IV466 - November 2013

IV 466 November 2013 PDF available to download here

We present here an update on the solidarity campaign initiated by ESSF with victims of the Haiyan/Yolanda super typhoon and the activities undertaken by our partners. We have to date transferred 6,000 euros, 4,000 on November 13 and 2,000 on November 21.

Having come to power following the October 2011 elections , the government led by Ennahdha has lost all legitimacy. The same goes for the National Constituent Assembly (NCA ), which was elected to write, in a maximum period of one year, a new constitution. Nearly two years have passed and it is still just a draft. Placing itself in the continuity of the neoliberal policies of Ben Ali, the Islamist government is a total failure on the economic and social level.

Everyone who spoke agreed on the need to remain in the Popular Front. They also stressed that the decision to enter the Salvation Front was taken collectively during the meeting held the day after the murder of Mohamed Brahmi.

On the other hand, a wide range of positions was expressed on the balance sheet of this tactic and the appropriateness of maintaining this orientation. This debate resulted in a vote of 81.1 per cent to leave the Salvation Front.

The League of the Workers’ Left (LGO) held its founding congress on 27, 28 and 29 September 2013 in Tunis. The opening evening at the Trade Union Hall was marked by the broad participation of members and sympathizers of the League.

Two days after the presidential election in Honduras, with two thirds of the votes counted, the Electoral Court declared the result “irreversible”. Juan Orlando Hernandez of the National Party, the traditional expression of the Honduran oligarchy, was in the lead and would stay there. The powerful, radical, social and political movement that emerged in oppositon to the 2009 coup against President Manuel Zelaya, appeared to have been defeated. But that may not be the end of the story.

Pleasant greetings amidst sad realities in Visayas!

After more than 2 weeks since the unfortunate super Typhoon Yolanda hit the central regions in the Philippines, the head count of casualties, injured, missing and affected populations unfortunately continues to rise up every day. At the onset of disaster, it was estimated that the casualties in affected areas of Samar, Leyte, Sorsogon, Northern Cebu, Panay, Capiz and the rest of the areas where the eye of Typhoon Yolanda made her six landfalls could reach around 10,000 deaths. This figure is not far to happen given that fast rising death tool as of today has already reached 5,235 while 1,600 individuals are still missing and about 13,000 injured. The total affected populations are estimated to reach 12 million.

This article was published on the Enhedslisten website Internationalt Udvalg.

Kshama Sawant, an open socialist, won election to the city council in a major American city, Seattle, in November’s ballot. One would have to go back to the first half of the twentieth century to find anything similar in the United States.

While I write this article, in the Phillipines the death toll reaches about 4,000 people and continues to grow, 12 days after Supertyphoon Haiyan (also called “Yolanda”) hit that country with the power of 310 km/h (195 mph) sustained winds and gusts that reached 375 km/h (235 mph). It fitted into the “Category 5”, the class for the most powerful storms using the scale that is currently used to classify hurricanes. However, with winds that strong, if one more category was added [what category? It just souds like you’re saying if add one on to 5 we get 6], Haiyan would certainly be classified as a “Category 6”. Haiyan is recognized as one of the most powerful storms of all times to strike against human settlements. Along with the extremely strong winds, the storm surge immediately began to cause a huge amount of damage and loss of life. Many hundreds of thousands have become refugees; many are now orphans and widows/widowers.