Several countries in Latin America are currently experiencing very powerful class conflicts and extremely violent repression on the part of reactionary forces and the state. The following is an overview on the situation in various countries and the dynamics of their struggles. Franck Gaudichaud was interviewed by Antoine Pelletier.
Making Care Work Green
10 December 2019, by“Domestic workers arrive to smoke, ash,” the headline in the Los Angeles Times read on October 29, 2019. Unaware of mandatory evacuations from a fire sweeping through exclusive enclaves near the Getty Museum, domestic workers had trudged up deserted streets and through particle-filled air not wanting to be late to their jobs; losing even one day’s pay could make it impossible to afford housing, food, or medicine. They discovered that their employers had fled hours earlier without notifying them or advising them to stay away from the evacuation zone.
A coagulation of anger
9 December 2019, byFrance has once again entered a phase of large-scale social confrontation.
What’s at stake in the British general election?
8 December 2019, byThe general election in Britain on 12 December will be the most important in 40 years. Back in 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, introducing neoliberal policies with a wave of privatisations and the breakup of the welfare state. Despite heroic struggles in the 1980s, especially the year-long miners’ strike, the defeats of the labour movement have had an enduring effect. This was most evident with the political change in the Labour Party with Tony Blair becoming leader and then Prime Minister for ten years until 2007.
From COP to COP, the cataclysm draws closer
7 December 2019, byThe 25th Conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) is about to start in Madrid. This summit was set to be held in Santiago, but the Chilean president preferred a waiver. COPs often convene 10,000 people: they had to be prevented from witnessing the savage police repression of the uprising against the Piñera government’s ultra-liberal policies.
Sardines against Salvini
6 December 2019, byA few weeks ago four thirty year olds from Bologna were complaining about the victory of Salvini’s hard right Lega (League) in the Umbrian regional elections and the danger of him winning their traditionally left of centre region in the January elections. They then did something that is typical of angry thirty year olds. They went onto social media and cooked up the Sardines idea.
Student anger on the brink of exploding
5 December 2019, byEvery year, the commemoration of the massacre of students at the Polytechnic University of Athens, when soldiers of the fascist military junta (1967-73) massacred dozens of students (the exact number is still not established) leads to important mobilizations of student youth, around slogans which are always topical: “education, bread, freedom”. The days leading up to the demonstration on 17 November give rise to rallies, solidarity celebrations, demonstrations of all kinds, in a context of anti-imperialist resistance and the defence of democratic rights.
Rebellion and Reaction – Worldwide anti-austerity upsurge met with brutal repression
4 December 2019, byAcross the globe workers, indigenous people and youth are taking to the streets to protest against austerity, corruption, dictatorship and climate extinction – despite the setback of electoral victories by the hard right. How can we understand these movements, and what political obstacles do they face?
Democracy in the home and the bed - Chile’s day of women
3 December 2019, byChilean women have hit the headlines recently on social media with their performance denouncing violence against women which has been taken up in countries around the world. But women’s protests didn’t start in November.