Indian actress and social media influencer Urfi Javed has said that she is facing difficulties in finding a home on rent in Mumbai for being “single,” “Muslim” and an “actress”. In her own words: “Muslim owners don’t want to rent me a house because of the way I dress, Hindu owners don’t want to rent me cause I’m Muslim. Some[Read More…]
The Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka has suspended an assistant professor after a video showing a Muslim student powerfully criticizing him for calling him by a terrorist’s name went viral on social media. Reacting to the teacher labelling him as “Kasab” after the 26/11 gunman Ajmal Kasab, the student says, “Being a Muslim in this country and facing all[Read More…]
November 9, 2022, was the 145th birth anniversary of Allama Muhammad Iqbal – a globally renowned South Asian Muslim poet, and philosopher. The contemporary period of renewed cultural atavisms has reduced him to an ideologically zealous proponent of Pan-Islamism, leading to a crude anti-Westernism that rejects the universal values of freedom and equality to justify internal hierarchies within the Muslim[Read More…]
Since the beginning of 2022, more than 650 serious crimes have been reported against women in India. This statistic encapsulates various egregious crimes that include rape, assault on women, kidnapping and abduction, brutality by husbands, and domestic abuse, among others. Instead of focusing on the social foundations of this growing gender oppression, the Indian state has largely maintained a punitive[Read More…]
In Colombia, the Historic Pact presidential ticket is favored to win the May 29, 2022, national elections, with between 37.9% to 48% of votes, according to various opinion polls. Historic Pact is a coalition of 20 different political parties and formations, ranging from the radical Left, Comunes, to the centre-Left’s Todos Somos Colombia and the Communist Party of Colombia. Its[Read More…]
Fascist groupings and their associated policies of religio-fanaticism are in the ascendant throughout the world. While some are emerging from the political peripheries – slowly but steadily gaining traction on the terrain of ideological hegemony – some have already taken the reins of state power. India is no exception to this global trend. In this political context, April 22, 2022[Read More…]
The school in which I study has been harshly trumpeting the need to unthinkingly follow strict rules regarding hair. While boys have been ordered to keep their hair short, girls have been asked to plait their hair. These practices – prevalent in almost all schools in India – are highly problematic. First, the association of short hair with boys perpetuates[Read More…]
On March 21, 2022, Gilbert Achcar – a Professor at SOAS University of London – published a note on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, openly wishing for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) victory. He enthusiastically expressed his support for Western arms deliveries to Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia, which not only impact the well-being of the Russian people by blocking[Read More…]
The results of Term 1 exam of class X have been declared. As a student myself, I can intensely feel how the educational atmosphere is laden with the brute bulkiness of marks-mania. Toppers have got 100% marks, and this has naturally created an ugly scenario where each student’s worth is measured vis-à-vis this standard. While schools are garlanding the toppers[Read More…]
In a global atmosphere dominated by war hysteria, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s call for peace in Ukraine has been sidelined. On March 7, 2022, he said that “those who provoked this conflict with decades of non-compliance with agreements, with decades of threats against Russia, with decades of preparing plans for the extension of NATO are the first ones who are[Read More…]
In Karnataka, there have been incidents of Muslim girls being banned from attending college for wearing hijab; when they insisted on exercising their right to do so, Hindu students donned saffron scarves to intimidate them, raising slogans of “Jai Shri Ram (praise Lord Ram)” while going to college. In response to these events, the state’s Education Department said, “In some[Read More…]
In an order that legitimizes the decision of state education institutions to prohibit Muslim girl students from wearing the hijab (headscarf), the Karnataka government said on February 5, 2021, that “clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public law and order should not be worn”. This seemingly innocuous directive comes hard on the heels of several disturbing incidents. Whereas Muslim girl[Read More…]
With the rise of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the intellectual defense of cultural nationalism has taken on a new significance. One of its sophisticated iterations consists of the following arguments: “Has the nation been created by the Constitution, or the nation adopted, enacted and gave itself the Constitution? In other words, is the emotional charge of nationalism a[Read More…]
On January 10, 2022, National Security Advisor (NSA) Moeed Yusuf said, “It [Pakistan] is still not [free from US influence] and I doubt that there is any country which is free from it.” He added that the country does not have any financial independence, being dependent on loans from International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other foreign organizations. “When we cannot [fulfill][Read More…]
