Bulletins and News Discussion from March 10th to March 16th, 2025 - The New World Struggles To Be Born; Now Is The Time Of Proxy Wars - COTW: Myanmar

Image is from Wikipedia's article on the war..

I've wanted to cover Myanmar for a while now but haven't had the needed knowledge to write much more than "This situation really sucks." After doing a little reading on the situation, I feel even more confused. A decent analogy is the Syrian Civil War, at least while Assad was in power (though it's still pretty true today) - many different opposition groups, some co-operating with the United States, others not. The main government supported partially by an anti-American superpower, but who could live with that government collapsing if there are deals to be made with the group coming into power. A conflict kept going and exploited at least partially by the United States and other imperial core powers, though with plenty of genuine domestic animosity and desires for political independence.

Recently, the Myanmar government - the mainstream media uses "junta", which is probably accurate despite the connotations - has promised elections at the end of 2025. This doesn't seem likely to happen, and even if it did, how this would work in a country as war-torn as Myanmar is unclear. The government is losing territory and soldiers at a quick pace; they now hold only 21% of the country, though that 21% does at least comprise many of the cities. It's difficult to get a handle on the number of people affected because civil wars and insurgencies have been ongoing in some shape or form for decades, but we're talking at least millions displaced and thousands of civilians killed.

Here's a comment by @TheGenderWitch@hexbear.net from fairly recently that covers the situation in Myanmar:

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A day of fury under milei's regime:
AP: Argentine retirees and soccer fans clash with police during protests against austerity measures
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine retirees and fans of several soccer teams clashed with police Wednesday during a protest in front of Congress in the capital, Buenos Aires, against the economic policies implemented by the government of President Javier Milei.
What started as a peaceful demonstration escalated into violent clashes as police deployed water cannons, tear gas, and pellets against stone-throwing protesters.
For weeks, Buenos Aires retirees have held weekly protests demanding higher pensions, citing a precarious standard of living. While previous demonstrations involved minor incidents, including tear gas use against the elderly, Wednesday’s protest was unprecedented in scale.
The government of far-right President Javier Milei, who has championed a policy of public spending cuts since coming to power a year and a half ago, had warned of restrictions on entry to stadiums for those who cause disorder.
Police deployed shotguns and water hoses before the scheduled 5:00 p.m. protest.
Clashes erupted when a large group of Boca Juniors soccer fans, waving flags and chanting in support of the retirees, arrived. Police formed a cordon to block their advance toward Congress.
At the rear, a group of elderly protesters were pushed back by high-pressure water cannons fired by two tanks at the perimeter closest to the Legislative Assembly.
In an unprecedented show of unity, fans from Boca Juniors, River Plate, and other Argentine soccer clubs joined pensioners who gather outside Congress every Wednesday to protest the government’s austerity measures.
Surrounded by police, protesters chanted, “Don’t touch the elderly.” A man draped in the Argentine flag held a sign that read “Help me fight. You’ll be the next elderly person.”
A resolution published Wednesday by Argentina’s Ministry of Security bans anyone who engages in violent behavior, disrupts security, traffic, or public order from entering soccer stadiums. This means that fans involved in Wednesday’s riots will be barred from attending their team’s games for a period set by the authorities.
The repression today was really big, probably the worst since milei took power. It all began when a number of fans and Barras (Our equivalent to Hooligans or Ultras) of Chacarita Juniors, a second-division football team with roots on Anarcho-Communism, started to escort the elderly people who hold a demonstration each wednesday to protest against the regime's cuts on pensions. A week ago, they clashed with police. A call was made for all fans and Barras who wanted to join the struggle to attend the protest this wednesday, and so many did, including rival Barras like Boca Juniors and River Plate, Racing Club and Independiente and Chacarita Juniors and Atlanta, among many others. The idea was to escort and protect the elderly as they protested.
However the police, as always, reacted with violence. Over a thousand police officers from all branches were deployed, from normal cops to Gendarmería (militarized police) and Airport Security. About 150 people were arrested, some of whom had nothing to do with the protest, the status of all detained people is unknown. One cameraman had his skull cracked open by a police tear gas shot, he's in very critical condition. An old lady was hit by a riot police and she hit her back of her head, she's also hospitalized. Many more suffered wounds due to rubber bullets fired by the pigs. A shitton of undercover cops joined the protest to agitate. One police officer curiously dropped his service fiream in the street as his line advanced, maybe to plant it for someone to pick it up and use against them. One cop sustained a firearm wound to his arm, not sure who fired, don't really care either, but I hope he dies soon anyways.
Meanwhile a session in Congress was being held (Discussing, among other things, an investigation on milei's role in his crypto scam), but was called off after a number of pro-milei congressmen began to brawl with each other.
Now it becomes completely apparent that we're not living under a democratic regime of any kind, not even the shit bourgeois "democracy". Milei's answer to pretty much all protests is to crush them with sheer force. I hope this sparks a bigger response, there's an urgent need for a nation-wide strike, we should have had one at least a year ago. Meanwhile, the economic situation is NOT improving, there are more and more people falling into homelesness, prices are still high and wages are very low. If you have your elderly people out in the streets fighting for better pensions you know you're in the shit as a country.
To me there's one thing that is guaranteed: The future holds nothing but pain and misery. Milei's regime is at war with us, and is one of attrition, we'll see who lasts longer.
oh and eternal suffering and death to "israel" and all zionists in the world including and not limited to javier milei.
- One cameraman had his skull cracked open by a police tear gas shot, he's in very critical condition.
  You could see the man's brains coming out of his forehead.
  
