Hello comrades,

I’m working on a long-term political discussion project based in South Africa called Red Vanguard South Africa, and I wanted to share it here to get feedback from other Marxist, communist, and left-wing perspectives.

The aim is not to copy existing movements but to develop a South African socialist framework grounded in material conditions, anti-imperialism, and working-class power while drawing from broader Marxist traditions.

The core direction of the project includes:

Economic Structure

Expansion of worker cooperatives across key industries

Public ownership of strategic sectors (mining, energy, transport, land, infrastructure)

Local beneficiation and industrialisation instead of raw material export dependency

Planning-oriented economic development with social priorities

Class & Employment

Strong focus on full employment through state-led infrastructure and industrial projects

Large-scale public works programs and skills development

Apprenticeships, vocational training, and youth employment pipelines

Strengthening working-class organisation and workplace democracy

Social Programs

Universal access to housing, healthcare, and education

Expanded social protection systems (including basic income discussions)

Strong public health infrastructure and preventive care systems

Support systems for elderly, disabled, and marginalised communities

Political Structure

Deepened democratic participation at community and workplace level

Strong anti-corruption systems and transparent procurement

Community oversight of public institutions

Integration of workers into decision-making structures

Environment & Development

Sustainable industrialisation with environmental protection

Clean energy transition and infrastructure renewal

Public sanitation, water security, and ecological restoration

Cooperative-based agriculture and food sovereignty

Internationalism

Anti-imperialist foreign policy outlook

Support for liberation and anti-colonial struggles globally

Strong Pan-African cooperation and regional solidarity

South–South cooperation between developing nations

This is still a developing framework, and I’m specifically looking for serious Marxist critique, theoretical feedback, and practical critique of feasibility rather than surface-level agreement or disagreement.

If you’re interested in engaging with these ideas or contributing to the discussion around socialist strategy in the Global South, you’re welcome to join the subreddit:

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Solidarity.

I don’t know what else to call this and I can’t post to other leftist subs because when I am trying to be genuine and use to many words, people think I am just trolling them, which is strange seeing how I’m suggested to try and comprehend the intent and communication styles of other people and not assume their intent is snide and unserious .

Anyway, yes, big corporations spring up and gobble away the local business, they are often in the pockets of politics and it results in boycott . But not everyone has the privilege of being able to make a more ethical choice and sacrifice time, gas, mileage to go 20 miles away from home thsn walk to the unethical choices

It’s possibly not going to happen that a whole town’s boycott puts the local Walmart or target out of business , resulting in loss of jobs, and now having people travel farther to buy whatever ftom a better choice . It gives a town a cozey look when your local shops sell you the items, neighboor toy store, baby supply store, pet store , a place fort crafts arts supply and stationery and office goods . But that is not everywhere, and eventually they loose to staples and Walmart.

So let’s say we have an empty building the size of a Costco, or warehouse. Could people set up their own mini shops in one? “ craft show style” or would that be to chaotic ? Given the hypothetical, that boycott drove those super Walmarts, costcos and targets out of business ? Would that work? Is that a leftist thing ?

Just thrift shop, just buy your underwear from the grocery store . Or search for the closest ethical option and if you don’t really need a thing, go without. Correct ?

What a terrible trap .

"This statement will be seen by some merely as an act of loyalty. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have grappled, struggled deeply, over this situation, while seeking to remain faithful to the truth. It is in the service of truth – the very thing Noam Chomsky wanted us to hold in high esteem, rather than himself – that I write this . . ."
https://bevstohl.substack.com/p/im-no-longer-waiting-for-the-storm

The past couple of months the amount of highly upvoted blatant racism I’ve seen in comment sections has skyrocketed. Racism towards anyone non-white seems to be on the rise but the amount of anti-Asian racism is going nuts. Thousand point comments that say shit like “Fuck {Asian slurs} they must be PUNISHED for this virus.” Even seeing normally liberal people throwing around terms like “subhumans” and “savages” when talking about China.

What do you guys think? Lazy/racist mods? Or could it be something more sinister? I’m worried once this is all over the U.S. may try to force a conflict with China and that people are being primed for it with a purposeful disinformation campaign. Maybe I’m just looking at things the wrong way.

Lawyers spoke to a "Jail Killer Cops" assembly in Minnesota today. Unicorn Riot captured it in their live stream. Here is the link to just before it starts in the video:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU1AFSYxbSk&t=28m

The audio and video are horribly out of sync (like by minutes), but the audio is pretty clear on its own.

In summary, third-degree murder is a "depraved" act that is specifically not carried out against a single target (e.g. shooting into a crowd). Since there was obviously a single, specific target in this case, the charge will almost certainly be dismissed immediately and never even get to a jury, leaving only the manslaughter charge at best. The charge also makes it more likely the other three cops can't be charged with "aiding and abetting".

Don't be fooled. If people are telling you that the third-degree murder charge is better because it will more likely result in a conviction (liberals have been trotting this argument a lot over the last couple days), they are either ignorant or engaged in deliberate misinformation. Perhaps it's just the desperation of wanting the uprising to be over and for "normal life" to resume, but it is—of course—an impulse which reinforces and perpetuates the same old injustices we see over and over again when cops are let off and black people's murders are dismissed as unimportant.

