IV476 - September 2014

PDF magazine for September now available for download here

The Awami Worker’s Party first two-day congress concluded here with a rally on the roads of Islamabad chanting slogans against capitalism, feudalism and in favour of socialism. Addressing the rally at Aabpara Chouck Islamabad, Fanoos Gujjar, the newly elected chairman vowed to build a party that would help working class to overthrow a rotten corrupt system for a Socialist Pakistan.

What are the real responsibilities of American imperialism? Rarely has a situation been so dramatic and so complicated to decipher. It is a new situation, where an entire region is now engulfed in war and chaos; a new situation dominated by the emergence of the barbarism embodied by Daesh, the dislocation of states like Iraq, Syria, Libya and tomorrow Lebanon, by massacres of populations, by the dictatorial regime in Syria and today by Western intervention. This intervention of Western imperialism is not a repetition of the interventions in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, with the conquest of territories, economic objectives such as oil, the sending in of ground troops. It seems that there is no pre-determined plan; the objectives of war are not under control. They have intervened in an emergency. The situation will, of course, evolve and its destructive ramifications will alter policies on all sides.

The Global Climate Convergence [1] with its more than one hundred workshops, its large plenary sessions, and its miles-long mass march of more than 300,000 people, the largest climate protest in American history, represents a turning point for the environmental movement. The gigantic and passionate parade of indigenous people, ethnic groups of all sorts from everywhere in the country, students by the tens of thousands, neighborhood organizations by the dozen, several major national labor unions, and every conceivable sort of ecological cause tramping through New York City carrying huge banners and giant puppets, striding and dancing to the tunes of 29 marching bands, put the issue of the environment and climate change on the national agenda as never before. The national climate movement has arrived—now what will it do?

The last elections were a blow for Jean Luc Mélenchon. Far from passing in front of the PS, as he had claimed it would, the Left Front (Front de Gauche) obtained only a little more than 6%.

Among the many discussions that took place during the annual Party of the European Left’s Summer University (outside Berlin, in late July) was a seminar by representatives of various left-wing parties that have been, or
are currently, part of regional, state or national governments. (Republished from Links.)

About 400,000 people went to the streets on September 21st to ask for real actions to address climate change. It was the greatest climate march in history. The UN Climate Summit organized by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon took place two days later with the participation of 100 heads of state and 800 leaders from business. How did this Summit react to the demands of the peoples climate march? Did it meet the expectations?

For nearly three years now, the majority of observers have analysed the Syrian revolutionary process in geopolitical and sectarian terms, from above, ignoring the popular political and socio-economic dynamics on the ground. The threat of western intervention has only reinforced this idea of an opposition between two camps: the western states and the Gulf monarchies on one side, Iran, Russia and Hezbollah on the other. The advance of the jihadis of Islamic State (IS) in Iraq in recent months has also reinforced the dichotomy between authoritarian regimes on the one hand and jihadi and Islamic reactionary forces on the other.

In the end, it is hard to find any issue on which the “anti-extractivist” Marina can be said to be to the left of the PT, even regarding environmental concerns.

It has already been two weeks since a cease-fire was signed in Minsk on September 5. And although since then both parties - Ukraine on the one hand, and the unrecognized "people’s republics" on the other - have denounced violations of the cease-fire by the opposing party almost daily, we can already say that it is highly unlikely that the agreement will be officially broken in the coming weeks.