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Learn ab issues that effect workers in other places before and after they hit the news

Sanctions is a prime example. Folks may, in light of the Ukraine-Russia war, all of the sudden heard about western sanctions on Russia and think “Yeah OK Sanctions sure that's like…taking yachts right?” and it can be. But the longest standing economic sanctions by the U.S. are on places you will scratch your head trying to understand why and have effects that you'll have a hard time understanding what that's necessary. Some examples. Cuba – The blockade has, for 60+ years, made food, basic medical products, basic equipment like tractors or farming equipment, damn near impossible for average Cubans to get. The U.S. still claims it (sanctions) will someday collapse Cuba's government but at this point it's clear that's not gonna happen and either way it only makes workers in Cuba suffer. Zimbabwe – The Black majority of Zimbabwe ended the brutal apartheid regime and started to repatriate a lot…


Sanctions is a prime example. Folks may, in light of the Ukraine-Russia war, all of the sudden heard about western sanctions on Russia and think “Yeah OK Sanctions sure that's like…taking yachts right?” and it can be. But the longest standing economic sanctions by the U.S. are on places you will scratch your head trying to understand why and have effects that you'll have a hard time understanding what that's necessary. Some examples.

Cuba – The blockade has, for 60+ years, made food, basic medical products, basic equipment like tractors or farming equipment, damn near impossible for average Cubans to get. The U.S. still claims it (sanctions) will someday collapse Cuba's government but at this point it's clear that's not gonna happen and either way it only makes workers in Cuba suffer.

Zimbabwe – The Black majority of Zimbabwe ended the brutal apartheid regime and started to repatriate a lot of (but not all of) it's very rich and productive farm land to Black farmers who had until around 2000 been forced into wage slaving on their Indigenous land for white supremacist. With little to no fan fair the Clinton administration set up (and every administration since has maintained) brutal sanctions that are supposed to destroy the government but have mostly caused starvation, malnutrition, and rampant disease because people can't get basics like food or manufactured goods. Eventually Zimbabwe's government switched and the new one is also horribly corrupt. So why are the sanctions still there?

Venezuela – Economic Sanctions on Venezuela serve the same purpose of collapsing a government which the U.S. doesn't like. The U.S. is very vocal about wanting to destroy the popularly elected socialist government by making life as miserable as possible for regular Venezuelans in hopes that it sparks a pro capitalist revolution. It hasn't worked at all and the sanctions persist decades later.

It's very easy and rational to cheer on economic sanctions of individual people running repressive governments but for millions of people in the third world sanctions are never that targeted. As more people learn about sanctions you gotta ask yourself “ok I support taking yachts from billionaires or freezing some warring arseholes bank account but why are we making it harder to get basic medical supplies in Iran during a pandemic? What does that have to do with their regressive government?”

Working class people regularly get asked to support the ruling class against another ruling class and end up supporting the ruling class against workers instead. We gotta stay up on the details because at the end of the day capitalism is a global system even when one imperial power is going after another imperial power they ALWAYS agree that workers aren't shit and our profits are there profits. Let's make sure we know how to separate leaders from working people and not just rhetorically but by understanding how policies affect people in the places the where the corporate media isn't paying attention like Haiti, Sudan, etc.

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