In the night between April 18th and April 19th a boat filled with up to 950 migrants sank in the Mediterranean Sea, 70 miles north of Libya, while trying to reach the southern European border. This was not only the greatest tragedy to date involving migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, it is also the last of a long series of deaths: around 14,600 from 1993 to November, 2012; 900 in little more than a year from January, 2014 to April, 2015, before this latest tragedy.
Against Daesh and Al-Assad: Urgent call for international solidarity with the Syrian and Kurdish populations
23 April 2015, byThe situation in Syria remains dramatic. The dictatorial regime is continuing to massacre its people unashamedly, the Jihadist terrorist groups continue to sow death where they pass. As for the civilian populations, both Syrian and Kurdish, they are trapped between these groupings of armed fighters, they are condemned to pay a heavy tribute for having claimed freedom and social justice. International solidarity is slow in appearing.
Mindanao, the peace process and the Mamasapano incident: the murder of peoples’ democratic rights – Part 1
23 April 2015, byMore than forty days have passed after the tragic Mamasapano incident that cost not less than 67 deaths after the almost one day armed confrontations between the Special Action Forces of Philippine National Police (to arrest and neutralize international terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and his Filipino associate Basit Usman) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (MILF-BIAF) and elements from Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) last January 25, 2015.
Rights to Water and Land, a Common Struggle Movements
21 April 2015We, social movements, grassroots organizations and civil society organizations engaged in the defence of the rights to land and water, gathered in October 2014 in Dakar at the African Social Forum. We are fighting and protesting against natural resource grabbing, especially water and land grabbing of our Commons, and against the systematic violations of the associated human rights. Sharing our ideas led to acknowledgement of the essential linkage between our struggles, given the inextricable nature of land and water grabbing. We met again at the World Social Forum in Tunis in March 2015 to continue this dialogue with movements and organizations from all over the world in order to broaden this convergence.
Counterrevolutionaries on the march
20 April 2015, bySince the Arab Spring revolutions threatened the status quo in the Middle East, tyrants, sympathisers and extremists have attempted to pull back the gains the people made.
An election Labour should win hands down
19 April 2015, byThe next British general election will take place on 7 May. It takes place in the context of 4 years of a coalition government between the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats committed to severe austerity policies. But the context is also marked by the effects of the referendum campaign in Scotland in 2014 and the massive strengthening of the Scottish Nationalist Party and other pro-independence forces and a certain strengthening of the Green Party, both of which are seen at national level as being anti-austerity. There is also the rise of the rightwing anti-immigration and anti-EU party UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party). This article, written on the eve of the opening of the official five-week election campaign, considers the possible results of the election, and the stance of Socialist Resistance. [International Viewpoint]
A New Era – The normalization of U.S.-Cuba political relations
19 April 2015, byTo understand this major diplomatic shift, which has historical ramifications for all of Latin America, one has to go back to the origins of the Cuban Revolution, a popular revolution driven by the will to break with North American domination and to fulfill the aspirations of the struggle for national independence, beginning at the start of the twentieth century. The revolution‘s slogan Patria o Muerte meant that national sovereignty would not be negotiable. And it was not negotiated. The political line that the leadership followed unfailingly for half a century was shared by a majority of the population, which is why it was victorious in spite of exceptionally difficult historical and geopolitical conditions. Without mass support, Fidel Castro’s policies would have failed.
Gay Rights Movement mobilizes and wins victory against discrimination
18 April 2015, byThe U.S. gay rights movement won a tremendous victory in early April as governors and the state legislatures in Indiana and Arkansas were forced to back down and revise laws that would have discriminated against gay and lesbian couples.
Local elections reveal crisis of popular representation
17 April 2015, byThe institutions of the French Fifth Republic set up in 1958, with a presidential regime and bipartisanship to the fore, still have the appearance of stability, allowing the bourgeoisie to lead the country in all serenity. But this is only an appearance. If a party representing less than 25% of the electorate, that is to say between 10 and 15% of the population, can govern alone, it is increasingly clear that at every social and political milestone the ingredients of a political and/or major institutional crisis are accumulating.
Yemen’s crisis and the reactionary imperialist interventions
16 April 2015, byAt the end of March 2015, a massive military intervention, called ” Decisive Storm”, led by nine Arab countries (five of the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), in addition to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and with the exception of Oman), which must be added Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan) and in the beginning with the support of Pakistan, but the Parliament of Islamabad has finally voted not to join the Saudi-led military intervention in order “to be able to play a proactive diplomatic role to end the crisis”. Saudi Arabia had asked Pakistan to provide ships, aircraft and troops for the campaign.