  WTF
  
  The minister of security said "he's a kirchnerist militant" so it's okay he had his skull cracked open by the cops apparently. Very normal thing to say from one of the most powerful people in the government.
- I remember Lemmy.world people said inflation was improving and I didn't really have any counter-argument and no one here really gave me any counter-propaganda. But this gives me real ammunition about why this guy sucks. The repression sounds horrible, though. I wish luck to everyone who will have to learn to protest and strike under the sea of neoliberal regimes, from Argentina to the US, from Syria to Israel.
  EDIT: Thanks for the great answers. I should've asked news hexbear instead of main hexbear before lol.
  
  Inflation did slow but he destroyed the economy in the process and eroded purchasing power.
  Inflation should never be the only measure. I believe employment is more important (but that too shouldn't be the sole measure, see MIC creating employment), are people employed meaningfully? Because in many global south countries, people do have "jobs" but are underemployed (low pay, overqualified, not enough hours etc).
  
  Inflation slowed to about 2-4% rate per month, coming from like 30% or so. However, costs are still ridiculously high. Fuel for example is still expensive and that has a direct impact on the price of consumer goods pretty much because the logistics is done by trucks and trucks, of course, run on fuel, so the cost of transportation increases therefore the cost of X product increases (This is extremely stupid because we used to have solid railway lines that have been privatized and abandoned, transportation in this god forsaken place could be super easy but nooo). Energy got more expensive as well, households and businesses have to pay higher prices on their energy bills, from electricity to power. All subsidies were cut and the costs are now falling directly upon us. Public transportation got more expensive as well, not only due to fuel being expensive but also because subsidies were eliminated.
  All in a context of almost no economic growth, limited Central Bank reserves, little investments from abroad (which means few fresh US Dollars), little incentive from the Government to introduce higher wages (wages are always losing to inflation), deregulated markets especially the housing market in which rent skyrocketed, little to no social assistance programs from the State, pensions are on subterranean levels and so on. Milei and his lunatics love to display their great achievement of lowering inflation, sure, but there are many factors at play as well.
  All they can do is hope for the IMF to release funds to keep it going and maybe hope for a good harvest, because remember Argentina has a very powerful landowner class that rules the country and continues to set the economic policy which is oriented towards rural production, a few bad years and this shit goes down immediately. No wonder they get really desperated when there's a drought...
  
  Slowing inflation is fairly straightforward and easy to do: just make it so people can’t afford things, that will bring down inflation very rapidly. Of course that comes at the cost of massively increasing poverty and desperation, which is precisely what he did. Milei stans focus on inflation and the stock market because those are the two measures that look good and are also disconnected from the real economy. He did it all on the backs of the poor and retirees. And this isn’t some temporary setback, this situation is essentially locked in unless policies are reversed. On top of that, Milei’s policies have led to an incredible de-industrialization of Argentina. If his policies are allowed to continue, Argentina’s economy will be dependent on resource extraction and agriculture - a combination that sets you up for exploitation from the nations in the global north.
- milei is so hated that he has managed to unite boca and river. truly incredible levels of unpopularity
- Milei is a mehor punyeta
- Funny enough that Milei represents the future of the west. They are already trying to implement his policies. We live in an age of deconstruction.

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