IV599 - December 2024

While observing the amazing historical events that unfolded since last Friday, the first thing that came to mind was relief and joy at the images of detainees being freed from the hell of the carceral society that Syria had become under the Assad family’s regime. Our feelings were also overwhelmed by delight at the sight of Syrian families suddenly able to return from nearby exile, whether from another area within Syria or from Jordan, Lebanon or Turkey, to visit the towns and homes they were forced to flee from years ago. Add to this that the dream of millions of Syrian refugees, in the countries surrounding Syria and in Europe, of returning to their homeland, even if only for a visit, this dream that looked impossible a few days ago, has begun to seem achievable.

In the early morning of December 4, a man with a pistol assassinated Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest corporations in the world which was holding a meeting for investors in New York City. Police found shell casings marked with the words “depose,” “delay,” and “deny,” words often used by the health insurance industry when rejecting patients’ claims. The shooter left a backpack in Central Park, found by the police, containing nothing but Monopoly game money, another implicit criticism of the industry.

Mozambique, a Portuguese-speaking country in southern Africa, is used to cyclones, but it’s experiencing a completely different storm. The storm was caused by the mass mobilisation against electoral fraud at the general elections on 9 October. While the authorities declared the victory as president of Daniel Chapo, the candidate of the ruling Frelimo party, with 71% of the vote, Venâncio Mondlane, the main opponent with 20% of the vote, is contesting the results. The mobilisations reflect a desire for change, but the opposition is far from representing a political alternative that will serve the people.

Spain is often regarded as a model in the fight against gender-based and sexual violence. Maria from Anticapitalistas spoke to l’Anticapitaliste.

On Thursday 21 November, Russian president Vladimir Putin ‘unveiled’ a new weapon in his arsenal by ordering the launch of the hypersonic ‘Oreshnik’ (hazelnut) intermediate-range missile. Was this a successful ‘test’ or a demonstration of the impasse in his ‘special military operation’?

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law has sparked outrage in the streets and concern among South Korea’s international allies.

The annual appeal of Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières.

In just a few days, after having remained relatively static for a few years, Syria has turned anew into a theatre of war of movement, in what looks like a resumption of the last major displacement of the battlefronts that took place in 2016, when the Assad regime regained control of Aleppo with Iranian and Russian support and Turkish complicity. Here we are now, facing a surprise attack accompanied by a sudden expansion of the forces of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (Organization for the Liberation of al-Sham, i.e. Syria, commonly referred to by its Arabic acronym HTS), the Salafi jihadist group that has controlled the Idlib region in northwestern Syria since 2017.

As a candidate, Donald Trump threatened to put a 25% tariff on Mexican goods entering the United States and to close the Mexico-U.S. border, both actions that could have devastating consequences for Mexico and perhaps the United States as well. “This Tariff,” he wrote a few weeks ago, “will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”

Education workers, popular educators and students from Latin America and from around the world gathered from 11-14 November 2024, in the facilities of the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to proclaim our irreducible will in defence of public, free, popular, scientific, secular, democratic, feminist, anti-racist, ecological and social reality transforming education.