Title. I tried searching but couldn't find a simple solution.

> The Family Code went through a rigorously democratic process. From the first process of consultation, where more than half of the Family Code was modified, to the second part where through the mass participation of Cuban people over 40% was modified, the collective process of the enactment of legislation becomes clear. > > The Family Code was also written in understandable language so that the Cuban people could easily comprehend the legalities involved. The code is intended not just for use in courts of law, but also as an educational document for families to use as a guideline to understand their rights and responsibilities. > > The final step of the process, the national referendum, will serve to legitimize the Family Code. It doesn’t impose any kind of model on Cuban families; rather, it protects all people and families, and future families, as required under the Cuban constitution.

Someone shared all episodes from Blowback Season 3 which is behind a paywall as of now. It's about the American invasion of Korea.

Some background on the Guinea coup for those wondering what is going on. The people running the podcast are pretty good (materialist and leftist) so I trust it.

This is pretty dope. An American instructor goes to DPRK to teach post-undergrad students about machine learning (ML). His students make contributions to two projects hosted on GitHub. They aren't allowed to make GutHub accounts under DPRK laws, so they use the instructor's account to file pull requests. Best part is the first case, where the student was running out of RAM while compiling the library. He removes superfluous import statements to reduce memory consumption. I wish this pattern was more prevalent in mainstream programming. Currently we are leveraging child laborers mining rare earth metals for cheap in Africa to create programs that are bloated beyond the reasonable limits of.efficiency. Of course this isn't the case everywhere but it is still way too common.

- [EP 260 — Yeltsin's 1993 Coup, Part 1](http://exiledonline.com/45wn84klrz/media/rwn_ep_260_122220_v31.mp3) - [EP 261 — Yeltsin's 1993 Coup, Part 2: Long Grim Summer](http://exiledonline.com/45wn84klrz/media/rwn_ep_261_1223201.mp3) Very informative episodes though they are kinda long (about 1.5hrs each). Apparently one of the hosts was in Russia at the time of the coup. The level of ruthlessness and criminality was off the charts. It's one of things the more you learn about it, the more appalling it seems and there is no upper limit to this.

