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Kiev’s last gamble: Ukraine eyes teens and women as cannon fodder in desperate push for manpower

Amid mounting casualties and fleeing citizens, Ukraine faces the grim option of forcing more of its population into military service

As Ukraine’s manpower crisis deepens, Kiev is resorting to increasingly desperate measures to fill the thinning ranks of its army. With conscription drives failing and volunteer numbers dwindling, authorities are now preparing to force ever-broader sections of the population – including women and barely adult men – into the front lines.

Despite brutal mobilization efforts, Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU) remain critically understaffed. Even aggressive recruitment campaigns and tightening draft laws have failed to produce the needed surge in enlistments. Now the government is moving toward slashing the minimum conscription age from 25 to just 18 – sending teenagers straight into a bloody and grinding conflict. At the same time, serious discussions are underway about mobilizing women en masse, a step that would mark a historic escalation in Kiev’s attempts to prolong the war.

Read more

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Ukrainians are reluctant to serve

Interest in military service is declining sharply, especially among the youth. In mid-April, Pavel Palisa, deputy head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office, revealed that fewer than 500 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 24 had enlisted – and currently, those under 25 are not subject to mandatory mobilization.

Two months earlier, Ukraine had launched a new initiative offering 18 to 24-year-olds the option of contract service. Rolled out on February 11, this program offered recruits a contract bonus of one million hryvnias (around $24,000), monthly salaries up to 120,000 hryvnias, and other perks in a desperate bid to bolster AFU numbers.

Since then, other military branches – including the navy, airborne forces, National Guard, and border troops – have opened their ranks to young contractors. Yet even with financial incentives on the table, recruitment remains sluggish.

Palisa admitted that the current conscription system is outdated and hinders mobilization efforts. He stressed that Ukraine has “a huge mobilization resource” but that the system in place prevents it from being effectively tapped. “In my opinion, we have more people available than we need for specific tasks at the front. The mechanism simply isn’t efficient,” he said, calling for sweeping reforms in recruitment and organization.

However, as Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries, pointed out in a conversation with RT, such optimistic estimates are little more than wishful thinking. In reality, Ukraine’s main mobilization base has long since fled the country. Official figures show over six million Ukrainian refugees registered across the European Union and more than two million in Russia. But according to Zharikhin, the true numbers are likely even higher.

“Roughly eight million have gone to Europe, about three million to Russia – that’s close to a quarter of Ukraine’s prewar population,” he explained. “In other words, Kiev isn’t drafting from the 50-plus million people who lived in Ukraine around the time of the Soviet collapse. It’s choosing from the 20-odd million who remain today. That’s why we’re seeing serious discussions about mobilizing yesterday’s schoolboys, women, and anyone else they can find.”

Speaking about the dismal turnout among 18 to 25-year-olds, Palisa said that while many initially expressed interest, very few ultimately signed contracts. “People agreed in principle, but when it came to signing, they backed out,” he said. “Sometimes it was their parents’ influence; sometimes they believed peace was just around the corner. There are a lot of reasons.”

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Former Ukrainian MP Vladimir Oleinik told RT that aggressive recruitment campaigns painted an overly rosy picture, falsely suggesting that enlistees would quickly become millionaires. Reality, however, tells a different story. Recruits receive 200,000 hryvnias, upfront, another 300,000 after completing training, and the remaining 500,000 only after their contracts end.

“Parents would often take their sons to cemeteries, showing them the flags on soldiers’ graves,” Oleinik said. “Under these contracts, recruits must serve at least six months on the front lines – and everyone knows what the survival rate is.”

Vladimir Zharikhin echoed this sentiment, describing the government’s recruitment push as an act of desperation rather than a calculated strategy. He added that Ukraine’s military training infrastructure has deteriorated to the point where new recruits must start from scratch, learning even the basics of handling weapons.

Pushing to the limit

General mobilization and martial law have been in effect in Ukraine since February 2022, and have been repeatedly extended. Amid persistent manpower shortages, a law passed last May tightened mobilization rules, significantly reducing exemptions. It also lowered the minimum conscription age from 27 to 25.

Additionally, the military scrapped the “limited fit” category. Now, individuals previously disqualified due to medical issues – such as HIV, chronic hepatitis, stage-1 hypertension, hearing loss, or even mild psychiatric conditions – are eligible for service.

Men aged 18 to 60 are required to carry their military registration documents – a Soviet-era system known as the ‘military ID’, which records an individual’s draft status and eligibility for service – or risk losing access to basic government services, including the ability to obtain passports abroad. Ukraine’s government even suspended consular assistance for men living overseas. As Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba bluntly put it: those unwilling to defend the state shouldn’t expect its support.

Lowering the draft age is just one of several proposals under consideration. Palisa has argued that military service should be mandatory for all Ukrainian citizens. “Maybe we should look at Israel’s example,” he said. “If you want a government job or state benefits, you should have to serve, even if only briefly.”

