Nigerian Government Revealing Its True Character In Response To Youth Protests
Youth protests against police violence in Nigeria, the #EndSARS movement, gained international attention with solidarity protests around the world. To
Socialism
Peru’s Youth Have Mobilized In Indignation
Mass protests broke out after Peru’s parliament voted to impeach former president Martin Vizcarra on November 9th, installing Manuel Merino of the Accion Popular party, as head of state for the 5 months left till the country’s general elections.
The Peruvian left are not supporters of former neoliberal president Vizcarra, but have condemned the impeachment that has been carried out by forces even further to his right, “The new government has named Ántero Flores Aráoz as president of the Council of Ministers, he is the best representative of the old politics: conservative, far-right, racist, sexist, a few years ago...
Brazil: Municipal Elections Promise Gains For Left
On Sunday, November 15, residents of Brazil’s 5570 municipalities will vote for mayors and city councilors in what promises to be a day of moderate gains by left wing political parties and embarrassing loses for candidates aligned with Brazil’s far right President Jair Bolsonaro.
In 2012, the Brazilian Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores/PT) elected 638 mayors, including 19 in Brazil’s largest 95 cities (those with population above 200,000). In 2016, after 3 years of a relentless national and international media smear campaign based on false corruption allegations...
Unemployment Crisis Continues Unabated
More than 1 million people filed for unemployment assistance last week according to new figures released today. 709,000 workers requested filled out applications for traditional benefits, and slightly under 300,000 applied for the specially-created Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. The Department of Labor’s reporting deceptively separates those who apply for standard unemployment benefits from those who apply for PUA.
Similarly, official unemployment statistics only count people who have actively looked for work in the last four weeks.
Bolivia: Parliament’s Committee Seeks To Prosecute Jeanine Añez
Bolivia - The ministers of foreign affairs, defense, interior, and justice could also be subject to criminal proceedings.
A special committee of the Bolivian Parliament on Monday recommended starting trials against the leader of the coup-born regime Jeanine Añez and some ministers for the massacres of Sacaba and Senkata that took place in 2019.
The final report of this committee was referred to the National Congress, where it must be approved by two-thirds of its members for it to enter into force.
Talk Of Another Pink Tide
The election of Luis Arce in Bolivia last month has been much celebrated in circles where people of humane good will gather. This is as it should be: Arce was economics and finance minister in the socialist government of Evo Morales and was the violently deposed president’s chosen successor to lead his Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS.
Arce’s victory, by a thumping 52-percent to 31-percent, reversed one of the bolder and nastier of the many right-wing coups in Latin America the U.S. has led, cultivated, fomented, instigated, what-have-you since the early decades of the last century.
Sanctions, Elections And Tactical Opportunities
First, the very existence of the Venezuelan nation-state is at stake in the upcoming elections. Of course, all countries on the periphery struggle for their existence in the unequal power relationship that exists between the Global North and the Global South. This is a global class struggle, where the aggressor is the imperialist pole, represented by NATO. They aim to recolonize our continent.
As such, the struggle in the upcoming elections is not with the Venezuelan opposition, which merely reflects the White House’s interests.
How Bolivia’s New Socialist Senator Resisted Coup Terror
Just a few days after the dramatic landslide victory on October 18 of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party founded by Evo Morales, I traveled 3.5 hours from the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, with The Grazyone team of Ben Norton and Anya Parampil, to Chimoré, here in the tropical region of Cochabamba, that’s a base of support for the MAS party.
We attended a gathering of regional party leadership, including the mayor of Chimoré; Senator-elect Leonardo Loza, who is filling the role of Evo Morales in the Senate; and Senator-elect Patricia Arce, who has become a symbol both of the terror and cruelty of the (Jeanine) Áñez coup regime and of the dramatic revitalization of her MAS party.
Learning The Lessons From Bolivia
I want to pass on my congratulations to new President Luis Arce, to Evo Morales and to the whole Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).
And I would like to pay special tribute to the heroic struggle and resistance put up by the Bolivian people over the past year since the military-led coup.
These elections were won in the face of widespread repression. Since last year’s coup and in the run-up to the elections there’s been violence and intimidation including against the Movement Towards Socialism.
Movement Towards Socialism Wins Landslide Victory In Bolivia
After 11 months of being ruled by a repressive coup-regime, Bolivians have finally recovered democracy. After five days of counting, the official results of the Bolivian presidential elections are finally in. The Movement Towards Socialism’s (MAS) presidential ticket with Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca won 55.1% of the vote share while Carlos Mesa’s Citizen Community party won just 28.83% of the vote share. The MAS also won the parliamentary elections, bagging 73 out of the 130 seats in the lower house of parliament and 21 of the 36 seats in the Senate.
A New Revolutionary Alternative For The People Of Venezuela
For many on the left in Britain and within the heart of the global capitalist system, Venezuela has been an example of staunch opposition to US and Nato imperialism, with a broad collection of revolutionaries fending off multiple coups, mercenary attacks and resisting an imperialist blockade of late.
This vision of defiance and tenacity has painted a very particular idea of what the experience is in Venezuela, which ultimately makes the formation of the Popular Revolutionary Alternative (APR), a new bloc of left wing groups without the ruling PSUV, quite a remarkable surprise.
Bolivia: People Power Prevails Over US-Backed Coup
Last October following the re-election of indigenous president Evo Morales in Bolivia, the United States backed a coup that successfully forced him out of power. The coup regime reversed many of the gains made under Morales and waged violent and austerity policies against the people. A new presidential election was held this past weekend largely because of massive popular mobilizations over the summer that demanded them. I speak with Camila Escalante of Telesur English and Kawsachun News about the coup, the protests and the recent election.
Bolivia Elections Live Blog
Bolivians go to the polls today, Sunday, October 18, in the first general elections since the last democratically elected president, Evo Morales, was forced out in a military coup last November, two months before his term had ended and despite election results showing he had won another term in a first-round election victory. Today’s elections had been postponed twice: first from May to September, and then from September to October. While Jeanine Áñez, whose party had received just 4 percent of the vote last year, had taken office vowing to be a caretaker president until...
Liberalism And Fascism: Partners In Crime
Time and again we hear that liberalism is the last bulwark against fascism. It represents a defense of the rule of law and democracy in the face of aberrant, malevolent demagogues intent on destroying a perfectly good system for their own gain. This apparent opposition has been deeply engrained in contemporary so-called Western liberal democracies through their shared origin myth. As every school child in the U.S. learns, for instance, liberalism defeated fascism in World War II, beating back the Nazi beast in order to establish a new international order that—for all of its potential faults and misdeeds—was built upon key democratic principles that are antithetical to fascism.
Revolutionary Organization In Venezuela
Our latest joint production with Tatuy Televisión Comunistaria looks at five examples of revolutionary organization in Venezuela: El Maizal Commune, Pueblo a Pueblo, the Pobladoras Movement, Tinta Violeta and the Campesino Struggle Platform.
Amidst a tough crisis and a muderous blockade, these organizations (and many others) have doubled down in their efforts to resist and deepen the Bolivarian Revolution.