[This article](https://rupeindia.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/peasant-agitation-against-three-acts-not-their-fight-alone/) has a good class-based analysis of the peasant agitation against the proposed farm bills. I recommend reading it in its entirety but I will copy paste some portions to provide an overview. At the very least, try to read the last section which is a good overview of how imperialism destroys food sovereignty and security. --- ### The threat posed to the peasantry The immediate aim of the peasant agitation is the scrapping of the three farm Acts (these bypass the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) mandis (mandi means trading post), do away with limits on stocking agricultural commodities, and facilitate contract farming). The Government claims it is giving peasants the “freedom” to sell their crops anywhere to anyone, they will not be compelled to go to the mandis. In fact most peasants in India already have that “freedom”, and as a result they face much worse exploitation. In direct opposition to the Government’s claim, what peasants want is not this bogus “freedom”, but the security that their crops will be procured by state agencies at the Minimum Support Price (MSP). Rice and wheat growing peasants of certain states, have had such a guarantee. That is now being taken away, under cover of “liberating‟ peasants from the APMC mandis. These Acts will lead to a situation where corporate firms will procure crops from peasants at unregulated prices, hoard stocks, and control agricultural trade. (Besides, the Electricity Amendment Bill will result in a steep rise in electricity costs for agriculture, squeezing the peasantry. So the peasant organisations have demanded that it too be scrapped.) As the food supply chain comes under greater and greater corporate control, the working peasantry stand to lose their landholdings in one way or the other. Since it is cheaper for corporations to deal with a few, large standardised suppliers than to handle a large number of small suppliers, it will become increasingly difficult for small peasants in the surplus-producing states to survive. Small peasants constitute the overwhelming bulk of farmers, even in Punjab. Already struggling between the scissors of input and output prices, they may be forced to part with their holdings. (Those who survive may come under tighter corporate control and supervision over the production process, so that in effect they hold only the paper rights to the land.) Larger, more mechanised farms will require a smaller labour force. Thus, while the agitation is described as a “farmer” agitation, it represents principally the interests of poor and middle peasants, not all “farmers”. While those agitating at Delhi are toiling peasants, they may not be the most downtrodden and impoverished of India‟s peasants. These most downtrodden can be found in the agriculturally backward regions of our country, and their crops are never procured by any official agency at the MSP. However, the present peasant agitation is in the interests of the latter peasants as well. (Because public procurement at MSP in any region provides a benchmark without which prices in other regions would fall much more steeply.) ### Depression of wages and aggregate demand Since the situation of even industrial employment is bleak, the peasants displaced from agriculture cannot be absorbed in any other sector. India’s labour force is much too large for emigration to absorb a significant share, and anyway such opportunities abroad are vanishing fast. So the displaced peasants will join the reserve army of labour, and this rise in the reserve army will depress the general level of wages, as desperate labourers compete for scarce jobs. The process of shrinking employment and depressed wages will depress aggregate demand, in turn further reducing employment. ### Rendering the country even more vulnerable to imperialist pressure A country that does not ensure its food security will remain vulnerable to arm-twisting by imperialist powers. During India’s mid-1960s food crisis, the cash-strapped country was compelled to import large amounts of wheat as food aid from the United States (which was trying hard at the time to export its wheat surpluses). The US used this “aid‟ as a lever to dictate India’s economic and foreign policy. In recent years India has faced severe pressure to open up its agricultural markets. It has been the target of concerted campaigns at the World Trade Organisation by various exporting countries, who have termed India’s policies regarding rice, wheat, pulses, cotton and sugar as violative of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). The US has been spearheading this drive, contesting India’s claims that its support to Indian agricultural producers is in keeping with the AoA. At the Bali conference of the WTO in 2013, India’s food procurement and public stockholding programme was condemned by developed countries. With the support of some other Third World countries, India won a temporary reprieve, a “peace clause” (in exchange for conceding something else), suspending any punitive action till a resolution was achieved. However, the developed countries have been unwilling to resolve this issue, and instead have kept up the pressure on India to withdraw support to its farmers. At a virtual WTO meet May 25 this year, at the height of the Covid crisis, food exporting countries criticised the new aid packages being provided to farmers by some governments in response to the crisis claiming they would “distort” global food trade. Even as India put up a display of opposition at the WTO, the Government’s steps towards winding up public procurement in essence unilaterally concede the substance of the dispute – in favour of the developed countries. The developed countries know well that, once the FCI no longer exists in its present form, India's seeming self-sufficiency in grain can get eroded quickly. Further, without the weapon of large physical buffer stocks of foodgrains, the Government will be powerless to intervene against profiteering private corporations. And so the crisis of India‟s agriculture and food system in 1965 is still relevant to India today. ### India in the mirror of Mexico The above warnings are not speculation or scare-mongering. They are simply conclusions drawn from observation of the worldwide pattern of the impact of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation on agriculture. For example, this is precisely the model imposed on Mexican agriculture since the 1990s, and more particularly since 1994 (the North American Free Trade Agreement). - Mexico’s state trading agency (its equivalent of FCI) was dismantled. - All state measures to support agricultural production were slowly wound down. - Subsidies on its staple food (corn) were slowly wound down, and these were replaced by selective cash transfers to peasants and consumers. - Imports of US corn (to Mexico, which is the very home of maize and the world‟s great treasury of maize varieties) tripled. - Family farms in Mexico collapsed by well over half. - Total agricultural employment fell sharply, without adequate growth in other sectors to absorb the displaced peasants. - Thus unemployment nationwide rose. - The number under the poverty line rose. - More than half the population cannot meet basic needs and one-fifth cannot meet food needs. - The resulting demand depression caused Mexico‟s GDP growth rates to fall, to near the bottom for Latin America. - Emigration rose by nearly 80 per cent as desperate unemployed peasants tried to enter their northern neighbour. - The prices of the staple food (tortillas made from corn) rose steeply. - And the entire market for maize flour is controlled by just two Mexican firms (Grupo Maseca controls 85 per cent) – a position that Ambani, Adani and Walmart would like to occupy in India today. (We will provide details of this in a later blog post.)

[Link to article.](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/us/michael-reinoehl-arrest-portland-shooting.html) Sharp contrast in their attitudes toward this hero and the 17-year-old Nazi but I don't think anyone here will be surprised.

