Millions of young people led the uprising in Egypt with great resolve and determination, yet what happened in Egypt was much bigger and much deeper than just a youth revolution or a Facebook revolt. It is probably fair to say that this revolutionary uprising and process underway in Egypt is one of the greatest popular revolutions in modern history.
Haiti’s humanitarian crisis
19 May 2011, byThe international mainstream media presented the
November 2010 election in Haiti as a predictably chaotic
event in a country notorious for political violence, corruption,
and dictatorship. But something new crept into some analysis of
the event, a sense that the big powers present in Haiti had a big
hand in the election-day fiasco.
The Latest Fibs From World Financiers
19 May 2011, byThe recent wave of Afro-optimism boasting of economical and technological growth on the continent fails to stand up under closer scrutiny, veiling the harsh reality faced by Africans today.
The Euro Pact: when the kidnapper rescues you
16 May 2011, byThe Euro Pact is the way chosen by the EU heads of government to implement their Economic Governance Plan. This means, among other things, cutting wages and social spending, eroding social protection models and introducing greater job insecurity. Constitutionally enshrining the straitjacket of the stability pact, the Pact imposes control on deficits (3% of GDP) and debt (60%) and, with this, the pro-cyclical nature of economic policy. It will apply greater fiscal regression and a shrinking of the public sector. Thus, member countries are reducing the margins of popular sovereignty and of economic, social and labour policies which will have to adapt to institutionalized criteria that, in the absence of significant political and social upheavals, will be practically irreversible.
Class struggle in a “haven of peace and social progress”
13 May 2011, byLuxembourg is one of the smallest countries in the European Union, and also one of the richest. However, in spite of its small size, it has some features that provide an acute illustration of broader tendencies that exist within the European Union and the advanced capitalist countries in general. The two most striking aspects of Luxembourg are its importance as a financial centre and the multinational character of its workforce.
Olivier Besancenot will not be NPA candidate in 2012
12 May 2011, byOn the 2nd May, the leadership of the New Anti-capitalist Party was informed that Olivier Besancenot, their best-known spokesperson, would not be the party’s candidate in the presidential elections for 2012. It was Olivier’s successful campaigns in 2002 and 2007 for the LCR (Revolutionary Communist League, French section of the Fourth International) that had laid the basis for the creation of the NPA. After a further meeting of the Executive Committee on the 4th of May, Olivier sent this letter to all NPA members.
The federal NDP’s electoral breakthrough in Quebec: A challenge to progressives in Canada
12 May 2011, byIn this contribution from the blog "Life on the Left", longtime militant Richard Fidler analyses the outcome of the recent Canadian elections.
The bloody show will go on
10 May 2011, byThe Pakistani ISI, having been badly exposed, will devise new strategy. For a while, it will hunt more seriously along the hounds while run more discreetly along the hare. It cannot give up either.
Why the revolt in Egypt?
10 May 2011, byEgypt: The Moment of Change. Edited by Rabab El-Mahdi and Philip Marfleet Zed Press, 2009, U.S. distributor Macmillan, 224 pages, $28.95 paperback, reviewed by Dan La Botz
Climate change and neoliberal policies: the case of Bangladesh
9 May 2011, byLocated in the largest delta at the world, where two Himalayan rivers, the Brahmaputra and the Ganges, converge and flow into the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh is used to climatic catastrophes. Half of the land area of Bangladesh is less than 10 metres above sea level. It consists mainly of silt deposited by the rivers which flow down from the Himalayan glaciers. When the snow melts it regularly causes large-scale floods. The coast is at the mercy of cyclones and giant waves which submerge the coastal areas.