First Amendment rights, and rigged student conduct hearings. They think this was enough to defeat us, but our fight is just getting started. This semester, we’re pushing for the same demands that started our encampment:
• Disclose all university investments
• Divest from Israel and zionist weapons manufacturers
• Defend Palestinian and pro-Palestine students!
• We will not stop until we win these demands! Join us as we move forward to victory!"
• Reach out to us
• [YouTube] Student Strike for Palestine
• Shafik to join a U.K. government increasingly critical of Israel
• Colleges would face financial punishments for boycotting or divesting from Israel under new Pa. bill

Russia x France

Russia youtube

Russia x Ukraine

• Strike on Saratov and Engels
• Not near any military targets
• Simply hitting residential buildings
• Air defense “working”
• Putin warns the West a Russia-NATO conflict is just one step from World War Three

War and Revolution - the Leninist Doctrine

Is history repeating 110 years on

Lenin: Opportunism, and the Collapse of the Second International

Congo coup

• Scheduled for execution
• Reasons
• Sources:
• Family of Utah man held in Congo coup attempt has no proof he's alive
• Family of American caught up in Congo failed coup says their son we...
• Americans in alleged Congo coup plot formed an unlikely band
• Prosecutors seek death penalty for 3 Americans implicated in allege...

Sicily

• A tornado sank a luxury sailing boat off the coast of Sicily. Here’s what we know
• 1:14-1:18

Germany

German interior minister seeks to massively step up police state powers

China

• Blockade
• Newsweek US sends defense treaty trigger warning to China
• Chinese and Philippine ships collide again in disputed waters, and the countries are trading blame
• 40 Chinese Ships Blockade Resupply Mission to Philippine Coast Guard Flagship in South China Sea

DNC recap

• Hasan heads hanging with Charlie Kirk

Layoffs

• Kellogg’s to close Omaha, Nebraska plant, destroying 550 jobs
• Paramount Global to slash 15 percent of workforce as jobs disaster in film and television deepens
• Stellantis announces 2,450 permanent layoffs at Warren Truck, escalating global jobs bloodbath
• Massive job cuts in the German automotive and supplier industry
• Dell announces mass layoffs amid expanding global tech job cuts
• Intel slashes 15,000 jobs as US unemployment rate jumps to 4.3 percent
• Socialist Equality Group meeting on Wellington rail workers’ dispute calls for rank-and-file committee
• MEGA LIST

Union Updates

“We are still in the fight”: Less than an hour after striking Dakkota parts workers reject third sellout, UAW bureaucracy announces a fourth

• Over 450 workers at Dakotta have been on strike for more than two weeks against poverty wages and abysmal working conditions at the parts plant.
• The vote was a massive rebuke to the union bureaucracy. A critical factor in the rejection of the vote was the initiative of the newly formed Dakkota Workers Rank-and-File Committee, which issued a statement titled, “Dakkota workers: Vote NO and reject UAW-corporate blackmail! Organize rank-and-file oversight of the vote!”

Workers across the US attend rank-and-file meeting on Warren Truck layoffs, Dakkota parts strike

