#economic freedom fighters

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Rachel Savage at The Guardian:

South Africans go to the polls on 29 May in elections in which the ruling African National Congress party could lose its majority for the first time since it swept to power in 1994 after the end of apartheid. Chronic unemployment, inequality, power cuts and corruption have contributed to a haemorrhaging of support for the ANC, which won the 2019 election with 57.5% of the vote.

Who are the ANC’s challengers?

The ruling party is battling against established opposition parties such as the economically liberal Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Marxist-inspired Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). It is also being challenged by upstarts such as the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, led by the former president Jacob Zuma, who is bitterly opposed to the current South African leader, Cyril Ramaphosa. Polls have consistently shown the ANC getting less than 50% of the vote. A telephone tracking survey by the Social Research Foundation had it on 44.1% of the vote in a 60% turnout model this week, compared with 39.1% a month earlier. Some analysts think the ANC could still scrape a majority, noting that phone polls often have significant flaws, including underestimating ANC support in rural areas where many poorer votes do not have phones.

[...]

How will the elections work?

Almost 28 million South Africans are registered to vote in national and provincial elections, less than half of the 62 million population. The 400-seat national parliament will vote for the president no later than two weeks after election day. There is no constitutional process for forming a coalition government. South Africa uses a system of proportional representation. Voters get three ballots – two for the National Assembly, each allocating 200 seats, and one for their provincial legislature. One of the national ballots will only have political parties on it. The second will be for one of nine multi-member provincial constituencies. Voters can either opt for a party, which will list its candidates’ names, or an independent.

Could the days of the incumbent African National Congress (ANC) having a majority in South Africa be over and be forced into a coalition to keep them in power? We'll find out in the elections today.

See Also:

MCI Maps Substack: Issue #182: South Africa Election Preview: The ANC Faces its Greatest Test

[robynsassenmyview]

Of anarchy, hadedas on Tik and a pile of books

"Of anarchy, hadedas on Tik and a pile of books", a review of Marianne Thamm's 'Round of Applause' at the Studio Theatre, Montecasino until 24 November 2024.

BIG stories and diverse perspectives: Marianne Thamm in Round of Applause’ at Montecasino until 24 November 2024. Photograph courtesy Montecasino Theatre. YOU MAY BE a little out of sorts if you buy your tickets for Marianne Thamm’s Round of Applause at Montecasino, anticipating a laugh-a-second one woman show. More of a lecture into the value of our unique Constitution and the craziness of…

[sayruq]

[blackbrownfamily]

[dailyanarchistposts]

To The Punjab Governor

Sir, With due respect we beg to bring to your kind notice the following:

That we were sentenced to death on 7th October 1930 by a British Court, L.C.C Tribunal, constituted under the Sp. Lahore Conspiracy Case Ordinance, promulgated by the H.E. The Viceroy, the Head of the British Government of India, and that the main charge against us was that of having waged war against H.M. King George, the King of England.

The above-mentioned finding of the Court pre-supposed two things:

Firstly, that there exists a state of war between the British Nation and the Indian Nation and, secondly, that we had actually participated in that war and were therefore war prisoners.

The second pre-supposition seems to be a little bit flattering, but nevertheless it is too tempting to resist the desire of acquiescing in it.

As regards the first, we are constrained to go into some detail. Apparently there seems to be no such war as the phrase indicates. Nevertheless, please allow us to accept the validity of the pre-supposition taking it at its face value. But in order to be correctly understood we must explain it further. Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the Indian toiling masses and the natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may be purely British Capitalist or mixed British and Indian or even purely Indian. They may be carrying on their insidious exploitation through mixed or even on purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus. All these things make no difference. No matter, if your Government tries and succeeds in winning over the leaders of the upper strata of the Indian Society through petty concessions and compromises and thereby cause a temporary demoralization in the main body of the forces. No matter, if once again the vanguard of the Indian movement, the Revolutionary Party, finds itself deserted in the thick of the war. No matter if the leaders to whom personally we are much indebted for the sympathy and feelings they expressed for us, but nevertheless we cannot overlook the fact that they did become so callous as to ignore and not to make a mention in the peace negotiation of even the homeless, friendless and penniless of female workers who are alleged to be belonging to the vanguard and whom the leaders consider to be enemies of their utopian non-violent cult which has already become a thing of the past; the heroines who had ungrudgingly sacrificed or offered for sacrifice their husbands, brothers, and all that were nearest and dearest to them, including themselves, whom your government has declared to be outlaws. No matter, it your agents stoop so low as to fabricate baseless calumnies against their spotless characters to damage their and their party’s reputation. The war shall continue.

