In the decade from 1964 to 1974, just before the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, time accelerated in the Spanish state. It was the final years of the Franco regime. A time when changes around in the world were multiplying. A time when new experiences were proliferating, led by the political and social left.
Samir Amin, or the raison d’être of a new internationalism
21 November 2018, byAs if he wanted to make it his political testament, in the urgency of a specific “moment”, both for himself and a capitalist globalization in crisis, Samir Amin (re) published his call for the “indispensable reconstruction of an International of the workers and peoples of the whole world”, on the Afrique-Asie.fr site, a few days before his sudden death on August 12, 2018. Appended to this is a “Letter of intention” seeking to accelerate and concretize the process.
50 Years of the 1968-69 Revolution
21 November 2018, byFifty years ago this land witnessed the most glorious moments of its history. Pakistan’s virgin proletariat and the oppressed classes were storming heavens. They had entered the arena of history and were determined to take their destiny in their own hands. Revolutionary periods are historical exceptions. They don’t occur every day. Such an amazing revolutionary torrent had swept across the country from November 7th,1968 till the fall of the formidable dictatorship of Ayub Khan on March 26th, 1969. It had challenged the state and system and victory of a socialist revolution was on the horizon.
The Syrian revolution and the failure of the “anti-imperialist” left
22 October 2018, by ,This article was written after the bombing of Syrian military installations carried out by US, UK and French military forces on April 14th 2018 and before the attack by the Assad regime against Dara’a began.
A critical look at China’s One Belt, One Road initiative
21 October 2018, byChina’s growth rate remains impressive, even if on the decline. The country’s continuing economic gains owe much to the Chinese state’s (1) still considerable ability to direct the activity of critical economic enterprises and sectors such as finance, (2) commitment to policies of economic expansion, and (3) flexibility in economic strategy. It appears that China’s leaders view their recently adopted One Belt, One Road Initiative as key to the country’s future economic vitality. However, there are reasons to believe that this strategy is seriously flawed, with working people, including in China, destined to pay a high price for its shortcomings.
A Move Forward for the Korean Women’s Movement
21 October 2018, byIn response to high-profile accusations of sexual assault and the gathering storm around the prevelance of spy cam footage in the Korean porn industry, the past year has seen a snowballing women’s movement in the traditionally conservative Korean society. In this article, So Yun Alysha Park looks at the tactics of the movement and its chances for enacting lasting change.
Gongyou: The New Dangerous Class in China?
20 October 2018, byAfter four decades of rural-to-urban migration, the class identity of more than 280 million rural migrant workers in China remains ambiguous. Many scholars have attempted to capture the transformation of their identity from ‘peasants’ to ‘workers’ by resorting to such labels as ‘new industrial workers’ (xin chanye gongren), ‘semi-proletariat’, ‘full proletariat’, ‘precarious proletariat’ (buwending wuchanzhe), and even ‘Chinese new workers’ (zhongguo xin gongren) (Lee 2007; Lü 2012 and 2014; Pun and Chan 2008; Pun and Lu 2010; Smith and Pun 2017; Standing 2016; Swider 2015; Woronov 2016; Xie 2005; Yang 2010).
September 1938 - the founding of the Fourth International
19 October 2018, by , , , ,This ensemble of articles was originally published as a centre-spread in l’Anticapitaliste weekly newspaper of the NPA in France.
The implications of the Balfour declaration
20 September 2018, by ,Below we publish two articles written almost a year ago to mark the centenary of the Balfour declaration, a key moment in the history of the Middle East. The issues raised in the two pieces, respectively by Gilbert Achcar and Julian Salingue, are as least as pertinent today as they were when they were written.
Local Government, Local Governance, Local Democracy
18 September 2018, byThe shock result of the February 2018 local government election, on a high turnout exceeding 75%, has triggered governmental instability and continuing turmoil within the ‘good governance’ touting coalition that rode to power in the presidential election of January 2015, and stabilised itself after the August 2015 parliamentary election.