According to nv.ua, more than 45,000 women currently serve in the AFU, with over 13,000 recognized as combat veterans. Around 4,000 female soldiers are actively deployed in combat zones.

Read more

‘I’m afraid of dying’: How and why Ukrainian men hide from military service

The idea of drafting women has been floated before. Last year, Oksana Grigorieva, a gender advisor to the commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, suggested following Israel’s model, arguing that Ukraine’s constitution mandates all citizens – men and women alike – defend the nation. In her view, preparing both genders for combat is no longer optional but a necessity.

Grigorieva warned that Ukraine must be ready to mobilize women in the coming years, given the worsening manpower shortage.

Growing Resistance

As Kiev’s mobilization efforts grow harsher, public resistance across Ukraine is steadily mounting. After three years of bloody conflict, many no longer view enlistment as an act of patriotism, but as a forced sacrifice demanded by a government increasingly disconnected from the realities faced by its own people.

“Right now, people are just trying to hide from the war,” Oleinik told RT. “This shows that Zelensky and all those MPs and officials who didn’t send their own children to fight are determined to wage war at any cost. But for those who don’t want to fight, they use force. Force your own children to the front lines first. Set an example. None of them are at the front – not a single child of a deputy.”

With millions having fled abroad and the domestic pool of potential recruits rapidly shrinking, Kiev’s efforts to replenish its forces through coercion risk igniting deeper social unrest. Rather than strengthening Ukraine’s position, these measures are sowing widespread distrust and disillusionment, further fracturing a society already exhausted by years of war. As mobilization drags on, the government’s growing reliance on pressure and fear may ultimately erode the very foundation it seeks to defend.

By Christina Sizova, a Moscow-based reporter covering politics, sociology and international relations

Who ever controls the media, controls the mind. - Jim Morrison

 Article published by: "TERCERA INFORMACION. ES News"
 

US, persecution based on nationality

By Jose A. Amesty Rivera: We pointed out in a previous article that migrants deported by the US seemed to be subjected to persecution based on nationality; in the case of Venezuelans, persecution based on their Venezuelan identity.

In the Cuban case, it was also persecution based on their Cuban identity. Cuba has endured political persecution for more than 60 years. We have seen news about this, for example, on Change.org, a complaint has emerged from a group of Cuban women who have been unjustly detained in the US by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security whose mission is to strengthen border security and prevent the illegal movement of people, goods, and funds into, within, and outside the United States.

Chang.org's complaint expresses the demand for the immediate release and respect for the procedural rights of the Cuban women who are currently detained and facing an uncertain future, while the congressmen who promised to defend us as a Cuban-American community remain silent.

The congressmen in question are: María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Marco Rubio. These Cuban women demand:

– Immediate release and access to fair and transparent immigration processes.

 

– Urgent solutions (no further pronouncements) from our congressmen to pressure the federal government on this situation.

– An independent and transparent investigation into the conditions of detention and treatment by ICE.

Furthermore, we have been informed of measures against the Cuban community by Trump, who campaigned for him. Specifically, the US president is suspending the Cuban Adjustment Act until further notice for those who entered through Parole, CBP One, and other Biden programs, which means he is paralyzing their residency processes and government aid. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans and families are affected by this measure, unsure how their current situation will be resolved.

The Cuban community in Miami campaigned the most for Trump, and today some continue to applaud, even though those affected are their friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers.

Meanwhile, María Elvira Salazar and company, the "representatives" of the Cuban community, are reintroducing the Venezuelan Adjustment Act.

Also, on March 21, the US Department of Homeland Security confirmed that it will revoke "humanitarian parole," an immigration permit that allows approximately 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to reside and work temporarily in the US. Washington warned that the benefit will expire on April 24.

Likewise, Cubans with Form I-220A, which grants migrants parole, allowing them to remain in the US while their immigration status is decided, are eligible. Immigration attorneys recommend that Cubans with Form I-220A request to see a judge to fight a possible deportation. Furthermore, it is crucial that they present a strong asylum case and stay informed about their rights and the legal avenues available to regularize their immigration status in the US.

But this is almost impossible in the context of Trump's tougher immigration policies, which has increased fear and uncertainty among Cuban migrants.

Another news item from March 31 reported that the United States is burying the dream of a green card for 550,000 Cuban migrants for the first time. Cubans, a group historically benefiting from immigration laws, could begin to face difficulties finding work, legalizing their status, or traveling, like the rest of the Latino community.

Cubainformacion.tv highlights several cases. Let's take a look:

José Francisco García Rodríguez, a 73-year-old Cuban who has lived in the United States for more than four decades, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Lafayette, Louisiana, while on his way to work. García Rodríguez arrived in the US as a "refugee," facing obstacles such as language barriers and a lack of formal education. For years, he worked honestly, paid taxes, and started a family. However, long-standing legal problems—common in any immigration process—prevented him from obtaining citizenship, despite multiple attempts over a decade.

