According to provisional numbers, the tropical storm Washi caused over a thousand deaths in the Philippines, mostly on the northern coast of the island of Mindanao. We appeal to your solidarity and ask for financial aid to the victims of this new catastrophe, in response to the call made by Ranaw Disaster Response and Rehabilitation Center, Inc
An assessment of the failure of the Durban summit on the climate: no more "green capitalism"
23 December 2011, by ,We will save the markets, not the climate. That is how we can summarize the outcome of the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC) which took place in Durban, South Africa between 28 November and 10 December 2011. There is a striking contrast between the rapid response by governments and international institutions at the onset of the economic and financial crisis of 2007-08 in bailing out private banks with public money and the complete immobility they demonstrate in response to climate change. Yet this should not surprise us, because in both cases it is the markets and their accomplices in government who come out as winners.
“The result of a long and general crisis is often to clarify the map of the world”
23 December 2011, byWe are confronted with a certain loss of substance, programmatic, political, strategic, all kinds of basic elements that are fundamental for developing a political education that the acceleration of the historical process is making complicated today for revolutionaries… There are more questions than answers.
Québec solidaire struggles to define its space in shifting political landscape
19 December 2011, byMONTRÉAL – About 400 members of Québec solidaire met here December 9-11 in a delegated convention to debate and adopt positions on major social and cultural questions. The convention capped the third phase in a
lengthy process of developing what the left-wing sovereigntist party describes as a program of social transformation.
Egypt’s labour movement takes a tumble
19 December 2011, byThe perceived gains won by the Egyptian workers and independent trade unionists in the wake of the 18-day uprising have given way to stark realities under the military junta’s ’counter-revolutionary’ rule
Repression intensifies against Kazakh oil workers’ uprising
19 December 2011, byThe Kazakh authorities have responded to the oil workers’ revolt with arrests, jailings and police attacks on demonstrations, while company managements have sacked hundreds for striking. Despite the repression, the unprecedented wave of protests, which erupted in the oil-producing province of Mangistau in mid-May, was continuing at the time of writing in late August. At the movement’s height in early June, labour movement sources reported that 12-18,000 workers were on strike, demanding pay rises and recognition of independent trade unions.
Elections to contain the spirit of the popular mobilisations
13 December 2011, bySince the early 1990s, the earth has begun to quake under the feet of the dictatorship as a result of the consequences of the neoliberal policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which have generated unprecedented forms of popular protest.
Against the unacceptable burden of the debt, the condition of democracy is social struggle
13 December 2011, byOn Saturday December 3, the National Bureau of the Bloco approved a resolution which took a balance sheet of the general strike and the Portuguese social and political situation, addressed the issue of the European Summit and European questions of urgency and dealt in more detail with the issue of debt.
“To change things we need to work every day in the struggles”
13 December 2011, byEsther Vivas was Izquierda Anticapitalista’s leading candidate in Barcelona in the elections that took place on November 20 (see Spanish state: victory for the right, major crisis looms).
December 10: A new page in the history of Russia
12 December 2011, bySaturday December 10 was really a historic day for Russian society. According to various estimates, the meeting which was held in Moscow mobilised between 50,000 and 80,000 people; it was the biggest street action since the beginning of the1990s. The same day, similar actions brought together thousands of people in all the big cities of Russia. The movement even reached Western Europe, where the Russian Diaspora organized pickets in front of the embassies.