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Forums - Politics Discussion - The popular revolt in Kazakhstan

I just wanted to comment a little on recent developments over in Kazakhstan that have made global headlines of late, mainly because I'm seeing a few "anti-globalist" and "anti-imperialist" people on Facebook parrot the police state's official characterization thereof and it irks me.

The regime narrative that this whole wave of protest has been engineered by the United States makes very little sense in reality. The whole thing started with the lifting of price controls on liquified petroleum. You know who the principal owners thereof are in Kazakhstan? American companies. Chevron. ExxonMobile. You get the idea. American companies own over 30% of the oil that gets produced in Kazakhstan, which is, by a wide margin, more of it than anyone else owns. The regime allowed them to set their own prices without restriction and they instantly became unaffordable to the working population as a result, literally doubling overnight. The neoliberal policy change was clearly instigated by precisely these companies, and was only the latest in a very long line thereof that frankly the local population is fed up with, and rightly so. This was just the straw that broke the camel's back. The underlying problem is that privatization, de-regulation, union-busting, and austerity (i.e. the capitalist policy regime preferred by most people on this message board) sucks enough ass that they can only be enforced by tyrannical means that in turn beget more public resentment over time. I personally feel that price controls are by far the simplest and most logical solution to our own quite high rate of price inflation in this country, being as much of it is being caused by price gouging, not just supply chain issues. Back in the old days when we had a more equitable wealth distribution and found as much to be a good thing, that's how we'd have solved predicaments like this, but the infinite wisdom of modern economists dictates that such crazy ideas as reducing prices by simply, you know, reducing prices, is a monstrous and politically unacceptable solution in this country today, being as our capitalist class takes grave offense thereto. Such sane and worker-friendly ideas as these strike uncontrollable terror in the hearts of the ruling class, so they are outside the range of acceptable debate here in this country. I wish we could have them.

Anyway, that the regime has called in Russian troops to suppress the consequent wave of revolt, and that Moscow has obliged, is not actually a good thing for anyone concerned; not even for the regime itself, which will find its own autonomy weakened as a result. Vladimir Putin's concern here is clearly more political in nature than economic, being as just 3% of Kazakhstan's oil is Russian-owned. The Russian oligarchy likely sees the popular rebellion going on in Kazakhstan as both subtracting from its ongoing build-up of troops along the border with Ukraine (Russia has maintained relative political control over Kazakhstan) and also as a sign of the kind of public response they could be in for inside Russia itself if the specific person of Putin ever leaves the presidency again (i.e. a social warning to keep him in that position as long as humanly possible).

Personally, I'm rooting for my class to somehow win this struggle. They definitely won't -- they have absolutely no chance -- but theirs is a cause worth supporting anyway.

Last edited by Jaicee - on 09 January 2022

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaty_bid_for_the_2022_Winter_Olympics

I can't help but to think the Olympics would have been a MUCH more interesting affair had they been held here. I'm guessing Russia would have taken gold, home turf advantage and all :)

In all seriousness. Corporate imperialism has been a growing problem since the depression era. Capitalism is evolving into something different. I mean, it still involves capitalists, but it functions more like Mercantilism now. We also have digital empires in the form of platforms - and I don't see how these can effectively be broken up with how politics and economics currently work. There are systems that can work, since ownership of unbreakable corporate entities can still be broken down by its shares.

Last edited by Jumpin - on 21 February 2022

I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

Jumpin said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaty_bid_for_the_2022_Winter_Olympics

I can't help but to think the Olympics would have been a MUCH more interesting affair had they been held here. I'm guessing Russia would have taken gold, home turf advantage and all :)

In all seriousness. Corporate imperialism has been a growing problem since the depression era. Capitalism is evolving into something different. I mean, it still involves capitalists, but it functions more like Mercantilism now. We also have digital empires in the form of platforms - and I don't see how these can effectively be broken up with how politics and economics currently work. There are systems that can work, since ownership of unbreakable corporate entities can still be broken down by its shares.

More and more we're going to see the Olympics become a way for authoritarian regimes flex their jingoist muscles on the world stage a la Berlin 1936 and Beijing 2022. The only two cities that put in serious bids for 2022 were Beijing and Almaty. Istanbul is an apparent front-runner for 2036. At best, the Olympics have pretty much been a series of expensive boondoggles and mass displacement that leaves the host cities in worse shape than when they started, and Western cities are accordingly less interested in hosting. If they want to keep the Olympics alive, they should really consider making Athens the permanent home of the Olympics and asking the other countries to contribute to the upkeep. 

Corporate imperialism/mercantilism has been a problem since the British East India Company, and never really stopped being a problem. The US still intervenes in other countries on behalf of corporate interests, and China wields an awful lot of power in Africa in exchange for their resources.