A family torn apart by anti-immigrant policies.

His stepdaughter, Christian Cooper Riggs, reported the case on social media, revealing that her stepfather had already expressed fear in the face of increasing ICE persecution. “They told us it was best to keep a low profile and keep working,” she stated. But even that wasn't enough to avoid his arrest. Worse still, his wife suffers from dementia and is completely dependent on him. “I understand border security, but arresting a sick grandfather who has contributed for over 40 years doesn't solve anything,” Riggs stated.

Lafayette residents have reported an increase in ICE raids in Hispanic neighborhoods, generating terror in a community that, despite its social integration, continues to be treated as criminals.

Another outrageous case: deportation in Florida.

In parallel, another Cuban man, a resident of Florida for five years, was abruptly deported, leaving his wife and children behind. Writer Enrique Enrisco denounced the incident, emphasizing that the victim was a hard-working man of impeccable conduct. “Today I learned that a neighbor has been deported. He's from Placetas, a serious guy dedicated to his family,” he wrote.

The US persecutes migrants while funding media outlets to justify its blockade of Cuba.

These cases occur in a context where more than 539,400 Cubans are under ICE supervision, and 258,000 have open immigration proceedings. Cuba is the sixth country with the most migrants in this situation, behind nations like Mexico and Venezuela. While the US government spends millions on “Cuban-themed” media outlets—which distort the reality of the island and support the blockade—it persecutes and deports Cubans who have been contributing to their society for decades. The hypocrisy is evident: Where are “human rights” when families are separated and the elderly are deported? The Cuban community in the US demands justice and humanity, while Washington continues to implement a cruel and selective immigration policy, in line with its historical hostility toward Cuba.

Writer and university professor José Luis Méndez Méndez adds: "The arrival of Republican Donald J. Trump, the son of immigrants, to the White House for his second term and his excessive anti-immigrant policy has also dragged down Cubans who until now had been allies and pampered. It has uncovered and exacerbated the hatred of hundreds of island arrivals, who demand with visceral passion and endemic hatred the worst measures for their brothers and sisters, both in the United States and in Cuba."

"Parades of serial haters, who habitually live off resentment, shout "total suffocation," "no remittances," "no visas," "deportation now," "no food stamps," "shut down all flights to Cuba," "remove residency from those who remit or travel to see their relatives in Cuba," and they have even considered changing their birth blood, to become free of all past memories."

In short, there are multiple reports of cases of persecution and deportations of Cubans, which will increase as US immigration policy becomes more stringent.

On the other hand, on April 3, we were perplexed to hear the statements of the psychopath Mauricio Claver Carone, US special envoy for Latin America, when he admitted the harm caused to all Cubans here and there and asked for more support to inflict even more pain. This is a new level of cruelty and cynicism, an act of arrogance, cowardice, and total contempt for Cubans. This increases the persecution of Cubans, even if they have legal immigration documents.

So far, the persecution based on nationality has been directed toward Venezuelan and Cuban identity. Perhaps there are others that we haven't noticed.

"A great civilization is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within."

Empires Fall from Within

Author: Raúl Zibechi: When the issue of tariffs gains widespread prominence, the hegemonic culture believes that it will be China that will succeed in defeating Donald Trump's United States, as it would be in a better economic, social, political, and technological position to supplant its hegemony, giving way to a multipolar world. The entire analysis focuses on Trump's personal characteristics and what China is doing to counter him. The people, the true protagonists, remain in the shadows.

The growing militarization of societies like the United States is the response to the rise of collective action, which is forcing the entire political spectrum to become increasingly far-right and make repression its main argument. Those at the top are very clear, because it is a constant in history, that empires fall from within, due to the active or passive resistance of the people.

 

“The closer the collapse of the Empire, the crazier its laws are.”- Marcus Tullious Cicero

A recent article in The Guardian, titled "US intensifies crackdown on peaceful protests under Trump," from April 9, addresses the issue with rigor. It is striking that it was written by Katharine Viner, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, something unusual and indicative of the importance given to the issue.

It begins by stating that in the first four months of this year, 41 anti-protest bills have been introduced in 22 states, compared to a total of 52 in 2024 and 26 in 2023, according to the International Center for Nonprofit Law's tracker. According to the author, these are criminal penalties against peaceful protests protected by the Constitution, targeting “college students, anti-war protesters, and climate activists with harsh prison sentences and heavy fines, a crackdown that experts warn threatens to erode First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, assembly, and petition” (https://goo.su/QPKb9).

 

Had the Ottoman Empire been saved rather than sunk?

She also highlights the Safe and Secure Transportation of American Energy Act, which creates a new crime applicable to protests that disrupt planned or operating natural gas pipelines, “which would be punishable by up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for individuals or $500,000 for organizations.” This repressive legislation is a significant leap forward since the 2016 anti-pipeline protests in Standing Rock, North Dakota, led by Indigenous peoples.

