Skip to content

Global South

Trade Unions Find Their Place In Global Peace Efforts At ManiFiesta 2024

At ManiFiesta 2024, the trade union square was buzzing with activity for two full days. Belgian labor activists preparing for a demonstration on September 16 to protest job cuts at Audi’s Brussels factory shared the space with union members from across Europe—Dutch, Italian, German, and French activists all exchanging struggles and strategies. Under the tents, the General Federation of Belgian Labour (ABVV-FGTB) and the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ACV-CSC), alongside the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), discussed campaigns to defend workers’ rights.

US Seizes Venezuelan Jet Plane, Confirming Who Is The Rogue Nation

The Biden/Harris administration is renewing its attacks on Venezuela. On Monday, September 2, US officials seized a jet plane belonging to the Venezuelan government when it was in the Dominican Republic for servicing, then flew it to Florida. Contrary to a false report in the NY Times, the plane was not "owned by Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro". It is owned by the Venezuelan government and used for travel by various Venezuelan officials in addition to the president. The NYT article claims, "The Biden administration is trying to put more pressure on Mr. Maduro because of his attempts to undermine the results of the recent presidential election.

Iranian President Vows To Neutralize West’s Sanctions

Iran’s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, announced that his government will prioritize neutralizing the impact of all illegal sanctions imposed on the country. The announcement was made during the inaugural ceremony of the country’s new foreign minister, Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, on Tuesday, August 27. The president said he believes that the best way to mitigate the impact of sanctions is to develop strong ties with neighboring countries. “Connections and development of relations [with neighbors] make sanctions ineffective,” he was quoted as saying by the Islamic Student News Agency (ISNA).

Olympic Games Once Again Marred By Western Bias And Controversy

The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, in Paris, France, officially ended on Aug. 11. There were certainly some historic moments achieved by athletes who hail from the Global South. These included gold medal winners Julien Alfred from St. Lucia, Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic and the legendary Cuban boxer, Mijain Lopez, the only athlete in Olympics history to win gold medals in five successive games. In another historic moment, North and South Korean athletes took collective selfies together during the table tennis medal ceremonies in a show of unity.

Lessons Of Desert Oases For Eco-Resilient Transformation

To the Western mind, the presence of lush oases in the middle of deserts is a strange aberration, almost a dream. What moderns fail to appreciate is that oases are actually deliberate human creations, socio-ecological examples of commoning. Colonial powers may see oases as a miraculous fantasy, but locals realize that their cultures of interdependence over the course of millennia have made oases possible, enabling them to collect and sustain natural flows of water in arid climates. Safouan Azouzi, a scholar of the commons, grew up in Gabès, Tunisia, where as a boy he lived within ancient traditions that sustain oases in the desert.

Ukraine Summit Failed: Global South Rejected Pro-War ‘Peace Conference’

The Western powers held a conference in Switzerland in June in an attempt to gain more international support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. The vast majority of the world population, in the Global South, rebuked this so-called “Summit on Peace in Ukraine”, to which Russia was not invited. Only 78 countries, mostly in Europe, endorsed the meeting’s final declaration. Together, these nations represented a small minority of the global population. At least 160 countries were invited to the conference from June 15 to 16 in Bürgenstock, Switzerland. Just around 90 ended up attending, and most sent low-level officials.

Global South Countries Break With West On Ukraine Summit Declaration

Key Global South countries attending the Ukraine “peace” conference in Switzerland this past weekend refused to sign the joint communique issued at the end of the two-day summit. Many of them underlined the need for Russian participation in any such initiatives for them to be credible. Countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico, and BRICS members, India, South Africa, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) did not agree to what was outlined in the communique despite participating in the summit over the weekend. Russia, which was not invited to join the summit, had already rejected the outcome and questioned the basis of the summit. President Vladimir Putin had also called the summit an attempt by the West to distract the world’s attention away from the root causes of the conflict.

Safe Abortions Everywhere, Regardless Of The Law

In 2008 in Quito, high in the Andes Mountains, a group of young feminist activists dropped a banner from the top of an enormous statue of the Virgin Mary that towers over Ecuador’s capital city. ​“Aborto Seguro,” the banner read, alongside the number for a new hotline that offered callers information on safely using medication to end a pregnancy outside the medical system. In a country where abortion access is extremely restricted and the majority of the population is Catholic, the Ecuadorian ​“safe abortion hotline” was a bold declaration of women’s bodily autonomy. It was also the beginning of what has since become a transnational movement that is increasingly relevant far beyond the region where it was born.

