Redlines: Cutting Through Imperial Lies – May 2, 2025
Daily Dispatches from the Frontlines of Global Class and Anti-Imperialist Struggle
Africa
1. Atlantic Council pushes U.S.–Africa ‘diaspora engagement’
The imperial scribes at the Atlantic Council want to rebrand U.S. meddling in Africa by weaponizing the African diaspora as middlemen for imperial interests. Beneath the fluffy talk of “partnership” is the same old extraction racket—just draped in kente cloth. Africa doesn’t need more “engagement.” It needs reparations, sovereignty, and liberation from centuries of Western plunder.
2. Kenya deepens ties with China in “win-win” move
President Ruto calling expanded China-Kenya relations a “win-win” isn’t just diplomatic jargon—it’s a slap in the face to Western financiers who’ve treated Africa like a pawn. As Kenya pivots toward South-South cooperation, the empire panics, throwing around tired accusations of “neocolonialism.” But it’s the West whose boot has been on Africa’s neck. Multipolarity is rising, and Washington knows it.
3. Mali coup leader secures 5-year presidency with broad support
Colonel Goïta’s solidification of power is framed by the Western press as “democratic backsliding”—because imperialism can’t stomach a Mali breaking the chains of French neocolonialism. But on the streets of Bamako, it’s not “authoritarianism” people see—it’s sovereignty. Mali’s pivot from Paris signals a deeper anti-imperialist current sweeping the Sahel.
Asia
4. Atlantic media claim “Russian clout fading” in Central Asia as China rises
The imperial cheerleaders want you to think Russia and China are locked in a zero-sum game in Central Asia. But here’s the truth: Eurasian integration terrifies the West because it cuts out U.S.-NATO pipelines of plunder. This isn’t Russia “fading”—it’s multipolar cooperation evolving beyond Western hegemony.
5. “Huawei the Hydra” smears China’s tech rise
Phenomenal World dresses up imperial paranoia as critique, casting Huawei as a many-headed beast threatening the West’s digital monopoly. But Huawei ain’t a hydra—it’s a manifestation of the global South’s tech sovereignty, breaking the Silicon Valley chokehold. What scares them is the prospect of 5G, AI, and data infrastructure no longer under imperial lock and key.
6. “A superpower crunch over Taiwan is coming” (The Economist)
The Economist beats the war drums, framing Taiwan as the battleground for an inevitable U.S.-China clash. But it’s not China provoking war—it’s imperialism refusing to accept the end of unipolar dominance. The West hides its militarization and encirclement behind “defending democracy” while plotting to sacrifice Taiwan as cannon fodder in its strategy of containment.
Middle East
7. U.S. intercepts Iranian arms “headed for Houthis”
The Pentagon hypes up an “Iranian arms shipment” like it’s some great discovery, while U.S. weapons rain hell on Yemen. The real crime isn’t smuggling defensive arms—it’s the starvation, bombing, and siege orchestrated by U.S.-backed forces. Empire criminalizes resistance and legalizes genocide.
8. Lebanon warns Hamas over “national security” risks
Under IMF and Western pressure, Lebanon’s ruling class distances itself from Palestinian resistance, framing liberation struggle as a “security threat.” But no amount of elite caution can erase the solidarity of the masses with Palestine. The comprador state’s leash gets tighter, but the people’s loyalty remains steadfast.
9. ‘Dangerous escalation’: Syria slams Israel strikes near presidential palace
Israel’s airstrike near Syria’s presidential palace wasn’t just a “warning”—it was a colonial power flexing muscle under the cover of protecting the Druze minority. While Israel claims it’s defending Druze rights, Druze leaders themselves reject Israeli meddling. This is imperial sectarianism in action: weaponizing minority struggles to destabilize a sovereign nation and keep Syria fractured, all while drones hover overhead and Zionist aggression expands unchecked.
Central/South America & Caribbean
10. Venezuela-Guyana border dispute heats up amid Essequibo elections
Western media paint Venezuela as an aggressor in the Essequibo dispute, conveniently ignoring Britain’s colonial theft of this oil-rich land. This isn’t “territorial expansion”—it’s a fight against colonial dispossession. The empire wants arbitration; Venezuela wants reclamation.