The 2021 presidential election in Chile has resulted in the victory of the left candidate Gabriel Boric. With nearly 56% of the vote, he has won by a margin of more than 10 percentage points. In absolute terms, this is a record majority, with some 4.6 million votes cast for Boric, putting him almost 1 million votes ahead of the[Read More…]
The 2021 presidential election in Chile has resulted in the victory of the Left candidate Gabriel Boric. With nearly 56% of the vote, he has won by a margin of more than 10 percentage points – most presidents had hitherto secured only four or five point leads. In absolute terms, this is a record majority, with some 4.6 million votes cast for[Read More…]
On December 13, 2021, Miss Universe crowned its 70th winner: Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu, bringing the title home to India after 21 years, the last being by Lara Dutta in 2000. While there has been much celebratory tub-thumping among Indians, one can’t help but notice the dark riptides of systemic illnesses that flow beneath the glary surfaces. Beauty pageants have been[Read More…]
In its Term 1 sociology test for Class 12 students – held on December 1, 2021 – the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) included a question asking which political party was in power when the “anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 took place”. This has caused a furore. Calling the question “inappropriate”, CBSE has promised to take “strict action”[Read More…]
On September 8, 2021, at least five media houses and six offices of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)) were vandalized in three of Tripura’s eight districts by the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). These instances of violence come after a growth in the intensity of the Left’s political activity. While the center-right Congress Party is in a freefall and the Trinamool[Read More…]
On August 26, 2021, a terrorist attack struck the area outside of the US-occupied Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), a regional offshoot of Islamic State (ISIS), has officially taken responsibility for the bombing. The blasts killed more than 180 Afghan civilians. Thirteen US servicemen, two British nationals and the child of another British national[Read More…]
After assuming power in Kabul, the Taliban has tried to soften its extremist image. In a press conference on August 17, 2021, the group’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said, inter alia, that they are committed to provide women their rights in accordance with Islam and that there will be no discrimination against them. He said women could work and go to school, but their[Read More…]
On August 11, 2021, Pakistan’s Prime Minster Imran Khan said, “I tried to persuade the Taliban… three to four months back when they came here…The condition is that as long as [Afghanistan’s President] Ashraf Ghani is there, we [Taliban] are not going to talk to the Afghan government.” Three days later, news has arrived that Ghani is pondering over resignation,[Read More…]
According to International Labour Organization’s (ILO) July 2021 policy brief, “Building Forward Fairer: Women’s rights to work and at work at the core of the COVID-19 recovery”: “Globally, between 2019 and 2020, women’s employment declined by 4.2 per cent, representing a drop of 54 million jobs, while men’s employment declined by 3 per cent, or 60 million jobs…in 2021, the[Read More…]
On July 27, 2021, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin – amid a diplomatic standoff with China – said: “We will not flinch when our interests are threatened. Yet we do not seek confrontation.” The message is clear: the US is turning its gaze to Asia and wants China to acquiesce to its imperialist aims. Viewpoints like these betray the[Read More…]
August 1, 2021, was the 13th death anniversary of comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet. Born into a Bassi Jat family in the Punjabi village of Bundala on March 23, 1916, Surjeet began his revolutionary career influenced by the socialist revolutionary Bhagat Singh. In 1930 – at the age of 15 – he joined Bhagat’s Naujawan Bharat Sabha. On the first anniversary[Read More…]
Capitalism is deeply unjust. It is a system under which labour power has itself become a commodity and is bought and sold on the market like any other object of exchange. A condition of neo-slavery like this has been historically presupposed by the concentration of ownership of means of production in the hands of a minority class and the consequent[Read More…]
On July 25, 2021, Tunisian President Kais Saied dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, froze the parliament, suspended the legal immunity of parliament members and took control of the general prosecutor’s office. He warned against any armed response to his actions: “Whoever shoots a bullet, the armed forces will respond with bullets.” In the hours after Saied’s announcement, huge crowds gathered[Read More…]
68 years ago, on July 26, 1953, an angry young lawyer, Fidel Castro, led a small band of armed men in a failed attempt to seize the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba, in Oriente province. Nearly one-half of the rebels were killed – most of them died under or following torture. While Fidel and his young comrades did not[Read More…]
