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Bulletins and News Discussion from December 4th to December 10th, 2023 - The Legacy of Kissinger - COTW: Laos

Due to American cluster bombing campaigns advised by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to damage supply lines, over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over about a decade, averaging a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes. Laos is thus the most bombed country on the planet up to this point. 80 million bombs failed to explode - the cleanup operation is expected to take centuries, and 25,000 people have been killed and injured by bombs in the last 50 years. About 50 people are killed or injured every year to this day.

After the United States withdrew from Laos, the Pathet Lao took power and abolished the monarchy. Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in Laotian politics, keeping the course on Marxism-Leninism and implementing the first Five Year Plan in 1981. The second Five Year Plan in 1986 was modelled on Lenin's NEP, and this doubled rice production and significantly increased sugar production. After the fall of the USSR, Laos allowed a small capitalist class to exist, with similar control over them as in China. Laos maintains a 48-hour work week with paid sick leave, vacation time, and maternity leave, and workers are well-represented in trade unions. They faired relatively well during coronavirus from a social standpoint due to quick and efficient action to lock down the country, experiencing ~750 deaths out of a population of over 7 million.

There is hope even after utter destruction by genocidal oppressors.

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The Country of the Week is Laos! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

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  • Cyprus Communist Initiative launched, aims "to rebuild the workers’ and people’s movement"

    With the sickle and hammer as its symbol, the Cyprus Communist Initiative has been formalised into an official body, was announced on Saturday.

    Under the full name "Cyprus Communist Initiative, for the rebuilding of the workers’ and people’s movement", the new group “aspires to fill the political vacuum that has existed for years in Cypriot society, and to become a rallying force for the struggles of the working class and the broader popular strata.”

    Concerning the long-standing Cyprus issue, the founding statement of the Initiative points out: "For the Cyprus issue, special importance is given as an international problem of invasion and occupation by Turkey and foreign NATO imperialist interventions. These interventions instrumentalized and strengthened nationalism-chauvinism, culminating in the twin crime of the treacherous fascist coup and the Turkish invasion. This action led to the violent division of the country and the people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

    The group was founded on December 2 and its board was appointed on Friday. The statute provides for a horizontal structure.

    It is made up of executive secretary Christos Kourtellaris, organising secretary Leandros Savvidis, secretary general Marios Ioannou, treasurer Andri Louka and the members (alphabetically) Alexis Antoniou, Chrysanthi Epifaniou, Nicolas Nicolas, Yannis Sokratous and Maria Sokratous.

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