It may assume different shapes at different times. It may become now open, now hidden, now purely agitational, now fierce life and death struggle. The choice of the course, whether bloody or comparatively peaceful, which it should adopt rests with you. Choose whichever you like. But that war shall be incessantly waged without taking into consideration the petty (illegible) and the meaningless ethical ideologies. It shall be waged ever with new vigour, greater audacity and unflinching determination till the Socialist Republic is established and the present social order is completely replaced by a new social order, based on social prosperity and thus every sort of exploitation is put an end to and the humanity is ushered into the era of genuine and permanent peace. In the very near future the final battle shall be fought and final settlement arrived at.

The days of capitalist and imperialist exploitation are numbered. The war neither began with us nor is it going to end with our lives. It is the inevitable consequence of the historic events and the existing environments. Our humble sacrifices shall be only a link in the chain that has very accurately been beautified by the unparalleled sacrifice of Mr. Das and most tragic but noblest sacrifice of Comrade Bhagawati Charan and the glorious death of our dear warrior Azad.

As to the question of our fates, please allow us to say that when you have decided to put us to death, you will certainly do it. You have got the power in your hands and the power is the greatest justification in this world. We know that the maxim “Might is right” serves as your guiding motto. The whole of our trial was just a proof of that. We wanted to point out that according to the verdict of your court we had waged war and were therefore war prisoners. And we claim to be treated as such, i.e., we claim to be shot dead instead of to be hanged. It rests with you to prove that you really meant what your court has said.

We request and hope that you will very kindly order the military department to send its detachment to perform our execution.

Yours

BHAGAT SINGH

[faultfalha]

WATCH: What is happening at Eskom makes the Guptas look like a joke. Jacob Zuma has sold our country to the highest bidder, and now the whole nation is paying the price. Our lights are going out, our economy is in shambles, and our democracy is under threat. But we will not be silenced. We will fight back against Zuma and his cronies, and we will reclaim our democracy. The Guptas may have the money, but we have the people. We will never surrender.

[opencommunion]

The Stop Cop City movement has sought to prevent the expropriation of part of the Welaunee Forest for the development of an 85-acre police mega training center: a model town to prepare the state’s repressive arms for the urban warfare that will ensue when the contradictions of their exploitation and extraction become uncontainable, as they did in 2020 after the APD murdered Rayshard Brooks.  That murder, and all those that came before, were the lodestars of the Black-led movement during the George Floyd uprisings; their demands were no less than the dismantlement of the entire carceral system. Unable to effectively manage or quell the popular street movements, the Atlanta Police Foundation set out to consolidate and expand their capabilities for surveillance, repression, imprisonment, armed violence, and forced disappearance. One result is Cop City, which has been racked by militant sabotage, land occupation, arson, and popular mobilizations, in an attempt to end the construction and return Atlanta to its people.  As the Atlanta Police Foundation was unable to contain the 2020 Black rebellion, so too have they been unable to quell the resistance against Cop City. The press reports that the project is hemorrhaging money and is mired in delays and difficulties. For their part, the city, the state, and the federal government, have in turn employed every tool in their power to destroy the movement. Last week, the Georgia State Senate passed a bill to effectively criminalize bail funds in the state; RICO charges have been contorted to target networks of support and care that surround the fighters; and last January, APD assassinated the comrade Tortuguita in cold blood while they rested in their tent in the forest. It is clear that Stop Cop City represents one of the conjunctural spear tips for expanding the existing systems of counterinsurgency that span Africa, Asia, and the Arab world.  Today the system’s belly rests atop Gaza, whose rumblings shake the earth upon which we walk. Through its Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) program, the APD has sent hundreds of police to train with the Zionist occupation forces. And in October 2023, after Tufan al-Aqsa, the Atlanta Police Department engaged in hostage training inside abandoned hotels, putatively intended to “defeat Hamas,” in an advancement of tactics for the targeting of Black people. With every such expansion, the ability of counterinsurgency doctrines to counteract people’s liberation struggles grows. The purpose of counterinsurgency is to marshal state and para-state power into political, social, economic, psychological, and military warfare to overwhelm both militants and the popular cradle—the people—who support them. Its aim is to render us hopeless; to isolate and dispossess us and to break our will to resist it by any and all means necessary. This will continue apace, unless we fight to end it. Stop Cop City remains undeterred: on Friday, an APD cop car was burnt overnight in response to the police operation on February 8; yesterday, two trucks and trailers loaded with lumber were burnt to the ground. An anonymous statement claiming credit for the former, stated: “We wish to dispel any notion that people will take this latest wave of repression lying down, or that arresting alleged arsonists will deter future arsons.”  As the U.S. government and Zionist entity set their sights on the Palestinian people sheltering in Rafah, as they continue their relentless genocide of our people in Khan Younis, Jabalia, Shuja’iyya, and Gaza City, the Stop Cop City movement has clearly articulated its solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. They have done so with consistency and discipline, and we have heard them. Our vision of freedom in this life and the next requires us to confront and challenge the entangled forces of oppression in Palestine and in Turtle Island, and to identify the sites of tension upon which these systems distill their forces. This week, as with the last three years, the forest defenders have presented us one such crucible.