11. Mexico to phase in 40-hour work week by 2030
Mexico’s promise to reduce the workweek sounds progressive—until you see the timeline. Seven years of stalling is a gift to capital. Without organized labor muscle, neoliberalism will dilute every reform into empty gestures while exploiting new avenues of precarity.
12. Venezuelan GDP grows 9.32% in first quarter
While imperialist pundits declare Venezuela a “failed state,” the numbers tell a different story: 9.32% GDP growth in Q1 2025, driven by surging oil and mining sectors, despite a crushing U.S.-led blockade. This isn’t just economic recovery—it’s a heroic defiance of economic warfare, proof that a people organized under anti-imperialist leadership can weather sanctions and still chart a sovereign course. Washington tried to starve Venezuela into submission; instead, Venezuela is writing a revolutionary manual for survival under siege.
Europe
13. Europe plans to siphon billions from frozen Russian assets
Europe’s plan to rob Russia’s frozen sovereign funds is imperial piracy dressed as “justice.” This is colonial plunder by other means—proof that international law is whatever imperialism says it is. The Global South is taking notes.
14. “The Unbearable Self-Indulgence of Europe” (The Economist)
The Economist mourns Europe’s supposed “self-indulgence”—but misses the real story: a decaying imperial core facing the collapse of its parasitic privileges. It laments Europe’s inability to militarize fast enough, liberalize markets harder, or exploit labor more ruthlessly to compete in a multipolar world. This isn’t just “decadence”—it’s the exhaustion of imperial capitalism, forced to cannibalize its own welfare state as its global dominance slips away.
15. “The World Still Speaks in U.S. Dollars” (New York Times)
The New York Times admits the dollar is wobbling under Trump’s chaos but still clings to faith in U.S. financial supremacy. While the euro and BRICS alternatives inch forward, imperial finance counts on inertia and deep liquidity to hold the line. But cracks are showing: every tariff, sanction, and weaponized financial policy accelerates the search for escape routes from dollar domination. The empire’s monetary whip hasn’t snapped—but the global South is quietly sharpening its scissors.
North America
16. Canadian tourists bypass U.S. for Mexico, Caribbean
Canadian tourists skipping the U.S. for Mexico and the Caribbean? That’s more than travel preference—it’s a small symbol of a declining imperial center. The empire is becoming flyover territory, not just geographically but geopolitically, as the world turns elsewhere.
17. U.S. LNG exports surge to Europe
Europe’s “energy independence” from Russia? A hollow phrase. They’ve just traded one master for another, shackling themselves to overpriced U.S. fracked gas while environmental ruin deepens. Neo-mercantile dependency in a new imperial key.
A beautiful photo exhibit honors the descendants of freedom-seekers who escaped U.S. slavery via the Underground Railroad to Canada, a story often buried under Canada’s official multicultural myth. While the exhibit uplifts their legacy, we must also remember: the settler colony that gave sanctuary also upheld British imperialism and racial capitalism. The struggle for Black liberation didn’t end at the border—it continues across settler states, even where the narratives are framed as “freedom.”
United States
19. Trump vows to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status
Trump’s attack on Harvard isn’t anti-elitism—it’s class war by another faction of the elite. He’s clearing cultural institutions for a white nationalist, capitalist reconfiguration under technofascism. One wing of capital culls the other to consolidate power.
20. Trump orders defunding of NPR and PBS
By cutting off NPR and PBS, Trump accelerates the purge of liberal bourgeois media, reshaping the ideological state apparatus into a unified, uncritical propaganda machine for technofascist capitalism. The “culture war” is a class war waged in the realm of narrative.
21. U.S. adds 177,000 jobs in April as unemployment holds at 4.2%
Behind the headlines of “job growth” are low-wage, precarious gigs propping up a hollowed economy. The working class gets crumbs while capital hoards the feast. These numbers aren’t signs of strength—they’re symptoms of deepening proletarian immiseration under late-stage capitalism.
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