• The UAW apparatus is desperate to shut down the strike in order to isolate Dakkota workers from workers at Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant—which the plant supplies and which is still running with scab parts—as well as Stellantis workers, who are facing mass layoffs.
• Describing the efforts by the UAW bureaucracy to repeatedly ram through Dakkota’s poverty-wage contract, one worker said during the meeting, “It felt like it was illegal what they did, because they were rushing us to vote. Now we’re taking this into our own hands.”
• Another worker continued, “I’m ready to lose my house [if I have to]. But I want everybody here in the industry to stand with us, stand strong with us around the world, let them know that they cannot continue doing this.”
• “Organize in rank-and-file committees, with an international perspective”
• “We are holding this meeting today to prepare action to stop job cuts and to fight for higher wages throughout the auto industry,” Lehman said.
• Pointing to the 2,450 layoffs announced by Stellantis at Warren Truck to take effect October 8, he said, “This shows what the ‘historic contracts’ between the UAW and the Big Three really are. These were concessionary agreements with [concessions] the UAW bureaucracy withheld knowledge of.”
• The UAW’s sellout of the Big Three contract fight has enabled the companies to accelerate their global attack on jobs, affecting autoworkers in every country, he continued. “In Italy, Stellantis is looking to destroy up to 25,000 jobs … in Germany, Volkswagen is taking measures to reduce capacity.”
• These are all transnational corporations, which “scour the globe for the most exploitable sources of labor,” he continued. “And in each country they use the national trade unions to pit workers against each other,” by saying “that jobs can only be secured on the basis of accepting higher exploitation than workers in other countries.”
• The union bureaucracy “has lost all legitimacy to lead this struggle … they will enforce the company’s dictates until they shutter the plants.”
• He then turned to the sham election which brought Fain to power, noting he “was elected by about 3 percent of the membership. They didn’t want to risk [a fight against the] bureaucracy, for the workers to take power, so they had to suppress any knowledge of the election at all.” Over the summer, Lehman won a court ruling in his lawsuit against mass vote suppression. A subsequent statement by the IWA-RFC has called for the election to be re-run, overseen by the rank and file.
• When he launched his election campaign, Lehman continued, “We said that one bureaucrat replacing another will not bring about reforms … so it’s up to the workers at all of the plants. What we need to do is organize separately in rank-and-file committees, with an international perspective.”
• The bureaucracy, he continued, was not just in bed with management “but also with the government.” He pointed to Fain’s appearance at the Democratic National Committee, where he promoted Kamala Harris and Joe Biden as “friends” of the working class, while attacking the fascistic Trump as a “scab.”

Other Important Links

• Class War 2024: The Tasks of Communists in the Coming Election
• RCI Statement: Fight Imperialism and War! Workers of the World Unite!
• [Mainstream Media] LIVE: Pro-Palestinian, anti-DNC protest downtown Chicago
• DNC Won’t Budge on Israel Support, Even as Genocide Sets Region Ablaze, w/ Ali Abunimah

ACP

https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/jdtlmh/what_the_hells_up_w_christopher_helali/

Germany

Undercurrents on Instagram:

• "In a July 15 arraignment hearing, the Los Angeles County District Attorney charged 19 Claremont students with criminal trespassing for participating in a divestment sit-in on April 5, during which Pomona President Gabi Starr called riot police to arrest the students. The DA dropped charges against the one other student who police arrested in the crowd outside Alexander Hall on April 5, for alleged obstruction of justice. Because Pomona College is the alleged victim of trespassing, the DA would most likely drop the trespassing charges if Starr requested it, the students' attorney Jaime Guttierez said. Because the charges were a “first offense” for all 19 students, the DA offered a diversion program, which would result in the charges being sealed if the students do not get arrested again within six months and complete 16 community service hours. The students are scheduled to appear again in court to accept the deal, or enter a plea, on Aug. 23.
• By letting the DA file charges, “Pomona is trying to set multiple dangerous precedents of deploying riot police on students and now refusing to drop a criminal case against them,” PDfA said in a July 22 Instagram post. “We know that this will impact generations of community organizers and funnel more people into the systemically racist carceral system.”"

unfsds

Palestine

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USA

• Pittsburgh plans to close 16 schools, devastating communities
• Trib: Arnold police chief suspended pending investigation
• "AOC is a warning to all socialists”
• a textbook example of how corrosive electoralism and parliamentary struggle can become. Her fall shows how easy it is to be swallowed up by the establishment and find yourself compromising principle after principle. As the social democratic project of the 2010s collapses in on itself the Left must look forward to more politically sophisticated and developed forms of organisation - it must set its sights beyond the boundaries of Congress and turn towards something far greater - revolution. . . .

@xiandivyne#fyp #xiandivyne #election #dnc #kamalaharris #politics

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Ukraine

• Russian Neo-Stalinists, Maoists oppose the campaign to free Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk

Title: "The Fight for Freedom: From Russia to the US, Socialists Stand Against Oppression"

In a world rife with conflict and injustice, socialists are making their voices heard. From the imprisonment of Ukrainian activist Bogdan Syrotiuk to the solidarity shown by framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers in India, the global working class is uniting against oppression. This blog post delves into the ongoing struggle for freedom, highlighting the case of Bogdan Syrotiuk, a young socialist facing treason charges in Ukraine for his anti-war stance. We'll explore how his fight resonates with workers worldwide, including those in India who have faced similar injustices. Join us as we examine the power of international solidarity in the face of political persecution and the relentless pursuit of peace amidst geopolitical tensions.