Cuba has been witnessing anti-government protests since July 11, 2021. Several objective factors account for these demonstrations. Cuba is experiencing its greatest economic crisis in 30 years. The devastating knock-on effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the country’s tourism-dependent economy, coupled with criminal sanctions and blockade, have caused real hardship to the Cuban people. The decline in foreign visitors caused a loss of around $3[Read More…]
Cuba has been witnessing anti-government protests since July 11, 2021. These demonstrations are fuelled by a number of factors. The devastating knock-on effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on a developing nation like Cuba – a tourism-dependent economy – coupled with the criminal sanctions and blockade against the country have caused real hardship to the Cuban people and their economy. Cuban[Read More…]
Since June 11, 2021, protests have been taking place in Cuba. USA’s imperialist Mafiosos have laid their vulturine eyes on these events, sensationalizing the demonstrations as evidences of the Cuban people’s disillusionment with their revolutionary government. Jake Sullivan, the US national security advisor, was quick to pose as a full-blown freedom fighter, saying: “The U.S. supports freedom of expression and assembly across Cuba,[Read More…]
The 1697 Treaty of Ryswick legalized French control over the western third of the island of Hispaniola – a Spanish asset – under the name of Saint-Domingue. The colony proved to be a valuable spigot of wealth. In 1789, Saint-Domingue supplied two-thirds of the overseas trade of France and was the greatest individual market for the European slave trade. It[Read More…]
July 6, 2021, was the 114th birth anniversary of Frida Kahlo – a revolutionary painter and socialist. Today, she has been fetishized, commodified and sanitized: her self-portraits and photographs stare out from T-shirts, calendars, fashion magazines and jewelry; her unique personality is used to sell everything – from Barbie dolls to cosmetics box sets. Kahlo’s present-day status as a global[Read More…]
On July 1, 2021, Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a speech marking the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). “Any attempt to divide the party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the party is bound to fail,” he said during the ceremony in the capital, Beijing. Xi said “the strengths[Read More…]
Islam emerged in the 7th century in the south-western corner of the Asian continent. It spread very rapidly throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula. In the 16th century it was pushed out of Iberia but simultaneously penetrated what we now call the Balkans. Meanwhile, it had been extending its geographic zone eastward towards South-East Asia and[Read More…]
In late April 2021, US President Joe Biden announced a withdrawal from Afghanistan. In other words, the US has been trounced in Afghanistan by its very own jihadist Frankenstein, the Taliban. The defeat of USA is covered with the ugly debris of history. The dirty war on Afghanistan was part of a disastrous process of occupying and controlling large swathes of the[Read More…]
Speculations abound over Taliban’s aim to exploit the vacuum left by the partial withdrawal of US-NATO troop to seize control of the capital Kabul and re-establish an Islamic Emirate, similar to the one the US dislodged from power after its 2001 invasion. The ground reality seems to confirm these concerns about an impending civil war. Violence and territorial contestations are[Read More…]
On June 14, 2021, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke at the inaugural Pakistan-Afghanistan Bilateral Dialogue in Islamabad. His tone was mildly aggressive. Talking about USA’s pullout from Afghanistan, Qureshi said: “If the objective of going to Washington is starting a new blame game and holding Pakistan responsible for all the ills and the lack of progress in the[Read More…]
The global scene is deeply disturbing. The wealth of billionaires is increasing even as the starvation-scarred world cries for help; astronomical surges in inequality are pushing an ever greater number of people into a state of pure deprivation; the repressive powers of capitalist states all over the world are being steadily strengthened to silence the growing disquiet in streets and[Read More…]
On June 6, 2021, Israeli occupation forces detained Palestinian activist and journalist Muna al-Kurd, the leader of the campaign against the ethnic cleansing of the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah. A day before, Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Givara Budeiri was arrested by Israeli police while covering a demonstration in the same area; she was later released from custody. What do[Read More…]
![The Al Jalaa Tower housing Al Jazeera and The Associated Press offices collapses after being hit by Israeli missile in Gaza City [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/International-Media-House-Gaza-200x150.jpg "Israel’s Colonial Savagery 75")
On May 24, 2021, Israel’s security apparatus launched a wave of mass arrests against the country’s Palestinian citizens as part of a violent attack on the anti-Zionist resistance movement. These arrests took place as part of a “law and order” campaign i.e. a mission of terrorization wherein thousands of police officers kick into doors, brutalize families and kidnap Palestinians. In[Read More…]
