News from around the world

Last Monday night (23 November) a group of social activists, intellectuals and newly elected mayors in the Spanish state launched a manifesto against war and hatred, in response to the war rhetoric and the restrictions in freedoms that have been spreading since the Paris bombings. You can find the full English text below and here.

We have obtained already more than 17000 signatures and a strong political echo. We are calling for demonstrations on Saturday noon, already in nine different Spanish cities. See on Facebook here.

From the city of Douma that suffered terrorisms from all shades, a siege, death and genocide, the revolutionaries of Douma stand with the oppressed against all forms of extremisms, terrorism and aggression

We are free humans and we will stay free humans wherever we stand

Douma

Tomorrow is the first major test on the social front for the new Syriza government and the barbaric austerity measures it has just passed in Parliament as part of the 3d Memorandum signed in the summer. The strike is called by the two confederations of civil servants (ADEDY, which has a leftwing majority) and the private and broader public (or former public) sector GSEE, still controlled by the corrupt union bureaucracy of PASOK and New Democracy. At a more grass-root level the strike has been prepared by last week’s branch strikes of seamen, transport workers and municipal employees and by the actions of university and school students. It is also called by the KKE and its syndicalist front PAME. It has been actively prepared by the social movements (particularly the campaigns against the looming wave of house repossessions) and by the forces of the radical and anticapitalist Left (Popular Unity and Antarsya).

On 10th of October, at least 106 activists were killed and hundreds were injured in a demonstration for peace, labor and democracy in Ankara. Several people are still missing.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul before leaving for Ankara in the wake of today’s massacre of demonstrators who had gathered for peace, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-President Selahattin Demirtaş said the bomb attack came during a period of debates for an imminent ceasefire.

Renowned scholar, rationalist and epigraphist M.M. Kalburgi, formerly the Vice Chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi, was murdered by two assailants on August 30, 2015, in a continuation of vicious attacks on rationalists and intellectuals by the Sangh Parivar and BJP. Dr. Kalburgi, a key organiser of the Dharwad Sahitya Sambramha (Dharward Lit. Fest.), openly spoke up against idol worship and had recently questioned the Lingayat orthodoxy claiming that they were not Hindus. This invited resentment and hostility from RSS and the Hindu right, because the Lingayats are an important voting block for the BJP and have been instrumental in the election of the first BJP government in Karnataka in 2004, with chief minister BS Yeddyurappa being a Lingayat.

Turkey is increasingly drifting into a civil war. Politics of violence have escalated after the general elections of June 7 led by the AKP provisional government. Today, the peace and negotiation process between PKK and the Turkish state has come to a halt and war has started again.

This statement was issued by OKDE-Spartakos on 29 August 2015, and published in English on their website 3 September.

This press statement was issued on Fraiday 21 August 2015 after the joint meeting of delegations from Popular Unity and Antarsya.

This statement was made by the Left Platform on the announcement of the calling of snap elections in Greece and the resignation of Tsipras as prime minister on 19 August 2015.