IV478 - November 2014

IV478 November 2014 PDF

Just days after the expulsion of the metalworkers’ union (NUMSA) from the national federation COSATU and the affirmation by the leadership of this union of its project of rebuilding an independent trade union movement in a “socialist" perspective, an amazing unsigned document has begun to circulate in the country, explaining that the leadership of NUMSA is plotting to overthrow the South African regime, obviously with the help of foreigners.

The region of South Asia is termed ‘poor’ not because it lacks any potential – natural or human – but it has not been able to guarantee accountable democracy.

Badrul Alam, central organiser of the Climate Justice, Gender and Food Sovereignty caravan from Bangladesh, through India and Nepal, sums up the objectives and achievements of the caravan in a speech to the People’s South Asian Association for regional cooperation in Nepal on November 23.

On the morning of 16 November 2014, the South Asia Climate Justice, Gender and Food Sovereignty Caravan attended byparticipants from India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippinea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, New Zealand, USA, UK, Australia and Germany, crossed the India border and arrived in Kolkata in the evening of the same day

“Did we fight back because our love was outlawed? Or because we were gender outlaws? I never thought to ask myself that question. (..) We just closed ranks and fought hard.” (Leslie Feinberg, In the Spirit of Stonewall)

On Monday night, November 24, St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch made an announcement that surprised no one although it disappointed many. A grand jury had declined to indict Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson in the killing of 18-year-old unarmed Michael Brown.
Robert McCulloch giving a press release about the grand jury’s findings.

Expenses for medicine at Danish public hospitals have doubled in only seven years. Prognoses say that in 2015 health authorities will have to allocate 1.1. billion Euro for this purpose.

This article reviews a number of developments that occurred between 2000 and 2014 related to the debt issue, various aspects of the international crisis [1], international financial institutions, the scope of attacks against social and economic rights, and CADTM priorities.

“But I also understand that the fall of Kobanê will not only be a big loss for Kurds, but for the Syrian revolution as a whole. Any kind of progress towards greater Kurdish self-determination is linked to the deepening of the Syrian revolutionary process. If that revolutionary process is defeated, you can be sure that the Assad regime and Turkey will do everything in their power to undermine any kind of Kurdish autonomy.”