There seems no end to the Zionist carnage in Gaza. On May 16, 2021, the US blocked for the third time within a week a statement at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) condemning Israeli violence against Palestinians and urging a ceasefire in Gaza. The blocked statement by the US was introduced by Norway, Tunisia, and China after an emergency Security[Read More…]
May 15, 2021, marks the 73rd anniversary of Nakba (catastrophe). 1948, the year Israel was created, was also the year of the dispossession and expulsion of three-quarters of a million Palestinians and the destruction of more than 500 hundred villages and localities. Israel’s founding violently fragmented the Palestinian people and pushed them into multiple zones of space and classification: those[Read More…]
Dr. Akram Kewidar, an assistant professor at the Israa University, Gaza, has sent me videos of the Zionist carnage occurring in the Palestinian enclave. Israeli bombs are reducing entire residential buildings to dust and rubble; bodies lie mangled in pulverized cars; corpses are strewn on the streets like the remains of flattened houses. As I write these words, nearly 83[Read More…]
Walnut chairs of yearning are rocking on their own – in Palestine Blood-stamped graves are speaking to olive trees – in Palestine Ceramic cheeks of age-old homes are cracking under combat boots Is anything stable – in Palestine? Pores of soil are filtering the white shroud of martyrs What has befallen the people – in Palestine? Marbles of memory line[Read More…]
There is a general air of malaise at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Approximately 43 professors – both serving and retired – have lost their lives due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The rate of deaths is dizzying – 18 serving teachers have died in merely 20 days. In addition, an undisclosed number of non-teaching staff have also died of the infection. Perturbed by these macabre conditions, Vice-Chancellor[Read More…]
On April 28, 2021, many of Colombia’s largest unions held a national strike against tax reforms put forward by President Ivan Duque’s government to cover funds related to the COVID-19 pandemic and national debt . Demonstrators filled the streets of downtown Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla and Ibague, as well as smaller cities. Stores and most public services came to a[Read More…]
According to the “Global Wage Report 2020-21”, in the few years before the COVID-19 crisis, annual average real wage growth for North America (Canada and USA) and Western Europe fluctuated between 0 and around 1 per cent. What accounts for this wage stagnation over much of the Global North? To answer this question, we need to briefly look at the pre-neoliberal economy[Read More…]
In 1889, Clara Zetkin wrote: “Wherever busy folk are drudging under the yoke of capitalism, the organised working men and women will demonstrate on May Day for the idea of their social emancipation.” In today’s world, the murderous claws of oppression have dug deeper into the flesh of humanity. The globalization of capital, establishment of post-Fordist economic arrangements of flexible[Read More…]
Israel has a long-standing interest in Lebanon. These interests have periodically manifested themselves in bloody attacks against the small Arab state. Two important sources on the Zionist plans for Lebanon are the diary of Moshe Sharett, who was the Prime Minster of Israel in 1954-1955 and who was considered a “soft Zionist”, and Livia Rokach’s “Israel’s Sacred Terrorism: A study based[Read More…]
During a House hearing held on April 21, 2021, US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking grossly misrepresented the imperialist war in the country. He remarked: “With regard to the Republic of Yemen Government, President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi remains the legitimate leader of Yemen. He was chosen in the last election held before the war, and UN Security Council Resolution 2216 recognizes his legitimacy as[Read More…]
The battle for Marib is escalating. The city, which hosts over 2 million civilians – including an estimated 1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) – is the last military stronghold of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi’s government in northern Yemen. Uprooting the government from Marib would help Houthis access the governorate’s important oil and gas resources and position them for a push[Read More…]
Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islamic practice. Every adult Muslim is required to perform hajj once in a lifetime if they can afford the journey. It is staged on the 8th to 13th days of Dhu’l Hijjah, the final month of the Islamic lunar calendar. The Saudi royal family – which calls itself the “Custodian of the Two[Read More…]
The US – with the help of Israel – has been repeatedly waging attacks on the high seas against oil tankers bound for Syria. In recent statements to parliament, Syria’s Prime Minister Hussein Arnous revealed that oil tankers loaded with crude allocated for Syria are being attacked or intercepted on the high seas. The goal is to aggravate the hydrocarbon crisis generated[Read More…]