Here's the answer copy-pasted: --- I will bring an answer for question “How do we evaluate Stalin?” from Zhihu( Chinese Quora like webiste). This answer was finished two years ago. It got 6.2k up-votes. Link:[如何评价斯大林？ - 知乎](https://www.zhihu.com/answer/61687002) Here we go: It is despicable to put aside historical background when evaluating a historical figure. We now know much more information than the people living in the past, we should have a better understanding on what have happened. —— In January 1924, Lenin, the leader of Bolshevik passed away. Let’s take a look at what he left for Stalin: 1. Russian Empire dissolved, splitted into 6 pieces—Soviet Union,Finland, Poland,Estonia,Lithuania and Latvia. Among these new born countries - Poland managed to get a large amount of territory which used to be a part of West Ukraine and West Belarus—-a large amount of territory of two later Soviet republics. - Finland got Viborg area, an area Russia got in 1712 and Czar Alexander I partitioned to Finland for Finland as a part of Russian Empire. - Romania got Bessarabia ,an area Russia empire annexed in 1829. 2. Despite new born Red army was able to win civil war, it was quite fragile when confronting against also new born Poland force. 700 thousand poorly armed army of Poland crushed Red army, forcing Soviet Union cede lands to Poland. 3. Russian economy was essentially backward. Continuous WWI,Civil War and War with Poland make it even worse. A famine hit Russia in 1921. Limited industrial capacity, especially military industry capacity collapsed basically. 4. All neighboring countries were hostile to Soviet Union except Mongolia. USA refuse to recognize Soviet Union. A Japanese invasion in far east was stopped not long ago. 5. Top leader of Soviet Communist party were mainly Jews, people with long term oversea experience, people with good education background or people who was born and raised in upper class family. Stalin, son of a shoemaker,ethnic minority from Georgia, who did not went to college was for sure an outsider. Being affected by ‘first lady’, Lenin left a will suggesting central committee of Soviet communist party to exempt Stalin as the General Secretary. Almost the entire Red army was under the command of Trotsky and Kamenev. Stalin had no friend in army expect a cavalry corp under the command of Budyonny and Voroshilov. Also, the army was full of his foe such as Tukhachevsky. With the knowledge we know now, the task Stalin need to do was(Unlike video games, he would not know the exact content on what was required to be done): 1. In 1941, an army of 6 million troops led by Nazi Germany will Strike Soviet Union. This army just crushed UK-French allied force. In WWI, UK and French army were way better than Russian Empire army. 2. Before the incident above to occur, if Red army was not doing well against a probing attack from Japan, about 1 million Japanese army would swarming into Soviet Union far east territory. 3. Even if imperialist axis powers leading by Germany, Japan and Italy was defeated, imperialist group leading by USA and UK would remain hostile against Soviet Union. They will have atomic bomb technology by 1945.(Imperialist. Yes, that what Chinese would say about US, even today.) When Stalin die, Soviet Union was like this: 1. Estonia,Lithuania and Latvia was a part of Soviet Union. Territory lost to Poland were all recaptured. Territory lost to Romania and Finland were all recaptured while forcing them to cede more. German and Hungry ceded part of their land to Soviet Union. Territory lost in Russo-Japanese war were all recaptured while occupied some Japanese land. 2. Nazi invading powers from Europe was completely crushed, red army occupied most of the Europe land to the east of Elbe River. Japanese army in Manchuria and Korean peninsula were all destroyed. 3. In the Soviet occupied part Germany, new established government follow command from Moscow. New established government in axis power or partially axis power countries like Czechoslovakia,Bulgaria,Romania and Hungry now follow command from Moscow. Poland and north Korea which was liberated by Soviet Union established government which follow command from Soviet Union. Communist in China and Albania received help from Soviet Union, resulting new pro-Soviet government of these countries to be established. Pro-soviet government in North Vietnam was about to born. 4. In terms of industrial power, Soviet Union was NO.1 in Europe and NO.2 in the world. It can produce atomic bomb. Hydrogen bomb and nuclear power plant was about to be built. Now, let’s start a conversion. If you are Stalin, can you do better?

I see people who are left-liberal anticommunists getting called Tr\*ts sometimes but I don't know what exactly it means. What characterises a Trotskyist? The only things I know are that Trotsky: - was opposed to Stalin. - wanted international revolutions. - perished because of an ice-pick attack. (Not sure about this.)