The Guardian editor argues that the new provisions seek to “discourage people from speaking out, in addition to being incredibly repressive.” Lawmakers typically respond with more and more repressive bills whenever a movement takes to the streets. “In 2021, 92 bills were introduced in 35 states in response to the social uprising sparked by the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota.”

Jenna Leventoff of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues that the raft of anti-protest laws “aim to scare people and discourage them from protesting, or worse, criminalize the exercise of constitutional rights.” Cited by Viner, David Armiak, research director at the Center for Media and Democracy, argues: “The sheer number and variety of anti-protest bills introduced in just three months, combined with the revocation of student visas and the disappearance of student protesters by the administration of the self-proclaimed ‘law and order president,’ indicates a move toward fascism.”

Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, writing in the same outlet last Sunday, argue that “we must recognize that we are not facing familiar adversaries. We are facing end-times fascism.” In the article “The Rise of End-Times Fascism” (https://goo.su/2AN7T), they argue that these far-right movements “lack a credible vision for a hopeful future,” unlike classic fascism.

For those at the top, collapse is a kind of “regulation” of humanity. Trumpist Steve Bannon claims the world is going to hell because "the infidels are breaking through the walls of containment." That's why they're barricading themselves in bunkers and even dreaming of fleeing to Mars, like Elon Musk himself. That's what they're doing, militarizing, repressing, and building their worlds without the poor or people of the color of the earth.

Roman Empire Collapse

 If anyone can defeat the far right around the world, it won't be China. Just as we must understand that the far right sweeping the world is a reaction to the people's progress and the ongoing collapse, we must also accept that only the people and organized groups can stop them. Knowing that what they do is because they fear us should give us courage in such difficult times. We mustn't be distracted by looking to leaders.

Look to the past and remember no empire rises that sooner or later won't fall. - Al Stewart

  

Crisis Of Empire                                                                                  THE CRISIS OF US HEGEMONY 

By Michele Berti: In recent months, with the arrival of Trump, the concept of imperialism has reappeared strongly in public discourse as a catch-all term for interpreting the current international phase. It is used after adjectives such as aggressive, cruel, and ruthless. In reality, none of the adjectives used is capable of accurately defining the concept of imperialism, which by definition has always had these characteristics. But what is meant by imperialism in the historical and political sense? The genesis of the term must be attributed to Hilferding, although its widespread use is due to the work of Lenin, who defined it as the monopolistic phase of capitalism, which corresponds to a social and economic formation characterized by an enormous concentration of production and capital in a monopolistic manner, the fusion of banking capital with industrial capital in a form of finance capital managed by a small financial oligarchy, extensive use of capital exports, and the division of the world among international trusts.

American imperialism is, therefore, an economic and social formation that cannot be labeled on a president, but rather a configuration predisposed to dominating foreign space through conventional and unconventional methods, assuming the role of leader with allied subjects and dominant with adversaries. There is, therefore, no imperialism branded as Trump or Biden, but rather an American imperialism that, depending on the phase, acquires certain characteristics in the management of the relationship between governed and rulers in international relations. 

 The dynamics to which the adjectives combined with the term imperialism refer, resulting from the discontinuity presented by Trump's election, can instead be interpreted effectively and coherently with some Gramscian categories such as the concepts of hegemony, crisis of hegemony, and organic crisis. 

In the Prison Notebooks, Gramsci draws on his studies of dialectics and the interaction between different groups, managing to develop some useful reasoning to decode the events of this confusing historical phase. 

Let's begin by defining the crisis of hegemony as the political-ideological dimension of an organic crisis, or rather, a transitional phase in which the distance between the ideological apparatuses and the narratives functional to a particular economic structure (superstructures) becomes so great with respect to the economic structure itself that the latter cannot be sustained. Superstructures must therefore, at a certain point, reattach themselves to the economic structures, precisely through an organic crisis. 

The organic crisis in the United States has different origins and is intertwined with several levels; we can list some of them without claiming to be exhaustive. 

 In the economic and financial sphere, we can undoubtedly observe a retreat in the United States, which in recent years has sacrificed the real economy in favor of financial income and profits. De-dollarization, or the process that began years ago to replace the US dollar as the reserve currency in many commercial transactions, and the explosion of US debt. The international division of labor that has led China to transcend its status as a global manufacturer and assume a central economic role as a point of reference for the global South. The identity crisis of a superpower without an alter ego and the failure of the universal and unipolar project of a "global sheriff." The current social crisis in the United States, with the division between wealthy coasts and deindustrialized and impoverished continental areas, a dynamic clearly evident in the geographical analysis of the November election results. 

All these elements lead to the fracture between the narrative of the American Dream and the "best of all possible worlds"—free and democratic but rigorously unipolar and supremacist—and the reality of increasing difficulty in sustaining economic efforts on a global scale in terms of tools for power projection and a widespread military presence. 

