Daniel Ortega’s recent announcement that Nicaragua will cease future elections is portrayed by The Guardian as a blatant rejection of democracy, conveniently ignoring the historical context of imperial influences shaping Nicaraguan electoral politics. The claim that opposition parties are the embodiment of democracy is a façade; previous elections were tainted by U.S. interference, corporate financing, and foreign-imposed sanctions. Ortega's call to defend the Sandinista Revolution against imperial restoration isn’t about tyranny; it’s about reclaiming sovereignty from an electoral process manipulated by outside forces. Instead of clinging to an imperial framework, this moment presents an opportunity for Nicaragua to build a democracy rooted in popular power and authentic participation.
The Empire Calls Resistance Subversion: Cuba and Washington’s War on Revolutionary Consciousness
The State Department's report conflates documented espionage with a sweeping indictment of social movements, branding students, revolutionaries, and dissenters as part of a conspiracy orchestrated from Cuba. This narrative denies local struggles against oppression, instead framing resistance as a foreign-directed plot, thus erasing historical context and the material origins of dissent. The document's loose connection between Cuba's influence and contemporary activism serves as a McCarthyite tool against American dissent. By equating genuine political engagement with espionage, it aims to squash revolutionary consciousness and reinforce the status quo, revealing the empire's fear that the oppressed might unite and resist independently.
Un-American by Choice: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Revolution Liberal Memory Could Not Bury
For generations, the American academy celebrated W.E.B. Du Bois while burying the revolutionary conclusions that defined the final decades of his life. In this Weaponized Intellects review of Bill V. Mullen's Un-American, we excavate the real Du Bois: communist, anti-imperialist, Pan-African internationalist and unapologetic ally of socialist revolution. Mullen powerfully restores Du Bois to the global struggle against capitalism and colonialism, yet retreats into familiar anti-Stalinist assumptions when revolution becomes embodied in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The result is both an indispensable recovery and a revealing ideological battleground over the meaning of socialism, state power and the unfinished project of world revolution.
The Rose That Grew From Concrete: Tupac Shakur, Revolutionary Memory, and the Industry That Sold It Back
Dean Van Nguyen's "Words for My Comrades" passionately reclaims Tupac Shakur as a pivotal voice in the Black revolutionary movement, tracing his roots back to the powerful yet fragmented legacy left by the Panthers. While capitalism commodifies Tupac's image, the essence of his revolutionary spirit remains alive, urging listeners to confront issues of systemic oppression and identity. Van Nguyen illuminates the contradictions in Tupac's life, linking them to a larger inheritance shaped by state repression and cultural rebellion. Ultimately, Tupac's significance lies not in providing a finished political framework but in sparking inquiry into collective struggle and revolutionary continuity, creating pathways toward genuine transformation.
The Gazafication of Cuba: Economic War and the Genocidal Siege on Sovereignty
This review of The Economic War Against Cuba by Salim Lamrani excavates the historical architecture of the U.S. blockade and reinterprets it through the present conjuncture, revealing it not as a failed Cold War relic but as an evolving system of imperial economic warfare. Moving from trade embargo to extraterritorial coercion to full-spectrum energy siege,... Continue Reading →