The Yemeni city of Marib is in the thick of fighting between Houthi rebels and loyalists of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi’s government. Marib is the capital of Marib Governorate, lying roughly 100 miles northeast of the country’s capital in Sana’a. It was established after the 1984 discovery of oil deposits in the region and contains much of Yemen’s oil, gas, and[Read More…]
On April 12, 2021, a meeting was held in Germany between US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths. In a press statement following the meeting, Griffiths said: “The war in Yemen has lasted over six years. In these six years Yemenis have increasingly and appallingly, lacked access to[Read More…]
As the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic intensifies in India, migrant workers are returning back to their villages. Imposition of new restrictions to contain the virus – like the announcement of a night curfew in Delhi – has instilled fears in workers that they will be rendered jobless and get stuck in the industrial centres where they are precariously[Read More…]
Brazil’s political atmosphere is unstable. On 30 March, 2021, the commanders of the Brazilian army, navy and air force – Gen Edson Leal Pujol, Adm Ilques Barbosa and Lt-Brig Antônio Carlos Bermudez – resigned from their posts in a historic move not seen since 1977 during the country’s military dictatorship. According to an official notice by Brazil’s Ministry of Defense, “The[Read More…]
Chetan Bhagat’s article “Wanted: A bill to fix Indian manufacturing” – published on March 27, 2021 by “The Times of India” – is a paradigmatic example of neoliberal oversimplification. While the article ostensibly aims to prescribe the relevant measures to be taken to convert India into an economic powerhouse, it comes off as a ham-handed screed against perceived enemies. The[Read More…]
We live in dangerous times. Neo-fascism is on the rise in many parts of the world, combining the savagery of the market with authoritarian forms of xenophobia. The combinatorial power of individualizing cultural conformism and totalizing statism has resulted in a new “culture of silence”, intended to reduce citizens to passive spectators of the misery and suffering inflicted on others.[Read More…]
On 27 March, 2021, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken released a press statement wherein he said: “The United States is deeply concerned by growing signs of anti-democratic behavior and the politicization of the legal system in Bolivia in light of the recent arrest and pre-trial imprisonment of former interim government officials.” US-backed Coup Blinken’s statement is deeply hypocritical. The “former interim[Read More…]
With the rise of various sorts of neo-fascisms all over the world, a moralistically framed liberal response to the former’s religio-fanaticism has become common. Based on the traditional foundations of Enlightenment rationality, the liberal response sees the neo-fascist upsurge as a form of mass irrationality, superstition, mental pathology, etc. that only the renewed march of Reason can eradicate. What is[Read More…]
In The German Ideology, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels stated: “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.” With the advent of neoliberalism, we have witnessed a process of ideological re-construction in which every attempt[Read More…]
Madagascar is in great pain. Theodore Mbainaissem, the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) sub-office in Ambovombe, southern Madagascar, says: “Seeing the physical condition of people extremely affected by hunger who can no longer stand…children who are completely emaciated, the elderly who are skin and bone…these images are unbearable… People are eating white clay with tamarind juice, cactus leaves, wild[Read More…]
The future of the Rohingya people seems uncertain. A predominantly Muslim minority group indigenous to a region on the western coast of Myanmar – historically referred to as Arakan and presently called Rakhine State – the Rohingya are not recognized by the Burmese state. On February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military – known as the Tatmadaw – staged a coup against[Read More…]
After the US Capitol was attacked by his supporters, Donald Trump has become the first president of America to be impeached twice. Regardless of how he leaves the White House – the Senate won’t act on the impeachment before Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021 – the neo-fascist seeds he has sown won’t stop germinating. Even after the brazen attempt to overturn[Read More…]
On January 4, 2021, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser gave a ruling wherein she blocked Julian Assange’s extradition to the US under Section 91 of UK’s Extradition Act (EA) 2003, citing health reasons. The US government has decided to appeal this decision. Section 91 of EA 2003 prohibits extradition if “the physical or mental condition of the person is such that it would be unjust[Read More…]
On 25 December, 2020, Israel bombed Gaza for six continuous hours as much of the world celebrated Christmas. A children’s hospital, a rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, a mosque, as well as private residences, were damaged. A six-year-old girl and a young man were injured, and much of the targeted region lost water and electricity. A fire broke out at the location of the[Read More…]