All of this has transformed, from a political-ideological perspective, into a profound crisis of hegemony—that is, a crisis of international consensus—that undermines the credibility and authority of the United States and forces it to increasingly resort to coercion to pursue its own national interests. 

This trend has existed for years, but it accelerated with the launch of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. We are now witnessing what increasingly appears to be a global strategic realignment in light of the challenge posed by China in the coming years.

 The need arises for a recalibration of US spheres of influence, with a possible retreat to a continental imperial area, the Americas, with a new and updated Monroe Doctrine on an appropriate geographic scale from the perspective of resources and raw materials, including Canada, Greenland, Cuba, and Venezuela.

The case of the Panama Canal is also interesting, as it fits into this dynamic and demonstrates, for those who still have some doubts, that multinationals like BlackRock are above all instruments of US power and that the myth of the 1% of multinationals against the 99% of the world is merely a veil to hide the direction of US imperialism. The only exception to this reasoning, a novelty at this stage, is the role of Musk, who, having achieved undisputed superiority in the space game, enjoys unprecedented degrees of freedom compared to the past.

In this context, it is necessary to fully understand and understand the instruments of power of US national interests, codified in numerous military doctrine publications. These are the DIMEFIL (economic instruments) or arms of the US domination system: Diplomacy, Information, Military, Economic, Financial, Intelligence, and Law Enforcement. Each of these instruments has a corresponding organizational structure and precise references, and all are effectively coordinated with each other to achieve US national objectives and interests.

Delving into the details of the economic instrument (defined in the manuals as "economic warfare" or "economic weapons"), the cuts to agencies like USAID or foundations like the NED (National Endowment for Democracy) indicate the need for continued reorganization and are clearly reducing US soft power capacity. The large budgets allocated to these instruments funded NGOs, foreign journalists, activists, and even, apparently, some terrorist groups used as "proxies" or "surrogates." The attack on USAID certainly has a component linked to the presence of elements of the democratic Deep State within these structures, but it is also linked to the need to reduce the costs of these consensus-building activities, because they are no longer sustainable.

By shifting attention to Europe, the old continent will be forced to deal with this dynamic by inventing autonomy and a "European imperialism" after seventy-five years of US-led NATO and its economic arm, the EU. We can define this desire for European imperialism as a castle-in-the-air imperialism, rhetorical and passionate, but without an economic and financial basis, as Gramsci and Crispi defined Italian imperialism. In Europe, it is evident that the "clerics" of the past historical phase, employed in the consensus machine, risk their careers, and this can lead to very dangerous dynamics, linked to the survival of a political and media ruling class and its bellicose and warlike reaction.

The crisis of hegemony, which represents the fracture between the governed and the rulers, also at the international level, as Gramsci asserts, can be traced to two main reasons: the failure of a political enterprise for which the ruling class has demanded consensus and/or the entry of new forces onto the political scene.

Undoubtedly, the failure of the unipolar world and European integration falls into the first category; the birth of the BRICS, to which the entire South of the world looks with hope, falls into the second possible cause.

The solution to a crisis of hegemony could be precisely the arrival of the "man of providence," a Trump who, however, in this reasoning, becomes the consequence and product of a process, not a foreign and exogenous element to whom all evil can be attributed. He is the monster that is born when "the old world is dying and the new is slow to emerge."

The most visible effect of a crisis of hegemony, a current element, is the emergence in every context of true power relations, pure and unmediated by the superstructure, and the return to the purely economic nature of processes without narratives to support them.

Join El Viejo Topo

 These power relations can be clearly understood by going beyond the activities of Trump's front man and studying the political activities of Secretary of the Department of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the statements of Vice President JD Advance, who are building a network of bilateral agreements, rebuilding lost strength, based on the need to distance Russia from China. 

 At its core, in fact, lies what John Pilger defined, in his wonderful and timely documentary, as "the coming war," a new phase in which US objectives will be linked to containing China's win-win globalization at all costs, with the relative concentration of power resources in the Indo-Pacific quadrant. 

 This phase of deep crisis could be an excellent opportunity to rethink the European ordoliberal construction and its international role. It's a shame that a reckless, diplomatically incompetent, and disconnected ruling class has fallen into a dead end that condemns Europe to irrelevance in international relations, and from which it seems the only way out—we are told—is with weapons and a war against the Russian invader. Meanwhile, however, the military on our territory is American, not Russian, which reminds us of the old saying: "A sheep spends its entire life fearing the wolf. In the end, the shepherd eats it." In short, the old and artificial fear of seeing Cossacks drinking from the Trevi Fountain seems destined to come back into fashion.

“The world's most elusive criminal is the government.” ― Tamerlan Kuzgov

 

 RIGHT-HANDED DISHONESTY

By admtlsur: They say that right-wing business politicians don't need to steal because they already have enough money. Their followers also claim that politics is a form of pollution. That the direction of a society must be in the hands of business leaders, whom they euphemize as "markets."