Report From The World Social Forum 2024, Kathmandu

WSF is an open space where civil society movements worldwide can open windows on to each other’s practice, to talk, listen and learn, and to develop insights and intuitions leading to cross-region, cross-movement solidarity and perhaps collaboration or coordination on strategies or actions. Here’s the WSF2024 website, here’s a summary of its thirteen themes, and here’s the final schedule of sessions. Digital literacy, and mobile capacity, certainly were at stake in this gathering; and I have to admit, as a Global Northerner, I was lacking in both departments. Since WSF is essentially a political and values-based rather than an economic frame, manifestly ‘economic’ sessions in WSF convergences are in a minority.

The Global South In The Arctic North

In January, three months into Israel’s attack on Gaza, a group people in the Inuit city of Iqaluit, the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, rallied and called for a ceasefire. One demonstrator said, “I think Palestinian rights are Indigenous rights to those lands, and we’re on Indigenous land here, and if we’re fighting for the rights of Indigenous people in Canada, in Nunavut, we should be doing the same worldwide.” Bigger rallies took place in the more populated cities of Whitehorse, Yukon, and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. More than 200 people gathered at the Whitehorse waterfront, some of them descendants of Palestinian refugees from the Nakba of 1948.

77% Of Top Climate Scientists Think 2.5°C Of Warming Is Coming

Nearly 80% of top-level climate scientists expect that global temperatures will rise by at least 2.5°C by 2100, while only 6% thought the world would succeed in limiting global heating to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, a survey published Wednesday by The Guardian revealed. Nearly three-quarters blamed world leaders' insufficient action on a lack of political will, while 60% said that corporate interests such as fossil fuel companies were interfering with progress. "I expect a semi-dystopian future with substantial pain and suffering for the people of the Global South," one South African scientist told The Guardian. "The world's response to date is reprehensible—we live in an age of fools."

The Premises Of The Diplomatic Mission Shall Be Inviolable

We live in dishonest times, where certainties have crumbled, and malevolence stalks the landscape. There is Gaza, of course. Gaza above all else is on our minds. Over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since 7 October, with more than 7,000 people missing (5,000 of them children). The Israeli government has brutally disregarded the global public opinion mounted against them. Billions of people are outraged by the stark fact of their violence and yet we are unable to force a ceasefire from an army that has decided to raze an entire people.

Will BRICS Launch A New World In 2024?

Across the Global South, countries are lining up to join the multipolar BRICS and the Hegemon-free future it promises. The onslaught of interest has become an unavoidable theme of discussion during this crucial year of the Russian presidency of what, for the moment, is BRICS-10. Indonesia and Nigeria are among the top tiers of candidates likely to join. The same applies to Pakistan and Vietnam. Mexico is in a very complex bind: how to join without summoning the ire of the Hegemon. And then there's the new candidacy on a roll: Yemen, which enjoys plenty of support from Russia, China, and Iran.

‘Western Dominance Has Ended’, EU Foreign-Policy Chief Admits

Europe’s top diplomat has acknowledged that the “era of Western dominance has indeed definitively ended”. Josep Borrell, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, wrote this in a blog post on the official website of the EU’s diplomatic service on February 25. “If the current global geopolitical tensions continue to evolve in the direction of ‘the West against the Rest’, Europe’s future risks to be bleak”, he warned. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza, along with the anti-colonial uprisings in Africa’s Sahel region, have “significantly increased this risk” of Europe becoming geopolitically irrelevant, Borrell said, lamenting that “Russia has managed to take advantage of the situation”.

At ICJ Hearing, Global South Countries Call For End To Occupation Of Palestine

The ongoing hearing at the International Court of Justice on the Israeli occupation of Palestine has revealed clear divisions on the issue that also extend to countries’ positions on the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza. While countries from the Global South have called for an end to the Israeli occupation as soon as possible, the US and many of its allies seek the continuation of status quo. On the fifth day of hearing on Friday, February 23 the UK, adhering to the line taken by the US earlier, tried to defend the Israeli occupation and asked the court to avoid giving its opinion of its legality.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.