Courtesy of the harsh southern winter, it is in the cold and rain that Chilean students have been fighting for their demands for nearly three months now.
They are nonetheless planting seeds – as the mobilizations of civil society continue to grow – that offer the promise of a formidable social and political spring; a spring which could give us plenty to think about, here in Quebec. Because observing the echoes of this social effervescence which led on 23 and 24 August, 2011 to a general strike called by the trade union movement, you cannot help but be struck by the inescapable dead ends of the neoliberal model and by the means that a society must deploy to try and oppose it successfully.
Time for Israeli Social Protest to Make Political Choices, End Illusion of National Unity
8 September 2011, byLess than a year ago, the whole Arab region, from Tunisia in the West to Yemen in the Southeast, was the arena of a gigantic and extraordinary popular uprising for freedom and democracy. The decades-old dictatorships of Hosni Mubarak and Zine el Abidine Ben Ali were thrown out in a matter of weeks, and the way for new democratic regimes seemed wide open. Not all the regimes of the region were challenged, but there was not a single country in the region that was not affected by the popular movements within or outside their borders. Except one – the State of Israel.
Historic Declaration by Palestinians, Israelis in Support of Israeli Social Protest, Anti-Colonial Struggle
7 September 2011Some 20 political parties and social movements from both sides of the Green Line issued an historic declaration in support of the social protests currently rocking Israel and their necessary linkage to the struggle against Israel’s occupation and colonial policies.
450,000 Israelis take to the streets demanding social justice
7 September 2011, by ,Saturday night, September 3, was the test Israel’s protest movement needed to show that social justice can and should be stronger than fear. Around 450,000 people took to the streets in Tel Aviv and throughout Israel to demand a real change from the neoliberal policies imposed by successive governments over the past 30 years.
Summer 2011 Social Protest in Israel: Possibilities and Challenges
7 September 2011, bySergio Yahni presents a comprehensive analysis of the social protests rocking Israel this summer.
9/11, bin Laden, the USA and the Arab uprisings: The perils of people power
7 September 2011, byThe Arab uprisings have shifted hero status from Osama bin Laden to the people, a shift that could backfire on the United States.
Subcontinental Strategies: on the evolution of the Indian Left Parties
6 September 2011, byAcross most of the globe there has been a decline of left forces of all kinds over the past two decades. But there have been three or four countries in which political parties that trace their roots to the traditions of the Third International or to Maoism have remained stable or even grown: South Africa, Nepal, India and, arguably, the Philippines. South Africa has the SACP, while a Maoist party is the single largest political force in Nepal, and Maoism retains a national presence in the Philippines. The case of India is very interesting in that here there are representatives of both formations, which have—to an uneven extent—maintained or actually strengthened their reach over the past twenty years.
The revolution seen from the inside
5 September 2011, byJamal Jaber visited Libya in June 2011 for International Viewpoint. As well as writing his own impressions of that visit he spoke to Azeldin El Sharif. El Sharif is an opponent of the Gaddafi regime who took refuge in London in 2001. He continued his activity there until the rising on 17 February 2011 when he returned to Benghazi. Today he is president of the "Network of National Solidarity".
A revolution on the march
4 September 2011, bySince March 15th of this year, Syria has been experiencing a popular uprising against the dictatorial regime of Bashar al Assad. Faced with peaceful demonstrations by the Syrian masses initially demanding freedom and dignity, the dictatorship has responded with a bloodthirsty and ferocious repression. The number of civilian demonstrators killed is counted in the thousands, that of the detainees and the wounded in the tens of thousands. But the higher price that the Syrian people pay for democracy and freedom in comparison with the other revolutions in the Arab countries can only increase the geographic spread of the revolution to nearly every town and visibly increase the number of those in revolt. Today the masses in the Syrian streets chant the slogan of all the Arab revolutions – the people want the fall of the regime!
Mass murdering the left
2 September 2011This article was the editorial in Internationalen, the newspaper of the Socialist Party, Swedish section of the Forth International, after the mass murder in Norway at the end of July. For technical reasons we have only just received the comrades’ English translation but we think it is still valuable to bring the perspective of socialists elsewhere in Scandanavia to allow us all to better analyse this deeply disturbing event