In some ways, anti-politics, questioning activists, and the perpetual thematization of corruption related to public administration are some of the most widely used devices to defenestrate and obstruct social commitment in government.

While the media's gaze persists in dissecting the faults—more or less serious—of those who promote social inclusion, wealth distribution, and the fight against all forms of discrimination, the tentacles of conservative power hide the scams, crimes, embezzlement, and outright theft of public assets generated by corporations and businessmen-turned-politicians. The operations of criminalizing politics, known as lawfare, have as their counterpart the camouflage of the gigantic corruption cases of the global right. The mainstream media portrays them as exceptions and seeks to disconnect one from the other. Javier Milei's scam involving the Libra cryptocurrency, the greed of his sister, and his entourage, speak volumes of an obsessive attraction to money.

                                     “Open your eyes as wide as you can and take note of where you are, why you are, and who you are with?”  .- Qamar Rafiq

The same orientation that drives the New York tycoon, now president, who began as an associate of mafia families to develop his real estate empire. Trump has surfed the sexual abuse case in which he was convicted. He has managed to obscure a second sentence for defaming his victim. He has managed to paralyze the cases for promoting a coup d'état in 2021 and has obscured the case of disbursements to a prostitute to obtain her silence, falsifying her sworn accounting statement. Once he assumed his second term, the red-faced tycoon fired twelve prosecutors working on the criminal cases against him.

Conservatives, neoliberals, and neofascists often champion republicanism and the separation of powers. That enthusiasm ends when some judicial official decides to remain faithful to the Constitution and rules that the frauds must be brought to trial. Mauricio Macri has been convicted in the Argentine Post Office Case. He owes the state and society $700 million, but he managed to halt the case thanks to the sympathy of the Supreme Court. Previously, while he was president, he shamelessly attempted to benefit from a 98 percent discount on that amount. Macri came to power with 214 cases accumulated between 2007 and 2015. He added another 144 criminal charges during his four-year term.

 “Anyone who wants to tackle corruption must be willing to go all the way. There are no shortcuts.” — Oby Ezekwesili.

In Spain, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is accused of benefiting her partner and brother with healthcare-related businesses during the pandemic, the same period in which 7,291 elderly people died in nursing homes due to the negligence of authorities led by Ayuso. In France, Marine Le Pen was sentenced to four years in prison and barred from running for office after it was proven she embezzled European Union funds. In Brazil, fascist military leader Jair Bolsonaro is preparing to face a jury after the Federal Supreme Court charged him with an attempted coup d'état, following his loss to Lula da Silva. One of the most cited intellectuals of neoliberalism is Ludwig von Mises, who died in 1973. In his 1927 book, Liberalism in the Classical Tradition—five years after Mussolini's March on Rome and four years after Hitler's attempt to seize power through his Munich Putsch—he established his position on these political maneuvers, which helped avoid the ramifications of socialism: "It cannot be denied that fascism and similar movements that seek to establish dictatorships are full of the best intentions, and that their intervention, for the moment, has saved European civilization."

  “One politician can not make a government. He needs accomplices.”- Ljupka Cvetanova

Trump, Milei, Bolsonaro, Ayuso, and Le Pen are the most revealing expression of dishonesty. They make the fight against corruption a smokescreen for their triple constitutive intention: to enrich themselves at the expense of the sacrifice of the rest of society, to favor the privileged sectors, and to discipline those who try to build more equitable models of coexistence. They are not decent. They are boastful criminals and—above all—bloodthirsty fratricidals.

Author: Jorge Elbaum

President Petro to: Ms. Kristi, the Aragua train gang, which is a murderous criminal gang, was strengthened by yourselves by blockading Venezuela

 

 Petro: The US strengthened the Tren de Aragua gang with its blockade of Venezuela

The Colombian president accuses the US of being responsible for strengthening the Tren de Aragua criminal organization with its blockade and hostile policy toward Venezuela.

Gustavo Petro, in a message addressed Saturday night to Kristi Noem, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, highlighted how coercive measures against Venezuela have affected the country's youth.

"The blockade has forced hundreds of thousands of young Venezuelans, who were living well in Venezuela, into total exclusion in foreign neighborhoods and countries, and exclusion only leads to more violence, as demonstrated by the 76-year experience of Colombian violence."

In this regard, he accused the US of strengthening the Tren de Aragua gang by "blockading Venezuela."

This message from the Colombian president, published on his X account, comes amid new diplomatic tensions between Washington and Bogotá, following controversial statements by Noem about a meeting with Petro in Bogotá on March 27, which the US official described as "a rather tense encounter."

The US Secretary of Homeland Security accused the Colombian president of defending members of the Tren de Aragua gang and saying that some "were his friends." Petro responded, "I don't know why you say I had friends in the Tren de Aragua gang or in the cartels. I hope it's media speculation or friends of the mafia who want to keep Colombia and the US from talking to each other. I've never met a single cartel member in my entire life."