(11 Feb 24)

National Lawyers Guild, Stop All Cop Cities: Lessons For a National Struggle (video, 1 hr 45 min)

[elbiotipo]

The US does support Israel for ideological reasons, and there is an evangelical and zionist movement that supports it for ideological and religious reasons this is true, but there are also very clear material interests involved. Israel is an eager and hungry buyer for the US military-industrial complex. The incredibly expensive gold-plated F-35 fighter jets are bought by Israel to bomb defenseless refugee camps and targets all over the Middle East. And those are only the most expensive and notable example. All sorts of weapons, from "crowd control" (read: police brutality) to munitions for all of Israel's extremely expensive military systems are bought from the US and ocassionally other militaries (though the US is by FAR the largest seller) in multi-billion dollar contracts.

There is BIG, BIG money in supporting Israel, big fat contracts, incredibly delicate and complex supply chains with lots of people involved. And of course, these military-industrial corporations get practical testing of their weapons when they're openly used by Israel, which the US can use to refine its own military. There are also a lot of other material benefits the US gets by supporting Israel, from intelligence in the wider Middle East to using it as a base to implement US interests in the region from the economic to the political and access to a high-tech economy completely aligned with their interests (all of course, supported by the US and the Israel apartheid system)

When we see the US bending over backwards to support Israel, it's not that they're controlled by it like dumb anti-semitic conspiracies, in fact, it's Israel which is dependent on the US: Israel is a VERY useful asset to the US, in a very real way a gigantic military base for the US and a way to support with money and "experience" its military-industrial complex which it uses to implement Usamerican interests around the world. Israel even does it too like a tiny United States, selling weapons and training militaries and police around the world.

All Usamerican presidents have in one way or other supported Israel, even if Biden's administration is exceptionally callous and fanatical on its blind support for it. But Biden, Trump or whoever, the material interests I've mentioned are still standing. It will take a lot of effort to dismantle them, but it needs to be done, for the freedom of Palestinians and in that way too, the freedom of the rest of the world, because what is done in Israel is what is later used by the US military and its allies to enforce the current imperial system. Always keep in mind this, behind the suffering we see today there is a lot of racist supremacist ideology and human cruetly, but also and more importantly, geopolitical reasons and hard cash. This is not done because of sheer evil, even if the results are indeed evil by any measure of the word. It's done because of the cold logic of empire, and we must understand it to bring it down.

[blackstarlineage]

The Role of Black Women in Garveyism and Pan-Africanism: A Garveyite Perspective on Leadership, Resistance, and Nation-Building

Black women have been the backbone of Garveyism and Pan-Africanism, yet their contributions are often overlooked in mainstream historical narratives. From a Garveyite perspective, Black women were not just supporters but leaders, strategists, and nation-builders who played essential roles in the fight for Black self-determination, economic independence, and global unity.

Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) recognized the indispensable role of Black women in advancing the movement, challenging the notion that only men were the architects of Pan-Africanism. Women were at the forefront as organizers, educators, business leaders, and freedom fighters, proving that the struggle for Black liberation required the full participation of both men and women.

This analysis will explore:

The leadership of Black women in Garveyism and Pan-Africanism.

The role of Black women in the UNIA and their contributions to economic empowerment.

How Black women shaped political and intellectual aspects of Pan-Africanism.

The challenges and erasure of Black women’s contributions in the movement.

How Garveyism provides a framework for true gender equality in Black liberation.

1. Black Women as Leaders in Garveyism: The Backbone of the Movement

A. Amy Ashwood Garvey: Co-Founder of the UNIA and Women's Rights Advocate

Amy Ashwood Garvey was a Pan-Africanist, feminist, and co-founder of the UNIA alongside Marcus Garvey in 1914.

She played a key role in early UNIA, organizing, fundraising, and developing the movement’s first institutions.

After parting ways with Garvey, she continued her Pan-African work, advocating for women’s empowerment and linking African liberation struggles with Caribbean and global Black movements.

Example: She founded the International African Service Bureau (IASB) in London, which influenced African independence leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta.

B. Amy Jacques Garvey: Intellectual Powerhouse and UNIA Editor

Amy Jacques Garvey, Garvey’s second wife, was one of the most influential intellectuals in the Pan-African movement.

She served as editor of the Negro World newspaper, where she published articles advocating for Black women’s leadership in nation-building and economic independence.

She was a strong proponent of Black self-reliance, urging women to take active roles in business, politics, and global liberation movements.

