IV435 - April 2011

Pakistan Left parties will organize demonstration at Charing Cross Mall Road in Lahore on 10th April at 4pm.
This is solidarity with the demonstrations on the same day in US and other countries to condemn the ongoing war on terror. This is the statement under which the demonstration has been called.

This interview with Ahlem Belhadj was conducted by Jan Malewski, on March 16th, 2011.

"The Portuguese prime-minister informed last night that he had given up the main commitment he had assumed before the Portuguese people: to be in opposition to an intervention of the EU and the IMF", said last night Francisco Louçã, leader of Bloco de Esquerda.

With the onset of the world economic crisis, the European workers’ movement finds itself in a new phase, one that is replete with dangers and challenges. It is important to underline that we are in fact in a new situation and not just a continuation of the previous period.

Tunisia urgently needs to marshal all of its financial resources to meet immediate needs, including extreme poverty, benefits for the unemployed, improving workers’ material conditions, etc. Meanwhile, we’re getting reports of foreign initiatives to develop an emergency “aid” package for Tunisia, including 17 million euros from the European Commission and 350,000 euros from the French state. The European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank are also preparing to lend Tunisia millions of euros.

On the occassion of a seminal international conference in New Delhi on “The Global Crisis and Hegemonic Dilemmas”, addressed by some of the world’s leading analysts on the left, the an interview was conducted with Boris Kargarlitsky which not only gives a deep insight into what actually is happening in contemporary Russian society but also presents the analysis and perspectives of a Russian scholar and how he sums up the contemporary global crisis.

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change and sea level rise. Flooding due to tropical cyclones constitutes a devastating hazard through storm surges and accompanying water logging and salinity. For example, in 2007, Cyclone Sidr, caused 3500 deaths and in 2009 Cyclone Aila, destroyed homes and inundated the land of southern Bangladesh with salt water. The coastal areas of Bangladesh comprise low-lying and poorly protected land which supports a large population.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Sri Lanka Mahinda Balasuriya has promised rights activists that steps will be taken to investigate the attack on the NSSP general secretary, journalists and party members at the Katunayaka airport. The pledge came following a petition signed by many in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

Straight from a visit to revolutionary Tunisia next door, I returned to Algiers a month after observing the first marches organized here by the National Coordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD) in mid-February. As the season turns meteorologically, I wanted to see if the North African spring is on its way here politically as well. The series of protests staged over the weekend suggested just such a possibility, but also that the road may be long and difficult.