Ultimately, the president added in his letter to X, "the best way to end the violence of the Aragua Train is to allow the youth of Venezuela to live well in their country. It is the inclusion of Colombian youth populations that has allowed us to reduce violence in my country, and we still have a long way to go."

Similarly, and in reference to the discriminatory US policies toward migration implemented by the current Trump Administration, the head of state emphasized that migrants "are not criminals and their rights must be respected."

Noem, in her statements regarding the visit to Bogotá two weeks ago, alleged that Gustavo Petro had criticized the US government at that meeting, to which the president responded that these statements lack truth and asserted that the official "did not exactly understand" what he was saying, attributing the misunderstanding to a lack of language skills, acknowledging that he does not speak English.

Noem's visit to Bogotá was part of a tour of the region that began in El Salvador, where she visited the prison where the United States has sent dozens of undocumented immigrants under the justification that they are members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang that emerged in Venezuela.

At the end of March, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro criticized U.S. policies and stated that "Venezuelan migrants are doubly victims," ​​explaining that "in Venezuela they were victims of sanctions and the U.S. economic war, which forced them to migrate as economic migrants," and now they are "victims of shame" when Washington calls them "members of a gang of murderers, the Tren de Aragua, which was defeated" by Venezuela.

Maduro attacks the US for the "cruel kidnapping" of Venezuelan migrants

He asserted that Washington intends to characterize "all Venezuelan migration as a migration of criminals" and called for the immediate release of Venezuelan migrants kidnapped in El Salvador after being deported by the US.

gec/ctl/tmv

 

 Post To: The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under the leadership of @POTUS Trump Conversation Gustavo Petro @petrogustav

                                              Post
To: The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under the leadership of @POTUS Trump
Conversation
Gustavo Petro
@petrogustavo

Ms. Kristi, the Aragua train gang, which is a murderous criminal gang, was strengthened by yourselves by blockading Venezuela.

I demonstrated that Venezuelan migration to all of the Americas was stopped, simply by formalizing diplomatic relations and opening the closed border, a huge mistake by former President Duque.

The blockade has forced hundreds of thousands of young Venezuelans, who were living well in Venezuela, into total exclusion in foreign neighborhoods and countries. Exclusion only leads to more violence, as the 76-year experience of Colombian violence demonstrates.

More love for youth, end drug abuse, that's what I told you. Societies where youth lose hope and their individuals live in solitude fill their emptiness with noise and drugs. I told you that noisy societies have a silent soul. More inclusion for excluded youth around the world and in exile, more inclusion for young people who leave in desperation due to economic blockades, and the monsters of violence will end.

I told you my opinion frankly because you asked me. I understand diplomacy based on frankness; lies only bring wars, truth, peace. I told you my truth about the Colombian experience and migration. Colombia is the country of 100 years of solitude, which is nothing more than having killed each other for 100 years.
That's why I invited you to see Gabriel García Márquez's exhibition.

The best way to end the violence on the Aragua train is to allow the youth of Venezuela to live well in their country.

It is the inclusion of Colombian youth that has made it possible to reduce violence in my country, and we still have a long way to go. Many more universities, art and sports, community and solidarity, much more love.

I'm sorry you don't understand my words. Migrants are not criminals and their rights must be respected, as my adversary, Duque, has demonstrated, and as my government has demonstrated.

There will only be more violence if 14-year-old children are imprisoned or the Venezuelan population, who believed the US government, is taken to Bukele's prisons.

Love ends violence, Kristi, Jesus taught that a long time ago.

I don't know why you say I said I had friends on the Aragua train or in the cartels. I hope it's media hoaxes or friends of the mafia who want Colombia and the US not to talk to each other. I've never met a single cartel member in my entire life.

I said that by breaking the ties between political power and drug traffickers, the mafia would be weakened, and that I expected their collaboration to do so. That there would only be understanding between our intelligence agencies to imprison the most powerful bosses and examine their global finances, not to fumigate farmers.

That the mafia had been in the Casa de Nariño and in Congress, and in In Miami, Madrid, and Dubai, but he didn't wander around the peasant house.

I said there would be intelligence and cross-referencing of biometric data, but on criminals, not on the Colombian population.

I said I would help destroy the mafia to the core, because they were murdering my people, peace, and democracy, but that I wouldn't help destroy my people.

We talked about a meeting between Colombian peasants and American farmers, and despite this incident, I stand by my word. I think they are very similar in their hopes, and in their desire to own the land. In Colombia, millions of farmers are landless, and that's why we have violence and drug trafficking.

I told them that many Colombian leaders deceived them by showing them the fumigation and imprisonment of thousands of farmers and telling them that this would put an end to the mafia. Instead, they hugged the bosses in clubs and palaces, drinking whiskey, and together they compiled lists of those to be killed next.