Example: Her book, "Garvey and Garveyism," preserved and expanded on Garvey’s philosophy, ensuring that his ideas influenced future Pan-African struggles.

Key Takeaway: Amy Jacques Garvey proved that Black women were not just supporters but also theorists and leaders in shaping Garveyism and Pan-African thought.

2. Black Women in the UNIA: Organizers, Business Leaders, and Educators

The UNIA was unique among Black liberation organizations in the early 20th century because it actively encouraged women to take leadership roles.

A. The Black Cross Nurses: Health and Nation-Building

The Black Cross Nurses (BCN) was established within the UNIA to provide healthcare, community services, and education to Black communities worldwide.

It modelled itself after the Red Cross, but unlike the Red Cross, which primarily served white communities, the BCN focused on Black health and survival.

Black women in the BCN were trained in medicine, midwifery, and public health, making them key figures in strengthening Black communities.

Example: In Jamaica, the U.S., and Africa, the Black Cross Nurses operated clinics and trained women in health education, making them crucial to Black self-sufficiency.

B. Black Women as Business Owners and Economic Leaders

Garveyism emphasized economic independence as the foundation of Black liberation. Black women were active participants in:

UNIA cooperatives and trade networks, where they built Black-owned businesses.

The Negro Factories Corporation, which established businesses to employ Black people.

The Black Star Line, where women were key financial supporters and investors.

Example: Henrietta Vinton Davis, a leading Garveyite, raised funds for the Black Star Line and helped establish economic initiatives.

Key Takeaway: Garveyism empowered Black women to become business leaders, proving that economic liberation required both men and women’s involvement.

3. Black Women in Political and Intellectual Pan-Africanism

A. Queen Mother Moore: Revolutionary Garveyite and Reparations Advocate

Queen Mother Moore was a lifelong Garveyite who became a leading advocate for African reparations, repatriation, and global Black unity.

She founded organizations that called for African nations to offer citizenship to diaspora Africans.

Her activism directly influenced modern reparations movements in the U.S. and the Caribbean.

Example: She inspired the Republic of Ghana’s "Right of Return" policy, allowing African descendants to reclaim their African heritage.

B. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti: Nigerian Feminist and Pan-African Activist

A Nigerian nationalist and anti-colonial activist, she fought for women’s rights, economic empowerment, and self-governance in Africa.

She was heavily influenced by Garveyism and used its principles to fight British colonial rule in Nigeria.

Example: She led protests against colonial taxation and exploitation, proving that Garveyite Pan-Africanism was a global force for women’s liberation.

Key Takeaway: Pan-Africanism was never just about men—Black women shaped its intellectual and political foundations.

4. The Challenges and Erasure of Black Women in Pan-Africanism

Despite their leadership, Black women have often been erased from historical narratives of Garveyism and Pan-Africanism.

A. Western and Patriarchal Historical Narratives

Many historians focused on Garvey and other male leaders while downplaying the contributions of women.

Some Pan-African male leaders failed to promote women’s political leadership, limiting their visibility in official accounts.

Example: Even today, books and documentaries on Pan-Africanism rarely highlight Amy Jacques Garvey, Queen Mother Moore, or Black Cross Nurses.

Key Takeaway: Garveyite Pan-Africanism must reclaim women’s history and recognize their leadership in liberation movements.

5. How Garveyism Provides a Framework for True Gender Equality in Black Liberation

Garveyism promoted a holistic approach to liberation, in which Black men and women were equal partners in nation-building.

To fulfill Garvey’s vision today, we must:

Promote women’s leadership in Pan-African political and economic institutions.

Prioritize women’s education and economic empowerment as key to Black sovereignty.

Defend Black women from exploitation, erasure, and patriarchal oppression in all liberation movements.

Ensure women’s representation in Pan-African governance, finance, and military structures.

Final Takeaway: Garveyism provides the blueprint for true Black liberation, where both men and women work together as equals to reclaim Africa, control Black economies, and resist white supremacy.

Conclusion: Black Women as the Heart of Pan-Africanism

Black women were not just participants in Garveyism and Pan-Africanism—they were its architects, strategists, and revolutionaries. Their contributions shaped:

The UNIA’s global impact.

Economic self-sufficiency through Black-owned businesses.

The political theory of Pan-African self-determination.

The cultural and intellectual foundation of modern Black liberation movements.

As Marcus Garvey declared, Black women were essential to the rise of a free and independent Black world.

The future of Pan-Africanism must honour their contributions—not just in history books, but in the continued fight for global Black unity and sovereignty.

[warningsine]

Bangladesh’s top court has scaled back the quotas on government jobs that led to widespread student-led protests and violent clashes that killed more than 100 people.