With the onset of the American empire’s decline, China is fast emerging as a global actor capable of steering the world towards a multipolar arrangement. The country has repeatedly affirmed its conviction in the creation of a polycentric system of sovereign states which work together, while each respects the national politico-economic order of the other – encapsulated in the motto[Read More…]
Farm workers in various regions of Peru- such as Ica, Viru La Libertad and Piurahad – went on a strike in the first week of December, 2020, blocking the strategic Pan-American motorway to demand wage increases, basic social security benefits and the repeal of the decades-old Agrarian Promotion Law, enacted in 2000, as a mechanism to bolster the bourgeoisie’s power in the[Read More…]
We live in disconcerting times. The wealth of USA’s 643 billionaires has soared by 29% since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. On 13 August, 2020, the top twelve US billionaires had surpassed a combined wealth of $1 trillion. This year, the world’s 500 richest people have grown their fortunes by $871 billion, a 15% increase. All this while, the[Read More…]
On November 30, 2020, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned China National Electronics Import & Export Corporation (CEIEC) – a state-owned company specializing in engineering and defence electronics – for having provided technological support to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s administration. The CEIEC has been supporting the state firm National Anonymous Telephone Company of Venezuela[Read More…]
On 21 November, 2020, thousands of Guatemalans rallied in the central square of the country’s capital, took over the Congress and set fire to several rooms inside. The immediate trigger for this outburst of anger was the 2021 budget – now revoked by the Congress after sustained protests – which, despite being the largest in the country’s history, slashed funding for both education and healthcare. The[Read More…]
In his 1845 book “The Condition of the Working Class in England”, Friedrich Engels wrote: “When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another, such injury that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a[Read More…]
Joe Biden won the 2020 US Presidential Election after narrowly defeating the sitting president Donald Trump. This victory comes at a tremendous cost: the defeat of an incipient counter-hegemonic movement which embryonically expressed demands for an alternative future to capitalism. Even after the collective utterance of anger against police brutality and the nascent realization of the structural violence of capitalism, the electoral mechanisms of[Read More…]
Atilio Boron, an Argentine political scientist and Professor at the University of Buenos Aires, wrote in 2017: “Revolutions aren’t carried out neatly and with the inexorable logic of trigonometric theorems. Revolution is like an immense cauldron in which historical processes are forged, with all their human limitations and social contradictions.” This statement has assumed renewed significance as leftists debate the contentious anti-blockade law passed by[Read More…]
The Bolivarian-socialist project in Venezuela is in a critical conjuncture. External imperialist aggressions – spearheaded by the US – are continuously growing in their magnitude. Importers of Venezuelan crude including India’s Reliance Industries Ltd, Spain’s Repsol SA and Italy’s Eni SpA have skipped oil purchases in October 2020. The three companies took a combined 9.7 million barrels in September 2020, accounting for[Read More…]
In Bolivia, the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) – a major leftist political force – has returned to power following a thumping victory in the 2020 elections. The MAS presidential candidate Luis Arce obtained 55.09% of the votes, decisively ahead of the neoliberal candidate Carlos Mesa and the right-wing extremist Luis Fernando Camacho who garnered 28.83% and 14% of the votes, respectively. The[Read More…]
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is facing potential extradition to the United States for exposing the US empire’s war crimes. Assange faces charges under the US Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The warrant lists 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act on which he could be jailed for up to 175 years, and one count of conspiracy with Chelsea Manning[Read More…]
October 15, 2020, was Thomas Sankara’s 33rd death anniversary. On this day, he was murdered by imperialist forces at the tender age of 37. A Pan-Africanist, internationalist and Marxist, he was committed to the total liberation of the oppressed masses from the clutches of imperialism. Instead of bourgeoisie nationalism, Sankara believed in radical nationalism: a combination of anti-imperialist courage and unabashed[Read More…]
On 6 October, 2020, foreign ministers of USA, India, Australia and Japan gathered in Tokyo to participate in the second Quad security dialogue, a strategic forum aimed at containing China. The Quad initiative first began in May 2007 with a meeting between the US, Japan, India and Australia in the Philippine capital Manila. In its preliminary years, the Quad did[Read More…]
On 9 October, 1967, Che Guevara – one of the greatest revolutionaries ever known – was murdered in Bolivia under the orders of Washington. This death was foreseeable. In 1966, Che Guevara had left Cuba to wage an anti-imperialist struggle in the South American nation of Bolivia. The plan was to establish a mother column led by Che in Bolivia,[Read More…]