I said that if less dangerous substances were legalized, the Colombian mafia would immediately be eliminated, and if that wasn't done, their ties with the political establishment would have to be severed.

"Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela

 

What do education workers do?

By Fernando Buen Abad Dominguez: It is one of the most devilishly difficult jobs. It seems to be a constant need to remember the significance of the work of those who coordinate to provide education, which, by the way, is not just any dedication or any job. It cannot be understood as a "gold mine," a "gold mine," or an easy "job," because it is one of the most complex and delicate challenges, extraordinarily sensitive, at the heart of social needs and reality, under the current material contradictions and class struggle.

 

It is crucial to understand the significance of work in education, with its administrative or academic varieties, within the dominant class structure and ideological reproduction. It has the responsibility to keep the critique of bourgeois education alive, subjecting it to a dialectical examination that explains theory and praxis, structure and superstructure, consciousness and materiality. It must permanently question the problems of education in the ideological reproduction of one of the institutions of the status quo, through which the ruling class imposes its conditions of existence. This is how crucial and demanding work in education is. Millions of people are under its responsibility.

 

If the ruling class controls the means of production, it controls the production of ideas, and education is one of the main objectives of such domination. In the bourgeois educational system, education is a space for the manipulation of thought and the subordination of people. From childhood, there is a danger of being trained to accept the social structure of exploitation as something "natural." "The bourgeoisie has stripped all the once venerated professions of their sacred aura and turned them into mere wage earners" (Communist Manifesto).

 

It is a danger for any family that education reproduces the ideology of the ruling class, which manipulates minds to insert them into its productive apparatus. This is how difficult the work of those who educate in such a context of contradictions is. From primary school to university, obedience, competitiveness, and submission to authority are imposed as individualistic values. This education in capitalism is instrumentalized for the reproduction of the labor force: "The education of the worker, to the extent that it is not an ideological mystification, is limited to the development of skills that make him useful to capital" (Capital).

 

 

A priest’s creature comforts: Chickens, grandchildren and God. The globe and Mail                                         In capitalism, education is not oriented toward integral development, but rather toward the production of meek and grateful workers. The most conscious educators are committed to confronting the bourgeois divide, even among the workers themselves. As Marx thought: "The educator himself must be educated" (Theses on Feuerbach). We must coordinate and educate in practice so that this vocation, which seeks to train individuals capable of developing the capacities of all, is not weakened or defeated. Education must not be a commodity; that is, we must end the privatization and commodification of knowledge. We must overcome the separation between theory and practice.

We must defend the certainty that education cannot be limited to the transmission of abstract knowledge, but must be critically engaged with productive activity and the transformation of society. How can we change education without first changing society? Education under capitalism cannot be entirely liberating if education workers are trapped, hemmed in, or extorted by the dominant ideology. Achieving a truly emancipatory education requires a dynamic social revolution, driven by its own dialectic.

 

Here, pedagogy finds one of its most crucial missions: to train critical individuals who not only understand the world, but also transform it. Lenin believed that “the proletarian school must educate not only educated workers, but revolutionaries” (On Proletarian Education, 1920). This is a very special task with a very high historical responsibility. In the pursuit of an emancipatory and emancipatory education, it is clear that the coordination of education workers is not a mere blind consequence of the economy, but a field of dispute for the emancipation of the working class. Defending the workers who defend education, with the most conscious and combative theses and actions, must produce unbreakable solidarity as an act of consciousness-raising and emancipation, because “education does not change the world, but it changes the people who can change the world” (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1968).

 

Hence the importance of coordination for teacher struggles, popular education projects, and the construction of a critical pedagogy. There is no liberating education without collective organization, without combative unions, without resistance to neoliberal reforms and bureaucracies that attempt to turn education into a market and students into commodities. In the face of the neoliberal offensive, revolutionary education must reaffirm itself.

 

In struggles, the history of popular struggles is taught, political economy is understood, and the media is denounced as instruments of domination. As José Martí said: "Be cultured to be free." These struggles of education workers are a trench of ideas and coordinating consciousness. "Education is either praxis or it is the chain of the oppressed." Thus, whether in the Zócalo or in Chiapas, the education worker in struggle does not shy away from the challenge. Let us not forget Ayotzinapa. 

 

Bureaucrats fear education workers because they study and train on the edge of class struggle and science, against bureaucracies and with miserable wages.

 

Every struggle of education workers is a school that teaches from the people and from rebellion, teaches us to break the cages, teaches revolution. "Educate yourselves, because we will need all our intelligence": Gramsci, or as Martí wrote: "Be cultured to be free." Or as Marx exclaimed: "Education must be emancipatory, never an instrument of oppression." That education workers should not give in is a morality; that they should not bend their voice is an ethic; that they should not forget to sow insurrection is a new humanism. Because their struggle is a tool of knowledge and wisdom for an extraordinarily sensitive revolution. It makes sense.