The inaugural function of the Bangladesh-India-Nepal caravan on Climate Justice, Gender and Food Sovereignty took place on 10 November 2014 at 11am at Shahid Reshel Manch in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. As good as three hundred people including foreign delegates from Australia, Germany, UK, USA, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Sweden and New Zealand attended the inaugural. The inaugural was preceded by the press conference held on 9 November 2014 at Dhaka Reporters Unity. Different Electronic Medias broadcast and quite a number of dailies gave coverage of the news of the press conference.
The Accelerating Recomposition of South Africa’s Political and Trade Union Landscape
21 November 2014, byOn Friday, November 7, 2014, the metalworkers’ union (340,000 members), NUMSA, was expelled from the national trade union federation, COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) by 33 votes to 24 on the national executive committee. This is a significant event. First, because this union is one of the most important in the federation. Then, because it was one of the essential components of its creation in 1980. However, it is obviously the reason for this expulsion which is vitally important. NUMSA (National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa) was expelled for having, in December 2013, decided at its congress to no longer support the ANC and the Communist Party in power and having denounced their neoliberal policies and corruption.
Left Unity conference – some important steps forward and challenges still ahead
21 November 2014, byFour hundred members attended Left Unity’s Conference in London over the weekend of 15 -16 November 2014, marking a further positive stage in the evolution of the party into a serious challenge to Labour and the building of a broad left party.
The Murderous Spiral in Jerusalem
20 November 2014, byThe killing of four worshippers at Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue in western Jerusalem throws a harsh light on the degenerative spiral of murder and mayhem in Israel and Palestine. It also opens a window into how most media coverage prevents the U.S. public from understanding what’s happening.
History of the Left: Brazil’s PSOL – Another Way of Doing Politics
19 November 2014, byDilma Rousseff of the Workers Party (PT) won Brazil’s presidential election on October 26, meaning that when her term ends her party will have held the nation’s top office for a remarkable sixteen years, longer than any party in Brazilian history. Rousseff began as part of an armed revolutionary guerrilla organization during the dictatorship from 1964-1985, then helped found the Democratic Workers Party (PDT), and only joined the PT in 2001. The PT of the 1980s and 1990s represented the political expression of militant labor and social movements tending toward socialism, yet today the PT is the establishment. And now others are attempting to build a new revolutionary movement to its left.
The Umbrella Movement and the 1989 Democratic Movement: Similarities and Differences
17 November 2014, byBoth movements demand basic political freedom from the CPC (Communist Party of China), but the “one country two systems” policy makes the situation in Hong Kong more complicated. This policy can protect Hong Kong from the direct rule of the CPC; however, on the other hand it means that the Hong Kong people cannot challenge the central government directly. The Umbrella Movement continuously forces the Hong Kong government to do things outside the latter’s scope of power and determines to achieve a concrete victory in a short time. Thence, how to make this happen under one country two systems and under the present relationship of forces is a significant challenge for the demonstrators.
U.S.-China ‘climate’ agreement: too little, too late, and dangerous
17 November 2014, byThe agreement between the U.S. and China in which they commit themselves to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit climate change was widely reported in the media.
Catalonia: After 9-N, where will it end?
15 November 2014, byAfter an agonizing and convoluted process, where the thin red line that separates comedy from tragedy was not always clear, finally, 9-N took place. Half way between a legitimate official consultation and an act of civil and institutional disobedience as the realization of the first version of the same would have represented, 9-N was finally as much a disobedient diversion that has eluded a surrender to the impositions of the state, as a direct institutional confrontation.
Parliamentary elections
15 November 2014, by ,Despite the disillusionment of a part of the population, particularly among young people and the most disadvantaged layers, participation in the Tunisian parliamentary elections on October 26, 2014 was nearly 70% of registered voters. In the elections of October 2011, Ennahdha had won 41.5% of the seats. It only got 31.8% this time. A portion of the population has expressed its rejection of the two years of Ennahdha government and the accompanying Islamist violence. The CPR and Ettakatol, who had participated in the government, have seen their number of elected representatives crumble. Nida Tounès, whose leaders for the most part originate from the regime which existed from independence to 2011, came first with 39.2% of the seats. The Front Populaire, which brings together most of the left and a part of the Arab nationalists, won 6.9% of the seats, against 2.8% previously.
Mahienour al-Masry: Icon of a Revolution
12 November 2014, byIn 2011, Tahrir Square was a space where Egyptian women found empowerment to reject the two models that previously limited their social role. In the Tahrir sit-in, women rejected the pseudo-liberation that invites women to only fight for their individual and personal freedoms, and opted to demand that they become active members of a society that continues to be based on exploitation and injustice, where freedom can only mean the freedom to be exploited, to exploit others and to consume to the best of our abilities.