On Sunday afternoon the supreme court overturned a ruling that had reintroduced quotas for all civil service jobs, meaning that 30% were reserved for veterans and relatives of those who fought in the Bangladesh war of independence in 1971.

The supreme court ruling, which was brought forward in light of the protests, stipulated that only 5% of jobs would now be reserved for descendants of freedom fighters and another 2% for those from ethnic minorities or with disabilities, with the rest open to candidates based on merit.

The return of the quotas, which had been scrapped in 2018, sparked anger among students, who argued they were unjust at a time of economic decline and unfairly benefited those in the ruling Awami League party, which was founded by those who fought in the independence war.

Peaceful demonstrations initially broke out on university campuses across the country as students mobilised through social media to demand an end to the quotas. However, the unrest turned violent last week as pro-government groups were accused of attacking the protesters with weapons and riot police used rubber bullets and teargas to break up protests.

Protesters hit back at police with bricks and stones in clashes across the country and stormed the headquarters of the state broadcaster in Dhaka, setting it alight. In another city, protesters broke into a prison and released hundreds of inmates.

The clashes between pro-government forces and protesters have left thousands injured and killed about 150, though the government has refused to release official data on the death toll. Witnesses have alleged that police violence is responsible for a large number of the fatalities.

The government has also imposed a communications blackout, with the internet shut down and phone lines widely jammed. At least 70 leaders of the political opposition and several student leaders and activists have also been arrested, accused of stirring up unrest.

As the court ruling was given on Sunday, the country remained under a strict indefinite curfew, with people banned from leaving their homes and gathering in any capacity. Police were granted “shoot on sight” orders for those who violated the curfew and the capital, Dhaka, resembled a war zone, with military personnel and tanks patrolling the streets and army helicopters flying low over the city. While the roads were largely deserted, protests continued in some quarters of the capital.

Student organisers said the supreme court ruling did not mean the end of the protests, which have escalated into the greatest challenge in years to the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, with many calling for her resignation. Hasina, who has been in office since 2009, has been accused of authoritarianism and rampant corruption and her re-election in January was widely documented as rigged.

Mahfuzul Hasan, a protest coordinator from Jahangirnagar University, said they still had several demands that the government must meet before they would call off the demonstrations.

“Now we want justice for the lives lost of our brothers. The prime minister has to apologise and those who are guilty have to be tried,” he said. Hasan said student groups were also calling for the removal of vice-chancellors of universities where protesters faced violence, and politicians who spread inflammatory remarks about the protesters.

He said he was among many student protest leaders who now feared for their safety and were concerned about being “abducted” by law enforcement agencies, as has often happened to critics of Hasina’s government.

Hasib Al-Islam, a Dhaka university student and protest coordinator, said he saw the supreme court verdict as positive but said students were waiting to see how Hasina’s government responded and were demanding that a quota reform bill be passed through parliament.

Islam said: “Our protest against the quota system is already under way, and it will continue until the government issues a executive order in line with our reform demands.”

Among those calling for justice was the family of Abu Sayeed, a final year English student who killed in the protests on Thursday, allegedly by the police. A video of Sayeed being fired at by police during a protest at a university in the city of Rangpur had gone viral on social media before the government shut down the internet. Hospital sources said Sayeed had rubber bullet wounds on his body when he was brought in dead.

Sayeed’s brother Abu Hossain said Sayeed had been the only one in the family to make it to university. “The entire family was so proud of him; we had such high hopes for him,” said Hossain. “My parents are in shock; our only hope is lost.”

Hossain said his family stood behind the protesting students and wanted justice for his murder. “My brother died for demanding fair rights for every student,” he said. “He died a martyr. I hope he’ll be remembered for it and his death was not in vain.”

[theoi-crow]

In honor of the new Barbie movie I decided to heal my inner child and get a barbie I can pose and dress!

I put her on Aphrodite's altar for Aphrodite to bless her since she's the one, along with my spouse, that gave me the idea to get her (because I'm a part of the trans community, I put her in the flag colors!):

When I was a kid I wasn't allowed to play with Barbie dolls despite being AFAB because my mother HATED Barbie and would force me to play with those baby dolls that make kids pretend to be mothers even though I never wanted to have kids and couldn't see myself ever being a mother because my mom was trying to "train me" to be a good house wife for a future husband™️.

For Christmas because of my very poor economic status, I was given a barbie doll by the local fire fighters toy donation drive. She was my first barbie doll, and she meant the world to me. While I know there are a lot of people who have problems with Barbie for various reasons, to me she was very accepting and incredibly kind. To me she represented potential and because barbie herself was never a mother, to someone like me who was constantly being trained to be a mother and used for free baby sitting labor (I've taken care of over 80 kids from almost every stage of life from toddler to 13 year olds) she represented freedom! The freedom to be who I wanted to be and not what my mother expected.