On 21 September, 2020, – World Peace Day – diverse sectors of the Colombian society held protests throughout the country, resulting in 142 actions including in the cities of Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali. In response to these demonstrations, the Colombian state unabashedly used its repressive power. At least 11 people were injured and 13 others were detained by the Colombian security forces. In Bogota, the National Police’s Mobile[Read More…]
Burkina Faso’s National Council for Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation (CONASUR) found in its August 2020 report that more than a million people have been internally displaced by the upsurge in violence in the country. This figure represents a 100% increase compared to early 2020 when Burkina Faso had 450,000 internally displaced persons. Now, almost 5% of Burkina Faso’s population has fled their homes because[Read More…]
Canadian company Tajiri Resources announced on August 20 that it had entered into an agreement with Sahara Natural Resources to begin drilling in Burkina Faso at the company’s exploration program on the Reo Gold project, located 130 kilometres west of the capital, Ouagadougou. The initiation of a mining project, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, reflects the entrenchment of extractive imperialism, and its[Read More…]
The bombings have begun. Sharp splinters of smooth, shiny bombs Penetrate into the rugged dreams of Palestinian emancipation Blinding, bruising, and burying it under the soot of crushing colonialism. Amid the bombardment, shaky screams of subjugated children Rend the sky into flakes of agony, Each flake swirling in a vortex of indescribable pain, Clenching in its fist the veined heart[Read More…]
On 2 September, 2020, the US sanctioned two officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigating into alleged war crimes by US forces and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan since 2003.The officials are ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, and the ICC’s head of Jurisdiction, Complementary, and Cooperation Division, Phakiso Mochochok (sanctioned for having materially assisted Prosecutor Bensouda). Announcing this decision,[Read More…]
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the long-drawn-out conflict at the Escobal silver mine in Guatemala – the second- largest in the world – is intensifying. The Escobal mine is located in southeast Guatemala, outside the town of San Rafael de las Flores, approximately 40 km from Guatemala City. Since the beginning of commercial production in early 2013, the mine has been[Read More…]
On August 31, 2020, Hamas announced that it had reached a ceasefire with Israel that would end the recent hostilities in Gaza. Since 6 August, the besieged Palestinian enclave was being bombed daily by the Israeli forces. In order to bomb Gaza, the “terror balloon” narrative has been used by the Zionist state. These so-called “terror balloons” are contraptions made from everyday materials, gas-soaked[Read More…]
On 6 August, 2020, Juan Guaidó, the US-backed puppet attempting to destabilize the legitimate administration of President Nicolas Maduro, announced the opening of a “virtual embassy” in Jerusalem. This action is one of the first measures initiated by the anti-Chavista opposition to restore diplomatic ties with Israel, severed by former President Hugo Chavez a decade ago. Guaidó is a pro-Israel ideologue who[Read More…]
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States’ “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuela continues to intensify. Washington is planning to impose sanctions on “bad actors” that do business with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, singling out countries such as Russia, China, Cuba and Iran. James Story, the top US diplomat accredited for Venezuela, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: “Certainly[Read More…]
Maj. Gen. Andrew Croft, the commander of 12th Air Force, wrote on 22 August: “I have seen an increasingly contested strategic space where Beijing and Moscow are aggressively investing time and resources in Latin America to support their authoritarian models of governance. The Air Force must reinforce the strength of our longstanding commitment to the Western Hemisphere. We lose ground when we[Read More…]
A report released by Oxfam in July 2020 states, “COVID-19 is deepening the hunger crisis in the world’s hunger hotspots and creating new epicentres of hunger across the globe. By the end of the year 12,000 people per day could die from hunger linked to COVID-19, potentially more than will die from the disease itself.” Like other regions in the world,[Read More…]
In Mexico, the intensity of the Covid-19 pandemic is increasing. With more than 480,000 cases and 50,000 deaths (third largest number of Covid-19 deaths), the country is staggering under the Coronavirus pandemic. While the entire country is experiencing the impact of the pandemic, indigenous communities represent the demographic section hardest hit by health catastrophe. Data from Coneval, the national government’s[Read More…]
On 1 August, 2020, a group of civilians, in complicity with the Chilean national police force or the carabineros and right-wing hoodlums, violently attacked Mapuche community members who were on a hunger strike in front of the Municipality of Victoria, in Araucania. The attack was strategic, organized and preplanned with the occupied town halls of Ercilla and Traiguén also being attacked, Mapuche women and children being[Read More…]