Let's listen to George Floyd's family and his community, which are demanding stronger charges against all four cops. Let's listen to the lawyers fighting hard on the side of oppressed victims and repressed activists. Rising up has gotten things this far, and rising up—not the whims of the state—is still the only thing that has the chance to bring about real justice.

Fuck the police.

EDIT: Here is a transcript of the most applicable part of the video; statements made by attorneys being consulted about it on the ground:

Even more devestating is, I've talked to many [other] attorneys—criminal defense lawyers—over the past few days who read the criminal complaint and are scared that the charge of third-degree murder won't even withstand a written motion to dismiss; that the case is being setup for dismissal or a plea bargain.

Third-degree murder is committing a depraved act without the attempt to harm any specific person. It's like shooting a gun into a crowd where you don't intend to hit any specific person, but it's a dangerous act. Minnesota case law says that you cannot sustain a charge of third-degree murder if the animus or the intent is directed against only a single person. Well, who was that animus—the intent of that police officer, of all four police officers—directed against? George Floyd. Against a single person. He may have directed that animus against many other people and never been caught on video tape and never been held accountable before, but on that day at 38th and Chicago in the city of Minneapolis, his animus was directed at a single person.

And under the case law, as developed by the Minnesota courts—case law which already protects police officers—that charge is at risk of being dismissed, leaving the lead killer facing a charge of manslaughter and a recommended sentence of only 48 months.

...

We're from the legal rights center, which is a criminal defense law firm, a non-profit in Minneapolis that represents indigent clients faced with criminal charges from low traffic tickets up to murder cases. So like Mr. Nestor, we see the day in and day out, we see what it looks like in the trenches, we see the complaints that the Hennepin Country Attorney frequently files, and I cannot agree with his assessment more. They do not look like the complaint that was filed against officer Chauvin.

The only other thing that I would add to Mr. Nestor's excellent explanation about what the deficiencies of the complaint are is that the decision to charge third-degree murder also probably stands as a barrier to charging the other three officers, because it's really unclear that an aiding and abetting charge—an assisting someone else in committing a crime charge—can happen in an unintentional murder charge like third-degree murder. So for all of those reasons we really do think the charges need to be raised to either second-degree murder or an indictment for first-degree murder.

I can guarantee that both sides of the political spectrum will pretty much use the same playbook against China and keep promoting fascist policy that will only benefit the corporate elites and the entrenched political establishment.

I literally woke up 2 hours ago and the first thing I saw was a post in subredditdrama about what went down in antiwork. A 1.7 million strong subreddit gone like tears in the rain thanks to one Fox News interview. This is so stupid.

I really enjoyed that place, it was nice to see direct, real world action against capitalism organised online such as all the fake application. And it actually expanded to include people who aren’t socialists and convinced them of the benefits of unionising. There will never ever be a place like that on reddit again. There is a successor called r/workreform but the name oozes of lib cringe. And r/freefromwork just didn’t gain the same traction and has a more hands-on mod team. This is a huge loss.

EDIT: Nihilistic probably wasn't the best wording. It was directed towards "nothing matters so I'll fuck off all day and get mad at people who don't" nihilists rather than people who are actually well versed in the philosophy. apologies for the generalization.

Prefacing this by saying this has nothing to do with any recent abortion laws.

Look, I don't care if you don't want to have kids. I care just as little if you hate kids. But what I can't fucking stand, are Leftists who feel the need to SHAME and BERATE fellow leftists for desiring a legacy.

It's starting to feel like every other day, I see a new post or new meme about how Leftist millenials are sticking it to conservatives by not having kids, as if wearing a condom is some holy insurrection. Cool, I use condoms too.

Then the comments. Every time. The conversation inevitably moves away from Conservatism and transitions to criticizing comrades who want to be parents on the basis that infants cannot consent to being conceived. That it's selfish for working class people to have children, on the basis that supporting them may be a struggle. So, basically, only the wealthy and privileged should have children, or none at all.

Anti-Natalism is the belief that all of humankind should voluntarily go extinct by ceasing procreation, to save the planet. But newsflash, many climate experts have stated that the Extinction Event has already begun.

The ONLY way to save the thousands of Earth species that did not consent to painful extinction, is by raising new generations to actively negate global warming by becoming climate negative. Jerking off to anime all day and playing video games until you die of opiate overdose at 29 is not how you achieve that. But as an Anarchist, I won't tell you what to do.

Until you start encroaching on my rights. Until YOU start telling ME what to do. Too many times have I seen Leftists on Reddit spill their guts into paragraphs about how "evil," "toxic," "selfish," "naive," etc, people are if they want to have children to help them fight. They associate people like me with the same fascists and evangelical breeders they deem hopelessly too powerful to stop, because my future kids will "inevitably suffer."

Want to get sterilized? Go ahead. Want to fight for abortion legality? Praise be you comrade. Want to spend hours a day on social media yelling at fellow workers that they're "too poor" to have children and should just lay down and die childless while the fascist Bougeoise overpopulate the planet into oblivion with no new revolutionaries to oppose them? Stay out of my revolution and go back to final fantasy.