some of us are still Marxists, you know || editor at @septemberreload
Jan 13 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
A good time to expand on this a bit. I think we still critically lack analytic instruments to assess the current situation re: the interplay of global and local politics, "foreign interference," and such. The debate tends to degrade to tired clichés and analogies very quickly
We live in a global world which is very Western-centered and Western-dependent economically, politically, and culturally. Protestors often don't shy away from directly appealing to the Western governments and other political actors through symbols, language and calls for action -
Mar 22, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
What I think is crucial to understand about the nature of Putin's regime is its inherent suspicion towards social mobilization of any kind – not only against the regime, but also in support of it, its policies and decisions
They truly believe that there is no (or rather: there shouldn't be) such thing as society, so they don't see a need for genuine public support and even consider it dangerous. Grassroots support means someone else having an agency, and that they can't afford
Mar 22, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This is such a shallow take on so many levels - from the list of banned companies (likely collapse of air services, supply chains and consumer loans, Visa and Mastercard suspending their operations in Russia are much bigger) to the assumption that deprivation is bound to 1/
spark a mass movement. Specifically, a mass movement in an extremely atomized society where any participation in grass-roots politics has been punishable for decades, where the main message translated by the state has always been "mind your own business and we won't touch you" 2/