Latin America has surpassed more than 5 million Covid-19 cases to overtake North America, with 4.8 million Covid-19 cases, as the region worst-hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. This astronomic increase in Covid-19 cases has been accompanied by a corresponding economic catastrophe of great magnitude. According to a United Nations Policy Brief entitled “The Impact of COVID-19 on Latin America and the Caribbean”, “Parts of Latin America and[Read More…]
On 5 August, 2020, the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to institute measures aimed at protecting indigenous people from the Covid-19 pandemic. This ruling is the legal recognition of the totally disastrous anti-indigenous policies of the Bolsonaro government. Like other indigenous people living in the Peruvian jungles, eastern Bolivia, the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Colombian Amazon, Brazilian collectivities[Read More…]
India is currently reeling under the deleterious effects of decades of neoliberalism. It is increasingly becoming clear that the financial imperatives of neoliberalism have severely subverted social infrastructures which could have alleviated the impact the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, with India ranking 3rd in the daily increase in Covid-19 cases and having experienced the migrant worker crisis, the deep-seated economic fault-lines[Read More…]
At Cerrejon (Colombia), the largest open-pit coal mine in Latin America owned equally by BHP (Australia), Anglo American PLC (United Kingdom) and Glencore (Switzerland), the situation of the indigenous people is progressively worsening. Cerrejon Limited has informed the workers that “all the existing shifts will be unified into a single 7-day work, for three days off.” With the enforcement of the new shifts, “workers[Read More…]
As Chile gets convulsed by the aggravating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the structural brutality of copper mining is being starkly outlined. At Codelco or the National Copper Corporation of Chile, approximately 3,000 workers have been infected with Coronavirus and El Teniente and Chuquicamata are the hardest hit regions with 1,044 and 636 cases, respectively. In June itself, unionized workers had reported the suspect[Read More…]
In Chile, the Covid-19 pandemic is raging with an unprecedented speed. There are more than 300,000 confirmed cases with one of the highest per capita infection rates of 13,000 cases for every 1 million people. The economy is severely experiencing the repercussions of Coronavirus-caused restrictions and the historically high national unemployment rate of 11.2% is an indicator of such damage. Chileans have took to the[Read More…]
With the unabated march of the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic situation of Colombian coffee farmers is rapidly deteriorating. The price of Arabica coffee has reduced to an exceptionally low $0.9 per pound in June. Earlier, coffee production had fallen by 28% in April, 12% in March, 9% in February and 19% in January. Specialty coffee farmers too are experiencing difficulties in the form of shortage of experienced coffee pickers. In specialty coffee,[Read More…]
As the Covid-19 pandemic rages in Honduras, the healthcare infrastructure is increasingly coming under stress. Due to decades of privatization in the health sector, the role of the Ministry of Health and the Honduran Institute of Social Security (IHSS) has drastically diminished. Almost 9 out of 10 people in Honduras are not covered by any type of health insurance and 1.5 million[Read More…]
On 30 May 2020, Iyad Hallaq, a 32 year old autistic man, was killed by Israeli Police. This poem is an encapsulation and remembrance of Iyad Hallaq’s agonizing death. In the subdued sighs of oppression I always remember you. In the craggy crevices of colonialism, I find your helpless heart pulsating in pain. From the blood beplastered barrel of gun,[Read More…]
Ever since the racist right-wing government of Jeanine Anez has assumed power, Bolivia is continuously experiencing politico-economic tumult. Recently, seven legislators of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) filed a complaint against the Ministers of Government and Defense, Arturo Murillo and Luis Fernando López, for misconduct in the purchase of riot gear equipments. As per the complaint, the post-coup Bolivian government unfavorably cancelled[Read More…]
Identitarian politics has always been a topic overladen with mixed and inchoate views. Some perceive it as a positive phenomenon and others comprehend it as atavistic and socially detrimental. Its positivity lies in the fact that it can embolden a particular marginalized community to initiate minority politics or indigenist politics like the one occurring in Latin America which possesses transformative[Read More…]
In the times of pandemic, the undoubtedly crucial question of a new leftist strategy is being broached. The Covid-19 pandemic has precipitated a massive economic crisis in which the globally integrated mechanisms of capitalism are floundering and are unable to get rid of their social insensitivity. According to IMF, the global economy will shrink by 3% in 2020, second only[Read More…]
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Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