I only had her for three months before my mother threw her away. I was devastated and after that I never got another doll again but I started doodling Barbie and would make my own cut outs of her so I could dress her with outfit cutouts. I read barbie books and would watch her movies because I still kept her in my heart.

I tried to ignore my feelings regarding the first Barbie trailer but after the latest one and watching Barbie cry I broke down and cried for my childhood and missing my doll and getting good at drawing because I drew her so often. Sky and Aphrodite convinced me to get a Barbie doll to heal my inner child and I finally did and it feels like I'm finally healing. So I'm really happy to look at her and say:

[perpetuallyfive]

did you think act 2 had a dip in quality when in comes to writing? i've seen so many people complaining and i can't, for the life of me, understand why, apart from people having these really personal expectations that weren't met (vi's pitfighter era being just the montage, caitlyn not spelling out her inner turmoils, isha's entire existence, jinx being family oriented instead of a freedom fighter, sky is also pissing people off lol), and I'm just so confused bc idk if I'm just easier to please, or if my lack of expectations just allowed me to enjoy the story plain and simple

I think there's a fair chance that many of the people complaining didn't watch season 1 until all three acts were released and aren't used to watching Arcane as a week to week experience; a huge percentage of the people in this fandom only joined it around the time they saw an "oil and water" gif set. No shade, of course. I can understand why people weren't jumping to watch women written by Riot, but that does color how you're going to view the pacing of a season.

This very well might be the first time a lot of those complaining built up expectations of where the story would head next, how they'd watch the struggle play out between Zaun and Piltover, only to see things they wanted to watch in depth get covered in a montage.

The fact that a single montage tells us everything we need to know about where Vi is at and what she's been up to is actually good, economical storytelling, but that's not the kind of thing people are used to in most shows. If you go back and watch the pilot of Arcane, so many things happen in that one episode. You get almost a full season of TV in a single 42 minutes of Arcane. A lot of other shows are just filling time, running in place until one of the two or three big moments for the whole season can happen a few episodes later.

That's not how Arcane works now or ever.

I imagine if some people had watched season 1 week to week — with lots of time to imagine what came next while at the edge of their seat — they would have been upset that we never saw the three youngest girls growing up. Act 1 ends with this huge cliffhanger and then we jump an unspecified amount of time into the future. We don't spend time with Vi in jail, we don't actually see any of the trauma alluded to. We don't see the tension in Caitlyn's relationship with her mom and how that plays out over time, which is a pretty huge part of season 2. We don't see Jinx's transformation into the damaged girl she becomes. All of that happens off screen and is only implied.

The techniques people are complaining about this season are exactly the same as last time, when they loved the show. But if you watched everything all at once before — no time to build up an imagined result that didn't pan out — and were reassured by how much you liked the payoff, then maybe you didn't even notice these things that you can hyper analyze while you wait 7 days for the next drop.

Hell, I saw multiple people surprised that introducing tension into Vi and Caitlyn's relationship has already paid off so well because it led to, you know... tension. Some people are so used to shows not doing anything that they are surprised when actually doing things can turn out to be interesting.

I think a lot of the things you say people are complaining about are probably going to be covered in act 3. Jinx has always been family oriented. She only cared for the found family she had with Vander, and then Silco took that place. She didn't give a shit about anyone else working with him, and actively made their lives harder just for fun. It's going to take some effort and time to move her from that pretty self-interested place she's always occupied to being some kind of freedom fighter risking herself for strangers, and Isha was a vital part of getting her there.

I also think there's a really strong chance that isn't even Sky, but rather a manifestation of her created by the Hextech/Void/Whatever that consumed her using her as a puppet to manipulate Viktor into spreading its influence further and faster. But who knows! There's an entire three episodes left and, again, a single episode of Arcane covers so much and always has. None of us can actually know where the stories will be one episode later, let alone three.

Look, for all I know, this might not pan out. We never know if a show is going to stick the landing one season to the next. But they're not really doing anything differently from last time, so I don't see a reason to panic or complain yet.

[lazyveran]

ask about your arranged marriage au you say >:) :evil_hand_rub:

So. to begin with. Why and How is this what happened? is it a postwar diplomatic treaty thing, and Zuko is already too married to Mai to be the one wed? How much Hell did Azula and Katara put whoever suggested it through, and how did it end up happening anyways? What were each of the girls up to prior to the engagement? how do they feel about it? What does the world look like at the time of this AU, both in terms of the big worldwide stuff and the roles and relationships between the Gaang, whatever side characters are around, and their political positions? Be warned: highly likely that I will continue to enquire

you have unleashed the most self indulgent lore dump. thank you so much for asking. my long winded rambles under the cut

the setting of this au has two major changes; aang is never discovered (im so sorry my baby boy) and iroh is a much more active player within the fire nation. essentially, iroh begins consolidating the white lotus almost immediately after azulon's murder. as such, the fire siblings become terribly co-dependant in both ursa and iroh's absence as he's constantly away scheming against ozai. zuko doesnt get burned at 14. he gets burned at 19! and azula kills ozai for it, setting off a domino effect that lands an underprepared iroh on the throne trying to end the 100 years war as per his agreement with the white lotus members (before azula jumped the gun)

the azutara marriage occurs for like 2000 reasons but the main one is that iroh is forced to make several concessions in order to end the war as his ministers are terribly pro-ozai, thanks to ozai's scheming before azula prematurely offed him, and that the northern water tribe refuses to sign and end the war with the FN, unlike the other nations. azula, having been the princess-general ravaging the earth kingdoms in a five-year long campaign, therefore didnt get to show her face in the water tribes, gets chosen as the one to marry into the southern water tribe. as both a savvy diplomatic move to solidify the peace and to work with said wife towards peace with their sister tribe. iroh has no choice but to agree, and azula as a loyal princess with duty to the throne, also has to agree. (she is terribly, extremely unhappy with this due to ursa-parallel related reasons. and its azula.)

katara is chosen both for her position as the daughter of the chief, and for her prowess as a master bender (to match azula's known reputation). katara herself has been working as a sort of renegade freedom fighter away from the south pole, mostly working against the admiral-prince zuko and his three year campaign against the water tribes. sokka and herself work with an elite team, the black tail wolf pack (extremely indulgent name please forgive me) as guerilla fighters against the fire nation essentially. katara is EXTREMELY unhappy about the marriage alliance that her father has signed her off to, but like azula, her duty to her people and to peace overrides her extreme dislike of the situation.

zuko is the admiral-prince, heir to the throne, burned and shamed by the late firelord ozai, and... marrying toph bei fong. NOW PLEASE hear me out on this. stay with me. as part of the peace agreed by iroh, and the fire nation's precarious position now that expansion and pillaging cant fund their economy, an agreement is made with the earth kingdoms to marry into the wealthiest family in the world. its purely an economic marriage, but since the bei fongs are essentially the only homogenous earth territory ''royals'' that aren't strictly attatched to one kingdom but all of them, and have a daughter to spare, well. their relationship is the funniest to me, they're very much a platonic-married-besties situation. zuko himself is conducting a dreadfully obvious affair with mai, and his siege-weapon of a wife does not care in the slighest. in fact she actively encourages it, as being wife to the heir to the fire nation throne gives her freedom away from her family to be herself. there will be rising tensions between the bei fongs and the fire royals, naturally, as well as toph's own character clashing with the 'no fun allowed' fire nation.

azutara's relationship is an EXTREME slow burn, enemies to enemy-wives to friends to lovers. they're both 20 at the time they're married, but both have been child soldiers for years. azula spends a week acting like an arrogant prat and treating her wife like a peasant through politicking power plays before katara just kicks her ass three times over and azula realises theres actually no power imbalance to play off of. she promptly begins acting like mr darcy. katara has to grapple with the very alien culture of the fire nation and stumbles through all the subtlties of both court and royal life, as well as having to deal with her enemy turned wife and the absolute paradox of a woman that azula is. AND negotiating with her hostile sister tribe into trying to broker peace after a generation of war. i think marrying azula is harder than the whole 'world peace' affair really. they're both miserable and angry and cant understand each other but still see each other

sokka will be an intermitten character, as he becomes a diplomat for the southern water tribe as well as a member of the three nations peace council set up in the wake of the war. im trying to add in suki but im unsure on how, perhaps as another representative or something. ursa will have a plotline and azula will NOT be happy about it at all. iroh is frankly wracked with guilt that in order for peace he has to make the last of his family utterly miserable. all their relationships are complicated and messy and everyone's a little awful

i think a really fun aspect of this au is my odd ideas about azula and gender. azula is, in the eyes of the fire nation, both male AND female. female as a princess, a woman who's royal duties involve marriage and so on. but her status as a master fire bender legally classifies her as male. honestly the fire nation cannot afford to disregard azula on gender lines, since she's the most powerful fire bender on the planet at this point. she's a general in the military too, a traditionally male held role, and so azula herself becomes a grey area in terms of legal gender. as such, azula is technically kataras HUSBAND, not wife. and with that comes all the expectations of a husband over a wife in a royal imperial court. very very indulgent of me i fear

i hope this lore dump/word vomit makes some sort of sense. please feel free to ask more abt this au!!!! i have many many worldbuilding hcs for the fire nation and this au <3333

[probablyasocialecologist]

According to research by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), the UK has licensed more than £472 million in arms exports to Israel since 2015. This includes tank components, armour-piercing ammunition and small arms, but, in keeping with the structure of the British weapons industry, aerospace components for fighters and drones predominate. It’s difficult to get clear numbers from the arms industry. The headline figure is taken from the value of standard licences, but the UK also operates a system of open licences that permit transfers of unlimited – and unspecified – quantities of particular military goods. Since 2015, 57 such licences have been granted for export to Israel, ten of those in 2022. They include British components for the American-designed F-35 aircraft, which campaigners estimate have been worth £336 million to the companies (primarily BAE Systems) producing them. Because the quantities of goods issued under open licences are not made public, groups such as CAAT have to back-engineer their value. In recent years the government has become increasingly hostile to Freedom of Information requests on arms, but there is enough publicly available data to be certain that the planes currently flattening apartment blocks and refugee camps in Gaza rely on components engineered and manufactured in Britain. There is little appetite in Westminster for reform of the domestic arms industry. For one thing, it is a rare economic success story. The UK is the second largest exporter of defence items in the world and, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Initiative, the sixth largest exporter of major conventional weapons (which means everything short of weapons of mass destruction), primarily aircraft. The total value of standard licences issued in 2021 was £10.7 billion, and the industry depends on its aerospace sector, which accounts for 72 per cent of export business. More than half of all British defence exports go to the Middle East – but to Saudi Arabia rather than Israel. Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, accuse BAE Systems of being party to Saudi war crimes in Yemen, where BAE-supplied (and serviced) fighters have bombed schools and hospitals.

James Butler, Up in Arms

[girlactionfigure]

IDF OPERATION "OUTSTRETCHED ARM" SPECIAL UPDATE

Today, July 20th, 2024, Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime in Yemen. All of the pilots returned home safely.

The strike was conducted in response to the Houthis' ongoing terrorist attacks on Israel in recent months. These attacks have included the launch of hundreds of aerial threats, one of which resulted in the death of Israeli citizen Yevgeny Ferder z”l and the injury of several other civilians.

Israeli Air Force jets executed an extensive operational strike over 1,800 kilometers away from Israel, targeting locations in the area of the Al Hudaydah Port in Yemen. The Al Hudaydah Port serves as an entryway for Iranian weapons to the Houthi terrorist regime and is a significant economic source for them. This strike is one of the furthest from Israeli territory ever conducted by the Israeli Air Force.

In recent months, the Houthis have been working to destabilize the Middle East. Their terror attacks, funded and directed by Iran, harm maritime freedom in the area, regional ports, the Suez Canal, and global trade as a whole.

Under Iran's guidance, attacks against Israel and Western nations are conducted by Iranian-funded, armed, and directed proxies. This strategy allows Iran to hide and avoid the consequences of war.

The IDF will continue to defend the State of Israel against terror threats wherever necessary and will maintain the security of Israeli civilians.

[akajustmerry]

Hey, i genuinely want to know. Do you know why the other Arab countries do nothing substansial to defeat or to pressure Israel (and US) to back off from Gaza (and Palestine)? Is it because they don't want Israel and US also to attack them? Don't they have responsibility as part of shared history or something.

Please explain it like i'm a five year old. Thank you so much 🇵🇸

okay -

Firstly, It is not up to other SWANA / Arab countries to "defeat" Israel, it's on Israel to fucking stop killing Palestinians.

Other SWANA countries ARE helping Palestinians. Yemeni freedom fighters have been blocking ships in the Red Sea for weeks as an act of protest to demand a ceasefire. Hezbollah has been fighting Israel from Lebanon for decades. Egypt has sent dozens, if not 100s of aid trucks so have other Arab countries. Why are they not getting to Palestinians?? Because Israel is refusing to let them through.

Put simply, Syria, and Lebanon have been in dire economic and political crisis for YEARS due to Western imperialism in the region. Add on top of that they're under constant threat of invasion from Israel (who is already occupying parts of both countries), how would you like them to "pressure" and "defeat" Israel when a huge portion of the population of both countries are living in poverty????

Israel, like any other immoral settler colonial project, has always deployed divide and conquer methods. fighting proxy wars in Syria, Lebanon and other areas to weaken nations and their bonds. They have done this in Iran, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

"Don't they have a responsibility" sure I guess they do, but you know who else has a fucking responsibility??? Israel and the US and the UK have a responsibility not to commit genocide.

This kind of question, while I'm sure you mean well, is irritating because what you're unconsciously doing is putting the responsibility of colonialism on the colonised. Israel is responsible for the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. The reason Palestinians aren't receiving aid is because of Israel, end of story. You're also making a really racist and tribalist assumption that SWANA people are all a monolith who should all get on because they're the same. This isn't true of any region anywhere in the world. Hell, this isn't even true of countries, states or towns. Please just do better and make an effort to do basic research on the SWANA region.